A
CHURCH DICTIONARY.

The Church Dictionary, of which the Sixth Edition is now published, appeared originally in the shape of monthly tracts, intended by the writer to explain to his parishioners the more important doctrines of the Church, and the fundamental verities of our religion. The title of Church Dictionary was adopted from a work published with a similar object in America, by the Rev. Mr. Staunton; and the work itself assumed the character of short dissertations on those theological terms and ecclesiastical practices, which were misrepresented or misunderstood by persons who had received an education external to the Church.

For these tracts there was a considerable demand; and the monthly issue amounting to four thousand, the author was persuaded to extend his plan, and to make the Church Dictionary a work of more general utility than was at first designed. It was, in consequence, gradually enlarged in each successive Edition until now, when it has assumed its last and permanent character.

In this Edition, which has been enlarged by an addition of more than one hundred articles, the authorities are quoted upon which the statements are made in the more important articles; and where it has been possible, the ipsissima verba of the authors referred to have been given.

But as this publication has no pretensions beyond those of an elementary work, it has been thought, for the most part, sufficient only to refer to secondary authorities, such as Bingham, Comber, Wheatly, Palmer, &c., in whose learned works the reader, who wishes to investigate any subject more thoroughly, will find the further references which he may require.

In deference to a wish very generally expressed, an account has been taken from sources acknowledged to be authentic, and which are duly noticed, of various Christian communities, not in connexion with the Church.

It was found impossible, within the limits prescribed, to act upon another suggestion, and to introduce the biographies of our great divines. This, therefore, has been done in a separate publication, entitled “An Ecclesiastical Biography.”^[1]

The articles on Church architecture have been carefully revised by the Rev. G. A. Poole, M. A., vicar of Welford.

The Law articles have been revised, partly by the Rev. James Brogden, A. M., of Trinity College, Cambridge, and partly by William Johnston, of Gray’s Inn, Esq., barrister-at-law.

viiiTo Mr. Johnston, known to the literary world as the author of “England as it is,” the thanks of the present writer are also due for the kindness with which he has assisted him in correcting the press, and for many valuable suggestions.

The original dissertations remain unaltered; but the circumstances of the Church of England have changed considerably from what they were when the Church Dictionary was first published. At that time the Protestantism of the Church of England was universally recognised, and the fear was lest her pretensions to Catholicity should be ignored. But now an affectation of repudiating our Protestantism is prevalent, while by ignorant or designing men Protestantism is misrepresented as the antithesis, not, as is the case, to Romanism, but to Catholicism; at the same time, Catholicism is confounded with Romanism, primitive truth with mediæval error, and the theology of the Schools with that of the Fathers: while, therefore, the articles bearing on the catholicity, orthodoxy, and primitive character of the Church of England are retained, the articles relating to the heresies and peculiarities of the Church of Rome have been expanded; and strong as they were in former editions in condemnation of the papal system, they have been rendered more useful, under the present exigencies of the Church, by a reference to the decisions of the so-called Council of Trent, so as to enable the reader to see what the peculiar tenets of that corrupt portion of the Christian world really are.

Vicarage, Leeds, 21 Sept. 1852.

In this Edition the articles on the Early Heresies have been revised by the Rev. James Craigie Robertson, M. A.;^[2] the Ritual articles, by the Rev. John Jebb, M. A,; the articles on the Councils, by the Rev. Sanderson Robins, M. A.; and the Law articles, by William Johnston, Esq. To Mr. Jebb’s notes in Stephens’s edition of the Book of Common Prayer, and to his other learned works, and to Mr. Robins’s excellent treatise entitled “Evidences of Scripture against the Claims of the Romish Church,” reference is frequently made. Authorities have been fully given, except when articles have been taken with only slight alterations from Broughton or Bingham, or translated from Suicer.

July, 1854.

ABACUS. The upper member of a capital. (See Capital.)

In semi-Norman and early English architecture, the abacus of engaged shafts is frequently returned along the walls, in a continued horizontal string: perhaps the last lingering recognition of the effect of the capital in representing that horizontal line, which was so decided in the classic architrave, and to which the spirit of Gothic architecture is in the main so greatly opposed.

ABBA. A Syriac word signifying Father, and expressive of attachment and confidence. St. Paul says, Ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. (Rom. viii. 15; comp. Gal. iv. 6.) The word is derived from the Hebrew Ab: and, if we may ascend still higher, that word itself (as many others which occur in that language) proceeds from the voice of nature; being one of the most obvious sounds, to express one of the first and most obvious ideas.

ABBÉ. The designation assumed in France, before the Revolution, by certain persons, who, whether in the higher orders of the ministry or not, ostensibly devoted themselves to theological studies, in the hope that the king would confer upon them a real abbey, i.e. a certain portion of the revenues of a real abbey. Hence it became the common title of unemployed secular priests. In Italy the word Abate was similarly used, to designate one who merely adopted the clerical habit. [Vocabolario della Crusca.]

ABBEY. The habitation of a society devoted to religion. It signifies a monastery, of which the head was an Abbot or Abbess. (See Abbot.) Of cathedral abbeys the bishop was considered to be virtually the abbot: and therefore the Presbyteral Superior of these establishments was styled Prior. The abbey of Ely was constituted a cathedral in 1109: when the Abbot Harvey was made bishop. The abbacy was henceforward united to the bishopric: and therefore it is that the bishops of Ely still occupy the first stall on the right side of the choir, usually assigned to the dean: the dean’s stall being the first on the left side, formerly occupied by the prior. (See Monasteries.)

Cranmer begged earnestly of Henry VIII. that he would save some of the abbeys, to be reformed and applied to holy and religious uses, but his petition, and the exertions of Latimer for the same purpose, were in vain. For the arrangement of the several buildings of an abbey, see Cathedral and Monastery.

ABBOT. The Father or Superior of an abbey of monks, or male persons, living under peculiar religious vows. The word abbot comes, through the late Latin abbas, from the Syriac abba—father. (See Abba.) The word Father, in its various forms of Papa, Abbas, Padre, Père, &c., has in all countries and all ages of Christianity been applied as a title of respect to the superior clergy and priesthood. In some parts of the East and in Ireland, this term, abbas or abbat, was frequently confounded with that of bishop, from the fact of the abbots being in the early times bishops also.

Among the abbeys in England before the dissolution, were some which gave the title of Mitred Abbot [or Abbots general, or sovereign] to the superiors of them. These mitred abbots sat and voted in the House of Lords. They held of the king in capite per baroniam, their endowments being at least an entire barony, which consisted of thirteen knights’ fees. The following are the abbeys which conferred this distinction on their abbots: St. Alban’s, Glastonbury, St. Peter’s, Westminster; St. Edmondsbury, 2St. Bennet’s of Holm, Bardney, Shrewsbury, Croyland (or Crowland), Abingdon, Evesham, Gloucester, Ramsey, St. Mary’s, York; Tewkesbury, Reading, Battle, Winchcomb, Hide by Winchester, Cirencester, Waltham, Malmesbury, Thorney, St. Augustine’s, Canterbury; Selby, Peterborough, St. John’s, Colchester; to which was added, not long before the Reformation, Tavistock. All mitred abbots were of the Benedictine order, except those of Waltham and Cirencester, who were Augustinians. This fact Fuller has overlooked. (See Dugdale’s Monasticon.)

But it is to be observed, that there were two other lords of parliament, heads of religious houses, who were not abbots: (1.) The prior of St. John’s of Jerusalem, of the Knights Hospitallers in England. He ranked before the mitred abbots, and was considered the first baron in England. (2.) The prior of Coventry; a solitary instance in England of the presbyteral head of a cathedral being a spiritual peer. Of the abbots, the abbot of Glastonbury had the precedence, till A. D. 1154, when Pope Adrian VII., an Englishman, from the affection he entertained for the place of his education, assigned this precedence to the abbot of St. Alban’s. In consequence, Glastonbury ranked next after him, and Reading had the third place.

According to the ancient laws of Christendom, confirmed by general councils, all heads of monasteries, whether abbots or priors, owed canonical obedience to their diocesan. And the same law subsisted till the Reformation, wherever special exemptions had not been granted, which, however, were numerous. Cowell, as quoted by Johnson in his Dictionary, (voce Abbot,) erroneously says that the mitred abbots were exempted from episcopal jurisdiction, but that the other sorts (i. e. the non-mitred) were subject to their diocesans. The truth is, that the former endeavoured after their own aggrandizement in every possible way, but had no inherent right of exemption from the fact of their being lords of parliament, or being invested with the mitre. Thus it appears from Dugd. Monast. that Gloucester, Winchcomb, and Tewkesbury were subject to the visitation and jurisdiction of the bishop of Worcester, till the Reformation; Croyland, Peterborough, Bardney, and Ramsey to the bishop of Lincoln; St. Mary in York, and Selby, to the archbishop of York, and Coventry to the bishop of Lichfield. The abbots, unless specially exempted, took the oath of canonical obedience to their diocesan, and after election, were confirmed by him, and received his benediction. [Fuller, Collier, Willis’s Mitred Abbeys.] In Ireland the abbots who were mitred, or lords of parliament, were those of St. Mary, Dublin; St. Thomas, Dublin; Monastereven, Baltinglass, Dunbrody, Duisk, Jerpoint, Bective, Mellifont, Tracton, Monasternenagh, Owney, and Holycross. All these were of the Cistercian order, except the abbot of St. Thomas, who was of St. Victor. The other parliamentary lords, heads of religious houses, were the cathedral priors of Christ Church, Dublin, and of Downpatrick; the priors of Allhallows, Dublin; Conall, Kells, (in Kilkenny,) Louth, Athassel, Killagh, Newton, and Rathboy. All these were of the Augustinian order, except the prior of Down, who was a Benedictine, the preceptor of the Knights Hospitallers at Wexford, and the prior of the Knights Hospitallers at Kilmainham. (See Monks.)

ABBESS. The Mother or Superior of an abbey of nuns, or female persons living under peculiar religious vows and discipline.

ABECEDARIAN HYMNS. Hymns composed in imitation of the acrostic poetry of the Hebrews, in which each verse, or each part, commenced with the first and succeeding letters of the alphabet, in their order. This arrangement was intended as a help to the memory. St. Augustine composed a hymn in this manner, for the common people to learn, against the error of the Donatists. (See Acrostics.)

ABEYANCE, from the French bayer, to expect, is that which is in expectation, remembrance, and intendment of law. By a principle of law, in every land there is a fee simple in some body, or else it is in abeyance; that is, though for the present it be in no man, yet it is in expectancy belonging to him that is next to enjoy the land.—Inst.

Thus if a man be patron of a church, and presenteth a clerk to the same; the fee of the lands and tenements pertaining to the rectory is in the parson; but if the parson die, and the church becometh void, then is the fee in abeyance, until there be a new parson presented, admitted, and inducted. For the frank tenement of the glebe of a parsonage, during the time the parsonage is void, is in no man; but in abeyance or expectation, belonging to him who is next to enjoy it.—Terms of the Law.

ABJURATION. A solemn renunciation in public, or before a proper officer, of some doctrinal error. A formal abjuration is often considered necessary by the Church, when any person seeks to be received into her communion from heresy or 3schism. A form for admitting Romish recusants into the Church of England was drawn up by one of the Houses of Convocation of 1714, but did not receive the royal sanction. It is as follows:

A Form for admitting Converts from the Church of Rome, and such as shall renounce their errors.

The bishop, or some priests appointed by him for that purpose, being at the communion table, and the person to be reconciled standing without the rails, the bishop, or such priest as is appointed, shall speak to the congregation as followeth:

Dearly beloved,

We are here met together for the reconciling of a penitent (lately of the Church of Rome, or lately of the separation) to the Established Church of England, as to a true and sound part of Christ’s holy Catholic Church. Now, that this weighty affair may have its due effect, let us in the first place humbly and devoutly pray to Almighty God for his blessing upon us in that pious and charitable office we are going about.

Prevent us, O Lord, in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help, that in this and all other our works, begun, continued, and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy name, and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Almighty God, who showest to them that be in error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into the way of righteousness; grant unto all them that are or shall be admitted into the fellowship of Christ’s religion, that they may eschew those things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm cxix. 161.

Let my complaint come before thee, O Lord; give me understanding according to thy word.

Let my supplication come before thee; deliver me according to thy word.

My lips shall speak of thy praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.

Yea, my tongue shall sing of thy word, for all thy commandments are righteous.

Let thine hand help me, for I have chosen thy commandments.

I have longed for thy saving health, O Lord, and in thy law is my delight.

O let my soul live, and it shall praise thee and thy judgments shall help me.

I have gone astray, like a sheep that is lost; O seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments.

Glory be to the Father, &c.

As it was in the beginning, &c.

The Lesson. Luke XV. to ver. 8.

Then drew near unto him the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? and when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders rejoicing; and when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and his neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance.

The hymn to be used when the penitent comes from the Church of Rome.

Psalm cxv. to ver. 10.

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the praise, for thy loving mercy and for thy truth’s sake.

Wherefore shall the heathen say: Where is now their God?

As for our God, he is in heaven; he hath done whatsoever pleased him.

Their idols are silver and gold, even the work of men’s hands.

They have mouths, and speak not; eyes have they, and see not; they have ears, and hear not; noses have they, and smell not; they have hands, and handle not; feet have they, and walk not; neither speak they through their throat.

They that make them are like unto them, and so are all such as put their trust in them.

But thou, house of Israel, trust thou in the Lord; he is their succour and defence.

Glory be to the Father, &c.

As it was in the beginning, &c.

If the penitent comes from the separation, then this is to be used.

Psalm cxxii.

I was glad when they said unto me, We will go into the house of the Lord.

Our feet shall stand in thy gates, O Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity in itself.

4For thither the tribes go up, even the tribes of the Lord, to testify unto Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.

For there is the seat of judgment, even the seat of the house of David.

O pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love thee.

Peace be within thy walls, and plenteousness within thy palaces.

For my brethren and companions’ sake I wish thee prosperity.

Yea, because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek to do thee good.

Glory be to the Father, &c.

As it was in the beginning, &c.

Then the bishop sitting in a chair, or the priest standing, shall speak to the penitent, who is to be kneeling, as follows:

Dear brother, or sister,

I have good hope that you have well weighed and considered with yourself the great work you are come about, before this time; but inasmuch as with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, that you may give the more honour to God, and that this present congregation of Christ here assembled may also understand your mind and will in these things, and that this your declaration may the more confirm you in your good resolutions, you shall answer plainly to these questions, which we in the name of God and of his Church shall propose to you touching the same:

Art thou thoroughly persuaded that those books of the Old and the New Testament, which are received as canonical scriptures by this Church, contain sufficiently all doctrine requisite and necessary to eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ?

Answer. I am so persuaded.

Dost thou believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son our Lord, and that he was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, that he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, that he went down into hell, and also did rise again the third day, that he ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, and from thence shall come again, at the end of the world, to judge the quick and the dead?

And dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh, and everlasting life after death?

Answer. All this I stedfastly believe.

Art thou truly sorrowful that thou hast not followed the way prescribed in these Scriptures for the directing of the faith and practice of a true disciple of Christ Jesus?

Answer. I am heartily sorry, and I hope for mercy through Jesus Christ.

Dost thou embrace the truth of the gospel in the love of it, and stedfastly resolve to live godly, righteously, and soberly in this present world all the days of thy life?

Answer. I do embrace it, and do so resolve, God being my helper.

Dost thou earnestly desire to be received into the communion of this Church, as into a true and sound part of Christ’s holy Catholic Church?

Answer. This I earnestly desire.

If the penitent come from the Church of Rome, this question is to follow:

Dost thou renounce all the errors and superstitions of the present Romish Church, so far as they are come to thy knowledge?

Answer. I do from my heart renounce them all.

If the penitent from the Church of Rome be in holy orders, let these further questions be asked:

Dost thou in particular renounce the twelve last articles added in the confession, commonly called “the Creed of Pope Pius IV.,” after having read them, and duly considered them?

Answer. I do upon mature deliberation reject them all, as grounded upon no warrant of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God.

Dost thou acknowledge the supremacy of the kings and queens of this realm, as by law established, and declared in the thirty-seventh article of religion?

Answer. I do sincerely acknowledge it.

Wilt thou then give thy faithful diligence always so to minister the doctrine and sacraments, and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath commanded, and as this Church and realm hath received the same, according to the commandments of God, so that thou mayest teach the people with all diligence to keep and observe the same?

Answer. I will do so by the help of the Lord.

Wilt thou conform thyself to the liturgy of the Church of England, as by law established?

Answer. I will.

If the penitent come from the separation, these questions are to be asked:

5Dost thou allow and approve of the orders of bishops, priests, and deacons [as what have been in the Church of Christ from the time of the apostles]; and wilt thou, as much as in thee lieth, promote all due regard to the same good order and government of the Church of Christ?

[Note. That within the crotchets is to be used only when the penitent hath been a teacher in some separate congregation.]

Answer. I do approve it, and will endeavour that it may be so regarded, as much as in me lieth.

Wilt thou conform thyself to the liturgy of the Church of England, as by law established, and be diligent in attending the prayers and other offices of the Church?

Answer. I will do so by the help of God.

If the penitent be one who has relapsed, the following question is to be asked:

Art thou heartily sorry, that when thou wast in the way of truth, thou didst so little watch over thy own heart, as to suffer thyself to be led away with the shows of vain doctrine? and dost thou stedfastly purpose to be more careful for the future, and to persevere in that holy profession, which thou hast now made?

Answer. I am truly grieved for my former unstedfastness, and am fully determined by God’s grace to walk more circumspectly for the time to come, and to continue in this my profession to my life’s end.

Then the bishop, or priest, standing up, shall say:

Almighty God, who hath given you a sense of your errors, and a will to do all these things, grant also unto you strength and power to perform the same, that he may accomplish his work, which he hath begun in you, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Absolution.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who of his great mercy hath promised forgiveness of sins to all them that with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto him, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and bring you to everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Then the bishop, or priest, taking the penitent by the right hand, shall say unto him:

I N., bishop of ——, or I A. B., do upon this thy solemn profession and earnest request receive thee into the holy communion of the Church of England, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

People: Amen.

Then the bishop, or priest, shall say the Lord’s Prayer, with that which follows, all kneeling.

Let us pray.

Our Father, which art in heaven, &c.

O God of truth and love, we bless and magnify thy holy name for thy great mercy and goodness in bringing this thy servant into the communion of this Church: give him (or her) we beseech thee, stability and perseverance in that faith of which he (or she) hath in the presence of God and of this congregation witnessed a good confession. Suffer him (or her) not to be moved from it by any temptations of Satan, enticements of the world, the scoffs of irreligious men, or the revilings of those who are still in error; but guard him (or her) by thy grace against all these snares, and make him (or her) instrumental in turning others from the errors of their ways, to the saving of their souls from death, and the covering a multitude of sins. And in thy good time, O Lord, bring, we pray thee, into the way of truth all such as have erred and are deceived; and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that there may be one fold under one Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ; to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

Then the bishop, or priest, standing up (if there be no communion at that time), shall turn himself to the person newly admitted, and say:

Dear brother, or sister,

Seeing that you have by the goodness of God proceeded thus far, I must put you in mind, that you take care to go on in that good way into which you are entered; and for your establishment and furtherance therein, that, if you have not been confirmed, you endeavour to be so the next opportunity, and receive the holy sacrament of the Lord’s supper. And may God’s Holy Spirit ever be with you. Amen.

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your heart and mind by Christ Jesus. Amen.—Cardwell’s Synodalia. Wilkins’s Concilia.

ABSOLUTION. (See Confession, Penance.) The power of absolution consists in removing the guilt and punishment of sin, and receiving the guilty person into favour, as if he were perfectly innocent. This is variously expressed in holy Scripture. 6It is sometimes made the same with justification, which is the acquitting a person from guilt, and looking upon him as perfectly righteous. It is opposed to condemnation, which is a laying of sin to his charge. This power is expressed by remitting or retaining of sin, which is the pardoning or punishing of it. It is called sometimes the power of opening and shutting the kingdom of heaven, which is by admitting into, or excluding out of, the Church; for none can be received into the kingdom of glory hereafter but such as are admitted into the church or kingdom of grace here: called therefore the power of the keys. It is called in St. Matthew the power of binding and loosing, (xvi. 19,) “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth,” &c. Sinners are said to be “tied and bound with the chain of their sins,” to be “holden with cords,” and to be “in the bond of iniquity.” Now to loosen this bond, to untie those cords, and so be freed from these chains, is done by what we call the power of absolution, or remission of sins: and so the words of St. Matthew are the same in effect with those of St. John, “Whose soever sins ye remit,” &c. This power of pardoning is annexed to some acts of religion, instituted by God for this purpose, and executed only by Christ’s ministers. As, 1. Baptism was ordained for the remission of sins; so St. Peter told his converts, (Acts ii. 38,) “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you,” &c. 2. The holy sacrament of the eucharist was instituted for this purpose: as we read, Matt. xxvi. 28, where Christ’s body is said to be broken, and “his blood shed for many for the remission of sins.” 3. The preaching the word is for the proclaiming of pardon, called therefore the ministry, or word, of reconciliation. (2 Cor. v. 18.) 4. The prayer of the elders over the sick hath joined to it the forgiveness of sins. (Jas. v. 14.) Now these ministerial acts for the “remission of sins,” are peculiar only to the “priest’s office:” neither is the virtue or effect of them to be imparted to any other; for to them it is said, and to no other, “whose sins ye remit,” &c.; and therefore a pardon pronounced by them must be of greater efficacy than by any ordinary person.—Hole.

The authority and power of conferring absolution on penitents, wherewith our gracious Saviour hath so clearly vested his ministerial successors, “whose soever sins ye remit,” &c., having been abused by the Church of Rome into a lucrative market of pardons and indulgences, it is no wonder that Luther, and all our first reformers, should have taken infinite offence at a practice so flagitious, and so directly contrary to the command of Christ, “freely ye have received, freely give.” This, however, should not have been a reason, as it was with too many, for rejecting all absolutions. The true doctrine is, and must be, this: For the consolation of his Church, and particularly of such as class with the penitent publican in the gospel, Christ hath left with his bishops and presbyters a power to pronounce absolution. This absolution is on condition of faith and repentance in the person or persons receiving it. On sufficient appearance of these, and on confession made with these appearances in particular persons, the bishop or presbyter, as the messenger of Christ, is to pronounce it. But he cannot search the heart; God only, who can, confirms it. The power of absolution is remarkably exercised by St. Paul, though absent, and depending on both report and the information of the Holy Spirit, in regard to the Corinthian excommunicated for incest. The apostle, speaking in the character of one to whom the authority of absolution had been committed, saith to the Church of Corinth, “to whom ye forgave anything, I forgive also.” (2 Cor. ii. 10.) Thus the penitent was pardoned and restored to communion by delegated authority, in the person of Christ, lest such an one should be swallowed up with over-much sorrow, and lest Satan should get an advantage over us. As these reasons for compassion still remain, it seems evident that the Church should still retain the same power of showing that compassion, as far as human understanding may direct its application.—Skelton.

Sacerdotal absolution does not necessarily require any particular or auricular confession of private sins; forasmuch as that the grand absolution of baptism was commonly given without any particular confession. And therefore the Romanists vainly found the necessity of auricular confession upon those words of our Saviour, Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: as if there could be no absolution without particular confession; when it is so plain, that the great absolution of baptism (the power of which is founded by the ancients upon this very place) required no such particular confession. We may hence infer, that the power of any sacerdotal absolution is only ministerial; because the administration of baptism, (which is the most universal absolution,) so far as man is concerned in it, is no 7more than ministerial. All the office and power of man in it is only to minister the external form, but the internal power and grace of remission of sins is properly God’s; and so it is in all other sorts of absolution.—Bingham.

The bishops and priests of the whole Christian Church have ever used to absolve all that truly repented, and at this day it is retained in our Church as a part of the daily office; which being so useful, so necessary, and founded on holy Scripture, needs not any arguments to defend it, but that the ignorance and prejudice of some make them take offence at it, and principally because it hath been so much abused by the Papal Church. We may declare our abhorrency of these evil uses of absolution; though in that sober, moderate, and useful manner we do perform it, we do not vary from the prime intention of Christ’s commission, and the practice of antiquity: absolution was instituted by Jesus, and if it have been corrupted by men, we will cast away the corruptions, not the ordinance itself.—Comber.

Sin is compared to a bond, (Acts viii. 23; Prov. v. 22,) because it binds down the soul by its guilt and power, and hinders it from free converse with God, yea, makes it liable to eternal condemnation: but Jesus came to unloose these bonds, and actually did so to divers, when he was upon earth, and left this power to his apostles and their successors, when he went to heaven; and this unloosing men from the bond of their sins is that which we properly call absolution, and it is a necessary and most comfortable part of the priest’s office. But the sectaries do wholly disown this power, and are so bold as to deride us for the use thereof: yet it is certain that Christ did give his disciples the power of binding and loosing, (Matt. xvi. 19; xviii. 18,) or, as it is elsewhere called, of remitting sins, (John xx. 22, 23,) frequently repeating this commission, and solemnly promising to ratify in heaven what they did on earth. It is plain also, that the apostles exercised this power, (Acts ii. 38; 2 Cor. ii. 10,) and gave their successors a charge to use it also (Gal. vi. 1; James v. 14, 15); and the primitive histories do abundantly testify they did so very often; so that they must cancel all those lines of Scripture, and records of antiquity also, before they can take away this power. Nor can they fairly pretend it was a personal privilege dying with the apostles, since the Church hath used it ever since, and penitents need a comfortable application of their pardon now, as well as they did then: and whereas they object with the Jews, that “none can forgive sins but God only,” (Luke v. 21,) we reply, that God alone can exercise this power in his own right, but he may and hath communicated it to others, who did it in his name, and by his authority; or, as St. Paul speaks, in the person of Christ (2 Cor. ii. 10); so that St. Ambrose saith, “God himself forgives sins by them to whom he hath granted the power of absolution.”—Comber.

Calvin’s liturgy has no form of absolution in it: but he himself says that it was an omission in him at first, and a defect in his liturgy; which he afterwards would have rectified and amended, but could not. He makes this ingenuous confession in one of his epistles: “There is none of us,” says he, “but must acknowledge it to be very useful, that, after the general confession, some remarkable promise of Scripture should follow, whereby sinners might be raised to the hopes of pardon and reconciliation. And I would have introduced this custom from the beginning, but some fearing that the novelty of it would give offence, I was over-easy in yielding to them; so the thing was omitted.” I must do that justice to Calvin here, by the way, to say, that he was no enemy to private absolution neither, as used in the Church of England. For in one of his answers to Westphalus he thus expresses his mind about it: “I have no intent to deny the usefulness of private absolution: but as I commend it in several places of my writings, provided the use be left to men’s liberty, and free from superstition, so to bind men’s consciences by a law to it, is neither lawful nor expedient.” Here we have Calvin’s judgment, fully and entirely, for the usefulness both of public and private absolution. He owns it to be a defect in his liturgy, that it wants a public absolution.—Bingham.

Calvin’s own account of his facility merits attention. In his character, flexibility of disposition appears to be a lineament either so faint, or so obscured by more prominent features of a different cast, that it has generally escaped vulgar observation. His panegyrist, the learned translator of Mosheim’s Eccles. Hist., [Maclaine,] describes him as surpassing most of the reformers “in obstinacy, asperity, and turbulence.”—Shepherd.

This penitence our Church makes not a new sacrament, (as doth the Church of Rome,) but a means of returning to the grace of God bestowed in baptism. “They which in act or deed sin after baptism, 8(saith our homily,) when they turn to God unfeignedly, they are likewise washed by this sacrifice from their sins.”—Puller.

If our confession be serious and hearty, this absolution is as effectual as if God did pronounce it from heaven. So says the Confession of Saxony and Bohemia, and so says the Augustan Confession; and, which is more, so says St. Chrysostom in his fifth homily upon Isaiah, “Heaven waits and expects the priest’s sentence here on earth; the Lord follows the servant, and what the servant rightly binds or looses here on earth, that the Lord confirms in heaven.” The same says St. Gregory (Hom. 20) upon the Gospels: “The apostles (and in them all priests) were made God’s vicegerents here on earth, in his name and stead to retain or remit sins.” St. Augustine and Cyprian, and generally all antiquity, say the same; so does our Church in many places, particularly in the form of absolution for the sick; but, above all, holy Scripture is clear, (St. John xx. 23,) “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them.” Which power of remitting sins was not to end with the apostles, but is a part of the ministry of reconciliation, as necessary now as it was then, and therefore to continue as long as the ministry of reconciliation; that is, to the end of the world. (Eph. iv. 12, 13.) When therefore the priest absolves, God absolves, if we be truly penitent. Now, this remission of sins granted here to the priest, to which God hath promised a confirmation in heaven, is not the act of preaching, or baptizing, or admitting men to the holy communion. But this power of remitting sins, mentioned John xx., was not granted (though promised, Matt. xvi. 19) till now, that is, after the resurrection, as appears by the ceremony of breathing, signifying that then it was given: and secondly, by the word receive, used in that place, (ver. 22,) which he could not properly have used, if they had been endued with this power before. Therefore the power of remitting, which here God authorizes, and promises certain assistance to, is neither preaching nor baptizing, but some other way of remitting, viz. that which the Church calls absolution. And if it be so, then, to doubt of the effect of it, (supposing we be truly penitent, and such as God will pardon,) is to question the truth of God: and he that, under pretence of reverence to God, denies or despises this power, does injury to God, slighting his commission, and is no better than a Novatian, says St. Ambrose.—Sparrow.

Our Church has not appointed the indicative form of absolution to be used in all these senses, but only once in the office of the sick, and that may reasonably be interpreted, (according to the account given out of St. Jerome,) a declaration of the sinner’s pardon, upon the apparent evidences of a sincere repentance, and the best judgment the minister can make of his condition; beyond which none can go, but the searcher of hearts, to whom alone belongs the infallible and irreversible sentence of absolution. The indicative form, “I absolve thee,” may be interpreted to mean no more than a declaration of God’s will to a penitent sinner, that, upon the best judgment the priest can make of his repentance, he esteems him absolved before God, and accordingly pronounces and declares him absolved. As St. Jerome observes, the priests under the old law were said to cleanse a leper, or pollute him; not that they were the authors of his pollution, but that they declared him to be polluted, who before seemed to many to have been clean. As, therefore, the priest makes the leper clean or unclean, so the bishop or presbyter here binds or looses, not properly making the guilty or the guiltless; but according to the tenor of his office, when he hears the distinction of sins, he knows who is to be bound, and who is to be loosed. Upon this also, the master of the sentences (following St. Jerome) observes, that the priests of the gospel have that right and office which the legal priests had of old under the law in curing the lepers. These, therefore, forgive sins, or retain them, whilst they show and declare that they are forgiven or retained by God. For the priests “put the name of the Lord” upon the children of Israel, but it was he himself that blessed them, as it is read in Num. vi. 27.—Bingham.

Our Church maintains, appealing to Scripture for the proof of it, that some power of absolving or remitting sins, derived from the apostles, remains with their successors in the ministry; and accordingly, at the ordination of priests, the words of our Saviour, on which the power is founded, are solemnly repeated to them by the bishop, and the power at the same time conferred. We do not pretend it is in any sort a discretionary power of forgiving sins, for the priest has no discernment of the spirit and hearts of men, as the apostles had, but a power of pronouncing authoritatively, in the name of God, who has committed to the priest the ministry of reconciliation, his pardon and forgiveness to all true penitents and sincere believers. 9That God alone can forgive sins, that he is the sole author of all blessings, spiritual as well as temporal, is undeniable: but that he can declare his gracious assurance of pardon, and convey his blessings to us, by what means and instruments he thinks fit, is no less certain. In whatever way he vouchsafes to do it, it is our duty humbly and thankfully to receive them; not to dispute his wisdom in the choice of those means and instruments; for, in that case, he that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God.—Waldo.

The following remarks on our forms of absolution occur in “Palmer’s Origines Liturgicæ.”

“An absolution followed the confession formerly in the offices of the English churches, for prime, or the first hour of the day. We may, perhaps, assign to the absolution thus placed, an antiquity equal to that of the confession, though Gemma Animæ and Durandus do not appear expressly to mention it. The sacerdotal benediction of penitents was in the earliest times conveyed in the form of a prayer to God for their absolution; but, in after ages, different forms of benediction were used, both in the East and West. With regard to these varieties of form, it does not appear that they were formerly considered of any importance. A benediction seems to have been regarded as equally valid, whether it was conveyed in the form of a petition or a declaration, whether in the optative or the indicative mood, whether in the active or the passive voice, whether in the first, second, or third person. It is true that a direct prayer to God is a most ancient form of blessing; but the use of a precatory, or an optative form, by no means warrants the inference, that the person who uses it is devoid of any divinely instituted authority to bless and absolve in the congregation of God. Neither does the use of a direct indicative form of blessing or absolution imply anything but the exercise of an authority which God has given, to such an extent, and under such limitations, as Divine revelation has declared.”

In the primitive Church absolution was regarded to consist of five kinds: sacramental, by baptism and the eucharist; declaratory, by word of mouth and doctrine; precatory, by imposition of hands and prayer; judicial, by relaxation of Church censures.—Bingham.

The Absolution in the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer was first inserted in the Second Book of King Edward VI. It can be pronounced by the priest only or alone. At the last review the word Minister in the rubric preceding the absolution, was changed into Priest: this change being obviously adopted from the Scotch Prayer Book in Charles I.’s time, where the word in the same place is Presbyter. The other two absolutions are coeval with our reformed Prayer Book. The ministerial absolution of persons unquiet in conscience, before receiving the holy communion, is mentioned in the first exhortation on giving notice of the communion; and the absolution of excommunicated persons in the 65th Canon.

ABSTINENCE. (See Fasting.) In the Romish Church, fasting and abstinence admit of a distinction, and different days are appointed for each of them. On their days of fasting, they are allowed but one meal in four and twenty hours; but, on days of abstinence, provided they abstain from flesh, and make but a moderate meal, they are indulged in a collation at night. The times by them set apart for the first are, all Lent, except Sundays, the Ember days, the vigils of the more solemn feasts, and all Fridays except those that fall within the twelve days of Christmas, and between Easter and the Ascension. Their days of abstinence are all the Sundays in Lent, St. Mark’s day, if it does not fall in Easter week, the three Rogation days, all Saturdays throughout the year, with the Fridays before excepted, unless either happen to be Christmas day. The reason why they observe St. Mark as a day of abstinence is, as we learn from their own books, in imitation of St. Mark’s disciples, the first Christians of Alexandria, who, under this saint’s conduct, were eminent for their great prayer, abstinence, and sobriety. They further tell us, that St. Gregory the Great, the apostle of England, first set apart this day for abstinence and public prayer, as an acknowledgment of the Divine mercy, in putting a stop to a mortality in his time at Rome.

We do not find that the Church of England makes any difference between days of fasting and days of abstinence. It is true, in the title of the table of Vigils, &c., she mentions fasts and days of abstinence separately; but when she comes to enumerate the particulars, she calls them all days of fasting or abstinence, without distinguishing between the one and the other. Nor does she anywhere point out to us what food is proper for such times or seasons, or seem to place any part of religion in abstaining from any particular kinds of meat. It is true, by a statute, (5 Eliz. 5,) none were allowed to eat flesh 10on fish-days, (which are there declared to be all Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays in the year,) without a licence first obtained, for which they are to pay a yearly fine, (except such as are sick, who may be licensed either by the bishop or minister,) under penalty of three pounds’ forfeiture, or three months’ imprisonment without bail, and of forty shillings’ forfeiture for any master of a family that suffers or conceals it. But then this is declared to be a mere political law, for the increase of fishermen and mariners, and repairing of port towns and navigation, and not for any superstition to be maintained in the choice of meats. For, by the same act, whosoever, by preaching, teaching, writing, &c., affirms it to be necessary to abstain from flesh for the saving of the soul of man, or for the service of God, otherwise than other politic laws are or be, is to be punished as a spreader of false news. That is, he must suffer imprisonment till he produce the author; and, if he cannot produce him, must be punished at the discretion of the king’s council. The sections of this act which relate to eating fish on Wednesdays, were repealed by 27 Eliz. c. 11.

With us, therefore, neither Church nor State makes any difference in the kinds of meat; but as far as the former determines in the matter, she seems to recommend an entire abstinence from all manner of food till the time of fasting be over; declaring in her homilies, that fasting (by the decree of the six hundred and thirty fathers, assembled at the Council of Chalcedon, which was one of the four first general councils, who grounded their determination upon the sacred Scriptures, and long-continued usage or practice both of the prophets and other godly persons, before the coming of Christ, and also of the apostles and other devout men in the New Testament) is a withholding of meat, drink, and all natural food from the body, for the determined time of fasting.—Wheatly.

ABYSSINIA. The Abyssinian Church was founded early in the fourth century. Its first bishop, Frumentius, received consecration from St. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, and to this day the Abund of Abyssinia is consecrated by the Alexandrian patriarch. In the sixth century the Christians of Abyssinia fell into the heresy of the Monophysites, in which they still remain; and they also agree with the Greek Church in denying the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son. In the fifth, and again in the seventeenth, century, attempts were made to reduce the Abyssinian Christians to obedience to the Roman see, but the attempt in both instances utterly failed. The number of Christians in Abyssinia is said to amount to three millions.

ACŒMETÆ. (Ἁκοιμηταί, Watchers.) An order of monks instituted at the beginning of the fifth century at Constantinople, who were divided into three classes, who performed the Divine service by rotation, and so continued night and day without intermission.

ACEPHALI. (ἀ and κεφαλὴ, literally, without a head.) The name given to those of the Egyptian Eutychians, who, after Peter Magus, bishop of Alexandria, had signed the Henoticon of Zeno, A. D. 482, formed a separate sect. (See Henoticon.) The word is also applied to those bishops who were exempt from the jurisdiction of a metropolitan or patriarch.

ACOLYTH, or ACOLYTE, (ἀκολουθος,) in our old English called Collet, was an inferior church servant, who, next under the subdeacon, waited on the priests and deacons, and performed the meaner offices of lighting the candles, carrying the bread and wine, &c. He was allowed to wear the cassock and surplice. In the Church of Rome it was accounted one of the minor orders. In the Greek Church it is supposed to be another name for the order of subdeacons, according to Bingham.—Jebb.

ACROSTIC. A form of poetical composition among the Hebrews, composed of twenty-two lines, or stanzas, according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet, each line or stanza beginning with each letter in its order. Of the several poems of this character, there are twelve in all, in the Old Testament, viz. Psalms xxv., xxxiv., xxxvii., cxi., cxii., cxix., cxlv. Part of Proverbs xxxi. Lament. i., ii., iii., iv. Psalm cxix. is the most remarkable specimen. It still retains in the Bible translation the name of the several letters of the Hebrew alphabet, to mark its several divisions. This Psalm consists of twenty-two stanzas, (the number of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet,) each division consisting of eight couplets; the first line of each couplet beginning with that letter of the alphabet which marks the division. Psalm xxxvii. consists of twenty-two quatrains; the first line only of each quatrain being acrostical. Lam. i. and ii., of twenty-two triplets, the first line of each only being acrostical. Lam. iii., of twenty-two triplets also, but with every line acrostical. Lam. iv. and Psalms xxv., xxxiv., and cxv., and part of Prov. xxxi., of twenty-two couplets, the first line only of each 11being acrostical. Psalms cxi. and cxii., of twenty-two lines each, in alphabetical order. The divisions of the Hebrew poetry into lines, not metrical, but rhythmical and parallel in sentiment, is very much elucidated by the alphabetical or acrostical poems.—Jebb.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. One of the canonical books of the New Testament. It contains a great part of the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul, beginning at our Lord’s ascension, and continued down to St. Paul’s arrival at Rome, after his appeal to Cæsar; comprehending in all about thirty years. St. Luke has been generally considered the author of this book; and his principal design in writing it was to obviate the false Acts, and false histories, which began to be dispersed up and down the world. The exact time of his writing it is not known; but it must have been written at least two years after St. Paul’s arrival at Rome, because it informs us that St. Paul “dwelt two whole years in his own hired house.” Perhaps he wrote it while he remained with St. Paul, during the time of his imprisonment, Acts xxviii. 30.

St. Luke wrote this work in Greek; and his language is generally purer, and more elegant, than that of the other writers of the New Testament. Epíphanius (Hæres. xxx. chap. 3 and 6) tells us that this book was translated by the Ebionites out of Greek into Hebrew, that is, into Syriac, which was the common language of the Jews in Palestine; but that those heretics corrupted it with a mixture of many falsities and impieties, injurious to the memory of the apostles. St. Jerome assures us, that a certain priest of Asia added to the true, genuine Acts, the voyages of St. Paul and St. Thecla, and the story of baptizing a lion. Tertullian (de Baptismo, chap. xvii.) tells us that St. John the evangelist, having convicted this priest of varying from the truth in this relation, the good man excused himself, saying, he did it purely out of love to St. Paul.

The Marcionites and Manichæans, because they were sensible that this book too plainly condemned their errors, rejected it out of the Canon of Scripture. (Tertull. contra Marcion, lib. 5.)

There were several spurious Acts of The Apostles; particularly, I. The Acts of the Apostles, supposed to be written by Abdias, the pretended bishop of Babylon, who gave out, that he was ordained bishop by the apostles themselves, when they were upon their journey into Persia. II. The Acts of St. Peter: this book came originally from the school of the Ebionites. III. The Acts of St. Paul, which is entirely lost. Eusebius, who had seen it, pronounces it of no authority. IV. The Acts of St. John the Evangelist; a book made use of by the Encratites, Manichæans, and Priscillianists. V. The Acts of St. Andrew; received by the Manichæans, Encratites, and Apotactics. VI. The Acts of St. Thomas the Apostle; received particularly by the Manichæans. VII. The Acts of St. Philip: this book the Gnostics made use of. VIII. The Acts of St. Matthias. Some have imagined that the Jews for a long time had concealed the original Acts of the Life and Death of St. Matthias, written in Hebrew; and that a monk of the abbey of St. Matthias at Treves, having got them out of their hands, procured them to be translated into Latin, and published them. But the critics will not allow them to be genuine and authentic.—Cotelerius. Fabricius Apocr. N. T. Tillemont, Hist. Eccles.

ADAMITES. A sect of Christian heretics who imitated Adam’s nakedness before his fall, believing themselves as innocent since their redemption by the death of Christ, and therefore met together naked upon all occasions, asserting that if Adam had not sinned, there would have been no marriages. They sprang from the Carpocratians and Gnostics, and followed the errors of an infamous person called Prodicus. They gave the name of deity to the four elements, rejected prayer, and said it was not necessary to confess Jesus Christ. This sect was renewed in Flanders by one Tanchelm, (1115–1124,) who being followed by 3000 soldiers, committed all kinds of vice, calling their villanies by a spiritual name. In the 15th century one Picard, so called from the country of his birth, renewed it in Bohemia, from whence the sect spread into Poland: it was said they met in the night, and used these words, (originally ascribed to the Priscillianists in the 4th century,) Swear, forswear, and discover not the secret.

ADMINISTRATOR. An ancient officer of the Church, whose duty was to defend the cause of the widows, orphans, and all others who might be destitute of help.

ADMINISTRATION, in an ecclesiastical sense, is used to express the giving or dispensing the sacrament of our Lord.—In its more general use it signifies the distribution of the personal effects of intestates, which is made by the ordinary according to the enactment of sundry statutes; the principal of which is 22 and 23 Car. II. cap. x.

12ADMONITION. The first step of ecclesiastical censure, according to the words of the apostle, “a man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject.” (Tit. iii. 10.) This part of episcopal discipline always precedes excommunication; which, however, must necessarily follow, if the offender continue contumacious, and hardened in his error or crime. Vide Canon 64, &c. The word also occurs in the Ordination Service: “following with a glad mind and will their godly admonition.”—Jebb.

ADMONITIONISTS. Certain Puritans in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who were so called from being the authors of the “Admonition to the Parliament,” 1571, in which everything in the Church of England was condemned, which was not after the fashion of Geneva. They required every ceremony to be “commanded in the Word,” and set at nought all general rules and canons of the Church.

ADOPTIANS. Heretics in several parts of Spain, who held that our Saviour was God only by adoption. Their notions were condemned at Frankfort in the year 794.

ADOPTION. To adopt is to make him a son who was not so by birth. The Catechism teaches us that it is in holy baptism that “we are made members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.” God sent forth his Son to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (Gal. iv. 4, 5.)

ADORATION. This word signifies a particular sort of worship, which the Pagans gave to their deities: but, amongst Christians, it is used for the general respect and worship paid to God. The heathens paid their regard to their gods, by putting their hands to their mouths, and kissing them. This was done in some places standing, and sometimes kneeling; their faces were usually covered in their worship, and sometimes they threw themselves prostrate on the ground. The first Christians in their public prayers were wont to stand; and this they did always on Sundays, and on the fifty days between Easter and Pentecost, in memory of our Lord’s resurrection, as is still common in the Eastern Churches. They were wont to turn their faces towards the east, either because the East is a title given to Christ in the Old Testament, (as by Zachariah, vi. 12, according to the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate,) or else to show that they expected the coming of Christ at the last day from the east.

ADULT BAPTISM. (See Baptism.)

ADVENT. For the greater solemnity of the three principal holidays, Christmas day, Easter day, and Whit-Sunday, the Church hath appointed certain days to attend them: some to go before, and others to come after them. Before Christmas are appointed four “Advent Sundays,” so called because the design of them is to prepare us for a religious commemoration of the advent or coming of Christ in the flesh. The Roman ritualists would have the celebration of this holy season to be apostolical, and that it was instituted by St. Peter. But the precise time of its institution is not so easily to be determined; though it certainly had its beginning before the year 450, because Maximus Taurinensis, who lived about that time, writ a homily upon it. And it is to be observed, that, for the more strict and religious observation of this season, courses of sermons were formerly preached in several cathedrals on Wednesdays and Fridays, as is now the usual practice in Lent. And we find by the Salisbury Missal, that, before the Reformation, there was a special Epistle and Gospel relating to Christ’s advent, appointed for those days during all that time.—Wheatly.

It should be observed here, that it is the peculiar computation of the Church, to begin her year, and to renew the annual course of her service, at this time of Advent, therein differing from all other accounts of time whatsoever. The reason of which is, because she does not number her days, or measure her seasons, so much by the motion of the sun, as by the course of our Saviour; beginning and counting on her year with him, who, being the true “Sun of righteousness,” began now to rise upon the world, and, as “the Day-star on high,” to enlighten them that sat in spiritual darkness.—Bp. Cosin, Wheatly.

The lessons and services, therefore, for the four first Sundays in her liturgical year, propose to our meditations the two-fold advent of our Lord Jesus Christ; teaching us that it is he who was to come, and did come, to redeem the world; and that it is he also who shall come again, to be our judge. The end proposed by the Church in setting these two appearances of Christ together before us, at this time, is to beget in our minds proper dispositions to celebrate the one and expect the other; that so with joy and thankfulness we may now “go to Bethlehem, and see this great thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known to us,” even the Son of God come to visit us in great 13humility; and thence, with faith unfeigned and hope immoveable, ascend in heart and mind to meet the same Son of God in the air, coming in glorious majesty to judge the quick and dead.—Bp. Horne.

ADVOCATE, the word used in our Bibles as a translation of the Greek παράκλητος, (see Paraclete,) which signifies one who exhorts, defends, comforts; also one who prays or intercedes for another. It is an appellation given to the Holy Spirit by our Saviour. (John xiv. 16; xv. 26.)

ADVOCATES are mentioned in the 96th, 131st, and 133rd English Canons, as regular members of the Ecclesiastical Courts. The pleaders, or superior practitioners, in all the English and Irish Church Courts are so called. In London they form a corporation, or college, called Doctors’ Commons; because all Advocates must be Doctors of Law, and they formerly lived together in a collegiate manner, with a common table, &c. The candidate Advocates obtain a fiat from the archbishop of Canterbury, and are admitted by the judge to practise. In Ireland they do not form a college: they must be Doctors of Law, but generally practise in the common law or equity courts, besides. They are admitted to practise by the judge of the Prerogative Court. The pleaders in the supreme courts in Scotland, and generally throughout Europe, are called Advocates. The institution of the order is very ancient. About the time of the emperor Alexander Severus (see Butler’s Life of L’Hopital) three ranks of legal practitioners were established: the orators, who were the pleaders; the advocates, who instructed the orators in points of law; and the cognitores, or procuratores, who discharged much the same office as proctors or attorneys now. The first order gradually merged into the second.—Jebb.

ADVOWSON, is the right of patronage to a church, or an ecclesiastical benefice; and he who has the right of advowson is called the patron of the church, from his obligation to defend the rights of the church from oppression and violence. For when lords of manors first built churches upon their own demesnes, and appointed the tithes of those manors to be paid to the officiating ministers, which before were given to the clergy in common, the lord, who thus built a church and endowed it with glebe or land, had of common right a power annexed of nominating such minister as he pleased (provided he were canonically qualified) to officiate in that church, of which he was the founder, endower, maintainer, or, in one word, the patron.

Advowsons are of two sorts, advowsons appendant, and advowsons in gross. When annexed to a manor or land, so as to pass with them, they are appendant; for so long as the church continues annexed to the possession of the manor, as some have done from the foundation of the church to this day, the patronage or presentation belongs to the person in possession of the manor or land. But when the property of the advowson has been once separated from that of the manor by legal conveyance, it is called an advowson in gross, or at large, and exists as a personal right in the person of its owner, independent of his manor or land. Advowsons are also either presentative, collative, donative, or elective. An advowson presentative is where the patron has a right to present the parson to the bishop or ordinary to be instituted and inducted, if he finds him canonically qualified. An advowson collative is where the bishop is both patron and ordinary. An advowson donative is where the king, or any subject by his licence, founds a church or chapel, and ordains that it shall be merely in the gift or disposal of the patron; subject to his visitation only, and not to that of the ordinary; and vested absolutely in the clerk by the patron’s deed of donation, without presentation, institution, or induction.

As to presentations to advowsons: where there are divers patrons, joint-tenants, or tenants in common, and they vary in their presentment, the ordinary is not bound to admit any of their clerks; and if the six months elapse within which time they are to present, he may present by the lapse; but he may not present within the six months; for if he do, they may agree and bring a quare impedit against him, and remove his clerk. Where the patrons are co-parceners, the eldest sister, or her assignee, is entitled to present; and then, at the next avoidance, the next sister shall present, and so by turns one sister after another, till all the sisters, or their heirs, have presented, and then the eldest sister shall begin again, except they agree to present together, or by composition to present in some other manner. But if the eldest presents together with another of her sisters, and the other sisters every one of them in their own name, or together, the ordinary is not bound to receive any of their clerks, but may suffer the church to lapse. But in this case, before the bishop can take advantage of the lapse, he must direct a writ to inquire the right of patronage. 14Where an advowson is mortgaged, the mortgager alone shall present, when the church becomes vacant: and the mortgagee can derive no advantage from the presentation in reduction of his debt. If a woman has an advowson, or part of an advowson, to her and her heirs, and marries, the husband may not only present jointly with his wife, during the coverture, but also after her death the right of presenting during his life is lodged in him, as tenant by courtesy, if he has children by her. And even though the wife dies without having had issue by her husband, so that he is not tenant by courtesy, and the church remains vacant at her death, yet the husband shall present to the void turn; and if in such case he does not present, his executor may. If a man, seized of an advowson, takes a wife, and dies, the heir shall have two presentations, and the wife the third, even though her husband may have granted away the third turn. Or, if a manor, to which an advowson is appendant, descends to the heir, and he assigns dower to his mother of the third part of the manor, with the appurtenances, she is entitled to the presentation of the third part of the advowson; the right of presentation being a chose in action which is not assignable. If an advowson is sold, when the church is vacant, it is decided that the grantee is not entitled to the benefit of the next presentation. If, during the vacancy of a church, the patron die, his executor, or personal representative, is entitled to that presentation, unless it be a donative benefice, in which case the right of donation descends to the heir. But if the incumbent of a church be also seized in fee of the advowson of the same church, and die, his heir, and not his executors, shall present.

As to the manner in which advowsons descend, it has been determined, that advowsons in gross cannot descend from the brother to the sister of the entire blood, but they shall descend to the brother of the half blood, unless the first had presented to it in his lifetime, and then it shall descend to the sister, she being the next heir of the entire blood.

ÆONS. (Αίῶνες, ages.) The name given by some of the Gnostic heretics to the spiritual beings, whom they supposed to have emanated from the Divinity. (See Valentinus.)

AERIANS. A small sect founded by Aërius, a presbyter of Sebaste, in the lesser Armenia, about A. D. 355. St. Augustine tells us that Aërius, the author of this heresy, was mortified at not attaining the episcopate; and having fallen into the heresy of Arius, and having been led into many strange notions by impatience of the control of the Church, he taught, among other things, that no difference ought to be recognised between a bishop and a presbyter; whereas, until then, even all sectaries had acknowledged the episcopate as a superior order, and had been careful at their outset to obtain episcopal ordination for their ministers. Thus Aërius revenged himself upon the dignity to which he had unsuccessfully aspired; and he has left his history and his character to future ages, as an argument almost as forcible as direct reasoning and evidence, of the apostolical ordinance of the episcopate.

AFFINITY. (From affinis.) Relation by marriage. Relation contracted by the husband to the kindred of the wife, and by the wife to those of the husband. It is opposed to consanguinity, or relation by birth.—Johnson. (See Consanguinity.)

AFFUSION. Although dipping or plunging into the water were the more ancient practice, and more universal in the primitive times, yet sprinkling or pouring water on the head of the baptized person was of great antiquity in the Church likewise. It had its beginning in the cases of sick persons chiefly, who could not come to the public baptistery, nor could the weakness of their constitution admit of their being dipped all over in the water; and, therefore, the sprinkling or pouring of a small quantity of water upon the face or head was judged sufficient. In the fourth and fifth centuries aspersion was more common. After the heathen nations were converted to Christianity, and by that means the baptisms of adults were less frequent, the tenderness of children’s bodies, especially in the colder countries, not enduring to be dipped in water, the use of sprinkling generally succeeded in the Church, instead of that of dipping. And, indeed, during the more early ages of the Church, and when adults were frequently baptized, there were some particular cases when aspersion was used instead of immersion; as in that of some young women noticed by St. Chrysostom. Our Church, with great moderation, does not totally lay aside immersion, if the strength of the child will bear it, as indeed it seldom will without danger in our cold country; in which case she admits aspersion only, rather than occasion any injury or danger to the body of a tender babe; wisely considering, that, in the sight of God, “mercy is better than sacrifice.”—Dr. Nicholls.

Either of these modes of administering baptism is sufficient. For it is not in this 15spiritual washing, as it is in the bodily, where, if the bath be not large enough to receive the whole body, some parts may be foul, when the rest are cleansed. The soul is cleansed after another manner; a little water can cleanse the believer, as well as a whole river. The old fashion was to dip or sprinkle the person “thrice,” to signify the mystery of the Trinity. The Church so appointed then because of some heretics that denied the Trinity: upon the same ground, afterwards, it was appointed to do it but once, (signifying the unity of substance in the Trinity,) lest we should seem to agree with the heretics that did it thrice. This baptizing is to be at the “font.”—Bp. Sparrow.

It should here be noticed, that our Church doth not direct sprinkling or aspersion, but affusion or “pouring of water” upon the children to be baptized. It is true the quantity of water to be used is nowhere prescribed, nor is it necessary that it should be; but, however the quantity be left to the minister’s discretion, yet it must be understood to determine itself thus far: first, that the action be such as is properly a “washing,” to make the administration correspond with the institution; and this we should observe as ministers of Christ at large: secondly, that the action be such, as is properly a “pouring of water,” which is the rubrical direction to express that washing at all times when “dipping” is not practised; and this we are bound to observe as ministers of the Church of England in particular; taking it always for granted, that there is a reason for whatever is prescribed in a rubric, and such an one as is not to be contradicted by our private practice, or rejected for the sake of any modes or customs brought in we know not how.

And we should the rather keep to this rule of affusion, because we have in a manner lost that more primitive way of baptizing by immersion. Custom having “certified” in general, that it is the opinion and judgment of all, who bring their children to the font, that they are “too weak to endure dipping.” Or, if we would have their sentiments certified more explicitly, there being a rubric to that purpose, we are sure, as Dr. Wall observes, to find a certificate of the children’s weakness in their dress; and to ask for further satisfaction would be a mighty needless inquiry. I mention this observation of his, as the best apology I know of for our present practice of baptizing by affusion, without any formal declaration being made, according to rubric, of the danger of “dipping.” It is not said we shall ask any questions. And, when we are sure beforehand what would be the answer if the question were asked, we seem under no obligation, as we are under no direction, to put it at all.—Archdeacon Sharp. (See Aspersion.)

AGAPÆ. Love feasts, or feasts of charity, among the early Christians, were usually celebrated in connexion with the Lord’s supper, but not as a necessary part of it. The name is derived from the Greek word ἀγαπὴ, which signifies love or charity. In the earliest accounts which have come down to us, we find that the bishop or presbyter presided at these feasts. It does not appear whether the food was dressed in the place appointed for the celebration of the feast, or was previously prepared by individual members of the Church at their own homes; but perhaps either of these plans was adopted indifferently, according to circumstances. Before eating, the guests washed their hands, and a public prayer was offered up. A portion of Scripture was then read, and the president proposed some questions upon it, which were answered by the persons present. After this, any accounts which had been received respecting the affairs of other Churches were recited; for, at that time, such accounts were regularly transmitted from one community to another, by means of which all Christians became acquainted with the history and condition of the whole body, and were thus enabled to sympathize with, and in many cases to assist, each other. Letters from bishops and other eminent members of the Church, together with the Acts of the Martyrs, were also recited on this occasion; and hymns or psalms were sung. At the close of the feast, money was also collected for the benefit of widows and orphans, the poor, prisoners, and persons who had suffered shipwreck. Before the meeting broke up, all the members of the Church embraced each other, in token of mutual brotherly love, and the whole ceremony was concluded with a philanthropic prayer.

As the number of Christians increased, various deviations from the original practice of celebration occurred; which called for the censures of the governors of the Church. In consequence of these irregularities, it was appointed that the president should deliver to each guest his portion separately, and that the larger portions should be distributed among the presbyters, deacons, and other officers of the Church.

While the Church was exposed to persecution, 16these feasts were not only conducted with regularity and good order, but were made subservient to Christian edification, and to the promotion of brotherly love, and of that kind of concord and union which was specially demanded by the circumstances of the times.

At first these feasts were held in private houses, or in other retired places, where Christians met for religious worship. After the erection of churches, these feasts were held within their walls; until, abuses having occurred which rendered the observance inconsistent with the sanctity of such places, this practice was forbidden. In the middle of the fourth century, the Council of Laodicea enacted “that agapæ should not be celebrated in churches;” a prohibition which was repeated by the Council of Carthage, in the year 391; and was afterwards strictly enjoined during the sixth and seventh centuries. By the efforts of Gregory of Neocæsarea, Chrysostom, and others, a custom was generally established of holding the agapæ only under trees, or some other shelter, in the neighbourhood of the churches; and from that time the clergy and other principal members of the Church were recommended to withdraw from them altogether.

In the early Church it was usual to celebrate agapæ on the festivals of martyrs, agapæ natalitiæ, at their tombs; a practice to which reference is made in the epistle of the church of Smyrna, concerning the martyrdom of Polycarp.

These feasts were sometimes celebrated on a smaller scale at marriages, agapæ connubiales, and funerals, agapæ funerales.

The celebration of the agapæ was frequently made a subject of calumny and misrepresentation by the enemies of the Christian faith, even during the earliest and best ages of the Church. In reply to these groundless attacks, the conduct of the Christians of those times was successfully vindicated by Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Origen, and others. But real disorders having afterwards arisen, and having proceeded to considerable lengths, it became necessary to abolish the practice altogether; and this task was eventually effected, but not without the application of various means, and only after a considerable lapse of time.—Riddle, from Augusti and Siegel.

AGAPETÆ. In St. Cyprian’s time certain ascetics (who wished, perhaps, to add to their religious celibacy the additional merit of a conquest over a special and greater temptation) chose persons of the other sex, devoted like themselves to a life of celibacy, with whom they lived under the sanction of a kind of spiritual nuptials, still maintaining their chastity, as they professed, though living, in all things else, as freely together as married persons. These were called Agapetæ, Subintroductæ, Συνείσακτοι. This practice, however pure in intention, gave rise to the utmost scandal in the Church; and those who had adopted it were condemned severely, both by the individual authority of St. Cyprian, and afterwards by the decrees of councils. See Dodwell’s Dissertationes Cyprianicæ.

AGISTMENT. The feeding of cattle in a common pasture for a stipulated price; and hence tithe of agistment is the tithe due for the profit made by agisting. The Irish parliament, in the last century, most iniquitously declared that man an enemy of his country who should demand tithe of agistment.—Jebb.

AGNOETES or AGNOETÆ. (ἀ and γνῶμι.) A sort of Christian heretics about the year 370, followers of Theophronius the Cappadocian, who joined himself with Eunomius; they called in question the omniscience of God, alleging that he knew not things past in any other way than by memory, nor things to come but by an uncertain prescience.

AGNOETES. Another sort of heretics about the year 535, who followed the errors of Themistius, deacon of Alexandria, who believed that Christ knew not when the day of judgment should happen.

AGNUS DEI. A cake of wax, used in the Romish Church, stamped with the figure of a lamb supporting the banner of the cross. The name literally signifies The Lamb of God. These cakes, being consecrated by the pope with great solemnity, and distributed among the people, are supposed to possess great virtues. They cover them with a piece of stuff, cut in the form of a heart, and carry them very devoutly in their processions. From selling these Agnus Deis to some, and presenting them to others, the Romish clergy and religious officers derive considerable pecuniary advantage. The practice of blessing the Agnus Dei took its rise about the seventh or eighth century. It was common in those times to mark converts with the sign of the cross after baptism; and in order to distinguish the converted from heathens, they were commanded to wear about their necks pieces of white wax stamped with the figure of a lamb. This was done in imitation of the heathenish practice of hanging amulets around the neck, as preservatives against accidents, 17diseases, or any sort of infection. Though the efficacy of an Agnus Dei has not been declared by Romish councils, the belief in its virtue has been strongly and universally established in the Church of Rome. Pope Urban V. sent to John Palæologus, emperor of the Greeks, an Agnus folded in fine paper, on which were written verses explaining all its properties. These verses declare that the Agnus is formed of balm and wax mixed with chrism, and that being consecrated by mystical words, it possesses the power of removing thunder and dispersing storms, of giving to women with child an easy delivery, of preventing shipwreck, taking away sin, repelling the devil, increasing riches, and of securing against fire.

AISLE. (Ala.) The lateral divisions of a church, or of any part of it, as nave, choir, or transept, are called its aisles. (See Church.) Where there is but one aisle to a transept, it is always at the east. In foreign churches the number of aisles is frequently two on either side of the nave and choir; at Cologne there are three. This arrangement is very ancient, since it is found in the Basilicas of St. John, Lateran, and St. Paul, at Rome. In England this was never perhaps the original plan. All, except one on each side, are clearly additions at Chichester, Manchester, St. Michael’s, Coventry, Spalding, and several other churches.

The last bay to the west, or that westward of the porch in the south aisle, is generally a little earlier in character than the rest. It frequently happens, too, that the north aisle is of an earlier type than the south, where there is no reason to suppose them of different dates. There is no sufficient reason assigned for this. The word has been very commonly, but incorrectly, applied to the open space in the nave of churches between the seats of the congregation.

AISE. A linen napkin to cover the chalice used in Bishop Andrew’s chapel, and in Canterbury cathedral, before the rebellion. See Canterbury’s Doom, 1646, Neale’s Hist. of Puritans.

ALB. An ample linen tunic with sleeves, named from its colour, (albus, white,) worn next over the cassock and amice. It was at first loose and flowing, afterwards bound with a zone, mystically signifying continence, according to some ritualists; but more probably for the greater convenience of ministering at the communion office. It has been in other points considerably altered from its primitive form in the continental churches subject to Rome; in the Greek churches it more nearly resembles the form of the surplice used in the English Church. Cardinal Bona admits that the alb, as well as the surplice, was anciently talaris, that is, reaching to the feet, and it was therefore called podéris in the Greek Church. It was made originally of white linen; and was probably the same as the surplice, from which it now differs only in the form of the sleeves, which are not flowing, but closed at the wrists.

The rubrics of King Edward VI.’s First Book prescribed the alb to be worn at the communion by the principal minister and his assistants, and by the bishop at all times of his public ministrations. These rubrics are referred to in our present Prayer Book, in the notice preceding the Morning Prayer: “And here it is to be noted, that such ornaments of the Church, and of the ministers thereof at all times of their ministrations, shall be retained and be in use as were in this Church of England by the authority of parliament, in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI.” Most of our most eminent ritualists, and constitutional lawyers, have considered the rubric of King Edward VI. as still binding in strictness of law. The 58th Canon apparently, but not really, contradicts these rubrics, as it prescribes a surplice with sleeves, to be used at the communion as well as at other services. But it is to be observed that an alb is, in fact, a surplice with sleeves; and by these very rubrics the terms seem to be almost convertible, as the bishop is enjoined to wear a surplice or alb: and in the rubric after the communion, regulating the Wednesday and Friday services, the priest is to wear a plain alb or surplice. But even if the canon did contradict the rubric, it ought to be remembered that the rubric of 1662 is the final enactment of the Church, and plainly ought to supersede the enactment of 1604. The English alb is enjoined to be plain, that is, not ornamental with lace, or gold, as was the mediæval custom.—Jebb.

ALBATI. A sort of Christian hermits (so called from the white linen which they wore). Anno 1399, in the time of Pope Boniface IX., they came down from the Alps into several provinces of Italy, having for their guide a priest clothed all in white, and a crucifix in his hand: he pretended so much zeal and religion, that he was taken for a saint, and his followers multiplied so fast, that the pope, growing jealous of their leader’s aiming at his chair, sent soldiers, who apprehended and put him to death, upon which his followers 18dispersed. They professed sorrow and weeping for the sins and calamities of the times, they ate together in the highways, and slept promiscuously like beasts.

ALBIGENSES. Certain religionists who sprung up in the twelfth century. They received their name from a town in Aquitaine, called Albigia or Alby, where their tenets were first condemned in a council held in the year 1176. The Albigenses grew so formidable, that the court of Rome determined upon a league or crusade against them. Pope Innocent III., desirous to put a stop to their progress, stirred up the great men of France to make war upon them. After suffering cruelly from their persecutors, they dwindled by little and little, till the time of the Reformation; when such of them as were left fell in with the Vaudois, and conformed to the doctrine of Zuinglius and the disciples of Geneva. The Albigenses have been frequently confounded with the Waldenses; from whom however it is said that they differed in many respects, both as being prior to them in point of time, as having their origin in a different country, and as being charged with divers heresies, particularly Manicheism, from which the Waldenses were exempt.

ALBIS (Dominica in). See Low Sunday.

ALIENATION, ecclesiastically speaking, is the improper disposal of such lands and goods as have become the property of the Church. These being looked upon as devoted to God and his service, to part with them, or divert them to any other use, may be considered as no less than the sin of sacrilege. Upon some extraordinary occasions, however, as the redemption of captives from slavery, or the relief of the poor in the time of famine, this was permitted; in which cases it was not unusual to sell even the sacred vessels and utensils of the church. Some canons, if the annual income of the church was not sufficient to maintain the clergy, allowed the bishop to sell certain goods of the church for that purpose. By subsequent canons, however, this was prevented, unless the consent of the clergy was obtained, and the sanction of the metropolitan, lest, under the pretence of necessity or charity, any spoil or devastation should be made on the revenues of the church. See Bing. Orig. Eccl. lib. v. ch. vi. s. 6.

ALIENATION IN MORTMAIN, is the conveying or making over lands or tenements to any religious house or other corporate body.

ALLELUIA, or HALLELUJAH. This is a Hebrew word signifying Praise the Lord, or Praise to the Lord. It occurs at the beginning and at the end of many of the Psalms, and was always sung by the Jews on solemn days of rejoicing. An expression very similar in sound seems to have been used in many nations, who can hardly be supposed to have borrowed it from the Jews. Hence it has been supposed to be one of the most ancient words of devotion. St. John retains the word without translation (Rev. xix. 1, 3, 4, 6); and among the early Christians it was so usual to sing Hallelujah, that St. Jerome says little children were acquainted with it.

In evident imitation of the Jewish custom, the Church has from very early times, at least during the season of Easter, preceded the daily Psalms with Alleluia, or Praise ye the Lord. In the Roman and unreformed offices it was disused during certain penitential seasons; while Alleluia was used in other parts of the service also during the Easter season, &c. In the First Book of King Edward VI., Allelujah was sung after “Praise ye the Lord,” from Easter to Trinity Sunday. The response, “The Lord’s name be praised,” was added at the last review. It had been inserted in the Scotch Liturgy in King Charles I.’s time. (See Gloria Patri.)—Jebb.

ALL SAINTS’ DAY. The festival of All Saints is not of very high antiquity. About the year 610, the bishop of Rome ordered that the heathen Pantheon, a temple dedicated to all the gods, should be converted into a Christian church. This was done, and it was appropriately dedicated to the honour of All Martyrs; hence came the origin of All Saints, which was then celebrated on the first of May. In the year 834 it was changed to November 1st, on which day it is still observed. Our Church having, in the course of her year, celebrated the memories of the holy apostles, and the other most eminent saints and martyrs of the first days of the gospel, deems it unnecessary to extend her calendar by any other particular festivals, but closes her course with this general one. It should be the Christian’s delight, on this day, to reflect, as he is moved by the appointed scriptures, on the Christian graces and virtues which have been exhibited by that goodly fellowship of saints who, in all ages, have honoured God in their lives, and glorified him in their deaths; he should pray for grace to follow them “in all virtuous and godly living;” he should meditate on the glorious rest that remains for the people of God, on which they have entered; he 19should gratefully contemplate that communion of saints which unites him to their holy fellowship, even while he is here militant, if he be a faithful disciple of the Saviour in whom they trusted; he should earnestly seek that grace whereby, after a short further time of trial, he may be united with them in the everlasting services of the Church triumphant. The Church of England seems to have been induced to sum up the commemoration of martyrs, confessors, doctors, and saints in this one day’s service, from the circumstance of the great number of such days in the Church of Rome having led to gross abuses, some of which are enumerated in the preface to the Book of Common Prayer.

This day was popularly called “Allhallows day.” “Hallow E’en” in Scotland, and “Holy Eve” in Ireland, means the eve of all Saints’ Day. This day is celebrated as a high festival, or scarlet day, at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

ALL SOULS. A festival or holiday of the Romish Church, on which special prayers are made for the benefit of the souls of the departed. Its observance has been traced back to the year 998; about which time, we are told, a certain monk, whose curiosity had led him to visit Mount Ætna, which he, in common with others of that age, verily believed to be the mouth of hell, returned to his abbot with the grave story that he had overheard “the devils within complain, that many departed souls were taken out of their hands by the prayers of the Cluniac monks.” (See Clugni.) The compassionate abbot took the hint, and set apart the second day of November, to be annually kept by his monks as a day of prayer for All Souls departed. This local appointment was afterwards changed by the pope into a general one, obligatory on all the Western Churches. The ceremonies observed on this day were in good keeping with the purpose of its institution. In behalf of the dead, persons arrayed in black perambulated the cities and towns, each provided with a loud and dismal-toned bell, which they rang in public places by way of exhortation to the people to remember the souls in purgatory, and give them the aid of their prayers. In France and Italy, at the present day, the annual Jour des Morts is observed, by the population resuming their mourning habits, and visiting the graves of their friends for many years after their decease. At the period of the Reformation, the Church of England abrogated altogether the observance of this day, as based on false doctrine, and as originating in a falsehood.

ALMONER. An officer in monasteries, who had the care of the Almonry. In the cathedral of St. Paul, London, the Almoner had the distribution of the alms, and the care of the burial of the poor. He also educated eight boys in music and in literature, for the service of the Church. The office afterwards was practically that of a Chori-master, or Master of the Boys, and was usually held by a Vicar Choral. See Dugdale’s History of St. Paul’s.

The Lord High Almoner is a Prelate, who has the disposing of the King’s Alms, and of other sums accruing to the Crown. Till King James I.’s accession, when the office of Dean of the Chapel Royal was revived, he had the care of the King’s Chapel; his office being then analogous to that of the Grand Almoner of France. See Heylin’s Life of Laud.

ALMONRY. A room where alms were distributed, generally near to the church, or a part of it. The Almonries in the principal monasteries were often great establishments, with endowments specially appropriated to their sustentation, having a chapel, hall, and chambers for the accommodation of the poor and infirm. The remains of the Almonry at Canterbury, for example, are extensive and interesting.—Jebb.

ALMS. In the primitive Church, the people who were of sufficient substance used to give alms to the poor every Sunday, as they entered the church. And the poor, who were approved and selected by the deacons or other ministers, were exhorted to stand before the church doors to ask for alms, as the lame man, who was healed by Peter and John, at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. The order in our Church is, that these alms should be collected at that part of the communion service which is called the Offertory, while the sentences are in reading which follow the place appointed for the sermon. The intention of the compilers of our service was, that these alms should be collected every Sunday, as is plain from the directions in the rubric; and this, whether there was a communion or not. It is much to be regretted that the decay of charity has caused this good custom to fall into too general disuse; and it is one which all sincere churchmen should endeavour to restore. The alms are, and have immemorially been, collected every Sunday in Ireland.

ALMS-CHEST. Besides the alms collected at the offertory, it may be supposed 20that devout persons would make contributions to the poor on entering the church, or departing from it, at evening service; and to receive these alms, it is appointed by the 84th Canon, that a chest be provided and placed in the church.

ALOGIANS. Heretics in the second century, who denied the Divine Logos, or Word, and attributed the writings of St. John, in which the Second Person of the Godhead is so styled, to Cerinthus.

ALTAR. Altar was the name by which the holy board was constantly distinguished for the first three hundred years after Christ; during all which time it does not appear that it was above once called “table,” and that was in a letter of Dionysius of Alexandria to Xystus of Rome. And when, in the fourth century, Athanasius called it a “table,” he thought himself obliged to explain the word, and to let the reader know that by table he meant altar, that being then the constant and familiar name. Afterwards, indeed, both names came to be promiscuously used; the one having respect to the oblation of the eucharist, the other to the participation: but it was always placed altar-wise in the most sacred part of the church, and fenced in with rails to secure it from irreverence and disrespect.—Wheatly.

In King Edward’s first service-book the word altar was permitted to stand, as being the name that Christians for many hundred years had been acquainted withal. Therefore, when there was such pulling down of altars and setting up of tables in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, she was fain to make an injunction to restrain such ungodly fury, and appointed decent and comely tables covered to be set up again in the same place where the altars stood, thereby giving an interpretation of this clause in our communion-book. For the word “table” here stands not exclusively, as if it might not be called an altar, but to show the indifferency and liberty of the name; as of old it was called “mensa Domini,” the table of the Lord; the one having reference to the participation, the other to the oblation, of the eucharist.—Bp. Cosin.

It is called an altar, 1. Because, the holy eucharist being considered as a sacrifice, we offer up the commemoration of that sacrifice which was offered upon the cross. 2. We offer, with the action, prayers to God for all good things, and we need not fear to call the whole action by the name of a sacrifice, seeing part of it is an oblation to God of hearty prayers, and it is not unusual for that to be said of the whole, which is exactly true but of one part; and as the word sacrifice may be used without danger, so also the ancient Church did understand it.

And it is called a table, the eucharist being considered as a sacrament; which is nothing else but a distribution and application of the sacrifice to the receivers; and the proper use of a table is to set food upon, and to entertain guests, both which are applicable to this.—Clutterbuck.

But at the beginning of the Reformation an unhappy dispute arose, viz. whether those tables of the altar fashion, which had been used in the Popish times, and on which masses had been celebrated, should still be continued? This point was first started by Bishop Hooper, who in a sermon before the king, in the third year of his reign, declared, “that it were well, if it might please the magistrate to have altars turned into tables; to take away the false persuasion of the people, which they have of sacrifice, to be done upon altars; because as long,” says he, “as altars remain, both the ignorant people and priests will dream of sacrifice.” This occasioned not only a couple of letters from the king and council, one of which was sent to all the bishops, and the other to Ridley, bishop of London, in both which they were required to pull down the altars; but also that, when the liturgy was reviewed in 1551, the above-said rubric was altered, and in the room of it the priest was directed to stand on the north side of the table. But this did not put an end to the controversy. Another dispute arising, viz. whether the table, placed in the room of the altar, ought to stand altar-wise; i. e. in the same place and situation as the altar formerly stood? This was the occasion that in some churches the tables were placed in the middle of the chancels, in others at the east part thereof, next to the wall. Bishop Ridley endeavoured to compromise this matter, and therefore, in St. Paul’s cathedral, suffered the table to stand in the place of the old altar; but beating down the wainscot partition behind, laid all the choir open to the east, leaving the table then to stand in the middle of the chancel. Under this diversity of usage, things went on till the death of King Edward; when, Queen Mary coming to the throne, altars were again restored wherever they had been demolished; but her reign proving short, and Queen Elizabeth succeeding her, the people, (just got free again from the tyranny of Popery,) through a mistaken zeal fell in a tumultuous manner to the pulling down of altars; 21though, indeed, this happened for the generality only in private churches, they not being meddled with in any of the queen’s palaces, and in but very few of the cathedrals. And as soon as the queen was sensible of what had happened in other places, she put out an injunction to restrain the fury of the people, declaring it to be no matter of great moment, whether there were altars or tables, so that the sacrament was duly and reverently administered; but ordering, that where altars were taken down, holy tables should be decently made, and set in the place where the altars stood, and so to stand, saving when the communion of the sacrament was to be distributed; at which time the same was to be so placed in good sort within the chancel, as thereby the minister might be more conveniently heard of the communicants in his prayer and ministration, and the communicants also more conveniently and in more number communicate with the said minister. And after the communion, done from time to time, the same holy table was to be placed where it stood before. Pursuant hereunto, this part of the present rubric was added to the liturgy, in the first year of her reign, viz. that “the table, at the communion time, having a fair white linen cloth upon it, shall stand in the body of the church, or in the chancel, where morning and evening prayer are appointed to be said:” which was in those times generally in the choir. But then it is plain from the aforesaid injunction, as well as from the eighty-second Canon of the Church, (which is almost verbatim the same,) that there is no obligation arising from this rubric to move the table at the time of the communion, unless the people cannot otherwise conveniently hear and communicate. The injunction declares, that the holy tables are to be set in the same place where the altars stood, which every one knows was at the east end of the chancel. And when both the injunction and canon speak of its being moved at the time of the communion, it supposes that the minister could not otherwise be heard: the interposition of a belfry between the chancel and body of the church hindering the minister in some churches from being heard by the people, if he continued in the church. And with the same view seems this rubric to have been added, and which therefore lays us under no obligation to move the table, unless necessity requires. But whenever the churches are built so as the minister can be heard, and conveniently administer the sacrament at the place where the table usually stands, he is rather obliged to administer in the chancel, (that being the sanctum sanctorum, or most holy place, of the church,) as appears from the rubric before the Commandments, as also from that before the Absolution, by both which rubrics the priest is directed to turn himself to the people. From whence I argue, that if the table be in the middle of the church, and the people consequently round about the minister, the minister cannot turn himself to the people any more at one time than another. Whereas, if the table be close to the east wall, the minister stands on the north side, and looks southward, and consequently, by looking westward, turns himself to the people.—Wheatly.

Great dispute has been raised in the last age about the name of the communion table, whether it was to be called the Holy Table or an Altar. And indeed anything will afford matter of controversy to men in a disputing age. For the ancient writers used both names indifferently; some calling it Altar, others the Lord’s Table, the Holy Table, the Mystical Table, the Tremendous Table, &c., and sometimes both Table and Altar in the same sentence ... Ignatius uses only the name θυσιαστήριον, altar, in his genuine Epistles ... Irenæus and Origen use the same name ... Tertullian frequently applies to it the name of Ara Dei and Altare ... Cyprian uses both names; but most commonly Altar ... It is certain they did not mean by the altar what the Jews and heathens meant; either an altar dressed up with images, or an altar for bloody sacrifices. In the first sense they rejected altars, both name and thing. But for their own mystical, unbloody sacrifice, as they called the eucharist, they always owned they had an altar.... In Chrysostom it is most usually termed, “the mystical and tremendous table,” &c. St. Austin usually gives it the name of Mensa Domini, the Lord’s Table. It were easy to add a thousand other testimonies, where the altar is called the Holy Table, to signify to us their notion of the Christian sacrifice and altar at once, that it was mystical and spiritual, and had no relation either to the bloody sacrifices of the Jews, or the idolatries of the Gentiles, but served only for the service of the eucharist, and the oblations of the people.—Bingham.

In the First Book of King Edward, the terms used for this holy table are the Altar, and God’s Board. In our present Prayer Book, it is styled the Table, the Holy Table, and the Lord’s Table. The phrase communion table occurs in the Canons 22only, as in the 20th, and the 82nd. The word altar is used in the Coronation Service. It is employed without scruple by Bishop Overall, one of the commissioners for the revision of the Liturgy in King James I.’s reign, and by those who were employed in the last Review in 1662, who of course understood the real spirit of the Church of England. For example, the following are the words of Bishop Sparrow, one of the Reviewers.

“That no man take offence at the word Altar, let him know, that anciently both these names, Altar, or Holy Table, were used for the same thing; though most frequently the fathers and councils use the word Altar. And both are fit names for that holy thing. For the holy eucharist being considered as a sacrifice, in the representation of the breaking of the bread, and pouring forth of the cup, doing that to the holy symbols which was done to Christ’s body and blood, and so showing forth and commemorating the Lord’s death, and offering upon it the same sacrifice that was offered upon the cross, or rather the commemoration of that sacrifice, (St. Chrysost. in Heb. x. 9,) it may fitly be called an Altar; which again is as fitly called an Holy Table, the Eucharist being considered as a Sacrament, which is nothing else but a distribution and application of the sacrifice to the several receivers.”

And Bishop Cosins, who (Nicholl’s add. notes, p. 42) speaks of the king and queen presenting their offering “on their knees at God’s altar:” though he adds afterwards, (p. 50,) on the passage “This our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving,”—“In which regard and divers others besides, the eucharist may by allusion, analogy, and extrinsical denomination, be fitly called a sacrifice, and the Lord’s table an altar, the one relating to the other; though neither of them can be strictly and properly so called.... The sacrament of the eucharist carries the name of a sacrifice; and the table, whereon it is celebrated, an altar of oblation, in a far higher sense than any of their former sacrifices did, which were but the types and figures of those services, which are performed in recognition and memory of Christ’s own sacrifice, once offered upon the altar of his cross.”

Again, Bishop Beveridge, on the necessity, &c., of frequent communion, uses the word; “Upon Sundays and holy days, although there be not such a number, and therefore no communion, yet, however, the priest shall go up to the altar,” &c.

And Bishop Bull (Charge to the Clergy of St. David’s): “Before the priest goes to the altar to read the second service,” &c.

Hence, though not presuming to dispute the wisdom of the Reviewers, or, to speak more reverently, the dispositions of God’s providence, whereby the use of the word altar was withheld from our Prayer Book, there can be no doubt that the employment of the word can be justified, if we understand it as the ancient Church understood it.—Jebb.

According to Bingham, the ancient altars were of wood; and he considers that the fashion of stone altars began in the time of Constantine. Stone altars were enjoined by the Council of Epone, (or Albon,) in France, A. D. 509 or 517; and throughout the whole of the time to which we look for architectural examples, altars were of stone.

The place of the high altar was uniformly, in England at least, at the east of the church; but in large churches room is left for processions to pass behind it, and in cathedral churches of Norman foundation for the bishop’s throne. Where the end of the church was apsidal, the high altar was placed in the chord of the apse. Chantry altars, not being connected with a service in which processions were used, were placed against the wall, and scarcely an aisle or a transept was without one or more. In form the high altar was generally large and plain, relying for decoration wholly on the rich furniture with which it was loaded; very rarely its front was panelled or otherwise ornamented. Chantry altars were, perhaps, in ninety-nine cases in a hundred, mere slabs built into the wall. At Jervaulx, however, at the end of each aisle, is a large plain altar built up of separate stones, much in the form of a high tomb. In situ but few high altars remain, but chantry altars in situ are frequent enough. They are not, however, often found in the aisles and transepts of our churches, but in places where they would more readily escape observation, as, for instance, under the east window (or forming its sill) of a vestry, or of a parvise, or in a gateway to a monastery, or in private chapels and chapels of castles. Altar stones not in situ, but used in pavements and all places, are almost innumerable, sometimes two or three or more occurring in a single small church. They may be recognised by five little crosses, one in the centre, and one at each corner. The multiplication of altars in the same church is still strictly forbidden in the Eastern Church, as it was in ancient 23times. (Vide Bingham, book viii. c. 6, § 16.)—Poole.

ALTARAGE, a legal term used to denote the profits arising to the priest or parson of the parish on account of the altar, called obventio altaris. Since the Reformation there has been much dispute as to the extent of the vicar’s claim upon tithes as altarage. In the 21st Eliz. it was decided that the words Alteragium cum manso competenti would entitle him to the small tithes; but it has since been holden and now generally understood, that the extent of the altarage depends entirely upon usage and the manner of endowment.

ALTAR CLOTH. By the 82nd Canon it is appointed that the table provided for the celebration of the holy communion shall be covered, in time of divine service, with a carpet of silk, or other decent stuff thought meet by the ordinary of the place, if any question be made of it; and with a fair linen cloth at the time of the ministration, as becometh that table. The sovereigns of England, at their coronation, present, as their first oblation, a pall or altar cloth of gold, &c.

ALTAR PIECE. A picture placed over the altar. It is not uncommon in English churches to place paintings over the altar, although it is a practice of modern introduction, and although there would be a prejudice against placing paintings in other parts of the church. The English Reformers were very strongly opposed to the introduction of paintings into the sanctuary. In Queen Elizabeth’s reign, a proclamation was issued against pictures as well as images in churches; and Dean Nowell fell under her Majesty’s displeasure for procuring for her use a Prayer Book with pictures. The Puritans, who formed the religious world of King Charles’s time, both in the Church and out of it, destroyed pictures wherever they could find them, as relics of Popery. We may add that the feeling against pictures prevailed not only in modern times, but in the first ages of the primitive Church. In the various catalogues of church furniture that we possess, we never read of pictures. There is a particular breviat of the things found by the persecutors in the church of Paul, bishop of Cirta, in Numidia, (A. D. 303,) where we find mention made of cups, flagons, two candlesticks, and vestments; but of images and pictures there is not a syllable. In Spain, at the Council of Eliberis, A. D. 305, there was a positive decree against them. And, at the end of this century, Epiphanius, passing through Anablatha, a village of Palestine, found a veil there, hanging before the doors of the sanctuary in the church, whereon was painted the image of Christ, or some saint, which he immediately tore in pieces, and gave it as a winding-sheet for the poor, himself replacing the hanging by one from Cyprus. The first mention of pictures we find at the close of the fourth century; when Paulinus, bishop of Nola, to keep the country people employed, when they came together to observe the festival of the dedication of the church of St. Felix, ordered the church to be painted with the images of saints, and stories from Scripture history, such as those of Esther and Job, and Tobit and Judith. (Paulinus, Natal. 9. Felicis, p. 615.) The reader will find a learned historical investigation of this subject in note B to the translation of Tertullian’s Apology in the Library of the Fathers, which is thus summed up: 1. In the first three centuries it is positively stated that Christians had no images. 2. Private individuals had pictures, but it was discouraged. (Aug.) 3. The cross, not the crucifix, was used; the first mention of the cross in a church is in the time of Constantine. 4. The first mention of pictures in churches, except to forbid them, is at the end of the fourth century, and these historical pictures from the Old Testament, or of martyrdoms, not of individuals. 5. No account of any picture of our Lord being publicly used occurs in the six first centuries; the first is A. D. 600. 6. Outward reverence to pictures is condemned. We find frequent allusion to pictures in the writings of St. Augustine. We thus see that the use of pictures in churches is to be traced to the fourth century; and we may presume that the practice of the age, when the Church was beginning to breathe after its severe persecutions, when the great creed of the Church Universal was drawn up, and when the canon of Scripture was fixed, is sufficient to sanction the use of pictures in our sanctuaries. That in the middle ages, pictures as well as images were sometimes worshipped, as they are by many Papists in the present day, is not to be denied. It was therefore natural that the Reformers, seeing the abuse of the thing, should be strongly prejudiced against the retention of pictures in our churches. But much of Romish error consists in the abuse of what was originally good or true. We may, in the present age, return to the use of what was originally good; but being warned that what has led to Popish corruptions may lead to them again, we must be very careful to watch against the recurrence of those 24evil practices to which these customs have been abused or perverted.

ALTAR RAILS, as such, and as distinguished from the chancel screen, were not known in the Western Church before the Reformation. We probably owe them to Archbishop Laud, who, in order to guard against a continuance of the profanations to which the holy table had been subjected, while standing in the nave of the church, or in the middle of the chancel, ordered that it should be placed at the east end of the chancel, and protected from rude approach by rails. As the use of altar rails arose out of, and visibly signified respect for, the great mysteries celebrated at the altar, they were, of course, a mark for the hostility of the Puritans; and accordingly, in the journal of William Dowsing, parliamentary visitor of churches in the great rebellion, we find that they were everywhere destroyed. They have generally, however, been restored; and there are now few churches in England where they are not found. In the East, the altar has been enclosed by a screen or an enclosure resembling our rails, from ancient times. These were at first only the cancelli, or κίγκλιδες, or, as Eusebius styles them, reticulated wood-work. They were afterwards enlarged into the holy doors, which now wholly conceal the altar, and which Goar admits to be an innovation of later times. (pp. 17, 18.) These are not to be confounded with the enclosure of the choir; which, like the chancel screen, was originally very low, a mere barrier, but was enlarged afterwards into the high screens which now shut out the choir from the church.—Jebb.

ALTAR SCREEN. A screen behind the altar, bounding the presbytery eastward, and in our larger churches separating it from the parts left free for processions between the presbytery and the Lady Chapel, when the latter is at the east end. (See Cathedral.) These screens were of comparatively late invention. They completely interfered with the ancient arrangement of the Apsis. (See Apsis.) The most magnificent specimens of altar screens are at Winchester cathedral, and at St. Alban’s abbey. In college chapels, and churches where an apse would be altogether out of place, and where an east window cannot be inserted, as at New College, and Magdalene, Oxford, they are as appropriate as they are beautiful.—Jebb.

AMBO. A kind of raised platform or reading desk, from which, in the primitive Church, the Gospel and Epistle were read to the people, and sometimes used in preaching. Its position appears to have varied at different times; it was most frequently on the north side of the entrance into the chancel. Sometimes there was one on each side, one for the Epistle, the other for the Gospel, as may still be seen in the ancient churches of St. Clement and St. Lawrence, at Rome, &c. The word Ambo has been popularly employed for a reading desk within memory, as in Limerick cathedral, where the desk for the lessons in the centre of the choir was so called. The singers also had their separate ambo, and in many of the foreign European churches it is employed by the precentor and principal singers; being placed in the middle of the choir, like an eagle, but turned towards the altar.—Jebb.

AMBROSIAN OFFICE. A particular office used in the church of Milan. It derives its name from St. Ambrose, who was bishop of Milan in the fourth century, although it is not certain that he took any part in its composition. Originally each church had its particular office; and even when Pope Pius V. took upon him to impose the Roman office on all the Western churches, that of Milan sheltered itself under the name and authority of St. Ambrose, and the Ambrosian Ritual has continued in use.—Brouqhton, Gueranger.

AMEDIEU, or Friends of God. A kind of religious congregation in the Church of Rome, who wore grey clothes and wooden shoes, had no breeches, girding themselves with a cord; they began in 1400, and grew numerous; but Pius V. united their society partly with that of the Cistercians, and partly with the Soccolanti.—Jebb.

AMEN. This, in the phraseology of the Church, is denominated orationis signaculum, or devotæ conscionis responsio, the token for prayer—the response of the worshippers. It intimates that the prayer of the speaker is heard, and approved by him who gives this response. It is also used at the conclusion of a doxology. (Rom. ix. 5.) Justin Martyr is the first of the fathers who speaks of the use of the response. In speaking of the sacrament he says, that, at the close of the benediction and prayer, all the assembly respond, “Amen,” which, in the Hebrew tongue, is the same as, “So let it be.” According to Tertullian, none but the faithful were permitted to join in the response.

In the celebration of the Lord’s supper especially, each communicant was required to give this response in a tone of earnest devotion. Upon the reception, both of 25the bread and of the wine, each uttered a loud “Amen;” and at the close of the consecration by the priest, all joined in shouting a loud “Amen.” But the practice was discontinued after the sixth century.

At the administration of baptism also, the witnesses and sponsors uttered this response in the same manner. In the Greek Church it was customary to repeat this response as follows: “This servant of the Lord is baptized in the name of the Father, Amen; and of the Son, Amen; and of the Holy Ghost, Amen; both now and for ever, world without end;” to which the people responded, “Amen.” This usage is still observed by the Greek Church in Russia. The repetitions were given thrice, with reference to the three persons of the Trinity.—Coleman’s Christian Antiquities.

It signifies truly or verily. Its import varies slightly with the connexion or position in which it is placed. In the New Testament it is frequently synonymous with “verily,” and is retained in some versions without being translated. At the conclusion of prayer, as the Catechism teaches, it signifies So be it; after the repetition of the Creed it means So it is.

It will be observed, that the word “Amen” is at the end of some prayers, the Creed, &c., printed in the same Roman letter, but of others, and indeed generally, in Italics—“Amen.” This seems not to be done without meaning, though unfortunately the distinction is not correctly observed in all the modern Prayer Books. The intention, according to Wheatly, is this: At the end of all the collects and prayers, which the priest is to repeat or say alone, it is printed in Italic, a different character from the prayers themselves, probably to denote that the minister is to stop at the end of the prayer, and to leave the “Amen” for the people to respond. But at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, Confessions, Creeds, &c., and wheresoever the people are to join aloud with the minister, as if taught and instructed by him what to say, there it is printed in Roman, i. e. in the same character with the Confessions and Creeds themselves, as a hint to the minister that he is still to go on, and by pronouncing the “Amen” himself, to direct the people to do the same, and so to set their seal at last to what they had been before pronouncing.

AMERICA. (See Church in America.)

AMICE. An oblong square of fine linen used as a vestment in the ancient Church by the priest. At first introduced to cover the shoulders and neck, it afterwards received the addition of a hood to cover the head until the priest came before the altar, when the hood was thrown back. We have the remains of this in the hood.

The “grey amice,” a tippet or cape of fur, was retained for a time by the English clergy after the Reformation; but, as there was no express authority for this, it was prohibited by the bishops in the reign of Elizabeth.

The word Amice is sometimes used with greater latitude. Thus Milton, (Par. Reg. iv.,)

By most ritualists, the Amictus, or Amicia, and the Almutium, of the Western Churches were considered the same. But W. Gilbert French, in an interesting and curiously illustrated Essay on “The Tippets of the Canons Ecclesiastical,” considers that there is a distinction between the amice and the almuce. The former he identifies with the definition given above. The latter he considers to be the choir tippet, worn by all members of cathedral churches, of materials varying with the ecclesiastical rank of the wearer. The hood part of the almuce was in the course of time disused, and a square cap substituted; and the remaining parts gave rise to the modern cape, worn in foreign churches, and to the ornament resembling the stole, like the ordinary scarf worn in our churches. The almuce, or “aumusse,” is now an ornament of fur or other materials carried over the arm by the canons of many French and other continental cathedrals. In the Dictionnaire de Droit Canonique (Lymr. 1787) it is defined as an ornament which was first borne on the head, afterwards carried on the arm. Cardinal Bona only mentions the amictus, describing it as in the first paragraph of this article. He identifies it, but certainly without any reason, with the Jewish ephod. There seems nothing improbable in the various terms above mentioned having been originally identical. (See Band, Hood, Scarf, and Tippet.)—Jebb.

AMPHIBALUM. (See Chasible.)

ANABAPTISTS. (See Baptists.) Certain sectaries whose title is compounded of two Greek words, (ἀνα and βαπτιζω,) one of which signifies “anew,” and the other “to baptize;” and whose distinctive tenet it is, that those who have been baptized in their infancy ought to be baptized anew.

26John of Leyden, Münzer, Knipperdoling, and other German enthusiasts about the time of the Reformation, were called by this name, and held that Christ was not the son of Mary, nor true God; that we were righteous by our own merits and sufferings, that there was no original sin, and that infants were not to be baptized. They rejected, also, communion with other churches, magistracy, and oaths; maintained a communion of goods, polygamy, and that a man might put away his wife if not of the same religion with himself; that the godly should enjoy monarchy here on earth; that man had a free will in spiritual things; and that any man might preach and administer the sacraments. The Anabaptists of Moravia called themselves apostolical, going barefoot, washing one another’s feet, and having community of goods; they had a common steward, who distributed equally things necessary; they admitted none but such as would get their livelihood by working at some trade; they had a common father for their spirituals, who instructed them in their religion, and prayed with them every morning before they went abroad; they had a general governor of the church, whom none knew but themselves, they being obliged to keep it secret. They would be silent a quarter of an hour before meat, covering their faces with their hands, and meditating, doing the like after meat, their governor observing them in the mean time, to reprove what was amiss; they were generally clad in black, discoursing much of the last judgment, pains of hell, and cruelty of devils, teaching that the way to escape these was to be rebaptized, and to embrace their religion. They caused considerable disturbance in Germany, but were at length subdued. To this sect allusion is made in our 38th Article. By the present Anabaptists in England, the tenets subversive of civil government are no longer professed.

The practice of rebaptizing proselytes was used by some ancient heretics, and other sectaries, as by the Montanists, the Novatians, and the Donatists. In the third century, the Church was much agitated by the question whether baptism received out of the Catholic communion ought to be acknowledged, or whether converts to the Church ought to be rebaptized. Tertullian, St. Cyprian, and the Africans generally, held that baptism without the Church was null, as did also Firmilian, bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, and the Asiatics of his time. On this account, Stephen, bishop of Rome, declined communion with the Churches of Africa and of the East. To meet the difficulty, a method was devised by the Council of Arles, Can. 8, viz. to rebaptize those newly converted, if so be it was found that they had not been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and so the first Council of Nice, Can. 19, ordered that the Paulianists, or followers of Paul of Samosata, and the Cataphrygians should be rebaptized. The Council of Laodicea, Can. 7, and the second of Arles, Can. 16, decreed the same as to some heretics.

But the notion of the invalidity of infant baptism, which is the foundation of the modern Anabaptism, was not taught until the twelfth century, when Peterall Bruis, a Frenchman, preached it.

ANABATA. A cope, or sacerdotal vestment, to cover the back and shoulders of a priest. This is no longer used in the English Church.

ANALOGY OF FAITH, [translated in our version, proportion of faith,] is the proportion that the doctrines of the gospel bear to each other, or the close connexion between the truths of revealed religion. (Rom. xii. 6.)

ANAPHORA. That part of the liturgy of the Greek Church, which follows the introductory part, beginning at the Sursum corda, or, Lift up your hearts, to the end, including the solemn prayers of consecration, &c. It resembles, but does not exactly correspond to, the Roman Canon. (See Renandot.)—Jebb.

ANATHEMA, imports whatever is set apart, separated, or divided; but is most usually meant to express the cutting off of a person from the communion of the faithful. It was practised in the primitive Church against notorious offenders. Several councils, also, have pronounced anathemas against such as they thought corrupted the purity of the faith. The Church of England in her 18th Article anathematizes those who teach that eternal salvation is to be obtained otherwise than through the name of Christ, and in her Canons excommunicates all who say that the Church of England is not a true and apostolic Church.—Can. 3. All impugners of the public worship of God, established in the Church of England.—Can. 4. All impugners of the rites and ceremonies of the Church.—Can. 6. All impugners of episcopacy.—Can. 7. All authors of schism.—Can. 9. All maintainers of schismatics.—Can. 10. All these persons lie under the anathema of the Church of England.

ANCHORET. A name given to a hermit, 27from his dwelling alone, apart from society (Ἀναχωρητής). The anchoret is distinguished from the cœnobite, or the monk who dwells in a fraternity, or Κοινόβια. (See Monks.)

ANDREW’S (Saint) DAY. This festival is celebrated by the Church of England, Nov. 30, in commemoration of St. Andrew, who was, first of all, a disciple of St. John the Baptist, but being assured by his master that he was not the Messias, and hearing him say, upon the sight of our Saviour, “Behold the Lamb of God!” he left the Baptist, and being convinced himself of our Saviour’s divine mission, by conversing with him some time at the place of his abode, he went to his brother Simon, afterwards surnamed Peter by our Saviour, and acquainted him with his having found out the Messias; but he did not become our Lord’s constant attendant until a special call or invitation. After the ascension of Christ, when the apostles distributed themselves in various parts of the world, St. Andrew is said to have preached the gospel in Scythia, in Epirus, in Cappadocia, Galatia, Bithynia, and the vicinity of Byzantium, and finally, to have suffered death by crucifixion, at Ægea, by order of the proconsul of the place. The instrument of his death is said to have been in the form of the letter X, being a cross decussate, or saltier, two pieces of timber crossing each other in the middle; and hence usually known by the name of St. Andrew’s cross.

ANGEL. (See Idolatry, Mariolatry, Invocation of Saints.) By an angel is meant a messenger who performs the will of a superior. The scriptural words, both in Hebrew and Greek, mean a messenger. Thus, in the letters addressed by St. John to the seven churches in Asia Minor, the bishops of those churches are addressed as angels; ministers not appointed by the people, but sent by God. But the word is generally applied to those spiritual beings who surround the throne of glory, and who are sent forth to minister to them that be heirs of salvation. It is supposed by some that there is a subordination of angels in heaven, in the several ranks of seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominions, principalities, &c. We recognise in the service of the Church, the three orders of archangels, cherubim, and seraphim. The only archangel, as Bishop Horsley remarks, mentioned in Scripture, is St. Michael. (See Cherub.) The word seraph signifies in the Hebrew to burn. It is possible that these two orders of angels are alluded to in Psal. civ. 4, “He maketh his angels spirits; and his ministers a flaming fire.” The worship of angels is one of the sins of the Romish Church. It was first invented by a sect in the fourth century, who, for the purpose of exercising this unlawful worship, held private meetings separate from those of the Catholic Church, in which it was not permitted. The Council of Laodicea, the decrees of which were received and approved by the whole Church, condemned the sect in the following terms: “Christians ought not to forsake the Church of God, and depart and call on angels, and make meetings, which are forbidden. If any one, therefore, be found, giving himself to this hidden idolatry, let him be anathema, because he hath left the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and hath betaken himself to idolatry.” The same principle applies to prayers made to any created being. The worship of the creature was regarded by the Church in the fourth century as idolatry. See Bishop Beveridge’s Expos. of Acts xxii.: see also Bishop Bull, on the Corruption of the Church of Rome, sect. iii., who, whilst showing that the ancient fathers and councils were express in their denunciation of it, (e. g. the Council of Laodicea, Theodoret, Origen, Justin Martyr, &c.,) says, “It is very evident that the Catholic Christians of Origen’s time made no prayers to angels or saints, but directed all their prayers to God, through the alone mediation of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Indeed, against the invocation of angels and saints we have the concurrent testimonies of all the Catholic Fathers of the first three centuries at least.” Bishop Bull then refers to his own Def. Fid. Nic. ii. to 8, for a refutation of Bellarmine’s unfair citation of Justin Martyr, (Apol. i. 6, p. 47,) where he says, “I have evidently proved that that plan of Justin, so far from giving countenance to the religious worship of angels, makes directly against it.” Also the most ancient Liturgies, &c.

ANGELIC HYMN. A title given to the hymn or doxology beginning with “Glory be to God on high,” &c. It is so called from the former part of it having been sung by the angels on their appearance to the shepherds of Bethlehem, to announce to them the birth of the Redeemer. (See Gloria in Excelsis.)

ANGELICI. A sort of Christian heretics, who were supposed to have their rise in the apostles’ time, but who were most numerous about A.D. 180. They worshipped angels, and from thence had their name.

ANGELITES. A sort of Sabellian 28heretics, so called from Agelius or Angelius, a place in Alexandria, where they used to meet.

ANGLO-CATHOLIC CHURCH. (See Church of England.) Any branch of the Church reformed on the principles of the English Reformation.

In certain considerations of the first spiritual importance, the Church of England occupies a singularly felicitous position. The great majority of Christians—the Roman, Greek, and Eastern Churches—regard Episcopacy as indispensable to the integrity of Christianity; the Presbyterians and others, who have no bishops, nor, as far as we can judge, any means of obtaining the order, regard episcopacy as unnecessary. Supposing for a moment the question to be dubious, the position of the Presbyterian is, at the best, unsafe; the position of the member of the Church of England is, at the worst, perfectly safe: at the worst, he can only be in the same position at last as the Presbyterian is in at present. On the Anti-episcopalian’s own ground, the Episcopalian is on this point doubly fortified; whilst, on the opposite admission, the Presbyterian is doubly condemned, first, in the subversion of a Divine institution; and, secondly, in the invalidity of the ordinances of grace. Proceeding, therefore, on mere reason, it would be most unwise for a member of the Church of England to become a Presbyterian; he can gain nothing by the change, and may lose everything. The case is exactly the reverse with the Presbyterian.

Again: by all apostolic Churches the apostolic succession is maintained to be a sine quâ non for the valid administration of the eucharist and the authoritative remission of sins. The sects beyond the pale of the apostolic succession very naturally reject its indispensability; but no one is so fanatical as to imagine its possession invalidates the ordinances of the Church possessing it. Now, of all branches of the Catholic Church, the Church of England is most impregnable on this point; she unites in her priesthood the triple successions of the ancient British, the ancient Irish, and the ancient Roman Church. Supposing, therefore, the apostolic Churches to hold the right dogma on the succession, the member of the Church of England has not the slightest occasion to disturb his soul; he is trebly safe. Supposing, on the other hand, the apostolic succession to be a fortunate historical fact, not a divinely perpetuated authority, he is still, at the least, as safe as the dissenter; whereas, if it is, as the Church holds, the only authority on earth which the Saviour has commissioned with his power, what is the spiritual state of the schismatic who usurps, or of the assembly that pretends to bestow, what God alone can grant and has granted to his Church only. No plausible inducement to separate from the Church of England can counterbalance this necessity for remaining in her communion: and her children have great cause to be grateful for being placed by her in a state of such complete security on two such essential articles of administrative Christianity.—Morgan.

ANNATES, or FIRST-FRUITS. These are the profits of one year of every vacant bishopric in England, claimed at first by the pope, upon a pretence of defending the Christians from the infidels; and paid by every bishop at his accession, before he could receive his investiture from Rome. Afterwards the pope prevailed on all those who were spiritual patrons to oblige their clerks to pay these annates; and so by degrees they became payable by the clergy in general. Some of our historians tell us that Pope Clement was the first who claimed annates in England, in the reign of Edward I.; but Selden, in a short account which he has given us of the reign of William Rufus, affirms that they were claimed by the pope before that reign. Chronologers differ also about the time when they became a settled duty. Platina asserts that Boniface IX., who was pope in the first year of Henry IV., Annalarum usum beneficiis ecclesiasticis primum imposuit (viz.) dimidium annui proventus fisco apostolico persolvere. Walsingham affirms it to be above eighty years before that time,(viz.) in the time of Pope John XXII., who was pope about the middle of the reign of Edward II., and that he reservavit cameræ suæ primos fructus beneficiorum. But a learned bishop of Worcester has made this matter more clear. He states that the old and accustomed fees paid here to the feudal lords were called beneficia; and that the popes, assuming to be lords or spiritual heads of the Church, were not contented with an empty though very great title, without some temporal advantage, and therefore Boniface VIII., about the latter end of the reign of Edward I., having assumed an absolute dominion in beneficiary matters, made himself a kind of feudal lord over the benefices of the Church, and as a consequence thereof, claimed a year’s profits of the Church, as a beneficiary fee due to himself, the chief lord. But though the usurped power of the pope was then very great, the king 29and the people did not comply with this demand; insomuch that, by the statute of Carlisle, which was made in the last year of his reign, and about the beginning of the popedom of Clement V., this was called a new imposition gravis et intolerabilis, et contra leges et consuetudines regni; and by reason of this powerful opposition the matter rested for some time: but the successors of that pope found more favourable opportunities to insist on this demand, which was a year’s profits of each vacant bishopric, at a reasonable valuation, viz. a moiety of the full value; and having obtained what they demanded, they afterwards endeavoured to raise the value, but were opposed in this likewise by the parliament, in the 6th of Henry IV., and a penalty was inflicted on those bishops who paid more for their first-fruits than was accustomed. But, notwithstanding these statutes, such was the plenitude of the pope’s power, and so great was the profit which accrued to him by this invention, that in little more than half a century, the sum of £16,000 was paid to him, under the name of annates, for expediting bulls of bishoprics only. The payment of these was continued till about the 25th year of Henry VIII., and then an act was made, reciting, that since the beginning of that parliament another statute had been made (which act is not printed) for the suppressing the exaction of annates of archbishops and bishops. But the parliament being unwilling to proceed to extremities, remitted the putting that act in execution to the king himself: that if the pope would either put down annates, or so moderate the payment that they might no longer be a burthen to the people, the king, by letters patent, might declare the act should be of no force.

The pope, having notice of this, and taking no care to reform those exactions, that statute was confirmed; and because it only extended to annates paid for archbishoprics and bishoprics, in the next year another statute was made, (26 Henry VIII. cap. 3,) that not only those first-fruits formerly paid by bishops, but those of every other spiritual living, should be paid to the king. Notwithstanding these laws, there were still some apprehensions, that, upon the death of several prelates who were then very old, great sums of money would be conveyed to Rome by their successors; therefore, Anno 33 Henry VIII., it was enacted, that all contributions of annates for bishoprics, or for any bulls to be obtained from the see of Rome, should cease; and if the pope should deny any bulls of consecration by reason of this prohibition, then the bishop presented should be consecrated in England by the archbishop of the province; and if it was in the case of an archbishop, then he should be consecrated by any two bishops to be appointed by the king; and that, instead of annates, a bishop should pay to the pope £5 per cent. of the clear yearly value of his bishopric. But before this time (viz. 31 Henry VIII. cap. 22) there was a court erected by the parliament, for the levying and government of these first-fruits, which court was dissolved by Queen Mary; and in the next year the payment was ordered to cease as to her. But in the first of Elizabeth they were again restored to the crown, and the statute 32 Hen. VIII., which directed the grant and order of them, was recontinued; and that they should be from thenceforth within the government of the exchequer. But vicarages not exceeding £10 per annum, and parsonages not exceeding ten marks, according to the valuation in the first-fruits’ office, were exempted from payment of first-fruits; and the reason is because vicarages, when this valuation was made, had a large revenue, arising from voluntary oblations which ceased upon the dissolution, &c., and therefore they had this favour of exemption allowed them afterwards. By the before-mentioned statute, a new officer was created, called a remembrancer of the first-fruits, whose business it was to take compositions for the same; and to send process to the sheriff against those who did not pay it; and by the act 26 Henry VIII. he who entered into a living without compounding, or paying the first-fruits, was to forfeit double the value.

To prevent which forfeiture, it was usual for the clerk newly presented, to give four bonds to pay the same, within two years next after induction, by four equal payments. But though these bonds were executed, yet if the clergyman died, or was legally deprived before the payments became due, it was a good discharge by virtue of the act 1 Elizabeth before-mentioned. And thus it stood, until Queen Anne, taking into consideration the insufficient maintenance of the poor clergy, sent a message to the House of Commons by one of her principal secretaries, signifying her intention to grant the first-fruits for the better support of the clergy; and that they would find out some means to make her intentions more effectual. Thereupon an act was passed, by which the queen was to incorporate persons, and to settle upon them and their successors the revenue of the first-fruits; 30but that the statutes before-mentioned should continue in force, for such intents and purposes as should be directed in her grant; and that this new act should not extend to impeach or make void any former grant made of this revenue. And likewise any person, except infants and femme-coverts, without their husbands, might, by bargain and sale enrolled, dispose lands or goods to such corporation, for the maintenance of the clergy officiating in the Established Church, without any settled competent provision; and the corporation might also purchase lands for that purpose, notwithstanding the statute of mortmain. Pursuant to this law, the queen (in the third year of her reign) incorporated several of the nobility, bishops, judges, and gentry, &c., by the name of the Governors of the Bounty of Queen Anne, for the augmentation of the maintenance of the poor clergy, to whom she gave the first-fruits, &c., and appointed the governors to meet at the Prince’s Chamber, in Westminster, or in any other place in London or Westminster, to be appointed by any seven of them; of which number a privy-counsellor, a bishop, a judge, or counsellor at law, must be one; there to consult about the distribution of this bounty. That four courts shall be held by these governors in every year, viz. in the months of December, March, June, and September; and that seven of the said governors (quorum tres, &c.) shall be a court, and that the business shall be despatched by majority of votes: that such courts may appoint committees out of the number of the governors, for the better managing their business; and at their first or any other meeting, deliver to the queen what methods they shall think fit for the government of the corporation; which being approved under the great seal, shall be the rules of the government thereof. That the lord keeper shall issue out writs of inquiry, at their request, directed to three or more persons, to inquire, upon oath, into the value of the maintenance of poor parsons who have not £80 per annum, and the distance of their churches from London; and which of them are in market or corporate towns, or not; and how the churches are supplied; and if the incumbents have more than one living; that care may be taken to increase their maintenance. That after such inquiry made, they do prepare and exhibit to the queen a true state of the yearly value of the maintenance of all such ministers, and of the present yearly value of the first-fruits and arrears thereof, and of such pensions as are now payable out of the same, by virtue of any former grants. That there shall be a secretary, and a treasurer, who shall continue in their office during the pleasure of the corporation; that they shall take an oath before the court for the faithful execution of their office. That the treasurer must give security to account for the money which he receives; and that his receipt shall be a discharge for what he receives; and that he shall be subject to the examination of four or more of the governors. That the governors shall collect and receive the bounties of other persons; and shall admit into their corporation any contributors, (whom they think fit for so pious a work,) and appoint persons under their common seal, to take subscriptions, and collect the money contributed; and that the names of the benefactors shall be registered in a book to be kept for that purpose.

Owing mainly to the exertion of Dean Swift, a similar remission of the first-fruits was made in Ireland during the reign of Queen Anne, and a corporation for the distribution of this fruit was appointed under the designation of the Board of First-fruits, consisting of all the archbishops and bishops of Ireland, the dean of St. Patrick’s, and the chief officers of the Crown. The Board was dissolved by the act of parliament which established the first Ecclesiastical Commission, which now discharges its functions.

ANNIVELAIS, or Annualais. The chantry priests, whose duty it was to say private masses at particular altars, were so called; as at Exeter cathedral, &c. They were also called chaplains.

ANNUNCIADA. A society founded at Rome, in the year 1460, by Cardinal John Turrecremata, for the marrying of poor maids. It now bestows, every Lady-day, sixty Roman crowns, a suit of white serge, and a florin for slippers, to above 400 maids for their portion. The popes have so great a regard for this charitable foundation, that they make a cavalcade, attended with the cardinals, &c., to distribute tickets for these sixty crowns, &c., for those who are to receive them. If any of the maids are desirous to be nuns, they have each of them 120 crowns, and are distinguished by a chaplet of flowers on their head.

ANNUNCIADE, otherwise called the Order of the Ten Virtues, or Delights, of the Virgin Mary; a Popish order of women, founded by Queen Jane, of France, wife to Lewis XII., whose rule and chief business was to honour, with a great many beads 31and rosaries, the ten principal virtues or delights of the Virgin Mary; the first of which they make to be when the angel Gabriel annunciated to her the mystery of the incarnation, from whence they have their name; the second, when she saw her son Jesus brought into the world; the third, when the wise men came to worship him; the fourth, when she found him disputing with the doctors in the temple, &c. This order was confirmed by the pope in 1501, and by Leo X. again in 1517.

ANNUNCIATION of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. This festival is appointed by the Church, in commemoration of that day on which it was announced to Mary, by an angel, that she should be the mother of the Messiah. The Church of England observes this festival on the 25th of March, and in the calendar the day is called the “Annunciation of our Lady,” and hence the 25th of March is called Lady-day. It is observed as a “scarlet day” at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

ANOMŒANS. (From ἄνομοιος, unlike.) The name of the extreme Arians in the fourth century, because they held the essence of the Son of God to be unlike unto that of the Father. These heretics were condemned by the semi-Arians, at the Council of Seleucia, A. D. 359, but they revenged themselves of this censure a year after, at a pretended synod in Constantinople.

ANTELUCAN. In times of persecution, the Christians being unable to meet for divine worship in the open day, held their assemblies in the night. The like assemblies were afterwards continued from feelings of piety and devotion, and called Antelucan, or assemblies before daylight.

ANTHEM. A hymn, sung in parts alternately. Such, at least, would appear to be its original sense. The word is derived from the Greek Ἀντιφωνὴ, which signifies, as Isidorus interprets it, “Vox reciproca,” &c., one voice succeeding another; that is, two choruses singing by turns. (See Antiphon.) In the Greek Church it was more particularly applied to one of the Alleluia Psalms sung after those of the day. In the Roman and unreformed Western offices it is ordinarily applied to a short sentence sung before and after one of the Psalms of the day: so called, according to Cardinal Bona, because it gives the tone to the Psalms which are sung antiphonely, or by each side of the choir alternately; and then at the end both choirs join in the anthem. The same term is given to short sentences said or sung at different parts of the service; also occasionally to metrical hymns. The real reason of the application of the term in these instances seems to be this, that these sentences are a sort of response to, or alternation with, the other parts of the office. The preacher’s text was at the beginning of the Reformation sometimes called the Anthem. (Strype, Ann. of the Ref. chap. ix. A. D. 1559.) In this sense it is applied in King Edward’s First Book to the sentences in the Visitation of the Sick, “Remember not,” &c., &c., “O Saviour of the world,” &c., which were obviously never intended to be sung. In the same book it is applied to the hymns peculiar to Easter day, and to the prayer in the Communion Service, “Turn thou us,” &c., both of which are prescribed to be said or sung. In our present Prayer Book it occurs only in reference to the Easter Hymn, and in the rubrics after the third Collects of Morning and Evening Prayer. These rubrics were first inserted at the last Review, though there is no doubt that the anthem had always been customarily performed in the same place. To the anthem so performed Milton alluded in the well-known words, “In service high and anthems clear;” these expressions, as well as the whole phraseology of that unrivalled passage, being technically correct: the service meaning the Church Hymns, set to varied harmonies; the anthem, (of which two were commonly performed in the full Sunday morning service,) the compositions now in question.

The English Anthem, as the term has long been practically understood, sanctioned by the universal use of the Church of England, has no exact equivalent in the service of other Churches. It resembles, but not exactly, the Motets of foreign choirs, and occasionally their Responsories or Antiphons. There are a few metrical anthems, corresponding to the hymns of those choirs. But, generally speaking, the English anthem is set to words from Holy Scripture, or the Liturgy; sung, not to a chant, or an air, like that of a hymn, but to varied consecutive strains, admitting of every diversity of solo, verse, and chorus. The Easter-day Anthem, at the time of the last Review, was not usually sung, as now, to a chant, but to varied harmonies, (as is still the case at Salisbury cathedral,)—and in the sealed book it is to be observed, that it is not printed like the Psalms, in verses, but in paragraphs. Properly speaking, our services, technically so called, (see Service,) are anthems; as are also the hymns in the Communion and 32Burial Service. The responses to the Commandments, and the sentence “O Lord, arise,” &c., in the Liturgy, give a tolerably correct notion of the Roman Antiphon.

The Church of England anthems consist of three kinds: Full; or those sung throughout by the whole choir. Full with verse; that is, consisting of a chorus for the most part, but with an occasional passage sung by but a few voices. Verse; consisting mainly of solos, duets, trios, &c., the chorus being the appendage, not the substance. Objections have been made of late to verse anthems; but there is no question that they are nearly, if not quite, coeval with the Reformation.

In many choirs, besides the anthem in its proper place after the third Morning Collect, another was sung on Sundays after the sermon. In the Coronation Service several anthems are prescribed to be used.—Jebb.

An anthem in choirs and places where they sing is appointed by the rubric in the daily service in the Prayer Book, after the third Collect, both at Morning and Evening Prayer.

ANTHOLOGIUM. (In Latin, Florilegium.) The title of a book in the Greek Church, divided into twelve months, containing the offices sung throughout the whole year, on the festivals of our Saviour, the Virgin Mary, and other remarkable saints. It is in two volumes; the first contains six months, from the first day of September to the last day of February; the second comprehends the other six months. It is observable from this book that the Greek Church celebrates Easter at the same time with the Church of England, notwithstanding that they differ from us in the lunar cycle.—Broughton.

ANTHROPOLATRÆ. (Man-worshippers.) A name of abuse given to churchmen by the Apollinarians, because they maintained that Christ, whom both admitted to be the object of the Christian’s worship, was a perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. This the Apollinarians denied. It was always the way with heretics to apply to churchmen terms of reproach, while they assumed to themselves distinctive appellations of honour: thus the Manichees, for instance, while they called themselves the elect, the blessed, and the pure, gave to the churchmen the name of simple ones. It is not less a sign of a sectarian spirit to assume a distinctive name of honour, than to impose on the Church a name of reproach, for both tend to divided communion in spirit or in fact. There is this good, however, to be gathered from these slanderous and vain-glorious arts of heretics; that their terms of reproach serve to indicate some true doctrine of the Church: as, for instance, that of Anthropolatræ determines the opinion of Catholics touching Christ’s human nature; while the names of distinction which heretics themselves assume, usually serve to throw light on the history of their own error.

ANTHROPOMORPHITES. Heretics who were so called because they maintained that God had a human shape. They are mentioned by Eusebius as the opponents of Origen, and their accusation of Origen implies their own heresy. “Whereas,” they said, “the sacred Scriptures testify that God has eyes, ears, hands, and feet, as men have, the partisans of Dioscorus, being followers of Origen, introduce the blasphemous dogma that God has not a body.” The Anthropomorphite error was common among the monks of Egypt about the end of the fourth century. Dioscorus was a leader of the opposite party.

ANTICHRIST. The man of sin, who is to precede the second advent of our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. “Little children,” saith St. John, “ye have heard that Antichrist shall come.” And St. Paul, in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, describes him: “That day (the day of our Lord’s second advent) shall not come except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming; even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish.”

Under the image of a horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spake very great things; that made war with the saints, and prevailed against them till the Ancient of days came; and under the image of a little horn, which attacked the very heavens, and trod down and trampled on the state, Daniel is supposed to predict Antichrist.

St. John in the Apocalypse describes Antichrist as a beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit, and maketh war upon the saints; as a beast rising out of the sea, with two horns and two crowns upon his 33horns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. In another place, he speaks of the number of the beast, and says, it is six hundred threescore and six.

It is not the purpose of this dictionary to state the various ways in which this prophecy has been understood. We therefore pass on to say, that Antichrist is to lay the foundation of his empire in Babylon, i. e. (as many have supposed,) in Rome, and he is to be destroyed by the second coming of our Lord.

ANTINOMIANS. The Antinomians derive their name from ἀντὶ, against, νόμος, law, their distinguishing tenet being, that the law is not a rule of life to believers under the gospel. The founder of the Antinomian heresy was John Agricola, a Saxon divine, a contemporary, a countryman, and at first a disciple, of Luther. He was of a restless temper, and wrote against Melancthon; and having obtained a professorship at Wittemberg, he first taught Antinomianism there, about the year 1535. The Papists, in their disputes with the Protestants of that day, carried the merit of good works to an extravagant length; and this induced some of their opponents, as is too often the case, to run into the opposite extreme. The doctrine of Agricola was in itself obscure, and perhaps represented worse than it really was by Luther, who wrote with acrimony against him, and first styled him and his followers Antinomians—perhaps thereby “intending,” as Dr. Hey conjectures, “to disgrace the notions of Agricola, and make even him ashamed of them.” Agricola stood in his own defence, and complained that opinions were imputed to him which he did not hold.

About the same time, Nicholas Amsdorf, bishop of Naumburg in Saxony, fell under the same odious name and imputation, and seems to have been treated more unfairly than even Agricola himself. The bishop died at Magdeburg in 1541, and some say that his followers were called for a time Amsdorfians, after his name.

This sect sprung up among the Presbyterians in England, during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, who was himself an Antinomian of the worst sort. The supporters of the Popish doctrines deducing a considerable portion of the arguments on which they rested their defence from the doctrines of the old law, Agricola, in the height of his zeal for reformation, was encouraged by the success of his master, Luther, to attack the very foundation of their arguments, and to deny that any part of the Old Testament was intended as a rule of faith or practice to the disciples of Christ.

He is said to have taught that the law ought not to be proposed to the people as a rule of manners, nor used in the Church as a means of instruction; and, of course, that repentance is not to be preached from the Decalogue, but only from the gospel; that the gospel alone is to be inculcated and explained, both in the churches and the schools of learning; and that good works do not promote our salvation, nor evil works hinder it.

Some of his followers in England, in the seventeenth century, are said to have expressly maintained, that as the elect cannot fall from grace, nor forfeit the Divine favour, the wicked actions they commit are not really sinful, nor are they to be considered as instances of their violation of the Divine law; and that, consequently, they have no occasion either to confess their sins, or to seek renewed forgiveness. According to them, it is one of the essential and distinctive characters of the elect, that they cannot do anything displeasing to God, or prohibited by the law. “Let me speak freely to you, and tell you,” says Dr. Tobias Crisp, (who may be styled the primipilus of the more modern scheme of Antinomianism, and was the great Antinomian opponent of Baxter, Bates, Howe, &c.,) “that the Lord hath no more to lay to the charge of an elect person, yet in the height of his iniquity, and in the excess of riot, and committing all the abominations that can be committed; I say, even then, when an elect person runs such a course, the Lord hath no more to lay to that person’s charge, than God hath to lay to the charge of a believer: nay, God hath no more to lay to the charge of such a person than he hath to lay to the charge of a saint triumphant in glory. The elect of God, they are the heirs of God; and as they are heirs, so the first being of them puts them into the right of inheritance, and there is no time but such a person is the child of God.”

That the justification of sinners is an immanent and eternal act of God, not only preceding all acts of sin, but the existence of the sinner himself, is the opinion of most of those who are styled Antinomians, though some suppose, with Dr. Crisp, that the elect were justified at the time of Christ’s death. In answer to the question, “When did the Lord justify us?” Dr. Crisp says, “He did, from eternity, in respect of obligation; but in respect of execution, he did it when Christ was on the cross; and in respect of application, he doth it while children are yet unborn.”

34The other principal doctrines which at present bear the appellation of Antinomian, are said to be as follows:

1. That justification by faith is no more than a manifestation to us of what was done before we had a being.

2. That men ought not to doubt of their faith, or question whether they believe in Christ.

3. That by God’s laying our iniquities upon Christ, and our being imputed righteous through him, he became as completely sinful as we, and we as completely righteous as Christ.

4. That believers need not fear either their own sins or the sins of others, since neither can do them any injury.

5. That the new covenant is not made properly with us, but with Christ for us; and that this covenant is all of it a promise, having no conditions for us to perform; for faith, repentance, and obedience, are not conditions on our part, but on Christ’s; and that he repented, believed, and obeyed for us.

6. That sanctification is not a proper evidence of justification—that our righteousness is nothing but the imputation of the righteousness of Christ—that a believer has no holiness in himself, but in Christ only; and that the very moment he is justified, he is wholly sanctified, and he is neither more nor less holy from that hour to the day of his death.

Justification by a faith not necessarily productive of good works, and righteousness imputed to such a faith, are the doctrines by which the members of this denomination are chiefly distinguished.

While the Socinian Unitarians place the whole of their religion in morality, in disregard of Christian faith, the Antinomians rely so on faith as to undervalue morality. Their doctrines at least have too much that appearance.

In short, according to Dr. Williams, Dr. Crisp’s scheme is briefly this: “That by God’s mere electing decree all saving blessings are by Divine obligation made ours, and nothing more is needful to our title to these blessings: that on the cross all the sins of the elect were transferred to Christ, and ceased ever after to be their sins: that at the first moment of conception a title to all those decreed blessings is personally applied to the elect, and they are invested actually therein. Hence the elect have nothing to do, in order to have an interest in any of those blessings, nor ought they to intend the least good to themselves in what they do: sin can do them no harm because it is none of theirs; nor can God afflict them for any sin.” And all the rest of his opinions “follow in a chain,” adds Dr. W., “to the dethroning of Christ, enervating his laws and pleadings, obstructing the great design of redemption, opposing the very scope of the gospel, and the ministry of Christ and his prophets and apostles.”—Adams.

High Calvinism, or Antinomianism, absolutely withers and destroys the consciousness of human responsibility. It confounds moral with natural impotency, forgetting that the former is a crime, the latter only a misfortune; and thus treats the man dead in trespasses and sins, as if he were already in his grave. It prophesies smooth things to the sinner going on in his transgressions, and soothes to slumber and the repose of death the souls of such as are at ease in Zion. It assumes that, because men can neither believe, repent, nor pray acceptably, unless aided by the grace of God, it is useless to call upon them to do so. It maintains that the gospel is only intended for elect sinners, and therefore it ought to be preached to none but such. In defiance, therefore, of the command of God, it refuses to preach the glad tidings of mercy to every sinner. In opposition to Scripture, and to every rational consideration, it contends that it is not man’s duty to believe the truth of God—justifying the obvious inference, that it is not a sin to reject it. In short, its whole tendency is to produce an impression on the sinner’s mind, that if he is not saved it is not his fault, but God’s; that if he is condemned, it is more for the glory of the Divine Sovereignty, than as the punishment of his guilt.

So far from regarding the moral cure of human nature as the great object and design of the gospel, Antinomianism does not take it in at all, but as it exists in Christ, and becomes ours by a figure of speech. It regards the grace and the pardon as everything—the spiritual design or effect as nothing. Hence its opposition to progressive and its zeal for imputed sanctification: the former is intelligible and tangible, but the latter a mere figment of the imagination. Hence its delight in expatiating on the eternity of the Divine decrees, which it does not understand, but which serve to amuse and to deceive; and its dislike to all the sober realities of God’s present dealings and commands. It exults in the contemplation of a Christ who is a kind of concretion of all the moral attributes of his people; to the overlooking of that Christ who is the Head of all that in 35heaven and on earth bear his likeness. It boasts in the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, while it believes in no saint but one, that is, Jesus, and neglects to persevere.—Orme’s Life of Baxter, vol. ii. p. 311.

ANTI-PÆDOBAPTISTS. (From ἀντὶ, against, παῖς, child, βάπτισμα, baptism.) Persons who are opposed to the baptism of infants. In this country, this sect arrogate to themselves the title of Baptists par excellence, as though no other body of Christians baptized: just as the Socinians extenuate their heresy by calling themselves Unitarians: thereby insinuating that those who hold the mystery of the Holy Trinity do not believe in one God. (See Anabaptists, Baptism.)

ANTIPHON, or ANTIPHONY. (ἀντὶ and φωνὴ.) The chant or alternate singing of a Christian choir. This is the most ancient form of church music. Diodorus and Flavian, the leaders of the orthodox party at Antioch during the ascendency of Arianism, in the fourth century, and St. Ambrose at Milan, instead of leaving the chanting to the choristers, as had been usual, divided the whole congregation into two choirs, which sang the psalms alternately. That the chanting of the psalms alternately is even older than Christianity, cannot be doubted, for the custom prevailed in the Jewish temple. Many of the psalms are actually composed in alternate verses, evidently with a view to their being used in a responsive manner. “I make no doubt,” says Nicholls, “but that it is to this way of singing used in the temple, that that vision in Isaiah vi. alluded, when he saw the two cherubims, and heard them singing, ‘Holy, holy,’ &c. For these words cannot be otherwise explained, than of their singing anthem-wise; ‘they called out this to that cherubim,’ properly relates to the singing in a choir, one voice on one side, and one on the other.” In the earlier days of the Christian Church, this practice was adopted, and became universal. The custom is said, by Socrates the historian, to have been first introduced among the Greeks by Ignatius. St. Basil tells us that, in his time, about A. D. 470, the Christians, “rising from their prayers, proceeded to singing of psalms, dividing themselves into two parts, and singing by turns.” Tertullian remarks, that “when one side of the choir sing to the other, they both provoke it by a holy contention, and relieve it by a mutual supply and change.” For these or similar reasons, the reading of the Psalter is, in places where there is no choir, divided between the minister and people. In the cathedral worship of the Church Universal, the psalms of the day are chanted throughout. And in order to preserve their responsive character, two full choirs are stationed one on each side of the church. One of these having chanted one or two verses (the usual compass of the chant-tune) remains silent, while the opposite choir replies in the verses succeeding; and at the end of each psalm, (and of each division of the 119th Psalm,) the Gloria Patri is sung by the united choirs in chorus, accompanied by the peal of the great organ. The usage, now prevalent in foreign churches subject to Rome, of chanting one verse by a single voice, and the other by the full choir, is not ancient, and is admitted to be incorrect by some continental ritualists themselves. This method is quite destructive of the genuine effect of antiphonal chanting, which ought to be equally balanced on each side of the choir. It may indeed be accepted as a sort of modification of the ordinary parochial mode; but in regular choirs it would be a clear innovation, a retrograde movement, instead of an improvement. In some choirs the Gloria Patri is sung antiphonally, but always to the great organ.—Jebb.

ANTIPHONAR. The book which contains the invitatories, responsories, verses, collects, and whatever else is sung in the choir; but not including the hymns peculiar to the Communion Service, which are contained in the Gradual, or Grail.—Jebb.

ANTI-POPE. He that usurps the popedom in opposition to the right pope. Geddes gives the history of no less than twenty-four schisms in the Roman Church caused by anti-popes. Some took their rise from a diversity of doctrines or belief, which led different parties to elect each their several pope; but they generally took their rise from dubious controverted rights of election. During the great schism, which, commencing towards the close of the 14th century, lasted for fifty years, there was always a pope and anti-pope; and as to the fact which of the two rivals was pope, and which anti-pope, it is impossible even now to decide. The greatest powers of Europe were at this time divided in their opinions on the subject. As is observed by some Roman Catholic writers, many pious and gifted persons, who are now numbered among the saints of the Church, were to be found indifferently in either obedience; which sufficiently proved, as they assert, that the eternal salvation of the faithful was not, 36in this case, endangered by their error. The schism began soon after the election of Urban VI., and was terminated by the Council of Constance. By that Council three rival popes were deposed, and the peace of the Church was restored by the election of Martin V.

ANTI-TYPE. A Greek word, properly signifying a type or figure corresponding to some other type: the word is commonly used in theological writings to denote the person in whom any prophetic type is fulfilled: thus, our blessed Saviour is called the Anti-type of the Paschal lamb under the Jewish law.

APOCALYPSE. A revelation. The name sometimes given to the last book of the New Testament, the Revelation of St. John the Divine, from its Greek title, ἀποκαλύψις, which has the same meaning.

This is a canonical book of the New Testament. It was written, according to Irenæus, about the year of Christ 96, in the island of Patmos, whither St. John had been banished by the emperor Domitian; but Sir Isaac Newton fixes the time of writing this book earlier, viz. in the time of Nero. In support of this opinion he alleges the sense of the earliest commentators, and the tradition of the Churches of Syria preserved to this day in the title of the Syriac version of that book, which is this: “The Revelation which was made to John the Evangelist by God in the island of Patmos, into which he was banished by Nero the Cæsar.” This opinion, he tells us, is further confirmed by the allusions in the Apocalypse to the temple, and altar, and holy city, as then standing; as also by the style of it, which is fuller of Hebraisms than his Gospel; whence it may be inferred, that it was written when John was newly come out of Judea. It is confirmed also by the many Apocalypses ascribed to the apostles, which appeared in the apostolic age: for Caīus, who was contemporary with Tertullian, tells us, that Cerinthus wrote his Revelation in imitation of St. John’s, and yet he lived so early that he opposed the apostles at Jerusalem twenty-six years before the death of Nero, and died before St. John. To these reasons he adds another, namely, that the Apocalypse seems to be alluded to in the Epistles of St. Peter, and that to the Hebrews; and if so, must have been written before them. The allusions he means, are the discourses concerning the high priest in the heavenly tabernacle; the σαββατισμὸς, or the millennial rest; the earth, “whose end is to be burned,” &c.; whence this learned author is of opinion, that Peter and John stayed in Judea and Syria till the Romans made war upon their nation, that is, till the twelfth year of Nero; that they then retired into Asia, and that Peter went from thence by Corinth to Rome; that the Romans, to prevent insurrections from the Jews among them, secured their leaders, and banished St. John into Patmos, where he wrote his Apocalypsis; and that very soon after, the Epistle to the Hebrews and those of Peter were written to the churches, with reference to this prophecy, as what they were particularly concerned in. Some attribute this book to the arch-heretic Cerinthus: but the ancients unanimously ascribe it to John the son of Zebedee, and brother of James. The Revelation has not at all times been esteemed canonical. There were many Churches of Greece, as St. Jerome informs us, which did not receive it; neither is it in the catalogue of the canonical books prepared by the Council of Laodicea; nor in that of St. Cyril of Jerusalem; but Justin, Irenæus, Origen, Cyprian, Clemens of Alexandria, Tertullian, and all the fathers of the fourth, fifth, and following centuries, quote the Revelations as a book then acknowledged to be canonical.

It is a part of this prophecy, that it should not be understood before the last age of the world; and therefore it makes for the credit of the prophecy that it is not yet understood.—The folly of interpreters has been to foretell times and things by this prophecy, as if God designed to make them prophets. By this rashness, they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the prophecy also into contempt. The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this, and the prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify men’s curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that, after they were fulfilled, they might be interpreted by the event; and his own providence, not the interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world.—There is already so much of the prophecy fulfilled, that as many as will take pains in this study, may see sufficient instances of God’s providence.

The Apocalypse of John is written in the same style and language with the prophecies of Daniel, and hath the same relation to them which they have to one another: so that all of them together make but one consistent prophecy, pointing out the various revolutions that should happen both to the Church and the State, and at length the final destruction and downfal of the Roman empire.

37APOCRYPHA. (See Bible, Scriptures.) From ἀπὸ and κρύπτω, to hide, “because they were wont to be read not openly and in common, but as it were in secret and apart.” (Bible of 1539, Preface to Apocrypha.) Certain books appended to the sacred writings. There is no authority, internal or external, for admitting these books into the sacred canon. They were not received as portions of the Old Testament by the Jews, to whom “were committed the oracles of God;” they are not cited and alluded to in any part of the New Testament; and they are expressly rejected by St. Athanasius and St. Jerome in the fourth century, though these two fathers speak of them with respect. There is, therefore, no ground for applying the books of the Apocrypha “to establish any doctrine,” but they are highly valuable as ancient writings, which throw considerable light upon the phraseology of Scripture, and upon the history and manners of the East; and as they contain many noble sentiments and useful precepts, the Church of England doth read them for “example of life and instruction of manners.” (Art. VI.) They are frequently quoted with great respect in the Homilies, although parties who bestow much praise upon the Homilies are wont to follow a very contrary course. The corrupt Church of Rome, at the fourth session of the Council of Trent, admitted them to be of equal authority with Scripture. Thereby the modern Church of Rome differs from the Catholic Church; and by altering the canon of Scripture, and at the same time making her dictum the rule of communion, renders it impossible for those Churches which defer to antiquity to hold communion with her. Divines differ in opinion as to the degree of respect due to those ancient writings. The reading of the Apocryphal books in churches formed one of the grievances of the Puritans: our Reformers, however, have made a selection for certain holy days; and for the first lesson from the evening of the 27th of September, till the morning of the 23rd of November, inclusive. Some clergymen take upon themselves to alter these lessons; but for so doing they are amenable to the ordinary, and should be presented by the churchwardens, at the yearly episcopal or archidiaconal visitation; to say nothing of their moral obligation. There were also Apocryphal books of the New Testament; but these were manifest forgeries, and of course were not used or accepted by the Church. (See the Acts of the Apostles.)

APOLLINARIANS. An ancient sect who were followers of Apollinaris or Apollinarius, bishop of Laodicea, about the middle of the fourth century. He denied that our Saviour had a reasonable human soul, and asserted that the Logos or Divine nature supplied the place of it. This is one of the sects we anathematize when we read the Athanasian Creed. The doctrine of Apollinaris was condemned by several provincial councils, and at length by the General Council of Constantinople, in 381. In short, it was attacked at the same time by the laws of the emperors, the decrees of councils, and the writings of the learned, and sunk, by degrees, under their united force.

APOLOGY. A word derived from two Greek words, signifying from and speech, and thus in its primary sense, and always in theology, it means a defence from attack; an answer to objections. Thus the Greek word, ἀπολογία, from which it comes, is, in Acts xxii. 1, translated by defence; in xxv. 16, by answer; and in 2 Cor. vii. 11, by “clearing of yourselves.” There were several Apologies for Christianity composed in the second century, and among these, those of Justin Martyr and Tertullian are best known.

APOSTASY. (ἀποστάσις, falling away.) A forsaking or renouncing of our religion, either formally, by an open declaration in words, or virtually, by our actions. The word has several degrees of signification. The primitive Christian Church distinguished several kinds of apostasy: the first, of those who went entirely from Christianity to Judaism. The second, of those who mingled Judaism and Christianity together. The third, of those who complied so far with the Jews, as to communicate with them in many of their unlawful practices, without formally professing their religion; and the fourth, of those who, after having been some time Christians, voluntarily relapsed into Paganism. It is expressly revealed in Holy Scripture that there will be a very general falling away from Christianity, or an apostasy, before the second coming of our Lord. (2 Thess. ii. 3; 1 Tim. iv. 1; 2 Tim. iv. 3, 4.)

In the Romish Church the term apostasy is also applied to a renunciation of the monastic vow.

APOSTLE. A missionary, messenger, or envoy. The highest order in the ministry were at first called Apostles; but the term is now generally confined to those first bishops of the Church who received their commission from our blessed Lord himself, and who were distinguished from 38the bishops who succeeded them, by their having acted under the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and by their having frequently exercised the power of working miracles. Matthias was chosen into the place of Judas Iscariot, when it was necessary that “another should take his bishopric,” (Acts i. 20,) and is called an apostle. St. Paul also and St. Barnabas are likewise styled apostles. So that, when we speak of the twelve apostles, we allude to them only as they were when our Lord was on earth. Afterwards, even in the restricted sense, there were more than twelve. But both while there were but eleven, and afterwards when there were more, they were called the twelve, as the name of their college, so to speak; as the LXXII. translators of the Old Testament into Greek are called the LXX. All the apostles had equal power; a fact which is emphatically asserted by St. Paul.

Our Lord’s first commission to his apostles was in the third year of his public ministry, about eight months after their solemn election; at which time he sent them out by two and two. (Matt. x. 5, &c.) They were to make no provision of money for their subsistence in their journey, but to expect it from those to whom they preached. They were to declare, that the kingdom of heaven, or the Messiah, was at hand, and to confirm their doctrine by miracles. They were to avoid going either to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, and to confine their preaching to the people of Israel. In obedience to their Master, the apostles went into all the parts of Palestine inhabited by the Jews, preaching the gospel, and working miracles. (Mark vi. 12.) The evangelical history is silent as to the particular circumstances attending this first preaching of the apostles, and only informs us, that they returned, and told their Master all that they had done. (Luke ix. 10.)

Their second commission, just before our Lord’s ascension into heaven, was of a more extensive and particular nature. They were now not to confine their preaching to the Jews, but to “go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20.) Accordingly they began publicly, after our Lord’s ascension, to exercise the office of their ministry, working miracles daily in proof of their mission, and making great numbers of converts to the Christian faith. (Acts ii. 42–47.) This alarmed the Jewish Sanhedrim; whereupon the apostles were apprehended, and, being examined before the high priest and elders, were commanded not to preach any more in the name of Christ. But this injunction did not terrify them from persisting in the duty of their calling; for they continued daily, in the temple, and in private houses, teaching and preaching the gospel. (Acts ii. 46.)

After the apostles had exercised their ministry for twelve years in Palestine, they resolved to disperse themselves in different parts of the world, and agreed to determine by lot what parts each should take. (Clem. Alex. Apollonius.) According to this division, St. Peter went into Pontus, Galatia, and those other provinces of the Lesser Asia. St. Andrew had the vast northern countries of Scythia and Sogdiana allotted to his portion. St. John’s was partly the same with St. Peter’s, namely the Lesser Asia. St. Philip had the Upper Asia assigned to him, with some parts of Scythia and Colchis. Arabia Felix fell to St. Bartholomew’s share. St. Matthew preached in Chaldæa, Persia, and Parthia. St. Thomas preached likewise in Parthia, as also to the Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and Indians. St. James the Less continued in Jerusalem, of which Church he was bishop. St. Simon had for his portion Egypt, Cyrene, Libya, and Mauritania; St. Jude, Syria and Mesopotamia; and St. Matthias, who was chosen in the room of the traitor Judas, Cappadocia and Colchis. Thus, by the dispersion of the apostles, Christianity was very early planted in a great many parts of the world. We have but very short and imperfect accounts of their travels and actions.

In order to qualify the apostles for the arduous task of converting the world to the Christian religion, (Acts ii.,) they were, in the first place, miraculously enabled to speak the languages of the several nations to whom they were to preach; and, in the second place, were endowed with the power of working miracles, in confirmation of the doctrines they taught; gifts which were unnecessary, and therefore ceased, in the future ages of the Church, when Christianity came to be established by the civil power.

The several apostles are usually represented with their respective badges or attributes; St. Peter with the keys; St. Paul with a sword; St. Andrew with a cross; St. James the Less with a fuller’s pole; St. John with a cup, and a winged serpent flying out of it; St. Bartholomew with a knife; St. Philip with a long staff, whose upper end is formed into a cross; 39St. Thomas with a lance; St. Matthew with a hatchet; St. Matthias with a battle-axe; St. James the Greater with a pilgrim’s staff, and a gourd-bottle; St. Simon with a saw; and St. Jude with a club.

APOSTLES’ CREED is used by the Church between the third part of the daily service, namely, the lessons, and the fourth part, namely, the petitions, that we may express that faith in what we have heard, which is the ground of what we are about to ask. For as “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God,” (Rom. x. 17,) so we must “ask in faith,” if we “think to receive anything of the Lord.” (James i. 6, 7.) For “how shall we call upon him, in whom we have not believed?” (Rom. x. 14.) But as all the doctrines of Scripture, though equally true, are not of equal importance, the more necessary articles have been, from the beginning of Christianity, collected into one body, called in Scripture, “the form of sound words” (2 Tim. i. 13); “the words of faith” (1 Tim. iv. 6); “the principles of the doctrine of Christ” (Heb. vi. 1); but in our common way of speaking at present, “the Creed,” from the Latin word, credo, which signifies “I believe.” Now the ancient Churches had many such creeds; some longer, some shorter; differing on several heads in phrase, but agreeing in method and sense, of which that called “the Apostles’ Creed” is one. And it deserves this name, not so much from any certainty, or great likelihood, that the apostles drew it up in these very expressions; though some, pretty early, and many since, have imagined they did; as because it contains the chief apostolic doctrines, and was used by a Church which, before it grew corrupt, was justly respected as the chief apostolic settlement, I mean, the Roman.—Abp. Secker.

The opinion which ascribes the framing of this Creed to the apostles in person, though as ancient as the first account we have of the Creed itself from Ruffinus, in the year 390, is yet rendered highly improbable, as by many collateral reasons, so especially by this argument, that it is not appealed to in elder times as the sacred and unalterable standard. And therefore our excellent Church with due caution styles it, in her 8th Article, “that which is commonly called the Apostles’ Creed.” But though it seems not to have been compiled or formally drawn up by the apostles themselves, yet is its authority of sufficient strength; since it may still be demonstrated to be the apostles’, or rather the apostolic, creed, in three several respects. First, as it is drawn from the fountains of apostolical Scripture. Secondly, as it agrees in substance with the confessions of all orthodox Churches, which make up the Apostolic Church in the extended meaning of the word. Thirdly, as it was the creed of an Apostolic Church in the restrained sense of that term, denoting a Church founded by the apostles, as was that of Rome.—Kennet.

Though this Creed be not of the apostles’ immediate framing, yet it may be truly styled apostolical, not only because it contains the sum of the apostles’ doctrine, but also because the age thereof is so great, that its birth must be fetched from the very apostolic times. It is true, the exact form of the present Creed cannot pretend to be so ancient by four hundred years; but a form, not much different from it, was used long before. Irenæus, the scholar of Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, where he repeats a creed not much unlike to ours, assures us, that “the Church, dispersed throughout the whole world, had received this faith from the apostles and their disciples;” which is also affirmed by Tertullian of one of his creeds, that “that rule of faith had been current in the Church from the beginning of the gospel:” and, which is observable, although there was so great a diversity of creeds, as that scarce two Churches did exactly agree therein, yet the form and substance of every creed was in a great measure the same; so that, except there had been, from the very plantation of Christianity, a form of sound words, or a system of faith, delivered by the first planters thereof, it is not easy to conceive how all Churches should harmonize, not only in the articles themselves into which they were baptized, but, in a great measure also, in the method and order of them.—Lord Chancellor King.

The Creed itself was neither the work of one man, nor of one day; but the composure of it was gradual. First, several of the articles therein were derived from the very days of the apostles: these were the articles of the existence of God, the Trinity; that Jesus was Christ, or the Saviour of the world; the remission of sins; and the resurrection of the dead. Secondly, the others were afterwards added by the primitive doctors and bishops, in opposition to gross heresies and errors that sprung up in the Church.—It hath been received in all ages with the greatest veneration and esteem. The ancients declare their respect and reverence for it with the most noble and majestic expressions; and in these latter times, throughout several centuries of years, so great a deference 40hath been rendered thereunto, that it hath not only been used in baptism, but in every public assembly it hath been usually, if not always, read as the standard and basis of the Christian faith.—Lord King.

But neither this, nor any other creed, hath authority of its own equal to Scripture, but derives its principal authority from being founded on Scripture. Nor is it in the power of any man, or number of men, either to lessen or increase the fundamental articles of the Christian faith: which yet the Church of Rome, not content with this its primitive creed, hath profanely attempted, adding twelve articles more, founded on its own, that is, on no authority, to the ancient twelve, which stand on the authority of God’s word. (See Creed of Pope Pius IV.) But our Church hath wisely refused to go a step beyond the original form; since all necessary truths are briefly comprehended in it, which it is the duty of every one of us firmly to believe, and openly to profess. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Rom. x. 10.)—Abp. Secker.

The place of the Creed in our liturgy is, first, immediately after the lessons of Holy Scripture, out of which it is taken; and since faith comes by hearing God’s word, and the gospel doth not profit without faith, therefore it is very fit, upon hearing thereof, we should exercise and profess our faith. Secondly, the Creed is placed just before the prayers, as being the foundation of our petitions; we cannot “call on him, on whom we have not believed” (Rom. x. 14); and since we are to pray to God the Father in the name of the Son, by the assistance of the Spirit, for remission of sins and a joyful resurrection, we ought first to declare that we believe in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that there is remission here and resurrection hereafter to be had for all true members of the Catholic Church, and then we may be said to pray in faith. And hence St. Ambrose and St. Augustine advise Christians to say it daily in their private devotions; and so our old Saxon councils command all to learn and use it, not as a prayer, (as some ignorantly or maliciously object,) but as a ground for our prayers, and a reason for our faith and hope of their acceptance: upon which account also, as soon as persecution ceased, and there was no danger of the heathens overhearing it, the Creed was used in the public service.

And there are many benefits which we may receive by this daily use of it. For, first, this fixes it firmly in our memories, that we may never forget this blessed rule of our prayers, nor be at any time without this necessary touchstone to try all doctrines by. Secondly, thus we daily renew our profession of fidelity to Almighty God, and repeat that watchword which was given us when we were first listed under Christ’s banner, declaring thereby that we retain our allegiance to him and remain his faithful servants and soldiers; and no doubt that will move him the sooner to hear the prayers which we are now making to him for his aid. Thirdly, by this we declare our unity amongst ourselves, and show ourselves to be members of that holy Catholic Church, by and for which these common prayers are made. Those who hold this one faith, and those only, have a right to pray thus; nor can any other expect to be admitted to join in them; and therefore this Creed is the symbol and badge to manifest who are fit to make these prayers, and receive the benefit of them.

Wherefore, in our daily use of this sacred form, let us observe these rules:—First, to be heartily thankful to God for revealing these divine, mysterious, and saving truths to us; and though the Gloria be only set at the end of St. Athanasius’s Creed, yet the duty of thanksgiving must be performed upon every repetition of this Creed also. Secondly, we must give our positive and particular assent to every article as we go along, and receive it as an infallible oracle from the mouth of God; and for this reason we must repeat it with an audible voice after the minister, and in our mind annex that word, “I believe,” to every particular article; for, though it be but once expressed in the beginning, yet it must be supplied and is understood in every article; and to show consent the more evidently, we must stand up when we repeat it, and resolve to stand up stoutly in defence thereof, so as, if need were, to defend it, or seal the truth of it, with our blood. Thirdly, we must devoutly apply every article, as we go along, to be both a ground for our prayers and a guide to our lives; for if we rightly believe the power of the Father, the love of the Son, and the grace of the Holy Ghost, it will encourage us (who are members of the Catholic Church) to pray heartily for all spiritual and temporal blessings, and give us very lively hopes of obtaining all our requests. Again, since these holy principles were not revealed and selected out from all other truths, for any other end but to make 41us live more holily, therefore we must consider, how it is fit that man should live, who believes that God the Father is his Creator, God the Son his Redeemer, and God the Holy Ghost his Sanctifier; who believes that he is a member of that Catholic Church, wherein there is a communion of saints, and remission for sins, and shall be a resurrection of the body, and a life everlasting afterwards. No man is so ignorant but he can tell what manner of persons they ought to be who believe this; and it is evident, that whoever firmly and fully believes all this, his faith will certainly and necessarily produce a holy life.—Dean Comber.

In the First Book of King Edward VI., the Apostles’ Creed followed the lesser litany, “Lord, have mercy upon us,”—and immediately after it was repeated the Lord’s Prayer. The alteration, as it at present stands, was made in the Second Book.—Jebb.

APOSTOLIC, APOSTOLICAL, something that relates to the apostles, or descends from them. Thus we say, the apostolical age, apostolical character, apostolical doctrine, constitutions, traditions, &c. In the primitive Church it was an appellation given to all such Churches as were founded by the apostles, and even to the bishops of those Churches, as the reputed successors of the apostles. These were confined to four: Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In succeeding ages, the other Churches assumed the same title, on account, principally, of the conformity of their doctrine with that of the Churches which were apostolical by foundation, and because all bishops held themselves successors of the apostles, or acted in their respective dioceses with the authority of apostles. The first time the term apostolical is attributed to bishops, is in a letter of Clovis to the Council of Orleans, held in 511; though that king does not in it expressly denominate them apostolical, but apostolicâ sede dignissimi, highly worthy of the apostolical see. In 581, Guntram calls the bishops, assembled at Macon, apostolical pontiffs. In progress of time, the bishop of Rome increasing in power above the rest, and the three patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem having fallen into the hands of the Saracens, the title apostolical came to be restricted to the pope and his Church alone. At length some of the popes, and among them Gregory the Great, not content to hold the title by this tenure, began to insist that it belonged to them by another and peculiar right, as the successors of St. Peter. In 1046, the Romish Council of Rheims declared, that the pope was the sole apostolical primate of the Universal Church.

APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS AND CANONS. These two collections of ecclesiastical rules and formularies were attributed, in the early ages of the Church of Rome, to Clement of Rome, who was supposed to have committed them to writing from the mouths of the apostles, whose words they pretended to record. The authority thus claimed for these writings has, however, been entirely disproved; and it is generally supposed by critics, that they were chiefly compiled during the second and third centuries; or that, at least, the greater part must be assigned to a period before the first Nicene Council. We find references to them in the writings of Eusebius, Epiphanius, and Athanasius, writers of the third and fourth centuries. A modern critic supposes them not to have attained their present form until the fifth century. The Constitutions are comprised in eight books. In these the apostles are frequently introduced as speakers. They contain rules and regulations concerning the duties of Christians in general, the constitution of the Church, the offices and duties of ministers, and the celebration of Divine worship. The tone of morality which runs through them is severe and ascetic. They forbid the use of all personal decorations and attention to appearance, and prohibit the reading of the works of heathen authors. They enjoin Christians to assemble twice every day in the church for prayers and psalmody, to observe various fasts and festivals, and to keep the sabbath (i. e. the seventh day of the week) as well as the Lord’s day. They require extraordinary marks of respect and reverence towards the ministers of religion; commanding Christians to honour a bishop as a king or a prince, and even as a kind of God upon earth, to render to him absolute obedience, to pay him tribute, and to approach him through the deacons or servants of the Church, as we come to God only through Christ! This latter kind of (profane) comparison is carried to a still greater extent, for the deaconesses are declared to resemble the Holy Spirit, inasmuch as they are not able to do anything without the deacons. Presbyters are said to represent the apostles; and the rank of Christian teachers is declared to be higher than that of magistrates and princes. We find here, also, a complete liturgy or form of worship for Christian churches; containing not only a description of ecclesiastical 42ceremonies, but the prayers to be used at their celebration.

This general description of the contents of the books of Constitutions is alone enough to prove that they are no productions of the apostolic age. Mention also occurs of several subordinate ecclesiastical officers, such as readers and exorcists, who were not introduced into the Church until the third century. And there are manifest contradictions between several parts of the work. The general style in which the Constitutions are written is such as had become prevalent during the third century.

It is useless to inquire who was the real author of this work; but the date and probable design of the forgery are of more importance, and may be more easily ascertained. Epiphanius, towards the end of the fourth century, appears to be the first author who speaks of these books under their present title, Apostolical Constitutions. But he refers to the work only as one containing much edifying matter, without including it among the writings of the apostles; and indeed he expressly says that many persons had doubted of its genuineness. One passage, however, to which Epiphanius refers, speaks a language directly the reverse of what we find in the corresponding passage of the work now extant; so that it appears probable that the Apostolical Constitutions, which that author used, have been corrupted and interpolated since his time. On the whole, it appears probable, from internal evidence, that the Apostolical Constitutions were compiled during the reigns of the heathen emperors, towards the end of the third century, or at the beginning of the fourth; and that the compilation was the work of some one writer (probably a bishop) of the Eastern Church. The advancement of episcopal dignity and power appears to have been the chief design of the forgery.

If we regard the Constitutions as a production of the third century, (containing remnants of earlier compositions,) the work possesses a certain kind of value. It contributes to give us an insight into the state of Christian faith, the condition of the clergy and inferior ecclesiastical officers, the worship and discipline of the Church, and other particulars, at the period to which the composition is referred. The growth of episcopal power and influence, and the derivation of the episcopal authority from the apostles, is here clearly shown. Many of the regulations prescribed, and many of the moral and religious remarks, are good and edifying; and the prayers especially breathe, for the most part, a spirit of simple and primitive Christianity. But the work is by no means free from traces of superstition; and it is occasionally disfigured by mystical interpretations and applications of Holy Scripture, and by needless refinements in matters of ceremony. We find several allusions to the events of apostolical times; but occurrences related exclusively in such a work, are altogether devoid of credibility, especially as they are connected with the design of the compiler to pass off his book as a work of the apostles.

The Canons relate chiefly to various particulars of ecclesiastical polity and Christian worship; the regulations which they contain being, for the most part, sanctioned with the threatening of deposition and excommunication against offenders. The first allusion to this work by name, is found in the Acts of the Council which assembled at Constantinople in the year 394, under the presidency of Nectarius, bishop of that see. But there are expressions in earlier councils, and writers of the same century, which appear to refer to the Canons, although not named. In the beginning of the sixth century, fifty of these Canons were translated from the Greek into Latin by the Roman abbot, Dionysius the Younger; and, about the same time, thirty-five others were appended to them in a collection made by John, patriarch of Constantinople. Since that time, the whole number have been regarded as genuine in the East; while only the first fifty have been treated with equal respect in the West. It appears highly probable, that the original collection was made about the middle of the third century, or somewhat later, in one of the Asiatic Churches. The author may have had the same design as that which appears to have influenced the compiler of the Apostolical Constitutions. The eighty-fifth Canon speaks of the Constitutions as sacred books; and from a comparison of the two books, it is plain that they are either the production of one and the same writer, or that, at least, the two authors were contemporary, and had a good understanding with each other. The rules and regulations contained in the Canons are such as were gradually introduced and established during the second and third centuries. In the canon or list of sacred books of the New Testament, given in this work, the Revelation of St. John is omitted; but the two Epistles of St. Clement and Apostolical Constitutions are inserted.—Augusti.

43APOSTOLICAL FATHERS. An appellation usually given to the writers of the first century, who employed their pens in the cause of Christianity. Of these writers, Cotelerius, and after him Le Clerc, have published a collection in two volumes, accompanied both with their own annotations and the remarks of other learned men. Among later editions may be particularly mentioned that by the Rev. Dr. Jacobson, Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, which, however, does not include Barnabas or Hermas. See also The Genuine Epistles of the Apostolic Fathers, by Archbishop Wake, and a translation of them in one volume 8vo, by the Rev. Temple Chevallier, B. D., formerly Hulsean lecturer in the University of Cambridge. The names of the apostolical fathers are, Clement, bishop of Rome, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and Hermas. To these Barnabas the apostle is usually added. The epistles and other writings of these eminent men are still extant. A more admirable appendix to the pure word of God, and a more trustworthy comment on the principles taught by inspired men, cannot be conceived. As eye-witnesses of the order and discipline of the Church, while all was fresh and new from the hands of the apostles, their testimony forms the very summit of uninspired authority. None could better know these things than those who lived and wrote at the very time. None deserve a greater reverence than they who proclaimed the gospel, while the echo of inspired tongues yet lingered in the ears of the people.

APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. (See Succession.) The line in which the ministry of the Church is handed on from age to age: the corporate lineage of the Christian clergy, just as in the Jewish Church there was a family lineage. The Church of England maintains the apostolical succession in the preface to her Ordination Service. Those are said to be in apostolical succession who have been sent to labour in the Lord’s vineyard, by bishops who were consecrated by those who, in their turn, were consecrated by others, and these by others, until the derived authority is traced to the apostles, and through them to the great Head of the Church. The apostolical succession of the ministry is essential to the right administration of the holy sacraments. The clergy of the Church of England can trace their connexion with the apostles by links, not one of which is wanting, from the times of St. Paul and St. Peter to our own.—See Appendix to Rose’s Commission and consequent Duties of the Clergy: Perceval’s Doctrine of the Apostolical Succession, 2nd edition; Sinclair (Rev. John) on the Episcopal Succession; and Courayer’s Defence of the English Ordinations.

APOSTOLICI, or APOTACTICI. Heretics in Christianity, who sprung from the Encratites and Cathari, and took these names because they pretended to be the only followers of the apostles, and because they made a profession of never marrying, and renounced riches. Epiphanius observes, that these vagabonds, who appeared about the year 260, for the most part made use of the apocryphal Acts of St. Andrew and St. Thomas. There was another sect of this name, about the twelfth century, who were against marriage, and never went without lewd women: they also despised infant baptism, would not allow of purgatory, invocation of saints, and prayers for the dead, and called themselves the true body of the Church, condemning all use of flesh with the Manichæans.—Bingham, Antiq. Chr. Ch.

APOTACTITÆ, or APOTACTICI. (See Apostolici.)

APPARITOR. Apparitors (so called from the principal branch of their office, which consists in summoning persons to appear) are officers appointed to execute the orders and decrees of the ecclesiastical courts. The proper business and employment of an apparitor is to attend in court; to receive such commands as the judge shall please to issue forth; to convene and cite the defendants into court; to admonish or cite the parties to produce witnesses, and the like. Apparitors are recognised by the 138th English Canon, which wholly relates to them.—Jebb.

APPEAL. The provocation of a cause from an inferior to a superior judge. (1 Kings xviii.; Acts xxv.) Appeals are divided into judicial and extra-judicial. Judicial appeals are those made from the actual sentence of a court of judicature. In this case the force of such sentence is suspended until the cause is determined by the superior judge. Extra-judicial appeals are those made from extra-judicial acts, by which a person either is, or is likely to be, wronged. He therefore resorts to the legal protection of a superior judge. By the civil law, appeals ought to be made gradatim; but by the canon law, as it existed before the Reformation, they might be made omisso medio, and immediately to the pope; who was reputed to be the ordinary judge of all Christians in all causes, having a concurrent power with all ordinaries. Appeals to the pope 44were first sent from England to Rome in the reign of King Stephen, by the pope’s legate, Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester (A. D. 1135–1154). Prior to that period, the pope was not permitted to enjoy any appellate jurisdiction in England. William the Conqueror refused to do him homage. Anglo-Saxon Dooms do not so much as mention the pope’s name: and the laws of Edward the Confessor assert the royal supremacy in the following words:—“Rex autem, qui vicarius Summi Regis est, ad hoc constitutus est, ut regnum et populum Domini, et super omnia sanctam ecclesiam, regat et defendat ab injuriosis; maleficos autem destruat et evellat.” The Penitential of Archbishop Theodore (A. D. 668–690) contains no mention of appeals to Rome; and in the reign of Henry II., at the Council of Clarendon, (A. D. 1164,) it was enacted, “De appellationibus si emerserint ab archidiacono debebit procedi ad episcopum, ab episcopo ad archiepiscopum, et si archiepiscopus defuerit in justitia exhibenda, ad dominum regem perveniendum est postremo, ut præcepto ipsius in curia archiepiscopi controversia terminetur; ita quod non debeat ultra procedi absque assensu domini regis.” Notwithstanding this law, and the statutes made against “provisors” in the reigns of Edward I., Edward III., Richard II., and Henry V., appeals used to be forwarded to Rome until the reign of Henry VIII., when, by the statutes of the 24 Henry VIII. c. 12, and the 25 Henry VIII. c. 19, all appeals to the pope from England were legally abolished. By these statutes, appeals were to be finally determined by the High Court of Delegates, to be appointed by the king in chancery under the great seal. This jurisdiction was, in 1832, by 2 & 3 William IV. c. 92, transferred from the High Court of Delegates to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council; whose “report or recommendation,” when sanctioned by the Crown, is a final judgment.

The Crown, however, used to have the power to grant a commission of review after the decision of an appeal by the High Court of Delegates. (26 Henry VIII. c. 1; 1 Eliz. c. 1, Goodman’s case in Dyer’s Reports.) This prerogative Queen Mary exercised by granting a review after a review in Goodman’s case, regarding the deanery of Wells. (See Lord Campbell’s Judgment in the Court of Queen’s Bench in Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter.) It is a remarkable fact that, although the statutes for restraint of appeals had been repealed on Queen Mary’s accession, no appeal in Goodman’s case was permitted to proceed out of England to the pope.

The commissions of review were not granted by Queen Mary under the authority of Protestant enactments, but by virtue of the common law, regarding the regalities of the Crown of England. It does not appear that by the 2 & 3 William IV. c. 92, 3 & 4 William IV. c. 41, 7 & 8 Vict., the prerogative is interfered with; and that the Crown is compelled to adopt the “report or recommendation” of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council: on the contrary, the sovereign is quite free to sanction or reject such report, which only becomes valid as a decision on the royal assent being given. The ancient Appellant Court of Delegates still subsists in Ireland.

APPELLANT. Generally, one who appeals from the decision of an inferior court to a superior. Particularly those among the French clergy were called appellants, who appealed from the bull Unigenitus, issued by Pope Clement in 1713, either to the pope better informed, or to a general council. This is one of the many instances in which the boasted unity of the Roman obedience has been signally broken; the whole body of the French clergy, and the several monasteries, being divided into appellants and non-appellants.

APPROPRIATION is the annexing of a benefice to the use of a spiritual corporation. This was frequently done in England after the Norman Conquest. The secular clergy were then Saxons or Englishmen; and most of the nobility, bishops, and abbots being Normans, they had no kind of regard to the secular clergy, but reduced them as low as they could to enrich the monasteries; and this was the reason of so many appropriations. But some persons are of opinion, that it is a question undecided, whether princes or popes first made appropriations: though the oldest of which we have any account were made by princes; as, for instance, by the Saxon kings, to the abbey of Crowland; by William the Conqueror, to Battle Abbey; and by Henry I., to the church of Salisbury. It is true the popes, who were always jealous of their usurped supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs, did in their decretals assume this power to themselves, and granted privileges to several religious orders, to take appropriations from laymen: but in the same grant they were usually required to be answerable to the bishop in spiritualibus, and to the abbot or prior in temporalibus, which was the common form of appropriations till the 45latter end of the reign of Henry II. For at first those grants were not in proprios usus: it was always necessary to present a clerk to the bishop upon the avoidance of a benefice, who, upon his institution, became vicar, and for that reason an appropriation and a rectory were then inconsistent. But because the formation of an appropriation was a thing merely spiritual, the patron usually petitioned the bishop to appropriate the church; but the king was first to give licence to the monks that, quantum in nobis est, the bishop might do it. The king being supreme ordinary, might of his own authority make an appropriation without the consent of the bishop, though this was seldom done. Appropriations at first were made only to spiritual persons, such as were qualified to perform Divine service; then by degrees they were extended to spiritual corporations, as deans and chapters; and lastly to priories, upon the pretence that they had to support hospitality; and lest preaching should by this means be neglected, an invention was found out to supply that defect by a vicar, as aforesaid; and it was left to the bishop to be a moderator between the monks and the vicar, for his maintenance out of the appropriated tithes; for the bishop could compel the monastery to which the church was appropriated to set out a convenient portion of tithes, and such as he should approve, for the maintenance of the vicar, before he confirmed the appropriation.

It is true the bishops in those days favoured the monks so much, that they connived at their setting out a portion of small tithes for the vicar, and permitted them to reserve the great tithes to themselves. This was a fault intended to be remedied by the statute 15 Rich. II. cap. 6; by which it was enacted, that in every licence made of an appropriation this clause should be contained, viz. that the diocesan should ordain that the vicar shall be well and sufficiently endowed. But this statute was eluded; for the abbots appointed one of their own monks to officiate; and therefore the parliament, in the 4th year of Henry IV. cap. 12, provided that the vicar should be a secular clergyman, canonically instituted and inducted into the church, and sufficiently endowed; and that no regular should be made vicar of a church appropriate. But long before the making of these statutes the kings of England made appropriation of the churches of Feversham and Milton in Kent, and other churches, to the abbey of St. Augustine in Canterbury, by these words: “Concessimus, &c., pro nobis, &c., abbati et conventui, &c., quod ipsi ecclesias predictas appropriare ac eas sic appropriatas in proprios usus tenere possint sibi et successoribus in perpetuum.” The like was done by several of the Norman nobility, who came over with the king, upon whom he bestowed large manors and lands; and out of which they found tithes were then paid, and so had continued to be paid even from the time they were possessed by the Saxons: but they did not regard their law of tithing, and therefore they held it reasonable to appropriate all, or at least some part of, those tithes to those monasteries which they had founded, or to others as they thought fit; and in such cases they reserved a power to provide for him who served the cure; and this was usually paid to stipendiary curates. But sometimes the vicarages were endowed, and the very endowment was expressed in the grant of the appropriation, viz. that the church should be appropriated upon condition that a vicarage should be endowed; and this was left to the care of the bishop. But whenever the vicar had a competent subsistence by endowment, the monks took all opportunities to lessen it; and this occasioned several decretals prohibiting such usage without the bishop’s consent, and that no custom should be pleaded for it, where he that served the cure had not a competent subsistence. And it has been a question whether an appropriation is good when there is no endowment of a vicarage, because the statute of Henry IV. positively provides that vicarages shall be endowed. But it is now settled, that if it is a vicarage in reputation, and vicars have been instituted and inducted to the church, it shall be presumed that the vicarage was originally endowed. Thus much for the tithes: but the abbot and convent had not only the tithes of the appropriate churches, but the right of patronage too; for that was extinct, as to the former patron, by the appropriation, unless he had reserved the presentation to himself; and that made the advowson disappropriate, and the church presentable as before, but not by the old patron, but by the abbot and convent, who were then bound, upon a vacancy, to present a person to the bishop. Sometimes the bishop would refuse the person presented unless they consented to such an allowance for his maintenance as he thought fit, and therefore they would present none. This occasioned the making another decretal, which gave the bishop power to present; but this did not often 46happen, because the monks were favoured by the bishops; that is, the poorer sort, for the rich would not accept his kindness. They always got their appropriations confirmed by the pope, and their churches exempted from the jurisdiction of the bishop. But now all those exemptions are taken away by the statute 31 Henry VIII. cap. 13, and the ordinary is restored to his ancient right. Before giving an account of that statute, it will not be improper to mention the forms of appropriations both before and since that time. A licence being obtained of the king as supreme ordinary, and the consent from the diocesan, patron, and incumbent, thereupon the bishop made the grant.

By the aforesaid statute, those appropriations which were made formerly by bishops, and enjoyed only by religious houses, are now become the inheritance of laymen; and though the bishop’s power in such cases is not mentioned in the statute, yet the law leaves all matters of right just as they were before; for when those religious houses were surrendered, the king was to have the tithes in the same manner as the abbots had them in right of their monasteries; and there is a saving of the rights and interests of all persons; so that, if before the dissolution the vicar had an antecedent right to a competent maintenance, and the bishop had power to allow it, it is not taken away now.

This is the law of England, and it is founded on good reason: for tithes were originally given for the service of the Church, and not for the private use of monasteries; and it may be a question, whether a monastery was capable of taking an appropriation, because it is not an ecclesiastical body; for by the canons they could not preach, baptize, or visit the sick, and they had no cure of souls. This matter was disputed between St. Bernard, a Cistercian monk, and Peter the Venerable: the first was dissatisfied that monks should take tithe from the secular clergy, which was given to support them in attending the cure of souls; the other answered him, that monks prayed for souls, but tithes were not only given for prayers, but for preaching, and to support hospitality. Upon the whole matter, appropriations may be made by the joint consent of the queen, the ordinary, and the patron who hath the inheritance of the advowson; and he must have the queen’s licence, because she hath an interest in it as supreme ordinary: for it might happen that the presentation may be devolved on her by lapse, and such licence was usually granted when the church was void; but if it is granted when the church is full, it does not make the appropriation void, though such grant should be in general words, because, where it may be taken in two intents, the one good, the other not, it shall be expounded in that sense which may make the grant good. It is true, the best way is to give a licence in particular words, importing that the appropriation shall take effect after the death of the incumbent: however, if it is a license per verba de præsenti, yet it is good for the reason already mentioned. The bishop must likewise concur, for he has an interest in the presentation, which may come to him by lapse before it can be vested in the queen. Besides, an appropriation deprives him of institution, for it not only carries the glebe and tithes, but gives to the corporation a spiritual function, and supplies the institution of the ordinary: for in the very instrument of appropriation it is united and given to the body corporate in proprios usus, that is, that they shall be perpetual parsons there: this must be intended where there are no vicarages endowed, and yet they cannot have the cure of souls because they are a body politic; but the vicar who is endowed and comes in by their appointment, has the cure.

APSE, or APSIS. A semicircular or polygonal termination of the choir, or other portion of a church. The word signifies in Greek a spherical arch. It was called in Latin testudo, or concha, from the same reason that a hemispherical recess in the school-room at Westminster was called the shell. The ancient Basilicas, as may still be seen at Rome, had universally a semicircular apse, round which the superior clergy had their seats; at the upper end was the bishop’s throne; the altar was placed on the chord of the arc; the transept, or gallery, intervened between the apse or the choir. There the inferior clergy, singers, &c., were stationed, and there the lessons were read from the ambos. (See Choir and Chaunt.) This form was generally observed, at least in large churches, for many ages, of which Germany affords frequent specimens. And as Mr. Neale has shown in his very valuable remarks on the Eastern churches, (Hist. of the Holy Greek Church,) the apse is the almost invariable form even in parish churches in the East. Of this arrangement there are traces in England. Then large Saxon churches, as we collect from history, generally had an eastern apse at least, and often several others. In Norman churches of large size, the apse was very frequent, 47and it was repeated in several parts of the church. These inferior apses represented the oriental exedræ, which usually terminate their sacristies. Norwich and Peterborough cathedrals convey a good impression of the general character of Norman churches in this respect. Traces of the apse are found also at Winchester, Rochester, Ely, Lincoln, Ripon, Gloucester, and Worcester cathedrals, besides St. Alban’s, Tewkesbury, and other conventual churches. So also at Canterbury, where the apse seems to have been disturbed by subsequent arrangements. But it is remarkable that the ancient archiepiscopal chair stood behind the altar in a sort of apse till late in the last century. Traces of the ancient apse at Chester have been discovered of late years. In small churches, as Steetley, Derbyshire, and Birkin, Yorkshire, the eastern apse alone is found, nor is this at all a universal feature. See Mr. Hussey’s Notice of recent discoveries in Chester Cathedral. There are three very interesting English specimens in Herefordshire, viz. as at Kilpech, Moccas, and Peter Church; all small parish churches, and of Norman date; and with regular chancel below the apse. In the early British and Irish churches there is no trace of an apse, even in those which the learned Dr. Petrie, in his essay on round towers, attributes to the 5th and 6th centuries. With the Norman style the apse was almost wholly discontinued, though an early English apse occurs at Tidmarsh, Berkshire, and a decorated apse at Little Maplestead; the latter is, however, altogether an exceptional case. There seems to have been some tendency to reproduce the apse in the fifteenth century, as at Trinity church, Coventry, and Henry VII.’s chapel, Westminster; but the latter examples entirely miss the breadth and grandeur of the Norman apse. Yet the later styles might have had one great advantage in the treatment of this feature in their flying buttresses spanning the outer aisle of the apse, which is often so striking a feature in foreign churches, and to which the perpendicular clerestory to the Norman apse of Norwich makes some approach. Some writers have confounded the apse with the choir or chancel; and think that, according to primitive usage, the holy table ought to stand between the latter and the nave: whereas in fact it always stood above the choir; so that in churches where there is no apse (and none was required when there were no collegiate or capitular clergy) its proper place is close to the eastern wall of the church. See Cathedral.

AQUARII. A sect of heretics who consecrated their pretended eucharist with water only, instead of wine, or wine mingled with water. This they did under the delusion that it was universally unlawful to drink wine; although, as St. Chrysostom says, our blessed Lord instituted the holy eucharist in wine, and himself drank wine at his communion table, and after his resurrection, as if by anticipation to condemn this pernicious heresy. It is lamentable to see so bold an impiety revived in the present day, when certain men, under the cloak of temperance, pretend a eucharist without wine, or any fermented liquor. These heretics are not to be confounded with those against whom St. Cyprian discourses at large in his letter to Cæcilian, who, from fear of being discovered, from the smell of wine, by the heathen in times of persecution, omitted the wine in the eucharist cup. It was indeed very wrong and unworthy of the Christian name, but far less culpable than the pretence of a temperance above that of Christ and the Church, in the Aquarii. Origen engaged in a disputation with them.—Epiph. Hæres. xlvi.; August. de Hæres. c. 46.; Theodoret, de Fab. Hæret. lib. i. cap. 20.; Cyprian, Ep. lxiii. ad Cæcilium.; Conc. Carth. iii. can. xxiv.; Bingham.

ARABICS, or ARABIANS. Heretics who appeared in Arabia in the third century. According to Eusebius and St. Augustine, they taught that the soul died, and was corrupted with the body, and that they were to be raised together at the last day.

ARCADE. In church architecture, a series of arches supported by pillars or shafts, whether belonging to the construction, or used in relieving large surfaces of masonry: the present observations will be confined to the latter, that is, to ornamental arcades.

These were introduced early in the Norman style, and were used very largely to its close, the whole base story of exterior and interior alike, and the upper portions of towers and of high walls being often quite covered with them. They were either of simple or of intersecting arches: it is needless to say that the latter are the most elaborate in work, and the most ornamental; they are accordingly reserved in general for the richer portions of the fabric. There is, moreover, another, and perhaps even more effective, way of complicating the arcade, by placing an arcade within and behind another, so that the wall is doubly recessed, and the play of light and shadow greatly increased. The 48decorations of the transitional, until very late in the style, are so nearly those of the Norman, that we need not particularize the semi-Norman arcade. In the next style the simple arcade is, of course, most frequent. This, like the Norman, often covers very large surfaces. Foil arches are often introduced at this period, and greatly vary the effect. The reduplication of arcades is now managed differently from the former style. Two arcades, perfect in all their parts, are set the one behind the other, but the shaft of the outer is opposite to the arch of the inner series, the outer series is also more lofty in its proportions, and the two are often of differently constructed arches, as at Lincoln, where the outer series is of trefoil, the inner of simple arches, or vice versâ, the two always being different. The effect of this is extremely beautiful.

Norman Arcade from Canterbury.

But the most exquisite arcades are those of the Geometrical period, where each arch is often surmounted by a crocketted pediment, and the higher efforts of sculpture are tasked for their enrichment, as in the glorious chapter-house of Salisbury, Southwell, and York; these are, however, usually confined to the interior. In the Decorated period partially, and in the Perpendicular entirely, the arcade gave place to panelling, greatly to the loss of effect, for no delicacy or intricacy of pattern can compensate for the bright light and deep shadows of the Norman and Early English arcades.

ARCANI DISCIPLINA. The name given to a part of the discipline of the early Church in withdrawing from public view the sacraments and higher mysteries of our religion: a practice founded on a reverence for the sacred mysteries themselves, and to prevent their being exposed to the ridicule of the heathen. Irenæus, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria are the first who mention any such custom in the Church. And the Disciplina Arcani gradually fell into disuse after the time of Constantine, when Christianity had nothing to fear from its enemies.—Bingham. Augusti.

ARCH. All architecture may be divided into the architecture of the entablature and of the arch, and as the very terms denote, the arch is the differential of the latter. Romanesque and Gothic fall under this head. Our view of the arch is limited to a description of its several forms; an estimate of its effects on style, and its mechanical construction, being beyond our province.

Semicircular.      Horse-shoe.      Stilted.

The Saxon and the Norman arch were alike semicircular in their normal form, though in Norman buildings we often find a greater arc of a circle, or “horse-shoe” arch, or the semicircle is “stilted:” to one or other of which constructions it was necessary to resort when an arch of higher proportion than a semicircle was required. In the middle of the twelfth century the pointed arch was introduced. It was used for a long time together with the semicircle, and often with an entire absence of all but Norman details; and it is worthy of note that the pointed arch is first used 49in construction, as in the great pier arches, and evidently, therefore, from an appreciation of its mechanical value, and not till afterwards in lighter portions, as windows and decorative arcades. The pointed arch has three simple forms, the equilateral, the lancet, and the drop arch; the first described from the angles at the base of an equilateral, the second of a triangle whose base is greater, the third of a triangle whose base is less, than the sides. These forms are common to every style, from Early English downwards. In the Perpendicular period a more complex arch was introduced, struck from four centres, all within or below the base of the arch. This modification of the arch is of great importance, as involving differences of construction in the fabric, especially in the vaulting, so that it has a place in the history of Gothic architecture only inferior to the introduction of the pointed arch.

Equilateral.      Lancet.      Drop.

Four-centred.      Foil.      Ogee.

There are, besides, other modifications of the arch, struck from more than two centres, but these are either of less frequent occurrence, or merely decorative. We may mention the foil and the ogee arch; the former struck from four centres, two without and two within the resulting figure, and flowing into one another; the latter from several centres, according to the number of foils, all generally within the resulting figure, and cutting one another. The foil arch precedes in history the foliation or cusping of arches and tracery, which it no doubt suggested; the ogee arch came in with ogee forms of tracery and of cusping, and outlived them.

ARCHBISHOP. An archbishop is the chief of the clergy in a whole province; and has the inspection of the bishops of that province, as well as of the inferior clergy, and may deprive them on notorious causes. The archbishop has also his own diocese wherein he exercises episcopal jurisdiction, as in his province he exercises archiepiscopal. As archbishop, he, upon the receipt of the king’s writ, calls the bishops and clergy within his province to meet in convocation. To him all appeals are made from inferior jurisdictions within his province; and, as an appeal lies from the bishops in person to him in person, so it also lies from the consistory courts of his diocese to his archiepiscopal court. During the vacancy of any see in his province he is guardian of the spiritualities thereof, as the king is of the temporalities; and, during such vacancy, all episcopal rights belong to him. The archbishops in England have from time to time exercised a visitatorial power over their suffragans, in use till the time of Archbishop Laud. The archbishops of Ireland have immemorially visited their suffragans triennially: the Episcopal Visitation being there annual. (See Stephens’ Edition of the Book of Common Prayer, with notes, vol. i. pp. 26–30.)

Some learned men are of opinion, that an archbishop is a dignity as ancient as the apostles’ time, for there were primi episcopi then, though the name of archbishop was not known until some ages afterwards; and that the apostle himself gave the first model of this government in the Church, by vesting Titus with a superintendency over all Crete. Certain it is that there were persons soon after that time, who, under the name of metropolitans, 50exercised the same spiritual and ecclesiastical functions as an archbishop; as for instance the bishop of Carthage, who certainly assembled and presided in provincial councils, and had ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the bishops of Africa; and the bishops of Rome, who had the like primacy in the suburbiconian provinces, viz. middle and southern Italy, with Sicily, and other adjacent islands. Moreover, the Apostolical Canons, which were the rule of the Greek Church in the third century, mention a chief bishop in every province, and most of them about the eighth century assumed the title of archbishops; some of which were so in a more eminent degree, viz. those of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, which were the four principal cities of the empire. To these the archbishop of Jerusalem was added by the Council of Chalcedon, in 451, because that was the capital city of the Holy Land, and these five were called patriarchs.

The archbishop of Canterbury is styled primate of all England and metropolitan, and the archbishop of York primate of England. They have the title of Grace, and Most reverend Father in God by Divine Providence. There are two provinces or archbishoprics in England, Canterbury and York. The archbishop of Canterbury has the precedency of all the other clergy; next to him the archbishop of York. Each archbishop has, within his province, bishops of several dioceses. The archbishop of Canterbury has under him, within his province, Rochester, London, Winchester, Norwich, Lincoln, Ely, Chichester, Salisbury, Exeter, Bath and Wells, Worcester, Lichfield, Hereford, Landaff, St. David’s, Bangor, and St. Asaph; and four founded by King Henry VIII., erected out of the ruins of dissolved monasteries, viz. Gloucester and Bristol, now united into one, Peterborough, and Oxford. The archbishop of York has under him six, viz. the bishop of Chester, erected by Henry VIII., and annexed by him to the archbishopric of York, the bishops of Durham, Carlisle, Ripon, and Manchester, and the Isle of Man, annexed to the province of York by King Henry VIII. The dioceses of Ripon and Manchester have been formed in the province of York within the last few years, by act of parliament. The archbishop of Armagh is styled primate of all Ireland. The archbishop of Dublin, primate of Ireland. Before the late diminution of the Irish episcopate, there were two other archbishops, viz. of Cashel, styled primate of Munster, and Tuam, primate of Connaught. Under Armagh were the bishoprics of *Meath, *Down, *Derry, Dromore, Raphoe, *Kilmore, and Clogher. Under Dublin, Kildare, Ferns, and *Ossory. Under Cashel, *Limerick, *Cork, Cloyne, *Killaloe, and Waterford. Under Tuam, Clonfert, Elphin, and Killala. At present Cashel is a suffragan of Dublin, Tuam of Armagh; and only those suffragan bishoprics marked with an asterisk are retained. The bishops of Calcutta and Sydney, being metropolitans, are archbishops in reality, though not in title.

ARCHDEACON. In the English branch of the united Church, and most European Churches, each diocese is divided into archdeaconries and parishes. Sometimes a diocese has but one archdeaconry; sometimes four or five. But in Ireland there is but one archdeacon to each diocese (several dioceses being often united under one bishop); and archdeaconries, as ecclesiastical divisions, are there unknown. The dioceses of Dublin and Ardfert may be regarded as exceptions, but not with justice: as the archdeaconry of Glendaloch in the former, and of Aghadoe in the latter, belonged originally to separate dioceses, which have been drawn into the adjacent ones: so that the dividing boundaries are now unknown. (Jebb.) Over the diocese the bishop presides; over the archdeaconry one of the clergy is appointed by the bishop to preside, who must be a priest, and he is called an archdeacon; over the parish the rector or vicar presides. An archdeacon was so called anciently, from being the chief of the deacons, a most important office at a very early period in the Christian Church.

The antiquity of this office is held to be so high by many Roman Catholic writers, that they derive its origin from the appointment of the seven deacons, and suppose that St. Stephen was the first archdeacon: but there is no clear authority to warrant this conclusion. Mention is also made of Laurentius, archdeacon of Rome, who suffered A. D. 260; but although he was called archdeacon, (according to Prudentius,) he was no more than the principal man of the seven deacons who stood at the altar. “Hic primus è septem viris qui stant ad aram proximi.” (Prudent. Hymn. de St. Steph.) At Carthage the office appears to have been introduced within the last forty years of the third century, as St. Cyprian does not mention it, whereas in the persecution of Diocletian Cecilian is described as archdeacon, under the bishop Mensurius. St. Jerome 51says, “that the archdeacon was chosen out of the deacons, and was the principal deacon in every church, just as the archpresbyter was the principal presbyter.”

But even in St. Jerome’s time, the office of archdeacon had certainly grown to great importance. His proper business was, to attend the bishop at the altar; to direct the deacons and other inferior officers in their several duties, for their orderly performance of Divine service; to attend the bishop at ordinations, and to assist him in managing and dispensing the revenues of the Church: but without anything that could be called “jurisdiction,” in the present sense of the word, either in the cathedral or out of it.

After the Council of Laodicea, A. D. 360, when it was ordained that no bishop should be placed in country villages, the archdeacon, being always near the bishop, and the person mainly intrusted by him, grew into great credit and power, and came by degrees, as occasion required, to be employed by him in visiting the clergy of the diocese, and in the despatch of other matters relating to the episcopal care.

He was the bishop’s constant attendant and assistant, and, next to the bishop, the eyes of the whole Church were fixed upon him; it was therefore by no means unusual for him to be chosen the bishop’s successor before the presbyters, and St. Jerome records, “that an archdeacon thought himself injured if he was ordained a presbyter.” (“Certe qui primus fuerit ministrorum, quia per singula concionatur in populos, et a pontificis latere non recedit, injuriam putat si presbyter ordinetur.”—Hieron. Com. in Ezek. c. 48.)

The author of the “Apostolical Constitutions” calls him the Ὁ παρεστὼς τῷ ἀρχιερεῖ; and St. Ambrose informs us, in the account which he gives of Laurentius, archdeacon of Rome, that it belonged to him “to minister the cup to the people when the bishop celebrated the eucharist, and had administered the bread before him.”—Ambros. de Offic. lib. i. c. 41.

At the beginning of the seventh century, he seems to have been fully possessed of the chief care and inspection of the diocese in subordination to the bishop.

But the authority of the archdeacon, in ancient times, was chiefly a power of inquiry and inspection; and the gradual growth of his “jurisdiction,” properly so called, during the middle ages, is a subject of difficult inquiry. Pope Clement V. gives an archdeacon the title of “oculus Episcopi,” saying that “he is in the bishop’s place, to correct and amend all such matters as ought to be corrected and amended by the bishop himself, unless they be of such an arduous nature, as that they cannot be determined without the presence of his superior the bishop.”

Regularly, the archdeacon cannot inflict any punishment, but can only proceed by “precepts” and “admonitions.”

Beyond this, all the rights that any archdeacon enjoys, subsist by grants from the bishop, made either voluntarily, or of necessity, or by composition. (See the case of composition made between the bishop of Lincoln and his archdeacons, in Gibson’s Codex, vol. ii. p. 1548.)

As to the divisions in England of dioceses into archdeaconries, and the assignment of particular divisions to particular archdeaconries, this is supposed to have begun a little after the Norman conquest. We meet with no archdeacons vested with any kind of jurisdiction in the Saxon times. Archbishop Lanfranc was the first who made an archdeacon with power of “jurisdiction,” in his see of Canterbury, and Thomas, the first archbishop of York after the Conquest, was the first in England that divided his diocese into archdeaconries; as did also Remigius, bishop of Lincoln. When the Norman bishops, by reason of their baronies, were tied by the Constitutions of Clarendon to strict attendance upon the kings in their parliaments, they were obliged, for the administration of their dioceses, to grant larger delegations of power to archdeacons, who visited when they did not (de triennio in triennium). Archdeacons, therefore, with us, could not have this power of jurisdiction by common right, or by immemorial custom; the power which the archdeacon has is derived from the bishop, although he himself is an ordinary, and is recognised as such by the books of common law, which adjudge an administration made by him to be good, though it is not expressed by what authority, because, as done by the archdeacon, it is presumed to be done “jure ordinario.”

In the 22nd of Henry I. we have the first account of their being summoned to convocation; and in the 15th of Henry III., and in the 32nd year of the same king, they were summoned by express name.

This being the original of archdeacons, it is impossible for them to prescribe to an independency on the bishop, as it was declared in a court of law they might, and endeavoured to be proved by the gloss on a legatine constitution, where we read that an archdeacon may have a customary jurisdiction distinct from the bishop, and to which he may prescribe. But the meaning 52of it is, not that there can be an archdeaconry by prescription, and independent of the bishop, but that the archdeacon may prescribe to a particular jurisdiction, exempt from the ordinary; which jurisdiction has customarily been enjoyed by him and his predecessors time out of mind.

The archdeaconries of St. Alban’s, of Richmond, and Cornwall, are cases of this kind; these jurisdictions are founded upon ancient customs, but the archdeacon is still subordinate to the bishop in various ways; he being, in our law, as he is according to the canon law, vicarious episcopi.

According to Lyndwood and other canonists, he can inquire into crimes, but not punish the criminals; he has, in one sense, according to the casuists, a cure of souls, by virtue of his office, though it is in foro exteriori tantum et sine pastorali cura; and has authority to perform ministerial acts, as to suspend, excommunicate, absolve, &c., therefore by the ecclesiastical law he is obliged to residence. And that may be one reason why he may not be chosen to execute any temporal office that may require his attendance at another place; another reason is because he is an ecclesiastical person. But he has no parochial cure, and therefore an archdeaconry is not comprehended under the name of a benefice with cure; for if one who has such benefice accepts an archdeaconry, it is not void by our law, though it is so by the canon law. And yet, though he has not any parochial cure, he is obliged to subscribe the declaration pursuant to the statute, 14 Charles II. It is true, he is not expressly named therein, but all persons in holy orders are enjoined to subscribe by that statute; and because an archdeacon must be in those orders, therefore he must likewise subscribe, &c. And as he has a jurisdiction in certain cases, so, for the better exercising the same, he has power to keep a court, which is called the Court of the Archdeacon, or his commissary, and this he may hold in any place within his archdeaconry. With regard to the Archdeacon’s Court, it was said by the justices of the Common Pleas, 2 & 3 William and Mary, in the case of Woodward and Fox, that though it might be supposed originally that the jurisdiction within the diocese was lodged in the bishop, yet the Archdeacon’s Court had, “time out of mind,” been settled as a distinct court, and that the statute 24th of Henry VIII. chap. xii. takes notice of the Consistory Court, which is the bishop’s, and of the Archdeacon’s Court, from which there lies an appeal to the bishop’s. (See Appeal.) There is an officer belonging to this court, called a registrar, whose office concerns the administration of justice, and therefore the archdeacon cannot by law take any money for granting it; if he does, the office will be forfeited to the queen. Regarding parochial visitations by archdeacons, see “Articles and Directions to the Incumbents and Churchwardens within the Archdeaconry of Surrey,” in Gibson’s Codex, vol. ii. p. 1551–1555; and see post, “Visitation.”

By 1 & 2 Vict. c. cvi. s. 2, an archdeacon may hold, with his archdeaconry, two benefices under certain restrictions; or a benefice and a cathedral preferment.

He is also, whilst engaged in his archidiaconal functions, considered to be resident on his benefice. In cathedrals of the old foundation, the archdeacons of the diocese, how numerous soever, were members of the greater chapter, and had stalls in the choir. This was the universal custom on the continent, and is uniformly the case in Ireland, as it was also in Scotland. In the diocese of Dublin, the archdeacon of Dublin has a stall in both of the cathedrals there, the archdeacon of Glendaloch however only in that of St. Patrick’s.

The archdeacons of Ireland have not for a long time exercised any jurisdiction. It is however evident from old documents that they did exercise it in ancient times. The bishops hold annual visitation.

ARCHES, COURT OF. The Court of Arches is an ancient court of appeal, belonging to the archbishop of Canterbury, whereof the judge is called the Dean of Arches, because he anciently held his court in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow (Sancta Maria de Arcubus); though all the spiritual courts are now holden at Doctors’ Commons.

ARCHIMANDRITE. A name formerly given to the superior of a monastery: it is derived from the word μάνδρα, by which monasteries were sometimes called. The term Archimandrite is still retained in the Greek Church.

ARCHPRIEST, or ARCHIPRESBYTER. An ancient title of distinction, corresponding to our title, rural dean, revived under most unhappy pretensions among the Romanists of England, in the year 1598. These men, finding themselves without bishops, importuned the pope, Clement VII., to supply their need; but instead of sending them, as they desired, a number of bishops, he gave them but one ecclesiastical superior, Robert Blackwell, who after all was merely a priest; an archpriest indeed he was called, but as 53such having no episcopal power. In the early times this title was given to the chief presbyter in each church, presiding over the church next under the bishop, and taking care of all things relating to the church in the bishop’s absence. In this case however, instead of being placed in a cathedral church, or discharging the office of rural dean, under a bishop or archdeacon, he was appointed to govern all the Romish clergy of England and Scotland, without one or the other. Here then we find Rome, while preserving an old title, inventing an office hitherto unknown to the Christian world. And, when appointed, what could the archpriest do? He could merely be a rural dean on a large scale. He could merely overlook his brother clergy. He could not discharge any functions properly episcopal. He could not ordain priests, confirm children, nor consecrate chapels, should circumstances permit or require. It is plain, then, that the archpriest was a very imperfect and insufficient substitute for a bishop. The archpriest in many foreign churches, in Italy especially, answers to our cathedral dean. In some Italian dioceses, somewhat to our rural dean.—Darwell.

ARCHONTICS. Heretics who appeared in the second century, about A. D. 175, and who were an offshoot of the Valentinians. They held a quantity of idle stories concerning the Divinity and the creation of the world, which they attributed to sundry authors; and hence they were called Archontics, from the Greek word ἀρχων, which means prince or ruler.

ARIANS. (See Councils.) Heretics, so named from Arius, their first founder: they denied the three persons in the Holy Trinity to be of the same essence, and affirmed the Word to be a creature, and that once (although before the beginning of time) he was not. They were condemned by the Council of Nice, in 325.

The doctrine of Arius may be thus stated:—The Son sprang not from the nature of the Father, but was created from nothing: he had, indeed, an existence before the world, even before time, but not from eternity. He is, therefore, in essence different from the Father, and is in the order of creatures, whom he, however, precedes in excellence, as God created all things, even time, by his instrumentality; whence he was called the Son of God, the Logos, or Word of God. As a creature the Son is perfect, and as like to the Father as a creature can be to the Creator. But as he has received all things as a gift, from the favour of the Father,—as there was a period in which he was not,—so there is an infinite distance between him and the nature of the Father; of which nature he cannot even form a perfect idea, but can enjoy only a defective knowledge of the same. His will was originally variable, capable of good and of evil, as is that of all other rational creatures: he is, comparatively at least, free from sin; not by nature, but by his good use of his power of election; the Father, therefore, foreseeing his perseverance in good, imparted to him that dignity and sublimity above all other creatures, which shall continue to be the reward of his virtues. Although he is called God, he is not so in truth, but was deified in that sense in which men, who have attained to a high degree of sanctity, may arrive at a participation of the Divine prerogatives. The idea then of a generation of the Son from the essence of the Father is to be absolutely rejected.

This doctrine, which must have corresponded to the superficial understandings, and to the yet half-pagan ideas, of many who then called themselves Christians, attacked the very soul of the Christian doctrine of the redemption; for, according to this doctrine, it was not God made man, but a changeable creature, who effected the great work of the redemption of fallen man. The devout Christian, to whom faith in the God-man, Christ, the only Divine Mediator, opened the way to an intimate union with God, saw by this doctrine that his Redeemer and Mediator was as infinitely removed from the essence of God as himself; he saw himself driven back to the ancient pagan estrangement from God, and removed to an unattainable distance from him.—See Maimbourg, Hist. of Arians. For an account of the revival of Arianism in the last century, see Van Mildert’s Life of Waterland.

ARK OF THE COVENANT. So the Jews called a small chest or coffer, three feet nine inches in length, two feet three inches in breadth, and two feet three inches in height, (Prideaux, Connect. Part i. Book iii.,) in which were contained “the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod, and the tables of the covenant,” as well the broken ones (according to the Rabbins) as the whole. Heb. ix. 4. Over the ark was the mercy-seat, and it was the covering of it. It was made of solid gold (Exod. xxv. 17–22); and at the two ends of it were two cherubims looking inward toward each other, with expanded wings, which, embracing the whole circumference of the mercy-seat, 54met on each side in the middle. The whole (according to the Rabbins) was made out of the same mass, without joining any of the parts by solder. Here it was that the Shechinah, or Divine presence, rested, both in the tabernacle and in the temple, and was visibly seen in the appearance of a cloud over it. And from hence the Divine oracles were given out, by an audible voice, as often as God was consulted in the behalf of his people. And hence it is, that God is said, in Scripture, to dwell between the cherubims, on the mercy-seat, because there was the seat or throne of the visible appearance of his glory among them. And for this reason the high priest appeared before this mercy-seat once every year, on the great day of expiation; at which time he was to make his nearest approach to the Divine presence, to mediate, and make atonement for the whole people of Israel.—R. Levi, Ben. Gersom, Solomon, &c. Lev. xvi. 2; 1 Sam. iv. 4; 2 Sam. vi. 6; 2 Kings xix. 15; 1 Chron. xiii. 6; Psal. lxxx. 1; Lev. xvi. 14, 15; Heb. ix. 7.

The ark of the covenant was, as it were, the centre of worship to all those of that nation, who served God according to the Levitical law; and not only in the temple, when they came thither to worship, but everywhere else, in their dispersion throughout the whole world, whenever they prayed, they turned their faces towards the place where the ark stood, and directed all their devotions that way. Whence the author of the book of Cosri justly says, that the ark, with the mercy-seat, and cherubims, were the foundation, root, heart, and marrow, of the whole temple, and all the Levitical worship therein performed. And therefore had there been nothing else wanting in the second temple, but the ark only, this alone would have been reason enough for the old men to have wept, when they remembered the first temple, in which it stood; and for the saying of Haggai, that the second temple was as nothing in comparison of the first; so great a share had the ark of the covenant in the glory of Solomon’s temple. However, the defect was supplied as to the outward form: for, in the second temple, there was also an ark, of the same shape and dimensions with the first, and put in the same place: but it wanted the tables of the law, Aaron’s rod, and the pot of manna; nor was there any appearance of the Divine glory over it, nor any oracles delivered from it. The only use that was made of it was, to be a representative of the former on the great day of expiation, and to be a repository of the Holy Scriptures; that is, of the original copy of that collection of them made by Ezra, after the captivity. In imitation of which, the Jews, in all their synagogues, have a like ark, or coffer, in which they keep their Scriptures. 1 Kings viii. 48.—Lightfoot, of the Temple, ch. xv. § 4.

The place of the temple where the ark stood, was the innermost and most sacred part, called the Holy of Holies, and sometimes the most holy place; which was made on purpose for its reception. This place, or room, was of an exact cubic form, being thirty feet square, and thirty feet high. In the centre of it, the ark was placed upon a stone (say the Rabbins) rising three fingers’ breadth above the floor. On the two sides of it stood two cherubims, fifteen feet high, at equal distance between the centre of the ark and each side of the wall; where, having their wings expanded, with two of them they touched the side walls, whilst the other two met and touched each other exactly over the middle of the ark.—Yoma, cap. v. § 2.

The ark, while it was ambulatory, with the tabernacle, was carried on the shoulders of the Levites, by the means of staves, overlaid with gold, and put through golden rings. Exod. xxv. 13, 14; xxvii. 6; Num. iv. 4–6; 1 Chron. xv. 15.

What became of the old ark, on the destruction of the temple by Nebuchadnezzar, is a dispute among the Rabbins. Had it been carried to Babylon with the other vessels of the temple, it would have been brought back again with them, at the end of the captivity. But that it was not so, is agreed on all hands; whence it is probable it was destroyed with the temple. The Jews contend, that it was hid and preserved by Jeremiah. Some of them will have it, that King Josiah, being foretold by Huldah the prophetess that the temple, soon after his death, would be destroyed, caused the ark to be deposited in a vault, which Solomon, foreseeing this destruction, had built on purpose for the preservation of it.—Buxtorf, de Arca, cap. xxi., xxii.

ARMENIANS. The Christians of Armenia, the first country in which Christianity was recognised as the national religion, in consequence of the preaching of Gregory, called The Illuminator, in the beginning of the fourth century. At a later time the Armenians adopted the Eutychian or Monophysite heresy, asserting that the human nature of Christ is swallowed up of the Divine; or is no more properly human than a drop of vinegar put into the sea can 55afterwards be reckoned vinegar. They do not deny the real presence in the eucharist, they do not mix water with their wine, nor do they consecrate unleavened bread. They abstain from eating blood and things strangled. They scrupulously observe fasting; and fasts so frequently occur, that their whole religion seems to consist in fasting. They admit infants to the sacrament of the eucharist: they reject purgatory and prayers for the dead: they fast on Christmas day, and they allow marriage in their priests. The Armenians were anciently subject to the patriarchs of Constantinople, but they now have their own patriarchs.

ARMINIANS. A powerful party of Christians, so called from Arminius, professor of divinity at Leyden, who was the first that opposed the then received doctrines in Holland, of an absolute predestination. They took the name of Remonstrants, from a writing called a Remonstrance, which was presented by them to the states of Holland, 1609, wherein they reduced their peculiar doctrines to these five articles:—

1. That God, from all eternity, determined to bestow salvation on those who, as he foresaw, would persevere unto the end in their faith in Jesus Christ; and to inflict everlasting punishment on those who should continue in their unbelief, and resist, to the end of life, his Divine assistance; so that election was conditional; and reprobation, in like manner, the result of foreseen infidelity and persevering wickedness.

2. On the second point, they taught, That Jesus Christ, by his suffering and death, made an atonement for the sins of mankind in general, and of every individual in particular; that, however, none but those who believe in him can be partakers of that Divine benefit.

3. On the third article they held, That true faith cannot proceed from the exercise of our natural faculties and powers, nor from the force and operation of free will; since man, in consequence of his natural corruption, is incapable either of thinking or doing any good thing; and that, therefore, it is necessary to his conversion and salvation, that he be regenerated and renewed by the operation of the Holy Ghost, which is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ.

4. On the fourth they believed, That this Divine grace, or energy of the Holy Ghost, begins, advances, and perfects everything that can be called good in man; and that, consequently, all good works are to be attributed to God alone; that nevertheless, this grace, which is offered to all, does not force men to act against their inclinations, but may be resisted and rendered ineffectual by the perverse will of the impenitent sinner.

5. And on the fifth, That God gives to the truly faithful, who are regenerated by his grace, the means of preserving themselves in this state; and, though the first Arminians entertained some doubt with respect to the closing part of this article, their followers uniformly maintain, That the regenerate may lose true justifying faith, fall from a state of grace, and die in their sins.

The synod of Dort, consisting of Dutch, French, German, and Swiss divines, and held in 1618, condemned their opinions.

ARMS. Armorial bearings, whether borne by individuals or by corporate bodies and corporations sole: among which are reckoned bishops, colleges, and other ecclesiastical persons and bodies. A bishop empales his family coat with the arms of his see, to denote his spiritual marriage with his Church; but the arms of the see occupy the dexter side of the escutcheon, or the side of greater honour. When a bishop is married, he empales the arms of his wife with his own family coat, on a separate escutcheon; and this escutcheon is placed by the sinister side of the shield, empaling his own coat with the arms of the see. Many of the arms of bishoprics contain allusions to the spiritual character of the person who bears them. Thus the archbishops of Canterbury, Armagh, and Dublin, each bear a pall, in right of their sees; as did the archbishop of York till his arms were changed about the beginning of the sixteenth century to two keys crossed saltierwise, and a crown royal in chief. Colleges often assume the family coat of their founder as their arms.

ARTICLES, THE THIRTY-NINE. The Thirty-nine Articles, based on the Forty-two Articles framed by Archbishop Cranmer and Bishop Ridley in the reign of Edward VI., were presented by his Grace the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Parker, to the convocation of the province of Canterbury which was convened with the parliament in January, 1562, and by the convocation they were unanimously approved. In 1566 a bill was brought into parliament to confirm them. The bill passed the Commons, but by the queen’s command was dropped in the Lords. In 1571 the convocation revised the articles of 1562, and made some alterations in them. In the same year an act was passed, “to 56provide that the ministers of the Church should be of sound religion.” It enacted that all ecclesiastical persons should subscribe to “all the articles of religion which only contained the confession of the true faith and of the sacraments, comprised in a book imprinted, entitled ‘Articles,’ whereupon it was agreed by the archbishops and bishops, and the whole clergy in convocation holden at London, in the year of our Lord God 1562, according to the computation of the Church of England, for the avoiding of diversities of opinions, and for the establishing of consent touching true religion, put forth by the queen’s authority.” In 1628 an English edition was published by royal authority, to which is prefixed the declaration of Charles I. The English Articles were adopted by the Irish convocation in 1615.

Some have thought that they are only articles of union and peace; that they are a standard of doctrine, not to be contradicted or disputed; that the sons of the Church are only bound to acquiesce silently in them; and that the subscription binds only to a general compromise upon those articles, that so there may be no disputing or wrangling about them. By this means they reckon, that though a man should differ in his opinion from that which appears to be the clear sense of any of the articles; yet he may with a good conscience subscribe them, if the article appears to him to be of such a nature, that though he thinks it wrong, yet it seems not to be of that consequence, but that it may be borne with and not contradicted.

Now as to the laity, and the whole body of the people, certainly to them these are only the articles of Church communion: so that every person, who does not think that there is some proposition in them that is erroneous to so high a degree that he cannot hold communion with such as hold it, may, and is obliged to, continue in our communion; for certainly there may be many opinions held in matters of religion, which a man may believe to be false, and yet may esteem them to be of so little importance to the chief design of religion, that he may well hold communion with those whom he thinks to be so mistaken.

But what the clergy are bound to by their subscriptions is much more than this. The meaning of every subscription is to be taken from the design of the imposer, and from the words of the subscription itself. The title of the Articles bears, that they were agreed upon in convocation, “for the avoiding of diversities of opinions, and for the establishing of consent touching true religion.” Where it is evident that “a consent in opinion” is designed. If we in the next place consider the declarations that the Church has made in the canons, we shall find, that though by the fifth canon, which relates to the whole body of people, such only are declared to be excommunicated ipso facto, who shall affirm any of the articles to be erroneous, or such as he may not with a good conscience subscribe to; yet the thirty-sixth canon is express for the clergy, requiring them to subscribe “willingly and ex animo,” and “acknowledge all and every article to be agreeable to the word of God:” upon which canon it is, that the form of the subscription runs in these words, which seem expressly to declare a man’s own opinion, and not a bare assent to an article of peace, or an engagement to silence and submission. The statute of the 13th of Queen Elizabeth, chap. 12, which gives the legal authority to our requiring subscriptions, in order to a man’s being capable of a benefice, requires that every clergyman should read the Articles in the Church, with a declaration of his unfeigned assent to them. These things make it appear very plain, that the subscriptions of the clergy must be considered as a declaration of their own opinion, and not as a bare obligation to silence.—Bishop Burnet.

We learn from the New Testament, that those who first embraced the gospel declared their faith in Jesus, as the promised Messiah, in simple and general terms (Acts viii. 37); and there is no ground for supposing that the apostles required this declaration to be made in any one particular form of words. No such formulary is transmitted to us; and, had any ever existed, it would probably have been cited or alluded to in the New Testament, or in the early apologies for Christianity. Every bishop was authorized to prescribe a formulary for the use of his own church; and there are still extant in writers who lived near to the apostolic age, several abstracts of Christian faith, which, though they agree in substance, vary in expression. But, when heresies gained ground, and destroyed uniformity of belief among Christians, it became necessary to have a public standard of faith; and to this cause we are to attribute the origin of creeds. The design of these creeds was to establish the genuine doctrines of the gospel, in opposition to the errors which then prevailed; and to exclude from communion with the orthodox Church of Christ all who held heretical opinions. New dissensions and controversies continually arose; 57and we have to lament that, in process of time, “the faith, which was once delivered unto the saints,” became corrupted in the highest degree; and that those very councils, which were convened according to the practice of the apostolic age, for the purpose of declaring “the truth as it is in Jesus,” gave their sanction and authority to the grossest absurdities and most palpable errors. These corruptions, supported by secular power, and favoured by the darkness and ignorance of the times, were almost universally received through a succession of many ages, till at last the glorious light of the Reformation dispelled the clouds which had so long obscured the Christian world.

At that interesting period the several Churches, which had separated themselves from the Roman communion, found it expedient to publish confessions of their faith; and, in conformity to this practice, Edward the Sixth, the first Protestant king of England, caused to be published by his royal authority forty-two “Articles, agreed upon by the bishops and other learned and good men, in the convocation held at London in the year 1552, to root out the discord of opinions, and establish the agreement of true religion.” These Articles were repealed by Queen Mary, soon after her accession to the throne. But Queen Elizabeth, in the beginning of her reign, gave her royal assent to thirty-nine [or rather thirty-eight] “Articles, agreed upon by the archbishops and bishops of both provinces, and the whole clergy, in the convocation holden at London in the year 1562, for avoiding diversities of opinion, and for the establishing of consent touching true religion.” These Articles were revised, and some small alterations made in them, in the year 1571; since which time they have continued to be the criterion of the faith of the members of the Church of England on the subjects to which they relate. The Articles of 1562 were drawn up in Latin only [in reality the Articles both of 1552 and of 1562 were set forth in our authorized English version, as well as in Latin]; but, in 1571, they were subscribed by the members of the two houses of convocation, both in Latin and English; and, therefore, the Latin and English copies are to be considered as equally authentic. The original manuscripts, subscribed by the Houses of Convocation, were burnt in the Fire of London; but Dr. Bennet has collated the oldest copies now extant, and it appears that there are no variations of any importance.

It is generally believed that Cranmer and Ridley were chiefly concerned in framing the forty-two Articles, upon which our thirty-nine are founded. But Bishop Burnet says, that “questions relating to them were given about to many bishops and divines, who gave in their several answers, which were collated and examined very maturely; all sides had a free and fair hearing before conclusions were made.” Indeed, caution and moderation are no less conspicuous in them than a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures, and of the early opinions and practice of Christians.

These Thirty-nine Articles are arranged with great judgment and perspicuity, and may be considered under four general divisions: the first five contain the Christian doctrines concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; in the sixth, seventh, and eighth, the rule of faith is established; the ten next relate to Christians, as individuals; and the remaining twenty-one relate to them, as they are members of a religious society. But, as all confessions of faith have had a reference to existing heresies, we shall here find, not only the positive doctrines of the gospel asserted; but also the principal errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome, and most of the extravagances into which certain Protestant sects fell at the time of the Reformation, rejected and condemned.—Bp. Tomline.

The various forms through which the Articles have passed, may be seen in Cardwell’s Synodalia, and in Hardwick’s History of the Articles. In 1615, a set of Articles of a Calvinistic nature were compiled by the Irish convocation; but it does not appear that they ever received the sanction of parliament. These, however, were superseded in 1635 by the English Articles, which were then adopted by the Irish Convocation. (See Introduction to Stephens’ Book of Common Prayer, from the Dublin MS., vol. i., xxxvii.–xxxix.) The old Articles are given at length. In general, these perfectly agree with the English Articles; but the doctrines of the Lambeth Articles are introduced.

ARTS. One of the faculties in which degrees are conferred in the universities. In the English and Irish universities there are two degrees in arts, that of Bachelor and that of Master. The whole circle of the arts was formerly reduced to seven sciences, grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy; and these again were divided into the trivium, including the first three, and the quadrivium, including the remaining four. Music is now considered as a separate faculty at 58Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin; as the degrees of Doctor and Bachelor of Music are given. Grammar was a separate but subordinate faculty at Oxford and Cambridge, in which there were three degrees, Doctor, Master, and Bachelor. There is an instance in Wood’s Athenæ Oxon., of a Doctor in Grammar and Rhetoric (Robt. Whityndon, 1513). The last record of grammatical degrees at Oxford is in 1568; at Cambridge in 1539. The faculty of arts is called that of philosophy in some foreign and more modern universities, there the degrees are Doctor and Candidate.

ASAPH, Psalms of. One of the three Temple Choirs bore the designation of the Sons of Asaph: from Asaph, their leader, in the time of David. They were descendants of Gershom, the eldest son of Levi. Twelve Psalms are entitled Psalms of Asaph: viz. the 50th, 73rd, 74th, 75th, 76th, 77th, 78th, 79th, 80th, 81st, 82nd, and 83rd. Critics are divided in opinion, as to whether these were composed or adopted by the above-named Asaph, or by one of the same name, but of later date, or were appropriated to the peculiar use of the Sons of Asaph, in the courses of attendance at the temple.

ASCENSION DAY. This holy day has been kept in the Christian Church from the earliest times. It is reckoned by the compiler of the Apostolic Constitutions among the other great festivals, Christmas day, the Epiphany, Easter, and Whitsunday; and St. Augustine speaks of it as either instituted by the apostles, or by some early and numerously attended councils of the primitive bishops, whose authority he considered most beneficial in the Church. “On this day,” says St. Chrysostom, “the reconciliation between God and mankind was completed, the long enmity was dissolved, the blasting war brought to an end.” “On this day, we, who had been shown to be unworthy of earth, were raised to the hope of heaven; we, who were not fit to receive dominion even on earth below, were exalted to the kingdom which is above; and our nature, kept out by cherubim from an earthly paradise, may now sit above the cherubim on high.” Christ, the first-fruits of our nature, having obtained this perfection, we that are his members may hope to partake the same glory. This hope the returning day of his ascension should ever bring into our minds, and we should keep it for the sustaining of our hope, and in thankfulness for the grace it brought. It is one of the days which the Church especially recommends for the receiving of the holy communion. (See the Special Preface in the Communion Office.) It is difficult to account for the too prevalent neglect of this high festival of our Church, on any other ground than the encroachment of worldly principles upon the minds of men, to the displacing of the principles of the Church. Ascension day is one of the six holy days for which special psalms are appointed. The three Rogation days are appointed to prepare us for its right celebration, and yet, because it is not marked by worldly festivities, many neglect and pass it by. It is observed as a scarlet day at Oxford and Cambridge. It is popularly called Holy Thursday. By 27 Henry VI. cap. 5, the holding of fairs or markets was prohibited on Ascension day, as well as on other high holidays, and on Sundays, &c.; making an exception however of the four Sundays in harvest: and it was enacted that the fair should be held on some other day preceding or following. That part of the act which related to Sundays in harvest was repealed by 13 and 14 Vict. cap. 23. The rest of the act remains unrepealed.

ASCETICS. Men in the second century, who made profession of uncommon degrees of sanctity and virtue, and declared their resolution of obeying all the counsels of Christ, in order to their enjoying communion with God here; and also, in expectation that, after the dissolution of their mortal bodies, they might ascend to him with the greater facility, and find nothing to retard their approach to the supreme centre of happiness and perfection. They looked upon themselves as prohibited the use of things which it was lawful for other Christians to enjoy, such as wine, flesh, matrimony, and commerce. They thought it their indispensable duty to attenuate the body by watchings, abstinence, labour, and hunger. They looked for felicity in solitary retreats, in desert places, where, by severe and assiduous efforts of sublime meditation, they thought to raise their souls above all external objects and all sensual pleasures. Both men and women imposed upon themselves the most severe tasks, the most austere discipline; all which, however it might be the fruit of pious intention, was in the issue extremely detrimental to Christianity, and tended to introduce the doctrine of justification by inherent righteousness. These persons were called ascetics (from ἀσκησις, exercise or discipline) and philosophers; nor were they only distinguished by their title from other Christians, but also by their garb. In the second 59century, indeed, such as embraced this austere kind of life submitted themselves to all these mortifications in private, without breaking asunder their social bonds, or withdrawing themselves from the concourse of men. But in process of time, they retired into deserts; and, after the example of the Essenes and Therapeutæ, they formed themselves into certain companies.—See Origen, contr. Cels. lib. v.; Can. Apostol. cap. 51; Cyril, Catech. 10, n. 9; Bingham, Antiq. Chr. Ch.

ASCETICISM. The practice of the Ascetics. We do not consider neglect of the body—meaning by the term our present material organization—a rule of Christianity. The abnegation of sin is, of course, the root of all religion, and the body of sin is a scriptural phrase for our nature in its unredeemed and antagonistic state; but it ceases to be a body of sin, in this sense, when it becomes a member of Christ: it becomes in baptism a temple of the Holy Ghost. But how are we to judge that the spirit within is indeed regenerated? Principally by the works of the body. The existence of good works manifests the operation of the spirit of good, and the Christian character therefore takes for its physical development—labour, activity, perseverance, energy, fortitude, courage; to all of which qualities self-denial is the preliminary. Christianity, therefore, does not eradicate the powers of the body any more than it does the feelings of the heart, or the faculties of the mind; it eradicates their misdevotion. What it aims at effecting is, to assign to each in its sanctified character its proper place and province. It defines legitimate objects for the passions, legitimate ambitions for the mind, legitimate aspirations for the soul. Simply, Christianity is human nature in rectitude, not lethargy, of action. Nature in every instance tells us that we possess such and such powers; the gospel directs their application, and reveals the important results dependent on their use or abuse. The right discipline, therefore, not the destruction, of human capabilities, is inculcated by the Scriptures. God has for the wisest reasons placed the extirpation of these internal organs of action beyond our power, but within our power the regulating them for good or evil, happiness or misery. The choice is ours; the consequences attendant on the choice are not ours: these have been fixed from, and will extend into, eternity.—Morgan.

ASCODRUTES, or ASCODROUTES. An heretical sect of the Marcosians. They rejected the sacraments, alleging that things spiritual cannot be conveyed in corporeal symbols.—Bingham, Antiq. Chr. Ch.

ASHES. Several religious ceremonies depend upon the use of ashes. St. Jerome relates, that the Jews, in his time, rolled themselves in ashes, as a sign of mourning. To repent in sackcloth and ashes is a frequent expression in Scripture, for mourning and being afflicted for our sins. Numb. xix. 17. There was a sort of lustral water, made with the ashes of an heifer, sacrificed on the great day of atonement, the ashes whereof were distributed among the people. In the Romish Church, ashes are given among the people on Ash-Wednesday: they must be made from branches of olive, or some other trees, that have been blessed the foregoing year. (Pescara Cerem. Eccles. Rom.) The sacristan, or vestry-keeper, prepares these ashes, and lays them in a small vessel on the altar: after which the officiating priest blesses the ashes, which are strewed by the deacons, and assistants, on the heads of all that are present, accompanied with these words, Memento, homo, quod pulvis es, &c.; Remember, man, that thou art dust, &c.—Religious Ceremonies of all Nations, vol. iii. (See Ash-Wednesday.)

ASH-WEDNESDAY. (See Lent and Commination.) This day seems to have been observed as the first day of Lent in the time of Gregory the Great. It is supposed by some, that Gregory added three days at the beginning of Lent, to make the number forty, in more exact imitation of the number of days in our blessed Saviour’s fast; and that before his time there were only thirty-six days, the Sundays being always kept as festivals. It was called, in his time, Dies cinerum, the day of sprinkling ashes, or Caput jejunii, the beginning of the fast. The custom of open penance, which the name of the day reminds us of, is one of those things which the Church of England, at the time of the Reformation, wished to see restored; but on account of the prejudices of the time, she could not carry out her wishes. (See the Commination Service in the Prayer Book.)

ASPERGILLUM. An instrument resembling a brush, used in the Roman Catholic Church for the purpose of sprinkling holy water over objects to be blessed.

ASPERSION. (See Affusion.) The sprinkling with water in the sacrament of baptism. This our rubric permits.

Then the priest shall take the child into his hands, and say to the godfathers and godmothers,

60Name this child.

And then naming it after them (if they shall certify him that the child may well endure it) he shall dip it in the water discreetly and warily, saying,

N. I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

But if they certify that the child is weak, it shall suffice to pour water upon it, saying the aforesaid words.

N. I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

It is said by the Anabaptists that there is no authority in Scripture for thus administering the sacrament of baptism. But we find in the primitive Church, that although baptism was regularly administered by immersion, yet in cases of sickness, where clinic baptism was administered, aspersion was used. We conclude, then, that immersion is not essential to the sacrament; and if sickness were an excuse for not immersing under certain circumstances, it is still a sufficient excuse, if in our cold climate to immerse our children would be attended with danger.—See Bingham’s Origines Ecclesiasticæ.

ASSEMBLY OF DIVINES. The title given to a notable assembly held at Westminster, 1st July, 1643, convoked by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons, but forbidden to be held by the king, to take the liturgy, government, and doctrines of the Church under consideration. The members were elected by the knights and burgesses, two being returned for each county. According to Clarendon, they were most of them men of mean learning, and some of them of scandalous morals. Among the exceptions to this condemnatory sentence were Lightfoot and Selden. Usher was nominated, but with the few Episcopalians elected did not serve. The Scottish covenant was taken by this assembly: the confession of faith still received in the Scottish Presbyterian establishment, and the larger and shorter catechisms, were drawn up. But the opinions of the members differed so widely on many points, that the assembly broke up without accomplishing the principal end for which it was convened. (See Confessions of Faith.)

ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY. A festival of the Romish Church, instituted in the seventh century, and fixed to the 15th of August, in honour of the imaginary ascension of the Virgin Mary into heaven, which, without any authority from Scripture or tradition, some sects in that corrupt Church teach to have occurred in a miraculous manner, some years after her death. Such is the corrupt practice of the Romanists, that in many places higher honour is paid to this legendary festival than even to the anniversary of the crucifixion of our Lord. (See Virgin Mary.)

ASYLUM. A place of refuge. This began to be a privilege of churches in the time of Constantine. No persons could be arrested in churches. In the middle ages this was a great advantage, to prevent the excesses of private revenge. In times of great civilization it became an abuse, and the privilege was taken away. (See Sanctuary.)

ATHANASIAN CREED. The learned, at this day, however they may differ in their opinions about the age, or author, make no question but that the composition was originally in Latin. The style and phraseology—its early acceptance with the Latins, while unknown to the Greeks—the antiquity and number of the Latin MSS., and their general agreement with each other, compared with the lateness, the scarceness, and the disagreement of the Greek copies—all seem to demonstrate this.

As to the antiquity of the Athanasian Creed, it was certainly become so famous in the sixth century as to be commented upon, together with the Lord’s Prayer and Apostles’ Creed, about the year 570, by Venantius Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers, in France. This is certain evidence for the time specified, and presumptive for much greater antiquity. For who can imagine that it should grow into such repute of a sudden?

From the doctrines contained in the Creed, and from its manner of expressing them, it is probable that it is earlier than the times of Nestorius, or the Ephesine council, in 431; the Creed not condemning the heresy of the Nestorians in such full, direct, critical terms as the Catholics found to be necessary against the wiles and subtleties of those men.

From the doctrine of the incarnation, as expressed therein, we may be confident that it is not earlier than the rise of the Apollinarian heresy, which appeared at first about the year 360, and grew to a head about 370, or a little later. And this consideration is against the opinion that Athanasius made it, either during his banishment at Treves, which ended in the year 338, or during his stay at Rome, in the year 343; or that he presented it to 61either Pope Julius, or Liberius, who were both dead before the year 367. And Dr. Waterland, whose researches were so extensive, infers that the Athanasian Creed is not earlier than the year 420.

It is observable that, about the year 426, St. Augustine, then bishop of Hippo, in Africa, held a close and intimate correspondence with the Gallican Churches. For one Leporius, a presbyter, having spread false doctrine in Gaul, chiefly relating to the incarnation, and being censured for it, fled to Africa, and was there brought to a sense of his errors by St. Augustine and some other African bishops. The lives and characters suiting extremely well with place, time, occasion, and other circumstances, all these concur to persuade that the Creed was composed in Gaul, between the years 426 and 430. And as Honoratus of Marseilles tells us that Hilary, archbishop of Arles, from 429, composed an admirable “Exposition of the Creed,” and as among the ancient titles given to this Creed are, “An Exposition of the Catholic Faith,” or, yet nearer, “An Exposition of the Apostles’ Creed,” Hilary was probably the author of this work: or else his Creed is lost.

As to the name of Athanasius, now generally prefixed to it, it may be remarked, that upon the revival of the Arian controversy in Gaul, under the influence of the Burgundian kings, it was natural to call one side Athanasians, and the other side Arians; and so also to name the orthodox faith the Athanasian faith, as the other, the Arian. This Creed, therefore, being an excellent summary of the Catholic faith, as maintained by Athanasius, might in process of time acquire the name of the Athanasian faith, and so in a little while occasion the mistake of ascribing it to him as his composition.

His name, together with the intrinsic worth and value of the form itself, gave it credit enough to be received in France as an orthodox formulary, or system of belief, about the middle of the sixth century, and into the public offices of the Gallican Church about the year 670. In Spain it was known and approved as a rule of faith about the year 633, and was soon after taken into the offices of the Church in that kingdom. In Germany it was received at lowest about 787. As to our own country, we have proof of the Creed’s being sung alternately in our churches in the tenth century, when Abbo of Fleury, an ear-witness of it, was here; and when the Saxon versions, still extant, were of standing use, for the instruction and benefit both of clergy and people. These evidences alone will prove the reception of this Creed in England to have been as early as 950, or 930, or the time of Athelstan, whose Latin Psalter has the Creed in it. But other circumstances make it probable it was used as early as 880. About fourscore years after this, it was received in Italy. And in Rome itself (which was always more desirous of imposing her own offices upon other churches, than of receiving any from them) it was received in the tenth century, and probably about the year 930. From which time forwards this Creed has been publicly recited in the Church offices all over the West; and it seems in some parts of the Greek Church also.—Waterland’s Critical History of the Athanasian Creed, &c.

Its reception has been both general and ancient. It has been received by Greeks and Latins all over Europe; and if it has been little known among the African and Asian Churches, the like may be said of the Apostles’ Creed, which has not been admitted, scarce known, in Africa, and but little in Asia, except among the Armenians, who are said to receive it. So that, for generality of reception, the Athanasian Creed may vie with any, except the Nicene, or Constantinopolitan, the only general Creed common to all the Churches.

As to the antiquity of its reception into the sacred offices, it was received in several countries, France, Germany, England, Italy, and Rome itself, as soon as the Nicene, or sooner; which is a high commendation of it, as gaining ground by its own intrinsic worth, and without the authority of any general council to enforce it. And there is this further to be observed, that while the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds were growing up to their present perfection, in a course of years, or centuries of years, and not completed till about the year 600, this Creed was made and perfected at once, and is more ancient, if considered as an entire form, than either of the others, having received its full perfection while the others wanted theirs.—Waterland.

In the Greek and Roman Churches it survived in the midst of all the corruptions that arose: upon the Reformation there was not a Protestant Church but what received it in its fullest extent: Luther, Calvin, Beza, and all the wisest and best reformers, acknowledged the Athanasian Creed, and made it their profession of faith: the Puritans, in our own country, the parent stock of all our modern dissenters, embraced it as readily as the 62Church of England herself.—Dean Vincent.

This admirable summary of the Christian faith, as to the great doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation, has met with the esteem it deserves among all that have at heart the welfare of Christianity. The faith into which Christians are baptized is this,—there is but one God, yet there are three persons,—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are equally Divine, and must be together the one God, since God is but one. This is the faith which has been received in the Christian Churches from the beginning; and this faith, I doubt not, will continue universally to prevail, till all the chosen people are gathered in, and united in one general assembly and church, in the pure realms of blessedness above. In that happy country, the noise of controversies will cease. All who are brought to stand in the presence of God, dressed in the unblemished robes of innocence and immortality, will know, that all the three Divine persons were concerned in bringing them thither; and as they owe their happiness to the sacred three, they will join in directing the same songs of praise to God, the Father of mercies, who chose them to himself before the foundation of the world; to God the Son, who redeemed them from wrath, by shedding his own precious blood; and to God the Holy Spirit, who renewed and sanctified them, and conducted them safe through the wilderness of this world, into the land of uprightness, the country of rest and pure delight.—Taylor on the Trinity.

On the clauses called damnatory, we may offer the following observations from several of our standard writers. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” (Mark xvi. 16.) These are the words of him who is ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead; of him who himself shall pronounce the final doom of all men; spoken by him at the time when he was taking his solemn leave of his apostles, giving them his last and final charge, and in which the fate of all the world is determined. The meek and humble Jesus makes use of very sharp expressions, when he warns his disciples against those who should oppose or dispute those truths: “Beware (saith he) of false prophets;” beware of false teachers, such as corrupt sound doctrine in the essential and fundamental articles of faith.—Wheatly.

Many unbelievers, and some Christians, suppose opinions to be involuntary, and therefore harmless. But let them consider how far this will carry them. Nothing is more expressly revealed in Holy Scripture, than that he who does not believe the Christian religion shall be condemned. If it be said, that unbelief may arise from a disorder or from a defect in the understanding, every such case is, by implication, excepted. This sentence is deemed by us declaratory of the general will of God, and does not imply an absolute exclusion of every culpable individual from his mercy.—Croft.

The denial of our Lord’s Divinity, as it stands condemned by the laws both of our Church and State, so it has, from the very beginning, been esteemed a “damnable heresy;” and all impugners of it have been always excluded from the communion of the Church. Primitive writers call it an “abominable heresy,” “a God-denying apostasy,” and, in those ages, those who broached such doctrines were constantly deposed and excommunicated.—Randolph on the Trinity.

One sometimes finds in persons a wonderful inattention and a strange indifference with regard to the first and most fundamental doctrines of their religion. It might possibly be with some view to this kind of conduct, that the compiler of the Creed inserted what are called the damnatory clauses. He was desirous to excite their attention, and to rouse them from this unmeaning slumber; to convince them that something is to be believed, as well as practised; and that in matters of this importance men should not trifle with God and their own consciences, and halt between two opinions.—Horbery.

These clauses have occasioned much needless uneasiness. When such men, I say not as Chillingworth, for we have judged him weak in religious reasoning, but as Clarke, Tillotson, Secker, could be uneasy under them, I can ascribe it to nothing but the influence of religious terror; a sentiment which operates in all possible degrees; which makes us scruple to admit in religion what would occasion no difficulty in common affairs, lest our acquiescence should be owing to some corrupt or indirect motive. Scruples of this kind are owing to not freely admitting those limitations which common sense suggests in the application of every general proposition. Heresies are very numerous; defiling the purity of the faith, making men act on wrong principles, affording handles to infidelity, and dividing Christians amongst themselves, so as to defeat the ends of religious society, and probably 63lose some degree of future happiness; it seems needful, therefore, to draw the erroneous notions, which are so pernicious, into a small compass, and solemnly reject them; that the unwary may be cautioned, and the bold and busy innovator discouraged. And lest the unstable, who are tossed about with every wind of doctrine, should continue to indulge their childish fondness for novelty, and live on without any regular and permanent principles, it seems also needful to remind them of the last solemn declaration of our blessed Lord, not surely with a view to bias the judgment, but only to enforce the duty of a sober and serious attention to sacred truth, uninfluenced by passion or caprice.—Hey’s Lectures.

These clauses were inserted in this Creed, and in most of the ancient Creeds, the Arian as well as others, by no means to intimate the condemnation, for want of faith, of such as had no opportunity of receiving the Christian religion; but of such only as, having it duly preached to them, should receive it in an evil heart of unbelief, and, holding it in unrighteousness, should mutilate or corrupt its essentials. There is, surely, a wide difference between condemning with severity, and believing with sorrow and compassion that another is condemned. A man who pronounces this sentence, because he sees it pronounced in the word of God, might die for the conversion and retrieval of those on whom he is forced, by the conviction of his faith, to pronounce it.—Skelton.

Damnatory clauses, or anathemas, as they are angrily called, deriving their authority from Scripture, should be considered as awful admonitions, which it hath seemed good to Divine wisdom to announce generally, in order to condemn an indifference of mind in matters of religious principle; to correct a fond admiration of change or novelty; and to intimidate, under the severest penalties of God’s displeasure, the vain or interested from broaching their wild and pernicious heresies.—Bishop Cleaver.

Many have argued against the use of this Creed; and some, with strange vehemence, partly from the doctrines which it teaches, but chiefly from the condemnation which it pronounces on all who disbelieve them. Now the doctrines are undeniably the same with those that are contained in the Articles of our Church, in the beginning of our litany, in the conclusions of many of our collects, in the Nicene Creed, and, as we conceive, in that of the Apostles; in the doxology, in the form of baptism, and in numerous passages of both Testaments; only here they are somewhat more distinctly set forth, to prevent equivocation.—Archbishop Secker.

Whenever we go contrary to a stream, which has run in one channel for seventeen centuries, we ought to doubt our own opinions, and at least treat the general and concurring testimony of mankind with respect. If any one has his doubts on the intricacies of this question, let him first search the Scripture, and settle his principles from thence; if he afterwards wishes to pursue his researches, let him not recur to the crude and hasty publications of the present day, in which assertions are rashly made, without foundation in Scripture, antiquity, or the principles of any Church, but to those learned writers who managed this controversy fifty years ago in our own country; or, if he has learning and leisure sufficient, to the primitive fathers themselves.—Dean Vincent.

Whoever wrote this Creed, he meant nothing more than to collect things said in various Catholic writers, against the various heresies subsisting, and to simplify and arrange the expressions, so as to form a confession of faith the most concise, orderly, and comprehensive, possible. Not with any view of explaining any mysterious truths, but with the sole design of rejecting hurtful or heretical errors. And it may have been adopted on account of its excellence, in bringing the errors which were to be shunned into a small compass, in exposing them in a kind of poetic numbers, which strike and possess the ear; and may have been called “Athanasian,” only on account of its containing doctrines which have been defended with peculiar force and brilliancy by the great prelate of Alexandria.—Hey’s Lectures.

The Athanasian Creed only tells us what we must believe, if we believe a Trinity in unity, three persons and one God: and I challenge any man, who sincerely professes this faith, to tell me, what he can leave out of this exposition, without destroying the Divinity of some of the three persons, or the unity of the Godhead. If each person must be God and Lord, must not each person be uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal, almighty? If there be but one God, and one Lord, can there be three separated, uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal, almighty Gods; which must of necessity be three Gods, and three Lords! This Creed does not pretend to explain how there are three persons, each of which is God, and yet but one God, but only asserts the thing, that thus it is, and thus it 64must be, if we believe a Trinity in unity; which should make all men, who would be thought neither Arians nor Socinians, more cautious how they express the least dislike of it.—Sherlock on the Trinity.

Every Divine perfection and substantial attribute of Deity is common to the three: what is peculiar applies only to their relations, order, or office; paternity, filiation, procession—first, second, third persons—creation, redemption, sanctification. The Athanasian Creed is altogether illustrative of this economy; and if it be carefully considered under this point of view, I am persuaded it will appear to be exceedingly reasonable and judicious. There is something in the mere sound of the clauses which I doubt not beguiles it of its just praise. Some have forgotten, perhaps, and some have never known, its proper history. The numerous sects whose different apprehensions of the precise nature of the holy Trinity led men in those distant days into one, at least, of the two great errors, either that of “confounding the persons” or “dividing the substance,” are now perhaps no more. They may indeed subsist under other names; but men have long since ceased to talk of the Sabellians, Noëtians, Patripassians, Praxeans, Eunomians, Apollinarians, Photinians, Cerinthians, and even Arians, Nestorians, and Eutychians; for these latter are the sects chiefly opposed in the Athanasian Creed. But there is not one clause of this ancient formulary that is not directed, in the simplest manner possible, against the different errors of all these several sects; their wild and discordant notions are all met by the constant reiteration of that one great truth, that though the Christian verity compels us to acknowledge every person of the holy Trinity to be God and Lord, yet the Catholic religion equally forbids us to say there be three Gods, or three Lords; though, therefore, each is uncreate, each eternal, each almighty, each God, and each Lord, yet these attributes, as the exclusive attributes of Deity, are common to the three; the omnipotence, the eternity, the Divinity, the power and dominion, the glory and majesty, is one; “such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.”—Nares on the Creeds.

Whilst the Apostles’ Creed compendiously sums up and declares the main articles of our Christian faith, and the Nicene Creed explains more fully the articles relating to the Son and the Holy Ghost, the Athanasian Creed stands as an excellent guard and defence against the subtleties of most kinds of heretics, who, were it once removed, would soon find means to enervate and evade the shorter Creeds, where the Christian faith is more simply declared.—Wheatly.

The intention of the Creed, as well as of our Lord in the Gospel, is only to say, that whoever rejects the doctrine of it, from presumptuous self-opinion, or wilful negligence, the case of such an one is desperate. But though we pass judgment on his errors without reserve, and, in general, on all who maintain them, yet personally and singly we presume not to judge of his condition in the next world.—Archbishop Secker.

The use of it is, to be a standing fence and preservative against the wiles and equivocations of most kinds of heretics. This was well understood by Luther when he called it “a bulwark to the Apostles’ Creed;” much to the same purpose with what is cited of Ludolphus Saxo (“tria sunt symbola; primum Apostolicum, secundum Nicenum, tertium Athanasii; primum factum est ad fidei instructionem, secundum ad fidei explanationem, tertium ad fidei defensionem”). And it was this and the like considerations that have all along made it to be of such high esteem among all the Reformed Churches, from the days of their great leader.—Waterland.

The Church of England proposes no Creeds to be believed upon their own authority, but because they are agreeable to the word of God. The articles of the Creed indeed are proposed as articles of faith. But they are only collections of some important truths to which that testimony is given. They are, at the highest, but extracts which are to be believed because there contained; and so to be believed as there delivered. Whatever doctrines are consonant to the Scriptures, she recommends to our faith; but what are contrary to the word of God, she pronounces not lawful for the Church to ordain. She expects her members to believe nothing as of Divine revelation, but what the records of that revelation plainly contain. Nor of the truths there discovered, does she impose the belief of any as a necessary term of communion, but what she apprehends the sacred oracles themselves to represent as a necessary term of salvation. These were the creeds of the Western Church before the Reformation; and because, at the Reformation, she withdrew from nothing but what was corrupt, therefore, these being catholic and sound, she still retains them.—Wheatly.

Why, it is often said, are we so zealous in enforcing doctrines merely speculative? 65The answer is, we believe them to be inculcated in Scripture, essential to the Christian religion, and not merely speculative. The Son and the Holy Ghost are each of them said to be sent by the Father, each of them contributes to the great work of our salvation. To refuse them Divine honour, is unquestionably to deny their Divine power. We do not presume to fix limits to Divine mercy; but surely we endanger our title to it, when we reject the conditions upon which it is granted. The humble Christian hopes for no benefit from the gospel covenant, but from a firm reliance on the merits of his Saviour, and the aid of the Holy Spirit.—Croft.

In the sacred Scripture there is no mention but of two sorts of men, whereof some believe, so that they are saved; some believe not, and they are damned. (Mark xvi. 16; John iii. 18.) But neither the Church, nor the individual rehearsing the creed, is responsible for these denunciations. It is a formulary which happens to express suitably and well the exact opinions of the Church of England, in regard to the two great mysteries of the Trinity and incarnation, as far as they can be understood. True it is, indeed, that in her eighth Article she asserts, that the three creeds, Nicene, Athanasian, and that which is commonly called the Apostles’ Creed, “ought thoroughly to be received and believed, for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.” And has the Church of England no right to make this declaration? Is she to be the only society of Christians that shall not have permission to assert that her faith is the right faith? What dissenter from the Church of England would hesitate to assume this liberty? Who is there that scruples to speak thus exclusively of his own mode of thinking? Can anything be more candidly or unexceptionably stated, than her confidence that these creeds ought to be believed, because they may be proved by warrants of holy writ? In saying this, does she preclude any man from examination? Does she lock up the volume of holy writ? She appeals solely to Scripture for the truth of her doctrine, leaving all who oppose her to the mercies of God. She does not presume to say with those, whose cause has lately been strangely popular, and whose language in a sister kingdom is such to this day, that whoever presumes to separate from her, “eo ipso illis nulla est speranda salus!” She does not even venture to assert, with the celebrated reformer Calvin, whose famous Institutes were written on the model of the Apostles’ Creed, and who must, no doubt, have had a view, in saying it, to his own peculiar Church, “extra ecclesiæ gremium,” &c.; “out of the bosom of the Church there is no hope whatever of salvation, or remission of sins.” We may surely be permitted to admire that strange course of things, and confusion of circumstances, that have lately conspired to render those popular whose principles are truly exclusive and intolerant; and the Church in some respects unpopular, which is as truly tolerant. Her language is constantly the same, and perfectly apostolic: “Search the Scriptures.” “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”—Nares on the Creeds.

Let the gates of our communion be opened as wide as is consistent with the gospel of Christ; yet surely those will stand excluded, who hold errors expressly condemned in that gospel, and which that gospel was particularly and purposely wrote to guard against.—Randolph on the Trinity.

The commissioners in 1688, thirty eminent divines, appointed to review and correct the liturgy, close the rubric they had prepared in the following words,—“And the condemning clauses (viz. in the Athanasian Creed) are to be understood as relating only to those who obstinately deny the substance of the Christian faith.”

It is no hard matter for witty men to put very perverse senses on Scripture to favour their heretical doctrines, and to defend them with such sophistry as shall easily impose upon unlearned and unthinking men; and the best way in this case is, to have recourse to the ancient faith of the Christian Church, to learn from thence how these articles were understood and professed by them; for we cannot but think, that those who conversed with the apostles, and did not only receive the Scriptures, but the sense and interpretation of them, from the apostles, or apostolical men, understood the true Christian faith much better than those at a farther remove; and therefore, as long as we can reasonably suppose this tradition to be preserved in the Church, their authority is very venerable.—Sherlock on the Trinity.

These contentions were cause of much evil, yet some good the Church hath reaped by them, in that they occasioned the learned and sound in faith to explain such things as heresy went about to deprave. And in this respect the Creed of Athanasius, concerning that truth which Arianism so mightily did impugn, was 66both in the East and West Churches accepted as a treasure of inestimable price, by as many as had not given up even the very ghost of belief. That which heresy did by sinister interpretations go about to pervert in the first and most ancient apostolical creed, the same being by singular dexterity and plainness cleared from those heretical corruptions, partly by this creed of Athanasius. These catholic declarations of our belief, delivered by them who were so much nearer than we are unto the first publication thereof, and continuing needful for all men at all times to know, these confessions, as testimonies of our continuance in the same faith to this present day, we rather use than any other gloss or paraphrase devised by ourselves, which, though it were to the same effect, notwithstanding could not be of the like authority and credit.—Hooker.

The doctrinal part of the creed has been called a “bulwark;” and if it be maintained, it should be maintained as a fortification. In time of peace, the inconvenience of keeping up fortifications occasions their being sometimes neglected, but when war breaks out afresh, every one is clamorous in blaming the imprudence of such neglect. If we are at peace now with the powers which would attack us where our creed would be our defence, we are always liable to be at war with them again. We have seen how naturally all the heresies condemned in the creed arise, when men once become eager in solving the difficulties of the Trinity and the incarnation; and such eagerness might at any time arise, or any revolution, or great disturbance, or confusion; and in case of renewed attacks, our present creed would be a much better defence than any new one that would be made at the time it was wanted.—Hey’s Lectures.

What the consequence may be, should we part with our creed, may easily be inferred from what followed upon the dropping a single word (consubstantial, or, as expressed in our English creed, “being of one substance with the Father”) out of the [Nicene] creed at the Council of Ariminum. The Catholics, being deceived by the great and earnest importunity of the Arians for unity and peace, were at last prevailed upon. The word consubstantial was left out; and the Arians boasted over all the world, that the Nicene faith was condemned and Arianism established in a general council. It is candour, when good Catholics are divided about words, to bring them to a right understanding of one another, which will set them at peace and unity again. But it is tameness to give up the main bulwarks of the faith to fallacious adversaries and designing men, whose arts and aims, however disguised, are always known to strike at the foundation of religion.—Bingham and Wheatly.

To the sceptic, the Arian, and the Socinian, we do not expect to find such a creed acceptable, because it was designed to restrain the fantastic and pernicious opinions started on their part upon the subjects contained in it. But every firm and steady believer may still, and indeed ought to, hold high the value of the only creed delivered to us from antiquity, which states that first and great principle of Christian revelation, the importance and necessity of a just faith. Upon us, the ministers of the Church, especially, it is incumbent, as occasions offer, to explain and illustrate its design and uses to the more unlearned, as well as to obviate the crude exceptions made against its doctrines or language, to derive its due weight of authority from the venerable antiquity of its origin, and to draw an argument of its merits from the universal approbation with which it has been received. Who would not tremble at the proposal of laying waste a fence, which in any degree hath afforded protection to what was obtained for us at so inestimable a price; and of inviting, by a voluntary surrender of our present security, renewed instances of insult, in repeated and incessant attacks to be made upon the terms and obligations of our Christian covenant?—Bp. Cleaver.

There are no kinds of heretics but hope to make the vulgar understand their tenets respectively, and to draw them aside from the received faith of the Church: and, therefore, it behoves the pastors of the Church to have a standing form to guard the people against any such attempts. The Christian Churches throughout the world, ever since the multiplication of heresies, have thought it necessary to guard their people by some such forms as these in standing use amongst them. And they are not so much afraid of puzzling and perplexing the vulgar by doing it, as they are of betraying and exposing them to the attempts of seducers, should they not do it. The common people will be in no danger of running either into Sabellianism, or tritheism, if they attend to the Creed itself, (which fully obviates and confutes both those heresies,) instead of listening to those who first industriously labour to deceive them into a false construction of the Creed, and then complain of the 67common people’s being too apt to misunderstand it.—Waterland.

Those in authority should be very cautious how they give in to such schemes as, under the plausible pretence of pruning our vine, and reforming things in their own nature indifferent and alterable, would by degrees overturn our whole establishment.—Randolph on the Trinity.

We may, perhaps, be reminded, that some of our own most sanguine friends have wished to expunge it. But one of them lived to retract his opinion, and a friend of truth is not to be overawed by authority, however respectable, nor silenced by popular clamour.—Croft.

So long as there shall be any men left to oppose the doctrines which this Creed contains, so long will it be expedient, and even necessary, to continue the use of it, in order to preserve the rest; and, I suppose, when we have none remaining to find fault with the doctrines, there will be none to object against the use of the Creed, or so much as to wish to have it laid aside.—Waterland, Ath. Creed.

Whatever may be pretended, this is not a controversy about some metaphysical abstract notions of personality, subsistence, or moral distinctions in the Divine nature; in these there will be always room left for different speculations and sentiments. It is not a controversy about forms, but it is a controversy about the very object of religious worship. Should there be a falling away from this profession, should there be a denying of the Lord that bought us, or of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier and Comforter, disowning them to be truly and properly by nature God, of the same essence and eternity as the Father, and with him the one God, not three Gods, with too much reason it might be said, the glory is departed from us, whether dissenters or of the Established Church, that hath been counted the head and great support of the Protestant Churches. Should we, or they, thus fall, those Protestants, whose confessions we have mentioned, yea, and all Christians abroad, must, upon their professed principles, renounce us as not holding the head.—London Ministers’ Cases, Trinity.

The Creed of Athanasius, and that sacred hymn of glory, than which nothing doth sound more heavenly in the ears of faithful men, are now reckoned as superfluities which we must in any case pare away, lest we cloy God with too much service. Yet cause sufficient there is why both should remain in use; the one as a most divine explication of the chiefest articles of our Christian belief, the other as an heavenly acclamation of joyful applause to his praises in whom we believe. Neither the one nor the other unworthy to be heard sounding, as they are, in the Church of Christ, whether Arianism live or die.—Hooker. For a detailed justification of the Athanasian Creed, see Redcliffe on the Athanasian Creed.

It is appointed to be said in the Church of England on the great festivals, and on certain holidays, in place of the Apostles’ Creed, at Morning Prayer. So that it may be said once a month at least.—Sparrow. Wheatly.

This Creed is called in the Roman offices the Psalm, Quicunque vult, and was printed for antiphonal chanting, as it is now recited in our choirs; being alternated, like the Psalms between minister and people in parish churches. The right notion that a creed is also a song of thanksgiving is thus significantly cherished. It has been objected to the Church of England, that she has disingenuously attributed this Creed to St. Athanasius: whereas in fact she has not decided the question. It is called indeed the Creed of St. Athanasius in the rubric before the Apostles’ Creed; but that is plainly an abbreviated term for the full designation prefixed to the Creed itself, “this confession of our Christian faith, commonly called the Creed of Saint Athanasius.” And even the running heading does not so designate it. The words “the Creed of Saint Athanasius,” was deliberately altered by the correctors of the sealed books for “at Morning Prayer,” the present heading, in which, as in all other corrections, the authentic copy was followed. See the fac-simile of the corrected sealed books in Stephens’s Book of Common Prayer with notes. The same remark may apply to the designation in the 8th Article, Athanasius’s Creed.

ATHEIST. (From ἀ and θέος, without God.) One who denies the being and moral government of God. There have been but few atheists in the strict sense of the word, under any system, and at any time. Some few perhaps still remain, and adopt the system of Spinosa, which supposes the universe to be one vast substance, impelled to all its movements by some internal force, which operates by a blind and irresistible necessity.

The heathen, who vied with heretics in giving names of opprobrium to true Christians, called the primitive Christians Atheists, because they did not worship their gods.

ATONEMENT. (See Propitiation, Covenant 68of Redemption, Sacrifice, and Jesus Christ.) The word atonement signifies the satisfying of Divine justice, as mentioned in the Article on the Covenant of Redemption. The etymology of the word conveys the idea of two parties, previously at variance, being set at one again, and hence at-one-ment, from originally signifying reconciliation, comes, by a natural metonymy, to denote that by which the reconciliation is effected. The doctrine of the atonement is thus stated by the Church: “The Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and of one substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her substance; so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men.”—Article 2.

That our blessed Lord suffered is sufficiently clear from Scripture, and that it was not for himself, but for us, that this God-man lived so sorrowfully, and died so painfully, the Scripture is full and clear: and not only in general, that it was for our sakes he did it; but, in particular, it was for the reconciling his Father to us, and to purchase the pardon of our sins for us,—expressly telling us, that “he hath reconciled both (Jew and Gentile) unto God, in one body, by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.” (Eph. ii. 16.) “Yea, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son.” (Rom. v. 10.) “So that us, who were sometimes alienated, and enemies in our minds by wicked works, now he hath reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present us holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight.” (Col. i. 21, 22.) And the reason is, because “it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;” and, “having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in heaven or things in earth.” (Verse 19, 20.) And this reconciliation of God to us, he made by offering up himself a sacrifice for us. For “God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” (1 John iv. 10,) “and he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (Chap. ii. 2.) And therefore when we see him sweating great drops of blood under the burden of sin, we must not think they were his own sins that lay so heavy upon him: no, they were our sins, which he had taken off from us and laid upon himself; for he bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows; “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah liii. 4, 5.) So undoubted a truth is this comfortable assertion, that Jesus Christ by his death and sufferings reconciled his Father to us, and therefore was a sacrifice, not only for “original guilt,” but also for “actual sins of men.”—Beveridge.

ATTRITION. (See Contrition.) The casuists of the Church of Rome have made a distinction between a perfect and an imperfect contrition. The latter they call attrition, which is the lowest degree of repentance, or a sorrow for sin arising from a sense of shame, or any temporal inconvenience attending the commission of it, or merely from fear of the punishment due to it, without any resolution to sin no more: in consequence of which doctrine, they teach that, after a wicked and flagitious course of life, a man may be reconciled to God, and his sins forgiven, on his death-bed, by confessing them to the priest with this imperfect degree of sorrow and repentance. This distinction was settled by the Council of Trent. It might, however, be easily shown that the mere sorrow for sin because of its consequences, and not on account of its evil nature, is no more acceptable to God than hypocrisy itself can be.—Conc. Trident. sess. xiv. cap. 4.

AUDIENCE, COURT OF. The Court of Audience, which belongs to the archbishop of Canterbury, was for the disposal of such matters, whether of voluntary or contentious litigation, as the archbishop thought fit to reserve for his own hearing. This court was afterwards removed from the archbishop’s palace, and the jurisdiction of it exercised by the master-official of the audience, who held his court in the consistory palace at St. Paul’s. But now the three offices of official-principal of the archbishop, dean or judge of the peculiars, and official of the audience, being united in the person of the dean of arches, its jurisdiction belongs to him. The archbishop of York has likewise his Court of Audience.

AUGSBURGH, or AUGUSTAN, CONFESSION. In 1530, a diet of the German princes was convened by the emperor Charles V., to meet in that city, for the 69express purpose of pacifying the religious troubles, by which most parts of Germany were then distracted. “In his journey towards Augsburgh,” says Dr. Robertson, “the emperor had many opportunities of observing the dispositions of the Germans, in regard to the points in controversy, and found their minds everywhere so much irritated and inflamed, that nothing tending to severity or rigour ought to be attempted, till the other methods proved ineffectual. His presence seems to have communicated to all parties an universal spirit of moderation and desire of peace. With such sentiments, the Protestant princes employed Melancthon, the man of the greatest learning, as well as the most pacific and gentlest spirit among the Reformers, to draw up a confession of faith, expressed in terms as little offensive to the Roman Catholics as a regard to truth would admit. Melancthon, who seldom suffered the rancour of controversy to envenom his style, even in writings purely polemical, executed a task, so agreeable to his natural disposition, with moderation and success.”

The singular importance of this document of Protestant faith seems to require, in this place, a particular mention of its contents. It consists of twenty-one articles. In the first, the subscribers of it acknowledge the unity of God and the trinity of persons; in the second, original sin; in the third, the two natures and unity of person in Jesus Christ, and all the other articles contained in the symbol of the apostles, respecting the Son of God. They declare in the fourth, that men are not justified before God by their works and merits, but by the faith which they place in Jesus Christ, when they believe that God forgives their sins out of love for his Son. In the fifth, that the preaching of the gospel and the sacraments are the ordinary means used by God to infuse the Holy Ghost, who produces faith, whenever he wills, in those that hear his word. In the sixth, that faith produces the good works to which men are obliged by the commandments of God. In the seventh, that there exists a perpetual Church, which is the assembly of saints; and that the word of God is taught in it with purity, and the sacraments administered in a legitimate manner; that the unity of this Church consists in the uniformity of doctrine and sacraments; but that an uniformity of ceremonies is not requisite. In the eighth, they profess that the word of God and the sacraments have still their efficacy, although administered by wicked clergymen. In the ninth, that baptism is requisite for salvation, and that little children ought to be baptized. In the tenth, that, in the sacrament of the last supper, both the body and blood of the Lord are truly present, and distributed to those who partake of it. In the eleventh, that confession must be preserved in the Church, but without insisting on an exact enumeration of sins. In the twelfth, that penance consists of contrition and faith, or the persuasion, that, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven us on our repentance; and that there is no true repentance without good works, which are its inseparable fruits. In the thirteenth, that the sacraments are not only signs of the profession of the gospel, but proofs of the love of God to men, which serve to excite and confirm their faith. In the fourteenth, that a vocation is requisite for pastors to teach in the Church. In the fifteenth, that those ceremonies ought to be observed which keep order and peace in the Church; but that the opinion of their being necessary to salvation, or that grace is acquired, or satisfaction done for our sins, by them, must be entirely exploded. In the sixteenth, that the authority of magistrates, their commands and laws, with the legitimate wars in which they may be forced to engage, are not contrary to the gospel. In the seventeenth, that there will be a judgment, where all men will appear before the tribunal of Jesus Christ; and that the wicked will suffer eternal torments. In the eighteenth, that the powers of free-will may produce an exterior good conduct, and regulate the morals of men towards society; but that, without the grace of the Holy Ghost, neither faith, regeneration, nor true justice can be acquired. In the nineteenth, that God is not the cause of sin, but that it arises only from the corrupt will of man. In the twentieth, that good works are necessary and indispensable; but that they cannot purchase the remission of sins, which is only obtained in consideration of faith, which, when it is sincere, must produce good works. In the twenty-first, that the virtues of the saints are to be placed before the people, in order to excite imitation; but that the Scripture nowhere commands their invocation, nor mentions anywhere any other mediator than Jesus Christ. “This,” say the subscribers of the Confession, “is the summary of the doctrine taught amongst us; and it appears from the exposition which we have just made, that it contains nothing contrary to Scripture; and that 70it agrees with that of the Catholic Church, and even with the Roman Church, as far as is known to us by their writers. This being so, those who wish that we should be condemned as heretics are very unjust. If there be any dispute between us, it is not upon articles of faith, but only upon abuses that have been introduced into the Church, and which we reject. This, therefore, is not a sufficient reason to authorize the bishops not to tolerate us, since we are agreed in the tenets of faith which we have set forth: there never has been an exact uniformity of exterior practice since the beginning of the Church, and we preserve the greater part of the established usages. It is therefore a calumny to say, that we have abolished them all. But, as all the world complained of the abuses that had crept into the Church, we have corrected those only which we could not tolerate with a good conscience; and we entreat your Majesty to hear what the abuses are which we have retrenched, and the reasons we had for doing it. We also entreat, that our inveterate enemies, whose hatred and calumnies are the principal cause of the evil, may not be believed.”

They then proceed to state the abuses in the Church of Rome, of which they complain. The first is the denial of the cup in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper; the second, the celibacy of the clergy; the third, the form of the mass. On this head their language is very remarkable: “Our Churches,” they say, “are unjustly accused of having abolished the mass, since they celebrate it with great veneration: they even preserve almost all the accustomed ceremonies, having only added a few German hymns to the latter, in order that the people may profit by them.” But they object to the multiplicity of masses, and to the payment of any money to a priest for saying them. The fourth abuse of which they complain, is the practice of auricular confession: but, they observe, that they have only taken from it the penitent’s obligation to make to the priest a particular enumeration of his sins, and that they had retained the confession itself, and the obligation of receiving absolution from the priest. The fifth abuse is the injunction of abstinence from particular meats. Monastic vows they represent as the sixth abuse. The seventh and last abuse of which they complain, is that of ecclesiastical power. They say that “a view of the attempts of the popes to excommunicate princes, and dispose of their states, led them to examine and fix the distinction between the secular and ecclesiastical power, to enable themselves to give to Cæsar what belongs to Cæsar, and to the popes and bishops what belongs to them.” That “ecclesiastical power, or the power of the keys, which Jesus Christ gave to his Church, consisted only of the power of preaching the gospel, of administering the sacraments, the forgiveness of sins, and refusing absolution to a false penitent: therefore,” say they, “neither popes nor bishops have any power to dispose of kingdoms, to abrogate the laws of magistrates, or to prescribe to them rules for their government;” and that, “if there did exist bishops who had the power of the sword, they derived this power from their quality of temporal sovereigns, and not from their episcopal character, or from Divine right, but as a power conceded to them by kings or emperors.”

It is not a little remarkable, that considerable differences, or various readings, are to be found in the printed texts of this important document, and that it is far from certain which copy should be considered the authentic edition. The German copies printed in 1530, in quarto and octavo, and the Latin edition printed in quarto in 1531, are in request among bibliographical amateurs; but there is a verbal, and, in some instances, a material, discrepancy among them. The Wittenberg edition, of 1540, is particularly esteemed, and has been adopted by the publishers of the “Sylloge Confessionum Diversarum,” printed in 1804, at the Clarendon press. [Later editions of the Sylloge include also the form of 1531.] One of the most important of these various readings occurs in the tenth article. In some of the editions which preceded that of 1540, it is expressed, “that the body and blood of Christ are truly present, and distributed to those who partake of our Lord’s supper; and the contrary doctrine is reprobated.” The edition of 1540 expresses that, “with the bread and wine, the body and blood of Christ are truly given to those who partake of our Lord’s supper.”

“In the Confession of Augsburgh,” says Dr. Maclaine, the learned translator of Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, “there are three sorts of articles; one sort, adopted equally by the Roman Catholics and Protestants; another, that consists of certain propositions, which the papal party considered as ambiguous and obscure; and a third, in which the doctrine of Luther was entirely opposite to that of Rome. This gave some reason to hope, that, by the means of certain qualifications and modifications, conducted mutually in a spirit of 71candour and charity, matters might be accommodated at last. For this purpose, select persons were appointed to carry on the salutary work; at first, seven from each party, consisting of princes, lawyers, and divines; which number was afterwards reduced to three. Luther’s obstinate, stubborn, and violent temper rendering him unfit for healing divisions, he was not employed in these conferences; but he was constantly consulted by the Protestant party.”

The Confession was read, at a full meeting of the diet, by the chancellor of the elector of Saxony. It was subscribed by that elector, and three other princes of the German empire, and then delivered to the emperor.—Butler’s Confessions of Faith. Robertson’s Sylloge Confessionum.

AUGUSTINES. A religious order in the Church of Rome, who followed St. Augustine’s pretended rule, ordered them by Pope Alexander IV., in 1256. It is divided into several branches, as hermits of St. Paul, the Jeronymitans, monks of St. Bridget, the Augustines called Chaussez, who go without stockings, begun in 1574, by a Portuguese, and confirmed in 1600 and 1602, by Pope Clement VIII. As for the pretended rules of St. Augustine, they are reduced to three classes, the first comprehending that the monks ought to possess nothing in particular, nor call anything their own; that the wealthy who became monks ought to sell what they had, and give the money to the poor; that those who sued for the religious habit ought to pass under trial before they were admitted; that the monks ought to subtract nothing from the monastery, nor receive anything whatsoever, without the leave of their superior, to whom they ought to communicate those points of doctrine which they had heard discoursed of without the monastery; that if any one was stubborn towards his superior, after the first and second correction in secret he should be publicly denounced as a rebel; if it happened in the time of persecution that the monks were forced to retire, they ought immediately to betake themselves to that place where their superior was withdrawn; and if for the same reason a monk had saved anything belonging to the monastery, he should give it up as soon as possible to his superior. The second class imported that they were to love God and their neighbour; how they were to recite the psalms, and the rest of their office; the first part of the morning they ought to employ in manual works, and the rest in reading, and to return in the afternoon to their work again until the evening; that they ought to possess nothing of their own, be obedient to their superior, keep silence in eating, have Saturday allowed to provide themselves with necessaries; and it was lawful for them to drink wine on Sundays; that when they went abroad they must always go two together; that they were never to eat out of the monastery; that they should be conscientious in what they sold, and faithful in what they bought; that they ought not to utter idle words, but work with silence; and, lastly, that whoever neglected the practice of these precepts ought to be corrected and beaten, and that the true observers of them must rejoice and be confident of their salvation. As for the third, after having enjoined them to love God and their neighbour, they ought to possess nothing but in common; the superior ought to distribute everything in the monastery, according to each man’s necessity, and they should not incline their hearts to temporal things; that they ought to honour God in one another as being become his holy temples; they must attend prayers at canonical hours, and were not to be hindered at any other time; that they should pray with attention, and sing only what was really appointed to be sung; that they ought to apply themselves to fasting and abstinence with discretion; and that if any of them was not able to fast, he ought not to eat between meals unless he was sick; that they must mind what was read to them while they were at their meals; that none ought to be envious to see the sick better treated than the rest were, or that something more delicate was given to those of a weaker constitution; that those who were recovering ought to make use of comfortable things, and, when recovered, to return to the common usage; to be grave and modest in their habits; never to be far from their companion; to express modesty and stayedness in their outward behaviour; not to cast a lustful eye upon women, nor wish to be seen by them; nor when at church to harbour any thoughts of women; that when it was known a friar courted any woman, after having been forewarned several times, he ought to be corrected; and that if he would not submit to the correction, he should be turned out of the monastery; that all correction should be inflicted with charity; that they ought not to receive letters nor presents in secret; they ought to be contented with those habits that were given them; that all their works should be rendered in common; that if some of their relations sent them clothes, it should be in 72the superior’s power to give them to whom he pleased; that he who concealed anything of his own should be proceeded against as guilty of robbery; they were to wash their own clothes, or have them washed by others, with the superior’s leave; those who were in any office should serve their brethren without grudging; that they ought to shun all lawsuits; that they ought to ask their brethren forgiveness for any injury done them; to forbear ill language one to another; the superior was to be obeyed, but not to be proud of his dignity; that the monks ought to observe these rules out of love, and not slavish fear; and that this rule ought to be read once a week in the presence of the monks.

The Augustine monks, (commonly called Black Canons,) according to Fuller, were established in England later than the Benedictines, that is, in 1105, though of older existence in Europe. They were next to the Benedictines in power and wealth. The members of these two orders and their branches were called Monks, those of the Mendicant orders, as Dominicans and Franciscans, were called Friars. (See Monastery.) But Canon was the title more usually assigned to the Augustinians. This order was more numerous and powerful in Ireland than the Benedictines, though inferior to them in England. The branches of this order were the Premonstrants, (or White Canons,) the Victorines, and the Gilbertines. The Arroasians were merely reformed Augustinians, not a separate branch of the order. The Augustinians possessed two mitred abbeys, Waltham and Cirencester; one cathedral priory, Carlisle; one abbey, afterwards converted into a cathedral by Henry VIII., Bristol.

AUGUSTINE, or AUSTIN, FRIARS. These are not to be confounded with the above, being one of the minor Mendicant orders, observing the rule of St. Augustine. Fuller says they first entered England in 1252: “and had (if not their first) their finest habitation at St. Peter’s the Poor, London, thence probably taking the denomination of poverty. They were good disputants; on which account they are remembered still at Oxford by an act performed by candidates for Mastership, called Keeping of Augustines.” This exercise, with other ancient forms, was abolished by the University Statute towards the beginning of the present century.—Jebb.

AURICULAR CONFESSION. (See Confession, Absolution.) The confession of sins at the ear of the priest. The following is the chapter on confession in the Council of Trent which is obligatory on the Romish Church.

“From the institution of the sacrament of repentance already set forth, the Church has always understood, that an entire confession of sins was also appointed by the Lord; and that it is of Divine right necessary to all who have lapsed after baptism. Because our Lord Jesus Christ, when about to ascend from earth to heaven, left his priests, his vicars, to be, as it were, the presidents and judges, to whom all mortal sins, into which Christ’s faithful people should fall, should be brought; in order that by the power of the keys they might pronounce sentence of remission or retention. For it is plain that the priests cannot exercise this judgment, without knowledge of the cause, nor can they observe equity in enjoining penalties, if men declare their sins only generally, and not rather particularly and separately. From this it is inferred that it is right that the penitents should recount in confession all the deadly sins of which, upon examination, their conscience accuses them, even though they be most secret and only against the two last commandments, which not unfrequently grievously wound the soul, and are more dangerous than those which are openly practised; for as to venial sins, by which we are not excluded from the grace of God, and into which we more frequently fall, although they may be declared in confession, rightly, usefully, and without any presumption, as the usage of pious men declares, yet they may be passed over in silence without offence, and can be expiated by many other remedies. But since all mortal sins, even thoughts, make men the children of wrath and the enemies of God, it is necessary to seek from God the pardon of all, with open and modest confession. When, therefore, Christ’s faithful people desire to confess all the sins which occur to their memory, they expose them all beyond all doubt to the mercy of God to be pardoned. But they who do otherwise, and knowingly keep back any, propose nothing to the Divine mercy to be pardoned by the priest; for if a sick man is ashamed to uncover his wound to the physician, he cannot with medicine cure that of which he has no knowledge. It is, moreover, inferred that those circumstances should be explained in confession, which change the kind of the sin; because, without these, neither can the sins themselves be entirely disclosed by the penitents, nor known to the judges; nor can they rightly judge of the grievousness of the sin, nor impose upon the penitents 73the fitting punishments. Whence it is unreasonable to teach that these circumstances were sought out by idle men, or that only one circumstance should be confessed, namely, to have sinned against a brother. But it is impious to call this confession impossible, which is appointed to be performed in this manner, or to style it the torture of consciences: for it appears that nothing else is required of penitents in the Church, than that, after a man has diligently examined himself, and explored the recesses and hiding-places of his conscience, he should confess those sins by which he remembers that he has mortally offended his Lord and God. But the other sins which do not occur to him when taking diligent thought, are understood to be included altogether in the same confession; and for these we faithfully say with the prophet, ‘Cleanse thou me, O Lord, from my secret faults.’ But the difficulty of this sort of confession, and the shame of uncovering sins, would, indeed, appear grievous, if it were not lightened by the so many and great conveniences and consolations which are most assuredly conferred by absolution upon all who rightly approach this sacrament. But as regards the manner of secretly confessing to the priest alone, although Christ has not forbidden any man from publicly confessing his faults, in revenge for his sins, and humiliation of himself, both by way of example to others, and for the edification of the Church which he has offended; this is not, however, a Divine command, nor may it be advisedly enjoined by any human law, that sins, especially secret ones, should be disclosed by open confession. Wherefore, since that secret sacramental confession which the holy Church has used from the beginning, and still uses, has always been approved of by the holiest and most ancient fathers, with great consent and unanimity, the empty calumny is plainly refuted of those who are not ashamed to teach that it is contrary to the Divine command, and a human invention, which had its origin with the fathers who were assembled in the Lateran Council. For the Church did not order by the Lateran Council that Christ’s faithful people should confess, which she always had understood to be necessary, and appointed by Divine right, but that the command of confession should be complied with at least once in the year, by all and each who have come to years of discretion; whence now, in the universal Church, that wholesome custom of confessing in the sacred, and especially acceptable, time of Lent, is observed with great benefit to the souls of the faithful; which custom this holy synod highly approves, and receives as pious and worthy to be retained.”

Here an attempt is made to invest the Christian priesthood with the prerogative of the Most High, who is a searcher of the hearts, and a discerner of the thoughts; in forgetfulness of the very distinction which God drew between himself and all men—“man looketh to the outward part, the Lord trieth the heart.” As Christ has invested his ministers with no power to do this of themselves, the Tridentine Fathers have sought to supply what they must needs consider a grievous omission on his part, by enjoining all men to unlock the secrets of their hearts at the command of their priest, and persons of all ages and sexes to submit not only to general questions as to a state of sin or repentance, but to the most minute and searching questions as to their most inmost thoughts.

The extent to which the confessors have thought it right to carry these examinations on subjects concerning which the apostle recommends that they be not once named among Christians, and which may be seen either in “Dens’ Theology,” or “Burchard’s Decrees,” c. 19, Paris, 1549, affords a melancholy, painful, and sickening subject for contemplation; especially when it is considered that they were Christian clergy who did this, and that it was done in aid, as they supposed, of the Christian religion. The fearful effects of these examinations upon the priests themselves, we will do no more than allude to; he who may think it necessary to satisfy himself upon the point, may consult the cases contemplated and provided for (among others) by Cardinal Cajetan, in his Opuscula, Lugd. 1562, p. 114. In the Bull of Pius IV., Contra solicitantes in confessione, dated Ap. 16, 1561, (Bullarium Magn. Luxemb. 1727, ii. p. 48,) and in a similar one of Gregory XV., dated Aug. 30, 1622, (Gregory XV. Constit. Rom. 1622, p. 114,) there is laid open another fearful scene of danger to female confitents from wicked priests, “mulieres pœnitentes ad actus inhonestos dum earum audiunt confessiones alliciendo et provocando.” Against which flagrant dangers, and the preparatory steps of sapping and undermining the mental modesty of a young person by examinations of particular kinds, it is vain to think that the feeble bulls of the bishops of Rome can afford any security. These observations apply to the system of the Roman Church, peculiar to itself, of compelling the disclosure of the most minute details of the 74most secret thoughts and actions. As to encouraging persons whose minds are burthened with the remembrance of fearful sins, to ease themselves of the burthen by revealing it to one at whose hands they may seek guidance, and consolation, and prayer, it is a totally distinct question, and nothing but wilful art will attempt to confound them. On this point we see no reason to withdraw a regret which we have before expressed as to its disuse in the Church of England; for we cannot but believe that, were it more frequently had recourse to, many a mind would depart the world at peace with itself and with God, which now sinks to the grave under a bond of doubt and fear, through want of confidence to make use of ghostly remedies.—Perceval.

In the sixth canon of the Council of Trent it runs thus:—“If any shall deny that sacramental confession was instituted and is necessary for salvation by Divine right, or shall say that the custom of confessing secretly to the priest alone, which the Catholic Church has always observed from the beginning, and continues to observe, is foreign to the institution and command of Christ, and is of human invention, let him be accursed.”

Here sacramental confession is affirmed to be of Divine institution, and auricular confession likewise, and he is accursed who shall deny it. This is bravely said; yet the Tridentine Fathers might have recollected that, in the Latin Church as late as 813, it was matter of dispute whether there was need to confess to a priest at all, as appears from the thirty-third canon of the Council of Cabaillon, which is as follows: “Quidam Deo solummodo confiteri debere dicunt peccata, quidam vero sacerdotibus confitenda esse percensent: quod utrumque non sine magno fructu intra sanctam fit Ecclesiam. Ita dumtaxat ut et Deo, qui Remissor est peccatorum, confiteamur peccata nostra, et cum David dicamus, Delictum meum cognitum tibi feci, &c., et secundum institutionem apostoli, confiteamur alterutrum peccata nostra, et oremus pro invicem ut salvemur. Confessio itaque quæ Deo fit, purgat peccata, ea vero quæ sacerdoti fit, docet qualiter ipsa purgentur peccata,” &c. (Conc. vii. 1279.) Was Leo the Third asleep, that he could suffer such heresy to be broached and not denounced? But all the world knows, that, till 1215, no decree of pope or council can be adduced enjoining the necessary observance of such a custom. Then, at the Council of Lateran, Innocent III. commanded it. As the Latin Church affords no sanction to the assertion of the Tridentine Fathers, so is it in vain to look for it among the Greeks, for there, as Socrates (Hist. Eccles. v. 19) and Sozomen (Hist. Eccles. vii. 16) inform us, the whole confessional was abolished by Nectarius, the archbishop of Constantinople, in the 4th century, by reason of an indecency which was committed on a female penitent, when pursuing her penance; which, sure, he would not have ventured to have done had he deemed it a Divine institution. Sozomen, in his account of the confessional, says, that the public confession in the presence of all the people, which formerly obtained, having been found grievous, φορτικὸν ὡς εἰκὸς, a wellbred, silent, and prudent presbyter was set in charge of it; thus plainly denoting the change from public to auricular confessions. It was this penitential presbyter whose office was abolished by Nectarius, who acted by the advice of Eudæmon, συγχωρῆσαι δὲ ἕκαστον, τῷ ἰδίῳ συνειδότι τῶν μυστηρίων μετέχειν. And the reason he assigned is one which the Church of Rome would have done well to bear in mind; οὕτω γὰρ μόνως ἔχειν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τὸ ἀβλασφήμετον. (See Perceval on Roman Schism, Hooker, Eccl. Pol. book vi. Bp. Taylor, Ductor Dubit. part ii. sect. 11.)

AUMBRIE. A little closet or locker. (See Church.)

AURORA. The title of a Latin metrical version of several parts of the Bible, by Petrus de Riga, canon of Rheims, in the 12th century.

AUTOCEPHALI. Αὐτοκεφαλοι, selfheaded, or independent. A name originally given to all metropolitans, as having no ecclesiastical superior, and being amenable only to the judgment of a synod. After the division of the Church into patriarchates, it was given to such metropolitans as preserved their independence, and were not subject to any patriarch—as the bishop of Constantia, or Salamis, in Cyprus. Bingham, book ii. chap. 18, specifies three kinds of autocephali. 1. All metropolitans, before patriarchates were established. 2. Certain metropolitans after the establishment of patriarchates, as those of Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Iberia: and the Churches of Britain before the coming of St. Augustin. To which may be added the Church of Ireland, before its submission to Rome in the 12th century. 3. Bishops immediately subject to the patriarch of the diocese, who was to them as a metropolitan. There were twenty-five such subject to the bishop of Jerusalem. The immediate suffragans of Rome are of the same class. Bingham considers a fourth 75class mentioned by Valesius on Euseb. lib. v. c. 23, as very doubtful; viz. bishops wholly independent of all others.

AUTO DA FE (Spanish); an Act of Faith. In the Spanish Church a solemn day is held by the Inquisition for the punishment of heretics, and the absolution of the innocent accused. They usually contrive the Auto to fall on some great festival, that the execution may pass with the more awe; and it is always on a Sunday. The Auto da Fe may be called the last act of the inquisitorial tragedy; it is a kind of gaol delivery, appointed as often as a competent number of prisoners in the Inquisition are convicted of heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted confession, or on the evidence of certain witnesses. The process is this; in the morning they are brought into a great hall, where they have certain habits put on, which they are to wear in the procession, and by which they know their doom. The procession is led up by Dominican friars, after which come the penitents, being all in black coats without sleeves, and barefooted, with a wax candle in their hands. These are followed by the penitents who have narrowly escaped being burnt, who over their black coats have flames painted, with their points turned downwards. Next come the negative and relapsed, who are to be burnt, having flames on their habits pointing upwards. After these come such as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of Rome, who, besides flames pointing upwards, have their picture painted on their breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, all open-mouthed, about it. Each prisoner is attended by a familiar of the Inquisition; and those to be burnt have also a Jesuit on each hand, who are continually preaching to them to abjure. After the prisoners comes a troop of familiars on horseback; and after them the inquisitors, and other officers of the court, on mules; last of all the inquisitor-general on a white horse led by two men with black hats and green hatbands. A scaffold is erected large enough for two or three thousand people; at one end of which are the prisoners, at the other the inquisitors. After a sermon made up of encomiums of the Inquisition, and invectives against heretics, a priest ascends a desk near the scaffold, and, having taken the abjuration of the penitents, recites the final sentence of those who are to be put to death, and delivers them to the secular arm, earnestly beseeching at the same time the secular power not to touch their blood, or put their lives in danger. The prisoners, being thus in the hands of the civil magistrate, are presently loaded with chains, and carried first to the secular gaol, and from thence, in an hour or two, brought before the civil judge, who, after asking in what religion they intend to die, pronounces sentence on such as declare they die in the communion of the Church of Rome, that they shall be first strangled, and then burnt to ashes; on such as die in any other faith, that they be burnt alive. Both are immediately carried to the Ribera, the place of execution, where there are as many stakes set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, with a quantity of dry furze about them. The stakes of the professed, that is, such as persist in the heresy, are about four yards high, having a small board towards the top for the prisoner to be seated on. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed mount their stakes by a ladder, and the Jesuits, after several repeated exhortations to be reconciled to the Church, part with them, telling them that they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow to receive their souls, and carry them with him to the flames of hell. On this a great shout is raised, and the cry is, “Let the dogs’ beards be made,” which is done by thrusting flaming furzes, fastened to long poles, against their faces, till their faces are burnt to a coal, which is accompanied with the loudest acclamations of joy. At last fire is set to the furze at the bottom of the stake, over which the professed are chained so high, that the top of the flame seldom reaches higher than the seat they sit on, so that they rather seem roasted than burnt. The same diabolical ceremony was observed in Portugal.

AVE MARIA. A form of devotion used in the Church of Rome, comprising the salutation addressed by the angel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary. (Luke i. 28.) The words “Ave Maria” are the first two, in Latin, of the form as it appears in the manuals of the Romish Church, thus: “Hail Mary, (Ave Maria,) full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” &c. To which is appended the following petition: “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and in the hour of our death. Amen.” Here we find, first, a misapplication of the words of Scripture, and then an addition to them. It was not used before the Hours, until the 16th century, in the Romish offices. It was then introduced into the Breviary by Cardinal Quignon. Cardinal Bona admits that it is modern.

“I cannot but observe,” says Bingham, “that among all the short prayers used by 76the ancients before their sermons, there is never any mention made of an Ave Mary, now so common in the practice of the Romish Church. Their addresses were all to God; and the invocation of the Holy Virgin for grace and assistance before sermons was a thing not thought of. They who are most concerned prove its use can derive its original no higher than the beginning of the fifteenth century.” But Mosheim (Eccl. Hist. Cant. xiv. Part ii. ch. iv.) says that Pope John XXII. [1316–33] ordered Christians to add to their prayers those words with which the angel Gabriel saluted the Virgin Mary.

AVOIDANCE. Avoidance is where there is a want of a lawful incumbent on a benefice, during which vacancy the Church is quasi riduata, and the possessions belonging to it are in abeyance. There are many ways by which avoidance may happen; by death; by cession, or acceptance of a benefice incompatible; by resignation; by consecration; for when a clerk is promoted to a bishopric, all his other preferments are void the instant he is consecrated, and the right of presentation belongs to the Crown, unless he has a dispensation from the Crown to hold them in commendam: by deprivation, either first by sentence declaratory in the ecclesiastical court for fit and sufficient causes allowed by the common law, such as attainder of treason or felony, or conviction of other infamous crimes in the king’s courts; for heresy, infidelity, gross immorality, and the like; or secondly, in pursuance of divers penal statutes, which declare the benefice void, for some nonfeasance or neglect, or else some malfeasance or crime; as for simony; for maintaining any doctrine in derogation of the king’s supremacy, or of the Thirty-nine Articles, or of the Book of Common Prayer: for neglecting after institution to read the liturgy and articles in the church, or make the declarations against Popery, or take the abjuration oath; for using any other form of prayer than the liturgy of the Church of England: or for absenting himself sixty days in one year from a benefice belonging to a Popish patron, to which the clerk was presented by either of the universities; in all which, and similar cases, the benefice is ipso facto void, without any formal sentence of deprivation. No person can take any dignity or benefice in Ireland until he has resigned all his preferments in England; and by such resignation the king is deprived of the presentation.—Stephens on the Laws relating to the Clergy, p. 91.

AZYMITES. A name given to the Latins, by those of the Greek Church, because they consecrate the holy eucharist in unleavened bread (έν άζυμοις). The more ancient custom was to consecrate a portion of the oblations of the faithful, and therefore of course in leavened bread. The wafer, or unleavened bread, is still retained in the Church of Rome, although the catechism of the Council of Trent admits that the eucharist may also be consecrated in common bread. In the Church of England unleavened bread was prescribed by Queen Elizabeth’s injunctions, and was generally used throughout her reign. At Westminster, it was retained until 1642, nor has it since been forbidden; but the use of leavened bread is now universal, as in the primitive Church.

BACHELOR. In the universities of the Church, bachelors are persons who have attained to the baccalaureate, or taken the first degree in arts, divinity, law, or physic. This degree in some universities has no existence, in some the Candidatus answers to it. It was first introduced in the thirteenth century, by Pope Gregory IX., though it is still unknown in Italy. Bachelors of Arts are not admitted to that degree at Oxford and Dublin till after having studied four years at those universities. At Cambridge, the regular period of matriculation is in the October term; and an undergraduate who proceeds regularly will be admitted to his B. A. in three years from the following January. Bachelors of Divinity, before they can acquire that degree either at Oxford or Cambridge, must be of fourteen years’ standing in the university. Bachelors of Laws, to acquire the degree in Oxford or Cambridge, must have previously studied the law six years. Bachelors of Canon Law are admitted after two years’ study, and sustaining an act according to the forms. Bachelors of Medicine must have studied two years in medicine, after having been four years M. A. in the university, and must have passed an examination; after which they are invested with the fur in order to be licensed. Bachelors of Music in the English and Irish universities must have studied music for a certain number of years, and are admitted to the degree after the composition and performance of a musical exercise. Anciently the grade of Bachelor, at least in arts, was hardly considered as a degree, but merely a step towards the Doctorate or Mastership. In fact, Bachelors in any faculty, as such, have no voice in the university convocations or senates. Bachelors 77in Divinity have, because they must necessarily have been Masters of Art previously. But Bachelors of Law and Medicine have no votes, unless they happen to be Masters of Arts also. In the French, as in the Scotch universities, the degree of Bachelor of Arts was taken while the student was still in statu pupillari, and in fact corresponded very much to the Sophisters in our universities, the A. M. in these places practically correspond to our degree of A. B.

BAMPTON LECTURES. A course of eight sermons preached annually at the university of Oxford, set on foot by the Reverend John Bampton, canon of Salisbury. According to the directions in his will, they are to be preached upon any of the following subjects:—To confirm and establish the Christian faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics; upon the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures; upon the authority of the writings of the primitive fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church; upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; upon the Divinity of the Holy Ghost; upon the articles of the Christian faith, as comprehended in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. For the support of this lecture he bequeathed his lands and estates to the chancellor, masters, and scholars of the university of Oxford for ever, upon trust that the vice-chancellor, for the time being, take and receive all the rents and profits thereof; and, after all taxes, reparations, and necessary deductions made, to pay all the remainder to the endowment of these divinity lecture sermons. He also directs in his will, that no person shall be qualified to preach these lectures, unless he have taken the degree of Master of Arts, at least, in one of the two universities of Oxford or Cambridge, and that the same person shall never preach the same sermon twice. A number of excellent sermons preached at this lecture are now before the public.

BAND. This part of the clerical dress, which is too well known to need description, is the only remaining relic of the ancient amice. (See Amice.) When the beard was worn, and when ruffs came in, this ancient part of clerical dress fell into disuse, but it was generally resumed after the Restoration. The band is not, however, an exclusively clerical vestment, being part of the full dress of the bar and of the universities, and of other bodies in which a more ancient habit is retained, as in some schools of old foundation. Formerly it was worn by graduates, and even under-graduates, at the universities; nor was the custom altogether extinct within memory. It is still worn by the scholars at Winchester, &c., and was anciently worn with the surplice by lay vicars, singing men, and sometimes by parish clerks.

BANGORIAN CONTROVERSY. This was a celebrated controversy within the Church of England in the reign of George I., and received its name from Hoadly, who, although bishop of Bangor, was little else than a Socinian heretic. Hoadly published “A Preservative against the Principles and Practice of the Nonjurors,” and soon after, a sermon, which the king had ordered to be printed, entitled, “The Nature of the Kingdom of Christ.” This discourse is a very confused production; nor, except in the bitterness of its spirit, is it easy, amidst the author’s “periods of a mile,” to discover his precise aim. To the perplexed arguments of Bishop Hoadly, Dr. Snape and Dr. Sherlock wrote replies; and a committee of convocation passed a censure upon the discourse. An order from government arrested the proceedings of the convocation. Snape and Sherlock were removed from their office of chaplains to the king; and the convocation has never yet been again permitted to assemble for the transaction of business. But the exertion of power on the part of the government was unable to silence those who were determined, at any sacrifice, to maintain God’s truth. This controversy continued to employ the press for many years, until those who held Low Church views were entirely silenced by the force of argument. Of the works produced by the Bangorian Controversy, perhaps the most important is Law’s Letters to Hoadly, which were reprinted in “The Scholar Armed,” and have since been republished. Law’s Letters have never been answered, and may indeed be regarded as unanswerable.

BANNER. In the chapels of orders of knighthood, as in St. George’s chapel, Windsor, the chapel of the order of the Garter; in Henry VII.’s chapel, at Westminster, the chapel of the order of the Bath; and in St. Patrick’s cathedral, the chapel of the order of St. Patrick; the banner of each knight, i. e. a little square flag bearing his arms, is suspended, at his installation, over his appropriate stall. The installation of a knight is a religious ceremony; hence the propriety of this act. The same decorations formerly existed in the chapel of Holyrood House, the chapel of the order of the Thistle.

78Also it is not uncommon to see banners taken in battle suspended over the tombs of victorious generals. This is a beautiful way of expressing thankfulness to God for that victory which he alone can give; and it were much to be wished that a spirit of pride and vain-glory should never mingle with the religious feeling.

Banners were formerly a part of the accustomed ornaments of the altar, and were suspended over it, “that in the church the triumph of Christ may evermore be held in mind, by which we also hope to triumph over our enemy.”—Durandus.

BANNS OF MARRIAGE. “Bann” comes from a barbarous Latin word which signifies to put out an edict or proclamation. “Matrimonial banns” are such proclamations as are solemnly made in the church, or in some other lawful congregation of men, in order to the solemnization of matrimony.

Before any can be canonically married, except by a licence from the bishop’s court, banns are directed to be published in the church; and this proclamation should be made on three several solemn days, in all the churches of that place where the parties, willing to contract marriage, dwell. This rule is principally to be observed when the said parties are of different parishes; for the care of the Church to prevent clandestine marriages is as old as Christianity itself: and the design of the Church is, to be satisfied whether there be any “just cause or impediment,” why the persons so asked “should not be joined together in holy matrimony.”

The following are the regulations under which the Church of England now acts on this subject:—

No minister shall be obliged to publish the banns of matrimony between any persons whatsoever, unless they shall, seven days at least before the time required for the first publication, deliver or cause to be delivered to him a notice in writing of their true Christian and surnames, and of the houses of their respective abodes within such parish, chapelry, or extra-parochial place, where the banns are to be published, and of the time during which they have inhabited or lodged in such houses respectively. (26 George II. c. 33, s. 2.) And all banns of matrimony shall be published in the parish church, or in some public chapel wherein banns of matrimony have been usually published, (i. e. before the 25th of March, 1754,) of the parish or chapelry wherein the persons to be married shall dwell. (26 George II. c. 33, s. 1.) And where the persons to be married shall dwell in divers parishes or chapelries, the banns shall be published in the church or chapel belonging to such parish or chapelry wherein each of the said persons shall dwell. And where both or either of the persons to be married shall dwell in any extra-parochial place, (having no church or chapel wherein banns have been usually published,) then the banns shall be published in the parish church or chapel belonging to some parish or chapelry adjoining to such extra-parochial place. And the said banns shall be published upon three Sundays preceding the solemnization of marriage during the time of morning service, or of the evening service, if there be no morning service in such church or chapel on any of those Sundays, immediately after the second lesson. (26 George II. c. 33, s. 1.)

While the marriage is contracting, the minister shall inquire of the people by three public banns, concerning the freedom of the parties from all lawful impediments. And if any minister shall do otherwise, he shall be suspended for three years.

Rubric. And the curate shall say after the accustomed manner:—“I publish the banns of marriage between M. of ——, and N. of ——. If any of you know cause or just impediment why these two persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony, ye are to declare it. This is the first (second, or third) time of asking.”

And in case the parents or guardians, or one of them, of either of the parties, who shall be under the age of twenty-one years, shall openly and publicly declare, or cause to be declared, in the church or chapel where the banns shall be so published, at the time of such publication, his dissent to such marriage, such publication of banns shall be void. (26 George II. c. 3, s. 3.)

Rubric. And where the parties dwell in divers parishes, the curate of one parish shall not solemnize marriage between them, without a certificate of the banns being thrice asked, from the curate of the other parish.

Formerly the rubric enjoined that the banns should be published after the Nicene Creed; but the lamentable deficiency of publicity of which this arrangement was the cause, and the delay hence arising in consequence of some parishes being without any morning service on some Sundays, induced the legislature to make the provisions above cited. (26 George II. c. 33, s. 1.)

79It is to be feared that much laxity prevails among parties to whom the inquiries as to parochial limits are intrusted; and that recent enactments have rather augmented than reformed such laxity. The constitutions and canons of 1603 guard cautiously against clandestine marriages. Canon 62 is as follows:—

Ministers not to marry any persons without banns or licence.—No minister, upon pain of suspension per triennium ipso facto, shall celebrate matrimony between any persons, without a faculty or licence granted by some of the persons in these our constitutions expressed, except the banns of matrimony have been first published three several Sundays, or holidays, in the time of Divine service, in the parish churches and chapels where the said parties dwell, according to the Book of Common Prayer. Neither shall any minister, upon the like pain, under any pretence whatsoever, join any persons so licensed in marriage at any unseasonable times, but only between the hours of eight and twelve in the forenoon; nor in any private place, but either in the said churches or chapels where one of them dwelleth, and likewise in time of Divine service; nor when banns are thrice asked, and no licence in that respect necessary, before the parents or governors of the parties to be married, being under the age of twenty and one years, shall either personally, or by sufficient testimony, signify to them their consents given to the said marriage.

Canon 63. Ministers of exempt churches not to marry without banns or license.—Every minister, who shall hereafter celebrate marriage between any persons contrary to our said constitutions, or any part of them, under colour of any peculiar liberty or privilege claimed to appertain to certain churches and chapels, shall be suspended per triennium by the ordinary of the place where the offence shall be committed. And if any such minister shall afterwards remove from the place where he hath committed that fault, before he be suspended, as is aforesaid, then shall the bishop of the diocese, or ordinary of the place where he remaineth, upon certificate under the hand and seal of the other ordinary, from whose jurisdiction he removed, execute that censure upon him.

See also canon 70. By the statute 6 & 7 W. IV. c. 85, sec. 1, it is enacted, that where, by any law or canon in force before the passing of this act, it is provided that any “marriage may be solemnized after publication of banns, such marriage may be solemnized, in like manner, on production of the registrar’s certificate as hereinafter provided:” so that marriages may now be solemnized in the Church of England, without banns or licence, on production of the superintendent registrar’s certificate.

BAPTISM. (Βάπτειν, to wash.) Baptism is one of the two sacraments, which, according to the Catechism, “are generally necessary to salvation.” Our blessed Saviour says that “except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John iii. 3); and in explanation of his meaning he adds, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (ver. 5). Upon this the Church remarks: “Beloved, ye hear in this Gospel the express words of our Saviour Christ, that, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God: whereby ye may perceive the great necessity of this sacrament where it may be had. Likewise immediately before his ascension into heaven, as we read in the last chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel, he gave command to his disciples, saying, ‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.’ Which also showeth unto us the great benefit we reap thereby. For which cause, St. Peter the apostle, when, upon his first preaching of this gospel, many were pricked at the heart, and said unto him and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ replied and said unto them, ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.’ The same apostle testifieth in another place, ‘even baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.’”—Office of Adult Baptism. The Church also states in the Catechism, that a sacrament, as baptism is, hath two parts, the outward visible sign, and the inward spiritual grace: that the outward visible sign or form in baptism is water, wherein the person is baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and that the inward and spiritual grace, which through the means of baptism we receive, is a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness; for being by nature born in sin and the children of wrath, we are hereby, i. e. by baptism, made children of grace. Therefore the Church, as 80soon as ever a child is baptized, directs the minister to say, “Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child is regenerate and grafted into the body of Christ’s Church, let us give thanks unto Almighty God for these benefits, and with one accord make our prayers unto him, that this child may lead the rest of his life according to this beginning.” The Church here first declares that grace has been given, even the grace of regeneration, and then implies that the grace, if not used, may be lost. On this subject more will be said in the article on Regeneration. See also Infant Baptism.

Grotius (Annot. ad Matt. iii. 6) is of opinion, that the rite of baptism had its original from the time of the deluge; immediately after which he thinks it was instituted, in memory of the world having been purged by water. Some learned men think (W. Schickard, de Jur. Reg. cap. 5) it was added to circumcision, soon after the Samaritan schism, as a mark of distinction to the orthodox Jews. Spencer, who is fond of deriving the rites of the Jewish religion from the ceremonies of the Pagan, lays it down as a probable supposition, that the Jews received the baptism of proselytes from the neighbouring nations, who were wont to prepare candidates for the more sacred functions of their religion by a solemn ablution; that, by this affinity of sacred rites, they might draw the Gentiles to embrace their religion, and the proselytes (in gaining of whom they were extremely diligent, Matt. xxiii. 15) might the more easily comply with the transition from Gentilism to Judaism. In confirmation of this opinion, he observes, first, that there is no Divine precept for the baptism of proselytes, God having enjoined only the rite of circumcision, (Exod. xii. 48,) for the admission of strangers into the Jewish religion; secondly, that, among foreign nations, the Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and others, it was customary that those who were to be initiated into their mysteries or sacred rites, should be first purified by dipping their whole body in water. Grotius, on Matt. xxvi. 27, adds, as a further confirmation of his opinion, that the “cup of blessing” likewise, added to the Paschal supper, seems plainly to have been derived from a Pagan original: for the Greeks, at their feasts, had one cup, called ποτήριον ἀγαθοῦ δαίμονος, the cup of the good demon or god, which they drank at the conclusion of their entertainment, when the table was removed. Since, then, a rite of Gentile original was added to one of the Jewish sacraments, viz. the Passover, there can be no absurdity in supposing, that baptism, which was added to the other sacrament, namely, circumcision, might be derived from the same source. In the last place, he observes, that Christ, in the institution of his sacraments, paid a peculiar regard to those rites which were borrowed from the Gentiles; for, rejecting circumcision and the Paschal supper, he adopted into his religion baptism and the sacred cup; thus preparing the way for the conversion and reception of the Gentiles into his Church.

It is to be observed, under this head of Jewish baptism, that the proselyte was not to be baptized till the wound of circumcision was perfectly healed; that then the ceremony was performed by plunging him into some large, natural receptacle of water; and that baptism was never after repeated in the same person, or in any of his posterity, who derived their legal purity from the baptism of their ancestor.—Selden, de Jur. Nat. et Gent. lib. ii. cap. 1.

In the primitive Christian Church, (Tertull. de Baptismo,) the office of baptizing was vested principally in the bishops and priests, or pastors of the respective parishes; but, with the consent of the bishop, it was allowed to the deacons, and in cases of necessity even to laymen, to baptize; but never, under any necessity whatever, was it permitted to women to perform this office. Nor was it enough that baptism was conferred by a person called to the ministry, unless he was also orthodox in the faith. This became matter of great excitement in the Church; and hence arose the famous controversy between Cyprian and Stephen, bishop of Rome, concerning the rebaptizing those who had been baptized by heretics, Cyprian asserting that they ought to be rebaptized, and Stephen maintaining the contrary opinion.

The persons baptized were either infants or adults. To prove that infants were admitted to the sacrament of baptism, we need only use this argument. None were admitted to the eucharist till they had received baptism: but in the primitive Church children received the sacrament of the Lord’s supper, as appears from what Cyprian relates concerning a sucking child, who so violently refused to taste the sacramental wine, that the deacon was obliged forcibly to open her lips and pour it down her throat. Origen writes, that children are baptized, “for the purging away of the natural filth and original impurity inherent in them.” We might add the testimonies of Irenæus and Cyprian; but it will be sufficient to mention the determination of an African synod, held A. D. 81254, at which were present sixty-six bishops. The occasion of it was this. A certain bishop, called Fidus, had some scruples concerning the time of baptizing infants, whether it ought to be done on the second or third day after their birth, or not before the eighth day, as was observed with respect to circumcision under the Jewish dispensation. His scruples were proposed to this synod, who unanimously decreed, that the baptism of children was not to be deferred so long, but that the grace of God, or baptism, should be given to all, and most especially unto infants.—Justin Martyr, Second Apology; De Lapsis, § 20; In Lucam, Hom. xiv. Apud Cyprian. Epist. lix. § 2–4. Tertull. de Baptismo, c. 19.

As for the time, or season, at which baptism was usually administered, we find it to have been restrained to the two solemn festivals of the year, Easter and Whitsuntide: at Easter, in memory of Christ’s death and resurrection, correspondent to which are the two parts of the Christian life, represented and shadowed out in baptism, dying unto sin, and rising again unto newness of life; and at Whitsuntide, in memory of the Holy Ghost’s being shed upon the apostles, the same, in some measure, being represented and conveyed in baptism. It is to be observed, that these stated returns of the time of baptism related only to persons in health: in other cases, such as sickness, or any pressing necessity, the time of baptism was regulated by occasion and opportunity.

The place of baptism was at first unlimited; being some pond or lake, some spring or river, but always as near as possible to the place of public worship. Afterwards they had their baptisteries, or (as we call them) fonts, built at first near the church, then in the church-porch, and at last in the church itself. There were many in those days who were desirous to be baptized in the river Jordan, out of reverence to the place where our Saviour himself had been baptized.

The person to be baptized, if an adult, was first examined by the bishop, or officiating priest, who put some questions to him; as, first, whether he abjured the devil and all his works; secondly, whether he gave a firm assent to all the articles of the Christian faith: to both which he answered in the affirmative. Concerning these baptismal questions, Dionysius Alexandrinus, in his letter to Xistus, bishop of Rome, speaks of a certain scrupulous person in his church, who, being present at baptism, was exceedingly troubled, when he heard the questions and answers of those who were baptized. If the person to be baptized was an infant, these interrogatories were answered by his sponsores, or godfathers. Whether the use of sponsores was as old as the apostles’ days, is uncertain: perhaps it was not, since Justin Martyr, speaking of the method and form of baptism, says not a word of them.—Tertull. de Coron. Milit. Cyprian, Epist. vii. § 5. Justin Martyr, Apolog. 2. Apud Euseb. lib. vii. c. 9; Apolog. 2.

After the questions and answers, followed exorcism, the manner and end of which was this. The minister laid his hands on the person’s head, and breathed in his face, implying thereby the driving away, or expelling, of the devil from him, and preparing him for baptism, by which the good and holy Spirit was to be conferred upon him.

After exorcism, followed baptism itself: and first the minister, by prayer, consecrated the water for that use. Tertullian says, “any waters may be applied to that use; but then God must be first invocated, and then the Holy Ghost presently comes down from heaven, and moves upon them, and sanctifies them.” The water being consecrated, the person was baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;” by which “dedication of him to the blessed Trinity, the person” (says Clemens Alexandrinus) “is delivered from the corrupt trinity, the devil, the world, and the flesh.”—Tertull. de Baptismo. Justin Martyr, Apolog. 2.

In performing the ceremony of baptism, the usual custom was to immerse and dip the whole body. Thus St. Barnabas, describing a baptized person, says, “We go down into the water full of sin and filth, but we ascend bearing fruit in our hearts.” And that all occasions of scandal and immodesty might be prevented in so sacred an action, the men and women were baptized in distinct apartments; the women having deaconesses to undress and dress them. Then followed the unction, by which (says St. Cyril) was signified, that they were now cut off from the wild olive, and were ingrafted into Christ, the true olive-tree; or else to show, that they were now to be champions for the gospel, and were anointed thereto, as the old Athletæ were against their solemn games. With this anointing was joined the sign of the cross, made upon the forehead of the person baptized; which being done, he had a white garment given him, to denote his being washed from the defilements of sin, or 82in allusion to the words of the apostle, “as many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” From this custom the feast of Pentecost, which was one of the annual seasons of baptism, came to be called Whitsunday, i. e. Whitesunday. This garment was afterwards laid up in the church, that it might be an evidence against such persons as violated or denied that faith which they had owned in baptism. Of this we have a remarkable instance under the Arian persecution in Africa. Elpidophorus, a citizen of Carthage, had lived a long time in the communion of the Church, but, apostatizing afterwards to the Arians, became a most bitter and implacable persecutor of the orthodox. Among several whom he sentenced to the rack, was one Miritas, a venerable old deacon, who, being ready to be put upon the rack, pulled out the white garment with which Elpidophorus had been clothed at his baptism, and, with tears in his eyes, thus addressed him before all the people. “These, Elpidophorus, thou minister of error, these are the garments that shall accuse thee, when thou shalt appear before the majesty of the Great Judge; these are they which girt thee, when thou camest pure out of the holy font; and these are they which shall bitterly pursue thee, when thou shalt be cast into the place of flames; because thou hast clothed thyself with cursing as with a garment, and hast cast off the sacred obligation of thy baptism.”—Epist. Cathol. § 9. Cave’s Primitive Christianity, p. i. c. 10. Epiph. Hæres. 79. Ambrose de Sacr. lib. i. c. 21. Gal. iii. 27. Victor. Utic. de Persecut. Vandal. lib. iii.

But though immersion was the usual practice, yet sprinkling was in some cases allowed, as in clinic baptism, or the baptism of such persons as lay sick in bed. It is true, this kind of baptism was not esteemed so perfect and effectual as that by immersion or dipping; for which reason, in some Churches, none were advanced to the order of the priesthood, who had been so baptized; an instance of which we have in Novatian, whose ordination was opposed by all the clergy upon that account; though afterward, at the entreaties of the bishop, they consented to it. Notwithstanding which general opinion, Cyprian, in a set discourse on this subject, declares that he thought this baptism to be as perfect and valid as that performed more solemnly by immersion.—Epist. Cornel. ad Fabium Antioch. apud Euseb. lib. vi. cap. 43. Epist. lxxvi. § 9. Apolog. 2.

When baptism was performed, the person baptized, according to Justin Martyr, “was received into the number of the faithful, who then sent up their public prayers to God, for all men, for themselves, and for those who had been baptized.”

As the Church granted baptism to all persons duly qualified to receive it, so there were some whom she debarred from the benefits of this holy rite. The author of the Apostolical Constitutions mentions several. Bingham, Orig. Eccles. b. xi. cap. 5, § 6, &c. Const. Apost. lib. viii. cap. 32. Such were panders, or procurers; whores; makers of images or idols; actors and stage-players; gladiators, charioteers, and gamesters; magicians, enchanters, astrologers, diviners, and wandering beggars. Concerning stage-players, the Church seems to have considered them in the very same light as the ancient heathens themselves did: for Tertullian (Tertull. de Spectac. cap. 22) observes that they who professed those arts were branded with infamy, degraded, and denied many privileges, driven from the court, from pleading, from the order of knighthood, and all other honours in the Roman city and commonwealth. It has been a question, whether the military life disqualified a man for baptism: but the contrary appears from the Constitutions, lib. viii. cap. 32, which admit soldiers to the baptism of the Church, on the same terms that St. John Baptist admitted them to his; namely, that they should do violence to no man, accuse no one falsely, and be content with their wages, Luke iii. 14. The state of concubinage is another case which has been matter of doubt. The rule in the Constitutions, lib. viii. c. 32, concerning the matter is this: a concubine, that is, a slave to an infidel, if she keep herself only to him, may be received to baptism; but, if she commit fornication with others, she shall be rejected. The Council of Toledo (Conc. Tolet. 1, can. 17) distinguishes between a man’s having a wife and a concubine at the same time, and keeping a concubine only: the latter case it considers as no disqualification for the sacraments, and only insists that a man be content to be joined to one woman only, whether wife or concubine, as he pleases.

Though baptism was esteemed by the Church as a Divine and heavenly institution, yet there wanted not sects, in the earliest ages, who either rejected it in whole or in part, or greatly corrupted it. The Ascodrutæ wholly rejected it, because they would admit of no external or corporeal symbols whatever. The Archontics, who imagined that the world was not created 83by the supreme God, but by certain ἄρχοντες, or powers, the chief of whom they called Sabaoth, rejected this whole rite, as a foreign institution, given by Sabaoth, the God of the Jews, whom they distinguished from the supreme God. The Seleucians and Hermians rejected baptism by water, on pretence that it was not the baptism instituted by Christ; because St. John Baptist, comparing his own baptism with that of Christ, says, “I baptize you with water, but he that cometh after me shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire,” Matt. iii. 11. They thought that the souls of men consisted of fire and spirit, and therefore that a baptism by fire was more suitable to their nature. Another sect which rejected water-baptism, were the Manichees, who looked upon it as of no efficacy towards salvation: but whether they admitted any other kind of baptism, we are not told. The Paulicians, a branch of this heresy, maintained that the word of the gospel is baptism, because our Lord said, “I am the living water.”—Bingham Orig. Eccles. b. x. cap. 2, § 1. Epiph. Hæres. 40. Theod. Hær. Fab. l. i. cap. 11. August. de Hæres. cap. 59. Philastr. de Hæres. Prædestinat. Hæres. 40. Euthym. Panoplia, Par. ii. tit. 21.

Though the ancient Church considered baptism as indispensably necessary to salvation, it was always with this restriction, provided it could be had: in extraordinary cases, wherein baptism could not be had, though men were desirous of it, they made several exceptions in behalf of other things, which in such circumstances were thought sufficient to supply the want of it. (Bingham, § 19, 20.) The chief of these excepted cases was martyrdom, which usually goes by the name of second baptism, or baptism in men’s own blood, in the writings of the ancients. (Cyprian. Ep. lxiii. ad Julian.) This baptism, they suppose, our Lord spoke of, when he said, “I have another baptism to be baptized with,” alluding to his own future martyrdom on the cross. In the Acts of the Martyrdom of Perpetua, there is mention of one Saturus, a catechumen, who, being thrown to a leopard, was, by the first bite of the wild beast, so bathed in blood, that the people, in derision of the Christian doctrine of martyrdom, cried out salvum lotum, salvum lotum, baptized and saved, baptized and saved. (Bingham, § 24.) But these exceptions and allowances were with respect to adult persons only, who could make some compensation, by acts of faith and repentance, for the want of the external ceremony of baptism. But, as to infants who died without baptism, the case was thought more difficult, because they were destitute both of “the outward visible sign and the inward spiritual grace of baptism.” Upon which account they who spoke the most favourably of their case, would only venture to assign them a middle state, neither in heaven nor hell.—Greg. Naz. Orat. 40. Sever. Catena in Johan. iii.

For the rest, the rite of baptism was esteemed as the most universal absolution and grand indulgence of the ministry of the Church; as conveying a general pardon of sin to every true member of Christ; and as the key of the sacraments, that opens the gate of the kingdom of heaven. Bingham, b. xix, c. i. § 9.

Baptism is defined by the Church of Rome (Alet’s Ritual) to be “a sacrament, instituted by our Saviour, to wash away original sin, and all those we may have committed; to communicate to mankind the spiritual regeneration, and the grace of Christ Jesus; and to unite them to him, as the living members to the head.”

When a child is to be baptized in that Church, the persons who bring it wait for the priest at the door of the Church, who comes thither in his surplice and purple stole, attended by his clerks. He begins with questioning the godfathers, whether they promise, in the child’s name, to live and die in the true Catholic and Apostolic faith, and what name they would give the child. Then follows an exhortation to the sponsors; after which the priest, calling the child by its name, asks it as follows: “What dost thou demand of the Church?” The godfather answers, “Eternal life.” The priest goes on; “If you are desirous of obtaining eternal life, keep God’s commandments, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” &c. After which he breathes three times in the child’s face, saying, “Come out of this child, thou evil spirit, and make room for the Holy Ghost.” This said, he makes the sign of the cross on the child’s forehead and breast, saying, “Receive the sign of the cross on thy forehead, and in thy heart.” Then, taking off his cap, he repeats a short prayer, and, laying his hand gently on the child’s head, repeats a second prayer: which ended, he blesses some salt, and, putting a little of it into the child’s mouth, pronounces these words: “Receive the salt of wisdom.” All this is performed at the church door.

The priest, with the godfathers and godmothers, coming into the church, and advancing towards the font, repeat the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s Prayer. 84Being come to the font, the priest exorcises the evil spirit again, and, taking a little of his own spittle, with the thumb of his right hand, rubs it on the child’s ears and nostrils, repeating, as he touches the right ear, the same word (Ephatha, “be thou opened”) which our Saviour made use of to the man born deaf and dumb. Lastly, they pull off its swaddling-clothes, or strip it below the shoulders, during which the priest prepares the oils, &c.

The sponsors then hold the child directly over the font, observing to turn it due east and west; whereupon the priest asks the child, “whether he renounces the devil and all his works,” and, the godfather having answered in the affirmative, the priest anoints the child between the shoulders in the form of a cross. Then, taking some of the consecrated water, he pours part of it thrice on the child’s head, at each perfusion calling on one of the persons of the holy Trinity. The priest concludes the ceremony of baptism with an exhortation.

It is to be observed, that, in the naming the child, all profane names, such as those of the heathens and their gods, are never admitted; and that a priest is authorized to change the name of a child (though it be a Scripture name) who has been baptized by a Protestant minister. Benserade, we are told, had like to have had his Christian name, which was Isaac, changed, when the bishop confirmed him, had he not prevented it by a jest: for, when they would have changed his name, and given him another, he asked them, “What they gave him into the bargain;” which so pleased the bishop, that he permitted him to retain his former name.

The Romish Church allows midwives, in cases of danger, to baptize a child before it is come entirely out of its mother’s womb: where it is to be observed, that some part of the body of the child must appear before it can be baptized, and that it is baptized on the part which first appears: if it be the head it is not necessary to rebaptize the child; but if only a foot or hand appears, it is necessary to repeat baptism. A still-born child, thus baptized, may be buried in consecrated ground. A monster, or creature that has not the human form, must not be baptized: if it be doubtful whether it be a human creature or not, it is baptized conditionally thus, “If thou art a man, I baptize thee,” &c.

The Greek Church differs from the Romish, as to the rite of baptism, chiefly, in performing it by immersion, or plunging the infant all over in the water, which the relations of the child take care to have warmed, and throw into it a collection of the most odoriferous flowers.—Rycaut’s State of the Greek Church.

The Church of England (Article xxvii.) defines baptism to be, “not only a sign of profession, and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not christened; but it is also a sign of regeneration, or new birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are grafted into the Church: the promises of the forgiveness of sin, of our adoption to be the sons of God, by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed, faith is confirmed, and grace increased, by virtue of prayer to God.” It is added, “that the baptism of young children is in any wise to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ.”

In the rubrics of her liturgy, (see Office for Ministration of Public Baptism,) the Church prescribes, that baptism be administered only on Sundays and holy days, except in cases of necessity. She requires sponsors for infants; for every male child two godfathers and one godmother; and for every female two godmothers and one godfather. We find this provision made by a constitution of Edmond, archbishop of Canterbury, A. D. 1236; and in a synod held at Worcester, A. D. 1240. By the 29th canon of our Church, no parent is to be admitted to answer as godfather to his own child.—Bp. Gibson’s Codex, vol. i. p. 439.

The form of administering baptism is too well known to require a particular account to be given of it. We shall only observe some of the more material differences between the form, as it stood in the first liturgy of King Edward, and that in our Common Prayer Book at present. First, in that of King Edward, we meet with a form of exorcism, founded upon the like practice of the primitive Church, which our reformers left out, when they took a review of the liturgy in the 5th and 6th of that king. It is as follows.

“Then let the priest, looking upon the children, say;

“I command thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that thou come out, and depart from these infants, whom our Lord Jesus Christ hath vouchsafed to call to his holy baptism, to be made members of his body, and of his holy congregation. Therefore, thou cursed spirit, remember thy sentence, remember thy judgment, remember the day to be at hand, wherein 85thou shalt burn in fire everlasting, prepared for thee and thy angels. And presume not hereafter to exercise any tyranny towards these infants, whom Christ hath bought with his precious blood, and by this his holy baptism calleth to be of his flock.”

The form of consecrating the water did not make a part of the office in King Edward’s liturgy, as it does in the present, because the water in the font was changed and consecrated but once a month. The form likewise itself was something different from that we now use, and was introduced with a short prayer, that “Jesus Christ, upon whom (when he was baptized) the Holy Ghost came down in the likeness of a dove, would send down the same Holy Spirit, to sanctify the fountain of baptism; which prayer was afterwards left out, at the second review.

By King Edward’s First Book, the minister is to “dip the child in the water thrice; first dipping the right side; secondly the left; the third time dipping the face toward the font.” This trine immersion was a very ancient practice in the Christian Church, and used in honour of the Holy Trinity: though some later writers say, it was done to represent the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, together with his three days’ continuance in the grave. Afterwards, the Arians making an ill use of it, by persuading the people that it was used to denote that the three persons in the Trinity were three distinct substances, the orthodox left it off, and used only one single immersion.—Tertull. adv. Prax. c. 26. Greg. Nyss. de Bapt. Christi. Cyril, Catech. Mystag.

By the first Common Prayer of King Edward, after the child was baptized, the godfathers and godmothers were to lay their hands upon it, and the minister was to put on him the white vestment commonly called the Chrysome, and to say: “Take this white vesture, as a token of the innocency which, by God’s grace, in this holy sacrament of baptism, is given unto thee; and for a sign, whereby thou art admonished, so long as thou livest, to give thyself to innocence of living, that, after this transitory life, thou mayest be partaker of the life everlasting. Amen.” As soon as he had pronounced these words, he was to anoint the infant on the head, saying, “Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath regenerated thee by water and the Holy Ghost, and hath given unto thee remission of all thy sins; vouchsafe to anoint thee with the unction of his Holy Spirit, and bring thee to the inheritance of everlasting life. Amen.” This was manifestly done in imitation of the practice of the primitive Church.

The custom of sprinkling children, instead of dipping them in the font, which at first was allowed in case of the weakness or sickness of the infant, has so far prevailed, that immersion is at length almost excluded. What principally tended to confirm the practice of affusion or sprinkling, was, that several of our English divines, flying into Germany and Switzerland, during the bloody reign of Queen Mary, and returning home when Queen Elizabeth came to the crown, brought back with them a great zeal for the Protestant Churches beyond sea where they had been sheltered and received; and, having observed that at Geneva (Calvin, Instit. lib. iv. c. 15) and some other places baptism was administered by sprinkling, they thought they could not do the Church of England a greater piece of service than by introducing a practice dictated by so great an oracle as Calvin. This, together with the coldness of our northern climate, was what contributed to banish entirely the practice of dipping infants in the font.

Lay-baptism we find to have been permitted by both the Common Prayer Books of King Edward, and that of Queen Elizabeth, when an infant is in immediate danger of death, and a lawful minister cannot be had. This was founded upon the mistaken notion of the impossibility of salvation without the sacrament of baptism; but afterwards, when they came to have clearer notions of the sacraments, it was unanimously resolved in a convocation, held in the year 1575, that even private baptism, in a case of necessity, was only to be administered by a lawful minister.—Bp. Gibson’s Codex, tit. xviii. vol. i. ch. 9, p. 446.

It remains to be observed, that, by a provincial constitution, made in the year 1236, (26th of Hen. III.,) neither the water, nor the vessel containing it, which have been made use of in private baptism, are afterwards to be applied to common uses: but, out of reverence to the sacrament, the water is to be poured into the fire, or else carried into the church and put into the font; and the vessel to be burnt, or else appropriated to some use in the church. But no provision is made for the disposition of the water used in the font at church. In the Greek Church, particular care is taken that it be not thrown into the street like common water, but poured into a hollow place under the altar, (called θαλασσίδιον or χωνεῖον,) 86where it is soaked into the earth, or finds a passage.—Broughton. Bp. Gibson’s Codex, tit. xviii. c. 2, vol. i. p. 435. Dr. Smith’s Account of the Gr. Church.

BAPTISM, ADULT. “It was thought convenient, that some prayers and thanksgivings, fitted to special occasions, should be added; particularly an office for the baptism of such as are of riper years; which, although not so necessary when the former book was compiled, yet by the growth of anabaptism, through the licentiousness of the late times crept in amongst us, is now become necessary, and may be always useful for the baptizing of natives in our plantations, and others converted to the faith.”—Preface to the Book of Common Prayer.

Rubric. “When any such persons of riper years are to be baptized, timely notice shall be given to the bishop, or whom he shall appoint for that purpose, a week before at the least, by the parents or some other discreet persons; that so due care may be taken for their examination, whether they be sufficiently instructed in the principles of the Christian religion; and that they may be exhorted to prepare themselves with prayers and fasting for the receiving of this holy sacrament. And if they shall be found fit, then the godfathers and godmothers (the people being assembled upon the Sunday or holy day appointed) shall be ready to present them at the font, immediately after the second lesson, either at morning or evening prayer, as the curate in his discretion shall think fit. And it is expedient that every person thus baptized should be confirmed by the bishop, so soon after his baptism as conveniently may be; that so he may be admitted to the holy communion.”

BAPTISM, INFANT. Article 27. “The baptism of young children is in anywise to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ.”

Rubric. “The curates of every parish shall often admonish the people, that they defer not the baptism of their children longer than the first or second Sunday next after their birth, or other holy day falling between; unless upon a great and reasonable cause, to be approved by the curate.”

The practice of infant baptism seems to be a necessary consequence of the doctrine of original sin and of the grace of baptism. If it be only by union with Christ that the children of Adam can be saved; and if, as the apostle teaches, in baptism “we put on Christ,” then it was natural for parents to ask for permission to bring their little ones to Christ, that they might be partakers of the free grace that is offered to all; but though offered to all, to be applied individually. It may be because it is so necessary a consequence of the doctrine of original sin, that the rite of infant baptism is not enjoined in Scripture. But though there is no command in Scripture to baptize infants, and although for the practice we must plead the tradition of the Church Universal, still we may find a warrant in Scripture in favour of the traditional practice. We find it generally stated that the apostles baptized whole households, and Christ our Saviour commanded them to baptize all nations, of which infants form a considerable part. And in giving this injunction, we may presume that he intended to include infants, from the very fact of his not excluding them. For he was addressing Jews; and when the Jews converted a heathen to faith in the God of Israel, they were accustomed to baptize the convert, together with all the infants of his family. And, consequently, when our Lord commanded Jews, i.e. men accustomed to this practice, to baptize nations, the fact that he did not positively repel infants, implied an injunction to baptize them; and when the Holy Spirit records that the apostles, in obedience to that injunction, baptized whole households, the argument gains increased force. This is probably what St. Paul means, when, in the seventh chapter of the First Corinthians, verse 14, he speaks of the children of believers as being holy: they are so far holy, that they may be brought to the sacrament of baptism. From the apostles has come down the practice of baptizing infants, the Church requiring security, through certain sponsors, that the children shall be brought up to lead a godly and a Christian life. And by the early Christians the practice was considered sufficiently sanctioned by the passage from St. Mark, which is read in our baptismal office, in which we are told, that the Lord Jesus Christ, having rebuked those that would have kept the children from him, took them up in his arms and blessed them. He blessed them, and his blessing must have conveyed grace to their souls; therefore, of grace, children may be partakers. They may receive spiritual life, though it may be long before that life develope itself; and that life they may lose by sinning.

BAPTISM, LAY. We shall briefly state the history of lay baptism in our Church both before and after the Reformation. In the “Laws Ecclesiastical” of 87Edmund, king of England, A. D. 945, it is stated:—“Women, when their time of child-bearing is near at hand, shall have water ready, for baptizing the child in case of necessity.”

In the national synod under Otho, 1237, it is directed: “For cases of necessity, the priests on Sundays shall frequently instruct their parishioners in the form of baptism.” To which it is added, in the Constitutions of Archbishop Peckham, in 1279, “Which form shall be thus: I crysten thee in the name of the Fader, and of the Sone, and of the Holy Goste.”

In the Constitutions of the same archbishop, in 1281, it is ruled that infants baptized by laymen or women (in imminent danger of death) shall not be baptized again; and the priest shall afterwards supply the rest.

By the rubrics of the second and of the fifth of Edward VI. it was ordered thus: “The pastors and curates shall often admonish the people, that without great cause and necessity they baptize not children at home in their houses; and when great need shall compel them so to do, that then they minister it in this fashion:—First, let them that be present call upon God for his grace, and say the Lord’s Prayer, if the time will suffer; and then one of them shall name the child and dip him in the water, or pour water upon him, saying these words, I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

In the manuscript copy of the Articles made in convocation in the year 1575, the twelfth is, “Item, where some ambiguity and doubt hath arisen among divers, by what persons private baptism is to be administered; forasmuch as by the Book of Common Prayer allowed by the statute, the bishop of the diocese is authorized to expound and resolve all such doubts as shall arise, concerning the manner how to understand and to execute the things contained in the said book; it is now, by the said archbishop and bishops, expounded and resolved, and every of them doth expound and resolve, that the said private baptism, in case of necessity, is only to be ministered by a lawful minister or deacon called to be present for that purpose, and by none other; and that every bishop in his diocese shall take order that this exposition of the said doubt shall be published in writing, before the first day of May next coming, in every parish church of his diocese in this province; and thereby all other persons shall be inhibited to intermeddle with the ministering of baptism privately, being no part of their vocation.” This article was not published in the printed copy; but whether on the same account that the fifteenth article was left out, (namely, because disapproved by the Crown,) does not certainly appear. However, the ambiguity remained till the conference at Hampton Court, in which the king said, that if baptism was termed private, because any but a lawful minister might baptize, he utterly disliked it, and the point was then debated; which debate ended in an order to the bishops to explain it, so as to restrain it to a lawful minister. Accordingly, in the Book of Common Prayer, which was set forth the same year, the alterations were printed in the rubric thus:—“And also they shall warn them, that without great cause they procure not their children to be baptized at home in their houses. And when great need shall compel them so to do, then baptism shall be administered on this fashion: First, let the lawful minister and them that be present call upon God for his grace, and say the Lord’s Prayer, if the time will suffer; and then the child being named by some one that is present, the said minister shall dip it in the water, or pour water upon it.” And other expressions, in other parts of the service, which seemed before to admit of lay baptism, were so turned, as expressly to exclude it.

BAPTISM, PRIVATE. Rubric. “The curates of every parish shall often warn the people, that without great cause and necessity, they procure not their children to be baptized at home in their houses.”

Canon 69. “If any minister being duly, without any manner of collusion, informed of the weakness and danger of death of any infant unbaptized in his parish, and thereupon desired to go or come to the place where the said infant remaineth, to baptize the same, shall either wilfully refuse so to do, or of purpose or of gross negligence shall so defer the time, as when he might conveniently have resorted to the place, and have baptized the said infant, it dieth through such his default unbaptized, the said minister shall be suspended for three months, and before his restitution shall acknowledge his fault, and promise before his ordinary that he will not wittingly incur the like again. Provided, that where there is a curate, or a substitute, this constitution shall not extend to the parson or vicar himself, but to the curate or substitute present.”

Rubric. “The child being named by some one that is present, the minister shall pour water upon it.

88“And let them not doubt, but that the child so baptized is lawfully and sufficiently baptized, and ought not to be baptized again. Yet, nevertheless, if the child which is after this sort baptized do afterward live, it is expedient that it be brought into the church, to the intent that the congregation may be certified of the true form of baptism privately before administered to such child.”

BAPTISM, PUBLIC. At first baptism was administered publicly, as occasion served, by rivers; afterwards the baptistery was built, at the entrance of the church or very near it, which had a large basin in it, that held the persons to be baptized, and they went down by steps into it. Afterwards, when immersion came to be disused, fonts were set up at the entrance of churches.

By the “Laws Ecclesiastical” of King Edmund, it is directed that there shall be a font of stone, or other competent material, in every church; which shall be decently covered and kept, and not converted to other uses.

And by canon 81, There shall be a font of stone in every church and chapel where baptism is to be administered; the same to be set in the ancient usual places: in which only font the minister shall baptize publicly.

The rubric directs that the people are to be admonished, that it is most convenient that baptism shall not be administered but upon Sundays and other holy days, when the most number of people come together; as well for that the congregation there present may testify the receiving of them that be newly baptized into the number of Christ’s Church, as also because in the baptism of infants, every man present may be put in remembrance of his own profession made to God in his baptism. Nevertheless, if necessity so require, children may be baptized upon any other day.

And by canon 68, No minister shall refuse or delay to christen any child according to the form of the Book of Common Prayer, that is brought to the church to him upon Sundays and holy days to be christened (convenient warning being given him thereof before). And if he shall refuse so to do, he shall be suspended by the bishop of the diocese from his ministry by the space of three months.

The rubric also directs, that when there are children to be baptized, the parents shall give knowledge thereof over-night, or in the morning before the beginning of morning prayer, to the curate.

The rubric further directs, that there shall be for every male child to be baptized two godfathers and one godmother; and for every female, one godfather and two godmothers.

By the 29th canon it is related, that no parent shall be urged to be present, nor admitted to answer as godfather for his own child: nor any godfather or godmother shall be suffered to make any other answer or speech, than by the Book of Common Prayer is prescribed in that behalf. Neither shall any persons be admitted godfather or godmother to any child at christening or confirmation, before the said person so undertaking hath received the holy communion.

According to the rubric, the godfathers and godmothers, and the people with the children, must be ready at the font, either immediately after the last lesson at morning prayer, or else immediately after the last lesson at evening prayer, as the curate by his discretion shall appoint.

The rubric appoints that the priest coming to the font, which is then to be filled with pure water, shall perform the office of public baptism.

It may be here observed, that the questions in the office of the 2 Edward VI., “Dost thou renounce?” and so on, were put to the child, and not to the godfathers and godmothers, which (with all due submission) seems more applicable to the end of the institution; besides that it is not consistent (as it seems) with the propriety of language, to say to three persons collectively, “Dost thou in the name of this child do this or that?”

By a constitution of Archbishop Peckham, the ministers are to take care not to permit wanton names, which being pronounced do sound to lasciviousness, to be given to children baptized, especially of the female sex; and if otherwise it be done, the same shall be changed by the bishop at confirmation; which being so changed at confirmation (Lord Coke says) shall be deemed the lawful name, though this appears to be no longer the case. In the ancient offices of Confirmation, the bishop pronounced the name of the child; and if the bishop did not approve of the name, or the person to be confirmed, or his friends, desired it to be altered, it might be done by the bishop’s then pronouncing a new name; but by the form of the present liturgy, the bishop doth not pronounce the name of the person to be confirmed, and therefore cannot alter it.

The rubric goes on to direct, The priest, taking the child into his hands, shall say 89to the godfathers and godmothers, “Name this child:” and then naming it after them, (if they shall certify him that the child may well endure it,) he shall dip it in the water discreetly and warily, saying, “N. I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” But if they certify that the child is weak, it shall suffice to pour water upon it.

Here we may observe that the dipping by the office of the 2 Edward VI. was not all over; but they first dipped the right side, then the left, then the face towards the font.

The rubric directs that the minister shall sign the child with the sign of the cross. And to take away all scruple concerning the same, the true explication thereof, and the just reasons for retaining of this ceremony, are set forth in the thirtieth canon. The substance of which canon is this, that the first Christians gloried in the cross of Christ; that the Scripture sets forth our whole redemption under the name of the cross; that the sign of the cross was used by the first Christians in all their actions, and especially in the baptizing of their children; that the abuse of it by the Church of Rome does not take away the lawful use of it; that the same has been approved by the reformed divines, with sufficient cautions nevertheless against superstition in the use of it; that it is no part of the substance of this sacrament, and that the infant baptized is by virtue of baptism, before it be signed with the sign of the cross, received into the congregation of Christ’s flock as a perfect member thereof, and not by any power ascribed to the sign of the cross; and therefore, that the same, being purged from all Popish superstition and error, and reduced to its primary institution, upon those rules of doctrine concerning things indifferent which are consonant to the word of God and to the judgments of all the ancient fathers, ought to be retained in the Church, considering that things of themselves indifferent do, in some sort, alter their natures when they become enjoined or prohibited by lawful authority.

The following is Dr. Comber’s analysis of our baptismal office:—The first part of the office, or the preparation before baptism, concerns either the child or the sureties. As to the child, we first inquire if it want baptism; secondly, show the necessity of it in an exhortation; thirdly, we pray it may be fitted for it in the two collects. First, the priest asks if this child have been already baptized, because St. Paul saith, “there is but one baptism” (Ephes. iv. 5); and as we are born, so we are born again, but once. Secondly, the minister begins the exhortation, showing, 1. what reason there is to baptize this child, namely, because of its being born in original sin, (Psalm li. 5,) and by consequence liable to condemnation (Rom. v. 12); the only way to free it from which is baptizing it with water and the Holy Ghost. (John iii. 5.) And, 2. beseeching all present, upon this account, to pray to God, that, while he baptizes this child with water, God will give it his Holy Spirit, so as to make it a lively member of Christ’s Church, whereby it may have a title to “remission of sins.” Thirdly, the two collects follow, made by the priest and all the people for the child: the first collect commemorates how God did typify this salvation, which he now gives by baptism, in saving Noah and all his by water (1 Pet. iii. 21); and by carrying the Israelites safe through the Red Sea. (1 Cor. x. 2.) And it declares also how Christ himself, by being baptized, sanctified water for remission of sin: and upon these grounds we pray that God will by his Spirit cleanse and sanctify this child, that he may be delivered from his wrath, saved in the ark of his Church, and so filled with grace as to live holily here, and happily hereafter. The second collect, after owning God’s power to help this child, and to raise him from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, doth petition him to grant it may receive remission and regeneration, pleading with God to grant this request, by his promise to give to them that ask, that so this infant may be spiritually cleansed by God’s grace in its baptism, and come at last to his eternal kingdom, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The next part of the preparation concerns the godfathers or sureties, who are, 1. encouraged in the gospel and its application, with the thanksgiving; 2. instructed in the preface before the covenant; 3. engaged in the questions and answers. The Jews had sureties at circumcision, who promised for the child till it came to age (Isaiah viii. 2); and the primitive Christians had sponsors to engage for such as were baptized, and since children cannot make a covenant themselves, it is charity to appoint (as the laws of men do) others to do it for them till they be of age; and this gives security to the Church, the child shall not be an apostate; provides a monitor both for the child and its parents, to mind them of this vow, and keep the memory of this new birth, by giving the child new and spiritual relations of godfathers and godmothers. Now to these the 90priest next addresseth, 1. in the Gospel (Mark x. 13–16); which shows how the Jews, believing that Christ’s blessing would be very beneficial to young children, brought them to him in their arms, and when the disciples checked them, Christ first declares that infants, and such as were like them, had the only right to the kingdom of heaven, and therefore they had good right to his love and his blessing, and to all means which might bring them to it, and accordingly he took them in his arms and blessed them. After this follows the explication, and applying this gospel to the sureties; for if they doubt, here they may see Christ’s love to infants, and their right to heaven and to this means, so that they may firmly believe he will pardon and sanctify this child, and grant it a title to his kingdom; and that he is well pleased with them, for bringing this child to his holy baptism; for he desires this infant, as well as we all, may come to know and believe in him. Wherefore, thirdly, here is a thanksgiving to be offered up by all, beginning with praising God for calling us into his Church, where we may know him and obtain the grace to believe, it being very proper for us to bless God for our being Christians, when a new Christian is to be made; and then follows a prayer, that we who are Christians may grow in grace, and that this infant may receive the Spirit in order to its regeneration and salvation. After which form of devotion, fourthly, there is a preface to the covenant, wherein the godfathers and godmothers are put in mind, first, what hath been done already, namely, they have brought the child to Christ, and begged of him in the collects to accept it, and Christ hath showed them in the Gospel that the child is capable to receive, and he willing to give it, salvation and the means thereof, upon the conditions required of all Christians, that is, repentance, faith, and new obedience. Secondly, therefore, they are required to engage in the name of this child, till it come of age, that it shall perform these conditions required on its part, that it may have a title to that which Christ doth promise, and will certainly perform on his part. Fifthly, the engagement itself follows, which is very necessary, since baptism is a mutual covenant between God and man, and therefore, in the beginning of Christianity, (when the Church consisted chiefly of such as were converted from the Jews and Heathens, after they came to age,) the parties baptized answered these very same questions, and entered into these very engagements, for themselves; which infants (who need the benefits of baptism as much as any) not being able to do, the Church lends them the feet of others to bring them, and the tongues of others to promise for them; and the priest stands in God’s stead to take this security in his name; he “demands,” therefore, of the sureties, first, if they in the name and stead of this child will renounce all sinful compliances with the devil, the world, and the flesh, which tempt us to all kinds of sin, and so are God’s enemies, and ours also, in so high a measure, that unless we vow never to follow and be led by them, we cannot be received into league and friendship with God: to this they reply in the singular number, as if the child spake by them, “I renounce them all.” Secondly, as Philip asked the eunuch if he did believe before he baptized him, (Acts viii. 37,) so the priest asks if they believe all the articles of the Christian faith, into which religion they are now to be entered; and therefore they must engage to hold all the fundamental principles thereof, revealed in Scripture and comprised in the Apostles’ Creed; and they are to answer, “All this I stedfastly believe.” Thirdly, that it may appear to be their own free act to admit themselves into this holy religion, they are asked if they will be baptized into this faith, and they answer, “That is my desire;” for who would not desire to be a child of God, a member of Christ, and an heir of heaven? But since these benefits of baptism are promised only to them who live holily, fourthly, it is demanded if they will keep God’s holy will and commandments as long as they live, since they now take Christ for their Lord and Master, and list themselves under his banner, and receive his grace in this sacrament, to renew and strengthen them to keep this vow? Upon these accounts they promise “they will” keep God’s commandments. And now the covenant is made between God and this infant, he hath promised it pardon, grace, and glory, and is willing to adopt it for his own child: and this child, by its sureties, hath engaged to forsake all evil ways, to believe all truth, and to practise all kind of virtue.—Dean Comber.

BAPTISM, REGISTRATION OF. When the minister has baptized the child he has a further duty to perform, in making an entry thereof in the parish register, which is a book in which formerly all christenings, marriages, and burials were recorded, and the use of which is enforced both by the canon law and by the statute.

The keeping of parochial registries of 91baptism, and also of burial, are, so far as regards the duties of clergymen in that respect, regulated by the statute 52 Geo. III. c. 146, whereby it is enacted that registers of public and private baptisms, marriages, and burials, solemnized according to the rites of our Church, shall be made and kept by the rector or other the officiating minister of every parish or chapelry, on books of parchment, or durable paper, to be provided by the king’s printer, at the expense of the parishes; and the particular form of the book, and of the manner of making the entries, are directed according to a form in the schedule to the act.

The register book is to be deemed the property of the parish; the custody of it is to be in the rector or other officiating minister, by whom it is to be kept in an iron chest provided by the parish, either in his own house, if he resides in the parish, or in the church, and the book is to be taken from the chest only for the purpose of making entries, being produced when necessary in evidence, or for some of the purposes mentioned in the act.

The act 6 & 7 W. IV., called the General Registration Act, provides that nothing therein contained shall affect the registration of baptisms or burials, as now by law established; so that whatever any parishioner, incumbent, or curate had respectively a right to insist upon, with regard to the regulation of baptisms, may be equally insisted upon by either party now. There are, however, enactments of 6 & 7 W. IV. c. 86, which are to be observed in addition to those of 52 Geo. III. c. 146.

If any child born in England, whose birth shall have been registered according to the provisions of 6 & 7 W. IV. c. 86, shall, within six calendar months after it has been so registered, have any name given to it in baptism, the parents or persons so procuring such name to be given may, within seven days afterwards, procure and deliver to the registrar a certificate according to a prescribed form, signed by the minister who shall have performed the rite of baptism, which certificate the minister is required to deliver immediately after the baptism, whenever it shall then be demanded, on payment of the fee of 1s., which he shall be entitled to receive for the same; and the registrar, or superintendant registrar, upon the receipt of that certificate, and upon payment of a fee of 1s., shall, without any erasure of the original entry, forthwith register that the child was baptized by such a name; and such registrar, or superintendant registrar, shall thereupon certify upon the certificate the additional entry so made, and forthwith send the certificate through the post to the registrar-general. Every rector, &c., and every registrar, &c., who shall have the keeping for the time being of any register book, shall, at all reasonable times, allow searches to be made, and shall give a copy certified under his hand of any entry or entries in the same, upon payment of a fee of 1s., for every search extending over a period of not more than one year, and 6d. additional for every half year, and 2s. 6d. for every single certificate.

BAPTISTERY. Properly a separate, or special, building for the administration of holy baptism. In this sense, a baptistery, originally intended and used for the purpose, does not occur in England; for that which is called the baptistery at Canterbury, and contains the font, was never so called, or so furnished, till the last century. The remains of an ancient baptistery chapel have lately been discovered in Ely cathedral; and the chapel is now in the course of restoration.

One of the most ancient baptisteries now existing is that of St. John Lateran at Rome, erected by Constantine. It is a detached building, and octagonal. In the centre is a large font of green basalt, into which the persons to be baptized descended by the four steps which still remain. It has two side chapels or exedræ. (See Eustace, Classical Tour in Italy.)

Detached baptisteries still exist in many cities in Italy: the most famous are those at Florence and Pisa. These served for the whole city; anciently no town churches but the cathedral church having fonts. (See Bingham, book viii. ch. 7, § 6.)

Sometimes the canopy to the font grows to so great amplitude as to be supported by its own pillars, and to receive persons within it at the baptismal service, and then it may be called a baptistery. This is the case at Trunch and at Aylsham, both in Norfolk. (See Font.)

BAPTISTS. A name improperly assumed by those who deny the validity of infant baptism, defer the baptism of their own children, and admit proselytes into their community by a second washing. They are more properly called Anabaptists, (see Anabaptists,) from their baptizing again; or Antipædobaptists, from their denying the validity of infant baptism. Their assumed name of Baptists would intimate that they alone truly baptize, and it ought not therefore to be allowed them. We ought no more to call them Baptists, 92than to call Socinians Unitarians, or Papists Catholics, as if we did not hold the Unity of the Godhead, and Socinians were distinguished from us by that article; or as if the Papists, and not we, were catholic or true Christians.

The following is the account of the denomination given by Burder. The members of this denomination are distinguished from all other professing Christians by their opinions respecting the ordinance of Christian baptism. Conceiving that positive institutions cannot be established by analogical reasoning, but depend on the will of the Saviour revealed in express precepts, and that apostolical example illustrative of this is the rule of duty, they differ from their Christian brethren with regard both to the subjects and the mode of baptism.

With respect to the subjects, from the command which Christ gave after his resurrection, and in which baptism is mentioned as consequent to faith in the gospel, they conceive them to be those, and those only, who believe what the apostles were then enjoined to preach.

With respect to the mode, they affirm that, instead of sprinkling or pouring, the person ought to be immersed in the water, referring to the primitive practice, and observing that the baptizer as well as the baptized having gone down into the water, the latter is baptized in it, and both come up out of it. They say, that John baptized in the Jordan, and that Jesus, after being baptized, came up out of it. Believers are said also to be “buried with Christ by baptism into death, wherein also they are risen with him;” and the Baptists insist that this is a doctrinal allusion incompatible with any other mode.

But they say that their views of this institution are much more confirmed, and may be better understood, by studying its nature and import. They consider it as an impressive emblem of that by which their sins are remitted or washed away, and of that on account of which the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey the Messiah. In other words, they view Christian baptism as a figurative representation of that which the gospel of Jesus is in testimony. To this the mind of the baptized is therefore naturally led, while spectators are to consider him as professing his faith in the gospel, and his subjection to the Redeemer. The Baptists, therefore, would say, that none ought to be baptized except those who seem to believe this gospel; and that immersion is not properly a mode of baptism, but baptism itself.

Thus the English and most foreign Baptists consider a personal profession of faith, and an immersion in water, as essential to baptism. The profession of faith is generally made before the congregation, at a church-meeting. On these occasions some have a creed, to which they expect the candidate to assent, and to give a circumstantial account of his conversion; but others require only a profession of his faith as a Christian. The former generally consider baptism as an ordinance, which initiates persons into a particular church; and they say that, without breach of Christian liberty, they have a right to expect an agreement in articles of faith in their own societies. The latter think that baptism initiates merely into a profession of the Christian religion, and therefore say that they have no right to require an assent to their creed from such as do not intend to join their communion; and, in support of their opinion, they quote the baptism of the eunuch, in the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

The Baptists are divided into the General, who are Arminians, and the Particular, who are Calvinists. Some of both classes allow mixed communion, by which is understood, that those who have not been baptized by immersion on the profession of their faith, (but in their infancy, which they themselves deem valid,) may sit down at the Lord’s table along with those who have been thus baptized. This has given rise to much controversy on the subject.

Some of both classes of Baptists are, at the same time, Sabbatarians, and, with the Jews, observe the seventh day of the week as the sabbath. This has been adopted by them from a persuasion that, all the ten commandments are in their nature strictly moral, and that the observance of the seventh day was never abrogated or repealed by our Saviour or his apostles.

In discipline, the Baptists differ little from the Independents. In Scotland they have some peculiarities, not necessary to notice.

BARDESANISTS. Christian heretics in the East, and the followers of Bardesanes, who lived in Mesopotamia in the second century, and was first the disciple of Valentinus, but quitted that heresy, and wrote not only against it, but against the Marcionite and other heresies of his time; he afterwards unhappily fell into the errors he had before refuted. The Bardesanists differed from the Catholic Church on three points:—1. They held the devil to be a self-existent, independent being. 2. They taught that our Lord was not born of a 93woman, but brought his body with him from heaven. 3. They denied the resurrection of the body.—Euseb. Præp. Evang. lib. vi. c. 9. Epiph. Hæres. 5, 6. Origen, contr. Marcion, § 3.

BARNABAS, EPISTLE OF. The Epistle of St. Barnabas is published by Archbishop Wake, among his translations of the works of the Apostolical Fathers; and in the preliminary dissertation the reader will find the arguments which are adduced to prove this to be the work of St. Barnabas. By others it is referred to the second century, and is supposed to be the work of a converted Alexandrian Jew. Du Pin speaks of it as a work full of edification for the Church, though not canonical. By Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen, by Eusebius and St. Jerome, the work is attributed to St. Barnabas, though they declare that it ought not to be esteemed of the same authority as the canonical books, “because, although it really belongs to St. Barnabas, yet it is not generally received by the whole Catholic Church.”—Wake. Du Pin.

BARNABAS’ DAY (ST.). 11th of June. This apostle was born in the island of Cyprus, and was descended from parents of the house of Levi. He became a student of the Jewish law, under Gamaliel, who was also the instructor of St. Paul. St. Barnabas was one of those who freely gave up his worldly goods into the common stock, which was voluntarily formed by the earliest converts to Christianity. After the conversion of St. Paul, St. Barnabas had the distinguished honour of introducing him into the society of the apostles; and was afterwards his fellow-labourer in many places, especially at Antioch, where the name of Christian was first assumed by the followers of Jesus. It has been said that St. Barnabas founded the Church of Milan, and that he was stoned to death at Salamis, in Cyprus; but these accounts are very uncertain. For the Epistle ascribed to him, see the preceding article.

BARNABITES. Called canons regular of St. Paul: an order of Romish monks approved by Pope Clement VII. and Pope Paul III. There have been several learned men of the order, and they have several monasteries in France, Italy, and Savoy: they call them by the name of canons of St. Paul, because their first founders had their denomination from their reading St. Paul’s Epistles; and they are named Barnabites for their particular devotion for St. Barnabas.—Du Pin.

BARSANIANS, or SEMIDULITES. Heretics that began to appear in the sixth age; they maintained the errors of the Gradanaites, and made their sacrifices consist in taking wheat flour on the top of their finger, and carrying it to their mouths.

BARTHOLOMEW’S DAY (ST.). 24th of August. The day appointed for the commemoration of this apostle. In the catalogue of the apostles, which is given by the first three of the evangelists, Bartholomew makes one of the number. St. John, however, not mentioning him, and recording several things of another disciple, whom he calls Nathanael, and who is not named by the other evangelists, this has occasioned many to be of the opinion that Bartholomew and Nathanael were the same person. St. Bartholomew is said to have preached the gospel in the Greater Armenia, and to have converted the Lycaonians to Christianity. It is also believed that he carried the gospel into India: and as there is no record of his return, it is not improbable that he suffered martyrdom in that country.

St. Bartholomew’s day is distinguished in history on account of that horrid and atrocious carnage, called the Parisian Massacre. This shocking scene of religious phrensy was marked with such barbarity as would exceed all belief, if it were not attested by authentic evidence. In 1572, in the reign of Charles IX., numbers of the principal Protestants were invited to Paris, under a solemn oath of safety, to celebrate the marriage of the king of Navarre with the sister of the French king. The queen dowager of Navarre, a zealous Protestant, was poisoned by a pair of gloves before the marriage was solemnized. On the 24th of August, being St. Bartholomew’s day, about morning twilight, the massacre commenced on the tolling of a bell of the church of St. Germain l’Auxerrois. The Admiral Coligni was basely murdered in his own house, and then thrown out of a window, to gratify the malice of the Duke of Guise. His head was afterwards cut off, and sent to the king and the queen mother; and his body, after a thousand indignities offered to it, was hung up by the feet upon a gibbet. The murderers then ravaged the whole city of Paris, and put to death more than ten thousand persons of all ranks. “This,” says Thuanus, “was a horrible scene. The very streets and passages resounded with the groans of the dying, and of those who were about to be murdered. The bodies of the slain were thrown out of the windows, and with them the courts and chambers of the houses 94were filled. The dead bodies of others were dragged through the streets, and the blood flowed down the channels in such torrents, that it seemed to empty itself into the neighbouring river. In short, an innumerable multitude of men, women with child, maidens, and children, were involved in one common destruction; and all the gates and entrances to the king’s palace were besmeared with blood. From Paris, the massacre spread throughout the kingdom. In the city of Meaux, the Papists threw into gaol more than two hundred persons; and after they had ravished and killed a great number of women, and plundered the houses of the Protestants, they executed their fury on those whom they had imprisoned, whom they killed in cold blood, and whose bodies were thrown into ditches, and into the river Maine. At Orleans they murdered more than five hundred men, women, and children, and enriched themselves with the plunder of their property. Similar cruelties were exercised at Angers, Troyes, Bourges, La Charité, and especially at Lyons, where they inhumanly destroyed more than eight hundred Protestants, whose bodies were dragged through the streets and thrown half dead into the river. It would be endless to mention the butcheries committed at Valence, Roanne, Rouen, &c. It is asserted that, on this dreadful occasion, more than thirty thousand persons were put to death. This atrocious massacre met with the deliberate approbation of the pope and the authorities of the Romish Church, and must convince every thinking man that resistance to Popish aggression is a work of Christian charity.

BARUCH (THE PROPHECY OF). One of the apocryphal books, subjoined to the canon of the Old Testament. Baruch was the son of Neriah, who was the disciple and amanuensis of the prophet Jeremiah. It has been reckoned part of Jeremiah’s prophecy, and is often cited by the ancient fathers as such. Josephus tells us, Baruch was descended of a noble family; and it is said, in the book itself, that he wrote this prophecy at Babylon; but at what time is uncertain.—Clem. Alexand. Pædag. ch. 10. Cyprian. de Testimon. ad Quirinum, lib. ii.

The subject of it is an epistle sent, or feigned to be sent, by king Jehoiakim, and the Jews in captivity with him at Babylon, to their brethren the Jews, who were left behind in the land of Judea, and in Jerusalem: there is prefixed an historical Preface, (Pref. to the Book of Baruch,) which relates, that Baruch, being then at Babylon, did, by the appointment of the king and the Jews, and in their name, draw up this epistle, and afterwards read it to them for their approbation; after which it was sent to Jerusalem, with a collection of money, to Joachim the high priest, the son of Hilkiah, the son of Shallum, and to the priests, and to all the people, to buy therewith burnt-offerings, and sin-offerings, and incense, &c.

It is difficult to determine in what language this prophecy was originally written. There are extant three copies of it; one in Greek, the other two in Syriac; but which of these, or whether any one of them, be the original, is uncertain.—Hieron. in Præfat. ad Jerem.

The Jews rejected this book, because it did not appear to have been written in Hebrew; nor is it in the catalogue of sacred books, given us by Origen, Hilary, Ruffinus, and others. But in the Council of Laodicea, in St. Cyril, Epiphanius, and Athanasius, it is joined with the prophecy of Jeremiah.

BASILIAN MONKS. Monks of the order of St. Basil, who lived in the fourth century. St. Basil, having retired into a desert in the province of Pontus, founded a monastery for the convenience of himself and his numerous followers; and for the better regulation of this new society, it is said that he drew up in writing certain rules which he wished them to observe, though some think that he did not compose these rules. This new order soon spread over all the East, and after some time passed into the West. Some authors pretend that St. Basil saw himself the spiritual father of more than 90,000 monks in the East only; but this order, which flourished during more than three centuries, was considerably diminished by heresy, schism, and a change of empire. They also say, that it has produced 14 popes, 1805 bishops, 3010 abbots, and 11,085 martyrs. This order also boasts of several emperors, kings, and princes, who have embraced its rule.—Tillemont, Hist. Eccles., tom. ix. The order of St. Basil prevails almost exclusively in the orthodox Greek Churches.

BASILICA. The halls of justice and of other public business among the Romans were thus called; and many of them, when converted into Christian churches, retained the same name. The general ground-plan of the basilica was also frequently retained in the erection of a church. The basilicas terminated with a conchoidal recess, or apsis, (see Apse,) where the prætor and magistrates sat: beneath this was a transverse 95hall or gallery, the origin of the transept, and below was the great hall with its side passages, afterwards called the nave and aisles.

The bishop of Rome had seven cathedrals called Basilicæ. Six of these were erected or converted into churches by Constantine, viz. St. John Lateran, (the regular cathedral of Rome,) the ancient church of St. Peter, on the Vatican Hill, St. Sebastian, St. Laurence, the Holy Cross, St. Mary the Greater; and one by Theodosius, viz. St. Paul. There are other very ancient churches in Rome, basilicas in form and name, but not cathedrals; for example, St. Clement’s church, supposed to have been originally the house of the apostolical bishop of that name, and the most ancient existing church in the world. Several Italian churches are called Basilicas; at Milan especially; often more than one in a city. (See Cathedrals.)—Jebb.

It is sometimes said, but without any certain foundation, that some of the churches in England with circular apsidal terminations of the chancel, (such as Kilpeck and Steetly,) were originally Roman basilicas. They rather derive their form from the Oriental country churches, which are uniformly apsidal. The most that can be said of them is, that they do, in some respects, resemble the basilicas in arrangement. But as to the cathedrals of England, the case is different: and since old Saxon or Norman churches were unquestionably debasements of the Roman style in their architectural features, it is possible that they derived from Rome the characteristics uniformly observed in the old basilicas. The conversion of the apses into sepulchral chapels for shrines, as at Westminster and Canterbury, as superstition increased, destroyed the ancient arrangements.—Jebb.

BASILIDIANS. A sect of the Gnostic heretics, the followers of Basilides, who taught that from the Unborn Father was born his Mind, and from him the Word, from him Understanding (φρόνησις), from him Wisdom and Power, and from them Excellencies, and Princes, and Angels, who made a heaven. He then introduced a successive series of angelic beings, each set derived from the preceding one, to the number of 365, and each the author of their own peculiar heaven. To all these angels and heavens he gave names, and assigned the local situations of the heavens. The first of them is called Abraxas, a mystical name, containing in it the number 365: the last and lowest is the one which we see; the creators of which made this world, and divided its parts and nations amongst them. In this division the Jewish nation came to the share of the prince of the angels; and as he wished to bring all other nations into subjection to his favourite nation, the other angelic princes and their nations resisted him and his nation. The Supreme Father, seeing this state of things, sent his first-begotten Mind, who is also called Christ, to deliver those who should believe in him from the power of the creators. He accordingly appeared to mankind as a man, and wrought mighty deeds. He did not, however, really suffer, but changed forms with Simon of Cyrene, and stood by laughing, while Simon suffered; and afterwards, being himself incorporeal, ascended into heaven. Building upon this transformation, Basilides taught his disciples that they might at all times deny him that was crucified, and that they alone who did so understood the providential dealings of the Most High, and by that knowledge were freed from the power of the angels, whilst those who confessed him remained under their power. Like Saturninus, however, but in other words, he asserted that the soul alone was capable of salvation, but the body necessarily perishable. He taught, moreover, that they who knew his whole system, and could recount the names of the angels, &c., were invisible to them all, and could pass through and see them, without being seen in return; that they ought likewise to keep themselves individually and personally unknown to common men, and even to deny that they are what they are; that they should assert themselves to be neither Jews nor Christians, and by no means reveal their mysteries.—Epiph. Hæres. xxiv. c. 1. Cave, Hist. Liter. Sæc. Gnosticum.

BASON (or BASIN) [so spelt in the sealed books] FOR THE OFFERTORY. “Whilst the sentences for the Offertory are in reading, the deacons, churchwardens, and other fit persons appointed for that purpose, shall receive the alms for the poor, and other devotions of the people, in a decent bason, to be provided by the parish for that purpose.”—Rubric.

It is clear from this expression, “other devotions,” that our reformers did not intend to interfere with the ancient destination of alms in the holy communion; but that they intended that all our gifts, whether for the relief of the poor—to which indeed the Church assigns the first place—or for any other good purpose, should be made as an offering to God; the word devotions signifying an act of giving up and 96dedicating to Almighty God, and accompanied with prayer. In Exeter cathedral, and others as we believe, the alms are still apportioned to these three purposes,—relief of the poor, support of the fabric of the church, and of the clergy. To this latter use in the early Church they were almost exclusively devoted, the clergy being the chief almoners for the poor, as the Church by her rightful office now is. It is often objected to giving largely in the Offertory that there are now poor laws; but surely the laws of the state should not cramp the free-will offerings of Christ’s people. Is it too much to make the Church the steward of our offerings for the cause of Christ? It were much to be wished that all gifts were again made through this quiet and authorized channel. It is quite within the province of the donor to specify the object on which he wishes the gift to be expended, and the clergy will gladly aid the people in obedience to their holy mother the Church.

BATH-KOL, or BATH-COL, signifies Daughter of the Voice. It is a name by which the Jewish writers distinguish what they call a revelation from God, after verbal prophecy had ceased in Israel, that is, after the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The generality of their traditions and customs are founded on this Bath-Kol. They pretend, that God revealed them to their elders, not by prophecy, but by secret inspiration, or tradition: and this they call the Daughter of the Voice. The Bath-Kol, as Dr. Prideaux shows, was a fantastical way of divination, invented by the Jews, like the Sortes Virgilianæ among the heathens. With the heathen, the words dipt at, in opening the works of Virgil, were the oracle by which they prognosticated those future events of which they desired to be informed. In like manner by the Jews, when they appealed to Bath-Kol, the next words which they heard were considered as the desired oracle. Some Christians, when Christianity began to be corrupted, used the Scriptures in the same manner as the heathens employed the works of Virgil.

BATTLE, or more properly BATTEL, Wager of. One of the forms of ordeal, or appeal to the judgment of God in the old Norman courts of this kingdom. (See Ordeal.) In cases of murder, and some others, when the evidence against the accused did not amount to positive proof, he was allowed to assert his innocence by this appeal. If a prosecutor appeared, before he could put in his charge, it was necessary, in cases of murder, that he should prove himself to be of the blood of the deceased. In cases of homicide, that he was allied to the slain as a relation, or vassal, or lord, and could speak of the death on the testimony of his own senses. The accused might then plead not guilty, and, at his option, throw down his glove, and declare his readiness to defend his innocence with his body. If the appellant took up the glove, and professed himself willing to prove the charge in the same manner, the judges, unless the guilt or innocence of the accused were evident, proceeded to award a trial by battle. The appellee, with the book of the Gospels in his right hand, and the right hand of his adversary in his left, took the following oath: “Hear me, thou whom I hold by the right hand, I am not guilty of the felony with which thou hast charged me. So help me God and His saints. And this will I defend with my body against thee, as this court shall award.” Then exchanging hands, and taking the book, the appellant swore, “Hear me, thou whom I hold by the hand. Thou art perjured, because thou art guilty. So help me God and His saints. And this will I prove against thee with my body, as this court shall award.” On the day appointed by the court, the two combatants were led to battle. Each had his head, arms, and legs bare, was protected by a square target of leather, and employed as a weapon a wooden stave one ell in length, and turned at the end. If the appellee was unwilling to fight, or in the course of the day was unable to continue the combat, he was immediately hanged, or condemned to forfeit his property, and lose his members. If he slew the appellant, or forced him to call out “Craven,” or protracted the fight till the stars appeared in the evening, he was acquitted. Nor did his recreant adversary escape punishment. If he survived the combat, he was fined sixty shillings, was declared infamous, and stript of all the privileges of a freeman.

In the court of chivalry the proceedings were different. When the cause could not be decided on the evidence of witnesses, or the authority of documents, the constable and mareschal required pledges from the two parties, and appointed the time of battle, the place, and the weapons,—a long sword, a short sword, and a dagger; but allowed the combatants to provide themselves with defensive armour according to their own choice. A spot of dry and even ground, sixty paces in length and forty in breadth, was enclosed with stakes seven feet high, around which were placed the serjeants-at-arms, with other officers, to 97keep silence and order among the spectators. The combatants entered at opposite gates; the appellant at the east, the defendant at the west end of the lists: and each severally swore that his former allegations and answers were true; that he had no weapons but those allotted by the court; that he wore no charms about him; and that he placed his whole confidence on God, on the goodness of his cause, and on his own prowess. Then taking each other by the hand, the appellant swore that he would do his best to slay his adversary, or compel him to acknowledge his guilt: the defendant, that he would exert all his powers to prove his own innocence. When they had been separately conducted to the gates at which they entered, the constable, sitting at the foot of the throne, exclaimed thrice, “Let them go,” adding to the third exclamation, “and do their duty.” The battle immediately began: if the king interposed, and took the quarrel into his own hands, the combatants were separated by the officers with their wands, and then led by the constable and mareschal to one of the gates, through which they were careful to pass at the same moment, as it was deemed a disgrace to be the first to leave the place of combat. If either party was killed, or cried “Craven,” he was stripped of his armour on the spot where he lay, was dragged by horses out of the lists, through a passage opened in one of the angles, and was immediately hanged or beheaded in presence of the mareschal.

Trial by battle was used not only in military and criminal cases, but also in one kind of civil action, namely, in writs of right, which were not to determine the jus possessionis, but the less obvious and more profound question of the jus proprietatis. In the simplicity of ancient times, it was thought not unreasonable that a matter of such difficulty should be left to the decision of Providence by the wager of battle. In this case the battle was waged by champions, because, in civil actions, if any party to the suit dies, the suit must abate, or end, and therefore no judgment could be given.

The last trial by battle that was waged in the court of Common Pleas at Westminster was in the thirteenth year of Queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1571, as reported by Sir James Dyer; and was held in Tothill Fields “non sine magnâ juris consultorum perturbatione.” There was afterwards one in the court of Chivalry in 1631, and another in the county palatine of Durham in 1628.

The Wager of Battle was accounted obsolete, until it was unexpectedly demanded and admitted in 1817, in a case of supposed murder; and it has since been abolished by act of parliament, 59 George III. c. 46.

BAY. (More anciently Severy.) One whole compartment of a building. As the whole structure consists of a repetition of 98bays, the description of one bay comprises most of the terms used in architectural nomenclature. The accompanying block figures are purposely composed of discordant parts, to comprise the greater number of terms.

A.

Aisle.

I.

Basement.

II.

Parapet.

a.

Corbel table.

b.

Cornice.

c.

Gurgoyle.

III.

Buttress.

d.

Pedimental set-off.

e.

Plain set-off.

f.

Finial.

g.

Flying buttress, or arch-buttress.

IV.

Aisle roof.

C.

Clerestory.

A.

Aisle.

V.

Pier.

h.

Capital.

i.

Shaft.

k.

Base.

l.

Band.

VI.

Pier arch.

m.

Spandril.

VII.

Vaulting shaft.

n.

Corbel.

o.

Capital.

B.

Triforium.

VIII.

Triforium arcade.

p.

Blank arches.

q.

Pierced arches.

C.

Clerestory.

D.

Vault.

r.

Groining ribs.

s.

Bosses.

E.

Aisle windows.

t.

Jamb shafts.

u.

Tracery (Perpendicular).

v.

Mullions.

w.

Transom.

x.

Batement lights.

F.

Clerestory windows.

y.

Tracery (Geometrical).

z.

Cusping or foliation.

aa.

Tracery (Flowing).

bb.

Hood, in the exterior more correctly dripstone.

cc.

Corbel, or label.

1.

Arcading (Norman to Decorated.)

2.

Panelling (Perpendicular).

3.

Niche.

4.

Panel.

5.

String.

BEADS, or BEDES. A word of Saxon origin, which properly signifies prayers; hence Bidding the Bedes meant desiring the prayers of the congregation, and from the forms used for this purpose before the Reformation is derived the Bidding of prayer, prescribed by the English canons of 1603. (See Bidding Prayer.) From denoting the prayers themselves, the word came to mean the little balls used by the Romanists in rehearsing and numbering their Ave-marias and Paternosters. (See Rosary.) A similar practice prevails among the dervises and other religious persons throughout the East, as well Mahometans as Buddhists and other heathens. The ancient form of the Bedes, or Bidding Prayer, is given in the Appendix to Collier’s Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. No. 54, which shows that our present Bidding Prayer was founded on that model.

BEATIFICATION. (See Canonization.) In the Romish Church, the act by which the pope declares a person happy after death. Beatification differs from canonization. In the former the pope does not act as a judge in determining the state of the beatified, but only grants a privilege to certain persons to honour him by a particular religious worship, without incurring the penalty of superstitious worshippers. In canonization, the pope blasphemously speaks as a judge, and determines, ex cathedrâ, on the state of the canonized. It is remarkable, that particular orders of monks assume to themselves the power of beatification.

BEDDERN, BEDERNA. The name still retained of the vicar’s college at York, and of the old collegiate building at Beverley. Query, whether it may be somewhat the same as Bedehouse, i. e. an hospital?—Jebb.

BEGUINES. A congregation of nuns, founded either by St. Begghe, duchess of Brabant, in the seventh century, or by Lambert le Begue, a priest and native of Liege, who lived in the twelfth century. 99They were established first at Liege, and afterwards at Nivelle, in 1207, or, as some say, in 1226. From this last settlement sprang the great number of Beguinages, which are spread over all Flanders, and which have passed from Flanders into Germany. In the latter country, some of them fell into extravagant errors, and persuaded themselves that it was possible in the present life to attain to the highest perfection, even to impeccability, and a clear view of God, and in short, to so eminent a degree of contemplation, that, after this, there was no necessity of submitting to the laws of mortal men, civil or ecclesiastical. The Council of Vienne, in 1311, condemned these errors, but permitted those who continued in the true faith to live in chastity and penitence, either with or without vows. There still subsist many communities of Beguines in Flanders.—Hist. des Ord. Relig. viii. c. i.

BEL AND THE DRAGON (THE HISTORY OF). An apocryphal and uncanonical book of Scripture. It was always rejected by the Jewish Church, and is extant neither in the Hebrew nor the Chaldee language, nor is there any proof that it ever was so. St. Jerome gives it no better title than “the fable of Bel and the Dragon.” It is, however, permitted to be read, as well as the other apocryphal writings, for the instruction and improvement of manners.

Selden (De Diis Syris, Syntagma ii. cap. 17) thinks, this little history ought rather to be considered as a sacred poem or fiction, than a true account. As to the Dragon, he observes, that serpents (dracones) made a part of the hidden mysteries of the Pagan religion; as appears from Clemens Alexandrinus, Julius Firmicus, Justin Martyr, and others. And Aristotle relates, that, in Mesopotamia, there were serpents which would not hurt the natives of the country, and infested only strangers. Whence it is not improbable that both the Mesopotamians themselves and the neighbouring people might worship a serpent, the former to avert the evil arising from those reptiles, the latter out of a principle of gratitude. But of this there is no clear proof, nor is it certain that the Babylonians worshipped a dragon or serpent.—Aristot. περὶ θαυμασιων ἀκουσματων.

BELFRY. The place where the bells are hung; sometimes being a small arch placed on the gable of the church, sometimes a tower or turret. The belfries were originally detached from the church, as may be still seen in many places in Italy. Instances of this have been known in England, as at Chichester, and at Salisbury (the belfry in the latter place was destroyed some years ago). The great central towers of our cathedrals and abbeys were not originally constructed for bells, but for lanterns, to give light to the central portion of the church. The bells were contained in the towers, or turrets, at the west end, or at the angles of the church. Many churches had more than one bell tower. In Canterbury cathedral the ring of bells is contained in the south-western tower; the small bell, or Bell-Hurry, which is rung just before the service, is placed in the great central tower.

BELIEVERS (πιστοὶ, or Faithful). A name given to the baptized in the early Church, as distinguished from the Catechumens. The believer was admitted to all the rites of Divine worship, and instructed in all the mysteries of the Christian religion.—Bingham.

BELLS. Bells of a small size are very ancient, but larger ones are of a much later date. The lower part of the blue robe worn by the Jewish high priest was adorned with pomegranates and gold bells. The kings of Persia are said to have had the hem of their robes adorned in like manner. The high priest probably gave notice to the people, and also desired permission to enter the sanctuary, by the sound of these bells, and by so doing escaped the punishment of death annexed to an indecent intrusion.

On the origin of church bells, Mr. Whitaker, in his “History of Manchester,” observes, that bells being used, among other purposes, by the Romans, to signify the times of bathing, were naturally applied by the Christians of Italy to denote the hours of devotion, and summon the people to church.

“Bells,” says Nicholls, “were not in use in the first ages of Christianity. For, before the Christians received countenance from the civil power, they were called together by a messenger, who went about from house to house, some time before the hour the congregation met. After this they made use of a sounding plank hanging by a chain, and struck with a hammer. The precise time when bells first came in use is not known. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, in Campania, in order to give notice to the most remote inhabitants when prayers began, hung up a large brass vessel, which, when struck upon by a hammer, gave such a sound as he desired for his purpose. This was about the year 420. Hence the two Latin names for a great bell—Nola, 100from the town; and Campana, from the country where they were first used.”

But, whatever may be the connexion of bells with the city of Nola, there is no ground for referring the first use of them to Paulinus; Bingham pronounces the opinion to be “certainly a vulgar error.” Others say they took the latter of these names, not from their being invented in Campania, but because it was there the manner of hanging and balancing them, now in use, was first practised; at least that they were hung on the model of a sort of balance invented or used in Campania.

The Greek Christians are usually said to have been unacquainted with bells till the ninth century, when their construction was first taught them by a Venetian. But it is not true that the use of bells was entirely unknown in the ancient Eastern churches, and that they called the people to church, as at present, with wooden mallets, like the clappers or cresselles, used instead of bells in many churches of the Romish communion, during the holy week. (See Cresselle.) Leo Allatius, in his Dissertation on the Greek Temples, proves the contrary from several ancient writers. He says bells first began to be disused among them after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks; who, it seems, prohibited them, lest their sound should disturb the repose of the souls which, according to them, wander in the air.

In Britain, bells were used in churches before the conclusion of the seventh century, in the monastic societies of Northumbria, and as early as the sixth, even in those of Caledonia. And they were therefore used from the first erection of parish churches among us. Those of France and England appear to have been furnished with several bells. In the time of Clothaire II., king of France, A. D. 610, the army of that king was frightened from the siege of Sens, by ringing the bells of St. Stephen’s Church. The second excerption of Egbert, about A. D. 750, which is adopted in a French capitulary of 801, commands every priest, at the proper hours, to sound the bells of his church, and then to go through the sacred offices to God. And the Council of Eanham, in 1009, requires all the mulcts for sins to be expended in the reparation of the church, clothing and feeding the ministers of God, and the purchase of church vestments, church books, and church bells. These were sometimes composed of iron in France; and in England, as formerly at Rome, were frequently made of brass; and, as early as the ninth century, there were many cast of a large size and deep note. Ingulphus mentions, that Turketulus, abbot of Croyland, who died about A. D. 870, gave a great bell to the church of that abbey, which he named Guthlac; and afterwards six others, viz. two which he called Bartholomew and Betelin, two called Turkettul and Tatwin, and two named Pega and Bega, all which rang together; the same author says, “Non erat tunc tanta consonantia campanarum in totâ Angliâ.” Not long after, Kinsius, archbishop of York, (1051–1061,) gave two great bells to the church of St. John, at Beverley, and at the same time provided that other churches in his diocese should be furnished with bells. Mention is made by St. Aldhelm, and William of Malmesbury, of bells given by St. Dunstan to churches in the West. The number of bells in every church gave occasion to a curious and singular piece of architecture in the campanile or bell tower: an addition which is more susceptible of the grander beauties of architecture than any other part of the edifice. It was the constant appendage to every parish church of the Saxons, and is actually mentioned as such in the laws of Athelstan.

The uses of church bells are summed up in the following monkish distichs:—

Before bells were hung, they were formerly, and in the Romish communion they still are, washed, crossed, blessed, anointed with chrism, and named by the bishop. This ceremony was commonly styled baptizing them. (See Martène de Antiq. Eccl. Ritibus, ii. 296.) Some say that it was introduced by Pope John XIII., who occupied the pontifical chair from 965 to 972, and who first consecrated a bell in the Lateran church, and gave it the name of John the Baptist. But it is evidently of an older standing, there being an express prohibition of the practice in a capitular of Charlemagne in 789—ut clocæ non baptizentur.

The following are the regulations of the Church of England on the subject of bells.

By a constitution of Archbishop Winchelsea, the parishioners shall find, at their own expense, bells with ropes.

Canon 81. The churchwardens or questmen, and their assistants, shall not suffer the bells to be rung superstitiously, upon holy days or eves abrogated by the Book of Common Prayer, nor at any other times, 101without good cause to be allowed by the minister of the place, and by themselves.

Canon 111. The churchwardens shall present all persons, who by untimely ringing of bells do hinder the minister or preacher.

Canon 15. Upon Wednesdays and Fridays weekly, the minister at the accustomed hour of service shall resort to the church or chapel, and warning being given to the people by tolling of a bell, shall say the litany.

Canon 67. When any is passing out of this life, a bell shall be tolled, and the minister shall not then slack to do his last duty. And after the party’s death, (if it so fall out,) there shall be rung no more but one short peal, and one other before the burial, and one other after the burial.

Rubric concerning the service of the church. “And the curate that ministereth in every parish church or chapel, being at home, and not being otherwise reasonably hindered, shall say the same in the parish church or chapel when he ministereth, and shall cause a bell to be tolled thereunto a convenient time before he begin, that the people may come to hear God’s word, and to pray with him.”

Although the churchwardens may concur in directing the ringing or tolling of the bells on certain public and private occasions, the incumbent may prevent the churchwardens from ringing or tolling them at undue hours, or without just cause. Proceedings may be instituted in the ecclesiastical court against churchwardens who have violently and illegally persisted in ringing the bells without consent of the incumbents.

Bells were used in Ireland at a very early period. Harris, in his edition of Ware, (vol. ii. p. 129,) quotes Bede as an authority for the use of bells in the sixth century, and observes on Molyneux’s opinion that the popular name of the round tower in Ireland was derived from a Germanico-Saxon word, signifying a bell. Mr. Petrie, in his recent laborious essay on the Irish Round Towers, has shown that these towers, as their name denotes, their form and locality suggest, and tradition teaches, were intended for ecclesiastical belfries. And in the same work, as well as in the documents collected by Irish antiquarians, it is shown that bells were known in Ireland as far back as the age of St. Patrick. Some of these ancient bells are still in existence.

Nankin, in China, was anciently famous for the largeness of its bells; but their enormous weight having brought down the tower in which they were hung, the whole building fell to ruin, and the bells have ever since been disregarded. One of these bells is near 12 English feet high, the diameter 7½ feet, its circumference 23 feet, and the thickness of the metal about the edges 7 inches; its figure almost cylindrical, except for a swelling in the middle. From these dimensions its weight is computed at 50,000 lbs.

In the churches of Russia the bells are numerous, and distinguished by their immense size; they are hung, particularly at Moscow, in belfries or steeples detached from the churches, with gilt or silvered cupolas, or crosses; and they do not swing, but are fixed immoveably to the beams, and rung by a rope tied to the clapper, and pulled sideways. One of these bells, in the belfry of St. Ivan’s church at Moscow, weighed 127,836 English lbs. It has always been esteemed a meritorious act of religion to present a church with bells, and the piety of the donor has been estimated by their magnitude. The emperor Bodis Godunof gave a bell of 288,000 lbs. to the cathedral of Moscow, but he was surpassed by the empress Anne, (or, as Dr. Clarke and others say, Alexis, in 1653,) at whose expense a bell was cast, weighing no less than 443,772 lbs., which exceeds in size every bell in the known world. Its height is 21 feet, the circumference at the bottom 67 feet 4 inches, and its greatest thickness 23 inches. The beam to which this vast machine was fastened being accidentally burnt by a fire in 1737, the bell fell down, and a fragment was broken off towards the bottom, which left an aperture large enough to admit two persons abreast without stooping.

In the Russian Divine service the number of strokes on the bell announces what part of it is beginning. Several blows are struck before the mass; three before the commencement of the liturgy; and, in the middle of it, a few strokes apprize the people without, that the hymn to the holy Virgin is about to be sung, when all work is immediately suspended, they bow and cross themselves, repeating silently the verse then singing in the church.—Overall. For some curious directions as to the chiming of the bells in ancient times in Lichfield cathedral, see Dugd. Monast. ed. 1830, vi. 1256.—Jebb.

BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE. Between the seventh and the tenth century, the sentence of excommunication was attended with great solemnities. The most important was the extinction of lamps or candles by throwing them on the ground, 102with an imprecation, that those against whom the curse was pronounced might be extinguished or destroyed by the vengeance of God. The people were summoned to attend this ceremony by the sound of a bell, and the curses accompanying the ceremony were pronounced out of a book by the minister, standing in a balcony. Hence originated the phrase of cursing by bell, book, and candle.

BEMA. The name of the bishop’s throne in the primitive church, or, as some understand it, the whole of the upper end of the church, containing the altar and the apsis. This seat or throne, together with those of the presbyters, was always fixed at the upper end of the chancel, in a semicircle beyond the altar. For anciently, the seats of the bishops and presbyters were joined together, and both were called thrones. The manner of their sitting is related by Gregory Nazianzen in his description of the church of Anastasia, where he speaks of himself as bishop, sitting upon the high throne, and the presbyters on lower benches on each side of him.—Bingham. (See Apsis and Cathedral.)

BENEDICITE. A canticle used at Morning Prayer, after the first lesson. This canticle is so called because, in the Latin version, it so begins. It is called “The Song of the Three Children,” because Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (whom the prince of the eunuchs named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Dan. i. 7) are reported to have sung it in the burning fiery furnace, into which they were cast by order of Nebuchadnezzar for adhering stedfastly to their God, (Dan. iii. 19,) &c., and in which God preserved them in a miraculous manner (ver. 27).—Dr. Bennet.

This and the Te Deum are the only hymns used in our service that are of man’s composing. Our Church being careful, even beyond all the ancient Churches, in singing to God, to sing in the words of God.—Dr. Bisse. This statement of Dr. Bisse is not altogether correct. The hymns “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts,” and the “Gloria in Excelsis,” though suggested by Holy Scripture, are human compilations. And the metrical Veni Creator is also of man’s composing. The Benedicite was prescribed to be used in Lent, by King Edward VI.’s First Book.—Jebb.

BENEDICTINES. An order of monks who profess to follow the rules of St. Benedict. The Benedictines, being those only that are properly called monks, wear a loose black gown, with large white sleeves, and a capuche, or cowl, on their heads, ending in a point behind. In the canon law they are styled black friars, from the colour of their habit. The rules of St. Benedict, as observed by the English monks before the dissolution of the monasteries, were as follows: they were obliged to perform their devotions seven times in twenty-four hours, the whole circle of which devotions had respect to the passion and death of Christ: they were obliged always to go two and two together: every day in Lent they were obliged to fast till six in the evening; and abated of their usual time of sleeping and eating; but they were not allowed to practise any voluntary austerity without leave of their superior: they never conversed in their refectory at meals, but were obliged to attend to the reading of the Scriptures: they all slept in the same dormitory, but not two in a bed: they lay in their clothes: for small faults they were shut out from meals: for greater they were debarred religious commerce, and excluded from the chapel: incorrigible offenders were excluded from the monasteries. Every monk had two coats, two cowls, a table book, a knife, a needle, and a handkerchief; and the furniture of his bed was a mat, a blanket, a rug, and a pillow.

The time when this order came into England is well known, for in 596 Gregory the Great sent hither Augustine, prior of the monastery of St. Andrew at Rome, with several other Benedictine monks. Augustine became archbishop of Canterbury; and the Benedictines founded several monasteries in England, as also the metropolitan church of Canterbury. Pope John XXII., who died in 1354, after an exact inquiry, found, that, since the first rise of the order, there had been of it twenty-four popes, near 200 cardinals, 7000 archbishops, 15,000 bishops, 15,000 abbots of renown, above 4000 saints, and upwards of 37,000 monasteries. There have been likewise of this order twenty emperors and ten empresses, forty-seven kings, and above fifty queens, twenty sons of emperors, and forty-eight sons of kings, about one hundred princesses, daughters of kings and emperors, besides dukes, marquises, earls, countesses, &c., innumerable. This order has produced a vast number of eminent authors and other learned men. Rabanus set up the school of Germany. Alcuinus founded the university of Paris. Dionysius Exiguus perfected the ecclesiastical computation. Guido invented the scale of music, and Sylvester the organ. They boast to have produced Anselm, Ildephonsus, Venerable Bede, &c. There are nuns likewise 103who follow the order of St. Benedict: among whom those who call themselves mitigated, eat flesh three times a week, on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays; the others observe the rule of St. Benedict in its rigour, and eat no flesh unless they are sick. The Benedictines were the most extensive and powerful order in England. All the cathedral convents, with the exception of the Augustinian monastery of Carlisle, were of this order, as were four out of the five that were converted into cathedrals by Henry VIII., viz. Gloucester, Oxford, Peterborough, and Chester: and all the mitred abbeys, with the exception of Waltham and Cirencester, which were Augustinian. In Ireland they yielded in importance and numbers to the Augustinians. They were the great patrons of church architecture and of learning in England. The chief branches of the Benedictine order in England were the Cluniacs, founded by Bernon, abbot of Gigniac, in 913; and the Cistercian, founded by Robert, abbot of Molême, at Citeaux in Burgundy, in 1098. (See Cluniacs and Cistercians.)

BENEDICTION. A solemn act of blessing performed by the bishops and priests of the Church. In the Jewish Church, the priests, by the command of God, were to bless the people, by saying, “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” In the Church of England, several forms of blessing are used agreeing with the particular office of which they form a part. The ordinary benediction at the close of Divine service, from the end of the Communion office, is in these words: “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord: and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you always.” The former part of this is taken from Philippians iv. 7, and the latter may be considered as a Christian paraphrase of Numbers vi. 24, &c. Other forms of blessing, or modifications of the above, may be found in the offices for Confirmation, Matrimony, and Visitation of the Sick. The benediction at the end of the Communion Service must be said by the bishop, if he be present.

In the Romish Church, on Holy Thursday, the officiating priest blesses, consecrates, and exorcises, three sorts of oils. The first is that used in extreme unction; the second that of the Chrysma; the third that of the Catechumens; ending with this salutation, Ave sanctum oleum, “Hail holy oil!” after which the new-made holy oils are carried in procession into the sacristy.—Piscara, Praxis Cerem.

In Spain, and some parts of France bordering upon Spain, the custom of blessing meats at Easter is still preserved. This is supposed to be done in opposition to the heresy of the Priscillianists, which infected Spain and Guienne: for Priscillian held, that the devil, and not God, was the creator of flesh, and that the faithful ought to reject it as impure and wicked. This blessing is scarce ever used, except in those churches, and near those places, where that heresy formerly prevailed.—Alcet’s Ritual.

On Easter eve they perform the ceremony of blessing the new fire. At the ninth hour, the old fire is put out, and at the same time an Acolyth lights the new fire without the church. The officiating priest, with his attendants, walks in procession to the place where the ceremony is to be performed. After repeating a form of prayer, he makes the sign of the cross over the fire. In the mean time the Thuriferary puts some coals into the thurible, into which the priest throws some frankincense, having first blessed it: then he sprinkles the fire with holy water, saying, Asperges me, Domine, “Thou wilt sprinkle me, O Lord.” This ceremony of the holy fire seems to be borrowed from pagan superstition; for the ancient Romans used to renew the fire of Vesta in the month of March, as Ovid informs us;

The principal use of this holy fire, among the Roman Catholics, is to light therewith the Paschal taper; which likewise receives its benediction, or blessing, by the priest’s putting five grains of incense, in the form of a cross, into the taper. This blessed taper must remain on the gospel-side of the altar from Easter eve to Ascension day.—Baudry, Manual. Cerem. Fast. lib. iii. 144. Piscara, Praxis Cerem.

The blessing of baptismal fonts (another piece of Popish superstition) is performed, among other ceremonies, by the priest’s blowing thrice on the water, and in three different places; and afterwards plunging a taper thrice into it, observing to sink it 104deeper the second time than the first, and the third than the second, saying at each immersion, Descendat in hanc plenitudinem fontis virtus Spiritus Sancti, i. e. “May the influence of the Holy Spirit descend on this water.”—Piscara, ibid.

On the eve before Christmas, the holy father blesses a sword, enriched with precious stones, wrought in the form of a dove; with a ducal hat fixed on the point of it, richly adorned with jewels. (Sacra Cerem. Eccl. Rom.) This he sends as a present to some prince, for whom he has a particular affection, or some great general, who has deserved it by fighting against the enemies of the Church. Pope Pius II. sent the hat and sword to Lewis XI., with four Latin verses engraved on the blade, by which his Holiness exhorted him to destroy the Ottoman empire. The popes, according to Aymon, ground this custom on what is said in the Second Book of the Maccabees, c. v., that “Judas the Maccabee, going to fight Nicanor, general of the army of Antiochus, saw in a dream the high priest Onias praying to God for the Jewish people, and the prophet Jeremiah presenting him with a sword, and saying these words; ‘Receive, Judas, this holy sword, which is given thee by the Lord, to destroy the enemies of Israel.’”

But one of the most extraordinary benedictions of this kind is that of bells; in the performance of which there is a great deal of pomp and superstition. (See Bells.)

BENEDICTUS. The Latin for “blessed,” which is the first word in one of the hymns to be said or sung after the second lesson in the Morning Service of the Church. The Benedictus is taken from Luke i., from the 68th to the 72nd verse, being part of the song of Zacharias the priest, concerning his son John the Baptist, who was to be the forerunner of Christ, but was then only in his infancy.

When the gospel was first published to the world, the angels sang praise; and all holy men, to whom it was revealed, entertained these “good tidings” with great joy. And since it is our duty also, whenever we hear the gospel read, to give glory to God, therefore the Church appoints this hymn, which was composed by holy Zacharias upon the first notice that God had sent a Saviour to mankind, and is one of the first evangelical hymns indited by God’s Spirit upon this occasion. Its original therefore is Divine, its matter unexceptionable, and its fitness for this place unquestionable.—Dean Comber.

This prophecy of Zacharias, called “Benedictus,” for the reason already mentioned, was uttered on the birth of John the Baptist; and is a thanksgiving for the redemption of mankind, of which he was to publish the speedy approach. It copies very nearly the style of the Jewish prophets, who described spiritual blessings by temporal imagery. Thus meaning to praise the “Father of mercies” (2 Cor. i. 3) for delivering all nations from the dominion of the wicked one, it “blesses the Lord God of Israel for saving his people from their enemies, and from the hand of those that hate them.” Now this kind of language was laid aside after our Saviour’s ascension; and therefore the prophecy before us is not of later date, but genuine. Yet it sufficiently explains to what sort of “salvation” it refers, by mentioning “the remission of sins, the giving of light to them that sat in darkness, and the guiding of their feet into the way of peace.” And so it may teach us both the fitness and the method of assigning to the Old Testament predictions an evangelical interpretation. The people, in repeating it, should remember, that the words, “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest,” belong, not to our Saviour, but to the Baptist. And it is easily to be apprehended, that if, in the dawning which preceded “the Sun of righteousness,” (Mal. iv. 2,) good Zacharias offered up his thanks with such transport, we, to whom he shines out in full splendour, ought to recite it with double gratitude.—Abp. Secker.

Though the hundredth psalm is almost constantly used after the second lesson, there seems no good reason why this hymn should be laid aside. They are both equally indited by the Holy Spirit, and both admirably calculated to assist the devotion and elevate the affections of a Christian congregation: and the hymn, being placed first, seems to have been intended for more general use than the psalm.—Waldo.

The Church hath appointed two songs of praise and thanksgiving to be used, either of them after each lesson, but not so indifferently but that the former practice of exemplary Churches and reason may guide us in the choice. For the “Te Deum,” “Benedictus,” “Magnificat,” and “Nunc Dimittis,” being the most expressive jubilations and rejoicings for the redemption of the world, may be said more often than the rest, especially on Sundays and other festivals of our Lord.—Bishop Sparrow.

The Benedictus was used exclusively after the second lesson in the First Book of King Edward VI.

BENEFICE. In the ecclesiastical sense of the word, means a church endowed with 105a revenue for the performance of Divine service, or the revenue itself assigned to an ecclesiastical person, by way of stipend for the service he is to do that church.

As to the origin of the word, we find it as follows, in Alcet’s Ritual: “This word was anciently appropriated to the lands, which kings used to bestow on those who had fought valiantly in the wars; and was not used in this particular signification, but during the time that the Goths and Lombards reigned in Italy, under whom those fiefs were introduced, which were peculiarly termed Benefices, and those who enjoyed them, Beneficiarii, or vassals. For notwithstanding that the Romans also bestowed lands on their captains and soldiers, yet those lands had not the name of Benefices appropriated to them, but the word benefice was a general term, which included all kinds of gifts or grants, according to the ancient signification of the Latin word. In imitation of the new sense, in which that word was taken with regard to fiefs, it began to be employed in the Church, when the temporalities thereof began to be divided, and to be given up to particular persons, by taking them out of those of the bishops. This the bishops themselves first introduced, purposely to reward merit, and assist such ecclesiastics as might be in necessity. However, this was soon carried to greater lengths, and at last became unlimited, as has since been manifest in the clericate and the monasteries. A benefice therefore is not merely a right of receiving part of the temporalities of the Church, for the service a person does it; a right, which is founded upon the gospel, and has always subsisted since the apostolic age; but it is that of enjoying a part of the temporalities of the Church, assigned and determined in a special form, so as that no other clergyman can lay any claim or pretension to it.—And in this age it is not barely the right of enjoying part of the temporalities of the Church; but is likewise a fixed and permanent right, in such a manner that it devolves on another, after the death of the incumbent; which anciently was otherwise; for, at the rise of benefices, they were indulged to clergymen only for a stated time, or for life; after which they reverted to the Church.”

It is not easy to determine when the effects of the Church were first divided. It is certain that, till the 4th century, all the revenues were in the hands of the bishops, who distributed them by their Œconomi or stewards; and they consisted chiefly in alms and voluntary contributions. When the Church came to have inheritances, part of them were assigned for the maintenance of the clergy, of which we find some footsteps in the 5th and 6th centuries; but the allotment seems not to have been a fixed thing, but to have been absolutely discretional, till the 12th century.

Benefices are divided by the canonists into simple and sacerdotal. The first sort lays no obligation, but to read prayers, sing, &c. Such kind of Beneficiaries are canons, chaplains, chantors, &c. The second is charged with the cure of souls, the guidance and direction of consciences, &c. Such are rectories, vicarages, &c. The canonists likewise specify three ways of vacating a benefice; viz. de jure, de facto, and by the sentence of a judge. A benefice is void de jure, when a person is guilty of crimes, for which he is disqualified by law to hold a benefice; such are heresy, simony, &c. A benefice is void both de facto and de jure, by the natural death, or resignation, of the incumbent. Lastly, a benefice is vacated by sentence of the judge, when the incumbent is dispossessed of it by way of punishment for immorality, or any crime against the state.

The Romanists, again, distinguish benefices into regular and secular. Regular benefices are those held by a religious or monk of any order, abbey, priory, or convent. Secular benefices are those conferred on the secular priests; of which sort are most of their cures.

The Church distinguishes between dignities and benefices. The former title is only applicable to bishoprics, deaneries, archdeaconries, and prebends: the latter comprehends all ecclesiastical preferments under those degrees; as rectories and vicarages. It is essential to these latter, that they be bestowed freely, reserving nothing to the patron; that they be given as a provision for the clerk, who is only an usu-fructuary, and hath no inheritance in them; and that all contracts concerning them between patron and incumbent be, in their own nature, void.

BENEFICIARIES, or BENEFICIATI. The inferior, non-capitular members of cathedrals, &c., were so called in many Churches abroad; as possessing a benefice or endowment in the Church. They very much corresponded to our minor canons and vicars choral, &c.—Jebb.

BENEFIT OF CLERGY. The privilegium clericale, or, in common speech, the benefit of the clergy, had its origin from the pious regard paid by Christian princes 106to the Church of Christ. The exemptions which they granted to the Church were principally of two kinds: 1. Exemption of places consecrated to religious offices from criminal arrests, which was the foundation of sanctuaries. (See Sanctuary, Asylum.) 2. Exemptions of the persons of the clergy from criminal process before the secular magistrate in a few particular cases, which was the true origin and meaning of the privilegium clericale. Originally the law was held that no man should be admitted to the privilege of the clergy but such as had the habitum et tonsuram clericalem. But, in process of time, a much wider and more comprehensive criterion was established, every one that could read being accounted a clerk or clericus, and allowed the benefit of clerkship, whether in holy orders or not.

BEREANS. An obscure sect of seceders from the Scottish establishment, which originated in the exclusion of one Barclay from the parish of Fettercairn, in Kincardineshire, in 1773. They adopted the name of Bereans in allusion to the text—“These (the Bereans) were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts xvii. 11.) The Bereans reject all natural religion,—they take faith to be a simple credence of God’s word,—they consider personal assurance of the essence of faith, and unbelief as the unpardonable sin. They deny any spiritual interpretation to the historical books of the Old Testament, and reckon the Psalms so exclusively typical or prophetical of Christ, as to be without application to the experience of individual Christians.

BEREFELLARII. In the collegiate church of Beverley the seven inferior clergymen, ranking next after the prebendaries, were so called. The origin of the name is unknown; though it appears from ancient records, that it was a popular and vulgar one; their proper designation being Rectores Chori; that is, a sort of minor canons. They were also called Personæ. (See Rector Chori, and Persona.)—See Dugdale’s Monasticon, ed. 1830, vi. 1307.—Jebb.

BERENGARIANS. A denomination, in the eleventh century, which adhered to the opinions of Berenger, archdeacon of Angers, the learned and able opponent of Lanfranc, whose work has been in part recovered, and was printed a few years since at Berlin. “It was never my assertion,” says he, “that the bread and wine on the altar are only sacramental signs. Let no one suppose that I affirm that the bread was not become the body of Christ from being simple bread by consecration on the altar. It plainly becomes the body of Christ, but not the bread which in its matter and essence is corruptible, but in as far as it is capable of becoming what it was not, it becomes the body of Christ, but not according to the manner of the production of his very body, for that body, once generated on earth so many years ago, can never be produced again. The bread, however, becomes what it never was before consecration, and from being the common substance of bread, is to us the blessed body of Christ.” His followers, however, did not hold to his doctrines, which, in themselves, were a Catholic protest against Romish errors.—Cave, Hist. Literar. Sæc. Hildebrand.

BIBLE. (See Scripture and Canon of Scripture.) The name applied by Christians by way of eminence to the sacred volume, in which are contained the revelations of God. The names and numbers of the canonical books will be found under the word Scripture.

The division of the Scriptures into chapters, as they are at present, took place in the middle ages. Some attribute it to Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, in the reigns of John and Henry III. But the real author of this invention was Hugo de Sancto Caro, commonly called Hugo Cardinalis, from his being the first Dominican raised to the degree of cardinal. This Hugo flourished about the year 1240. He wrote a Comment on the Scriptures, and projected the first Concordance, which is that of the Latin Vulgate Bible. As the intention of this work was to render the finding of any word or passage in the Scriptures more easy, it became necessary to divide the book into sections, and the sections into subdivisions. These sections are the chapters into which the Bible has been divided since that time. But the subdivision of the chapters was not then in verses as at present. Hugo subdivided them by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, which were placed in the margin at an equal distance from each other, according to the length of the chapters. About the year 1445, Mordecai Nathan, a famous Jewish Rabbi, improved Hugo’s invention, and subdivided the chapters into verses, in the manner they are at present.

The first English Bible we read of was that translated by Wickliff, about the year 1360. A translation of the New Testament by Wickliff was printed by Lewis, 107about 1731, and the whole of Wickliff’s translation has lately been published at Oxford. J. de Trevisa, who died about 1398, is also said to have translated the whole Bible; but whether any copies of his translation are remaining, does not appear. The first printed Bible in our language was that translated by W. Tindal, assisted by Miles Coverdale, printed abroad in 1526; but most of the copies were bought up and burnt by Bishop Tunstal and Sir Thomas More. Of this edition but two copies are known to exist, one of which was discovered by Archdeacon Cotton, in St. Paul’s Library. It only contained the New Testament, and was revised and republished by the same person in 1530. The prologues and prefaces added to it reflect on the bishops and clergy; but this edition was also suppressed, and the copies burnt. In 1532, Tindal and his associates finished the whole Bible, except the Apocrypha, and printed it abroad; but while he was afterwards preparing a second edition, he was taken up and burnt for heresy in Flanders. On Tindal’s death, his work was carried on by Coverdale, and John Rogers, superintendent of an English Church in Germany, and the first martyr in the reign of Queen Mary, who translated the Apocrypha, and revised Tindal’s translation, comparing it with the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German, and adding prefaces and notes from Luther’s Bible. The earliest edition was printed in 1535, it is supposed at Zurich; though the book has no place nor name. He dedicated the whole to Henry VIII. in 1537, under the borrowed name of Thomas Matthews; whence this has been usually called Matthews’ Bible. It is supposed to have been printed at Hamburgh, and licence obtained for publishing it in England, by the favour of Archbishop Cranmer, and the Bishops Latimer and Shaxton. The first Bible printed by authority in England, and publicly set up in churches, was this same Tindal’s version, revised and compared with the Hebrew, and in many places amended, by Miles Coverdale, afterwards bishop of Exeter; and examined after him by Archbishop Cranmer, who added a preface to it; whence this was called Cranmer’s, or the great Bible. It was printed in 1539 by Grafton and Whitchurch, and in 1540 by Whitchurch, (some copies have “Richard Grafton,”) and published in 1540; and, by a royal proclamation, every parish was obliged to set one of the copies in their church, under the penalty of forty shillings a month: yet, two years after, the Popish bishops obtained its suppression by the king. It was restored under Edward VI., suppressed again under Queen Mary’s reign, and restored again in the first year of Queen Elizabeth, and a new edition of it given, 1562, printed by Harrison. Some English exiles at Geneva, in Queen Mary’s reign, viz. Goodman, Gilbie, Sampson, Cole, Whittingham, and Knox, made a new translation, printed there in 1560, the New Testament having been printed in 1557; hence called the Geneva Bible, containing the variations of readings, marginal annotations, &c., on account of which it was much valued by the Puritan party in that and the following reigns. Coverdale has also been supposed to have had a part in this version; but from what is known of his movements, it appears impossible that he should have been concerned in it. Archdeacon Cotton says, “The first edition of this version was for many years the most popular one in England, as its numerous editions may testify. After the appearance of King James’s translation, the use of it seems to have declined; yet a fondness for its notes still lingered; and we have several instances of their being attached to editions of the royal translation, one of which kind was printed so lately as 1715.” Archbishop Parker resolved on a new translation for the public use of the Church; and engaged the bishops and other learned men to take each a share or portion; these, being afterwards joined together and printed, with short annotations, in 1568, in large folio, by Richard Jugge, made, what was afterwards called, the Great English Bible, and commonly the Bishops’ Bible. In 1569 it was also published in octavo, in a small but fine black letter; and here the chapters were divided into verses, but without any breaks for them, in which the method of the Geneva Bible was followed, which was the first English Bible where any distinction of verses was made. It was afterwards printed in large folio, with corrections, and several prolegomena, in 1572; this is called Matthew Parker’s Bible. The initial letters of each translator’s name were put at the end of his part; ex. gr. at the end of the Pentateuch, W. E. for William Exon; that is, William [Alley], bishop of Exeter, whose allotment ended there; at the end of Samuel, R. M. for Richard Menevensis, or Richard [Davies], bishop of St. David’s, to whom the second allotment fell, and so with the rest. The archbishop overlooked, directed, examined, and finished the whole. This translation was used in the churches for forty years, though the Geneva Bible was more 108read in private houses, being printed above twenty times in as many years. King James bore to the Geneva version an inveterate hatred, on account of the notes, which, at the Hampton Court conference, he charged as partial, untrue, seditious, &c. The Bishops’ Bible, too, had its faults. The king frankly owned that he had seen no good translation of the Bible in English; but he thought that of Geneva the worst of all. After the translation of the Bible by the bishops, two other private versions had been made of the New Testament; the first by Laurence Thompson, from Beza’s Latin edition, with the notes of Beza, published in 1582, in quarto, and afterwards in 1589, varying very little from the Geneva Bible; the second by the Romanists at Rheims, in 1584, called the Rhemish Bible, or Rhemish translation. These translators finding it impossible to keep the people from having the Scriptures in their vulgar tongue, resolved to give a version of their own, as favourable to their cause as might be. It was printed on large paper, with a fair letter and margin. One complaint against it was, its retaining a multitude of Hebrew and Greek words untranslated, for want, as the editors express it, of proper and adequate terms in the English to render them by; as the words azymes, tunike, holocaust, prepuce, pasche, &c.: however, many of the copies were seized by Queen Elizabeth’s searchers, and confiscated; and Thomas Cartwright was solicited by Secretary Walsingham to refute it; but after some progress had been made in it, Archbishop Whitgift prohibited his proceeding further, judging it improper that the doctrine of the Church of England should be committed to the defence of a Puritan. He appointed Dr. Fulke in his place, who refuted the Rhemists with great spirit and learning. Cartwright’s Refutation was also afterwards published in 1618, under Archbishop Abbot. About thirty years after their New Testament, the Roman Catholics published a translation of the Old, at Douay, 1609 and 1610, from the Vulgate, with annotations, so that the English Roman Catholics have now the whole Bible in their mother tongue; though it is to be observed, they are forbidden to read it without a licence from their superiors: and it is a curious fact, that there is not an edition of the Bible which does not lie under the ban of one or of all the popes, most of them being in the Index Expurgatorius. The last English Bible was that which proceeded from the Hampton Court conference in 1603: where, many exceptions being made to the Bishops’ Bible, King James gave order for a new one: not, (as the preface expresses it,) for a translation altogether new, nor yet to make a good one better, or, of many good ones, one best. Fifty-four learned men were appointed to this office by the king, as appears by his letter to the archbishop, dated 1604; which being three years before the translation was entered upon, it is probable seven of them were either dead, or had declined the task; since Fuller’s list of the translators makes but forty-seven, who, being ranged under six divisions, entered on their province in 1607. It was published in 1611 in fol. by Barker, with a dedication to James, and a learned preface; and is commonly called King James’s Bible. After this, all the other versions dropped, and fell into disuse, except the Epistles and Gospels in the Common Prayer Book, which were still continued according to the Bishops’ translation till the alteration of the liturgy in 1661, and the Psalms and Hymns, which are to this day continued as in the old version. See for a full list of the editions of the English Bible, Archd. Cotton’s List of the Editions of the English Bible, &c.

The New Testament was translated into Irish in the 16th century. Nicholas Walsh, chancellor of St. Patrick’s, and John Kearney, treasurer of the same cathedral, began this work in 1573. In 1577 Walsh was appointed bishop of Ossory, but still proceeded in his undertaking, till he was murdered in 1585. Some years before this, Nehemiah Donnellan (who was archbishop of Tuam in 1595) had joined Walsh and Kearney in their undertaking. This translation was completed by William O’Donnell, or Daniel, successor of Donnellan in the archiepiscopal see, and published in 1603. Bishop Bedell procured the Old Testament to be translated by Mr. King, who being ignorant of the original languages, executed it from the English version. Bedell revised it, comparing it with the Hebrew, the LXX., and the Italian version of Diodati. He supported Mr. King, during the undertaking, with his utmost ability, and, when the translation was finished, would have printed it at his own house, if he had not been prevented by the troubles in Ireland. This translation (together with Archbishop Daniel’s version of the New Testament) was printed in London in 1685, at the expense of the celebrated Robert Boyle.—King’s Primer of the Church History of Ireland. Horne’s Introduction to the Holy Scriptures.

The Welsh version (the New Testament 109only) was published in the 16th century. The act of 5 Eliz. c. 28, directed that the Bible and Prayer Book should be translated into Welsh; committing the direction of this version to the four Welsh bishops. The translators were, Thomas Huet, precentor of St. David’s, Richard Davies, bishop of St. David’s, and William Salesbury. It was printed in London in 1567. The former edition was revised, and the Old Testament translated, chiefly by William Morgan, bishop of Llandaff, afterwards of St. Asaph. This was printed in 1588, and was revised by Richard Parry, bishop of St. Asaph, and reprinted in 1620: the basis of all subsequent editions.—Horne’s Introd.

The Manx version of the Bible was begun by the exertions of Bishop Wilson, by whom the Gospel of St. Matthew only was printed. His successor, Bishop Hilderley, had the New Testament completed and printed between the years 1756 and 1760. The Old Testament was completed two days before his death in 1772.—Horne’s Introd. Butler’s Life of Bishop Hilderley.

By the 80th canon, “a Bible of the largest volume” is one of those things which the churchwardens are bound to provide for every parish church.

BIDDING PRAYER. The formulary which the Church of England, in the 55th of the canons of 1603, directs to be used before all sermons, lectures, and homilies, is called the Bidding Prayer, because in it the preacher is directed to bid or exhort the people to pray for certain specified objects. The custom of bidding prayers is very ancient, as may be seen in St. Chrysostom’s and other liturgies, where the biddings occur frequently, and are called Allocutions.

The 55th canon of the Convocation of 1603, is as follows: “Before all sermons, lectures, and homilies, the preachers and ministers shall move the people to join with them in prayer, in this form, or to this effect, as briefly as conveniently they may: ‘Ye shall pray for Christ’s Holy Catholic Church, that is, for the whole congregation of Christian people dispersed throughout the whole world, and especially for the Churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland. And herein I require you most especially to pray for the king’s most excellent Majesty, our sovereign Lord James, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, and supreme governor in these his realms, and all other his dominions and countries, over all persons, in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as temporal. Ye shall also pray for our gracious Queen Anne, the noble Prince Henry, and the rest of the king and queen’s royal issue. Ye shall also pray for the ministers of God’s holy word and sacraments, as well archbishops and bishops, as other pastors and curates. Ye shall also pray for the king’s most honourable council, and for all the nobility and magistrates of this realm, that all and every of these in their several callings may serve truly and faithfully, to the glory of God, and the edifying and well-governing of His people, remembering the account that they must make. Also ye shall pray for the whole commons of this realm, that they may live in the true faith and fear of God, in humble obedience to the king, and brotherly charity one to another. Finally, let us praise God for all those which are departed out of this life in the faith of Christ, and pray unto God that we may have grace to direct our lives after their good example, that, this life ended, we may be made partakers with them of the glorious resurrection in the life everlasting,’ always concluding with the Lord’s Prayer.”

The special pleading of some Presbyterians and their advocates, renders it necessary to observe, that the Church of Scotland alluded to, is not the present Presbyterian establishment.

The assertion made by the adversaries of the Church of England is this, that the 55th canon bids us pray for the Church of Scotland, and must have recognised “that Church under a Presbyterian form as it now is, because none other, at that time, existed.”

Now we may commence our observations by remarking upon the extreme improbability of the alleged fact, that those who passed the 55th canon should contemplate in the Bidding Prayer, the Presbyterian community of Scotland, and regard it as a sister to the Churches of England and Ireland.

The leading members of the Convocation were, Andrewes, Overall, and King, eminent men, and of most decided views on Church government. Can the student of ecclesiastical history refrain from smiling when he is told that a Convocation of the English clergy, headed by these divines, who had already given a character to the age in which they lived, intended to place the “Holy Kirk,” as the Presbyterians styled their denomination, on the same footing as the Churches of England and Ireland?

The president of the Convocation was Bancroft. Dr. Sumner has taught us how immense are the powers which the president 110of a Convocation possesses, and how unscrupulously those powers can be used to silence the Convocation, if it be suspected that the majority of the members differ in opinion from the president. Bishop Bancroft was certainly not more likely to be tolerant of opposition than our present primate, and what Bancroft’s opinion of Presbyterianism was, is stated in a sermon which he published. Of “the Holy Kirk,” as the Presbyterians called themselves, Bancroft said that “they perverted the meaning of the Scriptures for the maintenance of false doctrine, heresy, and schism,” and he likens that “Holy Kirk” to “the devil’s chapel in the churchyard in which Christ hath erected his Church.” We consider Bancroft’s language as unjustifiably violent; but such being his language, it is monstrous to suppose that he intended to place that Kirk, in his estimation so unholy, on the same footing as the Churches of England and Ireland, or that he would not have discontinued the Convocation, if he had suspected that it would recognise that Kirk as a sister Church.

The king who gave his consent to the canons, and who, in giving his consent, acted, not as a sovereign in these days, on the advice of his ministers, but on his own authority, was James I. And King James’s opinion on Presbyterianism was sufficiently decided, and by this time well known:

“That bishops ought to be in the Church, I have ever maintained as an apostolic institution, and so the ordinance of God; contrary to the Puritans, and likewise to Bellarmine, who denies that bishops have their jurisdiction immediately from God. (But it is no wonder he takes the Puritans’ side, since Jesuits are nothing but Puritanpapists.) And as I ever maintained the state of bishops and the ecclesiastical hierarchy for order’ sake, so was I ever an enemy to the confused anarchy or parity of the Puritans, as well appeareth in my Basilicon Doron. Heaven is governed by order, and all the good angels there; nay, hell itself could not subsist without some order; and the very devils are divided into legions, and have their chieftains: how can any society then upon earth exist without order and degrees? And therefore I cannot enough wonder with what brazen face this Answerer could say, that I was a Puritan in Scotland and an enemy to Protestants: I that was persecuted by Puritans there, not from my birth only, but ever since four months before my birth? I that, in the year of God 1584, erected bishops, and depressed all their popular parity, I then being not eighteen years of age? I that in my said book to my son do speak ten times more bitterly of them nor of the Papists; having in my second edition thereof affixed a long apologetic preface, only in odium Puritanorum? I that, for the space of six years before my coming into England, laboured nothing so much as to depress their parity and reerect bishops again? Nay, if the daily commentaries of my life and actions in Scotland were written, (as Julius Cæsar’s were,) there would scarcely a month pass in all my life, since my entering into the 13th year of my age, wherein some accident or other would not convince the cardinal of a lie in this point. And surely I give a fair commendation to the Puritans in that place of my book, where I affirm that I have found greater honesty with the Highland and Border thieves than with that sort of people.”—Premonition to the Apology for the Oath of Allegiance, p. 44.

Now is it credible that a monarch, despotic in his disposition, and peculiarly despotic in what related to the Church; in an age when the supremacy was asserted and exercised with as much of inconsiderate tyranny as the most determined liberal of the present age could wish or recommend,—is it credible that a despotic sovereign, holding these opinions, would give his sanction to a canon which would raise the system he dreaded and abhorred to a parity with the Church of England and Ireland?

Certainly the advocates of Presbyterianism must be prepared to believe things very incredible to men of reasoning minds, if they can believe this to be probable.

But if we refer to history, what we find to be thus improbable, is proved to be impossible. “The Church, under a Presbyterian form, as it now is,” did not at that time exist as a recognised body, or an establishment. We will refer for proof, in the first place, to the Compendium of the Laws of Scotland, published by authority, where we read that “From the time that the Assembly of Perth was held, (1597,) the Presbyterian Constitution of the Church, as established in 1592, and the legitimate authority of its General Assemblies and other judicatories, may be regarded as subverted by the interferences of King James the Sixth. On the 19th December, 1597, soon after the Assemblies of Perth and Dundee, he brought his projects under the consideration of parliament; when an act was passed ordaining that such pastors and ministers as his Majesty should at any time please to invest with the office, place, and dignity of bishop, abbot, or other prelate, 111should, in all time hereafter, have vote in parliament, in the same way as any prelate was accustomed to have; declaring that all bishoprics presently vacant, or which might afterwards become vacant, should be given by his Majesty to actual preachers and ministers. Henceforward, therefore, and indeed from the Assembly at Perth, (1597,) the Church of Scotland must be regarded as Episcopalian;”—in principle, we may add, though not fully developed.”—Compendium of the Laws of the Church of Scotland, part ii. p. 36.

In the year 1600, “the Presbyterian form of government was, after eight years of intolerable agitation, abolished by the king, with the full consent of an overwhelming majority of the ministers and the applause of the people, whose opinions seem to have been changed by experience of its tyranny.”—Stephens’s History of the Church of Scotland, vol. i. p. 417.

The Scottish parliament had also passed an act, in 1597, “That such pastors and ministers as his Majesty should promote to the place, dignity, and title of a bishop, or other prelate, at any time, should have a voice in parliament, as freely as any ecclesiastical prelate had in times past.” In the year 1600, the king informed the Assembly, that “there was a necessity of restoring the ancient government of the Church;” and, consequently, under the sanction of parliament, “persons were nominated to the bishoprics that were void,” before the end of the year.—Skinner’s Church History, vol. ii. pp. 234–236.

And so we find that what, reasoning a priori, we should consider so improbable as to be almost incredible, was in point of fact impossible, “The Church of Scotland under a Presbyterian form, as it now is,” could not be intended by the canon, for such a Church did not exist as a recognised body in the state. On the contrary, as early as 1598, an act of the Scottish parliament had secured to the bishops and other ecclesiastical prelates to be appointed by the king their seats in parliament. And before the year 1600, bishops were nominated to the sees of Aberdeen, Argyle, Dunkeld, Brechin, and Dunblane. David Lindsay and George Gladstone were in that year designated to the sees of Ross and Caithness.

But it is said, these were not persons whom we regard as bishops; they were not consecrated, they were only titular bishops. Every child who has looked into ecclesiastical history knows this. But what do the advocates of Presbyterianism take by the fact? The fact is this, Presbyterianism was legally abolished: Episcopacy was legally established: the bishops were nominated: but the bishops designate were not yet consecrated. Can it be doubted to what the canon referred? It is absolutely certain that it could not refer to Presbyterianism; to what, then, did it refer? Ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland were in a transitional state. It was known that the king intended to introduce the substance of Episcopacy as well as the form. His principles were known. His power undoubted. The act of parliament enabled him to designate bishops. He had designated them; but he himself said, “I cannot make you bishops,” that was to be done by consecration. The Church of Scotland was in the very act of being formed and organized. The Convocation, acting prospectively, spoke of it as it was about to be, and as it soon after became. The bishops designate were consecrated in 1610.

But we must not stop here. So far from true is it, that “the Church of Scotland under a Presbyterian form, as it now is,” was the Church contemplated by the 55th canon, that by other canons passed in this very Convocation of 1603, the Presbyterians were actually excommunicated.

The Presbyterians had anathematized the Church of England. We have only to refer to the “Book of the universal Kirk,” to see that at the fourth session of the General Assemblie, held at Dundee, in 1580, the following was enacted: “Forasmeickle as the office of a bischop, as it is now usit, and commonly taken within this realme, hes no sure warrand, auctoritie, nor good ground out of the Book and Scriptures of God, but is brocht in by the folie and corruptions of [men’s] invention, to the great overthrow of the Kirk of God; the haill assembly of the Kirk, in ane voice, after liberty given to all men to reason in the matter, none opposing themselves in defending the said pretendit office, finds and declares the samein pretendit office, useit and termeit, as above said, unlawfull in the selfe, as have had neither foundation ground, nor warrant within the Word of God.”—Pt. ii. 453.

This was subsequently ratified in the second session of the General Assembly, holden at Edinburgh, in 1592. Again, in the Conference connected with the General Assembly, holden at Montrose, in 1600, it was maintained by the Kirk, that “The Anglican Episcopal dignities, offices, places, titles, and all Ecclesiastical Prelacies, are flat repugnant to the Word of 112God;” and that “all corruptions of these bishopricks are damned and rejected.”

So spake the sect which the advocates of Presbyterianism maintain that we place in our Bidding Prayer on the same footing as the Churches of England and Ireland. How the members of this “Holy Kirk” spoke of the Prayer Book, we learn from the president of the Convocation himself. Their language was, “That it (the Prayer Book) is full of corruption, confusion, and profanation; that it contains at least five hundred errors; that the orders therein described are carnal, beggarly, dung, dross, lousy, and anti-Christian. They say we eat not the Lord’s supper, but play a pageant of our own, to make the poor silly souls believe they have an English Mass; and so put no difference betwixt truth and falsehood, betwixt Christ and anti-Christ, betwixt God and the devil!”—See Bancroft’s Sermon, p. 284.

Such were the feelings and principles and charity and forbearance of the Presbyterians of that age; and how does the Church of England deal with such persons? Let the Church of England speak for herself through the canons of 1603:—

Canon 4. “Whosoever shall affirm, That the form of God’s worship in the Church of England, established by law, and contained in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of Sacraments, is a corrupt, superstitious, or unlawful worship of God, or containeth anything in it that is repugnant to the Scriptures; let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored, but by the bishop of the place, or archbishop, after his repentance, and public revocation of such his wicked errors.”

Canon 6. “Whosoever shall hereafter affirm, That the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England by law established are wicked, anti-Christian, or superstitious, or such as, being commanded by lawful authority, men, who are zealously and godly affected, may not with any good conscience approve them, use them, or, as occasion requireth, subscribe unto them; let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored until he repent, and publicly revoke such his wicked errors.”

Canon 7. “Whosoever shall hereafter affirm, That the government of the Church of England, under his Majesty, by archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, and the rest that bear office in the same, is anti-Christian, or repugnant to the word of God; let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and so continue until he repent, and publicly revoke such his wicked errors.”

Canon 8. “Whosoever shall hereafter affirm, or teach, That the form and manner of making and consecrating bishops, priests, or deacons, containeth anything that is repugnant to the word of God; or that they who are made bishops, priests, or deacons in that form, are not lawfully made, nor ought to be accounted, either by themselves or by others, to be truly either bishops, priests, or deacons, until they have some other calling to those divine offices; let him be excommunicated ipso facto, not to be restored until he publicly revoke such his wicked errors.”

Canon 9. “Whosoever shall hereafter separate themselves from the communion of saints, as it is approved by the apostles’ rules in the Church of England, and combine themselves together in a new brotherhood, accounting the Christians who are conformable to the doctrine, government, rites, and ceremonies of the Church of England, to be profane, and unmeet for them to join with in Christian profession; let them be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored, but by the archbishop, after their repentance, and public revocation of such their wicked errors.”

We can conceive nothing in the records of absurdity, more absurd than the idea that the very parties by whom Presbyterians were excommunicated, should be the parties to speak of their denomination as a sister Church. At the time when the 55th canon was enacted, the two kingdoms had been united, and the king of the two kingdoms had expressed his determination to unite the two Churches; he had already taken measures to effect his purpose, and in a few years he succeeded in his object. The Convocation, acting under his commands, excommunicated the Presbyterians, whom he hated, and held out the hand of fellowship to the Church, which he was rearing amidst the ecclesiastical anarchy of Scotland. “True,” says a learned writer: “the bishops were not consecrated till a few years later, but when the law of the land had recognised their estate, and the men were known and appointed, it appears to me a verbal shuffle, and something more, (unintentional, of course,) to say, ‘the Church of Scotland was then, as now, Presbyterian.’”

The reader who desires to see the subject more fully treated, is referred to Chancellor Harington’s most able Letter on the 55th Canon. To Chancellor Harington the writer of this article is indebted for the extract from the Premonition. It is quoted, but imperfectly, in Macrie’s Life of Andrew Melville.

113BIER. A carriage on which the dead are carried to the grave. It is to be provided by the parish.

BIRTH-DAYS. In the ancient Church, this term, in its application to martyrs, and the festivals in honour of them, expressed the day on which they suffered death, or were born into the glory and happiness of the kingdom above. In this sense it stood distinct from the time of their natural birth into the world, which was considered as an event so inferior, that its ordinary designation was merged in that of a translation to the joys of a better world. “When ye hear of a birthday of saints, brethren,” says Peter Chrysologus, bishop of Ravenna in the 5th century, “do not think that that is spoken of in which they are born on earth, of the flesh, but that in which they are born from earth into heaven, from labour to rest, from temptations to repose, from torments to delights, not fluctuating, but strong, and stable, and eternal: from the derision of the world to a crown and glory. Such are the birthdays of the martyrs that we celebrate.”

BISHOP. (See Orders, Apostolical Succession, Succession, Archbishop.) This is the title now given to those who are of the highest order in the Christian ministry. The English word comes from the Saxon bischop, which is a derivative from the Greek Ἐπισκοπος, an overseer or inspector.

The doctrine of Scripture, as it relates to the office of bishop, may be briefly stated thus:—As the Lord Jesus Christ was sent by the Father, so were the apostles sent by him. “As my Father hath sent me,” he says soon after his resurrection, “even so send I you.” Now, how had the Father sent him? He had sent him to act as his supreme minister on earth; as such to appoint under him subordinate ministers, and, to do what he then did when his work on earth was done, to hand on his commission to others. The apostles, in like manner, were sent by Christ to act as his chief ministers in the Church, to appoint subordinate ministers under them, and then, as he had done, to hand on their commission to others. And on this commission, after our Lord had ascended up on high, the apostles proceeded to act. They formed their converts into Churches: these Churches consisted of baptized believers, to officiate among whom subordinate ministers, priests, and deacons were ordained; while the apostle who formed any particular Church exercised over it episcopal superintendence, either holding an occasional visitation, by sending for the clergy to meet him, (as St. Paul summoned to Miletus the clergy of Ephesus,) or else transmitting to them those pastoral addresses, which, under the name of Epistles, form so important a portion of Holy Scripture. At length, however, it became necessary for the apostles to proceed yet further, and to do as their Lord had empowered them to do, to hand on their commission to others, that at their own death the governors of the Church might not be extinct. Of this we have an instance in Titus, who was placed in Crete by St. Paul, to act as chief pastor or bishop; and another in Timothy, who was in like manner set over the Church of Ephesus. And when Timothy was thus appointed to the office of chief pastor, he was associated with St. Paul, who, in writing to the Philippians, commences his salutation thus: “Paul and Timotheus to the servants of Jesus Christ who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.” Now we have here the three orders of the ministry clearly alluded to. The title of bishop is, doubtless, given to the second order: but it is not for words, but for things, that we are to contend. Titles may be changed, while offices remain; so senators exist, though they are not now of necessity old men; and most absurd would it be to contend that, when we speak of the emperor Constantine, we can mean that Constantine held no other office than that held under the Roman republic, because we find Cicero also saluted as emperor. So stood the matter in the first age of the gospel, when the chief pastors of the Church were generally designated apostles or angels, i. e. messengers sent by God himself. In the next century, the office remaining, the designation of those who held it was changed, the title of Apostle was confined to the Twelve, including St. Paul; and the chief pastors who succeeded them were thenceforth called bishops, the subordinate ministers being styled priests and deacons. For when the name of bishop was given to those who had that oversight of presbyters, which presbyters had of their flocks, it would have been manifestly inconvenient, and calculated to engender confusion, to continue the episcopal name to the second order. And thus we see, as Christ was sent by the Father, so he sent the apostles; as the apostles were sent by Christ, so did they send the first race of bishops; as the first race of bishops was sent by the apostles, so they sent the second race of bishops, the second the third, and so down to our present bishops, who thus trace their spiritual descent from St. Peter and St. 114Paul, and prove their Divine authority to govern the Churches over which they are canonically appointed to preside.

The three orders of the ministry in the New Testament stand thus: 1st order, Apostle. 2nd order, Bishop, Presbyter, or Elder. 3rd order, Deacon. Afterwards, the office remaining the same, there was a change in the title, and the ministers of Christ were designated thus: 1st order, Bishop, formerly Apostle. 2nd order, Presbyter or Elder. 3rd order, Deacon.

The offices of an apostle and a bishop are thus distinguished by the learned Barrow: “The apostleship is an extraordinary office, charged with instruction and government of the whole world; but episcopacy is an ordinary standing charge affixed to one place, and requiring a special attendance there.”—See Consecration of Bishops.

The judgment of the Church of England with respect to the primitive existence of the episcopal order is this: “It is evident unto all men diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the apostles’ time there have been these orders of ministers in Christ’s Church,—Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.”—Preface to the Ordination Service.

BISHOPS’ BIBLE. (See Bible.)

BISHOPS, ELECTION OF. When cities were at first converted to Christianity, the bishops were elected by the clergy and people: for it was then thought convenient that the laity, as well as the clergy, should concur in the election, that he who was to have the inspection of them all might come in by general consent.

But as the number of Christians increased, this was found to be inconvenient; for tumults were raised, and sometimes murders committed, at such popular elections. To prevent such disorders, the emperors, being then Christians, reserved the election of bishops to themselves; but the bishop of Rome, when he had obtained supremacy in the Western Church, was unwilling that the bishops should have any dependence upon princes; and therefore brought it about that the canons in cathedral churches should have the election of their bishops, which elections were usually confirmed at Rome.

But princes had still some power in those elections; and in England we read, that, in the Saxon times, all ecclesiastical dignities were conferred by the king in parliament.

From these circumstances arose the long controversy about the right of investiture, a point conceded, so far as our Church is concerned, by Henry I., who only reserved the ceremony of homage to himself from the bishops in respect of temporalities. King John afterwards granted his charter, by common consent of the barons, that the bishops should be eligible by the chapter, though the right of the Crown in former times was acknowledged. This was afterwards confirmed by several acts of parliament. This election by the chapter was to be a free election, but founded upon the king’s congé d’ élire: it was afterwards to have the royal assent; and the newly-elected bishop was not to have his temporalities assigned until he had sworn allegiance to the king; but it was agreed, that confirmation and consecration should be in the power of the pope, so that foreign potentate gained in effect the disposal of all the bishoprics in England.

But the pope was not content with this power of confirmation and consecration; he would oftentimes collate to the bishoprics himself: hence, by the statute of the 26 Edward III. sec. 6, it was enacted as follows, viz. The free elections of archbishops, bishops, and all other dignities and benefices elective in England, shall hold from henceforth in the manner as they were granted by the king’s progenitors, and the ancestors of other lords, founders of the said dignities and other benefices. And in case that reservation, collation, or provision be made by the court of Rome, of any archbishopric, bishopric, dignity, or other benefice, in disturbance of the free elections aforesaid, the king shall have for that time the collations to the archbishoprics and other dignities elective which be of his advowry, such as his progenitors had before that free election was granted; since that the election was first granted by the king’s progenitors upon a certain form and condition, as to demand licence of the king to choose, and after the election to have his royal assent, and not in other manner; which conditions not kept, the thing ought by reason to resort to its first nature.

Afterwards, by the 25 Henry VIII. c. 20, all Papal jurisdiction whatsoever in this matter was entirely taken away: by which it is enacted—That no person shall be presented and nominated to the bishop of Rome, otherwise called the pope, or to the see of Rome, for the office of an archbishop or bishop; but the same shall utterly cease, and be no longer used within this realm.

And the manner and order as well of the election of archbishops and bishops, as of the confirmation of the election and 115consecration, is clearly enacted and expressed by that statute. By the statute of the 1 Edward VI. c. 2, all bishoprics were made donative, and it has been supposed by some, that the principal intent of this act was to make deans and chapters less necessary, and thereby to prepare the way for a dissolution of them.

But this statute was afterwards repealed, and the matter was brought back again, and still rests upon the statute of the 25th Henry VIII. c. 20.

When a bishop dies, or is translated, the dean and chapter certify the queen thereof in Chancery, and pray leave of the queen to make election. Thereupon the sovereign grants a licence to them under the great seal, to elect the person, whom by her letters missive she has appointed; and they are to choose no other. Within twenty-six days after the receipt of this licence they are to proceed to election, which is done after this manner: the dean and chapter having made their election, must certify it under their common seal to the queen, and to the archbishop of the province, and to the bishop elected; then the queen gives her royal assent under the great seal, directed to the archbishop, commanding him to confirm and consecrate the bishop thus elected. The archbishop subscribes it thus, viz. Fiat confirmatio, and grants a commission to his vicar-general to perform all acts requisite to that purpose. Upon this the vicar-general issues a citation to summon all persons who oppose this election, to appear, &c., which citation (in the province of Canterbury) is affixed by an officer of the Arches, on the door of Bow church, and he makes three proclamations there for the opposers, &c. to appear. After this, the same officer certifies what he has done to the vicar-general; and no person appearing, &c., at the time and place appointed, &c., the proctor for the dean and chapter exhibits the royal assent, and the commission of the archbishop directed to his vicar-general, which are both read, and then accepted by him. Afterwards the proctor exhibits his proxy from the dean and chapter, and presents the newly-elected bishop to the vicar-general, returns the citation, and desires that three proclamations may be made for the opposers to appear; which being done, and none appearing, he desires that they may proceed to confirmation, in pœnam contumaciæ; and this is subscribed by the vicar-general in a schedule, and decreed by him accordingly. Then the proctor exhibits a summary petition, setting forth the whole process of election; in which it is desired that a certain time may be assigned to him to prove it, and this is likewise desired by the vicar-general. Then he exhibits the assent of the queen and archbishop once more, and that certificate which he returned to the vicar-general, and of the affixing the citation on the door of Bow church, and desires a time may be appointed for the final sentence, which is also decreed. Then three proclamations are again made for the opposers to appear, but none coming they are pronounced contumaces; and it is then decreed to proceed to sentence, and this is in another schedule read and subscribed by the vicar-general. On one memorable occasion, see Reg. v. Abp. of Canterbury, Q. B., Jan. 25, 1848, the court of Q. B. pronounced this to be a mere useless form and ceremony. It was a time when political and party feeling ran higher, perhaps, than at any time since the reign of James II., and it is hoped that, should a similar case occur, justice would be done to the Church. Then the bishop elect takes the oath of supremacy, canonical obedience, and that against simony, and then the dean of the Arches reads and subscribes the sentence. The dean and chapter are to certify this election in twenty days after the delivery of the letters missive, or they incur a premunire. And if they refuse to elect, then the queen may nominate a person by her letters patent. So that, to the making a bishop, these things are requisite, viz. election, confirmation, consecration, and investiture. Upon election, the person is only a bishop Nomine, and not In re, for he has no power of jurisdiction before consecration.

In the time of the Saxons, as indeed was generally the case throughout Europe, all bishops and abbots sat in state councils, by reason of their office, as they were spiritual persons, and not upon account of any tenures; but after the Conquest the abbots sat there by virtue of their tenures, and the bishops in a double capacity, as bishops and likewise as barons by tenure. When, in the 11th year of Henry II., Archbishop Becket was condemned in parliament, there was a dispute who should pronounce the sentence, whether a bishop, or a temporal lord: those who desired that a bishop should do it, alleged that they were ecclesiastical persons, and that it was one of their own order who was condemned; but the bishops replied, that this was not a spiritual but a secular judgment; and that they did not sit there merely as bishops, but as barons; and told the House 116of Peers, Nos barones, vos barones pares hic sumus. In the very year before, in the tenth of Henry II., it was declared by the Constitutions of Clarendon, that bishops, and all other persons who hold of the king in capite, have their possessions of him sicut baroniam, et sicut cæteri barones, debent interesse judiciis curiæ regis, &c.; and that they ought to sit there likewise as bishops; that is, not as mere spiritual persons, vested with a power only to ordain and confirm, &c., but as they are the governors of the Church. It is for this reason that, on the vacancy of a bishopric, the guardian of the spiritualities is summoned to the parliament in the room of the bishop; and the new bishops of Bristol, Chester, Gloucester, Oxford, and Peterborough, which were made by Henry VIII., and the bishops of Ripon and Manchester, have no baronies, and yet they sit in parliament as bishops of those sees by the king’s writ. This view of the case is confirmed by the analogy of Scotland, where the bishops sat in parliament as representing the spirituality, one of the estates of the realm. The bishops of Ireland were, from the time of the submission of that country to Henry II., elected exactly as in England, under the king’s licence, and by virtue of a congé d’élire directed to the chapters. The statute of provisors was in force in Ireland as well as England; and although, from the unsettled state of the country, irregular elections occasionally took place in distant provinces, it can be clearly shown that this was in consequence of the weakness of the Crown, and in contradiction to the law. (See Ware’s Irish Bishops, passim, and Cotton’s Facti Ecclesiæ Hibern.) The right of election was taken away from the chapters, as in England, in the reign of Henry VIII., and never restored. The Irish bishops are, in consequence, still nominated, as their English brethren were till Queen Elizabeth’s reign, by letters patent.

BLASPHEMY. (From the Greek word, βλασφημέω, quasi βλάπτω τὴν φήμην.) An injury to the reputation of any, but now used almost exclusively to designate that which derogates from the honour of God, whether by detracting from his person or attributes, or by attributing to the creature what is due to God alone.

Blasphemy is a crime both in the civil and canon law, and is punishable both by the statute and common law of England.

The sin of blasphemy incurred the public censure of the primitive Christian Church. They distinguished blasphemy into three sorts. 1. The blasphemy of apostates, whom the heathen persecutors obliged, not only to deny, but to curse Christ. 2. The blasphemy of heretics, and other profane Christians. 3. The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. The first sort we find mentioned in Pliny, who, giving Trajan an account of some Christians, whom the persecutions of his times had made to apostatize, tells him, they all worshipped his images, and the images of the gods, and cursed Jesus Christ. And that this was the common way of renouncing their religion, appears from the demand of the proconsul to Polycarp, and Polycarp’s answer. He bid him revile Christ: to which Polycarp replied; “These eighty-six years I have served him, and he never did me any harm; how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?”—These blasphemers, as having added blasphemy to apostasy, were reckoned among the apostates, and punished as such, to the highest degree of ecclesiastical censure.—Bingham, Origin. Eccles. b. xvi. ch. 7, § 1. Plin. Ep. 97, lib. x. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. 15.

The second sort of blasphemers were such as made profession of the Christian religion, but yet, either by impious doctrines or profane discourses, derogated from the majesty and honour of God and his holy religion. This sense of blasphemy included every kind of heresy; whence the same punishment the Church had appointed for heretics, was the lot of this kind of blasphemers. And that in this notion of blasphemy they included all impious and profane language, appears from Synesius’s treatment of Andronicus, governor of Ptolemais. He was contented to admonish him for his other crimes; but, when he added blasphemy to them, saying, no one should escape his hands, though he laid hold of the very foot of Christ, Synesius thought it high time to proceed to anathemas and excommunication.—Bingham, ibid. § 2.

The third sort of blasphemy was that against the Holy Ghost: concerning which the opinions of the ancients varied. Some applied it to the sin of lapsing into idolatry and apostasy, and denying Christ in time of persecution. Others made it to consist in denying Christ to be God; in which sense Hilary charges the Arians with sinning against the Holy Ghost. Origen thought that whoever, after having received the gifts of the Holy Ghost by baptism, afterwards ran into sin, was guilty of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost. Athanasius refutes this notion, and delivers his own opinion in the following 117manner. “The Pharisees, in our Saviour’s time, and the Arians, in our own, running into the same madness, denied the real Word to be incarnate, and ascribed the works of the Godhead to the devil and his angels.—They put the devil in the place of God—which was the same thing as if they had said, that the world was made by Beelzebub, that the sun rose at his command, and the stars moved by his direction.—For this reason Christ declared their sin unpardonable, and their punishment inevitable and eternal.” St. Ambrose likewise defines this sin to be a denying the Divinity of Christ. There are others, who make it to consist in denying the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. Epiphanius calls these blasphemers πνευματόμαχοι, “fighters against the Holy Ghost.” Others, again, place this sin in a perverse and malicious ascribing the operations of the Holy Spirit to the power of the devil; and that against express knowledge and conviction of conscience.

That the ancients did not look upon the sin against the Holy Ghost, in the several kinds of it here mentioned, as absolutely irremissible, or incapable of pardon, appears from hence, that they did not shut the door of repentance against such offenders, but invited them to repent, and prayed for their conversion, and restored them to communion, upon their confession, and evidences of a true repentance. Wherever they speak of it as unpardonable both in this world and the next, they always suppose the sinner to die in obduracy, and in resistance to all the gracious motions and operations of the Holy Spirit. Whence it must be concluded, that they did not think the sin against the Holy Ghost, whatever it was, in its own nature unpardonable, but only that it becomes so through final impenitence. Thus the author of the book, “Of True and False Repentance,” under the name of St. Austin, says, they only sin against the Holy Ghost, who continue impenitent to their death. And Bacchiarius, an African writer about the time of St. Austin, says this sin consists in such a despair of God’s mercy, as makes men give over all hopes of recovering that state, from which they are fallen.—Synes. Ep. 58. Bingham, ibid. § 3. Cypr. Ep. 10. Hilar. in Mat. Can. 12, p. 164. Athan. in illud, Quicunque dixerit verbum, &c., p. 975. Ambros. Comment. in Luc. lib. vii. c. 12. Epiphan. Hæres. lxxiv. Aug. Quæst. in Vet. et Nov. Test. 102. Bingham, ibid. Aug. de vera et falsa Pœnit. cap. iv. Bacchiar. Epist. de recipiend. lapsis.

St. Austin speaks often of this crime, and places it in a continued resistance of the motions and graces of the Holy Spirit, and persisting in impenitency to our death. “Impenitency is the blasphemy, which has neither remission in this world, nor in the world to come; but of this no one can judge so long as a man continues in this life. A man is a Pagan to-day; but how knowest thou but he may become a Christian to-morrow? To-day he is an unbelieving Jew; to-morrow he may believe in Christ. To-day he is an heretic; to-morrow he may embrace the Catholic truth.” Out of this notion of St. Austin, the schoolmen, according to their usual chymistry, have extracted five several species of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; viz. despair, presumption, final impenitency, obstinacy in sin, and opposition to the known truth.

If we consider the Scripture account of this sin, nothing can be plainer than that it is to be understood of the Pharisees imputing the miracles, wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost, to the power of the devil. Our Lord had just healed one possessed of a devil, upon which the Pharisees gave this malicious turn to the miracle; “This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils.” (Matt. xii. 24.) This led our Saviour to discourse of the sin of blasphemy, and to tell his disciples; “Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the sin against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men,” (Ver. 31.) The Pharisees therefore were the persons charged with this sin, and the sin itself consisted in ascribing what was done by the finger of God to the agency of the devil. And the reason why our Lord pronounced it unpardonable is plain, because the Jews, by withstanding the evidence of miracles, resisted the strongest means of their conviction. From all which it will follow, that no person now can be guilty of the sin against the Holy Ghost, in the sense in which our Saviour originally intended it; though there may be sins which bear a very near resemblance to it.—August., Serm. xi. de Verbis Domini. Brouqhton.

BLOOD. From the earliest times the clergy have been forbidden to sit in judgment on capital offences, or in cases of blood; a rule still maintained among us; for the bishops, who, as peers of parliament, are a component part of the highest court of judicature in the kingdom, always retire when such cases are before the House.

118BODY. The Church is called a body. (Rom. xii. 5; 1 Cor. x. 17; xii. 13; Eph. iv. 4; Col. iii. 15.) Like every other body, society, or corporation, it has a prescribed form of admission, baptism; a constant badge of membership, the eucharist; peculiar duties, repentance, faith, obedience; peculiar privileges, forgiveness of sins, present grace, and future glory; regularly constituted officers, bishops, priests, and deacons. The Church is the body, of which Christ is the Head.

BOHEMIAN BRETHREN. A sect which sprung up in Bohemia in the year 1467. In 1503 they were accused by the Roman Catholics to King Ladislaus II., who published an edict against them, forbidding them to hold any meetings, either privately or publicly. When Luther declared himself against the Church of Rome, the Bohemian Brethren endeavoured to join his party. At first, that reformer showed a great aversion to them; but the Bohemians sending their deputies to him in 1535, with a full account of their doctrines, he acknowledged that they were a society of Christians whose doctrine came near to the purity of the gospel. This sect published another confession of faith in 1535, in which they renounced anabaptism, which they at first professed; upon this an union was concluded with the Lutherans, and afterwards with the Zuinglians, whose opinions from thenceforth they continued to follow.

BOUNTY, QUEEN ANNE’S. (See Annates.)

BOWING AT THE NAME OF JESUS. (See East.) It is enjoined by the eighteenth canon of the Constitutions of the Church of England, that “When in time of Divine service the Lord Jesus shall be mentioned, due and lowly reverence shall be done by all persons present, as it hath been accustomed; testifying by these outward ceremonies and gestures, their inward humility, Christian resolution, and due acknowledgment that the Lord Jesus Christ, the true eternal Son of God, is the only Saviour of the world, in whom alone all the mercies, graces, and promises of God to mankind, for this life and the life to come, are fully and wholly comprised.” We do not bow when our Lord is spoken of as Christ; for when we speak of him as the Christ, we speak of his office, the anointed, the prophet, priest, and king of our race, which implies his Divine nature. But Jesus is the name of his humanity, the name he was known by as man; whenever, therefore, we pronounce that name, we bow, to signify that he who for our sakes became man, is also God.

With reference to turning to the east when we say the Creed, and bowing at the name of Jesus, Dr. Bisse remarks: As to the first, it was the custom of the ancient Church to turn to the altar or east, not only at the confessions of faith, but in all the public prayers. And therefore Epiphanius, speaking of the madness of the impostor Elxæus, counts this as one instance of it among other things, that he forbade praying towards the east. (Lib. i. Hæres. 18.) Now this is the most honourable place in the house of God, and is therefore separated from the lower and inferior parts of the Church, answering to the Holy of Holies in the Jewish tabernacle, which was severed by a veil from the sanctuary; and the holy table or altar in the one answers to the mercy-seat in the other. As then the Jews worshipped, “lifting up their hands towards the mercy-seat,” (Psal. xxviii. 2,) and even the cherubim were formed with their faces looking towards it, (Exod. xxv. 19,) so the primitive Christians did in their worship look towards the altar, of which the mercy-seat was a type. And therefore the altar was usually called “the tabernacle of God’s glory,” his “chair of state,” “the throne of God,” “the type of heaven,” “heaven itself:” for these reasons did they always in praying look towards it. But in rehearsing our Creeds this custom is still more proper and significant, for we are appointed to perform it “standing;” by this posture declaring our resolution to stand by, or defend, that faith, which we have professed: so that all these times we resemble, not so much an assembly, as an army: as then in every well-marshalled army all look and move one way, so should we always do in a regular assembly; but especially at the confessions of faith all “Christ’s faithful soldiers” should show, by this uniformity of gesture, that they hold the unity of faith.

The other usage, of bowing at the name of Jesus, seems founded on that Scripture, where it is declared, that “God hath given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” (Isa. xlv. 23; Phil. ii. 9,) &c. Now though the rubric be silent herein, yet the canon of our Church thus enjoins. Now if such reverence be due to that great and ever-blessed name, when it is mentioned in the lesson or sermon, how much more in the Creeds, when we mention it with our own lips, 119making confession of our faith in it, adding the very reason given in the canon, that we believe in him as “the only Son,” or “only-begotten Son of God,” the Saviour of the world; and when too we do this “standing,” which is the proper posture for doing reverence!—Dr. Bisse.

BOWING TO THE ALTAR. A reverent custom still practised at Windsor chapel, in college chapels and cathedrals, of which the synod of 1640 said, “We heartily commend it to all good and well-affected people, that they be ready to tender to the Lord their reverence and obeisance, both at their coming in and going out of church, according to the most ancient custom of the primitive Church in the purest times.” “In the practice or omission of this rite, we desire that the rule of charity prescribed by the apostle may be observed, which is, that they which use this rite despise not those who use it not, and they who use it not, condemn not them who use it.”

BOYLE’S LECTURE. A lecture founded under the will of the Hon. Robert Boyle, in 1691, which consists of a course of eight sermons, to prove the truth of Christianity against infidels, and to answer new difficulties, &c., without entering into controversies existing among Christians.

BRANDENBURG, CONFESSION OF. A formulary, or confession of faith, drawn up in the city of Brandenburg by order of the elector, with a view to reconcile the tenets of Luther with those of Calvin, and to put an end to the disputes occasioned by the Confession of Augsburgh.

BRASSES. Monumental slabs of brass, much used in the middle ages, with effigies carved in outline upon them. An historical and descriptive account of brasses used as sepulchral memorials would occupy too much space for this work. Perhaps as much of the history as we shall be expected to give is included in the following paragraph from the “Manual of Monumental Brasses,” (Oxford, 1848,) to which we may refer for a full discussion on this subject.

“The earliest brass of which we have any record was that of Simon de Beauchamp, who died before 1208, thus mentioned by Leland, “He lyith afore the highe altare of S. Paule’s chirch in Bedeford, with this epitaphie graven in bras, and set on a flat marble stone:—

Several others of the thirteenth century, now lost, are enumerated by Gough.”

At the present time, the earliest brass known is that of Sir John d’Abernon, 1277; one other of the same century still remains at Trumpington. From this period their numbers gradually increased until about the middle of the sixteenth century, when they became less common. The latest observed example is at St. Mary Cray, Kent, 1776. It is remarkable that the earliest brasses are quite equal, in beauty of form and execution, to any of a later date. From the early part of the fifteenth century a gradual decline of the art is visible, and towards the end of the sixteenth century it became utterly degenerate.

It seems needless to add, that the interest of brasses is derived, in a great degree, from the light which they throw on mediæval costume, and the habits of our ancestors. The destruction of brasses at the Reformation was great; at the Rebellion still greater. The mention of this spoliation by Drake, the historian of York, is worth volumes of mere particulars. “Let no man hereafter say, ‘Exegi monumentum ære perennius;’ for now an æris sacra fames has robbed us of most of the ancient monumental inscriptions that were in the church. At the Reformation this hairbrained zeal began to show itself against painted glass, stone statues, and grave-stones, many of which were defaced and utterly destroyed, along with other more valuable monuments of the church, till Queen Elizabeth put a stop to these most scandalous doings by an express act of parliament. In our late civil wars, and during the usurpation, our zealots began again these depredations on grave-stones, and stripped and pillaged to the minutest piece of metal. I know it is urged that their hatred to Popery was so great, that they could not endure to see an “orate pro animâ,” or even a cross, over a monument without defacing it; but it is plain that it was more the poor lucre of the brass, than zeal, which tempted these miscreants to this act, for there was no gravestone which had an inscription cut on itself that was defaced by anything but age throughout this whole church.”

BRAWLING. The act of quarrelling, and, in its more limited and technical sense, the act of quarrelling within consecrated precincts. If any person shall, by words only, quarrel, chide, or brawl in any church or churchyard, it shall be lawful unto the ordinary of the place, where the same offence shall be done, and proved by two lawful witnesses, to suspend every person so offending; if he be a layman, from the 120entrance of the church; and if he be a clerk, from the ministration of his office, for so long time as the said ordinary shall think meet according to the fault. (5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 4, s. 1.)

BREVIARY. A daily office or book of Divine service in the Romish Church. So called from being a compilation in an abbreviated form, convenient for use, of the various books anciently used in the service, as antiphoners, psalters, &c. After the prayers of the liturgy, or missal, those held in the greatest veneration by Roman Catholics are the prayers contained in the church office, or canonical hours. This office is a form of prayer and instruction combined, consisting of psalms, lessons, hymns, prayers, anthems, versicles, &c., combined in an established order, separated into different hours of the day. It is divided into seven, or rather eight parts; and, like the English liturgy, it has a reference to the mystery or festival celebrated. The festival, and therefore the office, begins with vespers, i. e. with the evening prayer, about six o’clock, or sunset. This office is called, on the eves of Sundays and holidays, the first Vespers. Next follows compline, to beg God’s protection during sleep. At midnight come the three nocturns, as they are called, or matins, the longest part of the office. Lauds, or matin lauds, or the morning praises of God, are appointed for the cock-crowing, or before the break of day. At six o’clock, or sunrise, prime shall be recited; and tierce, sext, and none, every third hour afterwards. (See Canonical Hours.) These canonical hours of prayer are still regularly observed by many religious orders, but less regularly by the secular clergy, even in the choir. When the office is recited in private, though the observance of regular hours may be commendable, it is thought sufficient if the whole be gone through any time in the twenty-four hours. The church office, exclusive of the mass and occasional services, is contained in what is called the breviary. In consequence of a decree of the Council of Trent, Pope Pius V. ordered a number of learned and able men to compile the breviary; and by his bull, Quod a nobis, July, 1566, sanctioned it, and commanded the use thereof to the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church all over the world. Clement VIII., in 1602, finding that the breviary of Pius V. had been altered and depraved, restored it to its pristine state; and ordered, under pain of excommunication, that all future editions should strictly follow that which he then printed at the Vatican. Lastly, Urban VIII., in 1631, had the language of the whole work, and the metres of the hymns, revised. The value which the Church of Rome sets upon the breviary, may be known from the strictness with which she demands the perusal of it. Whoever enjoys any ecclesiastical revenue; all persons of both sexes, who have professed in any of the regular orders; all subdeacons, deacons, and priests, are bound to repeat, either in public or in private, the whole service of the day, out of the breviary. The omission of any one of the eight portions of which that service consists is declared to be a mortal sin, i. e. a sin that, unrepented, would be sufficient to exclude from salvation. The person guilty of such an omission loses all legal right to whatever portion of his clerical emoluments is due for the day or days wherein he neglected that duty, and cannot be absolved till he has given the forfeited sums to the poor. Such are the sanctions and penalties by which the reading of the breviary is enforced. The scrupulous exactness with which this duty is performed by all who have not secretly cast off their spiritual allegiance is quite surprising. The office of the Roman Catholic Church was originally so contrived, as to divide the psalter between the seven days of the week. Portions of the old Scriptures were also read alternately, with extracts from the legends of the saints, and the works of the fathers. But as the calendar became crowded with saints, whose festivals take precedence of the regular church service, little room is left for anything but a few psalms, which are constantly repeated, a very small part of the Old Testament, and mere fragments of the Gospels and Epistles.

The lessons are taken partly out of the Old and New Testaments, and partly out of the Acts of the Saints, and writings of the holy fathers. The Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, or Angelical Salutation, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Confiteor, are frequently said. This last is a prayer, by which they who use it acknowledge themselves sinners, beg pardon of God, and the intercession on their behalf of the angels, of the saints, and of their brethren upon earth. No prayers are more frequently in the mouths of Roman Catholics than these four; to which we may add the doxology, repeated during the psalmody in every office, but though not uniformly at the end of every psalm, and in other places. In every canonical hour a hymn is also said, often composed by Prudentius, or some other ancient father. The Roman breviary contains 121also a small office, in honour of the Blessed Virgin, and likewise what is called the office of the dead. We there find, also, the penitential and the gradual psalms, as they are called, together with the litanies of the saints, and of the Virgin Mary of Loretto, which are the only two that have the sanction of the Church. The breviary is generally printed in four volumes, one for each season of the year.

BRIEFS (see Bulls) are pontifical letters issued from the court of Rome, sealed in red wax, with the seal of the fisherman’s ring: they are written in Roman characters, and subscribed by the secretary of briefs, who is a secretary of state, (usually either a bishop or a cardinal,) required to be well versed in the legal style of papal documents, and in the sacred canons. The word Brief, in our Prayer Book, signifies the sovereign letters patent, authorizing a collection for a charitable purpose; as they are now styled, Queen’s letters. These are directed to be read among the notices after the Nicene Creed.

BROACH. In strictness any spire, but generally used to signify a spire, the junction of which with the tower is not marked by a parapet. Lancet and Geometrical spires are generally thus treated; Decorated, frequently; Perpendicular, rarely.

BULL in Cœna Domini. This is the name given to a bull in the Church of Rome, which is publicly read on the day of the Lord’s supper, viz. Holy Thursday, by a cardinal deacon in the pope’s presence, accompanied with the other cardinals and the bishops. The same contains an excommunication of all that are called, by that apostate Church, heretics, stubborn and disobedient to the holy see. And after the reading of this bull, the pope throws a burning torch into the public place, to denote the thunder of this anathema. It is declared expressly, in the beginning of the bull of Pope Paul III., of the year 1536, that it is the ancient custom of the sovereign pontiffs to publish this excommunication on Holy Thursday, to preserve the purity of the Christian religion, and to keep the union of the faithful; but the original of this ceremony is not inserted in it. The principal heads of this bull concern heretics and their upholders, pirates, imposers of new customs, those who falsify the bulls and other apostolic letters; those who abuse the prelates of the Church; those that trouble or would restrain ecclesiastical jurisdiction, even under pretence of preventing some violence, though they might be counsellors or advocates, generals to secular princes, whether emperors, kings, or dukes; those who usurp the goods of the Church, &c. All these cases are reserved to the pope, and no priest can give absolution in such a case, if it be not at the point of death. The Council of Tours, in 1510, declared the bull in Cœna Domini void in respect of France, which has often protested against it, in what relates to the king’s prerogative, and the liberties of the Gallican Church; and there are now but few other Popish princes or states that have much regard to it. So much has the authority of the papal chair declined since the Reformation, even over those who still remain in the communion of what they call the Roman Catholic Church.

BULLS (see Briefs) are pontifical letters, in the Romish Church, written in old Gothic characters upon stout and coarse skins, and issued from the apostolic chancery, under a seal (bulla) of lead; which seal gives validity to the document, and is attached, if it be a “Bull of Grace,” by a cord of silk; and if it be a “Bull of Justice,” by a cord of hemp.

The seal of the fisherman’s ring corresponds, in some degree, with the privy seal; and the bulla, or seal of lead, with the great seal of England.

The bulla is, properly, a seal of empire. The imperial bulla is of gold; and it was under a seal of this description that King John resigned the crown of England to the Pope.

Briefs and Bulls differ from each other.

1. Briefs are issued from the Roman court by the apostolic secretary, sealed with red wax by the fisherman’s ring. Bulls are issued by the apostolic chancellor, under a seal of lead, having on one side impressed the likeness of St. Peter and St. Paul; and, on the other, the name of the reigning pope.

2. Briefs are written upon fine and white skins. Bulls, upon those which are thick, coarse, and rude.

3. Briefs are written in Roman characters, in a legible, fair, and elegant manner. Bulls, though in Latin, are written in old Gothic characters, without line or stop, or that regard to spelling which is observed in briefs.

4. Briefs are dated “a die nativitatis;” Bulls dated “a die incarnationis.”

5. Briefs have the date abbreviated; Bulls have it given in length.

6. Briefs begin in a different form, with the name of the pope: thus “Clem. Papa XII. &c.” Bulls begin with the words “[Clemens] Episcopus servus servorum Dei;” by way of distinct heading.

1227. Briefs are issued before the pope’s coronation, but Bulls are not issued till afterwards. (See on this subject, Corrad. in Praxi Dispens. lib. ii. c. 7, n. 29; Rosam de Executione Liter. Apostol. c. 2, n. 67; Cardinal de Luca. in relat. Romanæ Curiæ, discurs, 7, and other canonists.)

Notwithstanding the above-mentioned differences between Briefs and Bulls, and that greater weight is usually attached to a bull than to a brief, on account of its more formal character, still Briefs have the same authority as Bulls on all the matters to which they relate; both being equally acts of the pope, though issued from different departments of his Holiness’s government.

BURIAL. (See Cemetery, Dead.) Christians in the first centuries used to bury their dead in the places used also by the heathen, in caves or vaults by the wayside, or in fields out of their cities. The heathen used to burn the bodies of the dead, and collect the ashes in urns, but Christians thought it to be a barbarity and insult to destroy a body appointed to a glorious resurrection. They therefore restored the older and better practice of laying the remains decently in the earth. Their persecutors, knowing their feelings on this subject, often endeavoured to prevent them from burying their dead, by burning the bodies of their martyrs, as they did that of Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna; or by throwing their ashes into rivers, as they did those of the martyrs of Lyons and Vienne in France, A. D. 177. And although the heathen seemed to think it unlucky and of evil omen to perform their funerals by day, carrying out their dead after night-fall, and by torch-light; the Christians used to follow their deceased friends to the grave, in the light of the sun, with a large attendance of people walking in procession, sometimes carrying candles in token of joy and thanksgiving, and chanting psalms. It was also the custom, before they went to the grave, to assemble in the church, where the body was laid, and a funeral sermon was sometimes preached. The holy communion was administered on these occasions to the friends of the deceased, for which a service, with an appropriate Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, was set forth in our own Church in the First Book of King Edward VI., and in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, A. D. 1560. The office for the Burial of the Dead used by the English Church corresponds in all respects with the offices of the primitive Church, particularly as regards the psalms, the anthem, “Man that is born of a woman,” &c., and the portions of Scripture appointed to be read.

No person can be buried in the church, or in any part of it, without the consent of the incumbent, to whom alone the common law has given this privilege, because the soil and freehold of the church is in the parson only. But upon the like ground of freehold, the common law has one exception to the necessity of the leave of the parson, namely, where a burying-place within the church is prescribed for as belonging to a manor house. By the common law of England, any person may be buried in the churchyard of the parish where he dies, without paying anything for breaking the soil, unless a fee is payable by prescription, or immemorial usage. But ordinarily a person may not be buried in the churchyard of another parish than that wherein he died, at least without the consent of the parishioners or churchwardens, whose parochial right of burial is invaded thereby, and perhaps also of the incumbent whose soil is broken; but where a person dies on his journey or otherwise, out of the parish, or where there is a family vault or burial-place in the church, or chancel, or aisle of such other parish, it may be otherwise. Burial cannot be legally refused to dead bodies on account of debt, even although the debtor was confined in prison at the time of his death.

By canon 68. “No minister shall refuse or delay to bury any corpse that is brought to the church or churchyard, (convenient warning being given him thereof before,) in such manner and form as is prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. And if he shall refuse so to do, except the party deceased were denounced excommunicated majori excommunicatione, for some grievous and notorious crime, (and no man able to testify of his repentance,) he shall be suspended by the bishop of the diocese from his ministry by the space of three months.” But by the rubric before the office for Burial of the Dead, the said office likewise shall not be used for any that die unbaptized, or that have laid violent hands upon themselves. The proper judges, whether persons who died by their own hands were out of their senses, are doubtless the coroner’s jury. The minister of the parish has no authority to be present at viewing the body, or to summon or examine witnesses. And therefore he is neither entitled nor able to judge in the affair; but may well acquiesce in the public determination, without making any private inquiry. Indeed, were he to make one, the opinion which he might form from 123thence could usually be grounded only on common discourse and bare assertion. It cannot be justifiable to act upon these in contradiction to the decision of a jury after hearing witnesses upon oath. Even though there may be reason to suppose that the coroner’s jury are frequently too favourable in their judgment, in consideration of the circumstances of the family of the deceased with respect to the forfeiture, and their verdict is in its own nature traversable, yet the burial may not be delayed until that matter upon trial shall finally be determined. On acquittal of the crime of self-murder by the coroner’s jury, the body in that case not being demanded by the law, it seems that the clergyman may and ought to admit that body to Christian burial.

The rubric directs that the priests and clerks meeting the corpse at the entrance of the churchyard, and going before it either into the church or towards the grave, shall say or sing as is there appointed. By which it seems to be discretionary in the minister, whether the corpse shall be carried into the church or not. And there may be good reason for not bringing it into the church, especially in cases of infection.

Canon 67. After the party’s death there shall be rung no more than one short peal, and one before the burial, and one other after the burial.

The corpse that is buried belongs to no one, but is subject to ecclesiastical cognizance, if abused or removed; and a corpse, once buried, cannot be taken up or removed without licence from the ordinary, if it is to be buried in another place, or the like; but in the case of a violent death the coroner may take up the body for his inspection, if it is interred before he comes to view it.—Dr. Burn.

With reference to the Order for the Burial of the Dead in the Book of Common Prayer, we must note that the ignorance and corruption of the latter centuries had not vitiated any of the sacred administrations more than this of burial; on which the fancies of purgatory and prayers for the dead had so great an influence, that most of the forms now extant consist of little else but impertinent and useless petitions for the dead. Our Protestant reformers therefore, remembering St. Augustine’s rule, that all this office is designed rather for the comfort of the living, than the benefit of the dead, have justly rejected these superstitions; and contrived this present form wholly for the instruction, admonition, and comfort of the attendants on this solemnity, and therein have reduced this matter to its prime intention and use. It is not easy to tell exactly what the primitive form of burial was; but the psalms were a principal part of it, as all the fathers testify. They are now also a chief part of this office, and the rest is generally taken out of Holy Scripture, being such places as are most proper to the occasion, so as to form altogether a most pious and practical office.—Dean Comber.

Although all persons are for decency to be put under ground, yet that some are not capable of Christian burial appears not only from the canons of the ancient Church, but also from the following rubric prefixed to our office at the last review: “Here it is to be noted, that the office ensuing is not to be used for any that die unbaptized, or excommunicate, or have laid violent hands upon themselves.”

The persons capable of Christian burial are only those within the pale of the Church, for the rubric excludes all others from this privilege; which is agreeable to the sense of all nations, who have generally thought fit to punish some kinds of malefactors with the want of these rites after their death, as well to afflict the criminal, while he lives, with apprehensions of the disgrace to be done to his body, which is naturally dear to all men; as to perpetuate the odium of the crime, while the corpse is exposed to public scorn after the offender hath parted with his life. Thus murderers were punished among the Romans: and among the Greeks, robbers of temples and sacrilegious persons, as also those that betrayed their country, with divers other notorious transgressors. But none have been so justly and so universally deprived of that natural right, which all men seem to have in a grave, as those who break that great law of nature, the law of self-preservation, by laying violent hands upon themselves. Among the Jews, these were forbidden to be buried, and among the ancient Romans also. And when many of the Milesian virgins made themselves away, the rest were restrained from so vile a crime by a decree, that whosoever so died, she should not be buried, but her naked body should be exposed to the common view. And, to confirm the equity of these customs, we find the Christian councils, as well abroad as at home, have forbidden the clergy to bury those that killed themselves; as doth also our present rubric in imitation of those ancient constitutions. And for very great reason, namely, to terrify all from committing so detestable and desperate a sin, as is the wilful destroying of God’s image, the casting away of their 124own souls, as well as their opportunities of repentance: the Church hereby declaring, that she hath little hopes of their salvation, who die in an act of the greatest wickedness, which they can never repent of after it be committed.

To these are to be added all that die under the sentence of excommunication, who in the primitive times were denied Christian burial also, with the intent of bringing the excommunicated to seek their absolution and the Church’s peace for their soul’s health, ere they leave this world; and, if not, of declaring them cut off from the body of Christ, and by this mark of infamy distinguishing them from obedient and regular Christians.

This office is also denied to infants not yet admitted into the Church by baptism; not so much to punish the infants, who have done no crime, as the parents, by whose neglect this too often happens. And perhaps this external and sensible kind of punishment may move them to be more careful to accomplish the office in due time, than higher and more spiritual considerations will do.

Not that the Church determines anything concerning the future state of those that depart before they are admitted to baptism; but since they have not been received within the pale of the Church, we cannot properly use an office at their funeral, which all along supposes the person that is buried to have died in her communion.

Whether this office is to be used over such as have been baptized by the dissenters or sectaries, who have no regular commission for the administering of the sacraments, has been a subject of dispute; people generally determining on one side, or the other, according to their different sentiments of the validity or invalidity of such disputed baptisms.—Wheatly.

All other persons that die in the communion of the visible Church are capable of these rites of Christian burial, according to the rules and practice both of the primitive and the present ages.—Dean Comber.

Though this rubric was not drawn up till 1661, and none of the regulations which it enjoins, excepting only what relates to persons excommunicate, was before that time specified in any of our articles, or ecclesiastical constitutions, yet it must not be considered as a new law, but merely as explanatory of the ancient canon law, and of the previous usage in England.—Shepherd.

The Order for the Burial of the Dead is much modified from the service in the First Book of King Edward VI. The psalms were the 116th, 139th, and 146th: the prayers were in many respects different; and there are certain passages omitted in the Second Book. The psalms in the First Book were omitted in the subsequent revisals, and the lesson was recited after the anthem, “I heard a voice from heaven:” and the present psalms were not inserted till the last Review.

At solemn funerals it has not been unusual to combine the Burial Service with the office of Evening Prayer, substituting the psalms and lessons for those of the day; but the regularity of this usage is questionable.—Jebb.

BUTTRESS. An external support to a wall, so arranged as to counteract the lateral thrust of roofs and vaulting.

The buttress is not used in Classic architecture, where the thrust is always vertical; and in Romanesque it is hardly developed. It is, in fact, a correlative of the pointed arch, especially when used in vaulting, and so first attains considerable depth in the Lancet period. In the Tudor period, when it had to support fan vaulting of vast expanse and weight, its depth or projection was proportionably increased.

The flying buttress, arch-buttress, or cross-springer, is an arch delivering the weight to be supported at a distance, as of a spire at the angle of the tower, of a clerestory at the aisle buttress, or of the chapter-house roof at Lincoln, to the heavy masses of masonry prepared at a distance to receive it.

The pinnacles which frequently terminate buttresses are intended to add to the weight of the supporting mass. (See Bay.)

CABBALA. (Hebrew.) Tradition. Among the Jews, it principally means the mystical interpretations of their Scriptures, handed down by tradition. The manner in which Maimonides explains the Cabbala, or Traditions of the Jews, is as follows: “God not only delivered the law to Moses on Mount Sina, but the explanation of it likewise. When Moses came down from the mount, and entered into his tent, Aaron went to visit him, and Moses acquainted Aaron with the laws he had received from God, together with the explanation of them. After this, Aaron placed himself at the right hand of Moses, and Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron, were admitted; to whom Moses repeated what he had just before told to Aaron. These being seated, the one on the right, the other on the left hand of Moses, the seventy elders of Israel, who 125composed the Sanhedrim, came in. Moses again declared the same laws to them, with the interpretations of them, as he had done before to Aaron and his sons. Lastly, all who pleased of the common people were invited to enter, and Moses instructed them likewise in the same manner as the rest. So that Aaron heard four times what Moses had been taught by God upon Mount Sina; Eleazar and Ithamar three times; the seventy elders twice; and the people once. Moses afterwards reduced the laws, which he had received, into writing, but not the explanations of them; these he thought it sufficient to trust to the memories of the above-mentioned persons, who, being perfectly instructed in them, delivered them to their children, and these again to theirs, from age to age.”

The Cabbala, therefore, is properly the Oral Law of the Jews, delivered down, by word of mouth, from father to son; and it is to these interpretations of the written law our Saviour’s censure is to be applied, when he reproves the Jews for “making the commands of God of none effect through their traditions.”

Some of the Rabbins pretend that the origin of the Cabbala is to be referred to the angels; that the angel Raziel instructed Adam in it; the angel Japhiel, Shem; the angel Zedekiel, Abraham, &c. But the truth is, these explications of the Law are only the several interpretations and decisions of the Rabbins on the Law of Moses; in the framing of which they studied principally the combinations of particular words, letters, and numbers, and by that means pretended to discover clearly the true sense of the difficult passages of Scripture.

This is properly called the Artificial Cabbala, to distinguish it from simple tradition: and it is of three sorts. The first, called Gematria, consists in taking letters as figures, and explaining words by the arithmetical value of the letters of which they are composed. For instance, the Hebrew letters of Jabo-Schiloh (Shiloh shall come) make up the same arithmetical number as Messiach (the Messiah): from whence they conclude that Shiloh signifies the Messiah.

The second kind of Artificial Cabbala, which is called Notaricon, consists in taking each particular letter of a word for an entire diction. For example, of Rereschith, which is the first word of Genesis, composed of the letters B. R. A. S. C. H. J. T., they make Bura-Rakia-Arex-Schamaim-Jain-Tehomoth, i. e. he created the firmament, the earth, the heavens, the sea, and the deep. Or in forming one entire diction out of the initial letters of many: thus, in Atah-Gibbor-Leholam-Adonai, (Thou art strong for ever, O Lord,) they put the initial letters of this sentence together, and form the word Agla, which signifies either, I will reveal, or, a drop of dew, and is the Cabbalistic name of God.

The third kind, called Themura, consists in changing and transposing the letters of a word: thus of the word Bereschith (the first of the book of Genesis) they make A-betisri, the first of the month Tisri, and infer from thence that the world was created on the first day of the month Tisri, which answers very nearly to our September.

The Cabbala, according to the Jews, is a noble and sublime science, conducting men by an easy method to the profoundest truths. Without it, the Holy Scriptures could not be distinguished from profane books, wherein we find some miraculous events, and as pure morality as that of the law, if we did not penetrate into the truths locked up under the external cover of the literal sense. As men were grossly deceived, when, dwelling upon the sensible object, they mistook angels for men; so also they fall into error or ignorance when they insist upon the surface of letters or words, which change with custom, and ascend not up to the ideas of God himself, which are infinitely more noble and spiritual.

Certain visionaries among the Jews believe that our blessed Lord wrought his miracles by virtue of the mysteries of the Cabbala. Some learned men are of opinion, that Pythagoras and Plato learned the Cabbalistic art of the Jews in Egypt; others, on the contrary, say the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato furnished the Jews with the Cabbala. Most of the heretics, in the primitive Christian Church, fell into the vain conceits of the Cabbala; particularly the Gnostics, Valentinians, and Basilidians.—Broughton.

CABBALISTS. Those Jewish doctors who profess the study of the Cabbala. In the opinion of these men, there is not a word, letter, or accent in the law, without some mystery in it. The first Cabbalistical author that we know of is Simon, the son of Joachai, who is said to have lived a little before the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. His book, entitled Zohar, is extant; but it is agreed that many additions have been made to it. The first part of this work is entitled Zeniutha, or Mystery; the second Idra Rabba, or the Great Synod; 126the third, Idra Latta, or the Little Synod, which is the author’s last adieu to his disciples.—Broughton.

CAINITES, or CANIANS. Christian heretics, a sect of the Gnostics of the second century: they were called according to Cain’s name, who, they say, was formed by a celestial and almighty power, and that Abel was made by a weak one: they held that the way to be saved was to make trial of all manner of things, and to satisfy their lusts with all wicked actions: they fancied a great number of angels, to which they gave barbarous names, attributing to each of them a particular sin; so that when they were about any wicked action, they invoked the angel whom they fancied to preside over it. They composed a book called St. Paul’s Ascension to Heaven, which they filled with blasphemies and execrable impieties, as if they were the secret words which that apostle heard in his ecstasy: they had a particular veneration for Cain, Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, the Sodomites, and especially for Judas, on whose Gospel they relied, because his treachery occasioned the death of Christ; and they made use of a Gospel that bore that false disciple’s name.

CALENDAR. The word calendar is derived from calendæ, the first day of the Roman month. Our calendar in the Prayer Book consists of several columns. The first shows the days of the month in their numerical order; the second contains the letters of the alphabet affixed to the days of the week; the third, as printed in the larger Common Prayer Books, (and as it ought to be in all,) has the calends, nones, and ides, which was the method of computation used by the old Romans and primitive Christians, and is still useful to those who read ecclesiastical history.

The last four columns contain the course of lessons for morning and evening prayer for ordinary days throughout the year. The intermediate column, namely, the fourth, contains, together with the holy days observed by the Church of England, such Popish holy days as it was thought best to retain. The reasons why the names of these saints’ days and holy days were resumed into the calendar are various. Some of them being retained upon account of our courts of justice, which usually made their returns on these days, or else upon the days before or after them, which were called in the writs, Vigil., Fest., or Crast., as in Vigil. Martin, Fest. Martin, Crast. Martin, and the like. Others are probably kept in the calendar for the sake of such tradesmen, handicraftsmen, and others, as are wont to celebrate the memory of their tutelar saints: as the “Welshmen do of St. David, the shoemakers of St. Crispin, &c. And again, churches being in several places dedicated to some or other of these saints, it has been the usual custom in such places to have wakes or fairs kept upon those days; so that the people would probably be displeased, if, either in this, or the former case, their favourite saint’s name should be left out of the calendar. Besides, the histories which were writ before the Reformation do frequently speak of transactions happening upon such a holy day, or about such a time, without mentioning the month, relating one thing to be done at Lammas-tide, and another about Martinmas, &c.; so that were these names quite left out of the calendar, we might be at a loss to know when several of these transactions happened. For this and the foregoing reasons our second reformers under Queen Elizabeth (though all those days had been omitted in both books of King Edward VI., excepting St. George’s day, Lammas day, St. Laurence, and St. Clement, which two last were in his Second Book) thought convenient to restore the names of them to the calendar, though not with any regard of being kept holy by the Church. For this they thought prudent to forbid, as well upon the account of the great inconveniency brought into the Church in the times of Popery, by the observation of such a number of holy days, to the great prejudice of labouring and trading men, as by reason that many of those saints they then commemorated were oftentimes men of none of the best characters. Besides, the history of these saints, and the accounts they gave of the other holy days, were frequently found to be feigned and fabulous. An effort to reform the calendar was made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but was never carried into effect. By the acts 24 Geo. ii. c. 23, and 25 Geo. ii. c. 30, the calendar was reformed, and the new style introduced: in consequence of which the calendar (only so far as its astronomical errors were concerned) has attained to that form in which it is now prefixed to the Prayer Book. See Stephens’s Book of Common Prayer, with notes, where both the ancient and modern calendar are given at length.—Wheatly.

CALL TO THE MINISTRY. There are two sorts of motions or calls to the ministry. First, the outward; whereby those who have a right of recommending a person to the execution of any ecclesiastical office, do fix upon him as one in their 127judgment qualified for it; and the bishop, approving their judgment, does admit him into such office in due manner, as the laws of God and the rites of the Church do require. But the inward call is something preceding this, and is required by our Church as a qualification for the latter. Now it has been some matter of doubt what is meant here by being “inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost.” But I think no one can judge, that the compilers of this office did ever entertain such enthusiastical notions, as to imagine that no persons were to be admitted into any degree of the ecclesiastical orders, without having a special revelation from the Holy Spirit, that God had particularly commissioned them to take upon them that office, as St. Paul says of himself, that he was “an apostle called of God.” (Rom. i. 1; 1 Cor. i. 1.) For such calls as these were miraculous and extraordinary, and remained not much longer than the apostolical times. It remains, therefore, that this motion or call must be something in a more ordinary and common way.

Now we know that the Scripture teaches, that the common and ordinary graces, and all good dispositions and resolutions, are attributed to the Holy Spirit of God. “Every good and perfect gift cometh from above.” (Jam. i. 17.) “It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do, of his good pleasure.” (Phil. ii. 13.) The apostle calls the ordinary graces of love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, “the fruits of the Spirit.” (Gal. v. 22, 23.) Thus the belief of the gospel is called “the spirit of faith.” (2 Cor. iv. 13.) And it is said expressly, that “no one saith that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” (1 Cor. xii. 3.) Now, I conceive, all that is here meant by “inward motion of the Holy Ghost,” is his ordinary motion, by which Christians are stirred up to every good resolution which they make, or good action which they do. And whereas a resolution to take upon one the office of the ministry, without any bad design mixing with it, is a good resolution, so he that takes it up may be properly said to be moved by the Holy Ghost to do it. For it must be undoubtedly owned, that such a resolution is a good and pious one, since the apostle says plainly, laying it down as an undoubted truth, “This is a true saying, if a man desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” (1 Tim. iii. 1.) And, to be sure, in those times it seldom happened, that this or any other ecclesiastical office was desired, but only from a pure view of doing good. For these were exposed the foremost to the rage of the persecutors, and men must be actuated by a noble zeal for the gospel, to lay themselves under the necessity of being exposed to the most grievous sufferings, or laying down their lives for the sake of it. And in these times, likewise, men may, and frequently, I doubt not, do, take upon them the ecclesiastical employs upon very good aims. Therefore the meaning of this question is, whether, after an impartial examination of their hearts, they find that they do not take this sacred employ upon them, barely for a maintenance in the world, or that thereby they may acquire those superior dignities and profits, which in these peaceable ages of Christianity some of the clergy do partake of; but only that they think they may be serviceable in God’s vineyard, and are willing to contribute the best of their labours therein, “for the promoting of God’s glory and the edifying of his people.” I do not think the question intends, that all who are to be ordained should profess that they would be desirous of this office, though there were no temporal advantages attending it, and though it exposed men not only to starving, but to apparent persecution and death; for then most, even the best persons, as times go now, might justly scruple the answering to such a question: but I take it to mean no more than that, since they are to take upon them some employ or other for their own subsistence and the benefit of the community, they choose to take upon them the office of the ministry, wherein they think they can act more for God’s glory and the benefit of their Christian brethren, than by exercising any temporal calling; and that they verily believe, that it was not without the assistance of God’s good Spirit that they formed this judgment and resolution.—Dr. Nicholls.

The candidate for deacon’s orders has the question of the inward call put to him thus: Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, to take upon you this office and ministration to serve God, in promoting his glory, and the edifying of his people?

This is a great question indeed, and that which no man can give a true and positive answer to, without having searched narrowly into his own heart, and seriously considered the bent and inclinations of his soul. But it is a question very necessary to be propounded, for the Holy Ghost now supplies the place and room of our blessed Saviour in his Church militant here on earth. And therefore, as it was 128by him that the several offices themselves were at first constituted, so it is by him that men are called to the execution of them; and it is by him alone that all ecclesiastical ministrations, performed by such officers, are made effectual to the purposes for which they are appointed; and therefore the Church is bound to take care that none be admitted into her ministry but such as she believes and hopes to be called to it by the Holy Ghost. But she can have no ground to believe this, but only from the persons themselves, none but themselves being acquainted with the motions of God’s Spirit upon their own hearts. And therefore the bishop requires them to deal plainly and faithfully with him and the Church, and to tell him whether they really trust that they are moved by the Holy Ghost to take this office upon them? To which every one is bound to answer, “I trust so:” not that he knows it, or is certain of it, for it is possible that his heart may deceive him in it, but that he trusts or hopes it is so.

But what ground can any one have to trust that he is moved by the Holy Ghost to take the ministry upon him? To that I answer in short, that if a man finds that, upon due examination, the bishop of the diocese, where he is to serve, is satisfied of his abilities and qualifications for the ministry; and that his great end and design in undertaking it is to serve God, for the promoting of his glory and the edifying of his people; he hath good grounds to trust, that he is moved to it by the Holy Ghost, it being only by him that any man can be duly qualified for it, and moved to take it upon him, out of so good and pious a design as that is. But if either of these things be wanting; as, if a man be not fitted for the office, he may conclude he is not called to it by the Holy Ghost, for he neither calls nor useth any but fit instruments in what he doth; or, if a man be moved to it out of a design, not to do good, but to get applause or preferment in the world, he may thence infer that he is not moved to it by the Spirit of God, but by the spirit of pride and covetousness, and then can have no ground to expect that the Holy Ghost should ever bless and assist him in the execution of his office. According to these rules, therefore, they who are to be ordained may discern whether they can truly give the answer required to this great question that will be propounded to them. As for their qualifications for it, the bishop hath already approved of them; but as to their main end and design in undertaking the ministry, that must be left to God and their own consciences, who alone know it, and so can best judge whether they can truly say that they “trust they are moved to it by the Holy Ghost.”—Bp. Beveridge.

The following is Calvin’s definition of the inward call in his book of Institutes, which being published about ten years before the Ordinal of Edward the Sixth, might probably be a guide to our Reformers in framing this question: “That it is the good testimony of our own heart, that we have taken this office, neither for ambition, covetousness, nor any evil design, but out of a true fear of God, and a desire to edify the Church.” Now this we may know by duly considering, whether it were the external honours and revenues that are annexed to this profession, or any other worldly end, that first or chiefly did incline us to the ministry. If so, we were moved by carnal objects, and led on by our own corrupt will and affections. But if our principal motives were spiritual, that is, a zeal for God’s glory, and a desire to promote the salvation of souls, then we were “moved by the Spirit, and inwardly called by God.” I grant we cannot but know there are honours and rewards piously and justly annexed to this holy function; and, as men, we cannot but hope for a competency of them; yea, this may be a subordinate motive. But I may say of the priesthood, as Christ of the kingdom of heaven, it must be sought in the first place for itself, and the other only as additional consequences thereof. (Matt. vi. 33.) We must love the duties of this calling; reading, study, praying, preaching, &c., more than the rewards. Yea, if persecution should ever strip the Church of these provisions, as it hath often done, we must not cast off our holy ministrations. (1 Cor. ix. 16.)

This inward call thus explained is the first and one of the principal qualifications for him that is to be employed about heavenly things. And therefore it is inserted, not only into ours, but other reformed offices for ordination; where it is inquired, “if they believe that God by the Church calls them to this ministry, and if they did not seek for worldly riches or glory,” as in the liturgy of the Belgic Church. Our candidates know this question will be asked: wherefore let them examine their hearts strictly, and answer it in the sincerity of their souls; not doubting but that good Spirit, who excited them to this work, will assist and bless all their performances.—Dean Comber.

We may here observe, that the first question put to those who are to be ordained 129priests, concerning their being moved by the Holy Ghost to take that office upon them, is now omitted. For, these having been ordained deacons before, it is supposed that they were then moved by the Spirit of Christ to take the ministry of his gospel upon them, and there is no need of any further call from him. For being once called by him, though it was but to the lowest office of his own institution, the Church takes it for granted that it is his pleasure they should be promoted to any higher office, if there be sufficient reason and occasion for it.—Bp. Beveridge.

CALOYERS. A general name given to the monks of the Greek Church. It is taken from the Greek καλεγόροι, which signifies “good old men.”—Hist. des Ord. Relig. P. i. cap. 19. These religious consider St. Basil as their father and founder, and look upon it as a crime to follow any other rule than his. There are three degrees among them; the novices, who are called Archari; the ordinary professed, called Microchemi; and the more perfect, called Megalochemi. They are likewise divided into Cœnobites, Anchorets, and Recluse.

The Cœnobites are employed in reciting their office from midnight to sunset; and as it is impossible, in so long an exercise, they should not be overtaken with sleep, there is one monk appointed to wake them; and they are obliged to make three genuflexions at the door of the choir, and, returning, to bow to the right and left to their brethren. The Anchorets retire from the conversation of the world, and live in hermitages in the neighbourhood of the monasteries. They cultivate a little spot of ground, and never go out but on Sundays and holidays, to perform their devotions at the next monastery; the rest of the week they employ in prayer and working with their hands. As for the Recluse, they shut themselves up in grottos and caverns on the tops of mountains, which they never go out of, abandoning themselves entirely to Providence. They live on the alms sent them by the neighbouring monasteries.

In the monasteries, the religious rise at midnight, and repeat a particular office, called from thence Mesonycticon; which takes up the space of two hours: after which, they retire to their cells till five o’clock in the morning, when they return to the church to say matins. At nine o’clock they repeat the Terce, Sexte, and Mass; after which they repair to the refectory, where is a lecture read till dinner. Before they leave the refectory, the cook comes to the door, and, kneeling down, demands their blessing. At four o’clock in the afternoon, they say vespers; and at six go to supper. After supper, they say an office, from thence called Apodipho; and at eight, each monk retires to his chamber and bed till midnight. Every day, after matins, they confess their faults on their knees to their superior.

They have four Lents. The first and greatest is that of the Resurrection of our Lord. They call it the Grand Quarantain, and it lasts eight weeks. During this Lent, the religious drink no wine, and their abstinence is so great, that if they are obliged, in speaking, to name milk, butter, or cheese, they always add this parenthesis, Timitis agias saracostis, i. e. “Saving the respect due to holy Lent.” The second Lent is that of the holy Apostles, which begins eight days after Whit-Sunday: its duration is not fixed, it continuing sometimes three weeks, and at other times longer. During this Lent, they are allowed to drink wine. The third Lent is that of the Assumption of our Lady: it lasts fourteen days; during which they abstain from fish, excepting on Sundays, and the day of the Transfiguration of our Lord. The fourth Lent is that of Advent, which they observe after the same manner as that of the Apostles.

The Caloyers, besides the usual habit of the monastic life, wear over their shoulders a square piece of stuff, on which are represented the cross, and the other marks of the passion of our Saviour, with these letters, JC. XC. VC., i. e. Jesus Christus Vincit.

All the monks are obliged to labour for the benefit of their monastery, as long as they continue in it. Some have the care of the fruits, others of the grain, and others of the cattle. The necessity the Caloyers are under of cultivating their own lands, obliges them to admit a great number of lay-brothers, who are employed the whole day in working.

Over all these Caloyers there are visitors or exarchs, who visit the convents under their inspection, only to draw from them the sums which the patriarch demands of them. Yet, notwithstanding the taxes these religious are obliged to pay, both to their patriarch and to the Turks, their convents are very rich.

The most considerable monastery of the Greek Caloyers in Asia, is that of Mount Sinai, which was founded by the emperor Justinian, and endowed with sixty thousand crowns revenue. The abbot of this monastery, who is also an 130archbishop, has under him two hundred religious. This convent is a large square building, surrounded with walls fifty feet high, and with but one gate, which is blocked up to prevent the entrance of the Arabs. On the eastern side there is a window, through which those within draw up the pilgrims in a basket, which they let down by a pulley. Not many miles beyond this, they have another, dedicated to St. Catharine. It is situated in the place where Moses made the bitter waters sweet. It has a garden, with a plantation of more than ten thousand palm-trees, from whence the monks draw a considerable revenue. There is another in Palestine, four or five leagues from Jerusalem, situated in the most barren place imaginable. The gate of the convent is covered with the skins of crocodiles, to prevent the Arabs setting fire to it, or breaking it to pieces with stones. It has a large tower, in which there is always a monk, who gives notice by a bell of the approach of the Arabs, or any wild beasts.

The Caloyers, or Greek monks, have a great number of monasteries in Europe; among which that of Penteli, a mountain of Attica, near Athens, is remarkable for its beautiful situation, and a very good library. That of Calimachus, a principal town of the island of Chios, is remarkable for the occasion of its foundation. It is called Niamogni, i. e. “The sole Virgin,” its church having been built in memory of an image of the holy Virgin, miraculously found on a tree, being the only one left of several which had been consumed by fire. Constantin Monomachus, emperor of Constantinople, being informed of this miracle, made a vow to build a church in that place, if he recovered his throne, from which he had been driven; this vow he executed in the year 1050. The convent is large, and built in the manner of a castle. It consists of about two hundred religious, and its revenues amount to sixty thousand piasters, of which they pay five hundred yearly to the Grand Seignor.

There is in Amourgo, one of the islands of the Archipelago called Sporades, a monastery of Greek Caloyers, dedicated to our Lady: it is a large and deep cavern, on the top of a very high hill, and is entered by a ladder of fifteen or twenty steps. The church, refectory, and cells of the religious, who inhabit this grotto, are dug out of the sides of the rock with admirable artifice.

But the most celebrated monasteries of Greek Caloyers are those of Mount Athos in Macedonia. They are twenty-three in number; and the religious live in them so regularly, that the Turks themselves have a great esteem for them, and often recommend themselves to their prayers. Everything in them is magnificent; and, notwithstanding they have been under the Turk for so long a time, they have lost nothing of their grandeur. The principal of these monasteries are De la Panagia and Anna Laura. The religious, who aspire to the highest dignities, come from all parts of the East to perform here their noviciate, and, after a stay of some years, are received, upon their return into their own country, as apostles.

The Caloyers of Mount Athos have a great aversion to the pope, and relate that a Roman pontiff, having visited their monasteries, had plundered and burned some of them, because they would not adore him.

There are female Caloyers, or Greek nuns, who likewise follow the rule of St. Basil. Their nunneries are always dependent on some monastery. The Turks buy sashes of their working, and they open their gates freely to the Turks on this occasion. Those of Constantinople are widows, some of whom have had several husbands. They make no vow, nor confine themselves within their convents. The priests are forbidden, under severe penalties, to visit these religious.—Broughton.

CALVINISTS. Those who interpret Scripture in accordance with the views of John Calvin, who was born at Noyon, A. D. 1509, and afterwards settled at Geneva, and who established a system both of doctrine and of discipline peculiarly his own.

The essential doctrines of Calvinism have been reduced to these five: particular election, particular redemption, moral inability in a fallen state, irresistible grace, and the final perseverance of the saints. These are termed, by theologians, the five points; and ever since the synod of Dort, (see Dort,) when they were the subjects of discussion between the Calvinists and Arminians, and whose decrees are the standard of modern Calvinism, frequent have been the controversies agitated respecting them. Even the Calvinists themselves differ in the explication of them: it cannot therefore be expected that a very specific account of them should be given here. Generally speaking, however, they comprehend the following propositions:—

1st, That God has chosen a certain number in Christ to everlasting glory, before the foundation of the world, according to his immutable purpose, and of his free 131grace and love, without the least foresight of faith, good works, or any conditions performed by the creature; and that the rest of mankind he was pleased to pass by, and ordain them to dishonour and wrath for their sins, to the praise of his vindictive justice.

2ndly, That Jesus Christ, by his sufferings and death, made an atonement only for the sins of the elect.

3dly, That mankind are totally depraved in consequence of the fall; and, by virtue of Adam’s being their public head, the guilt of his sin was imputed, and a corrupt nature conveyed to all his posterity, from which proceeds all actual transgression; and that by sin we are made subject to death, and all miseries, temporal, spiritual, and eternal.

4thly, That all whom God has predestinated to life, he is pleased, in his appointed time, effectually to call, by his word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death, in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ.

And 5thly, That those whom God has effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, shall never finally fall from a state of grace.

CAMALDOLI. A religious order of Christians founded by St. Romuald, about the end of the tenth century: this man gave his monks the rule of St. Bennet’s order, with some particular constitutions, and a white habit, after a vision he had of several persons clothed so, who were going up on a ladder to heaven. He was of a noble family of Ravenna, and having found on the Apennine hills near Arezzo a frightful solitary place, called Campo Maldoli, he began to build a monastery there, about the year 1009, and this monastery gave its name to all the order. The congregation of hermits of St. Romuald, or of Mount Couronne, is a branch of the Camaldoli, to which it was joined in 1532. Paul Justinian, of Venice, began its establishment in 1520, and founded the chief monastery in the Apennine, in a place called the Mount of the Crown, ten miles from Perugia, and dedicated to our Saviour in 1555.—Hist. des Ord. Relig.

CAMERONIANS. A party of Presbyterians in Scotland, so called from Archibald Cameron, a field preacher, who was the first who separated from communion with the other Presbyterians, who were not of his opinion concerning the ministers that had accepted of his indulgence from King Charles II. He considered the acceptance of the indulgence to be a countenancing of the supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs. The other Presbyterians wished the controversy to drop, till it could be determined by a general assembly; but the Cameronians, through a transport of zeal, separated from them, and some who associated with them ran into excess of frenzy; declaring that King Charles II. had forfeited his right to the crown and society of the Church, by his breaking the solemn league and covenant, which was the terms on which he received the former; and by his vicious life, which, de jure, they said, excluded him from the latter; they pretended both to dethrone and excommunicate him, and for that purpose made an insurrection, but were soon suppressed. Since the accession of King William III. to the crown, they complied with and zealously served the government; and as regards their former differences in Church matters, they were also laid aside, the preachers of their party having submitted to the General Assembly of the Scottish establishment in 1690, of which they still continue members.

CAMISARDS. The popular name of the Protestants who rose in the Cevennes against the oppression of Louis XIV. of France. There are various etymologies of the word; the most probable is that which derives it from camisa or chemise, in allusion to the blouse or smock-frock which was generally worn.

CANCELLI. (See Chancel.)

CANDLES. (See Lights on the Altar.)

CANDLEMAS DAY. A name formerly given to the festival of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, observed in our Church, February 2. In the mediæval Church, this day was remarkable for the number of lighted candles which were borne about in processions, and placed in churches, in memory of him who, in the words of Simeon’s song at the Purification, came to be “a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel.” From this custom the name is supposed to be derived.

CANON. The laws of the Church are called canons, the word canon being derived from a Greek word, which signifies a rule or measure.

Since the Church is a society of Christians, and since every society must have authority to prescribe rules and laws for the government of its own members, it must necessarily follow that the Church has this power; for otherwise there would be great disorder amongst Christians. This power was exercised in the Church before the Roman empire became Christian, as appears by those ancient canons which were made before that time, and which are 132mentioned in the writings of the primitive fathers; by the apostolical canons, which, though not made by the apostles themselves, are nevertheless of great antiquity; and by various canons which were made in councils held in the second century, which were not directory alone, but binding, and to be observed by the clergy, under the penalty of deprivation; and by the laity, under pain of excommunication. Under this title we will mention: 1. Foreign canons. 2. Such as have been received here. 3. The power of making new canons.

(I.) As to the first, Constantine the Great, the first emperor who gave Christians some respite from persecution, caused general councils and national and provincial synods to be assembled in his dominions; where, amongst other things, rules were made for the government of the Church, which were called canons; the substance of which was at first collected out of the Scriptures, or the ancient writings of the fathers. We will not trouble the reader with a long history of provincial constitutions, synodals, glossaries, sentences of popes, summaries, and rescripts, from which the canon law has, by degrees, been compiled, since the days of that emperor; it is sufficient to state, that they were collected by Ivo, bishop of Chartres, about the 14th year of our King Henry I., in three volumes, which are commonly called the Decrees. These decrees, corrected by Gratian, a Benedictine monk, were published in England in the reign of King Stephen; and the reason of the publication at that time might be to decide the quarrel between Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, and Henry, bishop of Winchester, the king’s brother, who being made a legate, the archbishop looked upon it as a diminution of his power, and an encroachment upon that privilege which he had as legatus natus. (See Legate.) These decrees were received by the clergy of the Western Church, but never by those of the East, which is one reason why their priests continued to marry, which the clergy of the West were, by these decrees, forbidden to do.

The next, in order of time, were the Decretals (see Decretals,) which are canonical epistles written by popes alone, or assisted by some cardinals, to determine any controversy; and of these there are likewise three volumes. The first volume of these Decretals was compiled by Raimundus Barcinus, who was chaplain to Gregory IX., and were published by him about the 14th year of King Henry III., A. D. 1226. This was appointed to be read in all schools, and was to be taken for law in all ecclesiastical courts. About sixty years afterwards, Simon, a monk of Walden, began to read these laws in the university of Cambridge, and the next year in Oxford. The second volume was collected and arranged by Boniface VIII., and published about the 27th year of our King Edward I., A. D. 1298. The third volume was collected by Clement V., and published in the Council of Vienna, and likewise here, in the 2nd year of Edward II., A. D. 1308, and from him were called Clementines.

These decretals were never received in England, or anywhere else, but only in the pope’s dominions, which are therefore called by canonists Patriæ obedientiæ, as particularly the canon concerning the investiture of bishops by a lay hand. John Andreas, a celebrated canonist in the fourteenth century, wrote a commentary on these decretals, which he entitled Novellæ, from a very beautiful daughter he had of that name, whom he bred a scholar: the father being a professor of law at Bologna, had instructed his daughter so well in it, that she assisted him in reading lectures to his scholars, and, therefore, to perpetuate her memory, he gave that book the title of Novellæ.

About the tenth year of King Edward II., John XXII. published his Extravagants. But as to the Church of England, even at that time, when the papal authority was at the highest, none of these foreign canons, or any new canons, made at any national or provincial synod here, had any manner of force if they were against the prerogative of the king, or the laws of the land. It is true that every Christian nation in communion with the pope sent some bishops, abbots, or priors, to those foreign councils, and generally four were sent out of England; and it was by those means, together with the allowance of the civil power, that some canons made there were received here, but such as were against the laws were totally rejected.

Nevertheless, some of these foreign canons were received in England, and obtained the force of laws by the general approbation of the king and people (though it may be difficult to know what these canons are); and it was upon this pretence that the pope claimed an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, independent of the king, and sent his legates to England with commissions to determine causes according to those canons, which were now compiled into several volumes, and called Jus Canonicum: these were not only enjoined to 133be obeyed as laws, but publicly to be read and expounded in all schools and universities as the civil law was read and expounded there, under pain of excommunication to those who neglected. Hence arose quarrels between kings and several archbishops and other prelates, who adhered to those papal usurpations.

(II.) Besides these foreign canons, there were several laws and constitutions made here for the government of the Church, all of which are now in force, but which had not been so without the assent and confirmation of the kings of England. Even from William I. to the time of the Reformation, no canons or constitutions made in any synods were suffered to be executed if they had not the royal assent. This was the common usage and practice in England, even when the papal usurpation was most exalted; for if at any time the ecclesiastical courts did, by their sentences, endeavour to force obedience to such canons, the courts at common law, upon complaint made, would grant prohibitions. So that the statute of submission, which was afterwards made in the 25th year of Henry VIII., seems to be declarative of the common law, that the clergy could not de jure, and by their own authority, without the king’s assent, enact or execute any canons. These canons were all collected and explained by Lyndwood, dean of the Arches, in the reign of Henry VI., and by him reduced under this method.

1. The canons of Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, made at a council held at Oxford, in the 6th year of Henry III.

2. The canons of Otho, the pope’s legate, who held a council in St. Paul’s church, in the 25th year of Henry III., which from him were called the Constitutions of Otho; upon which John de Athon, one of the canons of Lincoln, wrote a comment.

3. The canons of Boniface, of Savoy, archbishop of Canterbury, in the 45th of Henry III., which were all usurpations upon the common law, as concerning the boundaries of parishes, the right of patronage, and against trials of the right of tithes in the king’s courts against writs of prohibition, &c. Although he threatened the judges with excommunication (some of the judges being at that time clergymen) if they disobeyed the canons, yet they proceeded in these matters according to the laws of the realm, and kept the ecclesiastical courts within their proper jurisdiction. This occasioned a variance between the spiritual and temporal lords; and upon this the clergy, in the 31st of Henry III., exhibited several articles of their grievances to the parliament, which they called Articuli Cleri: the articles themselves are lost, but some of the answers to them are extant, by which it appears that none of these canons made by Boniface was confirmed.

4. The canons of Cardinal Ottobon, the pope’s legate, who held a synod at St. Paul’s, in the 53rd of Henry III., in which he confirmed those canons made by his predecessor Otho, and published some new ones; and by his legantine authority commanded that they should be obeyed: upon these canons, likewise, John de Athon wrote another comment.

5. The canons of Archbishop Peckham, made at a synod held at Reading, in the year 1279, the 7th of Edward I.

6. The canons of the same archbishop, made at a synod held at Lambeth, two years afterwards.

7. The canons of Archbishop Winchelsea, made in the 34th of Edward I.

8. The canons of Archbishop Reynolds, at a synod held at Oxford, in the year 1322, the 16th of Edward II.

9. The canons of Symon Mepham, archbishop of Canterbury, made in the year 1328, the 3rd of Edward III.

10. Of Archbishop Stratford.

11. Of Archbishop Simon Islip, made 1362, the 37th of Edward III.

12. Of Symon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, made in the year 1378, the 2nd of Richard II.

13. Of Archbishop Arundel, made at a synod at Oxford, in the year 1403, the 10th of Henry IV.

14. Of Archbishop Chichely, in the year 1415, the 3rd of Henry V.

15. Of Edmond and Richard, archbishops of Canterbury, who immediately succeeded Stephen Langton.

It was intended to reform these canons soon after the Reformation; and Archbishop Cranmer and some other commissioners were appointed for that purpose by Henry VIII. and Edward VI. The work was finished, but the king dying before it was confirmed, it remains unconfirmed to this day. The book is called “Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum ex Authoritate Regis Henry VIII. inchoata et per Edward VI. prorecta:” it was put into elegant Latin by Dr. Haddon, who was then university orator of Cambridge, assisted by Sir John Cheke, who was tutor to Edward VI. The above canons made by our Church before the Reformation, are, of course, binding on our Church now, and are acted upon 134in the ecclesiastical courts, except where they are superseded by subsequent canons, or by the provisions of an act of parliament.

(III.) The next thing to be considered is, the authority of making canons at this day; and this is grounded upon the statute 25 Henry VIII., commonly called the act of submission of the clergy, by which they acknowledge that the convocation had been always assembled by the king’s writ; and they promised in verbo sacerdotis, not to attempt, claim, or put in use, or enact, promulge, or execute, any new canons in convocation, without the king’s assent or licence. Then follows this enacting clause, viz. That they shall not attempt, allege, or claim, or put in use, any constitutions or canons without the king’s assent; and so far this act is declarative of what the law was before. The clause before mentioned extends to such canons as were then made both beyond sea and in England, viz. to foreign canons, that they should not be executed here until received by the king and people as the laws of the land, and to canons made here which were contrary to the prerogative, or to the laws and customs of the realm. This appears by the proviso, that no canons shall be made or put in execution within this realm, which shall be contrary to the prerogative or laws. But the next are negative words, which relate wholly to making new canons, viz. “nor make, promulge, or execute any such canons without the king’s assent.” These words limit the clergy in point of jurisdiction, viz. that they shall not make any new canons but in convocation: and they cannot meet there without the king’s writ; and when they are met and make new canons, they cannot put them in execution without a confirmation under the great seal. Some years after this statute, the clergy proceeded to act in convocation, without any commission from Henry VIII. But the canons which they made were confirmed by that king and some of his successors, as particularly the injunctions published in the 28th year of Henry VIII., for the abolishing superstitious holy days; those for preaching against the use of images, relics, and pilgrimages; those for repeating the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and Ten Commandments in the English tongue. Henry VIII. sometimes acted by the advice of his bishops, out of convocation, as about the injunctions published in the 30th year of Henry VIII., for admitting none to preach but such as were licensed; those for keeping a register of births, weddings, and burials; and for the abolishing the anniversary of Thomas à Becket. The like may be said of those injunctions published in the 2nd year of Edward VI., prohibiting the carrying of candles on Candlemas day, and ashes in Lent, and palms on Palm Sunday. Queen Elizabeth, in the second year of her reign, published several injunctions by the advice of her bishops. And two years afterwards she published a book of orders without the confirmation of her parliament. When she was settled in her government, all Church affairs were debated in convocation. Several canons were made in her reign, and confirmed by her letters patent: but as she did not bind her heirs and successors to the observance of them, those canons expired with her reign. In all these reigns the old canons were still in force, but in the first year of King James, 1603, the clergy being lawfully assembled in convocation, the king gave them leave, by his letters patent, to treat, consult, and agree on canons: these they presented to him, and he gave them his royal assent; and by other letters patent, for himself, his heirs and successors, ratified and confirmed the same. These canons thus established were not then invented, but were collected out of ordinances which lay dispersed in several injunctions published in former reigns, and out of canons and other religious customs which were made and used in those days; and being thus confirmed, are the laws of the land, and by the same authority as any other part of the law; for being authorized by the king’s commission, according to the form of the statute 25 Henry VIII., they are warranted by act of parliament; and such canons made and confirmed, shall bind in ecclesiastical matters as much as any statute. An act of parliament may forbid the execution of any canon; but it has been usual to respect all those which enjoin some moral duty; yet a canon not confirmed by an act of parliament cannot alter any other law. It is agreed that canons made in convocation, and confirmed by letters patent, bind in all ecclesiastical affairs; that no canons in England are absolutely confirmed by parliament, yet they are part of the laws of the land, for the government of the Church, and in such case bind the laity as well as the clergy; that though such canons cannot alter the common law, statutes, or royal prerogative, yet they may alter other canons, otherwise the convocation could not make new canons. All that is required in making such canons is, that the clergy confine themselves to Church affairs, and do not meddle with things which are settled by 135the common law. But though no canons are absolutely confirmed by act of parliament, yet those which are neither contrary to the laws of the land, nor to the queen’s prerogative, and which are confirmed by her, are made good, and allowed to be so, by the statute 25 Henry VIII. And as to those canons which tend to promote the honour of God and service of religion, they must necessarily bind our consciences. Such are those which enjoin the sober conversation of ministers, prohibiting their frequenting taverns, playing at dice, cards, or tables; this was anciently prohibited by the Apostolical Canons, and in the old articles of Visitation here, and in several diocesan synods. Such are those canons, also, which relate to the duties of ministers in praying, preaching, administering sacraments, and visiting the sick.

It may be as well, for the convenience of students, to insert here, from Bishop Halifax’s Analysis of the Civil Law, a few explanations of the method of quoting the Jus Canonicum. The Decretum of Gratian (which must not be confounded with the Decretals) is divided into, 1. Distinctions. 2. Causes. 3. Treatise concerning consecration. The Decretals are divided into, 1. Gregory IX. Decretals in 5 books. 2. The sixth Decretal. (Boniface, 1298.) 3. The Clementine Constitutions (of Pope Clement V.). Now in the Decretum, 1st part, e. g. “1 dist. c. 3,” Lex, [or i. d. Lex,] is the first distinction, 3rd Canon, beginning with the word Lex. In the Decretum, 2nd part, e. g. “3 qu. 9, c. 2,” means the third cause, ninth question, 2nd Canon. The 3rd part of the Decretum is quoted as the first, with the addition of the words de consecratione.

In the Decretals (the first division) is given the name of title, number of chapter, with the addition of extra, or a capital X. E. g. “c. 3, extra de usuris,” means the 3rd chapter of Gregory’s Decretals, inscribed “de usuris,” i.e. the 19th of the 5th book. “c. cum contingat 36 X. de off. et Pot. Jud. del.,” means the 36th chapter beginning with “cum contingat,” of the Title in Gregory’s decrees, inscribed “de officio.” The sixth Decretal, and the Clementine Constitutions, are quoted the same way, except that instead of extra, or X., is subjoined in sexto, or in 6; and in Clementini, or in Clem. The Extravagants of John XXII. are contained in one book, xiv. titles. The following are the

CANONS OF 1603.

Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical, treated upon by the Bishop of London, President of the Convocation for the Province of Canterbury, and the rest of the Bishops and Clergy of the said Province; and agreed upon with the King’s Majesty’s Licence, in their Synod begun at London, Anno Domini 1603, and in the year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord JAMES, by the Grace of God, King of England, France, and Ireland, the First, and of Scotland the Thirty-seventh: and now published for the due observation of them, by his Majesty’s Authority under the Great Seal of England.

James, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c., to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting: Whereas our Bishops, Deans of our Cathedral Churches, Archdeacons, Chapters, and Colleges, and the other Clergy of every Diocese within the Province of Canterbury, being summoned and called by virtue of our Writ directed to the Most Reverend Father in God, John, late Archbishop of Canterbury, and bearing date the one and thirtieth day of January, in the first year of our reign of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the thirty-seventh, to have appeared before him in our Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London, the twentieth day of March then next ensuing, or elsewhere, as he should have thought it most convenient, to treat, consent, and conclude upon certain difficult and urgent affairs mentioned in the said Writ; did thereupon, at the time appointed, and within the Cathedral Church of St. Paul aforesaid, assemble themselves, and appear in Convocation for that purpose, according to our said Writ, before the Right Reverend Father in God, Richard Bishop of London, duly (upon a second Writ of ours, dated the ninth day of March aforesaid) authorized, appointed, and constituted, by reason of the said Archbishop of Canterbury his death, President of the said Convocation, to execute those things, which, by virtue of our first Writ, did appertain to him the said Archbishop to have executed if he had lived.

We, for divers urgent and weighty causes and considerations as thereunto especially moving, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, did, by virtue of our Prerogative Royal, and Supreme Authority in causes Ecclesiastical, give and grant by our several Letters Patent under our Great Seal of England, the one dated the twelfth day of April last past, and the other the twenty-fifth day of June then next following, full, free, and lawful liberty, 136licence, power, and authority unto the said Bishop of London, President of the said Convocation, and to the other Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, Chapters, and Colleges, and the rest of the Clergy before mentioned, of the said Province, that they from time to time, during our first Parliament now prorogued, might confer, treat, debate, consider, consult, and agree of and upon such Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, as they should think necessary, fit, and convenient, for the honour and service of Almighty God, the good and quiet of the Church, and the better government thereof, to be from time to time observed, performed, fulfilled, and kept as well by the Archbishops of Canterbury, the Bishops, and their Successors, and the rest of the whole Clergy of the said Province of Canterbury in their several callings, offices, functions, ministries, degrees, and administrations; as also by all and every Dean of the Arches, and other Judge of the said Archbishop’s Courts, Guardians of Spiritualities, Chancellors, Deans, and Chapters, Archdeacons, Commissaries, Officials, Registrars, and all and every other Ecclesiastical Officers, and their inferior Ministers, whatsoever, of the same Province of Canterbury, in their and every other of their distinct Courts, and in the order and manner of their and every of their proceedings: and by all other persons within this realm, as far as lawfully, being members of the Church, it may concern them, as in our said Letters Patent amongst other clauses more at large doth appear. Forasmuch as the Bishop of London, President of the said Convocation, and others, the said Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, Chapters, and Colleges, with the rest of the Clergy, having met together at the time and place before mentioned, and then and there, by virtue of our said authority granted unto them, treated of, concluded, and agreed upon certain Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, to the end and purpose by us limited and prescribed unto them; and have thereupon offered and presented the same unto us, most humbly desiring us to give our royal assent unto their said Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, according to the form of a certain Statute or Act of Parliament, made in that behalf in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, and by our said Prerogative Royal and Supreme Authority, in Causes Ecclesiastical, to ratify by our Letters Patent under our Great Seal of England, and to confirm the same, the title and tenor of them being word for word as ensueth:

1.

The King’s Supremacy over the Church of England, in Causes Ecclesiastical, to be maintained.

2.

Impugners of the King’s Supremacy censured.

3.

The Church of England a true and apostolical Church.

4.

Impugners of the public Worship of God, established in the Church of England, censured.

5.

Impugners of the Articles of Religion, established in the Church of England, censured.

6.

Impugners of the Rites and Ceremonies, established in the Church of England, censured.

7.

Impugners of the Government of the Church of England, by Archbishops, Bishops, &c., censured.

8.

Impugners of the Form of consecrating and ordering Archbishops, Bishops, &c. in the Church of England, censured.

9.

Authors of Schism in the Church of England censured.

10.

Maintainers of Schismatics in the Church of England censured.

11.

Maintainers of Conventicles censured.

12.

Maintainers of Constitutions made in Conventicles censured.

13.

Due Celebration of Sundays and Holy-days.

14.

The prescript Form of Divine Service to be used on Sundays and Holy-days.

15.

The Litany to be read on Wednesdays and Fridays.

16.

Colleges to use the prescript Form of Divine Service.

17.

Students in Colleges to wear Surplices in time of Divine Service.

18.

A reverence and attention to be used within the Church in time of Divine Service.

19.

Loiterers not to be suffered near the Church in time of Divine Service.

20.

Bread and Wine to be provided against every Communion.

21.

The Communion to be thrice a Year received.

22.

Warning to be given beforehand for the Communion.

23.

Students in Colleges to receive the Communion four times a Year.

24.

Copes to be worn in Cathedral Churches 137by those that administer the Communion.

25.

Surplices and Hoods to be worn in Cathedral Churches, when there is no Communion.

26.

Notorious Offenders not to be admitted to the Communion.

27.

Schismatics not to be admitted to the Communion.

28.

Strangers not to be admitted to the Communion.

29.

Fathers not to be Godfathers in Baptism, and Children not Communicants.

30.

The lawful use of the Cross in Baptism explained.

31.

Four solemn times appointed for the making of Ministers.

32.

None to be made Deacon and Minister both in one day.

33.

The Titles of such as are to be made Ministers.

34.

The Quality of such as are to be made Ministers.

35.

The Examination of such as are to be made Ministers.

36.

Subscription required of such as are to be made Ministers. The Articles of Subscription. The Form of Subscription.

37.

Subscription before the Diocesan.

38.

Revolters after Subscription censured.

39.

Cautions for Institution of Ministers into Benefices.

40.

An Oath against Simony at Institution into Benefices.

41.

Licences for Plurality of Benefices limited, and Residence enjoined.

42.

Residence of Deans in their Churches.

43.

Deans and Prebendaries to preach during their Residence.

44.

Prebendaries to be resident upon their Benefices.

45.

Beneficed Preachers, being resident upon their Livings, to preach every Sunday.

46.

Beneficed Men, not Preachers, to procure monthly Sermons.

47.

Absence of Beneficed Men to be supplied by Curates that are allowed Preachers.

48.

None to be Curates but allowed by the Bishop.

49.

Ministers, not allowed Preachers, may not expound.

50.

Strangers not admitted to preach without showing their Licence.

51.

Strangers not admitted to preach in Cathedral Churches without sufficient Authority.

52.

The Names of strange Preachers to be noted in a Book.

53.

No public Opposition between Preachers.

54.

The Licences of Preachers refusing Conformity to be void.

55.

The Form of a Prayer to be used by all Preachers before their Sermons.

56.

Preachers and Lecturers to read Divine Service, and administer the Sacraments twice a Year at the least.

57.

The Sacraments not to be refused at the hands of unpreaching Ministers.

58.

Ministers reading Divine Service, and administering the Sacraments, to wear Surplices, and Graduates therewithal Hoods.

59.

Ministers to catechize every Sunday.

60.

Confirmation to be performed once in three Years.

61.

Ministers to prepare Children for Confirmation.

62.

Ministers not to marry any Persons without Banns or Licence.

63.

Ministers of exempt Churches not to marry without Banns or Licence.

64.

Ministers solemnly to bid Holy-days.

65.

Ministers solemnly to denounce Recusants and Excommunicates.

66.

Ministers to confer with Recusants.

67.

Ministers to visit the Sick.

68.

Ministers not to refuse to christen or bury.

69.

Ministers not to defer Christening, if the Child be in danger.

70.

Ministers to keep a Register of Christenings, Weddings, and Burials.

71.

Ministers not to preach, or administer the Communion, in private Houses.

72.

Ministers not to appoint public or private Fasts or Prophecies, or to exorcise, but by Authority.

73.

Ministers not to hold private Conventicles.

74.

Decency in Apparel enjoined to Ministers.

75.

Sober Conversation required in Ministers.

76.

Ministers at no time to forsake their Calling.

77.

None to teach School without Licence.

78.

Curates desirous to teach, to be licensed before others.

79.

The duty of Schoolmasters.

80.

The Great Bible, and Book of Common Prayer, to be had in every Church.

138

81.

A Font of Stone for Baptism in every Church.

82.

A decent Communion-Table in every Church.

83.

A Pulpit to be provided in every Church.

84.

A Chest for Alms in every Church.

85.

Churches to be kept in sufficient Reparations.

86.

Churches to be surveyed, and the decays certified to the high Commissioners.

87.

A Terrier of Glebe-lands and other Possessions belonging to Churches.

88.

Churches not to be profaned.

Churchwardens or Questmen, and Side-men or Assistants.

89.

The choice of Churchwardens, and their Account.

90.

The choice of Side-men, and their joint office with Churchwardens.

91.

Parish-Clerks to be chosen by the Minister.

92.

None to be cited into divers Courts for Probate of the same Will.

93.

The Rate of Bona notabilia liable to the Prerogative Court.

94.

None to be cited into the Appeals or Audience, but dwellers within the Archbishop’s Diocese, or Peculiars.

95.

The Restraint of double Quarrels.

96.

Inhibitions not to be granted without the Subscription of an Advocate.

97.

Inhibitions not to be granted, until the Appeal be exhibited to the Judge.

98.

Inhibitions not to be granted to factious Appellants, unless they first subscribe.

99.

None to marry within the Degrees prohibited.

100.

None to marry under Twenty-one Years, without their Parents’ consent.

101.

By whom licences to marry without Banns shall be granted, and to what sort of persons.

102.

Security to be taken at the granting of such Licences, and under what Conditions.

103.

Oaths to be taken for the Conditions.

104.

An Exception for those that are in Widowhood.

105.

No sentence for Divorce to be given upon the sole confession of the parties.

106.

No Sentence for Divorce to be given but in open Court.

107.

In all sentences for Divorce, Bond to be taken for not marrying during each other’s life.

108.

The Penalty for Judges offending in the Premises.

109.

Notorious Crimes and Scandals to be certified into Ecclesiastical Courts by Presentment.

110.

Schismatics to be presented.

111.

Disturbers of Divine Service to be presented.

112.

Non-Communicants at Easter to be presented.

113.

Ministers may present.

114.

Ministers shall present Recusants.

115.

Ministers and Churchwardens not to be sued for presenting.

116.

Churchwardens not bound to present oftener than twice a year.

117.

Churchwardens not to be troubled for not presenting oftener than twice a year.

118.

The old Churchwardens to make their Presentments before the new be sworn.

119.

Convenient time to be assigned for framing Presentments.

120.

None to be cited into Ecclesiastical Courts by process of Quorum Nomina.

121.

None to be cited into several Courts for one Crime.

122.

No Sentence of Deprivation or Deposition to be pronounced against a Minister, but by the Bishop.

123.

No Act to be sped but in open Court.

124.

No Court to have more than one Seal.

125.

Convenient Places to be chosen for the keeping of open Courts.

126.

Peculiar and inferior Courts to exhibit the original Copies of Wills into the Bishop’s Registry.

127.

The Quality and Oath of Judges.

128.

The Quality of Surrogates.

129.

Proctors not to retain Causes without the lawful Assignment of the Parties.

130.

Proctors not to retain Causes without the Counsel of an Advocate.

131.

Proctors not to conclude in any Cause without the Knowledge of an Advocate.

132.

Proctors prohibited the Oath, In animam domini sui.

133.

Proctors not to be clamorous in Court.

134.

Abuses to be reformed in Registrars.

139

135.

A certain Rate of Fees due to all Ecclesiastical Officers.

136.

A Table of the Rates and Fees to be set up in Courts and Registries.

137.

The whole Fees for showing Letters of Orders, and other Licences, due but once in every Bishop’s time.

138.

The Number of Apparitors restrained.

139.

A National Synod the Church Representative.

140.

Synods conclude as well the absent as the present.

141.

Depravers of the Synod censured.

CANONS OF 1640. On the 27th May, 1640, the archbishop of Canterbury stated before the convocation that the Canons agreed upon in the sacred synod had been read before the king and the privy-council, and unanimously approved. The first Canon is concerning the regal power; and,

I. Enacts that every parson, vicar, curate, or preacher, shall, under pain of suspension, on four Sundays in each year, at morning prayer, read certain explanations of the regal power, to the effect:—

(1.) That the sacred order of kings is of Divine right, that a supreme power is given by God in Scripture to kings to rule all persons civil and ecclesiastical.

(2.) That the care of God’s Church is committed to kings in the Scripture.

(3.) That the power to call and dissolve national and provincial councils within their own territories is the true right of princes.

(4.) That it is treason against God and the prince for any other to set up any independent co-active power, either papal or popular, within the prince’s territory.

(5.) That subjects who resist their natural prince by force resist God’s ordinance, and shall receive damnation.

(6.) That as tribute is due from subjects to their prince, so those subjects have not only possession of, but a true and just title to, all their goods and estates; that as it is the duty of subjects to supply their king, so is it his duty to defend them in their property.

Forbids, under pain of excommunication, all persons to preach or teach anything contrary to the tenor of these explanations.

II. For the better keeping of the day of his Majesty’s most happy inauguration.

Orders all persons to keep the morning of the said day in coming diligently to church, and that due inquiry be made by bishops and others as to how the day is observed, in order that offenders may be punished.

III. For suppressing the growth of Popery.

Orders all ecclesiastical persons, bishops, &c., having exempt or peculiar jurisdiction, and all officials, and others having the cure of souls, to confer privately with the parties, and by Church censures, &c., to reduce those who are misled into Popish superstition to the Church of England.

Such private conferences to be performed by the bishop himself, or by some one or more persons of his appointment.

The said ecclesiastical persons to inform themselves of all persons, above the age of twelve years, in every parish, who do not come to church, or receive the holy eucharist, and who say or hear mass.

Ministers, churchwardens, &c., to present all such persons.

If neither private conferences nor Church censures will avail with such offenders, their names shall be certified by the bishop of the diocese unto the justices of assize.

Marriages, burials, and christenings of recusants, celebrated otherwise than according to the form of the Church of England, to be declared by churchwardens and others at visitations.

Diligent inquiry to be made as to who are employed as schoolmasters of the children of recusants. Churchwardens to give upon oath the names of those who send their children to be brought up abroad.

IV. Against Socinianism.

Forbids any one to print, sell, or buy any book containing Socinian doctrines upon pain of excommunication, and orders all ordinaries to signify the names of offenders to the metropolitan, in order to be by him delivered to the king’s attorney-general, that proceedings may be taken against them.

No preacher to vent such doctrine in a sermon, under pain of excommunication, and for a second offence deprivation. No university student or person in holy orders, except graduates in divinity, to have any Socinian book in his possession: all books so found to be burned: diligent inquiry to be made after offenders.

V. Against sectaries.

Declares that all the enactments of the canon against Popish recusants shall, as far as they are applicable, stand in full force against all Anabaptists, Brownists, Separatists, Familists, and other sects.

That the clauses in the canons against Socinianism, referring to Socinian books, 140shall stand in full force against all books devised against the discipline and government of the Church of England.

Orders all church and chapel wardens and questmen to present at visitations the names of those disaffected persons who neglected the prayers of the church, and came in for sermon only, thinking thereby to avoid the penalties enacted against such as wholly absented themselves.

VI. An oath enjoined for the preventing of all innovations in doctrine and government.

Declares that all archbishops, bishops, and all other priests and deacons shall, to secure them against suspicion of Popery or other superstition, take the oath which it prescribes.

Offenders, after three months’ delay granted them, if they continue obstinate, to be deprived.

Orders that the following shall also be compelled to take the prescribed oath, viz. all masters of arts, bachelors and doctors in divinity, law, or physic, all licensed practitioners of physic, all registrars, proctors, and schoolmasters, all graduates of foreign universities who come to be incorporated into an English university, and all persons about to be ordained or licensed to preach or serve any cure.

VII. A declaration concerning some rites and ceremonies.

Declares the standing of the communion table sideways under the east window of every chancel or chapel, to be in its own nature indifferent, and that therefore no religion is to be placed therein, or scruple to be made thereof.

That although at the Reformation all Popish altars were demolished, yet it was ordered by Queen Elizabeth’s injunction, that the holy tables should stand where the altars stood, and that, accordingly, they have been so continued in the royal chapels, most cathedrals, and some parish churches, that all churches and chapels should conform to the example of the cathedral mother churches in this particular, saving always the general liberty left to the bishop by law during the time of administration of the holy communion. Declares that this situation of the holy table does not imply that it is or ought to be esteemed a true and proper altar, whereon Christ is again really sacrificed; but it is, and may be, by us called an altar in that sense in which the primitive Church called it an altar.

Orders that in order to prevent profane abuses of the communion table, it shall be railed in.

Orders that at the words “draw near,” &c., all communicants shall with all humble reverence approach the holy table.

Recommends to all good and well-affected members of the Church, that they do reverence and obeisance both at their coming in and going out of the church, chancel, or chapel, according to the custom of the primitive Church and the Church of England in the reign of Elizabeth.

VIII. Of preaching for conformity.

Orders all preachers, under pain of suspension, to instruct the people in their sermons twice a year at least, that the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England are lawful and commendable, and to be submitted to.

IX. One Book of Articles of inquiry to be used at all parochial visitations.

Declares that the synod had caused a summary or collection of visitatory articles (out of the rubrics of the service book and the canons and warrantable rules of the Church) to be made and deposited in the records of the archbishop of Canterbury, and that no bishop or other ordinary shall, under pain of suspension, cause to be printed, or otherwise to be given in charge to the churchwardens or others which shall be sworn to make presentments, any other articles or forms of inquiry upon oath, than such as shall be approved by his metropolitan.

X. Concerning the conversation of the clergy.

Charges all clergymen carefully to abstain from all excess and disorder, and that by their Christian and religious conversation they shine forth as lights to others in all godliness and honesty.

Requires all to whom the government of the clergy is committed, to set themselves to countenance godliness, and diligently to labour to reform their clergy where they require it.

XI. Chancellor’s patents.

Forbids bishops to grant any patent to any chancellor, commissary, or official, for longer than the life of the grantee, nor otherwise than with the reservation to himself and his successors of the power to execute the said place, either alone or with the chancellor, if the bishop shall please to do so; forbids, under the heaviest censures, to take any reward for such places.

XII. Chancellors alone not to censure any of the clergy in sundry cases.

All cases involving suspension or any higher censure to be heard by the bishop or by his chancellor, together with two grave, dignified, or beneficed ministers of the diocese.

141XIII. Excommunication and absolution not to be pronounced but by a priest.

No excommunications or absolutions to be valid, unless pronounced by the bishop, or by some priest appointed by the bishop; such sentence of absolution to be pronounced either in open consistory, or, at least, in a church or chapel, the penitent humbly craving it on his knees.

XIV. Concerning commutations and the disposing of them.

No chancellor or other to commute penance without the bishop’s privity; or if by himself, he shall render strict account of the moneys received, which shall be applied to charitable and public uses.

XV. Touching concurrent jurisdiction.

That in places wherein there is concurrent jurisdiction, no executor be cited into any court or office for the space of ten days after the death of the testator.

XVI. Concerning licences to marry.

No licence shall be granted by any ordinary to any parties, except one of the parties have been living in the jurisdiction of the said ordinary for one month immediately before the licence be desired.

XVII. Against vexatious citations.

No citations grounded only upon pretence of a breach of law, and not upon presentment or other just ground, shall issue out of any ecclesiastical court, except under certain specified circumstances, and except in cases of grievous crime, such as schism, incontinence, misbehaviour in church, &c.

These canons were ratified by the king under the great seal, June 30th, 1640. An attempt was made at the time to set aside their authority, upon the plea that convocation could not lawfully continue its session after the dissolution of parliament, which took place on the 5th of May; but the opinion of all the judges taken at the time was unanimously in favour of the legality of their proceeding, as appears by the following document:—

“The convocation being called by the king’s writ under the great seal, doth continue until it be dissolved by writ or commission under the great seal, notwithstanding the parliament be dissolved.

“14th May, 1640.

An act of parliament, passed in the thirteenth year of Charles II., leaves to these canons their full canonical authority, whilst it provides that nothing contained in that statute shall give them the force of an act of parliament.

The acts of this convocation were unanimously confirmed by the synod of York.—Cardwell, vol. ii. p. 593, vol. i. p. 380. Wilkins, Conc. vol. iv. p. 538.

These canons, though passed in convocation, are not in force for the following reason: In 1639 a parliamentary writ was directed to the bishops to summon these clergy to parliament ad consentiendum, &c., and the convocation writ to the archbishops ad tractand. et consentiend. The parliament met on the 13th of April, 1640, and was dissolved on the 15th of May following. Now though the convocation, sitting by virtue of the first writ directed to the bishops, must fall by the dissolution of that parliament, yet the lawyers held that they might sit till dissolved by like authority. But this being a nice point, a commission was granted about a week after the dissolution of the parliament for the convocation to sit, which commission the king sent to them by Sir Harry Vane, his principal Secretary of State, and by virtue thereof they were turned into a provincial synod. The chief of the clergy then assembled desired the king to consult all the judges of England on this matter, which was done: and upon debating it in the presence of his council, they asserted under their hands the power of convocation in making canons. Upon this the convocation sat a whole month, and composed a Book of Canons, which was approved by the king by the advice of his privy-council, and confirmed under the broad seal. The objection against the Canons was that they were not made pursuant to the statute 25 Hen. VIII., because they were made in a convocation, sitting by the king’s writ to the archbishops, after the parliament was dissolved, though there is nothing in the statute which relates to their sitting in time of parliament only.

After the Restoration, when an act was passed to restore the bishops to their ordinary jurisdiction, a proviso was made that the act should not confirm the Canons of 1640. This clause makes void the royal confirmation. Hence we may conclude that canons should be made in a convocation, the parliament sitting; that being so made, they are to be confirmed by the sovereign; and that without such confirmation they do not bind the laity, 142much less any order or rule made by a bishop alone, where there is neither custom nor canon for it.—Burn.

Canon is used in the service of the Roman Church to signify that part of the communion service, or the mass, which follows immediately after the Sanctus and Hosanna; corresponding to that part of our service which begins at the prayer, “We do not presume,” &c. It is so called as being the fixed rule of the Liturgy, which is never altered. Properly speaking, the canon ends just before the Lord’s Prayer, which is recited aloud; the canon being said in a low voice. In the First Book of King Edward VI., the word is used in this sense, viz. in the Visitation of the Sick, after the Gospel, the service proceeds as follows:

The Anaphora of the Greek Church somewhat resembles the canon of the Roman. (See Anaphora.)—Jebb.

CANON. (See Deans and Chapters.) The name of canon, as applied to an officer in the Church, is derived from the same Greek word already alluded to, which also signifies the roll or catalogue of the Church, in which the names of the ecclesiastics were registered; hence the clergy so registered were denominated Canonici or Canons. Before the Reformation, they were divided into two classes, Regular and Secular. The Secular were so called, because they canonized in seculo, abroad in the world.

Regular canons were such as lived under a rule, that is, a code of laws published by the founder of that order. They were a less strict sort of religious than the monks, but lived together under one roof, had a common dormitory and refectory, and were obliged to observe the statutes of their order.

The chief rule for these canons is that of St. Augustine, who was made bishop of Hippo in the year 395. But they were but little known till the tenth or eleventh century, were not brought into England till after the Conquest, and seem not to have obtained the name of Augustine canons till some years after. The general opinion is, that they came in after the beginning of the reign of King Henry I., about the year 1105.

Their habit was a long black cassock, with a white rochet over it, and over that a black cloak and hood; from whence they were called Black Canons Regular of St. Augustine.

The monks were always shaved, but these canons wore beards, and caps on their heads.

There were about 175 houses of these canons and canonesses in England and Wales.

But besides the common and regular sort of these canons, there were also the following particular sorts.

As first, such as observed St. Augustine’s rule, according to the regulations of St. Nicholas of Arroasia; as those of Harewolde in Bedfordshire, Nutley or Crendon in Buckinghamshire, Hertland in Devonshire, Brunne in Lincolnshire, and Lilleshul in Shropshire.

Others there were of the rule of St. Augustine, and order of St. Victor; as at Keynsham and Worsping in Somersetshire, and Wormsley in Herefordshire.

Others of the order of St. Augustine, and the institution of St. Mary of Meretune, or Merton; as at Buckenham in Norfolk.

The Præmonstratenses were canons who lived according to the rule of St. Augustine, reformed by St. Norbert, who set up this regulation about the year 1120, at Præmonstratum in Picardy, a place so called because it was said to have been foreshown, or Præmonstrated, by the Blessed Virgin, to be the head seat and mother of the church of the order. These canons were, from their habit, called White Canons. They were brought into England soon after the year 1140, and settled first at Newhouse in Lincolnshire. They had in England a conservator of their privileges, but were nevertheless often visited by their superior at Premonstre, and continued under his jurisdiction till the year 1512, when they were exempted from it by the bull of Pope Julius II., confirmed by King Henry VIII.; and the superiority of all the houses of this order in England and Wales, was given to the abbot of Welbeck in Nottinghamshire. There were about thirty-five houses of this order.

The Sempringham or Gilbertine canons were instituted by St. Gilbert at Sempringham in Lincolnshire, in the year 1148. He composed his rule out of those of St. Augustine and St. Benedict, (the women following the Cistercian regulation of St. Benedict’s rule, and the men the rule of St. Augustine,) with some special statutes of their own. The men and women lived in the same houses, but in such different apartments that they had no communication with each other; and increased so fast, that St. Gilbert himself founded thirteen monasteries of this order; viz. four for men alone, and nine for men and 143women together, which had in them 700 brethren and 1500 sisters. At the dissolution of the monasteries there were about twenty-five houses of this order in England and Wales.

Canons regular of the Holy Sepulchre were instituted in the beginning of the 12th century, in imitation of the regulars instituted in the church of the Holy Sepulchre of our Saviour at Jerusalem. The first house they had in England was at Warwick, which was begun for them by Henry de Newburgh, earl of Warwick, who died in the year 1123, and perfected by his son Roger. They are sometimes called canons of the Holy Cross, and wore the same habit with the other Austin canons, distinguished only by a double red cross upon the breast of their cloak or upper garment. The endeavours of these religious for regaining the Holy Land coming to nothing after the loss of Jerusalem, in the year 1188, this order fell into decay, their revenues and privileges were mostly given to the Maturine friars, and only two houses of them continued to the dissolution.—Burn.

CANON OF SCRIPTURE. (See Scripture, and Bible.) The books of Holy Scripture as received by the Church, who, being the “witness and keeper of Holy Writ,” had authority to decide what is and what is not inspired.

That the Holy Scriptures are a complete rule of faith is proved, first, by the authority of the Holy Scriptures. And this is so plainly laid down therein, that nothing but a strange prejudice and resolution to support a cause could contradict it. Those words of St. Paul are very full to this purpose. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.) Moses expressly forbids that any one should “add unto the word that I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it.” (Deut. iv. 2.) “Whatsoever I command unto you to observe and do it, thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” (Deut. xii. 32.) The same prohibition is given out in the New Testament. For St. John, closing his Book of Revelation, and with that our Christian canon, so that it may not improbably seem to bear relation to the whole New Testament, forbids any addition or diminution, with a curse annexed to it: “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Rev. xxii. 18, 19.) But the substance of this had been before declared by St. Paul: “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. i. 8.) And as for the endeavour of some to piece out God’s written word by tradition, our Saviour warns us against this, when he blames the Pharisees for it; namely, in “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” (Matt. xv. 9,) and “making the commandment of God of none effect by their traditions.” (Ver. 3, 6.)

Secondly, by reason, drawn from the nature of the thing, and the whole order of the gracious dispensation of the gospel, with which God hath been pleased to bless mankind, this is no more than we might expect. For our Saviour having first made known the gospel to the world by his own preaching and suffering, and propagated it throughout the several parts thereof by the preaching of his apostles, in order to be conveyed down to successive generations, this could not well be effected without a written word. For to have delivered down the gospel truths by word of mouth, or oral tradition, would have made it subject to as many errors as the prejudices, fancies, and mistakes of the several relators could have given it. Now since God has been pleased to make use of this method to convey these truths which he has revealed unto us, it is but reasonable to think that all the truths which he has judged necessary for our salvation, and which he has required of us to believe, are contained in this written word. For why God should leave some of the gospel truths to be conveyed in a purer, and others in a more corrupt, channel, some by Scripture and others by tradition, is unaccountable: why, since he designed the Scripture to be in some measure the rule of faith, he should not at the same time render it a complete one; why this Divine law of God must be eked out by human traditions, which have been uncertain in the best times, and pernicious in some, and which strangely vary according to different countries and ages;—these notions highly reflect upon the Divine wisdom and goodness, and are taken up only to defend the corrupt practices of the Romish Church, which that Church is resolved to maintain at any rate, rather than to part with them.

144The like reasons are alleged by the ancient divines of the Church.—Dr. Nicholls.

The ancient fathers always speak of the Scriptures as containing a complete rule of faith and practice; and appeal to them, and to them only, in support of the doctrines which they advance.—Bp. Tomline.

CANON LAW. The canon law which regulates the discipline of the Romish Church consists, 1. Of the Decree of Gratian, (Decretum Gratiani,) a compilation made by a Benedictine monk, whose name it bears, at Bologna in Italy, in 1150, and made up of the decrees of different popes and councils, and of several passages of the holy fathers and other reputable writers.

2. Of the Decretals, collected by order of Pope Gregory IX., in the year 1230, in five books.

3. Of the compilation made by order of Boniface VIII., in 1297, known by the name of the Sixth Book of Decretals, because added to the other five, although it is itself divided into five books.

4. Of the Clementines, as they are called, or Decretals of Pope Clement V., published in the year 1317 by John XXII.

5. Of other decretals, known under the name of Extravagantes, so called because not contained in the former decretals. These Extravagantes are two-fold;—the first, called common, containing constitutions of various popes down to the year 1483; and, secondly, the particular ones of John XXII.

These, containing besides the decrees of popes and the canons of several councils, constitute the body of the canon law. The constitutions of subsequent popes and councils have also the force of canons, although not hitherto reduced into one body, nor digested, as the others, under proper heads, by any competent authority. These, together with some general customs, or peculiar ones of different places, having the force of laws, and certain conventions entered into between the popes and different Roman Catholic states, determine the discipline of the Church of Rome.

CANONICAL. That which is done in accordance with the canons of the Church.

CANONICAL HOURS. The first, third, the sixth, and the ninth hours of the day, that is, six, nine, twelve, and three o’clock, are so denominated. Bishop Patrick remarks that “the Universal Church anciently observed certain set hours of prayer, that all Christians throughout the world might at the same time join together to glorify God; and some of them were of opinion that the angelic host, being acquainted with those hours, took that time to join their prayers and praises with those of the Church.” The directions in the Apostolical Constitutions are as follows: “Offer up your prayers in the morning, at the third hour, at the sixth, and at the ninth, and in the evening; in the morning returning thanks that the Lord hath sent you light, and brought you through the perils of the night; at the third hour, because at that hour the Lord received sentence of condemnation from Pilate; at the sixth, because at that hour he was crucified; at the ninth, because at that hour all things were in commotion at the crucifixion of our Lord, as trembling at the bold attempt of the wicked Jews, and at the injury offered to their Master; in the evening, giving thanks that he has given thee the night to rest from thy daily labours.”

In the Church of Rome, the canonical hours begin with vespers, i. e. evening prayer, about six o’clock, or sunset; next follows compline, to beg God’s protection during sleep; at midnight, the three nocturns or matins, the longest part of the office. Lauds or morning praises of God are appointed for cock-crowing, or before break of day; at six o’clock, or sunrise, prime should be recited; and terce, sext, and none, every third hour afterwards.

CANONICAL OBEDIENCE. (See Orders.) The obedience which is due, according to the canons, to an ecclesiastical superior. Every clergyman takes an oath of canonical obedience to his bishop when he is instituted to a benefice, or licensed to a cure.

CANONISATION. (See Beatification, and Saints.) A ceremony in the Romish Church, by which persons deceased are ranked in the catalogue of saints. It succeeds beatification. When a person is to be canonised, the pope holds four consistories. In the first, he causes the petition of those who request the canonisation to be examined by three auditors of the rota, and directs the cardinals to revise all the necessary instruments. In the second, the cardinals report the matter to the pope. In the third, which is held in public, the cardinals pay their adoration to the pope, and an advocate makes a pompous oration in praise of the person who is to be created a saint. This advocate expatiates at large on the supposed miracles which the person has wrought, and even pretends to know from what motives he acted. In the fourth consistory, the pope, having summoned together all the cardinals and prelates, orders the report concerning the deceased to be read, 145and then takes their votes, whether he is to be canonised or not. On the day of canonisation, the church of St. Peter is hung with rich tapestry, on which are embroidered the arms of the pope, and those of the prince who desires the canonisation. The church is most brilliantly illuminated, and filled with thousands of Romanists, who superstitiously think that the more respect they show to the saint, the more ready will he be to hear their prayers, and offer them to God. During this ceremony the pope and all the cardinals are dressed in white. It costs the prince who requests the canonisation a great sum of money, as all the officers belonging to the Church of Rome must have their fees; but this is considered a trifle, when it is expected that the saint will intercede in heaven for his subjects, who, indeed, poor as they are, generally pay all the expenses attending the ceremony.

Canonisation of saints was not known to the Christian Church till towards the middle of the tenth century. So far as we are able to form an opinion, the Christians in that age borrowed this custom from the heathens; for it was usual with both the Greeks and Romans to deify all those heroes and great men who had rendered themselves remarkable. It is not allowed to enter into inquiries prior to canonisation, till at least fifty years after the death of the person to be canonised. This regulation, however, though now observed, has not been followed above a century. Thomas Becket was canonised within three years of his death. It has been properly objected against canonisation, that it is performed by human beings, who assume a power of rendering some one an object of divine worship, who in this life was no more than mortal; that it is a direct violation of the Saviour’s command, “Judge not;” and that it lies at the foundation of that idolatry of which the Church of Rome is justly charged.—Broughton.

CANONRY. A canonry is a name of office, and a canon is the officer; in like manner as a prebendary; and a prebend is the maintenance or stipend both of the one and the other.—Gibson. It is not easy to assign a reason why this name should have been given to members of cathedral churches. Some have thought it was because a great number of them were regular priests, and obliged to observe the canons or rules of their respective orders, or founders, or visitors. According to Nicholls, the name is of a higher origin, and not so directly from the Greek word κάνων, regula, a statute or ordinance, as from the Latin word canon, an allowance or stated quantity of provision. Thus it is used by Cicero. So the collection of the respective quotas of the provinces sent in corn to Rome for the subsistence of the poorer citizens was called the canon. Afterwards, when Christianity prevailed, the word was adapted to an ecclesiastical use, and those clergymen that had the canon, or sportula, taken from the common bank of the church offerings delivered out to them for their maintenance, come to be called canonici. As the church revenues were divided into four parts—one for the maintenance of the bishop, a second for the fabric of the church, and a third for the poor, so a fourth part was divided among the subordinate clergy, who lived in a collegiate manner about the bishop.

It seems most likely, however, that the word canon meant to designate one who resided at the cathedral church constantly, and followed the rule of Divine service there. So the application of the word at home and abroad would seem to indicate. Thus, till a very late enactment, 3 & 4 Vic. c. 113, the word canon was restricted in cathedrals of the old foundation to the residentiaries. Prebendary was statutably applied to all, because all had a præbenda, either fixed stipend, or an estate in fee: while in the cathedrals of new foundation all were called indifferently canons or prebendaries, because all were equally bound to residence. The act referred to has now directed that all shall be styled canons (except perhaps the prebendaries retained, but without their ancient stipends or estates) in the cathedrals of old foundation. Nevertheless, all canons are still really prebendaries, as long as they have any property. In Ireland, the only prebendaries denominated canons, are those of Kildare. These form the lesser chapter.

Canons in most cathedrals were divided into two classes, major, or minor. (See Minor Canons.)

The fellowships of the collegiate church in Manchester, since its elevation into a cathedral, have been recently erected into canonries, and the warden of former times is now called dean.

Canonry, or chanonrie, in Scotland, was the same as the cathedral precinct in England. Thus at Aberdeen the canonry included the cathedral, bishop’s palace, prebendal houses, gardens, and an hospital, all surrounded by a stone wall. (Kennedy’s Annals of Aberdeen.) The cathedral town of Rosemarkie, or Fortrose, in the diocese 146of Ross, was sometimes called the canonry town, or channery town.

CANTICLES. This literally signifies songs, but it is peculiarly applied to a canonical book of the Old Testament, called in Hebrew the Song of Songs, that is, the most excellent of all songs. The word canticle in our Prayer Book is applied to the Benedicite, and was so first used in King Edward’s Second Book.

CAPITAL. The highest member of a pillar.

The capital consists of the abacus, the bell, the neck, or astragal, and each of these varies in the several styles, as well in form as in relative importance. A few of the more prominent variations may be enumerated.

In the Saxon period, the abacus is usually a low, flat, unmoulded slab; the rest of the capital, if it has any character, approaches that of the succeeding style.

In the Norman capital the abacus is square, of considerable thickness, generally slightly bevelled at the lower side, and sometimes moulded. The bell, resting on a cylindrical shaft, and fitted with a square abacus, is circular at the bottom, and becomes square at the top, and the way of resolving the round into the square gives it its peculiar character. In examples, however, of any richness, the abundance of decoration often obscures its constructive character.

In the period of transition to Early English, the abacus sometimes becomes octagonal, seldom, however, a regular octagon, but a square with the corners slightly cut off. It is also sometimes circular. The upper surface continues flat, but the under part is more frequently moulded. The bell often approaches the Classic capital in design, and sometimes even in treatment, as at Canterbury; but this is a rare amount of excellence. More frequently a lotus-like flower rises from the neck, and curls beneath the abacus. The neck is still a mere round bead.

In the next, or Lancet period, the abacus more frequently becomes circular, the top is seldom flat, the mouldings usually consist of two rounds, with a deep undercut, hollow between, the upper one a little overhanging the under, and in the hollow a trail of nail-head or dog-tooth is often found. The bell, also, is deeply undercut, and in some instances, where effect is sought in moulding rather than in carving, it is repeated; but, in moderately rich examples, the bell is usually covered with foliage of which the stems spring from the neck, generally crossing one another as they rise, and breaking into leaves near the top, where they throw off a profusion of crisped foliage, which curls under the abacus; a stray leaf, in very rich and rather late examples, sometimes shooting up, over the hollow, to the upper member of the abacus. The whole treatment of this foliage in capitals and corbels, where it follows the same law, has sometimes a boldness and a grace, though it never deserts its conventional type, of which no description, and no engraving even, except on a large scale, can convey an idea. The neck of the Early English capital is generally either a rounded bowtel of rather more than half a cylinder, or a semi-hexagon, the latter with the sides sometimes slightly hollowed.

In the Geometrical period, the abacus continues round. It is no longer, except in rare instances, flat at the top: the scroll moulding begins to appear, and sometimes a hollow intervenes between it and the first member of the bell. The bell, when moulded, rather follows the routine of the last style; but, when foliated, the leaves or flowers, without losing anything of the force and boldness of the latter, have a naturalness never approached in any other style: we begin to recognise the oak, the hawthorn, or the maple, as familiar friends, and no longer need to employ conventional terms to designate their foliage, or the method of its treatment.

In the Decorated period, the scrollmoulding is almost constantly employed for the abacus and for the neck; the ball-flower sometimes occurs in the hollow of the abacus, but not so frequently as the dog-tooth in the Lancet period. The mouldings of the bell are generally the roll and fillet, or the scroll, in some of their forms; and the foliage entirely loses the nature of the Geometrical, without recovering the force of the Early English. It surrounds the bell as a chaplet, instead of creeping up it, and, instead of indicating the shape which it clothes, converts the whole between the neck and the abacus into a flowered top.

In the next and last period, the abacus is sometimes so nearly lost in the bell, or the bell in the abacus, that it is hard to separate them. The form of both becomes generally octagonal, and a great poverty of design is apparent: this is the case in ordinary instances of pillars with entire capitals. In later examples, and where there are greater pretensions, the capital does not extend to the whole pillar, but the outer order of the arches is continued to the base, without the intervention of a 147capital, only the inner order being supported and stopped by an attached shaft, or bowtel, with its capital, and so the capital loses all its analogy with the classic architrave, and no longer carries the eye along in a horizontal line.

CAPITULAR. A term often used in foreign countries to designate a major canon or prebendary; a capitular member of a cathedral or collegiate church.

CAPITULARIES. Ordinances of the kings of France, in which are many heads or articles which regard the government of the Church, and were done by the advice of an assembly of bishops. The original of the word comes from capitula, which were articles that the prelates made and published to serve as instructions to the clergy of their dioceses, so that at last this name of capitularies was given to all the articles which related to ecclesiastical affairs. Those of Charlemagne and Louis the Meek were collected in four books by the abbot Angesius; those of King Lothaire, Charles and Louis, sons of Louis the Meek, were collected by Bennet the Levite, or deacon, into three books, to which there have been since four or five additions; and Father Simon published those of Charles the Bald.

CAPUCHINS. Monks of the order of St. Francis. They owe their original to Matthew de Bassi, a Franciscan of the duchy of Urbino, who, having seen St. Francis represented with a sharp-pointed capuche, or cowl, began to wear the like in 1525, with the permission of Pope Clement VII. His example was soon followed by two other monks, named Louis and Raphael de Fossembrun; and the pope, by a brief, granted these three monks leave to retire to some hermitage, and retain their new habit. The retirement they chose was the hermitage of the Camaldolites near Massacio, where they were very charitably received.

This innovation in the habit of the order gave great offence to the Franciscans, whose provincial persecuted these poor monks, and obliged them to fly from place to place. At last they took refuge in the palace of the Duke de Camerino, by whose credit they were received under the obedience of the conventuals, in the quality of Hermits Minors, in the year 1527. The next year, the pope approved this union, and confirmed to them the privilege of wearing the square capuche, and admitting among them all who would take the habit. Thus the order of the Capuchins, so called from wearing the capuche, began in the year 1528.

Their first establishment was at Colmenzono, about a league from Camerino, in a convent of the order of St. Jerome, which had been abandoned; but, their numbers increasing, Louis de Fossembrun built another small convent at Montmelon, in the territory of Camerino. The great number of conversions which the Capuchins made by their preaching, and the assistance they gave the people in a contagious distemper with which Italy was afflicted the same year, 1528, gained them an universal esteem.

In 1529, Louis de Fossembrun built for them two other convents, the one of Alvacina in the territory of Fabriano, the other at Fossembrun in the duchy of Urbino. Matthew de Bassi, being chosen their vicar-general, drew up constitutions for the government of this order. They enjoined, among other things, that the Capuchins should perform Divine service without singing; that they should say but one mass a day in their convents; they directed the hours of mental prayer, morning and evening, the days of disciplining themselves, and those of silence; they forbade the monks to hear the confessions of seculars, and enjoined them always to travel on foot; they recommended poverty in the ornaments of their church, and prohibited in them the use of gold, silver, and silk; the pavilions of the altars were to be of stuff, and the chalices of tin.

This order soon spread itself all over Italy and into Sicily. In 1573, Charles IX. demanded of Pope Gregory XIII. to have the order of Capuchins established in France, which that pope consented to; and their first settlement in that kingdom was in the little town of Picpus near Paris, which they soon quitted to settle at Meudon, from whence they were introduced into the capital of the kingdom. In 1606, Pope Paul V. gave them leave to accept of an establishment which was offered them in Spain. They even passed the seas to labour on the conversion of the infidels; and their order is become so considerable, that it is at present divided into more than sixty provinces, consisting of near 1600 convents, and 25,000 monks, besides the missions of Brazil, Congo, Barbary, Greece, Syria, and Egypt.

Among those who have preferred the poverty and humility of the Capuchins to the advantages of birth and fortune, was the famous Alphonso d’Este, duke of Modena and Reggio, who, after the death of his wife Isabella, took the habit of this order at Munich, in the year 1626, under the name of Brother John-Baptist, and 148died in the convent of Castlenuovo, in 1644. In France, likewise, the great duke de Joyeuse, after having distinguished himself as a general, became a Capuchin in September, 1587.

Father Paul (of Ecclesiastical Benefices, cap. 53) observes, that “The Capuchins preserve their reputation by reason of their poverty, and that if they should suffer the least change in their institution, they would acquire no immoveable estates by it, but would lose the alms they now receive.” He adds: “It seems, therefore, as if here an absolute period were put to all future acquisitions and improvements in this gainful trade; for whoever should go about to institute a new order, with a power of acquiring estates, such an order would certainly find no credit in the world; and if a profession of poverty were a part of the institution, there could be no acquisitions made whilst that lasted, nor would there be any credit left when that was broke.”—Hist. des Ord. Relig. T. vii. c. 27.

There is likewise an order of Capuchin Nuns, who follow the rule of St. Clare. Their first establishment was at Naples in 1538, and their foundress the venerable mother Maria Laurentia Longa, of a noble family of Catalonia—a lady of the most uncommon piety and devotion. Some Capuchins coming to settle at Naples, she obtained for them, by her credit with the archbishop, the church of St. Euphebia, without the city; soon after which she built a monastery of virgins, under the name of Our Lady of Jerusalem, into which she retired in 1534, together with nineteen young women, who engaged themselves by solemn vows to follow the third rule of St. Francis. The pope gave the government of this monastery to the Capuchins; and, soon after, the nuns quitted the third rule of St. Francis, to embrace the more rigorous rule of St. Clara, from the austerity of which they had the name of Nuns of the Passion, and that of Capuchines from the habit they took, which was that of the Capuchins.

After the death of their foundress, another monastery of Capuchines was established at Rome, near the Quirinal palace, and was called the monastery of the Holy Sacrament; and a third, in the same city, built by Cardinal Baronius. These foundations were approved, in the year 1600, by Pope Clement VIII., and confirmed by Gregory XV. There were afterwards several other establishments of Capuchines, in particular one at Paris, in 1604, founded by the Duchesse de Mercœur, who put crowns of thorns on the heads of the young women whom she placed in her monastery.—Broughton.

CAPUTIUM. (See Hood.)

CARDINAL. This is the title given to one of the chief governors of the Romish Church. The term has long been in use, and originally signified the same as præcipuus, principalis, id quod rei cardo est, synonymous with prælatus; or else it was derived from cardinare or incardinare, to hinge or join together, and was applied to the regular clergy of the metropolitan church. In Italy, Gaul, &c., such churches early received the title of cardinal churches; the ministers of these churches were also called cardinals.

The following statements comprise the important historical facts relative to the office of cardinal:

1. The institution of the office has been ascribed by respectable Roman Catholic writers to Christ himself, to the apostle of their faith, to the Roman bishop Evaristus, to Hyginus, Marcellus, Boniface III., and others. But we only know that cardinals, presbyters, and deacons occur in history about the sixth and seventh centuries, who were, however, not itinerant, but stationary church officers for conducting religious worship. The deacons and presbyters of Rome especially bore this name, who composed the presbytery of the bishop of the place. The title was also conferred upon the suffragan bishops of Ostia, Albano, and others in the immediate vicinity, but without any other rights than those which were connected appropriately with the ministerial office.

2. The import of the term was varied still more in the ninth century, and especially in the eleventh, by Nicolaus II., who in his constitution for the election of the Roman pontiff, not only appointed his seven suffragan bishops as members of the pope’s ecclesiastical council, but also constituted them the only legitimate body for the election of the pope. To these he gave the name of cardinal bishops of the Church of Rome, or cardinals of the Lateran Church.

This is the important period in history when the first foundation was laid for rendering the hierarchy of the Church independent both of the clergy and of the secular power. This period has not been noticed so particularly by historians as its importance requires. They seem especially to have overlooked the fact, that the famous Hildebrand, (Gregory VII.,) in the year 1073, concerted these measures for the independence of the Church, as the following extract will show: “It was the deep design of Hildebrand, which he for a 149long time prosecuted with unwearied zeal, to bring the pope wholly within the pale of the Church, and to prevent the interference, in his election, of all secular influence and arbitrary power. And that measure of the council which wrested from the emperor a right of so long standing and which had never been called in question, may deservedly be regarded as the master-piece of popish intrigue, or rather of Hildebrand’s cunning. The concession which disguised this crafty design of his was expressed as follows: that the emperor should ever hold from the pope the right of appointing the pope.”

3. As might have been expected, this privilege was afterwards contested by the princes of the German States, especially by those of Saxony and the House of Hohenstaufen. But these conflicts uniformly resulted in favour of the ambitious designs of the pope. A momentary concession, granted under the pressure of circumstances, became reason sufficient for demanding the same ever afterwards as an established right. In the year A. D. 1179, Alexander III., through the canons of the Lateran, confirmed yet more the independent election of the pope, so that, after this, the ratification of the emperor was no longer of any importance. Something similar was also repeated by Innocent III., A. D. 1215, and Innocent IV., A. D. 1254. The former had already, in the year A. D. 1198, renounced the civil authority of Rome, and ascended the papal throne. In the year 1274, the conclave of cardinals for the election of the pope was fully established by Gregory X., and remains the same to this day.

4. The college of cardinals, which, until the twelfth century, had been restricted to Rome and its vicinity, has since been greatly enlarged, so as to become the supreme court of the Romish Church throughout the world. Priests of illustrious name in other provinces and countries have been elevated to the dignity of cardinals. Of this, Alexander III. gave the first example in the year 1165, by conferring the honour upon Galdinus Sala, archbishop of Milan, and upon Conrad, archbishop of Mentz. But, to the injury of the Church, the greater part have ever been restricted to the limits of Rome and Italy.

5. The formal classification of the cardinals into three distinct orders, 1. cardinal bishops; 2. cardinal presbyters; 3. cardinal deacons, was made by Paul II. in the fifteenth century. He also gave them, instead of the scarlet robe which they had worn since the year 1244, a purple robe, from whence they derived the name of the purple; a title indicative, not merely of their superiority to bishops and archbishops, but of their regal honours and rights. Boniface VIII. gave them the title of eminentissimi, most eminent; and Pius V., in the year 1567, decrees that no other should have the name of cardinal.

6. The number of cardinals was at first not less than seven; and, after having ranged from seven to fifty-three, it was reduced again in the year 1277 to the minimum above-mentioned. The General Assembly of the Church of Basil limited the number to twenty-four; but the popes from this time increased them at their pleasure. Under Leo X. there were sixty-five cardinals: Paul IV. and Pius V. decreed that the maximum should be seventy—equal in number to the disciples of our Lord. These were arranged under the following grades: 1. Six cardinal bishops, with the following titles:—the bishops of Ostia, Porta, Albano, Frascati, Sabina, and Palæstrina; 2. Fifty cardinal priests, who were named after the parochial and cathedral churches of Rome; 3. Fourteen cardinal deacons, who were named after the chapels. This number was seldom full; but, since 1814, they have again become quite numerous.—Augusti.

The canons in some foreign cathedrals are called cardinals; as at Milan and Salerno. In the cathedral of St. Paul’s, London, two of the minor canons are still so designated. Their statutable duties are to superintend the behaviour of the members of the choir, in order to the correction of offenders by the dean and chapter, and to see to the burial of the dead, &c.—Jebb.

CARMELITES, or WHITE FRIARS. Monks of the order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. They pretend to derive their original from the prophets Elijah and Elisha; and this occasioned a very warm controversy between this order and the Jesuits, about the end of the seventeenth century; both parties publishing several works, and petitioning the popes Innocent XI. and Innocent XII.; the latter of whom silenced them both, by a brief of the 20th November, 1698.

What we know of their original is, that, in the twelfth century, Aimerie, legate of the holy see in the east, and patriarch of Antioch, collected together several hermits in Syria, who were exposed to the violence and incursions of the barbarians, and placed them on Mount Carmel, formerly the residence of the prophets Elijah and Elisha; from which mountain they took 150the name of Carmelites. Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, gave them rules in 1205, which Pope Honorius III. confirmed in 1224.

The peace concluded by the emperor Frederic II. with the Saracens, in the year 1229, so disadvantageous to Christendom, and so beneficial to the infidels, occasioned the Carmelites to quit the Holy Land under Alan, the fifth general of the order. He first sent some of the monks to Cyprus, who landed there in the year 1238, and founded a monastery in the forest of Fortania. Some Sicilians, at the same time, leaving Mount Carmel, returned to their own country, where they founded a monastery in the suburbs of Messina. Some English departed out of Syria, in the year 1440, to found others in England. Others of Provence, in the year 1244, founded a monastery in the desert of Aigualates, a league from Marseilles; and thus, the number of their monasteries increasing, they held their first European general chapter in the year 1245, at their monastery of Aylesford, in England.

After the establishment of the Carmelites in Europe, their rule was in some respects altered: the first time, by Pope Innocent IV., who added to the first article a precept of chastity, and relaxed the eleventh, which enjoins abstinence at all times from flesh, permitting them, when they travelled, to eat boiled flesh. This pope likewise gave them leave to eat in a common refectory, and to keep asses or mules for their use. Their rule was again mitigated by the popes Eugenius IV. and Pius II. Hence the order is divided into two branches, viz. the Carmelites of the ancient observance, called the moderate or mitigated, and those of the strict observance, who are the barefooted Carmelites; a reform set on foot, in 1540, by S. Theresa, a nun of the convent of Avila, in Castile: these last are divided into two congregations, that of Spain and that of Italy.

The habit of the Carmelites was at first white, and the cloak laced at the bottom with several lists; but Pope Honorius IV. commanded them to change it for that of the Minims. Their scapulary is a small woollen habit, of a brown colour, thrown over their shoulders. They wear no linen shirts, but instead of them linsey-woolsey.—Broughton.

CAROLS. Hymns sung by the people at Christmas in memory of the song of the angels, which the shepherds heard at our Lord’s birth.

CARPOCRATIANS. Heretics who sprang up in the second century; followers of Carpocrates, of the island of Cephalenia, according to Epiphanius, or, according to Theodoret and Clemens Alexandrinus, of the city of Alexandria. This Carpocrates was a man of the worst morals, and addicted to magic. Eusebius says expressly, he was the father of the heresy of the Gnostics; and it is true that all the infamous things imputed to the Gnostics are ascribed likewise to the Carpocratians. It is sufficient to mention two of their principles: the one is, a community of wives; the other, that a man cannot arrive at perfection, nor deliver himself from the power of the princes of this world, as they expressed it, without having passed through all sorts of criminal actions; laying it down for a maxim, that there is no action bad in itself, but only from the opinion of men. This induced them to establish a new kind of metempsychosis, that those who have not passed through all sorts of actions in the first life, may do it in a second, and, if that be not sufficient, in a third, and so on, till they have discharged this strange obligation. Accordingly, they are charged with committing the most infamous things in their Agapæ, or love-feasts.

As to their theology, they attributed the creation of the world to angels; they said that Jesus Christ was born of Joseph and Mary in a manner like other men; that his soul alone was received into heaven, his body remaining on the earth; and, accordingly, they rejected the resurrection of the body.

They marked their disciples at the bottom of the right ear with a hot iron, or with a razor.

They had images of Jesus Christ as well in painting as in sculpture, which they said were made by Pilate; they kept them in a little box or chest. They had likewise the images of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and other philosophers. They put crowns on all these images, and paid them the same superstitious honours which the Pagans did to their idols, adoring them, and offering sacrifice to them. A woman of this sect, named Marcellina, came to Rome, in the pontificate of Anicetus, where she made a great many proselytes. She worshipped the images of Jesus Christ, Paul, Homer, and Pythagoras, and offered incense to them.

Carpocrates had a son, named Epiphanes, who, by means of the Platonic philosophy, gave a greater extent to the fabulous opinions of the Carpocratians. He died at seventeen years of age, but in that short time had acquired so great a reputation among the disciples of his father, that, after 151his death, he was revered by them as a god, insomuch that they built a temple to him in the island of Cephalenia, and the Cephalenians, every first day of the month, solemnized the feast of his apotheosis, offering sacrifices to him, and singing hymns to his honour.

Epiphanius relates of himself, that in his youth he accidentally fell into company with some women of this sect, who revealed to him the most horrible secrets of the Carpocratians. They were armed with beauty sufficient to make an impression on a person of his age; but, by the grace of God, he says, he escaped the snare which the devil had laid for him. (See Gnostics.)—Brouqhton.

CARTHUSIANS. A religious order, founded in the year 1080 by one Bruno, a very learned man, a native of Cologne, and canon of Cologne, and afterwards Canon Scholaster or Theologal, (i. e. a lecturer in theology,) at Rheims. The occasion of its institution is related as follows: a friend of Bruno’s, Raimond Diocre, an eminent canon of Paris, who had been looked upon as a good liver, being dead, Bruno attended his funeral. Whilst the service was performing in the church, the dead man, who lay upon a bier, raised himself up and said, “By the just judgment of God, I am accused.” The company being astonished at this unusual accident, the burial was deferred to the next day, when the concourse of people being much greater, the dead man again raised himself up and said, “By the just judgment of God, I am judged:” and on a third similar occasion, “By the just judgment of God, I am condemned.” This miracle, it is pretended, wrought such an effect on Bruno and six more, that they immediately retired to the desert of Chartreux, in the diocese of Grenoble, in Dauphiné, where Hugh, bishop of that diocese, assigned them a spot of ground, and where Bruno, A. D. 1084, (or 1086, according to Baronius,) built his first monastery, under the following rigid institutes:—

His monks were to wear a hair-cloth next their body, a white cassock, and over it a black cloak: they were never to eat flesh; to fast every Friday on bread and water; to eat alone in their chambers, except upon certain festivals; and to observe an almost perpetual silence; none were allowed to go out of the monastery, except the prior and procurator, and they only about the business of the house.

The Carthusians, so called from the place of their first institution, are a very rigid order. They are not to go out of their cells, except to church, without leave of their superior. They are not to speak to any person, even their own brother, without leave. They may not keep any part of their portion of meat or drink till the next day, except herbs or fruit. Their bed is of straw, covered with a felt or coarse cloth; their clothing, two haircloths, two cowls, two pair of hose, a cloak, &c., all coarse. Every monk has two needles, some thread, scissors, a comb, a razor, a hone, an ink-horn, pens, chalk, two pumice-stones; likewise two pots, two porringers, a basin, two spoons, a knife, a drinking cup, a water-pot, a salt, a dish, a towel; and for fire, tinder, flint, wood, and an axe.

In the refectory they are to keep their eyes on the meat, their hands on the table, their attention on the reader, and their heart fixed on God. When allowed to discourse, they are to do it modestly, not to whisper, nor talk aloud, nor to be contentious. They confess to the prior every Saturday. Women are not allowed to come into their churches, that the monks may not see anything which may provoke them to lewdness.

It is computed there are a hundred and seventy-two houses of Carthusians, whereof five are of nuns, who practise the same austerities as the monks. They are divided into sixteen provinces, each of which has two visitors. There have been several canonised saints of this order; four cardinals, seventy archbishops and bishops, and a great many very learned writers.

The story of the motive of St. Bruno’s retirement into the desert was inserted in the Roman Breviary, but was afterwards left out, when that Breviary was reformed, by order of Pope Urban VIII.; and this gave occasion to several learned men of the seventeenth century to publish writings on that subject, some to vindicate the truth of the story, and others to invalidate it. It is rejected by Pagius, the learned annotator on Baronius, who says it was invented two centuries after Bruno’s time.—Jebb.

In the year 1170, Pope Alexander III. took this order under the protection of the holy see. In 1391, Boniface IX. exempted them from the jurisdiction of the bishops. In 1420, Martin V. exempted them from paying the tenths of the lands belonging to them; and Julius II., in 1508, ordered that all the houses of the order, in whatever part of the world they were situated, should obey the prior of the Grand Chartreuse, and the general chapter of the order.

The convents of this order are generally 152very beautiful and magnificent; that of Naples, though but small, surpasses all the rest in ornaments and riches. Nothing is to be seen in the church and house but marble and jasper. The apartments of the prior are rather those of a prince than of a poor monk. There are innumerable statues, bas-reliefs, paintings, &c., together with very fine gardens; all which, joined with the holy and exemplary life of the good monks, draws the curiosity of all strangers who visit Naples.

The Carthusians settled in England about the year 1140. They had several monasteries here, particularly at Witham, in Somersetshire; Hinton, in the same county; Beauval, in Nottinghamshire; Kingston-upon-Hull; Mount Grace, in Yorkshire; Eppewort, in Lincolnshire; Shene, in Surrey, and one near Coventry. In London they had a famous monastery, since called, from the Carthusians who settled there, the Charter House.—See Du Pin, and Baronius.

CARTULARIES, according to Jerom de Costa, were papers wherein the contracts, sales, exchanges, privileges, immunities, and other acts that belong to churches and monasteries were collected, the better to preserve the ancient deeds, by rendering frequent reference to them less necessary.

CASSOCK. The under dress of all orders of the clergy; it resembles a long coat, with a single upright collar. In the Church of Rome it varies in colour with the dignity of the wearer. Priests wear black; bishops, purple; cardinals, scarlet; and popes, white. In the Church of England, black is worn by all the three orders of the clergy, but bishops, upon state occasions, often wear purple coats. The 74th English canon enjoins that beneficed clergymen, &c. shall not go in public in their doublet and hose, without coats or cassocks.—Jebb.

CASUIST. One who studies cases of conscience.

CASUISTRY. The doctrine and science of conscience and its cases, with the rules and principles of resolving the same; drawn partly from natural reason or equity, and partly from the authority of Scripture, the canon law, councils, fathers, &c. To casuistry belongs the decision of all difficulties arising about what a man may lawfully do or not do; what is sin or not sin; what things a man is obliged to do in order to discharge his duty, and what he may let alone without breach of it. The most celebrated writers on this subject, of the Church of England, are Bishop Jeremy Taylor, in his “Ductor Dubitantium;” and Bishop Sanderson, in his “Cases of Conscience.” There was a professor of casuistry in the university of Cambridge, but the title of the professorship has lately been altered to Moral Philosophy.

CASULA. (See Chasible.)

CATACOMBS. Burying-places near Rome; not for Christians only, but for all sorts of people. There is a large vault about three miles from Rome, used for this purpose; there is another near Naples. That at Naples consists of long galleries cut out of the rock, of three stories, one above another. These galleries are generally about twenty feet broad, and fifteen high. Those at Rome are not above three or four feet broad, and five or six feet high. They are very long, full of niches, shaped according to the sizes of bodies, wherein the bodies were put, not in coffins, but only in burial clothes. Many inscriptions are still extant in them; and the same stone sometimes bears on one side an inscription to heathen deities and marks of Christianity on the other. But see a large account of these in Bishop Burnet’s Travels, in his fourth letter; also “The Church in the Catacombs,” by Dr. C. Maitland; and Macfarlane’s “Catacombs of Rome.”

The name “Catacombs” is now generally applied to the stone vaults for the dead constructed in the public cemeteries of England.

CATAPHRYGES. Christian heretics, who made their appearance in the second century; they had this name given to them because the chief promoters of this heresy came out of Phrygia. They followed Montanus’s errors. (See Montanists.)

CATECHISM, is derived from a Greek term, (κατηχέω,) and signifies instruction in the first rudiments of any art or science, communicated by asking questions and hearing and correcting the answers. From the earliest ages of the Church the word has been employed by ecclesiastical writers in a more restrained sense, to denote instruction in the principals of the Christian religion by means of questions and answers.—Dean Comber. Shepherd.

By canon 59, “Every parson, vicar, or curate, upon every Sunday and holy day, before evening prayer, shall, for half an hour or more, examine and instruct the youth and ignorant persons of his parish, in the ten commandments, the articles of the belief, and in the Lord’s Prayer; and shall diligently hear, instruct, and teach them the catechism set forth in the Book of Common Prayer. And all fathers, mothers, masters, and mistresses shall cause their 153children, servants, and apprentices, which have not learned the catechism, to come to the church at the time appointed, obediently to hear, and to be ordered by the minister, until they have learned the same. And if any minister neglect his duty herein, let him be sharply reproved upon the first complaint, and true notice thereof given to the bishop or ordinary of the place. If after submitting himself he shall willingly offend therein again, let him be suspended. If so the third time, there being little hope that he will be therein reformed, then excommunicated, and so remain until he be reformed. And likewise, if any of the said fathers, mothers, masters, or mistresses, children, servants, or apprentices, shall neglect their duties, as the one sort in not causing them to come, and the other in refusing to learn, as aforesaid, let them be suspended by their ordinaries, (if they be not children,) and if they so persist by the space of a month, then let them be excommunicated.”

And by the rubric, “The curate of every parish shall diligently upon Sundays and holy days, after the second lesson at evening prayer, openly in the church instruct and examine so many children of his parish sent unto him, as he shall think convenient, in some part of the catechism. And all fathers and mothers, masters and dames, shall cause their children, servants, and apprentices (who have not learned their catechism) to come to the church at the time appointed, and obediently to hear, and be ordered by the curate, until such time as they have learned all that therein is appointed for them to learn.”

In the office of public baptism the minister directs the godfathers and godmothers to “take care that the child be brought to the bishop, to be confirmed by him, so soon as he or she can say the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the ten commandments in the vulgar tongue, and be further instructed in the Church Catechism set forth for that purpose.”

The catechism of children is enjoined by God, (Deut. vi. 7; Prov. xxii. 6; Ephes. vi. 4,) and was always practised by pious men, (Gen. xviii. 19; 1 Chron. xxviii. 9; 2 Tim. i. 5,) and it is Christ’s especial charge to ministers, to feed his lambs. (John xxi. 15.) The Jewish doctors took care of this. (Luke ii. 42.) And in the Christian churches there was a peculiar officer who was the catechist; and all the new converts, who were to be baptized at Easter, were catechized all the forty days of Lent. But since we have few such now, and generally baptize infants, who cannot at that time understand the covenant which is entered into, therefore we are bound to take more care to make them understand it afterward, by instructing them in the “Catechism of the Church;” which is drawn up according to the primitive forms by way of question and answer, (Acts viii. 37; 1 Pet. iii. 21,) being not a large system of divinity to puzzle the heads of young beginners, but, like those of the ancients, a short and full explication of the baptismal vow; teaching them, first, what their baptismal vow is, namely, what were the benefits promised on God’s part, Quest. I., II., and what were the duties promised on their part, to renounce all evil, to believe all divine truth, and to keep God’s commandments, Quest. III.; together with their grateful owning of this covenant, Quest. IV. Secondly, the parts of the vow are explained: first, as to the matter of them, in repeating and expounding the creed, Quest. V., VI., and repeating and explaining the ten commandments, Quest. VII., VIII., IX., X., XI. Secondly, as to the means to enable them to keep them, which are prayer and the holy sacraments: and the duty of prayer is taught them in the Lord’s Prayer, and the explication thereof, Quest. XII., XIII. The due use of the sacraments is taught them, first in general, as to their number, nature, and necessity, Quest. XIV., XV. Secondly in particular, baptism, Quest. XVI.–XX.; and the Lord’s supper, Quest. XXI.–XXV. This is all that is absolutely necessary to be known in order to salvation, and all that the primitive Church did teach their catechumens. And if children be but made to repeat this perfectly, and understand it fully, they will increase in knowledge as they grow in years.—Dean Comber.

It is the peculiar glory of Christianity to have extended religious instruction, of which but few partook at all before, and scarce any in purity, through all ranks and ages of men, and even women. The first converts to it were immediately formed into regular societies and assemblies; not only for the joint worship of God, but the further “edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. iv. 12); in which good work some of course were stated teachers, or, to use the apostle’s own expression, “catechizers in the word:” others taught or catechized. (Gal. vi. 6.) For catechizing signifies, in Scripture at large, instructing persons in any matter, but especially in religion. And thus it is used, Acts xviii. 25, where we read, “This man was instructed in the way of the Lord;” and Luke i. 4, where, again, we read, “That thou mayest know the 154certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed.” The original word, in both places, is catechized.

But as the different advances of persons in knowledge made different sorts of instructions requisite, so, in the primitive Church, different sorts of teachers were appointed to dispense it. And they who taught so much only of the Christian doctrine, as might qualify the hearers for Christian communion, had the name of catechists appropriated to them: whose teaching being usually, as was most convenient, in a great measure by way of question and answer, the name of Catechism hath now been long confined to such instruction as is given in that form. But the method of employing a particular set of men in that work only, is in most places laid aside.

Under the darkness of Popery almost all religious instruction was neglected. “Very few,” to use the words of one of our homilies, “even of the most simple people, were taught the Lord’s Prayer, the articles of the faith, or the ten commandments, otherwise than in Latin, which they understood not;” so that one of the first necessary steps taken towards the Reformation in this country, was a general injunction, that parents and masters should first learn them in their own tongue, then acquaint their children and servants with them: which three main branches of Christian duty, comprehending the sum of what we are to believe, to do, and to petition for, were soon after formed, with proper explanations of each, into a catechism. To this was added, in process of time, a brief account of the two sacraments; all together making up that very good, though still improveable, “form of sound words” (2 Tim. i. 13) which we may now use.—Abp. Secker.

As to the form of our catechism, it is drawn up after the primitive manner, by way of question and answer: so Philip catechized the eunuch, (Acts viii. 37,) and so the persons to be baptized were catechized in the first ages. And, indeed, the very word catechism implies as much; the original κατηχέω, from whence it is derived, being a compound of ἠχὼ, which signifies an echo, or repeated sound. So that a catechism is no more than an instruction first taught and instilled into a person, and then repeated upon the catechist’s examination.

As to the contents of our catechism, it is not a large system or body of divinity, to puzzle the heads of young beginners, but only a short and full explication of the baptismal vow. The primitive catechisms, indeed, (that is, all that the catechumens were to learn by heart before their baptism and confirmation,) consisted of no more than the renunciation, or the repetition of the baptismal vow, the creed, and the Lord’s prayer: and these, together with the ten commandments, at the Reformation, were the whole of ours. But it being afterwards thought defective as to the doctrine of the sacraments, (which in the primitive times were more largely explained to baptized persons,) King James I. appointed the bishops to add a short and plain explanation of them, which was done accordingly in that excellent form we see; being penned by Bishop Overall, then dean of St. Paul’s, and allowed by the bishops. So that now (in the opinion of the best judges) it excels all catechisms that ever were in the world; being so short, that the youngest children may learn it by heart; and yet so full, that it contains all things necessary to be known in order to salvation.

In this also its excellency is very discernible, namely, that as all persons are baptized, not into any particular Church, but into the Catholic Church of Christ; so here they are not taught the opinion of this or any other particular Church or people, but what the whole body of Christians all the world over agree in. If it may anywhere seem to be otherwise, it is in the doctrine of the sacraments; but even this is here worded with so much caution and temper, as not to contradict any other particular Church, but so as that all sorts of Christians, when they have duly considered it, may subscribe to everything that is here taught or delivered.—Wheatly.

The country parson, says Herbert, values catechizing highly.... He exacts of all the doctrine of the catechism; of the younger sort, the very words; of the elder, the substance. Those he catechizeth publicly; these privately, giving age honour, according to the apostle’s rule. He requires all to be present at catechizing; first, for the authority of the work; secondly, that parents and masters, as they hear the answers proved, may, when they come home, either commend or reprove, either reward or punish; thirdly, that those of the elder sort, who are not well grounded, may then by an honourable way take occasion to be better instructed; fourthly, that those who are well grown in the knowledge of religion, may examine their grounds, renew their vows, and by occasion of both enlarge their meditation. Having read Divine service twice fully, and preached in the morning, and catechized in the afternoon, 155he thinks he hath, in some measure, according to poor and frail man, discharged the public duties of the congregation.—Herbert’s Country Parson.

With respect to the catechetical instruction of youth, I would remind you, that it was the primitive method, employed by the apostles and their immediate followers, and in after ages by the whole succession of the catholic and apostolic Church, for training up and organizing the visible community of Christians in sound principles of faith, in the love of God and man, and in purity of life and conversation. It is observable, accordingly, that in exact proportion as catechizing has been practised or neglected, in the same proportion have the public faith and morals been seen to flourish or decline.... In the earlier ages of the Church, catechetical schools were established in the great cities of the empire; over which men of the profoundest learning, and most brilliant talents, felt themselves honoured when they were called to preside; while each particular church had its catechists; and the catechumens formed a regular and ascertained class or division of every congregation. And it is not too much to say, that, next to an established liturgy, and beyond all prescribed confessions of faith, the single ordinance of catechetical instruction has, under Providence, been the great stay and support, throughout Christendom, of orthodox, unwavering Christianity.... Let not the common prejudice be entertained, that catechizing is a slight and trifling exercise, to be performed without pain and preparation on your part. This would be so, if it were the mere rote-work asking and answering of the questions in our Church Catechism: but to open, to explain, and familiarly to illustrate those questions, in such a manner, as at once to reach the understanding and touch the affections of little children, is a work which demands no ordinary acquaintance at once with the whole scheme of Christian theology, with the philosophy of the human mind, and with the yet profounder mysteries of the human heart. It has, therefore, been well and truly said, by I recollect not what writer, that a boy may preach, but to catechize requires a man.—Bp. Jebb.

CATECHIST. The person who catechizes. There were officers of this name in the ancient Church; but they did not form a distinct order. Sometimes the bishop catechized, sometimes the catechists were selected from the inferior orders, as readers, &c.—(See Bingham.)

CATECHUMENS. A name given, in the first ages of Christianity, to the Jews or Gentiles who were being prepared and instructed to receive baptism. It comes from the Greek word κατηχεῖν, which signifies to teach by word of mouth, or viva voce: and of that word this other, κατηχούμενος, is formed, which denotes him that is so taught: these had people on purpose to instruct them. Eusebius makes mention of Pantænus, Clemens, and Origen, who were catechists in the Church of Alexandria, and had a peculiar place in the church where they used to teach, and the same was called the place of the catechumens, as appears by the canons of the Council of Neocæsarea: they tell us the catechumens were not permitted to be present at the celebration of the holy eucharist; but, immediately after the Gospel was read, the deacons cried with a loud voice: “Withdraw in peace, you catechumens,” for so the book of the Apostolical Constitutions will have it. The service from the beginning to the Offertory was called Missa catechumenorum. The catechumens, not being baptized, were not to receive, nor so much as permitted to see, the consecrated elements of the eucharist. Some writers suppose that they received some of the consecrated bread, called eulogicæ; but Bingham shows that this idea is founded on a misconstruction of a passage in St. Augustine, and that the use of eulogicæ was not known in the Church, until long after the discipline of the catechumens had ceased. According to a canon of the Council of Orange, they were not permitted to pray with the faithful or those in full communion. There were several degrees of favour in the state of the catechumens: at first they were instructed privately, or by themselves, and afterwards admitted to hear sermons in the church; and these last were called audientes. There was a third sort of catechumens, called orantes or genuflectentes, because they were present and concerned in some part of the prayers: to which we may add a fourth degree of catechumens, which were the competentes; for so they were called when they desired to be baptized.

CATENA. From a Greek word signifying a chain. By a Catena Patrum is meant a string or series of passages from the writings of various fathers, and arranged for the elucidation of some portions of Scripture, as the Psalms or Gospels. They seem to have originated in the short scholia or glosses which it was customary in MSS. of the Scriptures to introduce in the margin. These by degrees were expanded, and passages from the homilies or sermons 156of the fathers were added to them. The most celebrated catena is the Catena Aurea of Thomas Aquinas. It was translated at Oxford, under the superintendence of Mr. Newman, of Oriel College. The subsequent conduct of that gentleman has led those who were willing to attach some authority to the work to examine it carefully, and the result has been, the detection that Thomas Aquinas has sometimes falsified the quotations he has made from the fathers; and the whole, as a commentary, is inferior to the commentaries of modern theologians.

CATHARISTS. The last surviving sect of Manichæans, or Gnostics, who gave themselves that name, (from καθαρὸς, pure,) to indicate their superior purity. There were many different degrees of error among them, but the following tenets were common to all:—That matter was the source of all evil; that the Creator of the visible world was not the same as the Supreme Being; that Christ had not a real body, nor was properly speaking born, nor really died; that the bodies of men were the production of the evil principle, and were incapable of sanctification and a new life; and that the sacraments were but vain institutions, and without power. They rejected and despised the Old Testament, but received the New with reverence. The consequence of such doctrines was, of course, that they made it the chief object of their religion to emancipate themselves from whatever was material, and to macerate their bodies to the utmost; and their perfect disciples, in obedience to this principle, renounced animal food, wine, and marriage. The state of their souls, while united with the body, was in their estimation a wretched incarceration, and they only escaped from some portion of the horrors of such a dungeon, by denying themselves all natural enjoyments, and escaping from the solicitations of all the senses.

The Catharists in the twelfth century spread themselves from Bulgaria over most of the European provinces, but they met everywhere with extensive persecution, and are not heard of after that time.

CATHEDRAL. The chief church in every diocese is called the Cathedral, from the word cathedra, a chair, because in it the bishop has his seat or throne. The cathedral church is the parish church of the whole diocese (which diocese was therefore commonly called parochia in ancient times, till the application of this name to the lesser branches into which it was divided, caused it for distinction’ sake to be called only by the name of diocese): and it has been affirmed, with great probability, that if one resort to the cathedral church to hear Divine service, it is a resorting to the parish church within the natural sense and meaning of the statute.

By the 5th canon of the 5th Council of Carthage it is ordained, that every bishop shall have his residence at his principal or cathedral church, which he shall not leave, to betake himself to any other church in his diocese; nor continue upon his private concerns, to the neglect of his cure, and hinderance of his frequenting the cathedral church.—Bingham.

By the constitutions of Archbishop Langton, 1222, it is enjoined, bishops shall be at their cathedrals on some of the greater feasts, and at least in some part of Lent.

By the constitutions of Otho, 1237, bishops shall reside at their cathedral churches, and officiate there on the chief festivals, on the Lord’s days, and in Lent, and in Advent.

By the constitutions of Othobon, in 1268, bishops shall be personally resident to take care of their flock, and for the comfort of the churches espoused to them, especially on solemn days, in Lent and Advent, unless their absence is required by their superiors, or for other just cause.

Canon 24. “In all cathedral and collegiate churches, the holy communion shall be administered upon principal feast days, sometimes by the bishop, (if he be present,) and sometimes by the dean, and sometimes by a canon or prebendary; the principal minister using a decent cope, and being assisted with the gospeller and epistler agreeably, according to the advertisements published in the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth (hereafter following). The said communion to be administered at such times, and with such limitation, as is specified in the Book of Common Prayer. Provided that no such limitation by any construction shall be allowed of, but that all deans, wardens, masters, or heads of cathedral and collegiate churches, prebendaries, canons, vicars, petty canons, singing men, and all others of the foundation, shall receive the communion four times yearly at the least.”

Canon 42. “Every dean, master, or warden, or chief governor of any cathedral or collegiate church, shall be resident there fourscore and ten days, conjunctim or divisim, in every year at the least, and then shall continue there in preaching the word of God, and keeping good hospitality; except he shall be otherwise let with weighty and urgent causes, to be approved by the 157bishop, or in any other lawful sort dispensed with.”

Canon 43. “The dean, master, warden, or chief governor, prebendaries and canons, in every cathedral and collegiate church, shall preach there, in their own persons, so often as they are bound by law, statute, ordinance, or custom.”

Canon 44. “Prebendaries at large shall not be absent from their cures above a month in the year; and residentiaries shall divide the year among them; and, when their residence is over, shall repair to their benefices.”

And by Canon 51, “the deans, presidents, and residentiaries of any cathedral or collegiate church, shall suffer no stranger to preach unto the people in their churches, except they be allowed by the archbishop of the province, or by the bishop of the same diocese, or by either of the universities. And if any in his sermon shall publish any doctrine either strange, or disagreeing from the word of God, or from any of the Thirty-nine Articles, or from the Book of Common Prayer, the dean or the residents shall by their letters, subscribed with some of their hands that heard him, so soon as may be, give notice of the same to the bishop of the diocese, that he may determine the matter, and take such order therein as he shall think convenient.”

The passage of the advertisements published in the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth, referred to in Canon 24, is as follows: “Item, in the ministration of the holy communion in cathedral and collegiate churches, the principal minister shall use a cope with gospeller and epistoler agreeably; and at all other prayers to be said at the communion table, to use no copes but surplices. Item, that the dean and prebendaries wear a surplice, with a silk hood, in the choir; and when they preach in the cathedral or collegiate church, to wear a hood.” And at the end of the service book in the second year of Edward VI., it is ordered that “in all cathedral churches, the archdeacons, deans, and prebendaries, being graduates, may use in the choir, beside their surplices, such hoods as pertaineth to their several degrees, which they have taken in any university within this realm.”

Churches collegiate and conventual were always visitable by the bishop of the diocese, if no special exemption was made by the founder thereof. And the visitation of cathedral churches belongs unto the metropolitan of the province, and to the king when the archbishopric is vacant.—Burn.

All cathedrals throughout the world had a body of clergy and ministers belonging to them; which were divided into various orders and degrees; they were gradually incorporated in Western Christendom, but not in the East. (See Chapter.) In England no diocese has more than one cathedral. There are many instances of a plurality of cathedrals even in the same city, as at Rome, Milan, &c., and formerly in France. These churches were called concathedrals. One instance exists in Ireland, viz. in Dublin, where Christ Church and St. Patrick’s enjoy all the rights of cathedrals; and while the congé d’ élire existed, conjointly elected the archbishop; and their united consent must still be given to all acts which require the sanction of a chapter. This plurality of cathedrals in one see is not to be confounded with a plurality of cathedrals under the same bishop, when, as generally in Ireland, he has under his charge two or more dioceses. One Irish diocese (Meath) has no cathedral; and two others (Kilmore and Ardagh) have no cathedral chapters. These anomalies are not, as some have supposed, remnants of a primitive order of things; for it can be proved that they did not originally exist in the respective dioceses now mentioned; but were the consequences of poverty, barbarism, and other unhappy causes which mutilated the external framework of the Irish church.—Jebb.

With reference to the architecture of a cathedral: the normal plan of an English cathedral is in the form of a Latin cross; a cross, that is, whose transverse arms are less than the lower longitudinal limb; and, in a general architectural description, its parts are sufficiently distinguished as nave, choir, and transept, with their aisles, western towers, and central tower; but in more minute description, especially where ritual arrangements are concerned, these terms are not always sufficiently precise, and we shall hardly arrive at the more exact nomenclature, without tracing the changes in a cathedral church from the Norman period to our own.

In a Norman cathedral, the east end, or architectural choir, usually terminated in an apse, (see Apse,) surrounded by the continuation of the choir aisles. The aisles formed a path for processions at the back of the altar, and were called the processionary. The bishop’s throne was placed behind the altar, and the altar itself in the chord of the apse; and westward of this was a considerable space, unoccupied in ordinary cases, which was called the presbytery. The choir, or place in which the 158daily service was performed, was under the central tower, with perhaps one or two bays of the nave in addition; so that the ritual and the architectural choir did not coincide, but the ritual choir occupied the tower and a considerable portion of the architectural nave. This arrangement seems unnatural, and even inconvenient; but it was perhaps required by the connexion of the cathedral with the monastic or other offices of the establishment; for these were arranged around a quadrangle, of which the architectural nave, or western limb of the church, formed one side, and length was gained to the quadrangle, without disproportionate enlargement of the church, by making the western limb sufficiently large to receive part, at least, of the ritual choir. (See Monastery.)

The transept was not originally symbolical in its form; but was derived from the transverse hall or gallery in the ancient basilicas at the upper end of the nave, its length equal to the breadth of the nave and aisles. The accidental approximating to the form of the cross was doubtless perceived by later Christian architects, who accordingly in many instances lengthened the transept so as to make the ground-plan of the church completely cuneiform.—Jebb.

In the transepts and aisles, and also in the crypt, which generally extended beneath the whole eastern limb of the church, were numerous altars, and little chapels were often thrown out, of an apsidal form, for their altars. One chapel, especially, was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and called the Lady chapel, but its place does not seem to have been constant.

Subsequent churches were of course subject to many variations, but they generally followed much this course. First, the apse was taken down, and the eastern arm of the cross was extended considerably, so as to enlarge the presbytery, or part in which the altar stood, and to add a retrochoir in place of the old processionary behind it; and this change was probably connected always in prospect, and often at once, with the carrying up of the choir eastward of the great tower, or in other words, reconciling the ritual with the architectural arrangement. After this yet another addition was made to the east end, which was often nearly equal to the nave in length; and the Lady chapel was built beyond the presbytery and retrochoir.

In the course of these arrangements the several screens, the rood screen and the altar screen, had to be removed. The rood screen was placed within the eastern arch of the tower, which may now be called its proper place, wherever the church has received its usual additions. This screen is now almost universally used as an organ loft; and it is obvious to remark, that though the organ intercepts the view from the west end of the church, it certainly does not do so more than the rood and its accompaniments formerly did. The altar screen first became necessary at the enlarging of the space behind the altar: it formed the separation of the presbytery from the retrochoir. In some instances this arrangement has been disturbed of late years, but always with bad effect.

The modifications of these plans and arrangements are various, but oftener on the side of excess than of defect. The Lady chapel is not always at the extreme east. At Ely, for instance, and once at Peterborough, it was at the north. The great transept is never omitted (Manchester can hardly be called an exception, since it has only lately been made a cathedral); but a second transept to the east of the tower was often added, as at Canterbury, Lincoln, and Salisbury. Sometimes, as at Durham, the second transept is carried to the extreme east end of the church, which it crosses in the form of a T. Sometimes there was a western transept, treated in the same way as at Ely and Peterborough; and at Durham, Ely, and Lincoln was another considerable addition, called the Galilee porch. At Canterbury, the whole arrangement of the east end is very remarkable, the crown of Archbishop Becket taking the usual place of the Lady chapel. The shrines of reputed saints, and chantry monuments inserted in different portions of the fabric, with too little respect for its general effect, are constant additions to the plan; but it would be useless to attempt to reduce these to a general rule, and endless to enumerate particular cases.

The cathedrals in Ireland and Scotland were originally very small. That of Armagh, the largest, it is supposed, of ancient date, and originally built by St. Patrick, was without transepts, which were added many ages after. The most interesting relics of very ancient cathedrals in Ireland are at Tuam and Clonfert. Many of them in Scotland, as Elgin, were modelled on the plan of Lincoln cathedral.—Poole.

CATHOLIC. (καθ’ ὅλον.) Universal or general. “The Church,” says St. Cyril, “is called catholic, because it is throughout the world, from one end of the earth to the other; and because it teaches universally and completely all the truths which ought to come to men’s knowledge, concerning 159things both visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly; and because it subjugates, in order to godliness, every class of men, governors and governed, learned and unlearned; and because it universally treats and heals every sort of sins which are committed by soul or body, and possesses in itself every form of virtue which is named, both in deeds and words, and every kind of spiritual gifts.”—Catechetical Lectures, xviii. 23.

The term was first applied to the Christian Church to distinguish it from the Jewish, the latter being confined to a single nation, the former being open to all who should seek admission into it by holy baptism. Hence, the Christian Church is general or universal. The first regularly organized Christian Church was formed at Jerusalem. When St. Peter converted three thousand souls, (Acts ii. 41,) the new converts were not formed into a new Church, but were added to the original society. When Churches were formed afterwards at Samaria, Antioch, and other places, these were not looked upon as entirely separate bodies, but as branches of the one holy Catholic or Apostolic Church. St. Paul says, (1 Cor. xii. 13,) “By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body;” and, (Eph. iv. 4,) “There is one body and one Spirit.” A Catholic Church means a branch of this one great society, as the Church of England is said to be a Catholic Church; the Catholic Church includes all the Churches in the world under their legitimate bishops.

When in after-times teachers began to form separate societies, and to call them by their own name, as the Arians were named from Arius, the Macedonians from Macedonius; and, in later times, Calvinists from Calvin, Wesleyans from Wesley; the true churchmen, refusing to be designated by the name of any human leader, called themselves Catholics, i. e. members, not of any peculiar society, but of the Universal Church. And the term thus used not only distinguished the Church from the world, but the true Church from heretical and schismatical parties. Hence, in ecclesiastical history, the word catholic means the same as orthodox, and a catholic Christian denotes an orthodox Christian.

From this may be seen the absurdity of calling those who receive the decrees of the Council of Trent Catholics. The Romanists, or Papists, or Tridentines, belong to a peculiar society, in which Romanism or Romish errors are added to orthodox truth. When we call them Catholics, we as much as call ourselves Heretics, we as much as admit them to be orthodox; and they gladly avail themselves of this admission, on the part of some ignorant Protestants, to hold up an argument against the Church of England. Let the member of the Church of England assert his right to the name of Catholic, since he is the only person in England who has a right to that name. The English Romanist is a Romish schismatic, and not a Catholic.

CATHOLIC EPISTLES. The Epistles of St. James, St. Peter, St. Jude, and St. John are called Catholic Epistles, either because they were not written to any particular person, or Church, but to Christians in general, or to Christians of several countries: or because, whatever doubts may at first have been entertained respecting some of them, they were all acknowledged by the Catholic or Universal Church, at the time this appellation was attached to them, which we find to have been common in the fourth century.

CAVEAT. A caveat is a caution entered in the spiritual court, to stop probates, administrations, licences, &c., from being granted without the knowledge of the party that enters the caveat.

CELESTINES. A religious order of Christians, which derives its name from its founder, Pietro de Morone, afterwards Celestin V., a hermit, who followed the rules of St. Bennet, who founded the order in 1254, and got the institution confirmed by Pope Urban VIII. in 1264, and by Gregory X. in 1273, at the second general Council of Lyons: this order soon multiplied in Italy, and was brought into France in 1300, by Philip the Fair, who sent to Peter of Sorrel, a singer of the Church of Orleans, or according to others, of that of Amiens, his ambassador then at Naples, to beg of the abbot-general of it twelve of this order, to be sent into France. When they were arrived, the king gave them two monasteries, one in the forest of Orleans, at a place called Ambert, and the other in the forest of Compiegne, in Mount Chartres. Charles, dauphin and regent of France, in 1352, while King John, his father, was prisoner in England, sent for six of these monks of Mount Chartres, to establish them at Paris, at a place called Barrez, where there was, till the Revolution, a monastery of that order: and that prince, in 1356, gave them every month a purse under the seal of the chancelery, which gift was confirmed by a patent in 1361, at King John’s return. When Charles came to the crown himself, he made them a gift of a thousand livres of gold, with twelve acres of the best timber in the forest of Moret, to build their church with, whereof he himself laid 160the first stone, and had it consecrated in his presence. After which he settled a considerable parcel of land upon the same monastery. The Celestines were called hermits of St. Damian before their institutor became pope. Their first monastery was at Monte Majella, in the kingdom of Naples.

CELIBACY. The state of unmarried persons: a word used chiefly in speaking of the single life of the Romish clergy, or the obligation they are under to abstain from marriage.

At the time of the Reformation, scarcely any point was more canvassed than the right of the clergy to marry. The celibacy of the clergy was justly considered as a principal cause of irregular and dissolute living; and the wisest of the Reformers were exceedingly anxious to abolish a practice, which had been injurious to the interests of religion, by its tendency to corrupt the morals of those who ought to be examples of virtue to the rest of mankind. The marriage of priests was so far from being forbidden by the Mosaic institution, that the priesthood was confined to the descendants of one family, and consequently there was not only a permission, but an obligation upon the Jewish priests to marry. Hence we conclude that there is no natural inconsistency, or even unsuitableness, between the married state and the duties of the ministers of religion. Not a single text in the New Testament can be interpreted into a prohibition against the marriage of the clergy under the gospel dispensation; but, on the contrary, there are many passages from which we may infer that they are allowed the same liberty upon this subject as other men enjoy. One of the twelve apostles, namely, St. Peter, was certainly a married man (Matt. viii. 14); and it is supposed that several of the others were also married. Philip, one of the seven deacons, was also a married man (Acts xxi. 9); and if our Lord did not require celibacy in the first preachers of the gospel, it cannot be thought indispensable in their successors. St. Paul says, “Let every man have his own wife” (1 Cor. vii. 2); and that marriage is honourable in all, (Heb. xiii. 4,) without excepting those who are employed in the public offices of religion. He expressly says, that “a bishop must be the husband of one wife” (1 Tim. iii. 2); and he gives the same direction concerning elders, priests, and deacons. When Aquila travelled about to preach the gospel, he was not only married, but his wife Priscilla accompanied him (Acts xviii. 2); and St. Paul insists that he might have claimed the privilege “of carrying about a sister or wife, (1 Cor. ix. 5,) as other apostles did.” The “forbidding to marry” (1 Tim. iv. 3) is mentioned as a character of the apostasy of the latter times. That the ministers of the gospel were allowed to marry for several centuries after the days of the apostles appears certain. Polycarp mentions Valens, presbyter of Philippi, who was a married man, and there are now extant two letters of Tertullian, a presbyter of the second century, addressed to his wife. Novatus was a married presbyter of Carthage, as we learn from Cyprian, who was, in the opinion of some historians, himself a married man; and so was Cæcilius, the presbyter who converted him, and Numidius, another presbyter of Carthage. That they were allowed to cohabit with their wives after ordination appears from the charge which Cyprian brought against Novatus, that he had struck and abused his wife, and by that means caused her to miscarry. In the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, a motion was made, that a law might pass to oblige the clergy to abstain from all conjugal society: but it was strenuously opposed by Paphnutius, a famous Egyptian bishop, who, although himself unmarried, pleaded that marriage was honourable, and that so heavy a burden as abstaining from it ought not to be laid upon the clergy. Upon which the motion was laid aside, and every man left to his liberty, as before. All that Valesius, after Bellarmine, has to say against this is, that he suspects the truth of the thing, and begs leave to dissent from the historian; which is but a poor evasion in the judgment of Du Pin himself, who, though a Romanist, makes no question but that the Council of Nice decreed in favour of the married clergy. The same thing is evident from other councils of the same age; as the councils of Gangra, Ancyra, Neocæsarea, Eliberis, and Trullo. We have also a letter from Hilary of Poictiers, written to his daughter when he was in exile; and from what can be collected concerning her age, it seems probable that she was born when he was a bishop. At the same time it must be owned, that many things are said in praise of a single life in the writings of the ancient fathers; and the law of celibacy had been proposed, before or about the beginning of the fourth century, by some individuals. The arguments are forcible which are used, but there is one general answer to them all: the experiment has been made, and it has failed. In a country 161where there are no nunneries, the wives of the clergy are most useful to the Church. Siricius, who, according to Dufresnoy, died in the year 399, [397, Barenius,] was the first pope who forbade the marriage of the clergy; but it is probable that this prohibition was little regarded, as the celibacy of the clergy seems not to have been completely established till the papacy of Gregory VII., at the end of the eleventh century, and even at that time it was loudly complained of by many writers. The history of the following centuries abundantly proves the bad effects of this abuse of Church power. The old English and Welsh records show that the clergy were married as late as the eleventh century. See the Liber Landavensis, passim.

CELLITES. A certain religious order of Popish Christians, which has houses in Antwerp, Louvain, Mechlin, Cologne, and in other towns in Germany and the Netherlands, whose founder was one Mexius, a Roman, mentioned in the history of Italy, where they are also called Mexians.

CEMETERY means originally a place to sleep in, and hence by Christians, who regard death as a kind of sleep, it is applied to designate a place of burial. Cemetery is derived from κοιμάω, to sleep, because the primitive Christians spoke of death as a sleep, from which men are to awake at the general resurrection. The first Christian sepulchres were crypts or catacombs. The custom of burying in churches was not practised for the first 300 years of the Christian era; and severe laws were passed against burying even in cities. The first step towards the practice of burying in churches, was the transferring of the relics of martyrs thither: next, sovereigns and princes were allowed burial in the porch: in the sixth century churchyards came into use. By degrees the practice prevailed from the ninth to the thirteenth century, encouraged first by special grants from popes, and by connivance, though contrary to the express laws of the Church.—See Bingham. (See 9 & 10 Vict. c. 68, entitled “An Act for better enabling the Burial Service to be performed in one chapel, where contiguous burial-ground shall have been provided for two or more parishes or places.”)

The following is a list of the several acts of parliament recently passed relating to church building, and to cemeteries and churchyards:—43 Geo. III. c. 108; 51 Geo. III. c. 115; 56 Geo. III. c. 141; 58 Geo. III. c. 45; 59 Geo. III. c. 134; 3 Geo. IV. c. 72; 5 Geo. IV. c. 103; 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 72; 9 Geo. IV. c. 42; 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c. 38; 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 61; 1 Vict. c. 75; 1 & 2 Vict. c. 107; 2 & 3 Vict. c. 49; 3 & 4 Vict. c. 60; 7 & 8 Vict. c. 56; 8 & 9 Vict. c. 70; 9 & 10 Vict. c. 88; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 65; 11 & 12 Vict. c. 37; 11 & 12 Vict. c. 71.

In the neighbourhood of London are several cemeteries endowed with privileges under acts of parliament specially applicable to them. The principal is that of Kensall Green, established 2 & 3 Wm. IV., and consecrated by the bishop of London in 1832; the South London, at Norwood, was established 6 & 7 Wm. IV., 1836. There are four others in the neighbourhood of London. There are large cemeteries also at Manchester, Liverpool, Reading, and several other towns.

In 1850 was passed the act 13 & 14 Vict. c. 52, which gave to the General Board of Health very extensive powers for abolishing existing places of sepulture, whether in the neighbourhood of churches or not, and for establishing public cemeteries. This very elaborate act, containing seventy-seven sections and four schedules, has hitherto been found impracticable, except in so far as it relates to the appointment of a new commissioner of the Board of Health to work the act. In the year 1852 was passed the 15 & 16 Vict. c. 85, making provision for interments in the metropolis. In 1853, by 16 & 17 Vict. c. 134, most of the provisions of the act of 1852 were extended to all England.

CENOBITES. A name formerly given to such as entered into a monastic life, and lived in communities, to distinguish them from such as passed their lives in wildernesses and alone, as hermits and anchorites. The word is derived from κοινόβιον, vitæ communis societas.

CENOTAPH. (κενοτάφιον, from κενὸς and τάφος, an empty tomb.) A memorial of a deceased person, not erected over his body. So far as churches may be considered memorials of the saints whose name they bear, they are analogous either to monuments, when the bodies of the saints there repose, (as, for instance, St. Alban’s, and the ancient church at Peransabulo,) or to cenotaphs, when, as is far more generally the case, the saint is buried far off. A great part of the monuments which disfigure Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s are cenotaphs.

CENSURES ECCLESIASTICAL. The penalties by which, for some remarkable misbehaviour, Christians are deprived of the communion of the Church, or clergymen are prohibited to execute the sacerdotal office. These censures are, excommunication, 162suspension, and interdict; or else, irregularity, which hinders a man from being admitted into holy orders.

The canonists define an ecclesiastical censure to be a spiritual punishment, inflicted by some ecclesiastical judge, whereby he deprives a person baptized of the use of some spiritual things, which conduce, not only to his present welfare in the Church, but likewise to his future and eternal salvation. It differs from civil punishments, which consist only in things temporal; as confiscation of goods, pecuniary mulcts or fines, and the like; but the Church, by its censures, does not deprive a man of all spirituals, but only of some in particular. This definition speaks of such things as conduce to eternal salvation, in order to manifest the end of this censure; for the Church, by censures, does not intend the destroying of men’s souls, but only the saving them; by enjoining repentance for past errors, a return from contumacy, and an abstaining from future sins.

CENTURIES, MAGDEBURG. A celebrated and extraordinary ecclesiastical history, projected by Flacius Illyricus, and prosecuted by him, in conjunction with several others, many of them divines of Magdeburg. Their names were, Nicolaus Gallus, Johannes Wigandus, and Matthias Judex, all ministers of Magdeburg, assisted by Caspar Nidpruckius, an Imperial Counsellor, Johannes Baptista Heincelius, an Augustinian, Basil Faber, and others. The centuriators thus describe the process employed in the composition of their work. Five directors were appointed to manage the whole design; and ten paid agents supplied the necessary labour. Seven of these were well-informed students, who were employed in making collections from the various pieces set before them. Two others, more advanced in years, and of greater learning and judgment, arranged the matter thus collected, submitted it to the directors, and, if it were approved, employed it in the composition of the work. As fast as the various chapters were composed, they were laid before certain inspectors, selected from the directors, who carefully examined what had been done, and made the necessary alterations; and, finally, a regular amanuensis made a fair copy of the whole.

At length, in the year 1560, (though probably printed in 1559,) appeared the first volume of their laborious undertaking. It was printed at Basle. But the city in which the first part of it was composed has given it a distinctive title; and the first great Protestant work on Church history has been always commonly known as the Magdeburg Centuries.

It was in every point of view an extraordinary production. Though the first modern attempt to illustrate the history of the Church, it was written upon a scale which has scarcely been exceeded. It brought to light a large quantity of unpublished materials; and cast the whole subject into a fixed and regular form. One of its most remarkable features is the elaborate classification. This was strictly original, and, with all its inconveniences, undoubtedly tended to introduce scientific arrangement and minute accuracy into the study of Church history. Each century is treated separately, in sixteen heads or chapters. The first of these gives a general view of the history of the century; then follow, 2. The extent and propagation of the Church. 3. Persecution and tranquillity of the Church. 4. Doctrine. 5. Heresies. 6. Rites and Ceremonies. 7. Government. 8. Schisms. 9. Councils. 10. Lives of Bishops and Doctors. 11. Heretics. 12. Martyrs. 13. Miracles. 14. Condition of the Jews. 15. Other religions not Christian. 16. Political condition of the world.

Mr. Dowling (from whose excellent work on the study of Ecclesiastical History this article is taken) adds, that this peculiarity of form rendered the work of the centuriators rather a collection of separate treatises, than a compact and connected history; while, their object being to support a certain form of polemical theology, their relations are often twisted to suit their particular views.

CERDONIANS. Heretics of the second century, followers of Cerdon. The heresy consisted chiefly in laying down the existence of two contrary principles; in rejecting the law, and the prophets as ministers of a bad God; in ascribing, not a true body, but only the phantasm of a body, to our blessed Lord, and in denying the resurrection.—Tertullian. Epiphanius.

CEREMONY. This word is of Latin origin, though some of the best critics in antiquity are divided in their opinions, in assigning from what original it is derived. Joseph Scaliger proves by analogy, that as sanctimonia comes from sanctus, so does ceremonia from the old Latin word cerus, which signifies sacred or holy. The Christian writers have adapted the word to signify external rites and customs in the worship of God; which, though they are not of the essence of religion, yet contribute much to good order and uniformity 163in the church. If there were no ornaments in the church, and no prescribed order of administration, the common people would hardly be persuaded to show more reverence in the sacred assemblies than in other ordinary places, where they meet only for business or diversion. Upon this account St. Augustine says, “No religion, either true or false, can subsist without some ceremonies.” Notwithstanding this, some persons have laid it down, as a fundamental principle of religion, that no ceremony, or human constitution, is justifiable, but what is expressly warranted in the word of God. This dogma Mr. Cartwright has reduced into a syllogistical demonstration. “Wheresoever faith is wanting, there is sin. In every action not commanded, faith is wanting; ergo, in every action not commanded, there is sin.” But the falsity of this syllogism is shown at large by Hooker, in his second book of Ecclesiastical Polity, by arguments drawn from the indifference of many human actions—from the natural liberty God has afforded us—from the examples of holy men in Scripture, who have differently used this liberty—and from the power which the Church by Divine authority is vested with. That apostolical injunction, “Let all things be done with decency, and in order,” (1 Cor. xiv. 40,) is a much better demonstration, that the Church has a power to enjoin proper ceremonies, for the good order and comeliness of ecclesiastical conventions, than Mr. Cartwright’s syllogism is for the people’s contempt of them when enjoined.—Nicholls.

We still keep, and esteem, not only those ceremonies which we are sure were delivered us from the apostles, but some others too besides, which we thought might be suffered without hurt to the Church of God; for that we had a desire that all things in the holy congregation might, as St. Paul commandeth, be done with comeliness, and in good order. But as for all those things which we saw were either very superstitious, or utterly unprofitable, or noisome, or mockeries, or contrary to the Holy Scriptures, or else unseemly for sober and discreet people, whereof there be infinite numbers now-a-days, where the Roman religion is used; these, I say, we have utterly refused without all manner of exception, because we would not have the right worshipping of God to be defiled any longer with such follies.—Bp. Jewell.

Wise Christians sit down in the mean now under the gospel, avoiding a careless and parsimonious neglect on the one side, and a superstitious slovenliness on the other: the painted looks and lascivious gaudiness of the Church upon the hills, and the careless, neglected dress of some Churches in the valley.—Bp. Hall.

Far be it from me to be a patron of idolatry or superstition in the least degree, yet I am afraid lest we, who have reformed the worship of God from that pollution, (and blessed be his name therefor!) by bending the crooked stick too much the other way, have run too far into the other extreme.—Mede.

It may be objected, that my superior may enjoin me such a law, as my conscience tells me is scandalous to my brother, not convenient, not edifying, &c.; what shall I do in this condition? If I conform, I sin against my conscience (Rom. xiv. 23); if I do not, I sin against his authority. Answer, that text of Rom. xiv. 23, hath only reference to things not only indifferent in their own nature, but left free from any superior command interposing, and therefore the text is not ad idem; for though such laws may be of things indifferent, yet being commanded by just authority, the indifference by that command determineth, and they become necessary.—L’Estrange.

The Reformation gave such a turn to weak heads, that had not weight enough to poise themselves between the extremes of Popery and fanaticism, that everything older than yesterday was looked upon to be Popish and anti-Christian. The meanest of the people aspired to the priesthood, and were readier to frame new laws for the Church, than obey the old.—Sherlock.

It is a rule in prudence, not to remove an ill custom when it is well settled, unless it bring great prejudices, and then it is better to give one account why we have taken it away, than to be always making excuses why we do it not. Needless alteration doth diminish the venerable esteem of religion, and lessen the credit of ancient truths. Break ice in one place, and it will crack in more.—Archbishop Bramhall.

Our Saviour and his apostles did use indifferent things, which were not prescribed in Divine worship. Thus he joined in the synagogue worship, (John xviii. 20, &c.,) though (if the place itself were at all prescribed) the manner of that service was not so much as hinted at. Thus he used the cup of charity in the Passover, though it was not instituted. (Luke xxii. 17.) The feast of dedication was a human institution, yet he vouchsafed to be present at it. Nay, he complied with the Jews in the very posture of the Passover, which they changed to sitting, though God had 164prescribed standing. The apostles also observed the hours of prayer, which were of human institution. (Acts iii. 1.) Now if Christ and his apostles did thus under the Jewish law, which was so exact in prescribing outward ceremonies, certainly we may do the same under the gospel. I may add, that the primitive Christians not only complied with the Jews in such rites as were not forbidden, but also had some ritual observations taken up by themselves. Thus they washed the disciples’ feet in imitation of Christ, and used love-feasts, till they thought it convenient to lay them aside. From whence it appears, that prescription is not necessary to make a rite lawful; it is enough if it be not forbidden.—Bennet.

Calvin, in his book of the True Way of Reformation, saith, he would not contend about ceremonies, not only those which are for decency, but those that are symbolical. Œcolampadius looked on the gesture at the sacrament as indifferent. Bucer thought the use of the sign of the cross after baptism neither indecent nor unprofitable. Crocius says, that the nature of ceremonies is to be taken from the doctrine which goes along with them; if the doctrine be good, the rites are so, or, at least, are tolerable; if it be false, then they are troublesome, and not to be borne; if it be impure, and lead to idolatry, then the ceremonies are tainted with the poison of it.—Stillingfleet.

No abuse of any gesture, though it be in the most manifest idolatry, doth render that gesture simply evil, and for ever after unlawful to be used in the worship of God upon that account. For the abuse of a thing supposes the lawful use of it; and if anything otherwise lawful becomes sinful by an abuse of it, then it is plain that it is not in its own nature sinful, but by accident, and with respect to somewhat else. This is clear from Scripture; for if rites and ceremonies, after they have been abused by idolaters, become absolutely evil, and unlawful to be used at all, then the Jews sinned in offering sacrifices—erecting altars—burning incense to the God of heaven—bowing down themselves before him—wearing a linen garment in the time of Divine worship—and observing other things and rites which the heathens observe in the worship of false gods. Kneeling at prayers, and standing, and sitting, and lifting up the hands and eyes to heaven, and bowing of the body, together with prayer, and praise, and singing, have been all notoriously abused to idolatry, and are so to this day.—Bennet. Nay, this principle would render Christianity impracticable; because there is no circumstance, no instrument, no ministry in worship, but may have been in some way or other abused by Pagan or Romish idolatries.—Bennet.

Bucer, in a letter to Johannes a Lasco, says, “If you will not admit such liberty and use of vesture to this pure and holy Church, because they have no commandment of the Lord, nor no example for it, I do not see how you can grant to any Church, that it may celebrate the Lord’s supper in the morning, &c.; for we have received for these things no commandment of the Lord, nor any example; yea, rather, the Lord gave a contrary example.”

The word ceremony occurs in the title page of the Prayer Book, in the prefatory section, (of Ceremonies,) in the 34th Article, and the vi., xiv., xviii., and xxx. Canons, &c. It is plainly a different thing from Common Prayer, (i. e. the ordinary public service as contrasted with the occasional services,) the administration of sacraments, or rites.

Dr. Nicholls says that the cross in baptism, and, it may be, the marriage ring, are perhaps the only ceremonies enjoined in the Book of 1662, which can in a strict and proper sense be called so. But, as is observed in a note to Stephens’s Common Prayer Book with notes, (vol. i. p. 139,) “Dr. Nicholls uses ceremony in a limited sense, which is by no means sanctioned by our best writers and divines. Ceremonia in its classical sense was a general term for worship. Johnson’s definition, outward rite, external form in religion, is fully supported by his references, and especially Hooker, who, throughout his book, applies it to all that is external in worship. It seems that rite and ceremony are thus to be distinguished. A rite is an act of religious worship, whether including ceremonies or not. A ceremony is any particular of religious worship, (included in a rite,) which prescribes action, position, or even the assumption of any particular vesture. The latter sense is plainly recognised by Hooker. (Eccl. Pol. book iv. sect. i.; book v. sect. 29.) The Preface to the Book of Common Prayer speaks first of common prayer, viz. the offices intended for the common and periodical use of all at stated times; next, the administration of the sacraments; next, of other rites and ceremonies; i. e. the occasional services, whether public or private, and all the methods of administration which these involve. Now among ceremonies, the prescribed procession in the Marriage and Burial Services, the standing at certain parts of the service, 165the bowing at the name of Jesus, as prescribed by the 18th canon, ought to be included.” It may be observed, that the 18th canon expressly calls the bowing just mentioned, a ceremony, as also in the 30th canon, the sign of the cross.—See Hooker, book iii. sect. 11, and book v. sect. 6.

CERINTHIANS. Ancient heretics, the followers of Cerinthus. This man, who was a Jew by birth, attempted to form a new and singular system of doctrine and discipline, by combining the doctrines of Christ with the opinions and errors of the Jews and Gnostics. He taught that the Creator of the world, whom he considered also as the Sovereign and Lawgiver of the Jews, was a Being endued with the greatest virtues, and derived his birth from the Supreme God; that this Being gradually degenerated from his former virtue; that, in consequence of this, the Supreme Being determined to destroy his empire, and, for that purpose, sent upon earth one of the ever happy and glorious æons whose name was Christ; that this Christ chose for his habitation the person of Jesus, into whom he entered in the form of a dove, whilst Jesus was receiving baptism of John in the waters of Jordan; that Jesus, after this union with Christ, opposed the God of the Jews, at whose instigation he was seized and crucified by the Hebrew chiefs; that when Jesus was taken captive, Christ ascended on high, and the man Jesus alone was subjected to the pain of an ignominious death.

CESSION. This is where the incumbent of any living is promoted to a bishopric; the church in that case is void by cession.

CHALDEANS. A modern sect of Christians in the East, in obedience to the see of Rome. Dr. Grant, in his Nestorians, quotes with approval the following passage from Smith and Dwight’s Researches in Armenia: which is also confirmed by Mr. Badger, in his Nestorians and their Rituals (vol. i. p. 177–181). “In 1681, the Nestorian metropolitan of Diarbekir, having quarrelled with his patriarch, was first consecrated by the pope Patriarch of the Chaldeans. The sect was as new as the office, and created for it. Converts to Papacy from the Nestorians” [not from the Jacobites, as Mr. Badger corrects Dr. Grant] “were dignified with the name of the Chaldean Church. It means no more than Papal Syrians, as we have in other parts Papal Armenians and Papal Greeks.” (See Nestorians.)

CHALDEE LANGUAGE. This was a dialect of the Hebrew, almost identical with the old Syriac, spoken formerly in Assyria, and the vernacular language of the Jews after the Babylonish captivity. The following parts of the Old Testament are written in Chaldee: Jer. x., xi.; Dan. ii. 4 to the end of chap. vii.; Ezra iv. 8 to vi. 19, and vii. 12–17.—Jebb.

CHALDEE PARAPHRASE, in the Rabbinical style, is called Targum. There are three Chaldee paraphrases in Walton’s Polyglot, viz. 1. Of Onkelos. 2. Of Jonathan, son of Uzziel. 3. Of Jerusalem. The first of these is supposed to have been composed about the time that our blessed Lord was on earth. It comprises the Pentateuch. The second, comprising the Prophets and Historical Books, is supposed to have been composed about the same time as the former. The Jerusalem Targum is considered a compilation not earlier than the eighth century. It comprises the Pentateuch.—Another Targum, falsely ascribed to Jonathan Ben Uzziel, was probably written two centuries after Christ, if not later. There are other inferior Targums.—See Horne on the Scriptures.

CHALICE. (Lat. calix.) This word was formerly (as by Shakspeare) used to denote any sort of cup, but is now usually restricted to the cup in which the consecrated wine for the eucharist is administered. The primitive Christians, desirous of honouring the holy purpose for which it was used, had it made of the most costly substances their circumstances would allow—of glass, crystal, onyx, sardonyx, and gold.

By a canon of the Council of Rheims, in Charles the Great’s time, all churches were obliged to have chalices of some purer metal. The ancient chalices were of two kinds: the greater, which were in the nature of our flagons, containing a large quantity of wine, which was all consecrated in them together; and the lesser, which were otherwise called “ministeriales,” because the priest delivered the wine to be drunk out of them; for communion in one kind was not then invented by the Romish Church.—Dr. Nicholls. (See Cup.)

CHAMFER. The flat slope formed by cutting away an angle in timber, or masonry. The chamfer is the first approach to a moulding, though it can hardly itself be called one. The chamfer plane, in speaking of mouldings, is used for the plane at an angle of 45°, or thereabouts, with the face of the wall, in which some of the mouldings often, and sometimes all of them, lie. The resolution of the chamfer into the square is called a stop-chamfer; it is often of considerable elegance.

166CHANCEL. The upper part of the church, containing the holy table, and the stalls for the clergy. It is called the Chori in cathedrals, college chapels, and large churches: and in many of the ancient English parish churches is inferior in height and width to the nave. (See Choir.)—Jebb. (Cancellus.) So called a Cancellis, from the lattice-work partition betwixt the choir and the body of the church, so framed as to separate the one from the other, but not to intercept the sight. By the rubric before the Common Prayer, it is ordained that “the chancels shall remain as they have done in times past,” that is to say, distinguished from the body of the church in manner aforesaid; against which distinction Bucer (at the time of the Reformation) inveighed vehemently, as tending only to magnify the priesthood; but though the king and the parliament yielded so far as to allow the daily service to be read in the body of the church, if the ordinary thought fit, yet they would not suffer the chancel to be taken away or altered.

The chancel is the freehold of the rector, and part of his glebe, and therefore he ought to repair it: but if the rectory is impropriate, then the impropriator must do it: and this he is enjoined to do, not only by the common law, but by the canons of the Church; for in the gloss upon the Constitutions of Othobon it is said, that chancels must be repaired by those who are thereunto obliged; which words must refer to the common custom of England, by which rectors are obliged to repair the chancels. As to seats in the chancel, it has been made a question, whether the ordinary may place any person there? The objections against it are,—1. Because it is the freehold of the rector. 2. Because he is to repair it. But these are not sufficient reasons to divest the ordinary of that jurisdiction; for the freehold of the church is in the parson, and yet the bishop hath a power of placing persons there.

Unhappy disputes have arisen concerning the situation of the Lord’s table in the chancels. The first, in the beginning of the Reformation, was, whether those of the altar fashion, which had been used in the Popish times, and on which the masses were celebrated, should be kept up. This point was first started by Bishop Hooper, in a sermon before King Edward VI.; and, after this, altars were ordered to be taken down; and, instead of them, a table to be set up, in some convenient place of the chancel. In the first liturgy it was directed, that the priest officiating should stand before the midst of the altar. In the second, that the priest shall stand on the north side of the table. And thus the first dispute was at an end. But then there followed another controversy, whether the table, placed in the room of the altar, ought to stand altar-wise? i. e. in the same place and situation of the altar. In some churches the tables were placed in the middle of the chancels; in others, at the east part thereof, next to the wall. Bishop Ridley endeavoured to make a compromise in his church of St. Paul’s, suffering the table to stand in the place of the old altar; but, beating down the wainscot partition behind, laid all the choir open to the east, leaving the table then to stand in the middle of the chancel. Under this diversity of usage matters continued during this king’s reign; but when Queen Elizabeth came to the crown, and a new review of the liturgy was made, the present clause was added—“and the chancels shall remain as they have done in times past.” Whereby an indulgence is given to those cathedral or collegiate churches, where the table stood altar-wise, and fastened to the east part of the chancel, to retain their ancient practice; but the general rule is otherwise, especially as to parish churches; as in the rubric before the Communion, “the table having, at the communion time, a fair white linen cloth upon it, shall stand in the body of the church, or in the chancel, where morning or evening prayer shall be appointed to be said.” So that, by these authorities, where tables were fixed, they ought to remain as they were; and, at the time of the communion, they might either stand at the east wall of the church, or in other place more convenient. But this latitude being granted, several inconveniences arose. Great irreverence was used towards the holy table, hats and gloves were thrown upon it, and the churchwardens and overseers were frequently writing their accounts thereon, the processioning boys eating their loaves and cakes, and dogs leaping up at the bread, to the great scandal of our reformation, not only among the Papists, but also among the Protestant churches abroad. Archbishop Laud, out of zeal to reform these abuses, endeavoured to have the communion table set altar-wise, at the east end of the chancel, and to be railed in, engaging many of the bishops to press this in their visitation articles: and it is one of the injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, “that the holy table in every church be decently made, and set in the 167place where the altar stood; and there commonly covered, as thereto belongeth, and so stand, saving when the communion of the sacrament is to be distributed; at which time, the same shall be so placed in good sort within the chancel,” &c. Great contentions were for many years kept up in this controversy, till the civil war came on, and all things, civil and sacred, were overwhelmed with confusion. Since the Restoration, no positive determination therein being made, the dispute has happily died, and the tables have generally been settled altar-wise, and railed in; the generality of parishioners esteeming it a decent situation.—Nicholls.

CHANCELLOR. In ancient times, emperors and kings esteemed so highly the piety of bishops, that they gave them jurisdiction in particular causes, as in marriages, adultery, last wills, &c., which were determined by them in their consistory courts. But when many controversies arose in these and other causes, it was not consistent with the character of a bishop to interpose in every litigious matter, neither could he despatch it himself; and therefore it was necessary for the bishop to depute some subordinate officer, experienced both in the civil and canon law, to determine those ecclesiastical causes: and this was the original of diocesan chancellors. For, in the first ages of the Church, the bishops had officers who were called ecclesiecdici, that is, church lawyers, who were bred up in the knowledge of the civil and canon law, and their business was to assist the bishop in his jurisdiction throughout the whole diocese. But probably they were not judges of ecclesiastical courts, as chancellors are at this day, but only advised and assisted the bishops themselves in giving judgment; for we read of no chancellors here in all the Saxon reigns, nor after the Conquest, before the time of Henry II. That king, requiring the attendance of bishops in his state councils, and other public affairs, it was thought necessary to substitute chancellors in their room, to despatch those causes which were proper for the bishop’s jurisdiction.

In a few years a chancellor became such a necessary officer to the bishop, that he was not to be without him; for if he would have none, the archbishop of the province might enjoin him to depute one, and if he refuse, the archbishop might appoint one himself; because it is presumed that a bishop alone cannot decide so many spiritual causes as arise within his diocese. The person thus deputed by the bishop has his authority from the law; and his jurisdiction is not, like that of a commissary, limited to a certain place and certain causes, but extends throughout the whole diocese, and to all ecclesiastical matters; not only for reformation of manners, in punishment of criminals, but in all causes concerning marriages, last wills, administrations, &c.—Burn.

The chancellor in cathedral churches, and anciently in some colleges, was a canon, who had the general care of the literature of the church. He was the secretary of the chapter, the librarian, the superintendent of schools connected with the church, sometimes of the greater schools in the diocese; sometimes, as in Paris, had an academical jurisdiction in the university of the place. He also had the supervision of readers in the choirs, the regulation of preachers in the cathedral, and in many places the more frequent delivery of sermons and of theological lectures than fell to the turn of the other canons. All these offices were not always combined; but one or more of them always belonged to the chancellor. Every cathedral of old foundation in England, and most in Ireland, had originally a chancellor. The title was not so common in France or Italy, where the above-named offices were frequently divided among canons with other official titles. The chancellor of the church (the above-named officer) is not to be confounded with the chancellor of the diocese.—Jebb.

CHANT. This word, derived from the Latin cantus, “a song,” applies, in its most extended sense, to the musical performance of all those parts of the liturgy which, by the rubric, are permitted to be sung. A distinction, however, is to be made between singing and chanting. Chanting does not apply to the performance of those metrical versions of the Psalms, the use of which in parish churches, though legitimate, as sanctioned by authority, is not contemplated by the rubric. Neither does it apply to those musical arrangements of the canticles, hymns, and of the Nicene Creed, used in collegiate churches, and technically called “services,” which though originally derived from chants, have long found a distinct feature in the choral service. The chant properly signifies that plain tune to which the prayers, the litany, the versicles, and responses, and the psalms, and (where services are not in use) the canticles, are set, in choirs and places where they sing. In the chant, when properly and fully performed, both the minister and the choir bear their respective 168parts. The minister recites the prayers, and all the parts of the service which he is enjoined to say alone, (except the lessons,) in one sustained note, occasionally varied at the close of a cadence: and the choir makes the responses in harmony, sometimes in unison. But in the psalms and canticles both the minister and choir join together in the chant, without distinction, each verse being sung in full harmony.

The chanting of the prayers has always been observed in our principal cathedrals; and till recent times, it was universal in all those places within the reformed Church of England where choral foundations existed; and therefore the disuse of this custom, in any such establishments, is a plain contradiction to the spirit of our liturgy. It is an usage so very ancient, that some learned men have derived it, with every appearance of probability, from the practice of the Jewish Church; whence we have unquestionably derived the chanting of the psalms. It has prevailed in every portion of the Church, eastern or western, reformed or unreformed, since a liturgy has been used. And traces of this custom are to be found in all places of the world.

Of the chants for the psalms, the most ancient which are used in our Church are derived from some coeval, in all likelihood, with Christianity itself. Of this, however, there is no proof: and it is a mere baseless conjecture to refer them, as some do, to the strains of the temple worship. According to present custom, the chant consists of two kinds, single and double. The single chant, which is the most ancient kind, is an air consisting of two parts; the first part terminating with the point or colon (:), which uniformly divides each verse of the psalms or canticles in the Prayer Book, the second part terminating with the verse itself. The double chant is an air consisting of four strains, and consequently extending to two verses. This kind of chant does not appear to be older than the time of Charles II.; and is peculiar to the Church of England.

In chanting, special heed should be taken to two things: first, to observe strictly the “pointing” of the psalms and hymns, “as they are to be sung or said in churches.” We have no more right to alter the rubric in this respect than in any other. Secondly, to chant reverentially, which implies distinctness of utterance, clearness of tone, and moderate slowness as to time. A rapid and confused mode of singing the awful hymns of the Church, is not only utterly destructive of musical effect, but, what is of much greater consequence, is hostile to the promotion of the honour of God, and of the edification of man.—Jebb.

Persons who have heard extempore praying from the mouths of illiterate characters, must have been struck by the rude modulated chant in which it is delivered. Objectors to the cathedral mode of service sometimes aver “intoning” to be unnatural. This is a misconception. “Intoning,” musical or unmusical, is the natural key in which vent is given to a large and important class of devotional feelings: cathedral intoning is this voice correctly timed and tuned to harmony. Non-intoning, on the other hand, or reading, is artificial. No one hears an uneducated person attempt to read in the same tone as he speaks. Reading is an artificial drill, the correction of natural, undisciplined locution.—Morgan.

CHANTER. (See Precentor.) In foreign churches it is synonymous with our lay clerks. The chanters in Dublin college are certain officers selected from the foundation students, whose duty is to officiate as chapel clerks. They are so called from formerly constituting the choir of the chapel.

CHANTRY. A chapel, or other separated place in a church, for the celebration of masses for the soul of some person departed this life. Their ordinary places are mentioned under the head Church. The chantry sometimes included the tomb of the person by whom it was founded, as in the splendid examples in Winchester cathedral. It was sometimes an entire aisle, as the golden choir at St. Mary’s, Stamford; and sometimes a separate chapel, as the Beauchamp chapel, St. Mary’s, Warwick, and Henry VII.’s chapel at Westminster.

In the reign of Henry VIII., when the belief of purgatory began to decline, it was thought an unnecessary thing to continue the pensions and endowments of chantry priests; therefore, in the 37 of Henry VIII. cap. 4, those chantries were given to the king, who had power at any time to issue commissions to seize their endowments, and take them into his possession: but this being in the last year of his reign, there were several of those endowments which were not seized by virtue of any such commissions; therefore, in the first year of Edward VI. cap. 14, those chantries which were in being five years before the session of that parliament, and not in the actual possession of Henry VIII., were adjudged to be, and were, vested in that king. Cranmer endeavoured to obtain that the disposal of the chantries, &c., 169should be deferred until the king should be of age—hoping that if they were saved from the hands of the laity until that time, Edward might be persuaded to apply the revenues to the relief of the poor parochial clergy; but the archbishop’s exertions were unsuccessful.

CHAPEL. In former times, when the kings of France were engaged in wars, they always carried St. Martin’s cope (cappa) into the field, which was kept as a precious relic, in a tent where mass was said, and thence the place was called capella, the chapel. The word was gradually applied to any consecrated place of prayer, not being the parish church.

With us in England there are several sorts of chapels:

1. Royal chapels. (See Chapel Royal.) 2. Domestic chapels, built by noblemen for private worship in their families. 3. College chapels, attached to the different colleges of the universities. 4. Chapels of ease, built for the ease of parishioners, who live at too great a distance from the parish church, by the clergy of which the services of the chapel are performed. 5. Parochial chapels, which differ from chapels of ease on account of their having a permanent minister, or incumbent, though they are in some degree dependent upon the mother church. A parochial chapelry, with all parochial rites independent of the mother church, as to sacraments, marriages, burials, repairs, &c., is called a reputed parish. 6. Free chapels; such as were founded by kings of England, and made exempt from episcopal jurisdiction. 7. Chapels which adjoin to any part of the church; such were formerly built by persons of consideration as burial-places. To which may be added chapels of corporation societies, and eleemosynary foundation; as the mayor’s chapel at Bristol, &c., the chapels of the inns of court, chapels of hospitals and almshouses.—Burn.

The word chapel in foreign countries frequently means the choir or chancel. This may possibly be the meaning intended in the rubric preceding Morning Prayer, directing the Morning and Evening Prayers to be used in the accustomed place of the church, chapel, or chancel. It may allude to the college chapels, or such collegiate chapels as St. George’s at Windsor, or to the usage of some cathedrals of having early morning prayer (as at Gloucester, &c.) in the Lady chapel, or late evening prayer (as at Durham) in the Galilee chapel. Henry VII.’s chapel at Westminster was, at least in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, used for this purpose.—Jebb.

CHAPEL ROYAL. The chapel royal is under the government of the dean of the chapel, and not within the jurisdiction of any bishop. But the archbishop is the first chaplain and parochus of the sovereign. The deanery was an office of ancient standing in the court, but discontinued in 1572, till King James’s accession, then it was revived in the person of Dr. Montague.—Heylin’s Life of Laud. Next to the dean is the subdean, who has the special care of the chapel service; a clerk of the court, with his deputies, a prelate or clergyman, whose office it is to attend the sovereign at Divine service, and to wait on her in her private oratory.—There are forty-eight chaplains in ordinary, who wait four in each month, and preach on Sundays and holidays; to read Divine service when required on week days, and to say grace in the absence of the clerk of the closet. The other officers are, a confessor of the household, now called chaplain of the household, who has the pastoral care of the royal household; ten priests in ordinary (whose duties are like those of chaplains, or vicars in cathedrals); sixteen gentlemen of the chapel, who with ten choristers now form the choir; and other officers. The officiating members of the chapel royal were formerly much more numerous than now; thus there were thirty-two gentlemen of the chapel in King Edward VI.’s reign, and twenty-three in King James I.’s. The priests in ordinary, properly speaking, form part of the choir. In strictness this establishment is ambulatory, and ought to accompany the sovereign, of which practice we have many proofs in ancient records.

The chapel royal in Dublin consists of a dean and twenty-four chaplains, (who preach in turn,) and a choir of laymen. Before the legal establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland, the royal chapel of Holyrood had a full establishment of chaplains, &c., and the liturgy was then celebrated chorally, at least in the reign of King Charles I.

CHAPLAIN. A person authorized to officiate in the chapels of the queen, or in the private oratories of noblemen. The name is derived from capella; the priests who superintend the capella being called Capellani. According to a statute of Henry VIII., the persons vested with a power of retaining chaplains, together with the number each is allowed to qualify, are as follow: “an archbishop, eight; a duke or bishop, six; marquis or earl, five; viscount, four; baron, knight of the garter, or lord 170chancellor, three; a duchess, marchioness, countess, baroness, the treasurer or comptroller of the king’s household, clerk of the closet, the king’s secretary, dean of the chapel, almoner, and master of the rolls, each of them, two; chief justice of the King’s Bench, and warden of the Cinque Ports, each, one.” In England there are forty-eight chaplains to the queen, called chaplains in ordinary. Clergymen who officiate in the army and navy, in the gaols, public hospitals, and workhouses, are called chaplains. Chaplain is also a comprehensive name, applied, more rarely in England than abroad, to the members of cathedrals and collegiate churches and chapels, who are responsible for the daily service. In a few instances it is applied to the superior members. Thus at Lichfield, there were five capellani principales, major canons, whose office it was to serve at the great altar, rule the choir, &c., (Dugd. Mon. ed. 1830, vi. 1257,) and at Winchester college the ten fellows are called, in the original charter, “capellani perpetui;” in contradistinction to the capellani conductitii, or remotivi;—and the principal duty of these chaplain-fellows was to officiate in the chapel. But in general, a chaplain signified a minister of the Church of inferior rank, a substitute for and coadjutor of the canons in chanting, and in the performance of the Divine offices. (See Dictionnaire de droit canonique, par Durand de Maillane, Lyons, 1787.) They were so called from serving in the capella or choir, at the various offices, and in the various side chapels, in contradistinction to the capitular canons, whose peculiar privilege it was to serve at the great altar. Under the name of chaplain, were included minor canons, vicars choral, and similar officers, who had a variety of designations abroad, unknown to us, such as porticuristi, demi-canons, semi-prebends, &c., &c.

The name of chaplain, in its choral sense, is retained with us only at Christ Church Oxford, Manchester, and the colleges at the universities. At the latter, they are frequently styled in the old charters, capellani conductitii or remotivi; by which is to be understood, that they were originally, at least, intended to be mere stipendiaries, adjuncts to the foundation; as contrasted with those who have a permanent, corporate interest, or an endowment in fee; like the præbendati in the foreign cathedrals, or the incorporated vicars choral in our own cathedrals. (See College, Prebendary, and Vicars Choral.) The chaplains at Cambridge are commonly called conducti, though originally they were designated, as at Oxford, capellani conductitii; a designation which it were to be wished were changed for the more proper name of chaplain. Before the Reformation the capellani to be found in many of the old cathedrals, were exclusive of the vicars choral, and were chanting priests. These sometimes formed corporations or colleges. Abroad, the chaplains in many places discharged both the duties of chanting priests and vicars choral, or minor canons; each having his separate chapel for daily mass; but all being obliged to unite in discharging the Divine offices, at least at matins and vespers in the great choirs.—Jebb.

CHAPTER. (See Bible.) The word is derived from the Latin caput, head; and signifies one of the principal divisions of a book, and, in reference to the Bible, one of the larger sections into which its books are divided. This division, as well as that consisting of verses, was introduced to facilitate reference, and not to indicate any natural or accurate division of the subjects treated in the books. For its origin, see Bible.

CHAPTER. (See Dean and Chapter.) A chapter of a cathedral church consists of persons ecclesiastical, canons and prebendaries, whereof the dean is chief, all subordinate to the bishop, to whom they are as assistants in matters relating to the Church, for the better ordering and disposing the things thereof, and for confirmation of such leases of the temporalities and offices relating to the bishopric, as the bishop from time to time shall happen to make.—God. 58.

And they are termed by the canonists, capitulum, being a kind of head, instituted not only to assist the bishop in manner aforesaid, but also anciently to rule and govern the diocese in the time of vacation.—God. 56.

Of these chapters, some are ancient, some new: the new are those which are founded or translated by King Henry VIII. in the places of abbots and convents, or priors and convents, which were chapters whilst they stood, and these are new chapters to old bishoprics; or they are those which are annexed unto the new bishoprics founded by King Henry VIII., and are, therefore, new chapters to new bishoprics.—1 Inst. 95.

The chapter in the collegiate church is more properly called a college; as at Westminster and Windsor, where there is no episcopal see.—Wood, b. i. c. 3. But however this may originally have been, the rule has long been disregarded throughout Europe.

171There may be a chapter without any dean; as the chapter of the collegiate church of Southwell: and grants by or to them are as effectual as other grants by dean and chapter.—Wats. c. 38.

In the cathedral churches of St. David’s and Llandaff there never hath been any dean, but the bishop in either is head of the chapter; and at the former the chantor, at the latter the archdeacon presides, in the absence of the bishop, or vacancy of the see.—Johns. 60. [St. David’s and Llandaff are now placed on the same footing with other cathedrals in this respect.]

One bishop may possibly have two chapters, and that by union or consolidation: and it seemeth that if a bishop hath two chapters, both must confirm his leases.—God. 58. In cathedrals of the old foundation chapters are of two kinds, the greater and the lesser. The greater chapter consists of all the major canons and prebendaries, whether residentiary or not; and their privileges are now considered to be limited to the election of a bishop, of proctors in convocation, and possibly a few other rare occasions; the lesser chapter consists of the dean and residentiaries, who have the management of the chapter property, and the ordinary government of the cathedral. This however has been the growth of later ages: as it is certain that all prebendal members had a voice in matters which concerned the interests of the cathedral church. In Ireland the distinction now mentioned is unknown, except at Kildare.

In the statutes of the old cathedrals, by chapter is also understood, a sort of court held by one or more of the canons, sometimes even by the non-capitular officers, for the administering the ordinary discipline of the church, fining absentees, &c.

The word chapter is occasionally applied abroad to boards of universities or other corporations.

The assemblies of the knights of the orders of chivalry, (as of the Garter, Bath, &c.,) are also called chapters.

CHAPTER HOUSE. The part of a cathedral in which the dean and chapter meet for business. Until the thirteenth century, the chapter house was always rectangular. Early in that century it became multagonal, generally supported by a central shaft, and so continued to the latest date at which any such building has been erected. The greatest cost was expended on the decoration of the chapter house, and there is little even in the choir of our cathedrals, of greater beauty than such chapter houses as Lincoln, Salisbury, Southwell, York, and Howden. That of old St. Paul’s in London, to judge by the plates in Dugdale’s History of St. Paul’s, must have been very beautiful. It stood in an unique position, in the centre of a cloister. For the plan of the chapter house, in the arrangement of the conventual buildings, see Monastery. Some have imagined that the idea of the circular or polygonal chapter houses was derived from the circular baptisteries abroad.

CHARGE. This is the address delivered by a bishop, or other prelate called ordinary, at a visitation of the clergy under his jurisdiction. A charge may be considered, in most instances, rather in the light of an admonitory exhortation, than of a judgment or sentence; although the ordinary has full power in the charge to issue authoritative commands, and to cause them to be obeyed, by means of the other legal forms, for the exercise of his ordinary jurisdiction. It appears also that the clergy are legally bound by their oath of canonical obedience, and by their ordination vows, reverently to obey their ordinary. It is customary for archdeacons, and other ecclesiastics having peculiar jurisdiction, to deliver charges. Archdeacons have a charge of the parochial churches within the diocese to which they belong, and have power to hold visitations when the bishop is not there.—Burn. (See Visitation.)

CHARTREUX. (See Carthusians.)

CHASIBLE. (Chasuble, Casula.) The outermost dress formerly worn by the priest in the service of the altar, but not now used in the English Church, though prescribed under the title of Vestment, in the rubric of King Edward VI.’s First Book, to be worn by the priest or bishop when celebrating the communion, indifferently with the cope. In the time of the primitive Church, the Roman toga was becoming disused, and the pænula was taking its place. The pænula formed a perfect circle, with an aperture to admit the head in the centre, while it fell down so as completely to envelope the person of the wearer. A short pænula was more common, and a longer for the higher orders; it was this last which was used by the clergy in their services. The Romish Church has altered it much by cutting it away laterally, so as to expose the arms, and leave only a straight piece before and behind. The Greek Church retains it in its primitive shape, under the title of φαινόλιον, or φινώλιον: the old brasses in England also show the same form, some even 172since the Reformation. And many tombs of bishops in the 13th century, and later, show it in a graceful and flowing form.

CHERUB, or (the plural) CHERUBIM, a particular order of angels. When God drove Adam and Eve out of Paradise, “he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” (Gen. iii. 24.) When Moses was commanded by God to make the ark of the covenant with the propitiatory, or mercy-seat, he was (Exod. xxv. 19, 20) to make one cherub on the one end, and another cherub on the other end; the cherubims were to stretch forth their wings on high, and to cover the mercy-seat with them; and their faces were to look one to the other. Moses has left us in the dark as to the form of these cherubims. The Jews suppose them to have been in the shape of young naked men, covered for the sake of decency with some of their wings; and the generality of interpreters, both ancient and modern, suppose them to have had human shapes. But it is certain that the prophet Ezekiel (i. 10, and x. 14) represents them quite otherwise, and speaks of the face of a cherub as synonymous with that of an ox or calf; and in the Revelation (iv. 6) they are called ζῶα, beasts. Josephus (Antiq. lib. iii.) says that they were a kind of winged creatures, answering to the description of those which Moses saw about the throne of God, but the like to which no man had ever seen before. Grotius, Bochart, and other learned moderns, deriving the word from charab, which in the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic, signifies to plough, make no difficulty to suppose that the cherubim here spoken of resembled an ox, either in whole or in part. The learned Spencer supposes them to have had the face of a man, the wings of an eagle, the back and mane of a lion, and the feet of a calf. This he collects from the prophetical vision of Ezekiel (i.), in which the cherubims are said to have four forms, those of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. There is something in this mixed form, according to that author, which is very suitable to the regular character which God bore among the Jews, and the peculiar circumstances of the time. The Israelites were then in the wilderness, and encamped in four cohorts; and the Hebrews have a tradition, that the standard of the tribe of Judah and the associated tribes carried a lion, the tribe of Ephraim an ox, the tribe of Reuben a man, and the tribe of Dan an eagle. God therefore would sit upon cherubims bearing the forms of these animals, to signify that he was the Leader and King of the four cohorts of the Israelites. The same writer, in another place, makes the cherubims of the mercy-seat to be of Egyptian extraction; for Porphyry, speaking of the priests of Egypt, says, “Among these, one god is formed like a man as high as the neck, and they give him the face of some bird, or of a lion, or of some other animal; and again, another has the head of a man, and the other parts of other animals.” Add to this, that the Apis of the Egyptians was worshipped under the figure of an ox. Nor can any other reason, he thinks, be assigned why God should order the cherubims to be fashioned in the shape of different animals, particularly the ox, but that he did it out of indulgence to the Israelites, who, being accustomed to such kinds of representations, not only easily bore with them, but ardently desired them. The cherubims of the mercy-seat, Bochart supposes to have had a mystical and symbolical relation to God, the angels, the tabernacle, and the people. As to God, they represented his great power according to that of the Psalmist, (xcix. 1,) “The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble; he sitteth between the cherubims, let the earth be moved.” They represented likewise the nature and ministry of angels. By the lion’s form is signified their strength, generosity, and majesty; by that of the ox, their constancy and assiduity in executing the commands of God; by the human shape, their humanity and kindness; and by that of the eagle, their agility and speed. As to the tabernacle, the cherubims denoted that the holy place was the habitation of the King of heaven, whose immediate attendants the angels are supposed to be. Lastly, with respect to the people, the cherubims might teach them that God, who sat between them, was alone to be the object of their worship. Upon this subject see the curious and interesting, though somewhat painful dissertation of Mr. Parkhurst in his Hebrew and Greek Lexicons.

By many it has been considered that the four symbols, applied from very ancient times to the four evangelists, are derived from the cherubic figures. The cherubims are also described in Rev. iv. 7.

It is surely derogatory to right ideas of religion, to suppose that these mysterious symbols were derived from the images of heathen idolatry, in order to indulge the prejudices of the Israelites. This would be to encourage idolatry, against which the Divine vengeance was so markedly 173directed. It is much more consistent and probable to believe that the corresponding symbols of Egyptians and Assyrians (the latter so wonderfully illustrated by the late discoveries at Nineveh) were derived from patriarchal traditions; distortions of that pure worship of God which was derived to the whole world from Noah. This solution will account for many of those extraordinary resemblances between heathen and Jewish customs, which have been stumbling-blocks to neologists, especially in our day.

CHERUBICAL HYMN. A title sometimes given to the Tersanctus or Trisagion. (See Tersanctus.)

CHILIASTS, or MILLENARIANS. (See Millennium.) A school of Christians who believe that, after the general or last judgment, the saints shall live a thousand years upon earth, and enjoy all manner of innocent satisfaction. It is thought Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, who lived in the second century, and was disciple to St. John the evangelist, or, as some others think, to John the Elder, was the first who maintained this opinion. The authority of this bishop, supported by some passages in the Revelation, brought a great many of the primitive fathers to embrace his persuasion, as Irenæus, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian; and afterwards Nepos, an Egyptian bishop, living in the third century, was so far engaged in this belief, and maintained it with so much elocution, that Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, thought himself obliged to write against him: upon which Coracion, one of the principal abettors of this doctrine, renounced it publicly, which practice was followed by the generality of the West. The Millenarians were in like manner condemned by Pope Damasus, in a synod held at Rome against the Apollinarians. Some of the modern Millenarians have refined the notion of Cerinthus, and made the satisfactions rational and angelical, untainted with anything of sensuality or Epicurism. As for the time of this thousand years, those that hold this opinion are not perfectly agreed. Mr. Mede makes it to commence and determine before the general conflagration; but Dr. Thomas Burnet supposes that this world will be first destroyed, and that a new paradisaical earth will be formed out of the ashes of the old one, where the saints will converse together for a thousand years, and then be translated to a higher station.

CHIMERE. The upper robe worn by a bishop, to which the lawn sleeves are generally attached. Before and after the Reformation, till Queen Elizabeth’s time, the bishops wore a scarlet chimere or garment over the rochet, as they still do when assembled in convocation; and when the sovereign attends parliament. But Bishop Hooper, having superstitiously scrupled at this as too light a robe for episcopal gravity, it was in her reign changed into a chimere of black satin.

The chimere seems to resemble the garment used by bishops during the middle ages, and called mantelletum; which was a sort of cope, with apertures for the arms to pass through.—See Du Cange’s Glossary. The name of chimere is probably derived from the Italian zimarra, which is described as “vesta talare de’ sacerdoti et de’ chierici.”—Palmer.

The scarlet chimere strongly resembles the scarlet habit worn in congregation, and at St. Mary’s, by doctors at Oxford. Some have supposed that our episcopal dress is in fact merely a doctorial habit. Perhaps, however, the origin of both the chimere, the Oxford habit, and the Cambridge doctorial cope, and the episcopal mantelletum, may all be derived from the dalmatic or tunicle, (see Dalmatic,) which was formerly a characteristic part of the dress of bishops and deacons; from which the chimere differs in being open in front. The sewing of the lawn sleeves (now of preposterous fulness) to the chimere, is a modern innovation. They ought properly to be fastened to the rochet.—Jebb.

CHOIR, or QUIRE. This word has two meanings. The first is identical with chancel, (see Chancel,) signifying the place which the ministers of Divine worship occupy, or ought to occupy. The word, according to Isidore, is derived from chorus circumstantium, because the clergy stood round the altar. Custom has usually restricted the name of chancel to parish churches, that of choir to cathedrals, and such churches or chapels as are collegiate. In the choirs of cathedrals, (see Cathedral,) which are very large, the congregation also assemble; but the clergy and other members of the foundation occupy the seats on each side, (which are called stalls,) according to the immemorial custom of all Christian countries.

The second, but more proper sense of the word, is, a body of men set apart for the performance of all the services of the Church, in the most solemn form. Properly speaking, the whole corporate body of a cathedral, including capitular and lay members, forms the choir; and in this extended sense ancient writers frequently used the word. Thus the “glorious company 174of the apostles” is called in Latin “apostolorum chorus.” The choir is used in some very ancient documents for the cathedral chapter. But, in its more restricted sense, we are to understand that body of men and boys who form a part of the foundation of these places, and whose special duty it is to perform the service to music. The choir properly consists of clergymen, both capitular (including the precentor) and non-capitular, laymen, and chorister boys; and should have at least six men and six boys at every week-day service, these being essential to the due performance of the chants, services, and anthems. Every choir is divided into two parts, stationed on each side of the chancel, in order to sing alternately the verses of the psalms and hymns, one side answering the other. The alternate chanting by one or a few voices and a chorus, in the psalms, now very general abroad, is a corruption, and inconsistent with the true idea of antiphonal singing. This alternate, or antiphonal, recitation is very ancient, as old as the time of Miriam, who thus alternated her song with the choir of Israel. (Exod. xv. 20.) And we know from Isaiah that the angels in heaven thus sing. (Isaiah vi. 3.) So that while we chant, we obey the practice of the Church in earth and heaven.

In the first Common Prayer Book of King Edward VI., the rubric, at the beginning of the morning prayer, ordered the priests, “being in the quire, to begin the Lord’s Prayer;” so that it was the custom of the minister to perform Divine service at the upper end of the chancel near the altar. Against this, Bucer, by the direction of Calvin, made a great outcry, pretending “it was an antichristian practice for the priest to say prayers only in the choir, a place peculiar to the clergy, and not in the body of the church among the people, who had as much right to Divine worship as the clergy.” This occasioned an alteration of the rubric, when the Common Prayer Book was revised in the fifth year of King Edward, and it was ordered, that prayers should be said in such part of the church “where the people might best hear.” However, at the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne, the ancient practice was restored, with a dispensing power left in the ordinary, of determining it otherwise if he saw just cause. Convenience at last prevailed, so that the prayers are very commonly read in the body of the church, and in those parish churches where the service is read in the chancel, the minister’s place is at the lower end of it.—Jebb.

CHOREPISCOPUS. (Country bishops, Χωρεπίσκοποι, Episcopi rurales, from χώρα or χωρίον country.)

Some considerable difference of opinion has existed relative to the true ministerial order of the chorepiscopi, some contending that they were mere presbyters, others that they were a mixed body of presbyters and bishops, and a third class that they were all invested with the authority of the episcopal office. That the latter opinion, however, is the correct one, is maintained by Bishop Barlow, Dr. Hammond, Beveridge, Cave, and other eminent divines of the English Church, together with Bingham, in his “Antiquities of the Christian Church.” Their origin seems to have arisen from a desire on the part of the city or diocesan bishops to supply the churches of the neighbouring country with more episcopal services than they could conveniently render. Some of the best qualified presbyters were therefore consecrated bishops, and thus empowered to act in the stead of the principal bishop, though in strict subordination to his authority. Hence, we find them ordaining presbyters and deacons under the licence of the city bishop; and confirmation was one of their ordinary duties. Letters dimissory were also given to the country clergy by the chorepiscopi, and they had the privilege of sitting and voting in synods and councils. The difference between the chorepiscopus and what was, at a later period, denominated a suffragan, is scarcely appreciable, both being under the jurisdiction of a superior, and limited to the exercise of their powers within certain boundaries, enjoying only a delegated power.

The chorepiscopi were at first confined to the Eastern Church. In the Western Church, and especially in France, they began to be known about the fifth century. They have never been numerous in Spain and Italy. In Germany they must have been frequent in the seventh and eighth centuries. In the East, the order was abolished by the Council of Laodicea, A. D. 361. But so little respect was entertained for this decree, that the order continued until the tenth century. They were first prohibited in the Western Church in the ninth century; but, according to some writers, they continued in France until the twelfth century, when the arrogance, insubordination, and injurious conduct of this class of ecclesiastics became a subject of general complaint in that country; and they are said to have existed in Ireland until the thirteenth century. The functions of the chorepiscopi are now in great part 175performed by archdeacons, rural deans, and vicars-general. (See Suffragans.)

CHOREUTÆ. A sect of heretics, who, among other errors, persisted in keeping the Sunday as a fast.

CHORISTER. A singer in a choir. It properly means a singing boy; and so it is used in all old documents and statistics.

CHRISM. (Χρίσμα, oil.) Oil consecrated in the Romish and Greek Churches by the bishop, and used in baptism, confirmation, orders, and extreme unction. This chrism is consecrated with great ceremony upon Holy Thursday. There are two sorts of it; the one is a composition of oil and balsam, made use of in baptism, confirmation, and orders; the other is only plain oil consecrated by the bishop, and used for catechumens and extreme unction. Chrism has been discontinued in the Church of England since the Reformation.

CHRISOME, in the office of baptism, was a white vesture, which in former times the priest used to put upon the child, saying, “Take this white vesture for a token of innocence.”

By a constitution of Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury, A. D. 736, the chrisomes, after having served the purposes of baptism, were to be made use of only for the making or mending of surplices, &c., or for the wrapping of chalices.

The first Common Prayer Book of King Edward orders that the woman shall offer the chrisome, when she comes to be churched; but, if the child happens to die before her churching, she was excused from offering it; and it was customary to use it as a shroud, and to wrap the child in it when it was buried. Hence, by an abuse of words, the term is now used not to denote children who die between the time of their baptism and the churching of the mother, but to denote children who die before they are baptized, and so are incapable of Christian burial.

CHRIST. From the Greek word (Χριστος) corresponding with the Hebrew word Messiah, and signifying the Anointed One. It is given pre-eminently to our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. As the holy unction was given to kings, priests, and prophets, by describing the promised Saviour of the world under the name of Christ, Anointed, or Messiah, it was sufficient evidence that the qualities of king, prophet, and high priest would eminently centre in him; and that he would exercise them not only over the Jews, but over all mankind, and particularly over those whom he should elect into his Church. Our blessed Saviour was not, indeed, anointed to these offices by oil; but he was anointed by the power and grace of the Holy Ghost, who visibly descended upon him at his baptism. Thus, (Acts x. 38,) “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.”—See Matt. iii. 16, 17. John iii. 34. (See Jesus and Messiah.)

CHRISTEN, To. To baptize; because, at baptism, the person receiving that sacrament is made, as the catechism teaches, a member of Christ.

CHRISTENDOM. All those regions in which the kingdom or Church of Christ is planted.

CHRISTIAN. The title given to those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. It was at Antioch, where St. Paul and St. Barnabas jointly preached the Christian religion, that the disciples were first called Christians, (Acts xi. 26,) in the year of our Lord 43. They were generally called by one another brethren, faithful, saints, and believers. The name of Nazarenes was, by way of reproach, given them by the Jews. (Acts xxiv. 5.) Another name of reproach was that of Galilæans, which was the emperor Julian’s style whenever he spoke of the Christians. Epiphanius says, that they were called Jesseans, either from Jesse, the father of David, or, which is more probable, from the name of Jesus, whose disciples they were. The word is used but three times in Holy Scripture: Acts xi. 26; xxvi. 28; 1 St. Pet. iv. 16.

CHRISTIAN NAME. (See Name.) The name given to us when we are made Christians, i. e. at our baptism.

The Scripture history, both of the Old and New Testament, contains many instances of the names of persons being changed, or of their receiving an additional name, when they were admitted into covenant with God, or into a new relation with our blessed Lord; and it was at circumcision, which answered, in many respects, to baptism in the Christian Church, that the Jews gave a name to their children. This custom was adopted into the Christian Church, and we find very ancient instances of it recorded. For example, Thascius Cyprian, at his baptism, changed his first name to Cæcilius, out of respect for the presbyter who was his spiritual father. The custom is still retained, a name being given by the godfather and godmother of each child at baptism, by which name he is addressed by the minister when he receives that holy sacrament. (See Baptismal Service.)

Our Christian names serve to remind us 176of the duties and privileges on which we entered at baptism. Our surname is a memorial of original sin, or of the nature which we bring into the world.

CHRISTIANS OF ST. THOMAS. (See Thomas, St., Christians of.)

CHRISTMAS DAY. The 25th December; the day on which the universal Church celebrates the nativity or birthday of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The observance of this day in the Western Church is most ancient, although we may not give much belief to the statement of the forged decretal epistles, that Telesiphorus, who lived in the reign of Antoninus Pius, ordered Divine service to be celebrated, and an angelical hymn to be sung, the night before the nativity. While the persecution raged under Diocletian, who kept his court at Nicomedia, that tyrant, among other acts of cruelty, finding multitudes of Christians assembled together to celebrate the nativity of Christ, commanded the church doors to be shut, and fire put to the building, which soon reduced them and the place to ashes. In the East it was for some time confounded with the Epiphany; and St. Chrysostom mentions that it was only about his time that it became a distinct festival at Antioch.

The Athanasian Creed is ordered to be said or sung on this day. This is one of the days for which the Church of England appoints special psalms, and a special preface in the Communion Service; and if it fall on a Friday, that Friday is not to be a fast day.—Cave. Bingham.

It is one of the scarlet days at Oxford and Cambridge: and in cathedrals and choirs the responses and litany (if to be used) ought to be solemnly sung to the organ. In the First Book of King Edward, there were separate Collects, Epistles, and Gospels appointed for the first and second communion on this and on Easter day.

The chronological correctness of keeping the birthday of our Lord on the 25th of December, has been demonstrated in a most careful analysis, by the late lamented Dr. Jarvis, in his Chronological Introduction to the History of the Church.—Jebb.

CHRISTOLYTES. (Χριστολύται, separators of Christ.) A sect in the sixth century, which held, that when Christ descended into hell, he left his soul and body there, and only rose with his Divinity to heaven.

CHRISTOPHORI and THEOPHORI, (Χριστοφόροι και Θεοφόροι, Christ-bearers and God-bearers,) names given to Christians in the earliest times, on account of the communion between Christ, who is God, and the Church. Ignatius commences his Epistles thus, Ἰγνάτιος ὁ καὶ Θεοφόρος: and it is related in the acts of his martyrdom, that hearing him called Theophorus, Trajan asked the meaning of the name; to which Ignatius replied, it meant one that carries Christ in his heart. “Dost thou then,” said Trajan, “carry him that was crucified in thy heart?” “Yes,” said the holy martyr, “for it is written, I will dwell in them, and walk in them.”

CHRONICLES. Two canonical books of the Old Testament. They contain the history of about 3500 years, from the creation until after the return of the Jews from Babylon. They are fuller and more comprehensive than the Books of Kings. The Greek interpreters hence call them Παραλειπομένα, supplements, additions. The Jews make but one book of the Chronicles, under the title Dibree hajamin, i. e. journal or annals. Ezra is generally supposed to be the author of these books. The Chronicles, or Paraleipomena, are an abridgment, in fact, of the whole Scripture history. St. Jerome so calls it, “Omnis traditio Scripturarum in hoc continetur.” The First Book contains a genealogical account of the descent of Israel from Adam, and of the reign of David. The Second Book contains the history of Judah to the very year of the Jews’ return from the Babylonish captivity—the decree of Cyrus granting them liberty being in the last chapter of this Second Book.

CHURCH. (See Catholic.) The word church is derived from the Greek κυριακὸς (belonging to the Lord)—the Teutonic nations having, at their first conversion, generally adopted the Greek ecclesiastical terms. The truth of this etymology is confirmed by the fact, that in the Sclavonic languages the names for the Church resemble the Teutonic, evidently because derived from a common Greek original. The Church, meaning by the word the Catholic or Universal Church, is that society which was instituted by our blessed Lord, and completed by his apostles, acting under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be the depository of Divine truth and the channel of Divine grace. Every society, or organized community, may be distinguished from a mere multitude or accidental concourse of people, by having a founder, a form of admission, a constant badge of membership, peculiar duties, peculiar privileges, and regularly appointed officers. Thus the Catholic Church has the Lord Christ for its founder; its prescribed form of admission is the holy sacrament of baptism; its constant 177badge of membership is the holy sacrament of the eucharist; its peculiar duties are repentance, faith, obedience; its peculiar privileges, union with God, through Christ its Head, and hereby forgiveness of sins, present grace, and future glory; its officers are bishops and priests, assisted by deacons, in regular succession from the apostles, the first constituted officers of this body corporate. It has the Bible for its code of laws, and tradition for precedents, to aid its officers in the interpretation of that code on disputed points. It is through the ordinances and sacraments of the Church, administered by its divinely appointed officers, that we are brought into union and communion with the invisible Saviour; it is through the visible body that we are to receive communications from the invisible Spirit; and, says the apostle, in the fourth chapter to the Ephesians, “There is,” not merely one Spirit, “there is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.” Again, (1 Cor. x. 17,) “We being many are one bread and one body.” And in the first chapter to the Colossians, the same apostle tells us that this body is the Church. And thus we must, if we are scriptural Christians, believe that there is one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Of this one Church there are many branches existing in various parts of the world, (not to mention the great division of militant and triumphant,) just as there is one ocean, of which portions receive a particular designation from the shores which they lave. But of this one society there cannot be two branches in one and the same place opposed to each other, either in discipline or in doctrine. Although there be two opposing societies or more in one place, both or all claiming to be Christ’s Church in that place, yet we are quite sure that only one of them can be the real Church. So here, in this realm of England, speaking nationally, there is but one Church, over which the archbishops of Canterbury and York, with their suffragans, preside: and in each diocese there is only that one Church, over which the diocesan presides, a branch of the national Church, as the national is a branch of the universal Church: and again, in each parish there is but one Church, forming a branch of the diocesan Church, over which the parochial minister presides.

“Religion being, therefore, a matter partly of contemplation, partly of action, we must define the Church, which is a religious society, by such differences as do properly explain the essence of such things; that is to say, by the object or matter whereabout the contemplation and actions of the Church are properly conversant; for so all knowledge and all virtues are defined. Whereupon, because the only object which separateth ours from other religions is Jesus Christ, in whom none but the Church doth believe, and whom none but the Church doth worship, we find that accordingly the apostles do everywhere distinguish hereby the Church from infidels and from Jews, accounting them which call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to be his Church.”—Hooker’s Eccl. Pol. Hooker’s assertion as to the Church in this country must be so far modified, that now, by change of political circumstances, the Churches of England and Ireland are politically united, and form but one Church, over which two primates, that of Canterbury and Armagh, of co-ordinate jurisdiction, preside, with other archbishops and suffragans, &c.—Jebb.

CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA. It is not possible, in such a publication as this, to give an account of the various branches of the one Catholic Church, which are to be found in the various parts of the world; but it would be improper not to notice the Church in the United States of America, since it is indebted for its existence, under the blessing of the Great Head of the Church Universal, to the missionary labours of the Church of England; or rather we should say, of members of that Church acting under the sanction of their bishops, and formed into the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. Before the American Revolution it can scarcely be said that the Church existed in our American colonies. There were congregations formed chiefly through the Society just mentioned, and the clergy who ministered in these congregations were under the superintendence of the bishop of London. We may say that the first step taken for the organization of the Church was after the termination of the revolutionary war, at a meeting of a few of the clergy of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, at New Brunswick, N. Y., in May, 1784. Though this meeting was called on other business, yet the project of a general union of the churches throughout the States became a topic of sufficient interest to lead to the calling of another meeting, to be held in October following, in the city of New York. At this latter meeting, “although the members composing it were not vested with powers 178adequate to the present exigencies of the Church, they happily, and with great unanimity, laid down a few general principles to be recommended in the respective States, as the ground on which a future ecclesiastical government should be established.” It was also recommended that the several States should send clerical and lay deputies to a future meeting in Philadelphia, on September the twenty-seventh, of the following year. In the interim, the churches of Connecticut, having made choice of the Rev. Dr. Seabury for a bishop, he had proceeded to England with a view to consecration. In this application he was not successful, the English bishops having scruples, partly of a political nature, and partly relative to the reception with which a bishop might meet, under the then imperfect organization of the Church in America. Resort was therefore had to the Church in Scotland, where Dr. Seabury received consecration in November, 1784.

According to appointment, the first general convention assembled in 1785, in Philadelphia, with delegates from seven of the thirteen States. At this convention measures were taken for a revisal of the Prayer Book, to adapt it to the political changes which had recently taken place; articles of union were adopted; an ecclesiastical constitution was framed; and the first steps taken for the obtaining of an episcopate direct from the Church of England.

In June, 1786, the convention again met in Philadelphia. A correspondence having meanwhile been carried on with the archbishops and bishops of the English Church, considerable dissatisfaction was expressed on their part relative to some changes in the liturgy, and to one point of importance in the constitution. The latter of these was satisfied by the proceeding of the then session, and the former were removed by reconsideration in a special convention summoned in October in the same year. It soon appearing that Dr. Provoost had been elected to the episcopate of New York, Dr. White to that of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Griffith for Virginia, testimonials in their favour were signed by the convention. The two former sailed for England in November, 1786, and were consecrated at Lambeth on the 4th of February in the following year, by the Most Reverend John Moore, archbishop of Canterbury. Before the end of the same month they sailed for New York, where they arrived on Easter Sunday, April 7th, 1787.

In July, 1789, the general convention again assembled. The episcopacy of Bishops White and Provoost was recognised; the resignation of Dr. Griffith, as bishop elect of Virginia, was received; and in this and an adjourned meeting of the body, in the same year, the constitution of 1786 was remodelled; union was happily effected with Bishop Seabury and the northern clergy; the revision of the Prayer Book was completed; and the Church already gave promise of great future prosperity. In September, 1790, Dr. Madison was consecrated bishop of Virginia at Lambeth in England, by the same archbishop, who, a few years before, had imparted the apostolic commission to Drs. White and Provoost. There being now three bishops of the English succession, besides one of the Scotch, everything requisite for the continuation and extension of the episcopacy was complete. Accordingly the line of American consecration opened in 1792, with that of Dr. Claggett, bishop elect of Maryland. In 1795 Dr. Smith was consecrated for South Carolina; in 1797 the Rev. Edward Bass, for Massachusetts, and in the same year Dr. Jarvis, for Connecticut, that diocese having become vacant by the death of Bishop Seabury. From that time the consecration of bishops has proceeded according to the wants of the Church, without impediment, to the present day. At the beginning of the present century the Church had become permanently settled in its organization, and its stability and peace were placed on a secure footing. In 1811 there were already eight bishops and about two hundred and thirty other clergymen distributed through thirteen States. A spirit of holy enterprise began to manifest itself in measures for the building up of the Church west of the Alleghany Mountains, and in other portions of the country, where heretofore it had maintained but a feeble existence. The ministry numbers in its ranks men of the first intellectual endowments, and of admirable self-devotion to the cause of the gospel. With a steady progress, unawed by the assaults of sectarianism and the reproaches of the fanatic, the Church gradually established itself in the affections of all who came with a spirit of candour to the examination of her claims. The blessing of her Great Head was apparent, not only in the peace which adorned her councils, but in the demands which were continually made for a wider extension of her influence. Hence the establishment of the General Theological 179Seminary by Bishop Hobart (1817–1821), and afterwards of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (1835); both of which institutions were instrumental in providing heralds of the gospel for the distant places of the West. These were followed by the diocesan seminaries of Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, and efforts for the founding of several in other dioceses. At the general convention of 1835, the whole Church assumed the position of one grand missionary organization, and has already her bands of missionaries labouring in the cause of the Church in the remotest districts of the country; and her banner has been lifted up in Africa, China, Greece, and other foreign parts. The year 1852 was distinguished by remarkable demonstrations of communion between the Churches of England and America. The American Church, in token of her connexion with the mother Church, and of gratitude for benefits received from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel while the American States were part of the British dominions, deputed Bishop M’Coskry, of Michigan, and Bishop De Lancey, of Western New York, to attend the third Jubilee of the Society. These bishops were received in England with cordial affection, and the bishop of Michigan preached the Jubilee Sermon at St. Paul’s cathedral. A few months later the English bishop Fulford, of Montreal, shared in consecrating Dr. Wainwright, who had been a member of the deputation to England, coadjutor bishop of Eastern New York. In 1853 Bishop Spenser, Archdeacon Sinclair, and the Rev. Ernest Hawkins, were deputed by the Society for Propagating the Gospel to return the visit of the American prelates, and were received with great cordiality by the general convention of the American Church. An attempt to excite a Romanizing spirit on the part of a few half-educated persons has signally failed, by the suppression, for want of support, of the Journal they established. With her 37 bishops, 2000 clergy, and more than 2,000,000 of lay members; with her numerous societies for the spread of the Bible and the Liturgy; and with her institutions of learning, and presses constantly pouring out the light of the truth, may we not predict, under the Divine protection, a day of coming prosperity, when Zion shall be a praise in all the earth; when her temples and her altars shall be seen on the far-off shores of the Pacific; when even “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose?”

For a more detailed history of the Church in America, the reader may consult Bishop White’s Memoirs of the Protestant and Episcopal Church in America; Caswall’s America and the American Church; the History of the Church in America in the Christian’s Miscellany: and the more recent History by Bishop Wilberforce, published in the Englishman’s Library.

CHURCH OF ENGLAND. (See Anglo-Catholic Church.) By the Church of England we mean that branch of the Catholic Church which is established under its canonical bishops in England. Properly speaking, at present it forms only a branch of the united Church of England and Ireland. When and by whom the Church was first introduced into Britain is not exactly ascertained, but it has been inferred from Eusebius that it was first established here by the apostles and their disciples; some have supposed, by St. Paul. According to Archbishop Usher, there was a school of learning to provide the British churches with proper teachers in the year 182. But when the Britons were conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, who were heathens, the Church was persecuted, and the professors of Christianity were either driven to the mountains of Wales, or reduced to a state of slavery. The latter circumstances prepared the way for the conversion of the conquerors, who, seeing the pious and regular deportment of their slaves, soon learned to respect their religion. We may gather this fact from a letter written by Gregory, the bishop of Rome, in the sixth century, to two of the kings of France, in which he states that the English nation was desirous of becoming Christian; and in which he, at the same time, complains to those monarchs of the remissness of their clergy in not seeking the conversion of their neighbours. And hence it was that Gregory, with that piety and zeal for which he was pre-eminently distinguished, sent over Augustine, and about forty missionaries, to England, to labour in the good work. The success of these missionaries, the way having thus been paved before them, was most satisfactory. They converted Ethelbert, who was not only king of Kent, but Brætwalda, or chief of the Saxon monarchs. His example was soon followed by the kings of Essex and East Anglia, and gradually by the other sovereigns of England.

The successful Augustine then went over to Arles in France, where he was consecrated by the prelate of that see; and, returning, became the first archbishop 180of Canterbury, the patriarch and metropolitan of the Church of England. His see was immediately endowed with large revenues by King Ethelbert, who likewise established, at the instance of the archbishop, the dioceses of Rochester and London. Another portion of the Anglo-Saxons were converted by the Scottish bishops. And thus gradually the Anglo-Saxon kings created bishoprics equal in size to their kingdoms. And the example was followed by their nobles, who converted their estates into parishes, erecting fit places of worship, and endowing them with tithes.

It is a great mistake to suppose, as some do, that the old churches in England were built or endowed by laws of the state or acts of parliament. They were the fruit of the piety of individuals of all ranks, princes and nobles, and private citizens. This fact accounts for the unequal sizes of our dioceses and parishes: the dioceses were (though subsequently subdivided) of the same extent as the dominions of the respective kings; the parishes corresponded with the estate of the patrons of particular churches. Nor was the regard of those by whom the Church was established and endowed, confined to the spiritual edification of the poor; no, they knew that righteousness exalteth a nation, and estimating properly the advantages of infusing a Christian spirit into the legislature, they summoned the higher order of the clergy to take part in the national councils.

From those times to these, an uninterrupted series of valid ordinations has carried down the apostolical succession in our Church.

That in the Church of England purity of doctrine was not always retained may be readily admitted. In the dark ages, when all around was dark, the Church itself suffered from the universal gloom: this neither our love of truth, nor our wishes, will permit us to deny. About the seventh century the pope of Rome began to establish an interest in our Church. The interference of the prelate of that great see, before he laid claim to any dominion of right, was at first justifiable, and did not exceed just bounds, while it contributed much to the propagation of the gospel. That the bishop of Rome was justified as a Christian bishop, of high influence and position, in endeavouring to aid the cause of Christianity here in England, while England was a heathen nation, will not be disputed by those who recognise the same right in the archbishop of Canterbury with respect to foreign heathens. But, in after ages, what was at first a justifiable interference was so increased as to become an intolerable usurpation. This interference was an usurpation because it was expressly contrary to the decisions of a general council of the Church, and such as the Scripture condemns, in that the Scripture places all bishops on an equality; and so they ought to continue to be, except where, for the sake of order, they voluntarily consent to the appointment of a president or archbishop, who is nothing more than a primus inter pares, a first among equals. This usurpation for a time continued, and with it were introduced various corruptions, in doctrine as well as in discipline.

At length, in the reign of Henry VIII., the bishops and clergy accorded with the laity and government of England, and threw off the yoke of the usurping pope of Rome. They, at the same time, corrected and reformed all the errors of doctrine, and most of the errors of discipline, which had crept into our Church during the reign of intellectual darkness and papal domination. They condemned the monstrous doctrine of transubstantiation, the worship of saints and images, communion in one kind, and the constrained celibacy of the clergy; having first ascertained that these and similar errors were obtruded into the Church in the middle ages. Thus restoring the Church to its ancient state of purity and perfection, they left it to us, their children, as we now find it. They did not attempt to make new, their object was to reform, the Church. They stripped their venerable mother of the meretricious gear in which superstition had arrayed her, and left her in that plain and decorous attire with which, in the simple dignity of a matron, she had been adorned by apostolic hands.

Thus, then, it seems that ours is the old Church of England, tracing its origin, not to Cranmer and Ridley, who only reformed it; but that it is the only Church of England, which traces its origin up through the apostles to our Saviour Himself. To adopt the words of a learned and pious writer: “The orthodox and undoubted bishops of Great Britain are the only persons who, in any manner, whether by ordination or possession, can prove their descent from the ancient saints and bishops of these isles. It is a positive fact that they, and they alone, can trace their ordinations from Peter and Paul, through Patrick, Augustine, Theodore, Colman, Columba, David, Cuthbert, Chad, Anselm, Osmund, and all the other worthies of our 181Church.” “It is true that there are some schismatical Romish bishops in these realms, but they are of a recent origin, and cannot show the prescription and possession that we can. Some of these teachers do not profess to be bishops of our churches, but are titular bishops of places we know not. Others usurp the titles of various churches in these islands, but are neither in possession themselves, nor can prove that their predecessors ever occupied them. The sect (the sect of English Papists or Roman Catholics) arose in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, when certain persons, unhappily and blindly devoted to the see of Rome, refused to obey and communicate with their lawful pastors, who, in accordance with the laws of God and the canons, asserted the ancient independence of the British and Irish Church; and the Roman patriarch then ordained a few bishops to sees in Ireland, which were already occupied by legitimate pastors. In England this ministry is of later origin; for the first bishop of that communion was a titular bishop of Chalcedon in the seventeenth century.

The ecclesiastical state of England, as it stands at this day, is divided into two provinces or archbishoprics, of Canterbury and York, which are again subdivided into several dioceses. (See Archbishop.)

For the safeguard of the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, many provisions are made both by the civil and canon law.

Whoever shall come to the possession of the crown of England shall join in communion with the Church of England, as by law established. (12 & 13 Will. III. c. 2, s. 3.)

By the 1 Will. III. c. 6, an oath shall be administered to every king or queen who shall succeed to the imperial crown of this realm, at their coronation; to be administered by one of the archbishops or bishops, to be thereunto appointed by such king or queen; that they will do the utmost in their power to maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the gospel, and Protestant reformed religion established by law; and will preserve unto the bishops and clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do or shall appertain unto them, or any of them.

And by the 5 Anne, c. 5, the king, at his coronation, shall take and subscribe an oath to maintain and preserve inviolably the settlement of the Church of England, and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government thereof, as by law established. (s. 2.)

By Canon 3, whoever shall affirm that the Church of England, by law established, is not a true and apostolical Church, teaching and maintaining the doctrine of the apostles, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored but only by the archbishop, after his repentance and public revocation of this his wicked error.

And by Canon 7, whoever shall affirm that the government of the Church of England under Her Majesty, by archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, and the rest that bear office in the same, is antichristian, or repugnant to the word of God, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and so continue until he repent, and publicly revoke such his wicked errors.

And moreover, seditious words, in derogation of the established religion, are indictable, as tending to a breach of the peace.

CHURCH OF IRELAND. Of the first introduction of the Church into Ireland we have no authentic records; nor is it necessary to search for them, since, of the present Church, the founder, under God, was St. Patrick, in the fifth century. From him it is that the present clergy, the reformed clergy, and they only, have their succession, and through him from the apostles themselves. That, by a regular series of consecrations and ordinations, the succession from Patrick and Palladius, and the first Irish missionaries, was kept up until the reign of Queen Elizabeth, our opponents, the Irish Papists, will allow. The question, therefore, is whether that succession was at that time lost. The onus probandi rests with our opponents, and we defy them to prove that such was the case. It is a well-known fact, that of all the countries of Europe, there was not one in which the process of the Reformation was carried on so regularly, so canonically, so quietly, as it was in Ireland. Carte, the biographer of Ormond, having observed that the Popish schism did not commence in England until the twelfth year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, but that for eleven years those who most favoured the pretensions of the pope conformed to the reformed Catholic Church of England, remarks, “The case was much the same in Ireland, where the bishops complied with the Reformation, and the Roman Catholics (meaning those who afterwards became Roman, instead of remaining reformed Catholics) resorted in general to the parish churches in which the English service was used, until the end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign.” It is here stated that the bishops of the Church of Ireland, that is, as the Papists 182will admit, the then successors of St. Patrick and his suffragans, those who had a right to reform the Church of Ireland, consented to the Reformation; and that, until the end of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, (and she reigned above forty-four years,) there was no pretended Church, under the dominion of the pope, opposed to the true Catholic Church, as is unfortunately now the case. The existing clergy of the Church of Ireland, whether we regard their order or their mission, and consequently the Church itself, are the only legitimate successors of those by whom that Church was founded. That in the Church of Ireland, as well as in the Church of England, corruptions in doctrine as well as in practice prevailed before the Reformation, and that the pope of Rome gradually usurped over it an authority directly contrary to one of the canons of a general council of the Church Universal, (that of Ephesus,) we fully admit. But that usurpation was resisted and renounced, and those corruptions removed and provided against at the Reformation. After the English Reformation the Irish Church received the English liturgy, in conformity with the principle now professed by the English government, though not always consistently or fairly carried out, of promoting a close ecclesiastical unity between the two countries. Articles of Religion, of a Calvinistic tendency, were passed by the Irish convocation of 1615, but in 1635 the English Articles were received and approved by a canon of convocation, and have ever since been subscribed by Irish clergymen. In 1662 the revised Prayer Book of England was adopted by the Irish convocation. At the time of the union of the two kingdoms, the two Churches were united under the title of the United Church of England and Ireland. Doubts have been expressed as to what this union means. It does not mean union in doctrine. The Churches were in full communion in every respect before; and still are, except in a few particulars, merely circumstantial. It does not mean distinct synodical rights, for the two English provinces have their convocations distinct one from the other, and the decrees of the one do not, of necessity, bind the other. The union is national and political. When the two kingdoms became politically and legislatively one, the two Churches, in conformity with the ancient and avowed principles of English government, were declared to be identified. This identification was solemnly declared by the sovereign and parliament of both countries, as an indispensable and fundamental article of union, asserted by the spiritual lords of each; without the slightest reclamation on the part of the clergy or laity. Now this declaration of legislative union is in fact a solemn declaration on the part of the state of identification of interests. If each of the English provinces of the United Church claim synodical rights, a right of advising when the great interests of the Church are concerned, the claim of the Irish provinces of the same Church are equally strong, are strictly parallel. If the property and rights of the English clergy are to be protected, the Irish clergy have as strong a claim to protection. How far the avowed principle has been acted upon, it is not difficult to determine. The property of the Irish clergy has been dealt with upon principles altogether different from those which still protected the property of their English brethren. No provision whatever was made for perpetuating the Irish convocations, which are still in abeyance, even as to outward form, though formerly they had as defined a system as in England. (See Convocation.) In an age, when the multiplication of bishops has been urged, and generally admitted as necessary, the Church in Ireland has been disheartened by a retrograde movement. For, in opposition to the earnest reclamation of her clergy, ten of her bishops were, by a very tyrannical act of the state, suppressed; and two of her archiepiscopal sees (Cashel and Tuam) reduced to the rank of suffragans; and this to meet a mere fiscal exigency, to provide for the Church Rates; for which, be it observed, the clergy of Ireland, whose revenues have been in many other ways legislatively curtailed, are now taxed.

The words of the fifth article of the Union with Ireland are these: “That it be the fifth article of Union, that the Churches of England and Ireland, as now by law established, be united into one Protestant Episcopal Church, to be called, The United Church of England and Ireland; and that the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the said United Church shall be, and shall remain in full force for ever, as the same are now by law established for the Church of England; and that the continuance and preservation of the said United Church, as the established Church of England and Ireland, shall be deemed and taken to be an essential and fundamental part of the Union.”

The Church in Ireland had till lately four archbishops: 1. Armagh, with seven suffragans, viz. Meath, Down, ‡Dromore, Derry, Kilmore, ‡Raphoe, and ‡Clogher. 1832. Dublin, with three suffragans, viz. ‡Kildare, ‡Ferns, and Ossory. 3. Cashel, with five suffragans, viz. Limerick, Cork, ‡Cloyne, Killaloe, and ‡Waterford. 4. Tuam, with three suffragans, viz. ‡Clonfert, ‡Elphin, and ‡Killala. [Those which are marked thus ‡ are now suppressed.] Formerly there had been 32 bishops in all; but the sees had become so impoverished that it became necessary from time to time to unite some of these to others, (but for reason and under sanction far different from those which influenced the late innovations,) so that in the 17th century they were much the same as stated above. The bishops of Meath and Kildare had precedence over the other bishops.—See Jebb’s Charge to the Clergy of Limerick.

CHURCH OF ROME. (See Pope, Popery, Council of Trent, Romanism.) The Church of Rome is properly that particular Church over which the bishop of Rome presides, as the Church of England is that Church over which the bishop of Canterbury presides. To enter into the history of that foreign Church, to describe its boundaries, to explain those peculiar doctrines, which are contrary to Catholic doctrines, but which are retained in it, to discuss its merits or its corruptions, would be beside the purpose of this Dictionary. But there are certain schismatical communities in these kingdoms which have set up an altar against our altar, and which are designated as the Church of Rome in England, and the Church of Rome in Ireland; and with the claims of these schismatical sects, in which the obnoxious doctrines of the Church of Rome, as asserted in the so-called general Council of Trent, are maintained, and in which the supremacy of the pope of Rome is acknowledged, we are nearly concerned. It will be proper, therefore, to give an account of the introduction of Romanism or Popery into this country and into Ireland, subsequently to the Reformation. From the preceding articles it will have been seen that the Churches of England and Ireland were canonically reformed. The old Catholic Church of England, in accordance with the law of God and the canons, asserted its ancient independence. That many members of the Church were in their hearts opposed to this great movement, is not only probable, but certain; yet they did not incur the sin of schism by establishing a sect in opposition to the Church of England, until the twelfth year of Elizabeth’s reign, when they were hurried into this sin by foreign emissaries from the pope of Rome, and certain sovereigns hostile to the queen. Mr. Butler, himself a Romanist, observes, that “Many of them conformed for a while, in hopes that the queen would relent, and things come round again.”—Memoirs, ii. p. 280. “He may be right,” says Dr. Phelan, “in complimenting their orthodoxy at the expense of their truth; yet it is a curious circumstance, that their hypocrisy, while it deceived a vigilant and justly suspicious Protestant government, should be disclosed by the tardy candour of their own historians.” The admission, however, is important; the admission of a Romanist that Romanism was for a season extinct, as a community, in these realms. The present Romish sect cannot, therefore, consistently claim to be what the clergy of the Church of England really and truly are, the representatives of the founders of the English Church. The Romish clergy in England, though they have orders, have no mission, on their own showing, and are consequently schismatics. The Romanists began to fall away from the Catholic Church of England, and to constitute themselves into a distinct community or sect, about the year 1570, that is, about forty years after the Church of England had suppressed the papal usurpation. This act was entirely voluntary on the part of the Romanists. They refused any longer to obey their bishops; and, departing from our communion, they established a rival worship, and set up altar against altar. This sect was at first governed by Jesuits and missionary priests, under the superintendence of Allen, a Roman cardinal, who lived in Flanders, and founded the colleges at Douay and Rheims. In 1598, Mr. George Blackwell was appointed archpriest of the English Romanists, (see Archpriest,) and this form of ecclesiastical government prevailed among them till 1623, when Dr. Bishop was ordained titular bishop of Chalcedon, and sent from Rome to govern the Romish sect in England. Dr. Smith, the next bishop of Chalcedon, was banished in 1628, and the Romanists were without bishops till the reign of James II.—Palmer, ii. 252. During the whole of the reign of James I., and part of the following reign, the Romish priesthood, both in England and in Ireland, were in the interest, and many of them in the pay, of the Spanish monarchy. The titulars of Dublin and Cashel are particularly mentioned as pensioners of Spain. The general memorial of the Romish hierarchy in Ireland, in 1617, was addressed to the Spanish court, and we are told by Berrington, himself a Romanist, that the English Jesuits, 300 in number, were all of the Spanish faction. In 184Ireland, as we have seen before, the bishops almost unanimously consented, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, to remove the usurped jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, and consequently there, as in England, for a great length of time there were scarcely any Popish bishops. But “Swarms of Jesuits,” says Carte, “and Romish priests, educated in the seminaries founded by King Philip II., in Spain and the Netherlands, and by the cardinal of Lorraine in Champagne, (where, pursuant to the vows of the founders, they sucked in, as well the principles of rebellion, as of what they call catholicity,) coming over to that kingdom, as full of secular as of religious views, they soon prevailed with an ignorant and credulous people to withdraw from the public service of the Church.” Macgauran, titular archbishop of Armagh, was sent over from Spain, and slain in an act of rebellion against his sovereign. In 1621 there were two Popish bishops in Ireland, and two others resided in Spain. These persons were ordained in foreign countries, and could not trace their ordinations to the ancient Irish Church. The audacity of the Romish hierarchy in Ireland has of late years been only equalled by their mendacity. But we know them who they are; the successors, not of St. Patrick, but of certain Spanish and Italian prelates, who, in the reign of James I., originated, contrary to the canons of the Church, the Romish sect—a sect it truly is in that country, since there can be but one Church, and that is the Catholic, in the same place, (see article on the Church,) and all that they can pretend to is, that without having any mission, being therefore in a state of schism, they hold peculiar doctrines and practices which the Church of Ireland may have practised and held for one, two, three, or at the very most four hundred out of the fourteen hundred years during which it has been established; while even as a counterpoise to this, we may place the three hundred years which have elapsed between the Reformation and the present time. Since the above article was written, the Romish sect has assumed a new character in England. The pope of Rome has added to his iniquities by sending here, in 1850, schismatical prelates, with a view of superseding the orthodox and catholic bishops of the English Church; an act which has increased the abhorrence of Popery in every true Englishman’s heart, and which should lead to greater union among all who repudiate idolatry, and love the Lord Jesus.

CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. The early history of the ancient Church of Scotland, like that of Ireland, is involved in much obscurity; nor is it necessary to investigate it, since, at the period of our Reformation, it was annihilated; it was entirely subverted; not a vestige of the ancient Christian Church of that kingdom remained. Meantime the Scottish nation was torn by the fiercest religious factions. The history of what occurred at the so-called Reformation of Scotland—the fierceness, the fury, the madness of the people, who murdered with Scripture on their lips—would make an infidel smile, and a pious Christian weep. It is probable that a sense of the danger to his throne may have led King James I. to his first measures, taken before his accession to the English crown, for the restoration of episcopacy in his own dominion. His first step was to obtain, in December, 1597, an act of the Scottish parliament, “that such pastors and ministers as the king should please to provide to the place, title, and dignity of a bishop, abbot, or other prelate, should have voice in parliament as freely as any ecclesiastical prelate had at any time by-past.” This act was followed by the appointment of certain ministers, with the temporal title of bishops, in the next year.—Abp. Spottiswood’s Hist. 449, 456. But the assembly of ministers at Montrose, in March, 1599, jealous of the king’s intention, passed a resolution of their own, “that they who had a voice in parliament should have no place in the general assembly, unless they were authorized by a commission from the presbyters.” The bishops, however, took their seats in parliament, and voted in the articles of union for the two kingdoms, A. D. 1601. At length, in A. D. 1610, the bishops were admitted as presidents or moderators in the diocesan assemblies; and, in 1612, “after fifty years of confusion, and a multiplicity of windings and turnings, either to improve or set aside the plan adopted in 1560,” (to use Bishop Skinner’s words,) “we see an episcopal Church once more settled in Scotland, and a regular apostolical succession of episcopacy introduced, upon the extinction of the old line which had long before failed, without any attempt, real or pretended, to keep it up.” For in this year the king caused three of them to be consecrated in London; “and that,” says Bishop Guthrie, “not without the consent and furtherance of many of the wisest amongst the ministry.” Now in common justice to Episcopalians it must be remembered, as Bishop Skinner observes, that the restoration of the primitive order was 185strictly legal. “A regular episcopacy by canonical consecration had been adopted by the general assemblies of the Church, and confirmed by unquestionable acts of parliament.” King Charles I. endeavoured to complete the good work which his father had begun, but, for the sins of the Scottish people, he was not permitted to succeed in his labour of love; nay, rather, the attempt to introduce the English Prayer Book so exasperated the Scots against him, that they finally proved their ignorance of Scripture, and their want of true Christian principles, by assenting to the parricide of their sovereign, when it was effected by their disciples in England. The general assembly of 1638 was held in opposition to the sovereign, and to the law; it declared all assemblies since 1605 void; proscribed the service book; and abjured Episcopacy, condemning it as antichristian, and the bishops were excommunicated and deposed. In 1613, the Scotch general assembly passed the Solemn League and Covenant, adopted by that assembly of divines at Westminster, who drew up the Confession, which afterwards was established by law as the Faith of the Kirk of Scotland. The Catholic Church, after the martyrdom of Charles, became extinct in Scotland; but it was once more restored at the restoration of his son. By the solemn act of parliament, Episcopacy was reestablished, and declared to be most agreeable to the word of God; and synods were constituted, very much upon the system of the English convocation. Four Scottish divines were again consecrated in London in 1661. These prelates took possession of the several sees to which they had been appointed, and the other ten sees were soon canonically filled by men duly invested with the episcopal character and function. So things remained until the Revolution of 1688. The bishops of Scotland, mindful of their oaths, refused to withdraw their allegiance from the king, and to give it to the Prince of Orange, who had been elected by a portion of the people to sovereignty, under the title of William III. The Prince of Orange offered to protect them, and to preserve the civil establishment of the Church, provided that they would come over to his interest, and support his pretensions to the throne. This they steadily refused to do; and consequently, by the prince and parliament, the bishops and the clergy were ordered either to conform to the new government, or to quit their livings. There were then fourteen bishops in Scotland, and nine hundred clergy of the other two orders. All the bishops, and by far the greater number of the other clergy, refused to take the oaths; and in the livings they were thus compelled to relinquish, Presbyterian ministers were in general placed. And thus the Presbyterian sect was established (so far as it can be established by the authority of man) instead of the Church in Scotland. It was stated that this was done, not because bishops were illegal and unscriptural, but because the establishment of the Church was contrary to the will of the people, who, as they had elected a king, ought, as it was supposed, to be indulged in the still greater privilege of selecting a religion. And yet it is said, in the Life of Bishop Sage, “it was certain, that not one of three parts of the common people were then for the presbytery, and not one in ten among the gentlemen and people of education.” The system of doctrine to which the established Kirk of Scotland subscribes is the Westminster Confession of Faith, and to the Kirk (for it was passed in 1643 by the general assembly of the Kirk) belongs the national and solemn League and Covenant, (a formulary more tremendous in its anathemas than any bull of Rome,) to “endeavour the extirpation of Popery and prelacy,” i. e. “Church government by archbishops, bishops, and all ecclesiastical officers dependent upon the hierarchy.” This League was approved by that very assembly at Westminster, whose Confession was now nationally adopted. And certainly, during their political ascendency, the members of that establishment have done their best to accomplish this, so far as Scotland is concerned, although, contrary to their principles, there are some among them who would make an exception in favour of England, if the Church of England would be base enough to forsake her sister Church in Scotland. That Church is now just in the position in which our Church would be, if it pleased parliament, in what is profanely called its omnipotence, to drive us from our sanctuaries, and to establish the Independents, or the Wesleyans, in our place.

The bishops of the Scottish Church, thus deprived of their property and their civil rights, did not attempt to keep up the same number of bishops as before the Revolution, nor did they continue the division of the country into the same dioceses, as there was no occasion for that accuracy, by reason of the diminution which their clergy and congregations had suffered, owing to the persecutions they had to endure. They have also dropped the designation of archbishops, now only making 186use of that of Primus, (a name formerly given to the presiding bishop,) who being elected by the other bishops, six in number, is invested thereby with the authority of calling and presiding in such meetings as may be necessary for regulating the affairs of the Church. The true Church of Scotland has thus continued to exist from the Revolution to the present time, notwithstanding those penal statutes, of the severity of which some opinion may be formed when it is stated, that the grandfather of the present venerable bishop of Aberdeen, although he had taken the oaths to the government, was committed to prison for six months; and why? for the heinous offence of celebrating Divine service according to the forms of the English Book of Common Prayer, in the presence of more than four persons! But in vain has the Scottish establishment thus persecuted the Scottish Church; as we have said, she still exists, perhaps, amidst the dissensions of the establishment, to be called back again to her own. The penal statutes were repealed in the year 1792. But even then the clergy of that Church were so far prohibited from officiating in the Church of England, that the clergyman, in whose church they should perform any ministerial act, was liable to the penalties of a premunire. Although a clergyman of any of the Greek churches, although even a clergyman of the Church of Rome, upon his renouncing those Romish peculiarities and errors, which are not held by our Scottish brethren, could serve at our altars, and preach from our pulpits, our brethren in Scotland and America were prevented from doing so. This disgrace however has now been removed by the piety of the late archbishop of Canterbury, who has obtained an act which restores to the Church one of her lost liberties. At the end of the last century, the Catholic Church in Scotland adopted those Thirty-nine Articles which were drawn up by the Church of England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They, for the most part, make use of our liturgy, though in some congregations the old Scotch liturgy is used, and it is expressly appointed that it shall always be used at the consecration of a bishop.

The Church of Scotland, before the political recognition of Presbyterianism, had fourteen bishops: viz. The archbishop of St. Andrew’s, primate of Scotland, with nine suffragans; viz. Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Moray, Dunkeld, Brechin, Caithness, Dunblane, Orkney, and Ross. The archbishop of Glasgow, with three suffragans; viz. Galloway, Argyle, and the Isles. The bishops of Edinburgh and Galloway had precedence over the others. All the bishops sat in the Scottish parliament, but they had no convocation, like those of the Church of England in ancient times, their synods being episcopal. After the Reformation, their assemblies were long of an anomalous kind, and bore witness to a continual struggle between the episcopal and presbyterian, or rather democratic, principle, which finally prevailed. In 1663, however, an act of parliament was passed regulating their national synod. (See Convocation.)

CHURCH, GALLICAN, or THE CHURCH OF FRANCE, although in communion with the see of Rome, maintained in many respects an independent position. (See Concordat and Pragmatic Sanction.) This term is very ancient, for we find it used in the Council of Paris, held in the year 362, and the Council of Illyria, in 367.

This Church all along preserved certain ancient rites, which she possessed time out of mind; neither were these privileges any grants of popes, but certain franchises and immunities, derived to her from her first original, and which she will take care never to relinquish. These liberties depended upon two maxims, which were always looked upon in France as indisputable. The first is, that the pope had no authority or right to command or order anything, either in general or particular, in which the temporalities or civil rights of the kingdom were concerned. The second was, that, notwithstanding the pope’s supremacy was owned in cases purely spiritual, yet, in France, his power was limited and regulated by the decrees and canons of ancient councils received in that realm. The liberties or privileges of the Gallican Church were founded upon these two maxims, and the most considerable of them are as follows:

I. The king of France has a right to convene synods, or provincial and national councils, in which, amongst other important matters relating to the preservation of the state, cases of ecclesiastical discipline are likewise debated.

II. The pope’s legates à latere, who are empowered to reform abuses, and to exercise the other parts of their legantine office, are never admitted into France unless at the desire, or with the consent, of the king: and whatever the legates do there, is with the approbation and allowance of the king.

III. The legate of Avignon cannot exercise his commission in any of the king’s dominions, till after he hath obtained his Majesty’s leave for that purpose.

187IV. The prelates of the Gallican Church, being summoned by the pope, cannot depart the realm upon any pretence whatever, without the king’s permission.

V. The pope has no authority to levy any tax or imposition upon the temporalities of the ecclesiastical preferments, upon any pretence, either of loan, vacancy, annates, tithes, procurations, or otherwise, without the king’s order, and the consent of the clergy.

VI. The pope has no authority to depose the king, or grant away his dominions to any person whatever. His Holiness can neither excommunicate the king, nor absolve his subjects from their allegiance.

VII. The pope likewise has no authority to excommunicate the king’s officers for their executing and discharging their respective offices and functions.

VIII. The pope has no right to take cognizance, either by himself or his delegates, of any pre-eminencies or privileges belonging to the crown of France, the king being not obliged to argue his prerogatives in any court but his own.

IX. Counts palatine, made by the pope, are not acknowledged as such in France, nor allowed to make use of their privileges and powers, any more than those created by the emperor.

X. It is not lawful for the pope to grant licences to churchmen, the king’s subjects, or to any others holding benefices in the realm of France, to bequeath the titles and profits of their respective preferments, contrary to any branch of the king’s laws, or the customs of the realm, nor to hinder the relations of the beneficed clergy, or monks, to succeed to their estates, when they enter into religious orders, and are professed.

XI. The pope cannot grant to any person a dispensation to enjoy any estate or revenues, in France, without the king’s consent.

XII. The pope cannot grant a licence to ecclesiastics to alienate church lands, situate and lying in France, without the king’s consent, upon any pretence whatever.

XIII. The king may punish his ecclesiastical officers for misbehaviour in their respective charges, notwithstanding the privileges of their orders.

XIV. No person has any right to hold any benefice in France, unless he be either a native of the country, naturalized by the king, or has royal dispensation for that purpose.

XV. The pope is not superior to an œcumenical or general council.

XVI. The Gallican Church does not receive, without distinction, all the canons, and all the decretal epistles, but keeps principally to that ancient collection called Corpus Canonicum, the same which Pope Adrian sent to Charlemagne towards the end of the eighth century, and which, in the year 860, under the pontificate of Nicolas I., the French bishops declared to be the only canon law they were obliged to acknowledge, maintaining that in this body the liberties of the Gallican Church consisted.

XVII. The pope has no power, for any cause whatsoever, to dispense with the law of God, the law of nature, or the decrees of the ancient canons.

XVIII. The regulations of the apostolic chamber, or court, are not obligatory to the Gallican Church, unless confirmed by the king’s edicts.

XIX. If the primates or metropolitans appeal to the pope, his Holiness is obliged to try the cause, by commissioners or delegates, in the same diocese from which the appeal was made.

XX. When a Frenchman desires the pope to give him a benefice lying in France, his Holiness is obliged to order him an instrument, sealed under the faculty of his office; and, in case of refusal, it is lawful for the person pretending to the benefice to apply to the parliament of Paris, which court shall send instructions to the bishop of the diocese to give him institution, which institution shall be of the same validity as if he had received his title under the seals of the court of Rome.

XXI. No mandates from the pope, enjoining a bishop, or other collator, to present any person to a benefice upon a vacancy, are admitted in France.

XXII. It is only by sufferance that the pope has what they call a right of prevention, to collate to benefices which the ordinary has not disposed of.

XXIII. It is not lawful for the pope to exempt the ordinary of any monastery, or any other ecclesiastical corporation, from the jurisdiction of their respective diocesans, in order to make the person so exempted immediately dependent on the holy see.

These liberties were esteemed inviolable, and the French kings, at their coronation, solemnly swore to preserve and maintain them. The oath ran thus: “Promitto vobis et perdono quod unicuique de vobis et ecclesiis vobis commissis canonicum privilegium et debitam legem atque justitiam servabo.”

The bishoprics were entirely in the hands of the Crown. There were, in France, 18 188archbishops, 112 bishops, 160,000 clergymen of various orders, and 3400 convents.

The archbishops were: 1. Rheims, (primate of France,) eight suffragans. 2. Lyons, (primate of Gaul,) five suffragans. 3. Rouen, (primate of Normandy,) six suffragans. 4. Paris, four suffragans. 5. Sens, three suffragans. 6. Tours, eleven suffragans. 7. Bordeaux, nine suffragans. 8. Bourges, five suffragans. 9. Toulouse, seven suffragans. 10. Narbonne, eleven suffragans. 11. Besançon, one suffragan. 12. Arles, four suffragans. 13. Auch, ten suffragans. 14. Aix, five suffragans. 15. Alby, five suffragans. 16. Embrun, six suffragans. 17. Vienne, four suffragans. 18. Cambray, two suffragans, with six other bishops under foreign archbishops. The archbishop of Cambray and his suffragans, and the archbishop of Besançon with his suffragan, and eight other bishops, were not considered properly to form part of the Gallican Church.

Such was the Church of France with the “Gallican Liberties,” previously to the great French Revolution of 1789–1793.

Jansenism (see Jansenists) became very prevalent in the Gallican Church before the Revolution; and the antipapal principle of Jansenism, combined with the revolutionary mania, developed in 1790 the civil constitution of the clergy in France, under which false appellation the constituent assembly affected extraordinary alterations in spiritual matters. M. Bouvier, the late bishop of Mans, remarks, that this constitution “abounded with many and most grievous faults.” “First,” he says, “the National Convention, by its own authority, without any recourse to the ecclesiastical power, changes or reforms all the old dioceses, erects new ones, diminishes some, increases others, &c.; (2.) forbids any Gallican church or citizen to acknowledge the authority of any foreign bishop, &c.; (3.) institutes a new mode of administering and ruling cathedral churches, even in spirituals; (4.) subverts the divine authority of bishops, restraining it within certain limits, and imposing on them a certain council, without whose judgment they could do nothing,” &c. The great body of the Gallican bishops naturally protested against this constitution, which suppressed 135 bishoprics, and erected 83 in their stead, under different titles. The Convention insisted that they should take the oath of adhesion to the civil constitution in eight days, on pain of being considered as having resigned; and, on the refusal of the great majority, the new bishops were elected in their place, and consecrated by Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, assisted by Gobel, bishop of Lydda, and Miroudet of Babylon.

M. Bouvier proves, from the principles of his Church, that this constitution was schismatical; that all the bishops, rectors, curates, confessors, instituted by virtue of it, were intruders, schismatics, and even involved in heresy; that the taking of the oath to observe it was a mortal sin, and that it would have been better to have died a hundred times than to have done so. Certainly, on all the principles of Romanists at least, the adherents of the civil constitution were in schism and heresy.

Nevertheless, these schismatics and heretics were afterwards introduced into the communion of the Roman Church itself, in which they propagated their notions. On the signature of the Concordat between Bonaparte and Pius VII. in 1801, for the erection of the new Gallican Church, the first consul made it a point, that twelve of these constitutional bishops should be appointed to sees under the new arrangements. He succeeded. “He caused to be named to sees twelve of those same constitutionals who had attached themselves with such obstinate perseverance, for ten years, to the propagation of schism in France.... One of the partisans of the new Concordat, who had been charged to receive the recantation of the constitutionals, certified that they had renounced their civil constitution of the clergy. Some of them vaunted, nevertheless, that they had not changed their principles; and one of them publicly declared that they had been offered an absolution of their censures, but that they had thrown it into the fire!” The government forbad the bishops to exact retractations from the constitutional priest, and commanded them to choose one of their vicars-general from among that party. They were protected and supported by the minister of police, and by Portalis, the minister of worship. In 1803, we hear of the “indiscreet and irregular conduct of some new bishops, taken from among the constitutionals, and who brought into their dioceses the same spirit which had hitherto directed them.” Afterwards it is said of some of them, that they “professed the most open resistance to the holy see, expelled the best men from their dioceses, and perpetuated the spirit of schism.” In 1804, Pius VII., being at Paris, procured their signature to a declaration approving generally of the judgments of the holy see on the ecclesiastical affairs of France; but this vague and general formulary, which Bouvier and other Romanists pretend to represent as a recantation, 189was not so understood by these bishops; and thus the Gallican Church continued, and probably still continues, to number schismatical bishops and priests in her communion. Such is the boasted and most inviolable unity of the Roman Church!

We are now to speak of the Concordat of 1801, between Bonaparte, first consul of the French republic, and Pope Pius VII. The first consul, designing to restore Christianity in France, engaged the pontiff to exact resignations from all the existing bishops of the French territory, both constitutional and royalist. The bishoprics of old France were 130 in number; those of the conquered districts (Savoy, Germany, &c.) were 24; making a total of 154. The constitutional bishops resigned their sees; those, also, who still remained in the conquered districts, resigned them to Pius VII. Eighty-one of the exiled royalist bishops of France were still alive; of these forty-five resigned, but thirty-six declined to do so. The pontiff derogated from the consent of these latter prelates, annihilated 159 bishoprics at a blow, created in their place 60 new ones, and arranged the mode of appointment and consecration of the new bishops and clergy, by his bull Ecclesia Christi and Qui Christi Domini. To this sweeping Concordat the French government took care to annex, by the authority of their “corps législatif,” certain “Organic Articles,” relating to the exercise of worship. According to a Romish historian, they “rendered the Church entirely dependent, and placed everything under the hand of government. The bishops, for example, were prohibited from conferring orders without its consent; the vicars-general of a bishop were to continue, even after his death, to govern the diocese, without regard to the rights of chapters; a multitude of things which ought to have been left to the decision of the ecclesiastical authority were minutely regulated,” &c. The intention was, “to place the priests, even in the exercise of their spiritual functions, in an entire dependence on the government agents!” The pope remonstrated against these articles—in vain: they continued, were adopted by the Bourbons, and, with some modifications, are in force to this day; and the government of the Gallican Church is vested more in the conseil d’ etat, than in the bishops. Bonaparte assumed the language of piety, while he proceeded to exercise the most absolute jurisdiction over the Church. “Henceforward nothing embarrasses him in the government of the Church; he decides everything as a master; he creates bishoprics, unites them, suppresses them.” He apparently found a very accommodating episcopacy. A royal commission, including two cardinals, five archbishops and bishops, and some other high ecclesiastics, in 1810 and 1811, justified many of the “Organic Articles” which the pope had objected to; acknowledged that a national council could order that bishops should be instituted by the metropolitan or senior bishop, instead of the pope, in case of urgent circumstances; and declared the papal bull of excommunication against those who had unjustly deprived the pope of his states, was null and void.

These proceedings were by no means pleasing to the exiled French bishops, who had not resigned their sees, and yet beheld them filled in their own lifetime by new prelates. They addressed repeated protests to the Roman pontiff in vain. His conduct in derogating from their consent, suppressing so many sees, and appointing new bishops, was certainly unprecedented. It was clearly contrary to all the canons of the Church universal, as every one admits. The adherents of the ancient bishops refused to communicate with those whom they regarded as intruders. They dwelt on the odious slavery under which they were placed by the “Organic Articles;” and the Abbés Blanchard and Gauchet, and others, wrote strongly against the Concordat, as null, illegal, and unjust; affirmed that the new bishops and their adherents were heretics and schismatics, and that Pius VII. was cut off from the Catholic Church. Hence a schism in the Roman churches, which continues to this day, between the adherents of the new Gallican bishops and the old. The latter are styled by their opponents, “La Petite Eglise.” The truly extraordinary origin of the present Gallican Church sufficiently accounts for the reported prevalence of ultramontane or high papal doctrines among them, contrary to the old Gallican doctrines, and notwithstanding the incessant efforts of Napoleon and the Bourbons to force on them the four articles of the Gallican clergy of 1682. They see, plainly enough, that their Church’s origin rests chiefly on the unlimited power of the pope.—Broughton. Palmer.

CHURCH, GREEK. The Oriental (sometimes called the Greek) Church, prevails more or less in Russia, Siberia, North America, Poland, European Turkey, Servia, Moldavia, Wallachia, Greece, the Archipelago, Crete, Cyprus, the Ionian 190Islands, Georgia, Circassia, Mingrelia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt. The vast and numerous Churches of the East, are all ruled by bishops and archbishops, of whom the chief are the four patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The Russian Church was subject to a fifth patriarch, from the latter part of the sixteenth century, [1588,] but since the reign of Peter the Great, the appointment to this high office has been suspended by the emperor, who deemed its power too great, and calculated to rival that of the throne itself. It was abolished in 1721. In its place Peter the Great instituted the “Holy Legislative Synod,” which is directed by the emperor.... Many of these Churches still subsist after an uninterrupted succession of eighteen hundred years: such as the Churches of Smyrna, Philadelphia, Corinth, Athens, Thessalonica, Crete, Cyprus. Many others, founded by the apostles, continued to subsist uninterruptedly, till the invasion of the Saracens in the seventh century, and revived again after their oppression had relaxed. Such are the Churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and others; from these apostolical Churches the whole Oriental Church derives its origin and succession; for wherever new Churches were founded, it was always by authority of the ancient societies previously existing. With these all the more recent Churches held close communion; and thus, by the consanguinity of faith and discipline and charity, were themselves apostolical. They were also apostolical in their ministry; for it is undeniable, that they can produce a regular uninterrupted series of bishops, and of valid ordinations in their churches, from the beginning. No one denies the validity of their ordination.—Palmer.

The descendants of the ancient Christians of the East, who still occupy the Oriental sees, are called the Greek Church. The Greek Church was not formerly so extensive as it has been since the emperors of the East thought proper to lessen or reduce the other patriarchates, in order to aggrandize that of Constantinople; a task which they accomplished with the greater ease, as they were much more powerful than the emperors of the West, and had little or no regard to the consent of the patriarchs, in order to create new bishoprics, or to confer new titles and privileges. Whereas, in the Western Church, the popes, by slow degrees, made themselves the sole arbiters in all ecclesiastical concerns; insomuch, that princes themselves at length became obliged to have recourse to them, and were subservient to their directions on every momentous occasion.

The Greek Churches, at present, deserve not even the name of the shadow of what they were in their former flourishing state, when they were so remarkably distinguished for the learned and worthy pastors who presided over them; but now nothing but wretchedness, ignorance, and poverty are visible amongst them. “I have seen churches,” says Ricaut, “which were more like caverns or sepulchres than places set apart for Divine worship; the tops thereof being almost level with the ground. They are erected after this humble manner for fear they should be suspected, if they raised them any considerable height, of an evil intention to rival the Turkish mosques.” It is, indeed, very surprising that, in the abject state to which the Greeks at present are reduced, the Christian religion should maintain the least footing amongst them. Their notions of Christianity are principally confined to the traditions of their forefathers and their own received customs; and, among other things, they are much addicted to external acts of piety and devotion, such as the observance of fasts, festivals, and penances: they revere and dread the censures of their clergy; and are bigoted slaves to their religious customs, many of which are absurd and ridiculous; and yet it must be acknowledged, that, although these errors reflect a considerable degree of scandal and reproach upon the holy religion they profess, they nevertheless prevent it from being entirely lost and abolished amongst them. A fire which lies for a time concealed under a heap of embers, may revive and burn again as bright as ever; and the same hope may be conceived of truth, when obscured by the dark clouds of ignorance and error.

Caucus, archbishop of Corfu, in his Dissertation on what he calls the erroneous doctrines of the modern Greeks, dedicated to Gregory XIII., has digested their tenets under the following heads:

I. They rebaptize all Romanists who are admitted into their communion.

II. They do not baptize their children till they are three, four, five, six, ten, and even sometimes eighteen years of age.

III. They exclude confirmation and extreme unction from the number of the sacraments.

IV. They deny there is any such place as purgatory, although they pray for the dead.

V. They deny the papal supremacy, and assert that the Church of Rome has abandoned the doctrines of her fathers.

191VI. They deny, by consequence, that the Church of Rome is the true Catholic mother Church, and on Holy Thursday excommunicate the pope and all the Latin prelates, as heretics and schismatics, praying that all those who offer up unleavened bread in the celebration of the sacrament may be covered with confusion.

VII. They deny that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son.

VIII. They refuse to receive the host consecrated by Romish priests with unleavened bread. They likewise wash the altars on which Romanists have celebrated mass, and will not suffer a Romish priest to officiate at their altars.

IX. They assert that the usual form of words, wherein the consecration, according to the Church of Rome, wholly consists, is not sufficient to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

X. They insist that the sacrament of the Lord’s supper ought to be administered in both kinds to infants, even before they are capable of distinguishing this spiritual food from any other, because it is a Divine institution. For which reason they give the eucharist to infants immediately after baptism, and look upon the Romanists as heretics for not observing the same custom.

XI. They hold that the laity are under an indispensable obligation, by the law of God, to receive the communion in both kinds, and look on the Romanists as heretics who maintain the contrary.

XII. They assert that no members of the Church, when they have attained to years of discretion, ought to be compelled to receive the communion every Easter, but should have free liberty to act according to the dictates of their own conscience.

XIII. They pay no religious homage, or veneration, to the holy sacrament of the eucharist, even at the celebration of their own priests; and use no lighted tapers when they administer it to the sick.

XIV. They are of opinion that such hosts as are consecrated on Holy Thursday are much more efficacious than those consecrated at other times.

XV. They maintain that matrimony is a union which may be dissolved. For which reason they charge the Church of Rome with being guilty of an error, in asserting that the bonds of marriage can never be broken, even in case of adultery, and that no person upon any provocation whatsoever can lawfully marry again.

XVI. They condemn all fourth marriages.

XVII. They refuse to celebrate the solemnities instituted by the Romish Church in honour of the Virgin Mary and the Saints. They reject likewise the religious use of graven images and statues, although they admit of pictures in their churches.

XVIII. They insist that the canon of the mass of the Roman Church ought to be abolished, as being full of errors.

XIX. They deny that usury is a mortal sin.

XX. They deny that the subdeaconry is at present a holy order.

XXI. Of all the general councils that have been held in the Catholic Church by the popes at different times, they pay no regard to any after the sixth, and reject not only the seventh, which was the second held at Nice, for the express purpose of condemning those who rejected the use of images in their Divine worship, but all those which have succeeded it, by which they refuse to submit to any of their institutions.

XXII. They deny auricular confession to be a Divine precept, and assert that it is only a positive injunction of the Church.

XXIII. They insist that the confession of the laity ought to be free and voluntary; for which reason they are not compelled to confess themselves annually, nor are they excommunicated for the neglect of it.

XXIV. They insist that in confession there is no Divine law which enjoins the acknowledgment of every individual sin, or a discovery of all the circumstances that attend it, which alter its nature and property.

XXV. They administer the communion to their laity both in sickness and in health, though they have never applied themselves to their confessors; the reason of which is, that they are persuaded all confessions should be free and voluntary, and that a lively faith is all the preparation that is requisite for the worthy receiving of the sacrament of the Lord’s supper.

XXVI. They look down with an eye of disdain on the Romanists for their observance of the vigils before the nativity of our blessed Saviour, and the festivals of the Virgin Mary and the apostles, as well as for their fasting in Ember-week. They even affect to eat meat more plentifully at those times than at any other, to testify their contempt of the Latin customs. They prohibit, likewise, all fasting on Saturdays, that preceding Easter only excepted.

XXVII. They condemn the Romanists as heretics, for eating such things as have been strangled, and such other meats as are prohibited in the Old Testament.

192XXVIII. They deny that simple fornication is a mortal sin.

XXIX. They insist that it is lawful to deceive an enemy, and that it is no sin to injure and oppress him.

XXX. They are of opinion that, in order to be saved, there is no necessity to make restitution of such goods as have been stolen or fraudulently obtained.

XXXI. To conclude: they hold that such as have been admitted into holy orders may become laymen at pleasure. From whence it plainly appears that they do not allow the character of the priesthood to be indelible. To which it may be added, that they approve of the marriage of their priests, provided they enter into that state before their admission into holy orders, though they are never indulged in that respect after their ordination.

The patriarch of Constantinople assumes the honourable title of Universal or Œcumenical Patriarch. As he purchases his commission of the Grand Seignior, it may be easily supposed that he makes a tyrannical and simoniacal use of a privilege which he holds himself by simony. The patriarchs and bishops are always single men; but the priests (as observed before) are indulged in marriage before ordination; and this custom, which is generally practised all over the Levant, is very ancient. Should a priest happen to marry after ordination, he can officiate no longer as priest, which is conformable to the injunctions of the Council of Neocesarea. The marriage, however, is not looked upon as invalid; whereas, in the Romish Church, such marriages are pronounced void and of no effect, because the priesthood is looked upon as a lawful bar or impediment.—Broughton.

Their Pappas, or secular priests, not having any settled and competent livings, are obliged to subsist by simoniacal practices. “The clergy,” says Ricaut, “are almost compelled to sell those Divine mysteries which are intrusted to their care. No one, therefore, can procure absolution, be admitted to confession, have his children baptized, be married or divorced, or obtain an excommunication against his adversary, or the communion in time of sickness, without first paying down a valuable consideration. The priests too often make the best market they can, and fix a price on their spiritual commodities in proportion to the devotion or abilities of their respective customers.”

The national Church of the kingdom of Greece has lately been reconstructed similarly to that of Russia, by the establishment of a synod.—See King’s Rites of the Greek Church, and Cowel’s Account of the Greek Church, 1722.

CHURCH, ARCHITECTURE OF. There seems to be an absurdity in the modern practice of building churches for the ritual of the nineteenth century, on the model of churches designed for the ritual of the fourteenth century. And for a service such as ours, nothing more is required than a nave and a chancel; the only divisions which we find in the primitive Eastern churches. But as we have inherited churches which were erected during the middle ages, it is rather important that we should understand their designed arrangement. We find in such churches a nave (navis) with its aisles (alæ); a chancel; a tower, generally at the west end; and a porch, generally to the second bay of the south aisle. The uses of the nave and chancel are obvious; the aisles were added in almost all cases perhaps, prospectively at least in all, that they might serve for places for the erection of chantry altars, and for the same end served the transepts and chancel aisles, or side chapels, to the chancels, sometimes found even in small churches. To the chancel, generally at the north, a vestry was often attached; and this was sometimes enlarged into a habitation for the officiating priest, by the addition of an upper chamber, with fire-place and other conveniences. But the more frequent place for this domus inclusa was over the porch, when it is commonly called parvise; and sometimes the tower has evidently been made habitable, though, in this case, it may be rather suspected that means of defence have been contemplated. In the domus inclusa, in the vestry, and in the parvise, was often an altar, which not unfrequently remains. (See Altar.)

The chancel was separated from the nave by a screen, cancelli, from which the word chancel is derived, and over the screen a loft was extended, bearing the rood—a figure of our blessed Lord on the cross, and, on either side, figures of the Blessed Virgin and of St. John. But few rood lofts remain, but the screen is of frequent occurrence, especially in the northern and eastern counties. The loft was generally gained by a newel stair running up the angle between the chancel and the nave, but sometimes apparently by moveable steps. The side chapels were generally parted off from the adjoining parts of the church by screens, called parcloses. The chancel, if any conventual body was attached to the church, was furnished with stalls, which were set against the north 193and south walls, and returned against the rood screen, looking east. Connected with the altar, and sometimes, also, with some of the chantry altars, were sedilia, in the south wall of the chancel, varying in number from one to five, for the officiating clergy; and, eastward of these, the piscina; also an aumbrie, or locker, in the north chancel wall. The altar and these accessories were generally raised at least one step above the level of the rest of the chancel floor, and the chancel itself the like height from the nave. The font stood against the first pillar to the left hand, entering at the south porch; it was often raised on steps, and furnished with an elaborate cover. (See Baptistery.) The pulpit always stood in the nave, generally against a north pillar in cathedrals; but in other churches, generally against a south pillar, towards the east. The seats for the congregation were placed in a double series along the nave, with an alley between, and looking east. There are a few instances of seats with doors, but none of high pews till the time of the Puritans.

The doors to the church were almost always opposite to one another in the second bay of the aisles: besides these, there was often a west door, and this is generally supposed to denote some connexion with a monastic body, and was, perhaps, especially used on occasions of greater pomp, processions, and the like. What is usually called the priest’s door, at the south side of the chancel, opens always from within, and was, therefore, not (as is usually supposed) for the priest to enter by: in which case, moreover, it would rather have been to the north, where the glebe house usually stands. Was it for the exit of those who had assisted at mass? A little bell-cot is often seen over the nave and altar, or on some other part of the church, called the service-bell-cot; for the bell rung at certain solemn parts of the service of the mass; as at the words “Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus Deus Sabaoth,” and at the elevation of the Host. If, as is supposed, those who were not in the church were accustomed to kneel at this time, there is an obvious reason for the external position of this bell.

CHURCHING OF WOMEN. The birth of man is so truly wonderful, that it seems to be designed as a standing demonstration of the omnipotence of God. And therefore that the frequency of it may not diminish our admiration, the Church orders a public and solemn acknowledgment to be made on every such occasion by the woman on whom the miracle is wrought; who still feels the bruise of our first parents’ fall, and labours under the curse which Eve then entailed upon her whole sex.

As to the original of this custom, it is not to be doubted but that, as many other Christian usages received their rise from other parts of the Jewish economy, so did this from the rite of purification, which is enjoined so particularly in the twelfth chapter of Leviticus. Not that we observe it by virtue of that precept, which we grant to have been ceremonial, and so not now of any force; but because we apprehend some moral duty to have been implied in it by way of analogy, which must be obligatory upon all, even when the ceremony is ceased. The uncleanness of the woman, the set number of days she is to abstain from the tabernacle, and the sacrifices she was to offer when she first came abroad, are rites wholly abolished, and what we no ways regard; but then the open and solemn acknowledgment of God’s goodness in delivering the mother, and increasing the number of mankind, is a duty that will oblige to the end of the world. And therefore, though the mother be now no longer obliged to offer the material sacrifices of the law, yet she is nevertheless bound to offer the evangelical sacrifice of praise. She is still publicly to acknowledge the blessing vouchsafed her, and to profess her sense of the fresh obligation it lays her under to obedience. Nor indeed may the Church be so reasonably supposed to have taken up this rite from the practice of the Jews, as she may be, that she began it in imitation of the Blessed Virgin, who, though she was rather sanctified than defiled by the birth of our Lord, and so had no need of purification from any uncleanness, whether legal or moral; yet wisely and humbly submitted to this rite, and offered her praise, together with her blessed Son, in the temple. And that from hence this usage was derived among Christians seems probable, not only from its being so universal and ancient, that the beginning of it can hardly anywhere be found; but also from the practice of the Eastern Church, where the mother still brings the child along with her, and presents it to God on her churching-day. The priest indeed is there said to “purify” them: and in our first Common Prayer, this office with us was entitled “the Order of the Purification of Women.” But that neither of these terms implied, that the woman had contracted any uncleanness in her state of child-bearing, may not only be inferred from the silence of the offices both in the Greek Church and ours, in 194relation to any uncleanness; but is also further evident from the ancient laws relating to this practice, which by no means ground it upon any impurity from which the woman stands in need to be purged. And therefore, when our own liturgy came to be reviewed, to prevent all misconstructions that might be put upon the word, the title was altered, and the office named, (as it is still in our present Common Prayer Book,) “The Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth, commonly called, The Churching of Women.”—Dean Comber, Wheatly.

When Holy Scripture describes excessive sorrow in the most expressive manner, it likens it to that of a woman in travail. And if this sorrow be so excessive, how great must the joy be to be delivered from that sorrow! commensurate certainly, and of adequate proportion: and no less must be the debt of thankfulness to the benefactor, the donor of that recovery; whence a necessity of “thanksgiving of women after child-birth.” If it be asked, why the Church hath appointed a particular form for this deliverance, and not for deliverance from other cases of equal danger? the answer is, the Church did not so much take measure of the peril, as accommodate herself to that mark of separation which God himself hath put between this and other maladies. “To conceive and bring forth in sorrow” was signally inflicted upon Eve; and, in her, upon all mothers, as a penalty for her first disobedience (Gen. iii. 16); so that the sorrows of child-birth have, by God’s express determination, a more direct and peculiar reference to Eve’s disobedience than any other disease whatsoever; and, though all maladies are the product of the first sin, yet is the malediction specifically fixed and applied to this alone. Now, when that which was ordained primarily as a curse for the first sin, is converted to so great a blessing, God is certainly in that case more to be praised in a set and solemn office.—L’ Estrange.

In the Greek Church the time for performing this office is limited to be on the fortieth day; but, in the West, the time was never strictly determined. And so our present rubric does not pretend to limit the day when the woman shall be churched, but only supposes that she will come “at the usual time after her delivery.” The “usual time” is now about a month, for the woman’s weakness will seldom permit her coming sooner. And if she be not able to come so soon, she is allowed to stay a longer time, the Church not expecting her to return her thanks for a blessing before it is received.—Wheatly.

It is required, that whenever a woman is churched, she “shall come into the church.” And this is enjoined, first, for the honour of God, whose marvellous works in the formation of the child, and the preservation of the woman, ought publicly to be owned, that so others may learn to put their trust in him. Secondly, that the whole congregation may have a fit opportunity for praising God for the too much forgotten mercy of their birth. And, thirdly, that the woman may, in the proper place, own the mercy now vouchsafed her, of being restored to the happy privilege of worshipping God in the congregation of his saints.

How great, therefore, is the absurdity which some would introduce, of stifling their acknowledgments in private houses, and of giving thanks for their recovery and enlargement in no other place than that of their confinement and restraint; a practice which is inconsistent with the very name of this office, which is called “the churching of women,” and which consequently implies a ridiculous solecism, of being churched at home. Nor is it anything more consistent with the end and devotions prescribed by this office, than it is with the name of it. For with what decency or propriety can the woman pretend to “pay her vows in the presence of all God’s people, in the courts of the Lord’s house,” when she is only assuming state in a bedchamber or parlour, and perhaps only accompanied with her midwife or nurse? To give thanks, therefore, at home (for by no means call it “churching”) is not only an act of disobedience to the Church, but a high affront to Almighty God; whose mercy they scorn to acknowledge in a church, and think it honour enough done him, if he is summoned by his priest to wait on them at their house, and to take what thanks they will vouchsafe him there. But methinks a minister, who has any regard for his character, and considers the honour of the Lord he serves, should disdain such a servile compliance and submission, and abhor the betraying of his Master’s dignity. Here can be no pretence of danger in the case, should the woman prove obstinate, upon the priest’s refusal (which ministers are apt to urge for their excuse, when they are prevailed upon to give public baptism in private); nor is the decision of a council wanting to instruct him, (if he has any doubts upon account of the woman’s ill health,) that he is not to perform this office at home, though 195she be really so weak as not to be able to come to church.—Conc. 3, Mediol. cap. 5. For if she be not able to come to church, let her stay till she is; God does not require any thanks for a mercy, before he has vouchsafed it: but if she comes as soon as her strength permits, she discharges her obligations both to him and the Church.—Wheatly.

The rubric, at the end of the service, directs the woman that cometh to give her thanks, to offer the accustomed offerings. By “the accustomed offerings” is to be understood some offering to the minister who performs the office, not under the notion of a fee or reward, but of something set apart as a tribute or acknowledgment due to God, who is pleased to declare himself honoured or robbed according as such offerings are paid or withheld. We see under the law, that every woman, who came to be purified after child-bearing, was required to bring something that put her to an expense; even the poorest among them was not wholly excused, but obliged to do something, though it were but small. And though neither the kind nor the value of the expense be now prescribed, yet sure the expense itself should not covetously be saved: a woman that comes with any thankfulness or gratitude should scorn to offer what David disdained, namely, “of that which costs nothing.” And indeed with what sincerity or truth can she say, as she is directed to do in one of the Psalms, “I will pay my vows now in the presence of all his people,” if at the same time she designs no voluntary offering, which vows were always understood to imply?

But, besides the accustomed offering to the minister, the woman is to make a yet much better and greater offering, namely, an offering of herself, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice to God. For the rubric declares, that “if there be a communion, it is convenient that she receive the holy communion;” that being the most solemn way of praising God for him by whom she received both the present and all other God’s mercies towards her; and a means also to bind herself more strictly to spend those days in his service, which, by this late deliverance, he hath added to her life.—Wheatly.

In the Greek and Ethiopic Churches women upon these occasions always did receive the holy sacrament; and it seems in this very Church above a thousand years ago; and still we carry them up to the altar to remind them of their duty. And doubtless the omission of it occasions the too soon forgetting of this mercy, and the sudden falling off from piety, which we see in too many. Here they may praise God for our Lord Jesus Christ, and for this late temporal mercy also: here they may quicken their graces, seal their vows and promises of obedience, offer their charity, and begin that pious life to which they are so many ways obliged. To receive the sacrament, while the sense of God’s goodness and her own engagements is so fresh upon her, is the likeliest means to make her remember this blessing long, apply it right, and effectually to profit by it. Wherefore let it not be omitted on this occasion.—Dean Comber.

The woman is directed to kneel down in “some convenient place, as hath been accustomed.” No general rule is either prescribed or observed as to time or place, and therefore these are matters which fall within the office of the ordinary to determine. Many read the office just before the General Thanksgiving: others, though not so usually, at some part of the Communion Service; some at the altar, others at the desk: the woman in some churches occupies a seat specially set apart for this office; in others she kneels at the altar table, and there makes her offering. And in others a custom prevails (which does not seem worthy of imitation) of performing this service at some time distinct from the office of Common Prayer.

CHURCH RATE. (See Rate.)

CHURCHWARDENS. These are very ancient officers, and by the common law are a lay corporation, to take care of the goods of the church, and may sue and be sued as the representatives of the parish. Churches are to be repaired by the churchwardens, at the charge of all the inhabitants, or such as occupy houses or lands within the parish.

In the ancient episcopal synods, the bishops were wont to summon divers creditable persons out of every parish, to give information of, and to attest the disorders of clergy and people. They were called testes synodales; and were, in after times, a kind of empanelled jury, consisting of two, three, or more persons in every parish, who were, upon oath, to present all heretics and other irregular persons. And these, in process of time, became standing officers in several places, especially in great cities, and from hence were called synods-men, and by corruption sidesmen: they are also sometimes called questmen, from the nature of their office, in making inquiry concerning offences. And these sidesmen or questmen, by Canon 90, are to be chosen yearly in Easter week, 196by the minister and parishioners, (if they can agree,) otherwise to be appointed by the ordinary of the diocese. But for the most part this whole office is now devolved upon the churchwardens, together with that other office which their name more properly imports, of taking care of the church and the goods thereof, which has long been their function.

By Canon 118. The churchwardens and sidesmen shall be chosen the first week after Easter, or some week following, according to the direction of the ordinary.

And by Canon 89. All churchwardens or questmen in every parish shall be chosen by the joint consent of the minister and the parishioners, if it may be; but if they cannot agree upon such a choice, then the minister shall choose one, and the parishioners another; and without such a joint or several choice, none shall take upon them to be churchwardens. But if the parish is entitled by custom to choose both churchwardens, then the parson is restrained of his right under this canon. For further information on this subject the reader is referred to Dean Prideaux’s “Practical Guide to the Duties of Churchwardens in the execution of their Office,” a new edition of which has recently appeared, edited by C. G. Prideaux, barrister-at-law. (See Sidesmen and Visitation.)

CHURCHYARD. The ground adjoining to the church, in which the dead are buried. As to the original of burial-places, many writers have observed, that, at the first erection of churches, no part of the adjacent ground was allotted for the interment of the dead; but some place for this purpose was appointed at a further distance. This practice continued until the time of Gregory the Great, when the monks and priests procured leave, for their greater ease and profit, that a liberty of sepulture might be in churches or places adjoining to them. But, by the ninth canon, entitled De non sepeliendo in ecclesiis, this custom of sepulture in churches was restrained, and no such liberty allowed for the future, unless the person was a priest or some holy man, who, by the merits of his past life, might deserve such peculiar favour.

By Canon 85. The churchwardens or questmen shall take care that the churchyards be well and sufficiently repaired, fenced, and maintained with walls, rails, or pales, as have been in each place accustomed, at their charges unto whom by law the same appertains.

The churchyard is the freehold of the parson: but it is the common burial-place of the dead, and for that reason it is to be fenced at the charge of the parishioners, unless there is a custom to the contrary, or for a particular person to do it, in respect of his lands adjoining to the churchyard; and that must be tried at common law. But though the freehold is in the parson, he cannot cut down trees growing there, except for the necessary repairs of the chancel; because they are planted and grow there for the ornament and shelter of the church. (See Burial and Cemetery.)

CIBORIUM. A small temple or tabernacle placed upon the altar of Roman Catholic churches, and containing the consecrated wafer.

CIRCUMCELLIONS. A sect of the Donatist Christians in Africa, in the fourth century, being so called, because they rambled from one town to another, and pretended to public reformation and redressing of grievances; they manumitted slaves without their master’s leave, forgave debts which were none of their own, and committed a great many other insolencies: they were headed by Maxides and Faser. At the beginning of their disorders they marched only with staves, which they called the staves of Israel, in allusion to the custom of the Israelites eating the paschal lamb with staves in their hands, but afterwards they made use of all sorts of arms against the Catholics. Donatus called them the saints’ chiefs, and revenged himself by their means upon the Catholics. A mistaken zeal for martyrdom made these people destroy themselves; some of them threw themselves down precipices, others leaped into the fire, and some cut their own throats: so that their bishops, not being able to prevent such horrible and unnatural violences, were obliged to apply themselves to the magistracy to put an end to their phrensy.—August. Hæres, 69; Optatus, lib. iii.; Theod. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. c. 6.

CIRCUMCISION of JESUS CHRIST. This feast is celebrated by the Church, to commemorate the active obedience of our Lord in fulfilling all righteousness, which is one branch of the meritorious cause of our redemption; and by that means abrogating the severe injunctions of the Mosaical establishment, and putting us under the grace of the gospel. The institution of this feast is of very considerable antiquity. In the sixth century a special and appropriate service for it was in use. It sometimes took the name of the “Octave of Christmas,” or the eighth day from that festival, being observed on January 1st. (See Octave.) It is one of the scarlet 197days at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

CISTERCIANS. Towards the conclusion of the 11th century, Robert, abbot of Molême, in Burgundy, having employed, in vain, his most zealous efforts to revive the decaying piety and discipline of his convent, and to oblige his monks to observe more exactly the rule of St. Benedict, retired with about twenty monks to a place called Citeaux, in the diocese of Chalons. In this retreat Robert founded the famous order of the Cistercians, which made a most rapid and astonishing progress, spread through the greatest part of Europe in the following century, was enriched with the most liberal and splendid donations, acquired the form and privileges of a spiritual republic, and exercised a sort of dominion over all the monastic orders. The great and fundamental law of this new fraternity was the rule of St. Benedict, which was to be rigorously observed. (See Benedictines.) To this were added several other injunctions intended to maintain the authority of the rule. The first Cistercian monastery in England was that of Waverley, in Surrey, 1129. In the reign of Edward I. there were sixty-one Cistercian monasteries.—Monast. Angl.; Hist. des Ord. Relig. tom. v. c. 33.

CITATION. This is a precept under the seal of the ecclesiastical judge, commanding the person against whom the complaint is made to appear before him, on a certain day, and at a certain place therein mentioned, to answer the complaint in such a cause, &c.

CLAIRE, ST. A religious order of women in the Romish Church, the second that St. Francis instituted. This order was founded in 1213, and was confirmed by Innocent III., and after him by Honorius III., in 1223. It took its name from its first abbess and nun, Clara of Assisi, and was afterwards divided into Damianists and Urbanists; the first follow the ancient discipline in all its rigour, but the other the rule with Urban IV.’s allowance.—Hist. des Ord. Relig. t. vii. c. 25.

CLARENDON, CONSTITUTIONS OF. Certain constitutions made in the reign of Henry II., A. D. 1164, in a parliament or council held at Clarendon, a village three miles distant from Salisbury. These are as follows:—

I. When any difference relating to the right of patronage arises between the laity, or between the laity and clergy, the controversy is to be tried and ended in the king’s courts.

II. Those churches which are fees of the Crown cannot be granted away in perpetuity without the king’s consent.

III. When the clergy are charged with any misdemeanour, and summoned by the justiciary, they shall be obliged to make their appearance in his court, and plead to such parts of the indictments as shall be put to them. And likewise to answer such articles in the ecclesiastical court as they shall be prosecuted for by that jurisdiction; always provided that the king’s justiciary shall send an officer to inspect the proceedings of the court Christian. And in case any clerk is convicted or pleads guilty, he is to forfeit the privilege of his character, and be protected by the Church no longer.

IV. No archbishops, bishops, or parsons are allowed to depart the kingdom without a licence from the Crown; and, provided they have leave to travel, they shall give security not to act or solicit anything during their passage, stay, or return, to the prejudice of the king or kingdom.

V. When any of the laity are prosecuted in the ecclesiastical courts, the charge ought to be proved before the bishop by legal and reputable witnesses: and the course of the process is to be so managed, that the archdeacon may not lose any part of his right, or the profits accruing to his office: and if any offenders appear screened from prosecution upon the score either of favour or quality, the sheriff, at the bishop’s instance, shall order twelve sufficient men of the vicinage to make oath before the bishop, that they will discover the truth according to the best of their knowledge.

VI. Excommunicated persons shall not be obliged to make oath, or give security to continue upon the place where they live, but only to abide by the judgment of the Church, in order to their absolution.

VII. No person that holds in chief of the king, or any of his barons, shall be excommunicated, or any of their estates put under an interdict, before application made to the king, provided he is in the kingdom: and in case his Highness is out of England, then the justiciary must be acquainted with the dispute, in order to make satisfaction: and thus that which belongs to the cognizance of the king’s court must be tried there, and that which belongs to the courts Christian must be remitted to that jurisdiction.

VIII. In case of appeals in ecclesiastical causes, the first step is to be made from the archdeacon to the bishop, and from the bishop to the archbishop; and if the archbishop fails to do him justice, a further recourse may be had to the king; by whose 198order the controversy is to be finally decided in the archbishop’s court. Neither shall it be lawful for either of the parties to move for any further remedy without leave from the Crown.

IX. If a difference happen to arise between any clergyman and layman concerning any tenement; and that the clerk pretends it held by frank-almoine, and the layman pleads it a lay-fee, in this case the tenure shall be tried by the inquiry and verdict of twelve sufficient men of the neighbourhood, summoned according to the custom of the realm; and if the tenement, or thing in controversy, shall be found frank-almoine, the dispute concerning it shall be tried in the ecclesiastical court; but if it is brought in a lay-fee, the suit shall be followed in the king’s courts, unless both the plaintiff and defendant hold the tenement in question of the same bishop; in which case the cause shall be tried in the court of such bishop or baron, with this further proviso, that he who is seized of the thing in controversy shall not be disseized pending the suit, upon the score of the verdict above-mentioned.

X. He who holds of the king in any city, castle, or borough, or resides upon any of the demesne lands of the Crown, in case he is cited by the archdeacon or bishop to answer to any misbehaviour belonging to their cognizance; if he refuses to obey their summons, and stand to the sentence of the court, it shall be lawful for the ordinary to put him under an interdict, but not to excommunicate him till the king’s principal officer of the town shall be pre-acquainted with the case, in order to enjoin him to make satisfaction to the Church. And if such officer or magistrate shall fail in his duty, he shall be fined by the king’s judges. And then the bishop may exert his discipline on the refractory person as he thinks fit.

XI. All archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastical persons, who hold of the king in chief, and the tenure of a barony, are, for that reason, obliged to appear before the king’s justices and ministers, to answer the duties of their tenure, and to observe all the usages and customs of the realm; and, like other barons, are bound to be present at trials in the king’s court, till sentence is to be pronounced for the losing of life or limbs.

XII. When any archbishopric, bishopric, abbey, or priory of royal foundation, becomes vacant, the king is to make seizure; from which time all the profits and issues are to be paid into the exchequer, as if they were the demesne lands of the Crown. And when it is determined the vacancy shall be filled up, the king is to summon the most considerable persons of the chapter to the court, and the election is to be made in the chapel royal, with the consent of our sovereign lord the king, and by the advice of such persons of the government as his Highness shall think fit to make use of. At which time the person elected, before his consecration, shall be obliged to do homage and fealty to the king, as his liege lord; which homage shall be performed in the usual form, with a clause for the saving the privilege of his order.

XIII. If any of the temporal barons, or great men, shall encroach upon the rights of property of any archbishop, bishop, or archdeacon, and refuse to make satisfaction for the wrong done by themselves or their tenants, the king shall do justice to the party aggrieved. And if any person shall disseise the king of any part of his lands, or trespass upon his prerogative, the archbishops, bishops, and archdeacons shall call him to an account, and oblige him to make the Crown restitution.

XIV. The goods and chattels of those who lie under forfeitures of felony or treason, are not to be detained in any church or churchyard, to secure them against seizure and justice; because such goods are the king’s property, whether they are lodged within the precincts of a church, or without it.

XV. All actions and pleas of debt, though never so solemn in the circumstances of the contract, shall be tried in the king’s court.

XVI. The sons of copyholders are not to be ordained without the consent of the lord of the manor where they were born.

CLERESTORY. That part of a church with aisles which rises on the nave arches over the aisle roofs. Constructively, the clerestory is often to be referred to the roof. The original roof of small, and sometimes even of large, churches usually covered nave and aisles at one span. When the original roof needed repair, the old timbers were made available by cutting off the ends which had suffered most. But this process rendered them unfit for a compass roof of high pitch. An addition, therefore, was made to the walls of the nave, by which the roof might rise as high as before in the centre, though of lower pitch.

CLERGY. (See Bishop, Presbyter, Priest, Deacon, Apostolical Succession, Orders.) The general name given to the body of ecclesiastics of the Christian Church, 199in contradistinction to the laity. It is derived from κλῆρος, a lot or portion.

The distinction of Christians into clergy and laity was derived from the Jewish Church, and adopted into the Christian by the apostles themselves. Wherever any number of converts was made, as soon as they were capable of being formed into a congregation or church, a bishop or presbyter, with a deacon, were ordained to minister to them, as Epiphanius relates from the ancient histories of the Church. The author of the Comment on St. Paul’s Epistles, under the name of St. Ambrose, says, indeed, that at first all Christ’s disciples were clergy, and had all a general commission to preach the gospel and baptize: but this was in order to convert the world, and before any multitude of people were gathered, or churches founded, wherein to make a distinction. But, as soon as the Church began to spread itself over the world, and sufficient numbers were converted to form themselves into a regular society, then rulers, and other ecclesiastical officers, were appointed among them, and a distinction made that each might not interfere with the other.

The clergy, originally, consisted only of bishops, priests, and deacons; but, in the third century, many inferior orders were appointed, as subservient to the office of deacon, such as subdeacons, acolyths, readers, &c.

There is another name for the clergy, very commonly to be met with in the ancient councils, which is that of canonici: a name derived from the Greek word κάνων, which signifies, among other things, the roll or catalogue of every church, in which the names of the ecclesiastics, belonging to each church, were written.

The privileges and immunities which the clergy of the primitive Christian Church enjoyed, deserve our notice. In the first place, whenever they travelled upon necessary occasions, they were to be entertained by their brethren of the clergy, in all places, out of the public revenues of the Church. When any bishop or presbyter came to a foreign Church, they were to be complimented with the honorary privilege of performing divine offices, and consecrating the eucharist in the church. If any controversies happened among the clergy, they freely consented to have them determined by their bishops and councils, without having recourse to the secular magistrate for justice. The great care the clergy had of the characters and reputations of those of their order appears from hence, that, in all accusations, especially against bishops, they required the testimony of two or three witnesses, according to the apostle’s rule; they likewise examined the character of the witnesses, before their testimony was admitted; nor would they suffer a heretic to give evidence against a clergyman. These instances relate to the respect which the clergy mutually paid to each other.

With regard to the respect paid to the clergy by the civil government, it consisted chiefly in exempting them from some kind of obligations, to which others were liable, and in granting them certain privileges and immunities which others did not enjoy. Thus, by a law of Justinian, no secular judge could compel a bishop to appear in a public court, to give his testimony, but was to send one of his officers to take it from his mouth in private; nor was a bishop obliged to give his testimony upon oath, but only upon his bare word. Presbyters, we find, were privileged from being questioned by torture, as other witnesses were. But a still more extensive privilege was, the exemption of the clergy from the ordinary cognizance of the secular courts in all causes purely ecclesiastical; such being reserved for the hearing of the bishops and councils, not only by the canons of the Church, but by the laws of the state also; as appears from several rescripts of the emperors Constantius, Valentinian, Gratian, Theodosius the Great, Arcadius and Honorius, Valentinian II., and Justinian.

Another privilege, which the clergy enjoyed by the favour of Christian princes, was, that, in certain cases, they were exempt from some of the taxes laid upon the rest of the Roman empire. In the first place, they were exempt from the census capitum, or personal tribute, but not from the census agrorum, or tribute arising from men’s lands and possessions. In the next place they were not obliged to pay the aurum tironicum, soldiers’ money, nor the equorum canonicorum adæratio, horse money; which were taxes laid on some provinces, for furnishing the emperor with new levies, and fresh horses, for the wars. A third tax from which the clergy was exempt was the χρυσάργυροι, the silver and gold tax, which was laid upon trade and commerce; and the fourth, the metatum, so called from the word metatores, which signifies the emperor’s forerunners or harbingers; being a duty incumbent on the subjects of the empire to give entertainment to the emperor’s court and retinue, when they travelled. The clergy were also exempt from contributing to the reparation 200of highways and bridges, and from the duties called angariæ and parangariæ, &c., by which the subjects were obliged to furnish horses and carriages for the conveying of corn for the use of the army.

Another sort of immunity which the clergy enjoyed, was their exemption from civil offices in the Roman empire. But this privilege was confined to such of the clergy as had no estates, but what belonged to the Church by the laws of Constantine. For the Christian princes always made a wide difference between the public patrimony of the Church, and the private estates of such of the clergy as had lands of a civil or secular tenure. For the one, the clergy were obliged to no duty or burden of civil offices; but for the other, they were, and could not be excused from them otherwise than by providing proper substitutes to officiate for them.

After this account of the privileges of the ancient Christian clergy, it may not be improper to take some notice of the principal laws made for the regulation of their lives and conversations.

And, first, we may observe what sort of crimes were thought worthy of degradation. It was not every slight failing or infirmity, for which a clergyman was degraded, but only crimes of a deeper dye, such as theft, murder, fraud, perjury, sacrilege, and adultery: to which may be added, drinking and gaming, those two great consumers of time, and enemies to all noble undertakings and generous services; as, also, the taking of money upon usury, which is condemned by many of the ancient canons as a species of covetousness and cruelty. And therefore, instead of lending upon usury, the clergy were obliged to be exemplary for the contrary virtues, hospitality and charity to the poor, frugality, and a contempt of the world. And, to guard against defamation and scandal, it was enacted by the canons of several councils, that no bishops, presbyters, or deacons should visit widows and virgins alone, but in the company and presence of some other of the clergy, or some grave Christians.

With regard to the laws, more particularly relating to the exercise of the duties and offices of their function, the clergy were, in the first place, obliged to lead studious lives. But it was not all sorts of studies that were equally recommended to them: the principal was the study of the Holy Scriptures, as being the fountains of that learning, which was most proper for their calling. Next to the Scriptures, they were to study the canons of the Church, and the best ecclesiastical authors. In after ages, in the time of Charles the Great, we find some laws obliging the clergy to read, together with the canons, Gregory’s book “De Cura Pastorali.” As to other books, they were more cautious and sparing in the study and use of them. Some canons forbad a bishop to read heathen authors; nor was he allowed to read heretical books, except when there was occasion to confute them, or to caution others against the poison of them. But the prohibition of heathen learning was to be understood with a little qualification. It was only forbidden so far as it tended to the neglect of Scripture and more useful studies. We pass over the obligations incumbent on them to attend the daily service of the Church, to be pious and devout in their public addresses to God, to be zealous in defending the truth, and maintaining the unity of the Church, &c.

By the ecclesiastical laws, no clergyman was allowed to relinquish or desert his station without just grounds and leave: yet, in some cases, resignation was allowed of,—such as old age, sickness, or other infirmity. No clergyman was to remove from one diocese to another, without the consent, and letters dimissory, of his own bishop. The laws were no less severe against all wandering clergymen, or such as, having deserted their own church, would fix in no other, but went roving from place to place: these some of the ancients called βακαντιβοι or Vacantivi. By the laws of the Church, the bishops were not to permit such to officiate in their dioceses, nor indeed so much as to communicate in their churches. Other laws there were, which obliged the clergy to residence, or a constant attendance upon their duty. The Council of Sardica has several canons relating to this matter. Others inhibited pluralities, or the officiating in two parochial churches. In pursuance of the same design, of keeping the clergy strict and constant to their duty, laws were also made to prohibit them following any secular employment, which might divert them too much from their proper business and calling. In some times and places, the laws of the Church were so strict about this matter, that they would not suffer a bishop, or presbyter, to be left trustee to any man’s will. By other laws they were prohibited from taking upon them the office of pleading at the bar in any civil contest.

Another sort of laws respected the outward behaviour of the clergy. Such were 201the laws against corresponding and conversing too freely with Jews, and Gentile philosophers; and the canons which restrained them from eating and drinking in a tavern, or being present at the public theatres. To this sort of laws we may reduce the ancient rules which concern the garb and habit of the clergy; which were to be such as might express the gravity of their minds, without any affectation, or superstitious singularity. As to the kind or fashion of their apparel, it does not appear, for several ages, that there was any other distinction observed therein between them and the laity, than the modesty and gravity of their garb, without being tied to any certain habit, or form of dress.

These were the principal laws and regulations by which the clergy of the primitive Christian Church were governed; and it is remarkable, that the apostate emperor Julian was so convinced of their excellency, that he had a design of reforming the heathen priesthood upon the model of the Christian clergy.

The clergy of the Church of Rome are distinguished into regular and secular. The regular clergy consist of those monks, or religious, who have taken upon them holy orders, and perform the offices of the priesthood in their respective monasteries. The secular clergy are those who are not of any religious order, and have the care and direction of parishes. The canons of such cathedrals as were not monastic foundations were so called; i.e. secular canons. In the Saxon times these might be married. The Protestant clergy are all seculars.

The Romish Church forbids the clergy of her communion to marry, and pretends that a vow of perpetual celibacy, or abstinence from conjugal society, was required of the clergy, as a condition of their ordination, even from the apostolical ages. But the contrary is evident from innumerable examples of bishops and presbyters, who lived, in those early ages, in a state of matrimony.—Bingham. (See Celibacy.)

CLERK. This word is in fact only an abbreviation of the word clericus, or clergyman. It is still used, in a few instances, to designate clergymen: as clerk of the king’s closet, clerks in orders in certain parish churches. In foreign churches, it is usually applied to the ministers in minor orders. But it is now used to designate certain laymen, who are appointed to conduct or lead the responses of the congregation, and otherwise to assist in the services of the church. In most cathedrals and collegiate churches, and in some colleges, there are several of these lay clerks (see Vicar Choral, Secondary, and Stipendiary); in parish churches, generally, there is but one, who is styled the parish clerk. These were, originally, real clerks, i. e. clergymen, generally in minor orders, who assisted the officiating priest. But the minor orders have long ceased to be conferred, except as symbolical steps towards the higher grades of the ministry; so that in countries of the Romish communion, as well as among ourselves, the office which used to be performed by one or more clergymen has devolved upon laymen. There can be little doubt that, in parishes where there are more than one clergyman resident, the duties of the parish clerk should be performed by them, especially in leading the responses, singing, giving notices, &c.; but long custom has so familiarized us to the services of a lay-clerk, that we permit him, as of right, to do even in the presence of the clergy what, strictly speaking, belongs to the clerical office. It is a great fault in a congregation when they permit the lay-clerk to do more than lead them in the responses or their singing. The eighteenth canon directs all persons, man, woman, and child, to say in their due places, audibly with the minister, the Confession, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Creed, and make such other answers to the public prayer as are appointed in the Book of Common Prayer; and the laity forfeit a high privilege when they leave their share of the service to the lay-clerk alone.

Clerks are mentioned in the Prayer Book in the Rubric before the second occurrence of the Lord’s Prayer, in Morning and Evening Prayer: “The minister, clerks, and people shall say the Lord’s Prayer with a loud voice:” in the Marriage Service, “The minister and clerks, going to the Lord’s table, shall say or sing this Psalm following:” in the Burial Service, “The priest and clerks meeting the corpse at the entrance of the churchyard, &c., shall say or sing:” and when they are come to the grave, “The priest shall say, or the priest and clerks shall sing:” and in the Commination Service, “The priest and clerks, kneeling, (in the place where they are accustomed to say the Litany,) shall say this Psalm, Miserere mei, Deus.” The clerk in the singular number is mentioned but once only, which is in the Marriage Service; where the man is directed to lay the ring on the book “with the accustomed duty to the priest and clerk.”—Jebb.

Canon 91. Parish clerks to be chosen by 202the minister.—No parish clerk upon any vacation shall be chosen, within the city of London, or elsewhere within the province of Canterbury, but by the parson or vicar: or, where there is no parson or vicar, by the minister of that place for the time being; which choice shall be signified by the said minister, vicar, or parson, to the parishioners the next Sunday following, in the time of Divine service. And the said clerk shall be of twenty years of age at the least, and known to the said parson, vicar, or minister, to be of honest conversation, and sufficient for his reading, writing, and also for his competent skill in singing, if it may be. And the said clerks so chosen shall have and receive their ancient wages without fraud or diminution, either at the hands of the churchwarden, at such times as hath been accustomed, or by their own collection, according to the most ancient custom of every parish.

Since the making of this canon, the right of putting in the parish clerk has often been contested between incumbents and parishioners, and prohibitions prayed, and always obtained, to the spiritual court, for maintaining the authority of the canon in favour of the incumbent, against the plea of custom in behalf of the parishioners.

All incumbents once had the right of nomination of the parish clerks, by the common law and custom of the realm.

Parish clerks, after having been duly chosen and appointed, are usually licensed by the ordinary. And when they are licensed, they are sworn to obey the minister.

By a recent regulation, (7 & 8 Vict. c. 59,) persons in holy orders may be appointed to the office of parish clerk, which is to be held under the same tenure as that of a stipendiary curacy. Lay-clerks may also be dismissed by the minister, without the intervention of a mandamus from the Queen’s Bench.

By 7 & 8 Wm. III. c. 35, a parish clerk, for assisting at a marriage, without banns or licence, shall forfeit five pounds for every such offence.

CLINIC BAPTISM. Baptism on a sick bed (κλινη) was so called in the primitive Church. In the earlier ages of Christianity certain solemn days were set apart for the administration of holy baptism, and only on extraordinary occasions were converts baptized, except on one or other of those days; but if one already a candidate for baptism fell sick, and if his life was endangered, he was allowed to receive clinic baptism. There was, however, a kind of clinics to whom great suspicion attached; some persons who were converts to the doctrines of Christianity would not be baptized while in health and vigour, because of the greater holiness of life to which they would account themselves pledged, and because they thought that baptism administered on their death-bed would wash away the sins of their life. Such persons, though they recovered after their baptism, were held to be under several disabilities, and especially they were not admitted as candidates for holy orders.

CLOISTER. (See Monastery.) A covered walk, not unusually occupying the four sides of a quadrangle, which is almost an invariable appendage to a monastic or ancient collegiate residence. The most beautiful cloister remaining in England is at Gloucester cathedral. Several of the cathedrals which were not monastic have or had cloisters; as York, old St. Paul’s, Chichester, Exeter, Hereford, Lincoln, Salisbury, Wells; formerly St. Patrick’s in Dublin; and some colleges, as New College, Magdalen, and Corpus at Oxford; Winchester College. A cloister was projected for King’s College by the founder, but never executed. St. George’s Chapel at Windsor has also a cloister.

CLUNIAC MONKS. Religious of the order of Clugni. It is the first branch of the order of St. Benedict.

St. Bernon, abbot of Gigniac, of the family of the earls of Burgundy, was the founder of this order. In the year 910, he built a monastery for the reception of Benedictine monks, in the town of Clugni, situated in the Maconnois, a little province of France, on the river Saone. The noble abbey of Clugni was destroyed in 1789.

The monks of Clugni (or Cluni) were remarkable for their sanctity. They every day sang two solemn masses. They so strictly observed silence, that they would rather have died than break it before the hour of prime. When they were at work, they recited psalms. They fed eighteen poor persons every day, and were so profuse of their charity in Lent, that one year, at the beginning of Lent, they distributed salt meat, and other alms, among 7000 poor.

The preparation they used for making the bread which was to serve for the eucharist is worthy to be observed. They first chose the wheat grain by grain, and washed it very carefully. Then a servant carried it in a bag to the mill, and washed the grindstones, and covered them with curtains. The meal was afterwards washed in clean water, and baked in iron moulds.

The extraordinary discipline observed in 203the monasteries of Clugni soon spread its fame in all parts. France, Germany, England, Spain, and Italy, desired to have some of these religious, for whom they built new monasteries. They also passed into the East; and there was scarcely a place in Europe where the order was not known.

The principal monasteries in which the discipline and rules of Clugni were observed, were those of Tulles in the Limousin, Aurillac in Auvergne, Bourgdieu and Massa in Berri, St. Benet on the Loire in the Orleanois, St. Peter le Vif at Sens, St. Allire of Clermont, St. Julian of Tours, Sarlat in Perigord, and Roman-Mourier in the country of Vaux.

This order was divided into ten provinces, being those of Dauphiné, Auvergne, Poitiers, Saintonge, and Gascony, in France; Spain, Italy, Lombardy, Germany, and England.

At the general chapters, which were at first held yearly, and afterwards every three years, two visitors were chosen for every province, and two others for the monasteries of nuns of this order, fifteen definitors, three auditors of causes, and two auditors of excuses. There were formerly five principal priories, called the five first daughters of Clugni; but, since the dissolution of the monasteries in England, which involved that of St. Pancrace, at Lewes in Sussex, there remained but four principal priories, being those of La Charité sur Loire, St. Martin des Champs at Paris, Souvigni, and Souxillanges.

The Cluniac monks were first brought into England by William, earl of Warren, about the year of our Lord, 1077. These religious, though they lived under the rule of St. Benedict, and wore a black habit, yet, because their discipline and observances differed in many things from those of the Benedictines, therefore they were not called Benedictines, but monks of the order of Clugni. In the reign of Henry V., the Cluniac monasteries, by reason of the war between England and France, were cut off from the obedience of the abbot of Clugni, nor were they permitted to have any intercourse with the monasteries of their order out of England. The monasteries of Cluniac monks in England amounted in number to thirty-eight.—Broughton’s Bibliotheca Historico-Sacra.

COADJUTOR. In cases of any habitual distemper of the mind, whereby the incumbent is rendered incapable of the administration of his cure, such as frenzy, lunacy, and the like, the laws of the Church have provided coadjutors. Of these there are many instances in the ecclesiastical records, both before and since the Reformation; and we find them given generally to parochial ministers, (as most numerous,) but sometimes also to deans, archdeacons, prebendaries, and the like; and no doubt they may be given, in such circumstances, at the discretion of the ordinary, to any ecclesiastical person having ecclesiastical cure and revenue.

CŒNOBITES. Monks, who lived together in a fixed habitation, and formed one large community under a chief, whom they called father or abbot. The word is derived from κοινοβιον, vitæ communis societas. (See Monks.)

COLIDEI. (See Culdees.)

COLLATION. This is where a bishop gives a benefice, which either he had as patron, or which came to him by lapse.

This is also a term in use among ecclesiastical writers to denote the spare meal on days of abstinence, consisting of bread or other fruits, but without meat.

COLLECTS. These are certain brief and comprehensive prayers, which are found in all known liturgies and public devotional offices. Ritualists have thought that these prayers were so called, because they were used in the public congregation or collection of the people; or from the fact of many petitions being here collected together in a brief summary; or because they comprehend objects of prayer collected out of the Epistles and Gospels. But whatever may be the origin of the term, it is one of great antiquity. It is indeed difficult to trace the antiquity of repeating collects at the end of the service. It certainly, however, prevailed in our own Church, the Church of England, even during the period preceding the Norman Conquest. The very collects that we still use, formed part of the devotional offices of our Church long before the Reformation. They are generally directed to God the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord; for so they usually conclude, though sometimes they are directed to Christ himself, who is God co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. They consist usually of two parts, an humble acknowledgment of the adorable perfection and goodness of God, and a petition for some benefits from him. Among the advantages resulting from the regulation of the Church in making use of these short collects are,—the relief they give to the worshipper; the variety they throw into the service; the fixing of attention by new impulses of thought; the solemnizing of the mind by frequent invocations of the hearer of prayer; the constant reference of all our 204hopes to the merits and mediation of Christ, in whose name every collect is offered; and, lastly, the inspiring feeling, that in them we are offering up our prayers in the same words which have been on the lips of the martyrs and saints of all ages.

The more usual name in the Latin Church was collectæ, collects, because the prayers of the bishop, which in any part of the service followed the joint prayers of the deacon and congregation, were both a recollection and recommendation of the prayers of the people. In this sense Cassian takes the phrase, colligere orationem, when speaking of the service in the Egyptian monasteries and Eastern churches, he says, “after the psalms they had private prayers, which they said partly standing and partly kneeling; which being ended, he that collected the prayer rose up, and then they all rose up together with him, none presuming to continue longer upon the ground, lest he should seem rather to pursue his own prayers than go along with him who collected the prayers, or closed up all with his concluding collect.” Where we may observe, that a collect is taken for the chief minister’s prayer at the close of some part of Divine service, collecting and concluding the people’s preceding devotions. Uranius, speaking of one John, bishop of Naples, who died in the celebration of Divine service, says, “he gave the signal to the people to pray, and then, having summed up their prayers in a collect, he yielded up the ghost.”—Bingham.

Walapidus Strabo, as quoted by Wheatly, says that they are so called because the priest collects the petitions of all in a compendious brevity. To which Dr. Bisse assents, and considers the word to mean the collecting into one prayer the petitions which were anciently divided between him and the people by versicles and responses. They are in fact used in contradistinction to the alternate versicles, and the larger and less compendious prayers.

Morinus, in his notes on Greek Ordination, remarks on the resemblance between the Greek word συναπτὴ, and the Latin collecta: but shows that the συναπτὴ, though meaning a connected prayer, has a very different use. The συναπτὴ was sometimes a sort of litany, sometimes a set of versicles resembling the “preces” of the Roman Church, or our versicles and responses after the Creed. The συναπτὴ μέγαλη, again, is like our Prayer for the Church Militant. The Greek εὐχὴ, said after the συναπτὴ, is more like our collect: but there is nothing exactly resembling it in the Greek formularies. Their prayers are generally much longer.

The collects are (for the most part) constructed upon one uniform rule, consisting of three parts. (1.) The commemoration of some special attribute of God. (2.) A prayer for the exercise of that attribute in some special blessing. (3.) A prayer for the beneficial and permanent consequences of that blessing. The punctuation of the Prayer Book most accurately brings out the meaning of the collects. The apodosis of the sentence is (for the most part) begun by a capital letter.

In many of the collects, God is desired to hear the petitions of the people, those that the people had then made before the collect. These come in at the end of other devotions, and were by some of old called missæ, that is to say, dismissions, the people being dismissed upon the pronouncing of them and the blessing; the collects themselves being by some of the ancients called blessings, and also sacramenta, either for that their chief use was at the communion, or because they were uttered per sacerdotum, by one consecrated to holy offices.—Sparrow.

Our Reformers observed, first, that some of those collects were corrupted by superstitious alterations and additions, made by some later hand. Secondly, that the modern Roman missals had left some of the primitive collects quite out, and put in their stead collects containing some of their false opinions, or relating to their innovations in practice. Where the mass had struck out an old, and put in a new, collect, agreeable to their new and false doctrines or practices, there the Reformers restored the old collect, being pure and orthodox. At the restoration of King Charles II., even those collects made or allowed at the Reformation were strictly reviewed, and what was deficient was supplied, and all that was but incongruously expressed was rectified; so that now they are complete and unexceptionable, and may be ranked into three several classes. First, the ancient primitive collects, containing nothing but true doctrine, void of all modern corruptions, and having a strain of the primitive devotion, being short, but regular, and very expressive; so that it is not possible to touch more sense in so few words: and these are those taken out of Pope Gregory’s Sacramentary, or out of those additions made to it by the abbot Grimoaldus. Many of these were retained in their native purity in the 205missals of York and Salisbury, and the breviaries; but were no more depreciated by standing there than a jewel by lying on a dunghill. The second order of collects are also ancient as to the main; but where there were any passages that had been corrupted, they were struck out, and the old form restored, or that passage rectified; and where there was any defect it was supplied. The third order are such as had been corrupted in the Roman missals and breviaries, and contained something of false doctrine, or at least of superstition, in them; and new collects were made, instead of these, at the Reformation, under King Edward VI.; and some few which were wanting were added, anno 1662.—Comber.

The objection, that our service is taken from the Popish, affects chiefly the collects. But those of ours which are the same with theirs, are mostly derived from prayer books brought over in the days of that pope by whose means our Saxon ancestors were converted to Christianity, above 1100 [now 1200] years ago; and they were old ones then, much older than the main errors of Popery.—Secker.

It appears that the service of the Church is far more ancient than the Roman missal, properly speaking. And whoever has attended to the superlative simplicity, fervour, and energy of the prayers, will have no hesitation in concluding, that they must, the collects particularly, have been composed in a time of true evangelical light and godliness.—Milner’s Church Hist.

It is the boast of the Church of England, and her praise, that her Common Prayer corresponds with the best and most ancient liturgies which were used in the Church in the most primitive and purest times.—Directions to Commissioners in 1661.

Here I entreat the people to remember that these collects, and the following prayers, are to be vocally pronounced by the minister only, though the people are obliged to join mentally therein. Wherefore let none of the congregation disturb the rest, especially those that are near them, by muttering over their prayers in an audible manner, contrary to the design and rule of the Church, which always tells the people when their voices are allowed to be heard, and consequently commands them at all other times to be silent, and to speak to God in a mental manner only.—Bennett.

COLLECTS FOR THE DAY. Our Church, endeavouring to preserve not only the spirit, but the very forms, as much as may be, and in a known tongue, of ancient primitive devotion, has retained the same collects.

For the object, they are directed to God, in the name of “Jesus Christ our Lord;” a few are directed to Christ; and in the Litany some supplications to the Holy Ghost, besides that precatory hymn of “Veni Creator,” in the book of Ordination. Some collects, especially for great festivals, conclude with this acknowledgment,—that Christ, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, “liveth and reigneth, one God, world without end.” This seems to be done to testify what the Scripture warrants, that although, for more congruity, we in the general course of our prayers go to the Father by the Son, yet that we may also invocate both the Son and the Holy Ghost; and that while we call upon one, we equally worship and glorify all three together.

For their form and proportion, as they are not one long-continued prayer, but divers short ones, they have many advantages; the practice of the Jews of old, in whose prescribed devotions we find a certain number of several prayers or collects, to be said together; the example of our Lord in prescribing a short form; and the judgment and practice of the ancient Christians in their liturgies. St. Chrysostom, among others, commends highly, short and frequent prayers with little distances between. And they are most convenient for keeping away coldness, distraction, and illusions from our devotion; for what we said in praise of short ejaculations, is true also concerning collects; and that not only in respect of the minister, but the people also, whose minds and affections become hereby more erect, close, and earnest, by the oftener breathing out their hearty concurrence, and saying all of them “Amen” together, at the end of each collect. The matter of them is most excellent. It consists usually of two parts; an humble acknowledgment of the adorable perfection and goodness of God, and a congruous petition for some benefit from him. The first is seen not only in the collects for special festivals or benefits, but in those also that are more general; for even in such what find we in the beginning of them, but some or other of these and the like acknowledgments?—That God is almighty, everlasting, full of goodness and pity; the strength, refuge, and protector of all that trust in him; without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy. That there is no continuing in safety without him; that such is our weakness and frailty, that we have no power of 206ourselves to help ourselves, to do any good, or to stand upright, and therefore cannot but fall. That we put no trust in anything that we do, but lean only upon the help of his heavenly grace. That he is the author and giver of all good things; from whom it comes that we have an hearty desire to pray, or do him any true or laudable service. That he is always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we desire or deserve; having prepared for them that love him such good things as pass man’s understanding.—Sparrow.

That most of our collects are very ancient, appears by their conformity to the Epistles and Gospels, which were selected by St. Hierom, and put into the lectionary ascribed to him. Many believed he first framed them for the use of the Roman Church, in the time of Pope Damasus, above 1300 [now nearly 1500] years ago. Certain it is that Gelasius, who was bishop of Rome above 1200 years since, [A. D. 492–6,] did range those collects, which were then used, into order, and composed some new ones; and that office of his was again corrected by Pope Gregory the Great, A. D. 600, whose Sacramentary contains most of those collects which we now use.—Comber.

One of the principal reasons why our public devotions are, and should be, divided into short collects, is this,—our blessed Saviour hath told us, that whatsoever we ask the Father in his name he will give it us. It cannot then but be necessary that the name of Christ be frequently inserted in our prayers, that so we may lift up our hearts unto him, and rest our faith upon him, for the obtaining those good things we pray for. And therefore, whatsoever we ask of God, we presently add, “through Jesus Christ our Lord.”—Wheatly.

The petitions are not in one long prayer, but several short ones; which method is certainly as lawful as the other, and, we think, more expedient. It reminds us oftener of the attributes of God and merits of Christ, which are the ground of our asking in faith; and, by the frequency of saying “Amen,” it stirs up our attention and warms our devotions, which are too apt to languish.—Secker.

We may refer to Shepherd on the Common Prayer for a classified arrangement of the collects; (1.) which were retained from ancient liturgies at the Reformation; (2.) which were altered by the Reformers and reviewers; and (3.) which were composed anew. Those composed anew in 1549 are the collects for the 1st and 2nd Sunday in Advent, Christmas, the Epiphany, Quinquagesima, Ash-Wednesday, 1st Sunday in Lent, 1st and 2nd Sundays after Easter; St. Thomas’s day, St. Matthias’s, St. Mark’s, St. Barnabas’s, St. John Baptist’s, St. Peter’s, St. James’s, St. Matthew’s, St. Luke’s, St. Simon and St. Jude’s; All-Saints’. In 1552, St. Andrew’s. In 1662, 3rd Sunday in Advent; 6th Sunday after Epiphany; Easter Even. The prayers denominated collects in our liturgy are those of the day, and the 2nd and 3rd at Morning and Evening Prayer respectively; the Prayer for all Conditions of Men, which is called also a collect; the prayer preceding the ten commandments, the prayer for the sovereign in the Communion Service, and the six occasional collects following it; the prayer following the Lord’s Prayer in the Confirmation Service; the prayer preceding the psalm in the Visitation of the Sick, that in the Communion of the Sick, and the prayer preceding the blessing in the Burial of the Dead; three in the Ordering of Priests and Deacons respectively, and one in the Consecration of Bishops.

COLLEGE. A community. Hence we speak of an episcopal college, or college of bishops. It was an old maxim of Roman law, that by fewer than three persons a college could not be formed. Hence, as a bishop is to be consecrated not by a single bishop, but by a synod or college, at least three are required to be present at each consecration. Every corporation, in the civil law, is called a college, and so it has been applied in England, in some rare instances, irrespective of social combinations: and abroad it was very extensively applied to incorporated boards. But in England it generally implies a society of persons, living in a common habitation, and bound together by statutes which have respect to their daily life. The minor corporations of the universities, and those of Eton and Winchester, are specially so termed: and residences for the members, a chapel, hall, and library, are considered as essential features of the college. As it is unquestionable that our academical colleges were all instituted for the promotion of godliness, as well as of human knowledge, that they were intended to be handmaids of the Church, as their highest function, besides nurseries of good learning, they deserve special notice in a Church Dictionary. All cathedral and collegiate churches are colleges; and the word in this sense comprehends all the members of each establishment, whether inferior or superior. The buildings of some of our 207cathedrals containing the residence of the members, are still often popularly called “the college.” The word is also applied to those inferior corporations attached to the cathedrals of old foundation. (See Minor Canons and Vicars Choral.)

The colleges of our universities are each independent societies, having their own statutes, and property as strictly their own as that of any lay proprietor. Still they are connected with a greater corporation, which is called the university. It has been commonly thought, that these relations between minor and major academical corporations is an anomaly peculiar to England. The fact is otherwise. The most ancient universities, as Paris, Bologna, and Salamanca, had each several colleges, which bore an analogous relation to the university. (See University.)

COLLEGIATE CHURCHES. Churches with a body of canons and prebendaries, &c., and inferior members, with corporate privileges. The services and forms in these churches are, or ought to be, like those in cathedral churches. The number of collegiate churches has been much diminished since the Reformation; those at present existing in England, are Westminster, Windsor, Southwell, Wolverhampton, Middleham, and Brecon; and in Ireland, the collegiate church of Galway.

COLLYRIDIANS. Certain heretics that worshipped the Virgin Mary as a goddess, and offered cake in sacrifice to her; they appeared in the fourth century, about the year 373. Their name is derived from κολλυρα, a little cake.

COMMANDRIES. New houses of the same kind among the Knights Hospitallers as the Preceptories among the Templars. (See Preceptories.)

COMMEMORATIONS. The recital of the names of famous martyrs and confessors, patriarchs, bishops, kings, great orthodox writers, munificent benefactors: which recitation was made at the altar out of diptychs or folded tables. There are Commemoration days at Oxford and Cambridge, on which the names of all the known benefactors to the universities are proclaimed, special psalms and lessons recited, and special collects and versicles. These have been coeval with the Reformation, and sanctioned by the highest authority. (See Diptychs.)

COMMENDAM. Commendam is a living commended by the Crown to the care of a clergyman until a proper pastor is provided for it. These commendams for some time have been seldom or never granted to any but bishops, who, when their bishoprics were of small value, were, by special dispensation, allowed to hold their previous benefices, which, on their promotion, had devolved into the patronage of the Crown.

COMMENDATORY LETTERS. (See Literæ formatæ.)

COMMENTARY. An exposition; a book of annotations on Holy Scripture.

In selecting a commentary much care is necessary, because a skilful commentator may wrest the Scriptures so as to make them support his private opinion. A Calvinist makes Scripture speak Calvinism, an Arminian makes it speak Arminianism. The question to be asked, therefore, is, According to what principle does the annotator profess to interpret Scripture? If he takes the Church for his guide; if he professes to interpret according to the doctrines of the Church, although he may err in a matter of detail, he cannot seriously mislead us. We may instance the third chapter of St. John’s Gospel. How very different will be the meaning of that chapter interpreted by a Calvinist, who denies the scriptural doctrine of baptismal regeneration, from the meaning which will be attached to it by one who holds the truth as it is taught in the Church, and who, with the Church of England, in the Office for the Baptism of Persons in Riper Years, applies what is said in that chapter to baptismal grace.

To give a complete list of commentaries is, in such a work as the present, impossible. The reader who would pursue the subject is referred to the authorities mentioned in the next article, Commentators. Some of the leading commentaries most used in the Church of England are here given.

Theophylact; the last edition of whose works is that published at Venice, 1754–1763, in four volumes, folio. In Theophylact we have the pith of St. Chrysostom, whose works also are useful, especially his Homilies on St. Matthew and on St. Paul’s Epistles. They have lately been translated.

“Critici Sacri, sive Annotata doctissimorum Virorum in Vetus ac Novum Testamentum; quibus accedunt Tractatus varii Theologico-Philologici,” 9 tomis in 12 voluminibus. Amsterdam, 1698, folio.

This is considered the best edition of this great work, which was first published in London, in 1660, in nine volumes, folio, under the direction of the celebrated Bishop Pearson and other learned divines. In 1701 there were published at Amsterdam, “Thesaurus Theologico-Philologicus,” in two 208volumes folio, and two additional volumes in 1732. These complete the work.

“Mathæi Poli Synopsis Criticorum aliorumque SS. Interpretum,” London, 1669–1674; five volumes, folio. This has been reprinted, the best edition being that of Utrecht, 1686. It is a valuable abridgment and consolidation of the “Critici Sacri.” It gives the conclusions, without the arguments, of that work.

Bishop Hall’s “Contemplations on the Old and New Testament,” of which valuable work there have been several reprints.

Patrick, Lowth, Whitby, and Arnold’s “Commentary on the Bible.” London, 1727–1760: seven volumes, folio. Reprinted in 4to, 1821; and lately in large 8vo. This is a standard work.

“An Exposition of the Old and New Testament,” by the Rev. Matthew Henry: folio, five volumes. There have been many reprints of this truly excellent commentary.

“A Commentary on the Books of the Old and New Testaments, in which are inserted the Notes and Collections of John Locke, Esq., Daniel Waterland, D. D., and the Earl of Clarendon and other learned persons, with Practical Improvements.” London, 1770: three volumes, folio. This was reprinted in six volumes, 4to, in 1801, by Dr. Coke, a Methodist, with some retrenchments and unimportant additions, and goes by the name of “Coke’s Commentary.” It is very useful for practical purposes.

“The Holy Bible, with Original Notes and Practical Observations,” by Thomas Scott, M. A., Rector of Aston Sandford: London. This has been often reprinted.

“The Holy Bible, with Notes,” by Thomas Wilson, D. D., Bishop of Sodor and Man: London, 1785: three volumes, 4to. Whatever comes from the pen of Bishop Wilson is valuable; but the notes are rather suggestive than illustrative.

“The Holy Bible, with Notes explanatory and practical;” taken principally from the most recent writers of the United Church of England and Ireland, prepared and arranged by Dr. D’Oyley and Bishop Mant. Oxford and London, 1817: three volumes, 4to, and since reprinted. This work, published under the sanction of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, is perhaps the most sound and useful that we possess.

It is impossible to enumerate the commentators on separate books of the Bible, but we may mention Dean Graves on the Pentateuch, Bishops Horne and Horsley on the Psalms, Bishop Lowth on Isaiah, Dr. Blayney on Jeremiah, Archbishop Newcome on Ezekiel, Mr. Wintle on Daniel, Bishop Horsley on Hosea, Dr. Blayney on Zechariah, Dr. Stock on Malachi, Dr. Pococke on Hosea, Joel, Micah, and Malachi; Archbishop Newcome on the Twelve Minor Prophets.

On the New Testament, we may refer to Hammond, Whitby, Burkitt, Doddridge, Bishop Pearce, Dr. Trapp, Bishop Porteus on St. Matthew, Biscoe on the Acts, Macknight, Bishop Fell, Bishop Davenant, Pyle on the Epistles, Archbishop Leighton on St. Peter, Mede, Daubeny, Lowman, Sir Isaac Newton, and Bishop Newton on the Apocalypse. We have omitted, in this list, contemporary writers, for obvious reasons, and we have referred to commentaries chiefly used by English churchmen; the more learned reader will, not without caution, have recourse to foreign critics also; of whom we may mention, as persons much consulted, Vitringa, Tittmann, Bengel, Olshausen, Tholuck, Wolfius, Raphelius, Calmet, and Hengstenberg. The “Catena Aurea” of Thomas Aquinas has lately been translated; but it is useful rather to the antiquarian and the scholar, than to those who wish to ascertain the exact meaning of Scripture; and in the quotations from the Fathers, Aquinas is not to be depended upon.

COMMENTATORS. “A complete history of commentators,” says Mr. Hartwell Horne, “would require a volume of no ordinary dimensions.” The reader who is desirous of prosecuting this subject, will find much interesting information relative to the early commentators in Rosenmüller’s “Historia Interpretationis Librorum Sacrorum in Ecclesiâ Christianâ, inde ab Apostolorum Ætate usque ad Origenem, 1795–1814.” This elaborate work treats exclusively of the early commentators. Father Simon’s “Histoire Critique de Vieux Testament,” 4to, 1680, and his “Histoire Critique des Principaux Commentateurs du Nouveau Testament,” 4to, Rotterdam, 1689, contain many valuable strictures on the expositors of the Old and New Testament up to his own time. In 1674 was published at Frankfort, in two volumes folio, Joh. Georg. Dorschei “Biblia Numerata, seu Index Specialis in Vetus Testamentum ad singula omnium Librorum Capita et Commenta.” It contains a list of commentators, 191 in number, who had illustrated every book, chapter, or verse of the Scriptures, with reference to the books, chapters, and pages of their several works. The merits and demerits of commentators are likewise discussed in Walchius’s “Bibliotheca Theologica Selecta;” in Ernesti’s 209“Institutio Interpretis Novi Testamenti;” in Morus’s “Acroases Academicæ.” Professor Keil, in his “Elementa Hermeneutices Novi Testamenti,” and Professor Beck, in “Monogrammata Hermeneutices, Librorum Novi Fœderis,” Seiler’s Biblical Hermeneutices, (translated from the German by Dr. Wright, 1835,)—respectively notice the principal expositors of the Scriptures.

COMMINATION, means a threat or denunciation of vengeance. There is an ancient office in the Church of England, entitled, “A Commination, or denouncing of God’s Anger and Judgment against Sinners, with certain Prayers, to be used on the first Day of Lent, and at other times, as the Ordinary shall appoint.” This office, says Mr. Palmer, is one of the last memorials we retain of that solemn penitence, which during the primitive ages occupied so conspicuous a place in the discipline of the Christian Church. In the earliest ages, those who were guilty of grievous sins were solemnly reduced to the order of penitents; they came fasting and clad in sackcloth and ashes on the occasion, and after the bishop had prayed over them, they were dismissed from the church. They then were admitted gradually to the classes of hearers, substrati, and consistentes, until at length, after long trial and exemplary conduct, they were again decreed worthy of communion. This penitential discipline at length, from various causes, became extinct, both in the Eastern and Western Churches: and, from the twelfth or thirteenth century, the solemn office of the first day of Lent was the only memorial of this ancient discipline in the West. The Church of England has long used this office nearly as we do at present, as we find almost exactly the same appointed in the MS. Sacramentary of Leofric, which was written for our Church about the ninth or tenth century; and year by year she directs her ministers to lament the defection of the godly discipline we have been describing.

The preface which the Church has prefixed to this office will supply the room of an introduction. It informs us that, “in the primitive Church, there was a godly discipline; that, at the beginning of Lent, such persons as stood convicted of notorious crimes were put to open penance, and punishment in this world, that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord; and that others, admonished by their example, might be the more afraid to offend.” The manner in which this discipline was inflicted, is thus recorded by Gratian: On the first day of Lent the penitents were to present themselves before the bishop, clothed with sackcloth, with naked feet, and eyes turned to the ground: and this was to be done in the presence of the principal clergy of the diocese, who were to judge of the sincerity of their repentance. These introduced them into the Church, where the bishop, all in tears, and the rest of the clergy, repeated the seven penitential psalms. Then, rising from prayers, they threw ashes upon them, and covered their heads with sackcloth; and then with mournful sighs declared to them, that as Adam was cast out of paradise, so they must be cast out of the Church. Then the bishop commanded the officers to turn them out of the church doors, and all the clergy followed after, repeating that curse upon Adam, “In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread.” The like penance was inflicted upon them the next time the sacrament was administered, which was the Sunday following. And all this was done, to the end that the penitents, observing how great a disorder the Church was in by reason of their crimes, should not lightly esteem of penance.

Though this discipline was severe, yet the many good consequences of it showed it worthy the imitation of the Church in succeeding ages; so that it was anciently exercised in our own, as well as in foreign churches. But in latter ages, during the corruption of the Church of Rome, this godly discipline degenerated into a formal and customary confession upon Ash Wednesdays, used by all persons indifferently, whether penitents or not, from whom no other testimony of their repentance was required, than that they should submit to the empty ceremony of sprinkling ashes upon their heads. But this our wise reformers prudently laid aside as a mere shadow and show; and not without hearty grief and concern, that the long continuance of the abominable corruptions of the Romish Church, in their formal confessions and pretended absolutions, in their sale of indulgences, and their sordid commutations of penance for money, had let the people loose from those primitive bands of discipline, which tended really to their amendment, but to which, through the rigour and severity it enjoins, they found it impracticable to reduce them again. However, since they could not do what they desired, they desired to do as much as they could; and therefore, till the said discipline may be restored again, (which is rather to be wished than expected in these licentious times,) they have endeavoured 210to supply it as well as they were able, by appointing an office to be used at this season, called “A Commination, or denouncing of God’s Anger and Judgments against Sinners;” that so the people, being apprized of God’s wrath and indignation against their wickedness and sins, may not be encouraged, through the want of discipline in the Church, to follow and pursue them; but be moved, by the terror of the dreadful judgments of God, to supply that discipline to themselves, by severely judging and condemning themselves, and so to avoid being judged and condemned at the tribunal of God.

2. But, besides “the first day of Lent,” on which it is expressly enjoined, it is also supposed, in the title of it, to be used “at other times, as the ordinary shall direct.” This was occasioned by the observation of Bucer; for it was originally ordered upon Ash Wednesdays only, and therefore in the first Common Prayer Book, it had no other title, but “The First Day of Lent, commonly called Ash Wednesday.” But Bucer approving of the office, and not seeing reason why it should be confined to one day, and not used oftener, at least four times a year, the title of it was altered when it came to be reviewed; from which time it was called, “A Commination against Sinners, with certain Prayers to be used at divers times in the Year.” How often, or at what particular times, we do not find prescribed; except that Bishop Cosin informs us from the Visitation Articles of Archbishop Grindal for the province of Canterbury, in the year 1576, that it was appointed three times a year; namely, on one of the three Sundays next before Easter, on one of the two Sundays next before Pentecost, and on one of the two Sundays next before Christmas; that is, I suppose the office was appointed yearly to be used on these three days, as well as on Ash Wednesday. For that Ash Wednesday was then the solemn day of all, and on which this office was never to be omitted, may be gathered from the preface, which is drawn up for the peculiar use of that day. And accordingly we find, that, in the Scotch Common Prayer, a clause was added, that it was to be used “especially on the first day of Lent, commonly called Ash Wednesday.” However, in our own liturgy, the title stood as above, till the last review, when a clause was added for the sake of explaining the word commination; and the appointing of the times on which it should be used was left to the discretion of the bishop, or the ordinary. So that the whole title, as it stands now, runs thus: “A Commination, or denouncing of God’s Anger and Judgments against Sinners, with certain Prayers to be used on the first Day in Lent, and at other Times, as the Ordinary shall appoint.” The ordinaries, indeed, seldom or never make use of the power here given them, except that sometimes they appoint part of the office, namely, from the fifty-first Psalm to the end, to be used upon solemn days of fasting and humiliation. But as to the whole office, it is never used entirely but upon the day mentioned in the title of it, namely, “the first day of Lent.”—Wheatly.

The Commination properly means that part of the special service which precedes the Psalm; the rest coming under the title of “certain prayers;” and it would seem that the latter are alone to be used at other times that the ordinary shall appoint.—Jebb.

COMMISSARY, is a title of jurisdiction, appertaining to him that exercises ecclesiastical jurisdiction, in places so far distant from the chief city, that the chancellor cannot call the people to the bishop’s principal consistory court without great trouble to them.

Chancellors, or bishops’ lawyers, were first introduced into the Church by the 2nd canon of the Council of Chalcedon, and were men trained up in the civil and canon law, to direct bishops in matters of judgment relating to ecclesiastical affairs.

Whatever the extent of the chancellor’s authority as a judge may be, throughout the diocese, with relation to the bishop’s, it is quite clear that the commissary’s authority extends only to such particular causes, in such parts of the diocese, for which he holds the bishop’s commission to act.

In the Clementine constitutions this officer is termed officialis foraneus. By the 21st of Henry VIII. c. 13, he shall not be within the statute of non-residence; he may grant licences; he may excommunicate, and prove a last will and testament; but that shall be in the name of the ordinary; and a grant of such power does not hold good beyond the life of the ordinary, and does not bind his successor: where, by prescription or by composition, there are archdeacons, who have jurisdiction in their archdeaconries, as in most places they have, there the office of commissary is superfluous.—See Gibson’s Codex, vol. i. Introductory Discourse, p. 25.

COMMON PRAYER. (See Liturgy.) By Common Prayer we are to understand a form of prayer adapted and enjoined for common or universal use: in the vernacular 211language, such as may be understood of people, and in which they are required to join with one heart and voice. It is contrasted with those services which have either actually or virtually become exclusive, or confined to but a few: such as the forms of matins in the Roman breviary, which from its extreme length, and from the inconvenience of the hour when it is prescribed to be recited, are impracticable to the people, to all in fact but the inmates of monasteries or collegiate churches. Such, indeed, are all those services which are written in a language which is no longer vernacular.

Bishop Sparrow observes, that the Common Prayer contains in it many holy offices of the Church; as prayers, confessions of faith, holy hymns, divine lessons, priestly absolutions, and benedictions; all which are set and prescribed, not left to private men’s fancies to make or alter. So it was of old ordained. Conc. Carthag. can. 106, “It is ordained, that the prayers, prefaces, and impositions of hands, which are confirmed by the Synod, be observed and used by all men: these, and no other.” So is our 14th English Canon.... “And as these offices are set and prescribed, so are they moreover appointed to be one and the same throughout the whole national Church.”

By Canon 4. “Whosoever shall affirm that the form of God’s worship in the Church of England, established by law, and contained in the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, is a corrupt, superstitious, or unlawful worship of God, or containeth anything in it that is repugnant to the Scriptures, let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored but by the bishop of the place, or archbishop, after his repentance and public revocation of such his wicked errors.”

By Canon 38. “If any minister, after he has subscribed to the Book of Common Prayer, shall omit to use the form of prayer, or any of the orders or ceremonies prescribed in the Communion Book, let him be suspended; and if after a month he does not reform and submit himself, let him be excommunicated; and then, if he shall not submit himself within the space of another month, let him be deposed from the ministry.”

And by Canon 98. “After any judge ecclesiastical has pronounced judicially against contemners of ceremonies, for not observing the rites and orders of the Church of England, or for contempt of public prayer, no judge ad quem shall allow of his appeal, unless the party appellant do first personally promise and avow, that he will faithfully keep and observe all the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, as also the prescribed form of Common Prayer, and do likewise subscribe to the same.

COMMUNION. This is one of the names given to the sacrament of the eucharist, and was undoubtedly taken from St. Paul’s account of that sacrament, where he teaches, as the learned Dr. Waterland observes, that the effect of this service is the communion of the body and blood of Christ. (1 Cor. x. 16.) He does not, indeed, call the sacrament by that name, as others have done since. He was signifying what the thing is, or what it does, rather than how it was then called. (See Eucharist, Lord’s Supper, and Consecration of the Elements.)

The office for the Holy Communion is a distinct office, and there is no direction at what time of the day it shall be used, only custom, in accordance with the almost invariable usage of Christendom, has determined that it shall be used in the forenoon. The communion is appointed for every Sunday, only the Church has ordered that there shall be no communion except four (or three at least) communicate with the priest. The absence of the weekly eucharist therefore proves one of two things; either that the sin of the people is so great that even in large parishes three such persons ready to communicate are not to be found every Sunday, and so only part of the service can be used; or else if three communicants can be found, the sin of the clergy is great in not having weekly communion. “In cathedral and collegiate churches, where there are many priests and deacons, they shall all receive the communion with the priest every Sunday at the least.” We here subjoin the directions of the canons and rubric.

The rubric decrees, there shall none be admitted to the holy communion until such time as he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be confirmed.

By the canons of Archbishop Peckham, 1279, it is ruled that none shall give the communion to the parishioner of another priest, without his manifest licence; which ordinance shall not extend to travellers, or to persons in danger, nor to cases of necessity.

And by Canon 28. “The churchwardens or questmen, and their assistants, shall mark, as well as the minister, whether any strangers come often and commonly from other parishes to their church, and 212show their minister of them, lest perhaps they be admitted to the Lord’s table amongst others; which they shall forbid, and remit such home to their own parish churches and ministers, there to receive the communion with the rest of their own neighbours.”

Rubric. “And if any be an open and notorious evil liver, or have done any wrong to his neighbours by word or deed, so that the congregation be thereby offended, the curate, having knowledge thereof, shall call him and advertise him, that in anywise he presume not to come to the Lord’s table until he has openly declared himself to have truly repented and amended his former naughty life, that the congregation may thereby be satisfied, which before were offended; and that he has recompensed the parties to whom he has done wrong; or at least declare himself to be in full purpose so to do, as soon as he conveniently may.”

Rubric. “The same order shall the curate use with those between whom he perceiveth malice and hatred to reign, not suffering them to be partakers of the Lord’s table until he know them to be reconciled. And if one of the parties so at variance be content to forgive, from the bottom of his heart, all that the other has trespassed against him, and to make amends for that he himself has offended, and the other party will not be persuaded to a godly unity, but remain still in his frowardness and malice, the minister in that case ought to admit the penitent person to the holy communion, and not him that is obstinate. Provided that every minister so repelling any, as is specified in this or the next preceding paragraph of this rubric, shall be obliged to give an account of the same to the ordinary, within fourteen days after at the farthest; and the ordinary shall proceed against the offending person according to the canon.”

By Canon 26. “No minister shall in anywise admit to the receiving of the holy communion any of his cure or flock, which be openly known to live in sin notorious without repentance; nor any who have maliciously and openly contended with their neighbours; nor any churchwardens or sidesmen who refuse or neglect to make presentment of offences according to their oaths.”

By Canon 27. “No minister, when he celebrateth the communion, shall wittingly administer the same to any but to such as kneel, under pain of suspension; nor, under the like pain, to any that refuse to be present at public prayers, according to the order of the Church of England; nor to any that are common and notorious depravers of the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and of the orders, rites, and ceremonies therein prescribed; or of anything that is contained in the book of ordering priests and bishops; or to any that have spoken against and depraved his Majesty’s sovereign authority in causes ecclesiastical; except every such person shall first acknowledge to the minister before the churchwardens his repentance for the same, and promise by word (if he cannot write) that he will do so no more; and except (if he can write) he shall first do the same under his handwriting, to be delivered to the minister, and by him sent to the bishop of the diocese, or ordinary of the place. Provided that every minister so repelling any (as is specified either in this or the next preceding constitution) shall upon complaint, or being required by the ordinary, signify the cause thereof unto him, and therein obey his order and direction.”

By Canon 109. “If any offend their brethren, either by adultery, whoredom, incest, or drunkenness, or by swearing, ribaldry, usury, or any other uncleanness, or wickedness of life, such notorious offenders shall not be admitted to the holy communion till they be reformed.”

Canon 71. “No minister shall administer the holy communion in any private house, except it be in times of necessity, when any being either so impotent as he cannot go to the church, or very dangerously sick, are desirous to be partakers of this holy sacrament, upon pain of suspension for the first offence, and excommunication for the second. Provided that houses are here reputed for private houses, wherein are no chapels dedicated and allowed by the ecclesiastical laws of this realm. And provided also, under the pains before expressed, that no chaplains do administer the communion in any other places, but in the chapels of the said houses; and that also they do the same very seldom upon Sundays and holy-days; so that both the lords and masters of the said houses and their families shall at other times resort to their own parish churches, and there receive the holy communion at least once every year.”

Canon 22. “We do require every minister to give warning to his parishioners publicly in the church at morning prayer, the Sunday before every time of his administering that holy sacrament, for their better preparation of themselves; which said warning we enjoin the said parishioners 213to accept and obey, under the penalty and danger of the law.”

And by the rubric. “The minister shall always give warning for the celebration of the holy communion upon the Sunday or some holy-day immediately preceding.”

Rubric. “So many as intend to be partakers of the holy communion shall signify their names to the curate, at least some time the day before.”

Rubric. “There shall be no celebration of the Lord’s supper, except there be a convenient number to communicate with the priest, according to his discretion. And if there be not above twenty persons in the parish, of discretion to receive the communion, yet there shall be no communion, except four (or three at the least) communicate with the priest. And in cathedral and collegiate churches and colleges, where there are many priests and deacons, they shall all receive the communion with the priest every Sunday at the least, except they have reasonable cause to the contrary.” The rubric implies daily communion. “The Collect, Epistle, and Gospel, appointed for the Sunday, shall serve all the week after, when it is not in this book otherwise ordered.” In the First Book of King Edward, daily communion is expressly mentioned. “Upon Wednesdays and Fridays ... though there be none to communicate with the priest, yet these days, after the Litany ended, the priest shall ... say all things at the altar, appointed to be said at the celebration of the Lord’s supper, until after the offertory.” “In cathedral churches, or other places, where there is daily communion,” &c. From the Pietas Londinensis it appears that in some London churches at the beginning of the last century, the communion was celebrated daily in the octaves of the great festivals. And a remembrance of this daily communion was formerly kept up at Durham, where, in Bishop Cosin’s time, the ante-communion was daily performed, as it still is at St. Patrick’s, on Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent.

Canon 82. “Whereas we have no doubt but that in all churches convenient and decent tables are provided and placed for the celebration of the holy communion, we appoint that the same tables shall from time to time be kept and repaired in sufficient and seemly manner, and covered in time of Divine service with a carpet of silk or other decent stuff, thought meet by the ordinary of the place, if any question be made of it, and with a fair linen cloth at the time of the ministration as becometh that table; and so stand, saving when the holy communion is to be administered, at which time the same shall be placed in so good sort within the church or chancel, as thereby the minister may be more conveniently heard of the communicants in his prayer and ministration, and the communicants also more conveniently and in more number may communicate with the said minister.”

By Canon 20. “The churchwardens, against the time of every communion, shall, at the charge of the parish, with the advice and direction of the minister, provide a sufficient quantity of fine white bread, and of good and wholesome wine, for the number of communicants that shall receive there; which wine shall be brought to the communion table in a clean and sweet standing pot or stoop of pewter, if not of purer metal.”

And by the rubric. “The bread and wine for the communion shall be provided by the curate and churchwardens at the charge of the parish. And to take away all occasion of dissension and superstition, which any person has or might have concerning the bread and wine, it shall suffice that the bread be such as is usual to be eaten, but the best and purest wheat bread that conveniently may be gotten.”

In the rubric, in the communion service of the Second Edward VI., it was ordained, that, “whyles the clearkes do syng the offertory, so many as are disposed shall offer to the poore mennes boxe, every one accordinge to his habilitie and charitable mynde.”

And by the present rubric, “whilst the sentences of the offertory are in reading, the deacons, churchwardens, or other fit person appointed for that purpose, shall receive the alms for the poor, and other devotions of the people, in a decent basin, to be provided by the parish for that purpose, and reverently bring it to the priest, who shall humbly present and place it upon the holy table.” And “after the Divine service ended, the money given at the offertory shall be disposed of to such pious and charitable uses as the minister and churchwardens shall think fit; wherein if they disagree, it shall be disposed of as the ordinary shall appoint.”

Rubric. “Such ornaments of the church, and of the ministers thereof, at all times of their ministration, shall be retained and be in use as were in this Church of England by the authority of parliament, in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI.” And by the rubric of 2 Edward VI., which had this authority of parliament, it is ordained, that “upon the 214day, and at the time appointed for the ministration of the holy communion, the priest that shall execute the holy ministry shall put upon him the vesture appointed for that ministration; that is to say, a white albe plain, with a vestment or cope: and where there be many priests or deacons, then so many shall be ready to help the priest in the ministrations as shall be requisite, and shall have upon them likewise the vestures appointed for their ministry, that is to say, albes with tunicles. And whensoever the bishop shall celebrate the holy communion in the church, or execute any other public ministration, he shall have upon him, besides his rochet, a surplice or albe, and a cope or vestment, and also his pastoral staff in his hand, or else borne or holden by his chaplain.”

And by Canon 24. “In all cathedral churches, the holy communion shall be administered upon principal feast days, sometimes by the bishop, if he be present, and at sometimes by a canon or prebendary, the principal minister using a decent cope, and being assisted with the Gospeller and Epistler agreeably, according to the advertisements published anno 7 Eliz.”

Art. 28. “Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of bread and wine) in the supper of the Lord cannot be proved by Holy Writ; but is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions.”

Art. 30. “The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people; for both the parts of the Lord’s sacrament, by Christ’s ordinance and commandment, ought to be ministered to all Christian men alike.”

And by the statute of the 1 Edward VI. c. 1. “Forasmuch as it is more agreeable to the first institution of the said sacrament, and more conformable to the common use and practice of the apostles and of the primitive Church, for above 500 years after Christ’s ascension, that the same should be administered under both the kinds, of bread and wine, than under the form of bread only; and also it is more agreeable to the first institution of Christ, and to the usage of the apostles and the primitive Church, that the people should receive the same with the priest, than that the priest should receive it alone; it is enacted that the said most blessed sacrament be commonly delivered and ministered unto the people, under both the kinds, that is to say, of bread and wine, except necessity otherwise require. And also that the priest which shall minister the same shall, at the least one day before, exhort all persons which shall be present likewise to resort and prepare themselves to receive the same. And when the day prefixed cometh, after godly exhortation by the minister made, (wherein shall be further expressed the benefit and comfort promised to them which worthily receive the holy sacrament, and danger and indignation of God threatened to them which shall presume to receive the same unworthily, to the end that every man may try and examine his own conscience before he shall receive the same,) the said minister shall not, without a lawful cause, deny the same to any person that will devoutly and humbly desire it; not condemning hereby the usage of any Church out of the king’s dominions.”

Rubric. “If any of the bread and wine remain unconsecrated, the curate shall have it to his own use; but if any remain of that which was consecrated, it shall not be carried out of the church, but the priest, and such other of the communicants as he shall then call unto him, shall immediately after the blessing reverently eat and drink the same.”

By a constitution of Archbishop Langton it is enjoined, that no sacrament of the Church shall be denied to any one, upon the account of any sum of money; but if anything hath been accustomed to be given by the pious devotion of the faithful, justice shall be done thereupon to the churches by the ordinary of the place afterwards.

And by the rubric. “Yearly at Easter, every parishioner shall reckon with the parson, vicar, or curate, or his or their deputy or deputies, and pay to them or him all ecclesiastical duties, accustomably due, then and at that time to be paid.”

By the ancient canon law, every layman (not prohibited by crimes of a heinous nature) was required to communicate at least thrice in the year, namely, at Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas; and the Council of Agdæ, A. D. 500, enacted that the secular clergy not communicating at those times were not to be reckoned amongst the Catholics. The fourth Council of Lateran, A. D. 1215, reduced the necessary number of times to one, and the Council of Trent has sanctioned this as the rule for the Romish Church. Our reformers laudably reverted to the earlier order, directing by the rubric in the Book of Common Prayer, that “every parishioner shall communicate at least three times in one year, of which Easter to be one.”

And by Canon 21. “In every parish church and chapel where sacraments are to be administered, the holy communion 215shall be administered by the parson, vicar, or minister, so often, and at such times, as every parishioner may communicate at the least three times in the year, whereof the feast of Easter to be one; according as they are appointed by the Book of Common Prayer. And the churchwardens or questmen, and their assistants, shall mark, (as well as the minister,) whether all and every of the parishioners comes so often every year to the holy communion as the laws and constitutions do require.” Canon 28. “And shall yearly, within forty days after Easter, exhibit to the bishop or his chancellor, the names and surnames of all the parishioners, as well men as women, which being of the age of sixteen years received not the communion at Easter before.”

By Canon 24. “All deans, wardens, masters, or heads of cathedral and collegiate churches, prebendaries, canons, vicars, petty canons, singing men, and all others of the foundation, shall receive the communion four times yearly at the least.” And by Canon 23. “In all colleges and halls, within both the universities, the masters and fellows, such especially as have any pupils, shall be careful that all their said pupils, and the rest that remain among them, do diligently frequent public service and sermons, and receive the holy communion, which we ordain to be administered in all such colleges and halls the first and second Sunday of every month; requiring all the said masters, fellows, and scholars, and all the rest of the students, officers, and all other the servants there, so to be ordered, that every one of them shall communicate four times in the year at the least, kneeling reverently and decently upon their knees, according to the order of the communion book prescribed in that behalf.”

By the 1 Edward VI. c. 1. “Whosoever shall deprave, despise, or contemn the most blessed sacrament of the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ, commonly called the sacrament of the altar, and in Scripture, the supper and table of the Lord, the communion and partaking of the body and blood of Christ, in contempt thereof, by any contemptuous words or by any words of depraving, despising, or reviling; or whosoever shall advisedly in any other wise contemn, despise, or revile the said most blessed sacrament, contrary to the effects and declaration above-said, shall suffer imprisonment of his body, and make fine and ransom at the king’s will.”

Rubric. “Upon the Sundays, and other holy-days, (if there be no communion,) shall be said all that is appointed at the communion, until the end of the general prayer for the whole state of Christ’s Church militant here in earth, together with one or more of the collects last before rehearsed, concluding with the blessing.”

Since the death of Christ hath reconciled God to mankind, and his intercession alone obtains all good things for us, we are enjoined to make all our prayers in his name; and, as a more powerful way of interceding, to commemorate his passion by celebrating the holy eucharist, which in the purest ages was always joined to their public and common prayers. (Acts ii. 42.) And as evidence that our Church wishes it were so still, she appoints a great part of this office to be used on all Sundays and holy-days, and orders the priest to say it at the altar, the place where all the prayers of the Church of old were wont to be made, because there was the proper place to commemorate Jesus our only Mediator, by whom all our prayers become accepted. And hence the ancients call this office “the service of the altar,” which in the time of celebration was then also, as our rubric now enjoins, covered with a fair linen cloth. As for the primitive and original form of administration, since Christ did not institute any one method, it was various in divers churches, only all agreed in using the Lord’s Prayer, and reciting the words of institution, which therefore some think was all the apostles used; but their successors in several churches added several devout forms thereunto, which being joined to the original order used by the founder of each church, was for greater honour called by the name of that first author; and hence we have now the liturgy used at Jerusalem, called “The Liturgy of St. James;” that of Alexandria, called “The Liturgy of St. Mark;” that of Rome, called “The Liturgy of St. Clement;” with others of lesser value: which, by the fancy of adding to them in every age, have contracted many superstitions of later times, and yet do still contain many genuine and substantial pieces of true primitive devotion, easily distinguished from the modern and corrupt additions. But since none of these apostolical liturgies were believed of Divine institution, St. Basil and St. Chrysostom made new forms for their own churches, now generally used in the East; and St. Ambrose and St. Gregory the Great composed sacramentaries for their several churches; and the Christians in Spain had a peculiar order for this office, called the Mazarabic form; the Gallican Church had another distinct from all these; 216so had the Irish Church, and St. Gregory was so far from imposing the Roman missal on this Church of England, that he advises Augustine the monk to review all liturgies, and take out of them what was best, and so to compose a form for this nation. And when the Roman missal (afterward imposed here) was shamefully corrupted, our judicious reformers made use of this ancient and just liberty; and, comparing all liturgies, they have out of them all extracted what is most pure and primitive, and so composed this admirable office, which, as Bishop Jewel affirms, “comes as nigh as can be to the apostolic and ancient Catholic Church,” and indeed is the most exact now extant in the Christian world, the explaining whereof will effectually serve to assist the communicant in order to a worthy preparation before the receiving, devout affections in receiving, and the confirming of his holy purposes afterwards: for it doth instruct us in all that is necessary to be known and to be done in this sacred and sublime duty, and is contrived in this curious method. (See Liturgy.)

The whole communion office consists of four parts. First, a more general preparation to the communion, and as either common to the whole congregation in the exercise of, 1. Repentance, by the Lord’s Prayer, the collect for Purity, and the ten commandments. 2. Holy desires, by the collects for the King and the Day. 3. Of obedience, by the hearing of the Epistle and Gospel. 4. Of faith, by repeating the Creed. 5. Of charity, by the Offertory and the prayer for the holy Catholic Church: or else this general preparation is proper to those who ought to communicate, namely, the warning before the communion, and the exhortation to it. Secondly, there is the more immediate preparation, contained in, 1. The proper instructions, in the exhortation at the communion, and the immediate invitation. 2. The form of acknowledging our offences, in the confession. 3. The means of insuring our pardon, by the absolution, and the sentences. 4. The exciting our love and gratitude, in the preface, and the hymn called Trisagium. Thirdly, there is the celebration of the mystery, consisting of, 1. The communicant’s humble approach, in the address. 2. The minister’s blessing the elements, in the prayer of consecration. 3. His distributing them according to the form of administration. Lastly, there is the post-communion, containing, 1. Prayers and vows, in the Lord’s Prayer, the first and second prayers after the Communion. 2. Praises and thanksgiving, in the Gloria in excelsis. 3. The dismission by the final blessing.—Dean Comber.

This service is called “The Communion Service” in the liturgy; and well it were that the piety of the people were such as to make it always a communion. The Church, as appears by her pathetical exhortation before the communion, and the rubric after it, labours to bring men oftener to communicate than she usually obtains. Private and solitary communions, of the priest alone, she allows not; and therefore, when others cannot be had, she appoints only so much of the service as relates not of necessity to a present communion, and that to be said at the holy table: and upon good reason; the Church thereby keeping, as it were, her ground, visibly minding us of what she desires and labours towards, our more frequent access to that holy table: and in the mean while, that part of the service, which she uses, may perhaps more fitly be called “the second service” than “the communion.” And so it is often called, though not in the rubric of the liturgy, yet in divers fast-books, and the like, set out by authority. If any should think, that it cannot properly be called the second service, because the morning service and Litany go before it, which indeed are two distinct services,—whereby this should seem to be the third, rather than the second service,—it is answered, that sometimes the communion service is used upon such days as the Litany is not; and then it may, without question, be called the second service. Nay, even then, when the Litany and all is used, the communion service may be very fitly called the second service; for though, in strictness of speech, the Litany is a service distinct, yet in our usual acceptation of the word service,—namely, for a complete service with all the several parts of it, psalms, readings, creeds, thanksgivings, and prayers,—so the Litany is not a service, nor so esteemed, but called “the Litany,” or supplications; and looked upon sometimes, when other offices follow, as a kind of preparative, though a distinct form, to them, as to the Communion, Commination, &c. And therefore it was a custom in some churches, that a bell was tolled while the Litany was saying, to give notice to the people that the communion service was now coming on.—Bp. Sparrow.

Of the many compellations given to this sacrament in former ages, our Church has very wisely thought fit to retain these two (namely, the exhortation before and 217the rubric after the communion service) in her public service, as those which are most ancient and scriptural. As for the name of “the Lord’s supper,” which name the Papists cannot endure to have this sacrament called by, because it destroys their notion of a sacrifice, and their use of private mass, we find this given to it, as its proper name in the apostles’ time, by St. Paul himself, “when ye come together into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper.” (1 Cor. xi. 20.) And this name is frequently given to it by ancient writers. So for “the communion;” this is plainly another scriptural name of the same holy sacrament. “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” (1 Cor. x. 16.) Which name is given to it, partly, because by this we testify our communion with Christ our Head; partly, because it unites us together with all our fellow-Christians; partly, because all good Christians have a right to partake of it; hence, with St. Chrysostom and St. Basil, “to communicate” is the common word to express the participation of this sacrament.—Dr. Nicholls.

The reason why it is enjoined that notice shall be given to the minister when we intend to communicate is, that the minister of the parish may have time to inform himself of the parties who design to receive: so that, if there be any among them who are not duly qualified, he may persuade them to abstain for some time; or, in case of their refusal, repel them. Now, in several cases, persons may be unqualified to partake of this sacrament, either by the prescript of God’s word, or by the canons of the Church.

1. A want or a contempt of the rite of confirmation unqualifies persons to receive; for the rubric of the Common Prayer, which is confirmed by the Act of Uniformity, says, “No one shall be admitted to the holy communion, until such time as he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be confirmed.” This is agreeable to the provisions of the ancient Church; and the only reasonable impediment to confirmation is the want of a bishop near the place.

2. Persons excommunicate, or who are doing penance by church censure for any notorious fault, are unqualified to receive; for such persons are shut out from the communion, and therefore called excommunicate.

3. Persons under phrensy are unqualified to partake of the holy communion. And all persons, under the foregoing want of qualification, may lawfully be refused admission to the communion by the minister; for the ecclesiastical law imposes great penalties upon the minister, who shall give them the communion in such cases.

4. A person may be unqualified by notorious wickedness, or flagitiousness of life. But of this more in the next note.—Dr. Nicholls.

In the primitive times, when discipline was strictly maintained, all such persons, as soon as known, were put under censure; but if, before censure, they offered themselves at the communion, they were repelled. And indeed such severe discipline might not be amiss, whilst it was grounded only upon piety and zeal for God’s honour, as it was in those devout times. But, afterwards, some persons being debarred from the communion out of private pique and resentment, an imperial injunction prohibited all, both bishops and presbyters, from shutting out any one from the communion, before just cause be shown that the holy canons do give them power so to do. And the canon law did not allow a discretionary power to the priest to thrust away every ill person from the sacrament: “a vicious person, offering himself to receive the communion, is not to be expelled, but is to be carried privately aside, and to be exhorted not to receive the communion.” Indeed the later canonists did interpret this only of occult crimes, and such as were not generally known; allowing only persons “notoriously guilty” to be expelled; and of this opinion were the compilers of our rubrics in Edward the Sixth’s time, as appears from their wording this rubric, “If any be an open and notorious evil liver,” &c. But, however, they limited this discretionary power of the minister, obliging him, even in “notorious” crimes, to “admonish” such persons first to abstain, and only upon obstinacy to repel. But, nevertheless, this formerly gave occasion to several exceptions and disputes; and therefore, in the last revision of the Common Prayer, repulsion was not left to the absolute power of the minister, but he was obliged to give notice thereof to the diocesan, and to take his advice therein. And still it remains so uncertain, what is “notoriety,” both in presumption, law, and fact, that a minister is not out of danger of transgressing his rule, if, before judicial conviction of a crime, he goes further than admonishing any person to abstain.—Dr. Nicholls. Our law in England will not suffer the minister to judge any man as a notorious offender, but him who is convicted by some legal sentence.—Bp. Andrewes.

218Notoriety in fact is one thing, and notoriety in presumption is another. And in either case it should be a notoriety in law too, to indemnify the minister for proceeding upon the rubric, or to render him safe, in point of law, for repelling any person from the communion.

Upon the whole of the matter, however, though this rubric may “require some explanation,” as Bishop Cosin remarks, “for the avoiding of disputes and doubts between the communicants and curates;” yet, if it be taken in all its parts, namely, that no person, however “notoriously wicked,” shall be withheld from the communion, till he be admonished to withdraw himself; and that when he is repelled upon his obstinacy, it is only till such time as the advice of the ordinary can be had therein, to whom the curate is obliged to give early notice of such his act; it seems in this view the best, and I think the only ecclesiastical, rule we have to go by in such case; nor doth it appear liable to exceptions, unless it be in that particular, of how far we are safe in acting according to it.

But, as this is properly a point of law, it is not so fit for me to undertake any determination of it; it must be left to the gentlemen of that profession. Only thus much I would put in, that, if a clergyman’s conduct in this matter shall appear to be upright, dispassionate, and disinterested, (and I wish it may never appear otherwise,) so as to gain the approbation of reasonable and indifferent persons,—which I think it would gain in all notorious and flagrant cases, which are those mentioned in the rubric,—it is to be hoped and presumed, that the interpreters of the law would, in their turn too, show him all the favour and regard they could.—Archdeacon Sharp.

COMMUNION OF THE SICK. In this office we have an example of the benevolent care exhibited by the Church towards her suffering members. As all mortal men be subject to many sudden perils, diseases, and sicknesses, and ever uncertain what time they shall depart out of this life, the Church has not only provided for their baptism, and for the visitations of the pastor, but has authorized and directed the administration to them of “the most comfortable sacrament of the body and blood of Christ.”

Although the Church maintains that the eucharist, as a general rule, is to be publicly administered in the consecrated house of God, and has signified her disapproval of solitary communion in all cases; yet, when by sickness her members are incapable of presenting themselves at the altar, there is a wise and tender relaxation of her usages, corresponding with the peculiar necessity of the case. This too “is exactly conformable to the most early practice of the primitive Church; for there is nothing more frequently mentioned by the ancient writers, than the care of the Church to distribute the eucharist to all dying persons that were capable of receiving it.”

“There are many instances,” says Palmer, “in antiquity, of the celebration of the eucharist in private for the sick. Thus Paulinus, bishop of Nola, caused the eucharist to be celebrated in his own chamber, not many hours before his death. Gregory Nazianzen informs us, that his father communicated in his own chamber, and that his sister had an altar at home; and Ambrose is said to have administered the sacrament in a private house at Rome. The Church is therefore justified in directing the eucharist to be consecrated in private houses, for the benefit of the sick; and she has taken care, in the rubric immediately preceding the office, that the sacrament shall be decorously and reverently administered.”

In the distribution of the elements, the rubric orders that the sick person shall receive last. This is done, “because those who communicate with him, through fear of some contagion, or the noisomeness of his disease, may be afraid to drink out of the same cup after him.”

By a constitution of Archbishop Peckham, the sacrament of the eucharist shall be carried with due reverence to the sick, the priest having on at least a surplice or stole, with a light carried before him in a lantern, with a bell, that the people may be excited to due reverence; who by the minister’s direction shall be taught to prostrate themselves, or at least to make humble adoration, wheresoever the King of Glory shall happen to be carried under the cover of bread.

But by the rubric of the 2 Edward VI. it was ordered, that there shall be no elevation of the host, or showing the sacrament to the people.

By the present rubric, before the office for the Communion of the Sick, it is ordered as follows: “Forasmuch as all mortal men be subject to many sudden perils, diseases, and sicknesses, and ever uncertain what time they shall depart out of this life; therefore, to the intent they may be always in a readiness to die whensoever it shall please Almighty God to call them, curates shall diligently from time to time (but 219especially in the time of pestilence or other infectious sickness) exhort their parishioners to the often receiving of the holy communion of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ, when it shall be publicly administered in the church; that, so doing, they may, in case of sudden visitation, have the less cause to be disquieted for lack of the same. But if the sick person be not able to come to the church, and yet is desirous to receive the communion in his house, then he must give timely notice to the curate, signifying also how many there are to communicate with him, (which shall be three, or two at the least,) and having a convenient place in the sick man’s house, with all things necessary so prepared, that the curate may reverently minister, he shall there celebrate the holy communion.

“But if a man, either by reason of extremity of sickness, or for want of warning in due time to the curate, or for lack of company to receive with him, or by any other just impediment, do not receive the sacrament of Christ’s body and blood, the curate shall instruct him, that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and stedfastly believe that Jesus Christ hath suffered death upon the cross for him, and shed his blood for his redemption; earnestly remembering the benefits he hath thereby, and giving him hearty thanks therefore; he doth eat and drink the body and blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul’s health, although he do not receive the sacrament with his mouth.

“In the time of plague, sweat, or other such like contagious times of sickness or diseases, when none of the parish can be gotten to communicate with the sick in their houses, for fear of infection, upon special request of the deceased, the minister may only communicate with him.”

It has been the constant usage of the Church, in all probability derived from the apostolical times, for persons dangerously sick to receive the holy sacrament of the Lord’s supper for their spiritual comfort and assistance. Hence this private communion obtained the name of viaticum among the Latins, and a correspondent name among the Greeks; that is, provision, as it were, laid in to sustain them in their journey to the other world. Our Church follows this example of the primitive ages. And rather than the sick man should want so necessary a comfort, we are allowed to dispense it in a private house, and to a small company, which in other cases we avoid. Indeed there are divers weighty reasons why the dying Christian should receive this sacrament, and why ministers should persuade them to it, and labour to fit them for the worthy receiving of it. For, 1. This is the highest mystery of religion, and fittest for those who are by sickness put into a heavenly frame and are nearest to perfection. 2. This is God’s seal of remission to all that receive it with penitence and faith. 3. This arms them against the fear of death, by setting Jesus before them, who died for them, and hath pulled out the sting of death. 4. This assures them of their resurrection, by keeping them members of Christ’s body. (John vi. 54.) 5. It declares they die in the peace and communion of the true Church, out of which there is no salvation. And if the sick man have done all the duties in the foregoing office, he is prepared to die, and therefore fit for this communion; and if he do receive it with devotion, the comfortable assurances of God’s love which he gets here will never leave him till he see God face to face. We shall only add, that, lest the fears of the Divine displeasure which sick men are very apt to entertain, should trouble their minds, and hinder their joy and comfort in this holy ordinance, the Church hath chosen a peculiar Epistle and Gospel on purpose to comfort them and deliver them from these fears, and also made a proper collect to beg patience for them under this their affliction. All which are so plain they need no explication, but only require the sick man’s devout attention, and then it is hoped they will not fail of their desired effect.—Dr. Nicholls. Dean Comber.

COMMUNION OF SAINTS. (See Saints.) This is an article of the Creed in which we profess to believe, as a necessary and infallible truth, that such persons as are truly sanctified in the Church of Christ, while they live among the crooked generations of men, and struggle with the miseries of this world, have fellowship with God the Father, (1 John i. 3; 2 Peter i. 4,) with God the Son, (1 John i. 3; 2 John 9; John xvii. 20, 21, 23,) with God the Holy Ghost, (Phil. ii. 1; 2 Cor. xiii. 14,) as dwelling with them, and taking up THEIR habitations in them; that they partake of the care and kindness of the blessed angels, who take delight in the ministration for their benefit, being “ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Heb. i. 14; Luke xv. 10; Matt, xviii. 10); that besides the external fellowship which they have in the word and sacraments, with all the members of the Church, they 220have an intimate union and conjunction with all the saints on earth, as the living members of Christ. (1 John i. 7; Col. ii. 19.) Nor is this union separated by the death of any; but as Christ, in whom they live, is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, so have they fellowship with all the saints, who, from the death of Abel, have departed in the true faith and fear of God, and now enjoy the presence of the Father, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. (Heb. xii. 22, 23.) “Indeed,” says Bishop Pearson, from whom this article is taken, “the communion of saints in the Church of Christ with those who are departed is demonstrated by their communion with the saints alive. For if I have communion with a saint of God as such, while he liveth here, I must still have communion with him when he is departed hence; because the foundation of that communion cannot be removed by death. The mystical union between Christ and his Church, the spiritual conjunction of the members with the head, is the true foundation of that communion which one member hath with another, all the members living and increasing by the same influence which they receive from him. But death, which is nothing else but the separation of the soul from the body, maketh no separation in the mystical union, no breach of the spiritual conjunction; and, consequently, there must continue the same communion, because there remaineth the same foundation. Indeed the saint before his death had some communion with the hypocrite, as hearing the word, professing the faith, receiving the sacraments together; which being in things only external, as they were common to them both, and all such external actions ceasing in the person dead, the hypocrite remaining loseth all communion with the saint departing, and the saints surviving cease to have farther fellowship with the hypocrite dying. But seeing that the true and unfeigned holiness of man, wrought by the powerful influence of the Spirit of God, not only remaineth, but also is improved after death; seeing that the correspondence of the internal holiness was the true communion with other persons during life, they cannot be said to be divided by death, which hath no power over that sanctity by which they were first conjoined. But although this communion of the saints in paradise and on earth, upon the mystical union of Christ their head, be fundamental and internal, yet what acts or external operations it produces is not so certain. That we communicate with them in hope of that happiness which they actually enjoy is evident; that we have the Spirit of God given us as an earnest, and so a part of their felicity, is certain. But what they do in heaven in relation to us on earth particularly considered, or what we ought to perform in reference to them in heaven, besides a reverential respect and study of imitation, is not revealed unto us in the Scriptures, nor can be concluded by necessary deduction from any principles of Christianity. They who first found this part of the article in the creed, and delivered their exposition to us, have made no greater enlargement of this communion, as to the saints of heaven, than the society of hope, esteem, and imitation on our side, of desires and supplications on their side; and what is now taught by the Church of Rome is as an unwarrantable, so a novitious, interpretation.”

COMMUNION IN ONE KIND. The principal advocates of Popery at the beginning of the Reformation were not willing to own, that the universal practice of the primitive Church was against the modern sacrilege of denying the cup to the people; and, therefore, though they confessed there were some instances in antiquity, of communion under both kinds, yet they maintained the custom was not universal. So Eckius and Harding, and many others. But they who have since considered the practice of the ancient Church more narrowly, are ashamed of this pretence, and freely confess, that for twelve centuries there is no instance of the people’s being obliged to communicate only in one kind, in the public administration of the sacrament; but in private they think some few instances may be given. This is Cardinal Bona’s distinction. “It is very certain,” says he, “that anciently all in general, both clergy and laity, men and women, received the holy mysteries in both kinds, when they were present at the solemn celebration of them, and they both offered and were partakers. But out of the time of sacrifice, and act of the Church, it was customary always and in all places to communicate only in one kind. In the first part of the assertion all agree, as well Catholics as sectaries; nor can any one deny it, that has the least knowledge of ecclesiastical affairs. For the faithful always and in all places, from the very first foundation of the Church to the twelfth century, were used to communicate under the species of bread and wine; and in the beginning of that age the use of the cup began by little and little to be laid aside, whilst 221many bishops interdicted the people the use of the cup, for fear of irreverence and effusion.” (Book ii. c. 18, n. 1.) And what they did first for their own Churches, was afterward confirmed by a canonical sanction of the Council of Constance [A. D. 1414].... At this day the Greeks, and Maronites, and Abyssins, and all the Orientals, never communicate but in both kinds, as Bona himself confesses (Book ii. c. 18, n. 2).—Bingham. The following is the decree of the popish Council of Constance [A. D. 1418] on this subject.

“Whereas, in some parts of the world, certain persons rashly presume to assert, that the Christian people ought to receive the holy sacrament of the eucharist under both kinds of bread and wine; and do everywhere communicate the laity, not only in the bread, but also in the wine; and pertinaciously assert also, that they ought to communicate after supper, or else not fasting, doing this contrary to the laudable custom of the Church, which is agreeable to reason, which they damnably endeavour to reprobate as sacrilegious, this present holy general Council of Constance, lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, earnestly desiring to protect the safety of the faithful against this error, after much and mature deliberation had of many who are learned both in Divine and human law, declares, decrees, and determines, that, although Christ instituted this venerable sacrament after supper, and administered it to his disciples under both kinds of bread and wine, yet, notwithstanding this, the laudable authority of the sacred canons, and the approved custom of the Church has observed, that this sacrament ought not to be performed after supper, nor be received by the faithful unless fasting, except in the case of sickness, or any other necessity, either duly conceded or admitted by the Church; and, in like manner, that although in the primitive Church this sacrament was received of the faithful under both kinds, yet for the avoiding any dangers and scandals, the custom has reasonably been introduced, that it be received by the officiating persons under both kinds, but by the laity only under the kind of bread; since it is to be believed most firmly, and in nowise to be doubted, that the whole body and blood of Christ is truly contained as well under the species of bread as under that of wine.”

On which we may fairly remark, “full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” For Christ, when he celebrated the Eucharist, gave the cup to all who were present; and when he appointed his apostles his ministers to celebrate it, he bade them do the same, “Do this in remembrance of me.” But ye say, whosoever shall dare to do as Christ has bidden him, shall be effectually punished. Can human impiety exceed this?—Perceval.

COMMUNION TABLE. A name for the altar in the Christian Church. It is both altar and table. An altar with respect to the oblation; a table with respect to the feast. (See Altar.)

COMMUTATION OF PENANCE. Penance is an ecclesiastical punishment, used in the discipline of the Church, which affects the body of the penitent; by which he is obliged to give public satisfaction to the Church for the scandal he has occasioned by his evil example. Commutation of Penance is the permission granted by the ecclesiastical judge to pay a certain sum of money for pious uses, in lieu of public penance. (See Penitents.)

COMPETENTES. An order of catechumens in the primitive Church, being the immediate candidates for baptism.

COMPLINE, or COMPLETORIUM, was, before the Reformation, the last service of the day. This hour of prayer was first appointed by the celebrated abbot Benedict, in the sixth century.

The Church of England, at the revision of our offices in the reign of Edward the Sixth, only prescribed public worship in the morning and the evening; and in making this regulation she was perfectly justified: for though it is the duty of Christians to pray continually, yet the precise times and seasons of prayer, termed canonical hours, do not rest on any Divine command; nor have they ever been pronounced binding on all Churches by any general council: neither has there been any uniformity in the practice of the Christian Church in this respect. Besides this, the Churches of the Alexandrian patriarchate, which were founded by the holy evangelist Mark, only appointed two public assemblies in the day; and no more were customary, even in the monasteries of Egypt, the rest of the day being left for private and voluntary prayer and meditation. Thus also the Church of England left her clergy and people to follow in private the injunction of the apostle, to “pray without ceasing;” for, as John Cassian observes, a voluntary gift of praise and prayer is even more acceptable to God than those duties which are compelled by the canons; and, certainly, the Church of England did not intend that her children should offer the sacrifice of praise 222and thanksgiving only in the morning and evening when she appointed those seasons for public worship. Indeed, we find that a book of private devotion, containing offices for several hours of prayer, and entitled the “Horarium,” was published by royal authority, A. D. 1560, from which Dr. Cosin, bishop of Durham, chiefly derived his “Collection of Private Devotion,” &c. The office of Evensay, or Evening Prayer, is a judicious abridgment of the office of Evensay and Compline, as formerly used by the English Church.—Palmer.

CONCEPTION (IMMACULATE) OF THE HOLY VIRGIN. The immaculate conception is a festival of the Roman Church, observed on December 8, in honour of the alleged conception of the Virgin Mary without sin. The doctrine itself was invented about the middle of the twelfth century. The devotion offered to the Blessed Virgin having grown to an extravagant height, it was asserted by some obscure theologians, not only that she was sanctified from her birth, but also that she was conceived without sin. The opinion was at first generally condemned, and it would have had its place among other forgotten heresies, if Duns Scotus, the great opponent of the Dominicans, had not undertaken its defence.

The testimony of Scripture to the universal corruption of human nature is as plain as possible, and no trace of any exception is to be found. The witness of the primitive Church is equally clear, and not a single writer, for more than a thousand years, can be cited as having given the least countenance to the modern view.

But although the Roman Church has afforded the highest sanction and encouragement to a doctrine which is condemned alike by Scripture and the Fathers, the inconsistencies and contradictions of its authorized teaching on the subject are endless. The Council of Basle, for instance, in its thirty-sixth session, declared the belief in the immaculate conception to be conformable to the Catholic faith; but on the other side it is urged, that the council was in schism when it passed the decree, on account of the deposition which it had pronounced against Eugenius. The Council of Trent, in its decree on the subject of original sin, expressly stated that it had no intention of including the Blessed Virgin in the terms which it employed; but in conclusion it only enjoined the observance of the decree of Sixtus IV., which left the question open. The parties of Dominicans and Franciscans were so equally balanced that the Council did not venture to pronounce in favour of the one at the expense of the other. Their disputes were only kept from proceeding to extremity by the intervention of the legate. Pius V. in the same way, forbade the censure of those who denied, as well as of those who affirmed, the doctrine. Gregory XV. prohibited the imputation of original sin to the Blessed Virgin, even in private disputations; but he made an exception in favour of the Dominicans, that is to say, while giving his highest sanction to the dogma, he granted an immunity to those who had from the first resisted it. Alexander VII. decreed that the immaculate conception is a pious doctrine and worthy of honour, but he forbade the censure of those who should reject it. The university of Paris, at one period, compelled all candidates for the highest degree in theology to bind themselves to defend it; while at the same time the chief authority in the Church permitted its denial. Austria received from Benedict XIII. the grant of an office for the immaculate conception, but the phrase itself is carefully excluded from the prayers. The evidence, such as it is, on both sides is equally conflicting. The Franciscans, for instance, produced a revelation of St. Bridget in favour of the doctrine, while the Dominicans appealed to a similar revelation made to St. Catherine of Sienna, in which the contrary is affirmed. A question was raised in consequence, whether one of the so called saints is not to be believed rather than the other, though both have their place as objects of worship in the Roman calendar.

To sober-minded Christians it seems as idle a question as ever occupied the time, or roused the bad passions, of theological disputants, since, according to Thomas Aquinas and others, it regards only an inconceivably minute instant of time; yet it sufficed at one period to throw the whole kingdom of Spain into confusion, and it has furnished for centuries the watchword of parties in the Roman Church, who have maintained the fiercest opposition to each other; and the controversy is still undecided. Although it is said that the doctrine is full of blessing, that the whole of Christendom is devoutly waiting for its authoritative declaration, and that this would be the great glory and joy of an age which is to witness the restoration of catholicity, the See of Rome is restrained by great and insurmountable difficulties. If the immaculate conception were decreed to be a necessary article of faith, no one could deny that an addition had been made to 223the ancient creeds, and in a case to which even the loose principle of development could hardly be made applicable: while at the same time there would be an implied condemnation not only of the primitive fathers, but of the greatest theologians whom the Church of Rome has ever produced.

CONCEPTION OF OUR LADY. A religious order in the Romish Church, founded by Beatrix de Sylva, sister of James, first count of Portolegro, in the kingdom of Portugal. This lady, being carried to the court of Castile by Elizabeth, daughter of Edward, king of Portugal, whom the king of Castile had married, and the king falling in love with her on account of her beauty, the jealous queen locked her up in a chamber, where she left her without meat or drink for three days. In this condition she implored the assistance of the Virgin Mary, who, according to the legendary statement, appeared to her and comforted her, promising her a speedy release, which soon happened. But Beatrix, fearing the further resentment of the queen, privately withdrew from court, and fled to Toledo; where arriving, she retired to a monastery of Dominican nuns, in which she continued forty years in the practice of all sorts of austerities. Here she again imagined, or pretended, that the Virgin Mary reappeared to her, and inspired her with the desire of founding an order in honour of her own immaculate conception. To this end she obtained of the queen a grant of the palace of Galliana, where was a chapel dedicated to the honour of St. Faith. Beatrix, accompanied by twelve young maids of the Dominican monastery, took possession of it in the year 1484. These religious were habited in a white gown and scapulary, and a blue mantle, and wore on their scapulary the image of the Blessed Virgin. Pope Innocent VIII. confirmed the order in 1489, and granted them permission to follow the rule of the Cistercians. The pious foundress died in the year 1490, at sixty-six years of age.

After the death of Beatrix, Cardinal Ximenes put the nuns of the Conception under the direction of the Franciscans, as being the most zealous defenders of the immaculate conception; at the same time, he gave them the rule of St. Clara to follow. The second convent of the order was founded in the year 1507, at Torrigo, in the diocese of Toledo, which produced seven others, the first of which was at Madrid. This order passed into Italy, and got footing in Rome and Milan. In the reign of Louis XIV., king of France, the Clarisses of the suburb of St. Germain, at Paris, embraced the order of the Conception. These religious, besides the grand office of the Franciscans, recite on Sundays and holy-days a lesser office, called the office of the Conception of the Holy Virgin.—Broughton.

CONCEPTION, MIRACULOUS. The production of the human nature of the Son of God out of the ordinary course of generation, by the power of the Holy Ghost. (Matt. i. 18, 25.)

It were not difficult to show that the miraculous conception, once admitted, naturally brings after it the great doctrines of the incarnation and the atonement. The miraculous conception of our Lord evidently implies some higher purpose of his coming than the mere business of a teacher. The business of a teacher might have been performed by a mere man, enlightened by the prophetic spirit. For whatever instruction men have the capacity to receive, a man might have been made the instrument to convey. Had teaching, therefore, been the sole purpose of our Saviour’s coming, a mere man might have done the whole business, and the supernatural conception had been an unnecessary miracle. He, therefore, who came in this miraculous way, came upon some higher business, to which a mere man was unequal. He came to be made a sin-offering for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.—Bp. Horsley.

CONCLAVE. The place where the cardinals meet for the choosing of a new pope: the assembly itself is also called by this name, and it depends upon the members themselves to choose the place, although for some time the Vatican has been constantly used. Here they erect, in a large apartment, as many cells of deal wood as there are cardinals, with lodges and places for the conclavists, who shut themselves in to wait and serve the cardinals. These little chambers have their numbers, and are drawn by lot, so that it often happens that cardinals of different factions lodge near one another. These are made up during the nine days’ ceremony for the pope’s funeral; during which time anybody may go in and see the cells, which are hung on the outside with green serge or camlet, only those that belong to the favourites of the deceased, or are such as had been promoted by him, are covered with deep violet-coloured cloth, and over each are the arms of the cardinal who lives in it. Between the cells and the windows of the palace there is a long 224gallery for the convenience of the conclave, and it is from this that the cells receive their light. The day after the pope’s burial, that is, the tenth after his decease, the cardinals, having heard mass, invoke the Holy Ghost (as they term it) and go in procession two by two into the conclave, where they all meet in the chapel every morning and evening for a scrutiny, which is done by writing their suffrages in little billets, and putting them into a chalice that stands upon the altar: when all are put in, two cardinals are chosen by the rest to read those openly who are named, and to keep an account of the number of each, and this is done till two-thirds join for the same person; but a pope is seldom chosen after this manner. When it appears that after the scrutiny they do not agree, they come to what they call an accez or access, that is, a trial whether he who has most voices in the scrutiny could reach to two-thirds; but it is observable that they cannot give their suffrages in the accez to those whom they have appeared for in the scrutiny. If this does not succeed, they have recourse to the way of inspiration, (as they term it,) which is an open declaration, or rather combination of many cardinals to cry together such a cardinal is pope. For example, Altieri Papa is begun by one or two chiefs of a party, when they find suffrages enough to assure them that this method will not fail, and then the rest of the cardinals are forced to join, that they may not incur the pope’s displeasure, who would be chosen in spite of them. The scrutiny is managed in the following manner: each cardinal prepares his billet, wherein he writes his own name and that of the person for whom he votes, and another word of device; the cardinal’s name is written under the fold of the paper, and sealed with a seal for that purpose. The name of the chosen is written by the conclavist under another fold without the seal, and the word by which the cardinal knows that it is his name which is read, is written on the outside, as Deo volente, or the like; the fold which covers the cardinal’s name is never opened until the pope be chosen, who, to know those who voted for him, unfolds all. The motto serves in the accez, that it may appear that each cardinal has given another besides that in the scrutiny, seeing two billets with different persons under the same name; and at the end of the scrutiny and accez, if the suffrage be not sufficient to complete the election, they burn all the billetings that the electors’ names may be kept secret. Each cardinal during the conclave is allowed but two servants, or three at most, and this only to princes, or for some particular privilege. Several seek for this employment because the new-elected pope gives each conclavist three or four hundred livres, and they have the pleasure of seeing all that passes: yet the place is troublesome enough, because they must take in their meat and drink from a certain place common to all that live in the same part, must wait at table, and be as strictly confined as their masters.—Augusti.

CONCORDANCE, a dictionary or index to the Bible, wherein all the leading words are ranged alphabetically, and the books, chapters, and verses wherein they occur, referred to, to assist in finding out passages, and comparing the several significations of the same word. The earliest attempt at a Concordance is the collection of parallel passages in the margin of the 5th volume of the Complatensian Polyglot. The first English Polyglot was published by John Merbeck, or Marbeck, a celebrated English musician, in 1550.

Of English Concordances, Cruden’s is well known and valued by every biblical student.

Crutwell’s “Concordance of Parallels” is useful, but the number of parallel passages referred to, and sometimes the slightness of their connexion, renders the work less useful on ordinary occasions than the marginal references in our Bibles.

Gastrell’s “Christian Institutes,” Locke and Dodd’s “Common-place Book of Scripture,” Strutt’s work with the same title, and Matthew Talbot’s “Analysis of the Holy Bible,” all assume the character of a concordance. The best Hebrew concordance is Calasios. For the Septuagint, Trommius, for the Greek Testament, Schmidt, (a very beautiful 12mo edition of which was edited by Mr. Greenfield in 1830,) and for the Vulgate, Cardinal Hugo’s Concordance may be consulted.

CONCORDAT. An instrument executed in 1801, between Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII., to which the present Gallican Church owes its origin, in a much stronger sense than any in which the Romanist can refer the origin of the Church of England to the Reformation. For an account of this concordat the reader is referred to the article on the Church of France. (See Church.)

CONCORDAT. There is also a much earlier agreement between the crown of France and the pope, generally known by the same name, viz. the agreement of Francis I. with Pope Leo X. in 1516, 225to abolish the Pragmatic Sanction; and here we must observe, that Clothaire II. issued an edict in 615, approved by all the bishops of his kingdom, assembled at the fifth Council of Paris, by which he ordered that no bishop, though chosen by the clergy and people, should be consecrated if the king did not approve of him: and he that should be nominated by the king should be accepted, if the metropolitan found no just cause to reject him. Now King Charles VII., in the Council of Bourges, in 1439, established the Pragmatic Sanction, whereby part of the clergy, without consulting with the people or the archbishops, or other bishops of provinces, chose their bishops, leaving the king the privilege of consenting to and confirming the election if he liked it. This the court of Rome resented; the court first desired, and afterwards in the Lateran Council cited, this king and the clergy of France to appear and give their reasons, why they did not abolish that ordinance; whereupon King Francis I. made this agreement, called a Concordat, with Pope Leo X., whereby the king had the power to nominate such as he thought fit for bishops, &c.; and the pope, if he found no fault, either in respect of the capacity or life of the person in nomination, was to issue the papal bull for the consecration. The parliament, clergy, and the university of Paris were much against registering this agreement; and, though they consented to it at last, yet they solemnly protested, that they did it only in obedience to the king’s repeated commands. This concordat differed from that of Clothaire, that the pope, by this, had no power to examine the ability of the person elected; so that, in his time, they consecrated their bishops, without troubling themselves to send to Rome for bulls. (See Pragmatic Sanction.)

CONCORDAT, GERMANIC, or the Concordat of Germany. A treaty relating to ecclesiastical affairs, made in 1488, between Pope Nicholas V. and the emperor Frederick III., confirmed by Clement VIII. and Gregory XIII. It comprehended four parts; in the first of which the pope reserved to himself the conferring of all vacant benefices at Rome, and 100 days’ journey from it, of whatever degree, either secular or regular, which before went by election, without exception of cardinals or other officers of the holy see. The second concerns the elections that are to be confirmed by the pope, as metropolises, cathedrals, and monasteries, depending immediately on the pope, and having the privilege of canonical election. The third concerns livings that are successively given by the popes and their proper patrons; that the pope has the privilege to confer both secular and regular livings, for the months of January, March, May, July, September, November; and the bishop or archbishop within the district of their dioceses during the other months. The fourth and last part speaks of the annates or first-fruits, after the death or removal of the incumbent.

CONDIGNITY and CONGRUITY. Terms used by the schoolmen to express their peculiar opinions relative to human merit and deserving. The Scotists maintain that it is possible for man in his natural state so to live as to deserve the grace of God, by which he may be enabled to obtain salvation; this natural fitness (congruitas) for grace, being such as to oblige the Deity to grant it. Such is the merit of congruity. The Thomists, on the other hand, contend that man, by the Divine assistance, is capable of so living as to merit eternal life, to be worthy (condignus) of it in the sight of God. In this hypothesis, the question of previous preparation for the grace which enables him to be worthy, is not introduced. This is the merit of condignity.

Article XIII. “Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the school-authors say) deserve grace of congruity: yea, rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.”

CONDUCT. A name given to chaplains of colleges in the university of Cambridge and at Eton; meaning a “Capellanus conductitius.” (See Chaplain.)

CONFALON, or GONFALON, Society of the. So called from the Gonfalon, or banner, bearing the figure of the Virgin Mary, which was their ensign.—Raynaldus. A confraternity of seculars in the Church of Rome, called penitents, established first of all by some Roman citizens in 1267: and confirmed by Pope Gregory XIII. in 1576. Henry III. began one at Paris in 1583, and himself assisted in the habit of a penitent, at a procession wherein the cardinal of Guise carried the cross, and his brother the duke of Mayenne was master of the ceremonies.

CONFESSION. (See Auricular Confession.) The verbal acknowledgment of sin. The following are the rules laid down by the Church of England on this subject. 226The Warning for the Celebration of the Holy Communion: “Because it is requisite that no man should come to the holy communion but with a full faith in God’s mercy, and with a quiet conscience; therefore, if there be any of you who by this means cannot quiet his conscience therein, but requireth further comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned minister of God’s word, and open his grief, that by the ministration of God’s holy word he may receive the benefit of absolution, together with ghostly counsel and advice to the quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness.” Rubric, in the Office for the Visitation of the Sick: “Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled with any weighty matter. After which confession, the priest shall absolve him (if he humbly and heartily desire it) after this sort.” By the 113th canon, empowering ministers to prevent offences at the court of visitation, it is provided that “if any man confess his secret and hidden sins to the minister, for the unburdening of his conscience, and to receive spiritual consolation and ease of mind from him, he shall not in anywise be bound by this constitution, but is strictly charged and admonished that he do not at any time reveal and make known to any person whatsoever, any crime or offence so committed to his trust and secrecy, (except they be such crimes as, by the laws of this realm, his own life may be called in question for concealing the same,) under pain of irregularity.”

In the primitive Church, no other confession of sins was required in order to receive baptism than the general renunciation of the devil and all his works.

Nor did the Church lay any obligation on the consciences of men, to make either public or private confession of their sins to any but God, in order to qualify them for the communion. The confessions of the primitive Christians were all voluntary, and not imposed upon them by any laws of the Church. Notwithstanding which it must be owned, that private confession, though not absolutely required, yet was allowed and encouraged by the ancients, in some cases, and upon special occasions. For, first, they advised men, in case of lesser sins, to make confession mutually to each other, that they might have each other’s prayers and assistance, according to the advice of St. James, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.” Which, though it be produced by the Romanists in favour of auricular confession to a priest, yet the ancients understood it only as a direction to Christians to confess mutually to each other. 2. In case of injuries done to any private person, it was expected that the offender should make a private confession of his fault to the person injured. 3. When men were under any perplexities of mind, or troubles of conscience, this was another case in which they were directed to have recourse to some pastor, and to take his counsel and advice. 4. Origen gives another reason for confessing private sins to the priest, which is, that he was the fittest judge when it was proper to do public penance for private offences. (See Penitentiary.)—Bingham, b. xv. ch. 8, § 6.

The Romish Church not only requires confession as a duty, but has advanced it to the dignity of a sacrament; and this greatly adds to the power of the clergy of that Church over the laity. “Confession submits a fearful penitent, whose conscience is oppressed with scruples, loaded with remorse, and weakened by the remembrance of its sins, to the absolute will of a cunning priest, who beholds sceptres at his feet, humbles crowns, and makes those tremble who strike terror into whole nations.” Confession, in the Church of Rome, must be made in the day-time, and, if possible, when there are people in the church. As soon as the penitent comes up to the confessional, or the seat of the priest who confesses, he makes the sign of the cross, and asks the confessor’s blessing. Then the penitent kneels, with his hands clasped and uplifted. The confessional is open before, and has two lattice windows in it, one on each side. The confessor sits with his cap on his head, and his ear stooped towards the penitent, in which posture he receives his confession in a whisper; whence it is called auricular confession. This ended, the priest uncovers himself, and stretching out his right hand towards the penitent, pronounces the absolution. (See Penance.)—Casal de Veter. Christ. Ritib. Alet’s Ritual.

That confession is a custom observed in the Greek Church is past all dispute. Ricaut calls this practice “One of the fundamental pillars of the Eastern Churches; the axis upon which their whole ecclesiastical polity turns, and that without which the clergy would no longer have any authority or influence over the consciences of the people, and would very seldom be able to reprove them in a country where they could fly to the arms of infidels for shelter and protection against the censures 227and reprehensions of their own pastors.” There are four stated times in the year for confession. The penitent withdraws with the priest to some remote corner of the church, where he sits down, with his head uncovered, and the confessor assures him, the angel of the Lord is there present to take his confession, exhorting him at the same time to conceal none of his sins. After confession, the penitent receives absolution, and gives the priest a small gratuity of money for his trouble. If we may credit a judicious and learned traveller, the practice of confession is enormously abused by the Greeks. If a penitent acknowledges he has robbed another, the priest asks him whether the person injured be a native of his own country, or a Frank: if the penitent answers, the latter, “Then there is no harm done,” says the priest, “provided we share the booty between us.” These are natural consequences of the ignorance and poverty of the Greeks in general.—Tournefort’s Voyages.

“It standeth with us in the Church of England,” saith Hooker, “as touching public confession, thus: First, seeing day by day we in our Church begin our public prayers to Almighty God with public acknowledgment of our sins, in which confession every man, prostrate before his glorious majesty, crieth against himself, and the minister with one sentence pronounceth universally all clear whose acknowledgment hath proceeded from a true penitent mind, what reason is there every man should not, under the general terms of confession, represent to himself his own particulars whatsoever, and adjoining thereto that affection which a contrite spirit worketh, embrace to as full effect the words of Divine grace, as if the same were severally and particularly uttered, with addition of prayers, imposition of hands, and all ceremonies and solemnities, that might be used for the strengthening of men’s affiance in God’s peculiar mercy towards them? The difference of general and particular forms in confession, is not so material that any man’s safety or ghostly good should depend upon it.” “As for private confession,” says Bishop Jewel, “abuses and errors set apart, we condemn it not, but leave it at liberty.”—Broughton. Bingham.

All that can plainly be deduced from the scriptural doctrine concerning confession is this, that, in common or ordinary sins, we are to acknowledge them before Almighty God, either particularly in our private, or generally in our public devotion; but as for some sins of a more extraordinary kind, the heinousness whereof ordinary Christians may not be sufficiently apprized of, or which may be attended with such nice circumstances as perplex their consciences, here resort is proper to be made to the ministers of the Church, who, as physicians of the soul, are best able to advise the fittest remedies upon such uncommon emergencies. Matters of this kind stood within these limits for a considerable time after the first propagating of the gospel; but, during the piety of very early times, another sort of confession came in use, for it having been the practice for excommunicates, before their reception into the Church, to make a solemn confession of their faults before the whole congregation, some persons who had fallen into a great sin, though they had never been censured for it, thought it a part of their duty to take upon themselves a public shame for it, by discovering it to the whole congregation they were members of, and to desire their prayers to God for their pardon. Some difficulties and inconvenience arising from this practice, about the year 360, the office of a public penitentiary in the Greek Church began, who was to be a presbyter of good conversation, prudent, and one who could keep a secret; to whom those who were lapsed into any greater sin might confess it; and he, according to his discretion, was to enjoin a penance for it. But still there was no command for all people to confess their sins to this presbyter. In the Latin Church, the practice of public confession to the whole congregation continued 100 years longer, viz. till the time of Pope Leo, which was about the year 450, who, by an injunction of his, did abrogate it; and, after some time, the Greek Church began to grow weary of this private confession to a penitentiary, and so laid it aside. But whilst private confession to ministers was practised, in some of the earlier ages of the Church, recourse was had to them only as spiritual physicians and counsellors, as appears by many passages of antiquity. In the Council of Lateran, A. D. 1215, every person, of each sex, was obliged once in a year to confess to the minister of his parish, the sins which he had been guilty of. Auricular confession to the priest being thus established, some of the school divines of the Romish Church carried it to further lengths, making it to be an article of faith; to be received by the priest, not ministerially, but judicially and authoritatively; that every single sin must be discovered 228to them, with all its aggravating circumstances, &c. All which horrible tyranny over men’s consciences, and diving into the secrets of families and governments, was confirmed by the Council of Trent. The excellent compilers of our liturgy, willing to settle this upon the ancient bottom, ordered only a general confession of sins to be pronounced by all persons indifferently, not requiring any particular confessions to be made, thereby coming much nearer to the apostolical practice than the Roman liturgy can pretend to, in all which service there is no confession which the people share in; for their “Confiteor tibi, Domine,” &c. in the mass, relates to the priest, and the “Confiteor Deo omnipotenti,” “Beatæ Mariæ,” &c. in the breviary, is the confession only of the clergy.—Nicholls.

Forms of confession are generally to be met with in the liturgies of antiquity, but a form superior, or equal, to our own is nowhere to be found. Our confession, like the prayer which Jesus taught us, though concise, is comprehensive and full. It is conceived in general terms, yet at the same time it is so particular, that it includes every kind of sin. Where the minister is not too precipitate, when he allows the congregation time to repeat it, with such deliberation, that their hearts may go along with their words, each individual may, and ought, under the general form, to make a particular mental confession of his own personal sins, known only to God and his own conscience.—Shepherd.

At the time of the review of the liturgy, A. D. 1661, it was objected by the Presbyterian clergy against this Confession, that there was no preparatory prayer for God’s assistance and acceptance; and that it was defective in not clearly expressing “original sin,” nor enumerating actual sins with their aggravations. To which it was answered by the Episcopalian commissioners, that the preparatory sentences, and the preceding exhortation, amply supplied this; and that the form being so general is rather a perfection than a defect, as in such case all may join, since in many things we offend all. And as to the notice of original sin, they conceived that to be sufficiently acknowledged in the sentence, (with others, as the “devices and desires of our own hearts,” &c.,) “and there is no health in us.” With respect to the general terms used throughout the Common Prayer Book, dissenters have complained of such expressions as, “that we may do God’s will”—“that we may be kept from all evil,” &c.; to which the Episcopalians properly remark, “these are almost the very terms in the Lord’s Prayer; so that they must reform that, before they can pretend to amend our liturgy in these petitions.”

The reader may judge how far the objections are worthy of notice, by the form composed by Calvin himself, and used by the French reformed Churches, which is as follows:—“O Lord God, eternal and almighty Father, we acknowledge and confess before thy sacred Majesty, that we are miserable sinners, conceived and born in sin and iniquity; prone to evil, and indisposed to every good work; and that being vicious, we make no end of transgressing thy holy commandments. Hereby we call destruction upon ourselves from thy just judgment. But yet, O Lord, we are heartily sorry for having offended thee, and we condemn ourselves and sins by true repentance, desiring thy grace may relieve our misery. Therefore, O God, merciful Father, vouchsafe us thy mercy, in the name of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Blot out our sins, and purge away all our filth, and daily increase in us the gifts of thy Holy Spirit. That we, acknowledging our iniquity from the bottom of our hearts, may more and more displease ourselves, and be excited to true repentance; which, mortifying us and all our sins, may produce in us the fruits of righteousness and innocence, acceptable unto thee through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.” It appears, indeed, that our Confession was in great measure suggested by this form, or rather by the translation of it made by Valerandus Pollanus, for the reformed congregation of Strasburg.—See Laurence’s Bampton Lectures.

There is hardly anything in public worship which requires more caution and prudence in the ordering of it, than that confession of sin which is to be made by the whole congregation; it may be too loose and general on the one side, or it may be too particular and distinct on the other. There may be this inconvenience in a confession very short and general, that takes in all, that it does not so well serve to excite or to express that due sense of sin, nor to exercise that humility and self-abasement, wherewith we should always confess our sins to God. On the other hand, the inconvenience of a very particular and distinct confession of sins will be this, that some sins, with their aggravations, may be confessed in the name of the whole congregation, of which it is by no means to be supposed that all are guilty; and then they, who through the grace of God have been kept from them, 229cannot in good earnest make such confession.—Clagett’s Answer to Dissenters.

The General Confession with the Absolution, was first inserted in the Morning and Evening Prayer, by the Second Book of King Edward VI.

A Confession was formerly recited in the office for the first hour of the morning, according to the rites of the English Churches. It occurred in the course of prayers which came at the end of the service: and had this arrangement been regarded by the reformers, the Confession and Absolution would now be placed immediately before the collect for the day. There were, however, good reasons for placing the Confession at the beginning of the office. Christian humility would naturally induce us to approach the infinitely holy God with a confession of our sinfulness and unworthiness; and this position of the Confession is justified by the practice of the Eastern Church in the time of Basil, who observes that the people all confessed their sins with great contrition, at the beginning of the nocturnal service, and before the psalmody and lessons commenced.—Palmer.

Even in the most penitential parts of our service, even in the midst of accommodation to the wants of persons entering on a course of amendment, there is a prospect opened, of mature, established, and victorious Christianity.... Our “Almighty and most merciful Father” is entreated not only to remit the punishment, but to abolish the power of sin. And the absolution and remission of our sins itself, is made to consist, not merely in the reversal of a sentence, and removal of a curse, but in the influence of the Holy Spirit, consequent on true repentance, and productive, not of mere temporary and outward amendment, but of that inward abiding “purity and holiness, for the rest of our life,” which, “at the last,” will bring us to “God’s eternal joy.”—Bishop Jebb.

CONFESSIONS OF FAITH. The systems of theology drawn up by foreign reformers were frequently called Confessions of Faith. The following are the Confessions of the different Churches.

1. That of the Greek Church, entitled “The Confessions of the True and Genuine Faith,” which was presented to Mohammed II., in 1453, but which gave place to the “Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Greek Church,” composed by Mogila, metropolitan of Kiev, in Russia, and approved in 1643, with great solemnity, by the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. It contains the standard of the principles of the Russian Greek Church.—See Mr. Palmer’s (of Magd. Coll. Oxf.) Collection of Russian Symbolical Books; and Mr. Neale’s Hist. of the Greek Church.

2. The Church of Rome, though she has always received the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, had no fixed public and authoritative symbol till the Council of Trent. A summary of the doctrines contained in the canons of that council is given in the creed published by Pius IV., (1564,) in the form of a bull. It is introduced by the Nicene Creed, to which it adds twelve articles, comprising those doctrines which the Church of Rome finally adopted after her controversies with the Reformers. (See Creed of Pope Pius IV.)

3. The Lutherans call their standard books of faith and discipline, “Libri Symbolici Ecclesiæ Evangelicæ.” They contain the three creeds above mentioned, the Augsburg Confession, the Apology for that Confession by Melancthon, the Articles of Smalcald, drawn up by Luther; the Catechisms of Luther; and, in many churches, the Form of Concord, or Book of Torgau. The best edition is that by Tittmann, Leipsic, 1817. The Saxon, (composed by Melancthon,) Wurtemberg, Suabian, Pomeranian, Mansfeldtian, and Copenhagen Confessions agree in general with the symbolical books of the Lutherans, but are of authority only in the countries from which they are respectively called.

4. The Confessions of the Calvinistic Churches are numerous. The following are the principal:—(1.) The Helvetic Confessions are three—that of Basle, 1530; the Summary and Confession of the Helvetic Churches, 1536; and the “Expositio Simplex,” &c., 1566, ascribed to Bullinger. (2.) The Tetrapolitan Confession, 1531,—which derives its name from the four cities of Strasburg, Constance, Memmingen, and Lindau, by the deputies of which it was signed,—is attributed to Bucer. (3.) The Palatine or Heidelberg Confession, framed by order of the Elector Palatine John Casimir, 1575. (4.) The Confession of the Gallic Churches, accepted at the first synod of the reformed, held at Paris, 1559. (5.) The Confession of the Reformed Churches in Belgium, drawn up in 1559, and approved in 1561. (6.) The Confession of Faith of the Kirk of Scotland, which was that composed by the assembly at Westminster, was received as the standard of the Scotch national faith, in 1690.—See the following article. See also Harmony of Confessions, or the Faith of Christian and Reformed Churches, 1643; and 230Sylloge Confessionum, sub tempus Reformandæ Ecclesiæ, Oxon. 1804.

CONFESSION OF FAITH, WESTMINSTER. The Confession of Faith which was drawn up by the Puritans in England, and which is adopted by the Scottish establishment. The ordinance under which the assembly which drew up this Confession sat at Westminster commences thus:

An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, for the calling of an Assembly of learned and godly Divines, and others, to be consulted with by the Parliament, for the settling of the government and liturgy of the Church of England; and for vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the said Church from false aspersions and interpretations. June 12, 1643.

Whereas, amongst the infinite blessings of Almighty God upon this nation, none is nor can be more dear unto us than the purity of our religion; and for that, as yet, many things remain in the liturgy, discipline, and government of the Church, which do necessarily require a further and more perfect reformation than as yet hath been attained; and whereas it hath been declared and resolved by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, that the present Church-government by archbishops, their chancellors, commissars, deans, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and other ecclesiastical officers depending upon the hierarchy, is evil, and justly offensive and burdensome to the kingdom, a great impediment to reformation and growth of religion, and very prejudicial to the state and government of this kingdom; and therefore they are resolved that the same shall be taken away, and that such a government shall be settled in the Church as may be most agreeable to God’s holy word, and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church at home, and nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland, and other Reformed Churches abroad; and, for the better effecting hereof, and for the vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the Church of England from all false calumnies and aspersions, it is thought fit and necessary to call an Assembly of learned, godly, and judicious Divines, who, together with some members of both the Houses of Parliament, are to consult and advise of such matters and things, touching the premises, as shall be proposed unto them by both or either of the Houses of Parliament, and to give their advice and counsel therein to both or either of the said Houses, when, and as often as, they shall be thereunto required.

The Confession consists of thirty-three chapters, of which the following are the heads:—

The Westminster Confession of Faith was approved by the general assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, on the 27th of August, 1647, Sess. 23, and was ratified by Act of the Scottish Parliament, 7th February, 1649.—See next article.

CONFESSION OF FAITH OF THE KIRK OF SCOTLAND, or THE NATIONAL COVENANT.

Subscribed at first by the King’s Majesty, and his Household, in the Year 1580; thereafter by persons of all ranks in the year 1581, by ordinance of the Lords of secret council, and acts of the General Assembly; subscribed again by all sorts of persons in the year 1590, by a new ordinance of council, at the desire of the 231General Assembly: with a general bond for the maintaining of the true Christian religion, and the King’s person; and, together with a resolution and promise, for the causes after expressed, to maintain the true religion, and the King’s Majesty, according to the foresaid Confession and acts of Parliament, subscribed by Barons, Nobles, Gentlemen, Burgesses, Ministers, and Commons, in the year 1638: approven by the General Assembly 1638 and 1639; and subscribed again by persons of all ranks and qualities in the year 1639, by an ordinance of council, upon the supplication of the General Assembly, and act of the General Assembly, ratified by an act of Parliament 1640; and subscribed by King Charles II. at Spey, June 23, 1650, and Scoon, January 1, 1651.

We all and every one of us under-written, protest, That, after long and due examination of our own conscience in matters of true and false religion, we are now throughly resolved in the truth by the word and Spirit of God: and therefore we believe with our hearts, confess with our mouths, subscribe with our hands, and constantly affirm, before God and the whole world, that this only is the true Christian faith and religion, pleasing God, and bringing salvation to man, which now is, by the mercy of God, revealed to the world by the preaching of the blessed evangel; and is received, believed, and defended by many and sundry notable kirks and realms, but chiefly by the kirk of Scotland, the King’s Majesty, and three estates of this realm, as God’s eternal truth, and only ground of our salvation; as more particularly is expressed in the Confession of our Faith, established and publickly confirmed by sundry acts of Parliaments, and now of a long time hath been openly professed by the King’s Majesty, and whole body of this realm both in burgh and land. To the which Confession and Form of Religion we willingly agree in our conscience in all points, as unto God’s undoubted truth and verity, grounded only upon his written word. And therefore we abhor and detest all contrary religion and doctrine; but chiefly all kind of Papistry in general and particular heads, even as they are now damned and confuted by the word of God and Kirk of Scotland. But, in special, we detest and refuse the usurped authority of that Roman Antichrist upon the Scriptures of God, upon the kirk, the civil magistrate, and consciences of men; all his tyrannous laws made upon indifferent things against our Christian liberty; his erroneous doctrine against the sufficiency of the written word, the perfection of the law, the office of Christ, and his blessed evangel; his corrupted doctrine concerning original sin, our natural inability and rebellion to God’s law, our justification by faith only, our imperfect sanctification and obedience to the law; the nature, number, and use of the holy sacraments; his five bustard sacraments, with all his rites, ceremonies, and false doctrine, added to the ministration of the true sacraments without the word of God; his cruel judgment against infants departing without the sacrament; his absolute necessity of baptism; his blasphemous opinion of transubstantiation, or real presence of Christ’s body in the elements, and receiving of the same by the wicked, or bodies of men; his dispensations with solemn oaths, perjuries, and degrees of marriage forbidden in the word, his cruelty against the innocent divorced; his devilish mass; his blasphemous priesthood; his profane sacrifice for sins of the dead and the quick; his canonization of men; calling upon angels or saints departed, worshipping of imagery, relicks, and crosses; dedicating of kirks, altars, days; vows to creatures; his purgatory, prayers for the dead; praying or speaking in a strange language, with his processions, and blasphemous litany, and multitude of advocates or mediators; his manifold orders, auricular confession; his desperate and uncertain repentance; his general and doubtsome faith; his satisfactions of men for their sins; his justification by works, opus operatum, works of supererogation, merits, pardons, peregrinations, and stations; his holy water, baptizing of bells, conjuring of spirits, crossing, sayning, anointing, conjuring, hallowing of God’s good creatures, with the superstitious opinion joined therewith; his worldly monarchy, and wicked hierarchy; his three solemn vows, with all his shavellings of sundry sorts; his erroneous and bloody decrees made at Trent, with all the subscribers or approvers of that cruel and bloody band, conjured against the kirk of God. And finally, we detest all his vain allegories, rites, signs, and traditions brought in the kirk, without or against the word of God, and doctrine of this true reformed kirk; to the which we join ourselves willingly, in doctrine, faith, religion, discipline, and use of the holy sacraments, as lively members of the same in Christ our Head: promising and swearing, by the great name of the Lord our God, that we shall continue in the obedience of the doctrine and discipline of this 232kirk,^[3] and shall defend the same, according to our vocation and power, all the days of our lives; under the pains contained in the law, and danger both of body and soul in the day of God’s fearful judgment.

And seeing that many are stirred up by Satan, and that Roman Antichrist, to promise, swear, subscribe, and for a time use the holy sacraments in the kirk deceitfully, against their own conscience; minding hereby, first, under the external cloak of religion, to corrupt and subvert secretly God’s true religion within the kirk; and afterward, when time may serve, to become open enemies and persecutors of the same, under vain hope of the pope’s dispensation, devised against the word of God, to his greater confusion, and their double condemnation in the day of the Lord Jesus: we therefore, willing to take away all suspicion of hypocrisy, and of such double dealing with God, and his kirk, protest, and call the Searcher of all hearts for witness, that our minds and hearts do fully agree with this our Confession, promise, oath, and subscription: so that we are not moved with any worldly respect, but are persuaded only in our conscience, through the knowledge and love of God’s true religion imprinted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, as we shall answer to him in the day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed.

And because we perceive, that the quietness and stability of our religion and kirk doth depend upon the safety and good behaviour of the King’s Majesty, as upon a comfortable instrument of God’s mercy granted to this country, for the maintaining of his kirk, and ministration of justice amongst us; we protest and promise with our hearts, under the same oath, hand-writ, and pains, that we shall defend his person and authority with our goods, bodies, and lives, in the defence of Christ, his evangel, liberties of our country, ministration of justice, and punishment of iniquity, against all enemies within this realm or without, as we desire our God to be a strong and merciful defender to us in the day of our death, and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory eternally. Amen.

Likeas many Acts of Parliament, not only in general do abrogate, annul, and rescind all laws, statutes, acts, constitutions, canons civil or municipal, with all other ordinances, and practique penalties whatsoever, made in prejudice of the true religion, and professors thereof; or of the true kirk, discipline, jurisdiction, and freedom thereof; or in favours of idolatry and superstition, or of the Papistical kirk: as Act 3, Act 31, Parl. 1, Act 23, Parl. 11, Act 114, Parl. 12, of King James VI. That Papistry and superstition may be utterly suppressed, according to the intention of the Acts of Parliament, repeated in the fifth Act, Parl. 20, King James VI. And to that end they ordain all Papists and priests to be punished with manifold civil and ecclesiastical pains, as adversaries to God’s true religion, preached, and by law established, within this realm, Act 24, Parl. 11, King James VI.; as common enemies to all Christian government, Act 18, Parl. 16, King James VI.; as rebellers and gainstanders of our Sovereign Lord’s authority, Act 47, Parl. 3, King James VI.; and as idolaters, Act 104, Parl. 7, King James VI. But also in particular, by and attour the Confession of Faith, do abolish and condemn the Pope’s authority and jurisdiction out of this land, and ordains the maintainers thereof to be punished, Act 2, Parl. 1, Act 51, Parl. 3, Act 106, Parl. 7, Act 114, Parl. 12, King James VI., do condemn the Pope’s erroneous doctrine, or any other erroneous doctrine repugnant to any of the articles of the true and Christian religion, publicly preached and by law established in this realm; and ordains the spreaders and makers of books, or libels, or letters or writs of that nature, to be punished, Act 46, Parl. 3, Act 106, Parl. 7, Act 24, Parl. 11, King James VI., do condemn all baptism conform to the Pope’s kirk, and the idolatry of the mass; and ordains all sayers, wilful hearers, and concealers of the mass, the maintainers and resetters of the priests, Jesuits, trafficking Papists, to be punished without any exception or restriction, Act 5, Parl. 1, Act 120, Parl. 12, Act 164, Parl. 13, Act 193, Parl. 14, Act 1, Parl. 19, Act 5, Parl. 20, King James VI., do condemn all erroneous books and writs containing erroneous doctrine against the religion presently professed, or containing superstitious rites and ceremonies Papistical, whereby the people are greatly abused, and ordains the home-bringers of them to be punished, Act 25, Parl. 11, King James VI., do condemn the monuments and dregs of bygone idolatry, as going to crosses, observing the festival days of saints, and such other superstitious 233and Papistical rites, to the dishonour of God, contempt of true religion, and fostering of great error among the people; and ordains the users of them to be punished for the second fault as idolaters, Act 104, Parl. 7, King James VI.

Likeas many Acts of Parliament are conceived for maintenance of God’s true and Christian religion, and the purity thereof, in doctrine and sacraments of the true church of God, the liberty and freedom thereof, in her national, synodal assemblies, presbyteries, sessions, policy, discipline, and jurisdiction thereof; as that purity of religion, and liberty of the church was used, professed, exercised, preached, and confessed, according to the reformation of religion in this realm. As for instance, the 99th Act, Parl. 7, Act 25, Parl. 11, Act 114, Parl. 12, Act 160, Parl. 13, of King James VI., ratified by the 4th Act of King Charles. So that the 6th Act, Parl. 1, and 68th Act, Parl. 6, of King James VI., in the year of God 1579, declare the ministers of the blessed evangel, whom God of his mercy had raised up, or hereafter should raise, agreeing with them that then lived, in doctrine and administration of the sacraments; and the people that professed Christ, as he was then offered in the evangel, and doth communicate with the holy sacraments (as in the reformed kirks of this realm they were presently administrate) according to the Confession of Faith, to be the true and holy kirk of Christ Jesus within this realm. And decerns and declares all and sundry, who either gainsay the word of the evangel received and approved as the heads of the Confession of Faith, professed in Parliament in the year of God 1560, specified also in the first Parliament of King James VI., and ratified in this present Parliament, more particularly do express; or that refuse the administration of the holy sacraments, as they were then ministrated; to be no members of the said kirk within this realm, and true religion presently professed, so long as they keep themselves so divided from the society of Christ’s body. And the subsequent Act 69, Parl. 6, of King James VI. declares, that there is no other face of kirk, nor other face of religion, than was presently at that time, by the favour of God, established within this realm: “Which therefore is ever styled God’s true religion, Christ’s true religion, the true and Christian religion, and a perfect religion;” which, by manifold Acts of Parliament, all within this realm are bound to profess, to subscribe the articles thereof, the Confession of Faith, to recant all doctrine and errors repugnant to any of the said articles, Act 4 and 9, Parl. 1, Acts 45, 46, 47, Parl. 3, Act 71, Parl. 6, Act 106, Parl. 7, Act 24, Parl. 11, Act 123, Parl. 12, Act 194 and 197, Parl. 14, of King James VI. And all magistrates, sheriffs, &c. on the one part, are ordained to search, apprehend, and punish all contraveners: For instance, Act 5, Parl. 1, Act 104, Parl. 7, Act 25, Parl. 11, King James VI.; and that, notwithstanding of the King’s Majesty’s licences on the contrary, which are discharged, and declared to be of no force, in so far as they tend in anywise to the prejudice and hinder of the execution of the Acts of Parliament against Papists and adversaries of true religion, Act 106, Parl. 7, King James VI. On the other part, in the 47th Act, Parl. 3, King James VI. it is declared and ordained. Seeing the cause of God’s true religion and his Highness’s authority are so joined, as the hurt of the one is common to both; that none shall be reputed as loyal and faithful subjects to our sovereign Lord, or his authority, but be punishable as rebellers and gainstanders of the same, who shall not give their confession, and make their profession of the said true religion: and that they who, after defection, shall give the confession of their faith of new, they shall promise to continue therein in time coming, to maintain our sovereign Lord’s authority, and at the uttermost of their power to fortify, assist, and maintain the true preachers and professors of Christ’s religion, against whatsoever enemies and gainstanders of the same; and, namely, against all such, of whatsoever nation, estate, or degree they be of, that have joined or bound themselves, or have assisted, or assist, to set forward and execute the cruel decrees of the Council of Trent, contrary to the true preachers and professors of the word of God; which is repeated, word by word, in the articles of pacification at Perth, the 23rd of February, 1572, approved by Parliament the last of April, 1573, ratified in Parliament 1587, and related Act 123, Parl. 12, of King James VI.; with this addition, “That they are bound to resist all treasonable uproars and hostilities raised against the true religion, the King’s Majesty, and the true professors.”

Likeas, all lieges are bound to maintain the King’s Majesty’s royal person and authority, the authority of Parliaments, without the which neither any laws or lawful judicatories can be established, Acts 130 and 131, Parl. 8, King James VI., and the subjects’ liberties, who ought only to live 234and be governed by the King’s laws, the common laws of this realm allenarly, Act 48, Parl. 3, King James I., Act 79, Parl. 6, King James IV.; repeated in the Act 131, Parl. 8, King James VI.; which if they be innovated and prejudged, “the commission anent the union of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England, which is the sole act of the 17th Parl. of King James VI., declares,” such confusion would ensue as this realm could be no more a free monarchy: because, by the fundamental laws, ancient privileges, offices, and liberties of this kingdom, not only the princely authority of his Majesty’s royal descent hath been these many ages maintained, but also the people’s security of their lands, livings, rights, offices, liberties, and dignities preserved. And, therefore, for the preservation of the said true religion, laws, and liberties of this kingdom, it is statute by the 8th Act, Parl. 1, repeated in the 99th Act, Parl. 7, ratified in the 23rd Act, Parl. 11, and 114th Act, Parl. 12, of King James VI., and 4th Act, Parl. 1, of King Charles I., “That all Kings and Princes at their coronation, and reception of their princely authority, shall make their faithful promise by their solemn oath, in the presence of the eternal God, that, enduring the whole time of their lives, they shall serve the same eternal God, to the uttermost of their power, according as he hath required in his most holy word, contained in the Old and New Testament; and according to the same word, shall maintain the true religion of Christ Jesus, the preaching of his holy word, the due and right ministration of the sacraments now received and preached within this realm, (according to the Confession of Faith immediately preceding,) and shall abolish and gainstand all false religion contrary to the same; and shall rule the people committed to their charge, according to the will and command of God revealed in his foresaid word, and according to the laudable laws and constitutions received in this realm, nowise repugnant to the said will of the eternal God; and shall procure, to the uttermost of their power, to the kirk of God, and whole Christian people, true and perfect peace in all time coming; and that they shall be careful to root out of their empire all heretics and enemies to the true worship of God, who shall be convicted by the true kirk of God of the foresaid crimes.” Which was also observed by his Majesty, at his coronation in Edinburgh, 1633, as may be seen in the order of the coronation.

In obedience to the commandment of God, conform to the practice of the godly in former times, and according to the laudable example of our worthy and religious progenitors, and of many yet living amongst us, which was warranted also by act of council, commanding a general band to be made and subscribed by his Majesty’s subjects of all ranks; for two causes: one was, For defending the true religion, as it was then reformed, and is expressed in the Confession of Faith above written, and a former large Confession established by sundry acts of lawful General Assemblies and of Parliaments, unto which it hath relation, set down in public Catechisms; and which hath been for many years, with a blessing from Heaven, preached and professed in this kirk and kingdom, as God’s undoubted truth, grounded only upon his written word. The other cause was, For maintaining the King’s Majesty, his person and estate; the true worship of God and the King’s authority being so straitly joined, as that they had the same friends and common enemies, and did stand and fall together. And finally, being convinced in our minds, and confessing with our mouths, that the present and succeeding generations in this land are bound to keep the foresaid national oath and subscription inviolable.

We Noblemen, Barons, Gentlemen, Burgesses, Ministers, and Commons undersubscribing, considering divers times before, and especially at this time, the danger of the true reformed religion, of the King’s honour, and of the public peace of the kingdom, by the manifold innovations and evils, generally contained, and particularly mentioned in our late supplications, complaints, and protestations; do hereby profess, and before God, his angels, and the world, solemnly declare, That with our whole heart we agree, and resolve all the days of our life constantly to adhere unto and to defend the foresaid true religion, and (forbearing the practice of all innovations already introduced in the matters of the worship of God, or approbation of the corruptions of the public government of the kirk, or civil places and power of kirkmen, till they be tried and allowed in free assemblies and in parliament) to labour, by all means lawful, to recover the purity and liberty of the Gospel, as it was established and professed before the foresaid novations. And because, after due examination, we plainly perceive, and undoubtedly believe, that the innovations and evils contained in our supplications, complaints, and protestations, have no warrant of the word of God, are contrary 235to the articles of the foresaid Confession, to the intention and meaning of the blessed reformers of religion in this land, to the above-written Acts of Parliament; and do sensibly tend to the re-establishing of the Popish religion and tyranny, and to the subversion and ruin of the true reformed religion, and of our liberties, laws, and estates; we also declare, That the foresaid Confessions are to be interpreted, and ought to be understood of the foresaid novations and evils, no less than if every one of them had been expressed in the foresaid Confessions; and that we are obliged to detest and abhor them, amongst other particular heads of Papistry abjured therein. And therefore, from the knowledge and conscience of our duty to God, to our King and country, without any worldly respect or inducement, so far as human infirmity will suffer, wishing a further measure of the grace of God for this effect; we promise and swear, by the great name of the Lord our God, to continue in the profession and obedience of the foresaid religion; and that we shall defend the same, and resist all these contrary errors and corruptions, according to our vocation, and to the uttermost of that power that God hath put in our hands, all the days of our life.

And in like manner, with the same heart, we declare before God and men, That we have no intention nor desire to attempt anything that may turn to the dishonour of God, or to the diminution of the King’s greatness and authority; but, on the contrary, we promise and swear, That we shall, to the uttermost of our power, with our means and lives, stand to the defence of our dread Sovereign the King’s Majesty, his person and authority, in the defence and preservation of the foresaid true religion, liberties, and laws of the kingdom; as also to the mutual defence and assistance every one of us of another, in the same cause of maintaining the true religion, and his Majesty’s authority, with our best counsel, our bodies, means, and whole power, against all sorts of persons whatsoever; so that whatsoever shall be done to the least of us for that cause, shall be taken as done to us all in general, and to every one of us in particular. And that we shall neither directly nor indirectly suffer ourselves to be divided or withdrawn, by whatsoever suggestion, combination, allurement, or terror, from this blessed and loyal conjunction; nor shall cast in any let or impediment that may stay or hinder any such resolution as by common consent shall be found to conduce for so good ends; but, on the contrary, shall by all lawful means labour to further and promote the same: and if any such dangerous and divisive motion be made to us by word or writ, we, and every one of us, shall either suppress it, or, if need be, shall incontinent make the same known, that it may be timeously obviated. Neither do we fear the foul aspersions of rebellion, combination, or what else our adversaries, from their craft and malice, would put upon us; seeing what we do is so well warranted, and ariseth from an unfeigned desire to maintain the true worship of God, the majesty of our King, and the peace of the kingdom, for the common happiness of ourselves and our posterity.

And because we cannot look for a blessing from God upon our proceedings, except with our profession and subscription we join such a life and conversation as beseemeth Christians who have renewed their covenant with God; we therefore faithfully promise for ourselves, our followers, and all others under us, both in public, and in our particular families, and personal carriage, to endeavour to keep ourselves within the bounds of Christian liberty, and to be good examples to others of all godliness, soberness, and righteousness, and of every duty we owe to God and man.

And, that this our union and conjunction may be observed without violation, we call the living God, the searcher of our hearts, to witness, who knoweth this to be our sincere desire and unfeigned resolution, as we shall answer to Jesus Christ in the great day, and under the pain of God’s everlasting wrath, and of infamy and loss of all honour and respect in this world: most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for this end, and to bless our desires and proceedings with a happy success; that religion and righteousness may flourish in the land, to the glory of God, the honour of our King, and peace and comfort of us all. In witness whereof, we have subscribed with our hands all the premises.

The article of this covenant, which was at the first subscription referred to the determination of the General Assembly, being now determined; and thereby the five articles of Perth, the government of the kirk by bishops, and the civil places and power of kirkmen, upon the reasons and grounds contained in the Acts of the General Assembly, declared to be unlawful 236within this kirk, we subscribe according to the determination aforesaid.

This, together with the Solemn League and Covenant, (which see,) is bound up with and added to the Westminster Confession of Faith, and published by authority of the Scottish Establishment. But an eminent member of that establishment officiating at present as a dissenting minister in London, asserts that no licentiate or minister of the Scottish Establishment has signed or been asked to sign this, or the Solemn League and Covenant, for the last 150 years. This does not, however, exonerate the religious community which still publishes these documents authoritatively from the charge of intolerance; and all classes of Episcopalians, including of course the Church of England, are involved in these fearful anathemas.

CONFESSION OF AUGSBOURG, or AUGUSTAN CONFESSION. A confession of faith, drawn up by Melancthon, and presented by him and Luther to the emperor Charles V. at Augsbourg, in the year 1530. It was divided into two parts, and was designed to support all the points of the Lutheran reformation, and to show the heterodoxy of the Church of Rome.—Maimbourg, Hist. du Lutheranisme.

The first part contained twenty-one articles. The first acknowledged and agreed to all the decisions of the first four general councils, concerning the Trinity. The second admitted of original sin, but defined it differently from the Church of Rome, making it to consist only in concupiscence. The third contained the substance of the Apostles’ Creed. The fourth maintained, against the Pelagians, that a man cannot be justified by the mere strength and capacity of nature; and, against the Roman Catholics, that justification is the effect of faith, exclusive of good works. The fifth agreed with the Church of Rome, that the word of God, and the sacraments, are the means of conveying the Holy Spirit, but differed from that communion, by asserting that this Divine operation is never present without faith. The sixth affirmed, that our faith ought to produce good works, purely in obedience to God, and not in order to our own justification. The seventh made the true Church to consist of none but the righteous. The eighth acknowledged the validity of the sacraments, though administered by hypocrites or wicked persons. The ninth asserted, against the Anabaptists, the necessity of infant baptism. The tenth acknowledged the presence of the body and blood of Christ under the consecrated elements; adding, that this mysterious presence in the holy sacrament continued with the elements only during the time of receiving, and that the eucharist ought to be given in both kinds. The eleventh granted the necessity of absolution to penitents, but denied their being obliged to make a particular confession of their sins. The twelfth condemned the Anabaptists, who affirm, that whoever is once justified cannot fall from grace; as also the Novatians, who refused absolution to sins committed after baptism; asserting withal, against the Church of Rome, that a repenting sinner is not made capable of forgiveness by any acts of penance whatever. The thirteenth required actual faith from those who participate of the sacraments. The fourteenth forbad those, who were not lawfully called, to teach in the Church, or administer the sacraments. The fifteenth appointed the observation of the festivals, and prescribed the ceremonies of the Church. The sixteenth acknowledged the obligation of civil laws. The seventeenth acknowledged the resurrection, heaven, and hell, and condemned the two following errors of the Anabaptists and Fifth-monarchy men; viz. That the punishment of the devils and the damned will have an end, and that the saints will reign with Christ a thousand years upon earth. The eighteenth declared, that our wills are not sufficiently free, in actions relating to the promoting of our salvation. The nineteenth maintained, that, notwithstanding God created man, and still continues to preserve him, God neither is, nor can be, the author of sin. The twentieth affirmed, that good works are not altogether unprofitable: and the twenty-first forbad the invocation of saints.

The second part of the Augustan Confession is altogether in opposition to the Church of Rome, referring to the seven principal abuses, on which the Lutherans found the necessity of separating from the communion of that Church. The first head enjoined communion in both kinds, and forbad the procession of the holy sacrament. The second condemned the celibacy of priests. By the third, private masses were abolished, and some part at least of the congregation were obliged to communicate with the priest. The fourth declared against the necessity of making a particular confession of sins to the priest. The fifth rejected tradition. The sixth disallowed of monastic vows: and the seventh asserted, that the power of the Church consisted only in preaching the gospel and administering the sacraments.

237This confession of faith was signed by the Elector of Saxony, and his eldest son, by the Marquis of Brandenbourg, by the Landgrave of Hesse, the Prince of Hainault, and the republics of Nuremberg and Rutlingua. It was argued before the emperor Charles V., but rejected; the Roman Catholics having a majority of votes in the council. This was followed by a conference between seven deputies of each party; in which, Luther being absent, Melancthon, by his mollifying explanations, brought both sides to an agreement in relation to fifteen of the first twenty-one articles. But the conference broke up without adjusting all the differences between them.

CONFESSIONAL. (See Confession and Auricular Confession.) An enclosed seat or recess in Roman churches where penitents make confession to the priests.

CONFESSOR. A name given to those who confessed the doctrine of Christ before heathen or persecuting judges; or to those who firmly endured punishment for defending the faith: if they died under their torments they were called martyrs. Our Lord says that he will confess before his heavenly Father them that shall confess him before men. (Matt. x. 32.) The Church of England can bless God for having honoured her with many confessors, especially during the persecution which was, under the usurpation of Oliver Cromwell, raised against her by Presbyterians, Independents, and Infidels. In the time of Queen Mary, also, there were confessors, as well as martyrs.

CONFESSOR, in the Romish Church, is a priest who receives confession. (See Auricular Confession.)

CONFIRMATION. This is a Latin word which signifies strengthening. It is used to express the rite in which the indwelling grace of the Holy Ghost is sought for those who have been made children of God in baptism; to which sacrament it is, strictly speaking, a supplemental rite. This ordinance is called confirmation, because they who duly receive it are confirmed or strengthened for the fulfilment of their Christian duties by the grace therein bestowed upon them. The words which accompany confirmation in the Eastern Churches are, “The seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost:” and the effect of it is well expressed in that ancient prayer which, from the earliest times, has been used in all the Western Churches: “Almighty and everlasting God, who hast vouchsafed to regenerate these thy servants, by water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given unto them forgiveness of all their sins,—pour into them thy sevenfold Spirit, the Holy Comforter from heaven;” or, “Strengthen them, we beseech thee, with the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.” In the Greek and African Churches confirmation is administered with chrism, an unguent consecrated by a bishop; in the Latin Churches with the same, at a bishop’s hands; in the English Churches, by laying on of the bishop’s hands, the only rite mentioned in connexion with it in the Scriptures: “Then laid they their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost.” (Acts viii. 17.)

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, confirmation (there spoken of under the term “laying on of hands”) is ranked among the chief fundamentals of Christian doctrine, (Heb. vi. 2,) and must therefore be of perpetual obligation. In the first ages of the Church, confirmation appears to have been administered in all cases as soon after baptism as possible, as it continues to be in the Greek and African Churches. But in the Western Churches, for the last three or four hundred years, the bishops have interposed a delay of seven years after infant baptism: which delay in the English Churches has latterly been extended to fifteen or sixteen years—the determination of the age being left to the bishop. At the last revision of our Prayer Book, in 1661, confirmation was made an occasion of requiring from those who have been baptized in infancy, a renewal, in their own persons, of the engagements of the baptismal covenant. The dispositions of mind required of those who would benefit by confirmation are the same which are necessary to fit men for receiving grace in the sacraments; namely, repentance and faith: without which, where persons are capable of them, neither this nor any of the means of grace can benefit those to whom they are administered.

No persons are admissible to the holy communion unless they have been confirmed, or are ready and desirous to be confirmed.—Rubric.

When children are well instructed in the vow made for them at baptism, by the Church Catechism, it is then required they should take it upon themselves, and be confirmed by the bishop: which holy rite of confirmation, though it were not instituted by Christ, and so be not properly a sacrament, yet the apostles did lay their hands on such as had been before baptized by an inferior minister. (Acts viii. 14–17; and xix. 6.) This custom the primitive Church imitated in the bishops laying on 238their hands with holy prayers, upon persons that had been baptized; which was believed to convey the Holy Spirit to them for enabling them to keep their vow. And this holy rite is still retained in the Eastern and Western Churches, and in all Protestant Churches where they have bishops. And we have an excellent office for it, containing, first, the preparation for it by a serious admonition to all that come to it, a solemn engagement from the parties to keep their vow, with some acts of praise and prayer suited to the occasion. Secondly, the rite itself consists of the ceremony, which is the laying on of the bishop’s hands, and his benediction. Thirdly, the office is concluded with prayers; general, as the Lord’s Prayer; and peculiar to the occasion, as the two collects; and with a final blessing.

The person who doth confirm is a bishop, to which order the ancient Church did always reserve the dispensing of this rite, because the apostles only did this (Acts viii. 14); and therefore the bishops are highly obliged to take care that all in their dioceses, who need and desire it, may not want the opportunity of coming to it. The persons who are to be confirmed are all that have been baptized, from the time they come to years of discretion, or however to be able to understand the nature of their baptismal vow, which they are here to take upon themselves; and since we baptize infants, it is more necessary to bring them to confirmation; and their godfathers can no way better acquit themselves of the charge they have undertaken, than by taking care, as the Church in this exhortation requires, that they may learn their catechism, and understand their vow; and here solemnly, before God and many witnesses, renew it in their own name. For, secondly, the bishop doth particularly inquire, if they do here in God’s presence, and before all the congregation, renew that solemn vow in their own names made at their baptism; and if they do engage to perform and do what was promised for them by their sureties: to which they must every one answer, with great reverence and serious consideration, that “they do.” Thirdly, the bishop and the priests that are present begin their devotions, encouraging the parties who have promised this, by minding them that they shall have “help” from him that made heaven and earth, (Psal. cxxiv. 7,) and praising God for bringing these persons into so blessed a condition. (Psal. cxiii. 2.) Finally, desiring him to hear the prayers now to be made for them. Fourthly, there is a larger form of prayer made by the bishop, wherein he first acknowledges God’s mercy in granting them regeneration and pardon of their sins in their baptism; and now that they are to exercise that warfare they then engaged themselves to, he prays for a larger supply of God’s holy Spirit with its sevenfold gifts (Isa. xi. 2); so that they may be made so wise as to understand their duty, and so strong as to perform it, desiring they may by his ministry have these gifts conveyed to them now, and, by their diligent improving of them, keep them for ever.

Being thus prepared, the rite itself is now to be administered by the ancient ceremony of laying the bishop’s hand on the head of each person, used by the apostles as the means of conveying the Holy Spirit (Acts viii. 17); whence the whole office is called laying on of hands (Heb. vi. 2); (yet the Papists omit this apostolical ceremony, and use the anointing with chrism, which came later into the Church). The bishop also gives a solemn blessing to every one, desiring God to defend that person with his heavenly grace, from forsaking his faith, or breaking God’s commandments; that is, to take him for his own, and seal him with his Spirit, so that he may ever after look on him as one of his own children, and praying that he may daily increase in grace and grow wiser and better, until he be fit for that heavenly kingdom which God hath promised to him in baptism; and this prayer thus offered up by a holy man, and one of the chief officers of Christ’s Church, shall be effectual to the obtaining of the Spirit for all that have duly prepared themselves, and do sincerely make and renew this vow. And now the bishop concludes the office, first with the usual form, desiring God may be with them, to assist them in these prayers, as they also desire he may be with his spirit who is to offer them; calling also upon God, as the common Father of all that are confirmed, and so in covenant with him: to which is joined the proper collect, beginning with a preface, which confesseth, that this good desire and resolution of these persons to keep their vow came from God, and by him they must have grace acceptably to perform it. And then here are petitions for them, first, that as the bishop’s hand was over them, so the good hand of his providence signified thereby may be ever over them to preserve them: secondly, that the Holy Spirit, now imparted to them by this holy rite, may be ever with them, the blessed effect of which is here declared to be, that this will make 239them understand God’s word, and enable them to obey it, so that at the end of their lives they may be certainly saved through Jesus Christ; to whom, with the whole Trinity, for these means of salvation, we offer up our praises and acknowledgments: and to this is added a devout collect out of the Communion Service, that God, who hath sealed these his vowed servants with his Spirit, will direct, sanctify, and govern their souls and bodies in the ways of his laws, so that they may ever be holy, safe, and happy. Finally, the office is concluded with the bishop’s blessing, who now in the name of God wishes the blessing of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost may be now bestowed on you, and remain upon you for ever. Thus our Church appoints this necessary and pious office shall be done; and the due administration thereof would highly conduce to make the benefits of baptism more visible, to increase knowledge and piety in the younger sort, and to secure them from being seduced by Papists or sectaries; it would make the Church to flourish and be at unity, and convey mighty blessings to all that reverently and devoutly receive it: wherefore, as the bishops are ready to do their part, let all that want it be willing and very desirous to come, and let parents and masters, and especially godfathers and godmothers, encourage them to come to it, and labour to fit them for it, that it may be done to God’s glory and their comfort.—Dean Comber.

CONFIRMATION OF A BISHOP. To understand what is meant by the confirmation of a bishop, it may be proper to state the process adopted in England before a presbyter can be consecrated to the episcopal office, the king having issued his congé d’ élire to the dean and chapter, and nominating, in his “letters missive,” the person whom he thinks fit to be chosen. The dean and chapter are obliged, within twenty days next after the receipt of this licence, to make the election, which being accepted by the party elected, is certified both to the sovereign and to the archbishop of the province. If the dean and chapter fail to certify the election within twenty days after the delivery of the “letters missive,” they incur the penalty of præmunire; and if they refuse to elect, the king may nominate by letters patent. The election being certified, the king grants his royal assent under the great seal, directed to the archbishop, commanding him to confirm and consecrate the bishop thus elected; and the archbishop subscribes it “fiat confirmatio,” and grants a commission to his vicar-general for that purpose. The vicar-general issues a citation to summon opposers, which is affixed on the door of Bow Church, and three proclamations are made thereof; this being certified to the vicar-general, at the time and place appointed, the proctor for the dean and chapter exhibit the royal assent, and the archbishop’s commission directed to the vicar-general. After this, a long and formal process is gone through, and after six proclamations for opposers, if none appear, they are pronounced contumacious. It is then decreed to proceed to sentence. The bishop elect takes the oaths of office, the sentence is subscribed by the vicar-general, and the election is ratified and decreed to be good. (See Bishops, Election of.)

Not only bishops, but deans of many cathedrals, were confirmed by their diocesans; as at St. Paul’s in London, and St. Patrick’s in Dublin. See Oughton Ordo Judicium de ecclesici Cathedr. cxxvii., and Mason’s Hibernia, p. 219.

CONFORMITY, DECLARATION OF. A declaration is required of all persons who are to be licensed or instituted to an ecclesiastical charge in the Church of England, in the following words:—“I, A. B., do declare that I will conform to the liturgy of the Church of England, as it is now by law established.” This declaration is to be made and subscribed before the bishop or his commissary, and the making and subscription thereof is to be testified under the episcopal seal of the bishop, and under the hand of the bishop or his commissary. (See also Reading in.)

CONGÉ D’ ÉLIRE. This is a French term, and signifies leave to choose: and is the king’s writ or licence to the dean and chapter of the diocese to choose a bishop, in the time of vacancy of the see. Prior to the reign of Henry I., the kings of England used to invest bishops with the ring and staff, in virtue of their donative right. Henry I. so far ceded this right as to give a congé d’ élire to deans and chapters for the election of bishops. Henry VIII. added “letters missive,” nominating the person whom he required them to elect, under pain of præmunire; and Edward VI. (1 Edw. VI. c. 1, 2) abolished elections by writ of congé d’ élire, as being “indeed no elections,” and “seeming also derogatory and prejudicial to the king’s prerogative royal, to whom only appertaineth the collation and gift of all archbishoprics, and bishoprics, and suffragan bishops, within his Highness’s said realm.” The statute goes on to enact, “That no 240election of any archbishop or bishop shall be made by the dean and chapter;” but that the king by his “letters patent, at all times when the archbishopric or bishopric be void, shall confer the same to any person whom the king shall think meet.” This statute was repealed by Queen Mary, and never afterwards revived. The law now rests upon the 25 Henry VIII. c. 20, which statute was revived by Queen Elizabeth.—Burn. (See Jurisdiction.) But in Ireland, the act of 2 Eliz. c. 4, established the same manner of appointment by the sovereign, without election, as the English act of Edward, and so it has continued to this day.

CONGREGATION. In its largest sense, this word includes the whole body of Christian people, considered as assembled, not locally, but in some act of fellowship, as when it is said, “Let the congregation of saints praise Him:” but the word is more commonly used for the worshippers, being members of the true Church assembled in a particular place; a sense in which the word is plainly used in the prayer for the Church militant, where an especial distinction is made between all God’s people, or the congregation of the saints, and the particular congregation present when the prayer is used: “To all Thy people give Thy heavenly grace, and especially to this congregation here present.” The word congregation follows therefore the use of the word Church; we use “The Church” for the whole body of Christ’s people, and “a Church,” or “this Church,” for a particular portion of them. And as a Church is the immediate bond of union to each individual with the Church, so is a congregation the immediate company with which the individual joins, and the immediate sign of his adherence to the congregation of saints. Thus, in the Order of Confirmation, the preface declares that before the Church children should ratify their baptismal vow, and they are consequently asked by the bishop whether they do this “in the presence of God and of this congregation.” Congregation and Church are considered by our translators convertible terms: e.g. Psal. xxii. 22, “In the midst of the congregation” is rendered in Heb. ii. 12, “In the midst of the Church.”

CONGREGATION IN THE PAPAL COURT, means a committee of cardinals met for the despatch of some particular business, and each congregation is denominated from the peculiar business it has to despatch.

I. The Pope’s Congregation, instituted by Sixtus V.—They are to prepare the most difficult beneficiary matters, which are afterwards to be debated in the consistory, in the presence of the pope. This congregation is composed of several cardinals, whose number is not fixed. The cardinal-deacon, or, in his absence, some other cardinal chosen by the pope pro tempore, presides in this assembly. The affairs treated in it are, the erecting of new sees and cathedral churches; re-unions, suppressions, and resignations of bishoprics, coadjutorships, alienations of church revenues; and, lastly, the taxes and annates of all the benefices to which the pope collates.

II. The Congregation of the Holy Office, or Inquisition. This congregation was instituted by Pope Paul III., at the desire of Cardinal Caraffa, who, being afterwards raised to the pontificate under the name of Paul IV., enlarged the privileges thereof, to which Sixtus V. added statutes, by which means this tribunal became so powerful and formidable, that the Italians at that time used to say, “Il sommo pontifice Sisto non la perdonarebb’ a Christo,” i. e. “Pope Sixtus would not pardon Christ himself.”

This congregation generally consists of twelve cardinals, and sometimes many more, as also of a considerable number of prelates and divines of different orders, both secular and regular, who are called Consulters and Qualificators of the Holy Office. This congregation takes cognizance of heresies, and all novel opinions; as also of apostasy, magic, witchcraft, the abuse of the sacraments, and the spreading of pernicious books. For this purpose, an assembly is held every Wednesday at the general of the Jacobins, and every Thursday before the pope, who is president thereof.

The palace of the Holy Office serves likewise by way of prison for such as are accused or suspected of the above-mentioned crimes; who, in case they are found guilty, are delivered over to the secular arm. But at present they seldom go further than punishing them with perpetual imprisonment. Nor is this tribunal as rigorous and severe as in Spain, Portugal, and other countries where the Inquisition is established. (See Inquisition.)

III. The Congregation de Propagandâ Fide.—It was instituted by Gregory XV., and consists of eighteen cardinals, one of the secretaries of state, an apostolical prothonotary, a referendary, an assistant or lateral judge, and a secretary of the Holy Office. All these prelates and officers meet in the pope’s presence, as often as occasion requires, in order to examine whatever may be of advantage to religion, and to consult about missions, &c.

241IV. The Congregation for explaining the Council of Trent.—At the breaking up of that council, Pius IV. deputed certain cardinals who had assisted in it, to put an end to all doubts which might arise concerning its decrees. Sixtus V. fixed this congregation, and empowered it to interpret all points both of discipline and faith. This congregation meets once a week at the palace of the senior cardinal, the whole assembly being composed of persons of that dignity. The president is chosen out of the body by the pope, and is paid twelve hundred crowns of gold yearly out of the apostolic chamber. The other cardinals have no salaries, but think it the highest honour to assist in explaining the most important matters relating to religion.

V. The Congregation of the Index.—The fathers of the so-called Council of Trent, considering the great number of pernicious and heretical books published since the invention of printing, deputed certain cardinals, and other divines, to examine into such books. These deputies drew up a list of them, divided into several classes; and the council gave orders for correcting, in a second impression, whatever these examiners had altered or expunged. Pope Pius V. confirmed the establishment of this congregation, and empowered it to examine all books written since the Council of Trent, and all such as shall be published hereafter. This congregation is composed of several cardinals, and a secretary of the order of St. Dominic; but it seldom assembles, except on affairs of the highest importance. (See Indexes.)

VI. The Congregation of Immunities, established by Pope Urban VIII., in order to obviate the difficulties and disputes which arose in the judgments of such suits as were carried on against churchmen for various matters, whether civil or criminal. This congregation is composed of several cardinals, nominated by his Holiness, and takes cognizance of all ecclesiastical immunities and exemptions. It is held in the palace of the senior cardinal every Tuesday.

VII. The Congregation of Bishops and Regulars.—Pope Sixtus V., in the beginning of his pontificate, united two congregations, under the name above-mentioned. It is composed of a certain number of cardinals at his Holiness’s pleasure, and of a prelate, who is the secretary thereof, and has six writers under him. This congregation has power to regulate all such disputes as arise between bishops and the monastic orders, and assembles every Friday for that purpose.

VIII. The Congregation for the Examination of Bishops, instituted by Gregory XIV., to examine into the qualifications of all such churchmen as are nominated to bishoprics. It is composed of eight cardinals, six prelates, ten divines of different orders, both secular and regular, some of whom must be doctors of the canon law. These examiners are chosen by the pope, and assemble in his palace every Tuesday and Friday, when any affair is to be examined. All the Italian bishops are obliged to submit to this examination before they are consecrated; and for this purpose they present themselves upon their knees before his Holiness, who is seated in an easy chair, whilst the examiners, standing on each hand of him, interrogate them on such heads of divinity and the canon law as they think proper. Such as are raised to the cardinalate, before they are made bishops, are dispensed from this examination; as are all cardinal-nephews.

IX. The Congregation of the Morals of Bishops, instituted by Pope Innocent XI., to inquire into the morals of churchmen recommended to ecclesiastical dignities. It is composed of three cardinals, two bishops, four prelates, and a secretary, who is the pope’s auditor. It is held alternately in the palaces of the three cardinals, where they examine very strictly the certificates of the life and manners of the candidates. However, those who have led irregular lives, find several ways of eluding the examination of this tribunal.

X. The Congregation for the Residence of Bishops.—It has the power of enjoining, or dispensing with, the residence of the Italian bishops, and obliging all abbots to reside in their several communities. It consists of three cardinals, three prelates, and a secretary. But, having very little business, they assemble but seldom, and that only at the request of such bishops or abbots as desire to be absent from their churches, for reasons specified in their petitions.

XI. The Congregation for such Monasteries as are to be suppressed.—This congregation was instituted by Pope Innocent X., to inquire into the state of the Italian monasteries, and to suppress those whose temporalities were so far diminished, that the remainder was not sufficient for the maintenance of six religious. It is composed of eight cardinals and a certain number of monks, deputed by the provincials of orders to take care of their interests. This assembly regulates the pretensions of founders and benefactors, and their heirs, and disposes of the remains of 242the temporalities of abandoned and ruined houses: it likewise examines the petitions of such communities, or cities, as desire to rebuild, and found anew, any monastery, for which it despatches the proper instruments.

XII. The Congregation of the Apostolical Visitation.—It is composed of a certain number of cardinals and prelates, whose business it is to visit, in the name of the pope, as archbishop of Rome, the six bishoprics, suffragans to the metropolis of Rome.

XIII. The Congregation of Relics.—It is composed of six cardinals and four prelates and their business is to superintend the relics of ancient martyrs, that are said to be frequently found in catacombs and other subterraneous places in Rome, and to distinguish their bones, shrines, and tombs, from those of the heathens, who were buried undistinguished in those subterraneous caverns. After the congregation has pronounced sentence on the validity of any relics, they are consigned to the vicar and the pope’s sacristan, who distribute them to such as desire them.

XIV. The Congregation of Indulgences.—This congregation, the number of whose cardinals and prelates is not fixed, assembles in the palace of the senior cardinal, to examine into the causes and motives of those who sue for indulgences. The registrar of this congregation sends the minutes and conclusions of petitions to the secretary of the briefs, who despatches them under the fisherman’s seal.

XV. The Congregation of Rites.—Pope Sixtus V. founded this congregation to regulate the ceremonies and rites of the new offices of saints, which are added to the Romish calendar, when any person is canonized. It has authority to explain the rubrics of the mass-book and breviary, when any difficulties are started in relation thereto; and its power extends to pronounce sentence, from which there is no appeal, on all disputes relating to the precedency of churches. It is composed of eight cardinals and a secretary, who assemble once a month in the palace of the senior cardinal.

XVI. The Congregation for the Building of Churches.—Pope Clement VIII. founded this congregation, to superintend the building of St. Peter’s church, adjoining to the Vatican, and it is employed, to this day, in repairing and beautifying it. It consists of eight cardinals and four prelates, who assemble at the palace of the senior cardinal on the Monday or Saturday nearest to the beginning and middle of each month. This congregation has the peculiar privilege of altering the last wills and testaments of those who bequeath sums to be employed in pious uses, and to apply the money towards supporting the fabric of St. Peter’s.—Broughton.

CONGREGATION is also applied in England to one of the assemblies of the university of Oxford, consisting of Regents, who transact the ordinary business of the university.

CONGREGATIONALISTS are nearly the same as Independents. (See Independents.) The chief point of difference is that the Congregationalists hold the principle of a communion of Churches.

CONGRUITY. (See Condignity.)

CONSANGUINITY. Alliance by blood, as affinity is alliance by marriage.

Certain degrees of consanguinity are among the impediments to marriage, both by the law of nature and by the revealed word of God. These degrees, as well as those of affinity, are defined by the Church, and are expressed in a table drawn up by Archbishop Parker, in 1563, and set forth by authority. This table is as follows:

243CONSECRATION. The solemn act of dedicating anything or person to a Divine service and use.

CONSECRATION OF A BISHOP. By this we mean the separating of a person for the holy office of a bishop, by imposition of hands and prayer. According to a canon of the first Nicene Council, there must be four, or at least three, bishops present at the consecration of a bishop. The form used in the Church of England may be found in the Book of Common Prayer. And it is stated in the preface thereto, that “no one shall be accounted or taken to be a bishop, or suffered to execute the same function, unless he be called, tried, and admitted thereunto according to that form, or hath had formerly episcopal consecration.” The concluding portion of this sentence recognises the validity of consecrations given in foreign churches by any other form adopted by those Churches. Thus a French, or an Italian, or a Greek bishop, conforming to the rules of the Church of England, requires no fresh consecration, but is at liberty to officiate among us.

By the eighth canon, “Whoever shall affirm or teach, that the form and manner of making and consecrating bishops, priests, and deacons, containeth anything in it that is repugnant to the word of God; or that they who are made bishops, priests, or deacons in that form are not lawfully made, nor ought to be accounted, either by themselves or others, to be truly either bishops, priests, or deacons, until they have some other calling to those Divine offices; let him be excommunicated ipso facto, not to be restored until he repent, and publicly revoke such his wicked errors.”

And by the thirty-sixth of the Thirty-nine Articles, “the book of consecration of archbishops and bishops, and ordering of priests and deacons, lately set forth in the time of Edward VI., and confirmed at the same time by authority of parliament, doth contain all things necessary to such consecrating and ordering; neither hath it anything that of itself is superstitious and ungodly. And therefore whosoever are consecrated or ordered according to the rites of that book, since the second year of the forenamed King Edward unto this time, or hereafter shall be consecrated or ordered according to the same rites, we decree all such to be rightly, orderly, and lawfully consecrated and ordered.” And by the Act of Uniformity in the 13th and 14th Charles II., all subscriptions to be made unto the Thirty-nine Articles shall be construed to extend (touching the said thirty-sixth article) to the book containing the form and manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of bishops, priests, and deacons, in this said act mentioned, as the same did heretofore extend unto the book set forth in the time of King Edward VI. (13 & 14 Charles II. c. 4, s. 30, 31.)

Here we may allude to the Nag’s Head story, one of the most flimsy, as well as wicked, inventions of the Romanists, to invalidate the orders of the Church of England. It refers to the consecration of Archbishop Parker, on which depends the validity of orders in the English Church: for if Archbishop Parker’s consecration was not good, all those who were consecrated by him were not bishops, because he could not confer that character upon others which he had not himself.

The Papists assert that his consecration 244was irregular, both as to the place where it was performed, which they say was at the Nag’s Head Tavern, Cheapside, and as to the manner of doing it, which they say was by one of the bishops then present, who laid the Bible on Dr. Parker’s head, and then pronounced the words, “Take thou authority,” &c. It is further objected, that three of the four bishops then present were only bishops elect, and had no sees; and that the other was a suffragan.

The story, which has long since been abundantly refuted, and which is now given up by the best authorities among the Romanists, was as follows: The queen issued forth her warrant, directed to the bishop of Llandaff; to Dr. Scory, elect of Hereford; Dr. Barlow, elect of Chichester; Dr. Coverdale, elect of Exeter; and Dr. Hodgkins, suffragan of Bedford. All these persons met at the Nag’s Head Tavern, where it had been usual for the dean of the Arches and the civilians to refresh themselves, after any confirmation of a bishop; and there one Neale, who was Bonner’s chaplain, peeped through a hole in the door, and saw all the other bishops very importunate with Llandaff, who had been dissuaded by Bonner to assist in this consecration, which he obstinately refusing, Dr. Scory bid the rest kneel, and he laid the Bible on each of their shoulders or heads and pronounced these words, “Take thou authority,” &c., and so they stood up all bishops. This story was certainly invented after the queen’s reign; for if it had been true, it is so remarkable, that some of the writers of that time would undoubtedly have taken notice of it. But Bishop Burnet has discovered the falsity of it, from an original manuscript of the consecration of this very archbishop, which was done in the chapel at Lambeth, on Sunday, the 17th of December, in the first year of the queen’s reign, where Dr. Parker came a little after five in the morning in a scarlet gown and hood, attended by the said four bishops, and lighted by four torches; and there, after prayers, Dr. Scory preached; and then the other bishops presented the archbishop to him, and the mandate for his consecration being read by a doctor of the civil law, and he having taken the oaths of supremacy, and some prayers being said, according to the form of consecration then lately published, all the four bishops laid their hands on the archbishop’s head, and said, “Receive the Holy Ghost,” &c. And this was done in the presence of several other clergy. See Archbishop Bramhall’s “Consecration and Succession of Protestant Bishops Justified,” with the additions in vol. iii. of his works, Oxford, 1844.

CONSECRATION OF CHURCHES. The law recognises no place as a church until it has been consecrated by the bishop.

In the Church of England the bishop is left to his own discretion as to the form he will use in the consecration of a church; but in the 21 Henry VIII. c. 13, which limits the number of chaplains that each person may have, one reason assigned why a bishop may retain six chaplains is because he must occupy that number in the consecration of churches.

The custom of solemnly setting apart, from ordinary and secular use, whatever is appropriated to the service of Almighty God, has the highest possible sanction; for many are the instances of it recorded in the Holy Scriptures. True it is that there is no record of any such ceremonial having been used among Christians in reference to churches, before the fourth century, though some ritualists are of opinion that a form of dedication was common much earlier. No sooner, however, was the sword of persecution sheathed, and God permitted his Church to serve him in all godly quietness, than such solemnities became general. Then, as Eusebius tells us, “there was an incessant joy, and there sprung up for all a certain celestial gladness, seeing every place, which but a short time before had been desolated by the impieties of the tyrants, reviving again, and recovering from a long and deadly distemper; temples again rising from the soil to a lofty height, and receiving a splendour far exceeding those which had been formerly destroyed.” And again: “after this the sight was afforded us, so eagerly desired and prayed for by all,—the festivals of dedications, and consecrations of the newly-erected houses of prayer throughout the cities. After this, the convention of bishops, the concourse of foreigners from abroad, the benevolence of people to people, the unity of the members of Christ concurring in one harmonious body. Then was it according to the prophetic declaration, mystically indicating what would take place, ‘bone was brought to bone, and joint to joint,’ and whatsoever other matters the Divine word faithfully intimated before. There was, also, one energy of the Divine Spirit pervading all the members, and one soul among all, one and the same ardour of faith, one song of praise to the Deity; yea now, indeed, complete and perfect solemnities of the prelates and heads of the Church, sacred 245performances of sacred rites, and solemn rituals of the Church. Here you might hear the singing of psalms; there, the performance of divine and sacred mysteries. The mystic symbols of our Saviour’s passion were celebrated; and, at the same time, each sex of every age, male and female, with the power of the mind, and with a mind and whole heart rejoicing in prayer and thanksgiving, gave glory to God, the author of all good. Every one of the prelates present also delivered panegyrical discourses, desirous of adding lustre to the assembly, according to the ability of each.” One such discourse, pronounced by Eusebius himself, still remains.

In his Life of Constantine, Eusebius gives an instance of the ceremonial thus described in the consecration, amid a full synod of bishops of the church of Jerusalem, which Constantine had built over our Saviour’s sepulchre, A. D. 335. Socrates records a similar consecration of the famous church of Antioch, called Dominicum Aureum, which was begun by Constantine and finished by Constantius, A. D. 341. Testimony to the prevalency of this custom is also borne by St. Athanasius, who defends himself in his apology to Constantius, (c. 14–18,) when charged with having used a building for public worship, before it was dedicated by the emperor, and consecrated by himself, on the ground of necessity; for since during Lent the congregations in the ordinary churches had been so crowded as to prove injurious to the persons present, and anticipating still more crowded assemblies at Easter, he thought himself justified, under such circumstances, to use an edifice which was unconsecrated. St. Gregory Nazianzen likewise speaks of this ceremonial as an ancient custom παλαιὸς νόμος.

Such then were the offices connected with the consecration of churches in primitive times. Bishops, from distant provinces, with a vast concourse of clergy and laity, were present; an appropriate sermon or sermons were preached; the holy eucharist was always administered; in the course of which prayers suitable to the occasion were offered. Of these prayers one is still preserved in the writings of St. Ambrose.

On this model it was that the consecration services of the Church Catholic were formed, each church, at first, varying in non-essentials, as circumstances may have required.

In the English Church, various records of very early date exist relating to the consecration of churches. Geoffrey of Monmouth, who professes to follow Gildas, says that in the time of King Lucius (A. D. 162) pagan temples were consecrated in Britain to the honour of the true God. And we find from Bede, that the passage just quoted from Eusebius was applicable to our own island. It is known that Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, king of Kent, repaired or rebuilt a church, first built by the Romans, and had it dedicated to the honour of St. Martin of Tours, an eminent saint among the Christians of her native country. This was the church granted by Ethelbert to Augustine, on his landing in the isle of Thanet, A. D. 596. Some time after his arrival, Gregory the Great sent Augustine particular instructions about the dedication of the temples of the Anglo-Saxons; and when the bishop had his episcopal see assigned him in the royal city, he recovered therein a church, which he was informed had been built by the ancient Roman Christians, and consecrated it in the name of our holy Saviour, God and Lord, Jesus Christ. From the same historian we learn, that Laurentius, Augustine’s successor in the primacy, consecrated a church to St. Peter and St. Paul, afterwards called St. Augustine’s, in honour of Augustine, who had commenced building it. Mellitus, who succeeded Laurentius, consecrated the church of the Holy Mother of God, built by King Eadbald, A. D. 622. There is a detailed account of the consecration of the church of Ripon, by Wilfrid, archbishop of York, A. D. 665, given in the Life of that prelate, written by Eddius and Fridegode. Numerous subsequent canons are found, bearing on the same subject. For instance, one of Archbishop Ecgbriht’s “Excerptions,” A. D. 740, relates to the consecration of churches. In Archbishop Wilfrid’s canons, A. D. 816, it is ordered:

“When a church is built, let it be consecrated by the bishop of its own diocese, according to the ministerial book.”

Again, in the canons of Archbishop Corboyl, A. D. 1126, in the canons at Westminster, A. D. 1138, and in Archbishop Richard’s canons, A. D. 1175, similar injunctions are given.

From the constitutions of Otho, A. D. 1237, it would appear—so unfounded is the boast of the Romanists, that the time when Popery was dominant in England was a period of reverence and devotion never since known to her Church—that this solemnity was then much neglected. This is evident from the first of these canons, which, after observing that the 246dedication of royal temples is known to have taken its beginning from the Old Testament, and was observed by the holy fathers in the New Testament, under which it ought to be done with the greater care and dignity, &c., goes on to enact,

“That because we have ourselves seen, and heard by many, that so wholesome a mystery is despised, at least neglected, by some, (for we have found many churches, and some cathedrals, not consecrated with holy oil though built of old,) we, therefore, being desirous to obviate so great a neglect, do ordain and give in charge, that all cathedrals, conventual and parochial churches, which are ready built, and their walls perfected, be consecrated by the diocesan bishops, to whom they belong, or others authorized by them, within two years: and let it so be done in a like time in all churches hereafter to be built; and lest so wholesome a statute grow into contempt, if such like places be not dedicated within two years from the time of their being finished, we decree them to remain interdicted from the solemnization of masses until they be consecrated, unless they be excused for some reasonable cause.”

In the constitutions of Othobon, A. D. 1268, there is a similar canon.

From these canons it is plain, that the office of consecration had contracted many of those Romish superstitions which were retained until the Reformation. Not that our reformers, when reforming the other services of the Church, extended their labours to that of consecration. Indeed, as that was a period, to use the words of Bishop Short, when more churches were destroyed than built, there was no immediate use for the service in question. This task was reserved for Bishop Andrews, whose service was compiled, as were all the offices of the English Church, from the formularies in use before the Reformation.

Unanswerable as was Hooker’s defence of the consecration of churches, it was insufficient to protect Laud from the clamour of his implacable enemies, when he consecrated St. Catherine Cree church, as bishop of London, in 1630. And in the well-known London petition, presented to the Long Parliament, by the notorious Alderman Pennington, about ten years later, the consecration of churches was not forgotten to be included “among the manifold evils, pressures, and grievances, caused, practised, and occasioned by the prelates and their dependants.”

At the Restoration the custom revived, and the subject was again discussed; but as there was no authorized office, (Laud, having been prevented from drawing up a form, as he intended, in the convocation of 1640,) the preparation of one was committed to Bishop Cosin in the convocation of 1661. When prepared it was presented to the house, and referred to a committee of four bishops for revision, but nothing seems ultimately to have been done about it. Since that period each bishop has adopted any form he thought best, though perhaps the form of consecrating churches, chapels, and churchyards, or places of burial, which was sent down by the bishops to the lower houses of convocation, (1712,) and altered by a committee of the whole house, is the one, not that it is enjoined by any competent authority, now most generally used.—Teale.

Different rites were prepared by Barlow, bishop of Lincoln, Patrick, bishop of Ely, and King, bishop of London.—Palmer; Supplement. (See Harrington, on the Consecration of Churches.)

CONSECRATION OF THE ELEMENTS. The following is the rubric with reference to the consecration of the elements in the Lord’s supper: “When the priest, standing before the table, hath so ordered the bread and wine, that he may with the more readiness and decency break the bread before the people, and take the cup into his hands, he shall say the prayer of consecration.” If it be asked, whether the priest is to say this prayer standing before the table, or at the north end of it, I answer, at the north end of it; for, according to the rules of grammar, the participle “standing” must refer to the verb “ordered,” and not to the verb “say.” So that, whilst the priest is “ordering the bread and wine,” he is to stand before the table; but when he says the prayer, he is to stand so as “that he may with the more readiness and decency break the bread before the people,” which must be on the north side. For if he stood “before” the table, his body would hinder the people from seeing; so that he must not stand there, and consequently he must stand on the north side; there being, in our present rubric, no other place mentioned for performing any part of this office. In the Romish Church indeed they always stand “before” the altar during the time of consecration, in order to prevent the people from being eye-witnesses of their operation in working their pretended miracle; and in the Greek Church they shut the chancel door, or at least draw a veil or curtain before it, I suppose, upon the same account. But our Church, that pretends no such miracle, enjoins, we see, 247the direct contrary to this, by ordering the priest so “to order the bread and wine, that he may with the more readiness and decency break the bread and take the cup into his hands before the people.” And with this view it is probable the Scotch liturgy ordered, that, “during the time of consecration, the presbyter should stand at such a part of the holy table, where he may with the more ease and decency use both his hands.”—Wheatly.

The consecration of the elements being always esteemed an act of authority, and standing being therefore a more proper posture, as well as a more commodious one, for this purpose, the priest is here directed to stand.—Collis.

We do not eat our common food without first praying for a blessing on it; which pious custom is so universal, that it is certainly a piece of natural religion; how much more then are we obliged, before we eat and drink this bread and wine, which Christ designed to set forth the mystery of his death, to consecrate it and set it apart by a solemn prayer; especially since Christ himself in the institution of this sacred ordinance, while he was teaching his apostles how to celebrate it, did use a form of blessing over it (Matt. xxvi. 26); which St. Paul calls “giving thanks.” (1 Cor. xi. 24.) Wherefore all churches in the world, from the apostles’ days, have used such a form, the ancient and essential part of which is the words of our Saviour’s institution; for, since he makes this sacramental charge, it hath been thought fit by all churches to keep his own words, which being pronounced by a lawful priest, do properly make the consecration; wherefore our Church has cut off all the later superstitious additions, by which the Roman Church hath corrupted this form, and given us a prayer of consecration, consisting only of the words of our Saviour’s institution, and a proper prayer to introduce it. The first part is a prayer directed to “Almighty God our heavenly Father,” commemorating his mercy in giving his Son to die for us, and the all-sufficient merit of his death, together with his command for our remembering it in this sacrament; and on these grounds desiring that, since we obey him in thus celebrating it, we may therein receive Christ’s body and blood. The second part is the repetition of the words and actions of our Lord at the institution, concerning both the time and the manner of its institution.—Dean Comber.

If it be here demanded, to what words the consecration of the elements ought to be ascribed, I answer, to the prayer of the faithful offered by the priest, and to the words of institution repeated by him. This was the sense of the ancient Church of Christ, which used them both in their eucharistical offices; and never held, that the elements were changed from their common to a more sublime use and efficacy by the bare repeating of the words, “This is my body,” and “This is my blood,” as the Papists absurdly hold. To bring about this change must be the work of the Holy Ghost; and thereupon it is requisite, that we should pray to God, to endue the elements with this life-giving virtue. Now the words of institution can by no means be called a prayer: they were addressed by our Saviour to his disciples, and not to God: to them he said, “Take and eat.” When we use them, they are historical, recounting what our Lord said and did, when he ordained this sacrament. And though when he said, “This is my body, this is my blood,” these words effectually made them so, showing that it was his will and pleasure that they should be taken as his sacramental body and blood; though the virtue of those words, once spoken by Christ, doth still operate towards making the bread and wine his body and blood; yet, as now used and spoken by the priest, they do not contain in them any such power, unless they be joined with prayer to God.

Our Lord himself did, besides pronouncing them, give thanks and bless the elements. Thus our Church uses prayer, as well as the words of institution; and doth not attribute the consecration to the one without the other. “If the consecrated bread or wine be all spent, before all have communicated, the priest,” it is true, is ordered by the rubric to “consecrate more,” by repeating only the words of institution. But the virtue of the prayer, which the Church hath last made, is to be understood as concurring therewith; and this is only a particular application to these particular elements. Hence comes the propriety of saying “Amen” at the end of those words; which would not be so properly added, unless it referred back to the preceding petitions. And that this is the sense of the Church of England is further plain, in that she in her rubric calls this “the prayer of consecration,” in which the words of institution are contained; and it is addressed to Almighty God, &c., whereas the words of Christ were not supplicatory to God, but declaratory to his disciples.

After the same manner, in the “Office of Public Baptism,” in imitation of the custom of the ancient Christians, who dedicated 248the baptismal water to the holy and spiritual use for which it was designed, our Church not only repeats the words of institution of that other sacrament, but likewise adds a solemn prayer, that God would “sanctify the water to the mystical washing away of sin.” And, as in that sacrament she joins the prayer of the faithful to the words of Christ, so in the sacrament of the altar she thinks them both necessary to complete the consecration.—Archdeacon Yardley.

A prayer of consecration, or setting apart the bread and wine to the sacred purpose in which they are about to be employed, hath been used for that end at least 1600 years. And the mention which ours makes of the institution of the Lord’s supper, from the words, “who in the same night that he was betrayed,” to the conclusion, is in every old liturgy in the world. The Romanists have put into their prayer of consecration names of saints, and commemorations of the dead which we have thrown out. And indeed we have left nothing that so much as needs explaining, unless it may be useful to observe, that our Saviour’s “one oblation of himself” is opposed to the various kinds of oblations under the law; and, “once offered,” to the continual repetition of them: though probably a further view was to intimate, that he is not, as the Papists pretend, really sacrificed anew in this holy ordinance.—Abp. Secker.

The death of Christ, if we regard the persons for whom it was undergone, is a “sacrifice;” if we regard him who offered it, it is a free “oblation;” if we consider him to whom it was offered, it is a “satisfaction;” and, in every one of these respects, it is “full, perfect, and sufficient:” or, particularly, it is a “full satisfaction,” a “perfect oblation,” and a “sufficient sacrifice;” not, like the legal offerings, for the sins of one kind, or the offences of one nation or of one person, but for the sins of all the world. Let none therefore mistake, or imagine we are about to sacrifice Christ again, as the Roman Church falsely teacheth; for that is not only needless and impossible, but a plain contradiction to St. Paul, who affirms, that Jesus was offered only “once” (Heb. ix. 26; x. 10, 12); and by that “one oblation he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (ver. 14); so that there needs “no more offering for sin” (ver. 18).—Dean Comber.

From these passages of the Epistle to the Hebrews it is plain, to use Bishop Overall’s words, that “Christ can be no more offered, as the doctors and priests of the Roman party fancy it to be, and vainly think that, every time they say mass, they offer up and sacrifice Christ anew, as properly and truly as he offered up himself in his sacrifice upon the cross. And this is one of the points of doctrine, and the chief one, whereof the Popish mass consisteth; abrogated and reformed here by the Church of England, according to the express word of God.”

CONSERVATORIES. Public schools of music in Italy, so called because they are intended to preserve the purity of the science and practice of music. The Conservatorios are pious foundations, kept up at the expense of rich citizens, in which orphans, foundlings, and the children of poor parents are boarded, lodged, and taught gratuitously. There are separate foundations for pupils of each sex. These institutions, which ought to provide the churches of Italy with well-instructed choristers, and to limit their attention to this object, do in fact supply the theatre, as well as the Church, with the most admired performers. See Dr. Burney’s Present State of Music in France and Italy, for an account of these conservatorios.

CONSISTENTES. (English, Co-standers.) The last order of penitents in the primitive Church, so called from their having the liberty, after other penitents, energumens, and catechumens were dismissed, to stand with the faithful at the altar, and join in the common prayers, and see the oblation offered; but yet they might neither make their own oblations, nor partake of the eucharist with them.—Bingham.

CONSISTORY. A word used to denote the Court Christian, or Spiritual Court. Every bishop has his consistory court held before his chancellor or commissary, in his cathedral church, or other convenient place of his diocese, for ecclesiastical causes. In the Church of England, before the Norman Conquest, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction was not separated from the civil; for the earl and bishop sat in one court, that is, in the ancient county court.

CONSTANCE, COUNCIL OF. This council assembled in 1414, by the combined authority of the emperor and the pope. It was attended by thirty cardinals, three patriarchs, twenty archbishops, one hundred and fifty bishops, besides an immense number of the inferior clergy. It included sovereign princes, electors of Germany, as well as representatives from every country in communion with Rome. Its objects were, to put an end to the 249schism, to reform the Church, and to put down the so-called heresy of Bohemia.

During a period of nearly forty years rival popes had claimed the see of Rome; and the whole of Christendom had been scandalized by their intrigues, their falsehoods, and their mutual anathemas. Each side had the support of universities and of learned divines. Each pleaded a Divine revelation, which was said to have been communicated on behalf of the one to St. Bridget, and of the other to St. Catherine of Sienna.

The council not only removed the two popes whose title had been previously disallowed, but also deposed the third, who had been legitimately appointed, and had forfeited his right by many and great crimes. The wickedness of John XXIII. seems to have been almost without parallel. Some charges against him were indeed suppressed, because it was thought that the papacy itself would be endangered by their publication; but enough was proved on unquestionable testimony to insure unanimous consent to his deposition.

In the mean while the necessity of reformation was urged on all sides. In the council itself, cardinals and bishops, as well as other divines, declaimed against the ignorance and vicious lives of the clergy, which bore testimony to the ill effects resulting from the lengthened schism; while the German people presented a memorial demanding reformation of the evils by which they affirmed the Church to be overrun, and that it should take place of all other business. A vehement contest on this subject ensued between the secular and ecclesiastical authorities, somewhat similar to that which afterwards occurred at Trent; but in the end the urgent duty was postponed until the election of the pope had taken place, and then it was successfully evaded.

John Huss, who was a learned and eloquent man, of blameless life, and of great influence, arrived at Constance soon after the meeting of the council. He had embraced the opinions of Wickliff, and had been especially earnest in denouncing the avarice and immoralities of the priests, as well as the frauds practised upon the people by pretended miracles. He was accused and thrown into prison. The emperor at first expressed great indignation at his arrest, but having been influenced by members of the council, he not only withdrew his protection, but deputed the elector palatine, as vicar of the empire, to place him in the hands of the secular magistrate. The pleas on which this breach of faith have been defended by Roman writers are inconsistent and self-contradictory. Some endeavour to maintain that Huss did not possess the safe-conduct until after his arrest; some, that he broke the conditions on which it was granted; and some, that no engagement of the emperor could limit the authority of the council. All impartial judges have long been agreed in condemning the act as a deep and indelible disgrace to the Roman Church. The letters of the martyr himself, as well as the language of his defence, describe in touching and Christianly terms, the harshness and injustice with which he was treated. Having resisted all efforts to procure his recantation, whether by threats or persuasion, he was condemned, and met his death with wonderful calmness and heroism, on the 7th July, 1415. The immediate effect of his condemnation, and that of Jerome of Prague, which speedily followed, was to kindle the flames of civil war in Bohemia, during which the names of Wickliff and Huss formed the watchword on the one side, and that of the pope on the other. It is said that the descendant of Sigismund, in the fourth generation, believed himself to be suffering under the wrath of God on account of his ancestor’s sin.

In the fourth and fifth sessions, the absolute superiority of a general council over the pope was expressed in the form of an exact decree. It was declared that the council holds its authority directly from Christ; and that all persons, including those of papal dignity, are amenable to its jurisdiction, and are liable to punishment for disobedience. No language could be more precise than that which was employed. The same doctrine had been previously asserted in the Council of Pisa; and was afterwards confirmed in the Council of Basle. It was the judgment of the constitutional party which had gradually become strong in the Roman Church; and it was now embodied in the solemn act by which three popes were set aside, and Martin V. substituted in their place; in the validity of whose appointment the papal succession is inseparably bound up. The decision of the council was gravely and deliberately adopted; and it had the fullest support of the learned divines who were present, such as Cardinal P. d’ Ailli, who had been chancellor of the university of Paris, and his still more illustrious pupil and successor John Gerson, who, beyond all other theologians, influenced and represented the mind of that 250age. It has always furnished an insurmountable difficulty to controversialists of the ultramontane school. They cannot reject its authority without giving up the legitimacy of every pope since Martin V.; while, on the other hand, it is plainly at variance with the decrees of the Council of Florence.

The decrees of their fourth and fifth sessions have been strenuously maintained by the Gallican Church, especially by Bossuet, and the very learned men who shared his opinions in the seventeenth century; as well as by the universities of Paris, Louvain, and Cologne.

Materials for the history of the Council of Constance are provided abundantly by the invaluable collection of documents made by H. Von der Hardt.

CONSUBSTANTIAL. Co-essential; of the same substance with another. Thus we say of our blessed Lord, that he is consubstantial with the Father, being “of one substance with the Father.” The term (ὁμοούσιος) was first adopted by the fathers in the Council of Nice, A. D. 325, to express more precisely the orthodox doctrine, and to serve as a precaution against the subtleties of the Arians, who admitted every thing except the consubstantiality, using a word similar in sound, but very different in meaning, ὁμοιούσιος. This word is still the distinguishing criterion between the catholic or orthodox Christian and the Arian heretic.

CONSUBSTANTIATION. The Romish divines fell into the error of endeavouring to explain the manner in which our blessed Lord is present in the eucharist. (See Transubstantiation.) Luther and his followers, while opposing the Romanists, fell into a similar error, only insisting on a different manner of explaining the inexplicable mystery. Luther and his followers maintained, that, after the consecration of the elements, the body and blood of our Saviour are substantially present together with the bread and wine. This doctrine is called consubstantiation. They believe that the real body and blood of our Lord are united in a mysterious manner, through the consecration, with the bread and wine, and are received with and under them in the sacrament of the Lord’s supper.

CONTRITION. (See Attrition.) Romanists define contrition to be a sorrow for sin, with a sincere resolution of reforming. The word is derived from the Latin conterere, to break or bruise. The Psalmist says, “A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Psalm li. 17.)—Conc. Trident. § 14, c. 4.

CONVENT. A religious house; a monastery; more usually used to signify a nunnery. For its architectural arrangements, see Monastery.

CONVENTICLE. A diminutive of convent, denoting properly a cabal, or secret assembly of a part of the monks of a convent, to make a party in the election of an abbot. It is now the legal term to denote any place of worship used by those who depart from the Church of England.

By the 73rd canon it is thus ordained: “Forasmuch as all conventicles and secret meetings of priests and ministers have ever been justly accounted very hateful to the state of the Church wherein they live, we do ordain that no priests or ministers of the Word of God, nor any other persons, shall meet together in any private house, or elsewhere, to consult upon any matter or course to be taken by them, or upon their motion or direction by any other, which may any way tend to the impeaching or depraving of the doctrine of the Church of England, or the Book of Common Prayer, or any part of the government or discipline now established in the Church of England, under pain of excommunication ipso facto.”

CONVERSION. A change of heart and life from sin to holiness. This change, when it takes place in a heathen or an infidel, comprises a reception and confession of the truths of Christianity: when it takes place in a person already baptized and a Christian in profession, it implies a saving and influential impression on his heart, of those truths which are already received by the mind and acknowledged with the lips. To the heathen and infidel conversion is absolutely and always necessary to salvation. The baptized Christian may by God’s grace so continue in that state of salvation in which he was placed in baptism, (see Church Catechism,) that conversion, in this sense, is not necessary to him: still even he, day by day, will fall into sins of infirmity, and he will need renewal or renovation: and all these—the daily renewal of the pious Christian, the conversion of the nominal Christian, and the conversion of the infidel or heathen—are the work of the Holy Spirit of God on the hearts of men.

Some persons have confused conversion with regeneration, and have taught that all men—the baptized, and therefore in fact regenerate—must be regenerated afterwards, or they cannot be saved. Now this is in many ways false; for regeneration, 251which the Lord Jesus Christ himself has connected with holy baptism, cannot be repeated: moreover, not all men (though indeed most men do) fall into such sin after baptism, that conversion, or, as they term it, regeneration, is necessary to their salvation; and if a regeneration were necessary to them, it could only be obtained through a repetition of baptism, which were an act of sacrilege. Those who speak of this supposed regeneration, uncharitably represent the orthodox as denying the necessity both of regeneration and of conversion; because they themselves call these by wrong names, and the orthodox only proclaim their necessity in their true sense.

They who object to the expression Baptismal Regeneration, by regeneration mean, for the most part, the first influx of irresistible and indefectible grace; grace that cannot be repelled by its subject, and which must issue in his final salvation. Now, of such grace our Church knows nothing, and of course, therefore, means not by regeneration at baptism the first influx of such grace. That the sins, original and actual, of the faithful recipient of baptism, are washed away, she doth indeed believe; and also that grace is given to him by the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit; yet so that the conscience thus cleansed may be again defiled, and that the baptized person may, and often does, by his own fault, fall again into sin, in which if he die he shall without doubt perish everlastingly; his condemnation not being avoided, but rather increased, by his baptismal privilege. So that, in fact, we say not that any one is regenerated at baptism, according to the meaning of these words in the lips of our opponents. And if they will not admit that baptism is the Divinely appointed medium of regeneration in our sense of that term, what grace can they imagine so trifling as to comport with their views of that sacrament, and at the same time so lofty and essential, as to be contemplated by Christ in the solemn institution of a sacrament; and in his declarations concerning the efficacy and necessity of that sacrament; and by the apostles, and the whole Church, in their sense of the same matter, and their consequent practice? What approaches most nearly to that grace of their own imagining, which they call regeneration, is the repentance not to be repented of, and followed by fruits of righteousness to the glory of God’s grace, and to the salvation of the Christian, which we call conversion or renewal, and attribute to the same Spirit from whom we receive our new life at baptism; and which we hold to be as necessary to the salvation of one who has fallen from his baptismal purity, (and who has not so fallen?) as we hold baptismal regeneration to be, and as they hold their supposed regeneration. Except in words, then, we and our opponents are more nearly agreed than is at first sight apparent; and if the choice of terms be the chief point at issue, we have this to say for the expressions which we use, that they are consentient, and even identical, with those which are used in the Scriptures; and that they are the same which the whole Church employed, until the days of certain founders of sects, called after their own names at the continental Reformation; so that they rest on the highest possible grounds of Scripture and authority.—Poole. (See Regeneration.)

CONVOCATION (see Synod.) is an assembly of the bishops and other clergy of each of the provinces of the Church of England to consult on matters ecclesiastical. As much is in these days said of convocation, and as many seem to think that a convocation must be holden to settle the disputes now unhappily prevailing among the clergy, it may be interesting if we extend this article, that we may supply our readers with a history of convocations. It will be abridged from the account given by Dr. Burn.

That the bishop of every diocese in England, as in all other Christian countries, had power to convene the clergy of his diocese, and, in a common synod or council, with them to transact such affairs as specially related to the order and government of the churches under his jurisdiction, is not to be questioned. These assemblies of the clergy were as old almost as the first settlement of Christianity amongst us, and, amidst all other revolutions, continued to be held till the time of King Henry VIII.

What the bishop of every diocese did within his own district, the archbishop of each province, after the kingdom was divided into provinces, did within his proper province. They called together first the bishops, afterwards the other prelates, of their provinces; and by degrees added to these such of their inferior clergy as they thought needful. In these two assemblies of the clergy (the diocesan synods and provincial councils) only the spiritual affairs of the Church were wont for a long time to be transacted: so that, in this respect, there was no difference between the bishops and clergy of our own and of other Christian churches. Our metropolitans 252and their suffragans acted by the same rules here as they did in all other countries. They held these assemblies by the same power, convened the same persons, and did the same things in them. When the papal authority had prevailed here, as in most other kingdoms and countries in Europe, by the leave of our kings, and at the command of the legates sent from Rome, another and yet larger sort of councils was introduced amongst us, of the bishops and prelates of the whole realm. These were properly national Church councils, and were wont to be held for some special designs, which either the pope, the king, or both, had to promote by them.

But besides these synods common to us with all other Christian Churches, and which were in their nature and end, as well as constitution, properly and purely ecclesiastical, two other assemblies there were of the clergy of this realm, peculiar to our own state and country; in which the clergy were convened, not for the spiritual affairs of the Church, but for the good and benefit of the realm, and to act as members of the one as well as of the other. Now the occasion of these was this: when the faith of Christ was thoroughly planted here, and the piety of our ancestors had liberally endowed the bishops and clergy of the Church with temporal lands and possessions, not only the opinion which the political government had of their prudence and piety prompted it to take the most eminent of them into the public councils, but the interest which they had by that means in the state made it expedient so to do, and to commit the direction and management of offices and affairs to them. Hence our bishops first, and then some of our other prelates, (as abbots and priors,) were very early brought into the great councils of the realm, or parliament, and there consulted and acted together with the laity. And in process of time, our princes began to have a further occasion for them. For being increased both in number and in wealth, not only our kings, but the people began to think it reasonable, that the clergy should bear a part in the public burdens, as well as enjoy their share of the public treasure. Hence our Saxon ancestors, under whom the Church was the most free, yet subjected the lands of the clergy to the threefold necessity of castles, bridges, and expeditions. And the granting of aids in these cases brought on assemblies of the clergy, which were afterwards distinguished by the name of convocations.

In the Saxon times, the lords spiritual (as well as the other clergy) held by frankalmoigne, but yet made great part (as was said) of the grand council of the nation; being the most learned persons that, in those times of ignorance, met to make laws and regulations. But William the Conqueror turned the frankalmoigne tenures of the bishops and some of the great abbots into baronies; and from thenceforwards they were obliged to send persons to the wars, or were assessed to the escuage, (which was a fine or payment in money instead thereof,) and were obliged to attend in parliament. But the body of the clergy had no baronies, and holding by frankalmoigne, were in a great measure exempt from the charges which were assessed upon the laity, and were therefore by some other way to be brought under the same obligation. In order hereunto several measures were taken, till at last they settled into that method which finally obtained, and set aside the necessity of any other way. First, the pope laid a tax upon the Church for the use of the king; and both their powers uniting, the clergy were forced to submit to it. Next, the bishops were prevailed with, upon some extraordinary occasions, to oblige their clergy to grant a subsidy to the king, in the way of a benevolence; and for this, letters of security were granted back by the king to them, to insure them that what they had done should not be drawn into example or consequence. And these concessions were sometimes made by the bishops in the name of their clergy; but the common way was, that every bishop held a meeting of the clergy of his diocese. Then they agreed what they would do; and empowered first the bishops, afterwards their archdeacons, and finally proctors of their own, chosen for that end, to make the concession for them.

Thus stood this matter till the time of Edward the First, who, not willing to continue at such a precarious rate with his clergy, took another method; and, after several other experiments, fixed at last upon an establishment, which has, to a certain extent, continued ever since, viz. that the earls and barons should be called to parliament as formerly, and embodied in one house; and that the tenants in burgage should also send their representatives; and that the tenants by knight’s service, and other soccage tenants in the counties, should send their representatives; and these were embodied in the other house. He designed to have the clergy as a third estate; and as the bishops were to sit per baroniam in the temporal parliament, 253so they were to sit with the inferior clergy in convocation. And the project and design of the king was, that, as the two temporal estates charged the temporalities, and made laws to bind all temporal things within this realm; so this other body should have given taxes to charge the spiritual possessions, and have made canons to the ecclesiastical body: to this end was the præmunientes clause (so called from the first word thereof) in the summons to the archbishops and bishops, by which he required them to summon such of their inferior clergy to come with them to parliament, as he then specified and thought sufficient to act for the whole body of the clergy. This altered the convocation of the Church of England from the foreign synods; for these were totally composed of the bishops, who were pastors of the Church; and therefore the bishops only were collected to compose such foreign synods, to declare what was the doctrine, or should be the discipline, of the Church.

Edward I. projected making the clergy a third estate, dependent on himself; and, therefore, not only called the bishops, whom as barons he had a right to summon, but the rest of the clergy, that he might have their consent to the taxes and assessments made on that body. But the clergy, foreseeing they were likely to be taxed, alleged that they could not meet under a temporal authority, to make any laws or canons to govern the Church. And this dispute was maintained by the archbishops and bishops, who were very loath the clergy should be taxed, or that they should have any interest in making ecclesiastical canons, which formerly were made by the sole authority of the bishops; for even if those canons had been made at Rome, yet, if they were not made in a general council, they did not think them binding here, unless they were received by some provincial constitution of the bishops. The whole body of the Church being thus dissatisfied, the archbishops and bishops threatened to excommunicate the king: but he and the temporal estate took it so ill that the clergy would not bear any part of the public charge, that they were beforehand with them, and the clergy were all outlawed, and their possessions seised into the king’s hands. This so humbled the clergy that they at last consented to meet. And to take away all pretence, there was a summons, besides the præmunientes clause, to the archbishop, that he should summon the bishops, deans, archdeacons, colleges, and whole clergy of his province. From hence, therefore, the bishops, deans, archdeacons, colleges, and clergy, met by virtue of the archbishop’s summons; to which, being an ecclesiastical authority, they could not object. And so the bishops and clergy came to convocation by virtue of the archbishop’s summons; they esteeming it to be in his power, whether he would obey the king’s writ or not: but when he had issued his summons, they could not pretend it was not their duty to come. But the præmunientes writ was not disused; because it directed the manner in which the clergy were to attend, to wit, the deans and archdeacons in person, the chapter by one, and the clergy by two proctors. So that the clergy were doubly summoned; first, by the bishop, to attend the parliament; and, secondly, by the archbishop, to appear in convocation. And that the archbishop might not appear to summon them solely in pursuance of the king’s writ, he for the most part varied in his summons from the king’s writ, both as to the time and place of their meeting. And lest it might be thought still (of which they were very jealous) that their power was derived from temporal authority, they sometimes met on the archbishop’s summons without the king’s writ; and in such convocation the king demanded supplies, and by such request owned the episcopal authority of convening. So that the king’s writ was reckoned by the clergy no more than one motive for their convening. From henceforward, instead of making one state of the kingdom, as the king designed, the clergy composed two ecclesiastical synods, i. e. of Canterbury and York, under the summons of each of the archbishops; and being forced into those two synods before mentioned, they sat and made canons, by which each respective province was bound, and gave aids and taxes to the king. But the archbishop of Canterbury’s clergy, and that of York, assembled each in their own province; and the king gratified the archbishops, by suffering this new body of convocation to be formed in the nature of a parliament. The archbishop sat as king; his suffragans sat in the upper house as his peers; the deans, archdeacons, and the proctor for the chapter represented the burghers; and the two proctors for the clergy, the knights of the shire. And so this body, instead of being one of the estates as the king designed, became an ecclesiastical parliament, to make laws, and to tax the possessions of the Church.

But although they thus sat as a parliament, and made laws for the Church, yet 254they did not make a part of the parliament properly so called. Sometimes indeed the lords, and sometimes the commons, were wont to send to the convocation for some of their body to give them advice in spiritual matters: but still this was only by way of advice; for the parliament have always insisted that their laws, by their own natural force, bind the clergy; as the laws of all Christian princes did in the first ages of the Church. And even the convocation tax always passed both houses of parliament, since it could not bind as a law till it had the consent of the legislature.

Thus the case stood when the act of submission (25 Henry VIII. c. 19) was made; by which it is enacted as followeth:—“Whereas the king’s humble and obedient subjects, the clergy of this realm of England, have not only acknowledged, according to the truth, that the convocation of the same clergy is, always hath been, and ought to be assembled only by the king’s writ; but also submitting themselves to the king’s Majesty have promised, in verbo sacerdotii, that they will never from henceforth presume to attempt, allege, claim, or put in ure, enact, promulge, or execute any new canons, constitutions, ordinances, provincial or other, or by whatsoever name they shall be called, in the convocation, unless the king’s most royal assent and licence may to them be had, to make, promulge, and execute the same, and that his Majesty do give his most royal assent and authority in that behalf: it is therefore enacted, according to the said submission, that they, nor any of them, shall presume to attempt, allege, claim, or put in ure any constitutions or ordinances provincial, by whatsoever name or names they may be called, in their convocations in time coming (which shall always be assembled by authority of the king’s writ); unless the same clergy may have the king’s most royal assent and licence to make, promulge, and execute such canons, constitutions, and ordinances, provincial or synodal; upon pain of every one of the said clergy doing contrary to this act, and being thereof convict, to suffer imprisonment, and make fine at the king’s will.”

It was resolved upon this statute, by the two chief justices and divers other justices, at a committee before the lords in parliament, in the eighth year of James I., 1. That a convocation cannot assemble at their convocation without the assent of the king. 2. That after their assembly they cannot confer, to constitute any canons, without licence of the king. 3. When they upon conference conclude any canons, yet they cannot execute any of their canons without the royal assent. 4. That they cannot execute any after the royal assent, but with these four limitations: (1.) that they be not against the prerogative of the king; nor (2.) against the common law; nor (3.) against the statute law; nor (4.) against any custom of the realm.

The clergy having continued to tax themselves in convocation as aforesaid, these assemblies were regularly kept up till the act of the 13 Charles II. c. 4, was passed, when the clergy gave their last subsidy: it being then judged more advantageous to continue the taxing them by way of landtax and poll-tax, as it had been in the time of the Long Parliament during the civil wars.

And in the year 1664, by a private agreement between Archbishop Sheldon and the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and other the king’s ministers, it was concluded that the clergy should silently waive the privilege of taxing their own body, and permit themselves to be included in the money bills prepared by the commons. And this hath made convocations unnecessary to the Crown, and inconsiderable in themselves.

And since that time the clergy have been allowed to vote in choosing knights of the shire, as other freeholders, which in former times they did not.

And from that time the convocation has never passed any synodical act; and from thenceforth, until the year 1700, for the most part they were only called, and very rarely did so much as meet together in a full body, and with the usual solemnity. It is true that, during the remainder of King Charles the Second’s reign, when the office of prolocutor was void by death or promotion, so many of the lower house came together as were thought sufficient to choose a new one; and those members that were about the town commonly met, during parliament, once a week, had prayers read, and were formally continued till the parliament was dissolved, and the convocation together with it. And in King James the Second’s time, the writs issued out of course, but the members did not meet. In the year 1689, after the accession of William and Mary to the throne, a convocation was not only called, but began to sit in due form; but their resolutions came to nothing. And from thence till the year 1700 they were only called, but did not meet; but in that year, and ever since, at the meeting of the parliament, the convocation of the clergy has 255likewise been solemnly opened, and the lower clergy have been permitted to form themselves into a house, and to choose their prolocutor; nor have they been finally dismissed as soon as that solemnity was over, but they continued from time to time till the parliament hath broke up, or been dissolved. And now it seems to be agreed that they are of right to be assembled concurrently with parliaments, and may act and proceed as provincial councils, when her Majesty in her royal wisdom shall judge it expedient.

In Ireland, the convocations of the four provinces assembled all together in Dublin; and were formed exactly upon the model of those of England; consisting of the upper house, consisting of the bishops; and of the lower, consisting of deans, archdeacons, proctors of the chapters, and proctors of the clergy of each diocese.—See Wilkins’s Concilia, iv. 496, and for the rules and privileges of the convocation, iv. 632.

Mr. Stephens, in his Introduction to the Irish Common Prayer Book, (xxxvii. &c.,) remarks that, “In 1615, a convocation of the Irish clergy, formed after the model of the English convocation, assembled in Dublin. This seems to have been the first convocation ever held in Ireland. The clergy do not appear to have granted any subsidies, or ever to have claimed the right of taxing themselves.... In the reign of Henry VIII. there does not seem to be any reference of ecclesiastical matters to the convocation, nor any claim of exemption on the part of the clergy.” [He then quotes the preamble of 28 Henry VIII. c. 12.] “In the second year of Elizabeth a parliament was assembled, and no mention is made of a convocation, though acts with respect to the Church were passed. And in the third year of Elizabeth there was not any parliament, yet she signifies her pleasure to Lord Sussex, the lord lieutenant, for a general meeting of the clergy, and the establishment of the Protestant religion. This of course was an order to summon not a convocation, but the ancient synod of the clergy, which had the power of settling all matters concerning religion.... In Ireland the provincial synod had not been suspended, and by their consent given at three different times in the reign of Edward, ... the clergy revived the use of the English liturgy, and expressed their conformity to the doctrine of the English Church.” There is, indeed, a passage in the Manuscript Collections of Dudley Loftus, which has been adduced as proof of a convocation having been held in 1560: “This year was held a convocation of bishops at the queen’s command, for establishing the Protestant religion.” But he must have used the word convocation merely “to express a meeting of the bishops, and would have adopted a very different phraseology to describe the meeting of the convocation.” See also Ebrington’s Life of Ussher, 38–40. As before observed, (see Church of Ireland,) no provision whatever has been made since the Irish Union, for the assembling even formally of the convocation of the Irish province of the Church. Still it appears (vide 11 Parl. Reg. 164 and 274) that it was by no means intended that the Irish provinces should be deprived of their convocations. It was proposed on the 20th April, 1800, that the archbishops, bishops, and clergy of Ireland, should be summoned to sit in the convocation of the United Church. Mr. Pitt expressly said, in proposing the amendment to this resolution, “that the prosperity of the Church of Ireland never could be permanent, unless it be a part of the Union to have, as a guard, power to the United Parliament to make some provision in this respect;” i.e. convocation. “And afterwards,” he said, “it was judged better to omit the insertion of any provisional article respecting the convocation, till the Union actually took place.” This pledge has never been redeemed.—See an article on the United Church and its Synods, in the Law Review for Feb. 1851.

In Scotland, by an act of parliament, 1663, an order was made for regulating the meetings of the national synod, or, as it is called in England, the convocation of the Church of Scotland; and an act was passed, That this synod shall consist of the two archbishops and their suffragans, all the deans and archdeacons, the fixed moderators, along with one minister of every presbytery, and one commissioner from each of the four universities: That the synod, then constituted, is to meet at such places and times as his Majesty by proclamation shall appoint, and is to debate, treat, consider, consult, conclude, and determine upon such pious matters, causes, and things, concerning the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of this Church, as his Majesty shall, from time to time, under his loyal hand, deliver, or cause to be delivered, to the archbishop of St. Andrew’s, president of the said national assembly, to be by him offered to their consideration: That unless his Majesty or his commissioner be present, no national assembly can be held: And that no act, canon, order, or ordinance, shall be owned 256as an act of the national synod of the Church of Scotland, but such as shall have been considered, consulted, and agreed upon by the president and major part of the number above specified.—Skinner’s Eccles. Hist. of Scotland.

COPE. (Cappa, called also pallium, or pluviale.) A kind of cloak worn during Divine service by the clergy. It reaches from the neck nearly to the feet, and is open in front, except at the top, where it is united by a band or clasp. It is in use in the Western Church only; and is probably only a modification of the vestment, or chasuble. The latter, in the Roman Church, is used by the officiating priest at mass only; the other, by all orders of the clergy in procession, &c., on solemn occasions. The rubrics of King Edward VI., still legally in force, prescribe a cope or vestment for the priest administering the holy communion, and for the bishops, when executing any public ministration in the church; for which a vestment may be substituted either by priest or bishop. By the 24th canon the cope only is prescribed to the priest administering the communion, and that only in cathedral churches. But the rubric being subsequently enacted, which refers to the regulation of Edward VI.’s First Prayer Book, the latter is more strictly to be considered as the law of the Church. It was used in several churches and college chapels in the 17th century, (see Jebb’s Church Service, p. 217,) and was in use at Durham cathedral and Westminster till the middle of the last century. De Foe, in his anonymous Tour through England, 1762, says that “the old vestments, which the clergy before the Reformation wore, are still used on Sundays and holidays, by the residents.” And Dr. Collis, in his Rubric of the Church of England examined, 1737, says that “no copes are worn at present in any cathedral or collegiate church in the ministration of the holy communion, except in the churches of Westminster and Durham.” The cope has always been worn by officiating bishops, and by the dean and prebendaries of Westminster at coronations, and occasionally at state funerals.

COPIATÆ. The office of the Copiatæ, (κοπιάω, to travail,) who are called in Latin Fossarii, was to superintend funerals, and to see that all persons had a decent burial. They performed their office gratuitously towards the poor.—Cave.

COPTS. The Monophysite, or Jacobite, Christians of Egypt, who have been for eleven centuries in possession of the patriarchal chair of Alexandria, and the dominant sect among the Christians of that region, are called Copts. They were placed in possession of the Egyptian churches on the irruption of the Saracens in the seventh century. Their numbers are now perhaps about 100,000. They have three liturgies, one ascribed to St. Basil, which they use on fast days; that of St. Cyril, which they use in Lent; and that of St. Gregory, which they use on festivals. Their service is very much crowded with ceremonies. The Coptic tongue, in which their worship is conducted, is to them a dead language, and not even understood by many of their priests. Their habits of life are ascetic, and they have many monasteries. They have a patriarch, who resides at Cairo, but takes his title from Alexandria.

CORBEL. A bracket. A projection supporting a weight; and so corbel-table, a table or horizontal projection supported by corbels. Corbel-tables are almost confined to the Norman, Transition, and Early English periods. Corbels in other places are of course continued; they are often of extreme beauty.

CORDELIERS. (Monks of the Order of St. Francis.) They wear coarse grey cloth with a little cowl, and a rope girdle with three knots; from this girdle they are called Cordeliers. They are the same with the Minorites; but had the name of Cordeliers given them upon this occasion, they having repulsed the infidels in a war which St. Louis made against them, the king asked their name, and was answered, they were des Gens des Cordelies—people with cords about them. (See Franciscans.)

CORONATION. The solemn religious rite by which a sovereign prince is consecrated to his high office, in which also the queen consort in Christian countries is usually associated with her husband, not for office’ sake, but honoris gratia.

By ancient custom the coronation of the sovereign of England belongs to the archbishop of Canterbury, and that of the queen consort to the archbishop of York. The place is Westminster Abbey. The kings of Scotland were crowned at Scone.

According to Mr. Palmer, (Supplement,) the coronation of sovereigns may be traced to A. D. 457, when Leo was crowned emperor by Anatolius, patriarch of Constantinople. Pepin was the first French monarch who was crowned. The first coronation in England was that of Egferth king of Mercia; and we have still the forms used in the time of the Heptarchy, from which our coronation service (slightly modified from time to time) is substantially derived.—See Dr. Silver’s Coronation 257Service, or Consecration of the Anglo-Saxon Kings.

It is a form of immemorial prescription, substantially the same as that used at the inauguration of our Christian monarchs in Saxon times, and sanctioned by the solemn approval of all the estates of the realm, the nobility, the clergy, and the people, assembled at its celebration. The prayers are framed in the best spirit of antiquity, with the rhythm so characteristic of primitive forms, and with an elevation and majesty of sentiment unsurpassed in any part of our liturgy. The service is, however, peculiarly valuable, as recording certain high religious and political principles, which of course must be considered as receiving the full sanction of the Church and nation. Thus, there is an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of Christ over the whole world, and the derivation of all kingly power from Him. “When you see this orb set under the cross, remember that the whole world is subject to the power and empire of Christ our Redeemer. For He is the Prince of the kings of the earth, King of kings, and Lord of lords; so that no man can reign happily, who derives not his authority from Him, and directs not all his actions according to His laws.” It is declared that Christian sovereigns, like the Jewish kings of old, are consecrated to the fulness of their office by the religious rite of unction, and that their function is not merely secular. “Bless and sanctify thy chosen servant Victoria, who by our office and ministry is now to be anointed with this oil, and consecrated Queen of this realm.” There is a strict recognition of the prerogative of the clergy, empowered as the ministers of Christ, to assert the dominion of our Lord, who exalts her to her holy dignity: “Stand firm and hold fast from henceforth the seat and the state of royal and imperial dignity, which is this day delivered to you in the name and by the authority of Almighty God, and by the hands of us the bishops and servants of God, though unworthy: and as you see us to approach nearer to God’s altar, so vouchsafe the more graciously to continue to us your royal favour and protection. And the Lord God Almighty, whose ministers we are, and the stewards of his mysteries, establish you therein in righteousness, that it may stand fast for evermore.”—Palmer.

CORNET. A species of horn or trumpet formerly much used in the Church service; in the king’s chapel especially. Dr. Rimbault, in his Notes on Roger North’s Memoirs of Music, states, that in the Statutes of Canterbury cathedral, provision is made for players on sackbuts and cornets, on high festivals. After the Restoration, as appears from North’s Life of Guildford, the cornet was used at Durham and York cathedrals; and Matthew Lock says, that for about a year after the opening of the Royal Chapel, the cornet was used to supply the want of treble voices.

Evelyn, in his Memoirs, (21 Dec. 1663,) complains of violins being substituted in the Royal Chapel, “instead of the ancient, grave, and solemn wind-music, accompanying the organ:” and that “we no more heard the cornet, which gave life to the organ, that instrument quite left off, in which the English were so skilful.”—Jebb.

CORPORAL. This is the name given to the linen cloth which is spread over the body, (corpus,) or consecrated bread, after the communion. It was of common use in the Church in the fifth century, as is evident from the testimony of Isidore of Pelusium, who observes that the design of using it was to represent the body of our Saviour being wrapped in fine linen by Joseph of Arimathea.

The direction concerning this “fair linen cloth” in our Order of the Holy Communion is as follows: “When all have communicated, the minister shall return to the Lord’s table, and reverently place upon it what remaineth of the consecrated elements, covering the same with a fair linen cloth.” Our reformers may have been influenced in their retention of this decent ceremony after consecration, as a protest against the elevation of the host, and “gazing” at the sacrament.

CORPUS CHRISTI, FEAST OF. A Roman festival, instituted by Pope Urban IV., A. D. 1264, and observed on the Thursday of the week after Pentecost. The institution was the natural result of the acceptance of the doctrine of transubstantiation. Hildebert of Tours was the first who made use of the high-sounding term transubstantiatio. Most of the earlier scholastics, and the disciples of Lanfranc in particular, had, however, previously defended both the doctrine of the change of the bread into the body of Christ, and that of the accidentia sine subjecto; but it was not made an article of faith till the time of Innocent III. By the institution of the Corpus Christ day, by Urban, this doctrine was expressed in a liturgical form, and its popularity was secured. The festival was established in honour of the consecrated host, and with a view to its adoration. Its origin is connected with some 258of those “lying wonders,” in which we read one of the marks of the scriptural condemnation of the Church of Rome. The Romish legend states that, in 1230, Juliana, a nun of Liege, while looking at the full moon, saw a gap in its orb; and, by a peculiar revelation from heaven, learned that the moon represented the Christian Church, and the gap the want of a certain festival—that of the adoration of the body of Christ in the consecrated host—which she was to begin to celebrate, and announce to the world. In 1264, while a priest at Bolsena, who did not believe in the change of the bread into the body of Christ, was going through the ceremony of benediction, drops of blood fell on his surplice, and when he endeavoured to conceal them in the folds of his garment, formed bloody images of the host. The bloody surplice is still shown as a relic at Civita Vecchia. It was in this year that Pope Urban published his bull, and it is with such authority that the Church of Rome is contented!

CORSNED. (See Ordeal.)

COUNCILS. (See Synod.) General or œcumenical councils, or synods, are assemblies of bishops from all parts of the Church, to determine some weighty controversies of faith or discipline. Of such councils the Catholic or Universal Church has never received or approved more than six, although the Romish Church acknowledges several others. This is one of the many instances in which the Romish Church is at variance with the Catholic Church. The first Catholic Council is that of Nice, which was convened by the emperor Constantine, A. D. 325, to terminate the controversy raised by Arius, presbyter of Alexandria, who denied the Divinity of the Son of God, maintaining that he was a creature brought forth from nothing, and susceptible of vice and virtue. The council condemned his doctrine as heretical, and declared the faith of the Church in that celebrated creed called the Nicene Creed, which is repeated by us in the Communion Service, and which has, ever since its promulgation, been received and venerated by the Universal Church, and even by many sects and heretics. This council also made several regulations in matters of discipline. The second general council was that of Constantinople, assembled by the emperor Theodosius the Elder, in 381, to appease the troubles of the East. The heresy of Macedonius, who blasphemously taught that the Holy Ghost was a creature, was herein anathematized, and the Nicene Creed was brought into its present form by the addition of some passages concerning the orthodox doctrine of the incarnation, and of the real Divinity of the Holy Ghost. The third general council was assembled at Ephesus, A. D. 431, by the emperor Theodosius the Younger, to determine the controversy raised by Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, who declaimed against the title of Theotokos, (Mother of God,) which the Church had long applied to the mother of him who was both God and man; and taught that the Son of man and God the Word were different persons, connected only by a moral or apparent union, contrary to the Scripture, which declared that “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” and that God purchased the Church “with his own blood.” (Acts xx. 28.) By this council the Nestorian heretics were condemned. The fourth general council was assembled by the emperor Marcian, in 451, at Chalcedon. This council published a confession, or definition of faith, in which the doctrine and creed of the three preceding Councils of Nice, Constantinople, and Ephesus, were confirmed, and the orthodox doctrine of the existence of two perfect and distinct natures, the Divine and human, in the unity of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, was clearly defined. Eutyches, and Dioscorus bishop of Alexandria, who maintained that there was only one nature in our Lord Jesus Christ, after the incarnation or union of the Divinity and humanity, were condemned as heretics by this council. The fifth general council, commonly called the Second Council of Constantinople, was convened by the emperor Justinian, in 553; but it is only to be viewed as a supplement to the third general council, being engaged like it in condemning the Nestorian heresy. The sixth council, called the Third Council of Constantinople, was assembled in 680, by the emperor Constantine Pogonatus. It stands in the same relation to the fourth council that the fifth does to the third. “These are the only councils,” says Mr. Palmer, “which the Universal Church has ever received and approved as general.” The doctrine of these general councils, having been approved and acted on by the whole body of the Catholic Church, and thus ratified by an universal consent, which has continued ever since, is irrefragably true, unalterable, and irreformable; nor could any Church forsake or change the doctrine without ceasing to be Christian.

In the act of the first of Elizabeth ... the commissioners, in their judgment of heresies, were enjoined to adhere, in the 259first place, to the authority of the canonical Scriptures; secondly, to the decisions of the first four general councils; and thirdly, to the decision of any other general council, founded on the express and plain words of Holy Scripture. In this act, one particular deserves, and demands, very special attention; namely, the unqualified deference paid to the first four general councils. The latest of these councils sat and deliberated in the year 451. A point of time, therefore, is fixed, previously to which the Church of England unreservedly recognises the guidance of the Catholic Church, in the interpretation of Christian verities.—Bishop Jebb, Appendix to Practical Sermons.

Provincial councils consist of the metropolitan and the bishops subject to him. Diocesan councils are assemblies of the bishop and his presbyters to enforce canons made by general or provincial councils, and to consult and agree upon rules of discipline for themselves. (For an account of the Romish councils, see Lateran. For the authority of councils in the Church of England, see Heresy.)

COUNSEL. Besides the common signification of the word, it is frequently used in Scripture to signify the designs or purposes of God, or the orders of his providence. (Acts iv. 28, and Psalm lxxiii. 24.) It also signifies his will concerning the way of salvation. (Luke vii. 30; Acts xx. 27.)

This word is also used by the doctors of the Romish Church, to denote those precepts which they hold to be binding upon the faithful, in virtue of an implied direction or recommendation of our Lord and his apostles. Thus the celibacy of the clergy is numbered by them among “evangelical counsels,” which, receiving the acceptance of the Church, they hold, heretically, to be equally binding with the commands of canonical Scripture.

COURT CHRISTIAN. The ecclesiastical courts are so designated. In the Church of England there are six spiritual courts.

1. The Archdeacon’s Court, which is the lowest, and is held in such places where the archdeacon, either by prescription or composition, has jurisdiction in spiritual or ecclesiastical causes within his archdeaconry. The judge of this court is called the official of the archdeaconry.

2. The Consistory Courts of the archbishops and bishops of every diocese, held in their cathedral churches, for trial of all ecclesiastical causes within the diocese. The bishop’s chancellor or commissary is the judge.

3. The Prerogative Court, held at Doctors’ Commons, in London, in which all testaments and last wills are proved, and administrations upon the estates of intestates granted, where the party dies beyond seas or within his province, leaving bona notabilia.

4. The Arches Court, (so called because anciently held in the arched church of St. Mary, in Cheapside, London,) is that which has jurisdiction upon appeal in all ecclesiastical causes, except what belong to the Prerogative Court. The judge is the official principal of the archbishop.

5. The Court of Peculiars, of the archbishop of Canterbury, subservient to, and in connexion with, that of the Arches.

6. The Court of Delegates, so called because the judges are delegated and sit in virtue of the king’s commission, under the great seal, pro hac vice, upon appeals to the king on ecclesiastical matters. The powers of this court are now in England transferred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. It remains in Ireland. (See Delegates, and Appeal.)

COVENANT. A mutual agreement between two or more parties. (Gen. xxi. 32.) In the Hebrew the word signifies, 1. A disposition, dispensation, institution, or appointment of God to man. (Hebrews ix. 16, 17, 20.) 2. The religious dispensation or institution which God appointed to Abraham and the patriarchs. (Acts iii. 25; Luke i. 72; Acts vii. 8.) 3. The dispensation from Sinai. (Heb. viii. 9; Gal. iv. 24.) 4. The dispensation of faith and free justification, of which Christ is the Mediator, (Heb. vii. 22–viii. 6,) and which is called new in respect of the old or Sinai covenant, (2 Cor. iii. 6; Heb. viii. 8, 13; ix. 15,) and whence the New Covenant or Testament became the title of the books in which this new dispensation is contained. Into this covenant we are admitted by union with Christ; and into union with Christ all infants, and such adults as are properly qualified by faith and repentance, may be admitted in holy baptism. (Gal. iii. 27.) 5. The old dispensation is used for the books of Moses containing that dispensation by St. Paul. (2 Cor. iii. 14.)

We renew our baptismal covenant in our confirmation, and in each faithful participation of the eucharist.

COVENANT OF REDEMPTION. This is said to be the mutual stipulation between the everlasting Father and the co-eternal Son, relating to the salvation of our fallen race, previously to any act upon the part of Christ under the character of 260Mediator. That there was such a covenant, either tacit or express, we may assuredly conclude, from the importance of the work undertaken by God the Son, and the awful sacrifice made for its accomplishment. All the prophecies which relate to what was to be done by the Messiah on the one hand, and the benefits and rewards which were to be conferred upon him and his people on the other, may properly be considered as intimations of such a covenant. (1 Pet. i. 11. Compare John xvii. 1–5, 14; vi. 37; Tit. i. 2; 2 Tim. i. 9; Rev. xiii. 8; Ps. lxxxix. 19.)

By this covenant, the everlasting Son, who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, is without beginning, God of God, Light of light, very God of very God, undertook to become incarnate, to dwell a certain time upon earth, subject to the law of human nature; directing his whole conduct while he should continue here, in such a manner as most effectually to promote the honour of his Father and the salvation of his people; that at length he would voluntarily deliver himself to sufferings and death, and remain for a time in the grave; thereby, in human nature, offering a satisfaction to the law of perfect obedience to the will of the Creator, which human nature had violated, and removing the obstacle to the operation of Divine mercy, which Divine justice interposed; also, that, after his resurrection and ascension into heaven, he would employ his renewed life as the God-Man, and his extensive authority in the mediatorial kingdom, to the same great purposes which engaged him to become incarnate. (Ps. xl. 6–9; Heb. x. 5–10; Isa. lxi. 1–3; Luke iv. 18; Isa. i. 5, 6.) God the Father, on the other hand, stipulated to produce a human body for his co-eternal Son, in the womb of the Virgin; that he would strengthen his human nature by the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, for the extraordinary work before him; that he would raise him from the dead, and elevate his human nature to the right hand of power; and that he would accept the atonement when offered. It is added, that God the Holy Ghost stipulated to regenerate, renew, and sanctify those of mankind, whom God the Father gave to his Son. (Besides the texts given above, see Isa. vii. 14; xi. 2, &c.; lii. 13–15; liii. 10–12; lv. 4, 5; xlix. 1–12, compared with Luke ii. 32; 2 Cor. vi. 2; Rev. vii. 16, 17; Ps. ii. 7–9; Luke xxii. 29; John v. 22–29; Heb. xii. 2.)

COVENANT, in ecclesiastical history, denotes a contract or convention agreed to by the Scots in 1638, for maintaining the Presbyterian religion free from innovation. In 1581, the general assembly of Scotland drew up a confession of faith, or national covenant, condemning the episcopal government of the Christian Church, under the name of hierarchy. It was signed by James VI., who was compelled to enjoin it upon all his subjects. It was again subscribed in 1590 and 1596; and, in 1638, it was taken with an oath on the part of the subscribers, to maintain religion in the state it was in in 1580. The oath annexed to the confession of faith received the name of Covenant, and those who subscribed it were called Covenanters. (See Confession of Faith, Westminster.)

CREDENCE, or CREDENTIAL. A table or shelf near the altar, on which the bread and wine to be used in the eucharist are placed, previously to consecration, called in the Greek Church τράπεζα προθεσέος, mensa propositionis. The table of Prothesis in the Greek Church is placed in a side vestry; and here many prefatory prayers and ceremonies are performed, before the priest goes into the chancel. The word credence appears to be derived from the Italian “credenzare,” to taste meats and drink before they were offered to be enjoyed by another; an ancient court practice, which was performed by the cup-bearers and carvers, who for this reason were also called in German credenzer. Hence also the credenz-teller—credence-plate, on which cup-bearers credenced the wine; and, in general, a plate on which a person offers anything to another: credenztisch, credence-table, a sideboard, an artificial cupboard with a table for the purpose of arranging in order and keeping the drinking apparatus therein. (See Adelung’s German Dictionary, word “Credenzen.”) This table or shelf is used for the more convenient observance of the rubric following the Offertory sentences, in which it is directed: “And when there is a communion, the priest shall THEN place upon the table so much bread and wine as he shall think sufficient.” Where the staff of the clergy is large, the rubric can be conveniently observed without this aid. Archbishop Laud, (Troubles and Tryal, ch. 33,) in his chapel at Lambeth, had a credential, (or side-table,) from which the elements were fetched, and set reverently upon the communion table. He defends this, by saying that both Bishop Andrewes and some other bishops used it so all their time, and no exception taken. From the plan of the chapel of Bishop Andrewes, in Archbishop Laud’s possession, and adduced 261as evidence against him by Prynne, it appears that the credential was placed on the south side of the communion table, the vessels for the communion being placed upon it. There are many credences in various churches; among others, in the collegiate and in St. John’s churches, Manchester, and in the parish church at Ludlow, where they have been in use from time immemorial.—Jebb.

CREED. (See Apostles’ Creed, Athanasian Creed, Nicene Creed.) By the word creed (from credo, I believe) is meant the substance of the Christian’s faith. There are three creeds recognised by the Catholic Church,—the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. The Latin name for creed is symbolum, which signifies a watchword, or signal in war. Ludolph of Saxony, in his Life of Christ, describes the creeds of the Catholic Church thus: “There are three symbols, (watchwords or tokens, such as are used among soldiers of a garrison, to recognise their comrades, and to detect insidious intruders,)—the first of the Apostles, the second of the Nicene Council, the third of St. Athanasius; the first for instruction in the faith, the second for the explanation of the faith, the third for defence of the faith.” Three in name, but one in fact, and which, except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.

The cause of a gradual adoption of a series of creeds is simply this: the truth being but one and unvarying, the plain assertion of it is, in the first instance, all that is necessary, all that can be done for it: and this was done by the Apostles’ Creed. Error, on the other hand, is multiform; and consequently, as error upon error continued to rise, correctives unthought of before were to be found to meet the exigency: hence the Nicene Creed. Again, subsequent to that, new errors were broached, the old were revived, clever evasions of the terms of the existing creeds were invented, the vehemence of opponents was increased; but all desiring still, with all their mischievous errors, to be within the pale of the Church, it became still more imperatively necessary to fence in the Church from such dangers; and the creed called that of St. Athanasius, was compiled from the logical forms of expression which prevail in his writings, and those of similar champions of the catholic faith, and was very soon adopted by the Church as an additional bulwark to preserve that faith in its original integrity and purity. Luther calls this creed, “the bulwark of the Apostles’ Creed.”

It is a mistake to imagine that creeds were, at first, intended to teach, in full and explicit terms, all that should be necessary to be believed by Christians. They were designed rather for hints and minutes of the main credenda, to be recited by catechumens before baptism; and they were purposely contrived short, that they might be the more easily retained in memory, and take up the less time in reciting. Creeds, very probably, at first, were so far from being paraphrases or explications of the form of baptism, (or of Scripture texts,) that they went no farther, or very little farther, than the form itself, and wanted as much explaining and paraphrasing, in order to be rightly and distinctly understood, as any other words or forms could do. Hence it was that the catechumens were to be instructed in the creed, previously to baptism, for many days together. As heresies gave occasion, new articles were inserted; not that they were originally of greater importance than any other articles omitted, but the opposition made to some doctrines rendered it the more necessary to insist upon an explicit belief and profession of them.—Waterland’s Sermons on the Divinity of Christ.

As the apostles had foretold, “false teachers” crept into the Church, and “privily brought in damnable heresies, denying the Lord that bought them,” even “the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Pet. ii. 1, and Jude 4.) As these spread their poison, it became necessary to provide an antidote; for which purpose it was wisely ordered, that creeds, or summaries of the Christian faith, should be drawn up, and published for general use.—Waldo.

As to the primitive Churches, their constant way was to enlarge their creeds in proportion to the growth of heresies, that so every corruption arising to the faith of Christ might have an immediate remedy. The design was to keep up, as strictly as possible, the whole fabric of the Christian faith as it stands in Scripture; and if any part came to be attacked, they were then to bend all their cares to succour and relieve that part, in order still to secure the whole. The sum of Christian practice is contained in two brief rules,—to love God, and to love one’s neighbour. But mistakes and perverse sentiments may arise; to correct and remove which it may be necessary to enlarge the rule of practice, and to branch it out into many other particulars.—Waterland on the Athanasian Creed.

If our creeds be found fault with for 262not being expressed in scriptural terms only, let them bear the blame who, by an artful misapplication of Scripture terms at first, made it necessary for the guardians of the faith to express the Scripture doctrine in other terms, more explicit, and not so liable to be perverted and abused.—Wheatly on the Creeds.

We must ever lament that the misapplied curiosity of men should have made it at all necessary to enlarge upon mysterious doctrines. It might have been fortunate for the peace and tranquillity of the Christian Church, if the Apostles’ Creed had been sufficient. But since men will be “wise above what is written,” some remedy must be found out, which may either satisfy or restrain their curiosity. And whoever peruses the several parts of the Athanasian Creed will find, that, so far from creating minute inquiries concerning the doctrine of the Trinity, it is more especially calculated to discountenance and prevent them. Sublime truths require modesty and caution in our expressions; and whatever checks presumption, prepares the mind for the reception of sound and useful doctrine. The abuse of Scriptural language first occasioned a deviation from it in creeds, and common candour will compel all parties to acknowledge the difficulty of finding proper words to express so much as it was intended for us to know, and no more.—Croft’s Bamp. Lectures.

CREED OF POPE PIUS IV. A succinct and explicit summary of the doctrine contained in the canons of the Council of Trent, is expressed in the creed which was published by Pius IV. in 1564, in the form of a bull, and which usually bears his name. It is received throughout the whole Roman Catholic Church; every person who is admitted into the Roman Catholic Church publicly reads and professes his assent to it. It is by these additional articles to the Nicene Creed, that the Romish Church cuts itself off from the Church Catholic, and becomes heretical.

The tenor of it is as follows: “I, N., believe and profess, with a firm faith, all and every one of the things which are contained in the Symbol of Faith, which is used in the holy Roman Church, viz.

“I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, Light of light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial to the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried, and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, of whose kingdom there will be no end; and in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-giver, who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who, together with the Father and the Son, is adored and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. I confess one baptism for the remission of sins, and I expect the resurrection of the body, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

“I most firmly admit and embrace apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, and all other constitutions and observances of the same Church.

“I also admit the sacred Scriptures according to the sense which the holy mother Church has held, and does hold, to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures; nor will I ever take and interpret them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers.

“I profess also, that there are truly and properly seven sacraments of the new law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, and for the salvation of mankind, though all are not necessary for every one; viz. baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance, extreme unction, order, and matrimony, and that they confer grace; and of these, baptism, confirmation, and order cannot be reiterated without sacrilege.

“I also receive and admit the ceremonies of the Catholic Church, received and approved in the solemn administration of all the above-said sacraments.

“I receive and embrace all and every one of the things which have been defined and declared in the holy Council of Trent, concerning original sin and justification.

“I profess likewise, that in the mass is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead; and that in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is made a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood, which conversion the Catholic Church calls transubstantiation.

263“I confess also, that, under either kind alone, whole and entire, Christ and a true sacrament is received.

“I constantly hold that there is a purgatory, and that the souls detained therein are helped by the suffrages of the faithful.

“Likewise that the saints reigning together with Christ, are to be honoured and invocated, that they offer prayers to God for us, and that their relics are to be venerated.

“I most firmly assert, that the images of Christ, and of the Mother of God ever virgin, and also of the other saints, are to be had and retained; and that due honour and veneration are to be given to them.

“I also affirm, that the power of indulgences was left by Christ in the Church; and that the use of them is most wholesome to Christian people.

“I acknowledge the holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church, the mother and mistress of all Churches; and I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman bishop, the successor of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, and vicar of Jesus Christ.

“I also profess and undoubtedly receive all other things delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, and particularly by the holy Council of Trent; and likewise I also condemn, reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatsoever condemned and anathematized by the Church.

“This true catholic faith, out of which none can be saved, which I now freely profess and truly hold, I, N., promise, vow, and swear most constantly to hold and profess the same, whole and entire, with God’s assistance, to the end of my life. Amen.”

CRESSELLE. An instrument of wood, made use of in the Romish Church during Passion week, instead of bells, to give notice of Divine service. This is done in imitation of the primitive Christians, who, they suppose, made use of such an instrument, before the invention of bells, to call their brethren secretly to prayers. There are mysteries in the Cresselle. It represents Christ praying on the cross, and calling nations to his preaching; as also his humility, &c.—Jebb.

CREST. (In ecclesiastical architecture.) An ornamental finish at the top of a screen, or other subordinate feature.

CROSIER. A crosier is the pastoral staff of an archbishop, and is to be distinguished from the pastoral staff of a bishop; the latter terminating in an ornamented crook, while the crosier always terminates in a cross. At the end of the Common Prayer Book established in the second year of Edward VI., which is referred to as still obligatory, so far as the ornaments of the church and of the ministers thereof are concerned, in the rubric immediately before the Morning Prayer it is ordered,—“Whensoever the bishop shall celebrate the holy communion, or execute any other public office, he shall have upon him, besides his rochet, an alb, and cope or vestment, and also his pastoral staff in his hand, or else borne by his chaplain.”

CROSS. The cross was the instrument of death to our most blessed Lord and Saviour, and it has been considered in all ages by the Church as the most appropriate emblem, or symbol, of the Christian religion. The sign of the cross was made in the primitive Church in some part of almost every Christian office. The Church of England, in the constitutions of 1603, has a long canon (the 30th) on this subject, wherein it is said: “The Holy Ghost, by the mouths of the apostles, did honour the name of the cross, being hateful among the Jews, so far that, under it, he comprehended not only Christ crucified, but the force, effects, and merits of his death and passion, with all the comforts, fruits, and promises which we receive or expect thereby. Secondly, the honour and dignity of the name of the cross begat a reverent estimation even in the apostles’ times, for aught that is known to the contrary, of the sign of the cross, which the Christians shortly after used in all their actions; thereby making an outward show and profession, even to the astonishment of the Jews, that they were not ashamed to acknowledge him for their Lord and Saviour, who died for them upon the cross. And this sign they not only used themselves, with a kind of glory, when they met with any Jews, but signed therewith their children, when they were christened, to dedicate them by that badge to his service, whose benefits bestowed upon them in baptism, the name of the cross did represent. And this use of the sign of the cross was held in the primitive Church, as well by the Greeks as by the Latins, with one consent, and great applause. At which time, if any had opposed themselves against it, they would certainly have been censured as enemies of the name of the cross, and consequently of Christ’s merits, the sign whereof they could no better endure. This continual and general use of the sign of the cross, is evident by many testimonies of the ancient Fathers. Thirdly, it must be confessed 264that, in process of time, the sign of the cross was greatly abused in the Church of Rome, especially after that corruption of Popery had once possessed it. But the abuse of a thing doth not take away the lawful use of it. Nay, so far was it from the purpose of the Church of England to forsake and reject the Churches of Italy, France, Spain, Germany, or any such like Churches, in all things that they held and practised, that, as Bishop Jewel’s “Apology of the Church of England” confesseth, it doth with reverence retain those ceremonies which do neither endamage the Church of God, nor offend the minds of sober men; and only departed from them in those particular points wherein they were fallen, both from themselves in their ancient integrity, and from the apostolical Churches which were their first founders. In which respect, amongst some other very ancient ceremonies, the sign of the cross in baptism hath been retained in this Church, both by the judgment and practice of those reverend fathers and grave divines in the days of King Edward VI., of whom some constantly suffered for the profession of the truth; and others, being exiled in the time of Queen Mary, did, after their return, in the beginning of the reign of our late dread sovereign, continually defend and use the same.”

The sign of the cross is appointed to be used at baptism. After the priest hath baptized the child, he receives it into the congregation, by this solemnity declaring that he is by baptism made a member of the Church. (1 Cor. xii. 13.) “We are all baptized into one body.” And when he thus receives it, he signs it with the sign of the cross, as of old it was wont, according to St. Augustine; and on the forehead, the seat of blushing and shame, that he may not hereafter blush and be ashamed of the disgraced cross of Christ, as St. Cyprian saith. By this badge is the child dedicated to his service, whose benefits, bestowed upon him in baptism, the name of the cross in Holy Scripture does represent. Whosoever desires to be fully satisfied concerning the use of the cross in baptism, let him read the thirtieth canon of our Church, in the year 1603.—Bp. Sparrow.

The Church, studious to retain this ancient and universal ceremony of the purest primitive times, was also careful to decline all fear of superstitious intendment; as if she thought the sacrament imperfect without it. Therefore, whereas the primitive mode made it to usher in baptism, our Church inverted the order, and made it come after, and so to follow it, as she expressly first declareth, “the child to be received into the congregation of Christ’s flock, as a perfect member thereof, and not by any power ascribed to the sign of the cross.” (Canon 30.) And further to assure all distrustful minds, that she maketh it not of the substance of the sacrament, she hath totally omitted it in the office of private baptism.—L’ Estrange.

The child, being now baptized, is become a member of the Christian Church, into which the minister (as a steward of God’s family) doth solemnly receive it; and, for the clearer manifestation that it now belongs to Christ, solemnly signs it in the forehead with the sign of the “cross.” For the better understanding of which primitive ceremony, we may observe, that it was an ancient rite for masters and generals to mark the foreheads or hands of their servants and soldiers with their names or marks, that it might be known to whom they did belong; and to this custom the angel in the Revelation is thought to allude: “Hurt not the earth, &c., till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” (Rev. vii. 3): thus again the retinue of the Lamb are said to “have his Father’s name written in their foreheads” (chap. xiv. 1). And thus, lastly, in the same chapter, as Christ’s flock carried his mark on their foreheads, so did his great adversary the beast sign his servants there also: “If any man shall receive the mark of the beast in his forehead, or in his hand,” &c. (ver. 9). Now that the Christian Church might hold some analogy with those sacred applications, she conceived it a most significant ceremony in baptism, (which is our first admission into the Christian profession,) that all her children should be signed with the cross on their foreheads, signifying thereby their consignment up to Christ; whence it is often called by the ancient Fathers, the “Lord’s signet” and “Christ’s seal.”—Wheatly.

The true sense and intention of the Church of England in appointing this sign appears from Dr. Burgess’s sense of the matter, which was accepted by King James the First, and affirmed by the archbishop of Canterbury [Bancroft] to be the sense of the Church. His words are these which follow:—“I know it is not made any part of the sacrament of baptism, which is acknowledged by the canon to be complete without it, and not perfected or bettered by it.

“I understand it not as any sacramental, or operative, or efficacious sign 265bringing any virtue to baptism, or the baptized.

“Where the book says, ‘and do sign him with the sign of the cross in token,’ &c., I understand the book not to mean, that the sign of the cross has any virtue in it to effect or further this duty; but only to intimate and express by that ceremony, by which the ancients did avow their profession of Christ crucified, what the congregation hopeth and expecteth hereafter from the infant; namely, that he shall not be ashamed to profess the faith of Christ crucified, into which he was even now baptized.

“And therefore also when the 30th canon saith, that the infant is ‘by that sign dedicated unto the service of Christ,’ I understand that dedication to import, not a real consecration of the child, which was done in baptism itself; but only a ceremonial declaration of that dedication, like as the priest is said to make clean the leper, whose being clean he only declared.”

The Church’s use of the sign of the cross and her expressions concerning it, are fairly capable of this construction; and so authentic a declaration is sufficient to satisfy any sober inquirer, that this sense not only may be, but ought to be, received.—Dr. Bennet.

The heathens were wont to deride the Christians, and to speak disdainfully of them, as worshippers of a malefactor crucified. To encounter which reproach, and to show that they “gloried in the cross of Christ,” (Gal. vi. 14,) taking it to be an honour, not an ignominy; they assumed this ceremony of signing themselves with the cross, both in baptism, and at several other times. And this sign being significant of a duty to be elicited by future practice, good reason had our Church to continue it.—L’ Estrange.

It is, in brief, a mark, by which we, as the primitive Christians did, declare our religion, and no more than that, wherewith we conclude all our prayers and thanksgivings, when we say through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.—Clutterbuck.

Upon the whole, the ceremony is exceeding proper, and very innocent; used by most Christians; approved by all the ancients, and by some of the most eminent reformed divines expressly; and condemned by no Church: so that, if this ceremony be rejected by any, they ought to consider that the fault is in themselves, not in the thing, at which offence is taken, but none justly given, if the Church be but rightly understood.—Dean Comber.

CRUCIFIX. A cross upon which a sculptured or carved image of the body of our Lord is fastened. It is much used by the Romanists and the Lutheran Protestants, to excite in their minds a strong idea of our Saviour’s passion. It has never been used in the Church of England since the Reformation, on the ground of its having been abused to superstition and idolatry.

CRUSADE. A name given to the Christian expeditions against the infidels, for the recovery of the Holy Land out of their hands, because they who engaged themselves in the undertaking wore a cross on their clothes, and had one in their standards. There were eight crusades. The first, in 1096, at the solicitation of the Greek emperor and patriarch of Jerusalem. Peter the Hermit, who was the preacher of this crusade, was made general of a great army, a thing that did not very well agree with his profession, being a priest; and all the princes,—Hugo the Great, count of Vermandois, brother to Philip I. king of France; Robert, duke of Normandy; Robert, count of Flanders; Raymond, count of Toulouse and St. Giles; Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lorraine, with his brothers, Baldwin and Eustace; Stephen, count of Chartres and Blois; Hugo, count of St. Paul, with a great number of other lords, took different ways to meet at Constantinople. The first who marched his troops was the famous Godfrey de Bouillon, who had a greater share than any of the rest in this undertaking, though not the command of the whole army. He commenced his march Aug. 15, 1096, with 10,000 horse and 70,000 foot; and before the other princes were come to Constantinople, passing the Hellespont, besieged Nice, which, notwithstanding the double-dealing of the Greek emperor Alexis, after six weeks’ siege, was surrendered to him; after which he victoriously entered Syria and took Antioch. Jerusalem was taken in 1099, and Godfrey of Bouillon chosen king; a little after which the Christians gained the famous battle of Ascalon against the sultan of Egypt; which victory put an end to the first crusade; for the princes and lords, with those who followed them, believing they had fully accomplished the vow they had made, took their leave of Godfrey, and returned to their respective countries.

The second crusade was in 1144, and this was headed by the emperor Conrad III. and Louis VII. of France: the emperor’s army was either destroyed by the enemy, or perished through the treachery of the Greek emperor and his brother-in-law; 266and the second army, through the unfaithfulness and treachery of the Christians of Syria, was forced to quit the siege of Damascus.

The third crusade was in 1188, after the taking of Jerusalem by Saladin, sultan of Egypt. The most distinguished persons engaged in this expedition were the emperor Frederick Barbarossa; Frederick, duke of Swabia, his second son; Leopold, duke of Austria; Berthold, duke of Moravia; Herman, marquis of Baden; the counts of Nassau, Thuringen, Meissen, and Holland, and above sixty more of the chief princes of the empire, with divers bishops. Barbarossa, in spite of the emperor of Constantinople, having got into Asia Minor, defeated the sultan at Iconium, but, drawing near to Syria, sickened and died in 1190: however his son Frederick led the army to Antioch, and joined with Guy, king of Jerusalem, in the siege of Ptolemais, but, failing of success, he died soon after, which proved the ruin of his army. Nevertheless, Richard, king of England, and Philip Augustus, king of France, arriving some months after in the Holy Land, with a great force, compelled Ptolemais to surrender, July 12, 1191. After which, Philip returned home in discontent, while the brave King Richard concluded a peace with Saladin, upon these conditions,—that all the coast from Joppa to Tyre should be left to the Christians, and that Saladin should have all the rest of Palestine, except Ascalon, which was to belong to the party who, at the end of the truce, obtained possession of it; and that, during the truce, which was to last three years, three months, three weeks, and three days, it should be lawful for the Christians to go to Jerusalem in small companies, to pay their devotions there.

The fourth was undertaken in 1195, by the emperor Henry VI., after Saladin’s death: his army started for the Holy Land three several ways, and, he himself at length arriving at Ptolemais, the Christians gained several battles against the infidels, and took many towns; but the death of the emperor compelled them to quit the Holy Land, and return into Germany.

The fifth crusade was published by the artifice of Pope Innocent III. in 1198. Most of the adventurers in this expedition employed themselves in taking Zara for the Venetians, and afterwards in making war against the Greek emperor; and those who proceeded to Palestine suffered a defeat in 1204.

The sixth crusade began in 1228, in which the Christians took the town of Damietta, but were forced to surrender it again. The emperor Frederick, in 1229, went to the Holy Land, and next year made a peace with the sultan for ten years, upon these conditions—that the sultan should deliver to the Christians the towns of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Tyre, and Sidon, but the temple of Jerusalem should be left to the Saracens, to perform the free exercise of their law; after which the emperor returned home. About 1240, Richard, earl of Cornwall, and brother to Henry III., king of England, arrived in Palestine, but, finding all efforts useless, while the Templars and Hospitallers continued their disputes and private animosities, he, with the advice of the duke of Burgundy, the great master of the Hospitallers, and chief persons of the crusade, accepted the advantageous conditions the sultan offered, whereby the Christians were to enjoy some lands in Palestine, then in the soldan’s possession. In 1244, the Corasmins, the descendants of the ancient Parthians, fell upon the Christians in Palestine, and almost extirpated them.

The seventh crusade was led by St. Louis, king of France, who appeared before Damietta, after the feast of Whitsuntide, in 1249. He took it, but after some battles his army was at last defeated, and himself taken prisoner; after which a truce was concluded for ten years, and the Christians were to keep what they were in possession of, except Damietta, which was to be delivered to the sultan for the king’s ransom, with a great sum of money; this done, the king sailed for Syria, and having put Acre and other sea-ports in a good condition, returned home in 1254.

The same prince put himself at the head of the eighth crusade in 1270, and laying siege to Tunis without success, died there: but his son, Philip the Bold, and Charles, king of Sicily, afterwards brought the king of Tunis to agree to a truce for ten years, upon condition that he should set all the slaves of his kingdom at liberty; that he should give the Dominican and Franciscan friars leave to preach the gospel in his territories, and build monasteries, and baptize all those that should desire it, besides a sum of money to be paid Charles yearly. About this time, Prince Edward of England arrived at Ptolemais with a small force of 300 men. He hindered Benzdoctar from laying siege to Ptolemais, but was obliged soon after to quit the Holy Land on account of his father’s death, and his consequent succession to the crown of England. In 1291 the town of Ptolemais, or Acre, 267was taken, and the Christians were driven out of Syria. Since which time there has been no crusade, though the popes have more than once attempted to stir up Christians to the undertaking.

CRYPT. The subterranean vault under any portion of a church. The original use of the crypt seems to have been to increase the number of places for altars; they were also sometimes used as places of burial, not as being set apart for that purpose, but that persons would desire to be buried before this or that altar, or in some particular place in the crypt, as they chose any part of the church for the same purpose.

The crypt is generally found under the east end of the church, and it is often the oldest part of it, and, as such, full of interest to the student of ecclesiastical architecture and antiquities. It often contains evidence of the form and extent of the church in its original condition, which would elsewhere be sought in vain. The most remarkable crypts in England are those of Canterbury, Gloucester, and Rochester. At Wrexham and Ripon portions of the Saxon remains are retained in the crypt, and at York the size and form of the Norman choir is displayed in the older portion of the crypt.

CULDEES. [Kelidei, or Colidei.] The name Culdee is derived from the Gaelic Gille De, (or Irish Ceile De,) which signifies God’s servant. There is an evident affinity between this and the cultores Dei of the Latin: and the same affinity has been remarked between many of the Latin and Gallic words. There seems every reason for believing that the name of Culdees was bestowed on the indigenous clergy of the country from the time it was Christianized.—Lyon’s Hist. of St. Andrews.

As to the Culdees, it is very certain that there was a sort of monks, and of secular priests also, who went under that appellation, not only among the Scots, but among the Britons and Irish, and even also among the northern English, who were first converted by the Scots, particularly in the cathedral of York.—Goodall, Preliminary Dissert. prefixed to Bp. Russell’s edition of Keith’s Scottish Bishops.

The Culdees were, as far as antiquarians can discover, the first order of monks that settled in the British Isles; and wherever the Celtic language was used, whether in Scotland, Ireland, or Wales, the name of Culdee was given to every one, who, relinquishing the temporal pursuits of life, joined an association of a religious character, for the purpose of fasting, meditation, and prayer.—Bishop Russell’s Supplement to the above Dissertation.

The name was not exclusively applied to the followers of St. Columba at Iona, but establishments of the Culdees were founded by Columba, a native of Ireland, in 563, and for a long period remained independent of the see of Rome, and free from the corruptions of that Church. The abbot of Iona was their head; not that he assumed episcopal authority (for the superiority of bishops, quoad spiritualia, was acknowledged even by Columba himself, who refused to consecrate the eucharist, as we are told by Adamnan in his Life of that abbot, in the presence of a bishop); but because he exercised full authority over his monks quoad civilia.—See Lyon’s Hist. of St. Andrews.

The Colidei, or Culdees in general, (as appears from the old authorities, and from Ware,) were in fact the ancient collegiate clergy of Ireland and Scotland; including those who led a monastic life, that is, under vows of celibacy; yet including communities of cathedral canons, who were frequently married, though living together near their cathedral, with an abbot or prior at their head. In Scotland the Culdees constituted the chapter of several cathedrals, and elected the bishop, as Mr. Goodall shows from charters and documents still extant. At St. Andrew’s they were the sole chapter and electors of the bishop till 1140, when canons regular were introduced, who shared the privileges of the Culdees till 1273. Great jealousy subsisted between these ancient communities, and the interior secular canons and monks; who in the course of time expelled or superseded the Culdees. There was no difference of doctrine however between them; for the Culdees, though originally independent of Rome, adopted Roman systems, like the other clergy. The causes of dispute were those differences in discipline, and those jealousies which have ever prevailed among rival communities. The Culdees had in many instances a kind of hereditary succession to their benefices.

Ware (Antiq. of Ireland, chap. xxxvi. sect. 4, ed. Harris) states, that there were some secular priests, called Colidei, who served in the cathedral church of Armagh, and their president was called Prior of the College of the Colidei; and was in the nature of a chanter to that church: elected by Colidei, and confirmed by the archbishop. (Harris adds, that it was a body corporate, and had considerable estates, till these fell to the Crown on the abdication of the community after the Reformation.) Ware 268gives other instances in Ireland. The ministers of York cathedral were called Colidei in the time of Athelstan.

In a fine MS. Antiphonary anciently belonging to Armagh cathedral, and now in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, there are several entries of the obits of the Colidei of Armagh.

Some derive the name from Cylle, which signifies in Gaelic a cell, and tee, or dee, a house. But the derivation given above seems the most consistent with history and tradition.

CUP. (See Communion in one Kind.) The sacred vessel in which the consecrated wine in the Lord’s supper is conveyed to the communicant, distinguished from the flagon, in which the wine is brought to the altar, and in which, if more than the cup will conveniently hold is required, it is consecrated. The rubric directs that it shall be delivered to each communicant.

Rubric. “When the priest, standing before the table, hath so ordered the bread and wine, that he may with the more readiness and decency break the bread before the people, and take the cup into his hands, he shall say the prayer of consecration, as followeth.” And in the prayer of consecration, “Here he is to take the cup into his hand,” and, “Here to lay his hand upon every vessel (be it chalice or flagon) in which there is any wine to be consecrated.”

“The minister that delivereth the cup to any shall say, The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,” &c.

Article 30. “The cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay people; for both the parts of the Lord’s sacrament, by Christ’s ordinance and commandment, ought to be ministered to all Christian men alike.”

This article is directed against the Romish custom of denying the cup to the laity, concerning which it may be enough to say, that it is clearly and confessedly contrary to the custom of the Church; that for twelve centuries there was no instance to be adduced of any receiving in one kind at the public celebration of the eucharist; and that it was even accounted sacrilege to deprive any of either part of our blessed Lord’s ordinance.—See Bingham, xv. 5, and xvi. 6–27.

It appears from the unanimous testimony of the Fathers, and from all the ancient rituals and liturgies, that the sacrament of the Lord’s supper was, in the early ages of the Church, administered in both kinds, as well to the laity as to the clergy. The practice of denying the cup to the laity arose out of the doctrine of transubstantiation. The belief that the sacramental bread and wine were actually converted into the body and blood of Christ, naturally produced, in a weak and superstitious age, an anxious fear lest any part of them should be lost or wasted. To prevent anything of this kind in the bread, small wafers were used, which were put at once into the mouths of the communicants by the officiating ministers; but no expedient could be devised to guard against the occasional spilling of the wine in administering it to large congregations. The bread was sopped in the wine, and the wine was conveyed by tubes into the mouth, but all in vain; accidents still happened, and therefore it was determined that the priests should entirely withhold the cup from the laity. It is to be supposed that a change of this sort, in so important an ordinance as that of the Lord’s supper, could not be effected at once. The first attempt seems to have been made in the twelfth century; it was gradually submitted to, and was at last established by the authority of the Council of Constance, in the year 1414; but in their decree they acknowledged that “Christ did institute this sacrament of both kinds, and that the faithful in the primitive Church did receive both kinds; yet a practice being reasonably introduced to avoid some dangers and scandals, they appoint the custom to continue of consecrating in both kinds, and of giving to the laity only in one kind,” thus presuming to depart from the positive commands of our Lord respecting the manner of administering the sign of the covenant between himself and mankind. From that time it has been the invariable practice of the Church of Rome to confine the cup to the priests. And it was again admitted at the Council of Trent, that the Lord’s supper was formerly administered in both kinds to all communicants, but it was openly contended that the Church had power to make the alteration, and that they had done it for weighty and just causes. These causes are not stated in the canon of the council. The reformed churches, even the Lutheran, which maintains the doctrine of consubstantiation, restored the cup to the laity. In a convocation held in the first year of Edward the Sixth’s reign, it was unanimously voted that the sacrament of the Lord’s supper should be received in both kinds by the laity as well as the clergy; and therefore it is remarkable that there was nothing on this subject in the articles of 1552: both this and the preceding article [the 29th] were added in 1562.—Bp. Tomline.

269Wherever the institution of the Lord’s supper is mentioned, there is not the least hint that the clergy are to receive it in one manner, and the laity in another. And if one part of this sacrament be more necessary than the other, it seems to be the cup; since it represents the blood of Christ, to which remission of sins and our redemption are more often ascribed in Scripture than to his body. It is trifling in the Romanists to say that the blood is with the body: since in the eucharist we commemorate, not the life of our Lord, but his death, in which the blood was separated from his body; (see 1 Cor. xi. 26; Luke xxii. 19, 20;) and to represent his blood, thus separated from his body, the cup was consecrated apart by him. Christ himself also seems to have guarded designedly against this piece of sacrilege of denying the cup to the laity, by commanding that “all” should drink of the cup. (Matt. xxvi. 27.) And in Mark xiv. 23, it is said, that “all drank of it;” which is nowhere expressly said of eating the bread. See also 1 Cor. xi. 26–28, in all which verses the Corinthians in general are expressly required to “drink of that cup.”—Archdeacon Welchman. Veneer.

There is not any one of all the controversies that we have with the Church of Rome, in which the decision seems more easy and shorter than this. And, as there is not any one in which she has acted more visibly contrary to the gospel than in this, so there is not any one that has raised higher prejudices against her, that has made more forsake her, and has possessed mankind more against her, than this. This has cost her dearer than any other.—Bp. Burnet.

For the material of the cup, see Chalice.

CURATE. The person who has the cure of souls in a parish. In this sense the word is used in the Prayer Book, “all bishops and curates,” as the word is still employed in France, Spain, &c.

The word is, in common parlance, used to denote the minister, whether presbyter or deacon, who is employed under the spiritual rector or vicar, as assistant to him in the same church, or else in a chapel of ease within the same parish, belonging to the mother church. Where there is in a parish neither spiritual rector nor vicar, but a clerk employed to officiate there by the impropriator, this is called a perpetual curacy, and the priest thus employed the perpetual curate. The impropriator, by the terms of his sacrilegious gift, is bound to “maintain” the priest: how far this is complied with by those lay impropriators who allow the same stipend now that was given 200 or 300 years ago, we need not wait to inquire. The appointment of a curate to officiate under an incumbent, in his own church, must be by such incumbent’s nomination of him to the bishop. To every one of these several kinds of curates, the ordinary’s licence is necessary before he shall be admitted to officiate.

For by Canon 41, “No curate or minister shall be permitted to serve in any place without examination and admission of the bishop of the diocese, or ordinary of the place having episcopal jurisdiction, under his hand and seal, having respect to the greatness of the cure, and meetness of the party.”

And by the same canon, “If the curates remove from one diocese to another, they shall not be by any means admitted to serve without testimony in writing of the bishop of the diocese, or ordinary of the place having episcopal jurisdiction, from whence they came, of their honesty, ability, and conformity to the ecclesiastical laws of the Church of England.”

By Canon 36, “No person shall be suffered to preach, to catechize, or to be a lecturer, in any parish church, chapel, or other place, except he be licensed either by the archbishop or by the bishop of the diocese, and except he shall first subscribe to the three articles specified in the said canon, concerning the king’s supremacy, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Thirty-nine Articles of religion.”

And by Canon 37, “None who hath been licensed to preach, read, lecture, or catechize, and shall afterwards come to reside in another diocese, shall be permitted there to preach, read, lecture, catechize, or administer the sacraments, or to execute any other ecclesiastical function, by what authority soever he be thereunto admitted, unless he first consent and subscribe to the three articles before mentioned, in the presence of the bishop of the diocese wherein he is to preach, read, lecture, catechize, or administer the sacraments as aforesaid.”

He must also, within two months, or at the time when he reads the morning and evening prayers as aforesaid, (on the like pain of deprivation ipso facto,) read and assent to the Thirty-nine Articles, if it be a place with cure. (13 Eliz. c. 12. 23 Geo. II. c. 28.)

A curate not licensed may be removed at pleasure; but, if licensed, he can be removed only by the consent of the bishop, or where the rector or vicar does the duty himself.

By the 76th section of 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, 270it is enacted as follows: “And be it enacted, that in every case where a curate is appointed to serve in any benefice upon which the incumbent either does not reside, or has not satisfied the bishop of his full purpose to reside during four months of the year, such curate shall be required by the bishop to reside within the parish or place in which such benefice is situate, or if no convenient residence can be procured within such parish or place, then within three statute miles of the church or chapel of the benefice in which he shall be licensed to serve, except in cases of necessity, to be approved of by the bishop, and specified in the licence, and such place of residence shall also be specified in the licence.”

By the 81st section of the same act it is enacted as follows: “And be it enacted, that every bishop to whom any application shall be made for any licence for a curate to serve for any person not duly residing upon his benefice, shall, before he shall grant such licence, require a statement of all the particulars by this act required to be stated by any person applying for a licence for non-residence; and in every case in which application shall be made to any bishop for a licence for any stipendiary curate to serve in any benefice, whether the incumbent be resident or non-resident, such bishop shall also require a declaration in writing, to be made and subscribed by the incumbent and the curate, to the purport and effect that the one bonâ fide intends to pay, and the other bonâ fide intends to receive, the whole actual stipend mentioned in such statement, without any abatement in respect of rent or consideration for the use of the glebe house, and without any other deduction or reservation whatever.”

By the 83rd section of the same act it is enacted as follows: “And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for the bishop of the diocese, and he is hereby required, subject to the several provisions and restrictions in this act contained, to appoint to every curate of a non-resident incumbent such stipend as is specified in this act; and every licence to be granted to a stipendiary curate, whether the incumbent of the benefice be resident or non-resident thereon, shall specify the amount of the stipend to be paid to the curate; and in case any difference shall arise between the incumbent of any benefice and his curate touching such stipend, or the payment thereof, or of the arrears thereof, the bishop, on complaint to him made, may and shall summarily hear and determine the same, without appeal; and in case of wilful neglect or refusal to pay such stipend, or the arrears thereof, he is hereby empowered to enforce payment of such stipend, or the arrears thereof, by monition, and by sequestration of the profits of such benefice.”

The following papers are to be sent to the bishop by a curate applying to be licensed:—

1. A nomination by the incumbent.

The following form of nomination is intended to serve where the incumbent is non-resident.

“To the Right Reverend —— Lord Bishop of ——.

“I, G. H. of ——, in the county of ——, and your lordship’s diocese of ——, do hereby nominate E. F., bachelor of arts, (or other degree,) to perform the office of a curate in my church of —— aforesaid; and do promise to allow him the yearly stipend of ——, to be paid by equal quarterly payments, [as to amount of stipend, see 1 & 2 Vic. c. 106, and the latter part of this article,] with the surplice fees, amounting to —— pounds per annum, (if they are intended to be allowed,) and the use of the glebe house, garden, and offices which he is to occupy (if that be the fact; if not, state the reason, and name where and at what distance from the church the curate purposes to reside): and I do hereby state to your lordship, that the said E. F. does not serve any other parish, as incumbent or curate; and that he has not any cathedral preferment or benefice, and does not officiate in any other church or chapel (if however, the curate does serve another church as incumbent, or as curate, or has any cathedral preferment, or a benefice, or officiates in any other church or chapel, the same respectively must be correctly and particularly stated): that the net annual value of my said benefice, estimated according to the act 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, ss. 8 & 10, is ——, and the population thereof, according to the latest returns of population made under the authority of parliament is ——; that there is only one church belonging to my said benefice (if there be another church or chapel, state the fact); and that I was admitted to the said benefice on the —— day of ——, 18—.

271Declaration to be written at the foot of the Nomination.

“We the before-named G. H. and E. F. do declare to the said Lord Bishop of ——, as follows: namely, I the said G. H. do declare, that I bonâ fide intend to pay, and I the said E. F. do declare that I bonâ fide intend to receive, the whole actual stipend mentioned in the foregoing nomination and statement, without any abatement in respect of rent, or consideration for the use of the glebe house, garden, and offices, thereby agreed to be assigned, and without any other deduction or reservation whatsoever.

The following form of nomination is proposed where the incumbent is resident.

The same form as the preceding, so far as “quarterly payments;” then proceed as follows: “And I do hereby state to your lordship, that the said E. F. intends to reside in the said parish, in a house (describe its situation so as clearly to identify it) distant from my church —— mile (if E. F. does not intend to reside in the parish, then state at what place he intends to reside, and its distance from the said church); and that the said E. F. does not serve any other parish as incumbent or curate; and that he has not any cathedral preferment or benefice, and does not officiate in any other church or chapel (if, however, the curate does serve another parish, as incumbent or as curate, or has any cathedral preferment or a benefice, or officiates in any other church or chapel, the same respectively must be correctly and particularly stated).

Declaration to be written at the foot of the Nomination.

The declaration to be signed by the incumbent and curate is to be in the same form as that given above, so far as the word “statement;” after which, proceed as follows: “Without any deduction or reservation whatsoever.

2. Letters of orders, deacon and priest.

3. Letters testimonial to be signed by three beneficed clergymen, in the following form:

“To the Rt. Rev. ——, Lord Bishop of ——.

“We, whose names are here under written, testify and make known that A. B., clerk, bachelor of arts, (or other degree,) of —— college, in the university of ——, nominated to serve the cure of ——, in the county of ——, hath been personally known to us for the space of[A] three years last past; that we have had opportunities of observing his conduct; that during the whole of that time we verily believe that he lived piously, soberly, and honestly, nor have we at any time heard anything to the contrary thereof; nor hath he at any time, as far as we know or believe, held, written, or taught anything contrary to the doctrine or discipline of the United Church of England and Ireland; and, moreover, we believe him in our consciences to be, as to his moral conduct, a person worthy to be licensed to the said curacy.

To be countersigned, if all or either of the subscribers to the testimonial are not beneficed in the diocese of the bishop to whom it is addressed, by the bishop of the diocese wherein their benefices are respectively situate.

On receipt of these papers, the bishop, if he be satisfied with them, will either appoint the clergyman nominated to attend him, to be licensed, or issue a commission to some neighbouring incumbent.

Before the licence is granted, the curate is to subscribe the Thirty-Nine Articles, and the three articles in the 36th canon; to declare his conformity to the liturgy of the United Church of England and Ireland, and to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and of canonical obedience:—

“I, E. F., do swear that I will pay true and canonical obedience to the Lord Bishop of —— in all things lawful and honest. So help me God.”

The licence will be sent by the bishop 272to the registry-office, and from thence it will be forwarded to the churchwardens.

Within three months after he is licensed, the curate is to read in the church the declaration appointed by the Act of Uniformity, and also the certificate of his having subscribed it before the bishop.

By the 106th section of the Residence Act, (1 & 2 Vict. c. 106,) it is enacted that no spiritual person shall serve more than two benefices in one day, unless in case of unforeseen and pressing emergency, in which case he shall forthwith report the circumstance to the bishop.

The directions as to notices to be given for the curate to give up the cure, are contained in the 95th section of the said act, and for his quitting the house of residence in the 96th section; and as to notice of the curate’s intention to relinquish the cure, in the 97th section; and power is given to the bishop, by the 98th section, to revoke any licence to a curate, (after having given him sufficient opportunity to show reason to the contrary,) subject to an appeal to the archbishop of the province within one month after service of revocation.

(1.) Form of notice by a new incumbent to a curate to quit curacy, or to give up possession of house of residence.

“I, A. B., clerk, having been duly admitted to the rectory of ——, in the county of ——, and diocese of ——, do hereby, in pursuance of the power and authority for this purpose vested in me by virtue of the act of parliament passed in the first and second years of her present Majesty’s reign, intituled ‘An Act to abridge the holding of benefices in plurality, and to make better provision for the residence of the clergy,’ give notice to and require you, C. D., clerk, to quit and give up the curacy of —— aforesaid [the following to be added where applicable, and to deliver up possession of the rectory house of —— aforesaid, and the offices, stables, gardens, and appurtenances thereto belonging, and (if any) such part of the glebe land as has been assigned to you] at the expiration of six weeks from the giving of this notice to you.

(2.) Form of notice by an incumbent, with consent of the bishop, to a curate to quit curacy, or to give up house of residence.

“I, A. B., clerk, rector of ——, in the county of ——, and diocese of ——, in pursuance of the power and authority for this purpose vested in me by virtue of the act of parliament passed in the first and second years of her present Majesty’s reign, intituled ‘An Act to abridge the holding of benefices in plurality, and to make better provision for the residence of the clergy,’ do hereby, with the permission of the Right Reverend —— Lord Bishop of the diocese of —— aforesaid, signified by writing under his lordship’s hand, give notice to, and require you, C. D., clerk, my licensed curate of —— aforesaid, to quit and give up the said curacy of —— [the following to be added where applicable, and the rectory house of —— aforesaid, and the offices, stables, gardens, and appurtenances thereto belonging, and (if any) such part of the glebe land as has been assigned to you] at the expiration of six calendar months from the giving of this notice to you.^[5]

Form of bishop’s permission to an incumbent to give his curate notice to quit curacy, or give up possession of house of residence.

(Applicable to notice No. 2. only.)

“I, ——, Lord Bishop of ——, do hereby, on the application of A. B., clerk, rector of ——, in the county of ——, and my diocese of ——, signify my permission for him to require and direct C. D., clerk, his licensed curate at —— aforesaid, to quit and give up the said curacy [the following to be added where applicable, and to deliver up possession of the rectory house of —— aforesaid, and the offices, outhouses, gardens, and appurtenances thereto belonging, and (if any) such part of the glebe land as has been assigned to the said C. D., as such curate] upon six calendar months’ notice thereof being given to such curate.

Note.—The notice No. 1. applies only to an incumbent newly admitted to a benefice, and must be given within six months after such admission.

The notice No. 2. applies to every other case of an incumbent requiring his curate to quit the curacy. The consent of the bishop is required only in the latter case.

The 112th section of the act referred to in the notices contains directions as to the mode in which the notice is to be 273served; and it directs that “it shall be served personally upon the spiritual person therein named, or to whom it shall be directed, by showing the original to him and leaving with him a true copy thereof, or, in case such spiritual person cannot be found, by leaving a true copy thereof at his usual or last known place of residence, and by affixing another copy thereof upon the church door of the parish in which such place of residence shall be situate.” The notice must, immediately after the service thereof, be returned into the Consistorial Court, (or the Court of Peculiars, in the case of an archbishop’s or bishop’s peculiar; see sect. 108,) and be there filed, together with an affidavit of the time and manner in which the same shall have been served.

The stipends to be paid to curates by non-resident incumbents must be in strict conformity with the directions of the act of parliament 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106. Clergymen who were incumbents of benefices before July 20th, 1813, cannot be compelled (see sect. 84) to pay more than £75 per annum as a stipend to the curates of such benefices, but the bishop may add to that sum £15 in lieu of a house.

Non-resident incumbents admitted to benefices after the above date, are to allow stipends according to the following scale, prescribed by the 85th section:

or the whole value of the benefice, if it does not exceed these sums respectively. Where the net yearly income of a benefice exceeds £400, the bishop may (by sect. 86) assign a stipend of £100, notwithstanding the population may not amount to 300; and if with that income the population amounts to 500, he may add any sum not exceeding £50 to any of the stipends payable by the last-mentioned incumbent, where the curate resides within the benefice, and serves no other cure. Where the population exceeds 2000, the bishop may require the incumbent to nominate two curates, with stipends not exceeding together the highest rate of stipend allowed to one curate.

Incumbents who have become incapable of performing their duties from age, sickness, or other unavoidable cause, (and to whom, from these or from any other special and peculiar circumstances, great hardship would arise if they were required to pay the full stipend,) may (by sect. 87) be relieved by the bishop, with the consent of the archbishop of the province.

The bishop may (by sect. 89) direct that the stipend to a curate licensed to serve two parishes or places shall be less for each by a sum not exceeding £30 per annum than the full stipend.

All agreements for payment of a less stipend than that assigned by the licence are (by sect. 90) declared to be void; and if less be paid, the remainder may be afterwards recovered by the curate or his representatives. When a stipend, equal to the whole value of a benefice, is assigned to the curate, he is (by sect. 91) to be liable to all charges and outgoings legally affecting the benefice; and (by sect. 94) when such a stipend as last mentioned is assigned, and the curate is directed to reside in the glebe house, he is to be liable to the taxes, parochial rates, and assessments of the glebe house and premises; but in every other case in which the curate shall so reside by such direction, the bishop may, if he shall think fit, order that the incumbent shall pay the curate all or any part of such sums as he may have been required to pay, and shall have paid, within one year, ending at Michaelmas day next preceding the date of such order for any such taxes, parochial rates, or assessments, as should become due at any time after the passing of the act.

For other particulars as to curates’ stipends and allowances, &c., see the act 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, from sect. 75 to 102, both inclusive.

CURE. The spiritual charge of a parish, or, in a larger sense, the parish itself. When Christianity was first planted in this nation, the bishops were constantly resident at their cathedrals, and had several clergymen attending them at that place, whom they sent to preach and convert the people, where there was the greatest probability of success; and the persons thus sent either returned or continued in those places, as occasion required, having no fixed cures or titles to particular places; for being all entered in the bishop’s registry, (as the usual course then was,) they could not be discharged without his consent. Afterwards, when Christianity prevailed, and many churches were built, the cure of souls was limited both as to places and persons. The places are those which we now call parishes, the extent whereof 274is certainly known, and the boundaries are now fixed by long usage and custom. The parsons are the ministers, who, by presentation, institution, and induction, are entitled to the tithes and other ecclesiastical profits arising within that parish, and have the cure of souls of those who live and reside there: and this the canonists call a cure In foro interiori tantum; and they distinguish it from a cure of souls, In foro exteriori, such as archdeacons have, to suspend, excommunicate, and absolve, and which is Sine pastorali cura: and from another cure, which they say is In utroque simul, that is, both In exteriori et interiori foro: and such the bishop has, who has a superintendent care over the whole diocese, intermixed with jurisdiction.

CUSPS. (In church architecture.) The projecting points from the foliation of arches or tracery. Cusping first appeared in the Geometric period, and was continued so long as Gothic architecture was employed. Besides the more obvious differences arising from the number of cusps, which, however, it is needless to particularize, there is one very great peculiarity of the earlier cusping which ought to be clearly understood. Let the tracery bar consist of three planes, a the wall, b the chamfer, and c soffit plane (the latter of course not being visible in the two larger diagrams, which, being elevations, show no line at right angles to the wall). In the more common cusping, the cusp is formed by carrying out the whole of the soffit and part of the chamfer plane, and leaving an unpierced hollow, or eye, in the tracery bar, as at A A, fig. I; A A in the section answering to A A in the elevation, and E E to E E. In the Earlier or Geometrical cusping, the tracery bar is completed all round, and the cusp carries with it no part either of the soffit or of the chamfer, but is let into the soffit, always in appearance, sometimes in fact, as a separate piece of stone, as at B D, fig. II. Here, too, the cusp leaves a free space between itself and the tracery bar, as at B B B in elevation, and section II. D D D, representing the place of departure of the cusp from the tracery bar. This is generally called soffit cusping, from its springing exclusively from the soffit plane.

DAILY PRAYERS. “All priests and deacons are to say daily the morning and evening prayer, either privately or openly, not being let by sickness or some other urgent cause. And the curate that ministereth in every parish church or chapel, being at home, and not being otherwise reasonably hindered, shall say the same in the parish church or chapel where he ministereth, and shall cause a bell to be tolled thereunto a convenient time before he begin, that the people may come to hear God’s word, and pray with him.”—Preface to the Book of Common Prayer. As this is not only a direction of the Church, but also part of an act of parliament, any parishioners desirous of attending daily prayers might compel the clergyman to officiate, by bringing an action against him, as well as by complaining to the bishop. For this, of course, there can seldom be any necessity, as most of the clergy would be too happy to officiate, if they could secure the attendance of two or three of their parishioners. By the general practice of the clergy it seems to be decided, that they are to say the morning and evening prayer in private, if they cannot obtain a congregation; though, even under those circumstances, the letter of the rubric seems to direct them to say the offices at church, if possible. It is a cheering sign of the times, that the number of instances in which the daily prayers are duly said in church is rapidly on the increase.

DALMATIC, was formerly the characteristic dress of the deacon in the administration of the holy eucharist. It was also worn by the bishop at stated times; and in the Latin Church still forms part of the episcopal dress, under the chasuble. It is a robe reaching below the knees, and open at each side for a distance varying at different periods. It is not marked at the back with a cross like the chasuble, but in the Latin Church with two narrow stripes, the remains of the angusti clavi worn on the old Roman dress. In the Greek 275Church it is called colobion, is covered with a multitude of small crosses, and has no sleeves. The dalmatic is seen on the effigies of bishops on monuments, and in some old brasses, over the alb and the stole, the fringed extremities of which reach just below it. It has received its name from being the regal vest of Dalmatia. It is the same as the tunicle, which is directed to be worn according to the rubrics of King Edward VI.’s First Prayer Book, by the priests and deacons who may assist the priest at the holy communion. Like all the other ecclesiastical vestures, it was curtailed by the corrupt practice of later ages in the West, so as not to reach further than the knees.—Jebb.

DAMNATORY CLAUSES. (See Athanasian Creed.)

DANIEL (THE BOOK OF). A canonical book of the Old Testament. Daniel descended from the royal house of the kings of Judah, and was contemporary with Ezekiel. (An. 606, before Christ.) He was of the children of the captivity, being carried to Babylon when he was about eighteen years of age. His name is not prefixed to his book; yet the many passages in which he speaks in the first person, are a sufficient proof that he was the author of it. The style of Daniel is not so lofty and figurative as that of the other prophets: it is clear and concise, and his narrations and descriptions simple and natural; in short, he writes more like an historian than a prophet.

He was a very extraordinary person, and was favoured of God, and honoured of men, beyond any that had lived in his time. His prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah, and the other great events of after-times, are so clear and explicit, that Porphyry objected to them, that they must have been written after the facts were done.—Prideaux, Connect. P. I. b. iii. Ann. 534. Hieron. in Proœm. ad Com. in Dan.

The Jews do not reckon Daniel among the prophets; and the reason they assign is, because he rather lived the life of a courtier, in the palace of the king of Babylon, than that of a prophet. They add, that, though he had Divine revelations given to him, yet it was not in the prophetic way, but by dreams and visions of the night, which they look upon as the most imperfect way of revelation, and below the prophetic. But Josephus, one of the ancientest writers of that nation, reckons him among the greatest of the prophets, and says further of him, that he conversed familiarly with God, and not only foretold future events, as other prophets did, but determined likewise the time when they should come to pass. But our Saviour, by acknowledging Daniel as a prophet, puts his prophetic character out of all dispute.—Maimonid, in More Nevochim, p. 2, ch. 45. Huet. Demonstr. Evangel. Prop. 4, ch. 14. Joseph. Antiq. lib. x. ch. 12. Matt. xxiv. 15.

Part of the book of Daniel was originally written in the Chaldee language; that is, from the fourth verse of the second chapter to the end of the seventh chapter; and the reason was, because, in that part, he treats of the Chaldean or Babylonish affairs. All the rest of the book is in Hebrew.—Hieron. in Præf. ad Dan. The Greek translation, used by the Greek Churches throughout the East, was that of Theodotion. In the Vulgar Latin Bible, there is added, in the third chapter, after the twenty-fourth verse, the Song of the Three Children, and, at the end of the book, the History of Susanna, and of Bel and the Dragon: the former is made the thirteenth, and the latter the fourteenth chapter of the book, in that edition. But these additions were never received into the canon by the Jews; neither are they extant in the Hebrew or the Chaldee language, nor is there any proof that they ever were so.

The first six chapters of the book of Daniel are a history of the kings of Babylon, and what befell the captive Jews under their government. In the last six, he is altogether prophetical, foretelling, not only what should happen to his own Church and nation, but events in which foreign princes and kingdoms were concerned; particularly the rise and downfal of the four secular monarchies of the world, and the establishment of the fifth, or spiritual kingdom of the Messiah.

It is believed that Daniel died in Chaldea, and that he did not take advantage of the permission granted by Cyrus to the Jews of returning to their own country. St. Epiphanius says he died at Babylon, and herein he is followed by the generality of historians.

“Amongst the old prophets,” says the great Sir Isaac Newton, “Daniel is most distinct in order of time, and easiest to be understood; and therefore, in those things which relate to the last times, he must be made the key to the rest. His prophecies are all of them related to one another, as if they were but several parts of one general prophecy. The first is the easiest to be understood, and every following prophecy adds something new to the former.”—Observations on Daniel, pp. 15, 24.

276DATARY. An officer in the pope’s court. He is always a prelate, and sometimes a cardinal, deputed by his Holiness to receive such petitions as are presented to him, touching the provision of benefices. By his post, the datary is empowered to grant, without acquainting the pope therewith, all benefices that do not produce upwards of twenty-four ducats annually; but for such as amount to more, he is obliged to get the provisions signed by the pope, who admits him to audience every day. If there be several candidates for the same benefice, he has the liberty of bestowing it on which of them he thinks proper, provided he has the requisite qualifications. The datary has a yearly salary of two thousand crowns, exclusive of the perquisites, which he receives from those who apply to him for any benefice. This office has a substitute, named the sub-datary, who is likewise a prelate, and has a yearly pension of a thousand crowns: but he is not allowed to confer any benefice, without acquainting the datary therewith. When a person has obtained the pope’s consent for a benefice, the datary subscribes his petition with an annuit sanctissimus, i. e. the most holy father consents to it. The pope’s consent is subscribed in these words, Fiat ut petitur, i. e. Be it according to the petition. After the petition has passed the proper offices, and is registered, it is carried to the datary, who dates it, and writes these words—Datum Romæ apud, &c.: Given at Rome in the pontifical palace, &c. Afterwards the pope’s bull, granting the benefice, is despatched by the datary, and passes through the hands of more than a thousand persons, belonging to fifteen different offices, who have all their stated fees. The reader may from hence judge how expensive it is to procure the pope’s bull for a benefice, and what large sums go into the office of the datary, especially when the provisions, issued from thence, are for bishoprics, and other rich benefices.—Broughton.

DEACON. (See Bishop, Presbyter, Priest, Orders, Clergy.) The name Διάκονοι, which is the original word for deacons, is sometimes used in the New Testament for any one that ministers in the service of God: in which large sense we sometimes find bishops and presbyters styled deacons, not only in the New Testament, but in ecclesiastical writers also. But here we take it for the name of the third order of the clergy in the Church. Deacons are styled by Ignatius, “ministers of the mysteries of Christ,” adding that they are “not ministers of meats and drinks, but of the Church of God.” In another place he speaks of them as “ministers of Jesus Christ,” and gives them a sort of presidency over the people, together with the bishops and presbyters. Cyprian speaks of them in the same style, calling them “ministers of episcopacy and the Church,” and referring their origin to the Acts of the Apostles; and he asserts that they were called ad altaris ministerium, to the ministry and service of the altar. Optatus had such an opinion of them as to reckon their office a lower degree of the priesthood. At the same time it is to be observed, that in this he was singular. By those who regarded them as a sacred order, they were generally distinguished from priests by the name of ministers and Levites. The ordination of a deacon differed in the primitive Church from that of a presbyter, both in the form and manner of it, and also in the gifts and powers that were conferred by the ordinance. In the ordination of a presbyter, the presbyters who were present were required to join in imposition of hands with the bishop. But the ordination of a deacon might be performed by the bishop alone, because, as the [fourth] Council of Carthage words it, he was ordained not to the priesthood, but to the inferior services of the Church: “quia non ad sacerdotium sed ad ministerium consecratur.” It belonged to the deacons to take care of the holy table and all the ornaments and utensils appertaining thereto; to receive the oblations of the people, and present them to the priest; in some churches, to read the Gospel both in the communion service and before it also; to minister the consecrated bread and wine to the people in the eucharist; in some churches, to baptize; to act as directors to the people in public worship, for which purpose they were wont to use certain known forms of words, to give notice when each part of the service began, and to excite people to join attentively therein; to preach, with the bishop’s licence; in extreme cases to reconcile the excommunicated to the Church; to attend upon the bishop, and sometimes to represent him in general councils. Deacons seem also to have discharged most of the offices which now devolve upon churchwardens.—Bingham.

The Church of England enjoins that “none shall be admitted a deacon except he be twenty-three years of age, unless he have a faculty;” and she describes the duties of a deacon in her office as follows: “It appertaineth to the office of a deacon, in the church where he shall be appointed 277to serve, to assist the priest in Divine service, and specially when he ministereth the holy communion, and to help him in the distribution thereof, and to read Holy Scripture and homilies in the church; and to instruct the youth in the catechism; in the absence of the priest to baptize infants, and to preach, if he be admitted thereto by the bishop. And, furthermore, it is his office, where provision is so made, to search for the sick, poor, and impotent people of the parish, to intimate their estates, names, and places where they dwell, unto the curate, that by his exhortation they may be relieved with the alms of the parishioners, or others.”

In the rubric after the sentences of the Offertory, it is ordered, that “while these sentences are in reading, the deacons, churchwardens, or other fit persons appointed for that purpose, shall receive the alms for the poor,” &c.

The deacon cannot pronounce the absolution, or minister at the holy communion, except as an assistant. And if the rubrics be strictly construed according to the letter, neither can he read the versicles before the Psalms, or after the Lord’s Prayer, (at its second occurrence,) nor the latter part of the Litany, beginning at the Lord’s Prayer; nor any part of the Communion Service, except the Gospel, (not according to the rubric, however, but in virtue of the licence in the Ordination Service,) the Creed, and the confession. He is permitted to baptize only in the absence of the priest; and perhaps the same remark may apply to the other occasional offices.

DEACONESS. A woman who served the Church in those offices in which the deacons could not with propriety exercise themselves. This order was also appointed in the apostolic age. They were generally widows who had been only once married, though this employment was sometimes exercised by virgins. Their office consisted in assisting at the baptism of women, in previously catechizing and instructing them, in visiting sick persons of their own sex, and in performing all those inferior offices towards the female part of the congregation, which the deacons were designed to execute for the men. St. Paul (Rom. xvi.) speaks of Phœbe as servant, or deaconess, of the church at Cenchrea, which was a haven of Corinth. Deaconesses appear to be the same persons as those whom Pliny, in his famous letter to Trajan, styles “ancillæ quæ ministræ dicebantur;” that is, “female attendants, called assistants, ministers, or servants.” It appears, then, that these were customary officers throughout the churches; and when the fury of persecution fell on Christians, these were among the first to suffer. They underwent the most cruel tortures, and even extreme old age was not spared. It is probable that they were blessed by the laying on of hands, but it is certain they were not permitted to execute any part of the sacerdotal office. This order continued in the Greek Church longer than in the Latin. It was generally disused in the Western Church in the fifth century, but continued in the Eastern Church until the twelfth. The deacon’s wife appears sometimes to have been called a deaconess, as the presbyter’s wife was styled presbytera, and the bishop’s wife episcopa.

DEAD. (See Burial of the Dead.) If all our prayers and endeavours for our friend prove unavailable for the continuance of his life, we must with patience submit to the will of God, “to whom the issues of life and death belong:” and therefore, after recommending his soul to God, which immediately upon its dissolution returns to Him, it is fit we should decently dispose of his body, which is left to our management and care. Not that the dead are anything the better for the honours which we perform to their corpses (for we know that several of the ancient philosophers cared not whether they were buried or not; and the ancient martyrs of the Christian Church despised their persecutors for threatening them with the want of a grave). But those who survive could never endure that the shame of nature should lie exposed, nor see the bodies of those they loved become a prey to birds and beasts. For these reasons, the very heathens called it a Divine institution, and a law of the immortal gods. And the Romans especially had a peculiar deity to preside over this affair. The Athenians were so strict, that they would not admit any to be magistrates, who had not taken care of their parents’ sepulture, and beheaded one of their generals after he had gotten a victory, for throwing the dead bodies of the slain, in a tempest, into the sea. And Plutarch relates, that, before they engaged with the Persians, they took a solemn oath, that, if they were conquerors, they would bury their foes; this being a privilege which even an enemy hath a right to, as being a debt which is owing to humanity.

2. It is true, indeed, the manner of funerals has varied according to the different customs of several countries; but all civilized nations have ever agreed in 278performing some funeral rites or other. The most ancient manner was by “burying them in the earth;” which is, indeed, so natural, that some brutes have been observed, by mere instinct, to bury their dead with wonderful care. The body, we know, was formed of the dust at first, and therefore it is fit it should “return to the earth as it was” (Gen. iii. 19; Eccles. xii. 7); insomuch that some heathens have, by the light of reason, called burying in the earth the being “hid in our mother’s lap,” and the being “covered with her skirt.” And that “interment,” or enclosing the dead body in the grave, was used anciently by the Egyptians and other nations of the East, is plain from the account we have of the embalming, and from their mummies, which are frequently found to this day whole and entire, though some of them have lain above three thousand years in their graves. That the same practice of burying was used by the patriarchs, and their successors the Jews, we have abundant testimony from the most ancient records in the world, the books of Moses; by which we find, that their funerals were performed, and their sepulchres provided with an officious piety (Gen. xxiii. 4; xxv. 9; xxxv. 29; xlix. 31); and that it was usual for parents to take an oath of their children, (which they religiously performed,) that they should bury them with their fathers, and carry their bones with them, whenever they quitted their land where they were. (Gen. xlvii. 29–31; xlix. 29–33; l. 25, 26; Exod. xiii. 19. See also Josh. xxiv. 32; Acts vii. 16; Heb. xi. 22.) In succeeding ages, indeed, it became a custom in some places to burn the bodies of the dead; which was owing partly to a fear that some injury might be offered them if they were only buried, by digging their corpses again out of their graves; and partly to a conceit, that the souls of those that were burnt were carried up by the flames to heaven.

3. But though other nations sometimes used interment and sometimes burning, yet the Jews confined themselves to the former alone. There is a place or two indeed in our translation of the Old Testament, (1 Sam. xxxi. 12; Amos vi. 10,) which might lead us to imagine that the rite of burning was also used by them sometimes. But upon consulting the original texts, and the customs of the Jews, it does not appear that the burnings there mentioned were anything more than the burning of odours and spices about their bodies, which was an honour they usually performed to their kings. (2 Chron. xvi. 14; xxi. 19; Jer. xxxiv. 5.) So that, notwithstanding these texts, we may safely enough conclude, that interment, or burying, was the only rite with them; as it was also in after-times with the Christian Church. For wherever Paganism was extirpated, the custom of burning was disused; and the first natural way of laying up the bodies of the deceased entire in the grave obtained in the room of it.

4. And this has always been done with such solemnity, as is proper to the occasion. Sometimes, indeed, it has been attended with an expensive pomp, that is unseemly and extravagant. But this is no reason why we should not give all the expressions of a decent respect to the memory of those whom God takes from us. The description of the persons who interred our Saviour, the enumeration of their virtues, and the everlasting commendation of her who spent three hundred pennyworth of spikenard to anoint his body to the burial, have always been thought sufficient grounds and encouragements for the careful and decent sepulture of Christians. And, indeed, if the regard due to a human soul, rendered some respect to the dead a principle that manifested itself to the common sense of heathens, shall we think that less care is due to the bodies of Christians, who once entertained a more glorious inhabitant, and were living temples of the Holy Ghost? (1 Cor. vi. 19;) to bodies which were consecrated to the service of God; which bore their part in the duties of religion; fought the good fight of faith and patience, self-denial and mortification; and underwent the fatigue of many hardships and afflictions for the sake of piety and virtue;—to bodies which, we believe, shall one day be awakened again from their sleep of death; have all their scattered particles of dust summoned together into their due order, and be “fashioned like to the glorious body of Christ” (Phil. iii. 21; see also 1 Cor. xv. 42–44); as being made partakers of the same glory with their immortal souls, as once they were of the same sufferings and good works. Surely bodies so honoured here, and to be so glorified hereafter, and which too we own, even in the state of death, to be under the care of a Divine providence and protection, are not to be exposed and despised by us as unworthy of our regard. Moved by these considerations, the primitive Christians, though they made no use of ointments whilst they lived, yet they did not think the most precious too costly to be used about the dead. And yet this was so far from being reproached with superstition, 279that it is ever reported as a laudable custom, and such as had something in it so engaging, so agreeable to the notions of civilized nature, as to have a very considerable influence upon the heathens, who observed and admired it; it becoming instrumental in disposing them to a favourable opinion at first, and afterwards to the embracing of the Christian religion, where these decencies and tender regards to deceased friends and good people, were so constantly, so carefully, and so religiously practised.—Dean Comber. Wheatly.

Christ’s Church, that is, the whole number of the faithful, is usually divided into two parts; namely, the Church militant, and the Church triumphant. By the Church militant, or in a state of warfare, we mean those Christians who are at present alive, and perpetually harassed with the temptations and assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and whose life is consequently a continual warfare under the banner of our blessed Saviour. By the Church triumphant, we mean those Christians who have departed this life in God’s true faith and fear; and who now enjoy in some measure, and after the day of judgment shall be fully possessed of, that glory and triumph, which is the fruit of their labours, and the reward of those victories which they obtained over their spiritual adversaries, during the time of their trial and combat here upon earth.—Dr. Bennet.

After the Offertory in the eucharist is said, and the oblations of bread and wine, with the alms for the poor, are placed upon the table, the minister addresses this exhortation to the people: “Let us pray for the whole state of Christ’s Church militant here in earth.” The latter part of this sentence is wanting in Edward’s First Book. The words “militant here in earth,” which were designed expressly to exclude prayer for the dead, were inserted in the Second Book, in which that part of this prayer, which contained intercession for the dead, was expunged. It was the intention of the divines who made this alteration, to denote that prayers are not to be offered up for the dead, whose spiritual warfare is already accomplished; but for those only who are yet “fighting the good fight of faith,” and are consequently in a capacity of needing our prayers.—Shepherd.

Although the doctrine of purgatory be a comparatively modern doctrine, yet prayers for the justified dead, for the increase of their happiness, and for our reunion with them, were introduced early into the Church. But it can be proved:

First. That, the prayers of the primitive Church for the dead, being especially for those who were accounted saints par excellence, and including even the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Apostles, prayer to the departed saints, whoever they may be, as it is practised by the churches under the Roman obedience, must be contrary in theory, as it is in fact, to the primitive practice; since it were impossible to pray to and for the same persons.

Secondly. That it was not for the release of the spirit of the departed from purgatory that the Church supplicated Almighty God. For this also were incompatible with prayer for the Blessed Virgin, and other eminent saints, of which there was never any doubt but that they were already in Abraham’s bosom, or even, as in the case of martyrs, in heaven itself.

Thirdly. That works of supererogation formed no part of the system of primitive theology; since all were prayed for as requiring the mercy of God, though it was not declared to what particular end.

Fourthly. That the use of hired masses for the dead, who may have been persons of exceeding criminality, and have died in mortal sin, is utterly at variance with the practice of the Church of old.—See Archbishop Usher and Bingham.

DEADLY SIN. We pray in the Litany to be delivered from “all deadly sin.” In the strict sense of the word every sin is deadly, and would cause eternal death if it were not for the intervention of our blessed Saviour. Even what are called infirmities and frailties, are in this sense deadly. But persons under grace have for these offences “an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John ii. 2.) Their infirmities and frailties, therefore, if they are trying to overcome them, are not deadly to persons under grace, or baptized persons justified by faith, although, if persevered in, and uncorrected, they may terminate in deadly sin; and they consequently require continual repentance, lest they should grow into such a fearful burden. But even to persons under grace we learn, from 1 John v. 16, 17, that there are “sins unto death,”—which must mean sins that put us out of a state of grace, and this is done by any wilful sin persevered in. By deadly sin in a Christian is meant wilful sin, persevered in, which deprives us of all Christian privileges. (See Sin.)

DEAN. Of deans there are two sorts; 1st, the dean of a cathedral, who is an 280ecclesiastical magistrate, next in degree to the bishop. He is chief of the chapter, and it is supposed is called a dean, (Decanus,) from a similar title in ancient monasteries, of an officer who presided over ten monks.

The dean represents the Archpresbyter, or Protopapas, who all the world over, from the most ancient times, was found under one denomination or another in the principal church of the diocese, to which a body of clergy was uniformly attached. Notre Dame at Paris had a dean as early as 991 at least. There was a dean of Bangor in 603; of Llandaff in 612; at Canterbury from 825 to 1080, then the name of Prior was substituted. Salisbury had its dean in 1072; Lincoln, 1092. In conventual cathedrals, the head was generally prior, the bishop being virtually abbot. The dean was the first dignitary of the cathedral; the head of the corporation; and, in subordination to the bishop, has, according to the statutes of more ancient cathedrals, the cure of souls over the members of the cathedral, and the administration of the corrective discipline of the Church. He has also duties in the choir and the chapter in common with all the chapter. He is by our law a sole corporation, that is, he represents a whole succession, and is capable of taking an estate as dean, and conveying it to his successors. 2nd, Rural deans, whose office is of ancient date in the Church of England, long prior to the Reformation, as it has been throughout Europe, and which many of the bishops are now reviving. Their chief duty is to visit a certain number of parishes, and to report their condition to the bishop. (See Rural Dean.) The dean was not always head of the chapter abroad; the provost being sometimes the superior. But he had always the administration of the discipline in spirituals, [curam animarum, as it is expressly called in statutes both of home and foreign Churches,] the provosts often concerning themselves merely in temporals, and he had the superintendence of the choir, or cathedral body. (See Dictionnaire de Droit Canonique, Lyons, 1787, voce Doyen.) They were, in fact, very much like the deans in our colleges, though more strictly limited ad sacra. The Dean of Faculty, in most ancient and some modern universities, presided over the meetings of their respective faculties, and maintained the academical discipline.

DEAN AND CHAPTER. This is the style and title of the governing body of a cathedral. A chapter consists of the dean, with a certain number of canons, or prebendaries, heads of the church—capita ecclesiæ. The origin of this institution is to be traced to a remote antiquity. A missionary bishop, when converting our ancestors, would take his position in some central town, with his attendant priests: these, as opportunity offered, would go to the neighbouring villages to preach the gospel, and administer the other offices of the Church. But they resided with the bishop, and were supported out of his revenues. By degrees parochial settlements were made; but still the bishop required the attendance of certain of the clergy at his cathedral, to be his council; (for the bishops never thought of acting without consulting their clergy;) and also to officiate in his principal church or cathedral. These persons, to qualify themselves for their office, gave themselves up to study, and to the maintenance and decoration of their sanctuary; the services of which were to be a model to all the lesser churches of the diocese. Forming, in the course of time, a corporation, they obtained property, and ceased to be dependent upon the bishop for a maintenance. And being considered the representatives of the clergy, upon them devolved the government of the diocese when vacant; and they obtained the privilege, doubtless on the same principle, of choosing the bishop, which originally belonged to the whole clergy of the diocese, in conjunction with the bishops of the province. In this privilege they were supported by the kings of the country, who perceived that they were more likely to intimidate a chapter into the election of the royal nominee, than the whole of the clergy of a diocese. But still the deans and chapters sometimes acting independently, an act was passed under Henry VIII., by which a dean and chapter refusing to elect the king’s nominee to the bishopric become individually outlawed, lose all their property, and are to be imprisoned during pleasure. Since that time these corporations have always succumbed to the royal will and pleasure. The great object of the institution, it will be perceived, is, 1st, To provide the bishop with a council; 2nd, To make provision for a learned body of divines, who, disengaged from parochial cares, may benefit the cause of religion by their writings; 3rd, To make provision, also, that in the cathedral church of each diocese the services shall be performed with rubrical strictness, and with all the solemnity and grandeur of which our services are capable.

281It is not to be denied, that, during the last century, this institution was greatly abused. Patrons made use of it to enrich their own families or political partisans; and the cathedral clergy, instead of giving themselves up to learned labours, dwelt chiefly on their livings, coming merely for a short time to their cathedrals: as their estates advanced in value, they expended the income on themselves, instead of increasing the cathedral libraries, and rendering the choirs more efficient, by raising the salaries of the choristers, and doubling or trebling their number: finally, being forgetful of the command of the Church, that, “in cathedral and collegiate churches and colleges, where there are many priests and deacons, they shall all receive the communion with the priest, every Sunday at the least,” many deans and chapters have, most unjustifiably, discontinued the weekly communion. Whether individual members of chapters consider these observances superstitious or not, it is on these conditions they enjoy their property; and if they cannot conscientiously keep the conditions, they ought conscientiously to resign their places. These things required reform; and forecasting men, seeing no symptoms of improvement, expected that the arm of the Lord would be made bare for vengeance; and the Lord made use of the secular government of England as his instrument of chastisement. The British legislature, acting on the precedent of Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII., has seized a large portion of the property belonging to the deans and chapters, and has reduced the number of canons. May this be a warning to the deans and chapters as they now exist! May patrons make the cathedral close the abode of men of learning, and may the members of chapters sacrifice even their private property to render their cathedral choirs what they ought to be! May they have strength of mind to sacrifice all they have in the world, rather than elect as a bishop an unworthy nominee of the Crown, if, peradventure, the Crown nominate a Sabellian, or an Arian, or a Socinian heretic. (See Chapters, Canons, and Prebendaries.)

DECALOGUE. The ten precepts, or commandments, delivered by God to Moses, and by him written on two tables of stone, and delivered to the Hebrews, as the basis and foundation of their religion. The history of this great event, together with the ten commandments themselves, are recited at large in the 19th and 20th chapters of the book of Exodus.

The Jews called these commandments, by way of excellence, the ten words, from whence they had afterwards the name of Decalogue. But it is to be observed, that they joined the first and second into one, and divided the last into two. They understand that against stealing to relate to the stealing of men, or kidnapping, alleging, that the stealing of another’s goods or property is forbidden in the last commandment.—De Legib. Hebr. lib. i. c. 2.

“Most divines,” says the learned Spencer, “seem to have been of opinion, that God gave the Decalogue, to be a general rule of life and manners, and as it were a summary, to which all other precepts, either of the law or the gospel, may be reduced. Hence they rack their brains, to fix so large and extensive a meaning on all these commands, that all duties, respecting God or our neighbour, may be understood to be contained in them. But no one, who duly considers the matter, can think it probable, that the Decalogue was therefore given, that it might be a kind of compendium of all the other laws of the Pentateuch; since those eminent precepts of the law, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,’ and ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,’ cannot be found in the Decalogue, without affixing a meaning to some commands quite foreign to the natural sense of the words, and subjecting them to an arbitrary interpretation. To give my opinion in a few words; the chief scope and intent of the Decalogue was to root out idolatry and its more immediate effects, and to add force and authority to the other laws contained in the Pentateuch. For who can persuade himself, that God would have collected together, into the one little system of the Decalogue, those ten precepts, which have scarce any connexion with each other, had they not all naturally tended to destroy idolatry and its primary effects?” The author then proceeds to confirm the truth of this assertion by a distinct consideration of each precept of the two tables.

It has been a question, and even matter of admiration, why God, in delivering laws to the Hebrews, kept precisely to the number ten. This question is answered by the above-cited author, (Id. ib. § 2,) who assigns the following reasons for this proceeding. “First, the number ten exceeds all others in perfection and capacity: for in it are comprehended all the diversities of numbers and their analogies, and all the geometrical figures which have any relation to numbers. Secondly, A Decad seems to have been in most esteem and 282use, among all nations, from the earliest times. Thirdly, As the number ten comprehends in it all others, so the Decalogue was to be a kind of representative of all the other laws of Moses, which were too numerous to be distinctly and separately rehearsed from Mount Sinai. Lastly, The number ten was a sacred number, and most frequently applied to the things mentioned in the Law: as will be evident to those, who carefully read over the institutes of Moses.”

The Samaritans, to raise and maintain the credit of their temple on Mount Gerizim, forged an eleventh command or precept, which in their Pentateuch they added at the end of the Decalogue, both in Exodus and Deuteronomy. It was this: “When the Lord thy God shall have brought thee into the land of Canaan, whither thou goest to possess it, thou shalt erect to thyself large stones, and shalt write on them all the words of this Law. And, after thou shalt have passed over Jordan, thou shalt place those stones, which I command thee this day, on Mount Gerizim, and shalt build there an altar to the Lord thy God, an altar of stone,” &c.

DECLARATION. (See Conformity.)

DECORATED. The style of architecture which succeeded the Geometrical about 1315, and gave place to the Perpendicular about 1360.

The most obvious characteristic of this style is the window tracery (see Tracery); but all the parts and details have also their appropriate features. The doorway is no longer divided by a central shaft. The windows are larger than in the former style, and their mullions have in general fewer subordinations of mouldings. The corner buttresses are usually set diagonally instead of in pairs, and the buttresses generally are of considerable projection, and much enriched with pediments and niches. The piers consist generally of four shafts with intervening hollows, set lozengewise; and the detached shaft is wholly discontinued. The triforium, which had begun to lose its relative importance in the Geometrical, is in this style generally treated as a mere course of panelling at the base of the clerestory windows, which are proportionally enlarged. Arcading begins to be superseded by panelling. Foliage, and other carving, is treated with less force and nature than in the preceding style; and heraldry begins to appear. The vaulting (see Vaulting) is more intricate. One or two mouldings and decorations are almost peculiar to this style, especially the ogee in all its forms and in every position. The ball-flower and the scroll moulding, it has in common with the Geometrical, but far more frequently. (See Moulding.) The broach spire is still used, but begins to give way to the parapet and spire.

DECRETALS. The name given to the letters of popes, being in answer to questions proposed to them by some bishop or ecclesiastical judge, or even particular person, in which they determined business, as they thought fit. In the ninth century there appeared a collection of decretal letters ascribed to more than thirty popes, succeeding each other in the first three centuries. The author is unknown, but they are generally ascribed to a certain Isidore Mercator, and pass usually under his name. Their uniform tendency is to exalt papal power, and exactly on those points for which no sanction can be alleged from Scripture, or from the early periods of any genuine Church history; such as supreme authority over bishops, the receiving appeals from all parts of the world, and the reservation of causes for the hearing of the Roman see. In the words of Fleury, “They inflicted an irreparable wound on the discipline of the Church, by the new maxims which they introduced in regard to the judgment of bishops and the authority of the pope.” Dr. Barrow mentions them among the chief causes by which the power of the bishop of Rome has been advanced: “The forgery of the decretal epistles (wherein the ancient popes are made expressly to speak and act according to some of his highest pretences, devised long after their times, and which they never thought of, good men) did hugely conduce to his purpose; authorizing his encroachments by the suffrage of ancient doctrine and practice.” “Upon these spurious decretals,” (writes the historian of the middle ages,) “was built the great fabric of papal supremacy over the different national Churches: a fabric which has stood after its foundation crumbled beneath it; for no one has pretended to deny, during the last two centuries, that the imposture is too palpable for any but the most ignorant ages to credit.” Their effect was, to diminish the authority of metropolitans and provincial synods, by allowing to an accused bishop, not only the right of appeal, but the power also of removing any process into the supreme court at Rome. And on this account it has been supposed that the decrees were forged by some bishop who desired to reduce the power of his immediate superior. But whoever may have been the author, and whatever the origin, there is no doubt that the popes 283became, from the first, their most strenuous defenders.

The best account of these forgeries is to be found in the posthumous work of Van Espen, Commentarius in Jus Novum Canonicum, part ii. diss. 1, p. 451–475. See also De Marca, De Concord. iii. c. 4, 5, p. 242; Natalis Alexandri Hist. Eccles. sæc. i. diss. 13, p. 213; Coci Censura quorundam Scriptorum, &c., passim.—Sanderson. Robins, Evidence of Scripture against the Roman Church.

DEDICATION, FEAST OF. The wake or customary festival for the dedication of churches signifies the same as vigil or eve. The reason of the name is thus assigned in an old manuscript: “Ye shall understand and know how the evens were first founded in old times. In the beginning of Holy Church it was so, that the people came to the church with candles burning, and would wake and come with lights towards night to the church in their devotions: and after, they fell to lechery, and songs, and dances, harping and piping, and also to gluttony and sin; and so turned the holiness to cursedness. Wherefore the holy Fathers ordained the people to leave that waking, and to fast the even. But it is still called vigil, that is, waking in English: and it is also called the even, for at even they were wont to come to church.” It was in imitation of the primitive ἀγάπαι, or love feasts, (see Agapæ,) that such public assemblies, accompanied with friendly entertainments, were first held upon each return of the day of consecration, though not in the body of churches, yet in the churchyards, and most nearly adjoining places. This practice was established in England by Gregory the Great; who, in an epistle to Mellitus the abbot, gives injunctions to be delivered to Augustine the monk, a missionary to England; amongst which he allows the solemn anniversary of dedication to be celebrated in those churches which were made out of heathen temples, with religious feasts kept in sheds or arbours, made up with branches and boughs of trees round the said church. But as the love feasts held in the place of worship were soon liable to such great disorders, that they were not only condemned at Corinth by St. Paul, but prohibited to be kept in the house of God by the 20th canon of the Council of Laodicea, and the 30th of the third Council of Carthage: so, from a sense of the same inconveniences, this custom did not long continue of feasting in the churches or churchyards; but strangers and inhabitants paid the devotion of prayers and offerings in the church, and then adjourned their eating and drinking to the more proper place of public and private houses. The institution of these church encœnia, or wakes, was, without question, for good and laudable designs: at first, thankfully to commemorate the bounty and munificence of those who had founded and endowed the church; next, to incite others to the like generous acts of piety; and, chiefly, to maintain a Christian spirit of unity and charity, by such sociable and friendly meetings. And therefore care was taken to keep up the laudable custom. The laws of Edward the Confessor gave peace and protection in all parishes during the solemnity of the day of dedication, and the same privilege to all that were going to or returning from such solemnity. In a council held at Oxford, in the year 1222, it was ordained, that among other festivals should be observed the day of dedication of every church within the proper parish. And in a synod under Archbishop Islip, (who was promoted to the see of Canterbury in the year 1349,) the dedication feast is mentioned with particular respect. This solemnity was at first celebrated on the very day of dedication, as it annually returned. But the bishops sometimes gave authority for transposing the observance to some other day, and especially to Sunday, whereon the people could best attend the devotions and rites intended in this ceremony. Henry VIII. enjoined that all wakes should be kept the first Sunday in October.

This laudable custom of wakes prevailed for many ages, till the Puritans began to exclaim against it as a remnant of Popery. By degrees the humour grew so popular, that at the summer assizes held at Exeter, in the year 1627, the Lord Chief Baron Walter and Baron Denham made an order for suppression of all wakes. And a like order was made by Judge Richardson for the county of Somerset, in the year 1631. But on Bishop Laud’s complaint of these innovations, the king commanded the last order to be reversed; which Judge Richardson refusing to do, an account was required from the Bishop of Bath and Wells, how the said feast days, church ales, wakes, and revels, were for the most part celebrated and observed in his diocese. On the receipt of these instructions, the bishop sent for and advised with seventy-two of the most orthodox and able of his clergy; who certified under their hands, that, on these feast days, (which generally fell on Sundays,) the service of God was more solemnly performed, and 284the church much better frequented, both in the forenoon and afternoon, than on any other Sunday in the year; that the people very much desired the continuance of them; that the ministers did in most places the like, for these reasons, viz. for preserving the memorial of the dedication of their several churches, for civilizing the people, for composing differences by the mediation and meeting of friends, for increase of love and unity by these feasts of charity, and for relief and comfort of the poor. On the return of this certificate, Judge Richardson was again cited to the council table, and peremptorily commanded to reverse his former order. After which it was thought fit to reinforce the declaration of King James, when perhaps this was the only good reason assigned for that unnecessary and unhappy licence of sports: “We do ratify and publish this our blessed father’s decree, the rather because of late, in some counties of our kingdom, we find, that, under pretence of taking away abuses, there hath been a general forbidding not only of ordinary meetings, but of the feasts of the dedication of churches, commonly called wakes.” However, by such a popular prejudice against wakes, and by the intermission of them in the confusions that followed, they are now discontinued in many counties, especially in the east and some western parts of England, but are commonly observed in the north and in the midland counties.

DEFENDER OF THE FAITH. (Fidei Defensor.) A peculiar title belonging to the sovereign of England; as Catholic to the king of Spain, and Most Christian to the king of France. These titles were given by the popes of Rome. That of Fidei Defensor was first conferred by Pope Leo X. on King Henry VIII., for writing against Martin Luther; and the bull for it bears date quinto idus Octobris, 1521. It was afterwards confirmed by Clement VII. On Henry’s suppression of the monasteries, the pope of Rome deprived him of this title, and had the presumption and absurdity to depose him from his crown. Therefore the title was conferred by a higher authority than the pope, the parliament of England, in the thirty-fifth year of Henry’s reign. By some antiquarians it is maintained that the bull of Leo only revived a title long sustained by the English kings.

DEGRADATION is an ecclesiastical censure, whereby a clergyman is deprived of the holy orders which formerly he had, as of a priest or deacon; and by the canon law this may be done two ways, either summarily or by word only, or solemnly, as by divesting the party degraded of those ornaments and rights which were the ensigns and order of his degree.

Collier thus describes the form of degradation of a priest, in the case of Fawke, burnt for heresy in the reign of Henry IV. After being pronounced a heretic relapsed, he was solemnly degraded in the following manner:

After this, his ecclesiastical tonsure was obliterated, and the form of his degradation pronounced by the archbishop; and being thus deprived of his sacerdotal character, and dressed in a lay habit, he was put into the hands of the secular court, with the significant request, that he might be favourably received.

The ancient law for degradation is set forth in the sixth book of the Decretals; and the causes for degradation and deprivation are enumerated by Bishop Gibson.—See Gibson’s Codex, p. 1066–1068.

By Canon 122, Sentence against a minister, of deposition from the ministry, “shall be pronounced by the bishop only, with the assistance of his chancellor and the dean, (if they may conveniently be had,) and some of the prebendaries, if the court be kept near the cathedral church; or of the archdeacon, if he may be had conveniently, and two other at the least grave ministers and preachers to be called by the bishop, when the court is kept in other places.”

DEGREE. Psalms or Songs of Degrees is a title given to fifteen psalms, which are the 120th and all that follow to the 134th inclusive. The Hebrew text calls them a song of ascents. Junius and Tremellius translate the Hebrew, by a song of excellencies, or an excellent song, because of the excellent matter of them, as eminent persons are called men of high degree. (1 Chr. xvii. 17.) Some call them psalms of elevation, because, say they, they were sung with an exalted voice; or because at every psalm the voice was raised: but the translation of psalms of degrees has more generally obtained. Some interpreters think, that they were so called because they were sung upon the fifteen steps of the temple; but they are not agreed about the place where these fifteen steps were. Others think they were so called, because they were sung in a gallery, which they say was in the court of Israel, 285where sometimes the Levites read the law. But others think, that the most probable reason why they are called songs of degrees, or of ascent, is, because they were composed and sung by the Jews on the occasion of their going up to Jerusalem, after the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, whether it were to implore this deliverance from God, or to return thanks for it after it had happened: others, that they were severally composed not only upon this, but upon other remarkable occasions when they made their ascent to the temple.

DEGREES in the universities denote a quality conferred on the students or members thereof, as a testimony of their proficiency in the arts and sciences, and entitling them to certain privileges. They were first instituted by Pope Eugenius III. at the suggestion of Gratian, the celebrated compiler of the canon law, in 1151; but were limited to the faculty of canon law, for the encouragement of which they were instituted; and consisted of the ranks of bachelor, licentiate, and doctor. Shortly after Peter Lombard instituted similar degrees in theology in the university of Paris. In the course of time degrees were given in other faculties, those of arts and medicine being added. In many of the foreign universities, theology and canon law have each their three classes of degrees as above stated; medicine has generally but two, bachelor and doctor; and arts two, bachelor and master. The designation of doctor in philosophy is very modern. The English universities have only two degrees, bachelor and doctor in the superior faculties; master and bachelor in arts. The student of civil law is not, properly speaking, a graduate. Formerly separate degrees were given in England (as abroad) in canon and civil law; but the distinction ceased in the 17th century. Oxford has for some time ceased to confer degrees in utroque jure, (i. e. civil and canon law,) but only in civil law. Hence her graduates are D. C. L. and B. C. L., and not L. L. D. and L. L. B., as at Cambridge and Dublin. The three ancient universities of England and Ireland confer degrees in music. Anciently degrees in grammar, doctorate, mastership, and baccalaurenti were given at Oxford or Cambridge. But they fell into disuse in the 17th century.

DEISTS. Those who deny the existence and necessity of any revelation, and profess to acknowledge that the being of a God is the chief article of their belief. The term Deist is derived from the Latin word Deus, God. The same persons are frequently called infidels, on account of their incredulity, or want of belief in the Christian dispensation of religion.—Consult Boyle’s Lectures, Leland’s View of Deistical Writers, Leslie’s Short and Easy Method with the Deists, Watson’s Apology for the Bible.

Dr. Clarke, (Evidences of Nat. and Rev. Rel. Introd.,) taking the denomination in its most extensive signification, distinguishes deists into four sorts. The first are, such as pretend to believe the existence of an eternal, infinite, independent, intelligent Being; and who, to avoid the name of Epicurean Atheists, teach also, that this Supreme Being made the world; though, at the same time, they agree with the Epicureans in this, that they fancy, God does not at all concern himself in the government of the world, nor has any regard to, or care of, what is done therein.

The second sort of deists are those, who believe, not only the being, but also the providence of God, with respect to the natural world; but who, not allowing any difference between moral good and evil, deny that God takes any notice of the morally good or evil actions of men; these things depending, as they imagine, on the arbitrary constitution of human laws.

A third sort of deists there are, who, having right apprehensions concerning the natural attributes of God, and his all-governing providence, and some notion of his moral perfections also; yet, being prejudiced against the notion of the immortality of the human soul, believe, that men perish entirely at death, and that one generation shall perpetually succeed another, without any future restoration or renovation of things.

A fourth, and the last sort of deists, are such, as believe the existence of a Supreme Being, together with his providence in the government of the world, as also all the obligations of natural religion; but so far only as these things are discoverable by the light of nature alone, without believing any Divine revelation.

These, Dr. Clarke observes, are the only true deists: but, as the principles of these men would naturally lead them to embrace the Christian revelation, he concludes, there is now no consistent scheme of deism in the world. “The heathen philosophers, those few of them, who taught and lived up to the obligations of natural religion, had indeed a consistent scheme of deism so far as it went. But the case is not so now. The same scheme is not any longer consistent with its own principles, if it 286does not now lead men to believe and embrace revelation, as it then taught them to hope for it. Deists, in our days, who reject revelation when offered to them, are not such men as Socrates and Cicero were; but, under pretence of deism, it is plain, they are generally ridiculers of all that is truly excellent in natural religion itself. Their trivial and vain cavils; their mocking and ridiculing, without and before examination; their directing the whole stress of their objections against particular customs, or particular and perhaps uncertain opinions, or explications of opinions, without at all considering the main body of religion; their loose, vain, and frothy discourses; and, above all, their vicious and immoral lives; show plainly and undeniably, that they are not really deists, but mere atheists; and consequently not capable to judge of the truth of Christianity.”

“We are fallen into an age, (says another learned author, Jenkyns, Reasonableness of Christ. Relig. in the Preface,) in which there are a sort of men, who have shown so great a forwardness to be no longer Christians, that have catched at all the little cavils and pretences against religion—but they both think and live so ill, that it is an argument for the goodness of any cause that they are against it. It was urged as a confirmation of the Christian religion by Tertullian, that it was hated and persecuted by Nero, the worst of men: and I am confident, it would be but small reputation to it in any age, if such men should be fond of it. They speak evil of the things they understand not, and are wont to talk with as much confidence against any point of religion, as if they had all the learning in the world in their keeping, when commonly they know little or nothing of what has been said for that against which they dispute.”

Prateolus (Elench. Hæres.) mentions a sect of deists (as they were called) which sprung up in Poland, in the year 1564. They were a branch of the Lutherans, and, coming into France in 1566, settled at Lyons. Their leader (he tells us) was one Gregorius Pauli, a minister of Cracow. They boasted, that God had bestowed on them much greater gifts than on Luther and others, and that the destruction of Antichrist was reserved for them. They asserted, that there is one nature, or Deity, common to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but not one and the same essence; and that the Father alone is the one only true God.

These deists (as Prateolus calls them) ought rather to be denominated Arians.

DELEGATES. The court of delegates was so called, because these delegates sat by force of the king’s commission under the great seal, upon an appeal to the king in the court of Chancery, in three causes: 1. When a sentence was given in any ecclesiastical cause by the archbishop or his official: 2. When any sentence was given in any ecclesiastical cause in places exempt: 3. When a sentence was given in the admiral’s court, in suit civil and marine, by the order of the civil laws. And these commissioners were called delegates, because they were delegated by the king’s commission for these purposes.

For the origin of the high court of delegates, see 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12, and 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, §4. By the 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 92, the powers of the high court of delegates, both in ecclesiastical and maritime causes, are transferred to her Majesty in council; which transfer is further regulated by the 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 41, and by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 69. This act does not extend to Ireland.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, consists of

No matter is to be heard unless in the presence of at least four members of the committee; and no report or recommendation made to the Crown, unless a majority of the members present at the hearing shall concur in such report or recommendation.

DEMIURGE. (From δημιουργὸς, an artificer.) The name given by some Gnostic sects to the Creator of the world, who, according to them, was different from the supreme God. (See Gnostics.)

DEMONIACS. Persons possessed of the devil. That the persons spoken of in the New Testament as possessed of the devil, were not simply lunatics, is clear 287from a mere perusal of the facts recorded. The devils owned Christ to be the Messiah; they besought him not to torment them; they passed into the swine and drove them into the sea. The manner in which our Lord addressed the demoniacs clearly shows that they were really such: he not only rebuked the devils, but called them unclean spirits, asking them questions, commanding them to come out, &c. We find also that, for some time, in the early ages of the Church, demoniacs existed, as there was a peculiar service appointed in the Church for their cure. (See Energumens.)

DENARII DE CARITATE. (Lat.) Customary oblations, anciently made to cathedral churches, about the time of Pentecost, when the parish priests, and many of their parishioners, went in procession to visit their mother-church. This custom was afterwards changed into a settled due, and usually charged upon the parish priest, though at first it was but a gift of charity, or present, towards the support and ornament of the bishop’s see.

DENOMINATIONS, THE THREE. The general body of dissenting ministers of London and Westminster form an association so styled, which was organized in 1727. The object of the association appears to be political. The Three Denominations are, the Presbyterian, (now Socinian,) Independent, and Baptist.

DEO GRATIAS. (Lat.) God be thanked. A form of salutation, anciently used by Christians, when they accosted each other. The Donatists ridiculed the use of it; which St. Augustine defended, affirming, that a Christian had reason to return God thanks when he met a brother Christian. It is at present used only in the sacred offices of the Romish Church. We have something like it in the Communion Service of our own Church, in which the minister says, Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.

DEPOSITION. (See Degradation.)

DEPRECATIONS. (See Litany.)

DEPRIVATION is an ecclesiastical sentence, whereby a clergyman is deprived of his parsonage, vicarage, or other spiritual promotion or dignity.

By Canon 122. Sentence against a minister, of deprivation from his living, “shall be pronounced by the bishop only with the assistance of his chancellor and the dean, (if they may conveniently be had,) and some of the prebendaries, if the court be kept near the cathedral church; or of the archdeacon, if he may be had conveniently, and two other at the least grave ministers and preachers to be called by the bishop, when the court is kept in other places.”

The causes of deprivation may be reduced to three heads, viz. to want of capacity, contempt, and crimes. Nonconformity is thus specially punished by 1 Eliz. c. 2, 13 Eliz. c. 12, 14 Car. II. c. 4. Dilapidation used to be held a good cause of deprivation, yet that it has ever been inflicted as a punishment of dilapidation does not appear, either by the books of common or canon law. In all causes of deprivation, where a person is in actual possession of an ecclesiastical benefice, these things must concur: 1st, A monition or citation of the party to appear: 2nd, A charge given against him by way of libel or articles, to which he is to give an answer: 3rd, A competent time must be assigned, for proofs and interrogatories: 4th, The person accused shall have the liberty of counsel to defend his cause, to except against witnesses, and to bring legal proofs against them: and 5th, There must be a solemn sentence, read by the bishop, after hearing the merits of the cause, or pleadings on both sides. These are the fundamentals of all judicial proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts, in order to a deprivation. And if these things be not observed, the party has a just cause of appeal, and may have a remedy in a superior court.

By 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 31, spiritual persons trading contrary to the provisions of that act, may be, for the third offence, deprived.

DESK. This is the name usually given to the pulpit or pew in which morning and evening prayers are sung or said in the English churches. The using of this pulpit for prayer is peculiar to the English Church, and has a very unpleasant effect. The First Prayer Book of Edward VI. ordered “the priest, being in the choir, to begin the Lord’s Prayer, called Pater Noster, (with which the morning and evening services then began,) with a loud voice:” so that it was at that time the custom for the minister to sing or say the morning and evening prayer, not in a desk or pulpit, but at the upper end of the choir or chancel, near the altar, towards which, whether standing or kneeling, he always turned his face in the prayers. This gave great offence, however, though it had been the custom of the Church of England for many hundred years, to some superstitious weaker brethren, who so far forgot their charity as to call it anti-Christian. The outcry, however frivolous and vexatious, prevailed so far, that when, 288in the fifth year of King Edward, the Prayer Book was altered, the following rubric appeared instead of the old one, viz. “The morning and evening prayers shall be used in such places of the church, chapel, or chancel, and the minister shall so turn him, as the people best may hear. And if there be any controversy therein, the matter shall be referred to the ordinary, and he or his deputy shall appoint the place.” This caused great contentions—the more orthodox kneeling in the old way, and singing or saying the prayers in the chancel, and the innovators, or ultra-Protestants, adopting new forms, and performing all the services in the body of the church. In the reign of Elizabeth, the rubric was brought to its present form: “that the morning and evening prayers shall be used in the accustomed place in the church, chapel, or chancel,” by which was clearly meant the choir or chancel, which had been for centuries the accustomed place; and it cannot be supposed that the Second Book of Edward, which lasted only one year and a half, could establish a custom. A dispensing power, however, was left with the ordinary, who might determine it otherwise, if he saw just cause. Pursuant to this rubric, the morning and evening services were again, as formerly, sung or said in the chancel or choir. But in some churches, owing to the too great distance of the chancel from the body of the church, in others owing to the ultra-Protestant superstition of the parishioners, the ordinaries permitted the clergy to leave the chancel, and read prayers from a pew in the body of the church. This innovation and novelty, begun first by some few ordinaries, and recommended by them to others, grew by degrees to be more general, till at last it came to be the universal practice; insomuch that the convocation, in the beginning of King James the First’s reign, ordered that in every church there should be a convenient seat made for the minister to read service in. In new churches, where there can be no complaint of the size of the chancels, there seems to be no reason why the ordinaries should not now remove the desk, and send the clergy back to their proper place, to sing or say the prayers in the chancel. At all events, they might get rid of that unsightly nuisance, a second pulpit instead of a reading pew. If the prayers are to be preached to the people, as well as the sermon, one pulpit might suffice. It is gratifying to know, that since the article was written in the first edition of this work, this disfigurement of our churches has been very generally removed. It is to be observed, that the word does not once occur in the Prayer Book.

DEUS MISEREATUR. The Latin name for Psalm lxvii., which may be used after the second lesson at evening prayers, instead of the Nunc Dimittis, except on the twelfth day of the month, when it occurs among the psalms of the day. It was first inserted in our service in the Second Book of King Edward VI.

DEUTERONOMY. A canonical book of the Old Testament. The word implies a second law, the principal design of it being, a repetition of the laws already delivered; which was a necessary thing, inasmuch as the Israelites, who had heard it before, were dead in the wilderness, and there was sprung up another generation of men, who had not heard the Decalogue, or any other of the laws openly proclaimed. It contains likewise some new laws; such as the taking down malefactors from the tree in the evening; the making of battlements on the roofs of houses; the expiation of an unknown murder; the punishment to be inflicted upon a rebellious son; the distinction of the sexes by apparel; the marrying a brother’s wife after his decease: as also, orders and injunctions concerning divorce; laws concerning men-stealers; concerning unjust weights and measures; concerning the marrying of a captive woman; concerning servants that desert their master’s service; and several other laws, not only ecclesiastical and civil, but also military. There are inserted likewise some transactions, which happened in the last year of the travels of the Israelites through the wilderness.

Deuteronomy is the last book of the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; though some have questioned whether it was written by that legislator, because, in the last chapter, mention is made of his death and burial, and of the succession of Joshua after him. But this only proves that the last chapter was not written by Moses, but added by some other person; most probably by Ezra, when he published an edition of the Holy Scriptures. (See Pentateuch.)

DEVIL. From Διάβολος, which signifies an accuser, or calumniator. The two words, Devil and Satan, are used in Scripture to signify the same wicked spirit, who with many others, his angels or under-agents, is fighting against God; and who has dominion over all the sons of Adam, except the regenerate; and who is, in his 289kingdom of this world, the nearest imaginable approximation, at infinite distance indeed, to the omnipotence of the Godhead.

DIACONATE. The office or order of a deacon. (See Deacon.)

DIACONICUM. (Gr. and Lat.) This word has different significations in ecclesiastical authors. Sometimes it is taken for that part of the ancient church in which the deacons used to sit during the performance of Divine service, namely, at the rails of the altar; sometimes for a building adjoining to the church, in which the sacred vessels and habits were laid up; sometimes for that part of the public prayers which the deacons pronounced. Lastly, it denotes an ecclesiastical book, in which are contained all things relating to the duty and office of a deacon, according to the rites of the Greek Church.

DIAPER. In church architecture, a decoration of large surfaces with a constantly recurring pattern, either carved or painted. Norman diapers are usually either fretted or zigzag lines, or imbrications of the masonry; and not only plain surfaces, but pillars, and small shafts, and even mouldings, are diapered, as the cable moulding surrounding the nave at Rochester. In the succeeding styles, flowers and leaves are the most frequent patterns, which, in the Geometrical style, are often of extreme beauty and delicacy. After the fourteenth century, diapers are painted only, and now even the hollows of mouldings are thus treated.

DIET. The assembly of the states of Germany. We shall only notice the more remarkable of those which have been held on the affairs of religion.

The Diet of Worms, in 1521, where Alexander, the pope’s nuncio, having charged Luther with heresy, the Duke of Saxony said, that Luther ought to be heard; which the emperor granted, and sent him a pass, provided he did not preach on this journey. Being come to Worms, he protested that he would not recant unless they would show him his errors by the word of God alone, and not by that of men; wherefore the emperor soon after outlawed him by an edict.

The first Diet of Nuremberg was held in 1523, when Francis Cheregat, Adrian VI.’s nuncio, demanded the execution of Leo X.’s bull, and of Charles V.’s edict, published at Worms, against Luther: but it was answered, that it was necessary to call a council in Germany, to satisfy the nation about its grievances, which were reduced to a hundred articles, some whereof struck at the pope’s authority, and the discipline of the Roman Church: they added that, in the interim, the Lutherans should be commanded not to write against the Roman Catholics, &c. All these things were brought into the form of an edict, and published in the emperor’s name.

The second Diet of Nuremberg was in 1524. Cardinal Cangegio, Pope Clement VII.’s legate, entered the town incognito, for fear of exasperating the people there: the Lutherans having the advantage, it was decreed that, with the emperor’s consent, the pope should call a council in Germany; but, in the interim, an assembly should be held at Spire, to determine what was to be believed and practised; and that to obey the emperor, the princes ought to order the observance of the edict of Worms as strictly as they could. Charles, angry at this, commanded that edict to be very strictly observed, and prohibited the assembly at Spire.

The first Diet of Spire was held in 1526. The emperor Charles V. being then held in Spain, named his brother, Archduke Ferdinand, to preside over that assembly, where the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse demanded a full and free exercise of the Lutheran religion, so that the Lutherans preached there publicly against Popery; and the Lutheran princes’ servants had these five capital letters, V.D. M.I.Æ., embroidered on their sleeves, signifying, Verbum Dei manet in Æternum, to show publicly they would follow nothing else but the pure word of God. The archduke, not daring to oppose this, proposed two things, the first concerning the Popish religion, which was to be maintained in observing the edict of Worms; and the second concerning the aid demanded by Lewis, king of Hungary, against the Turks: the Lutherans prevailing about the first, it was decreed, that the emperor should be desired to call a general or national council in Germany within a year, and that in the mean time every one was to have liberty of conscience, and whilst they were deliberating in vain about the second, King Lewis was defeated and slain at the battle of Mohatz.

The second Diet of Spire was held in 1529. It was decreed against the Lutherans, that wherever the edict of Worms was received, it shall be lawful for nobody to change his opinion; but in the countries where the new religion (as they termed it) was received, it should be lawful to continue in it till the next council, if the old religion could not be reestablished there without sedition. Nevertheless the mass was not to be abolished there, and 290no Roman Catholic was allowed to turn Lutheran; that the Sacramentarians should be banished out of the empire, and the Anabaptists put to death; and that preachers should nowhere preach against the doctrine of the Church of Rome. This decree destroying that of the first Diet, six Lutheran princes, viz. the Elector of Saxony, the Marquis of Brandenburg, the two Dukes of Lunenburg, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Prince of Anhalt, with the deputies of fourteen imperial towns, protested in writing, two days after, in the assembly, against that decree, which they would not obey, it being contrary to the gospel; and appealed to the general or national council, to the emperor, and to any other unprejudiced judge. From this solemn protestation came that famous name of Protestants, which the Lutherans took presently, and the Calvinists and other reformed Christians afterwards. They also protested against contributing anything towards the war against the Turks, till after the exercise of their religion was free in all Germany. Next year the emperor held the famous Diet of Augsburg.

The first Diet of Augsburg was called in the year 1530, by the emperor Charles V., to reunite the princes about some matters of religion, and to join them all together against the Turks. Here the Elector of Saxony, followed by many princes, presented the confession of faith called the Confession of Augsburg. The conference about matters of faith and discipline being concluded, the emperor ended the Diet by a decree, that nothing should be altered in the doctrine and ceremonies of the Church of Rome till a council should order it otherwise.

The second Diet of Augsburg was held in 1547. The electors being divided concerning the decisions of the Council of Trent, the emperor demanded that the management of this affair should be left to him, and it was resolved, that every one should conform to the council’s decisions.

The third Diet of Augsburg was held in 1548, when, the commissioners named to examine some memoirs about a confession of faith, not agreeing together, the emperor named three divines, who drew the design of that famous Interim so well known in Germany and elsewhere.

The fourth Diet of Augsburg was held in 1550, when the emperor complained that the Interim was not observed, and demanded that all should submit to the council, which they were going to renew at Trent; but Duke Maurice, one of Saxony’s deputies, protested that their master did submit to the council on this condition, that the divines of the Confession of Augsburg not only should be heard there, but should vote also like the Roman Catholic bishops, and that the pope should not preside: but, by plurality of votes, submission to the council was resolved on.

The first Diet of Ratisbon was held in 1541, for uniting the Protestants to the Church of Rome. The pope’s legate having altered the twenty-two articles drawn up by the Protestant divines, the emperor proposed to choose some learned divines that might agree peaceably upon the articles, and being desired by the Diet to choose them himself, he named three Papists, viz. Julius Phlugus, John Gropperus, and John Eckius; and three Protestants, viz. Philip Melancthon, Martin Bucer, and John Pistorius. After an examination and dispute of a whole month, those divines could never agree upon more than five or six articles, wherein the Diet still found some difficulties; wherefore the emperor, to end these controversies, ordered by an edict, that the decision of those doctors should be reserved to a general council, or to the national council of all Germany, or to the next Diet eighteen months after; and that, in the mean while, the Protestants should keep the articles agreed on, forbidding them to solicit anybody to change the old religion, (as they called it,) &c. But to gratify the Protestants in some measure, he gave them leave, by patent, to retain their religion, notwithstanding the edict.

The second Diet at Ratisbon was held in 1546: none of the Protestant confederate princes appeared; so that it was easily decreed here, by plurality of votes, that the Council of Trent was to be followed, which yet the Protestant deputies opposed, and this caused a war against them.

The third Diet of Ratisbon was held in 1557: the assembly demanded a conference between some famous doctors of both parties; which conference, held at Worms, between twelve Lutheran and as many Popish divines, was soon dissolved by the Lutherans’ division among themselves.—Broughton.

DIGNITARY. One who holds cathedral or other preferment to which jurisdiction is annexed.

The dignitaries in British cathedrals are, for the most part, the dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, and archdeacon. Sometimes the subdean and succentor canonicorum are so called; and in a few churches in Ireland, the provost, and sacrist (or treasurer). The only dignitary in cathedrals 291of the new foundation is the dean; as the archdeacon is not necessarily a member of such chapters. It is a vulgar error to style prebendaries, or canons residentiary, dignitaries. The prebendaries without dignity were styled canonici (or prebendarii) simplices.—Jebb.

DILAPIDATION is the incumbent suffering the chancel, or any other edifices, of his ecclesiastical living, to go to ruin or decay, by neglecting to repair the same; and it likewise extends to his committing, or suffering to be committed, any wilful waste in or upon the glebe, woods, or any other inheritance of the church. By the injunctions of King Edward VI. it is required, “that the proprietors, parsons, vicars, and clerks, having churches, chapels, or mansions, shall yearly bestow on the said mansions or chancels of their churches, being in decay, the fifth part of their benefices, till they be fully repaired; and the same being thus repaired, they shall always keep and maintain them in good estate.”—See Art. XIII. of Queen Elizabeth’s Injunctions.

By the constitutions of Othobon it is ordained, that “all clerks shall take care decently to repair the houses of their benefices and other buildings, as need shall require, whereunto they shall be earnestly admonished by their bishops or archdeacons; and if any of them, after the monition of the bishops or archdeacons, shall neglect to do the same for the space of two months, the bishop shall cause the same effectually to be done, at the cost and charges of such clerk, out of the profits of his church and benefice, by the authority of this present statute, causing so much thereof to be received as shall be sufficient for such reparation: the chancels also of the church they shall cause to be repaired by those who are bound thereunto according as is above expressed; also we do enjoin, by attestation of the Divine judgment, the archbishops and bishops, and other inferior prelates, that they do keep in repair their houses and other edifices, by causing such reparation to be made as they know to be needful.”—See 13 Eliz. c. 10; 17 Geo. III. c. 53; 21 Geo. III. c. 66; Gibson’s Codex, pp. 751–754, and Hodgson’s Instructions to the Clergy.

DIMISSORY LETTERS. In the ancient Christian Church, they were letters granted to the clergy, when they were to remove from their own diocese and settle in another, to testify, that they had the bishop’s leave to depart; whence they were called Dimissoriæ, and sometimes Pacificæ.

In the Church of England, dimissory letters are such as are used when a candidate for holy orders has a title in one diocese, and is to be ordained in another; in which case the proper diocesan sends his letters, directed to the ordaining bishop, giving leave that the bearer may be ordained by him.

Persons inferior to bishops cannot grant these letters, unless the bishop shall, by special commission, grant this power to his vicar-general; or unless the bishop be at a great distance from his diocese, in which case his vicar-general in spirituals may grant such licence as the chapter of a cathedral may do sede vacante; or, lastly, when a bishop is taken prisoner by the enemy, for then the chapter exercises the same rights and powers as if the bishop were naturally dead.

DIOCESE. The circuit of a bishop’s jurisdiction. The ecclesiastical division in England is, primarily, into two provinces, those of Canterbury and York. In Ireland into two, Armagh and Dublin; till lately, however, into four, Cashel and Tuam, besides the two now mentioned. A province is a circuit of an archbishop’s jurisdiction. Each province contains divers dioceses, or sees of suffragan bishops; whereof Canterbury includes twenty, and York five. Armagh and Dublin, five each; though till lately Armagh had seven, Dublin three, Cashel five, and Tuam three. Though, properly speaking, the Irish dioceses are far more numerous, as most of the bishops have more than one see under their jurisdiction; which nevertheless, though thus united as to episcopal government, have their separate chapters, ecclesiastical officers, &c. Every diocese in England is divided into archdeaconries, and each archdeaconry into rural deaneries, and every deanery into parishes. In Ireland, there is but one archdeaconry to each diocese, though in two instances, those of Glendaloch and Aghadoe, these dioceses have been so long united to the adjacent sees, that their boundaries are now unknown, and consequently the diocese of Dublin and Ardfert have apparently, though not really, two archdeacons each. The division into rural deaneries and parishes is as in England.

The division of the Church into dioceses may be viewed as a natural consequence of the institution of the office of bishops. The authority to exercise jurisdiction, when committed to several hands, requires that some boundaries be defined within which each party may employ his powers; otherwise disorder and confusion would ensue, and the Church, instead of being benefited 292by the appointment of governors, might be exposed to the double calamity of an overplus of them in one district, and a total deficiency of them in another. Hence we find, so early as the New Testament history, some plain indications of the rise of the diocesan system, in the cases respectively of James, bishop of Jerusalem; Timothy, bishop of Ephesus; Titus, of Crete, to whom may be added the “angels” or bishops of the seven churches in Asia. These were placed in cities, and had jurisdiction over the churches and inferior clergy in those cities, and probably in the country adjacent. The first dioceses were formed by planting a bishop in a city or considerable village, where he officiated regularly, and took the spiritual charge, not only of the city itself, but of the suburbs, or region lying round about it, within the verge of its [civil] jurisdiction; which seems to be the plain reason of that great and visible difference which we find in the extent of dioceses, some being very large, others very small, according as the civil government of each city happened to have a larger or lesser jurisdiction.

Thus, in our own Church, there were at first only seven bishoprics, and these were commensurate with the Saxon kingdoms. Since that time our Church has thought fit to lessen the size of her dioceses, and to multiply them into above twenty; and if she thought fit to add forty or a hundred more, she would not be without precedent in the primitive Church. It is a great misfortune to the Church of England that her dioceses, compared with the population, are so extensive and so few. It is impossible for our bishops to perform all their canonical duties, such as visiting annually every parish in the diocese, inspecting schools, Divine service, instruction, &c., besides baptizing, confirming, consecrating. Episcopal extension, as well as Church extension, is most important. We must seek to add to the number of our bishops. There will be prejudices and difficulties for some time to be overcome on the part of the State, which is not sufficiently religious to tolerate an increase in the number of spiritual peers. An addition to the number of our spiritual peers is however not what we seek, but that our spiritual pastors may be more numerous.

The ancient bishoprics being baronies, the possessors of them might sit in parliament; while the new bishoprics, not having baronies attached, might only qualify for a seat in the upper house of convocation. The beginning of a new system was made on the erection of the see of Manchester, in 1847, since which time the junior bishop has no seat in the House of Lords.

DIOCESAN. A bishop, as he stands related to his diocese. (See Bishop.)

DIPPERS. (See Dunkers.)

DIPTYCH. A kind of sacred book, or register, made use of in the ancient Christian Church, and in which were written the names of such eminent bishops, saints, and martyrs, as were particularly to be commemorated, just before oblation was made for the dead. It was called diptych (δίπτυχος) from its being folded together; and it was the deacon’s office to recite the names written in it, as occasion required. Some distinguish three sorts of diptychs: one, wherein the names of bishops only were written, such especially as had been governors of that particular church; a second, in which the names of the living were written, such in particular as were eminent for any office or dignity, or some benefaction and good work, in which rank were bishops, emperors, and magistrates; lastly, a third, containing the names of such as were deceased in catholic communion.

Theodoret mentions these kind of registers in relation to the case of St. Chrysostom, whose name, for some time, was left out of the diptychs, because he died under the sentence of excommunication, pronounced against him by Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, and other Eastern bishops, with whom the Western Church would not communicate until they had replaced his name in the diptychs; for, to erase a person’s name out of these books was the same thing as declaring him to have been an heretic, or some way deviating from the faith.—Bingham.

DIRECTORY. A kind of regulation for the performance of religious worship, drawn up by the Assembly of Divines in England, at the instance of the parliament, in the year 1644. It was designed to supply the place of the Liturgy, or Book of Common Prayer, the use of which the parliament had abolished. It consisted only of some general heads, which were to be managed and filled up at discretion; for it prescribed no form of prayer or circumstances of external worship, nor obliged the people to any responses, excepting Amen. The use of the Directory was enforced by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons at Westminster, which was repeated August 3rd, 1645. By this injunction, the Directory was ordered to be dispersed and published in all parishes, chapelries, donatives, &c. In opposition to this injunction, King Charles issued a proclamation at Oxford, 293November 13th, 1645, enjoining the use of the Common Prayer according to law, notwithstanding the pretended ordinances for the new Directory.

To give a short abstract of the Directory: It forbids all salutations and civil ceremony in the churches. The reading the Scripture in the congregation is declared to be part of the pastoral office. All the canonical books of the Old and New Testament (but none of the Apocrypha) are to be publicly read in the vulgar tongue. How large a portion is to be read at once is left to the minister, who has likewise the liberty of expounding, when he judges it necessary. It prescribes heads for the prayer before sermon; among which part of the prayer for the king is, to save him from evil counsel. It delivers rules for managing the sermon; the introduction to the text must be short and clear, drawn from the words or context, or some parallel place of Scripture; in dividing the text, the minister is to regard the order of the matter more than that of the words; he is not to burden the memory of his audience with too many divisions, nor perplex their understandings with logical phrases and terms of art; he is not to start unnecessary objections; and he is to be very sparing in citations from ecclesiastical, or other human writers, ancient or modern.

The Directory recommends the use of the Lord’s Prayer, as the most perfect model of devotion. It forbids private or lay persons to administer baptism, and enjoins it to be performed in the face of the congregation. It orders the communion table at the Lord’s supper to be so placed that the communicants may sit about it. The dead, according to the rules of the Directory, are to be buried without any prayers or religious ceremony.

The Roman Catholics publish an annual Directory for their laity, which serves the purpose of a book of reference in matters of ceremonial as settled by their communion.—Broughton.

DISCIPLE, in the first sense of the word, means one who learns any thing from another. Hence the followers of any teacher, philosopher, or head of a sect, are usually called his disciples. In the Christian sense of the term, disciples are the followers of Jesus Christ in general; but, in a more restrained sense, it denotes those who were the immediate followers and attendants on his person. The names disciple and apostle are often used synonymously in the gospel history; but sometimes the apostles are distinguished from disciples, as persons selected out of the number of disciples, to be the principal ministers of his religion. Of these there were twelve; whereas those who are simply styled disciples were seventy, or seventy-two, in number. There was not as yet any catalogue of the disciples in Eusebius’s time, i. e. in the fourth century. The Latins kept the festival of the seventy or seventy-two disciples on the 15th of July, and the Greeks on 4th of January.

DISCIPLINE, ECCLESIASTICAL. The Christian Church being a spiritual community or society of persons professing the religion of Jesus, and, as such, governed by spiritual or ecclesiastical laws, her discipline consists in putting those laws in execution, and inflicting the penalties enjoined by them against several sorts of offenders. To understand the true nature of church discipline, we must consider how it stood in the ancient Christian Church. And, first,

The primitive Church never pretended to exercise discipline upon any but such as were within her pale, in the largest sense, by some act of their own profession; and even upon these she never pretended to exercise her discipline so far as to cancel or disannul their baptism. But the discipline of the Church consisted in a power to deprive men of the benefits of external communion, such as public prayer, receiving the eucharist, and other acts of Divine worship. This power, before the establishment of the Church by human laws, was a mere spiritual authority, or, as St. Cyprian terms it, a spiritual sword, affecting the soul, and not the body. Sometimes, indeed, the Church craved assistance from the secular power, even when it was heathen, but more frequently after it was become Christian. But it is to be observed, that the Church never encouraged the magistrate to proceed against any one for mere error, or ecclesiastical misdemeanour, further than to punish the delinquent by a pecuniary mulct, or bodily punishment, such as confiscation or banishment; and St. Austin affirms, that no good men in the Catholic Church were pleased that heretics should be prosecuted unto death. Lesser punishments, they thought, might have their use, as means sometimes to bring them to consideration and repentance.

Nor was it a part of the ancient discipline to deprive men of their natural or civil rites. A master did not lose his authority over his family, a parent over his children, nor a magistrate his office and charge in the state, by being cast out of the Church. But the discipline of the 294Church being a mere spiritual power, was confined to, 1. The admonition of the offender; 2. The lesser and greater excommunication.

As to the objects of ecclesiastical discipline, they were all such delinquents as fell into great and scandalous crimes after baptism, whether men or women, priests or people, rich or poor, princes or subjects. That princes and magistrates fell under the Church’s censures, may be proved by several instances; particularly St. Chrysostom relates, that Babylas denied communion to one of the Roman emperors on account of a barbarous murder committed by him: St. Ambrose likewise denied communion to Maximus for shedding the blood of Gratian; and the same holy bishop absolutely refused to admit the emperor Theodosius the Great into his church, notwithstanding his humblest entreaties, because he had inhumanly put to death 7000 men at Thessalonica, without distinguishing the innocent from the guilty.

DISPENSATION. The providential dealing of God with his creatures. We thus speak of the Jewish dispensation and the Christian dispensation. (See Covenant of Redemption.)

In ecclesiastical law, by dispensation is meant the power vested in archbishops of dispensing, on particular emergencies, with certain minor regulations of the Church, more especially in her character as an establishment.

DISSENTERS. Separatists from the Church of England, and the service and worship thereof, whether Protestants or Papists. At the Revolution a law was enacted, that the statutes of Elizabeth and James I., concerning the discipline of the Church, should not extend to Protestant Dissenters. But persons dissenting were to subscribe the declaration of 30 Car. II. c. 1, and take the oath or declaration of fidelity, &c. They are not to hold their meetings until their place of worship is certified to the bishop, or to the justices of the quarter sessions, and registered; also they are not to keep the doors of their meeting-houses locked during the time of worship. Whoever disturbs or molests them in the performance of their worship, on conviction at the sessions, is to forfeit £20 by the statute of 1 W. & M.—Broughton.

At the present time there are in England 34 dissenting communities or sects; 26 native or indigenous, 9 foreign.

Scottish Presbyterians:

Church of Scotland.

United Presbyterian Synod.

Presbyterian Church in England.

Independents, or Congregationalists.

Baptists:

General.

Particular.

Seventh Day.

Scotch.

New Connexion General.

Society of Friends.

Unitarians.

Moravians, or United Brethren.

Wesleyan Methodists:

Original Connexion.

New Connexion.

Primitive Methodists.

Bible Christians.

Wesleyan Association.

Independent Methodists.

Wesleyan Reformers.

Calvinistic Methodists:

Welsh Calvinistic Methodists.

Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion.

Sandemanians, or Glassites.

New Church.

Brethren.

FOREIGN:

Lutherans.

German Protestant Reformers.

Reformed Church of the Netherlands.

French Protestants.

Roman Catholics.

Greek Church.

German Catholics.

Italian Reformers.

Irvingites, or Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Latter-day Saints, or Mormons.

JEWS.

DIVINE. Something relating to God; a minister of the gospel; a priest; a theologian. (See Clergy.)

DIVINITY. The science of Divine things; theology; a title of the Godhead. (See Theology.) In strictness, meaning that department of sacred knowledge which has more peculiar reference to the attributes and essence of God.

DIVORCE. A separation of a married man and woman by the sentence of an ecclesiastical judge qualified to pronounce the same.

Among us, divorces are of two kinds, à mensâ et thoro, from bed and board; and à vinculo matrimonii, from the marriage tie. The former neither dissolves the marriage, nor debars the woman of her dower, nor bastardizes the issue; but the latter absolutely 295dissolves the marriage contract, making it void from the very beginning. The causes of a divorce à mensâ et thoro are adultery, cruelty of the husband, &c.; those of a divorce à vinculo matrimonii, precontract, consanguinity, impotency, &c. On this divorce the dower is gone, and the children, if any begotten, bastardized. On a divorce for adultery, some acts of parliament have allowed the innocent person to marry again.

DOCETÆ. Heretics, so called ἀπὸ τοῦ δοκέειν (apparere), because they taught that our Lord had only a seeming body, and that his actions and sufferings were not in reality, but in appearance. There was in the second century a sect which especially bore this name; but the Docetic error was common to many kinds of Gnostics. (See Gnostics.)

DOCTOR. One who has the highest degree in the faculties of divinity, law, physic, or music. (See Degree.)

DOCTRINE. A system of teaching. By Christian doctrine should be intended the principles or positions of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

DOGMA. A word used originally to express any doctrine of religion formally stated. Dogmatic theology is the statement of positive truths in religion. The indifference of later generations to positive truth is indicated, among other things, by the different notion which has come to be attached, in common discourse, to these words. By a dogma is now generally meant too positive or harsh a statement of uncertain or unimportant articles; and the epithet dogmatic is given to one who is rude or obtrusive, or overbearing in the statement of what he judges to be true.

DOMINICAL or SUNDAY LETTER. In the calendar, the first seven letters of the alphabet are applied to the days of the week, the letter A being always given to the 1st of January, whatsoever that day may be, and the others in succession to the following days. If the year consisted of 364 days, making an exact number of weeks, it is evident that no change would ever take place in these letters: thus, supposing the 1st of January in any given year to be Sunday, all the Sundays would be represented by A, not only in that year, but in all succeeding. There being, however, 365 days in the year, the first letter is again repeated on the 31st of December, and consequently the Sunday letter for the following year will be G. This retrocession of the letters will, from the same cause, continue every year, so as to make F the dominical letter of the third, &c. If every year were common, the process would continue regularly, and a cycle of seven years would suffice to restore the same letters to the same days as before. But the intercalation of a day, every bissextile or fourth year, has occasioned a variation in this respect. The bissextile year, containing 366 instead of 365 days, will throw the dominical letter of the following year back two letters, so that if the dominical letter at the beginning of the year be C, the dominical letter of the next year will be, not B, but A. This alteration is not effected by dropping a letter altogether, but by changing the dominical letter at the end of February, where the intercalation of a day takes place. In consequence of this change every fourth year, twenty-eight years must elapse before a complete revolution can take place in the dominical letter, and it is on this circumstance that the period of the solar cycle is founded.

DOMINICAN MONKS. The religious order of Dominic, or friars preachers; called in England Black friars, and in France Jacobins.

Dominic de Guzman was born in the year 1170, at Calaruega, a small town of the diocese of Osma, in Old Castile. According to the Romish legend, his mother, being with child of him, dreamed she was delivered of a little dog, which gave light to all the world, with a flambeau in his mouth. At six years of age he began to study humanity under the direction of his uncle, who was archpriest of the church of Gumyel de Ystan. The time he had to spare from his studies was spent in assisting at divine offices, singing in the churches, and adorning the altars. At thirteen years of age, he was sent to the university of Palencia, in the kingdom of Leon, where he spent six years in the study of philosophy and divinity. From that time he devoted himself to all manner of religious austerities, and he employed his time, successfully, in the conversion of sinners and heretics. This raised his reputation so high, that the bishop of Osma, resolving to reform the canons of his church, cast his eyes upon Dominic for that purpose, whom he invited to take upon him the habit of a canon in the church of Osma. Accordingly, Dominic astonished and edified the canons of Osma by his extraordinary humility, mortification, and other virtues. Some time after, Dominic was ordained priest by the bishop of Osma, and was made sub-prior of the chapter. That prelate, making a scruple of confining so great a treasure to his own church, sent Dominic 296out to exercise the ministry of an evangelical preacher; accordingly, he went through several provinces, as Galicia, Castile, and Aragon, converting many, till, in the year 1204, the bishop of Osma, being sent ambassador into France, took Dominic with him. In their passage through Languedoc, they were witnesses of the desolation occasioned by the Albigenses, and obtained leave of Pope Innocent III. to stay some time in that country, and labour on the conversion of those heretics. Here it was that Dominic resolved to put in execution the design he had long formed, of instituting a religious order, whose principal employment should be, preaching the gospel, converting heretics, defending the faith, and propagating Christianity. By degrees he collected together several persons, inspired with the same zeal, whose number soon increased to sixteen. Pope Innocent III. confirmed this institution, at the request of Dominic, who went to Rome for that purpose. They then agreed to embrace the rule of St. Augustine, to which they added statutes and constitutions which had formerly been observed either by the Carthusians, or the Premonstratenses. The principal articles enjoined perpetual silence, abstinence from flesh at all times, wearing of woollen, rigorous poverty, and several other austerities.

The first monastery of this order was established at Toulouse, by the bounty of the bishop of Toulouse, and Simon earl of Montfort. From thence Dominic sent out some of the community to several parts, to labour in preaching, which was the main design of his institute. In the year 1218 he founded the convent of Dominicans at Paris, in the Rue St. Jaques, from whence they had the name of Jacobins. At Metz, in Germany, he founded another monastery of his order; and another, soon after, at Venice. At Rome, he obtained of Pope Honorius III. the church of St. Sabina, where he and his companions took the habit which they pretended the Blessed Virgin showed to the holy Renaud of Orleans, being a white garment and scapular, to which they added a black mantle and hood ending in a point. In 1221, the order had sixty monasteries, being divided into eight provinces, those of Spain, Toulouse, France, Lombardy, Rome, Provence, Germany, and England. St. Dominic, having thus settled and enlarged his order, died at Bologna, August 4th, 1221, and was canonized by Pope Gregory IX., July 13th, 1234.

The order of the Dominicans, after the death of their founder, made a very considerable progress in Europe and elsewhere. They therefore erected four new provinces, namely, those of Greece, Poland, Denmark, and the Holy Land. Afterwards the number of monasteries increased to such a degree, that the order was divided into forty-five provinces, having spread itself into all parts of the world. It has produced a great number of martyrs, confessors, bishops, and holy virgins: there are reckoned of this order 3 popes, 60 cardinals, 150 archbishops, 800 bishops, besides the masters of the sacred palace, who have always been Dominicans.

There are nuns of this order, who owe their foundation to St. Dominic himself, who, whilst he was labouring on the conversion of the Albigenses, was so much concerned to see that some gentlemen of Guienne, not having wherewith to maintain their daughters, either sold or gave them to be brought up by heretics, that, with the assistance of the archbishop of Narbonne, and other charitable persons, he laid the foundation of a monastery at Prouille, where those poor maids might be brought up, and supplied with all necessaries for their subsistence. The habit of these religious was a white robe, a tawny mantle, and a black veil. Their founder obliged them to work at certain hours of the day, and particularly to spin yarn and flax. The nuns of this order had above 130 houses in Italy, 45 in France, 50 in Spain, 15 in Portugal, 40 in Germany, and many in Poland, Russia, and other countries. They never eat flesh, excepting in sickness; they wear no linen, and lie on straw beds; but many monasteries have mitigated this austerity.

In the year 1221, Dominic sent Gilbert du Fresney, with twelve brothers, into England, where they founded their first house at Oxford the same year, and soon after another at London. In the year 1276, the mayor and aldermen of the city of London gave them two streets by the river Thames, where they had a very commodious monastery; whence that place is still called Black Friars. They had monasteries likewise at Warwick, Canterbury, Stamford, Chelmsford, Dunwich, Ipswich, Norwich, Thetford, Exeter, Brecknock, Langley, and Guildford.

The Dominicans, being fortified with an authority from the court of Rome to preach and take confessions, made great encroachments upon the English bishops and the parochial clergy, insisting upon a liberty of preaching wherever they thought fit. And many persons of quality, especially women, deserted from the parochial clergy, 297and confessed to the Dominicans, insomuch that the character of the secular clergy was greatly sunk thereby. This innovation made way for a dissoluteness of manners; for the people, being under no necessity of confessing to their parish priest, broke through their duty with less reluctancy, in hopes of meeting with a Dominican confessor, those friars being generally in a travelling motion, making no stay where they came, and strangers to their penitents.—Brouqhton.

DONATISTS. Schismatics, originally partisans of Donatus, an African by birth, and bishop of Casæ Nigræ, in Numidia. A secret hatred against Cecilian, elected bishop of Carthage, notwithstanding the opposition of Donatus, excited the latter to form one of the most pernicious schisms that ever disturbed the peace of the Church. He accused Cecilian of having delivered up the sacred books to the Pagans, and pretended that his election was thereby void, and all those who adhered to him heretics. Under this false pretext of zeal for the Church, he set up for the head of a party, and about the year 312, taught that baptism, administered by heretics, was null; that the Church was not infallible; that it had erred in his time; and that he was to be the restorer of it. But a council, held at Arles in 314, acquitted Cecilian, and declared his election valid.

The schismatics, irritated at this sentence, refused to acquiesce in the decisions of the council; and the more firmly to support their cause, they thought it better to subscribe to the opinions of Donatus, and openly to declaim against the Catholics: they gave out, that the Church was become prostituted; they rebaptized the Catholics; they trod under foot the eucharist consecrated by priests of the Catholic communion; they overthrew their altars, burned their churches, and ran up and down decrying the Church. (See Circumcellians.) They had chosen into the place of Cecilian one Majorinus; but he dying soon after, they brought in one Donatus, different from him of Casæ Nigræ.

This new head of the cabal used so much violence against the Catholics, that the schismatics took their name from him. But as they could not prove that they composed a true Church, they sent one of their bishops to Rome, who secretly took upon him the title of bishop of Rome. This bishop being dead, the Donatists appointed him a successor. They attempted likewise to send some bishops into Spain, that they might say, their Church began to spread itself everywhere; but it was only in Africa that it could gain any considerable footing, and this want of diffusion was much insisted on by their opponents as an argument against their pretensions.

After many vain efforts to crush this schism, the emperor Honorius assembled a council of bishops at Carthage, in the year 410; where a disputation was held between seven of each party. Marcellinus, the emperor’s deputy, who presided in that assembly, decided in favour of the Catholics, and ordered them to take possession of all the churches, which the Donatist bishops had seized on by violence, or otherwise. This decree exasperated the Donatists; but the Catholic bishops used so much wisdom and prudence, that they insensibly brought over most of those who had strayed from the bosom of the Church. It appears, however, that the schism was not quite extinct till the 7th century.—Broughton.

DONATIVE. A donative is when the king, or any subject by his licence, founds a church or chapel, and ordains that it shall be merely in the gift or disposal of the patron, and vested absolutely in the clerk by the patron’s deed of donation, without presentation, institution, or induction. This is said to have been anciently the only way of conferring ecclesiastical benefices in England; the method of institution by the bishop not being established more early than the time of Archbishop Becket in the reign of Henry II. And therefore Pope Alexander III., (Decretal, 1. 3, t. 7, c. 3,) in a letter to Becket, severely inveighs against the prava consuetudo, as he calls it, of investiture conferred by the patron only: this however shows what was then the common usage. Others contend, that the claim of the bishops to institution is as old as the first planting of Christianity in this island; and, in proof of it, they allege a letter from the English nobility to the pope in the reign of Henry III., recorded by Matthew Paris, (A. D. 1239,) which speaks of presentation to the bishop as a thing immemorial. The truth seems to be that, where a benefice was to be conferred on a mere layman, he was first presented to the bishop, in order to receive ordination, who was at liberty to examine and refuse him: but where the clerk was already in orders, the living was usually vested in him by the sole donation of the patron; until about the middle of the twelfth century, when the pope endeavoured to introduce a kind of feudal dominion over ecclesiastical benefices, and, in consequence of that, began 298to claim and exercise the right of institution universally as a species of spiritual investiture.

By the act 14 & 15 Vict. c. 97, sec. 9, the right of perpetual nomination of an incumbent may be acquired by the person or body, their heirs, &c., who shall procure a church to be erected and endowed.

DONNELLAN LECTURES. Mrs. Anne Donnellan, in the last century, bequeathed a sum of £1243 to the college of Dublin, for the encouragement of religion, learning, and good manners; the application of the sum being intrusted to the provost and senior fellows; who, consequently, in 1794, resolved, that a lecturer should be annually appointed to preach six lectures in the college chapel: the subject of the lectures for each year being determined by them. The other regulations are analogous to those of the Bampton Lectures at Oxford. Many distinguished works have been the fruits of this Lecture: among them may be mentioned Dr. Graves’s Lectures on the Pentateuch, Archbishop Magee on Prophecy, &c.

DORMITORY, DORTOR, or DORTURE. The sleeping apartment in a monastic institution.

A place of sepulture is also so called, with reference, like the word cemetery, which has the same meaning, to the resurrection, at which time the bodies of the saints, which for the present repose in their graves, shall arise, or awake. But it must be borne in mind, that the word has reference to the sleep of the body, and not of the soul, which latter was never an article of the Christian faith.

DORT. The Synod of Dort was convened to compose the troubles occasioned by the celebrated Arminian controversy.

Arminius, professor of divinity at Leyden, had received his theological education at Geneva. After much profound meditation on the abstruse subject of predestination, he became dissatisfied with Calvin’s doctrine of the absolute decrees of God, in respect to the salvation and perdition of man; and, while he admitted the eternal prescience of the Deity, he held, with the Roman Catholic Church, that no mortal is rendered finally unhappy, by an eternal and invincible decree; and that the misery of those who perish comes from themselves. Many who were eminent for their talents and learning, and some who filled high situations in Holland, embraced his opinions; but, apparently at least, a great majority sided against them. The most active of these was Gomar, the colleague of Arminius in the professorship. Unfortunately, politics entered into the controversy. Most of the friends of Arminius were of the party which opposed the politics of the Prince of Orange; while, generally, the adversaries of Arminius were favourable to the views of that prince. Barneveldt and Grotius, two of the most respectable partisans of Arminius, were thrown into prison for their supposed practices against the state. The former perished on the scaffold; the latter, by his wife’s address, escaped from prison. While these disturbances were at the highest, Arminius died.

On his decease, the superintendence of the party devolved to Episcopius, who was, at that time, professor of theology at Leyden, and universally esteemed for his learning, his judgment, and his eloquence. The Arminian cause prospering under him, the opposite party took the alarm, and, in 1618, a synod was called at Dort, by the direction, and under the influence, of Prince Maurice. It was attended by deputies from the United Provinces, and from the Churches of England, Hesse, Bremen, Switzerland, and the Palatinate.

The synod adopted the Belgic Confession, decided in favour of absolute decrees, and excommunicated the Arminians. Its canons were published under the title of “Judicium Synodi nationalis reformatarum ecclesiarum habiti Dordrechti anno 1618 et 1619, de quinque doctrinæ capitibus, in ecclesiis Belgicis, controversis: Promulgatum VI. Maii MDCXIX. 4to.” It concludes the Sylloge Confessionum, printed at the Clarendon press.—Butler’s Confession of Faith.

DOXOLOGY. (See Gloria Patri.) A hymn used in the Divine service of Christians. The ancient doxology was only a single sentence, without a response, running in these words: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.” Part of the latter clause, “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,” was inserted some time after the first composition. The fourth Council of Toledo, in the year 633, added the word “honour” to it, and read it, “Glory and honour be to the Father,” &c., because the prophet David says, “Bring glory and honour to the Lord.” It is not easy to say at what time the latter clause was inserted. Some ascribe it to the Council of Nice, and suppose it was added in opposition to the Arians. But the first express mention made of it is in the second Council of Vaison, an. 529, above two centuries later.

There was another small difference in 299the use of this ancient hymn; some reading it, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, with the Holy Ghost;” others, “Glory be to the Father, in (or by) the Son, and by the Holy Ghost.” This difference of expression occasioned no disputes in the Church, till the rise of the Arian heresy: but, when the followers of Arius began to make use of the latter, and made it a distinguishing character of their party, it was entirely laid aside by the Catholics, and the use of it was enough to bring any one under suspicion of heterodoxy.

This hymn was of most general use, and was a doxology, or giving of praise to God, at the close of every solemn office. The Western Church repeated it at the end of every psalm, with some few exceptions; and omitted it on the three days before Easter, and in offices of the dead; and the Eastern Church used it only at the end of the last psalm. Many of their prayers were also concluded with it, particularly the solemn thanksgiving, or consecration-prayer at the eucharist. It was also the ordinary conclusion of their sermons.

There was likewise another hymn, of great note in the ancient Church, called the great doxology, or angelical hymn, beginning with those words, which the angels sung at our Saviour’s birth, “Glory be to God on high,” &c. This was chiefly used in the Communion Service. It was also used daily in men’s private devotions. In the Mozarabic liturgy it is appointed to be sung before the lessons on Christmas day. St. Chrysostom often mentions it, and observes that the Ascetics, or Christians who had retired from the world, met together daily to sing this hymn. Who first composed it, adding the remaining part to the words sung by the angels, is uncertain. Some suppose it to be as ancient as the time of Lucian, about the beginning of the second century. Others take it for the Gloria Patri; which is a dispute as difficult to be determined, as it is to find out the first author and original of this hymn.

Both these doxologies have a place in the liturgy of the Church of England, the former being repeated after every psalm, the latter used in the Communion Service.

As the ancient doxology of “Glory to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” was, among the Christians, a solemn profession of their belief in the Holy Trinity, so the Mohammedans, by their doxology, “There is but one God,” (to which they sometimes add, “and Mohammed is his prophet,”) which they use both in their public and private prayers, and in their acclamations, sufficiently show their disbelief of a Trinity of persons in the Godhead.—Bingham.

DRIPSTONE. In church architecture, the projecting moulding which crowns doors, windows, and other arches, in the exterior of a building.

DULCINISTS. Heretics, so denominated from one Dulcinus, a layman, of Novara in Lombardy, who lived in the beginning of the 14th century. He pretended to preach the reign of the Holy Ghost; and while he justly enough rejected the pope’s authority, he foolishly made himself to be the head of that third reign, saying, that the Father had reigned from the beginning of the world to the coming of Christ; and the Son’s reign began then, and continued until the year 1300. He was followed by a great many people to the Alps, where he and his wife were taken and burnt by the order of Clement IV.

DULIA. (Δουλεία.) The worship paid by Romanists to saints and angels, and to images. Not denying that all these are made by them objects of worship, the Papists invent a distinction of many kinds and degrees of worship, and very accurately assign to each object of worship its proper amount of reverence. The lowest degree is the dulia, which is given to saints and angels. Hyperdulia (ὑπερδουλεία) is reserved for the Blessed Virgin alone: and Latria (λατρεια) is given to the Lord himself, and to each person in the ever blessed and glorious Trinity. Images of either of these receive a relative worship of the same order. An image of a saint or angel, relative Dulia: an image of the Blessed Virgin, relative hyperdulia: an image of either person of the Blessed Trinity, relative Latria. (See Idolatry, Images, Invocation of Saints.)

DUNKERS, or DIPPERS. A sect of Baptists, originating (1724) in the teaching of one Conrad Peysel or Beissel, a German, in Philadelphia, one of the American states. They are distinguished not only by their adherence to the rite of baptism with trine immersion, which, like other Baptists, they of course confine to adults, but also by their rigid abstinence from flesh, except on particular occasions; by their living in monastic societies, by their peculiar garb, like that of the Dominican friars, and by their scruples with regard to resistance, war, slavery, and litigation. Their great settlement is at a place which they call Euphrata, in allusion to the lament of the Hebrews in their captivity, which they used to pour forth to their harps as they sat on the banks of the Euphrates.

300EAGLE. A frequent, and the most beautiful, form of the lectern for reading the lessons from in churches. It has probably some reference to the eagle, which is the symbolical companion of St. John, in ecclesiastical design. The eagle is frequently employed in foreign churches, but generally for the chanting of the service, not for the lessons. Sometimes it is employed for the reading of the Epistles and Gospels, and there are instances of one being on each side of the choir or chancel. Several of the cathedrals and colleges in our universities have this kind of lecterns. Before the civil wars in 1651, there was in the cathedral of Waterford, a “great standing pelican to support the Bible, a brazen eagle,” and other ornaments.—Ryland’s Waterford. Winchester and St. John’s College, Cambridge, have of late years been provided with eagle lecterns. The “Lecterna” or Bible eagle at Peterborough was given by Abbot Ramsay and John Maldon in 1471.—Dugd. Monast. ed. 1830, i. 344.—Jebb.

EARLY ENGLISH, or LANCET, the first style of pure Gothic architecture, fully established about 1190, and merging in the Geometrical about 1245. The Lancet window is the principal characteristic of this style; but it has, besides, various peculiarities, (see Arcade, Capital, Moulding, Vaulting,) among which are the following:—The doorways are frequently divided by a central shaft. As compared with the preceding style, the buttresses have a considerable projection, and they usually terminate in a plain pediment. The flying buttress becomes frequent. Gables are of very high pitch; the parapet usually retains the corbel-table. Piers consist of a circular or octagonal shaft, surrounded by four or eight smaller ones, which stand free, except that, when of great length, they are generally banded in the centre. Purbeck or Petworth marble is often used both for the central, which is really the bearing shaft, and the smaller ones; but in this case the marble of the bearing shaft is laid as in the quarry, while the smaller shafts are set upwards, for the sake of greater length. The triforium still maintains its importance, though hardly so lofty as in the Norman style: it is usually of two smaller behind a principal arch, or of four smaller behind two principal arches. The clerestory is generally of the three Lancets, the central one much more lofty than the two others. The carving is extremely sharp and good, and very easily recognised, when it contains foliage, by the stiff stalks ending in crisped or curled leaves. Panels are often used to relieve large spaces of masonry, either blank or pierced; and sometimes in window-heads, and in triforium arcades, approach very nearly to the character of tracery. They are also often filled with figures. The dog-tooth, which had made its appearance in the Transition, is now extremely abundant, often filling the hollows of the mouldings in two or three continuous trails. The spires are almost invariably broach-spires.

EAST. (See also Bowing and Apostles’ Creed.) In the aspect of their churches, the ancient Christians reversed the order of the Jews, placing the altar on the east, so that in facing towards the altar in their devotions they were turned to the east. As the Jews began their day with the setting sun, so the followers of Christ began theirs with the rising sun. The eye of the Christian turned with peculiar interest to the east, whence the day-spring from on high had visited him. There the morning star of his hope fixed his admiring gaze. Thence arose the Sun of righteousness with all his heavenly influences. Thither, in prayer, his soul turned with kindling emotions to the altar of his God. And even in his grave, thither still he directed his slumbering eye, in quiet expectation of awakening to behold in the same direction the second appearing of his Lord, when he shall come in the clouds of heaven to gather his saints.

In the ancient Church it was a ceremony almost of general use and practice, the turning the face to the east in their solemn adorations, which custom seems derived from the ceremonies of baptism, when it was usual to renounce the devil with the face to the west, and then turn to the east and make the covenant with Christ. Several reasons were given by the Fathers for this. First, As the east, the place of the day-spring from darkness, was the symbol of Christ, “the Sun of righteousness.” 2ndly, As it was the place of paradise, lost by the fall of the first Adam, and to be regained by the second Adam. 3rdly, That Christ made his appearance on earth in the east; there ascended into heaven; and thence will again come at the last day. And, 4thly, That the east, as the seat of light and brightness, was the most honourable part of the creation, and therefore peculiarly ascribed to God, the fountain of light, and illuminator of all things; as the west was ascribed to the devil, because he hides the light, and brings darkness on men to their destruction.

When we repeat the creed, it is customary to turn towards the east, that so, 301whilst we are making profession of our faith in the blessed Trinity, we may look towards that quarter of the heavens where God is supposed to have his peculiar residence of glory.—Wheatly.

Turning towards the east is an ancient custom,—as indeed in most religions, men have directed their worship some particular way. And this practice being intended only to honour Christ, the Sun of righteousness, who hath risen upon us, to enlighten us with that doctrine of salvation to which we then declare our adherence, it ought not to be condemned as superstition.—Secker.

Most churches are so contrived, that the greater part of the congregation faces the east. The Jews, in their dispersion throughout the world, when they prayed, turned their faces towards the mercy-seat and cherubim, where the ark stood. (2 Chron. vi. 36–38.) Daniel was found praying towards Jerusalem, (Dan. vi. 10,) because of the situation of the temple. And this has always been esteemed a very becoming way of expressing our belief in God.—Collis.

EASTER. A festival of the Christians observed in the memory of our Saviour’s resurrection. The Latins, and others, call it Pascha, an Hebrew word, which signifies “passage,” and is applied to the Jewish feast of the Passover, to which the Christian festival of Easter corresponds. This festival is called, in English, Easter, from the Saxon Eostre, an ancient goddess of that people, worshipped with peculiar ceremonies in the month of April.

Concerning the celebration of this festival, there were anciently very great disputes in the Church. Though all agreed in the observation of it in general, yet they differed very much as to the particular time when it was to be observed; some keeping it precisely on the same stated day every year; others, on the fourteenth day of the first moon in the new year, whatever day of the week it happened on; and others, on the first Sunday after the first full moon. This diversity occasioned a great dispute, in the second century, between the Asiatic Churches and the rest of the world; in the course of which Pope Victor excommunicated all those Churches. But the Council of Nice, in the year 324, decreed, that all Churches should keep the Pasch, or festival of Easter, on one and the same day, which should be always a Sunday. This decree was afterwards confirmed by the Council of Antioch, in the year 341. Yet this did not put an end to all disputes concerning the observation of this festival; for it was not easy to determine on what Sunday it was to be held, because, being a movable feast, it sometimes happened, that the Churches of one country kept it a week, or a month, sooner than other Churches, by reason of their different calculations. Therefore the Council of Nice is said to have decreed further, that the bishops of Alexandria should adjust a proper cycle, and inform the rest of the world, on what Sunday every year Easter was to be observed. Notwithstanding which, the Roman and Alexandrian accounts continued to differ, and sometimes varied a week, or a month, from each other; and no effectual cure was found for this, till, in the year 525, Dionysius Exiguus brought the Alexandrian canon, or cycle, entirely into use in the Roman Church. Meantime, the Churches of France and Britain kept to the old Roman canon, and it was two or three ages after, before the new Roman, that is, the Alexandrian canon was, not without some struggle and difficulty, settled among them.—Bingham, Orig. Eccles. b. xx. c. 5. Theod. lib. i. c. 10. Socrat. lib. ii. c. 9. Euseb. de Vit. Const. lib. iii. c. 14. Leo, Ep. 63, ad Marcian. Imper.

But though the Christian Churches differed as to the time of celebrating Easter, yet they all agreed in showing a peculiar respect and honour to this festival. Gregory Nazianzen calls it the Queen of Festivals, and says, it excels all others as far as the sun exceeds the other stars. Hence, in some ancient writers, it is distinguished by the name of Dominica Gaudii, i. e. the “Sunday of joy.” One great instance of the public joy was given by the emperors, who were used to grant a general release to the prisons on this day, with an exception only to such criminals as were guilty of the highest crimes. The ancient Fathers frequently mention these Paschal indulgences, or acts of grace, and speak of them with great commendations. It was likewise usual at this holy season for private persons to grant slaves their freedom or manumission.—Orat. 19, in fun. Patris, t. v. Cod. Theod. lib. ix. tit. 38, leg. 3. Cod. Justin. lib. iii. tit. 12, leg. 8.

To these expressions of public joy may be added, that the Christians were ambitious, at this time especially, to show their liberality to the poor. They likewise kept the whole week after Easter day, as part of the festival; holding religious assemblies every day, for prayer, preaching, and receiving the communion. Upon which account the author of the Constitutions requires servants to rest from their labour 302the whole week. All public games were prohibited during this whole season; as also all proceedings at law, except in some special and extraordinary cases.—Lib. viii. c. 53. Cod. Theod. lib. xv. tit. v. leg. 5. Ib. lib. ii. tit. viii.

The festival of Easter was, likewise, the most noted and solemn time of baptism, which, except in cases of necessity, was administered only at certain stated times of the year.

The eve, or vigil, of this festival was celebrated with more than ordinary pomp, with solemn watchings, and with multitudes of lighted torches, both in the churches and in private houses, so as to turn the night itself into day. This they did as a prodromus, or forerunner of that great light, the Sun of righteousness, which the next day arose upon the world.—Greg. Naz. Orat. ii. in Pasch.

The paschal canon, or rule, of Dionysius having become the standing rule, for the celebration of Easter, to all the Western Churches, it will be proper briefly to explain it. The particulars of it are as follows: viz. That Easter be always on the Sunday next after the Jewish Passover; that, the Jewish Passover being always on the fourteenth day of the first vernal moon, the Christian Easter is always to be the next Sunday after the said fourteenth day of that moon; that, to avoid all conformity with the Jews in this matter, if the fourteenth day of the said moon be on a Sunday, this festival is to be deferred to the Sunday following; that the first vernal moon is that, whose fourteenth day is either upon the day of the vernal equinox, or the next fourteenth day after it; that the vernal equinox, according to the Council of Nice, is fixed to the twenty-first day of March; that therefore the first vernal moon, according to this rule, is that, whose fourteenth day falls upon the 21st of March, or the first fourteenth day after; that the next Sunday after the fourteenth day of the vernal moon (which is called the paschal term) is always Easter day; that, therefore, the earliest paschal term being the 21st of March, the 22nd of March is the earliest Easter possible; and the 18th of April being the latest paschal term, the seventh day after, that is, the 25th of April, is the latest Easter possible; that the cycle of the moon, or golden number, always shows us the first day of the paschal moon, and the cycle of the sun, or dominical letter, always shows us which is the next Sunday after.—Prideaux, Connect. part ii. b. iv.

In the Romish Church, on Easter eve, the bells are rung about four in the afternoon; the ornaments of the churches and altars are changed from black to white; and the paschal taper is placed in a great candlestick made in the shape of an angel. On the morning of Easter Sunday, matins are said before day-break, because our Saviour rose at that time. When the pope officiates, two cardinal deacons are placed on the right and left of the altar, dressed in white robes, to represent the two angels who watched our Saviour’s sepulchre.—Sacra Cerem. Eccl. Rom. lib. ii.

In the Greek Church, it is usual, on Easter day, upon meeting their friends, to greet them with this salutation, “Jesus Christ is risen from the dead;” to which the person accosted replies, “He is risen indeed.” On Good Friday, two priests carry in procession, on their shoulders, the picture or representation of a tomb, in which the crucified Jesus, painted on a board, is deposited. On Easter Sunday, this sepulchre is carried out of the church, and exposed to public view, when the priest solemnly assures the people, that Christ is risen from the dead, and shows them the picture turned on the other side, which represents Jesus Christ rising out of the sepulchre. The whole congregation embrace each other, and, in transports of joy, shoot off pistols.—Tournefort’s Voyages, Letter III. Broughton.

The anniversary festival appointed in remembrance of the resurrection of our blessed Saviour from the state of death, to which he had subjected himself as an atonement for the sins of men. It is stated by Venerable Bede, that this name was given to this festival at the time when Christianity was first introduced among our Saxon ancestors in this island. Those people, says Bede, worshipped an imaginary deity, called Eostre, whose feast they celebrated every year at this season; the name remained when the worship was altered. Others conceive the name to be derived from an old Saxon word importing rising; Easter day thus signifying the day of resurrection. Easter Sunday is not strictly the anniversary day of our Saviour’s resurrection, but is the day appointed by the Church to be kept in remembrance of that event. After great difference of opinions, it was decided in the Council of Nice that Easter day should be kept on the Sunday following the Jewish feast of the Passover, which Passover is kept on the 14th day, or full moon, of the Jewish month Nisan. At the same time, to prevent all uncertainty in future, it was made a further rule of the Church, that 303the full moon next to the vernal (or spring) equinox should be taken for the full moon in the month Nisan, and the 21st of March be accounted the vernal equinox. Easter Sunday, therefore, is always the Sunday following the full moon which falls on, or next after, the 21st of March. Easter is thus observed with reference to the feast of the Passover, on account of the typical quality of that day; the annual sacrifice commanded by the Jewish law being regarded as a type of the greater sacrifice of Christ for our redemption, and the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt as a type of our deliverance from sin and death by his merits.

This was the birthday of our Saviour in his state of glory and exaltation, as his nativity was his birthday to his state of humiliation. It was anciently called the “great day,” and “the feast of feasts;” being by eminence “the day which the Lord hath made,” (Ps. cxviii. 24,) for the Fathers unanimously expound that passage of this day, and therefore with them, as with us, that psalm was always part of the office of the day. For the antiquity of the observation of this day innumerable authors might be produced; but the matter is not at all controverted.—L’Estrange.

This is the highest of all feasts, saith Epiphanius: this day Christ opened to us the door of life, being the first-fruits of those that rose from the dead: whose resurrection was our life; for he rose again for our justification. (Rom. iv. 25.)—Bp. Sparrow.

In the primitive times the Christians of all Churches on this day used this morning salutation, “Christ is risen;” to which those who were saluted answered, “Christ is risen indeed;” or else thus, “and hath appeared unto Simon;” a custom still retained in the Greek Church. And our Church, supposing us as eager of the joyful news as they were, is loth to withhold from us long the pleasure of expressing it; and therefore, as soon as the absolution is pronounced, and we are thereby rendered fit for rejoicing, she begins her office of praise with anthems proper to the day, encouraging her members to call upon one another “to keep the feast; for that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, and is also risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept,” &c.—Wheatly.

The first lesson in the morning is the twelfth chapter of Exodus, in which is mentioned the institution of the Passover, proper for this day, the feast of the Passover: for, as St. Augustine observes, “we do in this feast not only call to mind the history of our Saviour’s resurrection, but also celebrate the mystery of ours.” That as Christ this day rose again from death to life, so by Christ, and the virtue of his resurrection, shall we be made alive, and rise from death to life eternal. Christ is therefore our true Passover, whereof the other was a type: the lesson then is proper for the day. So is the first lesson for the evening, (Exod. xiv.,) for it is concerning the Israelites’ deliverance out of Egypt, a type of our deliverance from hell this day by Christ’s glorious resurrection. As that day Israel saw that great work, which the Lord did upon Egypt, (ver. 31,) so this day we see the great conquest over hell and death finished by Christ’s triumphant resurrection from the dead. The second lessons are plain. The Gospel gives us the full evidence of Christ’s resurrection; the Epistle tells us what use we should make of it, “If Christ be risen, seek those things that are above,” &c. The collect prays for grace, to make the use of it which the Epistle directs.

Thus holy Church is careful to teach and instruct all her children in the matter of the feast, preaching Christ’s resurrection to us, both in the type and prophecy out of the Old Testament, and in the history of it out of the New. And she does not only teach us to know what God hath done for us this day, but also she is careful that we may do our duty to God for this his marvellous goodness, commanding and directing us to pray for grace to do our duty, prescribing us excellent forms of adoring and blessing God for his mercy this day, such methods as the Holy Ghost hath set down, in which we may be sure to pray and praise God by the spirit.—Bp. Sparrow. On this day, as on Christmas day, there were formerly [in the First Book of King Edward VI.] two communions, whereof we have retained the former Epistle and Gospel.—Bp. Cosin.

Easter day is a scarlet day at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. In choirs, the Responses and Litanies used to be universally, and in many places are still, solemnly sung to the organ; and the Responses, on the Monday and Tuesday following.—Jebb.

EASTER ANTHEMS. On Easter day, instead of the Venite, certain anthems are appointed to be said or sung. At the last review the first two verses now used were prefixed, and the authorized translation adopted. In the First Book of King Edward VI., these anthems were appointed to be said or sung “afore matins, the 304people being assembled in the church;” and were followed by the following Versicle and Response.

Priest. Show forth to all the nations the glory of God.

Answ. And among all people his wonderful works.

With a special prayer. (See Anthem.)

EBIONITES. Heretics in the first century; so called from their leader, Ebion. The Ebionites, as well as the Nazarenes, had their origin from the circumcised Christians, who had retired from Jerusalem to Pella, during the war between the Jews and Romans, and made their first appearance after the destruction of Jerusalem, about the time of Domitian, or a little before.

Ebion, the author of the heresy of the Ebionites, was a disciple of Cerinthus, and his successor. He improved upon the errors of his master, and added to them new opinions of his own. He began his preaching in Judea: he taught in Asia, and even at Rome: his tenets infected the isle of Cyprus. St. John opposed both Cerinthus and Ebion in Asia; and it is thought that this apostle wrote his Gospel, in the year 97, particularly against this heresy.

The Ebionites held the same errors as the Nazarenes. They united the ceremonies of the law with the precepts of the gospel: they observed both the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday. They called their place of assembling a synagogue, and not a church. They bathed every day, which was the custom of the Jews. In celebrating the eucharist, they made use of unleavened bread, but no wine.

They added to the observance of the law divers superstitions. They adored Jerusalem as the house of God. Like the Samaritans, they would not suffer a person of another religion to touch them. They abstained from the flesh of animals, and even from milk: and, lest any one should object to them that passage of the Gospel, where our Lord says he desires to eat of the passover, they corrupted it. When they were sick, or bitten by a serpent, they plunged themselves into water, and invoked all sorts of things to their assistance.

They disagreed among themselves in relation to our Lord Jesus Christ. Some of them said he was born, like other men, of Joseph and Mary, and acquired sanctification only by his good works. Others of them allowed that he was born of a virgin, but denied that he was the Word of God, or had a pre-existence before his human generation. They said he was indeed the only true prophet, but yet a mere man, who, by his virtue, had arrived at being called Christ and the Son of God. They supposed that Christ and the devil were two principles, which God had opposed the one to the other.

Though the Ebionites observed the law, yet they differed from the Jews in many points. They acknowledged the sanctity of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, and Joshua; but they laughed at all those who came after them. They rejected some parts of the Pentateuch; and when they were too closely pressed by these books, they entirely abandoned them.

Of the New Testament, they acknowledged only the Gospel of St. Matthew, that is, that which was written in Hebrew, and which they called the Gospel according to the Hebrews. But they took from it the two first chapters, and corrupted other passages of it. They absolutely rejected St. Paul as an apostate, and an enemy of the law, and published several calumnies against him. They had likewise false Acts of the Apostles, in which they mixed a great many fables.

As to their manner of life, they imitated the Carpocratians, the most infamous of all heretics. They rejected virginity and continence: they obliged children to marry very young: they allowed married persons to separate from each other, and marry again, as often as they pleased.

St. Justin, St. Irenæus, and Origen, wrote against the Ebionites. Symmachus, author of one of the Greek versions of the Scriptures, was an Ebionite.

ECCLESIASTES. A canonical book of the Old Testament. It is called “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem,” that is, of Solomon, who, from the great excellency of his instructions, was emphatically styled “the preacher.” The design of it is to show the vanity of all sublunary things, in order to which the author enumerates the several objects upon which men place their happiness in this life, and then discovers the emptiness and insufficiency of all worldly enjoyments, by many various reflections on the evils of human life. The conclusion of the whole is, in the words of the preacher, “Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” St. Jerome observes, that this pious inference prevented the Jews from suppressing this whole book of Ecclesiastes, which they had thoughts of doing, (as well as many other writings of Solomon, which are now lost and forgotten,) because it 305asserts that the creatures of God are vain, and all things as nothing; it was also thought to contain some dangerous opinions, and some particular expressions that might infuse doubts concerning the immortality of the soul.

The word Ecclesiastes, which is Greek, signifies a preacher. The Hebrews call it Coheleth, which literally signifies a collector, because it is supposed to be a sermon or discourse delivered to an assembly. The Talmudists will have King Hezekiah to be the author of it. Kimchi ascribes it to Isaiah, and Grotius to Zorobabel; but the book itself affords no foundation for these conjectures. On the contrary, as observed by Mr. Holden, “The author is expressly styled in the initiatory verse, the son of David, king in Jerusalem: and in the 12th verse he is described as king over Israel, in Jerusalem. These passages are found in every known MS., and in all the ancient versions; and Solomon, as is well known, was the only son of David who ever reigned in Jerusalem. The book has been thus admitted into the sacred canon as the production of Solomon, to whom it has also been ascribed by a regular and concurrent tradition. A collateral proof arises from the contents of the work itself, in which the author is stated to have excelled in wisdom beyond all who were before him in Jerusalem, and to have composed many proverbs: circumstances descriptive of Solomon, and of no other personage whose name is recorded in the Holy Scriptures. The writer is likewise represented as abounding in wealth and treasure, &c., extremely applicable to Solomon.” Mr. Holden, and Mr. Desvœux, in their very learned and exhaustive dissertations, completely refute the really shallow objections of Grotius, Dathe, Eichhorn, and others, as to Solomon’s authorship. They do not, however, quite agree as to the scope of the book. Mr. Desvœux (to whom Dr. Graves, in his Lectures on the Pentateuch, assents) states that his object is to prove the immortality of the soul, or rather the necessity of another state after this life, from such arguments as may be afforded by reason and experience. Mr. Holden abides by the generally received opinion, that it is “an arguing into the summum bonum, or chief good: not however merely as regarding happiness in this life, but that which in all its bearings and relations is conducive to the best interests of man. This he finally determines to be true wisdom: ... and every part of the discourse, when considered in reference to this object, tends to develope the nature of true wisdom, to display its excellence, or to recommend its acquirement.” So Bishop Gray: “he endeavours to illustrate the insufficiency of earthly enjoyment; not with design to excite in us a disgust to life, but to influence us to prepare for that state where there is no vanity.” Ecclesiastes may justly be considered as a sequel to the Book of Proverbs. Ecclesiastes, according to a modern author, is a dialogue in which a man of piety disputes against a libertine who favoured the opinions of the Sadducees; his reason is, because there are some things in it which seem to contradict each other, and could not proceed from the same person. But this may be wholly owing to Solomon’s method of disputing pro and con, and proposing the objections of the Sadducees, to which he replies.

The generality of commentators believe this book to be the product of Solomon’s repentance, after having experienced all the follies and pleasures of life; notwithstanding which, some have questioned whether Solomon be saved, and his repentance is still a problem in the Church of Rome.

ECCLESIASTIC. A person holding any office in the sacred ministry of the Church. (See Bishop, Priest, and Deacon.)

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORIANS. (See Historians.)

ECCLESIASTICUS. An apocryphal book of Scripture, distinguished by this name because it was read (in ecclesia) in the church as a book of piety and instruction, but not of infallible authority; or it is so called, perhaps, to distinguish it from the book of Ecclesiastes; or to show that it contains, as well as the former, precepts and exhortations to wisdom and virtue. The anonymous preface to this work informs us, that the author of it was a Jew, called Jesus, the son of Sirach, who wrote it in Hebrew; but it was rendered into Greek by his grandson of the same name. The Hebrew copy of this book, which St. Jerome saw, was entitled Proverbs. By many of the ancients it was styled Παναρετος, the book of every virtue: but the most common name among the Greeks is, The Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach. This book was written under the high priesthood of Onias III., and translated in the reign of Ptolemy Euergetes, or Physcon. Some of the ancients have ascribed it to Solomon. The author, no doubt, had in his view the subject and thoughts expressed in the Proverbs of that king, and has followed his method of teaching morality by sentences or maxims. This book begins with an exhortation to the pursuit of 306wisdom; after which follow many maxims of morality to the forty-fourth chapter, where the author begins to rehearse the praises of famous men, such as the patriarchs, prophets, and the most illustrious men of the Jewish nation. The Latin version of Ecclesiasticus has more in it than the Greek, several particulars being inserted in that, which are not in the other. These, Dr. Prideaux observes, seem to have been interpolated by the first author of that version; but now, the Hebrew being lost, the Greek, which was made from it by the grandson of the author, must stand for the original; and from that the English translation was made.

Parts of Ecclesiasticus are strikingly like the style of Solomon, and truly Hebraic in their cast, as has been remarked by Bishop Lowth in his 24th Prelection; who subjoins a translation of the 24th chapter into Hebrew. He recognises however a considerable difference between its style and that of Solomon.

ECLECTICS. A sect which arose in the Christian Church towards the close of the second century. They professed to make truth the only object of their inquiry, and to be ready to adopt from all the different systems and sects such tenets as they thought agreeable to it; and hence their name, from ἐκλεγω, to select. They preferred Plato to the other philosophers, and looked upon his opinions concerning God, the human soul, and things invisible, as conformable to the spirit and genius of the Christian doctrine. One of the principal patrons of this system was Ammonius Saccas, who at this time laid the foundation of that sect, afterwards distinguished by the name of the New Platonists, in the Alexandrian School.—Broughton.

ECONOMICAL. The economical method of disputing was that in which the disputants accommodated themselves, as much as possible, to the taste and prejudices of those whom they were endeavouring to gain over to the truth. Some of the early Christians carried this condescension too far, and abused St. Paul’s example. (1 Cor. ix. 20.) The word is derived from οἰκονομία, dispensatio rei familiaris, the discretionary arrangement of things in a house according to circumstances.

ECONOMIST. (Œconomus.) An officer in some cathedrals of Ireland, chosen periodically by the chapter out of their own body, whose office is to manage the common estate of the cathedral, to see to the necessary repairs, pay the church officers, &c.—Jebb.

ECONOMY ESTATE, or FUND. In some Irish cathedrals the common fund, for the support of the fabric, the payment of the inferior church officers, and sometimes certain members of the choir, is so called. It is not divisible among the cathedral body themselves. About half the cathedrals in Ireland are destitute of any common or corporate fund whatever.—Jebb.

ECUMENICAL. (From οἰκουμένη, the world.) A term applied to general councils of the Church, to distinguish them from provincial and diocesan synods. (See Councils.)

EDIFICATION. Literally, a building up; and in the figurative language of the New Testament, a growing in grace and holiness, whether of individuals or of the Church.

A pretence of greater edification has been a common ground of separation from the Church; but most absurdly, for “edification,” says Dean Sherlock, in his resolution of some cases of conscience which respect Church communion, is building up, and is applied to the Church, considered as God’s house and temple; and it is an odd way of building up the temple of God, by dividing and separating the parts of it from each other. The most proper signification of the word which our translators render by “edification,” is a house or building; and this is the proper sense wherein it belongs to the Christian Church: “ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building,” that is, the Church is God’s house or building. Thus the same apostle tells us that in Christ, “the whole building” (that is, the whole Christian Church) “fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” (Ephes. ii. 21.) Hence the governors of the Church are called builders, and the apostles are called “labourers together with God,” in erecting this spiritual building; and St. Paul calls himself a “master builder.” Hence the increase, growth, and advances towards perfection in the Church, is called the building or edification of it. For this reason, St. Paul commends prophecy, or expounding the Scriptures, before speaking in unknown tongues without an interpreter, because by this the Church receives building or edification.

All those spiritual gifts, which were bestowed on the Christians, were for the building and edifying of the Church. The apostolical power in Church censures was “for edification, not for destruction” (2 Cor. x. 8); to build, and not to pull down; that is, to preserve the unity of the Church 307entire, and its communion pure. And we may observe, that this edification is primarily applied to the Church: “that the Church may receive edifying;” “that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church;” “for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (1 Cor. xiv. 5, 12; Ephes. iv. 12.) And it is very observable wherein the apostle places the edification of the body of Christ, viz. in unity and love: “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephes. iv. 12, 13.) Till we are united by one faith unto one body, and perfect man, and “speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ; from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” (Ephes. iv. 15, 16.) This is an admirable description of the unity of the Church, in which all the parts are closely united and compacted together, as stones and timber are to make one house; and thus they grow into one body, and increase in mutual love and charity, which is the very building and edification of the Church, which is edified and built up in love, as the apostle adds, that “knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” (1 Cor. viii. 1.) This builds up the Church of Christ; and that not such a common charity as we have for all mankind, but such a love and sympathy as is peculiar to the members of the same body, and which none but members can have for each other. And now methinks I need not prove that schism and separation are not for the edification of the Church; to separate for edification is to pull down instead of building up. But these men do not seem to have any great regard to the edification of the Church, but only to their own particular edification: and we must grant that edification is sometimes applied to particular Christians in Scripture, according to St. Paul’s exhortation, “Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” (1 Thess. v. 11.) And this edifying one another, without question, signifies our promoting each other’s growth and progress in all Christian graces and virtues; and so the building and edification of the Church, signifies the growth and improvement of the Church in all spiritual wisdom and knowledge, and Christian graces. The edification of the Church consists in the edification of particular Christians; but then this is called edification or building, because this growth and improvement is in the unity and communion of the Church, and makes them one spiritual house and temple. Thus the Church is called the temple of God, and every particular Christian is God’s temple, wherein the Holy Spirit dwells; and yet God has but one temple, and the Holy Spirit dwells only in the Church of Christ; but particular Christians are God’s temple, and the Holy Spirit dwells in them as living members of the Christian Church; and thus by the same reason the Church is edified and built up, as it grows into a spiritual house and holy temple, by a firm and close union and communion of all its parts: and every Christian is edified, as he grows up in all Christian graces and virtues in the unity of the Church. And, therefore, whatever extraordinary means of edification men may fancy to themselves in a separation, the apostle knew no edification but in the communion of the Church; and indeed, if our growth and increase in all grace and virtue be more owing to the internal assistance of the Divine Spirit, than to the external administrations, as St. Paul tells us, “I have planted and Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; so then, neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase” (1 Cor. iii. 6, 7); and if the Divine Spirit confines his influences and operations to the unity of the Church, as the same apostle tells us that there is but “one body and one spirit,” (Eph. iv. 4,) which plainly signifies that the operations of this one spirit are appropriated to this one body, as the soul is to the body it animates;—then it does not seem a very likely way for edification, to cut ourselves off from the unity of Christ’s body.

ELDERS. (πρεσβύτεροι, hence Presbyterians.) Presbyterian sects have supposed that the order of lay-elders, as they denominate some of their officers, is sanctioned by Holy Scripture. It appears certain, however, that the “elders” mentioned by St. Paul (1 Tim. v.) did not hold the same office as those in the Presbyterian sects, but “laboured in the word and doctrine.” In this place the apostle means only ministers, when he directs that double honour should be paid to the elders that rule well, especially those who labour in the word and doctrine; and the distinction does not appear to consist in the order of officers, but in the degree of their diligence, faithfulness, 308and eminence in laboriously fulfilling their ministerial duties. It is said that Calvin admitted lay-elders into Church courts, on what he conceived to be the sanction of primitive practice, and, as an effectual method of preventing the return of inordinate power in a superior order of the clergy. To this it is answered by Catholics, that neither the name nor office of lay-elder was ever known to any general or provincial council, or even to any particular Church in the world, before the time of Calvin. (See Presbyterians.)

ELECTION. (See Predestination, Calvinism, Armininnism.) There are three views taken of election, all parties agreeing that some doctrine of election is taught in Holy Scripture,—the Calvinistic, the Arminian, and the Catholic.

By the Calvinists, (see Calvinism,) election is judged to be the election of certain individuals out of the great mass of mankind, directly and immediately, to eternal life, while all other individuals are either passively left, or actively doomed, to a certainty of eternal death; and the moving cause of that election is defined to be God’s unconditional and irrespective will and pleasure, inherent in, and exercised in consequence of, his absolute and uncontrollable sovereignty.

By the Arminians, or Remonstrants, (see Arminianism,) Scriptural election is pronounced to be the election of certain individuals, out of the great mass of mankind, directly and immediately to eternal life; and the moving cause of that election is asserted to be God’s eternal prevision of the future persevering holiness and consequent moral fitness of the individuals themselves, who thence have been thus elected.

Election under the gospel or Catholic view denotes, the election of various individuals into the pale of the visible Church, with God’s merciful purpose, that through faith and holiness they should attain everlasting glory, but with a possibility (since God governs his intelligent creatures on moral principles only) that through their own perverseness they may fail of attaining it.

Stanley Faber, from whose learned and most satisfactory work these definitions are taken, very clearly proves this to be the doctrine of the reformed Church of England; where, in the seventeenth Article, the Church of England, speaking of predestination to life, teaches not an election of certain individuals, either absolute or previsional, directly and immediately, to eternal happiness. But she teaches an election of certain individuals into the Church catholic, in order that there, according to the everlasting purpose and morally operating intention of God, they may be delivered from curse and damnation, and thus, indirectly and mediately, may be brought, through Christ, to everlasting glory; agreeably to God’s promises, as they are generically, not specifically, set forth to us in Holy Scripture.

That such is the real doctrine of the Church of England—in other words, that she teaches a predestination to life, not direct and immediate, but indirect and mediate—inevitably follows from the circumstance that, while in her sixteenth Article she hints at the possibility of the elect individually departing from grace given, in her Homilies and in her Burial Service, she distinctly states, that the elect, in her sense of the word, may, in their individual capacity, fall away utterly, and thus perish finally. Now, this statement is palpably incompatible with the tenet of a direct and immediate predestination of individuals to eternal life; for individuals, so predestinated, could not, by the very terms of their predestination, fall away utterly and irrecoverably. Therefore, the predestination to life, mentioned in the seventeenth Article, can only mean an indirect and mediate predestination of individuals; or, in other words, it can only mean a predestination of individuals to eternal life, through the medium of election into the Catholic Church; in God’s everlasting purpose and intention indeed; but still, (since God, in executing his purpose and intention, operates upon the minds of his intelligent creatures not physically, but morally,) with a possibility of their defeating that merciful purpose and intention, and thence of their finally falling away to everlasting destruction.

As the article, in connexion with the other documents of the Anglican Church, must, unless we place them in irreconcilable collision with each other, be understood to propound the doctrine of predestination after the manner and in the sense which has been specified; so it distinctly enjoins us to receive God’s promises, as they are generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture.

The word generally in this place is not opposed to unusually, but to particularly, and signifies generically. And the other documents of the Church of England agree with this interpretation of the seventeenth Article.

We may refer, in the first instance, to the peculiar phraseology introduced into 309the office of Infant Baptism. “Regard, we beseech thee, the supplications of thy congregation: sanctify this water to the mystical washing away of sin: and grant that this child, now to be baptized therein, may receive the fulness of thy grace, and ever remain in the number of thy faithful and elect children, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Thus, in systematically generalizing phraseology, runs the prayer. Now the same prayer is recited over every child. Consequently, by the inevitable force of the word “remain” as here used, every child, baptismally brought into the pale of the Church, is declared to be, at that time, one of the number of God’s elect.

But the largest charity cannot believe that every child, baptismally brought into the pale of the Church, is elect in the sense of election as jointly maintained by Calvin and Arminius.

Therefore, agreeably to the tenor of her own explicit phraseology, the idea which the English Church annexes to the term election, can only be that of ecclesiastical individual election.

The matter is yet additionally established by the parallel phraseology, which occurs in the somewhat more modern office of Adult Baptism.

With the sole requisite alteration of “this person” for “this child,” the prayer is copied verbatim from the older office. Every adult, therefore, who is baptismally introduced into the pale of the Church, is, as such, declared to be one of the number of God’s elect people.

The same matter is still further established by the strictly homogeneous language of the Catechism.

Each questioned catechumen, who, as an admitted member of the Church, has already, in the baptismal office, been declared to be one of the elect, is directed to reply: that, as a chief article of the faith propounded in the Creed, he has learned “to believe in God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth” him “and all the elect people of God.”

Now, such an answer plainly makes every catechumen declare himself to be one of the elect.

But, in no conceivable sense which will harmonize with the general phraseology of the Anglican Church, save in that of ecclesiastical individual election only, can every catechumen be deemed one of God’s elect people.

Therefore the idea which to the Scriptural term election, is annexed by the Church of England, is that of ecclesiastical individual election.

The matter is also established by the parallel phraseology introduced into the Burial Service.

“We beseech thee, that it may please thee, of thy gracious goodness, shortly to accomplish the number of thine elect, and to hasten thy kingdom; that we, with all those that are departed in the true faith of thy holy name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

In this prayer, the generic term “we” occurs in immediate connexion with “the number of thine elect.”

Therefore the evidently studied arrangement of the words, enforces the conclusion that every member of the Church, as designated by the term “we,” must be deemed one of God’s elect people.

Finally, the same matter is established, even in the familiar course of daily recitation, by the language of the very liturgy itself.

“Endue thy ministers with righteousness: and make thy chosen people joyful.

“O Lord, save thy people: and bless thine inheritance.”

Now, who are the “chosen people,” whom the Lord is here supplicated to “make joyful?”

Can we reasonably pronounce them, in the judgment of the Anglican Church, to be certain individuals of each actually praying congregation, who, in contradistinction to other individuals of the same congregation, are predestinated, either absolutely or previsionally, to eternal life?

Assuredly, the whole context forbids so incongruous a supposition; for, assuredly, the whole context requires us to pronounce, that “thy chosen people” are identical with “thine inheritance.”

But the entire tenor of the liturgy identifies “thine inheritance” with the Catholic Church.

Therefore, “thy chosen people” and the Catholic Church are terms, in point of import, identical. (See Perseverance.)

ELECTION OF BISHOPS. (See Bishops.)

ELEMENTS. The materials used in the sacraments, appointed for that purpose by our Lord himself. Thus water is the element of baptism, and bread and wine are the elements of the eucharist. With respect to the elements of the eucharist, it is ordered by the Church of England that, “when there is a communion, the priest shall then place upon the table so much bread and wine as he shall think sufficient;” Then, that is, after the offertory, 310and after presenting the basin with the alms. This rubric being added to our liturgy at the last review, at the same time with the word “oblations,” in the prayer following, it is clearly evident, as Bishop Patrick has observed, that by that word are to be understood the elements of bread and wine, which the priest is to offer solemnly to God as an acknowledgment of his sovereignty over his creatures, and that from henceforth they might become properly and peculiarly his. For in all the Jewish sacrifices, of which the people were partakers, the viands or materials of the feast were first made God’s by a solemn oblation, and then afterwards eaten by the communicants, not as man’s, but as God’s provisions, who by thus entertaining them at his own table, declared himself reconciled, and again in covenant with them. And therefore our blessed Saviour, when he instituted the new sacrament of his own body and blood, first gave thanks and blessed the elements; that is, offered them up to God as Lord of the creatures, as the most ancient Fathers expound that passage; who for that reason, whenever they celebrated the holy eucharist, always offered the bread and wine for the communion to God upon the altar by this or some short ejaculation: “Lord, we offer thee thine own out of what thou hast bountifully given us.” After which they received them into the sacred banquet of the body and blood of his dear Son.

In the ancient Church they had generally a side table, or prothesis, near the altar, upon which the elements were laid till the first part of the communion service was over. Now, though we have not always a side table, and there is no express provision for one made in the Church of England, yet in the first Common Prayer Book of King Edward VI., the priest himself was ordered, in this place, to set both bread and wine upon the altar; but at the review in 1551, this and several other pious usages were thrown out, in condescension to ultra-Protestant superstition. (See Credence.) After which the Scotch liturgy was the first wherein we find it restored; and Mr. Mede having observed our liturgy to be defective in this particular, was probably the occasion, that, in the review of it after the Restoration, this primitive practice was restored, and the bread and wine ordered by the rubric to be set solemnly on the table by the priest himself. It appears, indeed, that the traditional practice of the immediately preceding times maintained its ground in many places after the alteration of the rubric; (see Hicke’s Treatises, i. 127–129, 322–324;) but the history of the change gives so marked a character to our present rubric, that a neglect of it is clearly a violation of the priest’s obligation to conformity. If the priest thus offends the consciences of the more enlightened members of a congregation, they should point out to him his mistake, which can only proceed from traditional negligence. In the coronation service of Queen Victoria, after the reading of the sentences in the Offertory, this rubric occurs. “And first the Queen offers bread and wine for the communion, which being brought out of King Edward’s chapel, and delivered into her hands, the bread upon the paten by the bishop who read the Epistle, and the wine in the chalice by the bishop that read the Gospel, are by the archbishop received from the Queen, and reverently placed upon the altar, and decently covered with a fair linen cloth, the archbishop first saying this prayer,” &c. (See Oblation and Offertory.)—See Wheatly.

ELEVATION. In architecture, a representation of a building, or of any portion of it, as it would appear if it were possible that the eye should be exactly opposite every part of it at the same time.

ELEVATION OF THE HOST. This Romish ceremony, condemned in our twenty-fifth Article, is not, comparatively speaking, an ancient rite. The Roman ritualists, Bona, Merati, Benedict XIV., Le Brun, &c., acknowledge that there is no trace of its existence before the eleventh or twelfth century in the West. The Ordo Romanus, Amalarius, Walafrid Strabo, and Micrologus, make no mention of the rite, though the last of these ritualists lived at the end of the eleventh century. The truth is, that no certain documents refer to it until the beginning of the thirteenth century, but it may possibly have existed in some places in the twelfth. The synodical constitutions of Odo de Sulli, bishop of Paris, about 1200, appoint this elevation, and it was probably then first introduced into the diocese of Paris. Innocent III., who wrote on the ceremonies of the mass at the beginning of the thirteenth century, does not speak of it; but, in the time of Honorius III., it had come into use, for he mentions it in an epistle to the Latin bishops of the patriarchate of Antioch, A. D. 1219, where he commands that, at the elevation, the people should reverently bow. “Sacerdos quilibet frequenter doceat plebem suam, ut cum in celebratione missarum elevatur hostia salutaris, quilibet reverenter inclinet.” This 311was inserted in the decretals (c. sane de celebratione missarum) by Gregory IX., his successor, and thus became the law of the West. It is spoken of by Bonaventure, Durand, and the Council of Lambeth, in the latter part of the same century; and Cardinal Guido is said to have introduced this rite, or some part of it, at Cologne, about 1265.

We know then, that, in the thirteenth century, the host was elevated, and the people bowed or knelt at the same time. But if we are to judge by the authorities referred to by the Roman ritualists themselves, the writers of that and the following ages did not always interpret this as designed for the adoration of the elements, or even of Christ in the eucharist. Bonaventure (A. D. 1270) assigns eight reasons for the elevation, some of which relate to the duty or dispositions of the people on the occasion; but he does not notice the adoration of the elements. William, bishop of Paris, about 1220, ordered a bell to be rung at the elevation, that the people might be excited to pray: not to worship the host. “Præcipitur quod in celebratione missarum, quando corpus Christi elevatur, in ipsa elevatione, vel paulo ante, campana pulsetur, sicut alias fuit statutum, ut sic mentes fidelium ad orationem excitentur.” Cardinal Guido (A. D. 1265) ordained, that at the elevation all the people should pray for pardon. “Bonam illic consuetudinem instituit, ut ad elevationem hostiæ omnis populus in ecclesia ad sonitum nolæ veniam peteret, sicque usque ad calicis benedictionem prostratus jaceret.” The synod of Cologne (A. D. 1536) explained the people’s duty at the elevation to consist, in remembering the Lord’s death, and returning him thanks with minds raised to heaven. “Post elevationem consecrati corporis ac sanguinis Domini ... tum videretur silendum, et ab omni populo mortis Dominicæ commemoratio habenda, prostratisque humi corporibus, animis in cœlum erectis, gratiæ agendæ Christo Redemptori, qui nos sanguine suo lavit morteque redemit.”

On the other hand, Durand, (1286,) Lyndwood, (1430,) the diocesan synod of Augsburg, (1548,) and Cardinal Hosius, one of the papal legates at the synod of Trent, understood the prostration of the people as designed for the adoration of Christ as present in the eucharist. Certainly this has latterly become the common opinion, but from what has been said above it appears that, before the Reformation, and afterwards, many persons at the elevation directed their worship to God and Christ simply, without any exclusive reference to the presence of Christ in the eucharist.—Palmer.

EMBER DAYS. These are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, after the first Sunday in Lent, the feast of Whitsunday, the 14th of September, and the 13th of December, all being fasting days; the Sundays following these days being the stated times of ordination in the Church. It is to be remarked, that the Sunday in December which begins the Ember week is always the third Sunday in Advent. The week in which these days fall are called Ember week. But as Sunday begins the week, the Ember collect is always to be read on the Sunday preceding the Ember days, not on that which follows them, as is sometimes erroneously done.

The derivation of the name is uncertain. It has been supposed by some to signify “ashes,” and by others “abstinence,” in allusion to the ancient custom connected with fasting. The fact that the Ember weeks return at stated periods, has led others to trace the name to a Saxon word signifying a “course,” or “cycle.” In the Western Church they were denominated “the Fasts of the Four Seasons:” and from this comes another, and perhaps the most probable, illustration—the Latin quatuor tempora (four seasons) being abbreviated into the German quatemper or quatember, and again, into the English ember. On these days the design of the Church is to call her members, by prayer and fasting, to invoke the Divine aid and blessing on the choice and commission of ministers of the gospel. The deep interest every Christian heart should feel in a matter of such infinite moment, should secure for these days the pious observance of the members of the Church.

EMBLEM. A visible, and usually an ornamental, symbol of some spiritual thing; of some great truth concerning the object of a Christian’s worship, of some object of his faith and hope, or of some mystery or privilege.

The use of emblems, under which the truths of Christianity were veiled from the heathen, while they were presented vividly to the minds of the faithful, is probably as old as Christianity itself: and the fancy of pious persons has continued it to the present day; many particular emblems having been so generally and almost universally used, as to have been interwoven almost with the very external habit of the Church itself. Among the most apt and venerable may be mentioned, the trine compass, (as it is called by Chaucer,)

or a circle inscribed within an equilateral triangle; denoting the co-equality and co-eternity of the three Divine persons in the ever blessed and undivided Trinity: the hand extended from the clouds in the attitude of benediction, for the first Person in the Trinity: the Lamb triumphant, the fish, (see Piscis,) the pelican wounding her own breast to feed her young, and others, for the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord: the dove, for the Holy Ghost. The chalice receiving the blood of the wounded Lamb, for the holy eucharist: the phœnix rising from the flames, for the resurrection: the cross, for the Christian’s life of conflict; the crown, for his hope of glory. All these are beautifully significant, and are very innocent in their use, as well as pious in their intention.

It is of the essence of a proper emblem that it be not, nor pretend to be, a simple representation. It then loses its allusive character, and becomes a mere picture of the thing itself. In theology there is another reason why this should be avoided: for when we attempt a representation of any object of Christian worship, we too nearly fall into idolatry. Hence the cross is admissible where the crucifix is not: and the not unfrequent representation of the Holy Trinity, in which the Father is represented as a man, supporting the Lord Jesus on the cross, is shocking to the reverent eye. For the like reasons the representations of the holy eucharist, under the old figure of a crucifix pouring blood into four cups placed to receive it, is very objectionable.

With regard to the use of emblems, they still afford very happy ornaments for churches and church furniture, especially perhaps for painted windows. In the primitive Church, the pious sometimes carried them on their persons. Clement of Alexandria has mentioned some which we ought to avoid, and others which we may employ; of which latter we may name a dove, a fish, a ship borne along by a full breeze, and an anchor. As the reason of the rule which he gives still holds, we may refer to his Pædag. iii. 11.

EMMANUEL, or IMMANUEL. A Hebrew word, which signifies “God with us.” Isaiah, (vii. 14,) in that celebrated prophecy, in which he foretells to Ahaz the birth of the Messiah from a virgin, says, This child shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. He repeats this while speaking of the enemy’s army, which, like a torrent, was to overflow Judea: “The stretching of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel.” St. Matthew (i. 23) informs us, that this prophecy was accomplished in the birth of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, in whom the two natures, Divine and human, were united; so that he was really Emmanuel, or “God with us.”

ENCŒNIA. Festivals anciently kept on the days on which cities were built, or churches consecrated; and in later times, ceremonies renewed at certain periods, as at Oxford and Cambridge, at the celebration of founders and benefactors.

ENCRATITES, or CONTINENTS. A name given to a sect in the second century, because they condemned marriage, forbade the eating of flesh or drinking of wine, and rejected with a sort of horror all the comforts and conveniences of life. Tatian, an Assyrian, and a disciple of Justin Martyr, was the leader of this sect. He was greatly distinguished for his genius and learning, and the excessive austerity of his life and manners. He regarded matter as the fountain of all evil, and therefore recommended in a peculiar manner the mortification of the body. He distinguished the Creator of the world from the Supreme Being, denied the reality of Christ’s body, and blended the Christian religion with several corrupt tenets of the Oriental philosophy.

ENERGUMENS, DEMONIACS, from ἐνεργουμένοι, which in the largest sense denotes persons under the motion or operation of any spirit whatever, good or bad; but, in a restrained sense, is used by ecclesiastical writers to denote persons whose bodies are possessed by an evil spirit. Mention is often made in the primitive Church, of persons possessed of an evil spirit. The regulations of the Church bestowed upon them special care. They constituted a distinct class of Christians, bearing some relation both to the catechumens and the faithful; but differing from both in this, that they were under the special oversight and direction of exorcists, while they took part in some of the religious exercises of both classes.

Catechumens who, during their probationary exercises, became demoniacs, were never baptized until thoroughly healed, except in case of extreme sickness. Believers who became demoniacs, in the worst stage of their disease, like the weeping penitents, were not permitted to enter the church; but were retained under close inspection in the outer porch. When partially recovered they were permitted, with the audientes, to join in public worship, 313but they were not permitted to partake of the eucharist until wholly restored, except in the immediate prospect of death. In general, the energumens were subject to the same rules as the penitents.—Bingham.

ENGLAND. (See Church of England.)

ENOCH, THE PROPHECY OF. An apocryphal book, of which there remains but a few fragments.

Enoch was certainly one of the most illustrious prophets of the first world, since Moses says of him, that he “walked with God.” (Gen. v. 24.) This prophet is famed in the Church for two things: the first is, his being taken up into heaven without seeing death (Heb. xi. 5); the second is, his Prophecy, a passage of which St. Jude has cited in his Epistle. (Ver. 14.) The ancients greatly esteemed the Prophecy of Enoch. Tertullian expresses his concern, that it was not generally received in the world. That Father, on the authority of this book, deduces the original of idolatry, astrology, and unlawful arts, from the revolted angels, who married with the daughters of men. And it is on the testimony of this book, that the Fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, as Irenæus, Cyprian, Lactantius, received for true this fable of the marriage of the angels with the daughters of men. St. Augustine, who was less credulous, allows, indeed, that Enoch wrote something divine because he is cited by St. Jude; but he says, it was not without reason that this book was not inserted in the Canon, which was preserved in the temple of Jerusalem, and committed to the care of the sacrificators. St. Augustine sufficiently insinuates, that the authority of this book is doubtful, and that it cannot be proved that it was really written by Enoch. Indeed the account it gives of giants engendered by angels, and not by men, has manifestly the air of a fable; and the most judicious critics believe it ought not to be ascribed to Enoch. De Habitu Mulier. c. iii. De Civit. Dei, lib. xv. c. 23.

This apocryphal book lay a long time buried in darkness; till the learned Joseph Scaliger recovered a part of it. That author gives us some considerable fragments of it, in his notes on the chronicle of Eusebius; particularly in relation to the above-mentioned story of the marriage of the angels with the daughters of men.

Scaliger, Isaac Vossius, and other learned men, attribute this work to one of those Jews, who lived in the times between the Babylonish captivity and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Others are of opinion, it was written after the rise and establishment of Christianity, by one of those fanatics, with whom the primitive Church was filled, who made a ridiculous mixture of the Platonic philosophy and the Christian divinity: such as the authors, or forgers, of the Sibylline Oracles, the Dialogues of Hermes Trismegistus, and the like. The reasons of this opinion are these. 1. The original of the book is Greek; and therefore it was not composed by any Jew, living in Judea, or Chaldea; for they always wrote in Hebrew, or in some of its dialects. 2. It is evident the author was a Christian, because he makes perpetual allusions to the texts of the New Testament. It is therefore, probably, the invention of some Christian, who took occasion from the Epistle of St. Jude to forge this work. As for St. Jude himself, it is probable he cites what concerns the general judgment, not from any book then subsisting under the name of Enoch, but from tradition.—Jurieu, Hist. des Dogmes et Cultes, part i. c. 4.

ENTHRONISATION. (See Bishop.) The placing of a bishop in his stall or throne in his cathedral.

A distinction is sometimes made between the enthronisation of an archbishop and a bishop, the latter being called installation: but this appears to be a mere refinement of the middle ages, of which we have many such.—Jebb.

EPACT. In chronology, and in the tables for the calculation of Easter, a number indicating the excess of the solar above the lunar year. The solar year consisting, in round numbers, of 365 days, and the lunar of twelve months, of twenty-nine and a half days each, or 354 days, there will be an overplus in the solar year of eleven days, and this constitutes the Epact. In other words, the epact of any year expresses the number of days from the last new moon of the old year (which was the beginning of the present lunar year) to the first of January. In the first year, therefore, it will be 0; in the second 11 days; in the third twice 11 or 22; and in the fourth it would be 11 days more, or 33; but 30 days being a synodical month, will in that year be intercalated, making thirteen synodical months, and the remaining three is then the epact. In the following year, 11 will again be added, making fourteen for the epact, and so on to the end of the cycle, adding 11 to the epact of the last year, and always rejecting thirty, by counting it as an additional month. The epact is inserted in the table of moveable feasts in the Prayer Book.

EPHOD, a sort of ornament or upper garment, worn by the Hebrew priests. 314The word אפוד, ephod, is derived from אפד, aphad, which signifies to gird, or tie, for the ephod was a kind of girdle which, brought from behind the neck, and over the two shoulders, and hanging down before, was put cross upon the stomach; then carried round the waist, and made use of as a girdle to the tunic. There were two sorts of ephods, one of plain linen for the priests, and another embroidered for the high priest. As there was nothing singular in that used by common priests, Moses does not dwell upon the description of it, but of that belonging to the high priest he gives us a large and particular account. (Exod. xxviii. 6, &c.) It was composed of gold, blue, purple, crimson, and twisted cotton: upon that part of it which passed over the shoulders were two large precious stones, one on each shoulder, upon which were engraven the names of the twelve tribes, six upon each stone; and, where the ephod crossed upon the high priest’s breast, there was a square ornament called the pectoral, or breastplate.

St. Jerome observes, that the ephod was peculiar to the priesthood; and it was an opinion among the Jews, that no sort of worship, true or false, could subsist without a priesthood and ephod. Thus Micah, having made an idol and placed it in his house, did not fail to make an ephod for it. (Judges xvii. 5.) God foretold by Hosea, (iii. 4,) that the Israelites should be for a long time without kings, princes, sacrifices, altar, ephod, and teraphim; and Isaiah, speaking of the false gods who were worshipped by the Israelites, ascribes ephods to them.

The ephod is often taken for the pectoral or breastplate, and for the Urim and Thummim, which were fastened to it, because all this belonged to the ephod, and made but one piece with it. Though the ephod was properly an ecclesiastical habit, yet we find it sometimes worn by laymen. Samuel, though a Levite only, and a child, wore a linen ephod. (1 Sam. ii. 18.) And David, in the ceremony of removing the ark from the house of Obed-edom to Jerusalem, was girt with a linen ephod. (2 Sam. vi. 14.) The Levites regularly were not allowed to wear the ephod; but in the time of Agrippa, as we are told by Josephus, a little time before the taking of Jerusalem by the Romans, the Levites obtained of that prince permission to wear the linen stole as well as the priests. The historian observes, that this was an innovation contrary to the laws of their country, which were never struck at with impunity.

Spencer and Cunæus are of opinion, that the Jewish kings had a right to wear the ephod, because David coming to Ziglag, and finding that the Amalekites had plundered the city, and carried away his and the people’s wives, ordered Abiathar the high priest to bring him the ephod, which being done, David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue after this troop?” &c. (1 Sam. xxx. 8); whence they infer that David consulted God by Urim and Thummim, and consequently put on the ephod. The generality of commentators believe, that David did not dress himself in the high priest’s ephod, and that the text signifies no more than that the king ordered Abiathar to put on the ephod, and consult God for him.

The ephod of Gideon is remarkable for having become the occasion of a new kind of idolatry to the Israelites. (Judges viii. 27.) What this consisted in, is matter of dispute among the learned. Some authors are of opinion that this ephod, as it is called, was an idol; others, that it was only a trophy in memory of that signal victory; and that the Israelites paid a kind of Divine worship to it, so that Gideon was the innocent cause of their idolatry; in like manner as Moses was, when he made the brazen serpent, which came afterwards to be worshipped.

EPIGONATON. An appendage of a lozenge shape, somewhat resembling a small maniple, worn on the right side, depending from the girdle. It is considered to represent the napkin with which our blessed Lord girded himself at the last supper, and has embroidered on it either a cross or the head of our Lord. In the Romish Church its use is confined to the pope. In the Greek Church it is used by all bishops. The epigonaton does not occur in the sacerdotal vestments of the English Church.—Palmer.

EPIPHANY. The epiphany, or manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, is commemorated in the Church on the 6th of January, and denotes the day on which the wise men came from the East to worship the infant Jesus. (Matt. ii. 2.) Let us be thankful for the light of the gospel, which on that day began to shine on those who sat in darkness. (Isa. ix. 2; Matt. iv. 16.)

The word epiphany is derived from the compound verb ἐπιφαίνω, which signifies to manifest or declare. The Epiphany is observed as a scarlet day at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford.

The feast of Epiphany was not, originally, a distinct festival, but made a part of 315that of the nativity of Christ; which being celebrated twelve days, the first and last of which, according to the custom of the Jews in their feasts, were high or chief days of solemnity, either of these might fitly be called Epiphany, as that word signifies the appearance of Christ in the world.

This festival was, in one respect, more taken notice of, in the Greek Church, than the Nativity itself, being allowed as one of the three solemn times of baptism, which the Nativity was not; a privilege which it wanted in the Latin Church. St. Chrysostom tells us, that, this being likewise the day of our Saviour’s baptism, it was usual to carry home water, at midnight, from the church, and that it would remain as fresh and uncorrupt for one, two, or three years, as if immediately drawn from the spring.—Homil. 24, de Bapt. Christi.

Theodosius the Younger gave this festival an honourable place among those days, on which the public games were not allowed; and Justinian made it a day of vacation from all pleadings at law, as well as from popular pleasures. It is to be observed, likewise, that those to whom the care of the Paschal cycle, or rule for finding Easter, was committed, were obliged, on or about the time of Epiphany, to give public notice when Easter and Lent were to be kept the ensuing year.—Cod. Theod. lib. xv. tit. 5, leg. 5. Cod. Just. lib. iii. tit. 12, leg. 6.

EPISCOPACY. (See Bishops and Orders.) The ancient apostolical form of Church government, consisting in the superintendency of one over several other church officers. Bishops were always allowed to be of an order superior to presbyters; and, indeed, having all the powers that presbyters have, and some more peculiar to themselves, they must be of a different order necessarily. It is their peculiar office to ordain, which never was allowed to presbyters; and, anciently, the presbyter acted in dependence upon the bishop in the administration of the Lord’s supper and baptism, and even in preaching, in such manner that he could not do it regularly without the bishop’s approbation.

Our Church asserts, in the preface to the Ordinal, that the order of bishops was “from the apostles’ time;” referring us to those texts of Scripture occurring in the history of the Acts, and the apostolical Epistles, which are usually urged for the proof of the episcopal order. And of a great many which might be alleged these are some. In the short history which we have of the apostles, we find them exercising all the peculiar offices of the episcopal order. They ordain church ministers: “And when they had prayed they laid their hands on them.” (Acts vi. 6.) They confirm baptized persons: “Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost” (viii. 15). They excommunicate notorious offenders, as the incestuous person. (1 Cor. v. 5.) The like episcopal powers we find in Scripture committed to others, whom, from the tenor of Scripture, and the testimony of antiquity, we judge to have been advanced to that order. Not only a power of ordination, but a particular charge in conferring it, is given to Timothy; namely, that he “lay hands suddenly on no man.” (1 Tim. v. 22.) That he caution the presbyters under him “that they teach no other doctrine” (i. 3). Rules are given him how he should animadvert on an offending presbyter: “Against an elder receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses,” (v. 19,) and to what conduct he should oblige the deacons (iii. 8). The same episcopal powers are committed to Titus, to “ordain elders in every city,” (Tit. i. 5,) and to excommunicate heretics after the first or second admonition (iii. 10). Now these are very good proofs to all reasonable men that diligently read the Holy Scriptures, that the order of bishops was inclusively “from,” that is, in, “the apostles’ time.”

But to all diligent and impartial readers of ancient writers the case is yet more out of doubt. The earliest ecclesiastical writer extant is Clemens Romanus, who wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians within forty years after our Saviour’s ascension. And he speaks not only of presbyters and deacons, but of bishops likewise, as an order in use in his time, clearly distinguishing also between the two orders of bishops and presbyters. In the epistles of Ignatius, who was bishop of Antioch seventy years after Christ, in which he continued forty years, being martyred in the year of our Lord 108, just seven years after St. John’s death, all the three orders are clearly and exactly distinguished. Of lower authorities the instances are innumerable. Clement of Alexandria wrote in the latter end of the second century; and he mentions the three orders as the established use of the Church in his time. Origen, who lived at the same time, uses corresponding language. Tertullian likewise mentions these three orders as established ranks of the hierarchy. And so infinite other authors make these three orders perfectly distinct.—Dr. Nicholls.

316Of the distinction among the governors of the Church there was never in ancient times made any question; nor did it seem disputable in the Church, except to one malcontent, Aërius, who did indeed get a name in story, but never made much noise, or obtained any vogue in the world. Very few followers he found in his heterodoxy. No great body even of heretics could find cause to dissent from the Church in this point. But all Arians, Macedonians, Novatians, Donatists, &c. maintained the distinction of orders among themselves, and acknowledged the duty of the inferior clergy to their bishops. And no wonder; seeing it standeth upon so very firm and clear grounds; upon the reason of the case, upon the testimony of Holy Scripture, upon general tradition, and unquestionable monuments of antiquity, upon the common judgment and practice of the greatest saints, persons most renowned for wisdom and piety in the Church.

Reason doth plainly require such subordinations. This all experience attesteth; this even the chief impugners of episcopal presidency do by their practice confess, who for prevention of disorders have been fain, of their own heads, to devise ecclesiastical subordination of classes, provinces, and nations; and to appoint moderators, or temporary bishops, in their assemblies. So that reason hath forced the dissenters from the Church to imitate it.

The Holy Scripture also doth plainly enough countenance this distinction. For therein we have represented one “angel” presiding over principal churches, which contained several presbyters, (Rev. ii. 1,) &c.: therein we find episcopal ordination and jurisdiction exercised: we have one bishop constituting presbyters in divers cities of his diocese, (Tit. i. 5; 1 Tim. v. 1, 17, 19, 20, 22,) &c.; ordering all things therein concerning ecclesiastical discipline; judging presbyters; rebuking “with all authority,” or imperiousness, as it were, (Tit. ii. 15,) and reconciling offenders, secluding heretics and scandalous persons.

In the Jewish Church there were an high priest, chief priest, a sanhedrim, or senate, or synod.

The government of congregations among God’s ancient people, which it is probable was the pattern that the apostles, no affecters of needless innovation, did follow in establishing ecclesiastical discipline among Christians, doth hereto agree; for in their synagogues, answering to our Christian churches, they had, as their elders and doctors, so over them an ἀρχισυνάγωγος, the head of the eldership, and president of the synagogue.

The primitive general use of Christians most effectually doth back the Scripture, and interpret it in favour of this distinction, scarce less than demonstrating it constituted by the apostles. For how otherwise is it imaginable, that all the Churches founded by the apostles in several most distant and disjointed places, at Jerusalem, at Antioch, at Alexandria, at Ephesus, at Corinth, at Rome, should presently conspire in acknowledgment and use of it? How could it, without apparent confederacy, be formed, how could it creep in without notable clatter, how could it be admitted without considerable opposition, if it were not in the foundation of those Churches laid by the apostles? How is it likely, that in those times of grievous persecution, falling chiefly upon the bishops, when to be eminent among Christians yielded slender reward, and exposed to extreme hazard; when to seek pre-eminence was in effect to court danger and trouble, torture and ruin, an ambition of irregularly advancing themselves above their brethren should so generally prevail among the ablest and best Christians? How could those famous martyrs for the Christian truth be some of them so unconscionable as to affect, others so irresolute as to yield to, such injurious encroachments? And how could all the holy Fathers, persons of so renowned, so approved wisdom and integrity, be so blind as not to discern such a corruption, or so bad as to abet it? How indeed could all God’s Church be so weak as to consent in judgment, so base as to comply in practice, with it? In fine, how can we conceive, that all the best monuments of antiquity down from the beginning, the acts, the epistles, the histories, the commentaries, the writings of all sorts, coming from the blessed martyrs and most holy confessors of our faith, should conspire to abuse us; the which do speak nothing but bishops; long catalogues and rows of bishops succeeding in this and that city; bishops contesting for the faith against pagan idolaters and heretical corrupters of Christian doctrine; bishops here teaching, and planting our religion by their labours, their suffering, and watering it with their blood?—Dr. Isaac Barrow.

It was so well known that a bishop was of a superior order to a presbyter, that it was deemed sacrilege by the fourth general council to thrust a bishop down from the first to the second degree. So that, however persecution and dire necessity may 317perhaps excuse some late Churches, for being forced to mix the two first orders, and to have only priests and deacons; yet we, who have a prescription of above 1600 (now 1700) years for us, even from the apostles’ time, have the right of our side, and must never depart therefrom.—Dean Comber.

EPISTLE. The Scriptural Epistles are letters which were addressed by the inspired apostles to Churches or individuals.

Of these, the apostle Paul wrote fourteen; viz.

1.

The Epistle to the Romans.

2.

The First Epistle to the Corinthians.

3.

The Second Epistle to the Corinthians.

4.

The Epistle to the Galatians.

5.

The Epistle to the Ephesians.

6.

The Epistle to the Philippians.

7.

The Epistle to the Colossians.

8.

The First Epistle to the Thessalonians.

9.

The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians.

10.

The First Epistle to Timothy.

11.

The Second Epistle to Timothy.

12.

The Epistle to Titus.

13.

The Epistle to Philemon.

14.

The Epistle to the Hebrews.

But by the Epistle in the liturgy we mean the first lesson in the Communion Service, which is so styled because it is generally taken from the Epistles of the holy apostles. Sometimes, however, it is taken from the Acts, and occasionally from the prophets. Almost all the lessons now read as Epistles in the English liturgy have been appointed to their present place, and used by our Church, for many ages. They are found in all the liturgies of our Church used before the revision, in the reign of Edward VI., and they also appear in all the monuments of the English liturgy, before the invasion of William the Conqueror. It is, in fact, probable that they are generally as old as the time of Augustine, A. D. 595. In this view, the lessons entitled Epistles in our liturgy have been used, with some alterations, for 1200 years by the Church of England. We must consider this more as a subject of interest and pleasure than of any great importance, since all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Yet we may remark, that the extracts read from the Epistles are generally devotional and practical, and, therefore, best adapted for ordinary comprehension and general edification.

EPISTOLER. In the 24th canon, and in the injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, we find that a special reader, entitled an epistoler, is to read the Epistle in collegiate churches, vested in a cope. The canon and the injunctions here referred to will be found under the head Cathedral.

Epistolers are still statuteable officers in several cathedrals of the new foundation; though in most it has fallen into desuetude. It is retained at Durham. The epistoler and gospeller are sometimes called deacon and subdeacon, in the cathedral statutes. The epistoler, according to our present rubric, strictly interpreted, must be a priest. In the Roman Church he is a subdeacon. But by Archbishop Grindal’s Injunctions in 1571, it was required that parish clerks should be able to read the first Lesson and Epistle.—Jebb.

EPOCH. A term in chronology signifying a fixed point of time from which the succeeding years are numbered. The first epoch is the creation of the world, which, according to the Vulgate Bible, Archbishop Usher fixes in the year 710 of the Julian periods, and 4004 years before Jesus Christ. The second is the deluge, which, according to the Hebrew text, happened in the year of the world 1656. Six other epochs are commonly reckoned in sacred history: the building of the tower of Babel; the calling of Abraham; the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt; the dedication of the temple; the end of the Babylonish captivity; and the birth of Jesus Christ. In profane history are reckoned four epochs: the æra of Nabonassar, or death of Sardanapalus; the reign of Cyrus at Babylon; the reign of Alexander the Great over the Persians; and the beginning of the reign of Augustus, in which our Saviour was born.

ERASTIANS. So called from Erastus, a German heretic of the 16th century. The pastoral office, according to him, was only persuasive, like that of a professor of science over his students, without any power of the keys annexed. The Lord’s supper, and other ordinances of the gospel, were to be free and open to all. The minister might dissuade the vicious and unqualified from the communion, but might not refuse it, or inflict any kind of censure; the punishment of all offences, either of a civil or religious nature, being referred to the civil magistrate.

ESDRAS, the name of two apocryphal books of Scripture, which were always excluded 318the Jewish canon, and are too absurd to be admitted as canonical by the Romanists themselves. They are supposed to have been originally written in Greek, by some Hellenistical Jews, though some imagine that they were first written in Chaldee, and afterwards translated into Greek. It is uncertain when they were composed, though it is generally agreed that the author wrote before Josephus.

The First Book of Esdras is chiefly historical, and gives an account of the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, the building of the temple, and the establishment of Divine worship. The truth it contains is borrowed from the canonical books of Ezra (or Esdras, as the Greeks and Latins call him, and thence term these books, the Third and Fourth Book of Esdras); the rest is exceeding fabulous and trifling: this book however is by the Greeks allowed to be canonical. The Second Book of Esdras is written in the prophetical way, and pretends to visions and revelations, but so ridiculous and absurd, that the Spirit of God could have no concern in the dictating of them. The author believed that the day of judgment was at hand, and that all the souls both of good and bad men would be delivered out of hell after the day of judgment. He speaks of two monstrous animals created by God at the beginning of the world, in order to make a feast with them for all the elect, after the resurrection. He says, that the ten tribes are gone into a certain country, which he calls Arseret; that Ezra repaired the whole body of the Holy Scriptures, which were entirely lost; and he speaks of Jesus Christ and his apostles in so clear a manner, that the gospel itself is not more express.

The Books of Esdras are not read in the service of the Church of England. In the list of apocryphal books in the 6th Article, these are called the Third and Fourth Books of Esdras, because Ezra and Nehemiah were formerly joined in one book; and when they were separated, the book of Nehemiah, being considered as a continuation of the book of Ezra, was called by his name.—Bishop Tomline.

ESPOUSE, ESPOUSALS. A ceremony of betrothing, or coming under obligation for the purpose of marriage. It was a mutual agreement between the two parties, which usually preceded the marriage some considerable time. The distinction between espousals and marriage ought to be carefully attended to, as espousals in the East are sometimes contracted for years before the parties cohabit, and sometimes in very early youth. This custom is alluded to figuratively, as between God and his people, (Jer. ii. 2,) to whom he was a husband. (Jer. xxxi. 32.) The apostle says that he acted as a kind of assistant (pronuba) on this occasion (2 Cor. xi. 2.): “I have espoused you to Christ,” that is, I have drawn up the writings, settled the agreements, given pledges, &c., of that union. (See Isa. liv. 5; Matt. xxv. 6; Rev. xix.)

ESSENES. A very ancient sect, which was spread abroad through Syria, Egypt, and the neighbouring countries. They maintained that religion consisted wholly in contemplation and silence. Some of them passed their lives in a state of celibacy; others embraced the state of matrimony, which they considered as lawful, when entered into with the sole design of propagating the species, and not to satisfy the demands of lust. Some of them held the possibility of appeasing the Deity by sacrifices, though different from that of the Jews; and others maintained that no offering was acceptable to God but that of a serene and composed mind, addicted to the contemplation of divine things. They looked upon the law of Moses as an allegorical system of spiritual and mysterious truths, and renounced, in its explication, all regard to the outward letter.

ESTABLISHMENT. By a religious establishment is generally meant, in the present day, the religion, whether Christian or not, which is recognised by the State. Thus Presbyterianism is the establishment of Scotland, Mahomedanism that of Turkey. In England and Ireland the Catholic Church is the establishment. It has not been endowed by the State, which has rather robbed than enriched it; nor has it been established, like Presbyterianism in Scotland, by an act of the legislature. But being endowed by individual piety, it was for many ages the only community in this country which even pretended to be the Church: as such it was recognised by the State, and when in process of time the Catholic Church in this country asserted its independence of Rome, and reformed the abuses which had crept into it, it continued to be, as it always was, the religious community connected with the State; although, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a sect in communion with Rome was founded in England, and arrogated to itself the name and titles which belong to our ancient Church, and to her alone. A slight reference to history will show what is meant. Soon after Augustine had been consecrated, in France, the first archbishop 319of Canterbury, his see was endowed with large revenues by King Ethelbert, who likewise established, at the instance of the archbishop, the dioceses of Rochester and London. The other kings of the heptarchy erected bishoprics equal to the size of their kingdoms. And the example was followed by their nobles, who converted their estates into parishes, erecting fit places of worship, and endowing them with tithes. (See Church of England.)

Thus was the Church established. For many years there appears to have continued a good understanding between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, the powers of which were, in most respects, as in these days, blended. But, after the moral world had been subdued, and papal tyranny had been established by the marvellous energies of Hildebrand, his crafty successors, the popes of Rome, soon perceived that, in order to secure their dominion, it was important, as far as possible, to sever the alliance which had hitherto subsisted between the Church and the State. Representing the Church as independent, they regarded the king as the head of the State, and the pope as supreme over the Church. No sectarian of the present day can be more hostile to the alliance between Church and State than were those divines, who in the middle ages were devoted to the popedom. Although the pope, however, had here in England, as elsewhere, many creatures and advocates, yet many and manful were the repulses he met with from our clergy, our kings, and the people. His authority, indeed, was, in this realm, a mere assumption, for he was never elected by any synod of our Church as its head. Still, assuming rights to which he could lay no lawful claim, his usurpations were continued until, in the reign of Henry VIII., the clergy, the monarch, and the people, could bear the tyranny no longer, but, throwing off the yoke, declared that the pope was not the head of the Church of England, but that, in these realms, the king is, as in times past he was, over all persons, and in all causes, ecclesiastical as well as civil, in these his dominions, supreme. This is the fact, and the history of the fact. The property of the Church remains with those who have descended in an unbroken line from the clergy to whom it was originally granted. If our title be disputed, it devolves upon the adversary to establish a prior claim. This the Protestant dissenter does not attempt to do; and, with respect to the Roman Catholic dissenters, we know, that instead of being descended from the original grantees, their line of succession began at Rome scarcely more than two centuries ago. Nor can they claim on the ground of greater similarity of doctrine, for transubstantiation, the worship of saints and images, half communion, constrained celibacy, &c., the doctrines and practices which distinguish the modern Romanists, were unknown to the Anglo-Saxon Church. Admitting, then, that we may differ in some particulars of practice from our ancestors, yet certainly we do not differ from them so much as the modern Romanists.

ESTHER. The Book of Esther is a canonical book of Scripture, containing the history of Esther. There has been some dispute whether it was a canonical book among the Jews. St. Jerome and other Christian writers maintain the affirmative, but St. Athanasius and some others incline to the opposite conclusion. It has, however, been received as canonical by the Church. The last six chapters, beginning at the fourth verse of the tenth chapter, are not in the Hebrew text. These are probably a composure of several pieces collected by the Hellenistical Jews, and are therefore deservedly thrown out of the canon of the sacred books by the Protestant Church; but the Latin and Greek Churches hold them canonical. As to the author of the Book of Esther, there is great uncertainty. Many of the Christian fathers attribute this history to Ezra. Eusebius believes it to be more modern. Others ascribe it to Joachim the high priest, the grandson of Josedec. Most conceive Mordecai to have been the author of it, and join Esther with him in the composition of it. M. Du Pin conjectures, that the great synagogue, to preserve the memory of this remarkable event, and to account for the original of the feast of Purim, ordered this book to be composed, which they approved and placed in the canon of their sacred books. It has been remarked, as a singular circumstance, that the Divine name does not once occur in this book.

ETERNITY. That mysterious attribute of God which implies his existence, as without end, so without beginning. The self-existent Being, observes Dr. Clarke, must of necessity be eternal. The ideas of eternity and self-existence are so closely connected, that, because something must of necessity be eternal, independently and without any outward cause of its being, therefore it must necessarily be self-existent; and, because it is impossible but something must be self-existent, therefore 320it is necessary that it must likewise be eternal. To be self-existent, is to exist by an absolute necessity in the nature of the thing itself. Now this necessity being absolute, and not depending upon anything external, must be always unalterably the same, nothing being alterable but what is capable of being affected by somewhat without itself. That being, therefore, which has no other cause of its existence but the absolute necessity of its own nature, must, of necessity, have existed from everlasting, without beginning, and must, of necessity, exist to everlasting, without end.

As to the manner of this eternal existence, it is manifest it herein infinitely transcends the manner of the existence of all created beings, even of such as shall exist for ever; that whereas it is not possible for their finite minds to comprehend all that is past, or to understand perfectly all things that are present, much less to know all that is future, or to have entirely in their power anything that is to come, but their thoughts, and knowledge, and power, must, of necessity, have degrees and periods, and be successive and transient as the things themselves: the eternal, supreme cause, on the contrary, must of necessity have such a perfect, independent, unchangeable comprehension of all things, that there can be no one point or instant of his eternal duration, wherein all things that are past, present, and to come, will not be as entirely known and represented to him in one single thought or view, and all things present and future be as equally and entirely in his power and direction, as if there was really no succession at all, but all things were actually present at once.

This is, in reality, the most incomprehensible of the Divine attributes. God is without beginning; the Father, always a Father, without beginning; the Son, always the only begotten of the Father, without beginning; the Holy Ghost, always proceeding from the Father and the Son, without beginning; the one God, always existing in the Trinity of his persons, without beginning.

“There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things visible and invisible; and in the unity of this Godhead, there be Three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”—Article I.

EUCHARIST. (From εὐχαριστία, giving of thanks.) (See Communion, Lord’s Supper, Elements, Consecration of the Elements, Sacrament, Sacrifice, Real Presence.) Sacramentum eucharistiæ is the name given to the Lord’s supper in our Latin articles, signifying, properly, thanksgiving or blessing, and fitly denoting this holy service as a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. It occurs in Ignatius, Irenæus, Clemens of Alexandria, Origen, and others; and was adopted into the Latin language, as may be seen from Tertullian and Cyprian in many places.—Waterland. We have, however, an earlier allusion to the liturgy, under the title of eucharistia, or thanksgiving, in the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians; where, in forbidding and reasoning against the practice of some persons, who used the miraculous gift of tongues in an improper manner, namely, by celebrating the liturgy in an unknown language, he says, “When thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?” (1 Cor. xiv. 16.) ἐπεὶ, εἂν εὐλογήσῃς τῷ πνεύματι, ὁ ἀναπληρῶν τὸν τόπον τοῦ ἰδιώτου πῶς ἐρεῖ τὸ ἀμὴν ἐπὶ τῇ σῇ εὐχαριστιᾳ; ἐπειδὴ, τί λέγεις, οὐκ οἶδε. The meaning of this passage is obvious: “If thou shalt bless the bread and wine in an unknown language, which has been given to thee by the Holy Spirit, how shall the layman say Amen, ‘so be it,’ at the end of thy thanksgiving or liturgy, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?” It is undeniable that St. Paul in this place uses exactly the same expressions to describe the supposed action as he has employed a short time before in designating the sacraments of Christ’s body and blood, and describing our Lord’s consecration at the last supper. Τὸ ποτήριον τῆς εὐλογίας ὃ εὐλογοῦμεν, οὐχὶ κοινωνία τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ Χοιστοῦ ἐστι; “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” (1 Cor. x. 16.) Ὁ Κύριος Ἰησοῦς ἐν τῇ νυκτὶ ᾖ παρεδίδοτο, ἔλαβεν ἄρτον, καὶ εὐχαριστήσας ἔκλασε. (1 Cor. xi. 23.) “The Lord Jesus, in the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it.” The language of St. Paul also in the passage under consideration, as well as the action which he describes, is perfectly conformable to the description given by Justin Martyr of the celebration of the eucharist. “Then bread and a cup of water and wine is offered to the president of the brethren; and he, taking them, sends up praise and glory to the Father of all, in the name of the Son 321and of the Holy Ghost, and makes a very long thanksgiving, because God has thought us worthy of these things. And when he has ended the prayers and thanksgiving, all the people that are present signify their approbation, saying, Amen. For Amen in the Hebrew language signifies ‘so be it.’” Here we observe the “president” corresponding to the person who “blesses,” according to St. Paul, and performs the “thanksgiving.” The “people” corresponding to the “unlearned person” (or layman, as Chrysostom and Theodoret interpret the word) of St. Paul, and replying Amen, “so be it,” at the end of the thanksgiving in both passages. If we refer to all the ancient and primitive liturgies of the East and of Greece, the peculiar applicability of St. Paul’s argument to the Christian liturgy will appear still more. In the liturgy of Constantinople or Greece, which has probably been always used at Corinth, the bishop or priest takes bread, and “blesses” it in the course of a very long “thanksgiving,” at the end of which all the people answer, “Amen.” The same may be said of the liturgies of Antioch and Cæsarea, and, in fine, of all the countries of the East and Greece through which St. Paul bare rule or founded Churches. It may be added, that there is, we believe, no instance in the writings of the most primitive fathers, in which the Amen is ever said to have been repeated at the end of an office containing both blessing and thanksgiving, except in the liturgy of the eucharist.

All this shows plainly that the argument of St. Paul applies immediately and directly to the celebration of this sacrament. Whether we regard his own previous expressions, the language and the words of the earliest fathers, or the customs of the primitive Church exhibited in the ancient liturgies, we see the accurate coincidence between the case which he refers to, and the celebration of the eucharist.—Palmer’s Origines Liturgicæ, p. 114. We virtually adopt this word, when in the prayer after communion, we pray to God to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

EUCHARISTIC. Belonging to the service of the holy eucharist; or, in a larger sense, having the character of thanksgiving.

EUCHELAION. (Gr.) The oil of prayer. To such penitents (in the Greek Church) as are conscious of the guilt of any mortal sin, as adultery, fornication, or pride, is administered the sacrament of τὸ εὐχέλαιον, Euchelaion, which is performed by the bishop, or archbishop, assisted by seven priests, and begins with this prayer, “O Lord, who with the oil of thy mercies hast healed the wounds of our souls, do thou sanctify this oil, that those who are anointed therewith may be freed from their infirmities, and from all corporeal and spiritual evils.” This oil of prayer is pure and unmixed oil, without any other composition; a quantity whereof, sufficient to serve for the whole year, is consecrated, on Wednesday in the Holy Week, by the archbishop, or bishop. The Euchelaion of the Greek answers to the Extreme Unction of the Romanists.

In the administration of this oil of prayer, the priest dips some cotton at the end of a stick, and therewith anoints the penitent, in the form of a cross, on the forehead, on the chin, on each cheek, and on the backs and palms of the hands: after which he repeats this prayer—“Holy Father, physician of souls and bodies, who hast sent thine only Son Jesus Christ, healing infirmities and sins, to free us from death; heal this thy servant of corporeal and spiritual infirmities, and give him salvation and the grace of thy Christ, through the prayers of our more than holy lady, the mother of God, the eternal Virgin, through the assistance of the glorious, celestial, and incorporeal powers, through the virtue of the holy and life-giving cross, of the holy and glorious prophet, the forerunner, John the Baptist, and of the holy and glorious apostles.”—Ricaut.

EUCHOLOGION. (From εὐχὴ, preces, and λόγος, sermo.) The name of a liturgical book of the Greek Church, containing a collection of Divine services for the administration of the sacraments, conferring of orders, and other religious offices: it is properly their ritual, containing everything relating to religious ceremonies. Father Simon observes, that several of the most considerable divines of that Church, in Europe, met at Rome under Pope Urban VIII., to examine the Euchologion: Morinus, who was one of the congregation, mentions this ritual in his book De Congregationibus: the greatest part of the divines, being influenced by the sentiments of the schoolmen, were willing to reform this Greek ritual by that of the Church of Rome, as if there had been some heresies in it, or rather some passages which made the administration of the sacraments invalid; but some, who more perfectly understood the controversy, opposed the censure of the Euchologion: they proved this ritual was agreeable to the practice of the Greek Church before the schism of Photius, and that for this 322reason it could not be condemned, without condemning all the old Eastern communion.

EUDOXIANS. Certain heretics in the fourth century, whose founder was Eudoxius, bishop of Antioch, and afterwards of Constantinople. They adhered to the errors of the Aëtians and Eunomians, affirming the Son to be differently affected in his will from the Father, and made of nothing.

EULOGIÆ. (Gr.) So the Greek Church calls the Panis benedictus, or bread, over which a blessing is pronounced, and which is distributed to those who are unqualified to communicate. The name Eulogiæ was likewise anciently given to the consecrated pieces of bread which the bishops and priests sent to each other for the keeping up a friendly correspondence: those presents likewise, which were made out of respect or obligation, were called Eulogiæ.

St. Paulinus, bishop of Nola, about the end of the fourth century, having sent five Eulogiæ at one time to Romanian, speaks to him in these terms: “That I may not be wanting in the duties of brotherly love, I send you five pieces of bread, of the ammunition of the warfare of Jesus Christ, under whose standard we fight, following the laws of temperance and sobriety.”

EUNOMIANS. A sect, so called from Eunomius, who lived in the fourth century of Christianity; he was constituted bishop of Cyzicum, and stoutly defended the Arian heresy, maintaining that the Father was of a different nature from the Son, because no creature could be like his creator: he held that the Son of God did not substantially unite himself to the human nature, but only by virtue and his operations; he affirmed blasphemously that he knew God as well as God himself; and those that were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity he rebaptized, and was so averse to the mystery, that he forbade the trinal immersion at baptism. Upon divulging his tenets, he was expelled Cyzicum and forced also to leave Samosata, where he was also obtruded by the Arian faction. Valens restored him to Cyzicum, but being again expelled by the people, he applied himself to Eudoxius at Constantinople.

EUSTATHIANS. A denomination in the fourth century, who derived their name from Eustathius, a monk. This man was the occasion of great disorders and divisions in Armenia, Pontus, and the neighbouring countries; and, in consequence, he was condemned and excommunicated by the Council of Gangra, which was held soon after that of Nice.

EUTYCHIANS. Heretics in the fifth century, the followers of the error of Eutyches, who being a Constantinopolitan abbot, and contending against Nestorius, fell into a new heresy. He and his followers affirmed that Christ was one thing, the Word another; they denied the flesh of Christ to be like ours, but said he had a celestial body, which passed through the Virgin as through a channel; that there were two natures in Christ before the hypostatical union, but that, after it, there was but one, compounded of both; and thence concluded that the Divinity of Christ both suffered and died. Being condemned in a synod at Constantinople, he appealed to the emperor: after which, by the assistance of Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, he obtained a synod at Ephesus, called Latrocinium, or the assembly of thieves and robbers, wherein he got his heresy to be approved: however, in the fourth general council, under Marcian, A. D. 451, his errors were a second time condemned.

EVANGEL. (From εὐ, bene, and ἀγγελία, nuncius.) The gospel of Christ. The revealed history of our blessed Lord’s life.

EVANGELICAL. Agreeable to the gospel, or “evangel.” The term is used by that class of dissenters whose private judgment leads them to regard as Scriptural the facts of our Lord’s Divinity and atonement, to distinguish them from another class of dissenters, whose private judgment leads them to hold these sacred truths as unscriptural. (See the Evangelical Magazine.) The name is sometimes given to those persons who conform to the Church, but whose notions are supposed more nearly to coincide with the opinions of dissenters than with the doctrines of the Church; thereby most unjustly insinuating that the principles of all consistent members of the Church are not according to the gospel. The use of terms of distinction among members of the Church is much to be reprobated: among sects it cannot be avoided. In the strict and proper sense of the words, he who is truly evangelical must be a true member of the Church, and every true member of the Church must be truly evangelical.

EVANGELISTS. Persons chosen by the apostles to preach the gospel. It being impracticable for the twelve only to preach the gospel to all the world, Philip, among others, was engaged in this function. As for their rank in the Church, 323St. Paul places them after the apostles and prophets, but before the pastors and teachers, (Eph. iv. 11,) which makes Theodoret call them apostles of the second rank: they had no particular flock assigned, as bishops or ordinary pastors, but travelled from one place to another, according to their instructions received from the apostles, to whom they returned after they had executed their commission, so that, in short, this office, being extraordinary, expired with the apostles.

The title of Evangelists is now more particularly given to those four holy persons who wrote the history of our Saviour.

EVENS, or VIGILS. The nights or evenings before certain holy-days of the Church. Vigils are derived from the earliest periods of Christianity. In those times of persecution Christians held their assemblies in the night, in order to avoid detection. On these occasions they celebrated the memory of Christ’s death in the holy mysteries. When persecution had intermitted and finally ceased, although Christians were able to celebrate all their rites, and to minister the sacraments in the day-time, yet a custom which had commenced from necessity was retained from devotion and choice. The reason why some of the festivals have evens or vigils assigned, and some have not, appears to be this, that the festivals which have no vigils fall generally between Christmas and the Purification, or between Easter and Whitsuntide; which were always esteemed such seasons of joy that the Church did not think fit to intermingle them with any days of fasting and humiliation. To this rule there are exceptions, which may be severally accounted for, but such seems to be the rule: e.g. There is no vigil on St. Michael’s day, because, as Dr. Bisse remarks, the saints entered into joy through sufferings, and therefore their festivals are preceded by fasts; which circumstance is not applicable to the angels of God. St. Paul’s day commemorates not his martyrdom, but his conversion; St. Luke was not an apostle, nor does the calendar represent him as a martyr. The holy-days which have vigils may be seen in the Prayer Book, in the table of the Vigils, Fasts, and Days of Abstinence to be observed in the Year.

The eves are in some respects observed in colleges and choirs as Sundays. For example, in those places where the choral service was not daily, it was nevertheless performed on Saturday evenings and eves, as is still usual; though in some choirs the custom has fallen into abeyance. But in all colleges the regulation of the 17th canon is still observed, which directs that “all masters and fellows of colleges and halls, and all the scholars and students in either of the universities, shall in their churches and chapels, upon all Sundays, holy-days, and their eves, at the time of Divine service, wear surplices, according to the order of the Church of England; and such as are graduates, shall agreeably wear with their surplices such hoods as do severally appertain to their degrees.” At Oxford, however, except at Christ Church, the rule is not generally understood as applying to any but foundation members.

It is difficult to determine what analogy these evening services, preceding Sundays and holy-days, bear to those of the unreformed Church of England. The service for the vigil, in the Breviary, is not at vespers. There is a distinct service for the vigil from matins to nones inclusive, which has collects, &c. different from that of the Sunday or holy-day which it precedes. Ordinary Sundays have not vigils, either in our Church or in the Roman, except at Easter and Pentecost. By our calendar, therefore, the eve of the Sunday is plainly a different matter from the vigil. Though the collect for the Sunday is uniformly read on the preceding Saturday evening, it is not read when the holy-day has no vigil or eve. The Saturday evening service is to be considered as an introduction to that of Sunday.

Some clergymen doubt whether, in case of a holy-day with a vigil or eve falling on a Monday, the collect for that holy-day is to be read on the Sunday evening or on the Saturday. That the vigil or fast day must be kept on the Saturday, and not on the Sunday, is plain from the calendar. But whether this keeping of the vigil includes the commemoration of the holy-day by reading the collect, is not so evident. The question must first be solved, whether the service of the preceding evening is a vigil service, or the first vespers.—Jebb.

EVEN-SONG. (See Liturgy, Common Prayer.) Evening prayer, which is appointed to be sung or said. The office of even-song, or evening prayer, is a judicious abridgment of the offices of vespers (i. e. even-song) and compline, as used in our Church before the Reformation; and it appears that the revisers of our offices formed the introduction to evening prayer from those parts of both vespers and compline which seemed best suited to this place, and which presented uniformity with the introduction to morning prayer.

Even-song occurs in the table of Proper 324Lessons for Sundays and Holy-days, and Proper Psalms. It is in fact the same as the old word vespers; and only differs from the other authorized expression, evening prayer, in having more special reference to the psalms and hymns, and the anthem, those holy songs which make up so large a portion of the service.

EXALTATION OF THE CROSS. A festival of the Greek and Romish Churches observed on the 14th of December. It is founded on the following legend:

In the reign of Heraclius, Chosroes, king of Persia, sacked Jerusalem, and, together with other plunder, carried off that part of the cross left there in memory of our Saviour, by the empress Helena, which Chosroes sent into Persia. After many battles, in which the Persian was always defeated, Heraclius had the good fortune to recover the cross. This prince carried it to Jerusalem himself; and, laying aside his imperial ornaments, marched with it on his shoulders to the top of Mount Calvary, from whence it had been taken. The memory of this action was perpetuated by the festival of the re-establishment, or (as it is now called) the exaltation of the cross.

The latter name was given to this festival, because on this day they exalted or set up the cross in the great church at Constantinople, in order to show it to the people.

EXAMINATION FOR ORDERS. By Canon 35, “The bishop, before he admit any person to holy orders, shall diligently examine him, in the presence of those ministers that shall assist him at the imposition of hands; and if the bishop have any lawful impediment, he shall cause the said ministers carefully to examine every such person so to be ordered.... And if any bishop or suffragan shall admit any to sacred orders who is not so examined, and qualified as before we have ordained, [viz. in Canon 34,] the archbishop of his province, having notice thereof, and being assisted therein by one bishop, shall suspend the said bishop or suffragan so offending, from making either deacons or priests for the space of two years.”

Of common right, this examination pertaineth to the archdeacon, saith Lyndewood; and so saith the canon law, in which this is laid down as one branch of the archidiaconal office. Which is also supposed in our present form of ordination, both of priests and deacons, where the archdeacon’s office is to present the persons that are apt and meet. And for the regular method of examination, we are referred by Lyndewood to the canon upon that head, inserted in the body of the canon law, viz. When the bishop intends to hold an ordination, all who are desirous to be admitted into the ministry are to appear on the fourth day before the ordination; and then the bishop shall appoint some of the priests attending him, and others skilled in the Divine law, and exercised in the ecclesiastical sanctions, who shall diligently examine the life, age, and title of the persons to be ordained; at what place they had their education; whether they be well learned; whether they be instructed in the law of God; and they shall be diligently examined for three days successively; and so on the Saturday, they who are approved shall be presented to the bishop.

EXAMINATION BEFORE INSTITUTION. In the first settlement of the Church of England, the bishops of the several dioceses had them under their own immediate care, and that of the clergy living in a community with them, whom they sent abroad to several parts of their dioceses, as they saw occasion to employ them; but by degrees, they found it necessary to place presbyters within such a compass, that they might attend upon the service of God amongst the inhabitants. These precincts, which are since called parishes, were at first much larger; and when lords of manors were inclined to build churches for their own convenience, they found it necessary to make some endowments, to oblige those who officiated in their churches to a diligent attendance: upon this, the several bishops were very well content to let those patrons have the nomination of persons to those churches, provided they were satisfied of the fitness of those persons, and that it were not deferred beyond such a limited time. So that the right of patronage is really but a limited trust; and the bishops are still in law the judges of the fitness of the persons to be employed in the several parts of their dioceses. The patrons never had the absolute disposal of their benefices upon their own terms; but if they did not present fit persons within the limited time, the care of the places did return to the bishop, who was then bound to provide for them.

By the statute Articuli cleri, 9 Edward II. s. 1, c. 13, it is enacted as follows:—“It is desired that spiritual persons, whom our lord the king doth present unto benefices of the Church, (if the bishop will not admit them, either for lack of learning, or for other cause reasonable,) may not be under the examination of lay persons in the cases aforesaid, as it is now attempted, 325contrary to the decrees canonical; but that they may sue unto a spiritual judge for remedy, as right shall require.” The answer:—“Of the ability of a person presented unto a benefice of the Church, the examination belongeth to a spiritual judge; so it hath been used heretofore, and shall be hereafter.”

“Of the ability of a person presented”—De idoneitate personæ: so that it is required by law, that the person presented be idonea persona; for so be the words of the king’s writ, præsentare idoneam personam. And this idoneitas consisteth in divers expressions against persons presented:—1. Concerning the person, as if he be under age or a layman. 2. Concerning his conversation, as if he be criminous. 3. Concerning his inability to discharge his pastoral duty, as if he be unlearned, and not able to feed his flock with spiritual food. And the examination of the ability and sufficiency of the person presented belongs to the bishop, who is the ecclesiastical judge; and in this examination he is a judge, and not a minister, and may and ought to refuse the person presented, if he be not idonea persona.

“The examination belongeth to a spiritual judge;” and yet in some cases, notwithstanding this statute, idoneitas personæ shall be tried by the country, or else there should be a failure of justice, which the law will not suffer; as if the inability or insufficiency be alleged in a man that is dead, this case is out of the statute; for in such case the bishop cannot examine him; and, consequently, though the matter be spiritual, yet shall it be tried by a jury; and the court, being assisted by learned men in that profession, may instruct the jury as well of the ecclesiastical law in that case, as they usually do of the common law.

By a constitution of Archbishop Langton:—“We do enjoin, that if any one be canonically presented to a church, and there be no opposition, the bishop shall not delay to admit him longer than two months, provided he be sufficient.”

But by Canon 95—“Albeit by former constitutions of the Church of England, every bishop hath had two months’ space to inquire and inform himself of the sufficiency and qualities of every minister after he hath been presented unto him to be instituted into any benefice, yet for the avoiding of some inconveniences, we do now abridge and reduce the said two months unto eight and twenty days only. In respect of which abridgment we do ordain and appoint that no double quarrel shall hereafter be granted out of any of the archbishops’ courts, at the suit of any minister whatsoever, except he shall first take his personal oath, that the said eight and twenty days at the least are expired after he first tendered his presentation to the bishop, and that he refused to grant him institution thereupon; or shall enter into bond with sufficient sureties to prove the same to be true; under pain of suspension of the granter thereof from the execution of his office for half-a-year toties quoties, to be denounced by the said archbishop, and nullity of the double quarrel aforesaid so unduly procured, to all intents and purposes whatsoever. Always provided, that within the said eight and twenty days, the bishop shall not institute any other to the prejudice of the said party before presented, sub pœna nullitatis.

“Every bishop hath had.”—The canon mentions bishops, only because institution belongeth to them of common right; but it must also be understood to extend to others, who have this right by privilege or custom, as deans, deans and chapters, and others who have peculiar jurisdiction. Concerning whom it hath been unanimously adjudged, that if the archbishop shall give institution to any peculiar belonging to any ecclesiastical person or body, it is only voidable; because they being not free from this jurisdiction and visitation, the archbishop shall be supposed to have a concurrent jurisdiction, and in this case only to supply the defects of the inferiors, till the contrary appears. But if the archbishop grant institution to a peculiar in a lay hand, it is null and void; because he can have no jurisdiction there.

“To inquire and inform himself.”—In answer to an objection made, that the bishop ought to receive the clerk of him that comes first, otherwise he is a disturber, Hobart saith, the law is contrary; for as he may take competent time to examine the sufficiency and fitness of a clerk, so he may give convenient time to persons interested, to take knowledge of the avoidance, (even in case of death, and where notice is to be taken and not given,) to present their clerks to it.

Canon 39. “No bishop shall institute any to a benefice, who hath been ordained by any other bishop, except he first show unto him his letters of orders; and bring him a sufficient testimony of his former good life and behaviour, if the bishop shall require it; and, lastly, shall appear upon due examination to be worthy of his ministry.”

326“Except he first show unto him his letters of orders.”—And by the 13 & 14 Charles II. c. 4, no person shall be capable to be admitted to any parsonage, vicarage, benefice, or other ecclesiastical promotion or dignity whatsoever, before such time as he shall be ordained priest, and bring a sufficient testimony of his former good life and behaviour. By the ancient laws of the Church, and particularly of the Church of England, the four things in which the bishop was to have full satisfaction in order to institution, were age, learning, behaviour, and orders. And there is scarce any one thing which the ancient canons of the Church more peremptorily forbid, than the admitting clergymen of one diocese to exercise their function in another, without first exhibiting the letters testimonial and commendatory of the bishop by whom they were ordained; and the constitutions of the Archbishops Reynolds and Arundel show that the same was the known law of the English Church, to wit, that none should be admitted to officiate (not so much as a chaplain or curate) in any diocese in which he was not born or ordained, unless he bring with him his letters of orders, and letters commendatory of his diocesan.

And, lastly, “shall appear, upon due examination, to be worthy of his ministry.”—As to the matter of learning, it hath been particularly allowed, not only by the courts of the King’s Bench and Common Pleas, but also by the High Court of Parliament, that the ordinary is not accountable to any temporal court, for the measures he takes or the rules by which he proceeds, in examining and judging (only he must examine in convenient time, and refuse in convenient time); and that the clerk’s having been ordained (and so presumed to be of good abilities) doth not take away or diminish the right which the statute above recited doth give to the bishop to whom the presentation is made to examine and judge.

EXARCH. An officer in the Greek Church, whose business it is to visit the provinces allotted to him, in order to inform himself of the lives and manners of the clergy; take cognizance of ecclesiastical causes; the manner of celebrating Divine service; the administration of the sacraments, particularly confession; the observance of the canons; monastic discipline; affairs of marriages; divorces, &c.

The title of exarchs, borrowed from the civil administration of the empire, was given about the fourth century to the chief bishops of certain large provinces; as the bishops of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, and of Ephesus.

EXCOMMUNICATION is an ecclesiastical censure, whereby the person against whom it is pronounced is for the time cast out of the communion of the Church.

Excommunication is of two kinds, the lesser and the greater: the lesser excommunication is the depriving the offender of the use of the sacraments and Divine worship; and this sentence is passed by judges ecclesiastical, on such persons as are guilty of obstinacy or disobedience, in not appearing upon a citation, or not submitting to penance, or other injunctions of the court.

The greater excommunication is that whereby men are deprived, not only of the sacraments and the benefit of Divine offices, but of the society and conversation of the faithful.

If a person be excommunicated generally, as if the judge say, I excommunicate such a person, this shall be understood of the greater excommunication.

The law in many cases inflicts the censure of excommunication ipso facto upon offenders; which nevertheless is not intended so as to condemn any person without a lawful trial for his offence: but he must first be found guilty in the proper court; and then the law gives that judgment. And there are divers provincial constitutions, by which it is provided, that this sentence shall not be pronounced (in ordinary cases) without previous monition or notice to the parties, which also is agreeable to the ancient canon law.

By Canon 65. “All ordinaries shall in their several jurisdictions carefully see and give order, that as well those who for obstinate refusing to frequent Divine service established by public authority within this realm of England, as those also (especially those of the better sort and condition) who for notorious contumacy, or other notable crimes, stand lawfully excommunicate, (unless within three months immediately after the said sentence of excommunication pronounced against them, they reform themselves, and obtain the benefit of absolution,) be every six months ensuing, as well in the parish church as in the cathedral church of the diocese in which they remain, by the minister, openly in the time of Divine service upon some Sunday, denounced and declared excommunicate, that others may be thereby both admonished to refrain their company and society, and excited the rather to procure a writ de excommunicato capiendo, thereby to bring and reduce them into 327due order and obedience. Likewise the registrar of every ecclesiastical court shall yearly, between Michaelmas and Christmas, duly certify the archbishop of the province of all and singular the premises aforesaid.”

By Canon 68. “If the minister refuse to bury any corpse, except the party deceased were denounced excommunicated by the greater excommunication, for some grievous and notorious crime, and no man able to testify of his repentance, he shall be suspended by the bishop from his ministry for the space of three months.”

But by the rubric in the Book of Common Prayer, the Burial Office shall not be used for any that die excommunicate.

EXEAT. The permission given by the authorities in a college, to persons in statu pupillari, to leave their college residence for a time.

EXEDRÆ, in ecclesiastical antiquity, is the general name of such buildings as were distinct from the main body of the churches, and yet within the bounds of the Church, taken in its largest sense. Thus Eusebius, speaking of the church of Paulinus at Tyre, says, “When that curious artist had finished his famous structure within, he then set himself about the exedræ, or buildings that joined one to another by the sides of the church.” Among the exedræ, the chief was the baptistery, or place of baptism. Also the two vestries, or sacristies, as we should call them, still found in all Oriental churches; viz. the Diaconicum, wherein the sacred utensils, &c. were kept; and the Prothesis, where the side-table stood, on which the elements before consecration were placed.—Jebb.

EXEMPTION, in the ecclesiastical sense of the word, means a privilege given by the pope to the clergy, and sometimes to the laity, to exempt or free them from the jurisdiction of their respective ordinaries.

When monasteries began to be erected, and governed by abbots of great quality, merit, and figure, these men, to cover their ambition, and to discharge themselves from the subjection which they owed to the bishops, procured grants from the court of Rome, to be received under the protection of St. Peter, and to be put immediately under subjection to the pope. This request being for the interest of the court of Rome, inasmuch as it contributed greatly to the advancement of the papal authority, all the monasteries were presently exempted. The chapters also of cathedral churches obtained exemptions upon the same score.

St. Bernard, who lived at the time when this invention was first put in practice, took the freedom to tell Pope Eugenius III. that it was no better than an abuse, and that it was by no means defensible, that an abbot should withdraw himself from the obedience due to his bishop; that the Church militant ought to be governed by the precedent of the Church triumphant, in which no angel ever said, “I will not be under the jurisdiction of an archangel.”

In after ages this abuse was carried so far, that, for a small charge, private priests procured exemption from the jurisdiction of their bishop. The Council of Trent made a small reformation in this matter, by abolishing the exemption of particular priests and friars, not living in cloisters, and that of chapters in criminal causes.—Sarpi’s Council of Trent.

EXHORTATION. By this general name the addresses of the minister to the people in the liturgy are called. While they are said, the people stand, in sign of respectful attention, but do not repeat them after the minister, since they are not addresses to the Almighty made in their name, but addresses to them only.

The ancient Church, indeed, had no such exhortations as those in our Communion Service; for their daily, or at least weekly, communions made it known that there was then no solemn assembly of Christians without it, and every one (not under censure) was expected to communicate. But now, when the time is somewhat uncertain, and our long omissions have made some of us ignorant, and others forgetful of this duty; most of us unwilling, and all of us more or less indisposed for it; it was thought both prudent and necessary to provide these exhortations to be read “when the minister gives warning of the communion, which he is always to do upon the Sunday, or some holy-day immediately preceding.”

As to the composures themselves, they are so extraordinary suitable, that if every communicant would duly weigh and consider them, they would be no small help towards a due preparation. The first contains proper exhortations and instructions how to prepare ourselves; the latter is more urgent, and applicable to those who generally turn their backs upon those holy mysteries, and shows the danger of those vain and frivolous excuses which men frequently make for their staying away. For which reason it is appointed by the rubric to be used instead of the former, whenever the minister shall observe that the people are “negligent to come.”—Wheatly.

328The service of the Church of England is distinguished by the number and fitness of its exhortations. These are: one at the beginning of Morning and Evening Prayer; two in the Communion Service, when notice is given of the holy communion; another at the time of celebration. Five in the Baptismal Service; two in the office for receiving those into the Church who have been privately baptized; and five in the Baptism of those of Riper Years; one in the Confirmation Office; two in the Solemnization of Matrimony; two in the Visitation of the Sick; one in the Churching Service; two in the Commination Service; besides those in the Ordination Service. These may be considered as so many sermons of the Church, which assert her doctrines, and fully show what she expects from the faith and practice of her children.

EXODUS. (From the Greek ἔξοδος, going out; the term generally applied to the departure of the Israelites from Egypt.) The second book of the Bible is so called, because it is chiefly occupied with the account of that part of the sacred history. It comprehends the transactions of 145 years, from the death of Joseph in 2369 B. C. to the building of the Tabernacle in 2114.

EXORCISMS (from ἐξορκίζω, to conjure) were certain prayers used of old in the Christian churches for the dispossessing of devils. This custom of exorcism is as ancient as Christianity itself, being practised by our Saviour, the apostles, and the primitive Church; and the Christians were so well assured of the prevalency of their prayers upon these occasions, that they publicly offered the heathens to venture their lives upon the success of them.

In the form of baptism, in the liturgy of the 2 Edward VI., it was ordered thus:—“Then let the priest, looking upon the children, say, ‘I command thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, that thou come out and depart from these infants, whom our Lord Jesus Christ hath vouchsafed to call to his holy baptism, to be made members of his body, and of his holy congregation; therefore, thou cursed spirit, remember thy sentence, remember thy judgment, remember the day to be at hand wherein thou shalt burn in fire everlasting, prepared for thee and thy angels; and presume not hereafter to exercise any tyranny towards these infants whom Christ hath bought with his precious blood, and by this his holy baptism called to be of his flock.’”

There was a custom which obtained in the early ages of the Church, which was to exorcise the baptized person, or to cast Satan out of him, who was supposed to have taken possession of his body in his unregenerate state. But because, in process of time, many superstitious and unwarrantable practices mixed with this ancient rite, especially in the Roman Church, our Reformers wisely thought fit to lay it quite aside, and to substitute in lieu of it these short excellent prayers: wherein the minister and the congregation put up their petitions to Almighty God, that the child may be delivered from the power of the devil, and receive all the benefits of the Divine grace and protection, without the ancient ceremony attending it.—Dr. Nicholls.

Canon 72. “No minister shall, without the licence of the bishop of the diocese, under his hand and seal, attempt, upon any pretence whatsoever, to cast out any devil or devils, under pain of the imputation of imposture or cozenage, and deposition from the ministry.”

EXORCISTS were persons ordained in the latter end of the third century, on purpose to take care of such as were demoniacs, or possessed with evil spirits. In the first ages of Christianity there were many persons who are represented as possessed with evil spirits, and exorcism was performed not by any particular set of men, but afterwards it was judged requisite by the bishops to appropriate this office by ordination. They are still a separate order in the Church of Rome.

EXPECTATION WEEK. The whole of the interval between Ascension Day and Whit Sunday is so called, because at this time the apostles continued in earnest prayer and expectation of the Comforter.

EXPIATION. A religious act, by which satisfaction or atonement is made for some crime, the guilt removed, and the obligation to punish cancelled. (Lev. xv. 15.)

EXPIATION, THE GREAT DAY OF. An annual solemnity of the Jews, observed upon the 10th day of the month Tisri, which answers to our September. The Hebrews call it Chippur, that is, “pardon,” because the sins of the whole people were then expiated or pardoned. (Lev. xvi. 29, 30.) On this occasion, the high priest laid aside his pectoral and embroidered ephod, because it was a day of humiliation. He offered first a bullock and a ram for his own sins and those of the priests; then he received from the heads of the people two goats for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, to be offered in the name 329of the whole multitude. It was determined by lot, which of the goats should be sacrificed, and which set at liberty. After this, he perfumed the sanctuary with incense, and sprinkled it with blood. Then, coming out, he sacrificed the goat upon which the lot had fallen. This done, the goat which was to be set at liberty being brought to him, he laid his hands upon its head, confessed his sins and the sins of the people, and then sent it away into some desert place.

The great day of Expiation was a day of rest and strict fasting: they confessed themselves ten times, and repeated the name of God as often: on this day likewise they put an end to all differences, and were reconciled to each other. Many Jews spent the night preceding the day of Expiation in prayer and penitential exercises. It was customary for the high priest to separate from his wife seven days before this solemnity. Upon the vigil, some of the elders attended the high priest, and their business was to prevent his eating too much, lest he should fall asleep. He was likewise to swear, that he would not change the ancient rites in any particular. On the day itself, the high priest washed himself five times, and changed his habit as often. When the ceremony was over, the high priest read the law, and gave the blessing to the people.—Buxtorf, Synag. Jud. c. xx. Basnage, Hist. des Juifs, t. v. lib. vii. c. 15.

The modern Jews prepare themselves for the great day of Expiation by prayer, and ablution. They carry wax candles to the synagogue: the most devout have two, one for the body, and the other for the soul. The women at the same time light up candles in their houses, from the brightness of which, and the consistency of the tallow or wax, they form presages. The whole day is spent in strict fasting, without exception of age or sex. At the conclusion of the solemnity, the high priest gives the blessing to the people; who return home, change their clothes, and sit down to a good meal.

The Jews believe, that Adam repented, and began his penance, on the solemn day of Expiation; that, on the same day, Abraham was circumcised, and Isaac bound in order to be sacrificed; lastly, that on this day, Moses descended from Mount Sinai, with the new tables of the law.

As sacrificing is now impracticable to the modern Jews, in regard that their temple is destroyed, they sacrifice a cock on this occasion, instead of the legal victims, in the manner following. The men take each of them a cock in their hands, and the women a hen. Then the master of the family walks into the middle of the room, and repeating several verses out of the Psalms, dashes the cock thrice on the head, pronouncing these words; “Let this cock pass as an exchange for me; let him stand in my place; let him be an expiation for me; let death befall this cock, but life and happiness belong to me, and all the people of Israel. Amen.” This prayer is thrice repeated by the master of the family; for himself, his children, and the strangers of his family. Then they proceed to kill the cock, and throw his entrails upon the top of the house, that the crows may come and carry them away, together with the sins of the family, into the wilderness: this is done by way of resemblance with the scape goat.

It is of this fast we are to understand that passage of the Acts, where St. Luke says, that St. Paul comforted those who were with him in the ship, “when sailing was become dangerous, because the fast was already past.” (Acts xxvii. 9.) For tempests are very frequent in the month of September, in which this solemnity falls, and this was much about the time that St. Paul took his voyage to Rome.

EXTRAVAGANTS. (See Decretals.) A name given to those decretal epistles of the popes after the Clementines. The first Extravagants are those of John XXIII., successor to Clement V.; they were so named because, at first, they were not digested, nor ranged with the other papal constitutions, but seemed to be, as it were, detached from the canon law; and they retained the same name when they were afterwards inserted into the body of the canon law. The collection of decretals, in 1483, were called the Common Extravagants, notwithstanding they were likewise embodied with the rest of the canon law.

EXTREME UNCTION. Of extreme unction the Romish Council of Trent asserts, “The holy unction of the sick was instituted by our Lord Christ, as truly and properly a sacrament of the New Testament, as is implied, indeed, in St. Mark; but commended and declared to the faithful by James, the apostle and brother of the Lord. “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him.”” From which words, as the Church hath 330learned from apostolic tradition handed down, she teaches the matter, form, proper minister, and effect of this wholesome sacrament; for the Church has understood that the matter is oil blessed by the bishop, for unction most aptly represents the grace of the Holy Spirit wherewith the soul of the sick man is invisibly anointed: then that the form consists of these words, “By this anointing,” &c.

The following are the canons upon the subject passed by that council.

Canon I. If any shall say, that extreme unction is not truly or properly a sacrament instituted by our Lord Christ, and declared by the blessed apostle James; but only a rite received from the Fathers, or a human invention; let him be accursed.

Canon II. If any shall say, that the holy anointing of the sick does not confer grace, nor remit sins, nor relieve the sick, but that it has ceased, as if it were formerly only the grace of healing; let him be accursed.

Canon III. If any shall say, that the rite and usage of extreme unction, which, the holy Roman Church observes, is contrary to the sentence of the blessed apostle James, and, therefore, should be changed, and may be despised by Christians without sin; let him be accursed.

Canon IV. If any shall say, that the presbyters of the Church, whom St. James directs to be called for the anointing of the sick, are not priests ordained by the bishops, but elders in age, in any community; and that, therefore, the priest is not the only proper minister of extreme unction; let him be accursed.

Here the institution of extreme unction by our Lord is implied by Mark vi. 13, where it is said of the apostles, that “they anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.” But, by-and-by, (session 22, ch. 1,) we are told that the Christian priesthood was not instituted until our Lord’s last supper. Either, then, extreme unction is no sacrament, or they who are no priests can administer a sacrament; for the apostles were not priests, according to the Church of Rome, at the time spoken of by St. Mark. But, further, a sacrament is a visible form of invisible grace; but the passage in St. Mark speaks only of healing the body; and, therefore, Cajetan, as cited by Catharinus, rejects this text as inapplicable to this sacrament; and Suarez (in part iii. disp. 39, sect. 1, n. 5) says, that “when the apostles are said to anoint the sick and heal them, (Mark vi. 13,) this was not said in reference to the sacrament of unction, because their cures had not of themselves an immediate respect to the soul.” Nor will this pretended sacrament derive more assistance from the passage in St. James, in which they say that the institution by our Lord is proclaimed and declared by that apostle, at least if Cardinal Cajetan is any authority, who is thus cited by Catharinus in his Annotationes, Paris, 1535, p. 191, de Sacramento Unctionis Extremæ. “Sed et quod scribit B. Jacobus, ‘Infirmatur quis in vobis?’ &c., pariter negat reverendissimus ad hoc sacramentum pertinere, ita scribens, nec ex verbis, nec ex effectu, verba hæc loquuntur de sacramentali unctione extremæ unctionis, sed magis de unctione quam instituit Dominus Jesus exercendum in ægrotis. Textus enim non dicit, Infirmatur quis ad mortem? sed absolutè, Infirmatur quis?” &c. But that this rite, which they now call a sacrament, was originally applied chiefly to the healing of the body, is manifest from the prayers which accompanied it. “Cura quæsumus, Redemptor noster, gratia Spiritüs Sancti languores istius infirmi,” and so the directions, “in loco ubi plus dolor imminet, amplius perungatur.” Let the patient have most oil applied in the part where the pain is greatest.—Sacr. Gregor. by Menard, Paris, 1542, p. 252. From all which we come to the conclusion, that the allegations of the Council of Trent on this matter must be pronounced “not proven.” Which, if it were a mere opinion, would be of no great consequence. But when their assertion is supported by anathema, and every communicant in their Church bound to believe it as necessary to salvation, it serves to show the cruelty of this Roman mother both to her own children, and to them whom she reckons strangers. It is in vain that the Roman writers attempt to strengthen their cause by appeals to the Greek mysteries. The Greek mysteries and the Latin sacraments are not synonymous. And as concerns this of unction, which (as its epithet “extreme,” which the Romans have added, implies) is designed for persons in articulo mortis, or in exitu vitæ, as we have it in the third chapter, this derives as little countenance from the Greek Church as it does from St. James. For, in the Greek Church, the service of anointing is used to persons in any illness; and is used by them solely for recovery from sickness, as the following prayer at the application of the oil clearly shows. “O holy Father, the physician of our souls and bodies, who didst send thine only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to 331heal all diseases, and to deliver us from death, heal this thy servant M. from the bodily infirmity under which he now labours, and raise him up by the grace of Christ.”—Perceval, Roman Schism. King’s Greek Church.

Now that this miraculous gift (of healing all manner of diseases) is ceased, there is no reason why the mere ceremony of anointing with oil should continue; which yet is still used in the Church of Rome, and made a sacrament; though it signify nothing; for they do not pretend to heal men by it, nay, they pretend the contrary, because they never use it but in extremity, and where they look upon the person as past recovery; and if they do not think so, they would not use it.—Abp. Tillotson.

EZEKIEL, THE PROPHECY OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. Ezekiel was the son of Buzi, of the house of Aaron. He was carried captive to Babylon with Jechoniah. He began to prophesy in the fifth year of this captivity, which is the æra by which he reckons in all his prophecies. He continued to prophesy during twenty years. He was contemporary with Jeremiah, who prophesied at the same time in Judea. He foretold many events, particularly the destruction of the temple; the fatal catastrophe of those who revolted from Babylon to Egypt; and, at last, the happy return of the Jews into their own land. He distinctly predicts the plagues which were to fall upon the enemies of the Jews, as the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. He foretells the coming of the Messiah, and the flourishing state of his kingdom.—Du Pin, Canon of Scripture, b. i. c. iii. § 20.

The greatest part of this prophecy is easy, plain, and intelligible, referring chiefly to the manners and corruption of that degenerate age. Of all the prophets, Ezekiel abounds the most in enigmatical visions. His style (in the opinion of St. Jerome) is neither eloquent nor mean, but between both. He abounds in fine sentences, rich comparisons, and shows a great deal of learning in profane matters. The beginning and end of this book (by reason of the abstruse mysteries contained in them) were forbidden to be read by the Jews, before thirty years of age.

Ezekiel was called to be a prophet by being carried in a vision to Jerusalem, and there shown all the several sorts of idolatry, which were practised by the Jews in that place. This makes the subject of the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters of his prophecies. At the same time God promised to those of the captivity, who kept themselves from these abominations, that he would be their protector, and restore them to the land of Israel. This is his theme in the 15th and following chapters. The 26th, 27th, and 28th chapters contain the threatenings of God’s judgments against Tyre, for insulting on the calamitous estate of Judah and Jerusalem. To these we may add his prophecy concerning the captivity of Zedekiah, contained in the 12th chapter; and that against Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, in the 33rd. These are the principal prophecies of this book.—Prideaux, Connect. p. i. b. i.

It is said, that Ezekiel was put to death by the prince of his people, because he exhorted him to leave idolatry. It is pretended likewise, that his body was deposited in the same cave wherein Shem and Arphaxad were laid, on the bank of the Euphrates. His tomb, they say, is still to be seen: the Jews keep a lamp always burning in it, and boast, that they have there the prophet’s book, written with his own hand, which they read every year upon the great day of Expiation.

The Jewish Sanhedrim, we are told, once took it under their consideration, whether they should not suppress the prophecy of Ezekiel, on account of the obscurity of some parts of it; but that Rabbi Chananias prevented this design, by offering to remove all the difficulties. His proposal, they say, was accepted, and a present was made him of three hundred tun of oil for the use of his lamp, while he was employed in this undertaking. We may easily discover, that this is a mere fable and an hyperbole of the Talmudists.

EZRA. One of the canonical books of Scripture is called the Book of Ezra.

The book of Ezra was written in the latter end of the author’s life, and comprehends the transactions of about eighty, or, as some say, a hundred years. It includes the history of the Jews from the time of Cyrus’s edict for their return, to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus. In this book are recorded the number of those Jews who returned from the captivity, Cyrus’s proclamation for the rebuilding of the temple, the laying of the foundations thereof, &c. Part of this book was written in the Chaldee language, namely, from the eighth verse of the fourth chapter to the twenty-seventh verse of the seventh chapter; all the rest was written in Hebrew.

FACULTY COURT belongs to the archbishop of Canterbury, and his officer 332is called the Master of the Faculties. His power is to grant dispensation to marry, to eat flesh on days prohibited, to hold two or more benefices ordinarily incompatible, and such like.

FAITH. (See Grace, Justification.) “We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification.”—Article XI.

Faith, in its generic sense, either means the holding rightly the creeds of the Catholic Church, or means that very Catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved. Thus, when the priest is directed, in the office for the Baptism of those of Riper Years, to inquire into the faith of the candidate, he asks his assent to one of the creeds; and, in the office for the Visitation of the Sick, he is required to use the same test, and this of course agrees with St. Paul’s statement: “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

It should be noted, that we are justified by faith, not because of faith; for there is no more “merit” in our faith, than in our works. Faith therefore is not the cause, but the condition, of our justification, which is solely to be attributed to the bounty of God, and the merits of Christ.—Archdeacon Welchman.

I am sensible, says Dr. Waterland, that some very eminent men have expressed a dislike of the phrase, of the instrumentality of faith; and have also justly rejected the thing, according to the false notion which some had conceived of it. It cannot, with any tolerable sense or propriety, be looked upon as an instrument of conveyance in the hand of the efficient or principal cause; but it may justly and properly be looked upon as the instrument of reception in the hand of the recipient. It is not the mean by which the grace is wrought, effected, or conferred; but it may be, and is, the mean by which it is accepted or received: or, to express it a little differently, it is not the instrument of justification in the active sense of the word, but it is in the passive sense of it. It cannot be for nothing that St. Paul so often and so emphatically speaks of man’s being justified by faith, or through faith in Christ’s blood; and that he particularly notes it of Abraham, that he believed, and that his faith was counted to him for justification; when he might as easily have said, had he so meant, that man is justified by faith and works, or that Abraham, to whom the gospel was preached, was justified by gospel faith and obedience. Besides, it is certain, and is on all hands allowed, that, though St. Paul did not directly and expressly oppose faith to evangelical works, yet he comprehended the works of the moral law under those works which he excluded from the office of justifying, in his sense of justifying, in those passages; and further, he used such arguments as appear to extend to all kinds of works: for Abraham’s works were really evangelical works, and yet they were excluded. Add to this, that if justification could come even by evangelical works, without taking in faith in the meritorious sufferings and satisfaction of a mediator, then might we have “whereof to glory,” as needing no pardon; and then might it be justly said, that “Christ died in vain.” I must further own, that it is of great weight with me, that so early and so considerable a writer as Clemens of Rome, an apostolical man, should so interpret the doctrine of justifying faith, so as to oppose it plainly even to evangelical works, however exalted. It runs thus: “They (the ancient patriarchs) were all, therefore, greatly glorified and magnified; not for their own sake, or for their own works, or for the righteousness which they themselves wrought, but through his good pleasure. And we also, being called through his good pleasure in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, neither by our own wisdom, or knowledge, or piety, or the works which we have done in holiness of heart, but by that faith by which Almighty God justified all from the beginning.” Here it is observable, that the word faith does not stand for the whole system of Christianity, or for Christian belief at large, but for some particular self-denying principle by which good men, even under the patriarchal and legal dispensations, laid hold on the mercy and promises of God, referring all, not to themselves or their own deservings, but to Divine goodness, in and through a mediator. It is true, Clemens elsewhere, and St. Paul almost everywhere, insists upon true holiness of heart, and obedience of life, as indispensable conditions of salvation or justification; and of that one would think there could be no question among men of any judgment or probity: but the question about conditions is very distinct from the other question about instruments; and, therefore, both parts may be true, viz. that faith and obedience 333are equally conditions, and equally indispensable where opportunities permit; and yet faith over and above is emphatically the instrument both of receiving and holding justification, or a title to salvation.

To explain this matter more distinctly, let it be remembered, that God may be considered (as I before noted) either as a party contracting with man, on very gracious terms, or as a judge to pronounce judgment upon him.

Man’s first coming into covenant (supposing him adult) is by assenting to it, and accepting of it, to have and to hold it on such kind of tenure as God proposes: that is to say, upon a self-denying tenure, considering himself as a guilty man, standing in need of pardon, and of borrowed merits, and at length resting upon mercy. So here the previous question is, whether a person shall consent to hold a privilege upon this submissive kind of tenure or not? Such assent or consent, if he comes into it, is the very thing which St. Paul and St. Clemens call faith; and this previous and general question is the question which both of them determine against any proud claimants who would hold by a more self-admiring tenure.

Or, if we next consider God as sitting in judgment, and man before the tribunal, going to plead his cause; here the question is, What kind of plea shall a man resolve to trust his salvation upon? Shall he stand upon his innocence, and rest upon strict law; or shall he plead guilty, and rest in an act of grace? If he chooses the former, he is proud, and sure to be cast; if he chooses the latter, he is safe so far, in throwing himself upon an act of grace. Now this question also, which St. Paul has decided, is previous to the question, what conditions even the act of grace itself finally insists upon? A question which St. James in particular, and the general tenor of the whole Scripture, has abundantly satisfied; and which could never have been made a question by any considerate or impartial Christian. What I am at present concerned with is to observe, that faith is emphatically the instrument by which an adult accepts the covenant of grace, consenting to hold by that kind of tenure, to be justified in that way, and to rest in that kind of plea, putting his salvation on that only issue. It appears to be a just observation which Dr. Whitby makes, (Pref. to the Epist. to Galat. p. 300,) that Abraham had faith (Heb. xi. 8) before what was said of his justification in Gen. xv. 6, and afterwards more abundantly, when he offered up his son Isaac; but yet neither of those instances was pitched upon by the apostle as fit for his purpose, because in both, obedience was joined with faith: whereas, here was a pure act of faith, without works, and of this act of faith it is said, “it was imputed to him for righteousness.” The sum is, none of our works are good enough to stand by themselves before Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Christ only is pure enough for it at first hand, and they that are Christ’s at second hand, in and through him. Now, because it is by faith that we thus interpose, as it were, Christ between God and us, in order to gain acceptance by him; therefore faith is emphatically the instrument whereby we receive the grant of justification. Obedience is equally a condition or qualification, but not an instrument, not being that act of the mind whereby we look up to God and Christ, and whereby we embrace the promises.—Waterland on Justification.

There is not any one word which hath more significations than this hath in the word of God, especially in the New Testament. It sometimes signifies the acknowledgment of the true God, in opposition to heathenism; sometimes the Christian religion, in opposition to Judaism; sometimes the believing the power of Christ to heal diseases; sometimes the believing that he is the promised Messias; sometimes fidelity or faithfulness; sometimes a resolution of conscience concerning the lawfulness of anything: sometimes a reliance, affiance, or dependence on Christ either for temporal or spiritual matters; sometimes believing the truth of all Divine relations; sometimes obedience to God’s commands in the evangelical, not legal sense; sometimes the doctrine of the gospel, in opposition to the law of Moses; sometimes it is an aggregate of all other graces; sometimes the condition of the second covenant in opposition to the first: and other senses of it also there are, distinguishable by the contexture, and the matter treated of where the word is used.—Hammond, Practical Catechism.

FAITH, IMPLICIT. (See Implicit Faith.)

FAITHFUL. This was the favourite and universal name uniformly used in the primitive Church, to denote those who had been instructed in the Christian religion, and received by baptism into the communion of the Church. The apostolical Epistles are all addressed to “faithful men,” that is, to those who formed the visible Church in their respective localities; those 334who had made profession of the faith of Christ in holy baptism.

FALD STOOL. A small desk, at which the Litany is enjoined to be sung or said. It is generally placed, in those churches in which it is used, in the middle of the choir, sometimes near the steps of the altar. This word is probably derived from the barbarous Latin, falda, a place shut up, a fold. (See Litany.)

FALDISTORY. The episcopal seat, or throne, within the chancel; but more particularly, the bishop’s chair, near the altar, mentioned in the Ordination Service, in which he sits, while addressing the candidates for orders, &c.

FALL OF MAN. (See Original Sin.) The loss of those perfections and that happiness which his Maker bestowed on man at his creation, for the transgression of a positive command, given for the trial of his obedience. This doctrine may be stated in the language of our ninth Article:—“Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk,) but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone (the Latin is quam longissime i. e. as far as possible) from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit; and therefore, in every person born into this world, it deserveth God’s wrath and damnation. And this infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regenerated, whereby the lust of the flesh, called in Greek φρόημα σάρχος, which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God. And although there is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized, yet the apostle doth confess that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin.”

FAMILIARS OF THE INQUISITION. (See Inquisition.) In order to support the cruel proceedings of the Inquisition in Spain, great privileges were bestowed upon such of the nobility as were willing to degrade themselves so far as to become familiars of the holy office. The king himself assumed the title, and was protector of the order.

The business of these familiars was to assist in the apprehending of such persons as were accused, and to carry them to prison; upon which occasion the unhappy person was surrounded by such a number of these officious gentlemen, that, though he was neither fettered nor bound, there was no possibility of escaping out of their hands. As a reward of this base employment, the familiars were allowed to commit the most enormous actions, to debauch, assassinate, and kill with impunity. If they happened to be prosecuted for any crime, the Inquisition took upon itself the prosecution, and immediately the familiar entered himself as their prisoner; after which he was at liberty to go where he pleased, and act in all things as if he were free.

A gentleman, a familiar of the holy office at Corduba, having killed a person, the inquisitors were so strongly solicited against him, that they could not help condemning him pursuant to the laws. But the rest of the gentleman familiars getting a horse ready for him, and a sum of money, let him privately out of prison. Another, being put in prison for having disputed on free-will and grace, (for which any other person would have been punished with the utmost severity,) was only admonished not to argue any more upon religion, and presently set at liberty.—Broughton.

FANATICISM. When men add to enthusiasm and zeal for the cause which they believe to be the cause of truth, a hatred of those who are opposed to them, whether in politics or religion, they fall into fanaticism, and thus violating the law of Christian charity, are guilty of a great sin.

FARSE. An addition, used before the Reformation, in the vernacular tongue, to the Epistle in Latin, anciently used in some churches, forming an explication or paraphrase of the Latin text, verse by verse, for the benefit of the people. The subdeacon first repeated each verse of the epistle or lectio in Latin, and two choristers sang the farse or explanation. The following is an example from the Epistle with a farse for new-year’s day. “Good people, for whose salvation God deigned to clothe himself in flesh, and humbly live in a cradle, who has the whole world in his hands, render him sweet thanks, who in his life worked such wonders, and for our redemption humbled himself even to death.”—Lectio Epistolæ, &c. Then follows the lesson from the Epistle of St. Paul to Titus, and then the farse proceeds. “St. Paul sent this ditty,” &c.—See Burney’s History of Music, ii. 256.

FASTING. (See Abstinence and Fasts.) Abstinence from food.

By the regulations of the Church, fasting, though not defined as to its degree, is inculcated at seasons of peculiar penitence and humiliation, as a valuable auxiliary to 335the cultivation of habits of devotion and self-denial. Respecting its usefulness, there does not appear to have been much diversity of opinion until late years. Fasting was customary in the Church of God long before the introduction of Christianity, as may be seen in the Old Testament Scriptures. That it was sanctioned by our Saviour and his apostles, is equally plain. And that it was intended to continue in the future Church can scarcely be questioned; for Christ gave his disciples particular instructions respecting it, and in reprobating the abuses of it among the Pharisees, never objects to its legitimate use. He even declares, that after his ascension his disciples should fast: “The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then they shall fast in those days.” (Luke v. 35.) Accordingly, in the Acts of the Apostles occur several notices of fastings connected with religious devotions. St. Paul evidently practised it with some degree of frequency. (2 Cor. xi. 27.) He also recognises the custom, as known in the Corinthian Church, and makes some observations implying its continuance. From the days of the apostles to the present time, fasting has been regarded under various modifications as a valuable auxiliary to penitence. In former times, Christians were exceedingly strict in abstaining from every kind of food for nearly the whole of the appointed fast days, receiving only at stated times what was actually necessary for the support of life. At the season of Lent, much time was spent in mortification and open confession of sin, accompanied by those outward acts which tend to the control of the body and its appetites; a species of godly discipline still associated with the services of that solemn period of the ecclesiastical year.

In the practice of fasting, the intelligent Christian will not rest in the outward act, but regard it only as a means to a good end. All must acknowledge that this restraint, even upon the innocent appetites of the body, is eminently beneficial in assisting the operations of the mind. It brings the animal part of our nature into greater subservience to the spiritual. It tends to prevent that heaviness and indolence of the faculties, as well as that perturbation of the passions, which often proceed from indulgence and repletion of the body. It is thus highly useful in promoting that calmness of mind and clearness of thought, which are so very favourable to meditation and devotion. The great end of the observance is to “afflict the soul,” and to increase a genuine contrition of heart, and godly sorrow for sin. This being understood, abstinence will be approved of God, and made conducive to a growth in spiritual life.

The distinction between the Protestant and the Romish view of fasting is this, that the Roman regards the use of fasting as a means of grace; the Protestant, only as a useful exercise. It is not a means of grace, for it is nowhere ordained as such in the Scriptures of the New Testament; but it is a useful preparation for the means of grace, and as such the Scriptures have assumed that it will be resorted to by Christians.

FASTS. Those days which are appointed by the Church as seasons of abstinence and peculiar sorrow for sin. These are the forty days of Lent, including Ash Wednesday and Good Friday; the Ember days, the three Rogation days, and all the Fridays in the year, (except Christmas Day,) and the eves or vigils of certain festivals.

By Canon 72. “No minister shall, without the licence and direction of the bishop under hand and seal, appoint or keep any solemn fasts, either publicly, or in any private houses, other than such as by law are, or by public authority shall be, appointed, nor shall be wittingly present at any of them; under pain of suspension for the first fault, of excommunication for the second, and of deposition from the ministry for the third.”

By the rubric, the table of Vigils, Fasts, and Days of Abstinence to be observed in the Year, is as followeth, (which, although not in words, yet in substance, is the same with what is above expressed in the aforesaid statute,) viz. “The evens or vigils before the Nativity of our Lord, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, Easter Day, Ascension Day, Pentecost, St. Matthias, St. John Baptist, St. Peter, St. James, St. Bartholomew, St. Matthew, St. Simon and St. Jude, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, All Saints. And if any of these feasts fall upon a Monday, then the vigil or fast day shall be kept upon the Saturday, and not upon the Sunday, next before it.” (See Fasting.)