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 them 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 election 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.
IV. _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 the 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:
A Table of Kindred and Affinity, wherein whosoever are related are forbidden in Scripture and our laws to marry together.
_A man may not marry his_
1 GRANDMOTHER, 2 Grandfather’s Wife, 3 Wife’s Grandmother.
4 Father’s Sister, 5 Mother’s Sister, 6 Father’s Brother’s Wife.
7 Mother’s Brother’s Wife, 8 Wife’s Father’s Sister, 9 Wife’s Mother’s Sister.
10 Mother, 11 Step-Mother, 12 Wife’s Mother.
13 Daughter, 14 Wife’s Daughter, 15 Son’s Wife.
16 Sister, 17 Wife’s Sister, 18 Brother’s Wife.
19 Son’s Daughter, 20 Daughter’s Daughter, 21 Son’s Son’s Wife.
22 Daughter’s Son’s Wife, 23 Wife’s Son’s Daughter, 24 Wife’s Daughter’s Daughter.
25 Brother’s Daughter, 26 Sister’s Daughter, 27 Brother’s Son’s Wife.
28 Sister’s Son’s Wife, 29 Wife’s Brother’s Daughter, 30 Wife’s Sister’s Daughter.
_A woman may not marry with her_
1 GRANDFATHER, 2 Grandmother’s Husband, 3 Husband’s Grandfather.
4 Father’s Brother, 5 Mother’s Brother, 6 Father’s Sister’s Husband.
7 Mother’s sister’s Husband, 8 Husband’s Father’s Brother, 9 Husband’s Mother’s Brother.
10 Father, 11 Step-Father, 12 Husband’s Father.
13 Son, 14 Husband’s Son, 15 Daughter’s Husband.
16 Brother, 17 Husband’s Brother, 18 Sister’s Husband.
19 Son’s Son, 20 Daughter’s Son, 21 Son’s Daughter’s Husband.
22 Daughter’s Daughter’s Husband, 23 Husband’s Son’s Son, 24 Husband’s Daughter’s Son.
25 Brother’s Son, 26 Sister’s Son, 27 Brother’s Daughter’s Husband.
28 Sister’s Daughter’s Husband, 29 Husband’s Brother’s Son, 30 Husband’s Sister’s Son.
CONSECRATION. 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 was 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 performances 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 dedication 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, the 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 the 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 schism, 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 age. 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, which 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 and 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, so 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 they 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 likewise 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 as 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 Service, 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 of 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 first 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 Mediator. 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 as 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 not 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.
“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 that, 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 bringing 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; and 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, was 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 gives 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._
Wherever 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, it 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—.
“Witness my hand this —— day of ——, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ——
[_Signature and address of_] G. H.”
_Declaration 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.
Witness our hands this —— day of ——, one thousand eight hundred and ——.
[_Signatures of_] G. H. and E. F.”
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_).
Witness my hand this —— day of ——, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ——.
[_Signature and address of_] G. H.”
_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.
Witness our hands this —— day of ——, one thousand eight hundred and ——.
[_Signatures of_] G. H. and E. F.”
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.
In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands this —— day of ——, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ——.
[4]C. D. rector of ——. E. F. vicar of ——. G. H. rector of ——.”
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 to 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.
Witness my hand this —— day of ——, one thousand eight hundred and ——.”
(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]
Witness my hand this —— day of ——, one thousand eight hundred and ——.”
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.
Given under my hand this —— day of ——, one thousand eight hundred and ——.”
_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 served; 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:
The lowest stipend is £ 80 If the population amount to 300, the stipend is to be 100 If the population amount to 500, the stipend is to be 120 If the population amount to 750, the stipend is to be 135 If the population amount to 1000, the stipend is to be 150
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 is 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 exterior_i, 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 Church 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.
DATARY. 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 to 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 performing 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, that 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 ecclesiastical 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.
It 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 use, 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 became, 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 the 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:
From the order of │ To be taken from him, ──────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────── 1 Priest. │1 The paten, chalice, and pulling │ off his chasuble. 2 Deacon. │2 The New Testament and the stole. 3 Sub-deacon. │3 The albe and the maniple. 4 Acolyth. │4 The candlestick, taper, │ urceolum. 5 Exorcist. │5 The office for exorcisms. 6 Reader. │6 The lectionarium, or legend │ book. 7 Ostiarius, or Sexton. │7 The keys of the church-doors, │ and surplice.
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, where 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 does 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
The Lord President. │ The Lord Chancellor. │ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────── The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. │Provided they be │ councillors. The Chief Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench. │ „ The Master of the Rolls. │ „ The Vice-chancellor. │ „ The Chief Justice of the Court ofCommon Pleas. │ „ The Chief Baron of the Exchequer. │ „ The Judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.│ „ The Judge of the Admiralty Court. │ „ The Chief Judge of the Bankruptcy Court. │ „ All who have held the aforenamed offices. │ „ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────── Two privy-councillors appointed by the sign-manual. │
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 from 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, in 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 kingdom 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 no 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 of 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 by 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, November 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 Church 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.
PROTESTANT SECTS.
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.
OTHER CHRISTIAN SECTS.
Roman Catholics.
Greek Church.
German Catholics.
Italian Reformers.
Irvingites, or Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Latter-day Saints, or Mormons.
_JEWS._
_Registrar-general’s Report._
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 dissolves 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 out 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, and 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 to 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 the 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.
EAGLE. 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, whilst 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 the 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 the 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.