Chapter 6
Besides these _General_ Councils, there are National, Provincial, and Diocesan Councils,
COVENANT. A mutual agreement between two or more parties. In the Bible, God is spoken of as entering into covenant with man, as in Gen. xv.8-18; xxviii.20-22; and elsewhere. In an historical sense it denotes a contract or convention agreed to by the Scots in 1630 for maintaining the Presbyterian religion free from innovation. This was called the National Covenant. The "Solemn League and Covenant," a modification of the above, guaranteed the preservation of the Scottish Reformed Church, and was adopted by Parliament in 1643.
CREDENCE TABLE. A table or shelf near the altar, on which the bread and wine to be used in Holy Communion are placed previously to consecration. The word seems to be derived from the Italian _credenzare_, a buffet, or sideboard, at which meats were tasted in early times before being presented to the guests, as a precaution against poison. It is used for the more convenient observance of the rubric following the offertory sentences, "And when there is a Communion, the priest shall _then_ place upon the Table so much bread and wine as he shall think sufficient."
CREED. There are three Creeds recognised in the Catholic Church--the _Apostles' Creed_, the _Nicene Creed_, and the _Athanasian Creed_. The name _Creed_ is derived from the Latin _Credo_, "I believe."
The _Apostles' Creed_, rehearsed in the Morning and Evening Service of our Church, is the most ancient of all creeds, and can be traced back, with few variations, almost to Apostolic times; some indeed allege that it, in its earliest form, is referred to in Rom. vi.17, and 2 Tim. i.13. It is in no way controversial, but is a simple and plain statement of the fundamental truths of Christianity, and being such, a profession of faith in it is demanded of all candidates for Baptism.
The _Nicene Creed_, which has a place in the Communion Service, is so called from its being drawn up at the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325). A more distinct enunciation of belief was made necessary by the growth of the Arian and other heresies which denied the Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ. The latter portion, from "I believe in the Holy Ghost," was added later, viz., at the Council of Constantinople, A.D. 381. Other heresies led to the introduction of the "_filioque clause_"--"Who proceedeth from the Father _and the Son_"--at a still later date. This is one cause of the great schism between the Eastern and Western Churches.
The _Athanasian Creed_, recited on certain Festivals instead of the Apostles' Creed, is not so ancient as the other two, nor does it rest on the same authority. It is not known for certain by whom it was composed, but at any rate it was not by Athanasius. It has been regularly used in the Western Church since the year 800, and is regarded as a most valuable exposition of Scriptural Truth. So much objection is taken to the "damnatory clauses," as they are called, that it may be well to quote the declaration of the Convocation of Canterbury (1879):--"For the removal of doubts, and to prevent disquietude in the use of the Creed, commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius, it is hereby solemnly declared--
"(I.) That the Confession of our Christian Faith, commonly called the Creed of St. Athanasius, doth not make any addition to the faith as contained in Holy Scripture, but warneth against errors, which from time to time have arisen in the Church of Christ.
"(II.) That as Holy Scripture in divers places doth promise life to them that believe, and declares the condemnation of them that believe not, so doth the Church in this Confession declare the necessity for all who would be in a state of Salvation, of holding fast the Catholic Faith, and the great peril of rejecting the same. Wherefore the warnings in this Confession of Faith are not to be understood otherwise than like warnings of Holy Scripture; for we must receive God's threatenings, even as His promises, in such wise as they are generally set forth in Holy Writ. Moreover, the Church doth not herein pronounce judgment on any particular person or persons, God alone being the Judge of all."
CROSIER. In Skeat's Etymological Dictionary _Crosier_ is derived from _Crook_; thus a pastoral staff terminating in a crook. The use of a pastoral staff is ordered in the Prayer Book of the second year of Edward VI. The pastoral staff of an Archbishop is distinguished from the pastoral staff of a Bishop by terminating in a cross instead of in a crook.
CROSS. The instrument of death to our Blessed Lord, and as such it has been considered in all ages by the Church as the most appropriate emblem, or symbol, of our Christian profession. The sign of the cross was formerly used in nearly every part of the Church Service, but owing to the superstitious use of it by Roman Catholics it is retained in our Church in the baptismal office only.
CRUCIFIX. A cross upon which is a representation of our Lord's body. It is used by the Romanists, and the Lutheran Protestants, as an aid to devotion. In the Church of England we sometimes find it in reredoses and stained glass.
CRYPT. The subterranean vault under any portion of a Church. Possibly used as an additional place of worship; and, also, sometimes of burial, and of concealment.
CUP, _see_ Altar Vessels.
CURATE. Properly the person who has the _cure_, or care, of souls in a parish. In this way the word, is used in the Prayer Book. But the word, in common parlance, is used to denote the _assistant_ clergyman in a parish. He is licensed by the Bishop of the diocese, and can be removed only by consent of the Bishop after six months' notice. He can, however, resign, after giving the Incumbent three months' notice. For particulars with regard to ordination see _Orders_.
CURE. The spiritual charge of a parish, or, in another sense, the parish itself.
DAILY PRAYERS. Every Priest and Deacon is bound to say publicly in Church, if a congregation of two or three can be obtained; or privately, unless hindered by some good cause, the Office for Morning and Evening Prayer. This is directed in the preface of the Book of Common Prayer.
DALMATIC, _see_ Vestments.
DAMNATORY CLAUSES, _see_ Creed.
DEACON, _see_ Orders.
DEAD, _see_ Burial Service.
DEADLY SIN, _see_ Sin.
DEAN. An ecclesiastic next in degree to a Bishop. He is the head of a corporate body called a Chapter, attached to a Cathedral, and has the direction of the Cathedral services. Deans of Peculiars have no Chapters. The _Dean_ of a College at Oxford or Cambridge is the officer appointed to maintain discipline.*
The _Dean_ of _Faculty_ presides over meetings of the particular faculty of which he is Dean. It is an office in most ancient, and some modern universities.
* _The Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, is the Head both of the Cathedral, and the College_.
DEAN, RURAL, _see_ Rural Dean.
DEAN AND CHAPTER. The governing body of a Cathedral.
DECALOGUE, _see_ Commandments.
DECORATION of CHURCHES. It is right and fitting that churches should be made as beautiful as possible for the worship of Almighty God, for so God Himself directed the Tabernacle to be made. The custom of especially decorating them with evergreens, flowers, &c., at the chief festivals of the Church is a very ancient one.
DEGREES. A rank or grade conferred by a university on her members. After three years' residence at Oxford or Cambridge, and after the passing of certain examinations, a degree is conferred on the student in accordance with the subjects in which he has passed. If, as is the general rule, he has studied and passed in Arts,--Classics, Mathematics, and the like--the student is made a B.A., or Bachelor in Arts, and in about three years--not necessarily of residence--he is able to proceed to the higher degree of M. A., or Master in Arts, without further examination. Other degrees are in the faculties of Divinity, Laws, Medicine, and Music; for the last it is not necessary to reside. The highest degree conferred by a university in any faculty is that of Doctor. A Bachelor of Oxford wears a small black hood _trimmed_ with white fur; a Bachelor of Cambridge has a larger hood _lined_ with white fur. An Oxford Master wears a hood of black silk lined with _red_ silk, but the Cambridge Master's hood is of black silk lined with _white_ silk. The difference in shape can easily be seen by comparison. A Dublin Master's hood is lined with _blue_ silk. Other universities have other colours; and many theological colleges, which have no power to confer degrees, have arrogated to themselves hoods with various linings, which bear a close resemblance to some of the hoods worn by graduates.
DEISTS. A _Deist_ acknowledges the existence of a God, but denies the existence and necessity of any revelation.
DENOMINATIONS. There appear to be about 180 Denominations having Places of Meeting for Religious Worship in England and Wales. Among these there are--
8 "Armies," besides the Salvation Army. 9 Baptist Sects. 20 Methodist Sects.
DESK. The name usually given to the "reading-pew," mentioned in the rubric before the Commination Service, where morning and evening prayers are said or sung. In 1549 it was directed that the Service should be said "in the Quire" and "with a loud voice." This was done by the Priest near to, and facing, the Altar. In 1552 the Service was directed to be said from such a place as the people could best hear. This direction caused a great commotion, one party retaining their old position in the Chancel, the other performing all services in the body of the Church. In 1559 the rubric before the Order for Morning Prayer was brought into its present shape, and the "accustomed Place" would undoubtedly be the Chancel, but still the discretion left with the "Ordinary" sanctioned the use of the unsightly "reading-pew" or _desk_, which is occasionally found outside the Chancel and in the body of the Church.
DEUS MISEREATUR. Psalm lxvii., inserted in the Evening Service for occasional use instead of the Nunc Dimittis in 1552.
DIGNITARY. One who holds cathedral or other preferment to which jurisdiction is annexed. "One who holds an ecclesiastical rank above a priest or canon." (Chambers' Etymological Dictionary.)
DIMISSORY LETTERS. When a Candidate for Holy Orders is ordained by some Bishop other than the one in whose diocese he is going to work, it is because the ordaining Bishop has received leave, or _Letters Dimissory_, from the candidate's rightful Diocesan.
DIOCESE. The extent of a Bishop's rule. England at present is divided into 32 dioceses; 23 being in the Province of Canterbury, and 9 in the Province of York. It is to be very earnestly wished that these dioceses may be sub-divided, and the number of Bishops increased, that the Church may be more able to cope with the enormously increased population.
DISSENTERS. A _civil_, not a _religious_ term, and denotes those who have diverged from the civilly established religion of a country. Episcopalians are Dissenters in Scotland, Christians are Dissenters in Turkey. In England all are Dissenters who do not belong to the Church of England, whether they are Protestants or Papists. For further particulars see under their various names.
DONATIVE. A form of conferring an ecclesiastical benefice on any clerk, by which he is exempt from presentation, induction, or institution; the patron acting virtually as a Bishop. This is said to be the usual manner in which benefices were anciently conferred.
DOXOLOGY. An ascription of praise to God. The most familiar doxologies in use in our Church are the "Gloria Patri," the "Gloria in Excelsis," and the well-known verse, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," &c. Many of our prayers, especially those of thanksgiving, conclude with a doxology.
EAST, TURNING TO THE. This is now generally done at the Creeds. It is a survival of a general custom of worship towards the East--as the region of light, symbolical of the rising of the "Sun of Righteousness"--which is at least as old as the time of Tertullian, who lived in the second century.
EASTWARD POSITION. A term descriptive of the position used by a Priest who adopts the custom of celebrating Holy Communion facing the East, with his back to the people. There is a very great difficulty in ascertaining what the rubrics with relation to the Priest's position really mean, because the Altar itself occupied various positions at the time the rules were framed.
(1.) _Position of Altar_. "The Table. . . .shall stand in the Body of the Church, or in the Chancel," is the rubric of 1552. "The Holy Table shall be set in the place where the Altar stood. . . .saving when the Communion of the Sacrament is to be distributed, at which time the same shall be so placed in good sort (conveniently) within the Chancel," is the direction in the Injunctions of 1559.
By degrees, however, the custom of moving the Holy Table at the time of Communion, and placing it length-ways in the Church ceased, and it was allowed to remain at all times placed "Altar-wise" at the East End of the Church.
(2.) _Position of the Priest_. In the rubric of 1549 the direction was for him "to stand humbly afore the midst of the Altar," of course with his back to the people. In 1552 the present rubric, directing the "North-side," was introduced, but owing to the Altar's standing East and West then, the position of the Priest remained virtually the same as before. But when, through Laud's influence, the Holy Table was removed back to its original position, the question was whether the Priest was still to obey the letter of the rubric and stand at the "North-side," or rather what was now the "North end," or whether he too was to retain his old relative and original position. The matter has been further complicated by the insertion of the rubric before the Consecration Prayer in 1662, which seems to favour the Eastward position in directing the Priest to "stand before the Table," while, on the other hand, that very position renders it difficult to "break the Bread before the people," unless, as some maintain, the "before" does not mean "in the sight of," but "in front of."
EASTER. The great festival of the Church's Year, and kept in commemoration of our Saviour's glorious Resurrection. It has always been observed by the Church, but in early ages there were bitter disputes as to the season when it was to be kept. Some wished it to be observed on the actual anniversary, whether the day happened to be a Sunday or not. The matter was settled at the Council of Nice, when it was decided that Easter should be kept on the first Sunday following the full moon which falls on, or next after, March 21st.
The word _Easter_ is probably derived from the name of a Saxon goddess, whose festival was kept in the Spring of the year. The other name, Paschal, applied to this festival, is a Hebrew word meaning "passage," and is applied to the Jewish feast of the Passover, to which the Christian festival of Easter corresponds.
Easter used to be the great day for Baptism, for the restoring of Penitents, and, in the early ages, even for the freeing of prisoners. Every confirmed member of the Church of England is expected to Communicate on Easter Day, in accordance with the direction at the end of the Communion Service.
EASTER ANTHEMS. Certain passages, chosen from 1 Cor. v., Rom. vi., 1 Cor. xv., directed to be sung instead of the _Venite_ on Easter Day.
ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS. "In the year 1837 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were embodied. They are not, as many suppose, the dispensers of State funds to the Church. They are a corporation for the purpose of holding as trustees a large amount of Church revenues. The sources from which the income in their hands arises are certain annual payments from several bishoprics, emoluments of suspended canonries, the property of suspended deaneries and sinecure rectories, capitular estates, and other Ecclesiastical sources." (Webb's "England's Inheritance in her Church.")
"The Ecclesiastical Commission does with the lands of Bishops and Chapters what these could never do for themselves. It can afford to wait for the falling in of leases, whereas those old corporations were obliged to renew them, that they might live on the money paid for renewals; and when it has got the lands it lets them for their full value. By this means it is able to pay the old corporations out of half their lands as much as they used to get from the whole under their own system, and the other moiety is taken out of the hands of laymen (regard being had to equity) and devoted to other beneficial purposes for the Church. In this way the surplus revenues of capitular estates have been applied to the benefit of an immense number of parishes which had claims upon them." (Dixon's "Peek Essay.")
ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS. The following are the principal: the Consistory Courts of the Bishops; the Arches Court of Canterbury; and the Supreme Court of Appeal, composed of members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Under the Public Worship Act the Dean of the Arches Court has been made Official Principal of both Provinces. A Royal Commission has recently issued a Report upon the Ecclesiastical Courts, and the question of their constitution generally is under consideration.
ELECTION. A choosing, hence the "chosen people" of God. There are three views taken of election,--the Calvinistic, the Arminian, and the Catholic. The Calvinistic view is that certain persons are from all eternity chosen or elected by God to salvation, the rest of mankind being condemned to eternal death (See _Predestination_, _Calvinism_, _Antinomianism_.)
The Arminian view is that God, knowing what the life of every man born into the world shall be, and foreseeing that some "will refuse the evil and choose the good," hath elected them to eternal life. (See _Arminianism_.)
The Catholic view is that God of his mercy elects certain of His creatures for a place in the visible Church, and thus causes them to be placed in "a state of salvation," of which, however, they may fall short by their own perverseness.
The Church of England, as a branch of the great Church Catholic, is believed to teach this latter view, as will be seen by a study of her Liturgy.
ELEMENTS. The Bread and Wine used in Holy Communion (See _Communion, Holy_). In Holy Baptism, Water, wherein the person is baptized, is the _Element_.
ELEVATION. In Articles xxv. and xxviii. reference is made to a ceremony of the Church of Rome, called the Elevation of the Host, which consists in the consecrated wafer being held up, or elevated, for the adoration of the people. Bp. Harold Browne says, "Elevating the Host resulted from a belief in transubstantiation. . . .There is evidently no Scriptural Authority for the Elevation of the Host, the command being, 'Take, eat.' The Roman ritualists themselves admit that there is no trace of its existence before the 11th or 12th centuries." (See _Note on Art_. xxviii.)
EMBER DAYS. In early times special fasts were appointed at the four seasons of the year, and of later years they have been made to have a special reference to the ordination of clergy which immediately follows them. The derivation of the name is uncertain. The days thus set apart, and now used for supplicating God's blessing on those about to be ordained, are the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after the 1st Sunday in Lent, after Whit Sunday, after the 14th of September, and after the 13th of December. Special Collects are appointed for use on these days.
EMMANUEL, or IMMANUEL. A Hebrew word, used as a name of our Lord, and meaning, "God with us," Isaiah vii.14; Matt. i.23.
ENDOWMENT. The permanent provision for the support of the ministry. The annual sum derived from the endowments of the Established Church amounts to rather more than _four millions sterling_. Of this sum--Tithes and Rents voluntarily given to the Church of England by charitable persons before the Reformation bring in about L1,950,000; Tithes, Rents, and Interest on Money voluntarily given to the Church of England since the Reformation bring in about L2,250,000. Thus the total of the yearly value of endowments is about L4,200,000. Of this the State receives as taxes about L200,000, which leaves a net yearly value of endowments of about; L3,500,000, which is paid to the clergy, of whom there are about 20,000. It is thus divided: 2 Archbishops, 28 Bishops, 73 Archdeacons, receive about L173,000; 30 Deans, 132 Canons, 128 Minor Canons, 600 Singers, Lay Officers and Servants, receive about L203,000; 19,600 other Clergy, Rectors, Vicars, and Curates receive about L3,124,000. The average, therefore, is just L3, 10s. a week for each clergyman.
To supplement its endowments, which were voluntarily given by private persons, the Church receives, by free gifts from her own members, about five millions and a half sterling every year. This money is _all_ spent on Schools, Church Institutions, Charities, Relief of the Poor, Foreign Missions, Expenses attendant upon the regular performance of Divine Worship, and Building and Restoring Churches (See _Establishment_.)
EPIPHANY. A Greek word, meaning "manifestation." The term applied to that festival of the Church observed on Jan. 6th, in commemoration of our Lord's _manifestation_ to the Wise Men from the East, the representatives of the Gentile world.
EPISCOPACY. The term applied to the Apostolical form of government, which consisted in the appointment of a Bishop as an _Overseer_ (for that is the meaning of the Greek word) of a particular Church. (See _Orders_.)
EPISTLE. The name given to the _Letters_ of the Apostles, which the Church has admitted as forming part of the Canon of the New Testament (see _Bible_). St. Paul wrote fourteen, if we allow the Epistle to the Hebrews to have been written by him. St. James wrote one, which, like others addressed to no particular Church, is called a _general_ Epistle. St. Peter wrote two Epistles; St. John, three; and St. Jude, one. Those portions of Scripture read in the Communion Service, and called Epistles, have been used, with few alterations, for 1200 years by the Church of England.
EPISTOLER. The 24th Canon directs that "In all cathedral and collegiate churches the Holy Communion shall be administered, . . . the principal minister using a decent cope, and being assisted with the gospeller and epistoler." So, in the advertisements published in the seventh year of Elizabeth, we read, "The principal minister shall use a cope with gospeller and epistoler agreeably."
ERASTIANISM. The heresy of Erastus, a German, born 1524. His main principle was that the source of all pastoral authority is the civil magistrate, who, whether Christian or not, possesses an inherent right to nominate and commission teachers of religion, and is under no necessity of admitting the least difference between priests and laymen.
ESCHATOLOGY. A term applied to doctrines relative to the state after death.