The history of religion: particularly of the principal denominations of Christians, ... Containing a succinct and genuine account of their original and present constitution, discipline, doctrines, worship, and ceremonies: ... By an impartial hand. [pt.4]

A DICTIONARY OF Sects, of lesser Note, not mentioned in the foregoing Work; of the principal religious Orders, Offices, Days, Rites, Customs, Habits, Characters, &c. &c. and an Explanation of some obscure Words and Phrases.

A.

• ABBA, a Syriac word which signifies Father.
• Abberance, a deviation from the right way; an error.
• Abbey, a monastery of religious persons, male or female.
• Abelians, Abelonians, or Abeloites, a sect of heretics in Africa, not far from Hippo, whose distinguishing tenet and practice, was to marry, and yet live with their wives in profound abstinence, without carnal knowledge of them. Authors are divided about the foundation of their practice; some say on 1 Cor. vii. 29.
• Ablution, the act of washing. The cup given without consecration to the laity, in the Romish churches.
• Abrahamites, a sect of heretics who renewed the error of the Pauli∣cians; which vide.
• Absolute, the Papists maintain the priests can forgive sins, absolutely, in opposition to the Protestants, who say he can only forgive them declaratively and ministerially.
• Absolution, the Romanists make absolution a part of the sacrament of penance; in that church, the form of absolution is absolute; in the Greek church, deprecatory; and in the church of the Re∣formed, declarative.
• Abyssinians, a sect, or heresy, established in Abyssinia, who are a branch of the Copts or Jacobites, admitting only one nature in Christ, and rejecting the council of Chalcedon. They are also called Monophysites and Eutychians.
• Acephali, Acephalitae, the denomination of divers sects, viz. 1st, Of

• those who in the council of Ephesus refused to follow either St. Cyril, or John of Antioch. 2dly, Of certain heretics of the fifth century, who at first followed Peter Mongus, but afterwards de∣serted him, and stuck to the errors of Euryches. 3dly, Of the ad∣herents of Severus of Antioch; and of all, in general, who re∣fused to admit the council of Chalcedon.
• Acoematoe, or Acoemeti, a name given to certain Monks in the an∣tient church, who flourished particularly in the East; so called because they had divine service continually, and without inter∣ruption, performed in their churches; being divided into three bodies which relieved each other.
• Acoluthi, applied in the primitive times to those young persons who aspired to the ministry, and for this purpose continually attended the bishops. At Rome there are three kinds of Acoluthi or Aco∣lythi, viz. Palatini, who wait on the Pope; Stationarii, who serve in churches; and Regionarii, who with the deacons of∣ficiate in other parts of the city.
• Act of Faith. See Auto-dee-fé.
• Adamites, sometimes called Originists, a sect which sprung up in the second century, and who asserted, that since the death of Christ they were as innocent as Adam before his fall, and consequently went naked in their assemblies.
• Adessenarians, a sect that believe the presence of Christ's body in the eucharist.
• Adiaphorists, a name given, in the sixteenth century, to the mode∣rate Lutherans, who adhered to the sentiments of Melanchton.
• Adoptians, a sect in the eighth century, who held that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, not by nature but by adoption.
• Adrianists, a sect in the first century; they consisted of two sorts; the first were a branch of the disciples and followers of Simon Magus. Theodoret is the only one who hath preserved their names and memories. The second were followers of Adrian Hempstead the Anabaptist.
• Advent, the name of one of the holy seasons, signifying, the coming, i. e. the coming of our Saviour, which is made the sub∣ject of our devotion, the four weeks before Christmas.
• Aerians, a sect in the reign of Constantine the Great, about the year 342, who held that there is no distinction founded in scrip∣ture, betwixt a Presbyter and a Bishop. (Thus Aerius is said to be the rise of the Presbyterians, so considerable in England.)
• Aeternales, who maintained the eternity of the world a parte postie, and that after the resurrection, it should continue the same as it now is; but whence this sect arose is not certainly known.
• Aetians (of Aetius of Antioch) a sect or branch of the Arians; they held that God could be perfectly comprehended by us mor∣tals; denied the Son to be like the Father in power, substance, or will; that the Holy Ghost was created by the Son; that Christ assumed human flesh, but not an human soul. They also affirm∣ed,

• that faith without works was sufficient to salvation, and that no sin, however grievous, would be imputed to the faithful.
• Agapes, or Agapae, a religious festival celebrated in the ancient church, to keep up a harmony and concord amongst its members. On account of the disorders practised in them, they were con∣demned in the council of Carthage, Anno 397.
• Agapetae, a name given to certain virgins and widows associated with, and attending on ecclesiastics, out of a motive of piety and charity.
• Aginians, a sect about the end of the seventh century, who disal∣lowed the use of certain meats, and condemned marriage; they had but few followers, and were soon suppressed.
• Agnoites, a sect who sprung up about the year 372, who denied the omniscience of God, and affirmed that he knew things past by memory only, and things future by an uncertain prescience: they revived again about the year 535, and held that Christ knew not the day of his coming.
• Agnus Dei, in the Romish church, denotes a cake of wax, stamped with the figure of a lamb, supporting the banner of the cross, consecrated in due form by the Popes, to be distributed amongst the people, and supposed to have great virtues annexed to it.
• Agonisiici, a name given by Donatus to those of his sect whom he sent into the neighbouring places, fairs, markets, &c. to preach his doctrine.
• Agonoclites, a sect in the seventh century, who never kneeled at their prayers, but offered them standing.
• Alb, a very ancient priestly vestment, worn by ministers in the ad∣ministration of the eucharist. According to the description given of it by Durandus, it seems to have been a kind of linen gar∣ment, made sit and close to the body, like a cassock, tied round the middle with a girdle or fash, the sleeves being either plain like those of a cassock, or else gathered close at the hands like the sleeves of a shirt. The Albs were formerly embroidered with various colours, and adorned with fringes. The surplice, among us, answers to the Alb; for the first rubrick of the common prayer enjoins, that whensoever the Bishop shall celebrate the holy com∣munion in the church, or execute any other public ministration, he shall put upon him, beside his rochette, a surplice, or Alb.
• Albali, a Christian sect in 1399, who distinguished themselves by wearing white linen, and bewailing the evils and errors of the age: they usually carried a crucifix in their hand; but as they visited many parts of Italy, it alarmed the Pope, who sent soldi∣ers to apprehend and put their priest to death, and disperse the rest.
• Albanenses, a sect commenced about the year 796; they believed two principles, the one good, the other evil, denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the body, and affirmed that the general judgment was past. They denied that there was any vir∣tue

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• or efficacy in baptism, and they believed that hell torments were no other than the evils we feel here. They did not admit of original sin, nor administer baptism to infants; they denied free-will, held the eternity of the world, disallowed of marriage, and held it unlawful to take an oath.
• Albigenses, alias Waldenses, a sect of Reformers about Tholouse and the Albigois, in Languedoc, who, in the twelfth century, be∣came remarkable for their opposition to the discipline and cere∣monies of the church of Rome. Peter Valdo was one of their principal leaders, who sold his goods, and distributed to the poor, then recommended voluntary poverty, great abstemiousness of manners, baptised only the adult, and other things, in opposition to the church. The Inquisition court was first established against them, in 1204; but that proving insufficient to suppress them, a holy league or croisade was agreed upon, and the Pope set up his standard against them. At length a peace was concluded, but up∣on terms of great restriction.
• All Saints, a feast of the Romish church, particularly, celebrated Nov. 1, in honour of all the saints and martyrs.
• Almirists, a sect that appeared in 1209, and held that every one is to be saved by the internal operation of the spirit, without any external acts of religion.
• Alogians, a sect of erroneous Christians in the first century, who de∣nied that Jesus Christ was the logos or word. The name in the original signifying without logos or word.
• Altar at Athens, inscribed to the unknown God. St. Jerom in∣forms us that it was not inscribed exactly as St. Paul relates, but that the words were these: To the gods of Asia, Europe and Af∣rica, to the unknown and strange gods; and that the apostle purposely changed the plural into the singular, because it was necessary to answer his design, to demonstrate only to the Athe∣nians that they adored an unknown God.
• Altar, under the law, a place or pile whereon to offer sacrifices. A∣mong Christians the table where the communion is administred.
• Altars, in the Romish church, are built of stone, to represent Christ, the foundation-stone, of that spiritual building the church. To it there are three steps, covered with a carpet, and adorned with many costly ornaments, according to the season of the year.
• Altar, bowing towards it at our first entrance into the church, no evident proof of it in the ancient writers of the Christian church; but some probability that it was at first taken up from the Jewish custom of bowing themselves towards the mercy-seat: but that this custom prevailed pretty early, may be gathered from the li∣turgies of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom, but not founded on any known decree or canon of a council.
• Ambo, or Ambon, a kind of pulpit or desk, in the ancient churches,

• where the priests and deacons stood to read or sing part of the service, or to preach.
• Amictus, the uppermost of the six garments worn by the priests; it was tied round the neck, and covered the breast and heart.
• Amsdorsians, from Amsdorf, in the sixteenth century, who were rigid confessionists, and maintained that good works were unprofitable.
• Anathema, a curse pronounced by ecclesiastical authority.
• Angelics, an order of Italian nuns. Their foundress was Louisa Torelli, Countess of Guastalla; who, in the year 1534, obtaining a brief of Pope Paul III. for the establishing a congregation of nuns under the rule of St. Augustin, for this purpose built a very large monastery and church at Milan; and the nuns of her insti∣tute took the name of Angelics, that, by often hearing this name pronounced, they might be excited to imitate the purity of Angels. This name was confirmed to them by the Pope, who exempted them from the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Milan, and put them under the direction of the regular clerks of St. Paul. The Angelics wear the habit of the Dominicans; they carry on their breasts a wooden cross, and on their finger a gold ring, on which, instead of a precious stone, is the figure of a heart, and a cruci∣fix engraven on it. On solemn days they wear on their heads crowns of thorns. Their constitutions were drawn up by the fa∣mous St. Charles Barromeo, and confirmed by Pope Urban VIII.
• Angelites held, that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are not the same, that none exists of himself, but that each is God by a par∣ticipation of Deity. They believe the worlds were created by angels, and therefore worship them.
• Annates, a year's income, due anciently to the Popes, upon the death of any Bishop, Abbot, parish-priest, &c. to be paid by his successor.
• Annunciation, a Christian festival, celebrated on the 25th of March, in memory of the annunciation or tidings brought by the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary of the incarnation of Christ. On this festival the Pope performs the ceremony of marrying or cloystering; it began in the 7th century.
• Anomoeans, such as denied any similitude between the essence of the Father and the Son.
• Anthropomorphites. They, thro' great simplicity, took the scriptures every where in a literal sense, that as God made man in his own image, so they imagine man in the same form.
• Antidicomareamites, held that Mary did not preserve her virginity, but had several children by Joseph.
• Antiphony, the answer made by one choir to another, when the psalm or anthem is sung between two.
• Antitactae, a kind of Gnostics, which vide.
• Antitrinitarians, heretics, who deny the Holy Trinity.
• Aphtharpodocites, imagined the body of Jesus Christ was impassible,

• and not capable of death or corruption; they were a branch of the Eutychians, and appeared about the year 535.
• Apostles, from the Greek Apostolos, which signifies an envoy. The Hebrews had their Apostles, who were sent every year to collect a certain kind of tribute which the Jews paid him, called Aurum Corunarium. Some assert, that before Jesus Christ they had ano∣ther sort of Apostle, whose business was to collect the half skekel which was to be paid by every Israelite to the Tabernacle or Tem∣ple of the Lord: but it more properly belonged to the High-Priest or heads of the people, who were sent to carry their orders to the cities and provinces, when any affairs relating to religion were to be transacted. In the New Testament it is appropriated to the persons delegated or sent, as the twelve Disciples of our Lord, to propagate the gospel in all parts of the world.
• Apostolical, an appellation given to such churches or doctrines as were established more immediately by the Apostles.
• Apostolical Canons, rules or laws for the government of the Christian church, supposed by some to have been drawn up by the Apostles; but on much better authority to be a collection of rules and laws by some ancient council preceding the council of Nice.
• Apostolics, an early sect of Christians, who professed to renounce the world, sold their possessions, embraced a voluntary poverty, and pretended to live more after the examples of the Apostles than other Christians.
• Apotactinae, a sect who renounced all worldly possessions.
• Appotinarians denied that Jesus Christ assumed true flesh, or a rati∣onal human soul.
• Aquarians consecrated water in the eucharist instead of wine; they were extremely abstemious, and eat no flesh: but another branch of them did approve of wine at the sacrament when received in the evening; they likewise mixed water with the wine.
• Arabici, erroneous Christians, who sprung up in the third century, whose distinguishing tenet was, that the soul and body died toge∣gether, and rose again. Eusebius relates, that a council was called to stop the progress of it, when Origen assisted at it, and convinced this sect so fully of their error, that they abjured it.
• Arians, from Arius, who denied that the Son was God, consubstan∣tial and coequal with the Father; and asserted him to be a crea∣ture made out of nothing and in time. This doctrine was con∣demned in the Nicene council, A. C. 325: but it was established in the council of Rimini, A. C. 365. Arius, the principal broacher of this doctrine, died in 336.
• Arianism, the doctrine of Arius, who asserted that the Son is not un∣begotten, nor in any manner a part of the unbegotten God, nor from any part of the material world; but that by the will and council of the Father, he existed before all time and ages, perfect God, the only begotten and unchangeable; and that therefore

• before he was begotten or formed he was not; but that there never was a time when he was not.
• Armenians; there are two kinds, one are Catholics, and subject to the Pope, and have a Patriarch in Persia, another in Poland. The other are a peculiar sect in Natolia, and have two Pacriarchs. They believe the divine and human nature united in the Son; that the Holy Ghost proceeded only from the Father; celebrate the sacrament with unleavened bread, and deny the body and blood of Christ to be really in the elements. They receive infants pre∣sently after baptism to the eucharist; deny the virtue of conferring grace to belong to the sacrament: they reject purgatory and pray∣ing for the dead; they admit of married priests; they rebaptise those who come to their communion from the Latin church; they fast in Lent; they fast at Christmas, December 25, and feast at our Saviour's baptism: abstain from eating blood, &c.
• Arminians, sometimes called Remonstrants, arose in Holland by a separation from the Calvinists, about the year 1600. Adherents to Arminius, a celebrated professor of divinity at Leyden. They looked upon the doctrine of the Trinity as a point not necessary to salvation; acknowledged the supremacy of God. They be∣lieved that the assistance of the Holy Spirit of God for promoting faith and holiness is promised, and afforded on our sincere asking it; but that the scripture does not require us to pray to, nor pay adoration to the Holy Ghost. They also believe that Jesus Christ offered himself an acceptable sacrifice or oblation to God, but not as an adequate satisfaction. They speak very ambiguously of the prescience of God, at least Episcopius and some of them; for Arminius taught that God elected the faithful according to his fore-knowledge. They maintain, that there is an universal grace given to all men; that every man is a moral agent, at liber∣ty to reject or embrace this grace: they disclaim all human au∣thority over the faith and consciences of others; and inculcate charity and unity with Christians of different denominations.
• Arnoldists, a kind of sectaries in the 12th century, so called from their chief, Arnold of Bresse, a great declaimer against the wealth and vices of the clergy. He is also charged with preaching against baptism and the eucharist, &c. He was burnt at Rome in 1155, and his ashes cast into the Tiber.
• Artotyrites, a sect of Christians, a branch of the Montanists, who used to eat bread and cheese at the sacrament.
• Ascension Day, Whitsunday, observed in commemoration of that miraculous elevation of our Saviour, when he ascended to heaven in the sight of the Apostles.
• Ascetics, an antient appellation given to those who devoted them∣selves to piety and virtue in a retired life, prayer, abstinence, &c.
• Asclepiodotaeans, the first sect who held that Christ was a mere man, A. D. 221.
• ...

• Ascordrutes, in the second century, rejected the use of all symbols and sacraments, on this principle, that incorporeal things cannot be communicated by things corporeal, nor divine mysteries by any thing visible.
• Ash-Wednesday, the first day of Lent. It arose from a custom of the church, of sprinkling ashes on the heads of such as were then ad∣mitted to penance. The ashes must be made from branches of the olive tree; then they are laid upon the altar, and blessed by the officiating priest, afterwards signed with the sign of the cross; then they are strewed on the heads of the priests, and then of the laity. When this ceremony took its rise, we cannot precisely de∣termine. The use of ashes, and the ceremonies, were forbidden in England, by order of council, in the reign of Edward VI. 1548. This omission is at present supplied by reading publickly, on Ash-Wednesday, the curses denounced in the holy scriptures against several kinds of sins, the people repeating after such curse; Amen.
• Assuritans, a sect of Christians, in the reign of Constantius, A. D. 358. They were a branch of the Donatists. They held that the Son was inferior to the Father, and the Holy Ghost to the Son: they re-baptised those who embraced their doctrines, and asserted that good men only were within the pale of the church.
• Athanasian Creed. See Creed. Athanasius died in 371, before the creed said to be his was compiled.
• Atheist, one who denies the existence and being of a God and Pro∣vidence; one who owns no being superior to nature. Some de∣nominate these speculative Atheists; and others, whose wicked lives lead them to believe or wish there was no God, are stiled practical Atheists.
• Augustins, an order of religious, who observe the rule of St. Augus∣tin. They are popularly called Austin friars, and were origi∣nally hermits, congregated into one body by Pope Alexander IV. under their general Lanfranc, 1256.
• Aulic Council, so called from the Latin, a hall, it being in the hall of the university that this council is generally held; a superior court or council which has an universal jurisdiction, and without appeal, over all the subjects of the Empire in all processes enter∣ed therein. The name is likewise applied to the officers who preside or assist in it; it is composed of a president who is a Ca∣tholic, a vice-chancellor, eighteen assessors, viz. nine Catholics and nine Protestants.
• Auricular Confession, is that made in the ear privately, enjoined by Pope Innocent III. passed into an article of faith in the Lateran council, 1215.
• Autocephali, Bishops. This denomination was given to such bishops in the primitive church as were exempted from the jurisdiction of others. Before the setting up of patriarchs, all metropolitans were accountable to no superior but a synod, and even after the advancement of patriarchs, several metropolitans continued thus

• independent; this was likewise a privilege of the ancient British church; insomuch that Dinothus told Austin, in the name of all the Britannic churches, that they owed no other obedience to the Pope than they did to every godly Christian. Besides these there were another sort subject to no metropolitan; but at what time this sort of independent bishoprics took place, is uncertain.
• Auto-de fé, or act of faith, is a solemn day held by the inquisition for the punishment of heretics, and the absolution of the innocent accused. They usually contrive the Auto to fall on some great festival, that the execution may pass with the more awe and re∣gard, at least it is always on a Sunday. The criminals are first led to church, where their sentence is read to them, either of con∣demnation or absolution. Those condemned to death are here delivered up to the secular power, with an earnest intreaty that no blood may be shed. But if they persist in their supposed errors, they are burnt alive. Those who suffer on this account, meet with much less compassion and humanity than those who are put to death for capital crimes.
• Azymites, Christians who administer the eucharist, or holy commu∣nion, with unleavened bread. Authors are not agreed as to this being an occasion of a rupture between the Romish and Greek church; but Bingham mentions it as his opinion, that the use of wafers and unleavened bread was not known in the church till the 11th or 12th century, and he tells the following story in con∣firmation of it: As Gregory the Great was administering the bread to a certain woman in the usual form, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. she fell a laughing, and, being asked the rea∣son of it, said, because he called that the body of Jesus Christ, which she knew to be bread that she had made with her own hands. Besides, the ancients say their bread was common bread, and not objected to till 1051. But this is much more contro∣verted by F. Sirmond, in a dissertation, wherein he shews, that the Latins had constantly communicated in leavened bread, till the 10th century; and Thomas Aquinas maintains, that, during the first ages of the church, none but unleavened bread was used in the church; that the primitive church did it in imitation of our Saviour, who celebrated the last supper with unleavened bread. Upon the whole, in the council of Florence it was decreed, that the point lay at the discretion of the church, and that either lea∣vened or unleavened bread might be used. The Western church has preferred the latter.

B.

• BAgnolenses, a sect of heretics in the 8th century, who were mostly Manichees; rejected the Old Testament and part of the New, held the world to be eternal, and that God did not create the soul, when he infused it into the body.
• ...

• Baptistery, the place in which the ceremony of baptism is perform∣ed: in the ancient church it was generally a building separate and distinct from the church; it consisted of an ante-room, where the persons to be baptised made their confession of faith, and an in∣ner-room, where the ceremony of baptism was performed. Thus it continued to the 6th century, at which time the baptistries be∣gan to be taken into the church.
• Barallots, a sect of heretics at Bologna, in Italy, who had all things, even their wives and children, in common.
• Barbes, the name which the Vaudois, or Waldenses, a Protestant sect in Provence, Languedoc, &c. gave to their pastors. The term signifies, in the Venetian language, an Elder: the reason why their ministers were called by this name, was, that they might thereby conceal their function in remote parts, and times of persecution. The Barbes made the education of youth, and the superintendency of the public schools, an important branch of their employment. Out of these scholars they selected such as had the best capacities for the ministry; and, in order to form and fit them for that office, retained them for a time in their own houses. However the exercise of the ministry was no man∣ner of obstruction to their practice of some manual occupation, or some other science, particularly physic, or surgery, in which many of them were very great proficients: they held a synod every year, at which time the students in divinity were examined, ordained, and appointed, either to go abroad, or to preach in some of their churches. Their young pupils were accustomed to an unlimited obedience; some of the Barbes were married men, though the majority of them observed celibacy, that they might discharge their functions with the less obstruction or incumbrance.
• Bardesanists, a sect of ancient heretics, so denominated from their leader Bardesanes, a Syrian, of Edessa, in Mesopotamia. They believed that the actions of men depended altogether on fate, and that God himself is subject to necessity. They denied the resur∣rection of the body, and the incarnation and death of our Savi∣our.
• Barnabas, one of the fathers, flourished A. C. 34. His works were printed at Oxford, 1685.
• St. Barnabas's Day, a Christian festival, celebrated on the 11th of June. St. Barnabas was born at Cyprus, and descended of the tribe of Levi, whose Jewish ancestors are thought to have retired thither, to secure themselves from violence during the trouble∣some times in Judea. His proper name was Joses; to which, af∣ter his conversion to Christianity, the Apostles added that of Bar∣nabas, signifying either the son of prophecy, or the son of conso∣lation; the first respecting his emment prophetic gifts, the other his great charity in selling his estate for the comfort and relief of the poor Christians. He was educated at Jerusalem, under the great Jewish doctor Gamaliel, which might probably lay the

• foundation of that intimate friendship which was afterwards con∣tracted between this Apostle and St. Paul. The time of his con∣version is uncertain; but he is generally esteemed one of the seven∣ty disciples chosen by our Saviour himself.
• Barnabites, an order of religious, thus called from the church of St. Barnabas at Milan, where they were first established; and not, as some have imagined, because St. Barnabas was their pa∣tron; in reality St. Paul is the patron of the Barnabites. The Barnabites are regular priests of the congregation of St. Paul. Their habit is black, and the same with that they wore when first established, in 1533, by the express bulls of Pope Cle∣ment VII. Their office is to instruct, catechise, and serve in missions.
• St. Bartholomew's Day, a festival of the Christian church, celebrated on the 24th of August. St. Bartholomew was one of the twelve Apostles, and is esteemed to be the same as Nathaniel, one of the first disciples that came to Christ. The reason of this opinion is, because, as St. John never mentions Bartholomew in the num∣ber of the Apostles, so the other Evangelists never mention Na∣thaniel; and as, in St. John, Philip and Nathaniel are joined to∣gether in their coming to Christ, so, in the rest of the Evange∣lists, Philip and Bartholomew are constantly put together. What renders this still more probable, is, that Nathaniel is particularly mentioned among the Apostles, to whom our Lord appeared at the sea of Tiberias, after his resurrection, where were present Simon Peter, Thomas, and Nathaniel of Cana in Galli••ee, and the two sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples, who were probably Andrew and Philip.
• Bartholomites, a religious order, founded at Genoa in the year 1307. In 1296, the Sultan of Egypt coming into Armenia, committed great cruelties in that country, and particularly persecuted the monks of St. Basil, settled at Monte Negro, many of whom suf∣fered martyrdom, and others escaped it by flight. Some of the latter flying into Europe, came to Genoa, under the conduct of one Father Martin. They were well received, and offered a set∣tlement in that city.
• Basil, St. order of, the most ancient of all the religious orders, ta∣king its name from St. Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, about the mid∣dle of the fourth century.
• Basilidians, a sect so called from Basilides, in the second century, and cotemporary with Saturninus, who flourished at Antioch, Basilides in Alexandria. The peculiar tenets he held were, that the supreme God, whom he stiled Abraxas, begot the thais or understanding; from the thais was the Logos cerived, from the Logos phrenesis, or (as Tertullian translates it) Providence, from phrenesis sophia, and dynamis, i. e. wisdom and power; from so∣phia and dynamis sprung powers, principalities, and angels, whom he calls the first, by which angels were the first heaven

• created; and then from them other angels, by way of derivation, arose, who made and possessed another heaven; and the head of all these angels was the God of the Jews, the Creator of our world; that Jesus Christ was his first begotten, but that he did not be∣come incarnate, only appeared in human form, &c. &c.
• Beatification, in the Romish church, the act whereby the Pope de∣clares the person happy after death. It differs from canoniza∣tion; in the former, the Pope does not act as a judge in deter∣mining the state of the beatified, but only grants a privilege to certain persons to honour him by a particular religious worship, without incurring the penalty of superstitious worshippers; but in canonization, the Pope speaks as a judge, and determines ex ca∣thedra upon the state of the canonized. It was introduced, when it was thought proper to delay the canonization of saints, for the greater assurance of the truth, and manifestation of the rigo∣rous steps taken in the procedure.
• Beghardi, Beguardi, or Begghardi, the name of an heretical sect in Germany, which sprung up towards the end of the 13th century. Their head was one Dulcinus. Their principal tenets were, that man, in this life, might be impeccable, and that he might rise to a degree of perfection not to be exceeded; that this state is as happy as heaven, which, when once obtained, men are no long∣er obliged to observe the fasts of the church, nor obey their supe∣riors; that every intellectual creature is self-happy; they disre∣garded good works, as of no avail to salvation, and took great pains to spread abroad their impious doctrines. These fanatics, who wore the habit of monks, without paying regard to any other rule, or observing celibacy, were condemned under Pope Clement V. at the council of Vienna, in 1311.
• Beguins, devout societies of young women, established in several parts of Flanders, Picardy, and Lorrain, who maintain them∣selves by the work of their own hands, leading a middle kind of life, between the secular and religious, but make no vows.
• Benedictius, or Benedictin order, is an order of monks, who profess to follow the uses of St. Benedict. The Benedictins are those properly called Monachi, monks; the other orders may properly be denominates friars. In the canon law, the Benedictins are call∣ed black m••aks, being distinguished from the other orders by the colour of their habit, and not by the firname of their patri∣arch, St. Benedict. Among us they wear formerly denominated black friars. The Benedictins wore a loose black gown, with large wide sleeves, and a capuche on their heads, ending in a point behind.
• Benedictions: The Hebrews under this name understand the presents which friends make to one another, in all probability because they are generally attended with blessings and compliments, both from those who give and those who receive them.
• Benefice, benefitium, in an ecclesiastical sense, a church endowed

• with a revenue for the performance of divine service, or the reve∣nue itself, assigned to an ecclesiastical person for life, in return for his performing the service of the church.
• Berengarians, a religious sect in the eleventh century, which adher∣ed to the opinions of Berengarius, archdeacon of Angers, who, in the year 1035, began to propagate his doctrine concern∣ing the eucharist, in a manner agreeable to the tenets, not only of Bertram and Scotus, but of the whole primitive church; as∣serting, that the bread and wine in the Lord's supper is not really and essentially, but only figuratively, changed into the body and blood of Christ. Several of the monks strenuously opposed Be∣rengarius: at length, in the year 1050, he was condemned in a synod held at Rome by Pope Leo IX. and excommunicated: as he was also the same year in a synod held at Verceil in Piedmont, and in another held at Tours in Franc••, at which Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted. In the year 1059. Berenga∣rius maintained his opinion in a synod held at Rome before Pope Nicholas II. His followers were divided on the head of the eu∣charist, but they all agreed that the bread and wine were not essen∣tially changed, some allowing that the body and blood of Christ were contained in them, tho' concealed under an impanation; others denying any change at all.
• Bernardins, or Bernardites, a Christian fect, extended over a great part of Europe, being an improvement on the order of St. Be∣nedict, first made by Robert, abbot de Moleme, and further re∣formed by St. Bernard, abbot de Clervaux, whence they take their name.—Their usual habit is a white gown, with a black scapula∣ry; but when they officiate, they put on a large white cowl with great sleeves, and a hood of the same colour.—They differ very little from the Cistercians: they had their origin toward the beginning of the twelfth century.
• Bethlchemites, a Christian sect, called star-bearers, because they were distinguished by a red star, having five rays, which they wore on their breast, in memory of the star which appeared to the wife men, and conducted them to Bethlehem. Several au∣thors have mentioned this order, but none have told us their ori∣gin, nor where their convents were situated, if we except Mat∣thew Paris, who says, that in the year 1257 they obtained a settlement in England, which was at Cambridge, in Trumping∣ton-street.
• ...

  Bible. This word comes from the Greek Biblos, which signifies a book: we give this name to the collections of the sacred writ∣ings, and call it Bible or book, by way of eminence and dis∣tinction; the Hebrews call it Mikra which signifies lesson, lec∣ture or scripture.—The books of the Old Testament were writ∣ten chiefly in Hebrew; there are some parts of Daniel written in Chaldee, but for the book of Wisdom it was never written in any other than in Greek.

• ...

  The books of the New Testament were all written in Greek, except St. Matthew, which was written in Hebrew, that is to say in Syriac, which was the language spoken at that time in Judea; but it is disputed whether St. Mark wrote in Greek or Latin, and whether the epistle to the Hebrews was not at first written in He∣brew; but it appears most certain that they were originally com∣posed in Greek.

  For an account of the different translations of the books of the Old and New Testament, see Calmet.

• Bidellians, from John Biddle, a school-master at Gloucester, who was principal in the Socinian scheme, except that with the Pneu∣matomachi of old, he admitted the personality of the Holy Ghost, and, denying only its divinity, asserted it to be no more than chief among the holy angels. He met with great opposition and persecution. This name was in good measure lost in the more common appellation of Socinians, or, which they rather chose for themselves, that of Unitarians; their first rise was in 1644.
• Bogomili, or Bogarmitae, a sect of heretics sprung from the Ma∣nichees, or Massalians, towards the close of the eleventh century; whose chief, Basil, was burnt alive by order of the Emperor Alex∣ander Comnenus. They denied the Trinity, maintaining their God had a human form, that the world was created by evil an∣gels, &c. &c. &c.
• Bons Fieux, in English, good sons, a congregation of religious, of the third order of St. Francis, so called; it was founded at Armantieres, a little town of Flanders upon the Lis, in the year 1615, by five pious artisans, the oldest of whom was named Hen∣ry Pringuel, a native of that town; they lived in common, and formed a little community in a house belonging to Pringuel; their habit was black, and not distinguished from that of seculars; three of them spent their time in making linen cloth, one taught youth, and the fifth made lace: thus they lived till the year 1626, when they embraced the third rule of St. Francis, their order in∣creased, and, in 1670, it consisted of two congregations, that of Armantieres, and that of Lisle, in the diocese of Tournay: in 1679, they made a third settlement at St. Venant, in the diocese of St. Omer. Lewis XIV. gave them the direction of all his hospitals at Dunkirk, Burgues, and Ypres; their congregation is at present composed of seven houses and hospitals, or rather seven families, according to their manner of speaking.
• Breviary, the Roman Catholic common prayer book, generally in Latin. There are some in England, Latin and English.—The Roman Breviary is general, and may be used in every place; but on the model of this have been built various others peculiarily appropriated to each diocese and to each order of religion. It consists of the services of mattins, lauds, prime, thirds, sixths, nones, vespers, and the complines or post communion.
• ...

• Briefs (apostolical) denote letters which the Pope dispatches to prin∣ces and other magistrates touching any public affair. They are thus called, as being very concise, written on paper without preface or preamble, by which they are distinguished from bulls, which are more ample, and always wrote on parchment, and sealed with lead or green wax, and with the seal of the fisherman, or St. Peter in a boat, a seal never applied but in the Pope's pre∣sence.
• Brothers, Lay Brothers, among the Romanists, are those pious, but illiterate persons, who devote themselves in some convent to the service of the religious,—A lay brother wears a different habit from that of the religious; he never enters into the choir, nor is present at the chapters; he is not in any orders, nor makes any vow, except of constancy and obedience, he is employed in the temporal concerns of the convent, and has the care of the kit∣chen, gate, &c. The institution of lay brothers began in the eleventh century; the persons on whom this title and office were conferred, were too ignorant to become clerks, and therefore ap∣plied themselves wholly to bodily work, in which they expressed that zeal for religion, which could not exert itself in spiritual ex∣ercises.—In the nunneries, there are also lay sisters, who are re∣tained in the convent for the service of the nuns, in like manner as the lay brothers are for the monks.
• Budnaeans, or Budneists, a sectary in Poland, 1584, who disclaimed the worship of Christ, like those in Transylvania, met with much opposition, yet propagated their opinions at Cracow, in the reign of Sigismund. They and their opposers ran into many wild hy∣potheses, construing many natural effects into supernatural phaeno∣mena in favour of each other.
• Bull, a written letter, dispatched, by order of the Pope, from the Roman chancery, and sealed with lead. It is a kind of apostoli∣cal rescript, or edict, and is chiefly in use in matters of justice and grace. If the former be the intention of the bull, the lead is hung by a hempen cord; if the latter, by a silken thread. It is this pendent lead, or seal, which is, properly speaking, the bull, and which is impressed on the one side with the head of St. Peter and St. Paul, and on the other with the name of the Pope, and the year of his pontificate. The bull is written in an old round Gothic let∣ter, and is divided into five parts, the narrative of the fact, the conception, the clause, the date, and the salutation, in which the Pope stiles himself Servus Serverum, the servant of servants.— These instruments, besides the lead hanging to them, have a cross, with some texts of scripture, or religious motto about it. Thus in those of Pope Licius III. the device was, Adjuva nos Deus sa∣lutaris noster, that of Urban III. Ad te Domine levavi animam me∣am, and that of Alexander III. Vias tuas, Domine, demonstrata mihi.—Bulls are granted for the consecration of Bishops, the pro∣motion of benefices, the celebration of jubilies, &c. Those

• brought into-France are limited by the law and customs of the land, nor are they admitted, till they have been examined, and found to contain nothing contrary to the liberties of the Galli∣can church.

C.

• Calixtins, a party or sect of Christians, in Bohemia and Meravia, in the 15th century. The principal point in which they differ∣ed from the church, was, the use of the chalice (calix) or com∣municating in both kinds. They were a branch of the Hussites, or followers of John Huss.
• Caloyers, a general name given to the monks of the Greek church. These religious consider St. Basil as their father and founder, and look upon it as a crime to follow any other rule than his. There are three degrees among them, the novices, who are called Archari; the ordinary professed, called Microchemi; and the more perfect, called Magalochemi. They are likewise divided into Coenobites, Anchorets, and Recluse. In the monasteries, the religious rise at midnight, and repeat a particular office, called from thence Mesonycticon, which takes up the space of two hours; after which they retire to their cells, till five o'clock in the morn∣ing, when they return to the church to say mattins. At nine o'clock, they repeat the terce, sexte, and mass; after which they repair to the refectory, where is a lecture read till dinner. At four o'clock in the afternoon they say vespers; and at six go to supper. After supper they say an office, from thence called Apodipho, and, at eight, each monk retires to his chamber and bed, till midnight. Every day, after mattins, they confess their faults, on their knees, to their superior. They have four Lents; the first and greatest is that of the resurrection of our Lord: they call it the Grand Quarantain, and it lasts eight weeks. During this Lent, the religious drink no wine, and their abstinence is so great, that, if they are obliged in speaking to name milk, butter, or cheese, they always add this aparenthesis, "Timitis a gias sarocostis;" i. e. save the respect due to holy Lent. The second Lent is that of the holy Apostles, which begins eight days after Whitsuntide; its duration is not fixed, it continuing sometimes three weeks, and at other times longer. During this Lent, they are allowed to drink wine. The third Lent is that of the Assump∣tion of our Lady, it lasts fourteen days: during which they abstain from fish, excepting on Sundays, and the day of the transfigu∣ration of our Lord. The fourth Lent is that of Advent, which they observe after the same manner as that of the Apostles. The Caloyers, besides the usual habit of the monastic life, wear over their shoulders a square piece of stuff, on which are represented the cross, and the other marks of the passion of our Saviour, with these letters, JC. XC. NC. i. e. Jesus Christus vincit.
• ...

• Calvinism, the doctrine and sentiments of Calvin and his followers, with regard to matters of religion. Calvinism subsists in its great∣est purity in the city of Geneva, whence it was propagated over France, the United Provinces, and England. In France it was abolished by the revocation of the edict of Nantz in 1685. It has been the prevailing religion in the United Provinces ever since the year 1572. In England it has dwindled since the time of Queen Elizabeth, and is now chiefly confined among the Dis∣senters; though it still subsists, a little allayed, in the articles of the established church, and in its rigour in Scotland. Of the thirteen Swiss Cantons there are six who profess Calvinism, which likewise obtains in the Palatinate; except that of late, Popery is there become the reigning religion. The distinguishing tenets of Calvinism are, 1st, That predestination and reprobation are prior to the prescience of good or evil works. 2dly, That predestination and reprobation depend on the mere will of God, without any re∣gard to the merits or demerits of mankind. 3dly, That God gives to those, whom he has predestinated, a faith which they can∣not lose: a necesstating grace, which takes away the freedom of the will; and that he imputes no sin to them. 4thly, That the righteous cannot do any good work, by reason of original sin, which cleaves to them. 5thly, That men are justified by faith only. The modern Calvinists reject or palliate some of these arti∣cles. In France the Calvinists are distinguished by the name of Huguenots; and, among the common people, by that of Parpail∣lots. In Germany they are confounded with the Lutherans, un∣der the general title Protestants; only sometimes distinguished by the name Reformed.
• Camaldolites, or Camaldules, a religious order founded by St. Romuald, a native of Ravenna, and descended from the illustrious house of its Dukes. Romuald had tasted all the pleasures, and passed through all the vices, incident to youth; but continual re∣morse of conscience determined him at last to renounce the world, and dedicate himself wholly to God and religion: for which pur∣pose he retired to Mount Cassin, where the conversation of a re∣ligious, whom he met with there, confirmed him in his resolution, and induced him to take the habit in that monastery. The man∣ner of life, which he enjoined his disciples to observe, was this: they dwelt in separate cells, and met together only at the times of prayer; some of them during the two Lents of the year, observed an inviolable silence, and others for the space of an hundred days. On Sundays and Thursdays they fed on herbs, and the rest of the week only on bread and water.
• Cameronites, a party of Presbyterians, which sprung up in Scotland, in the reign of King Charles II. They took their name from one Archibald Cameron, a field-preacher, who was the first that sepa∣rated in communion from the other Presbyterians, who differed from him in opinion concerning the minister••, who had accepted

• of an indulgence from the King. He affirmed, that it was counte∣nancing the supremacy in church-affairs; whilst they alledged, that it was only making use of the liberty to exercise the pastoral function, from which they had been unduly restrained. The Cameronians, in the fury of their zeal, separated from the kirk. They affirmed, that the King had forfeited his right to the crown by breaking the solemn league and covenant, which were the terms on which he received it. They pretended both to dethrone and excommunicate him, and broke out into an open rebellion, which was suppressed by the Duke of Monmouth, at Bothwell∣bridge. Upon the Revolution they were reconciled to the kirk, and the preachers of their party submitted to the general assembly of the church of Scotland, in 1690. (See the history of that church).
• Canon. This term signifies rule, according to the import of the Greek. It is particularly used in the language of the church, to signify such rules as are prescribed by councils concerning faith, discipline, and manners. It is made use of likewise to denote those books of scripture which are received as inspired and cano∣nical, and to distinguish them from either profane, apocryphal, or disputed books. There have been various collections of the canons of the Eastern councils; but there are four principal ones, each ampler than the preceding ones; the first, according to U∣sher, A. D. 380, containing only those of the first oecumenical council, and the five principal ones; they were but 164 in num∣ber: To these Dionysius Exiguus, in the year 520, added the fifty canons of the Apostles, and those of other general councils. The Greek canons in this sacred collection, and with those of the council of Chalcedon; to which are subjoined those of the council of Sardica, and the African councils. The fourth and last collection comes down as low as the second council of Nice; and it is on that Balsamon and Zonaras have commented. Canon is also used (as before observed) for the authorised catalogue of the holy writings. The ancient canon, or catalogue of the books of the Old Testament, was made by the Jews, and is ordinarily attributed to Esdras. This is the canon allowed to have been fol∣lowed by the primitive church till the council of Carthage, and according to St. Jerom consisted of no more than twenty-two books. But that council enlarged the canon very considerably, taking into it the books which we call the Apocrypha; which the council of Trent have farther inforced, injoining all these to be received as books of holy scripture, upon pain of anathema, and being attainted of heresy.
• Canonization, a declaration of the Pope, whereby, after a great deal of solemnity, they enter into the list of the saints some person who has lived an exemplary live, and wrought miracles. The word ca∣nonization seems to be of later origin than the thing; there being

• no instance of the use of the word before the 12th century: where∣as St. Uldaricus was canonized in the tenth. The name is from canon, in regard the primitive canonizations were only orders of the Popes or Bishops, whereby persons eminent for piety, &c. were inferred in the canon of the mass, that they might be commemo∣rated in the service, for that in those days the use of martyrolo∣gies was unknown in the church. Mabillon distinguishes two kinds of canonization, a general and particular: the first made by a general council, or a Pope; the second by a Bishop, a particular church, or a provincial council. There are instances likewise of canonization, at least something very like them, by Abbots. At first only martyrs were canonized; by degrees they came to con∣fessors. It is disputed whether the martyrdom does not supply the want of miracles. Canonization anciently consisted in inserting the saint's name in the sacred Diptychs, or canon of saints; in ap∣pointing a proper office for invoking him, and erecting churches under his invocation, with altars for mass to be celebrated on; taking up the body from the first place of its burial, and the like ceremonies. By degrees, other formalities were added; pro∣cessions made with the saint's image in triumph, the day of his death is declared a feast; and, to render the thing still more solemn, Honorius III. in 1225, added several days indulgence to a canonization.
• Canons, a particular order of religious, distinct from monks. Their original can be carried no higher than the fourth century, and is unanimously ascribed to the famous St. Augustin, Bishop of Hippo, in Africa, who first prescribed a way of living to clerks, who would voluntarily live in common, and possess nothing, after the example of the monks.
• Capuchins, religious of the order of St. Francis, in its strictest ob∣servance. The Capuchins are thus called, from capuce or capu∣chon, a stuff cap or cowl, wherewith they cover their heads. They are cloathed with brown or grey, always bare-footed, are never to go in a coach, nor ever shave their beard. The Capu∣chins are a reform made from the Minors, commonly called Cor∣deliers, set on foot in the sixteenth century by Matthew Baschi, a religious observant of the monastery of Montefiascone, who, being a Roman, was advertised several times from heaven to prac∣tise the rule of St. Francis to the latter. Upon this he made ap∣plication to Pope Clement, in 1525, who gave him permission to retire into a solitude, and not only him, but as many others as would embrace the strict observance, which some did accordingly. In 1528, they obtained the Pope's bull; in 1529, the order was brought into complete form. Matthew was elected General, and the chapter made constitutions. In 1543, the right of preaching was taken from the Capuchins by the Pope; but, in 1545, it was restored to them again with honour. In 1578, there were al∣ready seventeen general chapters in the order of Capuchins.
• ...

• Cardinal, is more particularly used for an ecclesiastic Prince, one who has a voice both active and passive in the Roman conclave, at the election of a Pope. Some say the Cardinals were so called from the Latin, incardinatio, which signifies the adoption any church made of a priest of a foreign church, driven thence by misfortune; and add, that the use of the word commenced at Rome and Ravenna; the revenues of the churches of which cities being very great, they became the common refuge of the unhap∣py priests of all other churches. The Cardinals compose the Pope's council or senate in the Vatican; are a constitution of Pope John, which regulates the rights and titles of Cardinals; in which he declares, that as the Pope represents Moses, so the Cardinals re∣present the seventy disciples, who, under the Pontifical authori∣ty, decide private and particular differences. Cardinals, in their first institution, were only the principal priests, or incumbents of the parishes of Rome. In the primitive church, the chief priest of a parish, who immediately followed the Bishop, was called presbyter cardinalis, to distinguish him from the other petty priests, who had no church nor preferment. The term was first applied to them in the year 150; others say, under Pope Silvester, in the year 300. These Cardinals alone were allowed to baptise, and administer the eucharist. When the Cardinal priests became Bishops, their cardinalate became vacant, they being then sup∣posed to be raised to a higher dignity. Under Pope Gregory, Cardinal priests and Cardinal deacons were only such priests or deacons as had a church or chapel under their care; and this was the original use of the word. Leo IV. in the council of Rome held in 853, calls them presbyteros sui cardinalis, and their church is parochios cardinales. The Cardinals continued on this footing till the eleventh century; but as the grandeur of his state and Holiness became exceedingly augmented, he would have his coun∣cil of Cardinals make a better figure than the ancient priests had done. It is true, they still preserved their ancient title; but the thing expressed by it was no more. It was a good while, how∣ever, ere they had the precedence over Bishops, or got the elec∣tion of the Pope into their hands; but when they were once pos∣sessed of those privileges, they soon had the red hat and purple, and, growing still in authority, became at length superior to the Bishops, by the sole quality of being Cardinals.
• Carmelites, an order of religious, making one of the four tribes of Mendicants or begging friars, and taking both its name and ori∣ginal from Carmel, a mountain of Syria, formerly inhabited by the prophets Elias and Elisha, and by the children of the prophets, from whom this order pretends to descend in an uninterrupted suc∣cession. The manner in which they make out their antiquity has something too ridiculous to be rehearsed. Some among them pretend they are descendants from Jesus Christ; others go far∣ther;

• and makes Pythagoras a Carmelite, and the ancient Druids regular branches of their order.
• Carpocratians, a branch of the ancient Gnostics, so called from Car∣pocrates, who, in the second century, revived and improved upon the errors of Simon Magus, Menander, Saturninus, and other Gnostics. He owned with them one sole Principal and Father of all things, whose name, as well as nature, was unknown. The world, he taught, was created by angels, vastly inferior to the first principle. He opposed the divinity of Jesus Christ, making him a mere man, begotten carnally on the body of Mary by Jo∣seph, though possessed of uncommon gifts, which set him above other creatures. He inculcated a community of women, and taught, that the soul could not be purified till it had committed all kinds of abominations, making that a necessary condition of per∣fection.
• Carthusians, an order of religious, instituted by S. Bruno about the year 1086, remarkable for the austerity of their rule, which obliges them to a perpetual solitude, a total abstinence from flesh, even at the peril of their lives, and absolute silence, except at cer∣tain stated times. Their houses were usually built in deserts, their fare coarse, and discipline severe. It is observed, that the monastical piety is better preserved in this than in any of the others. M. l'Abbe de la Trappe, however, endeavours to shew, that the Carthusians do not live up to the austerity enjoined by the ancient statutes of Guigues, their fifth general. M. Masson, at present general of the order, answers that abbot, and shews, that what he calls the statutes or constitutions of Guigues, are in rea∣lity only customs compiled by Father Guigues, and that they did not become laws till long after.
• Catechism, catechise, are Greek terms, which signify instruction, to instruct.
• Catechist, he who instructs.
• Catechumen, the person to be instructed, in order to his being ad∣mitted a member of the Christian church.
• Cathedral, a church wherein a Bishop has a see or seat. The deno∣mination cathedral seems to have taken its rise from the manner of sitting in the ancient churches, or assemblies of primitive Chris∣tians. In these, the council, i. e. the elders and priests, was called presbyterium. At their head was the Bishop, who held the place of chairman, cathedralis, or cathedraticus; and the Presby∣ters, who sat on either side, were also called by the ancient fa∣thers assessores Episcoporum. The Episcopal authority did not re∣side in the Bishop alone, but in all the Presbyters, whereof the Bishop was President. A cathedral therefore originalty was dif∣ferent from what it is now, the Christians, ••il the time of Con∣stantine, having no lib••rty to build any temple. By their church∣es they only meant their assemblies, and by cathedrals nothing more than consistories. Whence appears the vanity of some au∣thors,

• especially the Spaniards, who pretend their cathedrals to have been built in the time of the Apostles.
• Catholic. This term is originally Greek; it signifies universal or general. Thus the church of Jesus Christ is called catholic, be∣cause it extends throughout the world, and is not limited to time or place. In the strict sense of the word, there is no Catholic church in being, that is, no universal communion; and there∣fore, when, in rehearsing the Apostles creed, we profeis to be∣lieve the holy Catholic, we must mean (as Mr. Chillingworth ex∣presses it) the right that the church of Christ, or rather (to speak properly) the gospel of Christ, hath to be universally believed; and therefore the article may be true, though there were no Chris∣tian church in the world.
• Cerdonians, a sect of erroneous Christians in the first century, who espoused most of the opinions of Simon Magus and the Maniche∣ans. He asserted two principles, a good and a bad; the first he called the Father of Jesus Christ; the latter the Creator of the world. He denied the incarnation of Jesus Christ, rejected the books of the Old Testament. He likewise denied the resurrection. His disciple, Marcion, espoused and propagated the same senti∣ments.
• Cerinthians, ancient heretics, who denied the deity of Jesus Christ. They took their name from Cerinthus, one of the first heretics in the church, he being co-temporary with St. John. Cerinthus was a zealous defender of the circumcision, as well as the Naza∣renes and Ebionites. St. Epiphanius says, he was the head of a faction which rose at Jerusalem against St. Peter, on account of some circumcised persons, with whom that Apostle had eat. He believed that Jesus Christ was a mere man, born of Joseph and Mary, but, in his baptism, a celestial virtue descended on him in form of a dove, by means whereof he was consecrated by the Holy Spirit, and made Christ. It was by this celestial virtue, therefore, that he wrought so many miracles, which, as he re∣ceived it from heaven, quitted him after his passion, and returned to the place where it came; so that Jesus, whom he called a pure man, really died and rose again; but that Christ, who was dis∣tinguished from Jesus, did not suffer at all.
• Cesarins, or Caesarians. A religious order, being a reform of that of St. Francis, who began to erect one with such magnificence, (for which he exacted large contributions of the order) as was neither suitable to the humility which that saint had made pro∣fession of, nor to the poverty which he had enjoined his followers.
• Cestertian Monks. A religious order founded in the 9th century, by St. Robert, a benedictin, and abbot of Moleme. Certain an∣chorets of a neighbouring forest, having heard of St. Robert (then abbot of St. Michael de la Tonne••e) intreated him to take upon him the direction of them; but the prior of his monastery, and some of the ancient monks, obstructed his complying with

• their request. Those monks of Tonnere lived under so great a relaxation of discipline, that the abbot lost all hopes of reforming them, and therefore left them, and retired to the Abbey of Mon∣tier-la-celle, in which he had formerly been a monk. Soon after he was chosen prior of the monastery of St. Augulphus, which was dependent on that Abbey; then it was, that the afore-named anchorets applied themselves to the Pope, who granted them a brief which directed the abbot of Montier-la-celle to deliver Ro∣bert to them, they having made choice of him to govern them. Robert was well pleased with the Pope's order, and accordingly joined those anchorets, whom he led into the forest of Moleme, where they built themselves little cells made of the boughs of trees, and a little oratory, in honour of the Holy Trinity; but these hermits falling into relaxation, and Robert not being able to reclaim them, he left them, and retired to a desert, called Haur, where there were religious men who lived in much unity and simplicity of heart, and who chose him for their abbot; but those of Moleme made use of the authority of the Pope, to oblige him to return, and govern them as he had done before.
• Chalice, the cup or vessel, used to administer the wine in, in the eucharist, and, by the Romanists, in the mass. Bede affirms, that the chalice, used by Jesus Christ at the supper, had two handles, and held just half a pint, which the ancients imitated; but, in the modern times, they are generally made of silver or gold.
• Chapter, Capitulum, a community of ecclesiastics belonging to a ca∣thedral or collegiate church. The chief or head of the chapter is the dean; the body consists of canons or prebendaries. The chapter has now no longer share in the administration of the dic∣cese, during the life of the Bishop; but succeeds to the whole Episcopal jurisdiction during the vacancy of the see. The ori∣gin of the chapters is derived from hence; that anciently the Bishops had their clergy residing with them in their cathedrals, to assist in performance of sacred offices, and in the government of the church; and even after parochical settlements were made, there were still a body of clerks who continued with the Bishops, and were indeed his family, maintained out of his income.
• Charity of our Lady (Religious Hospitallers, called the Order of) This order was founded about the end of the 13th century. Guy, Lord of Toinville, in France, having built, on his own lands, in a place called Boucheraumont, in the diocese of Chalons, an hospital for the necessity of the sick and the poor, gave the care of it to some secular persons, who formed a community among themselves, and took the Holy Virgin for their patroness; and, as charity was the principal motive of their union, the hospital was named the Charity of our Lady. Soon after their Founder procured them a new settlement at P••ris, and, in the year 1300. Pope Boniface VIII. confirmed this order, and honoured it with the protection of the holy see. The religious of this order ob∣served

• the third rule of St. Francis. Philip the Fair, in 1299, gave them a house adjoining to their church. They had seve∣ral convents in different parts of the kingdom; but in length of time these religious growing disorderly and irregular, their order dwindled, and at last became extinct. In 1631, their convent at Paris was given to the Carmelites, which was confirmed by let∣ters-patent of King Lewis XIII.
• Charity of St. Hippolytus (Religious Hospitallers of that order) A∣bout the year 1585, in the pontificate of Gregory XIII. one Ber∣nardin Alvarez, a Mexican, founded an hospital at a little dis∣tance from the city of Mexico, with the permission of the Arch∣bishop, and dedicated it to the honour of St. Hippolytus the Martyr, Patron of the city of Mexico. Bernardin drew up con∣stitutions for the government of those who joined themselves with him in the pious design of serving the poor, and got them ap∣proved by Pope Gregory XIII. Afterwards some other hospitals were built in imitation of this, the number of which increasing, they united, and formed a congregation, under the name of, The Charity of St. Hippolytus; which still subsists.
• Chazinzarians, a sect of heretics which arose in Armenia, in the seventh century. They are so called from the Armenian word chazus, which signifies a cross, because they are charged with adoring the cross; whence, in Greek, they are likewise called staurolatrae.
• Childermas Day, called also Innecents Day, an anniversary feast of the church, held on the 28th of December, in memory of the children of Bethlehem, massacred by order of Herod.
• Chorepiscopi. In the ancient church, when the dioceses became en∣larged by the conversion of Pagans in the country, and villages at a great distance from the city-church, the Bishops appointed themselves certain assistants, whom they called Chorepiscopi, be∣cause by their office they were Bishops of the country. There have been great disputes among the learned concerning the na∣ture of this order. Among the schoolmen and canonists, it is a received opinion, that they were mere Presbyters. Others think there were two sorts of Chorepiscopi; some that had Episcopal ordination, and others that were mere Presbyters. But a third, and the most probable opinion, is, that they were all Bishops. This is the sentiment of Bishop Barlow, Dr. H••mmond, Dr. Beveridge, and Dr. Cave. See Christian.
• Chrism, oil cons••crated by the Bishop, and used in the Romish and Greek churches, in the administration of baptism, confirmation, ordination, and extreme unction. The chrism is prepared on Holy Thursday with a world of ceremony. In Spain it was an∣ciently the custom for the Bishop to take one-third of a sol for the chrism distributed to each church on account of the balsam that entered its composition. Du Cange observes, there are two kinds of chrism; the one prepared of oil and balsam, used in baptism,

• confirmation, and ordination; the other of oil alone, consecrated by the Bishop, used anciently for the catechumens, and still in extreme unction. The Maronites, before their reconcilement with Rome, besides oil and balsam, used musk, saffron, cinnamon, roses, white frankincense, and several other drugs mentioned by Rynaldus, in 1541, with the doses of each. The Jesuit Dandini, who went to Mount Libanus in quality of the Pope's Nuncio, or∣dained, in a synod held there in 1596, that chrism for the future should be made only of two ingredients, oil and balsam; the one representing the human nature of Jesus Christ, the other his di∣vine nature. The action of imposing the chrism is called chris∣mation. This the generality of the Romish divines hold to be the next matter of the sacrament of confirmation. The chrismation in baptism is performed by the priest; that in confirmation by the Bishop; that in ordination, &c. is more usually stiled unction.
• Christ, an appellation usually added to Jesus, and, together there∣with, denominates the Messiah, or Saviour of the world. The word in the original Greek signifies anointed. Sometimes the word Christ is used singly, by way of antonomasis, to denote a person sent from God, an anointed prophet, or priest.
• Christian, one who professes the Christian religion, or one who be∣lieves in Jesus Christ, and is baptised in his name.
• Christians, a name first given at Antioch to the followers of Christ. They were sometimes called brethren, faithful, saints, believers, friends, &c. The names of Nazarenes and Gallileans were like∣wise given them by the Gentiles. It is the opinion of some, that Christian was derived originally from the Greek word christos, good, useful, &c. and applied to their Kings, as denoting au∣thority or sacred. Hence the King of France bears the title or sirname of The Most Christian King, Rex Christianissimus. The French antiquaries trace the original of the appellation up to Gre∣gory the Great; who writing a letter to Charles Martel, occa∣sionally gave him that title, which his successors have since re∣tained. The Christians were sometimes stiled Gnostics, i. e. men of understanding and knowledge; a name which was aped and abused by a perverse sort of heretics, who are commonly dis∣tinguished by the name of Gnostics, because of their pretences to knowledge and science, falsely so called. Another name, which frequently occurs in the writings of the ancients, is that of The∣ophori, which signifies temples of God, and is as old as Ignatius. We sometimes also meet with the name Christophori, used in the same sense; yet it is very observable, that in all the names they chose there were some peculiar relation to Christ or God; for party-names, and human appellations, they ever professed to ab∣hor. Eusebius records a story of one Sactus, a deacon of the church of Vienna, who suffered in the persecution under Anto∣ninus. Being put to the rack, and examined by the magistrate con∣cerning

• his name, his country, his city, and his quality, his an∣swer to all these questions was, "I am a Christian." This, he said, was to him both name, and city, and kindred; nor could his persecutors extort any other answer from him. The first Christians distinguished themselves in the most remarkable manner by their conduct and their virtues. The faithful, whom the preaching of St. Peter had converted, hearkened attentively to the exhortations of the Apostles, who sailed not carefully to instruct them, as persons who were entering upon an entirely new life: they went every day to the temple with one heart and one mind, and continued in prayers, doing nothing different from the other Jews, because it was not yet time to separate them. But they made a still greater progress in virtue; for they sold all that they possessed, and distributed their goods in proportion to the wants of their brethren. They eat their meat with gladness and single∣ness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the peo∣ple. St. Chrysostom, examining from what source the eminent virtue of the first Christians slowed, ascribes it principally to their divesting themselves of their possessions: for (says that Father) persons from whom all that they have is taken away, are not sub∣ject unto sin; whereas, whoever has large possessions, wants not a devil or a tempter to draw him into hell a thousand ways.
• Christians of St. John, a very ancient, but corrupt set of Christians, very numerous in Bassora, and the neighbouring towns. They inhabited along the river Jordan, where St. John baptised, and from him they had their name. They hold an anniversary feast five days, during which they all go to their Bishop, and are baptised. They have no canonical books, and deny the third person in the Trinity.
• Christians of St. Thomas, or San Thoma, a sect of ancient Chris∣tians, found in the East Indies, when the Europeans touched at the port of Callicut, who pretend to be descended from those St. Tho∣mas converted in the Indies; whence the name: the natives call them, by way of contempt, Nazarenes; their more honourable appellation is Mappuleymer.
• Christmas (g. d. Christi missa, i. e. the mass of Christ) a festival celebrated on the 25th day of December, in commemoration of the birth of Christ, by the particular service of the church.
• Church, is a religious assembly, or the large fair building where they meet; sometimes means a synod of Bishops or Presbyters, and in some places the Pope and a general council. Bellarmine, and the Romish divines, to this definition add, under the same Pope, sovereign Pontiff, and Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth; in which circumstance it is that the Romish and reformed notion of church differ. Amelotte and others make a visible head, or chief, es∣sential to a church. Accordingly, among the Catholics the Pope, in England the King, are respectively allowed heads of the church. Bishop Hoadley sets aside the notion of a visible head:

• Christ alone, according to him, is head of the church; which position he has maintained with great address, in a celebrated ser∣mon before King George I. on these words, My kingdom is not of this world; and in the several vindications thereof. Sometimes we consider church in a more extensive sense, and divide it into seve∣ral branches. The church militant is the assembly of the faithful on earth; church triumphant, that of the faithful already in glo∣ry; to which the Catholics add the church patient, that of the faithful in Purgatory. Ecclesia, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, synonymous with our church, is used in the Greek and Latin prophane authors for any kind of public assembly; and even for the place where the assem∣bly is held. The sacred and ecclesiastical writers sometimes also use it in the same sense; but ordinarily restrain the term to the Chris∣tians; as the term synagogue, which originally signifies the same thing, is in like manner restrained to the Jews. Thus, in the New Testament, the Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifies almost always ei∣ther the place destined for prayer, as 1 Cor. xiv. 34, or the as∣sembly of the faithful diffused over the whole earth, as Ephes. v. 24. or the faithful of a particular city or province, as 2 Cor. viii. 1, 2. or even of a single family, as Rom. xvi. 1. or the pastors or ministers of a church, as Matt. xvii. 17.
• Collect, in the liturgy of the church of England, and the mass of the Romanists, denotes a prayer accommodated for any particular day, occasion, or the like. In general, all the prayers in each office are called collects; either because the priest speaks in the name of the whole assembly, whose sentiments and desires he sums up by the word oremus, let us pray, as is observed by Pope Innocent III. or because those prayers are offered when the peo∣ple are assembled together; which is the opinion of Pamelius on Tertullian. The congregation itself is in some ancient authors called collect: the Popes Gelasius and Gregory are said to have been the first who established collects.
• Colluthians, a Christian sect, who rose about the beginning of the fourth century, on occasion of the indulgence shewn to Arius by Alexander, patriarch of Alexandria. Several people being scan∣dalized at so much condescension, and, among the rest, Collu∣thus, a priest of the same city, he hence took a pretence for holding separate assemblies, and by degrees proceeded to the or∣dinaton of priests, as if he had been a Bishop, pretending a ne∣cessity for this authority, in order to oppose Arius. To this schism he added heresy, teaching that God did not create the wicked, and that he was not author of the evils that befal men. He was condemned in a council held at Alexandria by Osius, in the year 335.
• Collyridians, Arabian heretics in the fourth century, so denominated from idolizing the Virgin Mary, worshipping her as a goddess, and offering to her cakes. St. Epiphanius wrote against this extrava∣gant superstition, and shewed them how to distinguish between

• the honour which ought to be paid to the virgin, and that wor∣ship which is due only to God.
• Collobium, a garment worn by Bishops and Presbyters in the primi∣tive ages. It was a short coat with short sleeves. It was an usual garment among the Romans; and therefore a Bishop, or Presbyter, wearing a collobium, is no proof that the clergy in those early times were distinguished by their habit from the laity, as some have thought, but is rather a proof of the contrary.
• Commendam, in the canon or ecclesiastical law, is the charge, trust, or administration of a benefice, given either to a layman to hold by way of depositum, for six months, in order for repairs, &c. or to another ecclesiastic, or beneficed person, to perform the pastoral duties thereof, till such time as the benefice is provided of a re∣gular incumbent. Anciently commendams were a very laudable institution; for when an elective benefice became vacant, for which the ordinary could not for some reason immediately provide, the care of it was recommended to some man of merit, who took upon him the direction of it till the vacancy was filled up, but who enjoyed none of the profits. Commendam, in the church of Rome, is likewise a real title of a regular benefice, such as an abbey or priory given by the Pope to a secular clerk, or even to a layman, with power to dispose of the fruits thereof during life: and, by the Pope's bulls, the commendatory abbot has the full authority of the regular abbot, to whom he is substituted, except ing only in spiritualibus, the direction of which is left to the clau∣stral prior. Benefices in commendam are vested in the crown by a statute of Henry VIII. This right was contested in the reign of King James I. who designing to give in commendam a vacant church, it was disputed in the court of Common Pleas, not only whether the King might grant a commendam to a Bishop, either before or after his consecration; but also whether commendams were to be granted without necessity. The point was solemnly argued by the judges, who were severely reprimanded at the council-board by the King, for daring to attack the prerogative royal.
• Communion, the being united in doctrine and discipline. In this sense of the word different churches are said to hold communion with each other; and in the primitive Christian church every Bishop was obliged, after his ordination, to send circular letters to foreign or remote churches, who professed the same faith, to signify that he was in communion with them. To maintain this unity of the faith entire, every church was ready to assist all others in commu∣nion with her, by opposing all fundamental errors and heresies; and this gave occasion to most of the provincial and national synods we read of, in which novel, and what they thought erroneous doctrines, were condemned by a council of Bishops. This unity was also further maintained by the readiness of each church, and every member of it, to join with all other churches in the perfor∣mance

• of doctrine, worship, and all holy offices, as occasion re∣quired, by a mutual consent in ratifying all legal acts of discipline regularly exercised in any church whatsoever, by unanimously re∣ceiving the customs of the church of Rome, and adhering to the decrees of councils, both general and national. All the Christian churches were originally in communion with each other, having one common faith and discipline; in process of time a diversity of opinions prevailed, and occasioned some churches to separate from the rest, and to form the distinct communions into which the Christian church is at present divided. The three grand commu∣nions are that of the church of Rome, that of the Greek church, and that of the Protestant churches.
• Conception, immaculate, the subject of dispute between the Dominicans and Franciscans, 1387, and denied by the former. The council of Basil approved and recommended it to be embraced by all Catho∣lics. The council of Trent declined passing judgment on this matter. Paul V. urged the belief of it, 1617; also Gregory XV. and Alexander VII.
• Conclave, the place in which the Cardinals of the Romish church meet, and are shut up, in order to the election of a Pope. The eccle∣siastical constitutions allow the Cardinals to chuse the place of the conclave: notwithstanding which, it is always held in the Vatican, on account of the spaciousness of the building, the convenience of its open square, and its galleries, which will hold a number of servants. The conclave is a range of small cells, ten feet square, made of wainscot; they are numbered, and drawn for by lot; they stand in a line along the galleries, and half the Vatican, with a small space between each. Such Cardinals as were created by the late Pope hang their cells with violet-coloured stuff, and the rest with green serge: each cell has the arms of the respective Cardinal. Strong guard is kept at the door of the Vatican, and round the conclave, and many precautions, with much ceremony, made use of, to prevent any intelligence being conveyed, or in∣terest, or bribery, &c. but, notwithstanding that, great artifice is made use of to effect an election, and it is generally obtained by corruption.
• Conferences, ecclesiastical, by order or with the consent of public autho∣rity, were, 1st, That of the dissenting brethren for destroying greater harmony of sentiments and unity or friendship amongst differing societies or members at Marpuge, particularly on the eucharist, 1526. 2dly, At Spire, where the name of Protestants was first used, in 1529. 3dly, At Smalcalde, a city in Franconia, in Ger∣many, where were present 15 Princes, besides the deputies of 30 cities which had embraced the Augsburg confession, and renewed for ten years the league which the other Protestants had made for their own defence, at which the ambassadors from England and France gave attendance, and pursuant to instructions confirmed that league in 1535. This was held by adjourment in the year 1537,

• by the Protestant Princes and deputies of the Lutheran cities, who agreed vigorously to support themselves against any infringement of their Christian liberty, and eventually, after several sessions, obtained an establishment of the Protestant religion in Germany, the progressive steps to which are largely set forth by Hoffman, 1540. 4thly, Held at the same place, when the Emperor Charles V. endeavoured to obtrude some articles of farther concilia∣tion with the Protestants, which they rejected, 1548. 5thly, At Altensburg, among the Lutherans, on the point of justifica∣tion, 1569; and at a second session, held by the same members at Quintenburgh, on the ubiquity of God, 1573. 6thly, At Torgo, concerning divers articles of faith, 1576. Another session held at Bipent, and another at Hetzburg, for compiling a book of Concord, 1578.
• Confirmation, or imposition of hands, is a rite of the Christian re∣ligion, which in the primitive church used to be administered, or made use of immediately after baptism, if the Bishop was present at the solemnity. It was made a sacrament of the church of Rome in the Mel••ensian council. This rite was reserved to Bishops, by Theodoris, 526. By the church of Rome the sacrament of confir∣mation is that which makes us perfect Christians, and impresses an indelible character upon us after baptism, and imparts to us the spirit of fortitude, whereby we are enabled to confess Christianity even at the hazard of our lives. Not so the Protestants, for confir∣mation with them is no sacrament, no federal rites are declared to belong to it; it is no new stipulation, but rather a ratification of our baptismal engagements.
• Congregation, an assembly of several ecclesiastics, united so as to con∣stitute a body. The term is principally used for assemblies of Cardinals, appointed by the Pope, and distributed into several chambers, for the discharge of certain functions and jurisdictions, after the manner of our offices and courts.—The first is the con∣gregation of the holy office, or the inquisition; the second, that of jurisdiction over Bishops and regulars; the third, that of councils with power to interpret the council of Trent; the fourth, that of customs, ceremonies, precedencies, canonizations, called the congregation of rites; the fifth, that of St. Peter's fabric, which takes cognizance of all causes relating to piety and charity, part whereof is due to the church of St. Peter; the sixth, that of waters, rivers, roads; the seventh, that of fountains and streets; the eighth, that of the index, which examines the books to be printed or corrected; the ninth, that of the government of the whole state of the church; the tenth, De bono regimine, of which the Cardinal's nephew is chief; the eleventh, that of money; the twelfth, that of Bishops, wherein those who are to be promoted to bishoprics in Italy are examined, this is held before the Pope; the thirteenth, that of consistorial matters, the chief whereof is Cardinal Dean.

• There is also a congregation of alms, which takes care of what relates to the subsistence of Rome and the state of the church.
• Consistory, or Roman Consistory, denotes the college of Cardinals, or the Pope's senate and council, before whom judiciary causes are pleaded. Du Cange derives the word from consistorium, i. e. locus ubi consistitur; used chiefly for a vestible, gallery, or ante∣chamber, where the courtiers wait for admission, and called a consistente multitudine. The consistory is the first court or tribunal of Rome; it never meets but when the Pope pleases to convoke it, and the Pope presides in it in person, mounted on a magnificent throne, and habited in his pontificalia: on the right are Cardinal bishops and priests, and on the left Cardinal deacons. The place where it is held, is a large hall, in the apostolical palace, where Princes and ambassadors of Kings are received. The other pre∣lates, prothonatories, auditors of rota, and other officers, are seated on the steps of the throne; the courtiers sit on the ground, am∣bassadors on the right, and consistorial and fiscal advocates be∣hind the Cardinals. Besides the public consistory, there is also a private one held in a retired chamber, called the chamber of Pa∣pegay, the Pope's throne here being only raised two steps high. No body is here admitted, but the Cardinals, whose opinions are collected, and called sentences. Here are first proposed and passed all bulls for bishoprics, abbeys, &c. Hence bishoprics and abbeys are said to be consistorial benefices, in regard they must be pro∣posed to their consistory, the annates be paid to the Pope, and his bulls taken. Anciently they were elective, but by the con∣cordat, which abolishes elections, they are appointed to be col∣lated by the Pope alone, on the nomination of the Prince. Con∣sistory was always the name of a court under Constantine, where he sat in person, and heard causes. The members of this court were called Consites. Consistory is also used among the reformed, for a council or assembly of ministers or elders, to regulate their affairs, discipline, &c.
• Constitution, an establishment, ordinance, decision, regulation, or law, made by authority of a Prince, or other superior, ecclesiastical or civil. The constitutions of the Roman Emperors make a part of the civil law; the constitutions of the church make a part of the canon law. Some of the papal constitutions are in form of bulls, others of briefs. Apostolical constitutions denote a collection of regula∣tions, attributed to the Apostles, and supposed to have been col∣lected by St. Clement, whose name they likewise bear. They are divided into eight books, consisting of a great number of rules and precepts relating to the duties of Christians, and particularly to the ceremonies and discipline of the church. Authors are di∣vided about their genuineness: the generality hold them spurious, and endeavour to prove them posterior to the apostolical age, main∣taining they were unknown till the fourth century; which, if so, shews St. Clement had no hand in them.
• ...

• Convocation, a general assembly of the clergy of a province, summon∣ed by the King's writ, to consult of the more weighty affairs of the church, as oft as a parliament is convoked to consult those of the state. The King's writ is directed to the Archbishop of each pro∣vince, requiring him to summon all Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, of cathedral, collegiate churches, &c. The place where the convo∣cation of the province of Canterbury have been usually held, is St. Paul's church, whence of late they have been prorogued to St. Peter's in Westminster, in the chapel of Henry VII. or the Jeru∣salem chamber, where there is an upper and lower house. The power of the convocation is limited by a statute of King Henry VIII. They are not to make any canons, or ecclesiastical laws, without the King's licence; nor, when permitted to make any, can they put them in execution, but under these restrictions. 1. Such canons must not be contrary to the King's prerogative. 2. They must not contradict any statute, or the common law. 3. Nor must they alter any known custom of the realm. They have the examining and censuring all heretical and schismatical books and persons, &c. but there lies an appeal to the King in Chancery, or to his delegates. The clergy in convocation, and their ser∣vants, have the same privileges as members of parliament.
• Cope, an ecclesiastical habit. By an act of King Edward VI. whensoever the Bishop shall celebrate the holy communion in the church, he shall have upon him, besides his rochet, a surplice or albe, and a cope, &c. It answers to the collobium or episcopal habit of the ancient church, and was at first a common habit, being a coat without sleeves; but was afterwards used as a church∣vestment, only made very rich by embroidery, and the like. The Greeks pretend it was first used in memory of the mock robe put upon our Saviour.
• Copiotae, a particular order of men, in the primitive Christian church, whose business it was to inter the dead. They were so called, either from the pains they took, or else because they committed the bodies of the dead to the grave, a place of ease and rest. They were instituted in the time of Constantine, or his son Constantius, in two of whose laws they are expressly mentioned. Their particular office was to prepare the graves, wrap up the bodies of the dead, and then bury them; and because this was ever accounted a work of piety and religion, therefore the Copiotae, though not in holy orders, were considered as bearing a relation to the clergy, and vested with the same immunities. Their number was very great: Constan∣tine is said to have appointed no less than eleven hundred; but, by a law of Honorius and Theodosius, they were reduced to nine hundred and fifty, though Anastasius afterwards brought them back to the first number.
• Corporal, in the Christian church. It is a fair linen cloth thrown over the consecrated elements, at the celebration of the eucharist. It was so called by the Latins, from being spread over the body of our Lord Jesus Christ; and, according to Isidore Pelusiola, was

• designed to represent the body of our Saviour, being wrapt in fine linen by Joseph of Arimathea. The institution of it is ascribed to Eusebius, Bishop of Rome, about the year 300.
• Covenant. The first covenant between God and man was that which he made with Adam at his creation, when he required him to forbear the use of the forbidden fruit. The second covenant is that which God made with man after his fall, by promising him not only forgiveness, provided he repented, but also the coming of the Messiah, who should redeem him, and all the human race, from death. A third covenant is that which God made with Noah, when he directed him to build an ark. A fourth covenant is that which God made with Abraham, the mark and seal of which was circumcision. But the greatest, most solemn, most excellent, and most perfect, which God ever made with man, is that which he enter∣ed into with us through the mediation of Jesus Christ, that eternal covenant, which must subsist to the end of ages: the priesthood, sacrifice, and laws, are infinitely more exalted than those of the Old Testament.
• Coul, or Cowl, a sort of monkish habit worn by the Barnardines and Benedictines. There are two kinds of couls, the one white, very large, wore in ceremony, and when they assist at the office: the other black, wore on ordinary occasions, in the streets, &c. F. Mabillon maintains the coul to be the same thing in its origin with the sca∣pular. The author of the apology of the Emperor Henry IV. distinguishes two forms of couls; the one a gown, reaching to the feet, having sleeves and a capuchon, used in ceremonies; the other a kind of hood to work in, called also scapular, because it only covers the head and shoulders.
• Council, primitive and ecclesiastical, is a free, public, ecclesiastical meeting, especially of Bishops, and also of other Doctors lawfully deputed by divers churches, for the examining of ecclesiastical causes, according to the scriptures, and those according to the power given by common suffrage, without favour of parties, to be determined, in matters of faith, by canons. In cases of practice, by precedents in discipline, by decrees and constitutions. These are not called for deciding political controversies; this properly belonging to diets, parliaments, &c. Neither is it an office or prerogative of the Pope to join them, unless he be specially elected thereto by the assembly to sit as president. Neither may others, unless Bishops, or some otherwise deputed, pass a determinate sentence. No sentence or decree is to be admitted as necessary to salvation, unless it is founded on the word of God. But all de∣crees made are obligatory, and not to be rejected by private per∣sons, till an authority dispense with it, equal to that which did at first bind them. In brief, it is a synod or assembly of Prelates and Doctors met for the regulating of matters relating to the doctrine or discipline of the church.
• Councils (that called) the first of the apostles, was held at Jerusalem A. C. 52. for the substituting Matthias in the room of Judas,

• Acts i. 26.—The second was when the twelve apostles called the multitude of the disciples, and directed them to look out among themselves seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, for deacons, Acts vi. 2, 3.—The third was also held at Jerusalem, wherein they dispensed with an observation of the ceremonial law, seeing that the Christian dispensation was suffici∣ent to the salvation of its votaries, Acts xv. 11. A. C. 53.—The fourth was for the toleration of some legal observations for a time, that by such condescension the weaker part both of Jews and Gentiles might be gained to the belief and profession of Chris∣tianity, Acts xxi. 18. A. C. 60.

  The first general council that we find mentioned by tradition, was held under the pontificate of Pope Victor, A. C. 192, to ad∣just the celebrated controversy about keeping Easter, and to sup∣press the growing faction of the Montanists, mentioned by Eu∣sebius, Book v. Cap. xv.

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  Councils, OEcumenical or General, are assemblies of all the prelates in Christendom, in the strict sense of it. But to constitute a ge∣neral assembly, it was never deemed necessary for all the prelates to be actually present; it is sufficient that the council be regular∣ly appointed, and that they are called to be there: A proxy might represent them, or if they chuse to absent themselves, it will nevertheless be esteemed oecumenical. General councils are sometimes called by ecclesiastical authors plenary councils. The Romanists reckon eighteen, whereof only the four first are admitted by the reformed. The eighteen are thus numbered, viz. two of Nice, four of Constantinople, one of Ephesus, one of Chalcedon, five of the Lateran, two of Lyons, one of Ve∣nice, one of Florence, and the last of Trent, which last ordained provincial councils to be held every three years, yet the last held was at Bourdeaux in France, more than 100 years ago.—The ca∣nons and decrees of councils have been often collected, viz. by Dr. Merlin of Paris, 1524. Another at Venice, in 1585. Ano∣ther at Rome, in 1608. One of Binius, canon of Cologne, 1606, in 10 vols. Another at Louvre in 1664, in 37 vols.

  The first oecumenical or General Council, as well as the first of Nice, so called because it was established at Nice in Bythinia, by the authority of Constantine the Great, in the time of Julius I. and Sylvester, began in May, A. D. 325, and ended August 25, the same year; it consisted of 318 bishops. They condemned the Arian, the Melitian, and Novatian doctrines, and censured the dissensions betwixt the eastern and western bishops about the ce∣lebration of the passover.—The seventh general council, and se∣cond of Nice, began September 24, 789, and ended about the 15th of October, occasioned by the contest about the worship of images.—The second general council, and the first of Constantino∣ple, began in May 381, and ended in July, under Gratian, Theo∣dosius the Great, and Damasus, and consisted of 157 bishops.—The

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  fifth general council, and the second of Constantinople, began May 4, A. D. 553, and ended in July following; it was occasioned by the followers of Nestorius endeavouring to revive and pro∣pagate his opinions in opposition to the asserters of a trinity of persons, coeternal and coequal, and more expressly containing the Emperor Justinian's confession of faith, against the three chap∣ters, and addressed to the assembly of the Catholic and Apostolic church: at the conclusion it was decreed, that there was in Jesus only one substance, one person, and one operation, and anathematises those who had wrote against it, as Theodoret, &c.— The sixth general council, and third of Constantinople, begun in Trullo, under the Emperor Progenatus (solicited by Pope Aga∣tho) Nov. 7, A. D. 680, and continued till September 16. In this were convened 150 bishops, who condemned the Menothe∣lites, Sergius, Cyrus, Pyrrhus, Peter, Paul, Theodorus, toge∣ther with Pope Honorius, who favoured the doctrine of one will in Christ. This council was reassumed, and called the Quini-Sextum council, and fourth of Constantinople, and was held in 192 at Trullo, in the tower of the Emperor's palace. The four Pa∣triarchs of the East were present at it, and it is acknowledged by the Greeks to be a general council; there were 108 bishops pre∣sent, and the design of their assembling was to supply the omis∣sion of their former councils with respect to discipline. They made 102 canons, many of them trifling in their nature, others very severe and oppressive to such as differed in point of faith or discipline. The most remarkable is the 52d canon, ordering that the mass of the pre-sanctified shall be celebrated every day in Lent, except Saturday and Sunday, and Lady-Day.—The third general council was held at Ephesus, June 22, 431, to the end of July; it was called under Theodosius the Younger, promoted by Celestine I. It consisted of 200 bishops, who condemned Nestorius of Constantinople, who denied the unity of two natures in Christ. Anathematised the Massilianites or Euchites, and confirmed the in∣tegrity of the Nicene creed.—The fourth general council was held at Chalcedon, and began October 8, 431, and ended Nov. 1, A. D. 455. It consisted of 630 bishops, who condemned the super∣stitious acts of the council of Ephesus: they affirmed one only na∣ture to be in Christ, after his incarnation, viz. his divine nature; and decreed 29 canons, many of which are not approved by the Papists, viz. in one of the canons, that all bishops are equal with respect to power or privileges.—The eighth general coun∣cil was held at Constantinople in 869, began on the 5th of Oc∣tober, and ended the last day of February the next year, a∣gainst Photius and his adherents.—The ninth general council, and the first of Lateran, was held in March, A. D. 1123, com∣posed of about 300 prelates, who made 22 canons; amongst others it confirmed the former canons against simonical priests; grant∣ed remission of sins to such as go a pilgrimage to the Holy

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  Land, in aid to the Catholic Christians against Insidels, and ex∣comunicates such as have been crossed for that purpose, who re∣linquish their pilgrimage.—The tenth general council, and so∣cond of Lateran, was hold under Pope Innocent II. 11••9, in which the favourers of Peter of Leon were solemnly condemned, and all ordinations made by this Pope declared ••ull and vold.—The eleventh general council, and the third of Lateran, was convened by Pope Alexander III. in 1179, and held at Rome to reform a great number of abuses that had crept into the church, and to make constitutions about matters of discipline—to condemn the Albig••••••s and other reputed heretics, and to maintain the immuni∣ties of the church. It consisted of 300 bishops. The last session was held at Lateran 1180, and was reckoned the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the lawn re∣lating to the impropriation of tithes.—The twelsth general coun∣cil, and the fourth Lateran council, was convoked by Innocent III, on April 20, 1215. The acts of this assembly contain seven∣ty canons.—The primacy was determined in favour of the pa∣triarch of Constantinople; but Innocent III. thought it beneath his dignity to wear a cross.—Dupin says, the Pope, in his letters of interdiction, represents this council to be necessary for the recover∣ing of the Holy Land, and the reformation of the Catholic church; for correcting irregularities, and reforming the manners of the church, both in the priesthood and people; and for condemn∣ing herefies, putting a stop to divisions, and establishing peace.— The thirteenth general council, and the first of Lyons, was con∣vened by Pope Innocent IV. in 1245, as well for civil as ecclesi∣actical affairs. The Pope proposed three principal points, viz. The relieving the empire of Constantinople against the Greeks, the empire of Germany against the Tartars, and the Holy Land a∣gainst the Saracens: to regulate the affair of the non-residence of the clergy, in what circumstances, and for what part of their be••••••ces it should be permitted; and appointed for the relief of the Holy Land, the 20th part of all revenues of benefices, and the tenth of the revenues of the people and cardinals; but ex∣empted the croisade priests from all manner of contributions.—In this council the Pope likewise excommunicated the Emperor, Fre∣deric, from the communion of the church, and dispossessed him of his empire, from a suspicion of his having been dilatory in the supply of the Papal chair; which being now elected to himself, he was mirded to shew his authority and resentment. This im∣placable proceeding did not however much affect the Emperor; b•••• 〈◊〉〈◊〉 greatly injurious to the German empire.—The four∣teenth general council, and second of Lyons, was appointed by Po••e Gregory X. according to his bull of indiction, 1274. 1. For the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the Greek church. 2. For the relief of the Holy Land. 3. For reforming the church-discipline and lives of the clergy. In purf••••••ce of these designs, the Pope sat himself as

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  president in five several sessions, and made a variety of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and d••er••••••. The prelates of the Greek church came to Lyon•• the 24th of June, when they presented their letters to the Pope, and word graciously received; and on the sixth of July, the fourth session convened together with the prelates of the Greek church, and overtures were then made for an accommodation and general union, with respect to points of saith, discipline, &c. but most of them of an indeterminate nature, that particularly relating to the Trinity and the Catholic saith; it is therein declar∣ed, that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, as from one single principle, and by one single spiration, and they are condemned who deny that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son as from two principles.—The fifteenth gene∣ral council was held at Vienne, and opened on the 16th of Oc∣tober 1311, for condemning the Templars, and the extinction of their order.—The sixteenth general council was held at Con∣stance, and began on the 16th of November 1414, in which the error•• of John Hus•• and Wickl••sse were condemned, and in which Huss was sentenced to be burnt, and Jerom of Prague was the next sessions condemned to be burnt.—The seventeenth general council was held at Basil, on the 23d of July 1431, in which Eugenius was driven from Rome.—Eugenius afterwards transfer∣red the council to Ferrara. The neutrality was established, and the pragmatic sanction drawn up in France.—The last and eigh∣teenth general council was convened at Trent, December 15, 1545, and ended December 4, 1563.

• Councils, Provincial or Occasional, At Aix la C••appelie, A. D. ••16, for regulating the ca••ons of cathedral churches.—Of Savoa∣nieries, in 859, the first which gave title of most Christian King to the King of France; but it did not become the peculiar appella∣tion of that sovereign till 1469.—Of Troye, in 377, to decide the disputes about the Imperial dignity.—The second coun••••l of Troyes, in 1107, restrains the clergy from marrying.—The ••••••••∣cil of Clermont in 1095. The first crusede was determined in this council. The bishops had yet the precedency of cardi••als. In this assembly the name of Pope was for the first time given to the head of the church exclusively of the bishops, who 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to assume that title.—Here also Hugh, Archbishop of Lyons, ob••••••••ed of the Pope a confirmation of the primacy of his see over 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Sens.—The council of Rheims. summoned by 〈…〉〈…〉 1148, called an assembly of Cisastrian G••ul, in which 〈◊〉〈◊〉 or patrons of churches are prohibited taking more than 〈◊〉〈◊〉 sees, upon pain of deprivation and ecclesia••••ical buri••.—〈◊〉〈◊〉, deacons, subdeacons, monks, and nuns, are 〈◊〉〈◊〉 from ••••••∣rying.—In this council the doctrine of the Tr••••ity was 〈◊〉〈◊〉; but upon their separation the Pope c••l••ed a 〈…〉〈…〉 which the cardinals pretended they had no 〈…〉〈…〉 trinal points, that this was the rivilege 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to 〈…〉〈…〉.—

• The council of Sutrium, in 1046, wherein three Popes who had assumed the chair were deposed.—The council of Clarendon in England, against Becket, held in 1164.—The council of Lombez, in the country of Albigeois, in 1200, occasioned by some disturban∣ces on account of the Albigenses; a crusade was formed on this ac∣count, and an army sent to extirpate them. Innocent III. spi∣rited up this barbarous war, Dominic was the apostle, the count of Toulouse the victim, and Simon Count of Montfort the con∣ductor or chief.—The council of Paris, in 1210, in which Ari∣stotle's metaphysics were condemned to the flames, lest the refine∣ments of that philosopher should have a bad tendency on mens minds, by applying those subjects to religion.—The council of Pisa, begun March 2, 1409, in which Benedict XIII. and Gre∣gory XII. were deposed.—Another council, sometimes called ge∣neral, held at Pisa in 1505.—Lewis XII. of France, assembled a national council at Tours (being highly disgusted with the Pope) 1510, where was present the Cardinal de Gurce, deputed by the Emperor, and it was then agreed to convene a general council at Pisa.
• Council, general, in England, in the year A. D. 973, by St. Dunstan, in which he ordained, that all the priests, deacons, and subdea∣cons, who would not lead a sober life, should be expelled their churches, and caused a decree to be made to oblige them to em∣brace a regular and monastic course of life, or to retire; and ac∣cordingly Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Worcester and Westminster, turned the old clergymen out of most part of the churches, and put monks in their place. The Arch∣bishop likewise sharply reproved King Edgar, and imposed on him a penance for seven years.
• Croisade, Cruzade, or Cruzado, a holy war, or an expedition a∣gainst infidels and heretics, particularly against the Turks, for the recovery of Palestine. People anciently flocked on these croisades out of devotion; the Pope's bull, and the preaching of the priests of those days, making it appear a point of conscience. Hence several orders of knighthood took their rise. Those who meant to go on this errand, distinguished themselves by crosses of diffe∣rent colours, wore on their cloaths, and were thence called croises: the English wore them white, the French red, the Flemish green, the Germans black, and the Italians yellow. They reckon eight croisades for the conquest of the Holy Land. The first under∣taken in 1095, at the council of Clermont: the second in 1144, under Louis VII.: the third in 1188, by Henry II. of England and Philip Augustus of France: the fourth in 1195, by Pope Ce∣lestin III. and the Emperor Henry VI. the fifth published in 1198, by order of Innocent III. wherein the French, Germans, and Venetians engaged: the sixth, under the same Pope, began tumultuously, in 1213, and ended in the rout of the Christians: the seventh, resolved on at the council of Lyons, in 1245, under∣taken

• by St. Louis: the eighth, which was the second of St. Louis, and the last of all, in 1268. It is said that it was the Cistertian monks who first projected the croisades. Philip Au∣gustus solicited the execution thereof with the holy see; and In∣nocent III. raised the first standard of the cross. It was the coun∣cil of Clermont who ordered that those embarked herein should bear the cross in their banner; and that those who entered them∣selves into the service, should also wear it on their cloaths. The abbot Justiniani makes an order of knighthood of the croises, who served in the croisades. Towards the middle of the 12th century, there was also a croisade of the Saxons against the Pagans of the north; wherein the Archbishop of Magdeburgh, the Bishops of Halberstadt, Munster, Mersburgh, Brandenburg, &c. with several lay Lords, embarked: and towards the beginning of the same century, under the pontificate of Innocent, there was also a croisade undertaken against the Albigenses, who were be∣come powerful in Languedoc, &c.
• Croisier, the pastoral staff, so called from its likeness to a cross, which the Bishops formerly bore as the common ensign of their office, and by the delivery of which they were invested in their prelacies. Hence the officer, who, like our vergers, sometimes went before a Bishop, carrying his cross, had the name of Croci∣ary or Cross-bearer.
• Cross, the instrument of punishment to which Jesus Christ was fas∣tened, and on which he died. This method of suffering was esteemed the greatest mark of infamy; and therefore commonly inflicted on persons of the meanest rank, and for the worst of crimes. It was a common manner of punishment among the Syrians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans. The Cross to which our Saviour was nailed, was in the form of a T; that is, of the Old Samaritan Tau. The manner of crucifixion was by fastening the criminals with nails, one through each hand, and one through each foot; and sometimes the persons were scourged with whips. But the history of our Lord's crucifixon and passion are so particularly related by the Evangelists, that they need not be repeated. The respect paid by the ancient Christians to our Sa∣viour's cross, was by no means such a superstitious regard as is paid by the Romanists to the representation of it in their churches and other places. The devotion of the cross makes a very con∣siderable part of the religion of the Romish church. Towards the close of the 7th century, the 6th general council of Constan∣tinople decreed, that Jesus Christ should be painted in a human form upon the cross; the more strongly to set before the eyes of Christians the death and passion of our Saviour. This also gave the first rise to the use of crucifixes. Among the Romanists, cros∣ses are set up in churches, placed on altars, consecrated with great solemnity, carried in procession, placed in the streets at places of public resort, and homage required to be paid to them. Their

• Bishops wear a pectoral or breast-cross, which hangs by a gold-chain or silver-string about their necks. These modern repre∣sentations of the cross are called crucifixes. Before the refor∣mation it was esteemed a piece of devotion to erect crosses on hills, in church-yards, or over the tombs of great personages, &c.
• Cross, exaltation of. A festival of the Greek and Romish churches, observed on the 14th of December. In the reign of Heraclius, Cosroes, King of Persia, sacked Jerusalem; and together with other plunder, carried off that part of the cross left there, in memory of our Saviour, by the Empress Helena, which he sent into Persia. After many battles, in which the Persians were al∣ways defeated, Heraclius had the good fortune to recover the cross. This Prince carried it to Jerusalem himself, and laying aside his Imperial ornaments, marched with it on his shoulders to the top of Mount Calvary, from whence it had been taken. The memory of this action was perpetuated by the festivals of the re-establishment (or, as it is now called) the exaltation of the cross. The latter name was given to this festival, because, on this day, they exalted, or set up, the cross in the great church at Constantinople, in order to shew it to the people. This festival is distinguished among the Coptic or Egyptian Christi∣ans, by the benediction of a particular cross, which is afterwards thrown into the river Nile, in order to make its waters fall away, or rather as a grateful acknowledgment of the inestimable blessings which attend its overflowing.
• Crusade, in Spanish, La Cruciata, a society or body of men, from whom the court of inquisition, in Spain, receives no small service. Their business is to have an eye over the behaviour of all Roman Catholics, and to inform against them, in case they omit any duties of the Christian profession. This society is vastly rich, and as powerful as it is wealthy; for it consists of the bishops, archbi∣shops, and most of the grandees of Spain. The Spaniards are persuaded, that, had it not been for the inquisition and crusade, their kingdom would have been over-run by the heretics, who had near possessed themselves of the other kingdoms and states of Eu∣rope.
• Cup. This word is often taken in scripture both in a proper and a figu∣rative sense; in the proper sense, it signifies a common cup, which people drink out of at their meals; or a cup of ceremony, made use of at solemn and religious festivals, as at the passover, or some other hereditary bowls, made use of in friendly entertainments — In the figurative sense is it generally taken for the afflictions which God sends; to drink of the cup, signifies to endure those punish∣ments which God has seen and thought fit to exercise one under.— The cup of blessing, is that which was blessed in entertainments of ceremony; thus our Saviour, in the last supper, blessed the cup, and gave it to all his apostles to drink.—The cup of salvation, men∣tioned

• in the Psalms is a cup of thanksgiving, which, while people drank, they blessed the Lord, and were thankful for his mercies. The Jews have still at this day cups of thanksgiving, which are blessed in their marriage-ceremonies, and in entertainments made at the circumcision of their children.

D.

• DAlmatica, a vestment, or habit of a Bishop and deacon, so called, because it was first invented in Dalmatia. Pope Sylvester ap∣pointed it to be used by the deacons. It was a royal garment, having been worn by the Emperor Pertinax, and it was called Chirodota, or Manicata, because it had sleeves, to distinguish it from the col∣lobium, which had none. The Dalmatica was all of white before, but behind had two purple lines or stripes. Pope Eutychianus de∣creed, that the bodies of the martyrs should be wrapped up in the dalmatica. Virgins are sometimes represented in this dress, for there is at Rome a picture of St. Caecilia, in the church of that Saint, habited in the Dalmatica. See Collobium.
• Damianists, so called from Damianus, a Bishop, a branch of the ancient Acephalous Severites; who, with the Catholics, admitted the fourth council, but disowned any distinction of persons in the Godhead, and prefessed one single nature incapable of any diffe∣rence.
• 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. The Datary has power to grant, without acquainting his Holiness therewith, all such benefices as do not exceed 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 place, he has the liberty of bestowing it on which of them he thinks proper, provided he has the requisite qualifications. This officer has likewise a substitute; but he can confer no benefice at all. When a person has obtained the Pope's consent for a bene∣fice, the Datary subscribes his petition, annuit sanctissimus, i. e. The most holy father consents to it. 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 Romae apud, &c. given at Rome in the Pontifical palace, &c. Afterwards the Pope's bull, granting the benefice, is dispatched by the Datary, and passes thro' the hands of more than 1000 persons, belonging to fifteen diffe∣rent offices, who have all their stated fees. The reader may guess at the revenue of the Datary, especially when the Pope's bull is procured for some large benefices.
• Davidists, Davidici, a sect of heretics, the adherents of David George, a glazier, or, as others say, painter, of Ghent; who, in 1525, began to preach a new doctrine, publishing himself to be

• the true Messiah, and that he was sent thither to fill heaven which was quite empty, for want of people to deserve it. He re∣jected marriage, &c. and laughed at the self-denial so much re∣commended by Christ. He died in 1556; but having promised his disciples to rise again, at the end of three years, the magistrates of Basil, where he died, ordered his body to be dug up and burnt, together with his writings, by the common hangman.
• Day, Lammas, the first of August, celebrated as a festival, in the Romish church, in memory of St. Peter's imprisonment. Eudocia, the wife of Theodosius the Emperor, having made a journey to Jerusalem, was there presented with the fetters which St. Peter was loaded with in prison. These she presented to the Pope, who afterwards laid them up in a church, built by Theodosius, in honour of St. Peter. Eudocia, in the mean time, having observed that the first of August was celebrated in memory of Augustus Caesar, who had on that day been saluted Augustus, and upon that account given occasion to the changing the name of the month, from Sextilis to August, that Princess thought it not reasonable that a holyday should be kept in memory of an Heathen Emperor, and therefore obtained a decree of Theodosius, that this day should for the future be kept holy, in remembrance of St. Peter's bonds. This festival is known, in the Roman calendar, by the name of the feast of St. Peter (in vinculis) in fetters. It was called among us Lammas Day, from a fond conceit the Popish people had, that St. Peter was patron of the lambs, because our Saviour said to him, feed my lambs; upon which account they thought the mass of this day very beneficial to make their lambs thrive.
• Deacon, signifies minister, servant. This word is made use of in the language of the church, to denote those whose office it is to assist the Bishop, or priest, in the distribution of the eucharist, and, be∣sides this, in the service of the poor, and administring what is ne∣cessary for them. The number of the disciples increasing daily at Jerusalem, the Greeks, i. e. the Gentile converts, began to mur∣mur against the Hebrews, and to complain that their widows were neglected in the distribution of alms, which was made every day; hereupon the Apostles called the multitude of believers together, and said, "It is not reasonable that we should leave the word of God, wherefore look you out among you seven men of honest re∣port, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom ye may appoint over this business." They therefore chose seven, viz. Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas; these they presented to the Apostles, and they were ordained by prayer and imposition of hands, Acts vi. 1. 1 Tim. ii. 8—12. Those in the Romish church sometimes baptised and preached in the absence of their Bishop or priest, and prepared catechumens for baptism. (See particularly their office in the histories of the church of Scotland, the Presbyterians, &c. &c.)
• ...

• Deaconesses were allowed in the primitive church, but now laid aside. Certain devout women who consecrated themselves to the service of the church, and rendered those offices to women which men could not decently do: as in baptism, for instance, which was conferred by immersion on women as well as men.
• Deaconry, a name still reserved to the chapels and oratories in Rome, under the direction of the several deacons in their respec∣tive regions or quarters.
• Dean, a prime dignitary in most cathedral and collegiate churches; being usually the president of the chapter. It is a title, also, ap∣plied among us to divers persons that are the chief of some peculiar churches and chapels; as the Dean of the King's chapel, of the Arches, of Battel, &c. &c.
• Death. This word is taken in scripture not only for the death of the body, when the soul is separated from the body, but likewise for the second death, a condemnation to misery. It also signifies im∣minent danger of death; for the plague and contagious diseases; for poison, and any great misfortune. By the gates of death, the grave is signified, and the state of the dead after this life. By the vessels or instruments of death, dangerous and deadly weapons are meant. By the bonds or snares of death, the snares which are laid to destroy an enemy. A son of death, a man who merits death, or is condemned to death. By the dust of death, the state to which the dead person is reduced in the grave. Love is as strong as death, says Solomon; no one can resist death or love.
• Decalogue, the ten commandments, engraven on two tables of stone, and given to Moses.
• Declamation, a feigned discourse, or speech made in public, in the tone and manner of an oration. Among the Greeks, declama∣tion was the art of speaking indifferently on all subjects, and on all sides of a question, of making things appear just that were unjust, and triumphing over the best and soundest reasons. Such sort of declamations, M. de St. Evremond observes, were fit only to cor∣rupt the mind by accustoming men to cultivate their imagination rather than to form their judgment, and to seek for verisimilitudes to impose upon, rather than solid reasons to convince the under∣standing. Among us declamation is restrained to certain exercises, which scholars perform to teach them to speak in public.
• Decree, in canon law, an ordinance which is enacted by the Pope, by and with the advice of his Cardinals, in council assembled, without being consulted by any person thereon.
• Decree of Election and Reprobation, with some modern divines, is that council or determination of God, by which, from all eternity, he absolutely chose and set apart some, in order to become good and happy; but passed by the rest, i. e. the far greater part of mankind, forming his resolves in either case, abstractedly from all consideration of any merit or demerit of theirs; a notion

• which seems founded on some misconstrued passages of scripture, and in particular those referred to in 2 Pet. iii. 16. but of which we do not find the least traces in antiquity, before the close of the fourth, or beginning of the fifth century.
• Dedication, the act of consecrating a temple, altar, statue, place, &c. to the honour of some deity. It is very ancient, both in the Heathen times, and amongst the Christians. The feast of the de∣dication, or rather the feast-day of the saint and patron of a church, was celebrated not only by the inhabitants of the place, but by those of all the neighbouring villages, who usually re∣forted thither. The custom is still retained in divers places, un∣der the names of feasts, wakes, or vigils.
• Definition, an enumeration of the chief simple ideas whereof a com∣pound idea consists, in order to ascertain or explain its nature and character. The schoolmen give very imperfect notions of defi∣nition. Some define it to be the first notion or conception that arises of a thing, whereby it is distinguished from every other, and from which all the other things that we conceive of it are de∣duced: but the usual definition of it is, oratio explicans quid res est, a discourse explaining what a thing is, that is, as some fur∣ther explain it, a discourse setting forth those attributes which circumscribe and determine the nature of a thing; for to explain is to propose the parts separately and expressly, which were be∣fore proposed conjunctly and implicitly, so that every explication has regard to some whole. Hence, according to the divers kinds of parts in any thing, viz. physical parts, metaphysical parts, &c. arise so many different kinds of definitions of the same thing. Thus, man is either defined an animal, consisting of soul and bo∣dy, or a reasonable animal, &c.
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  Deists, a sect or class of people, known under the denomi∣nation of Freethinkers, whose distinguishing character it is, not to profess any particular form or system of religion, but only to acknowledge the existence of a God, without rendering him any external worship or service. The Deists hold, that, consi∣dering the multiplicity of religions, the numerous pretences to re∣velation, and the precarious arguments generally advanced in proof thereof, the best and surest way is, to return to the simpli∣city of nature, and the belief of one God, which is the only truth agreed to by all nations. They complain, that the freedom of thinking and reasoning is oppressed under the yoke of religion, and that the minds of men are ridden and tyrannized by the ne∣cessity imposed on them of believing inconceivable mysteries; and contend, that nothing should be required to be assented to, or believed, but what their reason clearly conceives. The appella∣tion Deist is more particularly given to such as are not altogether without religion, but reject all revelation as an imposition, and believe no more than what natural light discovers to them; as, that there is a God, a Providence, a future state, with rewards and

• ...

  punishments for the good and the bad; that God must be ho∣noured, and his will, so far as we can learn it, performed; but that each person is to do this after his own manner, and as his own conscience suggests. The number of Deists is said to be daily increasing in England: a great part of the men of speculation and letters are pretended to incline that way; and the like is ob∣served in some of our neighbour nations, where freedom of speak∣ing, writing, and thinking, are indulged.

  Dr. Clarke gives us a succinct character of several sorts of De∣ists, viz. the first sort are those who profess to believe the ex∣istence of an eternal, infinite, independent, and intelligent Be∣ing, and that this Supreme Being made the world; but they fan∣cy that God does not at all concern himself in the government of the world, nor has any regard to, or concern about what is done therein: nor is the doctrine of some philosophers much different, who ascribe every thing to matter and motion, and speak of God as an intelligentia supramundana, which is the very language of Epicurus and Lucretius.—A second sort of Deists profess to be∣lieve not only the being, but also the providence of God; that is, that every natural thing that is done in the world is produced by the power, appointed by the wisdom, and directed by the govern∣ment of God, though, not allowing any difference between mo∣ral good and evil, they suppose that God takes no notice of the morally good or evil actions of men, these things depending, as they imagine, merely on the arbitrary constitution of human laws. —Another sort of Deists there are, who have right apprehensions concerning the natural attributes of God, and his all-governing Providence, and seem also to have some notion of his moral per∣fections also: they believe him to be a being infinitely knowing, powerful, and wise, and, in some sense, a being of justice, as of goodness and truth; that he governs the world by these perfec∣tions, and expects suitable obedience from all his rational crea∣tures; but they are prejudiced against the immortality of human souls, and insist that men perish at death entirely, and that one generation shall perpetually succeed another, and that there will be no future restoration or renovation of things.—A fourth sort there are, who profess to believe the being and attributes of God, the obligations of natural religion, and that there will be a future state of rewards and punishments; but all this so far only as it is discoverable by the light of nature alone, without believing any divine revelation. These, he concludes, are the only true Deists. But 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 con∣sistent scheme of Deism, so far as it went. Socrates and Tully appear to be wise and steady in their principles and conduct, and they were thence led to hope for a revelation, and we wish the

• ...

  same spirit prevailed in our modern Deists; then we might rea∣dily conclude they would embrace, and not ridicule Christianity.

  To this I shall subjoin what I have farther received from an honest and consistent Deist himself.

  A Deist, or Theist, is one that believes a God, who rejects re∣velation, and follows his reason only. This general definition, I imagine, will be granted by all the Deists or Theists in the world. Some of them, who believe man to be a free agent, have not much better or different notions of God than other people, believing him to be a perfect, rational, and moral being, some∣where distinct from the universe, once from all eternity existing by himself, before any thing was created; but that his wisdom, power, and goodness, is infinitely extended, according as he wills to display it. Some of them believe free-will, and others not, which is the most material difference between them; and this difference arises from some mens making more strict natural in∣quiries than others. The one think the doctrine of necessity of dangerous consequence; the other, believing things are as they are appointed, or must be, conceive this doctrine can no more alter the conduct of men, than the nature of things, which are unalterable and eternal, being governed and directed by the wis∣dom of God; his Spirit being in all, operates in all; that in him all creatures live, and have their being; for he is their life, ex∣ists in them, and they in him; and is to the universe what the soul is to the body; and all the appearances of things to us are the cloathing of Deity; for we see not things as they are in them∣selves, but as they are to us, and so we judge of them; therefore we judge for ourselves, not for God; we cannot judge of them as he judges; that of all things generated, which appear and dis∣appear, it may be said, as the author of the epistle to the He∣brews says, "they all wax old as doth a garment, and as a ves∣ture God folds them up;" but he is the same, and his years do not change; neither had the ungenerated parts of the universe a beginning, nor will ever end. There is no beginning nor end to time, motion, and the existence of things; and as God unites the whole, there is no vacuum in nature, no place void of life and existence; that vegetable, animal, and rational life, are but different degrees of the same life, different powers communicated from, or different manifestations of God, who makes and un∣makes, builds and destroys, according to his will, which is the same as his wisdom and power, for these in him are one.—Those who maintain necessity have as much regard to moral virtue as others, but not to any kind of worship; therefore are more of the philosophic than of the religious class. Like the Epicureans, they think honourably of God, respecting the greatness, wonderful∣ness, and dignity of his nature, but, unlike them, they ascribe nothing to chance. They conceive that the divine, unchangeable nature, it not wrought upon by the prayers of men, nor regards

• ...

  their praises; that the whole of our duty, whether you allow it to be religion or not, is acting in the best manner we can to∣wards one another, as mens different wants are, and our different abilities are to assist them; that God is not indebted to man for any of his good deeds, though men are to one another; for no man has any good quality, from whence any good deed proceeds, that is not the gift of God; that God makes each of us what we are, and virtue carries its own reward with it, as the ancient phi∣losophers maintained; the like does wisdom; so has God or∣dered the affairs of this world; for if he does not things that are right in this world, how do we know he will do right in any other, who, we have reason to believe, is in all worlds the same, and governs all by universal, mathematical, mechanic, and unchange∣able laws?—In the select pieces of M. de Voltaire, I find one on Theism, p. 179, where he says, that "Theism is a religion dif∣fused through all other religions; it is a metal that mixes with all others, and whose veins extend under the earth to the four cor∣ners of the world. This ore is most uncovered, and most wrought, in China; every where else it is concealed, and the secret is in the hands of none but the adepts. There is no country in which there are more of these adepts than in England."—Many have asked, if Theism, separately considered, and without any other religious ceremony, is in reality a religion? The answer is easy. He who acknowledges a God only as a Creator, he who consi∣ders God only as an infinitely powerful Being, and who sees no∣thing in his creatures but admirable machines, is no more reli∣gious with respect to him, than an European who admires the King of China is on that account the subject of that Prince.— But he who thinks that God has condescended to put a connection between himself and mankind; that he has made them free, ca∣pable of good and evil; and that he has given to all a moral sense, which is the instinct in man, and on which is founded the law of nature; he, without doubt, has a religion, and a religion much better than all the sects out of our church: for all these sects are false, and the law of nature is true; for a revealed reli∣gion can only be this law of nature perfected. Thus Theism is good sense not yet enlightened by revelation, and other religions good sense perverted by superstition.—All sects are different, be∣cause they come from men; morality is every where the same, because it comes from God.—It may be asked, that since there are five or six hundred sects, of which scarcely any are free from the guilt of spilling human blood, from whence does it happen that the Theists, who are every where so numerous, have never caused the least tumult? It is because these are philosophers. Now philosophers may reason falsely, but they can never engage in intrigues; therefore those who persecute a philosopher, under pretence that his opinions may be dangerous to the public, are guilty of as great an absurdity as a person who should be afraid

• ...

  lest the study of algebra should raise the price of bread: we ought, therefore, to pity a reasonable being who is in an error; but the persecutor is a fool, and an object of horror. We are all brethren: if any of my brothers, full of respect and filial piety, and animated by the most ardent fraternal love, does not salute our common father with the same ceremonies as I, ought I to cut his throat, and tear out his heart?

• Deprecatory, or deprecative, in theology, a term applied to the manner of performing some ceremonies in the form of prayer. Among the Greeks the form of absolution is deprecatory, being conceived in these terms, may God absolve me; whereas, in the Latin, and even some of the reformed churches, it is in the de∣clarative form, I absolve you.
• Description, an imperfect or inaccurate definition of a thing, giving a sort of knowledge thereof from some accidents and circum∣stances peculiar to it, which determine it enough to give an idea that may distinguish it from other things; but without explaining its nature or essence. Grammarians content themselves with de∣scriptions, philosophers require definitions of things. A descrip∣tion is an enumeration of divers attributes of a thing, most of which are only accidental, as when a person is described by his deeds, his sayings, his writings, his honours, &c. A descrip∣tion, as to its outward appearance, resembles a definition, and is even convertible with the thing described, but does not explain it; for instead of bringing several things essential to the thing described, it only brings a number of accidents belonging thereto, e. g. Peter is the tall young man who lives on the green, wears black cloaths, frequents the college, courts N—, &c. where, it is evident, we do not give any explication of Peter, as not bringing things that are in Peter, but only circumstances, or things about him, tall, young, living, wearing, frequenting, courting, &c. A description, therefore, is no proper answer to the question, quid est, what is he? but to that, quis est, who is he? Descriptions, in effect, are principally used for singulars or individuals, for things of the same species do not differ in essence, but only as to hic and ille, which difference contains nothing very notable or distinguishable. But individuals, of the same kind, differ much in accidents, e. g. George is a King, and William a citizen, Charles is a male, and Anne a female; Hen∣ry is wife, and John a blockhead, &c. Thus, a description is an accumulation of accidents, whereby things are notably distin∣guished from each other, tho' they scarce differ at all in essence.
• Div••••ocanonical, an appellation given to certain books of the holy scripture, which were added to the canon after the rest; either by reason they were not wrote till after the compilation of the canon, or by reason of some dispute as to their canonicity. The books so called, in the modern canon, are the book of Esther, the ••pistle to the Hebrews, that of James, that of Jude, the se∣cond

• of St. Peter, the second and third of St. John, and the Re∣velation. The deuterocanonical parts of books, are the hymn of the three children; the prayer of Azariah; the history of Su∣sanna, of Bel and the dragon; the last chapter of St. Mark; the bloody sweat, and the appearance of the angel in St. Luke, chap. xxii. and the history of the adulterous woman in St. John, chap. viii.
• Deuteronomy, the last of Moses's five books: the Greeks gave it the name of Deuteronomy, or the second law, or the repetition of the law; because Moses therein makes a kind of recapitulation of what he had ordained or done in the preceding books. The Hebrews call it Ellehaddebarim, which are the first words of this book, in the Hebrew text. Some Rabbins call it Mishnah, that is to say, the second law; others the book of Reprehensions, by reason of the reproaches wherewith Moses reproached the Is∣raelites.
• Diaconicon, Sacristy, a place adjoining to the ancient churches, where the sacred vestments, with the vessels, and other ornaments of the altar, were preserved.
• Diet, an assembly of the states of Germany. I shall only take no∣tice, in this place, of the more remarkable of those which have been held on the affairs of religion.—1. The diet of Augsburg, in the year 1530, was assembled to reunite the Princes of the empire, in relation to some religious matters; the Emperor him∣self presided in this assembly with the greatest magnificence ima∣ginable. The Elector of Saxony followed by several Princes, presented the confession of saith, called, The Confession of Augsburg. The Emperor ended the diet with a decree, that no alteration should be made in the doctrine and ceremonies of the Romish church, till a council should order it otherwise.— 2. The diet of Augsburg, in 1547, was held on account of the Electors being divided concerning the decisions of the council of Trent. The Emperor demanded, that the management of that affair should be referred to him; and it was resolved, that every one should conform to the decisions of the council—3. The diet of Augsburg, in 1548, was assembled to examine some memorials, relating to the Confession of Faith; but the commis∣sioners not agreeing together, the Emperor named three divines, who drew the design of that famous Interim, so well known in Germany, and elsewhere.—4. The diet of Augsburg, in 1550. In this assembly 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, which submission was resolsed upon by a plurality of votes.—5. The diet of Nurem∣berg in 1523. Here Pope Adrian VI.'s nuncio demanded the execution of Leo X.'s bull, and Charles V.'s edict, against Lu∣ther; but the assembly drew up a list of grievances, which were reduced to an hundred articles; some whereof aime, at the de∣struction

• of the Pope's authority, and the discipline of the Ro∣mish church: however, they consented that the Lutherans should be commanded not to write against the Roman Catholics.— 6. The diet of Nuremberg, in 1524. In this assembly the Lu∣therans having the advantage, it was decreed, that the Pope should call a council in Germany; but that, in the mean time, an assembly should be held at Spire, to determine what was to be believed and practised. But Charles V. prohibited the holding this assembly.—7. The diet of Ratisbon, in 1541, was held for reuniting the Protestants with the Roman Catholics. The Em∣peror named three Roman Catholics and three Protestant divines, to agree upon articles. The Roman Catholics were Julius Phlug, John Gropper, and John Eckius; and the Protestants were Philip Melanchton, Martin Bucer, and John Pistorius: but after a whole month's consultation, they could agree upon no more than five or six articles, which the Emperor consented the Protestants should retain, forbidding them to solicit any body to change the ancient religion.—8. The diet of Ratisbon, in 1546, decreed, that the council of Trent was to be followed, which was opposed by the Protestant deputies, and this caused a war against them.—9. The diet of Ratisbon, in 1557, demanded a conference between some famous doctors of both parties, which conference was held at Worms, in September, between twelve Roman Catholics, and twelve Lutheran divines; but was soon dissolved by the Lutherant being divided among themselves.—10. The diet of Spire, in 1526. In this assembly, wherein presided the Archduke Ferdi∣nand, the Duke of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse demanded the free exercise of the Lutheran religion: upon which it was de∣creed, that the Emperor should be desired to call a general or na∣tional council in Germany within a year, and that in the mean time every one should have liberty of conscience.—11. The diet of Spire, in 1529, decreed, that in the countries, which had em∣braced the new religion, it should be lawful to continue in it till the next council; but that no Roman Catholic should be allowed to turn Lutheran. Against this decree, 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, pretested in writing, from which solemn protestation came the famous name of Protestants, which the Lutherans presently after took.—12. The diet of Worms, in 1521. In this assembly Luther, being charged by the Pope's Nuncio with heresy, and refusing to recant, the Emperor, by his edict of May 26, before all the Princes of Germany, publickly outlawed him.
• Dimissory Letter, a letter given by a Bishop to a candidate for holy orders, having a title in his diocese, directed to some other Bi∣shop, and giving leave for the bearer to be ordained by him. When a person produces letters of ordination, or tonsure, confer∣red

• by any other than his own diocesan, he must, at the same time, produce the letters dimissory, given by his own Bishop, on pain of nullity. Letters dimissory cannot be given by the chap∣ter sede vacante.
• Dimoeritae, a name given to the Apolinarists, who first held that the Word only assumed a human body, without taking a reasonable soul, like ours; but being at length convinced by fo••mal texts of scripture, they allowed, that he did assume a soul, but without understanding; the Word supplying the want of that faculty.
• 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 they had abolished: it consisted 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 wor∣ship, nor obliged the people to any responses, excepting Amen.— To give a short abstract of the Directory: It forbids all salutati∣ons, and civil ceremony, in the churches; the reading the scrip∣tures in the congregation is declared to be part of the pastoral office; all the canonical books of the Old and New Testament (but not of the Apocrypha) are to be publickly 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 ser∣mon, among which, part of the prayer for the King is, to save him from evil council: 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 burthen the memory of his audience with too many divisions, nor perplex their under∣standings with logical phrases and terms of art; he is not to start unnecessary objections, and he is to be very sparing in citati∣ons 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 bu∣ried without any prayers, or religious ceremony.
• 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 dis∣cipline 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 con∣sider

• 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 pub∣lic prayer, receiving the eucharist, and other acts of divine wor∣ship. 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 became Christian: but it is to be observed, that the church never encouraged the magistrate to proceed against any one, for mere error, or ecclesiastical misdemeanor, farther than to punish the delinquent by a pecuniary mulct, or bodily punishment, such as a confiscation or banishment. And St. Austin affirms, that no good men in the Catholic church were pleased, that he∣retics should be prosecuted unto death; lesser punishments, they thought, might have their use, as a 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 rights; a master did not lose his authority over his family, a parent over his children, nor a magistrate his office or 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. Admonition of the offender. 2. The lesser and greater excommunication.— As to the object of ecclesiastical discipline, they were all such de∣linquents 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 intreaties, because he had inhumanly put to death seven thousand men at Thessalo∣nica, without distinguishing the innocent from the guilty.
• Disciples of Christ, those who learned the doctrine of Christ, and took him for their teacher and master; a Believer, a Christian, a Scholar, a follower of Jesus Christ or his apostles, Acts vi. 1. Acts ix. 10. The name disciple is often set down for that of a∣postle; but in other places they are distinguished from disciples, as they were particularly chosen by Jesus Christ, out of the num∣ber

• of his disciples, and were appointed more immediately the propagators of his religion.
• Dissenters, Separatists from the church of England, and the service and worship thereof. At the revolution a law was enacted, that the statutes made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. concerning the discipline of the church, should not extend to Protestant Dissenters; but persons dissenting are to subscribe the declaration of the 30th of Charles II. cap. i. and take the oaths, or the declaration of fidelity, &c. Besides this, they are not to bold their meetings till 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: and, to secure to them the free exer∣cise of their religion, whoever disturbs or molests them in the per∣formance of divine worship, on conviction at the sessions, is to forfeit 20 l. by statute 1st of King William and Queen Mary.
• Deminicans, an order of religious, called in some places Jacobins, Predicants, or Preaching Friars. They take this name from their founder Dominic de Guzman, born in 1170, at Calarvega, in Old Castile. The order was approved of in 1215 by Innocent III. and confirmed in 1216 by a bull of Honorius III. under the rule of St. Augustin, and the title of Preaching Friars. This order is diffused throughout the whole known world: it has forty-five provinces under the General, who resides at Rome; and twelve particular congregations or reforms, governed by vicars-general. They reckon three Popes of this order, above sixty Cardinals, se∣veral Patriarchs, one hundred and fifty Archbishops, about eight hundred Bishops, &c. &c. There are also nuns of this order, called Preaching Sisters.
• Donatists, ancient schismatics in Africa, so named from their leader Donetus. They arose in the year 311. Their errors were, that baptism out of their sect was null; that there was no church but in Africa: all the rest of the churches they held as prostitute and fallen. They were also accused of Arianism. They afterwards split into many parties amongst themselves.
• Donative, in the ecclesiastical sense of the word, is a benefice given by the patron to the priest without presentation of the ordinary, and without institution and induction. As to the origin of dona∣tives, it was one of these two ways. First, by royal licence. Thus Sir Edward Coke says, the King may not only found a church or free chapel donative, but may licence any subject to do the same. Secondly, Donatives may be grounded upon peculiar privilege; as, when a Lord of a manor, in a great parish, at a remote dis∣tance from his parish-church, offers to build and endow a church there, provided it shall entirely belong to him and his family, to put in what incumbent they shall think fit: the Bishops, to encou∣rage such a work, may have permitted them to enjoy this liberty;

• which, being continued time out of mind, is turned into a pre∣scription.
• Dort, synod of, consisted of the States-General of the United Pro∣vinces, deputies from the Protestant states of Germany, from the Remonstrants and Contra-remonstrants, deputies from England, &c. for settling the constitution and government of the Protestant churches, and for determining such points of saith as should be deemed essential to constitute a person a true Protestant, &c. This synod commenced the 13th of November 1618, and continued their deliberations one hundred and eighty sessions, ending the 29th of May 1619. This synod favoured the doctrine of Pre∣destination, and some decrees passed against the Remonstrants for denying it; which, with other transactions of this synod, perhaps no less arbitrary and severe, are related by Brandt in his history of the Reformation, vol. iii. p. 1—350.
• Doxology, an appellation given by the Greeks to the 14th verse of the second chapter of St. Luke, "Glory be to God in the highest, &c." because beginning with the Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Glory. This they distinguish by the name of great doxology. And, the Gloria Patri, "Glory be to the Father," they call the less doxology, as beginning with the same word.

E.

• EASTER, a festival of the Christian church, observed in me∣mory of our Saviour's resurrection. The Latins and others call it Pascha, an Hebrew word, which signifies passage, and it 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 Eastre, 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. Tho' all agreed in the obser∣vation of it in general, yet they differed very much as to the par∣ticular 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 hap∣pened on; and others, on the first Sunday after the first full moon. This diversity occasioned a great dispute in the 2d 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 Pascha, or festival of Easter, on one and the same day, which is always on a Sunday. This decree was afterwards confirmed by the council of Antioch, in the year 344: 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 moveable feast, it sometimes hap∣pened

• 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 farther, 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 va∣ried 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. Mean time, the churches of France and Britain kept to the old Roman canon; and it was two or three ages af∣ter before the new Roman, that is, the Alexandrian canon, not without some struggle and difficulty, was settled among them.
• Ebionites, Christian heretics, in the first century, so called from their leader Ebion. The Ebionites, as well as the Nazarenes, had their origin from the circumcised Christians, who had retired from Jerusalem to Pella during the war between the Jews and Romans, and made their first appearance after the destruction of Jerusalem, about the time of Domitian, or a little before. Ebion, the author of the heresy of the Ebionites, was a disciple of Cerin∣thus, and his successor. He improved upon the errors of his master, and added to them new opinions of his own. He began his preaching in Judea; he taught in Asia, and even at Rome; his tenets infected the isle of Cyprus. St. John opposed both Cerin∣thus and Ebion in Asia; and it is thought that this Apostle wrote his gospel in the year 97, particularly against this heresy. The Ebionites held the same errors as the Nazarenes; they united the ceremonies of the law with the precepts of the gospel; they ob∣served both the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian Sunday; they called their place of assembling a synagogue, and not a church; they bathed every day, which was the custom of the Jews. In celebrating the eucharist, they made use of unleavened bread, but no wine. They added to the observance of the law divers su∣perstitions; they adored Jerusalem as the house of God. Like the Samaritans, they would not suffer a person of another religion to touch them; they abstained from the flesh of animals, and even from milk; and lest any one should object to them that passage of the gospel where Jesus says, he desires to eat of the passover, they corrupted it. When they were sick, or bitten by a serpent, they plunged themselves into water, and invoked all sorts of things to their assistance. They disagreed among themselves in relation to Christ: some of them said he was born, like other men, of Joseph and Mary, and acquired sanctification only by his good works; others of them allowed that he was born of a virgin, but denied that he was the Word of God, or had a pre-existence before his human generation: they said he was indeed the only true prophet, but yet a mere man, who by his virtue had arrived

• at being called Christ, and the Son of God. They supposed that Christ and the devil were two principles, which God had oppo∣sed the one to the other. Though the Ebionites observed the law, yet they differed from the Jews in many points. They acknow∣ledged the sanctity of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, and Joshua; but they laughed at all those who came after them: they rejected some parts of the Pentateuch; and when they were too closely pressed by this book, they entirely abandoned it. Of the New Testament they acknowledge only the gospel of St. Mat∣thew; that is, that which was written in Hebrew, and which they called the gospel according to the Hebrews; but they took from it the two first chapters, and corrupted other passages of it. They absolutely rejected St. Paul, as an apostate, and an enemy of the law, and published several calumnies against him. They had likewise false Acts of the Apostles, in which they mixed a great many fables. As to their manner of life, they imitated the Carpocratians, the most infamous of all heretics. They rejected virginity and continence; they obliged children to marry very young; they allowed married persons to separate from each o∣ther, and marry again as often as they pleased. St. Justin, St. Irenaeus, and Origen, wrote against the Ebionites. Symmachus, author of one of the Greek versions of the scriptures, was an Ebionite.
• Ecclesiastes. The Hebrew title of this book is Coheleth, which is a feminine word; the literal signification of which is, she who speaks in public, or she who convenes the assembly: but the Greeks and Latins, without having any regard to the gender, have called it Ecclesiastes, that is to say, an orator, one who speaks in public. Solomon, who is the author of this book, describes himself in the very first verse, in these words: "The words of Coheleth, the Son of David, King of Jerusalem." He speaks of his works, his riches, and his buildings, and in parti∣cular of his proverbs or parables.
• Eicetae, heretics of the 7th century, who made profession of the monastic life. Their devotion consisted in music and dancing.
• Eithesis, a name which the Emperor Heraclius gave to a confession of faith published by him in 639. It favoured the error of the Monothelites, and established one will alone in Jesus Christ.
• Elcesaites, ancient heretics, so denominated from their prophet El∣cesai. His fundamental doctrines were, that Jesus Christ, who was born from the beginning of the world, had appeared, from time to time, under divers bodies, &c.
• Elders, among the Jews, were persons the most considerable for age, experience, and wisdom. Of this sort were the seventy men whom Moses associated to himself in the government of his peo∣ple. Such likewise, afterwards, were those who held the first rank in the synagogue, the president or head of which was stiled elder, by way of eminence. In the first assemblies of the primi∣tive

• Christians, those who held the first place or rank had like∣wise the denomination of elders. The word presbyter, which oc∣curs so often in the New Testament, is of the same signification. Hence the first councils of Christians were called presbyteria, or councils of elders. Elders is a denomination still preserved in the Presbyterian discipline; they are officers, who, in conjunction with the pastors, or ministers, or deacons, compose the consis∣tories or sessions of the kirk. In Scotland, the number of elders is indefinite, being generally twelve in each parish.
• Ember-Weeks, or Days, in the Christian church. They are certain seasons of the year set apart for the imploring God's blessing, by prayer and fasting, upon the ordinations performed in the church at such times; and this in conformity to the practice of the A∣postles, who, when they separated persons for the work of the ministry, prayed and fasted before they laid their hands on them. These ordination-fasts are observed four times in the year, viz. the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, after the first Sunday in Lent, after Whitsunday, after the 14th of September, and after the 13th of December; it being injoined by a canon of the church, that deacons and ministers be ordained or made only upon the Sundays immediately following these Ember-fasts. Some derive the term Ember from a German word, which signifies abstinence; others from one which signifies ashes, because it was customary with the ancients to accompany their fastings with sprinkling of ashes, or sitting upon them. Dr. Mareschal derives ••t from a Saxon word, which signifies course or circuit; so that these fasts, being not occasional, but returning every year in certain courses, may properly be said to be Ember-days, because fasts in course. The Ember-weeks were formerly observed in different churches with some variety, but were at last settled, as they are now ob∣served, by the council of Placentia, A. D. 1095. St. Auoustin, who lived in the fifth century, speaks of the Ember-faits, but mentions them only as observed in the diocese of Rome; from whence we may conclude, that the observation of them was not at that time general in the church. The council of Mentz, con∣vened by Charlemagne in 813, mentions the Ember weeks as a new establishment introduced in France, in conformity to the Ro∣man church.
• Encoenia, the dedication of Christian churches. See Dedication.
• Encratites, Christian heretics, followers of Tatian the Assyrian, who founded this sect, in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, A. D. 1••2. he established the first school of the Encratites in Mesopotamia, from whence they spread to Antioch, and into Cilicia, P••siola, and other provinces of Asia Minor, and even as far as Rome, and into Gaul, Aquitaine, and Spain. They were called Encrati••••••, or Continentes, because they gloried in abstaining from marriage, the use of wine, and animals. They acknowledged a power 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the devil, independent of God. They made great use of the 〈◊〉〈◊〉

• of St. Andrew, St. John, and St. Thomas, and other apocryphal pieces, such as the gospel of the Egyptians. Their chastity, however, was a little suspected, because they used ••ll sorts of means to draw women into their sect, and were always seen in company with them.
• Energici, a name given to a religious sect of the sixteenth century, because they held the eucharist was the energy and virtue of Je∣sus Christ, not his body, nor a representation thereof.
• Enomaeans, or Eunomians, a sect who held that article which had been the capital topic of all Arians, namely, the Father's being self-existent, or unoriginate, which was urged to destroy all simi∣litude of substance between him and the Son, who was begotten or derived from the Father.
• ...

  Enthusiasm. This is the name whereby that poetical fury is distin∣guished, which transports the mind, inflames the imagination, and causes it to utter things surprising and sublime. Virgil de∣scribes very finely the enthusiasm of Apollo's priestess, whom Ae∣neas consulted before he made his journey to hell. Virg. Aen. vi.

  Of enthusiasts, particularly in religion, such high pretenders having given up themselves to their own fancy and imagination, without any fixed principles that can bind them, and being ac∣customed to feel some very warm emotions in their minds, which are always apprehended to come immediately from heaven, and which they always regard as symbols of the divine presence, en∣dearing tokens of his peculiar love and favour towards them, they cannot but entertain an extravagant conceit of their own worth and excellency, as if they were the beloved, the peculiar people, to whom he hath revealed himself in so extraordinary a manner; and thus viewing themselves in high favour with the Deity, from which they believe the rest of mankind are excluded. Hence those visionaries have their minds always turned, in their gloomy manner, to contemplate God and heavenly things, and particu∣larly the high station to which they vainly think they are exalted in the divine grace and favour; and with this sullen frame of de∣votion, which is continually hanging about them, do they spiri∣tualise and sanctify all things whatsoever, even the greatest ab∣surdities and the blackest villainies, according as they happen to suit their particular temper and circumstances: for those conceit∣ed beings are so far from submitting themselves to the govern∣ment of reason, that they look upon this DIM LIGHT, as they are pleased to call it, and all its fixed principles, and every stated rule whatsoever, especially such as are of human authority, to be fit only for common servile souls, and much below the notice of those who have immediate access to the fountain of all light, and who distinctly perceives all the measures of their behaviour in su∣pernatural revelations; and when they have a strong inclination to indulge, they do not consult and hearken to the dictates of rea∣son; they go to God with it, and lay the matter before the Lord,

• ...

  as they are used to speak in their familiar manner, to implore his light and direction, and loudly call for an answer. Now, in their opinion, a favourable answer to prayer consists in divine joys and raptures, that seize upon the soul, and make it sensible of the immediate presence and countenance of God; so that till they find something of this nature springing up within them, and warming and agitating their breast, they fancy to have received no return from heaven; and therefore they do still insist, and with great importunity do they labour, till they wrestle themselves in∣to those mechanical heats and emotions which they take for a gracious answer to their prayers. This may be farther described by an extract from a little diary annexed to some letters published in 1757, said to be wrote by Mrs. Le Fevre, and by some thought scarcely to be paralleled for piety.

  Tuesday, the latter end of October 1753, it was given me to say, Jehovah is my Lord and my God * * *

  Saturday, September 7, 1754, after spiritual desertion and wan∣dering some days in the wilderness, the love of God returned to my soul, and I again rejoiced in Christ as my Saviour. Glory be to God for his free and boundless mercy to the vilest of sinners, to the most unworthy and ungrateful of all human beings! And, oh! Lord, life and light of my soul, leave me not again, I hum∣bly beseech thee; let every outward comfort be withdrawn, and every outward torment be inflicted, and I will rejoice so thou leave me not. My helpless soul hangs upon thee, my Jesus, and well thou knowest what I have suffered in thy absence; how my parched soul has fainted for thy refreshing streams; how it has stretched itself out after thee, and even agonised to find thee, and then miserably sunk, and been overwhelmed under the mountain of fin. But now thou art returned! The sun of righteousness has rose with healing in his wings, and the mountains have flowed down at thy presence. Where are my sins? Washed away in the blood of the Lamb. Where is my unbelief? Suddenly vanished. I have no doubt now; Jesus is mine, and God the Father is now my reconciled Father through him, and God the Holy Ghost is my comforter and guide. Oh! unspeakable transport! unbound∣ed happiness! Let this paper bear witness for one of the free mer∣cies of my God * * * — Oh! sweetest and most compassionate Jesus, how do thy tender mercies follow and support my soul, and still I am ungrateful, and still I am not as thou wouldst have me to be! Oh! when wilt thou make a full end of sin, and bring in thy perfect righteousness? All things are possible to thee; and do I not know, do I not taste that thou art gracious? Oh! my sun, my shield, life of my life, look into my heart: I dare appeal to thine all-searching eye, that there is nothing so dear to it, but I would this moment part with it for thee! And why then, dearest Lord, wilt thou not form thy whole blessed image in my soul? My unworthiness, I know, is greater than that of any other crea∣ture

• ...

  in the universe; but this unworthiness will the more magnify thy mercy. I have only my unworthiness to plead, and I have no hope but in thine atoning blood. Oh! let this blood, which has bought my peace, cleanse me also from every sin; and let that blessed Spirit, who has sealed and witnessed this peace to my soul, cleanse me from every sin, and so purify me even as— Oh! glorious prospect, heart-enlivening hopes, let me sink into the dust before thee! God of glory, God of purity, I am lost in self-abasement; but hast thou not promised, and wilt thou not fulfil thine own gracious word? Oh! give me then perfect sancti∣fication of body, soul, and spirit,—and let every bitter cup which thou permittest to be given me, be joyfully received, as serving, in some degree, to conform me to thy suffering; and let me in all things, though ever so contrary to my corrupt nature, give thanks, and say continually, "Lord, not my will, but thine be done. Amen."

  The authoress likewise gives us a specimen of this peculiar turn of mind, in the following lines:

  O Love! how charming is thy ray! All pain before thy presence flies: Care, anguish, sorrow, melt away, Where'er thy healing streams arise. O, Jesu! nothing may I see, Nothing hear, feel, or think, but thee!

  Enthusiasts then, in the religious sense of the word, are those who pretend to extraordinary revelations and impulses from heaven. "Immediate revelation being a more easy way for men to establish their opinions, and regulate their conduct, than the tedious, and not always successful, labour of reasoning, it is no wonder that some have been very apt to pretend to revelation, and to persuade themselves, that they are under the peculiar guidance of heaven in their actions and opinions, especially in those of them which they cannot account for by the ordinary methods of knowledge and principles of reason. Hence we see, that in all ages, men, in whom melancholy has mixed with devotion, or whose conceit of themselves has raised them into an opinion of a great familiarity with God, and a nearer admittance to his fa∣vour than is afforded to others, have often flattered themselves with a persuasion of an immediate intercourse with the Deity, and frequent communications from the divine Spirit. Their minds being thus prepared, whatever groundless opinion comes to settle itself strongly upon then fancies, is an illumination from the Spi∣rit of God, and presently of divine authority, and whatsoever odd action they find in themselves a strong inclination to do, that im∣pulse is concluded to be a call or direction from heaven, and must be obeyed; it is a commission from above, and they cannot err in executing it. This I take to be properly enthusiasm.

• ...

• Epicureans, philosophers who placed their supreme happiness in plea∣sure, not in voluptuousness, and in irregular, ignominious plea∣sures, but in sensible pleasures, under proper regulations and go∣vernment. They denied Providence, and the immortality of the soul. Cicero intimates the practice of this sect to be generally better than their principles.
• Epiphany, a Christian festival, otherwise called the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. It is observed on the 6th of January.— The Gentiles, to whom our Saviour on this day manifested him∣self, were the Magi, or, as we render the word, wise men, whose visit and presents to the infant Jesus are recorded by St. Matthew. There are several questions in relation to this whole transaction; as, first, what that star was which is said to have directed the wise men in their journey? That it was not in reality a star, is cer∣tain, because it went before them, and stood over where the young child was, which could not be true of any one of the heavenly bo∣dies. It must therefore be a luminous appearance, or seeming star in the lower region of the air, observed by the wise men to differ from the ordinary stars of heaven, which, as a new and prodigious sight, seemed to them to presage something of great moment and consideration. Some authors have suggested, that this seeming star which appeared to the wise men in the East, might be that glorious light which shone upon the shepherds of Beth∣lehem when the angels came to impart to them the tidings of our Saviour's birth, and which, at a distance, might appear like a star. Another question is, how the wise men could guess at the birth of our Saviour from the appearance of this star? The most probable answer is, that they did not collect the birth of Jesus Christ from this uncommon appearance (which only served as their guide in finding him out) but were determined to their jour∣ney by the general expectation the eastern world was then in of an universal monarch. The feast of Epiphany was not originally a distinct festival, but made a part of that of the nativity of Christ, which being celebrated twelve days, the first and last of which, according to the custom of the Jews, in their feasts, were high or chief days of this solemnity; either of these might be fitly called Epiphany, as that word signifies the appearance of Christ in the world.
• Equanimity, is an even, uniform temper of mind, amidst all the va∣rieties and revolutions of time; and chance is the result of mag∣nanimity, and the proof and evidence of it.
• Erastians, a religious sect or faction, which arose in England during the time of the civil wars: so called from Thomas Erastus, their leader, whose distinguishing doctrine was, that the church had no right to discipline, i. e. no regular power to excommunicate, ex∣clude, censure, absolve, decree, or the like.
• Essenes, or Essenians, so ancient that we are not acquainted with their original. Pliny says they had been some thousand years in

• being without marriage, and without any conversation with per∣sons of the other sex; and that they had been for some time esta∣blished into a society before Hircanus was high priest of the Jews, and before Christ 106. They were the most virtuous sect of the Jews.
• Eternity, an attribute of God. By eternity we mean infinite durati∣on, or existence without beginning and without end. "The self-existent Being (says the learned Dr. Clarke) must of neces∣sity be eternal. The ideas of eternity and self-existence are so closely connected, that because something of necessity must be eternal, independently, and without any outward cause of its be∣ing, therefore it must necessarily be self-existent; and because it is impossible but something must be self-existent, therefore it is necessary that it must likewise be eternal. To be self-existent, is to exist by an absolute necessity in the nature of the thing itself; now this necessity being absolute, and not depending upon any thing eternal, must be always unalterably the same, nothing be∣ing alterable but what is capable of being affected by some∣what without itself. That Being therefore, which has no other cause of its existence, but the absolute necessity of its own nature, must of necessity have existed from everlasting without end.—As to the manner of this eternal existence, it is manifest, it herein infinitely transcends the manner of the existence of all created beings, even of such as shall exist for ever, that whereas it is not possible for their finite minds to comprehend all that is past, or to understand perfectly all the things that are present, much less to know all that is future, or to have entirely in their power any thing that is to come; but their thoughts, knowledge, and power, must of necessity have degrees and periods, and be successive and transi∣ent, as the things themselves. The eternal, supreme Cause, on the contrary, must of necessity have such a perfect independent unchangeable comprehension of all things, that there can be no one point or instant of his eternal duration, wherein all things that are past, present, and to come, will not be as entirely known, and represented to him, in one single thought or view, and all things present and future be equally and entirely in his power and direction, as if there was no succession at all, but all things were actually present at once.
• Evangelist. This word signifies one who publishes good news: they therefore who write, as well as they who preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, are called Evangelists; and, in general, all they who declare any happy tidings. In Isaiah the Lord says, that he will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings, or an Evan∣gelist. In the Acts of the Apostles, Philip, one of the deacons, is called an Evangelist. They were generally ranked below the Apostles and Prophers, tho' their office and duty was honourable and sacred. In the beginning of Christianity, there were Evan∣gelists and preachers, who, without being fixed to any church, went and preached wherever they might be most useful. Lastly, we commonly call Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Evange∣lists,

• lists, who are the authors of the four gospels, which only are ac∣knowledged by the church to be canonical.
• Euchitae, a sect of ancient heretics, so called, because they prayed without ceasing; imagining that prayer alone was sufficient to save them.
• Eudoxians, a sect of Christians in the 4th century. They were A∣rians, who put themselves under the direction of Eudoxus, Bishop of Constantinople. This Heresiarch had been educated by Lucian the martyr. As he was of a subtile and penetrating genius, he thought to raise his reputation by undertaking the support of Ari∣anism. The success answered his hopes: he was chosen by the Arians Bishop of Germanicia, in Syria. He opposed the divinity of the word, in the council of Antioch, in 341, and afterwards in the Arian councils of Sardica, Sirium, and Seleucia. He became the Patriarch of Constantinople, by the favour of the Emperor Constantius. He engaged the Emperor Valens, by an oath, to support the cause of Arianism. After the death of Arius, he be∣came head of the Arian party, who from him took the name Eudoxians.
• Eulogiae, so the Greek church calls the panis benedictus, or bread over which a blessing is pronounced, and which is distinguished to those who are unqualified to communicate. The name Eulo∣giae was likewise anciently given to the consecrated pieces of bread which the Bishops and priests sent to each other, for the keeping up a friendly correspondence. Those presents, likewise, which were made out of respect or obligation, were called Eulogiae.
• Eunomioeupsychians, a sect of heretics of the 4th century, being the same with those called Eutychians.
• Eustathians, a name given to the Catholics of Antioch, in the 4th century, on occasion of their refusing to acknowledge any other Bishop besides St. Eustathius, who was deposed by the Arians. Also a sect in the 4th century, called so from their leader Eusta∣thius, a monk, who excluded all married people from salvation, prohibited praying in houses, and obliged them to quit all they had, as incompatible with the hopes of salvation.
• Eutychians, a sect of Christians, disciples of Eutyches, a monk, and abbot of Constantinople, in the 5th century. Eutyches, anima∣ted by a false zeal against the errors of Nestorius, fell into the op∣posite impiety, and maintained, that there was but one nature in Jesus Christ, because there was but one person. He pretended that the divine nature, by its superiority, had so entirely swallowed up the human, that the latter could not be distinguished in Jesus Christ; insomuch, that, according to Eutyches, Jesus Christ was merely God, that he had nothing of humanity but the appearance. Flavian, Patriarch of Constantinople, strongly opposed this doc∣trine; and Eutyches was condemned in a council held in 448: which sentence was confirmed by the general council of Chalce∣don in 451. Eutyches resisted the council of Constantinople, and

• would not alter his expressions against the two natures in Jesus Christ; because he would not, he said, condemn the holy fathers, pa••ticularly St. Cyril and St. Athanesius, who had expressed them∣selves in the same manner. The partisans of Eutyches, supported by the officers of Theodosius the Younger, exercised great vio∣lences against the orthodox, which gave occasion to the false coun∣cil of Ephesus. Leontius, superior of the Scythian monks, re∣vived the heresy of Eutyches, about the year 600, and maintained that we ought to say, one of three persons in the Trinity suffered on the cross.
• Exarch, in the Greek church, is an officer under the Patriarch, who has the care and inspection of the patriarchal monasteries, or such as depend immediately on the Patriarch. His business is to visit them, to hear the complaints of inferiors against their superiors, to impose penance, and chastise those monks who neglect their duty, and the obedience they owe their superiors. When a supe∣rior of a patriarchal monastery is dead, the exarch is to take care and send the person elected by the monks to succeed him, to the Patriarch, for imposition of hands. He is to take an exact ac∣count of all the monasteries depending on the Patriarch, of their revenues, sacred vessels, and ornaments. For this purpose the exarch receives letters testimonial from the Patriarch, which he is obliged to produce and shew to the monks, that they may not doubt of his authority.
• Excommunication, an ecclesiastical penalty, whereby they who incur the guilt of any heinous sin are separated from the communion of the church, and deprived of all spiritual advantages. There are two or three sorts of excommunication: the greater, whereby the person offending is separated from the body of the faithful; thus St. Paul excommunicated the incestuous Christian, 1 Cor. vi. 5. The lesser, whereby the sinner is forbidden to adminster or re∣ceive the sacraments: and, lastly, that which deprives him only of the company of the faithful, of which there is some mention made, 2 Cor. iii. 6. and by St. Austin. Theophilact says, that even this separation was formerly esteemed a great punishment. The pri∣mitive Christians very rarely excommunicated; and when they were, it was for very important reasons, with great seriousness and concern. Excommunication of Emperors, Kings, &c. by the au∣thority of the Pope, began in the 9th century.
• Extreme Unction, one of the sacraments of the Romish church, the fifth in order, administered to people dangerously sick, by anoint∣ing them with holy oils, and performing several prayers over them.

F.

• FAITH, is a theological virtue, whereby we hold for certain that there is a God, and are persuaded to believe those truths

• revealed in the scriptures. This faith, accompanied with the prac∣tice of good works, is the life of a righteous man: "The just shall live by faith." It may be considered either as proceeding from God, who reveals his truths; or man, who yields his assent to them: and in both these senses it is called faith. "Shall the unbelief of the Jews make the faith of God of none effect?" says St. Paul; that is to say, his sovereign and infallible truth. Faith is taken also for a firm confidence in God, whereby we are induced to address ourselves to him for favours. Faith is sometimes taken for honesty, fidelity in performing promises, truth; and in this sense it is applied both to God and man. Faith in general is the assent of the mind to the truth of any proposition.
• Fanatic, a wild, extravagant, visionary, enthusiastical person, who pretends to revelation and inspiration, and believes himself pos∣sessed of a divine spirit. See Enthusiasm.
• Farrellists, a Christian sect, which sprung up in the 16th century, so called from their founder William Farrel, a native of Dauphiny, who, about the year 1525, taught at Geneva the doctrines of the Samaritans, particularly the efficacy of the sacraments. He per∣suaded his disciples, that a man, to save life and goods, might deny, or dissemble, his faith before persecutors. By this means he gained over a great number of followers, who outwardly pro∣fessed all sorts of religion, but secretly followed only their own doctrine, which consisted in believing alone, without being obliged to practise any good works. Calvin, whose influence in Geneva was very great, prevailed with the magistrates to banish Farrel, who retired to Neuf-Chatel, where he exercised the office of a minister some years, and died in 1565.
• Fasting. This has in all ages, and among all nations, been an ex∣ercise much in use in time of mourning, sorrow, and affliction; but we find no example of it, or injunction for it, before Moses. The Jews at this time are very strict in the observance of them. In their common fasts they begin the observance of them the pre∣ceding evening after sun-set, and fast till the same hour the next evening; and, on the great day of atonement, they continue their fast twenty-eight hours. During this fast, they not only abstain from all sorts of food, but from bathings, perfumes, odours, cor∣dials, &c. they go barefoot, are continent, and make no use of marriage. This is the idea which the eastern people have of fast∣ing. It is an abstinence from every sensual gratification, as well as every kind of eating and drinking.
• Fasts, days of religious abstinence. Such solemnities have been ob∣served in all ages and nations, especially in times of mourning and affliction. We meet with no examples of fasting, properly so called, before Moses, who yet enjoins no other than the solemn day of expiation, which was generally and strictly observed. Be∣sides the solemn fast of expiation, instituted by divine authority, the Jews appointed certain times of fasting and humiliation, called

• the fasts of the congregation. But, besides the public fasts, which the Jews were obliged by their law to observe, there were others of a private nature, which the zealous and most pious among them prescribed to themselves. The common way of fasting among the Jews is, to take no food, nor any drink, from the foregoing evening till sun-set the day following. They are allowed some particular herbs and butter, but not eggs. They must not be shaved, or powdered, or bathe themselves. They esteem fasting as a supplement to the old sacrifices, and place great merit in it. The ancient Christians had two sorts of solemn fasts, the one weekly, the other annual. Their weekly fasts, called jejunia quartae & sextae feriae, were observed on Wednesdays and Fridays; because on Wednesday our Lord was betrayed by Judas, and on Friday crucified by the Jews. These fasts lasted till the ninth hour, that is, till three o'clock in the afternoon, at which time they received the eucharist. They called these fasts stations, and the remains of them are yet observed in our church, which by her 15th canon has ordained, that tho' Wednesdays and Fridays be not holy days, yet that weekly, upon those times, the minister and people shall resort to church, at the accustomed hour of prayer. Their annual fast was that of Lent. They had likewise their oc∣casional fasts, observed at extraordinary and unusual seasons, ac∣cording as the variety and necessity of their circumstances required. Such were, times of great and imminent danger, either to the church or state, and times of public calamities, as plague or persecution. These occasional fasts were appointed by the Bishops of every church as they thought fit: they were called, by way of eminence, Jejunia. The Greeks have four solemn fasts: the first commences on the 15th of November, or forty days before Christmas; it is observed in commemoration of Moses's fasting forty days on Mount Sinai: the second falls in with our Lent: the third is called the fast of the holy Apostles, which they observe upon a supposition that the Apostles prepared themselves by prayer and fasting for the promulgation of the gospel. This fast com∣mences the week after Whitsuntide, and continues till the festival of St. Peter and St. Paul. Their fourth fast commences the first of August, and lasts until the 15th. The Greeks are so supersti∣tious and extravagant in the observation of their fasts, that they will admit of no cases of necessity sufficient to justify a dispensa∣tion. The Patriarch himself cannot authorise any person to eat meat when the church has enjoined the contrary. The Romanists distinguish between fasting and abstinence, and different days are appointed for each of them in that church. On their days of fasting they are allowed but one meal in twenty-four hours; but on days of abstinence, provided they abstain from flesh, and make but a moderate meal, they are indulged in a collation at night. The times of fasting, appointed by that church, are all Lent, except Sundays, the Ember days, the vigils of the more

• solemn feasts, and all Fridays, except those that fall within the twelve days of Christmas, and between Easter and the Ascension. Their days of abstinence are, all the Sundays in Lent, St. Mark's day, if it does not fall in Easter week, the three Rogation days, all Saturdays throughout the year, with the Fridays before excepted, unless either happens to be Christmas-day. The church of Eng∣land, tho' it appoints days of fasting and abstinence, for it makes no distinction between them, does not determine what food is proper for such seasons; and there is a statute, which declares, that whosoever, by preaching, teaching, writing, &c. affirms it to be necessary to abstain from flesh, for the saving of the soul of man, or for the service of God, is to be punished as a spreader of false news: but notwithstanding this, the church declares in one of her homilies, that fasting, by the decree of the 630 fathers, assembled at the council of Chalcedon, which was one of the first four general councils, who grounded their determinations upon the sacred scriptures, and long continued usage or practice both of the prophets and other godly persons, before the coming of Christ, and also of the Apostles, and other devout men, in the New Testa∣ment, is a withholding meat, drink, and all natural food, from the body, for the determined time of fasting. The times she sets a∣part, as proper for this duty, are the same with those observed in the earliest ages of the church.
• Feasts. God, in his great wisdom, appointed several festivals among the Jews: 1. To perpetuate the memory of these great events and wonders which he had wrought in favour of his people. 2. To keep them firm to their religion. 3. To encourage them by in∣tervals of rest and pleasure; for their festivals were accompanied with rejoicings, with feasts of charity, and with innocent diver∣sions. 4. For instruction; for at those times there were seasons when the law of God was read and explained. 5. To renew and confirm their acquaintance and friendship with their tribes. The Hebrews had a great number of feasts, as the Sabbath, the Sab∣batical year, the Passover, the feast of Pentecost, of Trumpets, of New-moons, of Expiation, of Tabernacles, and occasional, as that at the dedication of the Temple, &c.
• Feasts or Festivals, days of religious feasting. Such solemnities have obtained in every age and nation.—Festivals among the ancient Grecians were instituted upon various accounts. First, in ho∣nour of the gods, especially if they had conferred any signal sa∣vours on the public, or on private persons. Secondly, in order to procure some especial favour from the gods; or to appease their anger, in times of public calamity. Thirdly, in memory of deceased friends, or of those who had done any remarkable service to, or died valiantly in defence of, their country. Fourthly, at a time of ease and rest from their labour. In the ancient Christian church, besides the festivals, which peculiarly re∣lated to our Lord's ••conomy on earth (such as the Nativity,

• Easter, Pentecost, &c.) there was another sort instituted by the church, in honour of the apostles and martyrs. The first ori∣ginal of these festivals is not certainly known, but learned men commonly carry it as high as the second century. These they called their natalitia or birth-days, meaning not their natural birth, but a glorious crown in the kingdom of Heaven. They were celebrated at the graves or monuments of the martyrs, and were mostly confined to those particular churches where the mar∣tyrs lay buried; for which reason it was customary for every church to have its particular fasti or kalendar of martyrs, in which was a distinct narrative of the acts and sufferings of each martyr, and these acts and sufferings were commonly read in the church on the anniversary, commemoration and proper festival of the martyr. To these they commonly added a panegyrical oration, or sermon, on the virtue of the martyr. They observed the virgil or eve of these festivals, with psalmody and prayer, till break of day.—Another sort of festivals, observed by the ancient Christi∣ans, were annual thanksgiving days, for favours and blessings vouchsafed by God to his church. Thus the church of Alexan∣dria kept an anniversary thanksgiving on the twenty-first of Ju∣ly, for their deliverance from a terrible earthquake, in the reign of Julian; among these we may reckon the thanksgivings for signal victories of the Emperors, which generally lasted no long∣er than the life of the Emperor on whose account they were in∣stituted.—In the Romish church, there are double feasts, half double, and simple feasts. The name of double feasts was given to those whose service is fuller and more solemn than the rest; the other denominations took their rise from singular reasons, the chief difference between them being the greater or less solemnity used in them. The churches are established, and the altars a∣dorned according to the rank each saint holds in his respective church; all high festivals have an octave, consisting of the feast itself, and the seven following days.—In Italy, certain festivals are celebrated which occur only in the kalendar of the lovers of that country: to understand this, you are to know, that when a lover is desirous of giving his mistress the highest testimonies of his gallantry, he immediately makes her the idol of his devotion; he has vespers, and even masses said in her honour: for this pur∣pose he makes choice of some saint whose name she bears, and, tho' the saint has the name, they manage matters so, that the de∣votion of the festival is plainly relative to the lover's mistress.— When, upon the reformation, the liturgy of the church of Eng∣land was settled, the observation of festivals was enjoined by se∣veral statutes, which were revived in the first year of Queen Eli∣zabeth, and continued in the first year of King James; and when, upon the restoration, King Charles issued out a commission for re∣viving the liturgy, the alterations made in it were synodically a∣greed

• upon and confirmed by the King and parliament, as the act of uniformity testifies.
• Feasts of God, in French, Fête de Dieu, a solemn festival in the Ro∣mish church, instituted for the performing a peculiar kind of worship to our Saviour in the eucharist. It is observed the Thurs∣day after the octaves of Whitsuntide; its institution is ascribed to Pope Urban IV. in the year 1264; the office for the solemnity was drawn up by the famous Thomas Aquinas, the church being at that time disturbed by the faction of the Guelss and Gibolines. Pope Urban's bull for this festival was not every where obeyed. Afterwards, at the general council of Vienne, in 1311, under Pope Clement V. the Kings of England, France, and Arragon, be∣ing present, this bull was confirmed, and ordered to be every where observed. In 1316, Pope John XXII. to heighten the so∣lemnity, added an octave to it, and ordered the holy sacrament to be carried in procession.
• Fermentarii, a denomination which those of the Latin church have given to the Greeks, on account of their consecrating and using leavened or fermented bread in the eucharist.—As the Greeks call the Latins azymites, the Latins, in return, call them fermen∣tarii.
• Feuillants, a religious order in the Romish church, being a reform of the order of Cistertians. Don John de la Barriere, of the il∣lustrious family of Turenne in Querc, being promoted to the abbey of Feuillans, in 1565, undertook to reform his monks, who, not relishing his great austerities, unanimously agreed to quit the monastery. But the fame of his capacity soon drew to him a great number of followers, who not only revived the an∣cient fervour of the Cistertian order, but even surpassed it; they went barefooted and bareheaded, lay in their cloaths on the boards, and eat their victuals on the floor. Some of them never drank out of any thing but dead mens skulls; they lived upon no∣thing but broth made of herbs, and black bread; such was the life of John de la Barriere and his disciples.
• First Fruits. See Annates.
• Flagellantes, a sect of heretics, who chastised and disciplined them∣selves with whips, in public. It had its rise at Perusa, in 1260, its author being one Reinier, an hermit. They ran into strange notions, particularly that the blood thus spilt was mixed with that of Jesus Christ, and th•• by a flagellation of twenty-four days they gained the pardon of all their sins.
• Floriniani, a sect of heretics of the second century, so called from its author Florinus, a Romish priest, who made God the author of evil, &c. They were charged with holding criminal assemblies in the night-time, and giving into Judaism and Paganism.
• Fornication, is a word used in scripture, not only for the sin of im∣purity, but likewise for idolatry and infidelity; adultery and for∣nication

• are likewise frequently implied under that simple de∣nomination, which are condemned both in the Old and New Tes∣tament.
• Fortitude, a cardinal or principal virtue. "Add to your faith vir∣tue," not virtue in general, but the particular virtue of Christian fortitude. Fortitude is here made to stand in front of the vir∣tues, since the mind must be prepared by this virtue to acquire or maintain the rest.
• Fossarii, a kind of officers in the Eastern church, whose business was to inter the dead.
• Franciscans, a powerful order of religious in the Romish church, following the rule of St. Francis.
• Fraticelli, a sect of heretics, who rose in the marquisate of Ancona, about the year 1294. They hold the Romish church to be Baby∣lon, and proposed to establish a more perfect one: they maintain∣ed that the rule of St. Francis, was the evangelical rule, observed by Jesus Christ and his Apostles.
• Free-thinkers, a name given to a sectary in the Low Countries, about the year 1555.
• Friar, i. e. brother, a name common to all the orders of monks.
• Friars observant, a branch of the Franciscans, so called because not combined together in any cloister or convent, but only agree∣ing among themselves to observe the rule of their order.

G.

• GAianitae, a sect of ancient heretics, sprung from the Eutychi∣ans. They denied that Jesus Christ, after the hypostatical union, was subject to any of the infirmities of human nature. They had their name from Gaian, a Bishop of Alexandria, in the sixth century.
• Galileans, a sort of Judaizing Christians, that sprung up about the latter end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century.
• Galileans, a sect of the Jews, which sprung up in Judea, some years after the birth of our Saviour; tho' it is likewise a name that was given to the disciples of Jesus Christ. They sprang from one Judas, a native of Gaulam, in Upper Galilee, about the year of the world 4010, in the 10th year of Jesus Christ, upon occasion of Augus∣tus's appointing the people to be mustered; which they looked upon as an instance of servitude, which all true Israelites ought to oppose with all their power. The Galileans, according to Je∣sephus, agreed in every thing with the Pharisees, only a peculiar predominant love of liberty, They held that God alone is the head and prince we are to obey.—In the gospel we find them mentioned by the name of Herodians, who addressed themselves to our Lord, and asked him, if it were lawful or not to pay tri∣bute to Caesar. This was the great question, and principal object,

• of their sect; and when Jesus Christ appeared before Pilate, his accusers would fain have rendered him suspected of this heresy, in order to prejudice Pilate against him.
• Genesis, the first book of the sacred scriptures. It is called Genesis, or generation, because it contains the genealogy of the first patri∣archs, from Adam to the sons and grandsons of Jacob. This book is called Berischith in Hebrew, because in the original language it begins with this word. It includes the history of 2363 years, from the beginning of the world to the death of the patriarch Joseph.
• Genevieve, fathers of St. Genevieve, the name of a congregation of re∣gular canons of the order of St. Augustine, established in France. It was begun by St. Charles Faure, in the year 1618. It now consists of above an hundred monastics. It takes its name from the abbey of St. Genevieve, which is the chief of the order, and whose abbot is the general thereof. The abbey itself took its name from St. Genevieve, the patroness of the city of Paris, who died in the year 512.
• Gentiles. The Hebrews called the Gentiles by the general name of Goiim, which signifies the nations that have not received the faith or law of God; all who are not Jews and circumcised are com∣prised under the word Goiim, before Jesus Christ opened the door to life and justification to the world. By the belief and profession of the Jewish religion, those who were converted, and embraced Judaism, they called proselytes; but since the preaching of the gospel, the true religion is not confined to any one nation, or peo∣ple, as heretofore. God, who had promised by the prophets to call the Gentiles to the faith, has executed this promise; so that the Christian church is composed of few other than Gentile con∣verts: and the Jews, who were too proud of their particular pri∣vileges, for the most part have persisted in disowning Jesus Christ, their Messiah and Redeemer. St. Paul's epistles are generally comprehended under the name of Greeks. Judaeus & Graecus, signify Jew and Gentile.
• George, religious of the order of St. George, of which there are divers orders and congregations; particularly canons regular of St. George, in Alga, at Venice, established in 1404; another in S••∣cily, &c.
• Gilbertines, an order of religious, so called from St. Gilbert of Sempringham, in Lincolnshire, who founded them in 1148. The order was suppressed at the general dissolution under Henry VIII.
• Glebe, or glebe land, is used for church-land, for land belonging to a parish-church, beside the tithes. In the most general sense of the word, glebe is applicable to any land or ground belonging to any benefice, see, manor, or inheritance.
• Gnosimachi, an ancient sect, whose distinguishing character was, that they were professed enemies to all studied knowledge in divinity.
• ...

• Gnostics, a sect of Christians in the first and second centuries, who arrogated to themselves a high degree of knowledge, and looked upon all other Christians, in comparison of them, to be simple and ignorant. St. Irenaeus supposes that St. Paul greatly reflects upon this sectary in his epistle to Timothy, which may be the reason why these epistles were in after-time rejected by them. Some imagine they proceeded from Simon Magus, and from this root they branched into various other sects, as Valentinians, Cerin∣thians, Basilidians, Marcienites, Colobarsian, &c. One thing, in justice to truth, is observable, and whoever impartially examines the fathers portraiture of these ancient heresies, will find there the first seeds and elements of those controversies which so much dis∣turbed the peace of the church for several centuries: and indeed it could be wished the chief patrons of some doctrines, which our first reformers either started themselves, or brought with them out of the Romish church, would carefully examine St. Irenaeus, were it only to see under what class that ancient writer would have ran∣ged them, whether within the pale of the primitive church, or among the errors which she unanimously exploded; and indeed I must refer the reader to that author for a full account of them. Their principal tenets are, first, the notion of the probolae, or in∣ternal productions, by which they meant something originally re∣siding within the essence of God, and formed by him into a dis∣tinct personal substance from him; a doctrine not only inconsistent with the simplicity and immutability of the divine nature, but which also is attended with this manifest contradiction, viz. the supposing one and the same essence to be both derived and unde∣rived, self-existent and begotten. Anaximander (says this ancient father, and meaning the Pagan philosopher so called) affirmed that which is immense to be the father of all things, containing, after a seminal manner, within himself the production of all. This notion they have borrowed from him, and applied to their Bithus or Aeons, i. e. to their supreme Father, and the whole system of divine personages derived from him; and, on the same principle, they attempted to explain the production of the animal and ma∣terial world, not by God's creating it out of nothing, for this Valentinius denied, but by some flux or emanation of substance or passion from one of their Aeons. In much the same way they accounted for the origin of moral good and evil, not by founding them wholly on the will of the free agent, but in his substance or nature, made up (it seems) of certain qualities originally im∣planted in him, qualities in which his own consent and will was not the least concerned, as being coeval with his existence, and, as I before observed, interwoven with his very nature. From hence came the Cosmocrater or diabolic power, and (to use their phraseology) the whole spiritual substance of wickedness: and from hence, 3dly, descending lower (I mean to the human spe∣cies) they divided it into the material, animal, and spiritual.

• The first class, whose souls were of much the same kind with that of the brutes, they affirmed, was absolutely incapable of salva∣tion; and accordingly they absolutely denied the resurrection of the body, and affirmed that the souls departed were immediately conveyed beyond the seventh heaven, and admitted to the beati∣fic vision of God. The second were candidates for happiness, and were trained up for it by faith and good works; and under this division, says Irenaeus, they place us who are of the church; for which reason, they say, a good life or practice is necessary for us absolutely so; but as for themselves, that they shall be saved, not by practice, but being by nature spiritual, and having the seeds of election. They assert in relation to our Saviour, that he as∣sumed the first-fruits of whatever he intended to save. Accordingly he assumed both a soul and spirit, as belonging to the second and third class; but they absolutely denied his assuming any thing material, or a body of the same kind as ours. This soul they called the animal Christ, in contradistinction from the divine per∣sonage that came down from heaven; and it was this animal Christ, or human soul, and not the Saviour from above, which suffered for us. They had other strange opinions, and they have gone through different forms and characters in a long series of time, though it is in the main the same, and what most of the heresies of former times may be in good measure deduced from, of which the reader will be in some measure satisfied by searching into the tenets of the Valentinians, Homousans, Montanists, Originism, &c. The Gnostics carried images about them of our Saviour in gold, silver, ivory, &c. which they paid a supersti∣tious veneration to.
• God. So we call the Supreme Being, the first cause or Creator of the universe, and the only true object of religious worship. "God (says Sir Isaac Newton) is a relative term, and has respect to ser∣vants. It denotes indeed an eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect being; but such a being, without dominion, would not be God. The word God frequently signifies Lord, but every Lord is not God. The dominion of a spiritual being, or Lord, constitutes God, true dominion, true God, the supreme supreme, pretended pretended. From such true dominion it follows, that the true God is living, intelligent, and powerful; and from his other per∣fections, that he is supreme, or supremely perfect. He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, he endures from eternity to eternity, and is present from infinity to infinity; he governs all things that exist, and knows all things that are to be known; he is not eternity or infinity, but eternal and infinite; he is not duration of space, but he endures and is present; he en∣dures always, and is present every where; and by existing al∣ways and every where, constitutes the very things we call dura∣tion and space, eternity and infinity: he is omnipresent, not on∣ly virtually, but substantially; for power without substance can∣not

• subsist. All things are contained, and more in him, but without any mutual passion; that is, he suffers nothing from the motion of bodies, nor do they undergo any resistance from his omnipresence. It is confessed, that God exists necessarily, and by the same necessity he exists always and every where. Hence he must be always similar, all eye, all ear, all brain, all arm, all perception, intelligence, and action; but after a manner not at all corporeal, not at all like men, after a manner altogether unknown to us. He is destitute of all body and bodily shape, and therefore cannot be seen, heard, or touched, nor ought to be worshipped under the representation of any thing corporeal. We know him only by his properties or attributes, by the most wise and excellent structure of things, and by final causes; but we adore and worship him only on account of his dominion; for God, setting aside dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but fate and nature."—The existence of such a being, or first cause of all things, is thus beautifully proved and illus∣trated by the ingenious author of The Religion of Nature deli∣neated. "Suppose a chain hung out of the heavens from an un∣known height, and though every link of it gravitated towards the earth, and what it hung upon was not visible, yet it did not de∣scend, but kept its situation; and upon this a question should a∣rise, what supported or kept up this chain? would it be sufficient to answer, that the first or lowest link hung upon the second, or that next above; the second, or rather the first and second toge∣ther, on the third, and so on ad infinitum? For what holds up the whole? A chain of ten links would fall down, unless some∣thing able to bear it hindered; one of twenty, if not staid by some∣thing of yet greater strength, in proportion to the increase of weight; and therefore one of infinite links certainly, if not sus∣tained by something infinitely strong, and capable to bear an infi∣nite weight. And thus it is in a chain of causes and effects, tending, or, as it were, gravitating towards some end. The last or lowest depends, or (as one may say) is suspended upon the cause above it; this again, if it be not the first cause, is suspend∣ed as an effect of something above it, &c. and if they should be infinite, unless (agreeably to what has been said) there is some cause upon which all hang or depend, they would be but an infi∣nite effect, without an efficient; and to assert there is any such thing, would be as great an absurdity as to say, a finite or little weight wants something to sustain it, but an infinite one, or the greatest, does not."
• Good Friday, a fast of the Christian church, in memory of the suf∣ferings and death of Jesus Christ. It is observed on the Friday in holy or passion week, and it is called, by way of eminence, good, because of the blessed effects of our Saviour's sufferings, which were a propitratory or explating sacrifice for the sins of the world. The commemoration of our Saviour's sufferings has been

• kept from the very first ages of Christianity, and was always observed as a day of the strictest fasting and humiliation. Among the Saxons it was called Long-Friday; but for what reason, ex∣cept on account of the long fastings and offices then used, is un∣certain. On Good Friday, the Pope sits on a plain form, and, after service is ended, when the Cardinals wait on him back to his chamber, they are obliged to keep a deep silence, as a testi∣mony of their sorrow. In the night of Good Friday, the Greeks perform the obsequies of our Saviour round a great crucifix laid on a bed of state adorned with flowers. These the Bishops distri∣bute among the assistants when the office is ended. The Arme∣nians; on this day, set open a holy sepulchre, in imitation of that of Mount Calvary.
• Gospel, the recital of the life, actions, death, resurrection, ascen∣sion, doctrine, of Jesus Christ. The word gospel is Saxon, and signifies God's relation or good saying. The Latin term, evan∣gelium, signifies glad tidings or good news, the history of our bles∣sed Saviour being the best news that could be published to man∣kind. This history is contained in the writings of St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John, who from thence are stiled Evangelists. The Christian church never acknowledge any more than these four gospels as canonical; notwithstanding which, se∣veral apocryphal gospels are handed down to us, and others are entirely lost. The word gospel is often used in general, to signify the Christian religion, and preaching the gospel is preaching the doctrines of Christianity,
• Government, or political power, is a right of making laws with pe∣nalties of death, and consequently all less penalties for the regu∣lating and preserving of property, and of employing the force of the community in the execution of such laws, and in the defence of the commonwealth from foreign injury, and all this only for the public good.
• Grabatarii, such persons as deferred to receive baptism till the hour of death, from an opinion that baptism washed away all former sins.

H.

• HAllelujah, a term of rejoicing, compounded of two Hebrew words. St. Jerom first introduced this word into the church-service. For a considerable time it was only used once a-year in the Latin church, viz. at Easter; but in the Greek church it was much more frequent. St. Jerom mentions its being sung at the interments of the dead, which it still continues to be in that church, as also, on some occasions, in the time of Lent. In the time of Gregory the Great it was appointed to be sung all the year round in the Latin church, which raised some complaints a∣gainst that Pope, as giving too much into the Greek way.
• Harpooratians. See Carpeeratians.
• ...

• Heaven, without defining, is so well known a word, that I begin this article by observing, that heaven was the first object of false wor∣ship. The scriptures often speak of worshipping the host of heaven: and the poet Ennius makes the visible heaven and Jupiter to be the same thing. Aspice hoc sublime candens, quem invocamus omnes Jovem. "Cast your eyes up to yon burning vault, which we all invoke under the name of Jupiter." The Pagans consi∣dered heaven as the residence only of the celestial gods, and into which no mortals, after death, were admitted, unless they had been first deified, or made gods; as for the souls of men, they were consigned to the Elysian fields. The Hebrews acknowledged three heavens: the first, the aerial heaven, where the birds fly, the winds blow, and the showers are formed: the second, the heaven or firmament, wherein the stars are disposed: the third, the heaven of heavens, the place of God's residence, and where the saints and angels dwell. This third heaven is mentioned by St. Paul, in the account which he gives of his rapture. Juvenal ignorantly accuses the Jews of paying divine adoration to the visible heaven.
• Hell. Tho' there are various significations of this word, yet it is here to be understood only in a restrained sense, to denote the place of divine punishment after death, in contradistinction to heaven, the place of divine recompence: so that, as in the latter, the souls of good men receive the due reward of their virtuous actions; in the former, the souls of the wicked men are justly punished for their bad actions. As all religions have supposed a future state of existence after this life; so all have their hell, or place of torment, in which the wicked are supposed to be punished.
• Helvidians, a sect of ancient heretics, denominated from their leader Helvidius, an Arian, whose distinguishing principle was, that Mary, the mother of Jesus, did not continue a virgin, but had other children by Joseph.
• Hemerobaptists, a sect among the ancient Jews, thus called, from their washing and bathing every day in all seasons.
• Heracleonites, a sect of Christians, followers of Heracleon, of whom Origen gives a large account. He refined upon the Gnostic di∣vinity; and, in order to make himself the head of a sect, depart∣ed from the usual exposition of many texts of scripture, and some∣times changed the reading, to make it comply with his notions. He maintained, that the world was not the immediate production of the Son of God, but that he was only the occasional cause of its being created by the Demiurgus. The Heracleonites denied the authority of the prophecies of the Old Testament, maintain∣ing that they were mere random sounds in the air, and that John the Baptist was the only true voice which directed to the Messiah.
• Heresiarch, arch-heretic, the founder or inventor of an heresy; or a chief and ring-leader of a sect of heretics.
• ...

• Heretics, the general name of such persons under any religion, but e∣specially the Christian, as maintain or teach opinions in religion con∣trary to the orthodox, or established faith. The term heresy is of Greek original, and signifies option, choice, or sect, as is ap∣plied to the voluntary choice a man makes of doctrines, supposed to be contrary to the true faith. Heresies began very early in the Christian church: Eusebius fixes the beginning of most of them to the reign of the Emperor Adrian; and yet it is certain, that Simon Magus had published his errors before that time, and set up a sect, which gave rise to most of the ancient heresies. The laws both of the church and state were very severe against those who were adjudged to be heretics. Those of the states, made by the Christian Emperors from the time of Constantine, are com∣prised under one title, De Hereticis, in the Theodosian Code. The principal of them are, first, the general note of infamy affix∣ed to all heretics in common. Secondry, all commerce forbidden to be held with them. Thirdly, the depriving them of all offices of profit and dignity. Fourthly, the disqualifying them to dis∣pose of their estates, by will, or receive estates from others. Fifth∣ly, the imposing on them pecuniary mulcts. Sixth••y, the proscri∣bing and banishing them. Seventhly, the inflicting corporal punishment on them, such as scour••ing, &c. before banishment. Besides these laws, which chiefly affected the persons of heretics, there were several others which tended to the extirpation of heresy; such as, first those which forbad heretical teachers to propagate their doctrines publickly or privately. Secondly, those which forbad heretics to hold public disputations. Thirdly, such laws as pro∣hibited all heretical meetings and assemblies. Thirdly, those which deny to the children of heretical parents their patrimony and inheritance, unless they returned to the church: and, fourth∣ly, such laws as ordered the books of heretics to be burned. There were many other penal laws made against heretics, from the time of Constantine to Theodosius, jun. and Valentinian III. but the few already mentioned, may be sufficient to give an idea of the rigour with which the empire treated such persons, as held, or taught opinions contrary to the faith of the Catholic church; whose discipline towards heretics was no less severe than the civil laws. For, first, the church was used to pronounce a formal ana∣thema, or excommunication, against them. Thus the council of Nice ends her creed with an anathema against all those who op∣posed the doctrine there delivered, and there are innumerable in∣stances of this kind to be found in the volumes of the councils. Secondly, some canons debarred them from the very lowest pri∣vileges of church-communion, forbidding them to enter into the church, so much as to hear the sermon, or the scriptures read in the service of the catechumens: but this was no general rule, for liberty was often granted to heretics to be present at the sermons, in hopes of their conversion; and the historians tell us, that

• Chrysostom, by this means, brought over many to acknowledge the divinity of Christ, whilst they had liberty to come and hear his sermons. Thirdly, the church prohibited all persons, under pain of excommunication, to join with heretics in any religious offices. Fourthly, by the laws of the church, no one was to eat or converse familiarly with heretics, or to read their writings, or to contract affinity with them; their names were to be struck out of the Diptyches, or sacred registers of the church; and, if they died in heresy, no psalmody, or other solemnity, was to be used at their funerals. Fifthly, the testimony of heretics was notto be taken in any ecclesiastical cause whatsoever. These are the chief ecclesiastical laws against heretics. As to the terms of penance imposed upon relenting heretics, or such as were willing to re∣nounce their errors, and to be reconciled to the church, they were various, and differed according to the canons of different councils, or the usage of different churches. The council of Eliberis appoints ten years penance before repenting heretics are admitted to communion. The council of Agde contracted this term into that of three years. The council of Epone reduced it to two years only. The ancient Christian church made a distinction be∣tween such heretics as contumaciously resisted the admonitions of the church, and such as never had any admonition given them; for none were reputed formal heretics, or treated as such, till the church had given them a first and second admonition, according to the Apostles rule. The Romish church is very rigorous in her treatment of those persons, whom she deems to be heretics, par∣ticularly in those countries where the inquisition prevails. There the utmost severities of imprisonment, racks, and tortures of va∣rious shapes, are employed against them; and if the civil magistrate, whose assistance they implore when the punishment is capital, should go about to mitigate it, he himself would be suspected of favouring heretics, and would run the risk of excommunication. There is no express law in England, which determines what shall be called heresy. It is true, the statute 1 Elizabeth, cap. i. di∣rected the high commission court to restrain the same, to what had been adjudged to be so by the authority of the scriptures, or by the first four general councils, or to what should be determined to be such by parliament, the convocation assenting. The Arch∣bishop, or Bishop of any diocese, has, by the common law, power to convict persons of heresy: the convocation may declare what tenets are heretical. Heresy was, anciently, treason; and the punishment for it was burning, by virtue of the writ, De here∣tico comburendo; but the heretic forfeited neither lands nor goods, because the proceedings against him were pro salute animi. By statute 29 Car. II. cap. ix. the proceedings on such writ, and all punishments by death, in pursuance of ecclesiastical censures, are taken away; but an obstinate heretic, being excommunicated, is liable to be imprisoned by virtue of the writ de excommunicatio

• capiendo; and denying the Christian religion, or the divine au∣thority of the holy scriptures, is liable, for the second offence, to three years imprisonment, and divers disabilities, by the statutes 9 & 10 of William, cap. xxxii. Those, says St. Jerom, who interpret scripture to any sense repugnant to that of the Holy Spirit, tho' they should never withdraw themselves from the church, yet may be justly called heretics.
• Hermeani, a sect of heretics in the 2d century. They held, that God was corporeal, and that Christ did not ascend into heaven with his body, but left it in the sun.
• Hermits of St. Augustine, a religious order, more frequently called Augustines, or Austin friars. See Augustines.
• Hermits of Brittini. See Augustines.
• Hermogenians, a sect of ancient heretics, denominated from their leader Hermogenas, who lived towards the close of the 2d cen∣tury. He established matter as his first principle, and made idea the mother of all the elements.
• Heterhousii, a sect or branch of Arians. See Aetians.
• Hieracites, a sect of Christians of the 3d century, so called from their leader Hierax, a philosopher and magician of Egypt, who, about the year 286, taught that Melchisedeck was the Holy Ghost, denied the resurrection, and condemned marriage. He likewise held, that no one could be saved who was not arrived at the age of adults; and consequently, that all who die in infancy are damned. The disciples of Hierax taught, that the Word, or Son of God, was contained in the Father, as a little vessel is in a great one; from whence they had the name of Metangimonists, from a Greek word, which signifies, contained in a vessel.
• Hieromnemon, the name of an officer in the Greek church, whose principal function it was to stand behind the Patriarch at the sa∣craments, and other ceremonies of the church, and to shew him the prayers, psalms, &c. in the order in which they were to be rehearsed. He likewise assisted the Patriarch in putting on his pontifical vestments, and assigned the places to those who had a right to sit around him when se••ted on his throne. His office, in this latter respect, was the same as that of master of the ceremo∣nies to the Pope. The Hieromnemon was commonly a deacon, tho' sometimes in priests orders; in which case he was excused from dressing the Patriarch. The name is of Greek original, and signifies a sacred monitor.
• Hominicolae, a name which the Apollinarists gave to the orthodox, to denote them worshippers of man, i. e. God-man.
• Homoousans, Homousians, Homoousianists, Homousiasts, names which the Arians anciently gave to the orthodox, by reason that they held that God the Son is homoousias, i. e. consubstantial with the Father.
• Homocusios, among divines, a being of the same substance and essence with another. The divinity of Christ having been denied by the Ebonites and Corinthians in the 1st century, by the Theodosians

• in the 2d, by the Artemonians at the beginning of the third, and by the Samosatenians, or Paulians, towards the close of the same; a council was assembled at Antioch in 272, wherein Paulus Samo∣satenus, Bishop of Antioch, was condemned and deposed, and a decrce published, wherein Christ is asserted to be God of God, i. e. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, consubstantial with the Father.
• Homuncionists, a sect of heretics, so called, because they denied the two natures in Jesus Christ, and held that he was only mere man.
• Homuncionites, a sect of heretics, who held that the image of God was impressed on the body, not on the soul, or mind of man.
• Huguenots, a name given by way of contempt to the reformed or Calvinists in France.
• Hydroparastatae, a sect of heretics, the followers of Tatian, and a branch of the Manichees.
• Hypostatical union, the union of the human nature with the divine.
• Hypsistarii, a sect of heretics in the fourth century, thus called from the profession they made of worshipping the most high God. Their doctrines were an assemblage of Paganism, Judaism, and Christianity.

I.

• JAcobins, a name given in France to the religious who follow the rule of St. Dominic, on account of their principal covent, which is near the gate of St. James, Lat. Jacobus, at Paris. They are also called Friars Predicant, or Preaching Friars, and make one of the four orders of Mendicants.
• Jacobites, a sect of Christians in Syria and Mesopotamia, so called, either from one Jacob, a Syrian, who lived in the time of the Emperor Mauricius, or from one Jacob a Monk, firnamed Zan∣zales, who flourished in 550. The Jacobites are one of the two sects which sprung from the followers of Dioscorus and Eutyches, who refused to consent to the council of Chalcedon. They are divided among themselves, some following the rites of the Latin church, and others continuing separated from the church of Rome. There is also at present a division among the latter, who have two rival Patriarchs, one of whom resides at Caramit, and the other at Derizapharan. As to their belief, they are Monophysites; that is, they hold but one nature in Jesus Christ, which was the sentiment of Dioscorus. They pretend, however, that they ex∣plain themselves in this manner concerning the union of nature and person in Christ, only to keep at a distance from the Nesto∣riaus, but that in effect they do not differ far from the church of Rome, which establishes two natures in Christ. With respect to purgatory, and prayers for the dead, they are of the same opinion with the Greeks, and the other Eastern Christians. They conse∣crate the eucharist with leavened bread; they neglect confession, believing it not to be of divine institution. The Jacobites per∣form divine service in the Chaldaean language, tho' they speak Arabic, Turkish, and Armenian. Their priests say mass in He∣brew.

• They administer the eucharist to the people, and even to young children, in both kinds. They hold the real presence, and transubstantiation, and honour the holy sacrament, when the Catholic priests carry it to the sick person: whereas the Syrians of the Greek church refuse this respect to the eucharist, consecra∣ted by Catholics. Pope Nicholas IV. sent a confession of faith to the Jacobites, in the year 1289, exhorting them to an union with the church of Rome; but his instances had no effect.
• Jansenists, from Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres in Flanders, in 1630. The whole doctrine is reducible to these five points. I. Some commands of God are impossible to righteous men, even tho' they endeavour with all their powers to accomplish them, the grace being wanted by which they should be able to perform them. II. In the state of corrupted nature, a man never resists inward grace. III. To merit, or demerit, in the present state of corrupt nature, it is not necessary, or requisite, that a man should have that liberty which excludes necessity, that which excludes con∣straint is sufficient. IV. The Semipelagians admitted the neces∣sity of inward preventing grace to each act in particular, and even to the beginning of faith; but held they were heretics, in regard they asserted this grace was such, as that the will of man might either resist or obey it. V. It is Semipelagianism to say, that Jesus Christ died, or shed his blood, for all men in general.
• Iconoclastes, breakers of images. A name which the church of Rome gives to all who reject the use of images in religious matters.
• Iconolatra, one who worships images. A name which the Icono∣clastes give to those of the Romish communion, who worship images.
• Jealousy, is that peculiar uneasness which arises from the fear that some rival may rob us of the affection of one whom we greatly love, or suspicion that he has already done it.
• Jeronymites, or Hieronymites, a denomination given to divers orders, or congregations of religious; otherwise called the Hermits of St. Jerom.
• Jesuates, an order of religious, otherwise called Apostolical Clerks, or Jesuates of St. Jerom. They were founded by John Colum∣bine, and approved of by Urban V. in 1367, at Viterbo; where he himself gave to such as were present, the habit they were to wear. They followed the rule of St. Augustine, and were rank∣ed among the order of Mendicants. For two centuries they were mere lay-brothers; but, in 1606, Paul V. gave them leave to enter into holy orders. In most of their houses they were employ∣ed in pharmacy; others practised distillation, and sold aqua vitae, which occasioned their being called aqua vitae-mongers. Being very rich in the state of Venice, that republic solicited their sup∣pression, and obtained it of Clement IX. their effects being em∣ployed towards the support of the war in Candia.
• ...

• Jesuits, a most famous religious order in the Romish church. Their founder was Inigo or Ignatius Loyola, who was born, in 1491, in the province of Guipuscoa, in Spain. He was bred up in the court of Ferdinand, King of Spain. In his youth he discovered a martial disposition, and signalised himself in the siege of Pam∣pelona, where he was wounded, and taken prisoner by the French. During his confinement and illness, he read some books of piety, which occasioned his first resolution of devoting himself wholly to God. As soon as he was cured, he undertook a pil∣grimage to our Lady of Montserrat in Catalonia, where he dedi∣cated himself to the Virgin, and took a resolution to travel to Je∣rusalem. It is believed he here wrote his Spiritual Exercises, which he afterwards published at Rome in 1548. He arrived at Jerusalem, Sept. 4, 1523, where he visited the holy places, and performed all the pious exercises of a pilgrim. Being returned to Spain, he began to study grammar at Barcelona, and after∣wards went through his courses of philosophy and divinity at Al∣cala. Ignatius had then four companions, who were all cloathed like himself in a brown woollen habit, and applied themselves to the same exercises. His same increasing, the number of those who came to hear his instructions increased likewise. This giv∣ing umbrage to the inquisitors of the city of Alcala, he was taken up, and imprisoned, by order of the Grand Vicar, but was soon released, with an injunction to go cloathed like the other scho∣lars, and to abstain from talking to the people concerning reli∣gion, till he had studied four years in divinity. Upon this he re∣tired to Salamanca, where he continued to discourse both in pub∣lic and private upon moral subjects. Here he was again imprison∣ed, upon an information of the Dominicans against him. He being released, resolved to quit Spain, and to go to Paris, with a firm resolution to apply himself closely to study in that city. In 1538, Ignatius having assembled ten of his companions at Rome, chosen mostly out of the university of Paris, proposed to them to make a new order. Paul III. confirmed the plan of his institu∣tion by a bull, in 1540, calling them therein the company of Je∣sus. The order was confirmed by several succeeding Popes, who added many new rights and privileges to it. The end principally proposed by this order is, to gain converts to the Romish church, with which view they disperse themselves in every country and nation, and, with amazing industry and address, pursue the ends of their institution. No difficulty so great that they cannot sur∣mount, no danger so imminent that they will not undergo, and, as has been apparent, no crimes so shocking that have not been perpetrated by them, for the service of their causes. They have been very conspicuous by their missions into the Indies, and by their other employments relating to the study of the sciences and the education of youth. They have lately, however, from the

• practice of their abominable maxims, been expelled the king∣doms of France and Portugal, and the order seems every where upon the decline.
• Illumin••d, illuminati, a church-term, anciently applied to such per∣sons as had received baptism. This name was occasioned by a ceremony in the baptism of adults, which consisted in putting a lighted taper in the hand of the person baptised, as a symbol of the faith and grace he had received in the sacrament. They are also the names of a sect of heretics, who sprung up in Spain a∣bout the year 1575. Their principal doctrines were, that, by means of a sublime manner of prayer which they had attained to, they entered into so perfect a state, that they had no occasion for ordinances, sacraments, nor good works; and that they could give way even to the vilest actions, without sin.
• Image-worship, was first attempted to be introduced in the fourth century, but occasioned great controversy and insurrections in the Eastern empire by the Iconoclastes in 726. It occasioned the council of Nice, began Sept. 24, and ended in October 787, but was not practised in the French church till near A. D. 900, nor in Germany till after the year 1200. The second council of Nice, in the 8th year of the reign of Irene and her son Constan∣tine, determined that images should not only be received into churches, but be adored and worshipped there. A. D. 787.
• Image of God in the soul, is a theological phrase, and is generally distinguished into natural and moral. By natural, is meant the understanding, reason, will, and other intellectual faculties; by the moral image, the right use of those faculties, or what we comprehend in the notion of holiness and virtue; in which latter the dignity of human nature consists.
• Imagination, is a bodily impression, which inclines us to believe (without any authority from reason for such a persuasion) the pre∣sent or future existence of things, which neither are nor will be. With some persuasion is absolutely made the reason of persuasion; they can give no better account of it than this, that the thing has made such an impression on their minds, that they cannot but give themselves up to it, so that their faith is resolved into itself.
• Impanation, a term used among divines, to signify the opinion of the Lutherans with regard to the eucharist, who believe that the spe∣cies of bread and wine remain, together with the body of our ••••∣viour, after consecration.
• Impropriation, is a term used when the prosits of an ecclesiastical benefice are in the hands of a layman. There are said to be 3845 impropriations in England.
• Incense, a rich perfume burning of itself; a Heathen rite prohibited by the Emperor Theodosius, and other Christian Emperors, in∣troduced into the church of Rome about the latter end of the fifth century, and continues in use in that church.
• ...

• Indulgence, in the Romish theology, the remission of a punishment due to a sin, granted by the church, and supposed to save the sin∣ner from purgatory.
• Infallibility, was not ascribed to the Pope in the ninth century, the Pope being then obliged to transmit his confession of faith at his election, and take the solemn oath of religion.
• Infinity, an attribute of God. "The idea of infinity or immensity is so closely connected with that of self-existence, that, because it is impossible but something must be infinite, independently, and of itself, therefore it must of necessity be self existent; and be∣cause something must of necessity be self-existent, therefore it is necessary that it must likewise be infinite. A necessary existent being must be every where, as well as always, unalterably the same; for a necessity which is not every where the same, is plainly a consequential necessity only, depending upon some ex∣ternal cause. Whatever therefore exists by an absolute necessity in its own nature, must needs be infinite, as well as eternal. To suppose a finite being to be self-existent, is to say, that it is a con∣tradiction for that being not to exist, the absence of which may yet be conceived, without a contradiction, which is the greatest absurdity in the world. From hence it follows, that the infinity of the self-existent being must be an infinity of fulness, as well as of immensity; that is, it must not only be without limits, but also without diversity, defect, or interruption. It follows likewise, that the self-existent being must be a most simple, un∣changeable, incorruptible being, without parts, figure, motion, divisibility, or any other such properties as we find in matter; for all these things do plainly and necessarily imply finiteness in their very notion, and are utterly inconsistent with compleat in∣finity. As to the particular manner in which the Supreme Being is infinite, or every where present, this is as impossible for our finite understandings to comprehend and explain, as it is for us to form an adequate idea of infinity. The schoolmen have pre∣sumed to assert, that the immensity of God is a point, as his eternity (they think) is an insiance. But this being altogether unintelligible, we may more safely affirm, that the supreme cause is at all times equally present, both in his simple essence, and by the immediate and perfect exercise of all his attributes, to every point of the boundless immensity, as if it were really all but one single point.
• Infralapsarii, the name of a sect of Predestinarians, who maintain that God has created a certain number of men only to be damn∣ed, without allowing them the means necessary to save them∣selves, if they would.
• Inquisition, was first erected in the twelfth century, in Italy, against the Albigenses, A. D. 1204, and was adopted by the Count of Toulouse, A. D. 1229. It was first erected in Spain, A. D. 1496,

• about four years after the expulsion of the Moriscoes, and com∣mitted to the Dominicans by Pope Gregory IX. in 1233.
• Interdict, a censure inflicted by a Pope or Bishop, suspending the priests from their functions, and depriving the people of the use of sacraments, divine service, and Christian burial.
• Introite, a psalm or hymn containing something prophetical, of the evangelical history, used upon each Sunday and holyday, or is some way or other proper to the day. This, from its being sung or said whilst the priest makes his entrance within the rails of the communion-table, was called introitus, or introite.
• Joachomites, the name of a fect, the followers of one Joachim, ab∣bot of Flora, in Calabria, who, with his works, was condemned by the council of Lateran, in 1215, and in that of Arles in 1260.
• Jubilee, a grand church-solemnity, or ceremony, celebrated at Rome, wherein the Pope grants a plenary indulgence to all sin∣ners, at least to as many as visit the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome. It was first established by Boniface VIII. in 1300, in favour of those who should go ad limina apos••olorum; and it was only to return every hundred years. Clement VI. reduced the term of the jubilee to fifty years. Urban VI. appointed it to be held every thirty-five years. The successive Popes have grant∣ed the privilege of holding jubilees to several princes, states, and monasteries.

K.

• KEY, a word often used for the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, parti∣cularly for the power of excommunicating and absolving. The Romanists say the Pope has the power of the keys, and can open and shut paradise when he pleases; grounding their opinion on that expression of Jesue Christ, I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
• Kirk-sessions. See the History of the Church of Scotland.
• Kyphonism, an ancient punishment, frequently undergone by the martyrs in the primitive times; wherein the body of the person to suffer was anointed with 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and so exposed to the sun, that the flies and wasps might be tempted to torment him.
• Kyrie Eleison, signifies Lord have mercy upon me. It is the form often made use of in the pravers of the Jews, Pagans, Christians, &c. but the Christian church ••ath endeavoured to consecrate it in a particular manner in its worship. The form is notwithstanding borrowed from the Greeks.

L.

• LAITY, first resused the cup in the sacrament by the council of Constance, A. D. 1418.
• Lammas-Day. See Day.
• Lampadary, an officer in the ancient church of Constantinople,

• whose business it was to see the church well lighted, and to bear a taper before the Emperor, the Empress, and the Patriarch, when they went to church or in procession.
• Lampetians, a sect of ancient heretics, who fell in with many of the opinions of the Aerians, which vide.
• Lamprophorus, an appellation anciently given to the Neophytes, du∣ring the seven days that succeeded their baptism. In the cere∣mony of baptism, the new Christian was cloathed with a white robe, which he wore for the week following, and was thence call∣ed lamprophorus, which is compounded of two Greek words, and signifies a person wearing a shining garment.
• Lateran, originally the proper name of a man; whence it descended to an ancient palace in Rome, and to the buildings since erected in its place, particularly a church called St. John of Lateran, which is the principal see of the Popedom. See Councils.
• Laymen, were excluded, as not eligible, for bishops or deacons, in the church of Rome, by Stephen III. A. D. 769.
• Lecticarius, an officer in the Greek church, whose business it was to bear off the bodies of those who died, and to bury them. They were also denominated decani and copiatae.
• Legate, in Latin legatus, a Cardinal, or Bishop, whom the Pope sends as his ambassador to sovereign Princes. There are three kinds of legates, viz. legates à latere, legates de latere, and le∣gates by office, or legati nati. Of these the most confiderable are legates à latere; such are those whom the Pope commissions to take his place in councils, so called, in regard that the Pope ne∣ver gives this office to any but his favourites and confidents, who are always at his side, à latere. These are usually Cardinals. A legate à latere has the power of conferring benefices without man∣date, of legitimating bastards to hold offices, and has a cross car∣ried before him, as the ensign of his authority. The legates de latere are those who are not Cardinals, but yet are instituted with an apostolical legation. Legates by office are those who have not any particular legation given them, but who, by virtue of their dignity and rank in the church, become legates; such are the Archbishops of Rheims and Arles. But the authority of these le∣gates is much inferior to that of the legates à latere. The power of a legate is sometimes given without the title: some of the nuncio's are invested with it. It was one of the ecclesiastical pri∣vileges of England, from the Norman conquest, that no foreign legate should be obtruded upon the English, unless the King should desire it upon some extraordinary emergency, as when a case was too difficult for the English prelates to determine. Hence, in the reign of Henry II. when Cardinal Vivian, who was sent legate into Scotland, Ireland, and Norway, arrived in England on his journey thither, the King sent the Bishops of Winchester and Ely to ask him by whose authority the ventured into the kingdom

• without his leave? nor was he suffered to proceed, till he had given an oath not to stretch his commission beyond his Highness's pleasure in any particular.
• Lent, quadragesima, a time of mortification, during the space of forty days, wherein Christians are injoined to fast, in commemo∣ration of our Saviour's miraculous fasting so long in the desart, and by way of preparation for the feast of Easter. The reformed generally hold Lent to be a superstitious institution, set on foot by some vain enthusiasts, who durst undertake to ape the miracles of Jesus Christ; as, in effect, it appears to have been, from a pas∣sage of Irenaeus, quoted by Eusebius. Lent was first observed in England by Ercumbert, seventh King of Kent, A. D. 800. The Greek church observe five Lents, the Jacobites the same number, and the Maronites six.
• Lentulus, his letter concerning Jesus Christ. Lentulus was supposed to have been pro-consul of Judea, and to have written a letter to the Roman senate concerning Jesus Christ, which, though gene∣rally looked upon to be suprious, may serve to amuse the curious reader. It has been often printed. This is a translation of it. "There has appeared here a person, still living, whose name is Jesus Christ. His power is extraordinary; he is called the great prophet, and by his disciples the Son of God. He raises the dead, and heals all manner of diseases; he is tall, and well-pro∣portioned; there is an air of sereaity in his countenance, which attracts the love and reverence of all who behold him; his hair is of the colour of new wine, and falls on his shoulders in curls; on the forehead it parts in two, after the manner of the Nazarenes; his forehead is flat and fair, his face without any defect, and adorned with a graceful vermilion; his air is majestic and agree∣able; his nose and mouth are well proportioned; his beard is thick and forked, and of the same colour as his hair. There is something wonderfully charming in his face, with a mixture of gravity. He was never seen to laugh, but has been observed to weep. His hands are large and spreading, and his arms very beautiful; he talks little, but with great gravity, and is the handsomest man in the world."
• Libellatici, an ancient kind of apostates from Christianity, under the persecution of Declus, who abjured their faith in private, and were, by a certificate of such a juration, sheltered from any fur∣ther molestation on account of their religion.
• Libertines, libertini, a religious fact which arose in the year 1525, whose principal tenets were, that there is but one only Spirit, which is that of God, who is diffused through all things, who is and lives in all creatures; that our souls are nothing but this spi∣rit of God; that the soul dies with the body; that sin is a mere chimera, and only subsists in opinion; so that it is God that does all; both good and evil; that paradise is a dream, and hell a

• phantom, invented by priests, and religion a state-trick, to keep men in awe; that spiritual regeneration only consists in stifling the remorse of conscience; repentance, in avowing to have done no evil; and that it is lawful, and even expedient, to dissemble in matters of religion. To these they added horrid blasphemies against Jesus Christ, saying he was nothing but a mere je ne scai quoi, composed of the spirit of God, and of the opinion of men. These maxims occasioned their being called Libertines, and the word has been used in an ill sense ever since. The libertini prin∣cipally spread in Holland and Brabant. Their leaders were one Quintin, a Picard, and another called Chopin, who joined with him, and became his disciple. How similar their opinions and maxims are with those of the Libertines of the present age, the reader need not desire to have pointed out.
• Liberty, religious, the ground of the reformation, and what was as∣serted by all Protestants in the beginning of it, as appears from the famous protestation of six Princes and fourteen free cities, a∣gainst the diet at Spire; from which incident the name of Protes∣tant took its rise. They pray for liberty to dissent from the de∣cree of the diet, in a matter which concerned the salvation of their souls. They were very willing others should enjoy the same liberty within their dominions, as they desired for themselves in their own. That no doctrine was so certain as that of God's word, and nothing should be taught besides it. That obscure passages of scripture could not be explained better than by other plain places. That this was the only sure and infallible way; but the traditions of men had no certain foundation.
• Limbus, a term used in the Romish theology, for that place where the Patriarchs are supposed to have waited for the redemption of mankind, and where they imagine our Saviour continued from the time of his death to that of his resurrection. It is also, according to the Catholics, the place destined to receive the souls of infants, who die without baptism. The fathers call this place Limbus eo quod sit limbus inferiorum; as being the margin, or frontier, of the other world.
• Litany, in Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in Latin Supplicatio, and Rogatio. The word Litany, in its original meaning, is but another name for prayer in general, and is used as such by Heathen authors. In the Christian sense of the word, a litany is a solemn form of sup∣plication to God. Eusebius, speaking of Constantine's custom of making solemn addresses to God in his tent, says, he endeavour∣ed to render God propitious to him by his supplication and li∣tanies; and Arcadius, in one of his laws against heretics, for∣bids them to hold profane assemblies in the city, either by night or by day, to make their litany. At that time the public pray∣ers, hymns, and psalmody, were all comprised under the general name of litany. Afterwards, the word came to signify a pecu∣liar

• sort of prayers used in the church, concerning the original of which learned men are not agreed. At first the use of litanies was not fixed to any stated time, but they were employed only as exigencies required. They were observed, in imitation of the Ninevites, with ardent supplications and fastings, to avert the threatening judgments of fire, earthquakes, inundations, or hos∣tile invasions. The days on which they were used were called Rogation-days. Several of these days were appointed by the ca∣nons of different councils, till the seventeenth council of Toledo decreed, that litanies should be used every month throughout the year; and so, by degrees, these solemn supplications came to be used weekly, on Wednesdays and Fridays, the ancient stationary days in all churches. As to the form in which litanies are made, namely, in short petitions by the priest, which responses by the people, St. Chrysostom derives the custom from the primitive ages, when the priest began and uttered by the Spirit some things fit to be prayed for, and the people joined the intercessions, say∣ing, "We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord." When the miraculous gifts of the Spirit began to cease, they wrote down several of these forms, which were the original of our modern li∣tanies. St. Ambrose has left us one, agreeing in many things with that of our own church. About the year 400, litanies be∣gan to be used in processions, the people walking barefoot, and repeating them with great devotion. It is pretended several countries were delivered from great calamities by this means. About the year 600, Gregory the Great, out of all the litanies extant, composed the famous seven-fold litany, by which Rome, it is said, was delivered from a grievous mortality. This has been a pattern to all the western churches since, to which ours of the church of England comes nearer than that in the present Ro∣man Missal, in which later Popes have inserted the invocation of saints, which our reformers justly expunged. Those processional liturgies having occ••sioned much scandal, it was decreed, that the litanies for the future should only be used within the walls of the church. The days appointed by the fifteenth canon of our church for using the litany, are Wednesdays and Fridays, the ancient fasting-days of the primitive church, to which, by the subric, Sundays are added, as being the days of the greatest as∣sembly for divine service. Before the last review of the Common-Prayer, the litany was a distinct service by itself, and used some time after the morning-prayer was over. At present it is made one office with the morning-service, being ordered to be read af∣ter the third collect for grace, instead of the intercessional prayers in the daily service.
• Liturgy, denotes all the ceremonies in general belonging to divine service. In a more restrained signification, liturgy is used among the Romanists, to signify the mass, and among us the Common-Prayer.

• Prayer. All who have written on liturgies agree, that, in the primitive days, divine service was exceedingly simple, clogged with a very few ceremonies, and consisting of but a small num∣ber of prayers; but by degrees they increased the number of ex∣ternal ceremonies, and added new prayers, to make the office look more awful and venerable to the people. At length things were carried to such a pitch, that a regulation became necessary, and it was found proper to put the service, and the manner of per∣forming it, into writing; and this was what they called a liturgy. Liturgies have been different at different times, and in different countries. We have the liturgy of St. Chrysostom, that of St. Peter, of St. James, the liturgy of St. Basil, the Armenian litur∣gy, the liturgy of the Maronites, of the Cophtae, the Roman li∣turgy, the Gallican liturgy, the English liturgy, the Ambrosian liturgy, the Spanish and African liturgies, &c.
• Liturgy of the church of England. This book is intitled, The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, according to the Use of the Church of England. Before the Reformation, the liturgy was only in Latin, being a collection of prayers, made up partly of some ancient forms used in the primitive church, and partly of some others of a later original, accommodated to the Romish re∣ligion, at that time the religion of England. But when the na∣tion, in King Henry VIII.'s time, was disposed to a reformation, it was thought necessary both to have the service in the English or vulgar tongue, and to correct and amend the liturgy, by pur∣ging it of those gross corruptions which had gradually crept into it. And, first, the convocation appointed a committee, A. D. 1537, to compose a book, which was intitled, The godly and pious In∣stitution of a Christian Man, containing a Declaration of the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria, the Creed, the Ten Command∣ments, and the Seven Sacraments, &c. This book was again published in 1540, with corrections and alterations, under the title of, A necessary Erudition of any Chrysten Man. In the same year, a committee of Bishops and other divines was ap∣pointed by King Henry VIII. to reform the rituals and offices of the church, and the next year the King and clergy ordered the prayers for processions and litanies to be put in English, and to be publickly used. Afterwards, in 1545, came out the King's primer, containing the whole morning and evening prayer in Eng∣lish, not very different from what it is in present from our Com∣mon Prayer. Thus far the reformation of our liturgy was carried in the reign of Henry VIII.—In the year 1547, the first of King Edward VI. the convocation unanimously declared, that the com∣munion ought to be administered in both kinds; whereupon an act of parliament was made, ordering it to be administered; then a committee of Bishops, and other learned divines, was ap∣pointed

• to compose an uniform order of communion, according to the rules of scripture, and the use of the primitive church. The committee accordingly met in Windsor castle, and drew up such a form. This made way for a new commission, impower∣ing the same persons to finish the whole liturgy, by drawing up public offices for Sundays and holydays, for the baptism, confir∣mation, matrimony, burial, and other special occasions.
• Lollards. This sect, spread throughout Germany, had for their lead∣er Walter Lollard, who began to disperse his opinions about the year 1315. He despised some of the sacraments in the Romish church, her ceremonies and constitutions; observed not the feasts of the church, nor••••ts abstinencies; acknowledged not the inter∣cession of the saints, nor believed that the damned in hell would one day be saved. Irithemius, who has given a history of this sect, says, that the greater part defended their peculiar senti∣ments even to death. In England, the followers of Wickliffe were so called, by way of ••epro••ch, from some affinity there was between some of their tenets; though others are of opinion the English Lollards came from Germany.
• Lord's prayer, a short form of prayer prescribed by our blessed Lord to be used by his disciples, and from them taken up by the Chris∣tian church, and used in her ••iturgies, or form of divine service. It is evident beyond dispute, that the primitive church constantly used this form, after the fourth century, in her holy offices; and the practice was so universal and well known, that Lucian the Heathen is thought to refer to it in one of his dialogues, where he speaks, in the person of a Christian, of a prayer which began with Our Father. There was indeed some difference in the man∣ner of using it in the Greek and the Galli••an churches: it was said by the priest and all the people together; but in the Latin church, by the priest alone. The Mosarabic liturgy in Spain differed from both these as to the use of the Lord's prayer; for there the priest repeated every petition by itself, and the people answered to each petition separately, Amen.
• Love (the family of) a sect of enthusiasts which arose in Holland, and being propagated cross the Channel, appeared in England about the year 1580. These sectaries pretended to a more than ordinary sanctity, which gained upon the affections of the com∣mon people. They affirmed, that none were of the number of the elect but such as were admitted into their family, and that all the rest were reprobate, and consigned over to eternal damnation. They held likewise, that it was lawful for them to swear to an un∣truth before a magistrate, for their own convenience, or before any person who was not of their society. In order to propagate their opinions, they dispersed books translated out of Dutch into English, intitled, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Documental Sen∣tences, The Prophecy of the Spirit of Love, The publishing of

• Peace upon Earth, &c. These Familists could by no means be prevailed on to discover their author. Nevertheless, it was found afterwards to be Henry Nicolas of Leyden, who blasphemously pretended that he partook of the divinity of God, and God of his humanity. Queen Elizabeth issued a proclamation against these impious sectaries, and ordered their books to be publickly burnt.
• Lucianists, or Lucanists, a religious sect, so called from Lucianus, or Lucanus, a heretic of the second century, being a disciple of Marcion, whose errors he followed, adding some new ones to them. Epiphanius says he abandoned Marcion, teaching that people ought not to marry, for fear of enriching the Creator; and yet other authors mention, that he held this error in com∣mon with Marcion, and other Gnostics. He denied the immor∣tality of the soul, asserting it to be material. There was an∣other sect of Lucianists, who appeared some time after the A∣rians. They taught, that the Father had been a Father always, and that he had the name even before he begat the Son, as having in him the power or faculty of generation; and in this manner they accounted for the eternity of the Son.
• Luciferians, a religious sect, who adhered to the schism of Lucifer, Bishop of Cagliari, in the fourth century. St. Augustin seems to intimate, that they believed the soul transmitted from the chil∣dren to their fathers. Theodoret says, that Lucifer was the au∣thor of a new error. The Luciferians increased mightily in Gaul, Spain, Egypt, &c. The occasion of the schism was, that Lucifer would not allow any acts he had done to be abolish∣ed. There were but two Luciferian Bishops, but a great num∣ber of priests and deacons. The Luciferians bore a peculiar aver∣sion to the Arians.

M.

• MAcedonians, erroneous Christians in the fourth century, fol∣lowers of Macedonius, Bishop of Constantinople. He was pretty much of the sentiments of Arius, and as he governed the church in an imperious manner, and removed the body of Con∣stantine from the church of the Apostles to that of Acacius the martyr, be was by the council of Constantinople deposed. His principal tenet was, that the Holy Ghost was a mere creature, tho' above the angels. This sect made extraordinary professions of austerity, and they became pretty numerous, as most of the Arians fell in with them.
• Magdalen, St. religious of, a denomination given to many commu∣nities of nuns, consisting, generally, of penitent courtezans, some∣times also called Magdalenettes: such as those of Metz, establish∣ed in 1452; those at Paris, in 1492; those of Naples, in 1324, and endowed by Queen Sancha, to serve as a retreat for public courtezans, who should quit the trade, and betake themselves to repentance; and those of Rouen and Bourdeaux, which had

• their original among those of Paris. In each of these monasteries there are three kinds of persons and congregations, viz. first, those who are admitted to make vows, who bear the name of St. Mag∣dalen; the second, those who are not admitted to make vows, and who are called of St. Martha; and, thirdly, the congrega∣tion of St. Lazarus, composed of such as are detained by force. The religious of St. Magdalen at Rome were established by Leo X. Clement VIII. settled a revenue upon them, and ordered that the effects of all public prostitutes should be theirs, dying in∣testate; and that the testaments of the rest should be invalid, un∣unless they bequeathed, at least, a fifth of their effects to them.
• Manichees, Manicheans, or Manichoei, a sect of ancient heretics, who asserted two principles, so called from their author Manes, or Manicheus, a Persian by nation. He established two princi∣ples, viz. a good one and an evil one. The first, which he called light, did nothing but good; and the second, which he called darkness, nothing but evil. This philosophy is very ancient, and Plutarch treats of it at large in his Isis and O••iris. Our souls, ac∣cording to Manes, were made by the good principle, and our bodies by the evil one; these two principles being co-e••e••nal and independent of each other. He borrowed many things from the ancient Gnostics, on which account many authors confider the Manicheans as a branch of the Gnostics. In truth, the Manichean doctrine was a system of philosophy, rather than of religion. They made use of amulets, in imitation of the Basilidians, and are said to have made profession of astronomy and astrology. They denied that Jesus Christ assumed a true human body, and main∣tained it was only imagi••ary. They pretended that the law of Moses did not come from God, or the good principle, but from the evil one; and for this reason it was abrogated. They ab∣stained entirely from eating the flesh of any animal, following herein the doctrine of the ancient Phythagore••••s. The rest of their errors may be seen in St. Epiphanius, and St. Augustine; which last having been of their sect, may be presumed to have been thoroughly acquainted with them. Though the Manichees professed to receive the books of the New Testament; yet, in ef∣fect, they only took so much of them as suited with their opinions. They first formed to themselves a certain idea, or scheme of Chris∣tianity, and to this adjusted the writings of the Apostles; pretend∣ing, that whatever was inconsistent with this, had been foisted in the New Testament by latter writers, who were half Jews. On the other hand, they made fables, and apocryphal books, pass for apostolical writings; and even are suspected to have forged several others, the better to maintain their errors. St. Epiphanius gives a catalogue of several pieces, published by Manes, and adds extracts front some of them. Manes was not contented with the quality of Apostle of Jesus Christ, but also assumed that of the

• Paraclete, whom Christ had promised to send. He left several disciples, and among others Addas, Thomas, and Hermas. These he sent in his lifetime into several provinces, to preach his doc∣trine. Manes having undertaken to cure the King of Persia's son, and not succeeding, was clapped into prison upon the young Prince's death, whence he made his escape; but was apprehended soon after, and burnt alive. Towards the middle of the 12th century the sect of Manichees took a new face, on occasion of one Constantine, an Armenian, and adherer to it, who took upon him to suppress the reading of all other books, besides the evan∣gelists and the epistles of St. Paul, which he explained in such a manner, as to make them contain a new system of Manicheism. He entirely discarded all the writings of his predecessors, rejected the chimeras of the Valentinians and their thirty Aeons, the fable of Manes, with regard to the origin of rain, which he made to be the sweat of a young man in hot pursuit after a maid, and other dreams; but still retained the impurities of Basilides. In this manner he reformed Manicheism, insomuch that his followers made no scruple of anathematizing Scythian Buldas, and even Manes himself, Constantine being now their great Apostle. After he had seduced an infinite number of people, he was at last stoned by order of the Emperor.
• Marcellianism, the doctrines and opinions of the Mercellians, a sect of ancient heretics, so called from Marcellus, of Ancyra, their leader, who was accused of reviving the errors of Sabellius.
• Marcionites, a very ancient and popular sect of heretics in the time of Epiphanius, so called from their author Marcion, the son of a Bishop of Pontus. He laid down two principles, the one good, the other evil; he denied the real birth, incarnation, and passion of Jesus Christ, and held them all to be only apparent. He taught two Christs, one sent for the salvation of all the world, and an∣other whom the Creator would send to re-establish the Jews. He denied the resurrection of the body, and allowed none to be bap∣tised but those who preserved their continence; but these he granted might be baptised three times, and held other strange opinions.
• Marcites, a sect of heretics in the 2d century, who made profession of doing every thing with a great deal of liberty, and without any fear. They were so called from one Marcus, who conferred the priesthood, and the administration of the sacraments, on women.
• Marcosians, an ancient sect, a branch of the Gnostics. They had a great number of apocryphal books, which they held for canonical, and of the same authority with ours. Out of these they picked se∣veral fables, touching the infancy of Jesus Christ, which they put off for true histories. Many of these fables are still in use and credit among the Greek monks. Vide Tournefort's Voyages.
• ...

• Maronites, a sect of eastern Christians, who follow the Syrian rite, and are subject to the Pope, their principal habitation being on Mount Libanus, where they have a Patriarch, who resides in the monastery of Connubin, and assumes the title of Patriarch. He is elected by the clergy and people, according to the ancient custom; but fince their re-union with the church of Rome, he is obliged to have a bull of confirmation from the Pope. He keeps a perpetual celebrate, as well as the rest of the Bishops his suffra∣gans; but for the rest of the ecclesiastics, they are allowed to marry before ordination, and yet the monastic life is in great esteem among them. Their monks are of the order of St. Antony, and live in the most obscure places in the mountains, far from the converse of the world. As to their faith, they agree in the main with the rest of the eastern church.
• Marriage, a contract, both civil and religious, between a man and a woman, by which they engage to live together in mutual love and friendship for the procreation of children, &c. This has too near a connexion with religion to be omitted in this place. The first inhabitants of Greece lived promiscuously without marriage. Ci∣crops, King of Athens, was the first author of this honourable in∣stitution among that people. This is mentioned by the poet Nonnos. The Jews had their nuptial contracts and ceremonies. The present form among the Jews, which appears to be very an∣cient, is very simple and significant. Though our blessed Savi∣our had encouraged the institution of marriage by his own pre∣sence at a wedding feast, and St. Paul has declared, that marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled; yet there wanted not men in the first ages of the Christian church, who departed from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, forbidding to marry; and others who taught men to commit for∣nication with licence and impunity. The ancient Christian church laid several restraints upon her members in relation to marriage: such were the rules forbidding Christians to marry with Infidels and Heathens; this restraint they founded upon the Apostle's words: "Who leaves a widow at liberty to marry whom she will, only in the Lord," 1 Cor. vii. 39. And upon this precept of the same Apostle: "Be ye not unequally y••••ed with unbelievers," 2 Cor. vi. 24. This restriction extended likewise to Jews, He∣retics, and all persons of different persuasions, with whom it was unlawful for an orthodox Christian to be j••ined in wedlock. An∣other restraint of the church laid on persons intending to marry, related to consanguinity and affinity, which would have made the marriage incestuous, by coming within the degrees prohibited by God in scripture. A third restriction in this matter was, that children under age should not marry without the consent of their parents, guardians, and next relations. The Romish church has advanced marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. The ritual tells

• us, that the end of the sacrament of marriage is, that man and wife may mutually help and comfort each other, in order that they may spend this life in a holy manner, and thereby gain a blessed immortality; and to contribute to the edification of the church, by the lawful procreation of children, and by the care of pro∣curing them a spiritual regeneration, and an education suitable to it. They require that every person, before he enters into wed∣lock, beseech God to join him with such a person as he may work out his salvation with, and examine whether or no the per∣son he has fixed his affections on has the fear of God before her eyes, is prudent, discreet, and able to take care of a family, &c. In our church, the form and manner of marriage is too well known to need mention.
• Martyr, from a Greek word which signifies a witness. A person who suffers torments, and even death, in defence of the truth of the gospel. Scarce any saith or religion but pretends to its mar∣tyrs; Mahometans, Heathens, Idolaters, &c. &c. have all their martyrs.
• Martyrology, a register or catalogue of martyrs. The word is also used in the Romish church for a roll or register, kept in the vestry of each church, containing the names of all the saints and martyrs, both of the universal church, and of the particular ones of that city or monastery. It is also applied to the painted or written catalogues in the Romish churches, containing the foundations, obits, prayers, and masses, to be said each day.
• Masbothaei, the name of a sect, or of two sects. The first, one of the seven sects that arose out of Judaism, and proved very trouble∣some to the church; the other was one of the seven Jewish sects before the coming of Jesus Christ.
• Mass. The Romanists understand by this word the office or prayers used at the celebration of the eucharist, or, in other words, the consecrating the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, and offering them so transubstantiated as an expiatory sa∣crifice for the quick and the dead.
• Massalians, certain sectaries, so called from a Hebrew word signify∣ing prayer, it being their distinguishing tenet, that a man is to pray, without ceasing, in the literal ••ense of the words, and that this was all that was necessary to salvation. Many monks, who loved a life of laziness, joined the Massalians; but they were soon made ashamed, or weary of this kind and degree of devotion, so inconsistent with the state and circumstances of men in general.
• Maundy, or Maunday Thursday, the Thursday before Easter, from the French mande; it being the custom on that day to give a largess or bounty to certain poor men and women, whose feet the King formerly washed, as a mark of humility, and in obedience to the command of Christ.
• Melchisedeckians, a sect which raised Melchisedeck even to an equa∣lity with Jesus Christ: they are sometimes called Theodosians.
• ...

• Melchites, a religious sect in the Levant and Syria, who scarce dif∣fer from the Greek church either in faith or practice. They deny purgatory, the primacy of the Pope; admit the Arabic canons as of equal validity with those of the Romish church; but are equally superstitious with them.
• Mendicants, beggars. There are four principal orders of friars men∣dicant, viz. the Carmelites, Jacobines, Franciscans, and Au∣gustines. Among them are also ranked, the Capuchins, Recol∣lects, Minims, and others, who are branches of the former.
• Mennonites, a sect of Christians in the United Provinces, that first appeared about the year 1496. They held that there is no ori∣ginal sin; that in speaking of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, we must not use the word person, nor that of Trinity; that Jesus Christ did not take his flesh from the substance of his mother, but that he brought it from heaven; and that the union of the divine and human nature was so effected, that he was capable of dying or suffering in his divine as well as human nature. They forbid all kind of swearing; deny that magistrates ought to use the sword, tho' for punishment of crimes; disallow of war; forbid ministers of the gospel preaching for hire; refuse the baptism of infants; and believe the souls of good men are reserved in some unknown place to the day of judgment. There are two sorts of them, viz. those of Friezeland, and those of Flanders. The latter are most strict in their church discipline. Both recommend toleration in religion, and will receive all denominations of Christians to their communion, provided they be of good morals, and believe the scriptures to be the word of God, however divided they may be with respect to articles of faith.
• Metempsychi, ancient heretics, who, in imitation of Pythagoras, held the Metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls.
• Millenarians, a sect of Christians in the first century, who believed that the saints shall reign with Christ on earth a thousand years. This opinion was indeed embraced, as a principle of faith, by many other sectaries, as the Cerinthians, the Marcienites, the Montanists, the Melceians, and the Apollinarians, and by several ecclesiastical writers, and even martyrs; as Papias, Justin, Ire∣naeus, Nepos, Victorinus, Lactantius, and Sulpitius Severus. They held, that after the coming of Antichrist, and the destruc∣tion of all nations, which shall follow, there shall be a first re∣surrection, but of the just only; that all who shall be found upon the earth, both good and bad, shall continue alive, the good to obey the just, who are risen, as their Princes; the bad to be con∣quered, and made likewise sinally subject to them; that Jesus Christ will then descend from heaven in his glory; that the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt, enlarged, and embellished; that in this New Jerusalem Jesus Christ will fix the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of his empire, and reign a thousand years, with the saints, p••••••archs, and pro∣phets, who shall enjoy persect and uninterrupted ••chcity.
• ...

• Minims, an order of religious, instituted about the year 1440, by St. Francis de Paulo.
• Minors, or Friars Minors, an appellation assumed by the Francis∣cans, out of a shew of humility. There is also an order of regular Minors at Naples, which was established in the year 1588, and confirmed by Sixtus V.
• Miracles, in a popular sense prodigies, or extraordinary events that surprise us by their novelty. In a more accurate and philosophical sense, a miracle is an effect that does not follow from any of the known laws of nature; or which is inconsistent with some known laws thereof. A miracle, therefore, being a suspension of some law, cannot come from any hand less than his who fixed that law, that is from God. Divines define a miracle, an extraordinary and wonderful effect, above the power of nature, wrought by God to manifest his power or providence, or to give credit to some messenger sent from himself.
• Molinists, a sect in the Romish church, who follow the doctrines of the Jesuit Molina, relating to sufficient and efficacious grace. Their great antagonists are the Jansenists.
• Molinosists, those among the Papists who adhere to the doctrines of Molinos. They are also called Quietists.
• Monophysites, a general name given to all those sectaries in the Le∣vant, who only own one nature in Jesus Christ.
• Monothelites, an erroneous sect of Christians, which sprang up in the 5th century, out of the Eutychians, as only allowing of one will in Jesus Christ. They allowed of two wills in Christ, considered with regard to his two natures; but reduced them to one, by rea∣son of the union of the two natures: thinking it absurd, that there should be two wills in one person.
• Muggletonians, a religious sect, which arose in England about the year 1657, so denominated from their leader Lodowick Muggle∣ton, a journeyman taylor. He, with his associate Reeves, set up for great prophets, and pretended to an absolute power of saving or damning whom they pleased; giving out, that they were the two last witnesses of God that should appear before the end of the world. The other notions of these men were so ridiculous, that it is surprising, even, that the few who exist of their followers, at this day, should be so stupid as to be so.
• Mystics, a kind of religious sect, distinguished by their professing pure, sublime, and perfect devotion, with an entire disinterested love of God, free from all selfish considerations. To excuse their sanatic extasies, and amorous extravagancies, they alledge that passage of St. Paul, The Spirit prays in us by sighs and groans tha•• are unutterable. Now, if the Spirit, say they, pray in us, we must resign ourselves to its motions, and be swayed and guided by its impulse, by remaining in a state of mere inaction. Passive contemplation is that state of perfection to which the Mystics all aspire.

N.

• NAtivity, natal day, the day of one's birth. The term is chiefly used in speaking of saints, &c. as the nativity of John Bap∣tist, &c. When we say absolutely the Nativity, it is understood of that of Jesus Christ, or the feast of Christmas. It is common∣ly held, that Pope Telesphorus was the first who decreed the feast of the Nativity to be held on the 25th of December. John, Archbishop of Nice, in an epistle upon the nativity of Jesus Christ, relates, that, at the instance of St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, Pope Julius procured a strict inquiry to be made into the day of our ••••viour's nativity; which being found to be on the 25th of De∣cember, they began thenceforth to celebrate the feast on that day.
• Nazarites, or Nazarenes, a sect in the first age of the church. They were Jews as to the doctrines and ceremonies of the Old Testa∣ment, and differed from them only in professing to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. There were two kinds of Nazarenes, the one called pure, who kept the law of Moses and Christianity together, the other were denominated Ebionites; which see.
• Neophytes, in the primitive church, were new Christians, or the Heathens newly converted to the faith. The fathers never dis∣covered the mysteries of their religion to the Neophytes.
• Nestorians, a sect of ancient heretics, still said to be subsisting in some parts of the Levant, whose distinguishing tenet is, that Ma∣ry is not the mother of God. They take their name from Nesto∣rius, who, of a monk, became a priest, and a celebrated preach∣er, and was at length, in 438, raised by Theodosius to the see of Constantinople. His capital tenet was, that there were two persons in Jesus Christ, and that the Virgin was not his mother as God, but only as man.
• Nicolaitans, or Nicolaites, one of the most ancient sects in the Chris∣tian church, thus denominated from Nicolas, a person ordained a deacon of the church of Jerusalem. The distinguishing tenet of the Nicolaites is, that all married women should be common a∣mong the brethren, to take away all occasion of jealousy; and Eusebius seems to confirm this strange opinion, with many others of a trifling nature, in which historians are not agreed. They also allowed of eating meat offered to idols.
• Noetians, a sect of ancient heretics, disciples of Noetius, an Ephe∣sian, the master of Sabellius. They only allowed of one person in the Godhead, viz. the Father, and accordingly taught that it was God the Father that suffered on the cross. Being reprehend∣ed by his superiors, Noetius made them this answer, "What harm have I done? I adore only one God; I own none but him; he was born, suffered, and is dead."
• Novatians, a sect of austere Chridians, who adhered to the princi∣ples of Novatius, an African Bishop, or from Novatianus, a priest

• of Rome. They were called also Cathari, i. e. pure, or Puri∣tans. They separated from the communion of the church of Rome, as thinking them too easy in admitting to repentance and communion those who had fallen off in the time of persecution, asserting there was no other admission into the church but by re∣pentance at baptism, grounded on the words of St. Paul, Heb. vi. 7. They nevertheless admitted of pardon upon their repentance, and accordingly they recommended repentance in the strongest terms; but that the church had not a power of receiving them again to communion.
• Nun, a word anciently used for a female religious, and still retained in that sense in our language. Hence also nunnery, a monastery of female religious.
• Nuncio, an ambassador from the Pope to some Catholic Prince or state; or a person who attends on the Pope's behalf at a congress or assembly of several ambassadors.
• Nyctages, a religious sect, distinguished by their inveighing against the practice of waking in the night to sing the praises of God; in regard, said they, the night was made for rest. It comes from a Greek word, which signifies night.

O.

• OBIT, was formerly a funeral ceremony, or office, for the dead, commonly performed when the corpse lay uninterred in the church. It is also an anniversary office, or mass, held yearly, in the Romish church, on a certain day, in memory of some person deceased.
• Oblati, anciently secular persons, who bestowed themselves and their estates on some monastery, and were admitted as lay-brothers. They were also, in France, a kind of lay monks, anciently placed by the King in all the abbeys and priories in his nomination; to whom the religious were obliged to give a monk's allowance, on account of their ringing the bells, and sweeping the church and the court.
• Oblations, offerings, properly denote things offered to God. In the canon law, oblations are defined to be any things offered by god∣ly Christians to God and the church, i. e. to the priests, whe∣ther they be moveables or immoveables. They were anciently of various kinds, viz. oblationes altaris, given to the priest for say∣ing mass; oblationes defunctorum, given by the last-wills of the faithful to the church; oblationes mortuorum, given by the rela∣tions of the dead at their burials; oblationes poenitentium, given by penitents; and oblationes pentecostales, or Whitsun-offerings. Till the fourth century, the church had no fixed revenues, nor any other means of subsistence, but alms, or voluntary oblations.
• Observantines, religious Cordeliers of the observance. In Spain there are bare-footed Observantines.
• Offerings (votive) are curious stones, jewels, &c. hanging round

• the altars of the Romish saints, as an acknowledgment of the fa∣vours they have received from God by the prayers of his saints.
• Ophites, a sect of ancient heretics, who sprung out of the Gnostics, so called from their worshipping the serpent that seduced Eve. They had abundance of wild opinions.
• Oratory, priests of, a community of secular priests, who live toge∣ther in a monastic manner, but without vows. They were first established at Rome about the year 1590. On the model of this, the Cardinal Beuille established a congregation of the oratory of Jesus, in 1612, in France, which has since increased; so that there are now sixty houses of the priests of the oratory in that king∣dom.
• Origenians, a sect of ancient heretics, who even surpassed the abo∣minations o the Gnostics.
• Origenists, followers of the errors of Origen, who maintained, that Christ is only the Son of God by adoption; that the human soul had a pre-existent state, and had sinned in heaven, before the body was created; that the torments of the damned shall not be eternal; but that the devils themselves shall be relieved at last.
• Orthodoxy, a soundness of doctrine or belief with regard to all the points and articles of faith. It is used in opposition to heterodoxy, or heresy.
• Orthodoxy, feast of, in the Greek church, instituted by the Empress Theodora, held on the first Sunday in Lent, in memory of the restoration of images in churches, which had been taken down by the Iconociasts.
• Osiandrians, a sect among the Lutherans, so called from Andrew Osiander, a celebrated German divine. Their distinguishing doctrine was, that man is satisfied formally, and not by the faith and apprehension of the justice of Jesus Christ, or the imputation of his justice, according to Luther and Calvin, but by the essen∣tial justice of God. Semi-Osiandrians were such among them as held the opinion of Luther and Calvin with regard to this life, and that of Osiander with regard to the other; asserting, that man is justified here by imputation, and hereafter by the essential justice of God.

P.

• PALL, a pontifical ornament worn by Popes, &c. over their other garments, as a sign of their jurisdiction. It is in form of a band or fillet, three fingers broad, and encompasses the shoulders. It has pendants or strings about a palm long, both before and behind, with little laminae of lead rounded at the ex∣tremes, and covered with black s••••k, with four red crosses. It is made of white wool, shorn from off two lambs, which the nuns of St. Agnes offer every year, on the day of her feast, at the sing∣ing of the mass Agnus Dei.
• ...

• Palm-Sunday, the Sunday next before Easter; thus called anciently, on account of a pious ceremony then in use, of bearing palms, in memory of the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, eight days before the feast of the Passover. The ancients had al∣so other names for this day.
• Parabolani, a sect of people who, especially in Alexandria, devoted themselves to the service of churches and hospitals.
• Passalorhynchites, a sect of Montanists in the second century, who made profession of perpetual silence, and, the better to maintain it, kept the thumb continually on the lips, founding their prac∣tice on that of the Psalmist, Set a guard, O Lord, on my mouth.
• Passion-week, the week next preceding Easter, thus called from our Saviour's passion, i. e. his crucifixion, &c. which happened on the Friday of this week, now called Good Friday.
• Paulianists, a sect of heretics, so called from their founder Paul Sa∣mosatenus, Bishop of Antioch, in 262.
• Paulicians, a branch of the ancient Manichees.
• Paxis, alias an instrument of peace, being a small plate of silver or gold, with the crucifix engraved or raised upon it. It is used in the twenty-ninth ceremony of the mass, when it is presented by the deacon to be kissed by the priest. When it is received from him, it is handed about to the people, who kiss it, and pass it to one another with these words, Peace be with you.
• Pelagians, and Celestians, the followers of Pelagius, who first broached his errors at Rome, A. D. 405; who held, 1. That we may, by our own free-will, without the aid of divine grace, do good or evil. 2. That if grace were necessary, God would be unjust to withold it. 3. That faith, which is the first step to our justification, depends upon our own free-will. 4. That the sin of Adam hurt none but him; that children are innocent at their birth, and baptism not at all necessary to their deliverance from future misery. 5. That grace is only necessary to render the performance of duty more easy.
• Pepuzians, a sect of ancient heretics, so called from their pretending that Jesus Christ appeared to one of their prophe esses in the city of Pepuza, in Phrygia, which was their holy city.
• Persecution, 1. Of the Christians in the reign of Quintus Curtius, A. D. 64. 2. In Domitian's reign, 95, and continued till he was put to death the next year. 3. Under Trajan, 107. 4. Un∣der Adrian, 117. 5. Under Septimus Severu••, 202. 6. In the reign of Maximus Severus, upon the death of Alexander, 235. 7. In the reign of Decius, 250. 8. Under Gallienus. 257. 9. Under Maximin, 272. 10. Began at Nicomedia, Feb. 13, 303. and continued for ten years, and ended June 13, 313, by an edict of Constantine and Licenius. A persecution of the Chris∣tians by Sapor in Persia, 342.
• Peter-Pence, was first introduced into Mercia, by Ossa, as an atone∣ment for his murdering Ethelbert, King of the East Angles.
• ...

• Petrobrussians, a religious sect, which arose in France and the Ne∣therlands about 1126, so called from Peter Bruys, who held ma∣ny opinions that are embraced at this day by numbers of persons.
• Petrojoannites, the followers of Peter John. His opinions were, that he alone had the knowledge of the true sense wherein the Apo∣stles preached the gospel; that the reasonable soul is not the form of man; that there is no grace infused by baptism; and that Je∣sus was pierced with a lance on the cross before he expired.
• Philippists, a sect or party among the Lutherans, the followers of Philip Melanchton.
• Photinians, a sect of ancient heretics, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, so called from Photinus, their chief. His error was revived by Socinus.
• Phrygians, ancient heretics, a branch of the Montanists, so called from Phrygia, where they abounded. The spirit of enthusiasm was their distinguishing character.
• Picards, a sect which arose in Bohemia in the fifteenth century, so called from their founder, one Picard, who assumed the title of the new Adam, and taught his followers to abandon themselves to all impurity.
• Pietists, a religious sect sprung up lately amongst the Protestants in Germany, seeming to be a kind of mean between the Quakers of England and the Quietists of the Romish church.
• Places, high. The people of Israel are frequently reproached in scripture for worshipping upon high places. They were usually mountains sanctified by the presence of patriarchs and prophets, or by the appearance of God thereon. Upon these eminences the superstitious Israelites often adored idols, and committed a thousand abominations in groves and caves. This inflamed the zeal of several pious Kings and prophets to suppress and destroy the high places. But there was another reason why it was not lawful to worship even the true God on these hills, namely, be∣cause the Temple being built, and the place prepared for the fixed settlement of the ark, it was no longer allowed to sacrifice out of Jerusalem. These high places, and the idolatrous worship paid thereon, were not wholly destroyed till the reign of Josiah, who broke in pieces the images, cut down the groves, and filled the places with the bones of men, thus rooting out all the remains of idolatry, after it had been practised above eight hundred years.
• Pope, a name given to senior elders or presbyters, and appropriated to the Bishop of Rome by Gregory VII. in the year 1050. The name of Pope was fixed on the Bishop of Rome, and the power established by the concession of Phocas in 606. His supremacy and infallibility were not passed into a decree till Leo X. in a packed synod at Lateran, A. D. 1516.
• Porphyrians. a name given to the Arians in the fourth century, by authority of Constantine.
• ...

• Porretani, the followers of Gilbert de la Porrée, Bishop of Poictiers, condemned in the twelfth century for admitting a physical distinc∣tion between God and his attributes.
• Praxeans, a sect of heretics, so called from their author, Praxeas, who taught that there was no plurality of persons in the God∣head, and that it was the Father himself that suffered upon the cross.
• Prayer, Lord's, was injoined in the churches first in A. D. 618.
• Praying for the dead, was introduced by St. Austin in the sixth cen∣tury, A. D. 590.
• Priscillianists, ancient heretics, who arose in Spain, or rather were derived from Egypt, towards the end of the fourth century. They were charged with very abominable impurities.
• Probabilists, a sect or division amongst the Romanists, who adhere to the doctrine of probable opinions; holding, that a man is not always obliged to take the more probable side, but may take the less probable, if it be but barely probable. The Jesuits and Mo∣linists are strenuous Probabilists. Those who oppose this doc∣trine, and assert, that we are obliged, on pain of sinning, always to take the more probable side, are called Probabilionists. The Janfenists, and particularly the Portroyalists, are Probabilionists.
• Protestant, a name first given in Germany to those who adhered to the doctrine of Luther; because, in 1529, they protested against a decree of the Emperor Charles V. and the diet of Spires, and declared they would appeal to a general council.
• Providence, God's continual preservation and government of his creatures, according to their respective natures, commonly con∣sidered as general or particular. General providence signifies God's establishing and upholding a constitution of things, subject to certain fixed and stated laws, by which the power of each part is directed, and the whole system admirably connected and sus∣tained. Particular providence is God's producing some event by an immediate effect of his will and power, and which would not have been produced by those fixed and stated laws.
• Psalm, a divine song or hymn. The denomination psalm is now appropriated to the 150 psalms of David, and the name canticle, or song, to other pieces of the same kind, composed by other prophets and patriarchs. Pope Celestin, about the year 423, was the first who introduced the singing of the Psalms in anthems.
• Psatyrians, a sect of Arians, who, in the council of Antioch, held in the year 360, maintained that the Son was not like the Father, as to will; that he was taken from nothing, or made of nothing; and that in God generation was not to be distinguished from cre∣ation.
• Purgatory, the doctrine of, was introduced about the year 1240, and the council of Trent first made it an article of faith.

Q.

• QUietists, the disciples of Mich. de Molinos, who made a great noise towards the close of the last century. The name is taken from a sort of ab••o••ute rest and inaction, which the soul is sup∣posed to be in when arrived at the state of perfection, which, in their language, is called the unitive life. To arrive at this, a man is first to pass through the purgative way; that is, through a course of obedience, inspired by the fear of hell: hence he is to proceed into the illuminative way, before he arrives at per∣fection; to go through combats and violent pains, i. e. not only the usual drinesses of the soul, and the common privations of grace, but infernal pains; he believes himself damned; and the persuasion that he is so continues upon him very strongly several years. St. Francis de Salis, say the Quietists, was so fully con∣vinced thereof, that he would not allow any body to convince him therein. But the man is, at length, sufficiently paid for all this, by the embraces of God, and his own deification. The sentiments of the Quietists with regard to God are wonderfully pure and disinterested. They love him for himself, on account of his own perfections, independantly of any rewards and punish∣ments. The soul acquiesces in the will of God, even at the time when he precipitates it into hell; insomuch, that instead of stop∣ping him upon this occasion, B. Angelo de Foligny cried out, Haste, Lord, to cast me into hell; do not delay, if thou hast aban∣doned me; but finish my destruction, and cast me into the abyss. At length the soul, after long travel, enters into rest, into a perfect quietude. Here it is wholly employed in contemplating its God; it acts no more, thinks no more, desires no more; but lies per∣fectly open, and at large, to receive the grace of God, who, by means thereof, drives it where it will, and as it will. In this state it no longer needs prayers, or hymns, or vows; prayers where the Spirit labours, and the mouth opens, are the lot of the weak and the imperfect; the soul of the saint is, as it were, laid in the bosom, and between the arms of its God; where, without making any motion, or exerting any action, it waits and receives the divine grace. It then becomes happy: quitting the existence it before had, it is now changed, it is transformed, and, as it were, sunk and swallowed up in the Divine Being, insomuch as not to know or perceive its being distinguished from God himself. Fenelon, maximes des saints.
• Quinquagesima Sunday, Shrove-Sunday, so called as being about the fiftieth day before Easter. Anciently they used Quinquagesima for Whitsunday, and for the fifty days between Easter and Whitsun∣day; but to distinguish this Quinquagesima from that before Easter, it was called the Paschal Quinquagesima.
• Quintilians, a sect of ancient heretics, the same with the Pepuzians, thus called from their prophetess Quintilia. In this sect the wo∣men

• were admitted to perform the sacerdotal and episcopal func∣tions, grounding their practice on that passage of St. Paul to the Galatians, where he says, that in Christ there is no distinction of males and females. They attributed extraordinary gifts to Eve, for having first caten of the tree of knowledge, told mighty things of Mary, the sister of Moses, as having been a prophetess, &c. They added, that Philip the deacon had four daughters, who were all prophetesses, and were doubtless of their sect. In their as∣semblies it was usual to see the virgins enter in white robes, per∣sonating prophetesses. The Quintilians bore a good deal of re∣semblance to the modern Quakers.

R.

• RACA, or racha, a Syriac term, found in the gospel of St. Mat∣thew, ch. v. ver. 22. and preserved in most translations. Fa∣ther Simon observes, that the Greek translator of St. Matthew's gospel retained the Syriac raka, which he found in the original, by reason it was very common among the Jews; and St. Jerom, Luther, the English translators, those of Geneva, Louvain, Port-Royal, Royal, &c. ••ill preserve it in their respective languages. F. Bouhors chuses rather to express the sense thereof in a sort of pa∣raphrase, thus: He that says to his brother, homme de peu de sens, man of little understanding, shall deserve to be condemned by the tribunal of the council, &c. Most translators, except the Eng∣lish, and F. Simon, for raca write racha; but the former ortho∣graphy seems the best founded, all the Latin copies having raca, and all the Greek ones 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or, with Hesychius, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which is the same thing; all, I mean, but St. Irenaeus, and Beza's co∣py, now at Cambridge, which have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. In effect, the origin of the word shews it should be raca, as coming from the Syriac raca, of the Hebrew rek, empty, shallow.
• Reason, is that faculty of the soul whereby a person is enabled to judge of the natures, relations, and uses of things; of the si••ness of actions, and of the truth or falsehood of propositions, particu∣larly those of a moral nature.
• Recollects, a congregation of reformed Franciscans, called also Friars minor, of St. Francis, of the strict observance. They were esta∣blished about the year 1530.
• Reformation, attempted by the Albigenses, &c. who were too weak to effect it, in the ele••enth century. It succeeded under Luther, 1517, and began in England in 1534.
• Refugees. French Protestants, who, by the revocation of the edict of Nant••••, 1685, have been constrained to quit their country, and retire for refuge into Holland, Germany, England, &c. to save themselves from the necessity of abandoning their religion.
• Regeneration, the act of being born again, by a spiritual birth, or becoming a child of God.
• ...

• Regular priest, is used for a priest who is in some religious order, in opposition to a secular priest, who lives in the world, or at large.
• Rogation-Week, the week immediately preceding Whitsunday, thus called from three fasts therein, viz. on the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, called rogation-days, because of the extraordi∣nary prayers and processions then made for the fruits of the earth.
• Rynsburgers, so called from their meeting at Rynsburg. They ob∣served the first Sunday of every month, instead of the first after the new moon, for celebrating the Lord's supper. They prac∣tised dipping or plunging in baptism, as the manner was among the primitive Christians: they rebaptised such as had been sprink∣led in their infancy, and rejected infant-baptism, as well as the Anabaptists, and with them maintained, that no Christian ought to bear the office of a magistrate, or wage war. They used great liberties with respect to some mysterious, incomprehensible, and, as they thought, for that reason, unnecessary disputes in re∣ligion; and would not be bound by any confessions of faith, ei∣ther of the ancient or modern churches. As for the doctrine of predestination, they stuck to the opinions of the Remonstrants, who denied absolute unconditional election or reprobation.

S.

• SAbbatarians, a sect of the Baptists, who observe the Jewish or Saturday Sabbath, from a persuasion that it was one of the ten commandments, which they plead are all in their nature moral, was never abrogated in the New Testament, and must at least be deemed of equal validity for public worship as any day never particularly set apart by Jesus Christ or his apostles. There are Predestinarian and Arminian Sabbatarian Baptists at this day.
• Sabbations, Sabbathiani, a sect of heretics, thus called from Sabba∣tius, their leader, who lived in the reign of Dioclesian. He would have Easter kept on the fourteenth day of the moon; whence he and his adherents were called also Quartodecimans. They are re∣corded as having a great abhorrence of the left hand, so as to make it a point of religion not to receive any thing with it.
• Sabellians, a sect of erroneous Christians, who commenced about the year 260, and who reduced the three persons in the Trinity to three states or relations, or rather reduced the whole Trinity to the one person of the Father, making the Word and the Holy Spirit to be only emanations or functions thereof. Epiphanius tells us, that the God of the Sabellians, whom they called the Father, resembled the Son, and was a mere substraction, where∣of the Son was the illuminative virtue or quality, and the Holy Ghost the warming virtue.
• Saccophori, a sect of ancient heretics, thus called because they al∣ways went cloathed in sackcloth, and affected a great deal of au∣sterity and penance.
• ...

• Samosatenians, a sect of ancient Antitrinitarians, so called from their leader Paulus Samosatenus, Bishop of Antioch.
• Sampseans, ancient sectaries, the same with the Elcesaites.
• Saturninians, a sect of ancient Gnostics, so called from their chief, Saturnillus, or Saturninus.
• Saviour, order of St. Saviour, a religious order founded by St. Bridget, about 1344, and is under the rule of St. Augustin.
• Scotists, a sect of school divines and philosophers, thus called from their founder, J. Duns Sco••us, a Scottish or an Irish Cordelier, who maintained the immaculate conception of the Virgin, or that she was born without original sin, &c.
• Selucians, a whimsical kind of heretics, called also Hermians, who imagined God was corporeal, that the elementary matter was co∣eternal with him, and that the human soul was formed by the angels of fire and air. They also denied that Jesus Christ sat on the right hand of God, and asserted that his residence was in the sun, by which he enlightened and enlivened this earth.
• Sembiani, a sect of ancient heretics, so called from Sembius, or Sem∣bianus, their leader, who condemned all use of wine, as evil of itself; per••uaded his followers, that wine was a production of Sa∣tan, and the earth; denied the resurrection of the dead, and re∣jected most of the books of the Old ••estament.
• Septuagesima, the third Sunday before Lent, or before the Quadra∣gesima, as Quinquagesima is the next before Quadragesima; then Sexagesima and Septuagesima; which were all days appropriated by the church to acts of penance and mortification, by way of preparation for the devotions of Lent ensuing.
• Septuagint, seventy, a term for a version of the Old Testament out of Hebrew into Greek, performed by seventy-two Jewish inter∣preters, in obedience to the order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, a King of Egypt. The chronology of the Septuagint is an account of the years of the world, very different from what is found in the Hebrew text and the Vulgate, making the world 1466 years older than it is found in these latter.
• Severiani. There are two sects of heretics so called; the first, who are as old as the beginning of the third century, were an impure branch of Gnostics, thus called from their chief, Severus. The second, by ••ome called Severites, were a sect of Acephali, or Eu∣tychians: the•• leaner, Se••erus, was preferred to the see of An∣tioch, in 513, where he did his utmost to set aside the council of Chalcedon.
• Simonians, a s••ct of Christians, the first who disturbed the Christian church. They were 〈◊〉〈◊〉 more 〈◊〉〈◊〉 mere philosophers, and made pret••nsio••s ••••magic. Simon Magus, so often mentioned in the Act of the Apostles, was th••••r 〈◊〉〈◊〉. He patched up a kind of medle•• system 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of the phi••••s••••phy of P••ato, the reli••ious max∣ims of the Heathens, and of Christianity. From the Pl••tonists they seem to have borrowed the peculiar sentiments they enter∣tained

• of the angels, whereby they were led to that undue ve∣neration of them, as even to pay them divine worship, and re∣presented them as mediators between God and men; to which superstitious worship of angels St. Paul seems to allude in the epistle to the Col••ssians. This was encouraged in a greater de∣gree by the Gnostics.
• Socinians, a modern sect of Antitrinitarians, who, in these ages, have revived some of the errors of Paulus Samosatenus, Photinus, and Arius; whence they are also occasionally called Artans, Photi∣nians, &c. though in many respects they are different from them all. Faustus Socinus, a gentleman of Sienna, gave original to the name. They all deny, not only the divinity of Christ, but the existence of the Hol, Ghost, the mystery of the incarnation, original sin, and grace. They are divided into several parties: some of them leave Socinus, as to what reqares the worship of∣fered to Jesus Christ, not being able to conceive how divine wor∣ship should be given a mere m••n; and some in other points.
• Solitaries, a denomination of the nuns of St. Peter of Alcantara, in∣stituted in 1676 by Cardinal B••••b••rin••, when abbot of Notre Dame de Faisa, in that city. They imitate the severe peni••ent life of St. Peter of Alcantara, keep a continual silence, and em∣ploy their time wholly in spiritual exercises. They always go bare-footed, without sandals, gird themselves with a thick cord, and wear no linen.
• Sunday, low, in the Christian church, is the octave, or the first Sunday after Easter-day. It is called Low Sunday, because it was celebrated as a feast, though of a lower degree than Easter itself, it being customary on this day to repeat part of the so∣lemnity used on Easter-day. The Latin calls ••••is Sunday Do∣minica in albis, or rather post albis (s••. de••osita••) as some ritual••sts call it, i. e. the Sunday of putting off th•• chrysomes; because those who were baptised on Easter day, on this day laid aside the white robe, or chrysome, which they wore at their baptism, and which was from that time to be la••d up in the churches, that it might be produced as evidences against them, if they should af∣terwards violate or deny that faith they had professed in baptism.

T.

• TAborites, or Thaborites, a branch or sect of the ancient Hus∣sites, who carried the point of reformation farther than Huss had done. They rejected purgatory, aur••cular confession, the unction at baptism, transubstantiation, &c.
• Terminists, a sect or party among the Calvinists, whose particular tenets are reducible to five points. 1. That there are several per∣sons, both in and out of the church, to whom God has fixed a certain term before their death, after which he no longer wills their salvation, how long soever they live afterwards. 2. That God has fixed this fatal term of grace by a secret decree. 3. That

• this term once elapsed, he makes them no farther offer of repen∣tance or salvation, but takes away from his word all the power it might have to convert them. 4. That Pharaoh, Saul, Judas, most of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles, were of this num∣ber. 5. That God still bears with several of those sort of peo∣ple, and even confers benefits upon them after the term is ex∣pured; but that he does not do it with an intention they should be converted.
• Trinity-Sunday, the next Sunday aster Whitsunday, thus called be∣cause on that day was anciently held a festival, as it still conti∣nues to be in the Romish church, in honour of the Holy Prinity.
• Trissacramentarians, an appellation given to a sect in religion, who admit of three sacraments, and no more.
• Tritheism, the opinion of the Tritheists, or the heresy of believing three Gods. It consists of not only allowing of three persons in the Godhead, but of three substances, three essences, or hyposta∣ses, and indeed three Gods.
• Tropites, a sect who explained the scriptures, altogether by tropes and figures of speech.
• Tropites, a sect who maintained that the Word was turned or con∣verted into flesh, or into man.

V.

• VAlentinians, a sect of erroneous Christians, even in the 1st cen∣tury, followers of Valentinus, who, from nice and witty, or sophistical distinctions, imbibed and professed much of the princi∣ples of Pythagoras and Plato, to which he endeavoured to accom∣modate all their interpretations of scripture, and were no other than a sect of the Gnostics.
• Ubiquists, a sect of Lutherans in Germany, whose distinguishing doctrine was, that the body of Jesus Christ is every where, and in every place.
• Unitarians, a name given to, or assumed by, Antitrinitarians, as making profession to preserve the glory and attributes of divinity, to the one only great and supreme God, and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Ursulines, an order of nuns, who observe the rule of St. Augustine, and are chiefly noted for taking upon them the education and in∣struction of young maids. They take their name from their in∣stitutrix, St. Ursula, and are cloathed in white and black. Few maids in France but are put to school to them.
• Vulgate, a very antient Latin translation of the Bible, and the only one the church of Rome acknowledges authentic.

W.

• WHitsuntide, the fiftieth day after Easter. The season, properly called Pentecost, is popularly called Whitsuntide; some say, because in the primitive church, those who were newly baptised

• came to church, between Easter and Pentecost, in white garments. Whitsunday always falls between May 9, and June 14, ex∣clusive.

Z.

• ZUINGLIANS, a branch of ancient reformers, or protestants, denominated from their leader U••ri•• Zuinglius. This emi∣nent divine was born at Wildehausen, in the county of Toggen∣burgh, in Switzerland, in 1487. Soon after Luther took up arms against Rome, Zuinglius joined him, preached openly against indulgences, then against the intercession of the saints, then against the mass, the hierarchy, the vows and celebate of the clergy, abstinence from flesh &c. As to the eucharist, in∣terpreting hoc est corpus meum, by h•••• significat corpus meum; he maintained, that the bread and wine were o••ly bare significations, or representations of the body and blood of Jesus Christ; but in this he differed from Luther, who held a consubstantiation. In a conference held with the deputies of the Bishop of Constance, in 1523, he procured most of the external ceremonies of religion to be abolished As to matters of grace, Zuinglius seemed inclined to Pelagi••nism, giving all to free-will, considered as acting by the mere strength of nature, in which he differed from Calvin.