ABBOT, the chief ruler of a monastery or abbey. At first they were laymen, and subject to the bishop and ordinary pastors. Their monasteries being remote from cities, and built in the farthest solitudes, they had no share in ecclesiastical affairs; but, there being among them several persons of learning, they were called out of their deserts by the bishops, and fixed in the suburbs of the cities; and at length in the cities themselves. From that time they degenerated, and, learning to be ambitious, aspired to be independent of the bishops, which occasioned some severe laws to be made against them. At length, however, the abbots carried their point, and obtained the title of lord, with other badges of the episcopate, particularly the mitre. Hence arose new distinctions among them. Those were termed mitred abbots who were privileged to wear the mitre, and exercise episcopal authority within their respective precincts, being exempted from the jurisdiction of the bishop. Others were called crosiered abbots, from their bearing the crosier, or pastoral staff. Others were styled ecumenical or universal abbots, in imitation of the patriarch of Constantinople; while others were termed cardinal abbots, from their superiority over all other abbots. At present, in the Roman catholic countries, the chief distinctions are those of regular and commendatory. The former take the vow and wear the habit of their order; whereas the latter are seculars, though they are obliged by their bulls to take orders when of proper age. ABELIANS, or ABELONIANS, a sect which arose in the diocese of Hippoo in Africa, and is supposed to have begun in the reign of Arcadius, and ended in that of Theodosius. Indeed, it was not calculated for being of any long continuance. They regulated marriage after the example of Abel. who, they pretended, was married, but lived in a state of continence: they therefore allowed each man to marry one woman, but enjoined them to live in the same state. To keep up the sect, when a man and woman entered into this society, they adopted a boy and a girl, who were to inherit their goods, and to marry upon the same terms of not having children, but of adopting two of different sexes. ABESTA, the name of one of the sacred books of the Persian Magi, which they ascribe to their great founder Zoroaster. The Abesta is a commentary on two others of their religious books, called Zend and Pazend; the three toge ther including the whole system of the Ignicold, or worshippers of fire. ABILITY. See INABILITY. ABLUTION, a ceremony in use among the ancients, and still practised in several parts of the world. It consisted in washing the body, which was always done before sacrificing, or even entering their houses. Ablutions appear to be as old as any ceremonies, and external worship itself. Moses enjoined them, the heathens adopted them, and Mahomet and his followers have continued them. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Jews, all had them. The ancient Christians had their ablutions before communion, which the Romish church still retain before their mass, and sometimes after. The Syrians, Copts, &c. have their solemn washings on Good Friday; the Turks also have their ablutions, their Ghast, their Wodou, Aman, &c. ABRAHAMITES, an order of monks exterminated for idolatry by Theophilus, in the ninth century. Also the name of another sect of heretics who had adopted the errors of Paulus. See PAULICIANS. ABSOLUTION signifies acquittal. It is taken also from that act whereby the priest declares the sins of such as are penitent remitted. The Romanists hold absolution a part of the sacrament of penance and the council of Trent and that of Florence declare the form or essence of the sacrament to lie in the words of absolution. "I absolve thee "of thy sins." According to this, no one can receive absolution without the privity, consent, and declaration of the priest; except, therefore, the priest be willing, God himself cannot pardon any man. mous This is a doctrine as blasphe as it is ridiculous. The chief passage on which they ground their power of absolution is that in John xx. 23: "Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained." But this is not to the purpose; since this was a special commission to the apostles themselves, and the first preachers of the Gospel, and most probably referred to the power he gave them of discerning spirits. By virtue of this power, Peter struck Ananias and Saphira dead, and Paul struck Elimas blind. But, supposing the passage in question to apply to the successors of the apostles, and to ministers in general, it can only import that their office is to preach pardon to the penitent, assuring those who believe that their sins are forgiven through the merits of Je:us Christ; and that those who remain in unbelief are in a state of condemnation. Any idea of authority given to fallible, uninspired men to absolve sinners, different from this, is unscriptural ; nor can I see much utility in the terms ministerial or declarative absolution, as adopted by some divines, since absolution is wholly the prerogative of God; and the terms above-mentioned, may, to say the least, have no good influence on the minds of the ignorant and superstitious. ABSTEMII, a name given to such persons as could not partake of the cup of the eucharist, on account of their natural aversion to wine.. ABSTINENCE, in a general sense, is the act of refraining from something which we have a propension to or find pleasure in. It is more particularly used for fasting or forbearing of necessary food. Among the Jews, various kinds of abstinence were ordained by their law. Among the primitive Christians, some denied themselves the use of such meats as were prohibited by that law; others looked upon this abstinence with contempt; as to which Paul gives his opinion, Rom. xiv. 1. 3. The council of Jerusalem, which was held by the apostles, enjoined the Christian converts to abstain from meats strangled, from blood, from fornication, and from idolatry, Acts xv. Upon this passage, Dr. Doddridge observes, "that though neither things sacrificed to idols, nor the flesh of strangled animals, nor blood, have or can have any moral evil in them, which should make the eating of them absolutely and universally unlawful; yet they were forbidden to the Gentile converts, because the Jews had such an aversion to them, that they could not Converse freely with any who used them. This is plainly the reason which James assigns in the very next words, the 21st verse, and it is abundantly sufficient. This reason is now ceased, and the obligation to abstain from eating these things ceases with it. But were we in like circumstances again, Christian charity would surely require us to lay ourselves under the same restraint."-The spiritual monarchy of the western world introduced another sort of abstinence, which may be called ritual, and consists in abstaining from particular meats at certain times and seasons, the rules of which are called rogations. If I mistake not, the impropriety of this kind of abstinence is clearly pointed out in 1 Tim. iv.3.-In England, abstinence from flesh has been enjoined by statute, even since the reformation; particularly on Fridays and Saturdays, on vigils, and on all days commonly called fish days. The like injunctions were renewed under queen Elizabeth; but at the same time it was declared, that this was done not out of motives of religion, as if there were any difference in meats, but in favour of the consumption of fish, and to multiply the number of fisherman and mariners, as well as to spare the stock of sheep. See FASTING. ABSTINENTS, a set of heretics that appeared in France and Spain about the end of the third century. They are supposed to have borrowed part of their opinions from the Gnostics and Manichæans, because they opposed marriage, condemned the use of flesh meat, and placed the Holy Ghost in the class of created beings. ABYSS, in a general sense, denotes something profound; in its literal sense it signifies without a bottom; in a more particular sense it denotes a deep mass or fund of waters. In this last sense the word is used in the Septuagint for the water which God created at the beginning with the earth, which our translators render by deep. Thus it is that darkness is said to have been on the face of the abyss, Gen. i. 2. Abyss is also used for an immense cavern in the earth, wherein God is supposed to have collected all those waters on the third day, which in our version is rendered the seas, and elsewhere the great deep. Abyss is likewise used to denote the grave or common receptacle of the dead, Rom. x. 7; also hell, or the bottomless pit, Luke. viii. 31. Rev. ix. 1. Rev. xi. 7. See DELUGE. ABYSSINIAN CHURCH, that which is established in the empire of Abyssinia. They are a branch of the Copts, with whom they agree in admitting only one nature in Jesus Christ, and rejecting the council of Chalcedon; whence they are also called Monophysites and Eutychians, which see. The Abyssinian church is governed by a bishop styled abuna. They have canons also, and monks. The emperor has a kind of supremacy in ecclesiastical matters. The Abyssinians have at divers times expressed an inclination to be reconciled to the see of Rome; but rather from interested views than any other motive. They practice circumcision on females as well as males. They eat no meats prohibited by the law of Moses. They observe both Saturday and Sunday sabbaths. Women are obliged to the legal purifications. Brothers marry brothers' wives, &c. On the other hand, they celebrate the Epiphany with peculiar festivity; have four Lents; pray for the dead; and invoke angels. Images in || principles of religion and wisdom Jesus Christ, therefore, is with great propriety called the Day Spring from on High, the Sun of Righteousness, that arose upon a benighted world to dispel the clouds of ignorance and error, and discover to lost man the path of happiness and heaven. But, as we do not mean to enlarge much upon these and some other sects, which belong rather to philosophy than theology, we shall refer the reader to Buddeus's Introduction to the History of Philosophy; Stanley's Lives; Brucker's History of Philosophy; or (which is more modern) Enfield's Abridgment. ACCLAMATIONS, ecclesiastical, were shouts of joy which the people expressed by way of approbation of their preachers. It hardly seems credible to us that practices of this kind should ever have found their way into the church, where all ought to be reverence and solemnity. Yet so it was in the fourth century. The people were not only permitted, but sometimes even exhorted, by the preacher himself, to approve his talents by clapping of hands, and loud acclamations of praise. The usual words they made use of were, "Orthodox," ACACIANS, a sect of heretics in the 4th century; so named from Acacius, bishop of Cæsarea, who denied the Son Third apostle," &c. These acclamato be of the same substance with the tions being carried to excess, and often Father, though some of them allowed misplaced, were frequently prohibited that he was of a similar substance. Also by the ancient doctors, and at length abthe name of another sect, named afterrogated. Even as late, however, as the Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, in the fifth century, who favoured the opinions of Eutychus. See EUTYCHIANS. ACADEMICS, a denomination given to the cultivators of a species of philosophy originally derived from Socrates, and afterwards illustrated and enforced by Plato. The contradictory systems which had been successively urged upon the world were become so numerous, that, from a view of the variety and uncertainty of human opinions, many were led to conclude that truth lay beyond the reach of our comprehension. The consequence of this conclusion was absolute scepticism: hence the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, the preferableness of virtue to vice, were all held as uncertain. This sect, with that of the Epicureans, were the two chief that were in vogue at the time of Christ's appearance, and were embraced and supported by persons of high rank and wealth. A consideration of the principles of these two sects [see EPICUREANS] will lead us to form an idea of the deplorable state of the world at the time of Christ's birth; and the necessity there was of some divine teacher to convey to the mind true and certain seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we find practices that were not very decorous; such as loud humming, frequent groaning, strange gestures of the body, &c. See articles DANCERS, SHAKERS. ACCOMMODATION OF SCRIPTURE is the application of it, not to its literal meaning, but to something analagous to it. Thus a prophecy is said to be fulfilled properly when a thing foretold comes to pass; and, by way of accommodation, when an event happens to any place or people similar to what fell out some time before to another. Thus the words of Isaiah, spoken to those of his own time, are said to be fulfilled in those who lived in our Saviour's, "Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy," &c: which same words St. Paul afterwards accommodates to the Jews of his time, Is. xxix. 14. Matt. xv. 8. Acts xiii. 41. Great care, however, should be taken by preachers who are fond of accommodating texts, that they first clearly state the literal sense of the passage. ACCURSED, something that lies under a curse or sentence of excommunication. In the Jewish idiom, accursed and crucified were synonymous: among them, every one was accounted accursed who died on a tree. This serves to explain the difficult passage in Rom. ix. 2, where the apostle wishes himself accursed after the manner of Christ; i. e. crucified, if happily he might by such a death save his country men. The preposition as here made use of is used in the same sense, 2 Tim. i. 3. where it obviously signifies after the manner of. || goal-delivery, appointed as often as a competent number of prisoners in the Inquisition are convicted of heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted confession, or on the evidence of certain witnesses. The process is this:-In the morning they are brought into a great hall, where they have certain habits put on, which they are to wear in the procession, and by which they know their doom. The procession is led up by Dominican friars, after which come the penitents, being all in black coats without sleeves, and barefooted, with a wax candle in their hands. These are followed by the penitents who have nar ACEPHALI, such bishops as were exempt from the discipline and jurisdiction of their ordinary bishop or patriarch. It was also the denomination of certain sects; 1, of those who, in the affair of the council of Ephesus, refused to follow either St. Cyril or John of An-rowly escaped being burnt, who over tioch; 2. of certain heretics in the fifth century, who, at first, followed Peter Mongus, but afterwards abandoned him, upon his subscribing to the council of Chalcedon, they themselves adhering to the Eutychian heresy; and, 3. of the followers of Severus of Antioch, and of all, in general, who held out against the council of Chalcedon. ACOEMETE, or ACOMETI, an order of monks at Constantinople in the fifth century, whom the writers of that and the following ages called Axequeras; that is, Watchers, because they performed divine service day and night without intermission. They divided themselves into three classes, who alternately succeeded one another, so that they kept up a perpetual course of worship. This practice they founded upon that passage-" pray without ceasing," 1 Thess. v. 17. their black coats have flames painted, with their points turned downwards. Next come the negative and relapsed, who are to be burnt, having flames on their habits pointing upwards. After these come such as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of Rome, who, besides flames pointing upwards, have their picture painted on their breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, all openmouthed, about it. Each prisoner is attended with a familiar of the Inquisition; and those to be burnt have also a Jesuit on each hand, who are continually preaching to them to abjure. After the prisoners, comes a troop of familiars on horseback; and after them the Inquisitors, and other officers of the court, on mules: last of all, the inquisitor-general on a white horse, led by two men with black hats and green hat-bands. A scaffold is erected big enough for two or three thousand people; at one end of which are the prisoners, at the other the Inquisitors. After a sermon made up of encomiums of the Inquisition, and invectives against heretics, a priest as ACOLYTHI, or ACOLUTHI, young people who, in the primitive times, aspired to the ministry, and for that purpose continually attended the bishop. In the Romish church, Acolythi were of longer continuance; but their func-cends a desk near the scaffold, and, tions were different from those of their first institution. Their business was to light the tapers, carry the candlesticks and the incense pot, and prepare the wine and water. At Rome there were three kinds; 1. those who waited on the pope; 2. those who served in the churches; S. and others, who, together with the deacons, officiated in other parts of the city. ACT OF FAITH (Auto da Fe.) in the Romish church, 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 it is always on a Sunday. The Auto de Fe may be called the last act of the Inquisitorial tragedy: it is a kind of having taken the abjuration of the penitents, recites the final sentence of those who are to be put to death, and delivers them to the secular arm, earnestly beseeching at the same time the secular power not to touch their blood, or put their lives in danger!!! The prisoners, being thus in the hands of the civil magistrate, are presently loaded with chains, and carried first to the secular jail, and from thence, in an hour or two, brought before the civil judge; who, after asking in what religion they intend to die, pronounces sentence on such as declare they die in the communion of the church of Rome, that they shall be first strangled, and then burnt to ashes; or such as die in any other faith, that they be burnt alive. Both are immediately carried to the Ribera, B the place of execution, where there are as many stakes set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, with a quantity of dry furze about them. The stakes of the professed, that is, such as persist in the heresy, are about four yards high, having a small board towards the top for the prisoner to be seated on. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed mount their stakes by a ladder, and the Jesuits, after several repeated exhortations to be reconciled to the church, part with them; telling them that they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow, to receive their souls, and carry them with him to the flames of hell. On this a great shout is raised; and the cry is," Let the dogs' beards be made!" which is done by thrusting flaming furzes fastened to long poles against their faces. till their faces are burnt to a coal, which is accompanied with the loudest acclamations of joy. At last, fire is set to the furze at the bottom of the stake, over which the professed are chained so high, that the top of the flame seldom reaches higher than the seat they sit on; so that they rather seem roasted than burnt. There cannot be a more lamentable spectacle: the sufferers continually cry out, while they are able, " Pity, for the love of God!" Yet it is beheld, by all sexes and ages, with transports of joy and satisfaction-O merciful God! is this the benign, humane religion thou hast given to men? Surely not. If such were the genius of Christianity, then it would be no honour to be a Christian. Let us, however, rejoice that the time is coming when the demon of Persecution shall be banished out of this our world, and the true spirit of benevolence and candour pervade the universe; when none shall hurt or destroy, but the earth be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea! See INQUISITION. ACTION FOR THE PULPIT,— See DECLAMATION. ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, one of the sacred books of the New Testament containing the history of the infant church during the space of twentynine or thirty years from the ascension of our Lord to the year of Christ 63. It was written by Luke, and addressed to Theophilus, the person to whom the evangelist had before dedicated his gospel. The style of this work, which was originally composed in Greek, is much purer than that of the other canonical writers. For the contents of this book we refer the reader to the book itself. There have been several acts of the apostles, such as the acts of Abdias, of Peter, of Paul, St. John the Evangelist, St. Andrew, St. Thomas, St. Philip, and St. Matthias; but they have been all proved to be spurious. ACTS OF PILATE, a relation sent by Pilate to the emperor Tiberius, concerning Jesus Christ, his death, resurrection, ascension, and the crimes of which he was convicted before him. It was a custom among the Romans. that the pro-consuls and governors of provinces should draw up acts or memoirs of what happened in the course of their government, and send them to the emperor and senate. The genuine acts of Pilate were sent by him to Tiberius, who reported them to the senate; but they were rejected by that assembly, because not immediately addressed to them; as is testified by Tertullian, in his Apol. cap. 5, & 20. 21. The heretics forged acts in imitation of them; but both the genuine and the spurious are now lost. ADAMITES, a sect that sprang up in the second century. Epiphanius tells us, that they were called Adamites, from their pretending to be re-established in the state of innocence, such as Adam was at the moment of his creation, whence they ought to imitate him in going naked. They detested marriage; maintaining that the conjugal union would never have taken place upon earth, had sin been unknown. This obscure and ridiculous sect did not last long. It was, however, revived with additional absurdities in the twelfth century. About the beginning of the fifteenth century, these errors spread in Germany and Bohemia: it found also some partizans in Poland, Holland, and England. They assembled in the night; and, it is said, one of the fundamental maxims of their society was contained in the following verse: Jura, perjura, secretum prodere noli. Swear, forswear, and reveal not the secret. ADESSENARIANS, a branch of the Sacramentarians: so called from the Latin Adesse, to be present, because they believed the presence of Christ's body in the eucharist, though in a manner different from the Romanists. ADIAPHORISTS, a name given in the sixteenth century to the moderate Lutherans who adhered to the sentiments of Melancthon; and afterwards to those who subscribed the interim of Charles V. [See INTERIM.] The word is of Greek origin (dogs,) and signifies indifference or lukewarmness. ADMIRATION is that passion of the mind which is excited by the dis |