The Dictionary of Religion: An Encyclopedia of Christian and Other Religious ...

of some military skill. By fanatical zeal and predictions respecting the end of the world he greatly increased the number of the Apostolicals, and organised an army of them so effectively that he was able to carry on a dangerous civil war against Boniface VIII., the reigning pope, for two years. It was in reference to this rebellion that Dante makes Mahomet deliver this message to the poet as he was about to return to earth :

"Now say to Fra Dolcino, then, to arm him, Thou, who perhaps will shortly see the sun, If soon he wish not here to follow me, So with provisions, that no stress of snow May give the victory to the Novarese, Which otherwise to gain would not be easy." [Dante's Inferno, xxviii. 55.]

Dolcino was nevertheless defeated in several battles, taken prisoner, and executed (with his female companion Margaret) at Vercelli with cruel tortures in A.D. 1307. Remains of the sect were still existing in the south of France and Germany in 1402, and the White Brethren seem to have been a revival of it in Italy.

Apostolici. A name assumed by the APOTACTICS.

Apostoolians. The followers of Samuel Apostool, a Baptist minister of Amsterdam in A.D. 1664. They were a division of the Mennonite WATERLANDERS, who arose in opposition to the GALENISTS, both sects of these Dutch Baptists still existing in Holland. The Apostoolians maintain strict or close communion, and are thus analogous to one section of the PARTICULAR BAPTISTS of England.

Apotactics, or APOSTOLICI.-A sect of the third century, existing in Phrygia, Cilicia, and Pamphylia, who assumed the name of Apotactics, or Renunciators, because their leading principle was that the renunciation of all private property was necessary for salvation. They are said by Epiphanius, in his work on heresies, to have held and put in practice other extravagant opinions respecting asceticism, but very little was evidently known about them.

Apparel. An ornamental square oblong piece of embroidered silk, which is sewn on to the wrists and the bottom of the alb, before and behind, and around its neck. The "plain" alb of the rubric in the first English Prayer Book means an alb without apparels.

Apparitor. An officer attached to the Archbishop's, Bishop's, or Archdeacon's Court, whose name is derived from his office, which is that of citing persons to appear before the court to which he belongs. This officer was anciently called a Summoner, or, as Chaucer spelt it, a "Sumpnour; " and the extortions which they practised brought the Courts which they represented into great disfavour at the period of the Reformation.

Appeal. The removal of a cause from a court of lower jurisdiction to one of higher jurisdiction, as from the Court of the bishop of the diocese to that of the archbishop of the province. For the purposes of this work the term may be regarded as referring to appeals which were made to the pope as the highest ecclesiastical judge in the world.

This appellate jurisdiction of the bishops of Rome originated in the respect which was felt in early ages for their position as the earliest bishops of the Roman Empire and of Christendom itself. But such few appeals as were made to them were in the nature of voluntary applications for advice rather than of applications for judicial decisions. Papal Court of Appeals was first formally recognised by the Council of Sardica [A.D. 347], at which a motion of Bishops Hosius and Gaudentius was adopted, allowing a bishop who was condemned by a synod to appeal to the Roman Patriarch, who must either confirm the synodal decision or appoint new judges. This determination of the council was by no means generally accepted, and therefore could not be regarded as a law of the Church at large. But in the course of the next half century it was construed in Rome into the institution of an appeal in all important causes from any bishop to the pope, and this not only by bishops themselves, to whom the resolution of the Council had referred, but by any persons who thought themselves aggrieved in any matter by the decision of the Church court of their own bishop, and wished to seek redress at that of the Bishop of Rome. Thus it came to pass that during the mediaval period the pope became, ex officio, the ecclesiastical judge in the highest resort for all the nations whose churches acknowledged obedience to him.

But the system was not fully introduced into England until Continental habits were brought into the English Church by the Conquest, and attempts to introduce it were vigorously opposed until the reign of Stephen. Thus the bishops and barons told St. Anselm that it was a thing unheard of for any one to carry their cause to Rome without the king's leave, and one of the popes, who was contemporary with Henry I., complained that the English sovereign would suffer no appeals to be carried to him. In the reign of Stephen the point was conceded, but the concession was withdrawn in that of Henry II., when one of the Constitutions of Clarendon ordained that no appeals should be carried to Rome without the king's permission. After the murder of Archbishop Becket the point was once more conceded, with the single limitation that such appeals should not concern any injury to the king or the kingdom.

So it substantially remained until the year 1532, when an "Act for the restraint of Appeals" [24 Henry VIII., c. 12] was passed, which finally extinguished the authority of

the pope as a judge over the head of English judges. This Act contains some valuable statements upon the subject, which must be interesting to Englishmen :

without restraint, or provocation to any foreign princes or potentates of the world: the body spiritual whereof having power when any cause of the law divine happened to come in question, or of spiritual learning, then it was declared, interpreted, and showed by that part of the body politic called the spiritualty, now usually called the English Church; which always hath been reported and also found of that sort, that both for knowledge, integrity, and sufficiency of number, it hath been always thought, and is also at this hour sufficient and meet of itself, without the intermeddling of any exterior person or persons, to declare and determine all such doubts, and to administer all such offices and duties as to their rooms spiritual doth appertain... And the laws temporal, for trial of property of lands and goods, and for the conservation of the people of this realm in unity and peace,

was

and yet is administered, adjudged, and executed by sundry judges and ministers of the other part of the said body politic called the temporalty: and both their authorities and jurisdictions do conjoin together in the due administration of justice, the one to help the other."

It is stated that appeals had been made to Rome "in causes testamentary, causes of matrimony and divorces, oblations, and obventions," to the great vexation and expense of the king's subjects, and the great hindrance of justice. The appeal was often made for the purpose of delaying justice, and the difficulties of conveying witnesses and documents was so great that persons aggrieved were practically left without remedy by the appeal of the opposite side to the pope. This system was utterly abolished by the Act of Appeals, and it was enacted that in causes which had hitherto admitted of appeal to the Pope the appeal should run from the Archdeacon's Court to that of the Bishop, from the Bishop's

Court to that of the archbishop of the province, "there to be definitely and finally ordered, decreed, and adjudged, according to justice, without any other appellation or provocation to any other person or persons, court or courts." By a subsequent Act [25 Hen. VIII. c. 19] the latter provision was modified, and it was enacted that appeals might run from the Archbishop's Court to the Court of Chancery, which was to issue a commission under the great seal to certain delegates nominated by the Crown to re-hear the cause. In 1833 a Committee of the Privy Council was substituted for the Court of Delegates, and so the law of Appeal still remains.

Apron, BISHOP's.-A rather absurd sort of garment into the use of which English Bishops have drifted under the hands of tailors. It is the front part of a cassock cut away from the back part and the sleeves, and thus shaped like a blacksmith's or farrier's leather apron. Hence its popular name. It is worn under the coat instead of a waistcoat.

Apse. A recessed and vaulted building at the end of the eastern arm of a church, or of the aisles or the transepts, forming in

Roman Empire as town halls are in our English towns. In these halls the apse contained the raised platform on which the magistrate and his attendants were placed. When a basilica was turned into a church, or when churches were built in the same form, the altar was placed in the chord of the apse, and the clergy sat in seats around the wall, with the bishops in the middle, the person who celebrated the Holy Communion standing on the eastern side of the altar, facing west. In the

present day, in England, the altar is usually placed against, or near to, the eastern wall of the apse, the celebrant standing on the western side of it, facing east. Good examples of semicircular apses may be found in St. Paul's Cathedral, and in many churches built by Sir Christopher Wren and his pupils. Among the finest of ancient ones is that of the Church of St. Agnes at Rome. The apse has, however, been glorified by the hands of mediæval architects into such beautiful structures as the polygonal terminations of Cologne, Canterbury, and Norwich Cathedrals.

Aquæi, otherwise called "Hydrotheita." -These designations were given by early writers on heresies to those who held the opinion that all things emanated by a process of spontaneous evolution from water, which element they affirmed to be co-eternal with God.

Aquæ Bajulus.-The name given to the bearer of the holy water in processions. [BIDDING OF THE BEDES.] In small parishes he was doubtless the parish clerk, fulfilling the duties of both offices. [PARISH CLERK.] Aquarii.—These were "water-offerers," otherwise called, from two Greek words, "Hydroparastata," who used water instead of wine for the Holy Eucharist. This strange and unscriptural practice must have spread widely among ascetic sects in the early ages, for it is mentioned by St. Cyprian, and is distinctly condemned by canons of councils in the years 370, 675, and 692. It is not known ever to have been adopted by ascetics within the Church.

Aquila.-A Jewish proselyte who is famous as a translator of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek in the middle of the second century. He is said to have been a native of Pontus, as was the Aquila who, with his wife Priscilla, enjoyed the friendship of St. Paul. Epiphanius also speaks of him as a relative of the Emperor Hadrian [A.D. 117-138, who employed him to superintend the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and in modern times he has been identified with the famous Onkelos, the Jewish commentator. Traditions embodied in the Treatise of Epiphanius on weights and measures represent that Aquila was converted by observing the holy lives of the Christians who returned from their refuge at Pella to live in the new Holy City;

but that his persistence in the study of astrology led to his excommunication, when he projected a new translation of the Bible into Greek, for the purpose of evading those interpretations of the Septuagint Version which gave scriptural support to Christianity, The translation which he eventually produced was so made as to provide a Greek equivalent for every Hebrew word, and has thus become a valuable help in determining what was the text of the Hebrew in the second century. Only a portion of Aquila's translation has come down to modern times, and nothing more is known of his personal history than what is above stated.

Aquilinus, ST. [A.D. 620-695]. — This saint was born at Bayeux, and served in the army of Clovis II. About A.D. 653 he was made Bishop of Evreux, and from that time he entirely devoted himself to the good of his people, living in a small cell close to his cathedral and practising great austerities. In A.D. 688 he attended the Council of Rouen, held under St. Ausbertus. Towards the close of his life he suffered from loss of sight, and died in A.D. 695, after ruling his church for forty-two years. His festival is marked on October 19th in the Roman martyrology, but the Church of Evreux commemorates him on February 15th.

Aquinas, ST. THOMAS, OF OF AQUINO [A.D. 1224-1274], known to the later Church as "the Angelical Doctor."-This most famous theologian takes his name from his birthplace, Aquino, in the ancient kingdom of Naples, and from his family, he being a younger son of Landulf, Count of Aquino, who was a nephew of the celebrated Barbarossa, the Emperor Frederick I. From the age of five years to that of thirteen Aquinas was educated in the monastery of Monte Casino, near to the family seat, the castle of Rocca Secca. After that he proceeded to the University of Naples, which had just been founded by his relative Frederick II., grandson of Barbarossa, and had already acquired a great reputation. When he was only seventeen years of age he joined the recentlyfounded Order of Dominican Friars in one of their houses at Naples. This step was taken without the knowledge of his parents, and was naturally distasteful to them, for it seemed as if a promising career was open to him in military life. His mother hastened to Naples to persuade him, if possible, to give up his resolution before his noviciate was over. To prevent them from meeting, he was sent by his superiors to Terracina, Augni, and Rome, and when his mother arrived in the latter city she found that he had already left for Paris. The Countess, assisted by her three elder sons, seized him on the road, and carried him home to the castle of Rocca Secca, where they kept him under restraint for two years. At the end of that

the pope as a judge over the head of English judges. This Act contains some valuable statements upon the subject, which must be interesting to Englishmen :

"Whereas," it alleges, "by divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles, it is manifestly declared and expressed that this realm of England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world; governed by one supreme head and king, having the dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same; unto whom a body politic compact of all sorts and degrees of people, divided in terms and by names of spiritualty and temporalty, be bound and ought to bear, next to God, a natural and humble obedience: he being also institute and furnished by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty God with plenary, whole, and entire power, preeminence, authority, prerogative and jurisdiction, to render and yield justice and final determination to all manner of folk, residents or subjects, within this his realm, . . . without restraint, or provocation to any foreign princes or potentates of the world: the body spiritual whereof having power when any cause of the law divine happened to come in question, or of spiritual learning, then it was declared, interpreted, and showed by that part of the body politic called the spiritualty, now usually called the English Church; which always hath been reported and also found of that sort, that both for knowledge, integrity, and sufficiency of number, it hath been always thought, and is also at this hour sufficient and meet of itself, without the intermeddling of any exterior person or persons, to declare and determine all such doubts, and to administer all such offices and duties as to their rooms spiritual doth appertain... And the laws temporal, for trial of property of lands and goods, and for the conservation of the people of this realm in unity and peace,

was

Apse.-A recessed and vaulted building at the end of the eastern arm of a church, or of the aisles or the transepts, forming in

APSE OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

either situation a recess for an altar and the ministrations connected with it. It is generally semicircular, especially in very ancient churches, but not unfrequently in medieval and modern churches it has five or more sides. It is also occasionally found at the west end of a church as well as the east, where it forms a baptistery. This feature of church architecture was introduced from the Roman BASI LICA, a hall for the administration of justice, which was as common in the towns of the

Archbishop. The chief or principal bishop among the bishops of a group of dioceses. The office has been recognised under various names such as Metropolitan, Exarch, or Patriarch-from the earliest ages of the Church, and is perhaps the same as that of the "Angels of the Seven Churches" of the province of Asia to whom the seven epistles in the Book of the Revelation are written. The earliest use of the title is found in the writings of St. Athanasius, who speaks of Alexander, his own predecessor in the see of Alexandria, early in the fourth century, as the Archbishop of Alexandria. By the canon law, the several classes of bishops are settled as four: [1] Patriarchs; [2] Archbishops; [3] Metropolitans; [4] DioCesan Bishops; and although the distinction between metropolitan and archbishop has mostly passed away through the absorption of the lower rank into the higher, it is not always so, the English metropolitans of Canada, New Zealand, and India not being archbishops.

An archbishop's office is twofold. bishop of a particular see, he has to undertake the ordinary episcopal duties of a diocesan bishop, in which capacity he carries a pastoral crook; as archbishop and metropolitan, he has to undertake, as visitor and on appeal, the supervision of all the dioceses within his province, in which capacity he carries a metropolitan cross. Both crook and cross may be seen on some seals of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

England has for twelve centuries been divided into two Provinces, Canterbury and York, which are presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England, and the Archbishop of York, Primate of England. When St. Augustine reorganised the Church of England among the Saxon conquerors of the country, Gregory the Great directed him to divide it into two Archbishoprics, one at London, even then the chief city of England, with twelve bishops for the south; the other at York, long an important city as the headquarters of the Roman forces in England, with twelve bishops, for the north. Canterbury, the place where St. Augustine placed the headquarters of his mission, was to comprehend both north and south during the lifetime of the great missionary, and thus with St. Augustine [A.D. 597] originated the distinctive title ever so jealously guarded by, and on behalf of, the Archbishop of Canterbury, that of "Primate of ALL England." The advice of St. Gregory was not practically carried out as regards York for a century and a-half after the establishment of Canterbury as an archiepiscopal see. For a short time (A.D. 625-633], PAULINUS was Bishop of the Northumbrians, and as such held the Pall of an Archbishop which was sent to him by Pope Honorius, but the kingdom of Northumbria was not divided into dioceses until Paulinus

had fled from the north to Rochester, where he was Bishop for eleven years; and hence he had no bishops under him, and was never in reality an Archbishop. The first actual Archbishop of York was Egbert [A.D. 732-766], who was the second Bishop of York that had asked for and received a Pall from the Pope, and who had for his Metropolitical Province the dioceses of LINDISFARNE, HEXHAM, and WITHERNE. Although, therefore, the Bishops of Canterbury have been Archbishops of Canterbury for 1,288 years, the Bishops of York have only been Archbishops of York for 1,153 years.

The two Archbishops of England, in addition to their position as Metropolitans, have very high rank and privileges. The Archbishop of Canterbury ranks as a Prince immediately after the Princes of the blood royal, and before all other subjects. The Arch

bishop of York ranks as a Prince before all other subjects except the Lord Chancellor. It is in token of this high rank that their mitres are heraldically represented as being inserted in prince's coronets, but there is some uncertainty as to whether the mitres which they actually wore were ever in this form. The Archbishop of Canterbury has, by right, the privilege of crowning the Sovereign, the Archbishop of York that of crowning the Queen Consort. Both are ex officio members of the Privy Council, and the Archbishop of Canterbury is practically, if not constitutionally, the medium of communication between the Ministers of the Sovereign and the Church. At the demise of the Sovereign, in the absence of a regent there are also special duties devolving upon the Archbishop of Canterbury, which last until the duties of sovereign are assumed by the succeeding Prince or Princess. The position of Primate of All England is, indeed, a very important and a very grand one. He is practically a patriarch, though actually using only the style and title of Archbishop. So early had this become evident that at Councils held at Rome the Archbishop of Canterbury was placed on the right hand of the Pope, taking precedence of all other Archbishops as, in the complimentary words of Urban II., "alterius orbis Papa," his brother Pope of another world.

On the Primate's power of granting degrees, see LAMBETH DEGREES.

Both Archbishops have the title of "Grace," and "Most Reverend Father in God by Divine Providence," while the other bishops have that of "Lord," and "Right Reverend Father in God by Divine Permission." The Bishop of Meath, however, is addressed as "Most Reverend."

The Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury have been written as far as Juxon by Hook, Dean of Chichester; those of the Archbishops of York, by Raine, Canon of York.

It should be added that Welsh traditions assign the honour of an Archbishopric to

« Zurück Weiter »

Books