PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. (continued 19)

GALILEE. An appendage of some of our large churches is traditionally known by this name, and is supposed to be connected with some purposes of discipline, and to have borrowed its name from the words of the angel at the sepulchre to the women, “Go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee, there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.” (Mark xvi. 7.) The churches where a Galilee occurs are Durham, Lincoln, and Ely; but they have little in common except the name. That at Ely agrees with that at Durham in being at the west end of the church, but it differs in being to all appearance a mere porch of entrance, while that at Durham is a spacious building with five aisles and three altars; and, so far from its use being as a porch of entrance, the great west entrance was actually closed in the fifteenth century, while the Galilee in all probability retained its original use. That at Lincoln is at the south-west corner of the south transept; it is cruciform in plan, and has over it another chamber of the like size, once apparently arranged as a court of judicature, which favours the idea that the Galilee had some connexion with discipline. This was certainly the case at Durham, for there the consistory court has been held from time immemorial: and there Cardinal Langton erected a font for the children of persons who were excommunicate. But this was nearly 300 years after the building of the Galilee, which was certainly erected by Hugh Pudsey in the twelfth century, that women, who were allowed to proceed but a short distance into that particular church, might have a place where they might frequent the Divine ordinances; and this in itself had something of the nature of discipline. It may be worth noticing in addition, that all the three Galilees still remaining were erected between the middle of the twelfth and the middle of the thirteenth century.

GALLICAN CHURCH. (See Church of France.)

GARGOYLE, or GURGOYLE. A water spout, usually in Gothic buildings formed of some grotesque figure.

GEHENNA. The true origin and occasion of this word is this: there was an idol of Moloch, near Jerusalem, in the Valley of Hinnom, to which they offered human sacrifices. The Rabbis say, that they were wont to beat a drum, lest the people should hear the cries of the children that were thrown into the fire when they sacrificed them to idols. This valley was called Geenon, from Ge, which signifies 349a valley, and Ennom, which comes from Nahom, that signifies to groan; therefore hell, the place of eternal fire, is called Gehenna. The ancient writers did not make use of this word, and it was first used in the gospel.

GENERATION, THE ETERNAL. (See Eternity.) It is thus that the filiation without beginning of the Only Begotten of the Father is expressed.

The distinction of a threefold generation of the Son is well known among the learned, and is thus explained:—1. The first and most proper filiation and generation is his eternally existing in and of the Father, the eternal Λόγος of the eternal Mind. In respect of this, chiefly, he is the only begotten, and a distinct person from the Father. His other generations were rather condescensions, first to creatures in general, next to men in particular. 2. His second generation was his condescension, manifestation, coming forth, as it were, from the Father, (though never separated or divided from him,) to create the world: this was in time, and a voluntary thing; and in this respect, properly, he may be thought to be first-born of every creature, or before all creatures. 3. His third generation, or filiation, was when he condescended to be born of a pure virgin, and to become man also without ceasing to be God.—Waterland.

The second person of the Trinity is called the Son, yea, and the “only begotten Son of God,” because he was begotten of the Father, not as others are, by spiritual regeneration, but by eternal generation, as none but himself is, for the opening whereof we must know that God that made all things fruitful is not himself sterile or barren; but he that hath given power to animals to generate and produce others in their own nature, is himself much more able to produce one, not only like himself, but of the self-same nature with himself, as he did in begetting his Son, by communicating his own unbegotten essence and nature to him. For the person of the Son was most certainly begotten of the Father, or otherwise he would not be his Son; but his essence was unbegotten, otherwise he would not be God; and therefore the highest apprehensions that we can frame of this great mystery, the eternal generation of the Son of God, is only by conceiving the person of the Father to have communicated his Divine essence to the person of the Son; and so of himself begetting his other self the Son, by communicating his own eternal and unbegotten essence to him; I say, by communicating of his essence, not of his person to him (for then they would be both the same person, as now they are of the same essence); the essence of the Father did not beget the Son by communicating his person to him, but the person of the Father begat the Son by communicating his essence to him; so that the person of the Son is begotten, not communicated, but the essence of the Son is communicated, not begotten.

This notion of the Father’s begetting the Son, by communicating his essence to him, I ground upon the Son’s own words, who certainly best knew how himself was begotten: “For as the Father,” saith he, “hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.” (John v. 26.) To have life in himself is an essential property of the Divine nature; and, therefore, wheresoever that is given or communicated, the nature itself must needs be given and communicated too.

Now here we see how God the Father communicated this his essential property, and so his essence, to the Son; and, by consequence, though he be a distinct person from him, yet he hath the same unbegotten essence with him; and therefore as the Father hath life in himself, so hath the Son life in himself, and so all other essential properties of the Divine nature, only with this personal distinction, that the Father hath this life in himself, not from the Son, but from himself; whereas, the Son hath it, not from himself, but from the Father; or, the Father is God of himself, not of the Son; the Son is the same God, but from the Father, not from himself, and therefore not the Father, but the Son, is rightly called by the Council of Nice, God of God, Light of light, yea, very God of very God.—Beveridge.

What we assert is, that God the Father from all eternity communicated to his Son his own individual nature and substance; so that the same Godhead which is in the Father originally and primarily, is also in the Son by derivation and communication. By this communication there was given to the Son all those attributes and perfections which do simply and absolutely belong to the Divine nature; there was a communication of all the properties which naturally belong to the essence communicated; and hence it is that the Son is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, and the like, in the same infinite perfection as his Father is. The natural properties were thus communicated; but we cannot say the same of the personal properties, it being impossible they should be communicated, as being 350inseparable from the person: such are, the act of communicating the essence, the generation itself, and the personal pre-eminence of the Father, founded on that generation. These were not communicated, but are proper to the Father; as, on the other hand, the personal properties of the Son (filiation and subordination) are proper to the Son, and do not belong to the Father. And although in this incomprehensible mystery we use the term generation, (the Scripture having given us sufficient authority to do so, by styling him God’s Son, his proper Son, and his only begotten Son,) yet, by this term, we are not to understand a proceeding from non-existence to existence, which is the physical notion of generation; nor do we understand it in that low sense in which it is agreeable to creatures; but as it is consistent with the essential attributes of God, of which necessary existence is one. Nor, further, are we in this generation to suppose any division of the essence, or any external separation. The communication of the nature was not a separate one, like that of finite beings, but merely internal: and, though the Son be generated from the substance of the Father, (and thence be a distinct person from him,) yet he still continues to be in the Father, and the Father in him; herein differing from the production of all created beings, that in them the producer and the produced become two distinct individuals, which in this generation cannot be affirmed. The term used by the Greek Fathers to express this internal or undivided existence in the same nature, ἐμπεριχώρησις that of the Latin Fathers, circumincessio; and that distinction of the schoolmen, generatio ab intra; are terms which are as expressive as any words can be of a mystery so far above our comprehension. The Father and the Son by this communication do not become two Gods, (as Adam and Seth are two men,) but are only one God in the same undivided essence. The communication of this nature neither did, nor could, infringe the unity of it, because the Divine essence is simply one, and therefore cannot be divided; is absolutely infinite, and therefore incapable of being multiplied into more infinities. And this, by the way, sufficiently shows the weakness and falseness of that charge which has been so often thrown on the orthodox scheme of the Trinity, namely, that it is downright tritheism, and that to maintain that the three persons are each of them God, is in effect to maintain three Gods; a charge which is so far from being a just consequence of our principles, that it is manifestly inconsistent with them, and impossible to be true upon them. We hold the Divine essence to be one simple, indivisible essence; we assert that the Father communicated to the Son, without division, this his individual substance; and therefore, upon these our principles, the unity of the Divine essence must still unavoidably be preserved; and upon this scheme the three distinct persons neither are, nor can be, (what is falsely suggested against us,) three distinct Gods. This communication of the Divine substance to God the Son was not a temporary one, but strictly and absolutely eternal; eternal in the proper sense of that word; in the same sense in which eternity is ascribed to the Divine nature itself; and eternal, in the same sense as God the Father himself is so.—Stephens.

GENESIS. The first book of the Bible. The Hebrews call it ברשית, Bereschith, which signifies, in the beginning; these being the first words of the book. The Greeks gave it the name of Genesis, or Generation, because it contains the genealogy of the first patriarchs from Adam to the sons and grandsons of Jacob; or because it begins with the history of the creation of the world. It includes the history of 2369 years, from the beginning of the world to the death of the patriarch Joseph. Besides the history of the creation, it contains an account of the original innocence and fall of man, the propagation of mankind, the rise of religion, the invention of arts, the general defection and corruption of the world, the deluge, the restoration of the world, the division and peopling of the earth, the original of nations and kingdoms, the history of the first patriarchs down to Joseph, at whose death it ends.

GENTILE. (From Gentes.) All the people in the world, except the Jews, were called Gentiles.

GENTLEMEN OF THE CHAPEL ROYAL. The lay singers of the Royal Chapel are so called; and their duty is to perform with the priests, in order, the choral service there, which was formerly daily. According to the present rule, they attend in monthly courses of eight at a time. In ancient times this body was more numerous: Edward VI.’s chapel had thirty-two gentlemen; Queen Elizabeth’s thirty; James I.’s twenty-three.

GEOMETRICAL. The style of Gothic architecture which succeeded the Early English about 1245, and gave place to the Decorated about 1315.

In this style window tracery was first 351introduced, and it is distinguished from the tracery of the succeeding style by the use of simple geometrical forms, each in general perfect in itself, and not running into one another. (See Tracery, and the engravings there given.) From the use of tracery large windows naturally followed, sometimes even extending to six or eight lights; and from these larger openings in the walls some constructive changes followed, especially in the greater weight and projection of the buttresses. The doors are very often, as in the Early English, divided by a central shaft. The piers very soon lose the detached shafts, and are rather formed of solid clusters. In early examples the triforium is still retained as a distinct feature; in later, it is treated as a decorative band of panelling. Arcading is either discontinued, or increases very greatly in richness. Vaulting hardly advances upon the simple forms of the preceding style. All decorative features are of the very highest order of excellence, and are far more natural than either before or after, without losing in grace, or force, or character. There is no single decoration peculiar to this style, but crockets first appear in it, as also the ball-flower; on the other hand, the dog-tooth is quite given up.

GHOST. (See Holy Ghost.) A spirit. The third person in the blessed Trinity is spoken of as the Holy Ghost. Giving up the ghost means expiring, or dying.

GIRDLE. A cincture binding the alb round the waist. Formerly it was flat and broad, and sometimes adorned with jewels; in the Roman Catholic Church it has been changed into a long cord with dependent extremities and tassels. The zone is regarded as a type of purity.—Jebb.

GLEBE. Every church is of common right entitled to house and glebe.

These are both comprehended under the name of manse, and the rule of the canon law is, “Sancitum est, ut unicuique ecclesiæ unus mansus integer, absque ullo servitio, tribuatur.” This is repeated in the canons of Egbert; and the assigning of these was of such absolute necessity, that without them no church could be regularly consecrated. The fee simple of the glebe is in abeyance, from the French bayer, to expect, i. e. it is only in the remembrance, expectation, and intendment, of law. Lord Coke says, this was provided by the providence and wisdom of the law, for that the parson and vicar have cure of souls, and were bound to celebrate Divine service, and administer the sacraments, and therefore no act of the predecessor should make a discontinuance, to take away the entry of the successor, and to drive him to a real action whereby he might be destitute of maintenance in the mean time.

After induction, the freehold of the glebe is in the parson, but with these limitations: (1.) That he may not alienate, nor exchange, except upon the conditions set forth in the statutes cited below; (2.) that he may not commit waste by selling wood, &c.

But it has been adjudged that the digging of mines in glebe lands is not waste; for the court said, in denying a prohibition, “if this were accounted waste, no mines that are in glebe lands could ever be opened.”

Glebe lands, in the hands of the parson, shall not pay tithe to the vicar, though endowed generally of the tithes of all lands within the parish; nor being in the hands of the vicar, shall they pay tithe to the parson. This is according to the known maxim of the canon law, that “The Church shall not pay tithes to the Church;” but otherwise if the glebe be leased out, for then it shall be liable to pay tithes respectively as other lands are. By a statute of Henry VIII., if the parson dies in possession of glebe, and another is inducted before severance of the crop from the ground, his executor shall have the corn, but the successor shall have the tithes: the reason is, because, although the executor represents the testator, yet he cannot represent him as parson; inasmuch as another parson is inducted. By 13 Eliz. c. 10, the term for leasing glebe is limited to twenty-one years, or three lives. The 55 Geo. III. c. 147, 56 Geo. III. c. 52, 1 Geo. IV. c. 6, are acts for “enabling spiritual persons to exchange their parsonage houses or glebe lands.” (See also 6 Geo. IV. c. 8; 7 Geo. IV. c. 66; 1 & 2 Vict. c. 23; 2 & 3 Vict. c. 49; 5 & 6 Vict. c. 27; 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 93.)

Canon 87. A Terrier of Glebe lands, and other Possessions belonging to Churches.—“We ordain that the archbishops and all bishops within their several dioceses shall procure (as much as in them lieth) that a true note and terrier of all the glebes, lands, meadows, gardens, orchards, houses, stocks, implements, tenements, and portions of tithes, lying out of their parishes, (which belong to any parsonage, or vicarage, or rural prebend,) be taken by the view of honest men in every parish, by the appointment of the bishop, (whereof the minister to be one,) and be laid up in the bishop’s registry, there to be for a perpetual memory thereof.”

352By 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, the bishop may assign four acres of glebe to the curate, occupying the house of a non-resident incumbent, at a fixed rent, to be approved of by the bishop.

GLORIA IN EXCELSIS. “Glory be [to God] on high.” One of the doxologies of the Church, sometimes called the angelic hymn, because the first part of it was sung by the angels at Bethlehem. The latter portion of this celebrated hymn is ascribed to Telesphorus, bishop of Rome, about the year of Christ 139; and the whole hymn, with very little difference, is to be found in the Apostolical Constitutions, and was established to be used in the Church service by the fourth Council of Toledo, A. D. 633. It is used by both the Greek and Latin Church. “In the Eastern Church,” says Palmer, “this hymn is more than 1500 years old, and the Church of England has used it, either at the beginning or end of the liturgy, for above 1200 years.” It is now used at the conclusion of the Communion Service; but in the First Book of King Edward VI. was placed near the beginning. It is directed to be sung or said; and ought to be sung in all cathedrals at least, as it is still at Exeter, Durham, and occasionally at Worcester and Windsor.

GLORIA PATRI. “Glory be to the Father.” The Latin title of one of the primitive doxologies of the Church, sometimes called the lesser doxology, to distinguish it from the Gloria in excelsis, or angelic hymn. From the times of the apostles it has been customary to mingle ascriptions of glory with prayer, and to conclude the praises of the Church, and also sermons, with glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. The first part of the Gloria Patri is traced by St. Basil to the apostolic age. In the writings of the Fathers, doxologies are of very frequent occurrence, and in the early Church they appear to have been used as tests, by which orthodox Christians and Churches were distinguished from those which were infected with heresy. The doxologies then in use, though the same in substance, were various in form and mode of expression. The Arians soon took advantage of this diversity, and wrested some of them so as to appear to favour their own views. One of the doxologies which ran in these words, “Glory be to the Father, by the Son, in the Holy Ghost,” was employed by them in support of their heretical opinions. In consequence of this, and to set the true doctrine of the Church in the clearest light, the form, as now used, was adopted as the standing doxology of the Church. (See Doxology.)

Of the hymns that made a part of the service of the ancient Church, one of the most common was what is called the lesser doxology. The most ancient form of it was only a single sentence without a response—“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.” Part of the latter clause, “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,” was inserted some time after the first composition. In the fourth Council of Toledo, an. 633, the words, “As it was in the beginning,” &c., are omitted, but the word “honour” is added to “glory,” according to a decree of that council; that it should be said, “Glory and honour be to the Father:” forasmuch as the prophet David says, “Bring glory and honour to the Lord,” and John the Evangelist, in the Revelation, heard the voice of the heavenly host, saying, “Honour and glory be to our God, who sitteth on the throne.” (Rev. v. 13.) From whence they conclude, that it ought to be said on earth as it is sung in heaven. The Mozarabic liturgy, which was used in Spain a little after this time, has it in the very same form: “Glory and honour be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen.” The Catholics themselves of old were wont to say, some, “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;” others, “with the Holy Ghost;” and others, “in or by the Son, and by the Holy Ghost.” These different ways of expressing were all allowed, so long as no heterodox opinion was suspected to be couched under them. But when Arius had broached his heresy in the world, his followers would use no other form of glorification but the last, and made it a distinguishing character of their party to say, “Glory be to the Father, in, or by, the Son, and Holy Ghost:” intending hereby to denote, that the Son and Holy Ghost were inferior to the Father in substance, and, as creatures, of a different nature from him, as Sozomen and other ancient writers inform us. From this time it became scandalous, and brought any one under the suspicion of heterodoxy to use it, because the Arians had now, as it were, made it the shibboleth of their party. We may observe, that it was a hymn of most general use, and a doxology offered to God in the close of every solemn office. The Western Church repeated it at the end of every psalm, and the Eastern Church at the end of the last psalm.—The whole 353commonly running thus: “To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be all glory, worship, thanksgiving, honour, and adoration, now and for ever, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”—Bingham.

In this diversity there was certainly nothing either intended ill towards the truth, or which could be directly drawn into ill construction; but when, about the time of the Nicene Council, the Arians began to sow their seeds of heresy touching the inequality of the three persons, and, the better to colour their pretences, sheltered themselves under the protection of the doxology, “the Father, by the Son, in the Holy Ghost,” formerly used, to which they constantly adhere, the Council of Nice, to avoid all occasion of future question, held herself to that form which came nighest to the form of baptism composed by our Saviour, and the doctrine of Christian faith; prescribing it to be punctually observed by all such as were of the orthodox party.—L’Estrange.

It were well if this ancient heresy were so buried as never to rise or revive any more. But, alas! that weed was never so thoroughly rooted out, but the seeds of it soon sprang up again, to the depraving of the doctrine and disturbing the peace of the Church. In these later years there hath arisen up one Socinus, a man of a subtle and crafty wit, who hath rubbed up and revived the same heresy, by denying the Divinity and satisfaction of our blessed Saviour, and hath carried away many by his cunning and corrupt reasoning.—Hole.

If the reasoning of Basil be conclusive, or his opinion may be relied upon, this hymn, Gloria Patri, derives its origin from the apostles. Glorifying the Father, and the Son, together with the Holy Ghost, was in Basil’s judgment practised and prescribed by the apostles themselves. This, he believes, was one of the “ordinances,” or “traditions,” which St. Paul praises the Corinthians for keeping, as they had been delivered to them by him (1 Cor. xi. 2); and exhorts the Thessalonians to hold, as they had been taught, whether by word, or by epistle. (2 Thess. ii. 15.) On this principle, Basil accounts for the practice of ascribing glory to the Trinity, which in his day was universal.—In different passages of his works we find him thus arguing: “As we have received, so must we be baptized; as we are baptized, so must we believe; and as we have believed, so must we glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”—Shepherd.

The earliest instance that we meet with of the use of this hymn, is found in the circular epistle of the Church of Smyrna, concerning the martyrdom of their beloved bishop Polycarp, from whence we learn that a doxology, nearly resembling Gloria Patri, was the last words he uttered. Polycarp was conversant with the apostles, and was consecrated bishop of Smyrna by St. John the Evangelist. To him, among others, St. John is said to have addressed the Revelation, in which Polycarp is entitled “the angel of the Church of Smyrna.” With some little difference in the phrase of their doxologies, the Christians of the three first ages agreed in uniformly expressing the same thing. Believing and confessing, that in the eternal Godhead there existed three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, they ascribed to them all honour and glory.—Shepherd.

To this very day this serves for these two uses; first, as a shorter creed, and confession of our believing in “three persons and one God,” whereby we both declare ourselves to be in the communion of the Catholic Church, and also renounce all heretics who deny this great and distinguishing article of our faith; secondly, for a hymn of praise, by which we magnify the Father for our creation, the Son for our redemption, and the Holy Ghost for our sanctification; and to quicken us herein, we declare it was so “in the beginning,” for the angels sung the praises of the Trinity in the morning of the creation; and the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, saints and martyrs, did thus worship God from the beginning. The whole Church militant and triumphant doth it “now,” and shall do it for “ever,” not only in this “world,” but in that which is “without end.” Let us, therefore, with great devotion, join with this blessed company in so good a work, and give glory to the Father who granted our pardon, to the Son who purchased it, and to the Holy Ghost who sealed it.—Comber.

GLOSS. A comment.

GNOSTICS. (From γνώσις, knowledge.) The word Gnostic properly signifies a learned or enlightened person; and thus Clement of Alexandria uses it to denote the perfect Christian, who is the true Gnostic. But in its more common use, the term signifies a class of heretics, who pretended to superior knowledge, and mixed up some Christian ideas and terms with systems based on Platonism, Oriental philosophy, or corrupt Judaism. To this class most of the earliest sects belonged. Simon Magus may be considered as the 354forerunner of Gnosticism; and in the second century there were many varieties of Gnostics—as the followers of Basilides Saturninus, Carpocrates, Valentinus, &c. Of these the Carpocratians alone are said to have assumed the name.

The Gnostic systems held in common a belief in one supreme God, dwelling from eternity in the Pleroma, or fulness of light. From him proceed successive generations of spiritual beings—called by Valentinus Æons. In proportion as these emanations are more remote from the primal source, the likeness of his perfections in them is continually fainter. Matter is regarded as eternal, and as inherently evil. Out of it the world was formed, not by the Supreme God, but by the Demiurge—a being who is represented by some heresiarchs as merely a subordinate and unconscious instrument of the Divine will, and by others as positively malignant, and hostile to the Supreme. The Demiurge was the national God of the Jews—the God of the Old Testament; according, therefore, as he is viewed, the Mosaic economy is either recognised as preparatory, or is rejected as evil. The mission of Christ was for the purpose of delivering man from the tyranny of the Demiurge. But the Christ of Gnosticism was neither very God nor very man. His spiritual nature, being an emanation from the Supreme God, was necessarily inferior to its original; and, on the other hand, an emanation from God could not dwell in a material, and consequently evil, body. Either, therefore, Jesus was a mere man, on whom the Æon Christ descended at his baptism, to forsake him again before his crucifixion; or the body with which Christ seemed to be clothed was only a phantom, and all his actions were only in appearance. (See Docetæ.)

The same view as to the evil nature of matter led the Gnostics to deny the resurrection of the body. They could admit no other than a spiritual resurrection; the object of their philosophy was to emancipate the soul from its gross and material prison at death; the soul of the perfect Gnostic, having already risen in baptism, was to be gathered into the bosom of God, while such souls as yet lacked their full perfection, were to work it out in a series of transmigrations.

Since matter was evil, the Gnostic was required to overcome it. But here arose an important practical difference; for, while some sought the victory by a high ascetic abstraction from the things of sense, the baser kind professed to show their superiority and indifference by wallowing in impurity and excess.—(See Bardesanists, Basilidians, Carpocratians, Marcionites, Ophitæ, Valentinians.)

GOD. This is the name we give to that eternal, infinite, and incomprehensible Being, the Maker and Preserver of all things, who exists One Being in a Trinity of Persons. The name is derived from the Icelandic Godi, which signifies the supreme magistrate.

Article I. “There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

The Father is God.

God the Father (John vi. 27; Gal. i. 1, 3; 1 Thess. i. 1). God, even the Father (1 Cor. xv. 24; 2 Cor. i. 3; James iii. 9). One God and Father (Eph. iv. 6). One God the Father (1 Cor. viii. 6); and the passages where God is spoken of as the Father of our Lord Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. xvi. 16; John iii. 16; vi. 27; Rom. v. 10; viii. 3; xv. 6).

The Son is God.

I. So expressly declared.

The mighty God (Isa. ix. 6). Make straight—a highway for our God! (xl. 3). Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever! (Ps. xlv. 6, with Heb. i. 8). I will save them by the Lord their God (Hosea i. 7). Immanuel, God with us (Isa. vii. 14; Matt. i. 23). The Word was God (John i. 1). My Lord and my God! (xx. 28; see Ps. xxxv. 23). Feed the Church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood (Acts xx. 28). They stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, &c. (vii. 59). Christ is over all, God, blessed for ever! (Rom. ix. 5.) God was manifest in the flesh, &c., believed on in the world, received up into glory (1 Tim. iii. 16). God our Saviour. (Titus ii. 10). The great God (13). Our God and Saviour, Jesus Christ (Gr.) (2 Pet. i. 1, with Titus ii. 13). Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us (1 John iii. 16). The true God, and eternal life (v. 20).

II. By necessary implication.

The angel Jehovah is God (Gen. xxxi. 11, with 13; and xxxv. 9–13, and 15; xvi. 9, with 13; Ex. iii. 2, with 4, and 6). I am Alpha and Omega—he that overcometh—I will be his God (Rev. xxi. 6, 7). We must all stand before the judgment 355seat of Christ, for,—every tongue shall confess to God (Rom. xiv. 10, 11). I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, &c. (Rev. xx. 12). Many shall he (John the Baptist) turn to the Lord their God, for he shall go before him (Luke i. 16, 17; with Matt. iii. 11, and xi. 10). The Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel (Rev. xxii. 6, with 16). I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify, &c. They tempted the most high God (Ps. lxxviii. 56), applied to Christ (1 Cor. x. 9). Behold the Lord God will come—behold his reward is with him (Isa. xl. 10, with Rev. xxii. 12, 20). Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me—I am Alpha and Omega. Surely I come quickly, Amen! even so, come, Lord Jesus!—To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory, &c. Amen! (Jude 25).

III. From his attributes.

As he is wisdom itself (Prov. viii. throughout; Luke xi. 49, with Col. ii. 3).—As he is the holy one (Ps. xvi. 10); the most holy (Dan. ix. 24, with Rev. iii. 7).—As he is the truth (John xiv. 6, and Rev. iii. 7, with 1 John v. 20).—As he is eternal.—Eternal life (1 John i. 1, 2, and v. 20).—From his unchangeableness (Heb. i. 11, 12, and xiii. 8, with Mal. iii. 6).—His omnipresence (John iii. 13; Matt. xviii. 20; xxviii. 20; Eph. i. 23; iv. 10).—His omniscience (Rev. ii. 23; John ii. 24, 25; v. 42). Knowing the thoughts (Matt. ix. 4; xii. 15, 25; Mark ii. 8; Luke v. 22; vi. 8; ix. 47; xi. 17; John vi. 61, 64; xvi. 19; xxi. 17, with 1 Cor. iv. 5; this with 1 Kings viii. 39). Thou, even thou only, (O Lord God,) knowest the hearts of all the children of men.—Omnipotence: The works of creation. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made (John i. 3, with Ps. cii. 25; Col. i. 16, and Jer. x. 10, 11).—And providence. By him all things consist (Col. i. 17). Upholding all things by the word of his power (Heb. i. 3).—Judging the world. The Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead (2 Tim. iv. 1, &c., with Gen. xviii. 25, and Ps. l. 6). God is judge himself.—Raising the dead (John vi. 40, 54; v. 28, 29; with Deut. xxxii. 39). I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me; I kill, and I make alive!—The forgiveness of sins (Mark ii. 10, 11, &c., with Isa. xliii. 25). I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, and Mark ii. 7.

IV. As Divine worship is due, and paid to him.

Being directed by prophecy. All kings shall fall down before him (Ps. lxxii. 11). All dominions shall serve and obey him (Dan. vii. 27). Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way (Ps. ii. 12). He is thy Lord, and worship thou him (xlv. 11). Let all the angels of God worship him! (Heb. i. 6.) All men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. External worship was paid by the wise men (Matt. ii. 11)—by the leper (viii. 2)—by the ruler (ix. 18)—by the seamen in the storm (xiv. 33)—by the woman of Canaan (xv. 25)—by the blind man (John ix. 38)—by the Marys, &c. (Matt. xxviii. 9), and by his disciples (Rev. i. 17). At the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and in earth (Phil. ii. 10; compare this with Matt. iv. 10, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve; and Neh. ix. 6, Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, &c., and the host of heaven worshippeth thee!).

V. As there must be faith, and hope, and trust in him.

See John iii. 15, 16; xiv. 1; xii. 44; Rom. x. 11; xv. 12; Acts xvi. 31; Eph. i. 12, 13, with Jer. xvii. 5. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man; whose heart departeth from the Lord! but blessed are all they that put their trust in him!

VI. As praise and thanksgiving are offered to him.

Daily shall he be praised (Ps. lxxii. 15). Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins, be glory and dominion for ever and ever! (Rev. i. 5, 6; compare Ps. cxlviii. 13). Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is excellent. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. i. 2, and Rev. v. 11–13). Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive honour, and glory, and blessing—blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever!—Salvation to our God, who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. Blessing, &c. be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen! (Rev. vii. 10–12).

The Holy Ghost is God.

This perhaps is only to be proved by implication and analogy.

I. In regard to title.

The Spirit of the Lord spake by me—the God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake (2 Sam. xxiii. 2, 3). That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God (Luke i. 35). She was found with child of the Holy Ghost (Matt. i. 18). Why—lie to the Holy 356Ghost—thou hast lied unto God (Acts v. 3, 4). Born of the Spirit (John iii. 6). Be born of God (1 John v. 4). Consider, too, no man taketh this honour to himself, but he that is called of God (Heb. v. 4). Pray the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth labourers (Matt. ix. 38).—The Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.—So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed (Acts xiii. 2, and 4). They shall be all taught of God (John vi. 45). Not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth (1 Cor. ii. 13). Ye are the temple of God (1 Cor. iii. 16). Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (vi. 19). The hand of the Lord God fell there upon me, and he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head, and the Spirit lifted me up (Ezek. viii. 1–3).

See also the following passages, as respectively explaining each other: Luke ii. 26, with John xiv. 16, 17, and 1 Cor. xiv. 25.—Matt. iv. 1, with Luke xi. 4.—2 Cor. i. 3, with Acts ix. 31; John xiv. 26, &c.—1 Cor. ii. 11, with 14.—Matt. iv. 7, with Acts v. 9.—Gen. vi. 3, with 1 Pet. iii. 20.—Luke xi. 20, with Matt. xii. 28.—Acts iv. 24, 25, with i. 16,—and Luke i. 68, 70, with Acts xxviii. 25; and various others that might be noticed.

That the Father, under whatever names he is described and addressed, is God, is not disputable. That the Son is also God, it would seem much of rashness to doubt; since he was foretold by prophecy before his manifestation in the flesh, to be God, and appeared as God to the patriarchs.—God the Son, the angel and guardian of his people; for “God”—the Trinity in unity—“no man hath seen at any time.” That he must be a God who has such titles applied to him, such Divine attributes and offices, and to whom Divine worship is paid, the Arian allows, and the Socinian did not always deny; but that he is another—an inferior God, thus making more Gods than one, the voice of revelation expressly contradicts.

The Divinity of the Son is in fact proved both directly and incidentally; but the personality and Divinity of the Holy Spirit are less decisively expressed and treated of—apparently because the Holy Ghost was never incarnate, nor appeared in a bodily form upon earth, and therefore we have not his frequent declarations, as we have those of the Son, nor direct addresses to him, as we have to the Father, to illustrate this point, but are left to gather the truth from the mouths of the prophets—the holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. From their preaching we sufficiently learn that he joined in the work of creation—that he dwells in the temple of the body, (1 Cor. iii. 16; vi. 19, 20; 2 Cor. vi. 16,) and the faithful are therefore dedicated to him—that he is eternal, omnipresent, infinite in power and knowledge—that obedience is due to him, and the sin against him considered unpardonable—and that he is to be worshipped is implied by the apostolic form of benediction. That the Holy Spirit is a person is proved, independently of analogous reasoning, by a clear personal distinction between him and the Father and the Son.

The term God, when used in Holy Scripture in relation to the Father of our Lord Christ, is evidently used in a personal sense; and in such sense the Church also speaks of God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. But when it is announced that there is but one God, though he is the Father of all, the term is used essentially, and comprehends the sacred three. The unity of the Godhead is so unequivocally declared in Holy Scripture, that we dare not deny it: but neither, it is presumed, can we safely deny that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are each of them God, without either impeaching the authenticity of most of the passages cited in this article, or making the word of God (itself) of none effect, by strifes of words, not to say profane and vain babblings.

GODFATHER. (See Sponsors.) He that holds the child at the baptismal font, and answers for him. The custom of godfathers or sponsors is very ancient in the Church. We find them mentioned by Tertullian, the Apostolical Constitutions, St. Chrysostom, and St. Augustine. There were three sorts of sponsors: 1. For children. 2. For adult persons, who through sickness were not able to answer for themselves. 3. For such as could answer. The sureties for the first were obliged to be guardians of children’s Christian education; and indeed at first they were the parents of the children, and it was in extraordinary cases, either when the parent could not or would not, that others were admitted to be sureties. Sureties of the second sort were such as engaged to the Church that the adult person, who was grown incapable to answer for himself, did, when he was capable, desire to be baptized. But those of the third sort, who appeared with the person to be baptized, 357obliged themselves to admonish the person of his duty, as they had, before baptism, instructed him in it. Anciently deaconnesses were the sponsors for women, and the deacons were for the men. Parents were not forbidden to be sponsors for their children, before the Council of Mentz, A. D. 813. In the Church of Rome it is not lawful to marry any person to whom one stands related in this spiritual way; and this occasions numberless disputes, and numberless dispensations, which ring great sums of money to the exchequer of Rome.

Rubric. “There shall be for every male child to be baptized, two godfathers and one godmother; and for every female, one godfather and two godmothers.”

Canon 29. “No person shall be urged to be present, nor be admitted to answer as godfather for his own child; nor any godfather or godmother shall be suffered to make any other answer or speech, than by the Book of Common Prayer is prescribed in that behalf. Neither shall any person be admitted godfather or godmother to any child at christening or confirmation, before the said person so undertaking hath received the holy communion.”

Rubric. “And the godfathers and godmothers, and the people with the children, must be ready at the font, either immediately after the last lesson at morning prayer, or else immediately after the last lesson at evening prayer, as the curate by his discretion shall appoint.”

GOLDEN NUMBER. By referring to the astronomical tables at the beginning of the Prayer Book, it will be seen that a large proportion of them are simply calculations of the day on which Easter will fall in any given year, and, by consequence, the moveable feasts depending on it. In the early Church, it is well known that there were many and long disputes on this point, the Eastern and Western Churches not agreeing on the particular day for the celebration of this festival. To remove these difficulties, the Council of Nice came to a decision, from which the following rule was framed, viz. “Easter day is always the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after the 21st day of March; and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday after.”

To determine the time of Easter in any year, it was therefore only necessary to find out the precise time of the above full moon, and to calculate accordingly. Now if the solar year exactly corresponded with the lunar, the time of the paschal moon would be liable to no variation, and Easter would fall on the same day of every year; but as the lunar year is really shorter than the solar, by eleven days, it follows that the paschal moon must, for a course of years, always happen at a different period in each successive year. If then the above rule be observed, the time of Easter may vary from the 22nd of March to the 25th of April, but somewhere within these limits it will always fall. Hence the adoption by the Council of Nice of the Metonic Cycle, by which these changes might be determined with tolerable accuracy. From the great usefulness of this cycle, its numbers were usually written on the calendar in letters of gold, from which it derived the name of Golden Number.

GOOD FRIDAY. The Friday in Passion week received this name from the blessed effects of our Saviour’s sufferings, which are the ground of all our joy, and from those unspeakable good things he hath purchased for us by his death, whereby the blessed Jesus made expiation for the sins of the whole world, and by the shedding of his own blood, obtained eternal redemption for us. Among the Saxons it was called Long Friday; but for what reason, except for the long fastings and offices they then used, does not appear.

The commemoration of our Saviour’s sufferings hath been kept from the very first age of Christianity, and was always observed as a day of the strictest fasting and humiliation; not that the grief and affliction they then expressed did arise from the loss they sustained, but from a sense of the guilt of the sins of the whole world, which drew upon our blessed Redeemer that painful and shameful death of the cross.

The Gospel for this day (besides its coming in course) is properly taken out of St. John rather than any other evangelist, because he was the only one that was present at the passion, and stood by the cross while others fled: and, therefore, the passion being as it were represented before our eyes, his testimony is read who saw it himself, and from whose example we may learn not to be ashamed or afraid of the cross of Christ. The Epistle proves, from the insufficiency of the Jewish sacrifices, that they only typified a more sufficient one, which the Son of God did, as on this day, offer up, and by one oblation of himself then made upon the cross, complete all the other sacrifices, (which were only shadows of this,) and made full satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. In imitation of which Divine and infinite love, the Church endeavours to show her 358charity to be boundless and unlimited, by praying in one of the proper collects, that the effects of Christ’s death may be as universal as the design of it, namely, that it may tend to the salvation of all, Jews, Turks, infidels, and heretics.

How suitable the proper psalms are to the day, is obvious to any one that reads them with a due attention: they were all composed by David in times of the greatest calamity and distress, and do most of them belong mystically to the crucifixion of our Saviour; especially the twenty-second, which is the first for the morning, which was in several passages literally fulfilled by his sufferings, and, either part of it, or all, recited by him upon the cross. And for that reason (as St. Austin tells us) was always used upon that day by the African Church.

The first lesson for the morning is Genesis xxii., containing an account of Abraham’s readiness to offer up his son; thereby typifying that perfect oblation which was this day made by the Son of God; which was thought so proper a lesson for this occasion, that the Church used it upon this day in St. Austin’s time. The second lesson is St. John xviii., which needs no explanation. The first lesson for the evening contains a clear prophecy of the passion of Christ, and of the benefits which the Church thereby receives. The second lesson exhorts us to patience under afflictions, from the example of Christ, who suffered so much for us.—Wheatly.

The proper psalms and both the second lessons for Good Friday were added at the last review: and Genesis xxii., the first morning lesson, which was formerly read all through, limited to ver. 20.

GOOD WORKS. “Albeit that good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of God’s judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith; insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit.”—Article XII.

Good works are inseparable from our union with Christ; but then as effects of that union, not as causes or instruments. “We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” “Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me—separate from me—ye can do nothing.” While, however, we regard good works as effects of our union with Christ, we must remember that they are an end also, nay, the end for which we have been united to him; and if so, a condition of the continuance of our union. “The branch cannot,” it is true, “bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine;” but yet its fruitfulness is the object of the care and pains which the vinedresser bestows upon it, and therefore a condition on which it is suffered to remain. “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” And as fruitfulness in good works is a condition on which we are suffered to continue in Christ, so also is it the measure according to which fresh supplies of grace are given; “every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” “Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.” And yet further, which indeed follows upon the foregoing—our works are the rule by which God will judge us at the last day. These will declare, beyond all controversy, how far we have answered the end of our new creation; how far we have improved the talents intrusted to us; how far we are qualified and prepared for that kingdom, into which “there shall in nowise enter anything that defileth,” where “the people shall be all righteous,” where “the merciful” “shall receive mercy,” where “the pure in heart” “shall see God;” where the servant, who has so improved the pound intrusted to him as to have gained five pounds, shall be appointed to reign over five cities, and he who has gained ten pounds, shall have authority over ten cities.

It is one great secret of holy living to remember, that holiness is to be sought in and from Christ; to be wrought in us by his Spirit. We are too prone to overlook this great truth; to forget the strength which we have in Christ. We act as though, notwithstanding all that Christ hath done for us and in us, Christian virtue were nothing more than moral habits strengthened by exercise. Whereas, in truth, it takes a far higher range. It consists in habits doubtless; but they are habits of him who has been created anew 359in Christ Jesus; they are the habits of him who is one with Christ, and partaker of the Spirit of Christ; who has been planted together with Christ, in the likeness of his death, that he should be also in the likeness of his resurrection; and who has that blessed promise to cheer and encourage him in striving against sin. “Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”—Heurtley.

GOSPEL. (A word compounded of two Saxon words, god, “good,” and spell, a “message” or “tidings,” and so answering to the Greek εὐαγγέλιον.) God’s or Good Tidings—the glad tidings of the salvation wrought for man by the Lord Jesus Christ.

In a stricter sense, the word means each of the four histories of our Saviour, written by the Evangelists: in a more confined sense still, it means that portion of Scripture which is read immediately after the Epistle in the ante-communion service, and which is taken from one of the four Gospels. A Gospel is also read in the Baptismal Service.

In the mediæval Church there were always peculiar ceremonies used in honour of the Gospel, as for instance, the bringing special lights even during day-time, placing the book of the Gospels reverently on the altar, incensing them, &c. In the Anglican Church we retain some vestiges of this in standing whilst the Gospel is read, and preceding it by the “Glory be to thee, O Lord,” a sentence retained traditionally from the ancient Church.

GOSPELLER. The priest who in the Communion Service reads the Gospel, standing at the north side of the altar. In some cathedrals one of the clergy is so designated, and has this special duty among others to perform. By the 24th Canon, in cathedral and collegiate churches, a Gospeller (as well as an Epistoler) is to assist the priest, vested in a cope. Gospellers are statutable members of the several cathedrals of the new foundation, and an officer so called still officiates at Durham, though the office has generally fallen into desuetude; and, contrary to the ancient universal usage of the Church, even when many priests and deacons are present, it is usual for but two ministers to attend at the first part of the Communion Service: the principal minister reading the Gospel. Strictly speaking, the deacon is the minister for the Gospel; since, in the ordering of deacons, authority is given them to “read the Gospel in the Church of God.”—Jebb. (See also Epistoler.)

GOSSIP. A sponsor for an infant in baptism, from God and sib, a Saxon word, which signifies kindred, affinity: kin in God.

GOTHIC. A general term for that style of mediæval architecture of which the pointed arch is the most prominent character. Together with Romanesque (an equally general term for that style of which the round arch is the most prominent character) it comprehends all mediæval ecclesiastical architecture in England. The substyles with their dates may be roughly stated as follows:

Romanesque—

Saxon to 1060

Norman 1066–1145

Transition 1145–1190

Gothic—

Early English 1190–1245

Geometrical 1245–1315

Decorated 1315–1360

Perpendicular 1360–1550

The more minute characteristics must be sought under these several names, and it must be obvious that the accounts given within the small limits we can devote to the subject must be very superficial. The subject may be pursued in a number of works now before the public, as, first in date and not last in importance, Rickman’s “Attempt to distinguish the Styles of Architecture in England,” and last in time, Sharpe’s “Seven Periods of English Architecture.” The same mode of architecture prevailed in Ireland and Scotland, with some characteristic distinctions.

GRACE. This word is used in a variety of senses in Holy Scripture: but the general idea, as it relates to God, is his free favour and love; as it relates to men, the happy state of reconciliation and favour with God, wherein they stand, and the holy endowments, qualities, or habits of faith, hope, and love, which they possess.

“We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings: wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the homily of justification.”—Article XI.

The most pious of those who lived under the Mosaic dispensation, often acknowledge the necessity of assistance from God. David prays to God to “open his eyes, to guide and direct him” (Ps. cxix. 18, 32–35); to “create in him a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within him.” 360(Ps. li. 10.) And Solomon says, that God “directeth men’s paths, and giveth grace to the lowly.” Even we, whose minds are enlightened by the pure precepts of the gospel, and influenced by the motives which it suggests, must still be convinced of our weakness and depravity, and of the necessity of Divine grace to regulate and strengthen our wills, and to co-operate with our endeavours after righteousness, as is clearly asserted in the New Testament. See the texts above cited, which sufficiently prove that we stand in need both of a preventing and of a co-operating grace; or, in the words of the Article, that “we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that good will.”

Dr. Nicholls, after quoting many authorities to show, that the doctrine of Divine grace always prevailed in the Catholic Church, adds, “I have spent perhaps more time in these testimonies than was absolutely necessary; but whatever I have done is to show, that the doctrine of Divine grace is so essential a doctrine of Christianity, that not only the Holy Scriptures and the primitive Fathers assert it, but likewise that the Christians could not in any age maintain their religion without it; it being necessary, not only for the discharge of Christian duties, but for the performance of our ordinary devotions.” And this seems to have been the opinion of the compilers of our most excellent liturgy, in many parts of which both a preventing and co-operating grace is unequivocally acknowledged; particularly in the second collect for Evening Service, in the fourth collect at the end of the Communion Service, and in the collects for Easter Day, for the fifth Sunday after Easter, and for the 3rd, 9th, 17th, 19th, and 25th Sundays after Trinity.

This assistance of Divine grace is not inconsistent with the free agency of men (see Free Will): it does not place them under an irresistible restraint, or compel them to act contrary to their will. Though human nature is greatly depraved, yet every good disposition is not totally extinguished, nor is all power of right action entirely annihilated. Men may therefore make some spontaneous, though feeble, attempt to act conformably to their duty, which will be promoted and rendered effectual by the co-operation of God’s grace: or the grace of God may so far “prevent” our actual endeavours, as to awaken and dispose us to our duty; but yet not in such a degree, that we cannot withstand its influence. In either case our own exertions are necessary to enable us to “work out our own salvation,” but our “sufficiency” for that purpose is from God. The joint agency of God and man in the work of human salvation is pointed out in the following passage: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. ii. 12, 13); and therefore we may assure ourselves that free will and grace are not incompatible, though the mode and degree of their co-operation be utterly inexplicable.

GRACE AT MEALS. A short prayer, invoking a blessing upon our food, and expressive of gratitude to God for supplying our wants. The propriety of this act is evident from the traditional custom of the Church, and from the Divine command, as interpreted by this custom, (1 Thess. v. 18; 1 Cor. x. 31; 1 Tim. iv. 5,) and from the conduct of our Lord. (Mark viii. 6, 7.)

GRADUAL, or GRAIL. The antiphonary which, before the Reformation, supplied the anthems or verses for the beginning of the Communion, the Offertory, &c., was often called the Gradual, because some of the anthems were chanted on the steps (gradus) of the ambon or pulpit.

The Gradual is also an anthem sung in the Roman Church immediately after the Epistle.—Jebb.

GRAVE. The resting-place of a dead body. The spoliation and desecration of ancient sepulchres is as much an ecclesiastical offence as the robbing of a more recent grave; but where none feel themselves especially aggrieved, there are none to seek redress, and to bring offenders to justice. The law upon the subject seems to stand thus: A corpse once buried cannot legally be taken up to be deposited in another place, without a licence from the ordinary. But in case of a violent death the coroner may order the body to be disinterred, if it has been buried before he has had an opportunity of taking a view for the purposes of his inquest.

If the body, after it has been committed to the grave, be disturbed or removed, it is a subject of ecclesiastical cognizance: yet the common law also protects the corpse; for the taking up of dead bodies, for the purposes of dissection, is an indictable offence, as highly indecent, and contra bonos mores.

The property of things deposited with the dead, as the grave-clothes, &c., is in him that had property therein when the 361dead body was wrapped therewith, and the taking them is felony. The property in hatchments, or other ensigns of honour, is in the heir, or the person concerned in the hereditary distinction. (See Burial, and the list of acts of parliament appended to the word Cemetery.)

GREEK CHURCH. (See Church, Greek.)

GREGORIAN CHANT. (See Chant.) This general designation is given to the collection of chants compiled by Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, about A. D. 600. These chants have continued to be in use from that time to the present day, in the Western Church, and form the basis of our cathedral music. It is known that Gregory merely collected, arranged, and improved the chants which had already been used for centuries before his time. The most learned writers on the subject suppose that they are derived from those introduced by St. Ambrose into his church, at Milan, about A. D. 384. Great improvements, however, having been made in the science of music, subsequently to the time of St. Ambrose, Gregory took advantage of those improvements, and increased the number of ecclesiastical tones, (which somewhat resemble our modern keys,) from four to eight, of which number the Gregorian chants, properly so called, still consist. The four original tones are called authentic, the others plagal. All the eight are now used in some parts of the Greek Church, as in Russia, doubtless adopted from the West. They have been harmonized according to the more recently discovered laws of music, and thus harmonized possess a singular gravity, which character would alone justify their perpetual retention in the Church as the basis of church music.

The Gregorian chant is not limited to psalm chants; it includes the antiphons, versicles, graduals, &c., in short, all the hymns at the various services of the Romish Church. The eight tones, (which are by some multiplied to twelve,) are in fact so many scales, and all the Gregorian hymns or anthems must be written in one or other of these tones. The ancient Gregorian scale admitted no half notes, with the exception of B flat. The Psalm chants had considerable variation in each tone; these variations occurring in the second part of the chant: thus one tone may have three or four cadences; which in fact form so many separate chants. Much of the old English church music, since the Reformation, is based upon the Gregorian chant: though none of our standard musicians were ever servile followers of a system, which, though very venerable, is imperfect.

It may be as well to subjoin a simple rule for ascertaining the tones in which the Gregorian music is written in the old books. In the ancient breviaries and antiphonies, &c., the word EVOVAE frequently occurs, written under certain notes preceding the psalms appropriated to certain offices. This word contains the vowels of the concluding words of the Gloria Patri; viz. sEcVlOrVm AmEn: and by this is meant, that the notes placed above it form the second part of the chant to which the following psalm or psalms are sung: the first part being rarely written. Now to find the tone of the chant, we must take the first note of the Evovae, which is the dominant, or the prevailing, or reciting note of the chant (not the dominant as now technically understood by musicians): and we must take the last note of the Antiphon which follows the Psalm at length: and these two, according to the table here subjoined, give the tone of the chant: the first part of each variation in tone being, as before remarked, always the same; the second part being given in the Evovae. The Psalm Tones must be found out in one of the many movements of the Gregorian chant. Care must be taken not to take the last note of the abbreviated antiphon which precedes, but of that which follows, the psalm.

Final note, in the Antiphon. Dominant or reciting note, in the Evovae.

1st Tone D A

2nd Tone D F

3rd Tone E C

4th Tone E A

5th Tone F C

6th Tone F A

7th Tone G D

8th Tone G C

Of these tones the odd numbers are authentic, the even plagal. The authentic has always a relation to its plagal which follows, and has the same final note, though a different dominant.—Jebb.

GREY FRIARS. The Franciscans were so called from their grey clothing.

GUARDIAN OF THE SPIRITUALITIES. This is the person or persons in whom the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of any diocese resides, after the death or translation of a bishop. If the vacant see should be an archbishopric, then the dean and chapter are guardians. If a bishop, then the archdeacon of the province.

GURGOILE. (See Gargoyle.)

362HABAKKUK, THE PROPHECY OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. There is no mention in Scripture, either of the time when this prophet lived, or of the parents from whom he was descended. But as he prophesied the coming of the Chaldeans in the same manner as Jeremiah, it is conjectured that he lived at the same time.

The works of Habakkuk, which are indisputably his, are contained in three chapters. In these the prophet complains very pathetically of the disorders, which he observed in the kingdom of Judea. God reveals to him, that he would shortly punish them in a very terrible manner by the arms of the Chaldeans. He foretells the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar, his metamorphosis, and death. He foretells that the vast designs of Jehoiakim would be frustrated. He speaks against a prince (probably the king of Tyre) who built with blood and iniquity; and he accuses another king (perhaps the king of Egypt) of having intoxicated his friend, in order to discover his nakedness. The third chapter is a song, or prayer to God, whose majesty the prophet describes with the utmost grandeur and sublimity of expression.

HADES. (From ἁ, privative, and ἰδειν, to see; the invisible state of the departed.) See Hell.

HAGGAI, THE PROPHECY OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. Haggai was born, in all probability, at Babylon, from whence he returned with Zerubbabel. It was this prophet, who, by command from God, exhorted the Jews, after their return from the captivity, to finish the rebuilding of the temple, which they had intermitted for fourteen years. His remonstrances had their effect; and to encourage them to proceed in the work, he assured them from God, that the glory of this latter house should be greater than the glory of the former house: which was accordingly fulfilled, when Christ honoured it with his presence; for, with respect to the building, this latter temple was nothing in comparison of the former.

We know nothing certain of Haggai’s death. The Jews pretend, that he died in the last year of the reign of Darius, at the same time with the prophets Zechariah and Malachi, and that thereupon the spirit of prophecy ceased among the children of Israel. Epiphanius asserts that he was buried at Jerusalem among the priests. The Greeks keep his festival on the 16th of December, and the Latins on the 4th of July—De Vita et Morte Prophetarum.

HAGIOGRAPHA, i.e. Holy Writings. (From ἅγιος, holy, and γραφὴ, writing.) A word of great antiquity in the Christian Church, and often used by St. Jerome, taken from the custom of the synagogues, by which the Old Testament was divided into three parts, viz. Moses’s law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa; by which last he meant the Psalms, the Proverbs, Job, Ezra, Chronicles, Solomon’s Song, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. The Jews reckon the Book of Daniel and the Lamentations among the Hagiographa, and not among the Prophets, for which Theodoret blames them: but it matters not much, since they acknowledge those books, which they call Hagiographa, to be inspired by God, and part of the sacred canon, as well as those of the first and second order.

HAGIOSCOPE. In church architecture, a contrivance, whether by perforating a wall, or by cutting away an angle of it, by which an altar may be seen from some place in a church, or about it, from which it would be otherwise hid. There is a most curious example at Ryhall in Rutland, where there is (or rather was, for it is now blocked up) an opening in the west wall of the north aisle, by which the three altars in the chancel and two aisles were commanded by a person outside the church, though within what seems to have been a little oratory, (now entirely removed,) dedicated to S. Tibald.

Openings sometimes seem to command other points, and may then be well enough called “Squints.” At Hannington, in Northamptonshire, for instance, is one which seems intended to enable a person in the porch to see the approach of the minister from Walgrave, a parish very generally united under the same incumbency with Hannington.

HALF COMMUNION, or COMMUNION IN ONE KIND. (See Communion and Cup.) The withholding of the cup in the eucharist from the laity. This is the practice of the Church of Rome, and is one of those grievous errors in which that corrupt Church deviates from Catholicism. Not the slightest colour can be brought in its favour, as the Romanists themselves at the Council of Constance were forced to confess: the authority of the primitive Church is against them, as that council acknowledges; nor can they plead the authority of any one of the ancient liturgies. The Church of Rome then is, in this matter, singular and schismatical.

HALLELUJAH. (See Alleluia.)

HAMPTON COURT CONFERENCE. 363A conference appointed by James I. at Hampton Court, in 1603, in order to settle the disputes between the Church and the Puritans. Nine bishops, and as many dignitaries of the Church, appeared on one side, and four Puritan ministers on the other. It lasted for three days. Of this conference the result was a few slight alterations in the liturgy; the baptizing of infants by women, which had been practised in our Church for many hundred years, was forbidden; “remission of sins” inserted in the rubric of absolution; confirmation termed “laying on of hands;” all the thanksgivings, except the general one, were inserted in the Prayer Book; to the catechism was annexed the whole of the latter portion, relative to the two sacraments; and some words were altered in the dominical lessons, with a view to a new translation of the sacred volume.

HATCHMENT; more properly ACHIEVEMENT. In heraldry, the whole armorial bearings of any person fully emblazoned, with shield, crest, supporters, &c. This word is used in particular for the emblazonment of arms hung up in churches, in memory of a gentleman of coat armour, or one of any higher degree. There was formerly much of religion in heraldry; and as the coat was assumed with a religious feeling, so was it at last restored to the sanctuary, in token of thankful acknowledgment to Almighty God, with whose blessing it had been borne.

HEARSE. A frame set over the coffin of any great person deceased, and covered with a pall: also the carriage in which corpses are carried to the grave.

HEATHEN. (From ἔθνη, nations, or Gentiles.) Pagans who worship false gods.

HEAVEN. That place where God affords a nearer and more immediate view of himself, and a more sensible manifestation of his glory, than in other parts of the universe. That it is a place as well as a state, is clear from John xiv. 2, 3, and from the existence of our Lord’s body there, and the bodies of Enoch and Elijah.

HEBDOMADARIUS. The priest whose weekly turn it was to perform the divine offices in cathedrals and colleges. In some foreign cathedrals it is the designation of a clergyman corresponding to our minor canons, &c. In the Scottish universities the name was given to one of the superior members, whose weekly turn it was to superintend the discipline of the students. The office was effectively exercised at St. Andrew’s, at least, till of late years.—Jebb.

HELL. (Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic Hele, Hela, a “cavern;” “concealed place;” “mansion of the dead.”) Two entirely different words in the original language of the New Testament are rendered in our version by the single word “hell.” The first of these is Hades, which occurs eleven times in the New Testament, and in every case but one is translated “hell.” Now Hades is never used to denote the place of final torment, the regions of the damned; but signifies “the place of departed spirits,” whether good or bad,—the place where they are kept until the day of judgment, when they shall be re-united to their bodies, and go each to his appointed destiny. The other word, Gehenna, signifies the place of torment,—the eternal abode of the wicked. At the time when our translation was made, and the Prayer Book compiled, the English word “hell” had a more extensive meaning than it has at present. It originally signified to cover over or conceal; and it is still used in this sense in several parts of England, where, for example, to cover a church or a house with a roof is to hell the building, and the person by whom it is done is called a hellier. But the word also denoted the place of future misery, and is accordingly used in that sense in the New Testament, as the translation of Gehenna; and in consequence of the changes which our language has experienced during the last 200 years, it is now restricted to this particular meaning. (See Gehenna.)

Bearing in mind, then, that Hades was translated by the word “hell,” for want of another more exactly corresponding with the original, the reader will perceive that the article in the Creed, “He descended into hell,” does not refer to the place of final misery; but to that general receptacle of all departed human souls, both penitent and impenitent, where they are reserved in a state of comparative enjoyment or misery, to wait the morning of the resurrection, when their bodies being united to their souls, they will be advanced to complete felicity or woe, in heaven or hell.

One great use of the system of catechising, as enjoined by the Church, is the opportunity it affords of inculcating upon the people such distinctions as these.

It was necessary that our Lord’s death should be attended with all those circumstances which mark the death of men. Christ was possessed of a human nature, both body and soul, besides his Divinity. The body of man at death sinks to the grave; and the soul goes to Hades, or the place of departed spirits. In like manner the body of our Lord was laid in the 364tomb, but his soul went to the general repository of human disembodied spirits, “the lower parts of the earth,” (Ps. xvi. 10; Eph. iv. 9, with Ps. lxiii. 9, and Isa. v. 14,) Hades, the place of separated souls, not Gehenna, the place of condemnation; because if it relate to the place of either bliss or misery, it must be the former, in consistence with the Lord’s promise to the penitent thief. (Luke xxiii. 43.)

Five different opinions have been entertained on this subject. First, that the word “descended” is to be taken metaphorically; implying only the efficacy of Christ’s death as to the souls departed. But this seems refuted by the passage, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,” (Ps. xvi. 10,) whereas the efficacy of our Lord’s death still continues.

Secondly, that the descent into hell signifies the suffering the torments of the damned; and this in the stead of those who otherwise must have endured them. But it is not to be believed that our Lord could suffer from the “worm that never dieth”—the remorse of conscience, and a sense of the continuance and consequences of the displeasure of God, and consequent despair; or that he who overcame the powers of hell could suffer under their vengeance. Nor, again, can he, in this article, be said by a metaphor to have felt the torments of hell, by this meaning only the greatest torments, because all that he felt which we know of, was antecedent to his death, and not afterwards. The torments of hell then cannot be here meant literally, because not supported by truth, nor figuratively, because not applicable.

Thirdly, that the word “soul” does in this passage mean the body, and “hell” merely the grave; and the same words, both in Hebrew and Greek, as used respectively by the psalmist and the apostle, and translated the “soul,” do elsewhere in the Scriptures mean the “body.” As in Numb. vi. 6; Lev. xxi. 11; and xxii. 4; and more particularly, Numb. xix. 11, and 13. And Ainsworth, whose translation is the most literal of any, so uses the word. And again, with respect to the word “hell;” in some passages it can mean nothing but the grave, and is so used by our translation, when Ainsworth uses the word “hell,” as in Gen. xxxvii. 35, and xlii. 38. This mode of explication too, connected with the following article, will fulfil the prophecy, “Thou shalt not leave my soul (body) in hell” (the grave).

Fourthly, that by the “soul” may be understood the nobler part distinguished from the body; or the whole person, both soul and body; or the living soul distinguished from the immortal spirit. And by “hell,” no place whatever, but merely the condition of men in death. But this explanation involves an entirely novel idea as to Hades, which was always understood as some place where the souls of men entered, whether this is in the earth, or out of it, or in whatever unknown part; and from which the Greeks considered those to be excluded who came to a premature death, or whose bodies lay unburied. And in addition, the descent into hell thus explained would be tautologous, meaning nothing more than the being dead, which the preceding article had declared.

Fifthly, and this is apparently the best explanation, as it was always the opinion entertained by the Church—that the “soul” was the spirit, or rational part, of Christ, that which the Jews could “not kill,” and “hell,” a place distinguished equally from earth and from heaven. The passage may then mean, “Thou shalt not suffer my soul,” when separated from the body, and carried to the place assigned, as other souls are, to continue there as theirs do, but shalt, after a short interval only, reunite it to my body. That this was an opinion general in the Church, is proved, not only by the direct testimony of the Fathers, but by their arguments on the subject in answer to heretics.

They all fully agreed in a real descent of the soul of Christ into the place of souls departed; though they differed as to the persons whom he descended to visit, and the end for which he went. Some of them considered Hades, or “hell,” as the common receptacle of souls, both of the just and the unjust, and then thought that the soul of Christ went unto those only who had departed in the true faith and fear of God. But to this many could not agree, not thinking that Hades could ever, in Scripture, be taken for the place of happiness. And as to the end, those who held the former opinion of the common receptacle, imagined that Christ went unto the faithful to dissolve the power by which they were detained, and translate them into heaven. But to this change of place or condition many objected, conceiving that the souls of men shall not enter into heaven till after the general resurrection.

Some there were who, conceiving that this place did not include the blessed, imagined that the object of our Lord’s going into the place of torment, was to deliver some of the suffering souls, and translate them to a place of happiness. 365That this was done by preaching the gospel to them, that they after death might have an opportunity of receiving him, and then pass with him from death to life.

So that they all imagined that the soul of Christ descended into hell to preach the gospel to the spirits there, but differed as to whether it was to those who before believed, that they might now receive him; or to those who had before rejected him, that they might yet believe on him.

But there seem insurmountable objections both to the opinion that he preached to the faithful, for they were not “disobedient,” (as “in the days of Noah,”) nor could they need a publication of the gospel after the death of Christ, by virtue of which they were accepted while they lived; and to that, that he preached to the wicked, for they were not proper objects, or likely to be persuaded. The effect too of the preaching may be denied. There is no repentance in the grave, nor any passing the “great gulf” of separation. Again, with respect to the faithful, it is not certain that their souls were in a place where Christ would descend; or that they are now in another and better place than they were at first; or that Christ did descend into such place for such purpose; or that such effect was produced at such a time.

There is another opinion that has obtained, and perhaps more in our own Church, that Christ descended into hell to triumph over Satan and his powers in their own dominions, principally grounded on Col. ii. 11–15; Eph. iv. 8, 9. But these passages are not conclusive; and the argument seems inconsistent in those who object to the opinion, that the souls of the wicked have been released, or those of the saints removed.

The sound conclusion as to the whole, and what our belief might be, is, perhaps, first, as to fact, that the soul of Christ, separated from his body by death, did go into the common place of departed spirits, in order that he might appear, both alive and dead, as perfect man. All that was necessary for our redemption, by way of satisfaction, was effected on the cross. The exhibition of what was there merited, was effected by his resurrection; and between these, he satisfied the law of death. Secondly, as to the effect. By the descent of Christ into the regions of darkness, the souls of believers are kept from the torments which are there. As the grave and hell had no power over him, the “head,” so neither shall it have over “the members.” By his descent he freed us from all fear, by his resurrection and ascension he has secured our hope; and thus through “death, destroyed him that hath the power of death, that is, the devil.”

As he “was delivered for our offences,” so was he “raised again for our justification.” (Rom. iv. 25.) If this had not taken place, our “faith” would have been “vain;” we should have been “yet in our sins,” (1 Cor. xv. 14, 17,) for as we are “buried with him in baptism, we are quickened together with him,” (Col. ii. 12, 13,) and “begotten again to a lively hope,” by his “resurrection from the dead;” if “by him we believe in God that raised him up from the dead,” (1 Pet. i. 3, 21,) and “walk in newness of life.” (Rom. vi. 4; viii. 11; 1 Cor. vi. 14; 2 Cor. iv. 14; Eph. i. 19, 20; Heb. xiii. 20.) Therefore, “on the third day, he rose again from the dead, a living body,” (Luke xxiv. 39; John xx. 20, 27,) “quickened by the spirit,” (1 Pet. iii. 18,) and raised by himself, (John x. 18; ii. 19,) as this was typified in Isaac, “received” again by his father, as “in (or for) a figure,” (Heb. xi. 19,) and by the waved sheaf, the dedicated “first-fruits of the harvest.” (Lev. xxiii. 10, 11.) This, too, on the third day—the “first day of the week,” the Christian “sabbath,” (Matt, xxviii. 1; xx. 19, (thenceforward called “the Lord’s day,” Rev. i. 10,) John xx. 26; Acts xx. 7; 1 Cor. xvi. 2,) according to the deliverance of his type Jonah. (Matt. xii. 39, 40.) As this was frequently predicted by himself, (Matt. xii. 39, 40, and xvi. 21; xvii. 9; John ii. 19, 21,) confirmed by his enemies, (Matt. xxvi. 61; xxvii. 63; Mark xv. 29,) and by the angel, (Matt. xxviii. 6, 7, 17,) and the truth of it proved also by the precautions of his enemies, (Matt, xxviii. 13–15,) by his showing himself to his disciples several times, and “many days,” (John xx. 19, 26; xxi. 14; Acts xiii. 31,) as to “witnesses chosen before of God,” (Acts x. 41,) appointed expressly to bear testimony to this great truth, “unto the uttermost parts of the earth,” (Acts i. 8, 22; ii. 24, 31, 32; iii. 15; iv. 33; v. 32; x. 40; 1 Cor. xv. 15,) as was “also the Holy Ghost.” (Acts v. 32, and to others, 1 Cor. xv. 4–8.) Which truth, that “God hath raised him from the dead,” is to be received by “all men” as an “assurance” that “God will judge the world in righteousness by him.” (Acts xvii. 30–32.)

HERESIARCH. A leader in heresy.

HERESY. This word is derived from the Greek, αἵρεσις, a choice, and it means an arbitrary adoption, in matters of faith, 366of opinions at variance with the doctrines delivered by Christ and the apostles, and received by the Catholic Church. At the same time we may remark, that it is generally agreed that the opinion must be pertinaciously and obstinately held, in order to constitute formal heresy. And if there be a legitimate doubt in a controversy which of the two contrary doctrines is stated in Scripture and received by the Church, either may be held without heresy. It is obvious, also, that mere ignorance, or a temporary error in ignorance, is altogether different from heresy.

In the first year of Queen Elizabeth, an act of parliament was passed to enable persons to try heretics, and the following directions were given for their guidance:—“And such persons to whom the queen shall by letters patent under the great seal give authority to execute any jurisdiction spiritual, shall not in anywise have power to adjudge any matter or cause to be heresy, but only such as heretofore have been adjudged to be heresy by the authority of the canonical Scriptures, or by some of the first four general councils, or by any other general council wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of the said canonical Scriptures, or such as hereafter shall be judged or determined to be heresy by the high court of parliament, with the assent of the clergy in their convocation.”

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 State, made by the Christian emperors from the time of Constantine, are comprised under one title, De Hæreticis, in the Theodosian Code. The principal of them are, 1. The general note of infamy affixed to all heretics in common. 2. All commerce forbidden to be held with them. 3. The depriving them of all offices of profit and dignity. 4. The disqualifying them to dispose of their estates by will, or receive estates from others. 5. The imposing on them pecuniary mulcts. 6. The proscribing and banishing them. 7. The inflicting corporal punishment on them, such as scourging, &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, 1. Those which forbade heretical teachers to propagate their doctrines publicly or privately. 2. Those which forbade heretics to hold public disputations. 3. Such laws as prohibited all heretical meetings and assemblies. 4. Those which deny to the children of heretical parents their patrimony and inheritance, unless they return to the Church. And, 5. 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 junior 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, 1. The Church was accustomed to pronounce a formal anathema or excommunication against them. Thus the Council of Nice ends her creed with an anathema against all those who opposed the doctrine there delivered. And there are innumerable instances of this kind to be found in the volumes of the Councils. 2. Some canons debarred them from the very lowest privileges 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. 3. The Church prohibited all persons, under pain of excommunication, to join with heretics in any religious offices. 4. By the laws of the Church, no one was to eat, or converse familiarly with heretics; or to read their writings, or to contract any affinity with them: their names were to be struck out of the Diptychs, or sacred registers of the Church; and, if they died in heresy, no psalmody, or other solemnity, was to be used at their funeral. 5. The testimony of heretics was not to be taken in any ecclesiastical cause whatever. These are the chief ecclesiastical laws against heretics.

As to the terms of penance imposed upon relenting heretics, or such as were willing to renounce their errors, and be reconciled to the Church, they were various, and differed according to the canons 367of different councils, or the usages of different Churches. The Council of Eliberis (soon after A. D. 300) appoints ten years’ penance, before repenting heretics are admitted to communion. The Council of Agde (A. D. 506) contracted this term into that of three years. The Council of Epone (A. D. 517) reduced it to two years only.