PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. (continued 41)

The word “Trinity,” it is confessed, does not occur in Holy Scripture; nor does the word “Unity,” as applied to the Deity. But neither do the words “omnipresence” and “omniscience;” and as the use of these has never been objected to in speaking of the attributes of Him who is everywhere present, and “knoweth all things,” so may the others be used with equal propriety to express the distinct existence of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the simple oneness of God! The use is admissible, to prevent circumlocution; and irreverence may be deprecated where language is inefficient. The word Trinity was used by the Greek and Latin Fathers, in the middle of the second century, in a way that indicated it was not then a novel expression; and was considered by the orthodox so unobjectionable, as to be employed without reserve in their opposition to the Sabellian heresy.

Indeed, the primitive Fathers appear to have indulged an idea, that without a distinction of hypostases in the Godhead, it is difficult to imagine that αὐτάρκεια, or self-sufficiency, and perfect bliss, which seems to have arisen from a Divine society, as in Prov. viii. 22, 23, particularly 30, and elsewhere. Indeed, the notion of a Trinity has prevailed immemorially, long before the term was adopted; and is found in the heathen worship, as well as in the Church; both, no doubt, having it from a common original.

TRINITY SUNDAY. The solemn festivals, which in the foregoing parts of our annual service have propounded to our consideration the mysterious work of man’s redemption, and the several steps taken to accomplish it, naturally lead us up to, and at last conclude with, that of the Trinity. The incarnation and nativity, the passion and resurrection of the blessed Jesus, demonstrate how great things the Son of God hath condescended to do for us. The miraculous powers with which the first disciples were endued, and the sanctifying graces with which all the faithful are assisted, do prove how great and how necessary a part the “Holy Spirit” bore in this work, both for publishing the salvation of the world, and for rendering it effectual. And all agree in representing to us the inestimable love of the “Father,” by whom that “Son” was sent, and that “Spirit” so wonderfully and so plentifully shed abroad. Most justly, therefore, after such informations how fit a subject this is for our wonder and adoration, does the Church on this day call upon us to celebrate the mystery of those “three” persons in the unity of the Godhead; each of whom hath so kindly, and so largely, contributed to this united and stupendous act of mercy, upon which the whole of all our hopes and happiness depends.—Dean Stanhope.

Notwithstanding on each day, and especially Sundays, the Church celebrates the praises of the Trinity, in her doxologies, hymns, creeds, &c.; yet the wisdom of the Church thought it meet, that such a mystery as this, though part of the meditation of each day, should be the chief subject of one, and this to be the day. For no sooner had our Lord ascended into heaven, and God’s Holy Spirit descended upon the Church; but there ensued the notice of the glorious and incomprehensible Trinity, which before that time was not so clearly known. The Church therefore, having solemnized in an excellent order all the high feasts of our Lord, and after that of the descent of God’s Spirit upon the apostles, thought it a thing most seasonable to conclude these great solemnities with a festival of full, special, and express service to the holy and blessed Trinity.—Bp. Sparrow.

This mystery was not clearly delivered to the Jews, because they, being always surrounded by idolatrous nations, would have easily mistaken it for a doctrine of plurality of Gods; but yet it was not so much hidden in those times, but that any one with a spiritual eye might have discerned some glimmerings of it dispersed through the Old Testament. The first chapter in the Bible seems to set forth three persons in the Godhead; for, besides the “Spirit of God” which “moved upon the face of the waters,” (ver. 2,) we find the great Creator (at the 26th verse) 773consulting with others about the greatest work of his creation, the making of man, of which we may be assured the Word or Son of God was one, since “all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” So that those two verses fully pointing out to us the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, make this a very proper lesson for the solemnity of the day. The reason of the choice of the other first lesson is as obvious: it records the appearance of the great Jehovah to Abraham, whom the patriarch acknowledges to be the “Judge of all the earth;” and who therefore, by vouchsafing to appear with two others in his company, might design to represent to him the “Trinity of Persons.” But this sacred mystery is nowhere so plainly manifested as in the second lesson for the morning, which at one and the same time relates the baptism of the Son, the voice of the Father, and the descent of the Holy Ghost: which, though they are (as appears from this chapter) three distinct persons in number, yet the second lesson at evening shows they are but one in essence.—Wheatly.

The Epistle and the Gospel are the same that were anciently assigned for the Octave of Pentecost; the Epistle being the vision of St. John (Rev. iv.); and the Gospel, the dialogue of our Lord with Nicodemus; and the mention, which we find therein, of baptism, of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of it, though it might then fit the day as a repetition, as it were, of Pentecost, so is it no less fit for it as a feast of the blessed Trinity. The mission of the Holy Ghost brings with it, as aforesaid, more light and clearness to the doctrine of the Trinity: and when more fit to think of the gifts of the Spirit, than on a solemn day of ordination, as this is one, when men are consecrated to spiritual offices? But, besides this, we have in the Gospel set before us all the three persons of the sacred Trinity, and the same likewise represented in the vision, which the Epistle speaks of, with an hymn of praise, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” &c.: which expressions, by ancient interpretation, relate to the Holy Trinity, as is above said.—Bp. Sparrow.

In the Roman Church the Sundays between Whitsunday and Advent are reckoned from Pentecost: in our Church, following the old English custom in the unreformed office, we count from Trinity Sunday.

TRISAGION. (See Tersanctus.)

TRUCE OF GOD. In the French, Treve de Dieu: in modern Latin, Trevia, Treuvia, Treuga, or Truga Dei.

In the eleventh century, when the disorders and licences of private wars, between particular lords and families, were a great disturbance to the peace of the kingdom of France, the bishops took upon them to publish injunctions, forbidding acts of violence, within certain times, under canonical pains. These prohibitions were called Truce of God; a phrase frequently to be met with in the councils held about that time.

The first regulation of this kind was in a synod, held in the diocese of Elno in Rousillon, A. D. 1027; where it was enacted, that, throughout that country, no person should attack his enemy, from the hour of nones on Saturday to that of primes on Monday, that Sunday might have its proper celebration: that no person should, at any time, attack a religious or priest walking unarmed; nor any person going to, or returning from, church: that nobody should attack a church, or any house within thirty paces round it: all this under penalty of excommunication.

TRUMPETS, FEAST OF. An annual festival of the Jews, expressly enjoined by the law of Moses, and observed upon the first day of the seventh month, called Tisri, which was the beginning of the civil year.

This festival is expressly called a sabbath, and was a very solemn day, on which no servile work was to be done; only provision made for their meals, which were usually very plentiful at this time. Among other dishes they served up a ram’s head, in memory of that ram which was sacrificed in the room of Isaac; which they fancy was done upon this day.

All the festivals of the Jews, it is true, were introduced by the sound of trumpets: but this was attended with more than usual solemnity. For they began to blow at sunrising, and continued till sunset. He who sounded, began with the usual prayer: “Blessed be God, who hath sanctified us with his precepts,” &c., subjoining these words: “Blessed be God, who hath hitherto preserved us in life, and brought us unto this time.” At the conclusion, the people said with a loud voice these words of the Psalmist: “Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.” And whereas, in other places, the beginning of the year was sounded with a trumpet of ram’s or sheep’s horn, at the temple they used two silver trumpets, and the Levites upon that day sung the eighty-first psalm.

774This festival is called a memorial of blowing of trumpets: but it is not so easy to determine what this blowing of trumpets was a memorial of. Maimonides will have it to be instituted to awaken the people out of sleep, and call to repentance; being intended to put them in mind of the great day of expiation, which followed nine days after. Basil imagined, that by these soundings the people were put in mind of that day, wherein they received the Law from Mount Sinai with blowing of trumpets. Others think it more probable, that, since all nations made great shouting, rejoicing, and feasting in the beginning of the year, at the first new-moon, in hopes that the rest of the year by this means would prove more prosperous, God was pleased to ordain this festival among his people, in honour of himself, upon the day of the first new-moon, to preserve them from idolatry, and to make them sensible that he alone gave them good years. Others again imagine, that God marked this month with a peculiar honour, because it was the seventh; that, as every seventh day was a sabbath, and every seventh year the land rested, so every seventh month of every year should be a kind of sabbatical month: and upon that account the people might be awakened by this blowing of trumpets, to observe this festival with the proper ceremonies. Lastly, others explain this blowing of trumpets to be a memorial of the creation of the world, which was in autumn. Upon this account it was that they anciently began their years at this time, as the eastern people do at this day. By this means they also confessed the Divine goodness in blessing the year past, and bringing them to the beginning of a new year, which they prayed that God would make happy and propitious to them.

TUNICLE. An ecclesiastical garment mentioned in the rubrics of King Edward VI.’s First Book, to be worn by the assistant ministers at the holy communion. It is the same as the tunic or the dalmatic, which was also an episcopal garment. Originally it had no sleeves; and was the same with the Greek colobion. The sleeves were added in the west about the fourth century; and then the vestment was called a dalmatic. The tunicle in the Roman Church is proper to subdeacons.—Palmer. Goar.

TURRET. A small tower appended to a tower, or the angle or other part of any component portion of a building for support, or to carry stairs, or for ornament. Like the tower, it is often finished with a high conical capping, which is then called a spiret or pinnacle.

TYPE. An impression, image, or representation of some model, which is termed the antitype. In this sense we often use the word to denote the prefiguration of the great events of man’s redemption by persons or things in the Old Testament.

UBIQUITARIANS. A sect of heretics, so called because they maintained that the body of Jesus Christ is (ubique) everywhere, or in every place.

Brentius, one of the earliest reformers, is said to have first broached this error, in Germany, about the year 1560. Melancthon immediately declared against it, as introducing a kind of confusion in the two natures of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, it was espoused by Flacius Illyricus, Osiander, and others. The universities of Leipsic and Wirtemburg in vain opposed this heresy, which gained ground daily. Six Ubiquitarians, viz. Smidelin, Selneccer, Musculus, Chemnitius, Chytræus, and Cornerus, had a meeting, in 1577, in the monastery of Berg, and composed a kind of creed, or formulary of faith, in which the Ubiquity of Christ’s body was the leading article. However, the Ubiquitarians were not quite agreed among themselves; some holding that Jesus Christ, even during his mortal life, was everywhere, and others dating the Ubiquity of his body from the time of his ascension only.

ULTRA-PROTESTANT. (See Via Media.)

UNCTION. (See Extreme Unction.)

UNIFORMITY, ACTS OF. The Acts of Uniformity are 1 Eliz. c. 2, and 14 Car. II. The Irish Acts of Uniformity are also 2 Eliz. cap. 2, and 17 and 18 Car. II. See Stephens’s Edition of both the English and Irish Prayer Book. By stat. 1 Eliz. c. 2, s. 4–8, If any parson, vicar, or other minister that ought to use the Common Prayer, or to minister the sacraments, shall refuse to do the same, or shall use any other form, or shall speak anything in derogation of the same book, or of anything therein contained, he shall, on conviction for the first offence, forfeit to the queen one year’s profit of all his spiritual promotions, and be imprisoned for six months; for the second offence, shall be deprived of all his spiritual promotions, and be imprisoned for a year; and, for the third offence, shall be deprived of all his spiritual promotions, and be imprisoned during life. And if he has no spiritual promotion, he shall, for the 775first offence, be imprisoned for a year; and, for the second, during life.

And by the same act, if any person shall in plays, songs, or by other open words, speak anything in derogation of the same book, or anything therein contained; or shall, by open fact, cause or procure any minister in any place to say Common Prayer openly, or to minister any sacrament in other form, or shall interrupt or let any minister to say the said Common Prayer, he shall (being indicted for the same at the next assizes) forfeit to the queen for the first offence 100 marks, and for the second 400 marks, which, if not paid in six weeks after conviction, he shall suffer six months’ imprisonment for the first offence, and twelve months’ for the second, and for the third offence shall forfeit all his goods and chattels, and be imprisoned during life.

By stat. 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 4, Where an incumbent resides upon his living and keeps a curate, the incumbent himself, (not having lawful impediment, to be allowed by the bishop,) shall at least once a month openly and publicly read the Common Prayer, and (if there be occasion) administer the sacraments and other rites of the Church.

UNIGENITUS, THE BULL. The instrument issued by Pope Clement XI., in 1713, against the French translation of the New Testament, with notes, by Pasquier Quesnel, priest of the Oratory, and a celebrated Jansenist. The book, having occasioned considerable disputes, had already been condemned by the court of Rome in 1708; but this step being found ineffectual, Clement, who had privately spoken of it in terms of rapture, declaring it to be an excellent book, and one which no person resident at Rome was capable of writing, proceeded to condemn one hundred and one propositions of the notes; such as—grace, the effectual principle of all good works; faith, the first and fountain of all the graces of a Christian; the Scriptures should be read by all, &c. This bull, procured by Louis and the Jesuits, occasioned great commotion in France. Forty Gallican bishops accepted it; but it was opposed by many others, especially by Noailles, archbishop of Paris. Many of the prelates, and other persons eminent for piety and learning, appealed, on the subject, from the papal authority to that of a general council, but in vain.

UNION, HYPOSTATICAL, (see Jesus, Lord, Christ, Messiah, Mediator,) is the union of the human nature of Christ with the Divine, constituting two natures in one person. Not consubstantially, as the three persons in the Godhead; nor physically, as soul and body united in one person; nor mystically, as is the union between Christ and believers; but so as that the manhood subsist in the second person, yet without making confusion, both making but one person. It was miraculous. (Luke i. 34, 35.) Complete and real: Christ took a real human body and soul, and not in appearance. Inseparable. (Heb. vii, 25.)—See Burton.

UNITARIANS. A title which certain heretics, who do not worship the true God, assume most unfairly, to convey the impression that those who worship the one and only God do not hold the doctrine of the Divine Unity. Christians worship the Trinity in Unity, and the Unity in Trinity.

This name includes all, whether Arians of old, or more lately Socinians, and other Deists, who deny the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and the separate personality of the Holy Ghost. They are not very numerous in England, although most of the old English Presbyterian congregations have fallen into Unitarianism.

These persons made little progress in England till the opening of the eighteenth century, when many of the old Presbyterian ministers embraced opinions adverse to the Trinitarian doctrine. A noticeable controversy on the subject was begun in 1719, in the West of England, and two Presbyterian ministers, in consequence of their participation in these sentiments, were removed from their pastoral charges. Nevertheless, the Presbyterian clergy gradually became impregnated, although for some time they gave no particular expression from their pulpits to their views in this respect. In course of little time, however, their congregations either came to be entirely assimilated with themselves in doctrine, or in part seceded to the Independent body. Thus, the ancient Presbyterian chapels and endowments have, in great degree, become the property of Unitarians, whose origin, as a distinct community in England, may be dated from the first occurrence of such virtual transfers, viz. from about the period just subsequent to 1730.

Persons denying the doctrine of the Trinity were excepted from the benefits of the Toleration Act, and remained so until 1813, when the section in that statute which affected them was abrogated by the 53 Geo. III. c. 160, which was extended to Ireland by 57 Geo. III. c. 70. Since that period they have been exactly in the 776same position as all other Protestant Dissenters with respect to their political immunities. These persons do not object to the form of attestation, “on the true faith of a Christian,” though denying the principal doctrines of Christianity as recognised by the Catholic Church.

The form of ecclesiastical government adopted by the Unitarians is substantially “congregational;” each individual congregation ruling itself without regard to any courts or synods.

Returns have been received at the Census Office from 229 congregations connected with this body.

UNITED BRETHREN. (See Moravians.)

UNIVERSALISTS. Those who, contrary to the express word of God, deny the eternal punishment of the wicked.

UNIVERSITY. University, as Johnson observes, originally meant a community or corporation;—it afterwards came to be restricted to those communities for divine and secular learning, which were originally called studia generalia, schools, pædagogies, (as St. Andrew’s,) academies, &c. In all of these, the four great branches of knowledge were professed, divinity, law, medicine, and the liberal arts and sciences. In the twelfth century, degrees were conferred, (see Degrees,) first in canon and civil law, afterwards in theology and philosophy; though all these branches of learning had long been taught. The universities were gradually endowed with important privileges. For ages they had been regarded in England as great and influential, with corporate titles though not with corporate privileges. These were formally given to them by Queen Elizabeth; under whose auspices the third university of Dublin, endowed with like privileges, was founded.

It is foreign to the object of a Church Dictionary to notice those corporations for mere secular learning, to which in England the title of University, though with a novel meaning, has of late years been legally given. The term, as formerly understood in England, Ireland, and Scotland, as throughout Europe for ages, comprehended Divine learning as an essential and crowning part of the system. The old universities are connected with the Church by the closest ties. Their discipline is recognised by the canons, (the xvi., xvii., and xxiii., for example,) and their degrees are essential qualifications for many Church preferments; these also are conferred under the invocation of the Holy Trinity; all their solemn assemblies are accompanied with the prayers of the Church; and the foundation within the universities, upon which their influence and very existence depend, has been made with the plain and obvious understanding that these great corporations are the nurseries of the Church; that those who partake of their privileges are to be educated as her generic children.

It is beyond the object of this work to give any detailed account of their constitution. It may suffice to observe, that the English system of having many colleges within the precincts of, and subordinate to, the greater corporation, though forming each a minor corporation in itself, is not peculiar to this country. Such was the system of the most ancient universities, Bologna, Paris, and Salamanca; and of many more modern ones, as Louvain, &c. Paris had anciently fifty-three colleges, (including eight for the religious order,) and up to the Revolution had twenty-three, (of which fifteen were not monastic,) several of the secular ones having been amalgamated by Louis XIV. Besides these, each faculty had its corporate assembly; and over all the rector, assisted by three deans and four proctors, presided. The constitution at Louvain was similar, where there were twenty colleges. The college system is the best auxiliary to the university, and grew up from the obvious necessity of securing to the younger students a proper domestic discipline, and to the elder the means of pursuing their maturer studies.

URIM AND THUMMIM. So the Hebrews called a certain oracular manner of consulting God; which was done by the high priest, dressed in his robes, and having on his pectoral, or breastplate.

Concerning the Urim and Thummim, various have been the sentiments of learned men. Josephus, and others after him, have maintained, that Urim and Thummim meant the precious stones set in the high priest’s breastplate; which, by some extraordinary lustre, made known the will of God to those who consulted him. Spencer, in his dissertation on these words, believes they were two little golden figures, shut up in the pectoral, as in a purse, which gave responses with an articulate voice. In short, there are as many opinions concerning the Urim and Thummim, as there are authors that have written about them. The safest opinion seems to be, that the words Urim and Thummim signify some divine virtue and power annexed to the breastplate of the high priest, by which an oracular answer was obtained from God, when he was consulted by the 777high priest; and that this was called Urim and Thummim, to express the clearness and perfection which these oracular answers always carried with them; for Urim signifies light, and Thummim, perfection. These answers were not enigmatical and ambiguous, like the heathen oracles, but clear and evident; and never fell short of perfection, either with regard to fulness in the answer, or certainty in the event.

The use made of the Urim and Thummim was, to consult God, in difficult and momentous cases, relating to the whole state of Israel. For this purpose the high priest put on his robes, and over them the breastplate, in which the Urim and Thummim were; and then presented himself before God, to ask counsel of him. But he was not to do this for any private person; but only for the king, for the president of the Sanhedrim, for the general of the army, or for some other great personage; nor for any private affairs, but such only as related to the public interest of the nation, either in Church or State. The place where he presented himself before God, was before the ark of the covenant; where standing with his robes and breastplate on, and his face turned directly towards the ark, and the mercy-seat over it, upon which the Divine presence rested, he proposed what he wanted to be resolved about; and directly behind him, at some distance without the holy place, stood the person, upon whose account God was consulted, and there, with all humility and devotion, expected the answer that should be given.

It seems plain from Scripture, that the answer was given by an audible voice from the mercy-seat, which was within, behind the veil. There it was that Moses went to ask counsel of God in all cases; and from thence he was answered by an audible voice. In the same way did God afterwards communicate his will to the governors of Israel, as often as he was consulted by them; only with this difference, that whereas Moses, through extraordinary indulgence, had immediate access to the Divine presence, and God communed with him, as it were, face to face, no other person was admitted thither to ask counsel of God but through the mediation of the high priest, who, in his stead, asked counsel for him by Urim and Thummim. There are many instances in Scripture of God’s being consulted this way; and the answer, in most of them, is introduced with, “the Lord said.” And when the Israelites made a peace with the Gibeonites, they are blamed because they did not ask counsel at the mouth of God: both which phrases seem plainly to imply a vocal answer. And for this reason it is that the holy of holies, the place where the ark and the mercy-seat stood, from whence this answer was given, is so often in Scripture called the oracle; because from thence the divine oracles of God were delivered to such as asked counsel of him.

It is variously conjectured by learned men, when this Urim and Thummim entirely ceased: it is certain there is no instance of it in Scripture during the first temple; and it was wholly wanting in the second. And hence came that saying among the Jews, that the Holy Spirit spake to the Israelites during the tabernacle, by Urim and Thummim; under the first temple, by the prophets; and, under the second, by Bath-Col.

URSULINES. An order of nuns, founded originally by St. Angeli, of Brescia, in the year 1537, and so called from St. Ursula, to whom they are dedicated.

USE. In former times each bishop had the power of making some improvements in the liturgy of his church: in process of time, different customs arose, and several became so established, as to receive the names of their respective churches. Thus gradually the “Uses” or customs of York, Sarum, Hereford, Bangor, Lincoln, Aberdeen, &c., came to be distinguished from each other.

The missals and other ritual books of York and Hereford have been printed; but we have inquired in vain for the names of the bishops who originated the unessential peculiarities which they contain. Their rubrics are sometimes less definite than those of the Sarum “USE,” and they contain some few offices in commemoration of departed prelates and saints, which are not found in other missals, &c. The “Use” or custom of Sarum derives its origin from Osmund, bishop of that see in A. D. 1078, and chancellor of England. We are informed by Simeon of Durham, that about the year 1083, King William the Conqueror appointed Thurstan, a Norman, abbot of Glastonbury. Thurstan, despising the ancient Gregorian chanting, which had been used in England from the sixth century, attempted to introduce in its place a modern style of chanting invented by William of Fescamp, a Norman. The monks resisted the innovations of their abbot, and a scene of violence and bloodshed ensued, which was terminated by the king’s sending back Thurstan to Normandy. This circumstance may very probably 778have turned the attention of Osmund to the regulation of the ritual of his church. We are informed that he built a new cathedral; collected together clergy, distinguished as well for learning as for a knowledge of chanting; and composed a book for the regulation of ecclesiastical offices, which was entitled the “Custom” book. The substance of this was probably incorporated into the missal and other ritual books of Sarum, and ere long, almost the whole of England, Wales, and Ireland, adopted it. When the archbishop of Canterbury celebrated the liturgy in the presence of the bishops of his province, the bishop of Salisbury (probably in consequence of the general adoption of the “Use” of Sarum) acted as precentor of the college of bishops, a title which he still retains. The churches of Lincoln and Bangor also had peculiar “Uses;” but we are not aware that any of their books have been printed. A MS. pontifical, containing the rites and ceremonies performed by the bishop, still (we believe) remains in the church of Bangor; it is said to have belonged to Anianus, who occupied that see in the thirteenth century. The church of Aberdeen in Scotland had its own rites; but whether there was any peculiarity in the missal we know not, as it has never been published. The breviary of Aberdeen, according to Zaccaria, was printed in A. D. 1609 (qu. 1509?). Independently of these rites of particular churches, the monastic societies of England had many different rituals, which, however, all agreed substantially, having all been derived from the sacramentary of Gregory. The Benedictine, Carthusian, Cistertian, and other orders, had peculiar missals. Schultingius nearly transcribes a very ancient sacramentary belonging to the Benedictines of England; Bishop Barlow, in his MS. notes on the Roman missal, speaks of a missal belonging to the monastery of Evesham; and Zaccaria mentions a MS. missal of Oxford, written in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, which is in the library of the canons of S. Salvator at Bologna. This last must probably be referred to some of the monastic societies, who had formerly houses in Oxford; as the bishopric or church of Oxford was not founded till the sixteenth century.

It may be remarked in general of all these missals and rituals, that they differed very little; the sacramentary of Gregory was used every where, with various small additions. However, the rites of the churches throughout the British empire were not by any means uniform at the middle of the sixteenth century, and needed various corrections; and therefore the metropolitan of Canterbury, and other bishops and doctors of the holy Catholic Church, at the request and desire of King Edward VI., revised the ritual books; and having examined the Oriental liturgies, and the notices which the orthodox fathers supply, they edited the English ritual, containing the common prayer and administration of all the sacraments and rites of the Church. And although our liturgy and other offices were corrected and improved, chiefly after the example of the ancient Gallican, Spanish, Alexandrian, and Oriental, yet the greater portion of our prayers have been continually retained and used by the Church of England for more than 1200 years.—Palmer.

VALENTINIANS. Heretics, who sprang up in the second century, and were so called from their leader, Valentinus.

This sect was one of the most famous and most numerous amongst the ancients. Valentinus, who was the author of it, was an Egyptian, and began there to teach the doctrine of the Gnostics. His merit made him aspire to the episcopacy; but another having been preferred before him, Valentinus, enraged at this denial and resolved to revenge himself of the affront given him, departed from the doctrine of the Church, and revived old errors. He began to preach his doctrine in Egypt, and from thence coming to Rome, under the pontificate of Pope Hyginus, he there spread his errors, and continued to dogmatize till the pontificate of Anicetus, i. e. from the year 140 to 160.

Of all the Gnostics, none formed a more regular system than Valentinus. His notions were drawn from the principles of the Platonists. The Æons were attributes of the Deity, or Platonic ideas, which he realized, or made persons of them, to compose thereof a complete deity, which he called Pleroma, or Plenitude; under which was the Creator of the world, and the angels, to whom he committed the government of it. The most ancient heretics had already established those principles, and invented genealogies of the Æons: but Valentinus, refining upon what they had said, placed them in a new order, and thereto added many fictions. His system was this:

The first principle is Bythos, i. e. depth: it remained for many ages unknown, having with it Ennoia, i. e. Thought, and Sigê, i. e. Silence. From these sprung the Nous, or 779Intelligence, which is the only son, equal to it alone, and capable of comprehending it; whose sister is Aletheia, i. e. Truth. This is the first quaternity of Æons, which is the source and original of all the rest. For Nous and Aletheia produced the Word and the Life; and from these two proceeded Man and the Church. This is the second quaternity of the eight principal Æons. The Word and the Life, to glorify the Father, produced five couple of Æons: man and the Church formed six. These thirty Æons bear the name of attributes and compose the Pleroma, or Plenitude of the Deity. Sophia, or Wisdom, the last of these Æons, being desirous to arrive at the knowledge of Bythos, gave herself a great deal of uneasiness, which created in her anger and fear, of which was born matter. But the Horos, or Bounder, stopped her, preserved her in the Pleroma, and restored her to perfection. Then she produced the Christ and the Holy Spirit; which brought the Æons to their last perfection, and made every one of them contribute their utmost to form the Saviour. Her Enthymese, or Thought, dwelling near the Pleroma, perfected by the Christ, produced everything that is in the world, by its divers passions. The Christ sent into it the Saviour, accompanied with angels, who delivered it from its passions, without annihilating it; and from thence was formed corporeal matter, which was of two sorts; the one bad, arising from the passions; the other good, proceeding from conversion, but subject to the passions.

There are also three substances, the material, the animal, and the spiritual. The Demiurgus, or maker of the world, by whom the Enthymese formed this world, is the animal substance: he formed the terrestrial man, to whom the Enthymese gave a spirit: the material part perished necessarily; but that which is spiritual can suffer no corruption; and that which is animal stood in need of the spiritual Saviour, to hinder its corruption. This Saviour or Christ passed through the womb of the Virgin, as through a canal, and at his baptism the Saviour of the Pleroma descended upon him in the form of a dove. He suffered as to his animal part, which he received from Demiurgus, but not as to his spiritual part. There are likewise three sorts of men, the spiritual, material, and animal. These three substances were united together in Adam; but they were divided in his children. That which was spiritual went into Seth, the material into Cain, and the animal into Abel. The spiritual men shall be immortal, whatever crimes they commit; the material, on the contrary, shall be annihilated, whatever good they do: the animal shall be in a place of refreshment, if they do good; and shall be annihilated, if they do evil. The end of the world shall come, when the spiritual men shall have been formed and perfected by the Nous. Then the Enthymese shall ascend up to the Pleroma again, and be re-united with the Saviour. The spiritual men shall not rise again: but shall enter with the Enthymese into the Pleroma, and shall be married to the angels, who are with the Saviour. The Demiurgus shall pass into the region where his mother was, and shall be followed by the animal men, who have lived well; where they shall have rest. In fine, the material and animal men, who have lived ill, shall be consumed by the fire, which will annihilate all matter.

The disciples of Valentinus did not strictly confine themselves to his system. They took a great deal of liberty, in ranging the Æons according to their different ideas, without condemning one another upon that account. But what is most abominable is, that from these chimerical principles they drew detestable conclusions as to morality: for, because spiritual beings could not perish, being good by nature, hence they concluded that they might freely and without scruple commit all manner of actions, and that it was not at all necessary for them to do good; but above all, they believed continence to be useless. We have, in Clemens Alexandrinus, an extract of a letter of Valentinus, in which he maintains, that God does not require the martyrdom of his children, and that, whether they deny or confess Christ before tyrants, they shall be saved. If they believed that good works were necessary, it was only for animal men. Some believed that baptism by water was superfluous; others baptized in the name of the unknown Father, of the truth the mother of all, of him who descended in Jesus, of the light, redemption, and community of powers. Many rejected all outward ceremonies.

In fine, the errors of the Valentinians were wholly incompatible with the Christian doctrine. If they did not destroy the unity of God, they made of him a monstrous composition of different beings. They attributed the creation to another principle: they set up good and bad substances by nature. Jesus Christ, according to them, was but a man, on whom the celestial Christ descended. The Holy Ghost was but a simple Divine virtue. There is 780no resurrection of the body. Spiritual men do not merit eternal life; it is due to them by their nature; and do what they will they can never miss of it; as material men cannot escape annihilation, although they live an unblameable life.

VALESIANS. Christian heretics, disciples of Valesius, an Arabian philosopher, who appeared about the year 250, and maintained that concupiscence acted so strongly upon man, that it was not in his power to resist it, and that even the grace of God was not sufficient to enable him to get the better of it. Upon this principle he taught that the only way for a man to be saved was to make himself an eunuch. The Origenists afterwards fell into the same error; but it was Valesius who gave birth to it. The bishop of Philadelphia condemned this philosopher, and the other Churches of the East followed his example.

The maxims of the Valesians were very cruel. They were not satisfied to mutilate those of their sect, but they had the barbarity to make eunuchs of strangers who chanced to pass by where they lived. This heresy spread greatly in Arabia, and especially in the territory of Philadelphia.

VAUDOIS. (See Waldenses.)

VAULT. An arched roof, so constructed as to be supported by mutual compression. Vaulting and Gothic architecture are so intimately connected, that the latter has been defined as “the truthful elaboration of vaulted structure;” and vaulting has been called “the final cause of Gothic architecture, that to which all its members subserve, for which everything else is contrived, and without which the whole apparatus would be aimless and unmeaning.”^[20] To enter into the science of vaulting would be quite beyond our present purpose; we can only very loosely assign the various forms of vaults to the respective styles to which they belong.

The earliest and simplest vault is that called the waggon vault, i. e. a simple semi-cylindrical vault, one side of which rests throughout on each wall of the span to be vaulted. This vault was used by the Romans, and for a while in our Romanesque: but it was very soon discontinued for one in which the whole space to be vaulted was divided into equal squares, and a semi-cylinder being supposed to be thrown over each square in each direction, the one crossing and cutting the other, the points at which they would cut were taken as the groins, and all below these parts being removed, an arched way was left in either direction. This formed a simple quadripartite vault, but as yet of very rude construction. Some of the defects of this were remedied by supplying ribs at the groins, which not only strengthened the vault, but also served in a great degree to conceal its defects of form. By and by the compartments were also separated by a rib, springing transversely over the space to be vaulted. The introduction of bosses at the intersection of the diagonal ribs, and the various moulding of the ribs themselves, was as far as the Normans proceeded with this kind of vault, except that they had various methods of bringing the apex of the intersecting cylinders into the same plane, by stilting or depressing them, where they were obliged to apply low vaults to rectangles with unequal sides.

In the Early English, the pointed arch was applied to the vault, as well as to all other arched constructions, and groining ribs were never omitted; still the transverse rib, or that separating two bays, is by no means invariably found. The ribs were multiplied as architecture advanced; and, during the Geometrical period, we have often, in addition to the diagonal and transverse ribs, a rib along the apex of the vault, both longitudinal and transverse, and sometimes two or more additional ribs rising from the vaulting shaft to the ridge rib. In the later Decorated, these ribs are often tied together by little cross ribs, at various angles, and the vault thus formed is called a lierne vault: this was continued into the Perpendicular period; its complexity rather than richness gradually increasing with the multiplication of ribs and bosses. It is a long process to arrive at the exact office of each rib; but there is in each case a constructive reason for its adoption.

The later architects of England adopted a more gorgeous, and, in some respects, a more scientific vault than any of those mentioned, which, from the equal radiation of its numerous ribs over the whole surface of the inverted conoids, of which the whole surface consists, is called fan vaulting; a system really more simple and perfect than any of the others, though to the eye so exceedingly elaborate.

VENIAL SIN. The Church of Rome, following the schoolmen, represents some sins as pardonable, and others not. The first they call venial, the second, mortal, sins. Thomas Aquinas makes seven distinctions in sin. (See Sin.)

VENI, CREATOR SPIRITUS. A hymn to the Holy Ghost. The Holy 781Ghost is that person of the Blessed Trinity, to which the distributing of the several offices in the Church, and qualifying the persons for them, is generally ascribed in Scripture. (Acts xiii. 2, 4; xx. 28; 1 Cor. xii. 11.) And upon that ground it is fit that a particular address be made to the Spirit before the ordination, which we do by this hymn. It is said to have been composed by St. Ambrose, and is placed among his works as an hymn for Pentecost; and on that day it is annually used in the Roman Church, and was so of old. It was inserted into the office for consecrating a bishop as early as the year 1100; and with a later hand put into the ordination of a priest about 500 (620) years ago in the Roman Church, and so it stands there to this day. And the Protestants have so well approved of it, that the Lutheran Churches begin their office with the same hymn. And our reformers translated it into metre in the larger way in King Edward the Sixth’s first ordinal. Since which time (namely, in the review of the Common Prayer under King Charles the Second, Dr. Nicholls) it hath been abbreviated, and put into fewer words, but to the same case, as it stands foremost here.—Dean Comber.

Though the words of these hymns have lost something from time, the prayer is too serious, too important, ever to be forgotten. We are not so enthusiastic as to expect an extraordinary communication of the Spirit to any minister of the gospel. Neither are we so void of spiritual feeling as to imagine that the Divine influence, which God himself has promised, and an innumerable host of Christians have displayed by their conduct, cannot touch our hearts. We do truly believe that it is the grace of God, operating with our spirit, which enables us to fulfil our duty in so arduous a situation. We may “resist and quench the Spirit” (Acts vii. 51; 1 Thess. v. 19); and we may “grow in grace.” (2 Pet. iii. 18.) From these expressions we are taught, to leave our hearts open in the one case, and in the other to aim at greater perfection. In both our connexion with the Spirit is made manifest; for, “if we have not the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his.” (Rom. viii. 9.) May the Spirit of Divine grace “visit our minds,” and “inspire our souls” with holy affections, that we may improve those “manifold gifts,” which alone give stability to the Church of Christ, and are derived from him, “the fountain and the spring of all celestial joy.”—Brewster.

VENITE. The 95th Psalm. The Psalmist here calls upon us with this arousing exhortation, “O come, let us sing unto the Lord!” and the apostle to the same purpose wills us to “admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts unto God.” (Col. iii. 16) Where he seems to quicken our backwardness, and to stir us up to a due sense of the Divine favour and goodness. And this is to be done, both outwardly with the voice, by singing unto the Lord; and inwardly with the heart, by heartily rejoicing in God, who is “the strength of our salvation.” It is by his power that our salvation is effected, and upon his mercy alone all our hopes of it are founded, and therefore both our heart and tongue are to become the instruments of his praise.—Hole.

Whenever we repeat this psalm, we should, if we wish to improve and be edified by it, always make some such reflections as these that follow. The wandering of the Israelites through the wilderness represents our travelling through this world; their earthly Canaan, or promised land, being a type or figure of heaven, of that blessed country, to which we are all invited, and where, if it be not our own fault, we may all one day arrive. The same Divine providence which once guided and protected them, now watches over and defends us;—“they did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink.” (1 Cor. x. 3, 4.) The manna, with which they were miraculously sustained, was an emblem of the true “bread of life, which came down from heaven,” for the support of our souls; and the water, which they drank out of the rock, prefigured the graces of the Holy Spirit, which we receive from the true fountain of life; for “that rock was Christ,”—that is, it represented Christ. Now if they, through their infidelity and disobedience, notwithstanding all the signal favours they enjoyed, fell short of the promised rest, and perished in the wilderness, so shall we, who are blessed with still higher privileges, if we tread in their steps, most assuredly fail of our eternal inheritance in the heavenly Canaan, and be doomed to everlasting destruction. “Take heed,” therefore, “brethren,” as the apostle justly infers, “lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (Heb. iii. 12, 13.) Let us not rest in a bare speculative belief, but endeavour to obtain and preserve a lively 782faith and hearty trust in the promises of God made to us in the gospel. This, and this only, will support us in our pilgrimage here on earth, and carry us safe to our eternal rest in heaven.—Waldo.

According to ancient use in the Western Church, the Venite always precedes the Morning Psalm, except on Easter Day, when another anthem is appointed.

VERGER. (From virgu, a rod.) He who carries the mace before the dean or canons in a cathedral or collegiate church. In some cathedrals the dean has his own verger, the canons theirs: in others the verger goes before any member of the church, whether capitular or not, when he leaves his place to perform any part of the service. An officer of a similar title precedes the vice-chancellor in the English universities.

VERSE. A line or short sentence, generally applied to poetry, but also applicable to prose, as Cicero employs it. See Facciolati in voc. Hence it came to mean a short sentence. It has, in an ecclesiastical sense, these several meanings:

1. The short paragraphs, numbered for the sake of reference, into which the Bible is at present divided, are called verses. These divisions were introduced into the Old Testament by Rabbi Nathan, in the fifteenth century. Those in the New were introduced by Robert Stephens in 1551.

2. The short sentence of the minister, which is followed by the response of the choir or people, in the Latin ritual. These are marked V. & R. It is something like the versicles in our service, but is frequently longer.

3. A sentence or short anthem, as in the Introits of the Latin service.

4. Verse in the English choral service means those passages in the hymns or anthems which are sung by a portion only of the choir, sometimes by a single voice, as contradistinguished from the full parts, or chorus. Thus we have full and verse anthems.

VERSICLES. Short or diminutive verses, said alternately by the minister and people; such, for example, as the following:—

Min.

O Lord, show thy mercy upon us;

Ans.

And grant us thy salvation.

Min.

O God, make clean our hearts within us;

Ans.

And take not thy Holy Spirit from us.

The versicles, properly so called, (with their responses,) are in most instances passages from the Psalms, and are thus distinguished from other suffrages, which are neither verses from the Psalms, nor form in each petition and response a continuous sentence. In the Litany the two versicles with their responses, “O Lord, deal not with us after our sins,” and “O Lord, let thy mercy be showed upon us,” are distinguished from the other suffrages (in the Litany) by having the words Priest and Answer prefixed; and by being each a verse from the Psalms. To which may be added, that till the last Review, these had been always prefaced in the English Litany, since the Reformation, by the words “the versicles.”

VESICA PISCIS. (See Piscis.)

VESPERS, or EVEN-SONG, is mentioned by the most ancient Fathers, and it is probable that the custom of holding an assembly for public worship at this time is of the most primitive antiquity. Certainly in the fourth century, and perhaps in the third, there was public evening service in the Eastern Churches, as we learn from the Apostolical Constitutions; and Cassian, in the beginning of the fifth century, appears to refer the evening and nocturnal assemblies of the Egyptians to the time of St. Mark the Evangelist.

VESTMENTS. (See Ornaments.) The vestment mentioned in the rubric of King Edward VI.’s first Prayer Book, is the same as the Chasuble. (See Chasuble.)

VESTRY. (Anciently Revestry or Sacristy.) A room attached to a church for the keeping of the vestments and the sacred vessels. The most usual place for the vestry was at the north side of the chancel, at the east end. There was not infrequently an altar in the vestry; and sometimes it was arranged with an additional chamber, so as to form a domus inclusa for the residence of an officiating priest.

And from their meeting in this room, certain assemblies of the parishioners, for the despatch of the official business of the parish, are called vestries or vestry meetings. It is not, however, essential to the validity of the meeting, that it should be held in the vestry of the church. It may be convened in any place in the parish, provided the parishioners have free access to it, even though the place fixed on be private property. Notice of meeting must be given three days previously, by affixing on or near the doors of all churches or chapels within the parish, a printed or written notice. The incumbent is ex officio chairman of the meeting. All persons rated to the relief of the poor, whether inhabitants of the parish or not, are entitled to attend the vestry and vote thereat: and 783this right is also extended to all inhabitants coming into the parish since the last rate for the relief of the poor, if they consent to be rated. But no person is entitled to vote, who shall have neglected or refused to pay any rate which may be due, and shall have been demanded of him, nor is he entitled to be present at any vestry meeting. A motion to adjourn the vestry for six or twelve months, or for any time, with a view to defeat the object of the meeting, is illegal, and therefore no such motion should be received by the chairman.

The functions of vestries are, to take due care for the maintenance of the edifice of the church, and the due administration of Divine service; to elect churchwardens, to present for appointment fit persons as overseers of the poor, to administer the property of the parish, and (if so appointed under local acts) to superintend the paving and lighting of the parish, and to levy rates for those purposes.

The remedy for neglect of duty by a vestry is a mandamus from the court of Queen’s Bench, directed to the officer whose duty it would be to perform the particular act, or in some cases by an ordinary process against him, or by a process against the churchwardens out of the ecclesiastical courts.

In the year 1818 was passed the 58 Geo. III. c. 69, making general regulations for the holding of vestries, and this act was amended next year by the 59 Geo. III. c. 85. In the same year was passed the 59 Geo. III. c. 12, commonly called Sturges Bourne’s Act, authorizing the formation of select vestries for the management of the relief of paupers; but that is superseded by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.

The 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c. 20 is an important act relating to vestries, commonly called Hobhouse’s Act. It authorizes, upon the petition of a certain number of parishioners paying rates, the formation of a representative select vestry. To 1000 ratepayers 12 representatives are allowed; above 1000, 24; above 2000, 36; and so on, allowing 12 additional representatives for every additional 1000 ratepayers, until the number of the select vestry reaches 120, which is the limit of elected members. There are others ex officio, including the clergy of the district. Section 40 of this act saves all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and provides that the act shall not invalidate or avoid any ecclesiastical law or constitution of the Church of England, save as concerns the appointment of vestries.

A series of church-building acts, eighteen in number, were passed between 1818 and 1848, beginning with the 58 Geo. III., and ending with the 11 & 12 Vict. They contained clauses which provided for the formation of select vestries in the new ecclesiastical districts constituted by those acts. In 1851 came the 14 & 15 Vict. c. 97, which enumerates all these acts, and by section 20 not only forbids the formation of select vestries in new districts to be formed, but abolishes all those which had been formed under the acts enumerated.

By the Metropolitan Burials Acts of 1852, (15 & 16 Vict. c. 85, amended and extended by 16 & 17 Vict. c. 134,) new and important duties were thrown upon vestries. It is therein provided, that, upon the requisition in writing of ten or more ratepayers of any parish in the metropolis in which the place or places of burial shall appear to such ratepayers insufficient or dangerous to health, (and whether any order in council in relation to any burial ground in such parish has or has not been made,) the churchwardens or other persons to whom it belongs to convene meetings of the vestry of such parish, shall convene a meeting of the vestry, for the special purpose of determining whether a burial ground shall be provided under this act for the parish; and public notice of such vestry meeting, and the place and hour of holding the same, and the special purpose thereof, shall be given in the usual manner in which notices of the meetings of the vestry are given, at least seven days before holding such vestry meeting; and if it be resolved by the vestry that a burial ground shall be provided under this act for the parish, a copy of such resolution, extracted from the minutes of the vestry, and signed by the chairman, shall be sent to one of her Majesty’s principal secretaries of state.

In case of such resolution as aforesaid, the vestry shall appoint not less than three, nor more than nine persons, being ratepayers of the parish, to be the burial board of such parish, of whom one third, or as nearly as may be one third, (to be determined among themselves,) shall go out of office yearly, at such time as shall be from time to time fixed by the vestry, but shall be eligible for immediate re-appointment: provided always, that the incumbent of the parish shall be eligible to be appointed and re-appointed from time to time as one of the members of the said board, although not a ratepayer of the parish; provided also, that any member of the board may at any time resign 784his office, on giving notice in writing to the churchwardens or persons to whom it belongs to convene meetings of the vestry.

Any vacancies in the board may be filled up by the vestry when and as the vestry shall think fit.

The board shall meet at least once in every month at their office, or some other convenient place, previously publicly notified, and the said board may meet at such other time as at any previous meeting shall be determined upon; and it shall be at all times competent for any two members of the board, by writing under their hands, to summon, with at least forty-eight hours’ notice, the board for any special purpose mentioned in such writing, and to meet at such times as shall be appointed therein.

At all meetings of the board, any number not less than three members of such board shall be a sufficient number for transacting business, and for exercising all the powers of the board.

The board shall appoint, and may remove at pleasure, a clerk, and such other officers and servants as shall be necessary for the business of the board, and for the purposes of their burial ground; and, with the approval of the vestry, may appoint reasonable salaries, wages, and allowances for such clerk, officers, and servants, and, when necessary, may hire and rent a sufficient office for holding their meetings and transacting their business.

Entries of all proceedings of the board, with the names of the members who attend each meeting, shall be made in books to be provided and kept for that purpose, under the direction of the board, and shall be signed by the members present, or any two of them; and all entries purporting to be so signed shall be received as evidence, without proof of any meeting of the board having been duly convened or held, or of the presence at any such meeting of the persons named in any such entry as being present thereat, or of such persons being members of the board, or of the signature of any person by whom any such entry purports to be signed, all which matters shall be presumed until the contrary be proved; and the board shall provide and keep books in which shall be entered true and regular accounts of all sums of money received and paid, for or on account of the purposes of this act in the parish, and of all liabilities incurred by them for such purposes, and of the several purposes for which such sums of money are paid and such liabilities incurred.

All such books shall, at all reasonable times, be open to the examination of every member of such board, churchwarden, overseer, and ratepayer, without fee or reward, and they respectively may take copies of, or extracts from, such books, or any part thereof, without paying for the same; and in case the members of such board, or any of them, or any of the officers or servants of such board having the custody of the said books, being thereunto reasonably requested, refuse to permit or do not permit any churchwarden, overseer, or ratepayer to examine the same, or take any such copies or extracts, every such member, officer, or servant so offending shall for every such offence, upon a summary conviction thereof before any justice of the peace, forfeit any sum not exceeding five pounds.

The vestry shall yearly appoint two persons, not being members of the board, to be auditors of the accounts of the board, and at such time in the month of March in every year as the vestry shall appoint, the board shall produce to the auditors their accounts, with sufficient vouchers for all monies received and paid, and the auditors shall examine such accounts and vouchers, and report thereon to the vestry.

The expenses incurred, or to be incurred, by the burial board of any parish in carrying this act into execution, shall be chargeable upon and paid out of the rates for the relief of the poor of such parish; the expenses to be so incurred for or on account of any parish in providing and laying out a burial ground under this act, and building the necessary chapel or chapels thereon, not to exceed such sum as the vestry shall authorize to be expended for such purpose; and the overseers or other officers authorized to make and levy rates for the relief of the poor in any parish shall, upon receipt of a certificate under the hands of such number of members of the burial board as are authorized to exercise the powers of the board, of the sums required from time to time for defraying any such expenses as aforesaid, pay such sums out of the rates for the relief of the poor, as the board shall direct.

Provided always, that it shall be lawful for the board, with the sanction of the vestry and the approval of the commissioners of her Majesty’s treasury, to borrow any money required for providing and laying out any burial ground under this act, and building a chapel or chapels thereon, or any of such purposes, and to charge the future poor rates of the parish 785with the payment of such money and interest thereon; provided that there shall be paid in every year, in addition to the interest of the money borrowed and unpaid, not less than one-twentieth of the principal sum borrowed, until the whole is discharged.

The commissioners for carrying into execution an act of the session holden in the 14th and 15th years of her Majesty, c. 23, “to authorize for a further period the advance of money out of the consolidated fund to a limited amount for carrying on public works and fisheries and employment of the poor,” and any act or acts, amending or continuing the same, may from time to time make to the burial board of any parish for the purposes of this act any loan under the provisions of the recited act, or the several acts therein recited or referred to, upon security of the rates for the relief of the poor of the parish.

The money raised for defraying such expenses, and the income arising from the burial ground provided for the parish, except fees payable to the incumbent, clerk, and sexton of the parish, and the other fees herein directed to be otherwise paid, shall be applied by the board in or towards defraying the expenses of such board under this act; and whenever, after repayment of all monies borrowed for the purposes of this act in or for any parish, and the interest thereof, and after satisfying all the liabilities of the board with reference to the execution of this act in or for the parish, and providing such a balance as shall be deemed by the board sufficient to meet their probable liabilities during the then next year, there shall be at the time of holding the meeting of the vestry at which the yearly report of the auditors shall be produced, any surplus money at the disposal of the board, they shall pay the same to the overseers, in aid of the rate for the relief of the poor of the parish.

The vestries of any parishes which shall have respectively resolved to provide burial grounds under this act, may concur in providing one burial ground for the common use of such parishes, in such manner, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as they shall mutually agree; and may agree as to the proportions in which the expenses of such burial ground shall be borne by such parishes, and the proportion for each of such parishes of such expenses shall be chargeable upon and paid out of the monies to be raised for the relief of the poor of the same respective parish accordingly; and, according and subject to the terms which shall have been so agreed on, the burial boards appointed for such parishes respectively shall, for the purpose of providing and managing such one burial ground, and taking and holding land for the same, act as one joint burial board for all such parishes, and may have a joint office, clerk, and officers, and all the provisions of this act shall apply to such joint burial board accordingly; and the accounts and vouchers of such board shall be examined and reported on by the auditors of each of such parishes; and the surplus money at the disposal as aforesaid of such board, shall be paid to the overseers of such parishes respectively in the same proportions as those in which such parishes shall be liable to such expenses.

For the more easy execution of the purposes of this act, the burial board of every parish appointed under this act shall be a body corporate, by the name of “The Burial Board for the Parish of ——, in the County of ——,” and by that name shall have perpetual succession and a common seal, and shall sue and be sued, and have power and authority (without any licence in mortmain) to take, purchase, and hold land for the purposes of this act; and where the burial boards of two or more parishes act as, and form, one joint burial board for all such parishes for the purposes aforesaid, such joint board shall for such purposes only be a body corporate, by the name of “The Burial Board for the Parishes of —— and ——, in the County of ——,” and by that name shall have perpetual succession, and a common seal, and shall sue and be sued, and have power and authority as aforesaid to take, purchase, and hold land for the purposes of this act.

Every burial board shall, with all convenient speed, proceed to provide a burial ground for the parish or parishes for which they are appointed to act, and to make arrangements for facilitating interments therein; and in providing such burial ground, the board shall have reference to the convenience of access thereto from the parish or parishes for which the same is provided; and any such burial ground may be provided either within or without the limits of the parish, or all or any of the parishes, for which the same is provided; but no ground not already used as or appropriated for a cemetery, shall be appropriated as a burial ground, or as an addition to a burial ground, under this act, nearer than 200 yards to any dwelling house, without the consent in writing of 786the owner, lessee, and occupier of such dwelling house.

For the providing such burial ground, it shall be lawful for the burial board, with the approval of the vestry or vestries of the parish or respective parishes, to contract for and purchase any lands for the purpose of forming a burial ground, or for making additions to any burial ground to be formed or purchased under this act, as such board may think fit, or to purchase from any company or persons entitled thereto any cemetery or cemeteries, or part or parts thereof, subject to the rights in vaults and graves, and other subsisting rights, which may have been previously granted therein: provided always that it shall be lawful for such board, in lieu of providing any such burial ground, to contract with any such company or persons entitled as aforesaid for the interment in such cemetery or cemeteries, and either in any allotted part of such cemetery or cemeteries or otherwise, and upon such terms as the burial board may think fit, of the bodies of persons who would have had rights of interment in the burial grounds of such parish or respective parishes.

VIA MEDIA. The position occupied in the Christian world by the Anglican Church. There are three parties at present dividing the kingdom—the Church, the Romanist, the ultra-Protestant; of these the Church occupies the middle, Romanism and ultra-Protestantism the extreme positions. Were the Church withdrawn or forced from this central position, the two extremes would soon collide in civil and religious contention and rancour. The Church is the peace-preserving power in the home empire; her advantages and resources in this respect are singularly her own. As far as the Roman is a Church, she agrees with Rome: educated Romanists, however much they regret the disunion of the sees of Rome and Canterbury, respect her ecclesiastical and apostolic character. As far as the renunciation of errors dangerous to salvation constitutes Protestantism, she is thoroughly Protestant; learned and sober Nonconformists, therefore, have always considered her as the bulwark of the reformed religion. She possesses what Rome does not, to conciliate the Nonconformist; she possesses what ultra-Protestantism does not, to attract the esteem of the Roman Catholic. She has wherewith to conciliate to herself these two extremes, totally irreconcileable with each other. Were all religious parties in the realm to meet at this moment to draw up a national form of Christianity consistent with both Scripture and Catholic antiquity, the vast majority, we doubt not, would conscientiously prefer the liturgy and articles of the Church to any form or articles propounded by any one sect out of the Church. Without the Church, again, ultra-Protestantism would prove but a rope of sand to oppose the subtle machinations and united movement of the papal hierarchy. With her, at peace with both, though not in communion with either, these hostile schemes have as yet been prevented from committing the nation to the horrors of intestine commotion. The statesman who would undermine or debilitate this passive supremacy—for to all aggressive or domineering purposes it is entirely passive—on the chance that conflicting sects would extend to each other the mild toleration which now under the Church all impartially enjoy, must have studied religious passions and religious history to little profit.

The great mass of Protestant communities sends each individual to the Bible alone; thence to collect, as it may happen, truth or falsehood, by his own interpretation, or misinterpretation, and thence to measure the most weighty and mysterious truths by the least peculiar and appropriate passages of sacred Scripture. The Church of Rome sends her children neither to the Bible alone, nor to tradition alone; nor yet to the Bible and tradition conjointly, but to an infallible living expositor: which expositor sometimes limits, and sometimes extends, and sometimes contradicts, both the written word and the language of Christian antiquity. The Church of England steers a middle course. She reveres the Scripture: she respects tradition. She encourages investigation: but she checks presumption. She bows to the authority of ages: but she owns no living master upon earth. She rejects alike the wild extravagance of unauthorized opinion, and the tame subjection of compulsory belief. Where the Scripture clearly and freely speaks, she receives the dictates as the voice of God. When Scripture is neither clear nor explicit, or when it may demand expansion and illustration, she refers her sons to an authoritative standard of interpretation, but a standard which it is their privilege to apply for themselves. And when Scripture is altogether silent, she provides a supplementary guidance: but a guidance neither fluctuating nor arbitrary; the same in all times, and under all circumstances; which no private interest can warp, and no temporary prejudice can lead astray. Thus, her appeal is made to 787past ages, against every possible error of the present. Thus, though the great mass of Christendom, and even though the vast majority of our own national Church, were to depart from the purity of Christian faith and practice, yet no well-taught member of that Church needs hesitate or tremble. His path is plain. It is not merely his own judgment, it is not by any means the dictatorial mandate of an ecclesiastical director, which is to silence his scruples, and dissolve his doubts. His resort is, that concurrent, universal, and undeviating sense of pious antiquity, which he has been instructed, and should be encouraged, to embrace, to follow, and to revere.—Bishop Jebb.

VIATICUM. The provision made for a journey. Hence, in the ancient Church, both baptism and the eucharist were called Viatica, because they were equally esteemed men’s necessary provision and proper armour, both to sustain and conduct them safe on their way in their passage through this world to eternal life. The administration of baptism is thus spoken of by St. Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, as the giving to men their viaticum or provision for their journey to another world; and under this impression it was frequently delayed till the hour of death, being esteemed as a final security and safeguard to future happiness. More strictly, however, the term viaticum denoted the eucharist given to persons in immediate danger of death, and in this sense it is still occasionally used. The 13th Canon of the Nicene Council ordains that none “be deprived of his perfect and most necessary viaticum, when he departs out of this life.” Several other canons of various councils are to the same effect, providing also for the giving of the viaticum under peculiar circumstances, as to persons in extreme weakness, delirium, or subject to canonical discipline.

VICAR. In order to the due understanding of this office, as distinguished from those of rector and perpetual curate, it will be necessary to describe in this article the three several offices in their order.

The appellation of rector is synonymous with that of parson, which latter term, although frequently used indiscriminately, as applicable also to vicars and even curates, is, according to Blackstone, the most legal, beneficial, and honourable title that a parish priest can enjoy. Parson, in the legal signification, is taken for the rector of a church parochial: he is said to be seised in jure ecclesiæ. Such an one, and he only, is said vicem seu personam ecclesiæ gerere. He is called parson (persona) because by his person the Church, which is an invisible body, is represented; and he is in himself a body corporate, in order to protect and defend the rights of the Church (which he personates) by a perpetual succession. And, as Lord Coke says, the law had an excellent end therein, viz. that in his person the Church might sue for and defend her right. A parson, therefore, is a corporation sole, and has during his life the freehold in himself of the parsonage house, the glebe, the tithe, and other dues.

But these are sometimes appropriated; that is to say, the benefice is perpetually annexed to some spiritual corporation, either sole or aggregate, being the patron of the living, which the law esteems equally capable of providing for the service of the Church as any single private clergyman. This contrivance seems to have sprung from the policy of the monastic orders. At the first establishment of parochial clergy, the tithes of the parish were distributed in a fourfold division: one for the use of the bishop, another for maintaining the fabric of the church, a third for the poor, and the fourth to provide for the incumbent. When the sees of the bishops became otherwise amply endowed, they were prohibited from demanding their usual share of these tithes, and the division was into three parts only; and hence it was inferred by the monasteries, that a small part was sufficient for the officiating priest, and that the remainder might well be applied to the use of their own fraternities, (the endowment of which was construed to be a work of the most exalted piety,) subject to the burden of repairing the church, and providing for its constant supply. And therefore they begged and bought for masses and obits, and sometimes even for money, all the advowsons within their reach, and then appropriated the benefices to the use of their own corporation. But in order to complete such appropriation effectually, the king’s licence and consent of the bishop must first have been obtained; because both the king and the bishop may, some time or other, have an interest, by lapse, in the presentation to the benefice, which can never happen if it be appropriated to the use of a corporation which never dies, and also because the law reposes a confidence in them that they will not consent to anything that shall be to the prejudice of the Church. The consent of the patron also is necessarily implied, because (as was before observed) the appropriation can be originally made 788to none but to such spiritual corporation as is also the patron of the Church; the whole being, indeed, nothing else but an allowance for the patrons to retain the tithes and glebe in their own hands, without presenting any clerk, they themselves undertaking to provide for the service of the church.

The terms appropriation and impropriation are now so commonly used indiscriminately, that it has become almost unnecessary to mention the distinction between them; but appropriation, in contradistinction to impropriation, means the annexing a benefice to the proper and perpetual use of some spiritual corporation either sole or aggregate, being the patron of a living, which is bound to provide for the service of the church, and thereby becomes perpetual incumbent, the whole appropriation being only an allowance for the spiritual patrons to retain the tithes and glebe in their own hands, without presenting any clerk, they themselves undertaking to provide for the service of the church; while impropriation is supposed to be properly used when the profits of the benefice are held in lay hands, as being improperly so. But, in truth, the correctness of the distinction, even originally, seems doubtful: they are used as synonymous in statutes in the times of Elizabeth, of Mary, and of Charles II.; and even prior to the Reformation, in a petition to parliament in the time of Henry VIII., the term used is “impropried.” Both terms were borrowed from the form of the grant, “in proprios usus,” and they are peculiar or principally confined to this country. Blackstone says, that appropriations can be made to this day; upon which Mr. Christian observes, “It cannot be supposed that at this day the inhabitants of a parish, who had been accustomed to pay their tithes to their officiating minister, could be compelled to transfer them to an ecclesiastical corporation, to which they might be perfect strangers,” and that “there probably have been no new appropriations since the dissolution of monasteries.” Upon this same proposition, Mr. Justice Coleridge observes, alluding to the opinion of Mr. Christian, “The truth of this position has been questioned, and the doubt is not likely to be solved by any judicial decision. But I am not aware of any principle which should prevent an impropriation from being now legally made, supposing the spiritual corporation already seised of the advowson of the church, or enabled to take it by grant. The power of the king and the bishop remain undiminished.”

This appropriation may be severed, and the church become disappropriate, in two ways; as, first, if the patron or appropriator presents a clerk, who is instituted and inducted to the parsonage; for the incumbent so instituted and inducted is, to all intents and purposes, completed parson: and the appropriation, being once severed, can never be re-united again, unless by a repetition of the same solemnities. And when the clerk so presented is distinct from the vicar, the rectory thus vested in him becomes what is called a sinecure, because he had no cure of souls, having a vicar under him, to whom that cure is committed. Also, if the corporation which has the appropriation is dissolved, the parsonage becomes disappropriate at common law; because the perpetuity of person is gone, which is necessary to support the appropriation.

These sinecure rectories here spoken of had their origin in the following manner: The rector, with proper consent, had a power to entitle a vicar in his church to officiate under him, and this was often done; and by this means two persons were instituted to the same church, and both to the cure of souls, and both did actually officiate. So that however the rectors of sinecures, by having been long excused from residence, are in common opinion discharged from the cure of souls, (which is the reason of the name,) and however the cure is said in the law books to be in them habitualiter only, yet, in strictness, and with regard to their original institution, the cure is in them actualiter, as much as it is in the vicar, that is to say, where they come in by institution; but if the rectory is a donative, the case is otherwise; for coming in by donation, they have not the cure of souls committed to them. And these are most properly sinecures, according to the genuine signification of the word.

But no church, where there is but one incumbent, is properly a sinecure. If indeed the church be down, or the parish become destitute of parishioners, without which Divine offices cannot be performed, the incumbent is of necessity acquitted from all public duty; but still he is under an obligation of doing this duty whenever there shall be a competent number of inhabitants, and the church shall be rebuilt. And these benefices are more properly depopulations than sinecures.

But sinecure rectors and rectories are now in the course of gradual suppression, and will soon have entirely passed away; for it is declared by the stat. 3 & 4 Vict. 789c. 113, that all ecclesiastical rectories, without cure of souls, in the sole patronage of her Majesty, or of any ecclesiastical corporation, aggregate or sole, where there shall be a vicar endowed or a perpetual curate, shall, as to all such rectories as may be vacant at the passing of that act, immediately upon its so passing, and as to all others immediately upon the vacancies thereof respectively, be suppressed; and that as to any such ecclesiastical rectory without cure of souls, the advowson whereof, or any right of patronage wherein, shall belong to any person or persons, or body corporate, other than as aforesaid, the ecclesiastical commissioners for England shall be authorized and empowered to purchase and accept conveyance of such advowson or right of patronage, as the case may be, at and for such price or sum as may be agreed upon between them and the owner or owners of such advowson or right of patronage, and may pay the purchase money, and the expenses of and attendant upon such purchase, out of the common fund in their hands; and that after the completion of such purchase of any such rectory, and upon the first avoidance thereof, the same shall be suppressed; and that upon the suppression of any such rectory as aforesaid, all ecclesiastical patronage, belonging to the rector thereof as such rector, shall be absolutely transferred to, and be vested in, the original patron or patrons of such rectory.

The office of vicar, as distinct from that of rector, would sufficiently appear from what has been already said of the latter. The vicar was originally little more than a stipendiary curate of the present day, being a minister deputed or substituted by the spiritual corporation, who held the revenues of the benefice, to perform the ecclesiastical duties in their stead. Usually, though not always, he was one of their own body; and his stipend was entirely at their discretion, and he was removable at their caprice. The evil results of such a practice are apparent; and an effectual attempt to arrest the evil was made by a statute in the reign of Richard II.; but this was found to be insufficient; and accordingly it was enacted by statute 4 Henry IV. c. 12, that the vicar should be a secular ecclesiastic; perpetual; not removable at the caprice of the monastery; that he should be canonically instituted and inducted; that he should be sufficiently endowed at the discretion of the ordinary to do Divine service, to inform the people, and to keep hospitality. It is under this latter statute, therefore, that our vicarages in their present form came into existence, and the endowments of them have usually been by a portion of the glebe or land belonging to the parsonage; and a particular share of the tithes which the appropriators found it most troublesome to collect, and which are therefore generally called privy or small tithes, the greater or prœdial tithes being still reserved to their own use. But one and the same rule was not observed in the endowment of all vicarages. Hence some are more liberally, and some more scantily, endowed; and hence the tithes of many things, as wood in particular, are in some parishes rectorial, and in some, vicarial tithes.

The distinction, therefore, between a rector and a vicar, at the present day, is this, that the rector has generally the whole right to all the ecclesiastical dues within his parish; the vicar is entitled only to a certain portion of those profits, the best part of which are absorbed by the appropriator, to whom, if appropriations had continued as in their origin, he would in effect be perpetual curate with a fixed salary.

The parson, and not the patron of the parsonage, is of common right the patron of the vicarage. The parson, by making the endowment, acquires the patronage of the vicarage. For, in order to the appropriation of a parsonage, the inheritance of the advowson was to be transferred to the corporation to which the church was to be appropriated; and then the vicarage being derived out of the parsonage, the parson, of common right, must be patron thereof. So that if the parson makes a lease of the parsonage, (without making a special reservation to himself of the right of presenting to the vicarage,) the patronage of the vicarage passeth as incident to it. But it was held in the 21 James I., that the parishioners may prescribe for the choice of a vicar. And before that, in the 16 James I., in the case of Shirley and Underhill, it was declared by the court, that though the advowson of the vicarage of common right is appendant to the rectory, yet it may be appendant to a manor, as having been reserved specially upon the appropriation.

And if there be a vicar and parson appropriate, the ordinary and parson appropriate may, in time of vacation of the vicarage, reunite the vicarage to the parsonage.

From what has been already observed of the distinction between rector and vicar, it will be easy to anticipate what remains to be said of a perpetual curate; for a 790perpetual curate is, in many things, in the same position as was a vicar previous to the statute of Henry IV. before mentioned. The fact is, that certain cases were exempted from the operation of that statute; for if the benefice was given ad mensam monachorum, and so not appropriated in the common form, but granted by way of union pleno jure, it was allowed to be served by a curate of their own house, consequently not a secular ecclesiastic; and the like exemption from the necessity of appointing a vicar was sometimes also granted by dispensation, or on account of the nearness of the church.

At the dissolution of the monasteries, when appropriations were transferred from spiritual societies through the king to single lay persons, to them also, for the most part, was transferred the appointment of the vicars in the parishes where they were the appropriators, and in places where, by means of exemptions, there was no regularly endowed vicar; and as they were appropriators of the whole ecclesiastical dues, the charge of providing for the cure was laid on them; for neither in fact, nor in presumption of law, nor habitualiter, could a lay rector as such have cure of souls; they were consequently obliged to nominate some particular person to the ordinary for his licence to serve the cure; and such curates thus licensed became perpetual, in the same manner as vicars had been before, not removable at the caprice of the appropriator, but only by due revocation of the licence of the ordinary.

A perpetual curacy was formerly adjudged not to be an ecclesiastical benefice, so that it was tenable with any other benefice; but now perpetual curacies are expressly declared to be benefices within the meaning of that word in the Benefices Pluralities Act, and a perpetual curate is consequently liable to its restrictions in the same manner as any other incumbent; and it has been recently determined that perpetual curates, or their representatives, are liable to be sued in an action for dilapidations in the same manner as other incumbents.

In some cases it might be a matter of considerable difficulty to determine whether a place is a perpetual curacy or a chapelry only; and the more so, since, for most practical purposes, the question would be quite immaterial, and therefore less likely to have been judicially determined; but as an aid in deciding certain other questions which might arise, it might be important: and the following are the rules laid down by Lord Hardwicke for determining whether it is a perpetual curacy or not.

To determine this, he says, “consider it first as to the rights and privileges appearing to belong to the chapel itself; next, as to the right of the inhabitants within the district; thirdly, as to the rights and dues belonging to the curate of the chapelry. If all these rights concur to show the nature of a perpetual curacy, that must determine it.

“As to the first consideration, it appears this is a chapel belonging to a country town. It has belonging to it all sorts of parochial rights, as clerk, warden, &c., all rights of performing Divine service, baptism, sepulture, &c., which is very strong evidence of itself that this is not barely a chapel of ease to the parish to which it belongs, but stands on its own foundation, capella parochialis, as it is called in Hobart; and this differs it greatly from the chapels in London, which are barely chapels of ease, commencing within time of memory, which have not baptism or sepulture; all which sort of rights belong to the mother-church, and the rector or vicar of the parish, who has the cure of souls, has the nomination, as the rector of St. James’s or St. Martin’s has, but they have no parochial rights, which clearly belong to this chapel. Nor have any of the inhabitants of this chapelry a right to bury in the parish church of Northop, and that right of sepulture is the most strong circumstance, as appears from 3 Selden’s History, Tithes, fol. column 1212, to show that it differs not from a parish church.

“The next circumstance to determine this question is the right of the inhabitants, viz. to have service performed there, and baptism and christening, and having no right to resort to the parish church of Northop for these purposes, nor to any other place, if not here; nor are they or have they been rateable to the parish church of Northop. It was determined in the case of Castle Birmidge, Hob. 66, that the having a chapel of ease will not exempt the inhabitants within that district from contributing to repairs of the mother-church, unless it was by prescription, which would then be a strong foundation, that it must be considered as a curacy or chapelry.

“Next, as to the rights and dues of the curate. All these concur to show it to be a perpetual curacy, and not at all at the will and pleasure of the vicar; for the curate has always enjoyed the small tithes and surplice fees, nor is there any evidence to show that the vicar has received the small tithes.”

791A nomination to a perpetual curacy may be by parol. “Most regularly,” Lord Hardwicke says, “it ought to be in writing;” but, he adds, “I do not know that it has been determined that it is necessary. A presentation to a church need not be in writing, but may be by parol; if so, I do not see why a nomination to a perpetual curacy may not be by parol.”

A perpetual curate has an interest for life in his curacy, in the same manner and as fully as a rector or vicar; that is to say, he can only be deprived by the ordinary, and that in proper course of law; and, as Lord Hardwicke observes, it would be a contradiction in terms to say that a perpetual curate is removable at will and pleasure.