PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. (continued 8)
Reading edition
CANONS OF 1603.
Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical, treated upon by the Bishop of London, President of the Convocation for the Province of Canterbury, and the rest of the Bishops and Clergy of the said Province; and agreed upon with the King’s Majesty’s Licence, in their Synod begun at London, Anno Domini 1603, and in the year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord JAMES, by the Grace of God, King of England, France, and Ireland, the First, and of Scotland the Thirty-seventh: and now published for the due observation of them, by his Majesty’s Authority under the Great Seal of England.
James, by the grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c., to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting: Whereas our Bishops, Deans of our Cathedral Churches, Archdeacons, Chapters, and Colleges, and the other Clergy of every Diocese within the Province of Canterbury, being summoned and called by virtue of our Writ directed to the Most Reverend Father in God, John, late Archbishop of Canterbury, and bearing date the one and thirtieth day of January, in the first year of our reign of England, France, and Ireland, and of Scotland the thirty-seventh, to have appeared before him in our Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London, the twentieth day of March then next ensuing, or elsewhere, as he should have thought it most convenient, to treat, consent, and conclude upon certain difficult and urgent affairs mentioned in the said Writ; did thereupon, at the time appointed, and within the Cathedral Church of St. Paul aforesaid, assemble themselves, and appear in Convocation for that purpose, according to our said Writ, before the Right Reverend Father in God, Richard Bishop of London, duly (upon a second Writ of ours, dated the ninth day of March aforesaid) authorized, appointed, and constituted, by reason of the said Archbishop of Canterbury his death, President of the said Convocation, to execute those things, which, by virtue of our first Writ, did appertain to him the said Archbishop to have executed if he had lived.
We, for divers urgent and weighty causes and considerations as thereunto especially moving, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, did, by virtue of our Prerogative Royal, and Supreme Authority in causes Ecclesiastical, give and grant by our several Letters Patent under our Great Seal of England, the one dated the twelfth day of April last past, and the other the twenty-fifth day of June then next following, full, free, and lawful liberty, 136licence, power, and authority unto the said Bishop of London, President of the said Convocation, and to the other Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, Chapters, and Colleges, and the rest of the Clergy before mentioned, of the said Province, that they from time to time, during our first Parliament now prorogued, might confer, treat, debate, consider, consult, and agree of and upon such Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, as they should think necessary, fit, and convenient, for the honour and service of Almighty God, the good and quiet of the Church, and the better government thereof, to be from time to time observed, performed, fulfilled, and kept as well by the Archbishops of Canterbury, the Bishops, and their Successors, and the rest of the whole Clergy of the said Province of Canterbury in their several callings, offices, functions, ministries, degrees, and administrations; as also by all and every Dean of the Arches, and other Judge of the said Archbishop’s Courts, Guardians of Spiritualities, Chancellors, Deans, and Chapters, Archdeacons, Commissaries, Officials, Registrars, and all and every other Ecclesiastical Officers, and their inferior Ministers, whatsoever, of the same Province of Canterbury, in their and every other of their distinct Courts, and in the order and manner of their and every of their proceedings: and by all other persons within this realm, as far as lawfully, being members of the Church, it may concern them, as in our said Letters Patent amongst other clauses more at large doth appear. Forasmuch as the Bishop of London, President of the said Convocation, and others, the said Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, Chapters, and Colleges, with the rest of the Clergy, having met together at the time and place before mentioned, and then and there, by virtue of our said authority granted unto them, treated of, concluded, and agreed upon certain Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, to the end and purpose by us limited and prescribed unto them; and have thereupon offered and presented the same unto us, most humbly desiring us to give our royal assent unto their said Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions, according to the form of a certain Statute or Act of Parliament, made in that behalf in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, and by our said Prerogative Royal and Supreme Authority, in Causes Ecclesiastical, to ratify by our Letters Patent under our Great Seal of England, and to confirm the same, the title and tenor of them being word for word as ensueth:
The Table of the Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical.
Of the Church of England.
1.
The King’s Supremacy over the Church of England, in Causes Ecclesiastical, to be maintained.
2.
Impugners of the King’s Supremacy censured.
3.
The Church of England a true and apostolical Church.
4.
Impugners of the public Worship of God, established in the Church of England, censured.
5.
Impugners of the Articles of Religion, established in the Church of England, censured.
6.
Impugners of the Rites and Ceremonies, established in the Church of England, censured.
7.
Impugners of the Government of the Church of England, by Archbishops, Bishops, &c., censured.
8.
Impugners of the Form of consecrating and ordering Archbishops, Bishops, &c. in the Church of England, censured.
9.
Authors of Schism in the Church of England censured.
10.
Maintainers of Schismatics in the Church of England censured.
11.
Maintainers of Conventicles censured.
12.
Maintainers of Constitutions made in Conventicles censured.
Of Divine Service, and Administration of the Sacraments.
13.
Due Celebration of Sundays and Holy-days.
14.
The prescript Form of Divine Service to be used on Sundays and Holy-days.
15.
The Litany to be read on Wednesdays and Fridays.
16.
Colleges to use the prescript Form of Divine Service.
17.
Students in Colleges to wear Surplices in time of Divine Service.
18.
A reverence and attention to be used within the Church in time of Divine Service.
19.
Loiterers not to be suffered near the Church in time of Divine Service.
20.
Bread and Wine to be provided against every Communion.
21.
The Communion to be thrice a Year received.
22.
Warning to be given beforehand for the Communion.
23.
Students in Colleges to receive the Communion four times a Year.
24.
Copes to be worn in Cathedral Churches 137by those that administer the Communion.
25.
Surplices and Hoods to be worn in Cathedral Churches, when there is no Communion.
26.
Notorious Offenders not to be admitted to the Communion.
27.
Schismatics not to be admitted to the Communion.
28.
Strangers not to be admitted to the Communion.
29.
Fathers not to be Godfathers in Baptism, and Children not Communicants.
30.
The lawful use of the Cross in Baptism explained.
Ministers, their Ordination, Function, and Charge.
31.
Four solemn times appointed for the making of Ministers.
32.
None to be made Deacon and Minister both in one day.
33.
The Titles of such as are to be made Ministers.
34.
The Quality of such as are to be made Ministers.
35.
The Examination of such as are to be made Ministers.
36.
Subscription required of such as are to be made Ministers. The Articles of Subscription. The Form of Subscription.
37.
Subscription before the Diocesan.
38.
Revolters after Subscription censured.
39.
Cautions for Institution of Ministers into Benefices.
40.
An Oath against Simony at Institution into Benefices.
41.
Licences for Plurality of Benefices limited, and Residence enjoined.
42.
Residence of Deans in their Churches.
43.
Deans and Prebendaries to preach during their Residence.
44.
Prebendaries to be resident upon their Benefices.
45.
Beneficed Preachers, being resident upon their Livings, to preach every Sunday.
46.
Beneficed Men, not Preachers, to procure monthly Sermons.
47.
Absence of Beneficed Men to be supplied by Curates that are allowed Preachers.
48.
None to be Curates but allowed by the Bishop.
49.
Ministers, not allowed Preachers, may not expound.
50.
Strangers not admitted to preach without showing their Licence.
51.
Strangers not admitted to preach in Cathedral Churches without sufficient Authority.
52.
The Names of strange Preachers to be noted in a Book.
53.
No public Opposition between Preachers.
54.
The Licences of Preachers refusing Conformity to be void.
55.
The Form of a Prayer to be used by all Preachers before their Sermons.
56.
Preachers and Lecturers to read Divine Service, and administer the Sacraments twice a Year at the least.
57.
The Sacraments not to be refused at the hands of unpreaching Ministers.
58.
Ministers reading Divine Service, and administering the Sacraments, to wear Surplices, and Graduates therewithal Hoods.
59.
Ministers to catechize every Sunday.
60.
Confirmation to be performed once in three Years.
61.
Ministers to prepare Children for Confirmation.
62.
Ministers not to marry any Persons without Banns or Licence.
63.
Ministers of exempt Churches not to marry without Banns or Licence.
64.
Ministers solemnly to bid Holy-days.
65.
Ministers solemnly to denounce Recusants and Excommunicates.
66.
Ministers to confer with Recusants.
67.
Ministers to visit the Sick.
68.
Ministers not to refuse to christen or bury.
69.
Ministers not to defer Christening, if the Child be in danger.
70.
Ministers to keep a Register of Christenings, Weddings, and Burials.
71.
Ministers not to preach, or administer the Communion, in private Houses.
72.
Ministers not to appoint public or private Fasts or Prophecies, or to exorcise, but by Authority.
73.
Ministers not to hold private Conventicles.
74.
Decency in Apparel enjoined to Ministers.
75.
Sober Conversation required in Ministers.
76.
Ministers at no time to forsake their Calling.
Schoolmasters.
77.
None to teach School without Licence.
78.
Curates desirous to teach, to be licensed before others.
79.
The duty of Schoolmasters.
Things appertaining to Churches.
80.
The Great Bible, and Book of Common Prayer, to be had in every Church. 138
81.
A Font of Stone for Baptism in every Church.
82.
A decent Communion-Table in every Church.
83.
A Pulpit to be provided in every Church.
84.
A Chest for Alms in every Church.
85.
Churches to be kept in sufficient Reparations.
86.
Churches to be surveyed, and the decays certified to the high Commissioners.
87.
A Terrier of Glebe-lands and other Possessions belonging to Churches.
88.
Churches not to be profaned. Churchwardens or Questmen, and Side-men or Assistants.
89.
The choice of Churchwardens, and their Account.
90.
The choice of Side-men, and their joint office with Churchwardens.
Parish-Clerks.
91.
Parish-Clerks to be chosen by the Minister.
Ecclesiastical Courts belonging to the Archbishop’s Jurisdiction.
92.
None to be cited into divers Courts for Probate of the same Will.
93.
The Rate of Bona notabilia liable to the Prerogative Court.
94.
None to be cited into the Appeals or Audience, but dwellers within the Archbishop’s Diocese, or Peculiars.
95.
The Restraint of double Quarrels.
96.
Inhibitions not to be granted without the Subscription of an Advocate.
97.
Inhibitions not to be granted, until the Appeal be exhibited to the Judge.
98.
Inhibitions not to be granted to factious Appellants, unless they first subscribe.
99.
None to marry within the Degrees prohibited.
100.
None to marry under Twenty-one Years, without their Parents’ consent.
101.
By whom licences to marry without Banns shall be granted, and to what sort of persons.
102.
Security to be taken at the granting of such Licences, and under what Conditions.
103.
Oaths to be taken for the Conditions.
104.
An Exception for those that are in Widowhood.
105.
No sentence for Divorce to be given upon the sole confession of the parties.
106.
No Sentence for Divorce to be given but in open Court.
107.
In all sentences for Divorce, Bond to be taken for not marrying during each other’s life.
108.
The Penalty for Judges offending in the Premises.
Ecclesiastical Courts belonging to the Jurisdiction of Bishops and Archdeacons, and the Proceedings in them.
109.
Notorious Crimes and Scandals to be certified into Ecclesiastical Courts by Presentment.
110.
Schismatics to be presented.
111.
Disturbers of Divine Service to be presented.
112.
Non-Communicants at Easter to be presented.
113.
Ministers may present.
114.
Ministers shall present Recusants.
115.
Ministers and Churchwardens not to be sued for presenting.
116.
Churchwardens not bound to present oftener than twice a year.
117.
Churchwardens not to be troubled for not presenting oftener than twice a year.
118.
The old Churchwardens to make their Presentments before the new be sworn.
119.
Convenient time to be assigned for framing Presentments.
120.
None to be cited into Ecclesiastical Courts by process of Quorum Nomina.
121.
None to be cited into several Courts for one Crime.
122.
No Sentence of Deprivation or Deposition to be pronounced against a Minister, but by the Bishop.
123.
No Act to be sped but in open Court.
124.
No Court to have more than one Seal.
125.
Convenient Places to be chosen for the keeping of open Courts.
126.
Peculiar and inferior Courts to exhibit the original Copies of Wills into the Bishop’s Registry.
Judges Ecclesiastical, and their Surrogates.
127.
The Quality and Oath of Judges.
128.
The Quality of Surrogates.
Proctors.
129.
Proctors not to retain Causes without the lawful Assignment of the Parties.
130.
Proctors not to retain Causes without the Counsel of an Advocate.
131.
Proctors not to conclude in any Cause without the Knowledge of an Advocate.
132.
Proctors prohibited the Oath, In animam domini sui.
133.
Proctors not to be clamorous in Court.
Registrars.
134.
Abuses to be reformed in Registrars. 139
135.
A certain Rate of Fees due to all Ecclesiastical Officers.
136.
A Table of the Rates and Fees to be set up in Courts and Registries.
137.
The whole Fees for showing Letters of Orders, and other Licences, due but once in every Bishop’s time.
Apparitors.
138.
The Number of Apparitors restrained.
Authority of Synods.
139.
A National Synod the Church Representative.
140.
Synods conclude as well the absent as the present.
141.
Depravers of the Synod censured.
CANONS OF 1640. On the 27th May, 1640, the archbishop of Canterbury stated before the convocation that the Canons agreed upon in the sacred synod had been read before the king and the privy-council, and unanimously approved. The first Canon is concerning the regal power; and,
I. Enacts that every parson, vicar, curate, or preacher, shall, under pain of suspension, on four Sundays in each year, at morning prayer, read certain explanations of the regal power, to the effect:—
(1.) That the sacred order of kings is of Divine right, that a supreme power is given by God in Scripture to kings to rule all persons civil and ecclesiastical.
(2.) That the care of God’s Church is committed to kings in the Scripture.
(3.) That the power to call and dissolve national and provincial councils within their own territories is the true right of princes.
(4.) That it is treason against God and the prince for any other to set up any independent co-active power, either papal or popular, within the prince’s territory.
(5.) That subjects who resist their natural prince by force resist God’s ordinance, and shall receive damnation.
(6.) That as tribute is due from subjects to their prince, so those subjects have not only possession of, but a true and just title to, all their goods and estates; that as it is the duty of subjects to supply their king, so is it his duty to defend them in their property.
Forbids, under pain of excommunication, all persons to preach or teach anything contrary to the tenor of these explanations.
II. For the better keeping of the day of his Majesty’s most happy inauguration.
Orders all persons to keep the morning of the said day in coming diligently to church, and that due inquiry be made by bishops and others as to how the day is observed, in order that offenders may be punished.
III. For suppressing the growth of Popery.
Orders all ecclesiastical persons, bishops, &c., having exempt or peculiar jurisdiction, and all officials, and others having the cure of souls, to confer privately with the parties, and by Church censures, &c., to reduce those who are misled into Popish superstition to the Church of England.
Such private conferences to be performed by the bishop himself, or by some one or more persons of his appointment.
The said ecclesiastical persons to inform themselves of all persons, above the age of twelve years, in every parish, who do not come to church, or receive the holy eucharist, and who say or hear mass.
Ministers, churchwardens, &c., to present all such persons.
If neither private conferences nor Church censures will avail with such offenders, their names shall be certified by the bishop of the diocese unto the justices of assize.
Marriages, burials, and christenings of recusants, celebrated otherwise than according to the form of the Church of England, to be declared by churchwardens and others at visitations.
Diligent inquiry to be made as to who are employed as schoolmasters of the children of recusants. Churchwardens to give upon oath the names of those who send their children to be brought up abroad.
IV. Against Socinianism.
Forbids any one to print, sell, or buy any book containing Socinian doctrines upon pain of excommunication, and orders all ordinaries to signify the names of offenders to the metropolitan, in order to be by him delivered to the king’s attorney-general, that proceedings may be taken against them.
No preacher to vent such doctrine in a sermon, under pain of excommunication, and for a second offence deprivation. No university student or person in holy orders, except graduates in divinity, to have any Socinian book in his possession: all books so found to be burned: diligent inquiry to be made after offenders.
V. Against sectaries.
Declares that all the enactments of the canon against Popish recusants shall, as far as they are applicable, stand in full force against all Anabaptists, Brownists, Separatists, Familists, and other sects.
That the clauses in the canons against Socinianism, referring to Socinian books, 140shall stand in full force against all books devised against the discipline and government of the Church of England.
Orders all church and chapel wardens and questmen to present at visitations the names of those disaffected persons who neglected the prayers of the church, and came in for sermon only, thinking thereby to avoid the penalties enacted against such as wholly absented themselves.
VI. An oath enjoined for the preventing of all innovations in doctrine and government.
Declares that all archbishops, bishops, and all other priests and deacons shall, to secure them against suspicion of Popery or other superstition, take the oath which it prescribes.
Offenders, after three months’ delay granted them, if they continue obstinate, to be deprived.
Orders that the following shall also be compelled to take the prescribed oath, viz. all masters of arts, bachelors and doctors in divinity, law, or physic, all licensed practitioners of physic, all registrars, proctors, and schoolmasters, all graduates of foreign universities who come to be incorporated into an English university, and all persons about to be ordained or licensed to preach or serve any cure.
VII. A declaration concerning some rites and ceremonies.
Declares the standing of the communion table sideways under the east window of every chancel or chapel, to be in its own nature indifferent, and that therefore no religion is to be placed therein, or scruple to be made thereof.
That although at the Reformation all Popish altars were demolished, yet it was ordered by Queen Elizabeth’s injunction, that the holy tables should stand where the altars stood, and that, accordingly, they have been so continued in the royal chapels, most cathedrals, and some parish churches, that all churches and chapels should conform to the example of the cathedral mother churches in this particular, saving always the general liberty left to the bishop by law during the time of administration of the holy communion. Declares that this situation of the holy table does not imply that it is or ought to be esteemed a true and proper altar, whereon Christ is again really sacrificed; but it is, and may be, by us called an altar in that sense in which the primitive Church called it an altar.
Orders that in order to prevent profane abuses of the communion table, it shall be railed in.
Orders that at the words “draw near,” &c., all communicants shall with all humble reverence approach the holy table.
Recommends to all good and well-affected members of the Church, that they do reverence and obeisance both at their coming in and going out of the church, chancel, or chapel, according to the custom of the primitive Church and the Church of England in the reign of Elizabeth.
VIII. Of preaching for conformity.
Orders all preachers, under pain of suspension, to instruct the people in their sermons twice a year at least, that the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England are lawful and commendable, and to be submitted to.
IX. One Book of Articles of inquiry to be used at all parochial visitations.
Declares that the synod had caused a summary or collection of visitatory articles (out of the rubrics of the service book and the canons and warrantable rules of the Church) to be made and deposited in the records of the archbishop of Canterbury, and that no bishop or other ordinary shall, under pain of suspension, cause to be printed, or otherwise to be given in charge to the churchwardens or others which shall be sworn to make presentments, any other articles or forms of inquiry upon oath, than such as shall be approved by his metropolitan.
X. Concerning the conversation of the clergy.
Charges all clergymen carefully to abstain from all excess and disorder, and that by their Christian and religious conversation they shine forth as lights to others in all godliness and honesty.
Requires all to whom the government of the clergy is committed, to set themselves to countenance godliness, and diligently to labour to reform their clergy where they require it.
XI. Chancellor’s patents.
Forbids bishops to grant any patent to any chancellor, commissary, or official, for longer than the life of the grantee, nor otherwise than with the reservation to himself and his successors of the power to execute the said place, either alone or with the chancellor, if the bishop shall please to do so; forbids, under the heaviest censures, to take any reward for such places.
XII. Chancellors alone not to censure any of the clergy in sundry cases.
All cases involving suspension or any higher censure to be heard by the bishop or by his chancellor, together with two grave, dignified, or beneficed ministers of the diocese.
141XIII. Excommunication and absolution not to be pronounced but by a priest.
No excommunications or absolutions to be valid, unless pronounced by the bishop, or by some priest appointed by the bishop; such sentence of absolution to be pronounced either in open consistory, or, at least, in a church or chapel, the penitent humbly craving it on his knees.
XIV. Concerning commutations and the disposing of them.
No chancellor or other to commute penance without the bishop’s privity; or if by himself, he shall render strict account of the moneys received, which shall be applied to charitable and public uses.
XV. Touching concurrent jurisdiction.
That in places wherein there is concurrent jurisdiction, no executor be cited into any court or office for the space of ten days after the death of the testator.
XVI. Concerning licences to marry.
No licence shall be granted by any ordinary to any parties, except one of the parties have been living in the jurisdiction of the said ordinary for one month immediately before the licence be desired.
XVII. Against vexatious citations.
No citations grounded only upon pretence of a breach of law, and not upon presentment or other just ground, shall issue out of any ecclesiastical court, except under certain specified circumstances, and except in cases of grievous crime, such as schism, incontinence, misbehaviour in church, &c.
These canons were ratified by the king under the great seal, June 30th, 1640. An attempt was made at the time to set aside their authority, upon the plea that convocation could not lawfully continue its session after the dissolution of parliament, which took place on the 5th of May; but the opinion of all the judges taken at the time was unanimously in favour of the legality of their proceeding, as appears by the following document:—
“The convocation being called by the king’s writ under the great seal, doth continue until it be dissolved by writ or commission under the great seal, notwithstanding the parliament be dissolved.
“14th May, 1640.
“Jo. Finch.
“C. S. H. Manchester.
“John Bramston.
“Edward Littleton.
“Ralphe Whitfield.
“Jo. Bankes.
“Ro. Heath.”
An act of parliament, passed in the thirteenth year of Charles II., leaves to these canons their full canonical authority, whilst it provides that nothing contained in that statute shall give them the force of an act of parliament.
The acts of this convocation were unanimously confirmed by the synod of York.—Cardwell, vol. ii. p. 593, vol. i. p. 380. Wilkins, Conc. vol. iv. p. 538.
These canons, though passed in convocation, are not in force for the following reason: In 1639 a parliamentary writ was directed to the bishops to summon these clergy to parliament ad consentiendum, &c., and the convocation writ to the archbishops ad tractand. et consentiend. The parliament met on the 13th of April, 1640, and was dissolved on the 15th of May following. Now though the convocation, sitting by virtue of the first writ directed to the bishops, must fall by the dissolution of that parliament, yet the lawyers held that they might sit till dissolved by like authority. But this being a nice point, a commission was granted about a week after the dissolution of the parliament for the convocation to sit, which commission the king sent to them by Sir Harry Vane, his principal Secretary of State, and by virtue thereof they were turned into a provincial synod. The chief of the clergy then assembled desired the king to consult all the judges of England on this matter, which was done: and upon debating it in the presence of his council, they asserted under their hands the power of convocation in making canons. Upon this the convocation sat a whole month, and composed a Book of Canons, which was approved by the king by the advice of his privy-council, and confirmed under the broad seal. The objection against the Canons was that they were not made pursuant to the statute 25 Hen. VIII., because they were made in a convocation, sitting by the king’s writ to the archbishops, after the parliament was dissolved, though there is nothing in the statute which relates to their sitting in time of parliament only.
After the Restoration, when an act was passed to restore the bishops to their ordinary jurisdiction, a proviso was made that the act should not confirm the Canons of 1640. This clause makes void the royal confirmation. Hence we may conclude that canons should be made in a convocation, the parliament sitting; that being so made, they are to be confirmed by the sovereign; and that without such confirmation they do not bind the laity, 142much less any order or rule made by a bishop alone, where there is neither custom nor canon for it.—Burn.
Canon is used in the service of the Roman Church to signify that part of the communion service, or the mass, which follows immediately after the Sanctus and Hosanna; corresponding to that part of our service which begins at the prayer, “We do not presume,” &c. It is so called as being the fixed rule of the Liturgy, which is never altered. Properly speaking, the canon ends just before the Lord’s Prayer, which is recited aloud; the canon being said in a low voice. In the First Book of King Edward VI., the word is used in this sense, viz. in the Visitation of the Sick, after the Gospel, the service proceeds as follows:
“The Preface. The Lord be with you.
Answer. And with thy spirit.
¶ Lift up your hearts, &c.
Unto the end of the canon.”
The Anaphora of the Greek Church somewhat resembles the canon of the Roman. (See Anaphora.)—Jebb.
CANON. (See Deans and Chapters.) The name of canon, as applied to an officer in the Church, is derived from the same Greek word already alluded to, which also signifies the roll or catalogue of the Church, in which the names of the ecclesiastics were registered; hence the clergy so registered were denominated Canonici or Canons. Before the Reformation, they were divided into two classes, Regular and Secular. The Secular were so called, because they canonized in seculo, abroad in the world.
Regular canons were such as lived under a rule, that is, a code of laws published by the founder of that order. They were a less strict sort of religious than the monks, but lived together under one roof, had a common dormitory and refectory, and were obliged to observe the statutes of their order.
The chief rule for these canons is that of St. Augustine, who was made bishop of Hippo in the year 395. But they were but little known till the tenth or eleventh century, were not brought into England till after the Conquest, and seem not to have obtained the name of Augustine canons till some years after. The general opinion is, that they came in after the beginning of the reign of King Henry I., about the year 1105.
Their habit was a long black cassock, with a white rochet over it, and over that a black cloak and hood; from whence they were called Black Canons Regular of St. Augustine.
The monks were always shaved, but these canons wore beards, and caps on their heads.
There were about 175 houses of these canons and canonesses in England and Wales.
But besides the common and regular sort of these canons, there were also the following particular sorts.
As first, such as observed St. Augustine’s rule, according to the regulations of St. Nicholas of Arroasia; as those of Harewolde in Bedfordshire, Nutley or Crendon in Buckinghamshire, Hertland in Devonshire, Brunne in Lincolnshire, and Lilleshul in Shropshire.
Others there were of the rule of St. Augustine, and order of St. Victor; as at Keynsham and Worsping in Somersetshire, and Wormsley in Herefordshire.
Others of the order of St. Augustine, and the institution of St. Mary of Meretune, or Merton; as at Buckenham in Norfolk.
The Præmonstratenses were canons who lived according to the rule of St. Augustine, reformed by St. Norbert, who set up this regulation about the year 1120, at Præmonstratum in Picardy, a place so called because it was said to have been foreshown, or Præmonstrated, by the Blessed Virgin, to be the head seat and mother of the church of the order. These canons were, from their habit, called White Canons. They were brought into England soon after the year 1140, and settled first at Newhouse in Lincolnshire. They had in England a conservator of their privileges, but were nevertheless often visited by their superior at Premonstre, and continued under his jurisdiction till the year 1512, when they were exempted from it by the bull of Pope Julius II., confirmed by King Henry VIII.; and the superiority of all the houses of this order in England and Wales, was given to the abbot of Welbeck in Nottinghamshire. There were about thirty-five houses of this order.
The Sempringham or Gilbertine canons were instituted by St. Gilbert at Sempringham in Lincolnshire, in the year 1148. He composed his rule out of those of St. Augustine and St. Benedict, (the women following the Cistercian regulation of St. Benedict’s rule, and the men the rule of St. Augustine,) with some special statutes of their own. The men and women lived in the same houses, but in such different apartments that they had no communication with each other; and increased so fast, that St. Gilbert himself founded thirteen monasteries of this order; viz. four for men alone, and nine for men and 143women together, which had in them 700 brethren and 1500 sisters. At the dissolution of the monasteries there were about twenty-five houses of this order in England and Wales.
Canons regular of the Holy Sepulchre were instituted in the beginning of the 12th century, in imitation of the regulars instituted in the church of the Holy Sepulchre of our Saviour at Jerusalem. The first house they had in England was at Warwick, which was begun for them by Henry de Newburgh, earl of Warwick, who died in the year 1123, and perfected by his son Roger. They are sometimes called canons of the Holy Cross, and wore the same habit with the other Austin canons, distinguished only by a double red cross upon the breast of their cloak or upper garment. The endeavours of these religious for regaining the Holy Land coming to nothing after the loss of Jerusalem, in the year 1188, this order fell into decay, their revenues and privileges were mostly given to the Maturine friars, and only two houses of them continued to the dissolution.—Burn.
CANON OF SCRIPTURE. (See Scripture, and Bible.) The books of Holy Scripture as received by the Church, who, being the “witness and keeper of Holy Writ,” had authority to decide what is and what is not inspired.
That the Holy Scriptures are a complete rule of faith is proved, first, by the authority of the Holy Scriptures. And this is so plainly laid down therein, that nothing but a strange prejudice and resolution to support a cause could contradict it. Those words of St. Paul are very full to this purpose. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.) Moses expressly forbids that any one should “add unto the word that I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it.” (Deut. iv. 2.) “Whatsoever I command unto you to observe and do it, thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” (Deut. xii. 32.) The same prohibition is given out in the New Testament. For St. John, closing his Book of Revelation, and with that our Christian canon, so that it may not improbably seem to bear relation to the whole New Testament, forbids any addition or diminution, with a curse annexed to it: “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Rev. xxii. 18, 19.) But the substance of this had been before declared by St. Paul: “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. i. 8.) And as for the endeavour of some to piece out God’s written word by tradition, our Saviour warns us against this, when he blames the Pharisees for it; namely, in “teaching for doctrines the commandments of men,” (Matt. xv. 9,) and “making the commandment of God of none effect by their traditions.” (Ver. 3, 6.)
Secondly, by reason, drawn from the nature of the thing, and the whole order of the gracious dispensation of the gospel, with which God hath been pleased to bless mankind, this is no more than we might expect. For our Saviour having first made known the gospel to the world by his own preaching and suffering, and propagated it throughout the several parts thereof by the preaching of his apostles, in order to be conveyed down to successive generations, this could not well be effected without a written word. For to have delivered down the gospel truths by word of mouth, or oral tradition, would have made it subject to as many errors as the prejudices, fancies, and mistakes of the several relators could have given it. Now since God has been pleased to make use of this method to convey these truths which he has revealed unto us, it is but reasonable to think that all the truths which he has judged necessary for our salvation, and which he has required of us to believe, are contained in this written word. For why God should leave some of the gospel truths to be conveyed in a purer, and others in a more corrupt, channel, some by Scripture and others by tradition, is unaccountable: why, since he designed the Scripture to be in some measure the rule of faith, he should not at the same time render it a complete one; why this Divine law of God must be eked out by human traditions, which have been uncertain in the best times, and pernicious in some, and which strangely vary according to different countries and ages;—these notions highly reflect upon the Divine wisdom and goodness, and are taken up only to defend the corrupt practices of the Romish Church, which that Church is resolved to maintain at any rate, rather than to part with them.
144The like reasons are alleged by the ancient divines of the Church.—Dr. Nicholls.
The ancient fathers always speak of the Scriptures as containing a complete rule of faith and practice; and appeal to them, and to them only, in support of the doctrines which they advance.—Bp. Tomline.
CANON LAW. The canon law which regulates the discipline of the Romish Church consists, 1. Of the Decree of Gratian, (Decretum Gratiani,) a compilation made by a Benedictine monk, whose name it bears, at Bologna in Italy, in 1150, and made up of the decrees of different popes and councils, and of several passages of the holy fathers and other reputable writers.
2. Of the Decretals, collected by order of Pope Gregory IX., in the year 1230, in five books.
3. Of the compilation made by order of Boniface VIII., in 1297, known by the name of the Sixth Book of Decretals, because added to the other five, although it is itself divided into five books.
4. Of the Clementines, as they are called, or Decretals of Pope Clement V., published in the year 1317 by John XXII.
5. Of other decretals, known under the name of Extravagantes, so called because not contained in the former decretals. These Extravagantes are two-fold;—the first, called common, containing constitutions of various popes down to the year 1483; and, secondly, the particular ones of John XXII.
These, containing besides the decrees of popes and the canons of several councils, constitute the body of the canon law. The constitutions of subsequent popes and councils have also the force of canons, although not hitherto reduced into one body, nor digested, as the others, under proper heads, by any competent authority. These, together with some general customs, or peculiar ones of different places, having the force of laws, and certain conventions entered into between the popes and different Roman Catholic states, determine the discipline of the Church of Rome.
CANONICAL. That which is done in accordance with the canons of the Church.
CANONICAL HOURS. The first, third, the sixth, and the ninth hours of the day, that is, six, nine, twelve, and three o’clock, are so denominated. Bishop Patrick remarks that “the Universal Church anciently observed certain set hours of prayer, that all Christians throughout the world might at the same time join together to glorify God; and some of them were of opinion that the angelic host, being acquainted with those hours, took that time to join their prayers and praises with those of the Church.” The directions in the Apostolical Constitutions are as follows: “Offer up your prayers in the morning, at the third hour, at the sixth, and at the ninth, and in the evening; in the morning returning thanks that the Lord hath sent you light, and brought you through the perils of the night; at the third hour, because at that hour the Lord received sentence of condemnation from Pilate; at the sixth, because at that hour he was crucified; at the ninth, because at that hour all things were in commotion at the crucifixion of our Lord, as trembling at the bold attempt of the wicked Jews, and at the injury offered to their Master; in the evening, giving thanks that he has given thee the night to rest from thy daily labours.”
In the Church of Rome, the canonical hours begin with vespers, i. e. evening prayer, about six o’clock, or sunset; next follows compline, to beg God’s protection during sleep; at midnight, the three nocturns or matins, the longest part of the office. Lauds or morning praises of God are appointed for cock-crowing, or before break of day; at six o’clock, or sunrise, prime should be recited; and terce, sext, and none, every third hour afterwards.
CANONICAL OBEDIENCE. (See Orders.) The obedience which is due, according to the canons, to an ecclesiastical superior. Every clergyman takes an oath of canonical obedience to his bishop when he is instituted to a benefice, or licensed to a cure.
CANONISATION. (See Beatification, and Saints.) A ceremony in the Romish Church, by which persons deceased are ranked in the catalogue of saints. It succeeds beatification. When a person is to be canonised, the pope holds four consistories. In the first, he causes the petition of those who request the canonisation to be examined by three auditors of the rota, and directs the cardinals to revise all the necessary instruments. In the second, the cardinals report the matter to the pope. In the third, which is held in public, the cardinals pay their adoration to the pope, and an advocate makes a pompous oration in praise of the person who is to be created a saint. This advocate expatiates at large on the supposed miracles which the person has wrought, and even pretends to know from what motives he acted. In the fourth consistory, the pope, having summoned together all the cardinals and prelates, orders the report concerning the deceased to be read, 145and then takes their votes, whether he is to be canonised or not. On the day of canonisation, the church of St. Peter is hung with rich tapestry, on which are embroidered the arms of the pope, and those of the prince who desires the canonisation. The church is most brilliantly illuminated, and filled with thousands of Romanists, who superstitiously think that the more respect they show to the saint, the more ready will he be to hear their prayers, and offer them to God. During this ceremony the pope and all the cardinals are dressed in white. It costs the prince who requests the canonisation a great sum of money, as all the officers belonging to the Church of Rome must have their fees; but this is considered a trifle, when it is expected that the saint will intercede in heaven for his subjects, who, indeed, poor as they are, generally pay all the expenses attending the ceremony.
Canonisation of saints was not known to the Christian Church till towards the middle of the tenth century. So far as we are able to form an opinion, the Christians in that age borrowed this custom from the heathens; for it was usual with both the Greeks and Romans to deify all those heroes and great men who had rendered themselves remarkable. It is not allowed to enter into inquiries prior to canonisation, till at least fifty years after the death of the person to be canonised. This regulation, however, though now observed, has not been followed above a century. Thomas Becket was canonised within three years of his death. It has been properly objected against canonisation, that it is performed by human beings, who assume a power of rendering some one an object of divine worship, who in this life was no more than mortal; that it is a direct violation of the Saviour’s command, “Judge not;” and that it lies at the foundation of that idolatry of which the Church of Rome is justly charged.—Broughton.
CANONRY. A canonry is a name of office, and a canon is the officer; in like manner as a prebendary; and a prebend is the maintenance or stipend both of the one and the other.—Gibson. It is not easy to assign a reason why this name should have been given to members of cathedral churches. Some have thought it was because a great number of them were regular priests, and obliged to observe the canons or rules of their respective orders, or founders, or visitors. According to Nicholls, the name is of a higher origin, and not so directly from the Greek word κάνων, regula, a statute or ordinance, as from the Latin word canon, an allowance or stated quantity of provision. Thus it is used by Cicero. So the collection of the respective quotas of the provinces sent in corn to Rome for the subsistence of the poorer citizens was called the canon. Afterwards, when Christianity prevailed, the word was adapted to an ecclesiastical use, and those clergymen that had the canon, or sportula, taken from the common bank of the church offerings delivered out to them for their maintenance, come to be called canonici. As the church revenues were divided into four parts—one for the maintenance of the bishop, a second for the fabric of the church, and a third for the poor, so a fourth part was divided among the subordinate clergy, who lived in a collegiate manner about the bishop.
It seems most likely, however, that the word canon meant to designate one who resided at the cathedral church constantly, and followed the rule of Divine service there. So the application of the word at home and abroad would seem to indicate. Thus, till a very late enactment, 3 & 4 Vic. c. 113, the word canon was restricted in cathedrals of the old foundation to the residentiaries. Prebendary was statutably applied to all, because all had a præbenda, either fixed stipend, or an estate in fee: while in the cathedrals of new foundation all were called indifferently canons or prebendaries, because all were equally bound to residence. The act referred to has now directed that all shall be styled canons (except perhaps the prebendaries retained, but without their ancient stipends or estates) in the cathedrals of old foundation. Nevertheless, all canons are still really prebendaries, as long as they have any property. In Ireland, the only prebendaries denominated canons, are those of Kildare. These form the lesser chapter.
Canons in most cathedrals were divided into two classes, major, or minor. (See Minor Canons.)
The fellowships of the collegiate church in Manchester, since its elevation into a cathedral, have been recently erected into canonries, and the warden of former times is now called dean.
Canonry, or chanonrie, in Scotland, was the same as the cathedral precinct in England. Thus at Aberdeen the canonry included the cathedral, bishop’s palace, prebendal houses, gardens, and an hospital, all surrounded by a stone wall. (Kennedy’s Annals of Aberdeen.) The cathedral town of Rosemarkie, or Fortrose, in the diocese 146of Ross, was sometimes called the canonry town, or channery town.
CANTICLES. This literally signifies songs, but it is peculiarly applied to a canonical book of the Old Testament, called in Hebrew the Song of Songs, that is, the most excellent of all songs. The word canticle in our Prayer Book is applied to the Benedicite, and was so first used in King Edward’s Second Book.
CAPITAL. The highest member of a pillar.
The capital consists of the abacus, the bell, the neck, or astragal, and each of these varies in the several styles, as well in form as in relative importance. A few of the more prominent variations may be enumerated.
In the Saxon period, the abacus is usually a low, flat, unmoulded slab; the rest of the capital, if it has any character, approaches that of the succeeding style.
In the Norman capital the abacus is square, of considerable thickness, generally slightly bevelled at the lower side, and sometimes moulded. The bell, resting on a cylindrical shaft, and fitted with a square abacus, is circular at the bottom, and becomes square at the top, and the way of resolving the round into the square gives it its peculiar character. In examples, however, of any richness, the abundance of decoration often obscures its constructive character.
In the period of transition to Early English, the abacus sometimes becomes octagonal, seldom, however, a regular octagon, but a square with the corners slightly cut off. It is also sometimes circular. The upper surface continues flat, but the under part is more frequently moulded. The bell often approaches the Classic capital in design, and sometimes even in treatment, as at Canterbury; but this is a rare amount of excellence. More frequently a lotus-like flower rises from the neck, and curls beneath the abacus. The neck is still a mere round bead.
In the next, or Lancet period, the abacus more frequently becomes circular, the top is seldom flat, the mouldings usually consist of two rounds, with a deep undercut, hollow between, the upper one a little overhanging the under, and in the hollow a trail of nail-head or dog-tooth is often found. The bell, also, is deeply undercut, and in some instances, where effect is sought in moulding rather than in carving, it is repeated; but, in moderately rich examples, the bell is usually covered with foliage of which the stems spring from the neck, generally crossing one another as they rise, and breaking into leaves near the top, where they throw off a profusion of crisped foliage, which curls under the abacus; a stray leaf, in very rich and rather late examples, sometimes shooting up, over the hollow, to the upper member of the abacus. The whole treatment of this foliage in capitals and corbels, where it follows the same law, has sometimes a boldness and a grace, though it never deserts its conventional type, of which no description, and no engraving even, except on a large scale, can convey an idea. The neck of the Early English capital is generally either a rounded bowtel of rather more than half a cylinder, or a semi-hexagon, the latter with the sides sometimes slightly hollowed.
In the Geometrical period, the abacus continues round. It is no longer, except in rare instances, flat at the top: the scroll moulding begins to appear, and sometimes a hollow intervenes between it and the first member of the bell. The bell, when moulded, rather follows the routine of the last style; but, when foliated, the leaves or flowers, without losing anything of the force and boldness of the latter, have a naturalness never approached in any other style: we begin to recognise the oak, the hawthorn, or the maple, as familiar friends, and no longer need to employ conventional terms to designate their foliage, or the method of its treatment.
In the Decorated period, the scrollmoulding is almost constantly employed for the abacus and for the neck; the ball-flower sometimes occurs in the hollow of the abacus, but not so frequently as the dog-tooth in the Lancet period. The mouldings of the bell are generally the roll and fillet, or the scroll, in some of their forms; and the foliage entirely loses the nature of the Geometrical, without recovering the force of the Early English. It surrounds the bell as a chaplet, instead of creeping up it, and, instead of indicating the shape which it clothes, converts the whole between the neck and the abacus into a flowered top.
In the next and last period, the abacus is sometimes so nearly lost in the bell, or the bell in the abacus, that it is hard to separate them. The form of both becomes generally octagonal, and a great poverty of design is apparent: this is the case in ordinary instances of pillars with entire capitals. In later examples, and where there are greater pretensions, the capital does not extend to the whole pillar, but the outer order of the arches is continued to the base, without the intervention of a 147capital, only the inner order being supported and stopped by an attached shaft, or bowtel, with its capital, and so the capital loses all its analogy with the classic architrave, and no longer carries the eye along in a horizontal line.
CAPITULAR. A term often used in foreign countries to designate a major canon or prebendary; a capitular member of a cathedral or collegiate church.
CAPITULARIES. Ordinances of the kings of France, in which are many heads or articles which regard the government of the Church, and were done by the advice of an assembly of bishops. The original of the word comes from capitula, which were articles that the prelates made and published to serve as instructions to the clergy of their dioceses, so that at last this name of capitularies was given to all the articles which related to ecclesiastical affairs. Those of Charlemagne and Louis the Meek were collected in four books by the abbot Angesius; those of King Lothaire, Charles and Louis, sons of Louis the Meek, were collected by Bennet the Levite, or deacon, into three books, to which there have been since four or five additions; and Father Simon published those of Charles the Bald.
CAPUCHINS. Monks of the order of St. Francis. They owe their original to Matthew de Bassi, a Franciscan of the duchy of Urbino, who, having seen St. Francis represented with a sharp-pointed capuche, or cowl, began to wear the like in 1525, with the permission of Pope Clement VII. His example was soon followed by two other monks, named Louis and Raphael de Fossembrun; and the pope, by a brief, granted these three monks leave to retire to some hermitage, and retain their new habit. The retirement they chose was the hermitage of the Camaldolites near Massacio, where they were very charitably received.
This innovation in the habit of the order gave great offence to the Franciscans, whose provincial persecuted these poor monks, and obliged them to fly from place to place. At last they took refuge in the palace of the Duke de Camerino, by whose credit they were received under the obedience of the conventuals, in the quality of Hermits Minors, in the year 1527. The next year, the pope approved this union, and confirmed to them the privilege of wearing the square capuche, and admitting among them all who would take the habit. Thus the order of the Capuchins, so called from wearing the capuche, began in the year 1528.
Their first establishment was at Colmenzono, about a league from Camerino, in a convent of the order of St. Jerome, which had been abandoned; but, their numbers increasing, Louis de Fossembrun built another small convent at Montmelon, in the territory of Camerino. The great number of conversions which the Capuchins made by their preaching, and the assistance they gave the people in a contagious distemper with which Italy was afflicted the same year, 1528, gained them an universal esteem.
In 1529, Louis de Fossembrun built for them two other convents, the one of Alvacina in the territory of Fabriano, the other at Fossembrun in the duchy of Urbino. Matthew de Bassi, being chosen their vicar-general, drew up constitutions for the government of this order. They enjoined, among other things, that the Capuchins should perform Divine service without singing; that they should say but one mass a day in their convents; they directed the hours of mental prayer, morning and evening, the days of disciplining themselves, and those of silence; they forbade the monks to hear the confessions of seculars, and enjoined them always to travel on foot; they recommended poverty in the ornaments of their church, and prohibited in them the use of gold, silver, and silk; the pavilions of the altars were to be of stuff, and the chalices of tin.
This order soon spread itself all over Italy and into Sicily. In 1573, Charles IX. demanded of Pope Gregory XIII. to have the order of Capuchins established in France, which that pope consented to; and their first settlement in that kingdom was in the little town of Picpus near Paris, which they soon quitted to settle at Meudon, from whence they were introduced into the capital of the kingdom. In 1606, Pope Paul V. gave them leave to accept of an establishment which was offered them in Spain. They even passed the seas to labour on the conversion of the infidels; and their order is become so considerable, that it is at present divided into more than sixty provinces, consisting of near 1600 convents, and 25,000 monks, besides the missions of Brazil, Congo, Barbary, Greece, Syria, and Egypt.
Among those who have preferred the poverty and humility of the Capuchins to the advantages of birth and fortune, was the famous Alphonso d’Este, duke of Modena and Reggio, who, after the death of his wife Isabella, took the habit of this order at Munich, in the year 1626, under the name of Brother John-Baptist, and 148died in the convent of Castlenuovo, in 1644. In France, likewise, the great duke de Joyeuse, after having distinguished himself as a general, became a Capuchin in September, 1587.
Father Paul (of Ecclesiastical Benefices, cap. 53) observes, that “The Capuchins preserve their reputation by reason of their poverty, and that if they should suffer the least change in their institution, they would acquire no immoveable estates by it, but would lose the alms they now receive.” He adds: “It seems, therefore, as if here an absolute period were put to all future acquisitions and improvements in this gainful trade; for whoever should go about to institute a new order, with a power of acquiring estates, such an order would certainly find no credit in the world; and if a profession of poverty were a part of the institution, there could be no acquisitions made whilst that lasted, nor would there be any credit left when that was broke.”—Hist. des Ord. Relig. T. vii. c. 27.
There is likewise an order of Capuchin Nuns, who follow the rule of St. Clare. Their first establishment was at Naples in 1538, and their foundress the venerable mother Maria Laurentia Longa, of a noble family of Catalonia—a lady of the most uncommon piety and devotion. Some Capuchins coming to settle at Naples, she obtained for them, by her credit with the archbishop, the church of St. Euphebia, without the city; soon after which she built a monastery of virgins, under the name of Our Lady of Jerusalem, into which she retired in 1534, together with nineteen young women, who engaged themselves by solemn vows to follow the third rule of St. Francis. The pope gave the government of this monastery to the Capuchins; and, soon after, the nuns quitted the third rule of St. Francis, to embrace the more rigorous rule of St. Clara, from the austerity of which they had the name of Nuns of the Passion, and that of Capuchines from the habit they took, which was that of the Capuchins.
After the death of their foundress, another monastery of Capuchines was established at Rome, near the Quirinal palace, and was called the monastery of the Holy Sacrament; and a third, in the same city, built by Cardinal Baronius. These foundations were approved, in the year 1600, by Pope Clement VIII., and confirmed by Gregory XV. There were afterwards several other establishments of Capuchines, in particular one at Paris, in 1604, founded by the Duchesse de Mercœur, who put crowns of thorns on the heads of the young women whom she placed in her monastery.—Broughton.
CAPUTIUM. (See Hood.)
CARDINAL. This is the title given to one of the chief governors of the Romish Church. The term has long been in use, and originally signified the same as præcipuus, principalis, id quod rei cardo est, synonymous with prælatus; or else it was derived from cardinare or incardinare, to hinge or join together, and was applied to the regular clergy of the metropolitan church. In Italy, Gaul, &c., such churches early received the title of cardinal churches; the ministers of these churches were also called cardinals.
The following statements comprise the important historical facts relative to the office of cardinal:
1. The institution of the office has been ascribed by respectable Roman Catholic writers to Christ himself, to the apostle of their faith, to the Roman bishop Evaristus, to Hyginus, Marcellus, Boniface III., and others. But we only know that cardinals, presbyters, and deacons occur in history about the sixth and seventh centuries, who were, however, not itinerant, but stationary church officers for conducting religious worship. The deacons and presbyters of Rome especially bore this name, who composed the presbytery of the bishop of the place. The title was also conferred upon the suffragan bishops of Ostia, Albano, and others in the immediate vicinity, but without any other rights than those which were connected appropriately with the ministerial office.
2. The import of the term was varied still more in the ninth century, and especially in the eleventh, by Nicolaus II., who in his constitution for the election of the Roman pontiff, not only appointed his seven suffragan bishops as members of the pope’s ecclesiastical council, but also constituted them the only legitimate body for the election of the pope. To these he gave the name of cardinal bishops of the Church of Rome, or cardinals of the Lateran Church.
This is the important period in history when the first foundation was laid for rendering the hierarchy of the Church independent both of the clergy and of the secular power. This period has not been noticed so particularly by historians as its importance requires. They seem especially to have overlooked the fact, that the famous Hildebrand, (Gregory VII.,) in the year 1073, concerted these measures for the independence of the Church, as the following extract will show: “It was the deep design of Hildebrand, which he for a 149long time prosecuted with unwearied zeal, to bring the pope wholly within the pale of the Church, and to prevent the interference, in his election, of all secular influence and arbitrary power. And that measure of the council which wrested from the emperor a right of so long standing and which had never been called in question, may deservedly be regarded as the master-piece of popish intrigue, or rather of Hildebrand’s cunning. The concession which disguised this crafty design of his was expressed as follows: that the emperor should ever hold from the pope the right of appointing the pope.”
3. As might have been expected, this privilege was afterwards contested by the princes of the German States, especially by those of Saxony and the House of Hohenstaufen. But these conflicts uniformly resulted in favour of the ambitious designs of the pope. A momentary concession, granted under the pressure of circumstances, became reason sufficient for demanding the same ever afterwards as an established right. In the year A. D. 1179, Alexander III., through the canons of the Lateran, confirmed yet more the independent election of the pope, so that, after this, the ratification of the emperor was no longer of any importance. Something similar was also repeated by Innocent III., A. D. 1215, and Innocent IV., A. D. 1254. The former had already, in the year A. D. 1198, renounced the civil authority of Rome, and ascended the papal throne. In the year 1274, the conclave of cardinals for the election of the pope was fully established by Gregory X., and remains the same to this day.
4. The college of cardinals, which, until the twelfth century, had been restricted to Rome and its vicinity, has since been greatly enlarged, so as to become the supreme court of the Romish Church throughout the world. Priests of illustrious name in other provinces and countries have been elevated to the dignity of cardinals. Of this, Alexander III. gave the first example in the year 1165, by conferring the honour upon Galdinus Sala, archbishop of Milan, and upon Conrad, archbishop of Mentz. But, to the injury of the Church, the greater part have ever been restricted to the limits of Rome and Italy.
5. The formal classification of the cardinals into three distinct orders, 1. cardinal bishops; 2. cardinal presbyters; 3. cardinal deacons, was made by Paul II. in the fifteenth century. He also gave them, instead of the scarlet robe which they had worn since the year 1244, a purple robe, from whence they derived the name of the purple; a title indicative, not merely of their superiority to bishops and archbishops, but of their regal honours and rights. Boniface VIII. gave them the title of eminentissimi, most eminent; and Pius V., in the year 1567, decrees that no other should have the name of cardinal.
6. The number of cardinals was at first not less than seven; and, after having ranged from seven to fifty-three, it was reduced again in the year 1277 to the minimum above-mentioned. The General Assembly of the Church of Basil limited the number to twenty-four; but the popes from this time increased them at their pleasure. Under Leo X. there were sixty-five cardinals: Paul IV. and Pius V. decreed that the maximum should be seventy—equal in number to the disciples of our Lord. These were arranged under the following grades: 1. Six cardinal bishops, with the following titles:—the bishops of Ostia, Porta, Albano, Frascati, Sabina, and Palæstrina; 2. Fifty cardinal priests, who were named after the parochial and cathedral churches of Rome; 3. Fourteen cardinal deacons, who were named after the chapels. This number was seldom full; but, since 1814, they have again become quite numerous.—Augusti.
The canons in some foreign cathedrals are called cardinals; as at Milan and Salerno. In the cathedral of St. Paul’s, London, two of the minor canons are still so designated. Their statutable duties are to superintend the behaviour of the members of the choir, in order to the correction of offenders by the dean and chapter, and to see to the burial of the dead, &c.—Jebb.
CARMELITES, or WHITE FRIARS. Monks of the order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. They pretend to derive their original from the prophets Elijah and Elisha; and this occasioned a very warm controversy between this order and the Jesuits, about the end of the seventeenth century; both parties publishing several works, and petitioning the popes Innocent XI. and Innocent XII.; the latter of whom silenced them both, by a brief of the 20th November, 1698.
What we know of their original is, that, in the twelfth century, Aimerie, legate of the holy see in the east, and patriarch of Antioch, collected together several hermits in Syria, who were exposed to the violence and incursions of the barbarians, and placed them on Mount Carmel, formerly the residence of the prophets Elijah and Elisha; from which mountain they took 150the name of Carmelites. Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, gave them rules in 1205, which Pope Honorius III. confirmed in 1224.
The peace concluded by the emperor Frederic II. with the Saracens, in the year 1229, so disadvantageous to Christendom, and so beneficial to the infidels, occasioned the Carmelites to quit the Holy Land under Alan, the fifth general of the order. He first sent some of the monks to Cyprus, who landed there in the year 1238, and founded a monastery in the forest of Fortania. Some Sicilians, at the same time, leaving Mount Carmel, returned to their own country, where they founded a monastery in the suburbs of Messina. Some English departed out of Syria, in the year 1440, to found others in England. Others of Provence, in the year 1244, founded a monastery in the desert of Aigualates, a league from Marseilles; and thus, the number of their monasteries increasing, they held their first European general chapter in the year 1245, at their monastery of Aylesford, in England.
After the establishment of the Carmelites in Europe, their rule was in some respects altered: the first time, by Pope Innocent IV., who added to the first article a precept of chastity, and relaxed the eleventh, which enjoins abstinence at all times from flesh, permitting them, when they travelled, to eat boiled flesh. This pope likewise gave them leave to eat in a common refectory, and to keep asses or mules for their use. Their rule was again mitigated by the popes Eugenius IV. and Pius II. Hence the order is divided into two branches, viz. the Carmelites of the ancient observance, called the moderate or mitigated, and those of the strict observance, who are the barefooted Carmelites; a reform set on foot, in 1540, by S. Theresa, a nun of the convent of Avila, in Castile: these last are divided into two congregations, that of Spain and that of Italy.
The habit of the Carmelites was at first white, and the cloak laced at the bottom with several lists; but Pope Honorius IV. commanded them to change it for that of the Minims. Their scapulary is a small woollen habit, of a brown colour, thrown over their shoulders. They wear no linen shirts, but instead of them linsey-woolsey.—Broughton.
CAROLS. Hymns sung by the people at Christmas in memory of the song of the angels, which the shepherds heard at our Lord’s birth.
CARPOCRATIANS. Heretics who sprang up in the second century; followers of Carpocrates, of the island of Cephalenia, according to Epiphanius, or, according to Theodoret and Clemens Alexandrinus, of the city of Alexandria. This Carpocrates was a man of the worst morals, and addicted to magic. Eusebius says expressly, he was the father of the heresy of the Gnostics; and it is true that all the infamous things imputed to the Gnostics are ascribed likewise to the Carpocratians. It is sufficient to mention two of their principles: the one is, a community of wives; the other, that a man cannot arrive at perfection, nor deliver himself from the power of the princes of this world, as they expressed it, without having passed through all sorts of criminal actions; laying it down for a maxim, that there is no action bad in itself, but only from the opinion of men. This induced them to establish a new kind of metempsychosis, that those who have not passed through all sorts of actions in the first life, may do it in a second, and, if that be not sufficient, in a third, and so on, till they have discharged this strange obligation. Accordingly, they are charged with committing the most infamous things in their Agapæ, or love-feasts.
As to their theology, they attributed the creation of the world to angels; they said that Jesus Christ was born of Joseph and Mary in a manner like other men; that his soul alone was received into heaven, his body remaining on the earth; and, accordingly, they rejected the resurrection of the body.
They marked their disciples at the bottom of the right ear with a hot iron, or with a razor.
They had images of Jesus Christ as well in painting as in sculpture, which they said were made by Pilate; they kept them in a little box or chest. They had likewise the images of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and other philosophers. They put crowns on all these images, and paid them the same superstitious honours which the Pagans did to their idols, adoring them, and offering sacrifice to them. A woman of this sect, named Marcellina, came to Rome, in the pontificate of Anicetus, where she made a great many proselytes. She worshipped the images of Jesus Christ, Paul, Homer, and Pythagoras, and offered incense to them.
Carpocrates had a son, named Epiphanes, who, by means of the Platonic philosophy, gave a greater extent to the fabulous opinions of the Carpocratians. He died at seventeen years of age, but in that short time had acquired so great a reputation among the disciples of his father, that, after 151his death, he was revered by them as a god, insomuch that they built a temple to him in the island of Cephalenia, and the Cephalenians, every first day of the month, solemnized the feast of his apotheosis, offering sacrifices to him, and singing hymns to his honour.
Epiphanius relates of himself, that in his youth he accidentally fell into company with some women of this sect, who revealed to him the most horrible secrets of the Carpocratians. They were armed with beauty sufficient to make an impression on a person of his age; but, by the grace of God, he says, he escaped the snare which the devil had laid for him. (See Gnostics.)—Brouqhton.
CARTHUSIANS. A religious order, founded in the year 1080 by one Bruno, a very learned man, a native of Cologne, and canon of Cologne, and afterwards Canon Scholaster or Theologal, (i. e. a lecturer in theology,) at Rheims. The occasion of its institution is related as follows: a friend of Bruno’s, Raimond Diocre, an eminent canon of Paris, who had been looked upon as a good liver, being dead, Bruno attended his funeral. Whilst the service was performing in the church, the dead man, who lay upon a bier, raised himself up and said, “By the just judgment of God, I am accused.” The company being astonished at this unusual accident, the burial was deferred to the next day, when the concourse of people being much greater, the dead man again raised himself up and said, “By the just judgment of God, I am judged:” and on a third similar occasion, “By the just judgment of God, I am condemned.” This miracle, it is pretended, wrought such an effect on Bruno and six more, that they immediately retired to the desert of Chartreux, in the diocese of Grenoble, in Dauphiné, where Hugh, bishop of that diocese, assigned them a spot of ground, and where Bruno, A. D. 1084, (or 1086, according to Baronius,) built his first monastery, under the following rigid institutes:—
His monks were to wear a hair-cloth next their body, a white cassock, and over it a black cloak: they were never to eat flesh; to fast every Friday on bread and water; to eat alone in their chambers, except upon certain festivals; and to observe an almost perpetual silence; none were allowed to go out of the monastery, except the prior and procurator, and they only about the business of the house.
The Carthusians, so called from the place of their first institution, are a very rigid order. They are not to go out of their cells, except to church, without leave of their superior. They are not to speak to any person, even their own brother, without leave. They may not keep any part of their portion of meat or drink till the next day, except herbs or fruit. Their bed is of straw, covered with a felt or coarse cloth; their clothing, two haircloths, two cowls, two pair of hose, a cloak, &c., all coarse. Every monk has two needles, some thread, scissors, a comb, a razor, a hone, an ink-horn, pens, chalk, two pumice-stones; likewise two pots, two porringers, a basin, two spoons, a knife, a drinking cup, a water-pot, a salt, a dish, a towel; and for fire, tinder, flint, wood, and an axe.
In the refectory they are to keep their eyes on the meat, their hands on the table, their attention on the reader, and their heart fixed on God. When allowed to discourse, they are to do it modestly, not to whisper, nor talk aloud, nor to be contentious. They confess to the prior every Saturday. Women are not allowed to come into their churches, that the monks may not see anything which may provoke them to lewdness.
It is computed there are a hundred and seventy-two houses of Carthusians, whereof five are of nuns, who practise the same austerities as the monks. They are divided into sixteen provinces, each of which has two visitors. There have been several canonised saints of this order; four cardinals, seventy archbishops and bishops, and a great many very learned writers.
The story of the motive of St. Bruno’s retirement into the desert was inserted in the Roman Breviary, but was afterwards left out, when that Breviary was reformed, by order of Pope Urban VIII.; and this gave occasion to several learned men of the seventeenth century to publish writings on that subject, some to vindicate the truth of the story, and others to invalidate it. It is rejected by Pagius, the learned annotator on Baronius, who says it was invented two centuries after Bruno’s time.—Jebb.
In the year 1170, Pope Alexander III. took this order under the protection of the holy see. In 1391, Boniface IX. exempted them from the jurisdiction of the bishops. In 1420, Martin V. exempted them from paying the tenths of the lands belonging to them; and Julius II., in 1508, ordered that all the houses of the order, in whatever part of the world they were situated, should obey the prior of the Grand Chartreuse, and the general chapter of the order.
The convents of this order are generally 152very beautiful and magnificent; that of Naples, though but small, surpasses all the rest in ornaments and riches. Nothing is to be seen in the church and house but marble and jasper. The apartments of the prior are rather those of a prince than of a poor monk. There are innumerable statues, bas-reliefs, paintings, &c., together with very fine gardens; all which, joined with the holy and exemplary life of the good monks, draws the curiosity of all strangers who visit Naples.
The Carthusians settled in England about the year 1140. They had several monasteries here, particularly at Witham, in Somersetshire; Hinton, in the same county; Beauval, in Nottinghamshire; Kingston-upon-Hull; Mount Grace, in Yorkshire; Eppewort, in Lincolnshire; Shene, in Surrey, and one near Coventry. In London they had a famous monastery, since called, from the Carthusians who settled there, the Charter House.—See Du Pin, and Baronius.
CARTULARIES, according to Jerom de Costa, were papers wherein the contracts, sales, exchanges, privileges, immunities, and other acts that belong to churches and monasteries were collected, the better to preserve the ancient deeds, by rendering frequent reference to them less necessary.
CASSOCK. The under dress of all orders of the clergy; it resembles a long coat, with a single upright collar. In the Church of Rome it varies in colour with the dignity of the wearer. Priests wear black; bishops, purple; cardinals, scarlet; and popes, white. In the Church of England, black is worn by all the three orders of the clergy, but bishops, upon state occasions, often wear purple coats. The 74th English canon enjoins that beneficed clergymen, &c. shall not go in public in their doublet and hose, without coats or cassocks.—Jebb.
CASUIST. One who studies cases of conscience.
CASUISTRY. The doctrine and science of conscience and its cases, with the rules and principles of resolving the same; drawn partly from natural reason or equity, and partly from the authority of Scripture, the canon law, councils, fathers, &c. To casuistry belongs the decision of all difficulties arising about what a man may lawfully do or not do; what is sin or not sin; what things a man is obliged to do in order to discharge his duty, and what he may let alone without breach of it. The most celebrated writers on this subject, of the Church of England, are Bishop Jeremy Taylor, in his “Ductor Dubitantium;” and Bishop Sanderson, in his “Cases of Conscience.” There was a professor of casuistry in the university of Cambridge, but the title of the professorship has lately been altered to Moral Philosophy.
CASULA. (See Chasible.)
CATACOMBS. Burying-places near Rome; not for Christians only, but for all sorts of people. There is a large vault about three miles from Rome, used for this purpose; there is another near Naples. That at Naples consists of long galleries cut out of the rock, of three stories, one above another. These galleries are generally about twenty feet broad, and fifteen high. Those at Rome are not above three or four feet broad, and five or six feet high. They are very long, full of niches, shaped according to the sizes of bodies, wherein the bodies were put, not in coffins, but only in burial clothes. Many inscriptions are still extant in them; and the same stone sometimes bears on one side an inscription to heathen deities and marks of Christianity on the other. But see a large account of these in Bishop Burnet’s Travels, in his fourth letter; also “The Church in the Catacombs,” by Dr. C. Maitland; and Macfarlane’s “Catacombs of Rome.”
The name “Catacombs” is now generally applied to the stone vaults for the dead constructed in the public cemeteries of England.
CATAPHRYGES. Christian heretics, who made their appearance in the second century; they had this name given to them because the chief promoters of this heresy came out of Phrygia. They followed Montanus’s errors. (See Montanists.)
CATECHISM, is derived from a Greek term, (κατηχέω,) and signifies instruction in the first rudiments of any art or science, communicated by asking questions and hearing and correcting the answers. From the earliest ages of the Church the word has been employed by ecclesiastical writers in a more restrained sense, to denote instruction in the principals of the Christian religion by means of questions and answers.—Dean Comber. Shepherd.
By canon 59, “Every parson, vicar, or curate, upon every Sunday and holy day, before evening prayer, shall, for half an hour or more, examine and instruct the youth and ignorant persons of his parish, in the ten commandments, the articles of the belief, and in the Lord’s Prayer; and shall diligently hear, instruct, and teach them the catechism set forth in the Book of Common Prayer. And all fathers, mothers, masters, and mistresses shall cause their 153children, servants, and apprentices, which have not learned the catechism, to come to the church at the time appointed, obediently to hear, and to be ordered by the minister, until they have learned the same. And if any minister neglect his duty herein, let him be sharply reproved upon the first complaint, and true notice thereof given to the bishop or ordinary of the place. If after submitting himself he shall willingly offend therein again, let him be suspended. If so the third time, there being little hope that he will be therein reformed, then excommunicated, and so remain until he be reformed. And likewise, if any of the said fathers, mothers, masters, or mistresses, children, servants, or apprentices, shall neglect their duties, as the one sort in not causing them to come, and the other in refusing to learn, as aforesaid, let them be suspended by their ordinaries, (if they be not children,) and if they so persist by the space of a month, then let them be excommunicated.”
And by the rubric, “The curate of every parish shall diligently upon Sundays and holy days, after the second lesson at evening prayer, openly in the church instruct and examine so many children of his parish sent unto him, as he shall think convenient, in some part of the catechism. And all fathers and mothers, masters and dames, shall cause their children, servants, and apprentices (who have not learned their catechism) to come to the church at the time appointed, and obediently to hear, and be ordered by the curate, until such time as they have learned all that therein is appointed for them to learn.”
In the office of public baptism the minister directs the godfathers and godmothers to “take care that the child be brought to the bishop, to be confirmed by him, so soon as he or she can say the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the ten commandments in the vulgar tongue, and be further instructed in the Church Catechism set forth for that purpose.”
The catechism of children is enjoined by God, (Deut. vi. 7; Prov. xxii. 6; Ephes. vi. 4,) and was always practised by pious men, (Gen. xviii. 19; 1 Chron. xxviii. 9; 2 Tim. i. 5,) and it is Christ’s especial charge to ministers, to feed his lambs. (John xxi. 15.) The Jewish doctors took care of this. (Luke ii. 42.) And in the Christian churches there was a peculiar officer who was the catechist; and all the new converts, who were to be baptized at Easter, were catechized all the forty days of Lent. But since we have few such now, and generally baptize infants, who cannot at that time understand the covenant which is entered into, therefore we are bound to take more care to make them understand it afterward, by instructing them in the “Catechism of the Church;” which is drawn up according to the primitive forms by way of question and answer, (Acts viii. 37; 1 Pet. iii. 21,) being not a large system of divinity to puzzle the heads of young beginners, but, like those of the ancients, a short and full explication of the baptismal vow; teaching them, first, what their baptismal vow is, namely, what were the benefits promised on God’s part, Quest. I., II., and what were the duties promised on their part, to renounce all evil, to believe all divine truth, and to keep God’s commandments, Quest. III.; together with their grateful owning of this covenant, Quest. IV. Secondly, the parts of the vow are explained: first, as to the matter of them, in repeating and expounding the creed, Quest. V., VI., and repeating and explaining the ten commandments, Quest. VII., VIII., IX., X., XI. Secondly, as to the means to enable them to keep them, which are prayer and the holy sacraments: and the duty of prayer is taught them in the Lord’s Prayer, and the explication thereof, Quest. XII., XIII. The due use of the sacraments is taught them, first in general, as to their number, nature, and necessity, Quest. XIV., XV. Secondly in particular, baptism, Quest. XVI.–XX.; and the Lord’s supper, Quest. XXI.–XXV. This is all that is absolutely necessary to be known in order to salvation, and all that the primitive Church did teach their catechumens. And if children be but made to repeat this perfectly, and understand it fully, they will increase in knowledge as they grow in years.—Dean Comber.
It is the peculiar glory of Christianity to have extended religious instruction, of which but few partook at all before, and scarce any in purity, through all ranks and ages of men, and even women. The first converts to it were immediately formed into regular societies and assemblies; not only for the joint worship of God, but the further “edifying of the body of Christ” (Eph. iv. 12); in which good work some of course were stated teachers, or, to use the apostle’s own expression, “catechizers in the word:” others taught or catechized. (Gal. vi. 6.) For catechizing signifies, in Scripture at large, instructing persons in any matter, but especially in religion. And thus it is used, Acts xviii. 25, where we read, “This man was instructed in the way of the Lord;” and Luke i. 4, where, again, we read, “That thou mayest know the 154certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed.” The original word, in both places, is catechized.
But as the different advances of persons in knowledge made different sorts of instructions requisite, so, in the primitive Church, different sorts of teachers were appointed to dispense it. And they who taught so much only of the Christian doctrine, as might qualify the hearers for Christian communion, had the name of catechists appropriated to them: whose teaching being usually, as was most convenient, in a great measure by way of question and answer, the name of Catechism hath now been long confined to such instruction as is given in that form. But the method of employing a particular set of men in that work only, is in most places laid aside.
Under the darkness of Popery almost all religious instruction was neglected. “Very few,” to use the words of one of our homilies, “even of the most simple people, were taught the Lord’s Prayer, the articles of the faith, or the ten commandments, otherwise than in Latin, which they understood not;” so that one of the first necessary steps taken towards the Reformation in this country, was a general injunction, that parents and masters should first learn them in their own tongue, then acquaint their children and servants with them: which three main branches of Christian duty, comprehending the sum of what we are to believe, to do, and to petition for, were soon after formed, with proper explanations of each, into a catechism. To this was added, in process of time, a brief account of the two sacraments; all together making up that very good, though still improveable, “form of sound words” (2 Tim. i. 13) which we may now use.—Abp. Secker.
As to the form of our catechism, it is drawn up after the primitive manner, by way of question and answer: so Philip catechized the eunuch, (Acts viii. 37,) and so the persons to be baptized were catechized in the first ages. And, indeed, the very word catechism implies as much; the original κατηχέω, from whence it is derived, being a compound of ἠχὼ, which signifies an echo, or repeated sound. So that a catechism is no more than an instruction first taught and instilled into a person, and then repeated upon the catechist’s examination.
As to the contents of our catechism, it is not a large system or body of divinity, to puzzle the heads of young beginners, but only a short and full explication of the baptismal vow. The primitive catechisms, indeed, (that is, all that the catechumens were to learn by heart before their baptism and confirmation,) consisted of no more than the renunciation, or the repetition of the baptismal vow, the creed, and the Lord’s prayer: and these, together with the ten commandments, at the Reformation, were the whole of ours. But it being afterwards thought defective as to the doctrine of the sacraments, (which in the primitive times were more largely explained to baptized persons,) King James I. appointed the bishops to add a short and plain explanation of them, which was done accordingly in that excellent form we see; being penned by Bishop Overall, then dean of St. Paul’s, and allowed by the bishops. So that now (in the opinion of the best judges) it excels all catechisms that ever were in the world; being so short, that the youngest children may learn it by heart; and yet so full, that it contains all things necessary to be known in order to salvation.
In this also its excellency is very discernible, namely, that as all persons are baptized, not into any particular Church, but into the Catholic Church of Christ; so here they are not taught the opinion of this or any other particular Church or people, but what the whole body of Christians all the world over agree in. If it may anywhere seem to be otherwise, it is in the doctrine of the sacraments; but even this is here worded with so much caution and temper, as not to contradict any other particular Church, but so as that all sorts of Christians, when they have duly considered it, may subscribe to everything that is here taught or delivered.—Wheatly.
The country parson, says Herbert, values catechizing highly.... He exacts of all the doctrine of the catechism; of the younger sort, the very words; of the elder, the substance. Those he catechizeth publicly; these privately, giving age honour, according to the apostle’s rule. He requires all to be present at catechizing; first, for the authority of the work; secondly, that parents and masters, as they hear the answers proved, may, when they come home, either commend or reprove, either reward or punish; thirdly, that those of the elder sort, who are not well grounded, may then by an honourable way take occasion to be better instructed; fourthly, that those who are well grown in the knowledge of religion, may examine their grounds, renew their vows, and by occasion of both enlarge their meditation. Having read Divine service twice fully, and preached in the morning, and catechized in the afternoon, 155he thinks he hath, in some measure, according to poor and frail man, discharged the public duties of the congregation.—Herbert’s Country Parson.
With respect to the catechetical instruction of youth, I would remind you, that it was the primitive method, employed by the apostles and their immediate followers, and in after ages by the whole succession of the catholic and apostolic Church, for training up and organizing the visible community of Christians in sound principles of faith, in the love of God and man, and in purity of life and conversation. It is observable, accordingly, that in exact proportion as catechizing has been practised or neglected, in the same proportion have the public faith and morals been seen to flourish or decline.... In the earlier ages of the Church, catechetical schools were established in the great cities of the empire; over which men of the profoundest learning, and most brilliant talents, felt themselves honoured when they were called to preside; while each particular church had its catechists; and the catechumens formed a regular and ascertained class or division of every congregation. And it is not too much to say, that, next to an established liturgy, and beyond all prescribed confessions of faith, the single ordinance of catechetical instruction has, under Providence, been the great stay and support, throughout Christendom, of orthodox, unwavering Christianity.... Let not the common prejudice be entertained, that catechizing is a slight and trifling exercise, to be performed without pain and preparation on your part. This would be so, if it were the mere rote-work asking and answering of the questions in our Church Catechism: but to open, to explain, and familiarly to illustrate those questions, in such a manner, as at once to reach the understanding and touch the affections of little children, is a work which demands no ordinary acquaintance at once with the whole scheme of Christian theology, with the philosophy of the human mind, and with the yet profounder mysteries of the human heart. It has, therefore, been well and truly said, by I recollect not what writer, that a boy may preach, but to catechize requires a man.—Bp. Jebb.
CATECHIST. The person who catechizes. There were officers of this name in the ancient Church; but they did not form a distinct order. Sometimes the bishop catechized, sometimes the catechists were selected from the inferior orders, as readers, &c.—(See Bingham.)
CATECHUMENS. A name given, in the first ages of Christianity, to the Jews or Gentiles who were being prepared and instructed to receive baptism. It comes from the Greek word κατηχεῖν, which signifies to teach by word of mouth, or viva voce: and of that word this other, κατηχούμενος, is formed, which denotes him that is so taught: these had people on purpose to instruct them. Eusebius makes mention of Pantænus, Clemens, and Origen, who were catechists in the Church of Alexandria, and had a peculiar place in the church where they used to teach, and the same was called the place of the catechumens, as appears by the canons of the Council of Neocæsarea: they tell us the catechumens were not permitted to be present at the celebration of the holy eucharist; but, immediately after the Gospel was read, the deacons cried with a loud voice: “Withdraw in peace, you catechumens,” for so the book of the Apostolical Constitutions will have it. The service from the beginning to the Offertory was called Missa catechumenorum. The catechumens, not being baptized, were not to receive, nor so much as permitted to see, the consecrated elements of the eucharist. Some writers suppose that they received some of the consecrated bread, called eulogicæ; but Bingham shows that this idea is founded on a misconstruction of a passage in St. Augustine, and that the use of eulogicæ was not known in the Church, until long after the discipline of the catechumens had ceased. According to a canon of the Council of Orange, they were not permitted to pray with the faithful or those in full communion. There were several degrees of favour in the state of the catechumens: at first they were instructed privately, or by themselves, and afterwards admitted to hear sermons in the church; and these last were called audientes. There was a third sort of catechumens, called orantes or genuflectentes, because they were present and concerned in some part of the prayers: to which we may add a fourth degree of catechumens, which were the competentes; for so they were called when they desired to be baptized.