This laudable custom of wakes prevailed for many ages, till the Puritans began to exclaim against it as a remnant of Popery. By degrees the humour grew so popular, that at the summer assizes held at Exeter, in the year 1627, the Lord Chief Baron Walter and Baron Denham made an order for suppression of all wakes. And a like order was made by Judge Richardson for the county of Somerset, in the year 1631. But on Bishop Laud’s complaint of these innovations, the king commanded the last order to be reversed; which Judge Richardson refusing to do, an account was required from the Bishop of Bath and Wells, how the said feast days, church ales, wakes, and revels, were for the most part celebrated and observed in his diocese. On the receipt of these instructions, the bishop sent for and advised with seventy-two of the most orthodox and able of his clergy; who certified under their hands, that, on these feast days, (which generally fell on Sundays,) the service ofGodwas more solemnly performed, andthe church much better frequented, both in the forenoon and afternoon, than on any other Sunday in the year; that the people very much desired the continuance of them; that the ministers did in most places the like, for these reasons, viz. for preserving the memorial of the dedication of their several churches, for civilizing the people, for composing differences by the mediation and meeting of friends, for increase of love and unity by these feasts of charity, and for relief and comfort of the poor. On the return of this certificate, Judge Richardson was again cited to the council table, and peremptorily commanded to reverse his former order. After which it was thought fit to reinforce the declaration of King James, when perhaps this was the only good reason assigned for that unnecessary and unhappy licence of sports: “We do ratify and publish this our blessed father’s decree, the rather because of late, in some counties of our kingdom, we find, that, under pretence of taking away abuses, there hath been a general forbidding not only of ordinary meetings, but of the feasts of the dedication of churches, commonly called wakes.” However, by such a popular prejudice against wakes, and by the intermission of them in the confusions that followed, they are now discontinued in many counties, especially in the east and some western parts of England, but are commonly observed in the north and in the midland counties.
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH. (Fidei Defensor.) A peculiar title belonging to the sovereign of England; asCatholicto the king of Spain, andMost Christianto the king of France. These titles were given by the popes of Rome. That ofFidei Defensorwas first conferred by Pope Leo X. on King Henry VIII., for writing against Martin Luther; and the bull for it bears datequinto idus Octobris, 1521. It was afterwards confirmed by Clement VII. On Henry’s suppression of the monasteries, the pope of Rome deprived him of this title, and had the presumption and absurdity to depose him from his crown. Therefore the title was conferred by a higher authority than the pope, the parliament of England, in the thirty-fifth year of Henry’s reign. By some antiquarians it is maintained that the bull of Leo only revived a title long sustained by the English kings.
DEGRADATION is an ecclesiastical censure, whereby a clergyman is deprived of the holy orders which formerly he had, as of a priest or deacon; and by the canon law this may be done two ways, either summarily or by word only, or solemnly, as by divesting the party degraded of those ornaments and rights which were the ensigns and order of his degree.
Collier thus describes the form of degradation of a priest, in the case of Fawke, burnt for heresy in the reign of Henry IV. After being pronounced a heretic relapsed, he was solemnly degraded in the following manner:
After this, his ecclesiastical tonsure was obliterated, and the form of his degradation pronounced by the archbishop; and being thus deprived of his sacerdotal character, and dressed in a lay habit, he was put into the hands of the secular court, with the significant request, that he might be favourably received.
The ancient law for degradation is set forth in the sixth book of the Decretals; and the causes for degradation and deprivation are enumerated by Bishop Gibson.—SeeGibson’s Codex, p. 1066–1068.
By Canon 122, Sentence against a minister, of deposition from the ministry, “shall be pronounced by the bishop only, with the assistance of his chancellor and the dean, (if they may conveniently be had,) and some of the prebendaries, if the court be kept near the cathedral church; or of the archdeacon, if he may be had conveniently, and two other at the least grave ministers and preachers to be called by the bishop, when the court is kept in other places.”
DEGREE.Psalms or Songs of Degreesis a title given to fifteen psalms, which are the 120th and all that follow to the 134th inclusive. The Hebrew text calls them asong of ascents. Junius and Tremellius translate the Hebrew, bya song of excellencies, oran excellent song, because of the excellent matter of them, as eminent persons are calledmen of high degree. (1 Chr. xvii. 17.) Some call thempsalms of elevation, because, say they, they were sung with an exalted voice; or because at every psalm the voice was raised: but the translation ofpsalms of degreeshas more generally obtained. Some interpreters think, that they were so called because they were sung upon the fifteen steps of the temple; but they are not agreed about the place where these fifteen steps were. Others think they were so called, because they were sung in a gallery, which they say was in the court of Israel,where sometimes the Levites read the law. But others think, that the most probable reason why they are called songs of degrees, or of ascent, is, because they were composed and sung by the Jews on the occasion of theirgoing upto Jerusalem, after the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, whether it were to implore this deliverance fromGod, or to return thanks for it after it had happened: others, that they were severally composed not only upon this, but upon other remarkable occasions when they made their ascent to the temple.
DEGREES in the universities denote a quality conferred on the students or members thereof, as a testimony of their proficiency in the arts and sciences, and entitling them to certain privileges. They were first instituted by Pope Eugenius III. at the suggestion of Gratian, the celebrated compiler of the canon law, in 1151; but were limited to the faculty of canon law, for the encouragement of which they were instituted; and consisted of the ranks of bachelor, licentiate, and doctor. Shortly after Peter Lombard instituted similar degrees in theology in the university of Paris. In the course of time degrees were given in other faculties, those of arts and medicine being added. In many of the foreign universities, theology and canon law have each their three classes of degrees as above stated; medicine has generally but two, bachelor and doctor; and arts two, bachelor and master. The designation of doctor in philosophy is very modern. The English universities have only two degrees, bachelor and doctor in the superior faculties; master and bachelor in arts. The student of civil law is not, properly speaking, a graduate. Formerly separate degrees were given in England (as abroad) in canon and civil law; but the distinction ceased in the 17th century. Oxford has for some time ceased to confer degrees inutroque jure, (i. e. civil and canon law,) but only in civil law. Hence her graduates are D. C. L. and B. C. L., and not L. L. D. and L. L. B., as at Cambridge and Dublin. The three ancient universities of England and Ireland confer degrees in music. Anciently degrees in grammar, doctorate, mastership, and baccalaurenti were given at Oxford or Cambridge. But they fell into disuse in the 17th century.
DEISTS. Those who deny theexistence and necessityof any revelation, and profess to acknowledge that the being of aGodis the chief article of their belief. The term Deist is derived from the Latin wordDeus,God. The same persons are frequently called infidels, on account of their incredulity, or want of belief in the Christian dispensation of religion.—ConsultBoyle’s Lectures,Leland’s View of Deistical Writers,Leslie’s Short and Easy Method with the Deists,Watson’s Apology for the Bible.
Dr. Clarke, (Evidences of Nat. and Rev. Rel.Introd.,) taking the denomination in its most extensive signification, distinguishes deists into four sorts. The first are, such as pretend to believe the existence of an eternal, infinite, independent, intelligent Being; and who, to avoid the name of Epicurean Atheists, teach also, that this Supreme Being made the world; though, at the same time, they agree with the Epicureans in this, that they fancy,Goddoes not at all concern himself in the government of the world, nor has any regard to, or care of, what is done therein.
The second sort of deists are those, who believe, not only the being, but also the providence ofGod, with respect to the natural world; but who, not allowing any difference between moral good and evil, deny thatGodtakes any notice of the morally good or evil actions of men; these things depending, as they imagine, on the arbitrary constitution of human laws.
A third sort of deists there are, who, having right apprehensions concerning the natural attributes ofGod, and his all-governing providence, and some notion of his moral perfections also; yet, being prejudiced against the notion of the immortality of the human soul, believe, that men perish entirely at death, and that one generation shall perpetually succeed another, without any future restoration or renovation of things.
A fourth, and the last sort of deists, are such, as believe the existence of a Supreme Being, together with his providence in the government of the world, as also all the obligations of natural religion; but so far only as these things are discoverable by the light of nature alone, without believing any Divine revelation.
These, Dr. Clarke observes, are the only true deists: but, as the principles of these men would naturally lead them to embrace the Christian revelation, he concludes, there is now no consistent scheme of deism in the world. “The heathen philosophers, those few of them, who taught and lived up to the obligations of natural religion, had indeed a consistent scheme of deism so far as it went. But the case is not so now. The same scheme is not any longer consistent with its own principles, if itdoes not now lead men to believe and embrace revelation, as it then taught them to hope for it. Deists, in our days, who reject revelation when offered to them, are not such men as Socrates and Cicero were; but, under pretence of deism, it is plain, they are generally ridiculers of all that is truly excellent in natural religion itself. Their trivial and vain cavils; their mocking and ridiculing, without and before examination; their directing the whole stress of their objections against particular customs, or particular and perhaps uncertain opinions, or explications of opinions, without at all considering the main body of religion; their loose, vain, and frothy discourses; and, above all, their vicious and immoral lives; show plainly and undeniably, that they are not really deists, but mere atheists; and consequently not capable to judge of the truth of Christianity.”
“We are fallen into an age, (says another learned author,Jenkyns, Reasonableness of Christ. Relig.in the Preface,) in which there are a sort of men, who have shown so great a forwardness to be no longer Christians, that have catched at all the little cavils and pretences against religion—but they both think and live so ill, that it is an argument for the goodness of any cause that they are against it. It was urged as a confirmation of the Christian religion by Tertullian, that it was hated and persecuted by Nero, the worst of men: and I am confident, it would be but small reputation to it in any age, if such men should be fond of it. They speak evil of the things they understand not, and are wont to talk with as much confidence against any point of religion, as if they had all the learning in the world in their keeping, when commonly they know little or nothing of what has been said for that against which they dispute.”
Prateolus (Elench. Hæres.) mentions a sect of deists (as they were called) which sprung up in Poland, in the year 1564. They were a branch of the Lutherans, and, coming into France in 1566, settled at Lyons. Their leader (he tells us) was one Gregorius Pauli, a minister of Cracow. They boasted, thatGodhad bestowed on them much greater gifts than on Luther and others, and that the destruction of Antichrist was reserved for them. They asserted, that there is one nature, or Deity, common to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but not one and the same essence; and that the Father alone is the one only trueGod.
These deists (as Prateolus calls them) ought rather to be denominated Arians.
DELEGATES. The court of delegates was so called, because these delegates sat by force of the king’s commission under the great seal, upon an appeal to the king in the court of Chancery, in three causes: 1. When a sentence was given in any ecclesiastical cause by the archbishop or his official: 2. When any sentence was given in any ecclesiastical cause in places exempt: 3. When a sentence was given in the admiral’s court, in suit civil and marine, by the order of the civil laws. And these commissioners were called delegates, because they were delegated by the king’s commission for these purposes.
For the origin of the high court of delegates, see 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12, and 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, §4. By the 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 92, the powers of the high court of delegates, both in ecclesiastical and maritime causes, are transferred to her Majesty in council; which transfer is further regulated by the 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 41, and by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 69. This act does not extend to Ireland.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, consists of
No matter is to be heard unless in the presence of at least four members of the committee; and no report or recommendation made to the Crown, unless a majority of the members present at the hearing shall concur in such report or recommendation.
DEMIURGE. (Fromδημιουργὸς, an artificer.) The name given by some Gnostic sects to the Creator of the world, who, according to them, was different from the supremeGod. (SeeGnostics.)
DEMONIACS. Persons possessed of the devil. That the persons spoken of in the New Testament as possessed of the devil, were not simply lunatics, is clearfrom a mere perusal of the facts recorded. The devils ownedChristto be the Messiah; they besought him not to torment them; they passed into the swine and drove them into the sea. The manner in which ourLordaddressed the demoniacs clearly shows that they were really such: he not only rebuked the devils, but called them unclean spirits, asking them questions, commanding them to come out, &c. We find also that, for some time, in the early ages of the Church, demoniacs existed, as there was a peculiar service appointed in the Church for their cure. (SeeEnergumens.)
DENARII DE CARITATE. (Lat.) Customary oblations, anciently made to cathedral churches, about the time of Pentecost, when the parish priests, and many of their parishioners, went in procession to visit their mother-church. This custom was afterwards changed into a settled due, and usually charged upon the parish priest, though at first it was but a gift ofcharity, or present, towards the support and ornament of the bishop’s see.
DENOMINATIONS, THE THREE. The general body of dissenting ministers of London and Westminster form an association so styled, which was organized in 1727. The object of the association appears to be political. The Three Denominations are, the Presbyterian, (now Socinian,) Independent, and Baptist.
DEO GRATIAS. (Lat.)God be thanked. A form of salutation, anciently used by Christians, when they accosted each other. The Donatists ridiculed the use of it; which St. Augustine defended, affirming, that a Christian had reason to return God thanks when he met a brother Christian. It is at present used only in the sacred offices of the Romish Church. We have something like it in theCommunion Serviceof our own Church, in which the minister says,Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
DEPOSITION. (SeeDegradation.)
DEPRECATIONS. (SeeLitany.)
DEPRIVATION is an ecclesiastical sentence, whereby a clergyman is deprived of his parsonage, vicarage, or other spiritual promotion or dignity.
By Canon 122. Sentence against a minister, of deprivation from his living, “shall be pronounced by the bishop only with the assistance of his chancellor and the dean, (if they may conveniently be had,) and some of the prebendaries, if the court be kept near the cathedral church; or of the archdeacon, if he may be had conveniently, and two other at the least grave ministers and preachers to be called by the bishop, when the court is kept in other places.”
The causes of deprivation may be reduced to three heads, viz. to want of capacity, contempt, and crimes. Nonconformity is thus specially punished by 1 Eliz. c. 2, 13 Eliz. c. 12, 14 Car. II. c. 4. Dilapidation used to be held a good cause of deprivation, yet that it has ever been inflicted as a punishment of dilapidation does not appear, either by the books of common or canon law. In all causes of deprivation, where a person is in actual possession of an ecclesiastical benefice, these things must concur: 1st, A monition or citation of the party to appear: 2nd, A charge given against him by way of libel or articles, to which he is to give an answer: 3rd, A competent time must be assigned, for proofs and interrogatories: 4th, The person accused shall have the liberty of counsel to defend his cause, to except against witnesses, and to bring legal proofs against them: and 5th, There must be a solemn sentence, read by the bishop, after hearing the merits of the cause, or pleadings on both sides. These are the fundamentals of all judicial proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts, in order to a deprivation. And if these things be not observed, the party has a just cause of appeal, and may have a remedy in a superior court.
By 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 31, spiritual persons trading contrary to the provisions of that act, may be, for the third offence, deprived.
DESK. This is the name usually given to the pulpit or pew in which morning and evening prayers are sung or said in the English churches. The using of this pulpit for prayer is peculiar to the English Church, and has a very unpleasant effect. The First Prayer Book of Edward VI. ordered “the priest,being in the choir, to begin theLord’sPrayer, called Pater Noster, (with which the morning and evening services then began,) with a loud voice:” so that it was at that time the custom for the minister to sing or say the morning and evening prayer, not in a desk or pulpit, but at the upper end of the choir or chancel, near the altar, towards which, whether standing or kneeling, he always turned his face in the prayers. This gave great offence, however, though it had been the custom of the Church of England for many hundred years, to some superstitious weaker brethren, who so far forgot their charity as to call it anti-Christian. The outcry, however frivolous and vexatious, prevailed so far, that when,in the fifth year of King Edward, the Prayer Book was altered, the following rubric appeared instead of the old one, viz. “The morning and evening prayers shall be used in such places of the church, chapel, or chancel, and the minister shall so turn him, as the people best may hear. And if there be any controversy therein, the matter shall be referred to the ordinary, and he or his deputy shall appoint the place.” This caused great contentions—the more orthodox kneeling in the old way, and singing or saying the prayers in the chancel, and the innovators, orultra-Protestants, adoptingnewforms, and performing all the services in the body of the church. In the reign of Elizabeth, the rubric was brought to its present form: “that the morning and evening prayers shall be used in the accustomed place in the church, chapel, or chancel,” by which was clearly meant the choir or chancel, which had been for centuries the accustomed place; and it cannot be supposed that the Second Book of Edward, which lasted only one year and a half, could establish a custom. A dispensing power, however, was left with the ordinary, who might determine it otherwise, if he saw just cause. Pursuant to this rubric, the morning and evening services were again, as formerly, sung or said in the chancel or choir. But in some churches, owing to the too great distance of the chancel from the body of the church, in others owing to the ultra-Protestant superstition of the parishioners, the ordinaries permitted the clergy to leave the chancel, and read prayers from a pew in the body of the church. This innovation and novelty, begun first by some few ordinaries, and recommended by them to others, grew by degrees to be more general, till at last it came to be the universal practice; insomuch that the convocation, in the beginning of King James the First’s reign, ordered that in every church there should be a convenient seat made for the minister to read service in. In new churches, where there can be no complaint of the size of the chancels, there seems to be no reason why the ordinaries should not now remove the desk, and send the clergy back to their proper place, to sing or say the prayers in the chancel. At all events, they might get rid of that unsightly nuisance, a second pulpit instead of a reading pew. If the prayers are to be preached to the people, as well as the sermon, one pulpit might suffice. It is gratifying to know, that since the article was written in the first edition of this work, this disfigurement of our churches has been very generally removed. It is to be observed, that the word does not once occur in the Prayer Book.
DEUS MISEREATUR. The Latin name for Psalm lxvii., which may be used after the second lesson at evening prayers, instead of theNunc Dimittis, except on the twelfth day of the month, when it occurs among the psalms of the day. It was first inserted in our service in the Second Book of King Edward VI.
DEUTERONOMY. A canonical book of the Old Testament. The word implies asecond law, the principal design of it being,a repetitionof the laws already delivered; which was a necessary thing, inasmuch as the Israelites, who had heard it before, were dead in the wilderness, and there was sprung up another generation of men, who had not heard the Decalogue, or any other of the laws openly proclaimed. It contains likewise some new laws; such as the taking down malefactors from the tree in the evening; the making of battlements on the roofs of houses; the expiation of an unknown murder; the punishment to be inflicted upon a rebellious son; the distinction of the sexes by apparel; the marrying a brother’s wife after his decease: as also, orders and injunctions concerning divorce; laws concerning men-stealers; concerning unjust weights and measures; concerning the marrying of a captive woman; concerning servants that desert their master’s service; and several other laws, not only ecclesiastical and civil, but also military. There are inserted likewise some transactions, which happened in the last year of the travels of the Israelites through the wilderness.
Deuteronomy is the last book of the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; though some have questioned whether it was written by that legislator, because, in the last chapter, mention is made of his death and burial, and of the succession of Joshua after him. But this only proves that the last chapter was not written by Moses, but added by some other person; most probably by Ezra, when he published an edition of the Holy Scriptures. (SeePentateuch.)
DEVIL. FromΔιάβολος, which signifies an accuser, or calumniator. The two words, Devil and Satan, are used in Scripture to signify the same wicked spirit, who with many others, his angels or under-agents, is fighting againstGod; and who has dominion over all the sons of Adam, except the regenerate; and who is, in hiskingdom of this world, the nearest imaginable approximation, at infinite distance indeed, to the omnipotence of theGodhead.
DIACONATE. The office or order of a deacon. (SeeDeacon.)
DIACONICUM. (Gr.andLat.) This word has different significations in ecclesiastical authors. Sometimes it is taken for that part of the ancientchurchin which the deacons used to sit during the performance of Divine service, namely, at the rails of the altar; sometimes for a building adjoining to the church, in which the sacred vessels and habits were laid up; sometimes for that part of the public prayers which the deacons pronounced. Lastly, it denotes an ecclesiastical book, in which are contained all things relating to the duty and office of a deacon, according to the rites of the Greek Church.
DIAPER. In church architecture, a decoration of large surfaces with a constantly recurring pattern, either carved or painted. Norman diapers are usually either fretted or zigzag lines, or imbrications of the masonry; and not only plain surfaces, but pillars, and small shafts, and even mouldings, are diapered, as the cable moulding surrounding the nave at Rochester. In the succeeding styles, flowers and leaves are the most frequent patterns, which, in the Geometrical style, are often of extreme beauty and delicacy. After the fourteenth century, diapers are painted only, and now even the hollows of mouldings are thus treated.
DIET. The assembly of the states of Germany. We shall only notice the more remarkable of those which have been held on the affairs of religion.
The Diet of Worms, in 1521, where Alexander, the pope’s nuncio, having charged Luther with heresy, the Duke of Saxony said, that Luther ought to be heard; which the emperor granted, and sent him a pass, provided he did not preach on this journey. Being come to Worms, he protested that he would not recant unless they would show him his errors by the word ofGodalone, and not by that of men; wherefore the emperor soon after outlawed him by an edict.
The first Diet of Nuremberg was held in 1523, when Francis Cheregat, Adrian VI.’s nuncio, demanded the execution of Leo X.’s bull, and of Charles V.’s edict, published at Worms, against Luther: but it was answered, that it was necessary to call a council in Germany, to satisfy the nation about its grievances, which were reduced to a hundred articles, some whereof struck at the pope’s authority, and the discipline of the Roman Church: they added that, in the interim, the Lutherans should be commanded not to write against the Roman Catholics, &c. All these things were brought into the form of an edict, and published in the emperor’s name.
The second Diet of Nuremberg was in 1524. Cardinal Cangegio, Pope Clement VII.’s legate, entered the town incognito, for fear of exasperating the people there: the Lutherans having the advantage, it was decreed that, with the emperor’s consent, the pope should call a council in Germany; but, in the interim, an assembly should be held at Spire, to determine what was to be believed and practised; and that to obey the emperor, the princes ought to order the observance of the edict of Worms as strictly as they could. Charles, angry at this, commanded that edict to be very strictly observed, and prohibited the assembly at Spire.
The first Diet of Spire was held in 1526. The emperor Charles V. being then held in Spain, named his brother, Archduke Ferdinand, to preside over that assembly, where the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse demanded a full and free exercise of the Lutheran religion, so that the Lutherans preached there publicly against Popery; and the Lutheran princes’ servants had these five capital letters, V.D. M.I.Æ., embroidered on their sleeves, signifying,Verbum Dei manet in Æternum, to show publicly they would follow nothing else but the pure word ofGod. The archduke, not daring to oppose this, proposed two things, the first concerning the Popish religion, which was to be maintained in observing the edict of Worms; and the second concerning the aid demanded by Lewis, king of Hungary, against the Turks: the Lutherans prevailing about the first, it was decreed, that the emperor should be desired to call a general or national council in Germany within a year, and that in the mean time every one was to have liberty of conscience, and whilst they were deliberating in vain about the second, King Lewis was defeated and slain at the battle of Mohatz.
The second Diet of Spire was held in 1529. It was decreed against the Lutherans, that wherever the edict of Worms was received, it shall be lawful for nobody to change his opinion; but in the countries where the new religion (as they termed it) was received, it should be lawful to continue in it till the next council, if the old religion could not be reestablished there without sedition. Nevertheless the mass was not to be abolished there, andno Roman Catholic was allowed to turn Lutheran; that the Sacramentarians should be banished out of the empire, and the Anabaptists put to death; and that preachers should nowhere preach against the doctrine of the Church of Rome. This decree destroying that of the first Diet, six Lutheran princes, viz. the Elector of Saxony, the Marquis of Brandenburg, the two Dukes of Lunenburg, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Prince of Anhalt, with the deputies of fourteen imperial towns, protested in writing, two days after, in the assembly, against that decree, which they would not obey, it being contrary to the gospel; and appealed to the general or national council, to the emperor, and to any other unprejudiced judge. From this solemn protestation came that famous name ofProtestants, which the Lutherans took presently, and the Calvinists and other reformed Christians afterwards. They also protested against contributing anything towards the war against the Turks, till after the exercise of their religion was free in all Germany. Next year the emperor held the famous Diet of Augsburg.
The first Diet of Augsburg was called in the year 1530, by the emperor Charles V., to reunite the princes about some matters of religion, and to join them all together against the Turks. Here the Elector of Saxony, followed by many princes, presented the confession of faith called the Confession of Augsburg. The conference about matters of faith and discipline being concluded, the emperor ended the Diet by a decree, that nothing should be altered in the doctrine and ceremonies of the Church of Rome till a council should order it otherwise.
The second Diet of Augsburg was held in 1547. The electors being divided concerning the decisions of the Council of Trent, the emperor demanded that the management of this affair should be left to him, and it was resolved, that every one should conform to the council’s decisions.
The third Diet of Augsburg was held in 1548, when, the commissioners named to examine some memoirs about a confession of faith, not agreeing together, the emperor named three divines, who drew the design of that famousInterimso well known in Germany and elsewhere.
The fourth Diet of Augsburg was held in 1550, when the emperor complained that the Interim was not observed, and demanded that all should submit to the council, which they were going to renew at Trent; but Duke Maurice, one of Saxony’s deputies, protested that their master did submit to the council on this condition, that the divines of the Confession of Augsburg not only should be heard there, but should vote also like the Roman Catholic bishops, and that the pope should not preside: but, by plurality of votes, submission to the council was resolved on.
The first Diet of Ratisbon was held in 1541, for uniting the Protestants to the Church of Rome. The pope’s legate having altered the twenty-two articles drawn up by the Protestant divines, the emperor proposed to choose some learned divines that might agree peaceably upon the articles, and being desired by the Diet to choose them himself, he named three Papists, viz. Julius Phlugus, John Gropperus, and John Eckius; and three Protestants, viz. Philip Melancthon, Martin Bucer, and John Pistorius. After an examination and dispute of a whole month, those divines could never agree upon more than five or six articles, wherein the Diet still found some difficulties; wherefore the emperor, to end these controversies, ordered by an edict, that the decision of those doctors should be reserved to a general council, or to the national council of all Germany, or to the next Diet eighteen months after; and that, in the mean while, the Protestants should keep the articles agreed on, forbidding them to solicit anybody to change the old religion, (as they called it,) &c. But to gratify the Protestants in some measure, he gave them leave, by patent, to retain their religion, notwithstanding the edict.
The second Diet at Ratisbon was held in 1546: none of the Protestant confederate princes appeared; so that it was easily decreed here, by plurality of votes, that the Council of Trent was to be followed, which yet the Protestant deputies opposed, and this caused a war against them.
The third Diet of Ratisbon was held in 1557: the assembly demanded a conference between some famous doctors of both parties; which conference, held at Worms, between twelve Lutheran and as many Popish divines, was soon dissolved by the Lutherans’ division among themselves.—Broughton.
DIGNITARY. One who holds cathedral or other preferment to which jurisdiction is annexed.
The dignitaries in British cathedrals are, for the most part, the dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, and archdeacon. Sometimes thesubdeanandsuccentor canonicorumare so called; and in a few churches in Ireland, theprovost, andsacrist(or treasurer). The only dignitary in cathedralsof the new foundation is thedean; as the archdeacon is not necessarily a member of such chapters. It is a vulgar error to style prebendaries, or canons residentiary, dignitaries. The prebendaries without dignity were styledcanonici(orprebendarii)simplices.—Jebb.
DILAPIDATION is the incumbent suffering the chancel, or any other edifices, of his ecclesiastical living, to go to ruin or decay, by neglecting to repair the same; and it likewise extends to his committing, or suffering to be committed, any wilful waste in or upon the glebe, woods, or any other inheritance of the church. By the injunctions of King Edward VI. it is required, “that the proprietors, parsons, vicars, and clerks, having churches, chapels, or mansions, shall yearly bestow on the said mansions or chancels of their churches, being in decay, the fifth part of their benefices, till they be fully repaired; and the same being thus repaired, they shall always keep and maintain them in good estate.”—SeeArt. XIII. of Queen Elizabeth’s Injunctions.
By the constitutions of Othobon it is ordained, that “all clerks shall take care decently to repair the houses of their benefices and other buildings, as need shall require, whereunto they shall be earnestly admonished by their bishops or archdeacons; and if any of them, after the monition of the bishops or archdeacons, shall neglect to do the same for the space of two months, the bishop shall cause the same effectually to be done, at the cost and charges of such clerk, out of the profits of his church and benefice, by the authority of this present statute, causing so much thereof to be received as shall be sufficient for such reparation: the chancels also of the church they shall cause to be repaired by those who are bound thereunto according as is above expressed; also we do enjoin, by attestation of the Divine judgment, the archbishops and bishops, and other inferior prelates, that they do keep in repair their houses and other edifices, by causing such reparation to be made as they know to be needful.”—See 13 Eliz. c. 10; 17 Geo. III. c. 53; 21 Geo. III. c. 66;Gibson’s Codex, pp. 751–754, andHodgson’s Instructions to the Clergy.
DIMISSORY LETTERS. In the ancient Christian Church, they were letters granted to the clergy, when they were to remove from their own diocese and settle in another, to testify, that they had the bishop’s leave todepart; whence they were calledDimissoriæ, and sometimesPacificæ.
In the Church of England,dimissory lettersare such as are used when a candidate for holy orders has a title in one diocese, and is to be ordained in another; in which case the proper diocesan sends his letters, directed to the ordaining bishop, giving leave that the bearer may be ordained by him.
Persons inferior to bishops cannot grant these letters, unless the bishop shall, by special commission, grant this power to his vicar-general; or unless the bishop be at a great distance from his diocese, in which case his vicar-general in spirituals may grant such licence as the chapter of a cathedral may dosede vacante; or, lastly, when a bishop is taken prisoner by the enemy, for then the chapter exercises the same rights and powers as if the bishop were naturally dead.
DIOCESE. The circuit of a bishop’s jurisdiction. The ecclesiastical division in England is, primarily, into two provinces, those of Canterbury and York. In Ireland into two, Armagh and Dublin; till lately, however, into four, Cashel and Tuam, besides the two now mentioned. A province is a circuit of an archbishop’s jurisdiction. Each province contains divers dioceses, or sees of suffragan bishops; whereof Canterbury includes twenty, and York five. Armagh and Dublin, five each; though till lately Armagh had seven, Dublin three, Cashel five, and Tuam three. Though, properly speaking, the Irish dioceses are far more numerous, as most of the bishops have more than one see under their jurisdiction; which nevertheless, though thus united as to episcopal government, have their separate chapters, ecclesiastical officers, &c. Every diocese in England is divided into archdeaconries, and each archdeaconry into rural deaneries, and every deanery into parishes. In Ireland, there is but one archdeaconry to each diocese, though in two instances, those of Glendaloch and Aghadoe, these dioceses have been so long united to the adjacent sees, that their boundaries are now unknown, and consequently the diocese of Dublin and Ardfert have apparently, though not really, two archdeacons each. The division into rural deaneries and parishes is as in England.
The division of the Church into dioceses may be viewed as a natural consequence of the institution of the office of bishops. The authority to exercise jurisdiction, when committed to several hands, requires that some boundaries be defined within which each party may employ his powers; otherwise disorder and confusion would ensue, and the Church, instead of being benefitedby the appointment of governors, might be exposed to the double calamity of an overplus of them in one district, and a total deficiency of them in another. Hence we find, so early as the New Testament history, some plain indications of the rise of the diocesan system, in the cases respectively of James, bishop of Jerusalem; Timothy, bishop of Ephesus; Titus, of Crete, to whom may be added the “angels” or bishops of the seven churches in Asia. These were placed in cities, and had jurisdiction over the churches and inferior clergy in those cities, and probably in the country adjacent. The first dioceses were formed by planting a bishop in a city or considerable village, where he officiated regularly, and took the spiritual charge, not only of the city itself, but of the suburbs, or region lying round about it, within the verge of its [civil] jurisdiction; which seems to be the plain reason of that great and visible difference which we find in the extent of dioceses, some being very large, others very small, according as the civil government of each city happened to have a larger or lesser jurisdiction.
Thus, in our own Church, there were at first only seven bishoprics, and these were commensurate with the Saxon kingdoms. Since that time our Church has thought fit to lessen the size of her dioceses, and to multiply them into above twenty; and if she thought fit to add forty or a hundred more, she would not be without precedent in the primitive Church. It is a great misfortune to the Church of England that her dioceses, compared with the population, are so extensive and so few. It is impossible for our bishops to perform all their canonical duties, such as visitingannually every parishin the diocese, inspecting schools, Divine service, instruction, &c., besides baptizing, confirming, consecrating. Episcopal extension, as well as Church extension, is most important. We must seek to add to the number of our bishops. There will be prejudices and difficulties for some time to be overcome on the part of the State, which is not sufficiently religious to tolerate an increase in the number of spiritual peers. An addition to the number of our spiritual peers is however not what we seek, but that our spiritual pastors may be more numerous.
The ancient bishoprics being baronies, the possessors of them might sit in parliament; while the new bishoprics, not having baronies attached, might only qualify for a seat in the upper house of convocation. The beginning of a new system was made on the erection of the see of Manchester, in 1847, since which time the junior bishop has no seat in the House of Lords.
DIOCESAN. A bishop, as he stands related to his diocese. (SeeBishop.)
DIPPERS. (SeeDunkers.)
DIPTYCH. A kind of sacred book, or register, made use of in the ancient Christian Church, and in which were written the names of such eminent bishops, saints, and martyrs, as were particularly to be commemorated, just before oblation was made for the dead. It was calleddiptych(δίπτυχος) from its beingfolded together; and it was the deacon’s office to recite the names written in it, as occasion required. Some distinguish three sorts of diptychs: one, wherein the names of bishops only were written, such especially as had been governors of that particular church; a second, in which the names of the living were written, such in particular as were eminent for any office or dignity, or some benefaction and good work, in which rank were bishops, emperors, and magistrates; lastly, a third, containing the names of such as were deceased in catholic communion.
Theodoret mentions these kind of registers in relation to the case of St. Chrysostom, whose name, for some time, was left out of the diptychs, because he died under the sentence of excommunication, pronounced against him by Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, and other Eastern bishops, with whom the Western Church would not communicate until they had replaced his name in the diptychs; for, to erase a person’s name out of these books was the same thing as declaring him to have been an heretic, or some way deviating from the faith.—Bingham.
DIRECTORY. A kind of regulation for the performance of religious worship, drawn up by the Assembly of Divines in England, at the instance of the parliament, in the year 1644. It was designed to supply the place of the Liturgy, or Book ofCommon Prayer, the use of which the parliament had abolished. It consisted only of some general heads, which were to be managed and filled up at discretion; for it prescribed no form of prayer or circumstances of external worship, nor obliged the people to any responses, exceptingAmen. The use of theDirectorywas enforced by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons at Westminster, which was repeated August 3rd, 1645. By this injunction, the Directory was ordered to be dispersed and published in all parishes, chapelries, donatives, &c. In opposition to this injunction, King Charles issued a proclamation at Oxford,November 13th, 1645, enjoining the use of the Common Prayer according to law, notwithstanding the pretended ordinances for the new Directory.
To give a short abstract of the Directory: It forbids all salutations and civil ceremony in the churches. The reading the Scripture in the congregation is declared to be part of the pastoral office. All the canonical books of the Old and New Testament (but none of theApocrypha) are to be publicly read in the vulgar tongue. How large a portion is to be read at once is left to the minister, who has likewise the liberty ofexpounding, when he judges it necessary. It prescribes heads for the prayer before sermon; among which part of the prayer for the king is,to save him from evil counsel. It delivers rules for managing thesermon; the introduction to the text must be short and clear, drawn from the words or context, or some parallel place of Scripture; in dividing the text, the minister is to regard the order of the matter more than that of the words; he is not to burden the memory of his audience with too many divisions, nor perplex their understandings with logical phrases and terms of art; he is not to start unnecessary objections; and he is to be very sparing in citations from ecclesiastical, or other human writers, ancient or modern.
The Directory recommends the use of theLord’sPrayer, as the most perfect model of devotion. It forbids private or lay persons to administer baptism, and enjoins it to be performed in the face of the congregation. It orders the communion table at theLord’ssupper to be so placed that the communicants may sit about it. The dead, according to the rules of the Directory, are to be buried without any prayers or religious ceremony.
The Roman Catholics publish an annual Directory for their laity, which serves the purpose of a book of reference in matters of ceremonial as settled by their communion.—Broughton.
DISCIPLE, in the first sense of the word, means one wholearnsany thing from another. Hence the followers of any teacher, philosopher, or head of a sect, are usually called hisdisciples. In the Christian sense of the term,disciplesare the followers ofJesus Christin general; but, in a more restrained sense, it denotes those who were the immediate followers and attendants on his person. The namesdiscipleandapostleare often used synonymously in the gospel history; but sometimes the apostles are distinguished from disciples, as persons selected out of the number of disciples, to be the principal ministers of his religion. Of these there were twelve; whereas those who are simply styleddiscipleswere seventy, or seventy-two, in number. There was not as yet any catalogue of the disciples in Eusebius’s time, i. e. in the fourth century. The Latins kept the festival of the seventy or seventy-two disciples on the 15th of July, and the Greeks on 4th of January.
DISCIPLINE, ECCLESIASTICAL. The Christian Church being a spiritual community or society of persons professing the religion ofJesus, and, as such, governed by spiritual or ecclesiastical laws, her discipline consists in putting those laws in execution, and inflicting the penalties enjoined by them against several sorts of offenders. To understand the true nature of church discipline, we must consider how it stood in the ancient Christian Church. And, first,
The primitive Church never pretended to exercise discipline upon any but such as were within her pale, in the largest sense, by some act of their own profession; and even upon these she never pretended to exercise her discipline so far as to cancel or disannul their baptism. But the discipline of the Church consisted in a power to deprive men of the benefits of external communion, such as public prayer, receiving the eucharist, and other acts of Divine worship. This power, before the establishment of the Church by human laws, was a mere spiritual authority, or, as St. Cyprian terms it, a spiritual sword, affecting the soul, and not the body. Sometimes, indeed, the Church craved assistance from the secular power, even when it was heathen, but more frequently after it was become Christian. But it is to be observed, that the Church never encouraged the magistrate to proceed against any one for mere error, or ecclesiastical misdemeanour, further than to punish the delinquent by a pecuniary mulct, or bodily punishment, such as confiscation or banishment; and St. Austin affirms, that no good men in the Catholic Church were pleased that heretics should be prosecuted unto death. Lesser punishments, they thought, might have their use, as means sometimes to bring them to consideration and repentance.
Nor was it a part of the ancient discipline to deprive men of their natural or civil rites. A master did not lose his authority over his family, a parent over his children, nor a magistrate his office and charge in the state, by being cast out of the Church. But the discipline of theChurch being a mere spiritual power, was confined to, 1. The admonition of the offender; 2. The lesser and greater excommunication.
As to the objects of ecclesiastical discipline, they were all such delinquents as fell into great and scandalous crimes after baptism, whether men or women, priests or people, rich or poor, princes or subjects. That princes and magistrates fell under the Church’s censures, may be proved by several instances; particularly St. Chrysostom relates, that Babylas denied communion to one of the Roman emperors on account of a barbarous murder committed by him: St. Ambrose likewise denied communion to Maximus for shedding the blood of Gratian; and the same holy bishop absolutely refused to admit the emperor Theodosius the Great into his church, notwithstanding his humblest entreaties, because he had inhumanly put to death 7000 men at Thessalonica, without distinguishing the innocent from the guilty.
DISPENSATION. The providential dealing ofGodwith his creatures. We thus speak of the Jewish dispensation and the Christian dispensation. (SeeCovenant of Redemption.)
In ecclesiastical law, by dispensation is meant the power vested in archbishops of dispensing, on particular emergencies, with certain minor regulations of the Church, more especially in her character as an establishment.
DISSENTERS. Separatists from the Church of England, and the service and worship thereof, whether Protestants or Papists. At the Revolution a law was enacted, that the statutes of Elizabeth and James I., concerning the discipline of the Church, should not extend to Protestant Dissenters. But persons dissenting were to subscribe the declaration of 30 Car. II. c. 1, and take the oath or declaration of fidelity, &c. They are not to hold their meetings until their place of worship is certified to the bishop, or to the justices of the quarter sessions, and registered; also they are not to keep the doors of their meeting-houses locked during the time of worship. Whoever disturbs or molests them in the performance of their worship, on conviction at the sessions, is to forfeit £20 by the statute of 1 W. & M.—Broughton.
At the present time there are in England 34 dissenting communities or sects; 26 native or indigenous, 9 foreign.