VERSICLES. Short or diminutive verses, said alternately by the minister

and people; such, for example, as the following:—

_Min._ O LORD, show thy mercy upon us;

_Ans._ And grant us thy salvation.

_Min._ O GOD, make clean our hearts within us;

_Ans._ And take not thy HOLY SPIRIT from us.

The versicles, properly so called, (with their responses,) are in most

instances passages from the Psalms, and are thus distinguished from

other suffrages, which are neither verses from the Psalms, nor form in

each petition and response a continuous sentence. In the Litany the two

versicles with their responses, “O Lord, deal not with us after our

sins,” and “O Lord, let thy mercy be showed upon us,” are distinguished

from the other suffrages (in the Litany) by having the words _Priest_

and _Answer_ prefixed; and by being each a verse from the Psalms. To

which may be added, that till the last Review, these had been always

prefaced in the English Litany, since the Reformation, by the words “the

versicles.”

VESICA PISCIS. (See _Piscis_.)

VESPERS, or EVEN-SONG, is mentioned by the most ancient Fathers, and it

is probable that the custom of holding an assembly for public worship at

this time is of the most primitive antiquity. Certainly in the fourth

century, and perhaps in the third, there was public evening service in

the Eastern Churches, as we learn from the Apostolical Constitutions;

and Cassian, in the beginning of the fifth century, appears to refer the

evening and nocturnal assemblies of the Egyptians to the time of St.

Mark the Evangelist.

VESTMENTS. (See _Ornaments_.) The _vestment_ mentioned in the rubric of

King Edward VI.’s first Prayer Book, is the same as the Chasuble. (See

_Chasuble_.)

VESTRY. (Anciently _Revestry_ or _Sacristy_.) A room attached to a

church for the keeping of the vestments and the sacred vessels. The most

usual place for the vestry was at the north side of the chancel, at the

east end. There was not infrequently an altar in the vestry; and

sometimes it was arranged with an additional chamber, so as to form a

_domus inclusa_ for the residence of an officiating priest.

And from their meeting in this room, certain assemblies of the

parishioners, for the despatch of the official business of the parish,

are called _vestries_ or _vestry meetings_. It is not, however,

essential to the validity of the meeting, that it should be held in the

vestry of the church. It may be convened in any place in the parish,

provided the parishioners have free access to it, even though the place

fixed on be private property. Notice of meeting must be given three days

previously, by affixing on or near the doors of all churches or chapels

within the parish, a printed or written notice. The incumbent is _ex

officio_ chairman of the meeting. All persons rated to the relief of the

poor, whether inhabitants of the parish or not, are entitled to attend

the vestry and vote thereat: and this right is also extended to all

inhabitants coming into the parish since the last rate for the relief of

the poor, if they consent to be rated. But no person is entitled to

vote, who shall have neglected or refused to pay any rate which may be

due, and shall have been demanded of him, nor is he entitled to be

present at any vestry meeting. A motion to adjourn the vestry for six or

twelve months, or for any time, with a view to defeat the object of the

meeting, is illegal, and therefore no such motion should be received by

the chairman.

The functions of vestries are, to take due care for the maintenance of

the edifice of the church, and the due administration of Divine service;

to elect churchwardens, to present for appointment fit persons as

overseers of the poor, to administer the property of the parish, and (if

so appointed under local acts) to superintend the paving and lighting of

the parish, and to levy rates for those purposes.

The remedy for neglect of duty by a vestry is a mandamus from the court

of Queen’s Bench, directed to the officer whose duty it would be to

perform the particular act, or in some cases by an ordinary process

against him, or by a process against the churchwardens out of the

ecclesiastical courts.

In the year 1818 was passed the 58 Geo. III. c. 69, making general

regulations for the holding of vestries, and this act was amended next

year by the 59 Geo. III. c. 85. In the same year was passed the 59 Geo.

III. c. 12, commonly called Sturges Bourne’s Act, authorizing the

formation of select vestries for the management of the relief of

paupers; but that is superseded by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834.

The 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c. 20 is an important act relating to vestries,

commonly called Hobhouse’s Act. It authorizes, upon the petition of a

certain number of parishioners paying rates, the formation of a

representative select vestry. To 1000 ratepayers 12 representatives are

allowed; above 1000, 24; above 2000, 36; and so on, allowing 12

additional representatives for every additional 1000 ratepayers, until

the number of the select vestry reaches 120, which is the limit of

elected members. There are others _ex officio_, including the clergy of

the district. Section 40 of this act saves all ecclesiastical

jurisdiction, and provides that the act shall not invalidate or avoid

any ecclesiastical law or constitution of the Church of England, save as

concerns the appointment of vestries.

A series of church-building acts, eighteen in number, were passed

between 1818 and 1848, beginning with the 58 Geo. III., and ending with

the 11 & 12 Vict. They contained clauses which provided for the

formation of select vestries in the new ecclesiastical districts

constituted by those acts. In 1851 came the 14 & 15 Vict. c. 97, which

enumerates all these acts, and by section 20 not only forbids the

formation of select vestries in new districts to be formed, but

abolishes all those which had been formed under the acts enumerated.

By the Metropolitan Burials Acts of 1852, (15 & 16 Vict. c. 85, amended

and extended by 16 & 17 Vict. c. 134,) new and important duties were

thrown upon vestries. It is therein provided, that, upon the requisition

in writing of ten or more ratepayers of any parish in the metropolis in

which the place or places of burial shall appear to such ratepayers

insufficient or dangerous to health, (and whether any order in council

in relation to any burial ground in such parish has or has not been

made,) the churchwardens or other persons to whom it belongs to convene

meetings of the vestry of such parish, shall convene a meeting of the

vestry, for the special purpose of determining whether a burial ground

shall be provided under this act for the parish; and public notice of

such vestry meeting, and the place and hour of holding the same, and the

special purpose thereof, shall be given in the usual manner in which

notices of the meetings of the vestry are given, at least seven days

before holding such vestry meeting; and if it be resolved by the vestry

that a burial ground shall be provided under this act for the parish, a

copy of such resolution, extracted from the minutes of the vestry, and

signed by the chairman, shall be sent to one of her Majesty’s principal

secretaries of state.

In case of such resolution as aforesaid, the vestry shall appoint not

less than three, nor more than nine persons, being ratepayers of the

parish, to be the burial board of such parish, of whom one third, or as

nearly as may be one third, (to be determined among themselves,) shall

go out of office yearly, at such time as shall be from time to time

fixed by the vestry, but shall be eligible for immediate re-appointment:

provided always, that the incumbent of the parish shall be eligible to

be appointed and re-appointed from time to time as one of the members of

the said board, although not a ratepayer of the parish; provided also,

that any member of the board may at any time resign his office, on

giving notice in writing to the churchwardens or persons to whom it

belongs to convene meetings of the vestry.

Any vacancies in the board may be filled up by the vestry when and as

the vestry shall think fit.

The board shall meet at least once in every month at their office, or

some other convenient place, previously publicly notified, and the said

board may meet at such other time as at any previous meeting shall be

determined upon; and it shall be at all times competent for any two

members of the board, by writing under their hands, to summon, with at

least forty-eight hours’ notice, the board for any special purpose

mentioned in such writing, and to meet at such times as shall be

appointed therein.

At all meetings of the board, any number not less than three members of

such board shall be a sufficient number for transacting business, and

for exercising all the powers of the board.

The board shall appoint, and may remove at pleasure, a clerk, and such

other officers and servants as shall be necessary for the business of

the board, and for the purposes of their burial ground; and, with the

approval of the vestry, may appoint reasonable salaries, wages, and

allowances for such clerk, officers, and servants, and, when necessary,

may hire and rent a sufficient office for holding their meetings and

transacting their business.

Entries of all proceedings of the board, with the names of the members

who attend each meeting, shall be made in books to be provided and kept

for that purpose, under the direction of the board, and shall be signed

by the members present, or any two of them; and all entries purporting

to be so signed shall be received as evidence, without proof of any

meeting of the board having been duly convened or held, or of the

presence at any such meeting of the persons named in any such entry as

being present thereat, or of such persons being members of the board, or

of the signature of any person by whom any such entry purports to be

signed, all which matters shall be presumed until the contrary be

proved; and the board shall provide and keep books in which shall be

entered true and regular accounts of all sums of money received and

paid, for or on account of the purposes of this act in the parish, and

of all liabilities incurred by them for such purposes, and of the

several purposes for which such sums of money are paid and such

liabilities incurred.

All such books shall, at all reasonable times, be open to the

examination of every member of such board, churchwarden, overseer, and

ratepayer, without fee or reward, and they respectively may take copies

of, or extracts from, such books, or any part thereof, without paying

for the same; and in case the members of such board, or any of them, or

any of the officers or servants of such board having the custody of the

said books, being thereunto reasonably requested, refuse to permit or do

not permit any churchwarden, overseer, or ratepayer to examine the same,

or take any such copies or extracts, every such member, officer, or

servant so offending shall for every such offence, upon a summary

conviction thereof before any justice of the peace, forfeit any sum not

exceeding five pounds.

The vestry shall yearly appoint two persons, not being members of the

board, to be auditors of the accounts of the board, and at such time in

the month of March in every year as the vestry shall appoint, the board

shall produce to the auditors their accounts, with sufficient vouchers

for all monies received and paid, and the auditors shall examine such

accounts and vouchers, and report thereon to the vestry.

The expenses incurred, or to be incurred, by the burial board of any

parish in carrying this act into execution, shall be chargeable upon and

paid out of the rates for the relief of the poor of such parish; the

expenses to be so incurred for or on account of any parish in providing

and laying out a burial ground under this act, and building the

necessary chapel or chapels thereon, not to exceed such sum as the

vestry shall authorize to be expended for such purpose; and the

overseers or other officers authorized to make and levy rates for the

relief of the poor in any parish shall, upon receipt of a certificate

under the hands of such number of members of the burial board as are

authorized to exercise the powers of the board, of the sums required

from time to time for defraying any such expenses as aforesaid, pay such

sums out of the rates for the relief of the poor, as the board shall

direct.

Provided always, that it shall be lawful for the board, with the

sanction of the vestry and the approval of the commissioners of her

Majesty’s treasury, to borrow any money required for providing and

laying out any burial ground under this act, and building a chapel or

chapels thereon, or any of such purposes, and to charge the future poor

rates of the parish with the payment of such money and interest thereon;

provided that there shall be paid in every year, in addition to the

interest of the money borrowed and unpaid, not less than one-twentieth

of the principal sum borrowed, until the whole is discharged.

The commissioners for carrying into execution an act of the session

holden in the 14th and 15th years of her Majesty, c. 23, “to authorize

for a further period the advance of money out of the consolidated fund

to a limited amount for carrying on public works and fisheries and

employment of the poor,” and any act or acts, amending or continuing the

same, may from time to time make to the burial board of any parish for

the purposes of this act any loan under the provisions of the recited

act, or the several acts therein recited or referred to, upon security

of the rates for the relief of the poor of the parish.

The money raised for defraying such expenses, and the income arising

from the burial ground provided for the parish, except fees payable to

the incumbent, clerk, and sexton of the parish, and the other fees

herein directed to be otherwise paid, shall be applied by the board in

or towards defraying the expenses of such board under this act; and

whenever, after repayment of all monies borrowed for the purposes of

this act in or for any parish, and the interest thereof, and after

satisfying all the liabilities of the board with reference to the

execution of this act in or for the parish, and providing such a balance

as shall be deemed by the board sufficient to meet their probable

liabilities during the then next year, there shall be at the time of

holding the meeting of the vestry at which the yearly report of the

auditors shall be produced, any surplus money at the disposal of the

board, they shall pay the same to the overseers, in aid of the rate for

the relief of the poor of the parish.

The vestries of any parishes which shall have respectively resolved to

provide burial grounds under this act, may concur in providing one

burial ground for the common use of such parishes, in such manner, not

inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as they shall mutually

agree; and may agree as to the proportions in which the expenses of such

burial ground shall be borne by such parishes, and the proportion for

each of such parishes of such expenses shall be chargeable upon and paid

out of the monies to be raised for the relief of the poor of the same

respective parish accordingly; and, according and subject to the terms

which shall have been so agreed on, the burial boards appointed for such

parishes respectively shall, for the purpose of providing and managing

such one burial ground, and taking and holding land for the same, act as

one joint burial board for all such parishes, and may have a joint

office, clerk, and officers, and all the provisions of this act shall

apply to such joint burial board accordingly; and the accounts and

vouchers of such board shall be examined and reported on by the auditors

of each of such parishes; and the surplus money at the disposal as

aforesaid of such board, shall be paid to the overseers of such parishes

respectively in the same proportions as those in which such parishes

shall be liable to such expenses.

For the more easy execution of the purposes of this act, the burial

board of every parish appointed under this act shall be a body

corporate, by the name of “The Burial Board for the Parish of ——, in the

County of ——,” and by that name shall have perpetual succession and a

common seal, and shall sue and be sued, and have power and authority

(without any licence in mortmain) to take, purchase, and hold land for

the purposes of this act; and where the burial boards of two or more

parishes act as, and form, one joint burial board for all such parishes

for the purposes aforesaid, such joint board shall for such purposes

only be a body corporate, by the name of “The Burial Board for the

Parishes of —— and ——, in the County of ——,” and by that name shall have

perpetual succession, and a common seal, and shall sue and be sued, and

have power and authority as aforesaid to take, purchase, and hold land

for the purposes of this act.

Every burial board shall, with all convenient speed, proceed to provide

a burial ground for the parish or parishes for which they are appointed

to act, and to make arrangements for facilitating interments therein;

and in providing such burial ground, the board shall have reference to

the convenience of access thereto from the parish or parishes for which

the same is provided; and any such burial ground may be provided either

within or without the limits of the parish, or all or any of the

parishes, for which the same is provided; but no ground not already used

as or appropriated for a cemetery, shall be appropriated as a burial

ground, or as an addition to a burial ground, under this act, nearer

than 200 yards to any dwelling house, without the consent in writing of

the owner, lessee, and occupier of such dwelling house.

For the providing such burial ground, it shall be lawful for the burial

board, with the approval of the vestry or vestries of the parish or

respective parishes, to contract for and purchase any lands for the

purpose of forming a burial ground, or for making additions to any

burial ground to be formed or purchased under this act, as such board

may think fit, or to purchase from any company or persons entitled

thereto any cemetery or cemeteries, or part or parts thereof, subject to

the rights in vaults and graves, and other subsisting rights, which may

have been previously granted therein: provided always that it shall be

lawful for such board, in lieu of providing any such burial ground, to

contract with any such company or persons entitled as aforesaid for the

interment in such cemetery or cemeteries, and either in any allotted

part of such cemetery or cemeteries or otherwise, and upon such terms as

the burial board may think fit, of the bodies of persons who would have

had rights of interment in the burial grounds of such parish or

respective parishes.

VIA MEDIA. The position occupied in the Christian world by the Anglican

Church. There are three parties at present dividing the kingdom—the

Church, the Romanist, the ultra-Protestant; of these the Church occupies

the middle, Romanism and ultra-Protestantism the extreme positions. Were

the Church withdrawn or forced from this central position, the two

extremes would soon collide in civil and religious contention and

rancour. The Church is the peace-preserving power in the home empire;

her advantages and resources in this respect are singularly her own. As

far as the Roman is a Church, she agrees with Rome: educated Romanists,

however much they regret the disunion of the sees of Rome and

Canterbury, respect her ecclesiastical and apostolic character. As far

as the renunciation of errors dangerous to salvation constitutes

Protestantism, she is thoroughly Protestant; learned and sober

Nonconformists, therefore, have always considered her as the bulwark of

the reformed religion. She possesses what Rome does not, to conciliate

the Nonconformist; she possesses what ultra-Protestantism does not, to

attract the esteem of the Roman Catholic. She has wherewith to

conciliate to herself these two extremes, totally irreconcileable with

each other. Were all religious parties in the realm to meet at this

moment to draw up a national form of Christianity consistent with both

Scripture and Catholic antiquity, the vast majority, we doubt not, would

conscientiously prefer the liturgy and articles of the Church to any

form or articles propounded by any one sect out of the Church. Without

the Church, again, ultra-Protestantism would prove but a rope of sand to

oppose the subtle machinations and united movement of the papal

hierarchy. With her, at peace with both, though not in communion with

either, these hostile schemes have as yet been prevented from committing

the nation to the horrors of intestine commotion. The statesman who

would undermine or debilitate this passive supremacy—for to all

aggressive or domineering purposes it is entirely passive—on the chance

that conflicting sects would extend to each other the mild toleration

which now under the Church all impartially enjoy, must have studied

religious passions and religious history to little profit.

The great mass of Protestant communities sends each individual to the

Bible alone; thence to collect, as it may happen, truth or falsehood, by

his own interpretation, or misinterpretation, and thence to measure the

most weighty and mysterious truths by the least peculiar and appropriate

passages of sacred Scripture. The Church of Rome sends her children

neither to the Bible alone, nor to tradition alone; nor yet to the Bible

and tradition conjointly, but to an infallible living expositor: which

expositor sometimes limits, and sometimes extends, and sometimes

contradicts, both the written word and the language of Christian

antiquity. The Church of England steers a middle course. She reveres the

Scripture: she respects tradition. She encourages investigation: but she

checks presumption. She bows to the authority of ages: but she owns no

living master upon earth. She rejects alike the wild extravagance of

unauthorized opinion, and the tame subjection of compulsory belief.

Where the Scripture clearly and freely speaks, she receives the dictates

as the voice of God. When Scripture is neither clear nor explicit, or

when it may demand expansion and illustration, she refers her sons to an

authoritative standard of interpretation, but a standard which it is

their privilege to apply for themselves. And when Scripture is

altogether silent, she provides a supplementary guidance: but a guidance

neither fluctuating nor arbitrary; the same in all times, and under all

circumstances; which no private interest can warp, and no temporary

prejudice can lead astray. Thus, her appeal is made to past ages,

against every possible error of the present. Thus, though the great mass

of Christendom, and even though the vast majority of our own national

Church, were to depart from the purity of Christian faith and practice,

yet no well-taught member of that Church needs hesitate or tremble. His

path is plain. It is not merely his own judgment, it is not by any means

the dictatorial mandate of an ecclesiastical director, which is to

silence his scruples, and dissolve his doubts. His resort is, that

concurrent, universal, and undeviating sense of pious antiquity, which

he has been instructed, and should be encouraged, to embrace, to follow,

and to revere.—_Bishop Jebb._

VIATICUM. The provision made for a journey. Hence, in the ancient

Church, both baptism and the eucharist were called _Viatica_, because

they were equally esteemed men’s necessary provision and proper armour,

both to sustain and conduct them safe on their way in their passage

through this world to eternal life. The administration of baptism is

thus spoken of by St. Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, as the giving to men

their viaticum or provision for their journey to another world; and

under this impression it was frequently delayed till the hour of death,

being esteemed as a final security and safeguard to future happiness.

More strictly, however, the term _viaticum_ denoted the eucharist given

to persons in immediate danger of death, and in this sense it is still

occasionally used. The 13th Canon of the Nicene Council ordains that

none “be deprived of his perfect and most necessary viaticum, when he

departs out of this life.” Several other canons of various councils are

to the same effect, providing also for the giving of the viaticum under

peculiar circumstances, as to persons in extreme weakness, delirium, or

subject to canonical discipline.

VICAR. In order to the due understanding of this office, as

distinguished from those of rector and perpetual curate, it will be

necessary to describe in this article the three several offices in their

order.

The appellation of _rector_ is synonymous with that of _parson_, which

latter term, although frequently used indiscriminately, as applicable

also to vicars and even curates, is, according to Blackstone, the most

legal, beneficial, and honourable title that a parish priest can enjoy.

Parson, in the legal signification, is taken for the rector of a church

parochial: he is said to be seised _in jure ecclesiæ_. Such an one, and

he only, is said _vicem seu personam ecclesiæ gerere_. He is called

parson (_persona_) because by his _person_ the Church, which is an

invisible body, is represented; and he is in himself a body corporate,

in order to protect and defend the rights of the Church (which he

personates) by a perpetual succession. And, as Lord Coke says, the law

had an excellent end therein, viz. that in his person the Church might

sue for and defend her right. A parson, therefore, is a corporation

sole, and has during his life the freehold in himself of the parsonage

house, the glebe, the tithe, and other dues.

But these are sometimes appropriated; that is to say, the benefice is

perpetually annexed to some spiritual corporation, either sole or

aggregate, being the patron of the living, which the law esteems equally

capable of providing for the service of the Church as any single private

clergyman. This contrivance seems to have sprung from the policy of the

monastic orders. At the first establishment of parochial clergy, the

tithes of the parish were distributed in a fourfold division: one for

the use of the bishop, another for maintaining the fabric of the church,

a third for the poor, and the fourth to provide for the incumbent. When

the sees of the bishops became otherwise amply endowed, they were

prohibited from demanding their usual share of these tithes, and the

division was into three parts only; and hence it was inferred by the

monasteries, that a small part was sufficient for the officiating

priest, and that the remainder might well be applied to the use of their

own fraternities, (the endowment of which was construed to be a work of

the most exalted piety,) subject to the burden of repairing the church,

and providing for its constant supply. And therefore they begged and

bought for masses and obits, and sometimes even for money, all the

advowsons within their reach, and then appropriated the benefices to the

use of their own corporation. But in order to complete such

appropriation effectually, the king’s licence and consent of the bishop

must first have been obtained; because both the king and the bishop may,

some time or other, have an interest, by lapse, in the presentation to

the benefice, which can never happen if it be appropriated to the use of

a corporation which never dies, and also because the law reposes a

confidence in them that they will not consent to anything that shall be

to the prejudice of the Church. The consent of the patron also is

necessarily implied, because (as was before observed) the appropriation

can be originally made to none but to such spiritual corporation as is

also the patron of the Church; the whole being, indeed, nothing else but

an allowance for the patrons to retain the tithes and glebe in their own

hands, without presenting any clerk, they themselves undertaking to

provide for the service of the church.

The terms _appropriation_ and _impropriation_ are now so commonly used

indiscriminately, that it has become almost unnecessary to mention the

distinction between them; but _appropriation_, in contradistinction to

impropriation, means the annexing a benefice to the proper and perpetual

use of some spiritual corporation either sole or aggregate, being the

patron of a living, which is bound to provide for the service of the

church, and thereby becomes perpetual incumbent, the whole appropriation

being only an allowance for the spiritual patrons to retain the tithes

and glebe in their own hands, without presenting any clerk, they

themselves undertaking to provide for the service of the church; while

_impropriation_ is supposed to be properly used when the profits of the

benefice are held in lay hands, as being _improperly_ so. But, in truth,

the correctness of the distinction, even originally, seems doubtful:

they are used as synonymous in statutes in the times of Elizabeth, of

Mary, and of Charles II.; and even prior to the Reformation, in a

petition to parliament in the time of Henry VIII., the term used is

“impropried.” Both terms were borrowed from the form of the grant, “_in

proprios usus_,” and they are peculiar or principally confined to this

country. Blackstone says, that appropriations can be made to this day;

upon which Mr. Christian observes, “It cannot be supposed that at this

day the inhabitants of a parish, who had been accustomed to pay their

tithes to their officiating minister, could be compelled to transfer

them to an ecclesiastical corporation, to which they might be perfect

strangers,” and that “there probably have been no new appropriations

since the dissolution of monasteries.” Upon this same proposition, Mr.

Justice Coleridge observes, alluding to the opinion of Mr. Christian,

“The truth of this position has been questioned, and the doubt is not

likely to be solved by any judicial decision. But I am not aware of any

principle which should prevent an impropriation from being now legally

made, supposing the spiritual corporation already seised of the advowson

of the church, or enabled to take it by grant. The power of the king and

the bishop remain undiminished.”

This appropriation may be severed, and the church become disappropriate,

in two ways; as, first, if the patron or appropriator presents a clerk,

who is instituted and inducted to the parsonage; for the incumbent so

instituted and inducted is, to all intents and purposes, completed

parson: and the appropriation, being once severed, can never be

re-united again, unless by a repetition of the same solemnities. And

when the clerk so presented is distinct from the vicar, the rectory thus

vested in him becomes what is called a _sinecure_, because he had no

cure of souls, having a vicar under him, to whom that cure is committed.

Also, if the corporation which has the appropriation is dissolved, the

parsonage becomes disappropriate at common law; because the perpetuity

of person is gone, which is necessary to support the appropriation.

These sinecure rectories here spoken of had their origin in the

following manner: The rector, with proper consent, had a power to

entitle a vicar in his church to officiate under him, and this was often

done; and by this means two persons were instituted to the same church,

and both to the cure of souls, and both did actually officiate. So that

however the rectors of sinecures, by having been long excused from

residence, are in common opinion discharged from the cure of souls,

(which is the reason of the name,) and however the cure is said in the

law books to be in them _habitualiter_ only, yet, in strictness, and

with regard to their original institution, the cure is in them

_actualiter_, as much as it is in the vicar, that is to say, where they

come in by institution; but if the rectory is a donative, the case is

otherwise; for coming in by donation, they have not the cure of souls

committed to them. And these are most properly sinecures, according to

the genuine signification of the word.

But no church, where there is but one incumbent, is properly a sinecure.

If indeed the church be down, or the parish become destitute of

parishioners, without which Divine offices cannot be performed, the

incumbent is of necessity acquitted from all public duty; but still he

is under an obligation of doing this duty whenever there shall be a

competent number of inhabitants, and the church shall be rebuilt. And

these benefices are more properly depopulations than sinecures.

But sinecure rectors and rectories are now in the course of gradual

suppression, and will soon have entirely passed away; for it is declared

by the stat. 3 & 4 Vict. c. 113, that all ecclesiastical rectories,

without cure of souls, in the sole patronage of her Majesty, or of any

ecclesiastical corporation, aggregate or sole, where there shall be a

vicar endowed or a perpetual curate, shall, as to all such rectories as

may be vacant at the passing of that act, immediately upon its so

passing, and as to all others immediately upon the vacancies thereof

respectively, be _suppressed_; and that as to any such ecclesiastical

rectory without cure of souls, the advowson whereof, or any right of

patronage wherein, shall belong to any person or persons, or body

corporate, other than as aforesaid, the ecclesiastical commissioners for

England shall be authorized and empowered to purchase and accept

conveyance of such advowson or right of patronage, as the case may be,

at and for such price or sum as may be agreed upon between them and the

owner or owners of such advowson or right of patronage, and may pay the

purchase money, and the expenses of and attendant upon such purchase,

out of the common fund in their hands; and that after the completion of

such purchase of any such rectory, and upon the first avoidance thereof,

the same shall be suppressed; and that upon the suppression of any such

rectory as aforesaid, all ecclesiastical patronage, belonging to the

rector thereof as such rector, shall be absolutely transferred to, and

be vested in, the original patron or patrons of such rectory.

The office of _vicar_, as distinct from that of rector, would

sufficiently appear from what has been already said of the latter. The

vicar was originally little more than a stipendiary curate of the

present day, being a minister deputed or substituted by the spiritual

corporation, who held the revenues of the benefice, to perform the

ecclesiastical duties in their stead. Usually, though not always, he was

one of their own body; and his stipend was entirely at their discretion,

and he was removable at their caprice. The evil results of such a

practice are apparent; and an effectual attempt to arrest the evil was

made by a statute in the reign of Richard II.; but this was found to be

insufficient; and accordingly it was enacted by statute 4 Henry IV. c.

12, that the vicar should be a secular ecclesiastic; perpetual; not

removable at the caprice of the monastery; that he should be canonically

instituted and inducted; that he should be sufficiently endowed at the

discretion of the ordinary to do Divine service, to inform the people,

and to keep hospitality. It is under this latter statute, therefore,

that our vicarages in their present form came into existence, and the

endowments of them have usually been by a portion of the glebe or land

belonging to the parsonage; and a particular share of the tithes which

the appropriators found it most troublesome to collect, and which are

therefore generally called privy or small tithes, the greater or prœdial

tithes being still reserved to their own use. But one and the same rule

was not observed in the endowment of all vicarages. Hence some are more

liberally, and some more scantily, endowed; and hence the tithes of many

things, as wood in particular, are in some parishes rectorial, and in

some, vicarial tithes.

The distinction, therefore, between a rector and a vicar, at the present

day, is this, that the rector has generally the whole right to all the

ecclesiastical dues within his parish; the vicar is entitled only to a

certain portion of those profits, the best part of which are absorbed by

the appropriator, to whom, if appropriations had continued as in their

origin, he would in effect be perpetual curate with a fixed salary.

The parson, and not the patron of the parsonage, is of common right the

patron of the vicarage. The parson, by making the endowment, acquires

the patronage of the vicarage. For, in order to the appropriation of a

parsonage, the inheritance of the advowson was to be transferred to the

corporation to which the church was to be appropriated; and then the

vicarage being derived out of the parsonage, the parson, of common

right, must be patron thereof. So that if the parson makes a lease of

the parsonage, (without making a special reservation to himself of the

right of presenting to the vicarage,) the patronage of the vicarage

passeth as incident to it. But it was held in the 21 James I., that the

parishioners may prescribe for the choice of a vicar. And before that,

in the 16 James I., in the case of _Shirley_ and _Underhill_, it was

declared by the court, that though the advowson of the vicarage of

common right is appendant to the rectory, yet it may be appendant to a

manor, as having been reserved specially upon the appropriation.

And if there be a vicar and parson appropriate, the ordinary and parson

appropriate may, in time of vacation of the vicarage, reunite the

vicarage to the parsonage.

From what has been already observed of the distinction between rector

and vicar, it will be easy to anticipate what remains to be said of a

_perpetual curate_; for a perpetual curate is, in many things, in the

same position as was a vicar previous to the statute of Henry IV. before

mentioned. The fact is, that certain cases were exempted from the

operation of that statute; for if the benefice was given _ad mensam

monachorum_, and so not appropriated in the common form, but granted by

way of union _pleno jure_, it was allowed to be served by a curate of

their own house, consequently not a secular ecclesiastic; and the like

exemption from the necessity of appointing a vicar was sometimes also

granted by dispensation, or on account of the nearness of the church.

At the dissolution of the monasteries, when appropriations were

transferred from spiritual societies through the king to single lay

persons, to them also, for the most part, was transferred the

appointment of the vicars in the parishes where they were the

appropriators, and in places where, by means of exemptions, there was no

regularly endowed vicar; and as they were appropriators of the whole

ecclesiastical dues, the charge of providing for the cure was laid on

them; for neither in fact, nor in presumption of law, nor

_habitualiter_, could a lay rector as such have cure of souls; they were

consequently obliged to nominate some particular person to the ordinary

for his licence to serve the cure; and such curates thus licensed became

perpetual, in the same manner as vicars had been before, not removable

at the caprice of the appropriator, but only by due revocation of the

licence of the ordinary.

A perpetual curacy was formerly adjudged not to be an ecclesiastical

benefice, so that it was tenable with any other benefice; but now

perpetual curacies are expressly declared to be benefices within the

meaning of that word in the Benefices Pluralities Act, and a perpetual

curate is consequently liable to its restrictions in the same manner as

any other incumbent; and it has been recently determined that perpetual

curates, or their representatives, are liable to be sued in an action

for dilapidations in the same manner as other incumbents.

In some cases it might be a matter of considerable difficulty to

determine whether a place is a perpetual curacy or a chapelry only; and

the more so, since, for most practical purposes, the question would be

quite immaterial, and therefore less likely to have been judicially

determined; but as an aid in deciding certain other questions which

might arise, it might be important: and the following are the rules laid

down by Lord Hardwicke for determining whether it is a perpetual curacy

or not.

To determine this, he says, “consider it first as to the rights and

privileges appearing to belong to the chapel itself; next, as to the

right of the inhabitants within the district; thirdly, as to the rights

and dues belonging to the curate of the chapelry. If all these rights

concur to show the nature of a perpetual curacy, that must determine it.

“As to the first consideration, it appears this is a chapel belonging to

a country town. It has belonging to it all sorts of parochial rights, as

clerk, warden, &c., all rights of performing Divine service, baptism,

sepulture, &c., which is very strong evidence of itself that this is not

barely a chapel of ease to the parish to which it belongs, but stands on

its own foundation, _capella parochialis_, as it is called in Hobart;

and this differs it greatly from the chapels in London, which are barely

chapels of ease, commencing within time of memory, which have not

baptism or sepulture; all which sort of rights belong to the

mother-church, and the rector or vicar of the parish, who has the cure

of souls, has the nomination, as the rector of St. James’s or St.

Martin’s has, but they have no parochial rights, which clearly belong to

this chapel. Nor have any of the inhabitants of this chapelry a right to

bury in the parish church of Northop, and that right of sepulture is the

most strong circumstance, as appears from 3 Selden’s History, Tithes,

fol. column 1212, to show that it differs not from a parish church.

“The next circumstance to determine this question is the right of the

inhabitants, viz. to have service performed there, and baptism and

christening, and having no right to resort to the parish church of

Northop for these purposes, nor to any other place, if not here; nor are

they or have they been rateable to the parish church of Northop. It was

determined in the case of _Castle Birmidge_, Hob. 66, that the having a

chapel of ease will not exempt the inhabitants within that district from

contributing to repairs of the mother-church, unless it was by

prescription, which would then be a strong foundation, that it must be

considered as a curacy or chapelry.

“Next, as to the rights and dues of the curate. All these concur to show

it to be a perpetual curacy, and not at all at the will and pleasure of

the vicar; for the curate has always enjoyed the small tithes and

surplice fees, nor is there any evidence to show that the vicar has

received the small tithes.”

A nomination to a perpetual curacy may be by parol. “Most regularly,”

Lord Hardwicke says, “it ought to be in writing;” but, he adds, “I do

not know that it has been determined that it is necessary. A

presentation to a church need not be in writing, but may be by parol; if

so, I do not see why a nomination to a perpetual curacy may not be by

parol.”

A perpetual curate has an interest for life in his curacy, in the same

manner and as fully as a rector or vicar; that is to say, he can only be

deprived by the ordinary, and that in proper course of law; and, as Lord

Hardwicke observes, it would be a contradiction in terms to say that a

perpetual curate is removable at will and pleasure.

The ministers of the new churches of separate parishes, ecclesiastical

districts, consolidated chapelries, and district chapelries, are

perpetual curates, so that they are severally bodies politic and

corporate, with perpetual succession, and consequently may accept grants

made to them and their successors; and they are to be licensed and to be

removable in the same manner as other perpetual curates. This is also

the case with those ministers who are appointed to new districts or

parishes under the Church Endowment Act; and as licence operates to all

such ministers in the same manner as institution would in the case of a

presentative benefice, it would render voidable any other livings which

such ministers might hold, in the same manner as institution.

VICARS CHORAL. The assistants or deputies of the canons or prebendaries

of collegiate churches, in the discharge of their duties, especially,

though not exclusively, those performed in the choir or chancel, as

distinguished from those belonging to the altar and pulpit.

The vicars choral, as their name implies, were originally appointed as

the deputies of the canons and prebendaries for Church purposes; that

is, to provide for the absence or incapacity of the great body of

capitular members: the clerical vicars to chant in rotation the prayers

at matins and evening, &c., and the whole body to form a sufficient and

permanent choir for the performance of the daily service; a duty which

the canons were originally required to perform in person. The

presbyteral members were usually four, being the vicars of the four

dignitaries, _personæ principales_ (see _Persona_). Sometimes they were

five; the rest were deacons, and in minor orders, in later times chiefly

laymen.

This institution was most salutary; since, were every canon required to

have the peculiar qualifications required from vicars, viz. a practical

knowledge of ecclesiastical music, men of more essential and higher

qualities would of necessity be often excluded from the canonical

stalls. In fact, the appointment of deacons and inferior ministers to

this peculiar office, which we do not find established till the

beginning of the fourth century, (i. e. the κανονικοὶ ψαλταὶ, vide

_Bingham_, iii. 7,) bears a striking analogy to the regulation of the

Jewish temple; where some of the Levites, the deacons of the elder

Church, were newly appointed by David to the musical service....

Originally the vicars choral were commensurate with the capitular

members, each of these having a vicar, appointed by himself, and holding

his place only so long as his principal lived. The numbers have now

greatly diminished. At York, they were at one time, 36; at Lincoln, 25;

at Hereford, 20. At St. Patrick’s each vicar is still denominated from a

dignitary or prebendary, twenty-six in number; but one vicar is in many

instances the representative of two stalls; and he is designated from

both, as “the prebendary of A and B, vicar.”

In all cathedrals of the old foundation in England, and in Ireland,

where there were choirs, the vicars choral formed a minor corporation,

in some way under the control of the dean or chapter, but with separate

estates, with collegiate buildings, halls, chapels, some of which still

subsist. Those at Hereford were incorporated in the 15th century, those

at Exeter in Henry IV.’s time. At Southwell they formerly formed a

college, till the Reformation. These presidents were styled custos, or

warden, subdean, subchanter, provost, or procurator. In Ireland, but

twelve of the cathedrals have had foundations for vicars choral, as far

as any record remains, and in some of these their very sufficient

endowments had been suffered by a long course of neglect and abuse to be

diverted from their original purpose, and were a few years ago alienated

by law.—A better spirit has happily arisen of late years.—In Scotland it

does not appear that vicars choral were attached to all cathedrals.

Bishop Elphinston endowed twenty vicars choral or minor canons at

Aberdeen, in 1506; at Glasgow, vicars of the choir were founded in 1455;

Elgin cathedral modelled on that of Lincoln, in 1224, had twenty-two

vicars choral, commensurate with the chapter.

In cathedrals of the new foundation, the term vicar choral was generally

superseded by that of _Minor Canon_ for the clergy, and _Lay-clerk_ for

the laity. (See _Minor Canon_.)

The term was occasionally used in a less strict sense, to signify a

choral priest or chaplain. Thus the church of St. Nicholas in Galway was

founded in 1501, for a warden and eight vicars choral, (or singing

vicars, as they were sometimes called,) who served that church. The

corporation is styled in some ancient documents, _Wardianus et

Capitulum_. A few vicars are still maintained, who serve the church in

turn, but discharge no choral duty.

In all foreign cathedrals, there are inferior choral members, though the

designations vary much; they consist of priests, deacons, clergy of the

inferior orders, and laymen.—See _Jebb on Choral Service_.

VICAR GENERAL. An ecclesiastical officer, who assists the bishop in the

discharge of his office, as in ecclesiastical causes and visitations;

much the same as the chancellor. The archbishop of Canterbury has his

vicar general; and this is the designation of the bishop’s principal

official in Ireland, where the diocesan title of chancellor is unknown.

In the reign of Henry VIII., when the rejection of papal usurpation led

for a time to a recoil of a very Erastian character, Thomas Cromwell,

afterwards Earl of Essex, was appointed the king’s vicar general,

vicegerent, and special and principal commissary; with powers of

visitation and correction over all the spirituality; an anomalous

office, which could not exist but in times of confusion.—Vide _Collin’s

Eccl. History, and Cromwell’s Commission in_ vol. ii., _Appendix_, p.

21.

VICAR PENSIONARY. Certain clergymen appointed at a fixed stipend to

serve churches, the titles of which belonged to a collegiate foundation:

as at St. Salvador’s College, St. Andrews.—Vide _Lyons’ History of St.

Andrews_.

VICE-DEAN, or SUBDEAN. In cathedrals of the new foundation, one of the

canons is annually chosen to represent the dean in his absence; and as

such he ranks next to him in the choir and chapter.

VIDAME: _Vicedominus_. The vicegerent, or official of a bishop in

temporals. A dignitary in a few foreign cathedrals is thus called: a

sort of subdean.

VIGIL. The night or evening before certain holy-days of the Church. In

former times it was customary to have religious services on these eves,

and sometimes to spend a great part of the night in prayer and other

devotions, to qualify the soul for the better observance of the festival

itself on the morrow. These nights thus spent were called _vigils_ or

_watchings_, and are still professedly observed in the Church of

England.

This term originated in a custom of the early Christians, who fasted and

watched the whole night previous to any great festival; hence _Vigiliæ_,

Vigils, or watchings, from _Vigilo_, to watch.—As a military custom this

was most ancient. The Jews seem originally to have divided the night

into three watches; but in the New Testament we read of “the fourth

watch of the night,” (Mark vi. 48,) a custom, perhaps, introduced by

their conquerors, the Romans, who divided their night into four vigils.

The primitive Christians might have been inclined to this custom from

various references to it in the Gospel; particularly in the close of the

parable of the ten virgins; though it is not improbable that the secrecy

with which they were obliged to meet, “for fear of the Jews,” (John xx.

19,) and other persecutors, went far towards establishing it. This, like

many other innocent or necessary ceremonies, having been at length

abused, the nocturnal vigils were abolished, about the year 420, and

turned into evening fasts, preparatory to the principal festival. But it

appears that a vigil was observed on All Hallows Day, by watching and

ringing of bells all night long, even till the year 1545, when Henry

VIII., in his letter to Cranmer, as to “creeping to the cross,” &c.,

desired it might be abolished.

It is not every festival which has a vigil preceding it. Those appointed

by the Church are as follows:—

Before the Nativity of our LORD.

the Purification and Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.

Easter Day.

Ascension Day.

Pentecost.

St. Matthias.

St. John Baptist.

St. Peter.

St. James.

St. Bartholomew.

St. Matthew.

St. Simon and St. Jude.

St. Thomas.

St. Andrew.

All Saints.

It has been given as a reason why the other holy-days have no vigils

before them, that they generally happened between Christmas and the

Purification, or between Easter and Whitsuntide, seasons of joy which

the Church did not think fit to break into by fasting and

humiliation.—See fully on this subject, _Wheatly on the Common Prayer_.

VIRGIN MARY. (See _Mariolatry_ and _Mother of God_.) The mother of our

Blessed LORD and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST. What follows is from the

celebrated Bishop Bull. “She was of all the women, of all the virgins in

Israel, elected and chosen by GOD to be the instrument of bringing into

the world the long-desired MESSIAS. All the virtuous daughters of Jacob,

a good while before the revelation of our SAVIOUR, but especially in the

age when he appeared, (the time wherein they saw the more punctual and

remarkable prophecies concerning the coming of the MESSIAS fulfilled,)

desired, and were not without hopes, each of them, that they might have

had this honour done unto them. But it was granted to none of all these

holy women and virgins, but to the Virgin Mary. And therefore ‘all

generations shall call her blessed.’

“The Blessed Virgin Mary was the only woman that took off the stain and

dishonour of her sex, by being the instrument of bringing that into the

world, which should repair and make amends for the loss and damage

brought to mankind by the transgression of the first woman, Eve. By a

woman, as the principal cause, we were first undone; and by a woman, as

an instrument under GOD, a Saviour and a Redeemer is born to us. And the

Blessed Virgin Mary is that woman. Hence Irenæus, in his fifth book,

makes a comparison between the virgin Eve, (for such the ancients

believed her to be till after her transgression,) and the Virgin Mary.

‘_Seductionem illam solutam_,’ &c., i. e. ‘That seduction being

dissolved, whereby the virgin Eve designed for man was unhappily

seduced; the Virgin Mary, espoused to man, by the truth, happily

received the glad tidings from an angel. For as the former was seduced

by the speech of an angel to flee from GOD, having transgressed his

commandments: so the latter, by the word also of an angel, received the

good news, _ut portaret_ DEUM, that she should bear GOD within her,

being obedient to his word. And as the former was seduced to flee from

GOD, so the latter was persuaded to obey GOD. So that the Virgin Mary

became the comforter of the virgin Eve.’ Where the last words of the

holy martyr are grossly misinterpreted by the Latin translator, and have

given to the Papists to conclude from them, that Eve was saved by the

intercession of the Virgin Mary. A most absurd conceit, unworthy of the

learned and holy Father, or indeed of any man else of common sense; for

who knows not that Eve was past all need of intercession, before ever

the Blessed Mary could be capable of making intercession for her?

Doubtless the Greek word used by Irenæus here was παράκλητος, which, as

it signifies ‘an advocate,’ so it also as frequently signifies ‘a

comforter,’ and so ought to have been rendered here. But, you will say,

how did Eve receive comfort from the Blessed Virgin Mary? I answer, in

that gracious promise delivered by GOD himself in the sentence passed on

the serpent, after Eve’s seduction by him, where it is said, ‘that the

seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head.’ Every man now knows

that the seed there spoken of is CHRIST; and, consequently, that the

individual woman, whose immediate seed he was to be, is the Blessed

Virgin Mary. The holy Virgin was the happy instrument of the saving

incarnation of the SON of GOD, who hath effectually crushed the old

serpent, the devil, and destroyed his power over all those that believe

on himself, and thereby she became the instrument of comfort to Eve and

all other sinners. This is certainly all the good Father intended by

that expression.

“The Blessed Virgin was consecrated to be a temple of the Divinity in a

singular manner. For the eternal SON of GOD, by an ineffable

conjunction, united himself to that human nature, which was miraculously

conceived and formed in her, even whilst it was within her; and so he

that was born of her, at the very time that he was born of her, was

Θεανθρωπος, GOD and Man. O astonishing condescension of the SON of GOD!

O wonderful advancement of the Blessed Virgin! and therefore we daily

sing in our Te Deum, ‘Thou art the King of Glory, O CHRIST; Thou art the

everlasting SON of the FATHER. When thou tookest upon thee to deliver

man, thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb.’ Upon which account, the

fathers of the third General Council at Ephesus, convened against

Nestorius, approved the title of Θιοτοκος, ‘the Mother of GOD,’ given to

the Blessed Virgin.”

A little afterwards he says, “I will mention some few instances of

extravagant honour which the Papists give, but which we of the Church of

England utterly refuse to yield to the Blessed Virgin, out of a true

zeal to the honour of GOD.

“We will not give her lavish and excessive attributes, beyond what the

Holy Scriptures allow her, and the holy men of the primitive Church

afforded her. We will call her ‘blessed,’ as the mother of our LORD in

the sense above explained. But we dare not call her ‘queen of heaven,’

‘queen of angels, patriarchs, prophets, and apostles,’ ‘source of the

fountain of grace,’ ‘refuge of sinners,’ ‘comfort of the afflicted,’

‘advocate of all Christians,’ as she is called in that Litany of our

Lady, still used in their devotions. For we have no instance of such

attributes given to the Blessed Virgin in the Holy Scriptures, and they

are too big for any mere creature.

“We will not ascribe those excellencies to her that she never had nor

could have; as a fulness of habitual grace, more grace than all the

angels and archangels of GOD put together ever had; that she was born

without original sin, and never committed any the least actual sin, and

consequently, never needed a saviour. These are wild things, which very

many of the Papists, drunk with superstition, say of her.

“We will not give her the honour of invocation, or praying to her, as

all the Papists do, for the unanswerable reasons above mentioned.

Indeed, as long as that one text of Scripture remains in our Bibles,

which we read, (1 Tim. ii. 5,) ‘There is one GOD, and one Mediator

between GOD and men, the Man CHRIST JESUS,’ we shall never be persuaded,

by any sophistry or subtle distinctions of our adversaries, to betake

ourselves to the mediation of the Blessed Virgin, much less of any other

saint. Much more do we abhor the impiety of those among the Papists, who

have held it disputable, whether the milk of the Blessed Virgin, or the

blood of her Son, be to be preferred; and at last could pitch upon no

better resolution than this, that the milk and blood should be mixed

together, and both compound a medicine for their souls.

“We abhor to divide the Divine kingdom and empire, giving one-half, the

better half, the kingdom of mercy, to the Blessed Virgin, and leaving

only the kingdom of justice to her Son. This is downright treason

against the only universal King and Monarch of the world.

“We are astonished at the doxology which some great and learned men of

the Church of Rome have not been ashamed to close their printed books

with, ‘_Laus DEO Deiparæque Virgini_:’ ‘Praise be to GOD, and the

Virgin-mother.’

“We should tremble every joint of us, to offer any such recommendation

as this to the Virgin Mary. Hear, if you can without horror, a prayer of

theirs to her. It is this: ‘O my Lady, holy Mary, I recommend myself

into thy blessed trust and singular custody, and into the bosom of thy

mercy, this night and evermore, and in the hour of my death, as also my

soul and my body; and I yield unto thee all my hope and consolation, all

my distress and misery, my life and the end thereof, that by thy most

holy intercession, and by thy merits, all my works may be directed and

disposed, according to thine and thy SON’S will. Amen.’ What fuller

expressions can we use to declare our absolute affiance, trust, and

dependence on the eternal SON of GOD himself, than they here use in this

recommendation to the Virgin? Yea, who observes not, that the will of

the Blessed Virgin is expressly joined with the will of her SON, as the

rule of our actions, and that so as that her will is set in the first

place. A plain smatch of their old blasphemous impiety, in advancing the

Mother above the Son, and giving her a commanding power over him. Can

they have the face to say, that all this is no more than desiring the

Blessed Virgin to pray for them, as we desire the prayers of one another

on earth? And yet this recommendation is to be seen in a Manual of

Prayers and Litanies, printed at Antwerp no longer ago than 1671, and

that _permissu superiorum_, in the Evening Prayers for Friday. A book it

is, to my knowledge, commonly to be found in the hands of our English

Papists; for I had it from a near relation of mine, (who had been

perverted by the emissaries of Rome, but is since returned again to the

communion of the Church of England,) who assured me that she used it

herself, by the direction of her confessor, in her private devotions.”

No instance of Divine honour paid to Mary (remarks Coleman from Augusti)

is recorded of an earlier date than the fifth century. Cyril of

Alexandria, and Proklus of Constantinople, were the first to pay these

honours to her. Festivals to her memory began to be held about the year

431, but were not generally observed until the sixth century. From this

time until the sixteenth century, they were general in all the Western

Churches, though differing in number and in rank, in the several

countries of Europe. The Greek Church observes only three great

festivals of this description.

The following is a brief enumeration of the principal festivals in

question.

1. The festival of the Purification. Candlemas, Feb. 2, instituted in

the sixth century.

2. Of the Annunciation, popularly styled Lady Day, March 25th, an early

festival, styled by St. Bernhard, _radix omnium festorum_.

3. Of the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, instituted by Urban VI. 1389.

4. Of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, Aug. 15th, early instituted.

Mary was the tutelary divinity of France; and for this reason this day

was observed with peculiar care. It was also the birthday of Napoleon,

and accordingly was observed under his dynasty as the great festival of

the nation.

5. Of the Nativity of Mary, Sept. 8th, instituted in the Eastern Church

in the seventh century; in the Western, in the eleventh or twelfth.

6. Of the Naming of Mary, A. D. 1513.

7. Of Conception. This feast, according to Bellarmine, was not

necessarily dependent upon the question so fiercely discussed in the

twelfth and thirteenth centuries respecting the immaculate conception.

VISITATION. This is that office which is performed by the bishop usually

once in three years, or by his archdeacon every year, by visiting the

churches throughout the diocese. It is the duty of a commissary to

summon the churchwardens and sidesmen to a visitation, but he has no

authority to summon any other persons; but if he does summon those

persons, and they, refusing to appear, should be excommunicated for this

contempt, a prohibition would be granted. (_Noy_, 122.) Two things are

requisite in these visitations: 1st, The charge. 2nd, The inquiry. The

charge consists of such things as the visitor thinks proper to impart to

the clergy; but usually it is to put them in mind of their duty, and to

persuade them to perform it. The inquiry formerly consisted of several

articles taken out of the canons; and the bishop’s visitation being

accounted an episcopal synod, there were at that time certain persons

who attended it, and who were called _Testes Synodales_, or _Juratores

Synodi_, and they were to present those who were negligent in performing

religious offices, or any irregularities amongst the clergy, both in

respect to their morals and behaviour, and likewise all dilapidations,

and generally what they found to be amiss in the diocese. The bishop at

first exercised this jurisdiction alone; it was what was implied in his

very office; and this he was to do in every parish throughout his

diocese once a year, there to examine the minister and the people, which

he might do with more ease at that time, because parish churches were

not so numerous then as afterwards. When this was disused, then

ecclesiastical persons were to be assembled in a certain place, and

inquiry was made, upon oath, concerning the state of the clergy, and at

this place they were all bound to appear.

Afterwards, when bishops came to be ministers of state, and to attend

the courts of kings, which began in the Norman reigns, then archdeacons

were vested with this jurisdiction under the bishops, and visited in

those years wherein the bishops did not. But still the bishops were to

visit once in three years, and being then the king’s barons and

statesmen, they came with very great equipage, insomuch that, by the

Council of Lateran, their number was limited according to their

qualities, viz. if the visitor was an archbishop, he was not to have

above fifty horses in his retinue; if a bishop, he was not to exceed

thirty; if a cardinal, then twenty-five; if an archdeacon, he was to

have no more than seven, and a dean but two; and if they respectively

exceeded those numbers, then no procuration was due for the maintenance

of the supernumeraries. But even this was very chargeable to the

parochial clergy, for the visitor was to be maintained at their expense

a day and night in every parish; and, therefore, it was thought fit to

turn that charge into a certain sum, which is now called procurations,

and this is paid to archdeacons in that very year wherein bishops visit,

for it is by some affirmed to be due to them _ratione officii_; and some

say it is due to them by virtue of the statute of 33 Henry VIII. c. 5,

by which these duties are made pensions. The first of these opinions is

contrary to several canons, which not only enjoin personal visitations,

but expressly forbid any procurations to be paid where the archdeacon

himself did not visit in person. But notwithstanding those canons,

custom has so far prevailed, that the archdeacons receive these fees in

the bishop’s triennials, when they do not visit in person; but instead

of that they hold two chapters about Easter and Michaelmas, and there,

by themselves or their officials, they formally inquire into the state

and condition of the Church, which inquiry is now called a visitation,

and for which they are entitled to these fees.

Visitation, as commonly understood, denotes the act of the bishop, or

other ordinary, going his circuit through his diocese or district, with

a full power of inquiry into such matters as relate to church government

and discipline. By the canon law visitations were to be once a year, but

that was intended of parochial visitations, or a personal repairing to

every church, as appears not only from the assignment of procurations,

but also by the indulgence, where every church cannot be conveniently

repaired to, of calling together the clergy and laity from several parts

into one convenient place, that the visitation of them may not be

postponed. From this indulgence and the great extent of the dioceses

grew the custom of citing the clergy and people to attend visitations at

particular places. But as to parochial visitation, or the inspection

into the fabrics, mansions, utensils, and ornaments of the church, that

care has long devolved upon the archdeacons, who, at their first

institutions in the ancient church, were only to attend the bishops at

their ordination and other public services in the cathedral, but being

afterwards occasionally employed by them in the exercise of

jurisdiction, not only the work of parochial visitation, but also the

holding of general synods or visitations, when the bishop did not visit,

came by degrees to be known and established branches of the archdiaconal

office as such, which by this means attained to the dignity of ordinary,

instead of delegated jurisdiction; and by these degrees came on the

present practice of triennial visitations by bishops; so as the bishop

is not only not obliged by law to visit annually, but is actually

restrained from it.

“By the 137th canon it is enjoined, that forasmuch as a chief and

principal cause and use of visitation is, that the bishop, archdeacon,

or other assigned to visit, may get some knowledge of the state,

sufficiency, and ability of the clergy and other persons whom they are

to visit, we think it convenient that every parson, vicar, curate,

schoolmaster, or other person licensed whatsoever, do at the bishop’s

first visitation, or at the next visitation after his admission, show

and exhibit unto him his letters of orders, institution, and induction,

and all other his dispensations, licenses, of faculties whatsoever, to

be by the said bishop either allowed or (if there be just cause)

disallowed and rejected, and, being by him approved, to be (as the

custom is) signed by the registrar, and that the whole fees accustomed

to be paid in the visitations in respect of the premises, be paid only

once in the whole time of every bishop, and afterwards but half of the

said accustomed fees in every other visitation during the said bishop’s

continuance.”

Gibson says, that none but the bishop or other person exercising

ecclesiastical authority by commission from him, has right _de jure

communi_ to require these exhibits of the clergy; therefore, if the

archdeacon require it, it must be on the foot of custom, the beginning

whereof, he says, has probably been encroachment, since it is not likely

that any bishop should give to the archdeacon and his official a power

of allowing or disallowing such instruments as have been granted by

himself or his predecessors. The canon last mentioned appears to be in

observance now, for it is the practice for each clergyman to exhibit

these letters of orders, &c. on his first attendance at the bishop’s

visitation, and on the first appointment to an office, &c. in any

diocese, as well as upon several other occasions.

By a constitution of Othobon it is ordained, that archdeacons visit the

churches profitably and faithfully by inquiring of the sacred vessels

and vestments, and how the service is performed, and generally of

temporals and spirituals, and what they find to want correction that

they correct diligently. And it was further ordained by this, as well as

by other constitutions, that they should not extort money by giving

sentence unjustly.

By a constitution of Archbishop Reynolds, it was enjoined that

archdeacons and their officials in the visitation of churches have a

diligent regard of the fabric of the church, and especially of the

chancel, to see if they want repair; and if they find any defects of

that kind, limit a certain time under a penalty within which they shall

be repaired.

By a constitution of Archbishop Langton, archdeacons in their visitation

are to see that the offices of the church are duly administered, and

shall take an account in writing of all the ornaments and utensils of

churches, and of the vestments and books, and shall require them to be

presented before them every year, that they may see what has been added

and what lost.

It is said that the archdeacon, although there be not a cause, may visit

once a year; and if there be a cause, he may visit oftener; and that

where it is said in the canon law, he ought to visit from three years to

three years, this is to be understood so that he shall visit from three

years to three years of necessity, but that he may visit every year if

he will.

At these archdiaconal visitations the churchwardens are to make

presentments; and though their duty in that particular has become in

practice, to a great extent, obsolete, yet it may be well to state the

law of the Church upon the subject. The following canons relate to these

presentments.

Canon 113. “Because it often cometh to pass, that churchwardens,

sidemen, questmen, and such other persons of the laity as are to take

care for the suppressing of sin and wickedness, as much as in them

lieth, by admonition, reprehension, and denunciation to their

ordinaries, do forbear to discharge their duties therein, either through

fear of their superiors, or through negligence, more than were fit, the

licentiousness of these times considered, we do ordain, that hereafter

every parson and vicar, or in the lawful absence of any parson and

vicar, then their curates and substitutes, may join in every presentment

with the said churchwardens, sidemen, and the rest above mentioned, at

the times of visitation, if they the said churchwardens and the rest

will present such enormities as are apparent in the parish; or if they

will not, then every such parson and vicar, or, in their absence as

aforesaid, their curates, may themselves present to their ordinaries at

such times, and when else they think it meet, all such crimes as they

have in charge or otherwise, as by them (being the persons that should

have the chief care for the suppressing of sin and impiety in their

parishes) shall be thought to require due reformation. Provided always,

that if any man confess his secret and hidden sins to the minister, for

the unburdening of his conscience, and to receive spiritual consolation

and ease of mind from him, we do not any way bind the said minister by

this our constitution, but do straitly charge and admonish him, that he

do not at any time reveal and make known to any person whatsoever any

crime or offence so committed to his trust and secrecy, (except they be

such crimes as by the laws of this realm his own life may be called in

question for concealing the same,) under pain of irregularity.”

Canon 116. “It shall be lawful for any godly-disposed person, or for any

ecclesiastical judge, upon knowledge or notice given unto him or them,

of any enormous crime within his jurisdiction, to move the minister,

churchwardens, or sidemen, as they tender the glory of GOD and

reformation of sin, to present the same, if they shall find sufficient

cause to induce them thereunto, that it may be in due time punished and

reformed.”

Canon 119. “For the avoiding of such inconveniences as heretofore have

happened, by the hasty making of bills and presentments upon the days of

visitation and synods, it is ordered, that always, hereafter, every

chancellor, archdeacon, commissary, and every other person having

ecclesiastical jurisdiction, at the ordinary time when the churchwardens

are sworn, and the archbishop and bishops, when he or they do summon

their visitation, shall deliver or cause to be delivered to the

churchwardens, questmen, and sidemen of every parish, or to some of

them, such books of articles as they or any of them shall require (for

the year following) the said churchwardens, questmen, and sidemen to

ground their presentments upon, at such times as they are to exhibit

them. In which book shall be contained the form of the oath which must

be taken immediately before every such presentment; to the intent that,

having beforehand time sufficient, not only to peruse and consider what

their said oath shall be, but the articles also whereupon they are to

ground their presentments, they may frame them at home both advisedly

and truly, to the discharge of their own consciences, (after they are

sworn,) as becometh honest and godly men.”

Canon 115. “Whereas, for the reformation of criminous persons and

disorders in every parish, the churchwardens, questmen, sidemen, and

other such church officers are sworn, and the minister charged, to

present as well the crimes and disorders committed by the said criminous

persons, as also the common fame which is spread abroad of them, whereby

they are often maligned, and sometimes troubled, by the said delinquents

or their friends; we do admonish and exhort all judges, both

ecclesiastical and temporal, as they regard and reverence the fearful

judgment-seat of the highest Judge, that they admit not in any of their

courts any complaint, plea, suit or suits, against any such

churchwardens, questmen, sidemen, or other church officers, for making

any such presentments, nor against any minister for any presentments

that he shall make: all the said presentments tending to the restraint

of shameless impiety, and considering that the rules both of charity and

government do presume that they did nothing therein of malice, but for

the discharge of their consciences.”

Canon 116. “No churchwardens, questmen, or sidemen of any parish shall

be enforced to exhibit their presentments to any having ecclesiastical

jurisdiction above once in every year where it hath been no oftener

used, nor above twice in every diocese whatsoever, except it be at the

bishop’s visitation: provided always, that, as good occasion shall

require, it shall be lawful for every minister, churchwardens, and

sidemen, to present offenders as oft as they shall think meet: and for

these voluntary presentments no fee shall be taken.”

Canon 117. “No churchwardens, questmen, or sidemen, shall be called or

cited, but only at the said time or times before limited, to appear

before any ecclesiastical judge whatsoever, for refusing at other times

to present any faults committed in their parishes, and punishable by

ecclesiastical laws. Neither shall they or any of them, after their

presentments exhibited at any of those times, be any further troubled

for the same, except upon manifest and evident proof it may appear that

they did then willingly and wittingly omit to present some such public

crime or crimes as they knew to be committed, or could not be ignorant

that there was then a public fame of them, or unless there be very just

cause to call them for the explanation of their former presentments: in

which case of wilful omission, their ordinaries shall proceed against

them in such sort as in causes of wilful perjury in a court

ecclesiastical it is already by law provided.”

Canon 118. “The office of all churchwardens and sidemen shall be reputed

to continue until the new churchwardens that shall succeed them be

sworn, which shall be the first week after Easter, or some week

following, according to the direction of the ordinary; which time so

appointed shall always be one of the two times in every year when the

minister, and churchwardens, and sidemen of every parish shall exhibit

to their several ordinaries the presentments of such enormities as have

happened in their parishes since their last presentments. And this duty

they shall perform before the newly chosen churchwardens and sidemen be

sworn, and shall not be suffered to pass over the said presentments to

those that are newly come into that office, and are by intendment

ignorant of such crimes, under pain of those censures which are

appointed for the reformation of such dalliers and dispensers with their

own consciences and oaths.”

Canon 116. “For the presentments of every parish church or chapel, the

registrar of any court where they are to be exhibited shall not receive

in one year above 4_d._, under pain, for every offence therein, of

suspension from the execution of his office for the space of a month,

_toties quoties_.”

Canon 26. “No minister shall in any wise admit to the receiving of the

holy communion any churchwardens or sidemen, who, having taken their

oaths to present to their ordinaries all such public offences as they

are particularly charged to inquire of in their several parishes, shall

(notwithstanding the said oaths, and that their faithful discharge of

them is the chief means whereby public sins and offences may be reformed

and punished) wittingly and willingly, desperately and irreligiously,

incur the horrible crime of perjury, either in neglecting or in refusing

to present such of the said enormities and public offences as they know

themselves to be committed in their said parishes, or are notoriously

offensive to the congregation there, although they be urged by some of

their neighbours, or by their minister, or by the ordinary himself, to

discharge their consciences by presenting of them, and not to incur so

desperately the said horrible sin of perjury.”

Canon 121. “In places where the bishop and archdeacon do, by

prescription or composition, visit at several times in one and the same

year, lest for one and the self-same fault any of his Majesty’s subjects

should be challenged and molested in divers ecclesiastical courts, we do

order and appoint, that every archdeacon or his official, within one

month after the visitation ended that year and the presentments

received, shall certify under his hand and seal, to the bishop or his

chancellor, the names and crimes of all such as are detected and

presented in his said visitation, to the end the chancellor shall

henceforth forbear to convent any person for any crime or cause so

detected or presented to the archdeacon. And the chancellor, within the

like time after the bishop’s visitation ended and presentments received,

shall, under his hand and seal, signify to the archdeacon or his

official the names and crimes of all such persons, which shall be

detected or presented unto him in that visitation, to the same intent as

aforesaid. And if these officers shall not certify each other as is here

prescribed, or after such certificate shall intermeddle with the crimes

or persons detected and presented in each other’s visitation, then every

of them so offending shall be suspended from all exercise of his

jurisdiction by the bishop of the diocese until he shall repay the costs

and expenses which the parties grieved have been at by that vexation.”

As to legal proof: in case the party presented denies the fact to be

true, the making good the truth of the presentment, that is, the

furnishing the court with all proper evidences of it, undoubtedly rests

upon the person presenting. And as the spiritual court in such case is

entitled by law to call upon churchwardens to support their

presentments, so are churchwardens obliged, not only by law, (Dr. Gibson

says,) but also in conscience, to see the presentment effectually

supported; because, to deny the court those evidences which induced them

to present upon oath, is to desert their presentment, and is little

better, in point of conscience, than not to present at all, inasmuch as,

through their default, the presentment is rendered ineffectual as to all

purposes of removing the scandal, or reforming the offender. And from

hence he takes occasion to wish that the parishioners would think

themselves bound (as on many accounts they certainly are bound) to

support their churchwardens in seeing that their presentments are

rendered effectual. In any point which concerns the repairs or ornaments

of churches, or the providing conveniences of any kind for the service

of GOD, when such defects as these are presented, the spiritual judge

immediately, and of course, enjoins the churchwarden presenting to see

the defect made good, and supports him in repaying himself by a legal

and reasonable rate upon the parish. But what he intends is, the

supporting the churchwardens in the prosecution of such immoral and

unchristian livers as they find themselves obliged by their oath to

present, as fornicators, adulterers, common swearers, drunkards, and

such like, whose example is of pernicious consequence, and likely to

bring many evils upon the parish.

It is customary for the archdeacon at his visitation, to call upon one

of his clergy to preach what is called a visitation sermon; and although

it appears that formerly it was the duty of the visitor himself to

preach this sermon, it seems to be doubtful whether the clergyman so

called upon by the archdeacon may refuse.

VISITATION OF THE SICK. In so uncertain a world, where sickness

sometimes interrupts the very joys of marriage, it is no wonder that the

sad office should be placed next to matrimony; for all people in all

conditions, of all ages and sexes, are subject to diseases continually;

so that when any person falls sick, those that are in health must

“remember them, as being themselves also in the body,” (Heb. xiii. 3, )

and liable to the same calamities; and all Christians are commanded to

visit their neighbours in this estate, and are promised they shall be

rewarded by GOD for so doing. (Ps. xli. 1, 2; Matt. xxv. 34, 36; James

i. 27; Eccles. vii. 35.) And in the primitive times they were famous for

this piece of charity. But it is especially the duty of the clergy to

visit the sick, a duty instituted and enjoined by GOD himself: “Is any

sick among you? let him call for the elders of the Church, and let them

pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the LORD; and the

prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the LORD shall raise him up,

and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.” (James v.

14, 15.) In which words (being the original and foundation of this

office) we may note, first, that the duty is enjoined by Divine

authority, and therefore it is not barely a point of civility, but an

act of religion, and a necessary duty which GOD requires from us.

Secondly, the time to perform it is, “when any are sick among us;” for

then the parties have most need of comfort, advice, and prayers to

support them and procure help for them, as also to prepare them for

their last and great account; and then these religious exercises will do

us most good, because sickness embitters the world and endears heaven to

us, making us pray devoutly, and hearken willingly to holy advice; so

that this happy opportunity must not be lost; nor may it be deferred

till the sick persons be very weak and nigh to death, for then they are

incapable either to join in the office, or to receive the main benefits

thereof; and the word in St. James is, “if any be infirm” (ver. 14); to

note, this should be done in the beginning of sickness, and not put off

till the physicians give men over. Thirdly, as to the manner of

performing this duty; the sick man (or his friends) must “send for” the

priest, who else may either not know of his sickness, or when it may be

seasonable to visit; and if he come unsent for, it is more than he is

obliged to do; but yet it is an act of great charity, because GOD

requires the elders of the Church shall do this duty. The sick man must

pray for himself (ver. 13); and his neighbours may pray with him and for

him (ver. 16); but neither of these sufficeth; he must send for the

minister besides, who, now the Church is settled, lives not far from

him, and he is most able to give counsel, and most likely to prevail,

because GOD requires him to perform this office, which is described in

St. James. 1. By “praying over him,” that is, beside him, in the house

where he lies sick. And since GOD enjoins prayer shall be made, and doth

not prescribe the form; as all other Churches have made proper forms, so

hath ours also composed this, which is the most full and useful office

on this occasion extant in the world. 2. In St. James’s time, and as

long as the miraculous gift of healing continued, they “anointed the

sick with oil also in the name of JESUS,” not to convey any grace to the

soul, (as the Papists now pretend to do by their extreme unction, lately

made a sacrament,) but to work a miraculous cure, which was the usual

effect in those ages. But the power and gift being now ceased, the

reformed Churches left off the oil, which was the sign, because the

thing signified was now taken away. But yet we retain all the

substantial parts of this office. 3. Here are by St. James set down “the

benefits” which may be obtained by it, which are annexed to the “prayer

of faith,” the part which was not ceremonial, and which continues still

as the benefits also shall do, namely, this shall be a means “to save

the sick;” and more particularly, 1. “The LORD shall raise him up,” that

is, if GOD see that health be good for him, the devout performing of

this office shall contribute to his recovery; or, 2. However, (because

men are mortal and must die at some time,) it shall be a means to

procure “forgiveness” of the sins he “hath committed;” not the priest

only will absolve him upon his penitent confession, but GOD will seal

his pardon, and then, whether life or death follow, the man shall be

happy. Wherefore, as we love our friends, or our own souls, all care

must be taken that this necessary and profitable office be not

neglected. The method of performing which in this Church may be thus

described: The usual office contains, 1. Supplications to avert evil, in

the salutation and short litany. 2. Prayers to procure good things, in

the LORD’S Prayer and the two collects. 3. Exhortations prescribed in

the large form of exhortation; and directions in the rubric, to advise

the sick man to forgive freely, to give liberally, to do justice in

settling his estate, and to confess his sins humbly and ingenuously unto

GOD’S minister now with him. 4. Consolations, in the absolution, the

prayer to GOD to confirm it; in the 71st Psalm, and the concluding

benedictions.

Secondly, there are added, 1. Extraordinary prayers for a sick child,

for one past recovery, for a dying person, and for one troubled in

conscience. 2. The manner of administering the communion to the

sick.—_Dean Comber._

As to the form of prayer to be used on this occasion, it is left to the

prudence of the Church; since GOD hath only in general ordered prayers

to be made, but not prescribed any particular words, therefore several

Churches have made and used several forms proper for the occasion. The

Greek Church hath a very large office in their Euchologion; which seems

to have been much corrupted by the superstitious additions of later

ages, though some of the ancient prayers may yet be discerned there. The

most ancient of the Western Church are those which bear the names of St.

Ambrose and St. Gregory; and that which Cardinal Bona cites with this

title, “Pro infirmis,” written about 900 (1040) years ago, and supposed

to be part of the old Gallican service. And upon the Reformation, the

several Protestant Churches had their several forms, which are in use

amongst them at this day. But this office of the Church of England may

be thought to excel all that are now extant in the world; and it exactly

agrees with the method of the primitive visitation of the sick in St.

Chrysostom’s time.—_Dean Comber._

VISITATORIAL POWER. Every corporation, whether lay or ecclesiastical, is

visitable by some superior; and every spiritual person being a

corporation sole, is visitable by the ordinary. There is, however, in

our ecclesiastical polity, an exception to this rule; for, by

composition, the archbishop of Canterbury never visits the bishop of

London. During a visitation, all inferior jurisdictions are inhibited

from exercising jurisdiction: but this right, from the inconvenience

attending the exercise of it, is usually conceded; so that the exercise

of jurisdiction in the inferior court is continued notwithstanding.

VOLUNTARY. A piece of music played on the organ, usually after the

Psalms, sometimes after the second lesson. This was formerly more usual

than now; and was practised in many cathedrals, where it is now laid

aside, as at St. Paul’s, and Christ Church in Dublin. In the latter

place it is transferred to another interval of the service. The name is

derived from its performance not being obligatory, but optional with

those who are in authority. Pieces of music played at other intervals of

the service are properly called symphonies. Lord Bacon approves of

voluntaries as affording time for meditation.

VULGAR TONGUE. This expression in the baptismal office stood formerly

“in the English tongue.” The alteration was made in compliance, as it

should seem, with a suggestion of Bishop Cosin, that “suppose, as it

often falls out, that children of strangers, which never intend to stay

in England, be brought there to be baptized,” it would be exceptionable

that “they also should be exhorted and enjoined to learn those

principles of religion in the English tongue.”

VULGATE. The name given to what is called the vulgar Latin translation

of the Bible. It was a name anciently applied to any popular edition;

and the Septuagint, as Dr. Hody remarks, was sometimes so called by St.

Jerome. This is the most ancient version of the whole Scriptures into

Latin now extant, and the only one which the Church of Rome acknowledges

to be authentic.

The Vulgate of the Old Testament was translated, almost word for word,

from the Greek of the Septuagint; the author of it is not known, or so

much as guessed at. It was a long time known by the name of the Italic

version, as being of very great antiquity in the Latin Church. (See

_Italic Version_.) It was commonly in use, before St. Jerome made a new

one from the Hebrew. St. Austin preferred this Vulgate before all the

other Latin versions, as rendering the words and sense of the sacred

text more closely and justly than any of the rest. It was since

corrected from the emendations of St. Jerome; and it is the mixture of

the ancient Italic version with the corrections of St. Jerome, that is

now called the Vulgate, and which the Council of Trent has declared to

be authentic. The version of St. Jerome, however, forms the main part of

the Vulgate, with the exception of some of the apocryphal books, and the

Psalter. The translation of the latter from the Hebrew was not adopted

publicly by the Western Church, though still to be found in his works.

The Psalter was twice corrected by him from the old Italic version; the

first recension was for a long time used in the Roman Church, the latter

was first adopted by the Churches of Gaul and Britain, and was finally

adopted by the Western Church by an ordinance of Pius V. The old Roman

Psalter being still, however, used at the Vatican, at St. Mark’s,

Venice, and in part of the diocese of Britain.

A revision of the Vulgate was made by order of Sixtus V., and published

at Rome in 1590. But this, though pronounced by papal authority to be

authentic, became such an object of ridicule among the learned from its

gross inaccuracies, that his successor, Gregory XIV., caused it to be

suppressed, and another _authentic_ Vulgate was published in 1592, by

Clement VIII.—_Walton’s Prolegomena. Hodius de Bibl. text. orig. Horne’s

Introd._

The Vulgate of the New Testament is, by the Romanists, generally

preferred to the common Greek text. The priests read no other at the

altar; the preachers quote no other in the pulpit, nor the divines in

the schools. (See _Bible_.)

WAFERS. The bread which is used in the eucharist by the Romanists, and

by Lutheran Protestants in the LORD’S supper, is so designated. In the

ancient Church, so long as the people continued to make oblations of

bread and wine, the elements for the use of the eucharist were usually

taken out of them; and, consequently, so long, the bread was that common

leavened bread, which they used upon other occasions; and the use of

wafers, and unleavened bread, was not known in the Church till the

eleventh or twelfth centuries. This is now acknowledged by the most

learned writers of the Romish communion. The school divines, who

maintain that the primitive Church always consecrated in unleavened

bread, argue that we must suppose they followed the example of our

SAVIOUR, who celebrated his last supper with unleavened bread. But

ecclesiastical history, and the writings of the ancient Fathers,

unanimously testify the contrary; and it is noted by Epiphanius, as a

peculiar rite of the Ebionite heretics, that they celebrated the

eucharist with unleavened bread and water only.

How the change in this matter was made, and the exact time when, is not

easily determined. Cardinal Bona’s conjecture seems probable enough;

that it crept in upon the people’s leaving off to make their oblations

in common bread; which occasioned the clergy to provide it themselves,

and they, under pretence of decency and respect, brought it from leaven

to unleaven, and from a loaf of common bread, that might be broken, to a

nice and delicate wafer, formed in the figure of a _Denarius_, or penny,

to represent the pence, for which our SAVIOUR was betrayed; and then

also the people, instead of offering a loaf of bread, as formerly, were

ordered to offer a penny, which was either to be given to the poor, or

to be expended upon something pertaining to the sacrifice of the altar.

This alteration in the eucharistical bread occasioned great disputes

between the Eastern and Western Churches, which divided about it; for

the Western Church ran so far into an extreme, as almost to lose the

nature of the sacramental element, by introducing a thing that could

hardly be called bread, instead of that common staff of life, which our

LORD had appointed to be the representative of his body in the

eucharist. But there wanted not some discerning and judicious men, who

complained of this abuse, as soon as it began to be introduced.

The first Common Prayer Book of King Edward VI. enjoins unleavened bread

to be used throughout the whole kingdom, for the celebration of the

eucharist. It was ordered to be _round_, in imitation of the wafers,

used by the Greek and Roman Churches; but it was to be _without all

manner of print_, the wafers usually having the impression either of a

crucifix or the holy lamb; and _something more large and thicker_ than

the wafers, which were of the size of a penny. This rubric, affording

matter for scruple, was set aside at the review of the liturgy in the

fifth of King Edward; and another inserted in its room, by which it was

declared sufficient, that _the bread be such as is usually eaten at the

table with other meats_. By the injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, wafer

bread seems to have been again enjoined, for among other orders this was

one, “For the more reverence to be given to these holy mysteries—the

sacramental bread, &c., made and formed plain without any figure

thereupon, of the same fineness and fashion round, though somewhat

bigger in compass and thickness, as the usual bread and wafers,

heretofore called singing cakes, which served for the use of private

mass.”

WAGER. (See _Battle_ and _Ordeal_.)

WAKE. (See _Dedication_.)

WALDENSES. (See _Albigenses_.) Some difficulty exists as to the origin

and history of the sect to which this name has been attached. According

to Mosheim, the sect originated with Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons,

about the year 1160. They flourished chiefly in the _valleys_ of

Piedmont; and hence, rather than from Peter Waldo or Valdo, it is

supposed by some that they acquired the name of _Valdenses_ or

_Vaudois_. From the perusal of the Scriptures and other writings, and

from comparing the doctrines of Scripture with the superstitions and

practices of the age in which he lived, Waldo perceived the corruption

of the existing mediæval Church, and, in advance of his age, became a

reformer. He shared the fate of those who are so circumstanced. He had

many followers, and exposed both himself and them to suspicion and

persecution. It is probable that, in attacking error, the Waldenses

themselves sometimes became erroneous. They are accused of having

maintained the unlawfulness of oaths and of infant baptism, and of being

seditious. These charges were easily made, but writers of celebrity have

undertaken to confute them. The marvel is, that, when every attempt was

made to blacken their character, the success of their accusers was not

greater than it has proved to be. It is certain that they were austere,

if not morose, in their practice; that they prohibited wars and law

suits, penal punishments, and all attempts to acquire wealth.

Those of them who dwelt in the valleys of Piedmont in the seventeenth

century, were subjected by the Church of Rome to the most barbarous and

inhuman persecutions, especially in the years 1655, 1656, and 1696. The

most horrible scenes of violence and bloodshed were exhibited in this

theatre of papal tyranny, and the Waldenses at last owed their existence

and support to the interference of the English and Dutch governments.

WARBURTONIAN LECTURE. A lecture founded by Bishop Warburton, to prove

the truth of revealed religion in general, and the Christian in

particular, from the completion of the prophecies in the Old and New

Testament which relate to the Christian Church, especially to the

apostasy of papal Rome. To this foundation we owe the admirable

discourses of Hurd, Halifax, Bagot, Davison, and many others.

WARDEN. The head of some colleges, and the superior of some conventual

churches, in which the chapter remains, is called a warden. The head of

the collegiate church of Galway is called warden: as was the case at

Manchester, till the erection of the collegiate church there into a

cathedral.

WEDNESDAY. This day has been marked in many cases by the Church with an

especial religion. Thus it was often added to Friday as a weekly fast,

and in our own Church it is numbered among the rogation and ember days;

besides which, throughout the year the Litany is appointed to be sung or

said on Wednesday, as well as on Sunday and Friday after Morning Prayer.

WESLEYANS. (See _Methodists_.)

WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. (See _Assembly of Divines_.)

WESTMINSTER CONFESSION. (See _Confessions of Faith_.)

WHITSUNDAY. One of the great festivals of the Church, held in

commemoration of the descent of the HOLY GHOST on the day of Pentecost.

It occurs ten days after Holy Thursday, or Ascension Day. The reason of

this day being called Whitsunday, or more properly Whitesunday, is,

because on this day, being a remarkable time for baptism, the

catechumens, who were then baptized, as well as those who had been

baptized before at Easter, appeared in the ancient Church in white

garments. It has also been thought that the name was symbolical of those

vast diffusions of light and knowledge which were then shed upon the

apostles, in order to the enlightening of a world then in the darkness

of superstition and idolatry.

This day the HOLY GHOST came down from heaven upon his Church, as the

Epistle tells, according to the promise of the Gospel; in honour of whom

and of his gifts we keep this holy day.—_Bp. Sparrow._

As to the name, the most received opinion is, that the word is at length

“Whitesunday;” so called from the white garments worn by the persons

baptized in the ancient Church. For the administering of which

sacrament, Easter, and this, and the Sundays between, were the most

solemn seasons. Particularly on this day, the last of those Sundays,

(when that solemnity determined, and the preparation for it had been

extended to the utmost length,) as well on that account, as for the

deserved veneration due to so great a festival, vast numbers offered

themselves to be received to baptism. And, in token of their being

cleansed from all past sins, as well as for an emblem of that innocence

and purity, to which they then obliged themselves, they were clad in

white; and from the multitude of such vestments then put on, are

supposed to have given occasion for this LORD’S day being distinguished

by that name.—_Dean Stanhope._

The reason why this time was of old appointed for solemn baptism, was,

1. Because this day the apostles were baptized with the HOLY GHOST and

fire (Acts ii. 3). 2. Because this day 3000 were baptized by the

apostles (Acts ii. 41). In memory of which, the Church ever after held a

solemn custom of baptizing at this feast.—_Bp. Sparrow._

Some conclude from St. Paul’s earnest desire of being at Jerusalem at

this time, that the observation of it as a Christian festival is as old

as the apostles; but, whatever St. Paul’s design was, we are assured

that it hath been universally observed from the very first ages of

Christianity.—_Wheatly._

This day is called Pentecost, because there are fifty days betwixt the

true passover and Whitsunday. As there were fifty days from the Jews’

passover to the giving of the law to Moses in Mount Sinai, which law was

written with the finger of GOD (for from the fourteenth day of the first

month, the day of the passover, to the third day of the third month, the

day of the law’s giving, Exod. xix. 1, 16, are fifty days); so from the

true passover, which was celebrated when CHRIST was offered up for us,

are fifty days to this time, when the HOLY GHOST came down upon the

Church, to write the new law of charity in their hearts. Upon this

meditation, St. Augustine breaks out thus: “Who would not prefer the joy

and pleasure of these mysteries, before all the empires of the world? Do

you not see, that as the two seraphim cry one to another, Holy, holy,

holy,” (Isa. vi. 3,) “so the two Testaments, Old and New, faithfully

agreeing, evince the sacred truth of GOD?” It should be noted, that we

must not count the fifty days from the very day of the passover, but

from the Sunday following; and so GOD directed the Jews, (Lev. xxiii.

15,) speaking of their Pentecost or Feast of Weeks, “and ye shall count

from the morrow after the sabbath; from that day seven weeks shall be

complete.”—_Bp. Sparrow._

The first lesson for the morning contains the law of the Jewish

Pentecost, or Feast of Weeks, which was a type of ours; for as the law

was at this time given to the Jews from Mount Sinai, so also the

Christians upon this day received the new evangelical law from heaven,

by the administration of the HOLY GHOST. The first lesson for the

evening is a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles to the kingdom

of CHRIST, through the inspiration of the apostles by the Spirit of GOD;

the completion of which prophecy is recorded in both the second lessons,

but especially in the portion of Scripture for the Epistle, which

contains a particular description of the first wonderful descent of the

HOLY GHOST upon the apostles, who were “assembled together in one

place,” in expectation of that blessed Spirit, according to the promise

of our SAVIOUR mentioned in the Gospel.—_Wheatly._

The same harmony of Epistle, Gospel, and collect, and lessons, and

Psalms, that has been observed upon Christmas, and Easter, and

Ascension, may with pleasure be mentioned upon this day.—_Bp. Sparrow._

It is observed as a Scarlet day at the universities of Oxford and

Cambridge; and at several cathedrals on this day, as on the two

following, the service is performed in a more solemn manner than usual,

as at Christmas and Easter.

WICLIFITES. The followers of John Wickliff. He was of Merton college in

Oxford, where he took his doctor’s degree with great reputation. He was

once sent ambassador by Edward III. to the pope. He preached against the

real presence, pilgrimages, purgatory, &c., so strenuously at Oxford,

that the monks prevailed with Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury,

to silence him. He was rector of Lutterworth in Leicestershire, much

favoured by the great men in his time, and is justly reckoned the first

reformer. The fame of him reached to Rome, and occasioned Pope Gregory

XI. to write to Richard II. to assist the bishops in suppressing

Wickliff and his followers. In Henry IV.’s time, his books were

condemned at Oxford; and at last, when the Council of Constance met,

about 1428, they condemned him, with this sentence: “That John Wickliff,

being a notorious heretic, and obstinate, and dying in his heresy, his

body and bones, if they may be discerned from the bodies of other

faithful people, should be taken up out of the ground, and thrown away

far from the burial of the Church.” The bishop of Lincoln executed this

sentence, and forty-one years after his burial he burnt the remains,

(which was more than the sentence commanded,) and cast them into a

neighbouring brook called the Swift. The followers of Wickliff were

called Lollards. Wickliff’s notions were: “The Scriptures ought to be in

the vulgar tongue, contain all things necessary to salvation, may be

understood by every well-disposed man: he declared against traditions,

the pope’s authority, their power over the temporalities of kings, and

pronounced the pope to be the chiefest antichrist. He taught that the

Church of Rome may err; he rejected merit of works, transubstantiation,

and owned but two sacraments; he was against images, auricular

confession, pardons, indulgences, and monastic vows; he approved the

marriage of priests.”

WILL, FREE. (See _Free Will_.)

WISDOM, THE BOOK OF. An apocryphal book of Scripture; so called, on

account of the wise maxims and useful instructions contained therein.

The Book of Wisdom is commonly ascribed to King Solomon, either because

the author imitated that king’s manner of writing, or because he

sometimes speaks in his name. It is certain Solomon was not the author

of it; for it was not written in Hebrew, nor was it inserted in the

Jewish canon, nor is the style like Solomon’s: and therefore St. Jerome

observes justly, that it smells strongly of the Grecian eloquence; that

it is composed with art and method, after the manner of the Greek

philosophers, very different from that noble simplicity, so full of life

and energy, to be found in the Hebrew books. It has been attributed by

many of the ancients to Philo, a Jew, but more ancient than he whose

works are now extant. But it is commonly ascribed to an Hellenistical

Jew, who lived since Ezra, and about the time of the Maccabees.

It may properly be divided into two parts: the first is a description

and encomium of wisdom; the second, beginning at the tenth chapter, is a

long discourse in the form of prayers, wherein the author admires and

extols the wisdom of GOD, and of those who honour him; and discovers the

folly of the wicked, who have been the professed enemies of the good and

virtuous in all ages of the world.

WORD, THE. (See _Jesus_.) The only-begotten SON of the FATHER, the

uncreated WISDOM, the second person of the most HOLY TRINITY, equal and

consubstantial with the FATHER. St. John the Evangelist, more expressly

than any other, has opened to us the mystery of the Word of GOD, when he

tells us, “In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with GOD, and

the WORD was GOD. The same was in the beginning with GOD. All things

were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”

The Chaldee paraphrasts, the most ancient Jewish writers extant,

generally use the name MEMRA, or WORD, where Moses puts the name

JEHOVAH. In effect, according to them, it was MEMRA who created the

world; who appeared to Abraham in the plain of Mamre; and to Jacob at

Bethel. It was MEMRA to whom Jacob appealed to witness the covenant

between him and Laban. The same WORD appeared to Moses at Sinai; gave

the law to the Israelites; spoke face to face with that lawgiver;

marched at the head of that people; enabled them to conquer nations, and

was a consuming fire to all who violated the law of the LORD. All these

characters, where the paraphrast uses the word MEMRA, clearly denote

Almighty GOD. This WORD therefore was GOD, and the Hebrews were of this

opinion at the time that the Targum was composed.

WORKS. (See _Good Works_, _Justification_, and _Sanctification_.) The

doctrine of our Church on the subject of works is contained in the

following articles:

“XI. _Of the Justification of Man._

“We are accounted righteous before GOD only for the merit of our _Lord

Jesus Christ_, by faith, and not for our own works or deservings;

wherefore, that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome

doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in the

Homily of Justification.

“XII. _Of Good Works._

“Albeit that good works, which are the fruits of faith, and follow after

justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of

GOD’S judgment; yet are they pleasing and acceptable to GOD in CHRIST,

and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith; insomuch that

by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by

the fruit.

“XIII. _Of Works before Justification._

“Works done before the grace of CHRIST, and the inspiration of his

Spirit, are not pleasant to GOD, forasmuch as they spring not of faith

in JESUS CHRIST; neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as

the school authors say) deserve grace of congruity: yea rather, for that

they are not done as GOD hath willed and commanded them to be done, we

doubt not but they have the nature of sin.”

WORSHIP. Besides the usual application of this term to the supreme

homage and devotion due only to the DIVINE BEING, it is occasionally

used in the Bible and Prayer Book, to denote honour, respect, and

reverence given to men. Thus, in the 84th Psalm, it is said that “the

Lord will give grace and _worship_ (favour and dignity) to them that

live a godly life.” In Luke xiv. 10, we read that the humble guest

“shall have _worship_ in the presence of those who sit at meat with

him.” And in 1 Chron. xxix. 20, it is said, that all the congregation

“bowed down their heads, and _worshipped_ the LORD and the king.” In the

Order of Matrimony in the English Prayer Book, the husband promises to

_worship_ his wife, that is, to render to her all that respect and

honour to which she is entitled by the command of GOD, and the station

she holds.

For the better understanding of this phrase we must know, that anciently

there were two sorts of wives, one whereof was called the primary or

lawful wife, the other was called the half-wife, or concubine. The

difference betwixt these two was only in the differing purpose of the

man, betaking himself to the one or the other: if his purpose was only

fellowship, there grew to the woman by this means no worship at all, but

rather the contrary. In professing that his intent was to add by his

person honour and worship unto hers, he took her plainly and clearly to

be his wife, not his concubine. This it is, which the civil law doth

mean, when it makes a wife differ from a concubine in dignity. The

worship that grew unto her, being taken with declaration of this intent,

was, that her children became by this means free and legitimate heirs to

their father, (Gen xxv. 5, 6,) and herself was made a mother over his

family. Lastly, she received such advancement of state, as things

annexed to his person might augment her with: yea, a right of

participation was thereby given her, both in him, and even in all things

which were his; and therefore he says not only, “with my body I thee

worship,” but also, “with all my worldly goods I thee endow.” The former

branch having granted the principal, the latter granteth that which is

annexed thereto.—_Hooker._

The Jews anciently used the same phrase: “Be unto me a wife, and I,

according to the word of GOD, will _worship_, honour, and maintain thee,

according to the manner of husbands among the Jews, who _worship_,

honour, and maintain their wives.” And that no man quarrel at this

harmless phrase, let him take notice, that to _worship_ here signifies,

_to make worshipful or honorable_, as you may see, 1 Sam. ii. 30. For

where our last translation reads it, “him that honours me, I will

honour;” in the old translation, which our Common Prayer Book uses, it

is, “him that _worships_ me, I will _worship_,” that is, I will make

worshipful; for that way only can GOD be said to worship man.—_Bp.

Sparrow._

These words are objected to by our adversaries, as a great crime in our

Church, for obliging the bridegroom to make an idol of his bride, and to

declare, in the most extravagant strain of all compliments, that he

worships her. But this imputation is owing to the want of a just

consideration of the purport of the old English word “worship,” which

signifies an honourable regard, as is yet to be seen in our usual

expressions still retained in common discourse, as Your Worship,

Worshipful &c. And so King James, in the conference at Hampton Court,

told Dr. Reynolds, who made this objection. For our Church is not only

content that the wife should be endowed with a share of the husband’s

goods, but that the husband should oblige himself to promote his spouse

to the dignity of the uxorial honour, for she would not have the men

joined to concubines by this religious solemnity; and, therefore, she

ties the man to make profession, that he is willing to have the person

he marries not only to be a partner in his bed, but that she should have

all the dignity of a wife allowed her. And that is the meaning of these

words, “with my body I thee worship:” I not only give thee a right in my

body, but that in the honourable and worshipful way of a wife. For, by

the old Roman law, this was the difference between a wife and a

concubine: that the husband before marriage promised that he designed to

promote the woman he was married to, to the honour of _materfamilias_,

or mistress of the family.—_Dr. Nicholls._

The first right accruing to the wife by marriage, is honour; and,

therefore, the man says, “with my body I thee worship;” that is, “with

my body I thee honour:” for so the word signifies in this place; and so

Mr. Selden, and before him Martin Bucer, who lived at the time when our

liturgy was compiled, have translated it. The design of it is to express

that the woman, by virtue of this marriage, has a share in all the

titles and honours which are due, or belong to, the person of her

husband. It is true the modern sense of the word is somewhat different:

for which reason, I find, that at the review of our liturgy, after the

restoration of King Charles II., “worship” was promised to be changed

for “honour.” How the alteration came to be omitted I cannot discover;

but so long as the old word is explained in the sense that I have given

of it, one would think no objection could be urged against using

it.—_Wheatly._

XEROPHAGIA. (Ξηροφαγία, from ξηρός, _dry_, φάγω, _to eat_.) Fast days in

the first ages of the Christian Church, on which they ate nothing but

bread and salt, the word signifying so much as to eat dry things;

afterwards there were pulse, herbs, and fruits added. This great fast

was kept the six days of the holy week for devotion, and not by

obligation; so that the Church condemned the Montanists, who of their

own private authority, would not only oblige all people to observe the

Xerophagia of the holy week, but also other fasts that they had

established, as well as several Lents. The Essenes, whether they were

Jews or the first Christians of the Church of Alexandria, observed

Xerophagia on certain days; for Philo says, they put nothing to their

bread and water but salt and hyssop.

YEAR, ECCLESIASTICAL. (See _Advent_, _Calendar_, and _Feasts_.)

YULE. An old word signifying festival, and still in use to designate the

festival of Christmas. The _yule_ of _August_ anciently signified

Lammas. See Johnson _in voc_.

ZEALOTS. An ancient sect of the Jews, so called from their pretended

great zeal for GOD’S laws, and the honour of religion. They were a

branch of the Pharisees, though some account them a distinct sect. (See

_Pharisees_.)

The Zealots were a most outrageous and ungovernable people, and, on

pretence of asserting the honour of GOD’S laws, and the strictness and

purity of religion, assumed a liberty of questioning notorious

offenders, without staying for the ordinary formalities of law: nay,

when they thought fit, they executed capital punishments upon them with

their own hands. Thus, when a blasphemer cursed GOD by the name of any

idol, the Zealots, who next met him, immediately killed him, without

ever bringing him before the Sanhedrim. They looked upon themselves as

the true successors of Phinehas, who, out of a great zeal for the honour

of GOD, did immediate execution upon Zimri and Cozbi; which action was

so pleasing to GOD, that he made with him, and his seed after him, the

covenant of an everlasting priesthood. In imitation of Phinehas, these

men took upon them to execute judgment in extraordinary cases; and not

only by the connivance, but with the permission both of the rulers and

the people; till, in after-times, under this pretence, their zeal

degenerated into all manner of licentiousness and extravagance. And they

not only became the pests of the commonwealth at home, but opened the

door for the Romans to break in upon the Jews, to their final and

irrecoverable ruin; for they were continually encouraging the people to

throw off the Roman yoke, and assert their native liberty.

They made no scruple of robbing, plundering, and killing the principal

of the nobility, under pretence of holding correspondence with the

Romans, and betraying the liberty of their country; and, upon the merit

of this, they assumed to themselves the titles of benefactors and

saviours of the people. They abrogated the succession of ancient

families, thrusting ignoble and obscure persons into the office of the

high priesthood, that by this means they might draw over the most

infamous villains to their party. And, not contented to affront men,

they injured the majesty of heaven, and proclaimed defiance to the

Divinity itself, by breaking into and profaning the most holy place.

Many attempts were made, especially by Annas the high priest, to reduce

them to order; but neither force of arms, nor fair and gentle methods,

could prevail upon them. They persisted in these violent proceedings,

and, joining with the Idumeans, committed all manner of outrage, and

slew many of the high priests themselves; and even when Jerusalem was

besieged by the Roman army, they never left off to promote tumults and

distractions, till their intestine quarrels ended, at last, in the

sacking of the city.

ZUINGLIANS. The disciples of Zuinglius, whose opinion was that Luther’s

scheme of Reformation fell very short of the extent to which it ought to

have been carried. Under this impression, and with a view, as he termed

it, of restoring the Church to its original purity, Zuingle sought to

abolish many doctrines and rites of the Roman Catholic Church, which

Luther had retained. In some points of doctrine he also differed from

Luther, and his opinion on the real presence made a complete separation

between them. Luther held that, together with the bread and wine, the

body and blood of CHRIST were really present in the eucharist. Zuingle

held, that the bread and wine were only _signs_ and _symbols_ of the

_absent_ body and blood of CHRIST; so that the eucharistic rite was

merely a pious and solemn ceremony, to bring it to the remembrance of

the faithful. The opinions of Zuingle were adopted in Switzerland, and

several neighbouring nations. They gave rise to the most violent

animosities between their favourers and the disciples of Luther.

Frequent advances to peace were made by the Zuinglians; Luther uniformly

rejected them with sternness. He declared an union to be impossible; he

called them “ministers of Satan.” When they entreated him to consider

them as brothers, “What fraternity,” he exclaimed, “do you ask with me,

if you persist in your belief?” On one occasion, the ingenuity of Bucer

enabled him to frame a creed, which each party, constructing the words

in his own sense, might sign. This effected a temporary truce; but the

division soon broke out with fresh animosity. “Happy,” exclaimed Luther,

“is the man who has not been of the Council of the Sacramentarians; who

has not walked in the ways of the Zuinglians.”

THE END.

JOHN CHILDS AND SON, BUNGAY.

-----

Footnote 1:

“An Ecclesiastical Biography, containing the Lives of Ancient Fathers

and Modern Divines. By Walter Farquhar Hook, D. D., Vicar of Leeds.”

Footnote 2:

Author of “The History of the Christian Church, to the Pontificate of

Gregory the Great: for general readers as well as for Students in

Theology.” 8vo, 12_s._

Footnote 3:

The Confession which was subscribed at Halyrud-house the 25th of

February, 1587–8, by the King, Lennox, Huntly, the Chancellor, and

about ninety-five other persons, hath here added, “Agreeing to the

word.” Sir John Maxwell of Pollock hath the original parchment. If the

clerk nominated shall have been ordained a less time than three years,

the testimonial may be from the time of ordination.

Footnote 4:

It is recommended that the clergyman nominating be not a subscriber to

the testimonial.

Footnote 5:

This notice must be dated on a day subsequent to the date of the

bishop’s permission.

Footnote 6:

Here the infirm persons are presented to the king on their knees, and

the king layeth his hands upon them.

Footnote 7:

Here they are again presented unto the king upon their knees, and the

king putteth gold about their necks.

Footnote 8:

Sancti Bonaventuræ Opera, tom. vi. part ii., from p. 466 to 473. Fol.

Moguntiæ, 1609.

Footnote 9:

“The Glories of Mary, Mother of God; translated from the Italian of

blessed Alphonsus Liguori, and carefully revised by a Catholic

Priest.” John Coyne, Dublin, 1833.

Footnote 10:

As the practice may not be alike in every diocese, application should

be made by a candidate to the bishop’s secretary for instructions.

Footnote 11:

It is to be observed that the proper address to an archbishop is, “To

the Most Reverend ——, by Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of ——;” and

the style “Grace” is to be used instead of “Lordship.” The proper

address to the bishop of Durham is, “To the Right Reverend ——, by

Divine Providence ——.”

Footnote 12:

For three years, or such shorter period as may have elapsed since the

date of the College testimonial.

Footnote 13:

It is recommended that the party giving the title be not one of the

subscribers.

Footnote 14:

The bishop in whose diocese the curacy conferring the title is

situate.

Footnote 15:

See 76th sect. of 1 & 2 Victoria, c. 106.

Footnote 16:

The concluding part of the nomination, within inverted commas, is not

to be used, except in the nomination to serve as a title for orders.

Footnote 17:

It is not usual to confer priest’s orders till the candidate has been

a deacon one whole year.

Footnote 18:

Mr. Sharpe, in his work on “Decorated Window Tracery,” goes back one

step, to the occurrence of a round window in the apex of a semi-Norman

façade, over two round head-lights. If we were in search of what

_might_ suggest tracery, we might go back still further, to the panels

often occurring, even in early Norman triforium arcades, as at

Rochester; and sometimes, as at Peterborough, in groups of three or

four, and deeply sunk.

Footnote 19:

See Sharpe’s “Decorated Window Tracery,” p. 93.

Footnote 20:

Garbet’s “Rudimentary Treatise;” a work well worth much study.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

DISCOURSES BEARING ON THE CONTROVERSIES OF THE DAY. 8vo.

THE NONENTITY OF THE ROMISH SAINTS, AND THE INANITY OF ROMAN

ORDINANCES. _Third Edition_, 8vo, 2_s._ 6_d._

ON THE MEANS OF RENDERING MORE EFFECTUAL THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE.

_Tenth Edition_, 8vo, 2_s._ 6_d._

FRIENDLY AND SEASONABLE ADVICE TO THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF ENGLAND. By

DEAN COMBER. _New Edition_, with a Preface and Notes, 18mo, 3_s._

THE THREE REFORMATIONS; LUTHERAN,—ROMAN,—AND ANGLICAN. _Third

Edition_, 8vo, 3_s._

THE DUTY OF ENGLISH CHURCHMEN, AND THE PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH AT

LEEDS. 8vo, 1_s._

50, ALBEMARLE STREET, LONDON.

_April, 1854._

MR. MURRAY’S

GENERAL LIST OF WORKS.

ABBOTT’S (REV. J.) Philip Musgrave; or, Memoirs of a Church of England

Missionary in the North American Colonies. Post 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._

ABELL’S (MRS.) Recollections of the Emperor Napoleon during the First

Three Years of his Captivity on the Island of St. Helena.

_Second Edition._ Woodcuts. Post 8vo. 10_s._ 6_d._

ABERCROMBIE’S (JOHN, M.D.) Enquiries concerning the Intellectual

Powers and the Investigation of Truth. _Fourteenth Edition._

Fcap. 8vo. 6_s._ 6_d._

—— Philosophy of the Moral Feelings. _Ninth Edition._ Fcap. 8vo. 4_s._

—— Pathological and Practical Researches on the Diseases of the

Stomach, the Intestinal Canal, the Liver, and other Viscera of

the Abdomen. _Third Edition._ Fcap. 8vo. 6_s._

ACLAND’S (REV. CHARLES) Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of

India, Illustrated with Numerous Anecdotes. Post 8vo. 2_s._

6_d._

ADDISON’S (JOSEPH) WORKS. A New Edition, with a New Life and Notes. By

Rev. WHITWELL ELWIN. 4 Vols. 8vo. _In the Press._

ÆSCHYLUS. (The Agamemnon and Choephoræ). _A New Edition_ of the Text,

with Notes, Critical, Explanatory, and Philological, for the Use

of Students. By Rev. W. PEILE, D.D., Head Master of Repton

School. _Second Edition._ 2 Vols. 8vo. 9_s._ each.

ÆSOP’S FABLES, for Old and Young. A New Version. By Rev. THOMAS JAMES,

M.A. Illustrated with 100 Woodcuts, by JOHN TENNIEL. Post 8vo.

2_s._ 6_d._

AGRICULTURAL (THE) JOURNAL. Published (half-yearly) by the Royal

Agricultural Society of England. 8vo. 10_s._

AMBER-WITCH (THE). The most interesting Trial for Witchcraft ever

known. Edited by Dr. MEINHOLD. Translated from the German by

LADY DUFF GORDON. Post 8vo. 2_s._ 6_d._

ARABIAN NIGHTS. A New Translation. By E. W. LANE. With Explanatory

Notes. 600 Woodcuts. Medium 8vo. 21_s._

ARAGO’S (M.) Historical Eloge on James Watt. Translated from the

French, with Notes by J. P. MUIRHEAD. Portrait. 8vo. 8_s._ 6_d._

ARTHUR’S (LITTLE) History of England. By LADY CALLCOTT. _Seventeenth

Edition._ Woodcuts. 18mo. 2_s._ 6_d._

AUNT IDA’S Walks and Talks; a Story Book for Children. By a LADY.

Woodcuts. 16mo. 5_s._

ADMIRALTY PUBLICATIONS (THE); Issued by direction of the Lords

Commissioners of the Admiralty:—

1. A MANUAL OF SCIENTIFIC ENQUIRY, for the Use of Officers in

H.M. Navy and Travellers in General. By Various Hands.

Edited by SIR J. F. HERSCHEL, Bart. _Second Edition_.

Post 8vo. 1O_s._ 6_d._

2. AIRY’S ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT GREENWICH. 1836 to

1847. Royal 4to. 50_s._ each.

3. —— APPENDIX TO THE ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. 1836, 1837,

1842, 8_s._ each; and 1847, 14_s._ Royal 4to.

CONTENTS.

1836.—Bessel’s Refraction Tables.

Tables for converting Errors of R.A. and N.P.D.

into Errors of Longitude and Ecliptic P.D.

1837.—Logarithms of Sines and Cosines to every Ten

Seconds of Time.

Table for converting Sidereal into Mean Solar

Time.

1842.—Catalogue of 1439 Stars.

1847.—Twelve Years’ Catalogue of Stars.

4. —— MAGNETICAL AND METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 1840 to

1847. Royal 4to. 50_s._ each.

5. —— ASTRONOMICAL, MAGNETICAL, AND METEOROLOGICAL

OBSERVATIONS, 1848, 49, & 50. Royal 4to. 50_s._ each.

6. —— REDUCTION OF THE OBSERVATIONS OF PLANETS. 1750 to 1830.

Royal 4to. 50_s._

7. —— LUNAR OBSERVATIONS. 1750 to 1830. 2 Vols. Royal 4to.

50_s._ each.

8. BERNOULLI’S SEXCENTENARY TABLE. _London_, 1779. 4to. 5_s._

9. BESSEL’S AUXILIARY TABLES FOR HIS METHOD OF CLEARING LUNAR

DISTANCES. 8vo.

10. —— FUNDAMENTA ASTRONOMIÆ: _Regiomonti_, 1818. Folio.

60_s._