part ii

. diss. 1, p. 451–475. See also De Marca, De Concord. iii. c. 4, 5, p. 242; Natalis Alexandri Hist. Eccles. sæc. i. diss. 13, p. 213; Coci Censura quorundam Scriptorum, &c., passim.—_Sanderson._ _Robins, Evidence of Scripture against the Roman Church._

DEDICATION, FEAST OF. The _wake_ or customary festival for the dedication of churches signifies the same as _vigil_ or _eve_. The reason of the name is thus assigned in an old manuscript: “Ye shall understand and know how the evens were first founded in old times. In the beginning of Holy Church it was so, that the people came to the church with candles burning, and would wake and come with lights towards night to the church in their devotions: and after, they fell to lechery, and songs, and dances, harping and piping, and also to gluttony and sin; and so turned the holiness to cursedness. Wherefore the holy Fathers ordained the people to leave that waking, and to fast the even. But it is still called _vigil_, that is, _waking_ in English: and it is also called the _even_, for at even they were wont to come to church.” It was in imitation of the primitive ἀγάπαι, or love feasts, (see _Agapæ_,) that such public assemblies, accompanied with friendly entertainments, were first held upon each return of the day of consecration, though not in the body of churches, yet in the churchyards, and most nearly adjoining places. This practice was established in England by Gregory the Great; who, in an epistle to Mellitus the abbot, gives injunctions to be delivered to Augustine the monk, a missionary to England; amongst which he allows the solemn anniversary of dedication to be celebrated in those churches which were made out of heathen temples, with religious feasts kept in sheds or arbours, made up with branches and boughs of trees round the said church. But as the love feasts held in the place of worship were soon liable to such great disorders, that they were not only condemned at Corinth by St. Paul, but prohibited to be kept in the house of GOD by the 20th canon of the Council of Laodicea, and the 30th of the third Council of Carthage: so, from a sense of the same inconveniences, this custom did not long continue of feasting in the churches or churchyards; but strangers and inhabitants paid the devotion of prayers and offerings in the church, and then adjourned their eating and drinking to the more proper place of public and private houses. The institution of these church encœnia, or wakes, was, without question, for good and laudable designs: at first, thankfully to commemorate the bounty and munificence of those who had founded and endowed the church; next, to incite others to the like generous acts of piety; and, chiefly, to maintain a Christian spirit of unity and charity, by such sociable and friendly meetings. And therefore care was taken to keep up the laudable custom. The laws of Edward the Confessor gave peace and protection in all parishes during the solemnity of the day of dedication, and the same privilege to all that were going to or returning from such solemnity. In a council held at Oxford, in the year 1222, it was ordained, that among other festivals should be observed the day of dedication of every church within the proper parish. And in a synod under Archbishop Islip, (who was promoted to the see of Canterbury in the year 1349,) the dedication feast is mentioned with particular respect. This solemnity was at first celebrated on the very day of dedication, as it annually returned. But the bishops sometimes gave authority for transposing the observance to some other day, and especially to Sunday, whereon the people could best attend the devotions and rites intended in this ceremony. Henry VIII. enjoined that all wakes should be kept the first Sunday in October.

This laudable custom of wakes prevailed for many ages, till the Puritans began to exclaim against it as a remnant of Popery. By degrees the humour grew so popular, that at the summer assizes held at Exeter, in the year 1627, the Lord Chief Baron Walter and Baron Denham made an order for suppression of all wakes. And a like order was made by Judge Richardson for the county of Somerset, in the year 1631. But on Bishop Laud’s complaint of these innovations, the king commanded the last order to be reversed; which Judge Richardson refusing to do, an account was required from the Bishop of Bath and Wells, how the said feast days, church ales, wakes, and revels, were for the most part celebrated and observed in his diocese. On the receipt of these instructions, the bishop sent for and advised with seventy-two of the most orthodox and able of his clergy; who certified under their hands, that, on these feast days, (which generally fell on Sundays,) the service of GOD was more solemnly performed, and the church much better frequented, both in the forenoon and afternoon, than on any other Sunday in the year; that the people very much desired the continuance of them; that the ministers did in most places the like, for these reasons, viz. for preserving the memorial of the dedication of their several churches, for civilizing the people, for composing differences by the mediation and meeting of friends, for increase of love and unity by these feasts of charity, and for relief and comfort of the poor. On the return of this certificate, Judge Richardson was again cited to the council table, and peremptorily commanded to reverse his former order. After which it was thought fit to reinforce the declaration of King James, when perhaps this was the only good reason assigned for that unnecessary and unhappy licence of sports: “We do ratify and publish this our blessed father’s decree, the rather because of late, in some counties of our kingdom, we find, that, under pretence of taking away abuses, there hath been a general forbidding not only of ordinary meetings, but of the feasts of the dedication of churches, commonly called wakes.” However, by such a popular prejudice against wakes, and by the intermission of them in the confusions that followed, they are now discontinued in many counties, especially in the east and some western parts of England, but are commonly observed in the north and in the midland counties.

DEFENDER OF THE FAITH. (_Fidei Defensor._) A peculiar title belonging to the sovereign of England; as _Catholic_ to the king of Spain, and _Most Christian_ to the king of France. These titles were given by the popes of Rome. That of _Fidei Defensor_ was first conferred by Pope Leo X. on King Henry VIII., for writing against Martin Luther; and the bull for it bears date _quinto idus Octobris, 1521_. It was afterwards confirmed by Clement VII. On Henry’s suppression of the monasteries, the pope of Rome deprived him of this title, and had the presumption and absurdity to depose him from his crown. Therefore the title was conferred by a higher authority than the pope, the parliament of England, in the thirty-fifth year of Henry’s reign. By some antiquarians it is maintained that the bull of Leo only revived a title long sustained by the English kings.

DEGRADATION is an ecclesiastical censure, whereby a clergyman is deprived of the holy orders which formerly he had, as of a priest or deacon; and by the canon law this may be done two ways, either summarily or by word only, or solemnly, as by divesting the party degraded of those ornaments and rights which were the ensigns and order of his degree.

Collier thus describes the form of degradation of a priest, in the case of Fawke, burnt for heresy in the reign of Henry IV. After being pronounced a heretic relapsed, he was solemnly degraded in the following manner:

From the order of │ To be taken from him, ──────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────── 1 Priest. │1 The paten, chalice, and pulling │ off his chasuble. 2 Deacon. │2 The New Testament and the stole. 3 Sub-deacon. │3 The albe and the maniple. 4 Acolyth. │4 The candlestick, taper, │ urceolum. 5 Exorcist. │5 The office for exorcisms. 6 Reader. │6 The lectionarium, or legend │ book. 7 Ostiarius, or Sexton. │7 The keys of the church-doors, │ and surplice.

After this, his ecclesiastical tonsure was obliterated, and the form of his degradation pronounced by the archbishop; and being thus deprived of his sacerdotal character, and dressed in a lay habit, he was put into the hands of the secular court, with the significant request, that he might be favourably received.

The ancient law for degradation is set forth in the sixth book of the Decretals; and the causes for degradation and deprivation are enumerated by Bishop Gibson.—See _Gibson’s Codex_, p. 1066–1068.

By Canon 122, Sentence against a minister, of deposition from the ministry, “shall be pronounced by the bishop only, with the assistance of his chancellor and the dean, (if they may conveniently be had,) and some of the prebendaries, if the court be kept near the cathedral church; or of the archdeacon, if he may be had conveniently, and two other at the least grave ministers and preachers to be called by the bishop, when the court is kept in other places.”

DEGREE. _Psalms or Songs of Degrees_ is a title given to fifteen psalms, which are the 120th and all that follow to the 134th inclusive. The Hebrew text calls them a _song of ascents_. Junius and Tremellius translate the Hebrew, by _a song of excellencies_, or _an excellent song_, because of the excellent matter of them, as eminent persons are called _men of high degree_. (1 Chr. xvii. 17.) Some call them _psalms of elevation_, because, say they, they were sung with an exalted voice; or because at every psalm the voice was raised: but the translation of _psalms of degrees_ has more generally obtained. Some interpreters think, that they were so called because they were sung upon the fifteen steps of the temple; but they are not agreed about the place where these fifteen steps were. Others think they were so called, because they were sung in a gallery, which they say was in the court of Israel, where sometimes the Levites read the law. But others think, that the most probable reason why they are called songs of degrees, or of ascent, is, because they were composed and sung by the Jews on the occasion of their _going up_ to Jerusalem, after the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, whether it were to implore this deliverance from GOD, or to return thanks for it after it had happened: others, that they were severally composed not only upon this, but upon other remarkable occasions when they made their ascent to the temple.

DEGREES in the universities denote a quality conferred on the students or members thereof, as a testimony of their proficiency in the arts and sciences, and entitling them to certain privileges. They were first instituted by Pope Eugenius III. at the suggestion of Gratian, the celebrated compiler of the canon law, in 1151; but were limited to the faculty of canon law, for the encouragement of which they were instituted; and consisted of the ranks of bachelor, licentiate, and doctor. Shortly after Peter Lombard instituted similar degrees in theology in the university of Paris. In the course of time degrees were given in other faculties, those of arts and medicine being added. In many of the foreign universities, theology and canon law have each their three classes of degrees as above stated; medicine has generally but two, bachelor and doctor; and arts two, bachelor and master. The designation of doctor in philosophy is very modern. The English universities have only two degrees, bachelor and doctor in the superior faculties; master and bachelor in arts. The student of civil law is not, properly speaking, a graduate. Formerly separate degrees were given in England (as abroad) in canon and civil law; but the distinction ceased in the 17th century. Oxford has for some time ceased to confer degrees in _utroque jure_, (i. e. civil and canon law,) but only in civil law. Hence her graduates are D. C. L. and B. C. L., and not L. L. D. and L. L. B., as at Cambridge and Dublin. The three ancient universities of England and Ireland confer degrees in music. Anciently degrees in grammar, doctorate, mastership, and baccalaurenti were given at Oxford or Cambridge. But they fell into disuse in the 17th century.

DEISTS. Those who deny the _existence and necessity_ of any revelation, and profess to acknowledge that the being of a GOD is the chief article of their belief. The term Deist is derived from the Latin word _Deus_, GOD. The same persons are frequently called infidels, on account of their incredulity, or want of belief in the Christian dispensation of religion.—Consult _Boyle’s Lectures_, _Leland’s View of Deistical Writers_, _Leslie’s Short and Easy Method with the Deists_, _Watson’s Apology for the Bible_.

Dr. Clarke, (_Evidences of Nat. and Rev. Rel._ Introd.,) taking the denomination in its most extensive signification, distinguishes deists into four sorts. The first are, such as pretend to believe the existence of an eternal, infinite, independent, intelligent Being; and who, to avoid the name of Epicurean Atheists, teach also, that this Supreme Being made the world; though, at the same time, they agree with the Epicureans in this, that they fancy, GOD does not at all concern himself in the government of the world, nor has any regard to, or care of, what is done therein.

The second sort of deists are those, who believe, not only the being, but also the providence of GOD, with respect to the natural world; but who, not allowing any difference between moral good and evil, deny that GOD takes any notice of the morally good or evil actions of men; these things depending, as they imagine, on the arbitrary constitution of human laws.

A third sort of deists there are, who, having right apprehensions concerning the natural attributes of GOD, and his all-governing providence, and some notion of his moral perfections also; yet, being prejudiced against the notion of the immortality of the human soul, believe, that men perish entirely at death, and that one generation shall perpetually succeed another, without any future restoration or renovation of things.

A fourth, and the last sort of deists, are such, as believe the existence of a Supreme Being, together with his providence in the government of the world, as also all the obligations of natural religion; but so far only as these things are discoverable by the light of nature alone, without believing any Divine revelation.

These, Dr. Clarke observes, are the only true deists: but, as the principles of these men would naturally lead them to embrace the Christian revelation, he concludes, there is now no consistent scheme of deism in the world. “The heathen philosophers, those few of them, who taught and lived up to the obligations of natural religion, had indeed a consistent scheme of deism so far as it went. But the case is not so now. The same scheme is not any longer consistent with its own principles, if it does not now lead men to believe and embrace revelation, as it then taught them to hope for it. Deists, in our days, who reject revelation when offered to them, are not such men as Socrates and Cicero were; but, under pretence of deism, it is plain, they are generally ridiculers of all that is truly excellent in natural religion itself. Their trivial and vain cavils; their mocking and ridiculing, without and before examination; their directing the whole stress of their objections against particular customs, or particular and perhaps uncertain opinions, or explications of opinions, without at all considering the main body of religion; their loose, vain, and frothy discourses; and, above all, their vicious and immoral lives; show plainly and undeniably, that they are not really deists, but mere atheists; and consequently not capable to judge of the truth of Christianity.”

“We are fallen into an age, (says another learned author, _Jenkyns, Reasonableness of Christ. Relig._ in the Preface,) in which there are a sort of men, who have shown so great a forwardness to be no longer Christians, that have catched at all the little cavils and pretences against religion—but they both think and live so ill, that it is an argument for the goodness of any cause that they are against it. It was urged as a confirmation of the Christian religion by Tertullian, that it was hated and persecuted by Nero, the worst of men: and I am confident, it would be but small reputation to it in any age, if such men should be fond of it. They speak evil of the things they understand not, and are wont to talk with as much confidence against any point of religion, as if they had all the learning in the world in their keeping, when commonly they know little or nothing of what has been said for that against which they dispute.”

Prateolus (_Elench. Hæres._) mentions a sect of deists (as they were called) which sprung up in Poland, in the year 1564. They were a branch of the Lutherans, and, coming into France in 1566, settled at Lyons. Their leader (he tells us) was one Gregorius Pauli, a minister of Cracow. They boasted, that GOD had bestowed on them much greater gifts than on Luther and others, and that the destruction of Antichrist was reserved for them. They asserted, that there is one nature, or Deity, common to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but not one and the same essence; and that the Father alone is the one only true GOD.

These deists (as Prateolus calls them) ought rather to be denominated Arians.

DELEGATES. The court of delegates was so called, because these delegates sat by force of the king’s commission under the great seal, upon an appeal to the king in the court of Chancery, in three causes: 1. When a sentence was given in any ecclesiastical cause by the archbishop or his official: 2. When any sentence was given in any ecclesiastical cause in places exempt: 3. When a sentence was given in the admiral’s court, in suit civil and marine, by the order of the civil laws. And these commissioners were called delegates, because they were delegated by the king’s commission for these purposes.

For the origin of the high court of delegates, see 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12, and 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, §4. By the 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 92, the powers of the high court of delegates, both in ecclesiastical and maritime causes, are transferred to her Majesty in council; which transfer is further regulated by the 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 41, and by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 69. This act does not extend to Ireland.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, consists of

The Lord President. │ The Lord Chancellor. │ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────── The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. │Provided they be │ councillors. The Chief Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench. │ „ The Master of the Rolls. │ „ The Vice-chancellor. │ „ The Chief Justice of the Court ofCommon Pleas. │ „ The Chief Baron of the Exchequer. │ „ The Judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.│ „ The Judge of the Admiralty Court. │ „ The Chief Judge of the Bankruptcy Court. │ „ All who have held the aforenamed offices. │ „ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────── Two privy-councillors appointed by the sign-manual. │

No matter is to be heard unless in the presence of at least four members of the committee; and no report or recommendation made to the Crown, unless a majority of the members present at the hearing shall concur in such report or recommendation.

DEMIURGE. (From δημιουργὸς, an artificer.) The name given by some Gnostic sects to the Creator of the world, who, according to them, was different from the supreme GOD. (See _Gnostics_.)

DEMONIACS. Persons possessed of the devil. That the persons spoken of in the New Testament as possessed of the devil, were not simply lunatics, is clear from a mere perusal of the facts recorded. The devils owned CHRIST to be the Messiah; they besought him not to torment them; they passed into the swine and drove them into the sea. The manner in which our LORD addressed the demoniacs clearly shows that they were really such: he not only rebuked the devils, but called them unclean spirits, asking them questions, commanding them to come out, &c. We find also that, for some time, in the early ages of the Church, demoniacs existed, as there was a peculiar service appointed in the Church for their cure. (See _Energumens_.)

DENARII DE CARITATE. (_Lat._) Customary oblations, anciently made to cathedral churches, about the time of Pentecost, when the parish priests, and many of their parishioners, went in procession to visit their mother-church. This custom was afterwards changed into a settled due, and usually charged upon the parish priest, though at first it was but a gift of _charity_, or present, towards the support and ornament of the bishop’s see.

DENOMINATIONS, THE THREE. The general body of dissenting ministers of London and Westminster form an association so styled, which was organized in 1727. The object of the association appears to be political. The Three Denominations are, the Presbyterian, (now Socinian,) Independent, and Baptist.

DEO GRATIAS. (_Lat._) _God be thanked_. A form of salutation, anciently used by Christians, when they accosted each other. The Donatists ridiculed the use of it; which St. Augustine defended, affirming, that a Christian had reason to return God thanks when he met a brother Christian. It is at present used only in the sacred offices of the Romish Church. We have something like it in the _Communion Service_ of our own Church, in which the minister says, _Let us give thanks unto our Lord God_.

DEPOSITION. (See _Degradation_.)

DEPRECATIONS. (See _Litany_.)

DEPRIVATION is an ecclesiastical sentence, whereby a clergyman is deprived of his parsonage, vicarage, or other spiritual promotion or dignity.

By Canon 122. Sentence against a minister, of deprivation from his living, “shall be pronounced by the bishop only with the assistance of his chancellor and the dean, (if they may conveniently be had,) and some of the prebendaries, if the court be kept near the cathedral church; or of the archdeacon, if he may be had conveniently, and two other at the least grave ministers and preachers to be called by the bishop, when the court is kept in other places.”

The causes of deprivation may be reduced to three heads, viz. to want of capacity, contempt, and crimes. Nonconformity is thus specially punished by 1 Eliz. c. 2, 13 Eliz. c. 12, 14 Car. II. c. 4. Dilapidation used to be held a good cause of deprivation, yet that it has ever been inflicted as a punishment of dilapidation does not appear, either by the books of common or canon law. In all causes of deprivation, where a person is in actual possession of an ecclesiastical benefice, these things must concur: 1st, A monition or citation of the party to appear: 2nd, A charge given against him by way of libel or articles, to which he is to give an answer: 3rd, A competent time must be assigned, for proofs and interrogatories: 4th, The person accused shall have the liberty of counsel to defend his cause, to except against witnesses, and to bring legal proofs against them: and 5th, There must be a solemn sentence, read by the bishop, after hearing the merits of the cause, or pleadings on both sides. These are the fundamentals of all judicial proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts, in order to a deprivation. And if these things be not observed, the party has a just cause of appeal, and may have a remedy in a superior court.

By 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 31, spiritual persons trading contrary to the provisions of that act, may be, for the third offence, deprived.

DESK. This is the name usually given to the pulpit or pew in which morning and evening prayers are sung or said in the English churches. The using of this pulpit for prayer is peculiar to the English Church, and has a very unpleasant effect. The First Prayer Book of Edward VI. ordered “the priest, _being in the choir_, to begin the LORD’S Prayer, called Pater Noster, (with which the morning and evening services then began,) with a loud voice:” so that it was at that time the custom for the minister to sing or say the morning and evening prayer, not in a desk or pulpit, but at the upper end of the choir or chancel, near the altar, towards which, whether standing or kneeling, he always turned his face in the prayers. This gave great offence, however, though it had been the custom of the Church of England for many hundred years, to some superstitious weaker brethren, who so far forgot their charity as to call it anti-Christian. The outcry, however frivolous and vexatious, prevailed so far, that when, in the fifth year of King Edward, the Prayer Book was altered, the following rubric appeared instead of the old one, viz. “The morning and evening prayers shall be used in such places of the church, chapel, or chancel, and the minister shall so turn him, as the people best may hear. And if there be any controversy therein, the matter shall be referred to the ordinary, and he or his deputy shall appoint the place.” This caused great contentions—the more orthodox kneeling in the old way, and singing or saying the prayers in the chancel, and the innovators, or _ultra_-Protestants, adopting _new_ forms, and performing all the services in the body of the church. In the reign of Elizabeth, the rubric was brought to its present form: “that the morning and evening prayers shall be used in the accustomed place in the church, chapel, or chancel,” by which was clearly meant the choir or chancel, which had been for centuries the accustomed place; and it cannot be supposed that the Second Book of Edward, which lasted only one year and a half, could establish a custom. A dispensing power, however, was left with the ordinary, who might determine it otherwise, if he saw just cause. Pursuant to this rubric, the morning and evening services were again, as formerly, sung or said in the chancel or choir. But in some churches, owing to the too great distance of the chancel from the body of the church, in others owing to the ultra-Protestant superstition of the parishioners, the ordinaries permitted the clergy to leave the chancel, and read prayers from a pew in the body of the church. This innovation and novelty, begun first by some few ordinaries, and recommended by them to others, grew by degrees to be more general, till at last it came to be the universal practice; insomuch that the convocation, in the beginning of King James the First’s reign, ordered that in every church there should be a convenient seat made for the minister to read service in. In new churches, where there can be no complaint of the size of the chancels, there seems to be no reason why the ordinaries should not now remove the desk, and send the clergy back to their proper place, to sing or say the prayers in the chancel. At all events, they might get rid of that unsightly nuisance, a second pulpit instead of a reading pew. If the prayers are to be preached to the people, as well as the sermon, one pulpit might suffice. It is gratifying to know, that since the article was written in the first edition of this work, this disfigurement of our churches has been very generally removed. It is to be observed, that the word does not once occur in the Prayer Book.

DEUS MISEREATUR. The Latin name for Psalm lxvii., which may be used after the second lesson at evening prayers, instead of the _Nunc Dimittis_, except on the twelfth day of the month, when it occurs among the psalms of the day. It was first inserted in our service in the Second Book of King Edward VI.

DEUTERONOMY. A canonical book of the Old Testament. The word implies a _second law_, the principal design of it being, _a repetition_ of the laws already delivered; which was a necessary thing, inasmuch as the Israelites, who had heard it before, were dead in the wilderness, and there was sprung up another generation of men, who had not heard the Decalogue, or any other of the laws openly proclaimed. It contains likewise some new laws; such as the taking down malefactors from the tree in the evening; the making of battlements on the roofs of houses; the expiation of an unknown murder; the punishment to be inflicted upon a rebellious son; the distinction of the sexes by apparel; the marrying a brother’s wife after his decease: as also, orders and injunctions concerning divorce; laws concerning men-stealers; concerning unjust weights and measures; concerning the marrying of a captive woman; concerning servants that desert their master’s service; and several other laws, not only ecclesiastical and civil, but also military. There are inserted likewise some transactions, which happened in the last year of the travels of the Israelites through the wilderness.

Deuteronomy is the last book of the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; though some have questioned whether it was written by that legislator, because, in the last chapter, mention is made of his death and burial, and of the succession of Joshua after him. But this only proves that the last chapter was not written by Moses, but added by some other person; most probably by Ezra, when he published an edition of the Holy Scriptures. (See _Pentateuch_.)

DEVIL. From Διάβολος, which signifies an accuser, or calumniator. The two words, Devil and Satan, are used in Scripture to signify the same wicked spirit, who with many others, his angels or under-agents, is fighting against GOD; and who has dominion over all the sons of Adam, except the regenerate; and who is, in his kingdom of this world, the nearest imaginable approximation, at infinite distance indeed, to the omnipotence of the GODHEAD.

DIACONATE. The office or order of a deacon. (See _Deacon_.)

DIACONICUM. (_Gr._ and _Lat._) This word has different significations in ecclesiastical authors. Sometimes it is taken for that part of the ancient _church_ in which the deacons used to sit during the performance of Divine service, namely, at the rails of the altar; sometimes for a building adjoining to the church, in which the sacred vessels and habits were laid up; sometimes for that part of the public prayers which the deacons pronounced. Lastly, it denotes an ecclesiastical book, in which are contained all things relating to the duty and office of a deacon, according to the rites of the Greek Church.

DIAPER. In church architecture, a decoration of large surfaces with a constantly recurring pattern, either carved or painted. Norman diapers are usually either fretted or zigzag lines, or imbrications of the masonry; and not only plain surfaces, but pillars, and small shafts, and even mouldings, are diapered, as the cable moulding surrounding the nave at Rochester. In the succeeding styles, flowers and leaves are the most frequent patterns, which, in the Geometrical style, are often of extreme beauty and delicacy. After the fourteenth century, diapers are painted only, and now even the hollows of mouldings are thus treated.

DIET. The assembly of the states of Germany. We shall only notice the more remarkable of those which have been held on the affairs of religion.

The Diet of Worms, in 1521, where Alexander, the pope’s nuncio, having charged Luther with heresy, the Duke of Saxony said, that Luther ought to be heard; which the emperor granted, and sent him a pass, provided he did not preach on this journey. Being come to Worms, he protested that he would not recant unless they would show him his errors by the word of GOD alone, and not by that of men; wherefore the emperor soon after outlawed him by an edict.

The first Diet of Nuremberg was held in 1523, when Francis Cheregat, Adrian VI.’s nuncio, demanded the execution of Leo X.’s bull, and of Charles V.’s edict, published at Worms, against Luther: but it was answered, that it was necessary to call a council in Germany, to satisfy the nation about its grievances, which were reduced to a hundred articles, some whereof struck at the pope’s authority, and the discipline of the Roman Church: they added that, in the interim, the Lutherans should be commanded not to write against the Roman Catholics, &c. All these things were brought into the form of an edict, and published in the emperor’s name.

The second Diet of Nuremberg was in 1524. Cardinal Cangegio, Pope Clement VII.’s legate, entered the town incognito, for fear of exasperating the people there: the Lutherans having the advantage, it was decreed that, with the emperor’s consent, the pope should call a council in Germany; but, in the interim, an assembly should be held at Spire, to determine what was to be believed and practised; and that to obey the emperor, the princes ought to order the observance of the edict of Worms as strictly as they could. Charles, angry at this, commanded that edict to be very strictly observed, and prohibited the assembly at Spire.

The first Diet of Spire was held in 1526. The emperor Charles V. being then held in Spain, named his brother, Archduke Ferdinand, to preside over that assembly, where the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse demanded a full and free exercise of the Lutheran religion, so that the Lutherans preached there publicly against Popery; and the Lutheran princes’ servants had these five capital letters, V.D. M.I.Æ., embroidered on their sleeves, signifying, _Verbum Dei manet in Æternum_, to show publicly they would follow nothing else but the pure word of GOD. The archduke, not daring to oppose this, proposed two things, the first concerning the Popish religion, which was to be maintained in observing the edict of Worms; and the second concerning the aid demanded by Lewis, king of Hungary, against the Turks: the Lutherans prevailing about the first, it was decreed, that the emperor should be desired to call a general or national council in Germany within a year, and that in the mean time every one was to have liberty of conscience, and whilst they were deliberating in vain about the second, King Lewis was defeated and slain at the battle of Mohatz.

The second Diet of Spire was held in 1529. It was decreed against the Lutherans, that wherever the edict of Worms was received, it shall be lawful for nobody to change his opinion; but in the countries where the new religion (as they termed it) was received, it should be lawful to continue in it till the next council, if the old religion could not be reestablished there without sedition. Nevertheless the mass was not to be abolished there, and no Roman Catholic was allowed to turn Lutheran; that the Sacramentarians should be banished out of the empire, and the Anabaptists put to death; and that preachers should nowhere preach against the doctrine of the Church of Rome. This decree destroying that of the first Diet, six Lutheran princes, viz. the Elector of Saxony, the Marquis of Brandenburg, the two Dukes of Lunenburg, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Prince of Anhalt, with the deputies of fourteen imperial towns, protested in writing, two days after, in the assembly, against that decree, which they would not obey, it being contrary to the gospel; and appealed to the general or national council, to the emperor, and to any other unprejudiced judge. From this solemn protestation came that famous name of _Protestants_, which the Lutherans took presently, and the Calvinists and other reformed Christians afterwards. They also protested against contributing anything towards the war against the Turks, till after the exercise of their religion was free in all Germany. Next year the emperor held the famous Diet of Augsburg.

The first Diet of Augsburg was called in the year 1530, by the emperor Charles V., to reunite the princes about some matters of religion, and to join them all together against the Turks. Here the Elector of Saxony, followed by many princes, presented the confession of faith called the Confession of Augsburg. The conference about matters of faith and discipline being concluded, the emperor ended the Diet by a decree, that nothing should be altered in the doctrine and ceremonies of the Church of Rome till a council should order it otherwise.

The second Diet of Augsburg was held in 1547. The electors being divided concerning the decisions of the Council of Trent, the emperor demanded that the management of this affair should be left to him, and it was resolved, that every one should conform to the council’s decisions.

The third Diet of Augsburg was held in 1548, when, the commissioners named to examine some memoirs about a confession of faith, not agreeing together, the emperor named three divines, who drew the design of that famous _Interim_ so well known in Germany and elsewhere.

The fourth Diet of Augsburg was held in 1550, when the emperor complained that the Interim was not observed, and demanded that all should submit to the council, which they were going to renew at Trent; but Duke Maurice, one of Saxony’s deputies, protested that their master did submit to the council on this condition, that the divines of the Confession of Augsburg not only should be heard there, but should vote also like the Roman Catholic bishops, and that the pope should not preside: but, by plurality of votes, submission to the council was resolved on.

The first Diet of Ratisbon was held in 1541, for uniting the Protestants to the Church of Rome. The pope’s legate having altered the twenty-two articles drawn up by the Protestant divines, the emperor proposed to choose some learned divines that might agree peaceably upon the articles, and being desired by the Diet to choose them himself, he named three Papists, viz. Julius Phlugus, John Gropperus, and John Eckius; and three Protestants, viz. Philip Melancthon, Martin Bucer, and John Pistorius. After an examination and dispute of a whole month, those divines could never agree upon more than five or six articles, wherein the Diet still found some difficulties; wherefore the emperor, to end these controversies, ordered by an edict, that the decision of those doctors should be reserved to a general council, or to the national council of all Germany, or to the next Diet eighteen months after; and that, in the mean while, the Protestants should keep the articles agreed on, forbidding them to solicit anybody to change the old religion, (as they called it,) &c. But to gratify the Protestants in some measure, he gave them leave, by patent, to retain their religion, notwithstanding the edict.

The second Diet at Ratisbon was held in 1546: none of the Protestant confederate princes appeared; so that it was easily decreed here, by plurality of votes, that the Council of Trent was to be followed, which yet the Protestant deputies opposed, and this caused a war against them.

The third Diet of Ratisbon was held in 1557: the assembly demanded a conference between some famous doctors of both parties; which conference, held at Worms, between twelve Lutheran and as many Popish divines, was soon dissolved by the Lutherans’ division among themselves.—_Broughton._

DIGNITARY. One who holds cathedral or other preferment to which jurisdiction is annexed.

The dignitaries in British cathedrals are, for the most part, the dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, and archdeacon. Sometimes the _subdean_ and _succentor canonicorum_ are so called; and in a few churches in Ireland, the _provost_, and _sacrist_ (or treasurer). The only dignitary in cathedrals of the new foundation is the _dean_; as the archdeacon is not necessarily a member of such chapters. It is a vulgar error to style prebendaries, or canons residentiary, dignitaries. The prebendaries without dignity were styled _canonici_ (or _prebendarii_) _simplices_.—_Jebb._

DILAPIDATION is the incumbent suffering the chancel, or any other edifices, of his ecclesiastical living, to go to ruin or decay, by neglecting to repair the same; and it likewise extends to his committing, or suffering to be committed, any wilful waste in or upon the glebe, woods, or any other inheritance of the church. By the injunctions of King Edward VI. it is required, “that the proprietors, parsons, vicars, and clerks, having churches, chapels, or mansions, shall yearly bestow on the said mansions or chancels of their churches, being in decay, the fifth part of their benefices, till they be fully repaired; and the same being thus repaired, they shall always keep and maintain them in good estate.”—See _Art. XIII. of Queen Elizabeth’s Injunctions_.

By the constitutions of Othobon it is ordained, that “all clerks shall take care decently to repair the houses of their benefices and other buildings, as need shall require, whereunto they shall be earnestly admonished by their bishops or archdeacons; and if any of them, after the monition of the bishops or archdeacons, shall neglect to do the same for the space of two months, the bishop shall cause the same effectually to be done, at the cost and charges of such clerk, out of the profits of his church and benefice, by the authority of this present statute, causing so much thereof to be received as shall be sufficient for such reparation: the chancels also of the church they shall cause to be repaired by those who are bound thereunto according as is above expressed; also we do enjoin, by attestation of the Divine judgment, the archbishops and bishops, and other inferior prelates, that they do keep in repair their houses and other edifices, by causing such reparation to be made as they know to be needful.”—See 13 Eliz. c. 10; 17 Geo. III. c. 53; 21 Geo. III. c. 66; _Gibson’s Codex_, pp. 751–754, and _Hodgson’s Instructions to the Clergy_.

DIMISSORY LETTERS. In the ancient Christian Church, they were letters granted to the clergy, when they were to remove from their own diocese and settle in another, to testify, that they had the bishop’s leave to _depart_; whence they were called _Dimissoriæ_, and sometimes _Pacificæ_.

In the Church of England, _dimissory letters_ are such as are used when a candidate for holy orders has a title in one diocese, and is to be ordained in another; in which case the proper diocesan sends his letters, directed to the ordaining bishop, giving leave that the bearer may be ordained by him.

Persons inferior to bishops cannot grant these letters, unless the bishop shall, by special commission, grant this power to his vicar-general; or unless the bishop be at a great distance from his diocese, in which case his vicar-general in spirituals may grant such licence as the chapter of a cathedral may do _sede vacante_; or, lastly, when a bishop is taken prisoner by the enemy, for then the chapter exercises the same rights and powers as if the bishop were naturally dead.

DIOCESE. The circuit of a bishop’s jurisdiction. The ecclesiastical division in England is, primarily, into two provinces, those of Canterbury and York. In Ireland into two, Armagh and Dublin; till lately, however, into four, Cashel and Tuam, besides the two now mentioned. A province is a circuit of an archbishop’s jurisdiction. Each province contains divers dioceses, or sees of suffragan bishops; whereof Canterbury includes twenty, and York five. Armagh and Dublin, five each; though till lately Armagh had seven, Dublin three, Cashel five, and Tuam three. Though, properly speaking, the Irish dioceses are far more numerous, as most of the bishops have more than one see under their jurisdiction; which nevertheless, though thus united as to episcopal government, have their separate chapters, ecclesiastical officers, &c. Every diocese in England is divided into archdeaconries, and each archdeaconry into rural deaneries, and every deanery into parishes. In Ireland, there is but one archdeaconry to each diocese, though in two instances, those of Glendaloch and Aghadoe, these dioceses have been so long united to the adjacent sees, that their boundaries are now unknown, and consequently the diocese of Dublin and Ardfert have apparently, though not really, two archdeacons each. The division into rural deaneries and parishes is as in England.

The division of the Church into dioceses may be viewed as a natural consequence of the institution of the office of bishops. The authority to exercise jurisdiction, when committed to several hands, requires that some boundaries be defined within which each party may employ his powers; otherwise disorder and confusion would ensue, and the Church, instead of being benefited by the appointment of governors, might be exposed to the double calamity of an overplus of them in one district, and a total deficiency of them in another. Hence we find, so early as the New Testament history, some plain indications of the rise of the diocesan system, in the cases respectively of James, bishop of Jerusalem; Timothy, bishop of Ephesus; Titus, of Crete, to whom may be added the “angels” or bishops of the seven churches in Asia. These were placed in cities, and had jurisdiction over the churches and inferior clergy in those cities, and probably in the country adjacent. The first dioceses were formed by planting a bishop in a city or considerable village, where he officiated regularly, and took the spiritual charge, not only of the city itself, but of the suburbs, or region lying round about it, within the verge of its [civil] jurisdiction; which seems to be the plain reason of that great and visible difference which we find in the extent of dioceses, some being very large, others very small, according as the civil government of each city happened to have a larger or lesser jurisdiction.

Thus, in our own Church, there were at first only seven bishoprics, and these were commensurate with the Saxon kingdoms. Since that time our Church has thought fit to lessen the size of her dioceses, and to multiply them into above twenty; and if she thought fit to add forty or a hundred more, she would not be without precedent in the primitive Church. It is a great misfortune to the Church of England that her dioceses, compared with the population, are so extensive and so few. It is impossible for our bishops to perform all their canonical duties, such as visiting _annually every parish_ in the diocese, inspecting schools, Divine service, instruction, &c., besides baptizing, confirming, consecrating. Episcopal extension, as well as Church extension, is most important. We must seek to add to the number of our bishops. There will be prejudices and difficulties for some time to be overcome on the part of the State, which is not sufficiently religious to tolerate an increase in the number of spiritual peers. An addition to the number of our spiritual peers is however not what we seek, but that our spiritual pastors may be more numerous.

The ancient bishoprics being baronies, the possessors of them might sit in parliament; while the new bishoprics, not having baronies attached, might only qualify for a seat in the upper house of convocation. The beginning of a new system was made on the erection of the see of Manchester, in 1847, since which time the junior bishop has no seat in the House of Lords.

DIOCESAN. A bishop, as he stands related to his diocese. (See _Bishop_.)

DIPPERS. (See _Dunkers_.)

DIPTYCH. A kind of sacred book, or register, made use of in the ancient Christian Church, and in which were written the names of such eminent bishops, saints, and martyrs, as were particularly to be commemorated, just before oblation was made for the dead. It was called _diptych_ (δίπτυχος) from its being _folded together_; and it was the deacon’s office to recite the names written in it, as occasion required. Some distinguish three sorts of diptychs: one, wherein the names of bishops only were written, such especially as had been governors of that particular church; a second, in which the names of the living were written, such in particular as were eminent for any office or dignity, or some benefaction and good work, in which rank were bishops, emperors, and magistrates; lastly, a third, containing the names of such as were deceased in catholic communion.

Theodoret mentions these kind of registers in relation to the case of St. Chrysostom, whose name, for some time, was left out of the diptychs, because he died under the sentence of excommunication, pronounced against him by Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, and other Eastern bishops, with whom the Western Church would not communicate until they had replaced his name in the diptychs; for, to erase a person’s name out of these books was the same thing as declaring him to have been an heretic, or some way deviating from the faith.—_Bingham._

DIRECTORY. A kind of regulation for the performance of religious worship, drawn up by the Assembly of Divines in England, at the instance of the parliament, in the year 1644. It was designed to supply the place of the Liturgy, or Book of _Common Prayer_, the use of which the parliament had abolished. It consisted only of some general heads, which were to be managed and filled up at discretion; for it prescribed no form of prayer or circumstances of external worship, nor obliged the people to any responses, excepting _Amen_. The use of the _Directory_ was enforced by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons at Westminster, which was repeated August 3rd, 1645. By this injunction, the Directory was ordered to be dispersed and published in all parishes, chapelries, donatives, &c. In opposition to this injunction, King Charles issued a proclamation at Oxford, November 13th, 1645, enjoining the use of the Common Prayer according to law, notwithstanding the pretended ordinances for the new Directory.

To give a short abstract of the Directory: It forbids all salutations and civil ceremony in the churches. The reading the Scripture in the congregation is declared to be part of the pastoral office. All the canonical books of the Old and New Testament (but none of the _Apocrypha_) are to be publicly read in the vulgar tongue. How large a portion is to be read at once is left to the minister, who has likewise the liberty of _expounding_, when he judges it necessary. It prescribes heads for the prayer before sermon; among which part of the prayer for the king is, _to save him from evil counsel_. It delivers rules for managing the _sermon_; the introduction to the text must be short and clear, drawn from the words or context, or some parallel place of Scripture; in dividing the text, the minister is to regard the order of the matter more than that of the words; he is not to burden the memory of his audience with too many divisions, nor perplex their understandings with logical phrases and terms of art; he is not to start unnecessary objections; and he is to be very sparing in citations from ecclesiastical, or other human writers, ancient or modern.

The Directory recommends the use of the LORD’S Prayer, as the most perfect model of devotion. It forbids private or lay persons to administer baptism, and enjoins it to be performed in the face of the congregation. It orders the communion table at the LORD’S supper to be so placed that the communicants may sit about it. The dead, according to the rules of the Directory, are to be buried without any prayers or religious ceremony.

The Roman Catholics publish an annual Directory for their laity, which serves the purpose of a book of reference in matters of ceremonial as settled by their communion.—_Broughton._

DISCIPLE, in the first sense of the word, means one who _learns_ any thing from another. Hence the followers of any teacher, philosopher, or head of a sect, are usually called his _disciples_. In the Christian sense of the term, _disciples_ are the followers of JESUS CHRIST in general; but, in a more restrained sense, it denotes those who were the immediate followers and attendants on his person. The names _disciple_ and _apostle_ are often used synonymously in the gospel history; but sometimes the apostles are distinguished from disciples, as persons selected out of the number of disciples, to be the principal ministers of his religion. Of these there were twelve; whereas those who are simply styled _disciples_ were seventy, or seventy-two, in number. There was not as yet any catalogue of the disciples in Eusebius’s time, i. e. in the fourth century. The Latins kept the festival of the seventy or seventy-two disciples on the 15th of July, and the Greeks on 4th of January.

DISCIPLINE, ECCLESIASTICAL. The Christian Church being a spiritual community or society of persons professing the religion of JESUS, and, as such, governed by spiritual or ecclesiastical laws, her discipline consists in putting those laws in execution, and inflicting the penalties enjoined by them against several sorts of offenders. To understand the true nature of church discipline, we must consider how it stood in the ancient Christian Church. And, first,

The primitive Church never pretended to exercise discipline upon any but such as were within her pale, in the largest sense, by some act of their own profession; and even upon these she never pretended to exercise her discipline so far as to cancel or disannul their baptism. But the discipline of the Church consisted in a power to deprive men of the benefits of external communion, such as public prayer, receiving the eucharist, and other acts of Divine worship. This power, before the establishment of the Church by human laws, was a mere spiritual authority, or, as St. Cyprian terms it, a spiritual sword, affecting the soul, and not the body. Sometimes, indeed, the Church craved assistance from the secular power, even when it was heathen, but more frequently after it was become Christian. But it is to be observed, that the Church never encouraged the magistrate to proceed against any one for mere error, or ecclesiastical misdemeanour, further than to punish the delinquent by a pecuniary mulct, or bodily punishment, such as confiscation or banishment; and St. Austin affirms, that no good men in the Catholic Church were pleased that heretics should be prosecuted unto death. Lesser punishments, they thought, might have their use, as means sometimes to bring them to consideration and repentance.

Nor was it a part of the ancient discipline to deprive men of their natural or civil rites. A master did not lose his authority over his family, a parent over his children, nor a magistrate his office and charge in the state, by being cast out of the Church. But the discipline of the Church being a mere spiritual power, was confined to, 1. The admonition of the offender; 2. The lesser and greater excommunication.

As to the objects of ecclesiastical discipline, they were all such delinquents as fell into great and scandalous crimes after baptism, whether men or women, priests or people, rich or poor, princes or subjects. That princes and magistrates fell under the Church’s censures, may be proved by several instances; particularly St. Chrysostom relates, that Babylas denied communion to one of the Roman emperors on account of a barbarous murder committed by him: St. Ambrose likewise denied communion to Maximus for shedding the blood of Gratian; and the same holy bishop absolutely refused to admit the emperor Theodosius the Great into his church, notwithstanding his humblest entreaties, because he had inhumanly put to death 7000 men at Thessalonica, without distinguishing the innocent from the guilty.

DISPENSATION. The providential dealing of GOD with his creatures. We thus speak of the Jewish dispensation and the Christian dispensation. (See _Covenant of Redemption_.)

In ecclesiastical law, by dispensation is meant the power vested in archbishops of dispensing, on particular emergencies, with certain minor regulations of the Church, more especially in her character as an establishment.

DISSENTERS. Separatists from the Church of England, and the service and worship thereof, whether Protestants or Papists. At the Revolution a law was enacted, that the statutes of Elizabeth and James I., concerning the discipline of the Church, should not extend to Protestant Dissenters. But persons dissenting were to subscribe the declaration of 30 Car. II. c. 1, and take the oath or declaration of fidelity, &c. They are not to hold their meetings until their place of worship is certified to the bishop, or to the justices of the quarter sessions, and registered; also they are not to keep the doors of their meeting-houses locked during the time of worship. Whoever disturbs or molests them in the performance of their worship, on conviction at the sessions, is to forfeit £20 by the statute of 1 W. & M.—_Broughton_.

At the present time there are in England 34 dissenting communities or sects; 26 native or indigenous, 9 foreign.

PROTESTANT SECTS.

Scottish Presbyterians:

_Church of Scotland._

_United Presbyterian Synod._

_Presbyterian Church in England._

Independents, or Congregationalists.

Baptists:

_General._

_Particular._

_Seventh Day._

_Scotch._

_New Connexion General._

Society of Friends.

Unitarians.

Moravians, or United Brethren.

Wesleyan Methodists:

_Original Connexion._

_New Connexion._

_Primitive Methodists._

_Bible Christians._

_Wesleyan Association._

_Independent Methodists._

_Wesleyan Reformers._

Calvinistic Methodists:

_Welsh Calvinistic Methodists._

_Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion._

Sandemanians, or Glassites.

New Church.

Brethren.

_FOREIGN:_

Lutherans.

German Protestant Reformers.

Reformed Church of the Netherlands.

French Protestants.

OTHER CHRISTIAN SECTS.

Roman Catholics.

Greek Church.

German Catholics.

Italian Reformers.

Irvingites, or Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Latter-day Saints, or Mormons.

_JEWS._

_Registrar-general’s Report._

DIVINE. Something relating to GOD; a minister of the gospel; a priest; a theologian. (See _Clergy_.)

DIVINITY. The science of Divine things; theology; a title of the GODHEAD. (See _Theology_.) In strictness, meaning that department of sacred knowledge which has more peculiar reference to the attributes and essence of GOD.

DIVORCE. A separation of a married man and woman by the sentence of an ecclesiastical judge qualified to pronounce the same.

Among us, divorces are of two kinds, _à mensâ et thoro_, from bed and board; and _à vinculo matrimonii_, from the marriage tie. The former neither dissolves the marriage, nor debars the woman of her dower, nor bastardizes the issue; but the latter absolutely dissolves the marriage contract, making it void from the very beginning. The causes of a divorce _à mensâ et thoro_ are adultery, cruelty of the husband, &c.; those of a divorce _à vinculo matrimonii_, precontract, consanguinity, impotency, &c. On this divorce the dower is gone, and the children, if any begotten, bastardized. On a divorce for adultery, some acts of parliament have allowed the innocent person to marry again.

DOCETÆ. Heretics, so called ἀπὸ τοῦ δοκέειν (_apparere_), because they taught that our LORD had only a _seeming_ body, and that his actions and sufferings were not in reality, but in appearance. There was in the second century a sect which especially bore this name; but the Docetic error was common to many kinds of Gnostics. (See _Gnostics_.)

DOCTOR. One who has the highest degree in the faculties of divinity, law, physic, or music. (See _Degree_.)

DOCTRINE. A system of teaching. By Christian doctrine should be intended the principles or positions of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

DOGMA. A word used originally to express any doctrine of religion formally stated. _Dogmatic_ theology is the statement of positive truths in religion. The indifference of later generations to positive truth is indicated, among other things, by the different notion which has come to be attached, in common discourse, to these words. By a _dogma_ is now generally meant too positive or harsh a statement of uncertain or unimportant articles; and the epithet _dogmatic_ is given to one who is rude or obtrusive, or overbearing in the statement of what he judges to be true.

DOMINICAL or SUNDAY LETTER. In the calendar, the first seven letters of the alphabet are applied to the days of the week, the letter A being always given to the 1st of January, whatsoever that day may be, and the others in succession to the following days. If the year consisted of 364 days, making an exact number of weeks, it is evident that no change would ever take place in these letters: thus, supposing the 1st of January in any given year to be Sunday, all the Sundays would be represented by A, not only in that year, but in all succeeding. There being, however, 365 days in the year, the first letter is again repeated on the 31st of December, and consequently the Sunday letter for the following year will be G. This retrocession of the letters will, from the same cause, continue every year, so as to make F the dominical letter of the third, &c. If every year were common, the process would continue regularly, and a cycle of seven years would suffice to restore the same letters to the same days as before. But the intercalation of a day, every bissextile or fourth year, has occasioned a variation in this respect. The bissextile year, containing 366 instead of 365 days, will throw the dominical letter of the following year back two letters, so that if the dominical letter at the beginning of the year be C, the dominical letter of the next year will be, not B, but A. This alteration is not effected by dropping a letter altogether, but by changing the dominical letter at the end of February, where the intercalation of a day takes place. In consequence of this change every fourth year, twenty-eight years must elapse before a complete revolution can take place in the dominical letter, and it is on this circumstance that the period of the solar cycle is founded.

DOMINICAN MONKS. The religious order of Dominic, or _friars preachers_; called in England _Black friars_, and in France _Jacobins_.

Dominic de Guzman was born in the year 1170, at Calaruega, a small town of the diocese of Osma, in Old Castile. According to the Romish legend, his mother, being with child of him, dreamed she was delivered of a little dog, which gave light to all the world, with a flambeau in his mouth. At six years of age he began to study humanity under the direction of his uncle, who was archpriest of the church of Gumyel de Ystan. The time he had to spare from his studies was spent in assisting at divine offices, singing in the churches, and adorning the altars. At thirteen years of age, he was sent to the university of Palencia, in the kingdom of Leon, where he spent six years in the study of philosophy and divinity. From that time he devoted himself to all manner of religious austerities, and he employed his time, successfully, in the conversion of sinners and heretics. This raised his reputation so high, that the bishop of Osma, resolving to reform the canons of his church, cast his eyes upon Dominic for that purpose, whom he invited to take upon him the habit of a canon in the church of Osma. Accordingly, Dominic astonished and edified the canons of Osma by his extraordinary humility, mortification, and other virtues. Some time after, Dominic was ordained priest by the bishop of Osma, and was made sub-prior of the chapter. That prelate, making a scruple of confining so great a treasure to his own church, sent Dominic out to exercise the ministry of an evangelical preacher; accordingly, he went through several provinces, as Galicia, Castile, and Aragon, converting many, till, in the year 1204, the bishop of Osma, being sent ambassador into France, took Dominic with him. In their passage through Languedoc, they were witnesses of the desolation occasioned by the _Albigenses_, and obtained leave of Pope Innocent III. to stay some time in that country, and labour on the conversion of those heretics. Here it was that Dominic resolved to put in execution the design he had long formed, of instituting a religious order, whose principal employment should be, preaching the gospel, converting heretics, defending the faith, and propagating Christianity. By degrees he collected together several persons, inspired with the same zeal, whose number soon increased to sixteen. Pope Innocent III. confirmed this institution, at the request of Dominic, who went to Rome for that purpose. They then agreed to embrace the rule of St. Augustine, to which they added statutes and constitutions which had formerly been observed either by the _Carthusians_, or the _Premonstratenses_. The principal articles enjoined perpetual silence, abstinence from flesh at all times, wearing of woollen, rigorous poverty, and several other austerities.

The first monastery of this order was established at Toulouse, by the bounty of the bishop of Toulouse, and Simon earl of Montfort. From thence Dominic sent out some of the community to several parts, to labour in preaching, which was the main design of his institute. In the year 1218 he founded the convent of Dominicans at Paris, in the _Rue St. Jaques_, from whence they had the name of _Jacobins_. At Metz, in Germany, he founded another monastery of his order; and another, soon after, at Venice. At Rome, he obtained of Pope Honorius III. the church of St. Sabina, where he and his companions took the habit which they pretended the Blessed Virgin showed to the holy Renaud of Orleans, being a white garment and scapular, to which they added a black mantle and hood ending in a point. In 1221, the order had sixty monasteries, being divided into eight provinces, those of Spain, Toulouse, France, Lombardy, Rome, Provence, Germany, and England. St. Dominic, having thus settled and enlarged his order, died at Bologna, August 4th, 1221, and was canonized by Pope Gregory IX., July 13th, 1234.

The order of the Dominicans, after the death of their founder, made a very considerable progress in Europe and elsewhere. They therefore erected four new provinces, namely, those of Greece, Poland, Denmark, and the Holy Land. Afterwards the number of monasteries increased to such a degree, that the order was divided into forty-five provinces, having spread itself into all parts of the world. It has produced a great number of martyrs, confessors, bishops, and holy virgins: there are reckoned of this order 3 popes, 60 cardinals, 150 archbishops, 800 bishops, besides the masters of the sacred palace, who have always been Dominicans.

There are _nuns_ of this order, who owe their foundation to St. Dominic himself, who, whilst he was labouring on the conversion of the _Albigenses_, was so much concerned to see that some gentlemen of Guienne, not having wherewith to maintain their daughters, either sold or gave them to be brought up by heretics, that, with the assistance of the archbishop of Narbonne, and other charitable persons, he laid the foundation of a monastery at Prouille, where those poor maids might be brought up, and supplied with all necessaries for their subsistence. The habit of these religious was a white robe, a tawny mantle, and a black veil. Their founder obliged them to work at certain hours of the day, and particularly to spin yarn and flax. The nuns of this order had above 130 houses in Italy, 45 in France, 50 in Spain, 15 in Portugal, 40 in Germany, and many in Poland, Russia, and other countries. They never eat flesh, excepting in sickness; they wear no linen, and lie on straw beds; but many monasteries have mitigated this austerity.

In the year 1221, Dominic sent Gilbert du Fresney, with twelve brothers, into England, where they founded their first house at Oxford the same year, and soon after another at London. In the year 1276, the mayor and aldermen of the city of London gave them two streets by the river Thames, where they had a very commodious monastery; whence that place is still called _Black Friars_. They had monasteries likewise at Warwick, Canterbury, Stamford, Chelmsford, Dunwich, Ipswich, Norwich, Thetford, Exeter, Brecknock, Langley, and Guildford.

The Dominicans, being fortified with an authority from the court of Rome to preach and take confessions, made great encroachments upon the English bishops and the parochial clergy, insisting upon a liberty of preaching wherever they thought fit. And many persons of quality, especially women, deserted from the parochial clergy, and confessed to the Dominicans, insomuch that the character of the secular clergy was greatly sunk thereby. This innovation made way for a dissoluteness of manners; for the people, being under no necessity of confessing to their parish priest, broke through their duty with less reluctancy, in hopes of meeting with a Dominican confessor, those friars being generally in a travelling motion, making no stay where they came, and strangers to their penitents.—_Brouqhton._

DONATISTS. Schismatics, originally partisans of Donatus, an African by birth, and bishop of _Casæ Nigræ_, in Numidia. A secret hatred against Cecilian, elected bishop of Carthage, notwithstanding the opposition of Donatus, excited the latter to form one of the most pernicious schisms that ever disturbed the peace of the Church. He accused Cecilian of having delivered up the sacred books to the Pagans, and pretended that his election was thereby void, and all those who adhered to him heretics. Under this false pretext of zeal for the Church, he set up for the head of a party, and about the year 312, taught that baptism, administered by heretics, was null; that the Church was not infallible; that it had erred in his time; and that he was to be the restorer of it. But a council, held at Arles in 314, acquitted Cecilian, and declared his election valid.

The schismatics, irritated at this sentence, refused to acquiesce in the decisions of the council; and the more firmly to support their cause, they thought it better to subscribe to the opinions of Donatus, and openly to declaim against the Catholics: they gave out, that the Church was become prostituted; they rebaptized the Catholics; they trod under foot the eucharist consecrated by priests of the Catholic communion; they overthrew their altars, burned their churches, and ran up and down decrying the Church. (See _Circumcellians_.) They had chosen into the place of Cecilian one Majorinus; but he dying soon after, they brought in one Donatus, different from him of _Casæ Nigræ_.

This new head of the cabal used so much violence against the Catholics, that the schismatics took their name from him. But as they could not prove that they composed a true Church, they sent one of their bishops to Rome, who secretly took upon him the title of bishop of Rome. This bishop being dead, the Donatists appointed him a successor. They attempted likewise to send some bishops into Spain, that they might say, their Church began to spread itself everywhere; but it was only in Africa that it could gain any considerable footing, and this want of diffusion was much insisted on by their opponents as an argument against their pretensions.

After many vain efforts to crush this schism, the emperor Honorius assembled a council of bishops at Carthage, in the year 410; where a disputation was held between seven of each party. Marcellinus, the emperor’s deputy, who presided in that assembly, decided in favour of the Catholics, and ordered them to take possession of all the churches, which the Donatist bishops had seized on by violence, or otherwise. This decree exasperated the Donatists; but the Catholic bishops used so much wisdom and prudence, that they insensibly brought over most of those who had strayed from the bosom of the Church. It appears, however, that the schism was not quite extinct till the 7th century.—_Broughton._

DONATIVE. A donative is when the king, or any subject by his licence, founds a church or chapel, and ordains that it shall be merely in the gift or disposal of the patron, and vested absolutely in the clerk by the patron’s deed of donation, without presentation, institution, or induction. This is said to have been anciently the only way of conferring ecclesiastical benefices in England; the method of institution by the bishop not being established more early than the time of Archbishop Becket in the reign of Henry II. And therefore Pope Alexander III., (_Decretal_, 1. 3, t. 7, c. 3,) in a letter to Becket, severely inveighs against the _prava consuetudo_, as he calls it, of investiture conferred by the patron only: this however shows what was then the common usage. Others contend, that the claim of the bishops to institution is as old as the first planting of Christianity in this island; and, in proof of it, they allege a letter from the English nobility to the pope in the reign of Henry III., recorded by Matthew Paris, (A. D. 1239,) which speaks of presentation to the bishop as a thing immemorial. The truth seems to be that, where a benefice was to be conferred on a mere layman, he was first presented to the bishop, in order to receive ordination, who was at liberty to examine and refuse him: but where the clerk was already in orders, the living was usually vested in him by the sole donation of the patron; until about the middle of the twelfth century, when the pope endeavoured to introduce a kind of feudal dominion over ecclesiastical benefices, and, in consequence of that, began to claim and exercise the right of institution universally as a species of spiritual investiture.

By the act 14 & 15 Vict. c. 97, sec. 9, the right of perpetual nomination of an incumbent may be acquired by the person or body, their heirs, &c., who shall procure a church to be erected and endowed.

DONNELLAN LECTURES. Mrs. Anne Donnellan, in the last century, bequeathed a sum of £1243 to the college of Dublin, for the encouragement of religion, learning, and good manners; the application of the sum being intrusted to the provost and senior fellows; who, consequently, in 1794, resolved, that a lecturer should be annually appointed to preach six lectures in the college chapel: the subject of the lectures for each year being determined by them. The other regulations are analogous to those of the Bampton Lectures at Oxford. Many distinguished works have been the fruits of this Lecture: among them may be mentioned Dr. Graves’s Lectures on the Pentateuch, Archbishop Magee on Prophecy, &c.

DORMITORY, DORTOR, or DORTURE. The sleeping apartment in a monastic institution.

A place of sepulture is also so called, with reference, like the word _cemetery_, which has the same meaning, to the resurrection, at which time the bodies of the saints, which for the present repose in their graves, shall arise, or awake. But it must be borne in mind, that the word has reference to the sleep of the body, and not of the soul, which latter was never an article of the Christian faith.

DORT. The Synod of Dort was convened to compose the troubles occasioned by the celebrated Arminian controversy.

Arminius, professor of divinity at Leyden, had received his theological education at Geneva. After much profound meditation on the abstruse subject of predestination, he became dissatisfied with Calvin’s doctrine of the absolute decrees of GOD, in respect to the salvation and perdition of man; and, while he admitted the eternal prescience of the Deity, he held, with the Roman Catholic Church, that no mortal is rendered finally unhappy, by an eternal and invincible decree; and that the misery of those who perish comes from themselves. Many who were eminent for their talents and learning, and some who filled high situations in Holland, embraced his opinions; but, apparently at least, a great majority sided against them. The most active of these was Gomar, the colleague of Arminius in the professorship. Unfortunately, politics entered into the controversy. Most of the friends of Arminius were of the party which opposed the politics of the Prince of Orange; while, generally, the adversaries of Arminius were favourable to the views of that prince. Barneveldt and Grotius, two of the most respectable partisans of Arminius, were thrown into prison for their supposed practices against the state. The former perished on the scaffold; the latter, by his wife’s address, escaped from prison. While these disturbances were at the highest, Arminius died.

On his decease, the superintendence of the party devolved to Episcopius, who was, at that time, professor of theology at Leyden, and universally esteemed for his learning, his judgment, and his eloquence. The Arminian cause prospering under him, the opposite party took the alarm, and, in 1618, a synod was called at Dort, by the direction, and under the influence, of Prince Maurice. It was attended by deputies from the United Provinces, and from the Churches of England, Hesse, Bremen, Switzerland, and the Palatinate.

The synod adopted the Belgic Confession, decided in favour of absolute decrees, and excommunicated the Arminians. Its canons were published under the title of “Judicium Synodi nationalis reformatarum ecclesiarum habiti Dordrechti anno 1618 et 1619, de quinque doctrinæ capitibus, in ecclesiis Belgicis, controversis: Promulgatum VI. Maii MDCXIX. 4to.” It concludes the Sylloge Confessionum, printed at the Clarendon press.—_Butler’s Confession of Faith._

DOXOLOGY. (See _Gloria Patri_.) A hymn used in the Divine service of Christians. The ancient doxology was only a single sentence, without a response, running in these words: “Glory be to the FATHER, and to the SON, and to the HOLY GHOST, world without end. Amen.” Part of the latter clause, “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,” was inserted some time after the first composition. The fourth Council of Toledo, in the year 633, added the word “honour” to it, and read it, “Glory and honour be to the FATHER,” &c., because the prophet David says, “Bring glory and honour to the LORD.” It is not easy to say at what time the latter clause was inserted. Some ascribe it to the Council of Nice, and suppose it was added in opposition to the Arians. But the first express mention made of it is in the second Council of Vaison, an. 529, above two centuries later.

There was another small difference in the use of this ancient hymn; some reading it, “Glory be to the FATHER, and to the SON, with the HOLY GHOST;” others, “Glory be to the FATHER, in (or by) the SON, and by the HOLY GHOST.” This difference of expression occasioned no disputes in the Church, till the rise of the Arian heresy: but, when the followers of Arius began to make use of the latter, and made it a distinguishing character of their party, it was entirely laid aside by the Catholics, and the use of it was enough to bring any one under suspicion of heterodoxy.

This hymn was of most general use, and was a doxology, or giving of praise to GOD, at the close of every solemn office. The Western Church repeated it at the end of every psalm, with some few exceptions; and omitted it on the three days before Easter, and in offices of the dead; and the Eastern Church used it only at the end of the last psalm. Many of their prayers were also concluded with it, particularly the solemn thanksgiving, or consecration-prayer at the eucharist. It was also the ordinary conclusion of their sermons.

There was likewise another hymn, of great note in the ancient Church, called the great doxology, or angelical hymn, beginning with those words, which the angels sung at our SAVIOUR’S birth, “Glory be to GOD on high,” &c. This was chiefly used in the Communion Service. It was also used daily in men’s private devotions. In the Mozarabic liturgy it is appointed to be sung before the lessons on Christmas day. St. Chrysostom often mentions it, and observes that the Ascetics, or Christians who had retired from the world, met together daily to sing this hymn. Who first composed it, adding the remaining part to the words sung by the angels, is uncertain. Some suppose it to be as ancient as the time of Lucian, about the beginning of the second century. Others take it for the _Gloria Patri_; which is a dispute as difficult to be determined, as it is to find out the first author and original of this hymn.

Both these doxologies have a place in the liturgy of the Church of England, the former being repeated after every psalm, the latter used in the Communion Service.

As the ancient doxology of “Glory to the _Father_, SON, and HOLY GHOST” was, among the Christians, a solemn profession of their belief in the Holy Trinity, so the Mohammedans, by their doxology, “There is but one GOD,” (to which they sometimes add, “and Mohammed is his prophet,”) which they use both in their public and private prayers, and in their acclamations, sufficiently show their disbelief of a Trinity of persons in the Godhead.—_Bingham._

DRIPSTONE. In church architecture, the projecting moulding which crowns doors, windows, and other arches, in the exterior of a building.

DULCINISTS. Heretics, so denominated from one Dulcinus, a layman, of Novara in Lombardy, who lived in the beginning of the 14th century. He pretended to preach the reign of the HOLY GHOST; and while he justly enough rejected the pope’s authority, he foolishly made himself to be the head of that third reign, saying, that the FATHER had reigned from the beginning of the world to the coming of CHRIST; and the SON’S reign began then, and continued until the year 1300. He was followed by a great many people to the Alps, where he and his wife were taken and burnt by the order of Clement IV.

DULIA. (Δουλεία.) The worship paid by Romanists to saints and angels, and to images. Not denying that all these are made by them objects of worship, the Papists invent a distinction of many kinds and degrees of worship, and very accurately assign to each object of worship its proper amount of reverence. The lowest degree is the _dulia_, which is given to saints and angels. _Hyperdulia_ (ὑπερδουλεία) is reserved for the Blessed Virgin alone: and _Latria_ (λατρεια) is given to the LORD himself, and to each person in the ever blessed and glorious Trinity. Images of either of these receive a relative worship of the same order. An image of a saint or angel, _relative Dulia_: an image of the Blessed Virgin, _relative hyperdulia_: an image of either person of the Blessed Trinity, _relative Latria_. (See _Idolatry_, _Images_, _Invocation of Saints_.)

DUNKERS, or DIPPERS. A sect of Baptists, originating (1724) in the teaching of one Conrad Peysel or Beissel, a German, in Philadelphia, one of the American states. They are distinguished not only by their adherence to the rite of baptism with trine immersion, which, like other Baptists, they of course confine to adults, but also by their rigid abstinence from flesh, except on particular occasions; by their living in monastic societies, by their peculiar garb, like that of the Dominican friars, and by their scruples with regard to resistance, war, slavery, and litigation. Their great settlement is at a place which they call Euphrata, in allusion to the lament of the Hebrews in their captivity, which they used to pour forth to their harps as they sat on the banks of the Euphrates.

EAGLE. A frequent, and the most beautiful, form of the lectern for reading the lessons from in churches. It has probably some reference to the eagle, which is the symbolical companion of St. John, in ecclesiastical design. The eagle is frequently employed in foreign churches, but generally for the chanting of the service, not for the lessons. Sometimes it is employed for the reading of the Epistles and Gospels, and there are instances of one being on each side of the choir or chancel. Several of the cathedrals and colleges in our universities have this kind of lecterns. Before the civil wars in 1651, there was in the cathedral of Waterford, a “great standing pelican to support the Bible, a brazen eagle,” and other ornaments.—_Ryland’s Waterford._ Winchester and St. John’s College, Cambridge, have of late years been provided with eagle lecterns. The “_Lecterna_” or Bible eagle at Peterborough was given by Abbot Ramsay and John Maldon in 1471.—_Dugd. Monast._ ed. 1830, i. 344.—_Jebb._

EARLY ENGLISH, or LANCET, the first style of pure Gothic architecture, fully established about 1190, and merging in the Geometrical about 1245. The Lancet window is the principal characteristic of this style; but it has, besides, various peculiarities, (see _Arcade_, _Capital_, _Moulding_, _Vaulting_,) among which are the following:—The doorways are frequently divided by a central shaft. As compared with the preceding style, the buttresses have a considerable projection, and they usually terminate in a plain pediment. The flying buttress becomes frequent. Gables are of very high pitch; the parapet usually retains the corbel-table. Piers consist of a circular or octagonal shaft, surrounded by four or eight smaller ones, which stand free, except that, when of great length, they are generally banded in the centre. Purbeck or Petworth marble is often used both for the central, which is really the bearing shaft, and the smaller ones; but in this case the marble of the bearing shaft is laid as in the quarry, while the smaller shafts are set upwards, for the sake of greater length. The triforium still maintains its importance, though hardly so lofty as in the Norman style: it is usually of two smaller behind a principal arch, or of four smaller behind two principal arches. The clerestory is generally of the three Lancets, the central one much more lofty than the two others. The carving is extremely sharp and good, and very easily recognised, when it contains foliage, by the stiff stalks ending in crisped or curled leaves. Panels are often used to relieve large spaces of masonry, either blank or pierced; and sometimes in window-heads, and in triforium arcades, approach very nearly to the character of tracery. They are also often filled with figures. The dog-tooth, which had made its appearance in the Transition, is now extremely abundant, often filling the hollows of the mouldings in two or three continuous trails. The spires are almost invariably broach-spires.

EAST. (See also _Bowing_ and _Apostles’ Creed_.) In the aspect of their churches, the ancient Christians reversed the order of the Jews, placing the altar on the east, so that in facing towards the altar in their devotions they were turned to the east. As the Jews began their day with the _setting sun_, so the followers of CHRIST began theirs with the _rising sun_. The eye of the Christian turned with peculiar interest to the east, whence the day-spring from on high had visited him. There the morning star of his hope fixed his admiring gaze. Thence arose the Sun of righteousness with all his heavenly influences. Thither, in prayer, his soul turned with kindling emotions to the altar of his GOD. And even in his grave, thither still he directed his slumbering eye, in quiet expectation of awakening to behold in the same direction the second appearing of his LORD, when he shall come in the clouds of heaven to gather his saints.

In the ancient Church it was a ceremony almost of general use and practice, the turning the face to the east in their solemn adorations, which custom seems derived from the ceremonies of baptism, when it was usual to renounce the devil with the face to the west, and then turn to the east and make the covenant with CHRIST. Several reasons were given by the Fathers for this. First, As the east, the place of the day-spring from darkness, was the symbol of CHRIST, “the Sun of righteousness.” 2ndly, As it was the place of paradise, lost by the fall of the first Adam, and to be regained by the second Adam. 3rdly, That CHRIST made his appearance on earth in the east; there ascended into heaven; and thence will again come at the last day. And, 4thly, That the east, as the seat of light and brightness, was the most honourable part of the creation, and therefore peculiarly ascribed to GOD, the fountain of light, and illuminator of all things; as the west was ascribed to the devil, because he hides the light, and brings darkness on men to their destruction.

When we repeat the creed, it is customary to turn towards the east, that so, whilst we are making profession of our faith in the blessed Trinity, we may look towards that quarter of the heavens where God is supposed to have his peculiar residence of glory.—_Wheatly._

Turning towards the east is an ancient custom,—as indeed in most religions, men have directed their worship some particular way. And this practice being intended only to honour CHRIST, the Sun of righteousness, who hath risen upon us, to enlighten us with that doctrine of salvation to which we then declare our adherence, it ought not to be condemned as superstition.—_Secker._

Most churches are so contrived, that the greater part of the congregation faces the east. The Jews, in their dispersion throughout the world, when they prayed, turned their faces towards the mercy-seat and cherubim, where the ark stood. (2 Chron. vi. 36–38.) Daniel was found praying towards Jerusalem, (Dan. vi. 10,) because of the situation of the temple. And this has always been esteemed a very becoming way of expressing our belief in God.—_Collis._

EASTER. A festival of the Christians observed in the memory of our Saviour’s resurrection. The Latins, and others, call it Pascha, an Hebrew word, which signifies “passage,” and is applied to the Jewish feast of the Passover, to which the Christian festival of Easter corresponds. This festival is called, in English, Easter, from the Saxon _Eostre_, an ancient goddess of that people, worshipped with peculiar ceremonies in the month of April.

Concerning the celebration of this festival, there were anciently very great disputes in the Church. Though all agreed in the observation of it in general, yet they differed very much as to the particular time when it was to be observed; some keeping it precisely on the same stated day every year; others, on the fourteenth day of the first moon in the new year, whatever day of the week it happened on; and others, on the first Sunday after the first full moon. This diversity occasioned a great dispute, in the second century, between the Asiatic Churches and the rest of the world; in the course of which Pope Victor excommunicated all those Churches. But the Council of Nice, in the year 324, decreed, that all Churches should keep the Pasch, or festival of Easter, on one and the same day, which should be always a Sunday. This decree was afterwards confirmed by the Council of Antioch, in the year 341. Yet this did not put an end to all disputes concerning the observation of this festival; for it was not easy to determine on what Sunday it was to be held, because, being a movable feast, it sometimes happened, that the Churches of one country kept it a week, or a month, sooner than other Churches, by reason of their different calculations. Therefore the Council of Nice is said to have decreed further, that the bishops of Alexandria should adjust a proper cycle, and inform the rest of the world, on what Sunday every year Easter was to be observed. Notwithstanding which, the Roman and Alexandrian accounts continued to differ, and sometimes varied a week, or a month, from each other; and no effectual cure was found for this, till, in the year 525, Dionysius Exiguus brought the Alexandrian canon, or cycle, entirely into use in the Roman Church. Meantime, the Churches of France and Britain kept to the old Roman canon, and it was two or three ages after, before the new Roman, that is, the Alexandrian canon was, not without some struggle and difficulty, settled among them.—_Bingham, Orig. Eccles._ b. xx. c. 5. _Theod._ lib. i. c. 10. _Socrat._ lib. ii. c. 9. _Euseb. de Vit. Const._ lib. iii. c. 14. _Leo_, Ep. 63, _ad Marcian. Imper._

But though the Christian Churches differed as to the time of celebrating Easter, yet they all agreed in showing a peculiar respect and honour to this festival. Gregory Nazianzen calls it the Queen of Festivals, and says, it excels all others as far as the sun exceeds the other stars. Hence, in some ancient writers, it is distinguished by the name of _Dominica Gaudii_, i. e. the “Sunday of joy.” One great instance of the public joy was given by the emperors, who were used to grant a general release to the prisons on this day, with an exception only to such criminals as were guilty of the highest crimes. The ancient Fathers frequently mention these Paschal indulgences, or acts of grace, and speak of them with great commendations. It was likewise usual at this holy season for private persons to grant slaves their freedom or manumission.—_Orat._ 19, _in fun. Patris_, t. v. _Cod. Theod._ lib. ix. tit. 38, leg. 3. _Cod. Justin._ lib. iii. tit. 12, leg. 8.

To these expressions of public joy may be added, that the Christians were ambitious, at this time especially, to show their liberality to the poor. They likewise kept the whole week after Easter day, as part of the festival; holding religious assemblies every day, for prayer, preaching, and receiving the communion. Upon which account the author of the Constitutions requires servants to rest from their labour the whole week. All public games were prohibited during this whole season; as also all proceedings at law, except in some special and extraordinary cases.—Lib. viii. c. 53. _Cod. Theod._ lib. xv. tit. v. leg. 5. _Ib._ lib. ii. tit. viii.

The festival of Easter was, likewise, the most noted and solemn time of baptism, which, except in cases of necessity, was administered only at certain stated times of the year.

The eve, or vigil, of this festival was celebrated with more than ordinary pomp, with solemn watchings, and with multitudes of lighted torches, both in the churches and in private houses, so as to turn the night itself into day. This they did as a _prodromus_, or forerunner of that great light, the Sun of righteousness, which the next day arose upon the world.—_Greg. Naz._ Orat. ii. _in Pasch._

The paschal canon, or rule, of Dionysius having become the standing rule, for the celebration of Easter, to all the Western Churches, it will be proper briefly to explain it. The particulars of it are as follows: viz. That Easter be always on the Sunday next after the Jewish Passover; that, the Jewish Passover being always on the fourteenth day of the first vernal moon, the Christian Easter is always to be the next Sunday after the said fourteenth day of that moon; that, to avoid all conformity with the Jews in this matter, if the fourteenth day of the said moon be on a Sunday, this festival is to be deferred to the Sunday following; that the first vernal moon is that, whose fourteenth day is either upon the day of the vernal equinox, or the next fourteenth day after it; that the vernal equinox, according to the Council of Nice, is fixed to the twenty-first day of March; that therefore the first vernal moon, according to this rule, is that, whose fourteenth day falls upon the 21st of March, or the first fourteenth day after; that the next Sunday after the fourteenth day of the vernal moon (which is called the paschal term) is always Easter day; that, therefore, the earliest paschal term being the 21st of March, the 22nd of March is the earliest Easter possible; and the 18th of April being the latest paschal term, the seventh day after, that is, the 25th of April, is the latest Easter possible; that the cycle of the moon, or golden number, always shows us the first day of the paschal moon, and the cycle of the sun, or dominical letter, always shows us which is the next Sunday after.—_Prideaux, Connect._