AGAPETE.

agape natalitie, at their tombs; a practice to which reference is made in the epistle of the church of Smyrna, concerning the martyrdom of Polycarp.

These feasts were sometimes celebrated on a smaller scale at marriages, agapa connubiales, and funerals, agapa funerales.

The celebration of the agape was frequently made a subject of calumny and misrepresentation by the enemies of the Christian faith, even during the earliest and best ages of the Church. In reply to these groundless attacks, the conduct of the Christians of those times was successfully vindicated by Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Origen, and others. But real disorders having afterwards arisen, and having proceeded to considerable lengths, it became necessary to abolish the practice altogether; and this task was eventually effected, but not without the application of various means, and only after a considerable lapse of time.—Riddle, from Augusti and Siegel.

AGAPETE. In St. Cyprian's time certain ascetics (who wished, perhaps, to add to their religious celibacy the additional merit of a conquest over a special and greater temptation) chose persons of the other sex, devoted like themselves to a life of celibacy, with whom they lived under the sanction of a kind of spiritual nuptials, still maintaining their chastity, as they professed, although living, in all things else, as freely together as married persons. These were called Agapeta, ZUTO. This practice, however pure in intention, gave rise to the utmost scandal in the Church; and those who had adopted it were condemned severely, both by the individual authority of St. Cyprian, and afterwards by the decrees of councils.See Dodwell's Dissertationes Cyprianica.

AGNOITES or AGNOITE. ( and .) A sort of Christian heretics about the year 370, followers of Theophronius the Cappadocian, who joined himself with Eunomius; they called in question the omniscience of Gop, alleging that he knew not things past in any other way than by memory, nor things to come, but by an uncertain prescience.

AGNOITES. Another sort of heretics about the year 535, who followed the errors of Themistius, deacon of Alexandria, who believed that CHRIST knew not when the day of judgment should happen.

AGNUS DEI. A cake of wax, used in the Romish Church, stamped with the figure of a lamb supporting the banner of

the cross. The name literally signifies The Lamb of GOD. These cakes, being consecrated by the pope with great solemnity, and distributed among the people, are supposed to possess great virtues. They cover them with a piece of stuff, cut in the form of a heart, and carry them very devoutly in their processions. From selling these Agnus DEIS to some, and presenting them to others, the Romish clergy and religious officers derive considerable pecuniary advantage. The practice of blessing the Agnus DEI took its rise about the seventh or eighth century. It was common in those times to mark converts with the sign of the cross after baptism; and in order to distinguish the converted from heatheus, they were commanded to wear about their necks pieces of white wax stamped with the figure of a lamb. This was done in imitation of the heathenish practice of hanging amulets around the neck, as preservatives against accidents, diseases, or any sort of infection. Though the efficacy of an Agnus DEI has not been declared by Romish Councils, the belief in its virtues has been strongly and universally established in the Church of Rome. Pope Urban V. sent to John Palæologus, emperor of the Greeks, an Agnus folded in fine paper, on which were written verses explaining all its properties. These verses declare that the Agnus is formed of balm and wax mixed with chrism, and that being consecrated by mystical words, it possesses the power of removing thunder, and dispersing storms, of giving to women with child an easy delivery, of preventing shipwreck, taking away sin, repelling the devil, increasing riches, and of securing against fire.

ALB. An ample linen tunic with sleeves, named from its color (albus, white), worn next over the cassock and amice. It was at first loose and flowing, afterwards bound with a zone, mystically signifying continence. It has been in other points considerably altered from its primitive form in the continental churches subject to Rome; in the Greek churches it more nearly resembles the form of the surplice used in the English Church.

ALBATI. A sort of Christian hermits (so called from the white linen which they wore). Anno 1399, in the time of Pope Boniface IX., they came down from the Alps into several provinces of Italy, having for their guide a priest clothed all in white, and a crucifix in his hand: he pretended so much zeal and religion, that he

10

ALBIGENSES.

ALL SOULS.

ALBIGENSES. Certain religionists who sprung up in the twelfth century. They received their name from a town in Aquitaine, called Albigia or Alby, where their tenets were first condemned in a council held in the year 1176. The Albigenses grew so formidable, that the court of Rome determined upon a league or crusade against them. Pope Innocent III., desirous to put a stop to their progress, stirred up the great men of France to make war upon them. After suffering cruelly from their persecutors, they dwindled by little and little, till the time of the Reformation; when such of them as were left fell in with the Vaudois, and conformed to the doctrine of Zuinglius, and the disciples of Geneva. The Albigenses have been frequently confounded with the Waldenses; from whom, however, it is said, that they differed in many respects, both as being prior to them in point of time, as having their origin in a different country, and as being charged with divers heresies, particularly Manicheism, from which the Waldenses were exempt.

ALBIS (Dominica in). See Low Sunday. ALLELUIA, or HALLELU-JAH. This is a Hebrew word signifying Praise the LORD, or Praise to the LORD. It occurs at the beginning and at the end of many of the Psalms, and was always sung by the Jews on solemn days of rejoicing. An expression very similar in sound seems to have been used in many nations, who can hardly be supposed to have borrowed it from the Jews. Hence it has been supposed to be one of the most ancient words of devotion. St. John retains the word without translation (Rev. xix. 1, 3, 4, 6); and among the early Christians it was so usual to sing Hallelujah, that St. Jerome says little children were acquainted with it. ALL SAINTS' DAY. The festival of All Saints is not of very high antiquity. About the year 610, the Bishop of Rome ordered that the heathen Pantheon, a temple dedicated to all the gods, should be converted into a Christian church. This was done, and it was appropriately dedicated to the honor of All Martyrs; hence

then celebrated on the first of May. In the year 834 it was changed to November the first, on which day it is still observed. Our Church having, in the course of her year, celebrated the memories of the holy Apostles, and the other most eminent saints and martyrs of the first days of the gospel, deems it unnecessary to extend her calendar by any other particular festivals, but closes her course with this general one. It should be the Christian's delight, on this day, to reflect, as he is moved by the appointed scriptures, on the Christian graces and virtues which have been exhibited by that goodly fellowship of saints who, in all ages, have honored GoD in their lives, and glorified him in their deaths; he should pray for grace to follow them in all virtuous and godly living;' he should meditate on the glorious rest that remains for the people of God, on which they have entered; he should gratefully contemplate that communion of saints which unites him to their holy fellowship, even while he is here militant, if he be a faithful disciple of the SAVIOUR in whom they trusted; he should earnestly seek that grace whereby, after a short further time of trial, he may be united with them in the everlasting services of the Church triumphant. The Church of England seems to have been induced to sum up the commemoration of martyrs, confessors, doctors, and saints in this one day's service, from the circumstance of the great number of such days in the Church of Rome having led to gross abuses, some of which are enumerated in the preface to the Book of Common Prayer.

ALL SOULS. A festival or holiday of the Romish Church, on which special prayers are made for the benefit of the souls of the departed. Its observance has been traced back to the year 998; about which time, we are told, a certain monk, whose curiosity had led him to visit Mount Etna, which he, in common with others of that age, verily believed to be the mouth of hell, returned to his abbot with the grave story that he had overheard "the devils within complain, that many departed souls were taken out of their hands by the prayers of the Cluniac monks." (See Clugni.) The compassionate abbot took the hint, and set apart the second day of November, to be annually kept by his monks as a day of Prayer for All Souls departed. This local appointment was

ALMONRY.

afterwards changed by the pope into a general one, obligatory on all the western churches. The ceremonies observed on this day were in good keeping with the purpose of its institution. In behalf of the dead, persons arrayed in black perambulated the cities and towns, each provided with a loud and dismal toned bell, which they rung in public places by way of exhortation to the people to remember the souls in purgatory, and give them the aid of their prayers. In France and Italy, at the present day, the annual Jour des Morts is observed, by the population resuming their mourning habits, and visiting the graves of their friends for many years after their decease. At the period of the Reformation, the Church of England abrogated altogether the observance of this day, as based on false doctrine, and as originating in a falsehood.

ALMONRY. A room where alms were distributed, generally near to the church, or a part of it.

ALMS. In the primitive Church, the people, who were of sufficient substance used to give alms to the poor every Sunday, as they entered the church. And the poor, who were approved and selected by the deacons or other ministers, were exhorted to stand before the church' doors to ask for alms, as the lame man who was healed by Peter and John, at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. The order in our Church is, that these alms should be collected at that part of the communion service which is called the offertory while the sentences are reading, which follow the place appointed for the sermon. The intention of the compilers of our service was, that these alms should be collected every Sunday, as is plain from the directions in the rubric; and this, whether there was a communion or not.

It is much to be regretted that the decay of charity has caused this good custom to fall into too general disuse; and it is one which all sincere churchmen should endeavor to restore.

ALMS-CHEST. Besides the alms collected at the offertory, it may be supposed that devout persons would make contributions to the poor on entering the church, or departing from it, at evening service; and to receive these alms, it is appointed by the 84th canon, that a chest be provided and placed in the Church.

ALOGIANS. Heretics in the second century, who denied the Divine Logos, or

Word, and attributed the writings of St. John to Cerinthus.

ALTAR. Altar was the name by which the holy board was constantly distinguished for the first three hundred years after CHRIST; during all which time it does not appear that it was above once called "table," and that was in a letter of Dionysius of Alexandria to Xystus of Rome. And when, in the fourth century, Athanasius called it a "table," he thought himself obliged to explain the word, and to let the reader know that by "table" he meant "altar," that being then the constant and familiar name. Afterwards, indeed, both names came to be promiscuously used; the one having respect to the "oblation," of the eucharist, the other to the "participation:" but it was always placed altarwise in the most sacred part of the Church, and fenced in with rails to secure it from irreverence and disrespect.-Wheatly.

In King Edward's first service-book the word "altar" was permitted to stand, as being the name that Christians for many hundred years had been acquainted withal. Therefore, when there was such pulling down of altars and setting up of tables in Queen Elizabeth's reign, she was fain to make an injunction to restrain such ungodly fury, and appointed decent and comely tables covered to be set up again in the same place where the altars stood, thereby giving an interpretation of this clause in our communion-book. For the word it might not be called an "altar," but to "table" here stands not exclusively, as if show the indifferency and liberty of the name; as of old it was called "mensa DoMINI," the table of the LORD; the one having reference to the participation, the other to the oblation, of the eucharist.— Bp. Overall.

But, at the beginning of the Reformation, those tables of the altar fashion, which had an unhappy dispute arose, viz., whether been used in the popish times, and on which masses had been celebrated, should still be continued? This point was first started by Bishop Hooper, who in a sermon before the king, in the third year of his reign, declared," that it would do well, if it might please the magistrate to have altars turned into tables; to take away the false persuasion of the people, which they have of sacrifice, to be done upon altars; because as long," says he, altars remain, both the ignorant people and priests will dream of sacrifice." This occasioned not only a couple of letters

as

from the king and council, one of which was sent to all the bishops, and the other to Ridley, bishop of London, in both which they were required to pull down the altars; but also that, when the liturgy was reviewed in 1551, the above said rubric was altered, and in the room of it the priest was directed to stand on the north side of the table. But this did not put an end to the controversy. Another dispute arising, viz., whether the table placed in the room of the altar, ought to stand altarwise; i. e. in the same place and situation as the altar formerly stood? This was the occasion that in some churches the tables were placed in the middle of the chancels, in others at the east part thereof next to the wall. Bishop Ridley endeavored to compromise this matter, and therefore, in St. Paul's cathedral, suffered the table to stand in the place of the old altar; but beating down the wainscot partition behind, laid all the choir open to the east, leaving the table then to stand in the middle of the chancel. Under this diversity of usage, things went on till the death of King Edward; when Queen Mary coming to the throne, altars were again restored wherever they had been demolished but her reign proving short, and Queen Elizabeth succeeding her, the people (just got free again from the tyranny of Popery), through a mistaken zeal, fell in a tumultuous manner to the pulling down of altars; though, indeed, this happened for the generality only in private churches, they not being meddled with in any of the queen's palaces, and in but very few of the cathedrals. And as soon as the queen was sensible of what had happened in other places, she put out an injunction to restrain the fury of the people, declaring it to be no matter of great moment, whether there were altars or tables, so that the sacrament was duly and reverently administered; but ordering, that where altars were taken down, holy tables should be decently made, and set in the place where the altars stood, and so to stand, saving when the communion of the sacrament was to be distributed; at which time the same was to be placed in good sort within the chancel, as thereby the minister might be more conveniently heard of the communicants in his prayer and ministration, and the communicants also more conveniently and in more number communicate with the said minister. And after the communion done, from time to

ALTAR.

time the same holy table was to be placed where it stood before. Pursuant hereunto, this part of the present rubric was added to the liturgy, in the first year of her reign, viz., "that the table, at the communion time, having a fair white linen cloth upon it, shall stand in the body of the church, or in the chancel, where morning and evening prayer are appointed to be said:" which was in those times generally in the choir. But then it is plain from the aforesaid injunction, as well as from the eighty-second canon of the Church (which is almost verbatim the same), that there is no obligation arising from this rubric to move the table, at the time of the communion, unless the people cannot otherwise conveniently hear and communicate. The injunction declares that the holy tables are to be set in the same place where the altars stood, which every one knows was at the east end of the chancel. And when both the injunction and canon speak of its being moved at the time of the communion, it supposes that the minister could not otherwise be heard: the interposition of a belfry between the chancel and body of the church, hindering the minister in some churches from being heard by the people, if he continued in the church. And with the same view seems this rubric to have been added, and which therefore lays us under no obligation to move the table, unless necessity requires. But whenever the churches are built so as the minister can be heard, and conveniently administer the sacrament at the place where the table usually stands, he is rather obliged to administer in the chancel (that being the sanctum sanctorum, or most holy place of the church), as appears from the rubric before the commandments, as also from that before the absolution, by both which rubrics the priest is directed to turn himself to the people. From whence I argue, that if the table be in the middle of the church, and the people consequently round about the minister, the minister cannot turn himself to the people any more at one time than another. Whereas, if the table be close to the east wall, the minister stands on the north side, and looks southward, and consequently, by looking westward, turns himself to the people.Wheatly.

Although there is no doubt that the altar in the primitive Church was always of wood, yet for many ages, and through

ALTAR CLOTH.

out the whole of the time to which we look for architectural examples, altars were of stone.

The place of the high altar is uniformly, in England at least, at the east of the church; but in large churches, room is left for processions to pass behind it, and in cathedral churches of Norman foundation for the bishop's throne. Where the end of the church was apsidal, the high altar was placed in the chord of the apse. Chantry altars not being connected with a service in which processions were used, were placed against the wall, and scarcely an aisle or a transept was without one or more. In form the high altar was generally large and plain, relying for decoration wholly on the rich furniture with which it was loaded; very rarely its front_was panelled or otherwise ornamented. Chantry altars were, perhaps, in ninety-nine cases in a hundred, mere slabs built into the wall. At Jervaulx, however, at the end of each aisle, is a large plain altar built up of separate stones, much in the form of a high tomb. In situ but few high altars remain, but chantry altars in situ are frequent enough. They are not, however, often found in the aisles and transepts of our churches, but in places where they would more readily escape observation, as, for instance, under the east window (or forming its sill) of a vestry, or of a parvise, or in a gateway to a monastery, or in private chapels and chapels of castles. Altar stones not in situ, but used in pavements and all places, are almost innumerable, sometimes two or three or more occurring in a single small church. They may be recognised by five little crosses, one in the centre, and one at each corner.

ALTAR CLOTH. By the 82d canon it is appointed that the table provided for the celebration of the holy communion shall be covered, in time of divine service, with a carpet of silk, or other decent stuff thought meet by the ordinary of the place, if any question be made of it; and with a fair linen cloth at the time of the ministration. The following is the canon in question:-Whereas we have no doubt, but that in all churches within the realm of England, convenient and decent tables are provided and placed for the celebration of the holy communion, we appoint, that the same tables shall from time to time be kept and repaired in sufficient and seemly manner, and covered, in time of divine service, with a carpet of silk or

other decent stuff, thought meet by the ordinary of the place, if any question be made of it, and with a fair linen cloth at the time of the ministration, as becometh that table, and so stand, saving when the said holy communion is to be administered; at which time the same shall be placed in so good sort within the church or chancel, as thereby the minister may be more conveniently heard of the communicants in his prayer and ministration, and the communicants also more conveniently, and in more number, may communicate with the said minister; and that the ten commandments be set up on the east end of every church and chapel, where the people may best see and read the same, and other chosen sentences written upon the walls of the said churches and chapels, in places convenient; and likewise that a convenient seat be made for the minister to read service in. All these to be done at the charge of the parish.

ALTAR PIECE. A picture placed over the altar. It is not uncommon in English churches to place paintings over the altar, although it is a practice of modern introduction, and although there would be a prejudice against placing paintings in other parts of the church. The English Reformers were very strongly opposed to the introduction of paintings into the sanctuary. In Queen Elizabeth's reign, a proclamation was issued against pictures as well as images in churches; and Dean Nowell fell under her majesty's displeasure for procuring for her use a prayer-book with pictures. The Puritans, who formed the religious world of King Charles's time, both in the Church and out of, destroyed pictures wherever they could find them, as relics of popery. We may add that the feeling against pictures prevailed not only in modern times, but in the first ages of the primitive Church. In the various catalogues of church furniture that we possess, we never read of pictures. There is a particular breviat of the things found by the persecutors in the church of St. Paul, bishop of Cirta, in Numidia, where we find mention made of cups, flagons, two candlesticks, and vestments; but of images and pictures there is not a syllable. In Spain, at the Council of Eliberis, A.D. 305, there was a positive decree against them. And, at the end of this century, Epiphanius, passing through Anablatha, a village of Palestine, found a veil there, hanging before the doors of the church, whereon was