Congresses and Diocesan Conferences, and the wonderful development of the Colonial Church, and of Missionary enterprise during the past thirty years, rendered it necessary to prepare new articles upon all these subjects. The same may be said of many questions which, from various causes, have acquired peculiar prominence in the present day; such as Affinity, Endowments, Establishment, Vestments, Lights upon the Altar, the Eastward position, the Advertisements of Queen Elizabeth, important legal reforms, and judgments given with regard to Ritual, Discipline, and many more. In dealing with some matters of this kind, which have been subjects of much controversy or litigation, the arguments on opposite sides have been stated by different writers in separate articles. This plan seemed the most convenient way of securing that impartial attitude which best becomes a work of this description. But while many new articles have been inserted, some articles which had a place in former editions have been omitted or very much abbreviated, because the subjects of which they treat belong more properly to the Dictionaries of the Bible, of Christian Antiquities or of Christian Biography, and have been thoroughly dealt with in those well-known works, published under the Editorship of Dr. Wm. Smith. Although, in consequence of all these changes, the present edition of the Dictionary is in many respects a new work, it has nevertheless been the desire and endeavour of the Editors to abstain from making needless alterations, to preserve articles intact which bore any special impress of the original Editor's mind, and above all, to adhere throughout to those principles which he consistently held and advocated. The Editors have endeavoured, in accordance with the original design of the work, to render this edition as far as possible a practical manual for the English Churchman, clerical or lay, furnishing him with the real facts and arguments upon which the Church bases and maintains its position. They have for the most part referred the reader, at the end of each article, to easily accessible works by trustworthy writers, in which, if he wishes to pursue the investigation of any subject further, he will find it more exhaustively treated, and references given to original authorities. Our best thanks are due to Lord Grimthorpe (formerly Sir Edmund Beckett), Chancellor and Vicar-General of York, and an old friend of Dr. Hook when Vicar of Leeds, who has revised or written the legal and architectural articles, and several others, and has also given much valuable assistance and advice. The legal articles do not profess to be a complete summary of ecclesiastical law, which would require much more space than it would be proper to occupy with one subject in this book. PREFACE. The following is a list of other writers to whom the Editors are much indebted for contributions and whose initials will be found at the end of their articles. The Very Rev. E. BICKERSTETH, D.D., Dean of Lichfield. Rev. W. BRIGHT, D.D., Canon of Christ Church, Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Oxford. Rev. BERDMORE COMPTON, M.A. Rev. EVAN DANIEL, M.A., Principal of Battersea Training College and Hon. Canon of Rochester. Rev. W. H. DAVID, M.A. LEWIS T. DIBDIN, Esq., M.A., Chancellor of Rochester. Rev. F. HANCOCK, M.A., Rector of Selworthy, Taunton. Rev. J. G. HOWES, M.A., Rector of Exford and Prebendary of Wells. Rev. J. W. JoYCE, M.A., Rector of Burford and Prebendary of Hereford. Rev. G. F. MACLEAR, D.D., Warden of St. Augustine's, Canterbury. Rev. B. V. MILLS, M.A. Rev. G. D. W. OMMANNEY, M.A., Vicar of Draycot and Prebendary of Wells. Rev. Sir F. A. G. OUSELEY, Mus. Doc., LL.D., M.A., Professor of Music, Oxford. Miss LUCY PHILLIMORE. Rev. H. W. TUCKER, M.A., Sec. of S.P.G. All other articles have been revised or rewritten by the Editors, and some new ones added, to which the initials H. and W. R. W. S. are respectively annexed. In conclusion, we pray that the blessing of God may rest upon our undertaking, and that the Dictionary in its present form may serve yet more effectually than before to the edification of the Church of England, for which the first compiler of the work, as a parish priest, a preacher and a writer, so long and so earnestly laboured. W. HOOK. W. R. W. STEPHENS. A CHURCH DICTIONARY. ABACUS A. ABBOT ABACUS. The upper member of a | abbot, with the exception that she cannot capital. (See Capital.) In Norman architecture the abacus of engaged shafts is frequently returned along the walls in a continued horizontal string: perhaps the last lingering recognition of the effect of the capital in representing that horizontal line which was decided in the classic architrave, and to which the spirit of Gothic architecture is in the main opposed. ABBA. An Aramaan word, signifying Father, and derived from the Hebrew" Ab." Instead of the definite article which the Hebrew uses before the word, the Chaldee, or Aramaic, adds a syllable to the end, giving thus an emphatic form. The word "Abba" is expressive of attachment and confidence, and was used by St. Mark, in describing the agony of our blessed Lord, together with the Greek equivalent, "'ABBã πατήρ” rendered by Luther "lieber Vater." (St. Mark xiv. 36.) St. Paul combines the words in the same way, "ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.'" (Rom. viii. 15; Comp. Gal. iv. 6.) ó 66 ABBÉ. The designation assumed in France, before the Revolution, by certain persons, who, whether in the higher orders of the ministry or not, ostensibly devoted themselves to theological studies, in the hope that the king would confer upon them a real abbey, i.e. a certain portion of the revenues of a real abbey. Hence it became the common title of unemployed secular priests. In Italy the word Abate was similarly used, to designate one who merely adopted the clerical habit.- Vocabolario della Crusca. ABBESS. The Mother or Superior of a female religious community. The abbess possessed, and in the Roman Church still possesses, the dignity and authority of an exercise the spiritual functions of the priesthood. By a decree of the Council of Trent it is recommended that an abbess should be at least 40 years of age, and have made profession for eight years. ABBEY. The habitation of a society devoted to religion. It signifies a monastery, of which the head was an abbot or abbess. (See Abbot.) Of monastic cathedrals the bishop was considered to be virtually the abbot: and therefore the presbyteral superior of these establishments was styled Prior. The abbey of Ely was constituted a cathedral in 1109: when Hervé, Bishop of Bangor, was translated to this see. The abbacy was henceforward united to the bishopric: and therefore it is that the bishops of Ely still occupy the first stall on the right side of the choir, usually assigned to the dean: the dean's stall being the first on the left side, formerly occupied by the prior. (See Monasteries, and Walcott's Church and Conventual Arrangements.) Cranmer begged earnestly of Henry VIII, that he would save some of the abbeys, to be reformed and applied to holy and religious uses, but his petition, and the exertions of Latimer for the same purpose, were in vain, Even Wolsey's foundation of Christ Church, Oxford, out of some of the confiscated abbeys, escaped with difficulty. (See Brewer's Henry VIII.) For the arrangement of the several buildings of an abbey, see Cathedral and Monastery. ABBOT. The Father or Superior of an abbey of monks, or male persons, living under peculiar religious vows. The word abbot comes, through the late Latin abbas, from the Aramaan abba-father. (See Abba.) The word Father, in its various forms of Papa, Abbas, Padre, Père, &c., has in all countries and all ages of Christianity been applied as a title of respect to the B superior clergy and priesthood. In some parts of the East and in Ireland, this term, abbas or abbat, was frequently confounded with that of bishop, from the fact of the abbots being in the early times bishops also. Before the Norman Conquest a few abbots sat in the Witanagemote (e.g. 5 in A.D. 931, and 4 in A.D. 934), and after the Conquest many were summoned to the Great Council and ranked next to the Lords Spiritual. Many of these were called "Mitred "Abbots because the right of wearing the mitre and other vestments proper to the Episcopal office had been conferred on them by the Pope; but the mitred and parliamentary abbots were not identical. The abbot of Tavistock, e.g., although mitred in the reign of Henry VI., was not created a spiritual lord of parliament till the reign of Henry VIII. All mitred abbots were of the Benedictine order, except those of Waltham and Cirencester, who were Augustinians. (See Dugdale's Monasticon.) There were some lords of parliament, heads of religious houses, who were not abbots: (1.) The prior of St. John's of Jerusalem, of the Knights Hospitallers in England. He ranked before the mitred abbots, and was considered the first baron in England. (2.) Some monastic priors, including the prior of Coventry, a solitary instance in England of the presbyteral head of a cathedral being a spiritual peer. Of the abbots, the abbot of Glastonbury had the precedence till A.D. 1154, when Pope Adrian IV., an Englishman, from the affection he entertained for the place of his education, assigned this precedence to the abbot of St. Alban's. In consequence, Glastonbury ranked next after him, and Reading had the third place. Abbots and priors were not ambitious of sitting in Parliament, finding attendance to be a burden on their resources, and in many cases they obtained exemption by proving that they were not tenants in barony under the Crown. After the fourteenth century the number attending Parliament steadily diminished from 80, which was the maximum in 1301, down to 27, which remained the normal number until the Dissolution. The list summoned in 1483 may be quoted as a good average specimen. Peterborough, Colchester, St. Edmund's, Abingdon, Waltham, Shrewsbury, Cirencester, Gloucester, Westminster, St. Alban's, Bardney, Selby, St. Benedict of Hulme, Thorney, Evesham, Ramsey, Hyde, Glastonbury, Malmesbury, Crowland, Battle, Winchcombe, Reading, St. Augustine's, St. Mary's York, prior of Coventry, prior of St. John of Jerusalem. As the ordinary number of lay lords in Parliament was about 40, the proportion of 27 abbots was large, and with the bishops, ABBREVIATION gave the ecclesiastical element a considerable preponderance in the House until the balance was redressed by the suppression of the monasteries. Neither the Pope nor the King interfered much as a rule with the election of abbots, and during the latter part of the middle ages abbots rarely took a conspicuous part in English politics. (See Bishop Stubbs' Constit. Hist. i. 125, 569; iii. 403, 443–445.) According to the ancient laws of Christendom, confirmed by general councils, all heads of monasteries, whether abbots or priors, owed canonical obedience to their diocesan. And the same law subsisted till the Reformation, wherever special exemptions had not been granted, which, however, were numerous. Cowell, as quoted by Johnson in his Dictionary (tit. Abbot), erroneously says that the mitred abbots were exempted from episcopal jurisdiction, but that the other sorts (i.e. the nonmitred) were subject to their diocesans. The truth is, that the former endeavoured after their own aggrandizement in every possible way, but had no inherent right of exemption from the fact of their being lords of parliament, or being invested with the mitre. Thus it appears from Dugd. Monast. that Gloucester, Winchcomb, and Tewkesbury were subject to the visitation and jurisdiction of the bishop of Worcester, till the Reformation; Croyland, Peterborough, Bardney, and Ramsey to the bishop of Lincoln; St. Mary in York, and Selby, to the archbishop of York; and Coventry to the bishop of Lichfield. The abbots, unless specially exempted, took the oath of canonical obedience to their diocesan, and after election, were confirmed by him, and received his benediction. (Fuller; Collier; Willis's Mitred Abbeys.) In Ireland the abbots who were lords of parliament, were those of St. Mary, Dublin; St. Thomas, Dublin; Monastereven, Baltinglass, Dunbrody, Duisk, Jerpoint, Bective, Mellifont, Tracton, Monasternenagh, Owney, Holycross. All these were of the Cistercian order, except the abbot of St. Thomas, who was of St. Victor. The other parliamentary lords, heads of religious houses, were the cathedral priors of Christ Church, Dublin, and of Downpatrick; the priors of Allhallows, Dublin; Conall, Kells, (in Kilkenny,) Louth, Athassel, Killagh, Newton, and Rathboy. All these were of the Augustinian order, except the prior of Down, who was a Benedictine, the preceptor of the Knights Hospitallers at Wexford, and the prior of the Knights Hospitallers at Kilmainham. (See Monks.) and ABBREVIATION. The expression of a word or words in short. The most common ecclesiastical abbreviations are I. H. S., |