Dominic sent Gilbert de Fresney, with twelve of the brethren, into England, where they founded their first monastery at Oxford, in the year 1221, and soon after another at London. In the year 1276, the mayor and aldermen of the city of London gave them two whole streets, by the river Thames, where they erected a very commodious convent; whence that place is still called Blackfriars, from the name by which the Dominicans were called in England. St. Dominic at first only took the habit of the regular canons; that is, a black cassock and rochet: but this he quitted, in 1219, for that which they have ever since worn, which, it is pretended, was shown by the Blessed Virgin herself to the beatified Renaud d'Orleans. This order has been diffused throughout the whole known world. They reckon three popes of this order, above sixty cardinals, several patriarchs, a hundred and fifty archbishops, and about eight hundred bishops, besides masters of the sacred palace, whose office has been constantly discharged by a religious of this order ever since St. Dominic, who held it under Honorius III. in 1218.

operations. A person named Jetzer, who was extremely simple, and much inclined to austerities, and who had taken their habit as a lay-brother, was chosen as the instrument of the delusions they were contriving. One of the four Dominicans, who had undertaken the management of this plot, conveyed himself secretly into Jetzer's cell, and about midnight appeared to him in a horrid figure, surrounded with howling dogs, and seeming to blow fire from his nostrils, by the means of a box of combustibles which he held near his mouth. In this frightful form he approached Jetzer's bed, told him that he was the ghost of a Dominican, who had been killed at Paris, as a judgment of Heaven for laying aside his monastic habit; that he was condemned to purgatory for this crime; adding, at the same time, that by his means he might be rescued from his misery, which was beyond expression. This story, accompanied with horrible cries and howlings, frighted poor Jetzer out of the little wits he had, and engaged him to promise to do all that was in his power to deliver the Dominican from his torment. Upon this the impostor told him, that nothing but the most extraordinary mortifications, such as the discipline of the whip, performed during eight days by the whole monastery, and Jetzer's lying prostrate in the form of one crucified in the chapel during mass, could contribute to his deliverance. He added, that the performance of these mortifications would draw down upon Jetzer the peculiar protection of the Blessed Virgin; and concluded by saying, that he would appear to him again, accompanied with two other spirits. Morning was no sooner come, than Jetzer gave an account of this apparition to the rest of the convent, who all unanimously advised him to undergo the discipline that was enjoined him, and every one consented to bear his share of the task imposed. The deluded simpleton obeyThe Franciscans maintained that theed, and was admired as a saint by the Virgin Mary was born without the blemish of original sin; the Dominicans asserted the contrary.

Of all the monastic orders, none enjoyed a higher degree of power and authority than the Dominican friars, whose credit was great, and their influence universal. But the measures they used in order to maintain and extend their authority were so perfidious and cruel, that their influence began to decline towards the beginning of the sixteenth century. The tragic story of Jetzer, conducted at Bern, in 1509, for determining an uninteresting dispute between them and the Franciscans, relating to the immaculate conception, will reflect indelible infamy on this order. In order to give the reader a view of the impious frauds which have sometimes been carried on in the church of Rome, we shall here insert an account of this stratagem.

The doctrine of the Franciscans, in an age of darkness and superstition, could not but be popular; and hence the Dominicans lost ground from day to day. To support the credit of their order, they resolved, at a chapter held at Vimpsen, in the year 1504, to have recourse to fictitious visions and dreams, in which the people at that time had an easy faith; and they determined to make Bern the scene of their

multitudes that crowded about the convent; while the four friars that managed the imposture magnified, in the most pompous manner, the miracle of this apparition in their sermons, and in their discourses. The night after, the apparition was renewed with the addition of two impostors, dressed like devils, and Jetzer's faith was augmented by hearing from the spectre all the secrets of his life and thoughts, which the impostors had learned from his confessor. In this and some subsequent scenes (the detail of whose enormities, for the sake

images, one of Mary, and another of the child Jesus, the former of which had tears painted upon its cheeks in a lively manner. The little Jesus asked his mother, by means of this voice (which was that of the prior's,) why she wept? and she answered, that her tears were owing to the impious manner in which the Franciscans attributed to her the honour that was due to him, in saying that she was conceived and born without sin.

of brevity, we shall here omit) the im- || his succour. The draught threw the postor talked much to Jetzer of the poor wretch into a sort of lethargy, Dominican order, which he said was during which the monks imprinted on peculiarly dear to the Blessed Virgin: his body the other four wounds of Christ he added, that the Virgin knew herself in such a manner that he felt no pain. to be conceived in original sin; that the|| When he awakened, he found, to his doctors who taught the contrary were unspeakable joy, those impressions on in purgatory, that the Blessed Virgin his body, and came at last to fancy himabhorred the Franciscans for making self a representative of Christ in the her equal with her Son; and that the various parts of his passion. He was, town of Bern would be destroyed for in this state, exposed to the admiring harbouring such plagues within her multitude on the principal altar of the walls. In one of these apparitions Jetzer convent, to the great mortification of imagined that the voice of the spectre the Franciscans. The Dominicans gave resembled that of the prior of the con- him some other draughts, that threw vent, and he was not mistaken; but, not him into convulsions; which were folsuspecting a fraud, he gave little atten-lowed by a pipe into the mouths of two tion to this. The prior appeared in various forms, sometimes in that of St. Barbara, at others in that of St. Bernard: at length he assumed that of the Virgin Mary, and, for that purpose, clothed himself in the habits that were employed to adorn the statue of the Virgin in the great festivals. The little images, that on these days are set on the altars, were made use of for angels, which, being tied to a cord that passed through a pulley over Jetzer's head, rose up and down, and danced about The apparitions, false prodigies and the pretended Virgin to increase the abominable stratagems of these Domidelusion. The Virgin, thus equipped, nicans were repeated every night; and addressed a long discourse to Jetzer, in the matter was at length so grossly which, among other things, she told him over-acted, that, simple as Jetzer was, that she was conceived in original sin, he at last discovered it, and had almost though she had remained but a short killed the prior, who appeared to him time under that blemish. She gave him, one night in the form of the Virgin withas a miraculous proof of her presence, a crown on her head. The Dominicans a host, or consecrated wafer, which fearing, by this discovery, to lose the turned from white to red in a moment; fruits of their imposture, thought the and after various visits, in which the best method would be to own the whole greatest enormities were transacted, matter to Jetzer, and to engage him, the Virgin-prior told Jetzer that she by the most seducing promises of opuwould give him the most affecting and lence and glory, to carry on the cheat. undoubted marks of her Son's love, by Jetzer was persuaded, or at least apimprinting on him the five wounds that peared to be so. But the Dominicans pierced Jesus on the cross, as she had suspecting that he was not entirely done before to St. Lucia and St. Catha- gained over, resolved to poison him; rine. Accordingly she took his hand by but his constitution was so vigorous, force, and struck a large nail through that, though they gave him poison five it, which threw the poor dupe into the several times, he was not destroyed by greatest torment. The next night this it. One day they sent him a loaf premasculine virgin brought, as he pre-pared with some spices, which, growing tended, some of the linen in which Christ had been buried, to soften the wound; and gave Jetzer a soporific draught, which had in it the blood of an unbaptized child, some grains of incense and of consecrated salt, some quicksilver, the hairs of the eye-brows of a child; all which, with some stupifying and poisonous ingredients, were mingled together by the prior with magic ceremonies, and a solemn dedication of himself to the devil in hope of

green in a day or two, he threw a piece of it to a wolf's whelps that were in the monastery, and it killed them immediately. At another time they poisoned the host, or consecrated wafer; but, as he vomited it up soon after he had swallowed it, he escaped once more. In short, there were no means of securing him, which the most detestable impiety and barbarity could invent, that they did not put in practice: till finding, at last, an opportunity of getting out of the

summoned by authority of the states- || est in the divine favour. The causes of general, the provinces of Holland, our doubts may be such as these: perUtrecht, and Overyssel excepted, and sonal declension: not knowing the exheld at Dort, 1618. The most eminent act time, place, or means of our converdivines of the United Provinces, and sion; improper views of the characdeputies from the churches of England, ter and decrees of God; the fluctuation Scotland, Switzerland, Bremen, Hessia, of religious experience as to the enjoyand the Palatinate, assembled on this ment of God in prayer, hearing, &c.; occasion, in order to decide the contro- the depth of our affliction; relapses into versy between the Calvinists and Ar- sin; the fall of professors; and the himinians. The synod had hardly com- dings of God's face. While some are menced its deliberations before a dis- continually harassed with doubts and pute on the mode of proceeding, drove fears, there are others who tell us they the Arminian party from the assembly. know not what it is to doubt: yea, who The Arminians insisted upon beginning think it a sin to doubt: so prone are men with a refutation of the Calvinistic doc- to run to extremes, as if there were no trines, especially that of reprobation; medium between constant full assurance whilst the synod determined, that, as and perpetual doubt. The true Christhe remonstrants were accused of de- tian, perhaps, steers between the two. parting from the reformed faith, they He is not always doubting, nor is he ought first to justify themselves by always living in the full exercise of faith. scriptural proof of their own opinions. It is not unlawful at certain seasons to All means to persuade the Arminians doubt. "It is a sin," says one, "for a to submit to this procedure having fail-believer to live so as not to have his ed, they were banished the synod, for their refusal. The synod, however, proceeded in their examination of the Arminian tenets, condemned their opinions, and excommunicated their persons: whether justly or unjustly, let the reader determine. Surely no one can be an advocate for the persecution which followed, and which drove these men from their churches and country into exile and poverty. The authority of this synod was far from being universally acknowledged, either in Holland or in England. The provinces of Friesland, Zealand, Utrecht, Guelderland, and Groningen, could not be persuaded to adopt their decisions; and they were opposed by king James I. and archbishop Laud, in England.

evidences clear; but it is no sin for him to be so honest and impartial as to doubt, when in fact his evidences are not clear." Let the humble Christian, however, beware of an extreme. Prayer, conversation with experienced Christians, reading the promises, and consideration of the divine goodness, will have a tendency to remove unnecessary doubts.

DOXOLOGY, a hymn used in praise of the Almighty, distinguished by the titles of the Greater and the Less. Both the doxologies are used in the church of England; the former being repeated after every psalm, and the latter used in the communion service. Doxology the Greater, or the angelic hymn, was of great note in the ancient church. It began with the words the angels sung at the birth of Christ, "Glory to God," &c. Doxology the Less, was anciently 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," it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be," &c. was inserted some time after the first composition.

as

DOSITHEANS, an ancient sect among the Samaritans, in the first century of the Christian ara; so called from Dositheus, who endeavoured to persuade the Samaritans that he was the Messiah foretold by Moses. He had many followers, and his sect was still subsisting at Alexandria in the time of the patriarch Eulogius, as appears from a decree of that patriarch published by Photius. In that decree, Eulogius accuses Dositheus of injuriously DRAGOONING, one of the metreating the ancient patriarchs and pro-thods used by papists after the revocaphets, and attributing to himself the tion of the edict of Nantz, under Lewis spirit of prophesy. He makes him con- XIV., for converting refractory heretics, temporary with Simon Magus; and ac- and bringing them within the pale of cuses him of corrupting the Pentateuch, their church. If the reader's feelings and of composing several books directly will suffer him to peruse the account of contrary to the law of God. these barbarities, he will find it under the article PERSECUTION in this work.

DOUBTS and Fears, are terms frequently used to denote the uncertainty of mind we are in respecting our inter

DREAD, is a degree of permanent fear, an habitual and painful apprehen

It

sion of some tremendous event. keeps the mind in a perpetual alarm, in an eager watchfulness of every circumstance that bears any relation to the evil apprehended.

preme Being, who made his abode in these sacred groves, governed the universe; and, that every creature ought to obey his laws, and pay him divine homage. They considered the oak as DRUIDS, the priests or ministers of the emblem, or rather the peculiar rereligion among the ancient Gauls, Bri- sidence of the Almighty; and accordtons, and Germans. They were chosen ingly chaplets of it were worn, both by out of the best families; and the honours the druids and people, in their religious of their birth, joined with those of their ceremonies: the altars were strewed function, procured them the highest with its leaves, and encircled with its veneration among the people. They branches. The fruit of it, especially were versed in astrology, geometry,|| the_misletoe, was thought to contain a natural philosophy, politics, and geo- divine virtue, and to be the peculiar graphy; they were the interpreters of gift of Heaven. It was, therefore, religion, and the judges of all affairs sought for on the sixth day of the moon indifferently. Whoever refused obedi- with the greatest earnestness and anxieence to them was declared impious and ty; and when found, was hailed with accursed. We know but little as to sure rapture of joy, as almost exceeds their peculiar doctrines, only that they imagination to conceive. As soon as the believed the immortality of the soul, druids were informed of the fortunate and, as is generally also supposed, the discovery, they prepared every thing transmigration of it to other bodies, ready for the sacrifice under the oak, though a late author makes it appear to which they fastened two white bulls highly probable they did not believe this by the horns; then the arch-druid, atlast, at least not in the sense of the Py-tended by a prodigious number of peothagoreans. The chief settlement of the Druids in Britain was in the isle of Anglesey, the ancient Mona, which they might choose for this purpose, as it is well stored with precious groves of their favourite oak. They were divided into several classes or branches, such as the priests, the poets, the augurs, the civil judges, and instructors of youth. Strabo, however, does not comprehend all these different orders under the denomination of druids; he only distinguishes three kinds; bardi, poets; the vates, priests and naturalists; and the druids,|| who, besides the study of nature, applied themselves likewise to morality.

Their garments were remarkably dong; and when employed in religious ceremonies, they likewise wore a white surplice. They generally carried a wand in their hands, and wore a kind of ornament, enchased with gold, about their necks, called the druid's egg. They had one chief, or arch-druid, in every nation, who acted as high priest, or pontifex maximus. He had absolute authority over the rest, and commanded, decreed, and punished at pleasure. They worshipped the Supreme Being under the name of Esus or Hesus, and the symbol of the oak; and had no other temple than a wood or a grove, where all their religious rites were performed. Nor was any person permitted to enter that sacred recess unless he carried with him a chain in token of his absolute dependence on the Deity. In deed, their whole religion originally consisted in acknowledging that the Su-l

ple, ascended the tree, dressed in white; and, with a consecrated golden knife, or pruning hook, cropped the misletoe, which he received in his robe, amidst the rapturous exclamations of the people. Having secured this sacred plant, he descended the tree; the bulls were sacrificed: and the Deity invoked to bless his own gift, and render it efficacious in those distempers in which it should be administered.

DRUNKENNESS, intoxication with strong liquor. It is either actual or habitual; just as it is one thing to be drunk, and another to be a drunkard. The evil of drunkenness appears in the following bad effects: 1. It betrays most constitutions either to extravagance of anger, or sins of lewdness.-2. It disqualifies men for the duties of their station, both by the temporary disorder of their faculties, and at length by a constant incapacity and stupefaction.-3. It is attended with expense, which can often be ill spared.-4. It is sure to occasion uneasiness to the family of the drunkard-5. It shortens life.-6. It is a most pernicious awful example to others.-7. It is hardly ever cured.-8. It is a violation of God's word, Prov. xx. 1. Eph. v. 18. Is. v. 11. Rom. xiii. 13. "The appetite for intoxicating liquor appears to me," says Paley, "to be almost always acquired. One proof of which is, that it is apt to return only at particular times and places; as after dinner, in the evening, on the market-day, in such a conipany, at such a tavern." How careful, then, should we be, lest we