A BRAHAMIANS, a denomination in the ninth century, so called from their founder, Abraham. They received the doctrines of the Paulicians, and are said to have employed the cross in the most servile offices.* See Paulicians. ABYSSINIAN CHURCH, that established in the empire of Abyssinia. They maintain that the two natures are united in Christ, without either confusion or mixture; so that though the nature of our Saviour be really one, yet it is at the same time two-fold and compound. They differ from the Eutychians in this respect: they confess that the nature of Christ is composed of tw natures, the divine and human, which, being united, became one single nature: but Eutyches affirmed the human to be wholly absorbed in the divine. The Abyssinian church embraced these tenets in the seventh century. They disown the pope's supremacy, and transubstantiation, though they believe the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, They administer the communion in both kinds. Like the Roman catholics, they offer their de * Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. i. p. 10. H as Adamn before the fall, and consequently went naked in their assemblies. The author of this denomination was Prodicus, a disciple of Carpocrates. It was renewed in the fifteenth century by one Picard, a native of Flanders. votions and prayers to the saints, and have proper offices, fasts, and festivals, in memory of them. They believe a middle state, in which departed souls must be purged from their sins, and may be greatly assisted and relieved by the prayers, alms, and penances ADESSENARIANS, are a of their surviving friends, who branch of the Sacramentarians; seldom fail of performing so so called from the latin, adesse, charitable, and, as they deem (to be present) because they it, meritorious a duty to them believed the presence of frequently, and with great fer- Christ's body in the eucharist, vency. They use confession, though in a different manner and receive penance and absolu-• from the Romanists. They tion from the priests.* For o- were subdivided into those ther particulars relating to this church see part the second. ACEPHALI, i. e. headless. The word is compounded of the privative a and xiqaλñ, a head. They were a branch of the Eutychians, who by the submission of Mongos, bishop of Alexandria, had been deprived of their chief. This denomination was afterwards divided into three others, who were called Anthropomorphites, Barsanaphites, and Esaianites. See Eutychians. ADAMITES, a denomination in the second century, who assumed this title from their asserting, that since their redemption by the death of Christ they were as innocent who held that the body of Jesus Christ is in the bread, (whence they were called Impanatores) those who hold that it is about the bread, those who said it is with the bread, and those who maintained that it is under the bread. § ADIAPHORISTS. Lutherans. See ADOPTIANS, followers of Felix of Urgel, and Elipand of Toledo, who towards the end of the eighth century taught that Jesus Christ, with respect to his human nature, was not the natural, but adoptive Son of God. AERIANS, a denomination which arose about the year three hundred and forty *Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 172. vol. iii. p. 492. Dict. of Arts and Scien. vol. i. p. 15. Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. xv. p. 174-177. Ludolph's Hist. of Ethiopia † Mosheim, vol. i, p. 418. Broughton, vol. i. p. 15. Broughton's Hist. Lib, vol. i. p. 49. || Dict, of Arts and Scien. vol, i. p. 49. two; so called from one Aerius, a presbyter monk, and SemiArian. One of his principal tenets, was, that there is no distinction founded in scripture between a presbyter and a bishop. He built his opinion chiefly on the passage in the first epistle to Timothy, in which the apostle exhorts him not to neglect the gift he had received by the laying on the hands of the presbytery. Aerius condemned prayers for the dead, stated fasts, the celebration of Easter, and other rites of the like nature.* AETIANS, a denomination which appeared about the year three hundred and thirty-six; so called from Aetius, a Syrian. Besides the opinions which the Aetians held in common with the Arians, they maintained that faith without works was sufficient to salvation; and that no sin, however grievous, would be imputed to the faithful. Aetius moreover affirmed, that what God had concealed from the apostles he had revealed to him.t AGINIANS, a denomination which appeared about the end of the seventh century. They condemned the use of certain meats and marriage. They had but few followers, and were soon suppressed.‡ Mosheim, vol. i. p. 314. + Broughton, vol, i, p. 24, AGNOITES, a denomination which appeared about the year three hundred and seventy. They were followers of Theophronius, the Capadocian, who called in question the omniscience of God; alleging that he knew things past only by memory, and things future only by an uncertain prescience. There arose another sect of the same name about the year five hundred and thirty-five, who followed the sentiments of Themisticus, deacon of Alexandria, who held that Christ knew not when the day of judgment shall be. He founded this opinion on a passage in St. Mark: Of that day and hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels who are in heaven; nor the Son, but the Father only. This sect derive their name from the greek, Ayres, to be ignorant.§ nor really ascend into heaven. They rejected the doctrine of the resurrection, affirmed that the general judgment was past, and that hell-torments were no other than the evils we feel and suffer in this life. They denied free-will, did not admit original sin, and never administered baptism to infants. They held that a man can give the holy Spirit of himself, and that it is unlawful for a christian to take an oath. This denomination derived their name from the place where their spiritual ruler resided. See Manicheans and Catherists. ALBANOIS, a denomination which sprung up in the eighth century, and renewed the greatest part of the Manichean principles. They also maintained that the world was from eternity. See Manicheans. ALBIGENSES, so called from their first increase in Albi and Albigeois. A denomination remarkable for their opposition to the discipline and ceremonies of the church of Rome. Their opinions are * similar to the Waldenses. See Waldenses. ALMARICIANS, a denomination that arose in the thirteenth century. They derived their origin from Almaric, professor of logic and theology at Paris. His adversaries charged him with having taught that every christian was obliged to believe himself a member of Jesus Christ, and that without this belief none could be saved. His followers asserted that the power of the Father had continued only during the Mosaic dispensation, that of the Son twelve hundred years after his entrance upon earth, and that in the thirteenth century the age of the holy Spirit commenced, in which the sacraments and all external worship were to be abolished ;§ and that every one was to be saved by the internal operations of the holy Spirit alone, without any external act of religion. ALOGIANS, a denomination in Asia Minor in the year one hundred and seventy-one; so called, because they denied the divine logos, or word, and the gospel and writings of St. Broughton, vol. i. p. 31. Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 445. Perrin's History of the Waldenses, p. 3. The learned Spanheim imagines that Almaric was falsely charged wit maintaining the sentiments above mentioned, in order to render his memory edious, because he had opposed the worship of saints and images. Mosheim, Note, (c) vol. iii. pp. 129–133. John, attributing them to Cerinthus. . One Theodore of Byzantium, by trade a currier, was the head of this denomination.* AMMONIANS, so called from Ammonius Saccas, who taught with the highest applause in the Alexandrian school, about the conclusion of the second century. This learned man attempted a general reconciliation of all sects, whether philosophical or religious. He maintained that the great principles of all philo-, sophical and religious truth were to be found equally in all sects, and that they differed from each other only in their method of expressing them, and in some opinions of little or no importance; and that by a proper interpretation of their respective sentiments, they might easily be united in one body. Ammonius supposed, that true philosophy derived its origin and its consistence from the eastern nations, that it was taught to the Egyptians by Hermes, that it was brought from them to the Greeks, and preserved in its original purity by Plato, who was the best interpreter of Hermes and the other oriental sages. He maintained that all the different religions which prevailed in the world, were in their original integrity conformable to this ancient philosophy; but it unfortunately happened that the symbols and fictions under which, according to the eastern manner, the ancients delivered their precepts and doctrines, were in process of time erroneously understood, both by priests and people, in a literal sense; that in consequence of this, the invisible beings and demons whom the supreme Deity had placed in the different parts of the universe as the ministers of his providence, were by the suggestions of superstition converted into gods, and worshipped with a multiplicity of vain ceremonies. He therefore insisted that all the religions of all nations should be restored to their primitive standard; viz. The ancient philosophy of the east and he asserted that his project was agreeable to the intentions of Jesus Christ, whom he acknowledged to be a most excellent man, the friend of God; and affirmed that his sole view in descending on earth was to set bounds to the reigning superstition, to remove the errors which had crept into the religion of all nations, but not to abolish the ancient theology from which they were derived. Taking these principles for granted, Ammonius associated * Broughton, vol, i, p. 33. |