PREFACE.

THE Work, a new edition of which is here presented to the public, formed quite a desideratum at the time of its original publication. There had, indeed, long existed dictionaries, having for their object the explanation of the various terms, doctrines, ordinances, customs, &c. which are found in the sacred oracles, and their character was more or less in accordance with this very important and laudable object. They were exclusively Biblical. But the multifarious names, phrases, opinions, sects, parties, heresies, &c., which have been introduced since the close of the sacred canon, and which properly appertain to the department of Theological History, were either left uncollected, or, at least, existed in such forms, and were exhibited on such a plan, as were little, if at all calculated to facilitate the acquisition, or promote the extension of religious knowledge.

To supply this deficiency, the respected author applied himself with commendable diligence and extensive research; incorporating into his Work whatever he considered to be important in ecclesiastical history, good and accurate in definition, valuable in theological science, interesting in the religious world, and likely to advance the piety, as well as to gratify the curiosity of his readers. That he succeeded in .no ordinary degree, may fairly be concluded from the number of impressions through which the dictionary has gone, and the great extent of its circulation. In the United States of America upwards of 50,000 copies have been circulated.

Since the Work first appeared, other publications, constructed on a similar principle, have been, more or less, brought into competition with it; but instead of displacing it from the position which it has deservedly held in the libraries of the evangelical portion of the community, the demand for copies has been constantly on the increase. With a view to render it still more extensively useful, the Proprietors have resolved to issue a new and improved edition, in which any inaccuracies which might have escaped the author should be corrected, such articles inserted as he had omitted, and the whole, as much as possible, brought down to the present time. In endeavouring to fulfil their wishes, the present Editor has considerably altered several of the original articles, especially such as related to foreign divinity; the circumstances connected with the different religious establishments in Christendom; the history, views, and usages of the different parties that have seceded from these establishments; the literature of theology; and other subjects of a kindred nature. Several that appeared to be of minor importance he has omitted, in order to make room for the insertion of others, of higher and more general interest. The number of additional articles in the present edition amounts to nearly FIVE Hundred.

One totally new feature of the Work, as it now appears, is its Biographical department. Readers who have not the command of biographical dictionaries, are frequently at a loss in regard to dates, places, and other circumstances connected with the history of divines and others, to whom reference is currently made, both in conversation and in books on religious subjects.

Yet,

to supply this want within a reasonable compass has been found to be a matter of no small difficulty. The selection has been regulated by a regard to the prominent station, the literary eminence, or the celebrated character of the individual; and those writers only have been made the subject of biographical notice, who have exerted, to a considerable extent, a decided influence over the religious opinions and practices of certain sections or communities, in the age in which they lived, and in after times. See the articles, AUGUSTINE, BARCLAY, CALVIN, EDWARDS, KNOX, SANDEMAN, WESLEY, WHITEFIELD, &c. In preparing the additional articles, the Editor has availed himself of various sources which were not in existence in Mr. Buck's time, or to which he could not obtain access; and he flatters himself that the extent to which he has carried the improvements will meet with the approbation of general readers.

The volume will be found to contain a melancholy exhibition of the multiform corruptions of the Christian faith; of the unhappy influence which pride of intellect, an unbridled imagination, vain speculation, and selfish passions, have had in multiplying the diversity of religious opinion, and in giving rise to interminable disputes. The wide distance at which the various sections of the Christian family still stand from the simplicity and purity of Biblical Christianity, is powerfully adapted to inspire the reader with a practical distrust of himself, an ever wakeful suspicion with respect to the exercise of human authority in matters of religion, an unrelaxing application to the study of the Holy Scriptures, as the only infallible source and standard of Divine Truth, and a constant scriptural dependence on the promised instruction of that Sacred Teacher, one of whose offices it is to "guide into all truth." But while the Work necessarily presents error in almost all the diversity of its modifications, it will also be found to furnish sound, consistent, practical, and consolatory views of all the leading subjects of Revelation; views calculated to afford instruction to the ignorant, relief to the perplexed, confirmation to the wavering, and conviction to gainsayers.

January 4th, 1833.

E. H.

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE PRESENT EDITION.

In this Edition a considerable number of new articles have been inserted; some statements which had been made on incorrect data, have either been rectified, or altogether withdrawn; every point has been determined according to the latest sources of information; and the entire work has been rendered as complete as its object and extent would allow.

April, 1841.

E. H.

A

THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY.

ABBA, a Syriac word, signifying Father. It is used in the Syriac, Coptic, and Ethiopic churches, as a title given to the bishops. The bishops themselves bestowed the title Abba more eminently on the bishop of Alexandria, which occasioned the people to give him the title of Baba, or Papa, that is, Grandfather: a title which he bore before the bishop of Rome. It is a Jewish title of honour given to certain Rabbins called Tanaites; it is also used by some writers of the middle age for the superior of a monastery. St. Mark and St. Paul use this word, Mark xiv. 36; Rom. viii. 15; Gal. vi. 6, because it was then commonly known in the synagogues and the primitive assemblies of the Christians. Selden has brought a very pertinent quotation from the Babylonian Gemara, to prove that it was not allowed to slaves to use the title of Abba in addressing the master of the family to which they belonged, or the correspondent title of Imma, "Mother," when speaking to the mistress of it.-De Succ. in bona Def. cap. 4.

ABBE'S COMMENDATAIRES.-The king of France had formerly the right of appointing abbots over 225 monasteries. These abbots enjoyed a third part of the revenues of the monastery, but had no authority over it, the charge of superintendence being committed to a prieur claustral. According to rule, every abbot ought to receive ordination in the course of a year; but the pope dispensed with the rule, and the abbe spent his income (from 1200 to 150,000 French livres) wherever he pleased. This shocking abuse excited the indignation of the people, and was one of the causes of the Revolution. The lower sinecures of this kind, the abbayes des savans, were used as pensions for learned men; the richer to provide for the younger sons of the nobility.

ABBESS, the superior of an abbey or convent of nuns. The abbess has the same rights and authority over her nuns, that the abbotsregular have over their monks. The sex, indeed, does not allow her to perform the spiritual functions annexed to the priesthood, wherewith the abbot is usually invested; but there are instances of some abbesses who have a right, or rather a privilege, to commission a priest to act for them. They have even a kind of episcopal jurisdiction, as well as some abbots, who are exempted from the visitation of their diocesan.

ABBEY, a monastery, governed by a superior under the title of Abbot or Abbess. Monasteries were at first, nothing more than religious houses, whither persons retired from the bustle of the world, to spend their time in solitude and devotion; but they soon degenerated from their original institution, and procured large privileges, exemptions, and riches. They pre

ABBE', before the French Revolution, was the title of all those Frenchmen who devoted themselves to divinity, or had at least pursued a course of study in a theological seminary, in the hope that the king would confer on them a real abbey, i. e. a certain part of the revenues of a monastery. Ordained clergymen, were those only who devoted themselves entirely to the performance of clerical duty; the others were engaged in every kind of literary occupation. There were so many of them, poor and rich, men of quality and men of low birth, that they formed a particular class in society, and exerted an important influence over its character. They were seen every-vailed greatly in Britain before the Reformawhere; at court, in the halls of justice, in the tion, particularly in England; and as they theatres, the coffee-houses, &c. In almost increased in riches, so the state became poor, every wealthy family was an abbé, occupying for the lands which these regulars possessed the post of familiar friend and spiritual ad- could never revert to the lords who gave viser, and not seldom, that of the gallant of them. These places were wholly abolished the lady. They corresponded, in a certain by Henry VIII He first appointed visitors degree, to the philosophers who lived in the to inspect into the lives of the monks and houses of the wealthy Romans in the time of nuns, which were found in some places very the emperors. disorderly; upon which the abbots, perceiving

B

their dissolution unavoidable, were induced to resign their houses to the king, who by that means became invested with the abbey lands: these were afterwards granted to different persons, whose descendants enjoy them at this day; they were then valued at 2,853,000l. per annum, an immense sum in those days. Though the suppression of these houses, considered in a religious and political light, was a great benefit to the nation, yet it must be owned that, at the time they flourished, they were not entirely useless. Abbeys were then the repositories as well as the seminaries of learning: many valuable books and national records have been preserved in their libraries, the only places wherein they could have been safely lodged in those turbulent times. Indeed, the historians of this country are chiefly beholden to the monks for the knowledge they have of former national events. Thus Providence overruled even the institutions of superstition for good. See MONASTERY.

choristers, denominate their superiors abbots. Besides the female branches of these orders, the nuns of Fontrevaud, and the female secular choristers, have abbesses. These have always remained under the jurisdiction of their diocesan bishop; but the abbots of many other convents shook off the authority of the bishops, and acknowledged no master but the pope. The mitred abbots enjoyed the right, frequently conferred on the Benedictines in the middle ages by the papal legate, of adopting the episcopal title and insignia. Only a few, however, possessed the episcopal power with dioceses of their own, of whom there was not one in France. Before the period of secularization, there were in Germany, but in Germany only, princely abbots and princely abbesses. These abbeys were secularized in 1803, and became principalities. By rule, the choice of abbots belongs to the chapters of their convents. In the independent abbeys, this is followed by the papal confirmation; in the dependent, by the episcopal; yet, for a long time, many abbeys in Italy have been conferred by the pope, and in France by the king, notwithstanding the concordat of 1516. The secular clergy, who enjoy these benefices without observing the rules of the order, are termed secular abbots; on the other hand, their vicars in the convents themselves, like all abbots of the monkish order, are called regular abbots. Younger sons of distinguished families have often entered the ranks of the secular clergy, in order to become secular abbots, and to receive the income of an abbey without being restricted by monastic rules. As such expectants were called in France abbés, this became a general appellation for young secular clergy who were out of office. (See ABBE'.) Since the Revolution, which changed the abbeys into national property, and took from those expectants the objects of their exertions, this class has diminished in France, but it is yet numerous in Italy, where young scholars are called abbots, merely from having undergone the tonsure, though not in orders. Napoleon led a whole army of Italian abbots to Corsica, where they lived on reduced incomes till the restoration again scattered them over Italy.

ABBOT, originally the name of every aged monk; but, after the eighth century, it denotes the chief or head of a monastery. Since the second council of Nice, (787,) abbots have always been priests, and have enjoyed the power of conferring the lower orders of priesthood; but in essential points of jurisdiction, they were everywhere subject to the diocesan bishop till the eleventh century, when, in consequence of the wealth of their monasteries, they were raised to the titles and privileges of bishops, held a rank next to that of bishop, and had a vote in the ecclesiastical councils. Equal rights and privileges appertained to the abbesses as the superiors of the nunneries, except that they have seldom been allowed to vote in synods. As the result of the favour, or the wants of kings, and other causes, many of the most considerable convents came, in the ninth and tenth centuries, into the hands of secular masters, and their spiritual supervision was devolved on inferior abbots, deans, or priors. To the princes and princesses of royal families, abbeys were presented to defray the expenses of their table,while the richest were retained by the kings themselves. Nunneries were sometimes assigned to men, and monasteries to females. In the tenth century, the convents under At the time of the Reformation, several royal patronage were frequently given in re- abbeys and convents were retained for the ward for the services of the crown vassals in benefit of the clergy, and the support of unwar; the abbots thus became a kind of mili- married females. Some Protestant clergytary clergy, whose superiors bore, in the men, therefore, still bear the name of abbot, camp, the name of field-abbots. In conse- with which dignity the right of sitting in the quence of a reform commenced at Cluny, Diet of the states is united; as for example, new monasteries arose without abbots, over in the Wurtemburg Assembly. There are which the abbot of reformed Benedictines at also Protestant ladies who are called abbesses. that place appointed priors or pro-abbates, or In Lower Saxony, indeed, this dignity was even co-abbates, who remained dependent on abolished at the time of the confiscation of the him. Besides the Benedictines, only the grey cloisters, &c., under the French Westphalian monks of Vallombrosa, the Cistercians, Ber- government; but in some countries, as in the nardines, Trappists, Grand Montani, Præ-kingdom of Hanover, it has been restored. monstratenses, and some bodies of regular

In the Greek church, the superiors of a

ABJURATION, OATH OF, an oath by which an obligation was come under not to acknow-bers between whom and the Abrahamites ledge any right in the Pretender to the throne of England. It is also used to signify an oath, ordained by the 25th of Charles II., abjuring particular doctrines of the church of Rome.