Chapter XVI: Preface: To the Seventh Edition (15)

5. The formal classification of the cardinals into three distinct orders, 1. cardinal bishops; 2. cardinal presbyters; 3. cardinal deacons, was made by Paul II. in the fifteenth century. He also gave them, instead of the scarlet robe which they had worn since the year 1244, _a purple robe_, from whence they derived the name of the _purple_; a title indicative, not merely of their superiority to bishops and archbishops, but of their regal honours and rights. Boniface VIII. gave them the title of _eminentissimi, most eminent_; and Pius V., in the year 1567, decrees that no other should have the name of cardinal.

6. The number of cardinals was at first not less than _seven_; and, after having ranged from _seven_ to _fifty-three_, it was reduced again in the year 1277 to the minimum above-mentioned. The General Assembly of the Church of Basil limited the number to _twenty-four_; but the popes from this time increased them at their pleasure. Under Leo X. there were sixty-five cardinals: Paul IV. and Pius V. decreed that the maximum should be seventy—equal in number to the disciples of our Lord. These were arranged under the following grades: 1. Six cardinal bishops, with the following titles:—the bishops of Ostia, Porta, Albano, Frascati, Sabina, and Palæstrina; 2. Fifty cardinal priests, who were named after the parochial and cathedral churches of Rome; 3. Fourteen cardinal deacons, who were named after the chapels. This number was seldom full; but, since 1814, they have again become quite numerous.—_Augusti._

The canons in some foreign cathedrals are called cardinals; as at Milan and Salerno. In the cathedral of St. Paul’s, London, two of the minor canons are still so designated. Their statutable duties are to superintend the behaviour of the members of the choir, in order to the correction of offenders by the dean and chapter, and to see to the burial of the dead, &c.—_Jebb._

CARMELITES, or WHITE FRIARS. Monks of the order of _Our Lady of Mount Carmel_. They pretend to derive their original from the prophets Elijah and Elisha; and this occasioned a very warm controversy between this order and the Jesuits, about the end of the seventeenth century; both parties publishing several works, and petitioning the popes Innocent XI. and Innocent XII.; the latter of whom silenced them both, by a brief of the 20th November, 1698.

What we know of their original is, that, in the twelfth century, Aimerie, legate of the holy see in the east, and patriarch of Antioch, collected together several hermits in Syria, who were exposed to the violence and incursions of the barbarians, and placed them on Mount Carmel, formerly the residence of the prophets Elijah and Elisha; from which mountain they took the name of Carmelites. Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, gave them rules in 1205, which Pope Honorius III. confirmed in 1224.

The peace concluded by the emperor Frederic II. with the Saracens, in the year 1229, so disadvantageous to Christendom, and so beneficial to the infidels, occasioned the Carmelites to quit the Holy Land under Alan, the fifth general of the order. He first sent some of the monks to Cyprus, who landed there in the year 1238, and founded a monastery in the forest of Fortania. Some Sicilians, at the same time, leaving Mount Carmel, returned to their own country, where they founded a monastery in the suburbs of Messina. Some English departed out of Syria, in the year 1440, to found others in England. Others of Provence, in the year 1244, founded a monastery in the desert of Aigualates, a league from Marseilles; and thus, the number of their monasteries increasing, they held their first European general chapter in the year 1245, at their monastery of Aylesford, in England.

After the establishment of the Carmelites in Europe, their rule was in some respects altered: the first time, by Pope Innocent IV., who added to the first article a precept of chastity, and relaxed the eleventh, which enjoins abstinence at all times from flesh, permitting them, when they travelled, to eat boiled flesh. This pope likewise gave them leave to eat in a common refectory, and to keep asses or mules for their use. Their rule was again mitigated by the popes Eugenius IV. and Pius II. Hence the order is divided into two branches, viz. the _Carmelites of the ancient observance_, called the _moderate_ or _mitigated_, and those of the _strict observance_, who are the _barefooted Carmelites_; a reform set on foot, in 1540, by S. Theresa, a nun of the convent of Avila, in Castile: these last are divided into two congregations, that of Spain and that of Italy.

The habit of the Carmelites was at first white, and the cloak laced at the bottom with several lists; but Pope Honorius IV. commanded them to change it for that of the Minims. Their scapulary is a small woollen habit, of a brown colour, thrown over their shoulders. They wear no linen shirts, but instead of them linsey-woolsey.—_Broughton._

CAROLS. Hymns sung by the people at Christmas in memory of the song of the angels, which the shepherds heard at our LORD’S birth.

CARPOCRATIANS. Heretics who sprang up in the second century; followers of Carpocrates, of the island of Cephalenia, according to Epiphanius, or, according to Theodoret and Clemens Alexandrinus, of the city of Alexandria. This Carpocrates was a man of the worst morals, and addicted to magic. Eusebius says expressly, he was the father of the heresy of the Gnostics; and it is true that all the infamous things imputed to the Gnostics are ascribed likewise to the Carpocratians. It is sufficient to mention two of their principles: the one is, a community of wives; the other, that a man cannot arrive at perfection, nor deliver himself from the power of the princes of this world, as they expressed it, without having passed through all sorts of criminal actions; laying it down for a maxim, that there is no action bad in itself, but only from the opinion of men. This induced them to establish a new kind of metempsychosis, that those who have not passed through all sorts of actions in the first life, may do it in a second, and, if that be not sufficient, in a third, and so on, till they have discharged this strange obligation. Accordingly, they are charged with committing the most infamous things in their Agapæ, or love-feasts.

As to their theology, they attributed the creation of the world to angels; they said that Jesus Christ was born of Joseph and Mary in a manner like other men; that his soul alone was received into heaven, his body remaining on the earth; and, accordingly, they rejected the resurrection of the body.

They marked their disciples at the bottom of the right ear with a hot iron, or with a razor.

They had images of Jesus Christ as well in painting as in sculpture, which they said were made by Pilate; they kept them in a little box or chest. They had likewise the images of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and other philosophers. They put crowns on all these images, and paid them the same superstitious honours which the Pagans did to their idols, adoring them, and offering sacrifice to them. A woman of this sect, named Marcellina, came to Rome, in the pontificate of Anicetus, where she made a great many proselytes. She worshipped the images of Jesus Christ, Paul, Homer, and Pythagoras, and offered incense to them.

Carpocrates had a son, named Epiphanes, who, by means of the Platonic philosophy, gave a greater extent to the fabulous opinions of the Carpocratians. He died at seventeen years of age, but in that short time had acquired so great a reputation among the disciples of his father, that, after his death, he was revered by them as a god, insomuch that they built a temple to him in the island of Cephalenia, and the Cephalenians, every first day of the month, solemnized the feast of his apotheosis, offering sacrifices to him, and singing hymns to his honour.

Epiphanius relates of himself, that in his youth he accidentally fell into company with some women of this sect, who revealed to him the most horrible secrets of the Carpocratians. They were armed with beauty sufficient to make an impression on a person of his age; but, by the grace of God, he says, he escaped the snare which the devil had laid for him. (See _Gnostics_.)—_Brouqhton._

CARTHUSIANS. A religious order, founded in the year 1080 by one Bruno, a very learned man, a native of Cologne, and canon of Cologne, and afterwards Canon Scholaster or Theologal, (i. e. a lecturer in theology,) at Rheims. The occasion of its institution is related as follows: a friend of Bruno’s, Raimond Diocre, an eminent canon of Paris, who had been looked upon as a good liver, being dead, Bruno attended his funeral. Whilst the service was performing in the church, the dead man, who lay upon a bier, raised himself up and said, “By the just judgment of God, I am accused.” The company being astonished at this unusual accident, the burial was deferred to the next day, when the concourse of people being much greater, the dead man again raised himself up and said, “By the just judgment of God, I am judged:” and on a third similar occasion, “By the just judgment of God, I am condemned.” This miracle, it is pretended, wrought such an effect on Bruno and six more, that they immediately retired to the desert of Chartreux, in the diocese of Grenoble, in Dauphiné, where Hugh, bishop of that diocese, assigned them a spot of ground, and where Bruno, A. D. 1084, (or 1086, according to Baronius,) built his first monastery, under the following rigid institutes:—

His monks were to wear a hair-cloth next their body, a white cassock, and over it a black cloak: they were never to eat flesh; to fast every Friday on bread and water; to eat alone in their chambers, except upon certain festivals; and to observe an almost perpetual silence; none were allowed to go out of the monastery, except the prior and procurator, and they only about the business of the house.

The Carthusians, so called from the place of their first institution, are a very rigid order. They are not to go out of their cells, except to church, without leave of their superior. They are not to speak to any person, even their own brother, without leave. They may not keep any part of their portion of meat or drink till the next day, except herbs or fruit. Their bed is of straw, covered with a felt or coarse cloth; their clothing, two haircloths, two cowls, two pair of hose, a cloak, &c., all coarse. Every monk has two needles, some thread, scissors, a comb, a razor, a hone, an ink-horn, pens, chalk, two pumice-stones; likewise two pots, two porringers, a basin, two spoons, a knife, a drinking cup, a water-pot, a salt, a dish, a towel; and for fire, tinder, flint, wood, and an axe.

In the refectory they are to keep their eyes on the meat, their hands on the table, their attention on the reader, and their heart fixed on GOD. When allowed to discourse, they are to do it modestly, not to whisper, nor talk aloud, nor to be contentious. They confess to the prior every Saturday. Women are not allowed to come into their churches, that the monks may not see anything which may provoke them to lewdness.

It is computed there are a hundred and seventy-two houses of Carthusians, whereof five are of nuns, who practise the same austerities as the monks. They are divided into sixteen provinces, each of which has two visitors. There have been several canonised saints of this order; four cardinals, seventy archbishops and bishops, and a great many very learned writers.

The story of the motive of St. Bruno’s retirement into the desert was inserted in the Roman Breviary, but was afterwards left out, when that Breviary was reformed, by order of Pope Urban VIII.; and this gave occasion to several learned men of the seventeenth century to publish writings on that subject, some to vindicate the truth of the story, and others to invalidate it. It is rejected by Pagius, the learned annotator on Baronius, who says it was invented two centuries after Bruno’s time.—_Jebb._

In the year 1170, Pope Alexander III. took this order under the protection of the holy see. In 1391, Boniface IX. exempted them from the jurisdiction of the bishops. In 1420, Martin V. exempted them from paying the tenths of the lands belonging to them; and Julius II., in 1508, ordered that all the houses of the order, in whatever part of the world they were situated, should obey the prior of the Grand Chartreuse, and the general chapter of the order.

The convents of this order are generally very beautiful and magnificent; that of Naples, though but small, surpasses all the rest in ornaments and riches. Nothing is to be seen in the church and house but marble and jasper. The apartments of the prior are rather those of a prince than of a poor monk. There are innumerable statues, bas-reliefs, paintings, &c., together with very fine gardens; all which, joined with the holy and exemplary life of the good monks, draws the curiosity of all strangers who visit Naples.

The Carthusians settled in England about the year 1140. They had several monasteries here, particularly at Witham, in Somersetshire; Hinton, in the same county; Beauval, in Nottinghamshire; Kingston-upon-Hull; Mount Grace, in Yorkshire; Eppewort, in Lincolnshire; Shene, in Surrey, and one near Coventry. In London they had a famous monastery, since called, from the Carthusians who settled there, the Charter House.—See _Du Pin, and Baronius_.

CARTULARIES, according to _Jerom de Costa_, were papers wherein the contracts, sales, exchanges, privileges, immunities, and other acts that belong to churches and monasteries were collected, the better to preserve the ancient deeds, by rendering frequent reference to them less necessary.

CASSOCK. The under dress of all orders of the clergy; it resembles a long coat, with a single upright collar. In the Church of Rome it varies in colour with the dignity of the wearer. Priests wear black; bishops, purple; cardinals, scarlet; and popes, white. In the Church of England, black is worn by all the three orders of the clergy, but bishops, upon state occasions, often wear purple coats. The 74th English canon enjoins that beneficed clergymen, &c. shall not go in public in their doublet and hose, without coats or _cassocks_.—_Jebb._

CASUIST. One who studies cases of conscience.

CASUISTRY. The doctrine and science of conscience and its cases, with the rules and principles of resolving the same; drawn partly from natural reason or equity, and partly from the authority of Scripture, the canon law, councils, fathers, &c. To casuistry belongs the decision of all difficulties arising about what a man may lawfully do or not do; what is sin or not sin; what things a man is obliged to do in order to discharge his duty, and what he may let alone without breach of it. The most celebrated writers on this subject, of the Church of England, are Bishop Jeremy Taylor, in his “_Ductor Dubitantium_;” and Bishop Sanderson, in his “Cases of Conscience.” There was a professor of casuistry in the university of Cambridge, but the title of the professorship has lately been altered to _Moral Philosophy_.

CASULA. (See _Chasible_.)

CATACOMBS. Burying-places near Rome; not for Christians only, but for all sorts of people. There is a large vault about three miles from Rome, used for this purpose; there is another near Naples. That at Naples consists of long galleries cut out of the rock, of three stories, one above another. These galleries are generally about twenty feet broad, and fifteen high. Those at Rome are not above three or four feet broad, and five or six feet high. They are very long, full of niches, shaped according to the sizes of bodies, wherein the bodies were put, not in coffins, but only in burial clothes. Many inscriptions are still extant in them; and the same stone sometimes bears on one side an inscription to heathen deities and marks of Christianity on the other. But see a large account of these in Bishop Burnet’s Travels, in his fourth letter; also “The Church in the Catacombs,” by Dr. C. Maitland; and Macfarlane’s “Catacombs of Rome.”

The name “Catacombs” is now generally applied to the stone vaults for the dead constructed in the public cemeteries of England.

CATAPHRYGES. Christian heretics, who made their appearance in the second century; they had this name given to them because the chief promoters of this heresy came out of Phrygia. They followed Montanus’s errors. (See _Montanists_.)

CATECHISM, is derived from a Greek term, (κατηχέω,) and signifies instruction in the first rudiments of any art or science, communicated by asking questions and hearing and correcting the answers. From the earliest ages of the Church the word has been employed by ecclesiastical writers in a more restrained sense, to denote instruction in the principals of the Christian religion by means of questions and answers.—_Dean Comber. Shepherd._

By canon 59, “Every parson, vicar, or curate, upon every Sunday and holy day, before evening prayer, shall, for half an hour or more, examine and instruct the youth and ignorant persons of his parish, in the ten commandments, the articles of the belief, and in the LORD’S Prayer; and shall diligently hear, instruct, and teach them the catechism set forth in the Book of Common Prayer. And all fathers, mothers, masters, and mistresses shall cause their children, servants, and apprentices, which have not learned the catechism, to come to the church at the time appointed, obediently to hear, and to be ordered by the minister, until they have learned the same. And if any minister neglect his duty herein, let him be sharply reproved upon the first complaint, and true notice thereof given to the bishop or ordinary of the place. If after submitting himself he shall willingly offend therein again, let him be suspended. If so the third time, there being little hope that he will be therein reformed, then excommunicated, and so remain until he be reformed. And likewise, if any of the said fathers, mothers, masters, or mistresses, children, servants, or apprentices, shall neglect their duties, as the one sort in not causing them to come, and the other in refusing to learn, as aforesaid, let them be suspended by their ordinaries, (if they be not children,) and if they so persist by the space of a month, then let them be excommunicated.”

And by the rubric, “The curate of every parish shall diligently upon Sundays and holy days, after the second lesson at evening prayer, openly in the church instruct and examine so many children of his parish sent unto him, as he shall think convenient, in some part of the catechism. And all fathers and mothers, masters and dames, shall cause their children, servants, and apprentices (who have not learned their catechism) to come to the church at the time appointed, and obediently to hear, and be ordered by the curate, until such time as they have learned all that therein is appointed for them to learn.”

In the office of public baptism the minister directs the godfathers and godmothers to “take care that the child be brought to the bishop, to be confirmed by him, so soon as he or she can say the Creed, the LORD’S Prayer, and the ten commandments in the vulgar tongue, and be further instructed in the Church Catechism set forth for that purpose.”

The catechism of children is enjoined by GOD, (Deut. vi. 7; Prov. xxii. 6; Ephes. vi. 4,) and was always practised by pious men, (Gen. xviii. 19; 1 Chron. xxviii. 9; 2 Tim. i. 5,) and it is CHRIST’S especial charge to ministers, to feed his lambs. (John xxi. 15.) The Jewish doctors took care of this. (Luke ii. 42.) And in the Christian churches there was a peculiar officer who was the catechist; and all the new converts, who were to be baptized at Easter, were catechized all the forty days of Lent. But since we have few such now, and generally baptize infants, who cannot at that time understand the covenant which is entered into, therefore we are bound to take more care to make them understand it afterward, by instructing them in the “Catechism of the Church;” which is drawn up according to the primitive forms by way of question and answer, (Acts viii. 37; 1 Pet. iii. 21,) being not a large system of divinity to puzzle the heads of young beginners, but, like those of the ancients, a short and full explication of the baptismal vow; teaching them, first, what their baptismal vow is, namely, what were the benefits promised on GOD’S part, Quest. I., II., and what were the duties promised on their part, to renounce all evil, to believe all divine truth, and to keep GOD’S commandments, Quest. III.; together with their grateful owning of this covenant, Quest. IV. Secondly, the parts of the vow are explained: first, as to the matter of them, in repeating and expounding the creed, Quest. V., VI., and repeating and explaining the ten commandments, Quest. VII., VIII., IX., X., XI. Secondly, as to the means to enable them to keep them, which are prayer and the holy sacraments: and the duty of prayer is taught them in the LORD’S Prayer, and the explication thereof, Quest. XII., XIII. The due use of the sacraments is taught them, first in general, as to their number, nature, and necessity, Quest. XIV., XV. Secondly in particular, baptism, Quest. XVI.–XX.; and the LORD’S supper, Quest. XXI.–XXV. This is all that is absolutely necessary to be known in order to salvation, and all that the primitive Church did teach their catechumens. And if children be but made to repeat this perfectly, and understand it fully, they will increase in knowledge as they grow in years.—_Dean Comber._

It is the peculiar glory of Christianity to have extended religious instruction, of which but few partook at all before, and scarce any in purity, through all ranks and ages of men, and even women. The first converts to it were immediately formed into regular societies and assemblies; not only for the joint worship of GOD, but the further “edifying of the body of CHRIST” (Eph. iv. 12); in which good work some of course were stated teachers, or, to use the apostle’s own expression, “catechizers in the word:” others taught or catechized. (Gal. vi. 6.) For _catechizing_ signifies, in Scripture at large, instructing persons in any matter, but especially in religion. And thus it is used, Acts xviii. 25, where we read, “This man was _instructed_ in the way of the LORD;” and Luke i. 4, where, again, we read, “That thou mayest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been _instructed_.” The original word, in both places, is _catechized_.

But as the different advances of persons in knowledge made different sorts of instructions requisite, so, in the primitive Church, different sorts of teachers were appointed to dispense it. And they who taught so much only of the Christian doctrine, as might qualify the hearers for Christian communion, had the name of _catechists_ appropriated to them: whose teaching being usually, as was most convenient, in a great measure by way of question and answer, the name of _Catechism_ hath now been long confined to such instruction as is given in that form. But the method of employing a particular set of men in that work only, is in most places laid aside.

Under the darkness of Popery almost all religious instruction was neglected. “Very few,” to use the words of one of our homilies, “even of the most simple people, were taught the LORD’S Prayer, the articles of the faith, or the ten commandments, otherwise than in Latin, which they understood not;” so that one of the first necessary steps taken towards the Reformation in this country, was a general injunction, that parents and masters should first learn them in their own tongue, then acquaint their children and servants with them: which three main branches of Christian duty, comprehending the sum of what we are to believe, to do, and to petition for, were soon after formed, with proper explanations of each, into a catechism. To this was added, in process of time, a brief account of the two sacraments; all together making up that very good, though still improveable, “form of sound words” (2 Tim. i. 13) which we may now use.—_Abp. Secker._

As to the form of our catechism, it is drawn up after the primitive manner, by way of question and answer: so Philip catechized the eunuch, (Acts viii. 37,) and so the persons to be baptized were catechized in the first ages. And, indeed, the very word catechism implies as much; the original κατηχέω, from whence it is derived, being a compound of ἠχὼ, which signifies an echo, or repeated sound. So that a catechism is no more than an instruction first taught and instilled into a person, and then repeated upon the catechist’s examination.

As to the contents of our catechism, it is not a large system or body of divinity, to puzzle the heads of young beginners, but only a short and full explication of the baptismal vow. The primitive catechisms, indeed, (that is, all that the catechumens were to learn by heart before their baptism and confirmation,) consisted of no more than the renunciation, or the repetition of the baptismal vow, the creed, and the LORD’S prayer: and these, together with the ten commandments, at the Reformation, were the whole of ours. But it being afterwards thought defective as to the doctrine of the sacraments, (which in the primitive times were more largely explained to baptized persons,) King James I. appointed the bishops to add a short and plain explanation of them, which was done accordingly in that excellent form we see; being penned by Bishop Overall, then dean of St. Paul’s, and allowed by the bishops. So that now (in the opinion of the best judges) it excels all catechisms that ever were in the world; being so short, that the youngest children may learn it by heart; and yet so full, that it contains all things necessary to be known in order to salvation.

In this also its excellency is very discernible, namely, that as all persons are baptized, not into any particular Church, but into the Catholic Church of CHRIST; so here they are not taught the opinion of this or any other particular Church or people, but what the whole body of Christians all the world over agree in. If it may anywhere seem to be otherwise, it is in the doctrine of the sacraments; but even this is here worded with so much caution and temper, as not to contradict any other particular Church, but so as that all sorts of Christians, when they have duly considered it, may subscribe to everything that is here taught or delivered.—_Wheatly._

The country parson, says Herbert, values catechizing highly.... He exacts of all the doctrine of the catechism; of the younger sort, the very words; of the elder, the substance. Those he catechizeth publicly; these privately, giving age honour, according to the apostle’s rule. He requires all to be present at catechizing; first, for the authority of the work; secondly, that parents and masters, as they hear the answers proved, may, when they come home, either commend or reprove, either reward or punish; thirdly, that those of the elder sort, who are not well grounded, may then by an honourable way take occasion to be better instructed; fourthly, that those who are well grown in the knowledge of religion, may examine their grounds, renew their vows, and by occasion of both enlarge their meditation. Having read Divine service twice fully, and preached in the morning, and _catechized in the afternoon_, he thinks he hath, in some measure, according to poor and frail man, discharged the public duties of the congregation.—_Herbert’s Country Parson._

With respect to the catechetical instruction of youth, I would remind you, that it was the primitive method, employed by the apostles and their immediate followers, and in after ages by the whole succession of the catholic and apostolic Church, for training up and organizing the visible community of Christians in sound principles of faith, in the love of God and man, and in purity of life and conversation. It is observable, accordingly, that in exact proportion as catechizing has been practised or neglected, in the same proportion have the public faith and morals been seen to flourish or decline.... In the earlier ages of the Church, catechetical schools were established in the great cities of the empire; over which men of the profoundest learning, and most brilliant talents, felt themselves honoured when they were called to preside; while each particular church had its catechists; and the catechumens formed a regular and ascertained class or division of every congregation. And it is not too much to say, that, next to an established liturgy, and beyond all prescribed confessions of faith, the single ordinance of catechetical instruction has, under Providence, been the great stay and support, throughout Christendom, of orthodox, unwavering Christianity.... Let not the common prejudice be entertained, that catechizing is a slight and trifling exercise, to be performed without pain and preparation on your part. This would be so, if it were the mere rote-work asking and answering of the questions in our Church Catechism: but to open, to explain, and familiarly to illustrate those questions, in such a manner, as at once to reach the understanding and touch the affections of little children, is a work which demands no ordinary acquaintance at once with the whole scheme of Christian theology, with the philosophy of the human mind, and with the yet profounder mysteries of the human heart. It has, therefore, been well and truly said, by I recollect not what writer, that _a boy may preach, but to catechize requires a man_.—_Bp. Jebb._

CATECHIST. The person who catechizes. There were officers of this name in the ancient Church; but they did not form a distinct order. Sometimes the bishop catechized, sometimes the catechists were selected from the inferior orders, as readers, &c.—(See _Bingham_.)

CATECHUMENS. A name given, in the first ages of Christianity, to the Jews or Gentiles who were being prepared and instructed to receive baptism. It comes from the Greek word κατηχεῖν, which signifies to teach by word of mouth, or _viva voce_: and of that word this other, κατηχούμενος, is formed, which denotes him that is so taught: these had people on purpose to instruct them. Eusebius makes mention of Pantænus, Clemens, and Origen, who were catechists in the Church of Alexandria, and had a peculiar place in the church where they used to teach, and the same was called the place of the catechumens, as appears by the canons of the Council of _Neocæsarea_: they tell us the catechumens were not permitted to be present at the celebration of the holy eucharist; but, immediately after the Gospel was read, the deacons cried with a loud voice: “Withdraw in peace, you catechumens,” for so the book of the Apostolical Constitutions will have it. The service from the beginning to the Offertory was called _Missa catechumenorum_. The catechumens, not being baptized, were not to receive, nor so much as permitted to see, the consecrated elements of the eucharist. Some writers suppose that they received some of the consecrated bread, called _eulogicæ_; but Bingham shows that this idea is founded on a misconstruction of a passage in St. Augustine, and that the use of _eulogicæ_ was not known in the Church, until long after the discipline of the catechumens had ceased. According to a canon of the Council of Orange, they were not permitted to pray with the faithful or those in full communion. There were several degrees of favour in the state of the catechumens: at first they were instructed privately, or by themselves, and afterwards admitted to hear sermons in the church; and these last were called _audientes_. There was a third sort of catechumens, called _orantes_ or _genuflectentes_, because they were present and concerned in some part of the prayers: to which we may add a fourth degree of catechumens, which were the _competentes_; for so they were called when they desired to be baptized.

CATENA. From a Greek word signifying a chain. By a _Catena Patrum_ is meant a string or series of passages from the writings of various fathers, and arranged for the elucidation of some portions of Scripture, as the Psalms or Gospels. They seem to have originated in the short scholia or glosses which it was customary in MSS. of the Scriptures to introduce in the margin. These by degrees were expanded, and passages from the homilies or sermons of the fathers were added to them. The most celebrated catena is the _Catena Aurea_ of Thomas Aquinas. It was translated at Oxford, under the superintendence of Mr. Newman, of Oriel College. The subsequent conduct of that gentleman has led those who were willing to attach some authority to the work to examine it carefully, and the result has been, the detection that Thomas Aquinas has sometimes falsified the quotations he has made from the fathers; and the whole, as a commentary, is inferior to the commentaries of modern theologians.

CATHARISTS. The last surviving sect of Manichæans, or Gnostics, who gave themselves that name, (from καθαρὸς, pure,) to indicate their superior purity. There were many different degrees of error among them, but the following tenets were common to all:—That matter was the source of all evil; that the Creator of the visible world was not the same as the Supreme Being; that CHRIST had not a real body, nor was properly speaking born, nor really died; that the bodies of men were the production of the evil principle, and were incapable of sanctification and a new life; and that the sacraments were but vain institutions, and without power. They rejected and despised the Old Testament, but received the New with reverence. The consequence of such doctrines was, of course, that they made it the chief object of their religion to emancipate themselves from whatever was material, and to macerate their bodies to the utmost; and their perfect disciples, in obedience to this principle, renounced animal food, wine, and marriage. The state of their souls, while united with the body, was in their estimation a wretched incarceration, and they only escaped from some portion of the horrors of such a dungeon, by denying themselves all natural enjoyments, and escaping from the solicitations of all the senses.

The Catharists in the twelfth century spread themselves from Bulgaria over most of the European provinces, but they met everywhere with extensive persecution, and are not heard of after that time.

CATHEDRAL. The chief church in every diocese is called the Cathedral, from the word _cathedra_, a chair, because in it the bishop has his seat or throne. The cathedral church is the parish church of the whole diocese (which diocese was therefore commonly called _parochia_ in ancient times, till the application of this name to the lesser branches into which it was divided, caused it for distinction’ sake to be called only by the name of diocese): and it has been affirmed, with great probability, that if one resort to the cathedral church to hear Divine service, it is a resorting to the parish church within the natural sense and meaning of the statute.

By the 5th canon of the 5th Council of Carthage it is ordained, that every bishop shall have his residence at his principal or cathedral church, which he shall not leave, to betake himself to any other church in his diocese; nor continue upon his private concerns, to the neglect of his cure, and hinderance of his frequenting the cathedral church.—_Bingham._

By the constitutions of Archbishop Langton, 1222, it is enjoined, bishops shall be at their cathedrals on some of the greater feasts, and at least in some part of Lent.

By the constitutions of Otho, 1237, bishops shall reside at their cathedral churches, and officiate there on the chief festivals, on the LORD’S days, and in Lent, and in Advent.

By the constitutions of Othobon, in 1268, bishops shall be personally resident to take care of their flock, and for the comfort of the churches espoused to them, especially on solemn days, in Lent and Advent, unless their absence is required by their superiors, or for other just cause.

Canon 24. “In all cathedral and collegiate churches, the holy communion shall be administered upon principal feast days, sometimes by the bishop, (if he be present,) and sometimes by the dean, and sometimes by a canon or prebendary; the principal minister using a decent cope, and being assisted with the gospeller and epistler agreeably, according to the advertisements published in the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth (hereafter following). The said communion to be administered at such times, and with such limitation, as is specified in the Book of Common Prayer. Provided that no such limitation by any construction shall be allowed of, but that all deans, wardens, masters, or heads of cathedral and collegiate churches, prebendaries, canons, vicars, petty canons, singing men, and all others of the foundation, shall receive the communion four times yearly at the least.”

Canon 42. “Every dean, master, or warden, or chief governor of any cathedral or collegiate church, shall be resident there fourscore and ten days, _conjunctim_ or _divisim_, in every year at the least, and then shall continue there in preaching the word of GOD, and keeping good hospitality; except he shall be otherwise let with weighty and urgent causes, to be approved by the bishop, or in any other lawful sort dispensed with.”

Canon 43. “The dean, master, warden, or chief governor, prebendaries and canons, in every cathedral and collegiate church, shall preach there, in their own persons, so often as they are bound by law, statute, ordinance, or custom.”

Canon 44. “Prebendaries at large shall not be absent from their cures above a month in the year; and residentiaries shall divide the year among them; and, when their residence is over, shall repair to their benefices.”

And by Canon 51, “the deans, presidents, and residentiaries of any cathedral or collegiate church, shall suffer no stranger to preach unto the people in their churches, except they be allowed by the archbishop of the province, or by the bishop of the same diocese, or by either of the universities. And if any in his sermon shall publish any doctrine either strange, or disagreeing from the word of GOD, or from any of the Thirty-nine Articles, or from the Book of Common Prayer, the dean or the residents shall by their letters, subscribed with some of their hands that heard him, so soon as may be, give notice of the same to the bishop of the diocese, that he may determine the matter, and take such order therein as he shall think convenient.”

The passage of the _advertisements_ published in the seventh year of Queen Elizabeth, referred to in Canon 24, is as follows: “Item, in the ministration of the holy communion in cathedral and collegiate churches, the principal minister shall use a cope with gospeller and epistoler agreeably; and at all other prayers to be said at the communion table, to use no copes but surplices. Item, that the dean and prebendaries wear a surplice, with a silk hood, in the choir; and when they preach in the cathedral or collegiate church, to wear a hood.” And at the end of the service book in the second year of Edward VI., it is ordered that “in all cathedral churches, the archdeacons, deans, and prebendaries, being graduates, may use in the choir, beside their surplices, such hoods as pertaineth to their several degrees, which they have taken in any university within this realm.”

Churches collegiate and conventual were always visitable by the bishop of the diocese, if no special exemption was made by the founder thereof. And the visitation of cathedral churches belongs unto the metropolitan of the province, and to the king when the archbishopric is vacant.—_Burn._

All cathedrals throughout the world had a body of clergy and ministers belonging to them; which were divided into various orders and degrees; they were gradually incorporated in Western Christendom, but not in the East. (See _Chapter_.) In England no diocese has more than one cathedral. There are many instances of a plurality of cathedrals even in the same city, as at Rome, Milan, &c., and formerly in France. These churches were called _concathedrals_. One instance exists in Ireland, viz. in Dublin, where Christ Church and St. Patrick’s enjoy all the rights of cathedrals; and while the congé d’ élire existed, conjointly elected the archbishop; and their united consent must still be given to all acts which require the sanction of a chapter. This plurality of cathedrals in one see is not to be confounded with a plurality of cathedrals under the same bishop, when, as generally in Ireland, he has under his charge two or more dioceses. One Irish diocese (Meath) has no cathedral; and two others (Kilmore and Ardagh) have no cathedral chapters. These anomalies are not, as some have supposed, remnants of a primitive order of things; for it can be proved that they did not originally exist in the respective dioceses now mentioned; but were the consequences of poverty, barbarism, and other unhappy causes which mutilated the external framework of the Irish church.—_Jebb._

With reference to the architecture of a cathedral: the normal plan of an English cathedral is in the form of a Latin cross; a cross, that is, whose transverse arms are less than the lower longitudinal limb; and, in a general architectural description, its parts are sufficiently distinguished as nave, choir, and transept, with their aisles, western towers, and central tower; but in more minute description, especially where ritual arrangements are concerned, these terms are not always sufficiently precise, and we shall hardly arrive at the more exact nomenclature, without tracing the changes in a cathedral church from the Norman period to our own.

In a Norman cathedral, the east end, or architectural choir, usually terminated in an apse, (see _Apse_,) surrounded by the continuation of the choir aisles. The aisles formed a path for processions at the back of the altar, and were called the _processionary_. The bishop’s throne was placed behind the altar, and the altar itself in the chord of the apse; and westward of this was a considerable space, unoccupied in ordinary cases, which was called the _presbytery_. The _choir_, or place in which the daily service was performed, was under the central tower, with perhaps one or two bays of the nave in addition; so that the ritual and the architectural choir did not coincide, but the ritual choir occupied the tower and a considerable portion of the architectural nave. This arrangement seems unnatural, and even inconvenient; but it was perhaps required by the connexion of the cathedral with the monastic or other offices of the establishment; for these were arranged around a quadrangle, of which the architectural nave, or western limb of the church, formed one side, and length was gained to the quadrangle, without disproportionate enlargement of the church, by making the western limb sufficiently large to receive part, at least, of the ritual choir. (See _Monastery_.)

The transept was not originally symbolical in its form; but was derived from the transverse hall or gallery in the ancient basilicas at the upper end of the nave, its length equal to the breadth of the nave and aisles. The accidental approximating to the form of the cross was doubtless perceived by later Christian architects, who accordingly in many instances lengthened the transept so as to make the ground-plan of the church completely cuneiform.—_Jebb._

In the _transepts_ and _aisles_, and also in the _crypt_, which generally extended beneath the whole eastern limb of the church, were numerous altars, and little chapels were often thrown out, of an apsidal form, for their altars. One chapel, especially, was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and called the _Lady chapel_, but its place does not seem to have been constant.

Subsequent churches were of course subject to many variations, but they generally followed much this course. First, the apse was taken down, and the eastern arm of the cross was extended considerably, so as to enlarge the presbytery, or part in which the altar stood, and to add a retrochoir in place of the old processionary behind it; and this change was probably connected always in prospect, and often at once, with the carrying up of the choir eastward of the great tower, or in other words, reconciling the ritual with the architectural arrangement. After this yet another addition was made to the east end, which was often nearly equal to the nave in length; and the _Lady chapel_ was built beyond the presbytery and retrochoir.

In the course of these arrangements the several screens, the rood screen and the altar screen, had to be removed. The rood screen was placed within the eastern arch of the tower, which may now be called its proper place, wherever the church has received its usual additions. This screen is now almost universally used as an organ loft; and it is obvious to remark, that though the organ intercepts the view from the west end of the church, it certainly does not do so more than the rood and its accompaniments formerly did. The _altar screen_ first became necessary at the enlarging of the space behind the altar: it formed the separation of the presbytery from the retrochoir. In some instances this arrangement has been disturbed of late years, but always with bad effect.

The modifications of these plans and arrangements are various, but oftener on the side of excess than of defect. The Lady chapel is not always at the extreme east. At Ely, for instance, and once at Peterborough, it was at the north. The great transept is never omitted (Manchester can hardly be called an exception, since it has only lately been made a cathedral); but a second transept to the east of the tower was often added, as at Canterbury, Lincoln, and Salisbury. Sometimes, as at Durham, the second transept is carried to the extreme east end of the church, which it crosses in the form of a T. Sometimes there was a western transept, treated in the same way as at Ely and Peterborough; and at Durham, Ely, and Lincoln was another considerable addition, called the _Galilee porch_. At Canterbury, the whole arrangement of the east end is very remarkable, the crown of Archbishop Becket taking the usual place of the Lady chapel. The shrines of reputed saints, and chantry monuments inserted in different portions of the fabric, with too little respect for its general effect, are constant additions to the plan; but it would be useless to attempt to reduce these to a general rule, and endless to enumerate particular cases.

The cathedrals in Ireland and Scotland were originally very small. That of Armagh, the largest, it is supposed, of ancient date, and originally built by St. Patrick, was without transepts, which were added many ages after. The most interesting relics of very ancient cathedrals in Ireland are at Tuam and Clonfert. Many of them in Scotland, as Elgin, were modelled on the plan of Lincoln cathedral.—_Poole._

CATHOLIC. (καθ’ ὅλον.) _Universal_ or _general_. “The Church,” says St. Cyril, “is called _catholic_, because it is throughout the world, from one end of the earth to the other; and because it teaches universally and completely all the truths which ought to come to men’s knowledge, concerning things both visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly; and because it subjugates, in order to godliness, every class of men, governors and governed, learned and unlearned; and because it universally treats and heals every sort of sins which are committed by soul or body, and possesses in itself every form of virtue which is named, both in deeds and words, and every kind of spiritual gifts.”—_Catechetical Lectures_, xviii. 23.

The term was first applied to the Christian Church to distinguish it from the Jewish, the latter being confined to a single nation, the former being open to all who should seek admission into it by holy baptism. Hence, the Christian Church is general or universal. The first regularly organized Christian Church was formed at Jerusalem. When St. Peter converted three thousand souls, (Acts ii. 41,) the new converts were not formed into a new Church, but were added to the original society. When Churches were formed afterwards at Samaria, Antioch, and other places, these were not looked upon as entirely separate bodies, but as branches of the one holy Catholic or Apostolic Church. St. Paul says, (1 Cor. xii. 13,) “_By one_ SPIRIT _we are all baptized into one body_;” and, (Eph. iv. 4,) “_There is one body and one_ SPIRIT.” A Catholic Church means a branch of this one great society, as the Church of England is said to be a Catholic Church; _the_ Catholic Church includes all the Churches in the world under their legitimate bishops.

When in after-times teachers began to form separate societies, and to call them by their own name, as the Arians were named from Arius, the Macedonians from Macedonius; and, in later times, Calvinists from Calvin, Wesleyans from Wesley; the true churchmen, refusing to be designated by the name of any human leader, called themselves Catholics, i. e. members, not of any peculiar society, but of the Universal Church. And the term thus used not only distinguished the Church from the world, but the true Church from heretical and schismatical parties. Hence, in ecclesiastical history, the word catholic means the same as orthodox, and a _catholic_ Christian denotes an _orthodox_ Christian.

From this may be seen the absurdity of calling those who receive the decrees of the Council of Trent _Catholics_. The Romanists, or Papists, or Tridentines, belong to a _peculiar_ society, in which Romanism or Romish errors are added to orthodox truth. When we call them _Catholics_, we as much as call ourselves _Heretics_, we as much as admit them to be orthodox; and they gladly avail themselves of this admission, on the part of some ignorant Protestants, to hold up an argument against the Church of England. Let the member of the Church of England assert his right to the name of Catholic, since he is the only person in England who has a right to that name. The English Romanist is a Romish schismatic, and not a Catholic.

CATHOLIC EPISTLES. The Epistles of St. James, St. Peter, St. Jude, and St. John are called Catholic Epistles, either because they were not written to any particular person, or Church, but to Christians in general, or to Christians of several countries: or because, whatever doubts may at first have been entertained respecting some of them, they were all acknowledged by the _Catholic_ or Universal Church, at the time this appellation was attached to them, which we find to have been common in the fourth century.

CAVEAT. A caveat is a caution entered in the spiritual court, to stop probates, administrations, licences, &c., from being granted without the knowledge of the party that enters the caveat.

CELESTINES. A religious order of Christians, which derives its name from its founder, Pietro de Morone, afterwards Celestin V., a hermit, who followed the rules of St. Bennet, who founded the order in 1254, and got the institution confirmed by Pope Urban VIII. in 1264, and by Gregory X. in 1273, at the second general Council of Lyons: this order soon multiplied in Italy, and was brought into France in 1300, by Philip the Fair, who sent to Peter of Sorrel, a singer of the Church of Orleans, or according to others, of that of Amiens, his ambassador then at Naples, to beg of the abbot-general of it twelve of this order, to be sent into France. When they were arrived, the king gave them two monasteries, one in the forest of Orleans, at a place called Ambert, and the other in the forest of Compiegne, in Mount Chartres. Charles, dauphin and regent of France, in 1352, while King John, his father, was prisoner in England, sent for six of these monks of Mount Chartres, to establish them at Paris, at a place called Barrez, where there was, till the Revolution, a monastery of that order: and that prince, in 1356, gave them every month a purse under the seal of the chancelery, which gift was confirmed by a patent in 1361, at King John’s return. When Charles came to the crown himself, he made them a gift of a thousand livres of gold, with twelve acres of the best timber in the forest of Moret, to build their church with, whereof he himself laid the first stone, and had it consecrated in his presence. After which he settled a considerable parcel of land upon the same monastery. The Celestines were called hermits of St. Damian before their institutor became pope. Their first monastery was at Monte Majella, in the kingdom of Naples.

CELIBACY. The state of unmarried persons: a word used chiefly in speaking of the single life of the Romish clergy, or the obligation they are under to abstain from marriage.