Chapter XXIX: Act 46: , Parl. 3, Act 106, Parl. 7, Act 24, Parl. 11, King James VI., do (5)

The first six chapters of the book of Daniel are a history of the kings of Babylon, and what befell the captive Jews under their government. In the last six, he is altogether prophetical, foretelling, not only what should happen to his own Church and nation, but events in which foreign princes and kingdoms were concerned; particularly the rise and downfal of the four secular monarchies of the world, and the establishment of the fifth, or spiritual kingdom of the Messiah.

It is believed that Daniel died in Chaldea, and that he did not take advantage of the permission granted by Cyrus to the Jews of returning to their own country. St. Epiphanius says he died at Babylon, and herein he is followed by the generality of historians.

“Amongst the old prophets,” says the great Sir Isaac Newton, “Daniel is most distinct in order of time, and easiest to be understood; and therefore, in those things which relate to the last times, he must be made the key to the rest. His prophecies are all of them related to one another, as if they were but several parts of one general prophecy. The first is the easiest to be understood, and every following prophecy adds something new to the former.”—_Observations on Daniel_, pp. 15, 24.

DATARY. An officer in the pope’s court. He is always a prelate, and sometimes a cardinal, deputed by his Holiness to receive such petitions as are presented to him, touching the provision of benefices. By his post, the datary is empowered to grant, without acquainting the pope therewith, all benefices that do not produce upwards of twenty-four ducats annually; but for such as amount to more, he is obliged to get the provisions signed by the pope, who admits him to audience every day. If there be several candidates for the same benefice, he has the liberty of bestowing it on which of them he thinks proper, provided he has the requisite qualifications. The datary has a yearly salary of two thousand crowns, exclusive of the perquisites, which he receives from those who apply to him for any benefice. This office has a substitute, named the _sub-datary_, who is likewise a prelate, and has a yearly pension of a thousand crowns: but he is not allowed to confer any benefice, without acquainting the datary therewith. When a person has obtained the pope’s consent for a benefice, the datary subscribes his petition with an _annuit sanctissimus_, i. e. _the most holy father consents to it_. The pope’s consent is subscribed in these words, _Fiat ut petitur_, i. e. _Be it according to the petition_. After the petition has passed the proper offices, and is registered, it is carried to the _datary_, who _dates_ it, and writes these words—_Datum Romæ apud, &c.: Given at Rome in the pontifical palace, &c._ Afterwards the pope’s bull, granting the benefice, is despatched by the datary, and passes through the hands of more than a thousand persons, belonging to fifteen different offices, who have all their stated fees. The reader may from hence judge how expensive it is to procure the pope’s bull for a benefice, and what large sums go into the office of the datary, especially when the provisions, issued from thence, are for bishoprics, and other rich benefices.—_Broughton._

DEACON. (See _Bishop_, _Presbyter_, _Priest_, _Orders_, _Clergy_.) The name Διάκονοι, which is the original word for deacons, is sometimes used in the New Testament for any one that ministers in the service of GOD: in which large sense we sometimes find bishops and presbyters styled deacons, not only in the New Testament, but in ecclesiastical writers also. But here we take it for the name of the third order of the clergy in the Church. Deacons are styled by Ignatius, “ministers of the mysteries of Christ,” adding that they are “not ministers of meats and drinks, but of the Church of GOD.” In another place he speaks of them as “ministers of JESUS CHRIST,” and gives them a sort of presidency over the people, together with the bishops and presbyters. Cyprian speaks of them in the same style, calling them “ministers of episcopacy and the Church,” and referring their origin to the Acts of the Apostles; and he asserts that they were called _ad altaris ministerium_, to the ministry and service of the altar. Optatus had such an opinion of them as to reckon their office a lower degree of the priesthood. At the same time it is to be observed, that in this he was singular. By those who regarded them as a sacred order, they were generally distinguished from priests by the name of _ministers_ and _Levites_. The ordination of a deacon differed in the primitive Church from that of a presbyter, both in the form and manner of it, and also in the gifts and powers that were conferred by the ordinance. In the ordination of a presbyter, the presbyters who were present were required to join in imposition of hands with the bishop. But the ordination of a deacon might be performed by the bishop alone, because, as the [fourth] Council of Carthage words it, he was ordained not to the priesthood, but to the inferior services of the Church: “quia non ad sacerdotium sed ad ministerium consecratur.” It belonged to the deacons to take care of the holy table and all the ornaments and utensils appertaining thereto; to receive the oblations of the people, and present them to the priest; in some churches, to read the Gospel both in the communion service and before it also; to minister the consecrated bread and wine to the people in the eucharist; in some churches, to baptize; to act as directors to the people in public worship, for which purpose they were wont to use certain known forms of words, to give notice when each part of the service began, and to excite people to join attentively therein; to preach, with the bishop’s licence; in extreme cases to reconcile the excommunicated to the Church; to attend upon the bishop, and sometimes to represent him in general councils. Deacons seem also to have discharged most of the offices which now devolve upon churchwardens.—_Bingham._

The Church of England enjoins that “none shall be admitted a deacon except he be twenty-three years of age, unless he have a faculty;” and she describes the duties of a deacon in her office as follows: “It appertaineth to the office of a deacon, in the church where he shall be appointed to serve, to assist the priest in Divine service, and specially when he ministereth the holy communion, and to help him in the distribution thereof, and to read Holy Scripture and homilies in the church; and to instruct the youth in the catechism; in the absence of the priest to baptize infants, and to preach, if he be admitted thereto by the bishop. And, furthermore, it is his office, where provision is so made, to search for the sick, poor, and impotent people of the parish, to intimate their estates, names, and places where they dwell, unto the curate, that by his exhortation they may be relieved with the alms of the parishioners, or others.”

In the rubric after the sentences of the Offertory, it is ordered, that “while these sentences are in reading, the deacons, churchwardens, or other fit persons appointed for that purpose, shall receive the alms for the poor,” &c.

The deacon cannot pronounce the absolution, or minister at the holy communion, except as an assistant. And if the rubrics be strictly construed according to the letter, neither can he read the versicles before the Psalms, or after the LORD’S Prayer, (at its second occurrence,) nor the latter part of the Litany, beginning at the LORD’S Prayer; nor any part of the Communion Service, except the Gospel, (not according to the rubric, however, but in virtue of the licence in the Ordination Service,) the Creed, and the confession. He is permitted to baptize _only in the absence of the priest_; and perhaps the same remark may apply to the other occasional offices.

DEACONESS. A woman who served the Church in those offices in which the deacons could not with propriety exercise themselves. This order was also appointed in the apostolic age. They were generally widows who had been only once married, though this employment was sometimes exercised by virgins. Their office consisted in assisting at the baptism of women, in previously catechizing and instructing them, in visiting sick persons of their own sex, and in performing all those inferior offices towards the female part of the congregation, which the deacons were designed to execute for the men. St. Paul (Rom. xvi.) speaks of Phœbe as _servant_, or _deaconess_, of the church at Cenchrea, which was a haven of Corinth. Deaconesses appear to be the same persons as those whom Pliny, in his famous letter to Trajan, styles “_ancillæ quæ ministræ dicebantur_;” that is, “female attendants, called assistants, ministers, or servants.” It appears, then, that these were customary officers throughout the churches; and when the fury of persecution fell on Christians, these were among the first to suffer. They underwent the most cruel tortures, and even extreme old age was not spared. It is probable that they were blessed by the laying on of hands, but it is certain they were not permitted to execute any part of the sacerdotal office. This order continued in the Greek Church longer than in the Latin. It was generally disused in the Western Church in the fifth century, but continued in the Eastern Church until the twelfth. The deacon’s wife appears sometimes to have been called a deaconess, as the presbyter’s wife was styled _presbytera_, and the bishop’s wife _episcopa_.

DEAD. (See _Burial of the Dead_.) If all our prayers and endeavours for our friend prove unavailable for the continuance of his life, we must with patience submit to the will of GOD, “to whom the issues of life and death belong:” and therefore, after recommending his soul to GOD, which immediately upon its dissolution returns to Him, it is fit we should decently dispose of his body, which is left to our management and care. Not that the dead are anything the better for the honours which we perform to their corpses (for we know that several of the ancient philosophers cared not whether they were buried or not; and the ancient martyrs of the Christian Church despised their persecutors for threatening them with the want of a grave). But those who survive could never endure that the shame of nature should lie exposed, nor see the bodies of those they loved become a prey to birds and beasts. For these reasons, the very heathens called it a Divine institution, and a law of the immortal gods. And the Romans especially had a peculiar deity to preside over this affair. The Athenians were so strict, that they would not admit any to be magistrates, who had not taken care of their parents’ sepulture, and beheaded one of their generals after he had gotten a victory, for throwing the dead bodies of the slain, in a tempest, into the sea. And Plutarch relates, that, before they engaged with the Persians, they took a solemn oath, that, if they were conquerors, they would bury their foes; this being a privilege which even an enemy hath a right to, as being a debt which is owing to humanity.

2. It is true, indeed, the manner of funerals has varied according to the different customs of several countries; but all civilized nations have ever agreed in performing some funeral rites or other. The most ancient manner was by “burying them in the earth;” which is, indeed, so natural, that some brutes have been observed, by mere instinct, to bury their dead with wonderful care. The body, we know, was formed of the dust at first, and therefore it is fit it should “return to the earth as it was” (Gen. iii. 19; Eccles. xii. 7); insomuch that some heathens have, by the light of reason, called burying in the earth the being “hid in our mother’s lap,” and the being “covered with her skirt.” And that “interment,” or enclosing the dead body in the grave, was used anciently by the Egyptians and other nations of the East, is plain from the account we have of the embalming, and from their mummies, which are frequently found to this day whole and entire, though some of them have lain above three thousand years in their graves. That the same practice of burying was used by the patriarchs, and their successors the Jews, we have abundant testimony from the most ancient records in the world, the books of Moses; by which we find, that their funerals were performed, and their sepulchres provided with an officious piety (Gen. xxiii. 4; xxv. 9; xxxv. 29; xlix. 31); and that it was usual for parents to take an oath of their children, (which they religiously performed,) that they should bury them with their fathers, and carry their bones with them, whenever they quitted their land where they were. (Gen. xlvii. 29–31; xlix. 29–33; l. 25, 26; Exod. xiii. 19. See also Josh. xxiv. 32; Acts vii. 16; Heb. xi. 22.) In succeeding ages, indeed, it became a custom in some places to burn the bodies of the dead; which was owing partly to a fear that some injury might be offered them if they were only buried, by digging their corpses again out of their graves; and partly to a conceit, that the souls of those that were burnt were carried up by the flames to heaven.

3. But though other nations sometimes used interment and sometimes burning, yet the Jews confined themselves to the former alone. There is a place or two indeed in our translation of the Old Testament, (1 Sam. xxxi. 12; Amos vi. 10,) which might lead us to imagine that the rite of burning was also used by them sometimes. But upon consulting the original texts, and the customs of the Jews, it does not appear that the burnings there mentioned were anything more than the burning of odours and spices about their bodies, which was an honour they usually performed to their kings. (2 Chron. xvi. 14; xxi. 19; Jer. xxxiv. 5.) So that, notwithstanding these texts, we may safely enough conclude, that interment, or burying, was the only rite with them; as it was also in after-times with the Christian Church. For wherever Paganism was extirpated, the custom of burning was disused; and the first natural way of laying up the bodies of the deceased entire in the grave obtained in the room of it.

4. And this has always been done with such solemnity, as is proper to the occasion. Sometimes, indeed, it has been attended with an expensive pomp, that is unseemly and extravagant. But this is no reason why we should not give all the expressions of a decent respect to the memory of those whom GOD takes from us. The description of the persons who interred our SAVIOUR, the enumeration of their virtues, and the everlasting commendation of her who spent three hundred pennyworth of spikenard to anoint his body to the burial, have always been thought sufficient grounds and encouragements for the careful and decent sepulture of Christians. And, indeed, if the regard due to a human soul, rendered some respect to the dead a principle that manifested itself to the common sense of heathens, shall we think that less care is due to the bodies of Christians, who once entertained a more glorious inhabitant, and were living temples of the HOLY GHOST? (1 Cor. vi. 19;) to bodies which were consecrated to the service of GOD; which bore their part in the duties of religion; fought the good fight of faith and patience, self-denial and mortification; and underwent the fatigue of many hardships and afflictions for the sake of piety and virtue;—to bodies which, we believe, shall one day be awakened again from their sleep of death; have all their scattered particles of dust summoned together into their due order, and be “fashioned like to the glorious body of CHRIST” (Phil. iii. 21; see also 1 Cor. xv. 42–44); as being made partakers of the same glory with their immortal souls, as once they were of the same sufferings and good works. Surely bodies so honoured here, and to be so glorified hereafter, and which too we own, even in the state of death, to be under the care of a Divine providence and protection, are not to be exposed and despised by us as unworthy of our regard. Moved by these considerations, the primitive Christians, though they made no use of ointments whilst they lived, yet they did not think the most precious too costly to be used about the dead. And yet this was so far from being reproached with superstition, that it is ever reported as a laudable custom, and such as had something in it so engaging, so agreeable to the notions of civilized nature, as to have a very considerable influence upon the heathens, who observed and admired it; it becoming instrumental in disposing them to a favourable opinion at first, and afterwards to the embracing of the Christian religion, where these decencies and tender regards to deceased friends and good people, were so constantly, so carefully, and so religiously practised.—_Dean Comber._ _Wheatly._

CHRIST’S Church, that is, the whole number of the faithful, is usually divided into two parts; namely, the Church militant, and the Church triumphant. By the Church _militant_, or in a state of warfare, we mean those Christians who are at present alive, and perpetually harassed with the temptations and assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and whose life is consequently a continual warfare under the banner of our blessed SAVIOUR. By the Church _triumphant_, we mean those Christians who have departed this life in GOD’S true faith and fear; and who now enjoy in some measure, and after the day of judgment shall be fully possessed of, that glory and triumph, which is the fruit of their labours, and the reward of those victories which they obtained over their spiritual adversaries, during the time of their trial and combat here upon earth.—_Dr. Bennet._

After the Offertory in the eucharist is said, and the oblations of bread and wine, with the alms for the poor, are placed upon the table, the minister addresses this exhortation to the people: “Let us pray for the whole state of CHRIST’S Church militant here in earth.” The latter part of this sentence is wanting in Edward’s First Book. The words “militant here in earth,” which were designed expressly to exclude prayer for the dead, were inserted in the Second Book, in which that part of this prayer, which contained intercession for the dead, was expunged. It was the intention of the divines who made this alteration, to denote that prayers are not to be offered up for the dead, whose spiritual warfare is already accomplished; but for those only who are yet “fighting the good fight of faith,” and are consequently in a capacity of needing our prayers.—_Shepherd._

Although the doctrine of purgatory be a comparatively modern doctrine, yet prayers for the _justified_ dead, for the increase of their happiness, and for our reunion with them, were introduced early into the Church. But it can be proved:

First. That, the prayers of the primitive Church _for_ the dead, being especially for those who were accounted saints _par excellence_, and including even the Blessed Virgin and the Holy Apostles, prayer _to_ the departed saints, whoever they may be, as it is practised by the churches under the Roman obedience, must be contrary in theory, as it is in fact, to the primitive practice; since it were impossible to pray _to_ and _for_ the same persons.

Secondly. That it was not for the release of the spirit of the departed from purgatory that the Church supplicated Almighty GOD. For this also were incompatible with prayer for the Blessed Virgin, and other eminent saints, of which there was never any doubt but that they were already in Abraham’s bosom, or even, as in the case of martyrs, in heaven itself.

Thirdly. That works of supererogation formed no part of the system of primitive theology; since all were prayed for as requiring the mercy of GOD, though it was not declared to what particular end.

Fourthly. That the use of hired masses for the dead, who may have been persons of exceeding criminality, and have died in mortal sin, is utterly at variance with the practice of the Church of old.—See _Archbishop Usher_ and _Bingham_.

DEADLY SIN. We pray in the Litany to be delivered from “all deadly sin.” In the strict sense of the word every sin is deadly, and would cause eternal death if it were not for the intervention of our blessed SAVIOUR. Even what are called infirmities and frailties, are in this sense deadly. But persons under grace have for these offences “an Advocate with the FATHER, JESUS CHRIST the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John ii. 2.) Their infirmities and frailties, therefore, if they are trying to overcome them, are not deadly to persons under grace, or baptized persons justified by faith, although, if persevered in, and uncorrected, they may terminate in deadly sin; and they consequently require continual repentance, lest they should grow into such a fearful burden. But even to persons under grace we learn, from 1 John v. 16, 17, that there are “sins unto death,”—which must mean sins that put us out of a state of grace, and this is done by any wilful sin persevered in. By deadly sin in a _Christian_ is meant wilful sin, persevered in, which deprives us of all Christian privileges. (See _Sin_.)

DEAN. Of deans there are two sorts; 1st, the _dean of a cathedral_, who is an ecclesiastical magistrate, next in degree to the bishop. He is chief of the chapter, and it is supposed is called a dean, (_Decanus_,) from a similar title in ancient monasteries, of an officer who presided over ten monks.

The dean represents the _Archpresbyter_, or _Protopapas_, who all the world over, from the most ancient times, was found under one denomination or another in the principal church of the diocese, to which a body of clergy was uniformly attached. Notre Dame at Paris had a dean as early as 991 at least. There was a dean of Bangor in 603; of Llandaff in 612; at Canterbury from 825 to 1080, then the name of Prior was substituted. Salisbury had its dean in 1072; Lincoln, 1092. In conventual cathedrals, the head was generally prior, the bishop being virtually abbot. The dean was the first dignitary of the cathedral; the head of the corporation; and, in subordination to the bishop, has, according to the statutes of more ancient cathedrals, the _cure of souls_ over the members of the cathedral, and the administration of the corrective discipline of the Church. He has also duties in the choir and the chapter in common with all the chapter. He is by our law a sole corporation, that is, he represents a whole succession, and is capable of taking an estate as dean, and conveying it to his successors. 2nd, _Rural deans_, whose office is of ancient date in the Church of England, long prior to the Reformation, as it has been throughout Europe, and which many of the bishops are now reviving. Their chief duty is to visit a certain number of parishes, and to report their condition to the bishop. (See _Rural Dean_.) The dean was not always head of the chapter abroad; the provost being sometimes the superior. But he had always the administration of the discipline in _spirituals_, [_curam animarum_, as it is expressly called in statutes both of home and foreign Churches,] the provosts often concerning themselves merely in temporals, and he had the superintendence of the choir, or cathedral body. (See _Dictionnaire de Droit Canonique, Lyons_, 1787, voce _Doyen_.) They were, in fact, very much like the deans in our colleges, though more strictly limited _ad sacra_. The Dean of Faculty, in most ancient and some modern universities, presided over the meetings of their respective faculties, and maintained the academical discipline.

DEAN AND CHAPTER. This is the style and title of the governing body of a cathedral. A chapter consists of the dean, with a certain number of canons, or prebendaries, heads of the church—_capita ecclesiæ_. The origin of this institution is to be traced to a remote antiquity. A missionary bishop, when converting our ancestors, would take his position in some central town, with his attendant priests: these, as opportunity offered, would go to the neighbouring villages to preach the gospel, and administer the other offices of the Church. But they resided with the bishop, and were supported out of his revenues. By degrees parochial settlements were made; but still the bishop required the attendance of certain of the clergy at his cathedral, to be his council; (for the bishops never thought of acting without consulting their clergy;) and also to officiate in his principal church or cathedral. These persons, to qualify themselves for their office, gave themselves up to study, and to the maintenance and decoration of their sanctuary; the services of which were to be a model to all the lesser churches of the diocese. Forming, in the course of time, a corporation, they obtained property, and ceased to be dependent upon the bishop for a maintenance. And being considered the representatives of the clergy, upon them devolved the government of the diocese when vacant; and they obtained the privilege, doubtless on the same principle, of choosing the bishop, which originally belonged to the whole clergy of the diocese, in conjunction with the bishops of the province. In this privilege they were supported by the kings of the country, who perceived that they were more likely to intimidate a chapter into the election of the royal nominee, than the whole of the clergy of a diocese. But still the deans and chapters sometimes acting independently, an act was passed under Henry VIII., by which a dean and chapter refusing to elect the king’s nominee to the bishopric become individually outlawed, lose all their property, and are to be imprisoned during pleasure. Since that time these corporations have always succumbed to the royal will and pleasure. The great object of the institution, it will be perceived, is, 1st, To provide the bishop with a council; 2nd, To make provision for a learned body of divines, who, disengaged from parochial cares, may benefit the cause of religion by their writings; 3rd, To make provision, also, that in the cathedral church of each diocese the services shall be performed with rubrical strictness, and with all the solemnity and grandeur of which our services are capable.

It is not to be denied, that, during the last century, this institution was greatly abused. Patrons made use of it to enrich their own families or political partisans; and the cathedral clergy, instead of giving themselves up to learned labours, dwelt chiefly on their livings, coming merely for a short time to their cathedrals: as their estates advanced in value, they expended the income on themselves, instead of increasing the cathedral libraries, and rendering the choirs more efficient, by raising the salaries of the choristers, and doubling or trebling their number: finally, being forgetful of the command of the Church, that, “in cathedral and collegiate churches and colleges, where there are many priests and deacons, they shall all receive the communion with the priest, _every Sunday at the least_,” many deans and chapters have, most unjustifiably, discontinued the weekly communion. Whether individual members of chapters consider these observances superstitious or not, it is on these conditions they enjoy their property; and if they cannot conscientiously keep the conditions, they ought conscientiously to resign their places. These things required reform; and forecasting men, seeing no symptoms of improvement, expected that the arm of the LORD would be made bare for vengeance; and the LORD made use of the secular government of England as his instrument of chastisement. The British legislature, acting on the precedent of Cardinal Wolsey and Henry VIII., has seized a large portion of the property belonging to the deans and chapters, and has reduced the number of canons. May this be a warning to the deans and chapters as they now exist! May patrons make the cathedral close the abode of men of learning, and may the members of chapters sacrifice even their private property to render their cathedral choirs what they ought to be! May they have strength of mind to sacrifice all they have in the world, rather than elect as a bishop an unworthy nominee of the Crown, if, peradventure, the Crown nominate a Sabellian, or an Arian, or a Socinian heretic. (See _Chapters_, _Canons_, and _Prebendaries_.)

DECALOGUE. The _ten_ precepts, or _commandments_, delivered by GOD to Moses, and by him written on two tables of stone, and delivered to the Hebrews, as the basis and foundation of their religion. The history of this great event, together with the ten commandments themselves, are recited at large in the 19th and 20th chapters of the book of Exodus.

The Jews called these commandments, by way of excellence, the _ten words_, from whence they had afterwards the name of Decalogue. But it is to be observed, that they joined the first and second into one, and divided the last into two. They understand that against stealing to relate to the stealing of men, or kidnapping, alleging, that the stealing of another’s goods or property is forbidden in the last commandment.—_De Legib. Hebr._ lib. i. c. 2.

“Most divines,” says the learned Spencer, “seem to have been of opinion, that GOD gave the Decalogue, to be a general rule of life and manners, and as it were a summary, to which all other precepts, either of the law or the gospel, may be reduced. Hence they rack their brains, to fix so large and extensive a meaning on all these commands, that all duties, respecting GOD or our neighbour, may be understood to be contained in them. But no one, who duly considers the matter, can think it probable, that the Decalogue was therefore given, that it might be a kind of compendium of all the other laws of the Pentateuch; since those eminent precepts of the law, ‘Thou shalt love the LORD thy GOD with all thy heart,’ and ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,’ cannot be found in the Decalogue, without affixing a meaning to some commands quite foreign to the natural sense of the words, and subjecting them to an arbitrary interpretation. To give my opinion in a few words; the chief scope and intent of the Decalogue was to root out idolatry and its more immediate effects, and to add force and authority to the other laws contained in the Pentateuch. For who can persuade himself, that _God_ would have collected together, into the one little system of the Decalogue, those ten precepts, which have scarce any connexion with each other, had they not all naturally tended to destroy idolatry and its primary effects?” The author then proceeds to confirm the truth of this assertion by a distinct consideration of each precept of the two tables.

It has been a question, and even matter of admiration, why _God_, in delivering laws to the Hebrews, kept precisely to the number ten. This question is answered by the above-cited author, (Id. ib. § 2,) who assigns the following reasons for this proceeding. “First, the number ten exceeds all others in perfection and capacity: for in it are comprehended all the diversities of numbers and their analogies, and all the geometrical figures which have any relation to numbers. Secondly, A _Decad_ seems to have been in most esteem and use, among all nations, from the earliest times. Thirdly, As the number ten comprehends in it all others, so the Decalogue was to be a kind of representative of all the other laws of Moses, which were too numerous to be distinctly and separately rehearsed from Mount Sinai. Lastly, The number ten was a sacred number, and most frequently applied to the things mentioned in the Law: as will be evident to those, who carefully read over the institutes of Moses.”

The Samaritans, to raise and maintain the credit of their temple on Mount Gerizim, forged an _eleventh_ command or precept, which in their Pentateuch they added at the end of the Decalogue, both in Exodus and Deuteronomy. It was this: “When the LORD thy GOD shall have brought thee into the land of Canaan, whither thou goest to possess it, thou shalt erect to thyself large stones, and shalt write on them all the words of this Law. And, after thou shalt have passed over Jordan, thou shalt place those stones, which I command thee this day, on Mount Gerizim, and shalt build there an altar to the _Lord_ thy GOD, an altar of stone,” &c.

DECLARATION. (See _Conformity_.)

DECORATED. The style of architecture which succeeded the Geometrical about 1315, and gave place to the Perpendicular about 1360.

The most obvious characteristic of this style is the window tracery (see _Tracery_); but all the parts and details have also their appropriate features. The doorway is no longer divided by a central shaft. The windows are larger than in the former style, and their mullions have in general fewer subordinations of mouldings. The corner buttresses are usually set diagonally instead of in pairs, and the buttresses generally are of considerable projection, and much enriched with pediments and niches. The piers consist generally of four shafts with intervening hollows, set lozengewise; and the detached shaft is wholly discontinued. The triforium, which had begun to lose its relative importance in the Geometrical, is in this style generally treated as a mere course of panelling at the base of the clerestory windows, which are proportionally enlarged. Arcading begins to be superseded by panelling. Foliage, and other carving, is treated with less force and nature than in the preceding style; and heraldry begins to appear. The vaulting (see _Vaulting_) is more intricate. One or two mouldings and decorations are almost peculiar to this style, especially the ogee in all its forms and in every position. The ball-flower and the scroll moulding, it has in common with the Geometrical, but far more frequently. (See _Moulding_.) The broach spire is still used, but begins to give way to the parapet and spire.

DECRETALS. The name given to the letters of popes, being in answer to questions proposed to them by some bishop or ecclesiastical judge, or even particular person, in which they determined business, as they thought fit. In the ninth century there appeared a collection of decretal letters ascribed to more than thirty popes, succeeding each other in the first three centuries. The author is unknown, but they are generally ascribed to a certain Isidore Mercator, and pass usually under his name. Their uniform tendency is to exalt papal power, and exactly on those points for which no sanction can be alleged from Scripture, or from the early periods of any genuine Church history; such as supreme authority over bishops, the receiving appeals from all parts of the world, and the reservation of causes for the hearing of the Roman see. In the words of Fleury, “They inflicted an irreparable wound on the discipline of the Church, by the new maxims which they introduced in regard to the judgment of bishops and the authority of the pope.” Dr. Barrow mentions them among the chief causes by which the power of the bishop of Rome has been advanced: “The forgery of the decretal epistles (wherein the ancient popes are made expressly to speak and act according to some of his highest pretences, devised long after their times, and which they never thought of, good men) did hugely conduce to his purpose; authorizing his encroachments by the suffrage of ancient doctrine and practice.” “Upon these spurious decretals,” (writes the historian of the middle ages,) “was built the great fabric of papal supremacy over the different national Churches: a fabric which has stood after its foundation crumbled beneath it; for no one has pretended to deny, during the last two centuries, that the imposture is too palpable for any but the most ignorant ages to credit.” Their effect was, to diminish the authority of metropolitans and provincial synods, by allowing to an accused bishop, not only the right of appeal, but the power also of removing any process into the supreme court at Rome. And on this account it has been supposed that the decrees were forged by some bishop who desired to reduce the power of his immediate superior. But whoever may have been the author, and whatever the origin, there is no doubt that the popes became, from the first, their most strenuous defenders.

The best account of these forgeries is to be found in the posthumous work of Van Espen, Commentarius in Jus Novum Canonicum, part ii. diss. 1, p. 451–475. See also De Marca, De Concord. iii. c. 4, 5, p. 242; Natalis Alexandri Hist. Eccles. sæc. i. diss. 13, p. 213; Coci Censura quorundam Scriptorum, &c., passim.—_Sanderson._ _Robins, Evidence of Scripture against the Roman Church._

DEDICATION, FEAST OF. The _wake_ or customary festival for the dedication of churches signifies the same as _vigil_ or _eve_. The reason of the name is thus assigned in an old manuscript: “Ye shall understand and know how the evens were first founded in old times. In the beginning of Holy Church it was so, that the people came to the church with candles burning, and would wake and come with lights towards night to the church in their devotions: and after, they fell to lechery, and songs, and dances, harping and piping, and also to gluttony and sin; and so turned the holiness to cursedness. Wherefore the holy Fathers ordained the people to leave that waking, and to fast the even. But it is still called _vigil_, that is, _waking_ in English: and it is also called the _even_, for at even they were wont to come to church.” It was in imitation of the primitive ἀγάπαι, or love feasts, (see _Agapæ_,) that such public assemblies, accompanied with friendly entertainments, were first held upon each return of the day of consecration, though not in the body of churches, yet in the churchyards, and most nearly adjoining places. This practice was established in England by Gregory the Great; who, in an epistle to Mellitus the abbot, gives injunctions to be delivered to Augustine the monk, a missionary to England; amongst which he allows the solemn anniversary of dedication to be celebrated in those churches which were made out of heathen temples, with religious feasts kept in sheds or arbours, made up with branches and boughs of trees round the said church. But as the love feasts held in the place of worship were soon liable to such great disorders, that they were not only condemned at Corinth by St. Paul, but prohibited to be kept in the house of GOD by the 20th canon of the Council of Laodicea, and the 30th of the third Council of Carthage: so, from a sense of the same inconveniences, this custom did not long continue of feasting in the churches or churchyards; but strangers and inhabitants paid the devotion of prayers and offerings in the church, and then adjourned their eating and drinking to the more proper place of public and private houses. The institution of these church encœnia, or wakes, was, without question, for good and laudable designs: at first, thankfully to commemorate the bounty and munificence of those who had founded and endowed the church; next, to incite others to the like generous acts of piety; and, chiefly, to maintain a Christian spirit of unity and charity, by such sociable and friendly meetings. And therefore care was taken to keep up the laudable custom. The laws of Edward the Confessor gave peace and protection in all parishes during the solemnity of the day of dedication, and the same privilege to all that were going to or returning from such solemnity. In a council held at Oxford, in the year 1222, it was ordained, that among other festivals should be observed the day of dedication of every church within the proper parish. And in a synod under Archbishop Islip, (who was promoted to the see of Canterbury in the year 1349,) the dedication feast is mentioned with particular respect. This solemnity was at first celebrated on the very day of dedication, as it annually returned. But the bishops sometimes gave authority for transposing the observance to some other day, and especially to Sunday, whereon the people could best attend the devotions and rites intended in this ceremony. Henry VIII. enjoined that all wakes should be kept the first Sunday in October.

This laudable custom of wakes prevailed for many ages, till the Puritans began to exclaim against it as a remnant of Popery. By degrees the humour grew so popular, that at the summer assizes held at Exeter, in the year 1627, the Lord Chief Baron Walter and Baron Denham made an order for suppression of all wakes. And a like order was made by Judge Richardson for the county of Somerset, in the year 1631. But on Bishop Laud’s complaint of these innovations, the king commanded the last order to be reversed; which Judge Richardson refusing to do, an account was required from the Bishop of Bath and Wells, how the said feast days, church ales, wakes, and revels, were for the most part celebrated and observed in his diocese. On the receipt of these instructions, the bishop sent for and advised with seventy-two of the most orthodox and able of his clergy; who certified under their hands, that, on these feast days, (which generally fell on Sundays,) the service of GOD was more solemnly performed, and the church much better frequented, both in the forenoon and afternoon, than on any other Sunday in the year; that the people very much desired the continuance of them; that the ministers did in most places the like, for these reasons, viz. for preserving the memorial of the dedication of their several churches, for civilizing the people, for composing differences by the mediation and meeting of friends, for increase of love and unity by these feasts of charity, and for relief and comfort of the poor. On the return of this certificate, Judge Richardson was again cited to the council table, and peremptorily commanded to reverse his former order. After which it was thought fit to reinforce the declaration of King James, when perhaps this was the only good reason assigned for that unnecessary and unhappy licence of sports: “We do ratify and publish this our blessed father’s decree, the rather because of late, in some counties of our kingdom, we find, that, under pretence of taking away abuses, there hath been a general forbidding not only of ordinary meetings, but of the feasts of the dedication of churches, commonly called wakes.” However, by such a popular prejudice against wakes, and by the intermission of them in the confusions that followed, they are now discontinued in many counties, especially in the east and some western parts of England, but are commonly observed in the north and in the midland counties.

DEFENDER OF THE FAITH. (_Fidei Defensor._) A peculiar title belonging to the sovereign of England; as _Catholic_ to the king of Spain, and _Most Christian_ to the king of France. These titles were given by the popes of Rome. That of _Fidei Defensor_ was first conferred by Pope Leo X. on King Henry VIII., for writing against Martin Luther; and the bull for it bears date _quinto idus Octobris, 1521_. It was afterwards confirmed by Clement VII. On Henry’s suppression of the monasteries, the pope of Rome deprived him of this title, and had the presumption and absurdity to depose him from his crown. Therefore the title was conferred by a higher authority than the pope, the parliament of England, in the thirty-fifth year of Henry’s reign. By some antiquarians it is maintained that the bull of Leo only revived a title long sustained by the English kings.

DEGRADATION is an ecclesiastical censure, whereby a clergyman is deprived of the holy orders which formerly he had, as of a priest or deacon; and by the canon law this may be done two ways, either summarily or by word only, or solemnly, as by divesting the party degraded of those ornaments and rights which were the ensigns and order of his degree.

Collier thus describes the form of degradation of a priest, in the case of Fawke, burnt for heresy in the reign of Henry IV. After being pronounced a heretic relapsed, he was solemnly degraded in the following manner:

From the order of │ To be taken from him, ──────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────── 1 Priest. │1 The paten, chalice, and pulling │ off his chasuble. 2 Deacon. │2 The New Testament and the stole. 3 Sub-deacon. │3 The albe and the maniple. 4 Acolyth. │4 The candlestick, taper, │ urceolum. 5 Exorcist. │5 The office for exorcisms. 6 Reader. │6 The lectionarium, or legend │ book. 7 Ostiarius, or Sexton. │7 The keys of the church-doors, │ and surplice.

After this, his ecclesiastical tonsure was obliterated, and the form of his degradation pronounced by the archbishop; and being thus deprived of his sacerdotal character, and dressed in a lay habit, he was put into the hands of the secular court, with the significant request, that he might be favourably received.

The ancient law for degradation is set forth in the sixth book of the Decretals; and the causes for degradation and deprivation are enumerated by Bishop Gibson.—See _Gibson’s Codex_, p. 1066–1068.

By Canon 122, Sentence against a minister, of deposition from the ministry, “shall be pronounced by the bishop only, with the assistance of his chancellor and the dean, (if they may conveniently be had,) and some of the prebendaries, if the court be kept near the cathedral church; or of the archdeacon, if he may be had conveniently, and two other at the least grave ministers and preachers to be called by the bishop, when the court is kept in other places.”

DEGREE. _Psalms or Songs of Degrees_ is a title given to fifteen psalms, which are the 120th and all that follow to the 134th inclusive. The Hebrew text calls them a _song of ascents_. Junius and Tremellius translate the Hebrew, by _a song of excellencies_, or _an excellent song_, because of the excellent matter of them, as eminent persons are called _men of high degree_. (1 Chr. xvii. 17.) Some call them _psalms of elevation_, because, say they, they were sung with an exalted voice; or because at every psalm the voice was raised: but the translation of _psalms of degrees_ has more generally obtained. Some interpreters think, that they were so called because they were sung upon the fifteen steps of the temple; but they are not agreed about the place where these fifteen steps were. Others think they were so called, because they were sung in a gallery, which they say was in the court of Israel, where sometimes the Levites read the law. But others think, that the most probable reason why they are called songs of degrees, or of ascent, is, because they were composed and sung by the Jews on the occasion of their _going up_ to Jerusalem, after the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, whether it were to implore this deliverance from GOD, or to return thanks for it after it had happened: others, that they were severally composed not only upon this, but upon other remarkable occasions when they made their ascent to the temple.

DEGREES in the universities denote a quality conferred on the students or members thereof, as a testimony of their proficiency in the arts and sciences, and entitling them to certain privileges. They were first instituted by Pope Eugenius III. at the suggestion of Gratian, the celebrated compiler of the canon law, in 1151; but were limited to the faculty of canon law, for the encouragement of which they were instituted; and consisted of the ranks of bachelor, licentiate, and doctor. Shortly after Peter Lombard instituted similar degrees in theology in the university of Paris. In the course of time degrees were given in other faculties, those of arts and medicine being added. In many of the foreign universities, theology and canon law have each their three classes of degrees as above stated; medicine has generally but two, bachelor and doctor; and arts two, bachelor and master. The designation of doctor in philosophy is very modern. The English universities have only two degrees, bachelor and doctor in the superior faculties; master and bachelor in arts. The student of civil law is not, properly speaking, a graduate. Formerly separate degrees were given in England (as abroad) in canon and civil law; but the distinction ceased in the 17th century. Oxford has for some time ceased to confer degrees in _utroque jure_, (i. e. civil and canon law,) but only in civil law. Hence her graduates are D. C. L. and B. C. L., and not L. L. D. and L. L. B., as at Cambridge and Dublin. The three ancient universities of England and Ireland confer degrees in music. Anciently degrees in grammar, doctorate, mastership, and baccalaurenti were given at Oxford or Cambridge. But they fell into disuse in the 17th century.

DEISTS. Those who deny the _existence and necessity_ of any revelation, and profess to acknowledge that the being of a GOD is the chief article of their belief. The term Deist is derived from the Latin word _Deus_, GOD. The same persons are frequently called infidels, on account of their incredulity, or want of belief in the Christian dispensation of religion.—Consult _Boyle’s Lectures_, _Leland’s View of Deistical Writers_, _Leslie’s Short and Easy Method with the Deists_, _Watson’s Apology for the Bible_.

Dr. Clarke, (_Evidences of Nat. and Rev. Rel._ Introd.,) taking the denomination in its most extensive signification, distinguishes deists into four sorts. The first are, such as pretend to believe the existence of an eternal, infinite, independent, intelligent Being; and who, to avoid the name of Epicurean Atheists, teach also, that this Supreme Being made the world; though, at the same time, they agree with the Epicureans in this, that they fancy, GOD does not at all concern himself in the government of the world, nor has any regard to, or care of, what is done therein.

The second sort of deists are those, who believe, not only the being, but also the providence of GOD, with respect to the natural world; but who, not allowing any difference between moral good and evil, deny that GOD takes any notice of the morally good or evil actions of men; these things depending, as they imagine, on the arbitrary constitution of human laws.

A third sort of deists there are, who, having right apprehensions concerning the natural attributes of GOD, and his all-governing providence, and some notion of his moral perfections also; yet, being prejudiced against the notion of the immortality of the human soul, believe, that men perish entirely at death, and that one generation shall perpetually succeed another, without any future restoration or renovation of things.

A fourth, and the last sort of deists, are such, as believe the existence of a Supreme Being, together with his providence in the government of the world, as also all the obligations of natural religion; but so far only as these things are discoverable by the light of nature alone, without believing any Divine revelation.

These, Dr. Clarke observes, are the only true deists: but, as the principles of these men would naturally lead them to embrace the Christian revelation, he concludes, there is now no consistent scheme of deism in the world. “The heathen philosophers, those few of them, who taught and lived up to the obligations of natural religion, had indeed a consistent scheme of deism so far as it went. But the case is not so now. The same scheme is not any longer consistent with its own principles, if it does not now lead men to believe and embrace revelation, as it then taught them to hope for it. Deists, in our days, who reject revelation when offered to them, are not such men as Socrates and Cicero were; but, under pretence of deism, it is plain, they are generally ridiculers of all that is truly excellent in natural religion itself. Their trivial and vain cavils; their mocking and ridiculing, without and before examination; their directing the whole stress of their objections against particular customs, or particular and perhaps uncertain opinions, or explications of opinions, without at all considering the main body of religion; their loose, vain, and frothy discourses; and, above all, their vicious and immoral lives; show plainly and undeniably, that they are not really deists, but mere atheists; and consequently not capable to judge of the truth of Christianity.”