Chapter XXX: Act 46: , Parl. 3, Act 106, Parl. 7, Act 24, Parl. 11, King James VI., do (6)

“We are fallen into an age, (says another learned author, _Jenkyns, Reasonableness of Christ. Relig._ in the Preface,) in which there are a sort of men, who have shown so great a forwardness to be no longer Christians, that have catched at all the little cavils and pretences against religion—but they both think and live so ill, that it is an argument for the goodness of any cause that they are against it. It was urged as a confirmation of the Christian religion by Tertullian, that it was hated and persecuted by Nero, the worst of men: and I am confident, it would be but small reputation to it in any age, if such men should be fond of it. They speak evil of the things they understand not, and are wont to talk with as much confidence against any point of religion, as if they had all the learning in the world in their keeping, when commonly they know little or nothing of what has been said for that against which they dispute.”

Prateolus (_Elench. Hæres._) mentions a sect of deists (as they were called) which sprung up in Poland, in the year 1564. They were a branch of the Lutherans, and, coming into France in 1566, settled at Lyons. Their leader (he tells us) was one Gregorius Pauli, a minister of Cracow. They boasted, that GOD had bestowed on them much greater gifts than on Luther and others, and that the destruction of Antichrist was reserved for them. They asserted, that there is one nature, or Deity, common to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but not one and the same essence; and that the Father alone is the one only true GOD.

These deists (as Prateolus calls them) ought rather to be denominated Arians.

DELEGATES. The court of delegates was so called, because these delegates sat by force of the king’s commission under the great seal, upon an appeal to the king in the court of Chancery, in three causes: 1. When a sentence was given in any ecclesiastical cause by the archbishop or his official: 2. When any sentence was given in any ecclesiastical cause in places exempt: 3. When a sentence was given in the admiral’s court, in suit civil and marine, by the order of the civil laws. And these commissioners were called delegates, because they were delegated by the king’s commission for these purposes.

For the origin of the high court of delegates, see 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12, and 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19, §4. By the 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 92, the powers of the high court of delegates, both in ecclesiastical and maritime causes, are transferred to her Majesty in council; which transfer is further regulated by the 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 41, and by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 69. This act does not extend to Ireland.

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, consists of

The Lord President. │ The Lord Chancellor. │ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────────── The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal. │Provided they be │ councillors. The Chief Justice of the Court of Queen’s Bench. │ „ The Master of the Rolls. │ „ The Vice-chancellor. │ „ The Chief Justice of the Court ofCommon Pleas. │ „ The Chief Baron of the Exchequer. │ „ The Judge of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.│ „ The Judge of the Admiralty Court. │ „ The Chief Judge of the Bankruptcy Court. │ „ All who have held the aforenamed offices. │ „ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────────── Two privy-councillors appointed by the sign-manual. │

No matter is to be heard unless in the presence of at least four members of the committee; and no report or recommendation made to the Crown, unless a majority of the members present at the hearing shall concur in such report or recommendation.

DEMIURGE. (From δημιουργὸς, an artificer.) The name given by some Gnostic sects to the Creator of the world, who, according to them, was different from the supreme GOD. (See _Gnostics_.)

DEMONIACS. Persons possessed of the devil. That the persons spoken of in the New Testament as possessed of the devil, were not simply lunatics, is clear from a mere perusal of the facts recorded. The devils owned CHRIST to be the Messiah; they besought him not to torment them; they passed into the swine and drove them into the sea. The manner in which our LORD addressed the demoniacs clearly shows that they were really such: he not only rebuked the devils, but called them unclean spirits, asking them questions, commanding them to come out, &c. We find also that, for some time, in the early ages of the Church, demoniacs existed, as there was a peculiar service appointed in the Church for their cure. (See _Energumens_.)

DENARII DE CARITATE. (_Lat._) Customary oblations, anciently made to cathedral churches, about the time of Pentecost, when the parish priests, and many of their parishioners, went in procession to visit their mother-church. This custom was afterwards changed into a settled due, and usually charged upon the parish priest, though at first it was but a gift of _charity_, or present, towards the support and ornament of the bishop’s see.

DENOMINATIONS, THE THREE. The general body of dissenting ministers of London and Westminster form an association so styled, which was organized in 1727. The object of the association appears to be political. The Three Denominations are, the Presbyterian, (now Socinian,) Independent, and Baptist.

DEO GRATIAS. (_Lat._) _God be thanked_. A form of salutation, anciently used by Christians, when they accosted each other. The Donatists ridiculed the use of it; which St. Augustine defended, affirming, that a Christian had reason to return God thanks when he met a brother Christian. It is at present used only in the sacred offices of the Romish Church. We have something like it in the _Communion Service_ of our own Church, in which the minister says, _Let us give thanks unto our Lord God_.

DEPOSITION. (See _Degradation_.)

DEPRECATIONS. (See _Litany_.)

DEPRIVATION is an ecclesiastical sentence, whereby a clergyman is deprived of his parsonage, vicarage, or other spiritual promotion or dignity.

By Canon 122. Sentence against a minister, of deprivation from his living, “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.”

The causes of deprivation may be reduced to three heads, viz. to want of capacity, contempt, and crimes. Nonconformity is thus specially punished by 1 Eliz. c. 2, 13 Eliz. c. 12, 14 Car. II. c. 4. Dilapidation used to be held a good cause of deprivation, yet that it has ever been inflicted as a punishment of dilapidation does not appear, either by the books of common or canon law. In all causes of deprivation, where a person is in actual possession of an ecclesiastical benefice, these things must concur: 1st, A monition or citation of the party to appear: 2nd, A charge given against him by way of libel or articles, to which he is to give an answer: 3rd, A competent time must be assigned, for proofs and interrogatories: 4th, The person accused shall have the liberty of counsel to defend his cause, to except against witnesses, and to bring legal proofs against them: and 5th, There must be a solemn sentence, read by the bishop, after hearing the merits of the cause, or pleadings on both sides. These are the fundamentals of all judicial proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts, in order to a deprivation. And if these things be not observed, the party has a just cause of appeal, and may have a remedy in a superior court.

By 1 & 2 Vict. c. 106, s. 31, spiritual persons trading contrary to the provisions of that act, may be, for the third offence, deprived.

DESK. This is the name usually given to the pulpit or pew in which morning and evening prayers are sung or said in the English churches. The using of this pulpit for prayer is peculiar to the English Church, and has a very unpleasant effect. The First Prayer Book of Edward VI. ordered “the priest, _being in the choir_, to begin the LORD’S Prayer, called Pater Noster, (with which the morning and evening services then began,) with a loud voice:” so that it was at that time the custom for the minister to sing or say the morning and evening prayer, not in a desk or pulpit, but at the upper end of the choir or chancel, near the altar, towards which, whether standing or kneeling, he always turned his face in the prayers. This gave great offence, however, though it had been the custom of the Church of England for many hundred years, to some superstitious weaker brethren, who so far forgot their charity as to call it anti-Christian. The outcry, however frivolous and vexatious, prevailed so far, that when, in the fifth year of King Edward, the Prayer Book was altered, the following rubric appeared instead of the old one, viz. “The morning and evening prayers shall be used in such places of the church, chapel, or chancel, and the minister shall so turn him, as the people best may hear. And if there be any controversy therein, the matter shall be referred to the ordinary, and he or his deputy shall appoint the place.” This caused great contentions—the more orthodox kneeling in the old way, and singing or saying the prayers in the chancel, and the innovators, or _ultra_-Protestants, adopting _new_ forms, and performing all the services in the body of the church. In the reign of Elizabeth, the rubric was brought to its present form: “that the morning and evening prayers shall be used in the accustomed place in the church, chapel, or chancel,” by which was clearly meant the choir or chancel, which had been for centuries the accustomed place; and it cannot be supposed that the Second Book of Edward, which lasted only one year and a half, could establish a custom. A dispensing power, however, was left with the ordinary, who might determine it otherwise, if he saw just cause. Pursuant to this rubric, the morning and evening services were again, as formerly, sung or said in the chancel or choir. But in some churches, owing to the too great distance of the chancel from the body of the church, in others owing to the ultra-Protestant superstition of the parishioners, the ordinaries permitted the clergy to leave the chancel, and read prayers from a pew in the body of the church. This innovation and novelty, begun first by some few ordinaries, and recommended by them to others, grew by degrees to be more general, till at last it came to be the universal practice; insomuch that the convocation, in the beginning of King James the First’s reign, ordered that in every church there should be a convenient seat made for the minister to read service in. In new churches, where there can be no complaint of the size of the chancels, there seems to be no reason why the ordinaries should not now remove the desk, and send the clergy back to their proper place, to sing or say the prayers in the chancel. At all events, they might get rid of that unsightly nuisance, a second pulpit instead of a reading pew. If the prayers are to be preached to the people, as well as the sermon, one pulpit might suffice. It is gratifying to know, that since the article was written in the first edition of this work, this disfigurement of our churches has been very generally removed. It is to be observed, that the word does not once occur in the Prayer Book.

DEUS MISEREATUR. The Latin name for Psalm lxvii., which may be used after the second lesson at evening prayers, instead of the _Nunc Dimittis_, except on the twelfth day of the month, when it occurs among the psalms of the day. It was first inserted in our service in the Second Book of King Edward VI.

DEUTERONOMY. A canonical book of the Old Testament. The word implies a _second law_, the principal design of it being, _a repetition_ of the laws already delivered; which was a necessary thing, inasmuch as the Israelites, who had heard it before, were dead in the wilderness, and there was sprung up another generation of men, who had not heard the Decalogue, or any other of the laws openly proclaimed. It contains likewise some new laws; such as the taking down malefactors from the tree in the evening; the making of battlements on the roofs of houses; the expiation of an unknown murder; the punishment to be inflicted upon a rebellious son; the distinction of the sexes by apparel; the marrying a brother’s wife after his decease: as also, orders and injunctions concerning divorce; laws concerning men-stealers; concerning unjust weights and measures; concerning the marrying of a captive woman; concerning servants that desert their master’s service; and several other laws, not only ecclesiastical and civil, but also military. There are inserted likewise some transactions, which happened in the last year of the travels of the Israelites through the wilderness.

Deuteronomy is the last book of the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses; though some have questioned whether it was written by that legislator, because, in the last chapter, mention is made of his death and burial, and of the succession of Joshua after him. But this only proves that the last chapter was not written by Moses, but added by some other person; most probably by Ezra, when he published an edition of the Holy Scriptures. (See _Pentateuch_.)

DEVIL. From Διάβολος, which signifies an accuser, or calumniator. The two words, Devil and Satan, are used in Scripture to signify the same wicked spirit, who with many others, his angels or under-agents, is fighting against GOD; and who has dominion over all the sons of Adam, except the regenerate; and who is, in his kingdom of this world, the nearest imaginable approximation, at infinite distance indeed, to the omnipotence of the GODHEAD.

DIACONATE. The office or order of a deacon. (See _Deacon_.)

DIACONICUM. (_Gr._ and _Lat._) This word has different significations in ecclesiastical authors. Sometimes it is taken for that part of the ancient _church_ in which the deacons used to sit during the performance of Divine service, namely, at the rails of the altar; sometimes for a building adjoining to the church, in which the sacred vessels and habits were laid up; sometimes for that part of the public prayers which the deacons pronounced. Lastly, it denotes an ecclesiastical book, in which are contained all things relating to the duty and office of a deacon, according to the rites of the Greek Church.

DIAPER. In church architecture, a decoration of large surfaces with a constantly recurring pattern, either carved or painted. Norman diapers are usually either fretted or zigzag lines, or imbrications of the masonry; and not only plain surfaces, but pillars, and small shafts, and even mouldings, are diapered, as the cable moulding surrounding the nave at Rochester. In the succeeding styles, flowers and leaves are the most frequent patterns, which, in the Geometrical style, are often of extreme beauty and delicacy. After the fourteenth century, diapers are painted only, and now even the hollows of mouldings are thus treated.

DIET. The assembly of the states of Germany. We shall only notice the more remarkable of those which have been held on the affairs of religion.

The Diet of Worms, in 1521, where Alexander, the pope’s nuncio, having charged Luther with heresy, the Duke of Saxony said, that Luther ought to be heard; which the emperor granted, and sent him a pass, provided he did not preach on this journey. Being come to Worms, he protested that he would not recant unless they would show him his errors by the word of GOD alone, and not by that of men; wherefore the emperor soon after outlawed him by an edict.

The first Diet of Nuremberg was held in 1523, when Francis Cheregat, Adrian VI.’s nuncio, demanded the execution of Leo X.’s bull, and of Charles V.’s edict, published at Worms, against Luther: but it was answered, that it was necessary to call a council in Germany, to satisfy the nation about its grievances, which were reduced to a hundred articles, some whereof struck at the pope’s authority, and the discipline of the Roman Church: they added that, in the interim, the Lutherans should be commanded not to write against the Roman Catholics, &c. All these things were brought into the form of an edict, and published in the emperor’s name.

The second Diet of Nuremberg was in 1524. Cardinal Cangegio, Pope Clement VII.’s legate, entered the town incognito, for fear of exasperating the people there: the Lutherans having the advantage, it was decreed that, with the emperor’s consent, the pope should call a council in Germany; but, in the interim, an assembly should be held at Spire, to determine what was to be believed and practised; and that to obey the emperor, the princes ought to order the observance of the edict of Worms as strictly as they could. Charles, angry at this, commanded that edict to be very strictly observed, and prohibited the assembly at Spire.

The first Diet of Spire was held in 1526. The emperor Charles V. being then held in Spain, named his brother, Archduke Ferdinand, to preside over that assembly, where the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse demanded a full and free exercise of the Lutheran religion, so that the Lutherans preached there publicly against Popery; and the Lutheran princes’ servants had these five capital letters, V.D. M.I.Æ., embroidered on their sleeves, signifying, _Verbum Dei manet in Æternum_, to show publicly they would follow nothing else but the pure word of GOD. The archduke, not daring to oppose this, proposed two things, the first concerning the Popish religion, which was to be maintained in observing the edict of Worms; and the second concerning the aid demanded by Lewis, king of Hungary, against the Turks: the Lutherans prevailing about the first, it was decreed, that the emperor should be desired to call a general or national council in Germany within a year, and that in the mean time every one was to have liberty of conscience, and whilst they were deliberating in vain about the second, King Lewis was defeated and slain at the battle of Mohatz.

The second Diet of Spire was held in 1529. It was decreed against the Lutherans, that wherever the edict of Worms was received, it shall be lawful for nobody to change his opinion; but in the countries where the new religion (as they termed it) was received, it should be lawful to continue in it till the next council, if the old religion could not be reestablished there without sedition. Nevertheless the mass was not to be abolished there, and no Roman Catholic was allowed to turn Lutheran; that the Sacramentarians should be banished out of the empire, and the Anabaptists put to death; and that preachers should nowhere preach against the doctrine of the Church of Rome. This decree destroying that of the first Diet, six Lutheran princes, viz. the Elector of Saxony, the Marquis of Brandenburg, the two Dukes of Lunenburg, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Prince of Anhalt, with the deputies of fourteen imperial towns, protested in writing, two days after, in the assembly, against that decree, which they would not obey, it being contrary to the gospel; and appealed to the general or national council, to the emperor, and to any other unprejudiced judge. From this solemn protestation came that famous name of _Protestants_, which the Lutherans took presently, and the Calvinists and other reformed Christians afterwards. They also protested against contributing anything towards the war against the Turks, till after the exercise of their religion was free in all Germany. Next year the emperor held the famous Diet of Augsburg.

The first Diet of Augsburg was called in the year 1530, by the emperor Charles V., to reunite the princes about some matters of religion, and to join them all together against the Turks. Here the Elector of Saxony, followed by many princes, presented the confession of faith called the Confession of Augsburg. The conference about matters of faith and discipline being concluded, the emperor ended the Diet by a decree, that nothing should be altered in the doctrine and ceremonies of the Church of Rome till a council should order it otherwise.

The second Diet of Augsburg was held in 1547. The electors being divided concerning the decisions of the Council of Trent, the emperor demanded that the management of this affair should be left to him, and it was resolved, that every one should conform to the council’s decisions.

The third Diet of Augsburg was held in 1548, when, the commissioners named to examine some memoirs about a confession of faith, not agreeing together, the emperor named three divines, who drew the design of that famous _Interim_ so well known in Germany and elsewhere.

The fourth Diet of Augsburg was held in 1550, when the emperor complained that the Interim was not observed, and demanded that all should submit to the council, which they were going to renew at Trent; but Duke Maurice, one of Saxony’s deputies, protested that their master did submit to the council on this condition, that the divines of the Confession of Augsburg not only should be heard there, but should vote also like the Roman Catholic bishops, and that the pope should not preside: but, by plurality of votes, submission to the council was resolved on.

The first Diet of Ratisbon was held in 1541, for uniting the Protestants to the Church of Rome. The pope’s legate having altered the twenty-two articles drawn up by the Protestant divines, the emperor proposed to choose some learned divines that might agree peaceably upon the articles, and being desired by the Diet to choose them himself, he named three Papists, viz. Julius Phlugus, John Gropperus, and John Eckius; and three Protestants, viz. Philip Melancthon, Martin Bucer, and John Pistorius. After an examination and dispute of a whole month, those divines could never agree upon more than five or six articles, wherein the Diet still found some difficulties; wherefore the emperor, to end these controversies, ordered by an edict, that the decision of those doctors should be reserved to a general council, or to the national council of all Germany, or to the next Diet eighteen months after; and that, in the mean while, the Protestants should keep the articles agreed on, forbidding them to solicit anybody to change the old religion, (as they called it,) &c. But to gratify the Protestants in some measure, he gave them leave, by patent, to retain their religion, notwithstanding the edict.

The second Diet at Ratisbon was held in 1546: none of the Protestant confederate princes appeared; so that it was easily decreed here, by plurality of votes, that the Council of Trent was to be followed, which yet the Protestant deputies opposed, and this caused a war against them.

The third Diet of Ratisbon was held in 1557: the assembly demanded a conference between some famous doctors of both parties; which conference, held at Worms, between twelve Lutheran and as many Popish divines, was soon dissolved by the Lutherans’ division among themselves.—_Broughton._

DIGNITARY. One who holds cathedral or other preferment to which jurisdiction is annexed.

The dignitaries in British cathedrals are, for the most part, the dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, and archdeacon. Sometimes the _subdean_ and _succentor canonicorum_ are so called; and in a few churches in Ireland, the _provost_, and _sacrist_ (or treasurer). The only dignitary in cathedrals of the new foundation is the _dean_; as the archdeacon is not necessarily a member of such chapters. It is a vulgar error to style prebendaries, or canons residentiary, dignitaries. The prebendaries without dignity were styled _canonici_ (or _prebendarii_) _simplices_.—_Jebb._

DILAPIDATION is the incumbent suffering the chancel, or any other edifices, of his ecclesiastical living, to go to ruin or decay, by neglecting to repair the same; and it likewise extends to his committing, or suffering to be committed, any wilful waste in or upon the glebe, woods, or any other inheritance of the church. By the injunctions of King Edward VI. it is required, “that the proprietors, parsons, vicars, and clerks, having churches, chapels, or mansions, shall yearly bestow on the said mansions or chancels of their churches, being in decay, the fifth part of their benefices, till they be fully repaired; and the same being thus repaired, they shall always keep and maintain them in good estate.”—See _Art. XIII. of Queen Elizabeth’s Injunctions_.

By the constitutions of Othobon it is ordained, that “all clerks shall take care decently to repair the houses of their benefices and other buildings, as need shall require, whereunto they shall be earnestly admonished by their bishops or archdeacons; and if any of them, after the monition of the bishops or archdeacons, shall neglect to do the same for the space of two months, the bishop shall cause the same effectually to be done, at the cost and charges of such clerk, out of the profits of his church and benefice, by the authority of this present statute, causing so much thereof to be received as shall be sufficient for such reparation: the chancels also of the church they shall cause to be repaired by those who are bound thereunto according as is above expressed; also we do enjoin, by attestation of the Divine judgment, the archbishops and bishops, and other inferior prelates, that they do keep in repair their houses and other edifices, by causing such reparation to be made as they know to be needful.”—See 13 Eliz. c. 10; 17 Geo. III. c. 53; 21 Geo. III. c. 66; _Gibson’s Codex_, pp. 751–754, and _Hodgson’s Instructions to the Clergy_.

DIMISSORY LETTERS. In the ancient Christian Church, they were letters granted to the clergy, when they were to remove from their own diocese and settle in another, to testify, that they had the bishop’s leave to _depart_; whence they were called _Dimissoriæ_, and sometimes _Pacificæ_.

In the Church of England, _dimissory letters_ are such as are used when a candidate for holy orders has a title in one diocese, and is to be ordained in another; in which case the proper diocesan sends his letters, directed to the ordaining bishop, giving leave that the bearer may be ordained by him.

Persons inferior to bishops cannot grant these letters, unless the bishop shall, by special commission, grant this power to his vicar-general; or unless the bishop be at a great distance from his diocese, in which case his vicar-general in spirituals may grant such licence as the chapter of a cathedral may do _sede vacante_; or, lastly, when a bishop is taken prisoner by the enemy, for then the chapter exercises the same rights and powers as if the bishop were naturally dead.

DIOCESE. The circuit of a bishop’s jurisdiction. The ecclesiastical division in England is, primarily, into two provinces, those of Canterbury and York. In Ireland into two, Armagh and Dublin; till lately, however, into four, Cashel and Tuam, besides the two now mentioned. A province is a circuit of an archbishop’s jurisdiction. Each province contains divers dioceses, or sees of suffragan bishops; whereof Canterbury includes twenty, and York five. Armagh and Dublin, five each; though till lately Armagh had seven, Dublin three, Cashel five, and Tuam three. Though, properly speaking, the Irish dioceses are far more numerous, as most of the bishops have more than one see under their jurisdiction; which nevertheless, though thus united as to episcopal government, have their separate chapters, ecclesiastical officers, &c. Every diocese in England is divided into archdeaconries, and each archdeaconry into rural deaneries, and every deanery into parishes. In Ireland, there is but one archdeaconry to each diocese, though in two instances, those of Glendaloch and Aghadoe, these dioceses have been so long united to the adjacent sees, that their boundaries are now unknown, and consequently the diocese of Dublin and Ardfert have apparently, though not really, two archdeacons each. The division into rural deaneries and parishes is as in England.

The division of the Church into dioceses may be viewed as a natural consequence of the institution of the office of bishops. The authority to exercise jurisdiction, when committed to several hands, requires that some boundaries be defined within which each party may employ his powers; otherwise disorder and confusion would ensue, and the Church, instead of being benefited by the appointment of governors, might be exposed to the double calamity of an overplus of them in one district, and a total deficiency of them in another. Hence we find, so early as the New Testament history, some plain indications of the rise of the diocesan system, in the cases respectively of James, bishop of Jerusalem; Timothy, bishop of Ephesus; Titus, of Crete, to whom may be added the “angels” or bishops of the seven churches in Asia. These were placed in cities, and had jurisdiction over the churches and inferior clergy in those cities, and probably in the country adjacent. The first dioceses were formed by planting a bishop in a city or considerable village, where he officiated regularly, and took the spiritual charge, not only of the city itself, but of the suburbs, or region lying round about it, within the verge of its [civil] jurisdiction; which seems to be the plain reason of that great and visible difference which we find in the extent of dioceses, some being very large, others very small, according as the civil government of each city happened to have a larger or lesser jurisdiction.

Thus, in our own Church, there were at first only seven bishoprics, and these were commensurate with the Saxon kingdoms. Since that time our Church has thought fit to lessen the size of her dioceses, and to multiply them into above twenty; and if she thought fit to add forty or a hundred more, she would not be without precedent in the primitive Church. It is a great misfortune to the Church of England that her dioceses, compared with the population, are so extensive and so few. It is impossible for our bishops to perform all their canonical duties, such as visiting _annually every parish_ in the diocese, inspecting schools, Divine service, instruction, &c., besides baptizing, confirming, consecrating. Episcopal extension, as well as Church extension, is most important. We must seek to add to the number of our bishops. There will be prejudices and difficulties for some time to be overcome on the part of the State, which is not sufficiently religious to tolerate an increase in the number of spiritual peers. An addition to the number of our spiritual peers is however not what we seek, but that our spiritual pastors may be more numerous.

The ancient bishoprics being baronies, the possessors of them might sit in parliament; while the new bishoprics, not having baronies attached, might only qualify for a seat in the upper house of convocation. The beginning of a new system was made on the erection of the see of Manchester, in 1847, since which time the junior bishop has no seat in the House of Lords.

DIOCESAN. A bishop, as he stands related to his diocese. (See _Bishop_.)

DIPPERS. (See _Dunkers_.)

DIPTYCH. A kind of sacred book, or register, made use of in the ancient Christian Church, and in which were written the names of such eminent bishops, saints, and martyrs, as were particularly to be commemorated, just before oblation was made for the dead. It was called _diptych_ (δίπτυχος) from its being _folded together_; and it was the deacon’s office to recite the names written in it, as occasion required. Some distinguish three sorts of diptychs: one, wherein the names of bishops only were written, such especially as had been governors of that particular church; a second, in which the names of the living were written, such in particular as were eminent for any office or dignity, or some benefaction and good work, in which rank were bishops, emperors, and magistrates; lastly, a third, containing the names of such as were deceased in catholic communion.

Theodoret mentions these kind of registers in relation to the case of St. Chrysostom, whose name, for some time, was left out of the diptychs, because he died under the sentence of excommunication, pronounced against him by Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, and other Eastern bishops, with whom the Western Church would not communicate until they had replaced his name in the diptychs; for, to erase a person’s name out of these books was the same thing as declaring him to have been an heretic, or some way deviating from the faith.—_Bingham._

DIRECTORY. A kind of regulation for the performance of religious worship, drawn up by the Assembly of Divines in England, at the instance of the parliament, in the year 1644. It was designed to supply the place of the Liturgy, or Book of _Common Prayer_, the use of which the parliament had abolished. It consisted only of some general heads, which were to be managed and filled up at discretion; for it prescribed no form of prayer or circumstances of external worship, nor obliged the people to any responses, excepting _Amen_. The use of the _Directory_ was enforced by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons at Westminster, which was repeated August 3rd, 1645. By this injunction, the Directory was ordered to be dispersed and published in all parishes, chapelries, donatives, &c. In opposition to this injunction, King Charles issued a proclamation at Oxford, November 13th, 1645, enjoining the use of the Common Prayer according to law, notwithstanding the pretended ordinances for the new Directory.

To give a short abstract of the Directory: It forbids all salutations and civil ceremony in the churches. The reading the Scripture in the congregation is declared to be part of the pastoral office. All the canonical books of the Old and New Testament (but none of the _Apocrypha_) are to be publicly read in the vulgar tongue. How large a portion is to be read at once is left to the minister, who has likewise the liberty of _expounding_, when he judges it necessary. It prescribes heads for the prayer before sermon; among which part of the prayer for the king is, _to save him from evil counsel_. It delivers rules for managing the _sermon_; the introduction to the text must be short and clear, drawn from the words or context, or some parallel place of Scripture; in dividing the text, the minister is to regard the order of the matter more than that of the words; he is not to burden the memory of his audience with too many divisions, nor perplex their understandings with logical phrases and terms of art; he is not to start unnecessary objections; and he is to be very sparing in citations from ecclesiastical, or other human writers, ancient or modern.

The Directory recommends the use of the LORD’S Prayer, as the most perfect model of devotion. It forbids private or lay persons to administer baptism, and enjoins it to be performed in the face of the congregation. It orders the communion table at the LORD’S supper to be so placed that the communicants may sit about it. The dead, according to the rules of the Directory, are to be buried without any prayers or religious ceremony.

The Roman Catholics publish an annual Directory for their laity, which serves the purpose of a book of reference in matters of ceremonial as settled by their communion.—_Broughton._

DISCIPLE, in the first sense of the word, means one who _learns_ any thing from another. Hence the followers of any teacher, philosopher, or head of a sect, are usually called his _disciples_. In the Christian sense of the term, _disciples_ are the followers of JESUS CHRIST in general; but, in a more restrained sense, it denotes those who were the immediate followers and attendants on his person. The names _disciple_ and _apostle_ are often used synonymously in the gospel history; but sometimes the apostles are distinguished from disciples, as persons selected out of the number of disciples, to be the principal ministers of his religion. Of these there were twelve; whereas those who are simply styled _disciples_ were seventy, or seventy-two, in number. There was not as yet any catalogue of the disciples in Eusebius’s time, i. e. in the fourth century. The Latins kept the festival of the seventy or seventy-two disciples on the 15th of July, and the Greeks on 4th of January.

DISCIPLINE, ECCLESIASTICAL. The Christian Church being a spiritual community or society of persons professing the religion of JESUS, and, as such, governed by spiritual or ecclesiastical laws, her discipline consists in putting those laws in execution, and inflicting the penalties enjoined by them against several sorts of offenders. To understand the true nature of church discipline, we must consider how it stood in the ancient Christian Church. And, first,

The primitive Church never pretended to exercise discipline upon any but such as were within her pale, in the largest sense, by some act of their own profession; and even upon these she never pretended to exercise her discipline so far as to cancel or disannul their baptism. But the discipline of the Church consisted in a power to deprive men of the benefits of external communion, such as public prayer, receiving the eucharist, and other acts of Divine worship. This power, before the establishment of the Church by human laws, was a mere spiritual authority, or, as St. Cyprian terms it, a spiritual sword, affecting the soul, and not the body. Sometimes, indeed, the Church craved assistance from the secular power, even when it was heathen, but more frequently after it was become Christian. But it is to be observed, that the Church never encouraged the magistrate to proceed against any one for mere error, or ecclesiastical misdemeanour, further than to punish the delinquent by a pecuniary mulct, or bodily punishment, such as confiscation or banishment; and St. Austin affirms, that no good men in the Catholic Church were pleased that heretics should be prosecuted unto death. Lesser punishments, they thought, might have their use, as means sometimes to bring them to consideration and repentance.

Nor was it a part of the ancient discipline to deprive men of their natural or civil rites. A master did not lose his authority over his family, a parent over his children, nor a magistrate his office and charge in the state, by being cast out of the Church. But the discipline of the Church being a mere spiritual power, was confined to, 1. The admonition of the offender; 2. The lesser and greater excommunication.

As to the objects of ecclesiastical discipline, they were all such delinquents as fell into great and scandalous crimes after baptism, whether men or women, priests or people, rich or poor, princes or subjects. That princes and magistrates fell under the Church’s censures, may be proved by several instances; particularly St. Chrysostom relates, that Babylas denied communion to one of the Roman emperors on account of a barbarous murder committed by him: St. Ambrose likewise denied communion to Maximus for shedding the blood of Gratian; and the same holy bishop absolutely refused to admit the emperor Theodosius the Great into his church, notwithstanding his humblest entreaties, because he had inhumanly put to death 7000 men at Thessalonica, without distinguishing the innocent from the guilty.

DISPENSATION. The providential dealing of GOD with his creatures. We thus speak of the Jewish dispensation and the Christian dispensation. (See _Covenant of Redemption_.)

In ecclesiastical law, by dispensation is meant the power vested in archbishops of dispensing, on particular emergencies, with certain minor regulations of the Church, more especially in her character as an establishment.

DISSENTERS. Separatists from the Church of England, and the service and worship thereof, whether Protestants or Papists. At the Revolution a law was enacted, that the statutes of Elizabeth and James I., concerning the discipline of the Church, should not extend to Protestant Dissenters. But persons dissenting were to subscribe the declaration of 30 Car. II. c. 1, and take the oath or declaration of fidelity, &c. They are not to hold their meetings until their place of worship is certified to the bishop, or to the justices of the quarter sessions, and registered; also they are not to keep the doors of their meeting-houses locked during the time of worship. Whoever disturbs or molests them in the performance of their worship, on conviction at the sessions, is to forfeit £20 by the statute of 1 W. & M.—_Broughton_.

At the present time there are in England 34 dissenting communities or sects; 26 native or indigenous, 9 foreign.

PROTESTANT SECTS.

Scottish Presbyterians:

_Church of Scotland._

_United Presbyterian Synod._

_Presbyterian Church in England._

Independents, or Congregationalists.

Baptists:

_General._

_Particular._

_Seventh Day._

_Scotch._

_New Connexion General._

Society of Friends.

Unitarians.

Moravians, or United Brethren.

Wesleyan Methodists:

_Original Connexion._

_New Connexion._

_Primitive Methodists._

_Bible Christians._

_Wesleyan Association._

_Independent Methodists._

_Wesleyan Reformers._

Calvinistic Methodists:

_Welsh Calvinistic Methodists._

_Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion._

Sandemanians, or Glassites.

New Church.

Brethren.

_FOREIGN:_

Lutherans.

German Protestant Reformers.

Reformed Church of the Netherlands.

French Protestants.

OTHER CHRISTIAN SECTS.

Roman Catholics.

Greek Church.

German Catholics.

Italian Reformers.

Irvingites, or Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Latter-day Saints, or Mormons.

_JEWS._

_Registrar-general’s Report._

DIVINE. Something relating to GOD; a minister of the gospel; a priest; a theologian. (See _Clergy_.)

DIVINITY. The science of Divine things; theology; a title of the GODHEAD. (See _Theology_.) In strictness, meaning that department of sacred knowledge which has more peculiar reference to the attributes and essence of GOD.

DIVORCE. A separation of a married man and woman by the sentence of an ecclesiastical judge qualified to pronounce the same.

Among us, divorces are of two kinds, _à mensâ et thoro_, from bed and board; and _à vinculo matrimonii_, from the marriage tie. The former neither dissolves the marriage, nor debars the woman of her dower, nor bastardizes the issue; but the latter absolutely dissolves the marriage contract, making it void from the very beginning. The causes of a divorce _à mensâ et thoro_ are adultery, cruelty of the husband, &c.; those of a divorce _à vinculo matrimonii_, precontract, consanguinity, impotency, &c. On this divorce the dower is gone, and the children, if any begotten, bastardized. On a divorce for adultery, some acts of parliament have allowed the innocent person to marry again.

DOCETÆ. Heretics, so called ἀπὸ τοῦ δοκέειν (_apparere_), because they taught that our LORD had only a _seeming_ body, and that his actions and sufferings were not in reality, but in appearance. There was in the second century a sect which especially bore this name; but the Docetic error was common to many kinds of Gnostics. (See _Gnostics_.)

DOCTOR. One who has the highest degree in the faculties of divinity, law, physic, or music. (See _Degree_.)

DOCTRINE. A system of teaching. By Christian doctrine should be intended the principles or positions of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

DOGMA. A word used originally to express any doctrine of religion formally stated. _Dogmatic_ theology is the statement of positive truths in religion. The indifference of later generations to positive truth is indicated, among other things, by the different notion which has come to be attached, in common discourse, to these words. By a _dogma_ is now generally meant too positive or harsh a statement of uncertain or unimportant articles; and the epithet _dogmatic_ is given to one who is rude or obtrusive, or overbearing in the statement of what he judges to be true.

DOMINICAL or SUNDAY LETTER. In the calendar, the first seven letters of the alphabet are applied to the days of the week, the letter A being always given to the 1st of January, whatsoever that day may be, and the others in succession to the following days. If the year consisted of 364 days, making an exact number of weeks, it is evident that no change would ever take place in these letters: thus, supposing the 1st of January in any given year to be Sunday, all the Sundays would be represented by A, not only in that year, but in all succeeding. There being, however, 365 days in the year, the first letter is again repeated on the 31st of December, and consequently the Sunday letter for the following year will be G. This retrocession of the letters will, from the same cause, continue every year, so as to make F the dominical letter of the third, &c. If every year were common, the process would continue regularly, and a cycle of seven years would suffice to restore the same letters to the same days as before. But the intercalation of a day, every bissextile or fourth year, has occasioned a variation in this respect. The bissextile year, containing 366 instead of 365 days, will throw the dominical letter of the following year back two letters, so that if the dominical letter at the beginning of the year be C, the dominical letter of the next year will be, not B, but A. This alteration is not effected by dropping a letter altogether, but by changing the dominical letter at the end of February, where the intercalation of a day takes place. In consequence of this change every fourth year, twenty-eight years must elapse before a complete revolution can take place in the dominical letter, and it is on this circumstance that the period of the solar cycle is founded.

DOMINICAN MONKS. The religious order of Dominic, or _friars preachers_; called in England _Black friars_, and in France _Jacobins_.

Dominic de Guzman was born in the year 1170, at Calaruega, a small town of the diocese of Osma, in Old Castile. According to the Romish legend, his mother, being with child of him, dreamed she was delivered of a little dog, which gave light to all the world, with a flambeau in his mouth. At six years of age he began to study humanity under the direction of his uncle, who was archpriest of the church of Gumyel de Ystan. The time he had to spare from his studies was spent in assisting at divine offices, singing in the churches, and adorning the altars. At thirteen years of age, he was sent to the university of Palencia, in the kingdom of Leon, where he spent six years in the study of philosophy and divinity. From that time he devoted himself to all manner of religious austerities, and he employed his time, successfully, in the conversion of sinners and heretics. This raised his reputation so high, that the bishop of Osma, resolving to reform the canons of his church, cast his eyes upon Dominic for that purpose, whom he invited to take upon him the habit of a canon in the church of Osma. Accordingly, Dominic astonished and edified the canons of Osma by his extraordinary humility, mortification, and other virtues. Some time after, Dominic was ordained priest by the bishop of Osma, and was made sub-prior of the chapter. That prelate, making a scruple of confining so great a treasure to his own church, sent Dominic out to exercise the ministry of an evangelical preacher; accordingly, he went through several provinces, as Galicia, Castile, and Aragon, converting many, till, in the year 1204, the bishop of Osma, being sent ambassador into France, took Dominic with him. In their passage through Languedoc, they were witnesses of the desolation occasioned by the _Albigenses_, and obtained leave of Pope Innocent III. to stay some time in that country, and labour on the conversion of those heretics. Here it was that Dominic resolved to put in execution the design he had long formed, of instituting a religious order, whose principal employment should be, preaching the gospel, converting heretics, defending the faith, and propagating Christianity. By degrees he collected together several persons, inspired with the same zeal, whose number soon increased to sixteen. Pope Innocent III. confirmed this institution, at the request of Dominic, who went to Rome for that purpose. They then agreed to embrace the rule of St. Augustine, to which they added statutes and constitutions which had formerly been observed either by the _Carthusians_, or the _Premonstratenses_. The principal articles enjoined perpetual silence, abstinence from flesh at all times, wearing of woollen, rigorous poverty, and several other austerities.

The first monastery of this order was established at Toulouse, by the bounty of the bishop of Toulouse, and Simon earl of Montfort. From thence Dominic sent out some of the community to several parts, to labour in preaching, which was the main design of his institute. In the year 1218 he founded the convent of Dominicans at Paris, in the _Rue St. Jaques_, from whence they had the name of _Jacobins_. At Metz, in Germany, he founded another monastery of his order; and another, soon after, at Venice. At Rome, he obtained of Pope Honorius III. the church of St. Sabina, where he and his companions took the habit which they pretended the Blessed Virgin showed to the holy Renaud of Orleans, being a white garment and scapular, to which they added a black mantle and hood ending in a point. In 1221, the order had sixty monasteries, being divided into eight provinces, those of Spain, Toulouse, France, Lombardy, Rome, Provence, Germany, and England. St. Dominic, having thus settled and enlarged his order, died at Bologna, August 4th, 1221, and was canonized by Pope Gregory IX., July 13th, 1234.

The order of the Dominicans, after the death of their founder, made a very considerable progress in Europe and elsewhere. They therefore erected four new provinces, namely, those of Greece, Poland, Denmark, and the Holy Land. Afterwards the number of monasteries increased to such a degree, that the order was divided into forty-five provinces, having spread itself into all parts of the world. It has produced a great number of martyrs, confessors, bishops, and holy virgins: there are reckoned of this order 3 popes, 60 cardinals, 150 archbishops, 800 bishops, besides the masters of the sacred palace, who have always been Dominicans.

There are _nuns_ of this order, who owe their foundation to St. Dominic himself, who, whilst he was labouring on the conversion of the _Albigenses_, was so much concerned to see that some gentlemen of Guienne, not having wherewith to maintain their daughters, either sold or gave them to be brought up by heretics, that, with the assistance of the archbishop of Narbonne, and other charitable persons, he laid the foundation of a monastery at Prouille, where those poor maids might be brought up, and supplied with all necessaries for their subsistence. The habit of these religious was a white robe, a tawny mantle, and a black veil. Their founder obliged them to work at certain hours of the day, and particularly to spin yarn and flax. The nuns of this order had above 130 houses in Italy, 45 in France, 50 in Spain, 15 in Portugal, 40 in Germany, and many in Poland, Russia, and other countries. They never eat flesh, excepting in sickness; they wear no linen, and lie on straw beds; but many monasteries have mitigated this austerity.

In the year 1221, Dominic sent Gilbert du Fresney, with twelve brothers, into England, where they founded their first house at Oxford the same year, and soon after another at London. In the year 1276, the mayor and aldermen of the city of London gave them two streets by the river Thames, where they had a very commodious monastery; whence that place is still called _Black Friars_. They had monasteries likewise at Warwick, Canterbury, Stamford, Chelmsford, Dunwich, Ipswich, Norwich, Thetford, Exeter, Brecknock, Langley, and Guildford.

The Dominicans, being fortified with an authority from the court of Rome to preach and take confessions, made great encroachments upon the English bishops and the parochial clergy, insisting upon a liberty of preaching wherever they thought fit. And many persons of quality, especially women, deserted from the parochial clergy, and confessed to the Dominicans, insomuch that the character of the secular clergy was greatly sunk thereby. This innovation made way for a dissoluteness of manners; for the people, being under no necessity of confessing to their parish priest, broke through their duty with less reluctancy, in hopes of meeting with a Dominican confessor, those friars being generally in a travelling motion, making no stay where they came, and strangers to their penitents.—_Brouqhton._

DONATISTS. Schismatics, originally partisans of Donatus, an African by birth, and bishop of _Casæ Nigræ_, in Numidia. A secret hatred against Cecilian, elected bishop of Carthage, notwithstanding the opposition of Donatus, excited the latter to form one of the most pernicious schisms that ever disturbed the peace of the Church. He accused Cecilian of having delivered up the sacred books to the Pagans, and pretended that his election was thereby void, and all those who adhered to him heretics. Under this false pretext of zeal for the Church, he set up for the head of a party, and about the year 312, taught that baptism, administered by heretics, was null; that the Church was not infallible; that it had erred in his time; and that he was to be the restorer of it. But a council, held at Arles in 314, acquitted Cecilian, and declared his election valid.