The Church Handy Dictionary Part 8

DALMATIC, _see_ Vestments.

d.a.m.nATORY CLAUSES, _see_ Creed.

DEACON, _see_ Orders.

DEAD, _see_ Burial Service.

DEADLY SIN, _see_ Sin.

DEAN. An ecclesiastic next in degree to a Bishop. He is the head of a corporate body called a Chapter, attached to a Cathedral, and has the direction of the Cathedral services. Deans of Peculiars have no Chapters. The _Dean_ of a College at Oxford or Cambridge is the officer appointed to maintain discipline.*

The _Dean_ of _Faculty_ presides over meetings of the particular faculty of which he is Dean. It is an office in most ancient, and some modern universities.

* _The Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, is the Head both of the Cathedral, and the College_.

DEAN, RURAL, _see_ Rural Dean.

DEAN AND CHAPTER. The governing body of a Cathedral.

DECALOGUE, _see_ Commandments.

DECORATION of CHURCHES. It is right and fitting that churches should be made as beautiful as possible for the wors.h.i.+p of Almighty G.o.d, for so G.o.d Himself directed the Tabernacle to be made. The custom of especially decorating them with evergreens, flowers, &c., at the chief festivals of the Church is a very ancient one.

DEGREES. A rank or grade conferred by a university on her members.

After three years' residence at Oxford or Cambridge, and after the pa.s.sing of certain examinations, a degree is conferred on the student in accordance with the subjects in which he has pa.s.sed. If, as is the general rule, he has studied and pa.s.sed in Arts,--Cla.s.sics, Mathematics, and the like--the student is made a B.A., or Bachelor in Arts, and in about three years--not necessarily of residence--he is able to proceed to the higher degree of M. A., or Master in Arts, without further examination. Other degrees are in the faculties of Divinity, Laws, Medicine, and Music; for the last it is not necessary to reside. The highest degree conferred by a university in any faculty is that of Doctor. A Bachelor of Oxford wears a small black hood _trimmed_ with white fur; a Bachelor of Cambridge has a larger hood _lined_ with white fur. An Oxford Master wears a hood of black silk lined with _red_ silk, but the Cambridge Master's hood is of black silk lined with _white_ silk. The difference in shape can easily be seen by comparison. A Dublin Master's hood is lined with _blue_ silk. Other universities have other colours; and many theological colleges, which have no power to confer degrees, have arrogated to themselves hoods with various linings, which bear a close resemblance to some of the hoods worn by graduates.

DEISTS. A _Deist_ acknowledges the existence of a G.o.d, but denies the existence and necessity of any revelation.

DENOMINATIONS. There appear to be about 180 Denominations having Places of Meeting for Religious Wors.h.i.+p in England and Wales. Among these there are--

8 "Armies," besides the Salvation Army.

9 Baptist Sects.

20 Methodist Sects.

DESK. The name usually given to the "reading-pew," mentioned in the rubric before the Commination Service, where morning and evening prayers are said or sung. In 1549 it was directed that the Service should be said "in the Quire" and "with a loud voice." This was done by the Priest near to, and facing, the Altar. In 1552 the Service was directed to be said from such a place as the people could best hear. This direction caused a great commotion, one party retaining their old position in the Chancel, the other performing all services in the body of the Church. In 1559 the rubric before the Order for Morning Prayer was brought into its present shape, and the "accustomed Place" would undoubtedly be the Chancel, but still the discretion left with the "Ordinary" sanctioned the use of the unsightly "reading-pew" or _desk_, which is occasionally found outside the Chancel and in the body of the Church.

DEUS MISEREATUR. Psalm lxvii., inserted in the Evening Service for occasional use instead of the Nunc Dimittis in 1552.

DIGNITARY. One who holds cathedral or other preferment to which jurisdiction is annexed. "One who holds an ecclesiastical rank above a priest or canon." (Chambers' Etymological Dictionary.)

DIMISSORY LETTERS. When a Candidate for Holy Orders is ordained by some Bishop other than the one in whose diocese he is going to work, it is because the ordaining Bishop has received leave, or _Letters Dimissory_, from the candidate's rightful Diocesan.

DIOCESE. The extent of a Bishop's rule. England at present is divided into 32 dioceses; 23 being in the Province of Canterbury, and 9 in the Province of York. It is to be very earnestly wished that these dioceses may be sub-divided, and the number of Bishops increased, that the Church may be more able to cope with the enormously increased population.

DISSENTERS. A _civil_, not a _religious_ term, and denotes those who have diverged from the civilly established religion of a country.

Episcopalians are Dissenters in Scotland, Christians are Dissenters in Turkey. In England all are Dissenters who do not belong to the Church of England, whether they are Protestants or Papists. For further particulars see under their various names.

DONATIVE. A form of conferring an ecclesiastical benefice on any clerk, by which he is exempt from presentation, induction, or inst.i.tution; the patron acting virtually as a Bishop. This is said to be the usual manner in which benefices were anciently conferred.

DOXOLOGY. An ascription of praise to G.o.d. The most familiar doxologies in use in our Church are the "Gloria Patri," the "Gloria in Excelsis," and the well-known verse, "Praise G.o.d from whom all blessings flow," &c. Many of our prayers, especially those of thanksgiving, conclude with a doxology.

EAST, TURNING TO THE. This is now generally done at the Creeds. It is a survival of a general custom of wors.h.i.+p towards the East--as the region of light, symbolical of the rising of the "Sun of Righteousness"--which is at least as old as the time of Tertullian, who lived in the second century.

EASTWARD POSITION. A term descriptive of the position used by a Priest who adopts the custom of celebrating Holy Communion facing the East, with his back to the people. There is a very great difficulty in ascertaining what the rubrics with relation to the Priest's position really mean, because the Altar itself occupied various positions at the time the rules were framed.

(1.) _Position of Altar_. "The Table. . . .shall stand in the Body of the Church, or in the Chancel," is the rubric of 1552. "The Holy Table shall be set in the place where the Altar stood. . . .saving when the Communion of the Sacrament is to be distributed, at which time the same shall be so placed in good sort (conveniently) within the Chancel," is the direction in the Injunctions of 1559.

By degrees, however, the custom of moving the Holy Table at the time of Communion, and placing it length-ways in the Church ceased, and it was allowed to remain at all times placed "Altar-wise" at the East End of the Church.

(2.) _Position of the Priest_. In the rubric of 1549 the direction was for him "to stand humbly afore the midst of the Altar," of course with his back to the people. In 1552 the present rubric, directing the "North-side," was introduced, but owing to the Altar's standing East and West then, the position of the Priest remained virtually the same as before. But when, through Laud's influence, the Holy Table was removed back to its original position, the question was whether the Priest was still to obey the letter of the rubric and stand at the "North-side," or rather what was now the "North end," or whether he too was to retain his old relative and original position. The matter has been further complicated by the insertion of the rubric before the Consecration Prayer in 1662, which seems to favour the Eastward position in directing the Priest to "stand before the Table," while, on the other hand, that very position renders it difficult to "break the Bread before the people," unless, as some maintain, the "before" does not mean "in the sight of," but "in front of."

EASTER. The great festival of the Church's Year, and kept in commemoration of our Saviour's glorious Resurrection. It has always been observed by the Church, but in early ages there were bitter disputes as to the season when it was to be kept. Some wished it to be observed on the actual anniversary, whether the day happened to be a Sunday or not. The matter was settled at the Council of Nice, when it was decided that Easter should be kept on the first Sunday following the full moon which falls on, or next after, March 21st.

The word _Easter_ is probably derived from the name of a Saxon G.o.ddess, whose festival was kept in the Spring of the year. The other name, Paschal, applied to this festival, is a Hebrew word meaning "pa.s.sage," and is applied to the Jewish feast of the Pa.s.sover, to which the Christian festival of Easter corresponds.

Easter used to be the great day for Baptism, for the restoring of Penitents, and, in the early ages, even for the freeing of prisoners.

Every confirmed member of the Church of England is expected to Communicate on Easter Day, in accordance with the direction at the end of the Communion Service.

EASTER ANTHEMS. Certain pa.s.sages, chosen from 1 Cor. v., Rom. vi., 1 Cor. xv., directed to be sung instead of the _Venite_ on Easter Day.

ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS. "In the year 1837 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were embodied. They are not, as many suppose, the dispensers of State funds to the Church. They are a corporation for the purpose of holding as trustees a large amount of Church revenues.

The sources from which the income in their hands arises are certain annual payments from several bishoprics, emoluments of suspended canonries, the property of suspended deaneries and sinecure rectories, capitular estates, and other Ecclesiastical sources."

(Webb's "England's Inheritance in her Church.")

"The Ecclesiastical Commission does with the lands of Bishops and Chapters what these could never do for themselves. It can afford to wait for the falling in of leases, whereas those old corporations were obliged to renew them, that they might live on the money paid for renewals; and when it has got the lands it lets them for their full value. By this means it is able to pay the old corporations out of half their lands as much as they used to get from the whole under their own system, and the other moiety is taken out of the hands of laymen (regard being had to equity) and devoted to other beneficial purposes for the Church. In this way the surplus revenues of capitular estates have been applied to the benefit of an immense number of parishes which had claims upon them." (Dixon's "Peek Essay.")

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS. The following are the princ.i.p.al: the Consistory Courts of the Bishops; the Arches Court of Canterbury; and the Supreme Court of Appeal, composed of members of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Under the Public Wors.h.i.+p Act the Dean of the Arches Court has been made Official Princ.i.p.al of both Provinces. A Royal Commission has recently issued a Report upon the Ecclesiastical Courts, and the question of their const.i.tution generally is under consideration.

ELECTION. A choosing, hence the "chosen people" of G.o.d. There are three views taken of election,--the Calvinistic, the Arminian, and the Catholic. The Calvinistic view is that certain persons are from all eternity chosen or elected by G.o.d to salvation, the rest of mankind being condemned to eternal death (See _Predestination_, _Calvinism_, _Antinomianism_.)

The Arminian view is that G.o.d, knowing what the life of every man born into the world shall be, and foreseeing that some "will refuse the evil and choose the good," hath elected them to eternal life.

(See _Arminianism_.)

The Catholic view is that G.o.d of his mercy elects certain of His creatures for a place in the visible Church, and thus causes them to be placed in "a state of salvation," of which, however, they may fall short by their own perverseness.

The Church of England, as a branch of the great Church Catholic, is believed to teach this latter view, as will be seen by a study of her Liturgy.

ELEMENTS. The Bread and Wine used in Holy Communion (See _Communion, Holy_). In Holy Baptism, Water, wherein the person is baptized, is the _Element_.

ELEVATION. In Articles xxv. and xxviii. reference is made to a ceremony of the Church of Rome, called the Elevation of the Host, which consists in the consecrated wafer being held up, or elevated, for the adoration of the people. Bp. Harold Browne says, "Elevating the Host resulted from a belief in transubstantiation. . . .There is evidently no Scriptural Authority for the Elevation of the Host, the command being, 'Take, eat.' The Roman ritualists themselves admit that there is no trace of its existence before the 11th or 12th centuries." (See _Note on Art_. xxviii.)

EMBER DAYS. In early times special fasts were appointed at the four seasons of the year, and of later years they have been made to have a special reference to the ordination of clergy which immediately follows them. The derivation of the name is uncertain. The days thus set apart, and now used for supplicating G.o.d's blessing on those about to be ordained, are the Wednesday, Friday, and Sat.u.r.day after the 1st Sunday in Lent, after Whit Sunday, after the 14th of September, and after the 13th of December. Special Collects are appointed for use on these days.

EMMANUEL, or IMMANUEL. A Hebrew word, used as a name of our Lord, and meaning, "G.o.d with us," Isaiah vii.14; Matt. i.23.

ENDOWMENT. The permanent provision for the support of the ministry.

The annual sum derived from the endowments of the Established Church amounts to rather more than _four millions sterling_. Of this sum--t.i.thes and Rents voluntarily given to the Church of England by charitable persons before the Reformation bring in about L1,950,000; t.i.thes, Rents, and Interest on Money voluntarily given to the Church of England since the Reformation bring in about L2,250,000. Thus the total of the yearly value of endowments is about L4,200,000. Of this the State receives as taxes about L200,000, which leaves a net yearly value of endowments of about; L3,500,000, which is paid to the clergy, of whom there are about 20,000. It is thus divided: 2 Archbishops, 28 Bishops, 73 Archdeacons, receive about L173,000; 30 Deans, 132 Canons, 128 Minor Canons, 600 Singers, Lay Officers and Servants, receive about L203,000; 19,600 other Clergy, Rectors, Vicars, and Curates receive about L3,124,000. The average, therefore, is just L3, 10s. a week for each clergyman.

To supplement its endowments, which were voluntarily given by private persons, the Church receives, by free gifts from her own members, about five millions and a half sterling every year. This money is _all_ spent on Schools, Church Inst.i.tutions, Charities, Relief of the Poor, Foreign Missions, Expenses attendant upon the regular performance of Divine Wors.h.i.+p, and Building and Restoring Churches (See _Establishment_.)