enemies, and the confession, possibly, of some poor apostate, extorted by the rack. Beausobre is, therefore, as incredulous in this instance, as Lardner in the other; and it is not impossible that there may be as little foundation in either case for the criminal part of the charge, as there was for the stories of worshipping in secret, or putting out the lights, which were reported with so much confidence of the primitive Christians and the modern Methodists. [Lardner's Heretics, pp. 167-9. Beausobre's Dissertation sur les Adamites a Bohemia. Mosheim's E. H. vol. iii. pp. 462-464.]

ADESSENARIANS, [from Adesse, to be present,] a term applied, at the Reformation, to the disciples of Luther, who believed the literal presence of Christ's body in the elements of the eucharist, though they rejected transubstantiation. These were called impunitores-others chose to say with or about the bread: distinctions, like many others, without a difference. See Lutherans. [Robinson's D. ADIAPHORISTS, [moderate,] those Lutherans who followed Melancthon, and subscribed the interim. See Lutherans.

ADONISTS, a party of Hebrew critics, who contend that the Hebrew points now affixed to the sacred name JEHOVAH, belonged to Adonai, and were intended to intimate that Adonai was to be read instead of JEHOVAH in all such places.[Robinson's Dict.]

ADOPTIONISTS, the followers of Felix and Elipandas, two bishops, who, towards the close of the 8th century, are said to have maintained that Jesus Christ, in his human nature, was not the natural, but adopted Son of God. This notion, which seems to contradict Luke i. 35, and to lean to Unitarianism, was immediately condemned as heresy.[Bell's Wanderings, p. 102.]

EONS, [aiones, ages,] immortal beings or virtues. See Basilidians.

ÆRIANS, The, arose about the middle of the 4th century, being the followers of Erius, [who must be distinguished from Arius and Etius,] a monk and a presbyter of Sebastia, in Pontus. He is charged with being an Arian, or SemiArian; but the heaviest accusation against him, is an attempt to reform the church; and, by rejecting prayers for the dead, with certain fasts and festivals then superstitiously observed, to reduce Christianity as nearly as possible "to its primitive simplicity; a purpose indeed laudable and

noble, (says Dr. Mosheim,) when considered in itself: though the principles from whence it springs, and the means by which it is executed, are generally, in many respects, worthy of censure, and may have been so in the case of this reformer." This gentle rebuke probably refers to a report, that the zeal of this good man originated in his disappointment of the bishopric of Sebastia, (conferred on Eustathius,) which led him to the discovery, that the Scriptures make no distinction between a presbyter and a bishop, which he founded chiefly on 1 Tim. iv. 14. (See Episcopalians.) Hence he is considered, however, by many, as the father of the modern Presbyterians."For this opinion, chiefly, (says Dr. Turner,) he is ranked among the heretics by Epiphanius, his contemporary, who calls it a notion full of folly and madness. They were driven out from all churches, and out of all the towns and villages, and were obliged to assemble in the woods, caverns, and open fields."-[Mosheim's E. H. vol. i. pp. 387-8. Turner's Hist. p. 174.]

ETIANS, another branch (as it is said) of Arians; so called from Etius, bishop of Antioch, who is also charged with maintaining "faith without works," as "sufficient to salvation," or rather justification; and with maintaining, "that sin is not imputed to believers:"-sentiments so perfectly accordant with the Scriptures and the doctrines of reformers, particularly Luther, that we are scarcely willing to leave him on the list of heretics. It is added, he taught that God had revealed to him things which he had "concealed from the apostles;" which, perhaps, is only a misrepresentation of what he taught on the doctrine of divine influences.[Broughton's Dict.]

AFGHANS, The, are not a religious sect, but a people of Asia, inhabiting the province of Cabul (or Cabulistan); and owe their introduction into this work to the opinion of Sir William Jones, who considers them as a remnant of the ten tribes, carried off in the captivity. They state themselves to be descended from Saul, the first king of Israel, who was raised to that rank merely because his statue corresponded with a rod given by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Samuela fable, probably, of Mahomet, or the old Rabbins.

Sir William Jones strongly recommended an enquiry into the history and literature of this people. "We learn

(said he) from Esdras, that the ten tribes, after a wandering journey, came to a country called Arsareth, where we may suppose they settled. Now the best Persian historians affirm, that the Afghans are descended from the Jews; and they have among themselves traditions of the same import. It is even asserted, that their families are distinguished by the name of Jewish tribes; though, since their conversion to Islamism, they have studiously concealed their origin. The language they use has a manifest resemblance to the Chaldaic; and a considerable district under their dominion is called Ilazareth, which might easily have been changed from Arsareth."-[Asiatic Re searches, vol. ii. p. 76. Works of Sir W. Jones, vol. i. 336.]

AGAPE, Love-feasts, or "Feasts of charity," alluded to by St. Jude, ver. 12, of his epistle, were practised among the Christians of the first four centuries. Originally, according to Dr. Benson, they were frugal meals, provided by the richer Christians to entertain "the poor, the fatherless, the widows, and strangers." They were generally held immediately before or after the Lord's supper, and were very early subject to abuse, as we find, not only by St. Jude, but St. Paul, who is thought to allude to them, 1 Cor. xi. 21. Pliny also names them in his famous Letters to Trajan, but without censure. Some practice of the kind seems to have obtained previously in the Jewish church. See Deut. xxvi. 10-13. Neh. viii. 12, &c. The Jewish Agape were held in the temple, and the Christian in the church: the latter (and probably the former) were always closed by the kiss of charity, which also was abused, and, with the feasts themselves, proscribed in the latter part of the 4th century.-[Calmet's Dict. Macknight's Comm. in loc. Cave's Primitive Christianity, Part I. chap. 2.]

The Love-feasts of the Moravians and Methodists are of a very different nature, consisting only of buns, which are broken between them, and accompanied with pure water; or, among the United Brethren, with a cup of tea. This is always accompanied with prayer, singing, and exhortation to the members of the society; but serious Christians, of any denomination, are admitted; and we never knew them to degenerate to licentiousness, tho' sometimes, perhaps, to childishness. See Methodists.

AGAPETÆ, single females, who, in the primitive church, waited on the mi

nisters; and differed in nothing, perhaps, from Deaconesses, which see. Probably they received their name from the part they took in preparing the Agape. Mr. Bell speaks of a sect of Gnostics under this name, but it is probable they were only some impure females which crept in among them.-[Ency. Brit. Bell's War derings, p. 105.]

an

AĞARENIANS, a name applied by Stockman and others to some persons, who, in the 7th century, apostatized from Christianity to Mahometanism, the religion of the Arabians, who are descended from Ismael, the son of Agar-[Bell's Wanderings, p. 105.]

AGNOITES, or AGNOETE, [not knowing], a term applied, 1. to the followers of Theophronius the Cappadocian, in the 4th century, who maintained, (as do some modern Armenians,) that the foreknowledge of God is not absolute and certain, but depends, in some measure, on the free-will of rational creatures.-2. To the disciples of Themisticus, in the 6th century, who maintained, (on the authority of Mark xiii. 32) that the human nature of Christ did not know all things; but then, as some of these were Monophysites, and believed but one nature in the Son of God, they were charged with attributing ignorance to his divine nature also.[Broughton's Diction. Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 149.]

AGNUS DEI, [the Lamb of God,] a name impiously applied to certain consecrated cakes of white wax, enstamped with the figure of a lamb bearing a flag, which are borne in the processions of the church of Rome, or worn about the neck as amulets, and supposed to possess great virtues: they are at least very profitable to the clergy, and form a considerable source of income. This custom appears to have been borrowed from the heathen in the 7th or 8th century, and distinguished the numerous converts made by the sign of the cross in baptism.[Claude's Defence of the Reformation. Robinsons's Dict.]

AGONISTICI, [combatants,] a name given to certain Donatist preachers, who used to attend the public markets, fairs, &c. to promulgate their principles; or rather, probably, the general principles of pure Christianity. (See Donatists.) They were a kind of itinerant Polemics, or Missionaries; and are sometimes called Circuitores, Circelliones, &c.; and, at Rome, Montenses, probably from their preaching on the hills in the open air.→ [Ency. Brit.]

AGONYCLITÆ, [from a priv. gonu, the knee, and klino, to bend; i.e. persons who refused to bend the knee,] certain Christians of the 7th century, who preferred the posture of standing in prayer, like dissenters in this country; either from conveniency, or because they thought it a posture less liable to degenerate into sloth and indulgence. Certain it is, in the present day, a great part of those who profess to kneel, do, in fact, sit down; there being room to kneel in few of our worshipping assemblies. [Broughton's Dict. Ency. Brit.]

AGYNIANS, AGYNIANI, &c. [enemies to marriage,] a term applied more particularly to certain Ascetics of the 7th century, who renounced the use of marriage and of animal food, which they are said to have attributed to the devil.[Ency. Brit.]

ALBANIANS, ALBANIENSES, or ALBANOIS, Some probable remains of the antient Manichæans, which were found in Albania, in the 8th century. See Manichæans.

ALBATI, hermits of the end of the 14th century, who wore long white garments; whence their name.e.-[Broughton.] ALASCANI,. the followers of John Alasco, a Polish Catholic bishop, uncle to the king of Poland; but who, embracing the principles of the Reformation, came to England in the reign of Edward VI. and was numbered among our reformers, and was much esteemed by them, though he differed from them (it is said) in applying the words, "This is my body," to both the elements. He was superintendant of the first Dutch church in Austin Friars, with four assistant ministers. He died in 1560, and his peculiar opinions probably died with him.-[Ency. Perth. Robinson's Dict.]

ALBIGENSES, The, were in fact the same sect (if sect they must be called) as the Waldenses; but the former term refers to such as resided in the city of Albi, or the district of Albigeois, in the south of France, where they were found in great numbers from an early period; and were, probably, as Mr. Toplady and others have supposed, the uncorrupted descendants of the first Christians. The council of Tours, A. D. 1163, pronounced their creed to be "a damnable heresy long since sprung up in the territory of Toulouse." This stirred up against them a diabolical crusade, and "these sectaries (says Mr. Hume), though the most innocent and inoffensive of mankind, were

exterminated with all the circumstances of extreme violence and barbarity." [Hist. of Eng. vol. ii. chap. 11.] But as this people cannot be separated from the Waldenses, either in their history or their creed, we shall defer a fuller account of both to that article.

ALEXANDRIAN SCHOOL.. No sooner had Alexander built a city, and called it after his own name, than he endeavoured to make it the seat of philosophy and the arts; and here were collected the most considerable professors from Greece, Egypt, and the East; and the mixture of the different systems introduced a confusion of opinions, which not only affected materially the state of the heathen world, but even of the Christian, and produced most of the heresies which disfigured and tormented the church in its first ages, particularly those of the Gnostics and Manichæans.

But the chief manufacturer of these absurdities was Ammonius Saccas, the founder of the new Platonics in the 2d century, whose followers were sometimes called Ammonians. "To this philosophy (says Dr. Mosheim) we may trace, as to their source, a multitude of vain and foolish ceremonies, proper only to cast a veil over truth, and to nourish superstition; and which are, for the most part, religiously observed by many, even in the times in which we live. It would be endless to enumerate all the pernicious consequences that may be justly attributed to this new philosophy; or rather, to this monstrous attempt to reconcile falsehood with truth, and light with darkness. Some of its most fatal effects were--its alienating the minds of many, in the following ages, from the Christian religion; and its substituting, in the place of the pure and sublime simplicity of the gospel, an unseemly mixture of Platonism and Christianity."-[Mosheim, vol. i. p. 169–176.]

ALEXIANS, in the 13th and 14th centuries, brothers and sisters of St. Alexius, commonly called Cellites, which see.

ALI, sect of. Ali, being the son-in-law of Mahomet, claimed to be his successor, and is acknowledged as such by the Persians, &c. They receive the Koran, but reject their traditions. See Mahommetans.

ALL DENOMINATIONS. May 28, 1821, the society of Freemasons of the United States, with the grand master at their head, founded a new church at Cherokee Hill, eight miles from Savannah, Georgia, for all denominations, "expressive

of the universal love of the great Architect to all his creatures." See Gospel Advocate (Boston) for June, 1821.

ALLENITES, the disciples of Henry Allen, of Nova Scotia, who began to propagate his doctrines in that country about the year 1778, and died in 1783, during which interval he made many proselytes, and at his death left a considerable party behind him, though now much declined. He published several treatises and sermons, in which he declares, that the souls of all the human race are emanations, or rather parts of the one great Spirit; that they were all present in Eden, and were actually in the first transgression. He supposes that our first parents in innocency were pure spirits, and that the material world was not then made; but that in consequence of the fall, that mankind might not sink into utter destruction, this world was produced, and men clothed with material bodies; and that all the human race will, in their turn, be invested with such bodies, and in them enjoy a state of probation for immortal happiness.-H. Adams's Dict. from a MS. communicated by a clergyman of Nova Scotia, 1783.]

ALMARICIANS, the followers of Almaric, (or Amauri,) professor of logic and theology at Paris, in the 13th century. He opposed the worship of saints and images: and his enemies charged him with maintaining, that as the reign of the Father continued during the Old Testament dispensation, and that of the Son from the Christian era, so in his time the reign of the Holy Spirit commenced, in which the sacraments and all external worship were to be abolished. Dr. Mosheim, however, and many other learned men, consider Almaric as a Pantheist, maintaining that the universe was God

that

"All are but parts of one stupendous whole,"

and must all return to the source from whence they were derived.—[Mosheim's E. H. vol. iii. p. 287. Fleury's Ecc. Hist. lib. 76. §. 59.]

ALOGIANS, [from a neg. and logos,] persons who, according to Ephiphanius, rejected the Gospel of John and the Revelation, which speak of Christ as the Logos, and ascribed them to Cerinthus. Dr. Lardner, however, is confident, that (though there might be individuals) there never was a sect which received the other books of the New Testament, and rejected these; nor are they mentioned by

any writers pretending to be contemporary. He thinks this heresy was invented during the Millenarian controversy. Some Millenarians ascribed the Apocalypse to Cerinthus. Some of the orthodox said, they might as well ascribe the gospel to Cerinthus-others said they did so; and thus was hatched the mendacium theologicum-the theological falsehood. Others, however, tell us, that the sect was founded by Artemon, in the 2d century, and supported by Beryllus.-[Lardner's Heretics, 446. Turner's Hist. p. 73.]

AMEDEI, or AMEDIANS, (lovers of God, or beloved of God,) a congregation of religious in Italy, instituted A. D. 1400. They wore a grey habit, wooden shoes, and a girdle of cord, and had at one time twenty-eight convents.-[Ency. Brit.]

AMERICAN SECT, a congregation of Welch emigrants in Pennsylvania: as, however, they desire never to be called by any other name than The Christian Church, we carry this article forward to that denomination, and with the more propriety, as we believe there are other sects peculiar to America.

AMMONIANS, the disciples of Ammonius Saccas, of the Alexandrian school, (which see.) His character was so equivocal, that it is disputed whether he was a heathen or a Christian. Mr. Milner calls him "a Pagan Christian," who imagined "that all religions, vulgar and philosophical, Grecian and barbarous, Jewish and gentile, meant the same thing at bottom. He undertook, by allegorizing and subtilizing various fables and systems, to make up a coalition of all sects and religions; and from his labours, continued by his disciples-some of whose works still remain-his followers were taught to look on Jew, Philosopher, vulgar Pagan, and Christian, all of the same creed," and worshippers of the same God, whether denominated "Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."

With regard to moral discipline, Ammonius "permitted the people to live according to the law of their country, and the dictates of nature: but a more sublime rule was laid down for the wise. They were to raise above all terrestrial things, by the towering efforts of holy contemplation, those souls whose origin was celestial and divine. They were ordered to extenuate by hunger, thirst, and other mortifications, the sluggish body, which restrains the liberty of the immortal spirit, that thus in this life they might enjoy communion with the Supreme Being, and ascend after death, active and unincumbered,

to the universal Parent, to live in his presence for ever."-[Milner's Ch. Hist. vol. i. p. 262. Mosheim's E. H. vol. i. Pp. 173-4.7

AMSDORFIANS, the followers of Nicolas Amsdorf, a Lutheran divine, of the 16th century. "At the commencement of the Reformation he attached himself to Luther, whom he accompanied to the Diet of Worms, and was with that Reformer when he was seized by order of the elector of Saxony, and conducted to Magdeburg. He wrote on several theological subjects; but some have injuriously represented him as an Antinomian, merely because he zealously contended for the doctrine of justification by faith alone." It has been said, that he considered good works, not only as unprofitable, but as "obstacles to salvation ;" and so he well might, when their merit is so confided in, as to prevent persons from coming to Christ for salvation, which is probably all he meant. He was zealously opposed by Geo. Major, who, however, at length finding it was rather a dispute of words than doctrines, very prudently gave up the contest.[Melchior Adam.· Mosheim's E. H. vol. iv. pp. 328-9.]

AMYRALDISTS, the followers of Moses Amyrault, (or Amyraldus,) who (like good Mr. Baxter and others) endeavoured to find a medium between Calvin ism and Arminianism, which engaged him in controversy with the celebrated Peter du Moulin. He believed that "God desires the happiness of all men," and excludes none 66 by any divine decree :"That faith is necessary that God refuses to none "the power of believing," though he does not grant to all "his assistance" to believe. This, Mosheim and his translator both consider as Arminianism dressed up in a veil of ambiguous expressions. [Mosheim's E. H. vol. v. p. 375.]

ANABAPTISTS, [Re-baptizers] a turbulent and enthusiastic sect, which arose in the time of Luther's Reformation, but received their denomination from the most innocent of their peculiarities-that of re-baptizing, by immersion, those who had been baptized in infancy, and also those received from other communions. Muncer, Stork, and others, connected with this other principles, calculated to disturb the peace of all legitimate governments, and practices arising from the grossest fanaticism. They pretended to an extent of divine influence, which superseded the civil magistracy, and raised them above human control. In 1532, Matthias and

Buccold (a baker and a tailor) fixed themselves at Munster, in Westphalia, and by pretensions to inspiration and extraordinary sanctity, gained possession of the city, deposed the magistrates, confiscated the estates of some, and seized the personal property of others, and threw the whole into the common treasury; changed the name of the city to Mount Sion, and proclaimed the second coming of the Messiah, to establish a fifth and universal monarchy, which, in the mean time, they were to prepare for him. Matthias was soon cut off; but Buccold had the address to get himself proclaimed king in Sionassumed the honours of royalty, and more than the usual licentiousness of a king, (at least in Europe); taking no less than fourteen wives, and committing many other excesses, which roused the princes of the empire, and he was besieged by an army, and suffered the rigours both of war and famine. At length the city was taken by surprise; many were killed, and the rest taken prisoners. Buccold was loaded with chains, and after being carried from city to city as a public spectacle, was taken back to Munster, where he suffered a cruel and lingering death, which he bore in a manner worthy of a better cause; and after having reigned about fifteen months, and thrown all Germany into alarm, died at the early age of twenty-six.

The Anabaptists, retaining only the peculiar sentiment from which they received their name, subsided into quiet and peaceful subjects; and were so thoroughly cured of the mania of religious rebellion, that they now hold war itself unlawful, and refuse to serve civil offices. See Mennonites. It may be proper to remark, that the Baptists in England and other parts never took any share in these extravagancies. See Baptists.-[Robertson's Charles V. vol. iii. p. 65, &c.-Ency. Brit.]

ANCHORETS, or ANCHORITES, certain religious hermits, or ascetics, who retired from social life to live in caves or deserts, and generally to practise the most severe austerities. John the Baptist has been placed at the head of these, but improperly, as he had a peculiar calling, and, notwithstanding his retired situation, led a very active life. Ammonius Saccas, above named, (See Ammonians,) is said to have laid the foundation of the monastic life, by preaching mortification of the passions, as the only cure for sin. Paul the Hermit is, however, generally considered as the father of Christian ascetics.

He