nations were reclaimed to the christian faith, the established rule was not altered-for this additional reason,-that the use of the same tongue in the public service might help to unite them more closely to the old church, and tend in some degree by this approximation, to soften and civilize their manners.

The general accord among all nations professing the catholic faith-not to admit any change in the language of their liturgies, though in many other points of discipline they were much divided, is a curious and important fact. And it must have rested on some general motives equally obvious to all. Doubtless they saw-what daily experience confirmed-that modern languages were liable to change, while those that were no longer spoken,—from this very circumstance, and because, from the valuable works written in them, they were cultivated by the learned -were become permanently stable. They saw that the majesty and decorum of religious worship would be best maintained, when no vulgar phraseology debased its expression; that the use of the same language which a Chrysostom spoke at Constantinople, and a Jerom at Rome, would unite in a suitable recollection modern with ancient times; and that the mere fact of the identity of language would be a convincing proof of the antiquity of the catholic faith: and although it may be objected, that the people do not understand the words of the liturgy-the supposed inconvenience which equally prevailed in the Jewish worship without a censure from our Divine Redeemer, is done away; since all instruction in sermons and catechism, is delivered to them in their own tongue; every part of the service is diligently explained, and not a single shade of darkness is permitted to remain.

It is certainly most gratifying, and highly profitable when a catholic travels into distant countries, every where to find a service performed,-to the language and the ceremonies of which his ears and eyes have always been habituated. He can join in the offering without embarrassment; and though removed, perhaps, a thousand miles from home, the moment he enters a church, in the principal offices of religion he ceases to be a stranger. The council of Trent, the more effectually to prevent this ancient usage from proving an occasion of ignorance in the people, orders all pastors and such as have the cure of souls, frequently, and especially on Sundays and holidays, to expound some portion of what is read, and some mystery of the holy sacrifice, (Sess. xxii. c. viii.) Moreover the whole of the church service is translated into the language of each country, and together with a variety of prayers for all occasions and all states of life, put into the hands of the people. If with all this caution ignorance should still be found-as it will be found in many-every ingenuous mind will ascribe it to the usual causes of ignorance to neglect and inattention, and not to any want of

knowledge of the Greek or Latin tongues. This ought abundantly to suffice to reconcile the candid reader to the catholic practice in this instance: the bigoted, prejudiced, and the insincere will still find cause to cavil.

CATHARI-See the article MANICHEES.

CERDONIANS-Sectaries who followed the opinions of Cerdo the Syrian. Cerdo adopted the errors of Simon Magus, travelled to Rome in the days of Pope Hyginus, and there disseminated his errors, sometimes privately, at other times in public and without reserve. When reproved for his temerity, he affected to be penitent, and pretended a desire to return to the communion of the church. His repeated relapses manifested his hypocrisy, and eventually procured his absolute exclusion.

Like the greater part of the heretics of the second age, Cerdo maintained, that the universe was not the production of a God all-powerful and wise; and to him the law of Moses appeared imperfect, too severe to originate with a Being infinitely good. To do away the imaginary inconvenience, he admitted two principles as the efficient causes of all things; the one good, the other evil. The latter he supposed author of this visible world, and of the law of Moses. The former, which he called the unknown principle, was according to him, the father of Jesus Christ. But the humanity, the nativity, the sufferings and death of the Son of God, he said, were all in appearance only, not real. He believed the resurrection of the souls of men, but not their bodies consequently, he held that the soul died together with the body. All the books of the Old Testament he rejected, and with regard to the New, he thought proper to admit a part only-of the gospel of St Luke, retrenching all the Marcion and his disciples held the same erroneous tenets. (See MARCIONITES.)

rest.

CERINTHIANS-Were the disciples of Cerinthus, who after a course of philosophy at Alexandria, towards the close of the first century, propagated his heterodox opinions principally in Asia minor. The apostle St John undertook the writing of his gospel in order to refute him, with other false teachers of that early period. Conformably to the ideas of Plato, Cerinthus imagined, that God was not himself the immediate author of this vi sible world; but that he had created spirits or intelligences-one more or less perfect than another; that one of them had framed the universe, and that they all had a part in its government and administration. Like Basilides he pretended, that the God of the Jews was one of these intelligences, the author of their law, and of the various events which had attended them. Their

religious code he wished partially to preserve, and blended it in many points with christianity.

Jesus Christ, he said, was born like other men-of Josephi and Mary, although gifted with a wisdom and perfection more than human: that at the moment of his baptism, the Son of God or Christ had come down upon him in the form of a dove; had revealed to him God the Father, till then unknown to man, whom he was destined to instruct; and had imparted to him the power of working miracles: that at the hour of his passion, Christ had taken his departure to his heavenly Father; and that Jesus alone had suffered; had expired upon the cross; had risen from the dead: but that the Christ, who was a pure spirit, was altogether incapable of suffering. Such were too, the errors of Carpocrates; but the disciples of Cerinthus improved upon their master's reveries.

The Cerinthians seem not to have long subsisted as a distinct sect, nor to have survived even to the times of the famous Origen. Probably they had been confounded and identified with some other sect of the second age.

CHALDEANS or NESTORIANS of SYRIA. See the article NES

TORIUS.

CHILIASTS. See MILLENARIANS.

CIRCUMCELLIONS- -a branch of Donatists in Africa-of the fourth age. See the article DONATISTS.-This name was given also to certain enthusiasts who appeared in Germany about the middle of the thirteenth century. In the heat of the famous contests between the emperor Frederic and the popes, under the specious pretext of defending the cause of their sovereign, they complimented the Roman pontiffs with the title of heretics, and the bishops and other prelates their adherents-with the additional epithet of Simoniacs: they pretended too, that the entire body of the priesthood being in the state of mortal sin, no longer possessed the privilege of consecrating the eucharist; and that they were mere impostors: that neither the pope, nor bishops nor any man living had a right to impose an interdict upon their flock: that the Franciscan and Dominican friars seduced the church of God by their false teaching and their sermons ;and that, in a word, out of the Circumcellion society no one lived according to the gospel. In the close of their harangue they informed their auditors, that they were going to impart to them the benefit of an indulgence-not like those which the pope and the bishops had devised, but one which came immediately from the throne of God. (Dupin 15 e. siecle. D'Argentré. loc. cit.) Part of their errors have been since revived by some of our modern reformers.

CLANCULARIANS-a sect of Anabaptists. See the article.

CLAUDIUS of TURIN-with a variety of other heterodox opinions, adopted at the commencement of the ninth age, the errors of the Iconoclasts and Vigilantius. Some abuses which he observed in the devotion of the faithful with respect to images and the relics of saints, determined him to contest the lawfulness of the devotion itself. He was a person, it would seem, of singular exemplarity of life, but destitute of proper discernment; and his zeal was not tempered with prudence and moderation. He was refuted by Dungal, Walafridus Strabo, and by Jonas of Orleans, and condemned by the council of Paris which declared, that images were to be retained in the churches for the instruction of the ignorant; but by no means adored, or venerated with any superstitious worship. (Mabil. Annal. Ord. Ben. 1. 29. n. 52, &c. Conc. T. 7, p. 1943.) See ICONOCLASTS, VIGILANTIUS, &c.

CLEMENT-a native of Scotland, rejected alike both canons and councils, together with the religious writings of the fathers, and their explications of holy scripture. He pretended that Jesus Christ, descending into hell, had delivered thence the souls of all the damned, even those of infidels and idolaters; and maintained many other erroneous doctrines concerning predestination. He was condemned with Adalbert in the council of Soissons, and in another synod held at Rome. Conc. T. 4. Bonif. Ep. 135. In Clement, as in many others, we may remark a striking instance of the abuse of learning, to which, for the age in which he lived, he had considerable pretensions. When not influenced by humility, learning itself becomes a snare, against which the apostle admonishes us, when he says, that science puffs up; and with great reason he exhorts us to be wise according to sobriety.

CLEOBIUS, or CLEOBULUS-was contemporary with Simon Magus, and like him undertook to combat christianity. He denied the authority of the prophets, the omnipotence of the Divine Being, and the resurrection. The formation of the universe he ascribed to angels; maintained that Jesus Christ was not born of a virgin; and was author of a sect called from him Cleobians. (Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 4, c. 21. Theodoret, Hæret. Fab. 1. 3.)

CŒLICOLE-worshippers of the firmament, or of the starswere condemned as pagans and proscribed in that capacity by special rescripts of the emperor Honorius. As they were ranked among the Jews in the Theodosian code, they were probably apostates from Christianity to Judaism, but did not adopt the

entire system, and were not subject to the high priest or the Sanhedrim, as were the rest of the Jews. They had however their superiors whom they termed elders like our modern presbyterians. But we do not know in what precisely their errors consisted. The heathens called the Jews Coelicolæ; and of them Juvenal says: nil præter nubes et cœli numen adorant. Other pagan authors accuse them of worshipping the angels, meaning the genii or intelligences which, they imagined, animated the stars. The ancient prophets had frequently reproached them with this superstition; and it was, in fact, a species of idolatry most generally diffused among the Oriental nations. To this St Jerom refers the passage of St Paul to the Colossians, c. 2, v. 18, where he supposes the apostle understood by the angels-the spirits which presided over the firmament, and the heavenly bodies. According to him, the Jews and Pagans were both involved in this form of heathenish worship. (Epist. 151, n. 10, Cod. Theod. 1. 12, de Judæis et Calicolis.) Protestants have thought fit to retort the charge upon St Jerom himself, no less than upon the catholics in their legitimate veneration of the angels and saints.

COLARBASSUS-a celebrated Valentinian, who appears to have applied to the system of Valentinus the principles of Cabalism and judicial astrology. Men, he pretended, received the benefit of life from the seven planets; and he ascribed all perfection and the plenitude of truth to the Greek alphabet, because Christ was named Alpha and Omega. (Autor. Append. ad Tert. de Præscript. c. 53.)

COLLEGIANS-a sect of Arminians and Anabaptists in Holland, so called from their assembling every first Sunday in the month: on which occasions each individual assistant has the privilege of speaking and expounding the Holy Scripture,-of praying and singing psalms. These collegians are now all Socinians, or Arians. They do not take the communion at their meeting-house or college, but convene from every part of Holland twice in the year at a village called Rinsbourg, two leagues rom Leyden, where they receive their eucharist. The celebrant is the person who accidentally sits down first at the table: he administers indiscriminately to all the attendants-without enquiring what may be their system of religion. Baptism is given by immersing the whole body of the party in water.

To speak with accuracy, this is the only society of protestants who act consistently with the grand maxim of the reformation, constituting each private person the arbiter-of his own belief, of the kind of worship which he thinks fit to render to the Deity, and the discipline which he chooses to adopt. In fact, their communion establishes among the members-a union merely Bb