Clement XI. Innocent XIII. Benedict XIII. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. Leopold I. Joseph I. Leopold II. Francis II. the now reign- Clement XIII. Clement XIV. Pius VI. ABECEDARIANS,-a sect of Anabaptists who pretended that, in order to salvation, a person must be unqualified either to read or write, and must be ignorant of the letters of the alphabet; from which circumstance their name originates. When Luther had openly attacked the authority of the church, and of tradition; and had established the principle, that each private individual was competent to determine the sense of scripture for himself, his disciple Stork advanced a step farther, and maintained that each individual among the faithful was equally qualified to penetrate the sense of the inspired writings, as the best divines; that God himself was our immediate instructor, and that study took off our attention to the divine inspirations. Hence he inferred, that the only method to prevent distractions would be, absolutely not to learn to read. This sect was some time considerable in Germany. (Stockman, Lexic. in voce Abecedarii. Osiander, Centur. 16, l. 2. In every age ignorance has had its patrons, who affected to esteem it a christian virtue; such were formerly the Gnosimachi, the Cornificians, &c. This absurdly ridiculous idea is at formal variance with Holy Scripture; for, learning and wisdom, saith the wise man, excel in this, that they give life to him that possesseth them. (Eccles. vii. 13.) ABELARD or ABAELARD was a native of France, and flourished towards the close of the eleventh, and good part of the succeeding century. His misconduct, his literary contests, and his dogmatical errors, have concurred to make him a celebrated character. He taught logic and theology with great reputation, and soon became the oracle of the schools. But having had the misfortune to implicate himself in an amorous intrigue, his subsequent miscarriages determined him to seek refuge in religion. In his retreat he did not long remain inactive; and he undertook to explain the mysteries and the truths of christianity by sensible comparisons, and to combat by the authority of the philosophers and philosophic principles, the difficulties objected against religion by the sophistry of dialecticians. This is the object which he proposes to himself in his Introduction to Theology, and in his book of Christian Theology. These are the two most famous works which issued from the pen of Abelard. True philosophy, according to this writer, patronises religion, and seeks to penetrate its spirit; but if it does not succeed in dissipating the obscurity which envelopes its mysteries, it concludes that it lies beyond its sphere to see and comprehend all things, and infers the absurdity of rejecting any doctrinal point merely because it cannot be conceived by human reason. Divine revelation, he asserts, should alone suffice to bring conviction to the understanding. After explaining the dogma of the blessed Trinity which he attempts to illustrate by imperfect comparisons-for all such are essentially imperfect and totally inadequate to give a clear idea of this sublime mysteryAbelard proceeds to treat of the Divine Power, and to examine --whether God could have done any thing which in fact he hath not done. He seems well aware of the difficulty of the question; and to resolve it, he lays down as an invariable maxim, that the wisdom and goodness of the supreme Being are the springs which call his power into action: and from this principle he concludes, that whatever God has at any time produced, has been prescribed by his wisdom and goodness; and if there be any good which he has left undone, the reason was,-it could not have been done, according to Abelard, consistently with his wisdom; and, by consequence,-what he has done, he could not have left undone, nor do any thing which he has not done. This doctrine, in its obvious sense, would appear to bear hard upon the liberty of the Divine Being, and is consequently erroneous. Abelard's theological tracts were received with applause; and they certainly contained some very excellent matter: but on the other hand, they contained also expressions somewhat novel, extraordinary opinions, and comparisons very liable to be abusedwith real doctrinal errors. Abelard in consequence, was cited before a council assembled at Soissons by the archbishop of Rheims. His errors were condemned; and he on that occasion recited upon his knees the creed which bears the name of Athanasius, and protested he had no other faith than that which it contains: after which he was confined in the monastery of St Medard at Soissons. A short time afterwards he was enlarged, and recommenced his theological exercises. Twenty years after this transaction, a council was held at Sens, in which several erroneous propositions contained in the writings of Abelard were condemned, and afterwards anathematized by the pope, to whom Abelard had signified it his intention to appeal. In the list of the proscribed errors were the following:Although the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, he is not of the same substance. We can desire and do good by the efficacy of our free will, without the aid of Grace. We derive from Adam-not the guilt, but only the penalty of original sin. God can do nothing but what he has done, or will do hereafter. Jesus Christ did not descend into hell. These with other erroneous propositions, and all the errors with which he was charged, Abelard retracted and condemned. He was reconciled to St Bernard before he died, and made an edifying end in a house dependent on the monastery of Cluni. ABELONIANS, Sectaries of the diocese of Hippo, who professed an extraordinary veneration for Abel. They pretended that every one ought to marry like Abel, but not to use the privilege of matrimony. Thus husbands and wives lived together in a state of continence, and adopted a little boy and girl to succeed to their effects. (See St August. Hær. 86.) ABSTAINERS,- —a name given in common to the sectaries of Tatian, and to the Manichees; because they abstained through a superstitious motive from wine, matrimony, &c. See the articles TATIANS and MANICHEES. ABYSSINIANS or Ethiopians,-an African nation of the sect termed Jacobites. The church of Abyssinia acknowledges that of Alexandria for its mother church, without whose concurrence it does not elect even its own bishop. This custom, which is as ancient as the conversion of Abyssinia before 325-when the council of Nice places the bishop of Ethiopia the seventh in rank, and next to the bishop of Seleucia, is authorised in a certain collection of canons, for which the Abyssinians testify an equal degree of religious deference as for the sacred writings themselves. Consequently, the faith professed in Abyssinia was the same with that of the church of Alexandria; and the Ethiopians did not become Monophusites or Eutychians till after Egypt fell into the hands of the Saracens, and the Jacobites had intruded themselves into the patriarchate of Alexandria. The errors of the Cophts and those of the Abyssinians are the same. They believe in common what the church of Rome believes relating to the mysteries of religion; but they do not receive the council of Chalcedon. They reject the letter of St Leo; acknowledging only one nature in Jesus Christ, although they very inconsistently maintain, that the Divine and human natures are not confounded in the person of our blessed Redeemer. (See Perpet. de la Foi, t. 4, l. 1, c. 11, Mendes. 1. 1, c. 6, Ludolf, Hist. Æth. 1. 3, c. 8, Voyage de Lobo par Le Grand.) They hold seven sacraments with the catholics, although Ludolf erroneously asserts, that they have neither confirmation nor extreme unction. In the same manner Ludolf, deceived by the silly answers of an ignorant Abyssinian when interrogated by him upon the subject, misguides his readers in stating, that the church of Abyssinia does not believe the real presence and transubstantiation. Their liturgies quoted by Ludolf himself, formally assert the contrary. (Hist. Æth. 1. 3, c. 5.) This author acknowledges that the Abyssinians invoke the saints, and render to them a religious veneration; that they pray for the dead, and honor sacred relics, as the Cophts also do; but he is willing to attribute all this to the zealous though indiscreet sermons of their bishops: whereas it is a well known fact, that they have no N other bishop in Ethiopia, but the Abuna or metropolitan; nor is it customary in that country to preach at all. Mr Ludolf is equally unfortunate in hazarding other similar conjectures. This people however, like the Cophts, observe the ceremony of circumcision, and some other Jewish practices; such, for instance, as abstaining from blood and from the flesh of things strangled; although it is far more natural to conclude, that they have received these practices from the Cophts, than with Mr Croze to contend, that they have derived them immediately from the Mahometans or the Jews. (Christianisme d'Ethiopie.) Among the Cophts indeed, some regard their use of circumcision as a compliment which they were forced to make to the Mahometans; others as a practice merely civil. The Abyssinians are equally divided upon the origin and the nature of circumcision; some esteeming it a religious ceremony essentially necessary to salvation. Father Lobo was entertained with the following humorous anecdote by an Abyssinian monk. One of his sable majesty's plenipotentiaries had infested a certain fountain, and tormented in an extraordinary manner the poor monks that resorted thither for water. Him Thecla Aimanac founder of their institute had converted, and experienced no serious difficulty in the undertaking, if we except the controverted point of circumcision. The black one absolutely refused to be circumcised, till Thecla had convinced him of its necessity by dint of argument; and he performed himself the operation. This quondam devil taking afterwards the religious habit, died within ten years after his conversion, in the odor of sanctity. (Relation Hist. de l'Abyssinie, Le Grand, p. 202.) Abulselah, an Egyptian author who flourished about four hundred years ago, says that the Ethiopians, instead of confessing their sins to the priests, confessed them once in the year before an altar upon which some incense lay evaporating, and that they fancied they thus obtained the Divine pardon: Michael, metropolitan of Damietta, endeavours to justify this practice in his treatise against the necessity of confession: nor would it appear extraordinary, that the practice should have passed out of Egypt into Ethiopia under the patriarchs John and Maria, who patronised this abuse. Zunzebo however, assures us, that in his country auricular confession was in use; and the discipline of the church of Alexandria prescribed it. The genuine tradition of any church must be collected from its ecclesiastical canons, and not from abuses which may have superseded discipline. (See Perpetuitè de la Foi.) In fact, the Abyssinians do confess their sins to the priests, and sometimes to the metropolitan, who when they accuse themselves of any grievous crime, starts from his seat, severely reprimands the sinner, and calls for his lictors. These without any ceremony fall to and flog the penitent with all their might, till the people who happen to be in the church at the time, hasten |