The most remarkable of these was the Use of Sarum. It was drawn up about 1085 by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury and Chancellor of England. He re-built his cathedral, collected together clergy distinguished for learning, and skill in chanting, and took much pains to regulate the ecclesiastical offices; so that his church became a model for others, and his "Custom-book" was wholly or partially followed in various parts of the kingdom, more especially in the South of England.
We may look upon this Use as being the foundation of our present
Prayer Book.
SATAN. An adversary, an enemy, an accuser. Sometimes the word Satan is put for the Devil, as in Job i. 6, 7; Ps. cix. 6.; Zech. iii. 1, 2. In the New Testament it almost always means the Devil, but in Matt. xvi. 23, it simply means an adversary. "Be gone, O mine adversary, you that withstand what I most desire," &c.
The word Devil is from the Greek for an accuser, or calumniator. The Devil, or Satan, is a wicked spirit, who with many others, his angels or under-agents, is fighting against God. He has a limited dominion over all the sons of Adam, except the regenerate, in his kingdom of this world.
SCARF or STOLE, see Vestments.
SCEPTICS. From a Greek word meaning to look about, to deliberate. Anciently the term was applied to a sect of philosophers founded by Pyrrho. In modern times the word has been applied to Deists, or those who doubt of the truth and authenticity of the sacred Scriptures.
SCHISM. Greek, a fissure, or rent. In an ecclesiastical sense it means a breaking off from communion with the Church, on account of some disagreement in matters of faith or discipline. Those who do so are called Schismatics. To separate wilfully from the Church of God is a sin; (1 Cor. i. 10; iii. 3; xi. 18;) and we are directed to avoid those who cause divisions. (Rom. xvi. 17.) In the Litany we pray, "From heresy and schism, good Lord deliver us."
History brings before our notice many considerable schisms, in which whole bodies of men separated from the communion of the Catholic Church. Such were, in the fourth century, the schisms of the Donatists, and of the numerous heretics which sprung up in the Church, as the Arians, Photinians, Apollinarians, &c., the schism in the Church of Antioch; in the fifth century, the schism in the Church of Rome, between Laurentius and Symmachus; the schism of the rival popes at Rome and Avignon, in the fourteenth century.
In England the chief schisms have been by the Romanists, the
Independents, and the Wesleyans.
SCHOOLMEN. The title given to a class of learned theologians who flourished in the middle ages. They derive their name from the schools attached to the cathedrals or universities in which they lectured. The chief Schoolmen were, Albertus Magnus, a Dominican friar, died 1280, Bonaventure, surnamed the Seraphic Doctor, born 1221, and died a cardinal. Thomas Aquinas, surnamed the Angelical Doctor, born 1224, was a pupil of Albertus Magnus. John Duns Scotus, surnamed the Subtle Doctor, was a Scotchman by birth, but educated in Paris. William Ocham, surnamed the Singular Doctor, was born in Surrey, in England. He, too, like Scotus, was educated at the University of Paris, about the year 1300. Raymond Lully, born in Majorca, 1236. Durandus, surnamed the Most resolving Doctor, Bishop of Meaux, 1318.