HOLY, sacred, devoted or set apart for religious worship or observance; a term characteristic of the attributes of perfection and sinlessness of the Persons of the Trinity, as the objects of human worship and reverence, and hence transferred to those human persons who, either by their devotion to a spiritual ascetic life or by their approximation to moral perfection, are considered worthy of reverence. The word in Old English was hálig, and is common to other Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. and Dutch heilig, Swed. helig, Dan. hellig. It is derived from hál, hale, whole, and cognate with “health.” The New English Dictionary suggests that the sense-development may be from “whole,” i.e. inviolate, from “health, well-being,” or from “good-omen,” “augury.” It is impossible to get behind the Christian uses, in which from the earliest times it was employed as the equivalent of the Latin sacer and sanctus.
HOLY ALLIANCE, THE. The famous treaty, or declaration, known by this name was signed in the first instance by Alexander I., emperor of Russia, Francis I., emperor of Austria, and Frederick William III., king of Prussia, on the 26th of September 1815, and was proclaimed by the emperor Alexander the same day at a great review of the allied troops held on the Champ des Vertus near Paris. The English version of the text is as follows:—
In the name of the Most Holy and Indivisible Trinity.
Holy Alliance of Sovereigns of Austria, Prussia and Russia.
Their Majesties the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Russia, having, in consequence of the great events which have marked the course of the three last years in Europe, and especially of the blessings which it has pleased Divine Providence to shower down upon those States which place their confidence and their hope on it alone, acquired the intimate conviction of the necessity of settling the steps to be observed by the Powers, in their reciprocal relations, upon the sublime truths which the Holy Religion of our Saviour teaches;
Government and Political Relations.
They solemnly declare that the present Act has no other object than to publish, in the face of the whole world, their fixed resolution, both in the administration of their respective States, and in their political relations with every other Government, to take for their sole guide the precepts of that Holy Religion, namely, the precepts of Justice, Christian Charity and Peace, which, far from being applicable only to private concerns, must have an immediate influence on the councils of Princes, and guide all their steps, as being the only means of consolidating human institutions and remedying their imperfections. In consequence, their Majesties have agreed on the following Articles:—
Principles of the Christian Religion.