A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

AGNOETES. Another sort of heretics about the year 535, who followed the errors of Themistius, deacon of Alexandria, who believed that Christ knew not when the day of judgment should happen.

AGNUS DEI. A cake of wax, used in the Romish Church, stamped with the figure of a lamb supporting the banner of the cross. The name literally signifies The Lamb of God. These cakes, being consecrated by the pope with great solemnity, and distributed among the people, are supposed to possess great virtues. They cover them with a piece of stuff, cut in the form of a heart, and carry them very devoutly in their processions. From selling these Agnus Deis to some, and presenting them to others, the Romish clergy and religious officers derive considerable pecuniary advantage. The practice of blessing the Agnus Dei took its rise about the seventh or eighth century. It was common in those times to mark converts with the sign of the cross after baptism; and in order to distinguish the converted from heathens, they were commanded to wear about their necks pieces of white wax stamped with the figure of a lamb. This was done in imitation of the heathenish practice of hanging amulets around the neck, as preservatives against accidents, diseases, or any sort of infection. Though the efficacy of an Agnus Dei has not been declared by Romish councils, the belief in its virtue has been strongly and universally established in the Church of Rome. Pope Urban V. sent to John Palæologus, emperor of the Greeks, an Agnus folded in fine paper, on which were written verses explaining all its properties. These verses declare that the Agnus is formed of balm and wax mixed with chrism, and that being consecrated by mystical words, it possesses the power of removing thunder and dispersing storms, of giving to women with child an easy delivery, of preventing shipwreck, taking away sin, repelling the devil, increasing riches, and of securing against fire.

AISLE. (Ala.) The lateral divisions of a church, or of any part of it, as nave, choir, or transept, are called its aisles. (See Church.) Where there is but one aisle to a transept, it is always at the east. In foreign churches the number of aisles is frequently two on either side of the nave and choir; at Cologne there are three. This arrangement is very ancient, since it is found in the Basilicas of St. John, Lateran, and St. Paul, at Rome. In England this was never perhaps the original plan. All, except one on each side, are clearly additions at Chichester, Manchester, St. Michael’s, Coventry, Spalding, and several other churches.

The last bay to the west, or that westward of the porch in the south aisle, is generally a little earlier in character than the rest. It frequently happens, too, that the north aisle is of an earlier type than the south, where there is no reason to suppose them of different dates. There is no sufficient reason assigned for this. The word has been very commonly, but incorrectly, applied to the open space in the nave of churches between the seats of the congregation.

AISE. A linen napkin to cover the chalice used in Bishop Andrew’s chapel, and in Canterbury cathedral, before the rebellion. See Canterbury’s Doom, 1646, Neale’s Hist. of Puritans.

ALB. An ample linen tunic with sleeves, named from its colour, (albus, white,) worn next over the cassock and amice. It was at first loose and flowing, afterwards bound with a zone, mystically signifying continence, according to some ritualists; but more probably for the greater convenience of ministering at the communion office. It has been in other points considerably altered from its primitive form in the continental churches subject to Rome; in the Greek churches it more nearly resembles the form of the surplice used in the English Church. Cardinal Bona admits that the alb, as well as the surplice, was anciently talaris, that is, reaching to the feet, and it was therefore called podéris in the Greek Church. It was made originally of white linen; and was probably the same as the surplice, from which it now differs only in the form of the sleeves, which are not flowing, but closed at the wrists.

The rubrics of King Edward VI.’s First Book prescribed the alb to be worn at the communion by the principal minister and his assistants, and by the bishop at all times of his public ministrations. These rubrics are referred to in our present Prayer Book, in the notice preceding the Morning Prayer: “And here it is to be noted, that such ornaments of the Church, and of the ministers thereof at all times of their ministrations, shall be retained and be in use as were in this Church of England by the authority of parliament, in the second year of the reign of King Edward VI.” Most of our most eminent ritualists, and constitutional lawyers, have considered the rubric of King Edward VI. as still binding in strictness of law. The 58th Canon apparently, but not really, contradicts these rubrics, as it prescribes a surplice with sleeves, to be used at the communion as well as at other services. But it is to be observed that an alb is, in fact, a surplice with sleeves; and by these very rubrics the terms seem to be almost convertible, as the bishop is enjoined to wear a surplice or alb: and in the rubric after the communion, regulating the Wednesday and Friday services, the priest is to wear a plain alb or surplice. But even if the canon did contradict the rubric, it ought to be remembered that the rubric of 1662 is the final enactment of the Church, and plainly ought to supersede the enactment of 1604. The English alb is enjoined to be plain, that is, not ornamental with lace, or gold, as was the mediæval custom.—Jebb.

ALBATI. A sort of Christian hermits (so called from the white linen which they wore). Anno 1399, in the time of Pope Boniface IX., they came down from the Alps into several provinces of Italy, having for their guide a priest clothed all in white, and a crucifix in his hand: he pretended so much zeal and religion, that he was taken for a saint, and his followers multiplied so fast, that the pope, growing jealous of their leader’s aiming at his chair, sent soldiers, who apprehended and put him to death, upon which his followers dispersed. They professed sorrow and weeping for the sins and calamities of the times, they ate together in the highways, and slept promiscuously like beasts.

ALBIGENSES. Certain religionists who sprung up in the twelfth century. They received their name from a town in Aquitaine, called Albigia or Alby, where their tenets were first condemned in a council held in the year 1176. The Albigenses grew so formidable, that the court of Rome determined upon a league or crusade against them. Pope Innocent III., desirous to put a stop to their progress, stirred up the great men of France to make war upon them. After suffering cruelly from their persecutors, they dwindled by little and little, till the time of the Reformation; when such of them as were left fell in with the Vaudois, and conformed to the doctrine of Zuinglius and the disciples of Geneva. The Albigenses have been frequently confounded with the Waldenses; from whom however it is said that they differed in many respects, both as being prior to them in point of time, as having their origin in a different country, and as being charged with divers heresies, particularly Manicheism, from which the Waldenses were exempt.

ALBIS (Dominica in). See Low Sunday.