A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

NUMBERS, THE BOOK OF. A canonical book of the Old Testament. It is the fourth book of the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses, and receives its denomination from the numbering of the families of Israel, by Moses and Aaron; who mustered the tribes, and marshalled the army of the Hebrews, in their passage through the wilderness.

A great part of this Book is historical, relating several remarkable events which happened in that journey; as, the sedition of Aaron and Miriam; the rebellion of Korah and his companions; the murmurings of the whole body of the people; Balaam’s prophecy; the miraculous budding of Aaron’s rod, &c. It gives likewise a distinct account of the several stages of journeyings through the wilderness. But the greatest part of this Book is spent in enumerating the several laws and ordinances, not mentioned in the preceding books; such as, the office and number of the Levites; the trial by the waters of jealousy; the rites to be observed by the Nazarites; the making of fringes on the borders of their garments; the law of inheritance; of vows; of the cities of refuge, &c.

The Book of Numbers comprehends the history of about thirty-eight years, though the most part of the things related in it fell out in the first and last of these years, and it does not appear when those things were done which are related in the middle of the Book.

NUMERALS. The designation of twelve priests, in the cathedral of Nola (inferior to the canons).—Jebb.

NUNS. Those women who devote themselves, in a cloister or nunnery, to a religious life. (See Monks.)

There were women, in the ancient Christian Church, who made public and open profession of virginity, before the monastic life, or name, was known in the world; as appears from the writings of Cyprian and Tertullian. These, for distinction’s sake, are sometimes called ecclesiastical virgins, and were commonly enrolled in the canon or matricula of the Church. They differed from the monastic virgins chiefly in this—that they lived privately in their fathers’ houses, whereas the others lived in communities. But their profession of virginity was not so strict as to make it criminal in them to marry afterwards, if they thought fit.

In the following ages, the censures of the Church began to be inflicted upon professed virgins who should marry; and these censures seem to have grown more severe, in proportion to the esteem and value Christians set upon celibacy and the monastic life. Yet there never was any decree for rescinding or making null such marriages.

Some canons allowed virgins to be consecrated at twenty-five years of age, and others at sixteen or seventeen; but time quickly showed, that neither of these terms were so conveniently fixed as they might be. Other canons, therefore, required virgins to be forty years old, before they were veiled, as may be seen in the Councils of Agde and Saragossa. And the imperial laws decreed, that, if any virgin was veiled before that age, either by the violence or hatred of her parents, (which was a case that often happened,) she was at liberty to marry. Hence appears a wide difference between the practice of the ancient Christian Church in this matter, and that of the modern Church of Rome.

As to the consecration of virgins, it had some things peculiar in it. It was usually performed publicly in the church by the bishop. The virgin made a public profession of her resolution, and then the bishop put upon her the accustomed habit of sacred virgins. One part of this habit was a veil, called the sacrum velamen; another was a kind of mitre, or coronet, worn on the head. In some places the custom of shaving professed virgins prevailed; as it did in the monasteries of Syria and Egypt, in St. Jerome’s time: but the Council of Gangra strongly condemned this practice, accounting that a woman’s hair was given her by God as a mark of subjection. Theodosius the Great added a civil sanction to this ecclesiastical decree: whence it appears that the tonsure of virgins was anciently no allowed custom of the Church, however it came to prevail in the contrary practice of later ages.

As the society of virgins was of great esteem in the Church, so they had some particular honours paid to them. Their persons were sacred, and severe laws were made against any that should presume to offer the least violence to them. The emperor Constantine charged his own revenues with the maintenance of them; and his mother Helena often entertained them and waited upon them at her own table. The Church gave them also a share of her own revenues, and assigned them an honourable station in the churches, whither the most noble and religious matrons used to resort with earnestness to receive their salutations and embraces.