A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

He is also, whilst engaged in his archidiaconal functions, considered to be resident on his benefice. In cathedrals of the old foundation, the archdeacons of the diocese, how numerous soever, were members of the greater chapter, and had stalls in the choir. This was the universal custom on the continent, and is uniformly the case in Ireland, as it was also in Scotland. In the diocese of Dublin, the archdeacon of Dublin has a stall in both of the cathedrals there, the archdeacon of Glendaloch however only in that of St. Patrick’s.

The archdeacons of Ireland have not for a long time exercised any jurisdiction. It is however evident from old documents that they did exercise it in ancient times. The bishops hold annual visitation.

ARCHES, COURT OF. The Court of Arches is an ancient court of appeal, belonging to the archbishop of Canterbury, whereof the judge is called the Dean of Arches, because he anciently held his court in the church of St. Mary-le-Bow (Sancta Maria de Arcubus); though all the spiritual courts are now holden at Doctors’ Commons.

ARCHIMANDRITE. A name formerly given to the superior of a monastery: it is derived from the word μάνδρα, by which monasteries were sometimes called. The term Archimandrite is still retained in the Greek Church.

ARCHPRIEST, or ARCHIPRESBYTER. An ancient title of distinction, corresponding to our title, rural dean, revived under most unhappy pretensions among the Romanists of England, in the year 1598. These men, finding themselves without bishops, importuned the pope, Clement VII., to supply their need; but instead of sending them, as they desired, a number of bishops, he gave them but one ecclesiastical superior, Robert Blackwell, who after all was merely a priest; an archpriest indeed he was called, but as such having no episcopal power. In the early times this title was given to the chief presbyter in each church, presiding over the church next under the bishop, and taking care of all things relating to the church in the bishop’s absence. In this case however, instead of being placed in a cathedral church, or discharging the office of rural dean, under a bishop or archdeacon, he was appointed to govern all the Romish clergy of England and Scotland, without one or the other. Here then we find Rome, while preserving an old title, inventing an office hitherto unknown to the Christian world. And, when appointed, what could the archpriest do? He could merely be a rural dean on a large scale. He could merely overlook his brother clergy. He could not discharge any functions properly episcopal. He could not ordain priests, confirm children, nor consecrate chapels, should circumstances permit or require. It is plain, then, that the archpriest was a very imperfect and insufficient substitute for a bishop. The archpriest in many foreign churches, in Italy especially, answers to our cathedral dean. In some Italian dioceses, somewhat to our rural dean.—Darwell.

ARCHONTICS. Heretics who appeared in the second century, about A. D. 175, and who were an offshoot of the Valentinians. They held a quantity of idle stories concerning the Divinity and the creation of the world, which they attributed to sundry authors; and hence they were called Archontics, from the Greek word ἀρχων, which means prince or ruler.

ARIANS. (See Councils.) Heretics, so named from Arius, their first founder: they denied the three persons in the Holy Trinity to be of the same essence, and affirmed the Word to be a creature, and that once (although before the beginning of time) he was not. They were condemned by the Council of Nice, in 325.

The doctrine of Arius may be thus stated:—The Son sprang not from the nature of the Father, but was created from nothing: he had, indeed, an existence before the world, even before time, but not from eternity. He is, therefore, in essence different from the Father, and is in the order of creatures, whom he, however, precedes in excellence, as God created all things, even time, by his instrumentality; whence he was called the Son of God, the Logos, or Word of God. As a creature the Son is perfect, and as like to the Father as a creature can be to the Creator. But as he has received all things as a gift, from the favour of the Father,—as there was a period in which he was not,—so there is an infinite distance between him and the nature of the Father; of which nature he cannot even form a perfect idea, but can enjoy only a defective knowledge of the same. His will was originally variable, capable of good and of evil, as is that of all other rational creatures: he is, comparatively at least, free from sin; not by nature, but by his good use of his power of election; the Father, therefore, foreseeing his perseverance in good, imparted to him that dignity and sublimity above all other creatures, which shall continue to be the reward of his virtues. Although he is called God, he is not so in truth, but was deified in that sense in which men, who have attained to a high degree of sanctity, may arrive at a participation of the Divine prerogatives. The idea then of a generation of the Son from the essence of the Father is to be absolutely rejected.

This doctrine, which must have corresponded to the superficial understandings, and to the yet half-pagan ideas, of many who then called themselves Christians, attacked the very soul of the Christian doctrine of the redemption; for, according to this doctrine, it was not God made man, but a changeable creature, who effected the great work of the redemption of fallen man. The devout Christian, to whom faith in the God-man, Christ, the only Divine Mediator, opened the way to an intimate union with God, saw by this doctrine that his Redeemer and Mediator was as infinitely removed from the essence of God as himself; he saw himself driven back to the ancient pagan estrangement from God, and removed to an unattainable distance from him.—See Maimbourg, Hist. of Arians. For an account of the revival of Arianism in the last century, see Van Mildert’s Life of Waterland.

ARK OF THE COVENANT. So the Jews called a small chest or coffer, three feet nine inches in length, two feet three inches in breadth, and two feet three inches in height, (Prideaux, Connect. Part i. Book iii.,) in which were contained “the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod, and the tables of the covenant,” as well the broken ones (according to the Rabbins) as the whole. Heb. ix. 4. Over the ark was the mercy-seat, and it was the covering of it. It was made of solid gold (Exod. xxv. 17–22); and at the two ends of it were two cherubims looking inward toward each other, with expanded wings, which, embracing the whole circumference of the mercy-seat, met on each side in the middle. The whole (according to the Rabbins) was made out of the same mass, without joining any of the parts by solder. Here it was that the Shechinah, or Divine presence, rested, both in the tabernacle and in the temple, and was visibly seen in the appearance of a cloud over it. And from hence the Divine oracles were given out, by an audible voice, as often as God was consulted in the behalf of his people. And hence it is, that God is said, in Scripture, to dwell between the cherubims, on the mercy-seat, because there was the seat or throne of the visible appearance of his glory among them. And for this reason the high priest appeared before this mercy-seat once every year, on the great day of expiation; at which time he was to make his nearest approach to the Divine presence, to mediate, and make atonement for the whole people of Israel.—R. Levi, Ben. Gersom, Solomon, &c. Lev. xvi. 2; 1 Sam. iv. 4; 2 Sam. vi. 6; 2 Kings xix. 15; 1 Chron. xiii. 6; Psal. lxxx. 1; Lev. xvi. 14, 15; Heb. ix. 7.