A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Can we judge it a thing seemly for any man to go about the building of an house to the God of heaven, with no other appearance than if his end were to rear up a kitchen, or a parlour, for his own use? or when a work of such a nature is finished, remaineth there nothing but presently to use it, and so an end? Albeit the true worship of God be to God in itself acceptable, who respecteth not so much in what place, as with what affection he is served; and therefore Moses in the midst of the sea, Job on the dunghill, Ezekiah in bed, Jeremy in mire, Jonas in the whale, Daniel in the den, the Children in the furnace, the Thief on the cross, Peter and Paul in prison, calling unto God were heard, as St. Basil noteth, manifest notwithstanding it is, that the very majesty and holiness of the place where God is worshipped hath in regard of us great virtue, force, and efficacy, for that it serveth as a sensible help to stir up devotion.—Hooker.

The reader who desires to possess a perfect knowledge on this head, is referred to Bingham’s “Origines Ecclesiasticæ,” or Antiquities of the Christian Church, b. viii.

ORTHODOXY. (Ὀρθὸς and δοκέω.) Soundness of doctrine.

Of course the question here to be decided is, What is soundness of doctrine? If two men take Scripture for their guide, and professing to have no other guide, come to opposite conclusions, it is quite clear that neither has a right to decide that the other is not orthodox. On this principle it is as uncharitable and illogical for the Trinitarian to call the Socinian not orthodox, as it is for the Socinian to predicate the same of the Trinitarian. But if we interpret Scripture by the sense of the Church, then we may consistently call those orthodox who hold the doctrines which she deduces from Scripture, and those heterodox who do not hold those doctrines. So that orthodoxy means soundness of doctrine, the doctrine being proved to be sound by reference to the consentient testimony of Scripture and the Church. Hence perhaps it is, that as those low-churchmen, who repudiate Socinian notions, are by some called evangelicals, so high-churchmen are designated orthodox. Both titles, if intended to be applied exclusively, are applied incorrectly.

ORTLIBENSES. (Lat.) A sect, or branch, of the ancient Vaudois or Waldenses.

The Ortlibenses denied there was a Trinity before the nativity of Jesus Christ, who, according to them, was not till that time the Son of God. To these two persons of the Godhead they added a third, during the preaching of Jesus Christ; namely, St. Peter, whom they acknowledged to be the Holy Ghost. They held the eternity of the world; but had no notion of the resurrection of the body, or the immortality of the soul. Notwithstanding which, they maintained (perhaps by way of irony) that there would be a final judgment, at which time the pope and the emperor would become proselytes to their sect.

They denied the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. His cross, they pretended, was penance and their own abstemious way of life: this, they said, was the cross our Saviour bore. They ascribed all the virtue of baptism to the merit of him who administered it. They were of opinion, that Jews might be saved without baptism, provided they embraced their sect. They boldly asserted, that they themselves were the only true mystical body, that is to say, the Church of Christ.

PACIFICATION, EDICTS OF, were decrees or edicts, granted by the kings of France to the Protestants, for appeasing the troubles occasioned by their persecution.

The first edict of pacification was granted by Charles IX., in January, 1562, permitting the free exercise of the reformed religion near all the cities and towns of the realm. March 19, 1563, the same king granted a second edict of pacification, at Amboise, permitting the free exercise of the reformed religion in the houses of gentlemen and lords high-justiciaries (or those that had the power of life and death) to their families and dependants only; and allowing other Protestants to have their sermons in such towns as they had them in before the seventh of March; obliging them withal to quit the churches they had possessed themselves of during the troubles. Another, called the edict of Lonjumeau, ordering the execution of that of Amboise, was published March 27, 1558, after a treaty of peace. This pacification was of but short continuance; for Charles, perceiving a general insurrection of the Huguenots, revoked the said edicts in September, 1568, forbidding the exercise of the Protestant religion, and commanding all the ministers to depart the kingdom in fifteen days. But, on the eighth of August, 1570, he made peace with them again, and published an edict on the eleventh, allowing the lords high-justiciaries to have sermons in their houses for all comers, and granting other Protestants two public exercises in each government. He likewise gave them four cautionary towns, viz. Rochelle, Montauban, Cognac, and La Charité, to be places of security for them during the space of two years. Nevertheless, in August, 1572, he authorized the Bartholomew massacre, and at the same time issued a declaration, forbidding the exercise of the Protestant religion.

Henry III., in April, 1576, made peace with the Protestants, and the edict of pacification was published in parliament, May 14, permitting them to build churches, and have sermons where they pleased. The Guisian faction, enraged at this general liberty, began the famous league for defence of the Catholic religion, which became so formidable, that it obliged the king to assemble the states of the kingdom at Blois, in December, 1576; where it was enacted, that there should be but one religion in France, and that the Protestant ministers should be all banished. In 1577, the king, to pacify the troubles, published an edict in parliament, October 8th, granting the same liberty to the reformed which they had before. However, in July, 1585, the league obliged him to publish another edict, revoking all former concessions to the Protestants, and ordering them to depart the kingdom in six months, or turn Papists. This edict was followed by more to the same purpose.