A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

St. Chrysostom lays open the original intent and design of this practice. For he says, it was an ancient custom in the apostles’ days, when the rulers of the Church had the gift of inspiration, for the people to say to the preacher, Peace be with thy spirit; acknowledging thereby that they were under the guidance and direction of the Spirit of God.

In our own liturgy we use an equivalent salutation, namely. The Lord be with you; to which the people answer, (as the primitive Christians did,) And with thy spirit. It occurs but twice in our Prayer Book, i. e. after the Creed at Morning and Evening Prayer. In the First Book of King Edward it followed the versicles, immediately preceding the collect for the day: besides being used more than once in other offices.

PECULIARS. Those parishes and places are called peculiars, which are exempted from the jurisdiction of the proper ordinary of the diocese where they lie. These exempt jurisdictions are so called, not because they are under no ordinary, but because they are not under the ordinary of the diocese, but have one of their own. They are a remnant of Popery. The pope, before the Reformation, by a usurped authority, in defiance of the canons of the Church, exempted them from the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese. At the Reformation, by an oversight, they were not restored to the jurisdiction of the diocesan, but remained under the sovereign, or under such other person, as by custom or purchase obtained the right of superintendence.

The act 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 77, which constituted the ecclesiastical commission, empowered the commissioners “to propose those parishes, churches, or chapelries which are locally situate in any diocese, but subject to any peculiar jurisdiction, other than the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese in which the same are locally situate, shall be only subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop of the diocese within which such parishes, churches, or chapelries are locally situate.” (Sect. 10.) In consequence of recommendations by the commissioners, peculiars have been abolished in most, if not all, dioceses of England.

PELAGIANS. Heretics who first appeared about the latter end of the fourth, or beginning of the fifth, century.

Pelagius, author of this sect, was a Briton, being born in Wales. His name, in the British language, was Morgan, which signifies sea-born; from whence he had his Latin name Pelagius. He is said to have been a monk by profession; but probably was no otherwise such than as those were so called who led stricter lives than others within their own houses. Some of our ancient historians pretend that he was abbot of Bangor. But this is not likely, because the British monasteries (according to a learned author) were of a later date. St. Augustine gives him the character of a very pious man, and a Christian of no vulgar rank. According to the same father, he travelled to Rome, where he associated himself with persons of the greatest learning and figure. Here he instructed several young persons, particularly Cœlestius and Julianus; as also Timasius and Jacobus, who afterwards renounced his doctrine, and applied themselves to St. Augustine. During this time he wrote his “Commentaries on St. Paul’s Epistles,” and his Letters to Melania and Demetrias.

Pelagius, being charged with heresy, left Rome, and went into Africa, where he was present at the famous conference held at Carthage, between the Catholics and Donatists. From Carthage he travelled into Egypt, and at last went to Jerusalem, where he settled. He was accused before the Council of Diospolis in Palestine, where he recanted his opinions; but relapsing, and discovering the insincerity of his recantation, he was afterwards condemned by several councils in Africa, and by a synod at Antioch. Pelagius died somewhere in the East, but where is uncertain. His principal tenets, as we find them charged upon his disciple Cœlestius by the Church of Carthage, were these:

I. That Adam was by nature mortal, and, whether he had sinned or not, would certainly have died.

II. That the consequences of Adam’s sin were confined to his person, and the rest of mankind received no disadvantage thereby.

III. That the law qualified men for the kingdom of heaven, and was founded upon equal promises with the gospel.