SEMI-ARIANS. The Arian sect was divided into two principal parties: the one of which adhering more closely to the opinion of their master, maintained that the Son of God was unlike the Father, Ἀνόμοιας, and of this party was Eunomius: the other party refused to receive the word consubstantial, yet acknowledged the Son of God Ὁμοιούσιος, of a like substance or essence with the Father, and therefore were called Semi-Arians, that is, half Arians; this party made the majority in the Councils of Rimini and Seleucia.
SEMI-PELAGIANS, or MASSILIENSES. A sect of heretics, who endeavoured to find a medium betwixt the Pelagians and the orthodox; they had their origin about 430 in France, (hence the name Massiliens, from Massilia, now Marseilles). Their principal favourers were Cassianus, a disciple of Chrysostom; Faustus, abbot of Lirinum; Vincentius, a Gallic writer, whom St. Prosper answered, &c. Their agreement with the Pelagians was in the power of free-will, at least as to the beginning of faith and conversion, and to the co-operation of God and man, grace and nature, as to predestination, from foreknowledge and universal grace, and the possibility of the apostasy of the saints. Some of them also would modify those opinions, and maintained only the predestination of infants from a foreknowledge of the life they would lead. The great opposers of this heresy were St. Augustine, Fulgentius, &c. The original of the predestinarian heresy in this age is denied by Jansenius and others, as well as Protestants, and looked upon as a fiction of the Semi-Pelagians.
SEMI-PREBENDARIES. (See Demi-Prebendaries.)
SEMINARIES, in Popish countries, are certain colleges, appointed for the instruction and education of young persons, destined for the sacred ministry. The first institution of such places is ascribed to St. Augustine. And the Council of Trent decrees, that children, exceeding twelve years of age, shall be brought up, and instructed in common, to qualify them for the ecclesiastical state; and that there shall be a seminary of such belonging to each cathedral, under the direction of the bishop.
In the seminaries of France none are taken in but young persons, ready to study theology, and to be ordained. And for the maintenance of these seminaries certain benefices are allotted, or else the clergy of the diocese are obliged to maintain them. These colleges are furnished with halls for the public exercises, and little chambers or cells, where each student retires, studies, and prays apart. Such is the seminary of St. Sulpicius at Paris.
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the Roman Catholics projected the founding English seminaries abroad, that from thence they might be furnished with missionaries to perpetuate and increase their communion. Accordingly the college of Douay was founded in 1569, at the expense of Philip II., king of Spain; and Dr. William Allen, an Englishman, was made head of it. In the year 1579, a college was founded at Rome for the same purpose, by Gregory XIII., who settled 4000 crowns per annum for the subsistence of the society. The famous Robert Parsons, an English Jesuit, was rector of this college. King Philip founded another of these nurseries at Valladolid in the year 1589, and one at Seville in 1593. The same prince founded St. Omers in Artois, A. D. 1596. In the next century more seminaries were established, at Madrid, Louvain, Liege, and Ghent.
The two colleges of Douay and Rome received such great encouragement, that some hundreds of priests were sent off from thence into England. And to engage the members of these societies more firmly, they obliged them, at their admission, to take the following oath: “I, A. B., one bred in this English college, considering how great benefits God hath bestowed upon me, but then especially when he brought me out of my own country, so infected with heresy, and made me a member of the Catholic Church; as also desiring with a thankful heart to improve so great a mercy of God; have resolved to offer myself wholly up to Divine service, as much as I may, to fulfil the end for which this our college was founded. I promise, therefore, and swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I am prepared from mine heart, with the assistance of Divine grace, in due time to receive holy orders, and to return to England, to convert the souls of my countrymen and kindred, when, and as often as, it shall seem good to the superior of this college.” As a further encouragement, Pope Pius V. sent his brief to the students of these colleges, for undertaking the mission into England. And that they might act without clashing, and with the better harmony, he put them all under the direction of Dr. Allen, afterwards Cardinal.
By a statute of Queen Elizabeth it is made a præmunire to contribute to the maintenance of a Popish seminary. And by one of King James I., no persons are to go, or be sent, to Popish seminaries, to be instructed or educated, under divers penalties and disabilities mentioned in the statute.
The houses of the society De Propagandâ Fide, established for the preparing ecclesiastics for missionaries among infidels and heretics, are also called seminaries. The principal of these is that at Rome, called the Apostolic College or Seminary, or the seminary De Propagandâ Fide.
SEPTUAGESIMA. The Sunday which in round numbers is 70 days before Easter: hence the name. There being exactly 50 days between the Sunday next before Lent and Easter day inclusive, that Sunday is termed Quinquagesima, i. e. the 50th. And the two immediately preceding are called from the next round numbers, Sexagesima and Septuagesima, 60th and 70th. The Church thus early begins to look forward to Easter, the queen of festivals. She would call back our minds from the rejoicing season of Christmas, and, by reflections on the humiliating necessity there was for Messiah’s advent, prepare us for that solemn season in Lent; in which, if with deep contrition and lively faith we follow Christ in his sufferings, we may rejoice with him here, and humbly hope to reign with him hereafter in his glory. The observance of these days and the weeks following, appears to be as ancient as the time of Gregory the Great. Some of the more devout Christians observed the whole time from the first of these Sundays to Easter, as a season of humiliation and fasting, though the ordinary custom was to commence fasting on Ash-Wednesday.