A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

When a living becomes void by the death of an incumbent or otherwise, the ordinary is to send out his sequestration, to have the cure supplied, and to preserve the profits (after the expenses deducted) for the use of the successor. Sometimes a benefice is left under sequestration for many years together, namely, when it is of so small value that no clergyman, fit to serve the cure, will be at the charge of taking it by institution: in this case, the sequestration is committed sometimes to the curate only, sometimes to the curate and churchwardens jointly.

Sometimes the profits of a living are sequestered for neglect of duty: but that kind of sequestration most generally known and understood, because applicable to civil affairs, is upon the queen’s writ to the bishop to satisfy the debts of the incumbent.

This is where a judgment has been obtained in the law courts against a clergyman; and upon a fieri facias directed to the sheriff to levy the debt and damages, he makes his return that the defendant in a clerk beneficed, having no lay fee. Whereupon a levari facias is directed to the bishop to levy the same of his ecclesiastical goods, and by virtue thereof the property of the benefice shall be sequestered. In this case, the bishop may name the sequestrators himself, or may grant the sequestration to such persons as shall be named by the party who obtained the writ.

There are several other circumstances mentioned in books of ecclesiastical law, under which sequestration may take place; but it may be stated generally that, for any damages to which an incumbent may be made liable by civil action, the property of the benefice may also be made answerable by the process of sequestration. But it seems that the bishop is the party through whom this confiscation for the benefit of the creditor must take place. The sequestration is his act, to which he is bound by the queen’s writ; and it has been held that a bill filed in equity against sequestrators only was insufficient for want of parties. The bishop should be a party, for the sequestrator is accountable to him for what he receives.

SERAPHIM denotes an order of angels who surround the throne of the Lord. Derived from a Hebrew word, which signifies fiery. (See Angels.)

SERMONS are orations or discourses, delivered by the clergy of the Christian Church in their religious assemblies.

In the ancient Church, immediately after the reading of the psalms and lessons out of the Scriptures, before the catechumens were dismissed, followed the sermon, which the bishop, or some other appointed by him, made to the people. This, being done in the presence of the catechumens, was therefore reckoned a part of the Missa Catechumenorum or ante-communion service. Such discourses were commonly termed homilies, from the Greek ὁμιλίαι, which signifies indifferently any discourse of instruction to the people. Among the Latins they were frequently called tractatus, and the preachers tractatores.

Preaching, anciently, was one of the chief offices of a bishop; insomuch that, in the African Churches, a presbyter was never known to preach before a bishop in his cathedral church, till St. Austin’s time. In the Eastern Church, presbyters were indeed allowed to preach before the bishop; but this was not to discharge him of the duty, for still he preached a sermon at the same time after them. In the lesser churches of the city and country, the office of preaching was devolved upon the presbyters; but deacons never were allowed to perform it. There are numberless passages in the writings of the Fathers, which speak of preaching as a duty indispensably incumbent on a bishop. Many canons of councils either suppose or enjoin it. And in the imperial laws there are several edicts of the secular power to the same purpose. Particularly in the Theodosian code, there is one jointly made by the three emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, which bears this title, De munere seu officio episcoporum in prædicando verbo Dei, “of the duty and office of bishops in preaching the word of God.”

It has been a question, whether laymen were ever allowed by authority to make sermons to the people. It is certain they did it in a private way, as catechists, in their catechetic schools at Alexandria and other places; but this was a different thing from public preaching in the church. Sometimes the monks, who were only laymen, took upon them to preach; but this was censured and opposed, as an usurpation of an office that did not belong to them. Yet in some cases a special commission was given to a layman to preach; as in the case of Origen, who was licensed by Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, to preach and expound the Scriptures in the church, before he was in orders. As to women, whatever gifts they could pretend to, they were never allowed to preach publicly in the church; agreeably to the apostolical rule, “Let your women keep silence in the churches,” &c. But they might teach those of their own sex, as private catechists, and to prepare them for baptism. And this was the office of the deaconesses. The Montanists were a noted sect for giving the liberty of preaching to women, under pretence of inspiration by the Spirit; for they had their prophetesses, their women-bishops, and women-presbyters.

Next to the persons, the manner in which the office of preaching was executed, comes to be considered. And, first, it is observable, that they had sometimes two or three sermons preached in the same assembly, first by the presbyters and then by the bishop. When two or more bishops happened to be present in the same assembly, it was usual for several of them to preach one after another, reserving the last place for the most honourable person. In some places they had sermons every day, especially in Lent, and the festival days of Easter. St. Chrysostom’s homilies were evidently preached in Lent, one day after another; and, in St. Augustine’s homilies, there are frequent references to the sermon made heri and hesterno die. In many places they had sermons twice a day for the better edification of the people. But this is chiefly to be understood of cities and large churches. For in the country parishes there was not such frequent preaching.