A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

Indeed, this is a more methodical summary of the several mercies of God “to us and to all men,” than we had before: it furnishes an opportunity of thanking him more expressly for the late instances of his loving-kindness to the members of our own congregation; and besides, as we cannot be too thankful to God, the acknowledgments, which we offered up at the beginning of the service, are very properly repeated at the end. For surely we ought to ask nothing of God, without remembering what we have received from him: which naturally excites both our faith and resignation, and prepares the way for that admirable collect, with which we conclude.—Abp. Secker.

After enumerating the blessings for which we return our humble and hearty thanks, the form from eucharistic becomes petitionary. We beseech God to make us truly sensible of his mercies, and really thankful for them, that we may show our gratitude, and promote his glory, not only by celebrating his praises day by day in the public assemblies of the Church, but by walking in the paths of holiness and righteousness all our lives. These petitions we enforce through the merits of Jesus Christ; and we conclude the whole with a doxology, in which we ascribe to the Son, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.—Shepherd.

THEOLOGAL. An officer in some foreign cathedrals, generally a canon, often a dignitary, whose business it was to profess theology.

THEOLOGY, (From Θεὸς, God, and λόγος, a discourse.) A discourse concerning God, it being the business of this science to treat of the Deity. The heathens had their theologues or divines, as well as the Christians; and Eusebius and Augustine distinguished the theology of the heathens into three sorts: first, the fabulous and poetical; secondly, natural, which was explained by philosophy and physics; the third was political or civil, which last consisted chiefly in the solemn service of the gods, and in the belief which they had in oracles and divinations, together with the ceremonies wherewith their worship was performed.

Divinity among the Christians is divided into positive and scholastical; the first being founded upon fact and institution, having the Scriptures, councils, and Fathers for its bottom and foundation, and, properly speaking, this is true divinity: the other, called scholastical, is principally supported by reason, which is made use of to show, that the Christian theology contains nothing inconsistent with natural light; and with this view it is that Thomas Aquinas makes use of the authority of philosophers, and arguments from natural reason, because he was engaged with philosophers, who attacked the Christian religion with arguments from those topics.

THEOPHORI. (Θεὸς and φέρω.) See Christophori.

THOMAS’S, ST., DAY. A festival of the Christian Church observed on the 21st of December, in commemoration of St. Thomas the apostle.

THOMAS, ST., CHRISTIANS OF, who are of the Chaldæan and Nestorian sect, notwithstanding the several attempts made to reform them, remain firm to their ancient customs, and if they sometimes comply with the Popish missionaries, it is but in outward appearance: when they are desired to submit to the Church of Rome, they answer, that as St. Peter was chief of that Church, so St. Thomas was head of theirs, and both Churches were independent one of another, and they stand stedfast in acknowledging the patriarch of Babylon, without minding the pope: they hold, as Moreri relates, Nestorius’s opinion, receive no images, and do not much reverence the cross. They hold that the souls of saints do not see God before the day of judgment. They allow three sacraments, viz. baptism, orders, and the eucharist: but even in these they do not agree, there being several forms of baptism in the same Church: they abhor auricular confession; and for their consecration make use of small cakes, made with oil and salt; the wine they use is nothing but water in which they steep raisins: they observe no age for orders, but make priests at seven, eighteen, twenty, &c., who may marry as often as their wives die. They administer no sacrament without their fees or reward, and, as for marriage, they make use of the first priest they meet with. They have all an extraordinary respect for the patriarch of Babylon, chief of the Nestorians, and cannot abide to hear the pope named in their churches, where, for the most part, they neither have curate nor vicar, but the eldest presides: it is true they go to mass on Sundays, not that they think themselves obliged in conscience to do so, or that they would sin mortally if they did not. Their children, unless it be in case of sickness, are not baptized till the fiftieth day. At the death of friends, the kindred and relations keep an eight days’ fast in memory of the deceased: they observe the times of Advent and Lent, the festivals of our Lord, and many of the saints’ days, those especially that relate to St. Thomas, the Dominica in Albis, or Sunday after Easter, in memory of the famous confession which St. Thomas on that day made of Christ, after he had been sensibly cured of his unbelief; another on the 1st of June, celebrated not only by Christians, but by Moors and Pagans. The people who come to his sepulchre on pilgrimage, carry away a little of the red earth of the place where he was interred, which they keep as an inestimable treasure, and believe it to be a sovereign remedy against diseases: their priests are shaven in fashion of a cross; but Simon does not charge them with so many errors as Meneses does, from whom this account is taken.

THRONE. The bishop’s principal seat in his cathedral. At St. Paul’s the bishop has two thrones; that at the end of the stalls probably representing the episcopal throne, properly so called, which he assumed at the more solemn part of the service; that more westerly his ordinary seat, or stall. In old times the bishop of London often occupied the stall usually assigned to the dean, as is still the custom at Ely and Carlisle. The bishop’s throne in the ancient basilicas and churches was at the apex of the apsis, a semicircle behind the altar. The marble chair of the archbishop at Canterbury, in which he is enthroned, formerly occupied a place behind the altar; a remnant of the old arrangement, as appears from Darl’s Canterbury. The cumbrous pew occupied by the doctors and university officers at St. Mary’s, Cambridge, is called the throne.

THUNDERING LEGION. (See Legion.)