A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

THURIFICATI. In times of persecution Christians who were brought to be examined before the heathen tribunal, were permitted to escape punishment by casting frankincense on an altar dedicated to an idol. This was of course an act of idolatry, and amounted to open and unreserved apostasy: some however there were who were betrayed into this act by present fear, rather than a real wish to deny Christ, and who sought afterwards, by a rigid penance, the peace of the Church. These were called Thurificati. (See Libellatici and Sacrificati.)

TIARA. The name of the pope’s triple crown. The tiara and keys are the badges of the papal dignity, the tiara of his civil rank, and the keys of his jurisdiction; for as soon as the pope is dead, his arms are represented with the tiara alone, without the keys. The ancient tiara was a round high cap. John XIII. first encompassed it with a crown; Boniface VIII. added a second crown; and Benedict XIII. a third.

TILES. The use of ornamented tiles in churches is at least as old as the Norman æra, and was never discontinued till the fall of Gothic art. A very valuable paper on the arrangement of tiles, by Lord Alwyne Compton, will be found in the first number of the collected papers of the Northamptonshire and other architectural societies.

TIPPET. In the 74th canon, in which decency in apparel is enjoined to ministers, it is appointed that “All deans, masters of colleges, archdeacons, and prebendaries, in cathedral and collegiate churches, (being priests or deacons,) doctors in divinity, law, and physic, bachelors in divinity, masters of arts, and bachelors of law, having any ecclesiastical living, shall usually wear gowns with standing collars and sleeves straight at the hands, or wide sleeves, as is used at the universities, with hoods or tippets of silk or sarsenet, and square caps.” And that all other ministers admitted, or to be admitted, into that function shall also usually wear the like apparel as is aforesaid, except tippets only. (See “The Tippets of the Canons Ecclesiastical,” by G. I. French, London, 1850.) And in the 58th canon: “It shall be lawful for such ministers as are not graduates to wear upon their surplices, instead of hoods, some decent tippet of black, so it be not silk.” See Mr. Gilbert French’s ingenious treatise on the Tippets of the Canons Ecclesiastical: from which it would appear that the present black scarf worn by some of the English clergy represents three things: 1. The stole; 2. the chaplain’s scarf; 3. the choir tippet. The chaplain’s scarf is a remnant of the ancient badges, or liveries, worn by the members of noblemen’s households, their chaplains included. The choir tippet grew out of the ancient almutium, or amice, that is, a vesture which covered the shoulders, and included the hood: the liripipium, or pendent part of the hood, sometimes hanging singly behind, (as in our modern hoods,) sometimes in duplicate before, like the scarf. In process of time the hood became separated from this pendent part in front, and hence the choir tippet. It is certain that the tippet so called, often made of sables or furs, was worn in the form of the scarf, by dignitaries of the Church and State for many ages in England. The scarf has been called a tippet immemorially in Ireland, and within memory in many parts of England. The law of the Church therefore seems to be this, that all ecclesiastics (whether priests or deacons) being prebendaries or of higher rank in cathedral and collegiate churches, and all priests or deacons being Masters of Arts or of higher degree, may wear either hoods or tippets of silk: and all non-graduate ministers (whether priests or deacons) may not wear hoods, but only tippets not of silk. Whence the tippet is to be worn by all clergymen. The 58th canon however is explicit as to the use of hoods by graduates. By the constant usage of cathedrals, both hood and scarf are worn by all capitular graduates.—Jebb.

TITHES, in the religious application of the phrase, is a certain portion, or allotment, for the maintenance of the priesthood, being the tenth part of the produce of land, cattle, or other branches of wealth. It is an income, or revenue, common both to the Jewish and Christian priesthood.

The priests among the Jews had no share allowed them in the division of the land, that they might attend wholly upon Divine service, and not have their thoughts diverted by the business of tillage, or feeding cattle, or any other secular employment. Their maintenance arose chiefly from the first-fruits, offerings, and tithes.

The ancient Christians, it is generally thought, held the Divine right of tithes, that is, that the payment of tithes was not merely a ceremonial or political command, but of moral and perpetual obligation; though Bellarmine, Selden, and others place them upon another foot. St. Jerome says expressly, that the law about tithes (to which he adds first-fruits) was to be understood to continue in its full force in the Christian Church. And both Origen and St. Augustine confirm the same opinion.

But why, then, were not tithes exacted by the apostles at first, or by the fathers in the ages immediately following? For it is generally agreed, that tithes were not the original maintenance of ministers under the gospel. It is answered, first, that tithes were paid to the priests and Levites, in the time of Christ and his apostles; and the synagogue must be buried, before these things could be orderly brought into use in the Church. Secondly, in the times of the New Testament, there was an extraordinary maintenance, by a community of all things; which supplied the want of tithes. Thirdly, paying tithes, as the circumstances of the Church then stood, could not conveniently be practised; for this requires that some whole state or kingdom profess Christianity, and the Church be under the protection of the magistrates; which was not the case in the apostolical times. Besides, the inhabitants of the country, from whom the tithes of fruits must come, were the latest converts to Christianity.

The common opinion is, that tithes began first to be generally settled upon the Church in the fourth century, when the magistrates protected the Church, and the empire was generally converted from heathenism. Some think Constantine settled them by a law upon the Church; but there is no law of that emperor’s now extant, that makes express mention of any such thing. However, it is certain tithes were paid to the Church before the end of the fourth century, as Mr. Selden has proved out of Cassian, Eugippius, and others. The reader may see this whole matter historically deduced, through many centuries, by that learned author.

The custom of paying tithes, or offering a tenth of what a man enjoys, is not so peculiar to the Jewish and Christian law, but that we find some traces of it even among the heathens. Xenophon has preserved an inscription upon a column near a temple of Diana, whereby the people were admonished to offer the tenth part of their revenues every year to the goddess. And Festus assures us, the ancients gave tithe of everything to their gods.