A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

XXIX. This holy synod enjoins all patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops, and all others who, by right or custom, ought to assist at a provincial council, that in the first provincial synod that may be holden after the conclusion of the present council, they do openly receive all and each of the things which have been defined and enacted by this holy synod; also that they do promise and profess true obedience to the supreme Roman pontiff, and at the same time publicly detest and anathematize all heresies condemned by the sacred canons, the general councils, and especially by this present synod. (See Popery.)

XXX. Whosoever shall say, that the clergy in holy orders, or regulars having made a solemn profession of chastity, may contract marriage, and that a marriage so contracted is valid, notwithstanding the ecclesiastical law or vow; and that to maintain the contrary is nothing else than to condemn matrimony, and that all may contract marriage who do not feel themselves to have the gift of continence, even though they should have made a vow of it: let him be accursed; since God denies it not to such as rightly ask it, nor will he suffer us to be tempted above what we are able. (See Celibacy.)

XXXI. Whosoever shall say, that the state of matrimony is to be preferred to the state of virginity or single life, and that it is not better or more blessed to continue in virginity or single life: let him be accursed. (See Matrimony.)

TRENTAL. A service of thirty masses for the dead, usually celebrated on as many different days.

TRICANALE. “A round ball with a screw coin for the water of mixture,” at the holy communion in Bishop Andrewes’s chapel, and in Canterbury cathedral. Canterbury’s Dom., 1646, and Neale’s Hist. of the Puritans, vol. ii. pp. 223, 224.—Jebb.

TRIFORIUM. Any passage in the walls of a church, but generally restricted in its use to the passage immediately over the arches of the great arcade, usually, in Norman and Early English, marked by an arcade of its own. It is so called as being in most cases a triple aperture, opening to the nave. In the Geometrical style, the Triforium is sometimes treated as a mere decorative arcade, connected in composition with the clerestory; and in the Decorated it sinks still lower into a course of panels, pierced at intervals; while in the Perpendicular it either wholly disappears, or is a mere lengthening of the mullions of the clerestory windows.

TRINITY. (See Person, God, Jesus, Christ, Messiah, Son of God, Holy Ghost.) Of Faith in the Holy Trinity.—“There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions: of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”—Article I.

“Whosoever will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith. Which faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity: neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the substance.”—Athanasian Creed.

Here it is said, that in the unity of the Godhead there be three persons; that is, though there be but one living and true God, yet there be three persons, who are that one living and true God. Though the true God be but one in substance, yet he is three in subsistence; and so three in subsistence, as still to be but one in substance. And these three persons, every one of which is God, and yet all three but one God, are really related to one another; as they are termed in Scripture, one is a Father, the other a Son, the other a Holy Ghost. The first is Father to the second, the second is Son to the first, the third is neither Father nor Son, but the issue or spirit of both. The first was a Father from eternity, as well as God; the second was God from eternity, as well as a Son; the third was both Holy Ghost and God from eternity, as well as either of them. The Father is the first person in the Deity; not begotten, nor proceeding, but begetting; the Son, the second, not begetting, nor proceeding, but begotten; the Holy Ghost, the third, not begotten, nor begetting, but proceeding. The first is called the Father, because he begot the second; the second is called the Son, because he is begotten of the Father; the third is called the Holy Ghost, because breathed both from the Father and the Son.

And though these be thus really amongst themselves distinct from one another, yet are they not distinct in the Divine nature; they are not distinct in essence, though they be distinct in the manner of their subsisting in it. The Father subsists as a Father, the Son as a Son, the Holy Ghost as a Spirit, and so have distinct subsistences; yet have all the same numerical substance. We say numerical or individual substance; for otherwise they might have all the same Divine nature, and yet not be the same God. As Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were three distinct persons, and had all the same human nature; yet they could not all be called one man; because, though they had but one human nature, yet they had it specifically, as distinguished into several individuals; not numerically, so as to be the same individual man; and, therefore, though they had but one specifical, they had several numerical, natures, by which means Abraham was one man, Isaac another, Jacob a third. And upon the same account is it, that, amongst the angels, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, though they have the same angelical nature, yet they are not the same angel. But here the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost have not only the same Divine nature “in specie,” but “in numero;” and so have not only one and the same nature, but are one and the same God. The Father is the self-same individual God with the Son; the Son is the self-same individual God with the Father; and the Holy Ghost is the self-same individual God with them both. We say, individual God, for the Divine nature is not divided into several Gods, as the human is into several men, but only distinguished into several persons, every one of which hath the same undivided Divine nature, and so is the same individual God. And thus it is, that in the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; which great mystery, though we be not able adequately to conceive of it, yet the Scriptures give a sufficient testimonial to it.—Beveridge.