A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

URSULINES. An order of nuns, founded originally by St. Angeli, of Brescia, in the year 1537, and so called from St. Ursula, to whom they are dedicated.

USE. In former times each bishop had the power of making some improvements in the liturgy of his church: in process of time, different customs arose, and several became so established, as to receive the names of their respective churches. Thus gradually the “Uses” or customs of York, Sarum, Hereford, Bangor, Lincoln, Aberdeen, &c., came to be distinguished from each other.

The missals and other ritual books of York and Hereford have been printed; but we have inquired in vain for the names of the bishops who originated the unessential peculiarities which they contain. Their rubrics are sometimes less definite than those of the Sarum “USE,” and they contain some few offices in commemoration of departed prelates and saints, which are not found in other missals, &c. The “Use” or custom of Sarum derives its origin from Osmund, bishop of that see in A. D. 1078, and chancellor of England. We are informed by Simeon of Durham, that about the year 1083, King William the Conqueror appointed Thurstan, a Norman, abbot of Glastonbury. Thurstan, despising the ancient Gregorian chanting, which had been used in England from the sixth century, attempted to introduce in its place a modern style of chanting invented by William of Fescamp, a Norman. The monks resisted the innovations of their abbot, and a scene of violence and bloodshed ensued, which was terminated by the king’s sending back Thurstan to Normandy. This circumstance may very probably have turned the attention of Osmund to the regulation of the ritual of his church. We are informed that he built a new cathedral; collected together clergy, distinguished as well for learning as for a knowledge of chanting; and composed a book for the regulation of ecclesiastical offices, which was entitled the “Custom” book. The substance of this was probably incorporated into the missal and other ritual books of Sarum, and ere long, almost the whole of England, Wales, and Ireland, adopted it. When the archbishop of Canterbury celebrated the liturgy in the presence of the bishops of his province, the bishop of Salisbury (probably in consequence of the general adoption of the “Use” of Sarum) acted as precentor of the college of bishops, a title which he still retains. The churches of Lincoln and Bangor also had peculiar “Uses;” but we are not aware that any of their books have been printed. A MS. pontifical, containing the rites and ceremonies performed by the bishop, still (we believe) remains in the church of Bangor; it is said to have belonged to Anianus, who occupied that see in the thirteenth century. The church of Aberdeen in Scotland had its own rites; but whether there was any peculiarity in the missal we know not, as it has never been published. The breviary of Aberdeen, according to Zaccaria, was printed in A. D. 1609 (qu. 1509?). Independently of these rites of particular churches, the monastic societies of England had many different rituals, which, however, all agreed substantially, having all been derived from the sacramentary of Gregory. The Benedictine, Carthusian, Cistertian, and other orders, had peculiar missals. Schultingius nearly transcribes a very ancient sacramentary belonging to the Benedictines of England; Bishop Barlow, in his MS. notes on the Roman missal, speaks of a missal belonging to the monastery of Evesham; and Zaccaria mentions a MS. missal of Oxford, written in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, which is in the library of the canons of S. Salvator at Bologna. This last must probably be referred to some of the monastic societies, who had formerly houses in Oxford; as the bishopric or church of Oxford was not founded till the sixteenth century.

It may be remarked in general of all these missals and rituals, that they differed very little; the sacramentary of Gregory was used every where, with various small additions. However, the rites of the churches throughout the British empire were not by any means uniform at the middle of the sixteenth century, and needed various corrections; and therefore the metropolitan of Canterbury, and other bishops and doctors of the holy Catholic Church, at the request and desire of King Edward VI., revised the ritual books; and having examined the Oriental liturgies, and the notices which the orthodox fathers supply, they edited the English ritual, containing the common prayer and administration of all the sacraments and rites of the Church. And although our liturgy and other offices were corrected and improved, chiefly after the example of the ancient Gallican, Spanish, Alexandrian, and Oriental, yet the greater portion of our prayers have been continually retained and used by the Church of England for more than 1200 years.—Palmer.

VALENTINIANS. Heretics, who sprang up in the second century, and were so called from their leader, Valentinus.

This sect was one of the most famous and most numerous amongst the ancients. Valentinus, who was the author of it, was an Egyptian, and began there to teach the doctrine of the Gnostics. His merit made him aspire to the episcopacy; but another having been preferred before him, Valentinus, enraged at this denial and resolved to revenge himself of the affront given him, departed from the doctrine of the Church, and revived old errors. He began to preach his doctrine in Egypt, and from thence coming to Rome, under the pontificate of Pope Hyginus, he there spread his errors, and continued to dogmatize till the pontificate of Anicetus, i. e. from the year 140 to 160.

Of all the Gnostics, none formed a more regular system than Valentinus. His notions were drawn from the principles of the Platonists. The Æons were attributes of the Deity, or Platonic ideas, which he realized, or made persons of them, to compose thereof a complete deity, which he called Pleroma, or Plenitude; under which was the Creator of the world, and the angels, to whom he committed the government of it. The most ancient heretics had already established those principles, and invented genealogies of the Æons: but Valentinus, refining upon what they had said, placed them in a new order, and thereto added many fictions. His system was this:

The first principle is Bythos, i. e. depth: it remained for many ages unknown, having with it Ennoia, i. e. Thought, and Sigê, i. e. Silence. From these sprung the Nous, or Intelligence, which is the only son, equal to it alone, and capable of comprehending it; whose sister is Aletheia, i. e. Truth. This is the first quaternity of Æons, which is the source and original of all the rest. For Nous and Aletheia produced the Word and the Life; and from these two proceeded Man and the Church. This is the second quaternity of the eight principal Æons. The Word and the Life, to glorify the Father, produced five couple of Æons: man and the Church formed six. These thirty Æons bear the name of attributes and compose the Pleroma, or Plenitude of the Deity. Sophia, or Wisdom, the last of these Æons, being desirous to arrive at the knowledge of Bythos, gave herself a great deal of uneasiness, which created in her anger and fear, of which was born matter. But the Horos, or Bounder, stopped her, preserved her in the Pleroma, and restored her to perfection. Then she produced the Christ and the Holy Spirit; which brought the Æons to their last perfection, and made every one of them contribute their utmost to form the Saviour. Her Enthymese, or Thought, dwelling near the Pleroma, perfected by the Christ, produced everything that is in the world, by its divers passions. The Christ sent into it the Saviour, accompanied with angels, who delivered it from its passions, without annihilating it; and from thence was formed corporeal matter, which was of two sorts; the one bad, arising from the passions; the other good, proceeding from conversion, but subject to the passions.

There are also three substances, the material, the animal, and the spiritual. The Demiurgus, or maker of the world, by whom the Enthymese formed this world, is the animal substance: he formed the terrestrial man, to whom the Enthymese gave a spirit: the material part perished necessarily; but that which is spiritual can suffer no corruption; and that which is animal stood in need of the spiritual Saviour, to hinder its corruption. This Saviour or Christ passed through the womb of the Virgin, as through a canal, and at his baptism the Saviour of the Pleroma descended upon him in the form of a dove. He suffered as to his animal part, which he received from Demiurgus, but not as to his spiritual part. There are likewise three sorts of men, the spiritual, material, and animal. These three substances were united together in Adam; but they were divided in his children. That which was spiritual went into Seth, the material into Cain, and the animal into Abel. The spiritual men shall be immortal, whatever crimes they commit; the material, on the contrary, shall be annihilated, whatever good they do: the animal shall be in a place of refreshment, if they do good; and shall be annihilated, if they do evil. The end of the world shall come, when the spiritual men shall have been formed and perfected by the Nous. Then the Enthymese shall ascend up to the Pleroma again, and be re-united with the Saviour. The spiritual men shall not rise again: but shall enter with the Enthymese into the Pleroma, and shall be married to the angels, who are with the Saviour. The Demiurgus shall pass into the region where his mother was, and shall be followed by the animal men, who have lived well; where they shall have rest. In fine, the material and animal men, who have lived ill, shall be consumed by the fire, which will annihilate all matter.

The disciples of Valentinus did not strictly confine themselves to his system. They took a great deal of liberty, in ranging the Æons according to their different ideas, without condemning one another upon that account. But what is most abominable is, that from these chimerical principles they drew detestable conclusions as to morality: for, because spiritual beings could not perish, being good by nature, hence they concluded that they might freely and without scruple commit all manner of actions, and that it was not at all necessary for them to do good; but above all, they believed continence to be useless. We have, in Clemens Alexandrinus, an extract of a letter of Valentinus, in which he maintains, that God does not require the martyrdom of his children, and that, whether they deny or confess Christ before tyrants, they shall be saved. If they believed that good works were necessary, it was only for animal men. Some believed that baptism by water was superfluous; others baptized in the name of the unknown Father, of the truth the mother of all, of him who descended in Jesus, of the light, redemption, and community of powers. Many rejected all outward ceremonies.