to succeed him. Moreover, the Constitution and Canons of the old Diocese continue to be those of the new (except as local circumstances may prevent) until they may be duly altered by the Convention. There are several other restrictions besides, but not of so much importance as the above.

An American Diocese, as represented in its Convention or Diocesan Synod, consists of its Bishop (and Assistant Bishop, if there be one), who always presides when present; it includes also nearly all the clergy, and lay delegates from each parish. Some Dioceses restrict their clerical membership by excluding all who have not been in residence for six months or a year, as well as all who are not in active clerical duty, or whose parishes are not in union with the Convention. The Diocesan Convention elects its own Bishop, by a separate vote of both orders. It elects also a Secretary and Treasurer, as well as a Standing Committee, who are the Bishop's constant Council of Advice, and without their consent he can do no official act of much importance. The clergy and laity also elect their own deputies to General Convention, and their own Board of Diocesan Missions, who, with the Bishop at their head, conduct the business of Church extension within the bounds of the Diocese itself. At the Convention the Bishop is required to present a full account of his Episcopal work for the year preceding, and he suggests any matters which he may think expedient for the action of his Convention. A Diocese has no reserved rights which it can defend as against legislation by the General Convention. But its Constitution and Canons, though subordinate to those of General Convention, are binding, so that a clergyman of the Diocese is liable to presentment and trial for violating them. The Dioceses are by the Constitution required to provide the mode of trying Presbyters and Deacons. The vote by orders is found in all the Dioceses, so that neither clergy nor laity can infringe upon one another's rights. But very few of the Dioceses give to the Bishop a separate vote in legislation. He commonly votes as one of the clergy. But his influence is generally as strong as his veto would be. The Standing Committee is "the ecclesiastical authority" during the vacancy of a Diocese for all those parts of a Bishop's administrative duty which do not require Episcopal consecration for their validity. They have power to invite any Bishop to perform these Episcopal acts; or the Convention may put the Diocese provisionally under the charge of any Bishop. It is very common for Dioceses of any extent to be subdivided into Convocations, Deaneries, or Archdeaconries; which are chiefly of use in ascertaining, by actual experience, what may be the most convenient lines for future subdivision into smaller Dioceses.

A Missionary Jurisdiction does not elect its own Bishop, nor elect a Standing Committee, nor legislate for itself, nor send a

full deputation to General Convention. In many respects its position is analogous to that of a Territory, as compared with a State, in our national political system.

REV. J. H. HOPKINS, D.D.

Diptychs. The tablets from which the roll of the names of the dead were read a: the celebration of the Holy Communion. It was probably borrowed from the consular registers of magistrates. There was a class of Diptychs in which the register of the orthodox Bishops who had ruled the See was read. Exclusion from this list was often a punishment. St. Cyprian directs that one of the Bishops subject to Carthage should have his name dropped because of an infringement of Church Law. The betterknown class of Diptychs was the roll of names of living and dead benefactors of the Church. These Diptychs became the basis for the Martyrologies. A prayer in the Mozarabic Liturgy is called Post Nomins, i.e., the prayer after the recitation of the

names.

Directory. A book explaining and regu lating Church ceremonials.

Disciple. The name borne by the followers of CHRIST in His lifetime. It included more than the Twelve Apostles. The name continued to be given till at last the title the Antiocheans bestowed upon them, of Christians, replaced it.

Discipline. In its fundamental principles the discipline of the Church in the United States is based on the few general directions contained in the New Testament and the primitive practices. In the application of those principles and in the use of particular methods there has been a considerable departure from early customs. The difference is due to many causes. At first the Christian Church stood surrounded by the customs, institutions, and especially the corrupting games and diversions of a heathen society. To these fascinating and seductive immoralities is due the rigid and precise system of ecclesiastical penalties and purgations well known to the student of Church history. The whole social constitution and manners being changed, the Church has resorted to different measures for preserving its honor and its purity. While diverse views are held as to the expediency of enforcing the obligations of upright and holy living by imposing penalties and disabilities, it is admitted on all sides that the spirit, tone, and convictions of the modern world are such as to render the infliction of ecclesiastical penalties extremely difficult. Theologians and divines differ widely on the question how far such penalties actually promote Christian truth and righteousness, even when they are practicable.

The discipline of the clergy is provided for in detail by the Canons. Reference to them shows that the object mainly sought is the maintenance of the character of the Christian ministry and the prevention of scandal and disorder in the Church through

moral transgression. As with the laity, the discipline is rather corrective than punitive, seeking the welfare of the whole body rather than to measure out a proportionate pain to the transgressor. The law for the arraignment and trial of any clergyman or Bishop, with a specification of offenses, is drawn up with great particularity, and may be found in the "Digest." The offenses may be in doctrine or in practice. Trials for heresy are perhaps as rare as those for immorality, but proceedings are much oftener initiated for the latter than for the former. On confession or by default, clergymen are suspended or deposed every year by Bishops. The rule prevails that a man shall be tried by his peers. The information and the court are found among the Clergy, who are supposed to guard both their own rights in their orders and their integrity. Minute precautions are appointed for the protection of the accused and the securing of justice in the sentence. Essentially the Bishop's function is judicial, though to some extent he has the powers of the grand jury, and the initiation or arrest of proceedings is largely at his discretion. Both from penalties for false teaching and bad living there may be restoration on a well-tested reformation or recantation. Thus far the efforts made in General Convention to establish Appellate Courts have not been successful, the best jurists not appearing to favor them. The public opinion of the Church and generally of the community sufficiently supports the judicial decisions of the Episcopate.

For the laity disciplinary authority is found in the few rather general directions on the subject (already referred to) scattered through the New Testament and in the Rubrics of the Prayer - Book, chiefly in those pertaining to the Office of the Holy Communion. As the highest privilege of the believer, and as the chief visible mark of his standing in the body, the LORD's Supper naturally becomes a criterion of fidelity to the Head of the Kingdom. Admission to it is a kind of certificate of the individual disciple's continuance in faith and obedience. Rejection from it is both the deprivation of a benefit and to some extent a public mark of chastisement or rebuke. Laymen are not brought before a Church tribunal. There is no trial by "brethren." Under the responsibility of the power of the Keys, guided by the grace of ordination and by the wise and loving judgment of the Shepherds of the Flock, the Priesthood admits or rejects. While the voluntary non-communicant can hardly be said to suffer disgrace by not participating, after once being lawfully received, to be prohibited or suspended brings reproach and must be felt as a priva tion. In each case the Priest depends for his knowledge on all such means of inquiry and evidence as may be within his reach. From flagrant injustice he is restrained by the civil law of the land. His duties being

extremely delicate and often extremely difficult, allowance has to be made for possible errors, especially where the case in hand is one where the law of the Church and the law of the State are not agreed, as happens frequently in the States as respects divorce and the relations of the sexes. Not seldom the legal complication prevents action where action ought to be taken. By a vast proportion the instances of moral dereliction unnoticed exceed those of hasty or unjust or excessive punishment. Looking simply at the question of probable good or evil resulting, thoughtful clergymen pause even when a prima facie case of guilt is made out. That the fear of what is sometimes called excommunication does hold in check a multitude of people of inferior moral and spiritual sensibility is indisputable; it hardly needs to be said that temporary suspensions at the private suggestion or requirement of the clergy are frequent. Church law allows all persons aggrieved in a sense of unmerited restraint to appeal to the Bishop of the Diocese, who, on inquiry and a full statement from the clergyman exercising discipline, may modify or remit the penalty. Such revisions and restorations are not very common. A laxer discipline than that which now exists would tend to lower the standard at least of outward piety without much raising the standard of charity. A discipline more rigorous and more active would require a catalogue of clearly-defined and universally-recognized moral offenses, apart from the Decalogue and the letter of the New Testament, which at present is not supplied.

RT. REV. F. D. HUNTINGTON, S.T.D., Bishop of Central New York. Dispensation. The word has two distinct uses. The first describes the economies under which GOD has dealt with men, as the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, and now the Christian Dispensation. These have had clear covenant limits, and under the last every man is living, and by it Christians are bound. It is the dispensing to us of the rights, privileges, and blessings obtained for us by CHRIST, which He gives through His Church (Eph. iv. 7, 16). In a subsidiary sense the word is used to mean some particular act or event recognized as coming from GOD,-an act of Providence, or a dispensation of Providence.

The second use is the right-useful at times, and belonging to each Bishop-to relax for cause the rigidity of ecclesiastical discipline. Its force does not go beyond the act and for the cause specified, and is not to be taken as a precedent overthrowing the law, but as a precedent governing the limits under which future dispensations may be granted, and it ceases when the causes which justified it cease. But this right was arrogated to himself by the Bishop of Rome, who made a traffic of his dispensations, which was checked in England by various statutes, chiefly that of

Provisors (Edward III.). In this country and under our Canon Laws dispensations are not needed.

Dissenters. A title given to those who dissent from the Established Church of England. This dissent is twofold: the dissent from her government; the dissent from her doctrines. But it is worthy of all consideration that the avowed principles on which such dissent is based, e.g., the proclamation of a slighted truth, is really the principle of disruption of all bonds. The Church of England does not break the principle of Apostolic unity. Neither her history nor her conduct at any time have laid her open to that charge. But the throwing off the Apostolic government and the magnifying of any one doctrine out of all proportion to the rest of the doctrines of the Faith, really breaks the net knotted of discipline and of truth. Again, it is to be insisted on, with the fullest proof at hand, that there is no doctrine proven to be in the Scriptures but is fully held in the Church in its due place in the frame-work of the Faith. The doctrine of Predestination held and urged by the Presbyterian is taught in its place in the scheme. It is not disproportionately extolled. The doctrine of the Methodist, of Free-will, is held within those true limitations that save it from Pelagianism. And so it is a truth that each dissenter will find the truths most dear to him, held, taught, enforced, but not out of its due position, in the joining together of those doctrines left by our LORD, and taught by His Apostles as needful for salvation. (This whole subject is most admirably treated in the Bampton Lecture for 1871, by Dr. G. H. Curteis, Dissent in its Relations to the Church of England.")

The

Divinity of Christ. Vide JESUS. Divorce. Vide MATRIMONY. Dogma. A theological principle. term belongs, strictly, to a positive statement of doctrine derived immediately or by derivation from Divine Revelation, and enunciated by the Church through a General Council. In a looser sense it is applied to the special tenets of particular Churches, or even of sects, if put forth by an authority recognized by them. Dogma presupposes substantial proof which is generally and in the ordinary sense of an historical or logical kind; but it must be remembered that we have reached the highest possible kind of evidence when it is proved that any particular statement has come from GOD. There can be no real opposition between dogma and history, or dogma and logic, so long as these principles are kept in view. But it must be remembered that there are some subjects in theology, especially such as relate to God Himself, which are beyond the province of history or of mere logical derivation, for they are dogmas which are known only from His revelation of them (Blunt's Dict. of Hist. Theology). The dogmas of the faith are summed up in the Creeds, and

are taught every person. But there is a popular dislike to listen to any direct teaching of dogma as such. This arises partly from the want of skill in the teachers in presenting the dogmatic teaching, and partly from a prevalent idea that dogma is exclusive, and now the desire to break down all barriers and to construct an inclusive body of doctrine, or rather to throw away doctrine altogether is the leading thought. It is an era of reaction against overstrained statements and misapplied dogmatic truths; but dogma can never be cast aside, it is the very constitution of the truth itself.

Dominical Letter. The Sunday letter for the year. (Vide CALENDAR.)

Donative. A spiritual preferment in the free gift of a patron, and without admission, institution, or induction by any mandate from the Bishop or other. But the donee may by the patron, or by any other authorized by the patron, be put into pos

session.

Dossel. A piece of embroidered needlework, stiff silk or cloth of gold, hung at the back of a throne or altar, but more particularly the latter.

Doubles. It may happen that the service of the Sunday and that of a Saint's day coincide. The question then occurs, Which is the service proper to the day? The ancient Sarum rule (which has not been changed by authority in the Anglican communion) is that the Saint's day service should take the place of the Sunday. So, unless that Sunday be a High-Feast day, or in Advent or Lent, the Lessons, Collect, Epistle, and Gospel of the Saint's day replace those of the Sunday. In some places the Collect for the Sunday has been read immediately after the Saint's day Collect, but this does not appear proper.

Doubt. In derivation the word doubt is related to the Latin word duo, two. The very word indicates an anxiety and trouble of mind which is painful. A man standing where two roads meet, uncertain which to take, represents the doubter.

"Man knows some things and is ignorant of many things, while he is in doubt as to other things. Doubt is that state of mind in which we hesitate as to two contradictory conclusions,-having no preponderance of evidence in favor of either." (Krauth's Fleming's Vocabulary of Philosophy.)

Doubt is some degree of belief, along with the consciousness of ignorance, in re gard to a proposition. Absolute disbelief implies knowledge; it is the knowledge that such or such a thing is not true. If the mind admits a proposition without any desire for knowledge concerning it, this is credulity. If it is open to receive the prcposition, but feels ignorance concerning it, this is doubt. In proportion as knowledge increases doubt diminishes, and belief or disbelief strengthens." (Taylor, Elements of Thought, quoted in the work last named.) In religion painful doubts are caused by a

72. TP-5. 10. 12; xv. 3; xvi. 5, The Liturgical Doxologies in m Pare Book are the Gloria Sama Ercelsis.

ted in Roman Theology Deverence due to the Saints rechy creature of GOD. But the vorì doulos, and the verb douservantship, service, and St. Paul calls himself the He speaks of serving

(douleuon) the LORD. Dulia, is used of the slavery of corruption in Romans viii. 21. In no place is douleia used in a good sense in the New Testament, though its cognates doulos and douleuo, are. The interior meaning of the word is to serve as a servant bought with a price. Even if the theory of rever ence to a creature were tenable, this term is most unhappily chosen, since no saint or angel has redeemed us. The doctrine itself savors of idolatry.

In Scripture, symbolic of GOD 4: Deut. xxxii. 11.); also the mysVisua creatures seen in vision by Ezekiel *** N Johu. There these Living Creatures Sed me fourfold form. In Ezekiel "they Apparently each of the four had ace of a man, the face of a lion on the side, the face of an ox on the left side,

A face of an eagle. In St. John's visca the first Living Creature was like a tek, the second like a calf (ox), the third ace as a man, and the fourth was like yg eagle. The symbolism has been

ly explained, and that upon which John's vision has been most generally ceed is that they are symbols of the four crvspola. The lion has been connected

Mark's Gospel, as setting forth our NU as the Lion of the tribe of Judah; A with St. Luke's Gospel, as setting hour LORD's sacrificial and intercessory the man with St. Matthew, as setting our LORD as the MESSIAH, the man quainted with sorrows; the eagle with St.

, as setting forth the Divinity of our 1 in His Incarnation. It is often used

ymbol placed beside the figure of St. Jha to distinguish him from the other angelists, since he has been permitted to upward into the Divine Presence as the to mounts upward to the sun.

The eagle has been used as a lectern to support the Bible in the Church, and has bro made a very effective part of the Church furniture.

Haster. A Saxon word, Eostre, a heathen goddess whose festival fell in the spring. But the Feast of the Resurrection falling at the spring tide, the name was transferred to the Christian feast. (Vide FESTIVALS and FANTS.) The Church, as soon as the revasion caused by persecution permitted bor, celebrated this feast with peculiar reJoicings; not only the day itself, but the week following was kept with great pomp. bu the Saxon Church it was a festal week. It was called the Queen of Festivals, the

Royal Day of Days. It was the day of Light, and in the Eastern Churches from the midnight of Easter-eve till day the churches have ever been illuminated as brilliantly as possible, and the solemn services were celebrated with great magnificence. The catechumens who had just been baptized were admitted to their first Communion then. Every act that could testify to the glad reception of all that the Resurrection can mean was done. It is in truth the kev, doctrinally, to our Faith; liturgically, to our worship; practically, to our life; and must be kept with a joyous heart by every Christian. ́ The date of the feast, year by year, was a cause of great solicitude. For several centuries it was the privilege of the See of Alexandria to announce to the Christian world the right date of Easter-Sunday, till at last perfect tables enabled the other Churches to arrive at the same result; and, too, the schisms and quarrels of the Church interfered with and broke up the custom. But the festal epistles of several Patriarchs of Alexandria are of great value. The con troversy upon the date which divided many of the Eastern Church from the West (ride QUARTODECIMAN) was an evidence of the importance placed upon it everywhere. (Upon the rule for finding Easter-day, vide CALENDAR.)

It is one of the days upon which the Church requires all her members to commune. The Epistle and Gospel for Easterday is apparently a change from the older English use (Col. iii. 1, and St. John xx. 1, for 1 Cor. v. 7, and St. Mark xvi. 1). But the Prayer-Book of 1549 A.D. ordered two celebrations, and gave two sets of Epistles and Gospels. In the revision of 1552 A.D., the older missal set was dropped and the later Epistle and Gospel kept." "The Collect dates

from 496 A D.

Eastern Churches, The. No intelligent Christian can read the history of the Eastern Churches without emotion, or study their present condition and circumstances without