Baha'ism is a religion founded in Iran by Baha'ullah with about five million adherents throughout the world. Following the suppression of the millenarian Babi movement Babism in Iran and the execution of its leader, the Bab, in 1850, Baha'ullah declared himself in 1863 to be the new prophet heralded by the Bab. Baha'ullah acknowledged the revelations of earlier prophets such as Jesus and Muhammad, but held that the single identity of God must be re-taught by new prophecy to each generation.
Baha'is believe in the spiritual progression of the world to unity and their ideal is an international community with one language. Baha'i temples are open to the faithful of all creeds. A Universal House of Justice administers the religion, with its centres in Haifa and Akko (Acre) in Israel. There is no clergy or ritual; spiritual practice includes daily private prayer and an annual period of fasting, which ends with the festival of Now Ruz, the Persian New Year at the spring equinox. Baha'is stress the equality of women and the importance of monogamous family life.
Although Baha'is regard the Koran and Muhammad with reverence, to Muslims the Baha'is are heretics who have displaced the Koran from its position as the final and most important revelation; this has led to persecution in Iran since the religion's inception, with renewed force since the Islamic revolution of 1979. Furthermore, the location of the Baha'is world centre in Israel has led to an association of Baha'is with that country and made the Baha'is a target of anti-Semitic sentiment. Research Baha'ism
Benefit of Clergy was a privilege by which formerly in England the clergy accused of capital offences were exempted from the jurisdiction of the lay tribunals, and left to be dealt with by their bishop. Though originally it was intended to apply only to the clergy or clerks, latterly every one who could read was considered to be a clerk, and the result of pleading 'his clergy' was tantamount to acquittal. A layman could only receive the benefit of clergy once, however, but he was not allowed to go without being branded on the thumb, a punishment which latterly might be commuted for whipping, imprisonment, or transportation. Benefit of Clergy was abolished in 1827. Research Benefit of Clergy
The Book of Common Prayer is the liturgy or public form of prayer prescribed by the Church of England to be used in all churches and chapels, and which the clergy are to use under a certain penalty. The Book of Common Prayer is used also by the English-speaking Episcopal churches in Scotland, Ireland, America, and the colonies, as well as by some non-episcopal bodies, with or without certain alterations. It dates from the reign of Edward VI and was published in 1549, and again with some changes in 1552. Some slight alterations were made upon it when it was adopted in the reign of Elizabeth I. In the reign of James I, and finally soon after the Restoration, it underwent new revisions. Research Book of Common Prayer
Canon Law is a collection of ecclesiastical constitutions for the regulation of the Church of Rome, consisting for the most part of ordinances of general and provincial councils, decrees promulgated by the popes with the sanction of the cardinals, and decretal epistles and bulls of the popes. There is also a canon law for the regulation of the Church of England, which under certain restrictions is used in ecclesiastical courts and in the courts of the two universities.
In the Roman Church these collections came into use in the 5th and 6th centuries. The chief basis of them was a translation of the decrees of the four first general councils, to which other decrees of particular synods and decretals of the popes were added. In the time of Charlemagne the collection of Dionysius the Little acquired almost the authority of laws. Equal authority, also, was allowed to the spurious 9th-century collection of decretals falsely ascribed to Isidore, Bishop of Seville. After the 10th century systematical compendiums of ecclesiastical law began to be drawn from these canons, the most important being that of the BenedictineGratian of Chiusi, finished in 1151. Within ten years after its appearance the Universities of Bologna and Paris had their professors of canon law, who taught from Gratian's work, which superseded all former chronological collections. After the appearance of the Decretum Gratiani, new decrees of councils and new decretals were promulgated, which were collected by Raymond of Pennaforte under the name of Decretales Gregorii Noni (1234); and the later decretals, etc, collected by Boniface VIII, were published as the sixth book of the Gregorian Decretals in 1298, all these having the authority of laws.
Pope Clement V published a collection of his decrees in 1313. About the year 1340 the decretals of John XXII were published (Extravagantes Johannis XXII); and at a later period the subsequent decretals, to the time of Sextus IV. (Extravagantes Communes) appeared. These Extravagantes have not altogether the authority of law. Under Pope Pius IV a commission was appointed to revise the Decretum Gratiani, the work being completed under Gregory XIII, and sanctioned by bull in 1580. The authority of the canon law in England, since the Reformation, depends upon the statute 25th Henry VIII, according to which such ecclesiastical laws as were not repugnant to the laws of the realm and the king's prerogative were to remain in force until revised. This revision was never made. A body of 141 canons was drawn up for the English church in 1603-4, and these are still partially in force, so far as concerns the clergy. Research Canon Law
Celibacy is the state of being celibate or unmarried, the term being especially applied to the voluntary life of abstinence from marriage followed by many religious devotees and by some orders of clergy, as those of the Roman Catholic Church.
The ancient Egyptian priests preserved a rigid chastity; the priestesses of ancient Greece and Rome were pledged to perpetual virginity; and celibacy was for long the rule with the Buddhist priests of the East. Among Christians the earliest aspirants to the spiritual perfection supposed to be attainable through celibacy were not ecclesiastics as such, but hermits and anchorites who aimed at superior sanctity. During the first three centuries the marriage of the clergy was freely permitted, but by the Council of Elvira in 305 continence was enjoined on all who served at the altar. For centuries this subject led to many struggles in the church, but was finally settled by Gregory VII positively forbidding the marriage of the clergy. The Council of Trent in 1593 confirmed this rule. In the Greek Church celibacy is not compulsory on the ordinary clergy. Protestants hold that there is no moral superiority in celibacy over marriage, and that the church has no right to impose such an obligation on any class of her ministers. Research Celibacy
A concordat is a convention between the pope, as head of the Roman Catholic Church, and any secular government, for the settling of ecclesiastical relations. One of the most important of the earlier concordats, that of Worms, called also the Calixtine Concordat, made in 1122, between PopeCalixtus II and the Emperor Henry V, has been regarded as the fundamental law of the church in Germany. Another celebrated concordat was that agreed upon between Cardinal Gonsalvi, in the name of Pius VII, and Napoleon in July, 1801. By it the head of the state had the nomination of bishops to the vacant sees; the clergy became subject in temporal matters to the civil power; all immunities, ecclesiastical courts, and jurisdictions were abolished in France, and even the regulations of the public worship and religious ceremonies and the pastoral addresses of the clergy, were placed under the control of the secular authorities. This concordat was practically abrogated in 1905 by the separation of church and state. The government had previously broken off diplomatic relations with the papacy. Research Concordat
A constitution is the fundamental law of a state, whether it be a written instrument of a certain date, as that of the United States of America, or an aggregate of laws and usages which have been formed in the course of ages, like the English constitution. The ideal constitution is that established by a free sovereign people for their own regulation, though the expediency of other forms at various stages of national development cannot but be recognized. The chief of these are: 1. Constitutions granted by the plenary power of absolute monarchs, or constitutions octroyees; such as Louis XVIII's Charte. 2. Those formed by contract between a ruler and his people, the contract being mutually binding - a class under which, in a great degree, the British constitution must be placed. 3. Those formed by a compact between different sovereign powers, such as the constitutions of the German Empire, of the United Provinces of Holland, and of the Swiss Confederation.
In regard to political principles, constitutions are; 1. Democratic, when the fundamental law guarantees to every citizen equal rights, protection, and participation, direct or indirect, in the government, such as the constitutions of the United States and of some cantons of Switzerland. 2. Aristocratic, when the constitution recognizes privileged classes, as the nobility and clergy, and intrusts the government entirely to them, or allows them a very disproportionate share in it. Such a constitution was that of Venice, and such at one time those of some Swiss cantons, for instance, Bern. 3. Of a mixed character. To this, latter division belong some monarchical constitutions, which recognize the existence of a king whose power is modified by other branches of government of a more or less popular cast. The British constitution belongs to this division. Research Constitution
The dissolution of the monasteries in England was carried out by Henry VIII between 1535 and 1539. This was an attack on Church property for three reasons. First, the monks were the main supporters of the Papal authority in England, and they were members of orders which were spread over Europe. It had proved possible to separate the English bishops and clergy from allegiance to the Pope; this was not possible with the monastic orders, which were international, not insular, institutions. The second reason was the wealth of the monasteries, which was the result of the pious bequest of many centuries. The cry against monastic wealth had been raised many times previously in English history, particularly by John Wycliffe and others from the time of Edward III and Richard II. The courtiers of Henry VIII and the rising middle class were greedy for land, and Henry VIII saw that by ministering to their greed he could make his new nobility and their new property a firm support of his Reformation. The third reason for ending the monasteries was
the reason given to Parliament: that the monks had outlived their day of usefulness and were abandoned to idleness and vice. There were over 600 religious houses in England, and no doubt there was some truth in this charge. Zealous churchmen had long known that all was not well with these ancient institutions. In Henry VII's reign the Oxford Reformers had rebuked monkish follies, and CardinalMorton had noted the 'incurable uselessness' of many of the smaller houses where the monks were idle and ignorant. CardinalWolsey had obtained a Papal Bull to visit the monasteries, and had begun to suppress some, intending to use their revenues for the benefit of education and the New Learning and to found new bishoprics. One of them, St. Frideswide's Priory at Oxford, he converted into Cardinal College (later Christ Church).
In 1535 Henry VIII made Thomas Cromwell his Vicar-General, 'with power to visit any monastery in England'. The character of Cromwell was sufficient guarantee that the visitation would not be conducted fairly. He knew what was expected of him; he was to be 'The Hammer of the Monks'. His agents hurried through England, visited some of the monasteries, and drew up an evil report. This report unfortunately no longer exists. Our only information is derived from Cromwell's note-books and from the letters of his agents, from which we may gather something of their methods. For example, Dr. Layton, vicar of Harrow-on-the-Hill, dashed through southern England from Gloucestershire to Rent between August and October 1535. He condemned monasteries wholesale, on insufficient evidence, although at the same time he did not scruple to accept bribes from some, or to help himself to plate and jewels from others.
However, Parliament was satisfied, and the country squires, anxious for the 'goods of the Church', shouted ' Down with them!' The Act dissolving 276 of the lesser monasteries of England in 1536 was the last important Act of the Reformation Parliament. In dissolving the smaller monasteries first, Henry VIII had cautiously tested his power. But his violent measures had by 1536 caused grave discontent, especially in the west and north, and in Parliament itself. His wholesale destruction of the smaller monasteries was followed by two popular uprisings. The first occurred in Lincolnshire, where the rebels were crushed by a military force under the Duke of Suffolk. The second rising, in Yorkshire in 1536, known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, was much more serious. The following year the famous shrine of Becket at Canterbury was attacked. Thomas Becket was declared in April 1538 'a false saint and a traitor to the Supreme Head of the Church'; his bones were burnt; his shrine pillaged and its offerings confiscated.
Then Henry VIII was ready to turn his attention to the greater monasteries, although Parliament had saved them earlier because of their good conduct. Cromwell and his agents in 1539 began a persecution of the abbots: many were induced to surrender their abbeys to the king; others could only be reduced by methods of terror. The Abbots of Reading and Colchester were tried for treason; the Abbot of Glastonbury for felony. All three were executed. The odious methods of Cromwell are well shown in some notes left in his own handwriting: 'To see that the evidence be well sorted and the indictments well drawn against the said abbots. The Abbot of Reading to be sent down to be tried and executed at Reading with his accomplices. The Abbot of Glaston to be tried at Glaston, and also executed there with his accomplices.' The last Abbot of Glastonbury, a pious, venerable man beloved in the countryside, was executed with two of his brethren on GlastonburyTor, after a mock trial in November 1539. These ferocities had the desired effect: many less brave spirits gave in, and soon there were no monasteries left. The dissolution of 616 religious houses was the greatest revolution in the ownership of land in England since the Norman Conquest. The monastic income has been variously estimated at between one-fifth and one-third of the total rental of England.
This newly acquired wealth the king might have used in developing public works, such as education. Some of it was spent in re-building the Navy; but the king's own greed and the greed of courtiers swallowed most of the spoil. A thousand newly enriched families became the nobility on which Henry in future relied for support. The 'Abbey' where the descendants or successors of these Tudor families now live is a name to be found in many an English village. But sad indeed was the fate of the original buildings. Some, like the great church at Tewkesbury, have been preserved in the form of parish churches; others have been partly preserved to form cathedrals. But the greater number were ruthlessly destroyed by their new possessors, their roofs despoiled for the valuable lead, their walls made quarries for new buildings, their treasures scattered, and their ruins left desolate. Whatever defence may be made for the suppression of the monastic orders, no excuse can be offered for this orgy of destruction, which deprived England of some of her noblest monuments.
It is probable that at least 15000 persons were cast adrift. These people went to swell the already large number of the unemployed, for whom Tudor statesmanship could find no better relief than the savage punishments inflicted on thieves and vagabonds. Some of the monks were given benefices or pensioned by the Government, but the pensions were not always paid; the occupants of the lesser houses fared worse than those of the greater. The hospitality which the monks had always given to the poor was now removed. There was nothing to take its place, and many monks and nuns joined the ranks of those who had formerly subsisted on their charity. Many gaps were left in national life, for the abbeys, said Aske 'were one of the beauties of this realm to all men and strangers passing through the same; all gentlemen much succoured in their needs with money, and in nunneries their daughters brought up in virtue. And such abbeys as were near the danger of seabanks were great maintainers of sea-walls and dykes, builders of bridges and highways, and such other things for the commonwealth.' Research Dissolution of the Monasteries
An encyclical is a circular letter on ecclesiastic affairs written in Latin and addressed by the Pope to all the clergy and faithful of the Roman Catholic Church. The first was issued by Benedict XIV in 1740, but encyclicals only became common in the 19th century. Research Encyclical
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
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