The Jewish exorcists were beaten by devils, who said, "Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye?"
19:13. Now some also of the Jewish exorcists, who went about, attempted to invoke over them that had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying: I conjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth.
The professional exorcist was known among the Jews; in Greece the art was practised by women, and it is recorded that the mothers of Epicurus and Aeschines belonged to this class; both were bitterly reproached, the one by the Stoics, the other by Demosthenes, with having taken part in the practices in question. The prominence of exorcism in the early ages of the Christian church appears from its frequent mention in the writings of the fathers, and by the 3rd century there was an order of exorcists (see EXORCIST). The ancient rite of exorcism in connexion with baptism is still retained in the Roman ritual, as is also a form of service for the exorcising of possessed persons. The exorcist signs the possessed person with the figure of the cross, desires him to kneel, and sprinkles him with holy water; after which the exorcist asks the devil his name, and abjures him by the holy mysteries of the Christian religion not to afflict the person possessed any more. Then, laying his right hand on the demoniac's head, he repeats the form of exorcism as follows: "I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ; tremble, O Satan, thou enemy of the faith, thou foe of mankind, who hast brought death into the world, who hast deprived men of life, and hast rebelled against justice, thou seducer of mankind, thou root of evil, thou source of avarice, discord and envy." Houses and other places supposed to be haunted by unclean spirits are likewise to be exorcised with similar rites, and in general exorcism has a place in all the ceremonies for consecrating and blessing persons or things (see BENEDICTION). Entry: EXORCISM
ENERGICI, or ENERGUMENS (Gr. "possessed by a spirit"), the name given in the early Church to those suffering from different forms of insanity, who were popularly supposed to be under the control of some indwelling spirit other than their own. Among primitive races everywhere disease is explained in this way, and its removal supposed to be effected by priestly prayers and incantations. They were sometimes called [Greek: Cheimazomenoi], as being "tossed by the waves" of uncontrollable impulse. Persons afflicted in this way were restricted from entering the church, but might share the shelter of the porch with lepers and persons of offensive life (Hefele, _Conciliengeschichte_, vol. i. § 16). After the prayers, if quiet, they might come in to receive the bishop's blessing (_Apost. Const_. viii. 6, 7, 32) and listen to the sermon. They were daily fed and prayed over by the exorcists, and, in case of recovery, after a fast of from 20 to 40 days, were admitted to the eucharist, and their names and cures entered in the church records. Entry: ENERGICI
EVANGELICAL CHURCH CONFERENCE EXPULSION EVANGELICAL UNION EXTENSION EVANS, CHRISTMAS EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES EVANS, EVAN HERBER EXTERRITORIALITY EVANS, SIR GEORGE DE LACY EXTORTION EVANS, SIR JOHN EXTRACT EVANS, OLIVER EXTRADITION EVANSON, EDWARD EXTRADOS EVANSTON EXTREME UNCTION EVANSVILLE EYBESCHÜTZ, JONATHAN EVARISTUS EYCK, VAN EVARTS, WILLIAM MAXWELL EYE (English town) EVE EYE (organ) EVECTION EYEMOUTH EVELETH EYLAU EVELYN, JOHN EYRA EVERDINGEN, ALLART VAN EYRE, EDWARD JOHN EVEREST, SIR GEORGE EYRE, SIR JAMES EVEREST, MOUNT EYRIE EVERETT, ALEXANDER HILL EZEKIEL EVERETT, CHARLES CARROLL EZRA EVERETT, EDWARD EZRA, THIRD BOOK OF EVERETT (Massachusetts, U.S.A.) EZRA, FOURTH BOOK OF EVERETT (Washington, U.S.A.) EZRA AND NEHEMIAH, BOOKS OF EVERGLADES EZZO EVERGREEN EZZOLIED EVERLASTING F EVERSLEY, CHARLES SHAW LEFEVRE FABBRONI, ANGELO EVESHAM FABER EVIDENCE FABER, BASIL EVIL EYE FABER, FREDERICK WILLIAM EVOLUTION FABER, JACOBUS EVORA FABER, JOHANN ÉVREUX FABERT, ABRAHAM DE EWALD, GEORG HEINRICH AUGUST VON FABIAN, SAINT EWALD, JOHANNES FABIUS EWART, WILLIAM FABIUS PICTOR, QUINTUS EWE FABLE EWELL, RICHARD STODDERT FABLIAU EWING, ALEXANDER FABRE, FERDINAND EWING, JULIANA HORATIA ORR FABRE D'ÉGLANTINE, FRANÇOIS NAZAIRE EWING, THOMAS FABRETTI, RAPHAEL EXAMINATIONS FABRIANI, SEVERINO EXARCH FABRIANO EXCAMBION FABRICIUS, GAIUS LUSCINUS EXCELLENCY FABRICIUS, GEORG EXCHANGE FABRICIUS, HIERONYMUS EXCHEQUER FABRICIUS, JOHANN ALBERT EXCISE FABRICIUS, JOHANN CHRISTIAN EXCOMMUNICATION FABRIZI, NICOLA EXCRETION FABROT, CHARLES ANNIBAL EXECUTION FABYAN, ROBERT EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS FAÇADE EXEDRA FACCIOLATI, JACOPO EXELMANS, RENÉ JOSEPH ISIDORE FACE EXEQUATUR FACTION EXETER, EARL, MARQUESS & DUKE OF FACTOR EXETER (England) FACTORY ACTS EXETER (New Hampshire, U.S.A.) FACULA EXETER BOOK FACULTY EXHIBITION FAED, THOMAS EXHUMATION FAENZA EXILARCH FAEROE EXILE FAESULAE EXILI FAFNIR EXMOOR FOREST FAGGING EXMOUTH, EDWARD PELLEW FAGGOT EXMOUTH FAGNIEZ, GUSTAVE CHARLES EXODUS, BOOK OF FAGUET, ÉMILE EXODUS, THE FA-HIEN EXOGAMY FAHLCRANTZ, CHRISTIAN ERIK EXORCISM FAHRENHEIT, GABRIEL DANIEL EXORCIST FAIDHERBE, LOUIS LÉON CÉSAR EXOTIC FAIENCE EXPATRIATION FAILLY, PIERRE LOUIS CHARLES DE EXPERT FAIN, AGATHON JEAN FRANÇOIS EXPLOSIVES FAIR EXPRESS FAIRBAIRN, ANDREW MARTIN EXPROPRIATION FAIRBAIRN, SIR WILLIAM Entry: EVANGELICAL
The long probation called "abstinence" which led up to it is a survival of the primitive catechumenate with its scrutinies. The prostrations of the _credens_ before the Perfect were in their manner and import identical with the prostrations of the catechumen before the exorcist. We find the same custom in the Celtic church of St Columba. Just as at the third scrutiny the early catechumen passed a last examination in the Gospels, Creed and Lord's Prayer, so after their year of abstinence the credens receives creed and prayer; the allocution with which the elder "handed on" this prayer is preserved, and of it the Abbé Guiraud remarks that, if it were not in a Cathar ritual, one might believe it to be of Catholic origin. It is so Christian in tone, he quaintly remarks elsewhere, that an inquisitor might have used it quite as well as a heretic. In it the Perfect addresses the postulant, as in the corresponding Armenian rite, by the name of Peter; and explains to him from Scripture the indwelling of the spirit in the Perfect, and his adoption as a son by God. The Lord's Prayer is then repeated by the postulant after the elder, who explains it clause by clause; the words _panis superstantialis_ being interpreted not of the material but of the spiritual bread, which consists of the Words of Life. Entry: CATHARS
Celsus opens the way for his own attack by rehearsing the taunts levelled at the Christians by the Jews. Jesus was born in adultery and nurtured on the wisdom of Egypt. His assertion of divine dignity is disproved by his poverty and his miserable end. Christians have no standing in the Old Testament prophecies, and their talk of a resurrection that was only revealed to some of their own adherents is foolishness. Celsus indeed says that the Jews are almost as ridiculous as the foes they attack; the latter said the saviour from Heaven had come, the former still looked for his coming. However, the Jews have the advantage of being an ancient nation with an ancient faith. The idea of an Incarnation of God is absurd; why should the human race think itself so superior to bees, ants and elephants as to be put in this unique relation to its maker? And why should God choose to come to men as a Jew? The Christian idea of a special providence is nonsense, an insult to the deity. Christians are like a council of frogs in a marsh or a synod of worms on a dunghill, croaking and squeaking, "For our sakes was the world created." It is much more reasonable to believe that each part of the world has its own special deity; prophets and supernatural messengers had forsooth appeared in more places than one. Besides being bad philosophy based on fictitious history, Christianity is not respectable. Celsus does not indeed repeat the Thyestean charges so frequently brought against Christians by their calumniators, but he says the Christian teachers who are mainly weavers and cobblers have no power over men of education. The qualifications for conversion are ignorance and childish timidity. Like all quacks they gather a crowd of slaves, children, women and idlers. "I speak bitterly about this," says Celsus, "because I feel bitterly. When we are invited to the Mysteries the masters use another tone. They say, 'Come to us ye who are of clean hands and pure speech, ye who are unstained by crime, who have a good conscience towards God, who have done justly and lived uprightly.' The Jews say, 'Come to us ye who are sinners, ye who are fools or children, ye who are miserable, and ye shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven.' The rogue, the thief, the burglar, the poisoner, the spoiler of temples and tombs, these are their proselytes. Jesus, they say, was sent to save sinners; was he not sent to help those who have kept themselves free from sin? They pretend that God will save the unjust man if he repents and humbles himself. The just man who has held steady from the cradle in the ways of virtue He will not look upon." He pours scorn upon the exorcists--who were clearly in league with the demons themselves--and upon the excesses of the itinerant and undisciplined "prophets" who roam through cities and camps and commit to everlasting fire cities and lands and their inhabitants. Above all Christians are disloyal, and every church is an illicit collegium, an insinuation deadly at any time, but especially so under Marcus Aurelius. Why cannot Christians attach themselves to the great philosophic and political authorities of the world? A properly understood worship of gods and demons is quite compatible with a purified monotheism, and they might as well give up the mad idea of winning the authorities over to their faith, or of hoping to attain anything like universal agreement on divine things. Entry: CELSUS
MARTIN, ST (c. 316-400), bishop of Tours, was born of heathen parents at Sabaria (Stein am Agger) in Pannonia, about the year 316. When ten years old he became a catechumen, and at fifteen he reluctantly entered the army. While stationed at Amiens he divided his cloak with a beggar, and on the following night had the vision of Christ making known to his angels this act of charity to Himself on the part of "Martinus, still a catechumen." Soon afterwards he received baptism, and two years later, having left the army, he joined Hilary of Poitiers, who wished to make him a deacon, but at his own request ordained him to the humbler office of an exorcist. On a visit home he converted his mother, but his zeal against the Arians roused persecution against him and for some time he lived an ascetic life on the desert island of Gallinaria near Genoa. Between 360 and 370 he was again with Hilary at Poitiers, and founded in the neighbourhood the monasterium locociagense (Licugé). In 371-372 the people of Tours chose him for their bishop. He did much to extirpate idolatry from his diocese and from France, and to extend the monastic system. To obtain privacy for the maintenance of his personal religion, he established the monastery of Marmoutier-les-Tours (Martini monasterium) on the banks of the Loire. At Trèves, in 385, he entreated that the lives of the Priscillianist heretics should be spared, and he ever afterwards refused to hold ecclesiastical fellowship with those bishops who had sanctioned their execution. He died at Candes in the year 400, and is commemorated by the Roman Church on the 11th of November (duplex). He left no writings, the so-called _Confessio_ being spurious. He is the patron saint of France and of the cities of Mainz and Würzburg. The _Life_ by his disciple Sulpicius Severus is practically the only source for his biography, but it is full of legendary matter and chronological errors. Gregory of Tours gives a list of 206 miracles wrought by him after his death; Sidonius Apollinaris composed a metrical biography of him. The Feast of St Martin (Martinmas) took the place of an old pagan festival, and inherited some of its usages (such as the _Martinsmännchen_, _Martinsfeuer_, _Martinshorn_ and the like, in various parts of Germany); by this circumstance is probably to be explained the fact that Martin is regarded as the patron of drinking and jovial meetings, as well as of reformed drunkards. Entry: MARTIN
II. As a pathological state lycanthropy may be described as a kind of hysteria, and may perhaps be brought into connexion with the form of it known as _latah_. It is characterized by the patient's belief that he has been metamorphosed into an animal, and is often accompanied by a craving for strange articles of food, including the flesh of living beings or of corpses. In the lower stages of culture the state of the patient is commonly explained as due to possession, but where he leaves the neighbourhood of man real metamorphosis may be asserted, as in ordinary lycanthropic beliefs. Marcellus of Sida says that in Greece the patients frequented the tombs at night; they were recognizable by their yellow complexion, hollow eyes and dry tongue. The Garrows of India are said to tear their hair when they are seized with the complaint, which is put down to the use of a drug applied to the forehead; this recalls the stories of the witch's salve in Europe. In Abyssinia the patient is usually a woman; two forms are distinguished, caused by the hyena and the leopard respectively. A kind of trance ushers in the fit; the fingers are clenched, the eyes glazed and the nostrils distended; the patient, when she comes to herself, laughs hideously and runs on all fours. The exorcist is a blacksmith; as a rule, he applies onion or garlic to her nose and proceeds to question the evil spirit. Entry: II
III. _Civilization and Religion._--The Finno-Ugric tribes have not been equally progressive; some, such as the Finns and Magyars, have adopted, at least in towns, the ordinary civilization of Europe; others are agriculturists; others still nomadic. The wilder tribes, such as the Ostiaks, Voguls and Lapps, mostly consist of one section which is nomadic and another which is settling down. The following notes apply to traces of ancient conditions which survive sporadically but are nowhere universal. Few except the Hungarians have shown themselves warlike, though we read of conflicts with the Russians in the middle ages as they advanced among this older population. But most Finno-Ugrians are astute and persevering hunters, and the Ostiaks still shoot game with a bow. The tribes are divided into numerous small clans which are exogamous. Marriage by capture is said to survive among the Cheremiss, who are still polygamous in some districts, but purchase of the bride is the more general form. Women are treated as servants and often excluded from pagan religious ceremonies. The most primitive form of house consists of poles inclined towards one another and covered with skins or sods, so as to form a circular screen round a fire; winter houses are partly underground. Long snow-shoes are used in winter and boats are largely employed in summer. The Finns in particular are very good seamen. The Ostiaks and Samoyedes still cast tin ornaments in wooden moulds. The variation of the higher numerals in the different languages, which are sometimes obvious loan words, shows that the original system did not extend beyond seven, and the aptitude for calculating and trading is not great. Several thousands of the Ostiaks, Voguls and Cheremiss are still unbaptized, and much paganism lingers among the nominal Christians, and in poetry such as the _Kalewala_. The deities are chiefly nature spirits and the importance of the several gods varies as the tribes are hunters, fishermen, &c. Sun or sky worship is found among the Samoyedes and _Jumala_, the Finnish word for god, seems originally to mean sky. The Ostiaks worship a water-spirit of the river Obi and also a thunder-god. We hear of a forest-god among the Finns, Lapps and Cheremiss. There are also clan gods worshipped by each clan with special ceremonies. Traces of ancestor-worship are also found. The Samoyedes and Ostiaks are said to sacrifice to ghosts, and the Ostiaks to make images of the more important dead, which are tended and honoured, as if alive, for some years. Images are found in the tombs and barrows of most tribes, and the Samoyedes, Ostiaks and Voguls still use idols, generally of wood. Animal sacrifices are offered, and the lips of the idol sometimes smeared with blood. Quaint combinations of Christianity and paganism occur; thus the Cheremiss are said to sacrifice to the Virgin Mary. The idea that disease is due to possession by an evil spirit, and can be both caused and cured by spells, seems to prevail among all tribes, and in general extraordinary power is supposed to reside in incantations and magical formulae. This belief is conspicuous in the _Kalewala_, and almost every tribe has its own collection of prayers, healing charms and spells to be used on the most varied occasions. A knowledge of these formulae is possessed by wizards (Finnish noita) corresponding to the Shamans of the Altaic peoples. They are exorcists and also mediums who can ascertain the will of the gods; a magic drum plays a great part in their invocations, and their office is generally hereditary. The non-Buddhist elements of Chinese and Japanese religion present the same features as are found among the Finno-Ugrians--nature-worship, ancestor-worship and exorcism--but in a much more elaborate and developed form. Entry: III
(a) Natural causes, either of death or of disease, are hardly, if at all, recognized by the uncivilized; everything is attributed to spirits or magical influence of some sort. The spirits which cause disease may be human or non-human and their influence is shown in more than one way; they may enter the body of the victim (see POSSESSION), and either dominate his mind as well as his body, inflict specific diseases, or cause pains of various sorts. Thus the Mintra of the Malay Peninsula have a demon corresponding to every kind of disease known to them; the Tasmanian ascribed a gnawing pain to the presence within him of the soul of a dead man, whom he had unwittingly summoned by mentioning his name and who was devouring his liver; the Samoan held that the violation of a food tabu would result in the animal being formed within the body of the offender and cause his death. The demon theory of disease is still attested by some of our medical terms; epilepsy (Gr. [Greek: epilêpsis], seizure) points to the belief that the patient is possessed. As a logical consequence of this view of disease the mode of treatment among peoples in the lower stages of culture is mainly magical; they endeavour to propitiate the evil spirits by sacrifice, to expel them by spells, &c. (see EXORCISM), to drive them away by blowing, &c.; conversely we find the Khonds attempt to keep away smallpox by placing thorns and brushwood in the paths leading to places decimated by that disease, in the hope of making the disease demon retrace his steps. This theory of disease disappeared sooner than did the belief in possession; the energumens ([Greek: energoumenoi]) of the early Christian church, who were under the care of a special clerical order of exorcists, testify to a belief in possession; but the demon theory of disease receives no recognition; the energumens find their analogues in the converts of missionaries in China, Africa and elsewhere. Another way in which a demon is held to cause disease is by introducing itself into the patient's body and sucking his blood; the Malays believe that a woman who dies in childbirth becomes a _langsuir_ and sucks the blood of children; victims of the lycanthrope are sometimes said to be done to death in the same way; and it is commonly believed in Africa that the wizard has the power of killing people in this way, probably with the aid of a familiar. Entry: DEMONOLOGY
Dryden, when criticizing Ben Jonson's comedies, thought fit, while allowing the old master humour and incontestable "pleasantness," to deny him wit and those ornaments thereof which Quintilian reckons up under the terms _urbana_, _salsa_, _faceta_ and so forth. Such wit as Dryden has in view is the mere outward fashion or style of the day, the euphuism or "sheerwit" or _chic_ which is the creed of Fastidious Brisks and of their astute purveyors at any given moment. In this Ben Jonson was no doubt defective; but it would be an error to suppose him, as a comic dramatist, to have maintained towards the world around him the attitude of a philosopher, careless of mere transient externalisms. It is said that the scene of his _Every Man in his Humour_ was originally laid near Florence; and his _Volpone_, which is perhaps the darkest social picture ever drawn by him, plays at Venice. Neither locality was ill-chosen, but the real atmosphere of his comedies is that of the native surroundings amidst which they were produced; and Ben Jonson's times live for us in his men and women, his country gulls and town gulls, his alchemists and exorcists, his "skeldring" captains and whining Puritans, and the whole ragamuffin rout of his _Bartholomew Fair_, the comedy _par excellence_ of Elizabethan low life. After he had described the pastimes, fashionable and unfashionable, of his age, its feeble superstitions and its flaunting naughtinesses, its vapouring affectations and its lying effronteries, with an odour as of "divine tabacco" pervading the whole, little might seem to be left to describe for his "sons" and successors. Enough, however, remained; only that his followers speedily again threw manners and "humours" into an undistinguishable medley. Entry: JONSON
The Constitutions themselves fall into three main divisions. (i.) The first of these consists of books i.-vi., and throughout runs parallel to the _Didascalia_. Bickell, indeed, held that this latter was an abbreviated form of books i.-vi.; but it is now agreed on all hands that the Constitutions are based on the _Didascalia_ and not vice versa. (ii.) Then follows book vii., the first thirty-one chapters of which are an adaptation of the _Didache_, whilst the rest contain various liturgical forms of which the origin is still uncertain, though it has been acutely suggested by Achelis, and with great probability, that they originated in the schismatical congregation of Lucian at Antioch. (iii.) Book viii. is more composite, and falls into three parts. The first two chapters, [Greek: peri charismatôn], may be based upon a lost work of St Hippolytus, otherwise known only by a reference to it in the preface of the _Verona Latin Fragments_; and an examination shows that this is highly probable. The next section, cc. 3-27, [Greek: peri cheirotoyioy], and cc. 28-46, [Greek: peri kayoyoy], is twofold, and is evidently that upon which the writer sets most store. The apostles no longer speak jointly, but one by one in an apostolic council, and the section closes with a joint decree of them all. They speak of the ordination of bishops (the so-called Clementine Liturgy is that which is directed to be used at the consecration of a bishop, cc. 5-15), of presbyters, deacons, deaconesses, sub-deacons and lectors, and then pass on to confessors, virgins, widows and exorcists; after which follows a series of canons on various subjects, and liturgical formulae. With regard to this section, all that can be said is that it includes materials which are also to be found elsewhere--in the _Egyptian Church Order_ and other documents already spoken of--and that the precise relation between them is at present not determined. The third section consists of the Apostolic Canons already referred to, the last and most significant of which places the Constitutions and the two epistles of Clement in the canon of Scripture, and omits the Apocalypse. They are derived in part from the preceding Constitutions, in part from the canons of the councils of Antioch, 341, Nicaea, 325, and possibly Laodicaea, 363. Entry: APOSTOLICAL