Francis made their appearance. The order was called into existence by Francis himself, and their first settlement was in the church of St. Damien, in the town of Assisi. St. Clare was their first prioress, from whom they were called Nuns of St. Clare or Clarisses.-See CLARISSES. They were also called Damiantines after the name of their first convent. Subsequently, they were divided into several branches, according to the degrees of austerity which they practised. At first they were supported by the alms collected by the friars, but afterwards by the revenues arising from their convents. These convents numbered 600 in the eighteenth century, and they contained 28,000 nuns. of St. Jerome, their patron. The fraternity of death buries such dead as are abandoned by their relations, and causes masses to be celebrated for them. In Rome the trades are exercised in fraternities, each having a patron saint,-the shoemakers having St. Crispin, the carpenters St. Joseph, the painters St. Luke, the curriers St. Lawrence, and the tanners St. Bartholomew. (Broughton's Dictionary.) Fratres Abbati (white brethren). See ABBATI. Free Church of Scotland.-See SCOTLAND, CHURCHES IN Freemason, probably originally a contraction for freestone mason, was, in early times, one who could work with a chisel, as distinguished from one who could only work with an axe or hammer, in dressing stones. Like other trades of the Middle Ages, the masons early formed Fraterculi Fratricelli (little brethren), the strictest class of Franciscans, who lived solely by begging, and regarded Pope Celestine V. as their founder. In their zeal they often declared against papal abuses, and were therefore dis-themselves into a free guild or corporation. This owned by the elder Franciscans, and condemned by Pope Boniface VIII.-See FRANCISCANS. Their Latin epithet was that with which St. Francis usually saluted his disciples, though the name has been often given to those who assumed a monastic gait, without belonging to any monastic order. Fraternities, societies in popish countries for purposes of devotion. The more famous of them are these: -1. Of the Rosary, which owed its rise to Dominic, the founder of the rosary. He appointed it, they say, by order of the blessed Virgin, as he was labouring for the conversion of the Albigenses. The devotion of the rosary, which had become neglected, was revived by Alanus de Rupe, about the year 1460. This fraternity is divided into two branches,-that of the Common Rosary, and that of the Perpetual Rosary. The former, every week, say the fifteen divisions of ten beads each, confess and communicate every first Sunday in the month. The brethren of it are likewise obliged to appear at all processions of the fraternity. The latter are under very strict engagements, the principal of which is to repeat the rosary perpetually, some one of them always saluting the blessed Virgin in the name of the whole brotherhood. 2. Of the Scapulary, whom, according to the Sabbatine bull of Pope John XXII., the blessed Virgin has promised to deliver out of hell the first Sunday after their death. 3. Of St. Francis's Girdle. They are clothed with a sack of a gray colour, which they tie with a cord, and in processions walk barefooted, carrying in their hands a wooden cross. 4. Of St. Augustine's Leathern Girdle, which comprehends a great many devotees, and the girdle is supposed to have been worn by the Virgin. Italy, Spain, and Portugal are the countries where are seen the greatest number of these fraternities, some of which assume the name of arch-fraternity. Pope Clement VII. instituted the arch-fraternity of charity, which distributes bread every Sunday among the poor, and gives portions to forty poor girls on the feast happened in Lombardy as early as the tenth century, and in Normandy in the twelfth century. Freemasonry is, however, traced by its votaries to a much more ancient period. The result of such societies was great in developing taste and skill on the part of the workmen, who were often designers as well as performers; for architects, in the proper sense of the term, were scarcely known. Ecclesiastical edifices of great beauty and stateliness being in demand, masons were patronized by the dignitaries of the church. Their guilds have been abrogated; but freemasonry, in a mystic form, still survives, and is spread over the world. French Prophets, The, were religious enthusiastics or fanatics, who arose in the south of France at the close of the seventeenth century, Their origin has been traced by M. Grégoire to a certain "school of the Prophets," in Dauphiny, conducted by a Calvinist named Du Serre. This statement, however, wants confirmation. They seem to have been closely connected with the Camisards, by which name, indeed, they are sometimes designated. The wars of the Camisards were caused by the intolerant measures taken by Louis XIV., after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The Camisards, so called from the white frocks which they wore, took up arms in their own defence, and were led by young men, who assumed the joint offices of captain and pastor, without any previous training for either. They fought courageously and successfully, because they fought for life itself. The king was at last obliged to come to terms with them. But during the sore and protracted struggle which they had had, they had come to acquire undue notions of their own importance, looking upon themselves as peculiarly favoured of the Lord, and considering their leaders as the inspired depositaries of his will. Thus they were prepared to acquiesce in the pretensions of the French prophets, who first appeared in Dauphiny and Vivarais in 1688. They were In of both sexes, and numbered at first between five and six hundred, though they soon amounted to many thousands. They believed, or at least declared themselves to be under the direct influence of the Holy Ghost. They went into trances, saw visions, and made the Cevennes mountains ring with their howlings and cries for mercy. When in this ecstatic state, every word they uttered was received by the deluded populace with superstitious awe and veneration. 1706 a few of the prophets came over to England, where the same manifestations occurred as in France. The great subject of their predictions was the speedy establishment of Messiah's kingdom. They likewise pretended to possess the gift of tongues and the power of working miracles. They obtained for some time considerable success in Great Britain, having their admiring followers not only in London, but also in the chief provincial towns. They were even joined by some parties of influence-such as Sir Richard Bulkely and John Lacey, Esq. The latter, who was originally a member of Dr. Calamy's congregation, entered, we are told, "into all their absurdities, except that of a community of goods, to which he strongly objected, having an income of £2,000 per annum.' The enthusiasm was at one time immense. But the prophets were soon put to the test, and did not stand it. They went so far as to assert that Dr. Emes, one of their own number lately deceased, would rise from the dead on a given day. This the doctor failed to do; and the followers of the prophets speedily found out that they had been the dupes of their own credulity. The influence of the prophets speedily declined; but their proceedings left a stigma for a time upon the reputation of the Huguenot refugees settled in Britain. Friar (from the Latin frater, a brother), a title generally applied to a brother of a religious order or community. As those monks who are in holy orders are denominated fathers, the term friar is applied only to monks not included in the priesthood. There are four generic orders: 1. Franciscans, friars minor, or grey friars; 2. Augustines; 3. Dominicans, or black friars; 4. Carmelites, or white friars. Friars, Minor.-See FRANCISCANS. Friday, the day of weekly fast, in memory of the crucifixion; and also a day of public worship in the early Church; sometimes also called half-fast, in opposition to the whole or Lent fast. Friends of God, societies which sprang up in Germany in the thirteenth century, formed originally of men who, satiated with popish routine and frivolity, longed for a spiritual faith, and had not a full and harmonious comprehension of divine truth. They based their name on John xv. 15. The famous Tauler was one of them; but not a few of them fell into a pantheistic quietism-a reaction from the mere externalism of the Popish Church. Finding no peace in ceremonial, they strove after a hidden life in God, but forgot the necessity of a clear perception of objective truth. The convictions spread by them paved the way for the great Reformation; for thousands were pining for a purer and simpler worship of the heart.-See COMMON LOT, BRETHREN OF THE. Friends, Society of.-See QUAKERS. Full Connection, Receiving into, a technical phrase in use among the Wesleyans, implying the honourable termination of the four years' course of trial appointed to probationers for the ministry among them. Mr. Benson gives the following particulars of the method pursued in the choice of itinerant preachers:-"1. They are received as private members of society on trial. 2. After a quarter of a year, if they are found deserving, they are admitted as proper members. 3. When their grace and abilities are sufficiently manifest, they are appointed leaders of classes. 4. If they then discover talents for more important services, they are employed to exhort occasionally in the smaller congregations when the preachers cannot attend. 5. If approved in this line of duty, they are allowed to preach. 6. Out of these men, who are called local preachers, are selected the itinerant preachers, who are first proposed at a quarterly meeting of the stewards and local preachers of the circuit, then at a meeting of the travelling preachers of the district, and lastly in the conference, and if accepted, are nominated for a circuit. Now those of the probationers selected who require a course of training in theology are sent to one or other of the academical institutions. 7. Their characters and conduct are examined annually in the conference, and if they continue faithful for four years are received into full connection." Fundamentals.-The question as to what are the fundamental truths of religion has often been debated in connection with theories of schism, heresy, toleration, and excommunication; but it has not been satisfactorily settled-some latitudinarian men narrowing fundamentals to a very few points, and other fanatical men multiplying them to an undue extreme. Locke thought that the one point was simply a confession that Jesus is Messiah; Samuel Clarke took his view from Hebrews vi. 1, 2; many others, such as Usher, Chillingworth, Davenant, Stillingfleet, and Tillotson, were content with the enumeration of the Apostles' Creed; while Romanists accept the definition of the church as the only rule. Waterland defines fundamentals in religion as things necessary to its being, or, at the least, its well-being. Some things are only necessary as matters of ritual and discipline, and other things there certainly are without belief in which salvation is impossible.-See EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE and its creed. How the strict theory works will be seen in the following paragraph, in which Mr. Palmer, without sigh or scruple, un churches all presbyterian parties in Scotland, both endowed and unendowed:-"These questions, however, are not essential in the discussion of the presbyterian ordinations; for it is certain, that such ordinations having been performed without any necessity, and in opposition to the authority of the bishops of Scotland, were in their origin illegitimate and schismatical; and the catholic Church in all ages has rejected such ordinations, and accounted them wholly null; therefore, the presbyterian establishment being founded in schism, and destitute of an apostolical ministry, constitutes no part of the visible Church of Christ. With regard to all the other sects in Gabriel, St., Congregation of, was founded at Boulogne by Branchetti, in 1646, for religious improvement. Gabriel, St., Feast of, is observed by the Greek Church on the twenty-sixth of March. A joint festival of St. Michael and St. Gabriel is also celebrated by the same church on the first of November. Gaianites, & party of Monophysites which took its name from Gaian, Patriarch of Alexandria, in the sixth century. They denied that Jesus was subject to any human infirmity, holding that his body was so permeated by his divinity as to be incorruptible, thus taking an erroneous view of that physical perfection which belonged to him. Galenists.-See WATERLANDIANS. Galilaeum, the name given to the oil for catechumens in the Greek Church. Galilean, a name often given to the early Christians, as Christ and his apostles had a close connection with Galilee (Acts ii. 7). Julian the Apostate scarcely used any other term to express his malignant scorn. Jesus he called "the Galilean God;" and when he was on the eve of death he is said to have cried, as he contemptuously addressed the Saviour, “Galilean, thou hast conquered." G Scotland which have seceded from the presbyterian community, such as Glassites, Sandemanians, Seceders, Burghers, Antiburghers, Constitutional Associate Presbytery, Relief Kirk, Scottish Baptists, Bereans, Independents, &c., the same observations apply to them all. Their predecessors, the Presbyterians, voluntarily separated themselves from the catholic Church of Christ; and they, in departing from the presbyterian communion, have not yet returned to that of the true Church, consequently, they form no part of the Church of Christ." Funeral or Funeral Bites or Service. -See BURIAL Gate, Holy, the name given in the Greek Church to the folding doors in the centre of the screen which divides the nave of the church from the most holy place. They are opened and shut several times during service. Gates, Holy. See JUBILEE. Gazares, a sect which rose at Gazarre, in Dalmatia, about 1197. They held as a special point that capital punishment was unlawful, and that no civil power had any right to inflict it. Their other opinions were not different from those | of the Albigenses. Gazophylacium (treasury). The diaconicum magnum was so called (which see). It was also called sceuophylacium, or repository of sacred vessels. See CEIMELIARCHE, CHURCH. Gemara, or completeness, the elaborate commentary on the Mishna, text and commentary together making the Talmud. One commentary was compiled at Jerusalem, another at Babylon, which is the more highly esteemed, and has been printed in twelve folio volumes. It is full of miserable superstition and fables.—See MISHNA, TALMUD. Gematı fa.—See CABALA. General Assembly.-See ASSEMBLY, and SCOTLAND, CHURCHES IN. General Baptists.-See BAPTISTS. General Councils.-See COUNCILS. Generation, Eternal, the name often applied in theology to describe the relation of the Son to the Father, -a relation beyond human analogy and comprehension. Galilee, a species of inner porch at the west end of many old churches, and still attached to the three cathedrals of Durham, Ely, and Lincoln, which were erected about the end of the twelfth century. It seems to have been connected with purposes of discipline. Excommunicated persons sat there, and the women also assembled there at Genethlia (yśvilλ μéga, birthday), a feast certain seasons. The name is supposed to be of nativity, such as Christmas, or rather the anderived from the words of the angel to the wo-niversary of a martyr's death, being, as Tertullian men-"He goeth before you into Galilee, there says, his nativity to a glorious crown.-See shall ye see him." The Galilee at Durham has CHRISTMAS. five aisles and three altars, and the consistory court is held in it; that of Lincoln is at the south-west corner of the south transept, and is cruciform in shape; while that of Ely differs little from an entrance porch. IN. Gallican Church. See FRANCE, CHURCHES Genevieve, St., Feast of, celebrated on the third of January in Paris, in honour of the patroness saint. Congregation of, an order of canons regular, originating in 1615—the Abbot of St. Genevieve being superior of all their monasteries. Nuns of, two orders of nuns, one founded by Miramion, in Paris, in 1615; and another in 1 1636 by Blosset, and united under Miramion in 1665. Their office was to educate the young, visit the sick, and do other deeds of charity. A sister underwent two years of probation, and when admitted, was clothed in black woollen, and repeated the office of the Virgin every day. Genuflectentes (kneelers), the third class of catechumens or penitents, so called because they received the benediction on their knees. They continued in this class for three, and occasionally for seven years. remarked that the female population is better instructed in the doctrines of Christianity than the male, or even than the priests themselves. Germany, Churches in.-The first explicit mention of the spread of Christianity into Germany is made by Irenæus, who was Bishop of Lyons in the latter half of the second century. The earliest period at which regularly organized Christian churches seem to have existed in Germany was towards the close of the third century. The knowledge of Christianity seems to have been carried simultaneously to the banks of the Rhine and to those of the Danube. The German invaders of the Roman empire, in the fifth century, were either Christians before their invasion, or became so immediately afterwards. In the end of the sixth century a number of new churches were founded in Germany, chiefly through the zealous efforts of Columbanus, an Irish monk. Still the great mass of the German tribes remained under the influence of paganism. In the George, St., Festival of, is observed in the Greek and Roman Churches on the twenty-third of April. St. George is the patron saint of England, and is famed in Romish legend for vanquishing the dragon. He was born in Cappadocia, and in 290 died a martyr under Diocletian, in whose army he had held a high command. When Robert, son of William the Conqueror, was besieging Antioch, St. George, with a red cross on his banner, appeared, with a countless host clad in white, as if descend-eighth century the cause of Christianity in Gering the hills to reinforce the Christian army against a threatened assault of the Saracens. The enemy fled in dismay at the strange and supernatural sight, and St. George, to whom Justinian had already dedicated a church, became patron saint of England.—See KNIGHTS. Georgian Church.-Georgia, which is an Asiatic province on the southern slope of the Caucasus, and was anciently called Iberia, originally belonged to Persia, but is now a part of the Russian empire. The primitive religion of the Georgians was probably a modification of that of the Persians. They were converted to Christianity in the fourth century, chiefly through the instrumentality of a Christian female captive, whose prayers were believed to have effected cures which all other means had failed to produce. A door of entrance being thus opened, preachers were sent from the Roman empire to instruct the people in the principles of the Christian religion, to which they have ever since remained faithful. The Georgian Church, from its proximity to Armenia, was led to join in the secession made by the church of that country from the orthodox Eastern Church. In fifty years, however, it returned to the communion of the latter, of which, since that time, it has formed an integral part. Though nominally subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople, to whom a tribute was paid, it possessed for fifteen centuries patriarchs of its own. In 1801 Georgia was conquered by Russia from Persia. The Georgian Church was then easily incorporated with the Russian Greek Church, and became subject to the Archbishop of Tiflis. The single peculiarity which distinguishes it from other branches of the Oriental Church is that it delays the baptism of children until their eighth year. There are in Georgia a large number of monasteries and nunneries. In the latter the women are so efficiently educated that it has been many received a powerful impulse through the labours of Winifred, an English Benedictine monk, afterwards known by the name of Boniface. Towards the end of the eighth century Charlemagne succeeded in establishing an outward form of Christianity throughout Saxon Germany. At the commencement of the thirteenth century Prussia was still almost entirely pagan. The Knights of the Teutonic Order of St. Mary succeeded, after a fifty-three years' war, in subduing it to the Christian faith; and it has thenceforth been a professedly Christian country. In the course of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries Christianity took deep root in all the German countries. The power of the papacy grew, and the Church seemed likely to monopolize all authority. The doctrines that the priest is the only true channel of communication with heaven, and that there is no salvation beyond the pale of the Catholic Church, were stoutly maintained. Men of reflection began to see that these principles were absurd and pernicious; but it was reserved for an humble yet earnest German monk to inaugurate the movement which resulted in the glorious Reformation. Germany nobly responded to the call of Luther, and has since been to a large extent a Protestant nation. Ever since the peace of Westphalia, in 1648, Germany has been almost equally divided between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism-the north having been predominantly Protestant, and the south predominantly Catholic. In Austria and Bavaria the Catholics are in a large majority. In Prussia the Protestants are in the majority. In Hanover, Würtemberg, Baden, Hesse Cassel, and Hesse Darmstadt, Nassau, Oldenburg, and the four free cities, the Protestants also predominate. The Protestant Church in Germany is split up into a large number of separate sections, each petty state having its own distinct church organization. Thus, territorially considered, there are no less | affairs of the Church. He paid little attention than thirty-eight distinct Protestant Churches to the theory of church government. Thus the in Germany. Theologically considered, how- Lutheran Church, emancipated from the thraldom ever, there are but three, viz., the Lutheran of the pope, submitted uncomplainingly to the Church, the Reformed Church, and the Evan- sway of temporal princes; and spiritual indegelical United Church. These three we now pendence is unknown in Germany. Notwithproceed to notice. standing this state of matters, there always I. The Lutheran Church dates its origin from existed in the Lutheran Church, down to the the year 1520, when Luther was expelled by union with the Reformed Church, in 1817, a Leo X. from the Romish Church. It assumed considerable amount of genuine religious life. a more definite shape on the publication, in 1530, A party of strict Lutherans refused to join of the Augsburg Confession. This confession, the union, and they constitute the Lutherthe composition of Melanchthon, assisted by ans proper of the present day. They are charLuther, consists of twenty-eight articles, twenty-acterized by a spirit of exclusive bigotry, and one of which contain an explanation of the an inordinate love of the formalities of religion. chief Protestant doctrines, the remaining seven They correspond very much to the English Puseybeing occupied with an enumeration of the va-ites. As the Puseyites seem to imagine that rious abuses which had caused Luther and his there can be no salvation to any who have not followers to forsake the Church of Rome. The received the ordinances of the Church from the Lutheran Church was finally established in 1552, hands of a successor of the apostles, so the when Maurice, the Elector of Saxony, formed a Lutherans act as if none could rank as a Chrisreligious pacification with Charles V. at Passau. tian brother unless he pledged himself to the The standards of the Lutheran Church are-the Augsburg Confession and the Formula of Concord. Augsburg Confession; the Apology for it, pub- They will hold no communion with those who lished in 1531; the Larger and Shorter Cate- deny a real and objective presence of Christ's chisms of Luther; the Articles of Smalcald; and humanity in the eucharistic elements. They the Formula of Concord. The Lutheran and the are consequently strenuous opponents of the prinReformed Churches both recognize the Word ciples of the Evangelical Alliance. It is geneof God as the only binding rule of faith and rally found that where a strict Lutheranism practice, but the Reformed Church considers that prevails, there the light of genuine Christianity in ecclesiastical affairs nothing ought to be per- burns but feebly, and the standard of morality is mitted to have place for which there is not unusually low. The countries in which, at the a direct warrant in the Scriptures; while the present time, Lutheranism is most powerful are, Lutheran Church, on the other hand, holds that -Brunswick, Hanover, Oldenburg, Thuringia, certain forms of worship, of which the Scriptures Saxony, Brandenburg, the Hanseatic towns, say nothing, and which are in themselves suit- Pomerania, Silesia, and Prussia. The form of able, may be legitimately admitted. Accordingly, government of the Lutheran Church in Germany "the Lutheran Church, while it has removed is presbyterian; but in Denmark and Sweden, the grosser elements of the Romish ritual, such where Lutheranism is more powerful than in as the mass, the adoration of saints and relics, Germany, it is episcopal. and the use of the vernacular in conducting divine service, adheres much more closely to the stated liturgical and sacramental system of Romanism than the Reformed Church, which has adopted the utmost simplicity of worship." The great leading principle which Luther strenuously proclaimed was the doctrine of justification by faith; and in so doing, he maintained what has ever since been considered the fundamental principle of Protestantism. There are, however, points with regard to which he, and the Lutheran Church following in his footsteps, occupy a position midway between Popery and genuine Protestantism. The chief of these regards the nature of the Lord's Supper. Luther, though denying that there is any sacrifice in the mass, or any atonement made thereby, yet held the real presence of Christ's humanity in, and with, and under the material elements in the Lord's Supper. This opinion the Lutherans have always persistently maintained. Luther was so much occupied in reforming theological opinions, that he had but little time to bestow upon the secular An extensive branch of the German Lutheran Church exists in the United States of America. It arose from emigrations from Europe at various periods, commencing with 1680. For a long time its condition was weakly, and its prospects were the reverse of encouraging. But it grew and flourished by degrees, until it now stretches over all the Middle and Western States and some of the Southern, numbering, according to late accounts, nearly 900 ministers, and perhaps thrice as many congregations, with eight theological seminaries and five colleges. Though forming but one church, it includes within its pale three parties, the Old Lutheran, the New Lutheran, and the Moderate or Melanchthonian party. Though great diversities exist among the members of this church, both in doctrine and in ceremonial observances, the church is making rapid progress, and its influence for good or evil must be very great, owing to the large numbers of German emigrants yearly arriving in the United States. II. The Reformed Church owes its origin to |