the priory of the Holy Trinity, in London, the prior of which was always one of the aldermen of the city. And so greatly did they from this time flourish and increase in number, that besides the priory of Merton (which was founded for them in the year 1117, by Gilbert, a Norman earl) they had in the time of Edward I. no fewer than fifty-three priories. Their numbers however subsequently decreased, for we find they had only about thirty-two houses at the time of their suppression in the reign of Henry VIII. The rule which this religious order observed, although founded, as already remarked, upon that of St. Augustin, was prescribed to them by Pope Alexander IV. in 1256. This rule was that they should have all things in common; that the rich, who might become members of their body, should sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor; that the first part of the morning should be employed in labour, and the remainder in study; that when they went abroad they should always go two in company; that they should never eat out of their monastery; with sundry other minor regulations. Indeed, there are three different rules under the name of St. Augustin, which the different religious congregations of that appellation, and who still continue in the church of Rome, pretend were drawn up by St. Augustin himself. Erasmus and Hospitian however both clearly shew that the first two of these rules cannot be properly attributed to Augustin, and that if he were really the author of this last, it was probably prepared by him, not for his clergy, or any order of monks, but for the use of some pious women who lived in common under the conduct of his sister.-See Judicium Erasmi de St. Aug. Monachatu, et Regulis; Hosp. de Orig. Mon. lib. vi.; and Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. cent. xiii. pt. 2. ch. 2. From the Augustins also there arose a reformed class, under the denomination of bare-footed Augustins, otherwise called Minarets, or Friars Minor. There are also some nuns and canonesses, who observe the rules and bear the name of St. Augustin. In England, the Augustins were popularly called Austin Friars, a name yet retained in the city of London. Augustinians is a term also applied to those who following the opinion of St. Augustin, maintain that grace, from its nature, is absolutely and morally effectual unto salvation, and not relatively or gradually. These are divided into classes, the rigid, and the relaxed. AURAD, an Arabic term denoting certain portions or sections of the Koran, which it is customary for the Mahometans to recite at stated hours of the day. AURICULAR CONFESSION, the act of disburdening the conscience privately to a priest, and used in distinction to public confession. In the earliest ages of Christianity confession was required from those, who having fallen into any grievous and notorious sin after baptism had been expelled the church, or cast out, as it was termed, from the community of the faithful. This was made by the penitent after having undergone the punishment, and performed the penances inflicted on him by the church, in the face of the whole congregation, by throwing himself at their feet, and imploring their pardon and forgiveness. For the greater manifestation of his sorrow he was now required to make a public confession of the sin for which he had been expelled from the community, and to own himself worthy of the punishment he had undergone. This practice however of openly confessing public sins which was enjoined by the church, soon gave rise to the custom of making a voluntary confession of such as were of a private nature only, many for their greater satisfaction and ease of mind humiliating themselves to the pains of a public penance, and to an open confession, with regard to such sins and offences as were known to their own breasts alone. In some churches indeed, so early as the beginning of the fifth century, penitents were required to write down the sins of which they wished to make confession, for the purpose of being read in the hearing of the whole congregation; a custom Leo the Great, in a letter addressed to the Bishops of Campania, Samnium, and Picenum, condemns as repugnant to the apostolic rule, and tending to deter sinners from using the remedies which penance afforded; since either shame might withhold them from publicly owning their sins, or the fear of being accused by their enemies, or punished upon their own confession, by the civil magistrate, and the ministers of justice. Leo therefore commands this pernicious practice, as he calls it, to be abolished, as not only dangerous, but likewise unnecessary; that confession according to him being fully sufficient which is first made to God, and afterwards to a priest, who might intercede for the sinner and pray with him for the remission of his sins. The confession of private or hidden sins to a priest incidentally recommended in this letter by Leo, for it is plain he intended not to abrogate the custom of confessing such as were notorious, first gave rise to what has been called auricular confession, and which has since been considered by the church of Rome as of Divine institution, and as a condition indispensably required for the remission of sins committed after baptism. Private confession, or confession made in private to another, certainly seems to have been practised in the earliest times of the church; a custom that appears to have been grounded upon a passage in St. James's epistle, wherein he recommends the confession of faults one to another, and the praying for each other. (v. 16.) It no where appears however that this confession was necessarily to be made to a priest, and it was not till many ages after, that by these words "one to another," St. James was made to mean priests only. At all events that private confession was not thought necessary to salvation, even by the fathers who most strongly recommended it, and who are chiefly quoted by the Roman catholic divines to prove its necessity, has been demonstrated by several Protestant writers, especially by Daillé, in his learned work on Auricular Confession. Indeed, so late as the twelfth century confession made to God alone, without the intervention of a priest, was still thought sufficient to salvation, for several writers of this age assure us that in their own time many held such confession sufficient, and would not allow of any necessity or obligation of confessing to a priest. In the following century however the present doctrine of the church of Rome concerning the necessity of auricular confession was first established in the council of Lateran, holden under Pope Innocent III. in the year 1225, and thenceforth it was deemed heresy to teach that confession made to God alone was sufficient, or that confession made to a priest was not necessary to salvation. In conformity with this the council of Trent afterwards declared, "that secret confession, as it was then, so it had been always, and from the very beginning practised by the church."-See Articles, Absolution, Confession, and Penance. AUTOCEPHALI BISHOPS, from avròs, self, and zepa, a head, such bishops as were exempt from the jurisdiction of any superior. They were also called Acephali.-See Article, Acephali. AUTO-DA-FE, or ACT OF FAITH, a phrase usually applied to a transaction in the Romish church, which for the purpose of increasing the solemnity generally takes place on some great festival, when such prisoners as have been found guilty by the Inquisition of the alleged crime of heresy are brought to undergo a public execution; and such as have been acquitted are absolved. Persecution," says an acute and intelligent writer of the present day, “is so plainly a duty upon the Roman Catholic system, that the live bon-fires of the Inquisition were called Acts of Faith."* 66 * Southey's Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society, vol. i. p. 255. The author adds, in a note, "The populace may very probably have understood the word Auto in this combination as meaning a spectacle or show - for such it was made to them. I have conversed with -- VOL. I. A A "The detail," it has been forcibly remarked, "which writers on the Inquisition have given us of this tragical service, cannot fail of exciting in every pious, and in every humane bosom, emotions of the most afflicting kind; and it serves to convince us that there is no degree of obduracy, of which the human mind is unsusceptible under the discipline and teaching of religious superstition. What outrages indeed have not been practised under the sacred name of religion, which has not only lost all its benignant peculiarity of character, through being forced into an unnatural alliance with the worst passions that ever degraded man, but has been made to assume despotic sway over the free-born spirit; to wield the sword of the persecutor, and utter the blasphemies of the bottomless pit!"-Encycl. Metrop. The Auto-da-Fé may be called the last act of the inquisitorial tragedy. It is a kind of gaol-delivery appointed as often as there may be a number of prisoners in the Inquisition, sufficient for the due solemnity of the occasion, who have been convicted of heresy, either on the evidence of witnesses, or on their own voluntary or extorted confession. On the day thus appointed for their execution these unhappy victims of superstition are brought from their dungeons into the great hall of the Inquisition, and being clothed in certain habits, by which they learn the punishment respectively awaiting them, are conducted in procession by Dominican Friars. These wear black coats without sleeves, and walk bare-footed, holding a wax-candle in their hands, and are followed by the penitents, who are clad in black cloaks painted with the representations of flames pointing downwards, as an indication of their having narrowly escaped the terrible punishment which awaits the relapsed. These follow next in succession, clothed in the same manner, except that the flames upon their cloaks point upwards, as a like indication of their approaching fate. Those who have been the direct and avowed opponents of the Catholic faith, have besides these flames, their own pictures painted on their breasts, with the figures of serpents, dogs, and devils, open-mouthed upon them. Each prisoner is attended by a familiar of the Inquisition, and a Jesuit is placed on either side of those who are destined to be burnt, urging them continually to recant and abjure their heresies. A troop of familiars follow on horseback, and after them the inquisitors and other officers of the court on mules; the inquisitorgeneral sitting upon a white horse, which is led by two attendants in black persons who remembered when an Auto-da-Fé was the greatest holyday in Lisbon, and they who lived where the execution could be seen made entertainments, and invited their friends to the sight!" |