Sacred Archaeology; A Popular Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Art and Institutions, from Primitive to Modern Times (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ABRACADABRA ACOLYTH. 5 broad in their hands, washed them beforehand, ?a discipline which died out between the sixth and ninth century, as appears by a canon of Tours. Abracadabra. An amulet used by the Basilidian heretics to cure fevers; connected with? Abraxas. Little images of metal, with inscriptions and symbols, used by Gnostic and Basilidian heretics. The letters in Greek make up the number 365, the days of the year, as St. Augustine has pointed out. This figure appears on the ring of a Norman Bishop of Chichester. Accent. Grave accent is the fall of a perfect fifth in the Can tits Cvlleetarutn; the accentus medlns, the fall of a note; tho aecent us moderatus, or interrogativus, the rise of a note; tho acute aecent the rise to the second note above it. Acclamations. Set forms of address used by tho early Christians at funerals; on the monuments of the dead [j'h pace, vivas in Deo, etc.]; or on inscriptions to the living, as brotherly greetings, or to put them in remembrance of holy things. Acolyth. A servant; follower: an order of subordinate ministers mentioned by St. Cyprian; and in the Greek Church in the reign of Justinian. By the Fourth Council of Carthago their duty was to furnish wine for the Lord's Supper and light the candles, and at a later period to clear the way in processions. In the Eastern Church the subdeacons apparently discharged the office of the acolyth. The namo was given to this minor order because the duty of such clerks was to accompany bishops and priests. Pope Cornelius is the first writer who mentions the order, and he enumerates forty-two at Rome; there they carried the eulogies, and also the Eucharist to those absent from church. They went up to the altar, each with his bag in his hand, some on the right and others on the left, ...