Patricians

“ Fathers certainly they were called on account of their official dignity, and their descendants were called patricians.348 The character of the senate as a representative body, the title of Fathers of the People bestowed upon its members, the life-tenure of the office, but, more than all these considerations, the distinction of patricians conferred upon their children and lineal descendants in perpetuity, established at a stroke an aristocracy of rank in the centre of their social system where it became firmly intrenched. ”

“ They were not a nobility or a privileged class as long as there was no less privileged class to distinguish them from. Their exclusive possession of power made the commonwealth in which they bore rule an aristocracy; but they were a democracy among themselves. We see indeed faint traces of distinction among the patricians themselves, which may lead us to guess that the equality of all patricians may have been won by struggles of unrecorded days, not unlike those which in recorded days brought about the equality of patrician and plebeian. ”

“ This aristocracy of nobiles threw the old patricians as a body still more into the shade, though both classes of aristocrats united as far as was possible to monopolise all the great offices of the state. In their dress and appearance the patricians were scarcely distinguished from the rest of the citizens, unless they were senators, curule magistrates, or equites, in which case they wore like others the ensigns peculiar to these classes. ”

“ Sometimes paltry and turbulent priests, destitute of all virtue and good- breeding, weak and immoral patricians, or loud and ignorant plebeians, have run away with our reverence, without being able to merit our esteem; without religion they have been popular in the cause of religion, and contended popularly for loyalty by faction and rebellion. ”

“ The name patricians still existed after the term nobilis was introduced: a noble might be either a patrician or a plebeian, but the distinction was well understood between an old patrician family and a plebeian family, however distinguished the plebeian family might become. Under the Emperors it was not uncommon for them to promote a man to the rank of patrician for eminent services, which under the monarchy was equivalent to the conferring of a title of dignity in modern times, and nothing more. ”

“ They separated themselves from the mass of the plebeians to form a single body with the surviving patricians. just as the old patricians had striven to keep plebeians out of high offices, so now the new nobles, patrician and plebeian alike, strove to keep “ new men, ” men who had not the jus imaginum, out of high office. ”

“ The hopes of the commoners take the same direction with the interest of the patricians. Every man who becomes rich buys land, and does what he can to fortify the nobility, into which he hopes to rise. The Anglican clergy are identified with the aristocracy. Time and law have made the joining and moulding perfect in every part. ”

“ Although the patricians were kept as one family apart from the people, and jealously guarded in their aristocratic purity by the State, they were only equals of the poorest before the laws of their own creation, and their condescension to the people was frequent and great. ”

“ Notwithstanding the improbability of the matter, I am inclined to believe that a number of aged patricians—their number may not be exactly historical—sat down in the Forum, in their official robes, on their curule chairs, and that the chief pontiff devoted them to death. ”

“ The voice of the plebs may expel the patricians from their rightful honours, but has your law, which pollutes the auspices, any force against the immortal gods? They have themselves vindicated their will as expressed through the auspices, for no sooner have these been profaned by one who took them against all divine and human law than the army and its general have been wiped out as a lesson to you not to conduct the elections to the confusion of all the rights of the patrician houses. ”

“ Noble patricians, patrons of my right, Defend the justice of my cause with arms; And, countrymen, my loving followers, Plead my successive title with your swords. ”

“ And your heirs and successors, who shall have been legally elected by the nobles, shall duly offer obedience and reverence to us and to our successors in their own persons or by ambassadors, and shall confess themselves the subjects of the Roman church, who does not hold her subjects as slaves, but receives them all as children. They shall persevere in the catholic faith and the religion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and strive always to promote it. ”

“ Their clans were Patriarch households, rude through war:
Old Pagan Rome had known them not; their Isle
Virgin to Christ had come. Oh how unlike
Her sons to those old Roman Senators,
Scorn of Germanus oft, who breathed the air
Fouled by dead Faiths successively blown out,
Or Grecian sophist with his world of words,
That, knowing all, knew nothing! Praise to Thee,
Lord of the night-time as the day, Who keep’st
Reserved in blind barbaric innocence,
Pure breed, when boastful lights corrupt the wise,
With healthier fruit to bless a later age. ”

“ For thine is the might, and thine is the kingdom and the power. Amen.
The Patriarch then hands the Chlamys with its fibula to the Vestitores, who array the Emperor in it. (If however it is the son, or daughter, or the wife of an emperor who is to be crowned, the Patriarch hands the vestment to the Emperor, who himself puts it on the person to be crowned.)
The Patriarch then says the ‘Prayer over the Crown.’
Patriarch. Peace be to all.
Deacon. Bow your heads.
Patriarch. To Thee alone, King of mankind, has he to whom thou hast entrusted the earthly kingdom bowed his neck with us. ”

“ What else be the patriarchs, and, for the most part, the archbishops, the bishops, the abbots? What be they else at this present in the Pope’s kingdom but worldly princes, but dukes and earls, gorgeously accompanied with bands of men whithersoever they go; oftentimes also gaily arrayed with chains and collars of gold? They have at times, too, certain ornaments by themselves, as crosses, pillars, hats, mitres, and palls—which pomp the ancient bishops Chrysostom, Augustine, and Ambrose never had. Setting these things aside, what teach they? What say they? What do they? How live they? ”

“ Patriarchs.—These officers hold the keys of blessings in the church. The order of this priesthood was confirmed to be handed down from father to son, and rightly belongs to the literal descendants of the chosen seed, to whom the promises were made. [118] There is one general and a number of local patriarchs in the church. The first is patriarch to the whole church, and he may minister in any branch or stake in it, his jurisdiction in blessing the people being co-extensive with the church. He holds the keys of the patriarchal blessings upon the heads of all the Lord's people. ”

“ The ideal of every peasant was to have a son in the Church—a son who might become abbot, bishop, chancellor, cardinal. It was their one great chance of rising in the world. But in the kingdom of the Mind, many are called, few chosen. Of the dozen or so boys who went to every village school (each with a dim idea that perhaps by-and-by he might become a parish priest, or enter some religious order) a fair proportion grew up as stewards or labourers. ”

“ Traitor back again into your teeth, my master! and since you’ve neither pity for the poor innocent, nor compassion for the little blunt gentleman her father, ’tis time to spake out and to tell you that instead of a sham priest and a sham license for your deceitful marriage as you bid me, I have sarved the cause of innocence and my own soul, by procuring a real priest and a real license, and by St. Patrick you are as much one as any two people in England, Ireland, or Scotland! ”

“ In like manner, in late days, one must be a noble to be a master of requests, and it is secretly determined that in future "all ecclesiastical property, from the humblest priory to the richest abbeys, shall be reserved to the nobility." ”

“ There were already five patriarchs, or great Father Bishops, to rule over divisions of the Church at Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome. The Patriarch of Rome was called the Pope. All was peace and prosperity, and the Christians were so much at their ease, that some finding that they missed the life of hardness, which they used to think a great blessing, went apart from men, and lived in caves, quite alone, working hard for very scanty food, and praying constantly. ”

“ Patricos are the strolling priests: every hedge is their parish, and every wandering rogue their parishioner. The service, he saith, is the marrying of couples, without the Gospel, or Book of Common Prayer, the solemnity whereof is thus: the parties to be married find out a dead horse, or any other beast, and standing the one on the one side and the other on the other, the patrico bids them to live together till death them part ”

“ Many of these, however, are only titular prelates, who dignify by their presence the simplicity of his court. Their performance of the liturgy is succeeded by their cultivation of the ground; and, unlike the prelates of Europe, the austerity of their life and the plainness of their appearance increases in just proportion to the elevation of their rank. Throughout the fourscore thousand villages of his spiritual empire, the patriarch receives the tribute of a small but voluntary tax from each individual above the age of sixteen years. ”

“ To these sources of power and influence another has yet to be added. The power of the Papacy was the band which bound together the bundle of sticks, that is to say, which sufficed for a long time to outweigh all the jealousies between regulars and seculars, between monks and friars, between dignified and lower clergy, and to bind the whole sacerdotal order into one vast army, with the Pope for its emperor and generalissimo. ”

“ Therefore, in despair of dissuading the nobility and gentry of the land from introducing popery by any motives of honour, religion, alliance, or mercy, be assures them, That the pope has not duly confirmed their titles to the church lands in their possession; which therefore must be infallibly restored, as soon as that religion is established among us. ”

“ It is probable that the mark, the name, and the number of the beast, may all signify the same thing—that they make an open profession of their subjection and obedience to the papacy, which is receiving the mark in their forehead, and that they oblige themselves to use all their interest, power, and endeavour, to promote the papal authority, which is receiving the mark in their right hands. ”

“ The revived lay-power tended of itself to correct the worst abuses. The Empire had, as we have seen, reformed the Papacy. But if the Church was to live, it could not owe its life to the patronage or goodwill of outside reformers. The Church must reform itself. ”

“ I said I rested our defence entirely on the difference between Primacy and Monarchy. There were two great powers in the Church of divine origin—the Papacy and the Episcopate. In the earlier centuries the latter had been most sensibly felt: but in modern times the former. "With regard to discipline," he said, "I might allow that; but as to the hierarchy, and as to dogma, the relation has always been what it is now: the hierarchy, even the Eastern patriarchs, always were as strictly bound to the Roman chair as the bishops now. They felt the Pope was their superior." ”

“ To the most Potent Sovereigns of Europe, to the princes, nobles, and barons, who by the favor of God, hold authority over the dominions and vassals of our Lord and Saviour—to the cardinals, bishops, prelates, and other clergy that rule the Church of God, Pope Celestin III. called to be the vicar of Christ, and in virtue of his office heir to the Apostolic See, sendeth greeting. ”

“ To a true believer in the faith of the Latter-day Saints a blessing of this kind, from under the hand of a Patriarch, was then, and is now, next to a boon of eternal life. A Patriarch is a man highly favored of God, possesses the gift of discerning spirits, and can read the present and future destiny of men. Patriarchal blessings strengthen, stimulate and encourage true Saints to press on to perfection while passing through this world of sorrows, cares and disappointments. ”

“ Patrician, pa-trish′an, n. a nobleman in ancient Rome, being a descendant of one of the fathers or first Roman senators: a nobleman.—adj. pertaining to the ancient senators of Rome or to their descendants: of noble birth.—n. Patric′iate, the position or duties of a patrician: the patrician order. [L. patricius—pater, patris, a father.]
Patricide, pat′ri-sīd, n. the murder or the murderer of one's own father.—adj. Pat′ricīdal, relating to patricide or the murder of a father. [L. patricida—pater, patris, father, cædĕre, to kill.] ”

“ I believe in the institution of hereditary monarchy as a divine idea, imparted to mankind, and answering to true and healthy instincts implanted in them—like in kind, if differing in degree, to the institution of a priesthood or clergy. ”

“ The doctrine of Papal Supremacy shall next be brought to the legitimate test of Scripture and Historical Evidence.
I. We find the claim of this supremacy authoritatively propounded, in manner following.
1. The Roman Church is the mother and mistress of all other Churches. [55a]
2. I acknowledge the holy catholic and apostolic Roman Church to be the mother and mistress of all Churches: and I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman Pontiff, the successor of the blessed Peter Prince of the Apostles, and the Vicar of Jesus Christ. ”