Prebendary

“ There was always at least one bishop in one congregation, but often more than one deacon. The qualifications for a deacon are very similar to those of a bishop. See 1 Tim. 3; Titus 1.
Elders Or Presbyters. Webster in defining presbyter, says, “An elder in the early Christian church.” Young in his analytical concordance says of presbytery, “An assembly of elders.” These two terms have the same Greek origin, “presbuteros.” An elder is one grounded in the faith with a sound matured judgment; one capable of giving good advice or counsel. ”

“ Should he decide to become a Benedick once more, he would give due notice to the countess. Everything should be fair and above-board. He often chuckled to himself when he tried to picture the dismay and rage with which the dowager would greet any notice of his impending marriage. And yet the real fun of the affair lay, not in the fact of his contracting a second marriage, but in the much more significant fact of his having a grown-up son and heir ready to his hand. ”

“ Without denying that this consideration may partially explain the favour gradually acquired by Primogeniture, I must point out that Primogeniture became a custom of Europe much more through its popularity with the tenants than through any advantage it conferred on the lords. For its origin, moreover, the reason given does not account at all. Nothing in law springs entirely from a sense of convenience. There are always certain ideas existing antecedently on which the sense of convenience works, and of which it can do no more than form some new combination ”

“ Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he is lord of all; 2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: [7] 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. ”

“ For the sake of simplicity I have called the mode of succession Primogeniture whenever a single son or descendant succeeds to the authority over a household or society. It is remarkable, however, that in the few very ancient examples which remain to us of this sort of succession, it is not always the eldest son, in the sense familiar to us, who takes up the representation. The form of Primogeniture which has spread over Western Europe has also been perpetuated among the Hindoos, and there is every reason to believe that it is the normal form. ”

“ The confessor asks if he is to grant absolution to a penitent in this state of mind, or to deny it."—Civiltá, VII. ii. 151.
The reasoning ascribed to the supposed penitent is the following—
You, as my confessor, have not the right to lay on me as you would on a private man, the duty of devoting a certain day, and of adopting certain means for the conversion of this or that person. Doubtless, I ought, by word and example, to lay myself out for the conversion and edification of my neighbour; but it rests with me as a free agent to select the means and to discern the opportunity. ”

“ In all places and duties the prior’s place is next after the [Pg 53] abbot. He is to be honoured by all; when he enters the Chapter or comes to the Collation, all rise and continue standing until he has sat down; when the community are incensed in choir, he is to have that mark of respect paid to him, next after the priest who is vested in a cope. “The prior,” says one Custumal, “ought to be humble, kindly in disposition, a living example of religious observance, excellent in everything, doing all things like the rest of the brethren. ”

“ I can, for many good reasons, excuse a person who holds narrow views on certain subjects, but I cannot forgive any one who rejoices in a doctrine which makes God the most unjust of fathers, and mankind as his blind, heartless instruments.
People here are coming, gradually, to perceive the one-sided doctrine of predestination is based upon such a view of the divine character. ”

“ To Benenatus, My Most Blessed Lord, My Esteemed and Amiable Brother and Partner in the Priestly Office, and to the Brethren Who are with Him, Augustin and the Brethren Who are with Him Send Greeting in the Lord. ”

“ That Prior, however, shall perform respectfully the duties enjoined on him by his Abbot and do nothing against the Abbot’s will or direction; for the more he is raised above the rest, the more carefully should he observe the precepts of the Rule.
If it should be found that the Prior has serious faults, or that he is deceived by his exaltation and yields to pride, or if he should be proved to be a despiser of the Holy Rule, let him be admonished verbally up to four times. If he fails to amend, let the correction of regular discipline be applied to him. ”

“ CHAPTER 57 57:1 Do ye, therefore, that have laid the foundation of the sedition submit yourselves to the presbyters, and be chastised to repentance, bending the knees of your hearts.
57:2 Learn to submit yourselves, laying aside the vain and haughty self-will of your tongues; for it is better that you should be small and approved in the flock of Christ, rather than that, seeming to be superior to others, ye should be cast out of his hope. ”

“ While prejudice might lead him to be hasty in condemning an accused presbyter, before he had satisfied himself that the evidence was adequate, partiality might lead him to be hasty in acquitting him. But there is a more serious partiality than this, and it is one of the main causes of such scandals as unworthy presbyters. There is the partiality which leads to a hasty ordination, before sufficient care has been taken to ensure that the qualifications so carefully laid down in chapter iii. are present in the person selected. Prevention is better than cure. ”

“ It is not ceremonies that unite two half-souls into one. Stay here the period of probation. Consecrate thy life to her; sacrifice thine every hour to her greater comfort; offer to her thine every thought and every action till the months of thy noviciate be expired. ”

“ From the spiritual point of view an ecclesiastical preferment was a duty, a cure of souls, with endowment for support of him to whom this spiritual duty or trust was confided, but from the English legal point of view the preferment (subject to performance of parochial duties) was a benefice enjoyed by the incumbent, who, to quote a reported law case of the year 1303, took the "great tithes, small tithes, oblations, obventions, and other kind of issues." ”

“ You are, moreover, young and have no children, and it would be a great pity that so fair a lineage should come to an end, and that those who, perhaps, have no love for you, should become your heirs.”
The gentleman, who had resolved that he would never more speak to his wife, pondered a long time on the discourse held to him by the Lord de Bernage, and at last recognised that he had spoken truly, and promised him that, if his wife should continue in her present humility, he would at some time have pity upon her. ”

“ Like the prodigal son, he no sooner abandons his father than he begins to associate and feed with the swine, and regains his manhood — his dignity as son and heir — only when he forms and carries out his resolution to arise and go to his father. ”

“ It might now be asked with no small amount of plausibility—Is the presiding presbyter to have no special privileges? If his mind is to be harassed continually by errorists, and if his life is to be imperilled in the service of the Church, should he not be distinguished above his brethren? Without some such encouragement will not the elders at length refuse to accept a situation which entails so much responsibility, and yet possesses so little influence? ”

“ An elder brother had already selected the army as his profession, and it was therefore decided that my father should enter the church; and thus it is that we have had, and still have, so many people in that profession, who are not only totally unfit for, but who actually disgrace, their calling. The law of primogeniture is beset with evils and injustice; yet without it, the aristocracy of a country must sink into insignificance. ”

“ Your heavenly Father charges against you all the advantages of a pious ancestry—so many prayers, so much Christian example, so many kind entreaties—all these gracious influences one tremendous aggregate, and He asks you for an account of it.
Ought not you to be better than those who had no such advantages? Better have been a foundling picked up off the city commons than with such magnificent inheritance of consecration to turn out indifferently. ”

“ The visualising faculty is a natural gift, and, like all natural gifts, has a tendency to be inherited. In this faculty the tendency to inheritance is exceptionally strong, as I have abundant evidence to prove, especially in respect to certain rather rare peculiarities, of which I shall speak in the next chapter, and which, when they exist at all, are usually found among two, three, or more brothers and sisters, parents, children, uncles and aunts, and cousins. ”

“ The Confessio Belgica, of 1559, and the Confessio Gallicana, of 1561, teach the same absolute predestinarianism. In Article XVI of the Belgic Confession we read: In predestination God proved Himself to be what He is in reality, viz., merciful and just. "Merciful by liberating and saving from damnation and perdition those whom ... He elected; just, by leaving the others in their fall and in the perdition into which they precipitated themselves. ”

“ I know it perfectly well, really; but, darling, what would be the use of the General Confession if we never did what we ought not? We should have to get new Prayer-Books with the General Confession left out. But when I have done a thing, right or wrong, and it comes off the way I meant, I can't help being pleased and calling myself a little Bismarck. I will promise not to be a little Bismarck oftener than I can help. Now, what shall I do? Shall I tell Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Cathie about my false headache, and the result of it? Maud, I don't believe it would be right. ”

“ If a father is prepotent, he may have a greater effect in producing the formed child than the mother has, and vice versa, as when a son closely resembles his father or his mother. {72} Prepotency, moreover, may extend down through generations and centuries. ”

“ Or, is it the case that no one can advance forward by his edict into the year when another man is to be praetor, but that he may retire back into the year when another man has been praetor? And if you had published this edict for the sake of right, and not for the sake of one man, you would have composed it more carefully.
43 110You write, "If any one has made, or shall have made his heir..." What are we to think? Suppose a man has bequeathed in legacies more than comes to his heir or heirs, as by the Voconian law a man may do who is not included in the census? ”

“ If, on the other hand, predestination be considered as an effect of supernatural merit, the question will be: Did God predestine certain men to the glory of Heaven by a merely hypothetical decree, making His will [pg 199] to save them dependent on His infallible foreknowledge of their supernatural merits? The lack of decisive Scriptural and Patristic texts on this subject has led to a division of Catholic opinion, some theologians favoring absolute predestination ante praevisa merita, others hypothetical predestination post praevisa merita. ”

“ Thou art very young yet, dear child, though by special permission thy ten years’ probation has been shortened. Although in the tenth year of thy discipleship, it was not till the time of Pomona that first thou camest hither. ”

“ We find some of the prebendaries poorly lodged enough, submitted, by the exigencies of life in a community, to many a puerile rule, imprisoned within the narrow circle of scholastic ideas, and in too many cases buried up to the eyes in the sands of routine, if not in sloth, or drunkenness. ”

“ No one is to receive a son as surety without consent of his father whilst under his authority ; nor monk, nor friar, without consent of their abbot ; nor alltud, for his word as to a Cymro is no word ; nor a scholar of a school without consent of his master; nor a woman except as to that over which she has control. ”

“ So it was that for the time being I found myself received into the society of the most powerful official of the North Province with a favor as cloudless and warm as the blue sky above his chief town. Yet, on the other hand, having been requested by His Excellency to prescribe for the dropsy with which he was afflicted, I laid myself open to trouble by giving a treatment different from that previously prescribed by the monk who was his regular physician. The result was soon evident in the poisoning of His Excellency's mind against the heretic. ”

“ The Abbé made a gesture. “One must make allowances for you, Monsieur. I know that you had the honour of the acquaintance of that noble and unfortunate lady—you told us so—and it has biased you against a man who has been equally unfortunate, and who, for seven years, in the midst of hardships and dangers of his own seeking, has never ceased to suffer the pangs of a remorse which, as I hope for salvation, I consider excessive.”
“You are an eloquent defender, Abbé,” said the Comte de Brencourt, shrugging his shoulders. “You should be at the bar . ”

“ And lower down he adds:—“No particular tie, no human election, renders a person member of the universal Church, but divine predestination alone; this predestination is, according to St Augustin, election by the grace of the Divine will, or preparation to grace in the present life, and to glory in the future one.” ”