Volume 1

A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood.

Date:: [between 1890 and 1899?]

Credit: A dictionary of Christian antiquities : being a continuation of the 'Dictionary of the Bible' / edited by William Smith and Samuel Cheetham ; illustrated by engravings on wood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

28/1096 (page 8)

$ABJURATION ABBEY. [Monastery.] I ABBUNA, the common appellation of the Bishop, Metran, or Metropolitan, of Axum, or Abyssinia, or Ethiopia, not a patriarch, but, on the contrary, appointed and consecrated always j bv the patriarch of Alexandria, and specially forbidden to have more than seven suftragan bishops under him, lest he should make himself so, twelve bishops being held to be the lowest canonical number for the consecration of a patri- arch. In a Council, if held in Greece, he occu- pied the seventh place, immediately after the prelate of Seleucia. (Ludolf, Hist. Ethiop. iii. 7.) [A. W. H.] ABDELLA, martyr in Persia under Sapor, commemorated Apr. 21 (^Martyr. Rom. Vet.). [C.] ABDIANUS, of Africa, commemorated June 3 {Mart. Hieron.). [C.] ABDON, Abdo or Abdus, and SENNEN, Sennes, or Sennis, Persian princes, martyred at Rome under Decius, a.d. 250, are commemorated July 30 {Martyrologium Rom. Vet., Bedae, Adonis). Proper office in Gregorian Sacramentary, p. 116; and Antiphon in the Lib. Antiphon, p. 704. It is related (Adonis Martyrol. iii. Kal. Aug.) that their relics were translated in the time of Constantine to the cemetery of Pontianus. There Bosio discovered a remarkable fresco, represent- ing the Lord, seen from the waist upward emei-g- ing from a cloud, placing wreaths on the heads of SS. Abdon and Sennen (see woodcut). This is Abdon and Sennen. (From the cemetery of Fontianns.) in front of the vault enclosing the supposed remains of the martyrs, which bears the inscrip- tion [depositi]ONIS die. The painting is, in Martigny’s opinion, not earlier than the seventh century. It is remarkable that the painter has evidently made an attempt to represent the Per- sian dress. The saints w'ear pointed caps or hoods, similar to those in which the Magi are sometimes represented; cloaks fastened with a fibula on the brea.st; and tunics of skin entirely unlike the Roman tunic, and resembling that given to St. John Baptist in a fresco of the Lord’s Baptism in the same cemetery of Ponti- anus (Bottaid, Sculture e Ritture, tav. xliv.). Some account of the peculiar dress of Abdon and Sennen may be found in Lami’s treatise De Eru- ditiorui Apostolorum, pp. 121-166. The gesture of the Lord, crowning the martyrs for their constancy, is found also on the bottoms of early Christian cups [Glass, Christian], where lie crowns SS. Peter and Paul, and other saints (Buonarruoti, Fasf Antichi, tav. XV. fig. 1, and elsewhere); and on coins of the Lower Empire the Lord is not unfrequently seen crowning two emperors. (Martigny, Diet, des Antiq. chretienn€S.'\ [C.] ABECEDARIAN. The term » Hymnus ” or “ Paean Abecedarius ” is applied specially to the hymn of Sedulius, “A soils ortus cardine,” [Acrostic.] [C.] ABERCIUS of Jerusalem, laaTr6<XToKos Qavjxarovpyhs, commemorated Oct. 22 {Cal. Byzant.)., [C.] ABGARUS, King, commemorated Dec. 21 (Cal. Armen.). [C.] ABIBAS, martyr of Edessa, commemorated Nov. 15 (Cal. Byzant.). [C.] ABIBON, invention of his relics at Jerusa- lem, Aug. 3 (Martyrol. Rom. Vet.). [C.] ABILIUS, bishop of Alexandria (a.d. 86-96), commemorated Feb. 22 (Martyrol. Rom. Vet.)', Maskarram 1 = Aug. 29 (Cal. Ethiop.). [C.] ABJURATION—denial, disavowal, or re- nunciation upon oath. Abjuration, in common ecclesiastical language, is restricted to the renun- ciation of heresy made by the penitent heretic on the occasion of his reconciliation to the Church. In some cases the abjuration was the only cere- mony required; but in others it was followed up by the imposition of hands and by unction. The practice of the ancient Church is described by St. Gregory the Great in a letter to Quiricus and the bishops of Iberia on the reconciliation of the Nestorians. According to this, in cases in which the heretical baptism was imperfect, the rule was that the penitent should be baptized ; but when it was complete, as in the case of the Arians, the custom of the Eastern Church was to reconcile by the Chrism ; that of the Western, by the imposition of hands. As, however, the mystery of the Chrism was but the Oriental rite of Confirmation, the practice was substantially identical. (On the question of Re-baptism, see Re-Baptism, Bafpism.) Converts from the Monophysites were received after simple confes- sion, and the previous baptism was supposed to take effect “ for the remission of sins,” at the moment at which the Spirit was imparted by the imposition of hands; or the convert was re- united to the Church by his profession of faith (St. Greg. Ep. 9, 61). A similar ’rule is laid down by the Quinisext Council, canon 95, which classes with the Arians, the Macedonians, Nova- tians and others, to be received with the Chrism. The Paulianists, Montanists, Eunomians, and others, are to be re-baptized; to be received as Christians, on their profession, the first day, as Catechumens the second, and after they have been allowed a place in the Church as hearers for some time, to be baptized. In all cases, the profession of faith must be made by the pre- sentation of a libellus, or form of abjuration, in which the convert renounced and anathematized his former tenets. After declaring his abjura- tion not to be made on compulsion, from fear or any other unworthy motive, he proceeded tc anathematize the sect renounced, by all its$