Encyclopedia Articles (Pertaining to Tradition)

Abbreviators     ··· Those who make an abridgment or abstract of a long writing or discourse.

Agnosticism     ··· A philosophical theory of the limitations of knowledge; coined by Huxley in 1869.

Alogi     ··· A heresy which denies the Word and the Gospel of St. John.

Angel     ··· A spirit messenger intermediate between God and men.

Animism     ··· Doctrines or theories regarding the nature of the soul.

Antipopes     ··· A false claimant of the Holy See and Papal Chair.

Apocrypha     ··· Compositions professing to have been written by Biblical personages or men close to them.

Apologetics     ··· The theological science of the explanation and defence of the Christian religion.

Apostasy     ··· The leaving, desertion, or giving-up of the Faith.

Apostles     ··· On the name, office, authority, and prerogatives of the Apostles.

Apostolic Camera     ··· The former central board of finance in the papal administrative system.

Apostolic Succession     ··· The inheritance, or continuation, of Apostolic authority.

Arabia, Christianity In     ··· The cradle of Islam; the peninsula and the history of Christianity within it.

Arianism     ··· The 4th century heresy that denies the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

Armenia     ··· A mountainous region of Western Asia, southeast of the Black Sea.

Arminianism     ··· Heretical doctrines of Calvinists in the Netherlands.

Astrology     ··· An error regarding the influence of stars on the fate of man.

Atheism     ··· A system of thought which is formally opposed to theism.

Atomism     ··· The system which holds all bodies to be composed of minute, indivisible particles.

Austro-Hungarian Monarchy     ··· The European monarchy of the Danube; its lands, peoples, and the Church.

Baptism     ··· The first of the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church.

Baradaeus     ··· A Syrian Monophysite bishop, born at Tella; died in 578.

Bardesanes     ··· A Syrian poet, astrologist, and philosopher; b. 154 at Edessa, d. 222.

Basilides     ··· The earliest of the Alexandrian Gnostics, about 120-140.

Beatification and Canonization     ··· The history and process of declaring the blessed and the saints.

Bishop     ··· The ecclesiastical dignitary who rules a diocese with the fullness of the priesthood.

Bohemian Brethren     ··· The Unitas Fratrum, founded in Bohemia in 1457; the Moravian Brethren.

Brahminism     ··· A complex religious and social system, known also as Hinduism.

Bullarium     ··· A collection of bulls and other analogous papal documents.

Bulls and Briefs     ··· Papal documents named from their leaden seals, and their forms.

Burial     ··· Interment of the dead with ecclesiastical rites in consecrated ground.

Callistus I, Pope     ··· Pope and martyr; reigned about 218 to 223.

Calvinism     ··· The heretical 16th century protestant religion of John Calvin.

Canon of the Holy Scriptures     ··· The authoritative list of the writings composed under Divine inspiration.

Canons, Apostolic     ··· Ancient ecclesiastical decrees on the government and discipline of the Church.

Carmelite Order     ··· One of the mendicant orders; Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Censures, Ecclesiastical     ··· Spiritual punishments imposed by the Church on a delinquent and contumacious person.

Censures, Theological     ··· Doctrinal judgments on teachings detrimental to faith or morals.

Chalcedon, Council of     ··· The Fourth Ecumenical Council, held in 451 against the heresy of Eutyches.

Civil Allegiance     ··· The duty of loyalty and obedience which a citizen owes to the State.

Cleric     ··· A person legitimately received into the ranks of the clergy.

Constance, Council of     ··· A partly ecumenical council, 1414-18, which ended the Western Schism.

Cosmology     ··· A branch of philosophical study specific to the material world.

Corpus Juris Canonici     ··· The collection of canonical legislation documents.

Councils     ··· On the definition, kinds, and history of General Councils.

Creed     ··· A form of belief; from the Latin credo, I believe.

Criticism, Biblical     ··· The examination of the literary origins and historical values of the books of the Bible.

Cyril of Alexandria     ··· Doctor of the Church, and Bishop of Alexandria.

Decretals, Papal     ··· Pontifical letters containing a decision on a matter of discipline.

Dioscurus     ··· Antipope (d. 530); not to be confused with Dioscorus of Alexandria.

Dioscurus of Alexandria     ··· Patriarch of Alexandria (d. 454), deposed at the Council of Chalcedon.

Divination     ··· Seeking after knowledge or hidden things by inadequate means.

Divine Providence     ··· The act of God by which in His wisdom He so orders all events.

Docetae     ··· A sect of Apostolic times which taught that Christ only seemed to be a man.

Dogmatic Facts     ··· Facts connected with a dogma, on which its application to a case depends.

Donatists     ··· A 4th century schism in Africa led by Donatus of Mascula.

Dynamism     ··· Philosophical views which make matter consist of simple, indivisible units or forces.

Eastern Churches     ··· On the division of East and West and the Churches of the East.

Eastern Schism     ··· Schism that produced the separated "Orthodox" Church.

Egypt     ··· The land of the Nile; its ancient history, religion, and the Coptic Church.

Emanationism     ··· Heretical ideas contrary to the doctrines of creation.

Erasmus, Desiderius     ··· The leader of German humanism, b. 1466 at Rotterdam; d. 1536 at Basle.

Ethics     ··· Moral philosophy; the scientific treatment of the moral order.

Eutyches     ··· A fifth-century heresiarch, his name given to the Monophysite heresy.

Eutychianism     ··· Heresy which rejects the dogmatic "Two Natures" of Christ.

Excommunication     ··· The most serious penalty the Church can apply against error.

Faith, Protestant Confessions of     ··· A review of the Protestant confessions of faith.

False Decretals     ··· The apocryphal papal letters of the Pseudo-Isidore, a ninth-century collection.

Febronianism     ··· The politico-ecclesiastical system of von Hontheim, written as Justinus Febronius.

Fetishism     ··· The religion of Fetish, referred to as another form of animism.

Filioque     ··· The Procession of the Holy Ghost from both Father and Son.

First Council of Nicaea     ··· The First Ecumenical Council, held in 325 on the heresy of Arius.

Gallicanism     ··· A heretical attempt to limit the authority of the pope.

Gnosticism     ··· The heretical notion that salvation is gained by knowledge.

Grace     ··· Actual, Sanctifying, Controversies, and Supernatural Adoption.

Greek Church     ··· On the Greek Orthodox Church, the Uniat Churches, and their history.

Guardian Angel     ··· That each soul has from birth an angel commissioned to guard it.

Heresy     ··· Abandonment of truth by the corruption or denial of dogma.

Hierarchy, Early Church     ··· Used here to denote the three grades of Holy Orders.

Historical Criticism     ··· Distinguishing the true from the false facts of the past.

Holy Ghost     ··· The doctrine of the Church on the Holy Ghost, Third Person of the Trinity.

Honorius I, Pope     ··· Pope 625-638, afterwards condemned by the sixth general council (680).

Humanism     ··· A literary and scientific movement opposing Scholastics.

Hungary     ··· The Kingdom of Hungary; its lands, people, and the Church.

Hussites     ··· The followers of Jan Hus, also known as the Utraquists.

Iconoclasm     ··· A heresy that condemned the use of images in worship.

IHS monogram     ··· An explanation regarding the monogram of Jesus Christ.

Images, Veneration of     ··· On the veneration of images, from the Old Testament onward.

Impediments     ··· Canonical obstacles which hinder the free action of an agent.

Index of Prohibited Books     ··· The catalogue of books once forbidden to Catholics by ecclesiastical authority.

Infallibility     ··· The prerogative by which the Church is preserved from error in definitive teaching.

Inquisition     ··· The ecclesiastical institution for combating or suppressing heresy.

Ionian School of Philosophy     ··· The earliest Greek philosophers, at Miletus in the sixth century B.C.

Irenaeus, Saint     ··· Bishop of Lyons, and Father of the Church.

Irregularity     ··· A canonical impediment to the reception or exercise of Holy Orders.

Islam (Concept)     ··· An Arabic word denoting the religion of Mohammed.

Jansenism     ··· Heresy of Cornelius Jansen against supernatural order.

John of Ephesus     ··· The earliest Syriac historian, b. about 505; d. about 585.

Justification     ··· Denotes the transformation of a sinner to holiness.

Kant, Philosophy of     ··· The system of transcendental criticism of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804).

Koran     ··· The sacred book of the Muslims, regarded by them as the revelation of God.

Law     ··· The guide or rule by which a being is moved to action or held back from it.

Leibniz     ··· The life and philosophical system of Leibniz, b. 1646 at Leipzig.

Leo I, Pope     ··· Pope from 440 to 461; surnamed the Great.

Life     ··· On the enigma of life for the scientist and the philosopher.

Logos     ··· The term by which Greek Christian theology designates the Word of God.

Lutheranism     ··· The religious belief founded by Martin Luther; the oldest Protestant sect.

Macarius of Antioch     ··· A Patriarch of Antioch, deposed in 681 for Monothelitism.

Maestro di Camera del Papa     ··· One of the four palace prelates of the papal household.

Magi     ··· The "wise men from the East" who came to adore Jesus in Bethlehem.

Majordomo     ··· The chief steward of the household of the pope, one of the palatine prelates.

Manichaeism     ··· A religion founded by the Persian Mani in the latter half of the third century.

Marcionites     ··· A heretical sect founded at Rome in 144 by Marcion.

Martin I, Pope     ··· Martyr pope, reigned 649-655; died in exile at Cherson.

Materialism     ··· The philosophical system which regards matter as the only reality.

Maximus of Constantinople     ··· The Theologian and Confessor, b. about 580; d. in exile, 662.

Mecca     ··· The capital of Arabia and the sacred city of the Mohammedans.

Mechanism     ··· The cosmological theory which ascribes the changes of the world to external force.

Melchisedechians     ··· A branch of the Monarchians, founded by Theodotus the banker.

Merit     ··· The property of a good work which entitles the doer to a reward.

Messiah     ··· The Hebrew title of the promised King and Saviour.

Miracle     ··· A wonder performed by supernatural power as a sign of a special mission.

Missions, Catholic     ··· A short general survey of the missionary activity of the Church.

Modernism     ··· On the theory of theological Modernism and the Modernist movement.

Mohammedanism     ··· Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, and the religion he founded.

Monad     ··· The ultimate, indivisible unit of Greek and later philosophy.

Monarchians     ··· Heretics of the second and third centuries, so nicknamed by Tertullian.

Monism     ··· The view that the apparently many are phases or phenomena of a one.

Monophysitism     ··· On the literary activity and theology of the Monophysites.

Monotheism     ··· Belief in the one supreme God, the Creator and Lord of the world.

Monothelitism     ··· A seventh century heresy, condemned in the Sixth General Council.

Montanists     ··· Schismatics of the second century, founded by the prophet Montanus.

Naturalism     ··· The tendency to look upon nature as the one source of all that exists.

Nestorianism     ··· The heresy of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople (d. about 451).

Novatianism     ··· The third-century schism of Novatian, a Roman priest and antipope.

Occultism     ··· On the form of occultism known as Magic.

Pantheism     ··· The view according to which God and the world are one.

Paul of Samosata     ··· Bishop of Antioch, condemned by synods about 264-66.

Paulicians     ··· A dualistic heretical sect, derived originally from Manichaeism.

Pelagianism     ··· A fifth century heresy which denied original sin and Christian grace.

Personality     ··· An account of personality, its constituents and conflicting theories.

Philoxenus     ··· A Monophysite bishop and the champion of his sect, d. 523.

Pisa, Council of     ··· The council convoked to end the thirty-year Schism of the West.

Pope     ··· The Bishop of Rome, successor of St. Peter and chief pastor of the whole Church.

Pragmatism     ··· The insistence on usefulness or practical consequences as a test of truth.

Praxeas     ··· An early anti-Montanist, known only through the book of Tertullian against him.

Predestination     ··· The Divine decree by which God has ordained from eternity all events in time.

Protestantism     ··· On the name, principles, and progress of Protestantism.

Prothonotary Apostolic     ··· A member of the highest college of prelates in the Roman Curia.

Punishment     ··· The infliction by due legal process of the penalty of death for crime.

Rationalism     ··· The view that human reason is the sole source and final test of all truth.

Reformation     ··· The religious movement of the sixteenth century in Western Europe.

Religious Orders     ··· On the religious life directed to personal perfection and union with God.

Revelation     ··· The communication of truth by God beyond the ordinary course of nature.

Robber Council of Ephesus     ··· The Latrocinium, opened at Ephesus 8 August, 449.

Roman Congregations     ··· Departments organized by the Holy See to assist it in its affairs.

Roman Curia     ··· The departments which assist the sovereign pontiff in governing the Church.

Rota     ··· The tribunal re-established by Pius X in 1908 for contentious cases.

Schism     ··· The rupture of ecclesiastical union and unity.

Secularism     ··· A form of opinion concerned only with questions testable by the experience of this life.

Servants of Mary     ··· The order founded at Florence in 1233 by seven noble Florentines.

Servite Order     ··· The fifth mendicant order; preaching and devotion to the Mother of God.

Simony     ··· The deliberate buying or selling of spiritual things for a temporal price.

Socinianism     ··· The Antitrinitarian sect named from Lelio and Fausto Sozzini of Siena.

Superstition     ··· The baseless fear of the gods, distinguished from religion.

Theological Aspects of the Avesta     ··· On Ahura Mazda and the theology of the Avesta.

Third Plenary Council of Baltimore     ··· On the Plenary Councils of Baltimore for the Church in America.

Tradition     ··· On tradition and the living magisterium of the Church.

Toleration     ··· Patient forbearance toward a religion other than one's own.

The Blessed Trinity     ··· The truth that in the unity of the Godhead there are Three Persons.

The Church     ··· On the term Church, a definition and meaning of the word.

Tritheists     ··· Heretics who divide the Substance of the Blessed Trinity.

Unitarians     ··· A Liberal Protestant sect holding belief in a uni-personal God.

Universities     ··· On the origin and development of the universities, from the Middle Ages.

Utilitarianism     ··· The ethical theory that the end of conduct is happiness, measured by pleasure and pain.

Valentinus     ··· The best known and most influential of the Gnostic heretics.

Western Schism     ··· The 40 year religious division of the 14th and 15th century.

Worship     ··· An article dealing with certain aspects of Christian worship.