KELIGION, EDUCATION, FINE ARTS. 



666 



m*lfi unnippd by frost uatil a milder season, 

 and it was probably on account of the good 

 omen attached to the evergreen that Christmas 

 trees came into use. 



Valentinians, a Gnostic sect or school 

 [see GNOSTIC] founded by Valentinus, who 

 went from Alexandria to Rome about A. D. 

 140. The distinguishing feature of his system 

 lies, in the first place, in his recognizing hea- 

 thenism as a preparatory stage of Christianity, 

 and then his dividing the higher spiritual 

 world into fifteen pairs of aeons, each consist- 

 ing of a male and a female. The first pair, 

 or syzygy, is made up of Bythos, or God in 

 himself, and Ennoia, or God as existing in his 

 own thoughts. From these emanated, next, 

 Nous (Intelligence) and Aletheia (Truth), 

 and so on. As the last aeon, Sophia, trans- 

 gressed the bounds that had been laid down by 

 the 33on Heros, and apart of her being became 

 lost in Chaos, there was formed a crude being 

 called Achanroth, which, through the Demiur- 

 gos that emanated from it, created the cor- 

 poreal world. Heros now imparted to the 

 souls of men (for all the bodies composing the 

 corporeal world are possessed of souls) a pneu- 

 matic, or spiritual, element ; but this only 

 attained to full activity when Christ, a col- 

 lective emanation from all the aeons, appeared 

 as a Saviour and united himself with the man 

 Jesus. In the end, all that is pneumatic, and 

 even the originally psychic, or soul element, in 

 as far as it has assimilated itself to the psychic, 

 will return into the Pleroma. 



Universalists. The distinctive peculiar- 

 ity of the Universalist faith consists in the 

 belief that "evil" will ultimately be erad- 

 icated from the world, and that all erring 

 creatures will be brought back to God through 

 the irresistible efficacy of Christ's divine love. 

 They argue that when an infinite, wise, holy, 

 and benevolent God resolved to create man, 

 it could only be with a view to his everlast- 

 ing good ; that if he did allow him to be 

 tempted and to fall, it must have been because 

 he foresaw that through sorrow and suffering 

 man could rise to higher degrees of perfection ; 

 that, therefore, all punishment is of necessity 

 designed as a remedial agent, and not intended 

 to satisfy God's indignation as a sovereign at 

 the disobedience of his subjects ; that no other 

 view of the subject is compatible with the 

 scriptural, and especially the New Testament, 

 representation of God as a " Father," or with 

 the oft-repeated declaration (in various terms) 

 that Jesus Christ was a propitiation for the sins 

 of the whole world. Universalism, as a mode 

 of belief, is of very ancient origin, and its 

 modern adherents, beside urging its congruity 

 with the divine plan of redemption as revealed 



in Scripture, point to the earliest Christian 

 writings, c. g., the Sibylline oracles of Rome, 

 and cite passages in favor of the doctrine from 

 many of the Church fathers. Universalism 

 was preached in the United States as early as 

 1741, but the first separate Universalist 

 church was not established until 1780, when 

 the Rev. John Murray started one at Glouces- 

 ter, Mass. Since his time an important body 

 has sprung up which contains many able, 

 learned, and pious divines. 



Roman Catholic Church, the name gen- 

 erally given to that very numerous body of Chris- 

 tians who acknowledge the Pope, or Bishop of 

 Rome, as head of their church. This name also 

 signifies that the Roman Catholic Church is 

 " Roman in its center and Catholic in its cir- 

 cumference." The foundation of this church 

 is uncertain. St. Peter is said to have been 

 the first Bishop of Rome, and tradition says 

 that he was martyred there. The mighty im- 

 portance of the city of Rome naturally gave its 

 bishop a great position, but the fact that it 

 became for a while the arbiter and ruler of 

 all Christendom is the most remarkable fact in 

 the history of Christianity. The controversy 

 between Rome and Protestantism involves two 

 main questions : In the first place, Protes- 

 tants deny the authority of a pope over them 

 at all ; and, secondly, a large portion of the 

 doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church is re- 

 jected, as being a corruption of Apostolic 

 Christianity. The Roman church recognize 

 seven sacraments, viz. : Baptism, Confirma- 

 tion, the Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme 

 Unction, Holy Orders, Matrimony. One of 

 the chief characteristics of this religion is that 

 of invoking help of the Virgin and Saints. 

 With regard to all matters relating to faith, 

 Roman Catholics draw a sharp line between 

 what is of doctrine and what of discipline. 

 Doctrine is what was taught by Christ and his 

 apostles ; discipline, the different rules laid 

 down by the various councils of the church, 

 and liable to change at any time. There are 

 various religious orders, both for men and 

 women, who are obliged to take the three 

 vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. 

 Their work consists in superintending charita- 

 ble institutions, such as asylums, orphanages, 

 and hospitals, and some of the orders have 

 large schools attached to them. The number 

 of Roman Catholics all over the world is about 

 two hundred and twenty million. The growth 

 of the Roman church in the United States in 

 recent years has been rapid, owing to immigra- 

 tion. The church has over eight million ad- 

 herents in this country. Since the Vatican 

 Council of 1870, when Pius IX. put forth the 

 doetrine of the infallibility of th pope, the 



