CATHOLIC 



13 



ings of prophecy, and explanations of -\ ml. <!-.' In 

 Is:; I Irving was deposed from his office for heresy 

 l.y llic Church of Scotland, hut meanwhile the 

 truths of which ht- was so eminent an exponent 

 had IM-I-II a*-uming a more definite shape. He died 

 in ls:u. It was not till July 1835 that the Catholic 

 in. I Apostolic Church took definite ecclesiastical 

 shape. VVitU this organisation Irving had no con- 

 cern, nor had lie anticipated it. 



The organisation comprises a fourfold ministry 

 k. i. and Eph. iv. ) 1st, 'Apostle;' 2d, 

 1'ropln't : ' 3d, 'Evangelist;' and 4th, 'Pastor.' 

 The apostles are invested with spiritual preroga- 

 tives ; they alone can minister the Holy Ghost oy 

 the laying on of hands, directly or by delegation ; 

 through them the mysteries of God are unfolded to 

 the church ; and they decide on matters of order and 

 discipline. Nothing that occurs in any church in 

 the way of ' prophetic utterance ' can be authorita- 

 tively explained save by them ; and the various 

 ' angels of the churches ' are bound to bring all 

 such utterances under their cognisance. The func- 

 tion of the ' prophet ' has been already indicated. 

 The work of an ' evangelist ' consists in declaring 

 the truths of the gospel, and bringing home to 

 the church generally the principles taught by 

 apostles. The office of the ' pastor ' is that of 

 ministering to the help and comfort of the vari- 

 ous members of the nock. The ' angel ' of the 

 Catholic Apostolic congregation corresponds in a 

 limited sense to the bishop of other Christian 

 denominations ; but he has only the rank of angel- 

 pastor in the universal church. The ministers of 

 each full congregation comprise an angel, with a 

 four-fold ministry (consisting of elders, prophets, 

 evangelists, and pastors ), and a ministry or deacons 

 to give diaconal instruction and to take charge of 

 temporal matters. The ministry is supported by 

 tithes, the people giving a tenth of their income 

 for the support of the priesthood. The ordinary 

 affairs of the church are managed by the angel in 

 a council of deacons, or if needful, of priests and 

 deacons. The whole organisation is based on the 

 types of the Mosaic tabernacle, in which the con- 

 stitution of the Christian church is held to have 

 been shadowed forth. 



The congregation of this communion do not arro- 

 gate to themselves the title of the Catholic Apos- 

 tolic Church. There is but one church built on 

 the foundation of the apostles and prophets ; the 

 members of it throughout the world are not bap- 

 tised into any section Greek, Roman, Protestant, 

 established, or non-established but into the Eter- 

 nal Trinity. A community of them holding the 

 views above indicated regard themselves as a 

 congregation of the Catholic and Apostolic Church 

 assembling at a given place. 



The Catholic and Apostolic Church does not differ 

 from other Christian bodies in regard to the com- 

 mon doctrines of the Christian religion ; it only 

 accepts, in what it considers to be a fuller and more 

 real sense, the phenomena of Christian life. It 

 believes that the wonder, mystery, and miracle 

 of the apostolic times were not accidental, but 

 are essential to the divinely instituted church 

 of God, and expressive of its supernatural life, 

 whereby a people are preparing for the second 

 advent of Christ, the hope of which is held in 

 instant expectation. It is held that the end of 

 this dispensation has two phases the gathering of 

 a first-fruits, and the subsequent great harvest, 

 of which it is the earnest. The doctrine of Symbol- 

 ism is firmly maintained, of which the most marked 

 feature regards the mystical presence of the Lord 

 under the elements of bread and wine, duly con- 

 secrated by the words of the institution and the 

 presence or the Holy Ghost. Both transubstantia- 

 tion and consubstantiatiou are repudiated. There 



are services daily at 6 o'clock A.M. and 5 P.M. ; 

 prayers at 9 A.M. and 3 I'.M. ; the litany every 

 Wednesday and Friday ; and the euchariwt in cele- 

 brated every Lord's Day, or, where there are clergy 

 enough, daily. The liturgy, dating from 1842, IH 

 mainly based on those of the Greek, Roman and 

 Anglican liturgies, with additional prayers. Light* 

 and incense are used ; and the vestment* ( sur- 

 plice, alb, cope, chasuble, and stole) are similar 

 to those of the Roman communion. The Catholic 

 and Apostolic Church has established itself not 

 only in the United Kingdom and its colonies, but 

 on the Continent and in the United States. 



See the Liturgy of the Divine Offices, and The 

 Purpose of God in Creation and Redemption (6th 

 ed. 1888). Miller's History and Doctrines of 

 Irvingism (1878) is not authoritative, but contains 

 much matter of interest. 



Catholic Church. The term catholic liter- 

 ally signifies 'universal.' The phrase Catholic 

 Church is therefore equivalent to 'universal church,' 

 and cannot properly be applied to any particular 

 sect or body, such as the Roman, Greek, Anglican, 

 Reformed, Lutheran, or Presbyterian, all of which 

 form merely portions more or less pure of the 

 ' church universal. ' It occurs for the first time in the 

 pseudo-Ignatian Epistle to the Smyrnaeans. It was 

 first employed from about 160 A.D. to mark the 

 difference between the orthodox ' universal ' Chris- 

 tian church and the various sects of the Gnostic 

 heretics ; though, afterwards, it served also to 

 distinguish the all-embracing Christian church 

 from the religious exclusiveness of the pre-Christian 

 ages, in which the church was restricted to a single 

 nation. The formal principle of the Catholic 

 Church is thus expressed in the famous canon of 

 Vincentius of Lerinum (434 A.D. ), 'Quodubique, 

 quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est'- 

 i.e. the marks of the Catholic Church are uni- 

 versality, antiquity, and unity. The name has been 

 retained by the Church of Rome, which claims 

 to be the visible successor of the primitive one; 

 and although Protestant divines have been careful 

 to deny its applicability to a church which they 

 consider essentially changed by the corrupt accre- 

 tions of centuries, yet the term Catholic is still used 

 by the populace of almost every Protestant country 

 as synonymous with Roman Catholic, so that from 

 their minds all conception of the literal meaning 

 of the word has vanished. For an account of the 

 Church of Rome, see article ROMAN CATHOLIC 

 CHURCH. 



Catholic Creditor, in the law of Scotland, 

 is one whose debt is secured over several or the 

 whole subjects belonging to the debtor e.g. over 

 two or more heritable estates. Questions of diffi- 

 culty arise where one of these subjects is also 

 burdened with other securities, but the other is 

 burdened only with the catholic security. In such 

 circumstances the catholic creditor is bound so to 

 exercise his right as not unnecessarily to injure the 

 securities of the other creditors. Thus, if he draw 

 his whole debt from that subject on which there 

 are other burdens postponed to his security, he must 

 assign to the postponed creditors his security over 

 the unburdened subject. 



Catholic Emancipation. After the Re- 

 formation, both in England and in Scotland, 

 Roman Catholics were subjected to many penal 

 regulations and restrictions. As late as 1780 the 

 law of England which was actually enforced 

 in 1764-65 made it felony in a foreign Catholic 

 priest, and high treason in one who was a native 

 of the kingdom, to teach the doctrines or perform 

 divine service according to the rites of his church. 

 Catholics were debarred from acquiring land by 

 purchase. Persons educated abroad in the Catholic 



