72 



CERINTHUS 



CERTIORARI 



Cermtlms, a heretic who lived at the close of 

 the apostolic age, but of whom we have nothing 

 better than uncertain and confused accounts. He 

 is said to have been a native of Alexandria He 

 passed from Egypt into Asia Minor, and lived in 

 Ephesus contemporaneously (according to the 

 belief of the church) with the aged apostle John 

 It is related by Irenaeus, on the authority of 

 Polycarp, that John held the heretic in such 

 detestation that, on a certain occasion when he 

 encountered Cerinthus in the baths of Ephesus he 

 immediately left the baths, saying to those about 

 him: 'Let us fly, lest the bath fall on us, since 

 Lermthus is within, the enemy of the truth ' It is 

 also said by Iremms that the Gospel by St John 

 was written in direct opposition to the tenets of 

 Cerinthus. He held that the world was not made 

 by the highest God, but by some angel or power far 

 removed from and ignorant of the Supreme Being 

 He is also said to have held coarse and sensual 

 millenanan views, to have believed the Jewish 

 ceremonial law to be in part binding upon 

 Christians and to have taught that the Divine 

 hpirit was first united with the man Jesus in his 

 baptism by John. Cerinthus being, so far as is 

 known, the oldest teacher of Judaico-Gnostic prin- 

 ciples, and, according to Neander, ' the intermedi- 

 ate link between the Judaising and Gnostic sects ' 

 there would naturally be a greater incongruity and 

 want of harmony in his system than in the late 

 developments of Gnosticism (q.v.). 



Cerithillin, a genus of Prosobranchiate Gas 

 teropods and type of a large family, Cerithiadje 

 Ihe shell is rough, naked, spiral, elongated, with 

 many coils, and with an oval oblique aperture which 

 has a short canal in front. The species of this 

 family are numerous (140), most of them marine 

 many inhabiting estuaries and brackish 

 rather than salt water ; some are found in lakes 

 and rivers. A few belong to temperate climates, 

 but most of them are tropical, and in mangrove 

 swamps they particularly abound. The fossil 

 species are very numerous, and almost all limited 

 to the Tertiary formations. C. vulgatum, over six 

 inches in height, is often seen in Italian markets. 



Cerium (sym. Ce, eq. 92) is a rare metal 

 found in cente and a few other minerals It 

 is a white metal, has not been obtained in any 

 quantity, is not therefore employed in anv manu- 

 facture, and forms two basic oxides and a numerous 

 class of salts. The nitrate and oxalate of cerium 

 have been employed in the vomiting of pregnancy 

 their action being somewhat similar to that of the 

 submtrate of bismuth. Cerium biscuits are biscuits 

 jontammg a small proportion of the oxalate, and 

 they form a very convenient medium for the 

 administration of the salt. Cerite or Ochroite is 

 the silicate of cerium, and is found as a mineral 



(1894) 36,000, 

 Capital, Cerro- 



. . : * AWIAHV4. CW3 d, JilllltJI (i,i 



in gneiss, near Riddarhytta, in Westmanland in 

 Sweden. 



Cerox'ylon. See WAX PALM. 



Cerre'tO, a cathedral city of South Italy, on a 

 slope of the Apennines, 14 miles NNW of Bene- 

 vento. Pop. 5129. 



Cerro de Pasco, the capital of the Peruvian 

 department of Junin, stands at an elevation of 

 14,276 feet, 138 miles NE. of Lima. Near it are 

 some of the richest silver-mines on the continent. 

 Ihe climate is cheerless and inclement. Pop 7000 

 mostly Indians and half-breeds. 



Cerro Gordo, a plateau in Mexico, the most 

 easterly on the route from Vera Cruz to the capital 

 Here on 18th April 1847, the Americans totally 

 defeated the Mexicans. 



Cerro Largo, a department in the NE of 

 Uruguay, well watered, with large savannahs and 



forests. Area, 5735 sq. m. ; pop. 

 chiefly engaged in cattle -raising. 

 Largo or Melo ; pop. 5000. 



Certaldo, a town of Central Italy, 19 miles. 

 bW of Florence (37 by rail). It is noteworthy 

 as the residence of Boccaccio, who was born and 

 died here. His house is still standing, much as it. 

 was in the poet's time. Pop. 2500. 

 . CertMidae. a family of birds, generally placed 

 in the great order Insessores or Passeres. they are 

 best known by their most typical representative 

 the Creeper (a.v.). They are widely distributed 

 birds, absent however from the Ethiopian and 

 neo-tropical regions, and the family includes twelve 

 genera and about fifty species. They are expert 

 climbers, and feed on insects. 



TT^P^Jf 10 * 1 ^? in the law of En g!and and of the 

 United States, is a written statement by a person 

 having a public or official status concerning some 

 matter within his knowledge and authority. There 

 are a great many classes of such certificates e g 

 certificate of charge upon land ; certificate of the 

 chief-clerk in Chancery proceedings, which is practi- 

 cally a report of what the clerk has done ; certificate 

 of discharge of a debtor in liquidation ; certificate 

 of incorporation under the Companies Acts ; certifi- 

 cate of mortgage on ships under the Merchant 

 shipping Acts; certificate of naturalisation. In 

 the U nited States, the word is commonly applied to 

 any formal statement made by a public servant in 

 the execution of his duty, as by a collector of taxes, 

 a postmaster, &c. See CHARACTER. 



Certification, in the law of Scotland, signifies 

 the judicial assurance given to a party of the 

 course to be followed by the judge in case he 

 disobeys the will of a summons, or other writ or 

 order of the court. Reiterated contumacy on the 

 part of the defender was at one time punished with 

 confiscation of his property (1449, chap. 29), but 

 now certification merely means that If he fails to 

 appear in the usual manner, the judge will decern 

 or pronounce judgment against him. 



Certiora'ri is the writ by which, since the 

 abolition of imprisonment for debt and the con- 

 sequent disuse of the better known writ habeas 

 corpus, causes are removed from inferior courts of" 

 record into the High Court of Justice. This is a 

 matter of considerable importance to the commer- 

 cial public. Such removal is either before or after 

 judgment in the inferior court. Before judgment 

 certiorari is competent as tort, in all cases 

 except where the sum sued for is less than 5. 

 Either party can remove the cause, but, where the 

 sum is less than 20, the defendant must give his 

 sureties for the debt and costs. The removal must 

 be within six weeks after appearance of defendant 

 In the superior court the plaintiff must make a 

 fresh statement of claim. The certiorari is obeyed 

 by sending up the original record. Under the 

 Judicature Acts there is a further power of removal 

 when any defence or counter-claim is set up which 

 is beyond the jurisdiction of the inferior court. In 

 the county courts, where the action on contract is 

 above 20, or on tort abo^e 5, the defendant has 

 a general right to certiorari on security for costs. 

 Where the discretion of the superior court is- 

 appealed to, such considerations as the difficulty 

 of legal points, the improbability of obtaining an 

 mpartial jury, are important. After judgment, 

 5ertiorari is often applied for by the successful 

 plaintiff for purposes of execution, where the 

 jerson or effects of the defendant cannot be found 

 n the jurisdiction of the inferior court. Certiorari 

 may also be obtained as of right by the crown to 

 emove an indictment in a criminal cause to the 

 Queens Bench Division or the Central Criminal 

 ^ourt. This writ used also to be of right to private 



