881 



CHRISTIANITY. 



CHROMIUM. 



nave composed that church. On the other hand, writers of what is 

 called history in the usual acceptation of the term, often seem to 

 consider the history of the church as hardly lying within their sphere 

 It is true that those great events in the history of the church which 

 have changed the face of society are not and cannot be overlooked by 

 such writers ; but the influence of the slow and incessant working oi 

 the great principle of Christianity, which is intimately blended with a! 

 the social systems of all the countries where Christianity is established 

 and by its all-pervading power penetrates to their remotest anc 

 minutest members, and enters into all the recesses of domestic life, is 

 rarely glanced at, and seldom, if ever, duly estimated by writers oi 

 history. The history of civilisation, which is the history of a continued 

 progress, would appear to every reflecting person inseparable from the 1 

 history of Christianity, or, in other words, of the, Church, taking this 

 word in its large and proper sense. The public acts of the clergy as a 

 body receive a place among other public events in our annals and our 

 histories ; but as the real history of a people is generally sunk in the 

 history of their rulers, so that of the true church is merged in the 

 history of the clergy. 



A history, then, called a history of the church, in the sense in which 

 we believe all writers of general church history have understood the 

 term, appears to be a division of history which ought either to be 

 entitled a History of the Clergy and of their Acts and Opinions, or it 

 ought so to be blended with general civil history as to render a 

 separate name unnecessary. 



Instead of attempting a history of the church in any sense, we have 

 treated of the characteristic doctrines and discipline of the various 

 bodies of Christians, whether properly called churches, or improperly 

 so called, under their several heads. [BAPTISTS ; CHURCH ; CATHOLIC 

 CHURCH, ROMAN, &c.] 



Christianity is at present diffused over a large part of the world ; 

 but it can only be said to be established, either by the authority of 

 the state, or by general consent, in the following countries. Christ- 

 ianity is established in all parts of Europe except the Ottoman 

 dominions. In America, it is established in all those countries which 

 are now under the dominion of descendants of Europeans, which are, 

 in fact, the largest and best parts of the continent. In Africa, it exists 

 in Abyssinia in a very corrupt state, and among the Copts of Egypt, 

 who are now very inconsiderable in numbers. In Asia, the Christian 

 religion is established in Armenia, but the number of Armenian Christ- 

 ians must not be estimated by the population of the country, for the 

 merchants of this active and industrious people are found in many 

 parts of Europe and Asia. In Syria, a branch of the Greek church 

 still exists in the mountains of Libanus and the island of Cyprus ; 

 another in part of Syria and Diarbekr ; and the Nestorians, who also 

 belong to the Greek church, are found in Asiatic Turkey, about Mosul 

 on the Tigris, in Persia, and also in some parts of India under the 

 name of Christians of St. Thomas. In China and Japan Christianity 

 at one time had made considerable progress, but in both was extin- 

 guished by a most unsparing persecution. In all the foreign depen- 

 dencies of European powers, and especially those of the British empire, 

 Christianity may be considered as established ; though in many cases, 

 as, for instance, in the British possessions in India, the number of 

 Christians is small, when compared with the natives. But the Jealous 

 and persevering labours of European and American missionaries are 

 now diffusing a knowledge of Christianity, and with it, of the useful 

 arts of life, over countries hardly accessible to commercial enterprise ; 

 and it may safely be predicted that, by their efforts, and the spirit of 

 colonisation which distinguishes some of the European nations, Christ- 

 ianity will rapidly spread itself over a much larger part of the habitable 

 globe. The two other religions which occupy so large a portion of the 

 earth's surface, Mohammedanism and Buddhism, are limited as to the 

 sphere within which they can extend their doctrines, and it seems 

 unlikely that they will pass the limits within which they are now 

 confined. But Christianity being the religion of the most enterprising 

 part of the human race, of those whose life consists in action more 

 than in tranquillity and repose, is in a state of continual progress and 

 diffusion ; and it is probably to this difference between the tempera- 

 ment of most of the nations of Europe (a difference in some degree 

 dependent on climate and local circumstances), and those of Asia and 

 Africa, that Christianity still languishes among its comparatively few 

 native professors in Asia and Africa, while the zeal and superior 

 activity of the European race animate the missionaries of England and 

 of the United States to preach the doctrines of Christianity in the 

 very place of its birth, and to rival the old Catholic missionaries in 

 zeal and courage. As the Apostles and the martyrs of the church 

 testified the sincerity of their faith by their willingness to undergo 

 every kind of suffering, and even death ; so, in our own days, the 

 apostles of Christianity, penetrating among the most uncivilised and 

 savage tribes of the earth, have exhibited examples of courage, per- 

 severance, and self-devotion unparalleled in the history of man. 



In Africa, Christianity has hitherto made the least progress : and 

 indeed wherever the Mohammedans have settled in that country, it 

 has gradually decayed or disappeared. The Christian churches of the 

 south coaats of the Mediterranean, which were established at an early 

 period in .the history of the church, no longer exist ; those of Asia 

 Minor have disappeared, and in Syria and Palestine, the cradle of 

 Christianity, it still maintains a feeble and uncertain existence. 

 ARTS ASD SCI. BIV. VOL. II. 



The great Christian churches are 



1. The Greek, or Eastern Church, divided into four principal 

 branches. 



2. The Latin, or Western, or Roman Catholic Church, which is 

 single and undivided. 



3. The Protestant Church. 



The Protestant cannot be called a Church in the sense in which the 

 Roman Catholic is called a Church, as it is not one undivided com- 

 munity, but consists of numerous independent communities. Still, as 

 distinguished from the Roman Catholic community, the whole body of 

 Protestants is sometimes designated, though improperly, as the 

 Protestant Church. 



CHRISTMAS, the festival in memory of Christ's nativity, the day 

 of which is observed on the 25th of December. St. Chrysostom 

 informs us that, in the primitive times, Christmas and Epiphany were 

 celebrated at one and the same feast ('Homil. in Diem Nativ. D. N. J. 

 Christi,' Opera, edit. Montfaucon, torn, iii.), probably from the belief 

 that the rising of the star in the east and the birth of Christ were 

 simultaneous. The separation took place at the Council of Nice, 

 A.D. 325. The Armenians, however, continued to make but one feast 

 of the two, as late as the 13th century. 



The learned have long been divided upon the precise day of the 

 Nativity. Some have fixed it at the Passover ; others, among whom 

 was archbishop Usher, at the feast of Tabernacles ; and it has been 

 observed, that if the shepherds were watching their flocks when it 

 occurred in the field by night, it could hardly have happened in the 

 depth of winter. Be this as it may, the 25th of December has been 

 the day most generally fixed upon from the earliest ages of the Church. 

 Sir Isaac Newton, in his ' Commentary on the Prophecies of Daniel ' 

 (Pt. i. c. ii. p. 144), has a chapter, ' Of the Times of the Birth and 

 Passion of our Saviour,' in which he accounts for the choice of the 

 25th of December, the winter solstice, by showing that not only the 

 feast of the Nativity, but most others, were originally fixed at cardinal 

 points of the year ; and that the first Christian calendars having been 

 so arranged by mathematicians at pleasure, without any ground in 

 tradition, the Christians afterwards took up with what they found in 

 the calendars : so long as a fixed time of commemoration was so- 

 lemnly appointed, they were content. The reader who would know 

 more on this subject may consult Baronii, ' Apparatus ad Annales 

 Ecclesiasticos,' fol. Lucse, 1740, p. 475, et seq. ; Bingham's 'Antiquities 

 of the Christian Church,' lib. xx. cap. 4 ; and a curious tract entitled, 

 ' The Feast of Feasts ; or, the Celebration of the Sacred Nativity of 

 our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; grounded upon the Scrip- 

 tures, and confirmed by the practice of the Christian Church in all 

 ages.' 4to, Oxf. 1644. 



The season of the Nativity is no longer marked by that fervid hospi- 

 tality which characterised its observance among our forefathers. At 

 present, Christmas meetings are chiefly confined to family parties. 

 The wassail-bowl, the yule-clog, and the lord of misrule, with a long 

 train of sports and customs which formerly prevailed at this season, 

 are forgotten : even Christmas carols are nearly gone by ; and the 

 decking of churches, and occasionally of houses, with holly and other 

 evergreens, forms now almost the only indication that this great festival 

 is at hand. For the customs formerly prevalent before, at, and about 

 Christmas, see Brand's ' Pop. Antiq.,' edited by Sir Henry Ellis, vol. i. 

 CHROMATES. [CHROMIUM, Chromic Acid.] 

 CHROMATIC. [ACHROMATIC; LIGHT.] 



CHROMATIC SCALE, in music, is the scale of semitones [SCALE] ; 

 and by chromatic mmic is commonly signified that kind of harmony in 

 which extreme intervals are much used. 



In the Greek music the chromatic (from xp<"V"> colour) was the 

 second of the three genera, and, according to the opinion of some, was 

 so denominated because the notes, or musical characters, in that genus 

 were written in colours. Others think that the word was figuratively 

 employed, and expressed a greater variety of shade, more of contrast, 

 than the other genera. Having no data to judge from, it is impossible 

 to say which of the two opinions is the correct one ; and, in truth, the 

 question may just as well remain in its present state. 

 CHROMATIC THERMOMETER. [THERMOMETER.] 

 CHROME ALUM. [ALUMS.] 

 CHROME ORANGE. [LEAD, bichromate of.] 

 CHROME YELLOW. [LEAD, Chromate of.} 

 CHROMIC ACID. [CHROMIUM.] 



CHROMIUM (Cr) is one of the elements. It is a metal, but does 

 not occur as such in nature, being always combined with oxygen. As 

 sesquioxide it is found in a mineral called chrome-ochre ; as chromate of 

 ,ead, in red-lead spar ; and as sesquioxide associated with protoxide of 

 iron, in chrome iron-stone. The last-mentioned is the most important 

 ore of chromium, but neither of them are very abundant. From the 

 United States and from Norway there are annually imported into 

 Great Britain about 1500 tons of chrome iron-stone ; it is all consumed 

 m the manufacture of colouring matters for the use of the painter, the 

 dyer, and the calico-printer. To the latter fact the derivation of the 

 word chromium is owing, from xpana. (chroma), colour. 



Chromium was first discovered by Vauqueliu, in 1797. (VAUQUELIN, 

 3ioo. Div.) He obtained it in a more or less fibrous or granular con- 

 dition, by subjecting chromic acid, or sesquichloricle of chromium, 

 mixed with oil and charcoal in a well-luted crucible, to the heat of a 



3 L 



