654 



TRADITION TRAGEDY. 



(nation have been so greatly increased, will easily 

 understand why historical tradition is to be received 

 with the utmost caution. Every person, every 

 country, every age, involuntarily gives a colouring 

 to facts, to say nothing of intentional misstate- 

 nii'iits. But there is a species of historical tradi- 

 tion which exists even after the invention not only 

 of writing, but of printing. It is the repetition of 

 hearsay, by which misrepresentations of facts, or 

 downright inventions, creep into notice, and soon 

 become widely repeated and believed, either be- 

 cause they suit the purposes of a party, or because 

 they are presented with an air of credibility. How 

 many stories, believed for centuries, have at last 

 been proved utterly false ! how many are yet in the 

 mouths of millions, and, nevertheless, untrue 1 It 

 becomes the historian, therefore, to examine into 

 the origin of every statement, and the character 

 and situation of those on whose authority it rests : 

 did they know with certainty what they relate? 

 were they not actuated by interest, passion or pre- 

 judice? The same caution which the historian 

 must observe in regard to traditions, politicians and 

 citizens of a free government ought to exercise in 

 regard to those party rumours which we might 

 term political traditions. Without such caution, 

 a free people becomes the toots of demagogues. 

 Every statement in print receives, from this very 

 circumstance, a kind of authority; and what has 

 not been said in print? Newspapers (q. v.), much 

 as they contribute to general information, also con- 

 tribute much to the propagation of these unfounded 

 reports. The counterstatements of opposite papers 

 serve, indeed, in some measure, to correct each 

 other's misrepresentations ; but, as the mass of peo- 

 ple read only the papers of their own party, mis- 

 statements will inevitably gain a footing; and a 

 man who is desirous of believing only the truth, 

 must subject the stories admitted on hearsay by his 

 party to a critical scrutiny. It was long believed that 

 a female was raised to the papal chair, under the 

 name of John VIII. (see Joan the Papess') ; and how 

 many persons have credited the newspaper stories 

 that Napoleon used to beat his wife, and had 

 criminal intercourse with his daughter-in-law ! The 

 story of the beating is, in fact, still repeated in 

 some histories of Napoleon, so called! It is a very 

 common mistake to ascribe to the statements of 

 ancient writers full credibility, though the writer 

 may have lived in a time or country so distant from 

 that to which his narrative relates, that he had no 

 better opportunity of judging than ourselves. See 

 Niebuhr's Roman History. 



Tradition, in another sense, forms one of the 

 chief points of disagreement between the Roman 

 Catholics and Protestants, perhaps the most im- 

 portant. The Catholic understands by tradition 

 the unwritten word of God, that is, sacred truths 

 orally communicated by Jesus and the apostles, 

 which were not written down, but by the assistance 

 />f the Holy Ghost, were preserved in the church 

 /rom one generation of bishops to another. The 

 chief sources of it are considered to be the fathers 

 of the church, who, indeed, introduced rites not 

 prescribed by the Bible, and some of which, as the 

 baptism of children, confession, the celebration of 

 certain festivals, &c., have been retained by mnny 

 Protestant sects, yet with different views from 

 those entertained by the Catholics respecting their 

 importance, or necessity for salvation. The Catho- 

 lics ascribe to their tradition divine authority, and 

 thus make it a principle in their dogmatics They 



maintain that the church ha; nlwnys remained in 

 possession of the revelation of the Holy Ghost, 

 which the apostles enjoyed, and that this revela- 

 tion or belief of the church is ascertained by the 

 decrees of the councils (q. v.), the concurrence of 

 the fathers of the church, and the decrees of the 

 popes (the Gallican church, however, does not pvi- 

 this authority to the decrees of the pope, unlr> 

 they are acquiesced in by the church universal, 

 though it admits that this acquiescence mas In- 

 tacit). The Bible, indeed, is adopted as a rule ot 

 faith by the Catholics as well as by the Protestants ; 

 hut the former consider it as to be explained and 

 understood according to the construction which the 

 church puts upon the doctrines contained in it a 

 principle sanctioned by the council of Trent. A 

 reverence for tradition, therefore, is taught in 

 all Catholic catechisms ; and it is the foundation 

 on which the Catholic believes in his rites, and 

 the characteristic parts of his religious worship- 

 The council of Trent ascribes equal authority to 

 tradition and the Bible. It has been said, indeed, 

 that it ought to have given greater authority to the 

 former, as the latter can only, by the council's own 

 decree, be legitimately explained by the church or 

 traditions. From all that has been said, it appears 

 that tradition is to the Catholic what reason is to 

 the rationalist, and the literal text of the Bible, 

 scientifically and conscientiously settled, to the 

 supernaturalist. See Roman Catholic Church. 



TRADITORES ; a name given, in the first ages 

 of the church, to those Christians who during the 

 persecutions, especially those under Diocletian, gave 

 up the sacred books and utensils to the heathen 

 authorities, to escape the dangers which threatened 

 them. They were generally timorous priests, and 

 were punished by the church with dismissal from 

 office. The Donatists (q. v.) considered the Tra- 

 ditores on a level with the worst heretics, and sepa- 

 rated from the Catholic church on the ground that 

 it tolerated them. See Donatists. 



TRADUCIANS (from traduce, transmit); a 

 name which the Pelagians anciently gave to the 

 Catholics, because of their teaching that original 

 sin was transmitted from father to children. At 

 present, the term is sometimes applied to those who 

 hold that souls are transmitted to children by the 

 parents. 



TRAFALGAR, BATTLE OF. See Navy, where 

 it is described. 



TRAGEDY (from the Greek and Latin tragce* 

 dia). The Greek word is derived from r^ayof, arid 

 <uln, a song. It is an old, but not, therefore, less 

 absurd opinion, says Adelung, in his WSrterbuch, 

 that the first part of the word r^etym signifies, in 

 this composition, a he goat, and the whole, a song 

 in honour of Bacchus, sung at the sacrifice of a he 

 goat, or a play, for which the poet received a he 

 goat a derivation occasioned by its being generally 

 known that T^a.yni signifies a he goat, while it is 

 not so commonly known that is also signifies melan- 

 choly, of which the Latin tragicus is a clear proof; 

 otherwise that word would have signified goatish. 

 Hesychius explains ixr^xyialti, explicitly, by u-rtiftia^ti, 

 a.r f i>6entii, he weeps. In the ancient Upper German, 

 the word Trego signifies grief; in Lower Saxon, 

 tr'tiye is weary, sad ; and in Swedish, traga means 

 to mourn, and triige, grief; all of which are con- 

 nected with the Greek i-gKyixos or -r^ayo;. Tragedy, 

 therefore, properly signifies a melancholy song, as 

 comedy signifies a gay one. But that T*y>;, in 

 "Greek, signifies both a he goat and melancholy, is 



