ACT 



ACT 



fo liij!;li, llist die top of the flame fcldom readies higher 

 than tiie feat they fit on, fo that they rather fccm roafled 

 than bvimt. There cannot be a more lamcntahle fpetlacle ; 

 the fufferers continually crying out, while they are able, 

 mipncord'ta por amor de D'los : yet it is bchtlil by all fcxes, 

 and ages, with tranfports of joy and fatisfartion : this joy 

 is not the effert of natural cruelty, but of the fpirit of 

 their religion ; for the deaths of other malcfaftors are ten- 

 derly commiferated and lamented. Geddes's Mile. Trads, 

 torn. i. p. 442. Limb. Hill. Inq. lib. iv. 



Act of Grace. See Grace. 



Acts alfo denote the deliberations and refolutions of an 

 alTembly, fenate, council, or convocation ; taken down by 

 clerks, notaries, aduarifs, or the like, and entered in a regi- 

 ftcr. Ads arc alfo matters of fad tranfmitted to poflerity 

 in certain authentic books, or memoirs, as the acts of the 

 Apollles, of the Martyrs, S:c. to this general clafs belong 

 ads of parliament, which are called statutes ; ads of 

 the Royal Society called transactions ; thofe of the late 

 royal academy of feiences at Paris, called memoirs ; thofe of 

 the focieties of Leipfic, &c. called fimply ads, ada erudito- 

 rum, &c. 



Acts of the Conjipory, ana conjijlnrn, the edids and de- 

 clarations of the council of ilate of the Roman emperors. 

 The fenate and foldiers often fwore, either through abjed 

 flattery or by compullion, upon the edicls of the emperor, 

 as we do upon the Bible ; and the name of Apidius Me- 

 rula was erafed by Nero from the regifter of fenators, be- 

 caufe he refufed to iVear upon the edids of Auguftus. 



Acvs. of Coimcil, differed from canons, in that the latter 

 contained only the i-efults, or the laws and regulations agreed 

 on, and drawn up in foi-m ; whereas the adls included the 

 preceding debates, motions, &c. 



In the firit coUedions of councils, only the bare canons 

 m-ere delivered. Afterwards they began to give the ads as 

 well as the canons. 



Hence we have two kinds of fynodical colledions : one 

 containing all the ads, or tranfadions, relating to matters 

 of faith and dodtrine ; the other, containing only the canons 

 relating to difciplinc, is called the book of canons. 



Acts of the people, ada popnli, among the Romans, w-ere 

 journals or regiilers of the daily occurrences, as afiemblies, 

 trials, executions, buildings, births, marriages, deaths, &c. 

 of illuftrious perl'ons, and the like. 



Theie M'cre otherwife called ada piMca, and ada diurna, 

 or fimply inla. 



The ada only differed from annals, in that only the 

 greater and more important matters were in the latter, and 

 thofe of lefs note in the former. Tacitus Annal. xiii. ;^i. 



Their origin is attributed to Julius Csefar, who firl't or- 

 dered the keeping and making public the ads of the people ; 

 fome trace them higher, to Servius Tullius, who, to dif- 

 coyer the number of perfons born dead, and alive, ordered 

 that the next of kin, upon u birth, fliould put a certain piece 

 of money into the treafury of Jimo l.uc'ma ; upon a death, 

 into that of Veiuis Libumn : the like was alfo to be done 

 Aipon aduming the Ic^^a i-'irilis, SiC. Under Marcus Anto- 

 Junus, this was carried farther; perfons were obliged to 

 notify tiie birth of their children, with their names and fur- 

 names, the day, conful, and whether legitimate or fpurious, 

 to the pr;efects of the peranum Saturni, to be entered in the 

 pubhc ads : though before this time the births of perfons 

 flf quality appear to have been thus regiftered. Saetonius. 

 Pitifc. Lex. 



Acts, PuMic. The knowledge of public ads has been 

 ereded into a peculiar fcience, called the diplomatic, of great 

 Mnporunce to m liifto.-ian, ftatefman, chronologer, and evea 



critic. The prefervation of them was the Cril occafion of 

 eivding libraries. 



The llyie of ads is generally barbarous Latin. Authors 

 are divided as to the rules of judging ot their genuincnefs, 

 and even whether there be any certain rules at all ? F. Ger- 

 mon will have the greater part of the ads of former ages to 

 be fpurious. Fontanini afferts, that the number of forged 

 ads now extant is veiy fmall. It is certain there were 

 fevere punifliments inflided on the forgers and falfiliers of 

 ads. 



The chief of the Englifh ads, or public records, are pub- 

 liflied by Rymer, tinder the title of Fccdera, and continued 

 by Sanderfon : an extrad whereof has been given in French 

 by Rapin, and tranffated into Englilh, under the title of 

 Ai-hi Re^ia. Great contmendations have been given to this 

 work, and fome exceptions made to it : as that there are 

 many fpurious ads, as well as errors iu it ; fome have even 

 charged it with falfilications. 



The public ads of France fell into the hands of the 

 Engliffi after the battle of Poitiers, and are commonly faid 

 to have been carried by them out of the country. But tlie 

 tradition is not fupported by any fufticient teflimony, and 

 has even been fhewn by M. Bruflel to be falfe. 



Acts of the Senate, ada fenatus, among the Romans, 

 were minutes of what paffed, and was debated in the feuate- 

 houfe. 



Thefe were alfo called commentarii, and by a Greek name 

 l-ui<y\j.m^i.!>.Ta,. They had their origin in the confulffrip of 

 Julius Ciefar, who ordered them both to be kept and 

 publilhed : and there was an ofScer, who was himfelf a 

 fenator, ^vhofe province it was to compofe thefe aBs. The 

 keeping them was continued under Auguftus, but the pub- 

 lication was abrogated. Afterwards all writings, relatiifg 

 to the decrees or fentenc^:s of the judges, or wh u paffed 

 and was done before them, or by their authority, in any 

 caufe, were called by the name acta. 'In which fenfe 

 we read of civil atls, criminal ads, intcrvenient ads, ada 

 civilia, criminalia, iritervenicinra, S:c. 



Acts, Cleri of the, is an officer of the navy. See 

 Clerk. 



Acts of the Apojiles, a canonical book of the New Tefi:a- 

 ment, which contains great part of the lives of St. Peter 

 and St. Paul, and of the hiftory of the Chriftian church ; 

 commencing at the afcenfion of our Saviour, and con- 

 tinued down to St. Paul's arrival at Rome, after his appeal 

 to C.efar, comprehending in all about thirty years. St. 

 Luke has been allowed by all antiquity to be the author of 

 this book, and his principal defign in writing it was to fur- 

 nifft an authentic hiftory of the firft plantation of Chrifti- 

 anity ; and it thus ferves to obviate the i.ilfe acts, and 

 falfe hiftories, which were afterwards difperfed through the 

 world. The exad time of his writing it has been afcer. 

 tained with a very confiderable degree of accuracy ; for it 

 muft have been at leaft two years after St. Paul's arrival at 

 Rome, becaufe it infoi-ms us that St. Paul dwelt two whole 

 years in his own hired houfe ; perhaps he wrote it while 

 he remained with St. Paul, during the time of his imprifon- 

 ment. 



It was written, according to Mill, in his Prolegomena, in 

 the year 64. And Dr. Lardner (works, vol. vi. p. 145,) 

 oblei-ves, that it could not have been written till after St. 

 Paul's cojihnement at Rome was come to a period, which 

 he fuppofcs to have ended in the former part of the year 

 of Chrift 63 ; and he thinks it probable, that St. Luke 

 finilhed this book the fame, or the next year, either at Rome 

 or in Greece. That St. Luke was the author of it appears 

 Irom the general confent of the ancient Chriftian writers : 

 5 *-^. 



