T R A 



council of Treat declares to have the fasae autLority with 

 the Holv Scripture itlelf, and pronounces every one who 

 rejecis it an heretic. 



It is a quellion of fome difficulty, when the church of 

 Rome began to derogate from the authority of the Scrip- 

 tures, and to raife thefe traditions to an equality with them. 

 It is generally fuppofed, that pope Nicholas ordained, that 

 the decretal epilUes of the popes iliould be of the fame 

 authority as the Scriptures, about the year 855. Du Pleffis 

 (Myft. Iniq. ProgreiT. 31.), indeed fays, that pope Agatho 

 had, 170 years before, pronouncad openly, " that all de- 

 crees made by the fee apoftolic, ought to be received as if 

 they had proceeded from St. Peter's own mouth." But as 

 this docirine had gained no caHonical authority ir. the ponti- 

 ficate of Nicholas, it ought not at fo early a period be 

 placed to the account of the church. Nor did that diligent 

 inquirer find any formal decree to fnch effect till the year 

 141 5, when the councQ of Conftance, in the condemnation 

 of the 38th article of Wickliffe's herefy, ordained, that fuch 

 of the decretal epiftles as ftiould be found upon examination 

 to be rightly afcribed to the popes whofe names they bore, 

 {hould be of equal authority with the epiiUes of the apolUes. 

 (L'Einfant's Hift. Council of Conftance, vol. i. p. 229.) 

 From this period, the fufficiency of the Scriptures alone to 

 falvation became a formal herefy, as appears by the 12th 

 of the interrogatories exhibited to Lambert with Fox's 

 Martyrology in the year 1538. Hitherto, however, the 

 Scriptures ftood upon even ground with papal conftitutions ; 

 and the mconfiftencies between them were kept fufficiently 

 out of fight, by depriving the people of the ordinary means 

 of ftudying the facred oracles, and entertaining them only 

 with the ignorant and myllical comments of the monks upon 

 them. When thefe would no longer pafs upon mankind, 

 it then became neceffary to degrade the Scriptiu-es to an in- 

 ferior clafs. 



Traditions, Ecckfiaftkal, are certain ftatutes and regu- 

 lations regarding the ntes, cuftoms, and circumftances of 

 religion, introduced liace the time of the apoftles, by coun- 

 cils, popes, &c. and continued to our time throug'a a con- 

 ftant obfervance of the church. 



The Romanifts make another divifion of tradition, t/z. 

 mto vjrittsv and unii/ritten. 



Tradition, Written, is that of which we find fome traces 

 in the ancient fathers and dodors. 



Tradition, Untvritten, is that of which there appear 

 no Cgns or fteps in any of the fathers extant. 



The church of Rome pretends to be the depofitary of 

 e«eh kind ; tradition (he holds to be abfolutely neceffary in 

 the church, grounding this neceffity on the promife of infalli- 

 bility whiA Jefus Chrift is pretended to have made her. 



Yet others of that communion deny tradition, how ex- 

 edlent foever it may be for the reclaiming of herctic5, to be 

 abfolutely neceflary ; maintaining, that the charch would 

 not be lefs infaUible, nor lefs the rule of doftrine, &c. if 

 the fathers had never written at all. 



TRADITIONARY, TRADinoNARirs, a name given 

 aaoag the Jews to fuch of them as acknowledcre tradition, 

 follow it, and explain the Scriptures by it : in oppofition 

 to the Caraites, who refule any thing but the pure Scrip- 

 tuses themfelves. 



The traditionaries are what we more ufually call rabbins, 

 and rabbinifts, or tahnudifts. Hillel (hone among the tradi- 

 txxnaries, and Shairjnai among the textuaries. 



TRADITORES, a name given ia the firft ages of the 

 church to fuch Chriftiafis as, in times of perfecutian, to 

 avoid death and martyrdon^ delivered up the facred writings 

 to the jwrfecutors. 



T R A 



The enemies of religion, even under the old law, made 

 their utmoft efforts to deprive the world of the Holy Scrip- 

 tures : in that cruel perfecution which Antiochus raifed 

 againft the Jews, the books of the law were very foUcitoufly 

 fought after, torn, and burnt, and fuch as kept them were 

 put to death ; as we read in the firil book of Maccab. ch. i. 

 v. 56, J7. 



Dioclefian renewed the fame impiety, by an edicl pub- 

 lifhed in the nineteenth year of his empire, commanding 

 all the facred books to be brought to the magiitrates, and 

 burnt. 



Many weak Chriftians, and even fome bilhops, overcome 

 with the fear of punifhment, carried in their books to the 

 perfecutors : which the church detefting, made very fevere 

 laws igainft them, and gave them the infamous names of 

 traditorss, firom trado, I dtliver, betray, 



As the great pretence of the fchifm of the Donatifts was, 

 that the Cethohcs tolerated the traditores, it v.as decreed 

 ia the council of Aries, held in 3 €4, that fuch as fhould 

 be found guilty of having delivered up any 01 the holy 

 books or veffels, (hould be depofed from the order of the 

 clergy, &c. 



TRADUCIAN, Traduciasi, a name which the Pela- 

 gians anciently gave the Catholics, becaufe of their teaching 

 that original fin was tranfmitted from father to children, oc 

 that it was communicated to the children by the father in 

 the way of generation. 



The word is formed of the Latin tradux, which was 

 made ufe of to exprefs that communication ; and which 

 comes from traduco, I Iranfmit, or propagate from one to 

 another. 



At prefent, fome give the appellation traduciani, to fuch 

 as hold, that the fouls are tranfmitted to the children by 

 the father. 



TRADUCTION, formed of trans, beyond, and duto, 



1 lead, dratu ; the act of tranflating, or turning out of one 

 language ir.to another. See Thanslation. 



TRAETH Buchan, in Geography, a bay of the Iri(h fea, 

 on the weft coaft of Wales, in the county of Merioneth ; 



2 miles N. of Harlech. 



Traeth Coch. See Redwharf Bay. 

 Traeth Mawr, a bay of the Iriih fea, on the weft 

 coaft of Wales, between the counties of Merioneth and 

 Caernarvon ; 4 nules N. of Harlech. 



TRAETTA, Tomaso, in Biography, a Neapolitan com- 

 pofer of the firft clafs during the laft century. We have a 

 very fpirited and accurate account of the rapid progrefs of 

 this mafter to the temple of Fame, in M. Laborde's " Effai 

 fur la Mufique," drawn up, we believe, by the animated 

 and difcriminative pen of count Benincafa ; who fays that, 

 " Traetta, one of the laft difciples of Durante, quitted the 

 coaferratorio at the age of twenty-one, and two years after 

 he was chofen to compofe an opera for the great theatre 

 royal of San Carlo, at Naples, entitled ' Farr.ace.' His 

 fuccefs L". this firft attempt was fo great, that he was employed 

 in the fame city to compofe fix other operas, ferious and 

 comic, fucceffively. 



" The reputation of this young compofer foon reached 

 Rome, whither he was invited, and compofed for the Ah- 

 berti theatre ' Ezio ;' which, though it had been previoufly 

 fet by fo many great mafters, that of Traetta was, and is 

 ftill, the moft elleemed. All the great theatres of Italy 

 now wifiied to engage him, and he compofed for them all 

 more than once, till he was fixed in the fervice of the court 

 of Parma, in the fplendid reign of Don Philip, where he 

 had the honour of inftructing in mufic the late archduchefs, 

 confon of the emperor Jofeph II., and the priaeefs of Aftu- 

 9 . li*»> 



