T R I 



T R I 



The order had its rife in 1198, under the pontificate of 

 Innocent III. The founders were John de Matha and 

 Felix de Valois ; the firit of Faucon in Provence ; the 

 fecond, not of the royal family of Valois, as fome have 

 imagined, but thus called, in all probability, as being a 

 native of the country Valois. 



Gauthier of Chatillon was the firft; who gave them a 

 place in his lands to build a convent ; and afterwards be- 

 came the chief of the whole order : Honorius III. confirmed 

 their rule ; and Urban IV. appointed the bifhop of Paris 

 and others to reform them : they did it ; and the reform 

 was approved, in 1267, by Clement IV. 



This order poffefles about 250 convents, divided into 

 thirteen provinces ; of which fix are in France, three in 

 Spain, one in Italy, and one in Portugal. And formerly 

 there was one in England, another in Scotland, and a third 

 in Ireland. 



Broughton, and fome other writers, make a diftinftion 

 between the order of the redemption of captives, and the 

 fraternity of the Holy Trinity. 



Trinitarians, Barefooted, are a reform of this order, 

 made in Spain, in a general chapter held in 1 594, where it 

 was refolved, that each province fhould eftablifh two or 

 three houfes, where the primitive rule ftiould be obferved, 

 and vifhere the religious (hould live up to a greater auflerity, 

 ufe coarfer clothes, &c. and yet (hould have the liberty of 

 returning to their ancient convent, when they thought fit. 



Don Alvares Bafan, intending to found a monailery at 

 Valdepegnas, and defiring to have it occupied by bare- 

 footed religious, it was agreed to add nudity of feet to the 

 reform, that the Trinitarians might have the benefit of that 

 eftablifhment. The reform afterwards grew into three pro- 

 vinces, and was at length introduced into Poland and Ruffia, 

 and thence into Germany and Italy. 



There are alfo barefooted Trinitarians in France, efta- 

 blifhed by F. Jerom Hallies, who, being fent to Rome to 

 folicit the firft reform mentioned above, not content with 

 this, carried it farther, and obtained a permifiion of pope 

 Gregory, to add a coarfe habit and nudity of feet thereto. 

 He began with the convent of St. Dionyfius at Rome, and 

 thofe of Aix in Provence. 



In 1670, there were houfes enough of this reform to 

 make a province, and, accordingly, they lield their firft 

 general chapter the fame year. 



There are alfo nuns of the Trinitarian order cftablifhed 

 in Spain by St. John de Matha himfelf, who built them a 

 convent in 1201. Thofe who firft took the habit were 

 only oblatsE, and made no vows ; but in 120 1, the monaf- 

 tery was filled with real religious, under the direftion of the 

 infanta Conftantia, daughter of Peter II. king of Aragon, 

 who was the firft religious, and the firft fuperior of the 

 order. 



There are alfo barefooted nuns of this order, eftablifhed 

 at Madrid about the year 1612, by Frances de Romero, 

 daughter of JuHan de Romero, a lieutenant-general in the 

 Spanifti army. 



Laftly, there is a third order of Trinitarians. 



TRINITE', La, in Geography, a town of France, in 



the department of the Stura ; 4 miles S.W. of Bene 



Alfo, a name given to two iflands and a rock in the 

 South Atlantic ocean ; uninhabited and little known. S. 

 lat. 19° 30'. W. long. 40°. — Alfo, a town of France, in 

 the department of the Morbihan ; 15 miles E. of Pontivy. 



TRINITY, Trinitas, Trias, Triad, in Theology, the 

 ineffable myftery of three perfons in one God, Father, Son, 

 and Holy Spirit. 



It is an article in fome fyftems of theology, that there 



is one God, an unity in nature and effence, and a Tri- 1 

 nity of perfons. The term Trinity implies the unity of 1 

 three, the unity of three divine perfons really different, ■ 

 and the identity of an indivifible nature : the Trinity is a 

 ternary of divine perfons of the fame eflence, nature, and 

 fubftance. 



Perfon is defined an individual, reafonable, or intellec- 

 tual fubftance ; or an intelleftual and incommunicable fub- 

 ftance. 



The hypoftafis, or fubftance, is what conftitutes the 

 perfon. There are then in the Holy Trinity three perfons, 

 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which have all things in 

 common, except their relations ; whence that axiom in 

 theology comes to have place, in the divine perfons there is 

 iio diftinftion, where there is no oppofition of relation. 



The Father is the firft perfon in the Holy Trinity, by 

 reafon the Father alone produces the Word, by the way of 

 ■underjlanding ; and with the Word produces the Holy Spirit, 

 by way of lutll. 



Here it is to be obferved, that the Holy Spirit is not thus 

 called from his fpirituality, that being common and effential 

 to all the three perfons ; but from the paflive fpiration (as 

 fome popifti fchoolmen exprefs the manner in which the 

 perfonality of the Holy Spirit is derived from the Father 

 and Son), which is peculiar to him alone. 



Add, that when one perfon in the Holy Trinity is called 

 Jirjl, anolher fecond, and another third, it muft not be under- 

 ftood of a priority of time, or of nature, which would 

 imply fome dependence ; but of a priority of origin and 

 emanation, which confifts in this, that one perfon produces 

 the other, in fuch manner, as that the perfon which pro- 

 duces cannot be, or be conceived, without that produced. 



Thofe who maintain the doftrine of the Trinity allege, 

 that the fame titles, attributes, works, and worfhip, are 

 alcribed by the facrcd writers to the Father, Son, and 

 Holy Spirit : neverthelefs they contend, in different ways, 

 for the proper unity of the divine nature. For the fenti- 

 ments of fome of the chief modern Trinitarians, fee Tri- 

 nitarians : and for the fentiments of others, who have 

 rejected what has been ufually denominated the orthodox 

 doArine of the Trinity, fee Ahians, Macedonians, Noe- 

 tians, Sabellians, Semi-arians, Socinians, and Uni- 

 tarians. See alfo Tritheism. 



It is obferved by Dr. Waterland and many other writers, 

 that the term Trinity firft occurs in the works of Theo- 

 philus, biftiop of Antioch, about the year 180. Theoph. 

 ad Autolyc. lib. ii. c. 14. p. 148. 150, ed. Wolfii. 



But at this time the words, perfons, and fubftances, were 

 not in ufe ; however, they were introduced on occafion of 

 the difputes with Praxeas, Noetus, and Sabellius, either 

 by Clement of Alexandria, or by Tertullian. 



For the puniftiment inflifted by the Engliih law on thofe 

 who deny the Trinity, fee Heresy. 



Many of the heathens are faid to have had a notion of a 

 Trinity. Steuch. Eugub. de Peren. Philof. lib. i. c. 3. 

 obferves, that there is nothing in all theology more deeply 

 grounded, or more generally allowed by them, than the 

 myftery of the Trinity. The Chaldseans, Phoenicians, 

 Greeks, and Romans, both in their writings, and their 

 oracles, acknowledged that the Supreme Being had begot I 

 another Being from all eternity, which they fometimes called! 

 the Son of God, fometimes the Word, fometimes the Mind,\ 

 and fometimes the Wifdom of God, and afferted it to be the! 

 creator of all things. 



Among the fayings of the Magi, the defcendants of Zoro- 

 after, thli is one, riavja £|sTE^ecrt -craTr)^ Jtaivctj, •nraffdax^dfUTf^ii' ; 

 the Father jinijhed all things, and delivered tkcm to thtfeccnd 



Mind, 



