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 TONSURE

779

TORAH

Tonsure (Lat. londere, "to shear"), a sacred rite instituted by the Church by which a baptized and confirmed CJiristian is received into the clerical order by the shearing of his hair and the investment with the surplice. The person thus tonsured becomes a partaker of the common privileges and obligations of the clerical state and is prepared for the reception of orders. The tonsure itself is not an ordination properly so called, nor a true order. It is rather a simple ascription of a person to the Divine service in such things as are common to all clerics. His- torically, the tonsure was not in use in the primitive Church during the age of persecution. Even later, St. Jerome (in Ezeeh., .xliv) disapproves of clerics shaving their heads. Indeed, among the Greeks and Romans such a custom was a badge of slavery. On this very account, the shaving of the head was adopted bj- the monks. Towards the end of the fifth, or beginning of the sixth, century, the custom passed over to the secular clergy.

As a sacred rite, the tonsure was originally joined to the first ordination received, as in the Greek Church it still is to the order of lector. In the Latin Church it began as a separate ceremony about the end of the seventh century, when parents offered their J'oung sons to the service of God. Tonsure is to be given by a candidate's ordinary, though mitred abbots can bestow it on their own subjects. No special age for its reception is prescribed, but the recipient must have learnt the rudiments of the Faith and be able to read antl WTite. The ceremony may be performed at any time or place. As to the monastic tonsure, some writers have distinguished three kinds: (1) the Roman, or that of St. Peter, w'hen all the head is shaved except a circle of hair; (2) the Eastern, or St. Paul's, when the entire head is denuded of hair; (3) the Celtic, or St. John's, when only a crescent of hair is shaved from the front of the head. In Britain, the Saxon opponents of the Celtic tonsure called it the tonsure of Simon Magus. According to canon law, all clerics are bound to wear the tonsure under certain penalties. But on this subject, Taunton (loc. cit. inf.) says: "In Enghsh-speaking countries, from a custom arising in the days of per- secution and having a prescription of over three cen- turies, the shaving of the head, the priestly crown, seems, with the tacit consent of the Holy See, to have passed out of use. No provincial or national council has ordered it, even when treating of clerical dress; and the Holy See has not inserted the law when correcting the decrees of those councils."

TAir.NToN, The Law of Ike Church (London. 1906), s. v.: Ga8- PARRi, De sacra ordinalione, I (Paris, 1893); Wernz, Jm Decre- talium, II (Rome, 1899).

William H. W. Fanning.

Tootell, Hugh, commonly known as Charles Dodd, historian, b. in 1671 or '72, at Durton-in-Brough- ton, Lancashire; d. at Harvington Hall, Worcester- shire, 27 Feb., 1743. He was educated at the English CoUege, Douay (1688-1693), and St. Gregory's Sem- inary, Paris (1693-1697). After ordination he re- turned to England in 1698 as chaplain to the Rloly- neux family at Mosborough HalJ, Lancashire, in 1711 he returned to the Continent where he is said to have witnessed the siege of Douay (1712) as chaplain to an English regiment; certainly he wrote in that character a short "History of the English College at Douay" (1713) which purported to be by a Protestant chaplain. As it attacked the Jesuits, Father Thomas Hunter published his "Mode.st Defence" (1714), to which Dodd replied in "The Secret Policy of the English Society of Jesus" (171.5). From 1716 he was again at Mosborough till 1718, when he returned to Douav to collect materials for his great work "The Church Historv- of England from l.^fK) to 16S8", which occupied him for twenty years. The work was written at Harvington Hall, where he resided from

1722 till his death, first as assistant chaplain, then (from 1726) as chaplain. During his sojourn abroad he WTote and published "Pax Vobis: an Epistle to the Three Churches" (London, 1721); and while at Harvington he comjio.sed several spiritual, controver- sial, and historical treatises most of which have never been published. Many of these MSS. (a complete list of which is given by Gillow, Bibl. Diet. Eng. Cath., V, 550-o54) are preserved at Oscott. Those cer- tainly published were : ' ' Certamen Lit riusque Ecclesiae" (1724); "An Abridgment of Christian Doctrine" (s. d.); and "Flores Cleri Anglo-Catholici" (s. d.). After many years' labour the Church History was completed in three foho volumes published in 1737, 1739, and 1742 at Wolverhampton, though for pru- dential reasons Brussels appears on the title-page. Father John Constable, S. J., attacked his work as un- fair to the Jesuits, and Dodd replied in "An Apology for the Church History of England", published in 1742. On his death-bed Dodd expressed his desire to die in peace with the Jesuits. Dodd's translation of Panzani's memoirs was subsequently used by Berington (see Panzani).

KiHK, Calholicon, III, IV, V (London, 1816-17); Botleb, Hist. Memoirs of Eng. Cath. (London, 1819) ; Berington, Preface to Memoirs of Panzani (Birmingham. 1793); Hist. MSS. Comm. Report, I, III. V; Folet, Records Eng. Prov. S. J., II (London, 1884), ia inaccurate and corrected by Gillow, Bibt. Diet. Eng. Cath. s. vv. Hunter and Lingard; Cooper, in Diet. Nat. Biog., must be used with caution, being very imperfect.

Edwin Burton.

Torah. I. Use of TFord.— Torah, rmn (cf. Hiph. of n""), signifies first "direction, instruction", as, for in- stance, the instruction of parents (Prov., i, 8), or of the wise (Prov., iii, 1). It is used chiefly in reference to the Divine instruction, especially through the rev- elation to Moses, the "Law", and to the teaching of the Prophets concerning the will of God. In the sense of law "Torah" refers only to the Divine laws. "Torah" is applied to the books containing the teach- ing of the Mosaic rc\elation and the Law, that is, the Pentateuch. In Jewish theology Torah signifies, first, the totality of Jewish doctrine, whether taken as a basis for religious knowledge and conduct, or as a basis for study. The body of Biblical writings, es- pecially the Pentateuch, being the source of religious teaching and law. the term "Tor.ah" is applied also to the entire Scripture., (cf. Blau, "Zur Einleitung in die hi. Schrift", Budapest, 1894, 16 sq.), or to passages from the Prophets and the Hagiographa, for in- stance, "Ab. zara", 17a, in reference to Prov., v, 8, and "Sanh.", 91b, in connexion with Ps. Ix-xxiv, 5. The ex-pression, however, generally signifies the Pentateuch. In passages hke CN'^J ~'"iin rC'/Vi'TS ""l.Ti w"-ir2" ("the Scriptures [Torah] consi.st of three parts, Torah, Prophets, and Hagiographa" [Midrash Tanchuma to Ex., xix, 1)) "Torah" is used in two senses — one general, meaning the whole Scriptures, the other special, signifying the Penta- teuch. Elsewhere fSiphre to 32, i3-1.3.5b 24) the Torah is jilainlj- distinguished from the non-Penta- tcuchal books by the comparison of miqra (NT?;) and Torah. Besides the "written" Torah, r."?r;c 1,"1, the Judaism which holds to tradition speaks of an "oral" Torah, ~Z b"1~'T, the commentaries and the ordinances which put into effect the Laws contained in the Pentateuch. This oral Torah, it is claimed, was revealed to Moses and has been preserved in Israel by tradition (see Talmtd).

II. Torah in the re.tiricled scnae of Pentateuch. — The Torah relates the preparatory' measures for and the establishment of the Old-Test.ament theocracy, and contains the institutions and laws in which this the- ocracy found its visible expression. The Old Testa- ment itself calls the entire work after its main con- tents (ha) lora or .sc/cr (~CC). ha-lora, iha.i is, " the book of the Torah", as in II Esd., viii, 2; to empha.size its Divine origin it is called torath Yahwe, sefer torath