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 ENCYCLOPEDIA

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ENCYCLOPEDIA

occasional use. Almost the first document published by Benedict XIV after his election was an " Epistola encyclica et commonitoria ' ' on the duties of the episco- pal office (3 Dec, 1740). Under Pius IX many mo- mentous utterances were presented in this shape. The famous pronouncement "Quanta cura" (S Dec, 1864), which was accompanied by a Syllabus (q. v.) of eighty anathematized errors, was an encyclical. Another important encyclical of Pius IX, described as an " Encyclical of the Holy Office", was that begin- ning "Suprema?" (4 Aug., 1856) in condemnation of Spiritualism. Leo XIII published a series of encycli- cals on social and other questions which attracted universal attention. We may mention especially "Inscrutabilis" (21 April, 1S78) ontheevUs of modern society; "^terni Patris" (4 Aug., 1879) on St. Thomas Aquinas and Scholastic philosophy; " Arcanum divins sapientise" (10 Feb., 1880) on Christian marriage and family life; "Diuturnum illud" (29 June, 1881) on the origin of civil authority; "Immortale Dei" (1 Nov., 1885) on the Christian constitution of states; "Libertas pra?stantissimum " (20 June, 1888) on true liberty; "Rerum novarum" (16 May, 1891) on the labour question; " Providentissimus Deus " (IS Nov., 1893) on Holy Scripture; "Satis cognitum" (29 June, 1896) on religious unity. Pius X has shown the same favour for this form of docimient, e. g. in his earnest commendation of catechetical instruction "Acerbo nimis" (15 April, 1906) his address on the centenary of St. Gregory the Great (12 March. 1904), his first letter to the clergy and faithful of France, "Vehem- enter nos" (11 Feb., 1906), his instructions on inter- vention in politics to the people of Italy, and in the pronouncement on Modernism already mentioned.

Two officials presiding over separate bureaux still count it among their duties to aid the Holy Father in the drafting of his encyclical letters. These are the "Segretario dei brevi ai Principi" assisted by two minutanti, and the "Segretario delle lettere Latine" also with a minutante. But it was undoubtedly the habit of Leo XIII to write his own encyclicals, and it is plainly within the competence of the sovereign pon- tiff to dispense with the services of any subordinates.

As for the binding force of these documents it is gen- erally admitted that the mere fact that the pope should have given to any of his utterances the form of an encyclical does not necessarily constitute it an ex- cathedra pronouncement and invest it with infallible authority. The degree in which the infallible magis- terium of the Holy See is committed must be judged from the circumstances, and from the language used in the particular case. In the early centuries the term encyclical was applied, not only to papal letters, but to certain letters emanating from bishops or arch- bi.shops and directed to their own flocks or to other bishops. Such letters addressed by a bishop to all his subjects in general are now commonly called pastor- als. Amongst Anglicans, however, the name encyc- tical has recently been revived and applied, in imita- tion of papal usage, to circular letters issued by the English primates. Thus the reply of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the papa! condemnation of Anglican Orders (this condemnation, "Apostolica; Curae", took the form of a Bull) was styled by its authors the Encyclical "S^pius officio".

Little has been written professedly on the subject, of encycli- cals, which in treatise.s on canon law are generally erouped with other ."Vpostolic Letters. The work of Benci.ni, Dc Uteris En- aidici.i Dinscrlalio (Turin, 172S). deals almost exclusively with the early church documents which were so styled; see. how- ever, IIiLGKNliElNEli in KiTcitlickes Handlexikon (Munich, 1907), I, 1310: and Goyau, Lc Vatican (Paris, 1898), p. 33G; Wynne, Tlie Gnat Enci/dical Lcllers of Leo XIII (New York, 1903); Eyre, The Pope and Ihe People (London. 1897); and D' ARR08, Lion XIII d'apris ses Encj/cliques (Paris, 1902). On the authority of encyclicals and similar papa! documents, see especially the very u.icful book of Chodpin, Valeur des DM.non.i Doctrinales et Disriplinaires du Sainl-Siige (Paris, 1907); ct. Bainvel, De Maffisterio vivo et Traditione (Paris. 1905).

Herbert Thurston.

Encyclopedia, an abridgment of human knowl- edge in general or a considerable department thereof, treated from a uniform point of view or in a systema- tized summary. Although the word, used technically, dates only from the sixteenth century, encyclopedic treatment of human science reaches back to antiquity, growing out of the needs of general culture, neces- sities arising from the extent of the great empires of antiquity. The general culture which every free-born CJreek and Roman had to acquire, comprised the prac- tical and theoretical sciences, grammar, music, geom- etry, astronomy, and gymnastics, and was termed ^■yKii/cXios iraiSila, orbis doctrimr (cycle of the sciences), and, beginning with the Middle Ages, artes liberates (see Arts, The Seven Liberal).

According to their form, systematic encyclopedias are divided into two classes: (a) those which present all branches of knowledge, arranged uniformly and organically according to some fixed system of con- nexion, and (b) the lexicographical encyclopedias, which treat of the same matter arranged according to an alphabetical system. Suidas, in the tenth century, compiled an encyclopedia of the latter type, which be- came common only in the seventeenth century after the appearance of encyclopedic dictionaries dealing with particular sciences. Aristotle was the first in an- cient times to attempt a summary of hiunan knowl- edge in encyclopedic form. Compared with Aristotle's work, -which is built up on a philosophic basis, the com- pilations along this line by Marcus Porcius Cato (2.34- 149 B. c), M.arcus Terentius Varro (116-27 B. c), in his " Disciplinarum libri IX", Pliny (a. d. 23-79), in his "Historia naturalis", and Martianus Capella (fifth century), in his " Satiricon ", or " De Nuptiis Philolo- gi;e et Mercurii", used during the Middle Ages as a textbook for the liberal arts, were merely collections of materials. Besides general encyclopedias, the an- cients also had special encyclopedias, e. g. a lost work of Plato's pupil, Speusippus, and later Varro 's "Re- rum divinarum et humanarum antiquitates ", which has also perished. This group comprises also the medieval summw and spccuUi. The lack of a philoso- phic basis and the mechanical stringing together of facts without organic principle give to most of these works an unsatisfactory and tentative character.

The first attempt to compile an encyclopedia in the real sense of the word is evident in the " Etymologise sive origines" of Isidore of Seville (c 560-636), the materials of which were re-arranged and more or less independently supplemented by Rabanus Maurus (776-856) in his " De Universo", by Honorius Augus- todunensis in his "Imago Mundi", and by others. The most astonishing of these compilations, from the viewpoint of wealth of material and complexity of de- tail, is the work of Vincent of Beauvais (died c. 1264), which groups the entire knowledge of the Middle .Ages under three heads: "Speculum naturale", "Speculum doctrinale", and "Speculum historiale"; later an anonymous writer published, as a supplement, the "Speculum morale". The following are also examples of encyclopedic works in the later Middle Ages: " Liber de natura rerum" of Conrad of Mcgenberg (d. 1374); the "Imago Mundi "of Pierre d'Ailly (diedc. 1420); the "Margarita philosophica" of Gregor ReLsch, O. Cart. (Freiburg, 1503), and at a later date the encyclopedias of Ringeiberg, " Lucubrationes vcl potiusabsoluti.s.sima KVK\oTra.iSela" (Basle, 1541), Paul Scalich, " ICncyclo- piedia seu Orbis Disciplinarum tum sacrarum (um pro- fanarum" (Basle, 1559); Martini, " Idea methodica" et brevis encyclopaedise sive adumbratio universitatis" (Herborn, 160G); Alsted's "Scientiarum omnium en- cyclopa-dia; tomi VII" (Herborn, 1620; 2iid cc!., 1630). All the above-mentioned works are simply collections of facts showing no mastery of the material by the writer, much less any critical research or an organic system of compilation.

The first to attempt a work founded on the philoso-