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 EVANGELICAL

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EVANGELICAL

second part gives the Gospels for the festivals of the saints beginning with 1 September. In the Churches of the West the distribution of the Gospel pericopes was more divergent because of the various rites. And the ceremonial followed in the reading of the Gospel pre- sents many differences of usage between one ch urch and another, which it would be too long to treat of here.

Baudot, Les Evangfliaires (Paris, 1908), pp. 38-44 and 58- 69, on the Latin liturgical books containing passages from the Gospels to be read at the Offices: on the distribution of peri- copts in the East, cf. pp. 30-32; at Home. pp. 44-50 and 69-94; in the .\mbrosian Rite, pp. 94-101; Gregory, Textkriiik des neuen Testaments (Leipzig, 1900), vol. I, pt;. 327-478, on Greek Evangeliaria; vol. II. pp. 521-23, on Syriac Evangeliaria; Caspari in Realencyklopiidit fiir protestantische Theologie, s. v. Perikopen: Ranke, Das kirchliche Periktrphisystem; ScHU, Die biblische Lesungen der kuth. Kirche in dem OfJKium und der messe de tempore (Trier. 1861); Mangenot in Via., Did. de la Bible, s. V. Lectionnairee: Duchesne, Lea origines du culte Chre- tien (Paris, 1908): Diet. Christ. Ant., a. v. Lectionary; Leclercq in Cabrol, Diet, d'archeologie chretienne, s. w. Alexandrie, Anti- oche; Cabrol, iJbid., s. v. Aquilee. H. CoPPIETERS.

Ornamentation of Evangeliaria. — From the be- ginning the books used in the liturgy, and more par- ticularly the Gospel manuscripts, were highly vener- ated, and therefore te.xt and cover were often richly ornamented. From an artistic point of view the dis- tinction between Evangeliaria strictly so called and Gospel manuscripts is of little importance and is gen- erally disregarded. It consists merely in the fact that the illuminations of the Evangeliaria occur as a rule at those passages set apart for the greater festivals of the year. The coronation oath-book of Anglo-Saxon kings, which King Athelstan received, it would appear, from his brother-in-law. Otto I, and which he in turn presented to the cathedral church of Canterbury, is ornamented with figures of the Evangelists freely copied from those that ailorn the Evangcliarium of Charlemagne preserved at Vienna. We are acciuainted with Gospels in rolls only from seeing them in minia- tures, especially as emblems of the Evangelists, until well into the Middle Ages.

The roll of the Book of Joshua (ninth — tenth cen- tury: Vatican Library) is a specimen of what Evan- geliaria in this form with miniatures were like. The roll-form remained long in use for liturgical manu- scripts at Milan and in Southern Italy.

Costly Evangeliaria are noted above all for their clear and careful writing. They have helped to per- petuate and propagate certain styles of caligrapliy.

The Greek uncial is used in many manuscripts of the ninth and tenth centuries; and the Latin uncial is also employed, especially in Gaul, far into the Middle .\ges for Gospel and liturgical works. The copying of the Gospels influenced largely the writings of Irish and .\nglo-Saxon scribes, and effected the spread of these characters over the Continent and the development of the Caroline minuscule and the .semi-uncial of the school of Tours. The copyists of the Gospels made great use of other helps to beautify their penman- ship, such as the use of purple parchment, of liquid gold and silver, and various coloured inks. The part played by Evangeliaria in the history of miniature painting until the twelfth and thirteenth cent uries is very great. Especially noteworthy are the miniature in.sets to the Canons of Eusebius, or tables of Gospel concordance. Illuminated initial letters differed according to the various schools of writing; the Irish .scribes used artistic knots and loops, the Merovingian and Lombard writers preferred animal forms, especially fish.

Illuminated scenes, of interest to the iconographist, are often to be met in these copies of the Gospel text. Frequently it is the figure of the Evangelist that stands at the head of his Gospel ; the donor, or rather a sketch showing the donation of the book, is often found in miniatures from the days of Charlemagne to the end of the Middle Ages. The prince is shown receiving from the hands of the abbot the Evangeliarium he will u.se whenever he assists at the holy offices in the abbey church (cf. the picture of Charles the Bald in the V— 41

Vivien Bible, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris). But in the tenth and eleventh centuries the prince is shown offering the precious manuscript to Christ or to the patron saint of the church or abbey (cf. the Evangeli- arium at Bamberg showing the Emperor Henry II offering the book to Christ).

Among the more famous Evangeliaria may be men- tioned the following: the portion of an Evangeliarium from Sinope (sixth century: in the Bibliotheque Na- tionale, Paris); the Evangeliarium of Ro.ssano (about GOO) in Greek uncials; the Syrian codices of Rabula (5S(3, at Florence) and Etschmiadzin (miniatures of the sixth centurjO; the Evangeliarium of Gregory I (at Cambridge) in Latin uncials; the Book of Kells (.seventh to ninth century, at Dublin): the Book of Lindisfarne (eighth century, in the British Museum, London) of Irish workmanship; the Irish-Continental Evangeliaria of St. Gall (about 800) ; the Carlovingian Evangeliarium of Godescalc (about 7S2, in the Biblio- theque Nationale, Paris) ; the Ada Codex (ninth cen- tury, at Trier) ; the Evangeliaria of Echternach (tenth century, at Gotha), and of the Abbess Uta (about 1002, at Munich). Valuable Evangeliaria were care- fully treasured, and when used in the offices were placed on a strip of cloth or on a cushion. The back leaf of the binding was usually left plain, but the front cover was enriched with all the skill of the goldsmith. One of the most ancient bindings or covers we possess is that offered by Queen Theodelinda (600) to the cathedral of Monza. At times plaques of ivory, re- sembling diptychs, were set into these bindings. The earliest of them were of Oriental or Italian origin, and bear isolated figures of Christ or the Blessed Virgin, etc. A number of them, to be found in the countries along the Rhine and the Meuse and in Northern France (tenth and eleventh centuries), have the scene of the Crucifixion.

See general works on palaeography, archeology, iconography, the lesser arts, and monographs on the Evangeliaria; especially Beissel, Geschichte der Evangelienbiicher im ersten Hiilfte des Miitelalters (Freiburg im Br., 1906). R. MaerE.

Evangelical Alliance, The, an association of Protestants bclonying to various denominations, founded in IS ir., wiiose object, as declared in a resolu- tion passed at the first meeting, is "to enable Chris- tians to realize in themselves and to exhibit to others that a living and everlasting union binds all true be- lievers together in the fellowship of the Church" (Report of the Proceedings of the First General Con- ference). The points of belief, which the members accept as being the substance of the Gospel, are con- tained in a document adopted at the first conference and known as the Basis. They are nine in number: —

(1) The Divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures ; (2) the right and duty of pri- vate judgment in the interpretation of the Holy Scrip- tures; (3) the imity of the Godhead and the Trinity of Persons therein; (4) the utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the fall ; (5) the Incarnation of the Son of God, His work of atonement for sinners, and his mediatorial intercession and reign; (G) the justification of the sinner by faith alone ; (7) the work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and sanctification of the sinner; (8) the immortality of the .soul, the re- surrection of the body, the judgment of the world by Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the right- eous and the eternal punishment of the wicked; (9) the Divine institution of the Christian ministry, and the obligation and perpetuity of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. — " It being, however, distinctly declared that this brief summary is not to be regariled, in any formal or ecclesiastical sense, as a creed or confession, northe adoption of it as involving an assumption of the right authoritatively to define the limits of Christian brotherhood, but simply as an indication of the cla.ss of persons whom it is desirable to embrace within the Alliance. In this Alliance, it