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HOMILY

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 645 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HOMILY , a See also:

simple religious address, less elaborate than a See also:sermon, and confining itself to the See also:practical exposition of some ethical topic or some passage of Scripture. The word buiXia from OytXeiv (bud', See also:Otto), meaning communion, inter-course, and especially interchange of thought and feeling by means of words (conversation), was See also:early employed in classical See also:Greek to denote the instruction which a philosopher gave to his pupils in See also:familiar talk (See also:Xenophon, Memorabilia, I. ii. 6. 15). This usage of the word was See also:long preserved (See also:Aelian,See also:Varia Historia, iii. 1g); and the Osikitaas of Acts xx. 11 may safely be taken to assign not only a See also:free and informal but also a didactic See also:character to the apostle See also:Paul's discourse in the upper chamber of Troas, when " he talked a long while, even till break of See also:day." That the " talk " on that occasion partook of the nature of the "exposition " (, —) of Scripture, which, undertaken by a See also:priest, See also:elder or other competent See also:person, had become a See also:regular See also:part of the service of the Jewish See also:synagogue,' may also with much See also:probability be assumed. The See also:custom of delivering expositions or comments more or less extemporaneous on the lessons of the day at all events passed over soon and readily into the See also:Christian See also:Church, as may be gathered from the first See also:Apology (c. 67) of See also:Justin See also:Martyr, where we read that, in connexion with the practice of See also:reading portions from the collected writings of the prophets and from the See also:memoirs of the apostles, it had by that See also:time become usual for the presiding See also:minister to deliver a discourse in which " he admonishes the See also:people, stirring them up to an See also:imitation of the See also:good See also:works which have been brought before their See also:notice." This discourse, from its explanatory character, and from the easy conversational manner of its delivery, was for a long time called OutMa rather than Xhrros: it was regarded as part of ' See See also:Philo, Quod omnis frebris See also:liber, sec. 12 (ed. Mangey ii. 458; cf. ii.

630). 176 homilies arranged in See also:

order for all the Sundays and festivals native of See also:Meissen in See also:Germany, who discovered his new principle while he was experimenting with See also:cinchona bark in 1790, and announced it in 1796.4 The essential tenets of See also:homoeopathy—with which is contrasted the " allopathy " (etXXos, other) of the " orthodox " See also:therapeutics—are that the cure of disease is effected by drugs that are capable of producing in a healthy individual symptoms similar to those of the disease to be treated, and that to ascertain the curative virtues of any See also:drug it must be "proved" upon healthy persons—that is, taken by individuals of both sexes in a See also:state of See also:health in gradually increasing doses. The manifestations of drug See also:action thus produced are carefully recorded, and this See also:record of " drug-diseases," after being verified by repetition on many " provers," constitutes the distinguishing feature of the homoeopathic materia medica, which, while it embraces the See also:sources, preparation and uses of drugs as known to the orthodox See also:pharmacopoeia, contains, in addition, the various " provings " obtained in the manner above described. Besides the promulgation of the See also:doctrine of similars, See also:Hahnemann also enunciated a theory to See also:account for the origin of all chronic diseases, which he asserted were derived either directly or remotely from psora (the itch), syphilis (venereal disease) or sycosis (fig-See also:wart disease). This doctrine, although at first adopted by some of the enthusiastic followers of Hahnemanm, was almost immediately discarded by very many who had a See also:firm belief in his See also:law of cure. In the See also:light of advancing See also:science such theories are entirely untenable, and it was unfortunate for the See also:system of See also:medicine which he founded that Hahnemann should have promulgated such an See also:hypothesis. It served as a See also:target for the shafts of ridicule showered upon the system by those who were its opponents, and even at the See also:present time there still exists in the minds of many misinformed persons the conviction that homoeopathy is a system of medicine that bases the origin of all chronic disease on the itch or on syphilis or fig-warts. Another See also:peculiar feature of homoeopathy is its posology or theory of dose. It may be asserted that homoeopathic posology has nothing more to do with the See also:original law of cure than the psora (itch) theory has, and that it was one of the later creations of Hahnemann's mind. Most homoeopathists believe more or less in the action of See also:minute doses of medicine, but it must not be considered as an integral part of the system. The dose is the corollary, not the principle. Yet in the minds of many, infinitesimal doses of medicine stand for homoeopathy itself, the real law of cure being completely put into the background.

The question of dose has also divided the members of the homoeopathic school into See also:

bitter factions, and is therefore a See also:matter for careful See also:consideration. Many employ See also:low potencies,' i.e. See also:mother of the ecclesiastical See also:year; and probably was completed before the year 780. Though written in Latin, its discourses were doubtless intended to be delivered in the vulgar See also:tongue; the See also:clergy, however, were often too indolent or too ignorant for this, although by more than one provincial See also:council they were enjoined to exert themselves so that they might be able to,do so.' Hence an important See also:form of See also:literary activity came to be the See also:translation of the homilies approved by the church into the See also:vernacular. Thus we find See also:Alfred the See also:Great translating the homilies of See also:Bede; and in a similar manner arose fElfric's Anglo-Saxon Homilies and the See also:German Homiliarium of Ottfried of See also:Weissenburg. Such Homiliaria as were in use in See also:England down to the end of the 15th See also:century were at the time of the See also:Reformation eagerly sought for and destroyed, so that they are now extremely rare, and the few copies which have been preserved are generally in a mutilated or imperfect forma The Books of Homilies referred to in the 35th See also:article of the Church of England originated at a See also:convocation in 1542, at which it was agreed " to make certain homilies for stay of such errors as were then by ignorant preachers sparkled among the people." Certain homilies, accordingly, composed by dignitaries of the See also:lower See also:house, were in the following year produced by tha See also:prolocutor; and after some delay a See also:volume was published in 1547 entitled Certain sermons or homilies appointed by the See also:King's See also:Majesty to be declared and read by all See also:parsons, vicars, or curates every See also:Sunday in their churches where they have cure. In 1563 a second See also:Book of Homilies was submitted along with the 39 Articles to convocation; it was issued the same year under the See also:title The second Tome of Homilies of such matters as were promised and instituted in the former part of Homilies, set out by the authority of the See also:Queen's Majesty, and to be read in every See also:Parish Church agreeably. Of the twelve homilies contained in the first book, four (the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th) are probably to be attributed to See also:Cranmer, and one (the 12th) possibly to See also:Latimer; one (the 6th) is by See also:Bonner; another (the 5th) is by See also:John Harpsfield, See also:archdeacon of See also:London, and another (the 11th) by See also:Thomas Becon, one of Cranmer's chaplains. The authorship of the others is unknown. The second book consists of twenty-one homilies, of which the 1st, and, 3rd, 7th, 8th, 9th, 16th and 17th have been assigned to See also:Jewel, the 4th to See also:Grindal, the 5th and 6th to Pilkington and the 18th to See also:Parker. See the See also:critical edition by Griffiths, See also:Oxford, 1869. The homilies are not now read publicly, though they are sometimes appealed to in controversies affecting the doctrines of the See also:Anglican Church.

End of Article: HOMILY

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