Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/757

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RECUSANTS


677


REDEMPTION


his contention that whilst in ordinary speech anyone would pronounce the line thus: Rector potens verax Deus. a singer commits no fault in stressing as fol- lows: Rector potens verax Deus. "In German (or EngUsh), this kind of thing is impossible. But that does not give us a right to forbid the composer of Gregorian melodies to make use of this and similar Ucenses. We Germans (and English-speaking peo- ple) frequently pronounce Latin with such an ex- aggerated accent that the words fall too hea\'ily on the ear. Other nations, the French, for example, pronounce the words more smoothly, with a lighter accent." (For the full argument, see pp. 55, 56.)

Julian, Diet, of Hymnology. s. v., for MSS., references, authors, first lines of trs., etc. To his list should be added the Catholic trs. of Bagshawe. Breviary Hymns and Missal Sequences (Lon- don. 1900), 19; DONAHOE. Early Christian Hymns (New York, 1908), 47: Russell, Hymni Horarum in Irish Eccl. Reeord (1905), 231; Hen-ry, Hymns of the Little Hours in Eccl. Review (Sept., 1890), 204-09, with Latin text and commentarv-; Pimont, Les hymnes du bremaire romain. I (Paris, 1874), 106-10, for text and comment. For harmonized plain-song, modern musical setting, Latin text and Eng. tr., see Hymns Ancient and Modern (his- torical edition, London, 1909), no. 10. For additional bibli- ography, see Rerum Deus Tenax Vigor.

H. T. Henry.

Recusants, English. — The first statute in which the term "Popish Recusants" is used is 35 Ehz. c. 2, "An Act for restraining Popish Recusants to some certain place of abode", which was passed in 1593. The statute defines a recusant as one "con- victed for not repairing to some Church, Chapel or usual place of Common Prayer to hear Di^-ine Service there, but forbearing the same contrar>' to the tenor of the laws and statutes heretofore made and pro- vided in that behalf". The Recusancy Acts are: 1 Eliz. c. 2, 23 EUz. c. 1, 29 EUz. c. 6, 35 Ehz. c. 2, 3 Jac. I. c. 5, 7 Jac. I. c. 6, and 3 Car. I. c. 2. But several statutes declare that other offences shall be deemed acts of recusancj-, and that those con\'icted of them .shall be deemed "popish recusants con- vict".

As time went on there were other recusants who were not CathoUcs, but who for one reason or another refrained from attending the Church of England services. This fact must be remembered in dealing with the Recusancy lists, though, of course, far the larger number of recusants were Catholics. The number of recusants was very great, as may be seen by one instance adduced by J. S. Hansom in his pref- ace to the list of convicted recusants in the reign of Charles II (op. cit. inf.), where on one day (24 Feb., 1690) the names of 1755 recusants were pre- sented in the single town of Thirsk. The recusancy laws were in force from the reign of Elizabeth to that of George III, though they were not always put into execution with equal vigour. Lists of recusants for various counties exist in the Pipe Rolls preserved in the Record Office, London. Others are to be found in the British Museum, Bodleian Library, and in various local archives.

The Statutes at Large (London, 1758); Butler, Historical Account of the Laws against the Romnn Catholics of England (London, 1811); .\nstev. Guide to the Laws of England affecting Roman Catholics (London, 1842); McMcll.\n and Ellis, The Reformation Settlement (London, 1903); instances of lists of recusants published of late years will be found in Peacock, Yorkshire Recusants (London, 1872); Recusants of Masham, Yorkshire in Catholic Record Society. IH, no. 5 (London, 1906); List of Convicted Recusants in the reign of Charles I J, ibid., V, no. 3 (London, 1909).

Edwin Burton.

Redeemer, Feast of the Most Holt. — The feast is found only in the special calendar of some dioceses and religious orders, and is celebrated with proper Mass and Office either on the third Sunday of July or on 23 October. In Venice this feast has been ob- served for more than three centuries with great solemnity. Moroni in his "Dizionario" gives some interesting data concerning the origin of this feast.


In 1576 a plague broke out in Venice which in a few days carried off thousands of victims. To avert this scourge the Senate vowed to erect a splendid temple to the Redeemer of mankind, and to offer therein each year on the third Sunday of July pubhc and solemn ser\-ices of thanksgi\'ing. Scarcely had the plague ceased when they began to fulfil their vow. The church was designed by the famous Andrea Pal- ladio, and the corner-stone was laid by the Patriarch Tre\'isan on 3 May, 1577. The celebrated painters Paolo Veronese and Jacopo Tintoretto decorated the interior. The church was consecrated in 1592, and, at the urgent solicitations of Pope Gregory XIII, placed in charge of the Capuchin Fathers.

By concession of Pope Benedict XIV, dated 8 March, 1749, the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer solemnizes this feast as a double of the first class with an octave on the third Sunday of July. The same congregation also keeps the feast as a greater double on 23 October and 25 February, and has, besides, the pri^dlege of reciting once a month the votive office of the ^lost Holy Redeemer. In Rome also Pope Pius VIII introduced the feast and by a Decree of 8 May, 1830, the Sacred Congregation of Rites assigned it to 23 October. The charac- teristics of the Mass and Office are joy and gratitude for the ineffable graces and benefits of the Redemp- tion. TMs appears especially from the Introit "Gaudens gaudebo", from the antiphons of Lauds "Cantate Domino", from the Epistle of the Mass, taken from St. Paul to the Ephesians, chap, i, "Bles- sed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings ... in Christ". For this reason white is the colour of the vestments, and not red, as in the Mass of the Pas- sion.

Decreta auth. Cong. S. Rit., II (Rome, 1898), n. 2396; Deer, aulh. Gardeltini, III (Rome, 1857), n. 4663; Nilles, Kalendarium manuale utriusque Ecclesice (Innsbruck, 1881), I, 399; II, 495; Doc. auth. C. SS. R.

Joseph Wubst.

Redeemer, Knights op the, a secular community founded in 1608 by the Duke of Mentone, Vincent Gonzaga, on the occasion of the marriage of his eldest son Francis II Gonzaga with Marguerite of Savoy. It was founded in honour of the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ, a relic of which has been venerated since time immemorial in the cathedral of Mentone. The emblems of the order consisted of a red silk robe and a golden necklace with a medal on which were figured three drops of blood in a mon- strance. The duke was invested with these insignia by his son. Cardinal Ferdinand Gonzaga, and with the approbation of Paul V proclaimed grand master of the order, a dignity inherited by his successors in the duchy. The duke in turn distributed the same insignia to fourteen knights chosen from the highest nobility of Mentone and the neighbouring states. The statutes of the order obliged the members to devote themselves to the defence of religion, the Holy See and their sovereign. This order lasted only a centurj-. It disappeared when the last of its dukes, Ferdinand Charles, having died childless, the Emperor Joseph I in 1708 merged the duchy into his heredi- tary estates.

MiRAENS, Origine des chevaliers et ordres militaires (Antwerp, 1609).

Ch. Moellek.

Redemption, the restoration of man from the bond- age of sin to the liberty of the children of God through the satisfactions and merits of Christ. The word redemptio is the Latin Vulgate rendering of the Hebrew 'C3 and Greek \vTpoi> which, in the Old Testament, means generally a ransom-price. In the New Testa- ment, it is the classic term designating the "great price" (I Cor., vi, 20) which the Redeemer paid for our liberation. Redemption presupposes the original