Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/372

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

SUBTILE


324


SUBURBICARIAN


word must be predicated — that which we must postu- late as the substance of mind in contradistinction to the varying forms it assumes. But, if so, the impos- sibility of knowing the substance of mind is manifest " (Princ. of Psychol., Ft. II, c. i). Elsewhere he de- clares that it is the same Unknowable Power which manifests itself alike in the physical world and in con- sciousness — a statement wherein modern Agnosticism returns to the Pantheism of Spinoza.

This development of the concept of substance is instructive; it shows to what extremes subjectivism leads, and what inconsistencies it brings into the in- vestigation of the most important problems of philos- ophy. While the inquiiy has been pursued in the name of criticism, its results, so far as the soul is con- cerned, are distinctly in favour of Materialism; and while the aim was supposed to be a surer knowledge on a firmer ba.sis, the outcome is Agnosticism either open or disguised. It is perhaps as a reaction against such confusion in the field of metaphysics that an attempt has recently been made by representatives of physical science to reconstruct the idea of substance by making it equivalent to "energy". The attempt so far has led to the conclusion that energy is the most univer- sal substance and the most imiversal accident (Ost- wald, "Vorlesungen iiber Naturphilosophie ", 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1902, p. 146).

For the theological significance of substance see EucH.'VRisT. SeealsoAcciDENT;SonL; Spiritualism.

Balmes, Fundamental Philosophy, II (new ed., New York, 1903) ; John Rick.vby, General Metaphysics C3rd ed., New York, 1898); Walker, Theories of Knowledge (New York, 1910); Har- per, The Metaphysics of the School (London, 1879-84); Mercier, Ontologie (Louvain, 1903) ; Lorenzelu, Philosophies theoreticce inslitutiones (Rome, 1896); Willems, Institutiones philosophicce, I (Trier. 1906); Kleutqen, Philosophic d. Vorzeit, II; Prat, De III notion de substance (Paris, 1903). — See also the bibliographical references in EiSLER, Worterbuch der philosophischen Beffnffe,lll (Berlin, 1910). M. P. DE MUNNYNCK.

Subtile. See Tunic.

Subunists. See Hus and Hussites.

Suburbicarian Dioceses, a name applied to the dioceses nearest Rome, viz. Albano, Frascati (Tus- culum), Palestrina, Sabina, Ostia and Velletri, Porto and S. Rufina, the bishops of which form the order of cardinal bishops (see Cardinal). The See of Albano (Alhmwnsis) has its cathedral, on the site of a basilica built by Constantine, on the Appian Way, about ten miles from Rome. The name corre- sponds to the Latin ager Albanus which commemorated the ancient city of Alba Longa, famous in Roman history. The diocese now comprises twelve parishes, and has a population of 41,000. Frascati, the ancient Tusculum, is in the Alban Hills, twelve miles from Rome. The diocese (Tusculana) contains eight parishes and has a population of 16,000; within its limits is the famous Basilian Abbey of Grottaferrata (q. v.). The capital of the Diocese of Palestrina (Prcenestinensis) is the ancient Praeneste, on the Via Labicana. The diocese, divided into twenty-four parishes, has a population of 45,700. The Diocese of Sabina (Sabinensis) was formed out of three oldest dioceses: S. Maria in Vescovio, Corese, and Mentan.a. Corese is the ancient Cures, which was, in remote ages, the Sabina capital; hence, obviously, the name Sabina. This, the largest of the suburbi- carian dioceses, contains some .'j.'i.OOO inhabitants, in thirty-five parishes. Ostia and Velletri {Oslien- sis el Veliternensis) was formed in the twelfth century by the union of the Diocese of Velletri (the ancient Velitra; of the Volscians) with that of Ostia. The latter place was the seaport of ancient Rome. This diocese has sixteen parishes with 34,000 inhabitants. Porto, opposite Ostia at the mouth of the Tiber, was the Roman port (porlus) constructed by the Emperor Claudius. The Basilica of Sts. Rufina and Seeundus, about fourteen miles from Rome, on the Via Aureliaiia, having liecome the sec of a bishop in


the fifth century, this see was eventually united with thatofOstia. The dioeese (Portuensis el S.Rufince.) ha.s eighteen jjarishis with a |ioi)ulation of about 5000.

The term siihiiiliiriinu.-< is taken from Roman pub- Uc law, the exiirfsr.ii)M rvginnes or proviTicias suburhi- carim meaning the districts adjacent to Rome. The term ecclesice suburbicarice occurs first in Rufinus [Hist, eccl., I (x), 6], where he refers to the sixth canon of Nicaea treating of the extension of the patriarchal power of liome. Rufinus certainly uses the words in the sense of "all the Churches de facto subject to the e/nscopus urbicus, that is, of Rome", meaning all the Churches of the West. The so-called Old (prisca) Version of the Nicene canons says that the jurisdiction of Rome extends over "suburbicaria loca et omnem provinciam suam", where suburbi- carius is certainly more restricted in meaning than in the passage from Rufinus, and so must have been em- ployed as it was used in Roman public law. In fairly recent times the expression was used synony- mously with suburbanus, that is "in the immedi- ate vicinity of Rome", to signify the above-men- tioned dioceses.

Naturally these dioceses had a certain importance in the Church of Rome. Some authorities have sug- gested that the bishops were merely auxiliaries of the pope with jurisdiction, subject, however, to his. Certainly they had some prerogatives. For instance, the Bishop of Ostia, in the fourth century and prob- ably in the third, consecrated the pope; in the sixth century the Bishop of Albano recited the second prayer in the consecration ceremony, and the Bishop of Porto the third. In the eighth century we read (Vita Stephani, III) of the most ancient custom in virtue of which seven of these bishops, called lub- domadarii, cclebr.ated Mass in turn in place of the pope and were called episcopi cardinales, from be- ing permanently attached to the cardo, that is the cathedral church of Rome; but we are not told who they were. In the eleventh century there were seven (six after the union of Porto and .Silva Candida) . Besides the titles episcopi hebdomadarii (twelfth century) and cardinales Romance Sedis they were also known as Vicarii and Cooperatores pajXB and episcopi Tomani. The last title must have had a wider signification, as it was used of other bish- ops besides the seven, Uke the bishops of Tivoli, Gabii (united later with Palestrina), Lavicum (united with Tuscuhmi), Villetri, Xepi, anei Segni. In addi- tion to the districts already mentioned these bishoj)s had others. For instance the Bishop of Porto had ordinary delegated jurisdiction in Trastevere, and the Bishop of Silva Candida in the Leonine city and also in the Basilica of St. Peter. Both had residence on the Tiber island, and the Bishop of Albano had an episcopal residence near the Lateran. Probably as early as the eleventh century these bishops had the right of participating in the election of the pope; the Constitution of Nicholas II (10.59), which fixed the right of electing the pope as belonging exclusively to the bishops and cardinal clerics of Rome, supposes that the former already enjoyed the right.

As the cardinal-bishops are largely absorbed in the business of the Curia, some of them, in i)articular the Bishops of Sabina and Velletri, have for centuries htid auxiliary bishops. Pius X, in his Constitution " Ajws- tolicffi Romanoruin" (1910), ordained that there should be suffragan bishops for all the suburbicarian dioceses. The Constitution tlecrees that : (1) the cardinal-bishop is always the true bishop of the suburbicarian see; (2) each cardinal-bishop shall in future have a titular bishop as suffragan, (3) who shall be nominated by the pope; to take possession of his office the nominee nuist present to the cardinal the document containing his nomination; (4) in virtue of the present C^onstitiition it is presumed that the cardinal-bishop luis given his suffragan all the facul-