APOSTOLICS 209 APOTHEOSIS Apostolic King. — A title granted by the Pope to the Kings of Hungary, first conferred on St. Stephen, the founder of the royal line of Hungary, on account of what he accomplished in the spread of Christianity. Apostolic See. — The see of the Popes or Bishops of Rome; so called because the Popes profess themselves the succes- sors of St. Peter, its founder. Apostolic Succession. — The uninter- rupted succession of bishops, and, through them, of priests and deacons (these three orders of ministers being called the apostolical orders), in the Church by regular ordination from the first apostles down to the present day. All Episcopal churches hold theoretically, and the Roman Catholic Church and many members of the English Church strictly, that such succession is essential to the officiating priest, in order that grace may be communicated through his administrations. APOSTOLICS, APOSTOLICI, or APOS- TOLIC BRETHREN, the name given to certain sects who professed to imitate the manners and practice of the apostles. The last and most important of these sects was founded about 1260 by Gerhard Segarelli of Parma. They went bare- footed, clothed in white, with long beard, disheveled hair, and bare heads, accom- panied by women called spiritual sisters, begging, preaching and singing, through- out Italy, Switzerland, and France; an- nounced the coming of the kingdom of heaven and of purer times; denounced the papacy, and its corrupt and worldly church; and inculcated the complete re- nunciation of all worldly ties, of prop- erty, settled abode, marriage, etc. This society was formally abolished (1286) by Honorius IV. In 1300 Segarelli was burned as a heretic, but another chief apostle appeared — Dolcino, a learned man of Milan. In self-defense they sta- tioned themselves in fortified places whence they might resist attacks. After having devastated a large tract of coun- try belonging to Milan they were sub- dued, A. D. 1307, by the troops of Bishop Raynerius, in their fortress Zebello, in Vercelli, and almost all destroyed. Dol- cino was burned. The survivors after- ward appeared in Lombardy and in the south of France as late as 1368. APOTHECARY, the name formerly given in England and Ireland to mem- bers of an inferior branch of the medical profession. The apothecary was in Eng- land a licentiate of the Apothecaries' So- ciety of London; in Ireland, a licentiate of the Apothecaries' Hall of Ireland. Up to a comparatively recent period, how- ever, no inconsiderable proportion of those who practiced as apothecaries, at any rate in England, were persons prac- ticing without any license. The licensed apothecary frequently kept a shop in which he sold drugs and made up medi- cal prescriptions, in this respect competr ing with the chemist and druggist. But he was entitled to attend sick persons, and prescribe for them; and though it was the almost universal practice of apothecaries to charge their patients only for medicines supplied, they had the alternative of charging for their attend- ances, but could not charge for both. The term apothecary has been long in dis- use. Anciently, the apothecaries were not distinguishable from the grocers (the surgeons being, in like manner, undistin- guishable from the barbers) ; and it was not till 1617, in the 13th year of James I., that these bodies were formed into two distinct corporations. A statute of 1815 enacted that no person should prac- tice as an apothecary, or act as an as- sistant to an apothecary, in any part of England or Wales, unless he had been examined by a court of examiners, and had received therefrom a certificate. An act of 1874 amended the act of 1815, and gave the Apothecaries' Society power to co-operate with other medical licensing bodies in granting licenses. APOTHECIUM, the scutella or shields constituting the fructification of some lichens. They are little colored cups or lines with a hard disk, surrounded by a rim, and containing asci or tubes filled with sporules. Also the cases in which the organs of reproduction in the algacese, or sea weeds, are contained. APOTHEOSIS, a deification; the plac- ing of a prince or other distinguished person among the heathen deities. It was one of the doctrines of Pythagoras, which he had borrowed from the Chal- dees, that virtuous persons, after their death, were raised into the order of the gods. The Romans, for several centuries, deified none but Romulus, and first imi- tated the Greeks in the fashion of fre- quent apotheosis after the time of Augustus Caesar. From this period apo- theosis was regulated by the decrees of the senate. It became at last so frequent as to be an object of contempt. The pe- riod of the Roman emperors, so rich in crime and folly, offers the most infamous instances of apotheosis. After Csesar, the greater part of the Roman emperors were deified. The same hand which had murdered a predecessor often placed him among the gods.
