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Church of England doth read them " for example of and instruction of manners/' Article vi. They are frequently quoted with great respect in the Homilies, although parties who bestow much lip praise upon the Homilies are wont to follow a very contrary course. The corrupt Church of Rome, at the fourth session of the Council of Trent, admitted them to be of equal authority with Scripture. Thereby the modern Church of Rome differs from the Catholic Church and by altering the Canon of Scripture, renders it impossible for those churches which defer to antiquity to hold communion with her. Divines differ in opinion as to the degree of respect due to those ancient writings. The expressions with regard to them in the Homilies are very strong. The reading of the apocryphal books in churches, formed one of the grievances of the Puritans : our Reformers however have made a selection for certain holy days ; and for the first lessons in October and November. Some clergymen excercising, like the pope, a dispensing power, take upon themselves to alter these lessons : but for so doing they are amenable to the Ordinary; and should be presented by the churchwardens, at the yearly Episcopal or Archidiaconal Visitation: to say nothing of their moral obligation. The clergy take an oath to confonn to the Prayer Book; if they refuse to do this, they can only be exonerated from their vow by ceasing to minister in the church; if they continue to minister -but alter the Prayer Book, they are guilty of perjury. There are, however, certain chapters in the apocrypha from Tobit and Judith which were introduced into the Prayer Book by our Reformers, which most people would rather not read if they were at liberty to omit them.
APOLLINARIANS. An ancient sect who were followers of Apollinaris or Apollinarius. He is said to have been bishop of Laodicea about the middle of the fourth century; he denied that our SAVIOUR had a human soul, and asserted that the Logos or divine nature supplied the place of the reasonable soul. This is one of the sects we anathematize when we read the Athanasian Creed. The doctrine of Apollinaris was first condemned by a council at Alexandria, in 362, and afterwards in a more formal manner by a council at Rome, in 375, and by another council