Blue Flower

a solemn Renunciation, or Recantation of an Error, Heresy, or false Doctrine. See RECANTATION.

The Word is form'd of the Latin Abjurare ; which in Cicero, and other Roman Writers, signifies the denying a thing upon Oath. Thus, Abjurare creditum, was to forswear a Debt, or to deny the owing it upon Oath, &c.

So, in our own Laws, To abjure a Person, is to renounce all Authority or Dominion of such a Person. Thus, by the Oath of Abjuration, a Person binds himself not to own any Regal Authority in the Person call'd the Pretender, nor ever to pay him the Obedience of a Subject. See OATH, ALLEGIANCE, &c.

or ABBY, a Monastery, or Religious House, govern'd by an Abbot, or Abbess. See ABBOT, &c.

Abbies disser from Priories, in that the one are under the Direction of an Abbot, and the other of a Prior : but Abbot and Prior (we mean a Prior Conventual) are the same thing ; and only differ in Name. See PRIOR.

Fauchet observes, that in the early Days of the French Monarchy, Dukes and Counts were call'd Abbots, and Duchies and Counties Abbies. Many Persons of the prime Quality, without any Concern in the Monastic Life, took thesame Quality ; even some of their Kings are mention'd in History under the Title of Abbots. Philip I. Louis VI. and afterwards the Dukes of Orleans, are call'd Abbots of the Monastery of S. Agnan. The Dukes of Aquitain were call'd Abbots of the Monastery of S. Hilary, at Poitiers ; and the Earls of Anjou of S. Aubin, &c.

or ABBAT, the Chief, or Superior of an Abbey, of the Male Kind. See ABBEY, and ABBESS. The Name Abbot is originally Hebrew, where it signifies Father. The Jews call Father in their Language Ab ; whence the Chaldees and Syrians form'd Abba ; and thence the Greeks GREEK, which the Latins retain'd, Abbas ; and hence our Abbot, the French Abbe, &c.

ABELONIANS, ABELOITES, a Sect of Hereticks in Africa, not far from Hippo, cotemporary with S. Augustin. See HERETICS.

What distinguish'd 'em, was, that they made it a Duty to marry, and yet liv'd with their Wives in a prosess'd Continence, without having any commerce together.

These Hereticks, inconsiderable in themselves, (for they were confin'd to a little compass, and lasted not long ;) are become considerable, by the great Pains the Learned have taken to ascertain the Principle they went upon, and the Reason of the Denomination.

is properly understood of such Persons as refrain absolutely from Wine. Pliny more expresly says, Vini abstemius ; and Apuleius, Invinius.

In the Religious Sense of the Word, they are said to be Abstemious, who in the Sacrament of the Supper cannot partake of the Cup, by reason or some natural Aversion to the Liquor. The Bishop of Meaux pleads the Example of the Abstemious, in behalf of excluding the Laity from Communion under that Kind.

The Roman Ladies, in the first Ages of the Republick were all enjoin'd to be Abstemious ; and that it might appear whether or no they kept up to the Injunction, it was one of the Laws of the Roman Civility, that they should kiss their Freinds and Relations whenever they accosted them.

  1. DEMI-God
  2. ABBESS
  3. CHERUB
  4. ABRACADABRA