Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/779

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WORSLEY


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WORTHINGTON


and also that it indicates a high typo of religion. The pagan gods and heroes never died. Local .saints were not, no matter what has been said to the con- trary, the local gods dressed up to suit Cliristianity; the saints are the enemies of the gods as much as their successors. And it is an illusion to beheve that by a mysterious transformation the gods and the Gra?co- Roman heroes have survived in the Church. There is no proof tliat .a single one of them has ever been honoured luider the name of a martjT or even under a travesty of his own name (Vaeandard, "Etude de critique et d'histoire rehgieuse", 3d series: "Les origines du culte des saints", 211, 212). Moreover it is easy to prove that, given the opposition of principle between Christianity and paganism, the two religions could scarcely borrow from each other. Paganism was based on the worship of many gods, and, at least for the masses, this worship usually consisted of gross fetishism. When piety existed among the pagans it was generally narrow, ignorant, and paltry. The gods were honoured either to win their favour, or to avert their anger, while the God of the Christians desired to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. The worship of the one true God is at the bottom of all Christian liturgy.

In conclusion it may be said that, while admitting that certain customs or rites accepted by Christianity may have existed in paganism, though with a very different significance, we must guard against ad- mitting all the resemblances which have been sug- gested in recent years between Christian hturgy and pagan reUgions. In these cases all the evidence of assimilation must be established according to historical methods. Certain analogies between the two rites are merely fortuitous coincidences, and not borrowings. The misconceptions of some scholars of recent years are no longer of any value. There has been an attempt to see in the inscription of Abercius the epitaph of a priest of Cybele and to prove that St. Paul borrowed the Holy Eucharist from the Corin- thian mysteries of Eleusis, while certain saints have been made to resemble pagan divinities. Even if some of these comparisons can be sustained, most of them are founded only on imagination. Space does not permit an enumeration of examples; these will be found in the monographs and articles cited in the bibliography.

Chollet. Cxilte en ahihral in Diet, de thiol, calh.. Ill, 2404-27; BorQi'iLLOs. Tractalus de tirtute Tplifiionis, I (Bruges, 1880); Cabrol. Origines liturgiqucs (Parli, 1906), 47 sq., 197; Idem, Les origines du culte ratholique in Revue pratique d'apologitique (15 Nov., 190fi), 209-23; (1 Dec). 278-87; Idem, L'idolatrie dans VEglise in Ret. pral. d'apol. (1 Oct., 1907), 36-46. On Middle- ton, A Letter from Rome showing an Exact Conformity between Popery and Paganism and its different editiona, and criticism of the work see Cabbol in .-VLfcs, Diet, apohtqetique. s. v. CuUe chri- tien and I, 83.1, 848, where several other Protestant works on the same subject are cited; M\n\^oovi. De-He cnse gentilesche e profane transportate ad u^o e ad ornamento delle chiese (Rome, 1744); Hatch, Influences of Greek Ideas and Vsnges upon the Christian Church (London, 1890); Bass Mullinoer in Diet. Christ. Ant.t 8. V. Paganism; Kellnf.b. Ileortology, tr. (Lonrion and St. Louis, 1908): DCCBESNK. Christian Worship, Itn Origin and Evolution (London, 1904). There is a refutation of some Protestant preju- dices regarding the origin of Christian Worship in Warren, The Liturau and Ritual of the Ante-Nicene Church (London, 1897), 248 sqq. (2nd ed., I.ondon, 1912) ; Vacandard in Etudes de critique ei d'histoire religieuse, 3d series, Les origines du culte des saints (Paris, 1912); Dei.ehate. lAgendes hagiographiques (Brussels, 1905), e.sp. the chapter Remini.<icenees et surrimnee palennes; DnrorRcq, Le pa'isf rhrflien. IV: Ilisloire de VEglise du IIP nu XI- siiele (Paris, 1910); Bridoett, The Ritual of the N. T.. an Essay on the Principles of the Origin of Catholic Ritual in Reference to the N. T. (London, 1873): Oesterly and Box, The Religion and Worship of the Si^nagogue (London, 1907). eapeci.llly xiii. xvi to XX'. Leclercq, De rei liturgic/p in synagogis Ecclesiaque analogia in Mon. EccUnm Lilurgica (Paris, 1900-02), I, li sq.

F. Cabrol.

Worsley, Edward, b. in Lancashire, England, 1 tiO.') ; d. at .\nt werp, 2 Sept ., 1676. He is .said to have been educated at (Oxford, but his name does not occur in the University Registers, and it is equally un- certain that he took Anglican orders. Having he-


come a Jesuit on 7 Se])t., 1026, he studied at Li^ge, where he subsequently became a professor of phi- losophy, logic, and Scripture, winning a great reputa- tion for talent and erudition. He was made a professed father 29 Sept., 1641. Having laboured for a time in London, he became rector of the college at Liege from 1658 tiU 1662, when he was made procurator at the professed house at Antwerp. His chief works, mostly written against Stilhngfleet, are: "Truth will out" (166.5); "Prote.stancy without Principles" (1668); "Reason and Religion" (1672); "The Infallibility of the Rom.an CathoUc Church" (1674); "A Discourse of Miracles" (1676); and "Anti-Goliath" (1678), published after his death.

DoDD, Church History (Brussels vere Wolverhampton, 1737- 42); Foley, Records Eng. Prov. S. J.. IV and VII (London, 1883); Oliver, Jesuit Collections (Exeter. 1838) ; Cooper in Diet. Nat. Biog.. a. v.; de Backer, Bibl. des ecrivains de la Compagnie de JHus.

Edwin Burton.

Worthington, Thomas, D.D., thu-d President of Douai College, b. 1.549 at BLainscough Hall, near Wigan, Lancashire; d. at Biddulph Hall, Stafford- shire in 1627. A member of an ancient and wealthy family which gave many members to the Church, and which suffered greatly for staunchness to the Faith, he studied at Brasenose College, Oxford (1566-70), where he gi-aduated in arts (17 Oct., 1570). In Feb., 1573, he went to Douai College to study theology. He visited in Engkand (Nov., 1575), in order to in- duce his father, who was an occasional conformist, to remove into foreign parts. After his ordination (6 April, 1577), he remained teaching the Roman catechism at Douai till Sept., 1578, and proceeded B.D. at the University of Douai (Jan., 1579). After ten months in England, he returned to Reims, accom- panied William, .afterwards Cardinal, Allen to Rome, and set out again for England, Jan., 1580. He la- botu-ed assiduously and successfully, being especially remembered for his zeal in instructing the ignorant poor. In Feb., 1584, when his four nephews, whom he was conveying to Reims, were seized at Great San- key near Warrington, he managed to escape detection, and to elude the vigilance of his enemies until July, when he was betrayed by a young man whom he had befriended, and seized at his lodgings in Islington. The lord treasurer committed him to the Tower, where he was confined in the "pit" for over two months. In Jan., 1585, with twenty other priests, he was put aboard ship by the queen's warrant of per- petual banishment, and conveyed to Normandy. For the next two years he expounded Holy Scripture at Reims. Sir Wil]i;im Stanley turned traitor in Jan., 1587, and with his Irish regiment entered the Spanish service; on 27 April Worthington became their chap- Iain at Deventer. He was recalled to Reims on 27 Jan., 1589, to undertake the offices of vice-president and procurator, but resumed his post as chaplain to the regiment at Brussels in Julv, 1.591. He was honoured with the rloctorate of divinity in 1588 in the Jesuit college at the University of Trier.

On the death of Dr. Richard Barrett (30 May, 1.599) Worthington was iipjxiinted President of Douai College (28 .June), by the cardinal protector, chiefly through the influence of Father Person.s, the nominee of the secular clergy being rejected. The task to which he was set was a difficult one, and he appears to have Lacked strength of character to cope with it. Since the return of the college from Reims in 1.593 its embarrassments had continually increased, and this condition reacted upon the discipline. Dr. Worthington himself hjid in 1.596 addressed a memo- rial to the cardinal protector on the .state of the Rom;in College, in which he calls attention to the decline of Douai, which he ascribes to the innova- tions of Dr. Barrett. Ilis presidency .accordingly began with :i i)ontifical visitation of the college, as a