o infanticide committed to avoid dishonour to the mother of the infant or her family.
America.—The most notable difference between England and the United States in regard to the law on this subject is the recognition by state legislation of degrees in murder. English law treats all unlawful killing not reducible to manslaughter as of the same degree of guilt in law. American statutes seek to discriminate for purposes of punishment between the graver and the less culpable forms of murder. Thus an act of the legislature of Pennsylvania (22nd of April 1794) declares “all murder which shall be perpetrated by means of poison or by lying in wait or by any other kind of wilful, deliberate and premeditated killing, or which shall be committed in the perpetration of or attempt to perpetrate any arson, rape, robbery or burglary shall be deemed murder of the first degree; and all other kinds of murder shall be deemed murder of the second degree.” This legislation has been copied or adopted in many if not most of the other states. There are also statutory degrees of manslaughter in the legislation of some of the states. The differences of legislation, coupled with the power of the jury in some states to determine the sentence, and the limitations on the right of the judges to comment on the testimony adduced, lead to very great differences between the administration of the law as to homicide in the two countries.
Authorities.—Stephen, Hist. Cr. Law, Digest Criminal Law; Russell on Crimes (7th ed., 1909); Archbold, Criminal Pleading (23rd ed., 1905); Bishop, American Criminal Law (8th ed.); Pollock and Maitland, Hist. English Law; Pike, History of Crime. (W. F. C.)
HOMILETICS (Gr. ὁμιλητικός, from ὁμιλεῖν, to assemble together), in theology the application of the general principles of rhetoric to the specific department of public preaching. It may be further defined as the science that treats of the analysis,
classification, preparation, composition and delivery of sermons.
The formation during recent years of such lectureships as the
“Lyman Beecher” course at Yale University has resulted
in increased attention being given to homiletics, and the published
volumes of this series are the best contribution to the subject.
The older literature is cited exhaustively in W. G. Blaikie, For the Work of the Ministry (1873); and D. P. Kidder, Treatise on Homiletics (1864).
HOMILY, a simple religious address, less elaborate than
a sermon, and confining itself to the practical exposition of
some ethical topic or some passage of Scripture. The word
ὁμιλία from ὁμιλεῖν (ὁμοῦ, εἴλω), meaning communion, intercourse,
and especially interchange of thought and feeling by
means of words (conversation), was early employed in classical
Greek to denote the instruction which a philosopher gave to
his pupils in familiar talk (Xenophon, Memorabilia, I. ii. 6. 15). This usage of the word was long preserved (Aelian, Varia Historia, iii. 19); and the ὁμιλήσας of Acts xx. 11 may safely be taken to assign not only a free and informal but also a didactic character to the apostle Paul’s discourse in the upper chamber of Troas,
when “he talked a long while, even till break of day.” That
the “talk” on that occasion partook of the nature of the “exposition”
(דרשה) of Scripture, which, undertaken by a priest,
elder or other competent person, had become a regular part
of the service of the Jewish synagogue,[1] may also with much
probability be assumed. The custom of delivering expositions
or comments more or less extemporaneous on the lessons of the
day at all events passed over soon and readily into the Christian
Church, as may be gathered from the first Apology (c. 67) of
Justin Martyr, where we read that, in connexion with the practice
of reading portions from the collected writings of the prophets
and from the memoirs of the apostles, it had by that time become
usual for the presiding minister to deliver a discourse in which
“he admonishes the people, stirring them up to an imitation
of the good works which have been brought before their notice.”
This discourse, from its explanatory character, and from the
easy conversational manner of its delivery, was for a long time
called ὁμιλία rather than λόγος: it was regarded as part of
the regular duty of the bishop, but he could devolve it, if he
thought fit, on a presbyter or deacon, or even on a layman.
An early and well-known instance of such delegation is that
mentioned by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. vi. 19) in the case of Origen
(216 A.D.).[2] In course of time the exposition of the lesson
for the day came more frequently to assume a more elaborate
character, and to pass into the category of a λόγος or even
φιλοσοφία or φιλοσόφημα; but when it did so the fact was as
far as possible denoted by a change of name, the word ὁμιλία
being reserved for the expository or exegetical lecture as distinguished
from the pulpit oration or sermon.[3] While the church of the 3rd and 4th centuries could point to a brilliant succession of great preachers, whose discourses were wont to be taken
down in shorthand and circulated among the Christian public
as edifying reading, it does not appear that the supply of ordinary
homiletical talent kept pace with the rapidity of church extension
throughout the Roman empire. In the smaller and remoter
communities it not uncommonly happened that the minister
was totally unqualified to undertake the work of preaching;
and though, as is curiously shown by the case of Rome (Sozomen,
Hist. Eccl. vii. 19), the regular exposition of the appointed
lessons was by no means regarded as part of the necessary
business of a church, it was generally felt to be advisable that
some provision should be made for the public instruction of
congregations. Even in Jerome’s time (De Vir. Ill. c. 115),
accordingly, it had become usual to read, in the regular meetings
of the churches which were not so fortunate as to possess a competent
preacher, the written discourses of celebrated fathers;
and at a considerably later period we have on record the canon
of at least one provincial council (that of Vaux, probably the
third, held in 529 A.D.), positively enjoining that if the presbyter
through any infirmity is unable himself to preach, “homilies
of the holy fathers” (homiliae sanctorum patrum) are to be
read by the deacons. Thus the finally fixed meaning of the
word homily as an ecclesiastical term came to be a written discourse
(generally possessing the sanction of some great name)
read in church by or for the officiating clergyman when from
any cause he was unable to deliver a sermon of his own. As
the standard of clerical education sank during the dark ages,
the habit of using the sermons of others became almost universal.
Among the authors whose works were found specially serviceable
in this way may be mentioned the Venerable Bede, who is credited
with no fewer than 140 homilies in the Basel and Cologne editions
of his works, and who certainly was the author of many Homiliae
de Tempore which were much in vogue during the 8th and
following centuries. Prior to Charlemagne it is probable that
several other collections of homilies had obtained considerable
popularity, but in the time of that emperor these had suffered
so many mutilations and corruptions that an authoritative
revision was felt to be imperatively necessary. The result was
the well-known Homiliarium, prepared by Paul Warnefrid,
otherwise known as Paulus Diaconus (q.v.).[4] It consists of
- ↑ See Philo, Quod omnis probus liber, sec. 12 (ed. Mangey ii. 458; cf. ii. 630).
- ↑ Sozomen (Hist. Eccl. vii. 19) mentions that in Alexandria in his day the bishop alone was in the custom of preaching; but this, he implies, was a very exceptional state of matters, dating only from the time of Arius.
- ↑ To the more strictly exegetical lectures the names ἐξηγήσεις, ἐξηγήματα, ἐξηγητικά, ἐκθέσεις, were sometimes applied. But as no popular discourse delivered from the pulpit could ever be exclusively expository and as on the other hand every sermon professing to be based on Scripture required to be more or less “exegetical” and “textual,” it would obviously be sometimes very hard to draw the line of distinction between ὁμιλία and λόγος. It would be difficult to define very precisely the difference in French between a “conférence” and a “sermon”; and the same difficulty seems to have been experienced in Greek by Photius, who says of the eloquent pulpit orations of Chrysostom, that they were ὁμιλίαι rather than λόγοι.
- ↑ Manuscript copies are preserved at Heidelberg, Darmstadt, Frankfort, Giessen, Cassel and other places. It was first printed at Spires in 1482. In the Cologne edition of 1530 the title runs—Homiliae seu mavis sermones sive conciones ad populum, praestantissimorum ecclesiae doctorum Hieronymi, Augustini, Ambrosii, Gregorii, Origenis, Chrysostomi, Bedae, &c., in hunc ordinem digestae per Alchuinum levitam, idque injungente ei Carolo M. Rom. Imp. cui a secretis fuit. Though thus attributed here to Alcuin, who is known to have revised the Lectionary or Comes Hieronymi, the compilation of the Homiliarium is in the emperor’s own commission entrusted to Paul, to whom it is assigned in the earlier printed editions also. A comparison of different editions shows that the contents increased with the ever-growing number of saints’ days and festivals, new discourses by later preachers like Bernard being constantly added.
