Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/325

V K A V U L 301 Of ordinary vows a common type in antiquity was a promise made in peril by sea, sickness, or other straits, to suspend in a temple a picture or other symbol of the danger against which the Divine aid was implored. This usage passed into Christianity and survives in Catholic countries, where votive pictures and models of eyes, hands, ike., cured in answer to prayer, are still seen in churches. At the council of Lestines (743 A.D.) the use of such models was condemned as a pagan practice. In point of obligation, vows were analogous to oaths (Numb, xxx. 2); their sanction was not human but Divine (Deut. xxiii. 21). Thus slackness or fraud in the fulfil ment of vows is the mark of an age of declining faith (Mai. i. 14 ; Harith, Moatl., 1. G9 Arnold; Lucian, Jupiter Trag., c. 15 ; cf. Eccles. v. 4). Among the Arabs the speedy fulfilment of vows was favoured by a rule of ab stinence from certain enjoyments and conveniences (ikram), which custom imposed till the vow Avas fulfilled. This appears to have been the ancient practice of other Semitic nations also ; among the Hebrews it survives in the Nazarite vow (see NAZARITE), and probably also in the esar or issdr (interdict), which is mentioned along with vows in Numb, xxx., and is described in verse 13 as "an oath of abstinence to afflict the soul," words which seem to show that fasting is specially contemplated. As there is no as cetic tendency in Hebrew religion, in which fasting and similar observances have not positive religious value, but are only expressions of penitent supplication, it seems reason able to interpret the oath of abstinence by the aid of the examples in Psalm cxxxii. 2 sq., Acts xxiii. 12 (cf. also 1 Sam. xiv. 24 #/.), and to understand it, like the Arabian ihram, as an obligation of abstinence till a positive vow was fulfilled. The detail in the Psalm, " I will not enter my house or rest in my bed till," (ire., has its parallel in Arabia and in Syrian heathenism (Sur. ii. 185 where to enter the house from behind is an evasion of the rule ; Lucian, Dea Syr., 55; cf. Wellhausen, Skizzen, iii. 117). It is to be observed that in Arabia, where there was little or no development of obligatory ritual sacrifices, offerings were usually votive, and vows were often simple and .not conditional promises; so too in Deut. xxiii. 23, Lev. vii. 16, vows are closely associated Avith free-will offerings. A purpose of sacrifice formed at a distance from a sanctuary naturally found expression in a vow. Occasions of sacri fice are not frequent in nomad life and it may be conjec tured that the earliest vows Avere simply deferred sacrifices, Avithout the element of bargaining Avith the Divinity which is prominent in later times. The simple VOAV presupposes that the sanctuary or the customary day of sacrifice is re mote; the conditional vow, on the other hand, may often be made at the sanctuary itself, Avhere the Godhead is nearest to man (Gen. xxviii. 20 ; 1 Sam. i. 11; Iliad, vii. 93). In Christian times vows to present a material gift (vota realm) have been less important than vows to adopt a certain course of life (vota personalia}, a change Avhich naturally followed from the modification of the idea of sacrifice in Christianity (see SACRIFICE). The personal vows recognized by the Catholic church are of various kinds, covering all manner of actions religiously meritorious (e.g., pilgrimage or crusading) ; but the most prominent have been VOAVS of abstinence (fasting, chastity), to which the growth of asceticism gave a positive value. Most important of all is the monastic vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience (see MONACHISM). The presupposition of all such VOAVS is that there is a higher life of godliness, Avhich cannot be attained to by Christians at large, and which all are not bound to attempt, although there is merit in consecrating oneself to it. From this point of view it came about in process of time that vows of self-consecration Avere viewed as neces sarily perpetual. To fall back from a purpose of higher life Avas not at all the same thing as never to have formed such a purpose. Hence, e.g., the vow of chastity, which Cyprian still regards as terminable by marriage in the case of virgins who have not strength to persevere in continence, Avas de clared to be of perpetual obligation as early as the council of Ancyra (314 A.D.). On the other hand, the church was careful to guard against the rash assumption of vows, by requiring certain formalities in the act, and by the in stitution of the noviciate, as a period of probation. The power of the pope to dispense from vows, which appears in the Decretals, was of later growth. Protestantism, deny ing the superior merit of the ascetic life, rejects all per petual VOAVS, and indeed shows little favour to vows of any kind. (w. R. s.) VRANCX, SEBASTIAN, born about 1572, Avas a painter of the Antwerp school, of very moderate ability. Most of his pictures represent scenes of Avar, such as the sack of tovns, cavalry combats, and the like. Though occasionally vigorous in drawing, his paintings are dull and heavy in tone. The date of his death is uncertain. VULCAN, the old Roman fire-god, answering to the Greek HEPH.ESTUS (q.v.}, Avith whom he was confounded by the ancients. The etymology of the name is uncertain : it has been proposed to derive it from the root var, "Avarm"; ulka in Sanscrit is a firebrand. How closely Vulcan Avas identified with the fire, regarded as a person, appears from the stories of the birth of Ceeculus and Servius Tullius, both of Avhom Avere called sons of Vulcan, and Avere supposed to have been conceived by virgins who had been impregnated by sparks of fire from the hearth. At Rome his temple was in the Campus Martius outside the city walls. But there was also a place sacred to him in the comitium. It Avas not a temple, but only a raised area, called the Volcanal. It Avas said to have been founded by Romulus, and a lotus tree in it Avas thought to be as old as the city. Statues of persons who or Avhose statues had been struck by lightning were sometimes set up in the Volcanal. There Avas a festival of Vulcan called the Volcanalia on August 23d, in which the people threw animals into the fire instead of themselves. On the 7th of June there Avas a fishermen s festival, Avith games, held under the superintendence of the "praetor urbanus," and the fish were brought to the Volcanal and sacrificed to the god instead of human victims. Another festival of Vulcan Avas the Tubilustria, or purification of trumpets, on May 23d, Vulcan being regarded as the father of trumpets. At Ostia there Avas a festival of Vulcan (Volcanalia) pre sided over by a " praitor sacris Volcani faciundis," and at Ostia there Avere also a temple and a pontifex of Vulcan. At Rome there Avas a " flamen " of Vulcan, who sacrificed to Maia, Avife of Vulcan, on the 1st of May. According to others the name of Vulcan s Avife was Majesta. VULCANO. See LIPARI ISLANDS, vol. xiv. p. 682. VULGATE. See BIBLE, vol. iii. p. 647. VULTURE, the name of certain birds Avhose best- known characteristic is that of feeding upon carcases, and these birds, owing to this obscene habit, are in many hot countries regarded Avith favour as useful scavengers. The genus Vultur, as instituted by Linnaeus, is now restricted by ornithologists to a single species, V. monackus, of which more presently, the other species included therein by him, or thereto referred by succeeding systematists, being else- Avhere relegated (cf. LAMMERGEYER); but the most im portant taxonomic change that has been introduced is that by Prof. Huxley (Proc. Zool. Society, 1867, pp. 462-464), who pointed out the complete structural difference between the Vultures of the New "World and those of the Old, regarding the former as constituting a distinct Family, Cathartidx (which, lioAvever, Avould be more properly

named Sarcorhamphidx), while he united the latter with