text: Page:EB1911 - Volume 05.djvu/552 - Wikisource, the free online library
  Page:EB1911 - Volume 05.djvu/552
  CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH—CATILINE
  those of St Paul, addressed to particular individuals or churches, but to a larger and more indefinite circle of readers. (See Bible: New Testament, Canon.)
  CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC CHURCH, THE, a religious community often called "Irvingites," though neither actually founded nor anticipated by Edward Irving (q.v.). Irving's relation to this community was, according to its members, somewhat similar to that of John the Baptist to the early Christian Church, i.e. he was the forerunner and prophet of the coming dispensation, not the founder of a new sect; and indeed the only connexion which Irving seems to have had with the existing organization of the Catholic Apostolic body was in "fostering spiritual persons who had been driven out of other congregations for the exercise of their spiritual gifts." Shortly after Irving's trial and deposition (1831), certain persons were, at some meetings held for prayer, designated as "called to be apostles of the Lord" by certain others claiming prophetic gifts. In the year 1835, six months after Irving's death, six others were similarly designated as "called" to complete the number of the "twelve," who were then formally "separated," by the pastors of the local congregations to which they belonged, to their higher office in the universal church on the 14th of July 1835. This separation is understood by the community not as "in any sense being a schism or separation from the one Catholic Church, but a separation to a special work of blessing and intercession on behalf of it." The twelve were afterwards guided to ordain others — twelve prophets, twelve evangelists, and twelve pastors, "sharing equally with them the one Catholic Episcopate," and also seven deacons for administering the temporal affairs of the church catholic. The apostles were the channels of the Holy Ghost and the mysteries of God, and the authoritative interpreters of "prophetic utterance"; their teaching was brought home to the people by the "evangelists." The function of the prophets was to explain scripture and exhort to holiness, that of the "pastors" is explained by their title. The central episcopacy of forty-eight was regarded as "indicated by prophecy," being foreshown in the forty-eight boards of the Mosaic tabernacle. For ecclesiastical purposes the church universal is under their charge in twelve tribes; for Christendom is considered to be divided into twelve portions or tribes, each tribe being under the special charge of an apostle and his co-ministers, and the seat of the Apostolic College being at Albury, near Guildford. This is an ideal outline which has never been fulfilled. There has never been a "central episcopacy" of forty-eight The "apostles" alone always held the supreme authority, though, as their number dwindled, "coadjutors" were appointed to assist the survivors, and to exercise the functions of the "apostolate." The last "apostle" died on the 3rd of February 1901.
  CATILINE [Lucius Sergius Catilina] (c. 108–62 B.C.), a member of an ancient but impoverished patrician family of Rome, the prime mover in the conspiracy known by his name. He appears in history first as a supporter of Sulla, and during the proscription he was conspicuous for his greed and cruelty. He slew his inoffensive brother-in-law with his own hand, and tortured and mutilated the much-loved Marius Gratidianus. He was believed to have made away with his wife and his son to win the profligate and wealthy Aurelia Orestilla; it was even suspected that he had been guilty of an intrigue with the Vestal Fabia. In 77 he was quaestor, in 68 praetor, and in 67–66 governor of Africa. His extortions and subsequent impeachment by P. Clodius Pulcher having disqualified him as a candidate for the consulship, he formed a conspiracy, in which he was joined by young men of all classes, even Crassus and Caesar, according to rumour, being implicated. The new consuls were to be murdered on the 1st of January; but the plot—the
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