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HOM—HOM
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from the helve, and lighteth upon his neighbour, that he die." In English law, the same feeling long remained. Excusable homicide involved at least forfeiture of goods, which, however, might be recovered as a matter of course by the innocent criminal obtaining a pardon and writ of restitution. Afterwards judges appear to have been in the habit of directing an acquittal in such cases. It is only by a statute so recent as 9 Geo. IV. c. 31 that the innocence of excusable homicide is expressly declared.
Felonious homicide includes Suicide, Manslaughter, and Murder—the law relating to which is discussed under the different headings. These distinctions of the English law correspond generally to those of other systems. The chief difficulty is the definition of murder the distinction between the highest and second degree of criminal homi cide. In English law the element of malice aforethought chiefly distinguishes murder from manslaughter. In Scot land the term culpable homicide is the equivalent of the manslaughter of English law.
HOMILY, HOMILIARIUM, BOOKS OF HOMILIES. The word 6/uAi a from 6/xiAetV (oyuov, ei Aw), meaning com munion, 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 (Xen., Mem., I. ii. 6, 15). This usage of the word was long preserved (.Elian, V. //., iii. 19) ; and the 6^.tr/o-as 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 atTroas, when "he talked a long while, even till break of day." That the " talk " on that occasion partook of the nature of the "exposition" (ntJ TJ) of Scrip ture, which, undertaken by a priest, elder, or other compe tent person, had become a regular part of the service of the Jewish synagogue,[1] may also with much probability be assume:!. The custom of delivering expositions or com ments 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 tlia 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 6/AiAi a rather than Aoyos ; it was regarded as part of the regular duty of the bishop, but he could devolve it, if he though fit, on a presbyter, or deacon, or even on a lay man. An early and well-known instance of such delegation is that mentioned by Eusebius (//. E., 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 Aoyo? or even <j>t,Xoo-o<f>ia or <frio<r6<j>t)p.a. ; but when it did so the fact was as far as possible denoted by a change of name, the word fyu/Xta being reserved for the expository or exegetical lecture as distinguished from the pulpit oration or sermon.[3] While the church of the 3d and 4th centuries could point to a brilliant succession of great preachers, whose discourses were wont to be taken down in short hand 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 her 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 (Sozom., //. E., 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 Vtr. III., 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 consider ably 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 " (homilise 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 clergy man 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 maiiy Homilice 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 corrup tions that an authoritative revision was felt to be impera tively necessary. The result was the well-known Homiliarium, prepared by Paul Warnefrid, otherwise known as Paulus Diaconus.[4] It consists of 176 homilies arranged in order for all the Sundays and festivals of the ecclesiastical year; and probably was completed before the year 780. Though written in Latin, its discourses were doubtless intended to be delivered in the vulgar tongue ; the clergy, however, were often too indolent or too ignorant for this, although by more than one provincial council they were enjoined to exert themselves so that they might be able to do so.[5] Hence an important form of literary activity came to be the translation of the homilies approved by the church into the vernacular. Thus we find Alfred the Great trans lating the homilies of Bede ; and in a similar manner arose
- ↑ See Philo, Quod omnis probus liber, sec. 12 (ed. Mangey. ii. 458; ef. ii. 630).
- ↑ Sozomen (//. E. 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 t^-yTJo-tu, {ly^/tttTO, e lTj-yTjTiKa, e/cOeVets, 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 <5/x(Aia and yos. It would be diflicult to define very precisely the difference in French between a " conference" and a " sermon ;" and the sarr.e difficulty seems to have been experi enced in Greek by Photius, who says of the eloquent pulpit orations of Chrysostom, that they were 6/uiAiai rather than yot.
- ↑ It was first printed at Spires in 1482. In the Cologne edition of 1530 the title runs Homiiice sen mavis sermones sire condones ad populuin, prcKstantiSsimorum ecclesict, doctorum llieronymi, Augustini, Ambrosii, Greyorii, Ongenis, Chrysostomi, Rcdcc, &c., in hunc ordi- nem digeslcc per Alchuwum levitam, idque injungcnte ei Carolo M. Rom. Imp. cui a secretis fmt. 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.
- ↑ Neander, Church History, v. 174 (Eng. transl. of 1851).
