The Rhemish Bible, being tr. from the Vulg,, returned to the use of 'charity' and 'love.' following the Vulg. precisely, except that (as with Wyclif) the third * charity * is omitted In lOolK
The translator! of AV followed the Bishops, except In Ro
1310 bii, 1 Th 3i» 68, 1 Jn 31, and Jude », where they capriciously prefer ' love ' to ' charity.'
Tlie R V gives ' love " wherever the Revisers found iytiwyi in the text they adopted ; for they reckoned it their special duty to translate the same Gr. wonl by the same Enghsh wtrd, if that coLikl possibly be done. No other Kug. version is so con- sistent. ' Charity ' never occurs.
The word ' charity ' entered the Eng. language at two different times. First in the form cherte (from Fr. chierti, chert() and with the ordinary meaning of the Lat. caritas, ' deamess,' both in reference to price and affection. Next in the forms caritat, cantet, cliaritct, chariK, from the j)opular use of the caritas (caritatem) of the Vulg. in the Church to indicate Christian ' love.' The two words were too close to be kept distinct, and in the 17th cent. cherte was discontinued.
After the Vulg., charity was used of the love of God, as 1 Jn 48- '" ' God is charite ' (Wyclif) = ' Goii is charitie' (Kheims — ayaTrri is tr. by 'c' tlirough- out 1 Jn in Wyclif and Khemish). Its meaning as applied to man is well e.\pressed by Abp. Hamilton, Catechism (155'2), '(Juliato is cherite '; It is lufe, quliarby we lufe God for his awin saik . . . and our neichbour for God's saik, or in God.' But such a word could not resist the strong tendency to degeneration, if indeed it had not de- generated in the use of the Vulg. itself. As early as Caxton we find the general sense of kindly dis- position, leniency. Thus, Cato 3, ' I . . . beseche alle suche that fynde faute or errour that of theyr charyte they corrects and amende hit." Dr. (J. Salmon (Gnosticisin and Agnosticism, p. 211) thinks it probable that the popular limitation of the word to almsjjjiving arose from its freq. em- ployment in appeals of preachers either for money on behalf of some good object, or for prayers on behalf of the souls in purgatory ; the common exordium being, ' Good Christian people, we pray you of your charity to give so and so.'
That there was a feeling about IGll against the use of ' love' in the language of religion is shown by Bacon's remark (KiUS), 'I did ever allow the discretion and tenderness of the Khemish trans- lation in this point, that finding in the original the word dyi-rtj and never Ipws, do ever translate Charity and never Love, because of the indiflerency and eciuivocation of the word with impure love' (the statement is incorrect, since Kheims gives Move' for iyirji 23 times, but it expresses the feeling of the day). But it does not appear that it was in deference to any such feeling that the Bishops and AV introduced 'charity' again, but either to avoid 'the scrupulosity of the Puritans,' or to escape the charge of 'unequal dealing towards a great number of good English words.' 'I'he objec- tions to 'c' as a tr. of dyiirri are that it is now obsolete in the sense of ' love,' suggesting a mild toleration, in place of the noblest and most search- ing of virtues ; and that its use in A V (esp. through- out 1 Co 13) has given rise to the mistaken idea that St. Paul is less the apostle of love than St. John. See Almsgiving and Love. J. Uastinqs.
CHARM.— See Amulet and Divina'HON.
CHARME (XopMii, AV Carme), 1 Es 5".— Called Harim, Ezr '2™, Nell 7". The form in 1 Es is derived from the Ileb., and not from the Gr. form in the canonical books.
CHARMIS (Rk XapiJittt, A Xa\pLtlt=tn^ Gn 46'). — St)n of Mr!clii(d, one of three rulers or elders ol Bethulia(Jtht}"'8"' 10").
CHASE.— See HUN'nNO.
CHASEBA {Xatripd), 7 E« 6".~There is no aarr& spending name in the lists of Ezr and Neh.
374 CHASTENING, CHASTISEJVIENT
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