BAN
G31
BAND
Christ ; upon the divinity of tlic Holy Ghost ; upon the articles of the Christian faith, as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. For the support of this lecture he bequeathed his lands and estates. The lecturer must have taken the degree of master of arts in Oxford or Cambridge, and must never preach the sermons twice. When the lectures were commenced in 1780, the income of the estate was £120 per annum. A list of the Bampton Lectures, as far as published in 1854, is given by Darling, Cyclopaedia Bibliographiea, i. 1GG. More than seventy volumes (8vo) of the Bamp- ton lectures are now before the public, and one is added annually. The most remarkable are the following: Those delivered in 1784, on Christianity and Moham- medanism, by Dr. White, who was accused of having obtained assistance in their composition from Dr. Parr and Dr. Badcock ; those by Dr.Tatham in 1790, on the Logic of Theology ; those of Dr. Nott in 1802, on Re- ligious Enthusiasm — this series was directed against Weslev and Whitefield ; those of Dr. Mant in 1812 ; those of Reginald Ileber in 1815 ; Whately in 1822 ; Milman in 1827; Burton in 1829, on the Heresies of the Apostolic Age; Soames in 1830, on the Doctrines of the Anglo-Saxon Church. But of the whole series, none have caused greater controversy than those by Dr. Hampden in 1832, on The Scholastic Philosophy considered in its Relation to Christian Theology. They •were attacked on all sides, but especially bjr the lead- ers of the Oxford Tract Association. When Hampden was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity in 1836, a petition against his appointment was sent up to the throne, and upon this being rejected, a censure was passed upon him in convocation by a large majori- ty, declaring his teaching to be unsound, and re- leasing undergraduates from attendance at his lec- tures. In spite of this clerical persecution, he was raised to the see of Hereford in 1847. A recent course of Bampton Lectures, delivered by Mansel in 1858, on The Limits of Religious Thought, has caused a less bit- ter, but scarcely less interesting controversy. The main position which he takes up is, "That the human mind inevitably, and by virtue of its essential consti- tution, finds itself involved in self-contradictions when- ever it ventures on certain courses of speculation," i. e. on speculations concerninii; the infinite nature of God. He maintains that all attempts to construct an objective or metaphysical theology must necessarily fail, and that the attainment of a philosophy of the in- | finite is utterly impossible, under the existing laws of human thought — the practical aim of the whole course being to show the "right use of reason in religious questions." Mr. Mansel has been accused by his crit- ics of condemning all dogmatic theology (e. g. all creeds and articles), and of making revelation itself impossible. The Bampton Lectures for 1859 were de- livered by Geo. Rawlinson, the subject being The llis- torical Evidences of the Truth of the Scripture Records, statu/ anew, with Special Reference to the Doubts and Discoveries of Modern Times. The volume for 1862 was Farrar's Critical History of Free Thought (N. Y. 1863, 12mo). — Chambers, Encyclopedia, s. v. ; Metho- d's! Quarterly, 1863, p. 687.
Ban (bannus, bannum), in ancient jurisprudence, a declaration, especially a declaration of outlawry; in ecclesiastical law, a declaration of excommunication (q. v.). According to the canon law of the Roman Church the authority to decree the ban lies in the pope for the whole church, in the bishop for his dio- cese, in the apostolic legate for his legation, and in the prior of an order for his subordinates. Priests had formerly an independent right of excommunication, but can now exercise that right only by authority of the bishop. The ban covers all Christians, whether heretics or not, under the jurisdiction of the adminis- trator (Cone. Trident. Sess. xxv, cap. 3). See Ex- communication.
For Banns of Marriage, see Banns.
Ban (too TSav v. r. Baivav ; Vulg. Tubal), given as the name of one of the priestty families that had lost their pedigree after the exile in a very corrupt passage (1 Esdr. v, 37) ; it doubtless stands for TobiAH (q. v.), i. e. nr2b~^:2, in the parallel lists of Ezra (ii, 60) and Nehemiah (vii", 62).
Banai'as (Bavaiac), the last named of the "sons of Ethma" among the Israelites who had taken foreign wives after the captivity (1 Esdr. ix, 35); evidently the Benaiah (q. v.) of the genuine list (Ezra, x, 43).*
Bancroft, Aaron, D.D., was born at Reading, Penn., 1755, and graduated at Harvard College. In 1785 he became pastor of the Congregational Church of Worcester, Mass., where he remained until his death. He was educated a Calvinist, but became an Arian in middle life. In 1808 he published a Life of Washing- ton, which was well received, and has been often re- printed (last ed. N. Y., 2 vols. 12mo). In 1822 he published a volume of Sermons. — Allibone ; New Am. Encycl.
Bancroft, Richard, archbishop of Canterbury, was born at Farnworth in 1544, and entered at Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1584 he was made rector of St. Andrew's in Holborn. When chaplain to Arch- bishop Whitgift, he delivered a sermon at St. Paul's Cross, in which he strongly warned the Parliament against the Puritans. In 1597 he was made bishop of London through the influence of the archbishop, and was sent by Queen Elizabeth in 1600 to Embden, to put an end to the differences which existed between the English and Danes, but his mission was unsuc- cessful. He attended the Hampton Court Conference in 1603-4, and in March in that year was appointed by the king's writ president of convocation, the see of Canterbury being vacant. In the eleventh session, held May 2d, he presented the Book of Canons now in force, which he had selected out of the articles, injunc- tions, and synodical acts passed in the two previous reigns. After this he was promoted to the see of Can- terbury, and his primacy is distinguished for the com- mencement of the now authorized version of the Scrip- tures. He was a strenuous High-Churchman, and a bitter opponent of the Puritans. He was the first An- glican divine who publicly maintained the divine right of bishops. This was in a sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross, February, 1588-9, in which he main- tained that " bishops were, as an order, superior to priests and deacons ; that they governed by divine ap- pointment ; and that to deny these truths was to deny a portion of the Christian faith." On the effect pro- duced by this sermon, see Heylin, Aerius Redivivus, p. 284. He died at Lambeth in 1610, leaving his hooks to his church. His principal published works were, Discovery of the Untruths and Slanders against Reforma- tion (sermon preached February, 1588): — Survey of the pretended Holy Discipline (Loud. 1593, 4to) :—Danffi r- ous Positions and Proceedings jmblishtd umhr the I'n.~ fence of Reformation, for the Presbyterial Discipline (Lond. 1595, 8vo). See Biog. Brit. vol. i ; Neal, Hist, of Puritans, i, 449 ; Lathbury, Hist, of Convocation (Lond. 1842, 8vo): Hook, Eccles. Biography, i, 506.