TORIUS).
Censures, Church (Cefutms eodes^astiete\ the penalties by which crimes are visited by Church au- thority (potestas ^oxpirur^), the scriptural authority for which is found in such passages as Tit. i, 13 ; iii,
CENSUS
183
CENSUS
10; 1 Tim. y, 20; Matt xvii,17,18; John xx, 28; 1 Cor. y, 8; 2 These, iii, 6, 7; GaL ▼, 12. These cen- suree are, in the state churches, admonition, degrar ^'■'^ (Q* '^-)f exconmmnication (q. v.), sospension, mterdict (q. v.), and irregalarity (q. v.), which hin- ders a man from l>eing admitted into liigher orders. **The canonists define an ecclesiastical censure to be a spiritual panishment^ inflicted by some ecclesiastical judge, whereby he deprives a person baptized of the use of some spiritual things, which conduce not only to his present weUiue in the Church, but likewise to his ftiture and eternal salvation. It differs from civil punishments, which consist only in things temporal — as confiscation of goods, pecuniary mulcts or fines, and the like ; bat the Church, by its censures, does not de- prive a man of all spirituals, but only of some in par- ticolar. This definition speaks of such things as con- duce to eternal salvation, in order to manifest the end of this censure ; for the Church, by censures, does not intend the deatroying of men^s souls, but only the joo- mg them, by enjoining repentance for past errors, a re- tom from contumacy, and an abstaining from ftiture shis" (Hook, Church Dictionary^ s. v.). All churches dahn the right of censure. Art. 80 of the Westmin- ster Confession is as follows: " Of Church Censures,^ The Lord Jesus, as king and head of his Church, hath therein appointed a government in the hand of Church officers, distinct from the civU magistrate. To these officers the keys of the kingdom of heaven are com- mitted, by virtne whereof they have power respectively to retain and remit sins, to shut that kingdom against the impenitent both by the word and censures, and to open it unto penitent sinners by the ministry of the Gospel, and by absolution from censures, as occasion shall require. Church censures are necessary for the leclalming and gaining of offending brethren ; for de- terring of others from like offenses ; for purging out of that leaven which might infect the whole lump ; for vindicating the honor of Christ, and the holy profes- sion of the Gospel ; and for preventing the wrath of God, which might justly fall upon the Church, if they should sufito hU covenant, and the seals thereof, to be profiEuied by notorious and obstinate offenders. For the better attaining of these ends, the oflicers of the Church are to proceed by admonition, suspension from the sacrament of the Lmd's Supper for a season, and by excommunication from the Church, according to the nature of the crime and demerit of the person.'* In most Protestant churches, censures can only be in- flicted after trial by the peers of the accused person. On the persons liable to Church censures, and the crimes for which they were infiicted hi the ancient Charch, see Bingham, Qrig. Ecdea. bk. xvi, ch. iii ; md on the righ^ness of Church censures, Burnet, (htktArtide9,9at,9&\ Palmer, On (^ CAtfreft, ii, 277 ; Watson, 7!teo/./fM^iite«,ii, 600 (N.T.ed.). See also DuapLcns; ExcoMMimGATiov.
CensiiB, a term that does not occur in the A. Y. (although it is found hi the orighial text of the N. T. in the Greek form jc^oc, "tribute," Matt xvii, 25, etc.), while the act denoted by it is several times re-
Andent Egypttau Jicglitnuun.
ferred to both m the Heb. and Gr. ScripAres Ol^fe^, or H'lpB, ^^nvanhering^* combined with lustration, firom ^^B, to turvey in order to purge, Gesenius, Thet, p. 1120;'^8ept. apt0/i<Ji:; N. T. iLToypa^\ Vulg. <fi. moMiraHo^ deteripiio). See Population.
I. Jewish. — Moses laid down the law (Exod. xxx, ^ 18) that whenever the people were numbered an <flnering of half a shekel should be made by every man above twenty years of age, by way of atonement or propitiation. A previous law had also ordered that the first-bom of man and of beast should be set apart, as well as the first-fruits of agricultural produce ; the first to be redeemed, and the rest, with one exception, of- fered to God (Exod. xiii, 12, 13; Xxii, 29). The idea of lustration in connection with numbering predomi- nated also in the Roman census (Smith, Diet, of Clou, AtOiq, s. V. Lustrum), and among Mohammedan na- tions at the present day a prejudice exists against numhering their possessions, especially the fruits of the field (Hay, Western Barbary^ p. 15 ; Crichton, Arct- hioj ii, 180 ; see also Lane, Mod. Egypt, ii, 72, 73). The instances of numbering recorded in the.O. T. are as follows :
1. Under the express direction of God (Exod, xxxviii, 26), in the third or fourth month after the Exodus, during the encampment at Sinai, chiefly for the purpose of raising money for the Tabernacle. The numbers then taken amounted to 608,660 men, which may be presumed to express with greater precision the round numbers of 600,000 who are said to have left Egypt at first (Exod. ini, 87).
2. Again, in the second month of the second year after the Exodus (Num. i, 2, 8). This census was taken for a double purpose : (a.) To ascertain the num- ber of fighting men from the age of 20 to 50 (Joseph. i4n<. iii, 12, 4). The total number on this occasion, exclusive of the Levites, amounted at this time also to 603,560 (Num. ii, 82); Josephus says 603,660: each tribe was numbered, and placed under a special leader, the head of the tribe. (bJ) To ascertain the amount of the redAiption-offering due on account of all the first-bom, both of persons and cattle. Accordingly, the numbers were taken of all the first-bom male persons of the whole nation above one month old, including all of the tribe of L6vi of the same age. The Levites, whose numbers amounted to 22,000, were taken in lieu of the first-bom males of the rest of Israel, whose num- bers were 22,278, and for the surplus of 278 a money payment of 1865 shekels, or 5 shekels each, was made to Aaron and his sons (Num. iii, 89, 51).