Commandery or Commandry, a kind of bca- efice belonging to a military order. There are abo *'commanderies" in the orders of Bernard and An- thony, and for the knights of Malta, accorded fer dis- tinguished services. — ^Eden, Churchmcui's Diet, a. v.
Commandment. See Degalooue. .COMMANDMENTS, THE FIVE, or CoiofASiv MENTS OF THE Church, Certain roles of the Ronaa Catholic Church which, within the last three ^eata- ries, have been considered to be as obligatory on the laity as the commandments of the deadoffiie. These five commandments are generally stated as fbUovs: 1. To keep holy the obligatory feast-days ; 2. Devsol. ly to hear mass on Sundays and feast-daya ; d. To ob- serve the days of fast and abstinence ; 4. To bonieBS to the priest at least once a year (at Easter) (Qme, Lot, IT, Can. 21) ; 5. To partake of the sacranent at least once a year, towards Easter. As these difieseat rules have no common origin in the regolationa ctf the Church, and are not even taken frtmi the Cateekitmm RomanuSy it is not to be wondered at that they faavs undergone several modifications. Among other tari- ations, it has been a general practice to join tiw fi)vrtli and fifth commandments together, and to replaoe the fifth by " Not to many at certain prohibited tim^i." Others have made various alterations. Bellaimine ia- cludes the paying of tithes among the eonunandmenls of the Church, whilst some of the French catechisan, unable to include all the rules under the five heads, have added a sixth, yet without reaching their object In the United States the ** commandments" are m- joined in the following form :
1. The Catludic Chureta oommandB her children, oo 8aa- days and holydays of obligatJoiH to be preient at the Mr ■acrifice of mam, to rest from senrile works on those days, sm to keep ihem holy.
COMMENDAM
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COMMENTARY
i. She oommandfl them to abstain from fleih on all days of luting and abetinence, and on fast-daTs to eat bat one meal.
8. She commands them to confess their sins to their pastor at least once a year.
4. She commands them to receive the blessed sacrament at least once a year, and that at Easter, or during the paachal time.
6. To oontrtbnte to the support of their pastor.
6. Not to marry within the fourth degree of kindred, nor privately without witnesses; nor to mUmnixe marriage at certain prohibited times.
We have said that these commandmenU are as obli- gatory for the Romanist layman om the comfnandmeiUs of God. The Council of Trent has dogmaticallj set- tled the point (Sess. V I, De Justtf. Can. xx). The Protestant opposition to this great wrong was com- menced bj such writings as Luther's Dt ccpifntaie Babifhmca and Zwingle's Von Erkiesm vnd Fryheii der Spjftem. The Evangelical Confessions express the same opposition, as, for instance, the Auguatana, in the articles XV, XVII, XXVI, the Helvetica in 28, 24, and 27, Teirapol. cap. 7, 8, 9, 10. The clearly-ex- pressed protestation contained in these passages does in no way seek to overthrow the dutiful obedience commanded towards pastors and rulers (Heb. xiii, 17), or towards decency and order (1 Cor. xiv, 40), and the power of government held by the Church in the per- sons of its constituted organs. All this is entirely different from the commandments established by the Eomish hierarchy in opposition to the Word of God, as expressed in Col. ii, 16, 18, 20-28; Matt, xv, 17; 1 Tnn^ir, 1-4; 1 Cor. viU, 8; vii, 6; lii, 21; Mark ii,23; Gal. iv, 9-11. The old plea constantly pre- sented by the Romish apologists, that the doctrine of the commandments of the Church has its founda- tion in the power of the keys and in the command- ments of God himself, is of no weight. — Herzog, Beal- EncyUop. iv, 644 ; Wetzer u. Welte, Kirch.-Lex, iv, 844.
Commendam. When a vacant living is com^ meiided m the Church of England to the charge of a clerg^hnan until it can be supplied with a pastor, the benefice is said to be supplied m conuaendam. An- ciently the administration of vacant bishoprics be- longed to the nearest bishop, thence called commenda- tory. This custom was at a very early period intro- duced into the Church. Athanasius says of himself, according to Nicephorus, that there, had been given him, Ml commendam, another church beside that of Al- exandria, of which he was the stated bishop. When a priest is made bishop, his parsonage becomes vacant, but he may still hold it mcommaidbn. It has been the practice sometimes in England for the crown thus to annex to a bishopric of small valhe either the living which had been held by the newly made bishop, and of which, in virtue of such elevation of its inctmibent, the patronage became at the disposal of the crown, or some other in its stead. — Eden, Churchman's Diet. ; Farrar, Eccl Diet. / Wetzer u. Welte, KircL-Lex. ii, 706.
Commendone, Giovakhi Fbahcesco, a cardi- nal and papal legate in Germany, was bom at Ven- ice March 17, 1528. After studying law, he went (1560) to Rome, where he attracted the attention of Pope Julias III, and was employed as early as 1551 for a political mission. -In 1552 be went as papal en- voy to the Netherlands, and ft^m there to England, where he had an important secret interview with Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII, who, on the death of her brother Edward, was to ascend the English throne. Mary gave him an autograph letter to the pope, and promised that the Roman Catholic religion should be re-established as the state Church. Commendone, having now gained the entire confidence of the pope, was at once employed for other important missions to Portugal, Spain, and France. Paid IV made him pa- pal secretary and bishop of Zante. Pius IV sent him to Germany to invite the Protestant princes to* send delegates to the Council of Trent. He addressed the Protestant convention at Naimiburg (1561), and pre-