Competentea, a class of catechumens in the early Church. See Catechxtmenb.
Completorlmn, Completinum, or Compline (from Lat. complere, to Jill tip), the last service in the evening ; the bed-time service. According to the ca- nonical hours, fixed hours for public prayer were in- troduced into the Church with the institutions of the monastic life, ^n the Western Church the practice of pra3ring seven times a day was adopted in the 5th or 6th century, and the completorium was the lost or fin- ishing canonical hour. See Procter, Hist, of the Com- mon Prayer, p. 11 ; Freeman, Principles of Divine Ser- vice, p. 88. Comp. Canonical Hours; Breviary.
COMPLUTENSIAN POLYGLOT 448
COMTE
ComplQtensian POLTGLOT. See Poly- glots.
Compofttella, Militabt Obdbb or St. Jamks OF. ** St. James the Elder was adopted as the patron saint of Spain after the vlctoiy of Clavijo, and his rel- ics were preserved at Compostella. The marvels sap- posed to be performed by these relics drew vast nam- bers of pilgrims, for whose support hospitals were es- tablished by the canons of St. Eloi. The yieinity of the Moors having rendered the roads unsafe, thirteen noblemen united fol* the protection of the pilgrims, and with the canons re- solved to found an order of the same kind as that of the Hospitallers or Templars. The pope granted his as- sent in a bull, dated 5th July, 1775, accompanied with the statutes of the order. Whatever conquests were made fh)m the infidel were declared the property of the order, and a coun- cil of thirteen knights was vested
^,_ *.v ^_ji with authority to elect and depose a Grow of the Order , .•' frui.«v* a
ijompoBtelU. g«^d master. The knights made vows of poverty, obedience, and celi- bacy, and professed their belief in the immaculate conception. To protect Christians and convert infi- dels ihey vowed to be the only object in their wars with the Saracens. In most of the great battles be- tween Christian and. Moor the red cross of the order was conspicuous. The conquests of the order itself, eombined with the grateful munificence of the nation, speedily increased its wealth and power beyond those of any of the other orders of knighthood. In addition to the three large commanderies of Leon, Castile, and Montalvan, it possessed nearly 200 minor command- eries, comprising, it is said, more than 200 priories, with many fiefs, cloisters, hospital?, castles, boroughs, two towns, and 178 villages, exclusive of its posses- sions in Portugal. This enormous wealth and power of the order excited the jealousy of the crown, in which, in 1522, the grand mastership was permanently vested by the pope. Having thus become merely honorary and dependent on the crown, the order rapidly de- creased hi importance." — Chambers, EncydoptBdia^ s. V.
CompOBteUa, Santiago db, a town in Spain, and one of the three most famous places of pilgrimage in the Church of Rome, the two others being Rome and Jerusalem. The place was formerly called ad Sanctum Jacobum Apottoktm or Giacomo Pottolo, whence by abbreviation ComposteUa was formed. According to a Spanish tradition, the apostle James the Elder came to the Pyrenssan peninsula, and is buried at Com- postella. The legend of the apostle having preached in Spain is first mentioned in the ninth century, and has generally been repudiated by the Roman Cath- olic writers, although it was defended by the Bol- landists {Acta Sanct, torn, vi, JuUi, Appendix f and tom. i, ApriUif Diatribe), and by the Protestant J. A. Fabricius {SaluiariB Lux Evanffdiiy c. 16, § 2). The claim^of Ciompostella to the body of the apostle has found more advocates among the Roman Catholic writers, although the church of St. Saturnine at Tou- louse prefers the same claim. The rival claims have been compromised by assuming that each church had one half, as a division of famous relics, it is alleged, frequently occurred in the Middle Ages. Compostella was made {i bishopric in the beginning of the 9th cen- tury, and in 1120 an archbishopric— Wetzer u.Welte, Kirchen-Lex, ii, 786.
Comprehension, in English history, "the scheme first proposed by Sir Orlando Bridgman in 1688 for re- laxing the terms of conformity to the Established Church of England, and admitting Protestant dissent- ers into its communion. In 1674, Tillotson and Stil- lingfleet renewed the attempt, and the terms were set-
tled to the satisfaction of the nonconformists ; but, the bishops unanimously refhsing their consent, the proj- ect fell to the ground. Immediately after the Revo- lution, the scheme was renewed at the instance of Wil- liam III, but after two attempts the design of onion was abandoned, and the Act of Toleration pasaed in its stead.*' See Macaolay, Hittmy of Enffland, iii, 68, 880 ; art England, Chubch of ; Eden, Churdkaiam's Dictionary y s. v.
Compton, Hbnrt, bishop of London, son of the second Earl of Northampton, was bom at Comptoo in 1632, and was educated at Queen's College, Oxford, which he left in 1652. After some years spent in travel on the Continent, he returned to England on the restoration of Charles II. For a short tlroe be was a comet in the army; then went to Cambridge, passed M.A., took orders, and was made canon of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1666. After various pre- ferments, he was made bishop of Oxford in 1674, and was translated to the see of London in 1675 or 1676. He became tutor to the princesses Ifary and Anne, and imbued them with his own earnestly Protestant sentiments. On the accession of James II he was dia- missed from the council and ftom his deanery of the Royal Chapel on account of his vigorous opposition to popery. In 1686 he was tried before the lords com- missioners (the notorious JefiHes presiding) on a charge of disobedience to the Idng's mandate (for the suspen- sion of Dr. Sharp), and was suspended from his episco- pal functions. He was restored in 1688, and on the accession of William he recovered all the offices from which he had been expelled. Bishop Compton sought to conciliate Dissenters, and to find means of reunit- ing them to the Church of Enprland. His so-called ** ultra- Protestantism" made him unpopular with High-churchmen. He died July 7, 1718. He pub- Ibhed A Treatise of the Holy Communion (Lond. 1677); a numl)er of episcopal letters and charges, etc — Nem and General B%og, Dictionary ^ iv, 64 sq.