bishops in Africa by superseding them in their ex-
pected sacoeision totheofficeof ardtbiiiispar politan. In later times, degradatiem iwipliwl of all authority and station. An instaaee tf < tical degradation in the ei^tii ceutniy at pie is recorded. The patriarch Cwialswii to ascend the (mho; he was stripped by &e M^t his pallium, and anathematiaed; bew^u thcani^ walk out of the church backwards. When Gaaa archbishop of Canterbury, was degraded fay «i1b< queen-Muy, his persecutors dmaaed him is cfs^ robes made of canvas, put the mitre on his haiiM the pastoral staff in hk hand ; and in this attnik* ed him to the people. They then stripped li@^ by piece. On tiie Roman fanoM of ^ Elliott, DtGMOtiim ofRomamm^ bk. fi, (^ xr (lal edition) ; see also Bingham, Orig, EeeL bk. xrl d U; Camtm 122 (^ Ckurd^ (^ EngUmd ; Angasti,^!* ArcikOBologk^ iii, 401, and the article Dspoonoa.
Degree is the rendering in tlie A. V. ef «ie 5i and one Gr. term (besides being employed as se ^ junct in the phrases **man of high [or low] d^' wliere it has no [other] ooire^KMident in the fli%iul^ nb^p, maalak' (2 Kings xx, 9, 10, U ; Isa. xxxri 8, referring to the graduated scale of Uie i£al [%t' of Ahaa, and in the titles of the P&alma entitistf "^ of Degrees" [see below] ; a tUpy as elsewboe ^ks- ally rendered); (iadfiog (only 1 Tim. iii, U^f^^ Hon or promotion, etc of a deacon [q. v.] to • ^e office ; or perhaps rather a spiritual ^kmdfmai a ca- dition, see Alford, in loc), a Mtgp (as of a staircsii : door, Ecclns. vi, 86). See Staibs.
DEGREES, SoFG of (nftratt *^'^,«V^*
sUp8 ; Sept. i^i^ rurv avafla^fuiv, Vulg. eaUkm f* dtcum), a title given to fifteen Pealma, from exxQ cxxxiv inclusive. Four of them are attr3>BtBd ta \>>- vid, one is ascribed to the pen of SokKnon, is^ ^ other ten give no indication of their author. Ek> horn supposes them all to be the work of one lui t^' same bard (End. in das A. T.), on the view sdopte^ / many that the indications of authoraiiip in tixse ttk are not trustworthy, since they appear to bxre bea added by a later hand, and in anyca^^^thevoTKx phraseology would be employed to denote a bna composed mi honor of David or of Solomon'' (Hsfb i 8ermonty i, 208-9). The most g^erally umn^ opinion, however, is that some of these hymt ^^ preserved from a period anterior to tlie 'Bab7i»^ captivity ; that others were composed in tlie one i^ it by those who returned to Palestine, on the emsp^ of Babylon by Cyrus, and that a few refer twm ^ » later date, but were all incorporated into one col^ tion, because they had one and the same donettf This view is adopted by Roeenmtiller, Herder, X& delssohn, Joel Biill, and others. With respect to t^ term ni?^^h, or ** degrees," a great diveintj of «!»' ion prevails among Biblical critics. 1. Aseoi^^ some, it refers to Uie melody to wliich the PmIb *» to be chanted. Bellermann {Metrik der Bdrif-> 190 sq.) calls these Psalms "trochaic songs." l^ translates the words ** £in Lied im hdhem 0«tt" ^ connecting the Psalm with the manner of its cxm*' tion ; and Michaelis Qn Lowth, De Sacri Pod,^^) compares nb^ia with the Syriae fitnVsS (^^ which would likewise characterise the metre 0 ^ melody (Assem. BSd. i, 62) ; but Gesenina (^A^eni HaL 1812, No. 206) denies to the Hebrews asr wttf cal prosody. . See Poetrt, Hsbssw. It is thoi|M that the poetry of tiie Syrians may hereafter tiav some light upon this title, as of the eiglit spedar ^ verse which they distinguish, one is called f^ M»&B, degrees, like these Psalms, and tiie name if pears to refer to a particular kind of metre (seeJ^ Kit. HaL 1816, No. 11); but what that metn i«, ^ whether it exists in the Psalms bearing tiiis titk.** have not yet the means of determining. 2. OBa)i»^
DEGREES
729
DEHON
nd«, mlBo, Bome refer the name SUr ham^Jifcudoth tig of detgreea — to the argument of the Psalms, and slate son^ qfatoeniy or ode$ cfoKomot^ sopposmg i to haire been song by the Israelites while re- xsxg from exile (Ezra vii, 9), or on their annual neys to JFeniaalem in order to celebrate the festi- : lienceaomennderstandMcrfldmarcAWfOriM^^rHn » ; but this would only apply to two of them (Psa. H, C3cxvi^. Such, however, is the opinion of Her- (Geiste der kdnrSi§eker Poedey, who interprets the I *> *' Hymns for a journey*" This view is advocated ength by Hengstenberg (Ccmmeni. on PBolmSy lii, Bdinb. ecL), and has been adopted by seyeral later Lea. B. Aben Ezra quotes an ancient authority Kimchi, Saadias, Jarcbi, etc. explain), which main- A that the deffrees allude to the fifteen steps which, lie Temple of Jerusalem, led from the court of the nen to that of the men, and on each of which steps of the fifteen songs of degrees was chanted (comp. mxkd, Middothf ii, 5 ; Sueoa^ v, 4). Adam Clarke inmenl. on Psa. cxx) refers to a similar opinion as nd in the Apocr3rphal Gospel of ike birth qfMary: Ler parents brought her to the Temple, and set her m one of the steps. Now there are fifteen steps >at the Temple, by which they go up to it, accoid- ; to the fifteen Psalms of degrees." See Templb. The most probable interpretation, however, is that ^ted by Gesenins (Tket. ffeb, p. 1081 sq.), that they i so called ttmsk a certain rhythm obvious in several them, by which the sense, as it were, ascends by de- tes or stepSy the first or last words of a preceding lose being often repeated at the beginning of the cceeding one (see Jour. Sac Lit, October, 1854, p. 89 .). Thoa, in Psa. cxxi : 1. 1 wtU lift up mine Qjes unto the hills.