Dissenters object to the Church of Kngjland ec sati grounds as the following : 1. That the Church, as 7 law established, is the mere creatoie of the state, *t much as the army. 2. That many of her offices ^ dignities are utterly at variance with the dniplkitT i^ apostolic times. 8. That the repetitions in the LIxxi- gy are numberless and vain. 4. That the Apocrr^^ is read as a part of the public service. 5. That ber creeds contain unwairantable metaphysical reprei«i> tations relative to the doctrine of the Trinity, fi. Tbi every baptized person is considered as lege&cnSKi
7. That the baptismal and confirmation serrio^ ek. have a tendency to deceive and ruin the sooli cf &tz
8. That no distinction is made between the bolj as profane, the sacraments being administered witbci* discrimination to all who present themselves (6^ Did. s. v.). Accounts of the origin and history ci tL- different dissenting bodies will be found midci tl' heads Baptists; Conoreoationalxsts ; lKi>cn3- DExrs ; QuAKEBS ; Unitabiaits, etc See Bogceisi Bennett, History of the Dissemten (Lond. 2 t^^ fvc Neal, Hiitory of the Puritcuut Pierce, Ikfmot ^^ DitmUert of England (1817, 8vo).
Dissidents (DisndaUes\ a t^rm specially apf^ to those non-Romanists in Poland who were aUD««<
DISTAFF
826
DIVAN
be free exerdse of their respective modes of worship, 'he privilege was accorded to Lutherans, Calvinists, Lruiinians, and Greeks, but not to Anabaptists, Sooin- ins, and Quakers. In the latter part of the sixteenth entury, a large part of the people, and perhaps half of lie nobility, were Protestants. " The Convention of tandomir, concluded in 1570, united the Lutherans, ^alvinists, and. Bohemian Brethren into one Church- union which had also a political tendency, and whose lembers obtained the same rights with the Catholics y the reli^ons peace (jhix diisUeiUiurn) sworn by the ing in 1573. But the ^p'eat mistake in not settling he mutual relations of the two religious parties gave ise to bloody contests. Although the rights of the issidents were afterwards repeatedly confirmed, they rere gradually repealed, particularly in 1717 and 1718, 1 the reign of Augustus II, when dissidents were de- rived of the right of voting in the Diet. They lost till more some years afterwards (1783) under Augus- as III ; and in the Diet of Pacification, as it was ailed, in 1736, an old statute, requiring every Poliiih ing to be of the Catholic Church, was revived. After tie succession of the last king, Stanislaus Poniatow- ki, the dissidents brought their grievances before the )iet held in 1766, and were supported in their claims y Russia, Denmark, Prussia, and England. Russia, in articular, profited by the occasion to extend her influ- nee in the afi^airs of Poland, supported them strongly y her mediation, in bringing about a new Convention 1 1767, by which they were again placed on an equal wting with the Catholics. The Diet of 1768 repealed tie decrees which had been formerly passed against lem. The war against the confederates breaking out, owever, and the kingdom being dismembered, ndth- ig was accomplished until the year 1775, when the ais- idents regained all their privileges, excepting the right f l>eing elected senators or ministers of state*' (Hen- erson's Buck, TheoL Dictionary^ s. v.). See Poland. he name Dissidents (German Dissidenten) is also )metimc8 used as the collective name for all adhe- ;nts of religious denominations which have no legal Kistcnce in any particular state. See Toleration.
Distaff (!]l?Qf pe'Uky prop, a cirde^ e. g. a district r quarter of a city, *' part," Neh. iii, 9-18 ; hence the hirl of a spindle, with which it is put in parallelism, rov.xxxi,19; once '* staff," or crutch,
Sam. iii, 29), the istrument used for listing the thread I spinning by its virl. See Spindle.
District, in the [ethodlst Episcopal hurcb, a territorial .vision of a Confer- ice. Each Confer- ice is divided into istricts, including convenient num- it of churches and tcieties (appoint* ents) ; and each jstrict is placed un- *r the charge of a -esiding elder. The shops are empow- cd to form the dis- icts according to leir judgment. See ^Ucipline ofths M. : Church, pt. ii, § J; Stevens, J5rw/.</ (ethodism^ bk. vii, 1. ii ; and the art. BEsiDiNO Elder.
Ditch (3*, gebj k pit [as rendered in Jer. x, 81] or trench for cistern-water, 2 Kings iii, 16 ; H^pp, mik- vah', a coUection or pool of water, Isa. xxii, 11 ; PinittJ, ihuchah^ Prov. xxiii, 27, or nno, thach^ath, Job ix, xxxi, a pitj as elsewhere rendered, or hole in the ground, either for holding surplus water or for catch- ing animals ; like the Greek (io^vvoQ, Matt, xv, 14 ; Luke vi, 39). See Cistern ; Pool.
Ditheism, the worship of two gods.
(1.) This term was sometimes applied by the ortho- dox to the Arians, on the ground that they believed in one God, the Father, who is etermd, and one God, the Son, not eternal.
(2.) The term is also applied to the doctrine of two first principles, or gods, one good, the other evil. " The chiefest and most eminent asserters of t^is di- theistic doctrine of two self-existent principles in the universe were the Marciouites and the Manichsana, both of which sects, though they made some slight pre- tence to Christianity, yet were not by Christians own- ed for such. Some of the pagans also entertained the same opinion." — CudworUi, True ItUeUectual System (Andover, 1837), i, 290. See Dualism.