In ordination, also, a kneeling posture was early prac- ticed. Dionysius says, "The person to be ordained kneeled befnrc the bisliop at the altar, and he. laying his hand ujion his head, did consecrate him with a holy prayer, and then signed him with the sign of the cross, after which the bishop and the clergy present gave him the kiss of peace." Ifwould appear, however, that bish- ops elect did not relish much the humiliating posture of kneeling at their ordination, for Theodorct inlbrms us that "it was a customary rite to bring the person about, to be ordained bishoj) to the holy table, and make him kneel upon his knees hij forced But this, no doubt, was a significant mode of showing with what reluctance men should undertake so important, so weighty a charge as
that of bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ. Indeed, so solemn and onerous were its responsibilities esteemed, that we read of several who absconded as soon as they understood that the jwpular voice had chosen them to fill this honorable post ; and many of them, -when cap- tured, were brought by force to the holy altar, and there, against their ^yill and inclination, were ordained by the imposition of hands, being held down on their knees by the officers of the church. See Election of Clergy.
In the Roman Catholic Church the act of kneeling be- longs to the highest form of worship. It is especially practiced in the perfonnance of monastic devotions and in acts of penance. It is also frequently employed dur- ing the mass, and in the presence of the consecrated ele- ments when reserved for subsequent communion. In acts of penance this Church has carried the practice to great excess, subjecting the penitent to sufferings which remind us of the legend told of St. James, that he con- tracted a hardness on his knees equal to that of camels because he was so generally on his knees. " Instances," says Eadie, "are innumerable, and ever recurring in the Romish Church, of delicate women being obliged to walk on rough pavements, for hours in succession, on their bare knees, until at length nature, worn out by the injurious and demoralizing exercise, compels them to desist. To encourage the penitent and devout in acts of this nature, the most wonderful tales are related of the good resulting from self- mortification and entire siUjmission to the stern discipline of the Chiu-ch." See the article Gexuflexiox.
In the Anglican Chiu-ch the rubric prescribes the kneeling posture in many parts of the service, and this, as well as the practice of bowing the head at the name of Jesus, was the subject of much controversy with the Pu- ritans. A like controversy was in 1838 provoked in Ba- varia by a ministerial decree obliging Protestants to join Bomanists in this ceremony when required of them, and ended only with its repeal in 1844 (for details on this pjint, see the Roman Catholic version in Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen Lex. vi, 23G ; the Protestant side in Her- zog, Real-Encyhlopadie, s. v. Baiern). See Eadie, Ecclcs. Diet. s. v.; Farrar, Eccles. Diet. s. v. ; Hook, Church Did. s. v.; Riddle, Christian Antiquities, 391 sq., 631 sq. ; Cole- man, Christian Antiquities (see Index).
Kneph or Knuphis, also known under the name of Nuji ( r Nee, in Egyp- tian mythology is the old- est designation of deity, and signifies either sjnrit or water, perhaps in allusion to the Spirit of God, who "in the beginning moved \\\vm the face of tlie wa- ters." Greatly distorted by the priests, the legend is in brief that from his mouth came the egg which gave existence to all things tem- poral ; hence the egg is ills symbol ; likewise the snake, which assumes the shape of a ring, to indicate his eternal existence. His representation is frequent- ly found on Egyjitian monuments, sometimes with a snake holding an egg between its head and tail. The Egyptians of Thebes knew only this one god to be hn- mortetl; all others they supposed to be more or less sub- ject to temporal changes.
In the later idolatrj' Kneph was the special god of Upper Egypt, where he was represented in human shape, with the head of a ram ; still regarded as tho creator of other gods, he was figured at Elephantine sitting at a potter's wheel fashioning the limbs of Osiris, while the god of the Nile is pouring water on the clay. "The idea," says Trevor {Anc. Eimpt, p. 131), "seems to be the same as in Job (x, 8, 9 ; Rom. ix, 23) : ' Thine
Figure of Kueph.
KNIBB
126
KNIFE
hands have made me and fashioned me together round about, llcmeinlier. I beseech thee, that thou hast made ine as (lie clay.''' (Comp. Herodotus, ii, 41.) See Voll- mer, [VOrterb. d. J/)/tkol. p. 106G. See Egypt. (J. U. W.)
Kiiibb, WiLLiA jr, a Baptist missionary to Jamaica, was burn at Kettering, in Nortliamptonshire, England, about 1800. He sailed as a missionary to Kingston, Jamaica, in 1824; in 1828 removed to the IJidgeland jMission, in the north-western part of the island, and subsecpiently became pastor of the mission church at Falmouth. He exercised a very important part in bringing about the Emancipation Act of 1833, by which sla^-ery Avas abolished in the island, and afterwards so exposed the apprenticeship sj-stem established by the same act as to secure the complete emancipation of ap- prentices in the island. In 1838 he erected a normal school at Kettering, in Trelawnej^, for training native and other schoolmistresses for both Jamaica and Africa, and in 1842 he visited England to promote the estab- lishment of a theological seminarj' in connection with the native mission to Africa. He died at Ketteruig July lo, 1845. See Enfjlish Cyclop, s. v. (J, L. S.)