Xiapsi, in the more extended meaning of the word, '• t/ie J'aHen,'' especially those who were excluded from communion with the Church on account of having com- mitted one of the jKCcata niortalia. In a more restrict- ed sense, it was used to denote such as had " fallen away," i. e. committed the peccatum mortale of denying their faith. It was natural that these should be lirst designated by the expression of " lapsi," as heretics were very numerous in the early ages of the Church, and the question of their reintegration into the Church was one of considerable importance. As, after the close of the persecutions, there were no longer any "lapsi" in that sense of the word, it came to be applied as synony- mous -Kiih p)anitentes or hareiici, though only occasion- ally. Compare Henschel, Glossarium, s. v.
The '• lapsi" were especially numerous when persecu- tion assumed the regular and systematic form it obtained in Roman law muler Nerva and Trajan. Persistence in the profession of Christianity was alone considered a crime against the state. Yet Trajan granted full for- giveness to the Christians who consented to offer up in- cense before his statues and those of the gods. During the Decian persecution the form of abjuration became even more simple. Those who shrank from offering up sacrifices were supposed to have done so by the authori- ties. Indeed, in many instances certificates were given by magistrates that the law had actually been comiJied with. Such mild measures made it easy for many to recant. Cyprian informs us that large numbers eagerly recanted in Carthage even before the persecution broke out; and Tertullian (IJc fufja in perscc. c. 13) relates with righteous indignation that whole congregations, with the clergy at their head, would at times resort to dishonorable bribes in order to avert persecution. But, after the end of the persecution, many tried to unite again with the Church. The question now arose wheth- er the Church could again receive them as members, and on what conditions; and also, who had the power to decide that (luestion? In the first ages such peni- tents were, upon their confessions, readmitted by impo- sition of hands. Confessors had the privilege of issuing letters of peace (libelli pacis) to the lapsed, which fa- cilitated their early reception to communion. But such penitents were ineligible for holy orders, and, if already ordained, they were deposed, not being allowed to re- sume their clerical functions, but suffered only to remain in lay communion. By degrees these admissions were made still easier, and therefore became a matter of se- rious consideration by the Coiuicil of Aiicyra (q. v.), and
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resulted in the revival of the old Montanist controversy as to the purity and holiness of the Church, besides pro- voking another as to the extent of episcopal powers. On the controversies and schisms which were thus pro- voked in the African Church, see the articles Cypkian; Decius; Felicissimus ; Maktyks and CoNFESsoiiS; NovATi.VN; NovATUS. (Compare also Schaff, Ch.Hist. vol. i, § 114 and 115.) Epiphanius asserts that Mele- tius revived the struggle against the laxity of Church discipline ; yet this assertion is not fully substantiated ; the question of authority was already the foremost in these discussions. See Meletius. This was still more the case in the controversy with the Donatists (q. v.).
The only other points to be noticed are some deci- sions of the councils which gradually elaborated each of the principles tinally established. Thus seven canones (1-8) of the Synod of Ancyra determine the penance to be performedby the lapsi. It distinguished between those who cheerfLilly partook of the repast which fol- lowed the sacrifices offered to idols, those who partook of it reluctantly and with tears, and those who ate none of it. These latter were punished with two years of penance, the others more severely. Priests who had sac- rificed to idols lost their ecclesiastical character. The Synod of Nicrea was still more lenient. Those against whom it was most severe were persons who had recanted without being threatened in their lives or fortunes ; yet even those, while declared to be " unworthy of the pity of the Church," were also readmitted. Naturally, as persecution decreased, the Church became less stringent, as it had no longer to fear desertions. Even before that the practice of the Eastern Church had become very lenient. See Tertullian, De pudicitia ; De poenitentia ; Cyprian, Be lapsis ; epistolm ; epp. canonicce Dionysii Akxaiulrini, c. 2G2 ; Mansi, Acta Condi. (Ancyr. 1-8; Nicffiu. 10-13 ; 11 Carthag. 3 ; 111 Carthag. 27 ; Agath. 15) ; Jacobi Sirmondi llis/oria pwnitentiiE puhl. (1(550); Joh. Morini Comni. histor. de disciplina in administratione sacr. panit. lo primis smculis (ICjI); Klee, Die Beichte, eiiie hist. hrit. Untersuchnng (1828) ; Krause, Diss, de lapsis priince ecclesia ; Riddle, Chi-istian Antiq. p. 624 sq. ; Siegel, Christlich-Kirchliche Alterthilmer, i, 290 sq. ; Schriickh, Kirchengesch. iv, 215, 282 sq. ; v, 59, 313, 382 ; Herzog, Real-Enajklop. viii, 200 ; Blunt, Diet. Hist, and Doct. Theolof/ij, p. 395. See Apostasy. (J'. H. W.)
Lapwing, in our version, is used for rS'^2*11 (du- kiphatk', perhaps from Tl^'^, the Arabic for cocli.; and i<S^3, head, i. e. topknot), a w'ord which, occurring as the name of an unclean bird only in Lev. xi, 19 and Deut. xiv, 18, affords no internal or collateral evidence to establish the propriety of the translation. It has been surmised to mean "double-crest," which is suffi- ciently correct when applied to the hnopne, but less so when applied to the lapwing {'l'argnm,(lal/iis montanits), or tlie cock of the woods, Tetrao uror/cdliis, for which bird Bochart produces a more direct etymology ; and he might have appealed to the fiict that the Attagan visits Syria in winter, exclusive of at least two species of Pte- rocles, or sand-grouse, which probably remain all the year. But these names were anciently, as weU as in modern times, so often confounded that the Greek writ- ers even used the terra Gallinacea to denote the hoopoe; for Hesychius explains tTroxp in ^Eschylus by the Greek appellations of " moor-cock" and • mountain-cock" (see Bochart, s. v. Dukiphath) ; and in modern languages similar mistakes respecting this bird are abundant. JEs- chylus speaks of the hoopoe by name, and expressly calls it the biirl of the rorks (Fragm. 291, quoted by Aristotle, //. A . ix,*49). /Elian (.V. A . iii, 2G) says that these birds biuld their nests in loftg rocks. Aristotle's words are to the same effect, for he writes, " Now some animals are found in the mountains, as the hoopoe, for instance" (II. A. i, 1). When the two lawsuit-wearied citizens of Athens, Euclpidcs and Pisthetajrus, in the comedy of the Birds of Aristophanes (20, 54), are on their search for the home of Epops, king of birds, their