Saconay, Gabriel de, a French theologian, was born near Lyons. While quite young, he was made canon of Lyons, and afterwards became dean of the chapter. He was one of the most zealous opiionent.s of the Reformation, and was for some time censor of (he city of Lyons. He died Aug. 3, 1580. His writings are principally controversial, and bitter in the extreme. They are, De la Providence de Dieu sur les Rois de France, with L Histoire des Albiyois (1568) : — Traite de la Vraie Idolatrie de notre Temps (1568) : — Discours des Premiers Troubles advenvs a Lyons, written in answer to a Huguenot writing (Jai Genealoyie et la Fin des Hu- fjueneaux) : — and Decouverte du Culcinisme. Saconay
SACRA
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also published an edition of the treatise of Henry VIII against Lutlier, to which he wrote a preface full of the most violent expressions. Calvin answered it by a sa- tirical work called Gratulutio (15G0),— Hoefer, Nouv. Bio(j. Generale, s. v.
Sacra {sacred rites), a general term used by the an- cient Romans to denote all that belonged to the worship of the gods. The sacra were either public or private, the former applying to the worship conducted at the ex- pense of the State, and the latter at the expense of fami- lies or single individuals. In both cases the whole ser- vices were performed by the pontiffs, who, in the case of the sacra i^iiblica, had also the charge of the funds set apart for these services. The sacra privata were generally notliing more than sacrifices to the Penates, or household gods. — Gardner, Faiths of the World, s. v.
Sacra, Circa, or In sacris. The power of the magistrate is scarcely allowed by any party in sacris (in sacred things), but many allow his power ci7-ca sacra (about sacred things). The '23d chapter of the Westmin- ster Confession says, however: ''The civil magistrate may not assume to himself the administration of the word and sacraments for the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; yet lie hath authority, and it is his duty, to take order that unity and peace be preserved in the Church, that the truth of God be kept pure and entire, that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed, all corruptions and abuses in worship and discipline pre- vented or reformed, and all the ordinances of God duh' settled, administered, and observed. For the better ef- fecting whereof, he hath power to call synods, to be present at them, and to provide that whatsoever is transacted in them be according to the mind of God." It is noteworthy that one of the proof-texts in the West- minster Confession, under this head, is IMatthew ii, 4, 5, Herod's calling together the sanhedrim when startled by the news of the birth of Christ — a rival prince, as he thought, and whom he proposed to destroy. A large party object to this doctrine of the magistrate's power as Erastian and unscriptural, and maintain that the Church should be free of all control on the part of the State, and alike independent of its pay and its patron- age. See EuASTiANiSM. How the compromise is ef- fected between the two powers in the Church of Scot- land may be seen in the way in which the General As- semblj' is annuallv dismisseil at the end of the statutory period beyond which it cannot prolong its sittings. Thus, in the year 1861, the moderator concluded his address by saying, "As this General Assembly was con- vened in the name and by authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, so in the same name and by the same author- ity I now dissolve it, and appoint the next meeting of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to be held in this place on Thursday, the 22d day of May, 1862." The lord high commissioner then said: "Right reverend and right honorable, it is now my duty, in ray sovereign's name, to dissolve this assembly ; and, ac- cordingly, I hereby declare tliis assembly dissolved in her name, and by the same authority I ajipoint the next General Assembly to meet on Thursday, the 22d day of May, 1862." — Eadie, Eccles. Cyclop, s. v. See Secular Power.
Sacrament (from the Lat. sacr amentum, a mili- tarj' oath of enlistment), a word adopted by the writers of the Latin Church to denote those ordinances of re- ligion by which Christians come under an obligation of obedience to God, and which obligation, they sup- posed, was equally sacred with that of an oath. Con- sidering the simplicity of the manner and the brevity of the terms in which the Lord Jesus Christ instituted certain general ami perpetual observances for the Church which he founded, it is difficult to repress amazement at the extent of the discussions and the voluminousness ; of the controversies that have sprung up in reference to them. Many of those controversies are now obso- lete, and all of them shrink to comparative unimpor-
tance when the Word of God is taken as the one only source of authoritative instruction on the subject. In order to make proper distinctions between the divine teachings and human theories, and also to see how doctrines have been promulgated in successive periods without the shadow of scriptural authority, it is well first to note both the letter and the si)irit of the New- Testament teaching in reference to what we now call sacraments. We may then the more intelligently fol- low the line of historical development and practice, however that may have been corrupted from the sim- plicity of the Gospel. A negative lesson of no little significance is taught in the fact that the term sacra- ment is not found in the N. T. ; neither is the Greek word iivffTijpioi' in any instance applied to either bap- tism or the Lord's supper, or any other outward observ- ance. That word, however, came subsequently into ec- clesiastical usage as the equivalent of the Latin sacru- mentum. The Greek Church still uses it in that sense, designating as the seven mysteries what the Roman Church calls the seven sacraments.