Sembat, a Paulician who, about the year 840, formed a sect in the province of Ararat by a fusion of Parseeism and Paulicianism. He established himself at Tliondrac, from which place his sect was called Thondracians (q. v.).
Sembiani, a Christian sect who were so called from their leader, Sembianus, who condemned the use of all wine. He persuaded his followers that wine was a production of Satan, denied the resurrection of the
body, and rejected most of the books of the Old Test — Buck, Theol. Diet. s. v.
Sem'e'i (Sf^tOi the Grsecized form apparently of two Heb. names : 1. SiiuiEi (q. v.), spoken of as («) one of the "sons of Asom" (1 Esdr. ix, 33), i. e. of Hashum (Ezra X, 33); (6) the son of Cisai and father of Jairus, among the ancestors of Mordecai (Esth. xi, 2. Sf/fffac). 2. The son of Joseph and father of Mattathias in our Lord's genealogy (Luke iii, 20, v. r. 'S.^fxuiv), probably Shema- lAH (q. v.), the son of Shechaniah and father of Neariah (1 Chron. iii, 22).
Semele, in Greek mythologi,-, was the mother of Bacchus and daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. See Bacchus.
Semel'lius (2f/itf'X\ioe, v. r. SojueXXioc, St/SsX- X(Of)? a corrupt Greek form (1 Esdr. ii, 16, 17, 25, 30) of the name of Shimshai (q. v.), the Samaritan scribe (Ezra iv, 8, 9, 17, 23).
Sementirae Feriae, or SementTna Dies, was kept in seed-time by the Romans for the purpose of praying for a good crop. It lasted only one day, and was fixed by the pontifex maximus.
Senii-Arians, a sect which arose in the 4th cen- tury, holding a modified form of Arianism. It was founded by Eusebius of Cwsarea and the sophist Aste- rius. They were opposed alike to the strict definition of orthodox Nicene theologians like St, Athanasius. and to the equally strict definition which characterized the logical intellectualism of the old Arians. Its symbol was the Homoiorision, which they substituted for the or- thodox Homoousion ; that is, the Son was regarded not as of the same substance with the Father, but of a sub- stance like in all things except in not being the Father's substance. They maintained, at the same time, that though the Son and Spirit were separated in substance from the Father, still the}' were so included in his glory that there was but one God. Unlike the Arians, they declared that our blessed Lord was not a creature, but truly the Son born of the substance of the Father; yet they would not allow him, with the orthodox, simply to be God as the Father was, but asserted that the Son, though distinct in substance from God, was at the same time essentially distinct from every created nature.
The Semi-Arian party first came into prominence at the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325), under the leader- ship of Eusebius, bishop of Cresarea. During the fifty- six years that elapsed between the Council of Nicfea and that of Constantinople (A.D. 325-381) as many as eighty councils are on record, a large number of which were held by the Semi-Arian bishops in sup- port of their contests with the orthodox and with their own sects. The Semi-Arian party had not one uni- form definition of faith, but differed from each other on many important points; the only real bond of union was their opposition to the term which unequivocally expressed Catholic doctrine. Nothing, in fact, was more conspicuous than the unsettled variableness of the Semi- Arian creed. Two confessions of faith were drawn up at the Council of the Dedication (Socrates, Hist. Eccl. ii, 10), held at Antioch, A.D. 341 ; another by the bishops of Palestine, a few months afterwards {ibid, ii, 18) ; four years later (A.D. 345) at Antioch ; at Sirmium (A.D. 351 [see Sozomen, Hist. Eccl. iv, G]) ; and again at the same place seven years later (ibid.). From al)out this time a reaction went steadily on, until in A.D. 366 fifty- nine Semi-Arian bishops subscribed an orthodox formu- la, and were received into the Catholic Church (Socra- tes, Hist. Eccl. iv, 12). There is no evidence of any large number of the party afterwards existing. Many others, doubtless, came back to the Church, not a few plunged into the heresy of the Macedonians [see Macedonius], and some, like Eudoxius of Antioch, became avowed Anomoeans. Consult Bhint, Diet, of Theologt/; id. Diet, of Sects, s. V. ; Hagenbach, Hist, of Doctrines, vol. i, § 92 ; Newman, Hist, of the Aj-ians; Pusey, Councils of the
SEMI-COPE
521
SEMI-PELAGIAXISM
Church, ch. v; Gardner, Faiths of the World, s. v. See Arianism; Sabellius.
Senii-cope, an inferior kind of cope. This term is sometimes applied to a small cope; occasionally to the old black Sarum choral copes, like cloaks without sleeves; and occasionally to a cope of linen, serge, or buckram, unornamented with embroider}'.
Semidolites, a sect of Acephali (q. v.), which spranj;- up originally under the name oi Bursunians at the end of the 5th century. They had no succession of priests, and professed to keep up the celebration of a valid eucharist by placing a few crumbs of the bread which had been consecrated by Dioscurus in a vessel of meal {atiiiSoKiQ, whence their name), and then using as fully consecrated the bread baked from it. See Damasc. Ad Uceres. iii ; Baronius, Annal. ad ann. 535; Neale, Patriarchate of Alexandria, ii, 22. — Blunt, Diet, of Sects, s. V.