Parliaments (ibid. 1600) : — B. Gregorii Magni Episcopi Romaiii de Cunt Pastor ali Liber vere A ureus, etc., MSS. cum Romana editivne collatis (ibid. 1629, 8vo). He was also editor of Spelman, On Tithes, and his apology for the treatise De non Temerandis Ecclesiis. See Chalmers, Bioij. Diet. s. v.; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. A u- thors, s. V.
Stephens, William, an English clergyman, was a native of Devonshire, and graduated from Exeter Col- lege, Cambridge, in 1715. He was first vicar of Bramp- ton, and afterwards rector of St. Andrew's, in Ph'mouth. He died, much lamented, in 1736. He published four single Sermons (1717, 1719, 1722, 1724, each 8vo) ; and after his death appeared (thirty-five) Sei-mons (Oxford, 1737, 2 vols. 8vo). See Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Authors, s. V.
Stephens, "William H., a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in New York Dec. 18, 1804, converted in 1828, under the preaching of Rev. Charles Pitman; travelled Burlington and Bargaintown circuits, under the presiding elder, in 1829-30 ; was admitted on trial in 1831, and appointed to Cumberland and Cape May Cir- cuit; in 1832, to Salem Circuit; and in 1833 was admit- ted into fidl connection, and appointed to Swedesborough Circuit, where he died the same year. He was a man of studious habits, good preaching abilities, ardent piety, and extensive usefulness. See Minutes of Annual Con- ferences, ii, 282.
Stephen's (St.) Day, a festival observed on Dec. 26 in honor of the protomartjT Stephen.
Stephenson, James White, D.D., a Presbyterian divine, was born in Augusta County, Va., in 1756. He was educated at Mt. Zion College, Winnsborough, S. C. ; principal, for three years, of a classical school near the old Waxhaw Church, in Lancaster District, S.C.; studied theology privately; was licensed by the Presbyterj' of South Carolina in 1789; ordained and installed pastor of the Bethel anil Indiantown churches, in Williamsburg District, in 1790. ]March 3, 1808, with about twenty fam- ilies, he migrated to INIaury County, Tenn., jointly pur- chased a tract of land, and organized what was after- wards known as the "Frierson Settlement" — a Christian colony which long maintained an enviable reputation, particularly for its faithful private and public instruction of the blacks. He died Jan. 6, 1832. Dr. Stephenson published two or three sermons. As a preacher he was solid and instructive. In 1815, South Carolina College conferred upon him the degree of D.D. Sec Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, iii, 550; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, ami A mer, A uthors, s. v, (J, L. S.)
Stercoranists (from stercoro, to void as excre- ment). The grossly sensual conception of the presence of the Lord's bodj' in the sacrament, according to which that body is eaten, digested, and evacuated like ordina- ry food, is of ancient standing, though not found in Or- igen, as some writers have assumed (e. g. Touriiely,6'//rs«s Theoloi/icus, iii, .345), nor, perhaps, in Hhabanus Maurus, who, like the former, was charged with holding such views because of an ambiguous explanation of Matt, xv, 17 (e.g. by Gerbcrt, P>e Corp,et ISamj. Domini, in Pez, Thesdur. Anecdot. Noriss. I, i, 144). It certainly t)rig- inated with a class of false teachers contemporary with or earlier than Khabanns IMaurus, wlioin Paschasius Had- bert condemns, De Corp. et Sang. Domini, c. 20, where he remarks, with reference to certain apocryphal writ- ings, "Frivolum est ergo in hoc mysterio cogitare de stercore, ne comniisccatur in digcstione aUerius cibi." He does not, however, apjily the term Stercoranists to his opponents. Cardinal Humbert is the first to so em- ploy the word in his work directed against the monk Nicctas Pectoratus (lO.W), to advocate azymitism [see AzvMiTKs ) and the other characteristic doctrines of the Latin Church (see Canls Lcctt. Antl. HI, i, 319, ed. P.as- nage); and from that time the word was freipiently employed to designate the sujjporters of the grossly
STERCULIUS
1015
STERN
realistic theory of the Lord's supper. It occurs now and then in the writings of the opponents of the Lutheran doctrine, particularly the reaHstic doctrine of Hrentius and other Wurtembergers in the time of the Reforma- tion. Ou the subject, see Pfaft', l)e Slercunmistis Medii yfJi-i, etc. (Tub. 1750, 4to), and Schriickh, Kirchengesch. xxiii, 429-499. — Herzog, Rcal-Kiici/kiop. s. v.
Sterculius, Stercutius, or Sterquilinus, a Roman divinity invoked by husban(hnen. The name is derived from sfeirus, manure, and is apjilied by some to Saturn, because he taught the use of manure in agri- cultural processes. Others give it to Picumnus, the son of Faunus, who is likewise credited with introducing improvements in agriculture (Macrob. Sat. i, 7 ; Serv. A d ^-Eii. ix, 4 ; x, 76 ; Lactant. i, 20 ; Pliny, //. N. xvii, 9; August. De Civ. Dei, xviii, 15).
Sterling, John, a minister of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, was born in Ireland in 1810, and emigrated to this country in early life. At the age of seventeen he united with the Church, and in 1844 was licensed to preach. He was received into the North Ohio Confer- ence in 1847, and travelled six or seven years, when, be- cause of ill-health, he located. He was afterwards ad- mitted into the Central Ohio Conference, where he la- bored several years. His death occurred April 2, 1863. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 1863, p. 168.
Stern (jrpvfiva), the hinder part of a ship (as the word is rendered in Mark iv, 38; Acts xxvii, 41), out of which the anchors were anciently fastened (ver. 29). See Ship.