SUPER-ALTAR
30
SUPEREROGATION
was enlivened with music, singing, and dancing (2 Sam. xix, oo; Psa. Ixix, I'i; Isa. v, 12; Amos vi, 5; Ecclus. xxxii, 0-6; Matt, xiv, G; Luke xv, 2;")), or with riddles (Judg. xiv, 12); and amiii these entertainments the festival was prolonged for several daj's (Ksth. i, 3, 4). Entertainments designed almost exclusively for drink- ing were known by tlie special name ot'miskteh (nri"i"T3), This resembled the comissalio of the Komans, wliich took place after the supper, and was a mere drinking revel, witli only so much food as served to whet the palate for wine (Smith, Z'j'c^ q/'ylji^i^. p. 271). — Smith. See Basqijet. Instances of such drinking-bouts are noticed in 1 Sam. xxv, 3(); 2 Sam. xiii, 28; Esth. i, 7; Dan. V, 1 ; they are reprobated by the prophets (Isa. v, 11 ; Amos vi, ti). Somewhat akin to the muhteh of the Hebrews was also the kumos (Kw/iaQ) of the apostolic age, in which gross licentiousness was added to drinking, and which is frequently made the subject of warning in the Epistles (Kom. xiii, 13; Gal. v, 21; Eph. v, 18; 1 Pet. iv, 3). See Dkink.
Super-altar, a term given— 1. To a portable altar, placed on the altar itself at the time of the celebration of the Christian eucharist, or set up separately. Hincmar (867) allowed the use of a consecrated slate, marble, or a black stone slab, probably owing to the needs of the Crusaders and the deliciency of churches. It was large enough to contain the chalice and host. See Altar, PoKTABLE. 2. Ordinarily and commonly this term is applied to the ledge behind the altar, on which relics, tlowers, candlesticks, and the altar-cross stand. It is very frequently so applied in the ancient Church of England.
Superannuated Preach?:rs are ministers in the Methodist churches who, by reason of age, infirmity, or afflictions, are disabled from preaching, but remain members of the Annual Conferences. In the Amer- ican churches they retain all the rights and privileges of active ministers except being eligible to appoint- ments. In the English Wesleyan Church, if members of the Legal Hundred or Constitutional Conference, they cease to be members of that body. Their restora- tion to the effective relation depends upon the vote of the Conference.
I. Rights, etc. — \Yhen a superannuated preacher lives out of the bounds of his Conference, he is entitled to a seat in the Quarterly Conference, and the privileges of membership in the Church where he resides. He is en- titled, if needy, to receive a share of the proceeds of the collection taken in the churches for Conference claim- ants, and of the chartered fund. Each Quarterly Con- ference is directed to estimate the amount needed for the support of these preachers or their widows, and for- ward a certificate to the Annual Conference. The case is considered by the Conference stewards, and on their report the amount to be distributed is decided by the vote of the Conference.
II. Duties, etc. — It is the duty of the superannuated preacher to forward amnially to the Conference of which he is a member a certificate of his Christian and minis- terial character, signed by the presiding elder of the district or tiie preacher in charge of the work where he resides. Without such certificate he has no claims on the Conference for support.
In 1876 there were in the Methodist Episcopal Church 1103 superannuated preachers. The Methodist Episco- pal Church, South, in 1875, reported 259. See Discipline of the M. E. Church ; Simpson, Cyclop, of Methodism, s. V.
Superattendens. The Greek word (TrimcoTroc, episcopus, has always been retained in the Church to denote the chief minister in sacred things. It was sometimes translated bj' Latin writers into superatten- dens, i. e. superintendent. See Bishop.
Superbia, the Roman personified /)?-jWe, a daughter of jEther and Earth.
Supererogation {opus supererogationis). The distinct ion bet ween yi/'an/j^a and cousiliu evanyelica, or between tlie imsitive duties enjoined by the law and the moral requirements of the Gospel, which the faithful are at liberty to comply with or not, referring chiefly to 1 Cor. vii, 6, and treated in the Catechism. Roman, iii, 3, 24, is of very ancient origin. Scholastic theology in- sisted most particularly on that distinction, and estab- lished it in the form in wliich it has since been held by all orthodox Komau Catholics. If the observance of the obligatory conmiandments constitutes all the du- ties of man, then liis undertaking to accomplish the non-obligatory coiisilia may be looked upon as a sort of traffic, the object of which is to gain by this accomplish- ment a certain degree of merit. We acquire by it a sort of surplus, and this is what is designated as ojnts super- erogationis. This doctrine of supererogatorj- merits is not syinliolical, for the Council of Trent does not express itself on that ponit. On the other hand, the principle that the righteous may fully satisfy the divine \a.\w jno hnjus vitce statu by works done in God is fully established by Cone. Trid. Sess. vi, can. 16. This is also the case with the other principle," Si quisdixerit, hominisjusti- ficati bona opera ita esse dona Dei, ut non sint etiam bona ipsius justificati merita, aut ipsum justiticatmn bonis operibus . . . non vere mereri augmentum gratia?, vitam »teniam et ipsius vita3 ieterna; . . . consecutionem atque etiam glorite augmentum ; anathema sit" (Sess. vi, can. 32). Einally, the symbolic books of the Roman Cath- olic Church recognise also the voluntary assumption of the vows of obedience, poverty and chastity (Sess. xxv, can. 1), of which Bellarmine {De Monachis, c. viii) says they are " nee prwcepta nee indifferentia, sed Deo grata et ab illo commendata." If a satisfactory fulfilment of the law is possible, if good works constitute a desert, then the scholastic notion of the opera superei-ogativa becomes a natural conseciuence. This doctrine, in short, is the result of the system. It is the natural conse- quence of that conception of the law in relation to the justification of man. It is supported by tradition from the time of Alexander of Hales (Sunmia, pt. iv, qu. 23, a. 2, m. 3 ; Albertus IMagnus, Sent, iv, dist. 20, a. 16, 17 ; Thomas Acininas, Suppl. tert. iiSLTt.Siimmm Theol. qu. 13, a. 1), and has not only never been denied, but always asserted and defended against all attacks by the most eminent theologians of the Roman Catholic Church. The assertion " ut unus posset pro altero satisfacere," in the Catech. Rom., can only be explained in view of that doctrine. If we now inquire further into its con- sequences, as attempted by more modern theologians, Mohler, for instance {Neue Untersuchunfjen, 2d ed. p. 305 sq.), we find an inextricable confusion in the conception of the law. Mohler starts from the admission that the moral law, as the absolute will of God, and the unity of the human will with the divine by love, which it re- quires, cannot be sur])assed. Yet his conception of the law is erroneous and a mere abstraction, for, on the one hand, he considers it as without limits, infinite ; and, on the other, as resolving itself into a number of separate commandments, each of which constitutes a duty. Thus considered, no one can do more than the law requires, though any one can do more than is required by the separate commandments taken individually. From the moment that by his entering into communion with Christ love becomes the ruling principle of a man's life, he has absolutely fulfilled the moral law. Regeneration being presupposed, there are yet different degrees in the effects of love, and these degrees are not regulated by any law. Hence every one may accomplish certain du- ties as if they were not duties for him, thus overstep- ping the common limits of duty and attaining to a high- er degree of perfection. According to this argumenta- tion, the moral law would constitute, so to speak, an imaginary quantity, consisting, on the one hand, in the complete body of the divine commandments, and, on the other, in a number of imputations separate from these commandments, and very difficult to define particular-