Terms, in Iiuc, are the periods in England when the courts of law hold their sittings at Westminster for the discharge of their judicial functions. There are four in every year, namely, Hilary term, Easter term. Trinity term, and Michaelmas term ; but the last of these is usually at the commencement of the legal year. They were supposed by Selden to have been established by William the Conqueror ; but Sjielman has sliown that they originated in the observances of the Church, and were no more than those leisure periods when there was neither fast nor festival nor rural avocation to withhold the suitor from attending the court. At first the courts in Christian countries continued open all the year round, but the Cliurch interposed. The sacred sea- son of Advent and Christmas originated the winter va- cation ; the time of Lent and Easter gave rise to that of the spring; the tliird we owe to Pentecost; and the requisitions of agricultural pursuits account for the long space that intervenes between Midsummer and Michael- mas. Sundays and other holydays were includetl in the prohibition which, in 517, was established b}"^ a can- on of the Church, and, says Blackstone, fottitied by an imperial constitution of the younger Theodosius, com- prised in the Theodosian Code. In the commencement and durati<in of these terms, these regulations of the Church were kept in view. Edward the Confessor, in one of his laws, says that from Advent to the octave of Epiphany, from Septuagesima to the octave of Eas- ter, from the Ascension to the octave of Pentecost, and from four in the afternoon of every Saturday until the end of the succeeding Monday, the peace of God and holy Church should be kept throughout the realm {An- cient Laws and Institutions of Ewiland, p. 190). We learn from Britton that in the reign of Edward I no secular plea coukl be held, nor any man sworn on the evangelists during Advent, Lent, I'entecost, or the times of harvest and vintage, and the days of the great litanies and all solemn festivals. The bishops, how- ever, he adds, granted dispensations that assizes and juries might be taken at these seasons; and afterwards, by statute Westminster 1, 3 Edward I, c. 51, it was enacted that assizes of novel disseisin mort d'ancester and darrein presentment should be taken in Advent, Septuagesima, and Lent, The portions not included in the prohibitions became what are called terms, and were denominated according to the saint to whose feast they occurred most nearly. — Eadie, Eccles. Cyclop, s. v.
TERMS OF Communion, those conditions on which the members of a particular Church are agreed, and which are the basis of their fellowship. Terms of com- munion are not to be identified with terms of salvation :
nor should terms of lay communion be as comprehen- sive and theological as those of clerical fellowship.
Terrace (n'|DT3, mesilluli, 2 Chron. ix, 11 ; Sept. dvdliafTiQ ; a hiykway, as elsewhere usually rendered), a staircase, consiructed by Solomon for his edifices out of the algiim-trees imported from the East Indies. See Palace; Temtle.
Terrassoii, Andre, a French clergyman, and first of a literary family of considerable note in France, was born at Lyons in 1669, became a priest of the Oratory, preacher to the king, and afterwards preacher to the court of Lorraine. His pulpit services were much ap- plauded, and attended by crowded congregations. His exertions during Lent in the metropolitan church at Paris threw liim into an illness from which he died, April 25, 1723. His Sermons were printed in 1726 (4 vols. 12mo) and 1736. See Chalmers, Bioy. Diet, s. v.; Hoefer, Nour. Biog. Generale, s. v.
Terrasson, Gaspard, brother of the preceding, was born at Lyons, Oct. 5, 1680, and was sent, at the age of eighteen, to the house of the Oratory at Paris. He resided afterwards in different houses of his order, chieflv at Troves, where he delivered a funeral oration for the dauphin, son of Louis XIV. For some time he employed himself in delivering exhortations in the seminaries, but after Andre's death be accepted solicita- tions to preach, and soon acquired a reputation superior to that of his brother. He preached in Paris during five years; but various circumstances, particularly his attachment to the Jansenists, obliged him to leave both the Congregaticni of the Oratory and the pulpit at the same time. He was appointed curate of Treigny in 1735; but, persecution still following liim, he was sent to the Bastile, which he left in 1744 to be confined with the Minims at Argenteuil. He was at length set at lib- erty, and died in Paris, Jan. 2, 1752, leaving Sermons (4 vols. 12mo), and an anonymous book, Lettres sur la Justice C/n-etienne, which was censured by tlie Sorbonne. See Chalmers, Biog. Diet. s. v.
Terrasson, Jean, brother of the two preceding, was born at Lyons in 1670, where he also studied, antl entered the Oratory. lit 1707 he was admitted into the Academy of Sciences, and he entered into the liter- ary discussions of the day. In 1721 he became profess- or of philosophy in the College of France, and in 1732 he was made a member of the French Academy. To- wards the end of his life he lost his memorj'. He dietl in Paris, Sept. 15, 1750. He published a number of liistorical works. See Iloefer, Nour, Bioy. Generale, s. v.