See, in addition to the monographs cited by Volbe- ding. Index Progi-ammatum, p. 81 ; and by Danz, Wur- terb. p. 567, Bagot, Thorn in the Flesh (Lond. 1840); Princeton Review, July, 1863. See Paul.
Thorn, Cojjference of, also known as " the Chari- table Conference'' (Colloquium Charitativum), was one of those efforts to explain away the differences between the several bodies of Christians, with a view to religious reunion, of which the 17th century furnishes more than one example. It was appointed in the city of Thorn, in October, 1645, by Ladislaus IV, at the suggestion of the Reformed preacher at Dantzic, Bartholomew Nigri- nus, who had become a Catholic, and persuaded the king that such a conference would be attended with good re- sults. At this all religious parties were to appear and confer together on religion, and come to an agreement. On the side of the Lutherans, some Saxon divines of Wittenberg, especially, were invited from Germany; for they were regarded as standing at the head of all the German theologians. The Konigsberg divines were accompanied and assisted by Calixtus of Brunswick, who had been invited by elector Frederick William. His con- duct and the question of precedence between the Kiinigs- berg and the Dantzic divines occupied the entire time of the conference, which broke up without an}' result, Nov. 21, 1645. The official account of the proceedings of the conference are printed in Calovius, Historia Syncretisti- ca. See also Schriickh, Kirchengeschichte seit der Refo?-- mation,\v, 509 ; Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. iii, 293, 359, 373, note.
Thorndike, Herbert, a learned English divine, was educated in Trinity College, Cambridge, and be- came proctor of that university in 1638. In July, 1642, he was admitted to the rectory of Barley, Hertford- shire; and in September, 1643, was elected master of Sidney College, Cambridge, but was prevented from oc- cupying that position, it being secured by a Mr. Min- shull. Later he was ejected from his living of Barley. At the Restoration he was replaced in this living, but resigned it on being made a prebendary of Westmin- ster. He died July, 1672. He assisted Dr. Walton in the edition of the Polyglot Bible, particularly in mark- ing the variations in the Syriac version of the Old Test.; and wrote several treatises : A Discourse concerning the Primitive Form of the Government of Churches (Camb. 1641, 8vo) : — A Discourse of Religious Assemblies and the Public Service of God (ibid. 1642, 8vo) : — ^ Dis- course of the Rights of the Church in a Christian State, X.— Bb
etc. (Lond. 1649, 8vo) : — Just Weights and Measures, i. e. the Present State of Religion weighed in the Balance, etc. (ibid. 1662, 4to) : — A' Discourse of the Forbearance of the Penalties, etc. (ibid. 1670, 8vo) : — Origines Kcclesice, etc. (ibid. 1670) : — also his famous book. An Epilogue to the Tragedy of the Church of England (ibid. 3 parts, 1670). See Chalmers, Biog. Diet. s. v.
Thorn-hedge (HDIDp, mesuhuh; for nsib^, or perhaps simply from the interlacing of the briers; Sept. Kavwv; Vulg. sepes), a hedge-row of thorny plants (Mic. vii,4). The formidable character of the thonn* thick- ets in Palestine is noted by almost every traveller. Near Jericho Mr. Tristram records as the principal tree "the Zizyphus spina Christi, growing twenty or thirty feet high, with its subangular branches studded with long, pointed, and rather reflex thorns — a true wait-a- bit tree. No one can approach it with impunity unless clad in leather; and in three days the whole party were in rags from passing through the thickets" (Land of Is- rael, p. 202). In the same way Messrs. Jl'Cheyne and Bonar mention how Dr. Keith was baffled in his at- tempt to climb a verdant-looking hill by "strong briers and thorns," through which he found it impossible to force a passage. They add, "Some time after, when sailing up the Bosphorus. conversing with a gentleman whom we had met in Palestine, who appeared to be a man of the world, we asked him if he had climbed Mount Tabor to obtain the delightful view from its summit. His answer was, ' No; why should I climb Mount Tabor to see a country of thorns ?' He was thus an unintentional wit- ness of the truth of God's Word" (Mission of Inquiry, p. 119). Such predictions as Isa. vii, 23, 24; xxxii, 12-15; Hos. ix, G. acquire additional force from the circumstance that it is so often in the midst of magnificent ruins — once pleasant " tabernacles" — or in regions which must formerly have been rich and fruitful fields, that these thorns and briers now maintain their undisputed and truculent empire. Thus, at Beth-nimrah, the traveller says, " The buildings may have been extensive, but the ruins are now shapeless, and generally choked by the prickly vegetation" (Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 522). Again, "We rode up the Ghor, through a maze of zizy- phus bush, which encumbers a soil of almost incredible richness ; watered every mile by some perennial brook, but without trace of inhabitant or cultivation. Now and then we saw a clump of palm-trees, the ruined heap of some old village, or a i)iece of a broken water-course, to tell us that once the hand of civilization was here. Myriads of turtle-doves peopled these thickets. We put them up absolutely by scores from every bush. The nests of the marsh-sparrow bore down the branch- es by their weight, and the chirping was literally deaf- ening. Tlie bushes and weeds were laden with seeds" (ibid. p. 570). In his last words king David compares the sons of Belial to " thorns tlirust away, because they cannot be taken with hands; but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear" (2 Sam. xxiii, 6, 7). A traveller tells how out of one of these bushes of 7iubk he tried to get a dove, which, when shot, had fallen into it; "but, though I had my gloves on, each attempt made my hand bleed and smart most painfully, as the thorns will not yield in the least. I failed in like manner when I tried to cut a stick" (Gadsby, Wanderings, ii, GO). When we remem- ber that a single thorn is sometimes a couple of inches long, "as shar|) as a pin and as hard as a bone,"' we can appreciate the force of the allusions in Numb, xxxiii, 55; Prov. xxvi, 9; Ezek. xxviii, 24; 2 Cor. xii, 7; and we can understand what a hopeless barrier was a " hedge of thorns" (Prov. xv. 19 ; Hos. ii, 6). The nubk; or zizy- ]]hus, is much usetl for fuel. Occurring everywhere, it is easily obtained; its slender twigs, intensely dr\-, flash up at once in a fierce, brilliant flame, and, although very different from the steady glow of 7-etem charcoal, " coals of juniper," a successive supply is sufficient to heat the kettle of the camping traveller. To its rapid ignition