Vouillemont, Sebastien, a French engraver, was born at Bar-sur-Aube about 1620. He studied at Paris under Daniel Rabel, and then went to Kome, where he resided several years. He engraved several plates from the Italian and French masters, as well as from his own designs. Among the best of these are the following : The Murder of the Innocents: — Christ with his JJiseiples at Einmaus : — Mount Pai-nassus, all after Kaphael : — The Holy Fa tnily, after Poussin : — The Virgin and Infant Chiist, after Parmigiano: — and The Marriage of St. Catherine, after Albano. See Spooner, Biog. Hist, of the Fine A rts, s. v.
Voussoir, a name adopted from the French for the wedge-shaped stones (or other material) with which an arch is constructed, as marked in the engraving (/, a, a ; the upper one, namely, b, at the crown of the arch, is termed the key-stone. The lowest voussoir, or that which is placed immediately above the impost, is termed the springing- stone, or spi-inger. — Par- ker, Gloss, of Architect,
8. V.
Voussure, a French term, sometimes found in Eng- glish manuscripts, signifying a vault.
Vow ("'^.3, neder, a technical word for the idea ; Ei'Xrif " prayer, as sometimes rendered) defined as a re- ligious undertaking, either, 1. Positive, to do or perform ; or, 2. Negative, to abstain from doing or performing a certain thing. Vows rest on a human view of religious obligations, assuming, as they do, that a kind of recom- pense is to be made to God for good enjoyed, or consid- eration oft'ered for good desiderated, or a gratuity pre- sented to buy off an impending or threatened ill. They were quite in place in a system of religion which so largely consisted of doing or not doing certain outward acts, with a view of pleasing .Jehovah and gaining his favor. The Israelite, who had been taught by perform- ances of daily recurrence to consider particular ceremo- nies as essential to his possessing the divine favor, may easih' have been led to the conviction which existed probably in the primitive ages of the world, that volun- tar)- oblations and self-imposed sacrifices had a special
Voussoirs.
vow
817
VOW
value in the sight of God. When once this conviction had led to corresponding practice, it could not be other- wise than of the highest consequence that these sacred promises, which in sanctity ditfered little from oaths, should be religiousl}' and scrupulously observed. Be- fore a vow is taken there may be strong reasons why it should not be made; but when it is once assumed, a new obligation is contracted, which has the greater force because of its voluntary nature : a new element is introduced, which strongly retiuires the observance of the vow, if the bonds of morality are not to be seriously relaxed. For example, a person may be of opinion that total abstinence is in itself not a virtue nor of general obligation, but he cannot doubt that " breaking the pledge," when once taken, is an act of immorality that cannot be repeated without undermining the verj' foun- dations of character; whence it obviously appears that caution should be observed, not only in keeping, but also in leading men to make, pledges, vows, and promises.
The practice of making vows, i. e. incurring volun- tavy obligations to the Deity, on fidtihncnt of certain conditions, such as deliverance from death or danger, success in enterprises, and the like, is of extremely an- cient date, and common in all systems of religion. The earliest mention of a vow is that of Jacob, who, after his vision at Beth-el, promised that in case of his safe return he would dedicate to Jehovah the tenth of his goods, and make the place in which he had set up the memorial stone a place of worship ((icn. xxviii, 18-22; xxxi, 13). Vows in general are also mentinued in the Book of Job (xxii,27). With great propriety the per- formance of these voluntary undertakings was accoimt- ed by the Hebrews a highly religious duty (Judg. xi, 35; Eccles. v, 4, 5). The words of the last text are too emphatic, and in the present day too important, not to be cited: "Better is it that thou shoiddest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay" (comp. Psa. Ixvi, 13 sq. ; Ixxvi, 11 ; cxvi, 18).
Among instances of heathen usage in this respect the following passages may be cited : Jer. xliv, 25, and Jo- nah i. li); Homer, Il.'i, 64, 93; vi, 93, 308; Odi/ss. iii, 382; Xenoph. A tiab. in. 2, 12; Virgil, Geo?/;, i, 436 ; ^Hn. v, 234 ; Horace, Carm. i, 5, 13 ; iii,'29, 59 ; Livy, xxii, 9, 10; Cicero, ,4/^ viii, 16 ; Justin, xxi, 3 — a passage which speaks of immoral vows; Veil. Pat. ii, 48.
I. Jewish Vows. — The law, therefore, did not intro- duce, but regulated the practice of vows. The views which guided the Mosaic legislation were not dissimi- lar to those just expounded. Like a wise lawgiver, Moses, in this and other particulars, did not attempt to sunder the line of continuity between the past and the present. He found vows in practice; he aimed to reg- ulate what it ^vould have been folly to try to root out (Deut. xxiii, 21 sq.). The words in ver. 22 are clearh- in agreement with our remarks: "If thou shalt forbear to vow, it shall be no sin in thee" (see .4 w. Fresh. Rev. July, 1867). The Bible speaks of three kinds of vows, for each of which the Heb. has a distinctive term : namelj', vows of devotion in general (Tl.3, neder, prop- erly so called) ; vows of abstinence ("lOX, esur, or "ISX. issdr, Numb. xxx,3 sq.); and those of desti-nct tun (tl"in, ckerem, di'a^fjua). In the present article we confine our attention to vows of the first class oidy, referring the other two classes to Corb.vx and Axathe:\ia. (In the treatment of this part of the topic we chiefly follow the abstract of the Levitical statutes found in Smith, s. v.)