RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES, associations for the pro- motion of personal piety established anion-- mem- ber- of the Church of England about 1678, and which existed until the rise of the Methodist They began with a few young men who had been impressed bj the preaching of Dr. Horneck, preacher at the Savoy, and of Mr. Smithies, lecturer at St. Michael's, Cornhill. The organization was somewhat similar to the societies of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris, or like those of the Col- iiid other pietistic communities in Holland and Germany. The members met once a week for religious
ci and devoti the meetings being conducted
with singing, Scripture reading and exposition, and with special preparation for the holy communion. Tin \ added also practical works of Charity, the establishment
and maintenance of schools, the visitation of the pom. find support of missions in America. They were closelj 1 • ith the Society for the Reformation of Man- ners, established in 1691, and efficient allies to the So- Promotion of Christian Knowledge. That
at ( Klord was joined by John and Charles Wc-ley. and by George Whitefield. One of the last of the annual
meetings of the London religious societies was held al Bow Church in 1738. See Woodward, Rise <//»/ Prog- ress of Religious Societies; Nelson, Address i<< Persons of Quality; id. Festivals and Fasts i Preface I; Blunt, Hist, of Sects, etc. s.v.
Reliquary, a vessel for holding relics, and enclos- ing, in the loth centUTJ . three -rains of incense in honor obeyed and Buffered in their own persons; and upon this
Ancient Portable Reliqnai ies.
he Holy Trinity. It usually took the form of the :j.,".' building in which it was kept, as at the Sainte-( lhapelle in Paris and Nivelles at the end of that century. In the 14th century cathedrals adopted for their reliqua- ries the form of a church, while in chapels and parish churches preference was given to images of gold and silver. Sometimes they take the shape of a coffer, or a transparent bier carried by ecclesiastics; a case-like cruet, a rose, a quatrcfoil, a canister in an angel's hand: horns, as at Canterbury; a triptych, like the triple en- trance of a church; a lantern tower and spin-, etc. In some cases the church bearing the name of a saint lias his monument, but in other cases the relics only were preserved in portable shrines. Sometimes the reliquary took the form of some popular saint, a chest, or an altar. At Chichester the relic-chest of St. Richard is of oak, contains a door which was opened when the relics were exposed, and a slit for the reception of offerings in the cross-bar below it. At first the reliquaries were portable, to form accessories of a procession. In 7 15, rdics and the cross v ere car- ried in the Eo- lation proces- sions in Eng- land. At Rome the •• thn e ri 1- ics";ue exhibit- ed on Good-Fri- day— the por- tion of the true CrOSS, the blade
ofthe spear that
pierce. 1 the l.'e- deemer's side.
and the veroni-
ca(q.v.). About
the beginning ofthe 13th century the reliquaries upon
tic altar took the form ofthe limb or bust, called a corset
(or corselet). They were arranged on great festivals on
the r I-beam or retable above the high-altar. See
Walcott, Sacred .1 rchaology, s. v.
Relly. See Ilia. i. yam 1 1 ~.
Rellyanites, or Ri i i\ w Ukivi rs u ists, the fol- lowers of Mr. .lames Kelly. I le lbs i commenced bis min- isterial character in connection with Mr. Whitefield, and was recen ed with great popularity. Upon a change of
his view s be encountered reproach, and w as pronounced
by many as an enemy to godliness, lb- believed that
Chrisi as a Mediator was s,. united to mankind that his actions were theirs, his obedience and Sufferings theirs, and. consequently, that be has as fully restored the w hot.' human race l.. the divine favor as if all had
Modern stationary Reliqtia
RELY
1035
REMIGIUS
persuasion he preached a finished salvation, called by the apostle Jude " the common salvation." The Rellyanites are not observers of ordinances such as water baptism and the sacrament, but profess to believe only in one bap- tism, which they call an immersion of the mind or con- science into truth by the teaching of the Spirit of God ; and by the same Spirit they are enabled to feed on Christ as the bread of life, professing that in and with Jesus they possess all things. They inculcate and main- tain good works for necessary purposes, but contend that the principal and only work which ought to be attended to is the doing real good without religious ostentation; that to relieve the miseries and distresses of mankind according to our ability is doing more real good than the superstitious observance of religious ceremonies. In general they appear to believe that there will be a res- urrection to life and a resurrection to condemnation: that believers only will be among the former, who as first-fruits, and kings and priests, will have part in the first resurrection, and shall reign with Christ in his kingdom of the millennium; that unbelievers who are after raised must wait the manifestation of the Saviour of the world under that condemnation of conscience which a mind in darkness and wrath must necessarily feel; that believers, called kings and priests, will be made the medium of communication to their condemned brethren, who, like Joseph to his brethren, though he spoke roughly to them, in reality overflowed with affec- tion and tenderness; that ultimately every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that in the Lord they have righteousness and strength; and thus every en- emy shall be subdued to the kingdom and glory of the Great Mediator. Kelly was succeeded (in 1781) by an American preacher, Elhanan Winchester, who had been a Calvinistic Baptist, but the congregation in London was soon broken up. This movement by Kelly was the first attempt to consolidate a sect of which Universal- ism should be the leading tenet. A Mr. Murray belong- ing to this society emigrated to America, and preached these sentiments at Boston and elsewhere. Mr. Kelly published several works, the principal of which are, Union: — The Trial of Spirits: — Christian Liberty:— One Baptism: — The Salt of Sacrifice : — Antichrist In- sisted:— Letters on Universal Salvation: — The Cheru- bimical Mystery. See Universalists.