CHARLES, SAINT, SISTERS OF CHARITY OF.
See Chahity, Sisters op.
CHARLES, THOMAS: Welsh Methodist; b. at Pantdwfn, near St. Clears (8 m. w.s.w. of Carmarthen), Carmarthenshire, Oct. 14, 1755; d. at Bala, Merionethshire, Oct. 5, 1814. He was educated under Methodist influences in Wales and at Jesus College, Oxford (1775-78; B.A., 1779), was ordained deacon and priest in the Church of England, and held a curacy in Somersetshire; but his opinions and style of preaching unfitted him for service as an English curate, and in 1783 he settled at Bala and soon became a leader of the Welsh Methodists. He made long preaching tours over all North Wales, instituted " circulating schools " and Simdayschools, and trained teachers at his own expense. The revival which began in 1791 and spread from Bala as a center was a direct result of his labors. He maintained close connections with the English Methodists and extended his efforts to Ireland in 1807. In 1802 he helped to found the British and Foreign Bible Society (see Bible Societies, I., 2). He wrote tracts and books in Welsh for the religious instruction of his countrymen, including a catechism, which in English translation was recommended by the Countess of Himtingdon for use in her chapels, and a " Scriptural Dictionary " in Welsh (4 vols., Bala, 1805-08) which went through seven editions. A printing-press which he established at Bala in 1803 issued more than 300,000 copies before his death.
Bibliography: Edward Morgan, Memoir of the Life and Labours of Thomas Charles, London, 1828; William Hughes, Life and Letters of Thomas Charles, Rhyl, 1881; Essays, Letters, and Interesting Papers of Thomas Charles, ed. E. Morgan, London, 1836.
CHARNOCK, STEPHEN: Puritan; b. in London 1628; d. there July 27, 1680. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, took his degree there, and became minister in Southwark; in 1649 he went to Oxford and became fellow of New College (1650) and proctor (M.A., 1652); went to Ireland with Henry Cromwell as chaplain (1655); returned to England soon after the death of Oliver
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Charles, Elizaljeth Chase, Irah
Cromwell, and lived for fifteen years in London in retirement and without regular charge; in 1675 he was appointed joint pastor with Thomas Watson of a Presbyterian congregation in Bishopsgate Street, London. He was a grave and impressive preacher and a man of fervent piety. His chief work was On the Existence and Attributes of God, published posthumously, ed. Richard Adams and Edward Veal (London, 1681; many subsequent editions; American ed., with biograpliical sketch by William Symington, 2 vols.. New York, 1874); there is an edition of his Works with memoir by Edward Parsons (9 vols., London, 1815), and another with introduction by James McCosh, in Nichol's Series of Standard Divines (5 vols., Edinburgh, 1864).
Bibliography: Notices additional to those mentioned in the text are A. k Wood, Athenm Oxonienses, ed. P. BHss, iii. 1234-36, 4 vols., London, 1813-20; DNB, x. 134- 135.
CHARRON, shar"reh', PIERRE: French Roman Catholic ecclesiastic and theologian; b. at Paris 1541 ; d. there Nov. 16, 1603. He studied law at Orleans and Bourges, and practised for several years, after which he entered the Church and soon became a pulpit orator of note. He preached for a number of years in various cities of southern France, and was finally appointed preacher to Queen Margaret. In liis forty-seventh year he returned to Paris and wished to enter a monastic order, but was rejected on account of his age. He then resumed his activity as a preacher, and in Bordeaux made the acquaintance of Montaigne. In 1594 he was appointed vicar-general by the bishop of Cahors, and in the following year was sent as a deputy to a convention of the French clergy, where he was so highly esteemed that he was chosen first secretary. Charron was the author of three works. The first of these was his Traite des trois vcriies, centre tous athees, idolatres, juifs, mahometans , hcretiques et schismatiques (Bordeaux, 1594), in which he maintained against the atheists that there is a God and a reUgion; against the pagans, Jews, and Mohammedans that the Christian religion alone is true; and against heretics and scliismatics that salvation can be found only in the Roman Catholic Church. He Kkewise wrote a collection of sixteen Discours Chretiens (1600), on the mass, the knowledge of God, salvation, and the communion of the saints. Still more famous was his Traite de la sagesse (1601; Eng. transl. by S. Lennard, London, 1612 [?]), in which he proceeded from the thesis that the true understanding of man consists in knowledge of himself and of the nature and limits of his powers, so that this wisdom should direct his inward and his outward life. Truth, on the other hand, can be found with God alone, and man is imable to gain it by himself. This agnostic tendency led Charron to express himself with such freedom concerning all positive religions, including Christianity, that the Jesuit Garasse branded him as an atheist. The Traite was accordingly expurgated by Jeannin for the edition of 1604, but in this form the book found few readers, and three years later the text was restored with Jeannin's notes. Shortly before his death Charron published a compendium
of his work with an apology mider the title Petit traite de la sagesse (Paris, 1606). (C. Pfender.)
Bibliography: The works, with a Life by M. de la Roche- Jlaillet, were published, Paris, 1635. Consult: C. A. Sainte-Beuve, Causeries de Lundi, vol. xi., 4th ed., 16 vols., Paris, 1882-85.
CHARTERIS, ARCHIBALD HAMILTON: Church of Scotland; b. at Wamphray (15 m. n.e. of Dumfries), Dumfriessliire, Dec. 13, 1835. He studied at Edinburgh (B.A., 1853), Tubingen (1870) and Bonn (1871); d. at Edinburgh Apr. 24, 1908. He was minister of St. Quivox, Ayrshire (1858-59), New Abbey, Dumfriesshire (1859-63), and The Park Parish, Edinburgh (1863-68). From 1868 to 1898 he was professor of Bibhcal criticism in Edinburgh University. He was chairman of the General Assembly's Committee on Christian Life and Work, 1869-94, and was instrumental in establishing the Young Men's Guild, the Woman's Guild, and the Deaconesses' Hospital, and in reviving the order of deaconesses as a part of the organization of the Church of Scotland. He was appointed a chaplain to the queen in 1869, and was moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1892. From 1901 to 1908 he was chaplain in ordinary to the king in Scotland. In theology he was a conservative. He has written Life of Professor James Robertson (Edinburgh, 1863); Canonicity : A Collection of Early Testimonies to the Canonical Books of the New Testament (London, 1880); The New Testament Scriptures (1888); and The Church of Christ (1905).
CHASE, FREDERIC HENRY: Anglican bishop of Ely; b. in London Feb. 21, 1853; studied at Christ's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1876); was curate of Sherborne, Dorset (1876-79), and of St. Michael's, Cambridge (1879-84). He was tutor of the Clergy Training School, Cambridge, from 1884 to 1887, and its principal from 1887 to 1901, and was lecturer in theology in Pembroke College, Cambridge, from 1881 to 1890, and in Christ's College from 1893 to 1901, as well as examining chaplain to the archbishop of York in 1894-1905. He was Hulsean lecturer in 1900, and was Norrisian professor of divinity in Cambridge University and president of Queen's College, Cambridge, from 1901 to 1905, as well as vice-chancellor of the university from 1902 to 1904. In 1905 he was consecrated bishop of Ely. He has written Chrysostom (London, 1887); The Old Syriac Element in the Text of Codex Besm (1893); The Lord's Prayer in the Early Church (Cambridge, 1891); The Syro- Latin Text of the Gospels (London, 1895); Credibility of the Book of Acts (Hulsean lectures for 1900- 1901; 1902); and The Gospels in the Light of Historical Criticism (1905). He also edited F J. A. Hort's Commentary on I Peter (London, 1898).
CHASE, IRAH: T^merican Baptist; b. at Stratton, Vt., Oct. 5, 1793; d. at Newton Center, Mass., Nov. 1, 1864. He was graduated at Middlebury College,' Vt., 1814, and Andover 1817; he was ordained 1817, and preached for a year as missionary in Virginia; in 1818 he became professor of languages and Bibhcal Uterature in the first Baptist theological school in the country, then at Phila-
Chasldlm Chastity