RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Con Stan tinopdlitan Creod Conversion
had changed, and Coiitarini was compelled to follow his leader. He advised the emperor, after the conference had broken up, not to renew it, but to submit everything to the pope. In a second decision he is even more ultramontane. It is not difficult to reconcile this course of action with his character, for from the beginning Luther repelled him as did the popular movement in Germany. He lived in the belief that a reformation should begin at the head, and his birth, education, and diplomatic career made him view the question rather from the point of polity than of doctrine, and consequently he was willing to mediate here. But the negative side, which had produced the schism, remained unintelligible to him, he could concede only the marriage of the clergy and communion in both elements. Meanwhile Rome had drifted further into reaction, and he died while legate at Bologna, at a time when the Inquisition had driven many of his friends and fellows in conviction into exile. He was happily spared a decision which perhaps would have been too hard for him, and so he could leave behind him the character of a man who
knew the truth and willed the good. ^ ^
(T. Brieger.)
Bibliography: The two earlier lives are the Vita Covtarivi by Giovanni della Casa, in Vitce selectorum aliquot virorum, pp. 154-186, London, 1704, and L. Beccadilli, Vita del Cardinale G. Contarini, latest issue, Venice, 1S27. Consult: T. Brieger, G. Contarini und das Regenshurger Concordienwerk des Jahres 15U1, Gotha, 1870; Die Correspondenz des . . Contarini IShl, ed. L. Pastor,
Miinster, 1880; F. Dittrich, Regesten und Briefe des Contarini, ll,S3~15US, Braunsberg, 1881; idem, Gasparo Contarini, eine Monographie, ib. 1885; Ranke, Popes, i. Ill- 128, 150, iii., no. 18.
CONVENTICLE (Lat. conventiculum): In the primitive church any meeting for the sake of religious worship; since the time of Charles II., applied in English only to the meetings of the dissenters from the Church of England.
CONVENTICLE ACT: An act passed by the Cavalier ParHament of Charles II. in 1664, reenacted with less severity in 1670, and repealed by the Toleration Act of 1689. By its provisions the attendance of more than five persons outside of one family at meetings for religious rites other than those of the EstabHshed Church was punished by three months' imprisonment for the first offense, six months for the second, and for the third the alternative of transportation to the American plantations for seven years, under pain of death for a return before the expiration of that period, or a fine of a hundred pounds. Elizabeth had passed a similar act in 1593; but that of 1664 was more significant and more burdensome, as part of the systematic repression of non-conformity sometimes known as the Clarendon Code, including also the Corporation, Uniformity, and Five Mile Acts (qq.v. ; 1661-65), which broke forever the pretensions of Puritam'sm to political supremacy and confined Its sphere to the middle and lower classes. These acts were administered with cruel zeal, the justices of the peace, restored Cavalier squires, being bitter foes of dissent
Bibliography: The text of the Second Conventicle Act (1670) is given in Gee and Hardy, Documents, pp. 623- 632. Consult D. Neal, History of the Puritans, part iv., chaps. 7-8, Am. ed., ii. 251 sqq., New York, 1844.
CONVERSE, JAMES BOOTH: Presbyterian; b. at Philadelphia Apr. 8, 1844. He was graduated at Princeton (B.A., 1865) and Union Theological Seminaiy, Va. (1869), and was pastor 1869- 1S71 and editor of the Christian Observer 1872-79. He then returned to the active ministry and was an evangelist for two years, after which he held a regular charge until 1887, again Ijecoming an evangelist in 1888, while from 1890 to 1895 he was editor of the Christian Patriot (Morristown, Tenn.). In theology he is a Calvinistic Presbyterian, and also holds that the teachings of the Mosaic law upon economic problems were intended and are sufficient to banish poverty from the earth. He advocates the doctrine that the authority of Christ and the Bible should be recognized by all patriots and Christians as supreme in civil affairs. He has written A Summer Vacation Abroad (Louisville, Ky., 1878); The Bible and Land (a single-tax book; Morristown, Tenn., 1889); and Uncle Sam's Bible, or, Bible Teachings about Politics (Chicago, 1899).