ACTA SENATUS, among the Romans, were minutes of what passed and was debated in the senate house. These were also called Commentarii, and by a Greek name ἱερουμανία. They had their origin in the consulship of Julius Cæsar, who ordered them both to be kept and published. The keeping them was continued under Augustus, but the publication was abrogated. Afterwards all writings, relating to the decrees or sentences of the judges, or what passed and was done before them, or by their authority, in any cause, were also called by the name Acta: In which sense we read of civil acts, criminal acts, intervenient acts; acta civilia, criminalia, intervenientia, &c.
Public Acts. The knowledge of public acts forms part of a peculiar science, called the DIPLOMATIC, of great importance to a historian, statesman, chronologer, and even critic. The preservation of them was the first occasion of erecting libraries. The style of acts is generally barbarous Latin. Authors are divided as to the rules of judging of their genuineness, and even whether there be any certain rules at all. F. Germon will have the greater part of the acts of former ages to be spurious. Fontanini asserts, that the number of forged acts now extant, is very small. It is certain there were severe punishments inflicted on the forgers and falsifiers of acts.—The chief of the English acts, or public records, are published by Rymer, under the title of Federa, and continued by Saunderson; an extract whereof has been given in French by Rapin, and translated into English under the title of Acta Regia. Great commendations have been given this work: also some exceptions made to it; as that there are many spurious acts, as well as errors, in it; some have even charged it with falsifications.—The public acts of France fell into the hands of the English after the battle of Poictiers, and are commonly said to have been carried by them out of the country. But the tradition is not supported by any sufficient testimony.
Acts of the Apostles, one of the sacred books of the New Testament, containing the history of the infant church, during the space of 29 or 30 years from the ascension of our Lord to the year of Christ 63.—It was written by St Luke; and addressed to Theophilus, the person to whom the evangelist had before dedicated his Gospel. We here find the accomplishment of several of
the promises made by our Saviour; his ascension; the descent of the Holy Ghost; the first preaching of the apostles, and the miracles whereby their doctrines were confirmed; an admirable picture of the manners of the primitive Christians; and, in short, every thing that passed in the church till the dispersion of the apostles, who separated themselves in order to propagate the gospel throughout the world. From the period of that separation, St Luke quits the history of the other apostles, who were then at too great a distance from him, and confines himself more particularly to that of St Paul, who had chosen him for the companion of his labours. He follows that apostle in all his missions, and even to Rome itself; for it appears that the Acts were published in the second year of St Paul's residence in that city, or the 36th year of the Christian era, and in the 9th or 10th year of Nero's reign. The style of this work, which was originally composed in Greek, is much purer than that of the other canonical writers; and it is observable, that St Luke, who was much better acquainted with the Greek than with the Hebrew language, always, in his quotations from the Old Testament, makes use of the Septuagint version. The council of Laodicea places the Acts of the Apostles among the canonical books, and all the churches have acknowledged it as such without any controversy.
There were several Spurious Acts of the APOSTLES; particularly, 1. Acts, supposed to be written by Abdias*, the pretended bishop of Babylon, who gave out that he was ordained bishop by the apostles themselves when they were upon their journey into Persia. 2. The Acts of St Peter: this book came originally from the school of the Ebionites. 3. The Acts of St Paul; which is entirely lost. Eusebius, who had seen it, pronounces it of no authority. 4. The Acts of St John the Evangelist; a book made use of by the Enkratites, Manicheans, and Priscillianists. 5. The Acts of St Andrew; received by the Manicheans, Enkratites, and Apotactics. 6. The Acts of St Thomas the Apostle; received particularly by the Manicheans. 7. The Acts of St Philip. This book the Gnostics made use of. 8. The Acts of St Matthias. Some have imagined that the Jews for a long time had concealed the original acts of the life and death of St Matthias written in Hebrew; and that a monk of the abbey of St Matthias at Treves, having got them out of their hands, procured them to be translated into Latin, and published them; but the critics will not allow them to be authentic.
Acts of Pilate; a relation sent by Pilate to the emperor Tiberius, concerning Jesus Christ, his death, resurrection, ascension, and the crimes of which he was convicted before him†. It was a custom among the Romans, that the proconsuls and governors of provinces should draw up acts, or memoirs, of what happened in the course of their government, and send them to the emperor and senate. The genuine Acts of Pilate were sent by him to Tiberius, who reported them to the senate; but they were rejected by that assembly, because not immediately addressed to them: as is testified by Tertullian, in his Apol. cap. 5. and 20, 21. The heretics forged acts in imitation of them: in the reign of the emperor Maximin, the Gentiles, to throw an odium on the Christian name, spread about spurious Acts of Pilate: which the emperor, by a solemn edict, ordered
ordered to be sent into all the provinces of the empire, and enjoined the schoolmasters to teach and explain them to their scholars, and make them learn them by heart. These acts, both the genuine and the spurious, are lost. There is indeed extant, in the Pseudo-Hege-sippus, a letter from Pilate to the emperor Claudius, concerning Jesus Christ *; but it discovers itself at first sight not to be authentic.
ACT of Parliament is a positive law, consisting of two parts, the words of the act, and its true sense and meaning; which being joined, make the law. The words of acts of parliament should be taken in a lawful sense. Cases of the same nature are within the intention, though without the letter, of the act: and some acts extend by equity to things not mentioned therein. See PARLIAMENT.