**APOSTOLICAL**, something that relates to the apostles, or descends from them. Thus we say, the apostolical age, apostolical doctrine, apostolical character, constitutions, traditions, &c.

in the primitive church, was an appellation given to all such churches as were founded by the apostles; and even to the bishops of those churches, as being the reputed successors of the apostles.—These were confined to four, viz. Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. In after-times, other churches assumed the same quality, on account, principally, of the conformity of their doctrine with that of the churches which were apostolical by foundation, because all bishops held themselves successors of the apostles, or acted in their dioceses with the authority of apostles.

The first time the term apostolical is attributed to bishops, as such, is in a letter of Clovis to the council of Orleans, held in 511, though that king does not there expressly denominate them apostolical, but (apostolica fide dignissimi) highly worthy of the apostolical see. In 581, Guntram calls the bishops, met at the council of Mazon, apostolical pontiffs, apostolici pontifices.

In progress of time, the bishop of Rome growing in power above the rest, and the three patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, falling into the hands of the Saracens, the title apostolical was restrained to the pope and his church alone. Though some of the popes, and St Gregory the Great, not contented to hold the title by this tenure, began, at length, to insist, that it belonged to them by another and peculiar right, as being the successors of St Peter. The country of Rheims in 1049 declared that the pope was the sole apostolical primate of the universal church. And hence a great number of apostolicals; apostolical see, apostolical nuncio, apostolical notary, apostolical brief, apostolical chamber, apostolical vicar, &c.

**APOSTOLICAL Constitutions.** See Constitution.

**APOSTOLICAL Traditions.** See Tradition.

**APOSTOLICAL Fathers** is an appellation usually given to the writers of the first century who employed their pens in the cause of Christianity. Of these writers, Celsus, and after him Le Clerc, have published a collection in two volumes, accompanied both with their own annotations and the remarks of other learned men.

**APOSTOLIANS**, a sect of the Mennonites, which first sprang up in the year 1664, and derived its name from Apostle, one of the Mennonite ministers at Amsterdam. They concurred with them in doctrine, and admitted to their communion those only who professed to believe all the sentiments which are contained in their public confession of faith.

**APOTACTICI**, or **APOTACTIC**, was a name assumed by three different sects, on account of their pretending to imitate the manner and practice of the apostles. The first apostolici, otherwise called Apotactici and Apotactic, rose out of the Encratites, and Cathari, in the third century. They made profession of abstaining from marriage, and the use of wine, flesh, money, &c.

Gerhard Sagarelli was the founder of the second Apostolict; he obliged his followers to go from place to place as the apostles did, to wander about cloathed in white, with long beards, dishevelled hair, and bare heads, accompanied with women, whom they called their spiritual sisters. They likewise renounced all kinds of property and possessions, inveighed against the growing corruption of the church of Rome, predicted its overthrow, and the establishment of a purer church on its ruins. Sagarelli was burnt alive at Parma in the year 1300, and was afterwards succeeded by Dulcinus, who added to the character of an apostle those of a prophet and a general, and carried on a bloody and dreadful war for the space of more than two years against Raynerius, bishop of Vercelli; he was at length defeated, and put to death in a barbarous manner in the year 1377. Nevertheless, this sect subsisted in France, Germany, and in other countries, till the beginning of the fifteenth century, when it was totally extirpated under the pontificate of Boniface IX.

The other branch of apostolici were of the twelfth century. These also condemned marriage, preferring celibacy, and calling themselves the chastest brethren and sisters; though each was allowed a spiritual sister, with whom he lived in a domestic relation; and on this account they have been charged with concubinage; they held it unlawful to take an oath; they set aside the use of baptism; and in many things imitated the Manichees. Bernard wrote against this sect of apostolici.

**APOTACTICUM** is a peculiar name given to a kind of song or hymn, anciently used in churches. The apostolicum is mentioned by Greg. Thaumaturgus as used in his time. Vossius understands it as spoken of the apostles creed: Suicer thinks this impossible, for that this creed was then unknown in the churches of the east.

**APOTROPHE**, in rhetoric, a figure by which a person who is either absent or dead is addressed as if he were present, and attentive to us. This figure is, in boldness, a degree lower than the address to personified objects (see Personification); since it requires a less effort of imagination to suppose persons present who are dead or absent, than to animate invisible beings and direct our discourse to them. The poems of Ossian abound with the most beautiful instances of this figure. "Weep on the rocks of roaring winds, O Maid of Inisfure! Bend thy fair head over the waves, thou fairer than the ghost of the hills when it moves in a sun-beam, at noon over the silence of Morven! He is fallen! Thy youth is low; pale beneath the sword of Cuchullin!"

**APOTROPHE**, in grammar, the contraction of a word by the use of a comma: as call'd for called, tho' for though.