trin1tarIan

& s. [Eng. trin it(y); -arian.] A. As adjective: 1. Ord. Lang .: Of or pertaining to the Trinity or to the doctrine of the Trinity. 2. Church Hist .: Of or belonging to the order of Trinitarians. "At the di olution, there were eleven Trinitarian houses in England, five in Scotland, and one in Ireland." -Addis & Arnold: Cath. Dict . , p. 810. IMG:content-1453.jpg:[blocks in formation] "If the trinitarian be still farther urged to shew in what way this divine equality exists-how far it is an equality-or, if not, what degrees exist of superiority or inferiority, he answers with St. Paul, that God was mani fest in the flesh; but that without controversy, great is the mystery of godline ." - Gilpin: Sermons, vol. ii., hint 90. 2. Church Hist . ( pl . ) : An order of monks founded at Rome in 1198 by St. John of Matha, a native of Provence, and an old French hermit, Felix of Valois, to redeem Christian captives out of the hands of the infidels. The order was sanctioned by Innocent III.; the rule was that of St. Austin, with particular statutes; the diet was of great austerity; and the habit, at least in France, was a soutane and scapular of white serge, with a red and blue cro on the right breast. At one time the order po e ed 250 houses, and it was estimated in the seventeenth century that, since its foundation, it had been instrumental in rescuing more than 30,000 Christian captives from what was practically slav ery. A reform took place in 1599, and resulted in the erection of the congregation of Discalced Trinitarians in Spain, in which country the order (reformed and unreformed) was suppre ed in the reign of Isabella II. trin-i-tär-I-an-ism, subst. [Eng. trinitarian: suff. -ism.] The doctrine of Trinitarians. [TRINITY II. 1.] tri-ni-tro-çěl-lu-lōse, s. [Pref. tri-; nitro-, and Eng. cellulose.] [GUN-COTTON.] trin-1-ty, *trin-1-tee, s . [Fr. trin ité , from Lat. trinitatem , acc us. of trin it as =a triad, from trin us =threefold; Sp. trinidad ; Ital. trin ità .] I. Ordinary Language: 1. A triad; a number or set of three. 2. In the same sense as II. 1. II. Technically: 1. Script . & Church Hist .: A term used to expre the doctrine of Three Persons in one Godhead, which is held alike by the Roman, Greek, and Anglican Churches, and by the greater number of Nonconformist Communions. It is indicated in the Apostles' Creed, stated more explicitly in the Nicene Creed, and set out at length in the A than asian Creed. The First Article of the Church of England states the doctrine in terms that would be accepted by sister churches, and by orthodox di enters generally: "There is but One Living and True God. And in Unity of this Godhead there be Three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father. the Word, and the Holy Ghost." Protestant theologians deduce the doctrine of the Trinity from texts in which (a) the Unity of God is affirmed (Deut. vi. 4; Isa. xliv. 6; Mark xii. 29-32; Eph. iv. 6); (b) the Divinity of Christ is shown from the fulfillment of Me ianic prophecies, or directly affirmed (1 Pet. ii. 7, 8, cf. Isa. viii. 13, 14; John xii. 41, cf. Isa. vi. 1; 2 Pet. iii. 18, cf. Isa. xliii. 11; Rev. xxii. 13, cf. Isa. xliv. 6; Matt. xi. 10, cf. Mal. iii. 1; 1 Cor. x. 9, cf. Ps. lxxviii. 18 and xcv. 9; John iii. 29, cf. Isa. liv. 5; John i. 1, xiv. 11, xx. 28; Rom. ix. 5, 2 Cor. v. 19, 20; Col. ii. 8, 9; 2 Pet. i. 2, 1 John v. 20); 4189 and that of Constantinople (A. D. 381) by affirming the divinity of the Holy Ghost, while insisting on the Unity of God, declared the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity to be the doctrine of the Church. From that time it was never called in question except by a few obscure sects, until the Reformation, when Unitarianism (q. v.) became one phase of Protestant ism. [ARIANISM, TRITHEISM.] 2. Eccles . Art : A symbolical representation of the mystery of the Trinity frequent in Christian art. The symbol which has endured the longest is the mystic triangle, which may be found on the tombs of the early Chris tians. The union of the three persons in one Godhead was also symbolized by a Latin inscription, disposed in geometric lines, containing at each angle the names of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, each connecting band being inscribed with the words non est. In the IMG:content-1454.jpg:[ocr errors] Trinity. midst of the triangle was the holy name of God, again connected by bands with those of the Trinity, each of which bore the one word est . At times an attempt was made to render the same mystery pictorially visible by three heads or three faces on one neck, the eyes becoming part of each individual face. [TRIMURTI.] An equilateral triangle, or a combination of the triangle, the circle, and sometimes the trefoil, was also used for the same purpose.