About the Book :

This 9- volume Dictionary is offered as a sequel to the Dictionary of the Bible-a monumental compilation, in 10 volumes, presenting the antiquities, biography, geography, and natural history of the Old Testament, New Testament, and Apocrypha. Together with the Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, and d Doctrines, it seeks to provide a complete account of the leading personages, the institutions, art, social life, writings and controversies of the Christian Church: from the time of the Apostles to the age of Charlemagne It aptly ceases at the Age of Charlemagne, for the reign of this monarch was considered to serve as the important link between the ancient and the modern, between the civil and ecclesiastical history. Beginning, thus, from the period at which the Dictionary of the Bible leaves off, this work explains, in meticulous detail, every aspect of the organization of the Church, its officers, legislation, discipline and revenues; the social life of Christians; their worship and ceremonials, with the accompanying music, vestments, instruments, vessels and insignia; their accompanying music, vestments, instruments, vessels and insignia; their sacred places; their architecture and other forms of art; their symbolism; their sacred days and seasons; and the graves or Catacombs in which they were laid to rest. Both exhaustive and authoritative, this Dictionary, published in 1876, is a rare work of enormous interest to the scholars of the Bible, Church history and Christian Studies.

About Author :

Smith, Sir Willam (1813-1893), an English lexicographer, was born at Enfield in . He was originally destined for a theological career. Later, he turned his attention to lexicography. His first attempt was the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, which appeared in 1842. In 1849, followed the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, and the Greek and Roman Geography in 1857. In 1850, he published the first of the school dictionaries; and in 1853, he began the Principia series, which marked a distinct step in the school teaching of Greek and Latin. Then came the Students Manuals of History and Literature, in which the Greek history was the editor own work. The most important, perhaps, of the books edited by William Smith were those that dealt with ecclesiastical subjects. These were the Dictionary of the Bible (1860-1865); the Dictionary of Christian Antiquities (1875-1880), undertaken in collaboration with Archdeacon Cheetham; and the Dictionary of Christian Biography (1877-1887), jointly with Dr. Henry Wace. The Atlas, on which Sir George Grove collaborated, appeared in 1875. From 1853 to 1869, Smith was classical examiner to the University of London, and on his retirement he became a member of the Senate. He sat on the Committee to inquire into questions of copyright, and was for several years registrar of the Royal Literary Fund. He edited Gibbon, with Guizots and Milmans notes, in 1854-1855. In 1867, he became editor of the Quarterly Review, which he directed with marked success until his death on the 7th of October 1893. He was D.C.L. of Oxford and Dublin, and the honour of knighthood was conferred on him the year before his death.

Samuel Cheetham (1827-1908), an English divine of the established Church, wrote a history of the Christian Church during the first six Centuries, and other similar books.