BAP

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BAR

turn, scaly; corolla, four-petaled; anthers; in the cavity of thefolds, and sessile ; capsule, bivalvular ; seed solitary, and bipar-tite. There are 8 species, natives of New Holland.

ISANK’s Island, a small island in the South Sea. Lon. 132°.W. Lat. 53. 32. S.

BANN, [from the Brit, ban, i. e. clamour,] a ptoclamation,public notice, command, or prohibition.

Bann, in ancient jurisprudence, denoted proscription or banish-ment for a crime proved. Sometimes also cities were put underthe imperial bann ; that is, stripped of their rights and privileges.

Bank, in military affairs, a proclamation made in the army bybeat of drum, sound of trumpet, &c. requiring the strict ob-servance of discipline, either for the declaring a new officer, orpunishing an offender.

Banns of Marriage, are solemn notices of matrimonial con-tracts made, in the parish-church, before the marriage ; that ifthere be any objections to either party as to prior engagements,&c. there mav be an opportunity of making them.

BAN N ER, [ banniere , Fr. banuir, Welch,] a flag; a standard:a military ensign. There are various opinions concerning the ety-mology of the word banner; some deriving it from the Latin bandum, a band or flag ; others from the word bann, to summonsthe vassals to appear in arms ; Olivers again from the German ban,a field or tenement, because landed men alone were allowed abanner; and others, who think it is a corruption of pannicre,frompannus, cloth, because banners were originally made of cloth.

BANNERET, the name of an officer or magistrate of Rometowards the close of the 14th century.

Bannerets, an ancient order of knights, or feudal lords ; who,possessing several large fees, led their vassals to battle under theirown flag or banner, when summoned thereto by the king. Theyare also called in ancient writers milites vexilliteri, and vexillarii,banncrarii, bannarii, banderisii, &c. There were two kinds ofknights, great and little ; the first whereof were called Bannerets,the second Bachelors : the first composed the upper, the second themiddle, nobility.

BANN I AN, a man’s undress, or morning-gown; such as isworn by the Bannians in the East Indies.

Bannians. See Banians.

BANNIMUS, [q. d. we banish, from the obsolete verb bannio ,]the form of expulsion of any member from the university of Ox-ford, by affixing the sentence up in some public place, as a promul-gation of it.

BANN ITUS, an exile or outlaw.

BANNOCK, a kind of oaten or pease-meal cake, mixed withwater, and baked upon an iron plate over the fire ; used in the nor-thern counties in Scotland and Ireland . Bannocks differ fromcakes, in being thicker and softer; and their taste is thought to beimproved by being baked in the embers, or on a stone placed be-fore the fire, or on a slate above it.

BANQUET, in the menage, that small part of the branch of abridle that is under the eye ; which being rounded like a small rodgathers and joins the extremities of the bit to the branch in such amanner that the banquet is not seen, but covered by the cope, orthat part of the bit that is next to the branch.

Banquet, or Banquette, in fortification, a little foot-bank, oreleval on of earth, forming a path, which runs along the in«ide ofa parapet, upon which the musqueteers get up, in order to discoverthe counterscarp, or to lire on the enemy in the moat, or in the co-vert-wav.

BANTAM, a kingdom of Asia, in the island of Java, now sub-ject to the Dutch , w ho deposed the king of Bantam, and expelledthe English and Danes in the reign of James 11. ; A. D. 1682.They permit, however, one of the ancient roval race to enjoy thetitle of king. Its capital is Bantam.

Bantam Work, a kind of painted or carved work, resemblingthat of Japan , only more gaudy.

BANTRY, a capacious bay of Ireland, on the coast of Cork ,capable of containing all the shipping of Europe .

Bantry, a sea-port town of Ireland , seated on the bav, about30 miles W. of Cork . Long. 9. 20. W. Lat. 51. 30. N. '

BAPAUME, a town of France, 12miles S. E. of Arras . Long.S. 35. E. Lat. 50. 8. N.

BAPHE, a word used to express that fine red colour, withwhich they used to illuminate the capital letters in manuscripts, atthe beginning of chapters. -

vox.. 1.— no. 24.

BAPT/E, in antiquity, an effeminate voluptuous kind of priestof the goddess Cotyttus, at Athens; so called, from their statedclippings and washings, by way of purification.

BAPTISM , the ceremony of washing, a sacrament, by which aperson is initiated into, and becomes a member of the visible churchof Christ.

Baptism with Fire, spoken of by St. John the Baptist, hasoccasioned much conjecture, and many absurd opinions have beenfounded on this passage. The context explains it. The Baptist spoke to a mixed multitude of believers and unbelievers; hethereforetelis them, that One, mightier than he, should baptize them(the one class) with the IIolv Ghost, (and the other) with fire ;that he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat intohis garner ; but he will burn up thechalV, &c.

BAPTISTS, a general title assumed by Christians of various opi-nions in other particulars, who deny' infant baptism. There wereseveral among the Lollards and the followers of Wicklifif, who dis-approved of infant baptism. There were many of this persuasionamong the protestants and reformers abroad. In Holland, Ger-many, and the North, they went by the name of Anabaptists andMennonites ; and in Piedmont and the South, they were foundamong the Albigenses and Waldenses. But the single opinion,common to all the sects, to which the name of Baptists or Ana-baptists has been indiscriminately applied, is that of the invalidity ofinfant baptism, in whatever way administered; And hence the generaldenomination of Antipaxlobaptists ; which includes Anabaptists ,Baptists, Mennonites , Waterlandians, &e. as distinguished by theirrespective peculiarities ; though Anabaptist seems to have beenadopted by most writers as the general term. They maintain thatthe ordinance must be administered by the immersion of adults,and not by the sprinkling of infants. Such they say is the meaningof the word 6tn7iSu: they call to their aid a variety of passages ofscripture, none of which are however so decisive as to put the con-troversy to rest. And though it is certain that adults were bap-tized in the earliest periods of the Christian system, there is noproof that infants were not admitted to the ordinance. In Englandthe Baptists form one of the denominations of Protestant Dissen-ters. They separate from the establishment for the same reasonsas their brethren of the other denominations do: and from the ad-ditional motives derived from their particular tenets respectingbaptism. The constitution of their churches, and their modes ofworship, are congregational or independent : in the exercise ofwhich they are protected in common with other dissenters, by theact of toleration. Before this act, they were liable to pains andpenalties as Nonconformists, and often for their peculiar sentimentsas Baptists . A proclamation was issued out against them, andsome of them were burnt in Smithfield in 1538. They suffered'considerably in the persecutions of the last and preceding cen-turies. • The Baptists go under two denominations, viz. General,or Arminian ; and Particular, or Calvinistical. The latter are byfar the most numerous. The Baptists have two exhibitions forstudents to be educated at one of the Scotch universities, giventhem by Dr. Ward of Gresham College . They have also a well-regulated academy at Bristol, with a choice librarv and museum,containing several rare books and curious works of art. Amongthe latter, an original miniature of Oliver Cromwell , and a largecollection of the gods of Ilindostan. The late Dr. Gifford, of theBritish museum, was a liberal benefactor to this institution.

BAP I IS TERY, [ baptisterium, Lat.] the place where the sa-crament of baptism is administered.

Baptistery , in ecclesiastical writers, w’as one of the exedrrr, orbuildings distinct from the church itself; and consisted of a porchor anti-room where the persons to be baptized made their confes-sion of faith, and an inner room where the ceremony of baptism wasperformed. Thus it continued till the sixth century, when thebaptisteries began to be taken into the church-porch, and after-wards into (lie church itself. The ancient baptisteries were com-monly called fohrntut, photisteria, q. d. places of illumination ■ ■an appellation sometimes given to baptism.

Baptistery is also used, by the Armenians , for the feast of Epi-phany, when the anniversary or Christ’s baptism is celebrated.

Baptistery is also used for a church-book, wherein the praversami ceremonies of baptism were particularly described.

BAR, in courts of justice, an inelosuxe made with a stroim parti-tion of timber, w here the council are placed to plead causes. Itis also applied to the benches where the lawyers or advocates5 D

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