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Synazarium THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG 218 Syncretism D. Hoffmann, in Magaain far die Wiasensehaft des Juden thuma, a (1883), 45-83; L. Low, Gesammelte 8chrt)ten, pp. 399-449, Szegedin, 1889; S. Krauss, in JQR, s (1898), 347377; JE, xi. 640-643. SYNA%ARIUM. See Acres MaaTYRUn2, Acre SANCTORUM, IL, 1. SYlYCELLUB: The title of certain high ecclesi astical officers in the Eastern Church. The name signifies literally "one who shares a cell," and was attached to monks and clergy associated with high ecclesiastics. The patriarchs and metropolitans of Constantinople had from early times one or more of these officers, the chief of the patriarch's being called " the great protosyncelhls." The (patri archal) syncelli took precedence of the metropoli tan at festivals, though later this precedence was contested. They were usually the confessors of the patriarchs, and hence were often employed as spies by the emperors, who sometimes conferred the title upon archbishops and bishops. They were not un known in the Western Church, and a synod held by Gregory I. in 595 issued regulations concerning them. (PHILIPP MEYER.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY: L. Thomasein, De vetere et nova eccleaiea diaciplina, L, ii., Frankfort, 1787; Milasch, Doe %irchenrecht der morgetalandisehen %irche, Mostar, 1905; DCA, ii. 1947-48.
SYNCRETISM, SYNCRETISTIC CONTROVERSIES. I. Syncretism. Origin of the Term (§ 1). Misuse of the Term (§ 2). II. Syncretistic Controversies. The Synod of Charenton (§ 1). 1. The First Period.Syncretism refers in general to the union of opponents on a basis which they hold in common, and so applies to philosophy and organized religion; in particular, to the irenic movement arising from an effort within the Lutheran Church in the seventeenth century toward interconfessional union, the sole final result of which was the moderation of the theological spirit. Syncretistic controversies is a phrase summing up the conflict waged between the partizana and opponents of the movement.
I. Syncretism: The only mention of the term in ancient literature is that of Plutarch, who, in illustrating brotherly love, cites the example of the Cretans, stating that they make war upon
x. Origin one another, but in the face of attack of the unite against a common enemy. It. Term. was resuscitated by Erasmus (q. v.), who, in Adagio, critized the practise, yet in a letter to Melanchthon (1519) proposed a common (synkretizein) defense of the learned against their opponents, although not wholly in ac cord among themselves. In a letter of Zwingli (q.v.) to (Ecolampadius (q.v.) and other clerics of Basel (in Zwingli's Opera, ed. Schuler and Schulthess, vii. 390), the former urged a syncretistic union against the persecutions arising over the Eucharist, and soon after both term and conception became prominent in the peace negotiations of M. Butzer (q.v.), and in the vocabulary of humanists in general. Zach arias Ursinus (q.v.) applied it likewise to the wicked, speaking of their "syncretism " and conspiracy against God. In the first half of the seventeenth century the twofold value of censure and praise con tinued, although the term acquired an increasingly sinister significance as the unpopularity of the con cord with dissenters increased during the time in which dogmas became more and more fixed. The Roman Catholic theologian Paul Windeck predicted, in Prognosticon fztturi status ecclesitE (1603), the speedy fall of Protestantism, and admonished those of his own church to cultivate "syncretism," which called forth the Irenicum sive de unions Evangeli corum concilianda (Heidelberg, 1614-15) of David Pare us (q.v.), summoning the two Protestant bodies to a peaceful conciliation against the common foe. In Prussia (§ 1). In Electoral Saxony (§ 2). 2. The Second Period.. In Hesse-Cassel U 2). Herman Conring (§ 4). The Counsel of Spener (§ 5). 3. The Third Period. Recrudescence of Calovius (§ 1). In Prussia and Brandenburg (§ 2). 4. Final Influence. The Wittenberg Consensus (§ 3).
