a deserting or abandoning of the true religion. The word is
borrowed from the Latin _apostatare_, or _apostare_, _to despise_ or
_violate_ any thing. Hence _apostatare leges_ anciently signified _to
transgress the laws_. The Latin _apostatare_, again, comes from ἀπὸ,
_from_, and ἳϛημι, _I stand_. Among the Romanists, apostasy also
signifies the forsaking of a religious order, whereof a man had made
profession, without a lawful dispensation. The ancients distinguished
three kinds of apostasy: the first, _a supererogatione_, is committed by
a priest, or religious, who abandons his profession, and returns to his
lay state; the second, _a mandatis Dei_, by a person of any condition,
who abandons the commands of God, though he retains his faith; the
third, _a fide_, by him who not only abandons his works, but also the
faith. There is this difference between an apostate and a heretic; that
the latter only abandons a part of the faith, whereas the former
renounces the whole. The primitive Christian church distinguished
several kinds of apostasy. The first was that of those who relapsed from
Christianity into Judaism; the second, that of those who blended Judaism
and Christianity together; and the third was that of those who, after
having been Christians, voluntarily relapsed into Paganism.
borrowed from the Latin _apostatare_, or _apostare_, _to despise_ or
_violate_ any thing. Hence _apostatare leges_ anciently signified _to
transgress the laws_. The Latin _apostatare_, again, comes from ἀπὸ,
_from_, and ἳϛημι, _I stand_. Among the Romanists, apostasy also
signifies the forsaking of a religious order, whereof a man had made
profession, without a lawful dispensation. The ancients distinguished
three kinds of apostasy: the first, _a supererogatione_, is committed by
a priest, or religious, who abandons his profession, and returns to his
lay state; the second, _a mandatis Dei_, by a person of any condition,
who abandons the commands of God, though he retains his faith; the
third, _a fide_, by him who not only abandons his works, but also the
faith. There is this difference between an apostate and a heretic; that
the latter only abandons a part of the faith, whereas the former
renounces the whole. The primitive Christian church distinguished
several kinds of apostasy. The first was that of those who relapsed from
Christianity into Judaism; the second, that of those who blended Judaism
and Christianity together; and the third was that of those who, after
having been Christians, voluntarily relapsed into Paganism.