Epistolae When the ancient Christians were about to travel into a foreign country, they took with them letters of credence from their own bishop, in order that they might communicate with another church. These letters were of three kinds: epistole commendatoriae, given to persons of quality, or persons whose reputation had been called in question, or to the clergy who had occasion to travel into foreign countries; epistola communicatoriae, given to such as were in peace and communion with the Church; epistolae dimissoriae, such as were given by the bishops to the clergy when removing from one diocese to another. All these were called epistolae formatae, because they were written in a peculiar form, with certain marks, which served to distinguish them from counterfeits. Farrar, Ecclesiastes ,Dictionary, s.v.; Bingham, Orig. Eccl. book 2, chapter 4.
The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature was edited by John McClintock and James Strong. It contains nearly 50,000 articles pertaining to Biblical and other religious literature, people, creeds, etc. It is a fantastic research tool for broad Christian study.
John McClintock was born October 27, 1814 in Philadelphia to Irish immigrants, John and Martha McClintock. He began as a clerk in his father's store, and then became a bookkeeper in the Methodist Book Concern in New York. Here he converted to Methodism and considered joining the ministry. McClintock entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1832 and graduated with high honors three years later. Subsequently, he was awarded a doctorate of divinity degree from the same institution in 1848.WikipediaRead More