Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 6, CHI-Crystallization

C I R r 163 ] C I R
Circle, per Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, Upper Rhine, Weft-
;irconcel- p^glia^ and the Lower Saxony,
_ll0"e>- , CIRCONCELLIONES, a fpecies of fanatics, fo
called becaufe they were continually rambling round
the houfes in the country. They took their rife among
the Donatifts in the reign of the emperor Conftantine.
It is incredible what ravages and cruelties thefe vaga¬
bonds committed in Africa through a long feries of
years. They were illiterate favage peafants, who un-
derftood only the Punic language. Intoxicated with
a barbarous zeal, they renounced agriculture, pro-
feffed continence, and affumed the title of “ Vindica¬
tors of juftice, and protestors of the oppreft.” To ac-
complifh their miflion, they enfranchifed flaves, fcour-
ed the roads, forced matters to alight from their cha¬
riots, and run before their flaves, who they obliged
to mount in their place j and difcharged debtors, kill¬
ing the creditors if they refufed to cancel the bonds.
But the chief objects of their cruelty were the Catholics,
and efpecially thofe who had renounced Donatifm. At
firft they ufed no fwords, becaufe God had forbidden
the ufe of one to Peter ; but they were armed with
clubs, which they called the clubs of Ifrael, and which
they handled in fuch a manner as to break a man’s
bones without killing him immediately, fo that he lan-
guiflied a long time and then died. When they took
away a man’s life at once, they looked upon it as a fa¬
vour. They became lefs fcrupulous afterwards, and
made ufe of all forts of arms. Their (bout was Praife
be to God. Thefe words in their mouths were the fig-
nal of daughter, more terrible than the roaring of a
lion. They had invented an unheard-of punifliment j
which was to cover with lime diluted with vinegar
the eyes of thofe unhappy wretches whom they had
cruflied with blows, and covered with wounds, and
to abandon them in that condition. Never was a
ftronger proof what horrors fuperftition can beget in
minds deftitute of knowledge and humanity. Thefe
brutes, who had made a vow of chaftity, gave them-
felves up to wine and all ‘forts of impurities, running
about with women and young girls as drunk as them-
ielves, whom they called facred virgins, and who of¬
ten carried proofs of their incontinence. Their chiefs
took the name of Chiefs of the Saints. After having
glutted themfelves with blood, they turned their rage
upon themfelves, and fought death with the fame fury
with which they gave it to others. Some fcrambled
up to the tops of rocks, and caft themfelves down
headlong in multitudes; others burned themfelves, or
threw themfelves into the fea. Thofe who propofed
to acquire the title of martyrs, publifhed it long be¬
fore, upon which they were feafted and fattened
like oxen for the daughter ; after thefe preparations
they fet out to be deftroyed. Sometimes they gave
money to thofe whom they met, and threatened to
murder them if they did not make them martyrs.
Theodoret gives an account of a flout young man,
who meeting with a troop of thefe fanatics, confent-
ed to kill them, provided he might bind them firft ;
and having by this means put it out of their power
to defend themfelves, whipped them as long as he
was able, and then left them tied in that manner.
Thcr bifhops pretended to balance them, but in reali¬
ty made ufe of them to intimidate fuch as might be
tempted to forfake their feft j they even honoured
them as faints. They were not, however, able to go- c
vern thofe furious monfters, and more than once
found themfelves under a neceflity of abandoning them,
and even of imploring the afliftance of the fecular
power againft them. The counts Urfacius and Tau-
rinus were employed to quell them j they deftroyed
a great number of them, of whom the Donatifts made
as many martyrs. Urfacius, who was a good Ca¬
tholic and a religious man, having loft his life in
an engagement with the barbarians, the Donatifts
did not fail to triumph in his death, as an effedl of
the vengeance of heaven. Africa was the theatre of
thefe bloody fcenes during a great part of Conftan-
tine’s life.
CIRCUIT, in Law, fignifies a longer courfe of
proceedings than is needful to recover the thing fued
for.
Circuit, alfo fignifies the journey or progrefs
which the judges take twice every year, through the
feveral counties of England and Wales, to hold courts
and adminifter juftice, where recourfe cannot be had
to the king’s courts atWeftminfterj hence England
is divided into fix circuits, viz. the Home circuit •, Nor¬
folk circuit; Midland circuit ; Oxford circuit j Weft-
ern circuit ; and Northern circuit. In Wales there
are but two circuits, North and South Wales : two
judges are afligned by the king’s commiflion to every
circuit.
In Scotland, the judges of the fupreme criminal
court, or court of jufticiary, are divided into three
feparate courts, confiding of two judges each ; and
the kingdom into as many diftri&s. In certain bo¬
roughs of every diftridf, each of thefe courts by rota¬
tion is obliged to hold two courts in the year, in fpring
and autumn ; which are called circuit-courts.
EleSlrical CIRCUIT, denotes the courfe of the ele&ric
fluid from the charged furface of an eledlric body, to
the oppofite furface into which the difcharge is made.
Some of the firft electricians apprehend, that the
fame particles of the eleftric fluid, which were thrown
on one fide of the charged glafs, aftually made the
whole circuit of the intervening conductors, and ar¬
rived at the oppofite fide 5 whereas Dr Franklin’s
theory only requires, that the redundancy of electric
matter on the charged furface (hould pafs into the bo¬
dies forming that part of the circuit which is con¬
tiguous to it, driving forward that part of the fluid
which they naturally poflefs ; and that the deficiency
of the exhaufted furface ftiould be fupplied by the
neighbouring conduftors, which form the laft part of
the circuit. On this fuppofition, a vibrating motion
is fucceflively communicated through the whole length
of the circuit. This circuit is always formed of the
beft conductors, let the length of it be ever fo great.
Many attempts were made, both in France and Eng¬
land, at an early period in the hiftory of eleftricity,
to afcertain the diftance to which the eleCtric (hock
might be carried, and the velocity of its motion. The
French philofophers, at different times, made it to
pafs through a circuit of 900 toifes, and of 2000
toifes, or about two Englifh miles and a half-, and
they difcharged the Leyden phial through a bafon of
water, the furface of which was about an acre. And
M. Mounier found, that, in pafling through an iron
wire of 950 toifes in length, it did not fpend a quar-
X 2 ter