INCLINED PLANE

From Agepedia

INCLINED PLANE. The inclined plane is one of the three mechanical powers, or simple machines, formed, as its name imports, by a plane surface, supposed to be perfectly hard and inflexible, and which is always inclined obliquely to the weight or resistance to be overcome. The wedge is a modification of this machine, being formed of two inclined planes placed base to base. The screw is another modification, being, in fact, merely an inclined plane wound round it cylinder. This machine enables us to raise a given weight along the inclined surface to a given elevation, with less expense of force than would be required to raise it perpendicularly to the same elevation. This perpendicular height is called the elevation of the plane, and the two lines enclosing the angle which it subtends, are called the'base, and the length of the plane. (See Mechanics.)IN CCENA DOMINI (Bulla in CcenaDomini) ; the most remarkable of all the papal bulls, as it most strikingly shows the arrogance of the popes, and their pretensions as absolute rulers of the church, and the authority which they claimed over temporal princes. It is founded upon older papal decrees, which declared all heretics and favorers of heretics, without distinction, and those who imposed taxes upon the clergy, for the purpose of supplying the wants of the state, solemnly excommunicated. After the 14th century, it was extended and modified by several popes. Pope Pius V ordered that it should be read aloud in all the churches on Maundy Thursday, because many Catholic princes tolerated Protestants in their countries, and required contributions from the clergy. Philip II and the republic of Venice forbade the publication, for the exhausted state of their treasuries would not allow them to spare the clergy, and even the emperor Rodolph II and the archbishop of Mentz would not acknowledge a bull so prejudicial to the rights of sovereigns. Its authority was never admitted in France; but,in Naples in particular, from 1568, it excited great disturbances; for it was promulgated by the bishops and monks, without the permission of the king, and, according to the ordinance of the pope, the right of government to impose new taxes was denied. Notwithstanding this opposition, the bull eceived its latest form from pope Urban VIII, in 1627. This pope, in behalf of God, and by virtue of the power committed to the apostles Peter and Paul and himself, excommunicated and anathematized all Hussites, WicklifHtes, Lutherans, Zwinglians, Calvinists, Huguenots, Anabaptists, Trinitarians; all who had fallen off from the Christian faith, all heretics, as well as all those who trusted, received, favored or defended them; all who read heretical books, without permission from the papal see ; all who possessed and printed them, or defended them in any way whatever, whether public or private, or on any pretence whatever ; and, finally, all schismatics who obstinately avoided communion with the Romish church. All who apoealed from the decision of the pope to a council were threatened wiLi the anathema; and if a university, college, or chapter, with the interdict. Pirates who disturbed the papal sea (" our sea"), from Argentaro to Terracina, and all those who robbed wrecked vessels of the goods of Christians, incurred this anathema. Moreover, those princes were anathematized, who imposed new taxes, or increased those already laid, except in those cases in which they were allowed by law or by the special permission of the papal see; also all forgers of papal letters; all who provided Saracens, Turks or heretics with horses, arms, money, implements of war, wood, hemp, cordage, or any thing which could be of service to them in making war on Christians and Catholics; all who should prevent the carrying of provisions to the papal court; all who robbed, injured or murdered travellers to the papal court ; all who abused cardinals, papal ambassadors or bishops; all who appealed from the commands of the pope or his ambassadors to temporal courts of justice, or avoided the judicial decision of the pope in spiritual concerns, or compelled the clergy to appear before temporal judges, or made laws against the freedom of the church, or interrupted the bishops in the exercise of their judicial power; all who seized upon the revenue which the pope, derived from churches and convents, or imposed taxes upon the clergy, without the consent of the pope, even though the offender were an emperor or king ; all officers who interfered with the criminal jurisdiction of the clergy; and, finally, all who should attack or conquer the papal territory, of which Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica formed a part. None but the pope can remove this anathema, and he only in the hour of death, when the person excommunicated has satisfied the offended church. The bull was ordered to be publicly posted up at Rome, and once a year, or oftener, every bishop was to read it to the assembled people. This was done at Rome, till the middle of the 18th century, every Maundy Thursday, in the principal churches.