But, in fact, it is high time to point out that such "_a Circular_" as
was described above, (each copy furnished with a blank, to be filled up
with the name of a different City,) would be a document without parallel
in the annals of the primitive Church. It is, as far as I am aware,
essentially a modern notion. I suspect, in short, that the suggestion
before us is only another instance of the fatal misapprehension which
results from the incautious transfer of the notions suggested by some
familiar word in a living language to its supposed equivalent in an
ancient tongue. Thus, because {~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} or {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} confessedly signifies
"circularis," it seems to be imagined that {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA~} may mean "a
Circular Letter." Whereas it really means nothing of the sort; but--"_a
Catholic Epistle_."(179)

An "_Encyclical_" (and _that_ is the word which has been imported into the
present discussion), was quite a different document from what _we_ call "a
Circular." Addressed to no one Church or person in particular, it was
Catholic or General,--the common property of all to whom it came. The
General (or Catholic) Epistles of S. James, S. Peter, S. John are
"Encyclical."(180) So is the well-known Canonical Epistle which Gregory,
Bp. of Neocaesaraea in Pontus, in the middle of the third century, sent to
the Bishops of his province.(181) As for "_a blank circular_" to be filled
up with the words "in Ephesus," "in Laodicea," &c.,--its like (I repeat) is
wholly unknown in the ann