ration and mark it as one of the {259} great days
of the Church. The ecclesiastical color is white.

Trefoil.--An ornament used in Gothic architecture, formed by
mouldings in the head of window lights, tracery, panelings, etc.,
so arranged as to resemble the _trefoil_, (_i.e._, three leaved)
clover, as an emblem of the Trinity.

Trine Immersion.--The name given to the practice in the Primitive
Church, of dipping a person, who was being baptized, three times
beneath the surface of the water, _i.e._, at each name of the
three Persons in the Blessed Trinity. When Baptism was by affusion
or pouring, as is usual at the present time, the affusion was also
trine. The Apostolic canons insisted so strongly on this mode of
Baptism that they enjoined that the Bishop or Priest who did not
thus administer it should be deposed. This threefold method of
Baptism still prevails in the Church and is the only proper method
of administering this sacrament.

Trinity, The Holy.--A name applied to the Godhead and signifying
Three in One and One in Three--the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost--a doctrine which is held by all branches of the Catholic
Church, and by the greater number of the various Christian
denominations. The word "Trinity" is not found in the Bible and is
said to have been first used by Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, in
the second century as a concise expression of the Christian Faith
concerning the Godhead, that "there is but one living and true God,
everlasting, without body, parts or passions; of infinite power,
wisdom and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things both
visible and {260} invisible. And in the unity of this Godhead there
be three Persons, of one substance, power and eternity: the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost." (Art. I). The doctrine of the Trinity
deals with matter beyond reason but not contrary to reason; is the
subject of Revelation and as such is proposed to our faith faculty.
For this reason it is called a Mystery of the Gospel.

Trinity Season, The.--The long period between Trinity Sunday and the
First Sunday in Advent is so called. Its length is dependent on the
time Easter is kept and may include as many as twenty-seven Sundays.
The devotions and the Scriptural Lessons are intended to bring
before us the moralities of the Gospel and the practical duties of
the Christian life. Or as Bishop Coxe has finely expressed it, "The
first half of the year is devoted to Doctrine primarily, an