m _committe_, an Anglo-Fr. past participle of _commettre_,
Lat. _committere_, to entrust; the modern Fr. equivalent _comite_ is
derived from the Eng.), a person or body of persons to whom something is
"committed" or entrusted. The term is used of a person or persons to
whom the charge of the body ("committee of the person") or of the
property and business affairs ("committee of the estate") of a lunatic
is committed by the court (see INSANITY). In this sense the English
usage is to pronounce the word _commi-ttee_. The more common meaning of
"committee" (pronounced _committ-y_) is that of a body of persons
elected or appointed to consider and deal with certain matters of
business, specially or generally referred to it.

COMMODIANUS, a Christian Latin poet, who flourished about A.D. 250. The
only ancient writers who mention him are Gennadius, presbyter of
Massilia (end of 5th century), in his _De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis_,
and Pope Gelasius in _De libris recipiendis et non recipiendis_, in
which his works are classed as _Apocryphi_, probably on account of
certain heterodox statements contained in them. Commodianus is supposed
to have been an African. As he himself tells us, he was originally a
heathen, but was converted to Christianity when advanced in years, and
felt called upon to instruct the ignorant in the truth. He was the
author of two extant Latin poems, _Instructiones_ and _Carmen
apologeticum_ (first published in 1852 by J. B. Pitra in the
_Spicilegium Solesmense_, from a MS. in the Middlehill collection, now
at Cheltenham, supposed to have been brought from the monastery of
Bobbio). The _Instructiones_ consist of 80 poems, each of which is an
acrostic (with the exception of 60, where the initial letters are in
alphabetical order). The initials of 80, read backwards, give
Commodianus Mendicus Christi. The _Apologeticum_, undoubtedly by
Commodianus, although the name of the author (as well as the title) is
absent from the MS., is free from the acrostic restriction. The first
part of the _Instructiones_ is addressed to the heathens and Jews, and
ridicules the divinities of classical mythology; the second contains
reflections on Antichrist, the end of the world, the Resurrection, and
advice to Christians, penitents and the clergy. In the _Apologeticum_
all mankind are exhorted to repent, in view of the approaching end of
the world. The appearance of Antichrist, identified with Nero and the
Man from the Eas