objects are known as Seyfert 1.9 galaxies; Osterbrock 1981).

In an effort to minimize uncertainties in virial BH mass estimates, and to broaden their applicability to classes of AGNs that would otherwise be inaccessible using the conventional methodology (e.g., blazars, galaxy-dominated low-luminosity sources, Type 1.9 Seyferts), we propose to translate the virial mass system of Kaspi et al. (2000), which makes use of the 5100 Å continuum luminosity and the broad [H$\beta$]{} line width, to a new system based [*entirely*]{} on observations of the broad [H$\alpha$]{} line. We achieve this in two steps. First, we revisit the well-known empirical correlation between optical continuum luminosity and Balmer emission-line luminosity (Yee 1980; Shuder 1981; Ho & Peng 2001), which now can be established with much greater precision using large, homogeneous samples of AGNs. This allows us to replace [$L_{5100}$]{} with [$L_{\mathrm{H{\alpha}}}$]{}, which has the advantage of being relatively straightforward to measure even for low-luminosity or galaxy-dominated sources (e.g., Ho et al. 1997; Greene & Ho 2004). Unlike the optical continuum, the line emission is also expected to be little affected by the jet component in radio-loud sources or blazars (e.g., Wang, Ho, & Staubert 2003). This approach is similar to that taken 