The Catholic Encyclopedia
he signification of the word assizes in this connection is derived from the French verb asseoir, whose past participle is assis. Asseoir means "to seat", "to place one on a seat". Hence the idea of putting something into its place, determining it to something. Thus assise came to mean an enactment, a statute. Assize is the English form of the word, and used in the plural, assizes, it denotes a court.
2 The "Assizes of Jerusalem" (les assises de Jerusalem) are the code of laws enacted by the Crusaders for the government of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. They are a collection of legal regulations for the courts of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and Cyprus. Thus we have the "Assizes of Antioch", the "Assizes of Rumania", legal regulations for the Latin principality of Antioch and for the Latin Empire of Constantinople. It is erroneous to ascribe the "Assizes of Jerusalem" to Godfrey de Bouillon on the presumption that as he was King of Jerusalem he enacted its laws. The "Assizes of Jerusalem" were compiled in the thirteenth century, not in the eleventh; not in Jerusalem, but after its fall; not by any ruler, but by several jurists. Not even the names of these are all known, though two of them were the well-known John of Ibelin, who composed, before 1266, the "Livre des Assises de la Cour des Barons", and Philippe de Navarre, who, about the middle of the thirteenth century, compiled the "Livre de forme de plait en la Haute Cour."
3 There are nine treatises in the "Assizes of Jerusalem", and they concern themselves with two kinds of law: Feudal Law, to which the Upper Court of Barons was amenable; and Common Law which was applied to the court of Burgesses. The latter is the older of the two and was drawn up before the fall of the Jerusalem. It deals with questions of civil law, such as contracts, marriage, and property, and touches on some which fall within the province of special courts, such as the "Ecclesiastical Court" for canonical points, the "Cour de la Fonde" for commerce, and the "Cour de la Mer" for admiralty cases. It deals rather with what the law enjoins in these several fields than with determining penalties for transgressions. The celebrated "Livre de la Haute Cour" of Ibelin was adopted, after revision (1359), as the official code of the Court of Cyprus, which kingdom succeeded to the title and regulations of Jerusalem. We possess only the official text of this, which is not much older than the works of French lawyers of Rouen and Orlèans. But the superiority of the "Assizes of Jerusalem" is that it reflects the genuine character of feudal law, whereas the works of the French feudalists betray something of the royal influence which affected those sections after the revival of the Roman law. No other work dwells so insistently on the rights of the vassal towards his lord, no other throws such a light on the resolution of the disputed point by an appeal to arms, its challenge, its champions, its value as evidence. In brief, the "Assizes of Jerusalem" give us a faithful and vivid picture of the part played by the law in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem.
4 Ch. Moeller
Ignaz Assmayer
4 An Austrian musician, born at Salzburg, 11 February, 1790; died in Vienna, 31 August, 1862. He studied under Brunmayr and Michael Haydn, and later, when he went to Vienna, he received further instruction from Eybler. In 1808 he was organist at St. Peter's in his native town, and here he wrote his oratorio "Die Sündfluth" (The Deluge) and his cantata "Worte der Weihe". Some time after his removal to Vienna, in 1815, he became choirmaster at the Schotten kirche, and in 1825 was appointed imperial organist. After having served eight years as vice-choirmaster, he received in 1846 the appointment of second choir-master to the Court, as successor to Weigl. His principal oratorios, "Das Gelübde", "Saul und David", and "Sauls Tod", were repeatedly performed by the Tonkünstler-Societät, of which he was conductor for fifteen years. He also wrote fifteen masses, two requiems, a Te Deum, and various smaller church pieces. Of these two oratorios, one mass, the requiems, and Te Deum, and furthermore sixty secular compositions, comprising symphonies, overtures, pastorales, etc., were published. As to his style Grove calls it correct and fluent, but wanting in both invention and force.
5 J.A. VÖLKER
Right of Voluntary Association
7 I. Legal Right
8 A voluntary association means any group of individuals freely united for the pursuit of a common end. It differs, therefore, from a necessary association in as much as its members are not under legal compulsion to become associated. The principal instances of a necessary association are a conscript military body and civil society, or the State, the concept of voluntary association covers organizations as diverse as a manufacturing corporation and a religious sodality. The legal right of voluntary association—the attitude of civil authority toward bodies of this nature—has varied in different ages and still varies in different countries. Under the rule of Solon the Athenians seem to have been free to institute such societies as they pleased, so long as their action did not conflict with the public law. The multitude of societies and public gatherings for the celebration of religious festivals and the carrying on of games, or other forms of public recreation and pleasure, which flourished for so many centuries throughout ancient Greece, indicates that a considerable measure of freedonn of association was quite general in that country.
9 The Roman authorities were less liberal. No private association could be formed without a special decree of the senate or of the emperor. And yet voluntary societies or corporations were numerous from the earliest days of the Republic. There existed collegia for the proper performance of religious rites, collegia to provide public amusements, collegia of a political nature, collegia in charge of cemeteries, and collegia made up of workers in the various trades and occupations. In Judea the Pharisees and Sadducees—though these were schools, or sects, rather than organized associations—and the Essenes were not seriously interfered with by the Roman governors. With the union of Church and State in 325 there came naturally an era of freedom and prosperity for associations of a religious nature, especially for the religious orders. During the period of political chaos that followed the fall of the Empire, liberty of association was as extensive as could be expected among populations whose civil rulers were not sufficiently powerful either to repress or to protect the formation of voluntary unions. Indeed, the "minor, obscure isolated, and incoherent societies", to use the words of Guizot, that erected themselves on the ruins of the old political organization and became in time the feudal system, were essentially private associations.
10 As the needs, culture, and outlook of men extended, there sprang into being a great number and variety of associations, religious, charitable, educational, and industrial. Instances are the great religious orders, the societies for the relief of poverty and sickness, the universities, and the guilds which arose and flourished between the tenth and the fourteenth centuries. All of these associations were instituted either under the active direction of the Church, or with her warm encouragement and as a rule without any serious opposition on the part of the civil power. Some of them, in fact, performed important political functions; others secured a measure of social peace that the civil authorities were unable to enforce while as a whole they constituted a considerable check to the exercise of arbitrary power by sovereigns. Thus, the merchant and craft guilds governed trade and industry with a series of regulations that had all the force and authority of legal statutes; the associations instituted to enforce the "Truce of God", helped greatly to lessen petty warfare between different lords and different sections of the same country; while "the monarch was . . . hemmed in on all sides . . . by universities, corporations, brotherhoods, monastic orders; by franchises and privileges of all kinds, which in greater or less degree existed all over Europe".
11 With the rise and extension of political absolutism in most of the countries of Europe in the seventeenth century, freedom of association became everywhere greatly restricted. It was frequently subjected to unreasonable conditions in the last century and it is still withheld by some governments. From 1820 to 1824 labour unions were absolutely prohibited in Great Britain. Up to the year 1901 non-industrial associations consisting of more than twenty persons could not be formed in France without authorization by a public official whose power in the matter was almost arbitrary. At present, authorization is required in the case of associations composed of Frenchmen and foreigners: associations whose supreme head resides outside of France; and associatons whose members live in common. Owing partly to the terms of the law and partly to the course pursued by the officials charged with its enforcement, almost all the religious congregations have been driven out of France. In Prussia and in most of the other German states political associations are subject to close inspection, and can be dissolved by the public authorities in case they go outside of certain well-defined limits. Most other societies pursuing reasonable ends can obtain existence and recognition by the becoming registered according to a general law of the empire. The law of Austria empowers magistrates to forbid the formation of any association that either in aim or personnel seems contrary to law, and to dissolve any society that is no longer conducted in accordance with the legal conditions to which it is subject. In Russia participation in any association not expressly authorized by the Government is a penal offence. Speaking generally, it may be said that with the exception of France, Russia, and Turkey, European governments exhibit today a liberal attitude toward associations pursuing reasonable ends.
12 In the United States associations whose purpose is pecuniary gain, and all other societies that desire a corporate existence and civil personality, must, of course, comply with the appropriate laws of incorporation. Unincorporated societies may be instituted without legal authorization, and may pursue any aim whatever, so long as their members do not engage in actions that constitute conspiracy or some other violation of public order. Even in these contingencies the members will not be liable to legal prosecution for the mere set of forming the associations. Under the present fairly liberal attitude of governments, and owing to the great increase in the number and complexity of human interests, the number and variety of associations in the Western world have grown with great rapidity. We may enumerate at least nine distinct types, namely: religious, charitable, intellectual, moral, political, mutual-benevolent, labour, industrial, and purely social. The largest increase has taken place in the three classes devoted to social intercourse and enjoyment, such as clubs and "secret" societies; to industry and commerce, such as manufacturing and mercantile corporations, and to the interests of the wage earner, such as trade unions. Probably the great majority of the male adults in the cities of the United States have some kind of membership in one or other of these three forms of association.
13 II. the Moral Right
14 Like all other moral rights, that of voluntary association is determined by the ends that it promotes, the human needs that it supplies. The dictum of Aristotle that man is a "political" animal, expresses more than the fact that man naturally and necessarily becomes a participant in that form of association known as the State. It means that man cannot effectively pursue happiness nor attain to a reasonable degree of self-perfection unless he unites his energies with those of his fellows. This is particularly true of modern life, and for two reasons. First, because the needs of men have greatly increased, and second, because the division of labour has made the individual more and more dependent upon other individuals and groups of individuals. The primitive, isolated family that knows only a few wants, and is able in rude fashion to supply all these, may enjoy a certain measure of contentment, if not of culture, without the aid of any other association than that inherent in its own constitution. For the family of today such conditions are unsatisfying and insufficient. Its members are constrained to pursue many lines of activity and to satisfy many wants that demand organized and associated effort.
15 Since the individual is dependent upon so many other individuals for many of those material goods that are indispensable to him, he must frequently combine with those of his neighbours who are similarly placed if he would successfully resist the tendency of modern forces to overlook and override the mere individual. A large proportion of the members of every industrial community cannot make adequate provision for the needs that follow in the train of misfortune and old age unless they utilize such agencies as the mutual benefit society, the insurance company, or the savings bank. Workingmen find it impossible to obtain just wages or reasonable conditions of employment without the trade union. On the other hand, goods could not be produced or distributed in sufficient quantities except through the medium of associations. Manufacturing, trade, transportation, and finance necessarily far more and more under the control of partnerships and stock companies.
16 Turning now from the consideration of these material needs, we find that association plays a no less important part in the religious, moral, intellectual, political and purely social departments of life. Men cannot give God due worship except in a public, social way. This implies at least the universal Church and the parish, and ordinarily it supposes devotional and other associations, such as sodalities, altar societies, church-fund societies, etc. Select souls who wish to embrace the life of perfection described by the evangelical counsels must become organized in such a way that they can lead a common life. In every community there are persons who wish to do effective work on behalf of good morals, charity, and social reform of various kinds. Hence we have purity leagues, associated charities, temperance societies, ethical culture societies, social settlements. Since large numbers of parents prefer private and religious schools for the education of their children, the need arises for associations whose purpose is educational. Literary and scientific associations are necessary to promote original research, deeper study, and wider culture. Good government, especially in a republic, is impossible without political associations which strive vigilantly and constantly for the removal of abuses and the enactment of just laws.
17 In the purely social order men desire to enroll themselves in clubs, "secret" societies, amusement associations, etc., all of which may be made to promote human contentment and human happiness. Many of the forms of association just enumerated are absolutely necessary to right human life; none of them is entirely useless. Finally, voluntary associations are capable of discharging many of the tasks that otherwise would devolve upon the State. This was an important feature of their activity in the Middle Ages, and it is very desirable today when the functions of government are constantly increasing. Chief among the organizations capable of limiting State activity are those concerned with and the improvement of working classes. In so far as these can perform their several tasks on resonable terms and without injury to the State or to any class of its citizens, the public welfare is better served by them than it would be if they were supplanted by the Government. Individual liberty and individual opportunity have a larger scope, individual initiative is more readily called into play and the danger of Government despotism is greatly lessened.
18 The right of voluntary association is, therefore, a natural right. It is an endowment of man's nature, not a privilege conferred by civil society. It arises out of his deepest needs, is an indispensable means to reasonable life and normal self-development. And it extends even to those associations that are not in themselves necessary for these ends—that is, so long as the associations do not contravene good morals or the public weal. For the State has no right to prohibit any individual action, be it ever so unnecessary which is, from the public point of view, harmless. Although it is not essential to his personal development that the citizens should become a member of an association that can do him neither good nor harm, it is essential to his happiness and his self-respect that he should not be prevented from doing so by the State. The moment that the State begins to practise coercion of this kind it violates individual rights. The general right of voluntary association is well stated by Pope Leo XIII in the encyclical, "Rerum Novarum":
19 > To enter into private societies is a natural right of man, and the State must protect natural rights, not destroy them. If it forbids its citizens to form associations, it contradicts the very principle of its own existence; for both they and it exist in virtue of the same principle, namely, the natural propensity of man to live in society.
20 Nor is the State justified in prohibiting voluntary associations on the ground that they may become inimical to public welfare. An institution should not be utterly condemned because it is liable to abuse; otherwise an end must be made of all institutions that are erected and conducted by human beings. The State has ample power to protect itself against all the abuses to which liberty of association is liable. It can forbid societies that aim at objects contrary to good morals or the public welfare, lay down such reasonable restrictions as are required to define the proper spheres of the various associations, punish those societies that go beyond their legitimate fields, and, in extreme cases, dissolve any particular organization that proves itself to be incorrigible. Through these measures the State can provide itself with all the security that is worth having; any further interference with individual liberty should be a greater social evil than the one that is sought to be remedied. The formality of legal authorization, or registration is not in itself unreasonable, but it ought not to be accompanied by unreasonable conditions. The procedure ought to be such that any society formed in accordance with the appropriate law of association could demand authorization, or registration, as a civil right, instead of being compelled to seek it as a privilege at the hands of an official clothed with the power to grant or refuse it at his own discretion. The difference between these two methods is the difference between the reign of law and the reign of official caprice, between constitutional liberty and bureaucratic despotism. Precisely this sort of arbitrary power is at present exercised by French officials over religious congregations. The result is that Frenchmen and French women who wish to live in associations of this nature are denied the right to do so. Speaking generally of religious congregations, we may justly say in the words of Pope Leo XIII, that they have "the sanction of the law of nature", that is, the same natural right to exist on reasonable conditions as any other morally lawful association, and, "on the religious side they rightly claim to be responsible to the Church alone". When the State refuses them the right to exist it violates not merely the natural moral law but the supernatural Divine law. For these associations are an integral part of the life of the Church, and as such, lie within her proper sphere. Within this sphere she is independent of the State, as independent as one sovereign civil power is of another. Abuses that may grow out of religious associations can be met by the State in the ways outlined above. Treasonable acts can be punished; excessive accumulation of property can be prevented; in fact, every action, circumstance, tendency that constitutes a real danger to the public welfare can be successfully dealt with by other methods than that of denying these associations the right of existence.
21 John A. Ryan.
Association of Ideas
10 (1) a principle in psychology to account for the succession of mental states,
11 (2) the basis of a philosophy known as Associationism.
12 The fact of the association of ideas was noted by some of the earliest philosophers; Aristotle (De mem. et rem., 2) indicates the three laws of association which have been the basis of nearly all later enumerations. St. Thomas, in his commentary on Aristotle, accepts and illustrates them at some length. Hamilton (Notes on Reid) gives considerable credit to the Spanish Humanist, Vives (1492-1540), for his treatment of the subject. Association of ideas is not, therefore, a discovery of English psychology, as has often been asserted.
13 It is true, however, that the principle of association of ideas received in English psychology an interpretation never given to it before. The name is derived from Locke who placed it at the head of one of the chapters of his "Essay", but used it only to explain peculiarities of character. Applied to mental states in general, the name is too restricted, since ideas, in the English sense, are only cognitive processes. The association theory held by Hobbes, Berkeley, Hume, and Hamilton, but it received its widest interpretation at the hands of the Associationists, Hartley, Priestley, James Mill, John Sruart Mill, Bain, and Spencer. They regarded it as a principle capable of explaining all mental phenomena. For them it is in the subjective world what the principle of gravitation is in the physical World. Association of ideas, though variously explained, is accepted by all modern psychologists. Sully, Maudsley, James, Hoffding, Munsterberg, Ebbinghaus, Ziehen, Taine, Ribot, Luys, and many others accept it more or less in the spirit of the Associationists.
14 The traditional laws of association, based on Aristotle, are:
15 Similarity
16 Contrast
17 Contiguity in time or space.
18 In the course of time, efforts were rnade to reduce them to more fundamental laws. Contrast has been resolved into similarity and contiguity. Contrasts, to recall each other, suppose generic similarity, as white recalls black. Yet this alone will not suffice, since this gives us no reason for the fact that white recalls black in preferenee to green or blue; hence experience, based on the fact that nature works in contrasts, is called into aid. Spencer, Hoffding, and others try to reduce all the laws of association to that of similarity, while Wundt and his school believe that all can be reduced to experience and hence to contiguity. Bain, who has analyzed the laws of association most thoroughly, holds both similarity and contiguity to be elementary principles. To these he adds certain laws of compound association. Oriental states easily recall one another when they have several points of contact. And in fact, considering the complexity of mental life, it would seem probable that simple associatlons, by similarity or contiguity alone, never occur. Besides these primary laws of association, various secondary laws are enumerated, such as the laws of frequency, vividness, recentness, emotional congruity, etc. These determine the firmness of the association, and consequently the preference given to one state over another, in the recall. Association of ideas is a fact of everyday experience which furnishes an important basis for the science of psychology, yet it must be remembered that the laws of association offer no ultimate explanation of the facts observed. In accounting for the facts of association we must, in the first place, reject as insufficient the purely physical theory proposed by Ribot, Richet, Maudsley, Carpenter, and others, who seek an explanation exclusively in the association of brain processes. Psychology thus becomes a chapter of physiology and machanics. Aside from the fact that this theory can give no satisfactory explanation of association by similarity which implies a distinctly mental factor, it neglects evident facts of consciousness. Consciousness tells us that in reminiscence we can voluntarily direct the sequence of our mental states, and it is in this that voluntary recall differs from the succession of images and feelings in dream and delirium. Besides, one brain-process may excite another, but this is not yet a state of consciousness. Equally unsatisfactory is the theory of the ultra-spiritualists, who would have us believe that association ot ideas has nothing to do with the bodily organism, but is wholly mental. Thus Hamilton says that all physiological theories are too contemptible for serious criticism. Reid and Bowne reject all traces of perception left in the brain substance. Lotze admits a concomitant oscillation of the brain elements, but considers them quite secondary and as exercising no influence on memory and recall. Like the purely physical theory, this also fails to explain the facts of consciousness and experience. The localization of activities in the various brain-centres, the facts of mental disease in consequence of injury lo the brain, the dependence of memory on the healthy condition of the central organ, etc. have in this theory no rational meaning. We must, then, seek an explanation in a theory that does justice to both the mental and the physical side of the phenomena. A mere psychophysical parallelism, proposed by some, will not, however, suffice, as it offers no explanation, but is a mere restatement of the problem. The Scholastic doctrine, that the subject of sensory activity is neither the body alone nor the soul alone, but the unitary being compounded of body and soul, alone, but the best solution. As sense perception is not purely physiological nor purely mental, but proceeds from a faculty of the soul intrinsically united to an organ, so the association of these perception proceeds from a principle which is at the same time mental and physical. No doubt purely spiritual ideas also associate; but, as St. Thomas teaches, the most spiritual idea is not devoid of its physiological basis, and even in making use of the spiritual ideas which it has already acquired, the intellect has need of images stored in the brain. It requires these organic processes in the production of its abstract ideas. In its basis, the association of ideas is physiological, but it is more than this, as it does not folow the necessary laws of matter. The higher faculties of the mind can command and direct the process. The Scholastic theory does justice to the fact of the dependence of mental activities upon the organism, and yet leaves room for the freedom of the will attested by consciousness and experience.
19 English Associationism, while claiming to be neither idealistic nor materialistic, and disvowing metaphysics, has erected the principle of association of ideas into a metaphysical principle to explain all mental activity. James Mill enunciated the principle of indissoluble associations: Sensations or ideas occuring together frequently, and never apart, suggest one another with irresistable force, so that we combine them necessarily. This principle is employed to explain necessary judgments and metaphysical concepts. Bain applied the principles of association to logic and ethics. Spencer interpreted them in an evolutionistic sense. Certain beliefs and rnoral principles are such that the associations of the individual are not sufficient to explain them; they are the associations of successive generations handed down by heredity. The whole process is governed by necessary laws. Mental states associate passively, and mental life is but a process of "mental chemistry". Later Associationists, like Sully, have come to recognize that the mind exerts activity in attention, discrimination, judgment, reasoning. With this admission there should logically come also the admission of a soul-substance that attends, discriminates, judges, and reasons; but as they have not come to this conclusion, the soul is for them a "train of thoughts", a "stream of consciousness", or some other series veiled in metaphorical language. Association of ideas can never explain necessary judgments, conclusions drawn from premises, moral ideas and laws; these have their causes deeper in the nature of things.
20 Edmund J. Wirth.
Association of Priestly Perseverance
13 Association of Priestly Perseverance, a sacerdotal association founded in 1868 at Vienna, and at first confined to that archdiocese. In 1879, chiefly through the influence of its periodical organ, "La Correspondance", it spread into other dioceses and countries, and in 1903 counted 14,919 living members, belonging to 150 dioceses in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and other countries. This organization is very similar to that of the Apostolic Union of Secular Priests (q. v.).
14 Joseph H. McMahon
Pious Associations
16 Under this term are comprehended all those organizations, approved and indulgenced by Church authority, which have been instituted especially in recent times, for the advancement of various works of piety and charity. Other terms used with the same meaning are: pious union, pious work, league, society, etc. Pious associations are distinguished, on the one hand, from ordinary, societies composed of Catholics by having an explicitly religious purpose, by enjoying indulgences and other spiritual benefits, and by possessing ecclesiastical approbation. They are distinguished, on the other hand, from confraternities and sodalities. The latter distinction is not determined by the name and is not always apparent. In general, pious associations have simpter rules than confraternities; they do not require canonical erection, and though they have the approbation of authority, they are not subject to as strict legislation as confraternities; they have no fixed term of probation for new members, no elaborate ritual, no special costumes; they are not obliged to meet for common religious practices, and, as a rule they make the help of others more prominent than the improvement of self. Of all these differences, only that of canonical erection seems essential. Some authorities, however, declare that the practices in common constitute the trait which distinguishes a confraternity from a pious association.
17 Some well-known pious associations are: Society of St. Vincent de Paul; Society of the Propagation of Faith ; Apostleship of Prayer; known as the League of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; Holy Childhood League; Priests' Eucharistic League; Cacilienverein, an association especially developed in Germany for the advancements of religious music.
18 F. P. Donnelly
Assuerus
19 The name of two different persons in the Bible:
20 I. In I Esdr., iv, 6, and Esth., i, 17, it corresponds to the Hebrew 'Achashwerosh, and the Sept. Assoueros (in Esth. Artazerxes), and denotes Xerxes I, the King of Persia. It was to him that the Samaritans addressed their complaints against the inhabitants of Jerusalem soon after 485 B.C., i.e. in the beginning of his reign. Intent upon his pleasures and a war with Egypt, the king seems to have disregarded these charges. The report of Herodotus (VII, viii) that Xerxes convoked a council of his nobles, in the third year of his reign to deliberate about the war against Greece agrees with Esth, i, 3, telling of the great feast given by the king to his nobles in the third year of his reign. In the seventh year of his reign, after the return of Xerxes from his war against Greece, Esther was declared queen. In the twelfth year of the king's reign Esther saved the Jews from the national ruin contemplated by Aman.
21 II. Another Assuerus occurs in the Greek text of Tob., xiv, 15 (Asyeros), in conjunction with Nabuchodonosor; the taking of Ninive is ascribed to these two. In point of fact, Assyria was conquered by Cyaxares I, the king of Media, and Nabopolassar, the King of Babylonia, and father of Nabuchodonosor. Hence the Assuerus of Tob., xiv, 15, is Cyaxares I; his name is coupled with Nabuchodonosor because the latter must have led the troops of his father in the war against Assyria. The same Cyaxares I is probably the Assuerus (Achashwerosh) mentioned in Dan., ix, 1, as the father of Darius the Mede. Most probably Darius the Mede is Cyaxares II, the son of Astyages, the King of Media. The inspired writer of Dan., ix, 1 represents him as a son of Cyaxares I, or Assuerus, instead of Astyages, on account of the glorious name of the former. This could be done without difficulty, since, in genealogies, the name of the grandson was often introduced instead of that of the son.
22 A.J. Maas
Little Sisters of the Assumption
22 A congregation whose work is the nursing of the sick poor in their own homes. This labour they perform gratuitously and without distinction of creed. The congregation was founded in Paris in 1865, by the Rev. Etienne Pernet, A.A. (b. 23 July, 1824, d. 3 April, 1899), and Marie Antoinette Tage, known in religion as Mother Marie de Jésus (b. 7 Nov., 1824; d. I8 Sept.,1883). Both had long been engaged in charitable work, Father Pernet while a professor in the College of the Assumption at Nimes, and MIIe. Tage as a member of the Association of Our Lady of Good Council in Paris. They met in Paris and Father Pernet placed her in charge of the work of nursing the sick poor which he had inaugurated. Out of this movement the sisterhood grew, Mother Marie de Jesus being the first superior. The nursing of the sick poor is not the only or even the chief purpose of the Little Sisters. They endeavour to bring about conversions, to regularize illicit unions, to have children baptized, sent to school, and prepared for first Communion and Confirmation. They form societies among their clients and enlist the aid of laymen and laywomen of education and means to further the work of regeneration. The congregation has established houses in Italy, Spain, Belgium, England, Ireland, and the United States of America. The papal Brief approving the congregation was issued in 1897. The sisters take simple vows and are governed by a mother-general, who resides in Paris.
23 Thomas Gaffney Taaffe
Sisters of the Assumption
25 A congregation of French nuns devoted to the teaching of young girls. It was founded in 1839 by Eugénie Milleret de Brou, in religion Mère Marie-Eugénie de Jesus (b. 1817; d. 1898), under the direction of the Abbe Combalot, a well-known orator of the time, who had been inspired to establish the institute during a pilgrimage to the shrine of Sainte-Anne d'Auray in 1825. The foundress, who had previously made a short novitiate with the Sisters of the Visitation at Cote Saint-Andre, was admirably adapted for the undertaking, and had the co-operation of three companions, each especially fitted to undertake the direction of some one of the activities of the order. Much of the initial success was due to the stanch friendship of Monseigneur Affre, Archbishop of Paris. The motto of the congregation is "Thy Kingdom Come", and the aim to combine with a thorough secular education a moral and religious training which will bear fruit in generations to come. The habit of the sisters is violet with a white cross on the breast and a violet cincture. The veil is white. On certain occasions a mantle of white with a violet cross on the shoulder is worn in the chapel. Since its foundation the congregation has spread beyond France to England, Italy, Spain and Nicaragua. Several communities devote themselves to the work of Perpetual Adoration and the instruction of poor children. The mother-house is situated at Auteuil, a suburb of Paris, in a former chateau, rich in historical associations. The daughters of many distinguished European families have studied at Auteuil, as well as many English and Americans, who receive a special training in the French language.
26 F.M. Rudge
Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
28 The Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 15 August; also called in old liturgical books Pausatio, Nativitas (for heaven), Mors, Depositio, Dormitio S. Mariae.
29 This feast has a double object: (1) the happy departure of Mary from this life; (2) the assumption of her body into heaven. It is the principal feast of the Blessed Virgin.
30 The Fact of the Assumption
31 Regarding the day, year, and manner of Our Lady's death, nothing certain is known. The earliest known literary reference to the Assumption is found in the Greek work De Obitu S. Dominae. Catholic faith, however, has always derived our knowledge of the mystery from Apostolic Tradition. Epiphanius (d. 403) acknowledged that he knew nothing definite about it (Haer., lxxix, 11). The dates assigned for it vary between three and fifteen years after Christ's Ascension. Two cities claim to be the place of her departure: Jerusalem and Ephesus. Common consent favours Jerusalem, where her tomb is shown; but some argue in favour of Ephesus. The first six centuries did not know of the tomb of Mary at Jerusalem.
32 The belief in the corporeal assumption of Mary is founded on the apocryphal treatise De Obitu S. Dominae, bearing the name of St. John, which belongs however to the fourth or fifth century. It is also found in the book De Transitu Virginis, falsely ascribed to St. Melito of Sardis, and in a spurious letter attributed to St. Denis the Areopagite. If we consult genuine writings in the East, it is mentioned in the sermons of St. Andrew of Crete, St. John Damascene, St. Modestus of Jerusalem and others. In the West, St. Gregory of Tours (De gloria mart., I, iv) mentions it first. The sermons of St. Jerome and St. Augustine for this feast, however, are spurious. St. John of Damascus (P. G., I, 96) thus formulates the tradition of the Church of Jerusalem:
33 > St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.
34 Today, the belief in the corporeal assumption of Mary is universal in the East and in the West; according to Benedict XIV (De Festis B.V.M., I, viii, 18) it is a probable opinion, which to deny were impious and blasphemous.
35 The Feast of the Assumption
36 Regarding the origin of the feast we are also uncertain. It is more probably the anniversary of the dedication of some church than the actual anniversary of Our Lady's death. That it originated at the time of the Council of Ephesus, or that St. Damasus introduced it in Rome is only a hypothesis.
37 According to the life of St. Theodosius (d. 529) it was celebrated in Palestine before the year 500, probably in August (Baeumer, Brevier, 185). In Egypt and Arabia, however, it was kept in January, and since the monks of Gaul adopted many usages from the Egyptian monks (Baeumer, Brevier, 163), we find this feast in Gaul in the sixth century, in January [mediante mense undecimo (Greg. Turon., De gloria mart., I, ix)]. The Gallican Liturgy has it on the 18th of January, under the title: Depositio, Assumptio, or Festivitas S. Mariae (cf. the notes of Mabillon on the Gallican Liturgy, P. L., LXXII, 180). This custom was kept up in the Gallican Church to the time of the introduction of the Roman rite. In the Greek Church, it seems, some kept this feast in January, with the monks of Egypt; others in August, with those of Palestine; wherefore the Emperor Maurice (d. 602), if the account of the "Liber Pontificalis" (II, 508) be correct, set the feast for the Greek Empire on 15 August.
38 In Rome (Batiffol, Brev. Rom., 134) the oldest and only feast of Our Lady was 1 January, the octave of Christ's birth. It was celebrated first at Santa Maria Maggiore, later at Santa Maria ad Martyres. The other feasts are of Byzantine origin. Duchesne thinks (Origines du culte chr., 262) that before the seventh century no other feast was kept at Rome, and that consequently the feast of the Assumption, found in the sacramentaries of Gelasius and Gregory, is a spurious addition made in the eighth or seventh century. Probst, however (Sacramentarien, 264 sqq.), brings forth good arguments to prove that the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, found on the 15th of August in the Gelasianum, is genuine, since it does not mention the corporeal assumption of Mary; that, consequently, the feast was celebrated in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome at least in the sixth century. He proves, furthermore, that the Mass of the Gregorian Sacramentary, such as we have it, is of Gallican origin (since the belief in the bodily assumption of Mary, under the influence of the apocryphal writings, is older in Gaul than in Rome), and that it supplanted the old Gelasian Mass. At the time of Sergius I (700) this feast was one of the principal festivities in Rome; the procession started from the church of St. Hadrian. It was always a double of the first class and a Holy Day of obligation.
39 The octave was added in 847 by Leo IV; in Germany this octave was not observed in several dioceses up to the time of the Reformation. The Church of Milan has not accepted it up to this day (Ordo Ambros., 1906). The octave is privileged in the dioceses of the provinces of Sienna, Fermo, Michoacan, etc.
40 The Greek Church continues this feast to 23 August, inclusive, and in some monasteries of Mount Athos it is protracted to 29 August (Menaea Graeca, Venice, 1880), or was, at least, formerly. In the dioceses of Bavaria a thirtieth day (a species of month's mind) of the Assumption was celebrated during the Middle Ages, 13 Sept., with the Office of the Assumption (double); to-day, only the Diocese of Augsburg has retained this old custom.
41 Some of the Bavarian dioceses and those of Brandenburg, Mainz, Frankfort, etc., on 23 Sept. kept the feast of the "Second Assumption", or the "Fortieth Day of the Assumption" (double) believing, according to the revelations of St. Elizabeth of Schönau (d. 1165) and of St. Bertrand, O.C. (d. 1170), that the B.V. Mary was taken up to heaven on the fortieth day after her death (Grotefend, Calendaria 2, 136). The Brigittines kept the feast of the "Glorification of Mary" (double) 30 Aug., since St. Brigitta of Sweden says (Revel., VI, l) that Mary was taken into heaven fifteen days after her departure (Colvenerius, Cal. Mar., 30 Aug.). In Central America a special feast of the Coronation of Mary in heaven (double major) is celebrated 18 Aug. The city of Gerace in Calabria keeps three successive days with the rite of a double first class, commemorating: 15th of August, the death of Mary; 16th of August, her Coronation.
42 At Piazza, in Sicily, there is a commemoration of the Assumption of Mary (double second class) the 20th of February, the anniversary of the earthquake of 1743. A similar feast (double major with octave) is kept at Martano, Diocese of Otranto, in Apulia, 19th of November.
43 [Note: By promulgating the Bull Munificentissimus Deus, 1 November, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared infallibly that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a dogma of the Catholic Faith. Likewise, the Second Vatican Council taught in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium that "the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things (n. 59)."]
44 Frederick G. Holweck
Assur (1)
31 (Or Assuræ.)
32 A titular see of Proconsular Africa, now Henchir-Zenfour. Its episcopal list (251-484) is given in Gams (p. 464). Ruins of its temples and theatres and other public buildings are still visible
Assur (2)
34 (Sept., Assour.)
35 (1) The name used in the Old Testament to designate the Assyrian land and nation. (See ASSYRIA.)
36 (2) The name of one of the sons of Sem, mentioned in Gen., x , 22. In verse 11 of the same chapter, the Douay version has: "Out of that land came forth Assur". Here the name in the original refers not to a person, but to the country, as above, and the reading: ". . . he (Nimrod) went forth into the Assyria (Assur)" is preferable. Another Assur, or Ashur, "father of Thecua", is mentioned in I Paral., ii, 24, and iv, 5.
37 (3) The national god of the Assyrians (in the cuneiform inscriptions Assuhr, Ashur). The religion of the Assyrians, like their language and their arts, was in all essential particulars derived from the Babylonians. But together with the preponderance of the Assyrian power over the southern provinces came a corresponding exaltation of the local tutelary deity. Asshur, who was originally the eponymic god of the capital of Assyria (also called Asshur), thus became a national god, and was place at the head of the Assyrian pantheon. In his name, and to promote his interests, the Assyrian monarchs claim to undertake their various military expeditions. He is styled King among the gods; the god who created himself. Differently from the other deities, Asshur is not represented as having a consort or posterity. His Symbolic representation is ordinarily a winged disc, sometimes accompanied by the figure of a human bust. (See ASSYRIA.)
38 Gabriel Oussani
Assyria
37 In treating of Assyria it is extremely difficult not to speak at the same time of its sister, or rather mother country, Babylonia, as the peoples of these two countries, the Semitic Babylonians and Assyrians, are both ethnographically and linguistically the same race, with identical religion, language, literature, and civilization. Hence Assyro-Babylonian religion, mythology, and religious literature especially in their relation to the Old Testament will be treated in the article BABYLONIA, while the history of the modern explorations and discoveries in these two countries will be given in the present article.
38 Geography
39 Geographically, Assyria occupies the northern and middle part of Mesopotamia, situated between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris; while the southern half, extending as far south as the Persian Gulf, constitutes the countries of Babylonia and Chaldea. Assyria originally occupied but a scant geographical area, comprising the small triangular shaped land lying between the Tigris and Zab Rivers, but in later times, owing to its wonderful conquests its boundaries extended as far north as Armenia to Media on the east; to northern Syria, and to the country of the Hittites, on the west and to Babylonia and Elam on the south and southeast, occupying almost the entire Mesopotamian valley.
40 By the Hebrews it was known under the name of Aram-Naharaim, i.e. "Aram [or Syria] of the two rivers" to distinguish it from Syria proper, although it is doubtful whether the Hebrew name should be read as dual, or rather as a plural, i.e. Aram-Naharîm (Aram of the many rivers or "Of the great river" -- Euphrates. In later Old Testament times, it was known under the name of Asshur. By the Greeks and Romans it was called Mesopotamia, and Assyria; by the Aramaeans, Beth-naharim, "the country of the rivers"; by the Egyptians Nahrina; by the Arabs, Athûr, or Al-Gezirah, "the island", or Bain-al-nahrain, "the country between the two rivers" -- Mesopotamia. Whether the name Assyria is derived from that of the god Asshur, or vice versa, or whether Asshur was originally the name of a particular city and afterwards applied to the whole country cannot be determined.
41 The area of Assyria is about fifty thousand square miles. In physical character it is mountainous and well watered, especially in the northern part. Limestone and, in some places, volcanic rock form the basis of its fertile soil. Its southern part is more level, alluvial, and fertile. Its principal rivers are the Tigris and the Euphrates, which have their source in the Armenian mountains and run almost parallel as far south as Babylonia and Chaldea, flowing into the Persian Gulf. There are other minor rivers and tributaries, such as the Khabur; the Balikh, the Upper and Lower Zab, the Khoser the Turnat, the Radanu, and the Subnat. Assyria owes to these rivers, and especially to the Tigris and Euphrates, somewhat as Egypt owes to Nile, its existence, life, and prosperity.
42 The principal cities of Assyria are:
43 Asshur whose site is now marked by the mound of Kalah-Shergat, on the right bank of the Tigris.
44 Calah, the eastern bank of the Tigris and at its junction with the Upper Zab, a city built (c.1280 B.C.) by Shalmaneser I, who made it the capital of Assyria in place of Asshur. Its site is nowadays marked by the ruins of Nimroud.
45 Nineveh (in the Douay Version, Ninive), represented by the villages and ruins of the modern Kujunjik and Nebi-Yunus, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, opposite Mosul. Nineveh was undoubtedly one of the most ancient cities of Assyria, and in the time of Sennacherib (7th cent. B.C.) it became the capital of the empire, and the centre of the worship of Ishtar, the Assyro-Babylonian Venus, who was called Ishtar of Nineveh, to distinguish her from Ishtar of Arbela. In the Old Testament the city of Nineveh is well known in connection with the prophets, and especially as the theatre of Jonah's mission.
46 Dur-Sharrukin, or Dur-Sargon (i.e. Sargonsburg) built by Sargon II (8th cent. B.C.), the founder of the famous Sargonid dynasty. It was made first the royal residence of Sargon, and afterwards became the rival of Nineveh. Its site is represented by the modern Khorsabad.
47 Arhailu, or Arbela, famous in Greek and Persian annals for the decisive victory won by Alexander the Great over the formidable army of Darius, King of Persia and Babylon (331 B.C.).
48 Nasibina, or Nisibis, famous in the annals of Nestorian Christianity.
49 Harran, well known for the worship of Sin, the moon-god.
50 Ingur-Bel, corresponding to the modern Tell-Balawât.
51 Tarbis, corresponding to the modern Sherif-Khan. The sites and ruins of all these cities have been explored.
52 Sources of Assyro-Babylonian History
53 These may be grouped as: (1) the Old Testament; (2) the Greek, Latin, and Oriental writers, and (3) the monumental records and remains of the Assyrians and Babylonians themselves.
54 In the first division belong the Fourth (in Authorized Version, Second) Book of Kings, Paralipomenon (Chronicles), the writings of the prophets Isaias, Nahum, Jeremias, Jonas, Ezechiel, and Daniel, as well as the Iaconic but extremely valuable fragments of information contained in Genesis, x, xi, and xiv. To the second group of sources belong the Chaldeo-Babylonian priest and historian Berosus, who lived in the days of Alexander the great (356-323 B.C.) and continued to live at least as late as Antiochus I, Soter (280-261 B.C.). He wrote in Greek a great work on Babylonian history, under the title of "Babyloniaca", or "Chaldaica". This valuable work, which was based on contemporary Babylonian monuments and inscriptions has unfortunately perished, and only a few excerpts from it have been preserved in later Greek and Latin writers. Then we have the writings of Polyhistor, Ctesias, Herodotus, Abydenus, Apollodorus, Alexander of Miletus, Josephus, Georgius Syncellus, Diodorus Siculus, Eusebius, and others. With the exception of Berosus, the information derived from all the above-mentioned historians is mostly legendary and unreliable, and even their quotations from Berosus are to be used with caution. This is especially true in the case of Ctesias, who lived at the Persian court in Babylonia. To the third category belong the numerous contemporary monuments and inscriptions discovered during the last fifty years in Babylonia, Assyria, Elam, and Egypt, which form an excellent and a most authoritative collection of historical documents.
55 For the chronology of Assyria we have some very valuable means information. These are
56 The "Eponym List" which covers the entire period from the reign of Ramman-nirari II (911-890 B.C.) down to that of Asshurbanipal (669-625 B.C.). The eponyms, or limmu, were like the eponymous archons at Athens and the consuls at Rome. They were officers, or governors, whose term of office lasted but one year, to which year they gave their name; so that if any event was to be recorded, or a contract drawn in the year e.g., 763 B.C., the number of the year would not be mentioned, but instead we are told that such and such an event took place in the year of Pur-Shagli, who was the limmu, or governor, in that year.
57 Another source is found in the chronological notices scattered throughout the historical inscriptions, such as Sennacherib's inscription engraved on the rock at Bavian, in which he tells us that one of his predecessors, Tiglath-pileser (Douay Version, Theglathphalasar) reigned about 418 years before him, i.e. about 1107 B.C.; or that of Tiglath-pileser himself, who tells us that he rebuilt the temple of Anu and Ramman, which sixty years previously had been pulled down by King Asshurdan because it had fallen into decay in the course of the 64I years since its foundation by King Shamshi-Ramman. This notice, therefore, proves that Asshur-dan must have reigned about the years 1170 or 1180 B.C. So also Sennacherib tells us that a seal of King Tukulti-Ninib l had been brought from Assyria to Babylon, where after 600 years he found it on his conquest of that city. As Sennacherib conquered Babylon twice, once in 702 and again in 689 B.C., it follows that Tukulti-Ninib I must have reigned over Assyria in any case before 1289 B.C., and possibly a few years before 1302 B.C.
58 Another chronological source is to be found in the genealogies of the kings, which they give of themselves and of their ancestors and predecessors.
59 Further valuable help may be obtained from the so-called "Synchronous History" of Babylonia and Assyria, which consists of a brief summary of the relations between the two countries from the earliest times in regard to their respective boundary lines. The usefulness of this document consists mainly in the fact that it gives the list of many Babylonian and Assyrian kings who ruled over their respective countries contemporaneously.
60 Assyro-Babylonian Exploration
61 As late as 1849, Sir Henry Layard, the foremost pioneer of Assyro-Babylonian explorations, in the preface to his classical work entitled "Nineveh and Its Remains" remarked how, previously, with the exception of a few cylinders and gems preserved elsewhere, a case, hardly three feet square, in the British Museum, enclosed all that remained not only of the great city, Nineveh, but of Babylon itself. At that time few indeed would have had the presumption even to imagine that within fifty years the exploration of Assyria and Babylonia would have given us the most primitive literature of the ancient world. What fifty years ago belonged to the world of dreams is at the present time a striking reality; for we now in possession of the priceless libraries of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, of their historical annals, civil and military records, State archives, diplomatic correspondences, textbooks and school exercises, grammers and dictionaries, hymns, bank accounts and business transactions, laws and contracts; and extensive collection of geographical, astronomical, mythological, magical, and astrological texts and inscriptions. These precious monuments are actually scattered in all the public and private museums and art collections of Europe, America, and Turkey. The total number of tablets, cylinders, and cuneiform inscriptions so far discovered is approximately estimated at more than three hundred thousand, which, if published, would easily cover 400 octavo volumes of 400 pages each. Unfortunately, only about one-fifth of all the inscriptions discovered have been published so far; but even this contains more than eight times as much literature as is contained in the Old Testament. The British Museum alone has published 440 folio, and over 700 quarto, pages, about one-half as much more has appeared in various archaeological publications. The British Museum has more than 40, 000 cuneiform tablets, the Louvre more than 10, 000, the Imperial Museum of Berlin more than 7, 000, that of the University of Pennsylvania more than 20, 000, and that of Constantinople many thousands more, awaiting the patient toil of our Assyriologists. The period of time covered by these documents is more surprising than their number. They occur from prehistoric times, or about 5000 B.C., down to the first century before the Christian Era. But this is not all, for, according to the unanimous opinion of all Assyriologists, by far the largest part of the Assyro-Babylonian literature and inscriptions are still buried under the fertile soil of these wonderful regions, which have ever been the land of surprises, awaiting further explorers and decipherers.
62 As has already been remarked, the meagre and often unreliable information concerning Assyria and Babylonia which has come down to us through the Persian, Greek, Latin, and Arabic writers -- historians and geographers -- has contributed little or nothing to the advancement of our knowledge of these wonderful countries. The early European travellers in the region of the Tigris and Euphrates valley such as Benjamin of Tudela (1160), John Eldred (1583), Anthony Shirley (1599), Pietro della Valle (1614-26), John Cartwright (1610), Gasparo Balbi (1590), John Otter (1734), Niebuhr (1765), Beauchamp, Olivier, Hagers, and others at the end of the eighteenth century, have left us a rather vague and superficial account of their personal visits and impressions. Later travellers, however, such as Claudius James Rich (1811, 1821-22), J.S. Buckingham (1816), Sir Robert Ker Porter (1817-20), Captain Robert Mignan (1826-28), G. Baillie-Fraser (1834-35), the Euphrates Expedition under Colonel Chesney (1835-47), James Felix Jones, Lynch, Selby, Collingwood, Bewsher, and others of the first half of the nineteenth century made a far more searching and scientific study of the Mesopotamian region. But the real founders and pioneers of Assyro-Babylonian explorations are Emile Rotta (1842-45), Sir Henry Austen Layard (1840-52), Victor Place (1851-55), H. Rassam (1850, 1878-82), Loftus (1850), Jules Oppert, Fresnel and Thomas (1851-52), Taylor (1851), Sir Henry Rawlinson, G. Smith, and others who have not only opened, but paved, the way for future researches and explorations. The first methodical and scientific explorations in Babylonia, however, were inaugurated and most successfully carried out by the intrepid French consul at Bassora and Bagdad, M. de Sarzec, who, from about 1877 with 1899, discovered at Tello some of the earliest and most precious remains and inscriptions of the pre-Semitic and Semitic dynasties of Southern Babylonia. Contemporaneously with de Sarzec there came other explorers, such as Rassam, already mentioned above, who was to continue George Smith's excavations; the American Wolf expedition, under the direction of Dr. Ward, of New York (1884-85); and above all, the various expeditions to Nippur, under Peters, Hayes, and Hilprecht, respectively, sent by the University of Pennsylvania (1888-1900). The Turkish Government itself has not altogether stood aloof from this praiseworthy emulation, sending an expedition to Abu Habba, or Sippar, under the direction of the well-known Dominican scholar, Father F. Scheil of Paris, in 1894 and the following years. Several German, French, and American expeditions have later been busily engaged in excavating important mounds and ruins in Babyloma. One of these is the German expedition under Moritz and Koldewey, with the assistance of Dr. Meissner, Delitzsch, and others, at Shurgul, El-Hibba, Al-Kasr, Tell-ibrahim, etc. The expedition of the University of Chicago, under the direction of Dr. Banks, at Bismaya, in South Babylonia, came unfortunately to an early termination.
63 The Language and Cuneiform Writing
64 All these wonderful archaeological researches and discoveries would have been useless and destitute of interest, had not the language of Assyro-Babylonian inscriptions been deciphered and studied. These inscriptions were all written in a language, and by means of characters, which seemed for a while to defy all human skill and ingenuity. The very existence of such a language had been forgotten, and its writing seemed so capricious and bewildering that the earlier European travellers mistook the characters for fantastic and bizarre ornamental decorations; their dagger- or arrow-headed shape (from which their name of cuneiform) presenting a difficult puzzle. However, the discovery, and tentative decipherment, of the old Persian inscriptions (especially those of Persepolis and of the Behistun rock, not far from Hamadan, in Persia), by Grotefend, Heeren, the Abbe Saint Martin, Rask, Bournouf, Lassen, Westergaard, de Saulcy, and Rawlinson, all taking place at about the end of the first half of the nineteenth century, opened the way for the decipherment of the Assyro-Babylonian inscriptions. The principal credit unquestionably belongs to Rawlinson, Norris, J. Oppert, Fox Talbot, and especially to Dr. Hinks of Dublin. The acute and original researches of these scholars were successfully carried out by other Semitic scholars and linguists no less competent, such as E. Schrader and Fred. Delitzsch, in Germany; Ménant, Halévy, and Lenormant, in France; Sayce and G. Smith, in England.
65 The Assyro-Babylonian language belongs to the so-called Semitic family of languages, and in respect to grammar and lexicography offers no more difficulty to the interpreter than either Hebrew or Aramaic, or Arabic. It is more closely allied to Hebrew and Aramaic than to Arabic and the other dialects of the South-Semitic group. The principal difficulty of Assyrian Consists in its extremely complicated system of writing. For, unlike all other Semitic dialects, Assyrian is written not alphabetically, but either syllabically or ideographically, which means that Assyrian characters represent not consonants, but syllables, open or closed, simple or compound, and ideas or words, such as ka, bar, ilu, zikara, etc. These same characters may also have both a syllabic and an ideographic value, nearly always more than one syllabic value and as many as five or six; so that a sign like the following (=|) may be read syllabically as ud, ut, u, tu, tam, bir, par, pir, lah, lih, hish, and his; ideographically as umu, "day"; pisu "white"; Shamash, the Sungod; etc. The shape of these signs is that of a wedge, hence the name cuneiform (from the Latin cuneus, "a wedge"). The wedges, arranged singly or in groups, either are called "ideograms" and stand for complete ideas, or then stand for syllables. In course of time the same ideographic signs came to have also the phonetic value of syllables, without losing however, their primitive ideographic value, as can be seen from the example quoted above. This naturally caused a great difficulty and embarrassment even to the Assyro-Babylonians themselves and is still the principal obstacle to the correct and final reading of many cuneiform words and inscriptions. To remedy this great inconvenience, the Assyro-Babylonians themselves placed other characters (called determinatives) before many of these signs in order to determine their use and value in certain particular cases and sentences. Before all names of gods, for example, either a sign meaning "devine being" was prefixed, or a syllabic character (phonetic complement), which indicated the proper phonetic value with which the word in question should end, was added after it. In spite of these and other devices, many signs and collocations of signs have so many possible syllabic values as to render exactness in the reading very difficult. There are about five hundred of these different signs used to represent words or syllables. Their origin is still a subject of discussion among scholars. The prevailing theory is that they were originally picture-signs, representing the ideas to be conveyed; but at present only about sixty of these 500 signs can be with certainty traced back to their original picture-meanings.
66 According to the majority of Assyriologists, the cuneiform system of writing originated with the Sumerians, the primitive non-Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia, from whom it was borrowed by the Semitic Babylonians and Assyrians, and applied to their own language. In the same way the Greeks adopted the Semetic Phoenician alphabet, and the Germans adopted the Latin. The Semitic language of Babylonia and Assyria was, therefore, written in Sumerian characters, just as Hebrew can be written in English letters, or Turkish in Armenian, or Arabic in Syriac (Karshuni). This same cuneiform system of writing was afterwards adopted by the Medians, Persians, Mitannians, Cappadocians, ancient Armenians, and others. Hence five or six dlfferent styles of cuneiforrn writings may be distinguished. The "Persian" style, which is a direct, but simplified, derivative of the Babylonian, was introduced in the times of the Achaemenians. "Instead of a combination of as many as ten and fifteen wedges to make one sign, we have in the Persian style never more than five, and frequently only three; and instead of writing words by syllables, sounds alone were employed, and the syllabary of several hundred signs reduced to forty-two, while the ideographic style was fractionally abolished." The second style of cuneiform generally known as "Median", or "Susian", is, again, a slight modification of the "Persian".
67 > Besides these two, there is a third language (spoken in the northwestern district of Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and the Orontes), known as 'Mitanni', the exact status of which has not been clearly ascertained, but which has been adapted to cuneiform characters. A fourth variety, found on tablets from Cappadocia, represents again modification of the ordinary writing met with in Babylonia. In the inscriptions of Mitanni, the writing is a mixture of ideographs and syllables, just as in Mesopotamia, while the so-called 'Cappadocian' tablets are written in a corrupt Babylonian, corresponding in degree to the ' corrupt ' forms that the signs take on. In Mesopotamia itself quite a number of signs exist, some due to local influences, others the result of changes that took place in the course of time. In the oldest period known, that is, from 4000 to 3000 B.C., the writing is linear rather than wedge-shaped. The linear writing is the modification that the original pictures underwent in being adapted for engraving on stone; the wedges are the modification natural to the use of clay, though when once the wedges became the standard method, the greater frequency with which clay, as against stone came to be used led to an imitation of the wedges by those who cut out the characters on stone. In consequence, there developed two varieties of wedge-writing: the one that may be termed lapidary, used for the stone inscriptions, the official historical records, and such legal documents as were prepared with especial care; the other cursive, occurring only on legal and commercial clay tablets, and becoming more frequent as we approach the latest period of Babylonian writing, which extends to within a few decades of our era. In Assyria, finally, a special variety of cuneiform developed that is easily distinguished from the Babylonian by its greater neatness and the more vertical position of its wedges.
68 > (Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, Boston, 1898, p. 20).
69 The material on which the Assyro-Babylonians wrote their inscriptions was sometimes stone or metal, but usually clay of a fine quality most abundant in Babylonia, whence the use spread all over Western Asia.
70 > The clay was very carefully prepared, sometimes ground to an exceeding fineness, moistened, and moulded into various forms, ordinarily into a tablet whose average size is about six by two and one-half inches in superficial area by one inch in thickness, its sides curving slightly outwards. On the surface thus prepared, and while still soft, the characters were impressed with a stylus, the writing often standing in columns, and carried over upon the back and sides of the tablet. The clay was quite frequently moulded also into cones and barrel-shaped cylinders, having from six to ten sides on which writing could be inscribed. These tablets were then dried in the sun, or baked in a furnace -- a process which rendered the writing practically indestructible, unless the tablet itself was shattered.
71 > (G.S. Goodspeed, History of the Babylonians and Assyrians, p. 28).
72 Unlike all other Semitic systems of writing (except the Ethiopic, which is an adaptation of the Greek), that of the Assyro-Babylonians generally runs from left to right in horizontal lines, although in some very early inscriptions the lines run vertically from top to bottom like the Chinese. These two facts evidence the non-Semitic origin of the cuneiform system of writing.
73 Value of Assyriology for Study of the Old Testament
74 The part played by these Assyro-Babylonian discoveries in the exegesis and interpretation of the Old Testament has been important in direct proportion to the immense and hitherto unsuspected influence exercised by the Assyro-Babylonian religion, civilization, and literature upon the origin and gradual development of the literature and the religious and social institutions of the ancient Hebrews. This Babylonian influence, indeed, can be equally traced in its different forms and manifestations through all western Asia, many centuries before that conquest of Palestine by the twelve Israelitish tribes which put an end to the Canaanitish dominion and supremacy. The triumph of Assyriology, consequently, must be regarded as a triumph for Biblical exegesis and criticism, not in the sense that it has strikingly confirmed the strict veracity of the Biblical narratives, or that it has demonstrated the fallacies of the "higher criticism", as Sayce, Hommel, and others have contended, but in the sense that it has opened a new and certain path whereby we can study the writings of the Old Testament with their correct historical background, and trace them through their successive evolutions and transformations. Assyriology, in fact, has given us such excellent and unexpected results as to completely revolutionize our former exegetical methods and conclusions. The study, it is true, has been often abused by ultra-radical and enthusiastic Assyriologists and critics. These have sought to build up groundless theories and illogical conclusions, they have forced the texts to say what they do not say, and to support conclusions which they do not support; but such an abuse, which is due to a perfectly natural enthusiasm and scientific ardour, can never vitiate the permanent value of sober Assyriological researches, which have demonstrably provided sources of the first importance for the study of the Old Testament. These few abuses can be discerned and in due time corrected by a more temperate and judicious criticism. If the value of Assyriology in its bearing upon the Old Testament has been too often exaggerated, the exaggeration is at least partly excusable, considering the comparatively recent date of these researches and their startling results in the way of discovery. On the other hand, that school of critics and theologians which disregards the genuine merits and the great value of Assyriological researches for the interpretation of the 0ld Testament is open to the double charge of unfairness and ignorance.
75 HISTORY OF ASSYRIA TO THE FALL OF NINEVEH (c. 2000-606 B.C.)
76 The origin of the Assyrian nation is involved in great obscurity. According to the author of the tenth chapter of Genesis, the Assyrians are the descendants of Assur (Asshur) one of the sons of Sem (Shem -- Gen., x, 22). According to Gen., x, 11, "Out of that land [Sennaar] came forth Assur, and built Ninive, and the streets of the city, and Chale. Resen also between Ninive and Chale", where the Authorized Version reads: "builded Nineveh, and the city of Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah". Till quite recently the most commonly accepted interpretation of this passage was that Assur left Babylonia, where Nemrod (Nimrod) the terrible was reigning, and settled in Assyria, where he built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth, Chale (Calah), and Resen. Nowdays, however, this interpretation, which is mainly based on the Vulgate version, is abandoned in favour of the more probable one, according to which Nemrod himself, the beginning of whose kingdom was Babylon (Babel), Arach (Erech), Achad (Accad), and Chalanne (Calneh), in Southern Babylonia (Gen., x, 10), went up to Assyria (Assur in this case being a geographical name, i.e., Assyria, and not ethnographical or personal), and there he built the four above-mentioned cities and founded the Assyrian colony. Whichever of these two interpretations be held as correct, one thing is certain: that the Assyrians are not only Semites, but in all probability an offshoot of the Semitic Babylonians, or a Babylonian colony; although, on account of their apparently purer Semitic blood, they have been looked upon by some scholars as an independent Semitic offshoot, which at the time of the great Semitic migration from Arabia (c. 3000-2500 B.C.), migrated and settled in Assyria. Assyrian rulers known to us bore the title of Ishshaku (probably "priest-prince", or "governor") and were certainly subject to some outside power, presumably that of Babylonia. Some of the earliest of these Ishshaki known to us are Ishmi-Dagan and his son Shamshi-Adad I (or Shamshi-Ramman). The exact date of these two princes is uncertain, although we may with reasonable certainty place them about 1840-1800 B.C. Other Ishshaki are Igur-Kapkapu, Shamshi-Adad II, Khallu, and Irishum. The two cities of Nineveh and Assur were certainly in existence at the time of Hammurabi (c. 2250 B.C.) for in one of his letters he makes mention of them. It is significant, however, that in the long inscription (300 lines) of Agumkakrime, one of the Kassic rulers of Babylonia (c. 1650 B.C.), in which he enumerates the various countries over which his rule extended, no mention is made of Assyria. Hence, it is probable that the beginning of an independent Assyrian kingdom may be placed towards the seventeenth century B.C. According to an inscription of King Esarhaddon (681-668 B.C.), the first Assyrian Ishshaku to assume the title of King was a certain Bel-bani, an inscription of whom, written in archaic Babylonian, was found by Father Scheil. His date, however, cannot be determined.
77 Towards the fifteenth century B.C. we find Egytian supremacy extended over Syria and the Mesopotamian valley: and in one of the royal inscriptions of Thothmes III of Egypt (1480-1427 B.C.), we find Assyria among his tributary nations. From the Tel-el-Amarna letters also we know that diplomatic negotiations and correspondences were frequent among the rulers of Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, Mitanni, and the Egyptian Pharaohs, especially Amenhotep IV. Towards this same period we find also the Kings of Assyria standing on an equal footing with those of Babylonia, and successfully contesting with the latter for the boundary-lines of their Kingdom. About 1450 B.C. Asshr-bel-nisheshu was King of Assyria. He settled the boundary-lines of his kingdom with his contemporary Karaindash, King of Babylonia. The same treaty was concluded again between his successor, Puzur-Asshur, and Burnaburiash I, King of Babylon. Puzur-Asshur was succeeded by Asshur-nadin-Ahhe, who is mentioned by his successor, Asshur-uballit, in one of his letters to Amenhotep IV, King of Egypt, as his father and predecessor.
78 During most of the long reign of Asshur-uballit, the relations between Assyria and Babylonia continued friendly, but towards the end of that reign the first open conflict between the two sister-countries broke out. The cause of the conflict was as follows: Asshur-uballit, in sign of friendship, had given his daughter, Muballitat-sherua, for wife to the King of Babylonia. The son born of this royal union, Kadashman-Charbe by name, succeeded his father on the throne, but was soon slain by a certaln Nazi-bugash (or Suzigash), the head of the discontented Kassite party, who ascended the throne in his stead. To avenge the death of his grandson the aged and valiant monarch, Asshur-uballit, invaded Babylonia, slew Nazi-bugash, and set the son of Kadashman-Charbe, who was still very young on the throne of Babylonia, as Kurigalzu II. However, towards the later part of his reign (c. 1380 B.C.), Kerizalu II became hostile to Assyria; in consequence of which, Belnirari, Assyhur-uballit's successor on the throne of Assyria, made war against him and defeated him at the city of Sugagu, annexing the northern part of Babylonia to Assyria. Belnirari was succeeded by his son, Pudi-ilu (c. 1360 B.C.), who undertook several successful military expeditions to the east and southeast of Assyria and built various temples, and of whom we possess few, but important, inscriptions. His successor was Ramman-nirari, who not only strengthened the newly-conquered territories of his two predecessors, but also made war and defeated Nazi-Maruttash, King of Babylonia, the successor of Kurigalzu II, adding a considerable Babylonian territory to the newly arisen, but powerful, Assyrian Empire.
79 Towards the end of the fourteenth century B.C. (about 1330-1320 B.C.,) Ramman-nirari was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser I. During, or about the time of this ruler, the once powerful Egyptian supremacy over Syria and Mesopotamia, thanks to the brilliant military raids and resistance of the Hittites, a powerful horde of tribes in Northern Syria and Asia Minor, was successfully withstood and confined to the Nile Valley. With the Egyptian pressure thus removed from Mesopotamia, and the accession of Shalmaneser I, an ambitious and energetic monarch, to the throne of Assyria, the Assyrian empire began to extend its power westwards. Following the course of the Tigris, Shalmaneser I marched northwards and subjugated many northern tribes; then, turning westwards, invaded part of northeastern Syria and conquered the Arami, or Aramaeans, of Western Mesopotamia. From there he marched against the land of Musri, in Northern Arabia, adding a considerable territory to his empire. For strategic reasons he transferred the seat of his kingdom from the city of Asshur to that of Kalkhi (the Chale, or Calah, of Genesis) forty miles to the north, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and eighteen miles south of Nineveh. Shalmaneser I was succeeded by his son Tukulti-Ninib (c. 1290 B.C.) whose records and inscriptions have been collected and edited by L.W. King of the British Museum. He was a valiant warrior and conqueror, for he not only preserved the integrity of the empire but also extended it towards the north and northwest. He invaded and conquered Babylonia, where he established the seat of his government for fully seven years, during which he became obnoxious to the Babylonians, who plotted and rebelled against him, proclaiming a certain Ramman shur-usur king in his stead. The Assyrians themselves also became dissatisfied on account of his long absence from Assyria, and he was slain by his own nobles, who proclaimed his son, Asshur-nasir-pal, king in his stead. After the death of this prince, two kings, Asshur-narrara and Nabudayan by name, reigned over Assyria, of whom, however, we know nothing. Towards 1210-1200 B.C. we find Bel-Kudur-usur and his successor, Ninib-pal-Eshara, reigning over Assyria. These, however, were attacked and defeated by the Babylonians who thus regained possession of a considerable part of their former territory. The next Assyrian monarch was Asshur-dan, Ninib-pal-Eshara's son. He avenged his father's defeat by invading Babylonia and capturing the cities of Zaban, lrria, and Akarsallu. In 1150 B.C., Asshur-dan was succeeded by his son, Mutakkil-Nusku; in 1140 B.C., by the latter's son Asshur-resb-ishi, who subjugated the peoples of Ahlami, Lullumi, Kuti (or Guti) and other countries, and administered a crushing defeat to his rival and contemporary, Nabuchodonosor (Nebuchadnezzar) I, King of Babylonia.
80 About 1120-1110 B.C. Asshur-resh-ishi was succeeded by his son, Tiglath-pileser I, one of the greatest Assyrian monarchs, under whose reign of only ten years duration Assyria rose to the apex of its military success and glory. He has left us a very detailed and circumstantial account of his military achievements, written on four octagonal cylinders which he placed at the four corners of the temple built by him to the god Ramman. According to these, he undertook, in the first five years of his reign, several successful military expeditions against Mushku, against the Shubari, against the Hittites, and into the mountains, of Zagros, against the people of Nairi and twenty-three kings, who were chased by him as far north as Lake Van in Armenia; against the people of Musri in Northern Arabia, and against the Aramaens, or Syrians. "In all", he tells us, forty-two countries and their kings, from beyond the Lower Zab, from the border of the distant mountains as far as the farther side of the Euphrates, up to the land of Hatti [Hittites] and as far as the upper sea of the setting sun [i.e. Lake Van], from the beginning of my sovereignty until my fifth year, has my hand conquered. I carried away their possessions, burned their cities with fire, demanded from their hostages tribute and contributions, and laid on them the heavy yoke of my rule." He crossed the Euprates several times, and even reached the Mediterranean, upon the waters of which he embarked. He also invaded Babylonia, inflicting a heavy blow on the Babylonian king, Marduk-nadin-ahhe and his army, and capturing several important cities, such as Dur-Kurigalzu, Sippar, Babylon, and Opis. He pushed his triumphal march even as far as EIam. Tiglath-pileser I was also a daring hunter, for in one of his campaigns, he tells us, he killed no fewer than one hundred and twenty lions on foot, and eight hundred with spears while in his chariot, caught elephants alive, and killed ten in his chariot. He kept at the city of Asshur a park of animals suitable for the chase. At Nineveh he had a botanical garden, in which he planted specimens of foreign trees gathered during his campaigns. He built also many temples, palaces, and canals. It may be of interest to add that his reign coincides with that of Heli (Eli), one of the ten judges who ruled over Israel prior to the establishment of the monarchy. At the time of Tiglath-pileser's death, Assyria was enjoying a period of tranquillity, which did not last, however, very long; for we find his two sons and successors, Asshur-bel-Kala and Shamshi-Ramman, seeking offensive and defensive alliances with the Kings of Babylonia.
81 From about 1070 to 950 B.C., a gap of more than one hundred years presents itself in the history of Assyria. But from 950 B.C. down to the fall of Nineveh and the overthrow of the Assyrian Empire (606 B.C.) the history of Assyria is very completely represented in documents. Towards 950 B.C., Tiglath-pileser II was king over Assyria. In 930 B.C. he was succeeded by his son, Assuhr-dan II, and about 910 B.C. by the latter's son, Ramman-nirari II, who, in 890, was succeeded by his son, Tukulti-Ninib II. Kings of Babylonia.
82 The last two monarchs appear to have undertaken several successful expeditions against Babylonia and the regions north of Assyria. Tukulti-Ninib's successor was his son Asshur-nasir-pal (885-860 B.C.), with whose accession to the throne began a long career of victory that placed Assyria at the head of the great powers of that age. He was a great conqueror, soldier, organizer, hunter, and builder, but fierce and cruel. In his eleven military campaigns he invaded, subdued, and conquered, after a series of devastations and raids, all the regions north, south, east, and west of Assyria, from the mountains of Armenia down to Babylon, and from the mountains of Kurdistan and Lake Urmi (Urum-yah) to the Mediterranean. He crossed the Euphrates and the Orontes, penetrated into the Lebanon region, attacked Karkemish, the capital of the Hittites, invaded Syria, and compelled the cities of the Mediterranean coast (such as Tyre, Sidon, Bylos, and Armad) to pay tribute. But the chief interest in the history of Asshur-nasir-pal lies in the fact that it was in his reign that Assyria first came into touch with Israel. In his expedition against Karkemish and Syria, which took place in 878 B.C., he undoubtedly exacted tribute from Amri (Omri), King of Israel; although the latter's name is not explicitly mentioned in this sense, either in Asshur-nasir-pal's inscriptions, or in the Old Testament. The fact, however, seems certain, for in the Assyrian incriptions from about this time down to the time of Sargon -- nearly 150 years -- land of Israel is frequently mentioned as the "land of Omri", and Jehu, a later King of Israel, but not of the dynasty of Amri, is also called the "son of Omri". This seems to show that the land of Israel was known to the Assyrians as the land of that king who happened to be reigning when they were first brought into political relations with it, and we know that this king was Amri, for in 878, the year of Asshur-nasir-pal's expedition to Syria, he had been king over Israel for some nine years.
83 Asshur-nasir-pal was succeeded by his son, Shalmaneser II, who in the sixth year of his reign (854 B.C.) made an expedition to the West with the object of subduing Damascus. In this memorable campaign he came into direct touch with Israel and their king Achab (Ahab), who happened to be one of the allies of Benhadad, King of Damascus. In describing this expedition the Assyrian monarch goes on to say that he approached Karkar, a town to the southwest of Karkemish, and the royal residence of Irhulini.
84 > I desolated and destroyed, I burnt it: 1200 chariots, 1200 horsemen, 20,000 men of Biridri of Damascus; 700 chariots, 700 horsemen, 10, 000 men of Irhulini of Hamath; 2,000 chariots, 10,000 men of Ahab of Israel . . . these twelve kings he [i.e. Irhulini] took to his assistance. To offer battle they marched against me. With the noble might which Asshur, the Lord, granted, with the powerful weapons which Nergal, who walks before me, gave, I fought with them, from Karkar into Gilzan I smote them. Of their soldiers I slew 14,000.
85 The Old Testament is silent on the presence of Achab in the battle of Karkar, which took place in the same year in which Achab died fighting in the battle of Ramoth Galaad (III Kings, xxii).
86 Eleven years after this event Jehu was proclaimed king over Israel, and one of his first acts was to pay tribute to Shalmaneser II. This incident is commemorated in the latter's well-known "black obelisk", in the British Museum, in which Jehu himself, "the son of Omri", is sculptured as paying tribute to the king. In another inscription the same king records the same fact, saying: At that time I received the tribute of the Tyrians, Sidonians, and Jehu the son of Omri". This act of homage took place in 842 B.C., in the eighteenth year of Shalmaneser's reign.
87 After Shalmneser II came his son Shamshi-Ramman II (824 B.C.), who, in order to quell the rebellion caused by his elder son, Asshur-danin-pal, undertook four campaigns. He also fought and defeated the Babylonian King, Marduk-balatsuiqbi, and his powerful army. Shamshi-Ramman II was succeeded by his son, Ramman-nirari III (812 B.C.). This king undertook several expeditions against Media, Armenia, the land of Nairi, and the region around Lake Urmi, and subjugated all the coastlands of the West, including Tyre, Sidon, Edom, Philistia, and the "land of Omri", i.e. Israel. The chief object of this expedition was again to subdue Damascus which he did by compelling Mari', its king, to pay a heavy tribute in silver, gold, copper, and iron, besides quantities of cloth and furniture. Joachaz (Jehoahaz) was then king over Israel, and he welcomed with open arms Ramman-nirari's advance, in as much as this monarch's conquest of Damascus relieved Israel from the heavy yoke of the Syrians. Ramman-nirari III also claimed sovereignty over Babylonia. His name is often given as that of Adad-nirari, and he reigned from 812 to 783 B.C. In one of his inscriptions, which are unfortunately scarce and laconic, he mentions the name of his wife, Sammuramat, which is the only Assyrian or Babylonian name discovered so far having any phonetic resemblance to that of the famous legendary queen, Semiramis. The personal identity of the two queens, however, is not admissible. Ramman-ni-rari III was succeeded by Shalmaneser III (783-773 B.C.), and the latter by Asshurdan III (773-755 B.C.). Of these three kings we know little, as no adequate inscriptions of their reigns have come down to us.
88 In the year 745 B.C. Tiglath-pileser III (in the Douay Version, Theglathphalasar) seized the throne of Assyria, at Nineveh. He is said to have begun life as gardener, to have distinguished himself as a soldier, and to have been elevated to the throne by the army. He was a most capable monarch, enterprising, energetic, wise, and daring. His military ability saved the Assyrian Empire from the utter ruin and decay which had begun to threaten its existence, and for this he is fitly spoken of as the founder of the Second Assyrian Empire. Tiglath-pileser's methods differed from those of his predecessors, who had been mere raiders and plunderers. He organized the empire and divided it into provinces, each of which had to pay a fixed tribute to the exchequer. He was thus able to extend Assyrian supremacy over almost all of Western Asia, from Armenia to Egypt, and from Persia to the Mediterranean. During his reign Assyria came into close contact with the Hebrews as is shown by his own inscriptions, as well as by the Old Testament records, where he is mentioned under the name of Phul (Pul). In the Assyrian inscriptions his name occurs only as that of Tiglath-pileser, but in the "List of Babylonian Kings" he is also called Pul, which settles his identity with the Phul, or Pul. of the Bible. He reigned for eighteen years (745-727 B.C.). In his annals he mentions the payment of tribute by several kings, among whom is "Menahem of Samaria", a fact confirmed by IV Kings, xv, 19. 20. During his reign, Achaz was king of Juda. This prince, having been hard pressed and harassed by Rasin (Rezin) of Damascus, and Phacee (Pekah) of Israel, entreated protection from (Tiglath-pileser) Theglath-phalasar, who, nothing loath, marched westward and attacked Rasin, whom he overthrew and shut up in Damascus. Two years later, the city surrendered. Rasin was slain, and the inhabitants were carried away captives (IV Kings, xvi, 7, 8, 9).
89 Meanwhile Israel also was overrun by the Assyrian monarch, the country reduced to the condition of a desert, and the trans-Jordanic tribes carried into captivity. At the same time the Philistines, the Edomites, the Arabians, and many other tribes were subdued; and after the fall of Damascus, Tiglath-pileser held a durbar which was attended by many princes, amongst whom was Achaz himself. His next expedition to Palestine was in 734, the objective this time being Gaza, an important town on the sea-coast. Achaz hastened to make, or, rather, to renew his submission to the Assyrian monarch; as we find his name mentioned again with several other tributary kings on one of Tiglath-pileser's inscriptions. In 733 the Assyrian monarch carried off the population from large portions of the Kingdom of Israel, sparing, however the capital, Samaria. Tiglath-pileser was the first Assyrian king to come into contact with the Kingdom of Juda, and also the first Assyrian monarch to begin on a large scale the system of transplanting peoples from one country to another, with the object of breaking down their national spirit, unity, and independence. According to many scholars, it was during Tiglath-pilesar's reign that Jonas (Jonah) preached in Nineveh, although others prefer to locate the date of this Hebrew prophet a century later, i.e. in the reign of Asshurbanipal (see below).
90 Tiglath-pileser III was succeeded by his son (?), Shalmaneser IV, who reigned but five years (727-722 B.C.). No historical inscriptions relating to this king have as yet been found. Nevertheless, the "Babylonian Chronicle" (which gives a list of the principal events occurring in Babylonia and Assyria between 744 and 688 B.C.) has the following statement: on the 25th of Thebet [December-January] Shalmaneser [in D.V. Salmanasar] ascended the throne of Assyria, and the city of Shamara'in [Samaria was destroyed. In the fifth year of his reign he died in the month of Thebet." The Assyrian "Eponym Canon" (see above) also informs us that the first two years of Shalmaneser's reign passed without an expedition, but in the remaining three his armies were engaged. In what direction the armies of Shalmaneser (Salmanasar) were engaged, the "Canon" does not say, but the "Babylonian Chronicle" (quoted above) and the Old Testament (IV Kings, xviii) explicitly point to Palestine, and particularly to Samaria, the capital of the Israelitish Kingdom. In the second or third year of Shalmaneser's reign, Osee (Hoshea) King of Israel, together with the King of Tyre, rebelled against Assyria; and in order to crush the rebellion the Assyrian monarch marched against both kings and laid siege to their capitals. The Biblical account (Douay Version IV Kings, xvii, 3 sqq.) of this expedition is as follows:
91 > Against him came up Salmanasar king of the Assyrians, and Osee became his servant, and paid him tribute. And when the king of the Assyrians found that Osee endeavouring to rebel had sent messengers to Sua the king of Egypt, that he might not pay tribute to the king of the Assyrians, as he had done every year, he besieged him, bound him and cast him into prison. And he went through all the land: and going up to Samaria, he besieged it three years. And in the ninth year of Osee, the king of the Assyrians took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria; and he placed them in Hala and Habor by the river of Gozan, in the cities of the Medes.
92 See also the parallel account in IV Kings, xviii, 9-11, which is one and the same as that here given. The two Biblical accounts, however, leave undecided the question, whether Shalmaneser himself or his successor conquered Samaria; while, from the Assyrian inscriptions it appears that Shalmaneser died, or was murdered, before he could personally carry his victory to an end. He was succeeded by Sargon II. Sargon, a man of commanding ability, was, notwithstanding his claim to royal ancestry, in all probability a usurper. He is one of the greatest figures in Assyrian history, and the founder of the famous Sargonid dynasty, which held sway in Assyria for more than a century, i.e. until the fall of Nineveh and the overthrow of the Assyrian Empire. He himself reigned for seventeen years (722-705 B.C.) and proved a most successful warrior and organizer. In every battle he was victor, and in every difficulty a man of resource. He was also a great builder and patron of the arts. His greatest work was the building of Dur-Sharrukin, or the Castle of Sargon, the modern Khorsabad, which was thoroughly explored in 1844-55 by Botta, Flandin, and Place. It was a large city, situated about ten miles from Nineveh, and capable of accommodating 80, 000 in habitants. His palace there was a wonder of architecture, panelled in alabaster, adorned with sculpture, and inscribed with the records of his exploits. In the same year in which he ascended the throne, Samaria fell (722 B.C.), and the Kingdom of Israel was brought to an end. "In the beginning of my reign", he tells us in his annals, "and in the first year of my reign . . . Samaria I besieged and conquered . . . 27, 290 inhabitants I carried off . . . I restored it again and made it as before. People from all lands, my prisoners, I settled there. My officials I set over them as governors. Tribute and tax I laid on them, as on the Assyrians." Sargon's second campaign was against the Elamites, whom he subdued. From Elam he marched westward, laid Hamath in ruins, and afterwards utterly defeated the combined forces of the Philistines and the Egyptians, at Raphia. He made Hanum, King of Gaza, prisoner, and carried several thousand captives, with very rich booty, into Assyria. Two years later, he attacked Karkemish, the capital of the Hittites, and conquered it, capturing its king, officers, and treasures, and deporting them into Assyria. He then for fully six years harassed, and finally subdued, all the northern and northwestern tribes of Kurdistan of Armenia (Urartu, or Ararat), and of Cilicia: the Mannai, the Mushki, the Kummukhi, the Milidi, the Kammani, the Gamgumi, the Samali, and many others who lived in those wild and inaccessible regions. Soon after this he subdued several Arabian tribes and, afterwards, the Medians, with their forty-two chiefs, or princes.
93 During the first eleven years of Sargon's reign, the Kingdom of Juda remained peacefully subject to Assyria, paying the stipulated annual tribute. In 711 B.C., however, Ezechias (Hezekiah), King of Juda, partly influenced by Merodach-baladan, of Babylonia, and partly by promises of help from Egypt, rebelled against the Assyrian monarch, and in this revolt he was heartly joined by the Phoenicians, the Philistines, the Moabites, and tbe Ammonites. Sargon was ever quick to act; he collected a powerful army, marched against the rebels, and dealt them a crushing blow. The fact is recorded in Isaias, xx, 1, where the name of Sargon is expressly mentioned as that of the invader and conqueror. With Palestine and the West pacified and subdued Sargon, ever energetic and prompt, turned his attention to Babylonia, where Merodach-baladan ruling. The Babylonian army was easily routed and Merodach-balaclan himself abandoned Babylon and fled in terror to Beth-Yakin, his ancestral stronghold. Sargon entered Babylonia in triumph, and in the following year he pursued the fleeing king, stormed the city of Beth-Yakin, deported its people, and compelled all the Babylonias and Elamites, to pay him tribute, homage and obedience. In 705, in the flower of his age and at the zenith of his glory, Sargon was assassinated. He was succeeded by his son, Sennacherib (705 to 681 B.C.), whose name is so well known to Bible students. He was an exceptionally cruel, arrogant, revengeful, and despotic ruler, but, at the same time, a monarch of wonderful power and ability. His first military expedition was directed against Merodach-baladan, of Babylonia, who, at the news of Sargon's death, had returned to Babylonia, assuming the title of kings and murdering Merodach-zakir-shumi, the viceroy appointed by Sargon. Merodach-baladan was, however, easily routed by Sennacherib; fleeing again to Elam and hiding himself in the marshes, but always ready to take advantage of Sennacherib's absence to return to Babylon. In 701, Sennacherib marched eastward over the Zagros mountains and towards the Caspian Sea. There he attacked, defeated, and subdued the Medians and all the neighbouring tribes. In the same year he marched on the Mediterranean coast and received the submission of the Phoenicians, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Edomites. He conquered Sidon, but was unable to lay hands on Tyre, on account of its impregnable position. Thence he hurried down the coast road, captured Askalon and its king, Sidqa; turning to the north he struck Ekron and Lachish, and dispersed the Ethiopian-Egyptian forces, which had assembled to oppose his march. Ezechias (Hezekiah), King of Juda, who together with the above-mentioned kings had rebelled against Sennacherib, was thus completely isolated, and Sennacherib, finding his way clear, marched against Juda, dealing a terrific blow at the little kingdom. Here is Sennacherib's own amount of the event:
94 > But as for Hezekiah of Judah, who had not subsmitted to my yoke, forty-six of his strong walled cities and the smaller cities round about them without number, by the battering of rams, and the attack of war-engines [?], by making breaches, by cutting through, the use of axes, I besieged and captured. Two hundred thousand one hundred and fifty people, small and great, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, and sheep without number I brought forth from their midst and reckoned as spoil. Himself [ Hezekiah] I shut up like a caged bird in Jerusalem, his royal city. I threw up fortifications against him, and whosoever came out of the gates of his city I punished. His cities, which I had plundered, I cut off from his land and gave to Mitinti, King of Ashdod, to Padi, King of Ekron, and to Cil-Bel, King of Gaza, and [thus] made his territory smaller. To the former taxes, paid yearly, tribute, a present for my lordship, I added and imposed on him. Hezekiah himself was overwhelmed by the fear of the brilliancy of my lordship, and the Arabians and faithful soldiers whom he had brought in to strengthen Jerusalem, his royal city, deserted him. Thirty talents of gold, eight hundred tatents of silver, precious stones, guhli daggassi, large lapis lazuli, couches of ivory, thrones of elephant skin and ivory, ivory, ushu and urkarinu woods of every kind, a heavy treasure, and his daughters, his palace women, male and female singers, to Nineveh, my lordship's city, I caused to be brought after me, and he sent his ambassador to give tribute and to pay homage.
95 The same event is also recorded in IV Kings, xviii and xix, and in Isaias, xxxvi and xxxvii, but in somewhat different manner. According to the Biblical account, Sennacherib, not satisfied with the payment of tribute, demanded from Ezechias the unconditional surrender of Jerusalem, which the Judean king refused. Terrified and bewildered, Ezachias called the prophet Isaias and laid the matter before him, asking him for advice and counsel. The prophet strongly advised the vacillating king to oppose the outrageous demands of the Assyrian, promising him Yahweh's help and protection. Accordingly, Ezechias refused to surrender, and Sennacherib, enraged and revengeful, resolved to storm and destroy the city. Ezechias the unconditional surrender of Jerusalem, which the Judean king refused. Terrified and bewildered, Ezechias called the prophet Isaias and laid the matter before him, asking him for advice and counsel. The prophet strongly advised the vacillating king to oppose the outrageous demands of the Assyrian, promising him Yahweh's help and protection. Accordingly, Ezechias refused to surrender, and Sennacherib, enraged and revengeful, resolved to storm and destroy the city. But in that same night the whole Assyrian army, gathered under the walls of Jerusalem, was stricken by the angel of the Lord, who slew one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers. At the sight of this terrible calamity, Sennacherib in terror and confusion, departed and returned to Assyria. The Assyrian and the Biblical accounts are prima facie conflicting, but many more or less plausible solutions have suggested. In the first place we must not expect to find in Sennacherib's own annals mention of, or allusion to, any reverse he may have suffered; such allusions would be clearly incompatible with the monarch's pride, as well as with the purpose of annals incribed only to glorify his exploits and victories. In the second place, it is not improbable that Sennacherib undertook two different campaigns against Juda: in the first, to which his annals refer, he contented himself with exacting and receiving submission and tribute from Ezechias (Hezekiah); but in a later expedition, which he does not mention, he insisted on the surrender of Jerusalem, and in this latter expedition he met with the awful disaster. It is to this expedition that the Biblical account refers. Hence there is no real contradiction between the two narratives, as they speak of two different events. Furthermore, the disaster which overtook the Assyrian army may have been, after all, quite a natural one. It may have been a sudden attack of the plague, a disease to which Oriental armies, from their utter neglect of sanitation, are extremely subject, and before which they quickly succumb. Josephus explicitly affirms that it was a flagellum prodigiosum (Antiq. Jud., X, i, n. 5); while according to an Egyptian tradition preserved to us by Herodotus (Lib. II, cxli), Sennacherib's army was attacked and destroyed by a kind of poisonous wild mice, which suddenly broke into the Assyrian camp, completely demoralizing the army. At any rate Sennacherib's campaign came to an abrupt end, and he was f'orced to retreat to Nineveh. It is noteworthy, however, that for the rest of his life Sennacherib undertook no more military expeditions to the West, or to Palestine. This fact, interpreted in the light of the Assyrian monuments, would be the light of the complete submission of Syria and Palestine: while in the light of the Biblical narrative it would signify that Sennacherib, after his disastrous defeat, dared not attack Palestine again.
96 While laying siege to Jerusalem, Sennacherib received the disquieting news of Merodach-baladan's sudden appearance in Babylonia. A portion of the Assyrian army was detached and hurriedly sent to Babylonia against the restless and indomiable foe of Assyria. In a fierce battle Merodach-baladan was for the third time defeated and compelled to flee to Elam, where, worn and broken down by old age and misfortunes, he ended his troubled life, and Asshur-nadin-shum, the eldest son of Sennacherib, was appointed king over Babylonia. After his return from the West and after the final defeat of .Merodach-baladan, Sennacherib began lengthy and active preparations for an effective expeditions against Babylonia, which was ever rebellious and restless.
97 > The expedition was as unique in its methods as it audacious in its conception.
98 With a powerful army and navy, he moved southward and in a terrific battle near Khalulu, utterly routed the rebellious Chaldeans, Babylonians, and Elamites, and executed their two chiefs, Nergal-usezib and Musezib-Merodach. Elam was ravaged, "the smoke of burning towns obscuring the heavens". He next attacked Babylon, which was stormed, sacked burnt, flooded, and so mercilesslv punished that it was reduced to a mass of ruins, and almost obliterated. On his return to Assyria, Sennacherib appears to have spent the last years of his reign in building his magnificent palace at Nineveh, and in embellishing the city with temples, palaces, gardens, arsenals, and fortifications. After a long, stormy, and glorious reign, he died by the hand of one of his own sons (681 B.C.). The Bible tells us that "as he [Sennacherib] was worshipping in the temple of Nesroch his god, Adramelech and Sarasar his sons slew him with the sword, and they fled into the land of the Armenians, and Asarhaddon [Esarhaddon] his son reigned in his stead" (IV Kings, xix, 37). The "Babylonian Chronicle", however, has "on 20 Thebet [December-January] Sennacherib, King of Assyria, was slain by his son in a rebellion . . . years reigned Sennacherib in Assyria. From 20 Thebet to 2 Adar [March-April] was the rebellion in Assyria maintained (in to Adar his son, Esarhaddon, ascended the throne of Assyria." If the murderer of Sennacherib was, as the "Babylonian Chronicle" tells us, one of his own sons, no son of Sennacherib by the name of Adrammelech or Sharezer has as yet been found in the Assyrian monuments; and while the Biblical narrative seems to indicate that the murder took place in Nineveh, on the other hand an inscription of Asshur-banipal, Sennacherib's grandson, clearly affirms that the tragedy took place in Babylon, in the temple of Marduk (of which Nesroch, or Nisroch, is probably a corruption). Sennacherib was succeeded by his younger son, Esarhaddon, who reigned from 681 to 668 B.C. At the time of his father's death, Esarhaddon was in Armenia with the Assyrian army, but on hearing the sad news he promptly set out for Nineveh, first to avenge his father's death by punishing the perpetrators of the crime, and then to ascend the throne. On his way home he met the assassins and their army near Cappadocia, and in a decisive battle routed them with tremendous loss, thus becoming the sole and undisputed lord of Assyria. Esarhaddon's first campaign was against Babylonia, where a fresh revolt, caused by the son of the late Merodach-baladan, had broken out. The pretender was easily defeated and compelled to flee to Elam. Esarhaddon, unlike his father, determined to build up Babylon and to restore its ruined temples, 2 palaces, and walls he gave back to the people their property, which had been taken away from them as spoils of war during Sennacherib's destructive campaign, and succeeded in restoring peace and harmony among the people. He determined, furthermore, to make Babylon his residence for part of the year, thus restoring its ardent splendour and religious supremacy. Esarhaddon's second campaign was directed against the West, i.e. Syria, where a fresh rebellion, having for its centre the great maritime city of Sidon, had broken out. He captured the city and completely destroyed it, ordering a new city, with the name of Kar-Esarhaddon, to be built on its ruins. The king of Sidon was caught and beheaded, and the surrounding country devastated. Twenty-two Syrian princes, among them Manasses, King of Juda, surrendered and submitted to Esarhaddon. Scarcely, however, had he retired when these same princes, including Manasses, revolted. But the great Esarhaddon utterly crushed the rebellion, taking numerous cities, captives, and treasures, and ordering Manasses to be carried to Babylon, where the king was then residing. A few years later Esarhaddon had mercy on Manasses and allowed him to return to his own kingdom. In a third campaign, Esarhaddon blockaded the impregnable Tyre, and set out to conquer Egypt, which he successfully accomplished by defeating its king, Tirhakah. In order to effectively establish Assyrian supremacy over Egypt, he divided the country into twenty provinces, and over each of these he appointed a governor; sometimes a native, sometimes an Assyrian.
99 He exacted heavy annual tribute from every one of these twenty provinces, and returned in triumph to Assyria. "As for Tarqu [Tirhakah], King of Egypt and Cush, who was under the curse of their great divinity, from Ishupri as far as Memphis, his royal city -- a march of fifteen days -- every day without exception. I killed his warriors in great number, and as for him, five times with the point of the spear I struck him with a deadly stroke. Memphis, his royal city, in half a day, by cutting through and scaling, I besieged, I conquered, I tore down, I destroyed, I burned with fire, and the wife of his palace, his palace women, Ushanahuru, his own son, and the rest of his sons, his daughters, his property and possessions, his horses, his oxen, his sheep without number, I carried away as spoiI to Assyria. I tore up the root of Cush frorn Egypt, a single one -- even to the suppliant -- I did not leave behind. Over all Egypt I appointed kings, prefects, governors, grain-inspectors, mayors, and secretaries. I instituted regular offerings to Asshur and the great gods, my lords, for all time. I placed on them the tribute and taxes of my lordship, regularly and without fail." Esarhaddon also invaded Arabia, penetrating to its very centre, through hundreds of miles of sandy lands which no other Assyrian monarch had penetrated before. Another important campaign was that directed against Cimmerians, near the Caucasus, and against rnany other tribes, in Armenia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Asia Minor, and Media. The monarch's last expedition was a second campaign against Egypt. Before leaving Assyria, however, i.e. in the month of Iyyar (April-May), 668 B.C., as if forecasting future events, he constituted his son Asshurbanipal co-regent and successor to the throne, leaving to his other son, Shamash-shum-ukin, Babylonia. But, while on his way to Egypt, he fell sick, and on the 10th of Marsheshwan (October), in the year 668, he died.
100 Esarhaddon was a truly remarkable ruler. Unlike his father, he was religious, generous, forgiving, less harsh and cruel, and very diplomatic. He ruled the various conquered countries with wisdom and toletation, while he established a rigorous system of administration. A great temple-builder and lover of art he has left us many records and inscriptions. At Nineveh he rebuilt the temple of Ashur, and in Babylonia, the temples at Ukuk, Sippar, Dur-Ilu, Borsippa, and others, in all about thirty. In Nineveh he erected for himself a magnificent palace and arsenal, and at Kalkhi (Calah; Douay, Chale) another of smaller dimensions, which was still unfinished at the time of his death. Asshurbanipal, Esarhaddon's successor, was undoubtedly the greatest of all Assyrian monarchs. For generalship, military conquests, diplomacy, love of splendor and luxury, and passion for the arts and letters, he has neither superior nor equal in the annals of that empire. To him we owe the greatest part of our knowledge of Assyrian-Babylonian history, art, and civilization. Endowed with a rare taste for letters, he caused all the most important historical, religious, mythological, legal, astronomical, mathematical, grammatical, and lexicographical texts and inscriptions known to his day to be copied and placed in a magnificent library which he built in his own palace. "Tens of thousands of clay tablets systematically arranged on shelves for easy consultation contained, besides official dispatches and other archives the choicest religious, historical, and scientific literature of the Babylonian-Assyrian world. Under the inspiration of the king's literary zeal, scribes copied and translated the ancient sacred classics of primitive Babylonia for this library, so that, from its remains, can be reconstructed, not merely the details of the government and adminitration of the Assyria of his time, but the life and thought of the far distant Babylonian world." (G.H. Goodspeed, Hist. of the Babylonians and Assyrians, pp. 315, 316.) Of this library, which must have contained over forty thousand clay tablets, a part was discovered by G. Smith and H. Rassam, part has been destroyed, and part yet remains to be explored. Here G. Smith first discovered the famous Babylonian accounts of the Creation and of Deluge in which we find so many striking similarities with the parallel Biblical accounts. Asshur-banipal was also a great temple-builder -- in Nineveh, Arbela, Tarbish, Babylon, Borsippa, Sippar, Nippur, and Uruk. He fortified Nineveh, repaired, enlarged, and embellished Sennacherib's palace, and built next to it another palace of remarkable beauty. This he adorned with numerous magnificent statues, sculptures, bas-reliefs, inscriptions, and treasures. Assyrian art, especially sculpture and architecture, reached during his reign its golden age and its classical perfection, while Assyrian power and supremacy touched the extreme zenith of its height; for with Asshurbanipal's death Assyrian power and glory sank into the deepest gloom, and perished presumably, to rise no more.
101 Asshurbanipal's military campaigns were very numerous. He ascended the throne in 668 B.C. and his first move was against Egypt, which he subdued, penetrating as far as Memphis and Thebes. On his way back, he exacted tribute from the Syrian and Phoenician kings, among whom was Manasses of Juda, who is expressly mentioned in one of the king's inscriptions. He forced Tyre to surrender, and subdued the Kings of Arvad, of Tabal, and of Cilicia. In 655, he marched against Babylonia and drove away from it a newly organized, but powerful coalition of Elamites, Chaldeans, and Arameans. He afterwards marched into the very heart of Elam, as far as Susa, and in a decisive battle he shattered the Elamite forces. In 625, Shamash-shum-ukin, Asshurbanipal's brother, who had been appointed by his father King of Babylonia, and who had till then worked in complete harmony with his brother, rebelled against Asshurbanipal. To this he was openly and secretly incited by many Babylonian, Elamite, and Arabian chiefs. Asshurbanipal, however, was quick to act. He marched against BabyIonia, shut off all the rebels in their own fortresses, and forced them to a complete surrender. His brother set fire to his own palace and threw himself into the flames. The cities and fortresses were captured, the rebels slain, and Elam completely devastated. Temples, palaces, royal tombs, and shrines were destroyed. Treasures and booty were taken and carried away to Assyria, and several thousands of people, as well as all the princes of the royal family, were executed, so that, a few years later Elam disappeared for ever front history. In another campaign, Asshurbanipal advanced against Arabia and subdued the Kedarenes, the Nabataeans, and a dozen other Arabian tribes, as far as Damascus. His attention was next attracted to Armenia, Cappadocia, Media, and the northwestern and northeastern regions. In all these he established his supremacy, so that from 640 till 626, the year of Asshurbanipal's death, Assyria was at peace. However, most scholars incline to believe that during the last years of the monarch's reign the Assyrian Empire began to decay.
102 Asshurbanipal is probably mentioned once in the Old Testament (I Esdras, iv, 10) under the name of Asenaphar, or, better, Ashenappar (Ashenappal) in connection with his deportation of many troublesome populations into Samaria. He is probably alluded to by the Second Isaias and Nahum, in connection with his campaigns against Egypt and Arabia. According to G. Brunengo, S.J. (Nabuchodnossor di Giuditta, Rome, 1886) and other scholars, Assuhrbanipal is the Nabuchodonosor (Nebuchadnezzar) of the Book of Judith; others identify him with the Sardanapalus of greek historians. In view, however, of the conflicting characters of the legendary Sardanapalus and the Asshurbanipal of the cuneiform inscriptions, this last identification seems impossible. Besides, Asshurbanipal was not the last king of Assyria, as Sardanapalus is supposed to have been.
103 Asshurbanipal was succeeded by his two sons, Asshur-etil-elani and Sin-shar-ishkun. Of their respective reigns and their exploits we know nothing, except that in their days Assyria began rapidly to lose its prestige and power. All the foreign provinces -- Egypt, Phoenicia, Chanaan, Syria, Arabia, Armenia, Media, Babylonia, and Elam -- broke away from Assyria, when the degenerate and feeble successors of the valiant Asshurbanipal proved unable to cope with the situation. They had probably abandoned themselves to effeminate luxury and debaucheries, caring little or nothing for military glory. In the meanwhile Nabopolassar, King of Babylon, and Cyaxares, King of Media, formed a family and political alliance, the latter giving his daughter in marriage to the formers's son, Nabuchodonossor (Nebuchadnezzar). At the head of a powerful army, these two kings together marched against Nineveh and laid siege to it for fully two years, after which the city surrendered and was completely destroyed and demolished (606 B.C.), and Assyria became a province of Babylonia and Media.
104 Religion and Civilization
105 The religion and civilization of Assyria were almost identical with those of Babylonia, the former having been derived from the latter and developed along the same lines. For, although the Assyrians made notable contributions to architecture, art, science, and literature, these were with them essentially a Babylonian importation. Assyrian temples and palaces were modelled upon those of Babylonia, although in the building material stone was far more liberally employed. In sculptural decorations and in statuary more richness and originality were displayed by the Assyrians than by the Babylonians. It seems to have been a hobby of Assyrian rnonarchs to build colossal palaces, adorned with gigantic statues and an infinite variety of bas-reliefs and inscriptions showing their warlike exploits. Asshurbanipal's library shows that Assyrian religious literature was not only an imitation of that of Babylonia, but absolutely identical therewith. An examination of the religions of the two countries proves that the Assyrians adopted Babylonian doctrines, cults, and rites, with such slight modifications as were called for by the conditions prevailing in the northern country. The chief difference in the Assyrian pantheon, compared with that of Babylonia, is that, while in Semitic times the principal god of the latter was Marduk, that of the former was Asshur. The principal deities of both countries are: the three chief deities, Anu, the god of the heavenly expanse; Bel, the earth god and creator of mankind; Ea, the god of humanity par excellence, and of the water. Next comes Ishtar, the mother of mankind and the consort of Bel; Sin, firstborn son of Bel, the father of wisdom personified in the moon; Shamash, the sun-god; Ninib, the hero of the heavenly and earthly spirits; Nergal, chief of the netherworld and of the subterranean demons, and god of pestilence and fevers; Marduk, originally a solar deity, conqueror of storrns, and afterwards creator of mankind and the supreme god of Semitic Babylonia; Adad, or Ramman, the god of storms, thunders, and lighting; Nebo, the god of wisdorn, to whom the art of writing and sciences are ascribed; Girru-Nusku, or, simply, Nusku, the god of fire, as driving away demons and evil spirits; Asshur, the consort of Belit, and the supreme god of Assyria. Besides these there were other minor deities.
106 Gabriel Oussani
Asterisk
40 (From the Greek aster, a star).
41 This is a utensil for the Liturgy according to the Greek Rite, which is not used in Roman Rite at all. It consists of two curved bands, or slips, made of silver or gold which cross each other at right angles and thus form a double arch. It is used to place over the amnos or particles of blessed bread, when spread out upon the paten during the proskomide and earlier part of the Greek Liturgy, so as to prevent the veil from coming in contact with or disturbing these blessed but unconsecrated particles of bread in carrying the paten from the prothesis to the altar, or while it is standing at either place. It is laid aside after the Creed and is not ordinarily used again during the Liturgy. The asterisk is usually surmounted by a cross, and often has a tiny star suspended from the central junction, and in the Greek Orthodox is somewhat larger in size than in the Greek Catholic Church. When the priest in the proskomide service is those of blessed bread Iying upon the paten, he takes up the asterisk and incensing it says, "And the came forth and stood over where the child was." Then he puts it over the particles of bread upon the paten, and proceeds to cover it with the various veils and at conclusion of the proskomide, begins the celebration of the Liturgy.
42 Andrew J. Shipman
Asterius
43 Name of several prominent persons in early Christian history.
44 (1) Asterius of Petra, a bishop of Arabia, ill-treated by the Arian faction at the Council of Sardica (343) for withdrawing from them his support, and exiled to Upper Libya in Egypt, whence he was recalled in 362 by the edict of Julian that restored all the banished bishops. He took part in the Council of Alexandria (362), called, among other reasons, for the purpose of healing the Meletian schism that was rendering the Church of Antioch. He was one bearers of the letter addressed by the council to the stubborn Lucifer of Cagliari and the other bishops then at Antioch. These peaceful measures were, however, rendered useless by Lucifer's precipitancy in consecrating Paulinus as successor to Meletius of Antioch, whereby the schism gained a new lease of life.
45 (2) Asterius of Amasea in Pontus (c. 400). The only fact in his life that is known is related by himself, viz. his education by a Scythian or Goth who had been sent in his youth to a schoolmaster of Antioch and thus acquired an excellent education and great fame among both Greeks and Romans. The extant writings of Asterius are twenty-one homilies, scriptural and panegyrical in content. The two on penance and "on the beginning of the fasts' were formerly is ascribed to St. Gregory of Nyssa (Bardenhewer, Patrologie, 1901, 267). A life of his predecessor, St. Basil, is ascribed to Asterius (Acta SS. 26 April). His works (P.G. XL) are described by Tillemont (Mem., X, 409). He was a student of Demosthenes and an orator of repute. Lightfoot says (Dict. of Christ. Biogr., I, 178) that his best sermons display "no inconsiderable skill in rhetoric great power of expression, and great earnestness of moral conviction; some passages are even strikingly eloquent. " The homilies of Asterius, like those of Zeno of Verona, offer no little valuable material to the Christian archaeologist. [De Buck in Acta SS. 30 Oct. (Paris, 1883), XIII, 330-334.]
46 (3) Asterius of Cappadocia, a Greek sophist, a friend of Arius, and also his fellow student in the school of Lucian of Antioch. St. Athanasius quotes more than once from a pro-Arian work of this writer. He wrote commentaries on the Epistle to the Romans, the Gospels, the Psalms, and "many other works' (Jerome, De Vir. Ill., c. xciv) , all of which have perished ( Zahn, Marcellus von Ancyra, Gotha, l867, 68 sqq.)
47 (4) Asterius, a Roman senator mentioned by Eusebius (His. Eccl., VII, 16) as a Christian distinguished for faith and charity. Rufinus says that he suffered martyrdom at Caesarea in Palestine in 262 (Baronius, An. Eccl. ad an. 262, sects. 81, 82).
48 (5) Asterius Urbanus, a Montanist writer of the latter part of the second century, referred to in Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. V, 16, 17); his work was probably a compilation of the pseudo-prophetic utterances of Montanus and his female companions Priscilla and Maximilla.
49 Thomas J. Shahan
Diocese of Asti
46 One of the divisions of the province of Alexandria, and suffragan of Turin. Asti is a very old town. It became Christian at an early period of the Christian Era. The first know bishop was Pastor in 451. After him, were Majoranus in 465, Benenatus in 680, and St. Evasius in 730. From 800 begins the regular list of bishops, though the seat was vacant from 1857 to 1867. There has been some controversy as to the beginning of the Diocese of Asti and the episcopate of St. Evasius, once placed by some at much earlier dates. Asti has 182,600 Catholics, 107 parishes, 300 secular priests, 12 regulars, 92 seminarists, 525 churches or chapels.
Aston
49 The name of several English Catholics of prominence.
50 Sir Arthur, member of an ancient and knightly family, an able military officer in the army of Charles I, governor of Oxford for the king, and made governor of Drogheda (Ireland) in 1649. He was killed September 10, 1640, at the siege of that town by the forces of Oliver Cromwell; his brains were dashed out with his wooden leg during the massacre that followed the capture (D. Murphy, Cromwell in Ireland, Dublin, 1897, p. 99).
51 Herbert, an English poet, born at Chelsea, 1614, third son of Walter, first Lord Aston of Forfar, whom he accompanied to Madrid on his second embassy in 1635, author of "Tixall Poetry, Collected by the Hon. Herbert Aston, 1658" (ed. with notes and illustrations by Arthur Clifford, Esq., Edinburgh, 1813, 4to).
52 Walter, father of the preceding and son of Sir Edward Aston, of Tixall in Staffordshire, educated under the direction of Sir Edward Coke, sent as one of the two ambassadors to Spain (1619) to negotiate a marriage treaty between Charles (I), Prince of Wales, and the Infanta, daughter of Philip 111. He became a convert to the Catholic Faith on this occasion, and on his return to England was made Lord of Forfar (Scotland). He had a decided taste for literature, and was the patron of Drayton, who dedicated to him (1598) his "Black Prince", and in his "Polyolbion" praises the Aston's "ancient seat" of Tixall.
53 William, born April 22, 1735, educated at St.-Omer, entered the Society of Jesus in 1761, and taught for several years in the Society's colleges of St.-Omer, Watten, and Bruges, until the suppression in 1773; died at Liège, March 15, 1800, as canon of the cathedral. Among his writings are "Letters Ultramontaines" and "Le Cosmopolite."
54 GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. of Engl. Catholics, 1, 76-82; FOLEY, Records of Engl. Province, S.J.
55 Thomas J. Shahan
Diocese of Astorga
52 (Asturiga Augusta.)
53 Suffragan of Valladolid in Spain, dates it is said, from the third century. It was the principal church of the Asturias in 344, after a long eclipse was again an Episcopal see in 747, and exhibits since 841 a regular succession of bishops. It was at different times a suffragan of Braga and of Santiago. It includes the whole province of Leon and counts 300,115 Catholics, 990 parishes, and as many parish churches, 431 chapels and 1,183 priests.
54 Thomas J. Shahan
Astrology
55 The supposed science which determines the influence of the stars, especially of the five older planets, on the fate of man (astrologia judiciaria; mundane, or judicial astrology) or on the changes of the weather (astrologia naturalis; natural astrology) according to certain fixed rules dependent upon the controlling position of stars (constallations aspects ) at the time under consideration. Judicial astrology--more important branch of this occult art--depended for its predictions upon the position of the planets in the "twelve houses " at the moment of the birth of a human being. The calculations necessary to settle these positions were casting the horoscope or the diagram of the heavens (thema coeli) at the nativity. Starting with the point that was rising just at the moment of birth, the celestical equator was divided into twelve equal parts, six above, and six below the horizon, and circles were drawn through these points and the intersecting points of the horizon and the meridian. Thus the heavens were divided into twelve houses. The first house (horoscopus) begins with the point of the ecliptic that is just rising (ascendens). The twelve houses are divided into cardinal houses, also called anguli, succeeding houses (succedentes, anaphora) and declining or cadent houses (cadentes, cataphora). The houses symbolize respectively: life, personal property, consanguinity, riches, children and jewels, health, marriage and course of life, manner of death and inheritance, intellect and disposition (also long journeys), position in life and dignities, friends and success, enemies and misfortune. In the horoscope all these symbolic meanings are considered in their relation to the newly born. A Latin hexameter thus sums up the meaning of the twelve houses:
56 > Vita, lucrum, fratres, genitor, nati, valetudo,
57 > Uxor, mors, sapiens, regnans benefactaque, daemon.
58 The position of the planets and the sun and moon in the twelve houses at the moment of birth is decisive. The planets vary as to meaning. They are divided into day-stars (Saturn, Jupiter, and also the sun) and night-stars (the moon, Mars, and Venus); Mercury belongs both to day and night. The sun, Jupiter, and Mars are masculine; the moon and Venus are feminine, Mercury belongs both to day and night. The sun, Jupiter, and Mars are masculine; the moon and Venus are feminine, Mercury belonging again to both classes. Jupiter (fortuna major) and Venus (fortuna minor) are good planets; Saturn (infortuna major) and Mars (infortuna minor) are malignant planets. The sun, moon, and Mercury have a mixed character. Each of the planets known to antiquity, including sun and moon, ruled a day of the week; hence the names still used to designate the various days. Judicial astrology also took into consideration the position of the sun in the zodiac at the moment of birth; the signs of the zodiac also had a special astrological significance in respect to the weal and woe of the newborn, particularly his health. In medical astrology every sign of the zodiac ruled some special part of the body, as for example: Aries, the Ram, the head: its diseases; Libra, the Balance, the intestines. Judicial astrology postulates the acceptance of the earth as the centre of the solar system. Natural astrology predicts the weather from the positions of the planets, especially the moon. Many of its theories are not to be rejected a priori, since the question of the moon's meteorological influence still awaits a solution which must depend upon the progress of human knowledge as to ether waves and cognate matters.
59 History
60 The history of astrology is an important part of the history of the development of civilization, it goes back to the early days of the human race. The unchangeable, harmonious course of the heavenly bodies, the profound impression made on the souI of man by the power of such heavenly phenomena as eclipses, the feeling of dependence on the sun, the giver of daylight--all these probably suggested in the early ages of the the human race, the question whether the fate of man was not dependent on these majestic manifestations of Divine power. Astrology was, therefore the foster-sister of astronomy, the science of the investigation of the heavens. From the start astrology was employed for the needs and benefit of daily life; the astrologers were astronomers only incidentally and in so far as astronomy assisted astrology in the functions which the latter had to perform in connection with religious worship. According to the belief of the early civilized races of the East, the stars were the source and at the same time the heralds of everything that happened, and the right to study the "godlike science" of astrology was a privilege of the priesthood. This was the case in Mesopotamia and Egypt, the oldest centres of civilization known to us in the East. The most ancient dwellers on the Euphrates the Akkado-Sumerians were believers in judicial astrology which was closely Interwoven with their worship of the stars. The same is true of their successors, the Babylonians and Assyrians, who were the chief exponents of astrology in antiquity. The Babylonians and Assyrians developed astrology, especially judicial, to the status of a science, and thus advanced in pure astronomical knowledge by a circuitous course through the labyrinth of astrological predictions. The Assyro-Babylonian priests (Chaldeans) were the professional astrologers of classic antiquity. In its origin Chaldaic astrology also goes back to the worship of stars; this is proved by the religious symbolism of the most ancient cuneiform texts of the zodiac. The oldest astrological document extant is the work called "Namar-Beli" (Illumination of Bel) composed for King Sargon I (end of the third millennium B.C.) and contained in the cuneiform library of King Asurbanipal (668-626 B.C.). It includes astronomical observations and calculations of solar and lunar eclipses combined with astrological predictions, to which the interpretation of dreams already belonged. Even in the time of Chaldean, which should be called Assyrian, astrology, the five planets, together with the sun and moon, were divided according to their character and their position in the zodiac as well as according to their position in the twelve houses. As star of the sun, Saturn was the great planet and ruler of the heavens. The weather, as far back as this time, was predicted from the colour of the planets and from their rising and setting. Classical antiquity looked upon Berosus, priest of the temple of Bel at Babylon, as the oldest writer on astrology; and according to Vitruvius Berosus founded a school of astrology at Cos. Seneca says that a Greek translation, made by Berosus, of the "Namar-Beli " from the library the Asurbanipal was known to classical antiquity. The Egyptians and Hindus were as zealous astrologers as the nations on the Euphrates and Tigris. The dependence of the early Egyptian star (sun) worship (the basis of the worship of Osiris) upon early Chaldaic influences belongs to the still unsettled question of the origin of early Egyptian civilization. But undoubtly the priest of the Pharaohs were the docile pupils in astrology of the old Chaldean priests. The mysterious Taauth (Thoth), the Hermes Trismegistus of antiquity, was regarded the earliest teacher of astrology in Egypt. He is reputed to have laid the foundation of astrology in the "Hermetic Books"; the division of the zodiac into the twelve signs is also due to him. In classic antiquity many works on astrology or on occult sciences in general were ascribed to this mythical founder of Egyptian astrology. The astrological rule of reckoning named after him, "Trutina Hermetis" made it possible to calculate the position of the stars at the time of conception from tbe diagram of the heavens at the time of birth. The Egyptians developed astrology to a condition from which it varies but little today. The hours of the day and night received special planets as their rulers, and high and low stood under the determinative influence of the stars which proclaimed through the priestly caste the coming fate of the land and its inhabitants. It is significant that in ancient Egypt astronomy, as well as astrology, was brought to an undoubtedly high state of cultivation. The astoundingly daring theories of the world found in the Egyptian texts, which permit us to infer that their authors were even acquainted with the helio-centric conception of the universe, are based entirely on astrologico-theosophic views. The astrology of the ancient inhabitants of India was similar, though hardly so comptetely developed; they also regarded the planets as the rulers of the different hours. Their division of the zodiac into twenty-eight houses of the moon is worthy of notice; this conception like all the rest of the fundamental beliefs of Hindu astrology, is to be found in the Rig-Veda. In India both astrology and the worship of the gods go back to the worship of the stars. Even today, the Hindus, especially the Brahmins, are considered the best authorities on astrology and the most skilful casters of horoscopes.
61 India influenced and aided the development of astrology in ancient China, both India and Mesopotamia that of the Medes and Persians. The Assyro-Babylonian and Egyptian priests were the teachers of the Greek astrologers. Both of these priestly castes were called Chaldeans, and this name remained the designation of all astrologers and astronomers in classic antiquity and in the period following. It speaks well for the sound sense of the early Grecian philosophers that they seperated the genuine astronomic hypotheses and facts from the confused mass of erroneous astrological teaching which the Egyptian priests had confided to them. At the same time it was through the old Hellenic philosophers that the astrological secrets of the Oriental priestly castes reached the profane world. The earliest mention of the art of astrological prediction in early classical literature is found in the "Prometheus Vinctus" of Æschylus (line 486 sqq.) a comparatively late date. The often quoted lines of the Odyssey (Bk. XVIII, 136 sqq.) have nothing to do with astrology. Astrology was probably cultivated as an occult science by the Pythagorean school which maintained the exclusiveness of a caste. The teaching of Pythagoras on the "harmony of the spheres" points to certain astrological hypotheses of the Egyptian priests. It is a striking fact that Greek astrology began to flourish when the glory of the early classical civilization had begun to wane. It was in the age of Euripides, who refers to astrological predictions in a little comedy, that the belief in astrology began to grow popular in Greece. After the overthrow of the Assyro-Babylonian Empire, the priests of those regions found refuge in Greece and spread their astrological teachings by word of mouth and writing. In this way astrology lost the characler of occult science. Astronomy and astrology remained closely united, and both sciences were represented by the so-called Chaldeans, Mathematici, and Genethliacs. Astrology proper, from the time of Posidonius, was called apotelesmatika (rendered into English, "apotelesmatics" in order to indicate more clearly the influence of the stars upon man's final destiny; apo, "from", and telos, "end"). Astrology soon permeated the entire philosophical conception of the nature among the Greeks, and rapidly attained a commanding position in religious worship. Plato was obliged to take astrology into consideration as a "philosophical doctrine", and his greatest disciple, Aristotle, was the first to separate the science of astrology from that of meteorology, which was reserved for the phenomena of the atmosphere. The Stoics who encouraged all forms of divination were active promoters of astrology. The more plainly the influence of Oriental teaching manifested itself in Greek civilization, and the more confused the political conditions and religious ideas of the Greek States became, the greater was the influence of astrologers in public, and the more mischievous their activity in private life. Every professional astronomer was at the same time an astrologer. Eudoxus of Cnidles, the author of the theory of concentric spheres, was perhaps the first to write in Greek on purely astrological topics, being led to select this subject by his studies in Egypt. Most of the Greek astronorners known to us followed in his footsteps, as, for instance, Geminus of Rhodes whose most important work treating of astronomy and astrology Eisagoge eis ta Phainomena (Introduction to Phenomena) was commented on even by Hipparchus. About 270 B.C. the poet Aratus of Soli in his didactic poem, "Phænomena", explained the system of Eudoxus, and in a poem called "Diosemeia", which was appended to the former, he interprets the rules of judicial and natural astrology that refer to the various changes of the stars. The poem of Aratus was greatly admired by both the Greeks and the Romans; Cicero translated it into Latin, and Hygius, Ovid's friend, wrote a commendary on it. In this age astrology was as highly developed as in its second period of prosperity, at the Renaissance. Medical astrology had also at this date secured a definite position. Hippocrates of Cos in his work "De Aere, Aqua et Locis", which shows the influence of the Pythagoreans, discusses at length the value of astrology and its prognostications for the whole domain of medicine. In the Alexandrine school of medicine, astrological prognosis, diagnosis, and hygiene soon covered with their rank growths the inherited scientific teachings that had been tested by practice. In this way "astrological" cures grew in favour. These forms of the art of healing are not without interest both for the history of suggestion and for that of human error. The diseases of the more important bodily organs were diagnosed according to the influence of the sign of the zodiac at the time, and a medicine applied which either acted by suggestion, or was wholly inoperative. In the division of the zodiac according to its medical effect on the different parts of the body the first sign taken was the Ram (Aries), which ruled the head, and the last of the series was the Fishes (Pisces) which controlled the health or ailments of the feet. As the appetite of the Greeks for the mysterious wisdom of astrology grew keener, the Egyptian and Chaldean astrologers continually drew out still more mystical but, at the same time, more dubious treasures from their inexhaustible store-house. The newly founded city of Alexandria, where the later Hellenic culture flourished was a centre for all astrologers and practitioners of the occult arts. From time to time books appeared here, professing to have had their origin in the early days of Egytian civilization, which contained the secret knowledge pertaining to astrological and mystical subjects. These writings seems to meet the aspirations of ordinary men for the ideal, but all they offered was a chaotic mass of theories concerning astrology and divination, and the less they were understood they more they were applauded. In the Renaissance these pseudo-scientific works of antiquity were eagerly studied. It suffices here to mention the books of Nechopso-Petosiris which were believed by the neo-Platonists to be most the ancient Egyptian authority on astrology but which, probably were written in Alexandria about 150 B.C. About this same time, in all probability, Manetho, an Egyptian priest and traveller mentioned by Ptolemy, wrote on astrology. In order to meet the exigencies which arose, each degree of the heavens in late Egyptian astrology was assigned to some special human activity and some one disease. Besides this, the "heavenly spheres", which play so important a part in the history of astronomy, were increased to 54, and even a higher number, and from astrological calculations made from the complicated movements of these spheres the fate both of men and nations was predicted. Thus arose in late classic times the sphoera barbarica (foreign sphere) which in the Middle Ages also had a controlling influence over astrology.
62 It was to be expected that the sober-minded, practical Romans would soon be dissatisfied with the mystical and enigmatical doctrines of Alexandrian astrology. Cato uttered warnings against the mischievous activity of the Chaldeans who had entered Italy along with Greek culture. In the year 139 B.C. the Praetor Cneius Cornelius Hispallus drove all astrologers out of Italy; but they returned, for even the Roman people could not begin an important undertaking without the aid and auspices. It is only necessary to recall the greatest man of ancient Rome, Julius Caesar. Cicero, who in his younger days had busied with astrology, protested vigorously, but without success, against it in his work "De Divinatione". The Emperor Augustus, on the other hand, believed in astrology and protected it. The first Roman work on astrology was dedicated to him; it was the "Astronomica" written about 45 B.C. by Marcus Manilius, who was probably a Chaldean by birth. In five books this poem gives an outline of the astrology of the zodiac and constellations. The fifth book is devoted to the sphoera barbarica. It is a curious fact that the poem does not take up the astrology of the planets. In spite of repeated attempts to suppress it, as in the reigns of Claudius and Vespasian, astrology maintained itself in the Roman Empire as one of the leading forms of culture. The lower the Romans sank in religion and morals the more astrology became entwined with all action and belief. Under Tiberius and Nero the two astrologers named Thrasyllus who were father and son held high political positions. The most distinguished astronomer of antiquity, Claudius Ptolemaeus, was also a zealous astrologer. His "Opus Quadripartitum, seu de apotelesmatibus et judiciis astrorum, libri IV" is one of the chief treatises on astrology of earlier times and is a detailed account of astrological teachings. This work occupied in astology as important a position as that which the same author's Megale Euntaxis (also called "Almagest"), held in the science of astronorny before the appearance of the Copernican theory. It is a striking fact that Ptolemy sought, in the second book of the "Opus Quadripartitum" to bring the psychical and bodily differences of the various nations into relation with the phyical conditions of their native lands, and to make these conditions, in their turn, depend on the positions of the stars. The Roman astrologers wrote their manuals in imitation of Ptolemy, but with the addition of mystic phantasies and predictions. After the death for Marcus Aurelius, the Chaldeans were always important personages at the imperial court. As late as the time of Constantine the Great the imperial notary Julius Firmius Maternus, who later became a Christian, wrote on "Mathematics, or the power and the influence of the stars" eight books which were the chief authority in astrology until the Renaissance. With the overthrow of the old Roman Empire and the victory of Christianity, astrology lost its importance in the centres of Christian civilization in the West. The last known astrologer of the old world was Johannes Laurentius (sometimes called Lydus) of Philadelphia in Lydia, who lived A.D. 490-565.
63 Astrology Under Christianity
64 From the start the Christian Church strongly opposed the false teachings of astrology. The Fathers energeticaly demanded the expulsion of the Chaldeans who did so much harm to the State and the citizens by employing a fantastic mysticism to play upon the ineradicable impulses of the common people, keeping their heathen conceptions alive and fostering a soul-perplexing cult which, with its fatalistic tendencies created difficulties in the discernment of right and wrong and weakened the moral foundations of all human conduct. There was no room in the early Christian Church for followers of this pseudo-science. The noted mathematician Aguila Ponticus was expelled from the Christian communion about the year 120, on account of his astrological heresies. The early Christians of Rome, therefore, regarded the astrological as their bitterest and, unfortunately, their too powerful enemies; and the astrologers probably did their part in stirring up the cruel persecutions of the Christians. As Christianity spread, the astrologers lost their influence and reputation, and gradually sank to the position of mere quacks. The conversion of Constantine the Great put an end to the importance of this so-called science, which for five hundred years had ruled the public life of Rome. In 321 Constantine issued an edict threatening all Chaldeans, Magi, and their followers with death. Astrology now disappeared for centuries from the Christian parts of Western Europe. Only the Arabic schools of learning, especially those in Spain after the Moors had conquered the Iberian peninsula, accepted this dubious inheritance from the wisdom of classic times, and among Arabs it became incentive to pure Astronomical research. Arabian and Jewish scholars were the representatives of astrology in the Middle Ages, while both Church and State in Christian countries rejected and persecuted this false doctrine and its heathen tendencies. Unfortunately, at the same time the development of astronony was checked, excepting so far as it was needed to establish certain necessary astronomic principles and to calculate the date of Easter. Yet early Christian legend dstinguished between astronomy and astrology by ascribing the introduction of the former to the good angels and to Abraham, while the latter was ascribed to Cham. In particular, St. Augustine ("De civitate Dei", VIII, xix, and in other places) fought against astrology and sought to prevent its amalgamation with pure natutal science. Once more the East prepared a second period of prosperity for astrology. The Jews, very soon after they were driven into Western Europe, busied themselves with astrological questions, being stimulated thereto by Talmud. Jewish scholars had, moreover, a knowlege of the most important works of classic times on astrology and they became the teachers of the Arabs. These latter, after the rapid spread of Mohammedanism in Western Asia and North Africa, and their defeat in Western Europe by Charles Martel, began to develop a civilization of their own. The mystical books which appeared in Jewish literature after the time of the Talmud, that is, the books called the "Sefer Zohar" and the "Sefer Yezirah" (Book of Creation), are full of rules of divination dealing especially with astrological meanings and calculations. The high reputation of the Talmud and Cabbala among the Jews in the Middle Ages explains their fondness for astrological speculations; but at a very early date, it should be noted, they distinguished between astronomy, "the science of reading the stars", and astrology, "the science of divination".
65 Caliph Al-Mansur, the builder of Bagdad, was, like his son, the famous Harun-al-Rashid, a promoter of learning. He was the first caliph to call Jewish scholars around him in order to develop the study of the mathematical sciences, especially astronomy, in his empire. In the year 777 the learned Jew Jacob ben Tarik founded at Bagdad a school for the study of astronomy and astrology which soon had a high reputation; among those trained here was Alchindi (Alkendi), a noted astronomer. It was one of Alchindi's pupils, Abumassar (Abu Mashar), from Bath in Chorassan, born about the year 805, whom the Middle Ages regarded as of greatest of Arabian astrologers. Astrology being regarded by the caliphs as the practical application of astronomy, all the more important Arabic and Jewish astronomers who were attached to that court, or who taught in the Moorish schools were also astrologers. Among the noteworthy Jewish astrologers may be mentioned Sahl ben Bishr al-Israel (about 820); Rabban al-Taban, the well-known cabbalist and Talmudic scholar; Shabbethai Donalo (913-970), who wrote a commentary on the astrology of the "Sefer Yezirah" which Western Europe later regarded as a standard work; and, lastly, the Jewish lyric poet and mathematician Abraham ibn Ezrah. Among the noted Arabic astronomers were Massah Allah Albategnius, Alpetragius, and others. The Arabo-Judaic astrology of the Middle Ages pursued the path indicated by Ptolemy, and his teachings were apparently the immovable foundation of all astronomical and astrological activity. At the same time the "Opus Quadripartitum" of the great Alexandrian was corrupted with Talmudic subtleties and overlaid with mystical and allegorical meanings, which were taken chiefly from the Jewish post -Talmudic belief conceming demons. This deterioration of astrology is not surprising if we bear in rnind the strong tendency of all Semitic races to fatalism and their blind belief in an inevitable destiny, a belief which entails spiritual demoralization. The result was that every conceivable pursuit of mankind every disease and indeed every nation had a special "heavenly regent", a constellation of definitely assigned position from the course of which the most daring prophecies were deduced.
66 Up to the time of the Crusades, Christian countries in general were spared any trouble from a degenerate astrology. Only natural astrology, the correctness of which the peasant thought he had recognized by experience secured a firm footing in spite of the prohibition of Church and State. But the gradually increasing influence of Arabic learning upon the civilization of the West, which reached its highest point at the time of the Crusades was unavoidably followed by the spread of the false theories of astrology. This was a natural result of the amalgamation of the teachings of pure astronomy with astrology at the Mohammedan seats of learning. The spread of astrology was also furthered by the Jewish scholars living in Christian lands, for they considered astrology as a necessary part of their cabalistic and Talmudic studies. The celebrated didactic poem "Imago Mundi", written by Gauthier of Metz in 1245, has a whole chapter on astrology. Pierre d'Ailly, the noted French theologian and astronomer, wrote several treatises on the subject. The public importance of astrology grew as the internal disorders of the Church increased and the papal and imperial power declined. Towards the close of the Middle Ages nearly every petty prince, as well as every ruler of importance, had his court astrologer upon whose ambiguous utterances the weal and the woe of the whole country often depended. Such a person was Angelo Catto, the astrologer of Louis XI of France. The revival of classical learning brought with it a second period of prosperity for astrology. Among the civilized peoples of the Renaissance period, so profoundly stirred by the all-prevailing religious, social and political ferment, the astrological teaching which had come to light with other treasures of ancient Hellenic learning found many ardent disciples. The romantic trend of the age and its highly cultivated sensuality were conditions which contributed to place this art in a position far higher than any it had attained in its former period of prosperity. The forerunners of Humanism busied themselves with astrology, and but few of them perceived the dangerous psychical effect of its teachings upon the masses. Towards the end of the the thirteenth century the Florentines employed Guido Bonatti as their official astrologer, and , although Florence then stood alone in this respect, it was scarcely a hundred years later when astrology had entered in earnest upon its triumphant course, and a Cecco d'Ascoli was already its devoted adherent. In Petrarch's day the questionable activity of the astrologers at the Italian courts had made such progress that this clear-sighted Humanist (De remed. utr. fortm. I , iii, sqq; Epist. rer. famil., III; 8, etc.) again and again attacked astrology and its representatives with the keenest weapons of his wit, though without success, and even without any following except the weak objections of Villani and the still more ineffectual polemics of Salutato in his didactic poem "De fato et fortunâ". Emperors and popes became votaries of astrology-- the Emperors Charles IV and V, and Popes Sixtus IV, Julius II, Leo X, and Paul III. When these rulers lived astrology was, so to say, the regulator of official life; it is a fact characteristic of the age, that at the papal and imperial courts ambassadors were not received in audience until the court astrologer had been consulted. Regiomontanus, the distinguished Bavarian mathematician, practised astrology, which from that time on assumed the character of the bread-winning profession, and as such was not beneath the dignity of so lofty an intellect as Kepler. Thus had astrology once more become the foster-mother of all astronomers. In the judgment of the men of the Renaissance -- and this was the age of a Nicholas Copernicus--the most profound astronomical researches and theories were only profitable in so far as they aided in the development of astrology. Among the zealous patrons of the art were the Medici. Catharine de' Medici made astrology popular in France. She erected an astrological observatory for herself near Paris, and her court astrologer was the celebrated "magician" Michel de Notredame (Nostradamus) who in 1555 published his principal work on astrology--a work still regarded as authoritative among the followers of his art. Another well-known man was Lucas Gauricus, the court astrologer of' Popes Leo X and Clement VII, who published a large number of astrological treatises. ln Germany Johann Stöffler, professor of mathematics at Tübingen, Matthias Landenberg, and, above all, Philip Melanchthon were zealous and distinguished defenders of astrology. In Pico della Mirandola (Adversus Astrologos libri XII) and Paolo Toscanelli astrology encountered its first successful antagonists; later in the Renaissance Johann Fischart and the Franciscan Nas were among its opponents (Cf. Philognesius, Practicarum, Ingolstadt, 1571).
67 Gabotto's charming essay, "L'astrologia nel quattrocento" in "Rivisto di filosofia scientica", VIII, 378, sq., gives much information concerning astrology in the fifteenth century. A. Graf's "La fatalita nelle credenze del medio evo" (in "Nuovo Antologia", 3rd series, XXVIII, 201,sqq.) is also of value for astrology at the turning point of the Middle Ages. Some of the late Roman astrologers, among whom was probably Firmicus Maternus, thought to reform astrology by idealizing it and raising its moral tone. The same purpose animated Paolo Toscanelli, called Maistro Pagollo, a physician greatly respected for the piety of his life, who belonged to the learned and artistic circle which gathered around Brother Ambrosius Camaldulensis in the Monastery of the Angels. There were special professors of astrology, besides those for astronomy, at the Universities of Pavia, Bologna, and even at the Sapienza during the pontificate of Leo X, while at times these astrologers outranked the astronomers. The three intellectual centres of astrology in the most brilliant period of the Renaissance were Bologna, Milan, and Mantua. The work of J.A. Campanus, published at Rome in 1495, and often commented on, namely, "Oratio initio studii Perugiae habita" throws a clear light on the lack of comprehension shown by the Church Fathers in their attitude towards pagan fatalism. Among other things it is here said: "Quanquam Augustinus, sanctissimus ille vir quidem ac doctissimus, sed fortassis ad fidem religionemgue propensior, negat quicquam vel mali astrorum necessitate contingere".
68 In the Renaissance, religion, also, was subordinated to the dictation of astrology. The hypothesis of an astrological epoch of the world for each religion was widely believed by Italian astrologers of the time, who obtained the theory from Arabo-Judaic sources. Thus it was said that the conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn permitted the rise of the Hebrew faith; that of Jupiter with Mars, the appearance of the Chaldaic religion; of Jupiter with the sun, the Egyptian religion; of Jupiter with Venus, Mohammedanism; and of Jupiter with Mercury, Christianity. At some future day the religion of Antichrist was to appear upon the conjunction of Jupiter with the moon. Extraordinary examples of the glorification of astrology in Italy during the Renaissance are the frescoes painted by Miretto in the Sala della Ragione at Pavia, and the frescoes in Borso's summer palace at Florence. Petrarch, as well, notwithstanding his public antagonism to astrology, was not, until his prime, entirely free from its taint. In this connection his relations with the famous astrologer, Mayno de Mayneri, are significant (Cf. Rajna, Giorn. stor., X, 101, sq.).
69 Even the victorious progress of the Copernican system could not at once destroy confidence in astrology. The greatest astronomers were still obliged to devote their time to making astrological predictions at princely courts for the sake of gain; Tycho Brahe made such calculations for the Emperor Rudolph II, and Kepler himself, the most distinguished astronomer of the age, was the imperial court astrologer. Kepler was also obliged to cast horoscopes for Wallenstein, who later came completely under the influence of the alchemist and astrologer Giambattista Zenno of Genoa, the Seni of Schiller's "Wallenstein". The influence of the Copernican theory, the war of enlightened minds against pseudo-prophetic wisdom and the increasing perception of the moral and psychical damage wrought by astrological humbug at last brought about a decline in the fortunes of astrology, and that precisely in Wallenstein's time. At the same period astrological tracts were stil being written by the most celebrated of English astrologers, William Lilly of Diseworth, Leicestershire, who received a pension of 100 pounds from Cromwell's council of state, and who, in spite of some awkward incidents, had no little political influence with Charles II. Among his works was a frequently republished "Christian Astrology". Shakespeare (in King Lear) and Milton were acquainted with and advocated astrological theories, and Robert Fludd was a representative of the art at the royal court. Francis Bacon, it is true, sought to win adherents for a purified and reformed astrology in order to destroy the existing form of the art. It was Jonathan Swift who in his clever satire, "Prediction for the Year 1708 by Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq", which deserves to be read even at the present day, gave the deathblow to the belief of English society in astrology. The last astrologer of importance on the Continent was Jean-Baptiste Marin, who issued "Astrologia Gallica" (1661). The greatly misunderstood Swiss naturalist Theophrastus Paracelsus was an opponent of astrology, and not its advocate, as was formerly inferred from writings erroneously attributed to him. The rapid growth of experimental investigation in the natural sciences in those countries which had been almost ruined, socially and politically; by the Thirty Years War completely banished the astrological parasites from society. Once more astrology fell to the level of a vulgar superstition, cutting a sorry figure among the classes that still had faith in the occult arts. The peasant held fast to his belief in natural astrologist and to this belief the progress of the art of printing and the spread of popular education contributed largely. For not only were there disseminated among the rural poor "farmer's almanacs", which contained information substantiated by the peasant's own experience, but the printing-presses also supplied the peasant with a great mass of cheap and easily understood books containing much fantastic astrological nonsense.
70 The remarkable physical discoveries of recent decades, in combination with the growing desire for an elevated philosophico-religious conception of the world and the intensified sensitiveness of the modern cultured man -- all these together have caused astrology to emerge from its hiding place among paltry superstitions. The growth of occultistic ideas, which should, perhaps, not be entirely rejected, is reintroducing astrology into society. This is especially true of judicial astrology, which, however, by its constant encouragement of fatalistic views unsettles the belief in a Divine Providence. At present Judicial astrology is not justified by any scientific facts. To put forward the theory of ether waves as an argument for astrological assertions is not in accord with the methods of sober science. Judicial astrology, therefore, can claim a place only in the history of human error, while, however, as an historical fact, it reflects much light upon the shadowy labyrinth of the human soul.
71 Astrology Among the Ancient Jews
72 The Bible is free from any base admixture of astrological delusions. There is no reason for dragging the passage Josue x, 12, into historito-astrological discussions; the facts there related --the standing still of the sun in the valley of Gabaon and of the moon in the valley of Ajalon--are of purely astronomical interest. Only a few indicatiors in the Old Testament suggest that, notwithstanding the Divine prohibitinn (Ex., xxii, 18, Deut, xviii, 10, etc.), the Jews, especially after they were exposed to the influence of Egyptian and BabyIonian errors, may have practised astrology in secret, along with other superstitions. The Prophets warned the people against the pernicious ascendancy of soothsayers and diviners of dreams (Jer., xxix, 8; Zach., X. 1-2), among whom astrologers were included. Thus in the Book of Wisdom (xiii, l-2) it is said: "All men are vain . . . who . . . have either . . . the swift air, or the circle of stars, or the great water, or the sun and the moon, to be the gods that rule the world." The Book of Job, a writing of importance in the history of astronomy and star nomenclature, is also free from astrological fatalism. But to this fatalism the Jews had a natural predisposition, when Hellenism gained footing in the Holy Land it was accompanied by the spread of astrology, largely among the learned, the "philosophers", at whom even in an ealier age the passage in Wisdom had probably been aimed. Again, Isaias (xlvii, 13-14) derides the Babylonian astrologers ( Let now the astrologers, stand and save thee, they that gazed at the stars . . . Behold they are as stubble fire hath burnt them"), and Jeremias exclaims (x, 2): "Be not afraid of the signs of heaven, which the heathen fear".
73 After the Exile, however, astrology spread so rapidly, above all among the educated classes of Israel, that as early as the Hellenistic era a Jewish astrological literature existed, which showed a strong Persico-Chaldean influence. The prophets had been opponents of astrology and of a relapse into fatalism. If, when they were phophesying of the great events to come, the contemplation of nature, and especially of the stars, filled them with sympathetic enthusiasm, by reason of their poetic inspiration and power of divination, this had nothing to do with astrology. On the other hand it does not appear impossible that in Daniel's time exiled Jews practised astrology. Judging from Daniel, v, 7, 11, it is possible that the prophet himself held a high rank among the astrologers of the Babylonian court. After the Exile an attempt was made to separate astrology from sorcery and forbidden magical arts, by denying a direct Biblical prohibition of astrology and by pretending to find encouragement for such speculations in Genesis, i, 14. It is a characteristic fact that in ancient Israel astrology received no direct encouragement, but that its spread was associated with the relapse of many Jews into the old Semitic star-worship which was aided by Persico-Chaldean influence. For this Jeremias is a witness (vii, 18; xix, 13; xliv, 17-19, 25). Co-incident with the spread of old astrology in old Israel and the decline of the nation was the diffusion of demonology. The Jewish prayers to the planets, in the form in which they are preserved with others in Codex Paris, 2419 (folio 277r), came into existence at the time when Hellenism first flourished in the East, namely, the third and second centuries B.C. In these prayers special angels and demons are assigned to the different planets; the greatest and most powerful planet Saturn having only one angel, Ktetoel, and one demon, Beelzebub. These planetary demons regulated the destiny of men.
74 The most notable witness for astrological superstitions in the era of the decadence of Israel is the apocryphal "Book of the Secrets of Henoch", which, notwithstanding its perplexing phantasies, is a rich treasure-house of information concerning cosmological and purely astronomical problems in the Hellenic East. The author of "Henoch" is said by a Samaritan writer to be the discoverer of astronomy, and the book contains valuable explanations in regard to astronomy and astrology at the time of the Machabean dynasty. The evidences for astrologic demonology in ancient Israel, when the nation was affected by Hellenism and Babylonian decadence, are found in the latter part of the "Book of the Secrets of Henoch"-- the "Book of the Course of the Lights of Heaven"-- as also previously in the fourth section which treats of Henoch's wanderings "through the secret the places of the world". This latter is perhaps the archetype of Dante's "Divine Comedy". According to the "Book of Henoch" the human race derived its knowledge of astrology and "lunar sorceries", together with all other forms of magic, from the seven or eight spirits from whom come the chief sins of mankind (Henoch, i, 8). It is, moreover, worthy of note that the "Book of Henoch" must be regarded as a witness to Jewish national prophecy. It does not betray the ascendancy of Hellenism in any such degree as do the verses of the "Sibylline Oracles", which were recorded in the old Ionic dialect during the reign of Ptolemy Physcon (145-112 B.C.) by Jewish scholars in Egypt, and probably at a later date in the Holy Land itself.
75 The astrological demonology of the Jews was continually fed from Egyptian and Babylonian sources, and formed in its turn the basis for the astrology of certain neo-Platonic sects. Together with the Parsee astrology, it was the Gnostics and Priscillianists. The influence of Hellenistic Judaism is also plainly visible in the philosophic system of the Harranites, or Sabeans. It is only necessary to mention here the high honour paid by the Sabeans to the seven planetary gods who regulate the fate of man. According to the belief of the every planet is inhabited by a spirit as star-soul, and the deciphering of the figures of the conjunction and opposition of the planets made the prediction of future destiny possible. Other elements of late Judaic astrology were adopted by the earliest known Christian writer on astrology, the Byzantine court-astrologer, Hephaestion of Thebes. The didactic astrological poem of Johanes Kamteros (about the middle of the twelfth century), which was dedicated to the Byzantine Emperor Manual I, appears to have heen drawn from Judaeo-Gnostic sources. It is a striking fact that as "demonized astrology" gained ground in ancient Israel -- and this was a branch of astrology in great favour among the Jewish scholars of the age of the Ptolemies, and much practised by them--the worship of the stars ventured once more to show itself openly. It was not until the appearance of Christianity that the preposterous, and, in part, pathologically degenerate, teachings of the Judaic astrology were swept away.
76 The lower the Jewish nation sank in the scale of religion and civilization the greater was the power gained by the erratic doctrines of astrology and the accompanying belief in demonology. The earthly labours of the Saviour purified this noxious atmosphere. The New Testament is the opponent of astrology, which, by encouraging an apathetic fatalisrn, prevents the development of and elevating and strengthening trust in a Divine Providence. The "Star of the Wise Men" (Matt., ii, 2, 7, 9, sq.) cannot be identified by astronomy; perhaps, according to Ideler (Handbuch der mathemat. und techn. Chron.), the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn is meant. But this hypothesis, which would be of decisive importance in settling the year of the birth of Christ, still lacks convincing proof. It finds a curious support in Abrabanel's comment that, according to Jewish astrologers, a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was a sign of the Messias. It must, however, remain questionable whether and to what extent a prediction of Jewish astrologers, or Kere schamajim, is to be considered as realized in the "Star of the Wise Men" (Matt., ii, 2, etc). The first heralds of Christianity, the Twelve Apostles, at once began a bold war against the rank growths of superstition. They also battled with the propensity of the people for astrology and in its stead planted in the hearts of men a belief in the power and goodness of God. Supported by the teachings of the Scriptures, the Church Fathers became powerful opponents of astrology and attacked with determination the bewildering and demoralizing ascendancy of its devotees. The assertion therefore justified that the Book remained free from the taint of astrological delusion. The passion for astrology evinced by decadent Judaism, and preserved in the Bible, is only one more proof of the propensity of Semitic nations for fatalistic superstitions and of the purifying victorious power of the ethics of Christianity.
77 Campbell Thompson's monumental work, "The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon" (London, 1902), may be consulted for the valuable facts which throw light upon the dependence of the astrology of the ancient Jews on the that of Babylon. "A special branch of astrology which was zealously cultivated in Babylon was medical astrology, or the astrological prognosis of disease." Medical astrology is important in regard to the question of astrology in the Bible. It was greatly favoured by the spread of empirical treatment of disease among the astrologers. The Bible itself gives very little information concerning this form of the science, but subordinate Jewish sources, above all the Talmud, allow conclusions to be drawn as to its importance. Medical astrology, derived from Arabo-Judaic sources, flourished again at the time of the Renaissance. Its professional representatives were then called "Iatromathematicians", after the mathernatical mode of arriving at conclusions in their "art of healing". [Cf. Karl Sudhoff, Jatromathematiker, vornehml. des XV. und XVI. Jahrhund., in Abhand. zur Geseh. der Medizin (Breslau, 1902), pt. II; Wilh. Ebstein, Die Medizin im Alten Testament (Stuttgart, 1901); Gideon Precher, Das Tranzendentae, Magie im Talmud ((Vienna, 1850); Trasen, Sitten der alten Hebräer (Breslau, 1853).]
78 The Babylonians, chiefly in relation to medical astrology, distinguished between a spherical method of calculation (from the point of view of the observer to the stars, i.e. subjectively), and a cosmical method (from the relative position of the stars, i.e. objectively). The former was used in the prognosis deduced from the observation of the twelve houses of the heavens; the latter in that drawn from the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
79 Max Jacobi.
Astronomy
58 (From Gr. astron, star; nemein, to distribute).
59 A science of prehistoric antiquity, originating in the elementary needs of mankind. It is divided into two main branches, distinguished as astrometry and astrophysics; the former concerned with determining the places of the investigation of the heavenly bodies, the latter, with the investigation of their chemical and physical nature. But the division is of a quite recent date. The possibilities of antique science stopped short at fixing the apparent positions of the objects on the sphere. Nor was any attempt made to rationalize the observed facts until Greeks laboriously built up a speculative system, which was finally displaced by vast fabric of gravitational theory. Descriptive astronomy, meanwhile took its rise from the invention of the telescope, and the facilities thus afforded for the close scrutiny of the denizens of the sky; while practical astronomy gained continually in refinement with the improvement of optical and mechanical arts. At the present time, astrophysics may be said to have absorbed descriptive astronomy, and astrometry necessarily includes practical research. But mathematical astronomy, grounded on the law of gravitation keeps its place apart, though depending for the perfecting of its theories and the widening of its scope upon advances along the old, and explorations in new, directions.
60 Prehistoric Astronomy
61 Formal systems of astronomical knowledge were early established by the Chinese, Indians, Egyptians, and BabyIonians. The Chinese were acquainted, probably in the third millenium B.C., with the cycle of nineteen years (rediscovered in 632 B.C. by Meton at Athens) by which, since it comprised just 235 lunations, the solar and lunar years were harmonized; they recorded cometary apparitions, observed eclipses, and employed effective measuring apparatus. European methods were introduced at Pekin by Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century. Indian astronomy contained few original elements. It assigned particular prominence to the lunar zodiac, called the nakshatras, or mansions of the moon, variously reckoned at twenty-seven or twenty-eight; and these, which were probably a loan from Chaldea, served mainly for superstitious purposes. In Egypt, on the other hand, considerable technical skill was attained and a constellational system of obscure derivation, came in use. The Babylonians alone, among the nations of the fore-time, succeeded in laying the foundations of a progressive science. Through the medium of the Greeks, they transmitted to the West their entire scheme of uranography, our familiar constellations having been substantially designed on the plain of Shinar about 2800 B.C. Here, too, at a remote epoch, the "Saros" became known. This is a cycle of eighteen years and ten or eleven days, which affords the means of predicting the recurrence of eclipses. The changing situations of the planets among the stars were, moreover, diligently recorded, and accurate acquaintance was secured with the movements of the sun and moon. The interpretation in 1889, by Fathers Epping and Strassmaier, of a collection of inscribed tablets preserved in the British Museum vividly illuminated the methods of official Babylonian astronomy in the second century B.C. They were perfectly effectual for the purpose chiefly in view, which was the preparation of yearly ephemerides announcing expected celestial events, and tracing in advance the paths of the heavenly bodies. Further analysis in 1899 by Father Kugler, S.J., of the tabulated data employed in computing the moon's place, disclosed the striking fact that the four lunar periods -- the synodic, sidereal, anomalistic, and draconitic months -- were substantially adopted by Hipparchus from his Chaldean predecessors.
62 Greek Astronomy
63 Astronomy, however, no sooner became a distinctively Greek science than it underwent a memorable transformation. Attempts began to be made to render the appearances of the sky intelligible. They were, indeed, greatly hampered by the assumption that movement in space must be conducted uniformly in circles, round an immobile earth; yet the problem was ostensibly solved by Appollonius of Perga (250-220 B.C.), and his solution, applied by Hipparchus to explain the movements of the sun and moon, was extended by Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) to the planets. This was the celebrated theory of eccentrics and epicycles, which, by the ingenuity of its elaboration, held its own among civilized men during fourteen centuries. Hipparchus, the greatest of ancient astronomers, observed at Rhodes (146-126 B.C.), but is considered as belonging to the Alexandrian school. He invented trignometry, and constructed a catalogue of 1080 stars, incited, according to Pliny's statement, by a temporary stellar outburst in Scorpio (134 B.C.). Comparing, as work progressed, his own results with those obtained 150 years earlier by Timocharis and Aristyllus, he detected the slow retrogression among the stars of the point of intersection of the celestial equator with the ecliptic, which constitutes the phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes. The circuit is completed in 25,800 years; hence the tropical year, by which the seasons are regulated, is shorter than the sidereal year by just twenty-one minutes, the equinox shifting backward to meet the sun by the annual amount of 50.25 inches. Greek astronomy was embodied in Ptolerny's "Almagest" (the name is of mixed Greek and Arabic derivation), composed at Alexandria about the middle of the second century A. D. It was based upon the geocentric principle. The starry spere, with its contents, was supposed to resolve, once in twenty-four hours, about the fixed terrestrial globe, while the sun and moon, and the five planets, besides sharing the common movement, described variously conditioned orbits round the same centre. The body of doctrine it inculcated made part of the universal stock of knowledge until the sixteenth century. The formidable task of demonstrating its falsity, and of replacing it with a system corresponding to the true relations of the world, was undertaken by the active and exemplary ecclesiastic, Nicholas Copernicus, Canon of Frauenburg (1473-1543). The treatise in which it was accomplished, entitled "De Revolutione Orbium Coelestium", saw the light only when its author lay dying; but a dedication to Pope Paul III bespoke the protection of the Holy See for the new and philosophically subversive views which it propounded. Denounced as impious by Luther and Melanchton, they were, in fact, favourably received at Rome until theological discredit was brought upon them by the wild speculations of Giorano Bruno (1548-1600), and the imprudent utterances of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642).
64 Descriptive Astronomy
65 Descriptive astronomy may be said to have originated with the invention of the telescope by Hans Lippershey in 1608. Its application to the scrutiny of the heavenly bodies, by Galileo and others, led at once to a crowd of striking discoveries. Jupiter's satellites, the phases of Venus, the mountains of the moon, the spots on the sun, Saturn's unique appendages, all descried with a little instrument resembling a uniocular opera-glass, formed, each in its way, a significant and surprising revelation; and the perception of the stellar composition of the Milky Way represented the first step in sidereal exploration. Johann Kepler (1571-1630) invented in 1611, and Father Scheiner of Ingolstadt (1575-1650) first employed, the modern refracting telescope; and the farther course of discovery corresponded closely to the development of its powers. Christian Huygens (1629-95) resolved, in 1656, the ansae of Saturn into a ring, divided into two by Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625-1712) in 1675. Titan, the Iargest of Saturn's moons, was detected by Huygens in 1655, and four additional members of the family by 1684. The Andremeda nebula was brought to notice by Simon Marius in 1612, the Orion nebula by J.B. Cysatus, a Swiss Jesuit, in 1618; and some few variable and multiple stars were recognized.
66 Theoretical Astronomy
67 The theoretical, however, far outweighed the practical achievements of the seventeenth century. Kepler published the first two of the "Three Laws" in 1609, the third in 1619. The import of these great generalizations is:
68 that the planets describe ellipses of which the sun occupies one focus;
69 that the straight line joining each planet with the sun (its radius vector) sweeps out equal areas in equal times;
70 that the squares of the planetary periods are severally proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the sun.
71 The geometrical plan of movement in the solar system was thus laid down with marvellous intuition. But it was reserved for Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) to expound its significance by showing that the same uniformly acting force regulates celestial revolulions, and compels heavy bodies to fall towards the earth's surface. The law of gravity, published in 1687 in "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathamatica" is to the following effect: every particle of matter attracts every other with a force directly proportional to their masses, and inversely proportional to the squares of their distances apart. Its validlty was tested by comparing the amount of the moon's orbital deflection in a second with the orbital deflection in a second with the rate at which an apple (say) drops in an orchard. Allowance being made for the distance of the moon, the two velocities proved to tally perfectly, and the identity of terrestrial gravity with the force controlling the revolutions of the heavenly established. But this was only a beginning. The colossal work remained to be accomplished of calclulaIting the consequences of the law, in the minute details of its working, and of comparing them with the heavens. It was carried foreward first by Newton himself, and in the ensuing century, by Euler, Clairaut, d' Alembert, Lagrange, and Laplace. Urbain Leverrier (1811- 77) inherited from these men of genius a task never likely to be completed; and the intricacies of lunar theory have been shown, by the researches of John Cough Adams (1819-92), of Hansen and Delaunay, of Professors Hlll and Newcomb, and many more, to be fraught with issues of unexpected and varied interest.
72 Discoveries in the Solar System
73 The extraordinary improvement of reflecting telescopes by Sir William Herschel (1738-1822) opened a fresh epoch of discovery. His recognition of the planet Uranus (13 March 1781) as a non-stellar object of old to the solar system; two Uranian moons, Oberon and Titania, were detected by him 11 January 1787, and the innermost Saturnian pair, Enceladus and Mimas, 28 August and 17 September of the same year. Saturn was, in 1906, known to possess ten satellites. Hyperion was descried by W.C. Bond at the observatory of Harvard College 16 September, 1848, and Professor W.H. Pickering, of the same establishment, discovered by laborious photographic researches, Phoebe in 1898, and Themis in 1905. In point of fact, an indefinite number of satellites are agglomerated in the rings of Saturn. Their constitution by separately revolving, small bodies, theoretically demonstrated by J. Clerk Maxwell in 1857, was spectroscopically confirmed by the late Professor Keeler in 1895. The system includes a dusky inner member, detected by Bond, 15 November, 1850. The discovery of the planet Neptune, 23 Sepember, 1846, was a mathematical, not an observational feat. Leverrier and Adams independently divined the existence of a massive body, revolving outside Uranus, and exercising over its movements disturbances the analysis of which led to its capture. Its solitary moon was noted by William Lassell of Liverpool in October, 1846; and he added, in 1851, two inner satellites to the remarkable system Uranus. With the great Washington refractor, 26 inches in aperture, Professor Asaph Hall discerned, 16 and 17 August,1877, Deimos and Phobos, the swiftly circling moonlets Mars; the Lick 36-ich enabled Professor Barnard to perceive, 9 September, 1892, the evasive inner satellite of Jupiter; and two exterior attendants on the same planet were photographically detected by Professor Perrine in 1904-05. The distances of the planets are visibly regulated by a method. They increase by an ordered progression, announced by Titius of Wittenberg in 1772, and since designated as "Bode's Law". But their succession was quickly seen to be interrupted by a huge gap between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter; and the conjecture was hazarded that here a new planet might be found to revolve. It was verified by the discovery of an army of asteiods. Ceres, their leader, was captured at Palermo, 1 January, 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi, a Theatine monk (1746-1826); Pallas, in 1802 by Olbers (1758-1840), and Juno and Vesta in 1804 and 1807, by Harding and Olbers respectively. The original quartette of minor planets began in 1845 to be reinforced with companions, the known number of which now approximates to 600, and may be indefinitely increased. Their discovery has been immensely facilitated by Professor Max Wolf's introduction, in 1891, of the photographic method of discriminating them from stars through the effects of their motion on sensitive plates.
74 The solar system, as at present known, consists of four interior planets, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars; four exterior; and relatively colossal planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the diffuse crowd of pygmy globes called asteroids, or minor planets, and an outlying array of comets with their attentant meteor-systems. All the planets rotate on their axes, though in very different periods. That of Mercury was determined by Signor Schiaparelli of Milan in 1889 to be 88 days, the identical time of his revolution round the sun, and Venus was, in the following year, shown by him to be, in all likelihood, similarly conditioned, the common period of rotation and circulation being, in her case, 225 days. This irnplies that both planets keep the same hemisphere always turned towards the sun, as the moon does towards the earth; nor can we doubt that the friction of tidal waves was, on the three bodies, the agency by which the observed synchronisrn was brought about. All the planets travel round the sun from west to east or counter clock-wise and most of the satellites move in the same direction round their primaries. But there are exceptions. Phoebe, Saturn's remotest moon, circulates oppositely to the other members of the system; the four moon of Uranus are retrograde, their plane of movement being inclined at more than a right angle to the ecliptic; and the satellite of Neptune travels quite definitely backward. These anomalies are of profound import to the theories of planetary origin. The "canals" of Mars were recognized by Schiaparelli in August 1877, he caught sight of some of them duplicted two years later. Their photographic registration at the Lowell observatory in 1905 proves them to be no optical illusion, but their nature remains enigmatical.
75 Comets and Meteors
76 The predicted return of Halley's comet in 1759 afforded the first proof that bodies of the kind are permanently attached to the sun. They accompany its march through space, traversing, in either direction indifferently, highly eccentric orbits inclined ecliptic. They are accordingly subject to violent, even subversive disturbances from planets. Jupiter, in particular, sways the movements of a group of over thirty "captured" comets, which had their periods curtailed, and their primitive velocities reduced by his influence. Schiaparelli announced in 1866 that the August shooting-stars, or Perseids, pursue the same orbit with a bright comet visible in 1862; and equally striking accordances of movement between three other comets and the Leonid, Lyraid, and Andromede meteor-swarms were soon afterwards established by Leverrior and Weiss. The obvious inference is that meteors are the disintegration-products of their cometary fellow-travellers. A theory of comets' tails, based upon the varying efficacy of electrical repulsion upon chemically different kinds of matter, was announced by Theodor Brédikhine of Moscow in 1882, and gave a satisfactory account of the appearances it was invented to explain. Latterly, however, the authority of Arrhenius of Stockholm has lent vogue to a "light-pressure" hypothesis, according to which, cometary appendages are formed of particles driven from the sun by the mechanical stress of his radiations. But the singular and rapid changes photograpically disclosed as taking place in the tails of comets, remain unassociated with any known cause.
77 Sidereal Astronomy
78 Sir William Herschel's discovery, in 1802, of binary stars, imperfectly anticipated by Father Christian Mayer in 1778, was one of far-reaching scope. It virtually proved the realm of gravity to include sidereal regions; and the relations it intimated have since proved to be much more widely prevalent than could have been imagined beforehand. Mutually circling stars exist in such profusion as probably to amount to one in three or four of those unaccompanied. They are of limitless variety, some of the systems by them being exceedingly close and rapid, while others describe, in millennial periods, vastly extended orbits. Many, too, comprise three or more members; and the multiple stars thus constituted merge, by progressive increments of complexity, into actual clusters, globular and irregular. The latter class exemplified by the Pleiades and Hyades, by the Beehive cluster in Cancer, just visible to the naked eye, and by the double cluster in Perseus which makes a splendid show with an opera-glass. Globular clusters are compressed "balls" of minute stars, of which more than one hundred have been catalogued. The scale on which these marvellous systems are constructed remains conjectual, since their distances from the earth are entirely unknown. Variable stars are met with in the utmost diversity. Some are temporary apparitions which spring up from invisibility often to an astonishing pitch of spendor, then sink back more slowly to quasi-extinction. Nova Persei, which blazed 22 February, 1901, and was photographically studied by Father Sidgreaves at Stonyhurst, is the most noteworthy recent instance of the phenomenon. Stars, the vicissitudes of which are comprised in cycles of seven to twenty months, or more, are called "long-period variables". About 400 had been recorded down to 1906. They not uncommonly attain, at maximum, to 1,000 times their minimum brightness. Mira, the "wonderful" star in the Whale, discovered by David Fabricius in 1596, is the examplar of the class. The fluctuations of "short-period variables" take place in a few days or hours, and with far more punctuality. A certain proportion of them are "eclipsing stars" (about 35 have so far been recognized as such), which owe their regularly recurring failures of light to the interposition of large satellites. Algol in Perseus, the variations of which were perceived by Montanari in 1669, is the best-known specimen. Hundreds of rapid variables have been recently detected among the components of glabular clusters; but their course of change is of a totally different nature from that of eclipsing stars. Edmund Halley (1656-1742), the second Astronomer Royal, announced in 1718 that the stars, far from being fixed, move onward, each on its own account, across the sky. He arrived at this conclusion by comparing modern with antique observations; and stellar "proper motions" now constitute a wide and expansive field of research. A preliminary attempt to regularize them was made by Herschel's determination, in 1783, of the sun's line of travel. His success depended upon the fact that the apparent displacements of the stars include a common element, transferred by perpective from the solar advance. Their individual, or "peculiar" movements, however, show no certain trace of method. A good many stars, too, have been ascertained to travel at rates probably uncontrollable by the gravitational power of the entire sidereral system. Arcturus, with its portentous velocity of 250 miles a second, is one of these "runaway" stars. The sun's pace of about 12 miles a second, seems, by comparison, extremely sedate; and it is probably only half the average stellar speed. The apex of the sun's way, or the towards which its movement at present tends, is located by the best recent investigations near the bright star Vega.
79 Distances of the Sun and Stars
80 The distances of the heavenly bodies can only be determined (speaking generally) by measuring their parallaxes, in other words, their apparent changes of position when seen from different points of view. That of the sun is simply the angle subtended at his distance by the earth's semi-diameter. Efforts were made with indifferent success to fix its value by the transits of Venus in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The asteroids have proved more efficient auxiliaries and through the mediation of Iris, Sappho, and Victoria, in 1889-89, Sir David Gill assigned to the great unit of space a length of 92,800,000 miles, which the photographic measures of Eros, in 1900-01, bid fair to ratify. The stars, however, are so vastly remote that the only chance of detecting their perspective displacements is by observing them at intervals of six months, from opposite extremities of a base-line nearly 186,000 miles in extent. Thus, the annual parallax of a star means the angle under which the semi-diameter of the earth's orbit would be seen if viewed frorn its situation. This angle is in all cases, extremely minute, and in most cases, altogether evanescent; so that, from only about eighty stars (as at present known), the terrestrial orbit would appear to have sensible dimensions. Our nearest stellar neighbour is the splendid southern binary, Alpha Centauri; yet its distance is such that light needs four and one-third years to perform the journey thence. Thomas Henderson (1798-1844) announced his detection of its parallax in 1839, just after Bessel of Konigsberg (1784-1846) had obtained a similar, but smaller result for an insignificant double star designated 61 Cygni.
81 Celestial Photography
82 The second half of the nineteenth century was signalized by a revolutionary change in the methods and purposes of astronomy. Experiments in lunar photography, begun in 1840 by J.W. Draper of New York, were continued in the fifties by W.C. Bond, Warren de la Rue, and Lewis M. Rutherfund. The first daguerreoype of the sun was secured at Paris in 1845, and traces of the solar corona appeared on a sensitized plate exposed at Konigsberg during the total eclipse of 28 July, 1851. But the epoch of effective solar photography opened with the Spanish eclipse of 18 July, 1860, when the pictures successively obtained by Father Angelo Secchi, S.J., and Waren de la Rue demonstrated the solar status of the crimson protuberances by rendering manifest the advance of the moon in front of them. At subsequent eclipses, the leading task of the camera has been the portrayal of the corona; and its importance was enhanced when A.C. Ranyard pointed out, in 1879, the correspondence of changes in its form with alterations of sunspots was published in 1851 by Schwabe of Dessau; and among the numerous associated phenomena of change, none are better ascertained than those affecting the shape of the silvery aureola seen to encompass the sun when the moon cuts off the glare of direct sunlight. At spot maxima the aureola spreads its beamy radiance round the disc. But at times of minimum, it consists mainly of two great wings, extended in the sun's equatorial plane. A multitude of photographs, taken during the eclipses of 1898, 1900, 1901 and 1905, attest with certainty the punctual recurrence of these unexplained vicissitudes. The fundamental condition for the progress of sidereal photography is the use of long exposures; since most of the objects to be delineated emit light so feebly that its chemical effects must accumulate before they become sensible. But long exposures were impracticable until Sir William Huggins, in 1876, adopted the dry-plate process; and this date, accordingly, marks the beginning of the wide-spreading serviceableness of the camera to astronomy. In nebular investigations above all, it far outranges the telescope. Halley described in 1716 six nebulae, which he held to be composed of a lucid medium collected from space. The Abbé Lacaille (1713-62) brought back with him from the Cape, in 1754, a list of forty-two such objects; and Charles Messier (1730-1817) enumerated in 1781, 103 nebulae and clusters. But this harvest was scanty indeed compared with the lavish yield of Herschel's explorations. Between 1786 and 1802 he communicated to the Royal Society catalogues of 2500 nebulae; he distinguished their special forms, classified them in order of brightness, and elaborated a theory of stellar development from nebulae, illustrated by selected instances of progressive condensation. The next considerable step towards a closer acquaintance with nebulae was made by Lord Rosse in 1845, when the prodigious light-grasp of his six-foot reflector afforded him the discovery of the great "Whirlpool" structure in Canes Venatici. It proved to be typical of the entire class of spiral nebulae, the large prevalence of which has been one of the revelations of photography. The superiority in nebula-portraiture of the chemical to the eye-and-hand method was strikingly manifested in a photograph of the Orion nebula taken b Dr. A. A. Common, 30 January, 1883. Its efficacy for discovery became evident through the disclosure, on plates exposed by Paul and Prosper Henry, and by Isaac Roberts in 1885- 86, of complex nebulous formations in the Pleides, almost wholly invisible optically. Professor Keeler (1857-1900) estimated at 120,000 the number of nebulae which the Crossley reflector of the Lick observatory would capable of recording in both hemispheres with an hour's exposure, while telescopically constructed catalogues include less than 10,000. But it is through the combination of photography with spectroscopy, constituting the spectrographic mode of research, that astrophysics has achieved its most signal triumphs.
83 Astrophysics
84 The fundamental principle of spectrum analysis, enunciated by Gustav Kirchhoff (1824-87), depends upon the equivalence of emission and absorption. This means that, if white light be transmitted through glowing vapours, they arrest just those minute sections of it with which they themselves shine. And if the source of the white light be hotter than the arresting vapour, there results a prismatic spectrum, interrupted by dark lines, distinctive of the chemical nature of the susbtance originating them. Now this is exactly the case of the sun and stars. The white radiance emanating from their photopheres is found, when dispersed into a spectrum, to be crossed by numerous dusky rays indicating absorption by gaseous strata, to the composition of which Kirchhoff's principle supplies the clue. Kirchhoff himself identified in 1861, as prominent solar constituents, sodium, iron magnesium, calcium, and chromium; by A.J. Angström (1814-74); helium by Sir Norman Lockyer in 1868; and about forty elementary substances are now known with approximate certainty to be common to the earth and sun. The chemistry of the stars is strictly analogous to that of the sun, although their spectra exhibit diversities symptomatic of a considerable variety in physical state. Father Angelo Secchi, S.J. (1818-78), based on these diversities in 1863-67 a classification of the stars into four orders, still regarded as fundamental and supplied by Dr. Vogel in 1874 with an evolutionary interpretation, according to which differences of spectral type are associated with various stages of progress from a tenuous and inchote towards a compact condition. Since 1879, when Sir William Huggins secured impressions of an extended range of ultra-violet white star light, stellar spectra have been mostly studied photographically, the results being, not only precise and permanent, but also more complete than those obtainable by visual means. The same eminent investigator discovered, in 1864, the bright-line spectra of certain classes of nebulae, by which they were known to be of gaseous composition, and recognized, as of carbonaceous origin, the typical coloured bands of the cometary spectrum, noted four years previously, though without specific identification, by G.B. Donati (1827-73) at Florence.
85 Doppler's principle, by which light alters in refrangibility through the end-on motion of its source, was first made effective for astronomical reseach by 1868. The criterion of velocilty, whether of recession or approach, is afforded by the shifting of spectral lines from their standard places; and the method was raised to a high grade of accuracy through Dr. Vogel's adaptation, in 1888, of photography to its requirements. It has since proved extraordinarily fruitful. Its employment enabled Dr. Vogel to demonstrate the reality of AIgol's eclipses, by showing that the star revolved round an obscure companion in the identical period of light-change; and the first discoveries of non-eclipsing spectroscopic binaries were made at Harvard College in 1889. These interesting systems cannot be sharply distinguished from telescopic double stars, which are, indeed, believed to have developed from them under the influence of tidal friction; their periods vary from a few hours to several months; and their components are often of such unequal luminosity that only one leaves any legible impression on the sensitive plate. Their known number amounted, in 1905, to 140; and it may be indefinitely augmented. It probably includes all short-period variables, even those that escape eclipses; though the connection between their duplicity and luminous variations remains unexplained. The photography in daylight of solar prominences was attempted by Professor Young of Princeton in 1870, and the subject was prosecuted by Dr. Braun, S. J., in 1872. No genuine success was, however, achieved until 1891, when Professor Hale of Chicago and M. Deslandres at Paris independently built up pictures of those objects out of the calcium-ray in their dispersed light, sifted through a double slit onto moving photographic plates. Professor Hale's invention of the "spectroheliograph" enables him, moreover, to delineate the sun's disc in any selected of its light, with the result of disclosing vast masses of calcium and hydrogen flocculi, piled up at various heights above the solar surface.
86 Sidereal Construction
87 The investigation of the structure of the sideral heavens was the leading object of William Herschel's career. The magnitude of the task, however, which he attempted singlehanded grows more apparent with every fresh attempt to grapple with it; and it now engages the combined efforts of many astronomers, using methods refined and comprehensive to a degree unimagined by Herschel. An immense stock of materials for the purpose will be provided by the international photographic survey, at present advancing towards completion at eighteen observatories in both hemispheres. About thirty million stars will, it is estimated, appear on the chart-plates; and those precisely catalogued are unlikely to fall short of four millions. The labour of discussing these multitudinous data must be severe, but will be animated by the hope of laying bare some hidden spring of the sidereal mechanism. The prospect is indeed remote that the whole of its intricacies will ever be penetrated by science. We only perceive that the stars form a collection of prodigious, but limited, extent, showing strongly concentrative tendencies towards the plane of the Milky Way. Nor can the nebulae be supposed to form a separate scheme. The closeness of their relations, physical and geometrical, with stars excludes that supposition. Stars and nebulae belong to the same system, if such the sidereal world may properly be called in the absence of any sufficient evidence of its being in a state of dynamical equilibrium. We cannot be sure that it has yet reached the definitive term appointed for it by its instability and evanescence help us to realize that the heavens are, in very truth, the changing vesture of Him whose "years cannot fail".
88 Agnes M. Clerke
Paul-Thérèse-David d'Astros
61 Astros, Paul-Thérèse-David d', a French cardinal, b. at Tourves (Var) in 1772; d. September 29, 1851. He was a nephew of Portalis, a minister of Napoleon, and as such was engaged in the formulation of the Concordat of 1801. On its conclusion he was made vicar general of Archbishop (later, Cardinal) Belloy, of Paris, and after the latter's death (1808) administered the diocese until the nomination of Cardinal Maury. He received, and was accused of promulgating, the bull of Pius VII (June 10, 1809), excommunicating Napoleon. For this act he was imprisoned at Vincennes until 1814, After the Restoration he became Bishop of Bayonne, and in 1830 Archbishop of Toulouse. At the request of Louis Napoleon, Pius IX created him cardinal, in 1850. He wrote "La vérité catholique demontrée; ou, Lettre aux Protestants d'Orthez" (2 v. 8°, Toulouse, 1833). He was one of the earliest opponents of Lamennais, against whom he wrote "Censure de divers écrits de La Mennais et de ses disciples par plusieurs évêques de France, et Lettres des mêmes évêques au souverain pontife, Grégoire XVI", etc. (Toulouse, 1835).
62 Thomas J. Shahan.
Jean Astruc
64 Born at Sauves, 19 March, 1684; died at Paris, 5 May, 1766. He was the son of a converted Protestant minister. After he had taught medicine at Montpellier, he became a member of the Medical Faculty at Paris. His medical writings, however numerous, are now forgotten, but a work published by him anonymously has secured for him a permanent reputation. This book was entitled: "Conjectures sure les memories originauz dont il paroit que Moyse s'est servi pour composer le livre de la Génèse. Avec des remarques qui appuient ou qui éclairscissent ses conjectures" (Brussels). Astruc himself did not inted to deny the Mosaic authorship of Genesis; but his work created an era in Biblical inquiry, occasioning the modern critical theories.
65 A. J. Maas
Atahuallpa
67 Properly ATAU-HUALLPA (etymology usually given as from huallpa, the name of some indigenous bird).
68 Son of the Inca war chief Huayna Capac and an Indian woman from Quito hence (descent being in the female line) not an Inca, but an Indian of Ecuador. The protracted wars, during which the Incas overpowered the Ecuadorian tribes, having brought about the permanent lodgment of Inca war parties in Ecuador, led to interformation of a new tribe and the descendants of Inca men with women and children from Quito. Collisions ensued between this tribe and the descendants of Inca women, and the strife, Atau-huallpa figured as the leader of the former, whilst the latter recognized Huascar, duly elected war chief at Cuzco. Atau-huallpa acted with great cruelty, nearly exterminating such Ecuadorian tribes as resisted. He finally prevailed, and sent his warriors southward along the backbone of the mountains, against Cuzco. When Pizarro landed at Tumbez (northern Peruvian coast) in 1532, the Quito people had already overthrown the Inca tribe at Cuzco, taken the settlement, and committed the most horrible cruelties, chiefly against the keepers of ancient traditions whom they attempted to exterminate, so as to wipe out the remembrance of the past of Cuzco and begin a new era. Atau-huallpa himself remained with a numerous war party at Caxamarca. There he awaited the whites, whom he despised. The Spaniards found Caxamarca deserted, and the warriors of Atau-hauallpa camping three miles from the place. Pizarro recognized that a trap had been set for him, and prepared for the worst.
69 On the evening of the 16th of November, 1532, Atau-hauallpa entered the squared of Caxamarca with a great retinue of men carrying their weapons concealed. They packed the court densely. Pizarro had placed on the roof of the building his artillery (two pedereros) that could not be pointed except horizontally. When the Indians thronged into the square, a Dominican friar, Fray Vicente Valverde, was sent by Pizarro to inform Atau-huallpa, through an interpreter, of the motives of the Spaniards' appearance in the country. This embassy was received with scorn, and the friar, seeing the Indians ready to begin hostilities, warned Pizarro. His action has been unjustly criticized; Valverde did what was his imperative duty under the circumstances. Then, not waiting for the Indians to attack the Spaniards to the offensive. The sound of cannon and musketry, and the sight of the horses frightened the Indians so that they fled in dismay, leaving Atau-huallpa a prisoner in the hands of Pizarro, who treated him with proper regard. The stories of a terrible slaughter of the Indians are inordinate exaggerations. While a prisoner, Atau-huallpa caused the greater portion of the gold and silver at Cuzco to be turned over to the Spaniards and having them massacred. When this was discovered Pizarro had him executed, on the 9th of August, 1633. The execution was no unjustifiable. Atau-huallpa, at the time of his death, was about thirty years of age.
70 Ad. F. Bandelier
Juan Santos Atahualpa
70 An Indian from Cuzco who, being in the service of a Jesuit, went to Spain with his master. Upon his return, having committed a murder at Guamanga (Ayachucho in Peru), he fled to the forests on the eastern slopes of the Andes. There, in 1742, he persuaded the Indians that he was a descendant of the Inca Head Chiefs and assumed the title of "Atahualpa Apu-Inca". He claimed to have been sent by God to drive the Spaniards from western South America. As he was able to read and writ Latin, as well as Spanish, he readily made the forest tribes believe him to be a powerful wizard and induced them to follow him, abandoning the towns which the Franciscans had established successfully at Ocopa and further east. To his influence was due the ruin of the prosperous missions throughout the Pampa del Sacramento in eastern Peru. Under his direction the forest tribes became very aggressive, and the missions were partly destroyed. Efforts against him proved a failure, owing partly to the natural obstacles presented by the impenetrable forests, partly to the inefficiency of the officers to whom the suppression of his revolt was entrusted. The uprising caused by his appeal to Indian superstition, was the severest blow dealt to the Christianization of the forest Indians in Peru, and took decades to sacrifice and toil to recover the territory lost. To this day, according to reliable testimony, the Indians included under the generic name of Chunchos (properly Campas) claim to the preserve the corpse of santos Atahualpa, hidden from the whites, in the wooden, or willow, casket, as their most precious fetish.
71 Ad. F. Bandelier
Atavism
73 (Lat., atavus, a great-grandfather's grandfather, an ancestor).
74 Duchesne introduced the word to designate those cases in which species revert spontaneously to what are presumably long-lost characters. Atavism and reversion are used by most authors in the same sense.
75 I. The term atavism is employed to express the reappearance of characters, physical or psychical, in the individual, or in the race, which are supposed to have been possessed at one time by remote ancestors. Very often these suddenly reappearing characters are of the monstrous type, e.g. the three-toed horse. The appearance of such a monster is looked upon as a harking back to Tertiary times, when the ancestor of the modern horse possessed three toes. The threetoed condition of the monstrous horse is spoken of as atavistic. The employment of the term in connection with teratology is often abused; for many cases of so-called atavistic monstrosities have little to do with lost characters, e.g. the possession by man of supernumerary fingers and toes.
76 II. Atavism is also used to express the tendency to revert to one of the parent varieties or species in the case of a hybrid; this is the atavism of breeders. Crossed breeds of sheep, for example, show a constant tendency to reversion to either one of the original breeds from which the cross was formed. De Vries distinguishes this kind of atavism as vicinism (Lat. vicinus, neighbour), and says that it "indicates the sporting of a variety under the influence of others in the vicinity."
77 III. Atavism is employed by a certain school of evolutionistic psychologists to express traits in the individual, especially the child, that are assumed to be, as it were, reminiscences of past conditions of the human race or its progenitors. A child by its untruthfulness simply gives expression to a state that long since was normal to mankind. Also in the child's fondness for splashing about in water is exhibited a recrudescence of a habit that was quite natural to its aquatic ancestors; this latter is called water-atavism. Many such atavisms are distinguished, but it hardly needs to be said that they are in many instances highly fantastic. Atavism is commonly supposed to be a proof of the evolutlon of plants and animals, including man. Characters that were normal to some remote ancestor after having latent for thousands of generations suddenly reappear, thus give a clue to those sources to which the present living forms are to be traced back. That a character may lie dormant for several generations and then reappear, admits of no doubt; even ordinary observation tell us that a grandchild may resemble its grandparent more than either of its immediate parents. But the sudden appearance of a tailed man, for instance, cannot be said to prove the descent of man from tailed forms. Granting that man has descended from such ancestors, the phenomenon is more intelligible than it would be were no such connection admitted. But the proving force of atavism is not direct, because teratological phenomena are so difficult to interpret, and admit of several explanations. Darwin, pointing to the large canine teeth possessed by some men as a case of atavism, remarks: "He who rejects with scorn the belief that the shape of his canines, and their occasional great development in other men, are due to our early forefathers having been provided with these formidable weapons, will probably reveal, by sneering, the line of his own descent".
78 Atavism is appealed to by modern criminologists to explain certain moral abberations, that are looked upon as having been at one time normal to the race. Accepting the doctrine that man has by low progress, come up to his present civilized state from brute conditions, all that is brutish in the conduct of criminals (also of the insane), is explained by atavism. According to this theory degeneracy is a case of atavism. The explanation offered for the sudden reappearnace of remote ancestral characters is so intimately connected with the whole system of heredity that it is impossible to do more than indicate that most writers on heredity seek this explanation in the transmission from generation to generation of unmodified heredity-bearing parts, gemmules (Darwin); pangenes (De Vries); determinants (Weisman). (See Heredity|HEREDITY.)
79 Jos. C. Herrick
Vicariate Apostolic of Athabasca
76 (Northwest Territories).
77 Suffragan of Saint Boniface; erected 8 April, 1862, by Pius IX. Bounded on the north by Vicariate of Mackenzie; on the east and southeast by the Vicariate of Saskatchewan; on the south by 55 N. lat.; on the west by the Rocky Mountains. The first vicar Apostolic was Bishop Henri Faraud, O.M.I., b. At Gigondas, France, 17 March, 1847; elected 8 May, 1862; d. At Saint Boniface, 26 Sept., 1890; ordained priest at Saint Boniface, 8 march, 1847; elected 8 may, 1862; consecrated at Tours, France, 30 Nov., 1964, titular Bishop of Anamur. He was succeeded by Bishop Emile Grouard, O.M.I., titular Bishop if Ibora; b. At Brulon, Mans, 2 Feb., 1840; ordained priest at Boucherville, 3 May, 1862, elected Bishop of Ibora, 18 Oct., 1890; consecrated at Saint Boniface, 1 Aug., 1891, and appointed vicar Apostolic. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate serve all the missions of Athabasca. There are 11 stations, 23 priest, 28 Soeurs de la Providence, 6 Soeurs Grises. Catholics, about 5,000. (see Saint Boniface.)
78 John J. A'becket
Athanasian Creed
79 One of the symbols of the Faith approved by the Church and given a place in her liturgy, is a short, clear exposition of the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, with a passing reference to several other dogmas. Unlike most of the other creeds, or symbols, it deals almost exclusively with these two fundamental truths, which it states and restates in terse and varied forms so as to bring out unmistakably the trinity of the Persons of God, and the twofold nature in the one Divine Person of Jesus Christ. At various points the author calls attention to the penalty incurred by those who refuse to accept any of the articles therein set down. The following is the Marquess of Bute's English translation of the text of the Creed:—
80 > Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the Catholic Faith is this, that we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity. Neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all One, the Glory Equal, the Majesty Co-Eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father Uncreate, the Son Uncreate, and the Holy Ghost Uncreate. The Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Etneral and yet they are not Three Eternals but One Eternal. As also there are not Three Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One Uncreated, and One Uncomprehensible. So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not Three Almighties but One Almighty.So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not Three Gods, but One God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not Three Lords but One Lord. For, like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by Himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion to say, there be Three Gods or Three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created, nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made, nor created, but begotten. The Holy Ghost is of the Father, and of the Son neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.So there is One Father, not Three Fathers; one Son, not Three Sons; One Holy Ghost, not Three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is afore or after Other, None is greater or less than Another, but the whole Three Persons are Co-eternal together, and Co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity is Trinity, and the Trinity is Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity.Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting Salvation, that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man.God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man, of the substance of His mother, born into the world. Perfect God and Perfect Man, of a reasonable Soul and human Flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His Manhood. Who, although He be God and Man, yet He is not two, but One Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into Flesh, but by taking of the Manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by Unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one Man, so God and Man is one Christ. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into Hell, rose again the third day from the dead. He ascended into Heaven, He sitteth on the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, from whence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies, and shall give account for their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved.
81 For the past two hundred years the authorship of this summary of Catholic Faith and the time of its appearance have furnished an interesting problem to ecclesiastical antiquarians. Until the seventeenth century, the "Quicunque vult", as it is sometimes called, from its opening words, was thought to be the composition of the great Archbishop of Alexandria whose name it bears. In the year 1644, Gerard Voss, in his "De Tribus Symbolis", gave weighty probability to the opinion that St. Athanasius was not its author. His reasons may be reduced to the two following: firstly, no early writer of authority speaks of it as the work of this doctor; and secondly, its language and structure point to a Western, rather than to an Alexandrian, origin. Most modern scholars agree in admitting the strength of these reasons, and hence this view is the one generally received today. Whether the Creed can be ascribed to St. Athanasius or not, and most probably it cannot, it undoubtedly owes it existence to Athanasian influences, for the expressions and doctrinal colouring exhibit too marked a correspondence, in subject-matter and in phraseology, with the literature of the latter half of the fourth century and especially with the writings of the saint, to be merely accidental. These internal evidences seem to justify the conclusion that it grew out of several provincial synods, chiefly that of Alexandria, held about the year 361, and presided over by St. Athanasius. It should be said, however, that these arguments have failed to shake the conviction of some Catholic authors, who refuse to give it an earlier origin than the fifth century.
82 An elaborate attempt was made in England, in 1871, by E.C. Ffoulkes to assign the Creed to the ninth century. From a passing remark in a letter written by Alcuin he constructed the following remarkable piece of fiction. The Emperor Charlemagne, he says, wished to consolidate the Western Empire by a religious, as well as a political, separation from the East. To this end he suppressed the Nicene Creed, dear to the Oriental Church, and substituted a formulary composed by Paulinus of Aquileia, with whose approval and that of Alcuin, a distinguished scholar of the time, he ensured its ready acceptance by the people, by affixing to it the name of St. Athanasius. This gratuitous attack upon the reputation of men whom every worthy historian regards as incapable of such a fraud, added to the undoubted proofs of the Creed's having been in use long before the ninth century, leaves this theory without any foundation.
83 Who, then, is the author? The results of recent inquiry make it highly probable that the Creed first saw the light in the fourth century, during the life of the great Eastern patriarch, or shortly after his death. It has been attributed by different writers variously to St. Hilary, to St. Vincent of Lérins, to Eusebius of Vercelli, to Vigilius, and to others. It is not easy to avoid the force of the objections to all of these views, however, as they were men of world-wide reputation, and hence any document, especially one of such importance as a profession of faith, coming from them would have met with almost immediate recognition. Now, no allusions to the authorship of the Creed, and few even to its existence, are to be found in the literature of the Church for over two hundred years after their time. We have referred to a like silence in proof of non-Athanasian authorship. It seems to be similarly available in the case of any of the great names mentioned above. In the opinion of Father Sidney Smith, S.J., which the evidence just indicated renders plausible, the author of this Creed must have been some obscure bishop or theologian whose composed it, in the first instance, for purely local use in some provincial diocese. Not coming from an author of wide reputation, it would have attracted little attention. As it became better known, it would have been more widely adopted, and the compactness and lucidity of its statements would have contributed to make it highly prized wherever it was known. Then would follow speculation as to its author, and what wonder, if, from the subject-matter of the Creed, which occupied the great Athanasius so much, his name was first affixed to it and, unchallenged, remained.
84 The "damnatory", or "minatory clauses", are the pronouncements contained in the symbol, of the penalties which follow the rejection of what is there proposed for our belief. It opens with one of them: "Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith". The same is expressed in the verses beginning: "Furthermore, it is necessary" etc., and "For the right Faith is" etc., and finally in the concluding verse: "This is the Catholic Faith, which except a man believe faithfully and firmly, he cannot be saved". Just as the Creed states in a very plain and precise way what the Catholic Faith is concerning the important doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation, so it asserts with equal plainness and precision what will happen to those who do not faithfully and steadfastly believe in these revealed truths. They are but the credal equivalent of Our Lord's words: "He that believeth not shall be condemned", and apply, as is evident, only to the culpable and wilful rejection of Christ's words and teachings. The absolute necessity of accepting the revealed word of God, under the stern penalties here threatened, is so intolerable to a powerful class in the Anglican church, that frequent attempts have been made to eliminate the Creed from the public services of that Church. The Upper House of Convocation of Canterbury has already affirmed that these clauses, in their prima facie meaning, go beyond what is warranted by Holy Scripture. In view of the words of Our Lord quoted above, there should be nothing startling in the statement of our duty to believe what we know is the testimony and teaching of Christ, nor in the serious sin we commit in wilfully refusing to accept it, nor, finally, in the punishments that will be inflicted on those who culpably persist in their sin. It is just this last that the damnatory clauses proclaim. From a dogmatic standpoint, the merely historical question of the authorship of the Creed, or of the time it made its appearance, is of secondary consideration. The fact alone that it is approved by the Church as expressing its mind on the fundament truths with which it deals, is all we need to know.
85 JONES, The Creed of St. Athanasius; JEWEL, Defence of the Apology (London, 1567); in Works (Cambridge, 1848), III, 254; VOSSIUS, Dissertationes de Tribus symbolis (Paris, 1693); QUESNEL, De Symbolo Athanasiano (1675); MONTFAUCON, Diatribe in symbolum Quicunque in P. G. XXVIII, 1567, MURATORI, Expositio Fidei Catholicae Fortunati with Disquisitio in Anecdota (Milan, 1698), II; WATERLAND, A Critical History of the Athanasian Creed (Cambridge, 1724; Oxford, 1870); HARVEY, The History and Theology of the Three Creeds (London, 1854), II; FFOULKES, The Athanasian Creed (London, 1871); LUMBY, The History of the Creeds (Cambridge, 1887); SWAINSON, The Nicene Creed and the Apostles' Creed (London, 1875); OMMANNEY, The Athanasian Creed (London, 1875); IDEM, A Critical Dissertation on the Athanasian Creed (Oxford, 1897); BURN, The Athanasian Creed, etc., in ROBINSON, Texts and Studies (Cambridge, 1896); SMITH, The Athanasian Creed in The Month (1904), CIV, 366; SCHAFF, History of the Christian Church (New York, 1903), III; IDEM, The Creeds of Christendom (New York, 1884), I, 34; TIXERONT, in Dict. de theol. cath.; LOOFS, in HAUCK, Realencyklopädie für prot. Theol., s. v. See also the recent discussion by Anglican writers: WELLDON, CROUCH, ELIOT, LUCKOCK, in the Nineteenth Century (1904-06).
86 James J. Sullivan
St. Athanasius
82 Bishop of Alexandria; Confessor and Doctor of the Church; born c. 296; died 2 May, 373. Athanasius was the greatest champion of Catholic belief on the subject of the Incarnation that the Church has ever known and in his lifetime earned the characteristic title of "Father of Orthodoxy", by which he has been distinguished every since. While the chronology of his career still remains for the most part a hopelessly involved problem, the fullest material for an account of the main achievements of his life will be found in his collected writings and in the contemporary records of his time. He was born, it would seem, in Alexandria, most probably between the years 296 and 298. An earlier date, 293, is sometimes assigned as the more certain year of his birth; and it is supported apparently by the authority of the "Coptic Fragment" (published by Dr. O. von Lemm among the Mémoires de l'académie impériale des sciences de S. Péterbourg, 1888) and corroborated by the undoubted maturity of judgement revealed in the two treatises "Contra Gentes" and "De Incarnatione", which were admittedly written about the year 318 before Arianism as a movement had begun to make itself felt. It must be remembered, however, that in two distinct passages of his writings (Hist. Ar., lxiv, and De Syn., xviii) Athanasius shrinks from speaking as a witness at first hand of the persecution which had broken out under Maximian in 303; for in referring to the events of this period he makes no direct appeal to his own personal recollections, but falls back, rather, on tradition. Such reserve would scarcely be intelligible, if, on the hypothesis of the earlier date, the Saint had been then a boy fully ten years old. Besides, there must have been some semblance of a foundation in fact for the charge brought against him by his accusers in after-life (Index to the Festal Letters) that at the times of his consecration to the episcopate in 328 he had not yet attained the canonical age of thirty years. These considerations, therefore, even if they are found to be not entirely convincing, would seem to make it likely that he was born not earlier than 296 nor later than 298.
83 It is impossible to speak more than conjecturally of his family. Of the claim that it was both prominent and well-to-do, we can only observe that the tradition to the effect is not contradicted by such scanty details as can be gleaned from the saint's writings. Those writings undoubtedly betray evidences of the sort of education that was given, for the most part, only to children and youths of a better class. It began with grammar, went on to rhetoric, and received its final touches under some one of the more fashionable lecturers in the philosophic schools. It is possible, of course, that he owed his remarkable training in letters to his saintly predecessor's favour, if not to his personal care. But Athanasius was one of those rare personalities that derive incomparably more from their own native gifts of intellect and character than from the fortuitousness of descent or environment. His career almost personifies a crisis in the history of Christianity; and he may be said rather to have shaped the events in which he took part than to have been shaped by them. Yet it would be misleading to urge that he was in no notable sense a debtor to the time and place of his birth. The Alexandria of his boyhood was an epitome, intellectually, morally, and politically, of that ethnically many-coloured Graeco-Roman world, over which the Church of the fourth and fifth centuries was beginning at last, with undismayed consciousness, after nearly three hundred years of unwearying propagandism, to realize its supremacy. It was, moreover, the most important centre of trade in the whole empire; and its primacy as an emporium of ideas was more commanding than that of Rome or Constantinople, Antioch or Marseilles. Already, in obedience to an instinct of which one can scarcely determine the full significance without studying the subsequent development of Catholicism, its famous "Catechetical School", while sacrificing no jot or tittle or that passion for orthodoxy which it had imbibed from Pantaenus, Clement, and Origen, had begun to take on an almost secular character in the comprehensiveness of its interests, and had counted pagans of influence among its serious auditors (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., VI, xix).
84 To have been born and brought up in such an atmosphere of philosophizing Christianity was, in spite of the dangers it involved, the timeliest and most liberal of educations; and there is, as we have intimated, abundant evidence in the saint's writings to testify to the ready response which all the better influences of the place must have found in the heart and mind of the growing boy. Athanasius seems to have been brought early in life under the immediate supervision of the ecclesiastical authorities of his native city. Whether his long intimacy with Bishop Alexander began in childhood, we have no means of judging; but a story which pretends to describe the circumstances of his first introduction to that prelate has been preserved for us by Rufinus (Hist. Eccl., I, xiv). The bishop, so the tale runs, had invited a number of brother prelates to meet him at breakfast after a great religious function on the anniversary of the martyrdom of St. Peter, a recent predecessor in the See of Alexandria. While Alexander was waiting for his guests to arrive, he stood by a window, watching a group of boys at play on the seashore below the house. He had not observed them long before he discovered that they were imitating, evidently with no thought of irreverence, the elaborate ritual of Christian baptism. (Cf. Bunsen's "Christianity and Mankind", London, 1854, VI, 465; Denzinger, "Ritus Orientalium" in verb.; Butler's "Ancient Coptic Churches", II, 268 et sqq.; "Bapteme chez les Coptes", "Dict. Theol. Cath.", Col. 244, 245). He therefore sent for the children and had them brought into his presence. In the investigation that followed it was discovered that one of the boys, who was no other than the future Primate of Alexandria, had acted the part of the bishop, and in that character had actually baptized several of his companions in the course of their play. Alexander, who seems to have been unaccountably puzzled over the answers he received to his inquiries, determined to recognize the make-believe baptisms as genuine; and decided that Athanasius and his playfellows should go into training in order to fit themselves for a clerical career. The Bollandists deal gravely with this story; and writers as difficult to satisfy as Archdeacon Farrar and the late Dean Stanley are ready to accept it as bearing on its face "every indication of truth" (Farrar, "Lives of the Fathers", I, 337; Stanley, "East. Ch." 264). But whether in its present form, or in the modified version to be found in Socrates (I, xv), who omits all reference to the baptism and says that the game was "an imitation of the priesthood and the order of consecrated persons", the tale raises a number of chronological difficulties and suggests even graver questions.
85 Perhaps a not impossible explanation of its origin may be found in the theory that it was one of the many floating myths set in movement by popular imagination to account for the marked bias towards an ecclesiastical career which seems to have characterized the early boyhood of the future champion of the Faith. Sozomen speaks of his "fitness for the priesthood", and calls attention to the significant circumstance that he was "from his tenderest years practically self-taught". "Not long after this," adds the same authority, the Bishop Alexander "invited Athanasius to be his commensal and secretary. He had been well educated, and was versed in grammar and rhetoric, and had already, while still a young man, and before reaching the episcopate, given proof to those who dwelt with him of his wisdom and acumen" (Soz., II, xvii). That "wisdom and acumen" manifested themselves in a various environment. While still a levite under Alexander's care, he seems to have been brought for a while into close relations with some of the solitaries of the Egyptian desert, and in particular with the great St. Anthony, whose life he is said to have written. The evidence both of the intimacy and for the authorship of the life in question has been challenged, chiefly by non-Catholic writers, on the ground that the famous "Vita" shows signs of interpolation. Whatever we may think of the arguments on the subject, it is impossible to deny that the monastic idea appealed powerfully to the young cleric's temperament, and that he himself in after years was not only at home when duty or accident threw him among the solitaries, but was so monastically self-disciplined in his habits as to be spoken of as an "ascetic" (Apol. c. Arian., vi). In fourth-century usage the word would have a definiteness of connotation not easily determinable today. (See ASCETICISM).
86 It is not surprising that one who was called to fill so large a place in the history of his time should have impressed the very form and feature of his personality, so to say, upon the imagination of his contemporaries. St. Gregory Nazianzen is not the only writer who has described him for us (Orat. xxi, 8). A contemptuous phrase of the Emperor Julian's (Epist., li) serves unintentionally to corroborate the picture drawn by kindlier observers. He was slightly below the middle height, spare in build, but well-knit, and intensely energetic. He had a finely shaped head, set off with a thin growth of auburn hair, a small but sensitively mobile mouth, an aquiline nose, and eyes of intense but kindly brilliancy. He had a ready wit, was quick in intuition, easy and affable in manner, pleasant in conversation, keen, and, perhaps, somewhat too unsparing in debate. (Besides the references already cited, see the detailed description given in the January Menaion quotes in the Bollandist life. Julian the Apostate, in the letter alluded to above sneers at the diminutiveness of his person — mede aner, all anthropiokos euteles, he writes.) In addition to these qualities, he was conspicuous for two others to which even his enemies bore unwilling testimony. He was endowed with a sense of humour that could be as mordant — we had almost said as sardonic — as it seems to have been spontaneous and unfailing; and his courage was of the sort that never falters, even in the most disheartening hour of defeat. There is one other note in this highly gifted and many-sided personality to which everything else in his nature literally ministered, and which must be kept steadily in view, if we would possess the key to his character and writing and understand the extraordinary significance of his career in the history of the Christian Church. He was by instinct neither a liberal nor a conservative in theology. Indeed the terms have a singular inappropriateness as applied to a temperament like his. From first to last he cared greatly for one thing and one thing only; the integrity of his Catholic creed. The religion it engendered in him was obviously — considering the traits by which we have tried to depict him — of a passionate and consuming sort. It began and ended in devotion to the Divinity of Jesus Christ. He was scarcely out of his teens, and certainly not in more than deacon's orders, when he published two treatises, in which his mind seemed to strike the keynote of all its riper after-utterances on the subject of the Catholic Faith. The "Contra Gentes" and the "Oratio de Incarnatione" — to give them the Latin appellations by which they are more commonly cited — were written some time between the years 318 and 323. St. Jerome (De Viris Illust.) refers to them under a common title, as "Adversum Gentes Duo Libri", thus leaving his readers to gather the impression which an analysis of the contents of both books certainly seems to justify, that the two treatises are in reality one.
87 As a plea for the Christian position, addressed chiefly to both Gentiles and Jews, the young deacon's apology, while undoubtedly reminiscential in methods and ideas of Origen and the earlier Alexandrians, is, nevertheless, strongly individual and almost pietistic in tone. Though it deals with the Incarnation, it is silent on most of those ulterior problems in defence of which Athanasius was soon to be summoned by the force of events and the fervour of his own faith to devote the best energies of his life. The work contains no explicit discussion of the nature of the Word's Sonship, for instance; no attempt to draw out the character of Our Lord's relation to the Father; nothing, in short, of those Christological questions upon which he was to speak with such splendid and courageous clearness in time of shifting formularies and undetermined views. Yet those ideas must have been in the air (Soz., I, xv) for, some time between the years 318 and 320, Arius, a native of Libya (Epiph., Haer., lxix) and priest of the Alexandrian Church, who had already fallen under censure for his part in the Meletian troubles which broke out during the episcopate of St. Peter, and whose teachings had succeeded in making dangerous headway, even among "the consecrated virgins" of St. Mark's see (Epiph. Haer., lxix; Soc., Hist. Eccl., I, vi), accused Bishop Alexander of Sabellianism. Arius, who seems to have presumed on the charitable tolerance of the primate, was at length deposed (Apol. c. Ar., vi) in a synod consisting of more than one hundred bishops of Egypt and Libya (Depositio Ar., 3). The condemned heresiarch withdrew first to Palestine and afterwards to Bithynia, where, under the protection of Eusebius of Nicomedia and his other "Collucianists", he was able to increase his already remarkable influence, while his friends were endeavouring to prepare a way for his forcible reinstatement as priest of the Alexandrian Church. Athanasius, though only in deacon's order, must have taken no subordinate part in these events. He was the trusted secretary and advisor of Alexander, and his name appears in the list of those who signed the encyclical letter subsequently issued by the primate and his colleagues to offset the growing prestige of the new teaching, and the momentum it was beginning to acquire from the ostentatious patronage extended to the deposed Arius by the Eusebian faction. Indeed, it is to this party and to the leverage it was able to exercise at the emperor's court that the subsequent importance of Arianism as a political, rather than a religious, movement seems primarily to be due.
88 The heresy, of course, had its supposedly philosophic basis, which has been ascribed by authors, ancient and modern, to the most opposite sources. St. Epiphanius characterizes it as a king of revived Aristoteleanism (Haer., lxvii and lxxvi); and the same view is practically held by Socrates (Hist. Eccl., II, xxxv), Theodoret (Haer. Fab., IV, iii), and St. Basil (Adv. Eunom., I, ix). On the other hand, a theologian as broadly read as Petavius (De Trin., I, viii, 2) has no hesitation in deriving it from Platonism; Newman in turn (Arians of the Fourth Cent., 4 ed., 109) sees in it the influence of Jewish prejudices rationalized by the aid of Aristotelean ideas; while Robertson (Sel. Writ. and Let. of Ath. Proleg., 27) observes that the "common theology", which was invariably opposed to it, "borrowed its philosophical principles and method from the Platonists." These apparently conflicting statements could, no doubt, be easily adjusted; but the truth is that the prestige of Arianism never lay in its ideas. From whatever school it may have been logically derived, the sect, as a sect, was cradled and nurtured in intrigue. Save in some few instances, which can be accounted for on quite other grounds, its prophets relied more upon curial influence than upon piety, or Scriptural knowledge, or dialectics. That must be borne constantly in mind, if we would not move distractedly through the bewildering maze of events that make up the life of Athanasius for the next half-century to come. It is his peculiar merit that he not only saw the drift of things from the very beginning, but was confident of the issue down to the last (Apol. c. Ar., c.). His insight and courage proved almost as efficient a bulwark to the Christian Church in the world as did his singularly lucid grasp of traditional Catholic belief. His opportunity came in the year 325, when the Emperor Constantine, in the hope of putting an end to the scandalous debates that were disturbing the peace of the Church, met the prelates of the entire Catholic world in council at Nicaea.
89 The great council convoked at this juncture was something more than a pivotal event in the history of Christianity. Its sudden, and, in one sense, almost unpremeditated adoption of a quasi-philosophic and non-Scriptural term — homoousion — to express the character of orthodox belief in the Person of the historic Christ, by defining Him to be identical in substance, or co-essential, with the Father, together with its confident appeal to the emperor to lend the sanction of his authority to the decrees and pronouncements by which it hoped to safeguard this more explicit profession of the ancient Faith, had consequences of the gravest import, not only to the world of ideas, but to the world of politics as well. By the official promulgation to the term homoöusion, theological speculation received a fresh but subtle impetus which made itself felt long after Athanasius and his supporters had passed away; while the appeal to the secular arm inaugurated a policy which endured practically without change of scope down to the publication of the Vatican decrees in our own time. In one sense, and that a very deep and vital one, both the definition and the policy were inevitable. It was inevitable in the order of religious ideas that any break in logical continuity should be met by inquiry and protest. It was just as inevitable that the protest, to be effective, should receive some countenance from a power which up to that moment had affected to regulate all the graver circumstances of life (cf. Harnack, Hist. Dog., III, 146, note; Buchanan's tr.). As Newman has remarked: "The Church could not meet together in one, without entering into a sort of negotiation with the power that be; who jealousy it is the duty of Christians, both as individuals and as a body, if possible, to dispel" (Arians of the Fourth Cent., 4 ed., 241). Athanasius, though not yet in priest's orders, accompanied Alexander to the council in the character of secretary and theological adviser. He was not, of course, the originator of the famous homoösion. The term had been proposed in a non-obvious and illegitimate sense by Paul of Samosata to the Father at Antioch, and had been rejected by them as savouring of materialistic conceptions of the Godhead (cf. Athan., "De Syn.," xliii; Newman, "Arians of the Fourth Cent.," 4 ed., 184-196; Petav. "De Trin.," IV, v, sect. 3; Robertson, "Sel. Writ. and Let. Athan. Proleg.", 30 sqq.).
90 It may even be questioned whether, if left to his own logical instincts, Athanasius would have suggested an orthodox revival of the term at all ("De Decretis", 19; "Orat. c. Ar.", ii, 32; "Ad Monachos", 2). His writings, composed during the forty-six critical years of his episcopate, show a very sparing use of the word; and though, as Newman (Arians of the Fourth Cent., 4 ed., 236) reminds us, "the authentic account of the proceedings" that took place is not extant, there is nevertheless abundant evidence in support of the common view that it had been unexpectedly forced upon the notice of the bishops, Arian and orthodox, in the great synod by Constantine's proposal to account the creed submitted by Eusebius of Caesarea, with the addition of the homoösion, as a safeguard against possible vagueness. The suggestion had in all probability come from Hosius (cf. "Epist. Eusebii.", in the appendix to the "De Decretis", sect. 4; Soc., "Hist. Eccl.", I, viii; III, vii; Theod. "Hist. Eccl.", I, Athan.; "Arians of the Fourth Cent.", 6, n. 42; outos ten en Nikaia pistin exetheto, says the saint, quoting his opponents); but Athanasius, in common with the leaders of the orthodox party, loyally accepted the term as expressive of the traditional sense in which the Church had always held Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. The conspicuous abilities displayed in the Nicaean debates and the character for courage and sincerity he won on all sides made the youthful cleric henceforth a marked man (St. Greg. Naz., Orat., 21). His life could not be lived in a corner. Five months after the close of the council the Primate of Alexandria died; and Athanasius, quite as much in recognition of his talent, it would appear, as in deference to the deathbed wishes of the deceased prelate, was chosen to succeed him. His election, in spite of his extreme youth and the opposition of a remnant of the Arian and Meletian factions in the Alexandrian Church, was welcomed by all classes among the laity ("Apol. c. Arian", vi; Soz., "Hist. Eccl.", II, xvii, xxi, xxii).
91 The opening years of the saint's rule were occupied with the wonted episcopal routine of a fourth-century Egyptian bishop. Episcopal visitations, synods, pastoral correspondence, preaching and the yearly round of church functions consumed the bulk of his time. The only noteworthy events of which antiquity furnishes at least probable data are connected with the successful efforts which he made to provide a hierarchy for the newly planted church in Ethiopia (Abyssinia) in the person of St. Frumentius (Rufinus I, ix; Soc. I, xix; Soz., II, xxiv), and the friendship which appears to have begun about this time between himself and the monks of St. Pachomius. But the seeds of disaster which the saint's piety had unflinchingly planted at Nicaea were beginning to bear a disquieting crop at last. Already events were happening at Constantinople which were soon to make him the most important figure of his time. Eusebius of Nicomedia, who had fallen into disgrace and been banished by the Emperor Constantine for his part in the earlier Arian controversies, had been recalled from exile. After an adroit campaign of intrigue, carried on chiefly through the instrumentality of the ladies of the imperial household, this smooth-mannered prelate so far prevailed over Constantine as to induce him to order the recall of Arius likewise from exile. He himself sent a characteristic letter to the youthful Primate of Alexandria, in which he bespoke his favour for the condemned heresiarch, who was described as a man whose opinions had been misrepresented. These events must have happened some time about the close of the year 330. Finally the emperor himself was persuaded to write to Athanasius, urging that all those who were ready to submit to the definitions of Nicaea should be re-admitted to ecclesiastical communion. This Athanasius stoutly refused to do, alleging that there could be no fellowship between the Church and the one who denied the Divinity of Christ.
92 The Bishop of Nicomedia thereupon brought various ecclesiastical and political charges against Athanasius, which, though unmistakably refuted at their first hearing, were afterwards refurbished and made to do service at nearly every stage of his subsequent trials. Four of these were very definite, to wit: that he had not reached the canonical age at the time of his consecration; that he had imposed a linen tax upon the provinces; that his officers had, with his connivance and authority, profaned the Sacred Mysteries in the case of an alleged priest names Ischyras; and lastly that he had put one Arenius to death and afterwards dismembered the body for purposes of magic. The nature of the charges and the method of supporting them were vividly characteristic of the age. The curious student will find them set forth in picturesque detail in the second part of the Saint's "Apologia", or "Defense against the Arians", written long after the events themselves, about the year 350, when the retractation of Ursacius and Valens made their publication triumphantly opportune. The whole unhappy story at this distance of time reads in parts more like a specimen of late Greek romance than the account of an inquisition gravely conducted by a synod of Christian prelates with the idea of getting at the truth of a series of odious accusations brought against one of their number. Summoned by the emperor's order after protracted delays extended over a period of thirty months (Soz., II, xxv), Athanasius finally consented to meet the charges brought against him by appearing before a synod of prelates at Tyre in the year 335. Fifty of his suffragans went with him to vindicate his good name; but the complexion of the ruling party in the synod made it evident that justice to the accused was the last thing that was thought of. It can hardly be wondered at, that Athanasius should have refused to be tried by such a court. He, therefore, suddenly withdrew from Tyre, escaping in a boat with some faithful friends who accompanied him to Byzantium, where he had made up his mind to present himself to the emperor.
93 The circumstances in which the saint and the great catechumen met were dramatic enough. Constantine was returning from a hunt, when Athanasius unexpectedly stepped into the middle of the road and demanded a hearing. The astonished emperor could hardly believe his eyes, and it needed the assurance of one of the attendants to convince him that the petitioner was not an impostor, but none other than the great Bishop of Alexandria himself. "Give me", said the prelate, "a just tribunal, or allow me to meet my accusers face to face in your presence." His request was granted. An order was peremptorily sent to the bishops, who had tried Athanasius and, of course, condemned him in his absence, to repair at once to the imperial city. The command reached them while they were on their way to the great feast of the dedication of Constantine's new church at Jerusalem. It naturally caused some consternation; but the more influential members of the Eusebian faction never lacked either courage or resourcefulness. The saint was taken at his word; and the old charges were renewed in the hearing of the emperor himself. Athanasius was condemned to go into exile at Treves, where he was received with the utmost kindness by the saintly Bishop Maximinus and the emperor's eldest son, Constantine. He began his journey probably in the month of February, 336, and arrived on the banks of the Moselle in the late autumn of the same year. His exile lasted nearly two years and a half. Public opinion in his own diocese remained loyal to him during all that time. It was not the least eloquent testimony to the essential worth of his character that he could inspire such faith. Constantine's treatment of Athanasius at this crisis in his fortunes has always been difficult to understand. Affecting, on the one hand, a show of indignation, as if he really believed in the political charge brought against the saint, he, on the other hand, refused to appoint a successor to the Alexandrian See, a thing which he might in consistency have been obliged to do had he taken seriously the condemnation proceedings carried through by the Eusebians at Tyre.
94 Meanwhile events of the greatest importance had taken place. Arius had died amid startlingly dramatic circumstances at Constantinople in 336; and the death of Constantine himself had followed, on the 22nd of May the year after. Some three weeks later the younger Constantine invited the exiled primate to return to his see; and by the end of November of the same year Athanasius was once more established in his episcopal city. His return was the occasion of great rejoicing. The people, as he himself tells us, ran in crowds to see his face; the churches were given over to a kind of jubilee; thanksgivings were offered up everywhere; and clergy and laity accounted the day the happiest in their lives. But already trouble was brewing in a quarter from which the saint might reasonably have expected it. The Eusebian faction, who from this time forth loom large as the disturbers of his peace, managed to win over to their side the weak-minded Emperor Constantius to whom the East had been assigned in the division of the empire that followed on the death of Constantine. The old charges were refurbished with a graver ecclesiastical accusation added by way of rider. Athanasius had ignored the decision of a duly authorized synod. He had returned to his see without the summons of ecclesiastical authority (Apol. c. Ar., loc. cit.). In the year 340, after the failure of the Eusebian malcontents to secure the appointment of an Arian candidate of dubious reputation names Pistus, the notorious Gregory of Cappadocia was forcibly intruded into the Alexandrian See, and Athanasius was obliged to go into hiding. Within a very few weeks he set out for Rome to lay his case before the Church at large. He had made his appeal to Pope Julius, who took up his cause with a whole-heartedness that never wavered down to the day of that holy pontiff's death. The pope summoned a synod of bishops to meet in Rome. After a careful and detailed examination of the entire case, the primate's innocence was proclaimed to the Christian world.
95 Meanwhile the Eusebian party had met at Antioch and passed a series of decrees framed for the sole purpose of preventing the saint's return to his see. Three years were passed at Rome, during which time the idea of the cenobitical life, as Athanasius had seen it practised in the deserts of Egypt, was preached to the clerics of the West (St. Jerome, Epistle cxxvii, 5). Two years after the Roman synod had published its decision, Athanasius was summoned to Milan by the Emperor Constans, who laid before him the plan which Constantius had formed for a great reunion of both the Eastern and Western Churches. Now began a time of extraordinary activity for the Saint. Early in the year 343 we find the undaunted exile in Gaul, whither he had gone to consult the saintly Hosius, the great champion of orthodoxy in the West. The two together set out for the Council of Sardica which had been summoned in deference to the Roman pontiff's wishes. At this great gathering of prelates the case of Athanasius was taken up once more; and once more was his innocence reaffirmed. Two conciliar letters were prepared, one to the clergy and faithful of Alexandria, and the other to the bishops of Egypt and Libya, in which the will of the Council was made known. Meanwhile the Eusebian party had gone to Philippopolis, where they issued an anathema against Athanasius and his supporters. The persecution against the orthodox party broke out with renewed vigour, and Constantius was induced to prepare drastic measures against Athanasius and the priests who were devoted to him. Orders were given that if the Saint attempted to re-enter his see, he should be put to death. Athanasius, accordingly, withdrew from Sardica to Naissus in Mysia, where he celebrated the Easter festival of the year 344. After that he set out for Aquileia in obedience to a friendly summons from Constans, to whom Italy had fallen in the division of the empire that followed on the death of Constantine. Meanwhile an unexpected event had taken place which made the return of Athanasius to his see less difficult than it had seemed for many months. Gregory of Cappadocia had died (probably of violence) in June, 345. The embassy which had been sent by the bishops of Sardica to the Emperor Constantius, and which had at first met with the most insulting treatment, now received a favourable hearing. Constantius was induced to reconsider his decision, owing to a threatening letter from his brother Constans and the uncertain condition of affairs of the Persian border, and he accordingly made up his mind to yield. But three separate letters were needed to overcome the natural hesitation of Athanasius. He passed rapidly from Aquileia to Treves, from Treves to Rome, and from Rome by the northern route to Adrianople and Antioch, where he met Constantius. He was accorded a gracious interview by the vacillating Emperor, and sent back to his see in triumph, where he began his memorable ten years' reign, which lasted down to the third exile, that of 356. These were full years in the life of the Bishop; but the intrigues of the Eusebian, or Court, party were soon renewed. Pope Julius had died in the month of April, 352, and Liberius had succeeded him as Sovereign Pontiff. For two years Liberius had been favourable to the cause of Athanasius; but driven at last into exile, he was induced to sign an ambiguous formula, from which the great Nicene test, the homoöusion, had been studiously omitted. In 355 a council was held at Milan, where in spite of the vigorous opposition of a handful of loyal prelates among the Western bishops, a fourth condemnation of Athanasius was announced to the world. With his friends scattered, the saintly Hosius in exile, the Pope Liberius denounced as acquiescing in Arian formularies, Athanasius could hardly hope to escape. On the night of 8 February, 356, while engaged in services in the Church of St. Thomas, a band of armed men burst in to secure his arrest (Apol. de Fuga, 24). It was the beginning of his third exile.
96 Through the influence of the Eusebian faction at Constantinople, an Arian bishop, George of Cappadocia, was now appointed to rule the see of Alexandria. Athanasius, after remaining some days in the neighbourhood of the city, finally withdrew into the deserts of upper Egypt, where he remained for a period of six years, living the life of the monks and devoting himself in his enforced leisure to the composition of that group of writings of which we have the rest in the "Apology to Constantius", the "Apology for his Flight", the "Letter to the Monks", and the "History of the Arians". Legend has naturally been busy with this period of the Saint's career; and we may find in the "Life of Pachomius" a collection of tales brimful of incidents, and enlivened by the recital of "deathless 'scapes in the breach." But by the close of the year 360 a change was apparent in the complexion of the anti-Nicene party. The Arians no longer presented an unbroken front to their orthodox opponents. The Emperor Constantius, who had been the cause of so much trouble, died 4 November, 361, and was succeeded by Julian. The proclamation of the new prince's accession was the signal for a pagan outbreak against the still dominant Arian faction in Alexandria. George, the usurping Bishop, was flung into prison and murdered amid circumstances of great cruelty, 24 December (Hist. Aceph., VI). An obscure presbyter of the name of Pistus was immediately chosen by the Arians to succeed him, when fresh news arrived that filled the orthodox party with hope. An edict had been put forth by Julian (Hist. Aceph., VIII) permitting the exiled bishops of the "Galileans" to return to their "towns and provinces". Athanasius received a summons from his own flock, and he accordingly re-entered his episcopal capital 22 February, 362. With characteristic energy he set to work to re-establish the somewhat shattered fortunes of the orthodox party and to purge the theological atmosphere of uncertainty. To clear up the misunderstandings that had arisen in the course of the previous years, an attempt was made to determine still further the significance of the Nicene formularies. In the meanwhile, Julian, who seems to have become suddenly jealous of the influence that Athanasius was exercising at Alexandria, addressed an order to Ecdicius, the Prefect of Egypt, peremptorily commanding the expulsion of the restored primate, on the ground that he had never been included in the imperial act of clemency. The edict was communicated to the bishop by Pythicodorus Trico, who, though described in the "Chronicon Athanasianum" (xxxv) as a "philosopher", seems to have behaved with brutal insolence. On 23 October the people gathered about the proscribed bishop to protest against the emperor's decree; but the saint urged them to submit, consoling them with the promise that his absence would be of short duration. The prophecy was curiously fulfilled. Julian terminated his brief career 26 June, 363; and Athanasius returned in secret to Alexandria, where he soon received a document from the new emperor, Jovian, reinstating him once more in his episcopal functions. His first act was to convene a council which reaffirmed the terms of the Nicene Creed. Early in September he set out for Antioch, bearing a synodal letter, in which the pronouncements of this council had been embodied. At Antioch he had an interview with the new emperor, who received him graciously and even asked him to prepare an exposition of the orthodox faith. But in the following February Jovian died; and in October, 364, Athanasius was once more an exile.
97 With the turn of circumstances that handed over to Valens the control of the East this article has nothing to do; but the accession of the emperor gave a fresh lease of life to the Arian party. He issued a decree banishing the bishops who has been deposed by Constantius, but who had been permitted by Jovian to return to their sees. The news created the greatest consternation in the city of Alexandria itself, and the prefect, in order to prevent a serious outbreak, gave public assurance that the very special case of Athanasius would be laid before the emperor. But the saint seems to have divined what was preparing in secret against him. He quietly withdrew from Alexandria, 5 October, and took up his abode in a country house outside the city. It was during this period that he is said to have spent four months in hiding in his father's tomb (Soz., "Hist. Eccl.", VI, xii; Doc., "Hist. Eccl.", IV, xii). Valens, who seems to have sincerely dreaded the possible consequences of a popular outbreak, gave order within a very few weeks for the return of Athanasius to his see. And now began that last period of comparative repose which unexpectedly terminated his strenuous and extraordinary career. He spent his remaining days, characteristically enough, in re-emphasizing the view of the Incarnation which had been defined at Nicaea and which has been substantially the faith of the Christian Church from its earliest pronouncement in Scripture down to its last utterance through the lips of Pius X in our own times. "Let what was confessed by the Fathers of Nicaea prevail", he wrote to a philosopher-friend and correspondent in the closing years of his life (Epist. lxxi, ad Max.). That that confession did at last prevail in the various Trinitarian formularies that followed upon that of Nicaea was due, humanly speaking, more to his laborious witness than to that of any other champion in the long teachers' roll of Catholicism. By one of those inexplicable ironies that meet us everywhere in human history, this man, who had endured exile so often, and risked life itself in defence of what he believed to be the first and most essential truth of the Catholic creed, died not by violence or in hiding, but peacefully in his own bed, surrounded by his clergy and mourned by the faithful of the see he had served so well. His feast in the Roman Calendar is kept on the anniversary of his death.
98 [Note on his depiction in art: No accepted emblem has been assigned to him in the history of western art; and his career, in spite of its picturesque diversity and extraordinary wealth of detail, seems to have furnished little, if any, material for distinctive illustration. Mrs. Jameson tells us that according to the Greek formula, "he ought to be represented old, bald-headed, and with a long white beard" (Sacred and Legendary Art, I, 339).]
99 All the essential materials for the Saint's biography are to be found in his writings, especially in those written after the year 350, when the Apologia contra Arianos was composed. Supplementary information will be found in ST. EPIPHANIUS, Hoer., loc. cit.; in ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, Orat., xxi; also RUFINUS, SOCRATES, SOZMEN, and THEODORET. The Historia Acephala, or Maffeian Fragment (discovered by Maffei in 1738, and inserted by GALLANDI in Bibliotheca Patrum, 1769), and the Chronicon Athanasianum, or Index to the Festal Letters, give us data for the chronological problem. All the foregoing sources are included in MIGNE, P. G. and P. L. The great PAPEBROCH'S Life is in the Acta SS., May, I. The most important authorities in English are: NEWMAN, Arians of the Fourth Century, and Saint Athanasius; BRIGHT, Dictionary of Christian Biography; ROBERTSON, Life, in the Prolegomena to the Select Writings and Letters of Saint Athanasius (re-edited in Library of the Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers, New York, 1903); GWATKIN, Studies of Arianism (2d ed., Cambridge, 1900); MOHLER, Athanasius der Grosse; HERGENROTHER and HEFELE.
100 Cornelius Clifford
Atheism
85 (α privative, and θεός, God, i.e. without God).
86 Atheism is that system of thought which is formally opposed to theism. Since its first coming into use the term atheism has been very vaguely employed, generally as an epithet of accusation against any system that called in question the popular gods of the day. Thus while Socrates was accused of atheism (Plato, Apol., 26,c.) and Diagoras called an atheist by Cicero (Nat. Deor., I, 23), Democritus and Epicurus were styled in the same sense impious (without respect for the gods) on account of their trend of their new atomistic philosophy. In this sense too, the early Christians were known to the pagans as atheists, because they denied the heathen gods; while, from time to time, various religious and philosophical systems have, for similar reasons, been deemed atheistic.
87 Though atheism, historically considered, has meant no more in the past critical or sceptical denial of the theology of those who have employed the term as one of reproach, and has consequently no one strict philosophical meaning; though there is no one consistent system in the exposition of which it has a definite place; yet, if we consider it in its broad meaning as merely the opposite of theism, we will be able to frame such divisions as will make possible a grouping of definite systems under this head. And in so doing so we shall at once be adopting both the historical and the philosophical view. For the common basis of all systems of theism as well as the cardinal tenet of all popular religion at the present day is indubitably a belief in the existence of a personal God, and to deny this tenet is to invite the popular reproach of atheism. The need of some such definition as this was felt by Mr. Gladstone when he wrote (Contemporary Review, June 1876):
88 > By the Atheist I understand the man who not only holds off, like the sceptic, from the affirmative, but who drives himself, or is driven, to the negative assertion in regard to the whole unseen, or to the existence of God.
89 Moreover, the breadth of comprehension in such a use of the term admits of divisions and cross-divisions being framed under it; and at the same time limits the number of systems of thought to which, with any propriety, it might otherwise be extended. Also, if the term is thus taken, in strict contradistinction to theism, and a plan of its possible modes of acceptance made, these systems of thought will naturally appear in clearer proportion and relationship. Thus, defined as a doctrine, or theory, or philosophy formally opposed to theism, atheism can only signify the teaching of those schools, whether cosmological or moral, which do not include God either as a principle or as a conclusion of their reasoning.
90 The most trenchant form which atheism could take would be the positive and dogmatic denial existence of any spiritual and extra-mundane First Cause. This is sometimes known as dogmatic, or positive theoretic, atheism; though it may be doubted whether such a system has ever been, or could ever possibly be seriously maintained. Certainly Bacon and Dr. Arnold voice the common judgment of thinking men when they express a doubt as to the existence of an atheist belonging to such a school. Still, there are certain advanced phases of materialistic philosophy that, perhaps, should rightly be included under this head. Materialism, which professes to find in matter its own cause and explanation, may go farther, and positively exclude the existence of any spiritual cause. That such a dogmatic assertion is both unreasonable and illogical needs no demonstration, for it is an inference not warranted by the facts nor justified by the laws of thought. But the fact that certain individuals have left the sphere of exact scientific observation for speculation, and have thus dogmatized negatively, calls for their inclusion in this specific type. Materialism is the one dogmatic explanation of the universe which could in any sense justify an atheistic position. But even materialism, however its advocates might dogmatize, could do no more than provide an inadequate theoretic basis for a negative form of atheism. Pantheism, which must not be confused with materialism, in some of its forms can be placed also in this division, as categorically denying the existence of a spiritual First Cause above or outside the world.
91 A second form in which atheism may be held and taught, as indeed it has been, is based either upon the lack of physical data for theism or upon the limited nature of the intelligence of man. This second form may be described as a negative theoretic atheism; and may be further viewed as cosmological or psychological, according as it is motivated, on the one hand, by a consideration of the paucity of actual data available for the arguments proving the existence of a super-sensible and spiritual God, or, what amounts to the same thing, the attributing of all cosmic change and development to the self-contained potentialities of an eternal matter; or, on the other hand, by an empiric or theoretic estimate of the powers of reason working upon the data furnished by sense-perception. From whichever cause this negative form of atheism proceeds, it issues in agnosticism or materialism; although the agnostic is, perhaps, better classed under this head than the materialist. For the former, professing a state of nescience, more properly belongs to a category under which those are placed who neglect, rather than explain, nature without a God. Moreover, the agnostic may be a theist, if he admits the existence of a being behind and beyond nature, even while he asserts that such a being is both unprovable and unknowable. The materialist belongs to this type so long as he merely neglects, and does not exclude from his system, the existence of God. So, too, does the positivist, regarding theological and metaphysical speculation as mere passing stages of thought through which the human mind has been journeying towards positive, or related empirical, knowledge. Indeed, any system of thought or school of philosophy that simply omits the existence of God from the sum total of natural knowledge, whether the individual as a matter of fact believes in Him or not, can be classed in this division of atheism, in which, strictly speaking, no positive assertion or denial is made as to the ultimate fact of His being.
92 There are two systems of practical or moral atheism which call for attention. They are based upon the theoretic systems just expounded. One system of positive moral atheism, in which human actions would neither be right nor wrong, good nor evil, with reference to God, would naturally follow from the profession of positive theoretic atheism; and it is significant of those to whom such a form of theoretic atheism is sometimes attributed, that for the sanctions of moral actions they introduce such abstract ideas as those of duty, the social instinct, or humanity. There seems to be no particular reason why they should have recourse to such sanctions, since the morality of an action can hardly be derived from its performance as a duty, which in turn can be called and known as a "duty" only because it refers to an action that is morally good. Indeed an analysis of the idea of duty leads to a refutation of the principle in whose support it is invoked, and points to the necessity of a theistic interpretation of nature for its own justification.
93 The second system of negative practical or moral atheism may be referred to the second type of theoretic atheism. It is like the first in not relating human actions to an extra-mundane, spiritual, and personal lawgiver; but that, not because such a lawgiver does not exist, but because the human intelligence is incapable of so relating them. It must not be forgotten, however, that either negative theoretic atheism or negative practical atheism is, as a system, strictly speaking compatible with belief in a God; and much confusion is often caused by the inaccurate use of the terms, belief, knowledge, opinion, etc.
94 Lastly, a third type is generally, though perhaps wrongly, included in moral atheism. "Practical atheism is not a kind of thought or opinion, but a mode of life" (R. Flint, Anti-theistic Theories, Lect. I). This is more correctly called, as it is described, godlessness in conduct, quite irrespective of any theory of philosophy, or morals, or of religious faith. It will be noticed that, although we have included agnosticism, materialism, and pantheism, among the types of atheism, strictly speaking this latter does not necessarily include any one of the former. A man may be an agnostic simply, or an agnostic who is also an atheist. He may be a scientific materialist and no more, or he may combine atheism with his materialism. It does not necessarily follow, because the natural cognoscibility of a personal First Cause is denied, that His existence is called in question: nor, when matter is called upon to explain itself, that God is critically denied. On the other hand, pantheism, while destroying the extra-mundane character of God, does not necessarily deny the existence of a supreme entity, but rather affirms such as the sum of all existence and the cause of all phenomena whether of thought or of matter. Consequently, while it would be unjust to class agnostics, materialists, or pantheists as necessarily also atheists, it cannot be denied that atheism is clearly perceived to be implied in certain phases of all these systems. There are so many shades and gradations of thought by which one form of a philosophy merges into another, so much that is opinionative and personal woven into the various individual expositions of systems, that, to be impartially fair, each individual must be classed by himself as atheist or theist. Indeed, more upon his own assertion or direct teaching than by reason of any supposed implication in the system he advocated must this classification be made. And if it is correct to consider the subject from this point of view, it is surprising to find to what an exceedingly small number the supposed atheistic ranks dwindle. In company with Socrates, nearly all the reputed Greek atheists strenuously repudiated the charge of teaching that there were no gods. Even Bion, who, according to Diogenes Laertius (Life of Aristippus, XIII, Bohn's tr.), adopted the scandalous moral teaching of the atheist Theodorus, turned again to the gods whom he had insulted, and when he came to die demonstrated in practice what he had denied in theory. As Laertius says in his "Life of Bion", he "who never once said, `I have sinned but spare me --
95 > Then did this atheist shrink and give his neck
96 > To an old woman to hang charms upon;
97 > And bound his arms with magic amulets;
98 > With laurel branches blocked his doors and windows,
99 > Ready to do and venture anything
100 > Rather than die."
101 Epicurus, the founder of that school of physics which limited all causes to purely natural ones and consequently implied, if he did not actually assert, atheism, is spoken of as a man whose "piety towards the gods and (whose) affection for his country was quite unspeakable" (ib., Life of Epicurus, V). And though Lucretius Carus speaks of the downfall of popular religion which he wished to bring about (De Rerum natura, I, 79-80), yet, in his own letter to Henaeceus (Laert., Life of Epicurus, XXVII), he states plainly a true theistic position: "For there are gods: for our knowledge of them is indistinct. But they are not of the character which people in general attribute to them." Indeed, this one citation perfectly illustrates the fundamental historic meaning of the term, atheism. The naturalistic pantheism of the Italian Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) comes near to, if it is not actually a profession of, atheism; while Tomaso Campanella (1568-1639), on the contrary, in his nature-philosophy finds in atheism the one impossibility of thought, Spinoza (1632-77), while defending the doctrine that God certainly exists, so identifies Him with finite existence that it is difficult to see how he can be defended against the charge of atheism even of the first type. In the eighteenth century, and especially in France, the doctrines of materialism were spread broadcast by the Encyclopaedists. La Mettrie, Holbach, Fuerbach, and Fleurens are usually classed among the foremost materialistic atheists of the period. Voltaire, on the contrary, while undoubtedly helping on the cause of practical atheism, distinctly held its theoretic contrary. He, as well as Rousseau, was a deist. Comte, it will be remembered, refused to be called an atheist. In the last century Thomas Huxley, Charles Darwin, and Herbert Spencer, with others of the evolutionistic school of philosophy, were, quite erroneously, charged with positive atheism. It is a charge which can in no way be substantiated; and the invention andonism of Ernst Hackel, goes far towards forming an atheistic system of philosophy. But even the last named admits that there may be a God, though so limited and so foreign to the deity of theists that his admission can hardly remove the system from the first category of theoretic atheism.
102 Among the unscientific and unphilosophical there have from time to time been found dogmatic atheists of the first type. Here again, however, many of those popularly styled atheists are more correctly described by some other title. There is a somewhat rare tract, "Atheism Refuted in a Discourse to prove the Existence of God by T.P." -- British Museum Catalogue, "Tom Paine", who was at one time popularly called an atheist. And perhaps, of the few who have upheld an indubitable form of positive theoretic atheism, none has been taken seriously enough to have exerted any influence upon the trend of philosophic or scientific thought. Robert Ingersoll might be instanced, but though popular speakers and writers of this type may create a certain amount of unlearned disturbance, they are not treated seriously by thinking men, and it is extremely doubtful whether they deserve a place in any historical or philosophical exposition of atheism.
103 REIMMAN, Historia atheismi et atheorum . . . (Hildesheim, 1725); TOUSSAINT in Dict. de theologie, s.v. ( a good bibliography); JANET AND SEAILLES, History of the Problems of Philosophy (tr.,London, 1902), II; HETTINGER, Natural Religion (tr., New York, 1890); FLINT, Anti-theistic Theories (New York, 1894); LILLY, The Great Enigma (New York, 1892); DAURELLE, L Atheisme devant la raison humaine (Paris, 1883); WARD, Naturalism and Agnosticism (New York, 1899); LADD, Philosophy of Religion (New York, 1905); II; BOEDDER, Natural Theologh (New York, 1891); BLACKIE, Natural History of Atheism (New York, 1878); The Catholic World, XXVII, 471: BARRY, The End of Atheism in the Catholic World, LX, 333; SHEA, Steps to Atheism in The Am, Cath. Quart. Rev., 1879, 305; POHLE, Lehrbuch d. Dogmatik (Paderborn, 1907) I; BAUR in Kirchliches Handlexikon (Munich, 1907), s.v. See also bibliography under AGNOSTICISM, MATERIALISM, PANTHEISM, and THEISM. For the refutation of ATHEISM see the article GOD.)
104 Francis Aveling
Abbey of Athelney
88 The Abbey of Athelney, established in the County of Somerset, England, was founded by King Alfred, A.D. 888, as a religious house for monks of the Order of St. Benedict. Originally Athelney was a small island in the midst of dangerous morasses in what is now the parish of East Ling. It possessed scarcely more than two acres of firm land; was covered with alders and infested by wild animals, and was inaccessible except by boat (William of Malmesbury). Here Alfred found a refuge from the Danes; here he built the abbey dedicated to our Blessed Savior, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Egelwine. He peopled it with foreign monks, drawn chiefly from France, with John of Saxony (known as Scotus) as their abbot. The original church was a small structure.consisting of four piers supporting the main fabric and surrounded by four circular chancels. Little is known of the history of the abbey from the eleventh century up to the time of its dissolution except that the monks of Glastonbury attempted to annex it or have it placed under the Glastonbury jurisdiction. It was not a rich community. An indulgence of thirty days was given in 1321 for those who should assist in the rebuilding of the church, and the monks humbly petitioned Edward I to remit "corrod" for which they were unable to find the means of payment. The last abbot was Robert Hamlyn. With eight monks of his community, he surrendered February, 8, 1540, receiving a pension of £50 per annum and retaining his prebend of Long Sutton. The revenues (26 Hen. VII) were £209. 0s. 3/4 d.
89 DUGDALE, Monasticon Anglicanum; ASSER, De Rebus Gestis Alfridi; HEARNE, Script. Hist. Angl. XXVIII (1731), 587-90.
90 Francis Aveling
Athenagoras
91 A Christian apologist of the second half of the second century of whom no more is known than that he was an Athenian philosopher and a convert to Christianity. Of his writings there have been preserved but two genuine pieces -- his "Apology" or "Embassy for the Christians" and a "Treatise on the Resurrection". The only allusions to him in early Christian literature are the accredited quotations from his "Apology" in a fragment of Methodius of Olympus (d. 312) and the untrustworthy biographical details in the fragments of the "Christian History" of Philip of Side (c. 425). It may be that his treatises, circulating anonymously, were for a time considered as the work of another apologist. His writings bear witness to his erudition and culture, his power as a philosopher and rhetorician, his keen appreciation of the intellectual temper of his age, and his tact and delicacy in dealing with the powerful opponents of his religion. The "Apology", the date of which is fixed by internal evidence as late in 176 or 177, was not, as the title "Embassy" (presbeia) has suggested, an oral defence of Christianity but a carefully written plea for justice to the Christians made by a philosopher, on philosophical grounds, to the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus, conquerors, "but above all, philosophers". He first complains of the illogical and unjust discrimination against the Christians and of the calumnies they suffer (i-iii), and then meets the charge of atheism (iv). He establishes the principle of monotheism, citing pagan poets and philosophers in support of the very doctrines for which Christians are condemned (v-vi), and demonstrates the superiority of the Christian belief in God to that of pagans (vii-viii). This first strongly reasoned demonstration of the unity of God in Christian literature is supplemented by an able exposition of the Trinity (x). Assuming then the defensive, the apologist justifies the Christian abstention from worship of the national deities (xii-xiv) on grounds of its absurdity and indecency, quoting at length the pagan poets and philosophers in support of his contention (xv-xxx). Finally, he meets the charges of immorality by exposing the Christian ideal of purity, even in thought, and the inviolable sanctity of the marriage bond. The charge of cannibalism is refuted by showing the high regard for human life which leads the Christian to detest the crime of abortion (xxxi-xxxvi). The treatise on the "Resurrection of the Body", the first complete exposition of the doctrine in Christian literature, was written later than the "Apology", to which it may be considered as an appendix. Athenagoras brings to the defence of the doctrine the best that contemporary philosophy could adduce. After meeting the objections common to his time (i), he demonstrates the possibility of a resurrection in view either of the power of the Creator (ii-iii), or of the nature of our bodies (iv-viii). To exercise such powers is neither unworthy of God nor unjust to other creatures (ix-xi). He shows that the nature and end of man demand a perpetuation of the life of body and soul.
92 March and Own, Douglass' Series of Christian, Greek and Latin Writers (New York, 1876), IV; Harnack History of Dogma, tr. Buchanan (Boston, 1903), II, 188-190. An English translation is found in Ante-Nicene Fathers (New York, 1903), II, 129-162; in vol. X (ibid.) pp. 36-38, is an extensive bibliography (to 1890). The best editions are those of Otto, corpus Apologetarum (Jena, 1857), Vii, and the Benedictine Maranus in P.G. (Paris, 1857), VI, 889-1024. See also Schwartz in Gebhardt and Harnack, Texte und Untersuchungen (Leipzig, 1891), IV, 2; Harnack, Geschichte d. altchristlichen Literaute (Leipzig, 1893-1897), I, 256-258; II, 317-319; Bardenhewer, Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literature (Freiburg, 1902), I, 267-277; Idem, Patrologie (ibid., 1901) 57-58.
93 John B. Peterson.
Athenry
94 A small inland town in the county Galway, Ireland, anciently called Athnere, from Ath-na-Riagh, the king's ford, or the abode of the king. It was the first town established by the Anglo-Norman invaders or Connaught, and at a remote period became a place of importance. A Dominican monastery was completed there in 1216 on a site granted by Meyler de Bermingham. In time it became extensive and wealthy and was used as the chief burial place of the Earls of Ulster and the principal families of the adjoining territory. Indulgences for the benefit of the monastery were granted by the pope in 1400. The church was burned in 1423, and in 1427 two subordinate houses were established. In 1445 Pope Eugenius IV renewed the decree of Pope Martin V to encourage the repairing of the church, at which time there were thirty inmates in the monastery. A Franciscan friary was also founded there in 1464 by Thomas, Earl of Kildare, and chapels erected by his wife and the Earls of Desmond and O'Tully. The place was sacked in 1577 during the Elizabethan wars, but repaired in 1585. The northern Irish burned the town in 1596 but the abbey escaped. The Dominican establishment was revived in 1644 as a university, the town, however, never regained its ancient prestige. The Cromwellian period ruined the ecclesiastical buildings, of which the tower and east window remained in good condition to tell of the ancient extent and beauty of the foundation. The Board of Works in 1893 made extensive repairs to the ruins to preserve them.
95 LEWIS, Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (Dublin, 1839).
96 Thomas F. Meehan
Christian Athens
97 Christianity was first preached in Athens by St. Paul. He came to Athens from Berœa of Macedonia, coming probably by water and landing in the Peiræevs, the harbour of Athens. This was about the year 53. Having arrived at Athens, he at once sent for Silas and Timotheos who had remained behind in Berœa. While awaiting the coming of these he tarried in Athens, viewing the idolatrous city, and frequenting the synagogue; for there were already Jews in Athens. He also frequented the agora, and there met and conversed with the men of Athens, telling them of the new truths which he was promulgating. Finally, at the Areopagos, he spoke to them the sermon which is preserved in the seventeenth chapter of the Acts. The Athenians did not enthusiastically accept this first preaching of Christianity. The Acts mention, however, that a few believed in Paul's teaching. Amongst these were Dionysios, a member of the Areopagite court, and Damaris, or Thamar possibly, who may have been a Jewess. A tradition asserts that St. Paul wrote from Athens his two letters to the Christians of Thessalonika. Even if this be so, his stay in Athens was not a protracted one. He departed by sea, and went to Korinth by way of Kenchreæ, its eastern harbour. It seems that a Christian community was rapidly formed, although for a considerable time it did not possess a numerous membership. The commoner tradition names the Areopagite as the first head and bishop of the Christian Athenians. Another tradition, however, gives this honour to Hierotheos the Thesmothete. The successors of the first bishop were not all Athenians by lineage. They are catalogued as Narkissos, Publius, and Quadratus. Narkissos is stated to have come from Palestine, and Publius from Malta. In some lists Narkissos is omitted. Quadratus is revered for having contributed to early Christian literature by writing an apology, which he addressed to the Emperor Hadrian. This was on the occasion of Hadrian's visit to Athens. Another Athenian who defended Christianity in writing at a somewhat later time was Aristeides. His apology was directed to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Athenagoras also wrote an apology. In the second century there must have been a considerable community of Christians in Athens, for Hygeinos, Bishop of Rome, is said to have written a letter to the community in the year 139. It is probable that the early Church of Athens did not have many martyrs, although Dionysios himself graces the martyrs' list. Under Decius, we find recorded in the catalogue of martyrs the names of Herakleios, Benedimos, Pavlinos, and Leonides with his followers, the holy woman Charissa, and her companions. One reason why the martyrs were few is that the Christians were also few. Besides, the spirit of the Athenian pagans and philosophers was not one of blood; and it is probable that the persecutions in Athens were rather of the social and scholastic kind. This would account for the writings of the apologists who thus would defend themselves by weapons similar to those which their opponents used. The philosophers of the Athenian schools did not indeed admire Christianity, as they understood it; nevertheless there is some ground for believing that amongst the teachers who occupied the official and historic chairs of philosophy at Athens there later was at least one who was a Christian, Prohæresios, the sophist. Be this as it may, it is certain that the teaching of the philosophers was not rudely anti-Christian. Otherwise the presence of Christians amongst the students could not be understood. Sixtus II, or Xystos, who suffered martyrdom in Rome about A. D. 258, also may have studied in Athens and is called "the son of an Athenian philosopher". But the most noted men who frequented the schools here were Basil from Kæsareia, and Gregory from Nazianzos, about the middle of the fourth century. These schools of philosophy kept paganism alive for four centuries, but by the fifth century the ancient religion of Elevsis and Athens had practically succumbed. In the Council of Nikæa there was present a bishop from Athens. In 529 the schools of philosophy were closed. From that date Christianity had no rival in Athens.
98 Down to the time of Constantine, and later, there were no large Christian temples in Athens. Like the Jews, whose synagogues in pagan towns were small and unpretentious, the first Christians did not erect sumptuous temples. With their worship they did not associate splendour of temple and sanctuary as indispensable. In the time of Basil and Gregory, there were surely numerous church edifices in Athens, but they were not spacious temples. They are called hieroi oikoi, and probably were not much larger than the ordinary dwelling-houses of the inhabitants. The first magnificent churches in Athens were, therefore, the Greek temples which, after the disappearance of paganism, were transferred to the use of the Christian rites. It must have been about Justinian's time when the most of the ancient temples were converted into churches. Churches or ruins of churches have been frequently found on the sites where pagan shrines or temples originally stood. This is in part due to the fact that the sites were first sanctified for Christian tradition by these pagan temples or sanctuaries being made into churches. It is also to some extent true that sometimes the saint whose aid was to be invoked at the Christian shrine bore some outward analogy to the deity previously hallowed in that place. Thus in Athens the shrine of the healer Asklepios, situated between the two theatres on the south side of the Akropolis, when it became a church, was made sacred to the two saints whom the Christian Athenians invoked as miraculous healers, Kosmas and Damian. Amongst the temples converted into churches were the Parthenon and the Erechtheion on the Akropolis, and the yet well-preserved Hephæsteion (or "temple of Theseus", as it is incorrectly called) near the ancient agora. The Hephæsteion was, in later times, sacred to St. George. Pittakis, a noted epigraphist of Athens in the early half of the last century, published an inscription which purports to state that in the year 630 the Parthenon was consecrated under the title of "the church of Divine Wisdom" (tes Hagias Sophias). But Pittakis was very careless or credulous at times in the copying of inscriptions. So we do not know with certainty what was the original title of this church. Possibly, from its first conversion the Parthenon had been dedicated to the Panagia. At least we learn from Michael Akominatos that in the twelfth century it was sacred to the Mother of God. On the columns of this church, and on its marble walls, especially around the doors, are numerous graffiti inscriptions which record various events, many of them important for sacred and profane history, such as the names and deaths of bishops, and public calamities. In these graffiti inscriptions, this church is called "the great church", "the church of Athens", and the cathedral church, or katholike ekklesia. All these appellations show that it was the metropolitan church of the city. In Greek usage, the name katholikon or katholike ekklesia, was a title applied to churches which were the sees of bishops or archbishops.
99 That the Parthenon was a church as far back as the sixth century is proven by the cemetery which lay along its south side. This region was filled with Christian graves, in some of which were found coins of a date as early as the reign of Justinian. In order to fit the Parthenon for a church, changes had to be made in it; an apse was built at the east end, and a great entrance door was placed in the west end. The interior walls were covered with fresco paintings of saints. After the conversion of these Greek temples into churches, perhaps two or three centuries elapsed before the Athenians found it necessary to lavishly add to the number of large church edifices by erecting many new ones. Then they followed the styles of ecclcsiastical architecture which had been developed elsewhere, and had become prevalent throughout so much of the empire. From about the end of the eighth century they erected new churches more frequently. Perhaps the Empress Eirene, who was an Athenian, gave some impulse to this tendency. As years went on, Athens and the surrounding villages of Attika, and the fields were filled with churches, many of them veritable gems of Byzantine comeliness. The churches which were built in Athens and vicinity during the Middle Ages numbered hundreds. Likewise many monasteries were founded, both in Athens itself and in the country of Attika, especially on the slopes of the surrounding mountains of Hymettos, and Pentelikos, and Parnes. A complete list of the Bishops of Athens could not be made. But as time goes on, and seals and manuscripts and inscriptions are deciphered, the list of names will grow. Pistos, Bishop of Athens, was present at the Council of Nikæa in 325. Bishop Modestus was at the Council of Ephesos in 431. John, Bishop of Athens, was amongst the Fathers who signed the Acts of the Sixth Ecumenical Council. He was present as "Leggate of the Apostolic See of ancient Rome". From the graffiti on the Parthenon a number of other names and dates are already known. In these graffiti we read names of bishops prior to the exaltation of Athens to the rank of an archbishopric, then the names of archbishops, and finally those of metropolitans. The time of the elevation of this see to an archbishopric cannot yet be fixed. Gregory II, who was pastor of the Athenians during the first patriarchate of Photios, bore the title of archbishop. But it is not known whether or not he was the first who had that title. This was about 857-867. Shortly afterwards the archbishops received the higher title of metropolitan. Niketas who took part in the Eighth Ecumenical Council under Basil the Makedonian, which closed 28 February, 870, and who signed the acts of that council as "Niketas by the grace of God, Metropolitan of Athens", on his seals, or leaden bulls, simply places the inscription "Niketas, Bishop of Athens". Amongst the signatures to the acts of this council, that of Niketas stands twenty-second in order. But in a full assembly of metropolitans he would not rank so high. According to the list made by Emperor Leon the Wise (886-911), a list intended to show the relative rank of each ecclesiastical dignitary under the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Metropolitan of Athens is relegated to the twenty-eighth place. Just what sees were under the Archbishop of Athens prior to Photios is not easy to discover. After the changes brought about by Photios and his successors, the sees that were suffragan to Athens varied in number from time to time. But in general it may be stated that all of Attika belonged directly to the Archbishop of Athens, after the abolishing of the See of Marathon, about the middle of the ninth century. And under Athens were, besides other bishoprics, the Sees of Evripos, Oreos, Karystos, and Porthmos in Evbœa; Avlon; Diavleia in Phokis, and Koroneia in Bœotia; Andros, Skyros, Syros, and Seriphos of the islands; and, later, Keos and Ægina.
100 From Photios down to the Franks the Metropolitans of Athens were all of the Greek rite, naturally. Likewise their sympathies were rather with Constantinople than with older Rome. Their metropolitan church continued to be the ancient Parthenon. It seems that the residence of the bishops was on the Akropolis, in the great Portals, or Propylæa, and that in these Propylæa they had a private episcopal chapel. In these days education was not held in very general esteem in Athens. No special erudition characterized the clergy. Even the inscriptions which decorated the seals and bulls of bishops and abbots were often most childishly misspelled. From the time of Photios to the Franks the most noted ecclesiastic was probably the last bishop, Michael Akominatos. He, however, was Athenian neither by birth nor by education. He came to Athens expecting great things in the city of ancient wisdom, but was disappointed. Still it is wrong to say that Athens of the Middle Ages produced no scholars and noted personages. Athenaïs, who became queen to Theodosios in 421, and Eirene, who became empress in 780, were Athenians. From the sixth to the thirteenth century Athens was out and out a provincial town, exercising no influence on the world at large, and almost unheard of in the politics of the day. Nevertheless, the Emperor Konstas on his way to Sicily in 662 spent the winter in Athens; and after his victories over the Bulgarians in 1018, Basil II visited this city to celebrate his triumphs. When, under Constantine, the Empire was divided into governmental dioceses, the close relations which then were created between the Church and the State caused the ecclesiastical divisions to be often identical with the civil. By this system all of Achaia, wherein was Athens, was included within the Diocese of Eastern Illyria, of which Thessalonika was the capital. All of this Diocese of Eastern Illyria was under the direct jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome. And so it remained until the reign of Leo the Isavrian. This emperor, incensed at Pope Gregory III, because of his strong opposition to Leo's iconoclastic passion, retorted against the pope by transferring these countries of the Illyrian diocese from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome to that of the See of Constantinople. This occurred in the year 732. In this great struggle between the iconoclasts and the adherents to the use of the icons, the Athenians placed themselves on the side of iconolatry. While accepting without any recorded protest their transference to the jurisdiction of the Eastern patriarch, they retained the images in their churches and continued to venerate them. All the inhabitants of Greece north of the Korinthiac Gulf, who then were called Helladikoi, or Helladians, were opposed to the iconoclasts. And their opposition was so determined that they fitted out an expedition and manned a fleet, intending to attack Constantinople, depose Leo, and place their leader, Kosmas, on the throne. In this expedition, in which the Athenians doubtlessly had an important part, assistance was given by the inhabitants of the Kyklad islands, who probably furnished most of the ships. The attempt, however, was futile. The fleet was easily destroyed by the imperial ships in April, 727. The mutual bitterness which was evinced in Constantinople by the contending parties of Photians and Anti-Photians was reflected here in Athens. Gregory II was archbishop when Ignatios was restored to his throne as Patriarch of Constantinople. Ignatios deposed him as being an adherent of Photios. His successor, Kosmas, was also later deposed. Then Niketas, a Byzantine, came to Athens as archbishop with the title of metropolitan. This Niketas was a supporter of Ignatios. His successor, Anastasios, was a follower of Photios. Sabbas, who succeeded Anastasios, was likewise a Photian and was one of those who signed the acts of the synod which closed in May, 880, by which Photios was again recognized as patriarch. A bull of his still exists, whereon he designates himself as "Metropolitan of Athens".
101 Throughout the East there was a peculiar type of Panagia-icon, copies of which might be seen in monasteries and churches in many places. This was the Panagia Gorgoepekoos. This Panagia Gorgoepekoos seems to have been originally an Athenian icon, and was probably identical with an icon which was called the Panagia Athenœotissa. The Athenœotissa was the Madonna of the church in the Parthenon. This icon is mentioned by Michael Akominatos.
102 After the conquest of the Byzantine Empire by the Europeans of the Fourth Crusade, in the partitionment which followed, Athens and the rest of Greece were given to Boniface, King of Thessalonika. Boniface gave Athens to one of his followers, Otho de ha Roche. At their coming to Athens the Franks found it small and insignificant. They chose Thebes to be the seat of civil power rather than Athens. Thebes was a more important trade centre than was Athens. Athens, however, was considered important enough to be continued as an archbishopric. It thus was ranked in equal dignity with the other larger cities of Greece, such as Thebes, within de la Roche's dominion, and Patræ and Korinth in the Morea. The conquest of Greece was accomplished in 1204 and 1205. The first Latin archbishop introduced the Latin ritual into the cathedral, the Parthenon, in the year 1206. This was Archbishop Berard. Thus after a lapse of centuries from the time of Leo the Isavrian, Greece and Athens were again placed under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome. During the Frankish rule the archbishops of Athens were without exception of the Latin Rite, and were of Western lineage. Likewise the canons of the cathedral, in the Parthenon, were of Latin Rite, and were Franks. Their number was fixed by Cardinal Benedict, papal legate in Thessalonika, by order of Pope Innocent III. But the ritual of the common priests was not disturbed. The people continued to enjoy their own rites, celebrated by Greek priests in the Greek language. These Greek priests had, however, at least outwardly, to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Latin archbishop. Amongst the sees which were suffragan to the Archbishop of Athens were those of Chalkis, Thermopylæ (or Bodonitsa) Davleia. Avlon, Zorkon, Karystos, Koroneia, Andros, Skyros, Kea, and Megara The last bishop of the Greek Rite was the learned Michael Akominatos, who, when the Franks came, retired to the Island of Keos, after first visiting the cardinal legate of the pope in Thessalonika to impetrate certain favours for those formerly under his charge who wished to adhere to the Greek form of worship. In Keos he lived as a monk in the monastery of St. John the Baptist. To support the Latin archbishop, and the canons, and the cathedral church, a number of possessions were given to him. Amongst these was the monastic property of Kæsariane, and the island of Belbina, which Pope Innocent III gave to the Archbishop of Athens in 1208. The Frankish cavaliers lived in splendour in Thebes and Athens. The dignitaries of the Church lived in ease. Along with the coming of the Franks and the Latin Church there came also Latin monks. The Cistercians established themselves near Athens in 1208 in the beautiful monastery of Daphne, which previously was in the possession of Greek Basilian Fathers. The Franciscans were the most active religious order in Greece during this period. There were also Dominican convents.
103 In the year 1311 another great change came over Athens. The Franks were defeated by the Catalans in the swamps of the Kephisos in Bœotia. Athens, with Thebes, became their possession. Under their sway, which lasted more than seventy-five years, the higher dignitaries of the Church continued naturally to be Latins. In these days there were fourteen suffragan sees under the Archbishopric of Athens, and at the cathedral there were eleven or twelve canons. In 1387 another change overtook Athens. The Catalonian possessions came under the ownership of the Acciajoli, Florentines who had risen to eminence as bankers. The Acciajoli retained possession of Athens until driven out by Omær Pasha, who in June of 1456 entered the city and, in 1458, took possession of the Akropolis for his Sultan, Mohammed II. The only notable change in ecclesiastical matters under the Acciajoli was that they permitted two archbishops to reside in Athens, a Greek dignitary for the Catholics of the Greek Rite, and a Latin for the Franks. In this way the defection of the Greeks of Athens from Roman jurisdiction was again a fact. The Latin archbishop lived in the Castro, that is, on the Akropolis, and the Greek prelate had his residence in the lower city. Franco Acciajoli was the last Duke of Athens. The last Latin archbishop was Nicholas Protimus. He died in 1483. After his death Rome continued to appoint titular Latin archbishops to the See of Athens. Under Turkish domination the Church and all its property again became Greek. All the suffragan sees were again filled by Greek bishops, and the monasteries were again occupied by Greek monks. The Parthenon, however, was appropriated by the conquerors, who converted it into a mosque. The Greek bishops continued to live in the lower town, and during the latter half of the Turkish supremacy they usually resided near the church of the Panagia Gorgoepekoos, which they used as a private chapel. They lived elsewhere at times, however, for Father Babin mentions Archbishop Anthimos as living near the church of St. Dionysios, which was at the foot of the Areopagos Hill. In Turkish times, as previously, the sees under Athens were not always the same in number. Nor were they all identical with those that had been under the Latin archbishops. Some of them were Koroneia, Salona, Bodonitsa, Davleia, Evripos, Oreos, Karystos, Porthmos, Andros, Syra, and Skyros.
104 Amongst the religious orders that lived in Athens under Turkish rule were the Franciscans. They were there as early as 1658. But they had already been in Greece under the Franks. The Franciscans are to he mentioned with the Dominicans as being the first Western Europeans who sent students to Athens and other places in the East for the purpose of studying the language and literature of the Greeks. Another fact to the credit of the Franciscans of Athens is that, although not primarily interested in antiquities, they fruitfully contributed to the awakening of our interest in such studies. There appeared in Paris in the second half of the seventeenth century, a book by Guillet or "de la Guilletière", which is entirely based on information received from the Franciscans of Athens. Franciscans sketched the first plan of modern Athens. Considering how suspicious the Turks were of any kind of description of their possessions and castles, it was quite a feat for the Franciscans to have made so good a plan as they did. It was published by Guillet in his book, "Athènes, anciennes et nouvelles", 1675. In those days the Capuchins had a comfortable monastery in Athens, which they built on ground bought from the Turks in 1658, behind the choragic monument of Lysikrates. The monument itself served them as their little library. in this monastery many a traveller found hospitality. It was destroyed by fire in 1821, and the site is now owned by the French Government. The Jesuits were also active in Athens. They came in 1645. It must be noted that it was Father Babin, a Jesuit, who wrote the first careful account of the modern condition of the ruins of ancient Athens. This he did in a letter to the Abbé Pécoil, canon of Lyons. This letter was written 8 October, 1672. It was published with a commentary by Spon in 1674 under the title of "Relation de l'état présent de la ville d'Athènes". The Jesuits finally withdrew from Athens, leaving the entire field to the Franciscans. The Franciscans remained until the beginning of the war of the revolution. In the time of Babin and Spon there were about two hundred churches in Athens, all of the Greek Rite, except the chapels in the monasteries of the western monks. With the war of the insurrection, in 1821, ends the history of the older Church of Athens. A new Latin archbishopric has again its residence in Athens. (See ATHENS, MODERN DIOCESE OF.) Since 1833 the Church of the Greek Rife has undergone serious changes of jurisdiction, for it no longer recognizes the leadership of the Patriarch of Constantinople, but is a national autocephalous church.
105 GREGOROVIUS, Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1889), Greek tr. by LAMPROS, with additional notes and an appendix (Athens, 1904-06); HOPF, Geschichte Griechenlands vom Beginn des Mittelalters bis auf unsere Zeit (Leipzig, 1870); GEORGIADES, Historia ton Athenon (Athens); NEROUTSOS, Christianikai Athenai (Athens, 1889 sqq.); LEQUIEN, Oriens Christianus; MOMMSEN Athenœ Christianœ (Leipzig, 1868); ANTONIO RUBIO Y LLUCH, La Expedición y la Dominación de los Catalanos en Oriente (Barcelona, 1883); GULDEN-CRONE, L'Achaië féodale (Paris, 1886); KAMPOUROGLOS, Historia ton Athenon (Athens, 1889-93); PHILADELPHEVS, Historia ton Athenon epi Tourkokratias (Athens, 1904).
106 Daniel Quinn.
Modern Diocese of Athens
100 The Greeks have long regarded their religion as a national affair. This notion is so deep-rooted that they cannot understand how a citizen can well be a true Greek if he gives his allegiance to any religion which is not that of the Greek Church. At the present time the majority of Catholics who live within the Diocese of Athens are therefore foreigners, or of foreign descent. Of the foreigners who are Catholics, the greater part are of Italian nationality. Most of those who are of foreign descent have come into Athens and other portions of this diocese from the islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas. The Catholics of these islands are largely descendants of the Western conquers who held possession of the islands for two or three centuries, or even longer, beginning with the Fourth Crusade. As a rule, they are of Venetian and Genoese descent. In these islands some of the native Greeks, on account of the higher social and political standing of the foreign element, accepted the Catholic Faith and obedience. From these converted Greeks some Catholics in the Diocese of Athens are now descended. On three or four of the islands, outside of the Diocese of Athens, there are many such Catholics who are pure Greeks, being descended from converts to Catholicism in the time of the foreign feudal governments. These Catholics from the islands are the nucleus of the future prosperity of Catholicism in Greece, for gradually they are identifying themselves with the good of the country and its worthier ideals. Although they are still conscious of their foreign extraction, or former foreign sympathies, they now feel that their residence of centuries in Greek territory has made them Greeks. The real foreign element is made up of those Catholics who have migrated into Greece since it has become a free country. These are chiefly Italians and Maltese. Most of them are laborers who came to find employment on the railroads and other public works, or to live as fishermen or boatmen in the larger seaport towns. The exact number of Catholics cannot easily be estimated. Possibly in the entire Diocese of Athens there are about 10,000, of whom about one fourth attend church regularly. From amongst the members of the Greek Church no converts are made to Catholicity. At least, they are extremely rare. It is against the positive and explicit law of the State for any other church to make proselytes from the established Greek or Orthodox Church. In the first National Assembly, which was held at Epidavros in 1822, it was declared that the Orthodox Church is the State Church. This declaration was repeated in the Assembly at Troezen in 1827. Such has been the strict law ever since. But, except that propagandism is severely prohibited, the Catholic Church is perfectly free, it is fairly treated, and highly respected.
101 Otho of Bavaria, the first king of regenerated Greece, was a Catholic. In his reign the Catholics were few. But arrangements were made that the Catholics could have a place of worship wherever they existed in sufficient numbers. After Athens became the seat of government, in 1834, an abandoned Turkish mosque was given to the Catholics as a place of worship. It is still used as a church, and is attended chiefly by Maltese and Italians who live in and around the Old Market, near the Tower of the Winds. Mass is said there on Sundays and Holy Days by a priest from the cathedral. After the lapse of some years, in 1876, an archbishopric was established in Athens. Those who have occupied this see are Archbishops Marangos, Zaffino, De Angelis, and Delendas. De Angelis was an Italian; Zaffino a native of Corfu; all the other archbishops were born in the Aegean Islands. Within the Diocese of Athens there are now eight churches. Of these two are in Athens, and there is one In each of the towns of Peiraevs (the harbor of Athens); Patrae, the chief town of the Peloponnesos; Volos, the seaport of Thessaly; Lavrion (Ergasteria), in the silver mines of Attica; Herakleion, a Bavarian settlement in Attica; and Navplion in the Argolid. Most of the Catholics, however, are concentrated at Athens, Peiraevs, and in Athens, one is the ancient mosque which Otho donated to the Catholics, and the other is the cathedral of St. Dionysios. It is a stone structure in basilica style, with a portico in front supported by marble columns. The interior is divided into three naves separated from each other by rows of columns of Tenian marble. The apse has been frescoed. This cathedral was built with money sent from abroad, especially from Rome. Besides the regular parishes there are missions here and there. Some years ago there were missions at Kalamata, Pyrgos, and Kalamaki. The only considerable one at present is at Lamis. Within the Diocese of Athens there are at present eleven priests engaged in parochial work: four at the cathedral in Athens, two at Patrae, and one at each of the churches of Peiraevs, Lavrion, Volos, Herskleion, and Navplion. All of them are secular priests.
102 French sisters conduct schools for girls in Athens and at the Peiraevs, and Italian sisters have schools for girls at Patrae. They have boarders as well as day scholars. In the town of the Peiraevs there is a good school for boys conducted by French Salesian Fathers. Boarders and day scholars are accommodated, and both classical and commercial courses are given. But the most important school of the diocese is the Leonteion at Athens, founded by Pope Leo XIII, to supply ordinary and theological education for all Greek-speaking Catholics. It embraces a preparatory department, an intermediate or "hellenic" school a gymnasium or college, and an ecclesiastical seminary. The average number of pupils and students for the past five years is about 175. The faculty consists of both priests and laymen. In its character as seminary, the Leonteion receives students from other dioceses as well as from that of Athens. Previous to the establishment of the Leonteion, candidates for the priesthood were educated chiefly in the Propaganda, at Rome, and in a diocesan seminary which existed in the Aegean town of Syra. The seminary at Syra has been closed, and it is now intended that all clerical training be given in the Leonteion and the Propaganda.
103 The only publication of note for the Catholics of this diocese is the "Harmonia," a periodical devoted to catholic interests. The "Harmonia"is supported chiefly by a subsidy from Rome. One does not expect to find a large number of noted scholars in so small a Catholic community. But all the clergy are men of wide education. Every one of them, with other accomplishments, speaks two or three other languages as well as the vernacular Greek of the country. Amongst the laymen special mention should be made of the brothers Kyparissos Stephanos and Klon Stephanos. Kyparissos, a mathematician whose fame extended far beyond the confines of Greece, was made a professor in the National University. His brother Klon, an anthropologist of repute, engaged in special historical, archeological, and anthropological researches, became director of the Anthropological Museum of Athens. There are in Greece no Uniat Greek Catholics. All are of the Latin Rite. This is because most of these Catholics are from the West, either by descent or by birth, and they have kept their own Western rite. It might be better for Catholicism in Greece if the Catholics were to adopt the native rite, and to have their liturgy in the liturgical language of the country. But many of the Catholics of Athens would never willingly accept such a change, which they would regard rather from a national than from a religious point of view, and would consider a denial of their Italian, or other Western, origin.
104 Daniel Quinn.
Joseph Athias
103 Born in Spain, probably in Cordova, at the beginning of the seventeenth century; died at Amsterdam, May 12, 1700. In 1661 and 1667 he issued two editions of the Hebrew Bible. Though carefully printed, they contain a number of mistakes in the vowel points and the accents. But as they were based on the earlier editions compared with the best manuscripts, they were the foundation of all the subsequent editions. The copious marginal notes added by Jean de Leusden, professor at Utrecht, are of little value. The 1667 edition was bitterly attacked by the Protestant savant, Samuel Desmarets; Athias answered the charges in a work whose title begins: "Caecus de coloribus". He published, also, some other works of importance, such as the "Tikkun Sepher Torah", or the "Order of the Book of the Law", and a Judeo-German translation of the Bible. The latter involved Athias in a competition with Uri Phoebus, a question that has been discussed but cannot be fully cleared up at this late date.
104 HEURTEBIZE in VIG., Dict. de la Bible (Paris. 1895); The Jewish Encyclopedia (New York and London, 1903), II.
105 A.J. Maas
Mount Athos
106 Athos is a small tongue of land that projects into the Aegean Sea, being the eastern-most of the three strips in which the great mountainous peninsula of Chalcidice ends. It is almost cut off from the mainland, to which it is bound only by a narrow isthmus dotted with lakes and swamps interspersed with alluvial plains. It has been well called "a Greece in miniature", because of the varied contour of its coasts, deep bays and inlets, bold cliffs and promontories, steep wooded slopes, and valleys winding inland. Several cities existed here in pre-Christian antiquity, and a sanctuary of Zeus (Jupiter) is said to have stood on the mountain. The isthmus was famous for the canal (3,950 feet in length) which Xerxes had dug across it, in order to avoid the perilous turning of the limestone peak immemorially known as Mount Athos, in which the small peninsula ends, and which rises to a height of some 6,000 feet. From the summit of this peak on a clear day are visible the coasts of Macedonia and Thrace, even the entire Aegean from Mount Olympus in Thessaly to Mount Ida in Asia Minor. It is the mountain that the architect Dinocrates offered to turn into a statue of Alexander the Great with a city in one hand and in the other a perennially flowing spring. Medieval Greek tradition designated it as the "high mountain" from which Satan tempted Our Lord. Its chief modern interest lies in the fact that at least from the beginning of the Middle Ages it has been the home of a little monastic republic that still retains almost the same autonomy granted a thousand years ago by the Christian emperors of Constantinople. In 1905 the many fortified monasteries and hermitages of Athos contained 7,553 monks (including their numerous male dependents), members of the Orthodox Greek Church: Greeks, 3,207; Russians, 3,615; Bulgarians, 340; Rumanians, 288; Georgians, 53; Servians, 18; other nationalities 32. The principal monasteries bear the following names: Laura, Iviron, Vatopedi, Chilandarion, St. Dionysius, Coutloumousi, Pantocrator, Xiropotamos, Zographu, Docheiarion, Caracalla, Philotheos, Simopetra, St. Paul, Stauroniceta, Xenophon, Gregorios, Esphigmenon, St. Panteleimon, St. Anna (Rossicon), and Karyses.
107 History
108 The origins of monastic life on Mount Athos are obscure. It is probable that individual hermits sought its lonely recesses during the fourth and fifth centuries, and were numerous in the ninth century at the time of the first certain attempts at monastic organization. The nearest episcopal see was that of Hierissus, and in conformity with ancient law and usage its bishop claimed jurisdiction over the monks of the little peninsula. In 885 Emperor Basil the Macedonian emancipated them from the jurisdiction of the monastery of St. Colobos near Hierissus, and allotted to them Mount Athos as their property. Soon after, the oldest of the principal monasteries, Xiropotamos, was built and adopted the rule of St. Basil. Saracen pirates disturbed the monks in the ninth and tenth centuries, but imperial generosity always came to the aid of this domestic "holy land" of the Greeks. About 960 a far-reaching reform was introduced by the Anatolian monk Athanasius of Trebizond, later known as Athonites. With several companions from Asia Minor he founded by the seashore the monastery since known as Laura, where he raised the monastic life to a high degree of perfection. Eventually the new settlement was accepted as a model. With the help of the imperial authority of John Tzimisces (969-976) all opposition was set aside and the cenobitic or community life imposed on the hermits scattered in the valleys and forests. Athanasius was made abbot general or superior (Protos) of the fifty-eight monastic communities then on the mountain. From this period date the monasteries known as Iviron (Iberians), Vatopedi, and Esphigmenon. At this time, also, there arose a cause of internal conflict that has never been removed. Hitherto only one nationality, the Greek, was represented among the monks. Henceforth, Slavic faith and generosity, and later on Slavic interests, had to be considered. The newly converted Slavs sought and obtained admission into the recently opened monasteries; before long their princes in the Balkan Peninsula began to found independent houses for Slavic monks. In this way arose during the reign of Alexius I (1081-1118) the strictly Slavic monasteries of Chilandarion and Zographu. The Byzantine emperors never ceased to manifest their interest in the little monastic republic and even profited politically by the universal esteem that the religious brotherhood enjoyed throughout the Christian world.
109 With the aid of the Patriarch of Constantinople, in 1046, Constantine Monomachos regulated the domestic government of the monastery the administration of their temporal possessions, and their commercial activity. By the imperial document (typicon) which he issued, women are forbidden the peninsula, a prohibition so strictly observed since that time that even the Turkish aga, or official, who resides at Karyaes (Cariez) may not take his harem with him. About the year 1100 the monasteries of Mount Athos were 180 in number, and sheltered 700 monks, with their dependents. At this time there came into general use the term Hagion Oros (Holy Mountain, hagion oros, Monte Santo). Alexius I granted the monasteries immunity from taxation, freed them from all subjection to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and placed them under his immediate protection. They still depended, however, on the neighboring Bishop of Hierissus for the ordination of their priests and deacons. Alexius also chose to be buried on the Holy Mountain among the brethren (1118). A century later, after the capture of Constantinople (1204), the Latin Crusaders abused the monks, who thereupon appealed to Innocent III; he took them under his protection and in his letters (xiii, 40; xvi, 168) paid a tribute to their monastic virtues. However, with the restoration of Greek political supremacy the monks returned (1313) to their old allegiance to Constantinople.
110 In the fourteenth century a pseudo-spiritualism akin to that of the ancient Euchites or Messalians, culminating in the famous Hesychast controversies (see HESYCHASM; PALAMAS), greatly disturbed the mutual harmony of Greek monasteries, especially those of Mount Athos, one of whose monks, Callistus, had become Patriarch of Constantinople (1350-54) and in that office exhibited great severity towards the opponents of Hesychasm. Racial and national discord between the Greeks and the Servians added fuel to the flames, and for a while the monks were again subjected to the immediate supervision of the Bishop of Hierissus. In the meantime the Palaeologi emperors at Constantinople and the Slav princes and nobles of the Balkan Peninsula continued to enrich the monasteries of Mount Athos, which received the greater part of their landed wealth during this period. Occasionally a Byzantine emperor took refuge among the monks in the hope of forgetting the cares and responsibilities of his office. Amid the political disasters of the Greeks, during the fourteenth century, Mount Athos appears as a kind of Holy Land, a retreat for many men eminent in Church and State, and a place where the spirit of Greek patriotism was cherished when threatened elsewhere faith ruin (Krumbacher, 1058-59). This period was also marked by the attempts of the monastery of Karyaes to secure a pre-eminence over the others, the final exclusion of the Bishop of Hierissus from the peninsula, fresh attacks from freebooters of all kinds, and the foundation of several new monasteries: Simopetra, Castamonitu, St. Paul and St. Dionysius. The Fall of Constantinople (1453) brought no modification of the conditions on the Holy Mountain. The monks, who had stubbornly opposed all attempts at reunion with the Apostolic See, submitted at once to the domination of the Osmanli, and, with rare exceptions, have never been interfered with by the Turkish authorities. The hospodars of Wallachia remained as ever their friends and benefactors. Though the monks sympathized with the Greeks in the War of Independence (1822-30), their estates on the Greek mainland were secularized by Capo d'Istria and a similar fate has overtaken their properties in the Danubian principal cities. They still hold numerous farms and properties in certain islands of the Archipelago and on the mainland (Kaulen in Kirchenlex., I, 1557-59; Bayet in Grande Encycl., s. v. Athos).
111 Constitution and Government
112 This monastic republic is governed by an assembly of 20 members one representative from each of the 20 principal monasteries; from among these is elected annually, and in due rotation, a committee of 4 presidents. The great seal of the united monasteries is in four pieces and is divided among the members of this committee. One of the members is chosen as chairman, or Protos. Meetings of the assembly are held weekly (Saturday), at Karyaes, and the assembly acts as a supreme parliament and tribunal, with appeal, however, to the patriarch at Constantinople.
113 The Turkish Government is represented by an agent at Karyaes, the diminutive capital of the peninsula and the landing-place for visitors. A detachment of Christian soldiers is usually stationed there, and no one may land without permission of the monastic authorities. The monks have also an agent at Saloniki and another at Constantinople. Almost the only source of contention among them is the rivalry between the Greeks, inheritors of old traditions and customs, and the Russians of the great monastery of Rossicon (St. Anna), representative of the wealth, power, and interests of their church and country, and generously supported from St. Petersburg. In its present form the constitution of the monasteries dates from 1783.
114 Monastic Life
115 Each of the twenty great monasteries (twenty-one, including Karyaes) possesses its own large church and numerous chapels within and without its enclosure, which is strongly fortified, recalling the feudal burgs of the Middle Ages. The high walls and strong towers are reminders of the troubled times of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries when corsairs abounded and self-defense was imperative. All of the great monasteries are on the Holy Mountain proper, and are most picturesquely situated from sea to summit, amid dense masses of oak, pine, and chestnut, or on inaccessible crags. To each of these monasteries is attached a certain number of minor monasteries (sketai, asceteria), small monastic settlements (kathismata), and hermitages (kellia, cellae). Every monastic habitation must be affiliated to one or the other of the great monasteries and is subject to its direction or supervision. All monasteries are dedicated to the Mother of God, the larger ones under some specially significant title. The ancient Greek Rule of St. Basil is still followed by all.
116 In the observance of the Rule, however, the greater monasteries are divided into two classes, some following strictly the cenobitic life, while others permit a larger personal freedom. The latter are called "idiorhythmic"; in them the monks have a right of personal ownership and a certain share in the government of the monastery (Council of Elders); they take their meals apart, and are subject to less severe regulations. In the former, known as "cenobitic" (koinobion, coenobium, common life), there is a greater monastic rigor. The superior, or hegoumenos, has absolute authority, and all property is held in common. The chief occupation of the monks is that of solemn public prayer, by night and by day, i.e. recitation of the Divine Office, corresponding to the solemn choir-service of the Latin Church. (See GREEK RITE, BREVIARY, PSALMODY.) This leaves little time for agricultural, industrial, or intellectual labor. Some fish, or practice minor industries in aid of the common support, or administer the monastic estates located elsewhere; others go abroad occasionally to collect a part of the yearly tribute (about two dollars and a half) that each monk must pay to the Turkish Government. A portion of this is collected from the monks themselves; the rest is secured by the revenue of their farms or other possessions, and by contributions from affiliated monasteries in the Balkan Peninsula, Georgia, and Russia. The generosity of the Greek faithful is also a source of revenue, for Mount Athos is one of the most sacred pilgrimage sites of the entire Greek Church, and the feasts of the principal monasteries are always celebrated with great pomp. It may be added that the monks practice faithfully the monastic virtue of hospitality. The usual name for the individual monk here, as elsewhere in the Greek Orient, is Kalogeros (good old man). In their dress the monks do not differ from other communities of Greek Basilians.
117 Architecture and the Arts
118 Most of the buildings of Mount Athos are comparatively modern. Yet, because of the well-known conservative character of the monks, these edifices represent with much fidelity the Byzantine architecture, civil and religious, of the tenth to the fourteenth century. The churches are very richly adorned with columns and pavements of marble, frescoed walls and cupolas, decorated screens, etc.; there are not many mosaics. Some of the smaller oratories are said to be the oldest extant specimens of private architecture in the West, apart from the houses of Pompeii. The ecclesiastical art of the Greek Orient is richly represented here, with all its religious respect, though also with all its immobile conservatism and its stern refusal to interpret individual feeling in any other forms than those made sacred by a long line of almost nameless monastic painters like Panselinos and confided by his disciples to the famous "Painters' Book of Mount Athos" (see Didron, Manuel d'iconographie chrétienne, Paris, 1858). Though there is not in the 935 churches of the peninsula any art-work older than the sixteenth century (Bayet) their frescoes, small paintings on boards, gilt and jeweled metal work, represent with almost unswerving accuracy the principles, spirit, and details of medieval Byzantine art as applied to religious uses.
119 Libraries
120 Each monastery possesses its own library, and the combined treasures make up a unique collection of ancient manuscripts (Montfaucon, Palaeographia Graeca, Paris, 1748, 441 sqq.). By far the richest in this respect is the Russian monastery of Saint Anna (Rossicon). Some of the more valuable classical Greek manuscripts have been purchased or otherwise secured by travelers (Neumann, "Serapeum", X, 252; Duchesne, "Mémoire sur une mission au Mont Athos", Paris, 1876; Lambros, "Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts on Mount Athos", Cambridge, 1895, 1900). It was in this way that the text of Ptolemy first reached the West. Similarly, the oldest manuscript of the second-century Christian text known as "The Shepherd of Hermas" came from Mount Athos. The manuscripts now in possession of the monks have chiefly an ecclesiastical value; their number is said to be about 8,000. There are also in the library and archives of each monastery a great many documents (donations, privileges, charters) in Greek, Georgian, and Old-Slavonic, beginning with the ninth century, some of which are important for the historian of Byzantine law and of the medieval Greek Church (Miklosich and Müller, Zachariä von Linenthal, Uspenskij). The monks of Mount Athos are somewhat indifferent towards these treasures; nothing has been done to make them accessible, except the unsuccessful attempt of Archbishop Bulgaris of Corfu to found at Mount Athos, towards the close of the eighteenth century, a school of the classical languages. The monasteries conduct a few elementary schools for the teaching of reading and writing; nowhere, perhaps, is the intellectual stagnation of the Greek Schism more noticeable. The monks are chiefly devoted to the splendor of their religious services; the solitaries still cherish Hesychast ideas and an apocalyptic mysticism, and the whole monastic republic represents just such an intellectual decay as must follow on a total exclusion of all outside intercourse and a complete neglect of all intellectual effort (Kaulen).
121 ATHELSTAN RILEY, Athos, the Mountain of the Monks (London, 1887); CURZON, Monasteries of the Levant (6th ed., London, 1881), LANGLOIS, Le Mont Athos et ses monastères (Paris, 1867); DE VOGÜÉ, Syrie, Palestine et Mont Athos (Paris, 1878), NEYRAC, L'Athos (Paris, 1880); KAULEN in Kirchenlex., I, 1555-63; MEYER in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1890), XI, 395-435; KRUMBACHER, Gesch. der byzant Litt. (2nd ed., Munich, 1867), 511-515, 1058-59, SCEMIDTKE, Das Klosterland des Athos (1903); among older works, FALLMERAYER, Fragments aus dem Orient (2d ed., Stuttgart, 1877). For the art-treasures of Mount Athos see BROCKHAUS, Die Kunst in den Athos-Klötern (Leipzig, 1891); and for photographs of the principal sites, besides the above quoted works, Vom Fels zum Meer (1892), 19-20.
122 Thomas J. Shahan
Juan de Atienza
109 Born at Tordehumos, near Valladolid, in Spain, in the year 1546, eldest son of the royal Councillor of Castile, Bartolome de Atienza, a very distinguished Jurisconsult under Charles V. He studied law in the celebrated University of Salamanca, but in 1564 forsook the legal career in order to become a Jesuit. While in Spain, he already occupied distinguished positions. He was Prefect of the College of Avila, Procurator of the Province of his order, founder of the College of Villa Garcia, its rector and master of novices, and rector of the College of Valladolid. While thus honourably placed in his mother country, he became informed of a call for fifty Jesuits, to be sent to Peru in the interests of religion and of the Indians. Father Atienza at once asked perrnissiom to become one of their number. He reached Lima in 1581 and found there his appointment as rector of the College of San Pablo. In that capacity he was surrogate to the Provincial, Father Baltasar de Piñas, and founded, under the direction of the Company of Jesus, the College of San Martin, the first school of secular learning established at Lima. The foundation of that school was confirmed by Pope Sixtus V, in 1585, and Father Atienza became its first rector. In 1580 he was made Provincial of the Jesuits in Peru. He at once began to foster and extend the missions in Ecuador, the Gran Chaco, Tucuman and Paraguay. Out of these efforts the province of Paraguay was born in 1607. During that period a printing press was established by the Jesuits at the Indian village of Juli. Jointly with Father Jose de Acosta he directed the publication of catechisms and textbooks of Christian doctrine for the use of the Indians. These religious "primers" were printed between the years 1583 and 1590, at Lima. They are in Spanish, Quichua, and Aymará.
110 Ad. F. Bandelier
James Atkinson
112 Catholic confessor, tortured to death in Bridewell prison in 1595. His pathetic and romantic story tells us nothing of his early life, but he is found in the Bridewell prison, one of the worst in London, and delivered over to Topcliffe, the notorious priest-hunter, who was trying to wring out from him, by torture, evidence on which he might accuse his master, Mr. Robert Barnes, who then held Mapledurham House, of having entertained priests, and in particular the future martyr, Venerable John Jones, O.S.F. Yielding to torment, Atkinson accused his master of having done so, but shortly after repented, and was lost in despair, knowing on the one hand that Topcliffe would torture him again, perhaps unto death, and on the other fearing that no priest could possibly come to confess and absolve him before his conflict. Unknown to him, however, a Jesuit Father happened to be in the same prison. This was Father William Baldwin (or Bawden), a man who afterwards filled important positions in his order. He had been arrested on suspicion while on shipboard, and had assumed the part of an Italian merchant unacquainted with the English language, and with such success that he was on the point of being exchanged for an English officer who had been captured by the Spaniards on board the Dainty. Atkinson's despair put Father Baldwin into a quandary. It was evident that he was at best a weakling, perhaps a traitor in disguise. To speak to such a one in English, and much more to own to him that he was a priest, would be to endanger his life. So he tried to comfort him, at first through a fellow-prisoner who knew Latin, and finally offered to bring him a priest. The poor sufferer's joy was so great that the missionary ventured to creep to his bedside that night and tell him that he was a priest. Then Atkinson held back, either out of suspicion or because, as he said, he was not prepared. Father Baldwin's fears were reawakened, but next night the penitent made his confession with evident contrition, was soon again tortured, and died under or shortly after the torment. Atkinson's cause has been proposed for Beatification, but evidence for his final perseverance, though very necessary, is naturally hard to find.
113 CHALLONER, Missionary Priests (1864), II, 189; DODD Church History (TIERNEY ed.), III, ap. 204; FOLEY, Records S. J., III, 503; RECORD OFFICE, Treasurer of the Chamber's accounts for 1594, roll 196b.
114 J.H. Pollen
Nicholas Atkinson
115 Priest and martyr, probably to be identified with Venerable Thomas Atkinson. Dodd, who mentions Nicholas's death as having taken place at York in 1610, does not mention Thomas at all; yet all the facts which he relates of the one are certainly true of the other, while there is no corroboration for Dodd's date of Nicholas's martyrdom. It seems probable, however, there was an old Marian priest named Nicholas, or "Ninny", Atkinson (Gillow, 85).
116 J.H. Pollen
Paul Atkinson of St. Francis
118 One of the notable confessors of the English Church during the age which succeeded the persecution of blood. Having been condemned to perpetual imprisonment for his priesthood, about the year 1699, he died in confinement after having borne its pain more than thirty years. He was of a Yorkshire family and was called Mathew in baptism. He joined the English Franciscan convent at Douai in 1673, and had served with distinction on the English mission for twelve years, when he was betrayed by a maidservant for the 100 pound reward. One governor of his prison, Hurst Castle on the Solent, allowed him to walk outside the prison wall; but complaint was made of this and the leave was revoked.
119 J.H. Pollen
Sarah Atkinson
121 Philanthropist and biographer, born at Athlone, Ireland, 13 October, 1823; died Dublin 8 July 1893. She was the eldest daughter of John and Anne Gaynor, who lived on the western bank of the Shannon, in that part of Athlone which is in the County Roscommon. At the age of fifteen, she removed with her family to Dublin, where her education was completed. At twenty-five, she married Dr. George Atkinson, part proprietor of the "Freeman's Journal". The loss of her only child in his fourth year so deeply affected Mrs. Atkinson that she resolved to spend the rest of her life in charitable and other good works. With her friend, Mrs. Ellen Woodlock, she interested herself in the female paupers of the South Dublin Union, and opened a home to which many were transferred and were made useful members of Society. Her house in Drumcondra soon became the rendezvous for the charitably disposed. It was even more a literary salon. Here she prepared her life of Mary Aikenhead which Mr. W.E.H. Lecky has warmly commended, and here she wrote her many valuable essays. For many years she translated into English the French "Annals of the Propagation of the Faith". Much of her time was devoted to visiting the hospitals and poor people at their homes, and to other beneficent purposes. To her is largely due the success of the Childrens' Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin. The management of the Sodality of the Children of Mary attached to the Church of St. Francis Xavier, was one of her particular pleasures. To the Hospice for the Dying, at Harold's Cross, she was a constant benefactress. Even her writings were made to serve the great objects of her life. In Duffy's "Hibernian Magazine", 1860-64, "The Month", 1864-65, "The Nation" 1869-70, the "Freeman's Journal", 1871, and in the "Irish Monthly" after its inception are to be found many important essays by her, chiefly biographical and historical. Some of her earliest and longest essays appeared in the "Irish Quarterly Review", the best of them are included in her volume of "Essays" (Dublin, l895). Her "Life of Mary Aikenhead", modestly published with her initial only, appeared in 1879, and is one of the best Catholic biographies in English. Her "Essays" include complete and learned dissertations on such divergent subjects as "St. Fursey's Life and Visions", "The Geraldines", "The Dittamondo", "Devorgilla", "Eugene O'Curry", "Irish Wool and Woolens", "St. Bridget", and excellent biographies of the Sculptors John Henry Foley and John Hogan, the best accounts yet written of those great artists. Indeed most of these essays are the best studies we have on the various subjects. Her "Citizen Saint" (St. Catherine of Siena) occupies a hundred pages, and is a most able summary.
122 D.J. O'Donoghue
Ven. Thomas Atkinson
124 Martyred at York, 11 March, 1616. He was born in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was ordained priest at Reims, and returned to his native country in 1588. We are told that he was unwearied in visiting his flock especially the poor, and became so well known that he could not safely travel by day. He always went afoot until, having broken his leg, he had to ride a horse. At the age of seventy he was betrayed, and carried to York with his host, Mr. Vavasour of Willitoft, and some members of the family. A pair of beads, and the form of an indulgence were found upon him, and he was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. He suffered "with wonderful patience, courage, and constancy, and signs of great comfort".
125 Patrick Ryan
Atom
127 (Gr. a privative, and temno, cut; indivisible). Primarily, the smallest particle of matter which can exist; the ultimate and smallest division of matter, in physics, sometimes the smallest particle to which a substance can theoretically be reduced; in chemistry, the smallest particle of matter that can exist in combination with other atoms building up or constituting molecules. Two opposite doctrines of the constitution of matter were held by the ancient philosophers. One was that matter was infinitely divisible without losing its distinctive and individual properties. This is the doctrine of continuity or homoeomery. Anaxagoras is given as the founder of this view of the constitution of things. According to it any substance, such as wood or water, can by no process of subdivision, however far it might be carried, be made to be anything but a mass of wood or water. Infinite subdivision would not reach its limit of divisibility. Democritus and others held that there were ultimate particles of matter which were indivisible, and these were called atoms. This is the doctrine of atomacity, upheld by Epicurus, and enlarged on by Lucretius in his "De Rerum Natura". The early atomists held that the atoms were not in contact, but that voids existed between them, claiming that otherwise motion would be impossible. Among the moderns, Descartes and Spinoza adhered to continuity. Leibniz upheld atomicity, and Boscovich went to the last extreme of the theory, and defined atoms as centres of force denying them the attribute of impenetrability.
128 Molecule and Atom
129 Modern science holds that matter is not infinitely divisible, that there is an ultimate particle of every substance. If this particle is broken up that particular form of matter will be destroyed. This particle is the molecule. It is composed of another division of matter called the atom. Generally, probably always, a molecule consists of several atoms. The atoms unite to form molecules and cannot exist except as constituents of molecules. If a molecule of any substance were broken up, the substance would cease to exist and its constituent atoms would go to form or to enter into some other molecule or molecules. There is a tendency to consider the molecule of modern science as identical with the atom of the old philosophers but the modern atomic theory has given the molecule a different status from that of the old-time atom. Atom, as used in natural science, has a specific meaning based upon the theory of chemistry. This meaning is modified by recent work in the field of radioactivity, but the following will serve as a definition. It is the smallest partlcle of an element which can exist in a compound. An atom cannot exist alone as such. Atoms combine with each other to form molecules. The molecule is the smallest particle of matter which can exist without losing its distinctive properties. It corresponds pretty closely to the old Epicurean atom. The modern atom is an entirely new conception. Chemistry teaches that the thousands of forms of matter upon the earth, almost infinite in variety, can be resolved into eighty substances, unalterable by chemical processes and possessing definite spectra. These, substances are called elements. The metals, iron, gold, silver and others, sulphur, and carbon are familiar example of elements. A mass of an element is made up of a collection of molecules. Each molecule of an element as a rule is composed of two atoms. Elements combine to form compound substances of various numbers of atoms in the molecule. Water is an example of a compound substance, or chemical compound. Its molecule contains three atoms, two atoms of hydrogen, and one atom of oxygen. If a quantity of these two elements were mixed, the result would be a mechanical mixture of the molecules of the two. But if heat, or some other adequate cause were made to act, chemical action would follow and the molecules, splitting up, would combine atom with atom. Part of a molecule of oxygen--one atom--would combine with part of two atoms of hydrogen--two atoms. The result would be the production of a quantity of molecules of water. Each water molecule contains one atom of oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen. The splitting-up of the elemental molecules into atoms is synchronous with their combining into molecules, so that an atom never exists alone. The molecules of the elements, oxygen and hydrogen, have disappeared, and in their places are molecules of water. There are about eighty kinds of atoms known, one kind for each element, and out of these the material world is made.
130 Invariability of Composition
131 The invariability of composition by weight of chemical compounds is a fundamental law of chemistry. Thus water under all circumstances consists of 88.88% of oxygen and 11.11% of hydrogen. This establishes a relation between the weights of the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen in the water molecule, which is 1:8. Oxygen and hydrogen are gaseous under ordinary conditions. If water is decomposed, and the vases collected and measured, there will always be two volumes of hydrogen to one of oxygen. This illustrates another fundamental law--the invariability of composition by gaseous volume of chemical compounds. From the composition by volume of water its molecule is taken as composed of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, on the assumption that in a given volume of any gas there is the same number of molecules. As there are two atoms in the molecules of both of these elements, the above may be put in a more popular way thus: the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen occupy the same space. The ratio spoken of above of 1:8, is therefore the ratio of two atoms of hydrogen to one of oxygen. It follows that the ratio of one atom of hydrogen to one atom of oxygen is 1:16. The numbers 1 and l6 thus determined, are the atomic weights of hydrogen and oxygen respectively. Strictly speaking they are not weights at all only numbers expressing the relation of weight. Atomic weights are determined for all the elements, based on several considerations, such as those outlined for the atoms of oxygen and hydrogen. Thus the term atom indicates not only the constituents of molecules but has a quantitative meaning, the proportional part of the element which enters into compounds. The sum of the weights of the atoms in a molecule is the molecular weight of the substance. Thus the molecular weight of water is the sum of the weights of two hydrogen atoms, which is two, and of one oxygen atom, which is sixteen, a total of eighteen. If we divide the molecular weight of a compound into atomic weight of the atoms of any element in its molecule, it will give the proportion of the element in the compound. Taking water again, if we divide the molecular weight, 18, into the weight of the atoms of hydrogen in its molecule, 2, we obtain the fraction 2/18, which express the proportion of hydrogen in water. The same process gives the proportion of oxygen in water as 16/18.
132 Every element has its own atomic weight, and the invariability of the chemical composition by weight is explained by the invariability of the atomic weights of the elements. Tables of the atomic weights of the elements are given in all chemical text-books. The relations of the atomic weights to each other are several. The atom of lowest weight is the hydrogen atom. It is usually taken as one, which is very nearly its exact value if oxygen is taken as sixteen. On this basis one quarter of the other elements will have atomic weights that are whole numbers. This indicates a remarkable simplicity of relationship of weights, which is carried out by the close approach of the rest of the elements to the same condition, as regards their atomic weights. The range of the atomic weights is a narrow one. That of hydrogen is 1.008 -- that of uranium 238.5. The latter is the heaviest of all. Between these all the other atomic weights lie. Many of the elements resemble each other in their chemical relations. It might appear that those nearest to each other in atomic weight should be of similar properties. This is not the case. If the elements are written down in the order of their atomic weights, beginning with the lightest and ending with the heaviest, it will be found that the position of an element in the series will indicate pretty clearly its properties. The elements will be found to be so arranged in the list that any element will be related as regards its chemical properties to the element eight places removed from it. This relationship may be thus expressed: the properties of an element are a periodic function of its atomic weight.
133 MENDELÉEFF'S TABLE
134 This relation is called Mendeléeff's Law, from one of two chemists who independently developed it. The elements may, as before said, be written down in the order of their atomic weights, but in eight vertical columns. Along the top line the eight elements of lightest atomic weights are written in the order of their weights, followed on the second line by the next eight, also in the order of their atomic weights. This arrangement, obviously, when carried out brings the elements eight atomic weights apart, into vertical columns. It will be found that all the elements in any vertical column are of similar chemical properties. When Mendeléeff made out his table it was supposed that several elements were as yet undiscovered. The table also brought out clearly certain numerical relations of the atomic weights. These together with other factors caused him to leave blank spaces in his table, which none of the known elements could fill. For these places hypothetical elements were assumed, whose general properties and atomic weights were stated by him. One by one these elements have been discovered, so that Mendeléeff's Law predicted the existence of elements later to be discovered. These discoveries of predicted elements constitute one of the greatest triumphs of chemical science. Up to within a very recent period the atom was treated as the smallest division of matter, although the possibility of the transmutation of the elements in some way, or in some degree, has long been considered a possibility. It was conjectured that all the elements might be composed of some one substance, for which a name, protyle, meaning first material, was coined. This seemed to conflict with the accepted definition of the atom, as protyle indicated something anterior to or preceding it. The idea rested in abeyance, as there was little ground for building up a theory to include it. Recent discoveries have resuscitated this never quite abandoned theory; protyle seems to have been discovered, and the atom has ceased to hold its place as the ultimate division of matter.
135 Corpuscules
136 The most recent theory holds that the atom is composite, and is built up of still minuter particles, called corpuscules. As far as the ordinary processes of chemistry are concerned the atom remains as it was. But investigations in the field of radioactivity, largely physical and partly chemical, go to prove that the atom, built up of corpuscules as said above, depends for its atomic weight upon the number of corpuscules in it, and these corpuscules are all identical in nature. In these corpuscules we have the one first material, or protyle. It follows that the only difference between atoms of different elements is in the number corpuscules they contain. Any process which would change the number of corpuscules in the atoms of an element would change the element into another one, thus carrying out the transmutation of elements. So far one transmutation is accepted as effected experiments in radioactivity go to prove that some elements, notably radium project particles of in conceivable minuteness into space. These particles have sometimes one-half the velocity of light. They are called corpuscules. The corpuscule is sometimes defined as a particle of negative electricity, which, in the existing state of electrical knowledge, is a very imperfect definition. They are all negatively electrified, and therefore repel each other. The condition of equilibrium of groups of such particles, if held near to each other by another external force has been investigated by Prof. J.J. Thomson, and his investigations establish a basis for a theory on the constitution of atoms. Thus, assume an atom to consist of a number of corpuscules, not touching each other, negatively electrified so that they repel one another, and held within the limits of the atom by what may be termed a shell of attractive force. Professor Thomson shown that such particles, under the conditions outlined above, arrange themselves into groups of various arrangement, the latter depending on their number. If the number of particles in a group be progressively increased, a periodic recurrence of the groupings will occur. Assume a group of five particles. These will form a group of definite shape. If more particles are added to the group, the first additions will cause the five group to disappear, other groups taking the place, until the number reaches fifteen, when the original grouping of five will reappear, surrounded by the other ten particles. On adding more particles, the five and ten group disappear, to be succeeded by others, until the number of thirty is reached. At this point the original five group and the ten group reappear, with a new group of fifteen. The same recurrence of groupings takes place with forty-seven and sixty seven particles. This gives the outlines of an explanation of the periodic law. If any number of particles be taken they will show groupings, characteristic of the number, and subject to periodical reappearance of groupings is exactly comparable to the phenomena of the periodic law. It is the reappearance of the similar properties at periodic intervals. The corpucular theory also accounts for the variation of the elements in atomic weight. Corpuscules are supposed to be all like, so that the weight of an atom would depend on how many corpuscules were require to form it. Thus an atom of oxygen would contain sixteen times as many corpuscules as would an atom of hydrogen, weighing only one-sixteenth as much. The weight of an atom of hydrogen has been approximately calculated as expressed by the decimal, 34 preceded by thirteen ciphers, of a gram. This means that thirty-four thousand millions of millions of atoms of hydrogen would weigh in the aggregate one gram. These calculations are based on determination of the electric charge of corpuscules. Corpuscles are calculated as being one-thousandth of the mass of an atom of hydrogen. Professor Oliver Lodge gives the following comparison: if a church of ordinary size represent an atom, a thousand grains of sand dashing about its interior with enormous velocity would represent its constituent corpuscules. When atoms unite to form molecules, they are said to saturate each other. Elements vary in the saturating power of their atoms. The saturating power is called atomicity or valency. Some elements have a valency of one, and are termed monads. A monad can saturate a monad. Others are termed dyads, have a valency of two, two monads being required to saturate one dyad, while one dyad can saturate another dyad. Valencies run on through triads, tetrads, pentads, hexads, heptads, and octads, designating valencies of three, four, five, six, seven, and eight respectively.
137 T. O'Conor Sloane
Atomism
130 Atomism [a privative and temnein to cut, i. e. indivisible] is the system of those who hold that all bodies are composed of minute, indivisible particles of matter called atoms. We must distinguish between
131 atomism as a philosophy and
132 atomism as a theory of science.
133 Atomism as a philosophy originated with Leucippus. Democritus (b. 460 B.C.), his disciple, generally considered the father of atomism, as practically nothing is known of Leucippus. The theory of Democritus may be summed up in the following propositions:
134 All bodies are composed of atoms and spaces between the atoms.
135 Atoms are eternal, indivisible, infinite in number, and homogeneous in nature; all differences in bodies are due to a difference in the size, shape or location of the atoms.
136 There is no purpose or design in nature, and in this sense all is ruled by chance.
137 All activity is reduced to local motion.
138 The formation of the universe is due to the fact that the larger atoms fall faster, and by striking against the smaller ones combine with them; thus the whole universe is the result of the fortuitous concourse of atoms. Countless worlds are formed simultaneously and successively. Epicurus (342-270 B. C.) adopted the theory of Democritus, but corrected the blunder, pointed out by Aristotle, that larger atoms fall faster than smaller ones in vacuo. He substituted a power in the atoms to decline a little from the line of fall. Atomism is defended by Lucretius Carus (95-51 B.C. ) in his poem, "De Rerum Naturâ." With the exception of a few alchemists in the Middle Ages, we find no representatives of atomism until Gassendi (1592-1655) renewed the atomism of Epicurus. Gassendi tried to harmonize atomism with Christian teaching by postulating atoms finite in number and created by God. With the application of atomism to the sciences, philosophic atomism also revived, and became for a time the most popular philosophy. Present-day philosophic atomic regards matter as homogeneous and explains all physical and chemical properties of bodies by a difference in mass of matter and local motion. The atom itself is inert and devoid of all activity. The molecule, taken over from the sciences, is but an edifice of unchangeable atoms. Philosophic atomism stands entirely on the basis of materialism, and, though it invokes the necessary laws of matter, its exclusion of final causes makes it in the last analysis a philosophy of chance. The atomic theory was first applied to chemistry by Dalton (1808), but with him it meant little more than an expression of proportions in chemical composition. The theory supplied a simple explanation of the facts observed before him: that elements combine in definite and multiple proportions. The discovery in the same year by Gay-Lussac of the law that gases under the same pressure and temperature have equal volumes was at the same time a confirmation and an aid in determining atomic weights. Avogadro's law (1811) that gases under the same conditions of pressure and temperature have an equal number of molecules, and the law of Petit and Dulong that the product of the specific heat and atomic weight of an element gives a constant number were further confirmations and aids. The atomic theory was soon applied to physics, and is today the basis of most of the sciences. Its main outlines are: Matter is not continuous but atomically constituted. An atom is the smallest particle of matter that can enter a chemical reaction. Atoms of like nature constitute elements, those of unlike nature constitute compounds. The elements known today are about 76 in number and differ from one another in weight and physical and chemical properties. Atoms combine to form molecules, which are the smallest quantities of matter that can exist in a free state, whether of an element or a compound. Some believe that the atom retains its individuality in the molecule, whilst others consider the molecule homogeneous throughout. The theoretic formulas of structure of Frankland suppose them to remain. The spaces between the atoms are filled with an imponderable matter called ether. Upon the nature of ether the greatest differences of opinion exist. The adoption by scientists of Maxwell's theory of light seems to render the ether-hypothesis with its many contradictions superfluous. At all events it is quite independent of the atomic theory.
139 The results obtained by the Hungarian Lenard, the English physicist J.J. Thomson, and many others, by means of electric discharges in ratified gases, the discovery of Hertzian waves a better understanding of electrolysis and the discovery of radium by Madame Curie have made necessary a modification of the atomic theory of matter. The atom, hitherto considered solid and indivisible, is now believed to break up into ions or electrons. This new theory, however, must not be considered as opposed to the atomic theory; it comes rather as an extension of it. In chemistry, the principal field of the atomic theory, the atom will still remain as the chemically indivisible unit. The hypothesis of subatoms is, moreover, not entirely new; it was proposed by Spencer as early as 1872 ("Contemporary Rev.", June, 1872) and defended by Crookes in 1886.
140 The physico-chemical theory of atomism, though is not a demonstrated truth, offers a satisfactory explanation of a great number of phenomena, and will, no doubt, remain essentially the same, no matter how it may be modified in its details. In chemistry, it does not stop arbitrarily in the division of matter, but stops at chemical division. If another science demands further division, or if philosophy must postulate a division of the atom into essential principles, that is not the concern of chemistry. Science has no interest in defending the indivisible atom of Democritus.
141 Scholastic philosophy finds nothing in the scientific theory of atomism which it cannot harmonize with its principles, though it must reject the mechanical explanation, often proposed in the name of science, which looks upon the atom as an absolutely inert mass, devoid of all activities and properties. Schlolastic philosophers find in the different physical and chemical properties of the elements an indication of specificlly different natures. Chemical changes are for them substantial changes, and chemical formulas indicate the mode in which the elements react on one another in the production of the compound. They are not a representation of the molecular edifice built up of unchangeable atoms. Some would accept even this latter view and admit that there are no substantial changes in inanimate nature (Gutberlet). This view can also be harmonized more easily with the facts of stereo-chemistry. As regards the phenomena observed in radlo-activity, a generalization, either in the materialistic sense, that all matter is homogeneous, or in the scholastic sense, that all elements can be changed into one another, is in the present state of science premature.
142 Edmund J. Wirth.
Day of Atonement
133 (Hebrew Yom Hakkippurim. Vulgate, Dies Expiationum, and Dies Propitiationis - Leviticus 23:27-28)
134 The rites to be observed on the Day of Atonement are fully set forth in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus (cf. Exodus 30:10; Leviticus 23:27-31, 25:9; Numbers 29:7-11). It was a most solemn fast, on which no food could be taken throughout the whole the day, and servile works were forbidden. It was kept on nineteenth day of Tischri, which falls in September/October. The sacrifices included a calf, a ram, and seven lambs (Numbers 29:8-11). But the distinctive ceremony of the day was the offering of the two goats.
135 > He (Aaron) shall make the two buck-goats to stand before Lord, in the door of the tabernacle of the testimony: and casting lots upon them both, one to be offered to the Lord and the other to be the emissary-goat: That whose lot fell to be offered to the Lord, he shall offer for sin: But that whose lot was to be the emissary goat he shall present alive before the Lord, that he may pour out prayers upon him, and let him go into the wilderness . . . After he hath cleansed the sanctuary, and the tabernacle, and the altar, let him offer the living goat: And putting both hands upon his head, let him confess all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their offences and sins, and praying that they may light on his head, he shall turn him out by a man ready for it, into the desert. And when the goat hath carried all their iniquities into an uninhabited land, and shall be let go into the desert, Aaron shall return into the tabernacle of the testimony. (Leviticus 16:7-10, 20-23).
136 The general meaning of the ceremony is sufficiently shown in the text. But the details present some difficulty. The Vulgate caper emissarius, "emissary goat", represents the obscure Hebrew word Azazel, which occurs nowhere else in the Bible. Various attempts have been made to interpret its meaning. Some have taken it for the name of a place where the man who took the goat away used to throw it over a precipice, since its return was thought to forbode evil. Others, with better reason, take it for the name of an evil spirit; and in fact a spirit of this name is mentioned in the Apocryphal , and later in Jewish literature. On this interpretation-which, though by no means new, finds favour with modern critics-the idea of the ceremony would seem to be that the sins were sent back to the evil spirit to whose influence they owed their origin. It has been noted that somewhat similar rites of expiation have prevailed among heathen nations. And modern critics, who refer the above passages to the Priestly Code, and to a post-Exilic date, are disposed to regard the sending of the goat to Azazel as an adaptation of a pre-existing ceremonial. The significant ceremony observed on this solemn Day of Atonement does but give a greater prominence to that need of satisfaction and expiation which was present in all the ordinary sin-offerings. All these sacrifices for sin, as we learn from the teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews, were figures of the great Sacrifice to come. In like manner these Jewish rites of atonement speak to us of the Cross of Christ, and of the propitiatory Sacrifice which is daily renewed in a bloodless manner on the Eucharistic Altar. For this reason it may be of interest to note, with Provost Maltzew, that the Jewish prayers used on the Day of Atonement foreshadow the common commemoration of the saints and the faithful departed in our liturgies (Die Liturgien der orthodox-katholischen Kirche des Morgenlandes, 252).
137 W.H. Kent
Doctrine of the Atonement
136 The word atonement, which is almost the only theological term of English origin, has a curious history. The verb "atone", from the adverbial phrase "at one" (M.E. at oon), at first meant to reconcile, or make "at one"; from this it came to denote the action by which such reconciliation was effected, e. g. satisfaction for all offense or an injury. Hence, in Catholic theology, the Atonement is the Satisfaction of Christ, whereby God and the world are reconciled or made to be at one. "For God indeed was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself" (II Cor., v, 19). The Catholic doctrine on this subject is set forth in the sixth Session of the Council of Trent, chapter ii. Having shown the insufficiency of Nature, and of Mosaic Law the Council continues:
137 > Whence it came to pass, that the Heavenly Father, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort (II Cor., 1, 3), when that blessed fullness of the time was come (Gal., iv, 4) sent unto men Jesus Christ, His own Son who had been, both before the Law and during the time of the Law, to many of the holy fathers announced and promised, that He might both redeem the Jews, who were under the Law and that the Gentiles who followed not after justice might attain to justice and that all men might receive the adoption of sons. Him God had proposed as a propitiator, through faith in His blood (Rom., iii, 25), for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for those of the whole world (I John ii, 2).
138 More than twelve centuries before this, the same dogma was proclaimed in the words of the Nicene Creed, "who for us men and for our salvation, came down, took flesh, was made man; and suffered. "And all that is thus taught in the decrees of the councils may be read in the pages of the New Testament. For instance, in the words of Our Lord, "even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a redemption for many" (Matt., xx, 28); or of St. Paul, "Because in him, it hath well pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell; and through him to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth, and the things that are in heaven." (Coloss., i, 19, 20). The great doctrine thus laid down in the beginning was further unfolded and brought out into clearer light by the work of the Fathers and theologians. And it may be noted that in this instance the development is chiefly due to Catholic speculation on the mystery, and not, as in the case of other doctrines, to controversy with heretics. At first we have the central fact made known in the Apostolic preaching, that mankind was fallen and was raised up and redeemed from sin by the blood of Christ. But it remained for the pious speculation of Fathers and theologians to enter into the meaning of this great truth, to inquire into the state of fallen man, and to ask how Christ accomplished His work of Redemption. By whatever names or figures it may be described, that work is the reversal of the Fall, the blotting out of sin, the deliverance from bondage, the reconciliation of mankind with God. And it is brought to pass by the Incarnation, by the life, the sufferings, and the death of the Divine Redeemer. All this may be summed up in the word Atonement. This, is so to say, the starting point. And herein all are indeed at one. But, when it was attempted to give a more precise account of the nature of the Redemption and the manner of its accomplishment, theological speculation took different courses, some of which were suggested by the various names and figures under which this ineffable mystery is adumbrated in Holy Scripture. Without pretending to give a full history of the discussions, we may briefly indicate some of the main lines on which the doctrine was developed, and touch on the more important theories put forward in explanation of the Atonement.
139 (a) In any view, the Atonement is founded on the Divine Incarnation. By this great mystery, the Eternal Word took to Himself the nature of man and, being both God and man, became the Mediator between God and men. From this, we have one of the first and most profound forms of theological speculation on the Atonement, the theory which is sometimes described as Mystical Redemption. Instead of seeking a solution in legal figures, some of the great Greek Fathers were content to dwell on the fundamental fact of the Divine Incarnation. By the union of the Eternal Word with the nature of man all mankind was lifted up and, so to say, deified. "He was made man", says St. Athanasius, "that we might be made gods" (De Incarnatione Verbi, 54). "His flesh was saved, and made free the first of all, being made the body of the Word, then we, being concorporeal therewith, are saved by the same (Orat., II, Contra Arianos, lxi). And again, "For the presence of the Saviour in the flesh was the price of death and the saving of the whole creation (Ep. ad Adelphium, vi). In like manner St. Gregory of Nazianzus proves the integrity of the Sacred Humanity by the argument, "That which was not assumed is not healed; but that which is united to God is saved" (to gar aproslepton, atherapeuton ho de henotai to theu, touto kai sozetai). This speculation of the Greek Fathers undoubtedly contains a profound truth which is sometimes forgotten by later authors who are more intent on framing juridical theories of ransom and satisfaction. But it is obvious that this account of the matter is imperfect, and leaves much to be explained. It must be remembered, moreover, that the Fathers themselves do not put this forward as a full explanation. For while many of their utterances might seem to imply that the Redemption was actually accomplished by the union of a Divine Person with the human nature, it is clear from other passages that they do not lose sight of the atoning sacrifice. The Incarnation is, indeed, the source and the foundation of the Atonement, and these profound thinkers have, so to say, grasped the cause and its effects as one vast whole. Hence they look on to the result before staying to consider the means by which it was accomplished.
140 (b) But something more on this matter had already been taught in the preaching of the Apostles and in the pages of the New Testament. The restoration of fallen man was the work of the Incarnate Word. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (II Cor., v. 19). But the peace of that reconciliation was accomplished by the death of the Divine Redeemer, "making peace through the blood of His cross" (Coloss., i, 20). This redemption by death is another mystery, and some of the Fathers in the first ages are led to speculate on its meaning, and to construct a theory in explanation. Here the words and figures used in Holy Scripture help to guide the current of theological thought. Sin is represented as a state of bondage or servitude, and fallen man is delivered by being redeemed, or bought with a price. "For you are bought with a great price" (I Cor., vi, 20). "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; because thou wast slain, and hast redeemed to God, in thy blood" (Apoc, v, 9). Looked at in this light, the Atonement appears as the deliverance from captivity by the payment of a ransom. This view is already developed in the second century. "The mighty Word and true Man reasonably redeeming us by His blood, gave Himself a ransom for those who had been brought into bondage. And since the Apostasy unjustly ruled over us, and, whereas we belonged by nature to God Almighty, alienated us against nature and made us his own disciples, the Word of God, being mighty in all things, and failing not in His justice, dealt justly even with the Apostasy itself, buying back from it the things which were His own" (Irenaeus Aversus Haereses V, i). And St. Augustine says in well-known words: "Men were held captive under the devil and served the demons, but they were redeemed from captivity. For they could sell themselves. The Redeemer came, and gave the price; He poured forth his blood and bought the whole world. Do you ask what He bought? See what He gave, and find what He bought. The blood of Christ is the price. How much is it worth? What but the whole world? What but all nations?" (Enarratio in Psalm xcv, n. 5).
141 It cannot be questioned that this theory also contains a true principle. For it is founded on the express words of Scripture, and is supported by many of the greatest of the early Fathers and later theologians. But unfortunately, at first, and for a long period of theological history, this truth was somewhat obscured by a strange confusion, which would seem to have arisen from the natural tendency to take a figure too literally, and to apply it in details which were not contemplated by those who first made use of it. It must not be forgotten that the account of our deliverance from sin is set forth in figures. Conquest, captivity, and ransom are familiar facts of human history. Man, having yielded to the temptations of Satan, was like to one overcome in battle. Sin, again, is fitly likened to a state of slavery. And when man was set free by the shedding of Christ's precious Blood, this deliverance would naturally recall (even if it had not been so described in Scripture) the redemption of a captive by the payment of a ransom.
142 But however useful and illuminating in their proper place, figures of this kind are perilous in the hands of those who press them too far, and forget that they are figures. This is what happened here. When a captive is ransomed the price is naturally paid to the conqueror by whom he is held in bondage. Hence, if this figure were taken and interpreted literally in all its details, it would seem that the price of man's ransom must be paid to Satan. The notion is certainly startling, if not revolting. Even if brave reasons pointed in this direction, we might well shrink from drawing the concluslon. And this is in fact so far from being the case that it seems hard to find any rational explanation of such a payment, or any right on which it could be founded. Yet, strange to say, the bold flight of theological speculation was not checked by these misgivings. In the above-cited passage of St. Irenaeus, we read that the Word of God "dealt justly even with the Apostasy itself [i.e. Satan], buying back from it the things which were His own." This curious notion, apparently first mooted by St. Irenaeus, was taken up by Origen in the next century, and for about a thousand years it played a conspicuous part in the history of theology. In the hands of some of the later Fathers and medieval writers, it takes various forms, and some of its more repulsive features are softened or modified. But the strange notion of some right, or claim, on the part of Satan is still present. A protest was raised by St. Gregory of Nazianzus in the fourth century, as might be expected from that most accurate of the patristic theologians. But it was not till St. Anselm and Abelard had met it with unanswerable arguments that its power was finally broken. It makes a belated appearance in the pages of Peter Lombard.
143 (c) But it is not only in connection with the theory of ransom that we meet with this notion of "rights" on the part of Satan. Some of the Fathers set the matter in a different aspect. Fallen man, it was said, was justly under the dominion of the devil, in punishment for sin. But when Satan brought suffering and death on the sinless Saviour, he abused his power and exceeded his right, so that he was now justly deprived of his dominion over the captives. This explanation is found especially in the sermons of St. Leo and the "Morals" of St. Gregory the Great. Closely allied to this explanation is the singular "mouse-trap" metaphor of St. Augustine. In this daring figure of speech, the Cross is regarded as the trap in which the bait is set and the enemy is caught. "The Redeemer came and the deceiver was overcome. What did our Redeemer do to our Captor? In payment for us He set the trap, His Cross, with His blood for bait. He [Satan] could indeed shed that blood; but he deserved not to drink it. By shedding the blood of One who was not his debtor, he was forced to release his debtors" (Serm. cxxx, part 2).
144 (d) These ideas retained their force well into the Middle Ages. But the appearance of St. Anselm's "Cur Deus Homo?" made a new epoch in the theology of the Atonement. It may be said, indeed, that this book marks an epoch in theological literature and doctrinal development. There are not many works, even among those of the greatest teachers, that can compare in this respect with the treatise of St. Anselm. And, with few exceptions, the books that have done as much to influence and guide the growth of theology are the outcome of some great struggle with heresy; while others, again, only summarize the theological learning of the age. But this little book is at once purely pacific and eminently original. Nor could any dogmatic treatise well be more simple and unpretending than this luminous dialogue between the great archbishop and his disciple Boso. There is no parade of learning, and but little in the way of appeal to authorities. The disciple asks and the master answers; and both alike face the great problem before them fearlessly, but at the same time with all due reverence and modesty. Anselm says at the outset that he will not so much show his disciple the truth he needs, as seek it along with him; and that when he says anything that is not confirmed by higher authority, it must be taken as tentative, and provisional. He adds that, though he may in some measure meet the question, one who is wiser could do it better; and that, whatever man may know or say on this subject, there will always remain deeper reasons that are beyond him. In the same spirit he concludes the whole treatise by submitting it to reasonable correction at the hands of others.
145 It may be safely said that this is precisely what has come to pass. For the theory put forward by Anselm has been modified by the work of later theologians, and confirmed by the testimony of truth. In contrast to some of the other views already noticed, this theory is remarkably clear and symmetrical. And it is certainly more agreeable to reason than the "mouse-trap" metaphor, or the notion of purchase money paid to Satan. Anselm's answer to the question is simply the need of satisfaction of sin. No sin, as he views the matter, can be forgiven without satisfactlon. A debt to Divine justice has been incurred; and that debt must needs be paid. But man could not make this satisfaction for himself; the debt is something far greater than he can pay; and, moreover, all the service that he can offer to God is already due on other titles. The suggestion that some innocent man, or angel, might possibly pay the debt incurred by sinners is rejected, on the ground that in any case this would put the sinner under obligation to his deliverer, and he would thus become the servant of a mere creature. The only way in which the satisfaction could be made, and men could be set free from sin, was by the coming of a Redeemer who is both God and man. His death makes full satisfaction to the Divine Justice, for it is something greater than all the sins of all rnankind. Many side questions are incidentally treated in the dialogue between Anselm and Boso. But this is the substance of the answer given to the great question, "Cur Deus Homo?". Some modern writers have suggested that this notion of deliverance by means of satisfaction may have a German origin. For in old Teutonic laws, a criminal might pay the wergild instead of undergoing punishment. But this custom was not peculiar or to the Germans, as we may see from the Celtic eirig, and, as Riviere has pointed out, there is no need to have recourse to this explanation. For the notion of satisfaction for sin was already present in the whole system of ecclesiastical penance, though it had been left for Anselm to use it in illustration of the doctrine of the Atonernent. It may be added that the same idea underlies the old Jewish "sin-offerings" as well as the similar rites that are found in many ancient religions. It is specially prominent in the rites and prayers used on the Day of Atonement. And this, it may be added, is now the ordinary acceptance of the word; to "atone" is to give satisfactlon, or make amends, for an offense or an injury.
146 (e) Whatever may be the reason, it is clear that this doctrine was attracting special attention in the age of St. Anselm. His own work bears witness that it was undertaken at the urgent request of others who wished to have some new light on this mystery. To some extent, the solution offered by Anselm seems to have satisfied these desires, though, in the course of further discussion, an important part of his theory, the absolute necessity of Redemption and of satisfaction for sin, was discarded by later theologians, and found few defenders. But meanwhile, within a few years of the appearance of the "Cur Deus Homo?" another theory on the subject had been advanced by Abelard. In common with St. Anselm, Abelard utterly rejected the old and then still prevailing, notion that the devil had some sort of right over fallen man, who could only be justly delivered by means of a ransom paid to his captor. Against this he very rightly urges, with Anselm, that Satan was clearly guilty of injustice in the matter and could have no right to anything but punishment. But, on the other hand, Abelard was unable to accept Anselm's view that an equivalent satisfaction for sin was necessary, and that this debt could only be paid by the death of the Divine Redeerner. He insists that God could have pardoned us without requiring satisfaction. And, in his view, the reason for the Incarnation and the death of Christ was the pure love of God. By no other means could men be so effectually turned from sin and moved to love God. Abelard's teaching on this point, as on others, was vehemently attacked by St. Bernard. But it should be borne in mind that some of the arguments urged in condemnation of Abelard would affect the position of St. Anselm also, not to speak of later Catholic theology.
147 In St. Bernard's eyes it seemed that Abelard, in denying the rights of Satan, denied the "Sacrament of Redemption" and regarded the teaching and example of Christ as the sole benefit of the Incarnation. "But", as Mr. Oxenham observes,
148 > he had not said so, and he distinctly asserts in his "Apology" that "the Son of God was incarnate to deliver us from the bondage of sin and yoke of the Devil and to open to us by His death the gate of eternal life." And St. Bernard himself, in this very Epistle, distinctly denies any absolute necessity for the method of redemption chosen, and suggests a reason for it not so very unlike Abelard's. "Perhaps that method is the best, whereby in a land of forgetfulness and sloth we might be more powerfully as vividly reminded of our fall, through the so great and so manifold sufferings of Him who repaired it." Elsewhere when not speaking controversially, he says still more plainly: "Could not the Creator have restored His work without that difficulty? He could, but He preferred to do it at his own cost, lest any further occasion should be given for that worst and most odious vice of ingratitude in man" (Bern., Serm. xi, in Cant.). What is this but to say, with Abelard that "He chose the Incarnation as the most effectual method for eliciting His creature's love?" (The Catholic Doctrine of the Atonement, 85, 86).
149 (f) Although the high authority of St. Bernard was thus against them, the views of St. Anselm and Abelard, the two men who in different ways were the fathers of Scholasticism, shaped the course of later medieval theology. The strange notion of the rights of Satan, against which they had both protested, now disappears from the pages of our theologians. For the rest, the view which ultimately prevailed may be regarded as a combination of the opinions of Anselm and Abelard. In spite of the objections urged by the latter writer, Anselm's doctrine of Satisfaction was adopted as the basis. But St. Thomas and the other medieval masters agree with Abelard in rejecting the notion that this full Satisfaction for sin was absolutely necessary. At the most, they are willing to admit a hypothetical or conditional necessity for the Redemption by the death of Christ. The restoration of fallen man was a work of God's free mercy and benevolence. And, even on the hypothesis that the loss was to be repaired, this might have been brought about in many and various ways. The sin might have been remitted freely, without any satisfaction at all, or some lesser satisfaction, however imperfect in itself, might have been accepted as sufficient. But on the hypothesis that God had chosen to restore mankind, and at the same time, to require full satisfaction as a condition of pardon and deliverance, nothing less than the Atonement made by one who was God as well as man could suffice as satisfaction for the offense against the Divine Majesty. And in this case Anselm's argument will hold good. Mankind cannot be restored unless God becomes man to save them.
150 In reference to many points of detail the Schoolmen, here as elsewhere, adopted divergent views. One of the chief questions at issue was the intrinsic adequacy of the satisfaction offered by Christ. On this point the majority, with St. Thomas at their head, maintained that, by reason of the infinite dignity of the Divine Person, the least action or suffering of Christ had an infinite value, so that in itself it would suffice as an adequate satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. Scotus and his school, on the other hand, disputed this intrinsic infinitude, and ascribed the all-sufficiency of the satisfaction to the Divine acceptation. As this acceptation was grounded on the infinite dignity of the Divine Person, the difference was not so great as might appear at first sight. But, on this point at any rate the simpler teaching of St. Thomas is more generally accepted by later theologians. Apart from this question, the divergent views of the two schools on the primary motive of the Incarnation naturally have some effect on the Thomist and Scotist theology of the Atonement. On looking back at the various theories noticed so far, it will be seen that they are not, for the most part, mutually exclusive, but may be combined and harmonized. It may be said, indeed, that they all help to bring out different aspects of that great doctrine which cannot find adequate expression in any human theory. And in point of fact it will generally be found that the chief Fathers and Schoolmen, though they may at times lay more stress on some favourite theory of their own, do not lose sight of the other explanations.
151 Thus the Greek Fathers, who delight in speculating on the Mystical Redemption by the Incarnation, do not omit to speak also of our salvation by the shedding of blood. Origen, who lays most stress on the deliverance by payment of a ransom, does not forget to dwell on the need of a sacrifice for sin. St. Anselm again, in his "Meditations", supplements the teaching set forth in his "Cur Deus Homo?" Abelard, who might seem to make the Atonement consist in nothing more than the constraining example of Divine Love has spoken also of our salvation by the Sacrifice of the Cross, in passages to which his critics do not attach sufficient importance. And, as we have seen his great opponent, St. Bernard, teaches all that is really true and valuable in the theory which he condemned. Most, if not all, of these theories had perils of their own, if they were isolated and exaggerated. But in the Catholic Church there was ever a safeguard against these dangers of distortion. As Mr. Oxenham says very finely,
152 > The perpetual priesthood of Christ in heaven, which occupies a prominent place in nearly all the writings we have examined, is even more emphatically insisted upon by Origen. And this deserves to be remembered, because it is a part of the doctrine which has been almost or altogether dropped out of many Protestant expositions of the Atonement, whereas those most inclining among Catholics to a merely juridical view of the subject have never been able to forget the present and living reality of a sacrifice constantly kept before their eyes, as it were, in the worship which reflects on earth the unfailing liturgy of heaven. (p. 38)
153 The reality of these dangers and the importance of this safeguard may be seen in the history of this doctrine since the age of Reformation. As we have seen, its earlier development owed comparatively little to the stress of controversy with the heretics. And the revolution of the sixteenth century was no exception to the rule. For the atonement was not one of the subjects directly disputed between the Reformers and their Catholic opponents. But from its close connection with the cardinal question of Justification, this doctrine assumed a very special prominence and importance in Protestant theology and practical preaching. Mark Pattison tells us in his "Memoirs" that he came to Oxford with his "home Puritan religion almost narrowed to two points, fear of God's wrath and faith in the doctrine of the Atonement". And his case was possibly no exception among Protestant religionists. In their general conception on the atonement the Reformers and their followers happily preserved the Catholic doctrine, at least in its main lines. And in their explanation of the merit of Christ's sufferings and death we may see the influence of St. Thomas and the other great Schoolmen. But, as might be expected from the isolation of the doctrine and the loss of other portions of Catholic teaching, the truth thus preserved was sometimes insensibly obscured or distorted. It will be enough to note here the presence of two mistaken tendencies.
154 The first is indicated in the above words of Pattison in which the Atonement is specially connected with the thought of the wrath of God. It is true of course that sin incurs the anger of the Just Judge, and that this is averted when the debt due to Divine Justice is paid by satisfaction. But it must not be thought that God is only moved to mercy and reconciled to us as a result of this satisfaction. This false conception of the Reconciliation is expressly rejected by St. Augustine (In Joannem, Tract. cx, section 6). God's merciful love is the cause, not the result of that satisfaction.
155 The second mistake is the tendency to treat the Passion of Christ as being literally a case of vicarious punishment. This is at best a distorted view of the truth that His Atoning Sacrifice took the place of our punishment, and that He took upon Himself the sufferings and death that were due to our sins.
156 This view of the Atonement naturally provoked a reaction. Thus the Socinians were led to reject the notion of vicarious suffering and satisfaction as inconsistent with God's justice and mercy. And in their eyes the work of Christ consisted simply in His teaching by word and example. Similar objections to the juridical conception of the Atonement led to like results in the later system of Swedenborg. More recently Albrecht Ritschl, who has paid special attention to this subject, has formulated a new theory on somewhat similar lines. His conception of the Atonement is moral and spiritual, rather than juridical and his system is distinguished by the fact that he lays stress on the relation of Christ to the whole Christian community. We cannot stay to examine these new systems in detail. But it may be observed that the truth which they contain is already found in the Catholic theology of the Atonement. That great doctrine has been faintly set forth in figures taken from man's laws and customs. It is represented as the payment of a price, or a ransom, or as the offering of satisfaction for a debt. But we can never rest in these material figures as though they were literal and adequate. As both Abelard and Bernard remind us, the Atonement is the work of love. It is essentially a sacrifice, the one supreme sacrifice of which the rest were but types and figures. And, as St. Augustine teaches us, the outward rite of Sacrifice is the sacrament, or sacred sign, of the invisible sacrifice of the heart. It was by this inward sacrifice of obedience unto death, by this perfect love with which He laid down his life for His friends, that Christ paid the debt to justice, and taught us by His example, and drew all things to Himself; it was by this that He wrought our Atonement and Reconciliation with God, "making peace through the blood of His Cross".
157 W.H. Kent
Atrib
139 A titular see of Lower Egypt (Athribites) whose episcopal list (325-479) is given in Gams (p. 461).
Atrium
142 I. An open place or court before a church. It consisted of a large quadrangle with colonnaded walks on its four sides forming a portico or cloister. It was situated between the porch or vestibule and the body of the church. In the center of the atrium was a fountain or well, where the worshippers washed their hands before entering the church. A remnant of this custom still survives in the use of the holy-water font, or basin, usually placed near the inner entrances of churches in the atrium those that were not suffered to advance farther, and more particularly the first class of penitents, stood to solicit the prayers of the faithful as they went into the church. It was also used as a burying-ground, at first only for distinguished persons, but afterwards for all believers. The covered portion next the church was called the narthex and was the place for penitents. The basilicas at Ravenna seem usually to have had a closed narthex, while those of Rome were open to the West. A mosaic in S. Apollinare Nuovo Ravenna shows an open narthex closed by curtains. The atrium existed in some of the largest of the early Christian churches such as old St. Peter's at Rome in the fourth century, and Sancta Sophia at Constantinople, in the sixth. In the residences (palatia, domus) of the Rornan aristocracy, where the Roman Christians first worshipped, there was a threefold division, first, on entering, a court called the atrium; then, farther in, another colonnaded court called the peristyle, and then the tablinum, where the altar was problably placed, and services conducted. (See BASILICA.) So large a fore-court to a church required an area of land costly and difficult to obtain in a large city. For this reason the old Roman atrium survived only occasionally in Eastern and Western churches. Typical examples may be seen in the churches of St. Clement, at Rome, and St. Ambrose, at Mllan; also in the seventh century churches of Novara and Parenzo.
143 II. In secular architecture the atrium was the principal entrance-hall and apartment in a Roman house, and formed the reception-room. It was lighted by an opening in the roof, called the compluvium, the roof sloping so as to throw the rain-water into a cistern in the floor called the impluvium. In large houses it was surrounded by a colonnade.
144 Thomas H. Poole
Attainder
145 A bill of attainder may be defined to be an Act of Parliament for putting a man to death or for otherwise punishing him without trial in the usual form. Thus by a legislative act a man is put in the same position as if he had been convicted after a regular trial. It is an act whereby the judicature of the entire parliament is exercised, and may be contrasted with the procedure by impeachment in which the accusation, presented by the Commons acting as a grand jury of the whole realm, is tried by the Lords, exercising at once the functions of a high court of justice and of a jury. In a strictly technical sense it may be said that a Bill of Attainder is a legislative act inflicting the punishment of death without a trial, and that a Bill of Pains and Penalties is such an act inflicting a milder punishment. In the popular sense, however, the term "Bill of Attainder" embraces both classes of acts, and in that sense it is evidently used in the Constitution of the United States, as the Supreme Court has declared in Fletcher v. Peck, 6 Cranch, 138, that "a bill of attainder may affect the life of an individual, or may confiscate his property or both". Such a bill deals with the merits of a particular case and inflicts penalties, more or less severe, ex post facto, without trial in the usual form. While bills of attainder were used in England as early as 1321 in the procedure employed by Parliament in the banishment of the two Despensers (1 St. tr. pp. 23, 38), it was not until the period of passion engendered by the civil war that the summary power of Parliament to punish criminals by statute was for the first time perverted and abused. Then it was that this process was first freely used, not only against the living, but sometimes against the dead, the main object in the latter case being, of course, the confiscation of the estate of the attainted person. In the flush of victory which followed the battle of Towton, Edward IV obtained the passage of a sweeping bill of attainder through which the crown was enriched by forfeiture of the estates of fourteen lords and more than a hundred knights and esquires. In the seventeenth year of that reign was passed the Act of Attainder of the Duke of Clarence in which, after an oratorical preface setting out at length the offence imputed to him, it is enacted "that the said George Duke of Clarence be convicted, and atteynted of high treason". Then follows the appointment of the Duke of Buckingham as lord high steward for that occasion to do execution. It is a remarkable fact that during a period of one hundred and sixty-two years (1459-1621) there is no record of a parliamentary impeachment either in the rolls of Parliament or in the Lords' journal. After the impeachment of Lord Stanley in 1459, for not sending his troops to the battle of Bloreheath, there was not another impeachment until that of Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Francis Mitchell in 1621. During the interval, covering a little more than the reigns of the house of Tudor, enemies of the State were disposed of either by bills of attainder, by trials in the Star Chamber, or by trials for treason in the courts of common law. In the reign of Henry VIII Bills of attainder were often used instead of impeachments, as in the cases of Wolsey, Thomas Cromwell, Queen Katherine Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, and the Earl of Surrey. During that reign religious persecution was carried on rather through the legal machinery devised for the punishment of high treason as defined by the Act of Supremacy than by bills of attainder. By the Act of Supremacy, the King was declared Head of the Church with "the title and style thereof"; by the penal act which followed as a corollary thereto, it was declared that any attempt to deprive him "of the dignity, title, or name" of his royal estate should constitute high treason; under the special act providing the amended oath, it was possible to call upon anyone to declare his belief in the validity of the new title, and a failure to do so was sufficient evidence of guilt. By that legal machinery were dashed to pieces the Charterhouse monks of London, who are admitted on every hand to have been the noblest and purest of all churchmen. Even =46roude admits that they were "gallant men, whose high forms, in the sunset of the old faith, stand transfigured on the horizon, tinged with the light of its dying glory". The legal proceedings through which the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More were brought to the block were but a repetition of what had been gone through with in the case of the Carthusians. After the Tudor time the most remarkable bills of attainder are those that were directed against Lord Strafford, Lord Danby, the Duke of Monmouth, and Sir John Fenwick. As instances of bills of pains and penalties, reference may be made to those against Bishop Atterbury and Queen Caroline, usually referred to as the last instances of such legislation. When Queen Caroline returned to England, in July, 1830, all the ministers, except Canning, were induced to consent to the introduction in the House of Lords of a bill of pains and penalties, providing for the dissolution of her marriage with the King, upon the ground of adultery, and for her degradation. When the charges contained in the preamble came on to be heard, Brougham and Denman, by their bold and brilliant defence of the Queen, so aroused popular sympathy in her favour, by holding her up as a deserted and persecuted woman, that the ministry deemed it wise to drop the bill after the majority in its favour in the Lords had dwindled to nine. Reference is made to this case as an illustration of the nature of the procedure upon such bills. "The proceedings of parliament in passing bills of attainder, and of pains and penalties, do not vary from those adopted in regard to other bills. They may be introduced in either house, but ordinarily commence in the House of Lords: they pass through the same stages; and when agreed to by both houses they receive the royal assent in the usual form. But the parties who are subjected to these proceedings are admitted to defend themselves by counsel and witnesses, before both houses; and the solemnity of the proceedings would cause measures to be taken to enforce the attendance of members upon their service in parliament" (May, Parl. Practice, 744). It thus appears that, in the modern form, procedure by attainder admits the right of proof and argument. Entirely apart from the judicature of Parliament, attainder is defined by the common law of England to be the stain or corruption of blood which follows as an immediate and inseparable consequence of a death sentence. Such attainder took place after judgment of death, or upon such circumstances as were equivalent to such a judgment or outlawry on a capital crime, pronounced for absconding from justice. Conviction without judgment was not followed by attainder. The consequences of attainder were: first, forfeiture; second, corruption of the blood. The extent of the forfeiture depended on the nature of the crime for which the criminal was convicted; and by corruption of blood, "both upwards and downwards," the attainted person could neither inherit nor transmit lands. After it was clear beyond dispute that the criminal was no longer fit to live, he was called attaint, stained, or blackened, and before 6 and 7 Vict., c. 85 p. 1, could not be called as a witness in any court. The doctrine of attainder has, however, ceased to be of much practical importance since 33 and 34 Vict., c. 23, wherein it was provided that henceforth no confession, verdict, inquest, conviction, or judgment of or for any treason or felony, or felo-de-se shall cause any attainder or corruption of blood or any forfeiture or escheat.
146 Hannis Taylor.
St. Attala
148 Born in the sixth century in Burgundy; died 627. He first became a monk at Lerins, but, displeased with the loose discipline prevailing there, he entered the monastery of Luxeuil which had just been founded by St. Columban. When Columban was expelled from Luxeuil by King Theodoric II, Attala was to succeed him as abbot, but preferred to follow him into exile. They settled on the banks of the river Trebbia, a little northeast of Genoa, where they founded the celebrated Abbey of Bobbio. After the death of St. Columban in 615, Attala succeeded him as Abbot of Bobbio. He and his monks suffered many hardships at the hands of the Arian King Ariowald. As abbot, Attala insisted on strict discipline and when a large number of his monks rebelled, declaring his discipline too rigorous, he permitted them to leave the monastery. When, however, some of these perished miserably, the others considering their death a punishment from God, returned to the monastery. Attala was buried in Bobbio where his feast is celebrated on 10 March.
149 Michael Ott
Attalia
151 (Also ATTALEIA.)
152 A titular metropolitan see of Pamphylia in Asia Minor. Its episcopal list (431-879) is given in Gams (450). It is probably identical with the present Adalia, the chief port and largest place on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Remains of sculptured marbles are abundant in the vicinity. It is mentioned in Acts 14:24-25, as the seaport whence Paul and Barnabas set sail for Antioch, at the close of their missionary journey through Pisidia and Pamphylia. Another city of the same name existed in Lydia, Asia Minor; its episcopal list (431-879) is given in Gams (447).
153 Thomas J. Shahan
Michael Attaliates
154 Byzantine stateman and historian, probably a native of Attalia in Pamphylia, whence he seems to have come to Constantinople between 1130 and 1140. He acquired in the royal city both wealth and position and was rapidly advanced, under successive emperors, to the highest offices, among others to that of judge of the supreme court of the empire. He compiled (1072) for the Emperor Michael Parapinakes a compendium of Byzantine law which supplements in a useful stay the "Libri Basilici". In addition to this he also drew up an "Ordinance for the Poor House and Monastery" which he founded at Constantinople in 1077. This work is of value for the history of Byzantine life and manners in the eleventh century. It contains a catalogue of the library of his monastery. About 1079 or 1080 he published an account of Byzantine history from 1034 to 1079, a vivid and reliable presentation of the palace revolutions and female domination that characterize this period of transition from the great Macedonian dynasty to the Comneni. Attaliates writes as an eyewitness and contemporary. Though his style is not free from the usual affectations of Byzantine historians, it is more flowing and compact than that of his predecessors Krumbacher praises his accurate judgment and sense of equity; in both respects he is superior to his continuator, the panegyrist and courtier Psellos. The law-manual of Attaliates was first edited by M. Freher (Juris Greco-Romani Tomi Duo, Frankfort, 1596, 11, 1-79); the "Ordinance", or Diataxis, is found in Miklosich and Müller, "Acta et Diplomata Graeca Medii Ævi" (1887), V, 293-327; the "History" was edited by I. Bekker, in the "Corpus Script. Byz." (Bonn, 1853).
155 Thomas J. Shahan
Atticus
157 Patriarch of Constantinople (406-425), born at Sebaste in Armenia; died 425. He was educated in the vicinity of his native town by Macedonian monks, whose mode of life and errors he embraced. When still young he went to Constantinople, abjured his heretical tenets, and was raised to the priesthood. He and another ambitious priest, Arsacius, were the chief accusers of St. Chrysostom in the notorious Council of the Oak, which deposed (405) the holy patriarch. On the death (406) of the intruder Arsacius, he succeeded him in the See of Constantinople, and at first strove hard, with the help of the civil power, to detach the faithful from the communion of their lawful pastor. But finding that, even after the death of St. Chrysostom, they continued to avoid his own spiritual ministrations, he re-inserted the name of his holy predecessor in the diptychs of the churches. This change of attitude and his charity to the poor gradually made him less unpopular, and he at length managed to have himself recognized as patriarch by Innocent I. Intent upon enlarging the prerogatives of his see, he obtained from Theodosius the Younger two rescripts which placed Bithynia and Illyria under his jurisdiction. Rome resisted these encroachrments, and the rescripts, thanks to the intervention of Honorius, were recalled. Atticus in some measure atoned for his ambition and the irregularity of his promotion by his zeal in the cause of orthodoxy. He drove the Messalians from Pamphylia and his opposition to the Pelagians caused him to be praised by Celestine I as "a true successor of St. Chrysostom".
158 A.J.B. Vuibert
Councils of Attigny
160 In 765, St. Chrodegang of Metz and thirty-seven other bishops mutually promised in an assembly held at the royal residence of Attigny near Vouziers (Ardennes) that after the death of each the survivors would cause the psalter to be said one hundred times and would have one hundred Masses celebrated for the repose of the soul of the departed. Each one would also say thirty Masses for the same intention. In 785, Charlemagne held a council at Attigny. Widukind and Aboin, two conquered Saxon kings, presented themselves for instruction and were baptized. In 822, Pope Paschal I was present at a Council of Attigny, convened for the reconciliation of the emperor Louis the Pious with his three younger brothers, Hugo, Drogo, and Theodoric, whom he had caused to be violently tortured and whom he had untended to put to death. In the council he confessed publically his wrong-doing; also the violence practiced by him on his nephew, Bernard, King of Italy, and his brother, the Abbot, Adelard Wala, and proposed to perform public penance in imitation of the emperor Theodosius I. He also exhibited an earnest desire to correct abuses arising from the negligence of the bishops and the nobles and confirmed the rule (Aquensis Regula) that the Council of Aachen had drawn up (816) for canons and monks. In 870, thirty bishops and six archbishops met at Attigny, to pass Judgment on Karlmann, the king's son, made an ecclesiastic at an early age, and accused by his father of conspiring against his life and throne. He was deprived of his abbeys and imprisoned at Senlis. In the council of 875, Hincmar, Bishop of Laon, appealed to the pope from his uncle, Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims.
161 Thomas J. Shahan
Attila
163 King and general of the Huns; died 453. Succeeding in 433 to the kingship of Scythian hordes disorganized and enfeebled by internal discords, Attila soon made of his subjects a compact and formidable people, the terror of Europe and Asia. An unsuccessful campaign in Persia was followed in 441 by an invasion of the Eastern Roman Empire, the success of which emboldened Attila to invade the West. He passed unhindered through Austria and Germany, across the Rhine into Gaul, plundering and devastating all in his path with a ferocity unparalleled in the records of barbarian invasions and compelling those he overcame to augment his mighty army. In 451 he was met on the Plains of Chalons by the allied Romans under Actius and the Visigoths under Theodoric and Thorismond, who overcame the Huns and averted the peril that menaced Western civilization. Turning then to Italy, Attila, in the spring of 452, laid waste Aquileia and many Lombard cities, and was approaching Rome, whither Valentinian III had fled before him, when he was met near Mantua by an embassy -- the most influential member of which was Pope Leo I -- which dissuaded Attila from sacking the city.
164 Attila died shortly after. Catholic interest in Attila centers chiefly in his relations with those bishops of France and Italy who restrained the Hunnish leader in his devastating fury. The moral power of these bishops, more particularly of the pope during the dissolution of the empire, is evidenced as well by the confidence in which the faithful looked to them for succour against the terrible invader as by the influence they sometimes exerted in staying that invader's destroying hand. St. Agnan of Orléans sustained the courage of his people and hastened the reinforcements that saved his apparently doomed city; at Troyes, St. Lupus prevailed upon Attila to spare the province of Champagne, and gave himself as a hostage while the Hunnish army remained in Gaul; when Rome seemed destined to meet the fate of the Lombard cities which Attila had pillaged, it was Pope Leo the Great who, by his eloquence and commanding personality, overawed the conqueror and saved the city. The terror which for centuries after clung to the name of Attila, "the Scourge of God", as he came to be called, and the gratitude of the people to their deliverers combined in time to encumber medieval hagiography with legends of saints reputed to have overcome Attila by their imposing presence, or stayed his progress by their prayers. But these fictions serve to emphasize the import of the facts which inspired them. They enable us to appreciate how widespread must have been that sentiment expressed in the recently discovered appeal of Eusebius of Dorylaeum to Pope Leo I: "Curavit desuper et ab exordio consuevit thronus apostolicus iniqua perferentes defensare . . . et humi Jacentes erigere, secundum possibilitatem quam habetis [see Harnack, History of Dogma (Boston, 1903), II, 168]. National pride, too, came in time to invest the person of Attila with a halo of fiction. Most European countries have their legends of the Hunnish leader, who is diversely depicted, according as the vanity of nations would represent Attila as a friend who had contributed to their greatness or as a foe to whose superhuman strength it had been no discredit to succumb. Of these legends the best known is the story of Etzel (Attila) in the "Niebelungen-lied".
165 John B. Peterson
Jean Denis Attiret
166 Painter, born at Dole, France, 31 July, 1702; died at Pekin, 8 December, 1768. He made serious artistic studies in Rome and after returning to his native country achieved considerable reputation as a portrait painter. He entered the Jesuit novitiate as a lay brother and has left some specimens of his work in the Cathedral of Avignon and the Sodality chapel which he painted while a novice. The Jesuits had many of their men in China employed as painters. Attiret joined them in 1737 and was easily the superior of all. He was honoured with the title of Painter to the Emperor, who visited his studio daily and finally made him a mandarin in spite of the brother's unwillingness to accept the honour. As all the work was done not for art but for the sake of pleasing the emperor, every suggestion he made was carefully attended to. Oil was not agreeable, so aquarelles and distemper were resorted to. The Emperor did not like shading, for he thought of it was a blot, so that disappeared. It all ended in Attiret becoming altogether Chinese in his tastes and his methods, so that he no longer painted like a European. He made portraits of all the distinguished court-personages, but most of his work was done on glass or silk and represented trees, and fruits, and fishes and animals, etc. When, however, the emperor had beaten back the Tatars, he ordered the battles to be painted. Four Jesuit brothers, among whom was Attiret, made sixteen tableaux, which were engraved in France in 1774. When the collection arrived from France, however, Attiret was dead. The emperor manifested great concern at his loss, bore the expenses of the obsequies, and sent a special representative to show his sorrow at the tomb. Attiret is credited with at least 200 portraits.
167 T.J. Campbell
Atto
169 A faithful follower of Gregory VII in his conflict with the simoniac clergy, born probably at Milan made Cardinal of San Mareo, assisted (1079) at the retractation of Berengarius in the Roman synod of that year, and signed the decrees of the synod of 1081. He may have been Bishop of Præneste. Cardinal Mai published under his name (SS. Vet nova coll., VI, 2, 60 sqq), from a Vatican manuscript, a "Breviarium Canonum", or miscellaneous collection of moral and canonical decrees genuine and forged, from Pope Clement I to Gregory the Great. It deals particularly with clerical rights and duties, eccleslastical acts, the administration of the sacraments, censures, jurisdiction, etc. Other cardinals of the name are mentioned in the anonymous (eighteenth-century) "Diatriba de Attonibus" published by Cardinal Mai (op. cit.; cf. P.L., CXXXIV, 902).
170 Thomas J. Shahan
Atto of Pistoia
172 Born at Badajoz in Spain, 1070; died 22 May, 1155. He became Abbot of Vallombrosa, (Tuscany) in 1105, and in 1135 was made Bishop of Pistoia. He wrote lives of St. John Gualhert and St. Bernard of Vallombrosa, bishop of Parrna. In 1145 he transferred to Pistoia certain relics of St. James of Compostella. His correspondence on that occasion is found in Ughelli, "Italia sacra", VII, 296.
173 Thomas J. Shahan
Atto of Vercelli
175 A learned theologian and canonist of the tenth century, son of the Viscount Aldegarius and Bishop of Vercelli (924-961). In 933 he became Grand Chancellor of Lothaire II, King of France, and obtained from the royal gratitude donations and privileges for his see of Vercelli (Ughelli, ltalia Sacra IV, 769). Several of his writings were first published by the Benedictine D'Achery (1655-77) in his "Spicilegium" VIII, 1-137; 2d ed., 1723, I, 401-442, e.g. "Epistolae, Libellus de pressuris ecclesiasticis", and "Canones rursus statutaque Vercellensis ecclesiae". A complete edition was executed by Baronzo del Signore, in two folio volumes (Vercelli, 1768, P.L. CXXXIV, 27-834), inclusive of his lengthy commentary on the Epistles of St. Paul. In 1832 Cardinal Mai published eighteen sermons of Atto, and his curious "Polypticum", or "Perpendiculum", an abridgment of moral philosophy, "written in a mysterious and enigmatic way". In his history of early medieval literature Ebert transfers to some Spaniard the authorship of this work, but Hauck defends the traditional view (Realencyk. f. prot. Theol., II, 214). His "Canones" are in great part a compilation of either ecclesiastical legislation, including the false Decretals. They contain, also, certain provisions of his own and are of value for the study of contemporary ecclesiastical life and manners in Northern Italy. He is sometimes known as Atto II; an earlier homonymous bishop of Vercelli flourished about middle of eighth century.
176 Thomas J. Shahan
St. Attracta
178 (Or ST. ARAGHT).
179 A contemporary of St. Patrick from whom she received the veil. She is known as the foundress of several churches in the Counties of Galway and Sligo, Ireland. Colgan's account of her life is based on that written by Augustine Magraidin in the last years of fourteenth century, and abounds in improbable statements. However, the fact of St. Attracta receiving the veil from St. Patrick is corroborated by Tirechán, in the "Book of Armagh", as is evident from the following passage in the "Documenta de S. Patricio" (ed. Edmund Hogan, S.J.): "Et ecclesiam posuit in cella Adrachtae, filiae Talain, et ipsa accepit pallium de manu Patricii." A native of the County Sligo, she resolved to devote herself to God, but being opposed by her parents, fled to South Connacht and made her first foundation at Drumconnell, near Boyle, County Roscommon, whence she removed to Greagraighe or Coolavin, County Sligo. At Killaraght, St. Attracta established a hospice for travellers, which existed as late as 1539. Her name was so great that numerous places were named after her, e.g. Killaraght (Cill Attracta), Toberaraght, Cloghan Araght, etc., and a large village which grew up around her oratory at Killaraght in Coolavin. Colgan gives an account of the Cross of St. Attracta which was famed during the Middle Ages, and of which the O'Mochain family were hereditary keepers. A striking confirmation of the existence of this relic in the early years of the fifteenth century is afforded by an entry in the "Calendar of Papal Letters" (VI, 45l) from which we learn that in 1413 the cross and cup of St. Attracta (Crux ac Cuach Aracht) were then venerated in the church of Killaraght, in the Diocese of Achonry. By an Indult of 28 July, 1864, Pius IX authorized the Office and Mass of St. Attracta, which had lapsed into desuetude, to be again celebrated in the Irish Church. The feast of St. Attracta, on 11 August, is given special honour in the Diocese of Achonry, of which she is the patroness. The prayers and proper lessons for her Office were drawn up by Cardinal Moran.
180 W. H. Grattan-Flood.
Divine Attributes
181 In order to form a more systematic idea of God, and as far as possible, to unfold the implications of the truth, God is All-Perfect, this infinite Perfection is viewed, successively, under various aspects, each of which is treated as a separate perfection and characteristic inherent to the Divine Substance, or Essence. A certain group of these, of paramount import, is called the Divine Attributes.
182 I. Knowledge of God Mediate and Synthetic
183 Our natural knowledge of God is acquired by discursive reasoning upon the data of sense by introspection, "For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; His eternal power also, and Divinity" (St. Paul, Romans, i, 20). Created things, by the properties and activities of their natures, manifest, as in a glass, darkly, the powers and perfections of the creator. But these refracted images of Him in finite things cannot furnish grounds for any adequate idea of the Infinite Being. Hence, in constructing a synthetic idea of God, before one can apply to the Divinity any concept or term expressing a perfection found in created being, it must be subjected to rigorous correction. The profound disparity between the Divine perfection and the intimations of it presented in the world-copy may be broadly laid down under two heads:
184 Number: The perfections of creatures are innumerable, the Divine Perfection is one.
185 Diversity: Created perfections differ endlessly in kind and degree; the Divine perfection is uniform, simple. It is not a totality of various perfections; absolutely simple, the Divine perfection answers to every idea of actual or conceivable perfection, without being determined to the particular mode of any. Hence, when any attribute expressing modes characteristic of the world of being that falls within the range of our experience is applied to God its signification ceases to be identical with that which it has in every other case. Yet it retains a real meaning in virtue of the ratio which exists between the finite being and its Infinite analogue. In philosophical phrase, the use of terms is called analogical predication, in contra-distinction to univocal, in which a word is predicated of two or more subjects in precisely the same sense. (See ANALOGY.)
186 II. Source of Our Natural Knowledge of God
187 To correct, as far as possible, the inadequate character of the concepts through which we must formulate our idea of God, the first step is to distinguish created perfection into two kinds, viz., mixed perfections and pure perfections. A pure perfection is one whose exact concept does not include any note formally expressive of defect or limitation; the content of the idea is entirely positive. The idea of a mixed perfection, on the contrary, formally or directly connotes, along with what is positive in the perfection, some privation or deficiency. Examples of the former are power, truthfulness, will; as an instance of the latter, materiality may be offered. For, though the reality that belongs to matter is, of course, a participatlon of existence and activity, yet the concept of it connotes the imperfections of that particular kind of existence which is composite and subject to disintegration. Again, personality is a pure perfection; for, as Catholic philosophy teaches, though the finite character of human personality comes into play in the awakening of self-consciousness, yet limitatlon is not an essential constituent of personality. All terms that stand for pure perfections are predicated analogically of God, and are designated attributes in the wide sense of the word. When terms which signify mixed perfections are predicated of God, the analogy becomes so faint that the locution is a mere metaphor.
188 III. Inductive Development of Attributes
189 The elaboration of the idea of God is carried out along three converging lines.
190 (1) The positive way of causality
191 In virtue of the principle that whatever excellence is contained in an effect is represented in the efficiency of the cause, reason affirms that every positive perfection of created being has its transcendental analogue in the first cause. Hence, from the existence of an intelligent being, man, in the cosmos, we rightly infer that God is intelligent, that is to say, His infinite perfection is superabundantly adequate to all the operations of intellect.
192 (2) The negative way
193 If we fix our attention precisely on the Infinity of God, then, focusing the negation not upon the positive content of any created perfection but upon the fact that, because it is finite it is determined in kind and limited in degree, we may affirm that it is not found in God. We may say, e.g., that He is not intelligent. The meaning of the statement is not that God lacks intelligence but that in Him there is no intelligence exactly as we know it. Again, since there is no imperfection in God, every concept of defect, privation, and limitation must be negated of God. Many negative names, it is true, are applied to God; as when, for instance, He is said to be immutable, uncaused, infinite. It should, however, be carefully observed that some attributes, which, from the etymological point of view are negative, convey, nevertheless, a positive meaning. Failure to perceive this obvious truth has been responsible for much empty dogmatism on the impossibility of forming any concept of the Infinite. The basic note in the idea of the Infinite is existence, actuality, perfection; the negative note is subordinate. Furthermore, since the force of the latter note is to deny any and all limitations to the actuality represented by the former, its real import is positive, like the cancellation of a minus sign in an algebraic formula; or, it discharges the function of an exponent and raises actuality to the nth power.
194 (3) Way of eminence
195 The concept of a perfection derived from created things and freed of all defects, is, in its application to God, expanded without limit. God not only possesses every excellence discoverable in creation, but He also possesses it infinitely. To emphasize the transcendence of the Divine perfection, in some cases an abstract noun is substituted for the corresponding adjective; as, God is Intelligence; or, again, some word of intensive, or exclusive, force is joined to the attribute; as, God alone is good, God is goodness itself, God is all-powerful, or supremely powerful.
196 IV. Deductive Development
197 Having established the existence of God from metaphysical, physical, and moral arguments, the theologian selects some one of the attributes which these proofs authorize him to predicate of the Divinity and, by unfolding its implications, reaches a number of other attributes. For instance, if God is Pure Actuality, that is, free from all static potency, it follows that, since change implies a transition from an antecedent potential condition to a subsequent condition in which the potentiality is realized, God is immutable. Here we reach the point where the term Attribute is employed in its strict sense.
198 V. Essence and Attributes
199 Transcendentally one, absolutely free from composition, the Divine Being is not, and may not be conceived as, a fundamental substrate in which qualities or any other modal indeterminations inhere. The reality to the various attributes are ascribed is one and indivisible.
200 "Quae justitia," says St. Augustine, "ipsa bonitas; quae bonitas, ipsa beatitudo."
201 In this respect, the relation of the attributes to the Divine nature might be illustrated by the various reflections of one and the same object from a concave, a convex, and a plane mirror. Nevertheless, to systematize the idea of God, and to draw out the rich content of the knowledge resulting from the proofs of God's existence, some primary attribute may he chosen is representing one aspect of the Divine perfection from which the others may be rigorously deduced. Then arises a logical scheme in which the derivative attributes, or perfections stand towards one another in a relation somewhat similar to that of the essence and the various properties and qualities in a material substance. In this arrangement the primary perfection is termed the metaphysical essence, the others are called attributes. The essence, too, may be regarded as that characteristic which, above all others, distinguishes the Deity from everything else. Upon the question, which attribute is to be considered primary, opinions differ. Many eminent theologians favour the conception of pure actuality (Actus Purus), from which simplicity and infinity are directly deduced. Most modern authors fix on aseity (Aseitas; a = "from" se = "himself"), or self-existence; for the reason that, while all other existences are derived from, and depend on, God, He possesses in Himself, absolutely and independently, the entire reason of His uncaused infinite Being. In this, the most profound and cornprehensive distinction between the Divinity and everything else, all other distinctions are implicitly expressed. Whether, and in what way, the distinctions between the attributes and the metaphysical essence, and among the attributes themselves have an ontological basis in the Divine nature itself was subject which divided Nominalists and Realists, Thomists and Scotists, in the age of Scholasticism (cf. Vacant, Dict. de théol. cathol., I, 2230-34).
202 VI. Division of Attributes
203 Taking as the basis of classification the ways by which the attributes are developed, they are divided into positive and negative. Among the negative attributes are simplicity, infinity, immutability. The chief positive attributes are unity, truth, goodness, beauty, omnipotence omnipresence, intellect and will, personality. Some authors divide them into incommunicable and communicable. The former class comprises those which belong to God alone (e.g., all-wise, self-existent, omnipotent) to the latter belong those which are predicable, analogically, of God and creatures as good, just, intelligent. Again, the divine nature considered either as static or as the source activity; hence another division into quiescent and active. Finally, some perfections involve a relation to things distinct from God, while others do not; and from this standpoint theologians divide the attributes into absolute and relative. The various classifications adopted by modern Protestant theologians are due partly to the results of philosophical speculation and partly to new conceptions of the nature of religion. Schleiermacher, e.g., derives the attributes of God from our threefold consciousness of absolute dependence, of sin, and of grace. Others, with Lipsius, distinguish the metaphysical attributes from the psychological and the ethical. A simpler division groups omnipotence, omnipresence, eternity, omniscience, and unity as the metaphysical predicates, justice and goodness as the moral attributes. The fundamental attribute is, according to Ritschl, love; according to Professor Royce, omniscience. The main difficulty with these writers centres about the idea of God as a personaI being.
204 VII. Revelation
205 The supernatural knowledge of God given in revelation is apprehended through the medium of conceptions that belong to natural knowledge. Therefore the same principles of attribution that govern the one hold good also for the other.
206 VIII. Historical Development
207 In the fourth century Aetius and Eunomius maintained that, because the Divine nature is simple, excluding all composition or multiplicity, the various terms and names applied to God are to be considered synonymous. Otherwise they would erroneously imply composition in God. This opinion was combated by St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Basil, and St. Gregory of Nyssa (In Eunom., P. G., XLV). The principle of attribution received more precise statement at the hands of St. Augustine, in his investigation of the conditions of intellectual knowledge (De Genesi ad Litteram, IV, 32). In the ninth century, John Scotus Erigena, who was largely influenced by Neo-Platonism, transmitted through the works of the Pseudo-Dionysius, contributed to bring into clearer relief the analogical character of predication (De Divinâ Naturâ, Lib. I). The Nominalists revived the views of Eunomius, and the opposition of the Realists was carried to the other extreme by Gilbert de la Porrée, who maintained a real, ontological distinction between the Divine Essence and the attributes. His opinion was condemned by the Council of Reims (1148). St. Thomas definitively expressed the doctrine which, after some controversies between Scotists and Thomists upon minor points and subtleties, and with some divergence of opinion upon unimportant details, is now the common teaching of Catholic theologians and philosophers. It may be summarized as follows: The idea of God is derived from our knowledge of finite beings. When a term is predicated of the finite and of the Infinite, it is used, not in a univocal, but in analogical sense. The Divine Perfection, one and invisible, is, in its infinity, the transcendental analogue of all actual and possible finite perfections. By means of an accumulation of analogous predicates methodically co-ordinated, we endeavour to form an approximate conception of the Deity who, because He is Infinite, cannot be comprehended by finite intelligence. Modern philosophy presents a remarkable gradation, from Pantheism, which finds God in everything, to Agnosticism, which declares that He is beyond the reach of knowledge. Spinoza conceives God as "a substance consisting of infinite attributes each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence". The two attributes manifested to us are thought and extension. At the other extreme we find Agnostics of the school of Herbert Spencer (see AGNOSTICISM) and some followers of Hegel, who hold that the nature of God, or, to use their favourite term, "the Absolute" is utterly unknowable, and its existence not determined to any mode; therefore, to predicate of it various attributes, expressive of determinations, is idle and misleading. Between the finite and the Infinite there is no common ground of predication, hence; words which signify finite perfections can have no real meaning when predicated of God; they become mere empty symbols. All theological attempts to elaborate an idea of God are vain, and result in complete absurdity when they conceive God after man's image and likeness (see ANTHROPOMORPHISM), and circumscribe the Infinite in terms borrowed from human psychology. Criticism of this kind indicates that its authors have never taken the trouble to understand the nature of analogical predication, or to consider fairly the rigorous logical process of refining to which terms are subjected before being predicated of God. It often happens too, that writers, after indulging liberally in eloquent denunciation of theological anthropomorphism proceed, on the next page, to apply to the Infinite, presumably in a strictly univocal sense, terms such as "energy", "force", and "law", which are no less anthropomorphic, in an ultimate analysis, than "will" and "intelligence". The position of the Catholic Church declared in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), is again clearly stated in the following pronouncement of the Vatican Council:
208 > The Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church believes and professes that there is one living and true God, Creator and Lord of heaven and earth, omnipotent, eternal, immense, incomprehensible, infinite in intellect and will and in all perfection Who, being One, singular, absolutely simple and unchangeable spiritual substance, is to be regarded as distinct really and in essence from the world most blessed in and from Himself, and unspeakably elevated above all things that exist, or can be conceived, except Himself.
209 James J. Fox.
Attrition
184 Attrition or Imperfect Contrition (Lat. attero, "to wear away by rubbing"; p. part. attritus).
185 The Council of Trent (Sess. XIV, Chap. iv) has defined contrition as "sorrow of soul, and a hatred of sin committed, with a firm purpose of not sinning in the future". This hatred of sin may arise from various motives, may be prompted by various causes. The detestation of sin arise from the love of God, Who has been grievously offended, then contrition is termed perfect; if it arise from any other motive, such its loss of heaven, fear of hell, or the heinousness of guilt, then it is termed imperfect contrition, or attrition. That there exists such a disposition of soul as attrition, and that it is a goodly things an impulse of the Spirit of God, is the clear teaching of the Council of Trent (Sess. XIV, iv).
186 > And as to that imperfect contrition which is called attrition, because it is commonly conceived either from the consideration of the turpitude of sin, or from the fear of hell and of punishment, the council declares that if with the hope of pardon, it excludes the wish to sin, it not only does not make man a hypocrite and a greater sinner, but that it is even a gift of God, and an impulse of the Holy Spirit, who does not indeed as yet dwell in the penitent, but who only moves him whereby the penitent, being assisted, prepares a way for himself unto justice, and although this attrition cannot of itself, without the Sacrament of Penance, conduct the sinner to justification yet does it dispose him to receive the grace of God in the Sacrament of Penance. For smitten profitably with fear, the Ninivites at the preaching of Jonas did fearful penance and obtained mercy from Lord.
187 Wherefore attrition, the council in Canon v, Sess. XIV, declares: "If any man assert that attrition . . . is not a true and a profitable sorrow; that it does not prepare the soul for grace, but that it makes a man a hypocrite, yea, even a greater sinner, let him be anathema". The doctrine of the council is in accord with the teaching of the Old and the New Testament. The Old Testament writers praise without hesitation that fear of God which is really "the beginning of wisdom" (Ps. cx). One of the commonest forms of expression found in the Hebrew scriptures is the "exhortation to the fear of the Lord" (Ecclus., i, 13; ii, 19 sqq.). We are told that "without fear there is no justification" (ibid, i, 28; ii, 1; ii, 19). In this fear there is confidence of strength" and it is "fountain of life" (Prov, xiv, 26, 27); and the Psalmist prays (Ps. cxviii, 120): "Pierce thou my flesh with thy fear: for I am afraid of thy judgments."
188 New Testament
189 Even when the law of fear had given way to the law of love, Christ does not hesitate to inculcate that we must "fear him who can destroy both soul and body into hell" (Matt., x, 28). Certainly, too, the vivid account of the destruction of Jerusalem, typical of the final destruction of the world, was intended by Jesus to strike terror into the hearts of those who heard, and those who read; nor can one doubt that the last great Judgment as portrayed by Matthew, xxv, 31 sqq., must have been described by Christ for the purpose of deterring men from sin by reason of God's awful judgments. The Apostle appears not less insistent when he exhorts us to work out "our salvation in fear and trembling" lest the anger of God come upon us (Phil., ii, 12). The Fathers of the earliest days of Christianity have spoken of fear of God's punishments as a goodly virtue that makes for salvation. Clement of Alexandria (Strom., VII) speaks of righteousness which comes of love and rightousness arising from fear, and he speaks at length on the utility of fear, and answers all objections brought forward against his position. The most striking sentence is the one wherein he says: "cautious fear is therefore shown to be reasonable, from which arises repentence of previous sins", etc. St. Basil (fourth interrogatory on the Rule) speaks of the fear of God and of His judgments, and he asserts that for those who are beginning a life of piety "exhortation based on the fear is of greatest utility", he quotes the wise man asserting, "The fear of the Lord is the begining of wisdom", (P.G. XXXI). St. John Chrysostom may be quoted in the same sense (P.G., XLIX, 154). St. Ambrose, in the fifteenth sermon on the Psalm cxviii speaks at large on godly fear which begets charity, begets love: Hunc timorem sequitur charitas (P.L., xv, 1424), and his disciple, St. Augustine, treats fully the godliness of fear as a motive to repentance. In the 161st of his sermons (P.L., XXXVIII, 882 sqq), he speaks of refraining from sin for fear of God' s judgments, and he asks: "Dare I say such fear is wrong"? He replies that he dare not, for the Lord Christ urging men to refrain from wrongdoing suggested the motive of fear. "Fear not those who kill the body", etc. (Matt. x). True, what follows in St. Augustine has been subject to much dispute, but the general doctrine of the godliness of fear is here propounded, and the difficulty, if aught there be, touches the other question hereinafter treated anent "Initial Love".
190 The word itself, attrition, is of medieval origin. Father Palmieri (De Paenit., 345) asserts, on the authority of Aloysius Mingarelli, that the word is thrice found in the works of Alanus of Lille, who died at an advanced age in the year 1203; but its use in the school is contemporaneous with William of Paris, Alexander of Hales, and Blessed Albert. Even with these men its meaning was not so precise as in after years, though they all agreed that of itself it did not suffice to justify the sinner in God's sight. (See the Scholastic traditions in article ABSOLUTION, and Palmieri, loc. cit.). This fear is godly, since it excludes not only the will to sin, but also the affection for sin. There would perhaps have been little difficulty on this point if the distinction were kept in mind between that fear which is termed servilis, which touches will and heart, and that fear known as serviliter servilis, which though it makes man refrain from performing the sinful act, leaves the will to sin and the affection thereto.
191 Attrition in the Sacrament of Penance
192 The Church not only regards the godliness of fear as a motive to repentance, but expressly defines that attrition, though it justifies not without the Sacrament of Penance, nevertheless disposes the sinner to receive grace in the sacrament itself (Sess. XIV, iv). This particular phase of the doctrine of contrition in penance is first taught with clearness by the Schoolmen of the twelfth century, and particularly by St. Thomas, who gathered into a united whole the jarring opinions of his predecessors (See the Scholastic in article ABSOLUTION). Though some still preferred to follow the Lombards who insisted on perfect contrition, after St. Thomas there was little division in the schools up to the time of the Council of Trent. At the council there was some oppositions to a clear definition, some of the fathers insisting on the necessity of perfect contrition, and it was perhaps for this reason that the decree was couched as above, leaving it still possible to doubt whether attrition was a proximate, or only a remote, disposition for justfication in the sacrament. Today the common teaching is that the council simply intended to define the sufficiency of attrition (Vacant, Dict. de théol., col. 2246-47). And this would seem reasonable, because it is the clear teaching of the Church that perfect contrition justifies the sinner even without the Sacrament of Penance. If perfect contrition, then, were always necessary, why did Christ institute a particular sacrament, since justification would always be imparted independently of the sacramental ceremony? If attrition is sufficient for justification in the Sacrament of Penance, then there seems no reason to deny its sufficiency when there is question of remitting sin through baptism, for the reason given above will apply equally in this place. The question has also been asked apropos of attrition when one receives a sacrament of the living in mortal sin, of which sin he is not conscious, will attrition with the sacrament suffice unto justification? The answer is generally given in the affirmative. See St. Thomas, Summa Theologiæ III:2:7 ad 2am; Billot, De Poenit., p. 152.
193 Conditions
194 That attrition may make for justification, it must be interior, supernatural, universal, and sovereign (See Conditions in article CONTRITION.) Interior, for the Council of Trent requires that it should exclude the will to sin. Supernatural, for Innocent XI condemned the proposition, "Probabile est sufficere attritionem naturalem modo honestam". Universal, for the motives of attrition (fear of hell, loss of heaven, etc ) are of such a nature as to embrace all sins. Sovereign, for here again the ordinary motives of attrition (fear of hell, etc. ) make one hate sin above all other evil. It has been questioned whether this would be true if the motive were fear of temporal punishments (Genicot, T. 11, n. 274; Billot, De Poenit., 159 sq.). The Reformers denied the honesty and godliness of attrition, and held that it simply made man a hypocrite. (Bull of Leo X, Exurge Domine, prop. VI; Council of Trent, Sess. XIV, can. iv.) They were followed by Baius, Jansen and his disciples, who taught that fear without charity was bad, since it proceeded not from the love of God, but love of self (see prop. 7, 14, 15 condemned by Alexander VIII, 7 December, 1690; also 44, 61, 62, condemned by Clement X, "Unigenitus", 8 September, 1717. Also Bull of Pius VI "Auctorem Fidei", prop. 25).
195 Catholic writers in the seventeenth century questioned, whether attrition must of necessity be accompanied at least by the begining of the love of God and that granted, whether such love was a disinterested love of God for His own sake, or whether it might not be that love called concupiscentiae, or love of God because He is our great good. Some held that in every real act of attrition there must be the beginning of love; others denied categorically this position, exacting only that sorrow which excludes affection for sin, and hope of pardon; others insisted that there must be at least a beginning of that love which has been termed above concupiscentiae; while stilt others exact only that love which begets hope. On these opinions see Vacant, Dict. de theol. s. v. Attrition, cols. 2252, 2253, 2254, etc. On the controversy, particularly in Belgium see Dollinger and Reusch (Dict., col. 2219). The controversy waxed so warm that Alexander VII issued a decree, 6 May, 1667, in which he declares his distress at the almost scandelously bitter disputes waged by certain scholastic theologians as to whether the act of attrition which is conceived at the fear of hell, but excludes the will of sinning and counts on obtaining the mercy of recovering grace through the Sacrament of Penance, requires in addition some act of love of God, and then
196 > enjoins on all of whatever rank, under pain of incurring the severest ecclesiastical penalties, not to presume in future when discussing the aforesaid act of attrition to brand with any mark of theological censure, or wrong, or contempt, either one or the other of the two opinions; that denying the necessity of some sort of love of God [negantem necessitatem aliqualis dilectionis Dei] in this attrition conceived through the fear of hell, when today (1667) seems one more generally held by scholastic theologians, or that affirming the necessity of the said love, until something shall have been defined in this matter by the Holy See.
197 The authoritative statement of Alexander VII leaves the question still open as Benedict XIV teaches in "De Synodo" Is, Bk. VII, xiii, n. 9. Still it is clear that Alexander considered as more probable the opinion stating attrition as sufficient for justificatlon in the Sacrament of Penance even if it included not the beginning of love. The censure latae sententiae was omitted in the "Apostolicae Sedis". On the formula, "Ex attrito fit contritus" cf. Vacant, Dict. de theol., col. 2266 sqq.
198 Edward J. Hanna
Attuda
187 A titular see of Phrygia in Asia Minor whose episcopal list (431-879) is given in Gams (446).
Jean-Michel-d'Astorg Aubarède
190 Canon regular,and Vicar Capitular of Pamiers, born 1639; died 4 August, 1692. He was educated at Toulouse (France), entered the Seminary of Pamiers, and later joined the regular, who formed the cathedral chapter of that diocese. After the death of the bishop, Francois Caulet, Aubarede was chosen vicar capitular. As administrator of the diocese, he took up and carried on vigorously the resistance of Caulet to the royal demands in the matter of the Regalia. He refused to recognize royal nominations to local ecclesiastical benefices, and excommunicated the canons appointed by the king, when they attempted to exercise their office. He was arrested by royal order, and imprisoned for six years at Caen, where he died. His courageous resistance is remarkable at a time when ecclesiastical servility in France had reached its acme. B. Jungmann remarks (in Herder, K.L., I, 1567) that the well-known Jansenistic rigorism of Caulet and his clergy was partly responsible for their stubborn defiance of Louis XIV; they rightly feared that the nominees of the king would not belong to their faction.
191 Thomas J. Shahan
Jean-Antoine d'Aubermont
193 Theologian of Bois-le-Duc; died 22 November, 1686. He joined the Dominicans in 1633, taught philosophy and theology in several convents of his order, was made doctor of theology at Louvain in 1652, and president of the local Dominican college in 1653. His theological writings are mostly in defence of papal infallibility (1682) and against the Gallican teachings of the Declaration of 1682. Shortly before his death he defended against Papebroch St. Thomas of Aquin's authorship of the Mass for Corpus Christi.
194 Thomas J. Shahan
Joseph Aubery
196 Jesuit missionary in Canada, born at Gisors in Normandy, 10 May, 1673; died at St. Francois, Canada, 2 July, 1755. At the age of seventeen ho entered the Society of Jesus, and for four years studied in Paris. He arrived in Canada in 1694 and completed his studies at Quebec where he was also instructor for five years, and where he was ordained in 1700. Assigned to the Abenaki mission, he re-established in 1701 the mission at Medoctec on the St. John River, which appears to have been abandoned by the Franciscans about a year earlier. In 1708 he was given charge of the Abenaki reduction at St. Francois, and exercised the apostolate in that single mission for nearly half a century Aubery is said to have been an able linguist, but unfortunately his numerous manuscripts, with the mission registers, were destroyed by fire in 1759. He also wrote several memorials in opposition to the claims of the English in Acadia, and sent them to the French Government, urging that the boundary between the French and English possessions should be determined by mutual agreement. To these memorials he added a map, giving the boundaries as defined by the treaty of Utrecht. He plan, however, was not accepted. These valuable documents are still preserved in the Paris archives. Chateaubriand reproduces the life-story of Father Aubery in the character of the missionary in his "Atala".
197 Edward P. Spillane
François Hédelin, Abbé d'Aubignac
199 Grammarian, poet, preacher, archeologist, philologist. Born at Paris, 4 August, 1604; died at Nemours, 27 July, 1676. He took his name from an abbey that was granted him. After completing his classical and theological studies, he was appointed by Cardinal Richelieu instructor to the latter's nephew, the young Duc de Fronsac, to whose gratitude he owed a pension of 4,000 livres. This appointment, as well as his own inclination, led him to devote his time to literary studies especially to the classics. He was drawn into the controversy between the ancients under the leadership of Boileau, and the moderns under Perrault, his philological views being used by the latter for the support of their cause. The drama had a special attraction for d'Aubignac who wrote not only a tragedy, "Zénobie," but a work entitled "Pratique du Théâtre."
200 The abbé interests modern scholars chiefly because of his attitude on what is known as the "Homeric Question." He was one of the first to doubt the existence of Homer; he even propounded the theory that the Iliad is made up of a number of independent ballads gathered and put together by a compiler not very much later than the supposed date of Homer, whom he took to be Lycurgus. This first compilation, however, was not final, as the poem continued to be handed down by the recitation of by the recitation of rhapsodists who again divided the work into separate songs, Pisistratus making the final redaction. These views were based partly on statements in the Greek historians, partly on reasons drawn from the poem itself. D'Aubignac dwelt on the impossibility of transmitting so long a poem without the aid of writing which he, as did Wolf, believed to be unknown to Homer. He drew arguments from the construction of the epic, its lack of unity and its multiplicity of themes, the quarrel of Achilles being treated of in only a few books. The name Iliad he considered a misnomer, since Troy is not the subject of the story. The Iliad, he contended, has no suitable ending; the reader's curiosity remains unsatisfied. It contains many cantos that might be omitted, not only without detriment but with positive advantage to the action of the story. Besides these general considerations, he adduced numerous details which constitute flaws in the poem as we possess it but which would be entirely justified in separate ballads. In short, there are few objections made to the Iliad by modern scholars on aesthetical and rhetorical grounds which are not touched upon by the French humanist. The arguments against a single author, drawn from the character of the language, the intermixture of the dialects and the like, d'Aubignac could not present, because linguistic studies in his day had not advanced sufficiently to enable him to appreciate the "Homeric Question" from this point of view. Though the abbé had on many occasions set forth in writing his opinions on Homer, it was only shortly before his death that he wrote an extended work on the theme, entitled "Conjectures academiques, ou dissertation sur l'Iliade." He died before he was able to make the final revision, and it was not published until 1715, forty years after his death. The work was known to Wolf, and though the French scholar anticipated many of his own views he does him scant justice. A German critic declare that d'Aubignac's arguments are substantially as strong as Wolf's, in some respects stronger, and that if Wolf's "Prolegomena" produced greater and more lasting results, this is due less to the character of his arguments than to the greater skill with which they are set forth.
201 FINSLER, Die Conjectures academiques des Abbe d' Aubignac in Neue Jahrbucher fur das klassische Altertum und fur Padagogik (Leipzig, 1905) XV.
202 Charles G. Herbermann.
Pierre d'Aubusson
202 Grand Master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, born 1423; died 1503. He made his first campaigns against the Turks, and fought next under the French Dauphin in a war against the Swiss (1444). It was on his return from this last expedition that he obtained from Charles VII permission to join the Hospitallers. The year 1460 found him Castellan of Rhodes, and he soon after became captain-general of the city, which had been the seat of the order since 1309, and was now the chief obstacle to Ottoman supremacy in the Mediterranean. Mahomet II therefore resolved to subdue it. D'Aubusson, who bad been raised (1476) to the Grand Mastership, foresaw the sultan's design, and lost no time in making what preparations he could for the defense. A letter to the houses of his order brought him whatever men and money they could spare. Additional sums came from Sixtus IV and Louis XI, together with some of the bravest soldiers of Italy and France. Yet with all his exertions he was able to muster no more than 450 knights and 2,000 auxiliaries. The Turkish armament, which appeared before Rhodes 23 May, 1480, was overwhelmingly superior in numbers, and was furnished with the best artillery then obtainable. But the example of d'Aubusson's good right arm, and his omnipresence, made heroes of all the defenders. After three months of almost incessant fighting, which cost him 25,000 of his best warriors, the Turkish commander was forced to raise the siege. For this brilliant achievement d'Aubusson received a cardinal's hat, and was revered by all Christendom as "the Shield of the Church." In his subsequent efforts to form a league that would drive the Turks from Constantinople, he failed.
203 BOUHOURS, Histoire de Pierre d'Aubusson (Paris, 1676; 3d ed., Hague, 1739; tr., London, 1679); MARULLI, Lives of the Grand-Masters . . . of St. John . . . (Naples, 1636); FLANDRIN, History of the Knights of Rhodes (Paris, 1876).
204 A.J.B. Vuibert
Archdiocese of Auch
205 (Augusta Auscorum).
206 Archdiocese; comprises the Department of Gers in France. Before the Revolution it had ton suffragan sees: Acqs (Dax) and Aire, afterwards united as the Diocese of Aire; Lectoure, later reunited with the Archdiocese of Auch; Couserans, afterwards united with the Diocese of Pamiers; Oloron, Lescar, and Bayonne, united later as the diocese of Bayonne; Bazas, afterwards united with the Archdiocese of Bordeaux; Comminges, united later with the Archdiocese of Toulouse; and Tarbes. Up to 1789 the Archbishops of Auch bore the title of Aquitaine, though for centuries there had been no Aquitaine. The Archdiocese of Auch, re-established in 1882, was made up of the former archdiocese of the same name and the former Dioceses of Lectoure, Condom, and Lombez. Condom was previously a suffragan of Bordeaux, and Lombez of Toulouse; thenceforth the suffragans of Auch were Aire, Tarbes, and Bayonne. A local tradition that dates back to the beginning of the twelfth century tells us that Taurinus, fifth Bishop of Eauze (Elusa), abandoned his episcopal city, which was destroyed by the Vandals, and transferred his see to Auch. Eauze, in fact, probably remained a metropolitan see till about the middle of the ninth century, at which time,owing to the invasions of the Northmen, it was reunited, to the Diocese of Auch, which had existed since the fifth century at and then became an archdiocese. The first Bishop of Auch known to history is the poet, St. Orientius (first half of the fifth century), in honor of whom a famous abbey was founded in the seventh century. Cardinal Melchior de Polignac, author of the "Anti-Lucrèce," was Archbishop of Auch from 1725 to 1741. The cathedral of Sainte Marie, a Gothic structure with a Byzantine facade, is, in spite of this incongruity, very imposing; its fifteenth-century windows are said to be the most beautiful in France. The ancient episcopal sees of Condom and Lombez had a monastic origin. Bossuet was non-resident Bishop of Condom for two years (1668-71). At the end of the year 1905 the Archdiocese of Auch contained 238,448 inhabitants; 29 parishes, 478 succursal or mission churches, and 61 vicariates.
207 Councils of Auch
208 In 1068 a council of Auch decreed that, with a few exceptions, all churches should pay to the Cathedral of Auch one quarter of their tithes. At a council held in 1O77 (near Cliovem-populania) William, Archbishop of Auch, was deposed by Gerald, legate of Gregory VII. In 1276 a council was held at Auch in defense of ecclesiastical jurisdiction and immunities. In 1851 a provincial council of Auch drew up a number of decrees concerning faith and doctrine, the hierarchy, public worship, and ecclesiastical studies.
209 ARCHDIOCESE: Gallia Christiana (ed. Nova, 1715), I, 065-1010, 1325-30, and Documents, 159-172 and 202; DUCHESNE, Fastes episcopaux de I'ancienne Gaule, II, 89-102, MONTLEZUN, Vie des saints eveques de la metropole d'Auch (Auch, 1857); CHEVALIER, Topo-bibl. (Paris, 1894-.99), 251-252.
210 COUNCILS: MANSI, Coll. Conc., XIX, 1063, XXV, 107, 217-281; CAZAURAN, Conciles et Synodes du diocese d'Aurh, in Revue de Gascogne (1878), XIX, 70-84; 112-126; CHEVALIER, Topo-bibl. (Paris, 1894-99) 251.
211 Georges Goyau
Diocese of Auckland
208 Diocese comprising the Provincial District of Auckland (New Zealand), with its islets, and the Kermadec Group. Area, 21,665 square miles. On Trinity Sunday, 1835, the Vicariate Apostolic of the Western Pacific was erected by Pope Gregory XVI. The Abbé Jean Baptiste François Pompallier was chosen as its first vicar. The territory under his jurisdiction comprised all New Zealand, the present Vicariates Apostolic of Fiji, Central Oceanica, British New Guinea, Dutch New Guinea, New Pomerania, (part of) Gilbert Islands, New Caledonia, Navigators' Islands, New Hebrides, and the Prefectures Apostolic of North Solomon Islands and Northern New Guinea. The new vicar was consecrated in Rome, 30 June, and sailed from Havre, 24 December, 1836, accompanied by the Marist Fathers Servant and Bataillon (Lyons), Chanel and Bret (Belley), and three lay-brothers. Father Bret died on the voyage. Father Bataillon (afterwards Vicar Apostolic of Central Oceanica) was left at Wallis Island, and Father Chanel (Blessed Peter Chanel, Protomartyr of Australasia) at Futuna. Dr. Pompallier and Father Servant reached Hokianga (Auckland Province) 10 January, 1838, and were provided for by an Irish Catholic, Thomas Poynton. At that time there were probably fewer than 100 white Catholics in all New Zealand. Other Marist Fathers arrived in 1839 and subsequent years. The missions to the aborigines (Maoris) became very successful, despite grave calumnies propagated by Wesleyan trader-missionaries. By April, 1846, about 5,000 had been baptized, "and there were about five or six times as many catechumens." In 1845 Dr. Pompallier changed his headquarters to Auckland. In 1848 Auckland and Wellington were erected into sees. The Marist Fathers were withdrawn to the Wellington diocese in 1850. The Rev. James McDonald then became the principal missionary to the Auckland Maoris, The Maori missions in New Zealand were paralyzed by the series of native wars between 1843 and 1869. They were taken up in the Auckland diocese by the Mill Hill Fathers, in 1886. The Sisters of Mercy were introduced in 1850. In 1868 Dr. Pompallier went to France, resigned, and died in 1870. He was succeeded by Dr. Thomas William Croke (1870-74), afterwards Archbishop of Cashel. After five years, Father Walter Bisschop Steins, S. J., was appointed to Auckland (1879-81). He was succeeded by Dr. John Edmund Luck, O. S. B. (1882-96). The Right Rev. George Michael Lenihan, consecrated 15 November, 1896, succeeded him.
209 Statistics
210 At the census of 1901, the white population of the Auckland Provincial District was 175,938 (of whom 27,246 were Catholics); Maoris, 21,291. The population of the Kermadecs was eight, all non-Catholics. The official estimate of the total white population of the Auckland Provincial District, 31 December, 1906, was 211,233; Catholic population of Auckland Provincial District (which is coterminous with the Diocese of Auckland if the Kermadec Islands be included), 32,272; population of the Kermadec Islands, five, all non-Catholics. According to "New Zealand Statistics, 1904", p. 503, there were in the Auckland Provincial District, at the close of 1904, 37 Catholic schools, with 96 teachers and 2,393 pupils. The following were the ecclesiastical statistics for April, 1906: secular clergy, 26; Mill Hill Fathers, for native population, 9; for whites and natives, 7; Catholic Maoris, about 5,000; parochial districts, 29; churches, 79; Religious Brothers, Marists, 12; Sisters of Mercy, 97; Sisters of St. Joseph, 36; Sisters of the Mission, 30; Little Sisters of the Poor, 8; colleges and high schools, 13; parochial schools, 25; orphanages, 2; home for the aged poor, 1; hospital, 1; children in Catholic schools, 2,600.
211 POMPALLIER, Early History at the Catholic Church in Oceania (E. T., Auckland, 1888); CARDINAL MORAN, History of the Catholic Church in Australasia (Sydney, no date); MARSHALL, Christian Missions (New York, 1896): New Zealand Census, vol. 1901 (Wellington, 1902); New Zealand Statistics (Wellington, 1905-06).
212 Henry W. Cleary.
Auctorem Fidei
211 A Bull issued by Pius VI, 28 August, 1794, in condemnation of the Gallican and Jansenist acts and tendencies of the Synod of Pistoia (1786). To understand its bearing, it is well to observe that Leopold II, Grand duke of Tuscany (1765-90), pursued the ecclesiastical policy of his brother, Joseph II of Austria; i. e. he practically arrogated to himself supreme authority over all ecclesiastical matters within his dominions. In 1785 he sent fifty-seven articles to each bishop in the grand duchy, with orders to consider them in a diocesan synod, as a preliminary to a national synod, in which they were finally to be discussed. Scipio de' Ricci, Bishop of Pistoia, held his diocesan synod, and approved not only the fifty-seven articles drawn up by order of Leopold, but added a number of others of similar import. Among them were the following: All ecclesiastical authority comes directly from the members of the Church at large, whose commissioned ministers the pastors are. The pope is only ministerially head of the Church. Bishops do not depend on the pope for any jurisdiction in the government of their diocese. In diocesan synods parish priests have the same right of voting and deciding as the bishop. Reserved cases should be abolished. Excommunication has only an external effect. It is superstition to have more devotion towards one sacred image than towards another. Civil rulers have the right of making impediments diriment of matrimony and of dispensing from them. Bishops are not bound to make an oath of obedience to the pope before their consecration. All religious orders should live under the same rule and wear the same habit. Each church should have only one altar; the liturgy should be in the vernacular, and only one Mass should be celebrated on Sundays. Leopold caused a national synod to be held at Florence in 1787, but he did not find the other bishops as pliant as Scipio de' Ricci. Nevertheless he continued assuming all ecclesiastical authority, prohibited all appeals to the pope, and even appointed bishops, to whom the pope of course refused canonical institution. Finally, the Bull "Auctorem Fidei" was published, in which eighty-five articles taken from the Synod of Pistoia were catalogued and condemned. After the publication of the Bull, Scipio de' Ricci submitted. In 1805 he took occasion of the presence of Pius VII in Florence, on his way to Rome from his exile in France, to ask in person for pardon amid reconciliation. He died repentant, 1810, in the Dominican convent of San Marco at Florence.
212 DENZINGER-STAHL, Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definit. (9th ed., Freiburg, 1899), 310-38; POTTER, Vie et Mémoires de Scipion de' Ricci (Paris, 1826, favourable to Ricci); SCADERTO, Stato e Chiesa sotto Leopoldo I (Florence, 1855); REUMONT, Geschichte von Toscana, II, 157 sqq.; GELLI, Memorie di Scipione de' Ricci (Florence, 1865); PICOT, Mémoires pour servir à l'hist eccl. du XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1855), V, 251-62, 272-81; VI, 407-15.
213 M. O'Riordan
Pontifical Audiences
214 Pontifical Audiences are the receptions given by the pope to cardinals, sovereigns, princes, ambassadors, and other persons, ecclesiastical or lay, having business with or interest in the Holy See. Such audiences form an important part of the pope's daily duties. Bishops of every rite in communion with the Holy See, and from every nation, come to Rome, not only to venerate the tombs of the Apostles, but also to consult the supreme pastor of the Church. The master of the chamber (Maestro di Camera), whose office corresponds to that of grand chamberlain in royal courts, is the personage to whom all requests for an audience with the pope are made, even those which the ambassadors and other members of the Diplomatic Corps present through the cardinal secretary of state. He is one of the four Palatine Prelates who are in frequent relations with the pope, and his office is regarded as leading to the cardinalate. The pope receives every day the cardinal prefect of one or other of the sacred congregations. At these audiences decrees are signed or counsel given by the pope, and hence, by their very nature, they are of no slight importance to the practical work of the Church. Prelates connected with other institutions either in Rome or abroad, generals and procurators of religious orders, are also received at regular intervals and on stated days. The days and hours of regular audiences are specified on a printed form which is distributed to all cardinals and persons whose duty and privilege it is to have such audience. This printed form is changed every six months, as the hours of audience vary according to the season. Audiences to sovereigns or princes travelling under their own names and titles are invested with special ceremonies. When the pope was a temporal ruler the master of the chamber, notified beforehand by the secretary of state of the proximate arrival in Rome of a sovereign, went, accompanied by the secretary of ceremonial, several miles beyond the city gates to meet him. Returning to Rome, he notified the pope of the event, and visited the sovereign to acquaint him with the day and hour of the pontifical audience. Sovereigns of the highest rank, being considered as equal to the pope, sit near him during audience, under the same baldachin or canopy. The attendance of guards and chamberlains and court officials is always doubled when such audiences are given. In the ordinary audiences given to priests and lay persons the general practice is that they present a letter of recommendation from the bishop of their diocese, which is presented to the rector of the national college in Rome of the country from which they come. The rector procures from the master of the chamber the necessary card of admission. Amongst the instructions printed on this card are those regulating the dress to be worn on such occasion: for priests the cassock with a large black mantle (ferraiolone), such as Roman secular priests wear; for lay men, evening dress with white cravat; for ladies, a black dress with black lace veil on the head. On these occasions it is forbidden to present to the pope for his signature written requests for indulgences, faculties, privileges, or the like. Since the election of Pope Pius X there has been some concession in the matter of dress for the laity in public audience; apparently, in order that every "man of good—will", non—Catholic as well as Catholic, who desires to see the pope may have his wish fulfilled. This has increased the number of persons received in audience, but it has lessened occasions for the pope's utterances on various aspects of the tendencies of the time, which distinguished the audiences of Leo XIII and of the latter years of Pius IX, and which were statements that awakened profound interest.
215 HUMPHREY, Urbs et Orbis, or the Pope as Bishop and Pontiff (London, 1899); L'Eglise catholique à la fin du XIXe siècle (Paris, 1900).
216 P. L. Connellan.
Giovanni Battista Audiffredi
217 Audifreddi, Giovanni Battista, b. at Saorgio, near Nice, in 1734; d. at Rome, July, 1794. He entered the Dominican Order, and soon attracted attention by his taste for books and his talent for the exact sciences. After being occupied in various houses as professor and bibliographer, he was at length transferred to the Dominican house of studies (S. Maria sopra Minerva), and was placed in charge (1765) of the great Bibliotheca Casanatensis, founded in 1700 by Cardinal Girolamo Casanata. Audiffredi published a bibliographical work in four folio, volumes entitled "Catalogus bibliotheca Casanatensis librorum typis impressorum, 1761-1788". The work remains unfinished, not proceeding beyond the letter L, and contains a list of his own publications. Similar works were the "Catalogus historico-criticus Romanarum editionum saeculi XV" (Rome, 1785, quarto), and the more extensively planned "Catalogus historico-criticus editionum Italicarum saeculi XV" (ibid., 1794,), which was to give an account of books printed in twenty-six Italian cities. Audiffredi did not live to complete the work. The first part, extending to the letter G, contains a short biography of the author introduced by the publisher. Audiffredi's position enabled him to become an expert antiquarian, and he found time to cultivate his mathematical talent and to devote himself to astronomy. He built a small observatory, and at intervals busied himself with observation. The eighteenth century was much occupied with the problem of solar parallax. In 1761 and 1769 transits of Venus were observed, and Audiffredi contributed to the work in his publication, "Phaenomena coelestia observata-investigatio parallaxis solis. Exercitatio Dadei Ruffi" (anagram for Audiffredi). The predicted reappearance in the middle of the century of Halley's comet intensified scientific interest in cometic orbits. The epoch was favored with a number of brilliant objects of this kind, and that of 1769 distinguished itself by its great nucleus and by the tail which stretched over more than half the sky. Audiffredi took observations of the positions of the comet and published his results under the title, "Dimostrazione della stazione della cometa, 1769" (1770). A general taste and capacity for the natural sciences distinguished this learned Dominican, but, like that of many savants, Audiffredi's life was one of retirement and obscurity.
218 H. de Laak
J. M. Vincent Audin
220 Born at Lyons in 1793; died in Paris, 21 February, 1851. He first studied theology in the seminary of Argentiere, and afterwards pursued the study of law. He passed his law examination but never practiced his profession, having decided to enter on a literary career. His first publications were. "La lanterne magique" (1811); "Blanc, bleu et rouge" (1814); "Tableau historique des événements qui se sont accomplis depuis le retour de Bonaparte jusqu'au rétablissement de Louis XVII" (1815). He contributed to the "Journal de Lyon" founded by Ballanche. He soon left his native city and settled in Paris where he opened a bookstore and at the same time was active with his pen. He first published articles of a political cast, and historical tales in the style of the time, such as "Michel Morin et la Ligue"; "Florence ou la Religieuse"; Le Régicide," and others. He then took up historical writing, his first work of this kind being "Le Conordat entre Léon X et François I" (1821), which is for the most part a translation of that document. This was followed by his "Histoire de la St. Barthélemy" (2 vols., 1826). These two works were fairly well received although some ecclesiastical critics accused him of being to favorable to the Protestants. Audin publicly defended himself against this imputation, and asserted his firm belief in the doctrines of the Catholic Church. He now began his most important work, the history of the Protestant Reformation, which he published from 1839 to 1842 in four books, as follows: (1) "Histoire de la vie, des ouvrages et de la doctrine de Luther" (2 vols., Paris, 1839; 2d ed., 3 vols., 1850); (2) "Histoire de la vie, des ouvrages et de la doctrine de Calvin" (2 vols., 1841; 2d ed., 1851); (3) "Histoire de Léon X et de son siecle" (2 vols., 1844; 2d ed., 1851); (4) "Histoire de Henri VIII et du schisme d'Angleterre" (2 vols., 1847; 2d ed., 1862). The author claims to have based his statements upon researches which he made in the archives of various European cities, especially in the archives of the Vatican. The work shows that this assertion cannot be accepted in its entirety. The volumes are written in a romantic manner, and contain many particulars which sober criticism has long proved to go false. Döllinger says of the work on Luther: "Audin's work is written with an extraordinary, and at times almost naive ignorance of Luther's writings and contemporary literature, and of the general condition of Germany at that period" (Kirchenlex., s.v. Luther).
221 La Grande Encyclopedie, IV, 611.
222 J.P. Kirsch
Guglielmo Audisio
223 Born at Bra, Piedmont, Italy, 1801; died in Rome, 27 September, 1882. He was professor of sacred eloquence in the episcopal seminary of Bra, appointed presiding officer of the Academy of Superga (Turin) by King Charles Albert, but was expelled from this office because he was opposed to the irreligious politics of the Piedmontese Government. He then went to Rome, where Pius IX appointed him professor of natural and popular rights in the Roman University, and Canon of the Vatican Basilica.
224 Audisio was a pious and charitable priest, and spent large sums in benevolent works. He was an excellent teacher of sacred eloquence, and his manual on the subject was translated into many languages and frequently quoted approvingly. He also devoted himself to historical studies, especially in illustration of the papacy, bringing to them absolutely good intentions, assiduous industry, and much just and acute observation, such as was not then common in the circle which surrounded him. Nevertheless these historical labours had no great intrinsic value, especially at a time when so large a number of documents were being published. For this reason they are no longer sought after by students.
225 Audisio had no deep insight into theology and law, and often displayed deplorable lapses on these subjects in his writings and his lectures. At the time of the Vatican Council he was accused of Gallicanism, to the great grief of his patron Pius IX, and his work on political and religious society in the nineteenth century was condemned by the Church. Audisio, however, was profoundly Catholic in feeling, and,not only did he fully submit to the condemnation of his book, but he warmly protested against the accusation of heterodoxy and disobedience. He was a fervent upholder of papal and Catholic rights against the political liberalism of Piedmont. He was one of the founders of the Catholic intransigent paper, the "Armonia" of Turin. It was for this reason that he fell a victim to the anti-clerical influence which had deprived him of his post at Superga.
226 But in Rome Audisio united himself with that clique of liberal Italian ecclesiastics (such as Monsignor Liverani) who advocated reforms and concessions not always just and often premature, and who professed doctrines of little weight, sometimes false, often inexact. In this environment Audisio compromised himself, but his figure remains that of an extremely religious and charitable priest and of an eager student devoted to the Holy See and to the Church. Some pages of his works on the popes still merit consultation.
227 The works of Audisio are: "Lezioni di Eloquenza Sacra" (several editions); "Juris Naturae et Gentium Publici Fundamenta" (Rome 1852); "Idea storica della diplomazia ecclesiastica (Rome, 1864); "Storia religiosa e civile dei papi" (5 vols., Rome, 1860); "Sistema politica e religiosa di Federico II e di Pietro della Vigna" (1866); "Della società politica e religiosa rispetto al secolo XIX" (Florence, 1876, condemned by decree of the Holy Office, April 1877; "Vita di Pio IX."
228 Nuova Encyclopedia Italiana (Suppl., I, 1889); Voce delta Verita (Rome, 29 September, 1882).
229 U. Benigni
Auditor
226 The designation of certain officials of the Roman Curia, whose duty it is to hear (Lat. audire) and examine the causes submitted to the pope. They cannot, however, give a decision unless they receive delegated jurisdiction. They are, therefore, not judges in the strict sense of the term. These officials have been part of the Roman Curia since the Middle Ages. Amongst the principal dignitaries bearing this title are: (1) Auditor Papae. This official was at first the adviser of the pope in consistorial and theological matters, but he afterwards received also judicial power in civil and criminal cases. Since 1831, however, his duties are restricted to certain ecclesiastical affairs, such as assisting at the examinations of episcopal candidates for Italy and the transaction of matters relating to favours, etc. (2) Auditor Camerae or Auditor General. This official originally had very extended powers, such as judging appeals against the decisions of bishops, and proceeding against bishops themselves in important cases and even punishing them without a special commission from the pope. He could also take cognizance of cases of criminal, and mixed jurisdiction in the states of the Church. Nearly all these and similar powers have now been withdrawn, and the tribunal of the Camera Apotolica is at present limited almost entirely to expediting commissions in certain well-defined cases. (3) Auditors of the Rota were originally chaplains of the pope. By degrees they were constituted into a tribunal, and are said to have derived their name from the round table (Lat. rota) at which they sat. Important cases laid before the Holy See by sovereigns and nations were referred to the Rota for judgment, and its decisions became precedents for all other tribunals. It also served as a supreme court for civil cases in the States of the Church. At present, however, the Auditors of the Rota are restricted practically to giving deliberative opinions in processes of beatification or canonization and deciding questions of precedence between ecclesiastical dignitaries. They are generally also attached as Consultors to various Roman Congregations.
227 BAART, The Roman Court (New York, 1895); FERRARIS, Prompta Bibl. Can. (Rome, 1885), I; HUMPHREY, Urbs et Orbis (London, 1889).
228 William H. W. Fanning
Audran
229 The family name of four generations of distinguished French artists, natives of Paris and Lyons, which included eight prominent engravers and two painters. They flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and some of their productions rank among the finest examples of the art of the burin.
230 CHARLES, born in Paris, 1594; died 1674, was the elder of two brothers, some say cousins (the other being Claude the First), who attained reputation as engravers. Charles, who reached by far the greater eminence, after receiving some instruction in drawing, went as a young man to Rome to study further the engraver's art, and while there produced some plates which attracted attention. He engraved in pure line, and took the work of Cornelius Bloemart, with whom he studied, as his model. On his return from Italy the engraver lived for some years in Lyons before settling in Paris. Among his two hundred or more plates are several original portraits, including one of Henry II, Prince of Condé, and reproductions of works by Titian, the Caracci, Domenichino, Palma the Younger, Albano and Lesueur.
231 CLAUDE the First, born in Paris, 1597; died at Lyons 1677, studied with Charles, but in his portrait and allegorical plates, which were not many, adopted a somewhat different manner. He became professor of engraving in the Academy of Lyons, and left, to perpetuate is branch of the family and its artistic reputation, three sons: Germain, Claude the Second, and Gérard, the last of whom became the most famous artist among the Audrans.
232 GERMAIN, the eldest son of Claude the First, born at Lyons, 1631; died 1710, was a pupil of his uncle Charles and worked both in Paris and Lyons. Among his plates are portraits of Richelieu and Charles Emmanuel of Savoy (the latter after F. de la Monce), landscapes after Poussin, and fancies and ornamental designs, after Lebrun among others. His four sons were Claude the Third, Benoit the Elder, Jean, and Louis.
233 CLAUDE the SECOND, Son of Claude the First, born at Lyons, 1639; died in Paris, 1684, was the first painter in the family. After receiving instruction in drawing from his uncle Charles, he went to study painting in Rome. On his return to Paris he entered the studio of the celebrated historical painter Charles Lebrun, on whose style he formed his own. Audran was Lebrun's assistant in the painting, among others of his works, of the "Battle of Arbela" and the "Passage of the Granicus". He painted in fresco with much skill, under the direction of his master, the grand gallery of the Tuileries, the great staircase at Versailles, and the chapel near by, at Sceaux, of the château of that enlightened patron of art, Prime Minister Colbert.
234 GÉRARD, third son of Claude the First, born at Lyons, 1640; died in Paris, 1703, went to Paris, after being taught engraving by his father and his uncle, to receive instruction from the painter Lebrun, who gave him some of his paintings to reproduce. He worked in Paris four years, and in 1665 went to Rome, where he remained three years and, it is said became a pupil of Carlo Maratta. He etched as well as engraved, and produced in Rome some plates-notably, a portrait of Pope Clement IX which brought him much admiration. At the suggestion of Colbert, Louis XIV sent for the artist and made him engraver to, and pensioner of the king, with apartments at the factory of the Gobelins. This recognition of his great ability spurred Audran to even greater endeavors, in which he was further encouraged by his former patron Lebrun, more of whose paintings he reproduced notably the "Battles of Alexander." In November 1681, he was made a member of the Royal Academy of Painting. The first productions of Gérard Audran were stiff and dry, and his subsequent original and vigorously brilliant style is credited to the counsels of Maratta, Ciro Ferri, and, notably, of his lifelong friend Lebrun. A second visit to Rome was made where was signed the plate after "The Four Cardinal Virtues," by Domenichino, which is in the church of San Carlo ai Catinari. Among the original works of this famous engraver are the portrait of the Rospigliosi Pope, already alluded to, those of Samuele Sorbiere, Andrea Argoli of Padua, the Capuchin Benoit Langlois, the Bishop of Angers Henri Arnauld and the sculptor Francois du Quesnoy, called Fiamingo, "Wisdom and Abundance above two Genii," and the vignette, "St. Paul preaching at Athens". Particularly esteemed among the plates of Gérard Audran are two after cartoons of Raphael "The death of Ananias" and "Paul and Barnabas at Lystra" "The Martyrdom of St. Agnes," after Domenichino, and "Coriolanus" after Poussin. Among the other painters whose works he reproduced are Titian, Rubens, Giulio Romano, Annibale Caracci, Pietro da Cortona, Guercino, Guido Reni, Palma the Younger, Lanfranco, Mignard, Coypel, Lesueur, Bourguignon, Lafage, and Girardon. He was at times assisted by his nephews, Benoit the Elder and Jean. In 1683 Gérard published a work called "The Proportions of the Human Body measured by the most Beautiful Figures of Antiquity which has been translated into English.
235 CLAUDE the THIRD, son of Germain, and the second painter of the family, born at Lyons, 1658; died in Paris, 1734, was notable as being the master of the famous Watteau. He studied with his father as well as under his uncles, Germain and Claude the Second. Chosen cabinet painter to the king, he was also for nearly thirty years keeper of the palace of the Luxembourg, where he died. He executed considerable work in oil and fresco in various royal residences.
236 BENOIT the ELDER, third son of Germain, born at Lyons, 1661; died 1721, in the vicinity of Sens, was first taught the family art by his father and then by his uncle Gérard. He made an excellent reputation by his reproduction of portraits and historical works. Among his best productions are "The Seven Sacraments," after Poussin, and "The Bronze Serpent," after Lebrun. He became a Member of the Academy and engraver to the king.
237 JEAN, fourth son of Germain, born at Lyons, 1667; died 1756, became, next to his celebrated uncle Gérard, the best engraver of the family. He studied first under his father and then with his uncle. He had already distinguished himself at the early age of twenty. He was rewarded for his subsequent successes by being made (in 1907) engraver to the king, with regular pension and the Gobelin apartments. This was followed next year by membership in the Academy. Jean Audran worked until he was eighty. His masterpiece is considered to be "The Rape of the Sabines." after Poussin. Among his plates are portraits after Gobert, those of Louis XV, Vandyke, Coypel, Largilliere, Rigaud, Trevisani, and Vivien, and compositions after, among others, Raphael, Rubens, the Caracci, Guido Reni, Domenichino, Pietro da Cortona, Albano, Maratta, Philippe de Champagne, Marot, Poussin, and Nattier. His son was Benoit the Younger.
238 LOUIS, the youngest son of Germain, born at Lyons. 1670 died in Paris, c. 1712, studied with his father and his uncle Gérard. He assisted his brothers, and did few original plates. A work of his to be noted is "The Seven Acts of Mercy", after Bourdon.
239 BENOIT the Younger, born in Paris, 1698; died in the same place 1772, was the last of the remarkable family to have any historical importance artistically. He was a pupil of his father and did plates after, among others, Veronese, Poussin, Watteau, Lancret, and Natoire.
240 PROSPER GABRIEL, a grandson of Jean, born in Paris, 1744; died, 1819; he studied with his uncle, Benoit the Younger, and etched some heads. He gave up art for the law and became professor of Hebrew in the Collège de France.
241 DUPLESSIS, Les Audran; BRYAN, Dictionary Of Painters and Engravers.
242 August van Cleef
Leopold Auenbrugger
232 (Or von Auenbrugg).
233 An Austrian physician, born 19 November, 1722; died 17 May, 1807. He was the inventor of percussion in physical diagnosis and is considered one of the small group of men to whose original genius modern medicine owes its present position. He was a native of Graz in Styria, an Austrian province. His father, a hotel-keeper, gave his son every opportunity for an excellent preliminary education in his native town and then sent him to Vienna to complete his studies at the university. Auenbrugger was graduated as a physician at the age of twenty-two and then entered the Spanish military Hospital of Vienna where he spent ten years this observations and experimental studies enabled him to discover that by tapping on the chest with the finger much important information with regard to diseased conditions within the chest might be obtained.
234 Ordinarily, the lungs wheel percussed, give a sound like a drum over which a heavy cloth has been placed. When the lung is consolidated, as in pneumonia then the sound produced by the tapping of the finger is the same as when the fleshy part of the thigh is taped. Auenbrugger found that the area over the heart gave a modified, dull sound, and that in this way the limits of heart-dullness could be determined. This gave the first definite information with regard to pathological changes in the heart. During his ten years of patient study, Auenbrugger confirmed these observations by comparison with post-mortem specimens, and besides made a number of experimental researches on dead bodies. He injected fluid into the pleural cavity, and showed that it was perfectly possible by percussion to tell exactly the limits of the fluid present, and thus to decide when and where efforts should be made for its removal.
235 His later studies this ten-year were devoted to tuberculosis. He pointed out how to detect cavities of the lungs, and how their location and size might be determined by percussion. He also recognized that informatiom with regard to the contents of cavities in the lungs, and conditions of lung tissue might be obtained by placing the hand on the chest and noting the vibration, or fremitus, produced by the voice and the breath. These observations were published in a little book now considered one of the most important classics of medicine. It was called "Inventum Novum", the full English title running, "A New Discovery that Enables the Physician from the Percussion of the Human Thorax to Detect the Diseases Hidden Within the Chest".
236 Like most medical discoveries Auenbrugger's method of diagnosis at first met with neglect. Before his death, however, it had aroused the attention of Laennec, who, following up the ideas suggested by it, discovered auscultation. Since then, Auenbrugger has been considered one of the great founders of modern medicine. He lived to a happy old age, especially noted for hls cordial relations the younger members of his profession and for his kindness to the poor and to these suffering from tuberculosis. He is sometimes said to have died in the typhus epidemic of 1798, but the burial register of the parish church in Vienna, of which he had been for half a century a faithful member, shows that he did not die until 1807.
237 James J. Walsh
Jobst Bernhard von Aufsees
235 Canon of Bamberg and Würzburg, born 28 March, 1671, on the family estate of Mengersdorf; died 2 April, 1738. He was baptized Lutheran, but educated (1683-90) as a Catholic through the efforts of his uncle Carl Sigmund, canon of Bamberg and Würzburg. He was soon advanced to the same dignity in both churches, was provost of Bamberg in 1723;. and held other offices of distinction in both cities. After 1709 he devoted the revenues of his benefices to the establishment of a house of studies at Bamberg: in 1728, he bestowed upon it the sum of 400,000 gulden (about $200,000). This Aufsees Seminary, or Institute was destined for the reception of poor boys from the Dioceses of Bamberg and Würzburg. They were to be supported there during the entire time of their studies at the public academies. He originally intended to place the Jesuits in charge, but by his last will (17 Februaly, 1738) turned it over to the care of the cathedral chapters of Bamberg and Würzburg. It was opened in 1741, and continued its beneficent career until the begining of the nineteenth century, when the secularization of the property of the ecclesiastical principalities took place. The edifice was then turned over to the hospital for incurables, and the revenues applied in part to scholarships (Stipendien). King Ludwig reopened it as a house of studies (Königliches Studienseminar) under governmental supervision. The director and the prefects are priests, but the Government appoints holders of the 42 free places and the 20 places for youths who pay, also the officers of the institute, and administers its revenues.
236 Thomas J. Shahan
Edmond Auger
238 Born 1530, near Troyes; died at Como, Italy, 31 January, 1591, one of the great figures in the stormy times in France, when the Calvinists were striving to get possession of the throne. He entered the Society of Jesus while St. Ignatius was still living, and was regarded as one of the most eloquent men of his time. Mathew calls him the "Chrysostom of France". Wherever he went, throngs flocked to hear him, and the heretics themselves were always eager to be present, capivated as they were by the charm of his wisdom and the delicacy of his courtesy in their regard. His entrance into France as a priest was in the city of Valence, where the bishop had just apostatized, and the Calvinists were then in possession. The efforts of Auger to address the people were followed by his being seized and sentenced to be burned to death. While standing on the pyre, he harangued the multitude, and so won their good will they asked for his deliverence. Viret, especially, the chief orator of the Calvinists, wanted to have a public discussion with him to convert him. Auger was consequently sent to prison for the night, but the Catholics rescued him before the conference took place. We find him afterwards in Lyons, during a pestilence, devoting himself to the plague-stricken. When the pest had ceased, in consequence of a vow he made, the authorities, in gratitude, established a college of the Society to which Auger asked much to their astonishment, that the children of the Calvinists might be admitted. His whole life was one of constant activity, preaching and administering the responsible offices of Provincial, Rector etc., that were entrusted to him. He was present at two battles and was remarkable for his influence over the soldiers. He was finally made confessor of king Henry III, the first Jesuit to have that troublesome charge put upon him. The difficulty of his position was increased by the fact that the League was just then being formed by the Catholic succession. Its principles and methods were sought to trench on the. royal prerogative; but Sistus V was in favour of it. Several Jesuits, notably the Provincial, Mathieu, who was deposed by Acquaviva, were its stanch upholders. Auger's position was intolerable. Loyal to the king, he was detested by the leaguers who at Lyons the city that he had saved threatened to throw him into the Rhone. They compromised by expelling him from the city. The general commanded him to relinquish the post of confessor, but the King secured the pope's order for him to stay. Finally Auger prevailed on the monarch to release him, he withdrew to Como in Italy, where he died. Shortly afterwards Henry was assassinated. Like Canisius in Germany, Auger published a Catechism for France. It appeared at first in Latin, and later he published it in Greek. He wrote a work on the Blessed Eucharist, instructions for soldiers, translations, some literary compositions, and also drew up the statutes for congregations, especially one in which the king was interested, called the Congregation of Penitents. There is a letter by him called "Spiritual Sugar", though he did not give it that title. He had written an address to the people of Toulouse to console them in the distress brought on by the calamities of the authorities of the civil war. It so took the popular fancy that authorities of the city published it under this curious caption.
239 T. J. Campbell
Augilæ
241 (Or Augila).
242 A titular see of Cyrenaica in Northern Africa. It was situated in an oasis in the Libyan desert which is still one of the chief stations (Audjelah, Aoudjila) on the caraven route from Cairo to Fezzan. Its forests of date-palms were famous in the time of Herodotus (IV, 172); they still crown the three small hills that rise out unbroken desert of red sand which in the near vicinity is strongly impregnated with salts of soda. The Moslem population is now about 10,000 and is governed by an official of the Bay of Tripoli who draws from the oasis an annual revenue $12,000.
243 Thomas J. Shahan
Diocese of Augsburg
244 Diocese in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich-Freising, embracing the entire government district of Swabia and Neuburg, the western part of the government district of Upper Bavaria, and a small part of the government district of Central Franconia.
245 I. History
246 (1) Early Period
247 The present city of Augsburg appears in Strabo as Damasia, a stronghold of the Licatii; in 14 B.C. it became a Roman colony known as Augusta Vindelicorum, received the rights of a city from Hadrian and soon became of great importance as an arsenal and the point of junction of several important trade routes. The beginnings of Christianity within the limits of the present diocese are shrouded in obscurity its teachings were probably brought thither by soldiers or merchants. According to the acts of the martyrdom of St. Afra, who with her handmaids suffered at the stake for Christ, there existed in Augsburg, early in the fourth century, a Christian community under Bishop Narcissus; St. Dionysius, uncle of St. Afra, is mentioned as his Successor.
248 (2) Medieval Period
249 Nothing authentic is known about the history of the Augsburg Church during the centuries immediately succeeding, but it survived the collapse of Roman power in Germany and the turbulence of the great migrations. It is true that two catalogues of the Bishops of Augsburg, dating from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, mention several bishops of this primitive period, but the first whose record has received indubitable historical corroboration is St. Wikterp (or Wicbpert) who was bishop about 739 or 768. He took part in several synods convened by St. Boniface in Germany; in company with St. Magnus, he founded the monastery of Füssen; and with St. Boniface he dedicated the monastery at Benediktbeuren. Under either St. Wikterp or his successor, Tazzo (or Tozzo), about whom little is known, many monasteries were established, e.g. Wessobrunn, Ellwangen, Polling, Ottobeuren. At this time, also, the see, hitherto suffragan to the Patriarchate of Aquileia, was placed among the suffragan sees of the newly founded Archdiocese of Mainz (746). St. Sintpert (c. 810), hitherto Abbot of the monastery of Murbach, and a relative of Charlemagne, renovated many churches and monasteries laid waste in the wars of the Franks and Bavarians, and during the incursions of the Avari; he built the first cathedral of Augsburg in honour of the Most Blessed Virgin; and obtained from the Emperor Charlemagne an exact definition of his diocesan limits. His jurisdiction extended at that time from the Iller eastward over the Lech, north of the Danube to the Alb, and south to the spurs of the Alps. Moreover, various estates and villages in the valley of the Danube, and in the Tyrol, belonged to the diocese. Among the bishops of the following period a certain number are especially prominent, either on account of the offices they filled in the Empire, or for their personal qualifications; thus Witgar (887-87), Chancellor and Archchaplain of Louis the German; Adalbero (887-910), of the line of the Counts of Dillingen, confidant and friend of Emperor Arnulf, who entrusted Adalbero with the education of his son, the German King Louis the Child, distinguished for generosity to the monasteries. The See of Augsburg reached the period of its greatest splendor under St. Ulrich (923-973); he raised the standard of training and discipline among the clergy by the reformation of existing schools and the establishment of new ones, and by canonical visitations and synods; he provided for the poor, and rebuilt decayed churches and monasteries. During the incursion of the Hungarians and the siege of Augsburg (955), he sustained the courage of the citizens, compelled the Hungarians to withdraw, and contributed much to the decisive victory on the Lechfeld (955). He built churches in honor of St. Afra and St. John, founded the monastery of St. Stephen for Benedictine nuns, and undertook three pilgrimages to Rome. The diocese suffered much during the episcopate of his successor, Henry I (973-982), for he sided with the foes of Emperor Otto II, and remained for several months in prison. After his liberation he renounced his former views and bequeathed to his church his possessions at Geisenhausen. The diocese attained great splendor under Bishop Bruno (1006-20), brother of Emperor Henry II; he restored a number of ruined monasteries, founded the church and college of St. Maurice, placed Benedictine monks in the collegiate church of St. Afra, and added to the episcopal possessions by the gift of his own inheritance of Straubing. Under Bishop Henry II (1047-63), the guardian of Henry IV, the diocese secured the right of coinage was enriched by many donations; under Embrico (or Emmerich, 1063-77) the cathedral was dedicated (1065) and the canonicate and church of St. Peter and St. Felicitas were built. During the last years of his episcopate the quarrel of Emperor Henry IV with the papacy in which Embrico took the imperial side and only temporarily yielded to the papal legate. The struggle continued under his successors; four anti-bishops were set up in opposition to Siegfried II (1077-96). Hermann, Count von Vohburg (1096 or 1097-1132) supported with treachery and cunning his claim to the see he had purchased, violently persecuted the Abbot of St. Afra, and expelled him from the city. Only after the conclusion of the Concordat of Worms (1122) did Hermann obtain the confirmation of the pope and relief from excommunication. The political disturbances resulting from the dissensions between the popes and the German emperors reacted on the Church of Augsburg. There were short periods of rest, during which ecclesiastical life received a forward impulse, as, for instance, under Bishop Walther II Count Palatine von Dillingen (1133-52), under whom the possessions of the diocese were again consolidated and increased by his own inheritance; under Udalskalk (1184-1202), who with great ceremony placed the recently discovered bones of St. Ulrich in the new church of Sts. Ulrich and Afra. These days of peace alternated with periods of conflict into which the Bishops of Augsburg were drawn, often against their will, in their capacity as Princes of the Empire, and the life of the Church accordingly suffered decline. Under Siboto von Lechfeld (1227-47) monasteries of the newly founded mendicant orders were first established in Augsburg. A celebrated member of the Franciscans was David of Augsburg, and of the Dominicans, Albertus Magnus of Lauingen. Additional causes of conflict were the troubles that arose between the Bishops of Augsburg and the city authorities. During the struggles between the popes and the emperors, Augsburg like other large cities throughout the greater part of Germany, attained enormous wealth, owing to the industrial and commercial activity of the citizens. From time to time efforts were made to restrict as much as possible the ancient civil rights of the bishops and their stewards, and even to abrogate them entirely. From a state of discontent the citizens passed to open violence under the Bishop Hartmann von Dillingen (1248-86), and wrung from the bishops many municipal liberties and advantages. A characteristic instance is the confirmation by Emperor Rudolph of Habsburg at the Reichstag held in Augsburg (1276) of the Stadtbuch, or municipal register, containing the ancient customs, episcopal and municipal rights, etc., specified in detail; on the same occasion Augsburg was recognized as a Free City of the Empire. Hartmann bequeathed to the Church of Augsburg his paternal inheritance, including the town and castle of Dillingen. Peace reigned under the succeeding bishops, of whom Frederick I (1309-31) acquired for his see the castle and stronghold of Füssen; Ulrich II, von Schoneck (1331-37), and his brother Henry III (1337-48) remained faithful to Emperor Louis the Bavarian, Markward I, von Randeck (1348-65), again redeemed the mortgaged property of the diocese, and by the favor of Emperor Charles IV was made Patriarch of Aquileia (1365). New dissensions between the Bishop and the city arose under Burkhard von Ellerbach (1373-1404), whose accession was marked by grave discord growing out of the overthrow of the Patrizier, or aristocratic government, and the rise in municipal power of the crafts or guilds. Irritated by Burkhard's support of the nobility in their struggle with the Swabian cities, the inhabitants of Augsburg plundered the dwellings of the canons, drove some of the clergy from the city (1381), destroyed, after a short interval of respite (1388), the episcopal strong-hold, the deanery, and the mint, and became almost completely independent of the bishop. Burkhard proceeded with great energy against the heresy of the Wyclifites who had gained a foothold in Augsburg and condemned to the stake five persons refused to abjure. After the death of Eberhard II (1404-13), a quarrel arose in 1413 because the city of Augsburg declined to recognize the lawful Bishop, Anselm von Nenningen (1413-23), and set up in opposition Friedrich von Grafeneek who had been presented by Emperor Sigismund. This trouble was settled by Pope Martin V, Who compelled both bishops to resign, and on his own authority replaced them by Peter von Schauenberg, Canon of Bamberg and Würzburg (1423-69).
250 Peter was endowed by the Pope with extraordinary faculties, made cardinal and legate a latere for all Germany. He worked with zeal and energy for the reformation of his diocese, held synods and made episcopal visitations in order to raise the decadent moral and intellectual life of the clergy; he restored the discipline and renewed the fallen splendor of many monasteries, canonies and collegiate churches. He completed the rebuilding of the cathedral in Gothic style, consecrated it in 1431 and in 1457 laid the cornerstone of the new church of Sts. Ulrich and Afra. Succeeding prelates carried on the reformation of the diocese with no less solicitude and zeal. Among them were Johann II, Count of Werdenberg (1469-86), tutor to the emperor's son, afterwards Emperor Maximilian I, who convened a synod in Dillingen, and encouraged the recently invented art of printing; Friedrich von Zollern (1486-1505) pupil of the great preacher Geiler von Kaysersberg, and founder of a college in Dillingen, who held a synod in the same city, promoted the printing of liturgical books, and greatly enriched the possessions of the diocese; Henry IV, von Lichtenau (1505-17), a great friend and benefactor of monasteries and of the poor, and patron of the arts and sciences. During the episcopate of these bishops Augsburg acquired through the industry of its citizens, a world-wide commerce. Some members of its families, e.g. the Fuggers and the Welsers, were the greatest merchants of their time; they lent large sums of money to the emperors and princes of Germany, conducted the financial enterprises of the papacy, and even extended their operations to the newly discovered continent of America. Among the citizens of Augsburg famous at that time in literature and art were the humanist Conrad Peutinger; the brothers Bernard and Conrad Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden; Matthias Lang, secretary to Emperor Frederick III, and later Cardinal and Archbishop of Salzburg; the distinguished painters Holbein the elder, Burgkmair and others. With wealth, however, came a spirit of worldliness and cupidity. Pride and a super-refinement of culture furnished the rank soil in which the impending religious revolution was to find abundant nourishment.
251 (3) Reformation Period
252 The Reformation brought disaster on the Diocese of Augsburg. It included 1,050 parishes with more than 500,000 inhabitants. Besides the cathedral chapter it could boast eight collegiate foundations, forty-six monasteries for men, and thirty-eight convents for women. Luther, who was summoned to vindicate himself in the presence of the papal legate before the Reichstag at Augsburg (1518), found enthusiastic adherents in this diocese among both the secular and regular clergy, but especially among the Carmelites, in whose convent of St. Anne he dwelt; he also found favor among the city councillors, burghers, and tradesmen. Bishop Christopher von Stadion (1517-43) did all in his power to arrest the spread of the now teachings; he called learned men to the pulpit of the cathedral, among others Urbanus Rhegius, who, however, soon went over to Luther; he convened a synod at Dillingen, at which it was forbidden to read Luther's writings; he promulgated throughout his diocese the Bull of Leo X (1520) against Luther; he forbade the Carmelites, who were spreading the new doctrine, to preach; he warned the magistrates of Augsburg, Memmingen, and other places not to tolerate the reformers, and he adopted other similar measures. Despite all this, the followers of Luther obtained the upper hand in the city council, and by 1524, various Catholic ecclesiastical usages, notably the observance of fast days, had been abolished in Augsburg. The apostate priests, many of whom, after Luther's example, had taken wives, were supported by the city council, and the Catholics were denied the right of preaching. The Anabaptists also gained a strong following and added fuel to the fire of the Peasants' War, in which many monasteries, institutions, and castles were destroyed. At the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, at which the so-called Augsburg Confession was delivered to Emperor V in the chapel of the episcopal palace, the emperor issued an edict according to which all innovations were to be abolished, and Catholics reinstated in their rights and property. The city council, however, set itself up in opposition, recalled (1531) the Protestant preachers who had been expatriated, suppressed Catholic services in all churches except the cathedral (1534), and in 1537 joined the League of Smalkald. At the beginning of this year a decree of the council was made, forbidding everywhere the celebration of Mass, preaching, and all ecclesiastical ceremonies, and giving to the Catholic clergy the alternative of enrolling themselves anew as citizens or leaving the city. An overwhelming majority of both secular and regular clergy chose banishment; the bishop withdrew with the cathedral chapter to Dillingen, whence he addressed to the pope and the emperor an appeal for the redress of his grievances. In the city of Augsburg the Catholic churches were seized by Lutheran and Zwinglian preachers; at the command of the council pictures were removed, and at the instigation of Bucer and others a disgraceful storm of popular iconoclasm followed, resulting in the destruction of many splendid monuments of art and antiquity. The greatest intolerance was exercised towards the Catholics who had remained in the city; their schools were dissolved; parents were compelled to send their children to Lutheran institutions; it was even forbidden to hear Mass outside the city under severe penalties.
253 Under Otto Truchsess von Waldburg (1543-73) the first signs of improvement were noted in the attitude towards Catholics. At the outbreak of hostilities (1546) between the emperor and the League of Smalkald, Augsburg, as a member of the league, took up arms against Charles V, and Bishop Otto invested and plundered Füssen, and confiscated nearly all the remaining possessions of the diocese. After the victory at Muhlberg (1547), however, the imperial troops marched against Augsburg, and the city was forced to beg for mercy, surrender twelve pieces of artillery, pay a fine, restore the greater number of churches to the Catholics and reimburse the diocese and the clergy for property confiscated. In 1547 the Bishop, Otto von Truchsess, who had meanwhile been created a cardinal returned to the city with the cathedral chapter, followed shortly after by the emperor. At the Diet held at Augsburg in 1548 the so-called "Augsburg Interim" was arranged. After a temporary occupation of the city and suppression of Catholic services by the Elector, Prince Maurice of Saxony (1551), the "Religious Peace of Augsburg" was concluded at the Diet of 1555; it was followed by a long period of peace. The disturbances of the Reformation were more disastrous in their results throughout the diocese and adjoining lands than within the immediate precincts of Augsburg. Thus, after many perturbations and temporary restorations of the Catholic religion, the Protestants finally gained the upper hand in Würtemberg, Oettingen, Neuburg, the free cities of Nördlingen, Memmingen, Kaufbeuren, Dinkelsbuhl, Donauwörth, Ulm, in the ecclesiastical territory of Feuchtwangen and elsewhere. Altogether during these years of religious warfare the Diocese of Augsburg lost to the Reformation about 250 parishes, 24 monasteries, and over 500 benefices. Although the religious upheaval brought with it a great loss of worldly possessions, it was not without beneficial effect on religious life of the diocese. Bishop Christopher von Stadion while trying to protect Catholicism from the inroads of the Reformation, had sought to strengthen and revive ecclesiastical disciple, which had sadly declined, among both the secular and regular clergy. The work was carried on even more energetically by Bishop Otto Truchsess, who achieved a fruitful counter-reformation. By frequent visitations he sought to become familiar with existing evils, and by means of diocesan synods and a vigorous enforcement of measures against ignorant and dissolute clerics, secular and regular, he endeavored to remedy these conditions. He advanced the cause of education by founding schools; he summoned the Jesuits to his diocese, among others Blessed Peter Canisius, who from 1549, in the capacity, of cathedral preacher, confessor, and catechist, exercised a remarkable fruitful and efficacious ministry. In 1549 Bishop Otto founded a seminary in Dillingen for the training of priests, obtained from the pope (1554) a decree raising it to the rank of a university, and in 1564 gave the direction of the new university to the Jesuits, for whom he had built a college in Dillingen. It is due to his untiring labours and those of Canisius that much larger portions of the diocese were not lost to the Church. Under the immediate successors of Otto the revival instituted by him progressed rapidly, and many excellent decrees were formulated. Under Marquard II von Berg (1575-91) a pontifical boarding school (alumnatus) was founded in Dillingen, colleges were established by the Jesuits in Landsberg, and through the bounty of the Fugger family, in Augsburg (1580). Heinrich von Knoringen, made bishop at the early age of twenty-eight, took especial interest in the university and the Seminary of Dillingen, both of which he enriched with many endowments; he convened several synods, converted Duke Wolfgang of Neuburg to Catholicism, and during his long episcopate (1598-1646) reconciled many Protestant cities and parishes to the Catholic Church, being aided in a particular manner by the Jesuits, for whom he founded establishments in Neuburg, Memmingen, and Kaufbeuren. By means of the Edict of Restitution of Emperor Ferdinand II (1629), vigorously and even too forcefully executed by the bishop, the Thirty Years' War first accomplished an almost complete restoration of the former possessions of the Diocese of Augsburg. The occupation of Augsburg by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1632) restored temporarily the balance of power to the Protestants. Until the relief of the city by the imperial troops (1635) the Catholics were hard pressed and were forced to give up all they had gained by the Edict of Restitution. Finally the Treaty of Westphalia (1648) established equality between Catholics and Protestants, and was followed by a long period of internal peace. On account of the losses entailed on the diocese by the treaty, a solemn protest was laid before the imperial chancery by Bishop Sigmund Franz, Archduke of Austria (1646-65). This bishop on account of his youth, ruled the diocese through administrators, and later resigned his office. His successor, Johann Christopher von Freiberg (1665-90), was particularly desirous of liquidating the heavy burden of debt borne by the chapter, but was nevertheless generous towards churches and monasteries. His successor, Alexander Sigmund (1690-1737), son of the Palatine Elector, guarded the purity of doctrine in liturgical, books and prayerbooks. Johann Friedrich von Stauffenberg (1737-40) founded the Seminary of Meersbury and introduced missions among the people. Joseph, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (1740-68) exhumed with great ceremony the bones of St. Ulrich and instituted an investigation into the life of Crescentia Hoss of Kaufbeuren, who died in the odour of sanctity. Klemens Wenzeslaus, Prince of Saxony and Poland (1768-1812), made a great number of excellent disciplinary regulations, and took measures for their execution; after the suppression of the Society of Jesus he afforded its members protection and employment in his diocese; he made a vigorous resistance to the rapidly spreading Rationalism and infidelity, and was honored by a visit from Pope Pius VI (1782).
254 (4) French Revolution and Secularization
255 During this episcopate began the world-wide upheaval inaugurated by the French Revolution. It was destined to put an end to the temporal power of the Church in Germany, and to bring about the fall of Augsburg from the dignity of a principality of the Empire. In 1802, by act of the Delegation of the Imperial Diet (Reichsdeputationsrezess), the territory of the Diocese of Augsburg was given to the Elector of Bavaria, who took possession 1 December, 1802. The cathedral chapter, together with forty canonicates, forty-one benefices, nine colleges, twenty-five abbeys, thirty-four monasteries of the mendicant orders, and two convents were the victims of this act of secularization. Unfortunately, owing to the inconsiderate conduct of the commissioners appointed by the Bavarian minister, Montgelas, innumerable artistic treasures, valuable books, and documents were destroyed. For five years after the death of the last bishop of princely rank (1812) the episcopal see remained vacant; the parts of the diocese lying outside of Bavaria were separated from it and annexed to other dioceses. It was not until 1817 that the Concordat between the Holy See and the Bavarian government reconstructed the Diocese of Augsburg, and made it subject to the Metropolitan of Munich-Freising. In 1821 the territory subject to the ecclesiastical authority of Augsburg was increased by the addition of sections of the suppressed See of Constance, and the present limits were then defined.
256 (5) The Nineteenth Century
257 As the new bishop, Franz Karl von Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst, died (1819) before assuming office, and Joseph Maria von Fraunberg was soon called to the archiepiscopal See of Bamberg, there devolved upon their successors the important task of rearranging the external conditions and reanimating religious life, which had suffered sorely. Ignatius Albert von Riegg (1824-36) was successful in his endeavors to further the interests of souls, to raise the standard of popular education through the medium of numerous ordinances and frequent visitations. He assigned the administration and direction of studies in the Lyceum to the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Stephen in Augsburg, founded by King Ludwig (1834). Petrus von Richarz (1837-55) displayed energy and persistent zeal in promoting the interests of his diocese and the Catholic Church in general, and encouraged the giving of missions to the people, the establishment of many religious institutions for the care of the sick and for educational purposes, and carefully superintended the training of the clergy. The same spirit characterized the labours of the succeeding bishops: Michael von Deinlein (1856-58), who after a short episcopate was raised to the Archbishopric of Bamberg; Pankratius von Dinkel (1858-94), under whom both seminaries and the deaf and dumb asylum were established in Dillingen, and many monastic institutions were founded; Petrus von Hotzl (1895-1902) whose episcopate was marked by the attention paid to social and intellectual pursuits, and the number of missions given among the people as well as by the solemn celebration of the beatification of the pious nun Crescentia Hoss. He was succeeded by Maximilian von Lingg, born at Nesselwang, 8 March, 1842; ordained priest, 22 July, 1865; appointed bishop, 18 March, 1902, consecrated, 20 July, 1002.
258 II. Religious Statistics
259 According to the census of 1 December, 1900, the Diocese of Augsburg contained 777,958 Catholics and about 100,000 of other beliefs; at present there are about 818,074 Catholics. Socially, the population is chiefly of the middle class; recently, however, on account of the greater growth of the industrial arts in the city of Augsburg in Lechhausen, Memmingen, and other places, the working classes are increasing in numbers. Leaving out of consideration the larger cities, in which the various denominations are well represented, it may be said that the southern part of the diocese, Algau and the adjoining parts of Altbayern (Bavaria proper), are almost entirely Catholic, while in the northern part a mixture of creeds predominates. That small portion of Mittelfranken (Fran-conia) which belongs to the, diocese, is overwhelmingly Protestant. The relations between the various religious denominations are in general friendly and peaceable. For the work of sacred ministry the diocese is divided into 40 deaneries (1 city deanery at Augsburg, and 39 rural deaneries), with 862 parishes, 31 parochial curacies, 16 curacies, 226 benefices, 6 preaching-offices (Prädikaturen), 227 chaplaincies. In general each parish is complete and independent; but in the mountainous southern section there are many parishes, to which are attached from fifty to a hundred dependent churches (Filiakirchen). The cathedral chapter consists of the provost of the cathedral, a dean of the cathedral, 8 canons and 6 vicars. In 1907 the clergy of the diocese numbered 1,439: 815 parish priests and parochial curates, 49 parochial vicars, 11 curates, 73 beneficed clergymen, 53 vicars of benefices, 180 chaplains and assistant priests, 49 prebendaries and clerical professors (not including the professors of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Stephen in Augsburg); 74 priests temporarily stationed in the diocese, 95 regulars, 40 priests engaged in other dioceses or on missions. Of the religious orders of men there are the following establishments: Benedictines, 3 (Augsburg, Andechs, Ottobeuren), with 33 priests, 6 clerics, 56 lay brothers; Mission Society of St. Benedict, I (St. Ottilien), with 36 priests (12 at present outside the diocese), 31 clerics, 117 lay brothers; Franciscans, 3, with 7 priests and 22 lay brothers; Capuchins, 5, with 28 priests, IS clerics, and 37 lay brothers; Brothers of Mercy, 6, with 4 priests and 54 lay brothers. Altogether there are 18 establishments conducted by the male orders, with 108 priests, 55 clerics, and 286 lay brothers. Far more numerous are the female orders and religious congregations; they number 226 establishments and branches, with 2,815 members. They are: Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul, 59 houses, with 302 sisters; Franciscans, with their mother-houses at Augsburg, Dillingen, Kaufbeuren, and Mindelheim, 71 establishments, with 735 sisters; Arme Franziskanerinnen with mother-house at Mallersdorf, 34 establishments, with 171 sisters; Englische Fräulein (English Ladies), 11 convents with 311 ladies, 160 lay sisters, and 43 novices; Dominican nuns, 11 convents with 271 choir sisters, 17 lay sisters, and 36 novices; Poor School Sisters, 21 foundations with 166 sisters, Elisabetherinnen (Sisters of St. Elizabeth), 4 foundations with 41 sisters and 5 novices; Sisters of the Most Holy Redeemer with their mother-house at Oberbronn in Alsace, 61 foundations with 24 sisters; Cistercian nuns, 1 convent with 29 choir nuns, 15 lay sisters, and 2 novices; Mission Sisters of St. Benedict, 1 convent with 65 sisters and 9 novices; Sisters of St. Joseph of Ursberg, 7 foundations with 231 sisters and 92 novices.
260 III. Education
261 As the primary schools in Bavaria are the property of the local civic corporation and under State control, there are no parochial schools in the strict sense of the word, According to the Bavarian Constitution of 1818 nothing move is assured to the Church than the direction of religious instruction and the surveillance of religious life in the school. She exercises this right in 1,074 primary schools of the Diocese of Augsburg, by means of 6 ecclesiastical county (Bezirk) school-inspectors and 50 ecclesiastical district school-inspectors. However, in many of the girls' schools (Mädchenschulen) the direction of studies is confined entirely to religious societies under State inspection. Thus the Poor School Sisters have charge of the studies in 19 schools, the Franciscans in 35, the Dominican nuns in 11, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Ursberg in 3; the English Ladies are excellent teachers for the higher education of women, and conduct 11 institutes for girls. For the training of priests there are the Lyceum and the Diocesan Seminary for ecclesiastics at Dillingen; the Diocesan Seminary for boys at Dillingen; St. Stephen's Catholic House of Studies at Augsburg, under the direction of the Benedictines, which includes a Lyceum, a classical Gymnasium a royal seminary of studies and a institute for higher education; there are besides about forty students of the diocese of Augsburg who dwell in the Georgianum at Munich and attend the courses of the,University. The state, or communal, institutions of higher studies for boys number 28 in the Diocese of Augsburg; 5 gymnasia, 1 Realgymnasium, 1 seminary of studies, 5 Progymnasia 2 Latin schools, 7 Realschulen, 3 agricultural winter schools, 1 Realschule with Latin, 1 normal school, and 2 preparatory schools. We must also mention the Cassianeum in Donauworth, a Catholic institute of pedagogy, which includes a training-school, a publishing house for books and periodicals, a printing press and other appurtenances. In all of these institutions Catholic instruction is given to Catholic students by Catholic clergymen.
262 IV. Charitable Institutions
263 The charitable institutions of the diocese are for the most part the property of the civic parishes or the unions (Vereine), or local associations; they are administered, however, mostly by religious communities to whom is also confided the care of the sick, or children, and of the aged. There are 37 hospitals, 424 infirmaries, 12 protectories, 2 asylums for children, 8 orphanages, 3 institutions for the deaf and dumb, 12 houses for the poor and orphans, 3 poorhouses, 1 hospital for Priests 1 home for invalids, 3 institutions for servants under the patronage of the Blessed Virgin (Marienanstalten), 1 House of St. Anne (Annastift) for the factory girls in Augsburg, 1 House of St. Elizabeth for incurables, 5 institutions for various other purposes (e.g. the Kneippianum in Worishofen). One Catholic institution of Augsburg deserves special mention: the Fuggerei, founded in 1519 by three brothers (Ulrich, Georg, and Jakob) of the Fuggers. It consists of an extensive block of 53 houses with 106 apartments; in accordance with the conditions of the foundation these must be let at a very small rent to indigent cut people. It is a noble and durable memorial of the spirit of Christian charity that abounded in the Catholic Middle Ages. In recent times other works of Christian charity have been inaugurated. The good priest and superintendent of studies (Regens), Father Wagner of Dillingen, established many institutions for the deaf, dumb, and blind; Father Ringeisen, parish priest of Ursberg, established there the Sisters of St. Joseph for the exercise of every form of charity. For aged and infirm priests there exists a fund with 1,277 subscribers and a reserve of 1,550,000 marks ($387,500). There is also an association for the support of infirm priests, with 792 members and a fund of 26,000 marks ($6,500). Prominent among the numerous social-political and religious associations of the diocese are 16 Catholic apprentices unions, (Lehrlingsvereine), the local union in Augsburg maintaining its own home for apprentices; 49 Catholic journeymen's unions (Gesellenvereine), 4 Unions of St Joseph; 52 Catholic workingmen's unions; 19 Catholic students' clubs; 3 Catholic clubs for working women, with 504 members; 7 Catholic "Patronages" for working people; the Ulrich-union for the support of seminaries; the Men's Catholic Association, the Christian Peasants' League; the Cecilian Club; St. Mary's Protectory for girls; the Young Women's Association, and the Association of Christian Mothers. Annual pilgrimages give visible evidence of the vigorous religious life of the diocese. Such pilgrimages are those of the Holy Cross (11 May) and to the tomb of St. Ulrich at Augsburg (4 July). There are also processions to the holy mountain of Andechs during the rogation days, and to the monastery of Lechfeld since the year of the cholera (1854). Other pilgrimages are those to the relies of St. Rasso at Grafrath, to the church of the Holy Sepulcher (Unsers Herrn Ruh) near Friedberg, and to Maria Siebeneich.
264 V. Ecclesiastical Art and Monuments
265 Among the ecclesiastical monuments of the Diocese of Augsburg the cathedral holds first place. It was begun in the Roman style in 994, dedicated 1010, and remodeled, 1331-1431, into a Gothic church with five naves; it was then that the lofty east choir with its circle of chapels was added. The towers were increased in height in 1488-89 and 1564. Among the innumerable art treasures of the cathedral may be mentioned the vestments of St. Ulrich; the tour altars with paintings by the elder Holbein illustrating the life of the Blessed Virgin; the celebrated bronze doors of the left lateral nave, adorned with remark able reliefs, and dating from the first half of the eleventh century; the ancient stained windows, some of which back to the eleventh and twelfth centuries; the interesting tombs and slabs of the fourteenth and succeeding centuries, both in the cathedral itself and in the adjoining cloister, and many other objects of value and interest. The church of Sts. Ulrich and Afra, built 1467-1594, in the Gothic style, contains the tomb of St. Ulrich, the stone sarcophagus of St. Afra, the Fugger chapel with the memorial to Hans Fugger, and three magnificent altars in rococo style. The late Gothic church of the Holy Cross was renovated, early in the eighteenth century, in florid Roman rococo style, and is a favorite place of pilgrimage. Among the chief ecclesiastical edifices outside the city of Augsburg are the Romanesque basilicas of Altenstadt, Ursberg, Thierhaupten; the Gothic churches of Kaisheim, Dinkelsbuhl, Donauworth, Landsberg; the ancient abbey-churches of Andechs (very rich in relies and costly reliquaries), Benediktbeuren, Diessen, Füssen, Kempten, Ottobeuren, and Wessobrunn, all restored and ornamented in sumptuous barocco or rococo style.
266 Joseph Lins
Synods of Augsburg
247 From the time of St. Boniface (d. 754), especially during periods of earnest revival of religious and ecclesiastical life, synods were frequently convened by the bishops of Germany, and sometimes by those of individual ecclesiastical provinces. As the German bishops were, on the one hand, princes of the empire, and the emperor was, on the other, the superior protector of the Roman Church, these synods came to have no little importance in the general ecclesiastical and political development of Western Christendom. Two general imperial synods were held in Augsburg. The first, convened in August, 952, through the efforts of Emperor Otto the Great, provided for the reform of abuses in civil and ecclesiastical life. Frederick, Archbishop of Mainz, presided, and three archbishops and twenty bishops of Germany and northern Italy took part. Eleven canons were promulgated concerning ecclesiastical life and other matters of church discipline. A similar synod, convened by Anno, Archbishop of Cologne (27 October, 1062), was occupied with the internal conditions of the empire and the attitude of the Church of Germany towards the schism of Cadalus, antipope during the reign of Alexander II. The diocesan synods of Augsburg correspond as a rule with the synodal system as carried out in other parts of Germany. We find in this diocese, as elsewhere in Germany, the synodi per villas, convened under the influence of the Carlovingian capitularies. They were visitation-synods, held by the bishop assisted by the archdeacon and the local lord or baron (Gaugraf). Their purpose was inquisitorial and judicial. After the time of St. Ulrich (923-973), and in close relation to the system of provincial councils, diocesan synods were held at stated times, chiefly in connection with matters of ecclesiastical administration (legalizing of important grants and privileges, etc.) and the settlement of disputes. After the thirteenth century these diocesan synods assumed more of a legislative character; decrees were issued regulating the lives of both ecclesiastics and laymen, and church discipline was secured by the publication of diocesan statutes. The earliest extant are of Bishop Friedrich (1309-31). These diocesan synods fell into decay during the course of the fourteenth century.
248 In consequence of decrees of the Council of Basle the synods of the Diocese of Augsburg rose again to importance, so that after the middle of the fifteenth century they were once more frequently held, as for example: by the able Bishop Peter von Schauenburg (1424-69) and his successor, Johann von Werdenburg, also by Friedrich von Zollern (1486) and Heinrich von Liechtenau (1506). The two Bishops Christopher von Stadion (1517-43) and Otto Truchsess von Waldburg (1543-73) made use of diocesan synods (1517, 1520, 1543 in Dillingen, and 1536 in Augsburg) for the purpose of checking the progress of the Reformation through the improvement of ecclesiastical life. At a later period there were but few ecclesiastical assemblies of this kind; as early as 1567, the synod of that year, convened for the purpose of carrying out the reforms instituted by the Council of Trent, shows signs of the decline of the synod as a diocesan institution. The Bishops of Augsburg were, moreover, not only the ecclesiastical superiors of their diocese, but after the tenth century possessed the Regalia, the right of holding and administering royal fiefs with concomitant jurisdiction. The right of coinage was obtained by St. Ulrich. At a later period disputes were frequent between the bishops and the civic authorities, which culminated in an agreement (1389) by which the city was made practically independent of the episcopal authority. (See AUGSBURG.)
249 HARTZHEIM, Concilia Germaniae (Cologne, 1749); HEFELE, Conciliengesch. (2d ed. Freiburg, 1873); STEINER, Synodi dioec. Augustanae (1766); STEICHELE, Das Bistum Augsburg historisch und statistisch beschrieben (Augsburg, 1864); SCHMID in Kirchenlex., I, 1651-55.
250 J.P. Kirsch
Augusta
250 A titular see of Cilicia in Asia Minor, whose episcopal list (363-434) is given in Gams (435). Several cities bore the same name in Roman antiquity, some of which are yet flourishing, e.g. Augusta Auscorum (Auch in Southern France); Augusta Batavorum (Leyden in Holland); Augusta Asturica (Astorga in Spain); Augusta Praetoria (Aosta in Augusta Rauracorum (Augst in Switzerland); Auinorum (Turin in Italy); Augusta Trevirorum (Trier in Germany); Augusta Trinobantum (London); Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg in Germany).
251 LEQUIEN, Oriens Christ. (1740), II, 879-880; SMITH, Dict. Of Greek and Roman Geogr., I, 338.
252 Thomas J. Shahan
Augustin von Alfeld
253 (Alveldt, or Alveldianus)
254 One of the earliest and most aggressive opponents of Luther, born in the village of Alfeld, near Hildesheim, from which he took his surname; died probably in 1532, Nothing is known of his parentage, youth, and early ciscan of the Regular Observance, belonging to the Saxon Province of the Holy Cross. The Absence of his name on the matriculation rosters of the philosophical and theological universities of Erfurt, Rostock, Leipzig, and Wittenberg, usually frequented by the members of the above-named province, leaves the presumption that he made his studies in one of the monastic schools. At the solicitation of Adolf of Anhalt, Bishop of Merseburg, in 1520 being already Lector of Holy Writ at Leipzig, he entered the theological arena to controvert the Lutheran heresy (Mencken, Scriptores rer. Ger., II, 56). On 20 January, 1521 he presided at the public theological disputation held at Weimar, between Lange, Mechler, and the Franciscans, on the merit of monastic vows and life (Kapp, Kleinere Nachlese nützlicher Urkunden zur Erläuterung der Reformationsgeschichte, II, 514, Leipzig, 1727), the result of which has not be handed down, though it called forth a satirical poem at the time (ib., 520). In 1523 he became Guardian of the monastery at Halle, in which position he is still found in 1528. In 1529 he was elected Provincial of the Saxon Province of the Holy Cross.
255 Alfeld was a man of fine linguistic attainments, a fluent Latinist, familiar with the ancient classics, conversant with Greek and Hebrew, and well acquainted with the humanistic writings of his day. His theology was that of medieval scholasticism, in which he proved "that the old theological training did not leave the antagonists of Luther helpless and unprepared in combating the novel, and to the theologically disciplined mind contradictory, assertions" (Otto, Johannes Cochlaeus, 132, Breslau, 1874. As Lector of Holy Writ, he devoted much attention and thought to the Bible, so that he can state that "from my childhood I have devoted my time and life to it" (super apostolicâ Sede, etc., iiia). In the textual studies of the Greek and Hebrew versions, the translation of Erasmus, the exegetical writings of Faber Stapulensis (Lefèvre d'Etaples) and the Complutensians, he shows a keen, analytical mind and sound judgment. His memory and reputation, however, rest on his polemical activity and writings. The latter are marred at times by a tone of bitterness and sarcasm that detract from their intrinsic worth and gave his opponents, notably Lonicer, Luther's amanuensis (Biblia nova Alveldensis Wittenbergae Anno MDXX) opportunity to censure the catalogue epithets flung at Luther (Cyprian, Nützliche Urkunden zur Erläuterung der Reformationsgeschichte, II, 158). If it be remembered that Luther calls him bos Lipsicus (De Wette, Briife, Sendschreiben, etc., I, 446); asinus (op. cit., 451, 453, 533); Lipsiensis asinus (op. cit., 471, 475, 542), merely to single out a few controversial amenities, his literary style may be measurable condoned.
256 Lemmens, Pater Augustin von Alfeld (Freiburg, 1899); Floss in Kirchenlex., I, 1682. The former a comprehensive resume of Alfeld's writings.
257 Henry A. Ganss.
Rule of Saint Augustine
256 The title, Rule of Saint Augustine, has been applied to each of the following documents:
257 Letter 211 addressed to a community of women;
258 Sermons 355 and 356 entitled "De vitâ et moribus clericorum suorum";
259 a portion of the Rule drawn up for clerks or Consortia monachorum;
260 a Rule known as Regula secunda; and
261 another Rule called: "De vitâ eremiticâ ad sororem liber."
262 The last is a treatise on eremitical life by Blessed Ælred, Abbot of Rievaulx, England, who died in 1166 and as the two preceding rules are of unknown authorship, it follows that none but Letter 211 and Sermons 355 and 356 were written by St. Augustine. Letter 211 is addressed to nuns in a monastery that had been governed by the sister of St. Augustine, and in which his cousin and niece lived. His object in writing it was merely to quiet troubles, incident to the nomination of a new superior, and meanwhile he took occasion to expatiate upon some of the virtues and practices essential to the religious life. He dwells upon charity, poverty, obedience, detachment from the world, the apportionment of labour, the mutual duties of superiors and inferiors, fraternal charity, prayer in common, fasting and abstinence proportionate to the strength of the individual, care of the sick, silence, reading during meals, etc. In his two sermons "De vitâ et moribus clericorum suorum" Augustine seeks to dispel the suspicions harboured by the faithful of Hippo against the clergy leading a monastic life with him in his episcopal residence. The perusal of these sermons discloses the fact that the bishop and his priests observed strict poverty and conformed to the example of the Apostles and early Christians by using their money in common. This was called the Apostolic Rule. St. Augustine, however, dilated upon the religious life and its obligations on other occasions. Aurelius, Bishop of Carthage, was greatly disturbed by the conduct of monks who indulged in idleness under pretext of contemplation, and at his request St. Augustine published a treatise entitled "De opere monarchorum" wherein he proves by the authority of the Bible the example of the Apostles, and even the exigencies of life, that the monk is obliged to devote himself to serious labour. In several of his letters and sermons is found a useful complement to his teaching on the monastic life and duties it imposes. These are easy of access to Benedictine edition, where the accompanying table may be consulted under the words: monachi, monachae, monasterism, monastica vita, sanctimoniales. The letter written by St. Augustine to the nuns at Hippo (423), for the purpose of restoring harmony in their community, deals with the reform of certain phases of monasticism as it is understood by him. This document, to be sure, contains no such clear, minute prescriptions as are found in the Benedictine Rule, because no complete rule was ever written prior to the time of St. Benedict; nevertheless, the Bishop of Hippo is a law-giver and his letter if to be read weekly, that the nuns may guard against or repent any infringement of it. He considers poverty the foundation of the religious life, but attaches no less importance to fraternal charity, which consists in living in peace and concord. The superior, in particular, is recommended to practise this virtue although not, of course, to the extreme of omitting to chastise the guilty. However, St. Augustine leaves her free to determine the nature and duration of the punishment imposed, in some cases it being her privilege even to expel nuns that have become incorrigible.
263 The superior shares the duties of her office with certain members of her community, one of whom has charge of the sick, another of the cellar, another of the wardrobe, while still another is the guardian of the books which she is authorized to distribute among the sisters. The nuns make their habits which consist of a dress, a cincture and a veil. Prayer, in common, occupies an important place in their life, being said in the chapel at stated hours and according to the prescribed forms, and comprising hymns, psalms and readings. Certain prayers are simply recited while others, especially indicated, are chanted, but as St. Augustine enters into no minute details, it is to be supposed that each monastery conformed to the liturgy of the diocese in which it is situated. Those sisters desiring to lead a more contemplative life are allowed to follow special devotions in private. The section of the rule that applies to eating, although severe in some respects, is by no means observance and the Bishop of Hippo tempers it most discreetly. Fasting and abstinence are recommended only in proportion to the physical strength of the individual, and when the saint speaks of obligatory fasting he specifies such as are unable to wait the evening or ninth hour meal may eat at noon. The nuns partake of very frugal fare and, in all probability, abstain from meat. However, the sick and infirm are objects of the most tender care and solicitude, and certain concessions are made in favour of those who, before entering religion, leds life of luxury. During meals some instructive matter to be read aloud to the nuns. Although the Rule of St. Augustine contains but few precepts, it dwells at great length upon religious virtues and the ascetic life, this being characteristic of all primitive rules. In his sermons 355 and 356 the saint discourses on the monastic observance of the vow of poverty. Before making their profession the nuns divest themselves of all their goods, their monasteries being resposible for supplying their wants, and whatever they may earn or receive is turned over to a commom fund, the monasteries having right of possession.
264 In his treatise, "De opere monarchorum", he inculcates the necessity of labour, without, however, sujecting it to any rule, the gaining of one's livelihood rendering it indispensable. Monks of couse, devoted to the ecclesiastical ministry observe, ipso facto, the precept of labour, from which observance the infirm are legitimately dispensed. These, then, are the most important monastic prescriptions found in the rule of and writings of St. Augustine.
265 Monastic Life of St. Augustine
266 Augustine was a monk; this fact stands out unmistakably in the reading of his life and works. Although a priest and bishop, he knew how to combine the practices of the religious life with the duties of his office, and his episcopal house in Hippo was for himself and some of his clergy, a veritable monastery. Several of his friends and disciples elevated to the episcopacy imitated his example, among them Alypius at Tagaste, Possidius at Calama, Profuturus and Fortunatus at Cirta Evodius at Uzalis, and Boniface at Carthage. There were still other monks who were priests and who exercised the ministry outside of the episcopal cities. All monks did not live in these episcopal monasteries; the majority were laymen whose communities, although under the authority of the bishops, were entirety distinct from those of the clergy. There were religious who lived in complete isolation, belonging to no community and having no legitimate superiors; indeed, some wandered aimlessly about, at the risk of giving disedification by their vagabondage. The fanatics known as Circumcelliones were recruited from the ranks of these wandering monks, St. Augustine often censured their way of living.
267 The religious life of the Bishop of Hippo was, for a long time, a matter of dispute between the Canons Regular and the Hermits of St. Augustine, each of these two families claiming him exclusiely as its own. It was not so much the establishing of an historical fact as the settling of a claim of precedence that caused the trouble, and as both sides could not in the right, the quarrel would have continued indefinitely had not the Pope Sixtus IV put an end by his Bull "Summum Silentium" (1484). The silence was imposed, however, was not perpetual, and the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were resumed between the Canons and the Hermits but all to no avail. Pierre de Saint-Trond, Prior of the Canons Regular of St. Martin of Louvain, tells the story of these quarrels in the Preface to his "Examen Testamenti S. Augustini" (Louvain. 1564). Gabriel Pennot, Nicolas Desnos and Le Large uphold the thesis of the Canons; Gandolfo, Lupus, Giles of the Presentation, and Noris sustain that of the Hermits. The Bollandists withhold their opinion. St. Augustine followed the monastic or religious life as it was known to his contemporaries and neither he nor they even thought of establishing among those who had embraced it any distinction whatever as to congregations or orders. This idea was conceived in a subsequent epoch, hence St. Augustine cannot be said to have belonged to any particular order. He made laws for the monks and nuns of Roman Africa, it is true, and he helped to increase their numbers, while they, in turn, revered him as their father, but they cannot be classed as members of any special monastic family.
268 St. Augustine's Influence on Monachism
269 When we consider Augustine's great prestige, it is easy to understand why his writings should have so influenced the development of Western monachism. His Letter 211 was read and re-read by St. Benedict, who borrowed several important texts from it for insertion in his own rule. St. Benedict's chapter on the labour of monks is manifestly inspired by the treatise "De opere monachorum", that has done so much towards furnishing an accurate statement of the doctrine commonly accepted in religious orders. The teaching concerning religious poverty is clearly formulated in the sermons "De vitâ et moribus clericoreun suorum" and the authorship of these two works is sufficient to earn for the Bishop of Hippo the title of Patriarch of monks and religious. The influence of Augustine, however, was nowhere stronger than in southern Gaul in the fifth and sixth centuries. Lerins and the monks of that school were familiar with Augustine's monastic writings, which, together with those of Cassianus, were the mine from which the principal elements of their rules were drawn. St. Caesarius, Archbishop of Arles, the great organizer of religious life in that section chose a some of the most interesting articles of his rule for monks from St. Augustine, and in his rule for nuns quoted at length from Letter 211. Sts. Augustine and Caesarius were animated by the same spirit which passed from the Archbishop of Arles to St. Aurelian, one of his successors, and, like him, a monastic Iawgiver. Augustine's influence also extended to women's monasteries in Gaul, where the Rule of Caesarius was adopted either wholly or in part, as, for example, at Sainte-Croix of Poitiers, Juxamontier of Besançon, and Chamalières near Clermont.
270 But it was not always enough merely to adopt the teachings of Augustine and to quote him; the author of the regula Tarnatensis (an unknown monastery in the Rhone valley) introduced into his work the entire text of the letter addressed to the nuns, having previously adapted it to a community of men by making slight modifications. This adaptation was surely made in other monasteries in the sixth or seventh centuries, and in his "Codex regularum" St. Benedict of Aniane published a text similarly modified.
271 For want of exact information we cannot say in which monasteries this was done, and whether they were numerous. Letter 211, which has thus become the Rule of St. Augustine, certainly constituted a part of the collections known under the general name of "Rules of the Fathers" and used by the founders of monasteries as a basis for the practices of the religious life. It does not seem to have been adopted by the regular communities of canons or of clerks which began to be organized in the eighth and ninth centuries. The rule given them by St. Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz (742-766), is almost entirely drawn from that of St. Benedict, and no more decided traces of Augustinian influence are to be found in it than in the decisions of the Council of Aachen (817), which may be considered the real constitutions of the canons Regular. For this influence we must await the foundation of the clerical or canonical communities established in the eleventh century for the effective counteracting of simony and clerical concubinage.
272 The Council of Lateran (1059) and another council held at Rome four years later approved for the members of the clergy the strict community life of the Apostolic Age, such as the Bishop of Hippo had caused to be practised in his episcopal house and had taught in his two sermons heretofore cited. The first communities of canons adopted these sermons as their basis of organization. This reform movement spread rapidly throughout Latin Europe and brought about the foundation of the regular chapters so numerous and prosperous during the Middle Ages. Monasteries of women or of canonesses were formed on the same plan, but not according to the rules laid down in the sermons "De vitâ et moribus clericorum." The letter to virgins was adopted almost immediately and became the rule of the canons and canonesses; hence it was the religious code of the Premonstratensians, of the houses of Canons Regular, and of canonesses either gathered into congregations or isolated, of the Friars Preachers, of the Trinitarians and of the Order of Mercy, both for the redemption of captives, of hospitaller communities, both men and women, dedicated to the care of the sick in the hospitals of the Middle Ages, and of some military orders.
273 J.M. Besse
St. Augustine of Canterbury
259 First Archbishop of Canterbury, Apostle of the English; date of birth unknown; d. 26 May, 604. Symbols: cope, pallium, and mitre as Bishop of Canterbury, and pastoral staff and gospels as missionary. Nothing is known of his youth except that he was probably a Roman of the better class, and that early in life he become a monk in the famous monastery of St. Andrew erected by St. Gregory out of his own patrimony on the Cælian Hill. It was thus amid the religious intimacies of the Benedictine Rule and in the bracing atmosphere of a recent foundation that the character of the future missionary was formed. Chance is said to have furnished the opportunity for the enterprise which was destined to link his name for all time with that of his friend and patron, St. Gregory, as the "true beginner" of one of the most important Churches in Christendom and the medium by which the authority of the Roman See was established over men of the English-speaking race. It is unnecessary to dwell here upon Bede's well-known version of Gregory's casual encounter with English slaves in the Roman market place (H.E., II, i), which is treated under GREGORY THE GREAT.
260 Some five years after his elevation to the Roman See (590) Gregory began to look about him for ways and means to carry out the dream of his earlier days. He naturally turned to the community he had ruled more than a decade of years before in the monastery on the Cælian Hill. Out of these he selected a company of about forty and designated Augustine, at that time Prior of St. Andrew's, to be their representative and spokesman. The appointment, as will appear later on, seems to have been of a somewhat indeterminate character; but from this time forward until his death in 604 it is to Augustine as "strengthened by the confirmation of the blessed Father Gregory (roboratus confirmatione beati patris Gregorii, Bede, H. E., I, xxv) that English, as distinguished from British, Christianity owes its primary inspiration.
261 The event which afforded Pope Gregory the opportunity he had so long desired of carrying out his great missionary plan in favour of the English happened in the year 595 or 596. A rumour had reached Rome that the pagan inhabitants of Britain were ready to embrace the Faith in great numbers, if only preachers could be found to instruct them. The first plan which seems to have occurred to the pontiff was to take measures for the purchase of English captive boys of seventeen years of age and upwards. These he would have brought up in the Catholic Faith with idea of ordaining them and sending them back in due time as apostles to their own people. He according wrote to Candidus, a presbyter entrusted with the administration of a small estate belonging to the patrimony of the Roman Church in Gaul, asking him to secure revenues and set them aside for this purpose. (Greg., Epp., VI, vii in Migne, P.L., LXXVII.) It is possible, not only to determine approximately the dates of these events, but also to indicate the particular quarter of Britain from which the rumour had come. Aethelberht became King of Kent in 559 or 560, and in less than twenty years he succeeded in establishing an overlordship that extended from the boulders of the country of the West Saxons eastward to the sea and as far north as the Humber and the Trent. The Saxons of Middlesex and of Essex, together with the men of East Anglia and of Mercia, were thus brought to acknowledge him at Bretwalda, and he acquired a political importance which began to be felt by the Frankish princes on the other side of the Channel. Charibert of Paris gave him his daughter Bertha in marriage, stipulating, as part of the nuptial agreement, that she should be allowed the free exercise of her religion. The condition was accepted (Bede, H. E., I, xxv) and Luidhard, a Frankish bishop, accompanied the princess to her new home in Canterbury, where the ruined church of St. Martin, situated a short distance beyond the walls, and dating from Roman-British times, was set apart for her use (Bede, H. E.,I, xxvi). The date of this marriage, so important in its results to the future fortunes of Western Christianity, is of course largely a matter of conjecture; but from the evidence furnished by one or two scattered remarks in St. Gregory's letters (Epp., VI) and from the circumstances which attended the emergence of the kingdom of the Jutes to a position of prominence in the Britain of this period, we may safely assume that it had taken place fully twenty years before the plan of sending Augustine and his companions suggested itself to the pope.
262 The pope was obliged to complain of the lack of episcopal zeal among Aethelberht Christian neighbours. Whether we are to understand the phrase ex vicinis (Greg., Epp.,VI) as referring to Gaulish prelates or to the Celtic bishops of northern and western Britain, the fact remains that neither Bertha's piety, nor Luidhard's preaching, nor Aethelberht's toleration, nor the supposedly robust faith of British or Gaulish neighbouring peoples was found adequate to so obvious an opportunity until a Roman pontiff, distracted with the cares of a world supposed to be hastening to its eclipse, first exhorted forty Benedictines of Italian blood to the enterprise. The itinerary seem to have been speedily, if vaguely, prepared; the little company set out upon their long journey in the month of June, 596. They were armed with letters to the bishops and Christian princes of the countries through which they were likely to pass, and they were further instructed to provide themselves with Frankish interpreters before setting foot in Britain itself. Discouragement, however, appears early to have overtaken them on their way. Tales of the uncouth islanders to whom they were going chilled their enthusiasm, and some of their number actually proposed that they should draw back. Augustine so far compromised with the waverers that he agreed to return in person to Pope Gregory and lay before him plainly the difficulties which they might be compelled to encounter. The band of missionaries waited for him in the neighbourhood of Aix-en-Provence. Pope Gregory, however, raised the drooping spirits of Augustine and sent him back without delay to his faint-hearted brethren, armed with more precise, and as it appeared, more convincing authority.
263 Augustine was named abbot of the missionaries (Bede, H. E.,I, xxiii) and was furnished with fresh letters in which the pope made kindly acknowledgment of the aid thus far offered by Protasius, Bishop of Aix-en-Provence, by Stephen, Abbot of Lérins, and by a wealthy lay official of patrician rank called Arigius [Greg., Epp., VI (indic. xiv) num. 52 sqq.;sc. 3,4,5 of the Benedictine series]. Augustine must have reached Aix on his return journey some time in August; for Gregory's message of encouragement to the party bears the date of July the twenty-third, 596. Whatever may have been the real source of the passing discouragement no more delays are recorded. The missionaries pushed on through Gaul, passing up through the valley of the Rhone to Arles on their way to Vienne and Autun, and thence northward, by one of several alternatives routes which it is impossible now to fix with accuracy, until they come to Paris. Here, in all probability, they passed the winter months; and here, too, as is not unlikely, considering the relations that existed between the family of the reigning house and that of Kent, they secured the services of the local presbyters suggested as interpreters in the pope's letters to Theodoric and Theodebert and to Brunichilda, Queen of the Franks.
264 In the spring of the following year they were ready to embark. The name of the port at which they took ship has not been recorded. Boulogne was at that time a place of some mercantile importance; and it is not improbable that they directed their steps thither to find a suitable vessel in which they could complete the last and not least hazardous portion of their journey. All that we know for certain is that they landed somewhere on the Isle of Thanet (Bede, H. E.,I, xxv) and that they waited there in obedience to King Aethelberht orders until arrangements could be made for a formal interview. The king replied to their messengers that he would come in person from Canterbury, which was less than a dozen miles away. It is not easy to decide at this date between the four rival spots, each of which has claimed the distinction of being the place upon which St. Augustine and his companions first set foot. The Boarded Groin, Stonar, Ebbsfleet, and Richborough — last named, if the present course of the Stour has not altered in thirteen hundred years, then forming part of the mainland — each has its defenders. The curious in such matters may consult the special literature on the subject cited at the close of this article. The promised interview between the king and the missionaries took place within a few days. It was held in the open air, sub divo, says Bede (Bede, H.E.,I, xxv), on a level spot, probably under a spreading oak in deference to the king's dread of Augustine's possible incantations. His fear, however, was dispelled by the native grace of manner and the kindly personality of his chief guest who addressed him through an interpreter. The message told "how the compassionate Jesus had redeemed a world of sin by His own agony and opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all who would believe" (Aelfric, ap. Haddan and Stubbs, III, ii). The king's answer, while gracious in its friendliness, was curiously prophetic of the religious after-temper of his race. "Your words and promised are very fair" he is said to have replied, "but as they are new to us and of uncertain import, I cannot assent to them and give up what I have long held in common with the whole English nation. But since you have come as strangers from so great a distance, and, as I take it, are anxious to have us also share in what you conceive to be both excellent and true, we will not interfere with you, but receive you, rather, in kindly hospitality and take care to provide what may be necessary for your support. Moreover, we make no objection to your winning as many converts as you can to your creed". (Bede, H.E., I, xxv.)
265 The king more than made good his words. He invited the missionaries to take up their abode in the royal capital of Canterbury, then a barbarous and half-ruined metropolis, built by the Kentish folk upon the site of the old Roman military town of Durovernum. In spite of the squalid character of the city, the monks must have made an impressive picture as they drew near the abode "over against the Kings' Street facing the north", a detail preserved in William Thorne's (c. 1397) "Chronicle of the Abbots of St. Augustine's Canterbury," p.1759, assigned them for a dwelling. The striking circumstances of their approach seem to have lingered long in popular remembrance; for Bede, writing fully a century and a third after the event, is at pains to describe how they came in characteristic Roman fashion (more suo) bearing "the holy cross together with a picture of the Sovereign King, Our Lord Jesus Christ and chanting in unison this litany", as they advanced: "We beseech thee, O Lord, in the fulness of thy pity that Thine anger and Thy holy wrath be turned away from this city and from Thy holy house, because we have sinned: Alleluia!" It was an anthem out of one of the many "Rogation" litanies then beginning to be familiar in the churches of Gaul and possibly not unknown also at Rome. (Martène, "De antiquis Ecclesiae ritibus", 1764, III, 189; Bede, "H.E.", II, xx; Joanes Diac., "De Vita Gregorii", II, 17 in Migne, P.L., LXXXV; Duchesne's ed., "Liber Pontificalis", II, 12.) The building set apart for their use must have been fairly large to afford shelter to a community numbering fully forty. It stood in the Stable Gate, not far from the ruins of an old heathen temple; and the tradition in Thorn's day was that the parish church of St. Alphage approximately marked the site (Chr. Aug. Abb., 1759). Here Augustine and his companions seemed to have established without delay the ordinary routine of the Benedictine rule as practiced at the close of the sixth century; and to it they seem to have added in a quiet way the apostolic ministry of preaching. The church dedicated to St. Martin in the eastern part of the city which had been set apart for the convenience of Bishop Luidhard and Queen Bertha's followers many years before was also thrown open to them until the king should permit a more highly organized attempt at evangelization.
266 The evident sincerity of the missionaries, their single-mindedness, their courage under trial, and, above all, the disinterested character of Augustine himself and the unworldly note of his doctrine made a profound impression on the mind of the king. He asked to be instructed and his baptism was appointed to take place at Pentecost. Whether the queen and her Frankish bishop had any real hand in the process of this comparatively sudden conversion, it is impossible to say. St. Gregory's letter written to Bertha herself, when the news of the king's baptism had reached Rome, would lead us to infer, that, while little or nothing had been done before Augustine's arrival, afterwards there was an endeavor on the part of the queen to make up for past remissness. The pope writes: "Et quoniam, Deo volente, aptum nunc tempus est, agate, ut divina gratia co-operante, cum augmento possitis quod neglectum est reparare". [Greg. Epp., XI (indic., iv), 29.] The remissness does seem to have been atoned for, when we take into account the Christian activity associated with the names of this royal pair during the next few months. Aethelberht's conversion naturally gave a great impetus to the enterprise of Augustine and his companions. Augustine himself determined to act at once upon the provisional instruction he had received from Pope Gregory. He crossed over to Gaul and sought episcopal consecration at the hands of Virgilius, the Metropolitan of Arles. Returning almost immediately to Kent, he made preparations for that more active and open form of propaganda for which Aethelberht's baptism had prepared a way. It is characteristic of the spirit which actuated Augustine and his companions that no attempt was made to secure converts on a large scale by the employment of force. Bede tells us that it was part of the king's uniform policy "to compel no man to embrace Christianity" (H. E., I, xxvi) and we know from more than one of his extant letters what the pope though of a method so strangely at variance with the teaching of the Gospels. On Christmas Day, 597, more than ten thousand persons were baptized by the first "Archbishop of the English". The great ceremony probably took place in the waters of the Swale, not far from the mouth of the Medway. News of these extraordinary events was at once dispatched to the pope, who wrote in turn to express his joy to his friend Eulogius, Bishop of Alexandria, to Augustine himself, and to the king and queen. (Epp., VIII, xxx; XI, xxviii; ibid., lxvi; Bede, H. E., I, xxxi, xxxii.) Augustine's message to Gregory was carried by Lawrence the Presbyter, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Peter one of the original colony of missionary monks. They were instructed to ask for more Gospel labourers, and, if we may trust Bede's account in this particular and the curious group of letters embodied in his narrative, they bore with them a list of dubia, or questions, bearing upon several points of discipline and ritual with regard to which Augustine awaited the pope's answer.
267 The genuineness of the document or libellus, as Bede calls it (H.E., II, i), in which the pope is alleged to have answered the doubts of the new archbishop has not been seriously called in question; though scholars have felt the force of the objection which St. Boniface, writing in the second quarter of the eighth century, urges, vis, that no trace of it could be found in the official collection of St. Gregory's correspondence preserved in the registry of the Roman Church.(Haddan and Stubbs, III, 336; Dudden, "Gregory the Great", II, 130, note; Mason, "Mission of St. Augustine", preface, pp. viii and ix; Duchesne, "Origines", 3d ed., p. 99, note.) It contains nine responsa, the most important of which are those that touch upon the local differences of ritual, the question of jurisdiction, and the perpetually recurring problem of marriage relationships. "Why", Augustine had asked "since the faith is one, should there be different usages in different churches; one way of saying Mass in the Roman Church, for instance, and another in the Church of Gaul?" The pope's reply is, that while "Augustine is not to forget the Church in which he has been brought up", he is at liberty to adopt from the usage of other Churches whatever is most likely to prove pleasing to Almighty God. "For institutions", he adds, "are not to be loved for the sake of places; but places, rather, for the sake of institutions". With regard to the delicate question of jurisdiction Augustine is informed that he is to exercise no authority over the churches of Gaul; but that "all the bishops of Britain are entrusted to him, to the end that the unlearned may be instructed, the wavering strengthened by persuasion and the perverse corrected with authority". [Greg., Epp., XI (indic., iv), 64; Bede, H. E., I, xxvii.] Augustine seized the first convenient opportunity to carry out the graver provisions of this last enactment. He had already received the pallium on the return of Peter and Lawrence from Rome in 601. The original band of missionaries had also been reinforced by fresh recruits, among whom "the first and most distinguished" as Bede notes, "were Mellitus, Justus, Paulinus, and Ruffinianus". Of these Ruffinianus was afterwards chosen abbot of the monastery established by Augustine in honour of St. Peter outside the eastern walls of the Kentish capital. Mellitus became the first English Bishop of London; Justus was appointed to the new see of Rochester, and Paulinus became the Metropolitan of York.
268 Aethelberht, as Bretwalda, allowed his wider territory to be mapped out into dioceses, and exerted himself in Augustine's behalf to bring about a meeting with the Celtic bishops of Southern Britain. The conference took place in Malmesbury, on the borders of Wessex, not far from the Severn, at a spot long described in popular legend as Austin's Oak. (Bede, H.E., II, ii.) Nothing came of this attempt to introduce ecclesiastical uniformity. Augustine seems to have been willing enough to yield certain points; but on three important issues he would not compromise. He insisted on an unconditional surrender on the Easter controversy; on the mode of administering the Sacrament of Baptism; and on the duty of taking active measures in concert with him for the evangelization of the Saxon conquerors. The Celtic bishops refused to yield, and the meeting was broken up. A second conference was afterwards planned at which only seven of the British bishops convened. They were accompanied this time by a group of their "most learned men" headed by Dinoth, the abbot of the celebrated monastery of Bangor-is-coed. The result was, if anything, more discouraging than before. Accusations of unworthy motives were freely bandied on both sides. Augustine's Roman regard for form, together with his punctiliousness for personal precedence as Pope Gregory's representative, gave umbrage to the Celts. They denounced the Archbishop for his pride, and retired behind their mountains. As they were on the point of withdrawing, they heard the only angry threat that is recorded of the saint: "If ye will not have peace with the brethren, ye shall have war from your enemies; and if ye will not preach the way of life to the English, ye shall suffer the punishment of death at their hands". Popular imagination, some ten years afterwards, saw a terrible fulfilment of the prophecy in the butchery of the Bangor monks at the hands of Aethelfrid the Destroyer in the great battle won by him at Chester in 613.
269 These efforts toward Catholic unity with the Celtic bishops and the constitution of a well-defined hierarchy for the Saxon Church are the last recorded acts of the saint's life. His death fell in the same year says a very early tradition (which can be traced back to Archbishop Theodore's time) as that of his beloved father and patron, Pope Gregory. Thorn, however, who attempts always to give the Canterbury version of these legends, asserts — somewhat inaccurately, it would appear, if his coincidences be rigorously tested — that it took place in 605. He was buried, in true Roman fashion, outside the walls of the Kentish capital in a grave dug by the side of the great Roman road which then ran from Deal to Canterbury over St. Martin's Hill and near the unfinished abbey church which he had begun in honour of Sts. Peter and Paul and which was afterwards to be dedicated to his memory. When the monastery was completed, his relics were translated to a tomb prepared for them in the north porch. A modern hospital is said to occupy the site of his last resting place. [Stanley, "Memorials of Canterbury" (1906), 38.] His feast day in the Roman Calendar is kept on 28 May; but in the proper of the English office it occurs two days earlier, the true anniversary of his death.
270 Bede, Hist. Eccl. I and II; Paulus Diaconus, Johannes Diaconus, and St. Gall MSS., Lives of St. Gregory in P.L., LXXV; Epistlae Gregorii, ibid.; Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, ibid., LXXI; Goscelin, Life of St. Gregory in Acta SS., May, VI, 370 sqq.; Wm. Thorne, Chron. Abbat. S. Aug. in Twysden's Decem Scriptores (London, 1652), pp 1758-2202; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland (Oxford, 1869-1873, 3 vols.); Mason (ed.), The Mission of St. Augustine according to the Original Documents (Cambridge, 1897); Dudden, Gregory the Great, His Place in the History of Thought (London, New York, Bombay, 1905); St Gallen MS., ed, Gasquet (1904);Stanley, Memorials of Canterbury (London, 1855, 1906); Bassenge, Die Sendung Augustins zur Bekehrung d. Angelsachsen (Leipzig, 1890); Brou, St. Augustin de Canterbury et ses Compagnons (Paris, 1897); Lévèque, St Augustin de Canterbury, in Rev. des Quest. Hist. (1899), xxi, 353-423; Martielli, Recits des fetes celebrees a l'occ. du 13e centenaire de l'arrivee de St. Aug. en Angleterre (Paris, 1899)
271 Cornelius Clifford
St. Augustine of Hippo
262 See subarticles Life of St. Augustine of Hippo, Works of St. Augustine of Hippo, Teaching of St. Augustine of Hippo.
Augustinians of the Assumption
265 (Also called the Assumptionists.)
266 This congregation had its origin in the College of the Assumption, established in Nîmes France, in 1843, by the Rev. Emmanuel d'Alzon vicar-general of that diocese, some account of whose life and work is given at the end of this article. Although it was organized in 1847, the members did not take their first vows until 1850; they took their public vows at Christmas of the next year. A second house was established in Paris, and they continued their work there, encouraged by the Holy See. The congregation was formally approved by a Brief of 26 November, 1864. The chief objects of the congregation are to combat the spirit of irreligion in Europe and the spread of schism in the East. To this end the Assumptionists have devoted themselves to the work of Catholic higher and secondary education, to the spread of truth by means of the Press, to the conduct of pilgrimages, and to missionary work in the East. In addition to their college at Nîmes they established Apostolic schools where poor students were educated for the priesthood without expense to themselves. They established "La Bonne Presse" which issued periodicals, pamphlets, and books in great numbers the chief publication, "La Croix" appearing simultaneously in several different cities. Their activities provoked the resentment of the French Government, and in 1900 the congregation was suppressed within French territory, this action being based on the charge that they were accumulating a fund to be used in a royalist movement to overthrow the Republic. Many of the Assumptionists left France after this, but some remained as secular priests under the authority of various bishops.
267 At the time of their suppression the Assumptionists maintained twenty Apostolic schools which in twenty-five years gave more than 500 priests to the secular clergy. These schools have all been closed, but the congregation has taken up the work in other quarters. Similar schools have been established in Italy, Belgium, England, and the United States. "La Bonne Presse" was purchased at the time of the suppression by Paul Feron-Vrau, a wealthy manufacturer of Lisle, and all its publications have been continued without any change of policy. Much of the good accomplished by the Assumptionists was effected through this medium. They entered into competition with the irreligious press in family circules, in workshops, and places where workmen congregate, with excellent results. Until recently no popular Catholic paper has reached a degree of circulation equal to that of "La Croix" or of "Le Pèlerin". These two papers are issued at the rate of three million per week, Saturdays this is increased to four million copies. To this must be added the circulation of 600,000 copies of "The Lives of the Saint", 70,000 of the "Les contemporains" besides the many copies of the "Revue scientifique"; "Cosmos"; "Questions actuelles"; "Les Echos de l'Orient"; the "Petit Bleu", and many others. In Chile, where these Fathers have been for thirteen years, they publish in Spanish "Echoes from the Sanctuary of Lourdes". In their journalistic work they were aided by the Oblate Sisters of the Assumption, an order established by them to assist in their Oriental missions, but whose activities are not contained to that field. Until the suppression they directed the women's section in the publishing rooms of the "Christian Press" as well as the hospitals, orphan asylums, and schools.
268 Among other works carried on by the Assmptionists in France prior to their suppression was that of the "Association of Our Lady of Salvation", a society devoted to prayer, almsgiving, and setting a good example for the reformation of the working class. This society was established in eighty dioceses, and it succeeded in drawing the higher classes of society more closely to the workingmen. It encouraged everywhere social prayer, and social and national expiation, and discouraged human respect, social apostasy, and isolation in piety. It raised funds to convey workmen, pilgrims, paupers, and sick poor to Lourdes to the number of a thousand each year; it was zealous in the cause of workmen's clubs, and of Catholic Schools, and was active in the movement in favour of the keeping of Sunday as a day of rest. Another field of missionary labour was found among the Newfoundland fishermen. Every year 12,000 or 15,000 fishermen leave the coasts of France, Belgium, and Ireland, to go to the Banks of Newfoundland for codfish. The Prostestants have long maintained a flotilla of hospital ships, with which they go to the aid of these unfortunate men and, while ministering to their material needs, draw their souls to heresy. The Assumptionists found here a field for their activity and zeal. They have organized the most prominent catholic sailors into a committee and have been encouraged to equip two catholic hospital ships, which now succour the unfortunate fishermen. The vessels have already been wrecked twice, but have been replaced, and the Assumptionists have continued their labours.
269 The Assumptionists have been active missionaries in the Orient, where at the present time 300 of the congregation, Fathers and Brothers, and nearly 400 Sisters are engaged. Their labours take them from the Balkans to the Dead Sea. They have established there twenty-two permanent residences thirty regular missionary stations, and fifteen institutions entrusted to the Oblates of the Assumption. In the schools in Turkey in Europe and Turkey in Asia the Assumptionists have 2,500 scholars. Here the Oblates have opened a hospital an orphanage, and nine gratuitous dispensaries, where they care for about 30,000 sick every year. Of the twenty-two public churches of the congregation in the East twelve are parishes, and in four of them the Offices are held in the rites of the Orient (Greek, or Slav). These rites the Assumptionists have embraced to render the teaching of the Gospel more fruitful. The Orientals, whether from love of their legitimate traditions, or from ignorance, make of the exterior form of the rites a question of supreme importance. Called in 1862 to work for the conversion of the Bulgarians to Catholic unity, the Assumptionists have founded in the Turkish quarter of Adrianople, and in Karagatch the European quarter, a residence with a Slav church and a Latin church a hospital, three schools and a Bulgarian seminary of the Greek and Slav Rites, in which forty young men receive their maintenance and are prepared for the office of the sacred ministry. A similar work is being done at Philippopoli, the cradle of the Oriental missions of the Assumptionists. There is also a primary school, attended by 200 scholars, and an educational institute, many of the former pupils of which occupy important official positions in Eastern Rumelia. The Assumptionists have also churches and schools of different rites at Yamboli and Varna.
270 At the instance of Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli when he was Apostolic delegate, the Assumptionists went to Constantinople and established themselves in the Turkish quarter at Koum-Kapou. The animosity of the Turks and the jealousy of the Greeks and Armenians caused the new missionaries to be very badly received. To escape persecution they worked on their building at night, doing their masonry, carpentry and painting themselves. By this stratagem they constructed their church of Anastasia, the first church consecrated to Catholic worship in this quarter since 1453. This church, to favour the conversion of the schismatics, was consecrated to the Greek Rite and dedicated by the Apostolic delegate himself. The congregation possess other Greek churches at Kadikoi (Chalcedon) on the Asiatic bank of the Bosporus, and at Gallipoii. In order to prepare a native clergy, the Assumptionists have opened at Stamboul (Constantinople) a petit séminaire, where sixty young men are instructed in the Greek Rite. At Kadikoi in the great Leonine seminary, they follow with the ordinary theological course special lessons in preparation for the pastoral ministry. They are also given instructions in liturgy, history, canon law and in the Greek, Turkish, and Slav languages. At the day of its opening this seminary had thirty scholars and eight professors. At Stamboul, as at kadikoi, there are flourishing schools for boys and girls, with more than 700 scholars in attendance. They do not suffice for receiving all the scholars who present themselves. To the labours of teaching are united those of the apostleship, in behalf of the natives as well as foreigners. At Stamboul and at Kadikoi the priests preach and hear confessions in Italian, French, German, Greek, and Turkish. In the various houses established throughout the empire at least ten living languages are spoken. Greeks, Latins, and Orientals unite for the conferences of St. Vincent de Paul, and the Sisters visit and ensure for the sick to the number of 10,000 annually.
271 Their knowledge of the Oriental languages has been of great service to the Assumptionist Fathers in their journalistic labours. Twelve of the Fathers who are the most skilled in these studies write in thie Oriental Review. They have their special bulletin, "Les Echos de l'Orient", which circulates among Greeks and Orientals. Because of the Oriental love of splendour in external worship the feasts of the Blessed Sacrament are celebrated with great pomp. With the consent of the authorities, and under the protection of a corps of soldiers the processions of the Blessed Sacrament are conducted through all the streets around Santa Sophia. The Catholic funerals solemnized with reverential pomp produce also a great effect upon the impressionable natives. In l890 the Congregation of the Propaganda confided to the Assumptionists the territory in Asia Minor extending from Broussa to Angora. It practically embraces the ancient Bithynia. Already six residences have been established there; in the city of Broussa of 100,000, they have established a large and two churches, one of which is the Latin parish. The towns of Eski-Chehir Ismid, Sultan Eschoir, Koniah (Iconium), Fanaraki have each a residence for the priests with a public church; the Oblate Sisters are also established in these places. At Jerusalem the Assumptionists have erected the Hostelry of Our Lady of France for the reception of pilgrims annexed to which is a scholasticate of forty religious. They have established there also the Society of the Croises of Purgatory and they have a church in which to receive the Latin pilgrims. The Eucharitic Congress at Jerusalem in 1893 was held in the Hostelry of our Lady of France.
272 Emmanuel-Joseph-Marie-Maurice d'Alzon, founder and first Superior General of the Augustinians of the Assumption was born 30 August, 1810, and died at Nîmes, 21 November, 1880. He was a member of a noble family, and, being an only son, encountered strong opposition when he decided to enter the clerical state. He studied at the seminary of Montpellier and later at Rome, where he was ordained priest 26 December 1834. On his return to France the next year he was appointed Vicar-General of the Diocese of Nîmes, which position he held for forty-five years, serving under four bishops. Among his earliest notable works was the establishment at Nîmes in 1843 of the children of the aristocracy. This college later became the cradle of his congregation. He was associated with Guéranger, Louis Veuillot, and other champions of the Catholic cause. With the "Revue de l'enseignement chrétien", which he founded and directed, he restored the Christian spirit in classical studies. To combat Protestatism in Southern France he established the Association of St. Francis de Sales. He also suggested the idea of the ecclesiastical caravan, formed by the priests at Nîmes, who by request of Mgr. Plantier came to Rome to visit the sovereign pontiff. This was the beginning of the great French pilgrimages called the national pilgrimages, the directors of which were for many years the religious of the order founded by Père d'Alzon. By his "alumnats", or Apostolic schools, he supplied the education of the poor children called to the priesthood, who, owing to lack of means, could not be admitted to the seminaries. The Fathers of the Assumption opened fifteen of these houses which in twenty-five years gave more than 500 priests to the secular clergy. To sustain this work of charity, Père d'Alzon founded the Association of Our Lady of Vocations, enriched with numerous indulgences, by Pius IX and Leo XIII. The brotherhood, by a degree of the Holy See was been canonically established in the chapel of the College of Nîmes, and has received the approbation of many bishops. Père d'Alzon was much esteemed by the Popes Gregory XVI and Pius IX. The later in 1863 sent him to Constantinople to found in the East the missions of the Congregation of the Assumption. More than once he was proposed for the episcopate, but he always declined the honour, preferring to devote himself to the work of his congregation.
273 Thomas Gaffney Taaffe
Antonius Augustinus
268 Historian of canon law and Archbishop of Tarragona in Spain, born at Saragossa 26 February, 1517, of a distinguished family; died at Tarragona, 31 May, 1586. After finishing his studies at Alcalá and Salamanca, he went to Bologna (1536), to Padua (1537), and to Florence (1538) in which latter place he examined the famous "Codex Florentinus" of the Pandects and made the acquaintance of such learned men of the new historical school as Andrea Alciati, to whom he owed a confirmation of his pronounced bent towards a positive and critical treatment of the ancient materials of canonical jurisprudence. In 1541 he took his degree of Doctor of Civil and Canon Law and in 1544, at the request of the Emperor Charles V, he was made Auditor of the Rota by Paul III. In 1555 he was sent by Paul IV to England, with a message of congratulation for Queen Mary and as Counsellor to Cardinal Pole. In 1056 he was made Bishop of Alife, in the Kingdom of Naples, and in 1561 was transferred to Lerida in his native Spain. He assisted during three years at the Council of Trent and urged ardently the reformation of the clergy. "It is our fault", he said in the council, "that so great an agitation has arisen in France and Germany. We must begin with the reformation of the clergy. It is your business, O Fathers, to save by your decrees the common weal of the Church that is now threatened." In 1576 he was promoted by Gregory XIII to the archiepiscopal see of Tarragona.
269 Augustinus is one of the foremost figures of the Catholic Counter-Reformation that set in with so much vigour and success in the latter half of the sixteenth century. His chosen field was the fontes, or original sources of ecclesiastical law both papal and conciliar. The basis of the medieval canon law was the "'Decretum" of Gratian, a usetul codificatlon of the middle of the twelfth century, the ecclesiastical law-book of the schools and the universities, of great academic authority, but never formally approved by the popes as church legislation. Its materials, never hitherto critically illustrated as to their prominence and form, and often badly corrupted as to their text, stood in need of judicious sifting and elucidation. It was to this task that the young Augustinus addressed himself from 1538 to l 543. In the latter year he published at Venice the first critical study on Gratian, "Emendationum et Opinionum libri IV" the result of four years' labour at the text of the old medieval Benedictine of Bologna. This text remained his life-long study; towards the close of his career, after important services rendered during ten years to the "Correctores Romani" in their edition of Gratian (Rome, 1582), he finished his own magisterial examination of the work; it was not, however, published until after his death, " De Emendatione Gratiani dialogi (30) libri II" (Tarragona, 1587).
270 Other important publications of the sources of civil and ecclesiastical law occupied his pen. Thus he published in 1567 an edition of the Byzantine imperial constitutions in 1576 his "IV antiquae Collectiones Decretalium", in 1582 a treatise on the "Pœnitentiale Romanum" discovered by him. From 1557 he sought earnestly for the necessary patronage, papal or regal, to enable him to publish the hitherto unedited Greek text of the ancient ecclesiastical councils, and for that purpose examined many archives in Italy and Germany, the fruits of his labours were reaped at a later date by others. Among the more valuable of his posthumous publications, and appealing strongly to modern historical tastes, is a critical examination of several early medieval collections of canon law that served as original materied for the "Decretum" of Gratian. This work, that Maassen and von Scherer speak of with respect, is entitled "De quibusdam veteribus Canonum Ecclesiasticorum Collectionibus Judicium et censura", and was published at Rome (1611) with the second and third parts of his "Juris Pontificii Veteris Epitome" (to Innocent III, ll98-1216), the first part of which appeared at Tarragona in 1587. It contains biographical and text-critical notes on a number of collectors of ecclesiastical laws, from the sixth to the fact that the books were themselves in many century. In this work he treats progressively of the pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, and while he did not dispose of sufficient material to demonstrate thoroughly their spurious character or to attempt to fix the time and place of their compilation, it is clear that he did not believe them earlier than the time of Pope Damasus (366-384) or even of the seventh century "Collectio Hispana". His notes on the correlated "Capitula Hadriani" (Angilramni) were published at Cologne in 1618. His powerful genius was truly universal. Classical philology, epigraphy, numismatics, above all the history of civil and ecclesiastical law found in him an investigator whose boldness and insight where extraordinary for that period of incipient historico-critical research. Death surprised him at the patriotic task of an edition of the works of the Spanish writer, St. Isidore of Seville. The works of Augustinus were printed in eight volumes at Lucca (1775-74); his life by Siscarius is in the second volume 1-121.
271 Thomas J. Shahan
Augustinus-Verein
271 An association organized in 1878 to promote the interests of the Catholic press, particularly the daily press, of Germany. The society proposes to attain its end
272 by giving its moral support to the establishment of Catholic papers;
273 by furnishing trustworthy information and authentic news to the daily papers;
274 by training Catholic journalists, and giving assistance to the members of the profession in need of it;
275 by representing the interests of the profession;
276 by securing positions and giving informatiom and assistance in all matters connected with journalism, free of charge and finally
277 by endeavouring to bring about the harmonious co-operation of Catholic publishers, as well as uniformity in treating the questions of the day.
278 The lack of organization on the part of the Catholic Press first became obvious at an early stage of the Kulturkampf; several unsuccessful attempts were made to supply the deficiency, among others the formation of a society of publishers. The first feasible steps were taken at the Catholic Convention at Würzburg; at subsequent gatherings plans were matured, and at Düsseldorf, 15 May, 1878, a programme was drawn up which is substantially followed out in the present Augustinus-Verein, Düsseldorf became the centre of the Verein, which, now that it has spread throughout Germany, is divided into ten groups, corresponding to geographical divisions, each, to a large extent autonomous. A general assembly is held annually. The Verein has its own organ, the "Augustinusblatt", published at Krefeld. It also conducts a literary bureau, a beneficial society, a parliamentary correspondence association of the Centre Party, in Berlin, and an employment agency. In 1904 the society had a regular membership of 850, in addition to the associate membership.
279 F.M. Rudge
Augustopolis
274 A titular see of Palestine, suffragan of Petra. Its episcopal list (431-536) is given in Gams (p. 454). There were two other sees of the same name, one in Cilicia, a suffragan of Tarsus, the other in Phrygia (Asia Minor), suffragan of Synnada. Its episcopal list (Gams,( p. 446) extends from 359 to 869.
Augustus
277 The name by which Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus, the first Roman emperor, in whose reign Jesus Christ was born, is usually known; born at Rome, 62 B.C.; died A.D. 14. It is the title which he received from the Senate 27 B.C., in gratitude for the restoration of some privileges of which that body had been deprived. The name was afterwards assumed by all his successors. Augustus belonged to the gens Octavia and was the son of Caius Octavius, a praetor. He was the grand-nephew of (Caius) Julius Caesar, and was named in the latter's will as his principal heir. After the murder of Julius Caesar, the young Octavianus proceeded to Rome to gain possession of his inheritance. Though originally in league with the republican party, he eventually allied himself with Mark Antony. Through his own popularity, and in opposition to the will of the senate he succeeded (43 B.C.) in obtaining the consulate. In the same year he entered into a pat with Antony and Lepidus by which it was agreed that for five years they would control the affairs of Rome. This (second) Triumvirate (tresviri reipublicae constituendae) so apportioned the Roman dominions that Lepidus received Spain; Antony, Gaul; and Augustus, Africa, Sicily, and Sardinia. The first concerted move of the Triumvirate was to proceed against the murderers of Caesar and the party of the Senate under the leadership of Brutus and Cassius. A crushing defeat was inflicted on the latter at the battle of Philippi (42 B.C.), after which the fate of Rome rested practically in the hands of two men. Lepidus, always treated with neglect, sought to obtain Sicily for himself, but Augustus soon won over his troops, and, on his submission, sent him to Rome where he spent the rest of his life as pontifex maximus.
278 A new division of the territory of the Republic between Antony and Augustus resulted, by which the former took the East and the latter the West. When Antony put away his wife Octavia, the sister of Augustus, through infatuation for Cleopatra, civil war again ensued, whose real cause is doubtless to be sought in the conflicting interests of both, and the long-standing antagonism between the East and the West. The followers of Antony were routed in the naval battle of Actium (31 B.C.), and Augustus was left, to all intents and purposes, the master of the Roman world. He succeeded in bringing peace to the long-distracted Republic, and by his moderation in dealing with the senate, his munificence to the army, and his generosity to the people, he strengthened his position and became in fact, if not in name, the first Emperor of Rome. His policy of preserving intact the republican forms of administration and of avoiding all semblance of absolute power or monarchy did not diminish his power or weaken his control. Whatever may be said in regard to the general character of his administration and his policy of centralization, it cannot be denied that he succeeded effectually in strengthening and consolidating the loosely organized Roman state into a close and well-knit whole. He was a patron of art, letters, and science, and devoted large sums of money to the establishment and enlargement of Rome. It was his well-known boast that he "found it of brick and left it of marble". Under his management, industry and commerce increased. Security and rapidity of intercourse were obtained by means of many new highways. He undertook to remove by legislation the disorder and confusion in life and morals brought about, in great measure, by the civil wars. His court life was simple and unostentatious. Severe laws were made for the purpose of encouraging marriages and increasing the birth-rate. The immorality of the games and the theatres was curbed, and new laws introduced to regulate the status of freedmen and slaves. The changes wrought by Augustus in the administration of Rome, and his policy in the Orient are of especial significance to the historian of Christianity. The most important event of his reign was the birth of Our Lord (Luke 2:1) in Palestine. The details of Christ's life on earth, from His birth to His death, were very closely interwoven with the purposes and methods pursued by Augustus. The Emperor died in the seventy-sixth year of his age (A.D. 14). After the battle of Actium, he received into his favour Herod the Great, confirmed him in his title of King of the Jews, and granted him the territory between Galilee and the Trachonitis, thereby winning the gratitude and devotion of Herod and his house. After the death of Herod (750 A.U.C.), Augustus divided his kingdom between his sons. One of them, Archelaus, was eventually banished, and his territory, together with Idumaea and Samaria, were added to the province of Syria (759 A.U.C.). On this occasion, Augustus caused a census of the province to be taken by the legate, Sulpicius Quirinius, the circumstances of which are of great importance for the right calculation of the birth of Christ. See ROMAN EMPIRE; LUKE, GOSPEL OF.
279 Sources
280 The chief sources for the life of Augustus are the Latin writers, SUETONIUS, TACITUS, VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, and CICERO (in his Epistles and Philippics); the Greek writers, NICHOLAS OF DAMASCUS, DIO CASSIUS, and PLUTARCH. See also his official autobiography, the famous Monumentum Ancyranum. For the origin and character of the legends that, at an early date, made Augustus one of the "prophets of Christ" see GRAF, Roma nella memoria e nelle immaginazioni del Medio Evo (Turin, 1882), I, ix, 308, 331.
281 Patrick J. Healy
Aumbry
280 Variously written AMBRY, or AUMBRYE, is a derivative through the French of the classical armarium, or medieval Latin almarium. Its original meaning was a cupboard and it has never lost this more general sense, but even in classical Latin it had of it acquired in addition the special signification of a cupboard of holding books. This limited meaning was widely prevalent in the Middle Ages. Thus in the ten-century rule of Cluny the library is called armarium, and the official who had charge of it armarius, while by an arrangement which was long and widely observed both in Benedictine and in other monastic houses, this armarius, or librarian, was usually identical with the precentor. In Ælfric's Anglo-Saxon glossary, compiled at the beginning the Anglo-Saxon word bochord (book-hoard, i.e. library), is interpreted bibliotheca vel armarium vel archirum. Similarly it was a common proverb in religious houses, which meets us as early as 1170, that claustrum sine armario est quasi castrum sine armamentario (a monastery without a library is like a fortress without an arsenal). Besides this, owing to the number of cupboards and presses needed for storing vestments, church plate, etc., the word armaruim was also not unfrequently used for the sacristy, though this may also be due to the fact the books were themselves in many cases kept in the sacristy. In German the word Almerei, a derivative of armarium, has the meaning of sacristy.
281 Herbert Thurston
St. Aunarius
283 (Or Aunacharius).
284 Bishop of Auxerre in France, born 573, died 603. Being of noble birth, he was brought up in the royal court, but evinced a desire to enter the clerical state, was ordained priest by St. Syagrius of Autum, and eventually was made Bishop of Auxerre. His administration is noted for certain important disciplinary measures that throw light on the religious and moral life of the Merovingian times. He caused solemn litanies to be said daily in the chief centres of population, by rotation, and on the first day of each month in the larger towns and monasteries. He enforced a regular daily attendance at the Divine Office on the part both of regular and secular clergy. He held (681 or 585) an important synod of four bishops, seven abbots, thirty-five priests, and four deacons for the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline and the suppression of popular pagan superstitions, and caused the lives of his predecessors Amator and Germanus to be written. He was buried at Auxerre, where he has always been held in veneration. His remains were later enclosed in a golden chest, but were partially dispersed by the Huguenots in 1567. A portion, however, was placed in the hollow pillar of a crypt, and saved. His feast is celebrated 25 September.
285 Thomas J. Shahan.
Aurea
286 Golden).
287 A title given to certain works and documents:
288 Bulla, the charter of emperor Charles IV, establishing (10 January, 1356), in union with the estates of the empire, the law of future imperial elections.
289 Catena, a collection of Scriptural commentaries made by St. Thomas Aquinas.
290 Legenda, a collection of lives of saints (legendae) by Jacopo da Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa in the thirteenth century.
291 Summa Hostiensis, also Summa Archiepiscopi, a famous exposition of the principal parts of the Decretals of Gregory IX, by Henricus de Segusio, Cardinal of Ostia (d. 1271).
292 Tabula, an index to the "Summa Theologica" of St. Thomas Aquinas prepared by Pietro da Bergamo.
Aurelian
289 (Lucius Dominius Aurelianus).
290 Roman Emperor, 270-275, born of humble parents, near Sirmium in Pannonia, 9 September, 214; died 275. At the age of twenty he entered the military service, in which, because of exceptional ability and remarkable bodily strength his advancement was rapid. On the death of Claudius he was proclaimed Emperor by the army at Sirmium, and became sole master of the Roman dominions on the suicide of his rival Quintillus, the candidate of the Senate. When Aurelian assumed the reins government the Roman world was divided three sections: the Gallo-Roman Empire, established by Postumus, comprising Gaul and Britain; the Kingdom of Palmyra, which held sway over the entire Orient, including Egypt and the greater part of Asia Minor, and the Roman Empire, restricted to Italy, Africa, the Danubian Provinces of Africa, convoked and presided at the Greece, and Bithynia. On the upper Danube, Rhaetia and Northern Italy were overrun by the Juthungi, while the Vandals were preparing to invade Pannonia. The internal affairs of Rome mere equally deplorable. The anarchy of the legions and the frequent revolutions in preceding reigns had shattered the imperial authority; the treasury was empty and the monetary system ruined. With no support but that afforded by the army of the Danube, Aurelian undertook to restore the material and moral unity of the Empire; and to introduce whatever reforms were necessary to give it stability. Enormous as this project was, in the face of so many obstacles, he succeeded in accomplishing it in less than five years. When he died, the frontiers were all restored and strongly defended, the unity of the Empire was established, the administration was reorganized, the finances of the Empire placed on a sound footing, and the monetary system thoughly revised. His scheme for the complete unification of the Empire led him to attempt to establish the worship of the sun as the supreme god of Rome. During the early rears of his reign Aurelian exhibited remarkable justice and tolerance towards the Christians. In 272, when he had gained possession of Antioch, after defeating Zenobia in several battles, he was appealed to by the Christians to decide whether the "Church building" in Antioch belonged to the orthodox bishop Domnus, or to the party represented by the favourite of Zenobia, Paul of Samosata, who had been deposed for heresy by a synod held three or four years before. His decision, based probably on the Edict of Gallienus, was that the property belonged to those who were in union with the bishops of Italy and of the city of Rome (Eus., Hist. Eccl. VII, xxvii-xxx). As this act was based on political motives, it cannot be construed into one of friendliness for the Christians. As soon as he was at liberty to carry out his schemes for internal reform Aurelian revived the polity of his predecessor Valerian, threatened to rescind the Edict of Gallienus, and commenced a systematic persecution of the followers of Christ. The exact date of the inauguration of this policy is not known. It is summer of 275 and despatched to the governors of the provinces, but Aurelian was slain before he could put it into execution. Tradition refers to his reign a large number of Acta Martyrum, none of which is considered to be authentic (Dom Butler, "Journal of Theological Studies", 1906, VII, 306). His biographer Vopiscus, says (c. xx) that he once reproached the Roman Senate for neglecting to consult the Sibylline Books in an hour of imminent peril. "It would seem", he said, "as if you were holding your meetings in a church of the Christians instead of in a temple of all the gods"; from which statement it has been rightly inferred that "the decline of the old faith was caused by the progress of the new, and that the buildings then used for the worship of the Christians were becoming more and more conspicuous".
291 Patrick J. Healy
Aureliopolis
292 A titular see of Lydia in Asia Minor, whose episcopal list (325-787) is given in Gams (p. 447).
Aurelius
295 Archbishop of Carthage from 388 to 423. From the title of St. Cyprian, Carthage was one of the foremost sees in Christendom. Its bishop though not formally bearing the title of Primate, confirmed the episcopal nominations in all the plenary councils, which were held almost yearly and signed the synodal letters in the name of all the participants. Such a post Aurelius occupied with destination at a time when Africa held the intellectual leadership in the Church. His episcopate coincided with the last great effort made by the Donatists to uphold a losing cause, and with the first apperance of Pelagianism. Both these crises Aurelius met with equal decision and wisdom. A man of conciliating disposition, and a great lover of peace, his tendency to an indulgent treatment of repentant Donatists was conspicuous in the synodal acts of his own church, and in the plenary councils over which he presided he consistently upheld the same moderate policy. But when the Donatists resorted to rebellion and wholesale murder, he joined his colleagues in appealing to the secular power. He was the first to unmask and denounce Pelagianism. In 412 he excommunicated, and drove from Carthage Caelestinus, the disciple of Pelagius. In 416 he condemned them both, in a synod of sixty-eight bishops of the Proconsulate, and induced Innocent I to brand their two principal errors by defining the necessity of grace and of infant baptism. When Pope Zosimus allowed himself to be deceived by Pelagius's lying professions, he held (4l7) a plenary council of his Africa brethren, and in their names warned the Pontiff who in turn (418) condemned the heresiarchs. Aurelius is mentioned in the African martyrology on 20 July.
296 A.J.B. Vuibert
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
298 Roman Emperor, A.D. 161-180, born at Rome, 26 April, 121; died 17 March, 180.
299 His Early Life (121-161)
300 His father died while Marcus was yet a boy, and he was adopted by his grandfather, Annius Verus. In the first pages of his "Meditations" (I, i-xvii) he has left us an account, unique in antiquity, of his education by near relatives and by tutors of distinction; diligence, gratitude and hardiness seem to have been its chief characteristics. From his earliest years he enjoyed the friendship and patronage of the Emperor Hadrian, who bestowed on him the honour of the equestrian order when he was only six years old, made him a member of the Salian priesthood at eight, and compelled Antoninus Pius immediately after his own adoption to adopt as sons and heirs both the young Marcus and Ceionius Commodus, known later as the Emperor Lucius Verus. In honour of his adopted father he changed his name from M. Julius Aurelius Verus to M. Aurelius Antoninus. By the will of Hadrian he espoused Faustina, the daughter of Antoninus Pius. He was raised to the consularship in 140, and in 147 received the "tribunician power".
301 His Reign (161-180)
302 His co-reign with Lucius Verus (161-169). In all the later years of the life of Antoninus Pius, Marcus was his constant companion and adviser. On the death of the former (7 March, 161) Marcus was immediately acknowledged as emperor by the Senate. Acting entirely on his own initiative he at once promoted his adopted brother Lucius Verus to the position of colleague, with equal rights as emperor.
303 With the accession of Marcus, the great Pax Romana that made the era of the Antonines the happiest in the annals of Rome, and perhaps of mankind, came to an end, and with his reign the glory of the old Rome vanished. Younger peoples, untainted by the vices of civilization, and knowing nothing of the inanition which comes from overefinement and over-indulgence, were preparing to struggle for the lead in the direction of human destiny. Marcus was scarcely seated on the throne when the Picts commenced to threaten in Britain the recently erected Wall of Antoninus. The Chatti and Chauci attempted to cross the Rhine and the upper reaches of the Danube. These attacks were easily repelled.
304 Not so with the outbreak in the Orient, which commenced in 161 and did not cease until 166. The destruction of an entire legion (XXII Deiotariana) at Elegeia aroused the emperors to the gravity of the situation. Lucius Verus took the command of the troops in 162 and, through the valor and skill of his lieutenants in a war known officially as the Bellum Armeniacum el Parthicum, waged over the wide area of Syria, Cappadocia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Media, was able to celebrate a glorious trumph in 166. For a people so long accustomed to peace as the Romans were, this war was wellnigh fatal. It taxed all their resources, and the withdrawal of the legions from the Danubian frontier gave an opportunity to the Teutonic tribes to penetrate into the rich and tempting territory. People with strange-sounding names — the Marcomanni, Varistae, Hermanduri, Quadis, Suevi, Jazyges, Vandals — collected along the Danube, crossed the frontiers, and became the advance-guard of the great migration known as the "Wandering of the Nations", which four centuries later culminated in the overthrow of the Western Empire. The war against these invaders commenced in 167, and in a short time had assumed such threatening proportions as to demand the presence of both emperors at the front.
305 After the death of Lucius Verus (169-180). Lucius Verus died in 169, and Marcus was left to carry on the war alone. His difficulties were immeasurably increased by the devastation wrought by the plague carried westward by the returning legions of Verus, by famine and earthquakes, and by inundations which destroyed the vast granaries of Rome and their contents. In the panic and terror caused by these events the people resorted to the extremes of superstition to win back the favour of the deities through whose anger it was believed these visitations were inflicted. Strange rites of expiation and sacrifice were resorted to, victims were stain by thousands, and the assistance of the gods of the Orient sought for as well as that of the gods of Rome.
306 The Thundering Legion incident (174). During the war with the Quadi in 174 there took place the famous incident of the Thundering Legion (Legio Fulminatrix, Fulminea, Fulminata) which has been a cause of frequent controversy between Christian and non-Christian writers. The Roman army was surrounded by enemies with no chance of escape, when a storm burst. The rain poured down in refreshing showers on the Romans, while the enemy were scattered with lighting and hail. The parched and famishing Romans received the saving drops first on their faces and parched throats, and afterwards in their helmets and shields, to refresh their horses. Marcus obtained a glorious victory as a result of this extraordinary event, and his enemies were hopelessly overthrown.
307 That such an event did really happen is attested both by pagan and Christian writers. The former attribute the occurrence either to magic (Dion Cassius, LXXI, 8-10) or to the prayers of the emperor (Capitolinus, "Vita Marci", XXIV; Themistius, "Orat. XV ad Theod"; Claudian, "De Sext. Cons. Hon.", V, 340 sqq.; "Sibyl. Orac.", ed. Alezandre, XII, 196 sqq. Cf. Bellori, "La Colonne Antonine", and Eckhel, "Doctrina Nummorum", III, 64). The Christian writers attributed the fact to the prayers of the Christians who were in the army (Claudius Apollinaris in Eusebius, "Hist. Eccl.", V, 5; Tertullian, "Apol.", v; ad Seap. c. iv), and soon there grew up a legend to the effect that in consequence of this miracle the emperor put a stop to the persecution of the Christians (cf. Euseb. and Tert. opp cit.). It must be conceded that the testimony of Claudius Apollinaris (see Smith and Wace, "Dict. of Christ. Biogr.", I, 132-133) is the most valuable of all that we possess, as he wrote within a few years of the event, and that all credit must be given to the prayers of the Christians, though it does not necessarily follow that we should accept the elaborate detail of the story as given by Tertullian and later writers [Allard, op. cit. infra, pp. 377, 378; Renan, "Marc-Aurèle" (6th ed., Pari 1891), XVII, pp. 273-278; P. de Smedt, "Principes de la critique hist." (1883) p. 133].
308 His death (180). The last years of the reign of Marcus were saddened by the appearance of a usurper, Avidius Cassius, in the Orient, and by the consciousness that the empire was to fall into unworthy hands when his son Commodus should come to the throne. Marcus died at Vindobona or Sirmium in Pannonia. The chief authorities for his life are Julius Capitolinus, "Vita Marci Antonini Philosophi" (SS. Hist. Aug. IV); Dion Cassius, "Epitome of Xiphilinos"; Herodian; Fronto, "Epistolae" and Aulus Gellius "Noctes Atticae".
309 Assessment
310 General assessment. Marcus Aurelius was one of the best men of heathen antiquity. Apropos of the Antonines the judicious Montesquieu says that, if we set aside for a moment the contemplation of the Christian verities, we can not read the life of this emperor without a softening feeling of emotion. Niebuhr calls him the noblest character of his time, and M. Martha, the historian of the Roman moralists, says that in Marcus Aurelius "the philosophy of Heathendom grows less proud, draws nearer to a Christianity which it ignored or which it despised, and is ready to fling itself into the arms of the Unknown God." On the other hand, the warm eulogies which many writers have heaped on Marcus Aurelius as a ruler and as a man seem excessive and overdrawn. It is true that the most marked trait in his character was his devotion to philosophy and letters, but it was a curse to mankind that "he was a Stoic first and then a ruler". His dilettanteism rendered him utterly unfitted for the practical affairs of a large empire in a time of stress. He was more concerned with realizing in his own life (to say the truth, a stainless one) the Stoic ideal of perfection, than he was with the pressing duties of his office.
311 Philosophy became a disease in his mind and cut him off from the truths of practical life. He was steeped in the grossest superstition; he surrounded himself with charlatans and magicians, and took with seriousness even the knavery of Alexander of Abonoteichos. The highest offices in the empire were sometimes conferred on his philosophic teachers, whose lectures he attended even after he became emperor. In the midst of the Parthian war he found time to keep a kind of private diary, his famous "Meditations", or twelve short books of detached thoughts and sentences in which he gave over to posterity the results of a rigorous self-examination. With the exception of a few letters discovered among the works of Fronto (M. Corn. Frontonis Reliquiae, Berlin, 1816) this history of his inner life is the only work which we have from his pen. The style is utterly without merit and distinction, apparently a matter of pride for he tells us he had learned to abstain from rhetoric, and poetry, and fine writing. Though a Stoic deeply rooted in the principles developed by Seneca and Epictetus, Aurelius cannot be said to have any consistent system of philosophy. It might be said, perhaps, in justice to this "seeker after righteousness", that his faults were the faults of his philosophy rooted in the principle that human nature naturally inclined towards evil and heeded to be constantly kept in check. Only once does he refer to Christianity (Medit., XI, iii), a spiritual regenerative force that was visibiy increasing its activity, and then only to brand the Christians with the reproach of obstinacy (parataxis), the highest social crime in the eyes of Roman authority. He seems also (ibid.) to look on Christian martyrdom as devoid of the serenity and calm that should accompany the death of the wise man. For the possible relations of the emperor with Christian bishops see ABERCIUS OF HIEROPOLIS, and .
312 His dealings with the Christians. In his dealings with the Christians Marcus Aurelius went a step farther than any of his predecessors. Throughout the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius, the procedure followed by Roman authorities in their treatment of the Christians has that outlined in Trajan's rescript to Pliny, by which it was ordered that the Christians should not be sought out; if brought before the courts, legal proof of their guilt should be forthcoming. [For the much-disputed rescript "Ad conventum Asiae" (Eus., Hist. Eccl., IV, xiii), see ]. It is clear that during the reign of Aurelius the comparative leniency of the legislation of Trajan gave way to a more severe temper. In Southern Gaul, at least, an imperial rescript inaugurated an entirely new and much more violent era of persecution (Eus., Hist. Eccl., V, i, 45). In Asia Minor and in Syria the blood of Christians flowed in torrents (Allard, op. cit. infra. pp. 375, 376, 388, 389). In general the recrudescence of persecution seems to have come immediately through the local action of the provincial governors impelled by the insane outcries of terrified and demoralized city mobs. If any general imperial edict was issued, it has not survived. It seems more probable that the "new decrees" mentioned by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. IV, xx-i, 5) were local ordinances of municipal authorities or provincial governors; as to the emperor, he maintained against the Christians the existing legislation, though it has been argued that the imperial edict (Digests XLVIII, xxix, 30) against those who terrify by superstition "the fickle minds of men" was directed against the Christian society. Duchesne says (Hist. Ancienne de l'Eglise, Paris, 1906 p. 210) that for such obscure sects the emperor would not condescend to interfere with the laws of the empire. It is clear, however, from the scattered references in contemporary writings (Celsus "In Origen. Contra Celsum", VIll, 169; Melito, in Eus., "Hist. Eccl.", IV, xxvi; Athenagoras, "Legatio pro Christianis", i) that throughout the empire an active pursuit of the Christians was now undertaken. In order to encourage their numerous enemies, the ban was raised from the delatores, or "denouncers", and they were promised rewards for all cases of successful conviction. The impulse given by this legislation to an unrelenting pursuit of the followers of Christ rendered their condition so precarious that many changes in ecclesiastical organization and discipline date, at least in embryo, from this reign.
313 Another significant fact, pointing to the growing numbers and influence of the Christians, and the increasing distrust on the part of the imperial authorities and the cultured classes, is that an active literary propaganda, emanating from the imperial surrounding, was commenced at this period. The Cynic philosopher Crescens took part in a public disputation with St. Justin in Rome. Fronto, the precepter and bosom friend of Marcus Aurelius, denounced the followers of the new religion in a formal discourse (Min. Felix, "Octavius", cc. ix, xxxi) and the satirist Lucian of Samosata turned the shafts of his wit against them, as a party of ignorant fanatics. No better proof the tone of the period and of the widespread knowledge of Christian beliefs and practices which prevailed among the pagans is needed than the contemporary "True Word" of Celsus (see ), a work in which were collected all the calumnies of pagan malice and all the arguments, set forth with the skill of the trained rhetorician, which the philosophy and experience of the pagan world could muster against the new creed. The earnestness and frequency with which the Christians replied to these assaults by the apologetic works (see , , ) addressed directly to the emperors themselves, or to the people at large, show how keenly alive they were to the dangers arising from these literary or academic foes.
314 From such and so many causes it is not surprising that Christian blood flowed freely in all parts of the empire. The excited populace saw in the misery and bloodshed of the period a proof that the gods were angered by the toleration accorded to the Christians, consequently, they threw on the latter all blame for the incredible public calamities. Whether it was famine or pestilence, drought or floods, the cry was the same (Tertullian, "Apologeticum", V, xli): Christianos ad leonem (Throw the Christians to the lion). The pages of the Apologists show how frequently the Christians were condemned and what penalties they had to endure, and these vague and general references are confirmed by some contemporary "Acta" of unquestionable authority, in which the harrowing scenes are described in all their gruesome details. Among them are the "Acta" of Justin and his companions who suffered at Rome (c. 165), of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonica, who were put to death in Asia Minor, of the Scillitan Martyrs in Numidia, and the touching Letters of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne (Eus., Hist. Eccl., V, i-iv) in which is contained the description of the tortures inflicted (177) on Blandina and her companions at Lyons. Incidentally, this document throws much light on the character and extent of the persecution of the Christians in Southern Gaul, and on the share of the emperor therein.
315 Patrick J. Healy
Petrus Aureoli
301 (Aureolus, D'auriol, Oriol).
302 A Franciscan philosopher and theologian, called on account of his eloquence Doctor facundus, born 1280 at Toulouse (or Verberie-sur-Oise); d. 10 January, I322 (Denifle; other dates assigned are 1330 and 1345). He entered the Orator of Friars Minor studied at Toulouse, taught theology there and at Paris and became (1319) provincial of his order (Province of Aquitaine). John XXII appointed him Archbishop of Aix (1321). He defended the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception in a public disputation at Toulouse (1314), in his "De Conceptione Mariae Virginis" and "Repercussorium" (reply to opponents of the doctrine), in his "Sermons" and in commentary on St. Bernard's teaching. His other principal works are the commentary on the "Sentences" of Peter Lombard (Rome, 1596-1605), "Quodlibeta", and "Breviarium Bibliorum", an introduction to the Scriptures with literal commentary, which appeared in numerous editions at Venice, Paris, and Louvain. A new edition by Seeboeck was published at Quaracchi in 1896. In philosophy Aureoti was a Conceptualist and a forerunner of Occam. He criticized the doctrine of St. Thomas and defended, though not in all points, the views of Scotus. His writings on the Immaculate Conception were published by Petrus de Alva in the "Monumenta Seraphica Imm. Concept".
303 E.A. Pace
Auriesville
304 The site of the Mohawk village, Montgomery County, New York, U.S.A., in which Father Issac Jogues, and his companions, Goupil and Lalande, were put to death for the Faith by the Indians. It is on the south bank of the Mohawk, about forty miles west of Albany. Auries was the name of the last Mohawk who lived there, and from this the present designation was formed. It was known among the Indians as Ossernenon, also Gandawaga and Caughnawaga, the latter being given to the settlement on the St. Lawrence opposite Lachine which was established for the Iroquois converts who wanted to withdraw from the corruption of their pagan kinsmen. To the village on the Mohawk Jogues and Goupil were brought in 1642 as prisoners, and, in 1646, Jogues again, with Lalande. In 1644 Bressani was tortured there, and later on Poncet. In 1655-56-57 Le Moyne came as ambassador to make peace; and the year after the punitive expedition of the Marquis de Tracy a permanent mission was established (1667). There Father Boniface, James de Lambervllle, Fremin, Bruyas, Pierron, and others laboured until 1684, when the mission was destroyed. The famous Indian girl, Tegakwitha, was born there. From it she escaped to Canada. While the missionaries were m control of Ossernenon and the adjacent Indian towns, the Mohawk converts were remarkable for their exact Christian life, and in many instances for their exalted piety.
305 The exact location of this village, which is so intimately associated with the establishment of Christianity in New York, was for a time a subject of considerable dispute. The researches of John Gilmary Shea, whose knowledge of the history of the early mission was so profound, at first favoured the view that the old village was on the other side of the Mohawk at what is now Tribes Hill. More thorough investigations, however, aided by the conclusions of Gen. J. S. Clarke of Auburn, whose knowledge of Indian sites both in New York and Huronia is indisputable, have shown finally that the present Auriesville is the exact place in which Father Jogues and his companions suffered death. The basic evidence is the fact that, up to the time of their destruction by de Tracy, the villages were certainly on the south side of the Mohawk and west of the Schoharie--as is clear from contemporary maps, and from Jogues's, Bressani's, and Poncet's letters. Joliet, one of the most accurate cartographers of the time, puts the village of Ossernenon at the Schoharie and Mohawk. To further particularize it, Jogues said the village was on the top of the hill, a quarter of a league from the river. The ravine in which Goupil's body was found is also specified by Jogues, and he speaks of a watercourse and a rivulet uniting there--a feature still remaining. The distances from Andagaron and Tionontoguen given by Father Jogues also fix the exact locality.
306 Satisfied that the precise spot had been determined, ten acres of land on the hill were purchased in 1884 by the Rev. Joseph Loyzance, S.J., who was at that time parish priest of St. Joseph's, Troy , N.Y., who had all his life an ardent student of the lives of early missionaries. Father Loyzance erected a small shrine on the hill under the title of Our Lady of Martyrs, and he was the first to lead a number of pilgrims to the place, on the 15th of August of that year, which was the anniversary of the first arrival of Father Jogues as an Iroquois captive. Four thousand people went from Albany and Troy on that day. Other parishes subsequently adopted the practice of visiting Auriesville during the summer. Frequently there are as many as four or five thousand people present. The ground has been since extended beyond the original limits, of keeping the surroundings free from undesirable buildings. Many of the pilgrims come fasting and receive Holy Communion at the shrine. The entire day is passed in religious exercises, but anything which could in the least savour of any public cult of the martyrs is sedulously guarded against, as such anticipation of the Church's official action would seriously interfere with the cause of their canonization, which is now under consideration at Quebec. The present buildings on the site are only of a temporary nature. If the Church pronounces on the reality of martyrdom of the three missionaries, more suitable edifices will be erected.
307 T. J. Campbell
Giovanni Aurispa
307 A famous ltalian humanist and collector of Greek manuscripts, born about 1369 at Noto, in Sicily; died at Ferrara in 1459. It is not known where he first studied. In 1418 he went to Constantinople to learn Greek and to collect codices. So industrious was he that he was accused to the Greek emperor of despoiling the city of books. He returned to Venice in 1423 with 238 volumes of classical authors, purchased at Constantinople. Among his treasures were the celebrated "Codex Laurentianus" (seven plays of Sophocles, six of Æschylus, Apollonius's "Argonautica") of the tenth century, the Iliad, Demosthenes, Plato, Xenophon, etc. The next year Aurispa went to Bologna, where he became professor of Greek at the university. As a teacher he was not very successful. Thence he was invited to Florence, where he also held the chair of Greek. Later he went to Ferrara. In 1441 he was appointed secretary to Pope Eugene IV. Six years later Pope Nicholas V reappointed him to the same post. Besides being a tireless collector of manuscripts, Aurispa was a poet of some merit. His published works include letters, epigrams, and an elegy.
308 Edmund Burke
Aurora Lucis Rutilat
310 This is one of the Ambrosian hymns, but its author is unknown. It has been revised and separated into three hymns for the Roman Breviary. The first sixteen lines form the hymn for Lauds from Low Sunday to the Ascension, and begin in the revised form, Aurora Caelum Purpurat. There are many English versions in use among Protestants. Dr. J.M. Neale's translation begins "Dawn purples all the east with light". The hymn "Tristes Erant Apostoli" (lines 17-32 of the original text) is in the Office, Common of Apostles and Evangelists for paschal time at the first and second Vespers and Matins. This hymn has also been translated into English. The Gregorian melody is in the third mode and may be found in the "Vesperale Romanum". Lines 33 to the end of the ancient hymn form "Paschale Mundo Gaudium," the hymn at Lauds in the Common of Apostles in paschal time. Among the English versions, besides Dr. Neale's are those of J.A. Johnston in his "English Hymnal (1852), "with sparkling rays morn decks the sky";. E. Caswall, "Lyra Catholica" (1849), "The dawn was purpling o'er the sky"; J. D. Chambers, "Lauda Syon" (1857), "Light's very morn its beams displays".
311 Joseph Otten
Ausculta Fili
313 A letter addressed 5 December 1301, by Pope Boniface VIII to Philip the Fair, King of France. Philip was at enmity with the Pope. Under the pretext of his royal rights, he conferred benefices, and appointed bishops to sees, regardless of papal authority. He drove from their sees those bishops who, in opposition to his will remained faithful to the Pope. This letter is couched in firm but paternal terms. It points out the evils the king has brought to his kingdom, to Church and State; invites him to do penance and mend his ways. It was unheeded by the king, and was followed by the famous Bull "Unam Sanctam".
314 M. O'Riordan
Decimus Magnus Ausonius
316 A professor and poet born about A. D. 310; died, probably, about A.D. 394. The son of a physician of Bordeaux, he studied first in that city, then at Toulouse, with his uncle AEmilius Magnus Arborius. The latter having gone to teach in Constantinople, Ausonius returned to Bordeaux, where he became professor of grammar, and later of rhetoric. Between 364 and 368, Valentinian invited him to Trier to teach his son Gratian. In 368 and 369 Ausonius accompanied the emperor on the expedition against Alemani, and received a young Swabian, Bissula, as the share of his booty. The emperors overwhelmed him with honours, and made him first Prefect of the Gauls, then Prefect of the West conjointly with his son Hesperius (between August, 378, and July, 379). In 379 he became consul. After the assassination of Gratian, his benefactor (383), Ausonius moved to Bordeaux where he lived among many admiring friends, and wrote a great deal of poetry. He lived through almost the whole of the fourth century. The writings of Ausonius are generally short, and they form a miscellaneous collection which is divided into two groups:
317 I. Occasional Works
318 (1) "Epigrams": short poems on different subjects often translated from the Greek Anthology.
319 (2) "Parentalia": thirty eulogies on deceased relatives, with some occasional expressions of personal sentiment (about 379).
320 (3) "Commemoratio professorum Burdigalensium": a collection like the preceding, giving an idea of a university in the fourth century (after 389).
321 (4) "Mosella": a description of the River Moselle and the country through which it flows, written awhile traveling from Bingen to Trier (c 371). This poem has a certain local and archaeological interest.
322 (5) Charming poems relating to Bissula (after 368).
323 (6) Many brief poems, which Ausonius called eclogues or "Epyllia"; paschal-time prayers (368); "Epicedion": dirge on his father's death (d. 378); advice to his grandson (about 380); "Cupido crucifixus": description of a painting in a dining-room at Trier, which represented Cupid as tormented in hell by the women who pursued him on earth, etc.
324 (7) "Gratiarum actio dicta domino Gratiano Augusto", in which Ausonius expresses in prose his thanks for having been made consul. This was read at Trier in 379, and is made up of flowers of rhetoric and conventional flatteries.
325 (8) "Ephemeris": the account of daily duties, from morning to night; a fragment (379). In this work is found a morning prayer composed of Biblical expressions in which the doctrine of the Trinity is set forth in detailed formulae directed against heresies of the times.
326 (9) "Letters": twenty-five epistles, mostly in verse. The most interesting are addressed to St. Paulinus of Nola (393) and in them Ausonius bewails a conversion that deprives the State and literature of the benefit of such a brilliant mind and tries to lead the saint back to worldly life at Rome. This correspondence lays before us two ideals of life, it expresses in clear colours the views which at that time were in conflict with each other, and divided society.
327 (10) "Praefatiunculae": prefaces and envois to poems.
328 II. School Exercises and Fragments
329 These are chiefly mnemonic verse: "Caesares", on the Roman emperors; consular annals; "Ordo nobilium urbium", eulogies on cities, beginning with Rome and ending with Bordeaux (after 388); "Eclogae", a collection of mnemonic verses, treating of trees, the months, the calendar, weights, etc.; "Periochae" (Contents), prose headings for the Iliad and the Odyssey. It is doubtful whether Ausonius wrote these, but they were at least the work of a member of the circle to which he belonged, short poems on the labours of Hercules; on the Muses; on ethical subjects (translations of Greek originals, inspired by Pythagorean philosophy). Other writings are lectures by a professor; Epitaphs, eulogies on dead heroes of the Trojan War, modelled after the Greek, and epitaphs on Niobe Diogenes, etc., translated from the Greek; Epyllia, various pieces, among others an enigma on the number three, a diversion of a courtier to go to war (368); "Cento nuptials" (an ingenious concept of the same origin, the result of a wager made with Valentinian), extracts from Virgil, the conclusion of which (consummatio matrimonii) is not very refined (368); "Taecnopaegnion", collection of verses in which each ends in a monosyllable; the authenticity of the Consul Ausonius's prayer, written in ropalic verse (verse composed successively of words of one, two, three, four, five syllables and so on) is doubtful, "Ludus septem sapientum"; this product of the seven sages is a kind of scholastic drama, in which, after a prologue, each sage recites a proverb; at the end, they invite the audience to applaud. It is a document interesting for the history of pedagogy and also for the medieval drama.
330 To appraise Ausonius justly it must be borne in mind that he represents the professor of the fourth century. Some of his works, therefore, written for the school and in the spirit of the school, frequently translations from the Greek, are unimportant. A versifier to whom any subject could appeal (the more difficult and the less poetical it was, the better), Ausonius knew by heart the works of his predecessors, but by his taste and metrical peculiarities showed himself a disciple rather of the poets of the new school (neoterici, poetic innovators of the time of the Severi) than of the classic poets. In this work, Austin assuming the disguise of an work the letters to Paulinus of Nola are an exception to the whole, which is almost void of ideas. Ausonius's attitude in regard to Christianity should be explained in the same way. The paganism of his works is the paganism of the schools, and, if one would base on that the doubt that he was a Christian, inversely, his literary manner of treating mythology should make it questionable whether he was a pagan. But the paschal prayer, and still more, the prayer of the "Ephemeris" could not have been by a pagan. An orthodox Christian in his prayers, he was a pagan in the classroom. Hence his works, which are class-room productions, may very naturally seem pagan. It is said that after the edict of Julian (362) Ausonius had to give up teaching; but there is nothing to prove this, nor is there any proof to the contrary, as Julian died the following year. It is supposed that, like some of his contemporaries, Ausonius remained a catechumen for a long time. It is possible that he was not baptized until the time when we lose all trace of him, in the last silent and obscure days of his old age.
331 Paul Lejay
John Austin
319 An English lawyer and writer, born 1613 at Walpole, in Norfolk; died London, 1669. He was a student of St. John's College, Cambridge, and of Lincoln's Inn, and about 1640 embraced the Catholic Faith. He was highly esteemed in his profession and was looked on as a master of English style. His time was entirely devoted to books and literary pursuits. He enjoyed the friendship of such scholars as the antiquary Blount, Christopher Davenport (Franciscus a Santa Clara), John Sergeant, and others. Among his writings are: "The Christian Moderator; or Persecution for Religion condemned by the Light of Nature, by the Law of God, the Evidence of our Principles, but not by the Practice of our Commissioners for Sequestrations—In Four Parts" ( London, 1652, 4to.) . It was published under the pseudonym of William Birchley, and in it he frequently disclaims the pope's deposing power. "In his work, Autin assuming the disguise of an independent, shows that Catholics did not really holds the odious doctrines vulgerly attributed to them, and makes an energetic appeal to the independents to extend to the adherents of the persecuted church such rights and privileges as were granted to other religious bodies" (Dict. of Nat. Biogr., II, 264). "The Catholique's Plea; or an Explanation of the Roman Catholik Belief, concerning their Church, Manner of Worship, Justification, Civil Government, Together with a Catalogue of all the Poenal Statutes against popish Recusants, all which is humbly submitted to serious consideration, By a Catholick Gentleman" (London, 1659, 18mo.) also under the pseudonym of William Birchley; "Reflections upon the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance; or the Christian Moderator, The Fourth Part, By a Catholick Gentleman, an obedient son of the Church and loyal subject of his Majesty" (London, 1661); "A Punctual Answer to Doctor John Tillotson's book called 'The Rule of Faith'" (unfinished), "Devotions, First Part: In the Ancient Way of Offices, With Psalms, Hymns, and Prayers for every Day in the Week, and every Holiday in the Year". It is not known when and where the first edition appeared; the second, a duodecimo, is dated 1672. An edition printed at Edinburgh, 1789, contains a life of the author, presumably by Dodd. This work was adapted to the uses of the Anglican Church in Hick's "Harmony of the Gospels", etc., (London, 1701), and has been often reprinted as a stock book under the Hick's Devotions. "Devotions, Second Part, The Four Gospels in one, broken into Lessons, with Responsories, To be used with the Offices, Printed Anno Domini 1675" (2 vols., Paris, 12mo), a posthumous work, divided into short chapters with a verse and prayer at the end of each. The prayers, says Gillow, "gave rise to offense under the impression that they favoured Blackloe's doctrine concerning the middle state of souls, and on account of this the work was not republished". A third part of the "Devotions" was never printed; it contained, according to the author's own statement "Prayers for all occasions framed by an intimate friend according to his (Austin's) directions, and overlooked by himself". He also wrote several anonymous pamphlets against the divines who sat in the Westminster Assembly.
320 Thomas J. Shahan
Australia
322 (Also known as NEW HOLLAND till about 1817).
323 Australia is geographically the world's great island-continent. Politically, the mainland, with the adjoining island of Tasmania, forms the Commonwealth of Australia. This is under the British Crown and consists of the following six States, which were federated on 1 Jan., 1901, and are here named in the order in which they became separate colonies of the British Empire: New South Wales (1788); Tasmania (1803); Western Australia (1826); South Australia (1836); Victoria (1851); and Queensland (1859). The Commonwealth covers an area of 2,980,632 square miles. It is, territorially, about one-fourth smaller than Europe, one-sixth larger than the United States (excluding Alaska), over one and a half the size of the Indian Empire, more than fourteen times larger than Germany or France, and about twenty-five times larger than the British Isles. At the census of 1901 the population of the six States was as follows: New South Wales, 1,339,943; Western Australia, 182,553; Victoria, 1,201,341; Queensland, 503,266; South Australia, 362,604; Tasmania, 172,475. This gave the Commonwealth in 1901 a total population of 3,782,182. The official estimate of the total population for December, 1905, was 4,002,893.
324 I. the Convict System
325 The north and west coasts of Australia figure in the maps of Spanish and Portuguese navigators as far back as about the year 1530. But it was the War of American Independence that led to the settling of the white man on the shores of the great lone continent. At that time, and until the nineteenth century was well advanced, the maxim of Paley and of others of his school, that crime is most effectually prevented by a dread of capital punishment, held almost complete control of the legislative mind in Great Britain. "By 1809", says a legal authority in the "National History of England" (IV, 309), "more than six hundred different offences had been made capital-a state of law unexampled in the worst periods of Roman or Oriental despotism". Transportation was the ordinary commutation of, or substitute for, the slip-knot of the hangman. From 1718 to 1776 British convicts had been sent in considerable numbers annually under contractors, into servitude on the American mainland. The traffic was stopped by the War of Independence. At the close of the struggle the British prisons and, later on, the prison-hulks overflowed. The colony of New South Wales (till 1826 synonymous with the whole Australian mainland) was established as a convict settlement by an Order in Council dated 6 December, 1785. On 13 May, 1787, "the first fleet", provisioned for two years, left England, with 1,030 souls on board, of whom 696 were convicts. They reached Botany Bay on 20 January, 1788. They abandoned it after a few days because of its shallow waters, and laid the foundatios of Sydney on the shores of the noble and spacious harbour to which they gave the name of Port Jackson. The men who founded Sydney and the Commonwealth of Australia "may have been convicts", says Davitt, "but they wer not necessarily 'criminals', such as we are familiar with to-day. Some account must be taken of what constituted a crime in those transportation days, and of the hideously unjust sentences which were inflicted for comparatively trivial offences" (Life and Progress in Australasia, 193-194).
326 Within the next decade, the ranks of the original convict population were swelled by a goodly percentage of the 1,300 unoffending Catholic peasants from the North and West of Ireland who were seized and deported by "Satanides" Carhampton and the Ulster magistrates during the Orange reign of terror in 1795-96, "without sentence", as Lecky says, "without trial, without even the colour of legality" (Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, III, 419; England in the Eighteenth Century, VIII, 250). After the insurrection of 1798, "a stream of Irish political prisoners was poured into the penal settlement of Botany Bay, and they played some part in the early history of the Australian colonies, and especially of Australian Catholicism" (Lecky, England in the Eighteenth Century, VIII, 250). In his "Catholic Mission in Australia" (1836), Dr. Ullathorne says of those early Irish political convicts: "Ignorance or violation of religious principle, the knowledge or habits of a criminal life, were scarcely to any extent recognizable features in this unhappy class of Irish political prisoners. On the contrary, the deepest and purest sentiments of piety, a thorough comprehension of religious responsibility, and an almost impregnable simplicity of manner, were their distinctive virtues on their first consignment to the guardianship of the law. In many illustrious cases, a long and dangerous residence in the most depraved penal settlements was unable to extinguish these noble characteristics." During the first three decades of the nineteenth century the convict population was notably increased by the addition of many who had taken part in the agitations in connexion with tithes, the Charter and Reform movements, the Combination Laws, and the Corn Laws. During the first fifty years and more of the Australian penal settlements, convictions and sentences of deportation were matters of fearful facility. For no provision was made for the defence of prisoners unable to procure it for themselves; the right of defence throughout the entire trial was not recognized till 1837; jurors were allowed to act as witnesses; and, belonging as they generally did, to "the classes", they were too prone to convict, and judges to transport, especially during periods of popular ferment, on weak or worthless evidence, or on the mere presumption of guilt (See National History of England, IV, 310).
327 Convictism endured in New South Wales from its first foundation in 1788 till 1840. Tasmania remained a penal colony till 1853. Transportation to Norfolk Island ceased in 1855. Moreton Bay (in the present State of Queensland) became a convict station in 1824 and remained one till 1839. Western Australia began as a penal settlement in 1826. It continued as such for only a very brief space. Owing to the dearth of free labour, convicts (among whom was the gifted John Boyle O'Reilly, a political prisoner) were reintroduced from 1849 till 1868, when the last shadow of "the system" was lifted from Australia. Two noted Catholic ecclesiastics (Dr. Ullathorne and Dr. Wilson, first Bishop of Hobart) took a prominent and honoured part in the long, slow movement which led to the abolition of the convict system in New South Wales, Tasmania, and Norfolk Island. Almost from the dawn of the colonization of New South Wales and Tasmania, voluntary settlers went thither, at first as stragglers, but in a steady stream when the advantages of the country became known, when irresponsible military rule ceased (in 1842) and when free selection and assisted immigration were planks in the policy of the young Australian colonies. The first free settlers came to Queensland (known till its separation in 1859 as the Moreton Bay District of New South Wales) in 1824, just in advance of the convicts; to Victoria (known till its separation in 1851 as the Port Phillip District of New South Wales) in 1835, and to South Australia in 1836. The gold discoveries of the fifties brought a great inrush of population, chiefly to Victoria and New South Wales. Events have moved rapidly since then. The widened influences of religion, the influx of new blood, the development of resources, prosperity, education, and the play of free institutions have combined to rid the southern lands of the traces of a penal system which, within living memory, threatened so much permanent evil to the moral, social, and political progress of Australia. The dead past has buried its dead.
328 The reformation of the criminal formed no part of the convict system in Australia. "The body", says Bonwick, "rather than the soul, absorbed the attention of the governors" (First Twenty Years of Australia, 218). "Vengeance and cruelty", says Erskine May, "were its only principles; charity and reformation formed no part of its scheme" (Constitutional History of England, III, 401). For the convict, it was a beast-of-burden life, embittered by the lash, the iron belt, the punishment-cell, the prison-hulk, the chain-gang, and the "hell". "The 'whipping-houses' of the Mississippi", says Dilke, had their parallel in New South Wales; a look or word would cause the hurrying of a servant to the post or the forge, as a preliminary to a month in a chain-gang on the roads" (Greater Britain, 8th ed., 373). For idleness, for disobedience, for drunkenness, for every trivial fault, the punishment was "the lash!-the lash!-the lash!" (Dr. Ullathorne, in Cardinal Moran's History of the Catholic Church in Australasia, 156). And the "cat" was made an instrument of torture (Dilke, Greater Britain, 8th ed., 374). Matters were even worse in the convict "hells" of New Norfolk (established in 1788), and of Port Arthur and Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania. In 1835 Dr. Ullathorne went to New Norfolk to prepare thirty-nine supposed conspirators for an abrupt passage into eternity. Twenty-six of the condemned men were reprieved. They wept bitterly on receiving the news, "while those doomed to die, without exception, dropped on their knees and with dry eyes thanked God they were to be delivered from so horrid a place". They "manifested extraordinary fervour and repentance", received their sentence on their knees "as the will of God", and on the morning of their execution "they fell down in the dust and, in the warmth of their gratitude, kissed the very feet that had brought them peace" (Ullathorne in Moran, op. cit., 16l4).
329 For a long period Australian officials and ex-officials were to all intents and purposes a great "ring" of spirit-dealers. Rum became the medium of commerce, just as tobacco, and maize, and leaden bullets were in the early days of New England (History of New South Wales from the Records, II, 271-273). The cost of building the first Protestant church in Australia (at Sydney) was, as the pastor's balance sheet shows, in part paid in rum (op. cit., II, 66). "Rum-selling and rum-distilling debauched the convicts and their guards" (José, History of Australia, 21), and the moral depravity that grew up under the system is described by Dr. Ullathorne as "too frightful even for the imagination of other lands" (Moran, op. cit., pp. 8-11, and "Historical Records of New South Wales", II and III passim). The Irish Catholic convicts-"most of whom", says Ullathorne (in Moran, op. cit., 152-153), "were transported for the infringement of penal laws and for agrarian offence and minor delinquencies"-had generally (according to the same eyewitness) a lively dread of the depravity of the prison hells of the system. Irish Catholic female convicts were also saved to a notable extent by their robust faith from the profligacy which, almost as a matter of course, overtook their less fortunate sisters from other countries (McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, ed. 1887, I, 467; Ullathorne, in Moran, 157-158). Long before, similar testimony was given by John Thomas Bigge, after he had spent three years (1819-22) in Australia as Special Commissioner from the British Government to investigate the working of the transportation system. In his final report (dated 6 May, 1822) he said: "The convicts embarked in Ireland generally arrive in New South Wales in a very healthy state, and are found to be more obedient and more sensible of kind treatment during the passage than any other class. Their separation from their native country is observed to make a stronger impression upon their minds, both on their departure and during the voyage."
330 II. Period of Persecution
331 The influences of religion were not allowed to remedy to any great extent the hard animalism and inhumanity of the convict system. Anglicanism was de facto, although not de jure, the established religion of the Australian penal colonies. But the Anglican chaplain, frequently a farmer, run-holder, and magistrate, was more conspicuously a civil than a religious functionary. Methodism (then a branch of the Anglican Establishment) made a feeble beginning in Australia in 1813; Presbyterianism in 1823; other Protestant denominations at later dates (Bonwick, First Twenty Years of Australia, 240). In 1836, when Dr. Ullathorne wrote his pamphlet, "The Catholic Mission in Australia", Catholic and other dissidents were still compelled to attend the more or less perfunctory services of the Anglican Church (in Moran, op. cit., 153). The penalties for refusal, provided at various times in General Orders, consisted in reduced rations, imprisonment, confinement in prison-hulks, the stocks, and the urgent pressure of the public flagellator's "can-o'-nine-tails"-twenty-five lashes for the first offence, fifty for the second, and for the third, the road-gangs, or transportation to the "living death" of the convict hells. (See the official and other evidence in Moran, op. cit., 11-19.) As late as 5 March, 1843, a convict named Bernard Trainer was sentenced to fourteen days' imprisonment in Brighton jail for refusing to attend the Protestant service (Therry MSS., in Moran, 19). This abuse of power continued in Tasmania till 1844 (Hogan, The Irish in Australia, 3d ed., 257-258). Both in New South Wales and Tasmania, the children of Catholic convicts and all orphans under the care of the State were brought up in the profession of the dominant creed. In 1792 there were some three hundred Catholic convicts and fifty Catholic freemen (mancipists) in New South Wales. Nine years later, in 1801, there were 5,515 inhabitants in the penal settlement (Bonwick, First Twenty Years of Australia, 175-176). About one-third of these were Catholics; but no regular statistics of religious belief were kept at the time (Kenny, The Catholic Church in Australasia to the Year 1840, 20). Among the "little flock" there were three priests who had been unjustly transported on a charge of complicity in the Irish insurrection of 1798-Fathers James Harold, James Dixon, and Peter O"Neill. The last-mentioned priest had been barbarously scourged on a suborned charge of having abetted murder-a crime of which he was afterwards proved to be wholly innocent. Father Harold was the uncle of the Rev. Dr. William Vincent Harold, O.P., famous in the Hogan Schism in Philadelphia, and en route to Ireland in 1810, from Australia, he visited Philadelphia (Moran, op. cit., 33).
332 These priests were strictly forbidden the exercise of their sacred ministry. After repeated representations, Father Dixon was at length, by order of the Home Government, conditionally emancipated, and permitted to celebrate Mass once a month, under galling restrictions (see Historical Records of New South Wales, V, 110). He offered the Holy Sacrifice for the first time in New South Wales, 15 May, 1803. There was no altar-stone; the chalice, the work of a convict, was of tin; the vestments were made of parti-coloured old damask curtains sacrificed for the occasion, and the whole surroundings of this memorable event in the history of the Church in Australia bespoke the poverty of Bethlehem and the desolation of Calvary. After little more than a year, Father Dixon's precious privilege was withdrawn, and the last state of the Catholic convicts became worse than the first. Father O'Neill had in the meantime (1803) been restored to Ireland, with his character completely vindicated. In 1808 Father Dixon, broken down in health, was permitted to return to his native diocese. Two years later he was followed to Ireland by Father Harold, and till 1817 a deep spiritual desolation brooded over the infant Church in Australia. In the last-mentioned year there were some 6,000 Catholics in and about Sydney alone. The representations of the returned priestly exiles resulted at length in the appointment of Father Jeremiah Flynn, an Irish Cistercian, as Prefect Apostolic of New Holland. Obstacles were thrown in his way by the Colonial Office. He placed the matter in the hands of the Rt. Rev. Dr. Poynter, and, relying on the known influence of his English friend, set sail in good faith for his distant field. On his arrival in Sydney, Governor Macquarie bluntly informed him that no "Popish missionary" would be allowed to intrude within the settlement, and that every person in the penal colony must be a Protestant.
333 Father Flynn ministered secretly to his flock whenever he could evade the watchful eyes of hostile officials. A few months after his arrival he was suddenly arrested without warrant or accusation, placed under lock and key in prison, and, without trial, shipped back to London as a prisoner by the first vessel homeward bound. Before his arrest he used secretly to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries in the house of a pious Catholic named Davis. There the Sacred Species were reserved for the sick and dying, in a cedar press, or tabernacle. Father Flynn vainly besought permission to return to the house. And there, for two years after his departure, the taper or lamp was ever kept alight, and, with pathetic devotion, the children of sorrow gathered in adoration around the Bread of Life. The "Holy House of Australia", with its small adjoining grounds and the sum of £1,000 was devoted to religion by Davis, and on its site now stands a fine church dedicated to God under the invocation of the national apostle of Ireland. Governor Macquarie's harsh and illegal treatment of Father Flynn created a stir in the British House of Commons. It opened up the whole scandalous story of the persecution of the Catholic convicts and settlers in Australia, created a healthy reaction, and led to the appointment of two Irish chaplains, Father Philip Connelly (who went to Hobart) and Father John Joseph Therry (who remained in Sydney), each with a slender yearly salary of £100. That was in May, 1821. With that day, to use the words of Archbishop Carr of Melbourne "what may be termed the period of the Church suffering ends, and that of the Church militant begins".
334 III. Period of Partial Toleration
335 The new era inaugurated by Fathers Connelly and Therry was, however, one of only partial toleration of the Catholic Faith. It extended from their arrival in Australia, and was marked by long and successful struggles against religious ascendancy, the partial cessation of convictism, and the beginnings fo the present hierarchical organization. In 1821 New South Wales and Tasmania (the only places then colonized) contained a white population of 35,610 souls. Some 30 per cent of these were Catholics. At a census taken in 1828 there were in eastern Australia 36,598 whites, of whom 11,236 were Catholics. Serious restrictions were still placed upon the marriage of Catholic convicts. The chaplains were strictly forbidden to receive converts from any Protestant denomination, or to interfere with the old-standing abuse of bringing up all the children in State-aided institutions in the creed of the Church of England (Hogan, The Irish in Australia, 3d ed., 236-237). And through and over it all ran the constant effort to set up the Protestant Reformed Religion as the Established Church of the new south lands. A great stride in the direction of such an establishment was made when, on 17 July, 1825, Royal Letters set apart for the ruling creed one-seventh of the whole territory of New South Wales, without prejudice to previous grants bestowed upon it. It was in great measure to Father Therry's energy and ardour that this crowning act of ascendancy owed its partial defeat. The Royal Grant was revoked in 1834, but in the meantime, 435,000 acres of the public domain had been alienated for the benefit of the Anglican Church. Father Therry's frequent collisions with abuses created a deadlock with the Sydney officials. This, in turn, led to the appointment of Dr. Ullathorne, a distinguished English Benedictine, as Vicar-General of the Bishop of Mauritius, who exercised jurisdiction over Australia till 1834.
336 Dr. Ullathorne arrived in his new field of labour in 1833. In that year the white population of New South Wales (i. e., of the whole island continent except Western Australia) had risen to 60,794. Of these, some 36,000 were free. The Catholic body, numbering 17,179 and scattered over a vast area, was ministered to by four priests. There were on the Australian mainland four Catholic schools, and four churches under construction (one of them Old St. Mary's, Sydney). Tasmania (as we still call it by anticipation) had only one Catholic priest, no school, and its one church (at Hobart) was described by Dr. Ullathorne as "a mere temporary shed". Sir Richard Bourke, a broad-minded Irish Protestant, was at that time Governor of New South Wales. Through his exertions was passed the Church Act of 1836, which broke up the quasi-monopoly of State appropriations for the clergy and the denominational schools that had hitherto been enjoyed by the Church of England (Therry, New South Wales and Victoria, ed. 1883, 17; Flanagan, History of New South Wales, I, 512, 513). Despite its admitted shortcomings, this was, in the circumstances of the time and country, a notable measure. It ended forever the dream of a Protestant ascendancy on the Australian mainland, and is justly regarded as the first Charter of the country's religious liberties. A Church Act on similar lines was passed in Tasmania in 1837. During the governorship of Sir Richard Bourke Catholics (Roger, afterwards Sir Roger, Therry, and John Hubert Plunkett) were also, for the first time in the history of Australia, appointed to positions of any importance under the Crown. Under this administration the annual influx of free immigrants (some 3,000) equalled for the first time that of the convicts (Sutherland, History of Australia, 12th ed., 51, 52).
337 Australia was gradually rolling out of the sullen gloom of a penal settlement, and emerging into the condition of a freeman's country. The Catholic population increased rapidly. Their numbers and their distance from the immediate centre of their spiritual jurisdiction led, in 1834, to the formation of Australia, Tasmania, and the adjacent islands (including New Zealand) into a vicariate Apostolic. The Right Rev. John Bede Polding, an English Benedictine, was appointed its first bishop. In 1841 his vast diocese contained some 40,000 Catholics, ministered to by twenty-eight priests, and scattered over a territory nearly as large as Europe. The Australian mainland and Tasmania had in that year a population of 211,095 souls. At the census of that year, there were 35,690 of Bishop Polding's spiritual subjects in a total population of 130,856 in New South Wales (which then included the present States of Queensland and Victoria). Among the other scatterred Catholics was a little group, poor labourers all, except one family, in a white population of some 15,000 souls in South Australia. This colony had been founded in 1836 as a free and "socially superior" Protestant settlement, from which "Papists and pagans" were to have been rigidly excluded. A few Catholics, however, crept in. They were ministered to by one priest (Father Benson) who lived among them in apostolic poverty from 1839 till the arrival of the first Bishop of Adelaide, Dr. Murphy, in 1842. In Western Australia there were 2,311 hard-pressed colonists at the census of 1840. There were very few Catholics among them, and no priest till 1845, when there arrived in the colony Dom Rudesind Salvado, a Spanish Benedictine, afterwards founder and first Abbot of New Norcia. A closer hierarchical organization was needed. At Bishop Polding's earnest solicitations new dioceses were created by the Holy See: Hobart, in 1842; Adelaide, in 1843; Perth, in 1845; Melbourne, Maitland, and Port Victoria, in 1848. Sydney also became an archiepiscopal see. Dr. Wilson, the first Bishop of Hobart, will be remembered for his successful opposition to the efforts made, despite the local Church Act of 1837, to have Anglicanism placed on the same official footing as in England. It was the last serious effort to establish a religious ascendancy in any part of Australasia. In New South Wales the first synod was held in 1844. Six years later, the first sod of the first railroad in Australasia was turned in the capital of the mother-colony. At the census of 1851, the Catholic body in the mother-colony had risen to 58,899 in a total population of 190,999. In the Morton Bay District of New South Wales (now Queensland) there were few Catholics, and no resident priest till the Passionist Fathers opened their mission to the aboriginals on Stradbroke Island, in 1843. In the Port Phillip District of New South Wales (now Victoria) there were, in 1851, 18,014 priests (in 1850) and thirteen State-aided primary schools. Dr. Gould was the first Bishop of the new see founded there in 1848.
338 IV. Period of Comparative Calm
339 The discovery of rich gold in Victoria in 1851 had a profound and far-reaching effect on the history of Australia. There was a delerium of sudden prosperity. Population rushed into the new El Dorado. In 1851, the mainland and Tasmania had a joint population of 211,095, nearly double that of 1841. This rapid increase of inhabitants soon called for the erection of new episcopal sees. That of Brisbane was founded in 1859, the year in which Queensland became a separate colony. The Bishopric of Goulburn was established in 1864; Maitland (a titular see since 1848) and Bathurst, in 1865; the abbacy nullius of New Norcia (aboriginal mission), in 1867; the See of Armidale, in 1869; and those of Ballarat and Sandhurst, in 1874. In the last-mentioned year Melbourne (since 1851 the capital of the separate colony of Victoria) became an archiepiscopal see. The Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown was formed in 1876, and the Diocese of Rockhampton in 1882. Three years later, in 1885, Dr. Moran (successor to Dr. Vaughan in the Archiepiscopal See of Sydney) was raised to the purple as Australia's first cardinal. The Plenary Synod held in Sydney in the same year resulted in the formation, in 1887, of the Dioceses of Grafton (now called Lismore), Wilcannia, Sale, and Port Augusta, together with the Vicariates Apostolic of Kimberley (now under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Geraldton) and of Queensland (for aborigines only), while Adelaide, Brisbane, and (in 1888) Hobart became archiepiscopal sees. The Plenary Synod of 1895 led to the formation of the Diocese of Geraldton in 1898. The occupant of that see is administrator of the Diocese of Port Victoria and Palmerston, which, founded in 1848, lost its whole European population in 1849. The latest Plenary Synod of the Church in the Commonwealth took place in 1905, and two important and highly successful Cathlic Congresses were held, the first in Sydney in 1900, the second in Melbourne in 1904. In 1906, there were in the Australian Commonwealth six archbishops (one of them a cardinal, another a coadjutor), fifteen bishops (two of them coadjutors), one abbot nullius, and one vicar Apostolic; in all, a hierarchy of twenty-three prelates exercising episcopal jurisdiction.
340 V. RELIGIOUS STATISTICS—The following table, compiled from official sources, shows the numerical strength of Catholics on the Australian mainland and in Tasmania for the years named, which have been chosen as being, in most instances, census years: 1888
341 1891
342 1897 According to official returns, there were 41,112 children on the rolls of the Catholic schools in New South Wales in the December quarter, 1904, and 5,413 on the rolls of the Catholic schools of Western Australia on the last school week of 1903 (the latest Government figures available for that State). No official information appears in the census or reports of Tasmania, Queensland, or South Australia. The "Australasian Catholic Directory" for 1906 made what seems to be a somewhat conservative estimate when it set down as 105,835, the number of children attending Catholic schools throughout the Commonwealth.
343 VII. THE ABORIGINES.—The origin of the native tribes of Australia is one of the unsolved riddles of ethnology. An unknown number of these black-skinned people still live in their "wild" state, in small and scattered communities, over vast areas extending from Central Queensland almost to the coast of Western Australia. They have no acquaintance with metal, nor with the bow and arrow, and their weapons of war and chase are (with the exception of the boomerang) of a very rude kind, wooden spears and clubs, stone tomahawks, etc. They are extraordinarily keen and skillful hunters. They are polygamous, given at times to cannibalism and infanticide, and have no permanent dwellings, no pottery, and no idea of cultivation of the soil. They die out fast wherever they come in contact with the white man and his vices. The last Tasmanian aboriginal died in 1876. In New South Wales and Victoria, the dwindling remnants of the native tribes are mostly settled upon reserves under State control. The most permanent and successful missions to the aborigines are those in the Dioceses of Perth and Geraldton (Western Australia).
344 VIII. CATHOLIC LITERATURE.—Under the penal slavery that long prevailed over a part of Australia, intellectual and moral advancement was subordinated to the two central ideas of punishment and money-getting. For some five decades from the date of the first colonization there was scarcely such a thing as a cultured class; the struggle for existence was generally keen among the free settlers in a virgin country; and education, seldom more than primary, was mainly in the hands of convict teachers and of convict tutors assigned to private families. The literary gloom of Australian penal servitude before the days of the '48 men was lit up by two non-Catholic Irish convicts, Edward O'Shaughnessy, a gifted poet and political writer, and George Waldron (better known as George Barrington), the prince of modern pickpockets, whose romantic career has found fame even in the pages of the "Dictionary of National Biography". To Australian Catholics, however, it is especially gratifying that one of the first contributions of a writer of their faith and country dealt a severe blow at the convict system; this work was Dr. Ullathorne's heart-rending pamphlet, "The Horrors of Transportation". Time, free immigration, prosperity, higher instruction, more extended educational facilities, and the play of representative institutions have since then combined to develop in the "Land of Dawning" a rich general literature, in many respects sui generis, and marked, especially on its "lighter" side, by a certain weird melancholy which, according to Marcus Clarke, is the predominant feature of Australian scenery. In the literary development of the Commonwealth Catholic writers have borne an honorable part. The following list is made up exclusively of works produced by Catholic authors having at the time of writing a domicile in Australia.
345 History and Biography.—Ullathorne, "The Horrors of Transportation", and "The Australian Mission"; Kenny, "The Catholic Church in Australia to the Year 1840"; Therry, "Comparison of the Oratory of the House of Commons Thirty Years Ago and at the Present Day (1856)", "Reminiscences of Thirty Years' Residence in New South Wales"; Flanagan, "History of New South Wales"; Tenison Woods, "History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia"; Finn ("Garry-Owen"), "The Chronicles of Early Melbourne"; George Collingridge (whose brother Arthur originated the real art life of the mother-state by founding the Art Society of New South Wales and the classes connected therewith), "History of Australian Discovery"; Mennell, "Dictionary of Australian Biography"; Hogan, "The Irish in Australia"; Kelsh, "Memoir of Bishop Willson". The principal work written by Cardinal Moran in Australia is his monumental "History of The Catholic Church in Australasia". Carr (Archbishop of Melbourne), "Fifty years of Progress"; Byrne, "History of the Catholic Church in South Australia" (two small vols. issued); Cleary, "The Orange Society"; Gray, "Australasia, Old and New"; Donohoe (Arthur Cayll), "History of Botany Bay".
346 Apologetic and Ascetic Literature.—The most noteworthy contributions to Australian Catholic apologetic literature are those of Cardinal Moran, "Letters on the Anglican Reformation", and "The Reunion of Christendom"; and of Archbishop Carr, "The Origin of the Church of England", "The Church and the Bible", "The Primacy of the Roman Pontiff", and "Letters in Reply to Dr. Rentoul", the characteristic feature of which works is the frequency and effectiveness of their appeals to the writings of Protestant historians and divines; Hall, "Who translated the Bible?" A multitude of minor polemical publications on questions of history, missions, doctrine, statistics, socialism, education, medico-moral subjects, religion and science, etc., have appeared from time to time from the pens of Cardinal Moran, Archbishop Carr, Dr. Ullathorne ("Reply to Judge Barton"), Fathers W. Kelly, J. O'Malley, and E. J. Masterson, S.J., the Rev. W. Barry, D.D., the Rev. M. Watson, S.J., Benjamin Hoare, the Rev. P. O'Doherty, the Rev. M. Barrett, and others; Byrne, "True Wisdom" (translated from Thomas a Kempis); "Letters of a Mother to Her Children" and "Sketches of the Lives of Young Saints", books compiled by Loretto Nuns; Huault, "The Mother of Jesus". Devotional manuals have been published by the Fathers M. Watson and J. Ryan, S.J., and a prayerbook by the Australian Catholic Truth Society. This useful organization (established at the Second Australian Catholic Congress in 1904) is doing excellent service by its publications, which embrace nearly every department of Catholic literature. A place of honor in Australian apologetic and general literature is rightly due to the two volumes containing the Proceedings of the Australasian Catholic Congresses held at Sydney (1900) and Melbourne (1904).
347 Physical Science, Law, Politics, etc.—The foremost names in geological science in Australia are those of the Rev. Julian E. Tenison Woods, F.G.S., and the Rev. J. Milne Curran, F.G.S. Father Woods was author of "Geological Observations in South Australia", "Geology of Portland", and "North Australia and its Physical Geography". (Mennell says of this author: "His contributions to the pages of scientific journals and the proceedings of learned societies were numerous and valuable.") Father Curran is the author of "The Geology of Sydney and the Blue Mountains" and "Quantitative Analysis". T. A. Coghlan (Agent-General for New South Wales, Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society) is the Mulhall of Australian statistical science. The most important of his many publications while he was Statistician of New South Wales were: "The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales" and "The Seven Colonies of Australasia", both of which went through numerous editions. His successor as statistician of the mother-state is W. H. Hall, author of "The Official Year-Book of New South Wales". W. H. Archer, K.S.G.G., published sundry statistical works while Registrar-General of Victoria in its young and strenuous days, and for twenty-five years Dr. E. S. Hall compiled and published the vital statistics of Tasmania. Charles (afterwards Sir Charles) Gavan Duffy was the author of a "Guide to the Land Law of 1862", which law was passed by a coalition Ministry in which he held the portfolio of Lands. Other legal textbooks were written by Frank Gavan Duffy (son of Sir Charles), Judges Casey and Quinlan, M. Brennan, Bernard O'Dowd, N. G. Power, and J. Hood. Benjamin Hoare, author of "Preferential Trade", ranks high in political circles as an authority on protective tariffs. John D. Fitzgerald, an author of recognized ability on municipal reform, has written "Greater Sydney and Greater Newcastle". Frederick J. Bloomfield did the Australasian work in "Webster's Dictionary". Helen K. Jerome wrote a work on Japan. The Rev. Julian E. Tenison Woods compiled an "Australian Bibliography"; and useful educational works have issued from his pen and from those of Fathers P. J. O'Mara and W. Kelly, S.J., and of J. W. Foster-Rogers. Archbishop O'Reilly (Adelaide) has written pamphlets on music, a subject on which he is an authority of Australian reputation.
348 Fiction.—Daniel E. Deniehy, lawyer, statesman, Journalist, will be best remembered for his clever skit, "How I Became Attorney-General of Barataria", which was famous in its day, and is still as readable as ever. James Francis Hogan published "An Australian Christmas Collection" of colonial stories and sketches. Ambrose Pratt is the author of "The Great Push Experiment", "Franks, Duellist", and "Three Years with Thunderbolt". Among other Australian Catholic writers of fiction whose work has appeared in book form are the following: Miss Tennyson, Roderick Quinn, Laura Archer (a collection of Queensland tales), F. M. Korner (pen name, "George Garnet"), a Loretto nun (author of "I Never Knew"), the Rev. P. Hickey ("Innisfail"). "Australian Wonderland" is a cleverly written book for children, in which two sisters (one of them a Sister of Mercy) collaborated. Newspaper and periodical literature has also been enriched with some excellent work in fiction by Australian Catholic writers.
349 Poetry.—Among the poets, two Irish singers, "Eva" of the Nation (Mrs. Kevin Izod O'Doherty) and "Thomasine", are now (1907) passing the evening of their lives in humble retirement in Queensland. Roderick Flanagan (the historian of New South Wales) published in his day a volume of verse. Victor J. Daley was a gifted and prolific verse-writer, but his only published work is "At Dawn and Dusk". John Farrell, for a time editor of the Sydney Daily Telegraph, was the author of "How He Died, and Other Poems". In 1897 he wrote a "Jubilee Ode" which was pronounced to be finer than Kipling's "Recessional" as a piece of national stock-taking. Roderick Quinn has written "The Higher Tide", and "The Circling Hearths"; Edwin J. Brady, a poet of the sea and wharf side, "The Way of Many Waters"; Bernard O'Dowd, "Dawnward" and "Darrawill of the Silent Land"; Cornelius Moynihan, "Feast of the Bunya, An Aboriginal Ballad", with a preface containing curious historical, legendary, and ethnological lore regarding the Queensland blacks; the Rev. W. Kelly, S.J., three convent dramas in blank verse; J. Hood, "Land of the Fern"; John B. O'Hara, "Songs of the South" (2d series), "Sonnets, Odes, and Lyrics "; the Rev. M. Watson, S.J., a series of seven handsomely illustrated Christmas booklets in verse which have gone through many editions. Volumes of verse have also been published by Marion Miller ("Songs From the Hills"), and Rena Wallace ("A Bush Girl's Songs"). Some meritorious work by Australian Catholic poetic writers (including various odes, etc., by the Rev. J. J. Malone) has not appeared in separate form.
350 Catholic Journalism in Australia had a long and thorny road to travel before it reached assured success. Beginning with "The Chronicle" (founded in Sydney, in 1839), the way was strewn with failures, which, however, helped to form the steps leading others to better things. The existing Catholic newspapers and periodicals of Australia, with their dates of foundation, are, Weekly: Sydney, N. S. W., "The Freeman's Journal" (the oldest existing newspaper in Australia, founded and first edited by Archdeacon McEncroe in 1850); and "The Catholic Press" (1895); Melbourne, Victoria, "The Advocate" (1868), "The Tribune" (1900); Brisbane, Queensland, "The Australian" (founded by Dr. O'Quinn in 1878), "The Age" (1892); Adelaide, South Australia, "The Southern Cross" (1889); Perth, W. A., "The W. A. Record" (1874); Launceston, Tasmania, "The Monitor" (founded in 1894 by amalgamating "The Catholic Standard" of Hobart, and "The Morning Star" of Launceston).—Monthly: Melbourne, "The Australian Messenger" (1887); "The Austral Light" (an ecclesiastical property since 1899); Sydney, "The Annals of Our Lady ".—Quarterly and Annual. "The Australasian Catholic Record" (founded by Cardinal Moran, in Sydney, in 1894); "The Madonna" (Melbourne, 1897); "The Garland of St. Joseph" (1906). A useful "Catholic Almanac and Family Annual" is published for the Diocese of Maitland. Illustrated scholastic annuals are also issued by most of the Catholic colleges for boys, and by some of the secondary schools for girls.—In size, literary quality, successful management, and influence, the Catholic newspapers and magazines of Australia easily outrival the rest of the religious press in the Commonwealth. Many Catholic names of note in the political, judicial, literary, and scientific history of Australia were, for a time at least, associated with the religious or secular press of the country. Among them may be mentioned: Sir Charles Gavan Duffy; the Right Hon. William Bede Dalley, P.C., Q.C.; the Hon. John Hubert Plunkett, Q.C., M.L.C.; Sir Roger Therry; Richard Sullivan (brother of A.M. and T. D. Sullivan); Judges Therry, Real, Power, O'Connor, Casey, Heydon, and Quinlan; the Hon. Edward Butler, Q.C., M.L.C., and his brother, Thomas Butler; E. W. O'Sullivan; Sir John O'Shannassy, K.C.M.G.; the Hon. Sir Patrick Jennings, K.C.M.G., LL.D., M.L.C.; Edward Whitty, the brilliant Anglo-Irishman, who ended his days in Melbourne; William A. Duncan, C.M.G.; Roderick Flanagan; Daniel E. Deniehy; Philip Mennell, F.R.G.S.; John Farrell; Victor J. Daley; the Rev. Julian E. Tenison Woods; the Hon. J. V. O'Loghlen; the Hon. Hugh Mahon; J. F. Hogan; Benjamin Hoare; Roderick and P. E. Quinn; F. J. Bloomfield; Ambrose Pratt; Helen K. Jerome; John Hughes, K.C.S.G.; John Gavan Duffy; Frank Leverrier (noted as a scientist); Kenneth McDonall;—Nicholson; Frank and Martin Donohoe; Ernest Hoben; C. Brennan; T. Courtney; and others. Phil May first won fame as a caricaturist in the columns of an illustrated weekly published in Sydney. A number of able lay and clerical writers are associated with the Catholic newspapers and periodicals of Australia.
351 Henry W. Cleary
St. Austrebertha
325 Austrebertha, Saint, Virgin, born c. 630 at Therouane in the modern department of Pas-de-Calais in France; d. February 10, 703 or 704. When her father desired to give her in marriage to a young nobleman, she fled from home and took the veil from the hands of Bishop Saint-Omer. Some time later she entered the monastery of Port on the Somme, where she was later elected prioress. Soon afterwards she was appointed first abbess of the newly erected convent of Pavilly in Lower Seine. Under her direction the nuns of Pavilly became so celebrated for sanctity that parents came from all sides to place their daughters under the guidance of Austrehertha. Her name is in the Roman martyrology and she is honored as patron at Montreuil in the department of Pas-de-Calais.
326 [Sources missing.]
327 Michael Ott
St. Austremonius
328 Apostle and Bishop of Auvergne (c. 314). All that is certainly known of Austremonius is deduced from a few brief sentences in the writings of St. Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc., I, xxx, and De Gloriâ Confessorum, c. xxix). According to this authority he was one of the seven bishops sent from Rome into Gaul about the middle of the third century; he laboured in Auvergne and is said to have been the first Bishop of Clermont. But from a study of the episcopal lists as given by St. Gregory himself, St. Austremonius could hardly have antedated the commencement of the fourth century, since his third successor died in 385. It is more likely, therefore, that he was the contemporary of the three Bishops of Aquitaine who attended the Council of Arles in 314. He was not a martyr. His cult began about the middle of the sixth century, when Cantius, a deacon, saw a vision of angels about his neglected tomb at Issoire on the Couze. His body was afterwards translated to Volvic, and in 761 to the Abbey of Mauzac. Towards the middle of the ninth century, the head of the saint was brought to St.-Yvoine, near Issoire, and about 900 was returned to Issoire, the original place of burial.
329 Acta SS., Nov., I, 49 sq.; Anal. Boll., XIII, 33-46; Mielanges Havet., 36; Duchesne, Bulletin critique (1888), IX, 203-207. Chevalier, Rep. des sources hist.. (Bio-bibliog.), 2d ed., 390, 391.
330 Francis P. Havey
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
331 By this name is designated the European monarchy whose dominions have for their main life-distributing artery the River Danube, in its course from Engelhartszell, near Passau, to Orsova. South of the Danube lie the Austrian Alpine provinces and the provinces of Carinthia and Carnola; north of the Danube are the Carpathian and Sudetic provinces.
332 Area and Population
333 The monarchy as a whole has an area of about 262,577 square miles (680,887 square kilometres), and a population of about 48,592,000. This gives it the second place in population, among the political divisions of Europe. The average density of its population is, approximately, 185 to the square mile. The monarchy holds sway over: (a) the kingdoms and provinces represented in the Austrian Parliament, or Reichsrat, which have together an area of 115,695 sq. m. (300,008 sq. km.) and a population of 26,969,812; (b) the provinces of the Hungarian Crown which have a total area of 127,204 sq. m. (329,851 sq. km.) and a population of 19,985,465; (c) Bosnia and Herzegovina, with an area of 19,678 sq. m. (51,028 sq. km.) and a population of 1,737,000, occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary, though still theoretically a part of the Ottoman Empire. These populations include a great variety of races. In the Austrian territory there are: Germans, 9,171,000; Czechs, 5,955,000; Poles, 4,259,000; Ruthenians, 3,376,000; Slovenes, 1,193,000; Italians and Ladinians, 727,000. In Hungary the population is composed of: Magyars, 9,180,000; Rumanians, 2,867,000; Germans, 2,138,000; Slovaks, 2,055,000; Croats, 1,734,000; Serbs, 1,079,000; Ruthenians, 443,000. The inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina are Servo-Croatians.
334 The capitals of the three main divisions are: Austria: Vienna, with 1,675,000 inhabitants; Hungary, Budapest, with 732,000 inhabitants; Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serajevo, with 38,000 inhabitants. The only strip of coast land in Austria-Hungary lies on the Adriatic and has a length of 1,366 miles (2,200 km.). The countries which border on Austria-Hungary are: Italy, Switzerland, the principality of Liechtenstein, Bavaria, Saxony, Prussia, Russia, Rumania, Servia, Turkey, and Montenegro.
335 Church History
336 The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy was created by the union of the Germanic, Slavonic, and Hungarian provinces which now lie within its territory. This union took place in 1526. Upon the death of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia at the battle of Mohács, in that year. Bohemia and Hungary were united to the Austrian possessions of Ferdinand I, of the Hapsburg family. This union was in accordance with the law of succession as well as the result of a free choice. Up to 1536 each of these three divisions of the present empire had its own separate religious history.
337 A. Early Christianity
338 The Romans in the time of Augustus took possession of those provinces of the present Austria-Hungary which lie south of the Danube. In the course of time they built roads, founded cities, turned the territory into Roman provinces, and here and there converted the inhabitants to Christianity. The cities of Aquileia and Salona, episcopal sees from the middle of the first century, were centres of Christianity for Noricum and Pannonia. In the year 294 five Christian workmen were thrown from the marble bridges of Sirmium (Mitrowitz) into the Save and drowned. During the persecution of the Christians under the Emperor Diocletian, in 304, the soldier Florianus was thrown into the Ems at Lauriacum (Lorch). The house of Augustinian canons, at St. Florian, in Upper Austria, now stands on the spot where the body of this saint was buried. A tradition gives the same date for the martyrdom of the two bishops Victorinus of Petovia (Pettau in Southern Styria) and Quirinus of Siscia, who met death where the Kulpa empties into the Save. Even at this period Christianity must have had a large number of adherents in these districts, for already an established organization is found here. The bishops of Noricum were under the control of the Patriarch of Aquileia, while Pannonia was subject to the Metropolitan of Sirmium.
339 The last representative of Christian culture among the Roman inhabitants of the Danube district is St. Severinus. The story of his life, by his pupil Eugippius, is the only written document we have for the history of the Danubian provinces during the last years of the Roman occupation. Severinus settled near the present city of Vienna, built a monastery for himself and his companions, and led so austere a life that even in winter, when the Danube was frozen, he walked up and down over the ice barefoot. His journeys upon the frozen river were errands of consolation to the despairing provincials, who saw themselves threatened on all sides by bands of marauding barbarians. In these journeys Severinus travelled as far as Castra Batava (Passau), and inland from the river up to Juvavum (Salzburg). God had granted him the gift of prophecy. When Odovakar (Odoacer), King of the Heruli, set out on his march against Rome, he came to the saint and asked for his blessing. Severinus spoke prophetically: "Go forward, my son. To-day thou art still clad in the worthless skins of animals, but soon shalt thou make gifts from the treasures of Italy." After Odovakar had overthrown the Roman Empire of the West, and had made himself master of Italy, he sent and invited Severinus to ask from him some favour. Severinus only asked the pardon of one who had been condemned to banishment. The Alamannic king, Gibold, also visited him in Castra Batava, and the saint begged as a personal grace that the king cease from ravaging the Roman territory. His usual salutation was "Sit nomen Domini benedictum", corresponding to our "Praise be to Jesus". When Severinus lay dying the sobs of his disciples prevented their praying; he himself began to recite the last psalm, and with the closing words of this psalm, "Omnis spiritus laudet Dominum", he passed away (482). Six years later the Romans withdrew from this region, taking the body of the saint with them, and returned to Italy. Here he was buried with suitable honour in the castle of Luculanum, near Naples.
340 B. The Middle Ages
341 During the period of migrations which followed the fall of the Roman Empire, Austria was the fighting-ground of the barbaric hordes which poured through it. Vindobona disappeared from the face of the earth; Pannonia was entirely laid waste by the Avars, a people related to the Huns. The same fate befell Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, desolated by the Slovenes, who now took possession of those provinces. The land lying on the upper Drave has since borne the name of "Pustertal" (from the Slovenic pust, "waste"). The Croats and Serbs seized the country south of the Save. The Croats are the first-born sons of the Church among the Slavs. They were converted about the year 650, by Roman priests. The Bajuvari (Bavarians), a people from the West, spread themselves over the whole of Upper Austria. St. Rupert, Bishop of Worms, baptized the Bavarian duke, Theodo, at Regensburg (Ratisbon) and became the Apostle of the Austrian Bajuvarii. He travelled and preached nearly as far as Lauriacum, settled in Salzburg, and there erected a see and founded the monastery of St. Peter (c. 700). St. Peter's is the oldest Benedictine monastery which has had a continuous existence down to our own times, Monte Cassino having been repeatedly destroyed and deserted. The Benedictine cloister for women, Nonnberg, founded by Rupert's niece Ehrentraut, is also still standing. The Bavarian Duke Tassilo founded the Benedictine monasteries of Mondsee (748) and Kremsmünster (777). The Bishops of Salzburg brought the Christian Faith and German customs to the Slavs. A quarrel broke out, however, between the Carinthians and the Patriarch of Aquileia. Charlemagne raised the Carinthian see of Salzburg to an archbishopric in 798, settled the dispute with Aquileia by making the Drave the dividing line of the two provinces, and in 803 established the border territories known as the Mark of Friuli and the East Mark.
342 Moravia was won to Christianity by two brothers, Methodius and Constantine, Greek monks from Thessalonica, known in history as the Apostles of the Slavs. Constantine invented the Glagolitic alphabet, translated the Bible into Slavic, and composed the liturgy in that language. But, as Salzburg and Passau had claim to the region in which the brothers worked, complaint was made against them by the German ecclesiastics. Pope Hadrian II, however, authorized the liturgy in the Slavic language. Constantine remained at Rome in a monastery and took the name of Cyril, while Methodius, after many fruitful labours as Archbishop of Pannonia and Moravia, died 6 April, 885, at Vehlehrad, on the River March. The Apostles of the Slavs are now (pursuant to a decree of Leo XIII) commemorated throughout the Catholic Church on the 5th day of July. The Latin Liturgy was reintroduced in Moravia by Swatopluk, the successor of Duke Ratislaus, and soon after his death the Magyars overthrew the empire of Great Moravia (906). When Moravia is again heard of in history (founding of the bishopric of Olmütz, 1063), it is a province of Bohemia.
343 Christianity was introduced into Bohemia from Moravia. Of the Slavic tribes which at the end of the fifth century controlled the interior of Bohemia and drove the Germans to the outskirts of the country, the Czechs of Prague were the most important division. In A. D. 871 their prince, Borziwoy, and his wife, Ludmilla, consented to receive baptism from St. Methodius. From this time on the history of Bohemia is an account of the struggles between two contending parties, the Christian-Germanic and the National Heathen. At the instigation of the National Heathen party the saintly Duke Wenzel (Wenceslaus) I was murdered by his brother, Boleslaw I. But even Boleslaw had to rule according to the wishes of the Christian-Germanic party, and his son Boleslaw II founded the Bishopric of Prague (973). The new see was placed under the Archbishop of Mainz, and its first bishop was the Saxon Dithmar. His successor, St. Adalbert (Wojtech), met a martyr's death (967) at the hands of the heathen Slavs of Prussia, whom he sought to bring to the truth. The Benedictine Order came into Bohemia with the founding of the monastery of Borevnov by Boleslaw II, and Boleslaw's sister, Milada, was the first abbess of St. George, the Benedictine cloister for women in Prague. Duke Bretislaw seized Gnesen and brought the body of St. Adalbert in triumph to Prague. Dabrowka, the daughter of Boleslaw I, married the Polish Duke Mieczyslaw, and the latter was baptized in 966. The son of Mieczyslaw laid the foundation of an enduring church-organization by forming the four bishoprics of Posen, Kolberg, Breslau, and Cracow, and placing them under the Archbishopric of Gnesen, which had been established in the year 1000.
344 The Magyars, a people from the Ural-Altai region, moved forward in 895 into the Avarian Wilderness on the Theiss. Attempts to convert them were made by the court of Byzantium as well as by St. Wolfgang, a monk of Maria Einsiedeln, by Piligrim, Bishop of Passau, who, as successor of the Bishops of Lorch, wished to be Metropolitan of all Pannonia, and by Adalbert of Prague. Thus it was brought about that the Magyar ruler Géza, great grandson of Arpad, and his wife Sarolta were favourably inclined to Christianity. The real Apostle of the Magyars, however, was Géza's great son, St. Stephen. Stephen received a Christian education and was baptized by St. Adalbert. Upon the occasion of his marriage with Gisela, sister of the future emperor, St. Henry II, Stephen vowed to give his people the blessings of Christianity. One of the most important measures taken by him for the security of the new faith was the founding at Gran of an archbishopric with ten subordinate sees. As Stephen's patron saint in battle had been St. Martin, he founded the Benedictine monastery of Martinsberg. He also founded hospices for the reception of Hungarian pilgrims at Ravenna, Rome, and Jerusalem. Astriens, the Abbot of Martinsberg, obtained for him, from the pope, the title of king. Sylvester II sent Stephen a crown of gold and, according to a tradition (which, however, is not well founded) a Bull which decreed to the Kings of Hungary the privilege of the "Apostolic Majesty". Having a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Stephen caused himself to be crowned on the festival of the Assumption, the 15th day of August, in the year 1000, and church historians have given to Hungary the title of "Mary's Realm" (Regnum Marianum).
345 The gradual advance of Christianity in Austria towards the east is shown in the shifting of the abode of the early rulers of the Babenberg (Bamberg) line from Melk, on the Kahlenberg, to Vienna. One of this family, Leopold I, the Illustrious, had already founded at Melk an establishment of secular canons. These were replaced in 1089 by twelve Benedictine monks from Lambach. At the time when Leopold's youngest son, Adalbert I, the Victorious, was margrave, three youths left this region to go to Paris to study. While on their way, they were obliged to spend a night in the open and fell to speaking of the future. Each wished to become a bishop, and each vowed that, if ever a bishop, he would found a monastery. One, Gebhard, became Archbishop of Salzburg and founded Admont and the Diocese of Gurk; another, Adalbero, Bishop of Würzburg, founded the monastery of Lambach; while the third, St. Altmann of Passau, founded Göttweig for twelve canons under the Rule of St. Augustine. The canons at Göttweig were replaced after the lapse of ten years by Benedictines from St. Blasien in the Black Forest. All three of these bishops remained true to Gregory VII in the controversy of investitures. The Crusades began during the reign of the Margrave Leopold II, the Saint, and many of the crusading armies traversed Austria. Leopold's mother, Ida, took part in a pilgrimage of which Thieno, Archbishop of Salzburg, was the leader. The archbishop met the death of a martyr, and Ida was made a prisoner. Leopold erected a church on the Kahlenberg and founded the monasteries Klosterneuburg and Heiligenkreuz. His wife, Agnes, widow of the Hohenstaufen Duke Frederick, bore him eighteen children. Their third son, Otto, studied at Paris, entered the Cistercian monastery of Morimond, became Bishop of Freising, and wrote a chronicle, "De Duabus Civitatibus", and a second work, "Libri Duo de Gestis Friderici I". By reason of these two works he is the most noted German historian of the Middle Ages.
346 After a hard struggle, the saintly King Ladislaus (d. 1095) succeeded in regulating the ecclesiastical and civil affairs of Hungary. He founded the Bishopric of Grosswardein, and summoned the dignitaries of the Church and the State to a diet at Szabolcs. This diet is often called a synod, on account of the many decisions arrived at in church matters. The priests were ordered to observe celibacy strictly, the laity were commanded to keep Sunday and feastdays and to abstain from immorality. Ladislaus conquered Croatia, whose duke, Zwonimir, had received from a legate of Gregory VII at Salona (1076) a banner, sword, crown, and sceptre, with the title of king, in return for which he had sworn fealty to the pope.
347 Henry II, Jasomirgott, was the first Duke of Austria. He built a residence for himself at Vienna (Am Hof), in which was the Pancraz chapel, and founded the Schottenkloster for Benedictine monks from St. Jacob's at Regensburg. Octavian Wolzner, an architect from Cracow, erected for the new duke the church of St. Stephen, to which the parish of St. Peter was added. Leopold V, the Virtuous, son of Henry II, took part in the Third Crusade and fought so bravely that, as we are told, his armour was stained blood red, and only the part under the sword belt remained white. However, Richard the Lionhearted tore down the Austrian banner at the storming of Ascalon and the enraged duke went home at once. While on his way to England, Richard was seized at Erdberg, and held a prisoner by the duke at Dürrenstein. Crusaders being under the protection of the pope, Celestine III put Leopold V under the ban. To this the duke paid no attention; but when he fell with his horse, at Graz, broke a leg, and found himself near death, his conscience smote him; he sent for Albert III, Archbishop of Salzburg, who was in the neighbourhood, and received absolution from him. Frederick I, the eldest son of Leopold V, ruled only six years and died while on a crusade. The reign of his brother, Leopold VI, the Glorious, was a brilliant one. He too went on a crusade and endeavoured first to capture Damietta, the key to Jerusalem, but was obliged to return home without having accomplished anything. He married a Byzantine princess and formed relations with men of Greek learning and culture. The duke built a new castle for himself (Schweizerhof) and the church of St. Michael. The church was intended for the benefit of the duke's attendants, retainers, servants, and the townspeople who settled around the castle. The scheme to form a bishopric at Vienna was not carried out, but Eberhard II of Salzburg founded bishoprics at Seckau and Lavant, for Styria and Carinthia. Leopold's son and successor, Frederick II, the last of the Babenberg line, was knighted with much religious pomp at the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, 1232, in the castle church. Bishop Gebhard of Passau celebrated Mass and gave the consecrated sword to the duke, two hundred young nobles receiving knighthood at the same time. After the ceremony the young duke rode at the head of the newly made knights to Penzing, where jousts were held.
348 Within a short space of time the national dynasties of the countries under discussion died out in the male lines: the Babenberg Dynasty (Austria) in 1246, the Arpadian (Hungary) in 1301, and the Premyslian (Bohemia) in 1306. In 1282 the German Emperor, Rudolph of Hapsburg, gave Austria in fief to his son Albrecht. To Austria and Styria the dukes of the Hapsburg line soon added Carinthia, Carniola, the Tyrol, and the Mark of the Wends. The rulers of this line are deserving of great praise for their aid in developing church life in these territories. Albrecht I founded the court (Hofburg) chapel in his castle; Duke Rudolph IV in 1359 laid the corner-stone of the Gothic reconstruction of the church of St. Stephen. A hundred and fifty years elapsed before the great tower of the church was completed. With the consent of the pope the same duke founded the University of Vienna in 1365. The university was modelled on the one at Paris and possessed great privileges (freedom from taxation, right of administering justice). When part of the Council of Basle separated from Eugenius IV and set up Felix V as antipope, the theological faculty of the university, of which at that time the celebrated Thomas Ebendorffer of Haselbach was a member, sided with the antipope. But the papal legate, John Carvajal, and Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, the emperor's governmental secretary, prevailed upon Frederick III to espouse the cause of Eugenius and to sign the Concordat of Vienna (1448). The concordat provided that the annates and the confirmation dues should be restored to the pope, that the pope should have the right to appoint to the canonries in the uneven months, and that the filling of ecclesiastical vacancies at Rome should be reserved to him. The concordat was gradually accepted by all of the German rulers, and up to the present time the relations between the German Church and the papacy are regulated by its provisions. In 1452 Frederick was crowned emperor at Rome, being the last emperor to be crowned in that city. In his reign the Bishoprics of Laibach (1462), Vienna, and Wiener-Neustadt (both the latter in 1469) were founded. During this period a great many monastic houses were founded in Austria, especially by the more recently established orders: Carthusian houses were founded at Mauerbach, Gaming, Agsbach; Franciscan at Vienna, Klosterneuburg, St. Pölten, Maria Enzersdorf, Pupping; Dominican at Graz and Retz.
349 Under the Luxembourg line Bohemia attained a high degree of material and spiritual prosperity. Charles IV, before his reign began, succeeded in having Prague raised to an archbishopric (1344), and in this way made the country ecclesiastically independent of Germany. Charles had been a student at Paris, and immediately upon ascending the throne he founded the University of Prague (1348), the first university on German soil. Master Matthias of Anras and Peter Parler from Schwäbisch-Gmund began the erection of the stately Cathedral of St. Vitus which is now nearing completion. Parlor also erected the Teynkirche (Teyn church) in Prague, and the church of St. Barbara in Kutzenberg, while Matthias of Anras built the fortress-castle of Karlstein. The crown jewels of Bohemia were preserved in the sumptuous chapel at Karlstein. But Bohemia had a sudden fall from the height it had attained. King Wenzel (Wenceslaus), son of Charles IV, had no control of his temper, and began a quarrel with the archbishop. The archbishop's vicar-general, John of Pomuk (St. John Nepomucene), refused to tell what he had heard in confession. He was first tortured and then, gagged and bound, was thrown at night into the River Moldau. At this time the first signs appeared in Bohemia of a religious agitation which was destined to bring the greatest sorrow both to Bohemia and to the adjoining countries. Jerome of Prague had become acquainted with the writings of Wyclif at Oxford. He returned home, bringing the teachings of Wyclif with him, and communicated them to his friend Hus. Hus came from Husinetz near Prachatitz. He was the child of a peasant, and had become professor of philosophy at the University of Prague, preacher in the Bohemian language at the Bethlehem chapel, and confessor to Queen Sophia. A complaint was brought in the university against Hus on account of his teaching. Of the four "Nations" (Saxons, Bavarians, Poles, and Bohemians), which had votes in the affairs of the university, only the Bohemians voted for Hus. Hus then turned a personal into a national affair. King Wenzel issued a command that henceforth the Bohemians should have three votes, and the other "Nations" only one vote. Upon this 5,000 students and the German professors withdrew and founded the University of Leipzig. The university was now simply a national one, and Hus without interference taught the following doctrines: the church consists only of the elect; no man is temporal ruler, no man is a bishop, if he be in mortal sin; the papal dignity is an outcome of the imperial power; obedience to the church is the invention of men. Hus was suspended by Archbishop Zbinko; he appealed to the pope (Alexander V) and then to Jesus Christ. John XXIII placed Hus under the ban, Prague under an interdict, and called the Council of Constance. The Emperor Sigismund gave Hus a safe-conduct which protected him from acts of violence on the part of the indignant Germans through whose territory he must pass, but not from the verdict of the council. Hus was repeatedly examined before the council, but would not retract his opinions; the members of the council, therefore, unanimously condemned his errors and delivered him to the secular power, by which, in accordance with the law of the land at the time, he was condemned to death at the stake (1415). Jerome of Prague suffered the same death the next year. While at Constance Hus sanctioned the receiving of the sacrament in both kinds which had been introduced by Master Jacob of Miez (Calixtines). As a former monk, John of Selau, was leading a procession a stone was thrown at him from a window of the town hall. The throng, led by the knight John Zizka of Trocnov, attacked the town hall and threw the judge, the burgomaster, and several members of the town council out of the window into the street, where they were killed by the fall. This is known in history as the "First Defenestration of Prague". King Wenzel was so excited by the episode that he was struck with apoplexy and died. The Hussite wars caused fearful devastation not only in Bohemia, but in the adjacent countries as well. Fortunately, the Hussites divided into the more moderate Calixtines, under John of Rokyzana, and the "Taborites", so called from the city and mountain which they named Tabor. The Taborites were led by John Zizka and Procopius the Great, who was also called the "Shaven" (Iloly) because he had been a monk. After Zizka's death the extreme radicals took the name of "Orphans" because no one was worthy to take Zizka's place. They were finally conquered, and an agreement, called the Compactata (Treaty of Iglau) based on the Four Articles of Prague, was made with the moderate party (1436). The Compacta provided: that in Bohemia everyone who demanded it should receive Holy Communmion under both kinds; mortal sins should be punished, but only by legal authorities; the Word of God should be freely expounded by clergy appointed for the purpose; ecclesiastics should manage their property according to the rules of the church. After this, Hussitism lived on in the "Bohemian Brethren", who elected a bishop at Lhota near Reichenau (1467), and were finally carried into the current of the Reformation.
350 In Hungary Christian culture flourished during the reign of the House of Anjou. Louis the Great founded universities at Altofen and Funfkirchen, and built the fine cathedral at Kaschau. When Constantinople was captured by the Turks (29 May, 1453), a cry of horror resounded throughout Europe, and the pope sent forth John Capistran to preach a crusade. The saintly monk came with an immense following from Italy to Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary. He preached in the open, as the churches could not hold his hearers. A stone pulpit with a statue of the saintly Capistran stands on the east side of St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. A hundred thousand people crowded the square and the roofs of the houses to hear him. This was the more remarkable because Capistran preached in Latin. Yet all who saw and heard him were moved to their innermost souls. The Turks, in 1456, tried to capture Belgrad, the key to Hungary. The papal legate, John Carvajal, and John Capistran raised a crusading army with which John Hunyady was able to defeat, at Belgrad, a Turkish army much more numerous. This was called the "Battle of the Three Johns". Hunyady and Capistran died shortly afterwards from camp fever. Hunyady's son had been educated by John Vitez, Bishop of Grosswardein, afterwards Archbishop of Gran. This prelate instilled such a love of learning into his pupil that when the latter ascended the throne as Matthias Corvinus, he gathered learned men about him, re-established the decayed university at Ofen, and founded a new university at Pressburg. Thirty copyists were kept busy at Ofen transcribing the Greek and Latin classics. The volumes, which were beautifully illuminated anbd handsomely bound, were known as Corvinian books.
351 C. Modern Times
352 If in analyzing church history Christian antiquity is taken to represent the period of the life and labours fo the Church among the peoples influenced by Greek and Roman civilization, and the Middle Ages the period of the Church's life and labours among the Germans and the nations which came into contact with them, then the modern period of history must be taken as that in which the influence of the Church began to extend throughout the whole world. Modern times would, according to this theory, begin with the discovery of the New World. But if the beginning of the modern era is made, as it usually is, to coincide with the Reformation, then it is further marked by the rise of that monarchy which was formed by the union of the Austrian, Slavonian, and Hungarian provinces under the Hapsburgs in 1526.
353 Ferdinand of Hapsburg, the ruler of the German-Austrian crown provinces, had married, at Linz, Anna of Hungary and Bohemia. When Anna's brother, Louis II, was killed in the desperate battle of Mohács (1526), Ferdinand of Austria succeeded by right of inheritance and election as King of Bohemia and Hungary. The new doctrine taught at Wittenberg was soon brought into the Austrian provinces. Miners were the first to spread the new teaching. Noble families frequently sent their sons to German universities, and even to Wittenberg, and these students often returned with Protestant ideas, and even brought Protestant preachers with them. The constant danger from the Turks in Austria was exceedingly opportune for the new religious movement. One of the first preachers of the new doctrine in Vienna was Paul of Spretten (Speratus), a Swabian, who had been driven out of Salzburg on account of his Lutheran views. The new doctrine entered Hungary and Transylvania through merchants who brought Lutheran books with them, and it took hold, more especially, among the German population of the Zipser region and among the Saxons of Transylvania. Mátyás Biro, known as Devay, from the place of his origin, Deva in Transylvania, has been called "the Luther of Hungary". Most of the Hungarian bishops had falleen at the battle of Mohács, and the subsequent disputes concerning the succession to the throne distracted the monarchy. For these reasons the new doctrines spread rapidly, and Devay was able to bring over to it such noble families as the Batthyany and Bocskay. It was then that Calvinism began to be called in Hungary Magyar hit (Hungarian faith), Lutheranism Nemes hit (German faith), and Catholicism Igaz hit (Right faith). Equal success accompanied the preaching of John Gross of Cronstadt in Transylvania, despite the efforts of Georgy Utyeszenich to check him. Utyeszenich (also called, after his mother, Marinuzzi) was prior of the Pauline monastery at Szenstochov near Cracow, and governed Transylvania as guardian of John Sigismund Zápolyas. Gross added Honter to his name in memory of his deliverance by an elder bush (in the Transylvanian dialect hontert) from death by drowning. In order to secure the crown for her son, John Sigismund Zápolyas, his mother, Isabella, was obliged to sanction the decisions of the diet which met at Thorenburg (Torda) near Klausenburg. These granted to adherents of the Augsburg Confession equal rights with the Catholics. In Bohemia and Moravia Lutheranism first found adherents among the Germans and especially among the sect of the Utraquists. Just as the Hapsburg Dynasty showed itself at this period to be the shield of Christianity against the advance of Islam, so also it proved itself by its constancy and zeal to be the support of the Faith against the religious innovations. Pope Pius IV conceded the cup to the laity in the Archdioceses of Gran and Prague, a concession, however, withdrawn by St. Pius V. Ferdinand I sought in many ways to be of aid: by his mandates, by the inspection of convents and parishes, by his care in selecting competent ecclesiastics, by the introduction of the newly established Society of Jesus, and by proposals which were sent to the Council of Trent in support of reforms. The mandates of Ferdinand were of little use, but the inspections and the enforcement of the decisions of the Council of Trent had effect. The Bishops of Vienna, Fabri (Heigerlein), and Frederick Nausea (a Latinization of Gran; Nausia, horror, disgust) were unusual men. With unflagging zeal both preached on Sundays and feast days in the Cathedral of St. Stephen and took part in the religious movement by the publication of theological pamphlets. Nausea's sermons are characterized in a rude rhyme of the day:-
354 > Viel tausend Menschen standen da Es predigt Bischof Nausea, Wie er denn pflegt zu aller Zeit Sein' Schäflein zgebn selbst die Weid.
355 "Many thousands gather where Bishop Nausea preaches, and himself, as his wont is, feeds his flock".-In the Austrian provinces the Jesuits were the most important factor in the defence of the Faith and the elevation of Christian life. Ferdinand I obtained from St. Ignatius the founding of a Jesuit college in Vienna. The first two Jesuits came to Vienna in 1551. They were followed, the next year, by St. Peter Canisius, the first German member of the order, were assigned the abandoned Carmelite monastery Am Hof, obtained two chairs in the theological faculty, and founded a gymnasium with a theological seminary attached. St. Peter Canisius was named court preacher, and for a time was administrator of the Diocese of Vienna. He still influences the present day through his "Summa Doctrinæ Christianæ"; an abridgment of which, called the catechism of Canisius, is still in use. A few year later the Jesuits founded at Prague a gymnasium, a theological school, and a university for philosophical and theological studies, which in contradistinction to the "Carolinum" was called the "Clementinum". They also founded schools at Innsbruck and at Tyrnau. The tutor and court preacher of Maximilian II, Ferdinand's eldest son, was Sebastian Pfauser, a man of Protestant tendencies. It was feared that Maximilian would embrace the new creed, but the papal nuncio, Bishop Hosius of Ermland, pointed out to him those inconsistencies in the Protestant doctrine which prove its falsity. Maximilian II gave permission to lords and knights to follow the Augsburg Confession in their own castles, cities, and villages. David Chytræus of Rostock drew up for the Protestants a form of church service. In Bohemia the Evangelicals united with the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, and called the new agreement the "Bohemian Confession". They had a consistory of fifteen to which the Evangelical clergy were subordinate. Maximilian's position in the part of Hungary controlled by them was a difficult one, because rebels concealed their political schemes under the cloak of a struggle for relgious freedom. His brother Charles was master of the inner Austrian provinces, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Görz. He summoned the Jesuits to Graz and, in the religious pacification of Brück, granted the free exercise of religion at Graz, Klagenfurt, Laibach, and Judenburg. In return he demanded that the Protestants should leave him and his coreligionists undisturbed in their faith, rights, and estates; besides this the Lutheran preachers and teachers were obliged to leave the cities, market towns, and estates under the personal rule of the archduke. In order to counterbalance the endowed schools of the Styrian provinces the Archduke Charles founded the University of Graz (Carolina) in 1586. Charles's son Ferdinand (later the Emperor Ferdinand II) was educated at Ingolstadt, and while there he declared, "I would rather give up land and people and go away in nothing but a shirt than sanction what might be injurious to religion". When he became ruler he appointed commissioners who cleared the land of these preachers (ranters). The bishops George Stobäus of Lavant and Martin Brenner of Seckau (the Hammer of the Heretics) were at the head of these reformatory commissions. But no blood was shed in this counter-reformation.
356 At the distribution of provinces Archduke Ferdinand, husband of Philippina Welser, had received the Tyrol. The diet of 1570 decided the religious position of that province. The governor, Jacob of Pagrsbach, declared firmly that to grant the wishes of the Protestants would be contrary to the customs and ordinances of the land and, further, that it would be folly to rend religion, the strongest tie which binds hearts together. All classes agreed with him. Rudolph II, Maximilian's eldest son and successor, lived in the Hradschin at Prague, where he carried on his studies in alchemy and art. The Archduchy of Austria was ruled by his brother Ernst. Ernst was aided by Melchior Khlesl, who brought about the counter-reformation in Austria. Khlesl was the child of Protestant parents; his father had been a baker in Vienna. He was converted by the court preacher, George Scherer. From the time of Scherer until the suspension of the order the court preachers were chosen in unbroken succession from the Jesuits. Khlesl became Provost of St. Stephen's, Chancellor of the university, and Bishop of Vienna. During the reigns of Ernst and his brother Matthias, Khlesl was all powerful. Rudolph II having shut himself up in Prague, the members of the Hapsburg family chose the Archduke Matthias to be their head. The Bohemians held to Rudolph II, but wrung from him a rescript (Majestätsbrief) in 1609. This confirmed the Bohemian Confession, granted the Protestants permission to use the university, and gave them the right to choose a consistory; it also allowed them three temporal estates of lords, knights, and cities having chartered rights to build Protestant churches and schools. Contrary to the provisions of this agreement, subjects of the Archbishop of Prague built a Protestant church at Klostergrab, and subjects of the Abbot of Braunau did the same at Braunau. The bishops ordered these to be closed, and when the Emperor Matthias supported them the result was (1620) the "Second Defenestration of Prague" with which the Thirty Years War began. The Elector Palatine Frederick V, the head of the Protestant League and of the German Calvinists, was elected King of Bohemia. The cathedral was altered to suit Calvinistic church services. The altars were demolished, the pictures destroyed, and Scultetus, the court preacher, arranged a church service. No ruler ever began to reign under more distressing conditions than Ferdinand II. The insurgents under Thurn stood before the gates of Vienna; those unfriendly to Catholicism within the city made common cause with the enemy. Ferdinand, however, never lost courage. Khlesl, Bishop of Vienna, proved to be too weak and was therefore confined first in the castle of Ambras and then in the castle of Sant' Angelo at Rome. He lived to have the satisfaction of being restored in state to his diocese. He founded in Vienna the Himmelspfortkloster, which commemorates the beautiful legend of the truant nun whose place as doorkeeper was taken during her absence by the Blessed Virgin.
357 After the battle of the White Mountain, Ferdinand took severe measures against the disturbers of the peace; they were driven out of the country, and finally the rescript, which had been the source of so much trouble, was annulled. A new constitution was published which, among other provisions, made the clergy the highest estate of the land. The emperor was obliged to give Upper Austria in pledge to Bavaria as security for the cost of the war. The cruelties of the Bavarian troops and Ferdinand's order, requiring the people either to leave the country or to return to the old belief, led to a peasant revolt under the leadership of Stephen Fadinger, the proprietor of a farm not far from St. Agatha, which was carried on until Fadinger died of a wound at Linz. The Catholic was now again the dominant religion and the Protestants retired into the little-frequented mountain districts. In Hungary te Government could not accomplish so much. However, Peter Pázmán laboured with success against the spread of the new religious doctrines. Pázmán was born at Grosswardein (Nagy Várad) of Calvinistic parents. At sixteen he changed his creed, then entered the Society of Jesus and studied at Cracow, Vienna, and Rome. At Rome Bellarmine and Vasquez were among his teachers. When professor at Graz he published the "Imitatio Christi". He finally returned to Hungary, became Primate, and gained great influence for the Church through his eloquence, the gentleness of his character, and his strong patriotic feeling. He brought about the return of fifty noble families to the mother church and was the author of a "Guide to Catholic Truth". He founded at Tyrnau a university which was later transferred to Budapest, and also the Hungarian College at Rome. Believing that the preservation of religion requires worthy servants he founded at Vienna, 1623, a college (Pazmaneum) for the training and instruction of clergy for all the dioceses of Hungary. Ferdinand II called Pázmán his friend. This emperor raised the bishops of Vienna to the rank of prince-bishops (1631). When this terrible religious war came to an end in the Peace of Westphalia, and the diplomats played with religious establishments and monasteries as boys play with nuts, and invented the term "secularization" to express the secular appropriation of the Church's estates, the Hapsburg princes were not willing to commit Austria to such a policy. At this crisis the Hapsburg Dynasty obeyed the directions of Providence. Had the house of Hapsburg then come forward as champions of the new doctrine which originated at Wittenberg, it would have been easy to renew the shattered imperial power in Germany and give to the crown of the Holy Roman Empire a lustre far exceeding that of any other European diadem. But reverence for God and Holy Church had greater weight with the emperors of this line than worldly advantage. For one hundred and twenty years they battled with the storms which the so-called Reformation had stirred up, while the armies of Islam attacked Vienna and the edge of the Ottoman Empire was pushed forward as far as Raab. Even when Louis XIV forced his way in from the West, bringing calamity in his train, and the war cry of the Osmanli was heard within the imperial citadel, the rulers of Austria still trusted in God. Innocent XI sent subsidies, and the saintly Father Marco D'Aviano aroused Christian enthusiasm by preaching a crusade. The feast of the Holy Name of Mary is a reminder that on the 12th of September, 1683, the power of Islam was forever broken before the walls of Vienna, and that the inheritance of St. Stephen was then freed from the Turkish yoke. God sent the rulers of Austria to do His work, and that they did it is an honour exceeding that of the quickly fading garlands which victory twines about the victor's chariot. During this period the Piarist and Ursuline orders were active in the work of education. New bishoprics were founded at Leitmeritz (1656) and Königgrätz (1664). Charles VI raised Vienna in 1722 to an archbishopric. While France at this time pointed with pride and reverence to its famous divines, the great preacher of Vienna was the always clever, but often eccentric, Augustinian, Father Abraham a Sanctâ Clarâ, whose family name was Ulrich Megerle. For example, preaching on the feast of the conversion of St. Paul (Pauli), he announced as his theme Gauli, Mauli, and Fauli. Gauli he interpreted to mean pride and sensuality (Gaul, "horse"); Mauli, gluttony, drunkenness, and wrangling (Maul, "mouth"); Fauli, indolence (faul, "lazy").
358 The fifty years preceeding the French Revolution are known in history as the period of the "Enlightenment". The Rationalist writers of this period believed that by enlightenment, in their sense of the word, a cure could be found for the evils of the time, and a means of promoting the happiness of mankind. Men were led more and more away from the influence of the Church, the loftier aspirations of noble and pious souls were scorned, and only the claims of a refined sensuality deemed worthy of consideration. The new ideas made their way into Austria, and that country became the birthplace of Josephinism, so called from the Emperor Joseph II, whose policy and legislation embodied these ideas. Maria Theresa forbade the sale of the book written by Febronius, but soon its sale to the learned and discreet was permitted. Urged by her council, Maria Theresa issued the "Placitum regium", made a stole-tax ordinance and obtained from Benedict XIV a reduction of the feast days. By this last regulation all the Apostles are commemorated on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and all the martyrs in the Mass and Breviary on the feast of St. Stephen. The empress also abolished the convent prisons, and ordered that passages in the Breviary lessons for the feast of St. Gregory VII which are opposed to the increase of the secular power should be covered over with paper. She also put a stop to public excommunications and public penances. The last public penance (1769) was that of a merchant at Pyrawart in Lower Austria who had struck an ecclesiastic. He stood for an hour at the church door holding a black candle. When Clement XIV suppressed the Society of Jesus, the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Migazzi, sought to save that order in Austria. "If the members of the order should be scattered, it would not be easy to fill their places; it would cost much expense and time to bring conditions back to the point at which these priests had left their work if they were forced to abandon it." Just twenty years later Migazzi begged the Emperor Francis II to reestablish the order. "I can prove to Your Majesty", he said, "that even the late French ambassador, who was certainly an unprejudiced witness, did not hesitate to say that but for the suppression of the Jesuits France would never have suffered from the Revolution, which brought such terrible results in its train. Three months before the death of Your Majesty's grandmother I heard her say, 'Oh, if I had only followed your advice and had availed myself of your statements!'" After the suppression of the Jesuits their property was converted into a fund for the aid of students, and the whole system of education was remodelled from top to bottom. Rautenstrauch, Abbot of Braunau, drew up a new scheme for a theological course, in which there should be "no squabbles of schools and scholastic chaos". Father Gratian Marx, of the Congregation of the Pious Schools, planned a Realgymnasium (high school without Greek) with six classes, which proved very successful. The common schools, which Maria Theresa had called a political necessity, were reorganized by Abbot John Ignaz Felbiger of Sagen in Prussian Silesia, each parish being given a primary school, each district a high school, and the capital of each province a normal school with which an institute for training teachers was connected. Felbiger wrote the necessary school books. The school at Kaplitz in southern Bohemia, under the supervision of the parish priest, Ferdinand Kindermann, was noted as a model school.
359 In ten years Joseph II published 6,200 laws, court regulations, and ordinances. Even those measures which were good and appropriate in themselves generally bore the evidences of precipitancy. His very first ordinances were directed against the government of the Catholic Church and aroused discontent by their interference with the affairs of the Church. The acceptance of papal decrees without the sanction of the Government was forbidden. The bishops were forbidden to apply for, or make use of, the quinquennial faculties of the Holy See, on the ground that they had full authority to act for themselves. On the other hand, they were not allowed to issue pastoral letters or instructions without the sanction of the Government. The Government soon began to close those monasteries which were not occupied with the spiritual care of a community, teaching, or nursing, and all the brotherhoods were suspended. About 738 religious houses were closed; 13 in Vienna alone; 51 in Lower Austria. The property of these conventual institutions was turned into a fund for church expenses, which was to be administered by the several provinces. In Lower Auistria alone 231 new parishes were formed. Much discontent was caused by the appointment of an "ecclesiastical court commission" which issued a number of arbitrary regulations concerning public worship; only one Mass was to be celebrated in a church, and that at the high altar; in parish churches, during the seasons of fasting, only two fast-day sermons, on Wednesday and Friday, must be preached; afternoon devotions, the Litany of Loretto, and the Rosary were forbidden; a requiem might be celebrated in a parish church upon the occasion of a death, but not upon the anniversary; it was forbidden to expose the Blessed Sacrament in a monstrance, the ciborium must be used instead; only when the Host was displayed could more than six candles be placed on the altar. A special regulation forbade the dressing of statues of the Virgin and ordered that the bodies of the dead should be buried in sacks and covered with quicklime. Further ordinances forbade the illumination and ornamentation of sacred pictures, the exhibition of relics, and pilgrimages. The Edict of Toleration (1781) granted the private exercise of their religion to Lutherans and Calvinists. The marriage law of 1783 runs: "Marriage in itself is regarded as a purely civil contract. Both this contract and the privileges and obligations arising from it are entirely dependent for their character and force on the secular laws of the land." In 1783, also, all schools, episcopal and monastic, for the training of the clergy were abolished, and general seminaries were founded at Vienna, Budapest, Pavia, and Louvain, with branches at Graz, Olmütz, Prague, Innsbruck, Freiburg, and Pressburg. This measure was intended to check the influence of the bishops in the training of ecclesiastics, and to obtain devoted servants of the State. The Minister of State, Van Swieten, took care that the new schools were supplied with suitable teachers and superintendents.
360 The first lodge of Freemasons, "Zu den drei Kanonen", was formed at Vienna in 1742; a lodge called "Zu den gekrönten Sternen und zur Redlichkeit" was formed soon after at Prague. Joseph II, however, had no alliance with Freemasons. "I know little about their secrets", he said, "as I never had the curiosity to take part in their mummeries". Still, his words, "The Freemason societies increase and are now to be found in the smallest cities", show the rapid growth of the order. Although many of the representatives of the Church failed to meet the new tendencies with force and courage, the Prince-Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Migazzi, attacked them boldly. He wrote vigorously and defended the Church with energy. He was well supported by the Primate of Hungary, Count Joseph Batthyányi, and in the lower provinces by the Cardinal Count von Frankenberg. But their efforts were in vain; the movement continued to grow. In this condition of affairs Pius VI felt it necessary to take some action, and he resolved to visit Vienna. This visit (1782) was very oportune for the emperor and the leaders of the new tendency in the empire. Hybel issued the libellous pamphlet, "Was ist der Papst?" The value of the pamphlet literature of the Josephinist movement is not in proportion to its amount. The roads traversed by the papal cortège were lined with the faithful who were eager to obtain the blessing of the Holy Father. The emperor met the pope at Wiener-Neustadt, and on the 22d of March the two heads of the Christian world entered the imperial city. The emperor showed the pope every attention, but his chancellor of state, Prince Kaunitz, was less considerate. At Easter the pope celebrated High Mass in the church of St. Stephen and afterwards blessed, from the balcony of the church facing Am Hof, the vast throng which filled the square. But the object of the pope's visit was gained only in part, although it may be said that the Josephinist fanaticism began to give place to a more sober mood. When the Holy Father left Vienna, 22 April, after a stay of just one month, the emperor accompanied him as far as Mariabrunn. Here, after praying in the church, the two parted. The next year the emperor visited Rome, where the Spanish ambassador, Azara, and Cardinal Bernis are said to have had a moderating effect upon him. There was no break with the Curia.
361 One work of lasting value which this emperor undertook was in connexion with diocesan boundaries. He took from the Diocese of Passau that part which lies in Austria and formed with it the See of Linz; the episcopal residence was transferred from Wiener-Neustadt to St. Polten, Bregenz was made the seat of a vicar-general, and a bishopric was founded at Leoben. The worst blunder committed by Joseph II in his latter years was his obstinate adherence, in spite of the warnings of Cardinal Frankenberg, to the scheme of erecting a general seminary at Louvain. Van Swieten put Stöger in charge of it. Stöger was one of the few Catholic priests who had committed themselves unreservedly to the "Enlightenment" movement. Maria Theresa had dismissed him from his position as teacher of church history, and his opinions were to be found in print in his compendium of church history. The career of Aurelius Fessler is a still more distressing example of the influence of the new spirit. Fessler was born in Hungary and came to Vienna as a Capuchin monk. There he became acquainted with Eybel, and as an offset to Eybel's "Was ist der Papst?" issued "Was ist der Kaiser?" Appointed professor of theology at Lemberg, he entered the Freemason lodge "Phönix zur runden Tafel", but was soon obliged to leave Lemberg "on account of debt and frivolous demeanour unsuited to his calling". He became a Lutheran, established himself in Berlin as legal counsellor in ecclesiastical and school cases, got a divorce in order to marry again, and accepted a professorship in the academy at St. Petersburg. His "Reminischeces of My Seventy Years' Pilgrimage" presents a melancholy picture of long and weary wanderings.
362 Although the reforms of Joseph II were well-intentioned, yet the independence of the Church suffered detriment through them. His enactments were drafted by Austrian canonists without any previous understanding with the authorities of the Church, and in violation of her rights (jus circa sacra). In many instances the tender germs of religion were killed, and a careless, frivolous way of thinking resulted.
363 Leopold II, the successor of Joseph II, entered Vienna, 12 March, 1790, and on the 21st of the same month Cardinal Migazzi presented a memorial concerning the painful position of the Austrian Church. As a result, the bishops received an intimation that they were at liberty to point out any serious defects in the existing ecclesiastical conditions. This they did, but, more especially, Cardinal Migazzi enumerated "thirteen grievances and their remedies" in his memorandum. Among these grievances were "the lack of monastic discipline, the general seminaries, the marriage laws, and the Ecclesiastical Commission which had assumed to be the judge of the bishops and their rights". Leopold II virtually suspended the general seminaries, permitted the bishops to have seminaries under their own control, and granted to the monasteries the right to give theological courses. Religious processions were permitted "to a point not far distant" and Saturday evening devotions were also allowed (without Benediction, however), as well as the exposition of relics.
364 Francis II was a devout and conscientious Christian, and a ruler who wished to be a father to his people. Nevertheless, it was during his reign that what is called the Josephinist system struck firmer roots. In the first place, the struggle with France, which lasted over twenty years, demanded all the energies of the Government, and during this reign both clergy and people grew more accustomed to the Josephinist regulations. But in addition to this Francis II clung with a childlike devotion to the memory of his uncle Joseph II, whom he called his second father. And, furthermore, whenever any concession was made to the Church, the supporters of Josephinism raised an outcry. In 1793, for instance, the Government was informed that in the church of St. Stephen Mass was celebrated simultaneously at several altars, and that in several places, at the afternoon litanies, Benediction was given with the monstrance. A priest had been the informant. After repeated conferences the cardinal obtained permission to have two Masses said at the same time in the church of St. Stephen, but "the Benediction could be given only once at the close of the service". The almost insurmountable difficulty in the way of reform was the ecclesiastical court commission. It was the only means of communication between a bishop and the emperor. Migazzi wished, above everything, to eliminate this difficulty. "I am in all things", he said, "Your Majesty's most dutiful subject. But in his ecclesiastical character the chief shepherd must say boldly that the placing of such fetters upon the guardians of the Church is an offence to all Catholics, and it is a still greater offence that this power is given to men of worldly or untrustworthy reputation, and even to men known to be dangerous or of notorious character." The emperor, indeed, sought to do away with the worst features of the system which had come down to him from his predecessors. He authorized the prayer, the solemn benediction of graves, and the pilgrimages to Mariazell (the first of which, in 1792, was led by Migazzi himself), and the draping of "the poor statues of the Mother of God".
365 Man cannot at will be stirred to activity or lulled to sleep. However, at the beginning of the nineteenth century a number of circumstances combined to bring about an increase of the religious spirit in Austria. In 1802, the emperor issued two circulars, the first on "the means of elevating the secular clergy" and the second on "the means of improving the regular clergy". To remedy the lack of priests, the first order increased the number of gymnasia, directed the establishment of a theological training school, with a seminary attached, for each diocese, and granted stipends to divinity students. Ecclesiastics belonging to an order were to wear the habit of their order, and must not live alone; a profession might be made in the twenty-first year, instead of the twenty-fifth. Soon after this the emperor transferred to the bishops the supervision of religious instruction (1808) and the censorship of thelogical works (1814). Repeated commands to officials required them to attend Sunday church-services. A university service, with a university preacher, was founded for university students. Two days before his death the emperor directed his successor to "complete the work he had begun of rectifying those laws, principles, and methods of managing church affairs which had been introduced since 1780".
366 The Archbishops of Vienna acted in a manner worthy of their high office. Migazzi's successor, in 1803, was Sigismund Anton Count Hohenwarth, the instructor of the emperor, and a pastor zealous for souls, who devoted himself especially to the theological schools. After him came Vincenz Eduard Milde (d. 1853) who had gained a good reputation as a theorist in pedagogics and as a practical teacher. An important part in arousing the Church was taken by the following court preachers of that period: Vincenz Darnaut, who prepared an Old Testament history; Frint, author of a compendium of religious knowledge (6 vols.), the man at whose suggestion the emperor in 1816 established the advanced school for secular clergy at St. Augustine, and the founder of the Vienna "Theologische Zeitschrift"; Vincenz Eduard Milde was the author of a textbook of the general theory of pedagogics (2 vols.); Johann Michael Leonhard, who published "Christian Doctrines" in four parts and textbooks for grammar schools; Johann Platz, who continued Frint's periodical and published "Dogmatic Sermons"; Job, confessor to the queen mother, Caroline Augusta; Albert Schlör, who produced "Meditations upon the Entire Gospel for Ecclesiastics and Priests", a work still fruitful. The priests whom the emperor received into Austria after the secularization of the abbeys in the empire were also very active. Thirty-five monks who came from St. Blasien, in the Black Forest to St. Paul in Carinthia pursued serious studies; twenty-five from Wiblingen entered Austrian abbeys. Among these were Sebastian Zängerle, who, "praying, working, and bravely fighting", bequeathed his diocese of Seckau in excellent condition to his successor; and Gregor Thomas Ziegler, who, while professor of dogmatics at Vienna, wrote "On Theological Rationalism", "Foundation of the Catholic Faith", and a "Life of Job". Their efforts were aided by the converts Frederick von Schlegel and Zacharias Werner. Metternich was Schlegel's patron. Schlegel's lectures on modern history and on ancient and modern literature, delivered at Vienna, had a beneficial effect, and the "Konkordia", which he founded, advocated Catholic interests. Werner's conversion was finally effected by the confession of St. Peter. In reading the "Imitation of Christ" his eye happened to fall on the only words of Peter contained in the work (Im., III, liii, 1). He called the "Imitation of Christ" the "pith of all books". (Tolle, lege.) During the sessions of the Congress he preached at Vienna with such intense feeling that at times he wept as he recalled with remorse his youthful errors. For a while Hohenwarth entertained him in his palace and Dalberg gave him a gold pen which he presented to the shrine at Mariazell. Werner, who died eleven days after preaching a notable sermon on the feast of the Epiphany, in 1823, was buried at Maria Enzersdorf beside Blessed Clement Maria Hofbauer. Hofbauer was a man of saintly character and prayerful life who, as confessor and preacher, exercised an extraordinary influence over many and was a source of light and instruction for Vienna and Austria. He was born at Tasswitz in Moravia, entered the Redemptorist Order at Rome as its first German member, and was active in the order at Warsaw. He suffered for the Faith, being confined in the fortress of Küstrin, and after coming to Vienna was appointed assistant to the rector of the Italian church through the influence of Archbishop Hohenwarth. He was finally made confessor to the Ursulines. Without noisy effort he produced deep effects. Among his penitents were: Adam von Müller, court councillor and author, whose last words were "Only those facts are worthy of notice which the Catholic Church recognizes as true"; Schlegel; Zacharias Werner; the Princess Jablonowska and Princess Bretzenheim; Privy Councillor Francis de Paul Szechenyi; Professors Fourerius Ackermann, Zängerle, Ziegler; Bishops Rauscher and Baraga. He converted Silbert Klinkowström and Veith. Hofbauer learned on his death-bed that the emperor had recognized the congregation as an order, and, filled with joy, he passed away, praising God, 15 March, 1820. Tondler, who followed in Hofbauer's footsteps, was born only six days after his death. Hofbauer was beatified in 1886. Cardinal Rauscher said of him: "Father Hofbauer made the final arrangement of the Concordat possible; he gave to the spirit of the time a better direction".
367 There were at this time, unfortunately, priests who instead of offering to their fellow-men the pure wheat of the truth sought to give them the chaff of fantastic dreams. Among others, Martin Boos taught that "the Saviour only demands from sinners that they believe in him and make his merits their own. For this reason the formation of a particular society of believers in the living faith is necessary". Boos supported his views by referring to Professor Sailer, but was imprisoned a whole year by the consistory at Augsburg. After this he had a parish at Gallenkirchen, in Upper Austria, but was obliged to resign his position. Thomas Pöschel, a curate, at Ampfelwang, in Upper Austria, received a heavenly revelation that the millennium had begun. This was to be preceeded by the arrival of Antichrist, who had just appeared in the person of Napoleon. Pöschel died at Vienna in the infirmary for priests. The "Manharter" in Tyrol took the name of the peasant Manhart, who, influenced by the assistant curate Kaspar Hagleitner, maintained that the acts of the Tyrolese ecclesiastics who had sworn fealty to Napoleon were invalid. The Archbishop of Salzburg, Augustine Gruber, and Cardinal Cappellari (Gregory XVI) quieted the peasants.
368 In 1848, when, as was said at the bishops' conference at Würzburg, "the judgment of God was passed on thrones and peoples", the devastating storm broke out in Austria. Even Füster, a professor of theology at the University of Vienna and a university preacher, led students astray. The Prince-Archbishop of Vienna, Vincenz Eduard Milde, issued a warning to the entire clergy "to keep within the limits of their calling". Nevertheless, the revolutionary spirit sooon threatened the Church. Public demonstrations were made against Archbishop Milde and the papal nuncio, because Pius IX was said to have blessed the Italians who marched out to fight the Austrians. The Redemptorists were driven out of Vienna, and the Jesuits out of Graz. Ronge, whose followers abused the words German and Catholic by calling themselves "German-Catholic", preached in the Odeon at Vienna and in the taverns at Graz. Unfortunately, Ronge was joined by Hermann Pauli, assistant at Erdberg, and by Hirschberger, chaplain at the home for disabled soldiers. Pauli and Hirschberger came to a sad end: the former died in an insane asylum, the latter committed suicide.
369 With these exceptions, the clergy of Vienna behaved admirably. In May the curate, Sebastian Brunner, came to the defence of the Church against the hostile press by issuing the "Kirchenzeitung", and the bishops of various dioceses sent memorials and addresses to the ministry, the imperial diet and the emperor, such as: a statement of the bishops of the Archdiocese of Moravia drawn up by Kutschker, petition of the Prince-Bishop of Lavant to the Imperial Diet; petition of the Archbishop of Görz to the Ministry; "What are the Relations of Church and State? An Answer by the bishops of Bohemia"; memorial of the Archbishopric of Salzburg to the Imperial Diet; memorial of the Archdiocese of Vienna to the Diet; memorial of the bishops of the Archdiocese of the maritime district to the constitutional imperial diet at Kremsier. All these brochures sought the independence of the Church, the breaking of her fetters so that she might be free to raise her hand to bless.
370 As the appeals of individual bishops and dioceses had little effect, the minister of the interior, Count Stadion, summoned the Austrian bishops to Vienna in order to obtain a unanimous expression of their wishes. Hungary and the Lombardo-Venetian provinces were not included, as they were not yet pacified. This first conference of the Austrian bishops met, 29 April to 20 June, 1849, in the archiepiscopal palace. Sixty sittings were held. Schwarzenberg, the "German cardinal", presided, and the lately consecrated Bishop Rauscher was secretary. Hungary was represented by the Bishop of Pécs, Scitvosky. Among the theologians were Court Councillor Zenner, of Vienna; Professor Kutschker, of Olmütz; Canon Tarnoczy, of Salzburg; Canon Wiery, of Lavant; Professor Fessler, of Brixen; Canon Jablinsky, of Tarnow; and Canon Ranolder of Pécs. The voluminous memorials presented to the Government by the conference discussed marriage, the endowment funds for religion, school, and student-stipends, livings and endowments for church-services, instruction, the administration of the church, ecclesiastical offices and church services, monastic houses, ecclesiastical jurisdiction. In the resolutions, which cover 207 paragraphs, the bishops marked out for themselves a common course of action. The resolutions of this first confrence of the bishops of Austria were the foundation on which the new structure of the Austrian Church has been built. Before the close of the conference an episcopal committee of five members was formed to press the settlement of the memorials, and to protect the interests of the Church. The chairman of the committee was Cardinal Schwarzenberg, the secretary was Prince-Bishop Rauscher of Seckau. Count Leo Thun, Minister of Instruction, presented the matter at last to His Majesty at two audiences, and the important imperial decrees of 18 and 23 April, 1850, were the results of these interviews. The first ordinance defined the relations of the Catholic Church to the State: Catholics "are at liberty to apply in spiritual matters to the pope"; bishops might issue regulations in matters pertaining to their office without previous permission from state officials; ecclesiastical authorities were allowed to order church punishments; careless administrators of church offices could be suspended. The ordinance of 23 April defined the relations of the Church to public instruction: teachers of religion and theological professors could not be appointed without the consent of the bishop, who could at any time withdraw his ratification; the bishop named one-half of the examining committee at theological examinations; a candidate for a theological doctorate had to subscribe to the Tridentine Confession of Faith in the presence of the bishop before obtaining his degree.
371 On the 14th of September, 1852, the Emperor Francis Joseph empowered Prince-Bishop Rauscher to act as his representative in drawing up a Concordat, and Pope Pius IX named as his representative, Viale Prelá, the papal nuncio in Vienna. In important questions Rauscher was to consult with the committee on the Church. This committee was composed of Thun, Minister of Instruction; Buol Schauenstein, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Bach, Minister of the Interior; R. von Salvotti, Member of the Imperial Diet; and Freiherr von Kübeck, President of the Imperial Diet. The results of the conferences were to be laid from time to time before the emperor for decision. The negotiations advanced very slowly. The Hungarian bishops presented special desideria (requests), the Patriarch of Venice presented postulata et desideria (demands and requests). In order to expedite matters, Rauscher spent seven consecutive months in Rome, busied with negotiations. The Concordat was at last signed on the emperor's birthday, 1855. It contains 36 articles. Arts. 5-8 regulate instruction: "All school instruction of Catholic children must be in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church; the bishops are to have charge of religious training; professors of theology are to be chosen from men whom the bishop holds to be most suited to the position; only Catholics shall be appointed professors in the gymnasia [middle schools] set aside for Catholic children; the bishops are to select the religious text-books". The bishops have the right to condemn books injurious to religion and morals, and to forbid Catholics reading them (Art. 8). The ecclesiastical judge decides matrimonial suits of an ecclesiastical character (Art. 10). The Holy See does not forbid ecclesiastics who have committed misdemeanours and crimes to be brought before the secular courts (Art. 14). The emperor, in exercising the Apostolic prerogative inherited from his ancestors, of nominating the bishops to be canonically confirmed by the Holy See, will in the future, as in the past, avail himself of the advice of the bishops, especially of the bishops of the archdiocese in which the vacant see lies (Art. 19). In all metropolitan churches the Holy Father appoints the highest dignitary. The emperor still appoints all other dignitaries and the canons of the cathedral (Art. 22). The Holy Father empowers the emperor and his successors to present to all canonries and parishes where the right of patronage is derived from the endowment fund for religious or educational foundations, but in such cases the appointee must be one of three candidates nominated by the bishop as suitable for the position (Art. 25). The bishops have the right to bring religious orders into their dioceses (Art. 28). The estates which form the endowment fund for religious and educational foundations are the property of the Church and are managed in its name, the bishops having the supervision of affairs; the emperor is to aid in making up what is lacking in the fund (Art. 31).
372 The Concordat was intended to be binding upon the entire monarchy, and to be carried out with uniformity in all parts. Thun, therefore, in the emperor's name, called the bishops of the entire empire to Vienna. On the 6th of April, 1856, the inhabitants of the imperial city saw 66 princes of the Church enter the Cathedral of St. Stephen in state. These ecclesiastics represented the Latin, Greek, and Oriental Rites; among them were German, Hungarian, Italian, and Polish bishops. The procession was closed by pro-nuncio, Cardinal Viale Prelá. The assembly presented to the Government proposals, requests, and resolutions concerning schools, marriage, church estates, appointment to ecclesiastical benefices, monasteries, patronage of livings. The closing session was held 17 June. The emperor received the bishops in a farewell audience. On the occasion Cardinal Schwarzenberg said: "After God, our hope and trust rest on Your Majesty's piety, wisdom, and justice. When we have reached our dioceses we shall strive most zealously to extend the benefits of the agreement in all directions". In order to make the Concordat effectual, the bishops held synods in their dioceses: at Gran, 1858; Vienna, 1858; Prague, 1860; Kalocsa, 1863. Fresh life showed itself everywhere. It is now acknowledged that schools of all grades accomplished great things under the Concordat. The primary schools were excellently arranged, a course of study which is still in force was drawn up for the gymnasia, and the University of Vienna gained a world wide reputation under Thun, the author of the Concordat. In 1855 the Institute for Research in Austrian history was formed. Famous members of the medical faculty of the university were the professors: Skodra (percussion and auscultation); Rokitansky (pathological anatomy); Oppolzer; Hebra; Stellwag; Hyrtl; Brücke, and Billroth, the last named being the leading surgeon of the century. Upon Rauscher's suggestion the number of professors in the department of dogmatic theology of the University of Vienna was increased, in order to ensure a more extended course in this branch. The new men called were, Father Philip Guidi, O.P., and Father Clemens Schrader, S.J., both from Rome. The lectures were obligatory on divinity students in any year of the four years' course, and were intended also for priests desirous of instruction. The successful developments of art during this period is shown in the church of Altlerchenfeld in Vienna, which was consecrated in 1861. This fine structure was built from the designs of the architecht John George Müller, and was decorated with a series of mural paintings by Joseph Führich, professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. These paintings combine art and true dogma most admirably, and Führich is in them a veritable teacher of the Faith. He was born at Krazau in Bohemia, studied art first at the academy in Prague, afterwards for two years at Rome, and coming to Vienna passed forty-two studious and fruitful years there (d. 1876). Among the large number of his religious paintings the most famous are: The Pater-noster; the Way of the Cross, in the church of St. John on the Prater, Vienna, copies of which can be found in all parts of the world; the Way to Bethlehem; illustrations of the Psalter and the Imitation of Christ; the Prodigal Son; the Book of Ruth. The manner in which Führich developed his scheme of thought in the series of pictures in the Altlerchenfeld church is extremely impressive. Pictures in churches, according to his view, were not merely decorative; through the senses they must unfold to the spirit that inner life of faith which finds its full development in the church. In the vestibule of the church, six pictures portray the work of creation, and a seventh sets forth the rest of the Creator on the Sabbbath. The paintings in the two side aisles represent the Church of the Old Testament, which kept alive the longing for salvation and proclaimed its coming. The paintings of the middle aisle portray the fulfillment of the promise by scenes from the life of Christ. Between the historical pictures are placed at intervals the figure of the Saviour with appropriate historical emblems, such as Christ as a gardener, with a hoe on the shoulder. This is followed by a picture of the owner of the vineyard commanding the gardener to cut down the unfruitful tree. Then Christ as shepherd, followed by an allegorical picture of the transferring of the office of shepherd to Peter; Christ the wayfarer, followed by a representation of the man who fell among thieves; Christ the sower, followed by the approaching harvester with his sickle. These paintings, with those representing the Sermon on the Mount, decorate the church as far as the pulpit. The high altar is adorned with a picture of the Most Holy Trinity. The conception running through the whole series of paintings, from those in the vestibule to that of the high altar, is that the paradise lost by the first human beings is offered to us again by the second Adam in the new heaven.
373 At this moment of renewed energy in the church, Austria possessed bishops who would have excited the envy of little Cappadocia at the time of the three great Cappadocians. Among these Austrian bishops were: Cardinal Schwarzenberg (d. 1885) and Cardinal Rauscher (d. 1875; life by Wolfsgruber); Francis Joseph Rudigier, Bishop of Linz (d. 1879; life by Meindl); Vincenz Gasser, Prince-Bishop of Brixen (d. 1879; life by Zobl); Joseph Fessler, Bishop of St. Pölten (d. 1872; life by Erdinger); John B. Zwerger, Prince-Bishop of Seckau (d. 1893; life by Oer). The description of this period would not be complete without mention of the foremost German preacher and most fruitful German theologian of the nineteenth century, John Emanuel Veith, and of the philosopher and priest, Anton Günther. Veith was born at Kuttenplan, in Bohemia, and was of Jewish parentage. When he was nine years old his spiritual struggle began. In his twenty-first year, led by Father Hofbauer, he found peace in the Church. He faithfully kept the vow he had made: "I will devote my entire life to the only thing that is eternal, and therefore, the only thing that is important." Veith became a priest, preached for fourteen years in the Cathedral of St. Stephen at Vienna and died in 1876. At the time of his last illness he was preparing a translation, with commentary, of the Canticle of Canticles. On the day of his death he wrote down the words of Sulamit:
374 > Neu auch wollen wir dort oben
375 > Lieb und Treue ihm geloben.
376 -"Afresh, will we there above vow to him our faith and love." Then, putting the pen aside, he said, "It is finished", and breathed his last. (Life by Löwe.) Richness of thought and a classic elegance of speech characterized Veith's sermons. Among those published are: "Die Leidenswerkunge Christi"; "Denkbüchlein von der göttlicken Liebe"; "Das Friedensopfer"; "Lebensbilder aus der Passionsgeschichte"; "Die heiligen Berge" (2 vols.); "Homilienkranz" (5 vols.); "Der verlorne Sohn"; "Die Samaritin"; "Die Erweckung des Lazarus"; "Mater Dolorosa"; "Festpredigten" (2 vols.); "Homiletische Vortrage" (7 vols.); "Der Blindgeborne"; "Politische Passionspredigten"; "Eucharistie"; "Weltleben und Christentum"; "Charitas"; "Worte der Feinde Christi"; "Misericordia" (Psalm Miserere); "Das Vaterunser"; "Weg, Wahrheit, und Leben"; "Dodekatheon" (2 vols.); "Die Mächte des Unheils"; "Die Anfänge der Menschenwelt"; "Die Stufenpsalmen"; "Prophetie und Glaube"; "Homiletische Aehrenlese" (2 vols.); "Meditationen über den 118. Psalm"; "Hundert Psalmen"; "Der Leidenweg des Herrn"; "Stechpalmen"; "Dikaiosyne, Die Epistelreihe des Kirchenjahres". Karl Werner, the son of a teacher, was born at Hafnerbach in Lower Austria and died in 1888. He was first professor of moral theology at St. Pölten, then professor of higher exegesis at the University of Vienna. In Vienna he was appointed member of the advisory council of the minister of instruction, and was elected member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Among the many works of learned research Werner published are: "System der Ethik" (2 vols.); "Grundlinien der Philosophie"; "Der hl. Thomas von Aquino" (3 vols.); "Franz Suarez und die Scholastik der letzten Jahrhunderte" (2 vols.); "Geschichte der apologetischen und polemischen Literature der chirstlichen Theologie"; "Geschichte der katholischen Theologie seit dem Trienter Konzil bis zur Gegenwartf"; "Spekulative Anthropologie vom christlich-philosophischen Standpunkt"; "Beda der Ehrwürdige und seine Zeit"; "Alkuin und sein Jahrhundert"; "Gerbert von Aurillac, die Kirche und Wissenschaft seiner Zeit"; "Giambattista Vico als Philosoph und gelehrter Forscher"; "Johannes Duns Scotus"; "Geschichte der Scholastik des späteren Mittelalters" (5 vols.); "Geschichte der italienischen Philosophie des 19. Jahrh." Many of Werner's treatises are to be found in the reports of the sessions of the philosophico-historical section of the Imperial Academy of Sciences. Anton Günther, founder of the Guntherian school of philosophy, was born at Lindenau, near Leitmeritz, in Bohemia. He studied jurisprudence and philosophy at Prague, and came under the influence of the philosophical ideas of Kant, Fichte, and Jacobi. Blessed Clement Hofbauer led him back to the truth. Günther was consecrated priest, and became teacher of philosophy in noble families, especially in that to which Schwarzenberg, afterwards Cardinal, belonged. For many years he filled the modest position of sacristan of St. Ruprecht, the oldest church in Vienna. After a life spent in philosophical study he died in 1876 (life by Knoodt). Günther's chief works are: "Vorschule zur spekulativen Theologie des Christentums"; "Peregrins Gastmal"; "Sud- und Nordlichter am Horizont spekulativer Theologie"; "Janusköpfe für Philosophie und Theologie"; "Möhler der letzte Symboliker"; "Thomas a Scrupulis, zur Transfiguration der Persönlichkeits Pantheismen neuster Zeit"; "Die Justes-Milieux in der deutschen Philosophie gegenwartiger Zeit"; "Eurystheus und Herakles"; "Lydia" (a philosophical annual, in collaboration with Veith). Honestly intending to defend faith against the philosophical doubtings which are constantly arising in modern times, Günther fell into the mistake of making the mysteries of faith dependent on their recognition by the understanding, so that knowledge was substituted for faith. A learned war broke out in Germany, in which Günther's position was damaged by the vagaries of his followers, and at the end of five years' examination the Congregation of the Index condemned his writings. After the first excitement had subsided Günther gave a proof of the honesty of opinion which had characterized his action from the start. The verdict of the Congregation of the Index was sent to him 23 January, 1857; on 10 "February he handed Cardinal Rauscher his submission, to be forwarded to the Holy Father and to Cardinal Andrea, Prefect of the Congregation of the Index. The thought which consoled Günther in these days of trial was that God demanded of every man the sacrifice of his Isaac, and that this sacrifice was what he now made to God. Goethe says that the subject of profoundest interest in the history of the world is the battle of disbelief against faith. This is still more true of the history of the Church. In 1860 Austria became a constitutional monarchy, and in the next year the foundations of a representative government were laid. The Imperial Parliament was to consist of a House of Peers, to which the archbishops and prince-bishop were to belong, and a House of Deputies. During the first session of the Parliament, Manger, a Protestant deputy, attacked the Concordat and demanded its revision. Upon this the members of the episcopacy in the Upper House and some other bishops met and prepared a memorial which was sent to the emperor. "Of all the party cries", it ran, "which are put to effective use in electioneering, none has so much prominence at present as the word toleration. True toleration is exercised by the Catholic Church while the harshest intolerance is practised on all sides against the Catholic Church. All its ordinances and institutions are slandered and mistrusted, and every exhibition of Catholic conviction is overwhelmed with scorn and derision." The events just noted were merely the forerunners of a terrible storm which broke after the disastrous war of 1866. In July of the next year Deputy Herbst moved the preparation of three bills concerning marriage, schools, and the mutual relations of the different religious denominations. A conference of twenty-four bishops was held at Vienna, and a second memorial was sent to the emperor which contained the following: "A party has arisen which has chosen this time of distress for an attack on the religion to which Your Majesty, the Imperial family, and a great majority of the inhabitants of the land belong. We are in the presence of a spectacle which causes the enemies of Austria to smile derisively, and which fills Austria's sons with shame rather than with anxiety." Marriage without the blessing of the Church, schools without religion were demanded. In order to obtain suitable teachers for these schools it was proposed to found for the training of teachers institutions where contempt for all that is holy should be instilled. It was not possible, however, to resist the liberal pressure. On the 21st of December, 1867, the new fundamental laws received the imperial approval. The first granted full freedom of faith and conscience and freedom in scientific opinion. The second declared: "All jurisdiction in the state is exercised in the name of the emperor". Thereby the Church's exclusive jurisdiction over marriage was impugned. The third law obliged all officials to take an oath to support the constitution. Two professors of dogmatics did not take the oath; these were Schrader, the Jesuit, and Hyacinth Pellgrinetti, the Dominican successor of Guidi. They were obliged to resign their professorships, and their places have not yet been filled.
377 During the same period the dual constitution was sanctioned, by which the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy as it now exists, was formed "of two distinct co-ordinate States having the same constitutional, legal, and administrative rights". After a long struggle the emperor signed, 25 May, 1808, the laws concerning marriage, schools, and the status of the several denominations. The first of these laws declares marriage to be a civil contract, makes the civil marriage obligatory, and takes from the Church the judicial power pro foro externo in matrimonial suits. The law concerning schools takes from the bishop any control of the management as well as the right of supervision. These powers are given to an official school committee of the district and town, of which committee ecclesiastics can be chosen members. The bishops select the books used by the catechist and instructors in religious doctrine. The third law grants everyone the right to choose his own religion on attaining the age of fourteen years, but a child between seven and fourteen years of age cannot change his or her religion even at the wish of the parents. As these laws infringed the Concordat in essentials, a secret consistory was held at Rome, 22 June, at which the pope declared: "Leges auctoritate Nostrâ apostolicâ reprobamus, damnamus et decreta ipsa irrita proursus nulliusque roboris fuisse ac fore declaramus." ("By the Apostolic authority we reprobate and condemn these laws, and declare that their purport was, and shall be, wholly invalid and of no force.") The bishops upon this issued pastorals. The joint letter of 3 June issued by the Bohemian bishops to the clergy and their joint pastoral of 24 June were condemned by the imperial civil courts of all three instances, on the ground that they were a disturbance of the public peace, and suppressed. Penal proceedings were not brought against Cardinal Schwarzenberg, but Bishop Francis Joseph Rudigier, of Linz, was prosecuted for his pastoral of 7 September. "On account of the misdemeanour committed in the pastoral letter"-of calling the law of 24 May a lie-he was brought before the Supreme Court, found guilty by the jury, and condemned to fourteen days' imprisonment with costs. The pastoral was ordered to be destroyed. Next day the emperor in a decree remitted the punishment and the legal consequences. The bishops disagreed as to whether the clergy should permit themselves to be chosen members of the school committees, but Rauscher and Schwarzenberg, who were for the permission, carried their point.
378 The definition of the pope's infallibility afforded von Stremayr, the Austrian Minister of Instruction, a pretext to demand the abrogation of the Concordat, on the plea that the pope, one of the contracting parties, had received from the definition a new character, which invalidated the original agreement. Beust, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, addressed to Palomba a note which declared: "The Concordat exists no longer; it is annulled." The abrogation of the Concordat produced a gap in religious legislation. To remedy this four bills were introduced January, 1874, for regulating the legal status of the Catholic Church, the taxing of the fund for the support of religion, the legal status of monasteries, and the recognition of new religious societies. The pope expressed, on the 7th of March, his grief at the attack on the rights of the Church, implied in the assertion that the supreme power in all matters concerning the external life belonged to the State. The bishops assembled again at Vienna and sent this statement to the Ministry and the Upper House: "We repeat that we are ready to agree to the demands which the State makes on us in the bill concerning the legal status of the Catholic Church as far as these demands are in harmony with the Concordat concerning these matters. We cannot and will not acquiesce in a proposition the consummation of which would endanger the welfare of the Church."
379 One of the chief causes of the scarcity of priests which now began to be marked was the new law of national defence. By this law youths in their twentieth year during their course at a gymnasium were subject to military duty. The bishops again and again begged for a relaxation of the provisions of the law. But they had, for the time being, no redress except to appeal in individual cases to the indulgence of the emperor. When the bills reached the upper house the bishops defended themselves bravely. Rauscher closed his address of 10 April with these words: "So-called progress no longer considers it necessary to conceal its real aim, and has unmasked its hate against God and eternal truth. But Providence has set a natural limit to all things. The destruction of Christianity is impossible, but Austria may be destroyed if the war against religion is not checked in good time." Yet, for all this, the first two bills became law, 7 May, 1874. Among other things, the law concerning the legal status of the Church declares that: In order to obtain any ecclesiastical appointment or living, a candidate's record of past conduct must be blameless when judged by the standard of the civil law (§1); if the Government finds that an ecclesiastical regulation respecting a public church service is not consistent with the public interest, the Government shall then forbid it (§17); the total number of Catholics living in the district of a parish form the parish community (§35); in order to cover the expenses of a parish a tax is to be laid on its members (§36); the ministry of public worship and instruction is authorized to oversee the management of the funds of the churches and church instituitions (§38); the ministry of public workship and instruction is to take care that the ecclesiastical journals do not go beyond the sphere of their proper activity (§60). The law concerning contributions to the fund for the support of religion declares that: Assessments shall be made on incumbents of livings and the communities of the regular orders for the fund for the support of religion in order to meet the expenses of Catholic worship and especially in order to increase the incomes of pastors which have been until now very small (§1); the value of the entire property of the living or of the community shall be taken as the basis (of the assessment) (§2); the amount of the assessments shall be fixed every ten years for the next ten years (§9); and they were to be "one-half of one per cent on amounts up to 10,000 florins [$4,000], one-and-a-half per cent on amounts from 10,000 florins to 20,000 florins [$4,000 to $8,000], and 10 per cent on all amounts over 90,000 florins [$36,000]". The law (signed 20 May) in regard to the legal recognition of religious societies "accepts in full" the principle of religious equality.
380 Since the passage of these three laws no further enactments have so far been made, with regard to the status of the various denominations in Austria. In the year following their passage Cardinal Rauscher died (24 Nov., 1875). It was due to his wise moderation and caution that Austria escaped the evils of a Kulturkampf (religious conflict). In 1874, von Stremayr offered four projects for bills in the House of Deputies, one of which dealt with the legal status of monastic communities. Rauscher said that it "bore on its forehead unusual marks of mistrust, arbitrariness, and harshness. According to its provisions, the authority of the minister of worship of the time being would be sufficient to sweep from the earth a monastic house which had existed for a thousand years and to enforce the sequestration of its property." The bill reached the Upper House by the middle of January, 1876. But Cardinal Schwarzenberg succeeded, by means of a memorial of the Austrian archbishops and bishops, in inducing the emperor not to sign it, and the bill has not yet become law.
381 The parliamentary election of 1879 increased the number of conservative members so that the Right (hohenwart) Party was in the majority. In 1882, the Karl Ferdinand University, at Prague, was divided into a German and a Czech university. Cardinal Schwarzenberg, however, would not consent to a division of the theological faculty. He wrote to the minister, Conrad von Eybesfeld: "The Church does not wish the separation of the nations, but their union in one body, the head of which is Christ. She dedicates the blessings of her activity to all nations, she recognizes the right of every people to independence, she respects and supports the demands of a people for its own language and its own form of instruction. But the Church cannot give to the claims of nationality the first place, they must always be for her a secondary interest. The theological faculty must impress this idea upon their pupils and must not, therefore, drive them apart. They should not deepen and embitter the national differences by a separation; they should strive rather to compose these differences. This duty is above all necessaryl among the various nationalities of Bohemia. In this country it is a special duty of the priesthood to seek to soothe and unify." The separation took place, however, directly after Schwarzenberg's death.
382 An amendment to the school law which somewhat improved matters was laid before the Upper House in 1883. This amendment was the result of numerous memorials from the bishops to the Government and much effort of other kinds. During the debate on the amendment Cardinal Schwarzenberg said: "The bishops for whom I speak to-day recognize the value of the amendment and are ready to work for its passage. But this does not justify the presumption that we consider the amendment as remedying all defects of the school laws, and that our votes are a corroberation of these laws. Only a denominational system of common schools can satisfy the claims of the Church and of the Christian community. The present system is unsatisfactory. While we now give our support, we reserve the right to press our just demands by way of legislation in the future." The amendment made certain concessions to children who had attended school for six years, and permitted only such persons to be made the principals of schools as were competent to give instruction in the faith to which the majority of the scholars belonged.
383 Cardinal Schwarzenberg had presided over every meeting of the Austrian bishops since 1849, and had always fulfilled faithfully the duties of the cardinalate. At the meeting of the bishops at Vienna in 1885 he was unable, through illness, to preside at the 8th session. The next day he appeared, although unfit to attend. He was not able to be present again and died of pneumonia 27 March.
384 A bill called the Prince Alfred Liechtenstein school bill was introduced in October, 1888. It was intended to give the Church greater power over the schools. But while the bishops pressed the demand of "Catholic schools for Catholic children", the social-democratic convention which met the same year at Hainburg, took its stand upon "common schools without religious teaching, the separation of Church and State, religious belief is a private matter". Gregr, of the Young Czech party, also declared in behalf of his party associates: "A Leichtenstein has come again to dig a grave for the Bohemian nation, the grave of ignorance and demoralization." This was an allusion to what had happened after the battle of the White Mountain (1620). Against such opposition the bill could not be carried.
385 In 1891 Leo XIII regulated the meetings of the Austrian bishops in a manner which has proved fruitful in blessings. A meeting is to be held in Vienna every year. These meetings are either special or general. At these special meetings committees prepare elaborate and exact reports which are laid before the general assembly that meets at least once every five years. These assemblies of the bishops decide the course of the Church. The Austrian bishops feel and act as a unit, as a harmonious episcopacy. Schwarzenberg's successor, Cardinal Count Schönborn, died in 1899. Cardinal Gruscha, Archbishop of Vienna, followed him at the head of the episcopacy. In reviewing the action of the bishops in their conferences since this time, it is clear that the matter which has chiefly occupied their attention has been the schools of every grade. In all their memorials to state officials, and in all their pastorals to the faithful, one thought continually appears like a vein of gold: a child should learn in school the duties of a Christian and a citizen. This end can be realized only when religion is made the central point of education from which everything radiates, to which everything returns. For this reason the bishops sought (1897, 1898) to obtain the consent of the ministry to an increase in the time given to religious instruction in the primary and secondary schools. Prizes were offered for the pereparation of a Bible (1898). Two catechisms, a larger and a smaller one, were prepared after eight years' work. These were accepted by the bishops in 1897 and issued with explanatory directions. During this period religious instruction in the middle schools was rearranged, and religious exercises were again introduced. Religious societies (Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin Mary) were organized in 1897 and 1902. Religious instruction was introduced into the Sunday industrial schools (1898). Proposals were made as to the education of teachers of religion in the middle and normal schools (1901). The preparation of a correct textbook of psychology was urged (1894). Prizes were offered for textbooks on religion (1897). The bishops succeeded in obtaining a systematized course in philosophy for the theological schools (1892); they obtained, further, a rearrangement of theological studies and examinations. (Dissertations must be suitable for publication and three examinations are obligatory for a doctorate.) They complained of the spirit prevalent at the universities (1891) and of the unfair treatment of the student-societies composed of faithful Catholic students (1901).
386 During the reign of Maria Theresa an educational fund was created from confiscated property of the Jesuits. Under Joseph II a religious fund was created from the church property administered by the State only. But Joseph II acknowledged that the State was bound to pay the expenses of Catholic worship, for which the church revenues did not suffice. The salary of parish priests was fixed at 400 florins ($160), that of curates at 200 florins ($80). The retiring pension was made 200 florins ($80). These sums remained unchanged for one hundred years, although the cost of living and the value of money had varied. The speech from the throne in 1871 and 1879 referred to the improvement of the material condition of the clergy as an object of solicitude on the part of the Government, and since 1872 state subventions have been granted for this purpose. In order to obtain the money for this subvention, a tax for the maintenance of the religious fund was created in 1874. But although a sum reaching ten per cent of the capital fund was demanded every ten years, few priests received from it assistance amounting to more than 100 florins ($40). As this subvention was called an "advance" to the fund for the support of religion in the different provinces, the debts of the provinces grew every year, and the entire religious fund was in danger of being used up. The bishops, therefore, sent repeated appeals to the Government, praying for a suitable increase of the salaries of the clergy. In 1903 they agreed to demand for acctive pastors: (a) for curates a minimum salary of 1,000 crowns ($200); for pastors of second-class parishes 1,600 crowns ($320); for parish priests without curates, 2,000 crowns ($400); for parish priests with curates, 2,200 crowns ($440); (b) four retroactive decennial allowances to be reckoned from the date of the grant; the first allowance to be 100 crowns ($20), the second, 200 crowns ($40), the third and fourth to be each 250 crowns ($50), in all 800 crowns ($160). (c) Surplus of money destined for pastoral salaries is not to be drawn upon for the pensions of retired clergymen. For retired curates the bishops suggested a minimum pension of 100 crowns for curates, and of 1,900 crowns ($380) for parish priests. In 1891 and 1894 the bishop requested from the Minister of Worship an exact list of all the debts due by the religious fund in the hands of the Government and of all pious foundations. In 1891 and 1897 they deliberated concerning the delicate question of clerical fees. After a ten years' trial (1893) the bishops pointed out the hardship of the tax on the religious fund, and pointed out where amendment should be made. The bishops repeatedly discussed (1898, 1899, 1900) the law which promised the formation of parishes. The difficult question of the patronage of livings was also taken up (1899). The Christian character of the family life, the education of the young, the duty of voting ("Vote, vote right") were repeatedly the subjects of joint pastoral letters (1891, 1901). The bishops discussed the question of founding and supporting a daily religious newspaper (1891, 1982). They assured the Holy Father of their agreement with his letter to Cardinal Guibert, Archbishop of Paris, concerning the disrespectful utterances of Catholic papers about ecclesiastical authorities. They discussed uniform action in carrying out the Apostolic constitution "Officiorum ac munerum" as applied to Catholic newspapers (1898).
387 As in our day large results are only obtained by association, the bishops have especially encouraged the formation of workingmen's unions, of Gesellenvereine, the St. Boniface Society (March, 1901), the Holy Childhood Society, and benevolent societies (November, 1897). In these days much that is unsound rises to the surface. The bishops issued warnings against irreligion and national embitterment (1891). They encouraged lectures on Freemasonry (1897), complained of the destructive tendencies which are undoing the strength and force of Austria, and condemned the bad press, "the dangerous foe of faith" (December, 1901).
388 In 1897 a movement was set on foot which ten years before would have been held to be impossible. Its name, the Los von Rom, is an insult to Catholics, its existence a mortal blow to Austrians. Every possible misuse of speech and writing was employed to rob Catholics of their confidence in their priests, of their attachment to the holy sacraments, and even to the Church. These ribald foes spread desolation over a good part of God's vineyard in Austria. The "Free from Rome" movement will remain a disgraceful stain, but not in the history of the Catholic Church. Filled with a sense of the sacredness of their duty as bishops and Austrians, the episcopacy warned the faithful in pastorals against the movement and its schemes (1899, 1901). They addressed an earnest memorial to the emperor on the subject (1901), as well as one to Körber, the head of the ministry (November, 1902).
389 In 1891 the bishops deliberated on cremation and funeral addresses by non-Catholic clergymen in Catholic cemeteries; in 1898 they drew up a form of reconciliation for duellists and their seconds. They exhorted Catholics "to observe faithfully the ordinances against duelling, whether issued by God, the Church, or the State". After due deliberations, they also adopted resolutions on the position of catechists and the admission of catechetical teachers into the ecclesiastical organization and arranged the manner in which erring ecclesiastics "should be led back to their calling and to the service of God by their fellow-clergymen". In 1891 they issued regulations concerning the social activity of the clergy, and in 1901 concerning clerical conventions and legal societies.
390 The bishops aided the several religious communities, and watched over the loyalty of the religious orders. In 1889 the relation of the bishops to the election and consecration of the abbots of new religious foundations was defined. In 1891, the pope granted permission to the strictly cloistered orders of women (Ursulines) to attend university lectures. The Austrian bishops celebrated the diamond jubilee of the consecration of Leo XIII to the priesthood and the golden jubilee of his consecration to the episcopacy by joint letters of veneration to the Holy Father and by joint pastorals to the faithful. In these letters they did not fail to express their regret on the subject of the so-called Roman question, of the offensive Giordano Bruno celebration, and of the 25th anniversary of the taking of Rome. In 1903 they sent a magnificent letter of congratulation to the Holy Father, Pius X.
391 We must go back five hundred years in the history of Austria to find another ruler who reigned fifty years. On the semi-centennial anniversary, 2 December, 1989, of the reign of the Emperor Francis Joseph, the bishops issued a joint pastoral and sent it with a dedication to the emperor. In the dedication they say: "The mysterious counsels of God have ordained that Your Majesty should spend this day in sorrow. [Empress Elizabeth was assassinated 10 September.] We all suffer with our gracious emperor and ruler. But our grief cannot silence our gratitude; our gratitude to our Lord God who has preserved Your Majesty for us, our gratitude to Your Majesty for fifty years of strong and fatherly protection, for fifty years of self-sacrificing love, for fifty years of exemplary devotion to Your Majesty's exalted but arduous calling."
392 Since 1851 all the provinces of the Austrian Crown have been under one uniform government. Since 1867, however, Hungary has been an independent part of the Hapsburg monarchy, enjoying equal rights with the rest. During the battle over the Concordat which raged in 1867, the Hungarian bishops did not appeal to the Concordat, for fear that the agitation might spread to Hungary. In point of fact, however, they held fast to the Concordat. John Simor, Primate of Hungary from 1866-91, preserved the peace of the Church in the kingdom. There was a conflict, however, respecting the laws concerning baptism. A law of 1868 enacted that in the case of mixed marriages the boys should be brought up in the faith of the father, the girls in that of the mother, even if this were contrary to the desire of the parents. But, when parents so requested, Catholic priests baptized those children who according to the law should be brought up non-Catholic. This practice was called Wegtaufen. Even when, in 1879, the criminal code made the conferring of baptism under such circumstances punishable, the priests were not dismayed-"Go, baptize". Besides this, they were regularly acquitted by the court of last resort in the suits which were brought against them by the Protestant pastors. In 1890 "dununciation" of such baptisms was forbidden by Rome, and the excitement gradually subsided. Augustine von Roskovány, Bishop of Neutra, was the most learned man among the Hungarian bishops of this time. Von Roskovány was Doctor of Philosophy and Theology, secretary to Ladislaus Pryker, Archbishop of Erlan, and died in 1892. His works are important authorities: "De Matrimoniis mixtis" (7 vols.); "Monumenta pro independentiâ potestatis eccles. ab imperio civili" (13 vols.); "Celibatus et Breviarium" (2 vols.); "Beata Virgo Maria in suo Conceptu immaculata" (9 vols.); "Romanuis Pontifex Primas ecclesiæ et Princeps civilis e monumentis omnium sæculorum" (16 vols.); "Matrimonium in ecclesiâ Catholicâ potestati ecclesiasticæ subjectum" (4 vols.); "Supplementa ad Collectiones Monumentorum et Literaturæ" (10 vols.).
393 In 1893 the Hungarian Parliament began to meddle with religion. The head of the ministry, Wekerle, introduced three bills enacting that returns of marriages, births, and deaths should be made by a civil registrar; that the Jewish religion should be legally recognized, that permission should be given for its free exercise, and the right to enter or leave the Jewish faith should be granted. These bills were soon followed by others for the amendment of the marriage laws (civil marriage made compulsory) and concerning mixed marriages. Wekerle carried the first three bills, and they became law. Baron Desiderius Banffy was made the head of the ministry, January, 1895. In order to prevent the passage of the two remaining bills by Banffy, the papal nuncio, Agliardi, went to Hungary. But the Hungarian Parliament declared that such interference in the internal affairs of Hungary would not be permitted. Count Kalnocky, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had supported the nuncio, was replaced by Count Agenor Goluchowsky, and Agliardi was made a cardinal and recalled to Rome. The road was now clear. Count Ferdinand Zichy formed the Catholic people's party in opposition to Banffy's aims; but without avail. The two bills became law. The Lutz amendment on pulpits could not be passed during the lifetime of the primate, Simor, but after his death it was adopted (1899).
394 Article 26 of the Diet of 1790 guaranteed to the Protestants of Hungary the entire control of the affairs of their religion. The Government has hardly any power in regard to either their churches, their schools, or religious foundations. Since 1848 the Catholics have been endeavouring to obtain autonomy. The Catholic congress of 1870 prepared a bill to this end. The Catholic Autonomy Association, consisting of the bishops, the abbots, and certain elected members, clerical and lay, exists to represent the Church in regard to the faithful, on the one hand, and the Government, on the other, in all questions of schools, of church property, and especially (since the minister of public worship might happen to be a non-Catholic) to advise the king in the exercise of his prerogative of nominating bishops. It is plain that the advantage or disadvantage to the Church of autonomy would depend on the composition of the commission. For this reason a commission such as Wekerle wished to form in 1894 was rejected by the bishops, and Zichy's motion, made on occasion of the Catholic congress of 1897, did not receive government approval. In order to strengthen the claim for autonomy, the bishops, with the exception of Bishop Count Maylath, and the heads of the orders, in 1903, accepted three propositions. These are: that the right to present to bishoprics shall remain in the hands of the minister of worship; that the school system shall remain unaltered; that the fund for the support of religion shall be controlled by the minister of instruction. In 1906 the turning-point in the history of the autonomy question was probably reached in the address from the throne. The Minister of Public worship and Instruction, Count Albert Apponyi, has already requested the primate to state the position of the bishops in regard to autonomy, so that the bill may be properly prepared.
395 Ecclesiastical Organization
396 The Catholic Church in Austria-Hungary is administered on the system of archiepiscopal provinces with suffragan dioceses, as follows:-
397 (a) In the territories represented in the Imperial (Austrian) Parliament there are seven archiepiscopal provinces of the Latin Rite and one each of the Greek and Armenian Rites. These provinces comprise in the aggregate 34 sees. Archdiocese of Vienna (bishopric 1468, prince-bishopric 1631, prince-archbishopric 1722), with suffragan dioceses of St. Pölten (or St. Hippolytus; transferred from Wiener-Neustadt, 1784) and Linz (founded 1784). Archdiocese of Salzburg (founded c. 700), archbishopric 800), with suffragan dioceses of Trent (founded in second century), Brixen (transferred from Säben in tenth century) with the general vicariate of Feldkirch for Vorarlberg, Gurk (belonging to Klagenfurt, founded 1071), Seckau (belonging to Graz, founded 1219), and Lavant (belonging to Marburg, founded 1228). Archdiocese of Prague (973-1344 subject to Mainz, 1344 archbishopric), with suffragan dioceses of Budweis (founded 1785), Königgrätz (or Regina Hradecensis, founded 1664), and Leitmeritz (founded 1665). Archdiocese of Olmütz (founded 1063, archbishopric 1777), with suffragan diocese of Brünn (founded 1777). Archdiocese of Görz (transferred from Aquileia 1751), with suffragan dioceses of Laibach (founded 1461), Triest and Capo d'Istria, Parenzo and Pola founded sixth century), Veglia (founded 990). Archdiocese of Zara (Jadera, founded fourth century, archbisyopric 1146), with suffragan dioceses of Sebenico (founded 1298), Spolato and Macarska (Spalato erected into an archbishopric 650), Lesina (Pharus, founded in twelfth century), Cattaro (founded in eleventh century), Ragusa (founded 990). Archdiocese of Lemberg (Leopolis, Latin Rite; transferred from Halic 1412), with suffragan dioceses of Tarnów (founded 1783, transferred to Tynice, then to Bochnia, 1816), and Przemysl (founded 1340). The Prince-Bishopric of Cracow (founded about 700) is subject directly to the Holy See. The Catholics in Silesia are under the jurisdiction of the Prince-Bishop of Breslau, who has a vicar-general at Teschen and a summer residence at Johannesberg. The county of Glatz belongs to Prague. Lemberg, Greek-Ruthenian Rite (united in 1597, became an archbishopric in 1808), with suffragan dioceses of Przemysl (subject to Lemberg since 1818) and Stanislawow (founded 1882). Lemberg, Armenian Rite, was founded 1367.
398 (b) In Hungary there are four archdioceses of the Latin Rite, with 17 suffragan dioceses; and one archdiocese of the Greek Rite, with six suffragan dioceses, making altogether 28 sees. Archdiocese of Esztergom (Strogonium, Gran; founded 1000), the incumbent of which is Primate of Hungary and ex-officio Legate (Legatus Natus), with suffragan dioceses of Nyitra (founded 1029), Vácz (Vacium, Waitzen; founded in eleventh century), Györ (Jaurinum, Raab; founded in eleventh century), Veszprém (founded 1009), Szombathly (Sabaria, Steinamanger; founded 1777), Beszterczebanya (Neusohl; founded 1776), Székes-Fehérvár (Alba Regalis, Stuhlweissenburg; founded 1777), Pécs (Serbinum, Quinque Ecclesiæ, Fünfkirchen; founded 1009), Eperjes (Ruthenian-Greek; founded 1820), Munkács (Munkaczinum; Ruthenian-Greek; founded 1771). Archdiocese of Kalocsa and Bács (founded 1000), with suffragan dioceses of Nagy-Várad (Varadinum Majus, Grosswardein; founded 1077), Csaná [Chronadium (Magyarscanad-Tenesvár); founded 1035], and Erdely [Transylvania (Karlsburg); founded in twelfth century]. Archdiocese of Eger (Agria, Erlau; founded 1000, archbishopric 1804), with suffragan dioceses of Rozsnyó (Rosnavia, Rosenau; founded 1776), Szatmár-Németi (Szathmarium; founded 1804), Szepes [Scepusia, Zips (Szepesváralya); founded 1776], Kassa (Cassovia, Kaschau; founded 1804), and Sabaria (Sacer Mons Pannoniæ, Martinsberg; founded 997). Archdiocese of Zagreb (Zagrabia, Agram; founded 1903, archbishopric 1853), with suffragan dioceses of Djakovár (founded 1781), Zengg-Modrus (founded 1460), and Kriz (Crisium, Kreutz, Greek-Ruthenian Rite; founded 1777). Archdiocese of Fogaras, of the Greek-Ruthenian Rite (founded 1721, archbishopric 1854), has for suffragan dioceses Nagy-Várad (Varadinum Majus, Grosswardein; founded 1777), Lugos (Lugosium; founded 1853), and Szamos-Ujvár (Armenopolis; founded 1777).
399 (c) In Bosnia and Herzegovina there is one archdiocese: Serajevo (founded 1881), with suffragan dioceses of Banjaluka (founded 1881), Trebinje (Tribonium; founded in ninth century), Mostar (Mandatrium; founded 1881). The Apostolic field-vicariate for the army and navy is directly under the control of the Holy See.
400 Statistics of Religious Orders
401 The following table presents a summary of the parent and branch houses of the religious orders in Austria, together with the number of their inmates:-
402 Male Orders
403 Female Orders
404 Diocese
405 Houses
406 Inmates
407 Houses
408 Inmates
409 Vienna (Archd.) St. Pölten
Authentic
334 The term is used in two senses. It is applied first to a book or document whose contents are invested with a special authority, in virtue of which the work is called authentic. In its second sense it is used as a synonym for "genuine", and therefore means that a work really emanates from the author to whom it is ascribed. The article VULGATE explains the first sense of the word; the articles on the single books of Sacred Scripture illustrate the second.
335 F. X. E. Albert
Authenticity of the Bible
337 The authenticity or authority of Holy Writ is twofold on account of its twofold authorship. First, the various books which make up the Bible are authentic because they enjoy all the human authority that is naturally due to their respective authors. Second, they possess a higher authenticity, because invested with a Divine, supernatural authority through the Divine authorship which makes them the inspired word of God. Biblical authenticity in its first sense must naturally be considered in the articles on the several books of Sacred Scripture, in its second sense, it springs from Biblical inspiration, for which see INSPIRATION.
338 F.X.E. Albert
Civil Authority
340 Civil Authority is the moral power of command, supported (when need be) by physical coercion, which the State exercises over its members. We shall consider here the nature, sources, limits, divisions, origin, and the true and false theories of authority. Authority is as great a necessity to mankind as sobriety, and as natural. By "natural" here is meant, not what accrues to man without any effort of his own (teeth, for example), but what man must secure, even with an effort, because without it he cannot well be man. It is natural to man to live in civil society; and where there is civil society, there must be authority. Anarchy is the disruption of society. Speaking generally, we may say no man loves isolation, solitude, loneliness, the life of a hermit; on the other hand, while many dislike the authority under which they live, no man wishes for anarchy. What malcontents aim at is a change of government, to get authority into their own hands and govern those who now govern them. Even the professed anarchist regards anarchy as a temporary expedient, a preparation for his own advent to power. Authority, then, in the abstract, every man loves and cherishes; and rightly so, for it is his nature to live in society, and society is kept together by authority. The model of hermits was St. Simeon Stylites, so called from his living on the top of a style, or pillar. That was his special vocation; he was no ordinary man. But the political philosopher considers man as man ordinarily and normally is. Two things would strike a stranger from Mars looking down upon this planet: how men on earth love herding together, and how they love moving about. Ordinary man can no more afford to be solitary than he can afford to be stationary, though Simeon Stylites was both. Solitary confinement is the severest of punishments, next to death. It is hard to say whether the solitude or the confinement, proves the more irksome. This simple point, that man cannot live alone, must be insisted upon, for all errors in the theory of authority are rooted in the assumption that man's living in society, and thereby coming to be governed by social authority, is something purely optional and conventional, a fashion which man could very well discard if he would, as he might discard the wearing of green clothes. Men who would make society a conventional arrangement, and authority a fashion of the hour, have appealed to the noble savage as the standard of humanity proper, forgetting that the savage is no solitary, but a member of a horde, to separate from which would be death, and to ignore the control of which would be death also. Man must live in society, and, in point of historical fact, men have always lived in society; every human development is a social progress. It is natural to man to live in society, to submit to authority, and to be governed by that custom of society which crystallizes into law.
341 And as it is natural to the individual, so is it natural also for the family to unite with others. Society cannot stop short at the family. As the individual is not sell-sufficient, neither is the family. The family grows and then multiplies. We have a society of families; and that society grown great, and controlled as it needs to be controlled by some common authority, passes into a self-sufficient, autonomous society, otherwise called a State. Hence civil authority is defined as the moral power of command, supported (when need be) by physical coercion, which the State exercises over its constituent members. Civil authority is of God, not by any revelation or positive institution, but by the mere fact that God is the Author of Nature, and Nature imperatively requires civil authority to be set up and obeyed. Nature cannot tolerate intemperance, nor anarchy either. And what Nature absolutely requires, or absolutely refuses as incompatible with her well-being, God commands, or God forbids. God then forbids anarchy; and in forbidding anarchy He enjoins submission to authority. In this sense, God is at the back of every State, binding men in conscience to observe the behests of the State within the sphere of its competence. "Let every soul be subject to higher powers: for there is no power but from God: and those that are, are ordained of God. . . . Wherefore be subject of necessity, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. . . . For they are the ministers of God, . . " (Horn. xiii, 1, 5, 6).
342 Obedience, being a practical thing and not a speculation, cannot abstract from the concrete facts of the case; it is paid to the powers that be, to the authority actually in possession. Obedience is as disobedience; men are never disobedient except to the government of the day. But there are limits to civil obedience, and to the competence of civil authority. As domestic obedience is not to be carried to the extent of rebellion against the civil government, so neither is the State to be obeyed as against God. It is not within the competence of the State to command anything and everything. The State cannot command what God could not command, for instance, idolatry. The authority of the State is absolute, that is to say, full and complete in its own sphere, and subordinate to no other authority within that sphere. But the authority of the State is not arbitrary; it is not available for the carrying out of every whim and caprice. Arbitrary government is irrational government; now no government is licensed to set reason aside. The government of God Himself is not arbitrary; as St. Thomas says: "God is not offended by us except at what we do against our own good" (Contra Gentiles, III, 122). The arbitrary use of authority is called tyranny. Such is the tyranny of an absolute monarch, of a council, of a class, or of a majority. The liberty of the subject is based on the doctrine that the State is not omnipotent. Legally omnipotent every State must be, but not morally. A legal enactment may be immoral, and then it cannot in conscience be obeyed; or it may be ultra vires, beyond the competence of the authority that enacts it, in which case compliance with the law is not a matter of obedience, but of prudence. In either case the law is tyrannical, and "a tyrannical law, not being according to reason, is not, absolutely speaking, a law, but rather a perversion of law" (St. Thomas, Summa Theol., la, 2ae, q. 92, art. 1, ad 4). Man is not all citizen. He is a member, a part of the State, and something else besides. "Man is not subservient to the civil community to the extent of his whole self, all that he is and all that he has" (St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 1a 2ae, q. 21, art. 4, ad 3). To say nothing of his eternal interests in his relations with his Maker, man has even in this life his domestic interests in the bosom of his family, his intellectual and artistic interests, none of which can be called political interests. Social and political life is not the whole of human life. Man is not the servant of the State in his every action. The State, the majority, or the despot, may demand of the individual more than he is bound to give. Were human society a conventional arrangement, were man, being perfectly well off in isolation from his fellows, to agree by way of freak to live in community with them, then we could assign no antecedent limits to civil authority. Civil authority would be simply what was bargained for and prescribed in the arbitrary compact which made civil society. As it is, civil authority is a natural means to a natural end and is checked by that end, in accordance with the Aristotelean principle that "the end in view sets limits to the means" (Aristotle, Politics, I, 9). The immediate end of civil authority is well set forth by Suarez (De legibus, LII, xi, 7) as "the natural happiness of the perfect, or self-sufficient, human community, and the happiness of individuals as they are members of such a community, that they may live therein peaceably and justly, with a sufficiency of goods for the preservation and comfort of their bodily life, and with so much moral rectitude as is necessary for this external peace and happiness". Happiness is an attribute of individuals. Individuals are not made happy by authority, but authority secures to them that tranquillity, that free hand for helping themselves, that restful enjoyment of their own just winnings, which is one of the conditions of happiness. Nor does authority make men virtuous, except according to that rough-hewn, outline virtue, which is called "social virtue", and consists mainly of justice. When the ancients spoke of "virtue" being the concern of the State, they meant justice and efficiency. Neither the virtue nor the happiness of individuals is cared for by the State except "as they are members of the civil community". In this respect, civil differs from domestic, or paternal, authority. The father cares for the members of his household one by one, singly and individually. The State cares for its members collectively, and for the individual only in his collective aspect. Hence it follows that the power of life and death is inherent in the State, not in the family. A man is hanged for the common good of the rest, never for his own good.
343 This, then, is one measure of authority, the end which the State has in view. Another is the stage of development at which any given particular State has arrived. For there is not one measure of authority common to all States. As the State develops, it grows in unity, and greater unity means an ampler measure of central authority. There is far more authority in the England of to-day than in the England of the Heptarchy. There was more authority in an Anglo-Saxon kingdom than in a horde of savages. In early civil societies there is no legislative authority, and no law, but only immemorial custom. There is little judicial authority, but injured men, or their families after their death, right their own wrongs, murder is restrained, not by judge, jury, and executioner, but by blood-feud. On the other hand, in highly civilized societies, especially those of a democratic character, the will of the people continually thrusts new functions upon government, such as education, the care of public health, the carrying of letters, the sending of telegrams. The recognition of this fact has been called "the principle of voluntary control". By it civil authority may be enlarged beyond its natural and essential limits. Like other principles, "the principle of voluntary control" may be pushed too far. Pushed to the limit, it would involve Socialism. Authority, though varying in amount, is as universal as man is everywhere. Man cannot live except under authority, as he cannot live out of civil society. It is by no convention, compact, or contract, that authority takes hold of him. It is a necessity of his nature. But while civil authority, or government, is natural and universal, the distribution of authority, otherwise called the form of government, or the constitution of the State, is a human convention, varying in various countries, and in the same country at different periods of its history. It is scarcely too much to say that there are as many various distributions of civil authority, or various forms of government, as there are varieties of vertebrate animals. They are classified as monarchies, aristocracies, democracies; but no two monarchies are quite alike, nor two democracies. Thus a democracy may be direct, as in ancient Athens, or representative, as in the United States. The monarchy of Edward VII is different from that of George III.
344 The one point fixed by nature, and by God, is that there must be authority everywhere, and that the authority existent for the time being, under such and such a form, be under that form obeyed; for since there is no actual authority in the country except under that form, to refuse to obey that is to refuse authority simply, and to revert to anarchy, which is against nature: just as a man having nothing but bread and cheese to eat, and refusing to eat his bread and cheese, under pretence that he much prefers mutton, condemns himself to starvation, which again is unnatural. But we must beware of saying of any particular form of authority, monarchy for example, or democracy either, what is true only of authority in the abstract, namely, that all nations are bound to live under it, and that never under any pretence can it be subverted. A country, once monarchical, is not eternally bound to monarchy; and circumstances are conceivable under which a republic might pass into monarchy, as Rome did under Augustus, much to its advantage. Authority rules by Divine right under whatsoever form it is established. No one form of government is more sacred and inviolate than another. Change of persons holding office is usually provided in the constitution, sometimes by rotation, sometimes by vote of the legislative assembly. No monarchical constitution provides for the change of the person of the monarch otherwise than by death or resignation. Change of the form of government can be effected constitutionally, but, as history shows, as often as not, it is brought about unconstitutionally. When the change is complete, the new government rules by right of accomplished fact. There must be authority in the country, and theirs is the only authority available.
345 Divisions
346 The progress of civilization subdivides authority into legislative, judicial, and executive, and the latter again into civil and military. The king, or president, is chief of the executive. Authority again is subdivided into imperial and local, the latter emanating from the former and subordinate to it.
347 Origin
348 The question of the origin of authority seems first to have been raised by the Roman lawyers. In their hands it assumed the concrete form of the origin of the imperial power. This power they argued to reside primarily in the Roman people; the people, however, did not exercise nor retain it, but transferred it by some implicit lex regia, or king-making ordinance, as a matter of course wholly, and irrevocably to each successive emperor at his accession. With the advent of Christianity, St. Paul's doctrine came into prominence, that authority is of God; yet in no clear way was it made out how it came of God until St. Thomas Aquinas showed that it was of God inasmuch as it was an essential of the human nature which God has created, according to the doctrine of Aristotle above exposed. Before St. Thomas arose, some churchmen had shown a disposition to cry down the civil power. They could not deny that it was of God, but they regarded it as one of the consequences of the sin of Adam, and argued that, but for the Fall, man would have lived free from coercive jurisdiction. They rehearsed the legend of Romulus, and the asylum that he opened for robbers. States, they said, usually have their origin in rapine and injustice. Others invested the pope with the plenitude of secular as well as spiritual authority, by the gift of Christ, and argued that kings reigned only as his vicegerents, even in civil matters. The Aristoteleanism of St. Thomas was opposed to all this. On the other hand, the imperial and royal party made a pope of the king or emperor; the civil ruler was as much an institution of Christ as the pope himself, and, like the pope, enjoyed a God-given authority, no portion of which could validly be taken from him. This is the doctrine of "the divine right of kings". According to it, in its rigour, in a State once monarchical, monarchy is forever the only lawful government, and all authority is vested in the monarch, to be communicated by him, to such as he may select for the time being to share his power. This "divine right of kings" (very different from the doctrine that all authority, whether of king or of republic, is from God), has never been sanctioned by the Catholic Church. At the Reformation it assumed a form exceedingly hostile to Catholicism, monarchs like Henry VIII, and James I, of England, claiming the fullness of spiritual as well as of civil authority, and this in such inalienable possession that no jot or tittle of prerogative could ever pass away from the Crown. Against these monstrous pretensions were fought the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby.
349 Against the same pretensions a more pacific warfare was waged by Francis Suarez, S.J.Suarez argued against James I that spiritual authority is not vested in the Crown, and that even civil authority is not the immediate gift of God to the king, but is given by God to the people collectively, and by them bestowed on the monarch, according to the theory of the Roman lawyers above mentioned, and according to Aristotle and St. Thomas. Authority, he asserted, is an attribute of a multitude assembled to form a State. By their nature they must form a State, and a State must have authority. Authority, therefore, is natural to mankind collectively; and whatever is natural, and rational, and indispensable for human progress, is an ordinance of God. Authority must be, and God will have it to be; but there is no such natural necessity of authority being all centred in one person. Authority is a Divine institution, but kings are a human invention. The saying is a platitude in our time; three centuries ago, when Suarez wrote, it was a bold and startling pronouncement. Suarez saved his loyalty by the concession that the people having bestowed the supreme power on His Majesty's ancestors ages ago, their posterity could not now resume it, but it must descend, like an heirloom, from the king to the king's son for all time. This concession was not everywhere borne in mind by posterity. Indeed it would appear a restriction on the development of a State for the distribution of authority to be thus fixed forever. In England at any rate the restriction has been broken through, and the king is not what he was in Stuart times, nor the Parliament either.
350 Theories
351 There have been two great outbreaks against excess of royal prerogative; one in England, in the middle of the seventeenth century; another in France, at the end of the eighteenth. Each of these two periods was marked by the appearance of a great political writer, Thomas Hobbes in England, Jean Jacques Rousseau in France. Hobbes was a philosopher, Rousseau a rhetorician. Whoever knows Hobbes well can have little to learn from Rousseau. Hobbes is rigidly logical; such inconsistencies as appear in him come from a certain timidity in speaking out, and a humility that approaches nigh to hypocrisy. Rousseau always speaks boldly, makes no pretence to orthodoxy, and frequently contradicts himself. His brilliant style won him the ear of Europe; he popularized Hobbes. To the philosopher, Rousseau is contemptible, but Hobbes is an antagonist worthy of any man's steel. The best that can be said of Rousseau in philosophy is that he drew out of Hobbes's principles conclusions which Hobbes was afraid to formulate. Hobbes made of the king a despot; Rousseau showed that, on Hobbesian principles, a king is no better than the people's bailiff, unless indeed, by military force or otherwise, he can prevent the people from assembling and decreeing his deposition.
352 Hobbes starts, and Rousseau after him, by contradicting Aristotle. According to Aristotle, man is "by nature a State-making animal"; the individual man, if he is to thrive at all, develops into the family man, and the family man into the citizen; and wherever there is a city, or a nation, there must be self-government, or, in other words, civil authority, whether vested in one or in many. Authority is the very breath of man's nostrils, as he is a progressive being. Isolation and anarchy are fatal to human progress. Effort, without which man cannot thrive, though it be an effort, and not an initial endowment passively received, Aristotle calls "natural". The State-making effort is "natural" to man; so is authority "natural", and, as such, of God, adds Thomas Aquinas. But Hobbes took "natural" in quite another sense. That he held to be "natural" which man is, antecedently to all effort and arrangement on his part to make himself better. Further, his philosophy was tinged with the Calvinism of his day, and he took it that man is of himself "desperately wicked". What was natural, then, was bad, bad on the whole. Reason being an original endowment of man, Hobbes allowed reason to be natural. He allowed also, with Plato, that wickedness is irrational, by which concession Hobbism is marked off from a celebrated theory stated at the beginning of the second book of Plato's Republic, to which theory in other respects it bears a strong resemblance; the theory being that right by nature is the interest of the stronger, and only by convention becomes the interest of the State.
353 This allowing of wickedness to be against reason is a weak point in the logic of Hobbes. But Hobbes would have it that reason is by nature utterly unable to contend with wickedness, that it is overborne by, and made subservient to, passion, and so is degraded into cunning, man becoming more wicked by his possession of reason. Of himself, in his "state of nature", Hobbesian man is a savage, solitary, sensual, and selfish. When two human beings meet, the natural impulse of each is to lord it over the other. By force, if he is strong, by stratagem, if he is weak, every man seeks to kill or enslave every other man that he meets. Man's life in this state of nature, says Hobbes, is "nasty, brutish, and short." So it would be, in an English fen, and in most other places. But Rousseau's imagination carried him to the Pacific Isles; he became enamoured of "the noble savage". He fell in with Hobbes's notion of the "natural", as being what man is and has antecedently to all human effort. But the "citizen of Geneva", as he called himself, was curiously free from Calvinistic bias, and believed enthusiastically in the primitive, unmade, natural goodness of man. In Hobbes's view, though not in Rousseau's, man had every reason for getting out of his "nasty" state of nature. This was done by a pact, or convention, of every man with all the rest of mankind, to give up solitude with its charms, its independence, and its liberty of preying upon neighbours, and to live in society, the social body thus formed having all the rights of the individuals contributing to form it. This compact of man with man to quit solitude and live in society, to abandon nature and submit to convention, was called by Rousseau, "The Social Contract". The body formed by it, commonly called the State, Hobbes termed "The Leviathan", upon the text of Job, xli, 24, "there is no power upon earth that can be compared with him. . . ."
354 To Hobbes and to Rousseau the State is omnipotent, containing in its one self absolutely all the rights of the citizens who compose it. The wielder of this tremendous power is the General Will, measured against which the will of the individual citizen is not only powerless, but absolutely non-existent. The individual gave up his will when he made the Social Contract. "No rights against the State", is a fundamental principle with Hobbes and Rousseau. To live in the State at all means compliance with every decree of the General Will. But there is a difficulty in locating this General Will. Hobbes, with laudable perspicacity, seeing that tyranny is better wielded by one man than by a multitude, contemplates the multitude resigning all their power into the hands of a Single Person, and denying themselves the right of meeting without his calling them together; so that, by the simple expedient of never calling them together, the Single Person may incapacitate the people from ever resuming the power which is only theirs when they are all assembled. The General Will in that case is the will of the Single Person. Hobbes's location of the General Will is not lacking in clearness. But Rousseau would have the sovereign authority to be the inalienable right of the multitude -- hence called the "Sovereign People". They may, if they will, employ a king, or even an emperor; but his majesty, in Rousseau's phrase, is "Prince" not "Sovereign", and at stated times, without his calling them together, the Sovereign People must meet and decide, first, whether they will continue to support a throne at all; secondly, whether the throne shall further be filled by the present occupant. Rousseau's location is also clear, so long as it is understood that the General Will is simply the will of the numerical majority of the Sovereign People. Such a General Will is ascertained by the simple process of counting heads. If in a State of 20,000 citizens, 15,000 vote aye, aye is the General Will, not the will of the majority only, but of the whole 20,000 together; for though 5,000 persons detest the proposal, such detestation lies only in the individual will, sometimes called the "casual will", and the individual will has ceased to exist by the Compact. Personally they detest the measure, but with their "Real Will" they approve it. Thus, as Rousseau says, they remain as free as the wild man in the woods, obey none but themselves, and follow their own will everywhere.
355 But a canker-worm lies at the root of this, as of all ultra-democratic doctrines. All originate in a manifestly false supposition, that one man is as good as another. In any sane polity, the predominant Intelligence must guide the counsels of the State, not the predominant Will, which may be no better than caprice. But intelligence is not necessarily attached to majorities. Rousseau himself falters in presence of this awkward truth, and re-states the General Will, as the will which the people have of good in general, albeit in a particular case they are mistaken in what they take to be good. Thus they will one thing, and vote for another. The Real Will in this case is not to be gathered from the actual vote of the majority. The Real Will is of that which the majority would have voted for, had they known better. Rousseau's theory contemplates "a people of gods", so he assures us. Such a people would scarce require any government. The ideal, sylvan creatures whom his imagination brings together to form the Social Contract, if not all very intelligent, may be supposed to be all good listeners to intelligent teaching, and thus Intelligence will govern the majority, and the vote of the majority will be an ideally Real Will. Government is an easy matter on such optimistic presuppositions. The eye, however, glances back upon Hobbes's ruffian primeval, "brutish and nasty". Hobbes's view of human nature must check that of Rousseau. Both views are extreme, and the truth lies between them. The democratic rule of a numerical majority is not of universal application. One has to consider the character of the people, and peoples vary. If in one age or place the people approximate to the character of "a people of gods", or angels, in another country or another time they may be more like devils. "Force, devoid of counsel, of its own bulk comes to a crash", says Horace (Odes, III, 4). That is the danger of the General Will.
356 Rousseau, with Hobbes to guide him, starts from a false supposition, that the natural state of man is savage solitude, not civil society; he proceeds through the false medium of the "Social Contract", false because society is not a thing of convention; false again, because out of all keeping with the evidence of history; and he is apt to end in the tyranny of a brute majority, trampling upon the rights and consciences of individuals; or again in anarchy, his disciples putting too literal a construction upon the promise that henceforth no man shall obey any other than himself.
357 The doctrines of Rousseau have not escaped the censure of the Church. Rousseau may be recognized in the following propositions, condemned in the Syllabus of Pius IX: "The State is the source and origin of all rights, and its rights are unlimited" (n. 39); "Authority is nothing else than numbers, and a sum of material forces" (n. 60): "It is allowable to refuse obedience to lawful princes, and even to rebel against them" (n. 63). Leo XIII, not content with condemning, teaches positive doctrine against Rousseau, to wit: the Aristotelean and Thomist doctrine already stated. Thus the Encyclical "Immortale Dei", of November, 1885:
358 > Man's natural instinct moves him to live in civil society; for he can not, if dwelling apart, provide himself with the necessary requirements of life, nor procure the means of developing his faculties. Hence it is Divinely ordained that he should be born into the society and company of men, as well domestic as civil. Only civil society can ensure perfect self-sufficiency of life [an Aristotelean term]. But since no society can hold together unless there be some one over all, impelling individuals efficaciously and harmoniously to one common purpose, a ruling authority becomes a necessity for every civil commonwealth of men; and this authority, no less than society itself, is natural, and therefore has God for its author. Hence it follows that public power of itself cannot be otherwise than of God.
359 In the theory of Hobbes and Rousseau, Authority is the outcome of contract, not between people and prince, but of every man with every other man to relinquish solitude and its rights, and live in civil society. Rousseau is instant in pronouncing that between people and prince there can be no contract, but the prince is a tenant at will, who may be turned out of doors, with or without reason, any day that the Sovereign People assemble to vote upon him. But there is another theory of contract, centuries older than Hobbes, a theory greatly cherished by Locke and the English Whigs, who found in it the justification of the expulsion of James II in 1688. In this theory, the contract is said to lie between the people and their ruler; the ruler is to be obeyed so long as he fulfils certain conditions, known as "the constitution". If he violates the constitution, he forfeits his authority and the people may cast him out. Thus ruler and subject are two "high contracting parties". The ruler has no superiority of status, but of contract only. On this it is to be observed, first, that such a contract lies not in the nature of things, and therefore is not to be taken for granted; but evidence in each particular case should be forthcoming of the contract having been made on those terms as a fact of history. Secondly, this asserted contract labours under the inconvenience that Job declared of old: " . . . in judgment. There is none that may be able to reprove both, and to put his hand between both" (Job, ix, 32, 33). The contract cannot be enforced at law, for lack of a judge; in case of dispute, each party pronounces in his own favour, and they are like to fight it out. The result is civil war, as between Charles I and his Parliament. But really ruler and subjects are not two "high contracting parties", as two nations are. The theory is prejudicial to the unity of the State, and countenances revolution. The theory was brought up to meet that delicate inquiry, "What is to be done when Government abuses its authority?" On which see "Moral Philosophy" (Stonyhurst Series), 338-343.
360 NEWMAN, Aristotle, Politics, (Clarendon Press, Oxford; there is a translation also by Weldon) I; ST. THOMAS, De Regimine Principum, I; LEO XIII, Encyclicals: Latin, five volumes (Tournai); English, The Pope and the People, Select Letters on Social Questions (New York); SUAREZ, Defensio Fidei, III, i, ii, iii; R. W. and A. T. CARLYLE, Medieval Political Theory in the West (London); GIERKE, Political Theories of the Middle Age, tr. by Maitland (Cambridge); RICKABY, Political and Moral Essays, The Origin and Extent of Civil Authority; HOBBES, Leviathan (Cambridge University Press); ROUSSEAU, Le contrat social (London); LOCKE, Of Civil Government; GREEN, Principles of Political Obligation (London and New York); BOSANQUET, Philosophical Theory of the State (London and New York).
361 Joseph Rickaby.
Authorized Version
343 Name given to the English translation of the Bible produced by the Commission appointed by James I, and in consequence often spoken of as "King James's Bible". It is in general use among English-speaking non-Catholics. In order to understand its origin and history, a brief survey is necessary of the earlier English translations of the Scriptures. From very early times portions of the Bible have been translated into English. It is well known that Venerable Bede was finishing a translation of St. John's Gospel on his deathbed. But the history of the English Bible as a whole does not go back nearly so far; it dates from the so-called Wyclif Version, believed to have been completed about the year 1380. The translation was made from the Vulgate as it then existed, that is before the Sixtine and Clementine revisions, and was well and accurately done. Abbot Gasquet contends confidently (The Old English Bible, 102 sqq.) that it was in reality of Catholic origin, and not due to Wyclif at all; at any rate it seems fairly certain that he had no share in any part of it except the Gospels, even if he had in these; and there is evidence that copies of the whole were in the hands of good Catholics, and were read by them. The version, however, undoubtedly derived its chief importance from the use made of it by Wyclif and the Lollards, and it is in this connection that it is chiefly remembered. During the progress of the Reformation a number of English versions appeared, translated for the most part not from the Vulgate, but from the original Hebrew and Greek. Of these the most famous were Tyndale's Bible (1525); Coverdale's Bible (1535); Matthews' Bible (1537); Cromwell's, or the "Great Bible" (1539), the second and subsequent editions of which were known as Cranmer's Bible; the Geneva Bible (1557-60); and the Bishop's Bible (1568). The art of printing being by this time known, copies of all these circulated freely among the people. That there was much good and patient work in them, none will deny; but they were marred by the perversion of many passages, due to the theological bias of the translators; and they were used on all sides to serve the cause of Protestantism.
344 In order to counteract the evil effects of these versions, the Catholics determined to produce one of their own. Many of them were then living at various centres on the Continent, having been forced to leave England on account of the Penal Laws, and the work was undertaken by the members of Allen's College, at Douai, in Flanders, which was for a time transferred to Reims. The result was the Reims New Testament (1582) and the Douay Bible (1609-10). The translation was made from the Vulgate, and although accurate, was sadly deficient in literary form, and so full of Latinisms as to be in places hardly intelligible. Indeed, a few years later, Dr. William Fulke, a well-known Puritan controversialist, brought out a book in which the text of the Bishops' Bible and the Reims Testament were printed in parallel columns, with the sole purpose of discrediting the latter. In this he did not altogether succeed, and it is now generally conceded that the Douay Bible contained much excellent and scholarly work, its very faults being due to over-anxiety not to sacrifice accuracy. In the meantime the Protestants were becoming dissatisfied with their own versions, and soon after his accession King James I appointed a commission of revision—the only practical outcome of the celebrated Hampton Court Conferences. The commissioners, who numbered forty-seven, were divided into six companies, two of which sat at Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster, respectively; each company undertook a definite portion of the Bible, and its work was afterwards revised by a select committee chosen from the whole body. The instructions for their procedure were, to take the Bishops' Bible, which was in use in the churches, as their basis, correcting it by a comparison with the Hebrew and Greek texts. They were also given a list of other English versions which they were to consult. The commissioners set to work in 1607, and completed their labours in the short period of two years and nine months, the result being what is now known as the "Authorized Version". Although at first somewhat slow in gaining general acceptance, the Authorized Version has since become famous as a masterpiece of English literature. The first edition appeared in 1611, soon after the Douay Bible; and although this latter was not one of the versions named in the instructions to the revisers, it is understood that it had considerable influence on them (see Preface to Revised Version, i, 2. Also, J. G. Carleton, "Rheims and the English Bible").
345 The Authorized Version was printed in the usual form of chapters and verses, and before each chapter a summary of its contents was prefixed. No other extraneous matter was permitted, except some marginal explanations of the meaning of certain Hebrew or Greek words, and a number of cross-references to other parts of the Scripture. At the beginning was placed a dedication to King James and a short "Address to the Reader". Books such as Ecclesiasticus, and Machabees, and Tobias, which are considered by Protestants to be apocryphal, were of course omitted. Although it was stated on the title-page that the Authorized Version was "appointed to be read in the Churches", in fact it came into use only gradually. For the Epistles and Gospels, it did not displace the Bishops' Version until the revision of the Liturgy in 1661; and for the Psalms, that version has been retained to the present day; for it was found that the people were so accustomed to singing it that any change was inadvisable, if not impossible. Considerable changes were made, from time to time, in the successive editions of the Authorized Version, in the notes and references, and some even in the text. A system of chronology based chiefly on the calculations of Archbishop Ussher was first inserted in 1701; but in many later editions both the dates and many, or even all, of the references or verbal notes have been omitted.
346 It is generally admitted that the Authorized Version was in almost every respect a great improvement on any of its predecessors. So much was this the case that when Bishop Challoner made his revision of the Douay Bible (1749-52), which is now commonly in use among English-speaking Catholics, he did not scruple to borrow largely from it. Indeed, Cardinal Newman gives it as his opinion (Tracts Theol. and Eccles., 373) that Challoner's revision was even nearer to the Authorized Version than to the original Douay, "not in grammatical structure, but in phraseology and diction". Nevertheless, there remained in the Authorized Version here and there traces of controversial prejudice, as for example, in the angel's salutation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the words "highly favoured" being a very imperfect rendering of the original. In such cases, needless to say, Challoner adhered to the Douay. Moreover, while in the Authorized Versions the names of persons and places were usually given in an anglicized form already in use, derived from the Hebrew spelling, Challoner nearly always kept the Vulgate names, which come originally from the Septuagint. It is partly due to this that the Authorized Version has an unfamiliar sound to Catholic ears. The Authorized Version remained in undisputed possession for the greater part of three centuries, and became part of the life of the people. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, however, it began to be considered that the progress of science called for a new version which should embrace the results of modern research. The work was set on foot by Convocation in 1870, and a Committee was formed, in which the Americans co-operated, resulting in the issue of the Revised Version (1881-84). The Revised Version has never received any definite ecclesiastical sanction, nor has it been officially introduced into church use. It has made its way simply on its merits. But although at the present day it is much used by students, for the general public (non-Catholic) the Authorized Version still holds its ground, and shows no sign of losing its popularity.
347 Bernard Ward
Autocephali
346 (Gr., αὐτοκέφαλοι, independent).
347 A designation in early Christian times of certain bishops who were subject to no patriarch or metropolitan, but depended directly on the triennial provincial synod or on the Apostolic See. In case of heresy, e.g., or other grave offenses, they could only be judged by these tribunals. Such were the bishops of Cyprus (cf. Council of Ephesus, Act. VII; Trullan Council, can. 39), the Bishops of Iberia and Armenia as late as the time of Photius, those of Britain before the coming of St. Augustine, and for a while those of Ravenna. The extension of the patriarchal authority diminished their number. Quite similar were certain Oriental bishops in the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch, who were subject directly to the patriarch of the civil (imperial) diocese to which belonged, and who owed no obedience to their immediate metropolitans; they were not unlike the modern "exempt" bishops immediately subject to the Apostolic See. The most ancient list of them is given in the ninth-century "Notitia" of Leo the Wise, where they are entitled archbishops and metropolitans, though they had no suffragans. Occasionally priests were called "autocephali", e.g. the clergy of a patriarchal diocese. (See Soz., Hist. Eccl., VI, 21, and Eus., Hist. Eccl., V, 23, with the note of Valesius, also BISHOP, EXEMPTION, RAVENNA.)
348 NEHER, in Kirchenlex., I, 1733; THOMASSIN, De Vet. et nov. ecc discipl., I, 3, c. 41, n. 17; PHILLIPS, Kirchenrecht, VII, 440; LAURENTIUS, Inst. Jur. Eccl. (Freiburg, 1905), # 214.
349 Thomas J. Shahan
Autos Sacramentales
349 (Sp. auto, act or ordinance; sacramental, sacramental, pertaining to a sacrament)
350 A form of dramatic literature which is peculiar to Spain, though in some respects similar in character to the old Morality plays of England. The auto sacramental may be defined as a dramatic representation of the mystery of the Eucharist. At least this is the definition that would apply to the auto of the time of Calderón. It does not so well fit, however, those of the preceding century, many of which were sacramental in character only because they were presented during the feast of Corpus Christi. They are usually allegorical, the characters representing, for example, Faith, Hope, Air, Sin, Death, etc. There were some indeed, in which not a single human character appeared, but personifications of the Virtues, the Vices, the Elements, etc. As early as the thirteenth century religious exhibitions had been popular with the masses in Spain. These usually took the form of simple dialogue, and were presented during religious festivals, for instance, at Christmas and Easter. But it is not until the beginning of the sixteenth century that we have the first true auto sacramental having for its theme the mystery of the Eucharist. It was "El Auto de San Martin", by Gil Vicente. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries these Autos continued to appear, being gradually improved and elaborated until brought to their highest state of development by Calderón.
351 The auto sacramental was always presented in the streets in connexion with the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi. It was preceded by a solemn procession through the principal streets of the city, the houses along the route being decorated in honour of the occasion. In the procession appeared the priests bearing the Host under a splendid canopy, followed by a devout throng, in which, in Madrid, often appeared the king and his court without distinction of rank, and last of all, in beautiful cars, came the actors from the public theatres who were to take part in the performance. The procession usually halted before the house of some dignitary while the priests performed certain religious ceremonies, the multitude kneeling meanwhile as if in church. At the conclusion of these, the auto was given. These performances, and the procession as well, were given with much splendour and at great expense, being limited only by the resources of the particular town in which they took place.
352 Of the better known writers of this kind of dramatic literature may be mentioned Juan de la Enzina and Gil Vicente, who wrote in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, while among those who wrote autos when they were at the height of their success was Lope de Vega, who composed no less than four hundred. Very few of these are now extant. Among his best are "The Harvest" and "The Wolf turned Shepherd." Then came Montalván, whose "Polyphemus" was his best known auto; Valdivielso, who wrote "The Prodigal Son"; and lastly, the most successful of all, Calderón. Although not as prolific as Lope de Vega, Calderón has left about seventy autos, the best known of which are "The Divine Orpheus", a work of considerable poetic merit, "The Devotion to the Mass", and "The Captivity of the Ark". These autos sacramentales produced a great effect on the people. From time immemorial, allegory of every kind had powerfully appealed to them, and these autos took a strong hold on the popular favour, coming as they did during religious festivals, with their music and their splendour, coupled with the fact that they were given at the public expense and with the sanction of the Church. In 1765, their public representation was forbidden by Charles III, but the habits of centuries could not be so easily overcome, and for many years afterward they continued to be presented in some of the smaller towns.
353 FITZMAURICE-KELLY, Historia de la Literatura Española (Madrid, 1901), passim; TRENCH, Essay on the Life and genius of Calderon (London, 1880); SCHACK, Geschichte der dramatischen Literatur und Kunst in Spanien (Berlin, 1846), III.
354 Ventura Fuentes
Ambrose Autpert
352 An early medieval writer and abbot of the Benedictine Order, born in France, early in the eighth century; died after an abbacy of little more than a year at his monastery of St. Vincent on the Volturno, near Beneventum, in Southern Italy, 778 or 779. Autpert, if forgotten today, was not without a name in his own century. Charlemagne made use of his talents; Pope Stephen IV protected him; and the monastery where he spent many years, and of which he died abbot was famous among the great monasteries of Italy. He has sometimes been confounded with another Autpert who was Abbot of Monte Cassino in the next century, and who left a collection of sermons besides a spiritual treatise. His chief work is Expositio in Apocalypsim (P.L., XXXV, col. 2417-52).
353 Francis P. Havey
Joseph Autran
355 French poet, born at Marseilles 20 June, 1813; died in the same city, 6 March, 1877. He pursued his classical studies in the Jesuit college of Aix. His father, however, having met with reverses, Autran, obliged to earn his own living, accepted a position as teacher in a religious school. Thus engaged, he published the first work which drew attention to his merits as a poet; this was an ode written on the occasion of Lamartine's departure for the Holy Land. "Le Départ pour l'Orient" was followed (1835) by a collection of poems entitled "La mer", remarkable for descriptive power and the charms of its versification. The favour with which it was received led him to publish a second series of the same subject, "Les Poèmes de la mer", which appeared in 1852. Meantime, he had written another volume of lyrics "Ludibria ventis", which served to increase his popularity as a singer; also a prose work, "Italie et la Semaine sainte à Rome" (1841), the fruit of a voyage to the Eternal City. the French conquest of Algiers suggested the subject of an epic poem, "Milianah", published in 1842. In 1848 "La Fille d'Achille", a tragedy in five acts, shared with Emile Augier's "Gabrielle" the Prix Monthyon awarded by the French Academy. This was followed by: "Laboureurs et Soldats" (1845), "Vie rurale" (1856), crowned by the French Academy; "Epîtres rustiques"; "Le poème des beaux jours" (1862); "Le Cyclope", a drama after Euripides (1869); "Les Paroles de Salomon"; "Sonnets Capricieux" (1873); "La Légende des Paladins" (1875). In 1868 Autran was elected a member of the French Academy to succeed Ponsard. In his later days he was stricken with blindness. Autran, though not a poet of the first rank, is a writer whose noble sentiments, chaste imagination, and religious feeling will always endear him to lovers of pure and refreshing poetry. All his works are remarkable for their purity of expression, the music of their rhythm, and a profound feeling for the beauties of nature.
356 Anthologie des poètes français (Paris, 1892), 302; DE JULLEVILLE, Hist. de la langue et de la littérature françaises (Paris, 1899), VII, 355; DE LAPRADE, Préface des œuvres complètes d'Autran (1874-81).
357 Jean Le Bars.
Diocese of Autun
358 The Diocese of Autun
359 (Augustodonum).
360 Comprises the entire Department of Saone et Loire in France. It was suffragan to the Archdiocese of Lyons under the old regime. The sees of Chalons-sur-Saone and Macon were united to Autun after the Revolution, and it then became suffragan to Besancon (1802), afterwards to Lyons (1822). Christian teaching reached Autun at a very early period, as we know from the famous Greek inscription of Pectorius which dates from the third century. It was found in 1839 in the cemetery of St. Peter l'Estrier at Autun and bears testimony to the antiquity and efficacy of baptism and the sacramental words of the Holy Eucharist. Local recensions of the "Passion" of St. Symphorianus of Autun exhibit St. Polycarp on the eve of the persecution of Septimius Severus, assigning to St. Irenaeus two priests and a deacon (Sts. Benignus, Andochius, and Thyrsus), all three of whom depart for Autun. St. Benigus goes on to Langres, while the others remain at Autun. According to this legendary cycle, which dates from about the first half of the sixth century it was not then believed at Autun that the city was an episcopal see in the time of St. Irenaeus (c. 140-211). St. Amator, whom Autun tradition designates as its first bishop, probably occupied the see about 250. The first bishop known to history is St. Reticius, an ecclesiastical writer, and contemporary of the Emperor Constantine (306-337). The Bishop of Autun enjoys the right of wearing the pallium, in virtue of a privilege accorded to the see in 599 by St. Gregory the Great (590-604). In the Merovingian period two Bishops of Autun figured prominently in political affairs; St. Syagrius, bishop during the second half of the sixth century, a contemporary of St. Germanus, Bishop of Paris (a native of Autun), and St. Leodegarius (Léger), bishop from 663 to 680, celebrated on account of his conflict with Ebroin and put to death by order of Thierry III. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, the future diplomat, was Bishop of Autun from 1788 to 1790, when he resigned. The last bishop of this see appointed in 1882 (d. 1906), was Cardinal Perraud, member of the French Academy. In 670, an important council was held at Autun for the purpose of regulating the discipline of the Benedictine monasteries. The present cathedral of Autun dates from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and was formerly the chapel of the Dukes of Burgundy; their palace was the actual episcopal residence. In the Diocese of Autun are yet to be seen the ruins of the Benedictine Abbey of Tournus and the great Abbey of Cluny, to which 2,000 monasteries were subject, and which gave to the Church the great pope, Gregory VII (1073-85). Gelasius II (1118-19) died at Cluny, and there also was held the conclave that elected Calixtus II (1119-24). The devotion to the Sacred Heart originated in the Visitation Convent at Paray-le Monial, founded in 1644, and now the object of frequent pilgrimages. At the end of the year 1905 the Diocese of Autun contained 618,227 inhabitants, 65 parishes, 458 succursal, or auxiliary, churches and 68 vicariates.
361 The Councils of Autun
362 The first council, held in 663 (or 670) orders all ecclesiastics to learn by heart the Apostles Creed and the Athanasian Creed, and this seems to be the earliest mention of the latter in France. Cardinal Pitra says in his "Histoire de St. Léger" that this canon may have been directed against Monothelitism, then seeking entrance into the Gallican churches, but condemned beforehand in the latter of these creeds. The Rule of St. Benedict was also prescribed as the normal monastic code. In the Council of 1065, Saint Hugues, Abbot of Cluny, accomplished the reconciliation of Robert, Duke of Burgundy, with the Bishop of Autun. In 1077 Hugues, Bishop of Dié, held a council at Autun, by order of St. Gregory VII; it deposed Manasses, Bishop of Reims, for simony and usurpation of the see, and reproved other bishops for absence from the council. In 1094 Hugues, Archbishop of Lyons, and thirty-three other bishops renewed at Autun the excommunication of Henry IV of Germany, the Antipope Guibert, and their partisans, also that of King Philip of France, guilty of bigamy. Simony, ecclesiastical disorders, and monastic usurpations provoked other decrees, only one of which is extant, forbidding the monks to induce the canons to enter monasteries.
363 DIOCESE: Gallia Christiana ed nova (1728), IV, 314-437 and Documents, 39-126; DE fontENAY, Autun, ses monuments (Autun, 1889); DUCHESNE, Fastes episcopauz de l'ancienne Gaule, I, 48-56 and II, 174-182 (Paris, 1894 and 1900); CHEVALIER, Tope-bibl. (Paris, 189-99). 269-272.
364 COUNCILS: MANSI, Coll. Conc. (1748), Supp. I,497,XI,126,XIX,10 sqq.; Supp. II, 25, XX,483; Gallia Christiana, ed. nova (1728), IV, 314-437, 39-126; GAGUARD, Hist. de l'eglise d'Autun (Autun, 1774); CHEVALIER, Topo-bibl. (Paris, 1804-99, 270.
365 Georges Goyau
366 Thomas J. Shahan
Auxentius
361 Auxentius, name of several early Christian personages.—Auxentius of Milan, native of Cappadocia, ordained (343) to the priesthood by Gregory, the intruded Bishop of Alexandria. After the banishment of Dionysius of Milan in 355, Auxentius was made bishop of that see through Arian intrigue, though ignorant of the Latin tongue. Some of the principal Western bishops attempted, but in vain, to bring him to accept the Nicene Creed. He was publicly accused at Milan, in 364, by St. Hilary of Poitiers, and convicted of error in a disputation held in that city by order of the Emperor Valentinian. His submission was only apparent, however, and he remained powerful enough to compel the departure of St. Hilary from Milan. In 359 he forced many bishops of Illyricum to sign the creed of Rimini. Though St. Athanasius procured his condemnation by Pope Damasus at a Roman synod (369), he retained possession of his see until his death in 374, when he was succeeded by St. Ambrose.—Auxentius, Junior, originally Mercurinus, a Scythian, and a disciple of Ulfilas, or Wulfila, of whose life and death he wrote an account that the Arian bishop, Maximinus, included (383) in a work directed against St. Ambrose and the Synod of Aquitesa, 381. This favourite of Justina was the anti-bishop set up in Milan by the Arians on the occasion of the election of Ambrose. He challenged the latter in 386 to a public dispute in which the judges were to be the court favourites of the Arian empress; he also demanded for the Arians the use of the Basilica Portiana. The refusal to surrender this church brought about a siege of the edifice, in which Ambrose and a multitude of his faithful Milanese had shut themselves up. The empress eventually abandoned her favourite and made peace with Ambrose. (Baunard, Saint Ambroise, Paris, 1872, 332-348; Hefele, History of the Councils, I).—Auxentius of Mopsuestia (360). Baronius places this bishop in the Roman martyrology, because of the story told by Philostorgius (in Suidas) that he was at one time an officer in the army of Licinius, and gave up his commission rather than obey the imperial command to lay a bunch of grapes at the feet of a statue of Bacchus. Tillemont (Mémoires, VI, 786-7) is inclined to believe that Auxentius was an Arian; his patronage of the heretic Aetius (Philostorgius, Hist. Eccl., V, 1, 2), points to this conclusion.
362 Venables in Dict. Christ. Biog., I, 233.
363 Thomas J. Shahan.
Councils of Auxerre
364 In 585 (or 578) a Council of Auxerre held under St. Annacharius formulated forty-five canons, closely related in context to canons of the contemporary Councils of Lyons and Mâcon. They are important as illustrating life and manners among the newly-converted Teutonic tribes and the Gallo-Romans of the time. Many of the decrees are directed against remnants of heathen barbarism and superstitious customs; others bear witness to the persistence in the early Middle Ages in France of certain ancient Christian customs. The canons of the council of 695 or 697 are concerned chiefly with the Divine Office and ecclesiastical ceremonies.
365 MANSI, Coll. Conc., IX, 911; XII, 107; XIV, 786; HEFELE, Conciliengesch., II, 72; ZACCARIA, Dissert. stor. eccles. (1795), XVII, 95-105; Chevalier, Topo-bibl. (Paris, 1894-99), 275.
366 Thomas J. Shahan.
Auxiliary Bishop
367 A bishop deputed to a diocesan who, capable of governing and administering his diocese, is unable to perform the pontifical functions; or whose diocese is so extensive that it requires the labors of more than one; or whose episcopal see has attached to it a royal or imperial office requiring protracted presence at court. According to the present ecclesiastical discipline no bishop can be consecrated without title to a certain and distinct diocese which he governs either actually or potentially. Actual government requires residence, potential does not. Hence, there are two principal classes of bishops, the residential, or diocesan or, local, or ordinary; and the non-residential, or titular. Diocesan bishops have and exercise (de jure) full power of order and jurisdiction, in and over the diocese committed to their exclusive care by the pope. Titulars, as such, have not, and do not exercise, power of order and jurisdiction, in and over their titular sees. All actual jurisdiction in titular sees the pope reserves to himself, and exercises through the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda. The jurisdiction of a diocesan is ordinary. Should a titular perform a jurisdictional function, he uses delegated jurisdiction.
368 Titular bishops are those who have been appointed by the Holy See to a see or diocese which, in former times, had been canonically established and possessed cathedral church, clergy, and laity, but at present, on account of pagan occupation and government, has neither clergy nor people. It is essential that the titular diocese did once exist, and did cease to exist through death or defection of clergy and faithful, or pagan settlement and government. No vestige of titulars, as defined, appears until the close of the thirteenth century. Evidently the host of wandering bishops without title or see -- missionary, regional, or exiled bishops -- of whom historians make mention, cannot be classed with our titulars, who did not come into existence until the greater part of the East had passed under pagan rule, and the destruction or defection of the Christian flock and the death of their shepherds ensued. The episcopal succession in those dioceses was maintained as long as a hope remained of their rehabilitation, and their bishops were hospitably received, and frequently used by the diocesans as auxiliaries or vicars, in pontificals in their respective dioceses. Ecclesiastical authority placed some of them in temporary charge of vacant Western dioceses, on condition of their immediate return to their own sees when possible. Others were given the spiritual care of dioceses by civil princes who, avaricious of the episcopal revenues, prevented the appointment of a diocesan bishop. In the fourteenth century, the great number of bishops without occupation, and their invasion of the rights and privileges of the diocesans brought about necessary legislation. Clement V (I, iii de elect. V, Clem.) prohibited the election and consecration of any cleric, without papal license, to any of those vacant sees (sine clero populoque). The first mention of titular bishops occurs in the Lateran decree (sess. 9 de Cardinalibus), wherein Leo X permits the creation of titulars whom the cardinal-bishops may use as suffragans, or auxiliaries, in their respective dioceses. Afterwards, the privilege was extended for various reasons, principal among which were
369 to preserve from oblivion the memory of those once venerable and important, but now desolate, sees;
370 that the pope might have at hand efficient and capable assistants (without care of dioceses) in the discharge of the numerous and important ecclesiastical duties of the Apostolic ministry in and outside of the Roman Curia;
371 that suffragans might be given to bishops impeded by reason of infirmity, partial or entire, or of the great extent of their dioceses, or legitimate and protracted absence from performing their episcopal duties.
372 Pius V, after the Council of Trent, decreed that suffragans were not to be given unless to cardinals, and to those bishops to whom it was customary to grant them, and who guaranteed a fixed salary to support the dignity of the auxiliary. He also decreed that such auxiliary should not, without papal permission, exercise the pontifical functions in any other diocese, save in that of the diocesan to whom he had been given. Gradually it was extended to other bishops who had solid reasons for assistance. The appointment of all titulars belongs exclusively to the Holy See (Clement, ut supra). Present usage requires an auxiliary, suffragan, and temporary coadjutor (used indiscriminately to mean almost the same office) to be also a titular bishop, yet the former antedate the latter by many centuries. They come down to us from Apostolic times; thus Linus and Cletus were vicars, or auxiliaries, to St. Peter at Rome; Ammianus, to St. Mark of Alexandria; Alexander, to Narcissus (aged 116 years) of Jerusalem; St. Gregory, the theologian, auxiliary in pontificals to St. Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus; St. Augustine, coadjutor of Valerius of Hippo; so likewise those of the rural bishops (), who had received episcopal consecration (there were many in the Orient from the third to the seventh, and, in the West, from the eighth to the tenth, centuries), and many exiled bishops, then in the West were auxiliaries to diocesan bishops even up to the Clementine law. Though the terms auxiliary, suffragan, and coadjutor are used indiscriminately, yet there is a difference. Auxiliary bishop is as defined at the beginning of this article. Suffragan bishop is the name given to the auxiliaries of the Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia and Velletri and the Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina. Coadjutors are given to diocesans impeded from performance of their episcopal duties by old age, or bodily infirmity, or sickness, protracted and incurable, such as loss of speech, blindness, paralysis, and insanity. A coadjutor to an insane bishop has full jurisdiction and can exercise all episcopal duties, with the sole exception of disposing of ecclesiastical properties. There are coadjutors in temporals, or in spirituals, or in both temporals and spirituals. The first kind need not be a bishop; a cleric suffices. Coadjutors are also temporary and perpetual; the first has no succession, the latter has, and is called coadjutor with right of succession. Coadjutors with right of succession rarely are granted, and only when urgent necessity and an evident utility are superadded to the above reasons; and then they must be made known to, and approved as such, by the pope. It is not the practice to force a perpetual coadjutor upon an unwilling diocesan, although the pope can do so. Such perpetual coadjutor cannot mix in the ecclesiastical administration, nor do aught but as he is told or permitted by the diocesan. Some of the Fathers of the Vatican Council [I] proposed that, in the future, auxiliary bishops should be appointed instead of perpetual coadjutors. A coadjutor is granted to aid a diocesan in order and jurisdiction as far as is needed; the auxiliary is deputed to aid only in function of order. He may be made vicar-general, and then, by virtue of that office, he has power of jurisdiction. Since auxiliarship, or temporary coadjutorship, is neither a title nor prelature, but an office, it is temporary, and ceases at the death, or suspension, or resignation, of the diocesan. The Holy See, for valid reasons, in the fifteenth century established permanent auxiliarships in Prussia, Poland, Spain, and Portugal. Pius VII (16 July, 1821, Constit. De salute animar.) confirmed such offices in Germany, etc. In these countries the office of auxiliary does not die with the diocesan, but continues under his successors. The auxiliary, sede vacante, however, cannot perform functions strictly episcopal. Successors to such auxiliaries are not given the same, but an entirely different, titular see. Perpetual coadjutorship is irrevocable, and its holder succeeds immediately to the vacant see; no further collation or election is necessary. Office of auxiliary, etc. is revocable at will of pope and diocesan; that of the perpetual coadjutor cannot be taken away unless for canonical causes. Auxiliaries and temporary coadjutors are appointed by the Holy Father at the request of the bishop in need of assistance. The pope (on petition of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, or of Propaganda) as a rule appoints the clergyman named by orator. The election or nomination for perpetual coadjutors is governed by the law for election or nomination (sede vacante) of a new diocesan. The same disposition of mind and body is required for auxiliary, etc. as for diocesan bishops. They must be thirty years complete, and have spent six months in Sacred Orders prior to elevation to the episcopate, yet in the case of the auxiliaries, the most worthy has no rights over the merely worthy. For perpetual coadjutorship most worthy is demanded.
373 Rights and duties of auxiliaries must be considered from a twofold standpoint: i.e. titulars of a diocese, and auxiliaries of diocesan bishops. By right of consecration a titular auxiliary can validly, but not licitly, without permission of the residential, perform all the functions annexed to the episcopal order by Divine and ecclesiastical law. The Church could, but does not, require the diocesan's permission, for the validity of the latter functions. Having no actual jurisdiction, he cannot without express consent and permission of the ordinary perform pontifical functions in the city or diocese, nor can he do so, sede vacante, even with the permission of the chapter. Possessing only potential jurisdiction in his titular see, he cannot
374 hear, or grant faculties to hear, confession of a visiting subject from his titular see;
375 confirm or ordain him;
376 send a priest to preach, or to perform any priestly functions, in his titular see;
377 absolve, or grant faculty to a diocesan priest to absolve, a member of his own household;
378 assist at the marriage of a titular subject, a visitor where the Tridentine holds;
379 ordain his familiar of three years' standing, nor grant indulgences.
380 Should at any time clergy or Laity sufficiently numerous be found in his titular diocese, and no representative of the Holy See have supervision over it, he can immediately, without any other collation of the benefice, take possession of his titular church. He then ceases to be titular and becomes diocesan. He may, and according to some must, be invited to General Councils, and once there he has decisive vote. A few were present at the Council of Trent and quite a number at the Vatican Council [I]. Although he has not the right to take part in Provincial Councils, he may be invited to do so, but has no decisive vote, unless by unanimous consent and permission of the Provincial Fathers. He can wear everywhere the prelatial dress and ring (the sign of his spiritual union with his titular see), and use the pontifical vestments, ornaments, and insignia, when, by permission of the ordinary, he performs pontifical functions. In general councils and every meeting of bishops where the local prelate is not present, in Rome, and outside of Rome, the titular auxiliary, etc., takes precedence of all bishops (except assistant bishops at pontifical throne) of later consecration. In provincial councils, however, all suffragans outrank all titulars without regard to date of consecration. Titular auxiliaries, as well as diocesans, are obliged to receive episcopal consecration within three months from confirmation, unless this is morally impossible; to make profession of faith and take oath of loyalty and fidelity to the Roman Pontiff, and to go to his titular diocese, if ever it is rehabilitated. By reason of the spiritual union with his see, he cannot be elected, but only postulated, for another diocese. Only the Holy Father can dissolve the spiritual union with the titular see. An auxiliary never has the title of a titular archiepiscopal see: but a perpetual coadjutor often has. The titular archbishop-coadjutor is not bound to petition for the pallium or the use of it. Titular auxiliary is not bound
381 to make visit ad limina Apostolorum (some say he is);
382 to residence in his titular see, or in the cathedral city of the diocese in which he holds the office of auxiliary (the place of his residence is regulated by the diocesan);
383 to say Mass "for the people."
384 The criminal and important causes relating to auxiliary bishops are reserved to the Holy See, those of lesser moment to the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. By virtue of the office of auxiliary he has a perpetual right to a pension suitable to maintain the episcopal dignity. This is to be paid by the diocesan from the diocesan revenues. The amount of pension and source from which it is to be obtained is generally specified in the Apostolic Letters of appointment. He can hold any benefice he had before and acquire a new one after his consecration, as the office of auxiliary is not a benefice. He enjoys the same honorific privileges (with a few exceptions, viz. throne, cappa magna, mozzetta, and rochet worn without mantelletta, and crosier), pontifical ornaments, and titles, as does the diocesan. He can and must use the prelatial dress, as in the Roman Curia, to wit: rochet over the purple soutane with purple mantelletta, in his attendance in the cathedral, where he has precedence over all other canons and dignitaries, as to choir stall and functions. When he is celebrant in pontifical functions, the canons must assist, but in the usual canonical dress, except ministers in sacred vestments. Not all the canons are bound to meet him at the church door, as he enters to celebrate pontifical Mass. During the ceremony he is assisted by a canon as assistant priest, and deacon. and sub-deacon in sacred vestments. He has no right to the usual two canon-assistant deacons, nor to the seventh candlestick, nor to the usual reverences of the canons at Kyrie, etc., nor the use of the throne or crosier unless by special permission. He uses the faldistorium. He can use the crosier with the special permission of the diocesan, and when he officiates at ordinations, consecrations, and other pontifical functions, during which the rules of the Pontifical demand its use (Caeremon. Epis., I, xvii; Decret. Bracharen. Sept. 1607). It is proper, however, that he impart the episcopal last blessing. He cannot bless publicly the people as he wends his way through the city. It is forbidden him to make visitation of the cloister of nuns without express permission and command of the local prelate. Canons are bound to kiss the auxiliary's hand when he gives them Holy Communion on Holy Thursday, and assist him in consecrating Holy Oils, conferring Holy Orders, and in all sacred functions strictly episcopal, which he performs for his diocesan. If he be a canon, he is subject, as the other cathedral canons, to diocesan law and the penalties attached to its violation. If the diocesan and the auxiliary assist simultaneously at Mass, the sub-deacon must not give the latter the pax before the canon-assistants at the throne have received it from the bishop ordinary. When the diocesan assists at Mass, or Vespers, the auxiliary must leave his stall and join the other canons in making the prescribed reverences before the Kyrie, Gloria, etc. Should the celebrant be the diocesan, assisted by the chapter in sacred vestments, the auxiliary can wear a cope and a linen mitre (with consent of the local), which latter he must take off and put on by himself. It is expedient that he substitute another in his turn for the Missa Cantata, as he cannot use a faldistorium and pontifical vestments without consent of his diocesan.
385 ANDREICCI. Hierarachia Ecclesiastica, I, I, De Episcopo titulari; BENEDICT XIV, De Syn. Diaec. II, 7, 1; 13, 6, 5; XIII, 14, 15; XIII, 14, 11; XII, 6, 7; FERRARIS, Bibl. Prompt. Art. VII; WERNZ, Jus Decret. II, 994, no. 807 sqq (de Vicarius in Pontificatibus); BOUIX, De Episcopo (Paris, 1859), IV, 3, I-iii; ZITELLI, I, ii, c, ii; CRAISSON, Manua1e Tot. Jur. Can. (1894) I, 568 sqq.; ICARD, Praelectiones etc. (1893), I, 1, # 5; RIGANTI, Commentaria in Regulas, etc., I, in Reg. I # 5 nn. 79 et seq.; FAGANUS, Commentar. V, De Priv. C. Epicopalia, no. 34 sq.; LEURENIUS, De Vicarius Episcopi. qu. 14, 15, 19; BARBOSA, Jur.Eccls. Univ. (ed. 1677), I, xv, nos. 50, 51, 52 53; VECCHOTTI, Instit. Canon., I, vii, # 72, 73 74, 75, 76; FERRARI, Summa Instit. Canon. (1896) I, xvi; AICHNER, Compendium Jur. Eccles. (1895), 418 sqq.; AGUILAR, Scientiae Jur. Compendium. 227 De Epis. Auxiliaribus; OJETTI, Synop .Rer. Moral, etc. (1904), s.v. Coadjutor; SEBASTIANELLI, Prael. Jur. Canon. De Personis, Appendix de Epis. Titularibus; DE LUCA, Praelec. Jur. Can, I, xviii, art. II, De Epis. Tit.; Analecta Ecclesiastica. III, 400; IV, 217; VI, 476; TAUNTON, Law of the Church (1906) s.v.
386 P.M.J. Rock
Auxilius of Naples
370 The name (probably fictitious, according to Hefele) of an ecclesiastic to whom we owe a series of remarkable writings (P. L., CXXIX, 1054 sqq.) that deal with the controversies concerning the succession and fate of Pope Formosus (891-896), and especially the validity of the orders conferred by him. Auxilius was a Frank, who was ordained a priest, or perhaps only a deacon, in Rome by Formosus, and lived later in lower Italy, apparently at Naples. On the death of Pope Formosus there began for the papacy a time of the deepest humiliation, such as it has never experienced before or since. After the successor of Formosus, Boniface VI, had ruled only fifteen days, Stephen VI (properly VII), one of the adherents of the party of the Duke of Spoleto, was raised to the Papal Chair. In his blind rage, Stephen not only abused the memory of Formosus but also treated his body with indignity. Stephen was strangled in prison in the summer of 897, and the six following popes (to May, 1904) owed their elevation to the struggles of the political parties. Christophorus, the last of them, was overthrown by Sergius III (May, 904-August, 911). Sergius had been a partisan of Stephen VI, and like the latter regarded the elevation of Formosus to the papacy as illegal and the orders conferred by him as null and void. Auxilius was a follower of Formosus, and in several works composed about 908-911, he made a courageous and learned defence, both of Formosus and of the validity of his orders and those of his adherents. Morinus was the first to publish two of these writings in his "De ecclesiasticis ordinationibus" (Paris, 1665). They are entitled, "Libellus de ordinationibus a papâ Formoso factis", and "Tractatus qui Infensor et Defensor dicitur".
371 A third work of Auxilius, of similar import, was found by Mabillon and published by him under the title, "Libellus super causâ et negatio Formosi papæ", in his "Vetera Analecta" (ed. 1723, IV, 28-32). In his "Auxilius und Vulgarius", quoted below, Dümmler published from a Bamberg manuscript two further writings of Auxilius, one of which is known as "In defensionem sacræ ordinationis papæ Formosi libellus prior et posterior", while the other bears in the manuscript itself the title: "Libellus in defensionem Stephani episcopi et præfatæ ordinationis". (Stephen, Bishop of Naples, had been consecrated by Pope Formosus.) Still another treatise of an unknown author on behalf of Formosus, published by Bianchini in his edition of the "Liber Pontificalis" (1735, IV) is considered by Hergenröther (Photius, II, 370, 373, note 9) to be an extract from the writings of Auxilius, while Dümmler attributes it (op. cit., 42) to Eugenius Vulgarius, an Italian priest and a defender of Formosus. Two other compositions of Eugenius Vulgarius are known: "De causâ Formosianâ", and "Eugenius Vulgarius Petro Diacono fratri et amico". All these writings are very important, not only as historical sources but also from a theological point of view, because they take the position that the orders conferred by sinful and excommunicated bishops are not in themselves invalid. In a necrology of the Abbey of Monte Cassino is noted on 25 January the death of an Auxilius, deacon and monk, author of a commentary on Genesis (Mai, Spicilegium Romanum, IX, Appendix; cf. Mabillon, Ann. Ord. S. Benedicti, III, 325). This Auxilius may possibly be identical with the author of the works described above.
372 Dümmler, Auxilius und Vulgarius; Quellen und Forschungen zur Gesch. des Papsttums in Anfang des 10ten Jahrh. (Leipzig, 1866); Potthast, Bibl. hist. medii ævi, 2d ed. (Berlin, 1896), I, 128; Hurter, Nomenclator, 3d ed. (Innsbruck, 1903), I, 887 sqq.; Hefele, Conciliengesch. 2d ed. (Freiburg, 1879), IV, 562 sqq.; Hergenröther-Kirsch, Kirchengesch., 4th ed. (Freiburg, 1904), II, 196 sqq.; Saltet, Les Réordinations (Paris, 1907), 156 sqq.
373 J.P. Kirsch
Ava
373 A German poetess, the first woman known to have written in German and probably identical with a recluse of that name who died in Austria in the vicinity of Melk, A.D. 1127. Almost nothing is known of her life or personality. She herself tells us in a passage in her work that she was the mother of two sons who helped her in procuring the material for her poems. These poems are metrical versions of stories from the New Testament and consist of a "Life of Jesus", "Antichrist", "The Gifts of the Holy Ghost", "The Last Judgment", and "John the Baptist". They are preserved in two manuscripts, one at Verona, the other at Gorlitz. The "John the Baptist" is found only in the latter manuscript. Ava's authorship of this poem, as well as that of the "Life of Jesus" has been questioned, but hardly on sufficient grounds. The poems are naive in tone and display deeply religious sentiments, but, except for occasional passages, they are destitute of poetic merit. Their technique is often crude, assonance taking the place of rhyme and alliteration being not infrequent. The chief source from which Ava drew her material was the New Testament, but she also made use of older German poems and possibly other writings such as the Apocryphal Gospel of the Infancy of the Saviour by the Pseudo-Matthew.
374 Arthur F.J. Remy
Nicola Avancini
376 Chiefly known as an ascetical writer, born in the Tyrol, 1612; died 6 December, 1686. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1677, and for some years held the chair of rhetoric and philosophy at Gratz, and subsequently that of theology at Vienna. He was rector of the Colleges of Passau, Vienna, and Gratz, Provincial of the Austrian Province, Visitor of Bohemia, and at his death Assistant for the German Provinces of the Society. In the midst of these onerous duties he found time to publish works on philosophy, theology, and sacred literature, none of which, however, have retained popularity except his "Meditations on the Life and Doctrines of Jesus Christ." This work, originality in Latin, was translated into the principal European languages and went through many editions. The meditations are considered dry by some, and the English version in use contains much additional matter drawn from the works of other authors. But these meditations, in their simple as well as their extended form, have assisted many most efficaciously in the difficult task of daily meditation. Avancini was also the author of sermons, or orations, and a large number of dramas, suitable for presentation by college students. For a complete list of his works see Sommervogel, I. In English we have the "Meditations on the Life and Doctrines of Jesus Christ. Translated from the German edition of the Rev. John E. Porter, by T.E. Bazalgette, with a preface by the Rev. G. Porter, S.J." (London, 1875, 2 vols.) Another edition was issued in the Quarterly series by the Rev. H. J. Coleridge, S.J., in 1883.
377 Edward P. Spillane
Avarice
379 Avarice (from Lat. avarus, "greedy"; "to crave") is the inordinate love for riches. Its special malice, broadly speaking, lies in that it makes the getting and keeping of money, possessions, and the like, a purpose in itself to live for. It does not see that these things are valuable only as instruments for the conduct of a rational and harmonious life, due regard being paid of course to the special social condition in which one is placed. It is called a capital vice because it has as its object that for the gaining or holding of which many other sins are committed. It is more to be dreaded in that it often cloaks itself as a virtue, or insinuates itself under the pretext of making a decent provision for the future. In so far as avarice is an incentive to injustice in acquiring and retaining of wealth, it is frequently a grievous sin. In itself, however, and in so far as it implies simply an excessive desire of, or pleasure in, riches, it is commonly not a mortal sin.
380 Joseph F. Delany
Avatār
382 (Texto do capítulo)
Avatār
385 An Anglicized form of the Sanskrit, avatara, "descent", from the root tr, "pass" (cf. Latin in-trare), and the preposition ava, "down".
386 The word is used, in a technical sense, in the Hindu re!igion to denote the descent upon earth of a portion of the essence of a god, which then assumes some coarser material form, be it animal, monster, or man. Such descents are ascribed in the mythology of Hinduism to various gods, but those ascribed to Vishnu are by far the most important. They are believed to have taken place at different ages of the world, and to have consisted of different proportions of the essence of Vishnu. Their number is variously stated, ranging from ten to twenty-eight, finally becoming indefinitely numerous. Any remarkable man is liable to be regarded as a more or less perfect avatar of Vishnu, and the consequence one of the worst features of Hinduism--has been the offering of divine homage to men, especially the founders of religious sects and their successors.
387 The ten most famous avatars are:
388 The Fish, matsya. The basis of this is the story told in the Satapatha Brahmana of how Manu was saved from the Deluge by a great fish, which foretold him of the danger, commanded him to build a boat, and finally towed this boat to a mountain top. The Puranas afterwards declare that this fish was an avatar of Vishnu.
389 The Tortoise, Kurma. Vishnu in this form offers his back as the pivot on which rests Mt. Mandara, while the gods and demons churn with it various valuable objects from the ocean of milk.
390 The Boar, Varaha. Like the first, this avatar is concerned with the rescue of the earth from a flood, the boar raising it from the water in which it had been submerged.
391 The Man-lion, Nara-sinha. Vishu takes this form to deliver the world from a demon, who had obtained from Brahma the boon, that he should be slain neither by a god, a man, nor an animal.
392 The Dwarf, Vamana. The world having fallen under the possession of another demon, Vishnu, in the form of a dwarf, begged for as much of it as he could cover in three steps. His request was granted, but, from the Rig-Veda on, the most prominent thing in connection vvith Vishnu (originally a sun-god), was that in three strides he traverses the universe. Two strides now sufficing for the redemption of heaven and earth, compassion inspires him to leave the nether regions to the demon he has duped.
393 Rama with the axe, Parasu-rama. In the form of a hero, Rama, armed with an axe, Vishnu destroys the Ksatriyas, or warrior caste, in the interest of the priestly caste, the Brahmins.
394 Rama, the great hero of the Hindu Odyssey, the Rama yana, who is made into an avatar of Vishnu.
395 Krsna, the Indian Hercules, as he is styled by Megasthenes, the most popular hero of India, is the most perfect avatar of Vishnu.
396 Buddha, a curious result of the triumph of Hinduism over Buddhism. In one version it is explained that Vishnu's purpose was to destroy the wicked by leading them into a false religion.
397 Kalki. In this form Vishnu will descend when the world is wholly depraved, destroy utterly the wicked, and restore the happy conditions of the Age of Virtue.
398 The importance of this theory of avatars to Hinduism is the way in which it has contributed to the wonderful adaptability of that religion. In the Buddha avatar the fact is particularly patent, but, in the Rama and Krsna avatars also, we clearly have the adoption into Hinduism of the cults of these heroes. It is a mere guess that similar compromises with some totemistic forms of religion are to be seen in the Fish, Boar, and Tortoise avatars, and the same might be said of an attempt to see in the Man-lion and Dwarf avatars, traces of the aboriginal religions. The resemblance of these avatars to the doctrine of the Incarnation is most superficial, and as the theory of the avatars has a sufficient basis in Hindu philosophy, several points of contact with the earlier mythology, it is unnecessay to suppose with Weber (Indische Studien, II, 169) that it is the result of an imitation of this dogma.
399 George Melville Bolling
Pierre du Bois, Baron d'Avaugour
388 The Baron d'Avaugour (d. 1664) was sixth Governor General of Canada. Born of an ancient family in Brittany, he served in the French army forty years; travelled in Persia, Russia, Poland, and Sweden, and took part in all the campaigns in Germany. This familiarity with camp life made his naturally eccentric character rough and unsociable as well. In I661 he was chosen to succeed d'Argenson as Governor of New France and arrived in Quebec on 31 August of that year. Utterly averse to pomp and ceremony, he refused the honours which the people of Canada wished to show him, and set out at once for Montreal, in order to familiarize himself with the state of the country. The result was embodied in a report which he sent to Colbert and the great Condé, wherein he advised the fortification of Quebec and the approaches to it by outworks at Ile d'Orléans and at Lévis. He also recommended that the colony should be freed of its useless officials, to be replaced by soldiers who could hold the Iroquois in check, and prevent the Dutch from supplying them with arms. He formed a council, at the head of which he placed the Superior of the Jesuits. The sale of drink to the Indians was forbidden under pain of death, a penalty which the governor indicted on several who had disobeyed his orders. He became embroiled in a quarrel with the bishop and the Jesuits, because they had begged the release of a poor widow whom he had caused to be imprisoned for selling brandy. He dissolved his council, in order to surround himself with more subservient advisers, and removed the prohibition imposed on the sale of liquor. Serious disorders ensued, the priests preached against misuse of authority, and an earthquake which shook the whole valley of the St. Lawrence was looked upon by the people as Divine chastisement. Bishop Laval found it necessary to return to France to ask for the governor's recall. D'Avaugour was relieved of his command, and a royal cornmissioner was charged to make enquiries as to his conduct. The governor left Quebec, 23 July, 1663. On his arrival in France he sumitted two statements to the king in regard to the measures to be taken for the colonization and defence of Canada; he advised the concentration of the troops at Quebec and the building of a fort at the head of the Richelieu river, also that the Dutch should be driven out of Fort Orange (Albany), and that the French should take possession of the Hudson River, in order to gain exit to the sea. At a later date one of his suggestions was acted on, when veteran soldiers were sent to Canada with permission to settle as colonists. D'Avaugour asked to be allowed to resume active service, and was sent to Austria, where Louis XIV was aiding the rising of the Croats. He died a soldier's death white bravely defending the fortress of Zrin against the Turks.
389 J. Edmond Roy
Ave Maris Stella
391 (Hail, thou Star of Ocean.)
392 The first verse of an unrhymed, accentual hymn, of seven stropes of four lines each, assigned in Roman Breviary to Vespers in the Common office, the Office of Saturdays, and the Little Office (as well as for Feasts) of the Blessed Virgin. It has been ascribed wrongly to St. Bernard, but antedates him, being found in a St. Gall manuscript of the ninth century; and also, without sufficient authority, to St. Venantius Fortunatus (d. 609). Its frequent occurence in the Divine Office made it most popular in the Middle Ages, many other hymns being founded upon it.
393 H.T. Henry
Ave Regina
394 An antiphon so called from its first line, Ave regina caelorum (Hail, Queen of Heaven). It is one of the four Antiphons of the Blessed Virgin sung in the Divine Office in turn throughout the year, and is assigned thus from Compline of 2 February (even when the Feast of the Purification is transferred) to Holy Thursday exclusively. It comprises two stanzas of four lines each, followed by its own versicle and response and prayer. Its date of composition is uncertain, but the conjecture of Stella (Inst. Liturg., Rome, 1895) that it antedates the fourth century seems to be without any warrant of external or internal evidence. It is found in the St. Alban's Book of the twelfth century; in a Munich manuscript thought by Daniel to be of the thirteenth: in a Sarum Breviary of the fourteenth; and in York and Roman Breviaries of the fifteenth. Th. Bernard [Le Breviaire (Paris, 1887), II, 454 sqq.] says it was introduced into the Divine Office by Clement VI in the fourteenth century. He gives a commentary and thinks he can perceive in it elements of the "noble accents . . . aspirations of many Doctors, such as St. Athanasius, St. Ephrem, St. Ildephonsus". Said during Septuagesima, Lent, Passiontide, the time, namely, of preparation for Easter, it recalls the part Mary had in the drama of the reopening of Heaven to men and shows her as reigning there Queen of Angels. Its opening line was sometimes quoted as the first line of hymns and sequences in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (cf. Dreves and Blume Analecta Hymnica, I, 94; X, 103; XXX, 238; XXXII, 43; XLVI, 136) which, however, had no other relation with the antiphon, being sometimes meditations on the Ave Maria, sometimes distinct poetical compositions, for example:
395 > Ave regina caelorum
396 > Pia virgo tenella,
397 > Maria (virgo), flos florum
398 > Christi (que) clausa cella.
399 > Gratia, quae peccatorum
400 > Dira tulisti bella
401 and so on, throughout the whole of the Angelical Salutation down to ventris tui, where the poem ends (manuscript of fourteenth century) (loc. cit., XLVI, 136). Or, as a distinct hymn:
402 > Ave. regina caelorum,
403 > Ave. decus angelorum,
404 > Ave. gaudium sanctorum,
405 > Ave. solis regia,
406 in a manuscript of the fifteenth century (loc. cit., XL, 98). The Ave Regina has been translated by Caswall, "Lyra Catholica" (London, 1849, 1873, 1884; New York, 1851), whose version is used in the "Manual of Prayers" (Baltimore), 77: "Hail, O Queen of Heaven enthroned"; also by Beste, "Church Hymns" (1849): "Hail, thou mighty Queen of Heaven". The version in the Marquess of Bute's "Breviary" (Edinburgh, 1879, I, 177) begins: "Hail, O Maris Queen of Heaven". Schlosser [Die Kirche in lhren Liedern (Freiburg, 1863), I, 251] gives a translation into German in the same rnetre. The plain-song melody in the 6th tone has also a simpler setting ["Manuale Missae et Officiorum" (Rome and Tournai, 1903), 100, 103].
407 H.T. Henry
Diocese of Avellino
397 An Italian diocese in the Province of Naples, suffragan to Benevento. Avellino was founded by St. Sabinus, martyr, in the beginning of the second century. The list of bishops dates from 1124. The Diocese of Frigento, whose list is from 1080 to 1455, was united with that of Avellino from 9 May, 1466, until 27 June, 1818, when it was suppressed. Avellino was vacant from 1782 to 1792. It has 118,649 Catholics; 41 parishes, 243 secular priests, 11 regulars, 80 seminarians, 90 churches and chapels.
398 Annuario Eccl. (Rome, 1907); Cappelletti, Chiese d'Italia (1884), xix; G. Zigarelli, Storia della cattedra di Avelino e de' suoi pastori, etc. (Naples, 1856).
399 E. Buonaiuti
Avempace
400 (Ibn Badsha, or Ibn Badja, called by the Scholastics Aven-Pace and Avempace).
401 Arabian philosopher, physician, astronomer, mathematician, and poet, b. at Saragossa towards the end of the eleventh century; d. at Fez, 1138. In 1118 he was at Seville, where he wrote several treatises on logic. Later, he went to Granada and to Africa. He was, according to Arabian accounts, poisoned by rival physicians. He wrote treatises on mathematics, medicine, and philosophy, and commented on several of Aristotle's works, notably on the "Physics", "Meteorologica", "De Generatione et Corruptione", portions of "Historiae Animalium" and "De Partibus Animalium". His works on philosophy included logical treatises, a work "On the Soul", "The Hermit's Guide" (Munk translates the title "Regime du Solitaire"), "On the Union of the Intellect with Man", and a "Valedictory Letter" (Cited in Latin as "Epistola de Discessu" and "Epistola Expeditionis"). Avempace's logical treatises are said to exist in MSS. In the Escorial Library. His other writings are either lost or still undiscovered. Fortunately, however, a Jewish writer of the fourteenth century, Moses of Narbonne, has left us an account of "The Hermit's Guide", which supplements Averroes' unsatisfactory allusions to that work, and enables us to describe the doctrines it contains. The aim of the treatise is to show how man (the hermit) may, by the development of his own powers of mind, attain a union with the Active Intellect. (See "Arabian School of Philosophy"). Avempace distinguishes two kinds of action: animal action, which is a product of the animal soul, and human action, which is a product of the human soul, that is of free will and reflection. The man who smashes a stone because it has hurt him performs an animal action; but he who smashes the stone so that is will not injure others performs a human action. Now, the first step in the moral education of the hermit is to teach himself to be ruled by will and reason, so that his actions may all be human. That, however, is only the first step. Having attained it, the hermit must strive to higher perfection, so that his actions may become divine. He must strive to come in contact with the spiritual forms, which ascend in increasing degrees of incorporeity from the ideas of the individual soul up to the Actual Intellect itself, above which are only the forms of celestial bodies, that is to say, spiritual substances which, while they have an important cosmic function, have no relation to moral excellence in man. Through ideas, therefore, to the ideas of ideas, through these to abstract ideas of things, and through these last, to the pure form of the Active Intellect - this, according to Avempace, is the way of perfection. The mind which has come into contact with the Active Intellect becomes itself an intellect, the Acquired Intellect (Intellectus Adeptus). It is in reference to this last point that the Schoolmen, notably Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas, mention Avempace and his teaching. Their acquaintance with the author of "The Hermit's Guide" was made, probably, through his disciple and admirer Averroes, through certain passages in the "Contra Gentiles" would justify the surmise that St. Thomas had perhaps a firsthand acquaintance with the "Epistola Expeditionis".
402 Munk, Melanges de philosophie juive et arabe (Paris, 1859), 410-418; Munk, in Dictionnaire des science philosophiques (Paris, 1844-52), s. v. Ibn-Badja; St. Thomas, Contra Gentiles, II, 41; Casiri, Bibliotheca Arabo-hispana (Madrid, 1760), I, 179; Ueberweg-Heinze, Gesch. Der Phil., II, 9th ed. 249 sqq., tr. I, 414; Stockl, Gesch. Der Phil. D.M.A. (Mainz, 1865), II, 58 sqq.
403 William Turner
Fernando Avendano
403 Priest born at Lima, Peru, either towards the end of sixteenth or in the beginnig of the seventeenth century; died at Lima, in 1665, shortly after being appointed Bishop of Santiago de Chile. He was one of the most diligent investigators into survivals of the primitive rites and customs of the Peruvian Indians and left valuable notes on the subject, fragments of them being preserved in the work of Arriga. Of great importance to linguistics are his "Sermones de los misterios de nuestra santa Fe católica", published in 1649 by the order of the Archbishop of Lima, Petro Villagomez. These sermons were delivered in Quichua, and are published with their translation into Spanish.
404 Ad. F. Bandelier
Averroes
406 (Abul Walid Mahommed Ibn Achmed, Ibn Mahommed Ibn Roschd).
407 Arabian philosopher, astronomer, and writer on jurisprudence; born at Cordova, 1126; died at Morocco, 1198. Ibn Roschd, or Averroes, as he was called by the Latins, was educated in his native city, where his father and grandfather had held the office of cadi (judge in civil affairs) and had played an important part in the political history of Andalusia. He devoted himself to jurisprudence, medicine, and mathematics, as well as to philosophy and theology. Under the Califs Abu Jacub Jusuf and his son, Jacub Al Mansur, he enjoyed extraordinary favor at court and was entrusted with several important civil offices at Morocco, Seville, and Cordova. Later he fell into disfavor and was banished with other representatives of learning. Shortly before his death, the edict against philosophers was recalled. Many of his works in logic and metaphysics had, however, been consigned to the flames, so that he left no school, and the end of the dominion of the Moors in Spain, which occurred shortly afterwards, turned the current of Averoism completely into Hebrew and Latin channels, through which it influenced the thought of Christian Europe down to the dawn of the modern era. Averoes' great medical work, "Culliyyat" (of which the Latin title "Colliget" is a corruption) was published as the tenth volume in the Latin edition of Aristotle's works, Venice, 1527. His "Commentaries" on Aristotle, his original philosophical works, and his treatises on theology have come down to us either in Latin or Hebrew translations. His "Commentaries", which earned for him the title of the "Commentator", were of three kinds: a short paraphrase or analysis, a brief exposition of the text, and a more extended exposition. These are known as the Minor, the Middle, and the Major Commentary, respectively. None of them is of any value for the textual criticisms of Aristotle, since Averroes, being unacquainted with Greek and Syriac, based his exposition on a very imperfect Arabic translation of the Syriac version of the Greek text. They were, however, of great influence in determining the philosophical and scientific interpretation of Aristotle. His original philosophical treatises include: a work entitled "Tehafot al Tchafot", or "Destructio Destructiones" (a refutation of Algazel's "Destructio Philosophorum") published in the Latin edition, Venice 1497 and 1527, two treatises on the union of the Active and Passive intellects, also published in latin in the Venice edition; logical treatises on the different parts of the "Organon", published in the Venice edition under the title "Quaesita in Libros Logicae Aristotelis"; physical treatises based on Aristotle's "Physics" (also in the Venice edition); a treatise in refutation of Avicenna, and another on the agreement between philosophy and theology. Of the last two, only Hebrew and Arabic texts exist.
408 Averroes professed the greatest esteem for Aristotle. The word of the Stagirite was for him the highest expression of truth in matters of science and philosophy. In this exaggerated veneration for the philosopher he went farther than any of the Schoolmen. Indeed, in the later stages of Scholastic philosophy it was the Averroists and not the followers of Aquinas and Scotus who, when accused of subservience to the authority of a master, gloried in the title of "Aristotle's monkey". Averroes advocated the principle of twofold truth, maintaining that religion has one sphere and philosophy another. Religion, he said, is for the unlettered multitude; philosophy for the chosen few. Religion teaches by signs and symbols; philosophy presents the truth itself. In the mind, therefore, of the truly enlightened, philosophy supersedes religion. But, though the philosopher sees that what is true in theology is false in philosophy, he should not on that account condemn religious instruction, because he would thereby deprive the multitude of the only means which it has of attaining a (symbolic) knowledge of the truth. Averroe's philosophy, like that of all other Arabians, is Aristoteleanism tinged with neo-Platonism. In it we find the doctrine of the eternity of matter as a positive principle of being; the concept of a multitude of spirits ranged hierarchically between God and matter and mediating between them; the denial of Providence in the commonly accepted sense; the doctrine that each of the heavenly spheres is animated; the notion of emanation or extraction, as a substitute for creation; and, finally, the glorification of (rational) mystical knowledge as the ultimate aspiration of the human soul -- in a word, all the distinctively neo-Platonic elements which Arabians added to pure Aristoteleanism.
409 What is peculiar in Averroes' interpretation of Aristotle is the meaning he gives to the Aristotelean doctrine of the Active and Passive Intellect. His predecessor, Avicenna, taught that, while the Active Intellect is universal and separate, the Passive Intellect is individual and inherent in the soul. Averroes holds that both the Active and the Passive Intellect are separate from the individual soul and are universal, that is, one in all men. He thinks that Alexander of Aphrodisias was wrong in reducing the Passive Intellect to a mere disposition, and that the "other Commentators" (perhaps Themistius and Theophrastus) were wrong in describing it as an individual substance endowed with a disposition; he maintains that it is, rather, a disposition in us, but belonging to an intellect outside us. The terms Passive, Possible, Material are successively used by Averroes to designate this species of intellect, which, in ultimate analysis, if we prescind from the dispositions of which he speaks, is the Active Intellect itself. In other words, the same intellect which, when in the act of actually abstracting intelligible species is called active, is called passive, possible or material so far as it is acted upon, is potential, and furnishes that out of which ideas are fabricated. Besides, Averroes speaks of the Acquired Intellect (intellectus acquisitus, adeptus), by which he means the individual mind in communication with the Active Intellect. Thus, while the Active Intellect is numerically one, there are as many acquired intellects as there are individual souls with which the Active Intellect has come in contact. (The Scholastics speak of continuatio of the universal with the individual mind, translating literally the Arabic word which here means contiguity rather than union.) The sun, for instance, while it is and remains one source of light, may be said to be multiplied and to become many sources of light, in so far as it illuminates many bodies from which its light is distributed; so it is with the universal mind and the individual minds which come in contact with it.
410 The weakness of this doctrine, as a psychological explanation of the origin of knowledge, is its failure to take account of the facts of consciousness, which, as the Scholastics were not slow to point out, indicate that not merely an individual disposition but an active individual principle enters into the action which ones expresses by the words "I think". Another weakness of the doctrine of monopsychism, or the doctrine that there is but one mind, a weakness at least in the eyes of the Scholastics, is that it leaves unanswered the question of the immortality of the individual soul.. Indeed, Averroes openly admitted his inability to hold on philosophic grounds the doctrine of individual immortality, being content to maintain it as a religious tenet. Averroes' greatest influence was as a commentator. His doctrines had a varying fortune in Christian schools. At first they secured a certain amount of adherence, then, gradually, their incompatibility with Christian teaching became apparent, and finally, owing to the revolt of the Renaissance from everything Scholastic, they secured once more a temporary hearing. His commentaries, however, had immediate and lasting success. St. Thomas Aquinas used the "Grand Commentary" of Averroes as his model, being, apparently, the first Scholastic to adopt that style of exposition; and though he refuted the errors of Averroes, and devoted special treatises to that purpose, he always spoke of the Arabian commentator as one who had, indeed, perverted the Peripatetic tradition, but whose words, nevertheless, should be treated with respect and consideration. The same may be said of Dante's references to him. It was after the time of St. Thomas and Dante that Averroes came to be represented as "the arch-enemy of the faith".
411 AVERROES' works in the Venice edition, 1497, 1527, and, in part, in MUNK'S Melanges &c. (Paris, 18569); MUNK, in Dict. des sciences philosophiques (Paris, 1844-52), art. Ibn Roschd; RENAN, Averroes et l'Averroisme (Paris, 9th ed., 1882); MANDONNET, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme latin au XIII siecle (Fribourg, 1899); EUBERWEG-HEINZE, Gesch. der Phil., (9th ed., Berlin, 1905), VI 250 sqq. (tr. I); TURNER, Hist. of Phil. (Boston, 1903), 313 sqq.; STOCKL, Gesch. der Phil. des Mittelalters, (Mainz, 1865), II.
412 William Turner
Diocese of Aversa
409 Comprising twenty-one towns in the Province of Caserta and twelve in the Province of Naples, it is under the immediate jurisdiction of the Holy See. This city is of relatively recent origin. It arose in the eleventh century on the ruins of Atella, a city of the Oscians, famous for their piquant raillery, which furnished the basis for the licentious interludes called Atellanoe. The ruins of ancient Atella, destroyed during the invasions of the barbarians, are still to be seen in the neighbourhood of Arpino. On these ruins the Norman Duke, Robert Guiscard, built a fortification which in time became a city called Aversa. The same Duke Robert, becoming a vassal of the pope and supporting him in his struggle with the emperor, obtained permission from Leo IX to have the Bishopric of Atella transferred to Aversa. The city has many fine monuments in the Norman style. It contains 54 parishes; 177 churches, chapels, and oratories; 674 secular clergy, and a population of 130,100.
410 Ernesto Buonaiuti
Avesta
412 The sacred books of Parsees, or Zoroastrians, and the main source of our knowledge concerning the religious and spiritual life the ancient Persians. This collection of writings occupies the same place in the literature of Iran (ancient Persia) that the Vedas do in India. The designation Zend-Avesta, which is often employed to denote the sacred code, is not strictly correct. It owes its origin to a mistaken inversion of the Pahlavi designation Avistak u Zand, a term which probably means "Text and Commentary"; for the word Zand (in the Avesta itself, Zainti) signifies "explanation" and even in the Avesta is applied to the exegetical matter in the text. It is similarly used by the Parsee priests to denote the Pahlavi version and commentary, but not the original scriptures. Whether the term Avistak, which is the Pahlavi form of the word Avesta, has the meaning of "text", "law", is not absolutely certain. Some scholars interpret it as "wisdom", "knowledge".
413 Little was known concerning the religion and customs of ancient Persia before the Avesta was brought to Europe in the eighteenth century. From the allusions in Greek and Roman writers, like Herodotus, Plutarch, Pliny, and others, it had long been surmised that such a body of scriptures existed. Scattered allusions in Arabic and Syriac writers strengthened this conviction. But the information to be extracted from these references was vague and meagre. The first scholar to make the language and the contents of the sacred books of the Parsees known to Europe was a young Frenchman, Anquetil du Perron, who in 1754 went to India for this very purpose. His enthusiasm and perseverance overcame the many obstacles he encountered on his journey to Hindustan and the difficuities he met during his stay in Surat. Success at last crowned his efforts, and on his return in 1771 he was able to give to the world the first translation of the Avesta. From the moment of its publication a bitter controversy arose concerning the authenticity of the work. Some scholars, like Sir William Jones, declared that it was a clumsy forgery of modern Parsee priests, and the question was disputed for half a century until the advance made in the study of Sanskrit and comparative philology decided the matter and vindicated the genuineness of the scriptures and the value of Anquetil's work, although his translation, as a first attempt, was necessarily, imperfect in many respects.
414 Content and Divisions
415 Originally, the sacred scriptures of the Parsees were of far greater extent than would appear from the Avesta in the form in which we now possess it. Only a relatively small portion of the original has in fact been preserved, and that is collected from several manuscripts,since no single codex contains all the texts now known. In its present form, therefore, the Avesta is a compilation from various sources, and its different parts date from different periods and vary widely in character. Tradition tells us that the Zoroastrian scriptures consisted originally of twenty-one nasks (books), but only one of these, the Vendidad, had been completely preserved. The loss of the sacred books is attributed by the followers of Zoroaster to the invasion of Alexander "the accursed Iskandar", as they call him, who burned the palace library at Persepolis, thus destroying one archetype copy of the text, and threw the other into the river near Samarkand, according to the statement of the Pahlavi records (Dinkard, bk. III, West, "Sacred Books of the East", XXXVII, pp. xxx, xxxi, and Shatroiha-i Airan, 2-5). For wellnigh five hundred years after the Macedonian invasion the Parsee scriptures remained in a scattered condition, much being preserved only by memory, until the great Zoroastrian under the Sassanian dynasty (A. D. 226-651), when the texts were again collected, codified, translated into Pahlavi, and interpreted. A beginning in this direction had already been made under the last of the Parthian kings, but the great final redaction took place in Sassanian times, under Shahpuhar II (309-379). Our present Avesta is essentially the work of this redaction, although important sections of the text have been lost since then, especially after the Arabs conquered Persia. This conquest ( 637-651) was fatal to the Iranian religion, and caused Zoroastrianism to be supplanted by Mohammedanism and the Avesta by the Koran. As already mentioned, great portions of the scriptures have since disappeared entirely; out of the original twenty-one nasks, the nineteenth alone (the Verdidad) has survived. Portions of other nasks are preserved, interspersed here and there among the Yasna and Vispered, or have come down to us as flattered fragments in Pahlavi works, or have been rendered into Pahlavi, like the Bundahishn (Book of Creation) and the Shayast-la-Shayast (Treatise on the Lawful and Unlawful). In this way we are able to make good some of our losses of the old scriptures enough has been said, however, to explain the lack of coherence noticeable in certain parts of the Avestan code.
416 The Avesta, as we now have it, is usually divided into five sections, relating to the ritual, hymns of praise, the liturgy, and the law. These sections:
417 the Yasna, including the Gathas, or hymns;
418 Vispered;
419 Yashts;
420 minor texts, such as the Nyaishes (favourite prayers in daily use among the Parsees), and
421 Vendidad.
422 Besides this there are some independent fragments preserved in Pahlavi books (Hadhokt Nask, etc). The main divisions, when taken together, again fall into two groups, the one liturgical comprising Vendidad, Vispered and Yasna, or the Avesta proper, the other general, called Khorda Avesta (Abridged Avesta) and comprising the minor texts and the Yashts. A brief characterization of the five divisions will now be given. (1) The Yasna (Skt. yajna), "sacrifice", "worship", the chief liturgical portions of the sacred canon. It consists principally of prayers and hymns used in the ritual, and is divided into seventy-two ha or haiti (chapters), symbolized by the seventy-two strands of the kushti, or sacred girdle with which the young Zoroastrian is invested on his being received into the Church. The middle third of the Yasna (Ys., 28-53), however, is not directly connected with the ritual, but contains the Gathas, the holy psalms, songs which preserved the metrical sayings of Zoroaster himself as used in his sermons. This is the oldest portion of the Avesta and descends directly from the prophet and his disciples. These canticles are metrical in their structure and are composed in the so-called Gatha-dialect, a more archaic form of language than is used in the rest of the Avesta. There are seventeen of the hymns, grouped in five divisions, each group taking its name from the opening words; thus Ahunavaiti, Ushtavaiti, etc. Inserted in the midst of the Gathas is the Yasna Haptanghaiti (the Seven-chapter Yasna) consisting of prayers and hymns in honour of the Supreme Deity, Ahura Mazda, the Angels, Fire, Water, and Earth. This selection also shows a more archaic type of language, and stands next to the Gathas in point of antiquity. Its structure though handed down in prose, may once have been metrical.
423 (2) The Vispered (vispe ratavo, "all the lords") is really a short liturgy, very similar in style and form to the Yasna, which it supplements in a briefer form. It owes its name to the fact that it contains invocations to "all the lords".
424 (3) The Yashts (yeshti, "worship by praise"), of which there are twenty-one, are hymns in honour of various divinities. These hymns are for the most part metrical in structure, and they show considerable poetic merit in certain instances, which is not common in Avesta. They are of especial interest historically on account of the glimpses they afford us of the great mythological and legendary material in the folklore of ancient Iran used so effectively by Firdausi in his great epic of the Persian kings, the "Shah Namah". Among the divinities to whom special yashts are devoted we find Ardvi Sura the goddess of waters; Tishtrya, the star Sirius; Mithra, the divinity of light and truth; the Fravashis, or departed souls of the righteous, Verethragna, the genius of Victory and the Kavaya Hvarenah, "kingly glory", the divine light illuminating the ancient kings of Iran.
425 (4) The fourth division (minor texts) comprises brief prayers, like the five Nyaishes (to the Sun, Moon, Mithra, Water, and Fire), the Gahs, Siruzas and Afringans (blessings). These selections form a manual of daily devotion.
426 (5) The fifth division, Vendidad (from vi daeva data, "law against the demons"), is the religious law code of Zoroastrianism and comprises twenty-two fargards (chapters). It begins with an account of Creation in which Ormuzd, the god, is thwarted by Ahriman, the devil; then it describes the occurrence of a destructive winter, a sort of Iranian deluge. The remainder of the book is largely devoted to elaborate prescriptions with regard to ceremonial purification, especially the cleansing from defilement incurred by contact with the dead, and to a list of special penances imposed as a means of atoning for impurity. The Vendidad is an ecclesiastical code, not a liturgical manual. Its different parts vary widely in character and in age. Some parts may be comparatively recent in origins although the greater part is very old.
427 The Avesta does not represent the whole of the sacred scriptures of the Parsees. It is supplemented by an extensive Pahlavi literature, consisting in part of translations from the sacred canon and in part of original matter. The most notable Pahlavi works belonging here are the Dinkard (Acts of Religion), dating from the ninth century of the Christian Era; Bundahishn, "Original Creation", finished in the eleventh or twelfth century of the Christian Era, but containing material as old as the Avesta itself, being in part a version of one of the original nasks; the Mainog-i-Khirad (Spirit of Wisdom), a religious conference on questions of faith, and the Arda Viraf Namak, a sort of Zoroastrian "Divina Commedia", which is especially important because of its account of the Persian ideas concerning the future life. There is also some later Zoroastrian literature in modern Persian, comprising works like the Zartushtnamah (Book of Zoroaster), the Sad-dar (Hundred Doors, or Chapters), the Rivayats (traditional treatises).
428 Language
429 The language of the Avesta is best designated simply as Avestan, not as Zend, for the reasons given in the beginning of this article. Nor is Old Bactrian a desirable term, since it is by no means proved that the language of the Avesta was spoken in ancient Bactria. The Avestan language is an Indo-Germanic tongue and belongs more specifically to the Iranian group, the other members being the Old Persian of the cuneiform inscriptions, the Pahlavi, and Pazend (or Middle Iranian), and the later dialects, New Persian, Kurdish, Afghan, etc. The Avestan speech is very closely related to Sanskrit; in fact, we are able to transpose any word from one language into the other by the application of special phonetic laws. The script employed in the Avestan texts, as five have them, is not so old as the language itself, but dates from the Sassanian period. It is read from right to left and can be traced ultimately to a Semitic sources. It is not known in what script the original Avesta was recorded.
430 Zoroaster
431 It can no longer be doubted that Zoroaster was a real historical personage. The attempts of some scholars to represent him as a mythical being have failed, even though much that is related about his life is legendary, as in the case of Buddha. The man Zoroaster in the original texts appears as Zarathushtra, from which Zoroaster, our present form of the prophet's name, is derived through the Greek and Latin. The Avesta always writes Zarathushtra; the Pahlavi has Zartusht; the modern Persian, Zardusht. What the meaning of the name is, cannot be stated positively. All that we know is that the name is a compound, and that the second element, ushtra, means "camel", the first part has been variously rendered as "old", "lively", "golden", "ploughing", etc. There has been much discussion as to the date when the prophet lived. The traditional date in the Pahlavi books places his era between the earlier half of the seventh and the sixth century B. C., or, more specially, 660-583 B. C.; but many scholars assign him to a century, or even several centuries, earlier. There is much uncertainty regarding his birthplace and the details of his life. He was undoubtly born in Western Iran. From Western Iran, more specifically Azerbaijan (the ancient Atropatene) he seems to have gone Ragha (Rai) in Media, and even his mission did not meet with success in that region he turned to the East, to Bactria. There a certain king named named Vishtaspa became converted to his creed, the generous patronage of this powerful defender of the faith the new religion soon gained a firm footing. Presumably the faith was carried from Bactria to Media, whence it spread into Persia and was accepted in all probability by the great Achaemenian kings. In the case of Cyrus there is some doubt whether he was adherent of Zoroastrian law, but Darius was a pronounced Mazda-worshipper and presumably, therefore, a true Zoroastrian, as we know that the last kings of the Achaemenian dynasty were genuine followers of the religion. If tradition can be believed, Zoroaster began his ministry at the age of thirty, made a convert, when he was forty-two, of King Vishtaspa, and was slain at the age of seventy-seven, when the Turanians stormed Balkh. This account of the prophet's death is given, at least, by Firdausi.
432 Under the kings of the Achaemenian line the religion founded by Zoroaster became one of the great religions of the ancient East. But it shared the fate of the Persian monarchy, it was shattered, though not overthrown, by the conquest of Alexander and fell consequently into neglect under the Seleucid and Parthian dynasties. With the accession of the Sassanian dynasty it met with a great revival. The kings ot the house of Sassan were zealous believers and did everything in their power to spread the faith as a national creed, so that its prosperity rose again to the zenith. Sectarian movements, to be sure, were not lacking. The heresy of Mazdak for a moment imperilled the union of the Zoroastrian Church and State, and Manichaeism, that menace of early Christian orthodoxy, also threatened the ascendancy of the Iranian national faith, which was really its parent. These dangers, however, were only temporary and of minor importance as compared with the Arab conquest, which followed in the seventh century (651) and dealt the fatal blow from which Zoroastrianism never recovered. The victorious followers of Mohammed carried on their proselytizing campaign with relentless vigour. The few Zoroastrians who stood firmly by their faith were oppressed and persecuted. Some remained, and were scattered throughout their native land; but the majority took refuge in India, where their descendants, the Parsees, are found even at the present day. About 10,000 are here and there throughout Persia, chiefly at Yazd and Kirman, but the bulk of the Zoroastrians, upwards of 90,000 souls, constitute a prosperous community in India, chiefly at Bombay.
433 A.F.J. Remy
Theological Aspects of Avesta
415 I. God
416 The name of the Supreme God of the Avestic system is Ahura Mazda (in the Achaemenid royal inscriptions, Auramazda), which probably signifies the All-Wise Lord. This divine name was later modified into the Pahlavi form Auharmazd, the modern Persian Ormuzd (Greek Oromazes). Hence the name of Mazdeism commonly applied to Avestic religion.
417 Ahura Mazda is a pure spirit; His chief attributes are eternity, wisdom, truth, goodness, majesty, power. He is the Creator (datar) of the all good creatures - not, however, of Evil, or evil beings. He is the supreme Lawgiver, the Rewarder of moral good, and the Punisher of moral evil. He dwells in Eternal Light; in the later literature light is spoken of as the clothing of Ahura Mazda or even His "body", i.e. a kind of manifestation of His presence, like the Old Testament Shekinah. In this same patristic (Pahlavi) literature we find frequent enumerations of the attributes of Ahura Mazda; thus these are said to be "omniscience, omnipotence, all-sovereignty, all-goodness". Again He is styled "Supreme Sovereign, Wise Creator, Supporter, Protector, Giver of good things, Virtuous in act, Merciful, Pure Lawgiver, Lord of the good Creations".
418 II. Dualism
419 It has been remarked above that Ahura Mazda is the Creator of all good creatures. This at once indicates the specific and characteristic feature of the Avestic theology generally known as "dualism". The great problem of the origin of evil which has ever been the main stumbling-block of religious systems, was solved in the Zoroastrian Reform by the trenchant, if illogical, device of two separate creators and creations: one good, the other evil. Opposed to Ahura Mazda, or Ormuzd, is His rival, Anro Mainyus (later, Aharman, Ahriman), the Evil Spirit. He is conceived as existing quite independently of Ahura Mazda, apparently from eternity, but destined to destruction at the end of time. Evil by nature and in every detail the exact opposite of Ahura Mazda, he is the creator of all evil, both moral and physical. Zoroaster in the Gathas says (Ys., xlv, 2, Jackon's translation):
420 > Now shall I preach of the World's two primal Spirits,
421 > The Holier one of which did thus address the Evil:
422 > Neither do our minds, our teachings, nor our concepts,
423 > Nor our beliefs, nor words, nor do our deeds in sooth,
424 > Nor yet our consciences, nor souls agree in aught.
425 It is here to be remarked that the specific name of Ahura Mazda in opposition to the Evil Spirit is Spento Mainyus, the Holy Spirit, and Ahura Mazda and Spento Mainyus are used as synonyms throughout the Avesta. The obviously illogical doctrine of two separate and supreme creators eventually led to certain philosophical attempts to reduce the double system to uniformity. One of these consisted in throwing back the Divine unity to an anterior stage in which Zrvana Akarana, "illimitable time", becomes the single, indifferent, primordial source from which both spirits proceed. Another solution was sought in attributing two spirits (faculties or functions) to Ahura Mazda himself, his Spento Mainyus and his Anro Mainyus, or his creative and destructive spirit — an idea probably borrowed from lndian philosophy. This seems the favourite doctrine of the modern Parsees of Bombay, as may be seen in Mr. Navroji Maneckji Kanga's article in the "Babylonian and Oriental Record" for May, 1900 (VIII, 224-28), and it is claimed to be strictly founded on teaching of the Gathas; but although such a development of thought a real monotheism with the Zoroastrian dualism, these theories cannot really be called Avestic at all, except in so far as Zrvana Akarana is an Avestic term. They are "patristic" or "scholastic".
426 The result of the dualistic conception of the universe is that of a continuous warfare that has been going on even from the beginning between two hostile worlds or camps. All creatures belong to one or another of the camps, not only sentient and intelligent beings, like the spirit and man, but also the animal and the vegetable worlds. All dangerous, noxious, poisonous animals and plants are evil by their very creation and nature. [We see here the primal germ of Manichæism. Mani was a heretic of the Mazdean faith (A.D. 258). This "heresy" is often reprobated in the Pahlavi religious books, together with Judaism and Christianity.] Hence - in sharp contrast to the Hindi ahimsa, a characteristic tenet of Buddhism, which prohibits the killing of any creature, even the smallest and the most noxious insect - to kill as many as possible of the Khrafstras, or noxious creatures of the Evil Spirit (such as wolves, serpents, snakes, locusts, intestinal worms, ants), is one of the most meritorious of religious actions. This great warfare, both spiritual and material, will go on to the end of time. It is to end in a final triumph of the Good and the annihilation (apparently) of Evil, including Anro Mainyus himself. Such at least is the teaching in the later "patristic" literature.
427 III. Angelology
428 Dualism in its widest sense seems to be an inherent and ineradicable tendency of the Iranian mind. Almost everything is conceived in pairs or doubles. Hence the constant reference to the "Two Worlds", the spiritual and the material. The doctrine of the Spirit World, whether belonging to the good or the evil creation, is highly developed in the Avesta and subsequent literature. Around Ahura Mazda is a whole hierarchy of spirits, corresponding very closely with our "angels". There is, however, this to be noted, that in the Zoroastrian system many of these creature-spirits are demonstrably old Aryan nature deities who have been skilfully transformed into angels, and so fitted into a monotheistic framework, frequently enough, in hymns and other passages, by the simple interpolation of the epithet Mazdadata (created by Mazda), before their names. Of the good spirits who surround Ahura, the most important are the Amesha Spentas ("Holy Immortals" or "Immortal Saints") generally reckoned as six (though Ahura Mazda himself is frequently included among them, and they are then called seven). These are the characteristic genii of the Gathas and their very names show that they are merely personified attributes of the Creator Himself. They are: Vohu Manah (Good Mind), Asha Vahishta (Best Holiness), Khshathra Vairya (Desirable Sovereignty), Spenta Armaiti (Holy Piety, a female spirit), Haurvatat (Health), and Ameretat (Immortality). In the Younger Avesta and later traditional literature these evident personifications, whose very names are but abstract nouns, become more and more concrete personages or genii, with varying functions, most of all Vohu Manah (Vohuman) rises to a position of unique importance. Dr. L.H. Gray, however, argues, in a very striking article, that even these are evolutions of original naturalistic deities [Archiv für religions wissenschaft (Leipzig, 1904), VII, 345-372]. In later patristic literature Vohu Manah is conceived as the "Son of the Creator" and identified with the Alexandrine Logos. (See Casartelli, Philosophy of the Mazdayasnian Religion, 42-90.) Asha, also (the equivalent of the Sanskrit Rta=Dharma), is the Divine Law, Right, Sanctity (cf. Ps. cxviii), and occupies a most conspicuous position throughout the Avesta.
429 But besides the Amesha Spentas, there are a few other archangels whose rank is scarcely less, if it does not sometimes exceed theirs. Such is Sraosha ("Obedience" - i.e. to the divine Law). With him are associated, in a trio, Rashnu (Right, Justice) and Mithra. This last is perhaps the most characteristic, as he is the most enigmatical, figure of the Iranian angelology. Undoubtedly in origin (like the Vedic Mitra) a Sun-deity of the primitive Aryan nature-worship, he has been taken over into the Avesta system as the Spirit of Light and Truth - the favourite and typical virtue of the Iranian race, as testified even by the Greek historians. So important is his position that he is constantly linked with Ahura Mazda himself, apparently almost as an equal, in a manner recalling some of the divine couples of the Vedas. It is well known how in later times the Mithra cult became a regular religion and spread from Persia all over the Roman Empire, even into Britain. [See, especially, Cumont's great work, Monuments relatifs au culte de Mithra" (Paris, l893).] Nor must mention be omitted of Atars, the Genius of Fire, on account of the particular importance and sanctity attached to fire as a symbol of the divinity and its conspicuous use in the cult (which has given rise to the entirely erroneous conception of Zoroastrianism as "Fire-worship", and of the Parsees as "Fire-worshippers"). Water, Sun, Moon, Stars, the sacred Haoma plant (Skt. Soma), and other natural elements all have their special spirits. But particular mention must be made of the enigmatical Farvashis, the origin and nature of whom is still uncertain. Some writers [especially Soderblom, "Les Fravashis" (Paris, 1899); "La vie future" (Paris, 1901)] have seen in them the spirits of the departed, like the dii manes, or the Hindu pitris. But, as a matter of fact, their primal conception seems to approach nearest to the pre-existent Ideai of Plato. Every living creature has its own Fravashi, existing before its creation; nay in some places inanimate beings, and, stranger still, Ahura Mazda Himself, have their Fravashis. They play an important role in both the psychology and the ritual cult of Mazdeism.
430 Face to face with the hierarchy of celestial spirits is a diabolical one, that of the daevas (demons, Pahlavi and Mod. Persian div or dev) and druj's of the Evil Spirit. They fill exactly the places of the devils in Christian and Jewish theology. Chief of them is Aka Manah (Pahlavi Akoman, "Evil Mind"), the direct opponent of Vohu Manah. Perhaps the most frequently mentioned of all is Aeshma, the Demon of Wrath or Violence, whose name has come down to us in the Asmodeus (Aeshmo daeva) of the Book of Tobias (iii, 8). The Pairikas are female spirits of seductive but malignant nature, who are familiar to us finder the form of the Peris of later Persian poetry and Iegend.
431 IV. Man
432 In the midst of the secular warfare that has gone on from the beginning between the two hosts of Good and Evil stands Man. Man is the creature of the Good Spirit, but endowed with a free will and power of choice, able to place himself on the side of Ahura Mazda or on that of Anro Mainyus. The former has given him, through His prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster) His Divine revelation and law is (daena). According as man obeys or disobeys this Divine law his future lot will be decided; by it he will be judged at his death. The whole ethical system is built upon this great principle, as in the Christian theology. Moral good, righteousness, sanctity (asha) is according to the Divine will and decrees; Man by his free will conforms to, or transgresses, these. The Evil Spirit and his innumerable hosts tempt Man to deny or transgress the Divine law, as he tempted Zoroaster himself, promising him as reward the sovereignty of the whole world. - "No!" replied the Prophet, "I will not renounce it, even if body and soul and life should be severed!" (Vendidad, xix, 25, 26). It is well to emphasize this basis of Avestic moral theology, because it at once marks off the Avesta system from the fatalistic systems of India with their karma and innate pessimism. [See Casartelli, "Idée du péché chez les Indo-Eraniens" (Fribourg, 1898.)]. A characteristic note of Iranian religious philosophy is its essential optimism; if there is human sin, there is also repentance and expiation. In the later Pahlavi religious literature there is a proper confession of sin (patet) and a developed casuistry. Asceticism, however, finds no place therein.
433 Divine worship, with elaborate ritual, is an essential duty of man towards his Creator. There is indeed no animal sacrifice; the leading rites are the offering of the quasi-divine haoma (the fermented juice of the a sacred plant, a species of Asclepias), the exact counterpart of the Vedic soma-sacrifice; the care of the Sacred Fire, the chanting of the ritual hymns and prayers, and passages of the Sacred Books (Avesta).
434 The moral teaching is closely akin to our own. Stress is constantly laid on the necessity of goodness in thought, word, and deed (humata, hakhta, hvarshta) as opposed to evil thought, word, and deed (dushmata, duzhukhta, duzhvarshta). Note the emphatic recognition of sin in thought. Virtues and vices are enumerated and estimated much as in Christian ethics. Special value is attributed to the virtues of religion, truthfulness, purity and generosity to the poor. Heresy, untruthfulness, perjury, sexual sins, violence, tyranny are specially reprobated. Zoroaster's reform being social as well as religious agriculture and farming are raised to the rank of religious duties and regarded as spiritually meritorious. The same will account for the exaggerated importance, almost sanctity, attached to the dog. On the other hand, the one repulsive feature of Avestic morality is the glorification, as a religious meritorious act, of the Khvaetva-datha, which is nothing else than intermarriage between the nearest of kin, even brothers and sisters. In later times this practice was entirely repudiated by the modern Parsees.
435 V. Eschatology
436 After death the disembodied soul hovers around the corpse for three days. Then it sets off across the Cinvat bridge to meet its judgment and final doom in the world beyond the grave. The three judges of souls are Mithra, Sraosha, and Rashnu. The soul of the just passes safely over the bridge into a happy eternity, into heaven (Auhu vahishta, Garo nmana), the abode of Ahura and His blessed angels. The wicked soul falls from the fatal bridge and is precipitated into hell (Duzh auhu). Of this abode of misery a lively description occurs in the later Pahlavi "Vision of Arda Viraf", whose visit to the Inferno, with the realistic description of its torments, vividly recalls that of Dante. The state called Hamestakan, or Middle State, does not appear in Avesta itself, but is a development of the later patristic theology. It is not, however, conceived, exactly as our Purgatory, but rather as an indifferent state for those whose good and evil deeds are found at death to be in perfect equilibrium. They are therfore neither in suffering nor in happiness. At the end of time, the approach of which is described in the Pahlavi literature in terms strikingly like those of our Apocalypse, will come to the last Prophet, Saosyant (Saviour) under whom all occur the Ressurection of the Dead (Frashokereti), the General Judgment the apokatastasis or renewal of the whole world by the great conflagration of the earth and consequent flood of burning matter. According to the Pahlavi sources, this terrible flood will purify all creatures; even the wicked will be cleansed and added to the "new heavens and the new earth". Meanwhile a mighty combat takes place between Saoshyant and his followers and the demon hosts of the Evil Spirit, who are utterly routed and destroyed forever. (See Yasht, xix and xiii)
437 VI. Mazdeism and the Persian Kings
438 It is frequently asserted or assumed that the Avesta religion as above sketched was the religion of Darius and the other Achaemenid Kings of Persia (549-336 B.C.) From the cuneiform inscriptions of these sovereigns (in the Old Persian language, a sister dialect of the Avestic Zend) we know pretty well what their religion was. They proclaim themselves Mazdeans (Auramazdiya, Darius, Behistun Column, IV, 56); their Supreme God is Auramazda, greatest of gods (Mathishta baganam). He is Creator of all things - heaven, earth, and man - all things happen by His will (vashna); He sees and knows all things, man must obey His precepts (framana), and follow the "good way" (pathim rastam); man must invoke and praise Him; He hates sin, especially falsehood which is denounced as the chief ot sins, also insubordination and despotism. Inferior spirits are associated with Him, "clan gods" and particularly Mithra and Anahita. Yet, with all these close similarities, we must hesitate to consider the two religious systems are identical. For in this Achaemenid inscriptions there is absolutely no trace of the dualism which is the characteristic and all-prevailing feature of the Avesta, and no allusion whatever to the great prophet Zoroaster, or the revelation of which he was the mouthpiece. The exact relation between the two systems remains enigmatical.
439 Summary
440 "The highest religious result to which human reason unaided by revelation, can attain" is the deliberate verdict of a learned Jesuit theologian (Father Ernest Hull, S.J., in "Bombay Examiner" 28 March, 1903). This estimate does not appear exaggerated. The Avesta system may be best defined as monotheism modified by a physical and moral dualism, with an ethical system based on a Divinely revealed moral code and human free will. As it is now followed by the living descendents of its first votaries, the Parsees of India, it is virtually the same as it appears in the Avesta itself, except that its monotheism is more rigid and determined, and that it has shed such objectionable practices as Khvetuk-das (Khvaetva-datha) and seeks to explain them away. A great revival in the knowledge of the old sacred languages (Zend and Pahlavi) which had become almost forgotten, has taken place during the past half-century under the stimulus of European scholarship, whose results have been widely adopted and assimilated. The religious cult is scrupulously maintained as of old. The ancient traditional and characteristically national virtues of truth and open-handed generosity flourish exceedingly in the small, but highly intelligent, community.
441 L.C. Casartelli
Avicebron
418 Avicebron, Salomo be Jehuda ben Gebirol (or Gabirol), whom the Scholastics, taking him for an Arabian, called Avicebrol (this form occurs in the oldest MSS.; the later MSS. have Avencebron, Avicembron, Avicebron, etc.); a Jewish religious poet, moralist, and philosopher, b. at Malaga in 1020 or 1021; d. at Saragossa, 1070. He was educated at Saragossa, where he spent the remainder of his life, devoting himself to moral and intellectual philosophy, and writing religious poetry. His principal philosophical work, written in Arabic, was translated into Hebrew in the thirteenth century by Falaquera, and entitled "Mekor Chaim" [this was discovered and edited with French translation by Munk, "Melanges" etc., (Paris, 1857)], and into Latin in the twelfth century by Johannes Hispanus and Dominicus Gundissalinus (edited by Baumker, Munster, 1895) under the title "Fons Vit". His poems were published by Munk ("Melanges", etc., Paris, 1857), and a Hebrew translation of his ethical writings (Riva, 1562, and Luneville, 1840). Avicebron's philosophy united the traditional neo-Platonic doctrines with the religious teaching of the Old Testament. From the neo-Platonists, whom he knew chiefly through such apocryphal writings as the "Theologia Aristotelis" and the "Liber de Causis" (see Arabian School of Philosophy), he derived the doctrine of emanation, namely: that there emanated from God, in the first place, the Universal Intelligence, that from the Universal Intelligence there emanated the World-Soul, and that from the World-Soul there emanated Nature, which is the immediate principle of productivity of material things. From the same neo-Platonic sources he derived the doctrine that matter is of itself wholly inert and merely the occasion which is made use of by the Infinite Agent to produce natural effects (Occasionalism). On the other hand, he drew from Biblical sources the doctrine that the Supreme Principle in the production of the Universe was not the Thought of God, but the Divine Will, which, in Scriptural phrase, he calls the Word of God. In thus attempting to combine Jewish religious doctrine with neo-Platonism, the doctrine of creation with the notion of emanation, he introduced into his philosophy elements which are logically incompatible.
419 His most celebrated doctrine, however, the one by which he was best known to the Christian philosophers of the Middle Ages, was that of the universality of matter. All created things, he taught, are composed of matter and form. God alone is pure actuality. Everything else, even the highest among the angels, is made up of matter (not merely potency, but matter like that of terrestrial bodies) and form, just as man is composed of body and soul. The matter, however, of angelic bodies, while it is like terrestrial matter, is of a purer kind and is called spiritual matter. In other words, there are no created "separate substances", as the Schoolmen called them. Between the pure spirituality of God and the crude materiality of terrestrial bodies there mediate substances composed of matter and form, which range in ascending scale of spiritual-materiality from the soul of man to the highest angelic nature. This doctrine is mentioned by almost all the great scholastics, and referred by them to the "Fons Vitae" for instance, by Albert the Great (Summa Totius Theol., I, q. xlii, art. 22), by St. Thomas (Qust. Disp., De Anima, art. 6; Opusculum De Subst. Separatis, passim), and Duns Scotus (De Her. Princip. VIII, 4). But, while the first two, in common with the other Dominican teachers, refuted the author of "Fons Vit" on this point, the last mentioned, together with Alexander of Hales and others of the Franciscan School, adopted his doctrine as part of their theory of the angelic nature.
420 William Turner
Avicenna
421 (ABN ALI AL HOSAIN IBN ABDALLAH IBN SINA, called by the Latins AVICENNA).
422 Arabian physician and philosopher, born at Kharmaithen, in the province of Bokhara, 980; died at Hamadan, in Northern Persia, 1037. [Note: Avicenna was actually Persian, not Arabian.]
423 From the autobiographical sketch which has come down to us we learn that he was a very precocious youth; at the age of ten he knew the Koran by heart; before he was sixteen he had mastered what was to be learned of physics, mathematics, logic, and metaphysics; at the age of sixteen he began the study and practice of medicine; and before he had completed his twenty-first year he wrote his famous "Canon" of medical science, which for several centuries, after his time, remained the principal authority in medical schools both in Europe and in Asia. He served successively several Persian potentates as physician and adviser, travelling with them from place to place, and despite the habits of conviviality for which he was well known, devoted much time to literary labours, as is testified by the hundred volumes which he wrote. Our authority for the foregoing facts is the "Life of Avicenna,", based on his autobiography, written by his disciple Jorjani (Sorsanus), and published in the early Latin editions of his works.
424 Besides the medical "Canon," he wrote voluminous commentaries on Arisotle's works and two great encyclopedias entitled "Al Schefa", or "Al Chifa" (i.e. healing) and "Al Nadja" (i.e. deliverance). The "Canon" and portions of the encyclopedias were translated into Latin as early as the twelfth century, by Gerard of Cremona, Dominicus Gundissalinus, and John Avendeath; they were published at Venice, 1493-95. The complete Arabic texts are said to be are said to be in the manuscript in the Bodleian Library. An Arabic text of the "Canon" and the "Nadja" was published in Rome, 1593.
425 Avicenna's philosophy, like that of his predecessors among the Arabians, is Aristoteleanism mingled with neo-Platonism, an exposition of Aristotle's teaching in the light of the Commentaries of Thomistius, Simplicius, and other neo-Platonists.
426 His Logic is divided into nine parts, of which the first is an introduction after the manner of Porphyry's "Isagoge"; then follow the six parts corresponding to the six treatises composing the "Organon"; the eighth and ninth parts consists respectively of treatises on rhetoric and poetry. Avicenna devoted special attention to definition, the logic of representation, as he styles it, and also to the classification of sciences. Philosophy, he says, which is the general name for scientific knowledge, includes speculative and practical philosophy. Speculative philosophy is divided into the inferior science (physics), and middle science (mathematics), and the superior science (metaphysics including theology). Practical philosophy is divided into ethics (which considers man as an individual); economics (which considers man as a member of domestic society); and politics (which considers man as a member of civil society). These divisions are important on account of their influence on the arrangement of sciences in the schools where the philosophy of Avicenna preceded the introduction of Aristotle's works.
427 A favourite principle of Avicenna, which is quoted not only by Averroes but also by the Schoolmen, and especially by St. Albert the Great, was intellectus in formis agit universalitatem, that is, the universality of our ideas is the result of the activity of the mind itself. The principle, however, is to be understood in the realistic, not in the nominalistic sense. Avicenna's meaning is that, while there are differences and resemblances among things independently of the mind, the formal constitution of things in the category of individuality, generic universality, specific universality, and so forth, is the work of the mind. Avicenna's physical doctrines show him in the light of a faithful follower of Aristotle, who has nothing of his own to add to the teaching of his master. Similarly, in psychology, he reproduces Aristotle's doctrines, borrowing occasionally an explanation, or an illustration, from Alfarabi. On one point, however, he is at pains to set the true meaning, as he understands it, of Aristotle, above all the exposition and elaboration of the Commentators. That point is the question of the Active and Passive Intellect. (See ARABIAN SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY). He teaches that the latter is the individual mind in the state of potency with regard to knowledge, and that the former is the impersonal mind in the state of actual and perennial thought. In order that the mind acquire ideas, the Passive Intellect must come into contact with the Active Intellect. Avicenna, however, insists most emphatically that a contact of that kind does not interfere with the independent substantiality of the Passive Intellect, and does not imply that it is merged with the Active Intellect. He explicitly maintains that the individual mind retains its individuality and that, because it is spiritual and immaterial, it is endowed with personal immortality. At the same time, he is enough of a mystic to maintain that certain choice souls are capable of arriving at a very special kind of union with the Universal, Active, Intellect, and of attaining thereby the gift of prophecy.
428 Metaphysics he defines as the science of supernatural (ultra-physical) being and of God. It is, as Aristotle says, the theological science. It treats of the existence of God, which is proved from the necessity of a First Cause; it treats of the Providence of God, which, as all the Arabians taught, is restricted to the universal laws of nature, the Divine Agency being too exalted to deal with singular and contingent events; it treats of the hierarchy of mediators between God and material things, all of which emanated from God, the Source of all sources, the Principle of all principles. The first emanation from God is the world of ideas. This is made up of pure forms, free from change, composition, or imperfection; it is akin to the Intelligible world of Plato, and is, in fact, a Platonic concept. Next to the world of ideas is the world of souls, made up of forms which are, indeed, intelligible, but not entirely separated from matter. It is these souls that animate and energize the heavenly spheres. Next to the world of souls is the world of physical forces, which are more or less completely embedded in terrestrial matter and obey its laws; they are, however, to some extent amenable to the power of intelligence in so far as they may be influenced by magic art. Lastly comes the world of corporeal matter; this, according to the neo-Platonic conception which dominates Avicenna's thought in this theory of emanation, is of itself wholly inert, not capable of acting but merely of being acted upon (Occasionalism). In this hierarchical arrangement of beings, the Active Intellect, which, as was pointed out above, plays a necessary role in the genesis of human knowledge, belongs to the world of Ideas, and is of the same nature as the spirits which animate the heavenly spheres. From all this it is apparent that Avicenna is no exception to the general description of the Arabian Aristoteleans as neo-Platonic interpreters of Aristotle.
429 There remain two other doctrines of general metaphysical nature which exhibit him in the character of an original, or rather an Arabian, and not a neo-Platonic interpreter. The first is his division of being into three classes: (a) what is merely possible, including all sublunary things; (b) what is itself merely possible but endowed by the First Cause with necessity; such are the ideas that rule the heavenly spheres; (c) what is of its own nature necessary, namely, the First Cause. This classification is mentioned and refuted by Averroes. The second doctrine, to which also Averroes alludes, is a fairly outspoken system of pantheism which Avicenna is said to have elaborated in a work, now lost, entitled "Philosophia Orientalis". The Scholastics, apparently, know nothing of the special work on pantheism; they were, however, aware of the pantheistic tendencies of Avicenna's other works on philosophy, and were, accordingly, reluctant to trust in his exposition of Aristotle.
430 Avicenna Peripatetici...Opera (Venice, 1495); MUNK in Dict. des sciences phil. (Paris,1844-52), art. Ibn-Sina; CARRA DE VAUX, Avicenne (Paris, 1900); UEBERWEG-HEINZE, Gesch. der Phil., 9th ed. (Berlin, 1905), II,247, 248; tr. MORRIS (New York, 1890), 412, 413; STOCKL, Lehrb. der Gesch. der Phil. (Mainz, 1888), I, 329 sqq., tr. FINLAY (Dublin, 1903) 293 sqq.; TURNER, Hist. of Phil. (Boston, 1903), 312, 313.
431 William Turner
Avignon
424 Avignon, written in the form of Avennio in the ancient texts and inscriptions, takes its name from the House, or Clan, Avennius [d'Arbois de Jubainville, "Recherches sur l'origine de la propriété foncière et des noms des lieux habités en France" (Paris,1890), 518]. Founded by the Cavari, who were of Celtic origin, it became the centre of an important Phocaean colony from Marseilles. Under the Roman occupation, it was one of the most flourishing cities of Gallia Narbonensis; later, and during the inroads of the barbarians, it belonged in turn to the Goths, the Burgundians, the Ostrogoths, and to the Frankish kings of Austrasia. In 736 it fell into the hands of the Saracens, who were driven out by Charles Martel. Boso having been proclaimed King of Provence, or of Arles, by the Synod of Mantaille, at the death of Louis the Stamerer (879), Avignon ceased to belong to the Frankish kings. In 1033, when Conrad II fell heir to the Kingdom of Arles, Avignon passed to the empire. The German rulers, however, being at a distance, Avignon took advantage of their absenceto set up as a republic with a consular form of government, between 1135 and 1146. In addition to the emperor, the Counts of Forcalquier, Toulouse and Provence exercised a purely nominal sway over the city; on two occasions, in 1125, and in 1251, the two latter divided their rights in regard to it, while the Count of Forcalquier resigned anythat he possessed to the bishops and consuls in 1135. During the crusade against the Albigenses the citizens refused to open the gates of Avignon to Louis VIII and the legate, but capitulated after a three months' siege (10 June - 13 September, 1226) and were forced to pull down the ramparts and fill up the moat of their city. Philip the Fair, who had inherited from his father all the rights of Alphonse de Poitiers, last Count of Toulouse, made them over to Charles II, King of Naples and Count of Provence (1290); it was on the strength of this donation that Queen Joan sold the city to Clement VI for 80,000 florins (9 June, 1348).
425 Avignon, which at the beginning of the fourteenth century was a town of no great importance, underwent a wonderful development during the residence there of nine popes, Clement V to Benedict XIII, inclusively. To the north and south of the rock of the Doms, partly on the site of the Bishop's Palace, which had been enlarged by John XXII, rose the Palace of the Popes, in the form of an imposing fortress made up of towers, linked one to another, and named as follows: De la Campane, de Trouillas, de la Glacière, de Saint-Jean, des Saints-Anges (Benedict XII), de la Gâche, de la Garde-Robe (Clement VI), de Saint-Laurent (Innocent VI). The Palace of the Popes belongs, by its severe architecture, to the Gothic art of the South of France; other noble examples areto be seen in the churches of St. Didier, St. Peter, and St. Agricola, in the Clock Tower, and in the fortifications built between 1349 and 1368 for a distance of some three miles, and flanked by thirty-nine towers, all of which were erected or restored by popes, cardinals, and great dignitaries of the court. On the other hand, the execution of the frescoes which are on the interiors of the papal palace and of the churches of Avignon was entrusted almost exclusively to artists from Sienna.
426 The popes were followed to Avignon by agents (factores) of the great Italian banking-houses, who settled in the city. They acted as money-changers, as intermediaries between the Apostolic Chamber and its debtors, living in the most prosperous quarters of the city, which was known as the Exchange. A crowd of traders of all kinds brought to market theproducts necessary to the maintenance of a numerous court and of the visitors who flocked to it; grain and wine from Provence, from the south of France, the Roussillon, and the country roundLyons. Fish was brought from places as distant as Brittany; cloths, rich stuffs, and tapestries came from Bruges and Tournai. We need only glance at the account-books of the Apostolic Chamber, still kept in the Vatican archives, in order to judge of the trade of which Avignon became the centre. The university founded by Boniface VIII in 1303, had a good many students under the Frenchpopes, drawn thither by the generosity of the sovereign pontiffs, who rewarded them with books or with benefices.
427 After the restoration of the Holy See in Rome, the spiritual and temporal government of Avignon was entrusted to a legate, the cardinal-nephew, who was replaced, in his absence by a vice-legate. When, however, Innocent XII abolished nepotism, he did away with the office of legate, and handed over the government of the Pontifical States to the Congregation of Avignon (1692), which resided at Rome, with the Cardinal Secretary of State as prefect, and exercised its jurisdiction through the vice-legate. This congregation, to which appeals were made from the decisions of the vice-legate, was united to the Congregation of Loretto; in 1774 the vice-legate was made president, thus depriving it of almost all authority. It was done away with under Pius VI.
428 The Public Council, composed of 48 councillors chosen by the people, four members of the clergy, and four doctors of the university, met under the presidency of the viquier, or chief magistrate, nominated, for a year, by the legate or vice-legate. Their duty was to watch over the material and financial interests of the city; their resolutions, however, were to be submitted to the vice-legate for approval before being put in force. Three consuls, chosen annually by the Council, had charge of the administration of the streets.
429 From the fifteenth century onward it became the policy of the Kings of France to unite Avignon to their kingdom. In 1476, Louis XI, annoyed that Giuliano della Rovere should have been made legate, rather than Charles of Bourbon, caused the city to be occupied, and did not withdraw his troops until after his favourite had been made a cardinal. In 1536 Francis I invaded the papal territory, in order to drive out Charles V, who held Provence. In return for the reception accorded him by the people of Avignon, Francis granted them the same privileges as those enjoyed by the French, that, especially, of being eligible to offices of state. Henry III made a fruitless attempt to exchange the Marquisate of Saluces for Avignon, but Gregory XIII would not agree to it (1583). In 1663, Louis XIV, in consequence of an attack, led by the Corsican Guard, on the attendants of the Duc de Créqui, his ambassador in Rome, seized Avignon, which was declared an integral part of the Kingdom of France by the Parliament of Provence. Nor was the sequestration raised until after Cardinal Chigi had made an apology (1664). Another attempt at occupation made in 1688, without success, was followed by a long period of peace, lasting till 1768.
430 Louis XV, dissatisfied at Clement XIII's action in regard to the Duke of Parma, caused the Papal States to be occupied from 1768 to 1774, andsubstituted French institutions for those in force. These met with the approval of the people of Avignon, and a French party grew up which, after the sanguinary massacres of La Glacière, carried all before it, and induced the Constituent Assembly to decree the unionof Avignon and the Comtat (district) Venaissin with France (14 September, 1791). Article 5 of the Treaty of Tolentino (19 Feb., 1797) definitely sanctioned the annexation; it stated that "The Pope renounces, purely and simply, all the rights to which he might lay claim over the city and territory of Avignon, and the Comtat Venaissin and its dependencies, and transfers and makes over the said rights to the French Republic." Consalvi made an ineffectual protest at the Treaty of Vienna, in 1815; Avignon was not restored to the Holy See.
431 Archdiocese of Avignon
432 The Archdiocese of Avignon exercises jurisdiction over the territory embraced by the department of Vaucluse. Before the Revolution it had as suffragan sees, Carpentras, Vaison, and Cavaillon. By the Concordat of 1801 these three dioceses were united to Avignon, together with the Diocese ofApt, a suffragan of Aix. At the same time, however, Avignon was reducedto the rank of a bishopric and was made a suffragan see of Aix. The Archdiocese of Avignon was re-established in 1822, and received as suffragansees the Diocese of Viviers (restored in 1822); Valence (formerly under Lyon); Nimes (restored in 1822); and Montpellier (formerly under Toulouse). There is no evidence that St. Rufus, disciple of St. Paul (according to certain traditions the son of Simon the Cyrenean) and St. Justus, likewise held in high honour throughout the territory of Avignon, were venerated in antiquity as bishops of that see. The first bishop known to history is Nectarius, who took part in several councils about the middle of the fifth century. St. Agricol (Agricolus), bishop between 650 and 700, isthe patron saint of Avignon. In 1475 Sixtus IV raised the Diocese of Avignon to the rank of an archbishopric, in favour of his nephew Giuliano della Rovere, who later became Pope Julius II. The memory of St. Eucherius still clings to three vast caves near the village of Beaumont, whither,it is said, the people of Lyons had to go in sea arch of him when they sought him to make him their archbishop. As Bishop of Cavaillon, Cardinal Philippe de Cabassoles, Seigneur of Vaucluse, was the great protector of Petrarch. (For Avignon and its religious architecture see AVIGNON, I. CITY.) At the close of 1905 the Archdiocese of Avignon had 236,949 inhabitants, 29 cures, or parishes of the first class; 144 parishes of the second class, and 47 vicariates.
433 DUHAMEL, Les origines du palais des papes (Tours, 1882); CHARPENNE, Histoire des réunions temporaires d'Avignon et du comtat Venaissin à la France (Paris, 1886); Histoire de la Révolution dans Avignon et le Comtat Venaissin et de leur réuniondéfinitive à la France (Paris, 1892); EHRLE, Historia Bibliothecae; Romanorum Pontificum (Rome 1890); FANTONI CASTRUCCI, Istoria della Città d'Avignone e del contado Venesino (Venice, 1678); MOLLAT, Jean XXII, fut il un avare?, in Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique (July 1904, and Jan., 1905); MOLLAT AND SAMARAN, La fiscalité pontificale en France au XIVe (Paris, 1905; MÜNTZ, Les Sources de l'histoire des arts dans la ville d'Avignon pendant le XIVe Siècle,in Bulletin Archéologique de la Commission des travaux historiques (1887). Gallia Christiana, Nova (1715), I, 793-870, 1329; Instrumenta, 137-147; DUCHESNE, Fastes épiscopaux de l'ancienne Gaule,I, 258-262; GRANGET, Histoire du diocèse d'Avignon (Avignon,1862).
434 Georges Goyau
435 G. Mollat
University of Avignon
427 The University of Avignon (1303-1792), developed from the already existing schools of the city, was formally constituted in 1303, by a Bull of Boniface VIII. With Boniface, King Charles II of Naples should be considered as one of its first great protectors and benefactors. The faculty of law, both civil and ecclesiastical, existed for some time almost exclusively, and always remained the most important department of the university. Pope John XXIII erected (1413) a faculty of theology, the students of which were for a long time only few in number. The faculty of arts never acquired great importance; that of medicine developed especially only in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Bishop, since 1475 Archbishop, of Avignon was chancellor of the university. The vice-legate, generally a bishop, represented the civil power (in this case the pope) and was chiefly a judicial officer, ranking higher than the Primicerius (Rector). The latter was elected by the Doctors of Law, to whom, in 1503, were added four theologians and, in 1784, two Doctors of Medicine. The pope, spiritual head and, after 1348, temporal ruler of Avignon, exercised in this double capacity great influence over the affairs of the university. John XXIII granted it (1413) extensive privileges, such as special university jurisdiction and exemption from taxes. Political, geographical, and educational circumstances forced the university, during the latter period of its existence, to look to Paris rather than to Rome for favour and protection. It disappeared gradually during the French Revolution, and ceased to exist in 1792.
428 RASHDALL, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages (Oxford,1895), II, 170-179; FOURNIER, Les status et privilèges des univ.francaises (Paris, 1890-94), II, 301-535; MARCHAND, L'université d'Avignon (Avignon, 1884).
429 N.A. Weber
Diocese of Avila
430 (Abula)
431 Diocese; suffragan of Valladolid in Spain. Its episcopal succession dates at least from the fourth century and claims an Apostolic origin. Suppressed in the course of the ninth, it was re-established early in the twelfth, century, after the expulsion of the Moors, and was a suffragan of Mérida until 1120; then of Compostella until 1857. The Catholic population is 189,926. There are 360 priests, 339 parishes, and about 500 churches and chapels. Avila is historically one of the most important cities in the medieval and modern history of Spain. In the fourth century the arch-heretic Priscillian was Bishop of Avila, and in later times many saints had Avila as their home, among them St. Teresa and John of Avila, the "Apostle of Andalusia". It was once one of the most flourishing cities of Spain, but its population has dwindled to 7,000. Its Moorish castle and ancient eleventh-century cathedral are monumental relics of the past.
432 BATTANDIER, Ann. Pont. Cath. (Paris, 1905); 216; PICATOSTE, Tradiciones de Avila (Madrid, 1880); GAMS, Kirchengeschichte Spaniens, I, 150, sqq; FLOREZ, Espana Sagrada, XIV, 1-36; MUNOZ, Bibl. Hist. Espana (1858) 42-4.
433 Thomas J. Shahan
Francisco de Avila
433 Curate or vicar in the province of Huarochiri of Peru, later curate at Huánaco, finally Canon of the Church of La Plata (now Sucre), in Bolivia. Born in Peru as a foundling (quorum parentes ignorantur he says himself); date of demise unknown. He was one of the most active investigators of Indian rites and customs of his time. In 1608 he wrote a treatise of the "Errors, False Gods, and Other Superstitions of the Indians of the Provinces of Huarochiri, Mama, and Chaclla", of which unfortunately only the first six chapters are known to exist and have been translated into English. It is, even in its incomplete form, an invaluable contribution to the knowledge of the Peruvian Indians and their primitive lore. In 1611 Avila wrote an equally important report on the Indians of Huánaco in eastern Peru, of which the unpublished manuscript. is extant. Such writings greatly mitigate the charges which the destruction of fetishes and other objects of primitive worship of the Indians have called forth against the Church. (See PABLO JOSÉ ARRIAGA.)
434 Fables and Rites of the Incas (Hakluyt Society, 1872); MENDIBURU, Diccionario historico biografico del Peru (1874); ARRIAGA, Extirpacion de la Idolatria del Peru (Lima, 1621); JIMENEZ DE LA ESPADA, Tres relaciones de antiguedades peruanas (Madrid, 1879), Introduction.
435 Ad. F. Bandelier
Sancho de Avila
436 Born at Avila of the Kings, in Old Castile, 1546, and named after the place of his birth; died at Plasencia, in the same province, 6 or 7 December, 1625. He was of a distinguished family but was still more eminent for his saintliness, his vast knowledge, and his success as a preacher. He made his ecclesiastical studies and received his doctorate at the great University of Salamanca. He was afterwards consecrated bishop and held, at different times, the Sees of Murcia, Jaen in Andalusia, Siguenza in Old Castile, in 1615, and, seven years later, Plasencia, where he remained until his death. He had been a confessor of St. Theresa. The following works of his in Spanish are worthy of note: "The Veneration Due to the Bodies and Relics of Saints" (Madrid, 1611); "Sermons" (Baeza, 1615); "The Sighs of St. Augustine", from the Latin (Madrid, 1601, 1626); and, in manuscript, the Lives of St. Augustine and St. Thomas.
437 William Devlin
St. Avitus
439 (Alcimus Ecdicius).
440 A distinguished bishop of Vienne, in Gaul, from 490 to about 518, though his death is place by some as late as 525 or 526. He was born of a prominent Gallo-Roman family closely related to the Emperor Avitus and other illustrious persons, and in which episcopal honors were hereditary. In difficult times for the Catholic faith and Roman culture in Southern Gaul, Avitus exercised a favourable influence. He pursued with earnestness and success the extinction of the Arian heresy in the barbarian Kingdom of Burgundy (443-532), won the confidence of King Gundobad, and converted his son, King Sigismund (516-523). He was also a zealous opponent of Semipelagianism, and of the Acacian Schism at Constantinople. Like his contemporary, Ennodius of Pavia, he was strenuous in his assertion of the authority of the Apostolic See as the chief bulwark of religious unity and the incipient Christian civilization. "If the pope," he says, "is rejected, it follows that not one bishop, the whole episcopate threatens to fall" (Si papa urbis vocatur in dubium, episcopatus videbitur, non episcopus, vaccilare. — Ep. xxxiv; ed. Peiper). The literary fame of Avitus rests on a poem of 2,552 hexameters, in five books, dealing with the Scriptural narrative of Original Sin, Expulsion from Paradise, the Deluge, the Crossing of the Red Sea. The first three books offer a certain dramatic unity; in them are told the preliminaries of the great disaster, the catastrophe itself, and the consequences. The fourth and fifth books deal with the Deluge and the Crossing of the Red Sea as symbols of baptism. Avitus deals freely and familiarly with the Scriptural events, and exhibits well their beauty, sequence, and significance. He is one of the last masters of the art of rhetoric as taught in the schools of Gaul in the fourth and fifth centuries. Ebert says that none of the ancient Christian poets treated more successfully the poetic elements of the Bible. His poetic diction, though abounding in archaisms and rhythmic redundancy, is pure and select, and the laws of metre are well observed. It is said that Milton made use of his paraphase [sic] of Scripture in the preparation of "Paradise Lost". He wrote also 666 hexameters "De virginitate" or "De consolatoriâ castitatis laude" for the comfort of his sister Fuscina, a nun. His prose works include "Contra Eutychianam Hæresim libri II", written in 512 or 513, and also about eighty-seven letters that are of considerable importance for the ecclesiastical and political history of the years 499-518. Among them is the famous letter to Clovis on the occasion of his baptism. There was once extant a collection of his homilies, but they have perished with the exception of two and some fragments and excerpts. In recent times Julien Havet has demonstrated (Questions mérovingiennes, Paris, 1885), that Avitus is not the author of the "Dialogi cum Gundobado Rege", a defence of the Catholic Faith against the Arians, purporting to represent the famous Colloquy of Lyons in 449, and first published by d'Achéry (1661) in his "Spicilegium" (V, 110-116). It is a forgery of the Oratorian, Jérome Viguier, who also forged the letter of Pope Symmachus (13 Oct., 501) to Avitus. The works of Avitus are found in Migne, P.L., LIX, 191-398. There are two recent editions: one by R. Peiper (in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auct. Antiq., VI, Berlin, 1883), the other by U. Chevalier (Lyons, 1890).
441 Acta SS., 1 February; Avite, sa vie, ses œuvres (Paris, 1870); DENKINGER, St. Avite et la déstruction de l'Arianisme en Gaule (Geneva, 1890); GUIZOT, Hist. De la civilisation en France (1829), II, 198-216; GORINI, Défense de l'Eglise (Paris, 1866), II, 1-86; KURTH, Hist. poétique des mérovingiens (1893), 243 sqq.; YOUNG in Dict. Christ. Biogr., I, 233; BARDENHEWER, Patrologie (Freiburg, 1901), 538, 539.
442 Thomas J. Shahan
Order of Aviz
442 A military body of Portuguese knights.
443 The Kingdom of Portugal, founded in 1128, was not only contemporaneous with the Crusades but conducted one of its own against the Moors. Some crusaders were bound only by temporary vows, and when these expired they would sometimes return to their country although the war was not ended. This accounts for the favour with which military orders were regarded beyond the Pyrenees, in Portugal as well as in Spain; for in them the vow of fighting against the infidels was perpetual, like other monastic vows. Knights Templar were found in Portugal as early as 1128, and received a grant from Queen Teresa in the year of the Council of Troyes, which confirmed their early statutes. A native order of this kind sprang up in Portugal about 1146. Affonso, the first king gave to it the town of Evora, captured from the Moors in 1211, and the Knights were first called "Brothers of Santa Maria of Evora". Pedro Henriquez, an illegitimate son of the king's father, was the first grand master. After the conquest of Aviz the military castle erected there became the motherhouse of the order, and they were then called "Knights of St. Benedict of Aviz", since they adopted the Benedictine rule in 1162, as modified by John Ziritu, one of the earliest Cistercian abbots of Portugal. Like the Knights of Calatrava in Castile, the Knights of Portugal were indebted to the Cistercians for their rule and their habit — a white mantle with a green fleur-de-lysed cross. The Knights of Calatrava also surrendered some of their places in Portugal to them on condition that the Knights of Aviz should be subject to the visitation of their grand master. Hence the Knights of Aviz were sometimes regarded as a branch of the Calatravan Order, although they never ceased to have a Portuguese grand master, dependent for temporalities on the Portuguese king. At the accession of King Ferdinand (1383) war broke out between Castile and Portugal. When João I, who had been grand master of the Knights of Aviz, ascended the throne of Portugal, he forbade the knights to submit to Castilian authority, and consequently, when Gonsalvo de Guzman came to Aviz as Visitor, the knights, while according him hospitality, refused to recognise him as a superior. Guzman protested, and the point remained a subject of contention until the Council of Basle (1431), when Portugal was declared to be in the wrong. But the right of the Calatravans was never exercised, and the next grand master of the Knights of Aviz, Rodrigo of Sequirol, continued to assert supreme authority over them.
444 The mission of the military orders in Portugal seemed to fail after the overthrow of Moslem domination, but the Portuguese expeditions across the sea opened up a new field for them. The first landings of Europeans in Africa, the conquest of Ceuta by King João I (1415), the attacks upon Tangier under João's son Duarte (1437) were also crusades, inspired by a religious spirit and sanctioned by similar papal Bulls. The Knights of Aviz and the Knights of Christ, scions of the Knights Templars, achieved deeds of valour, the former under the Infants Fernando, the latter under Henrique, brother of King Duarte. Fernando displayed a no less heroic forbearance during his six years of captivity among the Moslems, a long martyrdom which after his death placed him among the Blessed (Acta SS.,5 June). This splendid enthusiasm did not last. Soon the whole nation became affected by the wealth that poured in, and the Crusade in Africa degenerated into mere mercantile enterprise; the pontifical Bulls were made a vulgar means of raising money and after the grand mastership of the order (1551) had been vested in the king in perpetuity, he availed himself of its income to reward any kind of service in the army or the fleet. If the wealth of the Knights of Aviz was not as great as that of the Knights of Christ, it was still quite large, drawn as it was from some forty-three commanderies. The religous spirit of the knights vanished, and they withdrew from their clerical brothers who continued alone the conventual life. They were dispensed from their vow of celibacy by Alexander VI (1402), who tolerated their marriage to prevent scandalous concubinage; Julius III (1551) allowed them to dispose freely of their personal properties. Nobility of birth remained the chief requirement of aspirants to the mantle, a requirement confirmed by a decree of 1604. Queen Maria I, supported by Pope Pius VI (1 Aug., 1789), attempted a last reformation and failed. Finally, the military orders were suppressed by Dom Pedro, after the downfall of the Miguelist usurpation (1834).
445 For Documents: Noronha. Constitucoes de S. Bento de Aviz (Lisbon. 1631). For history: Jos. Da Purificao, Catalogo dos Mestres de Aviz, 1722 (Acad real de Historia); Burro, Chronica de Cister, onde, etc. (Lisbon. 1602); cf Almeida in Mem. Acad. Scient. Lisboa (1837); Helyot Dict. Des ordes religieuz (1847), 1, 348-350; Schefer, Gesch. Von Portugal (Gotha 1834-54); Herculano, History of Portugal (Lisbon, 1554-73).
446 Ch. Moeller
Council of Avranches
445 In 1172 (September 27-28) a Council was held at Avranches in France, apropos of the troubles caused in the English Church by the murder of St. Thomas Becket. Henry II, King of England after due penance, was absolved from the censures incurred by the assassination of the holy prelate and swore fidelity to Alexander III in the person of his legate. It was forbidden to confer on children benefice that carry with him the cure of souls, or the children of priests the churches of their fathers. Each parish was required to have an assistant (vicarius) and the Advent fast was commended to all who could observe it, especially to ecclesiastics.
446 Thomas J. Shahan
Philippe Avril
448 Jesuit, born at Angouleme, France, 16 September, 1654; died in a shipwreck in 1698. He was professor of philosophy and mathematics at Paris when he was summoned to the missions of China. Following the instructions of Father Verbiest, then at Pekin, he attempted an overland journey, and travelled for six years through Kurdistan, Armenia, Astrakhan, Persia, and other countries of the East. Arriving at Moscow, he was refused permission to pass through Tatary, and was sent by the Government to Poland, from whence he made his way to Constantinople and from there went back to France. Though exhausted by hemorrhages he set out again on a vessel, which was lost at sea. He has left interesting and valuable accounts of his long wanderings.
449 T.J. Campbell
Axum
451 (Auxume.)
452 A titular metropolitan see of ancient Christian Ethiopia. Its episcopal list, from about the middle of the fourth century to 650, is found in Gams (p. 462). Modern Axum is the capital of the Abyssinian province of Tigré, and nestles in a kloof, or valley, beneath a lofty peak of the Adoua mountains, at 7,545 feet above the level of the sea. Beneath it is a vast plain in which arise several streams tributary to the Nile. "The features of the place", says a recent traveller, "are very marked; firstly one comes across the large sacred enclosure, nearly a mile in circumference, thickly planted with trees and reeds, in the centre of which rises the cathedral, surrounded by the monastic buildings and the residence of the Etchigeh, or bishop. This enclosure occupies nearly the whole of the entrance to the valley; beyond it on the hill slopes are the houses of the inhabitants, whilst running up the valley is the long line of stupendous obelisks and beyond is the ancient tank or reservoir from which the inhabitants still get their water supply" (Bent, The Sacred City of the Ethiopians).
453 The city is of great antiquity, and was, together with Adule (Adoua on the coast) known to the Greeks and Romans as the chief centre of trade, with the interior or Africa, for gold­dust, ivory, leather, hides, and aromatics. The population is of mixed Ethiopic (negroid) and Arab origin, and is probably descended, in great measure, from an Arab colony settled on the coast at a very remote period. The numerous Himyaritic (Arabic) inscriptions in the vicinity exhibit the influence of Arabia; similarly the stone monuments with their evidences of sun and star worship. Moreover, it is well known that in the sixth century of our era the Kings of Abyssinia, then and long after resident at Axum, extended their sway over the Sabæan and Himyarite (Homerite) tribes of Yemen on the oppposite Arabian shore. Greek influences are also traceable in the architecture of Axum and from a very early date, probably from the days of the Ptolemies of Egypt. In other words, this "sacred city of the Ethiopians" has been from time immemorial an outpost of ancient civilization against the mass of African barbarism. Axum became a Christian city in the time of St. Athanasius of Alexandria, who consecrated its first bishop, St. Frumentius, still honoured as the great patron of Abyssinia; since which time (c. 330) the Abyssinian Church has remained in close dependency on the Church of Alexandria, and yet receives from Egypt its chief ecclesiastical officer, the Abouna. There is still extant (P.G. XXV, 635) a famous letter of the Emperor Constantius (337-361) to Aeizanes, the King of Axum, ordering him to send Frumentius to Alexandria to receive the Arian doctrine from the heretical successor intruded in the place of Athanasius. The other principal ecclesiastics resident at Axum are the above mentioned Etchigeh (Etchagué), or principal bishop, always a native; the Nebrid, a kind of archdeacon or head of the priesthood and rector of the cathedral; the Lij Kaneat, or judge in ecclesiastical matters, together with monks and priests of various grades. There are also many persons known as defteras, described as "lay assistants in all the services, acting as singers and performers in all the church ceremonies; the scribes, advocates, and doctors of Abyssinia and the most instructed and intelligent people of the land" (Bent, op. cit., 161).
454 Axum claims to hold in the innermost recesses of its cathedral the original Tables of the Law and the tabout, or Ark of the Covenant that the Abyssinians say was brought from Jerusalem to their ancient fortress of Ava by Menelek, the son of Solomon, and the Queen of Sheba, and transferred later to Axum. The palace of that famous Queen is also shown at Axum. Until 1538 Axum was both the civil and religious centre of Abyssoinia. In that year, it was captured by Mohammed, Prince of Leïla, since which time the Negus resides at Gondar. The cathedral is a fine edifice, and was built in the sixteenth century during the period of Portuguese influence in Abyssinia, but on the substructure of a very ancient Christian church. It has a flat roof and battlements, and there is a corridor outside where the priests dance and sing. Around the cathedral are many large shade­trees beneath which are built smaller churches or treasuries, in which are stored valuables of all kinds. Its sacred enclosure is not only the centre of ecclesiastical life, but also one of the most honoured sanctuaries in Abyssinia, where any criminal can find shelter by ringing the bell in the porch and declaring three times in a loud voice his intention of claiming a refuge. Women are not allowed to enter it. Indeed, all Axum is practically a sacred, inviolable refuge, for which reason the people enjoy a condition of peace and tranquillity unknown elsewhere in Abyssinia (Bent, 163).
455 Very interesting are the numerous stone pedestals that once bore metal statues of the pre­Christian kings of Axum, memorials of victory, and the stone monoliths and obelisks, fallen or standing, estimated by Bent at about fifty. The latter form "a consecutive series from very rude unhewn stones up to the highly finished and decorated obelisks, and it is highly probable that we have here the origin and development of the obelisk side by side" (Bent, 132). The only standing obelisk of the decorated kind, highly carved with sham doors and beam ends, in imitation of a many­storied edifice, is nine stories high, and ends with a semi­circular finial, on which is still to be seen a representation of the solar disk. "In other words," says Mr. Bent (p. 185) "we have before us a perfect representation of the Beth­el or House of God terminating in the firmament, in which the Sabæan sun­god is supposed to reside." Altars for animal sacrifices were fitted to the bases of these obelisks; several of them are still visible. Mounds and rubbish heaps are scattered about the sacred enclosure at Axum that doubtless contain many objects of profane and ecclesiastical interest. Near the cathedral is a square enclosure with a pillar at each of its angles, and in the centre twelve stones that Abyssinian tradition says were for the twelve judges of Prester John, but are probably the bases of ancient triumphal thrones of the Kings of Axum. Among the valuable Ethiopic manuscripts found in Abyssinia in modern times is the Book of Axum, or Abyssinian Chronicles, brought back by the traveller Bruce. In 1805 the English traveller, Salt, discovered at Axum a bilingual inscription in Greek and Gheez (the religious language of Abyssinia) of which only the Greek (thirty­one lines) remains. It refers to the exploits of King Aeizanes, already mentioned. In 1833 the German traveller, Rüppell, discovered two other Gheez inscriptions, referring to the deeds of a monarch of Axum in the sixth century. These Gheez inscriptions are valuable for the history of the Semitic alphabet. Some Greek coins, older than the fourth century have been found there, also Ethiopic coins of a somewhat later date, bearing the title "Negush Aksum", or King of Axum.
456 LEQUIEN, Oriens Christ. (1740), II, 641-660; SMITH, Dict. of Greek and Roman Geogr., I, 347; Tillemont, Mémoires, etc., VII, 284-289; BRUCE, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (Edinburgh, 1788), I, 478; SALT, Travels in Abyssinia, 510; BENT, The Sacred city of the Ethiopians (London, 1896), 152-197.
457 Thomas J. Shahan