_________________________________________________________________ Title: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 1: Aachen-Assize Creator(s): Herbermann, Charles George (1840-1916) Print Basis: 1907-1913 Rights: From online edition Copyright 2003 by K. Knight, used by permission CCEL Subjects: All; Reference LC Call no: BX841.C286 LC Subjects: Christian Denominations Roman Catholic Church Dictionaries. Encyclopedias _________________________________________________________________ THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA AN INTERNATIONAL WORK OF REFERENCE ON THE CONSTITUTION, DOCTRINE, DISCIPLINE, AND HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH EDITED BY CHARLES G. HERBERMANN, Ph.D., LL.D. EDWARD A. PACE, Ph.D., D.D. CONDE B PALLEN, Ph.D., LL.D. THOMAS J. SHAHAN, D.D. JOHN J. WYNNE, S.J. ASSISTED BY NUMEROUS COLLABORATORS IN FIFTEEN VOLUMES VOLUME 1 New York: ROBERT APPLETON COMPANY Imprimatur JOHN M. FARLEY ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK _________________________________________________________________ The Making of the Catholic Encyclopedia (1917) The need of a Catholic Encyclopedia in English was manifest for many years before it was decided to publish one. Editors of various general Encyclopedias had attempted to make them satisfactory from a Catholic point of view, but without success, partly because they could not afford the space, but chiefly because in matters of dispute their contributors were too often permitted to be partial, if not erroneous, in their statements. This need was felt more acutely when, at the beginning of this century, new editions of several of these general Encyclopedias appeared, in which many subjects of special interest to Catholics were either ignored entirely or else scantily and even erroneously treated. For two years the publishers of some of these Encyclopedias made earnest efforts to amend the articles which provoked Catholic criticism, but their efforts served only to emphasize the need of a Catholic Encyclopedia. Actual work on the Encyclopedia was begun in January, 1905. It was completed in April, 1914. For two years before the formation of a Board of Editors those who were to be its editors and publishers met together occasionally to confer about its publication. These meetings resulted in an agreement among the editors on December 8, 1904, to begin the work early the next year and in the choice of those who were to be its publishers. The Board of Editors, five in number, was organized in January, 1905, and its membership remained the same throughout the production of the work. All the members had been engaged in editorial work before the Encyclopedia was thought of. As teachers and lecturers they had become familiar with the field of education and with the needs of Catholic literature. Through experience gained in different spheres of activity they had reached the same conclusions regarding the necessity of a Catholic Encyclopedia and the advisability of proceeding at once with its publication. The editors were elected also as members of the Board of Directors of the publishing company which was incorporated in February, 1905, and they were given full authority in all matters affecting the nature, contents and policy of the Encyclopedia. On February 25 they signed a contract to produce The Catholic Encyclopedia. Two years were spent in studying every phase of the project, in arranging its details and in selecting the requisite methods for carrying on the work carefully and expeditiously. While a systematic procedure was thus determined upon, it by no means precluded later discussion of ways and means; the system itself required that each step should be seriously considered, and for this purpose the regular meetings of the Board were continued during the entire course of publication. On January 11, 1905, Charles G. Herbermann, Professor of Latin and Librarian of the College of the City of New York, Edward A. Pace, then Professor of Philosophy in the Catholic University, Condé B. Pallen, Editor, Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Shahan, then Professor of Church History in the Catholic University, and John J. Wynne, S.J., Editor of The Messenger, held their first editorial meeting at the office of The Messenger, in West Sixteenth Street, New York. Between that date and April 19, 1913, they held 134 formal meetings to consider the plan, scope and progress of the work, besides having frequent informal conferences and constant intercommunication by letter. Until February, when offices were opened at 1 Union Square, meetings were held in The Messenger, or at the house of Dr. Herbermann, then on West Twenty-fifth Street. For two years the days for meetings were the first and third Saturdays of the month; after that a meeting was held on the second Saturday only. In the beginning every editor attended each meeting; after April, 1907, only one of the editors from the Catholic University was expected to be present. At the meetings a report was made by each editor of the work he had done since the last meeting, chiefly in selecting topics; assigning space for each; choosing contributors and specifying the time allowed them for each article. These reports were acted upon; criticisms of the work were considered; the progress of each volume carefully noted, and various problems solved especially about cross-references, repetitions, bibliography, illustrations, maps, and the delays and disappointments which are inevitable in a work depending upon the co-operation of over 1500 persons. In order to make clear what manner of work they were to publish, the editors issued, in February, 1906, a pamphlet containing specimen pages of text and illustrations. This specimen left no room for doubt about the character of the Encyclopedia. It indicated in general terms the scope, aim and chief characteristics of the Encyclopedia, as follows: The Catholic Encyclopedia, as its name implies, proposes to give its readers full and authoritative information on the entire cycle of Catholic interests, action and doctrine. What the Church teaches and has taught; what she has done and is still doing for the highest welfare of mankind; her methods, past and present; her struggles, her triumphs, and the achievements of her members, not only for her own immediate benefit, but for the broadening and deepening of all true science, literature and art — all come within the scope of The Catholic Encyclopedia. It differs from the general Encyclopedia in omitting facts and information which have no relation to the Church. On the other hand, it is not exclusively a church Encyclopedia, nor is it limited to the ecclesiastical sciences and the doings of churchmen. It records all that Catholics have done, not only in behalf of charity and morals, but also for the intellectual and artistic development of mankind. It chronicles what Catholic artists, educators, poets, scientists and men of action have achieved in their several provinces. In this respect it differs from most other Catholic Encyclopedias. The editors are fully aware that there is no specifically Catholic science, that mathematics, chemistry, physiology and other branches of human knowledge are neither Catholic, Jewish, nor Protestant; but, when it is commonly asserted that Catholic principles are an obstacle to scientific research, it seems not only proper but needful to register what and how much Catholics have contributed to every department of knowledge. No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny. As for Catholics, their duty as members of the Church impels them to learn more and more fully its principles; while among Protestants the desire for a more intimate and accurate knowledge of things Catholic increases in proportion to the growth of the Church in numbers and in importance. The Catholic clergy are naturally expected to direct inquirers to sources of the needed information; yet they find only too often that the proper answers to the questions proposed are not to be met with in English literature. Even the writings of the best intentioned authors are at times disfigured by serious errors on Catholic subjects, which are for the most part due, not to ill-will, but to lack of knowledge. It would be fatuous to hope to call into immediate existence a Catholic English literature adequate to supply this knowledge and correct errors. The Encyclopedia, therefore, is the most convenient means of doing both, enabling, as it does, the foremost Catholic scholars in every part of the world to contribute articles in the condensed form that appeals to the man of action, and with the accuracy that satisfies the scholar. Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration. The work is entirely new, and not merely a translation or a compilation from other encyclopedic sources. The editors have insisted that the articles should contain the latest and most accurate information to be obtained from the standard works on each subject. Contributors have been chosen for their special knowledge and skill in presenting the subject, and they assume the responsibility for what they have written. Representing as they do Catholic scholarship in every part of the world, they give the work an international character. The Encyclopedia bears the imprimatur of the Most Reverend Archbishop under whose jurisdiction it is published. In constituting the editors the ecclesiastical censors, he has given them a singular proof of his confidence and of his desire to facilitate the publication of the work which he has promoted most effectively by his influence and kindly cooperation." In the execution of the plan thus outlined no essential feature has been changed or omitted; the Preface would be as appropriate to the fifteenth volume as it was to the first. Since it was written innumerable questions arose regarding matters of detail; but these were settled in accordance with the ideas and principles which were adopted by the editors before a page of the Encyclopedia was published. In accomplishing their preliminary task and in dealing with problems that presented no slight difficulty, the editors were encouraged by the widespread interest which the first announcement of the Encyclopedia aroused. Cordial approval and assistance was given by the Apostolic Delegate and by the members of the Hierarchy, particularly by his Eminence Cardinal Farley, to whom the project was formally submitted on January 27, 1905. Many useful suggestions were received from clergymen, teachers, authors, and publishers in the United States and in other countries. The project was welcomed with enthusiasm by the laity, and a large number of subscriptions were taken before the first volume appeared in March, 1907. As other volumes followed with promptness and regularity, the public soon became aware that the Encyclopedia was rapidly passing from the region of things possible and desirable to that of accomplished facts, and moreover that it was taking a unique position among the important publications of modern times. The Encyclopedia was to be "an international work of reference on the constitution, doctrine, discipline and history of the Catholic Church." With a scope so vast before them, the editors devoted their earliest efforts to the mapping out of the subject matter. This was arranged in thirty-two departments which were then distributed so as to allow each editor a certain group of departments for special supervision and yet leave to the Board as a whole the final decision upon the inclusion or exclusion of any proposed subject. In each department, the selection of subjects was determined to a considerable extent by the very nature and purpose of the Encyclopedia. Other titles were drawn from various sources — such as Encyclopedias of a general character, standard works, and periodical publications. A large number of articles were suggested by scholars whose competence in special lines or in the preparation of works similar to the Encyclopedia gave weight to their opinions. No subject, however, was accepted or rejected until it had been passed on by each editor. The work was intended to show not only the inner life of the Church in organization, teaching, and practice, but also the manifold and far-reaching influence of Catholicism upon all that most deeply concerns mankind. Hence the introduction of many titles which are not specifically Catholic or even religious in the stricter sense, but under which some interest of the Church or some phase of its activity is recorded. Such are the accounts given of different religions and sects, of countries and states, of literatures and philosophies, of institutions and individuals that have been extraneous, or even antagonistic, to the Church. Special care, of course, was taken to include those subjects which are often treated in a way that gives false or inaccurate impressions regarding the Catholic position or the facts of history. Even where the same subject would naturally recur under different titles, it was, if sufficiently important, allotted a separate article. On the other hand, to avoid needless repetition, it was often found necessary to introduce the subject in alphabetical order with a cross-reference to the article in which, under a different title, it would be more appropriately treated. Finally, as no other extensive work of reference would be available to a large number of the purchasers of the Encyclopedia, due provision was made for supplying in every instance such general information as the ordinary reader might reasonably expect to find in connection with the subjects treated. As the vitality of an organization is manifested chiefly in the achievements of its prominent members, it is but natural that this work should contain a large number of biographies. In these articles, particularly judicious selection was necessary, as well as moderation in treatment. For obvious reasons biographies of living persons were not admitted; nor was distinction of whatever sort the chief criterion of selection, but rather, in the case of eminent Catholics, their loyalty to the Church. On grounds that are plainly different, the list of biographies includes various names that recall important controversies, heresies, errors or phases of conflict through which the Church has passed, and concerning which it was needful to set in clear light the Catholic position. From the outset the editors adopted the principle that each article should be prepared by the ablest available writer. The character of the work was such that it could not be done, as much encyclopedia writing is done, by a staff of office assistants. The contributors were selected, not on account of their official position, but with reference to their scholarship and their special qualifications for handling the subjects assigned them. In addition to the names already conspicuous in Catholic literature, the list was drawn up after consultation with well-informed persons in various countries. Inquiries were sent to the Catholic colleges, seminaries and universities in the United States, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland and Australia. The Bishops in the English-speaking countries were requested to suggest writers for articles on their respective dioceses and the political divisions, such as the States of the Union, in which their dioceses are situated. The heads of religious orders and congregations were consulted regarding the assignment of each article in which they might be directly interested. Authorities on Catholic subjects in the non-Catholic institutions of learning in this country were also invited to cooperate. By correspondence or by personal visits, the editors secured contributions from prominent writers on the Continent of Europe, especially among the professors of the various universities and members of learned societies. The fact that the list includes 1452 names, representing 43 countries, sufficiently attests the international character of the Encyclopedia. Furthermore, it can be said without exaggeration that no other work has ever been produced by the joint labours of so many Catholic men and women representing the clergy, the laity, the professions, and the various lines of scientific and literary activity. The list of contributors to each volume is in itself an object lesson; it shows in a concrete way the intellectual forces that the Church has developed and animated with her spirit. It was not to be expected that every contributor would know by intuition just how an article should be written to answer the purposes of the Encyclopedia; nor would it have been possible to secure the desired uniformity of treatment if each writer had been left entirely to his own devices. The editors accordingly accompanied the assignment of articles with directions more or less detailed for their preparation. Certain classes of subjects, e.g. biographies, states, dioceses, were carefully outlined so that the writer might furnish the requisite information on all essential points. For the treatment of other subjects suggestions were offered with a view to having the articles include whatever might be of actual and practical interest at the present time. In some instances the contributors themselves requested more explicit instruction or indicated possible modifications. The exchange of views on all important matters was extremely helpful both in furthering the aims of the editors and in making each writer an active collaborator. Indeed so cordial, and, in many instances, so intimate were the relations of contributors and editors, that there was no need of establishing special editorial committees in certain countries as the editors had originally contemplated. It also facilitated, to a considerable extent, the editors' principal task. In the allotment of space for each article, the editors, who gave to this point their joint attention, were guided in every instance by the rule "quod requiritur et sufficit." The length of an article is not necessarily, therefore, an indication of its importance. This is true particularly of biographies, in which a line often predicates greater celebrity than a paragraph. The encyclopedic style admits no waste word, and though frequently our writers exceeded the space allotted to them, they rarely, if ever, objected to the condensation of their articles, regarding it commonly as an improvement. Every article was submitted to each of the editors for criticism, acceptance, or rejection. In case of acceptance — and this fortunately was the usual verdict — the article was handed over to the editor in charge of the department to which it belonged, for revision so far as this might be needed in order to meet the requirements of the Encyclopedia regarding space, content, and literary form. Whenever serious changes were found necessary, these were referred to the author. All articles of a doctrinal character were submitted to the censors appointed by ecclesiastical authority. In the case of an article written in a language other than English, it was translated by an expert, and the translation was then carefully compared by the editor with the original manuscript. Frequently brief paragraphs were added, with the writer's authorization, in order to bring out some phase or detail of the subject that possessed special importance for the English-speaking countries. Additions were also made to the bibliography of works that were more easily accessible to the readers of the Encyclopedia or that were published after the article had been received. Besides providing for the text of the Encyclopedia, the editors undertook the selection and arrangement of the illustrations, plates, and maps, which are a prominent feature in each volume. The wide range of subjects calling for illustration included personages of note, historic scenes and events, famous edifices, ecclesiastical or secular, monuments of Christian antiquity, codices, manuscripts, and the masterpieces of art in painting, sculpture, and architecture. The maps had to be specially prepared for the Encyclopedia, as they were designed to show not only the political or territorial divisions, but also the ecclesiastical conditions, such as the location of each episcopal or archiepiscopal see. The editors were aided by a well-trained corps of assistants numbering in the course of the work 151, through whose hands the edited article passed on its way to the press. The office staff rendered efficient service not only by the routine work of preparing copy, but also by keeping accurate records of assignments, transmissions of manuscripts, and reports from contributors. It was thus possible at any moment to ascertain precisely the stage which a given article had reached and the progress that had been made toward the completion of each volume. The staff was also charged with numerous matters of detail, such as the verification of dates and references, comparison of statements in different articles, and preparation of lists of subjects by way of suggestion to the Editorial Board. The Company which was organized to publish The Catholic Encyclopedia was originally known as the Robert Appleton Company. In 1912 its title was changed to The Encyclopedia Press, Inc. It has always been an entirely independent organization, expressly organized for the special purpose of publishing the Encyclopedia. Until it was completed the Company, therefore, did not undertake to bring out any other book or to enter any other field of business. Its members — all men of prominence in business and financial circles — have given their entire time and the fruits of their long experience to the production of this work. They have dealt successfully with the diverse problems which such an enterprise involves on the material and technical sides: printing, plate-making, advertising, and selling. The whole financial administration of the Encyclopedia has been conducted on sound business principles. From the appearance of the first volume of the Encyclopedia to the conclusion of the Index Volume, the work met with a cordial reception everywhere. Reviewers not only spoke of it in terms of unusual praise, but they also recognized in it at once the powerful influence for good. Hilaire Belloc, for instance, spoke of it as "one of the most powerful influences working in favor of the truth." Georges Goyau recommended it as expressing the genius of Catholicity and spoke of its vast army of contributors as forming a modern intellectual crusade. The Dublin Review pronounced it the "greatest triumph of Christian science in the English tongue." The Protestant Press commented most favorably on the scholarliness and fairness of the articles, one weekly recommending it as the "greatest work undertaken for the advancement of Christian knowledge since the days of Trent." According to the Saturday Review, London, it was a "model of reference works." According to the Athenoeum, it was a "thorough and learned enterprise." Churchmen, men of affairs, journalists, educators, librarians and editors all vied with one another in praising the scholarship of the Encyclopedia. Article courtesy the Jacques Maritain Center _________________________________________________________________ To the Knights of Columbus and Their Friends In taking under our auspices a special edition of The Catholic Encyclopedia, we are actuated by the motive which originally inspired the production of this work. From the start, as the Preface to Volume I declares, it was determined that this encyclopedia should not be exclusively a Church publication, containing only matters of special interest to the clergy. It is intended for the layman as well as for the priest; and, consequently, it contains all that he needs to know, treated from his point of view. The Editor-in-Chief and the Managing Editor are laymen, as were fully 500 of the contributors, and 150 editorial assistants. With them the clerical editors and contributors have co-operated in full appreciation of the importance of producing a work which in content and style would satisfy the scholar in his study and yet interest the man in the street. For this Encyclopedia is designed to be the starting-point of a movement among Catholics, a great educational movement in every Catholic home in the land, the source of a literature that will once more as in the days before the Reformation employ the English tongue in the cause of Catholic truth. It is verily an educational and literary crusade, and as such it must appeal strongly to every member of an Order whose members, in the words of Archbishop Ireland, "aim to be the trusted auxiliaries of the Church, her organized chivalry, ever first and foremost when her call is heard, or her banner leads". We have but lately completed our achievement of providing for the Catholic University America the half million dollar scholarship foundation which is to enable Catholic young men from every part of the land to take advantage of the educational facilities of that great institution. Here is an offer which brings all the advantages that The Catholic University can at present afford and more right into our own homes. The Catholic Encyclopedia is a veritable Catholic Home University. It has been truly styled "a university in print". Few, if any, of our membership, are in a position to take advantage of the Catholic University foundation; scarcely one is unable to avail himself of an offer, which brings to every Catholic home the best the University can give. As if divining that the Knights of Columbus would take on themselves the task of giving the widest possible circulation to The Catholic Encyclopedia, His Grace, Archbishop Ireland, discoursing on "The Typical Catholic Layman of America", before the Supreme Council of the Order lately assembled in St. Paul, recommended the work in the following eloquent terms: "An intelligent laity is the prime need of the Church to-day, in America. The battle is opened. It is a flood of contradiction, of misrepresentation, of calumnies. History is perverted; Catholic discipline is travestied. When the Church, as seen daily, cannot with be assailed, the appeal is to centuries of long ago, more unfamiliar to the reader -- to remote lands whence no contradiction may come. The remedy is intelligence of all important matters concerning the Church at home and abroad, intelligence that Catholics be guarded from poisonous inoculation, and be, at the same time, in a position to influence public opinion in favor of truth and justice. The most ready arm is the press: hence the duty of the hour is to give generous support to the Catholic newspaper, to read it, to distribute it, supplementing it, as occasion permits, with magazine and book. One book, the summary of thousands, I especially recommend, The Catholic Encyclopedia. JAMES A. FLAHERTY, JOSEPH C. PELLETIER, WILLIAM J. MCGINLEY, Catholic Truth Committee of the Knights of Columbus. _________________________________________________________________ Aachen Aachen (In French, Aix-la-Chapelle, the name by which the city is generally known; in Latin Aquae Grani, later Aquisgranum). The city of Aachen lies in a Prussian valley, surrounded by wooded heights, on the Wurm, a tributary of the Roer, on its way to the Meuse. Population, 1 December, 1905, 151,922 (including the Parish of Forst); Catholics, 139,485; Protestants, 10,552; Israelites, 1,658; other denominations, 227. [1990 Population: about 250,000 — Ed.] The city owes its origin to its salubrious springs which were already known in the time of the Romans. There appears to have been a royal court in Aachen under the Merovingians, but it rose to greater importance under Charlemagne who chose it as his favourite place of residence, adorned it with a noble-imperial palace and chapel, and gave orders that he should be buried there. The precious relics obtained by Charlemagne and Otho III for the imperial chapel were the objects of great pilgrimages in the Middle Ages (the so-called "Shrine Pilgrimages") which drew countless swarms of pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Hungary, England, Sweden, and other countries. From the middle of the fourteenth century onwards, however it became customary to expose the four great relics only once in every seven years, a custom which still holds. These pilgrimages, the coronations of the German emperors (thirty-seven of whom were crowned there between 813 and 1531), the flourishing industries and the privileges conferred by the various emperors combined to make Aachen one of the first cities of the Empire. The decay of Aachen dates from the religious strife of the German Reformation. Albrecht von Muenster first preached Protestantism there in the year 1524 but was afterwards forbidden to preach the new views and executed on account of two murders committed during his stay in the cities of Maastricht and Wesel. A new Protestant community was soon, however formed in Aachen, which gradually attained such strength as to provoke a rising in 1581, force the election of a Protestant burgomaster, and defy the Emperor for several years. The Ban of the empire was, therefore, pronounced against the city in 1597 and put in force by the Duke of Julich, the Catholic overlord of the city. The Catholics were restored to their rights, and the Jesuits invited to Aachen, in 1600. In 1611, however, the Protestants rose afresh, plundered the Jesuit college, drove out the Catholic officials in 1612, and opened their gates to troops from Brandenburg. The Ban of the Empire was again laid on the city, and executed by the Spanish general, Spinola. The Protestant ringleaders were tried or exiled, and many other Protestants banished. These troubles, together with a great fire which destroyed 4,000 houses, put an end to the prosperity of the city. Two treaties of peace were concluded at Aachen during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By the first, dated 2 May 1668, Louis XIV was compelled, by the Triple Aliiance between England, the Netherlands, and Sweden, to abandon the war against the Spanish Netherlands, to restore the Franche Comte, which he had conquered, and to content himself with twelve Flemish fortresses. The second treaty, dated 18 October, 1748, put an end to the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1793 and 1794, Aachen was occupied by the French, incorporated with the French Republic in 1798 and 1802, and made the capital of the Department of the Roer. By the terms of the French Concordat of 1801 Aachen was made a bishopric subject to the Archbishop of Mechlin, and composed of 79 first class, and 754 second class, parishes. The first and only bishop was Marcus Antonius Berdolet (b. 13 September, 1740, at Rougemont, in Alsace 3; d. 13 August, 1809), who, for the most part, left the government of his diocese to his vicar-general, Martin Wilhelm Fonck (b. 28 October, 1752, at Goch; d. 26 June, 1830, as Provost of Cologne Cathedral). After the death of Bishop Berdolet the diocese was governed by Le Camus, Vicar General of Meaux; after his death, in 1814, by the two vicars-general Fonck and Klinkenberg. The Bull of Pius VII, "De Salute Animarum," dated 16 July, 1821 which regulated church matters in Prussia anew, did away with the bishopric of Aachen, and transferred most of its territory to the archdiocese of Cologne; a collegiate chapter, consisting of a provost and six canons, taking the place of the bishopric in 1825. In 1815 Aachen became Prussian territory. The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle sat there from 30 September to 11 November, 1818, and was attended by the sovereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, and by plenipotentiaries from France and England, to determine the relations between France and the Powers. France obtained a reduction of the war indemnity and the early departure of the army of occupation, and joined the Holy Alliance; the other four Powers guaranteed the throne of France to the Bourbons, against any revolution that might occur. Aachen, under Prussian government, returned to prosperity, chiefly through the development of the coal mines in the neighborhood, which facilitated several extensive industries (such as the manufacture of linen, needles, machinery, glass, woolen, and half-woollen stuffs, etc.), but also in consequence of the large number of visitors to its hot springs. The minster ranks first among the church buildings; it consists of three distinct parts: the octagon, the choir, and the crown, or ring, of chapels, the octagon forming the central portion. This last is the most important monument of Carolingian architecture, it was built between 796 and 804, in the reign of Charlemagne, by Master Odo of Metz, and modelled after the Italian circular church of San Vitale at Ravenna. It was consecrated by Pope Leo III. It is an eight-angled, domed building, 54 feet in diameter, with a sixteen-sided circumference of 120 feet, and a height of 124 feet. The interior of the dome is adorned with mosaics on a gold ground, executed by Salviati of Venice, in 1882, representing Our Lord surrounded by the four and twenty Ancients of the Apocalypse. The main building was decorated with marble and mosaics in 1902, after the designs of H. Schaper. Over the spot supposed to be the site of Charlemagne's grave hangs an enormous corona of lamps, the gift of the Emperor Frederick I, Barbarossa; in the choir of the octagon, the so-called upper minster, stands Charlemagne's throne, made of great-slabs of white marble, where, after the coronation, the German emperors received the homage of their nobles. The rich upper choir, built in Gothic style, joins on to the eastern side of the octagon; it was begun in the second half of the fourteenth century, and dedicated in 1414. The thirteen windows, each 100 feet high, have been filled with new coloured glass; on the pillars betwen them stand fourteen statues (the Mother of God, the Twelve Apostles, and Charlemagne), dating from the fifteenth century. Among the treasures of the choir should be mentioned the famous Gospel-pulpit, enriched with gold plates, the gift of the Emperor Henry II, the throne canopy of the fifteenth century the new Gothic high altar of 1876, and the memorial stone which marks the spot where the Emperor Otto III formerly lay. The lower portions of the bell-tower, to the west of the octagon, belong to the Carolingian period, the Gothic superstructure dates from 1884. Of the chapels which surround the whole building, the so-called Hungarian chapel contains the minster treasury, which includes a large number of relics, vessels, and vestments, the most important being those known as the four "Great Relics," namely, the cloak of the Blessed Virgin, the swaddling-clothes of the Infant Jesus, the loin-cloth worn by Our Lord on the Cross, and the cloth on which lay the head of St. John the Baptist after his beheading. They are exposed every seven years and venerated by thousands of pilgrims. Among the other Catholic churches of Aachen, the following may be mentioned: + the Church of Our Lady, a Gothic church in brick, built by Friederich Statz in 1859 + the Church of St. Foillan, the oldest parish church in the city, which dates, in its present form, from the Gothic period, and was renovated between 1883 and 1888; and + the Romanesque Church of St. James, built between 1877 and 1888. The most important secular building is the Rathaus, built between 1333 and 1350, on the site of, and out of the ruins of, Charlemagne's imperial palace, and completely renovated between 1882 and 1903. The facade is adorned with the statues of fifty-four German emperors, the great hall ( Kaisersaal) with eight frescoes from designs by Alfred Rethel. In Aachen there are foundations established by the Franciscans, Capuchins, Alexians, and Redemptorists. A number of female orders also have establishments, including: + the Sisters of St. Charles, + the Christensians, + the Sisters of St. Elizabeth, + the Franciscan Sisters, + the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, + the Sisters of the Poor Child Jesus, + the Carmelites, + the Ursulines, and + the Sisters of St. Vincent. COUNCILS OF AACHEN A number of important councils were held here in the early Middle Ages. In the mixed council of 798, Charlemagne proclaimed an important capitulary of eighty-one chapters, largely a repetition of earlier ecclesiastical legislation, that was accepted by the clergy and acquired canonical authority. At the council of 799, after a discussion of six days Felix, Bishop of Urgel, in Spain, avowed himself overcome by Alcuin and withdrew his heretical theory of Adoptianism. In the synods of 816, 817, 818, and 819, clerical and monastic discipline was the chief issue, and the famous "Regula Aquensis" was made obligatory on all establishments of canons and canonesses (see WESTERN MONASTICISM), while a new revision of the Rule of St. Benedict was imposed on the monks of that order by the reformer Benedict of Aniane. The synod of 836 was largely attended and devoted itself to the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline that had been gravely affected by the civil wars between Louis the Pious and his sons. From 860 to 862 three councils were occupied with the question of the divorce of King Lothaire I from his wife, Theutberga. In 1166 took place the famous schismatic council, approved by the Antipope Paschal III, in which was decreed the canonization of Charlemagne, that was solemnly celebrated 29 December of that year. JOSEPH LINS Aaron Aaron Brother of Moses, and High Priest of the Old Law. I. LIFE Altogether different views are taken of Aaron's life, according as the Pentateuch, which is the main source on the subject, is regarded as one continuous work, composed by Moses or under his supervision--hence most trustworthy in the narration of contemporary events--or as a compilation of several documents of divers origins and dates, strung together, at a late epoch, into the present form. The former conception, supported by the decisions of the Biblical Commission, is held by Catholics at large; many independent critics adopt the latter. We shall study this part of the subject under this twofold aspect, although dwelling longer, as is meet, on the former. (a) Traditional Catholic Standpoint According to I Paral., vi, 1-3, Aaron (the signification of whose name is unknown) was the great-grandson of Levi, and the second of the children of Amram and Jochabed, Mary being the eldest and Moses the youngest. From Ex., vii, 7, we learn that Aaron was born eighty-three, and Moses eighty years, before the Exodus. It may be admitted, however, that this pedigree is probably incomplete, and the age given perhaps incorrect. We know nothing of Aaron's life prior to his calling. The first mention of his name occurs when Moses, during the vision on Mount Horeb, was endeavouring to decline the perilous mission imposed upon him, on the plea that he was slow of speech and lacking in eloquence. Yahweh answered his objection, saying that Aaron the Levite, who was endowed with eloquence, would be his spokesman. About the same time Aaron also was called from on high. He then went to meet Moses, in order to be instructed by him in the designs of God; then they assembled the ancients of the people, and Aaron, who worked miracles to enforce the words of his divine mission, announced to them the good tidings of the coming freedom (Ex., iv). To deliver God's message to the King was a far more laborious task. Pharao harshly rebuked Moses and Aaron, whose interference proved disastrous to the Israelites (Ex., v). These latter, overburdened with the hard work to which they were subjected, bitterly murmured against their leaders. Moses in turn complained before God, who replied by confirming his mission and that of his brother. Encouraged by this fresh assurance of Yahweh's help, Moses and Aaron again appeared before the King at Tanis (Ps. lxxvii, 12), there to break the stubbornness of Pharao's will by working the wonders known as the ten plagues. In these, according to the sacred narrative, the part taken by Aaron was most prominent. Of the ten plagues, the first three and the sixth were produced at his command; both he and his brother were each time summoned before the King, both likewise received from God the last instructions for the departure of the people, to both was, in later times, attributed Israel's deliverance from the land of bondage; both finally repeatedly became the target for the complaints and reproaches of the impatient and inconsistent Israelites. When the Hebrews reached the desert of Sin, tired by their long march, fearful at the thought of the coming scarcity of food, and perhaps weakened already by privations, they began to regret the abundance of the days of their sojourn in Egypt, and murmured against Moses and Aaron. But the two leaders were soon sent by God to appease their murmuring by the promise of a double sign of the providence and care of God for His people. Quails came up that same evening, and the next morning the manna, the new heavenly bread with which God was to feed His people in the wilderness, lay for the first time round the camp. Aaron was commanded to keep a gomor of manna and put it in the tabernacle in memory of this wonderful event. This is the first circumstance in which we hear of Aaron in reference to the tabernacle and the sacred functions (Ex., xvi). At Raphidim, the third station after the desert of Sin, Israel met the Amalecites and fought against them. While the men chosen by Moses battled in the plain, Aaron and Hur were with Moses on the top of a neighbouring hill, whither the latter had betaken himself to pray, and when he "lifted up his hands, Israel overcame: but if he let therm down a little, Amalec overcame. And Moses' hands were heavy: so they took a stone, and put under him and he sat on it: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides" until Amalec was put to flight (Ex., xvii). In the valley of Mount Sinai the Hebrews received the Ten Commandments; then Aaron, in company with seventy of the ancients of Israel, went upon the mountain, to be favoured by a vision of the Almighty, "and they saw the God of Israel: and under his feet as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as the heaven when clear." Thereupon Moses, having entrusted to Aaron and Hur the charge of settling the difficulties which might arise, went up to the top of the mountain. His long delay finally excited in the minds of the Israelites the fear that he had perished. They gathered around Aaron and requested him to make them a visible God that might go before them. Aaron said: "Take the golden earrings from the ears of your wives, and your sons and daughters, and bring them to me." When he had received them, he made of them a molten calf before which he built up an altar, and the children of Israel were convoked to celebrate their new god. What was Aaron's intention in setting up the golden calf ? Whether he and the people meant a formal idolatry, or rather wished to raise up a visible image of Yahweh their deliverer, has been the subject of many discussions; the texts, however, seem to favour the latter opinion (cf. Ex., xxxii, 4). Be this as it may, Moses, at God's command, came down from the mountain in the midst of the celebration -- at the sight of the apparent idolatry, filled with a holy anger, he broke the Tables of the Law, took hold of the idol, burnt it and beat it to powder, which he strowed into the water. Then, addressing his brother as the real and answerable author of the evil: " What," said he, "has this people done to thee, that thou shouldst bring upon them a most heinous sin?" (Ex., xxxii 21). To this so well deserved reproach, Aaron made only an embarrassed answer, and he would undoubtedly have undergone the chastisement for his crime with the three thousand men (so with the best textual authority, although the Vulgate reads three and twenty thousand) that were slain by the Levites at Moses' command (Ex., xxxii, 28), had not the latter prayed for him and allayed God's wrath (Deut., ix, 20). In spite of the sin, God did not alter the choice he had made of Aaron (Hebr., v, 4) to be Israel's first High Priest. When the moment came, Moses consecrated him, according to the ritual given in Ex., xxix, for his sublime functions; in like manner Nadab, Abiu, Eleazar, and Ithamar, Aaron's sons he devoted to the divine service. What the high priesthood was, and by what rites it was conferred we shall see later. The very day of Aaron's consecration, God, by an awful example, indicated with what perfection sacred functions ought to be performed. At the incense-offering, Nadab and Abiu put strange fire into the censers and offered it up before the Lord, whereupon a flame, coming out from the Lord, forthwith struck them to death, and they were taken away from before the sanctuary vested with their priestly garments and cast forth out of the camp. Aaron whose heart had been filled with awe and sorrow at this dreadful scene, neglected also an important ceremony; but his excuse fully satisfied Moses and very likely God Himself, for no further chastisement punished his forgetfulness (Lev., x, Num., iii, 4, xxvi, 61). In Lev., xvi, we see him perform the rites of the Day of Atonement -- in like manner, to him were transmitted the precepts concerning the sacrifices and sacrificers (Lev., xvii, xxi, xxii). A few months later, when the Hebrews reached Haseroth, the second station after Mount Sinai, Aaron fell into a new fault. He and Mary "spoke against Moses, because of his wife the Ethiopian. And they said: Hath the Lord spoken by Moses only? " (Num., xii). From the entire passage, especially from the fact that Mary alone was punished, it has been surmised that Aaron's sin was possibly a mere approval of his sister's remarks; perhaps also he imagined that his elevation to the high priesthood should have freed him from all dependence upon his brother. However the case may be, both were summoned by God before the tabernacle, there to hear a severe rebuke. Mary, besides, was covered with leprosy; but Aaron, in the name of both, made amends to Moses, who in turn besought God to heal Mary. Moses' dignity had been, to a certain extent, disowned by Aaron. The latter's prerogatives likewise excited the jealousy of some of the sons of Ruben; they roused even the envy of the other Levites. The opponents, about two hundred and fifty in number, found their leaders in Core, a cousin of Moses and of Aaron, Dathan, Abiron, and Hon, of the tribe of Ruben. The terrible punishment of the rebels and of their chiefs, which had at first filled the multitude with awe, soon roused their anger and stirred up a spirit of revolt against Moses and Aaron who sought refuge in the tabernacle. As soon as they entered it " the glory of the Lord appeared. And the Lord said to Moses: Get you out from the midst of this multitude, this moment will I destroy them" (Num., xvi, 43-45). And, indeed, a burning fire raged among the people and killed many of them. Then again, Aaron, at Moses' order, holding his censer in his hand, stood between the dead and the living to pray for the people, and the plague ceased. The authority of the Supreme Pontiff, strongly confirmed before the people, very probably remained thenceforth undiscussed. God, nevertheless, wished to give a fresh testimony of His favour. He commanded Moses to take and lay up in the tabernacle the rods of the princes of the Twelve Tribes, with the name of every man written upon his rod. The rod of Levi's tribe should bear Aaron's name: "whomsoever of these I shall choose," the Lord had said "his rod shall blossom." The following day, when they returned to the tabernacle, they " found that the rod of Aaron . . . was budded: and that the buds swelling it had bloomed blossoms, which, spreading the leaves were formed into almonds." All the Israelites, seeing this, understood that Yahweh's choice was upon Aaron, whose rod was brought back into the tabernacle as an everlasting testimony. Of the next thirty-seven years of Aaron's life, the Bible gives no detail; its narrative is concerned only with the first three and the last years of the wandering life of the Hebrews in the desert, but from the events above described, we may conclude that the life of the new pontiff was passed unmolested in the performance of his sacerdotal functions. In the first month of the thirty-ninth year after the Exodus, the Hebrews camped at Cades, where Mary, Aaron's sister, died and was buried. There the people were in want of water and soon murmured against Moses and Aaron. Then God said to Moses: "Take the rod, and assemble the people together thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak to the rock before them, and it shall yield waters" (Num., xx, 8). Moses obeyed and struck the rock twice with the rod, so that there came forth water in great abundance. We learn from Ps. cv, 33, that Moses in this circumstance was inconsiderate in his words, perhaps when he expressed a doubt as to whether he and Aaron could bring forth water out of the rock. Anyway God showed himself greatly displeased at the two brothers and declared that they would not bring the people into the Land of Promise. This divine word received, four months later, its fulfilment in Aaron's case. When the Hebrews reached Mount Hor, on the borders of Edom, God announced to Moses that his brother's last day had come, and commanded him to bring him up on the mountain. In sight of all the people, Moses went up with Aaron and Eleazar. Then he stripped Aaron of all the priestly garments wherewith he vested Eleazar, and Aaron died. Moses then came down with Eleazar and all the multitude mourned for Aaron thirty days. Mussulmans honour on Djebel Nabi-Haroun a monument they call Aaron's tomb, the authenticity of this sepulchre, however, is not altogether certain. By his marriage with Elizabeth Nahason's sister four sons were born to Aaron. The first two, Nadab and Abiu, died without leaving posterity, but the descendants of the two others, Eleazar and Ithamar, became very numerous. None of them, however, honoured Aaron's blood as much as John the Baptist, who besides being the Precursor of the Messias, was proclaimed by the Word made Flesh "the greatest among them that are born of women" (Matt., xi, 11). (b) Independent Standpoint Aaron's history takes on an entirely different aspect when the various sources of the Pentateuch are distinguished and dated after the manner commonly adopted by independent critics. As a rule it may be stated that originally the early Judean narrative (J) did not mention Aaronif his name now appears here and there in the parts attributed to that source, it is most likely owing to an addition by a late redactor. There are two documents, principally, that speak of Aaron. In the old prophetic traditions circulating among the Ephraimites (E) Aaron figured as a brother and helper of Moses. He moves in the shadow of the latter, in a secondary position, as, for instance, during the battle against Amalec; with Hur, he held up his brother's hands until the enemy was utterly defeated. To Aaron, in some passages, the supreme authority seems to have been entrusted, in the absence of the great leader, as when the latter was up on Mount Sinai; but his administration proved weak, since he so unfortunately yielded to the idolatrous tendencies of the people. According to the document in question, Aaron is neither the pontiff nor the minister of prayer. It is Moses who raises his voice to God at the tabernacle (Ex., xxxiii, 7-10), and we might perhaps understand from the same place (v. 11) that Josue, not Aaron, ministers in the tent of meeting; in like manner, Josue, not Aaron, goes up with Moses on Mount Sinai, to receive the stone Tables of the Law (Ex., xxiv, 13). In the Priestly narratives (P) Aaron, on the contrary, occupies a most prominent place -- there we learn, indeed, with Aaron's pedigree and age, almost all the above-narrated particulars, all honourable for Moses' brother, such, for instance, as the part played by Aaron in the plagues, his role in some memorable events of the desert life, as the fall of the manna, the striking of water from the rock, the confirmation of the prerogatives of his priesthood against the pretensions of Core and the others, and, finally, the somewhat mysterious relation of his death, as it is found in Num., xx. From this analysis of the sources of his history Aaron's great personality has undoubtedly come out belittled, chiefly because of the reputation of the writer of the Priestly narrative; critics charge him with caste prejudices and an unconcealed desire of extolling whatever has reference to the sacerdotal order and functions, which too often drove him to exaggerations, upon which history can hardly rely, and even to forgeries. II. PRIESTHOOD Whatever opinion they adopt with regard to the historical value of all the traditions concerning Aaron's life, all scholars, whether Catholics or independent critics, admit that in Aaron's High Priesthood the sacred writer intended to describe a model, the prototype, so to say, of the Jewish High Priest. God, on Mount Sinai, instituting a worship, did also institute an order of priests. According to the patriarchal customs, the first born son in every family used to perform the functions connected with God's worship. It might have been expected, consequently, that Ruben's family would be chosen by God for the ministry of the new altar. According to the biblical narrative, it was Aaron, however, who was the object of Yahweh's choice. To what jealousies this gave rise later, has been indicated above. The office of the Aaronites was at first merely to take care of the lamp that should ever burn before the veil of the tabernacle (Ex., xxvii, 21). A more formal calling soon followed (xxviii, 1). Aaron and his sons, distinguished from the common people by their sacred functions, were likewise to receive holy vestments suitable to their office. When the moment had come, when the tabernacle, and all its appurtenances, and whatever was required for Yahweh's worship were ready Moses, priest and mediator (Gal., iii, 19), offered the different sacrifices and performed the many ceremonies of the consecration of the new priests, according to the divine instructions (Ex., xxix), and repeated these rites for seven days, during which Aaron and his sons were entirely separated from the rest of the people. When, on the eighth day, the High Priest had inaugurated his office of sacrificer by killing the victims. he blessed the people, very likely according to the prescriptions of Num., vi, 24-26, and, with Moses, entered into the tabernacle so as to take possession thereof. As they " came forth and blessed the people. And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the multitude: And behold a fire, coming forth from the Lord, devoured the holocaust, and the fat that was upon the altar: which when the multitude saw, they praised the Lord. falling on their faces" (Lev . ix. 23. 24 s So was the institution of the Aaronic priesthood inaugurated and solemnly ratified by God. According to Wellhausen's just remarks, Aaron's position in the Law with regard to the rest of the priestly order is not merely superior, but unique His sons and the Levites act under his superintendence (Num., iii, 4), he alone is the one fully qualified priest; he alone bears the Urim and Thummin and the Ephod -- he alone is allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, there to offer incense (Lev., xxiii, 27) once a year on the great Day of Atonement. In virtue of his spiritual dignity as the head of the priesthood he is likewise the supreme judge and head of the theocracy (Num., xxvii, 21- Deut., xvii). He alone is the answerable mediator between the whole nation and God, for this cause he bears the names of the Twelve Tribes written on his breast and shoulders; his trespasses involve the whole people in guilt, and are atoned for as those of the whole people, while the princes, when their sin offerings are compared with his, appear as mere private persons (Lev., iv, 3, 13, 22, ix, 7, xvi, 6). His death makes an epoch; it is when the High Priest, not the King, dies, that the fugitive slayer obtains his amnesty (Num., xxxv, 28). At his investiture he receives the chrism like a king and is called accordingly the anointed priest, he is adorned with a diadem and tiara like a king (Ex., xxviii), and like a king, too, he wears the purple, except when he goes into the Holy of Holies (Lev., xvi,4). Aaron, first High Priest of the Old Law, is most naturally a figure of Jesus Christ, first and sole Sovereign Priest of the New Dispensation. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews was the first to set off the features of this parallel, indicating especially two points of comparison. First, the calling of both Xigh Priests: "Neither doth any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called by God as Aaron was. So Christ also did not glorify himself, that he might be made a high priest, but he that said unto him: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" (Heb., v, 4, 5). In the second place, the efficacy and duration of both the one and the other priesthood. Aaron's priesthood is from this viewpoint inferior to that of Jesus Christ. If indeed, the former had been able to perfect men and communicate to them the justice that pleases God, another would have been useless. Hence its inefficacy called for a new one, and Jesus' priesthood has forever taken the place of that of Aaron (Heb., vii, 11-12) CHAS. L. SOUVAY Abaddon Abaddon A Hebrew word signifying: + ruin, destruction (Job 31:12); + place of destruction; the Abyss, realm of the dead (Job 26:6; Proverbs 15:11); + it occurs personified (Apocalypse 9:11) as Abaddon and is rendered in Greek by Apollyon, denoting the angel-prince of hell, the minister of death and author of havoc on earth. The Vulgate renders the Greek Apollyon by the Latin Exterminans (that is, "Destroyer"). The identity of Abaddon with Asmodeus, the demon of impurity, has been asserted, but not proved. In Job 26:6, and Proverbs 15:11, the word occurs in conjunction with Sheol. A.J. MAAS Abandonment Abandonment (More properly, Self-Abandonment) A term used by writers of ascetical and mystical books to signify the first stage of the union of the soul with God by conforming to His Will. It is described as the first step in the unitive or perfect way of approaching God by contemplation, of which it is the prelude. It implies the passive purification through which one passes by accepting trials and sufferings permitted by God to turn souls to Him. It implies also the desolation which comes upon the soul when relinquishing what it prizes inordinately in creatures, the surrender of natural consolations in order to seek God, and the loss for a time of the consciousness of strong and ardent impulses of the virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity; and finally aridity or a lack of fervent devotion in prayer and in other spiritual actions. According to some, it is equivalent to the "obscure night," described by St. John of the Cross, or the darkness of the soul in a state of purgation, without light, amid many uncertainties, risks, and dangers. It is also misused to express a quietistic condition of the soul, which excludes not only all personal effort, but even desires, and disposes one to accept evil with the fatalistic motive that it cannot be helped. JOHN J. WYNNE Pedro Abarca Pedro Abarca Theologian, born in Aragon in 1619; died 1 October, 1693, at Palencia. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1641, and passed almost all his religious life as professor of scholastic, moral, and controversial theology, chiefly in the University of Salamanca. Though not mentioned by Hurter in the "Nomenclator," he has left many theological works, among which are five volumes in quarto on the Incarnation and the Sacraments; one in quarto on Grace, and several minor treatises on moral and dogmatic subjects. He wrote also extensively on points of history, via: "The Historical Annals of the Kings of Aragon," "The First Kings of Pampeluna," and has left many manuscripts and one work, which he withheld, about the Church of del Pilar. T.J. CAMPBELL Abarim Abarim (Hebrew har ha'abharim, hare ha'abharim; Septuagint to oros to Abarim, en to peran tou Iordanou, mountain Abarim, mountains of Abarim). A mountain range across Jordan, extending from Mount Nebo in the north, perhaps to the Arabian desert in the south. The Vulgate (Deuteronomy 32:49) gives its etymological meaning as "passages." Its northern part was called Phasga, (or Pisgah) and the highest peak of Phasga was Mount Nebo (Deuteronomy 3:27; 34:1; 32:49; Numbers 23:14; 27:12; 21:20; 32:47). Balaam blessed Israel the second time from the top of Mount Phasga (Numbers 23:14); from here Moses saw the Land of Promise, and here Jeremias hid the ark (II Machabees 2:4-5). A.J. MAAS Abba Abba Abba is the Aramaic word for "father." The word occurs three times in the New Testament (Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). In each case it has its Greek translation subjoined to it, reading abba ho pater in the Greek text; abba, pater in the Latin Vulgate, and "Abba, Father" in the English version. St. Paul made use of the double expression in imitation of the early Christians, who, in their turn, used it in imitation of the prayer of Christ. Opinions differ as to the reason for the double expression in our Lord's prayer: + Jesus himself used it; + St. Peter added the Greek translation in his preaching, retaining the archaic direct address; + the Evangelist added the Greek translation; + St. Mark conformed to an existing Christian custom of praying by way of hysteron proteron. A.J. MAAS Antoine d'Abbadie Antoine d'Abbadie Astronomer, geodetist, genographer, physician, numismatist, philologian, born 1810; died March 20, 1897. While still a young man, he conceived the project of exploring Africa. Having prepared himself by six years' study, he spent ten years exploring Ethiopia, and achieved scientific results of the greatest value. D'Abbadie was a fervent Catholic, and during his explorations in Ethiopia made every effort to plant there the Catholic Faith. It was at his suggestion and that of his brother Arnauld, companion and colabourer of Antoine, that Gregory XVI sent missionaries to carry on the work. He published in the "Revue des Questions Scientifiques," the organ of the society, a work on the abolition of African slavery. He gave his estate, called Abbadia, in southern France, to the Academy of Sciences of Paris, to carry on research. His will provided, furthermore, for the establishment of an observatory at Abbadia, where a catalogue of 500,000 stars must be made, the work to be confided to religious andto be completed before 1950. His principal writings are: "Catalogue raisonné de manuscrits éthiopiens" (Paris, 1859); "Résumé Géodésique des positions déterminées en Ethiopie: (Paris, 1859); "Géodésie d'Ethiopie ou Triangulation d'une patrie de la haute Ethiopie: (4 vols., Paris, 1860-73);"Observations relatives à la physique du globe, faites au Brésil et en Ethiopie" (Paris, 1873); "Dictionnaire de la langue Amariñña." --II. Abbadie, Arnauld Michel D', geographer, younger brother of preceding, b. in Dublin, Ireland, 1815; d. 8 November, 1893. In 1837 he accompanied his brother's expedition to Abyssinia, where he soon acquired considerable influence, and never failed to employ it in the interest of the Catholic missions. His most important work is "Douze ans dans la haute Ethiopie" (Paris, 1868). THOMAS J. SHAHAN St. Abban of Magheranoidhe St. Abban of Magheranoidhe (Magheranoidhe is also rendered Murneave or Murnevin). Nephew of St. Ibar, the apostle of Wexford (a predecessor and contemporary of St. Patrick), flourished 570-620. He was the son of Cormac, King of Leinster, and he founded numerous churches in the district of Ui Cennselaigh, almost conterminous with the present County Wexford and Diocese of Ferns. His principal monastery was at Magheranoidhe, subsequently known as "Abbanstown," today, Adamstown; but he also founded an abbey at Rosmic-treoin, or New Ross, which afterwards became famous as a scholastic establishment. He died 16 March, 620. (See also ST. ABBAN OF NEW ROSS.) W.H. GRATTAN FLOOD St. Abban of New Ross St. Abban of New Ross Also known as St. Ewin, Abhan, or Evin, but whose name has been locally corrupted as "Stephen," "Neville," and "Nevin," was the contemporary and namesake of St. Abban of Magheranoidhe. contemporary. Some writers have confounded him with St. Evin of Monasterevan, County Kildare. Even Colgan (Followed by Dr. Lanigan) fell into the error of identifying Rosglas (Monasterevan) with Ros-mic-treoin (New Ross). St. Evin of Rosglas, author of the "Tripartite Life of St. Patrick," died 22 December, at his own foundation, afterwards called Monaster Evin (County Kildare), whereas St. Abban, or Evin of Ros-mic-treoin, died at Ross, County Wexford. W.H. GRATTAN FLOOD St. Abban the Hermit St. Abban the Hermit Though he lived in Abingdon (England), he was certainly an Irishman. He is commemorated on 13 May, though the year of his death is not definitely known. He was undoubtedly pre-Patrician. W.H. GRATTAN FLOOD Abbe Abbé A French word meaning primarily and strictly an abbot or superior of a monastery of men. It came eventually to be applied, in France, to every man who wears the dress of a secular ecclesiastic (Littré). This extension of meaning dates from the time of Francis I (1515-47), who, by consent of the Holy See, named secular clerics Abbots in commendam (See ABBOT, under III, Kinds of Abbot). During the following centuries the name was applied to clerics, often not in sacred Orders, engaged as professors or tutors, or in some similar capacity in the houses of the nobility. JOHN J. A'BECKET Jean Baptiste Abbeloos Jean Baptiste Abbeloos Orientialist, born 15 January, 1836, at Goyck, Belgium; died 25 February, 1906. He was educated in the seminary of Malines, 1849-60. After his ordination to the priesthood, 22 September, 1860, he studied at Louvain and Rome, devoting himself especially to Syriac language and literature. He received the degree of Doctor in Theology from the University of Louvain, 15 July, 1867, spent the following winter in London. and on his return to Belgium was appointed Professor of Holy Scripture in the seminary of Malines. Failing health obliged him to abandon the work of teaching, and he became, in 1876, pastor at Duffel. He was appointed in 1883 vicar-general under Cardinal Dechamps and help that position until 10 February, 1887, when he was appointed Rector of the University of Louvain. During his administration the University grew rapidly in equipment and organization. Abbeloos, although in the midst of his official duties, was always the scholar and the man of high ideals, whose word and example stimulated younger men to earnest work. Modest and unassuming, he realized nonetheless the significance of his position as rector of a great Catholic university, and he exerted his influence in behalf of Church and country so effectually that his retirement in 1900 occasioned regret both in the Universtiy and in the whole kingdom. His published work are: De vitâ et scriptis S. Jacobi Sarugensis (Louvain, 1867); Gregorii Barhebraei Chronicon Ecclesiasticum (Paris and Louvain, 1872-77); aacta Santi Maris (Brussels and Leipzig, 1885); Acta Mar Kardaghi Martyris (Brussels, 1900). E.A. PACE Abbess Abbess The female superior in spirituals and temporals of a community of twelve or more nuns. With a few necessary exceptions, the position of an Abbess in her convent corresponds generally with that of an Abbot in his monastery. The title was originally the distinctive appellation of Benedictine superiors, but in the course of time it came to be a applied also to the conventual superior in other orders, especially to these of the Second Order of St. Francis (Poor Clares) and to these of certain colleges of canonesses. HISTORICAL ORIGIN Monastic communities for women had sprung up in the East at a very early period. After their introduction into Europe, towards the close of the fourth century, they began to flourish also in the West, particularly in Gaul, where tradition ascribes the foundation of many religious houses to St. Martin of Tours. Cassian the great organizer of monachishm in Gaul, founded a famous convent at Marseilles, at the beginning of the fifth century, and from this convent at a later period, St. Caesarius (d. 542) called his sister Caesaria, and placed her over a religious house which he was then founding at Arles. St. Benedict is also said to have founded a community of virgins consecrated to God, and to have placed it under the direction of his sister St. Scholastica, but whether or not the great Patriarch established a nunnery, it is certain that in a short time he was looked upon as a guide and father to the many convents already existing. His rule was almost universally adopted by them, and with it the title Abbess came into general use to designate the superior of a convent of nuns. Before this time the title Mater Monasterii, Mater Monacharum, and Praeposisa were more common. The name Abbess appears for the first time in a sepulchral inscription of the year 514, found in 1901 on the site of an ancient convent of virgines sacræ which stood in Rome near the Basilica of St. Agnes extra Muros. The inscription commemorates the Abbess Serena who presided over this convent up to the time of her death at the age of eighty-five years: "Hic requieescit in pace, Serena Abbatissa S. V. quae vixzit annos P. M. LXXXV." MODE OF ELECTION The office of an Abbess is elective, the choice being by the secret suffrages of the sister. By the common law of the Church, all the nuns of a community, professed for the choir, and free from censures, are entitled to vote; but by particular law some constitutions extend the right of an active voice only to those who have been professed for a certain number of years. Lay sister are excluded by the constitutions of most orders, but in communities where they have the right to vote their privilage is to be respected. In nonexempt monasteries the election is presided over by the ordinary of the diocese of his vicar; in exempt houses, under the immediate jurisdiction of the Holy See, the Bishop likewish presides, but only as the delegate of the Pope. In those under the jurisdiction of a regular prelate the nuns are obliged to inform the diocesan of the day and time of election, so that if he wish, he or his representative may be present. The Bishop and the regular prelate preside jointly, but in no instance have they aa vote, not even a casting vote. And the Council of Trent prescribes, further, that "he who preside at the election, whether it be the Bishop or other superior, shall not enter the enclosure of the monastery, but shall listen to or receive the vote of each at the grille." (Cone. Trid., Sess. XXV, De regular, et monial., Cap. Vii.) The voting must be strictly secret, and if secrecy be not observed (whether through ignorance of the law or not), the election is null and void. A simple majority of votes for one candidate is sufficient for a valid election, unless the constitutions of an order require more than the bare majority. The result is to be proclaimed at once, by announcing the number of votes cast for each nun, so that in case of a dispute an immediate opportunity may be afforded for checking the vote. In case no candidate should receive the require number of votes, the Bishop or the regular prelate orders a new election, and for the time appoints a superior. If the community again fails to agree upon any candidate, the Bishop or other superior can nominate the one whom he judges to be the most worthy and depute her as Abbess. The newly appointed Abbess enters upon the duties of her office immediately after confirmation, which is obtained for non-exempt convents from the diocesan, and for exempt houses either from the regular prelate, if they be under his jurisdiction, or from the Holy See directly. (Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheca; Abbatisa.-Cf. Taunton, The Law of the Church.) ELIGIBILITY Touching the age at which a nun becomes eligible for the office, the discipline of the Church has varied at different times. Pope Leo I prescribed forty years. St. Gregory the Great insisted that the Abbesses chosen by the communities should be at least sixty-women to whom years had given dignity, discretion, and the power to withstand temptation. He very strongly prohibited the appointment of young women as Abbesses (Ep. 55 ch. xi). Popes Innocent IV and Boniface VIII, on the other hand, were both content with thirty years. According to the present legislation, which is that of the Council of Trent, no nun "can be elected as Abbess unless she has completed the fortieth year of her age, and the eighth year of her religious profession. "But should no one be found in any convent with these qualifications, one may be elected out of another convent of the same order. But if the superior who presides over the election shall deem even this an inconvenience, there may be chosen, with the convent of the Bishop or other superior, one from amongst those in the same convent who are beyond their thirtieth year, and have since their profession passed at least five of those years in an upright manner. . . In other particulars, the constitution of each order or convent shall be observed." (Conc. Trid., Sess, xxv, De regular. et monial., Cap. vii.) By various decision of the Sacred Congregation of the Council and of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, it is forbidden, without a dispensation from the Holy See, to elect a nun of illegitimate birth; one not of virginal integrity of body; or one who has had to undergo a public penance (unless it were only salutary); a widow; a blind or deaf nun; or one of three sisters alive at the same time in the same convent. No nun is permitted to vote for herself. (Ferraris, Prompta Bibliotheea; Abbatissa.-Taunton, op, cit.) Abbesses are generally elected for life. In Italy, however, and the adjacent islands, by the Bull of Gregory XIII. "Exposcit debitum" (1 January, 1583), they are elected for three years only, and then must vacate the office for a period of three years, during which time they cannot act even as vicars. RITE OF BENEDIICTION Abbesses elected for life can be solemnly blessed according to the rite prescribeed in the Pontificale Romanum. This benediction (also called ordination or consecration) they must seek, under pain of deprivation, within a year of their election, from the Bishop of the diocese. The ceremony, which take place during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, can be performed of any day of the week. No mention is made in the Pontificale of a conferring of the staff, customary in many places at the installation of an Abbess, but the rite is prescribed in many monastic rituals, and as a rule the Abbess, like the Abbot, bears the crosier as a symbol of her office and of her rank; she has also a right to the ring. The induction of an Abbess into office early assumed a liturgical character. St. Redegundis, in one of her letters, speaks of it, and informs us that Agnes, the Abbess of Sainte-Croix, before entering on her charge, received the solemn Rite of Benediction from St. Germain, the Bishop of Paris. Since the time of St. Gregory the Great, the blessing was reserved to the bishop of the diocese. At present some Abbesses are privileged to receive it from certain regular prelates. AUTHORITY OF ABBESS An Abbess can exercise supreme domestic authority ( potestas dominativa) over her monastery and all its dependencies, but as a female, she is debarred from exercising any power of spiritual jurisdiction, such as belongs to an abbot. She is empowered therefore to administer the temporal possessions of the convent; to issue commands to her nuns "in virtue of holy obedience", thus binding them in conscience, provided the obedience she demands be in accordance with the rule and statutes of the order; and to prescribe and ordain whatever may be necessary for the maintenance of discipline in the house, or conducive to the proper observance of the rule, and the preservation of peace and order in the community. She can also irritate directly, the vows of her professed sisters, and indirectly, those of the novices, but she cannot commute those vows, nor dispense from them. Neither can she dispense her subjects from any regular and ecclesiastical observances, without the leave of her prelate, though she can, in particular instance declare that a certain precept ceases to bind. She cannot publicly bless her nuns, as a priest or a prelate blesses, but she can bless them in the way that a mother blesses her children. She is not permitted to preach, though she may in chapter, exhort her nuns by conferences. An Abbess has, morever, a certain power of coercion, which authorizes her to impose punishments of a lighter nature, in harmony with the provisions of the rule, but in no instance has she a right to inflict the graver ecclesiastical penalties, such as censures. By the decree "Quemadmodum", 17 December, 1890, of Leo XIII, abbesses and other superiors are absolutely inhibited "from endeavouring, directly or indirectly, by command, counsel, fear, threats, or blandishments, to induce their subjects to make to them the secret manifestations of conscience in whatsoever manner or under what name soever." The same decree declares that permission or prohibition as to Holy Communion "belongs solely to the ordinary or extraordinary confessor, the superiors having no right whatever to interfere in the matter, save only the case in which any one of their subjects had given scandal to the community since. . . her last confession, or had been guilty of some grievous public fault, and this only until the guilty one had once more received the Sacrament of Penance." With regard to the administration of monastic property it must be noted that in affairs of greater moment an Abbess is always more or less dependent on the Ordinary, if subject to him, or on the regular prelate if her abbey is exempt. By the Constitution "Inscrutabili," 5 February, 1622, of Gregory XV, all Abbesses, exempt as well as non-exempt, are furthermore obliged to present an annual statement of their temporalities to the bishop of the diocese. In medieval times the Abbesses of the larger and more important houses were not uncommonly women of great power and distinction, whose authority and influence rivalled, at times, that of the most venerate bishops and abbots. In Saxon England, "they had often the retinue and state of princesses, especially when they came of royal blood. They treated with kings, bishops, and the greatest lords on terms of perfect equality;. . . they were present at all great religious and national solemnities, at the dedication of churches, and even, like the queens, took part in the deliberation of the national assemblies, and affixed their signatures to the charters therein granted." (Montalembert, "The Monks of the West," Bk. XV.) They appeared also at Church councils in the midst of the bishops and abbots and priests, as did the Abbess Hilda at the Synod of Whitby in 664, and the Abbess Elfleda, who succeeded her, at that of the River Nith in 705. Five Abbesses were present at the Council of Becanfield in 694, where they signed the decrees before the presbyters. At a later time the Abbess "took titles from churches impropriated to her house, presented the secular vicars to serve the parochia churches, and had all the privileges of a landlord over the temporal estates attached to her abbey. The Abbess of Shaftesbury, for instance, at one time, found seven knights' fees for the King's service and held manor courts, Wilton. Barking, and Nunnaminster, as well as Shaftesbury, 'held of the king by an entire barony,' and by right of this tenure had, for a period, the privilge of being summoned to Parliament." (Gasquet, "English Monastic Life," 39.) In Germany the Abbesses of Quedimburg, Gandersheim, Lindau, Buchau, Obermünster, etc., all ranked among the independent princes of the Empire, and as such sat and voted in the Diet as members of the Rhenish bench of bishops. They lived in princely state with a court of their own, ruled their extensive conventual estates like temporal lords, and recognized no ecclesiastic superior except the Pope. After the Reformation, their Protestant successors continued to enjoy the same imperial privileges up to comparatively recent times. In France, Italy, and Spain, the female superiors of the great monastic houses were likewise very powerful. But the external splendour and glory of medieval days have now departed from all. CONFESSION TO THE ABBESS Abbesses have no spiritual jurisdiction, and can excrcise no authority that is in any way connceted with the power of the keys or of orders. During the Middle Ages, however, attempts were not infrequently made to usurp this spiritual power of the priesthood, and we read of Abbesses who besides being guilty of many minor encroachments on the functions of the sacerdotal office, presumed to interfere even in the administration of the sacrament of penance and confessed their nuns. Thus, in the Capitularics of Charlemagne, mention is made of "certain Abbesses, who contrary to the established discipline of the Church of God, presume to bless the people, impose their hands on them, make the sign of the cross on the foreheads of men, and confer the veil on virgins, employing during that ceremony the blessing reserved exclusively to the priest," all of which practice the bishops are urged to forbid absolutely in their respective dioceses. (Thomassin, "Vetus et Nova Ecclesae Disciplina," pars I, lib. II, xii, no. 17.) The "Monastieum Cisterciense " records the stern inhibition which Innocent III, in 1220, place upon Cistercian Abbesses of Burgos and Palencia in Spain, "who blessed their religious, heard the confession of their sins, and when reading the Gospel, presumed publicly to preach." (Thomassin, op. cit., pars I, lib. III. xlix, no. 4.) The Pope characterized the intrusion of these women as a thing "unheard of, most indecorous, and highly preposterous." Dom Martene, the Benedictine savant, in his work "De Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus," speaks of other Abbesses who likewish confessed their nuns, and adds, not without a touch of humour, that "these Abbesses had evidently overated their spiritual powers a trifle." And as late as 1658, the Sacred Congregation Rites categorically condemned the acts of the Abbess of Fontevrault in France, who of her own authority, obliged the monks and nuns of her obedience to recite offices, say Masses, and observe rites and ceremonies which had never been sanctioned or approved of by Rome. (Analecta Juris Pontificii, VII, col. 348.) In this connection it must, however, be observed, that when the older monastic rule prescribe confession to the superor, they do not refer to sacramental confession, but to the "chapter of faults" or the culpa, at which the religious accuse themselves of ordinary external fault patent to all, and of minor infractions of the rule. This "confession" may be made either privately to the superior or publicly in the chapter-house; no absolution is given and the penance assigned is merely disciplinary. The "chapter of faults" is a form of religious exercise still practised in all the monasteries of the ancient orders. But reference must be made to certain exceptional cases, where Abbesses have been permitted, by Apstolical concession and privilege, it is alleged, to exercise a most extraordinary power of jurisdiction. Thus, the Abbess of the Cistercian Monastery of Santa Maria la Real de las Huelgas, near Burgos, in Spain, was, by the terms of her official protocol, a "noble lady, the superior, prclate, and lawful administratrix in spirituals and temporals of the said royal abbey, and of all the conents, churches, and hermitages of its filiation, of the villages and places under its jurisdiction, seigniory, and vassalage, in virtue of Bulls and Apostolical concessions, with plenary jurisdiction, privative, quasi-episopal, nullius diacesis." (Florez, "España sagada," XXVII, Madrid 1772, col. 578.) By the favour of the king, she was, moreover, invested with almost royal prerogatives, and exercised an unlimited secular authority over more than fifty villages. Like the Lord Bishops, she held heer own courts, in civil and criminal cases, granted letters dismissorial for ordination, and issued licenses authorizing priests, within the limits of her abbatial jurisdicttion, to hear confessions, to preach, and to engage in the cure of souls. She was privilege also to confirm Abbesses, to impose censures, and to convoke synods. ("España sagrada," XXVII, col. 581.) At a General Chapter of the Cistercians held in 1189, she was made Abbess General of the Order for the Kingdom of Leon and Castile, with the privilege of convoking annually a general chapter at Burgos. The Abbess of Las Huelgas retained her ancient prestige up to the time of the Council of Trent. A power of jurisdiction almost equal to that of the Abbess of Las Huelgas was at one time exercised by the Cistercian Abbess of Converano in Italy. Among the many privileges enjoyed by this Abbess may be specially mentioned, that of appointing her own vicar-general through whom she governed her abbatial territory; that of selecting and approving confessors for the laity; and that of authorizing clerics to have the cure of souls in the churches under her jurisdiction. Every newly appointed Abbess of Converano was likewise entitiled to receive the public "homage" of her clergy,--the ceremony of which was sufficiently elaborate. On the appointed day, the clergy, in a body repaired to the abbey; at the great gate of her monastery, the Abbess, with mitre and corsier, sat enthroned under a canopy, and as each member of the clergy passed before her, he made his obeisance, and kissed her hand. The clergy, however, wished to do away with the distasteful practice, and, in 1709, appealed to Rome; the Sacred Congregatior of Bishops and Regulars thereupon modified some of ceremonial details, but recognized the right of the Abbess to the homage. Finally, in 1750, the practice was wholly abolished, and the Abbess deprived of all her power of jurisdiction. (Cf. "Analecta Juris Pontificii," XXXVIII, col. 723: and Bizzari, "Collectanea," 322.) among other Abbesses said to have exercised like powers of jurisdiction, for aa period at least, may be mentioned the Abbess of Fontevrault in France, and of Quedlinburg in Germany. (Ferraris, "Biblioth. Prompta; Abbatissa.") PROTESTANT ABBESSES OF GERMANY In some parts of Germany, notably in Hanover, Wurtemberg, Brunswick, and Schleswig-Holstein, a number of Protestant educational establishments, and certain Lutheran sisterhoods are directed by superiors who style themselves Abbesses even to the present day. All these establishments were, at one time, Catholic convents and monasteries, and the "Abbesses" now presiding over them, are, in every instance, the Protestant successors of a former line of Catholic Abbesses. The transformation into Protestant community houses and seminaries was effected, of course, during the religious revolution of the sixteenth century, when the nuns who remained loyal to the Catholic faith were driven from the cloister, and Lutheran sisterhoods put in possessing of their abbeys. In many religious communities, Protestantism was forcibly imposed on the members, while in some few, particularly in North Germany, it was voluntarily embraced. But in all these houses, where the ancient monastic offices were continued the titles of the officials were likewise retained. And thus there have been, since the sixteenth century, both Catholic and Protestant Abbesses in Germany. The Abbey of Quedinburg was one of the first to embrace the Reformation. Its last Catholic Abbess, Magdalena, Princess of Anhalt, died in 1514. As early as 1539, the Abbess Anna II of Stolberg, who had been elected to the office when she was scarcely thirteen years of age, introduced Lutheranism in all the houses under her jurisdiction. The choir service in the abbey church was abandoned, and the Catholic religion wholly abrogated. The monastic offices were reduced to four, but the ancient official titles retained. Thereafter the institution continued as a Lutheran sisterhood till the secularization of the abbey in 1803. The last two Abbesses were the Princess Anna Amelia (d. 1787), sister of Frederick the Great, and the Princess Sophia Albertina (d. 1829), daughter of King Adolphus Frederick of Sweden. In 1542, under the Abbess Clare of the house of Brunswick, the Sclamalkaldic League forcibly imposed Protestantism on the members of the ancient and venerable Benedictinre Abbey of Gandersheim; but though the Lutheran intruders were driven out again in 1547 by Clare's father, Duke Henry the Younger, a loyal Catholic, Lutheranism was permanently introduced, a few years laater, by Julius, Duke of Brunswick. Margaret, the last Catholic Abbess, diied in 1589, and after that period Lutheran Abbesses were appointed to the foundation. These continued to enjoy the imperial privileges of their predecessors till 1802, when Gandersheim was incorporated with Brunswick. Among the houses of minor importance still in existence, the Abbey of Drubeck may be specially noticed. At one time a Catholic convent, it fell into Protestant hands during the Reformation. In 1687, the Elector Frederick William I of Brandenburg granted the revenues of the house to the Counts of Stolberg, stipulating, however, that women of noble birth and professing the Evangelical faith, should always find a home in the convent, be adequately provided for, and live there under the government of an Abbess. The wish of the Elector is apparently still respected. SECULAR ABBESS IN AUSTRIA In the Hradschin of Prague, there is a noted Catholic Imperial Institute, whose directress always bears the title Abbess. The institute, now the most exclusive and the best endowed of its kind in Austria, was founded in 1755 by the Empress Maria Theresa for impoverished noblewomen of ancient lineage. The Abbess is always an Austrian Archduchess, and must be at least eighteen years of age before she can assume the duties of her office. Her insignia are a pectoral cross, the ring, the staff, and a princely cornet. It was formerly an exclusive privilege of this Abbess to crown the Queen of Bohemia -- a ceremony last performed in 1808, for the Empress Maria Louisa. Candidates for admission to the Institute must be twenty-nine years of age, of irreproachable morals and able to trace back their noble ancestry, paternal and maternal, for eight generations. They make no vows, but live in community and are obliged to assist twice daily at divine service in the Stifskirche, and must go to confession and receive Holy Communion four times a year on appointed days. They are all Hoffähig. NUMBER AND DISTRIBUTION, BY COUNTRIES, OF ABBESSES The Abbesses of the Black Benedictines number at present 120. Of these there are 71 in Italy, 15 in Spain, 12 in Austro-Hungary, 11 in France (before the Associations Law), 4 in England, 3 in Belgium, 2 in Germany, and 2 in Switzerland. The Cisterecians of all Observances have a total of 77 Abbesses. Of these 74 belong to the Cisterecians of the Common Observance, who have most of their houses in Spain and in Italy. The Cistercians of the Strict Observance have 2 Abbesses in France and 1 in Germany. There are no Abbesses in the United States. In England the superior of the following houses are Abbesses: St. Mary's Abbey, Stanbrook, Worcesster: St. Mary's Abbey, East Bergholt, Suffolk; St. Mary's Abbey, Oulton, Staffordshire; St. Scholastica's Abbey, Teignmouth, Devon; St. Bridget's Abbey of Syon, Chudleigh, Devon (Brigttine); St. Clare's Abbey, Darlington, Durham (Poor Clares). In Ireland: Convent of Poor Clares, Ballyjamesduff. MONTALEMBERT, The Monks of the West (GASQUET'S ed., in 6 vols., New York, 1896), Bk. XV; GASQUET, English Monastic Life (London, 1808), viii; TAUSTON, The English Black Monks of St. Benedict (London, 1808), I, vi; TAUNTON, The Law of the Church (St. Louis, 1906), ECNENSTEIX, Women under Monasticism (London 1896), FERRAIS, Prompta Bibliotheca Canonica (Rome 1885); BIZZARRI, Collectanea S. C. Episc. Et Reg. (Rome 1885); PETRA, Comment. ad Constitut. Apostolicas (Rome 1705); THOMASSINI, Vetus et Nova Ecclesia Disciplina (Mainz, 1787); FAGNANI, Jus Conon., s. Comment. in Decret, (Cologne, 1704); TAMBURINI, De jure et privilegiis abbat. pralat., abbatiss., et monial (Cologne, 1691); LAURAIN, De Vinterrention des laiques, des diacres et des abbesses dans Vadministration de lapcnitence (Paris, 1897); SAGULLER, Lehrbuch des katholischen Kirchenrechts (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1904). THOMAS OESTREICH Abbey Abbey A monastery canonically erected and autonomous, with a community of not fewer than twelve religious; monks under the government of an abbot; nuns under that of an abbess. An autonomous priory is ruled by a superior who bears the title of prior instead of that of abbot; but this distinction was unknown in the first centuries of monastic history. Such were the twelve great cathedral priories of England, immediately governed by a prior, the diocesan being considered the abbot. Other priories were founded as cells, or offshoots from the great abbeys, and remained dependent on the parent house, by whose abbot the prior was appointed, and was removable at will. Originally the term monastery designated, both in the East and in the West, the dwelling either of a solitary or of a community; while caenobium, congregatio, fraternitas, asceterion, etc. were applied solely to the houses of communities. Monasteries took their names from either their locality, their founders, or from some monk whose life has shed lustre upon them; and later, from some saint whose relics were there preserved, or who was locally an object of special veneration. The monks of Egypt and Palestine, as may be gathered from the "Peregrinatio Etheriae," also selected for their monasteries sites famous for their connection with some biblical event or personage. The first monks generally settled in solitary places, away from the haunts of men, though sometimes they were to be found also in cities like Alexandria, Rome, Carthage, and Hippo. Monasteries, founded in country places, not infrequently gathered around them settlements which, particularly in England and Germany, in the course of time developed into great centres of population and industry. Many important towns owe their origin to this cause; but the tendency never showed itself in Africa and the East. Though the sites selected were often beautiful, many settlements, especially in Egypt, were of set purpose made amid arid deserts. Nor was this form of austerity confined to them. In the Middle Ages, the more dismal and savage did this site appear to be, the more did it appeal to the rigid mood of the Cistercians. Still, the preference, at least with the majority of the monks of the West, was for fertile lands, suitable for cultivation and agriculture. The formation of communities dates from pre-Christian times, as witness the Essenes; but the earliest Christian monastic foundations of which we have definite knowledge were simply groups of huts without any orderly arrangement, erected about the abode of some solitary famous for holiness and asceticism, around whom had gathered a knot of disciples anxious to learn his doctrine and to imitate his way of life. Communities that had outgrown the accommodation afforded by their monasteries founded branch houses, and thus propagated themselves like the swarming of a beehive. Bishops founded many monasteries, while others owed their existence to the piety of princes and nobles, who also generously endowed them. The Council of Chalcedon (451) forbade the foundation of any monastery without the permission of the local bishop, thus obviating the difficulties likely to arise from irresponsible action. This became the universal law, and it also safeguarded these institutions against disbandment or ruin, since they enjoyed a certain sacredness of character in popular estimation. Double monasteries were those in which dwelt communities both of men and women at one and the same time, under the government of a common superior, either an abbot or an abbess. The Emperor Justinian suppressed them in the East on account of the abuses which this arrangement might lead to; but the custom long prevailed in England, France, and Spain, where strict rules, keeping the sexes entirely separate at all times, minimized the danger of scandals. Examples of these were the houses of the Order of St. Gilbert of Sempringham; and in France, Faremoutiers, Chelles, Remiremont, etc. In the beginning, solitaries attached no importance whatever to the form of design of their dwellings. They made use of anything that Nature afforded, or their circumstances suggested. In the East, especially in Egypt, abandoned tombs and burial caves; in the West, cave and rude huts constructed of branches of trees, mud, or sun-dried bricks, and furnished with the barest necessities, sheltered many an early solitary. When the number of such solitaries in a certain locality grew, and huts increased in proportion, gradually they came to subject themselves to a common superior and to follow a common rule of life; but they had no common buildings except a church to which they all repaired for the Sunday services. At Tabennae on the Nile, in Upper Egypt, however, St. Pachomius laid the foundations of the coenobitical life, arranging everything in an organized manner. He built several monasteries, each containing about 1,600 separate cells laid out in lines as an encampment, where the monks slept and performed some of their manual tasks; but there were large halls for their common needs, as the church, refectory, kitchen, even an infirmary and a guest-house. An enclosure protecting all these buildings gave the settlement the appearance of a walled village; but every part was of the utmost simplicity, without any pretense to architectural style. It was this arrangement of monasteries, inaugurated by St. Pachomius, which finally spread throughout Palestine, and received the name of laurae, that is "lanes" or "alleys." In addition to these congregations of solitaries, all living in huts apart, there were caenobia, monasteries wherein the inmates lived a common life, none of them being permitted to retire to the cells of a laurae before they had therein undergone a lengthy period of training. In time this form of common life superseded that of the older laurae. Monasticism in the West owes its development to St. Benedict (480-543). His Rule spread rapidly, and the number of monasteries founded in England, France, Spain, and Italy between 520 and 700 was very great. More than 15,000 Abbeys, following the Benedictine Rule, had been established before the Council of Constance in 1415. No special plan was adopted or followed in the building of the first caenobia,or monasteries as we understand the term today. The monks simply copied the buildings familiar to them, the Roman house or villa, whose plan, throughout the extent of the Roman Empire, was practically uniform. The founders of monasteries had often merely to install a community in an already existing villa. When they had to build, the natural instinct was to copy old models. If they fixed upon a site with existing buildings in good repair, they simply adapted them to their requirements, as St. Benedict did at Monte Cassino, not disdaining to turn to Christian uses what had before served for the worship of idols. The spread of the monastic life gradually effected great changes in the model of the Roman villa. The various avocations followed by the monks required suitable buildings, which were at first erected not upon any premeditated plan, but just as the need for them arose. These requirements, however, being practically the same in every country, resulted in practically similar arrangements everywhere. The monastic lawgivers of the East have left no written record of the principal parts of their monasteries. St. Benedict, however, mentions the chief component parts with great exactness, in his Rule, as the oratory, dormitory, refectory, kitchen, workshops, cellars for stores, infirmary, novitiate, guest-house, and by inference, the conference-room or chapter-house. These, therefore, find a place in all Benedictine abbeys, which all followed one common plan, occasionally modified to suit local conditions. The chief buildings were arranged around a quadrangle. Taking the normal English arrangement, it will be found that the church was situated as a rule on the north side, its high and massive walls affording the monks a good shelter from the rough north winds. The buildings of the choir, presbytery, and retrochapels extending more to the east, gave some protection from the biting east wind. Canterbury and Chester, however, were exceptions, their churches being on the southern side, where also they were frequently found in warm and sunny climates, with the obvious purpose of obtaining some shelter from the heat of the sun. The choir was ordinarily entered, in the normally planned English monasteries, by a door at the junction of the northern and eastern cloisters, another door at the western end of the north cloister being reserved for the more solemn processions. Although in the course of time there came into existence private rooms (chequer or saccarium) wherein the officials transacted their business, and later still private cells are to be met with, the cloisters were, in the main, the dwelling-place of the entire community, and here the common life was lived. The northern cloister, looking south, was the warmest of the four divisions. Here was the prior's seat, next to the door of the church; then those of the rest, more or less in order. The abbot's place was at the northeastern corner. The novice-master with his novices occupied the southern portion of the eastern cloister, while the junior monks were opposite in the western limb. The cold, sunless, southern walk was not used; but out of it opened the refectory, with the lavatory close at hand. In Cistercian houses it stood at right angles to the cloister. Near the refectory was the conventual kitchen with its various offices. The chapter-house opened out of the eastern cloister, as near the church as possible. The position of the dormitory was not so fixed. Normally, it communicated with the southern transept, hence it was over the eastern cloister; occasionally it stood at right angles to it, as at Winchester, or on the western side, as at Worcester. The infirmary usually appears to have been to the east of the dormitory, but no fixed position was assigned to it. The guest-house was situated where it would be least likely to interfere the privacy of the monastery. In later days, when books had multiplied, a special building for the library was added, at right angles to one of the walks of the cloister. To these may be added the calefactory, the parlour, or locutorium, the almonry, and the offices of the obedientiaries; but these additional buildings fitted into the general plan where they best might, and their disposition differed somewhat in the various monasteries. The English Cistercian houses, of which there are so many extensive and beautiful remains, were mainly arranged after the plan of Citeaux, in Burgundy, the mother-house, with slight local variations. The Carthusian monastery differed considerably in its arrangements from those of other orders. The monks were practically hermits, and each occupied a small detached cottage, containing three rooms, which they left only to attend the services of the church and on certain days when the community met together in the refectory. These cottages opened out of three sides of a quadrangular cloister, and on the fourth side were the church, refectory, chapter-house, and other public offices. Both laurae and caenobium were surrounded by walls which protected the inmates either from the intrusion of seculars or from the violence of marauders. No monk might go beyond this enclosure without permission. The monks of the earlier period considered this separation from the outer world as a matter of prime importance. Women were never permitted to enter the precincts of monasteries for men; even access to the church was oftentimes denied them, or, if accorded admission, as at Durham, they were relegated to a strictly limited space, farthest removed from the monks' choir. Even greater strictness was observed in safe-guarding the enclosure of nuns. The danger of attack from Saracen hordes necessitated, in the case of Eastern monasteries, the erection of lofty walls, with only one entrance place many feet above the ground, reached by a stairway or drawbridge that could be raised for defense. The monks of the West, not standing in fear of such incursions, did not need such elaborate safeguards, and therefore contented themselves with ordinary enclosure walls. A religious of mature age and character was selected for the responsible office of porter, and to act as the channel of communication between the inmates and the outside world. His chamber was always close by, so that he might be at hand to fulfill his duties of receiving the poor and of announcing the arrival of guests. In the Egyptian monasteries the guest-house, situated near the entrance gateway, was place under the charge of the porter, who was assisted by the novices. St. Benedict so arranged that it should be a building distinct from the monastery itself, although within the enclosure. It had its own kitchen, served by two of the brethren appointed for that purpose annually; a refectory where the abbot took his meals with distinguished guests, and, when he thought fit, invited some of the seniors to join him there; an apartment for the solemn reception of guests, in which the ceremony of washing their feet, as prescribed by the Rule was performed by the abbot and his community; and a dormitory suitably furnished. Thus the guests received every attention due to them by the laws of charity and hospitality, and the community, while gaining the merit of dispensing them in a large-hearted way, through the appointed officials, suffered no disturbance of their own peace and quiet. It was usual for the buildings dedicated for hospitality to be divided into four: one for the reception of guests of distinction, another for poor travelers and pilgrims, a third for merchants arriving on business with the cellarer, and the last for monk-visitors. Formerly, as now, monastic communities always and everywhere extended a generous hospitality to all comers as an important way of fulfilling their social duties; hence monasteries lying on or near the main highways enjoyed particular consideration and esteem. Where guests were frequent and numerous, the accommodation provided for them was on a commensurate scale. And as it was necessary for great personages to travel accompanied by a crowd of retainers, vast stables and other outhouses were added to these monastic hostels. Later xenodochia, or infirmaries, were attached to these guest-houses, where sick travelers could receive medical treatment. St. Benedict ordained that the monastic oratory should be what its name implied, a place exclusively reserved for public and private prayer. In the beginning it was a mere chapel, only large enough to hold the religious, since externs were not admitted. The size of these oratories were gradually enlarged to meet the requirements of the liturgy. There was also usually an oratory, outside the monastic enclosure, to which women were admitted. The refectory was the common hall where the monks assembled for their meals. Strict silence was observed there, but during the meals one of the brethren read aloud to the community. The refectory was originally built on the plan of the ancient Roman triclinium, terminating in an apse. The tables were ranged along three sides of the room near the walls, leaving the interior space for the movements of the servers. Near the door of the refectory was invariably to be found the lavatory, where the monks washed their hands before and after meals. The kitchen, was, for convenience, always situated near the refectory. In the larger monasteries separate kitchens were provided for the community (where the brethren performed the duties in weekly turns), the abbot, the sick, and the guests. The dormitory was the community bed-chamber. A lamp burned in it throughout the night. The monks slept clothed, so as to be ready, as St. Benedict says, to rise without delay for the night Office. The normal arrangement, where the numbers permitted it, was for all to sleep in one dormitory, hence there were often very large; sometimes more than one was required. The practice, however, gradually came in of dividing the large dormitory into numerous small cubicles, one being allotted to each monk. The latrines were separated from the main buildings by a passage, and were always planned with the greatest regard to health and cleanliness, a copious supply of running water being used wherever possible. Although St. Benedict makes no specific mention of a chapter-house, nevertheless he does order monks to "come together presently after supper to read the 'Collations.'" No chapter-house appears on the plan of the great Swiss monastery of St. Gall, dating back to the ninth century; in the early days, therefore, the cloisters must have served for the meetings of the community, either for instruction or to discuss the affairs of the monastery. But convenience soon suggested a special place for these purposes, and there is mention of chapter-rooms in the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (817). The chapter-room was always on the cloister level, on to which it opened. The cloisters, though covered, were generally open to the weather, and were an adaptation of the old Roman atrium. Besides providing a means of communication between the various parts of the monastery, they were both the dwelling-place and the workshop of the monks, and thus the word cloister became a synonym for the monastic life. How the monks managed to live in these open galleries during the winter months, in cold climates, is a mystery; a room, called a "calefactory," heated by flues, or in which a fire was kept up, where the monks might retire occasionally to warm themselves, was provided in English monasteries. On the Continent the practice in regard to the novices differed somewhat from that prevailing in England. Not being as yet incorporated into the community, they were not permitted to dwell in the interior of the monastery. They had their places in choir during the Divine Office, but they spent the rest of their time in the novitiate. A senior monk, called the novice-master, instructed them in the principles of the religious life, and "tried their spirits if they be of God," as St. Benedict's Rule prescribed. This period of probation lasted a whole year. Abroad, the building set apart for the novices was provided with its own dormitory, kitchen, refectory, workroom, and occasionally even its own cloisters; it was, in fact, a miniature monastery within a larger one. The infirmary was a special building set apart for the accommodation of the sick and infirm brethren, who there received the particular care and attention they needed, at the hands of those appointed to the duty. A herbal garden provided many of the remedies. When death had brought its reward, the monks were laid to rest in a cemetery within the monastic precincts. The honour of burial amongst the religious, a privilege highly esteemed, was also sometimes accorded bishops, royal personages, and distinguished benefactors. No monastery was complete without its cellars for the storing of provisions. There were, in addition, the granaries, barns, etc., all under the care of the cellarer, as also such buildings and outhouses as were used for agricultural purposes. Gardens and orchards provided such vegetables and fruit as were cultivated in the Middle Ages. The work of the fields did not, however, occupy all the time of the monks. Besides cultivating the arts, and transcribing manuscripts, they plied many trades, such as tailoring, shoe-making, carpentering, etc., while others baked the bread for daily consumption. Most monasteries had a mill for grinding their own corn. It will thus be seen that an Abbey, especially if it maintained a large community, was a little city, self-contained and self-sufficing, as St. Benedict wished it to be, to obviate as far as possible any necessity for the monks to leave the enclosure. The enormous development of the monastic life brought in its train a similar development in the accommodation suitable for it. The monastic buildings, at first so primitive, grew in time till they presented a very imposing appearance; and the arts were requisitioned and ancient models of architecture copied, adapted, and modified. The Basilican plan, indigenous to Italy, was, naturally, that first adopted. Its churches consisted of a nave and aisles, lighted by clerestory windows, and terminating in a semicircular sanctuary or apse. As time went on, the round arch, typical of Basilican and Romanesque architecture, gradually gave place to the pointed arch, peculiar to the new Gothic style, which is defined as "perfected Romanesque." In England a tendency developed of making the sanctuary rectangular instead of apsidal. The Normans adopted this arrangement; and in their church-planning the English oblong type of chancel gradually took the place of the Romanesque and continental apse, and the Basilica plan was abandoned for that of the Gothic, of a crossing or transept, separating nave from chancel, the latter being extended to make room for the choir. The final evolution of the style peculiar to England is due to the Cistercians, the characteristic of whose Abbeys was extreme simplicity and the absence of needless ornament; their renunciation of the world was evidenced in all that met the eye. Pinnacles, turrets, traceried windows, and stained glass were, in their early days at least, proscribed. And during the twelfth century Cistercian influence predominated throughout Western Europe. The Cistercian churches of this period, Fountains, Kirkstall, Jervaulx, Netly, and Tintern, have rectangular chancels. These and other twelfth century churches belong to what is known as the Transitional or Pointed Norman style. Then followed the greater elaboration of Early and Decorated English, as seen at Norwich and Worcester, or rebuilt Westminster, culminating in the splendours of the Perpendicular, or Tudor style, of which Henry VII's Chapel, at Westminster, is so superb an example. Few English Abbeys of note, however, were of homogeneous architecture; in fact, the mixture of styles, though sometimes almost bewildering, adds to what is left of these stately piles a greater picturesqueness ever pleasing to archaeologist and artist. The routine of a monastery could be maintained and supervised only by the delegation of some of the abbot's authority to various officials, who thus shared with him the burden of rule and administration, and the transaction of business--considerable and ever increasing in volume, where a large and important monastery was concerned. The rule was exercised in subordination to the abbot by the claustral prior and sub-prior; the administration, by officials termed obedientiaries who possessed extensive powers in their own spheres. Their number varied in different houses; but the following were the ordinary officials, together with their duties, most commonly named in old Customals: The cantor, or precentor, regulated the singing in the church service, and was assisted by the succentor or sub-cantor. He trained the novices to render the traditional chant properly. In some places he acted as master to the boys of he claustral school. He was the librarian and archivist, and in this capacity, had charge of the precious tomes and manuscripts preserved in a special aumbry or book-cupboard, and had to provide the choirbooks and those for reading in the refectory. He prepared and sent round the briefs, or mortuary-rolls, announcing the death of any of the brethren to other monasteries. He was also one of the three official custodians of the convent seal, holding one of the keys to the chest where it was kept. To the sacrist and his assistants was committed the care of the church fabric, together with its sacred plate and vestments. He had to see to the cleaning and lighting of the church, its decking for great festivals, and the vestments used by the sacred vestments. The cemetery was also under his charge. To his office pertained the lighting of the entire of the entire monastery: and thus he superintended the candle-making, and bought the necessary stores of wax, tallow, and cotton for wicks. He slept in the church, and took his meals near at hand, so that day and night the church was never left without a guardian. His chief assistants were a revestiarius, who saw to the vestments, the linen, and the hangings of the church, and was responsible for their being kept in repair, or replaced when worn out; and the treasurer, who was in special charge of the shrines, reliquaries, sacred vessels, and other plate. The cellarer was the purveyor of all food-stuffs and drink for the use of the community. This entailed frequent absences, and hence exemption from much of the ordinary choir duties. He had charge of the hired servants, whom he alone could engage, dismiss, or punish. He superintended the serving up of the meals. To his office belonged the supplying of fuel, carriage of goods, repairs of the house, etc. He was aided by a sub-cellarer and, in the bakery, by a granatorius, or keeper of the grain, who saw to the grinding and quality of flour. The refectorian had charge of the refectory, or "fratry," keeping it clean, supplied with cloths, napkins, jugs, and dishes, and superintended the laying of the tables. To him, too, was assigned the care of the lavatory, and the providing it with towels and, if necessary, hot water. The office of the kitchener was one of great responsibility, for to him fell the portioning out of the food, and it was only great experience which could preserve the happy mean between waste and niggardliness. He had under him an emptor, or buyer, experienced in marketing. He had to keep a strict account of his expenditures and of the stores, presenting in books weekly to the abbot for examination. He presided over the entire kitchen department, seeing particularly that all the utensils were kept scrupulously clean. The discharge of his duty entailed frequent exemption from choir. The weekly servers helped in the kitchen, under the kitchener's orders, and waited at table during the meals. The concluded their week's work on Saturday evenings by washing the feet of the brethren. The infirmarian had to tend the sick with affectionate sympathy, and, as far as might be necessary, was excused from regular duties. If a priest, he said Mass for the sick; if not, he got a priest to do so. He always slept in the infirmary, even when there were no sick there, so as to be found on the spot in case of emergency. The curious practice of blood-letting, looked on as so salutary in ancient times, was carried out by the infirmarian. The chief duty of the almoner was to distribute the alms of the monastery, in food and clothing, to the poor, with kindness and discretion; and; while ministering to their bodily wants, he was not to forget those of their soul also. He superintended the daily maundy or washing of the feet of the poor selected for that purpose. Another of his duties was to take charge of any school, other than the claustral school, connected with the monastery. To him also fell the task of seeing to the circulation of the mortuary-rolls. In medieval days the hospitality extended to travelers by the monasteries was of such constant occurrences that the guest-master required a full measure of tact, prudence, and discretion, as well as affability, since the reputation of the house was in his keeping. His first duty was to see that the guest-house always ready for the reception of visitors, whom he was to receive, as enjoined by the Rule, as he would Christ Himself, and during their stay to supply their wants, entertain them, conduct them to the church services, and generally to hold himself at their disposal. The chief duties of the chamberlain of a monastery were concerned with the wardrobe of the brethren, repairing or renewing their worn-out garments, and preserving cast-off clothes for distribution to the poor by the almoner. He had also to superintend the laundry. As it belonged to him to provide cloth and other material for the clothing, he had to attend the neighbouring fairs to purchase his stock. On him, too, devolved the task of making preparation for the baths, feet-washing, and shaving of the brethren. The novice-master was of course one of the most important officials in every monastery. In church, in the refectory, in the cloister, in the dormitory, he kept a watchful control over the novices, and spent the day teaching them and exercising them in the rules and traditional practices of the religious life, encouraging and helping those who showed real signs of a monastic vocation. The weekly officials included, besides the servers already referred to, the reader in the refectory, who was enjoined to make careful preparation so as to avoid mistakes. Also, the antiphoner whose duty it was to read the invitatory at Matins, intone the first antiphon of the Psalms, the versicles and responsories, after the lessons, and the capitulum, or little chapter, etc. The hebdomadarian, or priest of the week, had to commence all the various canonical Hours, give all the blessings that might be required, and sing the High Mass each day. The greater Abbeys in England were represented through their superiors in Parliament, in Convocations, and in Synod. Their superiors were regularly included in the Commissions of Peace, and in all things acted as, and were considered the equals of, their great feudal neighbours. The alms bestowed on the poor by the monasteries, together with those furnished by law, by the parish priests, served to support them without recourse to the more recent poor-laws. The lot of the poor was lightened, and they knew that they could turn for help.and sympathy to the religious houses. Poverty as witnessed in these days was impossible in all the Middle Ages, because the monks, spread over all the country, acted as merely stewards of God's property, and dispensed it, if lavishly, yet with discretion. The relations between the monks and their tenants were uniformly kindly; the smaller cottagers were treated with much consideration, and if it became necessary to inflict fines, justice was tempered with mercy. The monastic manors were worked somewhat on the principle of a co-operative farm. If we may form a judgment on the whole of England from the "Durham Halmote Rolls," the conditions of village life left little to be desired. Provisions for watching over the public health were enforced, a guard kept over water supplies, stringent measures taken in regard to springs and wells, and the cleansing of ponds and milldams. A common mill ground the tenants' corn, and their bread was baked in a common oven. The relation of the monks to their peasant-tenants was rather that of rent-chargers than of absolute owners. HENRY NORBERT BIRT Abbo Cernuus Abbo Cernuus ("The crooked"). French Benedictine monk of St-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, sometimes called Abbo Parisiensis. He was born about the middle of the ninth century, was present at the siege of Paris by the Normans (885-86), and wrote a description of it in Latin verse, with an account of subsequent events to 896, "De bellis Parisiacae urbis." He also left some sermons for the instructions of clerics in Paris and Poictiers (P.L., CXXII). THOMAS WALSH St. Abbon St. Abbon (Or ABBO.) Born near Orléans c. 945; died at Fleury, 13 November, 1004, a monk of the Benedictine monastery of Fleury sur Loire (Fleuret), conspicuous both for learning and sanctity, and one of the great lights of the Church in the stormy times of Hugh Capet of France and of the three Ottos of Germany. He devoted himself to philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. In early life he was called to England to direct the school of the newly founded monastery of Ramsey, in the County of Huntingdon, after which he returned to Fleury. On the death of the Abbot Oilbold, Abbon was selected to succeed him, but one of the monks who had secured the support of the King and his son Robert, the Bishop of Orléans, contested the choice, and the matter assumed national importance in the political forces it brought into play. It was finally settled by the famous Gerbert (later Pope Sylvester II) in favour of Abbon. He was present at the Synod of St. Basolus (St. Basle), near Reims, at which Archbishop Arnolf was tried for treason and deposed, to make way for Gerbert.When the question arose about the marriage of Robert the Pious and Bertha, Abbon was commissioned to arrange it with the Pope. On the way to Rome he met Pope Gregory V, who was a fugitive from the city from which the Antipope John XVII had expelled him. Between the Pontiff and the Abbot the greatest esteem and affection existed. The royal petition for a dispensation was rejected. Abbon succeeded in bringing about the restoration of Arnulf to the see of Reims. His influence contributed largely to calm the excitement about the fear of the end of the world which is said to have been general in Europe in 1000. His glourious life had a sad ending. In 1004 he attemped to restore discipline in the monastery of La Reole, in Gascony, by transferring some of the monks of Fleury into that community. But the trouble increased; fighting began between the two parties and when St. Abbon endeavoured to separate them he was pieced in the side by a lance. He concealed the wound and reached his cell, where he died in the arms of his faithful disciple Aimoin, who has left an account of his labours and virtues. The miracles wrought at his tomb soon caused him to be regarded in the Church of Gaul as a saint and martyr. His feast is kept 13 November. Cochard, Les Saints de l'église d'Orléans (1879), 362-383; The Month (1874), XX, 163; XXI, 28-42; Sackur, Die Cluniacenser (1892), I, 270, 297; Pardiac, Hist. de St. Abbon de Fleury (Paris, 1872). T.J. CAMPBELL Abbot Abbot A title given to the superior of a community of twelve or more monks. The name is derived from abba, the Syriac form of the Hebrew word ab, and means "father". In Syria, where it had its origin, and in Egypt, it was first employed as a title of honour and respect, and was given to any monk of venerable age or of eminent sanctity. The title did not originally imply the exercise of any authority over a religious community. From the East the word passed over to the West, and here it was soon received into general use to designate the superior of an abbey or a monastery. In this article we shall treat: I. Historical Origin; II. Nature of the Office; III. Kinds of Abbots; IV. Mode of Election; V. Benediction of the Abbot; VI. Authority; VII. Rights and Privileges; VIII. Assistance at Councils; IX. Distribution of Abbots. I. HISTORICAL ORIGIN Monastic communities were first organized in Egypt at the beginning of the fourth century. St. Anthony introduced one form of community life the eremitical when, about the year A.D. 305, he undertook the direction and organization of the multitude of hermits who had gathered about him in the Thebaid; a second -- the coenobitical, or conventual, type of monachism -- was instituted by St. Pachomius, who, about the same time, founded his first coenobium, or conventual monastery, at Tabennae in the far south of Egypt. Both systems spread rapidly and were soon firmly established in Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. By the middle of the fourth century monachism had also made its appearance in Europe, and here, at the beginning of the sixth, St. Benedict of Nursia, gave it the definite form and constitution which ultimately assured its triumph in the West. Every group of hermits and every coenobium naturally had its superior. The title given him varied. In the East he was usually styled the elder, the senior, or also father of the monastery. In Asia Minor and among the Greeks generally he was called archimandrite ( archos, a chief, and mandra, a fold, monastery) or hegumenos. Originally there seems to have been no appreciable difference in the signification of these two words, but after the period of Justinian the title archimandrite was jealously reserved for the superiors of the older or of the more important monasteries. Both names have, however, been permanently retained, and are to this day the titles given to monastic superiors in the Eastern Church. Cassian, who at the beginning of the fifth century had transplanted Egyptian monachism to Gaul, was addressed as Abbas, Pater, and Dominus; he himself termed the superior of the monastery Praepositus. The word praepositus, in the signification of a monastic ruler, appears also in Roman Africa and elsewhere in the West, but towards the close of the fifth century it had been almost entirely supplanted by the term abbas. St. Benedict, in his Rule, written about 529, assigned a subordinate position in the community to the praepositus, and restricted the use of the title abbas to the superior of the monastery. Through the Rule of the great Patriarch of Western Monachism the application of the title abbas was definitely fixed, and its use made general in the West. II. NATURE OF THE OFFICE St. Benedict's conception of a monastic community was distinctly that of a spiritual family. Every individual monk was to be a son of that family, the, Abbot its father, and the monastery its permanent home. Upon the Abbot therefore, as upon the father of a family, devolves the government and direction of those who are committed to his dare, and a paternal solicitude should characterize his rule. St. Benedict says that "an abbot who is worthy to have the charge of a monastery ought always to remember by what title he is called," and that "in the monastery he is considered to represent the person of Christ, seeing that he is called by His name" (Rule of St. Benedict, ii). The monastic system established by St. Benedict was based entirely upon the supremacy of the abbot. Though the Rule gives directions as to an abbot's government, and furnishes him with principles upon which to act, and binds him to carry out certain prescriptions as to consultation with others in difficult matters etc., the subject is told to obey without question or hesitation the decision of the superior. It is of course needless to say that this obedience did not extend to the commission of evil, even were any such command ever imposed (Gasquet, English Monastic Life, London, 1904, p. 42). The obedience shown to the Abbot is regarded as obedience paid to God Himself, and all the respect and reverence with which he is treated by the brethren of his house is paid him for Christ's love, because as abbot -- father -- he is the representative of Christ in the midst of the brethren. The whole government of a religious house depends upon the Abbot. His will is supreme in all things; yet, as the Rule says, nothing is to be taught, commanded, or ordered beyond the precepts of the Lord. All the officials who are to assist him in the government of the house, are appointed by him and have their authority from him. He may dismiss them at his discretion. The Abbot, by virtue of his office, administers the temporal possessions of the community, exercises a general supervision for the maintenance of monastic discipline, provides for the keeping of the Rule, punishes and, if need be, excommunicates the refractory, presides in choir during the recitation of the Office, and at Divine Service, and gives the blessings. In a word, uniting in his person the threefold office of father, teacher, and ruler, it is the duty of the Abbot to see that all things are administered wisely in the House of God. III. KINDS OF ABBOTS An Abbot canonically elected and confirmed, and exercising the duties of his office, is by the law of the Church styled a Regular Abbot. Regular Abbots are prelates in the full sense of the word, and their dignity is of three grades. An Abbot who presides only over such persons, ecclesiastical and lay, as are attached to his monastery, belongs to the lowest grade, and his jurisdiction carries with it what is called the simple passive exemption ( exemptio passiva) from the authority of the diocesan bishop. If an Abbot's jurisdiction extends beyond the limits of his abbey, over the inhabitants -- clergy and laity -- of a certain district or territory which forms an integral part of a bishop's diocese, he belongs to the middle grade ( praelatus quasi nullius dioecesis) and his exemption is termed active ( exemptio activa). And when an Abbot has jurisdiction over the clergy and laity of a district or territory (comprising one or several cities and places) which forms no part whatever of any diocese, his abbey is styled vere nullius dioecesis (of no diocese) and, excepting a few rights only, for the exercise of which the ordo episcopalis is required, his authority is in all things equal to that of a bishop. This is the third and highest grade of the dignity. There are no abbeys vere nullius in the United States or in England. Among abbeys of this class in other countries may be mentioned: in Italy, the arch-abbey of Monte Cassino, founded by St. Benedict himself about 529; the abbey of Subiaco, of which the titular is always a cardinal; the abbey of St. Paul extra Muros (Rome); that of Monte Vergine near Avellino, founded by St. William of Vercelli in 1124; and the abbey of the Most Holy Trinity at Cava, dating back to 1011; in Switzerland, the abbey of Einsiedeln, founded about 934; in Hungary (Austria), the arch-abbey of St. Martin's, (Martinsberg), established A.D. 1001 by St. Stephen, King of Hungary; and in West Australia the abbey of New Norcia. All exempt abbeys, no matter what the canonical title or degree of their exemption, are under the immediate jurisdiction of the Holy See. The term exempt is, strictly speaking, not applied to an Abbot nullius, because his jurisdiction is entirely extraterritorial. Within the limits of his territory such an Abbot has, with few exceptions, the rights and privileges of a bishop, and assumes all a bishop's obligations. Abbots of the second grade, however, whose authority (though quasi-episcopal) is intra-territorial, cannot be considered ordinaries, nor can they lay any claim to the rights and privileges of bishops, excepting those, of course, which have been especially granted them by the Holy See. When the monasteries in which the same regular observance is followed, or the abbeys of the same province, district, or country form a congregation i.e. a federation of houses to promote the general interest of the order, the presiding Abbot is styled the "Abbot President", or the "Abbot General." Thus, the Cassinese Congregation of the Primitive Observance has at its bead an Abbot General; the English Congregation, the American-Cassinese, and the American-Swiss, have each an Abbot President. The authority of the Abbot President is defined in the statutes or constitution of each congregation. In the recent confederation of the Benedictine Order all the Black Monks of St. Benedict were united under the presidency of an "Abbot Primate" (Leo XIII, Summum semper, 12 July, 1893); but the unification, fraternal in its nature, brought no modification to the abbatial dignity, and the various congregations preserved their autonomy intact. The powers of the Abbot Primate are specified, and his position defined, in a Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars dated 16 September, 1893. The primacy is attached to the Abbey and International Benedictine College of St. Anselm, Rome, and the Primate, who takes precedence of all other Abbots, is empowered to pronounce on all doubtful matters of discipline, to settle difficulties arising between monasteries to hold a canonical visitation, if necessary, in any congregation of the order, and to exercise a general supervision for the regular observance of monastic discipline. Of late, however, certain branches of the Benedictine Order seem to have lost their original autonomy to some extent. The Reformed Cistercians of La Trappe, for instance, are by a Decree of Pope Leo XIII, 8 May, 1892, placed under the authority of an Abbot-General. The Abbot-General has full authority to pass decision upon all current affairs and difficulties. On account of the antiquity or the preeminence of the abbeys over which they preside, the honorary title of Arch-abbot is bestowed upon the superiors of certain monasteries. Monte Cassino, "the Cradle of Western Monachism", St. Martinsberg in Hungary, St. Martin's of Beuron, in Germany, and St. Vincent's, Pennsylvania, the first Benedictine foundation in America, are presided over by Arch-abbots. A further variety of Abbots-Regular are the "Titular Abbots." A Titular Abbot holds the title of an abbey which has been either destroyed or suppressed, but he exercises none of the functions of an Abbot, and has in actu no subjects belonging to the monastery whence he derives his title. The law of the Church recognizes also "Secular Abbots," i.e. clerics who, though not professed members of any monastic order, nevertheless possess an abbacy as an ecclesiastical benefice, with the title and some of the honours of the office. These benefices belonged originally to monastic houses, but on the suppression of the abbeys the benefice and the title were transferred to other churches. There are various classes of Secular Abbots; some have both jurisdiction and the right to use the pontifical insignia; others have only the abbatical dignity without either jurisdiction or the right to pontificalia; while yet another class holds in certain cathedral churches the first dignity and the privilege of precedence in choir and in assemblies, by reason of some suppressed or destroyed conventual church now become the cathedral. In the early Middle Ages the title Abbot was borne not only by the superiors of religious houses, but also by a number of persons, ecclesiastical and lay, who had no connection whatever with the monastic system. St. Gregory of Tours, for instance, employed it in his day to designate the principal of a body of secular clergy attached to certain churches; and later, under the Merovingians and Carlovingians, it was applied to the chaplain of the royal household, Abbas Palatinus, and to the military chaplain of the king, Abbas Castrenisis. From the time of Charles Martel onward to the eleventh century it came to be adopted even by laymen, the Abbacomites, or Abbates Milites, mostly nobles dependent on the court, or old officers, to whom the sovereign would assign a portion of the revenues of some monastery as a reward for military service. "Commendatory Abbots" (secular ecclesiastics who held an abbacy not in titulo, but in commendam) had their origin in the system of commendation prevalent during the eighth and succeeding centuries. They were in the first instance merely temporary trustees, appointed to administer the estates of an abbey during a vacancy; but in the course of time they retained the office for life, and claimed a portion of the revenues for their maintenance. The practice of nominating Commendatory Abbots eventually led to serious abuses; it was greatly checked by the Council of Trent, and has in modern times entirely disappeared from the Church. IV. MODE OF ELECTION In the early days of monastic institutions the founder of a religious house was usually its first superior; in every other instance the Abbot was appointed or elected. Some Abbots indeed selected their own successors, but the cases were exceptional. In many places, when a vacancy occurred, the bishop of the diocese would choose a superior from among the monks of the convent, but it appears that from the very beginning the appointment of an Abbot rested generally with the monks themselves. St. Benedict ordained (Rule, lxiv) that the Abbot should be chosen "by the general consent of the whole community, or of a small part of the community, provided its choice were made with greater wisdom and discretion." The bishop of the diocese, the Abbots and Christian men of the neighbourhood were called upon to oppose the election of an unworthy man. Every religious house professing his Rule adopted the method prescribed by the great monastic legislator, and in the course of time the right of the monks to elect their own Abbot came to be generally recognized, particularly so when it had been solemnly confirmed by the canons of the Church see Thomassin, Vetus et Nova Eccl. Disciplina, Pt. I, III, c. xxxii, no. 6). But during the Middle Ages, when monasteries had grown wealthy and powerful, kings and princes gradually encroached on the rights of the monks, until in most countries the sovereign had wholly usurped the power of nominating abbots for many of the greater houses in his realm. This interference of the court in the affairs of the cloister was in the process of time the source of many evils and the occasion of grave disorders, while in its effect, on monastic discipline it was uniformly disastrous. The rights of the cloister were finally restored by, the Council of Trent. According to the present legislation, the Abbot is elected for life by the secret suffrages of the community's professed members in sacris. To be eligible he must have all the qualifications required by the canons of the Church. It is furthermore necessary that he should be a priest, a professed member of the order, of legitimate birth, and at least twenty-five years of age. The election, to be valid, must be herd in the manner prescribed by the common law of the Church (cf. Quia propter. -- De elect., I, 6; and Cone. Trid., sess. XXV, c. vi, De reg.), and as determined in the statutes or constitutions of each congregation. In the English and American congregations the Abbot of a monastery is elected for life by a two-thirds vote of the professed members in sacris of the chapter. The Abbots themselves elect the abbot president. Exempt abbeys under the immediate jurisdiction of the Pope must, within the space of a month, apply to the Holy See for a confirmation of the election; non-exempt houses, within three months, to the bishop of the diocese. The confirmation confers upon the Abbot-elect the jus in re, and having obtained it he enters at once upon the duties and privileges of his office. A canonical perpetuity attaches to the abbatial dignity; semel abbas, semper abbas; and even after a resignation the dignity endures, and the title is retained. Benedictine abbeys in the United States and in England enjoy exemption; for America, the newly-elected Abbots are confirmed directly by the Pope; in England, however, according to the recent Constitution, "Diu quidem est" (1899), they are confirmed by the Abbot President in the name of the Holy See. V. BENEDICTION OF THE ABBOT After his ecclesiastical confirmation, the newly elected Abbot is solemnly blessed according to the rite prescribed in the "Pontificale Romanum" ( De benedictione Abbatis). By the Constitution of Benedict XIII, Commissi Nobis, 6 May, 1725, all Regular Abbots elected for life are now obliged to receive this blessing (or, at least, to thrice formally request it) within the space of a year, from the bishop of the diocese; if they fail to have the ceremony performed within the required time, they incur ipso jure a suspension from office for the period of one year. Should the petition be refused for the third time, either by the diocesan or the metropolitan, an Abbot is free to receive benediction from any bishop in communion with Rome. The Constitution at the same time expressly declares that the Abbot-elect may licitly and validly perform all the duties of his office during the interval preceding his solemn benediction. It must be noted, however, that the legislation enforced by Benedict XIII does not affect those Abbots who are privileged to receive the blessing from their regular superiors, nor those who by their election and confirmation are ipso facto regarded as blessed by the Pope. The blessing is not in se essential for the exercise of an Abbot's order and office; it confers no additional jurisdiction, and imparts no sacramental grace or character. An Abbot nullius may call upon any bishop in union with the Holy See to bestow the abbatial blessing. By the recent Constitution of Leo XIII, "Diu quidem est." 1899, the Abbots of the English Congregation are bound within six months of their election to present themselves to the ordinary of the diocese to be blessed by Apostolical authority; and, if the diocesan be prevented, they can receive the blessing from any Catholic bishop. The ceremony, which in solemnity differs but slightly from that of a bishop's consecration, takes place during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, after the Epistle. The essentials of the episcopal order are of course omitted, but before his benediction the Abbot takes the oath of allegiance to the Holy See and, like the bishop, is subjected to a canonical examination. He receives the insignia of his office -- the mitre, crosier, ring, etc. -- from the hands of the officiating prelate, and at the Offertory presents to him two small casks of wine, two loaves of bread, and two large wax tapers; he says the Mass. with the bishop and receives Holy Communion from him. During the singing of the Te Deum the newly blessed Abbot, with mitre and crosier, is conducted through the nave of the church by the two assistant Abbots, and blesses the people. Upon his returning to his seat in the sanctuary (if in his own church), the monks of the community come, one by one, and, kneeling before their new superior, pay him their homage, and receive from him the kiss of peace. The ceremony is concluded by a solemn blessing bestowed by the newly installed Abbot standing at the High Altar. According to the Pontificale Romanum, the day set apart for the function ought to be a Sunday or a feast day. The solemn rite of benediction, once conferred, need not be again received when an Abbot is translated from one monastery to another. VI. AUTHORITY OF THE ABBOT The authority of an Abbot is of two; kinds, one relating to the external government of the house, the other to the spiritual government of his subjects. The first is a paternal or domestic authority, based on the nature of religious life and on the vow of obedience, the second a power of quasi-episcopal jurisdiction, by virtue of which he is truly a prelate. His domestic authority empowers the Abbot to administer the property of the abbey, to maintain the discipline of the house, to compel the religious, even by penalties, to observe the Rule and the Constitutions of the Order, and to ordain whatever else may be essential for the preservation of peace and order in the community. The power of jurisdiction which the Abbot possesses, both in foro interno and in foro externo, authorizes him to absolve his subjects from all cases of conscience not specially reserved, and to delegate this power to the priests of his monastery; to reserve to himself the eleven eases enumerated in the Constitution of Clement VIII, "Ad futuram rei memoriam"; to inflict ecclesiastical censures; and to dispense the members of his house in certain eases for which a dispensation is usually obtained from the bishop of the diocese. He cannot, of course, dispense a religious from the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Abbots, like the monks over whom they ruled, were originally laymen, and subject to the bishop of the diocese. It was not long, however, before they were enrolled in the ranks of the clergy. Towards the close of the fifth century by far the greater number of Abbots in the East had received ordination. The change was effected more slowly in the West, but even here few were found at the end of the seventh century who had not been clothed with the dignity of the priesthood. A council held at Rome, 826, under Pope Eugene II, enjoined the ordination of Abbots, but the canon seems not to have been rigidly enforced, for as late as the eleventh century we read of some who were only deacons. The Council of Poitiers (1078) finally obliged all Abbots under pain of deprivation to receive priest's orders. (Thomassin, Pt. I, I, iii, passim.) From this time forward the power and influence of Abbots steadily increased in Church and State, until towards the close of the Middle Ages their position was everywhere regarded as one of the highest distinction. In Germany eleven Abbots held rank as princes of the Empire, and with all the rights and privileges of princes took part in the deliberation of the Diets. The Abbots of Fulda exercised even sovereign power over ten square miles round the abbey. In the Parliament of England "abbots formed the bulk of the spiritual peerage. The position held by them throughout every part of the country gave yet a further weight to their great position as noblemen and local magnates. As such they went pari passu with baron or earl of the noblest lineage. On the blazoned Roll of the Lords, the Lord Richard Whiting and the Lord Hugh Farringdon (Abbots of Glastonbury and of Reading) went hand in hand with a Howard and a Talbot" [Gasquet, Henry VIII and the English Monast. (London, 1888), I, 25]. In France, Spain, Italy, and Hungary their power and influence were equally great, and continued so generally up to the time of the Council of Trent. VII. RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES All regular Abbots have the right to give the tonsure and to confer minor orders on the professed members of their house. As early as 787 the Second Council of Nicaea permitted Abbots (provided they were priests, and had received the solemn rite of benediction) to give the tonsure and to advance their monks to the order of lector (Thomassin, Pt., I. c., I. iii, c. xvii, no. 3). The privilege granted by this Council was gradually extended until it embraced all the minor orders, and in the course of time Abbots were authorized to confer them not only on their regular but also on their secular subjects [Wernz, Jus Decretalium (Rome, 1899) ii, 47, note]. The Council of Trent, however, decreed that "it shall not henceforth be lawful for abbots, . . . howsoever exempted, . . . to confer the tonsure and minor orders on any but their regular subjects, nor shall the said abbots grant letters dimissory to any secular clerics to be ordained by others" [Can. et Decret. Conc. Trid. (ed. Richter et Schulte), p. 197]. From this decree of the Council it is quite clear that Abbots still have the right to confer the tonsure and minor orders, but it is equally clear that they may confer them lawfully only on their regular subjects. Novices, therefore. oblates, regulars of another order or congregation, and seculars cannot be advanced by the Abbot. Even the Abbots styled vere nullius, who exercise an episcopal jurisdiction in their territory, may not without a special privilege give minor orders to their secular subjects [Santi, Praelect. Jur. Can. (New York, 1898), I, 125 sq., and Can. et Decret. Cone. Trid. (ed. Richter et Schulte), 197 sq., where also the decisions of the Sacred Cong. of the Council on this subject may be found]. On the question of the validity of orders conferred by an Abbot who goes beyond the limits of the faculties extended by the Holy See, canonists disagree. Some pronounce such orders absolutely invalid, others maintain that they are illicitly conferred but nevertheless valid. The opinion of the latter seems to be sustained by various decisions of the Sacred Cong. of the Council (Santi, op. cit., p. 128 sq.; cf. Benedict XIV, De Syn. Dioec. II, c. xi, no. 13). It is a much-disputed question whether Abbots have ever been permitted to confer the subdiaconate and the diaconate. Many canonists hold that the subdiaconate, being of merely ecclesiastical institution, was formerly amounted one of the minor orders of the Church, and infer that before the time of Urban II (1099), Abbots could have given that order. But the further claim that Abbots have also conferred the diaconate cannot, apparently, be sustained, for the Bull of Innocent VIII, "Exposcit tuae devotionis" (9 April, 1489), in which this privilege is said to have been granted to certain Cistercian Abbots, makes no reference whatever to the diaconate -- "Factâ inspectione in Archivis (Vaticani) . . . bulla quidem ibidem est reperta, sed mentio de diaconatu in eâdem deest." [See Gasparri, Tract. can. de S. Ordinatione, II, n. 798; cf. also P. Pie de Langogne, "Bulle d Innoeent VIII aux abbés de Cîteaux pour les ordinations in sacris" (Etudes franciscaines, fév., 1901, 129 sq.)] Pauhölzl, in "Studien und Mittheil. aus dem Benedictiner und Cistercienser-Orden", 1884, I, 441 sq. gives the Bull and defends its authenticity. By the law of the Church Abbots may grant letters dimissorial to their regular subjects, authorizing and recommending them for ordination, but they cannot give dimissorials to seculars without incurring suspension. Abbots are furthermore privileged to dedicate their abbey church and the cemetery of the monastery, and authorized to reconcile them in case of desecration. They can bless church vestments, altar linens ciboria, monstrances, etc., for their own subjects, and consecrate altars and chalices for their own churches. As prelates, they hold the rank immediately after the bishops, being preceded only by the protonotarii participantes (see CURIA ROMANA), and by the vicar-general in his diocese. It may be added that the Abbots nullius dioecesis are preconized by the Pope in a public consistory, and that, within the territory over which they exercise jurisdiction, their name, like that of a diocesan, is inserted in the canon of the Mass. The use of the pontifical insignia -- mitre, crosier, pectoral cross, ring, gloves, and sandals -- which Abbots commonly have, is one of their most ancient privileges. It cannot be definitely ascertained when the privilege was first granted, but as early as 643 the Abbey of Bobbio in Italy is said to have obtained a constitution from Pope Theodore confirming a grant made to the Abbot by Honorius I. In England the pontifical insignia were assigned first to the Abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, in 1063 and nearly a hundred years later to the Abbot of St. Alban s. The privilege was gradually extended to other abbeys until, at the close of the Middle Ages, every monastic house of importance in Europe was presided over by a mitred Abbot. The rights of Abbots to pontificalia are now regulated by the Decree of Pope Alexander VII (S. Cong. of Rites, 27 September, 1659). By the terms of this decree the days on which an Abbot is permitted to pontificate are limited to three days in the year. The use of the seventh candle, customary at a solemn pontifical Mass, is forbidden. The Abbot's mitre is to be made of less costly material than a bishop's, and the pastoral staff is to be used with a white pendant veil. The Abbot is not to have a permanent throne in his monastic church, but is allowed, only when celebrating pontifically, to have a movable throne on two steps and a simple canopy. He has also the privilege of using mitre and crosier whenever the ritual functions require them. As a mark of special distinction, some Abbots are permitted by the Holy See to use the cappa magna, and all abbots nullius may wear a violet biretta and zucchetto. "A recent decree of the S.C.R. (13 June, 1902) has regulated in accordance with former legislation the rights of the abbots of the English Congregation to pontificalia. According to this decree the English abbots can celebrate pontifically not only in their own abbatial churches, but also without the leave of the diocesan bishop in all other churches served by their monks with cure of souls. They can also give leave to other abbots of their Congregation to pontificate in their churches. They can use the prelatical dress i.e. rochet, mozzetta and mantelletta outside their own churches" [Taunton, The Law of the Church (London, 1906), p. 3]. The Abbots of the American-Cassinese and of the American-Swiss Congregations have the same privileges. VIII. ASSISTANCE AT COUNCILS Ecclesiastical councils were attended by Abbots at a very early period. Thus, in 448, twenty-three archimandrites or Abbots assisted at that held by Flavian, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and with thirty bishops signed the condemnation of Eutyches. In France under the Merovingian kings, they frequently appeared at ecclesiastical synods as the delegates of bishops, while in Saxon England and in Spain the presence of monastic superiors at the councils of the Church was nothing uncommon. Their attendance did not, however, become a general practice in the West until after the Eighth Council of Toledo (653) where ten Abbots had been present, and had subscribed to the decrees by virtue of their pastoral charge. From the eighth century onward Abbots had a voice also in the oecumenical councils of the Church. It must be remarked that in later centuries Abbots were invited to assist at such councils and were permitted to give a decisive vote, mainly because they too, like the bishops, exercised a power of jurisdiction in the Church of God. In this connection Pope Benedict XIV says: "Item sciendum est quod quando in Conciliis generalibus soli episcopi habebant vocem definitivam, hoc fuit quia habebant administrationem populi . . . Postea additi fuere Abbates eâdem de causâ, et quia habebant administrationem subjectorum (De Syn. dioec. XIII, c. ii, no. 5). A newly appointed Abbot, before he receives the solemn benediction at the hands of the bishop takes an oath that he will discharge faithfully ail the duties of his office, specifying among others that of attending councils: "Vocatus ad synodum, veniam, nisi praepeditus fuero canonica praepeditione" (Pontif. Rom., De Benedictione Abbatis). In the performance of this duty the Abbot must be guided by the regulations of the sacred canons. According to the present practice of the Church all Abbots nullius dioecesis, or with quasi-episcopal jurisdiction, have a right to assist at oecumenical councils. They have moreover, the right of a decisive vote, and may subscribe to the decrees. The Abbots-President of congregations and the abbots-general of an entire order are also present and cast a decisive vote, though only by virtue of privilege. Other classes of Abbots were not admitted to the Vatican Council in 1870. In provincial synods and in plenary or national councils the Abbots nullius have de jure a decisive vote, and sign the decrees after the bishops. Attendance at these synods is for them not merely a right, but also an obligation. By the terms of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXIV, De ref., c. ii) they are obliged, "like the bishops who are not subject to any archbishop, to make choice of some neighbouring metropolitan, at whose synods they shall be bound to appear," and they are further directed "to observe and to cause to be observed whatsoever shall be therein ordained." Though other Abbots must not be called de jure to provincial or to national councils, it is yet the custom, in most countries, to invite also the mitred Abbots who have actual jurisdiction only over their monasteries. Thus, at the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore (1866) both the Abbot of the Cistercians and the Abbot-President of the American-Cassinese Benedictines were present, and signed the decrees. At the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore (1884) six mitred Abbots assisted, two of whom, the Abbots-President of the American-Cassinese and of the American-Swiss Congregations of Benedictines, exercised the right of a decisive vote, while the other four had only a consultative voice and subscribed to the decrees merely as assenting, not as defining. And this is the practice of the Church generally. Exempt Abbots have no obligation to attend diocesan synods. IX. DISTRIBUTION OF ABBOTS The Black Monks of St. Benedict have at present seven Abbots nullius dioecesis, located as follows: Italy, 4; Switzerland, 1; Hungary, 1; and West Australia, 1; 86 Abbots exercising actual jurisdiction over their monasteries: Austria, 19; United States, 14; France, 9 (before the Law of Associations); Italy, 9; Germany, 7; England, 6; Hungary, 5; Switzerland, 4; Brazil, S. A., 3; Holland, 3; Spain, 3; Belgium, 2; Scotland l; West Australia 1. They have also nine titular, and three resigned Abbots. The Cistercian Abbots of the Three Observances number fifty-seven. Of these the Cistercians of the Common and of the Lesser Observance have nineteen: Italy, 3; Belgium, 2; Austro-Hungarian Province, 8; and the Swiss-German Congregation 3. The Congregation of Sénanque, to which the three Abbots of the Lesser Observance belong, is now dispersed by the Associations Law of France. The Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists) have thirty-eight: France, 18 (not expelled); Belgium, 4; Italy, 3; United States, Austria, and Ireland, two each; Canada, China, England, Germany, Holland, and Spain, one each. The Cistercians have also two Abbots nullius dioecesis. In Italy, the Camaldolese Vallombrosans, Silvestrines, and Olivetans, all branches of the Benedictine Order, have each a small number of Abbots. Monte Oliveto Maggiore belonging to the Olivetans is an abbey nullius dioecesis. Some few houses of the various Congregations of Canons Regular, of the Antonians, of the Armenian Benedictines, and of the Basilians, are also under the direction of Abbots. Mitred Abbots in the United States are the Abbots of St. Vincent's Arch-Abbey, Beatty, Pa.; St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minn.; St. Benedict's Abbey Atchison, Kan.; St. Mary's Abbey, Newark, N. J.; Maryhelp Abbey, Belmont, N. C.; St. Bernard's Abbey, St. Bernard, Ala.; St. Procopius's Abbey Chicago, Ill.; St. Leo's Abbey, St. Leo, Fla.; St. Meinrad's Abbey, St. Meinrad, Ind.; Immaculate Conception Abbey, Conception, Mo.; New Subiaco Abbey, Spielerville, Ark.; St. Joseph's Abbey, Covington, La.; St. Mary's Abbey, Richardton, N. Dak.; St. Benedict's Abbey, Mount Angel, Ore.; Gethsemani Abbey, Ky.; New Melleray Abbey, near Dubuque, Iowa; and the Sacred Heart Abbey, Oklahoma. Mitred Abbots in England are the Titular Abbot of Reading, the Abbot of St. Gregory's Abbey, Downside, Bath; St. Lawrence's Abbey, Ampleforth York; St. Edmund's Abbey of Douay, Woolhampton, Reading; St. Augustine's Abbey, Ramsgate; St. Thomas's Abbey, Erdington, Birmingham; Buckfast Abbey, Buckfastleigh, Devon; St. Michael's Abbey, Farnborough (Benedictines of Solesmes) Abbey of St. Pierre, Appuldurcombe, Isle of Wight (Benedictines of Solesmes); St. Bernard's Abbey Coalville, near Leicester (Cistercian), The Canons Regular of the Lateran, Spettisbury, Dorsetshire. In Scotland; St. Benedict's Abbey, Fort Augustus, Inverness. In Ireland: Mt. Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, Mt. St. Joseph's Abbey, Roscrea, Tipperary. In West Australia: Holy Trinity Abbey, New Norcia (nullius dioecesis). In Canada: Abbey of Notre Dame du Lac, Lac des Deux Montagnes. Rule of St. Benedict in P.L., LXVI, 933 sq. (ed. SCHMIDT Ratisbon, 1880; 2d ed., ibid., 1893) GASQUET, English Monastic Life (London, 1904); TAUNTON, the English Black Monks of St. Benedict (London, 1898); IDEM, The Law of the Church (St. Louis, 1906); DIGBY, Mores Catholici; The Ages of Faith (London, 1845 reprint, New York, 1906 Bk. X, vol. III); MONTALEMBERT, The Monks of the West from St. Benedict to St. Bernard (ed. GASQUET, New York 1896) DOYLE, The Teaching of St. Benedict (London, 1887), DUGDALE, Monasticon (London, 1817) MABILLON, Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti (Lucca, 1739), I, ii; THOMASSIN, Vetus et Nova Eccl. Discipl. (Mainz, 1787) MARTÈNE, De Antiq. Eccl. Ritibus (Bassano, 1788), II; Du CANGE, Gloss. Med. et Infim. Latinit., s. v. Abbas; FERRARIS, Prompta Bibl. Can. (Rome, 1885) TAMBURINI, De Jure et Privileg. Abbat. Praelat. (Cologne, 1691) FAGNANI, Jus Canon., s. Commentaria in V Libros Decretalium (ibid., 1704) LUCIDI, De Visitatione Sacrorum Liminum (Rome, 1878); BESSE, Les moines d orient (Paris, 1900); CHAMARD, Abbés au moyen âge, in Rev. des questions historiques (1885), XXXVIII, 71-108 BESSE, in Dict. d'archéol. chrét. (Paris, 1903) LANGOGNE, in Dict. de théol. cath., s.v. Abbés (Paris, 1905) SÄGMÜLLER, Lehrb. des kathol. Kirchenrechts (Freiburg, 1905) HERGENR THER-HOLWECK, Lehrb. des kathol. Kirchenrechts (ibid. 1905); HEUSER in Kirchenlex., s.v. Abt (2d ed., ibid., 1882) For an extensive bibliography, see SCHERER, Handbuch des Kirchenrechts (Gratz, 1886), II, 729 sq. 753. THOMAS OESTREICH Henry Abbot Henry Abbot Layman, martyred at York, 4 July, 1597, pronounced Venerable in 1886. His acts are thus related by Challoner: A certain Protestant minister, for some misdemeanour put into York Castle, to reinstate himself in the favour of his superiors, insinuated himself into the good opinion of the Catholic prisoners, by pretending a deep sense of repentance, and a great desire of embracing the Catholic truth . . . So they directed him, after he was enlarged, to Mr. Henry Abbot, a zealous convert who lived in Holden in the same country, to procure a priest to reconcile him . . . Mr. Abbot carried him to Carlton to the house of Esquire Stapleton, but did not succeed in finding a priest. Soon after, the traitor having got enough to put them all in danger of the law, accused them to the magistrates . . . They confessed that they had explained to him the Catholic Faith, and upon this they were all found guilty and sentenced to die. The others, Errington, Knight, and Gibson, were executed on 29 November, 1596; Abbot was reprieved till the next July. PATRICK RYAN Methods of Abbreviation Methods of Abbreviation The use of abbreviations is due, in part, to exigencies arising from the nature of the materials employed in the making of records, whether stone, marble, bronze, or parchment. Lapidaries engravers, and copyists are under the same necessity of making the most of the space at their disposal. Such abbreviations, indeed, are seldom met with at the beginning of the Christian era material of all kinds was plentiful and there was consequently, no need to be sparing in the use of it. By the third or fourth century, however, it had grown to be scarce and costly, and it became the artist's aim to inscribe long texts on surfaces of somewhat scanty proportions. We shall not pause here to discuss the use of abbreviations in ordinary writing. The Romans possessed an alphabet known by the name of Notae Tironienses, which served the same purpose as our modern systems of Stenography. Its use necessitated a special course of study and there is still much uncertainty as to the significance of the characters employed. It is when we come to consider the subject of inscriptions cut in stone that we find the most frequent use of abbreviations. At certain late periods for example, in Spain in the Middle Ages this custom becomes abused to such an extent as to result in the invention of symbols which are undecipherable. In the best period of epigraphy certain rules are strictly observed. The abbreviations in common use fall under two chief heads: + The reduction of the word to its initial letter; + The reduction of a word to its first letters in a bunch or to several letters taken at intervals in the body a the word and set side by aide. This latter arrangement is almost conclusively Christian, whereas in heathen inscriptions the number of letters left in the abbreviation is more or less limited, yet no intermediate letter is omitted. The following readings may be noted: PON., PONT., PONTF., for Pontifex; DP., DEP., DPS., for Depositus; MCP for Municipii. Occasionally a phrase which has become stale by constant use and has grown into a formula, is rarely found in any other form than that of its abbreviation e.g. D.M. for Diis Manibus, IHS for Jesus, just as we have kept R.I.P. for requiescat in pace. Lastly a whole epitaph is often met with on tombs where the husband's epitaph to his wife takes the following form: DE qua N(ullum) D(olorem) A(cceperat) N(isi) M(ortis). Another form of Abbreviation consisted in doubling the last consonant of the word to be shortened as many times as there were persons alluded to, e.g. AVG for Augustus, AVGG for Augusti duo. Stone cutters however, soon began to take liberties with this rule, and, instead of Putting COSS for Consulibus duobus, invented the form CCSS. Still, when there was occasion to refer to three or four people this doubling of the last consonant gave way of necessity, in abbreviations, to the simple sign of the plural. A horizontal line over a letter or set of letters was also much used, and was destined indeed, to become almost universal in the Middle Ages. There is never any difficulty in settling the date of monuments where this sign of abbreviation occurs; the undulating line, or one curved at each end and rising in the middle only came into use at a comparatively late period. Certain marks of Abbreviation have had so widespread a use as to merit special note. The ancient liturgical manuscripts which contain recensions of Masses, and are known as Sacramentaries all have the letters VD at the beginning of the Preface, set side by side and joined by a transverse bar. Mabillon interprets this monogram as being that of the formula, "Vere dignum et justum est, aequum et salutare", an interpretation which is certainly the correct one. According to the various manuscripts, the monogram stands for the words vere dignum, or else for the whole formula; in the majority of instances the letters VD stand for the phrase Vere dignum et Justum est, which is followed by the rest of the context, oequum et, etc. In a large number of manuscripts these letters VD have fired the imagination of illuminators And copyists. It is however, impossible to enter into a general description of the subject. Under a growth of arabesques of foliage, of fancies of all kinds the outline of the two letters is sometimes hard to distinguish. The symbol encroaches more and more, and grows from a mere initial into an ornamental page. The essential type varies little, though variants of some importance are met with. It was inevitable that medieval writers should build a whole system of mysticism and allegory on the VD of the Preface. John Beleth rector of the theological school at Pads, devised an interpretation which found acceptance. The D, he wrote, a letter completely closed, signifies the Godhead, Which has neither beginning nor end; the half open V means the Manhood of Christ, which had a beginning, but has no end; the bar which intersects the upright lines of the VD and forms a cross, teaches us that the cross makes us fit for the life of God. Fancies of the same kind are to be found in Sicardus of Cremona and in Durandus of Mende. Various manuscripts contain hundreds of variable prefaces; the initial letters however are not drawn on a uniform pattern and tie chief attempts at ornamentation are invariably confined to the Praefatio Communis immediately preceding the Canon of the Mass. The first two letters of the Canon TE have also been made the theme of various decorations, though less curious and less varied than those above referred to. A word may be said concerning the abbreviation D.O.M., sometimes seen over the doors of our churches and which whatever may be said to the contrary, has never been a Christian symbol. The formula in full is Deo Optimo Maximo and referred originally Jupiter. The abbreviation, IHV, is found on a great number of different objects: ancient gems, coins, epitaphs, dedications and diplomas. The symbol IHS was destined to endure for many ages, but it is only since the time of St. Bernardine of Sienna that it has come into such widespread use. It is impossible, with the information available, to say whether it is of Greek or Latin origin. Lastly, the abbreviation, XM(GAMMA), meaning, Christon Maria genna is often found on monuments of eastern origin. LECLERCQ, in Dict. d arch ol. chr t. et de liturgie, I, 155-183, s.v.; MURATORI, Novus thesaurus veterum inscriptionum (Milan, 1739); DE ROSSI, Inscr. christ. urb. Romae (Rome, 1861); DUCHESNE, Origines du culte chr tien (Paris, 1898); ZELL, Handbuch der r mischen Epigraphik, 1850-57. H. LECLERCQ Ecclesiastical Abbreviations Ecclesiastical Abbreviations The words most commonly abbreviated at all times are proper names, titles (official or customary), of persons or corporations, and words of frequent occurrence. A good list of those used in Roman Republican and early Imperial times may be seen in Egbert's Latin Inscriptions (New York, 1896), 417-459. The Jewish scribes and Talmudic scholars also had frequent recourse to abbreviations. Between the seventh and ninth centuries the ancient Roman system of abbreviations gave way to a more difficult one that gradually grew up in the monastic houses and in the chanceries of the new Teutonic kingdoms. Merovingian, Lombard, and Anglo-Saxon scripts offer each their own abbreviations, not to speak of the unique scotica manus or libri scottice scripti (Irish hand, or books written in the medieval Irish hand). Eventually such productive centres of technical manuscripts as the Papal Chancery, the theological schools of Paris and Oxford, and the civil-law school of Bologna set the standards of abbreviations for all Europe. The medieval manuscripts abound in abbreviations, owing in part to the abandonment of the uncial, or quasi-uncial, and the almost universal use of the cursive, hand. The medieval writer inherited a few from Christian antiquity; others he invented or adapted, in order to save time and parchment. They are found especially in manuscripts of scholastic theology and canon law, annals and chronicles, the Roman law, and in administrative documents, civil and privileges, bulls, rescripts). They multiplied with time, and were never so numerous as on the eve of the discovery of printing; many of the early printed books offer this peculiarity, together with other characteristics of the manuscript page. The development of printing brought about the abandonment of many abbreviations, while it suggested and introduced new ones a process also favoured by the growth of ecclesiastical legislation, the creation of new offices, etc. There was less medieval abbreviation in the text of books much used on public occasions, e.g. missals, antiphonaries, bibles; in one way or another the needs of students seem to have been the chief cause of the majority of medieval abbreviations. The means of abbreviation were usually full points or dots (mostly in Roman antiquity), the semicolon (eventually conventionalized), lines (horizontal, perpendicular, oblong, wavy curves, and commas). Vowel-sounds were frequently written not after, but over, the consonants. Certain letters, like p and q, that occur with extreme. frequency, e.g. in prepositions and terminations, became the source of many peculiar abbreviations; similarly, frequently recurring words like et (and), est (is). Habit and convenience are today the principal motives for using abbreviations. Most of those in actual use fall under one or other of the following heads: I. Administrative; II. Liturgical; III. Scholastic; IV. Chronological. I. The first class of abbreviations includes those used in the composition of Pontifical documents. They were once very numerous, and lists of them may be seen in the works quoted below (e.g. Quantin, Prou). It may be well to state at once that since 29 December, 1878, by order of Leo XIII, the great papal documents ( Litterae Apostolicae) are no longer written in the old Gothic hand known as bollatico; all abbreviations, with the exception of a few obvious ones, like S.R.E., were abolished by the same authority (Acta S. Sedis, XI, 465-467). In the transaction of ordinary business the Roman Congregations are wont to use certain brief and pithy formulas (e.g. Negative = "No"; Negative et amplius = "No with emphasis"). They are not, correctly speaking, abbreviations. For a list of these see CANON LAW. This class includes also the abbreviations for the names of most sees. The full Latin titles of all existing (Latin) dioceses may be seen in the Roman annual, "Gerarchia Cattolica", a complete list of the Latin names of all known dioceses (extant or extinct) is found in the large folio work of the Comte de Mas Latrie, "Trésor de chronologie, d'histoire et de géographie" (Paris, 1884). For the same purpose the reader may also consult the episcopal catalogues of the Benedictine Gams, "Series Episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae" (Ratisbon, 1873-86), and the Franciscan Conrad Eubel, "Hierarchia Catholica Medii Ævi" (Münster, 1898-1902). Under this general heading may be included all abbreviated forms of addresses in ordinary intercourse, whether of individuals or of members of religious orders, congregations, institutes, to which may be added the forms of addresses usual for members of Catholic lay societies and the Papal orders of merit. (See CATHOLIC SOCIETIES, ORDERS OF MERIT.) The abbreviations of the titles of Roman Congregations, and of the individual canonical ecclesiastical authorities, belong also to this class. II. A second class of abbreviations includes those used in the description of liturgical acts or the directions for their performance, e.g. the Holy Mass. the Divine Office (Breviary), the ecclesiastical devotions, etc. Here may also be classed the abbreviated forms for the name of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost; also for the names of the Blessed Virgin, the saints, etc.; likewise abbreviations used in the administration of the Sacraments, mortuary epitaphs, etc. (to which class belong the numerous Catacomb inscriptions); finally some miscellaneous abbreviations like those used in the publication of documents concerning beatification and canonization. III. In the third class belong scholastic abbreviations, used to designate honorific titles acquired in the schools, to avoid the repetition of lengthy titles of books and reviews, or to facilitate reference to ecclesiastical and civil legislation. IV. In the fourth class of abbreviations belong all such as are used to describe the elements of the year, civil or ecclesiastical. ABBREVIATIONS USED IN APOSTOLIC RESCRIPTS Absoluo. -- Absolutio ("Absolution") Alr. -- Aliter ("Otherwise") Aplica. -- Apostolica ("Apostolic") Appatis. -- Approbatis ("Having been approved") Archiepus. -- Archiepiscopus ("Archbishop") Aucte. -- Auctoritate ("By the Authority") Canice. -- Canonice ("Canonically") Card. -- Cardinalis ("Cardinal") Cens. -- Censuris ("Censures" -- abl. or dat. case) Circumpeone. -- Circumspectione ("Circumspection" -- abl. case) Coione. -- Communione ("Communion" -- abl. case) Confeone. -- Confessione ("Confession" -- abl. case) Consciae. -- Conscientiae ("Of [or to] conscience") Constbus -- Constitutionibus ("Constitutions" -- abl. or dat. case) Discreoni. -- Discretioni ("To the Discretion") Dispensao. -- Dispensatio ("Dispensation") Dnus -- Dominus ("Lord", "Sir", or "Mr.") Ecclae. -- Ecclesiae ("Of [or to] the Church") Ecclis. -- Ecclesiasticis ("Ecclesiastical") Effum. -- Effectum ("Effect") Epus. -- Episcopus ("Bishop") Excoe. -- Excommunicatione ("Excommunication" -- abl. case) Exit. -- Existit ("Exists") Fr. -- Frater ("Brother") Frum. -- Fratrum ("Of the Brothers") Gnalis -- Generalis ("General") Humil. -- Humiliter ("Humbly") Humoi. -- Hujusmodi ("Of this kind") Igr. -- Igitur ("Therefore") Infraptum. -- Infrascriptum ("Written below") Intropta. -- Introscripta ("Written within") Irregulte. -- Irregularitate ("Irregularity" -- abl. case) Lia. -- Licentia ("License") Litma. -- Legitima ("Lawful") Lre. -- Litterae ("Letters") Lte. -- Licite ("Lawfully", or "licitly") Magro. -- Magistro ("Master" -- dat. or abl. case) Mir. -- Misericorditer ("Mercifully") Miraone. -- Miseratione ("Pity" -- abl. case) Mrimonium. -- Matrimonium ("Matrimony") Nultus. -- Nullatenus ("Nowise") Ordinaoni. -- Ordinationi ("Ordination" -- dat. case) Ordio. -- Ordinario ("Ordinary" -- dat. or abl. case) Pbr. -- Presbyter ("Priest") Penia. -- Poenitentia ("Penance", or "repentance") Peniaria. -- Poenitentiaria ("Penitentiary"; i.e. Bureau of the Apostolic Penitentiary) Pntium. -- Praesentium ("Of those present", or, "Of this present writing") Poe. -- Posse ("To be able", or, "The ability to do a thing") Pontus. -- Pontificatus ("Pontificate") PP. -- Papa ("Pope") Pr. -- Pater ("Father") Pror. -- Procurator Ptur. -- Praefertur ("Is preferred", or, "Is brought forward") Ptus. -- Praefatus ("Aforesaid") Qd. -- Quod ("Because", "That", or, "Which") Qmlbt. -- Quomodolibet ("In any manner whatsoever") Qtnus. -- Quatenus ("In so far as") Relione. -- Religione ("Religion", or, "Religious Order" -- abl. case) Rlari. -- Regulari ("Regular") Roma. -- Romana ("Roman") Salri. -- Salutari ("Salutary") Snia. -- Sententia ("Opinion") Sntae., Stae. -- Sanctae ("Holy", or, "Saints" -- feminine) Spealer. Specialiter ("Specially") Spualibus Spiritualibus ("In spiritual matters") Supplioni. Supplicationibus ("Supplication" -- dat. or abl. case) Thia, Theolia. Theologia ("Theology") Tli. Tituli ("Titles") Tm. -- Tantum ("So much", or, "Only") Tn. -- Tamen ("Nevertheless") Venebli -- Venerabili ("Venerable") Vrae. -- Vestrae ("Your") ABBREVIATIONS IN GENERAL USE, CHIEFLY ECCLESIASTICAL A.B. -- Artium Baccalaureus ("Bachelor of Arts") Ab. -- Abbas ("Abbot") Abp. -- Archbishop Abs. -- Absens ("Absent") A.C. -- Auditor Camerae (Auditor of the Papal Treasury) AC -- Ante Christum ("Before Christ") ACN -- Ante Christum Natum ("Before the Birth of Christ") A.D. -- Anno Domini ("Year of Our Lord") a.d. -- ante diem ("The day before") Adm. Rev. -- Admodum Reverendus ("Very Reverend") Adv. -- Adventus ("Advent") Alb. -- Albus ("White" -- Breviary) al. -- alii, alibi, alias ("others", "elsewhere", "otherwise") A.M. -- Anno Mundi ("Year of the World") A.M. -- Artium Magister ("Master of Arts") A.M.D.G. -- Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam ("For the greater glory of God") An. -- Annus ("Year") Ann. -- Anni ("Years") Ana, Ant. -- Antiphon Apost. -- Apostolus ("Apostle") Ap. Sed. -- Apostolica Sedes ("Apostolic See") Ap. Sed. Leg. -- Apostolicae Sedis Legatus ("Legate of the Apostolic See") Archiep. -- Archiepiscopus ("Archbishop") Archid. -- Archidiaconus ("Archdeacon") Archiprb. -- Archipresbyter ("Archpriest") A.R.S. -- Anno Reparatae Salutis ("In the year of Our Redemption") A.U. -- Alma Urbs ("Beloved City" -- i.e., Rome) Authen. -- Authentica ("Authentic" -- e.g. letters) Aux. -- Auxilium, Auxilio ("Help", "With the help of") B.A. -- Baccalaureus Artium ("Bachelor of Arts") B. BB. -- Beatus, Beati ("Blessed") B.C. -- Before Christ B.C.L. -- Baccalaureus Civilis [or Canonicae] Legis ("Bachelor of Civil [or Canon] Law") B.D. -- Bachelor of Divinity B.F. -- Bona Fide ("In Good Faith") Ben. -- Benedictio ("Blessing") Benevol. -- Benevolentia ("Benevolence") Bon. Mem. -- Bonae Memoriae ("Of Happy Memory") B.P. -- Beatissime Pater ("Most Holy Father") Bro. -- Brother B. Se. -- Baccalaureus Scientiarum ("Bachelor of Sciences") B.U.J. -- Baccalaureus Utriusque Juris ("Bachelor of Both Laws" -- i.e., civil and canon) B.T. -- Baccalaureus Theologiae ("Bachelor of Theology") B.V. -- Beatitudo Vestra ("Your Holiness") B.V. -- Beata Virgo ("Blessed Virgin") B.V.M. -- Beata Virgo Maria ("Blessed Virgin Mary") Cam. -- Camera (Papal Treasury) Cam. Ap. -- Camera Apostolica ("Apostolic Camera" -- i.e. Papal Treasury) Can. -- Canonicus Cane. -- Cancellarius ("Chancellor") Cap. -- Capitulum ("Little Chapter" -- Breviary) Cap. de seq. -- Capitulum de Sequenti ("Little chapter of the following feast" -- Breviary) Capel. -- Capella ("Chapel") Caus. -- Causa ("Cause") C.C. -- Curatus ("Curate" -- used chiefly in Ireland) CC. VV. -- Clarissimi Viri ("Illustrious Men") Cen. Eccl. -- Censura Ecclesiastica ("Ecclesiastical Censure") Cla. -- Clausula ("Clause") Cl., Clico. -- Clericus, Clerico ("Cleric") Clun. -- Cluniacenses ("Monks of Cluny") C.M. -- Causa Mortis ("On occasion of death") Cod. -- Codex (Manuscript) Cog. Leg. -- Cognatio Legalis ("Legal Cognation") Cog. Spir. -- Cognatio Spiritualis ("Spiritual Cognation") Coll. Cone. -- Collectio Conciliorum ("Collection of the Councils") Comm. Prec. -- Commemoratio Praecedentis ("Commemoration of the preceding feast" -- Breviary) Comm. Seq. -- Commemoratio Sequentis ("Commemoration of the following feast" -- Breviary) Compl. -- Completorium ("Compline" -- Breviary) Con. -- Contra ("against") Cone. -- Concilium ("Council") Conf. -- Confessor Conf. Doct. -- Confessor et Doctor (Breviary) Conf. Pont. -- Confessor Pontifex ("Confessor and Bishop" -- Breviary) Cons. -- Consecratio ("Consecration") Consecr. -- Consecratus ("Consecrated") Const. Ap. -- Constitutio Apostolica ("Apostolic Constitution") Cr. -- Credo ("Creed" -- Breviary) D. -- Dominus ("Lord") d. -- dies ("day") D.C.L. -- Doctor Civilis [or Canonicae] Legis ("Doctor of Civil [or Canon] Law") D.D. -- Doctores ("Doctors") D.D. -- Donum dedit; Dedicavit ("Gave", "dedicated") D.D. -- Doctor Divinitatis ("Doctor of Divinity" -- i.e. Theology) Dec. -- Decanus ("Dean") Def. -- Defunctus ("Deceased") D.G. -- Dei Gratia ("By the Grace of God") D.N. -- Dominus Noster ("Our Lord") D.N.J.C. -- Dominus Noster Jesus Christus ("Our Lord Jesus Christ") DN, DNS, DNUS -- Dominus ("Lord") Doct. -- Doctor (Breviary) Dom. -- Dominica ("Sunday") D.O.M. -- Deo Optimo Maximo ("To God, the Best and Greatest") Doxol. -- Doxologia ("Doxology" -- Breviary) D.R. -- Decanus Ruralis ("Rural Dean") DS -- Deus ("God") D.Se. -- Doctor Scientiarum ("Doctor of Sciences") D.V. -- Deo Volente ("God willing") Dupl. -- Duplex ("Double feast" -- Breviary) Dupl. Maj. -- Duplex Major ("Double Major feast") Dupl. I. Cl. -- Duplex Primae Classis ("Double First Class feast" -- Breviary) Dupl. II. Cl. -- Duplex Secundae Classis ("Double Second Class feast" -- Breviary) Eccl. -- Ecclesiasticus ("Ecclesiastic") E., Eccl. -- Ecclesia ("The Church") El. -- Electio, Electus ("Election", "Elect") Emus -- Eminentissimus ("Most Eminent") EPS, EP., Episc. -- Episcopus ("Bishop") Et. -- Etiam ("Also, Even") Evang. -- Evangelium ("Gospel" -- Breviary) Ex. -- Extra ("Outside of") Exe. -- Excommunicatus, Excommunicatio ("Excommunicated, Excommunication") Fel. Mem. -- Felicis Memoriae ("Of Happy Memory") Fel. Rec. -- Felicis Recordationis ("Of Happy Memory") Fer. -- Feria ("Weekday") Fr., F. -- Frater, Frere ("Brother") Fund. -- Fundatio ("Foundation") Gen. -- Generalis ("General") Gl. -- Gloria ("Glory to God", etc.) Gr. -- Gratia ("Grace") Grad. -- Gradus ("Grade") Grat. -- Gratias ("Thanks"); or Gratis ("Without expense") hebd. -- Hebdomada ("Week") Hom. -- Homilia ("Homily" -- Breviary) hor. -- hora ("hour") IC -- Jesus (first and third letters of His name in Greek) Id. -- Idus ("Ides") Igr. -- Igitur ("Therefore") I.H.S. -- Iesus Hominum Salvator ("Jesus Saviour of Men" -- usual interpretation). Really a faulty Latin transliteration of the first three letters of JESUS in Greek (IHS for IHC). Ind. -- Indictio ("Indiction") Ind. -- Index Inq. -- Inquisitio ("Inquisition") i.p.i. -- in partibus infidelium ("among the infidels") Is. -- Idus ("Ides") J.C. -- Jesus Christus ("Jesus Christ") J.C.D. -- Juris Canonici Doctor, Juris Civilis Doctor ("Doctor of Canon Law", "Doctor of Civil Law") J.D. -- Juris Doctor ("Doctor of Law") J.M.J. -- Jesus, Maria, Joseph ("Jesus, Mary, Joseph") Jo., Joann. -- Joannes ("John") J.U.D. -- Juris Utriusque Doctor ("Doctor of Both Laws" -- Civil and Canon) Jud. -- Judicium ("Judgment") J.U.L. -- Juris Utriusque Licentiatus ("Licentiate of Both Laws") Jur. -- Juris ("Of Law") Kal. -- Kalendae ("Calends") Laic. -- Laicus ("Layman") Laud. -- Laudes ("Lauds" -- Breviary) L.C.D. -- Legis Civilis Doctor ("Doctor of Civil Law") l.c.; loc. cit. -- Loco citato ("at the place already cited") Lect. -- Lectio ("Lesson") Legit. -- Legitime, Legitimus ("Legally", "legitimate") L.H.D. -- Litterarum Humaniorum Doctor ("Doctor of Literature") Lib., Lo. -- Liber, Libro ("Book", "In the book") Lic. -- Licentia, Licentiatus ("License", "Licentiate") Litt. -- Littera ("Letter") LL.B. -- Legum Baccalaureus ("Bachelor of Laws") LL.D. -- Legum Doctor ("Doctor of Laws") LL.M. -- Legum Magister ("Master of Laws") Loc. -- Locus ("Place") Lov. -- Lovanium ("Louvain") Lovan. -- Lovanienses (Theologians of Louvain) L.S. -- Loco Sigilli ("Place of the Seal") Lud. -- Ludovicus M. -- Maria ("Mary") M.A. -- Magister Artium ("Master of Arts") Mag. -- Magister ("Master") Mand. -- Mandamus ("We command") Mand. Ap. -- Mandatum Apostolicum ("Apostolic Mandate", e.g. for a bishop's consecration) Mart., M., MM. -- Martyr, Martyres ("Martyr", "Martyrs" -- Breviary) Mat. -- Matutinum ("Matins" -- Breviary) Matr. -- Matrimonum ("Marriage") Mgr. -- Monseigneur, Monsignore ("My Lord") Miss. -- Missa ("Mass" -- Breviary); Missionarius ("Missionary") Miss. Apost., M.A. -- Missionarius Apostolicus ("Missionary Apostolic") M.R. -- Missionarius Rector ("Missionary Rector") m.t.v. -- mutatur terminatio versiculi ("the termination of the little verse is changed" -- Breviary) Nativ., D.N.J.C. -- Nativitas Domini Nostri Jesu Christi ("Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ") N. D. -- Nostra Domina, Notre Dame ("Our Lady") Nigr. -- Niger ("Black" -- Breviary) No. -- Nobis ("to us", "for us") Nob. -- Nobilis, Nobiles ("Noble", "Nobles") Noct. -- Nocturnum ("Nocturn") Non. -- Nonae ("Nones") Nostr. -- Noster, nostri ("Our", "of our") Not. -- Notitia ("Knowledge") N.S. -- Notre Seigneur, Nostro Signore ("Our Lord") N.S. -- New Style N.T. -- Novum Testamentum ("New Testament") Ntri. -- Nostri ("Of our") Nup. -- Nuptiae ("Nuptials") Ob. -- Obiit ("Died") Oct. -- Octava ("Octave" -- Breviary) Omn. -- Omnes, Omnibus ("All", "to all") Op. Cit. -- Opere Citato ("In the work cited") Or. -- Oratio ("Prayer" -- Breviary) Ord. -- Ordo, Ordinatio, Ordinarius ("Order", "Ordination", "Ordinary") Or. Orat. -- Orator ("Petitioner"), Oratorium ("Oratory") O.S. -- Old Style O.T. -- Old Testament Oxon. -- Oxonium, Oxonienses ("Oxford", "Theologians or Scholars of Oxford") P. -- Pater, Pere ("Father") Pa. -- Papa ("Pope"); Pater ("Father") Pact. -- Pactum ("Agreement") Pasch. -- Pascha ("Easter" -- Breviary) Patr. -- Patriarcha ("Patriarch") Pent. -- Pentecostes ("Pentecost" -- Breviary) Ph.B. -- Philosophiae Baccalaureus ("Bachelor of Philosophy") Ph.D. -- Philosophiae Doctor ("Doctor of Philosophy") Phil. -- Philosophia ("Philosophy") Ph.M. -- Philosophiae Magister ("Master of Philosophy") P.K. -- Pridie Kalendas ("The day before the Calends") Poenit. -- Poenitentia ("Penance") Poenit Ap. -- Poenitentiaria Apostolica ("Office of the Apostolic Penitentiary") Pont. -- Pontifex ("Pontiff", i.e. Bishop -- Breviary) Pont. -- Pontificatus ("Pontificate") Pont. Max. -- Pontifex Maximus ("Supreme Pontiff") Poss. -- Possessor, Possessio ("Possessor", "Possession") PP. -- Papa ("Pope"); Pontificum ("Of the popes") P.P. -- Parochus ("Parish Priest" -- used mostly in Ireland) PP. AA. -- Patres Amplissimi ("Cardinals") P.P.P. -- Propria Pecunia Posuit ("Erected at his own expense") P.R. -- Permanens Rector ("Permanent Rector") Praef. -- Praefatio ("Preface" of the Mass -- Breviary) Presbit. -- Presbyter, Priest Prof. -- Professus, Professio, Professor ("Professed", "Profession", "Professor") Prop. Fid. -- Propaganda Fide (Congregation of the Propaganda, Rome) Propr. -- Proprium ("Proper" -- Breviary) Prov. -- Provisio, Provisum ("Provision", "Provided") Ps. -- Psalmus ("Psalm") Pub., Publ. -- Publicus, Publice ("Public", "Publicly") Purg. Can. -- Purgatio Canonica ("Canonical Disculpation") Quadrag. -- Quadragesima ("Lent", also the "Fortieth day" before Easter -- Breviary) Quinquag. -- Quinquagesima (The "Fiftieth day" before Easter -- Breviary) R. -- Responsorium ("Responsory" -- Breviary) R. -- Roma (Rome) Rescr. -- Rescriptum ("Rescript") R.D. -- Rural Dean Req. -- Requiescat ("May he [or she] rest", i.e. in peace) Resp. -- Responsum ("Reply") R.I.P. -- Requiescat In Pace ("May he or she rest in peace") Rit. -- Ritus ("Rite", "Rites") Rom. -- Romanus, Romana ("Roman") R. P. -- Reverendus Pater, Reverend Pere ("Reverend Father") RR. -- Rerum ("Of Things, Subjects" -- e.g. SS. RR. Ital., Writers on Italian [historical] subjects); Regesta Rt. Rev. -- Right Reverend Rub. -- Ruber ("Red" -- Breviary) Rubr. -- Rubrica ("Rubric") S., Sacr. -- Sacrum ("Sacred") Sab., Sabb. -- Sabbatum ("Sabbath", Saturday) Saec. -- Saeculum (Century) Sal. -- Salus, Salutis ("Salvation", "of Salvation") Salmant. -- Salmanticenses (Theologians of Salamanca) S.C. -- Sacra Congregatio ("Sacred Congregation") S.C.C. -- Sacra Congregatio Concilii ("Sacred Congregation of the Council", i.e. of Trent) S.C.EE.RR. -- Sacra Congregatio Episcoporum et Regularium ("Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars") S.C.I. -- Sacra Congregatio Indicis ("Sacred Congregation of the Index") S.C.P.F. -- Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide ("Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith") SCS -- Sanctus ("Saint") s.d. -- sine datâ (undated book) S.D. -- Servus Dei (Servant of God) Semid. -- Semiduplex ("Semi" double feast -- Breviary) Septuag -- Septuagesima ("Seventieth day" before Easter; always a Sunday -- Breviary) Sexag. -- Sexagesima ("Sixtieth day" before Easter -- Breviary) Sig. -- Sigillum ("Seal") Simpl. -- Simplex ("Simple" feast -- Breviary) Sine Com. -- Sine Commemoratione ("Without commemoration" of other feast, or feasts -- Breviary) s.l. -- sine loco ("without indication" of place of printing) s.l.n.d. -- sine loco nec data ("without indication of place" or "without date of printing") S.M. -- Sanctae Memoriae ("Of Holy Memory") Soc. -- Socius, Socii ("Companion", "Companions" -- Breviary) S. Off. -- Sanctum Officium (Congregation of the Holy Office, Inquisition) S.P. -- Sanctissime Pater ("Most Holy Father") S.P., S. Petr. -- Sanctus Petrus ("St. Peter") S.P. -- Summus Pontifex ("Supreme Pontiff", Pope) S.P.A. -- Sacrum Palatium Apostolicum ("Sacred Apostolic Palace", Vatican, Quirinal) Sr. -- Sister S.R.C. -- Sacra Rituum Congregatio ("Sacred Congregation of Rites") S.R.E. -- Sancta Romana Ecclesia, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesia ("Most Holy Roman Church"; or, "of the Most Holy Roman Church") SS. -- Scriptores ("Writers") SS.D.N. -- Sanctissimus Dominus Noster ("Our Most Holy Lord [Jesus Christ]", also a title of the Pope) S., SS. -- Sanctus, Sancti ("Saint", "Saints") S.T.B. -- Sacrae Theologiae Baccalaureus ("Bachelor of Sacred Theology") S.T.D. -- Sacred Theologiae Doctor ("Doctor of Sacred Theology") S.T.L. -- Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus ("Licentiate of Sacred Theology") Suffr. -- Suffragia ("Suffrages" -- i.e. prayers of the saints; Breviary) S.V. -- Sanctitas Vestra ("Your Holiness") Syn. -- Synodus ("Synod") Temp. -- Tempus, Tempore ("Time", "in time") Test. -- Testes, Testimonium ("Witnesses", "Testimony") Theol. -- Theologia ("Theology") Tit. -- Titulus, Tituli ("Title", "Titles") Ult. -- Ultimo ("Last" -- day, month, year) Usq. -- Usque ("As far as") Ux. -- Uxor ("Wife") V., Ven., VV. -- Venerabilis, Venerabiles ("Venerable") V., Vest. -- Vester ("Your") Vac. -- Vacat, Vacans ("Vacant") Val. -- Valor ("Value") Vat. -- Vaticanus ("Vatican") Vba. -- Verba ("Words") Vers. -- Versiculus ("Versicle" -- Breviary) Vesp. -- Vesperae ("Vespers" -- Breviary) V.F., Vic. For. -- Vicarius Foraneus ("Vicar-Forane") V.G. -- Vicarius Generalis ("Vicar-General") Vid. -- Vidua ("Widow" -- Breviary) Vid., Videl. -- Videlicet ("Namely") Vig. -- Vigilia ("Vigil" of a feast -- Breviary) Viol. -- Violaceus ("Violet" -- Breviary) Virg. -- Virgo ("Virgin" -- Breviary) Virid. -- Viridis ("Green" -- Breviary) V.M. -- Vir Magnificus ("Great Man") V. Rev. -- Very Reverend V.T. -- Vetus Testamentum XC., XCS. -- Christus ("Christ" -- first, middle, and last letters of the Greek name) ABBREVIATIONS IN CATACOMB INSCRIPTIONS A.D. -- Ante Diem (e.g. in the phrase, "Ante Diem VI [or Sextum] Kal. Apriles", is equivalent to the sixth day before the Calends of April, counting both the Calends and the day intended to be indicated); or Anima Dulcis ("Sweet Soul") A.Q.I.C. -- Anima Quiescat In Christo ("May his [or her] Soul Repose in Christ") B., BMT. -- Bene Merenti ("To the Well-Deserving") B.M. -- Bonae Memoriae ("Of Happy Memory") B.F. -- Bonae Feminae ("To the Good Woman") I.C. -- Bibas [for Vivas] In Christo ("May you Live In Christ") B.M.F. -- Bene Merenti Fecit ("He erected this to the Well-Deserving") B.Q. -- Bene Quiescat ("May he [or she] Rest Well") C. -- Consul CC. -- Consules ("Consuls") C.F. -- Clarissima Femina ("Most Illustrious Woman") Cl. V. -- Clarissimus Vir ("Most Illustrious Man") C.O. -- Conjugi Optimo ("To my Excellent Husband") C.O.B.Q. -- Cum Omnibus Bonis Quiescat ("May he [or she] Repose With All Good souls") COI. -- Conjugi ("To my Husband [or Wife]") CS., COS. -- Consul COSS. -- Consules ("Consuls") C.P. -- Clarissima Puella ("Most Illustrious Maiden") D. -- Depositus ("Laid to rest"); or Dulcis ("Dear One") D.D. -- Dedit, Dedicavit ("Gave", "Dedicated") DEP. -- Depositus ("Laid to rest") D.I.P. -- Dormit In Pace ("Sleeps in Peace") D.M. -- Diis Manibus ("To the Manes [of]") D.M.S. -- Diis Manibus Sacrum ("Sacred to the Manes [of]") D.N. -- Domino Nostro ("To Our Lord") DD. NN. -- Dominis Nostris ("To Our Lords") E.V. -- Ex Voto ("In Fulfilment of a Vow") EX. TM. -- Ex Testamento ("In accordance with the Testament of") E VIV. DISC. -- E Vivis Discessit ("Departed from Life") F. -- Fecit ("Did"); or Filius ("Son"); or Feliciter ("Happily") F.C. -- Fieri Curavit ("Caused to be made") F.F. -- Fieri Fecit ("Caused to be made") FF. -- Fratres ("Brothers"); Filii ("Sons") FS. -- Fossor ("Digger") H. -- Haeres ("Heir"); Hic ("Here") H.L.S. -- Hoc Loco Situs ("Laid [or Put] in This Place") H.M.F.F. -- Hoc Monumentum Fieri Fecit ("Caused This Monument to be Made") H.S. -- Hic Situs ("Laid Here") ID. -- Idibus ("On the Ides") IDNE. -- Indictione ("In the Indiction" -- a chronological term) I.L.H. -- Jus Liberorum Habens ("Possessing the Right of Children" -- i.e., eligibility to public office under age) INB. -- In Bono ("In Good [odour]") IND. -- Same as IDNE INP -- In Pace ("In Peace") I.X. -- In Christo ("In Christ") K. -- Kalendas ("Calends"); or Care, Carus, Cara ("Dear One"); or Carissimus[a] ("Dearest") K.B.M. -- Karissimo Bene Merenti ("To the Most Dear and Well-deserving") L. -- Locus ("Place") L.M. -- Locus Monumenti ("Place of the Monument") L.S. -- Locus Selpuchri ("Place of the Sepulchre") M. -- Martyr, or Memoria ("Memory") or Monumentum ("Monument") MM. -- Martyres ("Martyrs") M.P. -- Monumentum Posuit ("Erected a Monument") MRT. -- Merenti ("To the Deserving") N. -- Nonas ("Nones"); or Numero ("Number") NN. -- Nostris ("To Our" -- with a plural) or Numeri ("Numbers") O. -- Hora ("Hour"); Obiit ("Died") OB. IN XTO. -- Obiit In Christo ("Died In Christ") OMS. -- Omnes ("All") OP. -- Optimus (Excellent, or Supremely Good) P. -- Pax ("Peace"); or Pius ("Dutiful"); or Ponendum ("To be Placed"); or Pridie ("The Day Before"); or Plus ("More") P.C. -- Poni Curavit ("Caused to be Placed") P.C., P. CONS. -- Post Consulatum ("After the Consulate") P.I. -- Poni Jussit ("Ordered to be Placed") P.M. -- Plus Minus ("More or Less"); or Piae Memoriae ("Of Pious Memory"); or Post Mortem ("After Death") PP. -- Praepositus ("Placed over") PR.K. -- Pridie Kalendas ("The Day Before the Calends") PRB. -- Presbyter ("Priest") PR.N. -- Pridie Nonas ("The Day Before the Nones") P.T.C.S. -- Pax Tibi Cum Sanctis ("Peace to Thee With the Saints") PZ. -- Pie Zeses ("May you Live Piously" -- Greek) Q., Qui. -- Quiescit ("He Rests") Q.B.AN. -- Qui Bixit [for Vixit] Annos ("Who lived . . . years") Q.I.P. -- Quiescat In Pace ("May he [or she] Rest in Peace") Q.V. -- Qui Vixit ("Who Lived") R. -- Requiescit ("He Rests"); or Refrigerio ("In [a place of] Refreshment") Reg. -- Regionis ("Of the Region") S. -- Suus ("His"); or Situs ("Placed"); or Sepulchrum ("Sepulchre") SC. M. -- Sanctae Memoriae ("Of Holy Memory") SD. -- Sedit ("He sat") SSA. -- Subscripta ("Subscribed") S.I.D. -- Spiritus In Deo ("Spirit [rests] in God") S.P. -- Sepultus ("Buried"); or Sepulchrum ("Sepulchre") SS. -- Sanctorum (Of the Saints) S.V. -- Sacra Virgo ("Holy Virgin") T., TT. -- Titulus, Tituli ("Title", "Titles") TM. -- Testamentum ("Testament") V. -- Vixit ("He Lived"); or Vixisti ("Thou didst Live") VB. -- Vir Bonus ("A Good Man") V.C. -- Vir Clarissimus ("A Most Illustrious Man") VV. CC. -- Viri Clarissimi ("Most Illustrious Men") V.H. -- Vir Honestus ("A Worthy Man") V. X. -- Vivas, Care [or Cara] ("Mayest thou Live, Dear One"); or Uxor Carissima ("Most Dear Wife") X., XPC., XS. -- Christus ("Christ") ABBREVIATIONS OF TITLES OF THE PRINCIPAL RELIGIOUS ORDERS AND CONGREGATIONS OF PRIESTS A.A. -- Augustiniani Assumptionis (Assumptionists) A.B.A. -- Antoniani Benedictini Armeni (Mechitarists) C.J.M. -- Congregation Jesu et Mariae (Eudist Fathers) C.M. -- Congregatio Missionis (Lazarists) C.M. -- Congregatio Mariae (Fathers of the Company of Mary) C.P. -- Congregatio Passionis (Passionists) C.PP.S. -- Congregatio Pretiosissimi Sanguinis (Fathers of the Most Precious Blood) C.R. -- Congregatio Resurrectionis (Resurrectionist Fathers) C.R.C.S. -- Clerici Regulares Congregationis Somaschae (Somaschi Fathers) C.R.I.C. -- Canonici Regulares Immaculate Conecptionis ("Canons Regular of the Immaculate Conception") C.R.L. -- Canonici Regulares Lateranenses ("Canons Regular of the Lateran") C.R.M. -- Clerici Regulares Minores ("Clerks Regular Minor", Mariani) C.R.M.D. -- Clerici Regulares Matris Dei ("Clerks Regular of the Mother of God") C.R.M.I. -- Clerici Regulares Ministrantes Infirmis ("Clerks Regular Attendant on the Sick", Camillini, Camilliani) C.R.P. -- Congregatio Reformatorum Praemonstratensium (Premonstratensians) C.R.S.P. -- Clerici Regulares Sancti Pauli (Barnabites) C.R.S.P. -- Clerici Regulares Pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum ("Clerks Regular of the Poor Men of the Mother of God for Pious Schools", Piarists) C.R.T. -- Clerici Regulares Theatini (Theatines) C.S.B. -- Congregatio Sancti Basilii (Basilians) C.S.C. -- Congregatio Sanctae Crucis (Fathers and Brothers of the Holy Cross) C.S.P. -- Congregatio Sancti Pauli (Paulists) C.S.Sp. -- Congregatio Sancti Spiritus (Fathers of the Holy Ghost) C.S.V. -- Clerici Sancti Viatoris (Clerks, or Clerics, of St. Viateur) C.SS.CC. -- Congregatio Sacratissimorum Cordium (Missionaries of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary) C. SS. R. -- Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris (Redemptorists) Inst. Char. -- Institutum Charitatis (Rosminians) M.C. -- Missionaries of Charity M.S. -- Missionaries of La Salette [France] M.S.C. -- Missionarii Sancti Caroli ("Missionaries of St. Charles") M.S.C. -- Missionarii Sacratissimi Cordis ("Missionaries of the Most Sacred Heart") O.C. -- Ordo Charitatis (Fathers of the Order of Charity) O. Camald. -- Ordo Camaldulensium (Camaldolese) O. Cart. -- Ordo Cartusiensis (Carthusians) O. Cist. -- Ordo Cisterciensium (Cistercians) O.C.C. -- Ordo Carmelitarum Calceatorum (Carmelites) O.C.D. -- Ordo Carmelitarum Discalceatorum (Discalced, or Barefoot, Carmelites) O.C.R. -- Ordo Reformatorum Cisterciensium (Cistercians, Trappists) O.F.M. -- Ordo Fratrum Minorum (Observant Franciscans) O.M. -- Ordo [Fratrum] Minimorum (Minims of St. Francis of Paul) O. Merced. -- Ordo Beatae Mariae Virginis de Redemptione Captivorum (Mercedarians, Nolaschi) O.M.C. -- Ordo Minorum Conventualium (Conventual Franciscans) O.M. Cap., O.F.M. Cap., O.M.C. -- Ordo Minorum Cappucinorum (Capuchins) O.M.I. -- Oblati Mariae Immaculatae (Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate) O.P., Ord Fratr. Praed. -- Ordo Praedicatorum (Dominicans) Ord. Praem. -- Ordo Praemonstratensium (Premonstratensians, Norbertines) O.S.A. -- Ordo [Eremitarum] Sancti Augustini (Augustinians) O.S.B. -- Ordo Sancti Benedicti (Benedictines) O.S.C. -- Oblati Sancti Caroli (Oblate Fathers of St. Charles) O.S.F.C. -- Ordinis Sancti Francisci Capuccini (Franciscan Capuchins) O.S.F.S. -- Oblati Sancti Francisci Salesii (Oblate Fathers of St. Francis of Sales) O.S.H. -- Ordo [Eremitarum] Sancti Hieronymi (Hieronymites) O.S.M. -- Ordo Servorum Mariae (Servites) O.SS.C. -- Oblati Sacratissimi Cordis ("Oblate Fathers of the Sacred Heart") O. Trinit. -- Ordo Sanctissimae Trinitatis (Trinitarians) P.O. -- Pr tres de l Oratoire, Presbyteri Oratorii (Oratorians) P.S.M. -- Pia Societas Missionum (Fathers of the Pious Society of Missions, Pallottini) P.S.S. -- Presbyteri Sancti Sulpicii, Pr tres de S. Sulpice (Sulpicians) S.C. -- Salesianorum Congregatio (Congregation of St. Francis of Sales -- Salesian Fathers) S.D.S. -- Societas Divini Salvatoris ("Society of the Divine Saviour") S.D.V. -- Societas Divini Verbi (Fathers of the Divine Word) S.J. -- Societas Jesu ("Society of Jesus", i.e. the Jesuits) S.M. -- Societas Mariae (Marists) S.P.M. -- Societas Patrum Misericordiae (Fathers of Mercy) S.S.S. -- Societas Sanctissimi Sacramenti (Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament) Most manuals of palaeography (Greek and Latin) contain lists of Abbreviations (ancient and medieval), some of which are yet of ecclesiastical interest, while others have long since become obsolete or rare, and concern only the reader of manuscripts. Some manuals of diplomatics, likewise, have useful lists of pontifical chancery abbreviations, e.g. QUANTIN, Dict. de diplomatique chrétienne (Paris, 1846). 26-42, and Prou (Paris, 1902). in the latter work may be seen the original script-forms of these Abbreviations. Facsimiles of abbreviated pontifical documents may be seen, e.g. in DENIFLE, Specimina Palaeographica ab Innoc. III ad Urban. V. (Rome, 1888) The Abbreviations in Greek manuscripts were first scientifically studied by the Benedictine MONTFAUCON in his famous Palaeographica Graeca (Paris, 1708); see the lntroductions to Greek Palaeography of GARDTHAUSEN and WATTENBACH The little work, Modus legendi abreviaturas in jure tam civili quam pontificio occurrentes (Venice, 1596), is one of the earliest attempts at a dictionary of medieval abbreviations. A very useful work for all Latin abbreviations is that of CAPELLI, Dizionario delle abbreviature latine ed italiane (Milan, 1900); it is written mostly in Latin and describes all the abbreviations ordinarily used in Latin and Italian documents, civil or ecclesiastical Other valuable works dealing specifically with abbreviations in pontifical documents are DE LA BRANA, Signos y Abreviaturas que se usan en los documentos pontificios (Leon, 1884); RODENBERG, Epistolae saec. XIII e regestis RR. PP. selectae (Berlin, 1883), I, 323. For an extensive list of the abbreviations in the epitaphs of the Catacombs see KRAUS, Real-Encycl. der Christi. Alterth. (Freiburg, 1886), I, 47-51. The chapters on abbreviations of medieval manuscripts in the palaeographical manuals of DE WAILLY (Paris, 1843), CHASSANT (Paris, 1885), PAOLI (Florence, 1891), REUSENS (Louvain, 1899), CARINI (Rome, 1889), and THOMPSON (London, 1903) are recommended, also the excellent Lateinische Paläographie of STEFFENS (Freiburg, Switzerland, 1903, 3 vols. fol. with many plates). See BATTANDIER, Abbréviations, in Ann. Pont. Cath. (Paris 1900), 527-538. THOMAS J. SHAHAN Abbreviators Abbreviators ( Abbreviare = "shorten", "curtail"). Abbreviators are those who make an abridgment or abstract of a long writing or discourse. This is accomplished by contracting the parts, i.e. the words and sentences; an abbreviated form of writing common among the Romans. Abbreviations were of two kinds, + the use of a single letter for a single word, + the use of a sign, note, or mark for a word or phrase. The Emperor Justinian forbade the use of abbreviations in the compilation of the "Digest" and afterwards extended his prohibition to all other writings. This prohibition was not universally obeyed. The abbreviators found it to their own convenience and interest to use the abbreviated form, and especially was this the case at Rome. The early Christians practised the abbreviated mode, no doubt as an easy and safe way of communicating with one another and safeguarding their secrets from enemies and false brethren. ECCLESIASTICAL ABBREVIATORS In course of time the Apostolic Chancery adopted this mode of writing as the curial style, still further abridging by omitting the diphthongs ae and oe, and likewise all lines and marks of punctuation. The ecclesiastical Abbreviators are officials of the Holy See, inasmuch as they are among the principal officials of the Apostolic Chancery, which is one of the oldest and most important offices in the Roman Curia. The scope of its labour, as well as the number of its officials, has varied with the times. Up to the twelfth or thirteenth century, the duty of the Apostolic, or Roman Chancery was to prepare and expedite the pontifical letters and writs for collation of church dignities and other matters of grave importance which were discussed and decided in Consistory. About the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the popes, whilst they lived at Avignon in France, began to reserve the collation of a great many benefices, so that all the benefices, especially the greater ones, were to be conferred through the Roman Curia (Lega, Praelectiones Jur. Can., I, ii, 287). As a consequence, the labour was immensely augmented, and the number of Abbreviators necessarily increased. To regulate the proper expedition of these reserved benefices, Pope John XXII instituted the rules of chancery to determine the competency and mode of procedure of the Chancery. Afterwards the establishment of the Dataria and the Secretariate of Briefs lightened the work of the Chancery and led to a reduction in the number of Abbreviators. According to Ciampini (Lib. de Abbreviatorum de parco majore etc., cap. i) the institution of abbreviators was very ancient, succeeding after the persecutions to the notaries who recorded the acts of the martyrs. Other authors reject this early institution and ascribe it to Pope John XXII (1316). It is certain that he uses the name Abbreviators, but speaks as if they had existed before his time, and had, by overtaxation for their labour, caused much complaint and protest He (Extravag. Joan. tit. xiii, "Cum ad Sacrosanctae Romanae Ecclesiae") prescribes their work, determines how much they may charge for their labour, fixes a certain tax for an abstract or abridgment of twenty-five words, or their equivalent, 150 letters, forbids them to charge more, even though the abstract goes over twenty-five words but less than fifty words, enacts that the basis of the tax is the labour employed in writing, expediting, etc., the Bulls, and by no means the emoluments accruing to the recipient of the favour or benefice conferred by the Bull, and declares that whoever shall charge more than the tax fixed by him shall be suspended for six months from office, and upon a second violation of the law, shall be deprived of it altogether, and if the delinquent be an abbreviator, he shall be excommunicated. Should a large letter have to be rewritten, owing to the inexact copy of the abbreviator, the abbreviator and not the receiver of the Bull must pay the extra charge for the extra labour to the apostolic writer. Whatever may be the date of the institution of the office of abbreviator, it is certain that it became of greater importance and more highly privileged upon its erection into a college of prelates. Pope Martin V (Constit. 3 "In Apostolicae", ii and v) fixed the manner for their examination and approbation and also the tax they should demand for their labour and the punishment for overcharge. He also assigned to them certain emoluments. The Abbreviators of the lower, or lesser, were to be promoted to the higher, or greater, bar or presidency. Their offices were compatible with other offices, i.e. they can hold two benefices or offices at one and the same time, some conferred by the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor, others by the Holy Father. ERECTION OF THE OFFICE: INTO A COLLEGE OF PRELATES In the pontificate of Pius II, their number, which had been fixed at twenty-four, had overgrown to such an extent as to diminish considerably the individual remuneration, and, as a consequence, able and competent men no longer sought the office, and hence the old style of writing and expediting the Bulls was no longer used, to the great injury of justice, the interested parties, and the dignity of the Holy See. To remedy this evil and to restore the old established chancery style, the Pope selected out of the great number of the then living Abbreviators seventy, and formed them into a college of prelates, and decreed that their office should be perpetual, that certain emoluments should be attached to it, and granted certain privileges to the possessors of the same. He ordained further that some should be called "Abbreviators of the Upper Bar" ( de Parco Majori), the others of the Lower Bar ( de Parco Minori); that the former should sit upon a slightly raised portion of the chamber, separated from the rest of the hall or chamber by lattice work, assist the Cardinal Vice-Chancellor, subscribe the letters and have the principal part in examining, revising, and expediting the apostolic letters to be issued with the leaden seal; that the latter, however, should sit among the apostolic writers upon benches in the lower part of the chamber, and their duty was to carry the signed schedules or supplications to the prelates of the upper bar. Then one of the prelates of the upper bar made an abstract, and another prelate of the same bar revised it. Prelates of the upper bar formed a quasi- tribunal, in which as a college they decided all doubts that might arise about the form and quality of the letters, of the clauses and decrees to be adjoined to the apostolic letters, and sometimes about the payment of the emoluments and other contingencies. Their opinion about questions concerning chancery business was held in the highest estimation by all the Roman tribunals. Paul II suppressed this college; but Sixtus IV (Constitutio 16, "Divina") reestablished it. He appointed seventy-two abbreviators, of whom twelve were of the upper, or greater, and twenty-two of the lower, or lesser, presidency ( Parco), and thirty-eight examiners on first appearance of letters. They were bound to be in attendance on certain days under penalty of fine, and sign letters and diplomas. Ciampini mentions a decree of the Vice-Chancellor by which absentees were mulcted in the loss of their share of the emoluments of the following chancery session. The same Pope also granted many privileges to the College of Abbreviators, but especially to the members of the greater presidency. Pius VII suppressed many of the chancery offices, and so the Tribunal of Correctors and the Abbreviators of the lower presidency disappeared. Of the Tribunal of Correctors, a substitute-corrector alone remains. Bouix (Curia Romana, edit. 1859) chronicles the suppression of the lower presidency and puts the number of Abbreviators at that date at eleven. The present college consists of seventeen prelates, six substitutes, and one sub-substitute, all of whom, except the prelates, may be clerics or laymen. Although the duty of Abbreviators was originally to make abstracts and abridgments of the apostolic letters, diplomas, etc., using the legal abbreviations, clauses, and formularies, in course of time, as their office grew in importance they delegated that part of their office to their substitute and confined themselves to overseeing the proper expedition of the apostolic letters. Prior to the year 1878, all apostolic letters and briefs requiring for their validity the leaden seal were engrossed upon rough parchment and in Gothic characters (round letters, also called Gallicum and commonly Bollatico, but in Italy today Teutonic) without lines, or diphthongs, or marks of punctuation. Bulls engrossed on a different parchment, or in different characters with lines and punctuation marks, or without the accustomed abbreviations, clauses, and formularies, would be rejected as spurious. Pope Leo XIII (Constitutio Universae Eccles., 29 Dec., 1878) ordained that they should be written henceforth in ordinary Latin characters upon ordinary parchment, and that no abbreviations should be used except those easily understood. TITLES AND PRIVILEGES Many great privileges were conferred upon Abbreviators in the past. By decree of Leo X they were created nobles, Counts Palatine, familiars and members of the papal household, so that they might enjoy all the privileges of domestic prelates and of prelates in actual attendance on the Pope, as regards plurality of benefices as well as expectives. They and their clerics and their properties were exempt from all jurisdiction except the immediate jurisdiction of the Pope, and they were not subject to the judgments of the Auditor of Causes, or to the Cardinal Vicar. He also empowered them to confer (today within strict limitations) the degree of Doctor, with all university privileges, create notaries (now abrogated), legitimize children so as to make them eligible to receive benefices vacated by their fathers (now revoked), also to ennoble three persons and to make Knights of the Order of St. Sylvester ( Militiae Aureae), the same to enjoy and to wear the insignia of nobility. Pope Gregory XVI rescinded this privilege and reserved to the Pope the right of creation of such knights (Acta Pont. Greg. XVI, Vol. III, 178-179-180). Pope Paul V, who in early manhood was a member of the College (Const. 2, "Romani"), made them Referendaries of Favours, and after three years of service, Referendaries likewise of Justice, enjoying the privileges of Referendaries and permitting one to assist in the signatures before the Pope, giving all a right to a portion in the papal palace and exempting them from the registration of favours as required by Pius IV (Const., 98) with regard to matters pertaining to the Apostolic Chamber. They follow immediately after the twelve voting members of the Signature in capella. Abbreviators of the greater presidency are permitted to wear the purple cassock and cappa, as also rochet in capella. Abbreviators of the lower presidency before their suppression were simple clerics, and according to permission granted by Sixtus IV (loc. cit.) might be even married men. These offices becoming vacant by death of the Abbreviator, no matter where the death take place, are reserved in Curia. The prelates could resign their office in favour of others. Formerly these offices as well as those of the other chancery officers from the Regent down were occasions of venality, which many of the popes, especially Benedict XIV and Pius VII, laboured most strenuously to abolish. Leo XIII (Motu Proprio, 4 July, 1898) most solemnly decreed the abolition of all venality in the transfer or Collation of the said offices. As domestic prelates, prelates of the Roman Court, they have personal preeminence in every diocese of the world. They are addressed as "Reverendissimus", "Right Reverend", and "Monsignor". As prelates, and therefore possessing the legal dignity, they are competent to receive and execute papal commands. Benedict XIV (Const. 3, "Maximo") granted prelates of the greater presidency the privilege of wearing a hat with purple band, which right they hold even after they have ceased to be abbreviators. FERRARIS, Bibliotheca, s.v. Abbreviatores; ANDRE-WAGNER, Dict. de Droit Canon., s.v. Abreviateurs; VAN ESPEN, Jurist Eccles. Univ., Pt. I, tit. xxiii, Cap. i; BRANCATI DE LAUREA-PARAVICINA-POLYANTHEA, Sac. Can., s.v. Abbreviatores; RIGANTI, In Reg. Cancell., IV, Index; LEGA, Proelect. Jur. Can., Lib. I, vol. II, De Cancellaria Apostolica, p. 285; CIAMPINI, De Abbreviatorum de Parco Majori, etc.; DE LUCA, Relatio Romanae Curiae Forensis., Disc. x, n. 9; PETRA, Commentaria in Constit. Apostolicas, IV, 232-233; V. 302-303. P.M.J. ROCK Abdera Abdera A titular see in the province of Rhodope on the southern coast of Thrace, now called Bouloustra. It was founded about 656 B.C. Abdias Abdias (A Minor Prophet). This name is the Greek form of the Hebrew `Obhádhyah, which means "the servant [or worshipper] of Yahweh". The fourth and shortest of the minor prophetical books of the Old Testament (it contains only twenty-one verses) is ascribed to Abdias. In the title of the book it is usually regarded as a proper name. Some recent scholars, however, think that it should be treated as an appellative, for, on the one hand, Holy Writ often designates a true prophet under the appellative name of "the servant of Yahweh", and on the other, it nowhere gives any distinct information concerning the writer of the work ascribed to Abdias. It is true that in the absence of such authoritative information Jews and Christian traditions have been freely circulated to supply its place; but it remains none the less a fact that "nothing is known of Abdias; his family, station in life, place of birth, manner of death, are equally unknown to us" (Abbé Trochon, Les petits prophètes, 193). The only thing that may be inferred from the work concerning its author is that he belonged to the Kingdom of Juda. The short prophecy of Abdias deals almost exclusively with the fate of Edom as is stated in its opening words. God has summoned the nations against her. She trusts in her rocky fastnesses, but in vain. She would be utterly destroyed, not simply spoiled as by thieves (1-6). Her former friends and allies have turned against her (7), and her wisdom shall fail her in this extremity (8,9). She is justly punished for her unbrotherly conduct towards Juda when foreigners sacked Jerusalem and cast lots over it (10-11). She is bidden to desist from her unworthy conduct (12-14). The "day of Yahweh" is near upon "all the nations", in whose ruin Edom shall share under the united efforts of "the house of Jacob" and "the house of Joseph" (16-18). As for Israel, her borders will be enlarged in every direction; "Saviours" shall appear on Mount Sion to "judge" the Mount of Esau, and the rule of Yahweh shall be established (19-20). DATE OF THE PROPHECY OF ABDIAS Besides the shortness of the book of Abdias and its lack of a detailed title such as is usually prefixed to the prophetical writings of the Old Testament, there are various reasons, literary and exegetical, which prevents scholars from agreeing upon the date of its composition. Many among them (Keil, Orelli, Vigouroux, Trochon, Lesêtre, etc.) assign its composition to about the reign of Joram (ninth century B.C.).Their main ground for this position is derived from Abdias's reference (11-14) to a capture of Jerusalem which they identify with the sacking of the Holy City by the Philistines and the Arabians under Joram (II Paralip., xxi, 16,17). The only other seizure of Jerusalem to which Abdias (11-14) could be understood to refer would be that which occurred during the lifetime of the prophet Jeremias and was effected by Nabuchodonosor (588-587 B.C.). But such reference to this latter capture of the Jewish capital is ruled out, we are told, by the fact that Jeremias's description of this event (Jer., xlix, 7-22) is so worded as to betray its dependence on Abdias (11-14) as on an earlier writing. It is ruled out also by Abdias's silence concerning the destruction of the city or of the Temple which was carried out by Nabuchodonosor, and which, as far as we know, did not occur in the time of King Joram. A second argument for this early date of the prophecy is drawn from a comparison of its text with that of Amos and Joel. The resemblance is intimate and, when closely examined, shows, it is claimed, that Abdias was anterior to both Joel and Amos. In fact, in Joel, ii, 32 (Heb., iii, 5) "as the Lord hath said" introduces a quotation from Abdias (17). Hence it is inferred that the prophecy of Abdias originated between the reign of Joram and the time of Joel and Amos, that is, about the middle of the ninth century B.C. The inference is said also to be confirmed by the purity of style of Abdias's prophecy. Other scholars, among whom may be mentioned Meyrick, Jahn, Ackerman, Allioli, etc., refer the composition of the book to about the time of the Babylonian Captivity, some three centuries after King Joram. They think that the terms of Abdias (11-14) can be adequately understood only of the capture of Jerusalem by Nabuchodonosor; only this event could be spoken of as the day "when strangers carried away his [Juda's] army captive, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem"; as "the day of his [Juda's] leaving his country . . . . the day of their [the children of Juda's] destruction"; "the day of their ruin"; etc. They also admit that Abdias (20) contains an implicit reference to the writer as one of the captives in Babylon. Others again, ascribe the present book of Abdias to a still later date. They agree with the defenders of the second opinion in interpreting Abdias (11-14) as referring to the capture of Jerusalem by Nabuchodonosor, but differ from them in holding that (20) does not really prove that the author of the book lived during the Babylonian exile. They claim that a close study of Abdias (15-21), with its apocalyptic features (reference to the day of the Lord as being at hand upon all nations, to a restoration of all Israel, to the wonderful extent of territory and position in command which await the Jews in God's kingdom), connects necessarily the prophecy of Abdias with other works in Jewish literature [Joel, Daniel, Zacharias (ix-xiv)] which, as they think, belong to a date long after the return from Babylon. These, then are the three leading forms of opinion which prevail at the present day regarding the date of composition of the book of Abdias, none of which conflicts with the prophetical import of the work concerning the utter ruin of Edom at a later date and concerning the Messianic times. Phillippe, in Dict. de la Bible; Selbie, in Hast., Dict. of Bible, s.v. Obadiah. Recent Commentaries: Trochon (1883); Peters (1892); Perowne (1898); Nowack (1897). FRANCIS E. GIGOT Abdias of Babylon Abdias of Babylon An apocryphal writer, said to have been one of the seventy-two Disciples of Christ, and first Bishop of Babylon, consecrated by Sts. Simon and Jude. Very little is known about him, and the main reason for mentioning him is a work in ten books called Historia Certaminis Apostolici which is imputed to him. It tells of the labours and deaths of the Apostles. This compilation purports to have been translated from Hebrew into Greek by Eutropius, a disciple of Abdias, and, in the third century, from Greek into Latin by (Julius) Africanus, the friend of Origen. But it is really a Latin work, for in it are cited, with the Vulgate of St. Jerome, the Ecclesiastical History of Rufinus and his Latin translation of the "Recognitiones" of Clement. The interest of the work is due to what the author claims to have drawn from the ancient Acta of the Apostles, and to many ancient legends which have thus been brought down to us. The text of the pseudo-Abdias may be found in Fabricius, Codex Apocryphus Novi Testimenti (Hamburg, 1700), 402-742, though there are parallel texts of single books printed in the Acta Sanctorum. According to R.A. Lipsius, the work was compiled during the latter half of the sixth century, in some Frankish monastery, for the purpose of satisfying the natural curiosity of Western Christians. At the same time he used much older pseudo-Apostolic materials that he abridged or excerpted to suit his purpose, and often revised or expurgated in the sense of Catholic teaching, for not a few of the writings that he used were originally Gnostic compositions, and abounded in speeches and prayers destined to spread that heresy. BATIFFOL, in Dict. de la Bible, 24; LIPSIUS, Die Apokryphen Apostelgeschichten (Brunswick, 1883), 1, 177-178; BATIFFOL, in Dict. de th ol. cath., I, 23; LIPSIUS, in Dict. of Christ. Biogr., I, 1-4. JOHN J. A'BECKET Abdication Abdication Abdication, ecclesiastically considered, is the resignation of a benefice or clerical dignity. Every such honour or emolument, from the papal throne to the humblest chantry, may be resigned by the incumbent. The general ecclesiastical law concerning Such abdications (exclusive of a papal resignation) is that the benefice must be resigned into the hands of the proper ecclesiastical superior. Moreover, the resignation must be prompted by a just cause, be voluntary and free from contracts involving simony. Resignations, however, may be made with accompanying stipulations, such as that the resigned benefice be bestowed upon a designated person, or that the abdicating cleric be provided with another office. It is also required that the one who resigns his benefice, if in sacred orders, should have other certain means of support commensurate with his dignity. Resignations may be not only express but also tacit. The latter is presumed to have taken place when a cleric accepts an office or commits an act incompatible with the holding of an ecclesiastical dignity, such as solemn profession in a religious order, enrolment in the army, contracting marriage, and the like. No resignation takes effect until it is accepted by the proper authority. Hence, those who hold office from a bishop must resign into his hands and obtain his acquiescence. Bishops, in like manner, must resign into the hands of the Pope. Vicars-general cannot accept resignations unless they receive powers ad hoc from the bishop. When a bishop abdicates his see, he may renounce both the episcopal benefice and dignity or only the benefice. If he resigns both he cannot in future perform any episcopal functions, even with the consent of the ordinary of the diocese where he resides. If he resign, however, only the benefice, and not the dignity, he still remains capable of performing such episcopal functions as other bishops may request him to exercise. Of course, in the former case, if an abdicated bishop should nevertheless ordain candidates, such action would be valid, as his episcopal character is indelible, but it would be entirely illicit and entail grave consequences both for ordainer and ordained. A bishop's Abdication of his see goes into effect as soon as the Pope has accepted it in a papal consistory. The bishopric then becomes vacant, but the actions of the prelate retain their validity until he receives official notice of the acceptance of his resignation. Like every other ecclesiastical dignity, the papal throne may also be resigned. The reasons which make it lawful for a bishop to abdicate his see, such as the necessity or utility of his particular church, or the salvation of his own soul, apply in a stronger manner to the one who governs the universal church. It is true that the Roman Pontiff has no superior on earth into whose hands he can resign his dignity, yet he himself by the papal power can dissolve the spiritual marriage between himself and the Roman Church. A papal Abdication made without cause may be illicit, but it is unquestionably valid, since there is no one who can prohibit it ecclesiastically and it contravenes no divine law. The papacy does not, like the episcopacy, imprint an indelible character on the soul, and hence by his voluntary Abdication the Pope is entirely stripped of all jurisdiction, just as by his voluntary acceptance of the election to the primacy he acquired it. All doubt as to the legitimacy of papal abdications and all disputes among canonists were put an end to by the decree of Pope Boniface VIII which was received into the Corpus Juris Canonici (Cap. Quoniam I, de renun., in 6). The Pontiff says: Our predecessor, Pope Celestine V, whilst he governed the Church, constituted and decreed that the Roman Pontiff can freely resign. Therefore lest it happen that this statute should in the course of time fall into oblivion, or that doubt upon the subject should lead to further disputes, We have determined with the counsel of our brethren that it be placed among other constitutions for a perpetual memory of the same. Ferraris declares that the Pope should make his abdication into the hands of the College of Cardinals, as to that body alone pertains the election of his successor. For whilst it is true that the Cardinals did not bestow the papal jurisdiction upon him, yet they designated him as the successor of Peter, and they must be absolutely certain that he has renounced the dignity before they can validly proceed to the election of another pontiff. Church history furnishes a number of examples of papal abdications. Leaving aside the obscure case of Pope Marcellinus (296-308) adduced by Pezzani, and the still more doubtful resignation of Pope Liberius (352-366) which some historians have postulated in order to solve the perplexing position of Pope Felix II, we may proceed to unquestioned abdications. Pope Benedict IX (1033-44), who had long caused scandal to the Church by his disorderly life, freely renounced the pontificate and took the habit of a monk. He repented of his abdication and seized the papal throne again for a short time after the death of Pope Clement II, but he finally died in a private station. His immediate successor, Pope Gregory VI (1044-46) furnishes another example of papal Abdication. It was Gregory who had persuaded Benedict IX to resign the Chair of Peter, and to do so he had bestowed valuable possessions upon him. After Gregory had himself become Pope, this transaction was looked on by many as simoniacal; and although Gregory's intentions seem to have been of the best, yet it was deemed better that he too should abdicate the papal dignity, and he did so voluntarily. The classic example of the resignation of a Pope is that of St. Celestine V (1294). before his election to the pontificate, he had been a simple hermit, and his sudden elevation found him unprepared and unfit for his exalted position. After five months of pontificate, he issued a solemn decree in which he declared that it was permissible for the Pope to abdicate, and then made an equally solemn renunciation of the papacy into the hands of the cardinals. He lived two years after his abdication in the practice of virtues which afterwards procured his canonization. Owing to the troubles which evil minded persons caused his successor, Boniface VIII, by their theories about the impossibility of a valid Abdication of the papal throne, Boniface issued the above-cited decree to put the matter at rest for all time. The latest instance of a papal resignation is that of Pope Gregory XII (1406-15). It was at the time of the Great Schism of the West, when two pretenders to the Chair of Peter disputed Gregory's right, and rent the faithful into three so-called "obediences". To put an end to the strife, the legitimate Pope Gregory renounced the pontificate at the General Council of Constance in 1415. It is well known that Pope Pius VII (1800-23), before setting out for Paris to crown Napoleon in 1804, had signed an abdication of the papal throne to take effect in case he were imprisoned in France (De Montor). Finally, a valid Abdication of the Pope must be a free act, hence a forced resignation of the papacy would be null and void, as more than one ecclesiastical decree has declared. SMITH, Elem. of Eccl. Law (New York, 1895), I; DE LUCA, Praelect. Jur. Can. (Rome, 1897), II; CRAISSON, Manuale Jur. Can. (Paris, 1899), I. For Papal Abdication see FERRARIS, Bibl. Jur. Can., art. Papa (Rome, 1890); PEZZANI, Codex S.R.E. Ecclesiae (Rome, 1893), I: WERNZ, Jus Decretal, (Rome, 1899), II; DE MONTOR, Lives of Rom. Pont. (New York, 1866); HERGENRÖTHER, Handb. der allg. Kircheng. (Freiburg, 1886). WILLIAM H.W. FANNING Sts. Abdon and Sennan Sts. Abdon and Sennen (Variously written in early calendars and martyrologies Abdo, Abdus; Sennes, Sennis, Zennen.) Persian martyrs under Decius, about A.D. 250, and commemorated 30 July. The veneration paid them dates from as early as the third century, though their Acts, written for the most part prior to the ninth century, contain several fictitious statements about the cause and occasion of their coming to Rome and the nature of their torments. It is related in these Acts that their bodies were buried by a subdeacon, Quirinus, and transferred in the reign of Constantine to the Pontian cemetery on the road to Porto, near the gates of Rome. A fresco found on the sarcophagus supposed to contain their remains represents them receiving crowns from Christ. Accordin to Martigny, this fresco dates from the seventh century. Several cities, notably Florence and Soissons, claim possession of their bodies, but the Bollandists say that they rest in Rome. Acta SS., 30 July. MARTIGNY, Dict. des antiq. chret., 1; CHEETHAM, in Dict. Christ. Antiq,; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, July 30. JOHN J. WYNNE Abduction Abduction Abduction may be considered as a public crime and a matrimonial diriment impediment. Viewed as a crime, it is a carrying off by force, physical or moral, of any virtuous woman, or even man, from a free and safe place to another place morally different and neither free nor safe from the captor's power, with intent to marry her or to gratify lust. Abduction considered as a matrimonial Impediment is a violent taking away of any woman whatsoever, chaste or unchaste, from a place free and safe to a morally different place, and there detaining her in the power of her abductor until he has coerced her into consenting to marry him. Abduction as a crime is of wider scope than is the impediment, inasmuch as the former includes man-captors and intent to gratify lust, both of which are excluded from the scope of the impediment. On the other hand, the impediment is of wider import than the crime in as far as it includes all women, chaste as well as unchaste, while the crime excludes the corrupt. This difference arises from the fact that the State aims to suppress the public crime as a menace to the safety of the commonwealth, while the Church cares, directly and immediately, for the freedom and the dignity of the Sacrament of Marriage. Abduction is often divided into Abduction by Violence ( Raptus Violentiae) and Abduction by Seduction, or Elopement ( Raptus Seductionis). The former is when (a) a woman evidently reluctant, and not consenting either to the flight or to the marriage, is forcibly transferred with a matrimonial intent from a secure and free place to a morally different one and there held under the abductor's influence by force, physical or moral, i.e. threats, great fear, or fraud equivalent to force, as it is a well-known axiom that "it is equal to be compelled to do a thing as to know that it is possible to be compelled to do it", (b) a woman enticed by fair words and fraud and deception consents to go with a man for other reason than matrimony from one place to another where he detains her by force or fraud equivalent to force, in order to coerce her into a marriage to which she objects; (e) a woman who, although she had already consented to a future marriage by act of betrothal, vet strenuously objects to abduction, is carried off violently by her betrothed or his agents from a free and safe place to another morally different and there detained until she consents to marry him. Some deny, however, that the raptor in this case is guilty of abduction, saying that he has a right to his betrothed. He has, indeed, a right to compel her to fulfil her engagement by public authority, not, however, by private authority. His carrying off of the woman against her will is the exercise of private authority, and therefore violence to her rights. Abduction by Seduction ( Raptus Seductionis), or Elopement, is the taking away from one place to another, by a man, of (1) a woman of age or under age who consents to both the flight and the marriage without consent of her parents or guardians; or (2) a woman who, although she refuses at first, finally, induced thereto by caresses, flattery, or any allurement, not however equivalent to force, physical or moral, consents to both flight and marriage without knowledge or consent of her parents or guardians. Abduction by seduction, as defined is held by Roman law to be abduction by violence inasmuch as violence can be offered to the woman and her parents simultaneously, or to the woman alone, or to the parents and guardians alone; and in the elopement, while no violence is done to the woman, violence is done to the parents or guardians. On the contrary, the Church does not consider violence done to parents, but the violence done only to the parties matrimonially interested. Hence, elopement, or abduction by seduction, does not induce an impediment diriment. Pius VII, in his letter to Napoleon I (26 June, 1805), pronounced this kind of abduction no abduction in the Tridentine sense. The Church considers it, indeed, a wrong against parental authority, but not a wrong to the abducted woman. The old Roman law ( Jus Vetus), mindful of the actual or imaginary "Rape of the Sabines", dealt leniently with woman-stealers. If the woman was willing, her marriage with her abductor was allowed and solemnized by the lictor leading her by the hand to the home of the raptor. Constantine the Great, to protect female virtue and safeguard the State, forbade (A.D. 320) such marriages. The law was neither universally received nor observed. The Emperor Justinian (A.D. 528, 533, and 548) forbade these marriages and fixed the punishment, for the principal and his accomplices in the crime, at death and confiscation of all their property. Legal right to avenge the crime was given to parents, relations, or guardians; to put to instant death the abductor caught in the act of Abduction. Appeal by the victim in behalf of her abductor, on the plea that she gave consent, was denied. The law awarded the confiscated property to the woman, if she had not consented to the abduction; to her parents, if they were ignorant of, or adverse to, it, and their daughter consented to the abduction; but if the woman and her parents consented to the carrying off, then all the property lapsed to the State, and the parents were banished (Codex Just., IX, Tit. xiii; Auth. Collat., IX, Tit. xxvi; Novell., 143; Auth. Collat., IX, Tit. xxxiii; Novell. 150). The Byzantine Emperor, Leo VI (886-912), called the Philosopher, approved (Constit. XXXV) the former laws in all particulars, with the exception that if swords or other deadly weapons were carried by the abductor and his accomplices during the abduction a much severer punishment was inflicted than if they were not carried. The old Spanish law condemned to death the abductor who also ravished the woman, but the abductor who did not ravish was let off with a money fine to be equally shared by the abducted and the State. If the woman had consented to the abduction, the whole fine reverted to the State. Athenian law commanded the abductor to marry the abducted, if she so willed, unless the woman or her parents or guardians had already received money instead. The earlier Byzantine law enjoined, but the later law forbade, the marriage. Among the Germanic nations the crime of abduction was compounded by pecuniary gifts to the parents or guardians. The Church did not accept the Roman law which declared all the marriages of the abductor with the abducted, without exception, entirely and perpetually null and void. She held as valid all marriages in which there was present true and real consent of the captured women. According to St. Basil (2 Canon. Epist. to St. Amphilochius, xxii, xxx, fixed date, an. 375, Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d series, VIII, Scribner's ed.), the Church issued no canons on abduction prior to his time. Such a crime was, doubtless, extremely rare among the early Christians. In the fourth century, as men grew more audacious, the number of wife-captors became exceedingly numerous. To check this, the Church in several particular councils, besides the punishment of service, confiscation of goods, and public penance, decreed sentence of excommunication (to be judicially pronounced) against laics, and deposition from ecclesiastical rank against clerics, who had violently carried off, or helped to carry off, women. Pope Gelasius (496) permitted the marriage of the abductor with his captive if she was willing, and they had been betrothed, or had mutually discussed their future marriage prior to the abduction. Antecedent to the ninth century, however, the canons make no mention of abduction ( raptus) as a matrimonial impediment, either diriment or impedient. In the Western Church, at least from the ninth century, the marriage of the captor with his captive, or any other woman, was perpetually prohibited. This was not, however, the universal church discipline, but rather the discipline peculiar to those nations among whom the absence of strict laws made abductions more numerous. The bishops of the Frankish nation felt the necessity of severe legislation to meet the evil, and therefore, in many particular Councils, e.g. Aix-la-Chapelle (817), Meaux (845), etc., issued stringent canons which continued as the peculiar law of the Franks until it was abolished by Innocent III. Furthermore, the impediment was impedient, not diriment (according to the most common opinion). Marriages celebrated in opposition to the prohibition were held to be valid, although illicit. The Council of Meaux (845) forbade the abductor ever to marry the rapt woman, but permitted his marriage with any other woman after he had performed the prescribed public penance. Gratian ("Decretum Caus.", XXXVI, quaest. ii, ad finem) inaugurated a milder discipline. He, relying upon the (supposed) authority of St. Jerome, taught that an abductor ought to be allowed to marry the abducted, provided she was willing to have him for a husband. After the publication of his decree in the twelfth century, this milder discipline was generally observed and met with the approval of many popes. Finally, Innocent III ("Decret. Greg.", lib. V, tit. xvii, cap. vii, "De Raptoribus") decreed for the universal Church (especially aiming at the perpetual prohibition by the particular councils) that such marriages might take place as often as a prior reluctance and dissent on the part of the woman should change to willingness and consent to the marriage, and this (according to the common interpretation) even if the woman was in the power of the captor at the time she consented. This decree practically did away with the impedient impediment of abduction, which was merged into the impediment of vis et metus. The Innocentian law continued to be the ecclesiastical discipline up to the sixteenth century. The Council of Trent introduced an entirely new discipline. To guard the liberty and dignity of marriage, to show its detestation of a horrible crime dangerous alike to the purity of morals and the peace and security of society, and to bar the criminal from gaining the result intended by his crime, the Fathers decreed: between the abductor and abducted there can be no marriage, as long as she remains in the power of the raptor; but if the abducted, having been separated from the abductor, and having been placed in a safe and free place, consents to have him for a husband, let her marry him; yet, notwithstanding, the abductor with all his advisers, accomplices and abettors, are by the law itself excommunicated and declared forever infamous, incapable of acquiring dignities, and, if they be clerics, deposed from their ecclesiastical rank. Furthermore, the abductor is bound, whether he marries the abducted or not, to dower her with a decent dowry at the discretion of the judge (Concil. Trid., Sess. XXIV, vi, "De Reform Matrim."). This law was to take immediate effect, requiring no promulgation in individual parishes. Such also is the law in the Oriental Churches (Synod. Mont. Liban., 1736, Collect. Lacens., II, 167; Synod. Sciarfien. Syror., 1888). The difference between this law and that of the Decretals (Innocent III) is evident. According to the Decretals, the woman's consent, given even while she was in the raptor s power, was deemed sufficient. The Council of Trent does not consider such consent of any avail, and requires consent given after the woman has been entirely separated from the control of the raptor and is dwelling in a place safe and free from his influence. Should she desire to marry him, the marriage may be celebrated, the priest having first obtained permission from the bishop (according to some) whose duty it is to testify to the cessation of the impediment and that the dowry prescribed by the Council has been made over and is subject to the sole use and discretion of the abducted. The general law of the Church does not require the aforesaid bishop's permission, but individual bishops can and do make laws to that effect. The Council of Trent by this law safeguarded the freedom of marriage (1) on the part of the man, by allowing him to marry the abducted woman, and (2) on the part of the woman, by protecting her from being coerced while in the abductor's power into a marriage against her free will and consent. This impediment of abduction ( raptus) is one entirely distinct from that of vis et metus. The latter entirely looks to the freedom of consent; the former, to the freedom of the place where true consent must be elicited. Of ecclesiastical origin, this impediment is temporary and public, and does not bind two unbaptized persons unless the civil law of their country invalidates such marriages. It does, however, govern the marriage of an unbaptized abductor with a Catholic abducted woman, and vice versa. Amidst the conflicting opinions of canonists and moralists as to whether abduction by seduction, abduction of a betrothed, abduction of a minor against the will of her parents, or the abduction of a man by a woman, induces the impediment or not, it is necessary to remember that this impediment is of Tridentine origin, and therefore the Council of Trent was sole judge of the necessary conditions; that the Roman or any other civil law or any prior ecclesiastical law had nothing to say in the matter; that the question under investigation was the impediment, not the crime, of abduction; and that in rebus odiosis, which this is, the words of the Council of Trent must be strictly adhered to and interpreted. Four elements are essential in an abduction in order to induce thereby the Tridentine diriment impediment, to wit: (1) a woman; (2) change of locality; (3) violence; (4) matrimonial intent. (1) Any woman, whether moral or immoral, maid or widow, betrothed or not, even a public woman, may be the object of a violent Abduction inducing the Tridentine impediment and punishment. Lessius, Avancini, and others hold that a man is not guilty of abduction who carries off his betrothed. The Council of Trent makes no exception, hence we should not. The abduction of a man by a woman is not included in the Tridentine law. the contrary opinion (De Justis and other earlier authors) is at variance with the language of the Council, which always speaks of the raptor, but nowhere of the raptrix. A woman can be guilty of the crime of raptus; but the question here is not about crime, but about the Tridentine impediment. She may be an agent or accomplice of the abductor and, as such, incur the penalties decreed by the Council; but it does not admit her as raptrix. (2) Change of Locality. -- Two places are necessary to an abduction -- one, the place from which, the other, the place to which, the reluctant woman is violently taken, and in which she is also violently detained. These two places must be morally (some say physically, some virtually) different -- the one, from which may be her own or her parents' home, where she is a free agent; the other, to which, must be subject to the power or influence of the abductor, where, though she is free in very many of her actions, she is not perfectly free in all. It is not necessary that the place to which be the house of the abductor; it suffices if it be under his control or influence. Two rooms or two stories in a small dwelling, the home of one family; a street and an adjoining house; a public highway and a nearby field, would not afford the necessary change of locality. Removal, though violent, from room to room as above, would not induce the impediment under consideration, though some hold the contrary opinion. In case of a large castle, or mansion, or tenement-house, where many families dwell, the violent transference of a reluctant woman from a part where her family dwells to another remote part where a different family lives would constitute sufficient change of locality. If a woman is violently seized, v.g. in a room, and is violently kept there without change to another room, or if she willingly, without any enticement on the part of the man, goes to a place and is there violently detained with matrimonial intent, she does not suffer abduction in the Tridentine sense. It is a mere sequestration, or detention. Some jurists, however, think otherwise, claiming virtual change (from state of freedom to that of subjection) to be sufficient to induce the Council's impediment. Physical transference from one place to another, however, is absolutely necessary to constitute raptus; virtual transference does not suffice. Should a woman be forcibly removed from a place to which she went willingly to another where she is detained against her will with matrimonial intent, it is abduction. (3) Violence. -- Abduction always presumes that the abducted dissents, and that her unwillingness is overcome either by physical force, i.e. laying hands upon her, or moral force, i.e. threats, great fear, and fraud equivalent to force. Mere importunities, fair words, sweet phrases, gifts, and promises are not sufficient to constitute the moral force requisite for abduction. It is immaterial whether the principal, of and by himself, or through his agents and accomplices, uses this force, moral or physical. Women as the agents of the principal, may exercise it, and not infrequently do so. (4) Matrimonial Intent. -- The intention or motive of the criminal act is all important. To induce the impediment the intent must be to marry the abducted woman. Were the motive other than marriage, e.g. vengeance, pecuniary gain, or gratification of lust, there would be no abduction, no impediment, no penalties (S. Cong. Cone., 23 Jan., 1585). This is evident also from the custom of the Roman Curia, which, in all dispensations given or faculties granted to ordinaries to dispense in eases of affinity, consanguinity, etc., prefixes "provided that the woman was not abducted on account of this [marriage]". This impediment exists only between the abducted and abductor who, of and by himself, or with the assistance of others, had carried her off with intent to marry her. No impediment arises between the abducted and the agent or abettors of the abduction. She could validly, therefore, marry one of the agents or accomplices while still under the control of the abductor. When the intention is doubtful, judgment is arrived at from consideration of the circumstances. Thus, if a man violently carries off his betrothed or a woman with whom he has had conversations looking to future marriage, it is presumed that his intention was marriage. If doubts still remain, the law presumes the motive to be matrimonial. Where it is abundantly evident that the initial motive of the abduction was lust, it is not abduction, but sequestration, or detention, although afterwards, during the captivity, the captor promise marriage in order to attain his lustful object. The contrary opinion, held by Rosset (De Matrimonio, II, 1354), Krimer, and others, is at variance with the principle of law, that in crimes the beginning, and not what happens accidentally is what the law considers. Were the intent twofold, v.g. lust and marriage, then the carrying off is abduction and induces the impediment. The abduction must be proved, not presumed. The mere word of the abducted woman, especially as against the oath of the so-called abductor and the absence of all rumour, does not establish the fact. The existence of the abduction once admitted, the burden of proof rests upon the abductor. He must conclusively prove that the abducted willingly consented to both abduction and marriage. If she admits consent to the flight, he must still prove conclusively that she gave willing consent also to the marriage; otherwise the impediment holds and the penalties are incurred. Should he claim (in order to exclude impediment) that his motive in the beginning of the transaction was not marriage, but lust, and that he proposed marriage in order to attain his initial purpose, then he must, by the most conclusive evidence, establish his assertion, since the law presumes that his motive was matrimonial. PUNISHMENTS The abductor and his advisers and abettors and accomplices in a complete (copula not required), not merely an attempted, abduction are, by the law itself (Tridentine), excommunicated (not reserved), and made perpetually infamous, incapable of acquiring dignities; if they be clerics, they also incur deposition from their ecclesiastical rank. The abductor is also bound, whether the woman marries him or not, to dower her with a decent dowry at the discretion of the bishop. The priest who celebrates the marriage while the woman is under restraint does not incur the excommunication nor any other penalty, unless he has advised the abductor that he would aid him in his abduction by his presence and ministry. The agents and the like, in an abduction of a woman validly and freely betrothed, but unwilling to be carried off, do not incur excommunication and other Tridentine punishments (S. C. Prop. Fid., 17 April, 1784). The vindictive punishments are incurred, at least in the ecclesiastical court, by a declaratory sentence. The abducted woman, not the abductor, has the right to challenge the validity of her marriage celebrated while under control of the abductor. No particular time is prescribed by law, but she should, however, unless prevented by reasonable cause, present her plea as soon as possible after her entire separation from the control of the abductor. DISPENSATION The Church as a rule does not dispense with this impediment. It even refuses to grant other dispensations, v.g. affinity, if the woman was abducted; indeed any dispensation granted, in which mention of the abduction has been omitted, is held as invalid. There are some cases in which the Church has dispensed when it is abundantly evident that the consent of the woman was really free, although circumstances prevented her entire separation from the control of the abductor. The late Instruction of the Congregation of the Inquisition (15 February, 1901, in the "Analecta Ecclesiastica," Rome, 1901, 98) to the bishops of Albania (where abduction is of very frequent occurrence) refused a general repeal of the law for their country, adding that the frequency mentioned, far from being a reason for relaxing, was rather a reason for insisting on the Tridentine law; yet, where it was abundantly evident that the consent of the woman under restraint was truly a free consent, and that there were reasons sufficient for the dispensation, recourse should be had to Rome in each single case. Further, in the extraordinary faculties given to bishops (20 February, 1888) for dispensing in public impediments persons in danger of death, the impediment of raptus is not excluded. The civil codes of today, as a rule, do not recognize abduction as an impediment diriment to civil marriage, but consider it as a species of vis et metus. The codes of Austria and Spain, however, still hold it as an impediment, and among the jurists of Austria there is an earnest endeavour to make it an impediment absolute and perpetual, so that the abducted woman, if still under control of her abductor, may not marry even a third party. RIGANTI, Comment. in Reg., in Reg. xlix, nn. 46 sq.; SCHMALZGRÜBER, V, xvii, De Rapt. Pers., nn. 1-54, GONSALEZ TELLEZ, Comment. Perpet., V, xvii; BERARDI, Comment. in Jus. Eccles., II, 81 sqq.; WERNZ, IV, Jus Matrim, 408 sqq.; ROSSET, De Sac. Matrim., II, 1344 sqq.; VECCHIOTTI, Instit. Can., III, 234 sqq.; SANTI-LEITNER, IV, 58-65; FEIJE, De Imped. et Dispens.; KUTSCHKER, Das Eherecht (1856), III, 456 sqq.; Analecta Ecclesiastica (Rome, April, 1903); HOWARD, Hist. of Matrimonial inst., I, 156 sq., s.v. Wife-Captor; Acta Sanctae Sedis, I, 15-24; 54 sq.; GASPARI, De Matrim., I, 364 sqq. P.M.J. ROCK Abecedaria Abecedaria Complete or partial lists of letters of the alphabet, chiefly Greek and Latin, inscribed on ancient monuments, Pagan and Christian. At, or near, the beginning of the Christian era, the Latin alphabet had already undergone its principal changes, and had become a fixed and definite system. The Greek alphabet, moreover, with certain slight modifications, was becoming closely assimilated to the Latin. Towards the eighth century of Rome, the letters assumed their artistic forms and lost their older, narrower ones. Nor have the three letters added by the Emperor Claudius ever been found in use in Christian inscriptions. The letters themselves, it may be said, fell into disuse at the death of the Emperor in question. The alphabet, however, employed for monumental inscriptions differed so completely from the cursive as to make it wholly impossible to mistake the one for the other. The uncial, occurring very rarely on sculptured monuments, and reserved for writing, did not make its appearance before the fourth century. The number of Christian objects bearing the Abecedaria, with the exception of two vases found at Carthage, is extremely limited. On the other hand, those of heathen origin are more plentiful, and include certain tablets used by stone-cutters apprentices while learning their trade. Stones have also been found in the catacombs, bearing the symbols A, B, C, etc. These are arranged, sometimes, in combinations which have puzzled the sagacity of scholars. One such, found in the cemetery of St. Alexander, in the Via Nomentana, is inscribed as follows: AXBVCTESDR . . . . . .BCCEECHI EQGPH. . . .M MNOPQ RSTVXYZ This represents, in all probability, a schoolboy's task, which may be compared with a denarius of L. Cassius Caecinianus, whereon the inscription runs thus: AX, BV, CT, DS, ER, FQ, GP, HO, IN, KM It is to St. Jerome that we owe an explanation of this curious trifle. He tells us that, in order to train the memory of young children, they were made to learn the alphabet in a double form, joining A to X, and so on with the other letters. A stone found at Rome in 1877, and dating from the sixth or seventh century, seems to have been used in a school, as a model for learning the alphabet, and, points, incidentally, to the long continuance of old methods of teaching. ( See CHRISTIAN USE OF THE ALPHABET.) H. LECLERCQ Abecedarians Abecedarians A sect of Anabaptists who affected an absolute disdain for all human knowledge, contending that God would enlighten His elect interiorly and give them knowledge of necessary truths by visions and ecstasies. They rejected every other means of instuction, and pretended that to be saved one must even be ignorant of the first letters of the alphabet; whence their name, A-B-C-darians. They also considered the study of theology as a species of idolatry, and regarded learned men who did any preaching as falsifiers of God's word. At Wittenberg, in 1522, Nicholas Storch (Pelargus) and the Illuminati of Zwickau began to preach this doctrine, mixing it up with other errors. Carlstadt allowed himself to be drawn away by these singular views, and to put them thoroughly into practice he abandoned his title of Doctor and became a street porter. He preached the new doctrine for some time to the people and to the students of Wittenberg. JOHN J. A'BECKET Abel (Son of Adam) Abel (From the Hebrew word for Vanity, "probably so called from the shortness of his life"--Gesenius; Gr., Abel, whence Eng. form). Abel was the second son of Adam. Vigouroux and Hummelauer contend that the Assyrian aplu or ablu, const. Abal, i.e. "son," is the same word, not a case of orthographic coincidence, especially as Hebrew and Assyrian are closely related tongues. Some, with Josephus (Ant., I, ii), think it means "Sorrow" or "Lamentation". Cheyne holds that "a right view of the story favours the meaning shepherd, or more generally herdsman"; Assyrian ibilu (Ency. Bib., s.v.) "ram, camel, ass, or wild sheep." Cain, the first-born, was a farmer. Abel owned the flocks that lived upon the soil. The two were, therefore, doubly brothers, by birth and by calling. Abel is not mentioned in the Old Testament except in Gen., iv. St. Augustine makes him a type of the regenerate, and Cain of the natural, man. "Cain founded a city on earth, but Abel as a stranger and pilgrim looked forward to the city of the saints which is in heaven" (De Civ. Dei, XV, i). The descendants of Cain were wicked, but, as nothing is said about those of Abel, it is supposed that he had none; or at least that no son was alive at the birth of Seth, "whom God has given me for Abel", as Eve expressed it (Gen., iv, 25). The Abelians, or Abelites, a sect in northern Africa mentioned by St. Augustine (de Haer., lxxxvii), pretended that they imitated Abel by marrying, yet condemned the use of marriage. They adopted children who also married and lived in the same manner as their foster-parents. The biblical account of the sacrifices of the brothers and of the murder of Abel states that Cain offered "of the fruits of the earth ", Abel "of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat". Cain's offerings are not qualified, Abel's show that he gave with generosity and love, and therefore found favour with God. Josephus says (Ant., I, ii), "God was more delighted with the latter (Abel's) oblation, when He was honoured with what grew naturally of its own accord than He was with what was the invention of a covetous man, and gotten by forcing the ground." St. John gives the true reason why God rejected Cain's sacrifice and accepted that of Abel: "his own works were wicked; and his brother's just" (I John, iii, 12). God said later, "I will not receive a gift of your hand" (Mal., i, 10). The love of the heart must sanctify the lifting of the hands. Cain offered dans Deo aliquid suum, sibi autem seipsum (de Civ. Dei, XV, vii), but God says to all what St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "I seek not the things that are yours, but you" (II Cor., xii, 14). In Hebrew, Christian, and Arabic traditions and legends it is said that God showed his acceptance of Abel's sacrifice by sending fire to consume it, as in III Kings, xviii, 38. Cain thereupon resolved to kill his brother, thinking the latter would supplant him as Jacob did Esau later; or because he thought the seed of Abel would have the honour of crushing the serpent's head (Gen., iii, l5.-Hummelauer, Curs. Com. S. Sac.). St. Jerome (Com. in Ezech., VIII, xxvii, no. 316), following Jewish tradition, makes the plain of Damascus the scene of the murder, and interprets the name of the city sanguinem bibens (blood-drinking). A traveller quoted with approval by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould ( Legends of the Old-Testament Characters) places the scene half a mile from Hebron; but there is no such local tradition in the neighbourhood of Hebron. The Damascus referred to is certainly the Syrian city. The Koran (Sura v, 30, etc.) agrees with the Bible in the main facts about the sacrifices and murder, but adds the legend that God sent a raven which by scratching in the earth showed Cain how to bury his brother. According to Jewish tradition, Adam and Eve were taught by the raven how to bury their son, and God rewarded the raven by granting three things: (1) his young were to be inviolable,(2)abundance of food (3) his prayer for rain should be granted (Pirke Rab: Eliezer, XXI). In the New Testament Abel is often mentioned. His pastoral life, his sacrifice, his holiness, his tragic death made him a striking type of Our Divine Saviour. His just works are referred to in I John, iii, 12; he is canonized by Christ himself (Matt., xxiii, 34, 35) as the first of the long line of prophets martyred for justice' sake. He prophesied not by word, but by his sacrifice, of which he knew by revelation the typical meaning (Vigouroux); and also by his death (De Civ. Dei, XV, xviii). In Heb., xii, 24, his death is mentioned, and the contrast between his blood and that of Christ is shown. The latter calls not for vengeance, but for mercy and pardon. Abel, though dead, speaketh (Heb., xi, 4), Deo per merita, hominibus per exemplum (Piconjo), i.e. to God by his merits, to men by his example. For a rabbinic interpretation of the plural Hebrew word meaning "bloods", in Gen., iv, 10, see Mishna San., IV, 5, where it is said to refer to Abel and to his seed. The Fathers place him among the martyrs. Martyrium dedicavit (St. Aug., op. cit., VI, xxvii); he is associated with St. John the Baptist by St. Chrysostom (Adv. Judaeos, viii, 8); others speak in similar terms. In the Western Church, however, he is not found in the martyrologies before the tenth century (Encycl. théol., s.v.). In the canon of the Mass his sacrifice is mentioned with those of Melchisedech and Abraham, and his name is placed at the head of the list of saints invoked to aid the dying. The views of radical higher criticism may be summed up in the words of Cheyne: "The story of Cain and Abel is an early Israelitish legend retained by J as having a profitable tendency" (Encyci. bib., s.v.). The conservative interpretation of the narrative differs from that of the radical school of critics, because it accepts the story as history or as having at least a historic basis, while they regard it as only one of the legends of Genesis. Patristic references in P.G. and P.L.; GEIKIE, Hours with the Bible; ID., The Descendants of Adam; ID., Creation to Patriarchs (New York, 1890); HUMMELAUER, Cursus Scrip. Sac. (Paris 1895); PALIS in VIG., Dict. de la Bible. FOR LEGENDS SEE: The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud, tr. from the Germ by WEIL (London, 1846), 23-27; STANLEY, Sinai and Palestine; Id., Legends about Cain and Abel, 404, sqq.; BARING-GOULD, Legends of the Old Testament Characters (Lon- don 1871) I, 6; GUNKEL, The Legends of Genesis (tr., Chicago, 1901). For a strong presentation of the HISTORICITY of the Old Test., against the claims of the critical school, consult ORR, The Problems of the Old Testament (New York, 1906); DRIVER, Genesis (1904). JOHN J. TIERNEY Abel (Place Name) Abel ("Meadow") Name of several places distinguished by additional words: (1) Abel-Beth-Maacha (meadow of the house, or family, of Maacha). In Vulgate also "Abeldomus and Maacha," "Abeldomus Mancha", "Abela and Maacha"; identical with Abel-Maim (meadow of water), II Par., xvi, 4. It was a, city in Upper Galilee, a little west of Dan.--II K., xx. 14-19; III K., xv, 20; IV K., xv, 29; II Par., xvi, 4. (2) Abel-Keramim (meadow of vineyards), a village of the Ammonites, about six miles from Philadelphia. Jud., xi, 33. (3) Abelmehula, Abelmeula (Abelmechola, "a meadow of the dance"), in the Jordan valley near Bethsan.--Jud., vii, 23; III K., iv, 12; xix, 16. (4) Abel-Misraim (Vulg. "the mourning of Egypt"), according to St. Jerome identical with the "threshing floor of Atad." Gen., 1, 10 sq. (5) Abelsatim, Settim, Setim, Hebr. abhel hashshittim (meadow of acacias) is a place in the plains of Moab. Num., xxv, 1; xxxiii, 49; xxxiv-xxxvi; Jos., ii, 1; iii, 1; Mich. vi, 5. (6) The great Abel in I K., vi, 18, is a misreading for the great ebhen (stone). Vigouroux, in Dict. de la Bible (Paris, 1895) HAGEN, Lex. Bibl. (Paris, 1905); HOLZAMMER, in Kirchenlex. (Freiburg, 1882); CONDER, in Dict. of the Bible (New York, 1903). A.J. MAAS Peter Abelard Peter Abelard Dialectician, philosopher, and theologian, born 1079; died 1142. Peter Abelard (also spelled Abeillard, Abailard, etc., while the best manuscripts have Abaelardus) was born in the little village of Pallet, about ten miles east of Nantes in Brittany. His father, Berengar, was lord of the village, his mother's name was Lucia; both afterwards entered the monastic state. Peter, the oldest of their children, was intended for a military career, but, as he himself tells us, he abandoned Mars for Minerva, the profession of arms for that of learning. Accordingly, at an early age, he left his father's castle and sought instruction as a wandering scholar at the schools of the most renowned teachers of those days. Among these teachers was Roscelin the Nominalist, at whose school at Locmenach, near Vannes, Abelard certainly spent some time before he proceeded to Paris. Although the University of Paris did not exist as a corporate institution until more than half a century after Abelard's death, there flourished at Paris in his time the Cathedral School, the School of Ste. Geneviève, and that of St. Germain des Pré, the forerunners of the university schools of the following century. The Cathedral School was undoubtedly the most important of these, and thither the young Abelard directed his steps in order to study dialectic under the renowned master ( scholasticus) William of Champeaux. Soon, however, the youth from the province, for whom the prestige of a great name was far from awe-inspiring, not only ventured to object to the teaching of the Parisian master, but attempted to set up as a rival teacher. Finding that this was not an easy matter in Paris, he established his school first at Melun and later at Corbeil. This was, probably, in the year 1101. The next couple of years Abelard spent in his native place "almost cut off from France", as he says. The reason of this enforced retreat from the dialectical fray was failing health. On returning to Paris, he became once more a pupil of William of Champeaux for the purpose of studying rhetoric. When William retired to the monastery of St. Victor, Abelard, who meantime had resumed his teaching at Melun, hastened to Paris to secure the chair of the Cathedral School. Having failed in this, he set up his school in Mt. Ste. Genevieve (1108). There and at the Cathedral School, in which in 1113 he finally succeeded in obtaining a chair, he enjoyed the greatest renown as a teacher of rhetoric and dialectic. Before taking up the duty of teaching theology at the Cathedral School, he went to Laon where he presented himself to the venerable Anselm of Laon as a student of theology. Soon, however, his petulant restiveness under restraint once more asserted itself, and he was not content until he had as completely discomfited the teacher of theology at Laon as he had successfully harassed the teacher of rhetoric and dialectic at Paris. Taking Abelard's own account of the incident, it is impossible not to blame him for the temerity which made him such enemies as Alberic and Lotulph, pupils of Anselm, who, later on, appeared against Abelard. The "theological studies" pursued by Abelard at Laon were what we would nowadays call the study of exegesis. There can be no doubt that Abelard's career as a teacher at Paris, from 1108 to 1118, was an exceptionally brilliant one. In his "Story of My Calamities" ( Historia Calamitatum) he tells us how pupils flocked to him from every country in Europe, a statement which is more than corroborated by Ihe authority of his contemporaries. He was, In fact, the idol of Paris; eloquent, vivacious, handsome, possessed of an unusually rich voice, full of confidence in his own power to please, he had, as he tells us, the whole world at his feet. That Abelard was unduly conscious of these advantages is admitted by his most ardent admirers; indeed, in the "Story of My Calamities," he confesses that at that period of his life he was filled with vanity and pride. To these faults he attributes his downfall, which was as swift and tragic as was everything, seemingly, in his meteoric career. He tells us in graphic language the tale which has become part of the classic literature of the love-theme, how he fell in love with Heloise, niece of Canon Fulbert; he spares us none of the details of the story, recounts all the circumstances of its tragic ending, the brutal vengeance of the Canon, the flight of Heloise to Pallet, where their son, whom he named Astrolabius, was born, the secret wedding, the retirement of Heloise to the nunnery of Argenteuil, and his abandonment of his academic career. He was at the time a cleric in minor orders, and had naturally looked forward to a distinguished career as an ecclesiastical teacher. After his downfall, he retired to the Abbey of St. Denis, and, Heloise having taken the veil at Argenteuil, he assumed the habit of a Benedictine monk at the royal Abbey of St. Denis. He who had considered himself "the only surviving philosopher in the whole world" was willing to hide himself -- definitely, as he thought -- in monastic solitude. But whatever dreams he may have had of final peace in his monastic retreat were soon shattered. He quarrelled with the monks of St. Denis, the occasion being his irreverent criticism of the legend of their patron saint, and was sent to a branch institution, a priory or cella, where, once more, he soon attracted unfavourable attention by the spirit of the teaching which he gave in philosophy and theology. "More subtle and more learned than ever", as a contemporary (Otto of Freising) describes him, he took up the former quarrel with Anselm's pupils. Through their influence, his orthodoxy, especially on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, was impeached, and he was summoned to appear before a council at Soissons, in 1121, presided over by the papal legate, Kuno, Bishop of Praneste. While it is not easy to determine exactly what took place at the Council, it is clear that there was no formal condemnation of Abelard's doctrines, but that he was nevertheless condemned to recite the Athanasian Creed, and to burn his book on the Trinity. Besides, he was sentenced to imprisonment in the Abbey of St. Médard, at the instance apparently, of the monks of St. Denis, whose enmity, especially that of their Abbot Adam, was unrelenting. In his despair, he fled to a desert place in the neighbourhood of Troyes. Thither pupils soon began to flock, huts and tents for their reception were built, and an oratory erected, under the title "The Paraclete", and there his former success as a teacher was renewed. After the death of Adam, Abbot of St. Denis, his successor, Suger, absolved Abelard from censure, and thus restored him to his rank as a monk. The Abbey of St. Gildas de Rhuys, near Vannes, on the coast of Brittany, having lost its Abbot in 1125, elected Abelard to fill his place. At the same time, the community of Argenteuil was dispersed, and Heloise gladly accepted the Oratory of the Paraclete, where she became Abbess. As Abbot of St. Gildas, Abelard had, according to his own account, a very troublesome time. The monks, considering him too strict, endeavoured in various ways to rid themselves of his rule, and even attempted to poison him. They finally drove him from the monastery. Retaining the title of Abbot, he resided for some time in the neighbourhood of Nantes and later (probably in 1136) resumed his career as teacher at Paris and revived, to some extent, the renown of the days when, twenty years earlier, he gathered "all Europe" to hear his lectures. Among his pupils at this time were Arnold of Brescia and John of Salisbury. Now begins the last act in the tragedy of Abelard's life, in which St. Bernard plays a conspicuous part. The monk of Clairvaux, the most powerful man in the Church in those days, was alarmed at the heterodoxy of Abelard's teaching, and questioned the Trinitarian doctrine contained in Abelard's writings. There were admonitions on the one side and defiances on the other; St. Bernard, having first warned Abelard in private, proceeded to denounce him to the bishops of France; Abelard, underestimating the ability and influence of his adversary, requested a meeting, or council, of bishops, before whom Bernard and he should discuss the points in dispute. Accordingly, a council was held at Sens (the metropolitan see to which Paris was then suffragan) in 1141. On the eve of the council a meeting of bishops was held, at which Bernard was present, but not Abelard, and in that meeting a number of propositions were selected from Abelard's writings, and condemned. When, on the following morning, these propositions were read in solemn council, Abelard, informed, so it seems, of the proceedings of the evening before, refused to defend himself, declaring that he appealed to Rome. Accordingly, the propositions were condemned, but Abelard was allowed his freedom. St. Bernard now wrote to the members of the Roman Curia, with the result that Abelard had proceeded only as far as Cluny on his way to Rome when the decree of Innocent II confirming the sentence of the Council of Sens reached him. The Venerable Peter of Cluny now took up his case, obtained from Rome a mitigation of the sentence reconciled him with St. Bernard, and gave him honourable and friendly hospitality at Cluny. There Abelard spent the last years of his life, and there at last he found the peace which he had elsewhere sought in vain. He donned the habit of the monks of Cluny and became a teacher in the school of the monastery. He died at Chalôn-sur-Saône in 1142, and was buried at the Paraclete. In 1817 his remains and those of Heloise were transferred to the cemetery of Père la Chaise, in Paris, where they now rest. For our knowledge of the life of Abelard we rely chiefly on the "Story of My Calamities", an autobiography written as a letter to a friend, and evidently intended for publication. To this may be added the letters of Abelard and Heloise, which were also intended for circulation among Abelard's friends. The "Story" was written about the year 1130, and the letters during the following five or six years. In both the personal element must of course, be taken into account. Besides these we have very scanty material; a letter from Roscelin to Abelard, a letter of Fulco of Deuil, the chronicle of Otto of Freising, the letters of St. Bernard, and a few allusions in the writings of John of Salisbury. Abelard's philosophical works are "Dialectica," a logical treatise consisting of four books (of which the first is missing); "Liber Divisionum et Definitionum" (edited by Cousin as a fifth book of the "Dialectica"); Glosses on Porphyry, Boëius, and the Aristotelian "Categories"; "Glossulae in Porphyrium" (hitherto unpublished except in a French paraphrase by Rémusat); the fragment "De Generibus et Speciebus", ascribed to Abelard by Cousin; a moral treatise "Scito Teipsum, seu Ethica", first published by Pez in "Thes. Anecd. Noviss". All of these, with the exception of the "Glossulae" and the "Ethica", are to be found in Cousin's "Ouvrages inédits d'Abélard" (Paris, 1836). Abelard's theological works (published by Cousin, "Petri Abselardi Opera", in 2 vols., Paris, 1849-59, also by Migne, "Patr. Lat.", CLXXVIII) include "Sic et Non", consisting of scriptural and patristic passages arranged for and against various theological opinions, without any attempt to decide whether the affirmative or the negative opinion is correct or orthodox; "Tractatus de Unitate et Trinitate Divinâ", which was condemned at the Council of Sens (discovered and edited by Stölzle, Freiburg, 1891); "Theologia Christiana," a second and enlarged edition of the "Tractatus" (first published by Durand and Martène "Thes. Nov.," 1717); "Introductio in Theologiam' (more correctly, "Theologia"), of which the first part was published by Duchesne in 1616; "Dialogus inter Philosophum, Judaeum, et Christianum"; "Sententiae Petri Abaelardi", otherwise called "Epitomi Theologiae Christianae", which is seemingly a compilation by Abelard's pupils (first published by Rheinwald, Berlin, 1535); and several exegetical works hymns, sequences, etc. In philosophy Abelard deserves consideration primarily as a dialectician. For him, as for all the scholastic philosophers before the thirteenth century, philosophical inquiry meant almost exclusively the discussion and elucidation of the problems suggested by the logical treatises of Aristotle and the commentaries thereon, chiefly the commentaries of Porphyry and Boëtius. Perhaps his most important contribution to philosophy and theology is the method which he developed in his "Sic et Non" (Yea and Nay), a method germinally contained in the teaching of his predecessors, and afterwards brought to more definite form by Alexander of Hales and St. Thomas Aquinas. It consisted in placing before the student the reasons pro and contra, on the principle that truth is to be attained only by a dialectical discussion of apparently contradictory arguments and authorities. In the problem of Universals, which occupied so much of the attention of dialecticians in those days, Abelard took a position of uncompromising hostility to the crude nominalism of Roscelin on the one side, and to the exaggerated realism of William of Champeaux on the other. What, precisely, was his own doctrine on the question is a matter which cannot with accuracy be determined. However, from the statements of his pupil, John of Salisbury, it is clear that Abelard's doctrine, while expressed in terms of a modified Nominalism, was very similar to the moderate Realism which began to be official in the schools about half a century after Abelard's death. In ethics Abelard laid such great stress on the morality of the intention as apparently to do away with the objective distinction between good and evil acts. It is not the physical action itself, he said, nor any imaginary injury to God, that constitutes sin, but rather the psychological element in the action, the intention of sinning, which is formal contempt of God. With regard to the relation between reason and revelation, between the sciences -- including philosophy -- and theology, Abelard incurred in his own day the censure of mystic theologians like St. Bernard, whose tendency was to disinherit reason in favour of contemplation and ecstatic vision. And it is true that if the principles "Reason aids Faith" and "Faith aids Reason" are to be taken as the inspiration of scholastic theology, Abelard was constitutionally inclined to emphasize the former, and not lay stress on the latter. Besides, he adopted a tone, and employed a phraseology, when speaking of sacred subjects, which gave offence, and rightly, to the more conservative of his contemporaries. Still, Abelard had good precedent for his use of dialectic in the elucidation of the mysteries of faith; he was by no means an innovator in this respect; and though the thirteenth century, the golden age of scholasticism, knew little of Abelard, it took up his method, and with fearlessness equal to his, though without any of his flippancy or irreverence, gave full scope to reason in the effort to expound and defend the mysteries of the Christian Faith. St. Bernard sums up the charges against Abelard when he writes (Ep. cxcii) "Cum de Trinitate loquitur, sapit Arium; cum do gratiâ, sapit Pelagium; cum de personâ Christi, sapit Nestorium", and there is no doubt that on these several heads Abelard wrote and said many things which were open to objection from the point of view of orthodoxy. That is to say, while combating the opposite errors, he fell inadvertently into mistakes which he himself did not recognize as Arianism, Pelagianism, and Nestorianism, and which even his enemies could characterize merely as savouring of Arianism, Pelagianism, and Nestorianism. Abelard's influence on his immediate successors was not very great, owing partly to his conflict with the ecclesiastical authorities, and partly to his personal defects, more especially his vanity and pride, which must have given the impression that he valued truth less than victory. His influence on the philosophers and theologians of the thirteenth century was, however, very great. It was exercised chiefly through Peter Lombard, his pupil, and other framers of the "Sentences." Indeed, while one must be careful to discount the exaggerated encomiums of Compayré, Cousin, and others, who represent Abelard as the first modern, the founder of the University of Paris, etc., one is justified in regarding him, in spite of his faults of character and mistakes of judgment, as an important contributor to scholastic method, an enlightened opponent of obscurantism, and a continuator of that revival of learning which occurred in the Carolingian age, and of which whatever there is of science, literature, and speculation in the early Middle Ages is the historical development. WILLIAM TURNER Louis Abelly Louis Abelly Louis Abelly (1603-91) was Vicar-General of Bayonne, a parish priest in Paris, and subsequently Bishop of Rodez in 1664, but in 1666 abdicated and attached himself to St. Vincent de Paul in the House of St. Lazare, Paris. His ascetical works reveal his deep and sincere piety. He was a bitter foe of the Jansenists, chiefly of St. Cyran, against whom he directed his Life of St. Vincent de Paul, a work which Hurter describes as "full of unction." His Medulla Theologica went through many editions, and is characterized by its "solidity, directness, and usefulness." According to St. Alphonsus, Abelly is "a classic in probabilism." His Défense de la hiérarchie de l'Eglise was directed against an anonymous Gallican writer. He wrote also two Enchiridions, one for bishops, another for priests; a treatise entitled De l'obéissance et soumission due au Pape; and another called Traité des Hérésies. Replying to a Jansenist work known as Monita Salutaria, he published his Sentiments des SS. Pères, touchant les excellences et les prérogatives de la T.S. Vierge. HURTER, Nomenclator, VII, 586. T.J. CAMPBELL Abenakis Abenakis A confederation of Algonquin tribes, comprising the Penobscots, Passamaquoddies, Norridgewocks, and others, formerly occupying what is now Maine, and southern New Brunswick. Their territory joined that of the Micmacs on the northeast, and that of the Penobscots on the southwest. Their speech is a dialect of the Micmac language of the North American Indians. They took sides with the French and maintained an increasing hostility against encroachments of the English. When their principal town, Norridgewock, was taken, and their missionary, Rasle, was killed (1724), the greater part of them removed to St. Francis, in the province of Quebec, Canada, whither other refugees from the New England tribes had preceded them. They are now represented by the Amalectites on the St. John River, New Brunswick, and Quebec (820); the Passamaquoddies, on the bay of that name, in Maine (300); the Penobscots, at Old Town, Maine (400), and the Abnakis at St. Francis and Becancourt, Quebec (430). There are a dozen variations of the name Abenakis, such as Abenaquiois, Abakivis, Quabenakionek, Wabenakies, etc. They are described in the "Jesuit Relations" as not cannibals, and as docile, ingenious, temperate in the use of liquor, and not profane. Their language has been preserved in the monumental dictionary of Sebastian Rasle. After the unsuccessful attempt of de la Saussaye, in 1613, to plant a colony as Mount Desert -- where the Jesuit Fathers Biard, Masse, and Quentin proposed to evangelize the Indians -- the Capuchins and the Recollects, aided by secular priests from the seminary of Quebec, undertook the work, but met with indifferent success. The Jesuit Druillettes was sent to them in 1646, but remained only a short time. Subsequently, other missionaries like Bigot, Thury, and de la Chasse laboured among them, but three years after the murder of Father Rasle, that is to say in 1727, when Fathers Syvesme and Lauverjat withdrew, there was no resident pastor in Maine, though the Indians were visited by priests from time to time. They remained unalterably attached to the Faith, and during the Revolution, when Washington sent to ask them to join with the colonies against England, they assented on condition that a Catholic priest should be sent to them. Some of the chaplains of the French fleet communicated with them, promising to comply with their request, but beyond that nothing was done. At the present time there are Indian missions for the remnants of the tribe at Calais, Eastport, and Old Town. Jesuit Relations, passim; Shea, Catholic Church in Colonial Days, 1521-1763 (New York, 1886); Maurault, Hist. des Abénakis depuis 1605 a nos jours (Quebec, 1866). T.J. CAMPBELL Abraham-Ben-Meir Aben-Ezra Abraham-ben-Méir Aben-Ezra (Or IBN 'EZRA). A celebrated Spanish Rabbi, born at Toledo in 1092; died on his Journey from Rome, or Rodez, to his native land, 23 January, 1167. He excelled in philosophy, astronomy, medicine, poetry, linguistics, and exegesis. He was called the Wise, the Great, the Admirable Doctor. Having to leave his native city on account of the vexations inflicted on the Jews, he travelled through a great part of Europe, through Egypt and Palestine. Rome, London, Narbonne, Mantua, Verona, and Rodez are some of the places he visited. His chief work is his commentary on the Sacred Books, which is nearly complete, the Books of Paralipomenon being the only ones missing. His commentary on the Pentateuch appeared in several revisions. In his commentary Aben-Ezra adheres to the literal sense of the Sacred Books, avoiding Rabbinic allegories and Cabbalistic extravagances, though he remains faithful to the Jewish traditions. This does not prevent him from exercising an independent criticism, which, according to some writers, even borders on rationalism. But in his other works he follows the Cabbalistic views. The Book of the Secrets of the Law, The Mystery of the Form of the Letters, The Enigma of the Quiescent Letters, The Book of the Name, The Book of the Balance of the Sacred Language, The Book of Purity [of the Language] are perhaps the most important of his works of this kind. They were written during his life of travel, and they reflect the unsteadiness of his outward circumstances. Taking Aben-Ezra's work as a whole, it consists rather in popularizing Rabbinic Andalusian ideas on Latin and Saxon soil than in producing original thought. LEVESQUE, in VIG., Dict. de la Bible (Paris 1895); WELTE, in Kirchenlex. (Freiburg, 1882); Jewish Encyclopedia, VI, 520 sq. (New York, 1904). A.J. MAAS Inscription of Abercius Inscription of Abercius A Greek hagiographical text, which has, however, undergone alterations, and a Greek inscription of the second century have made known to us a certain Abercius, Bishop of Hieropolis, in Phrygia, who, about the middle of the century in question, left his episcopal city and visited Rome. On his way home he travelled through Syria and Mesopotamia, and was received with great honours in various places. He died shortly after his return to Hieropolis, but not before he had composed his own epitaph, conveying a most vivid impression of all he had admired during his stay in Rome. This epitaph may well have inspired the Life of Abercius such as it has come down to us, since all its details may be explained by the hints contained in the inscription, or else belong to the common foundation of all legends of saints. The Life, as a matter of fact, includes a transcription of the epitaph. Tillemont was greatly struck by the ideas therein expressed, and Pitra endeavoured to prove its authenticity and its important bearing on Christian symbolism. Renan regarded both the Life and inscription as fanciful compositions, but in 1882 an English traveller, W. Ramsay, discovered at Kelendres, near Synnada, in Phrygia Salutaris (Asia Minor), a Christian stele (inscribed slab) bearing the date of the year 300 of the Phrygian era (A.D. 216). The inscription in question recalled the memory of a certain Alexander, son of Anthony. De Rossi and Duchesne at once recognized in it phrases similar to those in the epitaph of Abercius. On comparison it was found that the inscription in memory of Alexander corresponded, almost word for word, with the first and last verses of the epitaph of the Bishop of Hieropolis; all the middle part was missing. Mr. Ramsay, on a second visit to the site of Hieropolis, in 1883, discovered two new fragments covered with inscriptions, built into the masonry of the public baths. These fragments, which are now in the Vatican Christian Museum, filled out the middle part of the stele inscribed with the epitaph of Abercius. It now became possible, with the help of the text preserved in the Life, to restore the original text of the epitaph with practical certainty. Certain lacunae, letters effaced or cut off by breaks in the stone, have been the subject of profound discussions, resulting in a text which may henceforth be looked on as settled, and which it may be useful to give here. The capital letters at the beginning and end of the inscription represent the parts found on the inscription of Alexander, the son of Anthony, those of the middle part are the remaining fragments of the epitaph of Abercius, while the small letters give the reading according to the manuscripts of the Life: "The citizen of a chosen city, this [monument] I made [while] living, that there I might have in time a resting-place of my body, [I] being by name Abercius, the disciple of a holy shepherd who feeds flocks of sheep [both] on mountains and on plains, who has great eyes that see everywhere. For this [shepherd] taught me [that the] book [of life] is worthy of belief. And to Rome he sent me to contemplate majesty, and to see a queen golden-robed and golden-sandalled; there also I saw a people bearing a shining mark. And I saw the land of Syria and all [its] cities Nisibis [I saw] when I passed over Euphrates. But everywhere I had brethren. I had Paul. . . . Faith everywhere led me forward, and everywhere provided as my food a fish of exceeding great size, and perfect, which a holy virgin drew with her hands from a fountain and this it [faith] ever gives to its friends to eat, it having wine of great virtue, and giving it mingled with bread. These things I, Abercius, having been a witness [of them] told to be written here. Verily I was passing through my seventy-second year. He that discerneth these things, every fellow-believer [namely], let him pray for Abercius. And no one shall put another grave over my grave; but if he do, then shall he pay to the treasury of [the] Romans two thousand pieces of gold and to my good native city of Hieropolis one thousand pieces of gold." The interpretation of this inscription has stimulated ingenious efforts and very animated controversies. In 1894 G. Ficker, supported by O. Hirschfeld, strove to prove that Abercius was a priest of Cybele. In 1895 A. Harnack offered an explanation which was sufficiently obscure, making Abercius the representative of an ill-defined religious syncretism arbitrarily combined in such a fashion as to explain all portions of the inscription which were otherwise inexplicable. In 1896, Dieterich made Abercius a priest of Attis. These plausible theories have been refuted by several learned archaeologists, especially by De Rossi, Duchesne, and Cumont. Nor is there any further need to enter into the questions raised in one quarter or another; the following conclusions are indisputably historical. The epitaph of Abercius is generally, and with good reason, regarded as older than that of Alexander, the son of Anthony, i.e. prior to the year of Our Lord 216. The subject of it may be identified with a writer named Abercius Marcellus, author of a work against the Montanists, some fragments of which have been preserved by Eusebius. As the treatise in question was written about the year 193, the epitaph may be assigned to the last years of the second, or to the beginning of the third, century. The writer was bishop of a little town, the name of which is wrongly given in the Life, since he belongs to Hieropolis in Phrygia Salutaris, and not to Hierapolis in Phrygia Pacatiensis. The proof of this fact given by Duchesne is all that could be wished for. The text of the inscription itself is of the greatest possible importance in connection with the symbolism of the early Church. The poem of sixteen verses which forms the epitaph shows plainly that the language used is one not understood by all; Let the brother who shall understand this pray for Abercius. The bishop's journey to Rome is merely mentioned, but on his way home he gives us the principal stages of his itinerary. He passed along the Syrian coast and, possibly, came to Antioch, thence to Nisibis, after-having traversed the whole of Syria, while his return to Hieropolis may have been by way of Edessa. The allusion to St. Paul the Apostle, which a gap in the text renders indecipherable, may originally have told how the traveller followed on his way back to his country the stages of St. Paul's third missionary journey, namely: Issus, Tarsus, Derbe, Iconium, Antioch in Pisidia, and Apamea Cibotus, which would bring him into the heart of Phrygia. The inscription bears witness of no slight value to the importance of the Church of Rome in the second century. A mere glance at the text allows us to note: (1) The evidence of baptism which marks the Christian people with its dazzling seal; (2) The spread of Christianity, whose members Abercius meets with everywhere; (3) The receiving of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and of Mary, in the Eucharist, (4) under the species of Bread and Wine. The liturgical cultus of Abercius presents no point of special interest; his name appears for the first time in the Greek menologies and synaxaries of the tenth century, but is not found in the Martyrology of St. Jerome. PITRA, in the Spicilegium Solesmense (Paris, 1855, III, 533; IV, 483); DUCHESNE, Abercius, eveque d'Hieropolis, in the Revue des questions historiques (1883), XXXIV, 533; LECLERCQ, in Dict. d arch ol. chr t. et de liturgie, I, 66- 87; LIGHTFOOT, Apostolic Fathers (London, 1889), II, i, 492-501. H. LECLERCQ. John Abercromby John Abercromby Died 1561. During the Scottish Reformation we know that the Catholic clergy were treated with great violence, but particulars of their misfortunes are hard to find. Thomas Dempster, a diligent writer of the next century, whose accuracy, however, cannot always be trusted, in his Historia Gentis Scotorum (Edinburgh, 1829), 28, names Abercromby as having lost his life from such violence. He adds that he thinks the sufferer was a Benedictine, and that he had written in behalf of the Faith. JOHN HUNGERFORD POLLEN Robert Abercromby Robert Abercromby (Sometimes known as Sanders and as Robertson). A Jesuit missionary in Scotland in the time of the persecutions, born 1532; died at Braunsberg, in Prussia, 27 April, 1613. He was brought into prominence chiefly by the fact that he converted the Queen of James I of England, when that monarch was as yet James IV of Scotland. The Queen was Anne of Denmark, and her father, an ardent Lutheran, has stipulated that she should have the right to practice her own religion in Scotland, and for that purpose sent with her a chaplain named John Lering who, however, shortly after his arrival, became a Calvinist. The Queen, who abhorred Calvinism, asked some of the Catholic nobles for advice, and it was suggested to call Father Abercromby, who, with some other Jesuits, was secretly working among the Scotch Catholics and winning many illustrious converts to the Church. Though brought up a Lutheran, Queen Anne had in her youth lived with a niece of the Emperor Charles V, and not only knew something of the Faith, but had frequently been present at Mass with her former friend. Abercromby was introduced into the palace, instructed the Queen in the Catholic religion, and received her into the Church. This was about the year 1600. As to the date there is some controversy. Andrew Lang, who merely quotes Mac Quhirrie as to the fact of the conversion, without mentioning Abercromby, puts it as occurring in 1598. Intelligence of it at last came to the ears of the King, who, instead of being angry, warned her to keep it secret, as her conversion might imperil his crown. He even went as far as to appoint Abercromby Superintendent of the Royal Falconry, in order that he might remain near the Queen. Up to the time that James succeeded to the crown of England, Father Abercromby remained at the Scottish Court, celebrating Mass in secret, and giving Holy Communion nine or ten times to his neophyte. When the King and Queen were crowned sovereigns of Great Britain, Anne gave proof of her sincerity by absolutely refusing to receive the Protestant sacrament, declaring that she preferred to forfeit her crown rather than take part in what she considered a sacrilegious profanation. Of this, Lang, in his "History of Scotland", says nothing. She made several ineffectual attempts to convert the King. Abercromby remained in Scotland for some time, but as a price of 10,000 crowns was put upon his head he came to England, only to find that the King's kindly dispositions toward him had undergone a change. The alleged discovery of a Gunpowder Plot in 1605, and the attempts made to implicate the Jesuits in the conspiracy had excited in the mind of the King feelings of bitter hostility to the Society. He ordered a strict search to be made for Abercromby, who consequently left the country and betook himself to Braunsberg, in Eastern Prussia, where he died, in his eighty-first year. Bellesheim, Hist, of the Cath. Church in Scotland, VIII, 346; Rostowski, Lituanic, S. J., Hist., 236; Abercromby's Narrative in the Biblioth. Nation., Paris, Fonds latins, 6051, fol. 50. T.J. CAMPBELL The Diocese of Aberdeen The Diocese of Aberdeen (Scotland). A see was founded in 1063 at Mortlach by Bl. Beyn. The earliest mention of the old See of Aberdeen is in the charter of the foundation, by the Earl of Buchan, of the Church of Deer (c. 1152), which is witnessed by Nectan, Bishop of Aberdeen. But the first authentic record of the see is in the Bull of Adrian IV (1157), confirming to Edward, Bishop of Aberdeen, the churches of Aberdeen and St. Machar, with the town of Old Aberdeen and other lands. The granite cathedral was built between 1272 and 1277. Bishop Thomas Spence founded a Franciscan house in 1480, and King's College was founded at Old Aberdeen by Bishop Elphinstone, for eight prebendaries, chapter, sacristan, organist, and six choristers, in 1505. The see was transferred to Old Aberdeen about 1125, and continued there until 1577, having had in that time a list of twenty-nine bishops. From 1653, when the Scottish clergy were incorporated into a missionary body by the Congregation of the Propaganda, until 1695, the Catholics of Scotland were governed by prefects-apostolic. Then followed vicars-apostolic until 4 March, 1878, when Leo XIII, in the first year of his pontificate, restored the hierarchy of Scotland by the Bull Ex supremo Apostolatus apice, and Vicar-Apostolic John MacDonald was translated to the restored See of Aberdeen as its first bishop. The Bull made Aberdeen one of the four suffragan sees of the Archbishopric of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, and defined as its territory "the counties of Aberdeen, Kincardine, Banff, Elgin or Moray, Nairn, Ross (except Lewis in the Hebrides), Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and that portion of Inverness which lies to the north of a straight line drawn from the most northerly point of Loch Luing to the eastern boundary of the said county of Inverness, where the counties of Aberdeen and Banff join." In 1906, out of a population of over 800,000 there were nearly 4,000 Catholics; 48 secular priests; 24 regulars; 57 churches, chapels, and stations; 1 college; 1 industrial school for girls; 1 orphanage for boys; 1 orphanage for girls. There are also Benedictine nuns, Poor Sisters of Nazareth, Franciscan Sisters, Religious of the Sacred Heart, and Sisters of Mercy. There have been four Bishops of Aberdeen since the restoration, the present incumbent, the Rt. Rev. AEneas Chisholm, having been consecrated 24 February, 1899. There is a Benedictine Abbey at Fort Augustus, at which the restored hierarchy met in a Provincial Council, August, 1886, under the presidency of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, three hundred and twenty-six years after the downfall of the Faith in Scotland. The Provincial Council of 1 March, 1559, at Edinburgh, under Archbishop Hamilton, was the last council before this, and that had adjourned after appointing Septuagesima Sunday of 1560, for the next meeting of the synod. Fort Augustus was raised to the rank of an abbey, immediately subject to the Holy See, by a brief of Leo XIII, 12 December, 1882. The munificence of Lord Lovat and other liberal benefactors called it into being. The Catholic Directory (London, 1906); BELLESHEIM, History of the Catholic Church in Scotland (London, 1887, tr. HUNTERBLAIR), I, 239, 425, passim. JOHN J. A' BECKET. The University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen The founder of this, one of the three universities established in Scotland in Catholic times, was William Elphinstone, who was Bishop of Aberdeen from 1483 to 1514. Early in his episcopate a petition had been sent to Rome in the name of King James IV, but probably framed by Elphinstone himself, representing the ignorance which prevailed in the greater part of his diocese, and in the northern districts of the kingdom generally. The Papal Bull for the erection of Aberdeen University was issued 24 February, 1491 (1495 according to our modern way of reckoning). Bishop Elphinstone had been a professor at Paris and at Orleans for nine years, and it was on the University of Paris, both as to form and organization, and also in its wide scope of general mental training, that the new establishment was modelled by its founder. In 1495 Elphinstone procured a royal charter assigning to academic purposes certain ecclesiastical revenues and conceding to the new university all the privileges enjoyed by the universities of Paris, St. Andrews, and Glasgow. Hector Boece, professor of philosophy at Paris, was appointed first principal of the university, which was established in what is now known as Old Aberdeen, near the ancient Cathedral of St. Machar. In 1593, George Keith, fifth Earl Marshal of Scotland, founded a second university (hence called Marischal College) in the new town of Aberdeen, and granted to it the buildings of the dispossessed Black (Dominican), Grey (Franciscan), and White (Carmelite) Friars as endowment. The two universities were united for a time (from 1640 until after the Restoration), and many schemes for their permanent reunion were promulgated in the 18th century; but it was not until 1859 that their fusion was finally affected, after much local opposition. New professorships and lectureships have been recently founded, and at Marischal College, now the seat of the faculties of science, law, and medicine, a scheme of building extension on a great scale is at present (1905) being carried out. The number of students is about 700, and the number of professors 24. RASHDALE, History of Universities (1805) II, 309; INNES, Sketches of Early Scotch History (Edinburgh, 1871), 254. D.O. HUNTER-BLAIR Moritz von Aberle Moritz von Aberle Catholic theologian, b. at Rottum, near Biberach, in Swabia, 25 April, 1819; d. at Tübingen, 3 November, 1875. He became professor in the Obergymnasium, at Ehingen, in 1845; director of the Wilhelmstift, in 1848; professor of moral theology and New Testament exegesis in the university at Tübingen, in 1850, a position he retained till the day of his death. He had a considerable number of pupils in both branches, but he was especially devoted to Scriptural studies. He emphasized the activity of the human bearers of revelation, without changing it into a purely natural process. The results of his investigations he published in a series of articles contributed to the Tübingen theol. Quartalschrift, 1851-72, and to the Bonner theol. Lit.-Blatt. The main thoughts of these articles were collected and published under the title, Introduction to the New Testament, by Dr. Paul Schanz (Freiburg, 1877). Aberle's view that the Gospels and the Book of Acts are apologetic writings, meeting certain needs of the Apostolic times, cannot be sustained. He took also an active part in the struggle for ecclesiastical liberty in Würtemberg, and his strong newspaper articles forced the State to arrange Church matters on a tolerable basis. HIMPEL, Theologische Quartalschrift, 1876, 177-228; WERNER, Geschichte der neuzeitl. christlich-kirchl. Apologetik (Schaffhausen, 1867). A.J. MAAS The Legend of Abgar The Legend of Abgar The historian Eusebius records a tradition (H.E., I, xii), which he himself firmly believes, concerning a correspondence that took place between Our Lord and the local potentate at Edessa. Three documents relate to this correspondence: + the letter of Abgar to Our Lord; + Our Lord's answer; + a picture of Our Lord, painted from life. This legend enjoyed great popularity, both in the East and in the West, during the Middle Ages: Our Lord's letter was copied on parchment, marble, and metal, and used as a talisman or an amulet. In the age of Eusebius the original letters, written in Syriac, were thought to be kept in the archives of Edessa. At the present day we possess not only a Syriac text, but an Armenian translation as well, two independent Greek versions, shorter than the Syriac, and several inscriptions on stone, all of which are discussed in two articles in the "Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgies" cols. 88 sq. and 1807 sq. The only two works to be consulted in regard to this literary problem are the "Ecclesiastical History" of Eusebius, and the "Teaching of Addaï," which professes to belong to the Apostolic age. The legend, according to these two works, runs as follows: Abgar, king of Edessa, afflicted with an incurable sickness, has heard the fame of the power and miracles of Jesus and writes to Him, praying Him to come and heal him. Jesus declines, but promises to send a messenger, endowed with His power, namely Thaddeus (or Addaï), one of the seventy-two Disciples. The letters of Our Lord and of the king of Edessa vary in the version given in Eusebius and in that of the "Teaching of Addaï." That which follows is taken from the Teaching of Addaï," as being less accessible than the History of Eusebius: Abgar Ouchama to Jesus, the Good Physician Who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting: I have heard of Thee, and of Thy healing; that Thou dost not use medicines or roots, but by Thy word openest (the eyes) of the blind, makest the lame to walk, cleansest the lepers, makest the deaf to hear; how by Thy word (also) Thou healest (sick) spirits and those who are tormented with lunatic demons, and how, again, Thou raisest the dead to life. And , learning the wonders that Thou doest, it was borne in upon me that (of two things, one): either Thou hast come down from heaven, or else Thou art the Son of God, who bringest all these things to pass. Wherefore I write to Thee, and pray that thou wilt come to me, who adore Thee, and heal all the ill that I suffer, according to the faith I have in Thee. I also learn that the Jews murmur against Thee, and persecute Thee, that they seek to crucify Thee, and to destroy Thee. I possess but one small city, but it is beautiful, and large enough for us two to live in peace. When Jesus had received the letter, in the house of the high priest of the Jews, He said to Hannan, the secretary, "Go thou, and say to thy master, who hath sent thee to Me: 'Happy art thou who hast believed in Me, not having seen me, for it is written of me that those who shall see me shall not believe in Me, and that those who shall not see Me shall believe in Me. As to that which thou hast written, that I should come to thee, (behold) all that for which I was sent here below is finished, and I ascend again to My Father who sent Me, and when I shall have ascended to Him I will send thee one of My disciples, who shall heal all thy sufferings, and shall give (thee) health again, and shall convert all who are with thee unto life eternal. And thy city shall be blessed forever, and the enemy shall never overcome it.'" According to Eusebius, it was not Hannan who wrote answer, but Our Lord Himself. A curious legendary growth has sprung up from this imaginary occurrence. The nature of Abgar's sickness has been gravely discussed, to the credit of various writers' imaginations, so holding that it was gout, others leprosy; the former saying that it had lasted seven years, the latter discovering that the sufferer had contracted his disease during a stay in Persia. Other chroniclers, again, maintain that the letter was written on parchment, though some favour papyrus. The crucial passage in Our Lord's letter, however, is that which promises the city of Edessa victory over all enemies. It gave the little town a popularity which vanished on the day that it fell into the hands of conquerors. It was a rude shock to those who believed the legend; they were more ready to attribute the fall of the city to God's anger against the inhabitants than to admit the failure of a safeguard which was no less trusted to at that time than in the past. The fact related in the correspondence has long since ceased to be of any historical value. The text is borrowed in two places from that of the Gospel, which of itself is sufficient to disprove the authenticity of the letter. Moreover, the quotations are made not from the Gospels proper, but from the famous concordance of Tatian, compiled in the second century, and known as the "Diatessaron", thus fixing the date of the legend as approximately the middle of the third century. In addition, however, to the importance which it attained in the apocryphal cycle, the correspondence of King Abgar also gained a place in liturgy. The decree, "De libris non recipiendis", of the pseudo-Gelasius, places the letter among the apocrypha, which may, possibly, be an allusion to its having been interpolated among the officially sanctioned lessons of the liturgy. The Syrian liturgies commemorate the correspondence of Abgar during Lent. The Celtic liturgy appears to have attached importance to the legend; the "Liber Hymnorum", a manuscript preserved at Trinity College, Dublin (E. 4, 2), gives two collects on the lines of the letter to Abgar. Nor is it by any means impossible that this letter, followed by various prayers, may have formed a minor liturgical office in certain churches. The account given by Adda contains a detail which may here be briefly referred to. Hannan, who wrote at Our Lord's dictation, was archivist at Edessa and painter to King Abgar. He had been charged to paint a portrait of Our Lord, a task which he carried out, bringing back with him to Edessa a picture which came an object of general veneration, but which, after a while, was said to have been painted by Our Lord Himself. Like the letter, the portrait was destined be the nucleus of a legendary growth; the "Holy Face of Edessa" was chiefly famous in the Byzantine world. A bare indication, however, of this fact must suffice here, since the legend of the Edessa portrait forms part of the extremely difficult and obscure subject of the iconography of Christ, and of the pictures of miraculous origin called acheiropoietoe ("made without hands"). H. LECLERCQ Abiathar Abiathar (Hebrew ebhyathar, Father of plenty, or, the great one is father). Descendant of Achimelech, Achitob, Phinees, Heli, Ithamar, Aaron, a high priest who escaped from the slaughter at Nob, went to David in his banishment (I K., xxii, 20-23,; xxiii, 6) and assisted him with his advice (I K., xxiii, 9-14; xxx, 7). Together with the high priest Sadoc, he assisted at the transportation of the ark to Jerusalem (I Par., xv, 11, 12), and tried to follow David in his flight (II K., xv, 24), but instead aided him by counsel (II K., xv, 29-36; xvii, 15 sq.; xix, 11; I Par., xxvii, 34). He favoured Adonias (III K., i, 7, 19, 25, 42), and was banished by Solomon to Anathoth (III K., ii, 22-27), thus completing the ruin of the house of Ithamar (I K., ii, 30-36; iii, 10-14). As to II K., viii, 17, see Commentaries. A.J. MAAS Abila Abila A titular see of Phoenicia, in the region of Mt. Libanus, now Suk Wady Barada, near Damascus, and the capital and stronghold of Abilina (Luke 3:1). The Abbey of Abingdon The Abbey of Abingdon This abbey, located in the County of Berkshire, England, was founded A.D. 675, by Cyssa, Viceroy of Kinwine, King of the West Saxons, or by his nephew Heane, in honour of the Virgin Mary, for twelve Benedictine monks. Endowed by successive West Saxon kings, it grew in importance and wealth until its destruction by the Danes in the reign of King Alfred, and the sequestration of its estates by Alfred because the monks had not made him a sufficient requital for vanquishing their enemies. There is a collection of 136 charters granted to this Abbey by various Saxon Kings (Cottonian MSS. apud; Dugdale). Among its abbots were St. Ethelwold, afterwards Bishop of Winchester (954), and Richard de Hendred, for whose-appointment the King's consent was obtained in 1262. It is recorded of him that he wore both mitre and pontificals on the Feast of Holy Trinity in 1268. Hence Willis supposes that lie was the first abbot to possess the privilege; He was present at the (Council of Lyons in 1272; The last Abbot of Abingdon was Thomas Pentecost ( alias Rowland), who was among the first to acknowledge the Royal Supremacy. With the rest of his community he signed the surrender of his monastery in 1538, receiving the manor of Cumnor for life or until he had preferment to the extent of £223 per annum. The revenues of the Abbey (26 Hen. VIII) were valued at £1876, 10s, 9d. Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon (ed. Stevenson); DUGDALE, Monasticon Anglicanum; LYSONS, Magna Brittania (Berkshire); COOPER-KING, History of Berkshire, s.v. FRANCIS AVELING Thomas Abington Thomas Abington (Or HABINGTON). An English antiquarian, b. 1560; d. 1647. His father, who was treasurer to Queen Elizabeth, had him educated at Oxford, Reims, and Paris. For six years he was imprisoned in the Tower, being accused, with his brother Edward, of having taken part in the plot of Babington to effect the escape of Mary Queen of Scots. On his release he retired to Hinlip Castle in Lancaster, where he gave asylum to the Jesuit Fathers, Henry Garnett and Oldcorne, accused of complicity in the Gunpowder Plot. For this he was condemned to death, but through the intervention of his son-in-law, Lord Monteagle, the sentence was commuted to exile. His "History of Edward IV" was published after his death and also an English translation of "Gildas" (London, 1638). He also left in manuscript a "History of the Cathedral of Worcester" and "Researches into the Antiquities of Worcester". GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. English Catholics, s.v. THOMAS WALSH Abipones Abipones This Indian tribe, linguistically of Guaycuru stock, formerly roaming the east side of the Paraná river, was finally concentrated between the Rio Bermejo on the north, the Rio Salado on the south, and the Parana on the east, on the soil of the present Argentine Republic. Their customs appear to have been the same of those of South American tribes in general; clanship, an elaborate animism, or fetishism, complete sway of the medicine-men over private and tribal matters; chiefs eligible, or imposed through the impression created by casual achievements combined with wiles of the Shamans. Their weapons were lances, bows, and arrows, though the lance was preferred. They had most of the customs of the Guaycuru, including the couvade. In 1641 the Abipones had already obtained the horse from the Spanish settlers. At that time they were, according to tradition, still north of the Rio Bermejo, whence it is likely they were driven south by the Tobas, a warlike tribe of their own linguistic stock. Their horses, thriving on the grassy plains, soon made the Abipones very dangerous to Spanish colonization by means of raids on the settlements, by which they increased their own stocks of horses and cattle. In the first half of the eighteenth century, the Jesuits undertook the task of taming these unruly centaurs of the "Grand Chaco". With great difficulty, Fathers Casado, Sanchez, and especially Father Martin Dobrizhoffer, who was for eighteen years a missionary in Paraguay, succeeded in forming several settlements of Christianized Abipones near the Parana. These colonies were maintained in spit of the turbulent spirit of the neophytes, which caused incessant trouble with Spanish settlers, and above all, in spite of the murderous onslaughts made by the Tobas and Moobobis, strong and warlike tribes, upon the missions, when these showed signs of material prosperity. The expulsion of the Jesuits from Paraguay in 1768 and 1769 was the deathknell of the Abipones. The Tobas and Moobobis destroyed them in the course of less than half a century. It is to the work of Father Martin Dobrizhoffer, S.J., that we know most of our knowledge of the Abipones. Dobrizhoffer, Historia de Abiponibus, equestri, bellicosaque Paraguariae natione, etc. (Vienna, 1784; German version, 1784; English tr. 1822). References to the language are found in Hervas, Origine, Formazione, Mecanismo, ed Armonia degli Idiomi (Cesena, 1785); Id., Vocabulario poliglotto (1787); Saggio practico delle Lingue etc. (1787); Adrian Balbi, Atlas ethnographique du globe (Paris, 1826); Alcide d'Orbrigny, L'Homme americain (Paris, 1839); Brinton, The American Race. AD. F. BANDELIER Abisai Abisai ( Abhishay, abhshay; Sept. Abessa, Abisai). Son of David's sister Sarvia, and brother of Joab, a most valiant warrior (II K. xxiii, 18, 19; I Par., xi, 20, 21), and a faithful friend of David in his struggles against Saul (I K. xxvi, 6-9; II K. ii, 24; iii, 30), against the Ammonites, Syrians, and Edomites (II K., viii, 13; x, 9-14; I Par., xviii, 12; xix, 11-15), against Absalom (II K. xvi, 9, 10; xix, 21, 22; xviii, 2), Seba (II K., xx, 6), and the Philistines (II K., xxi, 15-17). HAGEN, Lexicon Biblicum (Paris, 1905); PALIS in VIG., Dict. de la Bible (Paris, 1895); WHITE in HAST., Dict. of the Bible (New York, 1903). A.J. MAAS Abjuration Abjuration A denial, disavowal, or renunciation under oath. In common ecclesiastical language this term is restricted to the renunciation of heresy made by the penitent heretic on the occasion of his reconciliation with the Church. The Church has always demanded such renunciation, accompanied by appropriate penance. In some cases the abjuration was the only ceremony required; in others abjuration was followed by the imposition of hands or by unction, or both by the laying on of hands and by unction. St. Gregory the Great (A.D. 590-604) in a letter (Epistolae, lib. XI, Ep. lxvii, P.L., Tom. LXXVII, Col. 1204-08; Decret. Gratiani, Pars III, Dist. iv, c. xliv) to Quiricus and the Bishops of Iberia concerning the reconciliation of Nestorians, sets forth the practice of the ancient Church in this matter. According to this testimony of St. Gregory, in cases where the heretical baptism was invalid, as with the Paulinists, Montanists, or Cataphrygians (Conc. Nicaen., can. xix, P.L., II, 666; Decret. Gratiani, Pars II Causa I, Q. i, c. xlii), Eunomians (Anomoeans), and others, the rule was that the penitent should be baptized ( cum ad sanctam Ecclesiam veniunt, baptizantur); but where the heretical baptism was considered valid converts were admitted into the Church either by anointing with chrism, or by the imposition of hands or by a profession of faith ( aut unctione chrismatis, aut impositione manus, aut professione fidei ad sinum matris Ecclesiae revocantur). Applying this rule, St. Gregory declares that Arians were received into the Church in the West by the imposition of hands, in the East by unction ( Arianos per impositionem manus Occidens, per unctionem vero sancti chrismatis . . . Oriens, reformat), while the Monophysites, who separated from the Church in the fifth and sixth centuries, were treated with less severity, being admitted, with some others, upon a mere profession of the orthodox faith [ sola vera confessione recipit (Ecclesia)]. St. Gregory's statement applies to the Roman Church and to Italy (Siricius, Epist., i, c. i; Epist., iv, c. viii; Innoc. I, Epist. ii, c. viii; Epist. xxii, c. iv), but not to the whole Western Church, since in Gaul and Spain the rite of unction was also in use [Second Coun. of Arles, can. xvii; Coun. of Orange (A.D. 529), can. ii; Coun. of Epaon, can. xxi; Greg. of Tours, Historia, lib. II, c. xxxi; lib. IV, cc. xxvii, xxviii; lib. V, c. xxxix; lib. IX, c. xv]. As to the Eastern Church, St. Gregory's phrase entirely agrees with the rule laid down in the seventh canon of Constantinople, which, though not emanating from the Ecumenical Council of 381 bears Witness nevertheless to the practice of the Church of Constantinople in the fifth century [Duchesne, Christian Worship (London, 1904), 339, 340]. This canon, which was inserted in the Trullan or Quinisext Synod (canon xcv), and thus found a place in Byzantine canon law, distinguishes between sects whose baptism, but not confirmation, was accepted and those whose baptism and confirmation were rejected. With the Arians, consequently, are classed the Macedonians, Novatians (Conc. Nicaen., I, can. ix; Nicaen., II, can. ii), Sabellians, Apollinarists, and others, who were to be received by the anointing with chrism on the forehead, eyes, nostrils, mouth, and ears. Some identify this ceremony of the laying on of hands with the rite of confirmation, and not merely an imposition of hands unto penance. A similar discussion prevails in regard to the anointing with chrism. I. Imposition of Hands The imposition of hands, as a sign that due penance had been done, and in token of reconciliation (Pope Vigilius, P.L., CXXX, 1076), was prescribed first for those who had been baptized in the Church and who had later fallen into heresy. St. Cyprian in a letter to Quintus (epist. lxxi, in P.L., IV, 408-411) is witness of this practice, as is also St. Augustine (De baptismo contra Donatistas, lib. III, c. xi, in P.L., XLIII, 208). This rite was prescribed, secondly, for those who had been baptized in heresy. Regarding Pope Eusebius (A.D. 309 or 310) we read in the Liber Pontificalis (edit. Duchesne, I, 167): Hic hereticos invenit in Urbe Roma, quos ad manum impositionis [sic] reconciliavit. The same work (I, 216) declares of Pope Siricius (A.D. 384-399): Hic constituit hereticum sub manum impositionis reconciliari, prsesente cuncta ecclesia. [This latter was doubtless copied from the first chapter of the decretals of Pope Siricius, writing to Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona in Spain (P.L., XIII, 1133, 1134; Duchesne, Liber Pontif;, I, 132, 133).] Pope St. Stephen declares this rite to be sufficient (see St. Cyprian, Epist. lxxiv, in P.L., IV, 412, 413; Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., VII, iii, in P.G., XX, 641). The first Council of Arles (A.D. 314), can. viii [Labbe, Concilia (Paris, 1671), I, 1428; P.L., CXXX, 376] inculcates the same law. (See also St. Leo, Epist. clix, c. vii; Epist. clxvi, c. ii; Epist. clxvii, Inquis. 18; P.L., LIV.) II. Unction The unction alone or together with the imposition of hands was also in vogue. The Council of Laodicea (A.D. 373) in canon vii (Labbe, Concilia, I, 1497) confirms this usage in the abjuration of Novatians, Photinians, and Quartodecimans. The second Council of Arles (A.D. 451) in canon xvii (Labbe, IV, 1013) extends the discipline to adherents of Bonosius, adversaries of the virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( Bonosianos . . . cum chrismate, et manus impositione in Ecclesia recipi sufficit). The Council of Epaon (A.D. 517), canon xvi (Labbe, IV, 1578), allows the same rite ( Presbyteros, . . . si conversionem subitam petant, chrismate subvenire permittimus). III. Profession of Faith Especially after the birth of Nestorianism and Eutychianism, to abjuration of heresy was added a solemn profession of faith. It was thus the bishops who, in the Second Council of Ephesus, had espoused the cause of Eutyches and Dioscurus were reconciled to the Church. St. Cyril of Alexandria (Epist. xlviii, ad Donat. Epis. Nicopol., P.G., LXXII, 252) received a like profession from Paul of Emesa, who was thought to be affected with Nestorianism. St. Leo (Epist. i, Ad Episc. Aquilens. c. ii, in P.L., LIV, 594) required the same from the votaries of Pelagianism, as did also a council, held at Aachen in 799, from Felix, Bishop of Urgel [Alzog, Universal Church Hist. (tr. Cincinnati, 1899), II, 181]. It is to be noted that as clerics, unless degraded or reduced to the lay state, were not submitted to the humiliation of public penance, so, consequently, their admission into the Church involved no imposition of hands or other ceremony except a profession of faith (Fratres Ballerini, in Epist. S. Leon., n. 1594, P.L., LIV, 1492). In all cases there was demanded the presentation of a libellus, or form of abjuration, in which the convert renounced and anathematized his former tenets. After declaring his abjuration to be free from compulsion, fear, or other unworthy motive, he proceeded to anathematize all heresies in general and in particular that sect to which he had belonged, together with its heresiarchs, past, present, and future. He then enumerated the tenets accepted by said sect, and, having repudiated them singly and generally, he ended with a profession of his belief in the true Faith. Sometimes there was added, under pain of punishment, a promise to remain in the Church. Accidental differences only are found in the ancient formulas of abjuration extant. Later, in the countries especially where the Inquisition was established, three sorts of abjuration were practised: + Abjuration de formali (of formal heresy), made by a notorious heretic or apostate; + de vehementi (of strong suspicion of heresy), made by a Catholic strongly suspected of heresy; + de levi (of slight suspicion of heresy), made by a Catholic slightly suspected of heresy. The abjuration demanded of converts in the present discipline of the Church is essentially the same as the above. A convert to the Church who has never been baptized is not obliged to abjure heresy. A convert, whose baptism is considered valid, or who, at most, on his reception into the Church is rebaptized conditionally, is required to make a profession of faith, which contains an abjuration of heresy. A salutary penance also is imposed (S. Cong. S. Off., Nov., 1875. See Appendix Conc. Plen. Balt., II, 277, 278; American edit. Roman Ritual, 1, 2, 3). No abjuration is required from converts under the age of fourteen (S. Cong. S. Off., Mar. 8, 1882, in Collectanea S. Cong. de Propag. Fid., n. 1680, ed. 1903). ERMONI, in Dictionnaire d arch ologie chr tienne et de liturgie (Paris, 1903); DESHAYES, in Dict. de th ol. cath. (Paris, 1899), I, 75; MAUREL, Guide pratique de la liturgie romaine (Paris, 1878), Par. I, 2, 104, art. 6; BENEDICT XIV, de Synodo Dioecesana, V, ix, n. 10, lib. IX, e. iv, n. 3; Gelasian Sacramentary, I, 85, 86; BUTLER, in Dict. of Christ. Antiq. (London, 1893) MARTENE AND DURAND, De Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus, II, lib. CXI, e. vi; FERRARIS, Prompta Bibliotheca, I, 32 sqq. ANDREW B. MEEHAN Abner Abner A son of Ner, a cousin of Saul, and commander-in-chief of Saul's army (I Kings xiv, 50: xvii, 55; xxvi, 5, 7, 14). After Saul with three of his sons had fallen at Mount Gelboe, Abner made Isboseth, the fourth son of Saul, king over the whole land of Israel excepting Judea, which adhered to David. For seven years and a half Abner fought for the throne of Isboseth. After his defeat near Gabaon, he was hotly pursued by Asael, brother of Joab, who was David's commander-in-chief, and in self-defense he reluctantly slew his enemy (II Kings ii, 12 sq.). This embittered the hostility between the two factions, since Joab considered himself the avenger ofhis brother Asael. Abner now married Respha, a concubine f Saul, and thus incurred the suspicion of aspiring to the throne. Isboseth remonstrated with the warrior, and the latter became so angry that he made advances to David. David demanded that Abner should first restore to him his wife Michol, daughter of Saul, who had been given to Phaltiel. Abner complied with this condition, and came to a full understanding with David. After his departure Joab, David's commander-in-chief, sent for him, and killed him at the city gate. David bewailed Abner, made Joab walk in mourning-garb before Abner's bier, and on his death-bed enjoined on Solomon to avenge Abner's murder. Palis in Vig., Dict. de la Bible, s.v. A.J. MAAS The Abomination of Desolation The Abomination of Desolation The importance of this Scriptural expression is chiefly derived from the fact that in St. Matthew, xxiv, 15, and St. Mark, xiii, 14, the appearance of the "abomination of desolation" standing in the Holy Place" (Matt.), or where "it ought not" (Mark), is given by Our Lord to His disciples as the signal for their flight from Judea, at the time of the approaching ruin of Jerusalem (Luke, xxi, 20). The expression itself is confessedly obscure. To determine its meaning, interpreters have naturally betaken themselves to the original Hebrew of the book of Daniel; for our first Evangelist distinctly says that "the abomination of desolation" he has in view "was spoken of by Daniel the prophet"; and further, the expression he makes use of, in common with St. Mark, is simply the Greek phrase whereby the Septuagint translators rendered literally the Hebrew words shíqqûç shômem found in Daniel, xii, 11; ix, 27; xi, 31. Unfortunately, despite all their efforts to explain these Hebrew terms, Biblical scholars are still at variance about their precise meaning. While most commentators regard the first "shíqqûç", usually rendered by "abomination", as designating anything (statue, altar, etc.) that pertains to idolatrous worship, others take it to be a contemptuous designation of a heathen god or idol. Again, while most commentators render the second "shômem" by the abstract word "desolation", others treat it as a concrete form referring to a person, "a ravager", or even as a participial known meaning "that maketh desolate". The most recent interpretation which has been suggested of these Hebrew words is to the following effect: The phrase shíqqûç shômem stands for the original expression bá` ál shámáyîm (Baal of heaven), a title found in Phoenician and Aramaic inscriptions, and the semitic equivalent of the Greek Zeus, Jupiter, but modified in Daniel through Jewish aversion for the name of a Pagan deity. While thus disagreeing as to the precise sense of the Hebrew phrase usually rendered by "the abomination of desolation", Christian scholars are practically at one with regard to its general meaning. They commonly admit, and indeed rightly, that the Hebrew expression must needs be understood of some idolatrous emblem, the setting up of which would entail the ultimate desolation of the Temple of Jerusalem (I Mach. i, 57; iv, 38). And with this general meaning in view, they proceed to determine the historical event between Our Lord's prediction and the ruin of the Temple (A. D. 70), which should be regarded as "the abomination of desolation" spoken of in St. Matthew, xxiv, 15, and St. Mark, xiii, 14. But here they are again divided. Many scholars have thought, and still think, that the introduction of the Roman standards into the Holy Land, and more particularly into the Holy City, shortly before the destruction of the Temple, is the event foretold by Our Lord to His disciples as the signal for their flight from Judea. It is true that the standards were worshipped by the Roman soldiers and abhorred by the Jews as the emblem of Roman idolatry. Yet they can hardly be considered as the "the abomination of desolation" referred to in St. Matthew, xxiv, 15. The Evangelist says that this "abomination" is to stand in the "holy place", whereby is naturally meant the Temple (see also Daniel, ix, 27, where the Vulgate reads: "there shall be in the Temple the abomination of the desolation"), and the Roman standards were actually introduced into the Temple only after it had been entered by Titus, that, too late to serve as a warning for the Christians of Judea. Other scholars are of the mind that the desecration of the Temple by the Zealots who seized it and made it their stronghold shortly before Jerusalem was invested by Titus, is the even foretold by Our Lord. But this view is commonly rejected for the simples reason that "the abomination of desolation" spoken of by Daniel and referred to in St. Matthew's Gospel, was certainly something connected with idolatrous worship. Others, finally, interpret Our Lord's warning to His disciples in the light of the history of attempt to have his own statue set up and worshipped in the Temple of Jerusalem. The following are the principal facts of that history. About A. D. 40, Caius Caligula issued a peremptory decree ordering the erection and worship of his statute in the Temple of God. He also appointed to the government of Syria, bidding him carry out that decree even at the cost of a war against the rebellious Jews. Whereupon the Jews in tens of thousands protested to the governor that they were willing to be slaughtered rather than to be condemned to witness that idolatrous profanation of their holy Temple. Soon afterwards Petronius asked Caligula to revoke his order, and Agrippa I, who than lived at Rome, prevailed upon the Emperor not to enforce his decree. It seems, however, that Caligula soon repented of the concession, and that but for his untimely death (A. D. 41) he would have had his statue set up in Jerusalem (E. Schurer, History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ, I Div. II, 95-105; tr.). In view of these facts it is affirmed by many scholars that the early Christians could easily regard the forthcoming erection of statue in the Temple as the act of idolatrous Abomination which, according to the prophet Daniel, ix, 27, portended the ruin of the House of God, and therefore see in it the actual sign given by Christ for their flight from Judea. This last interpretation of the phrase "the abomination of desolation" is not without its own difficulties. Yet it seems preferable to the others that have been set for by commentators at large. FRANCIS E. GIGOT Abortion Abortion Abortion (from the Latin word aboriri, "to perish") may be briefly defined as "the loss of a fetal life." In it the fetus dies while yet within the generative organs of the mother, or it is ejected or extracted from them before it is viable; that is, before it is sufficiently developed to continue its life by itself. The term abortion is also applied, though less properly, to cases in which the child is become viable, but does not survive the delivery. In this article we shall take the word in its widest meaning, and treat of abortion as occurring at any time between conception and safe delivery. The word miscarriage is taken in the same wide sense. Yet medical writers often use these words in special meanings, restricting abortion to the time when the embryo has not yet assumed specific features, that is, in the human embryo, before the third month of gestation; miscarriage occurs later, but before viability; while the birth of a viable child before the completed term of nine months is styled premature birth. Viability may exist in the seventh month of gestation, but it cannot safely be presumed before the eighth month. If the child survives its premature birth, there is no abortion -- for this word always denotes the loss of fetal life. It was long debated among the learned at what period of gestation the human embryo begins to be animated by the rational, spiritual soul, which elevates man above all other species of the animal creation and survives the body to live forever. The keenest mind among the ancient philosophers, Aristotle, had conjectured that the future child was endowed at conception with a principle of only vegetative life, which was exchanged after a few days for an animal soul, and was not succeeded by a rational soul till later; his followers said on the fortieth day for a male, and the eightieth for a female, child. The authority of his great name and the want of definite knowledge to the contrary caused this theory to be generally accepted up to recent times. Yet, as early as the fourth century of the Christian era, St. Gregory of Nyssa had advocated the view which modern science has confirmed almost to a certainty, namely, that the same life principle quickens the organism from the first moment of its individual existence until its death (Eschbach, Disp. Phys., Disp., iii). Now it is at the very time of conception, or fecundation, that the embryo begins to live a distinct individual life. For life does not result from an organism when it has been built up, but the vital principle builds up the organism of its own body. In virtue of the one eternal act of the Will of the Creator, Who is of course ever present at every portion of His creation, the soul of every new human being begins to exist when the cell which generation has provided is ready to receive it as its principle of life. In the normal course of nature the living embryo carries on its work of, self-evolution within the maternal womb, deriving its nourishment from the placenta through the vital cord, till, on reaching maturity, it is by the contraction of the uterus issued to lead its separate life. Abortion is a fatal termination of this process. It may result from various causes, which may be classed under two heads, accidental and intentional. Accidental causes may be of many different kinds. Sometimes the embryo, instead of developing in the uterus, remains in one of the ovaries, or gets lodged in one of the Fallopian tubes, or is precipitated into the abdomen, resulting, in any of these cases, in an ectopic, or extra-uterine gestation. This almost invariably brings on the death of the fetus, and is besides often fraught with serious danger to the mother. Even if an ectopic child should live to maturity, it cannot be born by the natural channel -- but, once it has become viable, it may be saved by a surgical operation. Most commonly the embryo develops in the uterus; but there, too, it is exposed to a great variety of dangers, especially during the first months of its existence. There may be remote predispositions in the mother to contract diseases fatal to her offspring. Heredity, malformation, syphilis, advanced age, excessive weakness, effects of former sicknesses, etc. may be causes of danger; even the climate may exercise an unfavorable influence. More immediate causes of abortion may be found in cruel treatment of the mother by her husband or in starvation, or any kind of hardship. Her own indiscretion is often to blame; as when she undertakes excessive labours or uses intoxicating drinks too freely. Anything in fact that causes a severe shock to the bodily frame or the nervous system of the mother may be fatal to the child in her womb. On the part of the father, syphilis, alcoholism, old age, and physical weakness may act unfavourably on the offspring at any time of its existence. The frequency of accidental abortions is no doubt very great; it must differ considerably according to the circumstances, so that the proportion between successful and unsuccessful conceptions is beyond the calculation of the learned. Intentional abortions are distinguished by medical writers into two classes. + When they are brought about for social reasons, they are called criminal abortions; and they are rightly condemned under any circumstances whatsoever. "Often, very often," said Dr. Hodge, of the University of Pennsylvania, "must all the eloquence and all the authority of the practitioner be employed; often he must, as it were, grasp the conscience of his weak and erring patient, and let her know, in language not to be misunderstood, that she is responsible to the Creator for the life of the being within her" (Wharton and Stille's Med. Jurispr., Vol. on Abortion, 11). + The name of obstetrical abortion is given by physicians to such as is performed to save the life of the mother. Whether this practice is ever morally lawful we shall consider below. It is evident that the determination of what is right or wrong in human conduct belongs to the science of ethics and the teaching of religious authority. Both of these declare the Divine law, "Thou shalt not kill". The embryonic child, as seen above, has a human soul; and therefore is a man from the time of its conception; therefore it has an equal right to its life with its mother; therefore neither the mother, nor medical practitioner, nor any human being whatever can lawfully take that life away. The State cannot give such right to the physician; for it has not itself the right to put an innocent person to death. No matter how desirable it might seem to be at times to save the life of the mother, common sense teaches and all nations accept the maxim, that "evil is never to be done that good may come of it"; or, which is the same thing, that "a good end cannot justify a bad means". Now it is an evil means to destroy the life of an innocent child. The plea cannot be made that the child is an unjust aggressor. It is simply where nature and its own parents have put it. Therefore, Natural Law forbids any attempt at destroying fetal life. The teachings of the Catholic Church admit of no doubt on the subject. Such moral questions, when they are submitted, are decided by the Tribunal of the Holy Office. Now this authority decreed, 28 May, 1884, and again, 18 August, 1889, that "it cannot be safely taught in Catholic schools that it is lawful to perform . . . any surgical operation which is directly destructive of the life of the fetus or the mother." Abortion was condemned by name, 24 July, 1895, in answer to the question whether when the mother is in immediate danger of death and there is no other means of saving her life, a physician can with a safe conscience cause abortion not by destroying the child in the womb (which was explicitly condemned in the former decree), but by giving it a chance to be born alive, though not being yet viable, it would soon expire. The answer was that he cannot. After these and other similar decisions had been given, some moralists thought they saw reasons to doubt whether an exception might not be allowed in the case of ectopic gestations. Therefore the question was submitted: "Is it ever allowed to extract from the body of the mother ectopic embryos still immature, before the sixth month after conception is completed?" The answer given, 20 March, 1902, was: "No; according to the decree of 4 May, 1898; according to which, as far as possible, earnest and opportune provision is to be made to safeguard the life of the child and of the mother. As to the time, let the questioner remember that no acceleration of birth is licit unless it be done at a time, and in ways in which, according to the usual course of things, the life of the mother and the child be provided for". Ethics, then, and the Church agree in teaching that no action is lawful which directly destroys fetal life. It is also clear that extracting the living fetus before it is viable, is destroying its life as directly as it would be killing a grown man directly to plunge him into a medium in which he cannot live, and hold him there till he expires. However, if medical treatment or surgical operation, necessary to save a mother's life, is applied to her organism (though the child's death would, or at least might, follow as a regretted but unavoidable consequence), it should not be maintained that the fetal life is thereby directly attacked. Moralists agree that we are not always prohibited from doing what is lawful in itself, though evil consequences may follow which we do not desire. The good effects of our acts are then directly intended, and the regretted evil consequences are reluctantly permitted to follow because we cannot avoid them. The evil thus permitted is said to be indirectly intended. It is not imputed to us provided four conditions are verified, namely: + That we do not wish the evil effects, but make all reasonable efforts to avoid them; + That the immediate effect be good in itself; + That the evil is not made a means to obtain the good effect; for this would be to do evil that Good might come of it -- a procedure never allowed; + That the good effect be as important at least as the evil effect. All four conditions may be verified in treating or operating on a woman with child. The death of the child is not intended, and every reasonable precaution is taken to save its life; the immediate effect intended, the mother's life, is good -- no harm is done to the child in order to save the mother -- the saving of the mother's life is in itself as good as the saving of the child's life. Of course provision must be made for the child's spiritual as well as for its physical life, and if by the treatment or operation in question the child were to be deprived of Baptism, which it could receive if the operation were not performed, then the evil would be greater than the good consequences of the operation. In this case the operation could not lawfully be performed. Whenever it is possible to baptize an embryonic child before it expires, Christian charity requires that it be done, either before or after delivery; and it may be done by any one, even though he be not a Christian. History contains no mention of criminal abortions antecedent to the period of decadent morality in classic Greece. The crime seems not to have prevailed in the time of Moses, either among the Jews or among the surrounding nations; else that great legislator would certainly have spoken in condemnation of it. No mention of it occurs in the long enumeration of sins laid to the charge of the Canaanites. The first reference to it is found in the books attributed to Hippocrates, who required physicians to bind themselves by oath not to give to women drinks fatal to the child in the womb. At that period voluptuousness had corrupted the morals of the Greeks, and Aspasia was teaching ways of procuring abortion. In later times the Romans became still more depraved, and bolder in such practices; for Ovid wrote concerning the upper classes of his countrymen: Nunc uterum vitiat quae vult formosa videri, Raraque, in hoc aevo, est quae velit esse parens. Three centuries later we meet with the first record of laws enacted by the State to check this crime. Exile was decreed against mothers guilty of it; while those who administered the potion to procure it were if nobles, sent to certain islands, if plebeians, condemned to work in the metal mines. Still the Romans in their legislation appear to have aimed at punishing the wrong done by abortion to the father or the mother, rather than the wrong done to the unborn child. The early Christians are the first on record as having pronounced abortion to be the murder of human beings, for their public apologists, Athenagoras, Tertullian, and Minutius Felix (Eschbach, "Disp. Phys.", Disp. iii), to refute the slander that a child was slain, and its flesh eaten, by the guests at the Agapae, appealed to their laws as forbidding all manner of murder, even that of children in the womb. The Fathers of the Church unanimously maintained the same doctrine. In the fourth century the Council of Eliberis decreed that Holy Communion should be refused all the rest of her life, even on her deathbed, to an adulteress who had procured the abortion of her child. The Sixth Ecumenical Council determined for the whole Church that anyone who procured abortion should bear all the punishments inflicted on murderers. In all these teachings and enactments no distinction is made between the earlier and the later stages of gestation. For, though the opinion of Aristotle, or similar speculations, regarding the time when the rational soul is infused into the embryo, were practically accepted for many centuries still it was always held by the Church that he who destroyed what was to be a man was guilty of destroying a human life. The great prevalence of criminal abortion ceased wherever Christianity became established. It was a crime of comparatively rare occurrence in the Middle Ages. Like its companion crime, divorce, it did not again become a danger to society till of late years. Except at times and in places influenced by Catholic principles, what medical writers call "obstetric" abortion, as distinct from "criminal" (though both are indefensible on moral grounds), has always been a common practice. It was usually performed by means of craniotomy, or the crushing of the child's head to save the mother's life. Hippocrates, Celsus, Avicenna, and the Arabian school generally invented a number of vulnerating instruments to enter and crush the child's cranium. In more recent times, with the advance of the obsteric science, more conservative measures have gradually prevailed. By use of the forceps, by skill acquired in version, by procuring premature labour, and especially by asepticism in the Caesarean section and other equivalent operations, medical science has found much improved means of saving both the child and its mother. Of late years such progress has been made in this matter, that craniotomy on the living child has passed out of reputable practice. But abortion proper, before the fetus is viable, is still often employed, especially in ectopic gestation; and there are many men and women who may be called professional abortionists. In former times civil laws against all kinds of abortion were very severe among Christian nations. Among the Visigoths, the penalty was death, or privation of sight, for the mother who allowed it and for the father who consented to it, and death for the abortionist. In Spain, the woman guilty of it was buried alive. An edict of the French King Henry II in 1555, renewed by Louis XIV in 1708, inflicted capital punishment for adultery and abortion combined. Later French law (i.e., early twentieth century) punished the abortionist with imprisonment, and physicians, surgeons, and pharmacists, who prescribe or furnish the means, with the penalty of forced labour. For England, Blackstone stated the law as follows: Life is the immediate gift of God, a right inherent by nature in every individual; and it begins, in contemplation of law, as soon as an infant is able to stir in its mother's womb. For if a woman is quick with child, and by a potion, or otherwise, killeth it in her womb, or if any one beat her, whereby the child dieth, and she is delivered of a dead child; this, though not murder, was by the ancient law homicide or manslaughter. But the modern law does not look upon this offence in so atrocious a light, but merely as a heinous misdemeanour. In the United States, legislation in this matter is neither strict nor uniform, nor are convictions of frequent occurrence. In some of the States any medical practitioner is allowed to procure abortion whenever he judges it necessary to save the mother's life. The Catholic Church has not relaxed her strict prohibition of all abortion; but, as we have seen above, she has made it more definite. As to the penalties she inflicts upon the guilty parties, her present legislation was fixed by the Bull of Pius IX "Apostolicae Sedis". It decrees excommunication -- that is, deprivation of the Sacraments and of the Prayers of the Church in the case of any of her members, and other privations besides in the case of clergymen -- against all who seek to procure abortion, if their action produces the effect. Penalties must always be strictly interpreted. Therefore, while anyone who voluntarily aids in procuring abortion, in any way whatever, does morally wrong, only those incur the excommunication who themselves actually and efficaciously procure the abortion. And the abortion here meant is that which is strictly so called, namely, that performed before the child is viable. For no one but the lawgiver has the right to extend the law beyond the terms in which it is expressed. On the other hand, no one can restrict its meaning by private authority, so as to make it less than the received terms of Church language really signify. Now Gregory XIV had enacted the penalty of excommunication for abortion of a "quickened" child but the present law makes no such distinction, and therefore it must be differently understood. That distinction, however, applies to another effect which may result from the procuring of abortion; namely, he who does so for a child after quickening incurs an irregularity, or hindrance to his receiving or exercising Orders in the Church. But he would not incur such irregularity if the embryo were not yet quickened. The terms "quickened" and "animation" in present usage are applied to the child after the mother can percieve its motion, which usually happens about the one hundred and sixteenth day after conception. But in the old canon law, which established the irregularity here referred to the "animation" of the embryo was supposed to occur on the fortieth day for a male child, and on the eightieth day for a female child. In such matters of canon law, just as in civil law, many technicalities and intricacies occur, which it often takes the professional student to understand fully. In regard to the decisions of the Roman tribunal quoted above it is proper to remark that while they claim the respect and loyal adhesion of Catholics, they are not irreformable, since they are not definitive judgments, nor do they proceed directly from the Supreme Pontiff, who alone has the prerogative of infallibility. If ever reasons should arise, which is most improbable, to change these pronouncements those reasons would receive due consideration. C. COPPENS Physical Effects of Abortion The Physical Effects of Abortion Definition. The expulsion of the human ovum occurring during the first three months of pregnancy, and occurring from any cause whatsoever, is called abortion. In the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh months -- i.e., from the formation of the placenta to the period of viability -- the occurrence is called immature delivery, or miscarriage, and a delivery occurring from the twenty-eighth week (the earliest period of viability) to the thirty-eighth week is called premature. Causes of abortion. To understand the physical effects of abortion we must know something of the causes, which are in the main the same as the causes of miscarriage and premature delivery. Abortion may be due to pathological changes in the ovum, the uterus, or its adnexa one or both -- to the physical or nervous condition of the woman, to diseases either inherited or acquired (syphilis, tuberculosis, rheumatism); to any infectious, contagious, or inflammatory disease; to shock, injury, or accident. It may be induced knowingly, willingly, and criminally by the pregnant person herself, or by someone else, with the aid of drugs, or instruments, or both. Physical effects of abortion. Naturally, therefore, the physical effects of abortion will depend in direct ratio on the causation thereof, and the comparative malignity or benignity of such causation. In any case, abortion is fraught with serious consequences, direct and indirect -- and is a sad miscarriage of nature's plan, greatly to be deplored, and earnestly, strenuously, and conscientiously to be avoided. Of course, when brought about with criminal intent, abortion is nothing less than murder in the first degree; and if the law of the land does not discover and punish the criminal, the higher law of the God of Nature and of Nature's inexorable reprisals for interference with, or destruction of her beneficent designs, will sooner or later most certainly do so. When abortion is due to pathological causes it is usually preceded by the death of the fetus; so that the causes of abortion are really the causes producing the death of the fetus. The abortion may be complete or partial. If complete, the danger is principally from shock and haemorrhage; if incomplete and any debris remains, there is danger of septicaemia, uraemia, endometritis, perimetritis, diseases of the tubes, ovaries, bladder, cervix uteri, vaginal canal, and rectum; together with catarrhal discharges from one or more of these parts, displacements, impoverished blood supply, various neuroses, and usually a long and expensive convalescence. The retention of the dead fetus is not always so dangerous. Even if decomposition or putrefaction occur, Nature frequently -- possibly more often than we are willing to give her credit for -- eliminates the offending foreign mass without the aid of the obstetrician. But it is not wise to advocate the waiting for such happy and spontaneous events. However while it is true that with proper medical care and attention most cases of abortion (excluding criminal cases and those complicated with other morbid conditions) present a modicum of danger, yet we must not forget that reports and statistics on this subject are very unreliable. First, there may be a false diagnosis; and secondly, concealment on the part of the patient, attendants, and all concerned is exceedingly common today. Obstetrical science has made many and important advances; but abortions from one cause or another (especially criminal abortion) continue in abundance; and their results have been and are still crowding the medical offices. To tear out the living products of conception by the roots is, in most cases, to give the pregnant woman gratuitous transportation for eternity. Even in spontaneous cases, as we have seen, death may occur from various causes. How much greater the danger, then, when the vandal hand of the professional abortionist adds wounds and injuries to complete his diabolical work. Conclusion. Since so many people today have ceased to look on abortion as a calamity at all times, and as a moral monstrosity in its criminal aspect, they should be deterred from committing it by the fear of physical consequences, if they are not moved by the love of morality and righteousness. J.N. BUTLER Charles Francois d'Abra de Raconis Charles François d'Abra de Raconis A French bishop, born at the Château de Raconis in 1580 of a Calvinistic family; died 1646. In 1592, this family was converted to the Catholic faith, of which Charles then twelve sears of age, was to become an earnest defender. He taught philosophy at the College of Plessis, in 1609; theology at the College of Navarre, in 1615, and three years later was appointed court preacher and royal almoner. At this epoch he took an active part in religious polemics and wrote works of controversy. In 1637, he was appointed Bishop of Lavaur, but was not consecrated until 1639. In 1643 he was back in Paris, and controversies with the Jansenists engaged him up to his death. St. Vincent de Paul spurred him on and encouraged him. Two years before his death he published his "Examen et jugement du livre de la fréquente communion fait contre la fréquente communion et publié sous le nom du sieur Arnauld" (Paris, 1644). The following year he published a rejoinder to the reply to this. Arnauld affected great contempt for him, and declared that his works were "despised by all respectable persons". Raconis also wrote against the heresy of "two heads of the Church [Sts. Peter and Paul]," formulated by Martin de Barcos. The bishop's "Primauté et Souveraineté singulière de saint Pierre" (1645) roused the wrath of his opponents. Towards the close of 1645, the report was circulated in Paris that he had written to the Pope, denouncing the dangerous teachings in the "Fréquente Communion", and telling the Pope that some French bishops tolerated and approved of these impieties The Bishop of Grasse informed a general assembly of the clergy of this fact. This aroused their animosity, all the more since some of them had recommended Arnauld's work. They entered a complaint with the Nuncio, and then compelled Raconis to say whether he had written the Setter or not. Although he denied having done so, they drew up a common protestation against the accusations of which they were the objects and sent it to Innocent X. JOHN J. A' BECKET Don Isaac Abrabanel Don Isaac Abrabanel (Also: Abravanel, Abarbanel). Jewish statesman, apologist and exegete, born in Lisbon 1437; died in Venice, 1508, buried in Padua. From his early youth, he was carefully instructed in the Talmudlc and Rabbinic literatures, and mastered the various branches of secular learning. His keen intellect and, above all, a great business ability drew to him the attention of Alfonso V of Portugal, who made him his treasurer, a position that he held until 1481. The favour shown by a Catholic prince to a Jew shocked the public opinion of those times, and under John II Abrabanel was accused of conspiring with the Duke of Braganza, and barely saved his life by fleeing to Castile, 1483. Soon afterwards he entered the service of Ferdinand and Isabella, 1484-92. After the fall of Granada, he shared the fate of his race, and was banished from Spain in 1492. He repaired to Naples and, owing to various vicissitudes went successively to Messina, Corfu, Monopoli, and finally to Venice. Most of Abrabanel's works date from the last years of his life, when, on account of his misfortunes, he found more leisure for collecting and ordering his thoughts. Abrabanel knew Plato and Aristotle, and is often ranked among the Jewish philosophers. His philosophy, however, was intended by him simply as a means of defending his religious convictions. He can hardly be said to have written any work professedly philosophical, with the possible exception of a juvenile treatise on the form of the natural elements; his views in this respect must be gathered from his various theological and exegetical treatises. As a theologian and apologist Abrabanel shows himself a champion of the most rigid Jewish orthodoxy, and does not hesitate to oppose even Maimonides when the latter seems to depart from the traditional belief. In the field of Biblical exegesis, Abrabanel has the merit of having anticipated much of what has been advanced as new by modern investigators, and of having considered systematically not only the letter of the sacred text, but also the persons of its authors, their aim and surroundings. Each commentary is furnished with a preface in which these preliminary questions are treated. His familiarity with Christian authors his acquaintance with court life and customs, a keen sense of his misfortunes, joined with a very extensive knowledge and a great power of observation, fitted him eminently for the task of a Biblical interpreter. We have from him a commentary on Deuteronomy; on the first four books of the Pentateuch; on the earlier and on the later Prophets. They have been warmly lauded both by Jews and by Christians, have passed through several editions, and many of them have been, in whole or in part, translated into Latin. Of his other works we may mention "The Crown of the Ancients", "The Pinnacle of Faith", "The Sources of Salvation", in the form of a commentary on Daniel, "The Salvation of His Anointed" "The Herald of Salvation", in which are collected and explained all the Messianic texts. His works the titles of which are here rendered in English were written in a clear, refined, but occasionally diffuse modern Hebrew. ROMAIN BUTIN Abraham Abraham The original form of the name, Abram, is apparently the Assyrian Abu-ramu. It is doubtful if the usual meaning attached to that word "lofty father", is correct. The meaning given to Abraham in Genesis 17:5 is popular word play, and the real meaning is unknown. The Assyriologist, Hommel suggests that in the Minnean dialect, the Hebrew letter Hê ("h") is written for long a. Perhaps here we may have the real derivation of the word, and Abraham may be only a dialectical form of Abram. The story of Abraham is contained in the Book of Genesis, 11:26 to 25:18. We shall first give a brief outline of the Patriarch's life, as told in that portion of Genesis, then we shall in succession discuss the subject of Abraham from the viewpoints of the Old Testament, New Testament, profane history, and legend. A BRIEF OUTLINE OF ABRAHAM'S LIFE Thare had three sons, Abram, Nachor, and Aran. Abram married Sarai. Thare took Abram and his wife, Sarai, and Lot, the son of Aran, who was dead, and leaving Ur of the Chaldees, came to Haran and dwelt there till he died. Then, at the call of God, Abram, with his wife, Sarai, and Lot, and the rest of his belongings, went into the Land of Chanaan, amongst other places to Sichem and Bethel, where he built altars to the Lord: A famine breaking out in Chanaan, Abram journeyed southward to Egypt, and when he had entered the land, fearing that he would be killed on account of his wife, Sarai, he bade her say she was his sister. The report of Sarai's beauty was brought to the Pharao, and he took her into his harem, and honoured Abram on account of her. Later, however finding out that she was Abram's wife, he sent her away unharmed, and, upbraiding Abram for what he had done, he dismissed him from Egypt. From Egypt Abram came with Lot towards Bethel, and there, finding that their herds and flocks had grown to be very large, he proposed that they should separate and go their own ways. So Lot chose the country about the Jordan, whilst Abram dwelt in Chanaan, and came and dwelt in the vale of Mambre in Hebron. Now, on account of a revolt of the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrha and other kings from Chodorlahomor King of Elam, after they had served him twelve years, he in the fourteenth year made war upon them with his allies, Thadal king of nations, Amraphel Kin& of Senaar, and Arioch King of Pontus. The King of Elam was victorious, and had already reached Dan with Lot a prisoner and laden with spoil, when he was overtaken by Abram. With 318 men the patri arch surprises, attacks, and defeats him, he retakes Lot and the spoil, and returns in triumph. On his way home, he is met by Melchisedech, king of Salem who brings forth bread and wine, and blesses him And Abram gives him tithes of all he has; but for] himself he reserves nothing. God promises Abram that his seed shall be as the stars of heaven, and he shall possess the land of Chanaan. But Abram does not see how this is to be, for he has already grown old. Then the promise is guaranteed by a sacrifice between God and Abram, and by a vision and a supernatural intervention in the night. Sarai, who was far advanced in years and had given up the idea of bearing children, persuaded Abram to take to himself her hand-maid, Agar. He does so, and Agar being with child despises the barren Sarai. For this Sarai afflicts her so that she flies into the desert, but is persuaded to return by an angel who comforts her with promises of the greatness of the son she is about to bear. She returns and brings forth Ismael. Thirteen years later God appears to Abram and promises him a son by Sarai, and that his posterity will be a great nation. As a sign, he changes Abram's name to Abraham, Sarai's to Sara, and ordains the rite of circumcision. One day later, as Abraham is sitting by his tent, in the vale of Mambre, Jehovah with two angels appears to him in human form. He shows them hospitality. Then again the promise of a son named Isaac is renewed to Abraham. The aged Sarah hears incredulously and laughs. Abraham is then told of the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha for their sins but obtains from Jehovah the promise that he will not destroy them if he finds ten just men therein. Then follows a description of the destruction of the two cities and the escape of Lot. Next morning Abraham, looking from his tent towards Sodom, sees the smoke of destruction ascending to heaven. After this, Abraham moves south to Gerara, and again fearing for his life says of his wife, "she is my sister". The king of Gerara, Abimelech, sends and takes her, but learning in a dream that she is Abraham's wife he restores her to him untouched, and rebukes him and gives him gifts. In her old age Sarah bears a son, lsaac, to Abraham, and he is circumcised on the eighth day. Whilst he is still young, Sarah is jealous, seeing Ismael playing with the child Isaac, so she procures that Agar and her son shall be cast out. Then Agar would have allowed Ismael to perish in the wilderness, had not an angel encouraged her by telling her of the boy's future. Abraham is next related to have had a dispute with Abimelech over a well at Bersabee, which ends in a covenant being made between them. It was after this that the great trial of the faith of Abraham takes place. God commands him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. When Abraham has his arm raised and is in the very act of striking, an angel from heaven stays his hand and makes the most wonderful promises to him of the greatness of his posterity because of his complete trust in God. Sarah dies at the age of 127, and Abraham, having purchased from Ephron the Hethite the cave in Machpelah near Mambre, buries her there. His own career is not yet quite ended for first of all he takes a wife for his son Isaac, Rebecca from the city of Nachor in Mesopotamia. Then he marries Cetura, old though he is, and has by her six children. Finally, leaving all his possessions to Isaac, he dies at age 170, and is buried by Isaac and Ismael in the cave of Machpelah. VIEWPOINT OF OLD TESTAMENT Abraham may be looked upon as the starting-point or source of Old Testament religion. So that from the days of Abraham men were wont to speak of God as the God of Abraham, whilst we do not find Abraham referring in the same way to anyone before him. So we have Abraham's servant speaking of "the God of my father Abraham" (Gen. xxiv, 12). Jehovah, in an apparition to Isaac, speaks of himself as the God of Abraham (Gen. xxvi, 24), and to Jacob he is "the God of my father Abraham" (Gen. xxxi, 42). So, too, showing that the religion of Israel does not begin with Moses, God says to Moses: "I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham" etc. (Ex. iii, 6). The same expression is used in the Psalms (xlvi, 10) and is common in the Old Testament. Abraham is thus selected as the first beginning or source of the religion of the children of Israel and the origin of its close connection with Jehovah, because of his faith, trust, and obedience to and in Jehovah and because of Jehovah's promises to him and to his seed. So, in Genesis, xv, 6, it is said: "Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice." This trust in God was shown by him when he left Haran and journeyed with his family into the unknown country of Chanaan. It was shown principally when he was willing to sacrifice his only son Isaac, in obedience to a command from God. It was on that occasion that God said: "Because thou hast not spared thy only begotten son for my sake I will bless thee" etc. (Gen., xxii, 16, 17). It is to this and other promises made so often by God to Israel that the writers of the Old Testament refer over and over again in confirmation of their privileges as the chosen people. These promises, which are recorded to have been made no less than eight times, are that God will give the land of Chanaan to Abraham and his seed (Gen., xii, 7) that his seed shall increase and multiply as the stars of heaven; that he himself shall be blessed and that in him "all the kindred of the earth shall be blessed" (xii, 3). Accordingly the traditional view of the life of Abraham, as recorded in Genesis, is that it is history in the strict sense of the word. Thus Father von Hummelauer, S.J., in his commentary on Genesis in the "Cursus Scripturae Sacrae" (30), in answer to the question from what author the section on Abraham first proceeded, replies, from Abraham as the first source. Indeed he even says that it is all in one style, as a proof of its origin, and that the Passage, xxv, 5-ll, concerning the goods, death, and burial of Abraham comes from Isaac. It must, however, be added that it is doubtful if Father von Hummelauer still adheres to these views, written before 1895, since he has much modified his position in the volume on Deuteronomy. Quite a different view on the section of Genesis treating of Abraham, and indeed of the whole of Genesis, is taken by modern critical scholars. They almost unanimously hold that the narrative of the patriarch's life is composed practically in its entirety of three writings or writers called respectively the Jahvist, the Elohist, and the priestly writer, and denoted by the letters J, E, and P. J and E consisted of collections of stories relating to the patriarch, some of older, some of later, origin. Perhaps the stories of J show a greater antiquity than those of E. Still the two authors are very much alike, and it is not always easy to distinguish one from the other in the combined narrative of J and E. From what we can observe, neither the Jahvist nor the Elohist was a personal author. Both are rather schools, and represent the collections of many years. Both collections were closed before the time of the prophets; J some time in the ninth century B.C., and E early in the eighth century, the former probably in the South Kingdom, the latter in the North. Then towards the end of the kingdom, perhaps owing to the inconvenience of having two rival accounts of the stories of the patriarchs etc. going about, a redactor R.JE (?) combined the two collections in one, keeping as much as possible to the words of his sources, making as few changes as possible so as to fit them into one another, and perhaps mostly following J in the account of Abraham. Then in the fifth century a writer who evidently belonged to the sacerdotal caste wrote down again an account of primitive and patriarchal history from the priestly point of view. He attached great importance to clearness and exactness; his accounts of things are often cast into the shape of formulas (cf. Genesis, i); he is very particular about genealogies, also as to chronological notes. The vividness and colour of the older patriarchal narratives, J and E, are wanting in the later one, which in the main is as formal as a legal document, though at times it is not wanting in dignity and even grandeur, as is the case in the first chapter of Genesis. Finally, the moral to be drawn from the various events narrated is more clearly set forth in this third writing and, according to the critics the moral standpoint is that of the fifth century B.C. Lastly, after the time of Ezra, this last history, P was worked up into one with the already combined narrative J.E. by a second redactor R. JEP, the result being the present history of Abraham, and indeed the present book of Genesis; though in all probability insertions were made at even a later date. VIEWPOINT OF NEW TESTAMENT The generation of Jesus Christ is traced back to Abraham by St. Matthew, and though in Our Lord's genealogy, according to St. Luke, he is shown to be descended according to the flesh not only from Abraham but also from Adam, still St. Luke shows his appreciation of the fruits of descent from Abraham by attributing all the blessings of God on Israel to the promises made to Abraham. This he does in the Magnificat, iii, 55, and in the Benedictus, iii, 73. Moreover, as the New Testament traces the descent of Jesus Christ from Abraham, so it does of all the Jews; though as a rule, when this is done, it is accompanied with a note of warning, lest the Jews should imagine that they are entitled to place confidence in the fact of their carnal descent from Abraham, without anything further. Thus (Luke, iii, 8) John the Baptist says: "Do not begin to say: We have Abraham for our father, for I say to you God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham." In Luke, xix, 9 our Saviour calls the sinner Zacheus a son of Abraham, as he likewise calls a woman whom he had healed a daughter of Abraham (Luke, xiii, 16); but in these and many similar cases, is it not merely another way of calling them Jews or Israelites, just as at times he refers to the Psalms under the general name of David, without implying that David wrote all the Psalms, and as he calls the Pentateuch the Books of Moses, without pretending to settle the question of the authorship of that work? It is not carnal descent from Abraham to which importance is attached; rather, it is to practising the virtues attributed to Abraham in Genesis. Thus in John, viii, the Jews, to whom Our Lord was speaking, boast (33): "We are the seed of Abraham", and Jesus replies (39): "If ye be the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham". St. Paul, too, shows that he is a son of Abraham and glories in that fact as in II Cor., xi, 22, when he exclaims: "They are the seed of Abraham, so am I". And again (Rom., xi, l): "I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham", and he addresses the Jews of Antioch in Pisidia (Acts, xiii, 26) as "sons of the race of Abraham". But, following the teaching of Jesus Christ St. Paul does not attach too much importance to carnal descent from Abraham; for he says (Gal., iii 29): "If you be Christ's, then you are the seed of Abraham", and again (Rom., lx, 6): "All are not Israelites who are of Israel; neither are all they who are the seed of Abraham, children". So, too, we can observe in all the New Testament the importance attached to the promises made to Abraham. In the Acts of the Apostles, iii, 25, St. Peter reminds the Jews of the promise, "in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed". So does St. Stephen in his speech before the Council (Acts, vii), and St. Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews, vi, 13. Nor was the faith of the ancient patriarch less highly thought of by the New Testament writers. The passage of Genesis which was most prominently before them was xv, 6: "Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice." In Romans, iv, St. Paul argues strongly for the supremacy of faith, which he says justified Abraham; ' for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God." The same idea is inculcated in the Epistle to the Galatians, iii, where the question is discussed: "Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" St. Paul decides that it is by faith, and says: "Therefore they that are of faith shall be justified with faithful Abraham". It is clear that this language, taken by itself, and apart from the absolute necessity of good works upheld by St. Paul, is liable to mislead and actually has misled many in the history of the Church. Hence, in order to appreciate to the full the Catholic doctrine of faith, we must supplement St. Paul by St. James. In ii, 17-22, of the Catholic Epistle we read: "So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: Thou hast faith, and I have works, show me thy faith without works, and I will show thee by works my faith. Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well; the devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, and by works faith was made perfect?" In the seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, St. Paul enters into a long discussion concerning the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ. He recalls the words of the 109th psalm more than once, in which it is said: "Thou art a Driest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech." He recalls the fact that Melchisedech is etymologically the king of justice and also king of peace; and moreover that he is not only king, but also priest of the Most High God. Then, calling to mind that there is no account of his father, mother, or genealogy, nor any record of his heirs, he likens him to Christ king and priest; no Levite nor according to the order of Aaron, but a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech. IN THE LIGHT OF PROFANE HISTORY One is inclined to ask, when considering the light which profane history may shed on the life of Abraham: Is not the life of the patriarch incredible? That question may be, and is, answered in different ways, according to the point of view of the questioner. Perhaps it will not be without interest to quote the answer of Professor Driver, an able and representative exponent of moderate critical views: Do the patriarchal narratives contain intrinsic historical improbabilities? Or, in other words, is there anything intrinsically improbable in the lives of the several patriarchs, and the vicissitudes through which they severally pass? In considering this question a distinction must be drawn between the different sources of which these narratives are composed. Though particular details in them may be improbable, and though the representation may in parts be coloured by the religious and other associations of the age in which they were written, it cannot be said that the biographies of the first three patriarchs, as told in J and E, are, generally speaking, historically improbable; the movements and general lives of Abraham Isaac, and Jacob are, taken on the whole, credible ( Genesis, p. xlvi). Such is the moderate view; the advanced attitude is somewhat different." The view taken by the patient reconstructive criticism of our day is that, not only religiously, but even, in a qualified sense, historically also, the narratives of Abraham have a claim on our attention" (Cheyne, Encyc. Bib., 26). Coming now to look at the light thrown by profane history upon the stories of Abraham's life as given in Genesis, we have, first of all, the narratives of ancient historians, as Nicholas of Damascus, Berosus, Hecateus, and the like. Nicholas of Damascus tells how Abraham, when he left Chaldea lived for some years in Damascus. In fact in Josephus he is said to have been the fourth king of that city. But then there is no practical doubt that this story is based on the words of Genesis, xiv, 15, in which the town of Damascus is mentioned. As to the great man whom Josephus mentions as spoken of by Berosus, there is nothing to show that that great man was Abraham. In the "Praeparatio Evang." of Eusebius there are extracts recorded from numerous ancient writers, but no historical value can be attached to them. In fact, as far as ancient historians are concerned, we may say that all we know about Abraham is contained in the book of Genesis. A much more important and interesting question is the amount of value to be attached to the recent archaeological discoveries of Biblical and other explorers in the East. Archaeologists like Hommel, and more especially Sayce, are disposed to attach very great significance to them. They say, in fact, that these discoveries throw a serious element of doubt over many of the conclusions of the higher critics. On the other hand, critics, both advanced as Cheyne and moderate as Driver, do not hold the deductions drawn by these archaeologists from the evidence of the monuments in very high esteem, but regard them as exaggerations. To put the matter more precisely, we quote the following from Professor Sayce, to enable the reader to see for himself what he thinks (Early Hist. of the Hebrews, 8):" Cuneiform tablets have been found relating to Chodorlahomor and the other kings of the East mentioned in the 14th chapter of Genesis, while in the Tel-el-Amarna correspondence the king of Jerusalem declares that he had been raised to the throne by the 'arm' of his God, and was therefore, like Melchisedech, a Driest-king. But Chodorlahomor and Melchisedech had long ago been banished to mythland and criticism could not admit that archaeological discovery had restored them to actual history. Writers, accordingly, in complacent ignorance of the cuneiform texts, told the Assyriologists that their translations and interpretations were alike erroneous." That passage will make it clear how much the critics and archaeologists are at variance. But no one can deny that Assyriology has thrown some light on the stories of Abraham and the other patriarchs. Thus the name of Abraham was known in those ancient times; for amongst other Canaanitish or Amorite names found in deeds of sale of that period are those of Abi-ramu, or Abram, Jacob-el (Ya'qub-il), and Josephel (Yasub-il). So, too, of the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, which relates the war of Chodorlahomor and his allies in Palestine, it is not so long ago that the advanced critics relegated it to the region of fable, under the conviction that Babylonians and Elamites at that early date in Palestine and the surrounding country was a gross anachronism. But now Professor Pinches has deciphered certain inscriptions relating to Babylonia in which the five kings, Amraphel King of Senaar, Arioch King of Pontus, Chodorlahomor King of the Elamites, and Thadal King of nations, are identified with Hammurabi King. of Babylon, Eri-aku, Kudur-laghghamar, and Tuduchula, son of Gazza, and which tells of a campaign of these monarchs in Palestine. So that no one can any longer assert that the war spoken of in Genesis, xiv, can only be a late reflection of the wars of Sennacherib and others in the times of the kings. From the Tel-el-Amarna tab]ets we know that Babylonian influence was predominant in Palestine in those days. Moreover, we have light thrown by the cuneiform inscriptions upon the incident of Melchisedech. In Genesis, xiv, 18, it is said: "Melchisedech, the King of Salem, bringing forth bread and wine, for he was the priest of the Most High God, blessed him." Amongst the Tel-el-Amarna letters is one from Ebed-Tob, King of Jerusalem (the city is Ursalim, i. e. city of Salim, and it is spoken of as Salem). He is priest appointed by Salem, the god of Peace, and is hence both king and priest. In the same manner Melchisedech is priest and king, and naturally comes to greet Abraham returning in peace; and hence, too, Abraham offers to him as to a priest a tithe of the spoils. On the other hand, it must be stated that Professor Driver will not admit Sayce's deductions from the inscriptions as to EbedTob, and will not recognize any analogy between Salem and the Most High God. Taking archaeology as a whole, it cannot be doubted that no definite results have been attained as to Abraham. What has come to light is susceptible of different interpretations. But there is no doubt that archaeology is putting an end to the idea that the patriarchal legends are mere myth. They are shown to be more than that. A state of things is being disclosed in patriarchal times quite consistent with much that is related in Genesis, and at times even apparently confirming the facts of the Bible. VIEWPOINT OF LEGEND We come now to the question: how far legend plays a part in the life of Abraham as recorded in Genesis. It is a practical and important question, because it is so much discussed by modern critics and they all believe in it. In setting forth the critical view on the subject, I must not be taken as giving my own views also. Hermann Gunkel, in the Introduction to his Commentary on Genesis (3) writes: "There is no denying that there are legends in the Old Testament, consider for instance the stories of Samson and Jonah. Accordingly it is not a matter of belief or scepticism, but merely a matter of obtaining better knowledge, to examine whether the narratives of Genesis are history or legend." And again: "In a people with such a highly developed poetical faculty as Israel there must have been a place for saga too. The senseless confusion of ' legend ' with ' Iying ' has caused good people to hesitate to concede that there are legends in the Old Testament. But legends are not lies; on the contrary, they are a particular form of poetry." These passages give a very good idea of the present position of the Higher Criticism relative to the legends of Genesis, and of Abraham in particular. The first principle enunciated by the critics is that the accounts of the primitive ages and of the patriarchal times originated amongst people who did not practise the art of writing. Amongst all peoples, they say, poetry and saga were the first beginning of history; so it was in Greece and Rome, so it was in Israel. These legends were circulated, and handed down by oral tradition, and contained, no doubt, a kernel of truth. Very often, where individual names are used these names in reality refer not to individuals but to tribes, as in Genesis, x, and the names of the twelve Patriarchs, whose migrations are those of the tribes they represent. It is not of course to be supposed that these legends are no older than the collections J, E, and P, in which they occur. They were in circulation ages before, and for long periods of time, those of earlier origin being shorter, those of later origin longer, often rather romances than legends, as that of Joseph. Nor were they all of Israelitish origin; some were Babylonian, some Egyptian. As to how the legends arose, this came about, they say, in many ways. At times the cause was etymological, to explain the meaning of a name, as when it is said that Isaac received his name because his mother laughed (cahaq); sometimes they were ethnological, to explain the geographical position, the adversity, or prosperity, of a certain tribe; sometimes historical, sometimes ceremonial, as the account explaining the covenant of circumcision; sometimes geological, as the explanation of the appearance of the Dead Sea and its surroundings. AEtiological legends of this kind form one class of those to be found in the lives of the patriarchs and elsewhere in Genesis. But there are others besides which do not concern us here. When we try to discover the age of the formation of the patriarchal legends, we are confronted with a question of great complexity. For it is not merely a matter of the formation of the simple legends separately, but also of the amalgamation of these into more complex legends. Criticism teaches us that that period would have ended about the year 1200 B.C. Then would have followed the period of remodeling the legends, so that by 900 B.C. they would have assumed substantially the form they now have. After that date, whilst the legends kept in substance to the form they had received, they were modified in many ways so as to bring them into conformity with the moral standard of the day, still not so completely that the older and less conventional ideas of a more primitive age did not from time to time show through them. At this time, too, many collections of the ancient legends appear to have been made, much in the same way as St. Luke tells us in the beginning of his Gospel that many had written accounts of Our Saviour's life on their own authority. Amongst other collections were those of J in the South and E in the North. Whilst others perished these two survived, and were supplemented towards the end of the captivity by the collection of P, which originated amidst priestly surroundings and was written from the ceremonial standpoint. Those that hold these views maintain that it is the fusion of these three collections of legends which has led to confusion in some incidents in the life of Abraham as for instance in the case of Sarai in Egypt, where her age seems inconsistent with her adventure with the Pharao. Hermann Gunkel writes (148): "It is not strange that the chronology of P displays everywhere the most absurd oddities when injected into the old legends, as a result, Sarah is still at sixty-five a beautiful woman whom the Egyptians seek to capture, and Ishmael is carried on his mother's shoulders after he is a youth of sixteen." The collection of P was intended to take the place of the old combined collection of J and E. But the old narrative had a firm hold of the popular imagination and heart. And so the more recent collection was combined with the other two, being used as the groundwork of the whole, especially in chronology. It is that combined narrative which we now possess. J. A. HOWLETT Abraham (In Liturgy) Abraham (in Liturgy) While of peculiar interest to the liturgiologist (especially in the classification of the liturgies of the East and of the West, as is noted below under MISSAL), the inclusion of noted names of the Old Testament in the liturgies of Christian Churches must be a subject of sufficiently general interest to warrant some brief notice here. Of all the names thus used, a special prominence accrues to those of Abel, Melchisedech, Abraham through their association with the idea of sacrifice and their employment in this connection in the most solemn part of the Canon of the Mass in the Roman rite. The inclusion in the Litany for the Dying (Roman Ritual) of only two (Abel and Abraham) out of all the great names of the Old Testament must give these a special prominence in the eyes of the faithful, but of these two, again, the name of Abraham occurs so often and in such a variety of connections, as to make his position in the liturgy one of very decided pre-eminence. Of first interest will be the present use of the word Abraham in the Roman liturgy: Martyrology (9th October) "Eodem die memoria S. Abrahae Patriarchae et omnium credentium Patris" (The same day, the memory of S. Abraham Patriarch and Father of all believers). Ritual (a) In the Ordo commendationis animae (Recommendation of a soul departing), the brief litany includes but two names from the Old Testament, that of the Baptist belonging to the New Testament: Holy Mary, pray for him. All ye holy Angels and Archangels, pray for him. Holy Abel, pray for him. All ye choirs of the just, pray for him. Holy Abraham, pray for him. St. John Baptist, pray for him. St. Joseph, pray for him. In the Libera (Deliver, etc.), which follows shortly after, many names of the Old Testament are mentioned, including Abraham, but omitting Abel: "Deliver . . . as thou didst deliver Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans". (b) Benedictio peregrinorum (Blessing of pilgrims etc.). The second prayer reads: "O God, who didst guide Abraham safely through all the ways of his journey from Ur of the Chaldeans.... Breviary (a) On Septuagesima Sunday the lessons from Scripture begin with the first verse of Genesis, and the formal narrative of Abraham begins with Quinquagesima Sunday, the lessons ending on Shrove Tuesday with the sacrifice of Melchisedech. (b) The antiphon to the Magnificat on Passion Sunday is: "Abraham your father rejoiced . . ." (John, viii, 56). Again, the first antiphon of the second nocturn of the Common of Apostles reads: "The princes of the people are gathered together with the God of Abraham". The occurrence of the name in the last verse of the Maynificat itself: "As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever" and in the Benedictus (sixth verse): "The oath which he swore to Abraham our father . . ." make the name of daily occurrence in the Divine Office, as these two Canticles are sung daily the former at Vespers, the latter at Lauds. In the Psaltery, also, recited during every week, the name occurs in Pss., xlvi, 10; civ, 9, 42. See also the third strophe of the hymn Quicumque Christum quaeritis (Vespers of Transfiguration D. N. J. C. and various Lessons in the Nocturns, e.g. Feria 3a infra Hebd. vi p. Pent., Feria 3a infra oct. Corp. Christi, 2d nocturn). Missal (a) The third of the twelve lessons called " Prophecies" read on Holy Saturday between the lighting of the Paschal Candle and the Blessing of the Font deals wholly with the sacrifice of Isaac imposed upon Abraham. The lesson (Gen., xxii, 1-19) is, like the others, not only read quietly by the priest at the altar, but also chanted in a loud voice simultaneously by a cleric. The dramatic incidents thus rehearsed must have impressed the catechumens deeply, as is evidenced by the reproduction of the incidents on the walls of catacombs and on sarcophagi. The lesson is followed by a prayer: "O God, the supreme Father of the faithful, who throughout the world didst multiply the children of thy promise . . . and by the paschal mystery dost make Abraham thy servant the father of all nations...." (b) Again, in the prayer after the fourth lesson: "O God, grant that the fulness of the whole world may pass over to the children of Abraham...." (c) The Epistle of the thirteenth Sun day after Pentecost: "To Abraham were the promises made.... But God gave it to Abraham by promise...." (Gal., iii, 16-22). (d) Offertory of the Mass for the Dead: "O Lord . . . may the holy standard-bearer Michael introduce them to the holy light which Thou didst promise of old to Abraham...." (e) In the Nuptial Mass, the blessing reads: "May the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, be with you . . ." (f) Of greater interest than anything thus far cited is the prayer in the Canon of the Mass, when the priest extends his hands over the Consecrated Species: "Upon which do Thou vouchsafe to look . . . and accept them, as Thou didst vouchsafe to accept the gift of Thy just servant Abel, and the sacrifice of our Patriarch Abraham...." Here the Canon insists on the idea of sacrifice, a fact common to Western liturgies, while those of the East, except the Maronite, omit in their epicleses all reference to the typic sacrifices of the Old Testament, and appear concerned with impressing the faithful with the idea rather of sacrament and communion. This is esteemed a fact of capital importance towards a classification of the liturgies. (g) In the Sequence of Corpus Christi while Abraham is not named, his sacrifice (unbloody, like that of the altar) is commemorated in the lines In figuris praesignatur, Cum Isaac immolatur.... Pontifical In one of the Prefaces of the Consecration of an altar we read: "May it have as much grace with Thee as that which Abraham, the father of faith, built when about to sacrifice his son as a figure of our redemption . . ." Again, in the Blessing of a Cemetery (third Prayer) and in connection with Isaac and Jacob (sixth Prayer). Finally, in two of the Prayers for the Blessing and Coronation of a King. The exalted position of Abraham in Sacred History, and the frequent use of his name in invocations etc. in the Old Testament (e. g. Gen. xxviii, 13; xxxii, 9; xlviii, 15,16; Exod., iii, 6,15,16, iv, 5; Tob., vii, 15 etc.), and the continued use thereof by the early Christians (Acts, iii, 13; vii, 32) made his name of frequent occurrence in prayers, exorcisms and even amongst Pagans, ignorant of the significance of the formula "God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob" etc., in magical rites and incantations, as Origen testifies. H.T. HENRY The Bosom of Abraham The Bosom of Abraham In the Holy Bible, the expression "the Bosom of Abraham" is found only in two verses of St. Luke's Gospel (xvi, 22, 23). It occurs in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus the imagery of which is plainly drawn from the popular representations of the unseen world of the dead which were current in Our Lord's time. According to the Jewish conceptions of that day, the souls of the dead were gathered into a general tarrying-place the Sheol of the Old Testament literature, and the Hades of the New Testament writings (cf. Luke, xvi, 22 in the Gr. xvi, 23). A local discrimination, however, existed among them, according to their deeds during their mortal life. In the unseen world of the dead the souls of the righteous occupied an abode or compartment of their own which was distinctly separated by a wall or a chasm from the abode or compartment to which the souls of the wicked were consigned. The latter was a place of torments usually spoken of as Gehenna (cf. Matt., v, 29, 30; xviii, 9- Mark, ix, 42 sqq. in the Latin Vulgate)- the other, a place of bliss and security known under the names of "Paradise" (cf. Luke, xxiii, 43) and "the Bosom of Abraham" (Luke, xvi, 22 23). And it is in harmony with these Jewish conceptions that Our Lord pictured the terrible fate of the selfish Rich Man, and on the contrary, the glorious reward of the patient Lazarus. In the next life Dives found himself in Gehenna, condemned to the most exeruciating tor ments, whereas Lazarus was carried by the angels into "the Bosom of Abraham", where the righteous dead shared in the repose and felicity of Abraham "the father of the faithful". But while commentators generally agree upon the meaning of the figurative expression "the Bosom of Abraham", as designating the blissful abode of the righteous souls after death, they are at variance with regard to the manner in which the phrase itself originated. Up to the time of Maldonatus (A.D. 1583), its origin was traced back to the universal custom of parents to take up into their arms, or place upon their knees, their children when they are fatigued, or return home, and to make them rest by their side during the night (cf. II Kings, xii, 2; III Kings, iii, 20; xvii, 19; Luke, xi, 7 sqq.), thus causing them to enjoy rest and security in the bosom of a loving parent. After the same manner was Abraham supposed to act towards his children after the fatigues and troubles of the present life, hence the metaphorical expression "to be in Abraham's Bosom" as meaning to be in repose and happiness with him. But according to Maldonatus (In Lucam, xvi, 22), whose theory has since been accepted by many scholars, the metaphor "to be in Abraham's Bosom" is derived from the custom of reclining on couches at table which prevailed among the Jews during and before the time of Christ. As at a feast each guest leaned on his left elbow so as to leave his right arm at liberty, and as two or more lay on the same couch, the head of one man was near the breast of the man who lay behind, and he was therefore said "to lie in the bosom" of the other. It was also considered by the Jews of old a mark of special honour and favour for one to be allowed to lie in the bosom of the master of the feast (cf. John 13:23). And it is by this illustration that they pictured the next world. They conceived of the reward of the righteous dead as a sharing in a banquet given by Abraham, "the father of the faithful" (cf. Matt., viii, 11 sqq.), and of the highest form of that reward as lying in "Abraham's Bosom". Since the coming of Our Lord, "the Bosom of Abraham" gradually ceased to designate a place of imperfect happiness, and it has become synonymous with Heaven itself. In their writings the Fathers of the Church mean by that expression sometimes the abode of the righteous dead before they were admitted to the Beatific Vision after the death of the Saviour, sometimes Heaven, into which the just of the New Law are immediately introduced upon their demise. When in her liturgy the Church solemnly prays that the angels may carry the soul of one of her departed children to "Abraham's Bosom", she employs the expression to designate Heaven and its endless bliss in company with the faithful of both Testaments, and in particular with Abraham, the father of them all. This passage of the expression "the Bosom of Abraham" from an imperfect and limited sense to one higher and fuller is a most natural one, and is in full harmony with the general character of the New Testament dispensation as a complement and fulfilment of the Old Testament revelation. FRANCIS E. GIGOT Abraham a Sancta Clara Abraham a Sancta Clara A Discalced Augustinian friar, preacher, and author of popular books of devotion, b. at Messkirch, Baden, 1644; d. 1 December, 1709. The eighth of nine children born to Matthew Megerlin, or Megerle, a well-to-do serf who kept a tavern in Kreenheinstetten, he received in Baptism the name John Ulrich. At the age of six he attended the village school in his native place, and about three years later he began his Latin studies in Messkirch. During the years 1656-59, he passed successively through the three classes of the Jesuit untergymnasium in Ingolstadt. At his father's death, which occurred about this time, the boy was adopted by his uncle, Abraham von Megerlin, canon of Altötting, who removed him to the Benedictine school in Salzburg. In the fall of 1662, at the age of 18, John joined the Discalced Augustinians at the age Vienna, choosing the name Abraham doubtless out of respect to his uncle with the addition a Sancta Clara. He made his novitiate and completed his theological studies at Mariabrunn, not far from Vienna. On his ordination in Vienna (1666) he was sent, after a brief preparation, as preacher to the shrine of Taxa, near Augsburg, but after about three years he was recalled to Vienna, a centre of greater activity. On 28 April, 1677, he was appointed imperial court preacher by Leopold I, and while holding this office experienced the terrors of the year of the plague, 1679. After a rest of five months as chaplain to the Land marshal of Lower Austria, he once more ascended the pulpit. For the year 1680 he is recorded as being prior of the convent at Vienna, while two years later we find him chaplain to the monastic church of his order in Gratz, where he remained three years as Sunday preacher, and later as prior. It was in this capacity that he went to Rome in 1687. In 1690 he is mentioned once more by the house chronicle of the Vienna monastery as court preacher, and the following year as having the rank of provincial. In this capacity he undertook his second journey to Rome (1692), where he took part in the general chapter of his order. Upon his return he took up his customary duties, besides filling the office of definitor. He eventually became the definitor provinciae. These manifold sustained exertions, however, had gradually undermined his strength, still further impaired by years of suffering from gout, and finally resulted in his death. Abraham had at his command an amazingly large amount of information which, with an abundant wit in keeping with the taste of his time, made him an effective preacher. His peculiar talent lay in his faculty for presenting religious truths, even the most bitter, with such graphic charm that every listener, both high and low, found pleasure in his discourse, even though certain of his contemporaries expressed themselves with great virulence against "the buffoon, the newsmonger, and the harlequin of the pulpit." Even in his character of author, he stands as it were in the pulpit, and speaks to his readers by means of his pen. His works are numerous. His first occasion for literary work was furnished by the plague, on which he wrote three treatises. Merk's, Wien! or a detailed description of destructive death (Vienna, 1680), shows how death spares neither priests, nor women, nor learned men, nor married people, nor soldiers. The second tract, Lösch Wien (Vienna, 1680), which is less powerful, exhorts the survivors of the plague to extinguish with their good works the torments of Purgatory for those who had fallen victims. Die grosse Totenbruderschaft (1681) enumerates the people of prominence who died in 1679-80, in order to illustrate forcibly, and almost rudely, the reflection "that after death the prince royal is as frightfully noisome as the newborn child of the peasant." Similarly based on a critical event of history was the little book entitled Auf, auf, ihr Christen (Vienna, 1683), a stirring exhortation to Christians in arms against the Turk. This has become chiefly celebrated as the original of the sermon in the Wallenstein's Lager of Schiller. A collection of sermons which had been actually preached appeared in Salzburg in 1684 under the title of Reim dich, oder ich lis dich. In the following year a little pilgrimage book was printed for the monastery of Taxa entitled Gaik, Gaik, Gaik a Ga einer wunderseltsamen Hennen. This grotesque title arose from the story of the origin of the monastery, according to which a picture of the Blessed Virgin was seen imprinted on a hen's egg. Abraham's masterpiece, the fruit of ten years' labour, is Judas der Erzschelm ( Judas, the archknave, Salzburg, 1686-95). This treats of the apocryphal life of the traitor Judas, and is varied with many moral reflections. While still at work upon this extensive book, he published a compendium of Catholic moral teaching, Grammatica religiosa (Salzburg, 1691), consisting of fifty-five lessons, and embracing the themes of thirty-three sermons. This appeared in a German translation (Cologne, 1699). The remaining works of the celebrated barefoot preacher are for the most part a confused mixture of verses, reflections, and sermons. Thus: Etwas für alle ( Something for All Persons; Würzburg, 1699); Sterben und Erben (Death and Inheritance; Amsterdam, 1702); Neu eröffnete Welt-Galleria (Newly-Opened World-Gallery; Nürnberg, 1703); Heilsames Gemisch-Gemasch (A Salutary Mix-Mash; Würzburg, 1704); Huy! und Pfuy der Welt (Ho! And Fie on the World; Würzburg, 1707). All these treatises showed the influence of Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff (Ship of Fools), which was even more apparent in the two following works: Centifolium stultorum in Quarto (A Hundred excellent fools in Quarto; Vienna, 1709), and Wunderwürdiger Traum von einem grossen Narrenest (Wonderful Dream of a Great Nest of Fools, Salzburg, 1710; also printed during the lifetime of Abraham). A year after his death there appeared Geistliche Kramerladen (Spiritual Haberdasher's Shop); Wohl angefüllter Weinkeller (A Well-filled Wine-cellar; Würzburg); and Besonders meublirt und gezierte Toten-Kapelle (A Strangely Furnished and Adorned Mortuary Chapel; Nürnberg). Five quarto volumes of his literary remains were published posthumously: Abrahamisches Bescheidessen (Abraham's Honour Feasts; Vienna, Br nn, 1717); Abrahamische Lauberhutt (Abraham's Leafclad Arbour; Vienna and Nürnberg, 1721-23); Abrahamisches Gehab dich wohl! (Abraham's Farewell; Nürnberg, 1729). A collective edition of his works appeared (Passau, 1835-46) in nineteen octavo volumes. Schiller, a Swabian compatriot of Abraham, has passed this interesting judgment on the literary monk in a letter to Göthe: "This Father Abraham is a man of wonderful originality, whom we must respect, and it would be an interesting, though not at all an easy, task to approach or surpass him in mad wit and cleverness." Moreover, Schiller was greatly influenced by Abraham; even more were Jean Paul Richter and other lesser minds. Even to the most recent times Abraham's influence is chiefly noticeable in the literature of the pulpit, though but little to its advantage. To honour the memory of Abraham the city of Vienna has begun a new edition of his works. VON KARAJAN, Abraham a Sancta Clara (Vienna, 1867) (still the best work on the celebrated monk); SCHERER, Vortrage und Aufsatze zur Geschichte des geistlichen Lebens in Deutschland und osterreich (Berlin, 1874); ID., MARETA, on Abraham in the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie; MARETA uber Judas den Erzschelm, in Programm des Schottengymnasium (Vienna, 1875); BOBERTAG, Abraham a Sancta Clara, Judas der Erzschelm, in KURSCHNER'S Deutsche National literatur; BLANlKENBURG, Studien uber die Sprache Abrahams a Sancta Clara (Halle, 1897); NAGL, Die erziehische Einwirkung Abrahams a Sancta Clara auf das osterreicherische Volk in DITTES Paedagogium (1891); NAGL AND ZEIDLER, Deutsch-sterreichische Literatur Geschichte (Vienna, 1899) 621-651. N. SCHEID Abraham Ecchelensis Abraham Ecchelensis A learned Maronite, born in Hekel, or Ecchel (hence his surname), a village on Mount Lebanon, in 1600; died 1664 in Rome. He studied at the Maronite College in Rome, published a Syriac grammar (1628), and taught Syriac and Arabic at the College of the Propaganda. In 1630 he began to teach the same languages in the Royal College Paris, and to assist in editing Le Jay's "Polyglot Bible", working with Gabriel Sionita on the Syriac and Arabic texts and their Latin translation. He contributed III Mach. in Arabic, and Ruth in Syriac and Arabic, with a Latin translation. Abraham and Gabriel soon quarrelled, and the former wrote three letters explaining this difference, and defending his work against its depreciators, especially Valerian Flavigny. In 1642 he resumed his teaching in Rome, but returned to Paris in 1645; after eight years he again went to Rome, where he remained until his death. Among his many works we may mention: a "Synopsis of Arab Philosophy" (Paris, 1641); some disciplinary canons of the Council of Nice, according to Eastern attribution, though unknown to the Latin and Greek churches (Paris, 1641) "Abr. Ecchellensis et Leon. Allatii Concordantia Nationum Christianarum Orientalium in Fidei Catholicae Dogmate" (Mainz, 1655); "De Origine nominis Papae, necnon de illius Proprietate in Romano Pontifice, adeoque de ejus Primatu contra Joannem Seldenum Anglum" (Rome, 1660); "Epistola ad J. Morinum de variis Graecorum et Orientalium ritibus"; "Chronicon Orientale nunc primum Latinitate donatum, cui Accessit Supplementum Historiae orientalis (Paris, 1653); "Catalogus librorum Chaldaeorum tam Eccl. quam profanor., Auctore Hebed-Jesu Latinitate Donatus et Notis Illustratus" (Rome,1653); a "Life of St. Anthony"; a Latin translation of Abulfath's "Paraphrase of Apollonius' Conic Sections, 5, 6, and 7." A.J. MAAS Abrahamites Abrahamites (1) Syrian heretics of the ninth century. They were called Brachiniah by the Arabs, from the name of their head, Ibrahim, or Abraham of Antioch. They denied the Divinity of Christ, and were looked on by some as allied to the Paulicians. (2) A sect of Bohemian Deists. They claimed that they held what had been Abraham's religion before his circumcision. They believed in one God, but rejected the Trinity, original sin, and the perpetuity of punishment for sin, and accepted nothing of the Bible save only the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. On their refusal to adopt some one of the religions tolerated in Bohemia, Joseph II banished them to Transylvania in 1783. Some became converted later on to the Catholic Faith. There are still found in Bohemia some whose religious belief suggests that of the Abrahamites. (3) Martyrs in the time of the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus, when a persecution of Catholics took place on account of the revival of the heresy of the Iconoclasts. At this time there was a monastery of monks in Constantinople called St. Abraham's. When the Emperor called on them to renounce the cult of holy images they defended the practice with great zeal, and were consequently subjected (832) to martyrdom. Kirchenlex., I, 119, 120. JOHN J. A' BECKET Nicholas Abram Nicholas Abram Jesuit theologian, born in 1589, at Xaronval, in Lorraine; died 7 September, 1655. He taught rhetoric at Pont-à-Mousson, then engaged in missionary work, and finally taught theology at Pont-à-Mousson for seventeen years. His principal works are: + "Nonni Panopolitani Paraphrasis Sancti secundum Joannem Evangelii. Accesserunt Notae P.N.A., Soc. Jes." (Paris, 1623); + "Commentarii in P. Virgilii Maronis Bucolica et Georgica. Accessit diatriba de quatuor fluviis et loco paradisi" (Pont-à-Mousson, 1633-35); + "Pharus Veteris Testamenti, sive sacrarum quaestionum libri XV. Quibus accesserunt ejusdem auctoris de veritate et mendacio libri IV" (Paris, 1648). This is the principal exegetical work of Father N. Abram. His other works may he found in Sommervogel "Bibliothèque de la compagnie de Jésus" (Brussels, 1890). A.J. MAAS Abrasax Abrasax The study of Abrasax is, at first sight, as discouraging as it is possible to imagine. The name has been given to a class of ancient stone articles, of small dimensions, inscribed with outlandish figures and formulas, sometimes wholly indecipherable, specimens of which are to be found in almost every museum and private collection. These, for the most part, have hitherto resisted all attempts at interpretation, though it would be rash to conclude that a fuller knowledge may not solve enigmas which remain closed to us. The true name, moreover, is Abrasax, and not, as incorrectly written, Abraxas, a reading due to the confusion made by the Latins between Sigma and Xi. Among the early Gnostics, Abrasax appears to have had various meanings. Basilides gave this title to Almighty God, and claimed that the numerical value of its letters gave the sum of 365, because the Abrasax is enclosed in the solar cycle. Sometimes the number 365 signifies the series of the heavens. In view of such imaginings, it is easy to guess at the course taken by an untrammelled Gnostic fancy, whereby its adherents strove to discover the meaning of the mysterious word. It is, however, an error to give the name Abrasax to all stones of Gnostic origin, as has been done up to the present day. It is not the name which applies to talismans, any more than the names of Jupiter and Venus apply to all ancient statues indiscriminately. Abrasax is the name given by the Gnostics to the Supreme Deity, and it is quite possible that we shall find a clue to its etymological meaning in the influences of numbers. The subject is one which has exercised the ingenuity of many savants, but it may be said that all the engraved stones to which the name is commonly given fall into three classes: (1) Abrasax, or stones of Basilidian origin; (2) Abrasaxtes, or stones originating in ancient forms of worship, and adapted by the Gnostics to their peculiar opinions; (3) Abraxoïdes, or stones absolutely unconnected with the doctrine of Basilides. Bellermann, following Montfaucon, made a tentative classification of Gnostic stones, which, however, is nowadays looked upon as wholly inadequate. His mistake consisted in wishing, as it were, to make a frontal attack on Gnosticism. Kopp, endowed with greater skill and patience, seems to have realized in some measure how wide the problem actually is. Ad. Franck and, quite lately, Moses Schwab have made diligent researches in the direction of the Cabbala. "The demonology devised by the Cabbalists"; according to the former writer, "was nothing more than a carefully thought out personification of the different degrees of life and intelligence which they perceived in external nature. All natural growths, forces, and phenomena are thus typified." The outline here furnished needs only to be extended indefinitely in order to take in quite easily the countless generations of Gnosticism. The whole moral and physical world, analyzed and classified with an inconceivable minuteness, will find place in it. Thence, also, will issue the bewildering catalogues of Gnostic personalities. The chief difficulty, however, arises from the nomenclature of Gnosticism, and here the "Sepher Raziel" supplies a first and valuable hint. "To succeed in the operations of divination", it says, "it is necessary to pronounce the mystic names of the planets or of the earth." In fact, stones of Gnostic origin often show designs made up out of the initial letters of the planets. Another parallel is still more suggestive. The Jews, as is well known, would never pronounce the Ineffable Name, Jehovah, but substituted either another name or a paraphrase; a rule which applied, not only to the Ineffable Name and its derivatives, but to others as well, ending, in order to evade the difficulty which arose, in a series of fantastic sounds which at first seem simply the outcome of a hopeless confusion. It became necessary to resort to permutations, to the use of other letters, to numerical and formal equivalents. The result was an outlandish vocabulary, only partially accounted for, yet one which nevertheless reveals in Gnosticism the existence of something more than mere incoherences. Very many secrets of Gnosticism remain unexplained, but it may be hoped that they will not always be shrouded in mystery. KING, The Gnostics and their Remains (London, 1887); BELLERMANN, Versuch uber die Gemmen der Alten mit dem Abraxas-Bilde (Berlin, 1817-19); DIETERICH, Die Abraxas (Leipzig, 1892); LECLERCQ, in Dict. d'archeol. chret. et de liturgie, I, 127 sq.; MATTER, Hist. du gnosticisme (Paris, 1843); MONTFAUCON, L'antiquite expliquee (Paris, 1722), II, 2, 353. H. LECLERCQ Absalom Absalom ( Abhshalom in Hebrew; Abessalom, Apsalomos in Greek). The name of several distinguished persons mentioned in the Old Testament (Kings, Par., Mach.), interpreted "The Father of Peace." (1) Absalom, Son of David He is third in the order mentioned by the chronicler (II Kings, iii, 2, 3) of the sons born at Hebron during the first turbulent years of David's reign over Judah, when Isboseth, son of Saul, still claimed by right of inheritance to rule over Israel. His mother was Maacha, daughter of Tholmai, King of Gessur. The sacred writer who sketches for us the career of Absalom (II Kings, xiii-xviii) lays stress upon the faultless beauty of the youth's appearance, and mentions in particular the luxurious wealth of his hair, which, when shorn, weighed over ten ounces. The significance of this latter note becomes apparent when we remember the important part which the culture of the hair played in the devotions of the Eastern people (note even at this day the ceremonial prayers of the Dervishes). As shaving the head was a sign of mourning, so offering a comely growth of hair to the priest was a token of personal sacrifice akin to the annual offering of the first fruits in the sanctuary. Probably the chronicler had also in mind that it was this gift of nature which became the occasion of Absalom's fatal death. To a pleasing exterior the youth Absalom joined a temperament which, whilst fond of display, was nevertheless reserved, bold, and thoughtful. These qualifications were calculated to nourish a natural desire to be one day the representative of that magnificent power created by his father, from the prospective enjoyment of which his minority of birth alone seemed to debar him. Despite his ambition, there appears to have been in the youth that generous instinct of honour which inspires noble impulses where these do not clash with the more inviting prospects of self-interest. Under such circumstances it is not strange that Absalom, idolized by those around him, whilst his natural sense of gratitude and filial duty became gradually dulled, was led to cultivate that species of egotism which grows cruel in proportion as it counts upon the blind affection of its friends. There were other causes which alienated Absalom from his father. David's eldest son, Amnon, born of a Jezrahelite mother, and prospective heir to the throne by reason of his seniority, had conceived a violent passion for Thamar, Absalom's beautiful sister. Unable to control his affection, yet prevented from gaining access to her by the conventionalities of the royal court, which separated the King's wives and kept Thamar in her mother's household, Amnon, on the advice of his cousin Jonadab, feigns illness, and upon being visited by the King, his father, requests that Thamar be permitted to nurse him. It was thus that Amnon found opportunity to wrong the innocence of his stepsister. Having injured the object of his passion, he forthwith begins to hate her, and sends from him the aggrieved maiden, who must be to him a constant reminder of his wrongdoing. Thamar, departing in the bitterness of her sorrow, is met by Absalom, who forces from her the secret of Amnon's violence to her. David is informed, but, apparently unwilling to let the disgrace of his prospective heir become public, fails to punish the crime. This gives Absalom the pretext for avenging his sister's wrong, for which now not only Amnon, the heir to the throne, but also David appears responsible to him. He takes Thamar into his house and quietly but determinedly lays his plan. The sacred writer states that Absalom never spoke to Amnon, neither good words nor evil, but he hated him with a hatred unto death. For two years Absalom thus carried his resentment in silence, when at length he found occasion to act openly. From the days of the patriarchs it had been customary among the shepherd princes of Israel to celebrate as a public festival of thanksgiving the annual sheep-shearing. The first clip of the flocks was ordained for the priests (Deut., xviii, 4), and the sacredness of the feast made it difficult for any member of the tribal family to absent himself. The sacred writer does not state that there was in the mind of David a secret suspicion that Absalom meditated mischief, but to one whose in sight into past and future events was so clear as that of the Royal Seer, it might easily have occurred that there had been in the days of his forefather, Jacob, another Thamar (Gen., xxxviii, 6) who figured at a sheep-shearing, and who found means of avenging a similar wrong against herself, though in a less bloody way than that contemplated by Absalom on the present occasion. Although David excuses himself from attending the great sheep-shearing, he eventually yields to Absalom's entreaty to send Amnon there to represent him. The festive reunion of the royal household takes place at Baalhasor, in a valley east of the road that leads to Sichem, near Ephraim. When the banquet is at its height, and Amnon has fairly given himself over to the pleasures of wine, he is suddenly overpowered by the trusted servants of Absalom, and slain. The rest of the company flee. Absalom himself escapes the inevitable anger of his father by seeking refuge in the home of his maternal grandfather at Gessur. Here he hopes to remain until, the grief of his father having died out, he might be forgiven and recalled to the royal court. But David does not relent so quickly. After three years of banishment, Absalom, through the intervention of Joab, David's nephew and trusted general is allowed to return to the city, without, however, being permitted to enter the King's presence. In this condition Absalom lives for two years, seeking all the while to regain through the instrumentality of Joab the favour of his father. Joab himself is reluctant to press the matter, until Absalom, by setting fire to the crops of his kinsman, forces Joab to come to him with a view of seeking redress for the injury. Absalom turns the opportunity of this altercation with Joab to good account by pleading his own neglected and humiliated condition: I would rather die ignominiously, he argues, than have this rancour of the King against me all the days of my life. As a result Absalom is received by the King. Restored to his former princely dignity and the apparent confidence of his father, Absalom now enters upon that course of secret plotting to which his ambition and his opportunity seemed to urge him, and which has stamped his name as a synonym of unnatural revolt. By ingratiating himself in the good will of the people, and at the same time fostering discontent with the conditions of his father's reign, he succeeds in preparing the minds of the disaffected for a general uprising. After four years [the Septuagint has "forty", which is evidently a misreading, as appears from the Hebrew ( Keri), Syriac, and Arabic versions] of energetic secret activity, Absalom asks leave of the King to repair to Hebron, that he might fulfil a self-imposed vow made while in captivity at Gessur. Preparations had already been consummated for a simultaneous uprising of the secret adherents of Absalom in different parts of the country, and emissaries were ready to proclaim the new king. Achitophel, one of David's oldest counsellors, had joined the conspirators, and by his design a strong current was being directed against David. When, amid the sound of trumpets and the shouts of the military, the proclamation of the new king reaches David, he quickly assembles his trusted followers and flies towards Mount Olivet, hoping to cross the Jordan in time to escape the ambitious fury of his son. On the way he meets his faithful officer Chusai, whom he advises to join Absalom. "You will be of no use to me if you go with us. But if you join Absalom, and say to him: I am thy follower, O King, as once I was thy father's, he will receive thee, and thou wilt have it in thy power to frustrate the designs of Achitophel who has betrayed me." Chusai acts on the advice, and succeeds in gaining the confidence of Absalom. So skilfully does he play his role as adherent of the rebel party that his suggestion, pretending the uselessness of pursuing David, prevails against the urgent counsel of Achitophel, who urges Absalom to attack the King, lest he gain time to organize his bodyguard, lately strengthened by the accession of six hundred Gethaean soldiers. The event proves the accuracy of Achitophel's foresight. David is secretly informed of Absalom's delay, and forthwith sends his three generals, Joab, Abisai, and Ethai, to attack the rebel hosts from the eastern side of the hill. Shielded by a forest, David's men proceed and meet Absalom's unguarded forces on the edge of the woods which fringe the circular plain at a point marked by the present site (presumably) of Mukaah. A frightful slaughter ensues, and the disorganized rebel party is quickly routed. Absalom madly flies. Suddenly he finds himself stunned by a blow while his head is caught in the fork of the low hanging branches of a terebinth tree. At the same time his long loose hair becomes entangled in the thick foliage, whilst the frightened animal beneath him rushes on, leaving him suspended above the ground. Before he is able to extricate himself he is espied by one of the soldiers, who, mindful of the King's words, "Spare me the life of Absalom", directs Joab's attention to the plight of the hapless youth. The old general, less scrupulous, and eager to rid his master of so dangerous a foe, thrice pierces the body of Absalom with his javelin. When the news of Absalom's death is brought to David, he is inconsolable. "My son Absalom, Absalom my son: would to God that I might die for thee, Absalom my son, my son Absalom." The sacred text states that Absalom was buried under a great heap of stones (II Kings, xviii, 17) near the scene of his disaster. The traveller today is shown a tomb in Graeco-Jewish style, east of the Kidron, which is designated as the sepulchre of Absalom, but which is evidently of much later construction and probably belongs to one of the Jewish kings of the Asmonean period (Josephus, De Bello Jud., V, xii, 2). Absalom had three sons, who died before him. He left a daughter Maacha (Thamar), who was afterwards married to Roboam, son of Solomon (II Par., xi, 20), although there is some doubt as to the identity of this name mentioned in the Book of Kings and in Paralipomenon. (2) Absalom, father of Mathathias (I Mach., xi, 70). Perhaps identical with Absalom, father of Jonathan (I Mach., xiii, 11). (3) Absalom, father of Jonathan One of the two ambassadors whom Judas Machabeus sent to Lysias, procurator of Antiochus (II Mach., xi, 17), identical with the foregoing. H.J. HEUSER Absalon of Lund Absalon of Lund Also known as AXEL, a famous Danish prelate, b. in 1128, at Finnestoë in Seeland; d. 21 March, 1201, in the Benedictine monastery of Soröe (Sora) founded by his father. He was a graduate of the University of Paris, and taught for a while in the school of Ste. Geneviève. In 1158 he was made Bishop of Roskilde, and in 1178 Archbishop of Lund, Primate of Denmark and Sweden, and eventually Papal Legate. In this capacity he labored zealously for the final extirpation of paganism in the Scandinavian world, notably on the Isle of Rügen, its last stronghold. He exercised great political influence under King Waldemar I (1155-81) and Canute VI. It was at his request that Saxo Grammaticus composed his "Historiæ Danicæ Libri XVI". A tribute to Absalon is found in the fourteenth book of that work. HEFELE, in Kirchenlex., art. Axel , 1, 1708; monographs by ESTRUP-MOHNIKE (Leipzig, 1832), and HAMMERICH (Copenhagen, 1863). THOMAS J. SHAHAN Absinthe Absinthe (Hebrew la'anah.) Wormwood, known for its repulsive bitterness (Jer., ix, 15; xxiii, 15; Deut., xxix, 18; Lam., iii, 19; Prov., V, 4). Figuratively it stands for a curse or calamity (Lam., iii, 15), or also for injustice (Amos, V, 7; vi, 13). In Apoc., viii, 11, the Greek equivalent ho apsinthos is given as a proper name to the star which fell into the waters and made them bitter. The Vulgate renders the Hebrew expression by absinithium, except in Deut., xxix, 18, where it translates it amaritudo. It seems that the biblical absinthe is identical with the Artemisia monosperma (Delile), or the Artemisia herba-alba (ASSO); or, again, the Artemisia juidaica Linné. (See PLANTS IN BIBLE.) HAGEN, Lexicon Biblicum (Paris, 1905); VIGOUROUX, in Dict. de la Bible (Paris, 1895); TRISTAM, Natural History of the Bible (London, 1889). A.J. MAAS The Absolute The Absolute A term employed in modern philosophy with various meanings, but applied generally speaking to the Supreme Being. It signifies (1) that which is complete and perfect; (2) that which exists by its own nature and is consequently independent of everything else; (3) that which is related to no other being; (4) the sum of all being, actual and potential (Hegel). In the first and the second of these significations the Absolute is a name for God which Christian philosophy may readily accept. Though the term was not current in the Middle Ages, equivalent expressions were used by the Scholastic writers in speaking, e.g. of God as Pure Actuality ( Actus Purus), as uncaused Being, or as containing pre-eminently every perfection. St. Thomas, in particular, emphasizes the absoluteness of God by, showing that he cannot be classed under any genus or species, and that His esseuce is identical with His existence. Aquinas also anticipates the difficulties which arise from the use of the term Absolute in the sense of unrelated being, and which are brought out quite clearly in modern discussions, notably in that between Mill, as critic of Sir William Hamilton's philosophy, and Mansel as its defender. It was urged that the Absolute could not consistently be thought of or spoken of as First Cause, for the reason that causation implies relation, and the Absolute is outside of all relation; it cannot, therefore, be conceived as producing effects. St. Thomas, however, offered a solution. He holds that God and created things are related, but that the relation is real in the effects only. It implies no conditioning or modification of the Divine Being; it is in its application to, God merely conceptual. The fashion of our thought obliges us to conceive God as one term of a relation, but not to infer that the relation affects Him as it affects the created thing which is the other term. This distinction, moreover, is based on experience. The process of knowledge involves a relation between the known object and, the knowing subject, but the character of the relation is not the same in both terms. In the mind it is real because perception and thought imply the exercise of mental faciilties, and consequently a modification of the mind itself. No such modification, however, reaches the object; this is the same whether we perceive it or not. Now it is just here that a more serious difficulty arises. It is claimed that the Absolute can neither be known nor conceived. "To think is to condition"; and as the Absolute is by its very nature unconditioned, no effort of thought can reach it. To say that God is the Absolute is equivalent to saying that He is unknowable. -- This view, expressed by Hamilton and Mansel, and endorsed by Spencer in his "First Principles", affords an apparently strong support to Agnosticism, while it assails both the reasonableness and the possibility of religion. It is only a partial reply to state that God, though incomprehensible, is nevertheless knowable according to the manner and capacity of our intelligence. The Agnostic contends that God, precisely because He is the Absolute, is beyond the range of any knowledge whatever on our part. Agnosticism, in other words, insists that we must believe in the existence of an absolute and infinite Being and at the same time warns us that we can have no idea of that Being. Our belief must express itself in terms that are meaningless. To avoid this conclusion one may reject altogether a term out of which all significance has evaporated; or (and this seems a wiser course) one may retrace the genesis of the term and bold fast to the items of knowledge, however imperfect and however in need of criticism, which that genesis involves. In proving the existence of God as First Cause, or as Absolute Being, we take as our starting-point facts that are knowable and known. So far as, in reasoning upon these facts, we are led beyond them to the concept of an Absolute, some remnant of the knowableness which facts present must be found in that whichis the ultimate explanation of the facts. If, as Spencer affirms, "every one of the arguments by which the relativity of our knowledge is demonstrated distinctly postulates the positive existence of something beyond the relative", it follows that by getting clearly before our thought the meaning of those arguments and their force for distinctly postulating we must obtain some knowledge of the Being whose existence is thus established. Spencer, indeed, does not realize the full import of the words "positive existence", "ultimate reality", and "incomprehensible power", which he uses so freely. Otherwise he could not consistently declare that the Being to which these various predicates apply is unknowable. It is in fact remarkable that so much knowledge of the Absolute is displayed in the attempt to prove that the Absolute cannot be known. Careful analysis of a concept like that of First Cause certainly shows that it contains a wealth of meaning which forbids its identification with the Unknowable, even supposing that the positive existence of the Unknowable could be logically demonstrated. Such an analysis is furnished by St. Thomas and by other representatives of Christian philosophy. The method which St. Thomas formulated, and which his successors adopted, keeps steadily in view the requirements of critical thinking, and especially the danger of applying the forms of our human knowledge, without due refinement, to the Divine Being. The warning against our anthropomorphic tendency was clearly given before the Absolute had taken its actual place in philosophic speculation, or had yielded that place to the Unknowable. While this warning is always needful, especially in the interest of religion, nothing can be gained by the attempt to form a concept of God which offers a mere negation to thought and to worship. It is of course equally futile to propose an unknowable Absolute as the basis of reconciliation between religion and science. The failure of Spencer's philosophy in this respect is the more disastrous because, while it allows full scope to science in investigating the manifestations of the Absolute, it sets aside the claim of religion to learn anything of the power which is thus manifested. (See AGNOSTICISM, ASEITY, ANALOGY, GOD, KNOWLEDGE, THEOLOGY. For Hegel's conception of the Absolute, see HEGELIANISM, IDEAISM, PANTHEISM.) SCHUMACHER, The Knowableness of God (Notre Dame, Indiana, 1905), contains good bibliography; ST. THOMAS, Summa, I, Q. xiii; Contra Gentes, II, 12, 13; HAMILTON, Discussions (New York, 1860); MILL, An Examination of Sir W. Hamilton's Philosophy (Boston, 1865); MANSEL, The Philosophy of the Conditioned (London, 1866); CAIRD, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (Glasgow, 1901); ROYCE, The World and the Individual (New York, 1900); FLINT, Agnosticism (New York, 1903). E.A. PACE Absolution Absolution ( Ab = from; solvere = to free) Absolution is the remission of sin, or of the punishment due to sin, granted by the Church. (For remission of punishment due to sin, see CENSURE, EXCOMMUNICATION, INDULGENCE.) Absolution proper is that act of the priest whereby, in the Sacrament of Penance, he frees man from sin. It presupposes on the part of the penitent, contrition, confession, and promise at least of satisfaction; on the part of the minister, valid reception of the Order of Priesthood and jurisdiction, granted by competent authority, over the person receiving the sacrament. That there is in the Church power to absolve sins committed after baptism the Council of Trent thus declares: "But the Lord then principally instituted the Sacrament of Penance, when, being raised from the dead, He breathed upon His disciples saying, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.' By which action so signal, and words so clear the consent of all the Fathers has ever understood that the power of forgiving and retaining sins was communicated to the Apostles, and to their lawful successors