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The ancient Egyptian system of writing, so far as we know, originated, developed and finally expired strictly within the limits of the Nile Valley. The germ of its existence may have come from without, but, as we know it, it is essentially Egyptian and intende ...

The practice of reserving the sacred elements for the purpose of subsequent reception prevailed in the church from very early times. The Eucharist being the seal of Christian fellowship, it was a natural custom to send portions of the consecrated elements by t ...

ANTRIM THE IBERIAN, a notable figure in the ecclesiastical history of Rumania. A Georgian by birth, he came to Rumania early in the second half of the iyth century, as a simple monk. He became bishop of Ramnicu in 1705, and in 1708 archbishop of Walachia. Taki ...

AUGSBURG. WAR OP THE LEAGUE OF. the name applied to the European war of 1688-1697. The league of Augsburg was concluded on the gth of July 1686 by the emperor, the elector of Brandenburg and other princes, against the French. Spain, Sweden, England and other n ...

EQUATION OF THE CENTRE, in astronomy, the angular distance, measured around the centre of motion, by which a planet moving in an ellipse deviates from the mean position which it would occupy if it moved uniformly. Its amount is the correction which must be app ...

THE RESTORATION (1603-1689) The defeat of the Spanish armada in 1588 had been the final victory gained on behalf of the independence of the English church and state. The fifteen years which followed had been years of successful war; but they had been J££f* '' ...

ANGLO-SAXONS. The term " Anglo-Saxon " is commonly applied to that period of English history, language and literature which preceded the Norman Conquest. It goes back to the time of King Alfred, who seems to have frequently used the title rex Anglorum Saxonum ...

ANGOLA, the general name of the Portuguese possessions on the west coast of Africa south of the equator. With the exception of the enclave of Kabinda (q.v.) the province lies wholly south of the river Congo. Bounded on the W. by the Atlantic Ocean, it extends ...

ANTHONY, SAINT, the first Christian monk, was born in Egypt about 250. At the age of twenty he began to practise an ascetical life in the neighbourhood of his native place, and after fifteen years of this life he withdrew into solitude to a mountain by the Nil ...

ANTHRAX (the Greek for " coal," or " carbuncle," so called by the ancients because they regarded it as burning like coal; cf. the French equivalent charbon; also known as fievre charbonneuse, Milzbrand, splenic fever, and malignant pustule), an acute, specific ...

ANTI-SEMITISM. In the political struggles of the concluding quarter of the igth century an important part was played by a religious, political and social agitation against the Jews, known as " Anti-Semitism." The origins of this remarkable movement already thr ...

APOLOGETICS, in theology, the systematic statement of the grounds which Christians allege for belief in (at least) a supernatural revelation and a divine redemption (cf. e.g. Heb. i. 1-3). The majority of apologists in the past have further believed in an infa ...

APOLOGUE (from the Gr. dTroXoyos, a statement or account), a short fable or allegorical story, meant to serve as a pleasant vehicle for some moral doctrine or to convey some useful lesson. One of the best known is that of Jotham in the Book of Judges (ix. 7-15 ...

... s, a.iro<jTt\\tiv cbrocrToXow; Aquila, irpetr/Seuras), a technical term used in the New Testament and in Christian literature generally for a special envoy of Jesus Christ. How far it had any similar use in Judaism in Christ's day is uncertain; but in the 4th ...

APOSTOLIC FATHERS, a term used to distinguish those early Christian writers who were believed to have been the personal associates of the original Apostles. While the title " Fathers " was given from at least the beginning of the 4th century to church writers ...

... oXun) Si<5aa/caXia), a collection of ecclesiastical regulations in eight books, the last of which concludes with the eighty-five Canons of the Holy Apostles. By their title the Constitutions profess to have been drawn up by the apostles, and to have been trans ...

... ith his wife Prisca or Priscilla had settled in Corinth, where Paul stayed with them (Acts xviii. 2,3). They became Christians and fellowworkers with Paul, to whom they seem to have shown their devotion in some special way (Rom. xvi. 3, 4). (2) A native of Pon ...

... eral of th? royal houses of Europe. He was born in 1225 or 1227, at Roccasecca, the castle of his father Landulf, count of Aquino, in the territories of Naples. Having received his elementary education at the monastery of Monte Cassino, he studied for six year ...

ARAM, EUGENE (1704-1750), English scholar, but more famous as the murderer celebrated by Hood in his ballad, the Dream of Eugene Aram, and by Bulwcr Lytton in his romance of Eugene Aram, was born of humble parents at Ramsgill, Yorkshire, in 1704. He received l ...

... Aberdeen, which office he retained until his death. He played an active part in the stirring church politics of the period, and was twice moderator of the kirk, and a member of the commission of inquiry into the condition of the university of St Andrews (1583) ...

ARCESILAUS (316-241 B.C.), a Greek philosopher and founder of the New, or Middle, Academy (see ACADEMY, GREEK). Born at Pitane in Aeolis, he was trained by Autolycus, the mathematician, and later at Athens by Theophrastus and Grantor, by whom he was led to joi ...

ARCH YT AS (c. 428-347 B.C.), of Tarentum, Greek philosopher and scientist of the Pythagorean school, famous as the intimate friend of Plato, was the son of Mnesagoras or Histiaeus. Equally distinguishedin natural science,philosophyand the administration of ci ...

ARGOSY (a corruption, by transposition of letters, of the name of the seaport Ragusa), the term originally for a carrack or merchant ship from Ragusa and other Adriatic ports, now used poetically of any vessel carrying rich merchandise. In English writings of ...

ARGYLL. EARLS AND DUKES OF. The rise of this family of Scottish peers, originally the Campbells of Lochow, and first ennobled as Barons Campbell, is referred to in the article ARGYLLSHIRE. ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, sth earl of Argyll (1530-' 573). was the elder son ...

ARGYROPULUS, or ARGYROPULO, JOHN (c. 1416-1486), Greek humanist, one of the earliest promoters of the revival of learning in the West, was born in Constantinople, and became a teacher there, Constantine Lascaris being his pupil. He then appears to have crossed ...

ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.), the great Greek philosopher, was born at Stagira, on the Strymonic Gulf, and hence called " the Stagirite." Dionysius of Halicamassus, in his Epistle on Demosthenes and Aristotle (chap. 5), gives the following sketch of his life: — Ar ...

... tetic philosopher, and writer on music and rhythm. He was taught first by his father Spintharus, a pupil of Socrates, and later by the Pythagoreans, Lamprus of Erythrae and Xenophilus, from whom he learned the theory of music. Finally he studied under Aristotl ...

ARK (a word common to Teutonic languages, cf. Ger. Arche, adapted from the Lat. area, chest, cf. arcere, to shut up, enclose), a chest, basket or box. The Hebrew word tebah, translated in the A.V. by " ark," is used in the Old Testament (i) of the box made of ...

... hemistry, medicine, physics, and also Arabian philosophy. After having lived at the court of Aragon, he went to Paris, where he gained a considerable reputation; but he incurred the enmity of the ecclesiastics and was forced to flee, finally finding an asylum ...

ARNAULD, the surname of a family of prominent French lawyers, chiefly remembered in connexion with the Jansenist troubles of the i7th century. At their head was ANTOINE ARNAULD (1560-1619), a leader of the Paris bar; in this capacity he delivered a famous phil ...

ARNDT, ERNST MORITZ (1769-1860), German poet and patriot, was born on the 26th of December 1769 at Schoritz in the island of RUgen, which at that time belonged to Sweden. He was the son of a prosperous farmer, and emancipated serf of the lord of the district, ...

... , German authoress, sister of Klemens Brentano, was born at Frankforton-Main on the 4th of April 1785. After being educated at a convent school in Fritzlar, she lived for a while with her grandmother, the novelist, Sophie Laroche (1731-1807), at Offenbach, and ...

... reputation for his knowledge of Greek and Roman literature. He was appointed by Theodosius the Great, tutor of the young princes Arcadius and Honorius, but at the age of forty he retired to Egypt, where for forty years he lived in monastic seclusion at Scetis ...

... gists. By Max Miiller especially it was employed as a convenient short term for the whole body of languages more commonly known as IndoEuropean (q.v.) or Indo-Germanic. In the same way Max Miiller used Aryas as a general term for the speakers of such languages ...

... ENGEBRETSEN (1813-1882), collectors of Norwegian folklore, so closely united in their life's work that it is unusual to name them apart. Asbjornsen was born in Christian!* on the 1 5th of January 1812; he belonged to an ancient family of the Gudbrandsdal, whic ...

... ry gentleman who belonged to an ancient family long settled in Yorkshire, his mother being a daughter of John, Lord Clifford. When in 1536 the insurrection called the " Pilgrimage of Grace " broke out in Yorkshire, Aske was made leader; and marching with the b ...

... 6-1005), Mexican statesman and diplomatist, was born at Puebla, and educated at the university of Mexico, where he took his degree in "i&sS- He took part in the war against the emperor Maximilian, and in 1867, on the establishment of the republic, was appointe ...

ASTRONOMY (from Gr. ao-rpov, a star, and vtfitiv, to classify or arrange). The subject matter of astronomical science, considered in its widest range, comprehends all the matter of the universe which lies outside the limit of the earth's atmosphere. The seemin ...

... ipment ^ mife ds ds cut, prick, cutting instrument Rosetta stone itself. One of the most characteristic distinctions of later demotic is the minuteness of the writing. Hieroglyphic is normally written from right to left, the signs facing to the commencement of ...

much influence on the later literature of Europe, were Englished in the nth century with considerable skill. To the same period belongs the curious tract on The Wonders of the East. In these works, and some minor productions of the time, we see that the minds ...