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ABBAS-TUMAN, a spa in Russian Transcaucasia, government of Tiflis, 50 m. S.W. of the Borzhom railway station and 65 m. E. of Batum, very picturesquely situated in a cauldron-shaped valley. It has hot sulphur baths (93 1 / 2 °–118 1 / 2 ° Fahr.) and an astronomical observatory (4240 ft.). |
ABBASIDS, the name generally given to the caliphs of Bagdad, the second of the two great dynasties of the Mahommedan empire. The Abbasid caliphs officially based their claim to the throne on their descent from Abbas ( A.D. 566–652), the eldest uncle of Mahomet, in virtue of which descent they regarded themselves as the rightful heirs of the Prophet as opposed to the Omayyads, the descendants of Omayya. Throughout the second period of the Omayyads, representatives of this family were among their most dangerous opponents, partly by the skill with which they undermined the reputation of the reigning princes by accusations against their orthodoxy, their moral character and their administration in general, and partly by their cunning manipulation of internecine jealousies among the Arabic and non-Arabic subjects of the empire. In the reign of Merwan II. this opposition culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam, the fourth in descent from Abbas, who, supported by the province of Khorasan, achieved considerable successes, but was captured ( A.D. 747) and died in prison (as some hold, assassinated). The quarrel was taken up by his brother Abdallah, known by the name of Abuʼl-Abbas as-Saffāh, who after a decisive victory on the Greater Zab (750) finally crushed the Omayyads and was proclaimed caliph. The history of the new dynasty is marked by perpetual strife and the development of luxury and the liberal arts, in place of the old-fashioned austerity of thought and manners. Mansur, the second of the house, who transferred the seat of government to Bagdad, fought successfully against the peoples of Asia Minor, and the reigns of Harun al-Rashid (786–809) and Mamun (813–833) were periods of extraordinary splendour. But the empire as a whole stagnated and then decayed rapidly. Independent monarchs established themselves in Africa and Khorasan (Spain had remained Omayyad throughout), and in the north-west the Greeks successfully encroached. The ruin of the dynasty came, however, from those Turkish slaves who were constituted as a royal bodyguard by Moqtasim (833–842). Their power steadily grew until Radi (934–941) was constrained to hand over most of the royal functions to Mahommed b. Raik. Province after province renounced the authority of the caliphs, who were merely lay figures, and finally Hulagu, the Mongol chief, burned Bagdad (Feb. 28th, 1258). The Abbasids still maintained a feeble show of authority, confined to religious matters, in Egypt under the Mamelukes, but the dynasty finally disappeared with Motawakkil III., who was carried away as a prisoner to Constantinople by Selim I. See Caliphate (Sections B, 14 and C), where a detailed account of the dynasty will be found. |
ABBAZIA, a popular summer and winter resort of Austria, in Istria, 56 m. S.E. of Trieste by rail. Pop. (1900) 2343. It is situated on the Gulf of Quarnero in a sheltered position at the foot of the Monte Maggiore (4580 ft.), and is surrounded by beautiful woods of laurel. The average temperature is 50° Fahr. in winter, and 77° Fahr. in summer. The old abbey, San Giacomo della Priluca, from which the place derives its name, has been converted into a villa. Abbazia is frequented annually by about 16,000 visitors. The whole sea-coast to the north and south of Abbazia is rocky and picturesque, and contains several smaller winter-resorts. The largest of them is Lovrana (pop. 513), situated 5 m. to the south. |
ABBESS (Lat. abbatissa , fem. form of abbas , abbot), the female superior of an abbey or convent of nuns. The mode of election, position, rights and authority of an abbess correspond generally with those of an abbot ( q.v. ). The office is elective, the choice being by the secret votes of the sisters from their own body. The abbess is solemnly admitted to her office by episcopal benediction, together with the conferring of a staff and pectoral cross, and holds for life, though liable to be deprived for misconduct. The council of Trent fixed the qualifying age at forty, with eight years of profession. Abbesses have a right to demand absolute obedience of their nuns, over whom they exercise discipline, extending even to the power of expulsion, subject, however, to the bishop. As a female an abbess is incapable of performing the spiritual functions of the priesthood belonging to an abbot. She cannot ordain, confer the veil, nor excommunicate. In England abbesses attended ecclesiastical councils, e.g. that of Becanfield in 694, where they signed before the presbyters. By Celtic usage abbesses presided over joint-houses of monks and nuns. This custom accompanied Celtic monastic missions to France and Spain, and even to Rome itself. At a later period, A.D. 1115, Robert, the founder of Fontevraud, committed the government of the whole order, men as well as women, to a female superior. In the German Evangelical church the title of abbess ( Aebtissin ) has in some cases— e.g. Itzehoe—survived to designate the heads of abbeys which since the Reformation have continued as Stifte , i.e. collegiate foundations, which provide a home and an income for unmarried ladies, generally of noble birth, called canonesses ( Kanonissinen ) or more usually Stiftsdamen . This office of abbess is of considerable social dignity, and is sometimes filled by princesses of the reigning houses. |
ABBEVILLE, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Somme, on the Somme, 12 m. from its mouth in the English Channel, and 28 m. N.W. of Amiens on the Northern railway. Pop. (1901) 18,519; (1906) 18,971. It lies in a pleasant and fertile valley, and is built partly on an island and partly on both sides of the river, which is canalized from this point to the estuary. The streets are narrow, and the houses are mostly picturesque old structures, built of wood, with many quaint gables and dark archways. The most remarkable building is the church of St Vulfran, erected in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries. The original design was not completed. The nave has only two bays and the choir is insignificant. The façade is a magnificent specimen of the flamboyant Gothic style, flanked by two Gothic towers. Abbeville has several other old churches and an hôtel-de-ville, with a belfry of the 13th century. Among the numerous old houses, that known as the Maison de François Iᵉʳ, which is the most remarkable, dates from the 16th century. There is a statue of Admiral Courbet (d. 1885) in the chief square. The public institutions include tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, and a communal college. Abbeville is an important industrial centre; in addition to its old-established manufacture of cloth, hemp-spinning, sugar-making, ship-building and locksmiths’ work are carried on; there is active commerce in grain, but the port has little trade. Abbeville, the chief town of the district of Ponthieu, first appears in history during the 9th century. At that time belonging to the abbey of St Riquier, it was afterwards governed by the counts of Ponthieu. Together with that county, it came into the possession of the Alençon and other French families, and afterwards into that of the house of Castille, from whom by marriage it fell in 1272 to Edward I., king of England. French and English were its masters by turns till 1435 when, by the treaty of Arras, it was ceded to the duke of Burgundy. In 1477 it was annexed by Louis XI., king of France, and was held by two illegitimate branches of the royal family in the 16th and 17th centuries, being in 1696 reunited to the crown. |
ABBEY, EDWIN AUSTIN (1852– ), American painter, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of April 1852. He left the schools of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts at the age of nineteen to enter the art department of the publishing house of Harper & Brothers in New York, where, in company with such men as Howard Pyle, Charles Stanley Reinhart, Joseph Pennell and Alfred Parsons, he became very successful as an illustrator. In 1878 he was sent by the Harpers to England to gather material for illustrations of the poems of Robert Herrick . These, published in 1882, attracted much attention, and were followed by illustrations for Goldsmith ’s She Stoops to Conquer (1887), for a volume of Old Songs (1889), and for the comedies (and a few of the tragedies) of Shakespeare . His water-colours and pastels were no less successful than the earlier illustrations in pen and ink. Abbey now became closely identified with the art life of England, and was elected to the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours in 1883. Among his water-colours are “The Evil Eye” (1877); “The Rose in October” (1879); “An Old Song” (1886); “The Visitors” (1890), and “The Jongleur” (1892). Possibly his best known pastels are “Beatrice,” “Phyllis,” and “Two Noble Kinsmen.” In 1890 he made his first appearance with an oil painting, “A May Day Morn,” at the Royal Academy in London. He exhibited “Richard duke of Gloucester and the Lady Anne” at the Royal Academy in 1896, and in that year was elected A.R.A., becoming a full R.A. in 1898. Apart from his other paintings, special mention must be made of the large frescoes entitled “The Quest of the Holy Grail,” in the Boston Public Library, on which he was occupied for some years; and in 1901 he was commissioned by King Edward VII. to paint a picture of the coronation, containing many portraits elaborately grouped. The dramatic subjects, and the brilliant colouring of his oil pictures, gave them pronounced individuality among the works of contemporary painters. Abbey became a member not only of the Royal Academy, but also of the National Academy of Design of New York, and honorary member of the Royal Bavarian Society, the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts (Paris), the American Water-Colour Society, etc. He received first class gold medals at the International Art Exhibition of Vienna in 1898, at Philadelphia in 1898, at the Paris Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900, and at Berlin in 1903; and was made a chevalier of the French Legion of Honour. |
ABBEY (Lat. abbatia ; from Syr. abba , father), a monastery, or conventual establishment, under the government of an abbot or an abbess . A priory only differed from an abbey in that the superior bore the name of prior instead of abbot . This was the case in all the English conventual cathedrals, e.g. Canterbury, Ely, Norwich, &c., where the archbishop or bishop occupied the abbot’s place, the superior of the monastery being termed prior. Other priories were originally offshoots from the larger abbeys, to the abbots of which they continued subordinate; but in later times the actual distinction between abbeys and priories was lost. The earliest Christian monastic communities (see Monasticism ) with which we are acquainted consisted of groups of cells or huts collected about a common centre, which was usually the abode of some anchorite celebrated for superior holiness or singular asceticism, but without any attempt at orderly arrangement. The formation of such communities in the East does not date from the introduction of Christianity. The example had been already set by the Essenes in Judea and the Therapeutae in Egypt. In the earliest age of Christian monasticism the ascetics were accustomed to live singly, independent of one another, at no great distance from some village, supporting themselves by the labour of their own hands, and distributing the surplus after the supply of their own scanty wants to the poor. Increasing religious fervour, aided by persecution, drove them farther and farther away from the abodes of men into mountain solitudes or lonely deserts. The deserts of Egypt swarmed with the “cells” or huts of these anchorites. Anthony, who had retired to the Egyptian Thebaid during the persecution of Maximin, A.D. 312, was the most celebrated among them for his austerities, his sanctity, and his power as an exorcist. His fame collected round him a host of followers, emulous of his sanctity. The deeper he withdrew into the wilderness, the more numerous his disciples became. They refused to be separated from him, and built their cells round that of their spiritual father. Thus arose the first monastic community, consisting of anchorites living each in his own little dwelling, united together under one superior. Anthony, as Neander remarks ( Church History , vol. iii. p. 316, Clark’s trans.), “without any conscious design of his own, had become the founder of a new mode of living in common, Coenobitism.” By degrees order was introduced in the groups of huts. They were arranged in lines like the tents in an encampment, or the houses in a street. From this arrangement these lines of single cells came to be known as Laurae , Λαὒραι , “streets” or “lanes.” The real founder of coenobian ( κοινός , common, and βίος , life) monasteries in the modern sense was Pachomius, an Egyptian of the beginning of the 4th century. The first community established by him was at Tabennae, an island of the Nile in Upper Egypt. Eight others were founded in his lifetime, numbering 3000 monks. Within fifty years from his death his societies could reckon 50,000 members. These coenobia resembled villages, peopled by a hard-working religious community, all of one sex. The buildings were detached, small and of the humblest character. Each cell or hut, according to Sozomen ( H.E. iii. 14), contained three monks. They took their chief meal in a common refectory at 3 p.m. , up to which hour they usually fasted. They ate in silence, with hoods so drawn over their faces that they could see nothing but what was on the table before them. The monks spent all the time, not devoted to religious services or study, in manual labour. Palladius, who visited the Egyptian monasteries about the close of the 4th century, found among the 300 members of the coenobium of Panopolis, under the Pachomian rule, 15 tailors, 7 smiths, 4 carpenters, 12 camel-drivers and 15 tanners. Each separate community had its own oeconomus or steward, who was subject to a chief oeconomus stationed at the head establishment. All the produce of the monks’ labour was committed to him, and by him shipped to Alexandria. The money raised by the sale was expended in the purchase of stores for the support of the communities, and what was over was devoted to charity. Twice in the year the superiors of the several coenobia met at the chief monastery, under the presidency of an archimandrite (“the chief of the fold,” from μάνδρα , a fold), and at the last meeting gave in reports of their administration for the year. The coenobia of Syria belonged to the Pachomian institution. We learn many details concerning those in the vicinity of Antioch from Chrysostom’s writings. The monks lived in separate huts, καλύβια , forming a religious hamlet on the mountain side. They were subject to an abbot, and observed a common rule. (They had no refectory, but ate their common meal, of bread and water only, when the day’s labour was over, reclining on strewn grass, sometimes out of doors.) Four times in the day they joined in prayers and psalms. The necessity for defence from hostile attacks, economy of space and convenience of access from one part of the community to another, by degrees dictated a more compact and orderly arrangement of the buildings of a monastic coenobium. Large piles of building were erected, with strong outside walls, capable of resisting the assaults of an enemy, within which all the Santa Laura, Mount Athos. necessary edifices were ranged round one or more open courts, usually surrounded with cloisters. The usual Eastern arrangement is exemplified in the plan of the convent of Santa Laura, Mount Athos ( Laura , the designation of a monastery generally, being converted into a female saint). This monastery, like the oriental monasteries generally, is surrounded by a strong and lofty blank stone wall, enclosing an area of between 3 and 4 acres. The longer side extends to a length of about 500 feet. There is only one main entrance, on the north side (A), defended by three separate iron doors. Near the entrance is a large tower (M), a constant feature in the monasteries of the Levant. There is a small postern gate at L. The enceinte comprises two large open courts, surrounded with buildings connected with cloister galleries of wood or stone. The outer court, which is much the larger, contains the granaries and storehouses (K), and the kitchen (H) and other offices connected with the refectory (G). Immediately adjacent to the gateway is a two-storied guest-house, opening from a cloister (C). The inner court is surrounded by a cloister (EE), from which open the monks’ cells (II). In the centre of this court stands the catholicon or conventual church, a square building with an apse of the cruciform domical Byzantine type, approached by a domed narthex. In front of the church stands a marble fountain (F), covered by a dome supported on columns. Opening from the western side of the cloister, but actually standing in the outer court, is the refectory (G), a large cruciform building, about 100 feet each way, decorated within with frescoes of saints. At the upper end is a semicircular recess, recalling the triclinium of the Lateran Palace at Rome, in which is placed the seat of the hegumenos or abbot. This apartment is chiefly used as a hall of meeting, the oriental monks usually taking their meals in their separate cells. A. Gateway. B. Chapels. C. Guest-house. D. Church. E. Cloister. F. Fountain. G. Refectory. H. Kitchen. I. Cells. K. Storehouses. L. Postern gate. M. Tower. Fig. 1. —Monastery of Santa Laura, Mount Athos (Lenoir). St Laura is exceeded in magnitude by the convent of Vatopede, also on Mount Athos. This enormous establishment covers at least 4 acres of ground, and contains so many separate buildings within its massive walls that it resembles a fortified town. It lodges above 300 monks, and the establishment of the hegumenos is described as resembling Vatopede. the court of a petty sovereign prince. The immense refectory, of the same cruciform shape as that of St Laura, will accommodate 500 guests at its 24 marble tables. The annexed plan of a Coptic monastery, from Lenoir, shows a church of three aisles, with cellular apses, and two ranges of cells on either side of an oblong gallery. Monasticism in the West owes its extension and development to Benedict of Nursia (born A.D. 480). His rule was diffused with miraculous rapidity from the parent foundation on Monte Cassino through the whole of western Europe, and every country witnessed the erection of monasteries far exceeding anything that had yet been seen in spaciousness and splendour. Few great towns in Italy were without their Benedictine convent, and they quickly rose in all the great centres of population in England, France and Spain. The number of these monasteries founded between A.D. 520 and 700 is amazing. Before the Council of Constance, A.D. 1415, no fewer than 15,070 abbeys had been established of this order Benedictine. alone. The buildings of a Benedictine abbey were uniformly arranged after one plan, modified where necessary (as at Durham and Worcester, where the monasteries stand close to the steep bank of a river) to accommodate the arrangement to local circumstances. We have no existing examples of the earlier monasteries of the Benedictine order. They have all yielded to the ravages of time and the violence of man. But we have fortunately preserved to St Gall. us an elaborate plan of the great Swiss monastery of St Gall, erected about A.D. 820, which puts us in possession of the whole arrangements of a monastery of the first class towards the early part of the 9th century. Fig. 2. —Plan of Coptic Monastery. A. Narthex. B. Church. C. Corridor, with cells on each side. D. Staircase. This curious and interesting plan has been made the subject of a memoir both by Keller (Zürich, 1844) and by Professor Robert Willis ( Arch. Journal , 1848, vol. v. pp. 86-117. To the latter we are indebted for the substance of the following description, as well as for the plan, reduced from his elucidated transcript of the original preserved in the archives of the convent. The general appearance of the convent is that of a town of isolated houses with streets running between them. It is evidently planned in compliance with the Benedictine rule, which enjoined that, if possible, the monastery should contain within itself every necessary of life, as well as the buildings more intimately connected with the religious and social life of its inmates. It should comprise a mill, a bakehouse, stables and cow-houses, together with accommodation for carrying on all necessary mechanical arts within the walls, so as to obviate the necessity of the monks going outside its limits. The general distribution of the buildings may be thus described:—The church, with its cloister to the south, occupies the centre of a quadrangular area, about 430 feet square. The buildings, as in all great monasteries, are distributed into groups. The church forms the nucleus, as the centre of the religious life of the community. In closest connexion with the church is the group of buildings appropriated to the monastic life and its daily requirements—the refectory for eating, the dormitory for sleeping, the common room for social intercourse, the chapter-house for religious and disciplinary conference. These essential elements of monastic life are ranged about a cloister court, surrounded by a covered arcade, affording communication sheltered from the elements between the various buildings. The infirmary for sick monks, with the physician’s house and physic garden, lies to the east. In the same group with the infirmary is the school for the novices. The outer school, with its headmaster’s house against the opposite wall of the church, stands outside the convent enclosure, in close proximity to the abbot’s house, that he might have a constant eye over them. The buildings devoted to hospitality are divided into three groups,—one for the reception of distinguished guests, another for monks visiting the monastery, a third for poor travellers and pilgrims. The first and third are placed to the right and left of the common entrance of the monastery,—the hospitium for distinguished guests being placed on the north side of the church, not far from the abbot’s house; that for the poor on the south side next to the farm buildings. The monks are lodged in a guest-house built against the north wall of the church. The group of buildings connected with the material wants of the establishment is placed to the south and west of the church, and is distinctly separated from the monastic buildings. The kitchen, buttery and offices are reached by a passage from the west end of the refectory, and are connected with the bakehouse and brewhouse, which are placed still farther away. The whole of the southern and western sides is devoted to workshops, stables and farm-buildings. The buildings, with some exceptions, seem to have been of one story only, and all but the church were probably erected of wood. The whole includes thirty-three separate blocks. The church (D) is cruciform, with a nave of nine bays, and a semicircular apse at either extremity. That to the west is surrounded by a semicircular colonnade, leaving an open “paradise” (E) between it and the wall of the church. The whole area is divided by screens into various chapels. The high altar (A) stands immediately to the east of the transept, or ritual choir; the altar of St Paul (B) in the eastern, and that of St Peter (C) in the western apse. A cylindrical campanile stands detached from the church on either side of the western apse (FF). Fig. 3. —Ground-plan of St Gall. Church. A. High altar. B. Altar of St Paul. C. Altar of St Peter. D. Nave. E. Paradise. FF. Towers. Monastic Buildings. G. Cloister. H. Calefactory, with dormitory over. I. Necessary. J. Abbot’s House. K. Refectory. L. Kitchen. M. Bakehouse and brewhouse. N. Cellar. O. Parlour. P 1 . Scriptorium with library over. P 2 . Sacristy and vestry. Q. House of novices—1. chapel; 2. refectory; 3. calefactory; 4. dormitory; 5. master’s room; 6. chambers. R. Infirmary—1–6 as above in the house of novices. S. Doctor’s house. T. Physic garden. U. House for blood-letting. V. School. W. Schoolmaster’s lodgings. X 1 X 1 . Guest-house for those of superior rank. X 2 X 2 . Guest-house for the poor. Y. Guest-chamber for strange monks. Menial Department. Z . Factory. a . Threshing Floor. b . Workshops. c , c . Mills. d . Kiln. e . Stables. f . Cow-sheds. g . Goat-sheds. h . Pig-sties. i . Sheep-folds. k , k , k . Servants’ and workmen’s sleeping chambers. l . Gardener’s House. m , m . Hen and duck house. n . Poultry-keeper’s house. o . Garden. p . Cemetery [bread. q . Bakehouse for sacramental r . Unnamed in plan. s , s , s . Kitchens. t , t , t . Baths. The “cloister court” (G) on the south side of the nave of the church has on its east side the “pisalis” or “calefactory” (H), the common sitting-room of the brethren, warmed by flues beneath the floor. On this side in later monasteries we invariably find the chapter-house, the absence of which in this plan is somewhat surprising. It appears, however, from the inscriptions on the plan itself, that the north walk of the cloisters served for the purposes of a chapter-house, and was fitted up with benches on the long sides. Above the calefactory is the “dormitory” opening into the south transept of the church, to enable the monks to attend the nocturnal services with readiness. A passage at the other end leads to the “necessarium” (I), a portion of the monastic buildings always planned with extreme care. The southern side is occupied by the “refectory” (K), from the west end of which by a vestibule the kitchen (L) is reached. This is separated from the main buildings of the monastery, and is connected by a long passage with a building containing the bakehouse and brewhouse (M), and the sleeping-rooms of the servants. The upper story of the refectory is the “vestiarium,” where the ordinary clothes of the brethren were kept. On the western side of the cloister is another two-story building (N). The cellar is below, and the larder and store-room above. Between this building and the church, opening by one door into the cloisters, and by another to the outer part of the monastery area, is the “parlour” for interviews with visitors from the external world (O). On the eastern side of the north transept is the “scriptorium” or writing-room (P 1 ), with the library above. To the east of the church stands a group of buildings comprising two miniature conventual establishments, each complete in itself. Each has a covered cloister surrounded by the usual buildings, i.e. refectory, dormitory, &c., and a church or chapel on one side, placed back to back. A detached building belonging to each contains a bath and a kitchen. One of these diminutive convents is appropriated to the “oblati” or novices (Q), the other to the sick monks as an “infirmary” (R). The “residence of the physicians” (S) stands contiguous to the infirmary, and the physic garden (T) at the north-east corner of the monastery. Besides other rooms, it contains a drug store, and a chamber for those who are dangerously ill. The “house for bloodletting and purging” adjoins it on the west (U). The “outer school,” to the north of the convent area, contains a large schoolroom divided across the middle by a screen or partition, and surrounded by fourteen little rooms, termed the dwellings of the scholars. The head-master’s house (W) is opposite, built against the side wall of the church. The two “hospitia” or “guest-houses” for the entertainment of strangers of different degrees (X 1 X 2 ) comprise a large common chamber or refectory in the centre, surrounded by sleeping-apartments. Each is provided with its own brewhouse and bakehouse, and that for travellers of a superior order has a kitchen and storeroom, with bedrooms for their servants and stables for their horses. There is also an “hospitium” for strange monks, abutting on the north wall of the church (Y). Beyond the cloister, at the extreme verge of the convent area to the south, stands the “factory” (Z), containing workshops for shoemakers, saddlers (or shoemakers, sellarii ), cutlers and grinders, trencher-makers, tanners, curriers, fullers, smiths and goldsmiths, with their dwellings in the rear. On this side we also find the farm-buildings, the large granary and threshing-floor ( a ), mills ( c ), malt-house ( d ). Facing the west are the stables ( e ), ox-sheds ( f ), goat-stables ( g ), piggeries ( h ), sheep-folds ( i ), together with the servants’ and labourers’ quarters ( k ). At the south-east corner we find the hen and duck house, and poultry-yard ( m ), and the dwelling of the keeper ( n ). Hard by is the kitchen garden ( o ), the beds bearing the names of the vegetables growing in them, onions, garlic, celery, lettuces, poppy, carrots, cabbages, &c., eighteen in all. In the same way the physic garden presents the names of the medicinal herbs, and the cemetery ( p ) those of the trees, apple, pear, plum, quince, &c., planted there. A curious bird’s-eye view of Canterbury Cathedral and its annexed conventual buildings, taken about 1165, is preserved in the Great Psalter in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. As elucidated by Professor Willis, [ 1 ] it exhibits the plan of a great Benedictine monastery in the 12th century, and enables us to compare it with that of the Canterbury Cathedral. 9th as seen at St Gall. We see in both the same general principles of arrangement, which indeed belong to all Benedictine monasteries, enabling us to determine with precision the disposition of the various buildings, when little more than fragments of the walls exist. From some local reasons, however, the cloister and monastic buildings are placed on the north, instead, as is far more commonly the case, on the south of the church. There is also a separate chapter-house, which is wanting at St Gall. The buildings at Canterbury, as at St Gall, form separate groups. The church forms the nucleus. In immediate contact with this, on the north side, lie the cloister and the group of buildings devoted to the monastic life. Outside of these, to the west and east, are the “halls and chambers devoted to the exercise of hospitality, with which every monastery was provided, for the purpose of receiving as guests persons who visited it, whether clergy or laity, travellers, pilgrims or paupers.” To the north a large open court divides the monastic from the menial buildings, intentionally placed as remote as possible from the conventual buildings proper, the stables, granaries, barn, bakehouse, brewhouse, laundries, &c., inhabited by the lay servants of the establishment. At the greatest possible distance from the church, beyond the precinct of the convent, is the eleemosynary department. The almonry for the relief of the poor, with a great hall annexed, forms the paupers’ hospitium. The most important group of buildings is naturally that devoted to monastic life. This includes two cloisters, the great cloister surrounded by the buildings essentially connected with the daily life of the monks,—the church to the south, the refectory or frater-house here as always on the side opposite to the church, and farthest removed from it, that no sound or smell of eating might penetrate its sacred precincts, to the east the dormitory, raised on a vaulted undercroft, and the chapter-house adjacent, and the lodgings of the cellarer to the west. To this officer was committed the provision of the monks’ daily food, as well as that of the guests. He was, therefore, appropriately lodged in the immediate vicinity of the refectory and kitchen, and close to the guest-hall. A passage under the dormitory leads eastwards to the smaller or infirmary cloister, appropriated to the sick and infirm monks. Eastward of this cloister extend the hall and chapel of the infirmary, resembling in form and arrangement the nave and chancel of an aisled church. Beneath the dormitory, looking out into the green court or herbarium, lies the “pisalis” or “calefactory,” the common room of the monks. At its north-east corner access was given from the dormitory to the necessarium , a portentous edifice in the form of a Norman hall, 145 ft. long by 25 broad, containing fifty-five seats. It was, in common with all such offices in ancient monasteries, constructed with the most careful regard to cleanliness and health, a stream of water running through it from end to end. A second smaller dormitory runs from east to west for the accommodation of the conventual officers, who were bound to sleep in the dormitory. Close to the refectory, but outside the cloisters, are the domestic offices connected with it: to the north, the kitchen, 47 ft. square, surmounted by a lofty pyramidal roof, and the kitchen court; to the west, the butteries, pantries, &c. The infirmary had a small kitchen of its own. Opposite the refectory door in the cloister are two lavatories, an invariable adjunct to a monastic dining-hall, at which the monks washed before and after taking food. The buildings devoted to hospitality were divided into three groups. The prior’s group “entered at the south-east angle of the green court, placed near the most sacred part of the cathedral, as befitting the distinguished ecclesiastics or nobility who were assigned to him.” The cellarer’s buildings were near the west end of the nave, in which ordinary visitors of the middle class were hospitably entertained. The inferior pilgrims and paupers were relegated to the north hall or almonry, just within the gate, as far as possible from the other two. Westminster Abbey is another example of a great Benedictine abbey, identical in its general arrangements, so far as they can be traced, with those described above. The cloister and monastic buildings lie to the south side of the church. Parallel to the nave, on the south side of the cloister, was the refectory, with its lavatory at the door. On the Westminster Abbey. eastern side we find the remains of the dormitory, raised on a vaulted substructure and communicating with the south transept. The chapter-house opens out of the same alley of the cloister. The small cloister lies to the south-east of the larger cloister, and still farther to the east we have the remains of the infirmary with the table hall , the refectory of those who were able to leave their chambers. The abbot’s house formed a small courtyard at the west entrance, close to the inner gateway. Considerable portions of this remain, including the abbot’s parlour, celebrated as “the Jerusalem Chamber,” his hall, now used for the Westminster King’s Scholars, and the kitchen and butteries beyond. St Mary’s Abbey, York, of which the ground-plan is annexed, exhibits the usual Benedictine arrangements. The precincts are surrounded by a strong fortified wall on three sides, the river Ouse being sufficient protection on the fourth side. The entrance was by a strong gateway (U) to the north. Close to the entrance was a chapel, where is now York. the church of St Olaf (W), in which the new-comers paid their devotions immediately on their arrival. Near the gate to the south was the guest-hall or hospitium (T). The buildings are completely ruined, but enough remains to enable us to identify the grand cruciform church (A), the cloister-court with the chapter-house (B), the refectory (I), the kitchen-court with its offices (K, O, O) and the other principal apartments. The infirmary has perished completely. Some Benedictine houses display exceptional arrangements, dependent upon local circumstances, e.g. the dormitory of Worcester runs from east to west, from the west walk of the cloister, and that of Durham is built over the west, instead of as usual, over the east walk; but, as a general rule, the arrangements deduced from the examples described may be regarded as invariable. Fig. 4. St Mary’s Abbey, York (Benedictine).— Churton ’s Monastic Ruins . A. Church. B. Chapter-house. C. Vestibule to ditto. E. Library or scriptorium. F. Calefactory. G. Necessary. H. Parlour. I. Refectory. K. Great kitchen and court. L. Cellarer’s office. M. Cellars. N. Passage to cloister. O. Offices. P. Cellars. Q. Uncertain. R. Passage to abbot’s house. S. Passage to common house. T. Hospitium. U. Great gate. V. Porter’s lodge. W. Church of St Olaf. X. Tower. Y. Entrance from Bootham. The history of monasticism is one of alternate periods of decay and revival. With growth in popular esteem came increase in material wealth, leading to luxury and worldliness. The first religious ardour cooled, the strictness of the rule was relaxed, until by the 10th century the decay of discipline was so complete in France that the monks are said to have been frequently unacquainted with the rule of St Benedict, and even ignorant that they were bound by any rule at all. The reformation of abuses generally took the form of the establishment of new monastic orders, with new and more stringent rules, requiring a modification of the architectural arrangements. One of the earliest of these reformed orders was the Cluniac . This order took its name from the little village of Cluny, 12 miles N.W. of Macon, near which, about A.D. 909, a reformed Benedictine Cluny. abbey was founded by William, duke of Aquitaine and count of Auvergne, under Berno, abbot of Beaume. He was succeeded by Odo, who is often regarded as the founder of the order. The fame of Cluny spread far and wide. Its rigid rule was adopted by a vast number of the old Benedictine abbeys, who placed themselves in affiliation to the mother society, while new foundations sprang up in large numbers, all owing allegiance to the “archabbot”, established at Cluny. By the end of the 12th century the number of monasteries affiliated to Cluny in the various countries of western Europe amounted to 2000. The monastic establishment of Cluny was one of the most extensive and magnificent in France. We may form some idea of its enormous dimensions from the fact recorded, that when, A.D. 1245, Pope Innocent IV., accompanied by twelve cardinals, a patriarch, three archbishops, the two generals of the Carthusians and Cistercians, the king (St Louis), and three of his sons, the queen mother, Baldwin, count of Flanders and emperor of Constantinople, the duke of Burgundy, and six lords, visited the abbey, the whole party, with their attendants, were lodged within the monastery without disarranging the monks, 400 in number. Nearly the whole of the abbey buildings, including the magnificent church, were swept away at the close of the 18th century. When the annexed ground-plan was taken, shortly before its destruction, nearly all the monastery, with the exception of the church, had been rebuilt. Fig. 5. —Abbey of Cluny, from Viollet-le-Duc. A. Gateway. F. Tomb of St Hugh. M. Bakehouse. B. Narthex. G. Nave. N. Abbey buildings. C. Choir. H. Cloister. O. Garden. D. High-altar. K. Abbot’s house. P. Refectory. E. Retro-altar. L. Guest-house. The church, the ground-plan of which bears a remarkable resemblance to that of Lincoln Cathedral, was of vast dimensions. It was 656 ft. by 130 ft. wide. The nave was 102 ft. and the aisles 60 ft. high. The nave (G) had double vaulted aisles on either side. Like Lincoln, it had an eastern as well as a western transept, each furnished with apsidal chapels to the east. The western transept was 213 ft. long, and the eastern 123 ft. The choir terminated in a semicircular apse (F), surrounded by five chapels, also semicircular. The western entrance was approached by an ante-church, or narthex (B), itself an aisled church of no mean dimensions, flanked by two towers, rising from a stately flight of steps bearing a large stone cross. To the south of the church lay the cloister-court (H), of immense size, placed much farther to the west than is usually the case. On the south side of the cloister stood the refectory (P), an immense building, 100 ft. long and 60 ft. wide, accommodating six longitudinal and three transverse rows of tables. It was adorned with the portraits of the chief benefactors of the abbey, and with Scriptural subjects. The end wall displayed the Last Judgment. We are unhappily unable to identify any other of the principal buildings (N). The abbot’s residence (K), still partly standing, adjoined the entrance-gate. The guest-house (L) was close by. The bakehouse (M), also remaining, is a detached building of immense size. The first English house of the Cluniac order was that of Lewes, founded by the earl of Warren, c . A.D. 1077. Of this only a few fragments of the domestic buildings exist. The best preserved Cluniac houses in England are Castle Acre, Norfolk, and Wenlock, Shropshire. Ground-plans of both are given in Britton’s Architectural Antiquities . They English Cluniac. show several departures from the Benedictine arrangement. In each the prior’s house is remarkably perfect. All Cluniac houses in England were French colonies, governed by priors of that nation. They did not secure their independence nor become “abbeys” till the reign of Henry VI. The Cluniac revival, with all its brilliancy, was but short-lived. The celebrity of this, as of other orders, worked its moral ruin. With their growth in wealth and dignity the Cluniac foundations became as worldly in life and as relaxed in discipline as their predecessors, and a fresh reform was needed. The next great monastic revival, the Cistercian, arising in the last years of the 11th century, had a wider diffusion, and a longer and more honourable existence. Owing its real origin, as a distinct foundation of reformed Benedictines, in the year 1098, to Stephen Harding (a native of Dorsetshire, educated in the monastery of Sherborne), and deriving its Cistercian. name from Citeaux ( Cistercium ), a desolate and almost inaccessible forest solitude, on the borders of Champagne and Burgundy, the rapid growth and wide celebrity of the order are undoubtedly to be attributed to the enthusiastic piety of St Bernard, abbot of the first of the monastic colonies, subsequently sent forth in such quick succession by the first Cistercian houses, the far-famed abbey of Clairvaux (de Clara Valle), A.D. 1116. The rigid self-abnegation, which was the ruling principle of this reformed congregation of the Benedictine order, extended itself to the churches and other buildings erected by them. The characteristic of the Cistercian abbeys was the extremest simplicity and a studied plainness. Only one tower—a central one—was permitted, and that was to be very low. Unnecessary pinnacles and turrets were prohibited. The triforium was omitted. The windows were to be plain and undivided, and it was forbidden to decorate them with stained glass. All needless ornament was proscribed. The crosses must be of wood; the candlesticks of iron. The renunciation of the world was to be evidenced in all that met the eye. The same spirit manifested itself in the choice of the sites of their monasteries. The more dismal, the more savage, the more hopeless a spot appeared, the more did it please their rigid mood. But they came not merely as ascetics, but as improvers. The Cistercian monasteries are, as a rule, found placed in deep well-watered valleys. They always stand on the border of a stream; not rarely, as at Fountains, the buildings extend over it. These valleys, now so rich and productive, wore a very different aspect when the brethren first chose them as the place of their retirement. Wide swamps, deep morasses, tangled thickets, wild impassable forests, were their prevailing features. The “bright valley,” Clara Vallis of St Bernard, was known as the “valley of Wormwood,” infamous as a den of robbers. “It was a savage dreary solitude, so utterly barren that at first Bernard and his companions were reduced to live on beech leaves.”—( Milman’s Lat. Christ. vol. iii. p. 335.) All Cistercian monasteries, unless the circumstances of the locality forbade it, were arranged according to one plan. The general arrangement and distribution of the various buildings, which went to make up one of these vast establishments, may be gathered from that of St Bernard’s own abbey of Clairvaux, which is here given. It will be observed Clairvaux. that the abbey precincts are surrounded by a strong wall, furnished at intervals with watch-towers and other defensive works. The wall is nearly encircled by a stream of water, artificially diverted from the small rivulets which flow through the precincts, furnishing the establishment with an abundant supply in every part, for the irrigation of the gardens and orchards, the sanitary requirements of the brotherhood and for the use of the offices and workshops. Fig. 6. —Clairvaux, No. 1 (Cistercian), General Plan. A. Cloisters. B. Ovens, and corn and oil-mills. C. St Bernard’s cell. D. Chief entrance. E. Tanks for fish. F. Guest-house. G. Abbot’s house. H. Stables. I. Wine-press and hay-chamber. K. Parlour. L. Workshops and workmen’s lodgings. M. Slaughter-house. N. Barns and stables. O. Public presse. P. Gateway. R. Remains of old monastery. S. Oratory. V. Tile-works. X. Tile-kiln. Y. Water-courses. The precincts are divided across the centre by a wall, running from N. to S., into an outer and inner ward,—the former containing the menial, the latter the monastic buildings. The precincts are entered by a gateway (P), at the extreme western extremity, giving admission to the lower ward. Here the barns, granaries, stables, shambles, workshops and workmen’s lodgings were placed, without any regard to symmetry, convenience being the only consideration. Advancing eastwards, we have before us the wall separating the outer and inner ward, and the gatehouse (D) affording communication between the two. On passing through the gateway, the outer court of the inner ward was entered, with the western façade of the monastic church in front. Immediately on the right of entrance was the abbot’s house (G), in close proximity to the guest-house (F). On the other side of the court were the stables, for the accommodation of the horses of the guests and their attendants (H). The church occupied a central position. To the south was the great cloister (A), surrounded by the chief monastic buildings, and farther to the east the smaller cloister, opening out of which were the infirmary, novices’ lodgings and quarters for the aged monks. Still farther to the east, divided from the monastic buildings by a wall, were the vegetable gardens and orchards, and tank for fish. The large fish-ponds, an indispensable adjunct to any ecclesiastical foundation, on the formation of which the monks lavished extreme care and pains, and which often remain as almost the only visible traces of these vast establishments, were placed outside the abbey walls. Plan No. 2 furnishes the ichnography of the distinctly monastic buildings on a larger scale. The usually unvarying arrangement of the Cistercian houses allows us to accept this as a type of the monasteries of this order. The church (A) is the chief feature. It consists of a vast nave of eleven bays, entered by a narthex, with a transept and short apsidal choir. (It may be remarked that the eastern limb in all unaltered Cistercian churches is remarkably short, and usually square.) To the east of each limb of the transept are two square chapels, divided according to Cistercian rule by solid walls. Nine radiating chapels, similarly divided, surround the apse. The stalls of the monks, forming the ritual choir, occupy the four eastern bays of the nave. There was a second range of stalls in the extreme western bays of the nave for the fratres conversi , or lay brothers. To the south of the church, so as to secure as much sun as possible, the cloister was invariably placed, except when local reasons forbade it. Round the cloister (B) were ranged the buildings connected with the monks’ daily life. The chapter-house (C) always opened out of the east walk of the cloister in a line with the south transept. Fig. 7. —Clairvaux, No. 2 (Cistercian), Monastic Buildings. A. Church. B. Cloister. C. Chapter-house. D. Monks’ parlour. E. Calefactory. F. Kitchen and court. G. Refectory. H. Cemetery. I. Little cloister. K. Infirmary. L. Lodgings of novices. M. Old guest-house. N. Old abbot’s lodgings. O. Cloister of super- numerary monks. P. Abbot’s hall. Q. Cell of St Bernard. R. Stables. S. Cellars and store- houses. T. Water-course. U. Saw-mill and oil- mill. V. Currier’s workshop. X. Sacristy. Y. Little library. Z. Undercroft of dormitory. In Cistercian houses this was quadrangular, and was divided by pillars and arches into two or three aisles. Between it and the transept we find the sacristy (X), and a small book-room (Y), armariolum , where the brothers deposited the volumes borrowed from the library. On the other side of the chapter-house, to the south, is a passage (D) communicating with the courts and buildings beyond. This was sometimes known as the parlour , colloquii locus , the monks having the privilege of conversation here. Here also, when discipline became relaxed, traders, who had the liberty of admission, were allowed to display their goods. Beyond this we often find the calefactorium or day-room —an apartment warmed by flues beneath the pavement, where the brethren, half frozen during the night offices, betook themselves after the conclusion of lauds, to gain a little warmth, grease their sandals and get themselves ready for the work of the day. In the plan before us this apartment (E) opens from the south cloister walk, adjoining the refectory. The place usually assigned to it is occupied by the vaulted substructure of the dormitory (Z). The dormitory , as a rule, was placed on the east side of the cloister, running over the calefactory and chapter-house , and joined the south transept, where a flight of steps admitted the brethren into the church for nocturnal services. Opening out of the dormitory was always the necessarium , planned with the greatest regard to health and cleanliness, a water-course invariably running from end to end. The refectory opens out of the south cloister at G. The position of the refectory is usually a marked point of difference between Benedictine and Cistercian abbeys. In the former, as at Canterbury, the refectory ran east and west parallel to the nave of the church, on the side of the cloister farthest removed from it. In the Cistercian monasteries, to keep the noise and smell of dinner still farther away from the sacred building, the refectory was built north and south, at right angles to the axis of the church. It was often divided, sometimes into two, sometimes, as here, into three aisles. Outside the refectory door, in the cloister, was the lavatory , where the monks washed their hands at dinner-time. The buildings belonging to the material life of the monks lay near the refectory, as far as possible from the church, to the S.W. With a distinct entrance from the outer court was the kitchen court (F), with its buttery, scullery and larder, and the important adjunct of a stream of running water. Farther to the west, projecting beyond the line of the west front of the church, were vast vaulted apartments (SS), serving as cellars and storehouses, above which was the dormitory of the conversi . Detached from these, and separated entirely from the monastic buildings, were various workshops, which convenience required to be banished to the outer precincts, a saw-mill and oil-mill (UU) turned by water, and a currier’s shop (V), where the sandals and leathern girdles of the monks were made and repaired. Returning to the cloister, a vaulted passage admitted to the small cloister (I), opening from the north side of which were eight small cells, assigned to the scribes employed in copying works for the library, which was placed in the upper story, accessible by a turret staircase. To the south of the small cloister a long hall will be noticed. This was a lecture-hall , or rather a hall for the religious disputations customary among the Cistercians. From this cloister opened the infirmary (K), with its hall, chapel, cells, blood-letting house and other dependencies. At the eastern verge of the vast group of buildings we find the novices’ lodgings (L), with a third cloister near the novices’ quarters and the original guest-house (M). Detached from the great mass of the monastic edifices was the original abbot’s house (N), with its dining-hall (P). Closely adjoining to this, so that the eye of the father of the whole establishment should be constantly over those who stood the most in need of his watchful care,—those who were training for the monastic life, and those who had worn themselves out in its duties,—was a fourth cloister (O), with annexed buildings, devoted to the aged and infirm members of the establishment. The cemetery, the last resting-place of the brethren, lay to the north side of the nave of the church (H). It will be seen from the above account that the arrangement of a Cistercian monastery was in accordance with a clearly defined system, and admirably adapted to its purpose. The base court nearest to the outer wall contained the buildings belonging to the functions of the body as agriculturists and employers of labour. Advancing into the inner court, the buildings devoted to hospitality are found close to the entrance; while those connected with the supply of the material wants of the brethren,—the kitchen, cellars, &c.,—form a court of themselves outside the cloister and quite detached from the church. The church refectory, dormitory and other buildings belonging to the professional life of the brethren surround the great cloister. The small cloister beyond, with its scribes’ cells, library, hall for disputations, &c., is the centre of the literary life of the community. The requirements of sickness and old age are carefully provided for in the infirmary cloister and that for the aged and infirm members of the establishment. The same group contains the quarters of the novices. This stereotyped arrangement is further shown by the illustration of the mother establishment of Citeaux. A cross (A), planted on the high road, directs travellers to the gate of the monastery, reached by an avenue of trees. On one side of the gate-house (B) is a long building (C), probably the almonry, with a dormitory above for the lower class of guests. On the other side is a chapel (D). As soon as the porter heard a stranger knock at the gate, he rose, saying, Deo gratias , the opportunity for the exercise Citeaux. of hospitality being regarded as a cause for thankfulness. On opening the door he welcomed the new arrival with a blessing— Benedicite . He fell on his knees before him, and then went to inform the abbot. However important the abbot’s occupations might be, he at once hastened to receive him whom heaven had sent. He also threw himself at his guest’s feet, and conducted him to the chapel (D) purposely built close to the gate. After a short prayer, the abbot committed the guest to the care of the brother hospitaller, whose duty it was to provide for his wants and conduct the beast on which he might be riding to the stable (F), built adjacent to the inner gate-house (E). This inner gate conducted into the base court (T), round which were placed the barns, stables, cow-sheds, &c. On the eastern side stood the dormitory of the lay brothers, fratres conversi (G), detached from the cloister, with cellars and storehouses below. At H, also outside the monastic buildings proper, was the abbot’s house, and annexed to it the guest-house. For these buildings there was a separate door of entrance into the church (S). The large cloister, with its surrounding arcades, is seen at V. On the south end projects the refectory (K), with its kitchen at I, accessible from the base court. The long gabled building on the east side of the cloister contained on the ground floor the chapter-house and calefactory, with the monks’ dormitory above (M), communicating with the south transept of the church. At L was the staircase to the dormitory. The small cloister is at W, where were the carols or cells of the scribes, with the library (P) over, reached by a turret staircase. At R we see a portion of the infirmary. The whole precinct is surrounded by a strong buttressed wall (XXX), pierced with arches, through which streams of water are introduced. It will be noticed that the choir of the church is short, and has a square end instead of the usual apse. The tower, in accordance with the Cistercian rule, is very low. The windows throughout accord with the studied simplicity of the order. Fig. 8. —Bird’s-eye view of Citeaux. A. Cross. B. Gate-house. C. Almonry. D. Chapel. E. Inner gate-house. F. Stable. G. Dormitory of lay brethren. H. Abbot’s house. I. Kitchen. K. Refectory. L. Staircase to dormitory. M. Dormitory. N. Church. P. Library. R. Infirmary. S. Door to the church for the lay brothers. T. Base court. V. Great cloister. W. Small cloister. X. Boundary wall. The English Cistercian houses, of which there are such extensive and beautiful remains at Fountains, Rievaulx, Kirkstall, Tintern, Netley, &c., were mainly arranged after the same plan, with slight local variations. As an example, we give the ground-plan of Kirkstall Abbey, which is one of the best preserved. The church here is of the Cistercian type, Kirkstall Abbey. with a short chancel of two squares, and transepts with three eastward chapels to each, divided by solid walls (2 2 2). The whole is of the most studied plainness. The windows are unornamented, and the nave has no triforium. The cloister to the south (4) occupies the whole length of the nave. On the east side stands the two-aisled chapter-house (5), between which and the south transept is a small sacristy (3), and on the other side two small apartments, one of which was probably the parlour (6). Beyond this stretches southward the calefactory or day-room of the monks (14). Above this whole range of building runs the monks’ dormitory, opening by stairs into the south transept of the church. At the other end were the necessaries. On the south side of the cloister we have the remains of the old refectory (11), running, as in Benedictine houses, from east to west, and the new refectory (12), which, with the increase of the inmates of the house, superseded it, stretching, as is usual in Cistercian houses, from north to south. Adjacent to this apartment are the remains of the kitchen, pantry and buttery. The arches of the lavatory are to be seen near the refectory entrance. The western side of the cloister is, as usual, occupied by vaulted cellars, supporting on the upper story the dormitory of the lay brothers (8). Fig. 9. —Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire (Cistercian). 1. Church. 2. Chapels. 3. Sacristy. 4. Cloister. 5. Chapter-house. 6. Parlour. 7. Punishment cell (?). 8. Cellars, with dormitories for conversi over. 9. Guest-house. 10. Common room. 11. Old refectory. 12. New refectory. 13. Kitchen court. 14. Calefactory or day-room. 15. Kitchen and offices. 16-19. Uncertain; perhaps offices connected with the infirmary. 20. Infirmary or abbot’s house. Extending from the south-east angle of the main group of buildings are the walls and foundations of a secondary group of considerable extent. These have been identified either with the hospitium or with the abbot’s house, but they occupy the position in which the infirmary is more usually found. The hall was a very spacious apartment, measuring 83 ft. in length by 48 ft. 9 in. in breadth, and was divided by two rows of columns. The fish-ponds lay between the monastery and the river to the south. The abbey mill was situated about 80 yards to the north-west. The mill-pool may be distinctly traced, together with the gowt or mill stream. Fountains Abbey, first founded A.D. 1132, is one of the largest and best preserved Cistercian houses in England. But the earlier buildings received considerable additions and alterations in the later period of the order, causing deviations from the strict Cistercian type. The church stands a short distance to the north of the river Skell, Fountains Abbey. the buildings of the abbey stretching down to and even across the stream. We have the cloister (H) to the south, with the three-aisled chapter-house (I) and calefactory (L) opening from its eastern walk, and the refectory (S), with the kitchen (Q) and buttery (T) attached, at right angles to its southern walk. Fig. 10. —Ground-plan of Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire. A. Nave of the church. B. Transept. C. Chapels. D. Tower. E. Sacristy. F. Choir. G. Chapel of nine altars. H. Cloister. I. Chapter-house. K. Base court. L. Calefactory. M. Water-course. N. Cellar. O. Brewhouse. P. Prisons. Q. Kitchen. R. Offices. S. Refectory. T. Buttery. U. Cellars and store- houses. V. Necessary. W. Infirmary (?). X. Guest-houses. Y. Mill bridge. Z. Gate-house Abbot’s House. 1. Passage. 2. Great hall. 3. Refectory. 4. Buttery. 5. Storehouse. 6. Chapel. 7. Kitchen. 8. Ashpit. 9. Yard. 10. Kitchen tank. Parallel with the western walk is an immense vaulted substructure (U), incorrectly styled the cloisters, serving as cellars and store-rooms, and supporting the dormitory of the conversi above. This building extended across the river. At its S.W. corner were the necessaries (V), also built, as usual, above the swiftly flowing stream. The monks’ dormitory was in its usual position above the chapter-house, to the south of the transept. As peculiarities of arrangement may be noticed the position of the kitchen (Q), between the refectory and calefactory, and of the infirmary (W) (unless there is some error in its designation) above the river to the west, adjoining the guest-houses (XX). We may also call attention to the greatly lengthened choir, commenced by Abbot John of York, 1203–1211, and carried on by his successor, terminating, like Durham Cathedral, in an eastern transept, the work of Abbot John of Kent, 1220–1247, and to the tower (D), added not long before the dissolution by Abbot Huby, 1494–1526, in a very unusual position at the northern end of the north transept. The abbot’s house, the largest and most remarkable example of this class of buildings in the kingdom, stands south to the east of the church and cloister, from which it is divided by the kitchen court (K), surrounded by the ordinary domestic offices. A considerable portion of this house was erected on arches over the Skell. The size and character of this house, probably, at the time of its erection, the most spacious house of a subject in the kingdom, not a castle, bespeaks the wide departure of the Cistercian order from the stern simplicity of the original foundation. The hall (2) was one of the most spacious and magnificent apartments in medieval times, measuring 170 ft. by 70 ft. Like the hall in the castle at Winchester, and Westminster Hall, as originally built, it was divided by 18 pillars and arches, with 3 aisles. Among other apartments, for the designation of which we must refer to the ground-plan, was a domestic oratory or chapel, 46 1 / 2 ft. by 23 ft. and a kitchen (7), 50 ft. by 38 ft. The whole arrangements and character of the building bespeak the rich and powerful feudal lord, not the humble father of a body of hard-working brethren, bound by vows to a life of poverty and self-denying toil. In the words of Dean Milman, “the superior, once a man bowed to the earth with humility, care-worn, pale, emaciated, with a coarse habit bound with a cord, with naked feet, had become an abbot on his curvetting palfrey, in rich attire, with his silver cross before him, travelling to take his place amid the lordliest of the realm.”—( Lat. Christ. vol. iii. p. 330.) The buildings of the Austin canons or Black canons (so called from the colour of their habit) present few distinctive peculiarities. This order had its first seat in England at Colchester, where a house for Austin canons was founded about A.D. 1105, and it very soon spread widely. As an order of regular clergy, holding a middle Austin Canons. position between monks and secular canons, almost resembling a community of parish priests living under rule, they adopted naves of great length to accommodate large congregations. The choir is usually long, and is sometimes, as at Llanthony and Christ Church (Twynham), shut off from the aisles, or, as at Bolton, Kirkham, &c., is destitute of aisles altogether. The nave in the northern houses, not unfrequently, had only a north aisle, as at Bolton, Brinkburn and Lanercost. The arrangement of the monastic buildings followed the ordinary type. The prior’s lodge was almost invariably attached to the S.W. angle of the nave. The annexed plan of the Abbey of St Augustine’s at Bristol, now the cathedral church of that city, shows the arrangement of the buildings, which departs very little from the ordinary Benedictine type. The Austin canons’ house at Thornton, in Lincolnshire, is remarkable for the size and magnificence of its gate-house, Bristol Cathedral. the upper floors of which formed the guest-house of the establishment, and for possessing an octagonal chapter-house of Decorated date. The Premonstratensian regular canons, or White canons, had as many as 35 houses in England, of which the most perfect remaining are those of Easby, Yorkshire, and Bayham, Kent. The head house of the order in England was Welbeck. This order was a reformed branch of the Austin canons, founded, A.D. 1119, by Norbert Premonst- ratensians. (born at Xanten, on the Lower Rhine, c , 1080) at Prémontré, a secluded marshy valley in the forest of Coucy in the diocese of Laon. The order spread widely. Even in the founder’s lifetime it possessed houses in Syria and Palestine. It long maintained its rigid austerity, till in the course of years wealth impaired its discipline, and its members sank into indolence and luxury. The Premonstratensians were brought to England shortly after A.D. 1140, and were first settled at Newhouse, in Lincolnshire, near the Humber. The ground-plan of Easby Abbey, owing to its situation on the edge of the steeply sloping banks of a river, is singularly irregular. The cloister is duly placed on the south side of the church, and the chief buildings occupy their usual positions round it. But the cloister garth, as at Chichester, is not rectangular, and all the surrounding buildings are thus made to sprawl in a very awkward fashion. The church follows the plan adopted by the Austin canons in their northern abbeys, and has only one aisle to the nave—that to the north; while the choir is long, narrow and aisleless. Each transept has an aisle to the east, forming three chapels. The church at Bayham was destitute of aisles either to nave or choir. The latter terminated in a three-sided apse. This church is remarkable for its exceeding narrowness in proportion to its length. Extending in longitudinal dimensions 257 ft., it is not more than 25 ft. broad. Stern Premonstratensian canons wanted no congregations, and cared for no possessions; therefore they built their church like a long room. Fig. 11. —St Augustine’s Abbey, Bristol (Bristol Cathedral). A. Church. B. Great cloister. C. Little cloister. D. Chapter-house. E. Calefactory. F. Refectory. G. Parlour. H. Kitchen. I. Kitchen court. K. Cellars. L. Abbot’s hall. P. Abbot’s gateway. R. Infirmary. S. Friars’ lodging. T. King’s hall. V. Guest-house. W. Abbey gateway. X. Barns, stables, &c. Y. Lavatory. The Carthusian order, on its establishment by St Bruno, about A.D. 1084, developed a greatly modified form and arrangement of a monastic institution. The principle of this order, which combined the coenobitic with the solitary life, demanded the erection of buildings on a novel plan. This plan, which was first adopted by St Bruno and his Carthusians. twelve companions at the original institution at Chartreux, near Grenoble, was maintained in all the Carthusian establishments throughout Europe, even after the ascetic severity of the order had been to some extent relaxed, and the primitive simplicity of their buildings had been exchanged for the magnificence of decoration which characterizes such foundations as the Certosas of Pavia and Florence. According to the rule of St Bruno, all the members of a Carthusian brotherhood lived in the most absolute solitude and silence. Each occupied a small detached cottage, standing by itself in a small garden surrounded by high walls and connected by a common corridor or cloister. In these cottages or cells a Carthusian monk passed his time in the strictest asceticism, only leaving his solitary dwelling to attend the services of the Church, except on certain days when the brotherhood assembled in the refectory. The peculiarity of the arrangements of a Carthusian monastery, or charter-house , as it was called in England, from a corruption of the French chartreux , is exhibited in the plan of that of Clermont, from Viollet-le-Duc. A. Church. B. Monks’ choir. C. Prior’s garden. D. Great cloister. E. Chapter-house. F. Passage. G. Prior’s lodgings. H. Dovecot. I. Cells. K. Chapel of Pontgibaud. L. Sacristy. M. Chapel. N. Stables. O. Gateway. P. Guest-chambers. Q. Barns and granaries. R. Watch-tower. S. Little cloister. T. Bakehouse. V. Kitchen. X. Refectory. Y. Cemetery. Z. Prison. a . Cell of sub-prior. b . Garden of do. Fig. 12. —Carthusian monastery of Clermont. The whole establishment is surrounded by a wall, furnished at intervals with watch towers (R). The enclosure is divided into two courts, of which the eastern court, surrounded by a cloister, from which the cottages of the monks (I) open, is much the larger. The two courts are divided by the main buildings of the monastery, including the church, the sanctuary (A), divided from B, the monks’ Clermont. choir, by a screen with two altars, the smaller cloister to the south (S) surrounded by the chapter-house (E), the refectory (X)—these buildings occupying their normal position—and the chapel of Pontgibaud (K). The kitchen with its offices (V) lies behind the refectory, accessible from the outer court without entering the cloister. To the north of the church, beyond the sacristy (L), and the side chapels (M), we find the cell of the sub-prior ( a ), with its garden. The lodgings of the prior (G) occupy the centre of the outer court, immediately in front of the west door of the church, and face the gateway of the convent (O). A small raised court with a fountain (C) is before it. This outer court also contains the guest-chambers (P), the stables and lodgings of the lay brothers (N), the barns and granaries (Q), the dovecot (H) and the bakehouse (T). At Z is the prison. (In this outer court, in all the earlier foundations, as at Witham, there was a smaller church in addition to the larger church of the monks.) The outer and inner courts are connected by a long passage (F), wide enough to admit a cart laden with wood to supply the cells of the brethren with fuel. The number of cells surrounding the great cloister is 18. They are all arranged on a uniform plan. Each little dwelling contains three rooms: a sitting-room (C), warmed by a stove in winter; a sleeping-room (D), furnished with a bed, a table, a bench, and a bookcase; and a closet (E). Between the cell and the cloister gallery (A) is a passage or corridor (B), cutting off the inmate of the cell from all sound or movement which might interrupt his meditations. The superior had free access to this corridor, and through open niches was able to inspect the garden without being seen. At I is the hatch or turn-table, in which the daily allowance of food was deposited by a brother appointed for that purpose, affording no view either inwards or outwards. H is the garden, cultivated by the occupant of the cell. At K is the wood-house. F is a covered walk, with the necessary at the end. The above arrangements are found with scarcely any variation in all the charter-houses of western Europe. The Yorkshire Charter-house of Mount Grace, founded by Thomas Holland, the young duke of Surrey, nephew of Richard II. and marshal of England, during the revival of the popularity of the order, about A.D. 1397, is the most perfect and best preserved English example. It is characterized by all the simplicity of the order. The church is a modest building, long, narrow and aisleless. Within the wall of enclosure are two courts. The smaller of the two, the south, presents the usual arrangement of church, refectory, &c., opening out of a cloister. The buildings are plain and solid. The northern court contains the cells, 14 in number. It is surrounded by a double stone wall, the two walls being about 30 ft. or 40 ft. apart. Between these, each in its own garden, stand the cells; low-built two-storied cottages, of two or three rooms on the ground-floor, lighted by a larger and a smaller window to the side, and provided with a doorway to the court, and one at the back, opposite to one in the outer wall, through which the monk may have conveyed the sweepings of his cell and the refuse of his garden to the “eremus” beyond. By the side of the door to the court is a little hatch through which the daily pittance of food was supplied, so contrived by turning at an angle in the wall that no one could either look in or look out. A very perfect example of this hatch—an arrangement belonging to all Carthusian houses—exists at Miraflores, near Burgos, which remains nearly as it was completed in 1480. A. Cloister gallery. B. Corridor. C. Living-room. D. Sleeping-room. E. Closets. F. Covered walk. G. Necessary. H. Garden. I. Hatch. K. Wood-house. Fig. 13. —Carthusian cell, Clermont. There were only nine Carthusian houses in England. The earliest was that at Witham in Somersetshire, founded by Henry II., by whom the order was first brought into England. The wealthiest and most magnificent was that of Sheen or Richmond in Surrey, founded by Henry V. about A.D. 1414. The dimensions of the buildings at Sheen are stated to have been remarkably large. The great court measured 300 ft. by 250 ft.; the cloisters were a square of 500 ft.; the hall was 110 ft. in length by 60 ft. in breadth. The most celebrated historically is the Charter-house of London, founded by Sir Walter Manny A.D. 1371, the name of which is preserved by the famous public school established on the site by Thomas Sutton A.D. 1611, now removed to Godalming. An article on monastic arrangements would be incomplete without some account of the convents of the Mendicant or Preaching Friars, including the Black Friars or Dominicans, the Grey or Franciscans, the White or Carmelites, the Eremite or Austin Friars. These orders arose at the beginning of the 13th century, when the Benedictines, together Mendicant Friars. with their various reformed branches, had terminated their active mission, and Christian Europe was ready for a new religious revival. Planting themselves, as a rule, in large towns, and by preference in the poorest and most densely populated districts, the Preaching Friars were obliged to adapt their buildings to the requirements of the site. Regularity of arrangement, therefore, was not possible, even if they had studied it. Their churches, built for the reception of large congregations of hearers rather than worshippers, form a class by themselves, totally unlike those of the elder orders in ground-plan and character. They were usually long parallelograms unbroken by transepts. The nave very usually consisted of two equal bodies, one containing the stalls of the brotherhood, the other left entirely free for the congregation. The constructional choir is often wanting, the whole church forming one uninterrupted structure, with a continuous range of windows. The east end was usually square, but the Friars Church at Winchelsea had a polygonal apse. We not unfrequently find a single transept, sometimes of great size, rivalling or exceeding the nave. This arrangement is frequent in Ireland, where the numerous small friaries afford admirable exemplifications of these peculiarities of ground-plan. The friars’ churches were at first destitute of towers; but in the 14th and 15th centuries, tall, slender towers were commonly inserted between the nave and the choir. The Grey Friars at Lynn, where the tower is hexagonal, is a good example. The arrangement of the monastic buildings is equally peculiar and characteristic. We miss entirely the regularity of the buildings of the earlier orders. At the Jacobins at Paris, a cloister lay to the north of the long narrow church of two parallel aisles, while the refectory—a room of immense length, quite detached from the cloister—stretched across the area before the west front of the church. At Toulouse the nave also has two parallel aisles, but the choir is apsidal, with radiating chapel. The refectory stretches northwards at right angles to the cloister, which lies to the north of the church, having the chapter-house and sacristy on the east. As examples of English friaries, the Dominican house at Norwich, and those of the Dominicans and Franciscans at Gloucester, may be mentioned. The church of the Black Friars of Norwich departs from the original type in the nave (now St Andrew’s Hall), in having regular aisles. In this it resembles the earlier Norwich. Gloucester. examples of the Grey Friars at Reading. The choir is long and aisleless; an hexagonal tower between the two, like that existing at Lynn, has perished. The cloister and monastic buildings remain tolerably perfect to the north. The Dominican convent at Gloucester still exhibits the cloister-court, on the north side of which is the desecrated church. The refectory is on the west side and on the south the dormitory of the 13th century. This is a remarkably good example. There were 18 cells or cubicles on each side, divided by partitions, the bases of which remain. On the east side was the prior’s house, a building of later date. At the Grey or Franciscan Friars, the church followed the ordinary type in having two equal bodies, each gabled, with a continuous range of windows. There was a slender tower between the nave and the choir. Of the convents of the Carmelite or White Friars we have a good example in the Abbey of Hulne, near Alnwick, the first of the order in England, founded A.D. 1240. The church is a narrow oblong, destitute of aisles, 123 ft. long by only 26 ft. wide. The cloisters are to the south, with the chapter-house, &c., to the Hulne. east, with the dormitory over. The prior’s lodge is placed to the west of the cloister. The guest-houses adjoin the entrance gateway, to which a chapel was annexed on the south side of the conventual area. The nave of the church of the Austin Friars or Eremites in London is still standing. It is of Decorated date, and has wide centre and side aisles, divided by a very light and graceful arcade. Some fragments of the south walk of the cloister of the Grey Friars remained among the buildings of Christ’s Hospital (the Blue-Coat School), while they were still standing. Of the Black Friars all has perished but the name. Taken as a whole, the remains of the establishments of the friars afford little warrant for the bitter invective of the Benedictine of St Alban’s, Matthew Paris:—“The friars who have been founded hardly 40 years have built residences as the palaces of kings. These are they who, enlarging day by day their sumptuous edifices, encircling them with lofty walls, lay up in them their incalculable treasures, imprudently transgressing the bounds of poverty and violating the very fundamental rules of their profession.” Allowance must here be made for jealousy of a rival order just rising in popularity. Every large monastery had depending upon it one or more smaller establishments known as cells . These cells were monastic colonies, sent forth by the parent house, and planted on some outlying estate. As an example, we may refer to the small religious house of St Mary Magdalene’s, a cell of the great Benedictine house of St Mary’s, York, in Cells. the valley of the Witham, to the south-east of the city of Lincoln. This consists of one long narrow range of building, of which the eastern part formed the chapel and the western contained the apartments of the handful of monks of which it was the home. To the east may be traced the site of the abbey mill, with its dam and mill-lead. These cells, when belonging to a Cluniac house, were called Obedientiae . The plan given by Viollet-le-Duc of the Priory of St Jean des Bons Hommes , a Cluniac cell, situated between the town of Avallon and the village of Savigny, shows that these diminutive establishments comprised every essential feature of a monastery,—chapel, cloister, chapter-room, refectory, dormitory, all grouped according to the recognized arrangement. These Cluniac obedientiae differed from the ordinary Benedictine cells in being also places of punishment, to which monks who had been guilty of any grave infringement of the rules were relegated as to a kind of penitentiary. Here they were placed under the authority of a prior, and were condemned to severe manual labour, fulfilling the duties usually executed by the lay brothers, who acted as farm-servants. The outlying farming establishments belonging to the monastic foundations were known as villae or granges . They gave employment to a body of conversi and labourers under the management of a monk, who bore the title of Brother Hospitaller —the granges, like their parent institutions, affording shelter and hospitality to belated travellers. Authorities. —Dugdale, Monasticon ; Lenoir, Architecture monastique (1852–1856); Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire raisonnée de l’architecture française ; Springer, Klosterleben und Klosterkunst (1886); Kraus, Geschichte der christlichen Kunst (1896). ( E. V. ) Footnotes ↑ The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury . By the Rev. Robert Willis . Printed for the Kent Archaeological Society, 1869. |
ABBON OF FLEURY, or Abbo Floriacensis ( c . 945–1004), a learned Frenchman, born near Orleans about 945. He distinguished himself in the schools of Paris and Reims, and was especially proficient in science as known in his time. He spent two years in England, assisting Archbishop Oswald of York in restoring the monastic system, and was abbot of Romsey. After his return to France he was made abbot of Fleury on the Loire (988). He was twice sent to Rome by King Robert the Pious (986, 996), and on each occasion succeeded in warding off a threatened papal interdict. He was killed at La Réole in 1004, in endeavouring to quell a monkish revolt. He wrote an Epitome de vitis Romanorum pontificum , besides controversial treatises, letters, &c. (see Migne , Patrologia Latina , vol. 139). His life, written by his disciple Aimoin of Fleury, in which much of Abbon’s correspondence was reproduced, is of great importance as a source for the reign of Robert II., especially with reference to the papacy (cf. Migne, op. cit . vol. 139). See Ch. Pfister, Études sur le règne de Robert le Pieux (1885); Cuissard-Gaucheron, “L’École de Fleury-sur-Loire à la fin du 10ᵉ siècle”, in Mémoires de la société archéol. de l’Orléanais , xiv. (Orleans, 1875); A. Molinier, Sources de l’histoire de France . |
ABBOT, EZRA (1819–1884), American biblical scholar, was born at Jackson, Waldo county, Maine, on the 28th of April 1819. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1840; and in 1847, at the request of Prof. Andrews Norton, went to Cambridge, where he was principal of a public school until 1856. He was assistant librarian of Harvard University from 1856 to 1872, and planned and perfected an alphabetical card catalogue, combining many of the advantages of the ordinary dictionary catalogues with the grouping of the minor topics under more general heads, which is characteristic of a systematic catalogue. From 1872 until his death he was Bussey Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation in the Harvard Divinity School. His studies were chiefly in Oriental languages and the textual criticism of the New Testament, though his work as a bibliographer showed such results as the exhaustive list of writings (5300 in all) on the doctrine of the future life, appended to W. R. Alger ’s History of the Doctrine of a Future Life , as it has prevailed in all Nations and Ages (1862), and published separately in 1864. His publications, though always of the most thorough and scholarly character, were to a large extent dispersed in the pages of reviews, dictionaries, concordances, texts edited by others, Unitarian controversial treatises, &c.; but he took a more conspicuous and more personal part in the preparation (with the Baptist scholar, Horatio B. Hackett) of the enlarged American edition of Dr (afterwards Sir) William Smith ’s Dictionary of the Bible (1867–1870), to which he contributed more than 400 articles besides greatly improving the bibliographical completeness of the work; was an efficient member of the American revision committee employed in connexion with the Revised Version (1881–1885) of the King James Bible ; and aided in the preparation of Caspar René Gregory ’s Prolegomena to the revised Greek New Testament of Tischendorf. His principal single production, representing his scholarly method and conservative conclusions, was The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel: External Evidences (1880; second edition, by J. H. Thayer , with other essays, 1889), originally a lecture, and in spite of the compression due to its form, up to that time probably the ablest defence, based on external evidence, of the Johannine authorship, and certainly the completest treatment of the relation of Justin Martyr to this gospel. Abbot, though a layman, received the degree of S. T. D. from Harvard in 1872, and that of D.D. from Edinburgh in 1884. He died in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 21st of March 1884. See S. J. Barrows , Ezra Abbot (Cambridge, Mass., 1884). |
ABBOT, GEORGE (1562–1633), English divine, archbishop of Canterbury, was born on the 19th of October 1562, at Guildford in Surrey, where his father was a cloth-worker. He studied, and then taught, at Balliol College, Oxford, was chosen master of University College in 1597, and appointed dean of Winchester in 1600. He was three times vice-chancellor of the university, and took a leading part in preparing the authorized version of the New Testament. In 1608 he went to Scotland with the earl of Dunbar to arrange for a union between the churches of England and Scotland. He so pleased the king ( James I .) in this affair that he was made bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1609, was translated to the see of London a month afterwards, and in less than a year was raised to that of Canterbury. His puritan instincts frequently led him not only into harsh treatment of Roman Catholics, but also into courageous resistance to the royal will, e.g. when he opposed the scandalous divorce suit of the Lady Frances Howard against the earl of Essex, and again in 1618 when, at Croydon, he forbade the reading of the declaration permitting Sunday sports. He was naturally, therefore, a promoter of the match between the elector palatine and the Princess Elizabeth, and a firm opponent of the projected marriage of the prince of Wales with the infanta of Spain. This policy brought upon him the hatred of Laud (with whom he had previously come into collision at Oxford) and the court, though the king himself never forsook him. In 1622, while hunting in Lord Zouch’s park at Bramshill, Hampshire, a bolt from his cross-bow aimed at a deer happened to strike one of the keepers, who died within an hour, and Abbot was so greatly distressed by the event that he fell into a state of settled melancholy. His enemies maintained that the fatal issue of this accident disqualified him for his office, and argued that, though the homicide was involuntary, the sport of hunting which had led to it was one in which no clerical person could lawfully indulge. The king had to refer the matter to a commission of ten, though he said that “an angel might have miscarried after this sort.” The commission was equally divided, and the king gave a casting vote in the archbishop’s favour, though signing also a formal pardon or dispensation. After this the archbishop seldom appeared at the council, chiefly on account of his infirmities. He attended the king constantly, however, in his last illness, and performed the ceremony of the coronation of Charles I. His refusal to license the assize sermon preached by Dr Robert Sibthorp at Northampton on the 22nd of February 1626–1627, in which cheerful obedience was urged to the king’s demand for a general loan, and the duty proclaimed of absolute non-resistance even to the most arbitrary royal commands, led Charles to deprive him of his functions as primate, putting them in commission. The need of summoning parliament, however, soon brought about a nominal restoration of the archbishop’s powers. His presence being unwelcome at court, he lived from that time in retirement, leaving Laud and his party in undisputed ascendancy. He died at Croydon on the 5th of August 1633, and was buried at Guildford, his native place, where he had endowed a hospital with lands to the value of £300 a year. Abbot was a conscientious prelate, though narrow in view and often harsh towards both separatists and Romanists. He wrote a large number of works, the most interesting being his discursive Exposition on the Prophet Jonah (1600), which was reprinted in 1845. His Geography, or a Brief Description of the Whole World (1599), passed through numerous editions. The best account of him is in S. R. Gardiner ’s History of England . |
ABBOT, GEORGE (1603–1648), English writer, known as “The Puritan,” has been oddly and persistently mistaken for others. He has been described as a clergyman, which he never was, and as son of Sir Morris (or Maurice) Abbot, and his writings accordingly entered in the bibliographical authorities as by the nephew of the archbishop of Canterbury. One of the sons of Sir Morris Abbot was, indeed, named George, and he was a man of mark, but the more famous George Abbot was of a different family altogether. He was son or grandson (it is not clear which) of Sir Thomas Abbot, knight of Easington, East Yorkshire, having been born there in 1603–1604, his mother (or grandmother) being of the ancient house of Pickering. Of his early life and training nothing is known. He married a daughter of Colonel Purefoy of Caldecote, Warwickshire, and as his monument, which may still be seen in the church there, tells, he bravely held the manor house against Princes Rupert and Maurice during the civil war. As a layman, and nevertheless a theologian and scholar of rare ripeness and critical ability, he holds an almost unique place in the literature of the period. The terseness of his Whole Booke of Job Paraphrased , or made easy for any to understand (1640, 4to), contrasts favourably with the usual prolixity of the Puritan expositors and commentators. His Vindiciae Sabbathi (1641, 8vo) had a profound and lasting influence in the long Sabbatarian controversy. His Brief Notes upon the Whole Book of Psalms (1651, 4to), as its date shows, was posthumous. He died on the 2nd of February 1648. Authorities .—MS. collections at Abbeyville for history of all of the name of Abbot, by J. T. Abbot, Esq., F.S.A., Darlington; Dugdale ’s Antiquities of Warwickshire , 1730, p. 1099; Wood ’s Athenae (Bliss), ii. 141, 594; Cox’s Literature of the Sabbath . |
ABBOT, ROBERT (1588?–1662?), English Puritan divine. Noted as this worthy was in his own time, and representative in various ways, he has often since been confounded with others, e.g. Robert Abbot, bishop of Salisbury. He is also wrongly described as a relative of Archbishop Abbot, from whom he acknowledges very gratefully, in the first of his epistles dedicatory of A Hand of Fellowship to Helpe Keepe out Sinne and Antichrist (1623, 4to), that he had “received all” his “worldly maintenance,” as well as “best earthly countenance” and “fatherly incouragements.” The worldly maintenance was the presentation in 1616 to the vicarage of Cranbrook in Kent. He had received his education at Cambridge, where he proceeded M.A., and was afterwards incorporated at Oxford. In 1639, in the epistle to the reader of his most noticeable book historically, his Triall of our Church-Forsakers , he tells us, “I have lived now, by God’s gratious dispensation, above fifty years, and in the place of my allotment two and twenty full.” The former date carries us back to 1588–1589, or perhaps 1587–1588—the “Armada” year—as his birth-time; the latter to 1616–1617 ( ut supra ). In his Bee Thankfull London and her Sisters (1626), he describes himself as formerly “assistant to a reverend divine . . . now with God,” and the name on the margin is “Master Haiward of Wool Church (Dorset).” This was doubtless previous to his going to Cranbrook. Very remarkable and effective was Abbot’s ministry at Cranbrook, where his parishioners were as his own “sons and daughters” to him. Yet, Puritan though he was, he was extremely and often unfairly antagonistic to Nonconformists. He remained at Cranbrook until 1643, when, Parliament deciding against pluralities of ecclesiastical offices, he chose the very inferior living of Southwick, Hants, as between the one and the other. He afterwards succeeded the “extruded” Udall of St Austin’s, London, where according to the Warning-piece he was still pastor in 1657. He disappears silently between 1657–1658 and 1662. Robert Abbot’s books are conspicuous amongst the productions of his time by their terseness and variety. In addition to those mentioned above he wrote Milk for Babes , or a Mother’s Catechism for her Children (1646), and A Christian Family builded by God , or Directions for Governors of Families (1653). Authorities .—Brook’s Puritans , iii. 182, 3; Walker’s Sufferings , ii. 183; Wood ’s Athenae (Bliss), i. 323; Palmer’s Nonconf. Mem. ii. 218, which confuses him most oddly of all with one of the ejected ministers of 1662. |
ABBOT, WILLIAM (1798–1843), English actor, was born in Chelsea, and made his first appearance on the stage at Bath in 1806, and his first London appearance in 1808. At Covent Garden in 1813, in light comedy and melodrama, he made his first decided success. He was Pylades to Macready’s Orestes in Ambrose Philips ’s Distressed Mother when Macready made his first appearance at that theatre (1816). He created the parts of Appius Claudius in Sheridan Knowles ’s Virginius (1820) and of Modus in his Hunchback (1832). In 1827 he organized the company, including Macready and Miss Smithson, which acted Shakespeare in Paris. On his return to London he played Romeo to Fanny Kemble’s Juliet (1830). Two of Abbot’s melodramas, The Youthful Days of Frederick the Great (1817) and Swedish Patriotism (1819), were produced at Covent Garden. He died in poverty at Baltimore, Maryland. |
ABBOT (from the Hebrew ab , a father, through the Syriac abba , Lat. abbas , gen. abbatis , O.E. abbad , fr. late Lat. form abbad-em changed in 13th century under influence of the Lat. form to abbat , used alternatively till the end of the 17th century; Ger. Abt ; Fr. abbé ), the head and chief governor of a community of monks, called also in the East hegumenos or archimandrite. The title had its origin in the monasteries of Syria, whence it spread through the East, and soon became accepted generally in all languages as the designation of the head of a monastery. At first it was employed as a respectful title for any monk, as we learn from St Jerome, who denounced the custom on the ground that Christ had said, “Call no man father on earth” (in Epist. ad Gal . iv. 6, in Matt. xxiii. 9), but it was soon restricted to the superior. The name “abbot,” though general in the West, was never universal. Among the Dominicans, Carmelites, Augustinians, &c., the superior was called Praepositus , “provost,” and Prior ; among the Franciscans, Custos , “guardian”; and by the monks of Camaldoi, Major . In Egypt, the first home of monasticism, the jurisdiction of the abbot, or archimandrite, was but loosely defined. Sometimes he ruled over only one community, sometimes over several, each of which had its own abbot as well. Cassian speaks of an abbot of the Thebaid who had 500 monks under him, a number exceeded in other cases. By the rule of St Benedict, which, until the reform of Cluny, was the norm in the West, the abbot has jurisdiction over only one community. The rule, as was inevitable, was subject to frequent violations; but it was not until the foundation of the Cluniac Order that the idea of a supreme abbot, exercising jurisdiction over all the houses of an order, was definitely recognized. New styles were devised to express this new relation; thus the abbot of Monte Cassino was called abbas abbatum , while the chiefs of other orders had the titles abbas generalis , or magister or minister generalis . Monks, as a rule, were laymen, nor at the outset was the abbot any exception. All orders of clergy, therefore, even the “doorkeeper,” took precedence of him. For the reception of the sacraments, and for other religious offices, the abbot and his monks were commanded to attend the nearest church ( Novellae , 133, c. ii.). This rule naturally proved inconvenient when a monastery was situated in a desert or at a distance from a city, and necessity compelled the ordination of abbots. This innovation was not introduced without a struggle, ecclesiastical dignity being regarded as inconsistent with the higher spiritual life, but, before the close of the 5th century, at least in the East, abbots seem almost universally to have become deacons, if not presbyters. The change spread more slowly in the West, where the office of abbot was commonly filled by laymen till the end of the 7th century, and partially so up to the 11th. Ecclesiastical councils were, however, attended by abbots. Thus at that held at Constantinople, A.D. 448, for the condemnation of Eutyches, 23 archimandrites or abbots sign, with 30 bishops, and, c . A.D. 690, Archbishop Theodore promulgated a canon, inhibiting bishops from compelling abbots to attend councils. Examples are not uncommon in Spain and in England in Saxon times. Abbots were permitted by the second council of Nicaea, A.D. 787, to ordain their monks to the inferior orders. This rule was adopted in the West, and the strong prejudice against clerical monks having gradually broken down, eventually monks, almost without exception, took holy orders. Abbots were originally subject to episcopal jurisdiction, and continued generally so, in fact, in the West till the 11th century. The Code of Justinian (lib. i. tit. iii. de Ep. leg. xl.) expressly subordinates the abbot to episcopal oversight. The first case recorded of the partial exemption of an abbot from episcopal control is that of Faustus, abbot of Lerins, at the council of Arles, A.D. 456; but the exorbitant claims and exactions of bishops, to which this repugnance to episcopal control is to be traced, far more than to the arrogance of abbots, rendered it increasingly frequent, and, in the 6th century, the practice of exempting religious houses partly or altogether from episcopal control, and making them responsible to the pope alone, received an impulse from Gregory the Great. These exceptions, introduced with a good object, had grown into a widespread evil by the 12th century, virtually creating an imperium in imperio , and depriving the bishop of all authority over the chief centres of influence in his diocese. In the 12th century the abbots of Fulda claimed precedence of the archbishop of Cologne. Abbots more and more assumed almost episcopal state, and in defiance of the prohibition of early councils and the protests of St Bernard and others, adopted the episcopal insignia of mitre, ring, gloves and sandals. It has been maintained that the right to wear mitres was sometimes granted by the popes to abbots before the 11th century, but the documents on which this claim is based are not genuine ( J. Braun , Liturgische Gewandung , p. 453). The first undoubted instance is the bull by which Alexander II. in 1063 granted the use of the mitre to Egelsinus, abbot of the monastery of St Augustine at Canterbury (see Mitre ). The mitred abbots in England were those of Abingdon, St Alban’s, Bardney, Battle, Bury St Edmund’s, St Augustine’s Canterbury, Colchester, Croyland, Evesham, Glastonbury, Gloucester, St Benet’s Hulme, Hyde, Malmesbury, Peterborough, Ramsey, Reading, Selby, Shrewsbury, Tavistock, Thorney, Westminster, Winchcombe, St Mary’s York. Of these the precedence was originally yielded to the abbot of Glastonbury, until in A.D. 1154 Adrian IV. (Nicholas Breakspear) granted it to the abbot of St Alban’s, in which monastery he had been brought up. Next after the abbot of St Alban’s ranked the abbot of Westminster. To distinguish abbots from bishops, it was ordained that their mitre should be made of less costly materials, and should not be ornamented with gold, a rule which was soon entirely disregarded, and that the crook of their pastoral staff should turn inwards instead of outwards, indicating that their jurisdiction was limited to their own house. The adoption of episcopal insignia by abbots was followed by an encroachment on episcopal functions, which had to be specially but ineffectually guarded against by the Lateran council, A.D. 1123. In the East, abbots, if in priests’ orders, with the consent of the bishop, were, as we have seen, permitted by the second Nicene council, A.D. 787, to confer the tonsure and admit to the order of reader; but gradually abbots, in the West also, advanced higher claims, until we find them in A.D. 1489 permitted by Innocent IV. to confer both the subdiaconate and diaconate. Of course, they always and everywhere had the power of admitting their own monks and vesting them with the religious habit. When a vacancy occurred, the bishop of the diocese chose the abbot out of the monks of the convent, but the right of election was transferred by jurisdiction to the monks themselves, reserving to the bishop the confirmation of the election and the benediction of the new abbot. In abbeys exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, the confirmation and benediction had to be conferred by the pope in person, the house being taxed with the expenses of the new abbot’s journey to Rome. By the rule of St Benedict, the consent of the laity was in some undefined way required; but this seems never to have been practically enforced. It was necessary that an abbot should be at least 25 years of age, of legitimate birth, a monk of the house, unless it furnished no suitable candidate, when a liberty was allowed of electing from another convent, well instructed himself, and able to instruct others, one also who had learned how to command by having practised obedience. In some exceptional cases an abbot was allowed to name his own successor. Cassian speaks of an abbot in Egypt doing this; and in later times we have another example in the case of St Bruno. Popes and sovereigns gradually encroached on the rights of the monks, until in Italy the pope had usurped the nomination of all abbots, and the king in France, with the exception of Cluny, Prémontré and other houses, chiefs of their order. The election was for life, unless the abbot was canonically deprived by the chiefs of his order, or when he was directly subject to them, by the pope or the bishop. The ceremony of the formal admission of a Benedictine abbot in medieval times is thus prescribed by the consuetudinary of Abingdon. The newly elected abbot was to put off his shoes at the door of the church, and proceed barefoot to meet the members of the house advancing in a procession. After proceeding up the nave, he was to kneel and pray at the topmost step of the entrance of the choir, into which he was to be introduced by the bishop or his commissary, and placed in his stall. The monks, then kneeling, gave him the kiss of peace on the hand, and rising, on the mouth, the abbot holding his staff of office. He then put on his shoes in the vestry, and a chapter was held, and the bishop or his commissary preached a suitable sermon. The power of the abbot was paternal but absolute, limited, however, by the canons of the church, and, until the general establishment of exemptions, by episcopal control. As a rule, however, implicit obedience was enforced; to act without his orders was culpable; while it was a sacred duty to execute his orders, however unreasonable, until they were withdrawn. Examples among the Egyptian monks of this blind submission to the commands of the superiors, exalted into a virtue by those who regarded the entire crushing of the individual will as the highest excellence, are detailed by Cassian and others,— e.g. a monk watering a dry stick, day after day, for months, or endeavouring to remove a huge rock immensely exceeding his powers. St Jerome, indeed, lays down, as the principle of the compact between the abbot and his monks, that they should obey their superiors in all things, and perform whatever they commanded (Ep. 2, ad Eustoch. de custod. virgin. ). So despotic did the tyranny become in the West, that in the time of Charlemagne it was necessary to restrain abbots by legal enactments from mutilating their monks and putting out their eyes; while the rule of St Columban ordained 100 lashes as the punishment for very slight offences. An abbot also had the power of excommunicating refractory nuns, which he might use if desired by their abbess. The abbot was treated with the utmost submission and reverence by the brethren of his house. When he appeared either in church or chapter all present rose and bowed. His letters were received kneeling, like those of the pope and the king. If he gave a command, the monk receiving it was also to kneel. No monk might sit in his presence, or leave it without his permission. The highest place was naturally assigned to him, both in church and at table. In the East he was commanded to eat with the other monks. In the West the rule of St Benedict appointed him a separate table, at which he might entertain guests and strangers. This permission opening the door to luxurious living, the council of Aix, A.D. 817, decreed that the abbot should dine in the refectory, and be content with the ordinary fare of the monks, unless he had to entertain a guest. These ordinances proved, however, generally ineffectual to secure strictness of diet, and contemporaneous literature abounds with satirical remarks and complaints concerning the inordinate extravagance of the tables of the abbots. When the abbot condescended to dine in the refectory, his chaplains waited upon him with the dishes, a servant, if necessary, assisting them. At St Alban’s the abbot took the lord’s seat, in the centre of the high table, and was served on silver plate, and sumptuously entertained noblemen, ambassadors and strangers of quality. When abbots dined in their own private hall, the rule of St Benedict charged them to invite their monks to their table, provided there was room, on which occasions the guests were to abstain from quarrels, slanderous talk and idle gossiping. The ordinary attire of the abbot was according to rule to be the same as that of the monks. But by the 10th century the rule was commonly set aside, and we find frequent complaints of abbots dressing in silk, and adopting sumptuous attire. They sometimes even laid aside the monastic habit altogether, and assumed a secular dress. [ 1 ] This was a necessary consequence of their following the chase, which was quite usual, and indeed at that time only natural. With the increase of wealth and power, abbots had lost much of their special religious character, and become great lords, chiefly distinguished from lay lords by celibacy. Thus we hear of abbots going out to sport, with their men carrying bows and arrows; keeping horses, dogs and huntsmen; and special mention is made of an abbot of Leicester, c . 1360, who was the most skilled of all the nobility in hare-hunting. In magnificence of equipage and retinue the abbots vied with the first nobles of the realm. They rode on mules with gilded bridles, rich saddles and housings, carrying hawks on their wrist, followed by an immense train of attendants. The bells of the churches were rung as they passed. They associated on equal terms with laymen of the highest distinction, and shared all their pleasures and pursuits. This rank and power was, however, often used most beneficially. For instance, we read of Whiting, the last abbot of Glastonbury, judicially murdered by Henry VIII ., that his house was a kind of well-ordered court, where as many as 300 sons of noblemen and gentlemen, who had been sent to him for virtuous education, had been brought up, besides others of a meaner rank, whom he fitted for the universities. His table, attendance and officers were an honour to the nation. He would entertain as many as 500 persons of rank at one time, besides relieving the poor of the vicinity twice a week. He had his country houses and fisheries, and when he travelled to attend parliament his retinue amounted to upwards of 100 persons. The abbots of Cluny and Vendôme were, by virtue of their office, cardinals of the Roman church. In process of time the title abbot was improperly transferred to clerics who had no connexion with the monastic system, as to the principal of a body of parochial clergy; and under the Carolingians to the chief chaplain of the king, Abbas Curiae , or military chaplain of the emperor, Abbas Castrensis . It even came to be adopted by purely secular officials. Thus the chief magistrate of the republic at Genoa was called Abbas Populi . Du Cange, in his glossary, also gives us Abbas Campanilis , Clocherii , Palatii , Scholaris , &c. Lay abbots (M. Lat. defensores , abbacomites , abbates laici , abbates milites , abbates saeculares or irreligiosi , abbatiarii , or sometimes simply abbates ) were the outcome of the growth of the feudal system from the 8th century onwards. The practice of commendation , by which—to meet a contemporary emergency—the revenues of the community were handed over to a lay lord, in return for his protection, early suggested to the emperors and kings the expedient of rewarding their warriors with rich abbeys held in commendam . During the Carolingian epoch the custom grew up of granting these as regular heritable fiefs or benefices, and by the 10th century, before the great Cluniac reform, the system was firmly established. Even the abbey of St Denis was held in commendam by Hugh Capet. The example of the kings was followed by the feudal nobles, sometimes by making a temporary concession permanent, sometimes without any form of commendation whatever. In England the abuse was rife in the 8th century, as may be gathered from the acts of the council of Cloveshoe. These lay abbacies were not merely a question of overlordship, but implied the concentration in lay hands of all the rights, immunities and jurisdiction of the foundations, i.e. the more or less complete secularization of spiritual institutions. The lay abbot took his recognized rank in the feudal hierarchy, and was free to dispose of his fief as in the case of any other. The enfeoffment of abbeys differed in form and degree. Sometimes the monks were directly subject to the lay abbot; sometimes he appointed a substitute to perform the spiritual functions, known usually as dean ( decanus ), but also as abbot ( abbas legitimus , monasticus , regularis ). When the great reform of the 11th century had put an end to the direct jurisdiction of the lay abbots, the honorary title of abbot continued to be held by certain of the great feudal families, as late as the 13th century and later, the actual head of the community retaining that of dean. The connexion of the lesser lay abbots with the abbeys, especially in the south of France, lasted longer; and certain feudal families retained the title of abbés chevaliers (abbates milites) for centuries, together with certain rights over the abbey lands or revenues. The abuse was not confined to the West. John, patriarch of Antioch, at the beginning of the 12th century, informs us that in his time most monasteries had been handed over to laymen, beneficiarii , for life, or for part of their lives, by the emperors. In conventual cathedrals, where the bishop occupied the place of the abbot, the functions usually devolving on the superior of the monastery were performed by a prior. The title abbé (Ital. abbate ), as commonly used in the Catholic church on the European continent, is the equivalent of the English “Father,” being loosely applied to all who have received the tonsure. This use of the title is said to have originated in the right conceded to the king of France, by the concordat between Pope Leo X . and Francis I. (1516), to appoint abbés commendataires to most of the abbeys in France. The expectation of obtaining these sinecures drew young men towards the church in considerable numbers, and the class of abbés so formed— abbés de cour they were sometimes called, and sometimes (ironically) abbés de sainte espérance , abbés of St Hope—came to hold a recognized position. The connexion many of them had with the church was of the slenderest kind, consisting mainly in adopting the name of abbé , after a remarkably moderate course of theological study, practising celibacy and wearing a distinctive dress—a short dark-violet coat with narrow collar. Being men of presumed learning and undoubted leisure, many of the class found admission to the houses of the French nobility as tutors or advisers. Nearly every great family had its abbé. The class did not survive the Revolution; but the courtesy title of abbé, having long lost all connexion in people’s minds with any special ecclesiastical function, remained as a convenient general term applicable to any clergyman. In the German Evangelical church the title of abbot ( Abt ) is sometimes bestowed, like abbé , as an honorary distinction, and sometimes survives to designate the heads of monasteries converted at the Reformation into collegiate foundations. Of these the most noteworthy is the abbey of Lokkum in Hanover, founded as a Cistercian house in 1163 by Count Wilbrand of Hallermund, and reformed in 1593. The abbot of Lokkum, who still carries a pastoral staff, takes precedence of all the clergy of Hanover, and is ex officio a member of the consistory of the kingdom. The governing body of the abbey consists of abbot, prior and the “convent” of canons ( Stiftsherren ). See Joseph Bingham , Origines ecclesiasticae (1840); Du Cange , Glossarium med. et inf. Lat. (ed. 1883); J. Craigie Robertson , Hist. of the Christian Church (1858–1873); Edmond Martène, De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus (Venice, 1783); C. F. R. de Montalembert , Les moines d’occident depuis S. Benoît jusqu’à S. Bernard (1860–1877); Achille Luchaire , Manuel des institutions françaises (Par. 1892). ( E. V. ; W. A. P. ) ↑ Walworth, the fourth abbot of St Alban’s, c . 930, is charged by Matthew Paris with adopting the attire of a sportsman. |
ABBOTSFORD, formerly the residence of Sir Walter Scott , situated on the S. bank of the Tweed, about 3 m. W. of Melrose, Roxburghshire, Scotland, and nearly 1 m. from Abbotsford Ferry station on the North British railway, connecting Selkirk and Galashiels. The nucleus of the estate was a small farm of 100 acres, called Cartleyhole, nicknamed Clarty ( i.e. muddy) Hole, and bought by Scott on the lapse of his lease (1811) of the neighbouring house of Ashestiel. It was added to from time to time, the last and principal acquisition being that of Toftfield (afterwards named Huntlyburn), purchased in 1817. The new house was then begun and completed in 1824. The general ground-plan is a parallelogram, with irregular outlines, one side overlooking the Tweed; and the style is mainly the Scottish Baronial. Into various parts of the fabric were built relics and curiosities from historical structures, such as the doorway of the old Tolbooth in Edinburgh. Scott had only enjoyed his residence one year when (1825) he met with that reverse of fortune which involved the estate in debt. In 1830 the library and museum were presented to him as a free gift by the creditors. The property was wholly disencumbered in 1847 by Robert Cadell, the publisher, who cancelled the bond upon it in exchange for the family’s share in the copyright of Sir Walter’s works. Scott’s only son Walter did not live to enjoy the property, having died on his way from India in 1847. Among subsequent possessors were Scott’s son-in-law, J. G. Lockhart , J. R. Hope Scott, Q.C., and his daughter (Scott’s great-granddaughter), the Hon. Mrs Maxwell Scott. Abbotsford gave its name to the “Abbotsford Club,” a successor of the Bannatyne and Maitland clubs, founded by W. B. D. D. Turnbull in 1834 in Scott’s honour, for printing and publishing historical works connected with his writings. Its publications extended from 1835 to 1864. See Lockhart , Life of Scott ; Washington Irving , Abbotsford and Newstead Abbey ; W. S. Crockett , The Scott Country . |
ABBOTT, EDWIN ABBOTT (1838– ), English schoolmaster and theologian, was born on the 20th of December 1838. He was educated at the City of London school and at St John’s College, Cambridge, where he took the highest honours in the classical, mathematical and theological triposes, and became fellow of his college. In 1862 he took orders. After holding masterships at King Edward’s School, Birmingham, and at Clifton College, he succeeded G. F. Mortimer as headmaster of the City of London school in 1865 at the early age of twenty-six. He was Hulsean lecturer in 1876. He retired in 1889, and devoted himself to literary and theological pursuits. Dr Abbott’s liberal inclinations in theology were prominent both in his educational views and in his books. His Shakespearian Grammar (1870) is a permanent contribution to English philology. In 1885 he published a life of Francis Bacon . His theological writings include three anonymously published religious romances— Philochristus (1878), Onesimus (1882), Silanus (1906). More weighty contributions are the anonymous theological discussion The Kernel and the Husk (1886), Philomythus (1891), his book on Cardinal Newman as an Anglican (1892), and his article “The Gospels ” in the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica , embodying a critical view which caused considerable stir in the English theological world; he also wrote St Thomas of Canterbury, his Death and Miracles (1898), Johannine Vocabulary (1905), Johannine Grammar (1906). His brother, Evelyn Abbott (1843–1901), was a well-known tutor of Balliol, Oxford, and author of a scholarly History of Greece . |
ABBOTT, EMMA (1849–1891), American singer, was born at Chicago and studied in Milan and Paris. She had a fine soprano voice, and appeared first in opera in London under Colonel Mapleson’s direction at Covent Garden, also singing at important concerts. She organized an opera company known by her name, and toured extensively in the United States, where she had a great reputation. In 1873 she married E. J. Wetherell. She died at Salt Lake City on the 5th of January 1891. |
ABBOTT, JACOB (1803–1879), American writer of books for the young, was born at Hallowell, Maine, on the 14th of November 1803. He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1820; studied at Andover Theological Seminary in 1821, 1822, and 1824; was tutor in 1824–1825, and from 1825 to 1829 was professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Amherst College; was licensed to preach by the Hampshire Association in 1826; founded the Mount Vernon School for young ladies in Boston in 1829, and was principal of it in 1829–1833; was pastor of Eliot Congregational Church (which he founded), at Roxbury, Mass., in 1834–1835; and was, with his brothers, a founder, and in 1843–1851 a principal of Abbott’s Institute, and in 1845–1848 of the Mount Vernon School for boys, in New York City. He was a prolific author, writing juvenile stories, brief histories and biographies, and religious books for the general reader, and a few works in popular science. He died on the 31st of October 1879 at Farmington, Maine, where he had spent part of his time since 1839, and where his brother Samuel Phillips Abbott founded in 1844 the Abbott School, popularly called “Little Blue.” Jacob Abbott’s “Rollo Books”— Rollo at Work , Rollo at Play , Rollo in Europe , &c. (28 vols.)—are the best known of his writings, having as their chief characters a representative boy and his associates. In them Abbott did for one or two generations of young American readers a service not unlike that performed earlier, in England and America, by the authors of Evenings at Home , Sandford and Merton , and the Parent’s Assistant . Of his other writings (he produced more than two hundred volumes in all), the best are the Franconia Stories (10 vols.), twenty-two volumes of biographical histories in a series of thirty-two volumes (with his brother John S. C. Abbott ), and the Young Christian ,—all of which had enormous circulations. His sons, Benjamin Vaughan Abbott (1830–1890), Austin Abbott (1831–1896), both eminent lawyers, Lyman Abbott ( q.v. ), and Edward Abbott (1841–1908), a clergyman, were also well-known authors. See his Young Christian , Memorial Edition , with a Sketch of the Author by one of his sons , i.e. Edward Abbott (New York, 1882), with a bibliography of his works. |
ABBOTT, JOHN STEVENS CABOT (1805–1877), American writer, was born in Brunswick, Maine, on the 18th of September 1805. He was a brother of Jacob Abbott , and was associated with him in the management of Abbott’s Institute, New York City, and in the preparation of his series of brief historical biographies. He is best known, however, as the author of a partisan and unscholarly, but widely popular and very readable History of Napoleon Bonaparte (1855), in which the various elements and episodes in Napoleon’s career are treated with some skill in arrangement, but with unfailing adulation. Dr Abbott graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825, prepared for the ministry at Andover Theological Seminary, and between 1830 and 1844, when he retired from the ministry, preached successively at Worcester, Roxbury and Nantucket, Massachusetts. He died at Fair Haven, Connecticut, on the 17th of June 1877. He was a voluminous writer of books on Christian ethics, and of histories, which now seem unscholarly and untrustworthy, but were valuable in their time in cultivating a popular interest in history. In general, except that he did not write juvenile fiction, his work in subject and style closely resembles that of his brother, Jacob Abbott. |
ABBOTT, LYMAN (1835– ), American divine and author, was born at Roxbury, Massachusetts, on the 18th of December 1835, the son of Jacob Abbott . He graduated at the University of New York in 1853, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1856; but soon abandoned the legal profession, and, after studying theology with his uncle, J. S. C. Abbott , was ordained a minister of the Congregational Church in 1860. He was pastor of a church in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1860–1865, and of the New England Church in New York City in 1865–1869. From 1865 to 1868 he was secretary of the American Union (Freedman’s) Commission. In 1869 he resigned his pastorate to devote himself to literature. He was an associate editor of Harper’s Magazine , was editor of the Illustrated Christian Weekly , and was co-editor (1876–1881) of The Christian Union with Henry Ward Beecher , whom he succeeded in 1888 as pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. From this pastorate he resigned ten years later. From 1881 he was editor-in-chief of The Christian Union , renamed The Outlook in 1893; this periodical reflected his efforts toward social reform, and, in theology, a liberality, humanitarian and nearly unitarian. The latter characteristics marked his published works also. His works include Jesus of Nazareth (1869); Illustrated Commentary on the New Testament (4 vols., 1875); A Study in Human Nature (1885); Life of Christ (1894); Evolution of Christianity (Lowell Lectures, 1896); The Theology of an Evolutionist (1897); Christianity and Social Problems (1897); Life and Letters of Paul (1898); The Life that Really is (1899); Problems of Life (1900); The Rights of Man (1901); Henry Ward Beecher (1903); The Christian Ministry (1905); The Personality of God (1905); Industrial Problems (1905); and Christ’s Secret of Happiness (1907). He edited Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher (2 vols., 1868). |
ABBOTTABAD, a town of British India, 4120 ft. above sea-level, 63 m. from Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the Hazara district in the N.W. Frontier Province, called after its founder, Sir James Abbott, who settled this wild district after the annexation of the Punjab. It is an important military cantonment and sanatorium, being the headquarters of a brigade in the second division of the northern army corps. In 1901 the population of the town and cantonment was 7764. |
ABBREVIATION (Lat. brevis , short), strictly a shortening; more particularly, an “abbreviation” is a letter or group of letters, taken from a word or words, and employed to represent them for the sake of brevity. Abbreviations, both of single words and of phrases, having a meaning more or less fixed and recognized, are common in ancient writings and inscriptions (see Palaeography and Diplomatic ), and very many are in use at the present time. A distinction is to be observed between abbreviations and the contractions that are frequently to be met with in old manuscripts, and even in early printed books, whereby letters are dropped out here and there, or particular collocations of letters represented by somewhat arbitrary symbols. The commonest form of abbreviation is the substitution for a word of its initial letter; but, with a view to prevent ambiguity, one or more of the other letters are frequently added. Letters are often doubled to indicate a plural or a superlative. I. Classical Abbreviations .—The following list contains a selection from the abbreviations that occur in the writings and inscriptions of the Romans:— A. A. Absolvo, Aedilis, Aes, Ager, Ago, Aio, Amicus, Annus, Antiquo, Auctor, Auditor, Augustus, Aulus, Aurum, Aut. A.A. Aes alienum, Ante audita, Apud agrum, Aurum argentum. AA. Augusti. AAA. Augusti tres. A.A.A.F.F. Auro argento aere flando feriundo. [ 1 ] A.A.V. Alter ambove. A.C. Acta causa. Alius civis. A.D. Ante diem; e.g. A.D.V. Ante diem quintum. A.D.A. Ad dandos agros. AED. Aedes, Aedilis, Aedilitas. AEM. and AIM. Aemilius, Aemilia. AER. Aerariurn. AER.P. Aere publico. A.F. Actum fide, Auli filius. AG. Ager, Ago, Agrippa. A.G. Animo grato, Aulus Gellius. A.L.AE. and A.L.E. Arbitrium litis aestimandae. A.M. and A.MILL. Ad milliarium. AN. Aniensis, Annus, Ante. ANN. Annales, Anni, Annona. ANT. Ante, Antonius. A.O. Alii omnes, Amico optimo. AP. Appius, Apud. A.P. Ad pedes, Aedilitia potestate. A.P.F. Auro ( or argento) publico feriundo. A.P.M. Amico posuit monumentum, Annorum plus minus. A.P.R.C. Anno post Romam conditam. ARG. Argentum. AR.V.V.D.D. Aram votam volens dedicavit, Arma votiva dono dedit. A T. A tergo. Also A TE. and A TER. A.T.M.D.O. Aio te mihi dare oportere. AV. Augur, Augustus, Aurelius. A.V. Annos vixit. A.V.C. Ab urbe condita. AVG. Augur, Augustus. AVGG. Augusti ( generally of two ). AVGGG. Augusti tres. AVT.PR.R. Auctoritas provinciae Romanorum. B. B. Balbius, Balbus, Beatus, Bene, Beneficiarius, Beneficium, Bonus, Brutus, Bustum. B. for V. Berna Bivus, Bixit. B.A. Bixit anos, Bonis auguriis, Bonus amabilis. BB. or B.B. Bene bene, i.e. optime, Optimus. B.D. Bonae deae, Bonum datum. B.DD. Bonis deabus. B.D.S.M. Bene de se merenti. B.F. Bona femina, Bona fides, Bona fortuna, Bonum factum. B.F. Bona femina, Bona filia. B.H. Bona hereditaria, Bonorum heres. B.I. Bonum judicium. B.I.I. Boni judicis judicium. B.M. Beatae memoriae, Bene merenti. B.N. Bona nostra, Bonum nomen. BN.H.I. Bona hic invenies. B.P. Bona paterna, Bonorum potestas, Bonum publicum. B.Q. Bene quiescat, Bona quaesita. B.RP.N. Bono reipublicae natus. BRT. Britannicus. B.T. Bonorum tutor, Brevi tempore. B.V. Bene vale, Bene vixit, Bonus vir. B.V.V. Balnea vina Venus. BX. Bixit, for vixit. C. C. Caesar, Caius, Caput, Causa, Censor, Civis, Cohors, Colonia, Comitialis (dies), Condemno, Consul, Cum, Curo, Custos. C. Caia, Centuria, Cum, the prefix Con. C.B. Civis bonus, Commune bonum, Conjugi benemerenti, Cui bono. C.C. Calumniae causa, Causa cognita, Conjugi carissimae, Consilium cepit, Curiae consulto. C.C.C. Calumniae cavendae causa. C.C.F. Caesar ( or Caius) curavit faciendum, Caius Caii filius. CC.VV. Clarissimi viri. C.D. Caesaris decreto, Caius Decius, Comitialibus diebus. CES. Censor, Censores. CESS. Censores. C.F. Causa fiduciae, Conjugi fecit, Curavit faciendum. C.H. Custos heredum, Custos hortorum. C.I. Caius Julius, Consul jussit, Curavit judex. CL. Clarissimus, Claudius, Clodius, Colonia. CL.V. Clarissimus vir, Clypeum vovit. C.M. Caius Marius, Causa mortis. CN. Cnaeus. COH. Coheres, Cohors. COL. Collega, Collegium, Colonia, Columna. COLL. Collega, Coloni, Coloniae. COM. Comes, Comitium, Comparatum. CON. Conjux, Consensus, Consiliarius, Consul, Consularis. COR. Cornelia (tribus), Cornelius, Corona, Corpus. COS. Consiliarius, Consul, Consulares. COSS. Consules. C.P. Carissimus or Clarissimus puer, Civis publicus, Curavit ponendum. C.R. Caius Rufus, Civis Romanus, Curavit reficiendum. CS. Caesar, Communis, Consul. C.V. Clarissimus or Consularis vir. CVR. Cura, Curator, Curavit, Curia. D. D. Dat, Dedit, &c., De, Decimus, Decius, Decretum, Decurio, Deus, Dicit, &c., Dies, Divus, Dominus, Domus, Donum. D.C. Decurio coloniae, Diebus comitialibus, Divus Caesar. D.D. Dea Dia, Decurionum decreto, Dedicavit, Deo dedit, Dono dedit. D.D.D. Datum decreto decurionum, Dono dedit dedicavit. D.E.R. De ea re. DES. Designatus. D.I. Dedit imperator, Diis immortalibus, Diis inferis. D.I.M. Deo invicto Mithrae, Diis inferis Manibus. D.M. Deo Magno, Dignus memoria, Diis Manibus, Dolo malo. D.O.M. Deo Optimo Maximo. D.P.S. Dedit proprio sumptu, Deo perpetuo sacrum, De pecunia sua. E. E. Ejus, Eques, Erexit, Ergo, Est, Et, Etiam, Ex. EG. Aeger, Egit, Egregius. E.M. Egregiae memoriae, Ejusmodi, Erexit monumentum. EQ.M. Equitum magister. E.R.A. Ea res agitur. F. F. Fabius, Facere, Fecit, &c., Familia, Fastus (dies), Felix, Femina, Fides, Filius, Flamen, Fortuna, Frater, Fuit, Functus. F.C. Faciendum curavit, Fidei commissum, Fiduciae causa. F.D. Fidem dedit, Flamen Dialis, Fraude donavit. F.F.F. Ferro flamma fame, Fortior fortuna fato. FL. Filius, Flamen, Flaminius, Flavius. F.L. Favete linguis, Fecit libens, Felix liber. FR. Forum, Fronte, Frumentarius. F.R. Forum Romanum. G. G. Gaius (＝Caius), Gallia, Gaudium, Gellius, Gemina, Gens, Gesta, Gratia. G.F. Gemina fidelis ( applied to a legion ). So G.P.F. Gemina pia fidelis. GL. Gloria. GN. Genius, Gens, Genus, Gnaeus (=Cnaeus). G.P.R. Genio populi Romani. H. H. Habet, Heres, Hic, Homo, Honor, Hora. HER. Heres, Herennius. HER. and HERC. Hercules. H.L. Hac lege, Hoc loco, Honesto loco. H.M. Hoc monumentum, Honesta mulier, Hora mala. H.S.E. Hic sepultus est, Hic situs est. H.V. Haec urbs, Hic vivit, Honeste vixit, Honestus vir. I. I. Immortalis, Imperator, In, Infra, Inter, Invictus, Ipse, Isis, Judex, Julius, Junius, Jupiter, Justus. IA. Jam, Intra. I.C. Julius Caesar, Juris Consultum, Jus civile. ID. Idem, Idus, Interdum. I.D. Inferis diis, Jovi dedicatum, Jus dicendum, Jussu Dei. I.D.M. Jovi deo magno. I.F. In foro, In fronte. I.H. Jacet hic, In honestatem, Justus homo. IM. Imago, Immortalis, Immunis, Impensa. IMP. Imperator, Imperium. I.O.M. Jovi optimo maximo. I.P. In publico, Intra provinciam, Justa persona. I.S.V.P. Impensa sua vivus posuit. K. K. Kaeso, Caia, Calumnia, Caput, Carus, Castra. K., KAL. and KL. Kalendae. L. L. Laelius, Legio, Lex, Libens, Liber, Libra, Locus, Lollius, Lucius, Ludus. LB. Libens, Liberi, Libertus. L.D.D.D. Locus datus decreto decurionum. LEG. Legatus, Legio. LIB. Liber, Liberalitas, Libertas, Libertus, Librarius. LL. Leges, Libentissime, Liberti. L.M. Libens merito, Locus monumenti. L.S. Laribus sacrum, Libens solvit, Locus sacer. LVD. Ludus. LV.P.F. Ludos publicos fecit. M. M. Magister, Magistratus, Magnus, Manes, Marcus, Marius, Marti, Mater, Memoria, Mensis, Miles, Monumentum, Mortuus, Mucius, Mulier. M’. Manius. M.D. Magno Deo, Manibus diis, Matri deum, Merenti dedit. MES. Mensis. MESS. Menses. M.F. Mala fides, Marci filius, Monumentum fecit. M.I. Matri Idaeae, Matri Isidi, Maximo Jovi. MNT. and MON. Moneta. M.P. Male positus, Monumentum posuit. M.S. Manibus sacrum, Memoriae sacrum, Manu scriptum. MVN. Municeps, or municipium; so also MN., MV. and MVNIC. M.V.S. Marti ultori sacrum, Merito votum solvit. N. N. Natio, Natus, Nefastus (dies), Nepos, Neptunus, Nero, Nomen, Non, Nonae, Noster, Novus, Numen, Numerius, Numerus, Nummus. NEP. Nepos, Neptunus. N.F.C. Nostrae fidei commissum. N.L. Non licet, Non liquet, Non longe. N.M.V. Nobilis memoriae vir. NN. Nostri. NN., NNO. and NNR. Nostrorum. NOB. Nobilis. NOB., NOBR. and NOV. Novembris. N.P. Nefastus primo ( i.e. priore parte diei), Non potest. O. O. Ob, Officium, Omnis, Oportet, Optimus, Opus, Ossa. OB. Obiit, Obiter, Orbis. O.C.S. Ob cives servatos. O.H.F. Omnibus honoribus functus. O.H.S.S. Ossa hic sita sunt. OR. Hora, Ordo, Ornamentum. O.T.B.Q. Ossa tua bene quiescent. P. P. Pars, Passus, Pater, Patronus, Pax, Perpetuus, Pes, Pius, Plebs, Pondo, Populus, Post, Posuit, Praeses, Praetor, Primus, Pro, Provincial, Publicus, Publius, Puer. P.C. Pactum conventum, Patres conscripti, Pecunia constituta, Ponendum curavit, Post consulatum, Potestate censoria. P.F. Pia fidelis, Pius felix, Promissa fides, Publii filius. P.M. Piae memoriae, Plus minus, Pontifex maximus. P.P. Pater patratus, Pater patriae, Pecunia publica, Praepositus, Primipilus, Propraetor. PR. Praeses, Praetor, Pridie, Princeps. P.R. Permissu reipublicae, Populus Romanus. P.R.C. Post Romam conditam. PR.PR. Praefectus praetorii, Propraetor. P.S. Pecunia sua, Plebiscitum, Proprio sumptu, Publicae saluti. P.V. Pia victrix, Praefectus urbi, Praestantissimus vir. Q. Q. Quaestor, Quando, Quantus, Que, Qui, Quinquennalis, Quintus, Quirites. Q.D.R. Qua de re. Q.I.S.S. Quae infra scripta sunt; so Q.S.S.S. Quae supra, &c. QQ. Quaecunque, Quinquennalis, Quoque. Q.R. Quaestor reipublicae. R. R. Recte, Res, Respublica, Retro, Rex, Ripa, Roma, Romanus, Rufus, Rursus. R.C. Romana civitas, Romanus civis. RESP. and RP. Respublica. RET.P. and RP. Retro pedes. S. S. Sacrum, Scriptus, Semis, Senatus, Sepultus, Servius, Servus, Sextus, Sibi, Sine, Situs, Solus, Solvit, Sub, Suus. SAC. Sacerdos, Sacrificium, Sacrum. S.C. Senatus consultum. S.D. Sacrum diis, Salutem dicit, Senatus decreto, Sententiam dedit. S.D.M. Sacrum diis Manibus, Sine dolo malo. SER. Servius, Servus. S.E.T.L. Sit ei terra levis. SN. Senatus, Sententia, Sine. S.P. Sacerdos perpetua, Sine pecunia, Sua pecunia. S.P.Q.R. Senatus populusque Romanus. S.S. Sanctissimus senatus, Supra scriptum. S.V.B.E.E.Q.V. Si vales bene est, ego quidem valeo. T. T. Terminus, Testamentum, Titus, Tribunus, Tu, Turma, Tutor. TB., TI. and TIB. Tiberius. TB., TR. and TRB. Tribunus. T.F. Testamentum fecit, Titi filius, Titulum fecit, Titus Flavius. TM. Terminus, Testamentum, Thermae. T.P. Terminum posuit, Tribunicia potestate, Tribunus plebis. TVL. Tullius, Tullus. V. V. Urbs, Usus, Uxor, Vale, Verba, Vestalis, Vester, Vir, Vivus, Vixit, Volo, Votum. V.A. Veterano assignatus, Vixit annos. V.C. Vale conjux, Vir clarissimus, Vir consularis. V.E. Verum etiam, Vir egregius, Visum est. V.F. Usus fructus, Verba fecit, Vivus fecit. V.P. Urbis praefectus, Vir perfectissimus, Vivus posuit. V.R. Urbs Roma, Uti rogas, Votum reddidit. II. Medieval Abbreviations .—Of the different kinds of abbreviations in use in the middle ages, the following are examples:— A.M. Ave Maria. B.P. Beatus Paulus, Beatus Petrus. CC. Carissimus ( also plur . Carissimi), Clarissimus, Circum. D. Deus, Dominicus, Dux. D.N.PP. Dominus noster Papa. FF. Felicissimus, Fratres, Pandectae ( prob. for Gr. II). I.C. or I.X. Jesus Christus. I.D.N. In Dei nomine. KK. Karissimus ( or -mi). MM. Magistri, Martyres, Matrimonium, Meritissimus. O.S.B. Ordinis Sancti Benedicti. PP. Papa, Patres, Piissimus. R.F. Rex Francorum. R.P.D. Reverendissimus Pater Dominus. S.C.M. Sacra Caesarea Majestas. S.M.E. Sancta Mater Ecclesia. S.M.M. Sancta Mater Maria. S.R.I. Sanctum Romanum Imperium. S.V. Sanctitas Vestra, Sancta Virgo. V. Venerabilis, Venerandus. V.R.P. Vestra Reverendissima Paternitas. III. Abbreviations now in use .—The import of these will often be readily understood from the connexion in which they occur. There is no occasion to explain here the common abbreviations used for Christian names, books of Scripture, months of the year, points of the compass, grammatical and mathematical terms, or familiar titles, like “Mr,” &c. The ordinary abbreviations, now or recently in use, may be conveniently classified under the following headings:— 1. Abbreviated Titles and Designations. A.A. Associate of Arts. A.B. Able-bodied seaman; (in America) Bachelor of Arts. A.D.C. Aide-de-Camp. A.M. ( Artium Magister ), Master of Arts. A.R.A Associate of the Royal Academy. A.R.I.B.A Associate of the Royal Institution of British Architects. A.R.S.A. Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. B.A. Bachelor of Arts. Bart. Baronet. B.C.L. Bachelor of Civil Law. B.D. Bachelor of Divinity. B.LL. Bachelor of Laws. B.Sc. Bachelor of Science. C. Chairman. C.A. Chartered Accountant. C.B. Companion of the Bath. C.E. Civil Engineer. C.I.E. Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire. C.M ( Chirurgiae Magister ), Master in Surgery. C.M.G. Companion of St Michael and St George. C.S.I. Companion of the Star of India. D.C.L. Doctor of Civil Law. D.D. Doctor of Divinity. D.Lit. or Litt. D. Doctor of Literature. D.M. Doctor of Medicine (Oxford). D.Se. Doctor of Science. D.S.O. Distinguished Service Order. Ebor. ( Eboraceusis ) of York. [ 2 ] F.C.S. Fellow of the Chemical Society F.D. ( Fidei Defensor ), Defender of the Faith. F.F.P.S. Fellow of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow). F.G.S. Fellow of the Geological Society. F.K.Q.C.P.I. Fellow of King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland. F.L.S. Fellow of the Linnaean Society. F.M. Field Marshal. F.P.S. Fellow of the Philological Society. F.R.A.S. Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. F.R C.P. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. F.R.C.P.E. Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. F.R.C.S. Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. F.R.G.S. Fellow of the Royal Geographical society. F.R.H.S. Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society. F.R.Hist.Soc. Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. F.R.I.B.A. Fellow of the Royal Institution of British Architects. F.R.S. Fellow of the Royal Society. F.R.S.E. Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. F.R.S.L. Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. F.S.A. Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. F.S.S. Fellow of the Statistical Society. F.Z.S. Fellow of the Zoological Society. G.C.B. Knight Grand Cross of the Bath. G.C.H. Knight Grand Cross of Hanover. G.C.I.E. Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire. G.C.M.G. Knight Grand Cross of St Michael and St George. G.C.S.I. Knight Grand Commander of the Star of India. G.C.V.O. Knight Grand Commander of the Victorian Order. H.H. His or Her Highness. H.I.H. His or Her Imperial Highness. H.I.M. His or Her Imperial Majesty. H.M. His or Her Majesty. H.R.H. His or Her Royal Highness. H.S.H. His or Her Serene Highness. J. Judge J.C.D. ( Juris Canonici Doctor , or Juris Civilis Doctor ), Doctor of Canon or Civil Law. J.U.D. ( Juris utriusque Doctor ), Doctor of Civil and Canon Law. J.P. Justice of the Peace. K.C. King's Counsel. K.C.B. Knight Commander of the Bath. K.C.I.E. Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire. K.C.M.G. Knight Commander of St Michael and St George. K.C.S.I. Knight Commander of the Star of India. K.C.V.O. Knight Commander of the Victorian Order. K.G. Knight of the Garter. K.P. Knight of St Patrick. K.T. Knight of the Thistle. L.A.H. Licentiate of the Apothecaries' Hall. L.C.C. London County Council, or Councillor. L.C.J. Lord Chief Justice. L.J. Lord Justice. L.L.A. Lady Literate in Arts. LL.B. ( Legum Baccalaureus ), Bachelor of Laws. LL.D. ( Legum Doctor ), Doctor of Laws. LL.M. ( Legum Magister ), Master of Laws. . L.R.C.P. Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians. L.R.C.S. Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons. L.S.A. Licentiate of the Apothecaries' Society. M.A. Master of Arts. M.B. ( Medicinae Baccaloureus ), Bachelor of Medicine. M.C. Member of Congress. M.D. ( Medicinae Doctor ), Doctor of Medicine. M.Inst.C.E. Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. M.P. Member of Parliament. M.R. Master of the Rolls. M.R.C.P. Member of the Royal College of Physicians. M.R.C.S. Member of the Royal College of Surgeons. M.R.I.A. Member of the Royal Irish Academy. Mus.B. Bachelor of Music. Mus.D. Doctor of Music. M.V.O. Member of the Victorian Order. N.P. Notary Public. O.M. Order of Merit. P.C. Privy Councillor. Ph.D. ( Philosophiae Doctor ), Doctor of Philosophy. P.P. Parish Priest. P.R.A. President of the Royal Academy. R. ( Rex, Regina ), King, Queen. R. & I. Rex et Imperator . R.A. Royal Academician, Royal Artillery. R.A.M. Royal Academy of Music. R.E. Royal Engineers. Reg. Prof. Regius Professor. R.M. Royal Marines, Resident Magistrate. R.N. Royal Navy. S. or St. Saint. S.S.C. Solicitor before the Supreme Courts [of Scotland]. S.T.P. ( Sacrosanctae Theologian Professor ), Professor of Sacred Theology. V.C. Vice-Chancellor, Victoria Cross. V.G. Vicar-General. V.S. Veterinary Surgeon. W.S. Writer to the Signet [in Scotland]. Equivalent to Attorney . 2. Abbreviations Denoting Monies, Weight, and, Measures. [ 3 ] ac. acre. bar. barrel. bus. bushel. c. cent. mo. month. c. ( or cub.) ft. &c. cubic foot, &c. cwt. hundredweight. d. ( denarius ), penny. deg. degree. dr. drachm or dram. dwt. pennyweight. f. franc. fl. florin. ft. foot. fur. furlong. gal. gallon. gr. grain. h. or hr. hour. hhd. hogshead, in. inch. kilo. kilometre. L.,. [ 3 ] £. [ 3 ] or l . ( libra ), pound (money). lb. or ℔ . ( libra ), pound (weight). m. or mi. mile, minute. m. minim. na. nail. oz. ounce. pk. peck. po. pole. pt. pint. q. ( quadrans ), farthing. qr. quarter. qt. quart. ro. rood. Rs. [ 4 ] rupees. s. or / ( solidus ), shilling. s. or sec. second. sc. or scr. scruple. sq. ft. &c. square foot, &c. st. stone. yd. yard. 3. Miscellaneous Abbreviations. A. Accepted. A.C. ( Ante Christum ), Before Christ. acc., a/c. or acct. Account. A.D. ( Anno Domini ), In the year of our Lord. A.E.I.O.U. Austriae est imperare orbi universo, [ 5 ] or Alles Erdreich Ist Oesterreich Unterthan. Aet. or Aetat. ( Aetatis , [ anno ]), In the year of his age. A.H. ( Anno Hegirae ), In the year of the Hegira (the Mohammedan era). A.M. ( Anno Mundi ), In the year of the world. A.M. ( Ante meridiem ), Forenoon. Anon. Anonymous. A.U.C. ( Anno urbis conditae ), In the year from the building of the city ( i.e. Rome). A.V. Authorized version of the Bible. b. born. B.V.M. The Blessed Virgin Mary. B.C. Before Christ. c. circa , about. C. or Cap. ( Caput ), Chapter. C. Centigrade ( or Celsius’s) Thermometer. cent [ 6 ] ( Centum ), A hundred, frequently £100. Cf. or cp. ( Confer ), Compare. Ch. or Chap. Chapter. C.M.S. Church Missionary Society. Co. Company, County. C.O.D. Cash on Delivery. Cr. Creditor. curt. Current, the present month. d. died. D.G. ( Dei gratia ), By the grace of God. Do. Ditto, the same. D.O.M. ( Deo Optima Maximo ), To God the Best and Greatest. Dr. Debtor. D.V. ( Deo volente ), God willing. E.& O.E. Errors and omissions excepted. e.g. ( Exempli gratia ), For example. etc. or &c. ( Et caetera ), And the rest; and so forth. Ex. Example. F. or Fahr. Fahrenheit’s Thermometer. Fec. ( Fecit ), He made ( or did) it. fl. flourished. Fo. or Fol. Folio. f.o.b. Free on board. G.P.O. General Post Office. H.M.S. His Majesty’s Ship, or Service. Ib. or Ibid. ( Ibidem ), In the same place. Id. ( Idem ), The same. i.e. ( Id est ), That is. I.H.S. A symbol for “Jesus,” derived from the first three letters of the Greek ( Ι Η Σ ); the correct origin was lost sight of, and the Romanized letters were then interpreted erroneously as standing for Jesus , Hominum Salvator , the Latin “h” and Greek long “e” being confused. I.M.D.G. ( In majorem Dei gloriam ), To the greater glory of God. Inf. ( Infra ), Below. Inst. Instant, the present month. I.O.U. I owe you. i.q. ( Idem quod ), The same as. κ.τ.λ. ( καὶ τὰ λοιπά ), Et caetera , and the rest. L. or Lib. ( Liber ), Book. Lat. Latitude. l.c. ( Loco citato ), In the place cited. Lon. or Long. Longitude. L.S. ( Locus sigilli ), The place of the seal. Mem. ( Memento ), Remember, Memorandum. MS. Manuscript. MSS. Manuscripts. N.B. ( Nota bene ), Mark well; take notice. N.B. North Britain ( i.e. Scotland). N.D. No date. nem. con. ( Nemine contradicente ), No one contradicting. No. ( Numero ), Number. N.S. New Style. N.T. New Testament. ob. ( Obiit ), Died. Obs. Obsolete. O.H.M.S. On His Majesty’s Service. O.S. Old Style. O.S.B. Ordo Sancti Benedicti (Benedictines). O.T. Old Testament. P. Page. Pp. Pages. ( Per ), For; e.g. ℔., For one pound. Pinx. ( Pinxit ), He painted it. P.M. ( Post Meridiem ), Afternoon. P.O. Post Office, Postal Order. P.O.O. Post Office Order. P.P.C. ( Pour prendre congé ), To take leave. P.R. Prize-ring. prox. ( Proximo [ mense ]), Next month. PS. Postscript. Pt. Part. pt. or pro tem. ( Pro tempore ), For the time. P.T.O. Please turn over. Q., Qu., or Qy. Query; Question. q.d. ( Quasi dicat ), As if he should say; as much as to say. Q.E.D. ( Quod erat demonstrandum ). Which was to be demonstrated. Q.E.F. ( Quad erat faciendum ), Which was to be done. q.s. or quant. suff. ( Quantum sufficit ), As much as is sufficient. q.v. ( Quod vide ), Which see. R. or ℞. ( Recipe ), Take. √ (= r . for radix), The sign of the square root. R.I.P. ( Requiescat in pace! ), May he rest in peace! R.S.V.P. ( Répondez s’il vous plait ), Please reply. sc. ( Scilicet ), Namely; that is to say. Sc. or Sculp. ( Sculpsit ), He engraved it. S.D.U.K. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. seq. or sq., seqq. or sqq. ( Sequens , sequentia ), The following. S.J. Society of Jesus. s.p. ( Sine prole ), Without offspring. S.P.C.K. Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge. S.P.G. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. S.T.D. } {\displaystyle {\Bigg \}}} Doctor, Bachelor, Licentiate of Theology. S.T.B. S.T.L. Sup. ( Supra ), Above. s.v. ( Sub voce ), Under the word ( or heading). T.C.D. Trinity College, Dublin. ult. ( Ultimo [ mense ]), Last month. U.S. United States. U.S.A. United States of America. v. ( Versus ), Against. v. or vid. ( Vide ), See. viz. ( Videlicet ), Namely Xmas. Christmas. This Χ is a Greek letter, corresponding to Ch. See also Graevius ’s Thesaurus Antiquitatum (1694, sqq.); Nicolai ’s Tractatus de Siglis Veterum ; Mommsen ’s Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum (1863, sqq.); Natalis de Wailly ’s Paléographie (Paris, 1838); Alph. Chassant ’s Paléographie (1854), and Dictionnaire des Abréviations (3rd ed. 1866); Campelli , Dizionario di Abbreviature (1899). ↑ Describing the function of the triumviri monetales . ↑ An archbishop or bishop, in writing his signature, substitutes for his surname the name of his see; thus the prelates of Canterbury, York, Oxford. London, &c., subscribe themselves with their initials (Christian names only), followed by Cantuar., Ebor., Oxon., Londin. (sometimes London.), &c. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Characters, not properly abbreviations, are used in the same way; e.g. ° ′ ″ for “degrees, minutes, seconds” (circular measure); ℥, ʒ, ℈ for “ounces, drachms, scruples.” ℥ is probably to be traced to the written form of the z in “ oz .” ↑ These forms (as well as $, the symbol for the American dollar) are placed before their amounts. ↑ It is given to Austria to rule the whole earth . The device of Austria, first adopted by Frederick III. ↑ “Per cent.” is often signified by %, a form traceable to “100.” |
ABBREVIATORS, a body of writers in the papal chancery, whose business was to sketch out and prepare in due form the pope’s bulls, briefs and consistorial decrees before these are written out in extenso by the scriptores . They are first mentioned in Extravagantes of John XXII . and of Benedict XII . Their number was fixed at seventy-two by Sixtus IV . From the time of Benedict XII. (1334–1342) they were classed as de Parco majori or Praesidentiae majoris , and de Parco minori . The name was derived from a space in the chancery, surrounded by a grating, in which the officials sat, which is called higher or lower (major or minor) according to the proximity of the seats to that of the vice-chancellor. After the protonotaries left the sketching of the minutes to the abbreviators, those de Parco majori , who ranked as prelates, were the most important officers of the apostolic chancery. By Martin V . their signature was made essential to the validity of the acts of the chancery; and they obtained in course of time many important privileges. They were suppressed in 1908 by Pius X . and their duties were transferred to the protonotarii apostolici participantes . (See Curia Romana .) |
ABD-AR-RAHMAN, the name borne by five princes of the Omayyad dynasty, amirs and caliphs of Cordova, two of them being rulers of great capacity. Abd-ar-Rahman I. (756–788) was the founder of the branch of the family which ruled for nearly three centuries in Mahommedan Spain. When the Omayyads were overthrown in the East by the Abbasids he was a young man of about twenty years of age. Together with his brother Yahya, he took refuge with Bedouin tribes in the desert. The Abbasids hunted their enemies down without mercy. Their soldiers overtook the brothers; Yahya was slain, and Abd-ar-rahman saved himself by fleeing first to Syria and thence to northern Africa, the common refuge of all who endeavoured to get beyond the reach of the Abbasids. In the general confusion of the caliphate produced by the change of dynasty, Africa had fallen into the hands of local rulers, formerly amirs or lieutenants of the Omayyad caliphs, but now aiming at independence. After a time Abd-ar-rahman found that his life was threatened, and he fled farther west, taking refuge among the Berber tribes of Mauritania. In the midst of all his perils, which read like stories from the Arabian Nights , Abd-ar-rahman had been encouraged by reliance on a prophecy of his great-uncle Maslama that he would restore the fortune of the family. He was followed in all his wanderings by a few faithful clients of the Omayyads. In 755 he was in hiding near Ceuta, and thence he sent an agent over to Spain to ask for the support of other clients of the family, descendants of the conquerors of Spain, who were numerous in the province of Elvira, the modern Granada. The country was in a state of confusion under the weak rule of the amir Yusef, a mere puppet in the hands of a faction, and was torn by tribal dissensions among the Arabs and by race conflicts between the Arabs and Berbers. It offered Abd-ar-rahman the opportunity he had failed to find in Africa. On the invitation of his partisans he landed at Almuñecar, to the east of Malaga, in September 755. For a time he was compelled to submit to be guided by his supporters, who were aware of the risks of their venture. Yusef opened negotiations, and offered to give Abd-ar-rahman one of his daughters in marriage and a grant of land. This was far less than the prince meant to obtain, but he would probably have been forced to accept the offer for want of a better if the insolence of one of Yusef’s messengers, a Spanish renegade, had not outraged a chief partisan of the Omayyad cause. He taunted this gentleman, Obeidullah by name, with being unable to write good Arabic. Under this provocation Obeidullah drew the sword. In the course of 756 a campaign was fought in the valley of the Guadalquivir, which ended, on the 16th of May, in the defeat of Yusef outside Cordova. Ab-dar-rahman’s army was so ill provided that he mounted almost the only good war-horse in it; he had no banner, and one was improvised by unwinding a green turban and binding it round the head of a spear. The turban and the spear became the banner of the Spanish Omayyads. The long reign of Abd-ar-rahman I. was spent in a struggle to reduce his anarchical Arab and Berber subjects to order. They had never meant to give themselves a master, and they chafed under his hand, which grew continually heavier. The details of these conflicts belong to the general history of Spain. It is, however, part of the personal history of Abd-ar-rahman that when in 763 he was compelled to fight at the very gate of his capital with rebels acting on behalf of the Abbasids, and had won a signal victory, he cut off the heads of the leaders, filled them with salt and camphor and sent them as a defiance to the eastern caliph. His last years were spent amid a succession of palace conspiracies, repressed with cruelty. Abd-ar-rahman grew embittered and ferocious. He was a fine example of an oriental founder of a dynasty, and did his work so well that the Omayyads lasted in Spain for two centuries and a half. Abd-ar-Rahman II. (822–852) was one of the weaker of the Spanish Omayyads. He was a prince with a taste for music and literature, whose reign was a time of confusion. It is chiefly memorable for having included the story of the “Martyrs of Cordova,” one of the most remarkable passages in the religious history of the middle ages. Abd-ar-Rahman III. (912–961) was the greatest and the most successful of the princes of his dynasty in Spain (for the general history of his reign see Spain , History ). He ascended the throne when he was barely twenty-two and reigned for half a century. His life was so completely identified with the government of the state that he offers less material for biography than his ancestor Abd-ar-rahman I. Yet it supplies some passages which show the real character of an oriental dynasty even at its best. Abd-ar-rahman III. was the grandson of his predecessor, Abdallah, one of the weakest and worst of the Spanish Omayyads. His father, Mahommed, was murdered by a brother Motarrif by order of Abdallah. The old sultan was so far influenced by humanity and remorse that he treated his grandson kindly. Abd-ar-rahman III. came to the throne when the country was exhausted by more than a generation of tribal conflict among the Arabs, and of strife between them and the Mahommedans of native Spanish descent. Spaniards who were openly or secretly Christians had acted with the renegades. These elements, which formed the bulk of the population, were not averse from supporting a strong ruler who would protect them against the Arab aristocracy. These restless nobles were the most serious of Abd-ar-rahman’s enemies. Next to them came the Fatimites of Egypt and northern Africa, who claimed the caliphate, and who aimed at extending their rule over the Mahommedan world, at least in the west. Abd-ar-rahman subdued the nobles by means of a mercenary army, which included Christians. He repelled the Fatimites, partly by supporting their enemies in Africa, and partly by claiming the caliphate for himself. His ancestors in Spain had been content with the title of sultan. The caliphate was thought only to belong to the prince who ruled over the sacred cities of Mecca and Medina. But the force of this tradition had been so far weakened that Abd-ar-rahman could proclaim himself caliph on the 16th of January 929, and the assumption of the title gave him increased prestige with his subjects, both in Spain and Africa. His worst enemies were always his fellow Mahommedans. After he was defeated by the Christians at Alhandega in 939 through the treason of the Arab nobles in his army (see Spain , History ) he never again took the field. He is accused of having sunk in his later years into the self-indulgent habits of the harem. When the undoubted prosperity of his dominions is quoted as an example of successful Mahommedan rule, it is well to remember that he administered well not by means of but in spite of Mahommedans. The high praise given to his administration may even excite some doubts as to its real excellence. We are told that a third of his revenue sufficed for the ordinary expenses of government, a third was hoarded and a third spent on buildings. A very large proportion of the surplus must have been wasted on the palace-town of Zahra, built three miles to the north of Cordova, and named after a favourite concubine. Ten thousand workmen are said to have been employed for twenty-five years on this wonder, of which no trace now remains. The great monument of early Arabic architecture in Spain, the mosque of Cordova, was built by his predecessors, not by him. It is said that his harem included six thousand women. Abd-ar-rahman was tolerant, but it is highly probable that he was very indifferent in religion, and it is certain that he was a thorough despot. One of the most authentic sayings attributed to him is his criticism of Otto I. of Germany, recorded by Otto’s ambassador, Johann, abbot of Gorze, who has left in his Vita an incomplete account of his embassy (in Pertz, Mon. Germ. Scriptores , iv. 355-377). He blamed the king of Germany for trusting his nobles, which he said could only increase their pride and leaning to rebellion. His confession that he had known only twenty happy days in his long reign is perhaps a moral tale, to be classed with the “ omnia fui , et nil expedit ” of Septimius Severus. In the agony of the Omayyad dynasty in Spain, two princes of the house were proclaimed caliphs for a very short time, Abd-ar-rahman IV. Mortada (1017), and Abd-ar-rahman V. Mostadir (1023–1024). Both were the mere puppets of factions, who deserted them at once. Abd-ar-rahman IV. was murdered in the year in which he was proclaimed, at Guadiz, when fleeing from a battle in which he had been deserted by his supporters. Abd-ar-rahman V. was proclaimed caliph in December 1023 at Cordova, and murdered in January 1024 by a mob of unemployed workmen, headed by one of his own cousins. The history of the Omayyads in Spain is the subject of the Histoire des Musulmans d’Espagne , by R. Dozy (Leiden, 1861). ( D. H. ) |
ABD-EL-AZIZ IV. (1880– ), sultan of Morocco, son of Sultan Mulai el Hasan III. by a Circassian wife. He was fourteen years of age on his father’s death in 1894. By the wise action of Si Ahmad bin Musa, the chamberlain of El Hasan, Abd-el-Aziz’s accession to the sultanate was ensured with but little fighting. Si Ahmad became regent and for six years showed himself a capable ruler. On his death in 1900 the regency ended, and Abd-el-Aziz took the reins of government into his own hands, with an Arab from the south, El Menebhi, for his chief adviser. Urged by his Circassian mother, the sultan sought advice and counsel from Europe and endeavoured to act up to it. But disinterested advice was difficult to obtain, and in spite of the unquestionable desire of the young ruler to do the best for the country, wild extravagance both in action and expenditure resulted, leaving the sultan with depleted exchequer and the confidence of his people impaired. His intimacy with foreigners and his imitation of their ways were sufficient to rouse fanaticism and create dissatisfaction. His attempt to reorganize the finances by the systematic levy of taxes was hailed with delight, but the government was not strong enough to carry the measures through, and the money which should have been used to pay the taxes was employed to purchase firearms. Thus the benign intentions of Mulai Abdel-Aziz were interpreted as weakness, and Europeans were accused of having spoiled the sultan and of being desirous of spoiling the country. When British engineers were employed to survey the route for a railway between Mequinez and Fez, this was reported as indicating an absolute sale of the country. The fanaticism of the people was aroused, and a revolt broke out near the Algerian frontier. Such was the condition of things when the news of the Anglo-French Agreement of 1904 came as a blow to Abd-el-Aziz, who had relied on England for support and protection against the inroads of France. On the advice of Germany he proposed the assembly of an international conference at Algeciras in 1906 to consult upon methods of reform, the sultan’s desire being to ensure a condition of affairs which would leave foreigners with no excuse for interference in the control of the country, and would promote its welfare, which Abd-el-Aziz had earnestly desired from his accession to power. The sultan gave his adherence to the Act of the Algeciras Conference, but the state of anarchy into which Morocco fell during the latter half of 1906 and the beginning of 1907 showed that the young ruler lacked strength sufficient to make his will respected by his turbulent subjects. In May 1907 the southern tribes invited Mulai Hafid, an elder brother of Abd-el-Aziz, and viceroy at Marrakesh, to become sultan, and in the following August Hafid was proclaimed sovereign there with all the usual formalities. In the meantime the murder of Europeans at Casablanca had led to the occupation of that port by France. In September Abd-el-Aziz arrived at Rabat from Fez and endeavoured to secure the support of the European powers against his brother. From France he accepted the grand cordon of the Legion of Honour, and was later enabled to negotiate a loan. His leaning to Christians aroused further opposition to his rule, and in January 1908 he was declared deposed by the ulema of Fez, who offered the throne to Hafid. After months of inactivity Abd-el-Aziz made an effort to restore his authority, and quitting Rabat in July he marched on Marrakesh. His force, largely owing to treachery, was completely overthrown (August 19th) when near that city, and Abd-el-Aziz fled to Settat within the French lines round Casablanca. In November he came to terms with his brother, and thereafter took up his residence in Tangier as a pensioner of the new sultan. He declared himself more than reconciled to the loss of the throne, and as looking forward to a quiet, peaceful life. (See Morocco , History .) |
ABD-EL-KADER ( c. 1807–1883), amir of Mascara, the great opponent of the conquest of Algeria by France, was born near Mascara in 1807 or 1808. His family were sherifs or descendants of Mahomet, and his father, Mahi-ed-Din, was celebrated throughout North Africa for his piety and charity. Abd-el-Kader received the best education attainable by a Mussulman of princely rank, especially in theology and philosophy, in horsemanship and in other manly exercises. While still a youth he was taken by his father on the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina and to the tomb of Sidi Abd-el-Kader El Jalili at Bagdad—events which stimulated his natural tendency to religious enthusiasm. While in Egypt in 1827, Abd-el-Kader is stated to have been impressed, by the reforms then being carried out by Mehemet Ali, with the value of European civilization, and the knowledge he then gained affected his career. Mahi-ed-Din and his son returned to Mascara shortly before the French occupation of Algiers (July 1830) destroyed the government of the Dey. Coming forward as the champion of Islam against the infidels, Abd-el-Kader was proclaimed amir at Mascara in 1832. He prosecuted the war against France vigorously and in a short time had rallied to his standard all the tribes of western Algeria. The story of his fifteen years’ struggle against the French is given under Algeria . To the beginning of 1842 the contest went in favour of the amir; thereafter he found in Marshal Bugeaud an opponent who proved, in the end, his master. Throughout this period Abd-el-Kader showed himself a born leader of men, a great soldier, a capable administrator, a persuasive orator, a chivalrous opponent. His fervent faith in the doctrines of Islam was unquestioned, and his ultimate failure was due in considerable measure to the refusal of the Kabyles, Berber mountain tribes whose Mahommedanism is somewhat loosely held, to make common cause with the Arabs against the French. On the 21st of December 1847, the amir gave himself up to General Lamoriciére at Sidi Brahim. On the 23rd, his submission was formally made to the duc d’Aumale, then governor of Algeria. In violation of the promise that he would be allowed to go to Alexandria or St Jean d’Acre, on the faith of which he surrendered, Abd-el-Kader and his family were detained in France, first at Toulon, then at Pau, being in November 1848 transferred to the château of Amboise. There Abd-el-Kader remained until October 1852, when he was released by Napoleon III. on taking an oath never again to disturb Algeria. The amir then took up his residence in Brusa, removing in 1855 to Damascus. In July 1860, when the Moslems of that city, taking advantage of disturbances among the Druses of Lebanon, attacked the Christian quarter and killed over 3000 persons, Abd-el-Kader helped to repress the outbreak and saved large numbers of Christians. For this action the French government, which granted the amir a pension of £4000, bestowed on him the grand cross of the Legion of Honour. In 1865, he visited Paris and London, and was again in Paris at the exposition of 1867. In 1871, when the Algerians again rose in revolt, Abd-el-Kader wrote to them counselling submission to France. After his surrender in 1847 he devoted himself anew to theology and philosophy, and composed a philosophical treatise, of which a French translation was published in 1858 under the title of Rappel à l’intelligent . Avis à l’indifférent . He also wrote a book on the Arab horse. He died at Damascus on the 26th of May 1883. See Commdt. J. Pichon, Abd el Kader , 1807–1883 (Paris [1899]); Alex. Bellemare, Abd-el-Kader: sa vie politique et militaire (Paris, 1863); Col. C. H. Churchill , The Life of Abdel Kader (London, 1867). |
ABD-UL-AZIZ (1830–1876), sultan of Turkey, son of Sultan Mahmud II., was born on the 9th of February 1830, and succeeded his brother Abd-ul-Mejid in 1861. His personal interference in government affairs was not very marked, and extended to little more than taking astute advantage of the constant issue of State loans during his reign to acquire wealth, which was squandered in building useless palaces and in other futile ways: he is even said to have profited, by means of “bear” sales, from the default on the Turkish debt in 1875 and the consequent fall in prices. Another source of revenue was afforded by Ismail Pasha, the khedive of Egypt, who paid heavily in bakshish for the firman of 1866, by which the succession to the khedivate was made hereditary from father to son in direct line and in order of primogeniture, as well as for the subsequent firmans of 1867, 1869 and 1872 extending the khedive’s prerogatives. It is, however, only fair to add that the sultan was doubtless influenced by the desire to bring about a similar change in the succession to the Ottoman throne and to ensure the succession after him of his eldest son, Yussuf Izz-ed-din. Abd-ul-Aziz visited Europe in 1867, being the first Ottoman sultan to do so, and was made a Knight of the Garter by Queen Victoria. In 1869 he received the visits of the emperor of Austria, the Empress Eugenie and other foreign princes, on their way to the opening of the Suez Canal, and King Edward VII., while prince of Wales, twice visited Constantinople during his reign. The mis-government and financial straits of the country brought on the outbreak of Mussulman discontent and fanaticism which eventually culminated in the murder of two consuls at Salonica and in the “Bulgarian atrocities,” and cost Abd-ul-Aziz his throne. His deposition on the 30th of May 1876 was hailed with joy throughout Turkey; a fortnight later he was found dead in the palace where he was confined, and trustworthy medical evidence attributed his death to suicide. Seven children survived him: Prince Yussuf Izz-ed-din, born 1857; Princess Saliha, wife of Kurd Ismail Pasha; Princess Nazimé, wife of Khalid Pasha; Prince Abd-ul-Mejid, born 1869; Prince Seif-ed-din, born 1876; Princess Emine, wife of Mahommed Bey; Prince Shefket, born 1872, died 1899. |
ABD-UL-HAMID I. (1725–1789), sultan of Turkey, son of Ahmed III., succeeded his brother Mustafa III. in 1773. Long confinement in the palace aloof from state affairs had left him pious, God-fearing and pacific in disposition. At his accession the financial straits of the treasury were such that the usual donative could not be given to the janissaries. War was, however, forced on him, and less than a year after his accession the complete defeat of the Turks at Kozluja led to the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji (21st July 1774), the most disastrous, especially in its after effects, that Turkey has ever been obliged to conclude. (See Turkey .) Slight successes in Syria and the Morea against rebellious outbreaks there could not compensate for the loss of the Crimea, which Russia soon showed that she meant to absorb entirely. In 1787 war was again declared against Russia, joined in the following year by Austria, Joseph II. being entirely won over to Catherine, whom he accompanied in her triumphal progress in the Crimea. Turkey held her own against the Austrians, but in 1788 Ochakov fell to the Russians. Four months later, on the 7th of April 1789, the sultan died, aged sixty-four. |
ABD-UL-HAMID II. (1842– ), sultan of Turkey, son of Sultan Abd-ul-Mejid, was born on the 21st of September 1842, and succeeded to the throne on the deposition of his brother Murad V., on the 31st of August 1876. He accompanied his uncle Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz on his visit to England and France in 1867. At his accession spectators were struck by the fearless manner in which he rode, practically unattended, on his way to be girt with the sword of Eyub. He was supposed to be of liberal principles, and the more conservative of his subjects were for some years after his accession inclined to regard him with suspicion as a too ardent reformer. But the circumstances of the country at his accession were ill adapted for liberal developments. Default in the public funds and an empty treasury, the insurrection in Bosnia and the Herzegovina, the war with Servia and Montenegro, the feeling aroused throughout Europe by the methods adopted in stamping out the Bulgarian rebellion, all combined to prove to the new sultan that he could expect little aid from the Powers. But, still clinging to the groundless belief, for which British statesmen had, of late at least, afforded Turkey no justification, that Great Britain at all events would support him, he obstinately refused to give ear to the pressing requests of the Powers that the necessary reforms should be instituted. The international Conference which met at Constantinople towards the end of 1876 was, indeed, startled by the salvo of guns heralding the promulgation of a constitution, but the demands of the Conference were rejected, in spite of the solemn warnings addressed to the sultan by the Powers; Midhat Pasha, the author of the constitution, was exiled; and soon afterwards his work was suspended, though figuring to this day on the Statute-Book. Early in 1877 the disastrous war with Russia followed. The hard terms, embodied in the treaty of San Stefano, to which Abd-ul-Hamid was forced to consent, were to some extent amended at Berlin, thanks in the main to British diplomacy (see Europe , History ); but by this time the sultan had lost all confidence in England, and thought that he discerned in Germany, whose supremacy was evidenced in his eyes by her capital being selected as the meeting-place of the Congress, the future friend of Turkey. He hastened to employ Germans for the reorganization of his finances and his army, and set to work in the determination to maintain his empire in spite of the difficulties surrounding him, to resist the encroachments of foreigners, and to take gradually the reins of absolute power into his own hands, being animated by a profound distrust, not unmerited, of his ministers. Financial embarrassments forced him to consent to a foreign control over the Debt, and the decree of December 1881, whereby many of the revenues of the empire were handed over to the Public Debt Administration for the benefit of the bondholders, was a sacrifice of principle to which he could only have consented with the greatest reluctance. Trouble in Egypt, where a discredited khedive had to be deposed, trouble on the Greek frontier and in Montenegro, where the Powers were determined that the decisions of the Berlin Congress should be carried into effect, were more or less satisfactorily got over. In his attitude towards Arabi, the would-be saviour of Egypt, Abd-ul-Hamid showed less than his usual astuteness, and the resulting consolidation of England’s hold over the country contributed still further to his estrangement from Turkey’s old ally. The union in 1885 of Bulgaria with Eastern Rumelia, the severance of which had been the great triumph of the Berlin Congress, was another blow. Few people south of the Balkans dreamed that Bulgaria could be anything but a Russian province, and apprehension was entertained of the results of the union until it was seen that Russia really and entirely disapproved of it. Then the best was made of it, and for some years the sultan preserved towards Bulgaria an attitude skilfully calculated so as to avoid running counter either to Russian or to German wishes. Germany’s friendship was not entirely disinterested, and had to be fostered with a railway or loan concession from time to time, until in 1899 the great object aimed at, the Bagdad railway, was conceded. Meanwhile, aided by docile instruments, the sultan had succeeded in reducing his ministers to the position of secretaries, and in concentrating the whole administration of the country into his own hands at Yildiz. But internal dissension was not thereby lessened. Crete was constantly in turmoil, the Greeks were dissatisfied, and from about 1890 the Armenians began a violent agitation with a view to obtaining the reforms promised them at Berlin. Minor troubles had occurred in 1892 and 1893 at Marsovan and Tokat. In 1894 a more serious rebellion in the mountainous region of Sassun was ruthlessly stamped out; the Powers insistently demanded reforms, the eventual grant of which in the autumn of 1895 was the signal for a series of massacres, brought on in part by the injudicious and threatening acts of the victims, and extending over many months and throughout Asia Minor, as well as in the capital itself. The reforms became more or less a dead letter. Crete indeed profited by the grant of extended privileges, but these did not satisfy its turbulent population, and early in 1897 a Greek expedition sailed to unite the island to Greece. War followed, in which Turkey was easily successful and gained a small rectification of frontier; then a few months later Crete was taken over “ en depôt ” by the Four Powers—Germany and Austria not participating,—and Prince George of Greece was appointed their mandatory. In the next year the sultan received the visit of the German emperor and empress. Abd-ul-Hamid had always resisted the pressure of the European Powers to the last moment, in order to seem to yield only to overwhelming force, while posing as the champion of Islam against aggressive Christendom. The Panislamic propaganda was encouraged; the privileges of foreigners in the Ottoman Empire—often an obstacle to government—were curtailed; the new railway to the Holy Places was pressed on, and emissaries were sent to distant countries preaching Islam and the caliph’s supremacy. This appeal to Moslem sentiment was, however, powerless against the disaffection due to perennial misgovernment. In Mesopotamia and Yemen disturbance was endemic; nearer home, a semblance of loyalty was maintained in the army and among the Mussulman population by a system of delation and espionage, and by wholesale arrests; while, obsessed by terror of assassination, the sultan withdrew himself into fortified seclusion in the palace of Yildiz. The national humiliation of the situation in Macedonia ( q.v. ), together with the resentment in the army against the palace spies and informers, at last brought matters to a crisis. The remarkable revolution associated with the names of Niazi Bey and Enver Bey, the young Turk leaders, and the Committee of Union and Progress is described elsewhere (see Turkey : History ); here it must suffice to say that Abd-ul-Hamid, on learning of the threat of the Salonica troops to march on Constantinople (July 23), at once capitulated. On the 24th an iradé announced the restoration of the suspended constitution of 1875; next day, further iradés abolished espionage and the censorship, and ordered the release of political prisoners. On the 10th of December the sultan opened the Turkish parliament with a speech from the throne in which he said that the first parliament had been “temporarily dissolved until the education of the people had been brought to a sufficiently high level by the extension of instruction throughout the empire.” The correct attitude of the sultan did not save him from the suspicion of intriguing with the powerful reactionary elements in the state, a suspicion confirmed by his attitude towards the counter-revolution of the 13th of April, when an insurrection of the soldiers and the Moslem populace of the capital overthrew the committee and the ministry. The committee, restored by the Salonica troops, now decided on Abd-ul-Hamid’s deposition, and on the 27th of April his brother Reshid Effendi was proclaimed sultan as Mahommed V. The ex-sultan was conveyed into dignified captivity at Salonica. |
ABD-UL-MEJID (1823–1861), sultan of Turkey, was born on the 23rd of April 1823, and succeeded his father Mahmud II. on the 2nd of July 1839. Mahmud appears to have been unable to effect the reforms he desired in the mode of educating his children, so that his son received no better education than that given, according to use and wont, to Turkish princes in the harem. When Abd-ul-Mejid succeeded to the throne, the affairs of Turkey were in an extremely critical state. At the very time his father died, the news was on its way to Constantinople that the Turkish army had been signally defeated at Nezib by that of the rebel Egyptian viceroy, Mehemet Ali; and the Turkish fleet was at the same time on its way to Alexandria, where it was handed over by its commander, Ahmed Pasha, to the same enemy, on the pretext that the young sultan’s advisers were sold to Russia. But through the intervention of the European Powers Mehemet Ali was obliged to come to terms, and the Ottoman empire was saved. (See Mehemet Ali .) In compliance with his father’s express instructions, Abd-ul-Mejid set at once about carrying out the reforms to which Mahmud had devoted himself. In November 1839 was proclaimed an edict, known as the Hatt-i-sherif of Gulhané, consolidating and enforcing these reforms, which was supplemented at the close of the Crimean war by a similar statute issued in February 1856. By these enactments it was provided that all classes of the sultan’s subjects should have security for their lives and property; that taxes should be fairly imposed and justice impartially administered; and that all should have full religious liberty and equal civil rights. The scheme met with keen opposition from the Mussulman governing classes and the ulema , or privileged religious teachers, and was but partially put in force, especially in the remoter parts of the empire; and more than one conspiracy was formed against the sultan’s life on account of it. Of the other measures of reform promoted by Abd-ul-Mejid the more important were—the reorganization of the army (1843–1844), the institution of a council of public instruction (1846), the abolition of an odious and unfairly imposed capitation tax, the repression of slave trading, and various provisions for the better administration of the public service and for the advancement of commerce. For the public history of his times—the disturbances and insurrections in different parts of his dominions throughout his reign, and the great war successfully carried on against Russia by Turkey, and by England, France and Sardinia, in the interest of Turkey (1853–1856)—see Turkey , and Crimean War . When Kossuth and others sought refuge in Turkey, after the failure of the Hungarian rising in 1849, the sultan was called on by Austria and Russia to surrender them, but boldly and determinedly refused. It is to his credit, too, that he would not allow the conspirators against his own life to be put to death. He bore the character of being a kind and honourable man, if somewhat weak and easily led. Against this, however, must be set down his excessive extravagance, especially towards the end of his life. He died on the 25th of June 1861, and was succeeded by his brother, Abd-ul-Aziz, as the oldest survivor of the family of Osman. He left several sons, of whom two, Murad V. and Abd-ul-Hamid II., eventually succeeded to the throne. In his reign was begun the reckless system of foreign loans, carried to excess in the ensuing reign, and culminating in default, which led to the alienation of European sympathy from Turkey and, indirectly, to the dethronement and death of Abd-ul-Aziz. |
ABDALLATIF, or Abd-ul-Latif (1162–1231), a celebrated physician and traveller, and one of the most voluminous writers of the East, was born at Bagdad in 1162. An interesting memoir of Abdallatif, written by himself, has been preserved with additions by Ibn-Abu-Osaiba (Ibn abī Usaibia), a contemporary. From that work we learn that the higher education of the youth of Bagdad consisted principally in a minute and careful study of the rules and principles of grammar, and in their committing to memory the whole of the Koran, a treatise or two on philology and jurisprudence, and the choicest Arabian poetry. After attaining to great proficiency in that kind of learning, Abdallatif applied himself to natural philosophy and medicine. To enjoy the society of the learned, he went first to Mosul (1189), and afterwards to Damascus. With letters of recommendation from Saladin’s vizier, he visited Egypt, where the wish he had long cherished to converse with Maimonides, “the Eagle of the Doctors,” was gratified. He afterwards formed one of the circle of learned men whom Saladin gathered around him at Jerusalem. He taught medicine and philosophy at Cairo and at Damascus for a number of years, and afterwards, for a shorter period, at Aleppo. His love of travel led him in his old age to visit different parts of Armenia and Asia Minor, and he was setting out on a pilgrimage to Mecca when he died at Bagdad in 1231. Abdallatif was undoubtedly a man of great knowledge and of an inquisitive and penetrating mind. Of the numerous works—mostly on medicine—which Osaiba ascribes to him, one only, his graphic and detailed Account of Egypt (in two parts), appears to be known in Europe. The manuscript, discovered by Edward Pococke the Orientalist, and preserved in the Bodleian Library, contains a vivid description of a famine caused, during the author’s residence in Egypt, by the Nile failing to overflow its banks. It was translated into Latin by Professor White of Oxford in 1800, and into French, with valuable notes, by De Sacy in 1810. |
ABDERA, an ancient seaport town on the south coast of Spain, between Malaca and New Carthage, in the district inhabited by the Bastuli. It was founded by the Carthaginians as a trading station, and after a period of decline became under the Romans one of the more important towns in the province of Hispania Baetica. It was situated on a hill above the modern Adra ( q.v. ). Of its coins the most ancient bear the Phoenician inscription abdrt with the head of Heracles (Melkarth) and a tunny-fish; those of Tiberius (who seems to have made the place a colony) show the chief temple of the town with two tunny-fish erect in the form of columns. For inscriptions relating to the Roman municipality see C.I.L. ii. 267. |
ABDERA, a town on the coast of Thrace near the mouth of the Nestos, and almost opposite Thasos. Its mythical foundation was attributed to Heracles, its historical to a colony from Clazomenae in the 7th century B.C. But its prosperity dates from 544 B.C. , when the majority of the people of Teos migrated to Abdera after the Ionian revolt to escape the Persian yoke (Herod. i. 168); the chief coin type, a gryphon, is identical with that of Teos; the coinage is noted for the beauty and variety of its reverse types. The town seems to have declined in importance after the middle of the 4th century. The air of Abdera was proverbial as causing stupidity; but among its citizens was the philosopher Democritus. The ruins of the town may still be seen on Cape Balastra; they cover seven small hills, and extend from an eastern to a western harbour; on the S.W. hills are the remains of the medieval settlement of Polystylon. Mittheil. d. deutsch. Inst. Athens , xii. (1887), p. 161 (Regel); Mém. de l’Acad. des Inscriptions , xxxix. 211; K. F. Hermann, Ges. Abh . 90-111, 370 ff. |
ABDICATION (Lat. abdicatio , disowning, renouncing, from ab , from, and dicare , to declare, to proclaim as not belonging to one), the act whereby a person in office renounces and gives up the same before the expiry of the time for which it is held. In Roman law, the term is especially applied to the disowning of a member of a family, as the disinheriting of a son, but the word is seldom used except in the sense of surrendering the supreme power in a state. Despotic sovereigns are at liberty to divest themselves of their powers at any time, but it is otherwise with a limited monarchy. The throne of Great Britain cannot be lawfully abdicated unless with the consent of the two Houses of Parliament. When James II., after throwing the great seal into the Thames, fled to France in 1688, he did not formally resign the crown, and the question was discussed in parliament whether he had forfeited the throne or had abdicated. The latter designation was agreed on, for in a full assembly of the Lords and Commons, met in convention, it was resolved, in spite of James’s protest, “that King James II. having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant.” The Scottish parliament pronounced a decree of forfeiture and deposition. Among the most memorable abdications of antiquity may be mentioned that of Sulla the dictator, 79 B.C. , and that of the Emperor Diocletian, A.D. 305. The following is a list of the more important abdications of later times:— A.D. Benedict IX., pope 1048 Stephen II. of Hungary 1131 Albert (the Bear) of Brandenburg 1169 Ladislaus III. of Poland 1206 Celestine V., pope Dec. 13, 1294 John Baliol of Scotland 1296 John Cantacuzene, emperor of the East 1355 Richard II. of England Sept. 29, 1399 John XXIII., pope 1415 Eric VII. of Denmark and XIII. of Sweden 1439 Murad II., Ottoman Sultan 1444 and 1445 Charles V., emperor 1556 Christina of Sweden 1654 John Casimir of Poland 1668 James II. of England 1688 Frederick Augustus of Poland 1704 Philip V. of Spain 1724 Victor Amadeus II. of Sardinia 1730 Ahmed III., Sultan of Turkey 1730 Charles of Naples (on accession to throne of Spain) 1759 Stanislaus II. of Poland 1795 Charles Emanuel IV. of Sardinia June 4, 1802 Charles IV. of Spain Mar. 19, 1808 Joseph Bonaparte of Naples June 6, 1808 Gustavus IV. of Sweden Mar. 29, 1809 Louis Bonaparte of Holland July 2, 1810 Napoleon I., French Emperor April 4, 1814, and June 22, 1815 Victor Emanuel of Sardinia Mar. 13, 1821 Charles X. of France Aug. 2, 1830 Pedro of Brazil [ 1 ] April 7, 1831 Miguel of Portugal May 26, 1834 William I. of Holland Oct. 7, 1840 Louis Philippe, king of the French Feb. 24, 1848 Louis Charles of Bavaria Mar. 21, 1848 Ferdinand of Austria Dec. 2, 1848 Charles Albert of Sardinia Mar. 23, 1849 Leopold II. of Tuscany July 21, 1859 Isabella II. of Spain June 25, 1870 Amadeus I. of Spain Feb. 11, 1873 Alexander of Bulgaria Sept. 7, 1886 Milan of Servia Mar. 6, 1889 ↑ Pedro had succeeded to the throne of Portugal in 1826, but abdicated it at once in favour of his daughter. |
ABDOMEN (a Latin word, either from abdere , to hide, or from a form adipomen , from adeps , fat), the belly, the region of the body containing most of the digestive organs. (See for anatomical details the articles Alimentary Canal , and Anatomy , Superficial and Artistic .) Abdominal Surgery .—The diseases affecting this region are dealt with generally in the article Digestive Organs , and under their own names ( e.g. Appendicitis ). The term “abdominal surgery” covers generally the operations which involve opening the abdominal cavity, and in modern times this field of work has been greatly extended. In this Encyclopaedia the surgery of each abdominal organ is dealt with, for the most part, in connexion with the anatomical description of that organ (see Stomach , Kidney , Liver , &c.); but here the general principles of abdominal surgery may be discussed. Exploratory Laparotomy .—In many cases of serious intra-abdominal disease it is impossible for the surgeon to say exactly what is wrong without making an incision and introducing his finger, or, if need be, his hand among the intestines. With due care this is not a perilous or serious procedure, and the great advantage appertaining to it is daily being more fully recognized. It was Dr Oliver Wendell Holmes , the American physiologist and poet, who remarked that one cannot say of what wood a table is made without lifting up the cloth; so also it is often impossible to say what is wrong inside the abdomen without making an opening into it. When an opening is made in such circumstances—provided only it is done soon enough—the successful treatment of the case often becomes a simple matter. An exploratory operation, therefore, should be promptly resorted to as a means of diagnosis, and not left as a last resource till the outlook is well-nigh hopeless. It is probable that if the question were put to any experienced hospital surgeon if he had often had cause to regret having advised recourse to an exploratory operation on the abdomen, his answer would be in the negative, but that, on the other hand, he had not infrequently had cause to regret that he had not resorted to it, post - mortem examination having shown that if only he had insisted on an exploration being made, some band, some adhesion, some tumour, some abscess might have been satisfactorily dealt with, which, left unsuspected in the dark cavity, was accountable for the death. A physician by himself is helpless in these cases. Much of the rapid advance which has of late been made in the results of abdominal surgery is due to the improved relationship which exists between the public and the surgical profession. In former days it was not infrequently said, “If a surgeon is called in he is sure to operate.” Not only have the public said this, but even physicians have been known to suggest it, and have indeed used the equivocal expression, the “apotheosis of surgery,” in connexion with the operative treatment of a serious abdominal lesion. But fortunately the public have found out that the surgeon, being an honest man, does not advise operation unless he believes that it is necessary or, at any rate, highly advisable. And this happy discovery has led to much more confidence being placed in his decision. It has truly been said that a surgeon is a physician who can operate, and the public have begun to realize the fact that it is useless to try to relieve an acute abdominal lesion by diet or drugs. Not many years ago cases of acute, obscure or chronic affections of the abdomen which were admitted into hospital were sent as a matter of course into the medical wards, and after the effect of drugs had been tried with expectancy and failure, the services of a surgeon were called in. In acute cases this delay spoilt all surgical chances, and the idea was more widely spread that surgery, after all, was a poor handmaid to medicine. But now things are different. Acute or obscure abdominal cases are promptly relegated to the surgical wards; the surgeon is at once sent for, and if operation is thought desirable it is performed without any delay. The public have found that the surgeon is not a reckless operator, but a man who can take a broad view of a case in all its bearings. And so it has come about that the results of operations upon the interior of the abdomen have been improving day by day. And doubtless they will continue to improve. A great impetus was given to the surgery of wounded, mortified or diseased pieces of intestine by the introduction from Chicago of an ingenious contrivance named, after the inventor, Murphy’s button . This consists of a short nickel-plated tube in two pieces, which are rapidly secured in the divided ends of the bowel, and in such a manner that when the pieces are subsequently “married” the adjusted ends of the bowel are securely fixed together and the canal rendered practicable. In the course of time the button loosens itself into the interior of the bowel and comes away with the alvine evacuation. In many other cases the use of the button has proved convenient and successful, as in the establishment of a permanent communication between the stomach and the small intestine when the ordinary gateway between these parts of the alimentary canal is obstructed by an irremovable malignant growth; between two parts of the small intestine so that some obstruction may be passed; between small and large intestine. The operative procedure goes by the name of short-circuiting; it enables the contents of the bowel to get beyond an obstruction. In this way also a permanent working communication can be set up between the gall-bladder, or a dilated bile-duct, and the neighbouring small intestine—the last-named operation bears the precise but very clumsy name of choledocoduodenostomy . By the use of Murphy’s ingenious apparatus the communication of two parts can be secured in the shortest possible space of time, and this, in many of the cases in which it is resorted to, is of the greatest importance. But there is this against the method—that sometimes ulceration occurs around the rim of the metal button, whilst at others the loosened metal causes annoyance in its passage along the alimentary canal. Some surgeons therefore prefer to use a bobbin of decalcified bone or similar soft material, while others rely upon direct suturing of the parts. The last-named method is gradually increasing in popularity, and of course, when time and circumstances permit, it is the ideal method of treatment. The cause of death in the case of intestinal obstruction is usually due to the blood being poisoned by the absorption of the products of decomposition of the fluid contents of the bowel above the obstruction. It is now the custom, therefore, for the surgeon to complete his operation for the relief of obstruction by drawing out a loop of the distended bowel, incising and evacuating it, and then carefully suturing and returning it. The surgeon who first recognized the lethal effect of the absorption of this stagnant fluid—or, at any rate, who first suggested the proper method of treating it—was Lawson Tait of Birmingham, who on the occurrence of grave symptoms after operating on the abdomen gave small, repeated doses of Epsom salts to wash away the harmful liquids of the bowel and to enable it at the same time to empty itself of the gas, which, by distending the intestines, was interfering with respiration and circulation. Amongst still more recent improvements in abdominal surgery may be mentioned the placing of the patient in the sitting position as soon as practicable after the operation, and the slow administration of a hot saline solution into the lower bowel, or, in the more desperate cases, of injecting pints of this “normal saline” fluid into the loose tissue of the armpit. Hot water thus administered or injected is quickly taken into the blood, increasing its volume, diluting its impurities and quenching the great thirst which is so marked a symptom in this condition. Gunshot Wounds of the Abdomen .—If a revolver bullet passes through the abdomen, the coils of intestine are likely to be traversed by it in several places. If the bullet be small and, by chance, surgically clean, it is possible that the openings may tightly close up behind it so that no leakage takes place into the general peritoneal cavity. If increasing collapse suggests that serious bleeding is occurring within the abdomen, the cavity is opened forthwith and a thorough exploration made. When it is uncertain if the bowel has been traversed or not, it is well to wait before opening the abdomen, due preparation being made for performing that operation on the first appearance of symptoms indicative of perforation having occurred. Small perforating wounds of the bowel are treated by such suturing as the circumstances may suggest, the interior of the abdominal cavity being rendered as free from septic micro-organisms as possible. It is by the malign influence of such germs that a fatal issue is determined in the case of an abdominal wound, whether inflicted by firearms or by a pointed weapon. If aseptic procedure can be promptly resorted to and thoroughly carried out, abdominal wounds do well, but these essentials cannot be obtained upon the field of battle. When after an action wounded men come pouring into the field-hospital, the many cannot be kept waiting whilst preparations are being made for the thorough carrying out of a prolonged aseptic abdominal operation upon a solitary case. Experience in the South African war of 1899–1902 showed that Mauser bullets could pierce coils of intestine and leave the soldiers in such a condition that, if treated by mere “expectancy,” more than 50% recovered, whereas if operations were resorted to, fatal septic peritonitis was likely to ensue. In the close proximity of the fight, where time, assistants, pure water, towels, lotions and other necessaries for carrying out a thoroughly aseptic operation cannot be forthcoming, gunshot wounds of the abdomen had best not be interfered with. Stabs of the abdomen are serious if they have penetrated the abdominal wall, as, at the time of injury, septic germs may have been introduced, or the bowel may have been wounded. In either case a fatal inflammation of the peritoneum may be set up. It is inadvisable to probe a wound in order to find out if the belly-cavity has been penetrated, as the probe itself might carry inwards septic germs. In case of doubt it is better to enlarge the wound in order to determine its depth, and to disinfect and close it if it be non-penetrating. If, however, the belly-cavity has been opened, the neighbouring pieces of bowel should be examined, cleansed and, if need be, sutured. Should there have been an escape of the contents of the bowel the “toilet of the peritoneum” would be duly made, and a drainage-tube would be left in. If the stab had injured a large blood-vessel either of the abdominal cavity, or of the liver or of some other organ, the bleeding would be arrested by ligature or suture, and the extravasated blood sponged out. Before the days of antiseptic surgery, and of exploratory abdominal operations, these cases were generally allowed to drift to almost certain death, unrecognized and almost untreated: at the present time a large number of them are saved. Intussusception .—This is a terribly fatal disease of infants and children, in which a piece of bowel slips into, and is gripped by, the piece next below it. Formerly it was generally the custom to endeavour to reduce the invagination by passing air or water up the rectum under pressure—a speculative method of treatment which sometimes ended in a fatal rupture of the distended bowel, and often—one might almost say generally —failed to do what was expected of it. The teaching of modern surgery is that a small incision into the abdomen and a prompt withdrawal of the invaginated piece of bowel can be trusted to do all that, and more than, infection can effect, without blindly risking a rupture of the bowel. It is certain that when the surgeon is unable to unravel the bowel with his fingers gently applied to the parts themselves, no speculative distension of the bowel could have been effective. But the outlook in these distressing cases, even when the operation is promptly resorted to, is extremely grave, because of the intensity of the shock which the intussusception and resulting strangulation entail. Still, every operation gives them by far the best chance. Cancer of the Intestine .—With the introduction of aseptic methods of operating, it has been found that the surgeon can reach the bowel through the peritoneum easily and safely. With the peritoneum opened, moreover, he can explore the diseased bowel and deal with it as circumstances suggest. If the cancerous mass is fairly movable the affected piece of bowel is excised and the cut ends are spliced together, and the continuity of the alimentary canal is permanently re-established. Thus in the case of cancer of the large intestine which is not too far advanced, the surgeon expects to be able not only to relieve the obstruction of the bowel, but actually to cure the patient of his disease. When the lowest part of the bowel was found to be occupied by a cancerous obstruction, the surgeon used formerly to secure an easy escape for the contents of the bowel by making an opening into the colon in the left loin. But in recent years this operation of lumbar colotomy has been almost entirely replaced by opening the colon in the left groin. This operation of inguinal colotomy is usually divided into two stages: a loop of the large intestine is first drawn out through the abdominal wound and secured by stitches, and a few days afterwards, when it is firmly glued in place by adhesive inflammation, it is cut across, so that subsequently the motions can no longer find their way into the bowel below the artificial anus. If at the first stage of the operation symptoms of obstruction are urgent, one of the ingenious glass tubes with a rubber conduit, which Mr F. T. Paul has invented, may be forthwith introduced into the distended bowel, so that the contents may be allowed to escape without fear of soiling the peritoneum or even the surface-wound. ( E. O.* ) |
ABDUCTION (Lat. abductio , abducere , to lead away), a law term denoting the forcible or fraudulent removal of a person, limited by custom to the case where a woman is the victim. In the case of men or children, it has been usual to substitute the term kidnapping ( q.v. ). The old English laws against abduction, generally contemplating its object as the possession of an heiress and her fortune, have been repealed by the Offences against the Person Act 1861, which makes it felony for any one from motives of lucre to take away or detain against her will, with intent to marry or carnally know her, &c., any woman of any age who has any interest in any real or personal estate, or is an heiress presumptive, or co-heiress, or presumptive next of kin to any one having such an interest; or for any one to cause such a woman to be married or carnally known by any other person; or for any one with such intent to allure, take away, or detain any such woman under the age of twenty-one, out of the possession and against the will of her parents or guardians. By s. 54, forcible taking away or detention against her will of any woman of any age with like intent is felony. The same act makes abduction without even any such intent a misdemeanour, where an unmarried girl under the age of sixteen is unlawfully taken out of the possession and against the will of her parents or guardians. In such a case the girl’s consent is immaterial, nor is it a defence that the person charged reasonably believed that the girl was sixteen or over. The Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 made still more stringent provisions with reference to abduction by making the procuration or attempted procuration of any virtuous female under the age of twenty-one years a misdemeanour, as well as the abduction of any girl under eighteen years of age with the intent that she shall be carnally known, or the detaining of any female against her will on any premises, with intent to have, or that another person may have, carnal knowledge of her. In Scotland, where there is no statutory adjustment, abduction is similarly dealt with by practice. |
ABDUR RAHMAN KHAN , amir of Afghanistan ( c. 1844–1901), was the son of Afzul Khan, who was the eldest son of Dost Mahomed Khan, the famous amir, by whose success in war the Barakzai family established their dynasty in the rulership of Afghanistan. Before his death at Herat, 9th June 1863, Dost Mahomed had nominated as his successor Shere Ali, his third son, passing over the two elder brothers, Afzul Khan and Azim Khan; and at first the new amir was quietly recognized. But after a few months Afzul Khan raised an insurrection in the northern province, between the Hindu Kush mountains and the Oxus, where he had been governing when his father died; and then began a fierce contest for power among the sons of Dost Mahomed, which lasted for nearly five years. In this war, which resembles in character, and in its striking vicissitudes, the English War of the Roses at the end of the 15th century, Abdur Rahman soon became distinguished for ability and daring energy. Although his father, Afzul Khan, who had none of these qualities, came to terms with the Amir Shere Ali, the son’s behaviour in the northern province soon excited the amir’s suspicion, and Abdur Rahman, when he was summoned to Kabul, fled across the Oxus into Bokhara. Shere Ali threw Afzul Khan into prison, and a serious revolt followed in south Afghanistan; but the amir had scarcely suppressed it by winning a desperate battle, when Abdur Rahman’s reappearance in the north was a signal for a mutiny of the troops stationed in those parts and a gathering of armed bands to his standard. After some delay and desultory fighting, he and his uncle, Azim Khan, occupied Kabul (March 1866). The amir Shere Ali marched up against them from Kandahar; but in the battle that ensued at Sheikhabad on 10th May he was deserted by a large body of his troops, and after his signal defeat Abdur Rahman released his father, Afzul Khan, from prison in Ghazni, and installed him upon the throne as amir of Afghanistan. Notwithstanding the new amir’s incapacity, and some jealousy between the real leaders, Abdur Rahman and his uncle, they again routed Shere Ali’s forces, and occupied Kandahar in 1867; and when at the end of that year Afzul Khan died, Azim Khan succeeded to the rulership, with Abdur Rahman as his governor in the northern province. But towards the end of 1868 Shere Ali’s return, and a general rising in his favour, resulting in their defeat at Tinah Khan on the 3rd of January 1869, forced them both to seek refuge in Persia, whence Abdur Rahman proceeded afterwards to place himself under Russian protection at Samarkand. Azim died in Persia in October 1869. This brief account of the conspicuous part taken by Abdur Rahman in an eventful war, at the beginning of which he was not more than twenty years old, has been given to show the rough school that brought out his qualities of resource and fortitude, and the political capacity needed for rulership in Afghanistan. He lived in exile for eleven years, until on the death, in 1879, of Shere Ali, who had retired from Kabul when the British armies entered Afghanistan, the Russian governor-general at Tashkent sent for Abdur Rahman, and pressed him to try his fortunes once more across the Oxus. In March 1880 a report reached India that he was in northern Afghanistan; and the governor-general, Lord Lytton, opened communications with him to the effect that the British government were prepared to withdraw their troops, and to recognize Abdur Rahman as amir of Afghanistan, with the exception of Kandahar and some districts adjacent. After some negotiations, an interview took place between him and Mr (afterwards Sir) Lepel Griffin , the diplomatic representative at Kabul of the Indian government, who described Abdur Rahman as a man of middle height, with an exceedingly intelligent face and frank and courteous manners, shrewd and able in conversation on the business in hand. At the durbar on the 22nd of July 1880, Abdur Rahman was officially recognized as amir, granted assistance in arms and money, and promised, in case of unprovoked foreign aggression, such further aid as might be necessary to repel it, provided that he followed British advice in regard to his external relations. The evacuation of Afghanistan was settled on the terms proposed, and in 1881 the British troops also made over Kandahar to the new amir; but Ayub Khan, one of Shere Ali’s sons, marched upon that city from Herat, defeated Abdur Rahman’s troops, and occupied the place in July. This serious reverse roused the amir, who had not at first displayed much activity. He led a force from Kabul, met Ayub’s army close to Kandahar, and the complete victory which he there won forced Ayub Khan to fly into Persia. From that time Abdur Rahman was fairly seated on the throne at Kabul, and in the course of the next few years he consolidated his dominion over all Afghanistan, suppressing insurrections by a sharp and relentless use of his despotic authority. Against the severity of his measures the powerful Ghilzai tribe revolted, and were crushed by the end of 1887. In that year Ayub Khan made a fruitless inroad from Persia; and in 1888 the amir’s cousin, Ishak Khan, rebelled against him in the north; but these two enterprises came to nothing. In 1885, at the moment when (see Afghanistan ) the amir was in conference with the British viceroy, Lord Dufferin, in India, the news came of a collision between Russian and Afghan troops at Panjdeh, over a disputed point in the demarcation of the north-western frontier of Afghanistan. Abdur Rahman’s attitude at this critical juncture is a good example of his political sagacity. To one who had been a man of war from his youth up, who had won and lost many fights, the rout of a detachment and the forcible seizure of some debateable frontier lands was an untoward incident; but it was no sufficient reason for calling upon the British, although they had guaranteed his territory’s integrity, to vindicate his rights by hostilities which would certainly bring upon him a Russian invasion from the north, and would compel his British allies to throw an army into Afghanistan from the south-east. His interest lay in keeping powerful neighbours, whether friends or foes, outside his kingdom. He knew this to be the only policy that would be supported by the Afghan nation; and although for some time a rupture with Russia seemed imminent, while the Indian government made ready for that contingency, the amir’s reserved and circumspect tone in the consultations with him helped to turn the balance between peace and war, and substantially conduced towards a pacific solution. Abdur Rahman left on those who met him in India the impression of a clear-headed man of action, with great self-reliance and hardihood, not without indications of the implacable severity that too often marked his administration. His investment with the insignia of the highest grade of the Order of the Star of India appeared to give him much pleasure. From the end of 1888 the amir passed eighteen months in his northern provinces bordering upon the Oxus, where he was engaged in pacifying the country that had been disturbed by revolts, and in punishing with a heavy hand all who were known or suspected to have taken any part in rebellion. Shortly afterwards (1892) he succeeded in finally beating down the resistance of the Hazara tribe, who vainly attempted to defend their immemorial independence, within their highlands, of the central authority at Kabul. In 1893 Sir Henry Durand was deputed to Kabul by the government of India for the purpose of settling an exchange of territory required by the demarcation of the boundary between north-eastern Afghanistan and the Russian possessions, and in order to discuss with the amir other pending questions. The amir showed his usual ability in diplomatic argument, his tenacity where his own views or claims were in debate, with a sure underlying insight into the real situation. The territorial exchanges were amicably agreed upon; the relations between the Indian and Afghan governments, as previously arranged, were confirmed; and an understanding was reached upon the important and difficult subject of the border line of Afghanistan on the east, towards India. In 1895 the amir found himself unable, by reason of ill-health, to accept an invitation from Queen Victoria to visit England; but his second son Nasrullah Khan went in his stead. Abdur Rahman died on the 1st of October 1901, being succeeded by his son Habibullah. He had defeated all enterprises by rivals against his throne; he had broken down the power of local chiefs, and tamed the refractory tribes; so that his orders were irresistible throughout the whole dominion. His government was a military despotism resting upon a well-appointed army; it was administered through officials absolutely subservient to an inflexible will and controlled by a widespread system of espionage; while the exercise of his personal authority was too often stained by acts of unnecessary cruelty. He held open courts for the receipt of petitioners and the dispensation of justice; and in the disposal of business he was indefatigable. He succeeded in imposing an organized government upon the fiercest and most unruly population in Asia; he availed himself of European inventions for strengthening his armament, while he sternly set his face against all innovations which, like railways and telegraphs, might give Europeans a foothold within his country. His adventurous life, his forcible character, the position of his state as a barrier between the Indian and the Russian empires, and the skill with which he held the balance in dealing with them, combined to make him a prominent figure in contemporary Asiatic politics and will mark his reign as an epoch in the history of Afghanistan. The amir received an annual subsidy from the British government of 18 1 / 2 lakhs of rupees. He was allowed to import munitions of war. In 1896 he adopted the title of Zia-ul-Millat-ud-Din (Light of the nation and religion); and his zeal for the cause of Islam induced him to publish treatises on Jehad. His eldest son Habibullah Khan, with his brother Nasrullah Khan, was born at Samarkand. His youngest son, Mahomed Omar Jan, was born in 1889 of an Afghan mother, connected by descent with the Barakzai family. See also S. Wheeler , F.R.G.S., The Amir Abdur Rahman (London, 1895); The Life of Abdur Rahman , Amir of Afghanistan , G.C.B. , G.C.S.I , edited by Mir Munshi, Sultan Mahommed Khan (2 vols., London, 1900); At the Court of the Amir , by J. A. Grey (1895). ( A. C. L. ) |
ABECEDARIANS, a nickname given to certain extreme Anabaptists ( q.v. ), who regarded the teaching of the Holy Spirit as all that was necessary, and so despised all human learning and even the power of reading the written word. |
ABEDNEGO, the name given in Babylon to Azariah, one of the companions of Daniel ( Dan. i. 7, &c. ). It is probably a corruption, perhaps deliberate, of Abednebo, “servant of Nebo,” though G. Hoffmann thinks that the original form was Abednergo, for Abednergal, “servant of the god Nergal.” C. H. Toy compares Barnebo, “son of Nebo”; of which he regards Barnabas as a slightly disguised form ( Jewish Encyclopaedia ). |
ABEKEN, HEINRICH (1809–1872), German theologian and Prussian official, was born at Berlin on the 8th of August 1809. He studied theology at Berlin and in 1834 became chaplain to the Prussian embassy in Rome. In 1841 he visited England, being commissioned by King Frederick William IV. to make arrangements for the establishment of the Protestant bishopric of Jerusalem. In 1848 he received an appointment in the Prussian ministry for foreign affairs, and in 1853 was promoted to be privy councillor of legation (Geheimer Legationsrath). He was much employed by Bismarck in the writing of official despatches, and stood high in the favour of King William, whom he often accompanied on his journeys as representative of the foreign office. He was present with the king during the campaigns of 1866 and 1870–71. In 1851 he published anonymously Babylon und Jerusalem , a slashing criticism of the views of the Countess von Hahn-Hahn ( q.v. ). See Heinrich Abeken , ein schlichtes Leben in bewegter Zeit (Berlin, 1898), by his widow. This is valuable by reason of the letters written from the Prussian headquarters. |
ABEL, KARL FRIEDRICH (1725–1787), German musician, was born in Köthen in 1725, and died on the 20th of June 1787 in London. He was a great player on the viola da gamba, and composed much music of importance in its day for that instrument. He studied under Johann Sebastian Bach at the Leipzig Thomasschule; played for ten years (1748–1758) under A. Hasse in the band formed at Dresden by the elector of Saxony; and then, going to England, became (in 1759) chamber-musician to Queen Charlotte. He gave a concert of his own compositions in London, performing on various instruments, one of which, the pentachord, was newly invented. In 1762 Johann Christian Bach, the eleventh son of Sebastian, came to London, and the friendship between him and Abel led, in 1764 or 1765, to the establishment of the famous concerts subsequently known as the Bach and Abel concerts. For ten years these were organized by Mrs Cornelys, whose enterprises were then the height of fashion. In 1775 the concerts became independent of her, and were continued by Abel unsuccessfully for a year after Bach’s death in 1782. At them the works of Haydn were first produced in England. After the failure of his concert undertakings Abel still remained in great request as a player on various instruments new and old, but he took to drink and thereby hastened his death. He was a man of striking presence, of whom several fine portraits, including two by Gainsborough, exist. |
ABEL, NIELS HENRIK (1802–1829), Norwegian mathematician, was born at Findöe on the 25th of August 1802. In 1815 he entered the cathedral school at Christiania, and three years later he gave proof of his mathematical genius by his brilliant solutions of the original problems proposed by B. Holmboë. About this time, his father, a poor Protestant minister, died, and the family was left in straitened circumstances; but a small pension from the state allowed Abel to enter Christiania University in 1821. His first notable work was a proof of the impossibility of solving the quintic equation by radicals. This investigation was first published in 1824 and in abstruse and difficult form, and afterwards (1826) more elaborately in the first volume of Crelle’s Journal . Further state aid enabled him to visit Germany and France in 1825, and having visited the astronomer Heinrich Schumacher (1780–1850) at Hamburg, he spent six months in Berlin, where he became intimate with August Leopold Crelle, who was then about to publish his mathematical journal. This project was warmly encouraged by Abel, who contributed much to the success of the venture. From Berlin he passed to Freiberg, and here he made his brilliant researches in the theory of functions, elliptic, hyperelliptic and a new class known as Abelians being particularly studied. In 1826 he moved to Paris, and during a ten months’ stay he met the leading mathematicians of France; but he was little appreciated, for his work was scarcely known, and his modesty restrained him from proclaiming his researches. Pecuniary embarrassments, from which he had never been free, finally compelled him to abandon his tour, and on his return to Norway he taught for some time at Christiania. In 1829 Crelle obtained a post for him at Berlin, but the offer did not reach Norway until after his death near Arendal on the 6th of April. The early death of this talented mathematician, of whom Legendre said “ quelle tête celle du jeune Norvegien! ”, cut short a career of extraordinary brilliance and promise. Under Abel’s guidance, the prevailing obscurities of analysis began to be cleared, new fields were entered upon and the study of functions so advanced as to provide mathematicians with numerous ramifications along which progress could be made. His works, the greater part of which originally appeared in Crelle’s Journal , were edited by Holmboë and published in 1839 by the Swedish government, and a more complete edition by L. Sylow and S. Lie was published in 1881. For further details of his mathematical investigations see the articles Groups, Theory of , and Functions of Complex Variables . See C. A. Bjerknes, Niels Henrik Abel: Tableau de sa vie et son action scientifique (Paris, 1885); Lucas de Peslouan, Niels Henrik Abel (Paris, 1906). |
ABEL, SIR FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, Bart. (1827–1902), English chemist, was born in London on the 17th of July 1827. After studying chemistry for six years under A. W. von Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry (established in London in 1845), he became professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in 1851, and three years later was appointed chemist to the War Department and chemical referee to the government. During his tenure of this office, which lasted until 1888, he carried out a large amount of work in connexion with the chemistry of explosives. One of the most important of his investigations had to do with the manufacture of gun-cotton, and he developed a process, consisting essentially of reducing the nitrated cotton to fine pulp, which enabled it to be prepared with practically no danger and at the same time yielded the product in a form that increased its usefulness. This work to an important extent prepared the way for the “smokeless powders” which came into general use towards the end of the 19th century; cordite, the particular form adopted by the British government in 1891, was invented jointly by him and Professor James Dewar. Our knowledge of the explosion of ordinary black powder was also greatly added to by him, and in conjunction with Sir Andrew Noble he carried out one of the most complete inquiries on record into its behaviour when fired. The invention of the apparatus, legalized in 1879, for the determination of the flash-point of petroleum, was another piece of work which fell to him by virtue of his official position. His first instrument, the open-test apparatus, was prescribed by the act of 1868, but, being found to possess certain defects, it was superseded in 1879 by the Abel close-test instrument (see Petroleum ). In electricity Abel studied the construction of electrical fuses and other applications of electricity to warlike purposes, and his work on problems of steel manufacture won him in 1897 the Bessemer medal of the Iron and Steel Institute, of which from 1891 to 1893 he was president. He was president of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (then the Society of Telegraph Engineers) in 1877. He became a member of the Royal Society in 1860, and received a royal medal in 1887. He took an important part in the work of the Inventions Exhibition (London) in 1885, and in 1887 became organizing secretary and first director of the Imperial Institute, a position he held till his death, which occurred in London on the 6th of September 1902. He was knighted in 1891, and created a baronet in 1893. Among his books were— Handbook of Chemistry (with C. L. Bloxam ), Modern History of Gunpowder (1866), Gun-cotton (1866), On Explosive Agents (1872), Researches in Explosives (1875), and Electricity applied to Explosive Purposes (1884). He also wrote several important articles in the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica . |
ABEL (better Abell ), THOMAS (d. 1540), an English priest who was martyred during the reign of Henry VIII. The place and date of his birth are unknown. He was educated at Oxford and entered the service of Queen Catherine some time before 1528, when he was sent by her to the emperor Charles V. on a mission relating to the proposed divorce. On his return he was presented by Catherine to the living of Bradwell, in Essex, and remained to the last a staunch supporter of the unfortunate queen. In 1533, he published his Invicta Veritas (with the fictitious pressmark of Luneberge, to avoid suspicion), which contained an answer to the numerous tracts supporting Henry’s ecclesiastical claims. After an imprisonment of more than six years, Abel was sentenced to death for denying the royal supremacy in the church, and was executed at Smithfield on the 30th of July 1540. There is still to be seen on the wall of his prison in the Tower the symbol of a bell with an A upon it and the name Thomas above, which he carved during his confinement. He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII. See J. Gillow ’s Bibl. Dictionary of Eng. Catholics , vol. i.; Calendar of State Papers of Henry VIII. , vols. iv.-vii. passim . |
ABEL (Hebrew for breath ), the second son of Adam, slain by Cain, his elder brother ( Gen. iv. 1-16 ). The narrative in Genesis which tells us that “the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect,” is supplemented by the statement of the New Testament, that “by faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain” ( Heb. xi. 4 ), and that Cain slew Abel “because his own works were evil and his brother’s righteous” ( 1 John iii. 12 ). See further under Cain . The name has been identified with the Assyrian ablu , “son,” but this is far from certain. It more probably means “herdsman” (cf. the name Jabal), and a distinction is drawn between the pastoral Abel and the agriculturist Cain. If Cain is the eponym of the Kenites it is quite possible that Abel was originally a South Judaean demigod or hero; on this, see Winckler, Gesch. Israels , ii. p. 189; E. Meyer, Israeliten , p. 395. A sect of Abelitae , who seem to have lived in North Africa, is mentioned by Augustine ( De Haeresibus , lxxxvi.). |
ABELARD, PETER (1079–1142), scholastic philosopher, was born at Pallet (Palais), not far from Nantes, in 1079. He was the eldest son of a noble Breton house. The name Abaelardus (also written Abailardus , Abaielardus , and in many other ways) is said to be a corruption of Habelardus , substituted by himself for a nickname Bajolardus given to him when a student. As a boy, he showed an extraordinary quickness of apprehension, and, choosing a learned life instead of the knightly career natural to a youth of his birth, early became an adept in the art of dialectic, under which name philosophy, meaning at that time chiefly the logic of Aristotle transmitted through Latin channels, was the great subject of liberal study in the episcopal schools. Roscellinus, the famous canon of Compiègne, is mentioned by himself as his teacher; but whether he heard this champion of extreme Nominalism in early youth, when he wandered about from school to school for instruction and exercise, or some years later, after he had already begun to teach for himself, remains uncertain. His wanderings finally brought him to Paris, still under the age of twenty. There, in the great cathedral school of Notre-Dame, he sat for a while under the teaching of William of Champeaux, the disciple of St Anselm and most advanced of Realists, but, presently stepping forward, he overcame the master in discussion, and thus began a long duel that issued in the downfall of the philosophic theory of Realism, till then dominant in the early Middle Age. First, in the teeth of opposition from the metropolitan teacher, while yet only twenty-two, he proceeded to set up a school of his own at Melun, whence, for more direct competition, he removed to Corbeil, nearer Paris. The success of his teaching was signal, though for a time he had to quit the field, the strain proving too great for his physical strength. On his return, after 1108, he found William lecturing no longer at Notre-Dame, but in a monastic retreat outside the city, and there battle was again joined between them. Forcing upon the Realist a material change of doctrine, he was once more victorious, and thenceforth he stood supreme. His discomfited rival still had power to keep him from lecturing in Paris, but soon failed in this last effort also. From Melun, where he had resumed teaching, Abelard passed to the capital, and set up his school on the heights of St Geneviève, looking over Notre-Dame. From his success in dialectic, he next turned to theology and attended the lectures of Anselm at Laon. His triumph over the theologian was complete; the pupil was able to give lectures, without previous training or special study, which were acknowledged superior to those of the master. Abelard was now at the height of his fame. He stepped into the chair at Notre-Dame, being also nominated canon, about the year 1115. Few teachers ever held such sway as Abelard now did for a time. Distinguished in figure and manners, he was seen surrounded by crowds—it is said thousands—of students, drawn from all countries by the fame of his teaching, in which acuteness of thought was relieved by simplicity and grace of exposition. Enriched by the offerings of his pupils, and feasted with universal admiration, he came, as he says, to think himself the only philosopher standing in the world. But a change in his fortunes was at hand. In his devotion to science, he had hitherto lived a very regular life, varied only by the excitement of conflict: now, at the height of his fame, other passions began to stir within him. There lived at that time, within the precincts of Notre-Dame, under the care of her uncle, the canon Fulbert, a young girl named Heloise, of noble extraction, and born about 1101. Fair, but still more remarkable for her knowledge, which extended beyond Latin, it is said, to Greek and Hebrew, she awoke a feeling of love in the breast of Abelard; and with intent to win her, he sought and gained a footing in Fulbert’s house as a regular inmate. Becoming also tutor to the maiden, he used the unlimited power which he thus obtained over her for the purpose of seduction, though not without cherishing a real affection which she returned in unparalleled devotion. Their relation interfering with his public work, and being, moreover, ostentatiously sung by himself, soon became known to all the world except the too-confiding Fulbert; and, when at last it could not escape even his vision, they were separated only to meet in secret. Thereupon Heloise found herself pregnant, and was carried off by her lover to Brittany, where she gave birth to a son. To appease her furious uncle, Abelard now proposed a marriage, under the condition that it should be kept secret, in order not to mar his prospects of advancement in the church; but of marriage, whether public or secret, Heloise would hear nothing. She appealed to him not to sacrifice for her the independence of his life, nor did she finally yield to the arrangement without the darkest forebodings, only too soon to be realized. The secret of the marriage was not kept by Fulbert; and when Heloise, true to her singular purpose, boldly denied it, life was made so unsupportable to her that she sought refuge in the convent of Argenteuil. Immediately Fulbert, believing that her husband, who aided in the flight, designed to be rid of her, conceived a dire revenge. He and some others broke into Abelard’s chamber by night, and perpetrated on him the most brutal mutilation. Thus cast down from his pinnacle of greatness into an abyss of shame and misery, there was left to the brilliant master only the life of a monk. The priesthood and ecclesiastical office were canonically closed to him. Heloise, not yet twenty, consummated her work of self-sacrifice at the call of his jealous love, and took the veil. It was in the abbey of St Denis that Abelard, now aged forty, sought to bury himself with his woes out of sight. Finding, however, in the cloister neither calm nor solitude, and having gradually turned again to study, he yielded after a year to urgent entreaties from without and within, and went forth to reopen his school at the priory of Maisoncelle (1120). His lectures, now framed in a devotional spirit, were heard again by crowds of students, and all his old influence seemed to have returned; but old enmities were revived also, against which he was no longer able as before to make head. No sooner had he put in writing his theological lectures (apparently the Introductio ad Theologiam that has come down to us), than his adversaries fell foul of his rationalistic interpretation of the Trinitarian dogma. Charging him with the heresy of Sabellius in a provincial synod held at Soissons in 1121, they procured by irregular practices a condemnation of his teaching, whereby he was made to throw his book into the flames and then was shut up in the convent of St Médard at Soissons. After the other, it was the bitterest possible experience that could befall him, nor, in the state of mental desolation into which it plunged him, could he find any comfort from being soon again set free. The life in his own monastery proved no more congenial than formerly. For this Abelard himself was partly responsible. He took a sort of malicious pleasure in irritating the monks. Quasi jocando , he cited Bede to prove that Dionysius the Areopagite had been bishop of Corinth, while they relied upon the statement of the abbot Hilduin that he had been bishop of Athens. When this historical heresy led to the inevitable persecution, Abelard wrote a letter to the abbot Adam in which he preferred to the authority of Bede that of Eusebius ’ Historia Ecclesiastica and St Jerome, according to whom Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, was distinct from Dionysius the Areopagite, bishop of Athens and founder of the abbey, though, in deference to Bede, he suggested that the Areopagite might also have been bishop of Corinth. Life in the monastery was intolerable for such a troublesome spirit, and Abelard, who had once attempted to escape the persecution he had called forth by flight to a monastery at Provins, was finally allowed to withdraw. In a desert place near Nogent-sur-Seine, he built himself a cabin of stubble and reeds, and turned hermit. But there fortune came back to him with a new surprise. His retreat becoming known, students flocked from Paris, and covered the wilderness around him with their tents and huts. When he began to teach again he found consolation, and in gratitude he consecrated the new oratory they built for him by the name of the Paraclete. Upon the return of new dangers, or at least of fears, Abelard left the Paraclete to make trial of another refuge, accepting an invitation to preside over the abbey of St Gildas-de-Rhuys, on the far-off shore of Lower Brittany. It proved a wretched exchange. The region was inhospitable, the domain a prey to lawless exaction, the house itself savage and disorderly. Yet for nearly ten years he continued to struggle with fate before he fled from his charge, yielding in the end only under peril of violent death. The misery of those years was not, however, unrelieved; for he had been able, on the breaking up of Heloise’s convent at Argenteuil, to establish her as head of a new religious house at the deserted Paraclete, and in the capacity of spiritual director he often was called to revisit the spot thus made doubly dear to him. All this time Heloise had lived amid universal esteem for her knowledge and character, uttering no word under the doom that had fallen upon her youth; but now, at last, the occasion came for expressing all the pent-up emotions of her soul. Living on for some time apart (we do not know exactly where), after his flight from St Gildas, Abelard wrote, among other things, his famous Historia Calamitatum , and thus moved her to pen her first Letter , which remains an unsurpassed utterance of human passion and womanly devotion; the first being followed by the two other Letters , in which she finally accepted the part of resignation which, now as a brother to a sister, Abelard commended to her. He not long after was seen once more upon the field of his early triumphs lecturing on Mount St Geneviève in 1136 (when he was heard by John of Salisbury), but it was only for a brief space: no new triumph, but a last great trial, awaited him in the few years to come of his chequered life. As far back as the Paraclete days, he had counted as chief among his foes Bernard of Clairvaux, in whom was incarnated the principle of fervent and unhesitating faith, from which rational inquiry like his was sheer revolt, and now this uncompromising spirit was moving, at the instance of others, to crush the growing evil in the person of the boldest offender. After preliminary negotiations, in which Bernard was roused by Abelard’s steadfastness to put forth all his strength, a council met at Sens (1141), before which Abelard, formally arraigned upon a number of heretical charges, was prepared to plead his cause. When, however, Bernard, not without foregone terror in the prospect of meeting the redoubtable dialectician, had opened the case, suddenly Abelard appealed to Rome. The stroke availed him nothing; for Bernard, who had power, notwithstanding, to get a condemnation passed at the council, did not rest a moment till a second condemnation was procured at Rome in the following year. Meanwhile, on his way thither to urge his plea in person, Abelard had broken down at the abbey of Cluny, and there, an utterly fallen man, with spirit of the humblest, and only not bereft of his intellectual force, he lingered but a few months before the approach of death. Removed by friendly hands, for the relief of his sufferings, to the priory of St Marcel, near Chalon-sur-Saone, he died on the 21st of April 1142. First buried at St Marcel, his remains soon after were carried off in secrecy to the Paraclete, and given over to the loving care of Heloise, who in time came herself to rest beside them (1164). The bones of the pair were shifted more than once afterwards, but they were marvellously preserved even through the vicissitudes of the French Revolution, and now they lie united in the well-known tomb in the cemetery of Père-la-Chaise at Paris. Great as was the influence exerted by Abelard on the minds of his contemporaries and the course of medieval thought, he has been little known in modern times but for his connexion with Heloise. Indeed, it was not till the 19th century, when Cousin in 1836 issued the collection entitled Ouvrages inédits d’Abélard , that his philosophical performance could be judged at first hand; of his strictly philosophical works only one, the ethical treatise Scito te ipsum , having been published earlier, namely, in 1721. Cousin’s collection, besides giving extracts from the theological work Sic et Non (an assemblage of opposite opinions on doctrinal points, culled from the Fathers as a basis for discussion, the main interest in which lies in the fact that there is no attempt to reconcile the different opinions), includes the Dialectica , commentaries on logical works of Aristotle , Porphyry and Boëthius, and a fragment, De Generibus et Speciebus . The last-named work, and also the psychological treatise De Intellectibus , published apart by Cousin (in Fragmens Philosophiques , vol. ii.), are now considered upon internal evidence not to be by Abelard himself, but only to have sprung out of his school. A genuine work, the Glossulae super Porphyrium , from which Charles de Rémusat , in his classical monograph Abélard (1845), has given extracts, remains in manuscript. The general importance of Abelard lies in his having fixed more decisively than any one before him the scholastic manner of philosophizing, with its object of giving a formally rational expression to the received ecclesiastical doctrine. However his own particular interpretations may have been condemned, they were conceived in essentially the same spirit as the general scheme of thought afterwards elaborated in the 13th century with approval from the heads of the church. Through him was prepared in the Middle Age the ascendancy of the philosophical authority of Aristotle, which became firmly established in the half-century after his death, when first the completed Organon , and gradually all the other works of the Greek thinker, came to be known in the schools: before his time it was rather upon the authority of Plato that the prevailing Realism sought to lean. As regards his so-called Conceptualism and his attitude to the question of Universals, see Scholasticism . Outside of his dialectic, it was in ethics that Abelard showed greatest activity of philosophical thought; laying very particular stress upon the subjective intention as determining, if not the moral character, at least the moral value, of human action. His thought in this direction, wherein he anticipated something of modern speculation, is the more remarkable because his scholastic successors accomplished least in the field of morals, hardly venturing to bring the principles and rules of conduct under pure philosophical discussion, even after the great ethical inquiries of Aristotle became fully known to them. Bibliography .—Abelard’s own works remain the best sources for his life, especially his Historia Calamitatum , an autobiography, and the correspondence with Heloise. The literature on Abelard is extensive, but consists principally of monographs on different aspects of his philosophy. Charles de Rémusat’s Abélard (2 vols., 1845) remains an authority; it must be distinguished from his drama Abélard (1877), which is an attempt to give a picture of medieval life. McCabe ’s life of Abelard is written closely from the sources. See also the valuable analysis by Nitsch in the article “Abälard” in Hauck’s Realencyklopädie f. prot. Theol. u. Kirche , 3rd ed., 1896. There is a comprehensive bibliography in U. Chevalier, Répertoire des sources hist. du moyen âge , s. “Abailard.” ( G. C. R. ; J. T. S.* ) |
ABELIN, JOHANN PHILIPP, an early 16th-century German chronicler, was born, probably, at Strasburg, and died there between the years 1634 and 1637. He wrote numerous histories over the pseudonyms of Philipp Arlanibäus, Abeleus and Johann Ludwig Gottfried or Gotofredus, his earliest works of importance being his history of the German wars of Gustavus Adolphus, entitled Arma Suecica (pub. 1631–1634, in 12 parts), and the Inventarium Sueciae (1632)—both compilations from existing records. His best known work is the Theatrum Europaeum , a series of chronicles of the chief events in the history of the world down to 1619. He was himself responsible for the first two volumes. It was continued by various writers and grew to twenty-one volumes (Frankf. 1633–1738). The chief interest of the work is, however, its illustration by the beautiful copperplate engravings of Matthäus Merian (1593–1650). Abelin also wrote a history of the antipodes, Historia Antipodum (posthumously pub. Frankf. 1655), and a history of India. See G. Droysen, Arlanibaeus , Godofredus , Abelinus (Berlin, 1864); and notice in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie . |
ABENCERRAGES, a family or faction that is said to have held a prominent position in the Moorish kingdom of Granada in the 15th century. The name appears to have been derived from the Yussuf ben-Serragh, the head of the tribe in the time of Mahommed VII., who did that sovereign good service in his struggles to retain the crown of which he was three times deprived. Nothing is known of the family with certainty; but the name is familiar from the interesting romance of Gines Perez de Hita, Guerras civiles de Granada , which celebrates the feuds of the Abencerrages and the rival family of the Zegris, and the cruel treatment to which the former were subjected. J. P. de Florian ’s Gonsalve de Cordoue and Chateaubriand ’s Le dernier des Abencerrages are imitations of Perez de Hita ’s work. The hall of the Abencerrages in the Alhambra takes its name from being the reputed scene of the massacre of the family. |
ABĀBDA (the Gebadei of Pliny, probably the Troglodytes of classical writers), a nomad tribe of African “Arabs” of Hamitic origin. They extend from the Nile at Assuan to the Red Sea, and reach northward to the Kena-Kosseir road, thus occupying the southern border of Egypt east of the Nile. They call themselves “sons of the Jinns.” With some of the clans of the Bisharin ( q.v. ) and possibly the Hadendoa ( q.v. ) they represent the Blemmyes of classic geographers, and their location to-day is almost identical with that assigned them in Roman times. They were constantly at war with the Romans, who at last subsidized them. In the middle ages they were known as Beja ( q.v. ), and convoyed pilgrims from the Nile valley to Aidhab, the port of embarkation for Jedda. From time immemorial they have acted as guides to caravans through the Nubian desert and up the Nile valley as far as Sennar. To-day many of them are employed in the telegraph service across the Arabian desert. They intermarried with the Nuba, and settled in small colonies at Shendi and elsewhere long before the Egyptian invasion ( A.D. 1820–1822). They are still great trade carriers, and visit very distant districts. The Abābda of Egypt, numbering some 30,000, are governed by an hereditary “chief.” Although nominally a vassal of the Khedive he pays no tribute. Indeed he is paid a subsidy, a portion of the road-dues, in return for his safeguarding travellers from Bedouin robbers. The sub-sheikhs are directly responsible to him. The Abābda of Nubia, reported by Joseph von Russegger, who visited the country in 1836, to number some 40,000, have since diminished, having probably amalgamated with the Bisharin, their hereditary enemies when they were themselves a powerful nation. The Abābda generally speak Arabic (mingled with Barabra [Nubian] words), the result of their long-continued contact with Egypt; but the southern and south-eastern portion of the tribe in many cases still retain their Beja dialect, To-Bedawiet. Those of Kosseir will not speak this before strangers, as they believe that to reveal the mysterious dialect would bring ruin on them. Those nearest the Nile have much fellah blood in them. As a tribe they claim an Arab origin, apparently through their sheikhs. They have adopted the dress and habits of the fellahin, unlike their kinsmen the Bisharin and Hadendoa, who go practically naked. They are neither so fierce nor of so fine a physique as these latter. They are lithe and well built, but small: the average height is little more than 5 ft., except in the sheikh clan, who are obviously of Arab origin. Their complexion is more red than black, their features angular, noses straight and hair luxuriant. They bear the character of being treacherous and faithless, being bound by no oath, but they appear to be honest in money matters and hospitable, and, however poor, never beg. Formerly very poor, the Abābda became wealthy after the British occupation of Egypt. Their chief settlements are in Nubia, where they live in villages and employ themselves in agriculture. Others of them fish in the Red Sea and then hawk the salt fish in the interior. Others are pedlars, while charcoal-burning, wood-gathering and trading in gums and drugs, especially in senna leaves, occupy many. Unlike the true Arab, the Abābda do not live in tents, but build huts with hurdles and mats, or live in natural caves, as did their ancestors in classic times. They have few horses, using the camel as beast of burden or their “mount” in war. They live chiefly on milk and durra, the latter eaten either raw or roasted. They are very superstitious, believing, for example, that evil would overtake a family if a girl member should, after her marriage, ever set eyes on her mother: hence the Abābda husband has to make his home far from his wife’s village. In the Mahdist troubles (1882–1898) many “friendlies” were recruited from the tribe. For their earlier history see Beja ; see also Bisharin , Hadendoa , Kabbabish ; and the following authorities:—Sir F. R. Wingate , Mahdism and the Egyptian Sudan (Lond. 1891); Giuseppe Sergi, Africa: Antropologia della Stirpe Camitica (Turin, 1897); A. H. Keane , Ethnology of Egyptian Sudan (Lond. 1884); Anglo-Egyptian Sudan , edited by Count Gleichen (Lond. 1905); Joseph von Russegger, Die Reisen in Afrika (Stuttgart, 1841–1850). ( T. A. J. ) |
À BECKETT, GILBERT ABBOTT (1811–1856), English writer, was born in north London on the 9th of January 1811. He belonged to a family claiming descent from the father of St Thomas Becket. His elder brother, Sir William à Beckett (1806–1869), became chief justice of Victoria (Australia). Gilbert Abbott à Beckett was educated at Westminster school, and was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn in 1841. He edited Figaro in London , and was one of the original staff of Punch and a contributor all his life. He was an active journalist on The Times and The Morning Herald , contributed a series of light articles to The Illustrated London News , conducted in 1846 The Almanack of the Month and found time to produce some fifty or sixty plays, among them dramatized versions of Dickens ’s shorter stories in collaboration with Mark Lemon . As poor-law commissioner he presented a valuable report to the home secretary regarding scandals in connexion with the Andover Union, and in 1849 he became a metropolitan police magistrate. He died at Boulogne on the 30th of August 1856 of typhus fever. His eldest son Gilbert Arthur à Beckett (1837–1891) was born at Hammersmith on the 7th of April 1837. He went up to Christ Church, Oxford, as a Westminster scholar in 1855, graduating in 1860. He was entered at Lincoln’s Inn, but gave his attention chiefly to the drama, producing Diamonds and Hearts at the Haymarket in 1867, which was followed by other light comedies. His pieces include numerous burlesques and pantomimes, the libretti of Savonarola (Hamburg, 1884) and of The Canterbury Pilgrims (Drury Lane, 1884) for the music of Dr (afterwards Sir) C. V. Stanford. The Happy Land (Court Theatre, 1873), a political burlesque of W. S. Gilbert ’s Wicked World , was written in collaboration with F. L. Tomline. For the last ten years of his life he was on the regular staff of Punch . His health was seriously affected in 1889 by the death of his only son, and he died on the 15th of October 1891. A younger son, Arthur William à Beckett (1844–1909), a well-known journalist and man of letters, was also on the staff of Punch from 1874 to 1902, and gave an account of his father and his own reminiscences in The À Becketts of Punch (1903). He died in London on the 14th of January 1909. See also M. H. Spielmann , The History of Punch (1895). |
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