Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/113

 CHRUDIM — CHUNGKING St Paul’s earlier years as a Christian could be made by the help of the Galatian Epistle, if we could be sure from what point and to what point its reckonings are made. The apostle tells us that on his conversion he retired from Damascus into Arabia, and thence returned to Damascus; then after three years (from his conversion) he went up to Jerusalem, but stayed only a fortnight, and went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. Then after fourteen years (from his conversion 1 or from his last visit 1) he went up to Jerusalem again to confer with the elder apostles. Now, if either of these visits to Jerusalem could be identified with any of the visits wThose dates have been approximately settled in the chronology of A.r>. 44-64, we should have a fixed point from which to argue back. Unfortunately, even less agreement exists on this head than on the question whether the fourteen years of the last-mentioned visit are to be reckoned from the conversion or from the previous visit. Most critics, indeed, are now agreed that the fourteen years are to be calculated from the conversion; and most of them still hold that the visit of Galatians ii. is the same as the council of Acts xv., partly, no doubt, on the ground that the latter visit was too important and decisive for St Paul to have omitted in giving even the most summary description of his relations with the twelve. This ground would, however, be cut away from their feet if it were possible to hold (with J. V. Bartlet, Apostolic Age, 1900, and V. Weber, Die Abfassung des Galaterbriefs vor dem Apostelkonzil, Ravensburg, 1900) that the epistle was actually written just before the council, i.e., in the winter of 48-49 [49-50]. In that case, of course, the two visits of Galatians i. and ii. would be those of Acts ix. 26 and xi. 30. The fourteen years reckoned back from the latter (c. a.d. 46) would bring us to a.d. 32-33 as the latest possible date for the conversion. With the older view, on the other hand, the fourteen years reckoned from the council in a.d. 49 [50] would allow us to bring down the conversion to a.d. 36. The new view clears away some manifest difficulties in the reconciliation of the Epistle and the Acts, and the early date for Galatians in relation to the other Pauline Epistles is not so improbable as it may seem ; but the chronology still appears more satisfactory on the older view, which enables the conversion to be placed at least three years later than on the alternative theory. But it is clear that the last word has not been said, and that definite results for this period cannot yet be looked for. To sum up : an attempt has been made, it is hoped with some success, to provide a framework of history equipped with dates from the time of St Peter’s arrest by Herod Agrippa I. at the Passover of a.d. 44 down to the martyrdom of St Peter and St Paul in the persecution of Nero, a.d. 64-65. For the previous period, on the other hand, from a.d. 29 to a.d. 44, it appeared impossible in our present state of knowledge to state conclusions other than in the most general form. Authorities.—The views stated in this article are in general (though with some modifications) the same as those which the present writer worked out with more fulness of detail in Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible, i. (1898) 403-424. Of older books should be mentioned :—Ideler. Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie, 2 vols. (1825).—Wieseler. Chronologic des ayostolischen Zeitalters (1848). — Lewin’s Fasti Sacri (1865).— The most important modern contributions are to be found in Prof. W. M. Ramsay’s various works, and in Harnack’s Chronologie der altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius, i. 233-244. (C. H. T.) Chrudivn, a town in Bohemia, Austria. It has an important horse market, besides manufactures of sugar, spirits, beer, soda-water, and agricultural machinery. There are also steam corn-mills and saw-mills. Chrudim is the birthplace of Joseph Bessel (1793-1857), who is

87

honoured in Austria as the inventor of the screw propeller. Population, 13,017. Chubllt, a territory of the Argentine Republic, Patagonia, bounded on the N. by Rio Negro, on the S. by Santa Cruz, on the E. by the Atlantic, and on the W. by Chile. Its official area at the census of 1895 was 93,427 square miles; and in 1895 its population was 3748, as compared with 153 in 1869. The capital, Rawson, is situated 3 miles from the mouth of the Chubut. The territory is divided into three departments. In 1895 there were 29,944 head of cattle, 47,306 sheep, 12,907 horses, 310 farms, and 12,355 acres planted in cereals. ChylaBongkom, Phra Paramindr Maha (1853 ), king of Siam, eldest son of King Maha Mongkut, was born 21st September 1853. His full signature, used in all important state documents, consists of twenty-seven names, but it is by the first four that he is usually known. Educated in his childhood by English teachers, especially by Captain John Bush, he acquired a good knowledge of the English language and a due appreciation of Western culture. But his surroundings were purely Oriental, and as his boyhood was spent, according to custom, in a Buddhist monastery, he remained in sympathy with his people. He succeeded to the throne on the death of his father, 1st October 1868, and was crowned on 11th November following, when Europeans were present for the first time at such a ceremony. Until his majority in 1873 the government was carried on by a regent, the young king retiring to a Buddhist monastery, and then making a long tour through India and the Dutch East Indies, an event hitherto unheard of among the potentates of Eastern Asia. But he had no sooner taken the reins of power than he gave evidence of his recognition of the importance of modern culture by abolishing slavery, which existed in Siam in its most extended form. He also did away with the custom of approaching the king on all fours. Still more important, in view of the numerous races and creeds included among his subjects, was the proclamation of liberty of conscience. This was followed by the erection of schools and hospitals, the construction of roads and railways, and the further development of the army and fleet which his father had commenced. To him Siam is indebted for its standard coinage, its postal and telegraph service, and for the police, sanitation, and electric - lighting of Bangkok. Two of the king’s sons were sent to school in England, and in the summer of 1897 King Chulalongkorn paid a visit to Europe, arriving at Portsmouth in his yacht on the 29th July. On the 4th August he was received by Queen Victoria at Osborne. After a tour in Great Britain he proceeded to Berlin, Brussels, and The Hague, and arrived in Paris on 11th September, and after spending some weeks in the French capital, returned to Siam late in the year. Chum la. See Shumla. Chungking, a city in the province of Szechuen, China, on the left bank of the Yangtse, at its point of junction with the Kialing, in 29° 33' N. lat. and 107° 2' E. long. It is the commercial centre for the trade, not only of Szechuen, but of all south-western China. The one highway between Szechuen and the eastern provinces is the Yangtso river route, as owing to the mountainous nature of the intervening country land transit is almost impracticable. The import trade brought up by large junks from Ichang, and consisting of cotton cloth, yarn, metals, and foreign manufactures, centres here, and is distributed by a class of smaller vessels up the various rivers of the provinces. Native produce, such as