Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/203

AENEAS with Plato's doctrine was acquired through traditional teaching and the study of apocryphal Platonic writings, and not—to any great extent, at least—through the study of the genuine Dialogues. Like Synesius, Nemesius, and others, he found in Neo-Platonism the philosophical system which best accorded with Christian revelation. But, unlike Synesius and Nemesius, he rejected some of the most characteristic doctrines of the Neo-Platonists as being inconsistent with Christian dogma. For instance, he rejected the doctrine of pre-existence (according to which the soul of man existed before its union with body), arguing that the soul before its union with the body would have been "idle", incapable of exercising any of its faculties (Migne, P.G., LXXXV, 947). Similarly, he rejected the doctrine of the eternal duration of the world, on the ground that the world is corporeal, and, although the best possible "mechanism", contains in itself the elements of dissolution (op. cit. 958 sqq). Again, he taught that "man's body is composed of matter and form", and that while the matter perishes the "form" of the body retains the power of resuscitating the "matter" on the last day (op. cit., 982).

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Æneas Sylvius. See.

Ænesidemus. See.

Aengus,, an Irish saint who flourished in the last quarter of the eighth century, and is held in imperishable honour as the author of the Feliré, or Festology of the Saints. Born near Clonengh, Ireland, Aengus was educated at the monastic school, founded there by St. Fintan, not far from the present town of Mountrath. Becoming a hermit, he lived for a time at Disert-beagh, where, on the banks of the Nore, he is said to have communed with the angels. From his love of prayer and solitude he was named the "Culdee"; in other words, the Ceile Dé, or "Servant of God." (See .) Not satisfied with his hermitage, which was only a mile from Clonenagh, and, therefore, liable to be disturbed by students or wayfarers, Aengus removed to a more solitary abode eight miles distant. This sequestered place, two miles southeast of the present town of Maryborough, was called after him "the Desert of Aengus", or "Dysert-Enos". Here he erected a little oratory on a gentle eminence among the Dysert Hills, now represented by a ruined and deserted Protestant church. His earliest biographer (ninth century) relates the wonderful austerities practiced by St. Aengus in his "desert", and though he sought to be far from the haunts of men, his fame attracted a stream of visitors. The result was that the good saint abandoned his oratory at Dysert-Enos, and, after some wanderings, came to the monastery of Tallaght, near Dublin, then governed by St. Maelruain. He entered as a lay-brother, concealing his identity, but St. Maelruain soon discovered him, and collaborated with him on the work known as the "Martyrology of Tallaght", about the year 790. This is a prose catalogue of Irish saints, and is the oldest of the Irish martyrologies. About the year 805 St. Aengus finished his famous Feliré, a poetical work on the saints of Ireland, a copy of which is in the Leabhar Breac. The last touches were given to this work in the cell at Disert-beagh (St. Aengus had left Tallaght, not long after the death of St. Maelruain), where he passed away on Friday, 11 March, 824. He was buried in Clonenagh, as we read in his metrical life, and his death is commemorated 11 March.

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Ænon (Vulgate, Ænnon; Douay, Ennon), mentioned in John 3:23, as the locality where the forerunner of Christ baptized. It is described as being "near Salim" and as having "much water". Where is it situated? Barclay's hypothesis, which gratuitously identifies Salim with Jerusalem and selects the Wady Fara as the scene of the Baptist's activity, is improbable. Nor should it be sought in the southern extremity of Palestine, where one would look in vain for "much water". Conder and others favour Ainun, a village to the north-east of ancient Salim. This identification is also open to objections. Ainun is about as near to Nabulus (ancient Sichem) as it is to Salim. Since the former was the more important, we should rather expect the Evangelist to describe Ænon as being "near Sichem". Moreover, according to this hypothesis, the place selected by the Baptist would have been in the very heart of Samaritan territory, which the Jews avoided, and, therefore, ill-suited for the missionary purpose of Christ's precursor. The most probable opinion places Ænon in the valley of the Jordan, some two miles to the west of the stream and about seven miles to the south of Beisan (ancient Scythopolis). This site was on the confines of the Samaritan territory and on the road frequented by the Galileans. Van de Velde found a Salim in this place, and close by there are seven wells—"much water". Eusebius, St. Jerome, and St. Silvia saw the ruins of Salim, and there a guide pointed out to them the place where John baptized.

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Æons, the term appropriated by Gnostic heresiarchs to designate the series of spiritual powers evolved by progressive emanation from the eternal Being, and constituting the Pleroma or invisible spiritual world, as distinct from the Kenoma, or visible material world. The word æon signifying "age", "the ever-existing", "eternity", came to be applied to the divine eternal power, and to the personified attributes of that power, whence it was extended to designate the successive emanations from the divinity which the Gnostics conceived as necessary intermediaries between the spiritual and the material worlds. The Gnostic concept of the Æon may be traced to the influence of a philosophy which postulated a divinity incapable of any contact with the material world or with evil, and the desire to reconcile this philosophy with the Christian notion of a direct interference of God in the affairs of the material world, and particularly in the Creation and Redemption of man. Jewish angelology, which represented Jehovah ministered to by a court of celestial beings, and Hellenic religious systems, which imagined a number of intermediaries between the finite and the infinite, suggested the emanation from the divinity of a series of subordinate heavenly powers, each less perfect, the further removed it was from the supreme deity, until at length increasing imperfection would serve as the connecting link between the spiritual world and the material world of evil.

In different Gnostic systems the hierarchy of Æons was diversely elaborated. But in all are recognizable a mixture of Platonic, mythological, and