Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/268

AGRIPPINUS however, to other pursuits, studied medicine, Hebrew, alchemy, theology, and finally devoted himself to "Cabalism" under the influence of Reuchlin and Raymund Lully. He lived and taught in various places, making friends or enemies wherever he went, but was apparently not very successful financially, as he was banished from Cologne for debt, and spent his last days in poverty, a typical example of the irregular, vicissitudinous life led by his kind at that time. His numerous works, chiefly philosophical, have a strong bias towards "occultism", and run counter to the received opinions of his time in theology and scholastic philosophy. He lived and died nominally a Catholic, but was openly in sympathy with Luther, whose tone towards the Church and her institutions he adopted, while professing that he was merely attacking abuses, not the Church, an attitude frequently assumed at that period.

His famous work "De incertitudine et vanitate scientiarum", published in 1527, has been translated into many European vernaculars and is well described as "a compound of erudition and ignorance, gravity and vanity". It aboimds in denunciations of scholasticism, veneration of relics and saints, the canon law and the hierarchy, and calls for a return to the Scriptures as the philosopher's stone (Lydius lapis) of Christian teaching. For the rest he is no follower of Luther or his companions. They interest him as the first who stood out with success against Catholic orthodoxy. Giordano Bruno made use of his writings, and their influence was long powerful. Among his minor writings are the often quoted booklet "De nobilitate et præcellentiâ feminei sexus declamatio", dedicated to Margaret of Austria, "Libellus de sacramento matrimonii", a commentary on the "Ars Brevis", of Raymund Lully, etc. A complete edition of his works appeared at Lyons in 1600.

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Agrippinus, Bishop of Carthage at the close of the second and beginning of the third century. During his episcopacy the question arose in the African Church as to what should be done with regard to converts from schism or heresy. If they had previously been Catholics, ecclesiastical discipline held them subject to penance. But if it were a question of receiving those who had been baptized outside the Church, was their baptism to be regarded as valid? Agrippinus convoked the bishops of Numidia and Africa for the First Council of Africa (probably 215–217); which resolved the question negatively. He consequently decided that such persons should be baptized, not conditionally but absolutely. Heretics, it was argued, have not the true faith; they cannot absolve from sin; the water in their baptism cannot cleanse from sin. These reasons seemed to him to warrant the conclusion arrived at, but it was not the Roman usage. The point, however, had not yet been raised and definitely settled. But assuming their good faith, Agrippinus and the others were not excluded from the unity of the Church. Half a century later, St. Cyprian speaks of the continuous good repute of Agrippinus (bonæ memoriæ vir); and St. Augustine in writing against the Donatists defends Agrippinus and Cyprian by showing that, although they were mistaken, they had not broken the unity of the Church.

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Aguas Calientes (Lat. ),, a Mexican see dependent on Guadalaxara; erected by Leo XIII, Decree "Apostolicæ Sedis", 27 Aug., 1899, by detaching it from Guadalaxara. It comprises the province of Aguas Calientes. The first bishop was José Maria Portugal, a Friar Minor, b. in Mexico, 24 Jan., 1838; made Bishop of Sinaloa, 25 Oct., 1888; transferred to Saltillo, 28 Nov., 1898, and to the Diocese of, Aguas Calientes, 9 June, 1902. Aguas Calientes is an inland State of Mexico with an area of 2,950 square miles. Its capital, Aguas Calientes, 300 miles north-east of the city of Mexico, is on a plateau 6,000 feet above sea level. Population 30,000 (1895).

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Aguesseau,. See.

Aguirre,, Cardinal, a learned Spanish Benedictine; b. at Logroño, in Old Castile, 24 March, 1630; d. 19 August, 1699. He entered the congregation of Monte Cassino. He directed the studies in the Monastery of St. Vincent of Salamanca for fifteen years, and became its abbot. He then professed dogmatic theology and inaugurated the course in Holy Scripture at the University of Salamanca. He was councillor and secretary of the Holy Office and president of its congregation of the province of Spain. His work against the Declaration of the Gallican Clergy of 1682 won him a cardinal's hat and the warm eulogy of Innocent XI. His correspondence with Bossuet shows how vigorously he combated Quietism. His excessive labors undermined his health, and for many years he suffered from epileptic attacks. He died suddenly from a stroke of apoplexy. He was buried in the Spanish Church of St. James in Rome, and his heart was deposited in Monte Cassino, as he had requested.

His more important works are on philosophical and theological subjects, but he also produced valuable writings on ecclesiastical history, commentaries on the theology of St. Anselm, two volumes of miscellanea, and a book to prove that the "De Imitatione Christi" was by the Benedictine, John Gersen.

His principal works on philosophy are: (1) "Philosophia Nova-antiqua" etc., a defense of Aristotle and St. Thomas against their opponents (Salamanca, 1671–2–5, 3 in fol.); (2) "Philosophia Morum" etc. (Salamanca, 1677; Rome, 1698), a commentary in four volumes on Aristotle's Ethics; (3) "De virtutibus et vitiis disputationes ethicæ in quibus disseritur quidquid spectat ad philosophiam moralem ab Aristotele traditam" (Salamanca, 1677; 2d ed. enlarged, Rome, 1697; 3d. ed. Rome, 1717). His principal theological works are (1) a treatise on the Angels, especially the Guardian Angels, which he prepared as his thesis for the degree of Doctor. (2) "S. Anselmi … Theologia, commentariis et disputationibus tum dogmaticis tum scholasticis illustrata" (Salamanca, 1678–81, 2d ed. Rome, 1688–90). The third volume, "De naturâ hominis purâ et lapsâ", is especially directed against Jansenist errors. (3) "Auctoritas infallibilis et summa Cathedræ Sancti Petri", etc. (Salamanca, 1683), a learned refutation of the four articles of the Declaration of the Gallican Clergy of France in 1682. (4) "Collectio maxima conciliorum omnium Hispaniæ et novi orbis", etc. (Salamanca, 1686).

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Ahasuerus. See.

Ahicam (: "My brother has risen"), a high court official under Josias and his two sons, who protected Jeremias from the fury of the populace. He was the son of Saphan, "the scribe", and father of Godolias, later governor of the country