Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/273

AIRE work, which is the sequel to the preceding, was the one which made Aimerich's reputation. He left also a MS., which was a supplement to his dictionary; and a number of Latin discourses.

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Aire, , comprises the territory of the Department of Landes. It was a suffragan of Auch under the old regime, but was not re-established until 1822, when it was again made a suffragan of the re-established Archdiocese of Auch, and was assigned the territory of the former Dioceses of Aire and Acqs (Dax). The first bishop mentioned in history is Marcellus (represented at the Council of Agde 506). Aire, on the river Adour, the home of St. Philibert, numbered among its bishops during the second half of the sixteenth century François de Foix, Count of Candale, an illustrious mathematician, who translated Euclid and founded a chair of mathematics at the University of Bordeaux. The hamlet renowned as the birthplace of St. Vincent de Paul is within the limits of the present Diocese of Aire. In the Gallo-Roman crypt of Mas d'Aire is preserved in a sarcophagus the body of St. Quitteria, daughter of a governor of Gallicia, and martyred, perhaps under Commodus, for her resolution to remain a virgin. The city of Saint-Sever, in the Diocese of Aire, owes its origin to an ancient Benedictine abbey, built in the tenth century by a Duke of Gascony as an act of thanksgiving for a victory over the Northmen, and whose church was dedicated to St. Severus. The beautiful Gothic church of Mimizan is the only survival of a great Benedictine abbey. The church of Carcarés, dating from the year 810, is one of the oldest in France. The Diocese of Aire comprised (end of 1905), 291,586 inhabitants, 28 first class, 293 second class parishes, and 40 vicariates formerly with State subventions.

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Airoli (or ),, a Jesuit Orientalist and Scriptural commentator; b. at Genoa, 1660; d. in Rome, 27 March, 1721. He was professor of Hebrew in the Roman College, and later succeeded Cardinal Tolomei in the chair of controversy. His knowledge of Hebrew is shown by his Hebrew translation of a homily of Pope Clement XI. He is the author of a number of dissertations on Scriptural subjects, mostly chronological, which were highly thought of. Sommorvogel enumerates fourteen, chief among which are: (1) "Dissertatio Biblica in quâ Scripturæ textus aliquot insigniores, adhibitis Unguis hebræa, syriaca, chaldaica, arabica, græca, … dilucidantur" (Rome, 1704); (2) "Liber LXX hebdomadum resignatus, seu in cap. IX Danielis dissertatio" (Rome, 1713), several times reprinted; (3) "Dissertatio chronologica de anno, mense, et die mortis Domini Nostri Jesus Christi" (Rome, 1718).

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Aisle (Lat. ala; Old Fr. aile), sometimes written Isle, Yle, and Alley; in architecture one of the lateral or longitudinal divisions of a church, separated from the nave (sometimes called the centre aisle) by rows of piers, pillars, or columns. Sometimes a church has one side-aisle only. Often the aisle is continued around the apse. Occasionally the aisles stop at the transepts. In very large churches transepts may have three aisles. As a rule in Gothic architecture the aisle-roofs are much lower than the nave roof, allowing the admission of light through the clerestory windows, but in most of the Romanesque churches the aisle-roofs are but little lower than that of the nave. The aisle is generally one story, but occasionally there is an upper story, sometimes used as a gallery. As a general rule, churches are divided into three aisles, but there is no fixed rule that governs the number. The cathedrals at Chichester, Milan, and Amiens have five aisles; Antwerp and Paris seven. The most remarkable in this respect, the cathedral of Cordova in Spain, has nineteen. Aisles existed in the Roman basilicas, and in the majority of Christian churches of all periods. Transepts were sometimes called the cross isle or yle. The term is popularly used to describe the passage between pews or seating. 2em

Aistulph (also, and ), King of the Lombards; d. 756. He succeeded his brother Ratchis in 749, and set about the conquest of all Italy. After taking from the Greeks the Exarchate of Ravenna he was about to seize the Patrimony of St. Peter when Pope Stephen II (or III—752–57) appealed for aid to Pepin the Short, King of the Franks. Failing to influence the Lombard king by persuasion, Pepin led an army through the passes of the Alps, defeated Aistulph, and besieged him in the city of Pavia (754). A peace was then concluded, Aistulph undertaking to surrender the Exarchate and all other territory conquered by him. But Pepin and his Franks had hardly returned to their own country when Aistulph besieged Rome itself, and laid waste the surrounding territory. A second time responding to the Pontiff's call, Pepin again besieged Pavia and again overpowered Aistulph. This time Pepin took care to exact substantial guarantees for the fulfilment of Aistulph's promises; the latter was obliged to pay an indemnity and surrender to his conqueror the town of Comacchio, on the Adriatic, which had not formed part of the Exarchate. Constantine Copronymus, the Byzantine Emperor, asserted that the Exarchate of Ravenna was his by right, and had been violently wrested from him by Aistulph. He demanded its restitution by Pepin. The latter replied that the Exarchate and all other territory rescued from the hands of Aistulph belonged to the victor by right of conquest; he then endowed the Holy See with these territories, his representative, Fulrad, Abbot of St. Denis, formally laying the keys of the fortified places with a deed of gift upon the altar of St. Peter. Aistulph even yet found pretexts to postpone the actual evacuation of some of the theoretically surrendered places, and it is probable that he contemplated another essay of the chances of war. A fall from his horse while hunting (or according to some, a wound received from a wild boar) ended his life before he had time to renew his warlike enterprises. He left no male issue. (See .)

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Aix,, (Aquæ Sextiæ), full title, the Archdiocese of Aix, Arles, and Embrun. It includes the districts of Aix and Arles (Department of the Bouches-du-Rhône). Before the Revolution the Archdiocese of Aix had as its suffragans the sees of Apt, Riez, Fréjus, Gap, and Sisteron; the Archdiocese of Embrun, the sees of Digne, Grasse, Vence, Glandève, Senez, and Nice; the Archdiocese of Arles, the sees of Marseille, St. Paul-Trois-Châteaux, Toulon, and Orange. The Archbishoprics of Arles and Embrun do not exist today, and the Archbishopric of Aix has as dependents the sees of Marseille, Fréjus, Digne, Gap, Ajaccio, and Nice. Certain traditions make St. Maximinus the first Bishop