Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/786

Rh ARINDELA

712

ARISTIDES

Archbishopric of Main/.. His con.secration took place 1 October, 1021, with great pomp. The fol- lowing year he re\-ived the famous Ganciensheim controversy which concernetl the rival claims of the bishops of Hildesheim and the archbishops of Mainz to jurisdiction over the convent of Gander.s- heim, situated on the boundary between the two dioceses, but from time immemorial subject to Hildesheim. Having advanced his claims without success in the sjTiods of Frankfort (1027) and Pohlde (1029), Aribo finall}' renounced them in Merseburg (1030), admitting his error, and promising future silence, -\ribo figured prominently in the politics of the time. On the death of Henry II, whicii brought the male hne of the Saxon emperors to an end, the spiritual and temporal princes of the empire assembled to elect a new sovereign, and it was Aribo's candidate who was chosen, under the title of Conrad II, and was anointed by him in Mainz. The powerful discourse preached on this occasion shows the d ep spirituality of Aribo's na- ture. I'nder Conrad he filled the office of chancellor for Germany and Italy. There are records of two journeys toRome, the first to the Lateran Council (1027) and the second just before his death. He finished the convent of Goss in Styria begim by his father and devoted earnest efforts to the rebuilding and decoration of the cathedral which had been destroyed by fire in 1009. It was Aribo who obtained for the archbishops of Mainz the right of coinage. His internal administration of the dio- cese was most energetic and capable. His zeal for the reform of ecclesiastical discipline is e\'idenced by the Council of Sehgenstadt which he convened in the first year of liis episcopate (August, 1022). Later he practically reorganized the archdiocese. His in- terest in education prompted him to summon Ekkehard IV of St. Gall to take charge of the schools of Mainz. His own intellectual powers were of no mean order as is manifested by Ills taste for poetry and his own treatise on "The Fifteen Gradual Psalms", whence he is termed in his epitaph suavis psalmigraphus. Aribo's contemporaries unite in praise of his character — his disinterestedness and capability. Despite the brusqueness of his nature and the severity of his disciphne, he enjoyed the confidence and respect of his suffragans. His moral character has been proved unimpeachable.

Will in Kirchenlex., s. v.; H.vticK, Kg. Deutschl. Ill, 531; Mlller, Erzbischof Aribo von Maim (Gottingen. 1881).

F. M. RUDGE.

Arindela, a titular see of Palestine, whose episco- pal hst (431-536) is given in Gams (p. 454). Leqcien, Orifna Christ. (1740), III. 727-728.

Ariosto, LuDovico, called "The Italian Homer" the son of Nicolo Ariosto, Governor of Reggio, and Daria Malaguzzi, b. at Reggio in Emilia. 8 September, 1474; d. at Ferrara, 6 Jvme, 1533. Ludovico was the eldest of ten children, and on the death of his father, in 1500, became head of the family. When nine years of age he composed and acted in the fable "Tisbe ". He gave five years to the study of law, and when twenty years old devoted himself to Greek and Latin authors. From 1503, or thereabouts, he was at- tached to the court of Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, but in 1518 he fell into disfavour with his patron. The Cardinal's brother, Duke Alfonso, then employed Ariosto in various diplomatic missions, in which he conducted himself with tact and skill. From 1.522 to 1,525 he governed the district of Garfagnana and freed it from the robber-bands which had infested it. In 1.530, perhaps, he married a Florentine widow, Alessandra Benucci. Ariosto WTote .-iovnctti and canzoni in the style of Petrarch, and five comedies, of which the earliest, " Lu Ca.ssaria ". wa.s represented for the first time in 1.509, and the latest, "La S<olas-

tica ", was completed by his brother Gabriel on the death of the poet. Of more importance are his seven Satires in terza riina, and extending from 1517 to 1531, giving much information on his own life and laying bare the vices of the time. The principal foun- dation of Ariosto's glory is the 'Orlando Furioso ". Begun about 1505, it was published in Ferrara, 21 April, 1516. Ariosto continued to correct it, and in 1532 published the second, enlarged and definitive, edition. The poem was dedicated to Cardinal Ippolito. .\t first reading it appears to be a disconnected patchwork of fragmentarj- adven- tures following upon each other in bewildering vari- ety; but on close analysis it lecon-.es ajiparent that the episodes are spun around three principal incidents: Paris besieged by the Moors, the rage of Orlando, and, as the central subject, the love and marriage of Ruggiero and Bradamante. by which the origin of the house of Este is accounted for. The subject of the poem is expressed in the opening lines; — Le donne, i cavalier, I'arme, gli amori, Le cortesie, I'audaci imprese io canto. It is the glorification of chivalry- in all its elements, and continues and completes the "Orlando Inna- morato" of Boiardo, which had appeared in 1495, but, though the "Innamorato" is its foundation, it far surpasses its forerunner in perfection of style and form, variety of incident, the gay and brilliant min- gling of the romantic and medieval with the classical, and the artistic interweaving of the two great cycles of Charlemagne and Arthur. It has been called " the most beautiful, and varied, and wonderful poem of romances that the literature of the world can boast of" (G. Picciola).

Ulissi Guidi, Annali delle edizioni e delh vrrsioni deW O.F. e d'altri labori at poema retotivi (Bologna, 1801): G. J. Ferr.^zzi, Bibliografia Ariostesca (Bassano. 1881); Plo Rajn.\, Le Fonti dell' O.F.; Jacob Schcembs. Ariosla O.F. in der m- glischen Litteratur des Zeilallers Elizabeth (Soden, 1898). — The most convenient Italian text of the O.F., with note.s. is that of GlAclNTO Casella (Florence. 1897). It contains .in ad- mirable study on the poem, as does the edition de tuje (Milan, 1881) with illustrations by Dor(5 and preface by Carducci. Of the three translations of the poem into English, by Har- rington, Hoole, and W. Stewart Rose (London, 1825\ the last mentioned reproduces best the spirit and elegance of the original

Joseph Dunn.

Aristeas, a name given in Josephus (Ant. XII, ii, passim) to the author of a letter ascribing the Greek translation of the Old Testament to six interpreters sent into Egypt from Jerusalem at the request of the librarian of Alexandria. (See Septu.\gint Version.)

Aristides, a Christian apologist living at Athens in the second century. According to Eusebius, the Emperor Hadrian, during his stay in Greece (123- 127), caused himself to be initiated into the Eleu- sinian Mysteries. A persecution of the local Chris- tians followed, due, probably, to an outburst of pagan zeal, aroused by the Emperor's act. Two apologies for Christianity were composed on the occasion, that of Quadratvis and that of Aris- tides which the author presented to Hadrian, at Athens, in 126 (Eus., H. E., IV, iii, 3, and Chron II, 166, ed. Schncne). St. Jerome, in his work De vir. ill., XX, calls him philosophii.s elcqticTitisyimiis, and, in his letter to Magnus (no. LXX). says of the "Apologeticum" that it was contrxtum phihsopho- Tum sententiis, and was later imitated by St. Justin Martyr. Ho says, further (De vir ill., loc. cit.), that the "Apology" was extant in his time, and highly thought of. Eusebius (loc. cit.), in the fotirth century, states tliat it h.ad a wide circulation among Christians. It is referred to, in the ninth centun,', by Ado, Arch- bishop of Vienne, and Usuard, monk of St. Germain. It was then lost sight of for a thousand years, imtil, in 1878, the Mechitarite monks of San Lazzaro, at Venice, publi.shed a Latin translation of an .\rmenian