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Rh ARZOUN

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ASCENDENTE

of "Five Little Meditations in Verse" (London, 1679). After five years of imprisonment, during which time one of the peers, Stafford, had been be- headed, and another had died in the Tower, Arundell and his two remaining companions were released, and their indictments annulled, on the ground of perjury. James II made Arundell Keeper of the Pri\-y Seal, 16S7. In 16SS he presented an address in behalf of the Roman Catholics, but he opposed the admission of Father Petre into the pri\'y council. At the Revolution of 1688 he retired from public life. He was praised for his piety and for his kind- ness to poor Catholics.

Diet. Nat. Biog.; Gillow, Diet, of Eng. Catholics, I, 67, 68, 71, 72; I, 402; Lingahd, History of England.

Francis W. Grey.

Arzoun. See Seert.

Asaph. See Psalms.

Asaph (or Asa), Saint, first Bishop of the Welsh See of that name (second half of the sixth century). No Welsh life of him is extant, but local tradition points out the site of his ash tree, his church, his well, and his valley, Onen Asa, Fynnon Asa, Llanasa, Pantasa. All these sites are in Tengenel, near Holy- well, indicating probably that the saint once had a hermitage in that neighbourhood. The want of a Welsh life, however, is in part compensated for by Jocelyn of Furness's life of St. Kentigern, or Mungo, the founder of the Diocese of Glasgow. This saint during his exile (c. 545) betook himself to Wales, and there founded the Celtic Monastery of Llanelwy (the church on the Elwy), as the Welsh still call the town of St. Asaph. Of the building and government of few Celtic monasteries do we know so much as about Llanelwy. The church was built "of smoothed wood, after the fashion of the Britons, seeing that they could not yet build of stone". The 965 disciples, of whom Asa was one, were divided into three groups: 300 of the unlettered farmed the outlying lands, 300 worked in the offices around the monastery, and 365 (the number corre- sponds to the days of the year) attended to the divine services. Of these the oldest assisted Ken- tigern in the government of the diocese, and the rest were subdivided into three clioirs. "As soon as one choir had terminated its service in church, immedi- ately another entering commenced it: and that again being concluded another entered to celebrate. " The founder, after the manner of other Celtic saints, used frequently to pray standing in the icy cold river, and once, havmg suffered very severely under this hardship, he sent the boy Asa, who was then attend- ing him, to bring a fagot to burn and warm him. Asaph brought him live coals in his apron, and the miracle revealed to Kentigern the sanctity of his disciple. So when the old man was recalled to Strathclyde, after the battle of Ardderyd, in 573 (the only definite date we have in the life), Asaph was consecrated bishop to succeed him, and became the first Welsh bishop of the see. The feast of his deposition is kept on 1 May, but we possess no further details of his life, nor do we know the year of his death.

JocEMN, Life of S. Kentigern, xxiv-xxxi (ed. 1874), 75-94; Thomas, History of the Diocese of St. Asaph (1874), 1-5. J. H. Pollen.

AscaJon, a titular see of Palestine whose episcopal list (351-9.30 or 40) is given in Gams (p. 453). It was one of the five chief cities of the Pliilistines (Josue, xiii, 3). Its location, on the .sea-coast between Gaza and Jamnia, made it a stronghold, and as such it was held by the Arabs after their conquest of it in the seventh century. The city was taken by the cru- saders, but was ilestroyed, in 1270, by Sultan Hibars, and its port blocked up to prevent the place ever again falling into Cliri.stian hands. Its extensive

ruins still remain, and present a scene of mournful desolation.

Lequien, Oriens Christ. (1740), III, 5976, 602; VioouROOX in Diet, de la Bible, I, 1060-69; Smith, Diet, of Greek and linmnv (liogr., I. -':10: Oothe, Die Ruinen Ascalonn in Zeitsehrift ,l,« diulnelun I'aldslina-Vereins, II, 180-182; 454-455.

Ascelin, Ambassador of Innocent IV (1243-54) to the Tatars. He entered the Dominican Order, probably at Paris, in 1221 or 1222. He was distin- guished for learning and a great zeal for the sjiread of the Christian Faith. For these reasons he was se- lected in 1245, together with three other Dominicans, by Humbert de Romanis, whom as Provincial of France the pope had ordered to select fit men for the embassy to attempt the conversion of the Sultan Melik Saleh, then encamped in Persia. On the authority of Vincent of Beauvais (Speculum His- toriale, XXI, 40) who got his information from one of the embassy, Simon of St. Quentin, they met the first great army of the sultan, 24 May, 1247. But their mission was unsuccessful, since they did not bring presents to win the mercenary courtiers. Be- sides, Ascelin refused to genuflect three times in recognition of the khan's dignity. In consequence of this the friars were condemned to death. The khan threatened to flay the leader of the embassy, Ascelin, and send his skin to the pope. The death sentence was remitted in July, 1247, after several months of miserable imprisonment. At the same time the sultan relented sufficiently to allow the friars to preach the Gospel and administer the sacra- ments. This agreement was probably made in the hope of winning Louis IX, of whose military powers Ascelin often spoke, to participate in a concerted onset of the khan on the Mohammedan troops then blocking the march of the Tatar army. The em- bassy returned to Rome about Easter, 1248, bearing a respectful letter from the sultan to the pope. No proof can be adduced to show that Ascelin met a martyr's death in 1255 on another mission to the Sultan, as Fontana and Bzovius assert. Bergeron (Recueil d6s voyages faits en Asie du XIP au XIV° siecle) gives a description of the embassies of Ascelin and his companions.

TouRON, Hommes illustres de I'ordre de Saint Dominique, I 145-156; QuETlF and Echard, SS. Ord. Prard., I, 122; L'Ann{» Dominicnine, VI, 575 sqq.; Lavisse, Histoire gtn&rale (Paris, 1894), II, 970.

Thos. M. Schwertner.

Ascendente Domino, a Bull issued by Gregory XIII, 24 May, 1584, in favour of the Society of Jesus, to confirm the Constitution of the Society and the privileges already granted to it by Paul III, Juhus III, Paul IV, and Pius V. It recalls and confirms the means which St. Ignatius had prescribed in order that the Society might attain the end for which he had founded it. Candidates have first to make two years' novitiate; then they take three simple vows. Thus they cease to be novices, and belong to the body of the Society. They are either Scholastics or unformed Temporal Coadjutors, according as they are destined for studies or for domestic duties in the Society. These simple vows are perpetual on the part of those who make them, but on the part of the Society they bind only so long as the General thinks fit to retain as members of the Society those who have t.^ken them. The unformed Temporal Coadjutors, after some years, if the General thinks them fit, are admitted to the grade of Formed Tem- poral Coadjutors. But before they become either Professed or Formed Spiritual Coaiijutors, the Scho- lastics, having completed their studies, must go through a third year's probation. If Professed, they take a fourth vow of obedience to assume any mission the Pope may enjoin on them. Any, even those with simple vows m.ade at the end of the secontl year's novitiate, who leave the Society under any