Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/72

ATIENZA (donations, privileges, deeds, charters) in Greek, Georgian, and Old-Slavonic, beginning with the ninth century, some of which are important for the historian of Byzantine law and of the medieval Greek Church (Miklosich and Miiller, Zachariii von Lin- genthal, Uspenskij). The monks of Momit Athos are somewhat indifferent towards these treasures; nothing has been done to make them accessible, except the imsuccessful attempt of Archbishop Bul- garis of Corfu to found at Mount Athos, towards the close of the eighteenth century, a school of the classical languages. The monasteries conduct a few elementary schools for the teacliing of reading and WTiting; nowhere, perhaps, is the intellectual stagnation of the Greek Scliism more noticeable. The monks are chiefly devoted to the splendour of their religious services; the solitaries still cherish Hesychast ideas and an apocah^jtic mysticism, and the whole monastic republic represents just such an intellectual decay as must follow on a total exclusion of all outside intercourse and a complete neglect of all intellectual effort (Kaulen).

.\thklst.\n Rilev, Athos, the Mountain of the Monks (Lon- don. 1887): CuRzox, Monasteries of the Levant (6th ed.. London, 1881 ): Lakglois, Le Mont Athos et ses monastcres (Paris, 1867): DE Vogue, Syrie, Palestine el Mont Athos (Paris. 1878): Net- BAC, i '.4 rtos (Paris, 1880): Kaulen in Kirchenlei., I. 1555-63: Meyer in Zeitschr. f. Kirchengesch. (1890). XI. 395-435: KprM- bacher. Gesch. der byzant. Liu. (2d ed.. Munich. 1867). 511- 515. 1058-59: ScHMlDTKE. Das Ktosterland des Athos (1903): among older works. Fallmerayer, Fragmente au^ dem Orient (2d ed.. Stuttgart. 1877). For the art-treasures of Mount Athos see Brockhaus, Die Kunsl in den A thos-Klostem (Leip- zig, 1891): and for photographs of the principal sites, besides the above quoted works, Vom Fels zum Meer (1892), 19-20. Thomas J. Shah.\n.

Atienza,, b. at Tordehumos, near Valla- dolid, in Spain, in the year 1546, eldest son of the royal Councillor of Castile, Bartolome de Atienza, a very distinguished jurisconsult under Charles V. He studied law in the celebrated I'niversity of Sala- manca, but in 1564 forsook the legal career in order to become a Jesuit. While in Spain, he already occupied distinguished positions. He was Prefect of the College of Avila, Procurator of the Province of his order, founder of the College of A'illa Garcia, its rector and master of novices, and rector of the College of ^'aUadolid. While thus honourably placed in his mother country, he became informed of a call for fifty Jesuits, to be sent to Peru in the interests of religion and of the Indians. Father Atienza at once asked permission to become one of their number. He reached Lima in 1581 and found there his ap- pointment as rector of the College of San Pablo. In that capacity he was surrogate to the Provincial, Father Baltasar de Pinas, and founded, under the direction of the Company of Jesus, the College of San ilartin, the first school of secular learning es- tablished at Lima. The foimdation of that school was confirmed by Pope Si.xtus V, in 1588, and Father Atienza became its first rector. In 15S5 he was made Provincial of the Jesuits in Peru. He at once began to foster and extend the missions in Ecuador, the Gran Chaco, Tucuman, and Paraguay. Out of these efforts the province of Paraguay was born in 1607. During that period a printing press was established by the Jesuits at the Indian village of Juli. Jointly with Father Jos6 de Acosta he di- rected the publication of catechisms and textbooks of Christian doctrine for the use of the Indians. These religious "primers" were printed between the years 1583 and 1590, at Lima. They are in Spenish, Quichua, and Aymard.

Anello Oltv.a, Historia del Perv y Varones ilustres de la Campania de Jesiis (1631: Lima c. 1892): Fray Aktonio de LA Calancha. Cordnica moralizada (Lima. 1638), I; Diego DE CdRDOVA Salina.s, Cordnica de la Reliffioslsima Provincia de las Doce apdstoles del Peru (Lima, 1651): Mendiburl", Diccionario (Lima, 1874), vol. I; Torres Saldamando. Los Antiguos Jesuitas del Peru (Lima. 1882): Bernabe Cobo, Historiade la {undaci^ de Lima (1639: Lima, 1882).

Ad. F. B.^ndelier.

Atkinson, James, Catholic confessor, tortured to death in Bridewell prison in 1595. His pathetic and romantic storj' tells us nothing of his early life, but he is found in the Bridewell prison, one of the worst in London, and delivered over to Topcliffe, the no- torious priest-hunter, who was trj-ing to wring out from him, by torture, evidence on which he might accuse his master, Mr. Robert Barnes, who then held Mapledurhara House, of having entertained priests, and in particular the future martyr. Venerable John Jones, O. S. F. Yielding to torment, Atkinson ac- cused his master of ha\-ing done so, but shortly after repented, and was lost in despair, knowing on the one hand that Topcliffe would torture him again, perhaps unto death, and on the other fearing that no priest could possibly come to confess and absolve him belore his conflict. Unknown to him, however, a Jesuit Father happened to be in the same prison. This was Father William Baldwin (or Bawden), a man who afterwards filled important positions in his order. He had been arrested on suspicion while on shipboard, and had assumed the ]5art of an Italian merchant unacquainted with the English language, and with such success that he was on the point of being exchanged for an English officer who had been captured by the Spaniards on board the Dainty. Atkinson's despair put Father Baldwin into a quan- dary. It was evident that he was at best a weak- ling, perhaps a traitor in disguise. To speak to such a one in English, and much more to own to him that he was a priest, would be to endanger his life. So he tried to comfort him, at first tlirough a fellow- prisoner who knew Latin, and finally offered to bring him a priest. The poor sufferer's joy was so great that the missionarj' ventured to creep to his bed- side that night and tell him that he was a priest. Then .\tkinson held back, either out of suspicion or because, as he said, he was not prepared. Father Baldwin's fears were reawakened, but next night the penitent made his confession with evident con- trition, was soon again tortured, and died under or shortly after the torment. Atkinson's cause has been pro]5osed for Beatification, but evidence for his final perseverence, though very necessary, is naturally hard to find.

Challoxer, Missionary Priests (1864), II, 189: Dodd, Church History (TiERNEY ed.). III. ap. 204; Foley, Records S. J.. III. 503: Record Office, Treasurer of the Chamber's accounts for 1594, roll 196b.

J. H. Pollen.

Atkinson, Nicholas, priest and martjT, is probably to be identified with Venerable Thomas Atkin- son. Dodd, who mentions Nicholas's death as hav- ing taken place at York in 1610, does not mention Thomas at all; yet all the facts which he relates of the one are certainly true of the other, while there is no corroboration for Dodd's date of Nicholas's mar- trj-dom. It seems probable, however, that there was an old Marian priest named Nicholas, or " Ninny", Atkinson (Gillow. 85).

Dodd, Church History, II, 376.

J. H. Pollen.

Atkinson, Paul of St. Francis. — One of the notable confessors of the English Church during the age which succeeded the persecution of blood. Hav- ing been condemned to perj^etual imprisonment for his priesthood, about the year 1699, he died in con- finement after having borne its pains for more than thirty years. He was of a Yorkshire family and was called Matthew in baptism. He joined the Eng- lish Franciscan Convent at Douai in 1673, and had served with distinction on the English mission for twelve years, when he was betrayed by a maid- servant for the £100 reward. One governor of his prison. Hurst Castle on the Solent, allow-ed him to walk outside the prison walls; but complaint was made of this and the leave was revoked.