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 The Romans are credited with having purposely introduced the edible snail (Helix pomatia) into England, and the common garden snail and slugs (Helix aspersa, Limax agrestis and Arion hortensis) have been unwittingly established in New Zealand. In that country, also, the earthworms of Europe are noticed to replace native forms as the ground is broken.

General Remarks.—A great deal has been said about the upsetting of the balance of nature by naturalization, and as to the ill-doing of exotic forms. But certain considerations should be borne in mind in this connexion. In the first place, naturalization experiments fail at least as often as they succeed, and often quite inexplicably. Thus, the linnet and partridge have failed to establish themselves in New Zealand. This may ultimately throw some light on the disappearance of native forms; for these have at times declined without any assignable cause.

Secondly, native forms often disappear with the clearing off of the original forest or other vegetation, in which case their recession is to a certain extent unavoidable, and the fauna which has established itself in the presence of cultivation is needed to replace them.

Thirdly, the ill effect of introduced forms on existing ones may often be due rather to the spread of disease and parasites than to actual attack; thus, in Hawaii the native birds have been found suffering from a disease which attacks poultry. And the recession of the New Zealand earthworms and flies before exotic forms probably falls under this category. As man cannot easily avoid introducing parasites, and must keep domestic animals and till the land, a certain disturbance in aboriginal faunas is absolutely unavoidable. Under certain circumstances, however, the native animals may recover, for in some cases they even profit by man’s advent, and at times themselves become pests, like the Kea parrot (Nestor notabilis), which attacks sheep in New Zealand, and the bobolink or rice-bird (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) in North America. Finally, it should never be forgotten that the worst enemies of declining forms have been collectors who have not given these species the chance of recovering themselves.

ACCOLADE (from Ital. accolata, derived from Lat. collum, the neck), a ceremony anciently used in conferring knighthood; but whether it was an actual embrace (according to the use of the modern French word accolade), or a slight blow on the neck or cheek, is not agreed. Both these customs appear to be of great antiquity. Gregory of Tours writes that the early kings of France, in conferring the gilt shoulder-belt, kissed the knights on the left cheek; and William the Conqueror is said to have made use of the blow in conferring the honour of knighthood on his son Henry. At first it was given with the naked fist, a veritable box on the ear, but for this was substituted a gentle stroke with the flat of the sword on the side of the neck, or on either shoulder as well. In Great Britain the sovereign, in conferring knighthood, still employs this latter form of accolade.

“Accolade” is also a technical term in music-printing for a sort of brace joining separate staves; and in architecture it denotes a form of decoration on doors and windows.

ACCOLTI, BENEDETTO (1415–1466), Italian jurist and historian, was born at Arezzo, in Tuscany, of a noble family, several members of which were distinguished like himself for their attainments in law. He was for some time professor of jurisprudence in the university of Florence, and on the death of the celebrated Poggio, in 1459, became chancellor of the Florentine republic. He died at Florence. In conjunction with his brother Leonardo, he wrote in Latin a history of the first crusade, entitled De Bello a Christianis contra Barbaros gesto pro Christi Sepulchro et Judaea recuperandis libri tres (Venice, 1432, translated into Italian, 1543, and into French, 1620), which, though itself of little interest, is said to have furnished Tasso with the historic basis for his Jerusalem Delivered. Another work of Accolti’s—De Praestantia Virorum sui Aevi—was published at Parma in 1689. His brother Francesco (1418–1483) was also a distinguished jurist, and was the author of Consilia seu responsa (Pisa, 1481); ''Commentaria super lib. ii. decretalium (Bologna, 1481); Commentaria (Pavia, 1493); de Balneis Puteolanis'' (1475).

ACCOLTI, BERNARDO (1465–1536), Italian poet, born at Arezzo, was the son of Benedetto Accolti. Known in his own day as l’Unico Aretino, he acquired great fame as a reciter of impromptu verse. He was listened to by large crowds, composed of the most learned men and the most distinguished prelates of the age. Among others, Cardinal Bembo has left on record a testimony to his extraordinary talent. His high reputation with his contemporaries seems scarcely justified by the poems he published, though they give evidence of brilliant fancy. It is probable that he succeeded better in his extemporary productions than in those which were the fruit of deliberation. His works, under the title Virginia, Comedia, Capitoli e Strambotti di Messer Bernardo Accolti Aretino, were published at Florence in 1513, and have been several times reprinted.

ACCOLTI, PIETRO (1455–1532), brother of the preceding, known as the cardinal of Ancona, was born in Florence on the 15th of March 1455, and died at Rome on the 12th of December 1532 (Ciaconi, Vitae Pontificum, 1677, iii. 295). He was made bishop of Ancona, 1505, and cardinal on the 17th of March 1511, by Julius II. He was abbreviator under Leo X., and in that capacity drew up in 1520 the bull against Luther (L. Cardella, Memorie Storiche de’ Cardinali, 1793, iii. 450). He held successively the suburban sees of Albano and Sabina, also the sees of Cadiz, Maillezais, Arras and Cremona, and was made archbishop of Ravenna, 1524, by Clement VII.

F. Cristofori (Storia dei Cardinali, 1888) and others have confused him with his nephew (1497–1549), son of Michaele; who followed him in several of his preferments, was made cardinal, 1527, by Clement VII., and is known as a writer in behalf of papal claims and as a Latin poet.

ACCOMMODATION (Lat. accommodare, to make fit, from ad, to, cum, with, and modus, measure), the process of fitting, adapting, adjusting or supplying with what is needed (e.g. housing).

In theology the term “accommodation” is used rather loosely to describe the employment of a word, phrase, sentence or idea, in a context other than that in which it originally occurred; the actual wording of the quotation may be modified to a greater or lesser extent. Such accommodation, though sometimes purely literary or stylistic, generally has the definite purpose of instruction, and is frequently used both in the New Testament and in pulpit utterances in all periods as a means of producing a reasonably accurate impression of a complicated idea in the minds of those who are for various reasons unlikely to comprehend it otherwise. There are roughly three main kinds. (1) A later Biblical passage quotes from an earlier, partly as a literary device, but also with a view to demonstration. Sometimes it is plain that the writer deliberately “accommodates” a quotation (cf. John xviii. 8, 9 with xvii. 12). But New Testament quotations of Old Testament predictions are often for us accommodations—striking or forced as the case may be—while the New Testament writer, “following the exegetical methods current among the Jews of his time, Matthew ii. 15, 18, xxvi. 31, xxvii. 9” (S. R. Driver in Zechariah in Century Bible, pp. 259, 271), puts them forward as arguments. To say that he is merely “describing a New Testament fact in Old Testament phraseology” may be true of the result rather than of his design. (2) Much besides in the Bible—parable, metaphor, &c.—has been called an “accommodation,” or divine condescension to human weakness. (3) German 18th-century rationalism (see ) held that the Biblical writers made great use of conscious accommodation—intending moral commonplaces when they seemed to be enunciating Christian dogmas. Another expression for this, used, e.g., by J. S. Semler, is “economy,” which also occurs in the kindred sense of “reserve” (or of Disciplina Arcani—a modern term for the supposed early Catholic habit of reserving esoteric truths). Isaac Williams on Reserve in Religious Teaching, No. 80 of Tracts for the Times, made a great sensation; see R. W. Church’s comments in The Oxford Movement. Strictly, accommodation (2) or (3) modifies, in form or in substance, the content of religious belief; reserve,