Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/150

 130 ADOPTIANI ADOWA which of them Adonis should belong to, which was settled by the judgment of Jupiter that he should remain with each of them an equal part of each year. Adonis died of a wound received from a wild boar in the Idalian woods, and the sorrow of Venus for his loss was so great that the gods allowed his return to earth for six months of every year to console her. ADOPTIANI, a Christian sect in Spain, found- ed by Elipandus, archbishop of Toledo, and Felix, bishop of Urgel, near the close of the 8th century. They affirmed that Jesus was really the son of God only in his divine nature, and the 'son of God by adoption merely in his human nature. So long as they confined their efforts to spreading their views in the Moham- medan territory, no notice was taken of the new sect. But when, through the efforts of Felix, whose diocese belonged to the Frankish empire, adoptianism began to spread in the dominion of Charlemagne, the subject was brought to the notice of that emperor, and the synod of Ratisbon (792) condemned it as a re- newal of the Nestorian heresy. Felix recanted, and confirmed his recantation before Pope Adrian in Rome. But after his return to Urgel he reaffirmed his adoptian views. At the re- quest of Charlemagne Alcuin wrote an epistle to Felix against adoptianism. This step, how- ever, had no results ; on the contrary, a num- ber of the Spanish bishops declared their agree- ment with Felix. A new synod convened at Frankfort (794) ratified the decrees of Ratis- bon against ndoptianism. Finally, Archbishop Leidrad of Lyons prevailed upon Felix in 799 to appear before : a synod at Aix-la-Chapelle, when, after a protracted discussion of the sub- ject with Alcuin, he once more recanted. Felix was now committed to the charge of Leidrad at Lyons, where he died in 816. Elipandus never retracted his opinions, but soon after his death the sect became extinct. Adoptianism was the first important theological controversy concern- ing the person of Christ originating in the western church. ADOPTION, the taking of another's child as one's own, still regulated by law in Germany and France, as it was in Rome. Where the party adopted is under age, and actually under the parents' power, it is called adoption proper ; but where it is of age, sui juris, ad- rogation. The abstract rule that adoption must imitate nature, though derivable from regulations of the Roman law, such as that forbidding eunuchs to adopt, and that re- quiring the adopter to be at least 18 years older than the adopted, is not fully carried out, since by the same law those incapable of procreation may adopt. In Germany, while the child is more completely absorbed into the family of the adopter than he was in Rome, numerous subtle distinctions have been en- grafted upon this title of the law ; while the Code Napoleon admits adoption only to a limited extent. A prerequisite to adoption in Rome was leave from the college of priests ; in Germany the sanction of the prince or judge is required. In Texas, a person may adopt another to be his legal heir by filing a statement, authenticated like a deed, express- ing his intention so to do, with the county clerk, thereby entitling him to all the rights and privileges of a legal heir, except that if the adopter have a legitimate child or children, the adopted shall in no case inherit more than a fourth part of the testamentary estate of the adopter. In several of the states adoption has been made the subject of recent statutes ; for example, in Illinois (1867) and Kansas (1868). The proceeding under these acts is in general similar to that which has existed for a long time in Massachusetts. In that state, any person may present a petition to the probate court for the adoption of a child not his own, and, if desired, for a change of the child's name. If the petitioner has a husband or wife, the application will not be entertained by the court unless such husband or wife join in it. The consent of the child's parents, or of the survivor of them, must be procured in writing; or if it has no parent, its guardian or next of kin or some person appointed by the court must give the requisite consent. And the adoption will not be sanctioned with- out the child's consent, if it is more than 14 years old. The child thus adopted, for all purposes of inheritance, and in respect to all the other legal consequences and incidents of the natural relationship of parent and child, is deemed the child, born in lawful wedlock, of the person who adopts it, except that it shall not take property limited to the heirs of the body of the new parents, nor coming from their collateral kindred. An appeal from the decision of the probate court upon the petition lies in favor of either the petitioner or the child to the supreme court; and any person interested who had not actual notice of the proceeding may apply within a year for a reversal of the order of the probate court. In Louisiana the proceedings are more like those of the civil law. The person adopting must be at least 40 years old, and at least 15 years older than the person adopted. Married per- sons must concur about the adoption. ADOl'R (anc. A ternus), a river in the S. W. of France, about 180 m. in length, 70 of which are navigable. Its course is nearly semi- circular. It rises in the Pyrenees, flows through the departments of Hautes-Pyrn6es, Gers, and Landes, and empties into the bay of Biscay, a little below Bayonne. Though many streams unite with it, its volume of water is small, except during the melting of the snows in the Pyrenees, when it often inundates the surrounding country. ADOWA, one of the chief towns of Abys- sinia, capital of Tigr6, about 145 m. N. E. of Gondar; pop. about 8,000. It is the great depot of the trade in cattle, corn, salt, and slaves, between the coast and the interior. The chief manufactures are of cotton.