Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume I.djvu/737

 ARIANISM AEICA 701 and Greece. Pope Liberius ratified the anti- Arian resolutions passed in 362 by the synod held in Alexandria, and soon the Nicene creed was predominant throughout the western coun- tries. In the East, Arianism found a zealous supporter in the emperor Valens (364-378), and the violent measures which were adopted against both the Nicaeans and the Semi-Arians induced a portion of the latter (366) to submit to the Nicene creed. With the death of Va- lens (378) Arianism began to decline. The emperor Gratian issued an edict of toleration (378), which allowed the exiled bishops to return and greatly strengthened the Nicene party. In 379 Gratian shared the empire with Theodosius, who the next year issued an edict threatening all heretics with the heaviest penalties, and as soon as he arrived in Con- stantinople took from the Arians all their churches. In 381 he convened the second oecumenical council at Constantinople, which anathematized the Arians. In another synod held at Constantinople in 383, Eunomius pre- sented his confession of faith, which is still extant. As the Arian leaders refused to sub- mit, still more rigorous decrees were issued, to which they appear to have soon succumbed, for the last trace of them in the eastern em- pire ceased under the reign of Arcadius, the son of Theodosius. In Italy the empress Jus- tina, while regent for her minor son Valentinian II., favored the Arians; but Ambrose, the great bishop of Milan, successfully thwarted her plans, and at the synod of Aquileia (Sep- tember, 381) caused the Arians to be anathe- matized and deposed. Moreover, the reign of Justina was too short to be of real service to the dying sect. Crushed out in the Koman empire, Arianism for several centuries remained the religion of the Germanic tribes. The Os- trogoths professed Arianism, but without per- secuting the Catholic church, until their power was lost in 553. The Visigoths were more in- tolerant, but in 589, by order of their king Reccared, they joined the Catholic church at the council of Toledo. The Arian Vandals, after conquering Africa under Genseric (429), began a most cruel persecution of the Catholics, which did not cease until the destruction of their empire by Belisarius (534). The Suevi in Spain adopted the Arian form of Christian- ity toward the middle of the 5th century; about 558 they joined the Roman communion. The Burgundians, who had come to Gaul as pagans (407), appear in 450 as Arians. The Catholic church became predominant among them under King Sigismund (517), whom Bish- op Avitus of Vienne had won over to the or- thodox creed. The last refuge of Arianism was with the Lombards, who entered Italy as Arians in 568. The Catholic church gained a footing among them through the wife of King Autharis, the Bavarian princess Theodelinda; and under her second husband Agilulph and her son Adelwald the Catholics obtained pos- session of most of the churches. A reaction followed when an Arian ascended the throne ; but he was unable to suppress Catholicism, and for a time every important town had a Catholic and an Arian bishop. Under Liutprand (died 744) Arianism as a sect became extinct. As a theological opinion, however, it often reap- peared, and after the reformation of the 16th century was regarded by more than one reli- gious denomination as the true doctrine of the person of Christ. In the church of England ( Arian views found learned champions in Pro- fessor Whiston and Dr; Samuel Clarke. The works of the Arian writers are mostly lost; we still possess, however, the writings of Eusebius of Ceesarea, who ranks among the ablest defenders, of the ancient system, and fragments of the church history of Philostor- gius. Histories of Arianism have been written by Maimbourg (Histoire de VArianisme, Paris, 1682) and J. A. Stark (Ver&uch einer Ge- schichte des Arianismus, Berlin, 1783); but the best source of information on the contro- versial aspect of the question is Baur's Ge- schichte der clirisllicTien Dreieinigkeit (Tubin- gen, 1841-'3) ; while the history of the sect is nowhere treated of so fully as in Hefele'e Con- ciliengeschichte (vols. i. and ii., Tubingen, 1855). See also Eevillout, De V Arianisme des peuples ffermaniques (Paris, 1850). ARIANO, a town of southern Italy, in the province of Principato Ultra, 15 m. E. N. E. of Benevento; pop. about 12,000. It is built upon a steep hill, in one of the most frequented passes of the Apennines, and many of the poor- er dwellings are dug into the rock and earth. It contains a fine cathedral, numerous churches and convents, several monts de piete, and an academy. This town has frequently been vis- ited by terrible earthquakes, the last of which happened in 1732. ARIAS MONTAMS, Benedictns (BENITO ARIAS MONTANO), a Spanish ecclesiastic and oriental scholar, born in a village of Estremadura in 1527, died in Seville in 1598. Philip II. sent him to Antwerp in 1568, to superintend the publication of the magnificent edition of the "Polyglot Bible," to be prepared in that city. The task employed him for four years, and he was rewarded with a pension of 2,000 ducats and a royal chaplaincy, refusing a bishopric. His works, which are numerous, are principally on Hebrew antiquities. He was an unyielding enemy of the Jesuits. ARICA, a seaport town of Peru, in a province of the same name, department of Moquegua, in lat. 18 26' S., Ion. 70 24' W., 640 m. 8. E. of Lima, and 30 m. S. of Tacna, with which it is connected by railroad. It has been the theatre of many destructive earthquakes, one of the worst of which occurred Aug. 13 and 14, 1868, involving the loss of 500 lives and $12,000,000 worth of property. Not a building was left uninjured. The shocks were followed by a tidal wave in which the United States storeship Fre- donia was wrecked with the loss of all hands, and the United States steamer Wateree and