Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/738

ANTONOMASIA. "Cicero." In either case the figure is akin to metonymy.

ANTON ULRIC, -in'ton ul'rils: (1714-80). The second son of Duke Ferdinand Albert of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (till 1735 Brunswick- Bevern, the title by which the Prince was first known in Russia). He married Anna Karlovna (q.v.), niece of Anna Ivanovna, Empress of Rus- sia, in 1739. In 1740 the Empress fell danger- ously ill and appointed Ivan, the infant son of Anton, her successor, with Biron as regent. Af- ter her death Anton Ulric made some feeble at- tempts to reverse this appointment, which only led to the punishment of those supposed to have instigated them, and to his own military degra- dation. Biron's conduct toward the parents of the infant Prince became unbearably insolent, and Anna appealed in despair to General Münnich, who put a sudden end to Biron's sway and de- clared the Grand Duchess and her husband re- gents. After a few months Anna ungratefully overthrew Münnich. After his fall, as little unity prevailed among the ministers as between her- self and her husband, and the Government was looked upon as both a foreign and a contemptible one. Then came the revolution of December 5, 1741, which raised Elizabeth Petrovna (q.v.) to the throne. Anton Ulric and his consort were exiled, and lived long at Kholmogory, in the gov- ernment of Archangel. Anna died in 1746. Catharine II. offered Ulric his freedom, but he declined it. Ultimately he grew blind. Catharine gave his children comfortable homes in Jutland. Consult Brückner. Die Familie Braunschweig in Russland (St. Petersburg, 1876).

AN'TONY, (251-356). The father of monastic asceticism; known as the Great. He was born about the year 251 A.D., at Koma, near Heraklea. in Upper Egypt. His parents were both wealthy and pious, and bestowed on him a religious education. Having, in obedience to what he believed to be a divine injunction, sold his possessions and distributed the proceeds among the poor, he withdrew into the wilderness, where he disciplined himself in all those austerities which have hallowed his memory in the Catholic Church and formed the model of the monastic life. When thirty years of age, however, desirous of obtaining a deeper repose than his situation afforded, he penetrated further into the desert and took up his abode in an old ruin on the top of a hill, where he spent twenty years in the most rigorous seclusion; but in 305 he was persuaded to leave this retreat by the prayers of numerous anchorites who wished to live under his direction. He now founded the monastery of Fayum. which was at first only a group of separate and scattered cells near Memphis and Arsinoë, but which, nevertheless, may be considered the origin of cenobite life. He declined, however, to preside over a monastery. The persecution of the Christians by Maximian, in 311 A.D., induced St. Antony to leave his cell and proceed to Alexandria to comfort the martyrs; but in the course of a year he returned to his solitude, which, however, he soon left and plunged yet deeper into the desert. At length he found a lodgment on a hill, about a day's journey from the Red Sea; but his disciples, discovering his retreat, so pressed him with their affectionate importunities that he ventured to accompany them back. After many pious exhortations, he once more left them, and soon became the mighty oracle of the whole valley of the Nile. In 335 the venerable hermit made a journey to Alexandria, at the request of Athanasius, to dispute with the Arians. He had interviews with Athanasius and other distinguished persons, but soon retired to his desert home, where he died, 356 A.D.

Athanasius states, in his Life of St. Antony, that the saint wore only a coarse shirt of hair, and never washed his body, which is more credible than the stories he relates of his encounters with the devil or his miracles. His whole conduct indicates the predominance of a glowing and yet gloomy fancy, and a disposition to lead a life of absolute solitude. Although the father of monachism, St. Antony is not the author of any monastic "rules;" those which the monks of the Eastern schismatic sects attribute to him are the production of St. Basil. He is, perhaps, the most popular saint in the Catholic Church. Accounts of his life and miracles are given in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandists, under the date of the 17th of January, on which day his festival was kept.

ANTONY, (1195-1231). A famous saint. He was born at Lisbon, Portugal, August 15, 1195, baptized as Ferdinand, but took the name Antony when he entered the order of St. Francis, in 1220, after being a canon of St. Vincent's in Lisbon, and already noted for biblical and patristic learning, in 1221 he attended a meeting of the order at Assisi and made a poor impression, but soon after produced great astonishment and delight at a meeting with the Dominicans, and was sent by St. Francis as revival preacher to northern Italy, where he met with tremendous success. In 1223, after studying at St. Francis's direction mystical theology for five months, he was appointed the first theological tutor in the order, and taught in northern Italy and France. In 1227 he became provincial of northern Italy; in November of that year he entered Padua for the first time. In 1230 he went to Rome as delegate to get the papal decision upon the binding nature of certain points in the Franciscan rule — not, as frequently asserted, to secure the deposition of the general of the order. He died at Padua, June 13, 1231. He was canonized by Pope Gregory IX. in 1232. His great repute as a preacher gave rise to legends of miraculous powers. He is the patron saint of animals. Once he preached to the fishes, it is said, and they listened to him with rapt attention. Joseph Addison gave an abstract of it in his Remarks on Italy. For the classic biography of Antony, consult Emmanuel de Azevedo of Coimbra, Vita del Taumaturgo ... Sant' Antonio di Padora (latest edition, Padua. 1829); consult also: De Chérance, Antony of Padua (London, 1895); I. Beale (1897), Mrs. Arthur Bell (1901), in French by A. Lepître (Paris, 1901). His works were published by Horoy in his Medii Ævi Bibliotheca Patristica (Paris, 1885).

ANTONY AND CLE'OPA'TRA. A tragedy by Shakespeare (1607). It was based upon the life of Antony in North's Plutarch, and is admired for the vigor with which the author deals with a difficult theme. The play is to some extent imitated in both Dryden's All For Love, and Fletcher and Massinger's The False One.

ANT PLANTS. See.