Treub, van Oppenraag and Vlaming, The Right to Life of the Unborn Child (New York, 1903); L. Hochheimer, Crimes and Criminal Procedure (New York, 1897); A. A. Tardieu, Étude medico-légal sur l'avortement (Paris, 1904); F. Berolzheimer, System der Rechts- und Wissenschaftsphilosophie (Munich, 1904). ABOUKIR, a village on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, 14 m. N.E. of Alexandria by rail, containing a castle used as a state prison by Mehemet Ali. Near the village are many remains of ancient buildings, Egyptian, Greek and Roman. About 2 m. S.E. of the village are ruins supposed to mark the site of Canopus. A little farther east the Canopic branch of the Nile (now dry) entered the Mediterranean. Stretching eastward as far as the Rosetta mouth of the Nile is the spacious bay of Aboukir, where on the 1st of August 1798 Nelson fought the battle of the Nile, often referred to as the battle of Aboukir. The latter title is applied more properly to an engagement between the French expeditionary army and the Turks fought on the 25th of July 1799. Near Aboukir, on the 8th of March 1801, the British army commanded by Sir R. Abercromby landed from its transports in the face of a strenuous opposition from a French force entrenched on the beach. (See FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY WARS.) ABOUT, EDMOND FRANÇOIS VALENTIN (1828-1885), French novelist, publicist and journalist, was born on the 14th of February 1828, at Dieuze, in Lorraine. The boy's school career was brilliant. In 1848 he entered the Ecole Normale, taking the second place in the annual competition for admission, Taine being first. Among his college contemporaries were Taine, Francisque, Sarcey, Challemel-Lacour and the ill-starred Prévost-Paradol. Of them all About was, according to Sarcey, the most highly vitalized, exuberant, brilliant and "undisciplined." At the end of his college career he joined the French school in Athens, but if we may believe his own account, it had never been his intention to follow the professorial career, for which the École Normale was a preparation, and in 1853 he returned to France and frankly gave himself to literature and journalism. A book on Greece, La Grèce contemporaine (1855), which did not spare Greek susceptibilities, had an immediate success. In Tolla (1855) About was charged with drawing too freely on an earlier Italian novel, Vittoria Savelli (Paris, 1841). This caused a strong prejudice against him, and he was the object of numerous attacks, to which he was ready enough to retaliate. The Lettres d'un bon jeune homme, written to the Figaro under the signature of Valentin de Quévilly, provoked more animosities. During the next few years, with indefatigable energy, and generally with full public recognition, he wrote novels, stories, a play-which failed,-a book-pamphlet on the Roman question, many pamphlets on other subjects of the day, newspaper articles innumerable, some art criticisms, rejoinders to the attacks of his enemies, and popular manuals of political economy, L'A B C du travailleur (1868), Le progrès (1864). About's attitude towards the empire was that of a candid friend. He believed in its improvability, greeted the liberal ministry of Emile Ollivier at the beginning of 1870 with delight and welcomed the Franco-German War. That day of enthusiasm had a terrible, morrow. For his own personal part he lost the loved home near Saverne in Alsace, which he had purchased in 1858 out of the fruits of his earlier literary successes. With the fall of the empire he became a republican, and, always an inveterate anti-clerical, he threw himself with ardour into the battle against the conservative reaction which made head during the first years of the republic. From 1872 onwards for some five or six years his paper, the XIX Siècle, of which he was the heart and soul, became a power in the land. But the republicans never quite forgave the tardiness of his conversion, and no place rewarded his later zeal. On the 23rd January 1884 he was elected a member of the French Academy, but died on the 16th of January 1885, before taking his seat. His journalism-of which specimens in his earlier and later manners will be found in the two series of Lettres d'un bon jeune homme à sa cousine Madeleine (1861 and 1863), and the posthumous collection, Le dix-neuvième siècle (1892)-was of its nature ephemeral. So were the pamphlets, great and small. His political economy was that of an orthodox popularizer, and in no sehse epochmaking. His dramas are negligible. His more serious novels, Madelon (1863), L'infâme (1867), the three that form the trilogy of the Vieille Roche (1866), and Le roman d'un brave | homme (1880)—a kind of counterblast to the view of the French workman presented in Zola's Assommoir-contain striking and amusing scenes, no doubt, but scenes which are often suggestive of the stage, while description, dissertation, explanation too frequently take the place of life. His best work after all is to be found in the books that are almost wholly farcical, Le nez d'un notaire (1862); Le roi des montagnes (1856); L'homme à l'oreille cassée (1862); Trente et quarante (1858); Le cas de | M. Guérin (1862). Here his most genuine wit, his sprightliness, his vivacity, the fancy that was in him, have free play. "You will never be more than a little Voltaire," said one of his masters when he was a lad at school. It was a true prophecy. (F. T. M.) ABRABANEL, ISAAC, called also ABRAVANEL, ABARBANEL (1437-1508), Jewish statesman, philosopher, theologian and commentator, was born at Lisbon of an ancient family which claimed descent from the royal house of David. Like many of the Spanish Jews he united scholarly tastes with political ability. He held a high place in the favour of King Alphonso V., who entrusted him with the management of important state affairs. On the death of Alphonso in 1481, his counsellors and favourites were harshly treated by his successor John, and Abrabanel was compelled to flee to Spain, where he held for eight years (14841492) the post of a minister of state under Ferdinand and Isabella. When the Jews were banished from Spain in 1492, no exception was made in Abrabanel's favour. He afterwards resided at Naples, Corfu and Monopoli, and in 1503 removed to Venice, where he held office as a minister of state till his death in 1508. His repute as a commentator on the Scriptures is still high; in the 17th and 18th centuries he was much read by Christians such as Buxtorf. Abrabanel often quotes Christian authorities, though he opposed Christian exegesis of Messianic passages. He was one of the first to see that for Biblical exegesis it was necessary to reconstruct the social environment of olden times, and he skilfully applied his practical knowledge of statecraft to the elucidation of the books of Samuel and Kings. ABRACADABRA, a word analogous to Abraxas (q.v.), used as a magical formula by the Gnostics of the sect of Basilides in invoking the aid of beneficent spirits against disease and misfortune. It is found on Abraxas stones which were worn as amulets. Subsequently its use spread beyond the Gnostics, and in modern times it is applied contemptuously (e.g. by the early opponents of the evolution theory) to a conception or hypothesis which purports to be a simple solution of apparently insoluble phenomena. The Gnostic physician Serenus Sammonicus gave precise instructions as to its mystical use in averting or curing agues and fevers generally. The paper on which the word was written had to be folded in the form of a cross, suspended from the neck by a strip of linen so as to rest on the pit of the stomach, worn in this way for nine days, and then, before sunrise, cast behind the wearer into a stream running to the east. The letters were usually arranged as a triangle in one of the following ways:— ABRACADABRA ABRACADABR ABRACADAB ABRACADA ABRACAD ABRACA ABRAC ABRA ABR AB A ABRACADABRA BRACADABR RACADAB ACADA CAD A ABRAHAM, or ABRAM (Hebrew for "father is high "), the ancestor of the Israelites, the first of the great Biblical patriarchs. His life as narrated in the book of Genesis reflects the traditions of different ages. It is the latest writer (P) who men tions Abram (the original form of the name), Nahor and Ḥaran, sons of Terah, at the close of a genealogy of the sons of Shem, which includes among its members Eber the eponym of the Hebrews. Terah is said to have come from Ur of the Chaldees, usually identified with Mukayyar in south Babylonia. He migrated to Haran1 in Mesopotamia, apparently the classical Carrhae, on a branch of the Ḥabor. Thence, after a short stay, Abram with his wife Sarai, and Lot the son of Ḥaran, and all their followers, departed for Canaan. The oldest tradition does not know of this twofold move, and seems to locate Abram's birthplace and the homes of his kindred at HḤaran (Gen. xxiv. 4, 7, xxvii. 43). At the divine command, and encouraged by the promise that Yahweh would make of him, although hitherto childless, a great nation, he journeyed down to Shechem, and at the sacred tree (cf. xxxv. 4, Josh. xxiv. 26, Judg. ix. 6) received a new promise that the land would be given unto his seed. Having built an altar to commemorate the theophany, he removed to a spot between Bethel and Ai, where he built another altar and called upon (i.e. invoked) the name of Yahweh (Gen. xii. 1-9). Here he dwelt for some time, until strife arose between his herdsmen and those of Lot. Abram thereupon proposed to Lot that they should separate, and allowed his nephew the first choice. Lot preferred the fertile land lying east of the Jordan, whilst Abram, after receiving another promise from Yahweh, moved down to the oaks of Mamre in Hebron and built an altar. In the subsequent history of Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abram appears prominently in a fine passage where he intercedes with Yahweh on behalf of Sodom, and is promised that if ten righteous men can be found therein the city shall be preserved (xviii. 16-33). the text is corrupt). He is now promised as heir one of his own flesh, and a remarkable and solemn passage records how the promise was ratified by a covenant. The description is particularly noteworthy for the sudden appearance of birds of prey, which attempted to carry off the victims of the sacrificial covenant. The interpretation of the evil omen is explained by an allusion to the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt and their return in the fourth generation (xv. 16; contrast v. 13, after four hundred years; the chapter is extremely intricate and has the appearance of being of secondary origin). The main narrative now relates how Sarai, in accordance with custom, gave to Abram her Egyptian handmaid Hagar, who, when she found she was with child, presumed upon her position to the extent that Sarai, unable to endure the reproach of barrenness (cf. the story of Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 6), dealt harshly with her and forced her to flee (xvi. 1-14, J; on the details see ISHMAEL). Another tradition places the expulsion of Hagar after the birth of Isaac. It was thirteen years after the birth of Ishmael, according to the latest narratives, that God appeared unto Abram with a renewed promise that his posterity should inhabit the land. To mark the solemnity of the occasion, the patriarch's name was changed to Abraham, and that of his wife to Sarah. A covenant was concluded with him for all time, and as a sign thereof the rite of circumcision was instituted (xvii. P). The promise of a son to Sarah made Abraham "laugh", a punning allusion to the name Isaac (q.v.) which appears again in other forms. Thus, it is Sarah herself who "laughs" at the idea, when Yahweh appears to Abraham at Mamre (xviii. 1-15, J), or who, when the child is born cries "God hath made me laugh; every one that heareth will laugh at me" (xxi. 6, E). Finally, there is yet another story which attributes the flight of Hagar and Ishmael to Sarah's jealousy at the sight of Ishmael's "mocking" (rather dancing or playing, the intensive form of the verb "to laugh") on the feast day when Isaac was weaned (xxi. 8 sqq.). But this last story is clearly out of place, since a child who was then fourteen years old (cf. xvii. 24, xxi. 5) could scarcely be described as a weak babe who had to be carried (xxi. 14; see the commentaries). A peculiar passage, more valuable for the light it throws upon primitive ideas than for its contribution to the history of Abram, narrates the patriarch's visit to Egypt. Driven by a famine to take refuge in Egypt (cf. xxvi. 1, xli. 57, xlii. 1), he feared lest his wife's beauty should arouse the evil designs of the Egyptians and thus endanger his own safety, and alleged that Sarai was his sister. This did not save her from the Pharaoh, who took her into the royal harem and enriched Abram with Abraham was now commanded by God to offer up Isaac in herds and servants. But when Yahweh "plagued Pharaoh and the land of Moriah. Proceeding to obey, he was prevented by his house with great plagues" suspicion was aroused, and the an angel as he was about to sacrifice his son, and slew a ram Pharaoh rebuked the patriarch for his deceit and sent him away which he found on the spot. As a reward for his obedience he under an escort (xii. 10-xiii. 1). This story of Abram and his received another promise of a numerous seed and abundant increased wealth (xiii. 2) receives no comment at the hands of prosperity (xxii. E). Thence he returned to Beersheba. The the narrator, and in its present position would make Sarai over story is one of the few told by E, and significantly teaches that sixty years of age (xii. 4, xvii. 1, 17). A similar experience is human sacrifice was not required by the Almighty (cf. Mic. said to have happened to Abraham and Sarah at Gerar with the vi. 7 seq.). The interest of the narrative now extends to Isaac Philistine king Abimelech (xx. E), but the tone of the narrative alone. To his "only son" (cp. xxii. 2, 12) Abraham gave all is noticeably more advanced, and the presents which the patri- he had, and dismissed the sons of his concubines to the lands arch receives are compensation for the king's offence. Here, outside Palestine; they were thus regarded as less intimately however, Sarah has reached her ninetieth year (xvii. 17). (The related to Isaac and his descendants (xxv. 1-4, 6). The measures dates are due to the post-exilic framework in which the stories taken by the patriarch for the marriage of Isaac are circumare inserted.) Still another episode of the same nature is re- stantially described. His head-servant was sent to his master's corded of Isaac and Rebekah at Gerar, also with Abimelech. | country and kindred to find a suitable bride, and the necessary Ethically it is the loftiest, and Isaac obtains his wealth simply preparation for the story is contained in the description of through his successful farming. Arising out of the incident is Nahor's family (xxii. 20-24). The picturesque account of the an account of a covenant between Abimelech and Isaac (xxvi. meeting with Rebekah throws interesting light on oriental 16-33, J), a duplicate of which is placed in the time of Abraham custom. Marriage with one's own folk (cf. Gen. xxvii. 46, (xxi. 22-34, J and E). Beersheba, which figures in both, is cele- xxix. 19; Judg. xiv. 3), and especially with a cousin, is recombrated by the planting of a sacred tree and (like Bethel) by the mended now even as in the past. For its charm the story is invocation of the name of Yahweh. This district is the scene comparable with the account of Jacob's experiences in the same of the birth of Ishmael and Isaac. As Sarai was barren (cf. land (xxix.). For the completion of the history of Abraham xi. 30)2 the promise that his seed should possess the land seemed the compiler of Genesis has used P's narrative. Sarah is said incapable of fulfilment. According to one rather obscure narra- to have died at a good old age, and was buried in the cave of tive, Abram's sole heir was the servant, who was over his Machpelah near Hebron, which the patriarch had purchased, household, apparently a certain Eliezer of Damascus3 (xv. 2, with the adjoining field, from Ephron the Hittite (xxiii.); and here The name is not spelt with the same guttural as Haran the son he himself was buried. Centuries later the tomb became a place of Terah. of pilgrimage and the traditional site is marked by a fine mosque. Abram (or Abiram) is a familiar and old-attested name meaning 2 Barrenness is a motif which recurs in the stories of Rebekah, Rachel, the mother of Samson, and Hannah (Gen. xxv. 21, xxix. 31;│"(my) father is exalted"; the meaning of Abraham is obscure Judg. xiii. 2; 1 Sam. i. 5). Abram's connexion with Damascus is supplemented in the traditions of Nicolaus of Damascus as cited by Josephus (Antiq. i. 7, 2). and the explanation Gen. xvii. 5 is mere word-play. It is possible that rāhām was originally only a dialectical form of rām. See Sir Charles Warren's description, Hasting's Dict. Bible, vol. iii. pp. 200 seq. The so-called Babylonian colouring of Gen. 5 The story of Abraham is of greater value for the study of Old | destruction of inhospitable and vicious cities (see SODOM AND Testament theology than for the history of Israel. He became to the Hebrews the embodiment of their ideals, and stood at their head as the founder of the nation, the one to whom Yahweh had manifested his love by frequent promises and covenants. From the time when he was bidden to leave his country to enter the unknown land, Yahweh was ever present to encourage him to trust in the future when his posterity should possess the land, and so, in its bitterest hours, Israel could turn for consolation to the promises of the past which enshrined in Abraham its hopes for the future. Not only is Abraham the founder of religion, but he, of all the patriarchal figures, stands out most prominently as the recipient of the promises (xii. 2 seq. 7, xiii. 14-17, XV., xvii., xviii. 17-19, xxii. 17 seq.; cf. xxiv. 7), and these the apostle Paul associates with the coming of Christ, and, adopting a characteristic and artificial style of interpretation prevalent in his time, endeavours to force a Messianic interpretation out of them.1 father of the tribes of Israel, came and the route to Shechem GOMORRAH). Different writers have regarded the life of Abraham differently. He has been viewed as a chieftain of the Amorites (q.v.), as the head of a great Semitic migration from Mesopotamia; or, since Ur and Haran were seats of Moon-worship, he has been identified with a moon-god. From the character of the literary evidence and the locale of the stories it has been held that Abraham was originally associated with Hebron. The double name AbramAbraham has even suggested that two personages have been combined in the Biblical narrative; although this does not explain the change from Sarai to Sarah. But it is important to remember that the narratives are not contemporary, and that the interesting discovery of the name Abi-ramu (Abram) on Babylonian contracts of about 2000 B.C. does not prove the Abram of the Old Testament to be an historical person, even as the fact that there were Amorites" in Babylonia at the same period does not make it certain that the patriarch was one of their number. One remarkable chapter associates Abraham with kings of Elam and the east (Gen. xiv.). No longer a peaceful sheikh but a warrior with a small army of 318 followers,' he overthrows a combination of powerful monarchs who have ravaged the land. The genuineness of the narrative has been strenuously maintained, although upon insufficient grounds. "It is generally recognized that this chapter holds quite an isolated place in the Pentateuchal history; it is the only passage which presents Abraham in the character of a warrior, and connects him with historical names and political movements, and there are no clear marks by which it can be assigned to any one of the documents of which Genesis is made up. Thus, while one school of interpreters finds in the chapter the earliest fragment of the political narrative is probably based on old Canaanite records, other critics, history of western Asia, some even holding with Ewald that the as Nöldeke, regard the whole as unhistorical and comparatively late in origin. On the latter view, which finds its main support in the intrinsic difficulties of the narrative, it is scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that the chapter is one of the latest additions to the Pentateuch (Wellhausen and many others)." 5 For the history of the Hebrews the life of Abraham is of the same value as other stories of traditional ancestors. The narratives, viewed dispassionately, represent him as an idealized sheikh (with one important exception, Gen. xiv., see below), about whose person a number of stories have gathered. As the father of Isaac and Ishmael, he is ultimately the common ancestor of the Israelites and their nomadic fierce neighbours, men roving unrestrainedly like the wild ass, troubled by and troubling every one (xvi. 12). As the father of Midian, Sheba and other Arabian tribes (xxv. 1-4), it is evident that some degree of kinship was felt by the Hebrews with the dwellers of the more distant south, and it is characteristic of the genealogies that the mothers (Sarah, Hagar and Keturah) are in the descending scale as regards purity of blood. This great ancestral figure came, it was said, from Ur in Babylonia and Haran and thence to Canaan. Late tradition supposed that the migration was to escape Babylonian idolatry (Judith v., Jubilees xii.; cf. Josh. xxiv. 2), and knew of Abraham's miraculous escape from death (an obscure reference to some act of deliverance in Is. xxix. 22). The route along the banks of the Euphrates from south to north was so frequently taken by migrating tribes that the tradition has nothing improbable in itself, but the prominence given in the older narratives to the view that Ḥaran was the home gives this the preference. It was thence that Jacob, the and Bethel is precisely the same in both. A twofold migration is doubtful, and, from what is known of the situation in Palestine in the 15th century B.C., is extremely improbable. Further, there is yet another parallel in the story of the conquest by Joshua (q.v.), partly implied and partly actually detailed (cf. also Josh. viii. 9 with Gen. xii. 8, xiii. 3), whence it would appear that too much importance must not be laid upon any ethnological interpretation which fails to account for the three versions. That similar traditional elements have influenced them is not unlikely; but to recover the true historical foundation is difficult. The invasion or immigration of certain tribes from the east of the Jordan; the presence of Aramaean blood among the Israelites (see JACOB); the origin of the sanctity of venerable sites, these and other consideratons may readily be found to account for the traditions. Noteworthy coincidences in the lives of Abraham and Isaac, noticed above, point to the fluctuating state of traditions in the oral stage, or suggest that Abraham's life has been built up by borrowing from the common stock of popular lore. More original is the parting of Lot and Abraham at Bethel. The district was the scene of contests between Moab and the Hebrews (cf. perhaps Judg. iii.), and if this explains part of the story, the physical configura-fication has also been found. tion of the Dead Sea may have led to the legend of the xxiii. has been much exaggerated; see S. R. Driver, Genesis, ad loc.; S. A. Cook, Laws of Moses, p. 208. 1 See H. St. J. Thackeray, Relation of St Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought, p. 69 seq. (1900). On the other hand, the coincidences in xx. xxi, are due to E, who is also the author of xxii. Apart from these the narratives of Abraham are from J and P. On the assumption that a recollection of some invasion in remote days may have been current, considerable interest is attached to the names. Of these, Amraphel, king of Shinar (i.e. Babylonia, Gen. x. 10), has been identified with Khammurabi, one of the greatest of the Babylonian kings (c. 2000 B.C.), and since he claims to have ruled as far west as the Mediterranean Sea, the equation has found considerable favour. Apart from chronological difficulties, the identification of the king and his country is far from certain, and at the most can only be regarded as possible. Arioch, king of Ellasar, has been connected with Eriaku of Larsa-the reading has been questioned-a contemporary with Khammurabi. Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, bears what is doubtless a genuine Elamite name. Finally, the name of Tid'al, king of Goiim, may be identical with a certain Tudḥulu the son of Gazza, a warrior, but apparently not a king, who is mentioned in a Babylonian inscription, and Goiim may stand for Gutim, the Guti being a people who lived to the east of Kurdistan. Nevertheless, there is as yet no monumental evidence in favour of the genuineness of the story, and at the most it can only be said that the author (of whatever date) has derived his names from a trustworthy source, and in representing an invasion of Palestine by Babylonian overlords has given expression to a possible situation. improbabilities and internal difficulties of the narrative remain According to Breasted (Amer. Journ. of Sem. Lit., 1904, p. 36), the "field of Abram" occurs among the places mentioned in the list of the Egyptian king Shishak (No. 71-2) in the 10th century. See also his History of Egypt, p. 530. 3 The The number is precisely that of the total numerical value of the consonants of the name "Eliezer " (Gen. xv. 2); an astral signi 5 W. R. Smith, Ency. Brit. (9th ed., 1883), art. "Melchizedek." That the names may be those of historical personages is no proof of historical accuracy: "We cannot therefore conclude that the whole account is accurate history, any more than we can argue that Sir Walter Scott's Anne of Geierstein is throughout a correct account of actual events because we know that Charles the Bold and Margaret of Anjou were real people" (W. H. Bennett, Century Bible: Genesis, p. 186). ABRANTES, a town of central Portugal, in the district of Santarem, formerly included in the province of Estremadura; on the right bank of the river Tagus, at the junction of the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon railway with the Guarda-Abrantes line. Pop. (1900) 7255. Abrantes, which occupies the crest of a hill covered with olive woods, gardens and vines, is a fortified town, with a thriving trade in fruit, olive oil and grain. As it has usually been regarded as an important military position. commands the highway down the Tagus valley to Lisbon, it Originally an Iberian settlement, founded about 300 B.C., it received the name Aurantes from the Romans; perhaps owing to the alluvial gold (aurum) found along the Tagus. Roman mosaics, coins, the remains of an aqueduct, and other antiquities have been discovered in the neighbourhood. Abrantes was captured on the 24th of November 1807 by the French under General Junot, who for this achievement was created duke of the town was restored to the British and Portuguese. Abrantes. By the Convention of Cintra (22nd of August 1808) untouched, only the bare outlines may very well be historical. | soliciting alms, provided he wore a badge. This humane priviIf, as most critics agree, it is a historical romance (cf., e.g., the lege was grossly abused, and thus gave rise to the slang phrase book of Judith), it is possible that a writer, preferably one who to sham Abraham." lived in the post-exilic age and was acquainted with Babylonian history, desired to enhance the greatness of Abraham by exhibiting his military success against the monarchs of the Tigris and Euphrates, the high esteem he enjoyed in Palestine and his lofty character as displayed in his interview with Melchizedek. See further, Pinches, Old Test. in Light of Hist. Records, pp. 208236; Driver, Genesis, p. xlix., and notes on ch. xiv.; Addis, Documents of the Hexateuch, ii. pp. 208-213; Carpenter and HarfordBattersby, The Hexateuch, i. pp. 157-159, 168; Bezold, Bab.-Assyr, Keilinschriften, pp. 24 sqq., 54 sqq.; A. Jeremias, Altes Test. im Lichte d. Alten Orients(2), pp. 343 seq.; also the literature to the art. GENESIS. Many fanciful legends about Abraham founded on Biblical accounts or spun out of the fancy are to be found in Josephus, and in post-Biblical and Mahommedan literature; for these, reference may be made to Beer, Leben Abrahams (1859); Grünbaum, Neue Beiträge z. semit. Sagenkunde, pp. 89 seq. (1893); the apocryphal "Testament of Abraham (M. R. James in Texts and Studies, 1892); W. Tisdall, Original Sources of the Quran, passim (1905). (S. A. C.) ABRAHAM A SANCTA CLARA (1644-1709), Austrian divine, was born at Kreenheinstetten, near Messkirch, in July 1644. His real name was Ulrich Megerle. In 1662 he joined the order of Barefooted Augustinians, and assumed the name by which he is known. In this order he rose step by step until he became prior provincialis and definitor of his province. Having early gained a great reputation for pulpit eloquence, he was appointed court preacher at Vienna in 1669. The people flocked to hear him, attracted by the force and homeliness of his language, the grotesqueness of his humour, and the impartial severity with which he lashed the follies of all classes of society and of the court in particular. In general he spoke as a man of the people, the predominating quality of his style being an overflowing and often coarse wit. There are, however, many passages in his sermons in which he rises to loftier thought and uses more dignified language. He died at Vienna on the 1st of December 1709. In his published writings he displayed much the same qualities as in the pulpit. Perhaps the most favourable specimen of his style is his didactic novel entitled Judas der Erzschelm (4 vols., Salzburg, 1686-1695). His works have been several times reproduced in whole or in part, though with many spurious interpolations. The best edition is that published in 21 vols. at Passau and Lindau (1835-1854). See Th. G. von Karajan, Abraham a Sancta Clara (Vienna, 1867); Blanckenburg, Studien über die Sprache Abrahams a S. C. (Halle, 1897); Sexto, Abraham a S. C. (Sigmaringen, 1896); Schnell, Pater A. a S. C. (Munich, 1895); H. Mareta, Über Judas d. Erzschelm (Vienna, 1875). ABRAHAM IBN DAUD (c. 1110-1180), Jewish historiographer and philosopher of Toledo. His historical work was the Book of Tradition (Sepher Haqabala), a chronicle down to the year 1161. This was a defence of the traditional record, and also contains valuable information for the medieval period. It was translated into Latin by Génébrad (1519). His philosophy was expounded in an Arabic work better known under its Hebrew title 'Emunah Ramah (Sublime Faith). This was translated into German by Weil (1882). Ibn Daud was one of the first Jewish scholastics to adopt the Aristotelian system; his predecessors were mostly neo-Platonists. Maimonides owed a good deal to him. ABRAHAMITES, a sect of deists in Bohemia in the 18th century, who professed to be followers of the pre-circumcised Abraham. Believing in one God, they contented themselves with the Decalogue and the Paternoster. Declining to be classed either as Christians or Jews, they were excluded from the edict of toleration promulgated by the emperor Joseph II. in 1781, and deported to various parts of the country, the men being drafted into frontier regiments. Some became Roman Catholics, and those who retained their Abrahamite views were not able to hand them on to the next generation. ABRAHAM-MEN, the nickname for vagrants who infested England in Tudor times. The phrase is certainly as old as 1561, and was due to these beggars pretending that they were patients discharged from the Abraham ward at Bedlam. The genuine Bedlamite was allowed to roam the country on his discharge, ABRASION (from Lat. ab, off, and radere, to scrape), the process of rubbing off or wearing down, as of rock by moving ice, or of coins by wear and tear; also used of the results of such a process as an abrasion or excoriation of the skin. In machinery, abrasion between moving surfaces has to be prevented as much as possible by the use of suitable materials, good fitting and lubrication. Engineers and other craftsmen make extensive use of abrasion, effected by the aid of such abrasives as emery and carborundum, in shaping, finishing and polishing their work. ABRAUM SALTS (from the German Abraum-salze, salts to be removed), the name given to a mixed deposit of salts, including halite, carnallite, kieserite, &c., found in association with rock salt at Stassfurt in Prussia. ABRAXAS, or ABRASAX, a word engraved on certain antique stones, called on that account Abraxas stones, which were used importance to the word, if, indeed, they did not bring it into use. as amulets or charms. The Basilidians, a Gnostic sect, attached The letters of åßpagás,in the Greek notation, make up the number 365, and the Basilidians gave the name to the 365 orders of spirits which, as they conceived, emanated in succession from the Supreme Being. These orders were supposed to occupy 365 heavens, each fashioned like, but inferior to that above it; and the lowest of the heavens was thought to be the abode of the spirits who formed the earth and its inhabitants, and to whom was committed the administration of its affairs. Abraxas stones are of very little value. In addition to the word Abraxas and other mystical characters, they have often cabalistic figures engraved on them. The commonest of these have the head of a fowl, and the arms and bust of a man, and terminate in the body and tail of a serpent. ABROGATION (Lat. abrogare, to repeal or annul a law; rogare, literally "to ask," to propose a law), the annulling or repealing of a law by legislative action. Abrogation, which is the total annulling of a law, is to be distinguished from the term derogation, which is used where a law is only partially abrogated. Abrogation may be either express or implied. It is express either when the new law pronounces the annulment in general terms, as when in a concluding section it announces that all laws contrary to the provisions of the new one are repealed, or when in particular terms it announces specifically the preceding laws which it repeals. It is implied when the new law contains provisions which are positively contrary to the former laws without expressly abrogating those laws, or when the condition of things for which the law had provided has changed and consequently the need for the law no longer exists. The abrogation of any statute revives the provisions of the common law which had been abrogated by that statute. See STATUTE; REPEAL. ABRUZZI E MOLISE, a group of provinces (compartimento) of Southern Italy, bounded N. by the province of Ascoli, N.W. and | into an independent province in 1811. The people are remark- W. by Perugia, S.W. by Rome and Caserta, S. by Benevento, The name Abruzzi is conjectured to be a medieval corruption of Praetuttii. The district was, in Lombard times, part of the duchy of Spoleto, and, under the Normans, a part of that of Apulia; it was first formed into a single province in 1240 by Frederick II., who placed the Justiciarius Aprutii at Solmona and founded the city of Aquila. After the Hohenstauffen lost their Italian dominions, the Abruzzi became a province of the Angevin kingdom of Naples, to which it was of great strategic importance. The division into three parts was not made until the 17th century. The Molise, on the other hand, formed part of the Lombard duchy of Benevento, and was placed under the Justiciarius of Terra di Lavoro by Frederick II.: after various changes it became part of the Capitanata, and was only formed ABSALON (c. 1128-1201), Danish archbishop and statesman, was born about 1128, the son of Asser Rig of Fjenneslev, at whose castle he and his brother Esbjörn were brought up along with the young prince Valdemar, afterwards Valdemar I. The founded the monastery of Sorö as a civilizing centre, and after giving Absalon the rudiments of a sound education at home, which included not only book-lore but every manly and martial exercise, they sent him to the university of Paris. Absalon first appears in Saxo's Chronicle as a fellow-guest at Roskilde, at the banquet given, in 1157, by King Sweyn to his rivals Canute and Valdemar. Both Absalon and Valdemar narrowly escaped assassination at the hands of their treacherous host on this occasion, but at length escaped to Jutland, whither Sweyn followed them, but was defeated and slain at the battle of Grathe Heath. The same year (1158) which saw Valdemar ascend the Danish throne saw Absalon elected bishop of Roskilde. Henceforth Absalon was the chief counsellor of Valdemar, and the promoter of that imperial policy which, for three generations, was to give Denmark the dominion of the Baltic. Briefly, it was Absalon's intention to clear the northern sea of the Wendish pirates, who inhabited that portion of the Baltic littoral which we now call Pomerania, and ravaged the Danish coasts so unmercifully that at the accession of Valdemar one-third of the realm of Denmark lay wasted and depopulated. The very existence of Denmark demanded the suppression and conversion of these stiff-necked pagan freebooters, and to this double task Absalon devoted the best part of his life. The first expedition against the Wends, conducted by Absalon in person, set out in 1160, but it was not |