ABECEDARIANS. A name given to the ZWICKAU PROPHETS [A.D. 1520], a section of the German Anabaptists, who claimed to have direct inspiration from God, and maintained that this inspiration was obstructed by human learning. They carried this theory to such a length as to declare that it was desirable never even to learn A B C, since all human learning is founded on the alphabet, and the knowledge of it thus opens the door to that which is an obstacle to Divine illumination. Nicholas Stork, a weaver of Zwickau, was the first to proclaim this principle, but it was afterwards supported by Carlstadt, once an ally of Luther, who, yielding to Stork's invectives against learning, shut up his books, resigned his degree of Doctor of Divinity, forsook all study of Holy Scripture, and looked for Divine truth at the mouths of those who, by all ordinary men, were accounted the most ignorant of mankind. The Abecedarian theory, in a more moderate form, has had much influence on some modern sects, especially the more ignorant sects of Methodists.

ABELARD. [SCHOOLMEN. NOMINALISTS.]
ABELIANS. [ABELONITES.]
ABELITES. [ABELONITES.]
ABELOITES. [ABELONITES.]

ABELONITES. An obscure African sect, deriving its name from Abel, the son of Adam. The exact date of its origin is unknown, but it became extinct during the reign of Theodosius the Younger [A.D. 408-450], for at the time when St. Augustine composed his book on Heresies [cap. 87], he alludes to it as having lingered on as late as his time in a village near Hippo, of which he was bishop [A.D. 395-430]. The members of this sect adopted the eccentric practice of marrying wives without procreating children, in supposed imitation of Abel, who was stated to have had a wife, but not to have known her; and in lieu of the consummation of marriage, and at the same time to enable them to perpetuate their sect, the husband and wife adopted two children of different sexes, who in their turn were to abstain from all intercourse, and on the death of their foster-parents to resort to the same plan of adoption. It is said that young persons were easily procured for that purpose from the superfluous families of the poor population in the neighbourhood. The conduct of the Abelonites was a mistaken attempt to carry

out literally such texts as, "It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none [1 Cor. vii. 29]. But there does not seem any historical evidence for connecting them with the Gnostics generally, as Mosheim does, or with the Manichæans in particular, as does Herzog. [Aug. de Hares. cap. 87; Pradestinati liber, cap. 87. Walch, Hist. Ketzereien, i. 607.]

ABENONITÆ. [ABELONITES.]

ABLAVIUS. The historian Nicephorus mentions a heretic of this name as having been Novatian, bishop of Nicæa about A.D. 430. He had been a pupil of the sophist Troïlus, and be

came celebrated as one of the foremost orators of his day. He seems to have taught the Novatian heresy in its most extreme form, maintaining that Baptism is the only means by which remission of sins can be obtained; and that, consequently, penitence and mortification of the flesh are utterly useless. [Niceph. Hist. Eccl. xiv. 15. Socrat. Hist. Eccl. vii. 12.]

ABRAHAMITES. A branch of the PAULICIANS, so called from their founder Abraham, or Ibrahim, a native of Antioch, who lived in the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century. They do not appear to have held any distinctive tenets, but were simply Antiochean Paulicians: and the heresy was soon suppressed in that city by the vigorous opposition of the patriarch Cyriacus.

ABRAHAMITES. A Bohemian sect of no importance, existing at the end of the last century in the town of Pardubitz and its neighbourhood. They professed to follow the religion of Abraham before he was circumcised, rejected all distinctively Christian doctrine, and only acknowledged the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer as Holy Scriptures.

ABSTINENTES. A sect which arose in Gaul and Spain, at the close of the third century, during the reigns of Diocletian and Maximian, and in the pontificate of Marcellinus. Like the Eastern ENCRATITES, they held Gnostic views on the subject of marriage, which they denounced not as absolutely wrong, but as a thing to be avoided by those who sought sanctity. This was their deduction from such texts in Holy Scripture as "There be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of Heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let

him receive it" [Matt. xix. 12], and "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord" [Heb. xii. 14]; and their argument ran thus: Christ must have preached some new virtue, or have performed some praiseworthy action not commanded in the Old Testament. Did He come to teach the fear of God? This is contained in the Law. Was it to condemn envy, covetousness, and the like? This was done in the Old Testament. He could not, therefore, have any other view but to preach continence to the world, practising Himself that chastity without which everlasting life could not be attained [Epiphan. adv. Hores. lib. ii. tom. 2, p. 710]. They also condemned the use of meat, as having been created by the devil and not by God [Philaster, cap. 84]: to which later writers add that, while admitting the Godhead of the Father and the Son, they held the Holy Ghost to be merely a created Being. Led perhaps by the similarity of some of their views, Philaster connects the Abstinentes with the Gnostics and Manichæans, and Baronius [in Annal. ad ann. 288] identifies them with the HIERACITES.

ACACIANS. Three broad lines can be drawn among the various subdivisions into which Arianism branched about the middle of the fourth century. [1.] Semi-Arians, of whom Basil of Ancyra and George of Laodicea were the leaders. [2.] The Anomoans (ávoμoto), or Ultra-Arians, followers of Aëtius and his pupil Eunomius, Bishop of Cyzicum. [3.] Between these two extremes rose the Acacians, a third party, who would neither allow any approximation to the orthodox doctrine of the Homoousion, nor yet admit that the Second Person in the Trinity was a mere creature, on the level of all other created beings. They derived their name from Acacius, who succeeded Eusebius as Bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine [A.D. 338], a person possessed of many of the qualifications necessary for the leadership of a party. He was strong and active, a fluent speaker, and evinced his regard for learning by taking great pains to increase his predecessor's library [Tillemont, Mém. vol. xv. 458, edit. Brux. 1707]. At the same time he was extremely unscrupulous and fickle: at first a furious Arian under Constantius, who sheltered him from the decree of deposition passed by a majority of the Semi-Arian Council held at Sardica [A.D. 347], he became a Catholic under Jovian, and veered round to Arianism once more under Valens. He was prominently concerned in the banishment of Liberius and the substitution of the antipope Felix [A.D. 355-358], after whose expulsion a sentence of deposition was passed against him at Seleucia [A.D. 359], and repeated at the Council of Lampsacus [A.D. 365], which he only survived for about a twelvemonth.

The Acacians as a body partook of the chameleon character of their teacher, and the shifts were various by which they attempted to sustain their indeterminate position between the Semiand the Ultra-Arians. Their end would be obtained at one time by an intellectual subterfuge,

at another time by the abolition of the terms of technical theology.

or

In A.D. 363, on the ascent of the orthodox Jovian to the throne, they attended a synod held at Antioch under Meletius, and agreed to sign the Nicene Creed, with a mental reservation to the effect that the expression "consubstantial” "co-essential" meant no more than begotten of the Father's essence, and therefore like Him in essence. Four years previously, at Seleucia in Isauria [A.D. 359], they had attempted to banish the term ovoia altogether, with its compounds oμoovoriov and opotovorov, and asked to be allowed ὁμοούσιον ὁμοιούσιον, to adopt a formula of belief in God's only Son, without any further qualification as to His nature; rejecting "consubstantial" as not found in Holy Scripture, and the phrase ávóuоov т Пaтpi, ἀνόμοιον τῷ Πατρί, as equally defenceless. On being further pressed, they allowed the Son to be like the Father, but seemed to prefer the absence of closer definition. But if the Son was like the Father, in what, asked the orthodox party, did the resemblance consist? Was it merely a resemblance in respect of will or was it a resemblance of a still more unreal character, like that of a statue to the original, which involves no inherent element of identity? The answer of the Acacians to these questions must be discovered from the creed which was promulgated on that occasion, the precise terms of which have been preserved:

"We confess and believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth, and of things visible and invisible.

"We believe also in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of Him without any passion (draws), before all ages, the God Word, God of God, Only-begotten, Light, Life, Truth, Wisdom, Virtue, by Whom all things were made which are in Heaven and earth, whether visible or invisible. We believe Him to have assumed flesh of the Blessed Virgin at the end of the world to put away sin, and that He was made man, that He suffered also for our sins, rose again, and having ascended into Heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and shall come again with glory to judge the quick and dead.

"We believe also in one Holy Spirit, Whom our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ called the Paraclete, and promised that He would send the same on His Apostles after His departure, Whom He both truly sent, and by Him doth sanctify the faithful in the Church, who are baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. But whosoever preach anything beyond what is contained in this Creed the Catholic Church considers them as aliens." [Epiphan. Hæres. lxxiii.]

The following forty-three bishops subscribed to the above Creed :-Acacius, Bishop of Cæsarea, Basil of Ancyra, Mark of Arethusa, George of Alexandria, Pancratius, Hypatian, Uranius of Tyre, Eutychius of Eleutheropolis, Zoilus of Larissa in Syria, Seras of Parætonium in Libya, Paul of Emessa, Eustathius of Epiphania, Irenæus of Tripolis in Phoenicia, Eusebius of Seleucia in Syria, Eutychian of Patara

in Lycia, Eustathius of Pinara and Didyma, Basil of Caurica in Lydia, Peter of Hippus in Palestine, Stephen of Ptolemais in Libya, Eudoxius, Apollonius of Oxyrinchus, Theoctistus of Ostracine, Leontius of Lydia, Theodosius of Philadelphia, Phoebus of Polychalanda in Lydia, Magnus of Themisi in Phrygia, Evagrius of Mytilene, Cyrion of Doliche, Augustus of Euphratesia, Pollux of the second province of Libya, Pancratius of Pelusium, Philicadus of Augustada in Phrygia, Serapion of Antipyrgum in Libya, Eusebius of Sebaste in Palestine, Heliodorus of Sezusa in Pentapolis, Ptolemy of Thmuis Augustoniæ, Angarus of Cyrus Euphrasia, Exeresius of Gerasa, Arabion of Adrai, Charisius of Azotus, Elissæus of Diocletianopolis, Germanus of Petræ, and Barochius of Arabia. [Mosheim, Eccles. Hist. i. 306. Tillemont, Mémoires, tom. vi. 304, Paris edit. Nicephorus, Eccles. Hist. lib. ix. Epiphanius, Hares. lxxiii.]

ACCAOPHORI. A sect of heretics which used water instead of wine for the Holy Eucharist has this name given to it by Timotheus Presbyter, and he traces their origin to the followers of Tatian, or the Encratites. But he adds that they were also called Hydroparastatæ, and hence "Accaophori" is supposed to be merely a misreading. for SACCAOPHORI. [Timoth. Presb. in ed. Combefisian. Auct. nov. bibl. Patr. Græco-Latin. ii. 451. Coteler. Mon. eccl. Græc. i. 776. Ittig, De Heresiarch. II. xii. 13.]

ACEPHALI [¿—кepaλý]. I. The Mono[ἀκεφαλή]. physite Acephali. In the year A.D. 482, while the Monophysite and Monothelite controversies were raging, the Emperor Zeno issued his famous letter of attempted reconciliation entitled the HENOTICON. Peter Mongus, who had been the bitter opponent of, and had been excommunicated by Proterius, a former bishop of Alexandria [A.D. 457], was informed that he might be elevated to that see, then vacant by the expulsion of John Talaia, on the two conditions of admitting the Proterians to communion and subscribing the Henoticon. On Peter's assent to these conditions, most of the Catholics submitted to his jurisdiction; but the Ultra-Eutychians still clinging to their denial of the two natures in Christ, and still bitterly hostile to the Council of Chalcedon, withdrew themselves, and formed a sect which, either from having no one conspicuous leader, or from the absence of bishops to head the movement, was called the sect of the Acephali.

These Acephali broke up into the three sects of ANTHROPOMORPHITES, BARSANUPHISTS, and ESAIANISTS, but all remained separate from the body of the Monophysites for about three hundred years, though still retaining the distinctive name of the original sect. The Acephali were, however, gradually absorbed by the JACOBITES (as the Monophysites were called in later times), and ceased to exist as a separate sect at the beginning of the ninth century.

II. The Nestorian Acephali. The title of Acephali was also applied to those who would not adhere to John, Patriarch of Antioch, and Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, in the condemna

tion of Nestorius at the General Council of Ephesus [A.D. 431].

III. The followers of Severus the Monophysite, Bishop of Antioch, who added to the Trisagion the words "Who was crucified for us," and who was deprived of his see and retired to Alexandria [A.D. 518].

IV. All priests refusing allegiance to their diocesans, or suffragan bishops rebelling against their metropolitans.

[For further information about the Alexandrian Acephali, consult Pseudo-Jerome, de Hares. 43; Isidore, 67; Honorius, 82; Leontius, Lib. de Sectis, art. v.; Gibbon's Rom. Empire, vi. 32. There is also a lengthy refutation of their doctrines by Rusticus Diaconus, contra Acephalos præfatio, incerto interprete.]

ACEMITÆ [-кouάoμai]. The name of "the Sleepless," or "Watchers," was given to an Eastern monastic order founded by Alexander, himself a Syrian monk, under the auspices of Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople [A.D. 428-430]. Baronius puts the date rather later, and ascribes their foundation to a person named Marcellus in the middle of the fifth century [Bar. Ann. 459, ex actis Marcelli apud Surium], but the earlier date is more generally received. The Acœmitæ

did not, as their name would imply, literally abstain from all sleep, but divided themselves into three "watches," each carrying on their devotions for eight hours, so that an uninterrupted round of worship rose perpetually from their monastery. They became famous both for their special sanctity and, notwithstanding that a suspicion of heresy attached to their founder Alexander, for their rigid orthodoxy. In A.D. 484, when Acacius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was condemned by Felix in synod for holding communion with Peter Mongus, Bishop of Alexandria, the Acœmitæ sided with the Pope against their own bishop. This order afterwards obtained the name of Studites, from Studius, a rich Roman noble of consular dignity, who went to Constantinople during the episcopate of Gennadius, and erected a cloister especially for them [Niceph. Hist. Eccl. xv. 23]. In later days the Acœmitæ were believed to have inclined to Nestorianism.

ACTISTETES. A section of the JULIANISTS, who took their name from the Greek word by which a being is defined as uncreated [äKTITOS], in opposition to the CTISTOLATRE. The Actistetes maintained that after the Incarnation Christ ought not to be spoken of as a created Being, even in respect of His human nature; thereby contradicting the words of the Nicene Creed, "kai évav@pwoаvra," "et Homo factus est," "and ἐνανθρωπήσαντα, was made Man." This dogma was, in reality, a form of the elder heresy of the DOCETE, for since a Being wholly uncreated must be wholly God, hence the reality of our Lord's human nature was a doctrine as incompatible with the belief of one sect as it was with that of the other. [Dörner's Person of Christ, II. i. 131, Clark's transl.]

ACUANITES. The Manichees were so called in the time of Epiphanius, from their leader in