A-.TVLAR. 



viTu-n: 



i-- 



ll mav b cll to mention the ' History of Axtronomy,' ami tho ' !.!.- 



".I Knowledge; nl thr 



.d l'l,il.~.] Jiy.' in Unino-V Cabinet CyoJopaxlia. 

 ASTV'LAK, OM of the numerous compound architectural term* 

 from the Greek f.W<- (rrftut). column ; which, having the Greek 

 privative prefixed to it, signifies without column*. It u a tenn of 

 recent introduction, bat very convenient and expressive, inasmuch u 

 '.aim at one* tht the building described by it u without any 

 order of column* or pilasters, however ornate it may be in all other 

 respect*. Tbu>, we epeak of Antylar Italian in contradistinction from 

 the '^'TT'""- claa* of buildings in that style, or *uch u are decorated 

 with the order*. AstyUr composition u not only susceptible of a very 

 degree of embellishment, but of a species of grandeur not attain- 

 (that ii, on the aame scale) in the Palladian (trie, or that where 

 order is railed upon a baeament, or even more than a aingle order 

 b employed for a facade, beoauae in the former the cornice u pro- 

 portioned to the entire elevation ; aometime* of greatly increased 

 proportions, and then distinguished by the name of conwnoiw. In 

 thu country we had no example! of mich ratylnr clam of design, until 

 it wae introduced by Mr. Barry, in the Travellers' and Reform Club- 



AS Y'Lt'M. the Latin and Engliah form of the Greek "AmAor, which 

 la generally auppoaed to be made up of a pritalirt and the root of the 

 verb eiAaV, ' to plunder,' and therefore to signify, properly a place free 

 from robbery or violence. Some, however, have derived the Greek 

 word from the Hebrew Vu#H< ' * grove ; ' the earlieet asylums, it is 

 aid, having been usually groves sacred to certain divinities. It is a 

 pretty, rather than perhaps a very convincing illustration of this ety- 

 mology, which is afforded by Virgil's expression as to the asylum 

 opened by Romulus, 



" nine lurnm inirrntein, qucm Romulua acer tirlum 

 Bttulit." -Ex. VIII. T. S4I. 



The tradition was, that Romulus made an asylum of the Palatine Hill 

 preparatory to the building of Rome. Plutarch tells us that he dedi- 

 cated the place to the god Asykcus. (Pint. ' Ilomul.' 9.) 



Probably all that is meant by these stories is, that in those ages 

 whoever joined a new community received shelter and protection ; and 

 even if he had committed any crime, was neither punished by those 

 whose ammristr he had become, nor surrendered to the vengeance of the 

 laws or customs he had violated. Such an asylum was not an appointed 

 place of refuge established by general consent ; it was merely a con- 

 gregation of outlaws bidding defiance to the institutions of the country 

 in which they had settled, and proclaiming their willingness to receive 

 all who ohoee to come to them. 



But both in the Grecian states, and in Rome, the temples, or at least 

 some of them, were endowed with the privilege of affording protection 

 to all who fled to them, even although they had committed the worst 

 Crimea. The practice seems to have been, that they could not be 

 dragged from these sanctuaries ; but that, nevertheless, they might bo 

 forced to come out, not only by being prevented from receiving food 

 while they remained, but even by such compulsory measures as the 

 application of fire to the building. (See' Thucyd.' i. 126,134; ' Herodot.' 

 vi. 80.) Anything appears to have been permitted except the actual 

 dragging forth of the criminal. Eventually, these places of refuge 

 became great nuisances, being, especially among the Greek cities, 

 established in such numbers as sometimes almost to put an end to 

 the administration of justice. After Greece had become a part of the 

 Roman empire, an attempt was made to repress this evil by an order 

 of the senate, directed to all the pretended asylums, to produce legal 

 proofs of the privilege which they claimed. (Tacit. ' Anna!.' iii. 60, ftc.) 

 Many were put down in consequence of not being able to satisfy tlii.- 

 dem.ind. At last, all the asylums throughout the empire were al>- 

 lished by an edict of the Emperor Tiberius. (Sueton. in ' VitA Tiberii.' 

 can.37.) 



The term "Ao-vXM was given as an epithet to certain divinities ; as, 

 tar example, to the Epheaia* Diana. It is aim found on medals as an 

 epithet of certain cities; in which application it probably denoU-d that 

 the city or district was under the protection of L.tli of two others :- 

 belligerent powers, and enjoyed accordingly the pm il.-g.-n of neutral 

 ground. 



After the decline and fall of PaganUm, tin- privilege of nerving as 

 asylums for malefactors was obtained by the Christian temple*. Tin- 

 credit of conferring this honour upon church.-* in general is attributed 

 t 1'..).,- Boniface V.. in the beginning of the 7th century ; but iii-uv 

 than two hundred years before, certain sacred buildings of tho new 

 religion are said to hare been declared asylums by th<- Kmpvror 

 Hoooriiis. The asylums thus established eventually grew throughout 

 all i hrutendora to lie a still more intolerable abuse than those of the 

 ancient world had been. In most countries, not only churches and 

 conrcnu. with their precincts, but even the houses of the bishop*, 

 came t<> U- at length endowed with the privilege of sanctuary. In all 

 than places the most atrocious malefactors might !>< found )>id.ling 

 defiance to the civil |xiwer. At the mine time, ihi-r<> can Kc no doubt, 

 that while in this way criminals were frequently rescued from justice, 

 w also sometimes afforded to the innocent, who would n-.t 

 otherwise have been enabled to escape the oppression nr private enmity 

 win. Ii pursued them under the |-rvi-rtl forms of law. The institu- 



tion was one of the many which tli.-n existod. lining the effect of 

 throwing the regulating power of society into the hand* of the clergy, 

 who certainly were, upon the whole, th class in whose hands 

 discretion was by far least likely to be abused. When communities, 

 however, assumed a more settled state, and the law became strong 

 with the progress of civilisation, the rights which had at one time 

 armed the church as a useful champion against tyranny, became not 

 only unnecessary but mischievous. The church maintsJrMMi a long 

 and hard struggle in defence of its old supremacy ; and in the face of 

 the stand thus made, and in opposition to ancient habits, and the 

 popular superstition by which they were guarded, it was only very 

 cautiously that attempts could be made to mitigate the evil, i 

 long time the legal extent of the privilege of sanctuary appears to have 

 been matter of violent dispute between the church and the civil power. 

 In this country, it was not till the year 1487, in the reign of Henry VII., 

 that by a bull of Pope Innocent VIII. it was declared, that if thieves, 

 robbers, and murderers, having taken refuge in sanctuaries, should 

 sally out and commit fresh offences, and then return to their place of 

 shelter, they might be taken out by the king's officers. It was only 

 by on Act of Parliament passed in 1534, after the Reformation, that 

 persons accused of treason were debarred of the privilege of sanctuary. 

 After the complete establishment of the Reformation, however, in the 

 reign of Elizabeth, neither the churches nor sanctuaries of am 

 description were allowed to become places of refuge for either mur- 

 derers or other criminals. But various buildings and precincts in and 

 near London, continued for a long time after this to afford shelter to 

 debtors. At length, in 1697, all such sanctuaries, or pretended sanctu- 

 aries, were finally suppressed by the Act 8 ft 9 Will. III. chap. _'!. 



In Scotland, the precincts of the palace of Holyrood in Edinburgh 

 .-till remain a sanctuary for debtors. Tbe boundaries of this privileged 

 place are somewhat extensive, comprehending the whole of -, 

 called " the King's Park," in which IB the remarkable hill called 

 " Arthur's Seat." The debtors find lodgings in a short stn-- 1 

 privileged part of which is divided from the remainder by a kennel 

 running across it. Holyrood retains its privilege of sanctuary as being 

 a royal palace ; but it U singular as being now the only palace in this 

 country any port of the precincts of which in the property, or at least 

 in the occupation, of private individuals, and therefore open to the 

 public generally. 



In England, a legal asylum, or privileged place, is called a sanctuary ; 

 and this use of the word sanctuary appears to be peculiar 

 English language. Both in this country and in America, the u 

 asylum is commonly given to benevolent institutions intended t<> 

 shelter neither to criminals nor to debtors, but to some particular 

 description of the merely unfortunate or destitute. 



The Jewish Cities of Refuge, established by Moses and Jo.shr. 

 be quoted OB the most remarkable instance on record of 

 asylum founded and protected by the state itself for the shelter of 

 persons who had violated the law. These cities, as we are informed in 

 the twentieth chapter of the Book of Joshua, were six in number, three 

 on each side of the Jordan. They only, however, protected the 

 person who had killed another unawares. This institution may IK* 

 regarded as on ingenious device for protecting, on the one hand, tho 

 guiltless author of the homicide from tho popular resentment, \vlmli 

 his unfortunate act would have been likely to draw upon him : ami 

 cherishing, on the other, in the public mind, that natural li< 

 the shedding of human blood, which, in such a state of society, it 

 would have been so dangerous to suffer to be weaker > e the 



same principle, in the deodand formerly awarded by our law in the case 

 of the accidental destruction of life by any inanimate obj> 



One of the most curious instances of the privilege of sane tuary. is 

 that long enjoyed in Scotland by the descendants of the celebrated 

 Mocduff, Thane of Fife, the dethroner of the usurper Macbeth. It is 

 said to have been granted at the request of the thane by Malcolm III. 

 (Canrnore), on his recovery of the crown of his ancestors soon after the 

 middle of the llth century. By this grant it was declared that any 

 person, being related to the chief of the clan Macduff within the 

 ninth degree, who should have committed homicide without pre- 

 meditation, should have his punishment, remitted for a fine, on (lying 

 to Macdutfs Cross, which stood near Lindores, in l-'ilr-liiiv. All 

 this, however, is the account of the old Scottish I - pro- 



bable that the privilege only conferred upon the offender a right of 

 being exempted from all other courts of jurisdiction, except that of the 

 Earl of Fife. Sir Walter Scott (' Minstrelsy of tin- Scottish IW.l.-r. 1 ) 

 has printed a Latin document of A.D. 1291, in which the privilege 

 to this latter extent is pleaded. The original deed still exists. Of 

 Maoduffs Cross, only the pedestal now remain*, the cross itself having 

 been destroyed at the Reformation. It Iwre a metrical in>. -ilpiion. in 

 a strange half Latin jargon, the varying copies of which, still pr. 

 hare given much occupation to the antiquaries. 



(SibK-ild'M J/i.ifnry nj F(ft , second ed., 8vo, Cuir Kite, 1802; Cun- 

 ninghamc's Evtay upon Maedufi Cruu ; Cauulen's liritini,iin, l.y 



A'SVMI'ToTE (lur^wruTot), a com|Hnmd Cinvk word signifying 

 ir/nWi ,!,** irf fall iritl, : if tikcn literally with ics|.-ct to two lines, it 

 would mean that they do not meet one another, lint it is used only 

 in speaking of two lines (one of which at least must \\hicli 



continually approach each other, but never meet; so that the dis- 



