28 



ACTS ADALBERT. 



mill to have first encouraged their public appearance 

 in England; but there is evidence that tin- qtiet n of 

 .l;ii:ics I. performed in a court theatre. Actors were 

 long excluded from good society, and actresses still 

 longer, and perhaps the English were the first who 

 admitted the most distinguished into their first circles, 

 ln-uinces of exemplary conduct are not wanting 

 nmougst actresses in modern times. France, Eng- 

 land, Italy, and Germany, have had many of unblem- 

 i ( (I reputation. At Athens, actors were highly 

 honoured. At Rome, they were despised, and <lr- 

 ] ri\ ed of the right of suffrage. The reason of this 

 diiit r.'nce is, tliat, among the Greeks, the actors 

 were freeborn citizens, and the dramatic performances 

 had their origin in the sacred festivals ; but, among 

 the Romans, the drama was introduced by persons 

 of the lowest class, Etruscan players and peasants of 

 Atella. Actors and actresses continued for a long 

 time to l>e treated with little regard in France, after 

 they liad been admitted into good society in Eng- 

 land. Marriages of Englishmen of high rank with 

 -ses are not rare. In some parts of Germany, 

 actors were formerly buried like suicides, in a comer 

 of the burying-ground, separated from the other 

 graves. How much the ancients studied the dra- 

 matic art may be seen from one fact, that Polus, a 

 famous Greek actor, when he had to play Electra, 

 in the tragedy of Sophocles, made use of an urn 

 containing the ashes of. his own son, to represent the 

 funeral urn of Orestes. But here art ceased ; this 

 was again nature. 



ACTS of the Apostles ; one of the books of the N. 

 Testament, written in Greek by St Luke (q. v. ), the 

 author of the Gospel which bears his name. It is 

 addressed to Theophilus, of whom nothing is known, 

 :u nl is evidently intended as a continuation of the 

 Gospel, which the author himself calls his "first 

 book." (Actt\.\.) It lias been universally received, 

 and is generally allowed to have been written A. D. 

 63 or 64, but in what place is doubtful ; Jerome says 

 nt Rome ; Grotius and Lardner think, in Greece ; 

 Michaelis, in Alexandria. It embraces a period of 

 about 30 years, beginning immediately after the re- 

 surrection, and extending to the second year of the 

 imprisonment of St Paul in Rome. Very little infor- 

 mation is given of any of the apostles, excepting St 

 Peter and St Paul, and the accounts of them are 

 partial and incomplete. Thus the history of St Peter 

 terminates with the death of Herod, although tliat 

 apostle is considered to have lived and preached 24 

 years longer. It describes the gathering of the in- 

 fant church after the death of its founder ; the ful- 

 filment of the promise of Christ to his apostles, in the 

 descent of the Holy Ghost ; the choice of Matthias 

 in the place of Judas, the betrayer ; the testimony of 

 the apostles to the resurrection of Jesus in their dis- 

 courses, attested by miracles and sufferings ; their 

 preaching in Jerusalem and in Judea, and afterwards 

 to the Gentiles ; the conversion of Paul, his preach- 

 ing in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, his miracles 

 and labours. Its place is generally at the head of 

 the apostolicon, or before the epistles ; but in some 

 MSS. it is found after the 13 Catholic epistles. The 

 style of this work, which was originally composed in 

 Greek, is purer than that of the othercanonical writers; 

 and St Luke, in his quotations from the Old Testa- 

 ment, always makes use of the Septuagint version. 



ACUXA, Christopher de, a Spanish Jesuit, born at 

 Burgos, in 1597. He is principally known as the 

 author of a carious work, Nuevo Descubrimiento de 

 Gran Rio de los Amazones, (A new Description of the 

 Great river of the Amazons,) Madrid, 4 parts, 1641. 

 Only two copies are said to exist at present. In 

 1682, a translation of one of them into French was 

 published ia i vols. 1 2iuo. 



ACUPUNCTURE. Kanijifrr made known, more than 

 100 years ago, the Japanese and Chinese method of 

 curing arthritic and rheumatic complaints by acu- 

 puncture ; but it is only a few years since it has been 

 carefully examined and applied in England and 

 France. (See C/turc/n/l's Treatise on Acupuncture?) 

 In Japan and China, tin's mode of curing is applied 

 much more frequently than in Europe, and even to 

 the tenderest parts of the body. It consists in driv- 

 ing a fine needle one or two inches into the flesh mi 

 the afflicted part. The opinions of the cause of re- 

 lief by acupuncture are still \rry ditlcrcnt. Some 

 writers think a galvanic influence on the nerves takes 

 place. 



AD LIBITUM, used in music, for a piaceri; when the 

 principal performer is at liberty to give way to his 

 conceptions, to change the measure from quick to 

 slow, or the contrary, without accompaniment, audio 

 manifest his ability in the effusions of his fancy. The 

 term is often used in the full score, to denote those 

 parts which are not essential, and may be omit ltd. 



ADAGIO ( Ital.) expresses a slow time. Used sul>- 

 stantively, it expresses a slow movement. Sometinu s 

 the word is repeated to denote a still greater retarda- 

 tion in the time of the music. 



ADALBERT, or ALDEBERT ; a native of France, who 

 preached the gospel in 744, on the banks of the Maine. 

 He is remarkable as the first opponent to the intro- 

 duction of the rights and ordinances of the catholic 

 church into Germany. He dared to assert, tliat the 

 multiplication of saints and relics, and the practice 

 of confession, were superfluous. On this account, he, 

 was accused of heresy, by Boniface, the apostle ol 

 Germany, and condemned by two councils, at Sois- 

 sons in 744, and at Rome in 745. Having finally 

 made his escape from prison, he is said to have been 

 murdered by some peasants, on the banks of thu 

 Fulda. 



ADALBERT, archbishop of Bremen and Hamburg, 

 a descendent of a princely house of Saxony, n 

 ceived his office, in 1043, from the emperor Henry 

 III., whose relation, friend, and follower he v. as. I i 

 accompanied Henry to Rome, where he was a dis- 

 tinguished candidate for the papal chair. Pope Leo 

 IX., in whose behalf he had spoken at the synod of 

 Mentz, 1049, made him his legate in the north of 

 Europe, 1050. He superintended the churches of 

 Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, but aspired in vain 

 to the dignity of pope, or patriarch of the North, 

 During the minority of Henry IV., who afterwards 

 became emperor, he usurped, in concert with Hanno, 

 archbishop of Cologne, the guardianship of the young 

 prince, and the administration of the empire, and 

 gained an ascendency over his rival, by indulging the. 

 passions of his pupil. After Henry had become of 

 age to rule, A. exercised the government without 

 control, in his name. A.'s pride and arbitrary admi- 

 nistration induced the German princes, in 1066, to 

 remove him by force from the court; but after a 

 short contest with the Saxon nobles, who laid waste 

 his territory, he recovered his former power, which 

 he held till his death at Goslar, March, 17, 1072. He 

 excelled his contemporaries in princely qualities, in 

 talent, and in strength of mind ; and if he had pos- 

 sessed magnanimity, and a wise spirit of moderation, 

 he would have deserved the name of the great, which 

 has been given him. The injustice and tyranny which 

 stained his administration were mainly instrumental 

 in producing the confusion and calamities in which 

 the reign of Henry IV. was involved. 



ADALBERT of Prague, the apostle of Prussia pro- 

 per, son of a Bohemian nobleman, was educated ia 

 the cathedral of Magdeburg, between the years 973 

 and 982, and appointed bishop of Prague hi 983 

 He laboured in vain to convert the Bohemians from 



