AGNES AGRARIAN LAWS. 



feast of the saint is celebrated with much observance. 

 Many cattle, horses, c. are brought there and 

 blessed by the priest. This ceremony is thought to 

 protect them against sickness during the following 

 year. 



AGNES, St; one of the Cassiterides, or Scilly 

 isles, (q. v.) This island is commonly called Light- 

 house island, because it has a light-house. W. Ion. 

 6" 2CX ; N. lat. 49" 53'. 



AGNES SOREL, the mistress of Charles VII., king 

 of France, was born 1409, of a noble family, and was 

 one of the most beautiful and accomplished women 

 of her time. As lady of honour to Isabella of Lor- 

 raine, duchess of Anjou, she accompanied that prin- 

 cess, in 1431, to the French court. Her beauty at- 

 tracted the favour of the young king, and he 

 appointed her one of the queen's ladies of honour. 

 After some resistance, A. yielded to the passion of 

 the monarch. The English then had possession of 

 half of France ; and Charles VII., though naturally 

 bold, became depressed and inactive under the weight 

 of his misfortunes. A. alone was able to rouse him 

 from his apathy, and make him feel what he owed to 

 himself and his people. The eventual success of 

 his arms increased his passion for his mistress, who 

 did not, however, abuse her power over him. 

 She retired, in 1445, to Loches, where Charles had 

 built her a castle. He afterwards conferred on her 

 the county of Penthievre, in Bretagne, the seigni- 

 ories of Roche- Serviere and Issodune, in Berri, and 

 the cliateau de Beaute, on the banks of the Marne ; 

 whence she received the name of dame de beaute. 

 She had lived here about five years, frequently visit- 

 ed by the king, when the queen invited her again to 

 court, in 1449. A. consented, and to be nearer the 

 king, proceeded to the castle of Masnal-la-Belle, 

 where she died, in 1450, so suddenly as to afford 

 ground for the suspicion of poison. She was buried 

 in the collegiate church of Loches where her monu- 

 ment was to be seen hi 1792. She left the king 

 three daughters, who were acknowledged by him, 

 and portioned at the expense of the crown. 



AGNESI, Maria Gaetana, a learned Italian lady, 

 was born at Milan, in 1718. In her ninth year, she 

 spoke Latin with correctness, and also delivered an 

 oration in this language, in which she maintained 

 that the study of the ancient languages was proper 

 for females. This oration was printed at Milan, in 

 1727. In her eleventh year, she is said to have 

 spoken Greek as fluently as her mother tongue. 

 She now proceeded to perfect herself in the oriental 

 languages, so that she was usually called a living 

 polyglot. She next studied geometry and specula- 

 tive philosophy. Her father fostered her love of 

 learning by assembling at his house, at certain times, 

 learned societies, in which Maria proposed and de- 

 fended philosophical theses. The president de Bras- 

 ses asserts, in his Letters on Italy, that nothing can 

 be imagined more delightful than these conversa- 

 tions with one of the prettiest and most learned 

 females of the time. In her twentieth year, she ap- 

 pears to have become tired of these erudite disputa- 

 tions, the substance of which was afterward pub- 

 lished by her father. They fill a quarto volume. 

 Mathematics now attracted her attention, and she 

 composed a treatise on conic sections ; besides 

 which, in her thirtieth year, she published a trea- 

 tise on the rudiments of analysis, which has been 

 considered as the best intnxluction to Ruler's works, 

 and was translated into English, in 1801, by the 

 reverend John Colson, professor of mathematics at 

 Cambridge. It gained her so much reputation, that 

 she was appointed, in her thirty-second year pro- 

 fessor of mathematics at the university of Bologna. 

 Hei deep study of this science seems to have cast a 



gloom over her spirits. She secluded herself alto- 

 gether from society, retired to the strict order of 

 blue nuns, and died in her eighty-first year, 1799. 

 Her sister, Maria Theresa, set to music several can- 

 tatas, and the three operas, Sop/wnisba, Ciro in Ar- 

 menia, and Nitocri, with applause. 



AGNOMEN, in ancient Rome ; a name or epithet 

 given to a person by way of praise or dispraise, or 

 from some remarkable event in his history. Such 

 names remained peculiar to the person, and not de- 

 scendible to his issue. Thus one of the Scipios ob- 

 tained the A. of Africanus, and the other of Asiati- 

 cvs, from then* achievements in Asia and Africa. 

 The Romans often had three names besides the A. ; 

 the prcenomen, corresponding to our Christian name, 

 distinguishing the individual from others of the same 

 family ; the second, or nomen, marked his clan ; and 

 the third, or cognomen, expressed his family; to 

 these the A., e. g. Atticus, Cunciator, Germanicus, 

 &c. was added. 



AGNUS DEI (Latin; the Lamb of God). 1. A 

 prayer of the Romish liturgy, beginning with the 

 words Agnus Dei, generally sung before the com- 

 munion, and according to the regulation of pope 

 Sergius I., in 688, at the close of the mass. 2. A 

 round piece of wax, on which is impressed the figure 

 of the sacred Lamb, with the banner of the cross, or 

 of St John, with the year and name of the pope. 

 The pope consecrates and distributes a great num- 

 ber of them. It was originally customary, in the 

 churches of Rome, to distribute the remains of the 

 Paschal taper, consecrated on Easter eve, in small 

 pieces, among the people, who burned them at home, 

 as an antidote against all kinds of misfortune. But 

 when the number of candidates became too large to 

 be all satisfied, the above expedient was adopted. 

 A. D. is also the name of that portion of the mass, 

 which is introduced, in Roman catholic churches, at 

 the distribution of the host. 



AGOWS, in geography ; the inhabitants of a pro- 

 vince of Abyssinia. They are, in their manners, 

 ferocious, and in their religion, superstitious. They 

 are heathens, and adore the spirit residing in the 

 Nile. (See Abyssinia.) Unices Travels, vol. i. 401 . 

 vol. iii. 527. 



AGRA ; a province of Hindostan Proper, situated 

 between 25 and 28 N. lat. ; the capital of which, 

 of the same name, is in the possession of the British. 

 Several rajahs, allies of the British, possess the 

 western and north-western district. The part of 

 the province south of the Chumbul is under the do- 

 minion of the Mahrattas. No part of Hindostan 

 affords a richer soil ; grain of all kinds, sugar, indigo, 

 and cotton, are yielded with little labour in all the 

 British districts. Formerly the province was also 

 famous for its silks. It furnishes superior horses. It 

 contains six millions of inhabitants. A., the city, N. 

 lat. 27 12', and E. Ion. 77 56', is connected with 

 the whole of the modern history of India. The Ma- 

 hommedans call it Akbarabactr'lt is ornamented with 

 splendid edifices, of which the Taje Mahal, or Crown 

 of Edifices, an unrivalled tomb to the memory of the 

 empress of Shah Jehau, who died 1632, is the most 

 famous. This is wholly built of the finest white 

 marble. General lord Lake took A. in 1803, from 

 the Mahrattas. A. is 137 miles from Delhi, and 

 830 from Calcutta. 



AGRARIAN LAWS ; laws enacted in ancient Rome 

 for the division of public lands. In the valuable 

 work on Roman history by Mr Niebuhr, it is sa- 

 tisfactorily shown, that these laws, which have so 

 long been considered in the light of unjust attacks 

 on private property, had for their object only the dis- 

 tribution of lands which were the property of the 

 state, and that the troubles to which they gave rise 



