686 



THE STANDARD DICTIONARY OF FACTS 



Judas Iscariot. Of this number, Simon Peter, 

 John, James the greater, and Andrew were 

 fishermen; and Matthew, a publican or tax- 

 gatherer. When the apostles were reduced to 

 eleven, by the suicide of Judas, who had be- 

 trayed Christ, they chose Matthias by lot, on 

 the proposition of St. Peter. Soon after, their 

 number became thirteen, by the miraculous 

 vocation of Saul, who under the name of Paul 

 became one of the most zealous propagators of 

 the Christian faith. 



Arabian Numerals. The numeral char- 

 acters now used in our arithmetic. They 

 were introduced into Europe (Spain) about the 

 close of the Tenth Century, by the Moors or 

 Arabs; but they were known to the Hindus so 

 early as the Sixth Century, and they might more 

 properly therefore be called Hindu numerals. 

 They were brought to England in the Fourteenth 

 or Fifteenth Century, but their use was not gen- 

 eral till the introduction of the art of printing. 

 Up to the Sixteenth Cen.tury, accounts continued 

 to be kept in the old Roman numerals. 



Ariaii. A follower of Arius, Presbyter of 

 Alexandria in the Fourth Century A. D., or one 

 holding the system of doctrine associated with 

 his name. In the year 317, Alexander, Bishop 

 of Alexandria, having publicly expressed his 

 opinion that the Son of God is not only of the I 

 same dignity as the Father, but of the same 

 essence (in Greek, ousia). Arius, one of the 

 Presbyters, considered this view as leaning too i 

 much to Sabellianism, and, rushing to the other j 

 extreme, he declared that the Son of God was 

 only the first and noblest of created beings, and 

 though the universe had been brought into ex- 

 istence through His instrumentality by the 

 Eternal Father, yet to that Eternal Father He 

 was inferior, not merely in dignity, but in es- 

 sence. . The views of Arius commended them- 

 selves to multitudes, while they were abhorrent 

 to still more; fierce controversy respecting 

 them broke out, and the whole Christian world 

 was soon compelled to take sides. The Arians 

 greatly weakened themselves by splitting into 

 sects, and the doctrines regarding the relation 

 of the three Divine Personages authoritatively 

 proclaimed at Nice were at last all but univer- j 

 sally adopted. They may be found detailed in 

 what are popularly termed the Nicene and the 

 Athanasian Creeds. They were held almost 

 without a dissentient voice through the Middle 

 Ages, and were cordially accepted by the leading 

 reformers. 



Arteries. The blood-vessels by which the 

 blood is carried out from the heart, and dis- 

 tributed to the general system and to the lungs. 

 The arteries which proceed to the general system 

 all commence in one large vessel, the aorta, 

 which divides and subdivides into a large num- 

 ber of branches, which become, like those of a 

 tree, more and more minute as they are farther 

 removed from the trunk, until they ultimately 

 terminate in what are called the capillaries. 

 These arteries all contain pure, oxidized, scarlet 

 blood, which is hence known as arterial blood. 

 The arteries which proceed to the lungs, on the 

 other hand, the pulmonary arteries, as they 

 are called, are two vessels which have their 

 origin in the right ventricle of the heart, and 



carry the blood to the right and left lung re- 

 spectively. They contain unpurified, dark- 

 colored blood, the same as that which is con- 

 tained in the veins, and hence known as rt-mms 

 blood. The principal arteries are the two carotid 

 arteries, which supply the head; the two sub- 

 fltirinn arteries, which proceed to the arms or 

 front limbs; the two iliac arteries, to the legs or 

 hind limbs; the coeliac axis, which supplies the 

 liver, spleen, stomach, and intestines; and the 

 renal arteries, which supply the kidneys. The 

 arteries and the veins may readily Be distin- 

 guished from each other in the dead body, the 

 former being round or cylindrical, and having 

 their walls comparatively stiff and thick, while 

 the walls of the latter are collapsed and flaccid. 

 It is owing to this fact that an artery when cut 

 continues to bleed until death ensues, and the 

 only way to arrest the bleeding is to tic the 

 severed end nearest the heart ; the flow of blood, 

 too, from a cut artery is of a jet-like nature, 

 owing to the force with which the blood is pro- 

 pelled from the heart, while from a cut vein the 

 blood merely trickles out. The inner lining of 

 the arteries is perfectly smooth, and there are 

 no valves as in the veins. The arteries derived 

 their name from the fact of their having been 

 supposed by the ancients to contain air, being 

 generally found empty after death. 



Articles, The Thirty -nine, of the 

 Church of England, a statement of the particular 

 points of doctrine, thirty-nine in number, main- 

 tained by the English Church ; first promulgated 

 by a convocation held in London in 1562-1563, 

 and confirmed by royal authority; founded on 

 and superseding an older code issued in the 

 reign of Edward VI. The five first articles con- 

 tain a profession of faith in the Trinity; the 

 incarnation of Jesus Christ, His descent to Hell 

 and His resurrection; the divinity of the Holy 

 Ghost. The three following relate to the canon 

 of the Scripture. The eighth article declares a 

 belief in the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian 

 creeds. The ninth and following articles con- 

 tain the doctrine of original sin, of justification 

 by faith alone, of predestination, etc. The nine- 

 teenth, twentieth, and twenty-first declare the 

 Church to be the assembly of the faithful; that 

 it can decide nothing except by the Scriptures. 

 The twenty-second rejects the doctrine of pur- 

 gatory, indulgences, the adoration of images, 

 and the invocation of saints. The twenty-third 

 decides that only those lawfully called shall 

 preach or administer the sacraments. The 

 twenty-fourth requires the liturgy to be in Eng- 

 lish. The twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth declare 

 the sacraments effectual signs of grace (though 

 administered by evil men), by which God ex- 

 cites and confirms our faith. They are two: 

 baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism, ac- 

 cording to the twenty-seventh article, is a sign 

 of regeneration, the seal of our adoption, by 

 which faith is confirmed and grace increased. 

 In the Lord's Supper, according to article 

 twenty-eighth, the bread is the communion of 

 the body of Christ, the wine the communion of 

 His blood, but only through faith (article 29); 

 and the communion must be administered in 

 both kinds (article 30). The twenty-eighth 

 article condemns the doctrine of transubstantia- 



