ARANDA
678
ARATOR
from the undyed wool of their own sheep. They
could grow no fruit in these storm-swept islands;
they drank neither viinc nor mead, and they had no
flesh meat, except perhaps a little for the sick.
Sometimes, on the Iiigh festivals, or when guests
of distinction came on pilgrimage to the island,
one of their tiny sheep was killed, and the bietliren
were allowed to share — if they chose — in the good
tilings provided for the visitors. Enda liimself
never tasted flesh meat, and we have reason to
beheve that many of the monks followed their
abbot's example in this as in other respects. Aran
was not a school of secular, but of sacred learning.
The study of the Scriptures was the great business
of its schools and scholars. They set small store
indeed on points of minute criticism, their first
object being to make themselves familiar with the
language of the sacred volume, to meditate on its
meaning, and apply it in the guidance of their daily
lives.
CoLGAN, Acta Sanctorum, Vita St. Endei; Bede, Historia Ecclea., Ill: Healy. Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars (2d ed.). 102; O'Flahebty, lar Connaught, 162; Four Masters, Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland; Skene, Celtic Scotland, II.
JoHX Healy.
Aranda, Council of, held at Aranda in the prov- ince of Burgos in Spain, in 1473, by Alfonso Carillo, Arclibisliop of Toledo, to overcome the ignorance and evil lives of ecclesiastics. Among the twenty- nine canons of the council is one which says that orders shall not be conferred on those who are ignorant of Latin. Several canons deal with clerical concubinage, simony, clandestine marriages, etc.
Harduin, Coll. Cone. (Paris, 1700-16), IX, 1501.
Aranda, Pedro Pablo. See Jesuits; Spain.
Aranda, Philip, Jesuit theologian, b. at Moneva, Aragon, 3 February, 1642; d. at Saragossa, 3 June, 169.5. He is described by Father Michel de St. Joseph, in his "Bibliographia Critica", as "a most acute theologian, eloquent in speech, and a most practical and expert atlilete in the scholastic arena". He entered the Society of Jesus in 1658. He taught philosophy and theology at Saragossa. He published a treatise in 1693, "Ue Deo sciente, pr:edestinante et auxiliante", which examines ably the entire sub- ject of the scientia media, and solidly and subtly expounds and illustrates the questions of predestina- tion and grace. He explains the mind of St. Augus- tine, and "without difficulty", it was said, "gave the meaning of his difficult expressions, maintaining that they had no reference whatever to predestination"; a word which he contends was never, even equiva- lently, used by the great Doctor. He adds an ap- pendi.x on why the procession of the Second Person is called generation. He wrote on the Incarnation and Redemption; on the natural and supernatural operation of man; on human acts; on good and evil; and the supernatural. He wrote also a "Life of the Servant of God, Isabel Polaar". He was connected with the Inquisition of Aragon and was synodal examiner of the Archdiocese of Saragossa. He was fiercely attacked in a satirical work by Martin Serra, a Dominican, who declaimed against " the indifferent, headless, inofficacious writings of certain theologians, especially the olla podrida of Father Pliilip Aranda", an assault which almost evoked an interdict against the church of the friar.
SoMMERvoGEi., Bibliothiquc de la c. de J., I, 505-510; VIII, 1683-89.
T. J. Campbell.
Ararat. See .\nK.
Arason Jrfn, the last Catholic bishop of Iceland before the inlrodiiclion of Protestantism, b. 14S4; d. 7 November, 1. ').">(). He wjus consecrated Hishop of llolar by his archbishop in the Metropolitan See
of Nidaros (Trondhjem), in Norway, 1524. He was
a typical Icelander and a man of extraordinary
talents, though poorly versed in Latin, and openly
neglectful of the law of celibacy. He was thoroughly
devoted to the cause of the Church, but was more
of a war-chief than a bishop. Christian III. King of
Denmark, having ordered a change of religion in
Iceland, in 1538, he encountered there the opposition
of Ogmundur Pdlsspn, Bisliop of Skdlholt, as well
as that of Arason. Ogmundur Palsson, who was old
and blind, was made prisoner by Kristoffer Huitfeldt,
a royal leader, and taken to Denmark, wlicre he
died in 1542. His successors were Lutheran bisliops.
The leadership of the Catholics consequently de-
volved on the Bishop of Holar, Arason Jon. He
maintained the defensive until 1548, when the
episcopal see of Skalholt w-as made vacant by the
death of the apostate Gissur Einarsson. Then he
assumed the oiiensive. in order to rule the Diocese
of Skdlholt in a Catholic spirit, and to have a Catholic
appointed bishop there. Marteinn Einarsson had
returned from Denmark, confirmed as bishop by the
king, to oppose him; but .Xrason Jon took him
prisoner. Although suspended and declared an
outlaw by tiie king, Arason Jon felt himself en-
couraged by a letter from Pope Paul III to continue
his efforts to extirpate heresy. His energj' and his
zeal knew no bounds. In an attempt to capture his
greatest adversary, Dadi Gudniundsson, he was liim-
self taken prisoner and handed over to the king's
baihff. Christian Skriver. The Lutheran bishop,
JIarteinn Einarsson, was at once set free, and with-
out awaiting any formal judgment the decapitation
of Arason and two of his sons, Are and Bjorn, who
had been stanch allies of their father, was agreed upon.
Some fishermen avenged the death of their bishop by killing Christian Skriver and his adherents in the following year. The body of Ara.son was then trans- ferred, in triumph, from Skdlholt to H61ar. The people, as a sign of their veneration for him, elected his son Jon as his successor. But the election lacked confirmation. Protestantism, now that Catholicism had no leader, met with no open opposition. The people, however, continued to cherish the faith of their fathers for a long time and looked on Arason as a national hero and a martyr. Five Lutheran bishops of Skail, and three of Holar, were descen- dants of his, and in later times, among the converts at a Catholic mission given in Iceland was a W'oman descended from the hero bishop.
Biskupa Sogur (Kjobenhavn, 1S5S): Islandstce Annaler indtil 1S7S (Kristiania, I88S); Diplomatorium Islandicum (Kjbhvn, 1857-97); Den Kalholske AirA-e t Danmark; Skan- dinavisk Kirketidendes (Kjbhvn, 1859); C. A. Munch, Dct Norske Folks Historic (Krnia, 1859-63); Keyser. Den norske Kirkes Historic under Katholici^men (Krnia, 1856); Nissen, De Nordisk Kirkers Historic (lirnia, 1884).
E. A. Wang.
Arator, a Christian poet of the sixth century, probably of Ligurian origin. He studied at Milan under the patronage of the Bishop Laurentius and of luinodius; then went to Ravenna by the advice of Partlienius, nephew of Emiodius. He took up the career of a lawyer. Treated with distinction by Theodoric on account of his oration in behalf of the Dalmatians, and protected by Cassiodorus, he en- tered the service of the Gothic court, but resigned at the time of the struggle with Byzantium (about 536). Pope Vigilius made him Subdeacon of the Roman Church. It was tlien that he wTote in hexameters two books "De Actibus Apostolonmi ". He follows the stnr\' of the Acts; the first book, dedicated to St. Peter, concludes with Chapter XII; the .second, dcdic;itcd to St. Paul, with the martjTdom of the two .\postles. Many important events are omittcil, others only alluded to. .\rator himself declared that his aim was to give the mvstical and moral meaning of the book. .Vccorilingly, he often gives
