Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/82

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

60


ATTICUS


and for her degradation. When the charges con- tained in the preamble came on to be heard, Brougham and Denman, by their bold and brilliant defence of the Queen, so aroused popular sympathy in her favour, by holding her up as a deserted and perse- cuted woman, that the ministrj- deemed it ^ise to drop the bill after the majority in its favour in the Lords had dwindled to nine. Reference is made to this case as an illustration of the nature of the pro- cedure upon such biUs. "The proceedings of parlia- ment in passing bills of attainder, and of pains and penalties, do not vary from those adopted in regard to other bills. They may be introduced in either house, but ordinarily conunence in the House of Lords: they pass through the same stages; and when agreed to by both houses they receive the royal assent in the usual form. But the parties who are subjected to these proceedings are admitted to defend themselves by counsel and witnesses, before both houses; and the solemnity of the proceedings would cause measures to be taken to enforce the attendance of members upon their ser\-ice in parliament" (ilay, Pari. Practice, 744). It thus appears that, in its modern form, procedure by attainder admits the right of proof and argmnent. Entirely apart from the judicature of Parliament, attainder is defined by the conmion law of England to be the stain or cor- ruption of blood which follows as an immediate^and inseparable consequence of a death sentence. Such attainder took place after judgment of death, or upon such circumstances as were equivalent to such a judgment, such as a judgment of outlawrj' on a capital crime, pronounced for absconding from jus- tice. Conviction without judgment was not followed by attainder. The consequences of attainder were; first, forfeiture; second, corruption of blood. The extent of the forfeiture depended upon the nature of the crime for which the criminal was convicted; and by corruption of blood, "both upwards and down- w'ards," the attainted person could neither inherit nor transmit lands. After it was clear beyond dispute that the criminal was no longer fit to live, he was called attaint, stained, or blackened, and before 6 and 7 Viet., c. 85, §. 1, could not be called as a witness in any court. The doctrine of attainder has, however, ceased to be of much practical importance since 33 and 34 Vict., c. 23, wherein it was provided that henceforth no confession, verdict, inquest, con- viction, or judgment of or for any treason or felony, or felo-de-se shall cause any attainder or corruption of blood or any forfeiture or escheat.

H.iXXIS T.\.TLOR.

Attala, S-UXT, b. in the sixth century in Bur- gundy; d. 627. He first became a monk at L^rins, but, displeased with the loose discipline prevailing there, he entered the monasterj- of Luxeuil which had just been founded by St. Columljaii. When Columban was expelled from LuxeuU by King Theo- doric II, Attala was to succeed him as abbot, but preferred to follow him into exile. They settled on the banks of the river Trebbia. a little north-east of Genoa, where they foimded the celebrated Abbey of Bobbio. After the death of St. Columban in 615, Attala succeeded him as Abbot of Bobbio. He and his monks suffered many hardships at the hands of the Arian King .\riowald. As abbot, Attala in- sisted on strict discipline and when a large number of his monks rebelled, declaring his discipline too rigorous, he permitted them to leave the monasterj'. When, however, some of these perished miserably, the others, considering their death a punishment from God, returned to the monastery. Attala was buried in Bobbio where his feast is celebrated on 10 March.

MoNTALEMBERT, The Monks of the West (Bosion). I, oSf


1855); Stadlee, Heiligen-Lexikon (Augsburg. 1858). I. 341, Michael Ott.


Attalia, also AiT.iLEi.i. a titular metropolitan! see of Pamphylia in Asia Minor. Its episcopal list (431-S79) is given in Gams (450). It is probably identical with the present Adalia, the chief port and largest place on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Remains of sculptured marbles are abundant in the ^•icinity. It is mentioned in .\cts, xlv, 24-25, as the seaport whence Paul and Barnabas set sail for An- tioch, at the close of their missionarj' journey through, Pisidia and Pamphylia, Another city of the same name existed in Lydia, Asia Minor; its episcopal list (431-879) is given in Gams (447),

Leqcten, Orims ChrUt. (1740). I, 1030; Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Geogr.^ I, 320-321.

Thom.vs. J. Shahan.

Attaliates, Mich.^el, Byzantine statesman and historian, probably a native" of Attalia in Pamphylia, whence he seems to have come to Constantinople between 1130 and 1140. He acquired in the royal city both wealth and position and was rapidly ad- vanced, under successive emperors, to the highest offices, among others to that of judge of the supreme court of the empire. He compiled (1072) for the Emperor Michael Parapinakes a compendium of Byzantine law which supplements in a useful way the "Libri Basilici". In addition to this he also drew up an "Ordinance for the Poor House and Monastery" which he founded at Constantinople in 1077. This work is of value for the historj' of Byzantine life and manners in the eleventh centurj-. It contains a catalogue of the librarj' of his monaster^'. About 1079 or lOSO he published an account of Byzantine history from 1034 to 1079, a vivid and reliable presentation of the palace revolutions and female domination that characterize this period of transition from the great Macedonian dj-nasty to the Comneni. Attaliates writes as an eyewitness and contemporary. Though his style is not free from the usual affectations of Byzantine historians, it is more flowing and com- pact than that of his predecessors, Krumbacher praises his accurate judgment and sense of equity; in both respects he is superior to his continuator, the panegyrist and courtier Psellos. The law-manual of Attaliates was first edited by M. Freher (Juris Grseco-Romani Tomi Duo, Frankfort, 1596, II, 1- 79) ; the "Ordinance", or Aidrolis, is found in Miklosich and MuUer, "Acta et Diplomata Graeca Medii -Evi" (1887), V, 293-327; the "History" was edited by I, Bekker, in the "Corpus Script. Byz." (Bonn, 1853).

ICrumbacher, Gcsch. d. Byz. Lit., 2d ed., 269-271; Mob- TREUiL, HUt. du droit Byzantin. Ill, 218-229; W, Nissen, Die Diataxis des M. .iUaleiates von 1077 (Jena, 1894), 23-30; BcRT, Eng. Hist. Rei: (1SS9), IV, 41-()4, 231-285,

Thomas J. Shahan.

Attention, See Consciousness.

Atticus, Patriarch of Constantinople (406—125), b. at Sebaste in .\rmenia; d. 425. He was educated in the vicinity of liis native town by Macedonian monks, whose mode of life and errors he embraced. When still young he went to Constantinople, abjured his heretical tenets, and was raised to the priesthood. He and another ambitious priest, Arsacius, were the cliief accusers of St. Chrj-sostom in the notorious Council of the Oak, which deposed (405) the holy patriarch. On the death (406) of the intrxider Arsacius, he succeeded him in the See of Constanti- nople, and at first strove hard, with the help of the civil power, to detach the faithful from the com- munion of their Lawful pastor. But finding th.at, even after the death of St. Chrj-sostom, they con- tinued to avoid his own spiritual ministrations, he re-inserted the name of his holy predecessor in the diptychs of the churches. This change of attitude and "his charity to the poor gradually made him less impopular, and he at length managed to have him- self recognized as patriarch by Innocent I. Intent