Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/613

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ARM—ARM
551

dria to acquire accurate Greek scholarship ; and, on their return, the translation was accomplished. Moses of Khorene, the historian of Armenia, who was also employed, as a disciple of Miesrob, on this version, fixes its completion in the year 410 ; but he is contradicted by the date of the Council of Ephesus, which necessarily makes it subse quent to the year 431. In the Old Testament this version adheres closely to the LXX., but, in the book of Daniel, it has followed the version of Theodotion. Its most striking characteristic is, that it does not follow any known recen sion of the LXX. Although it more frequently agrees with the Alexandrine text, in readings which are peculiar to the latter, than it does with the Aldiue or Complutensian text, yet, on the other hand, it also has followed readings which are only found in the last two. Bertholdt accounts for this mixed text by assuming that the copy of the Greek Bible sent from Ephesus contained the Lucian recension, that the pupils brought back copies according to the Hesychian recension from Alexandria, and that the trans lators made the latter their standard, but corrected their version by aid of the former. The version of the New Testament is equally close to the Greek original, and also represents a text made up of Alexandrine and Occidental readings. This version was afterwards revised and adapted to the Peshito, in the 6th century, on the occasion of an ecclesiastical union between the Syrians and Armenians. Again, in the 13th century, an Armenian king, Hethom or Haitho, adapted the Armenian version to the Vulgate, by way of smoothing the way for a union of the Roman and Armenian churches. Lastly, the bishop, Uscan, who printed the first edition of this version at Amsterdam in 1666, is also accused of having interpolated the text, by adding all that he found the Vulgate contained more than the Armenian version. The existence of the verse 1 John v. 7, in this version, is ascribed to this supple mentary labour of Uscan. It is clear from what has been said, that the critical uses of this version are limited to determining the readings of the LXX. and of the Greek text of the New Testament which it represents, and that it has suffered many alterations which diminish its useful

ness in these respects.

ARMENTIERES, a well-built and flourishing town, in the department of Nord in France, on the Lys, nine miles N.W. of Lille. It carries on considerable manufactures of leather, cotton, cloth, linen, lace, soft-soap, beet-root sugar, salt, &c. Situated as Armentieres is on the frontier, its annals are full of instances of military occupation and pillage, from the 14th century downwards. Population, 15,579.


ARMFELT, Gustav Mauritz, Baron, afterwards Count, eldest son of a Finnish nobleman, was born at Java in 1757. He entered the army and gained the favour of Gustavus III., who appointed him to a post in the service of the Crown Prince, and afterwards made him general of a division of the army in the war against Russia. He was successful in his military operations, and also materially aided the king in quelling a conspiracy of the officers. In 1790 he signed the treaty of peace at Verela; and two years later, when Gustavus was mortally wounded by an assassin, Annfelt was named by him governor of Stock holm. But the regent Charles, the late king s brother, was not well disposed towards him, and he took an opportunity to leave the country as ambassador to Naples. While there he entered into a conspiracy to depose the regent. This was discovered; he was outlawed and condemned to death, and his associates were severely punished. The accession of Gustavus IV. restored him to his honours, and after the revolution of 1809, by which the ex-regent became king, he was made president of the military council. Beiug suspected of having a share in the poisoning of the prince of Augustenburg, he fled from Sweden and took refuge at the Russian court, where he received the highest honours. He died in 1814 at Tzarskoe-Selo.

ARMINIUS, James, a distinguished Dutch theologian,

author of the modified Reformed theology that receives from him its name, was born at Oudewater, South Holland, 1560. Arminius is a Latinised form of his family name Hermanns or Hermannson. His father, a cutler, died while he was an infant, leaving a widow and three children. Theo dore ^Eniilius, a priest, who had turned Protestant, adopting James, removed with him to Utrecht, but died when his charge was in his fifteenth year. Rudolph Snellius, the mathematician, a native of Oudewater, then a professor at Marburg, happening at the time to visit his early home, met Arminius, saw promise in him, and undertook his maintenance and education. But hardly was he settled at Marburg when the news came that the Spaniards had besieged and taken Oudewater, and mur dered men, women, and children, sparing only certain matrons and maids, " who had been sold by auction to the soldiers at two or three dollars each." Arminius hurried home, but only to find all his relatives slain. In February the same year (1575), the university of Leyden had been founded, and was becoming a rallying point and nursery for the nascent literary genius, theological activity, and scholarship of the country. Arminius seized the oppor tunity thus afforded of pursuing his studies at home. The six years he remained at Leyden (1576-82) were years of active and innovating thought in Holland. The War of Independence had started conflicting tendencies in men s minds. To some it seemed to illustrate the necessity of the State tolerating only one religion, but to others the necessity of the State tolerating all. Richard Koornhert argued, in private conferences and public disputations, that it was wrong to punish heretics, and his great opponents were, as a rule, the ministers, who maintained that there was no room for more than one religion in a State. Casper Koolhaes, the heroic minister of Leyden its first lecturer, too, in divinity pleaded against a too rigid uniformity, for such an agreement on " fundamentals as had allowed Reformed, Lutherans, and Anabaptists to unite. Leyden had been happy, too, in its first professors. There taught in theology William Feuguerseus, a mild divine, who had written a treatise on persuasion in religion, urging that as to it " men could be led, not driven ; " Lambert Danaeus, who deserves remembrance as the first to discuss Christian ethics scientifically, apart from dogmatics ; John Drusius, the Orientalist, one of the most enlightened and advanced scholars of his day, settled later at Franeker ; John Kolmann the younger, best known by his saying that high Calvinism made God "both a tyrant and an executioner." Snellius, Arminius s old patron, now removed to Leyden, expounded the Rainist philosophy, and did his best to start his students on the search after truth, unimpeded by the authority of Aristotle. Under these men and influ ences, Arminius studied with signal success ; and the pro mise he gave induced the merchants guild of Amsterdam to bear the further expenses of his education. In 1582 he went to Geneva, studied there awhile under Theodore Beza, but had soon, owing to his active advocacy of the Rainist philosophy, to remove to Basle. After a short but brilliant career there he returned to Geneva, studied for three years, travelled, in 1586, in Italy, heard Zarabella lecture on philosophy in Padua, visited Rome, and, open-minded enough to see its good as well as its evil, was suspected by the stern Dutch Calvinists of Popish leanings. Next year he was called to Amsterdam, and there, in 1588, was ordained to the ministry. He soon acquired tho

reputation of being an elegant preacher and faithful