APROSIO, Luigi or Angelico, a learned monk of the order of St. Augustine, born at Ventimiglia, in Liguria, in 1607. After inhabiting in succession many different monasteries, he established himself at his native place, where he became vicar-general of the Inquisition, and founded a library celebrated as the Bibliotheca Aprosiana. He wrote a great variety of works, but under an assumed name; and died in 1681.—F.
APSHOVEN or ABTSHOVEN, Theodosius, a Flemish painter of landscape, interiors, and still life, of the seventeenth century. He was pupil of David Teniers.
APSINES, a rhetorician, a native of Gadara in Phœnicia, who flourished during the reign of Maximin. He enjoyed a high reputation at Athens as a teacher of eloquence. There are extant two treatises on rhetoric, which are ascribed to him, and are published in the "Rhetores Græci, Venet," 1508.
APSLEY, Sir Allen, born about the year 1615, acted a distinguished part on the Royalist side during the civil wars, but is better known for his connection with his brother-in-law, the famous Colonel Hutchison, who protected him during the ascendancy of the Commonwealth. He died in 1683, leaving a poem entitled "Order and Disorder, or the world made and undone, being meditations upon the creation and the fall, as it is recorded in the beginning of Genesis," London, 1679.—J. B.
APSYRTUS or ABSYRTUS, a celebrated veterinary surgeon, born at Prusa or Nicomedia, in Bithynia, He wrote several works, of which, however, only a few extracts remain, preserved in the Greek collection of writers on veterinary surgery, made by order of the Emperor Constantino Porphyrogenitus, a.d. 945-59. It is interesting to know, that among the diseases mentioned by this ancient writer, is that of glanders, which Lafosse and others have supposed to be a comparatively modern disease, but which Apsyrtus clearly describes.—F.
APTHORP, Eustace, a native of New England, but educated at Cambridge. He spent some time as a missionary at Massachusetts, but returned to England, and became vicar of Croydon in 1765, rector of St. Mary-le-Bow in 1778, and, in 1793, prebend of Finsbury in St. Paul's cathedral. He died in 1816. He published several sermons.—J. B., O.
APULEIUS, L. Cæcilius Minutianus, a Latin grammarian, author of a work, "De Orthographia," first published by A. Mai, Rome, 1823.
APULEIUS, a Latin naturalist, known as Apuleius Platonicus, and also as Lucius Apuleius Barbarus, is the author of a work on plants, entitled "Herbarium" or "De Medicaminibus Herbarum." It consists of 128 chapters, each descriptive of a single plant. The first edition of this work, which is supposed to belong to the fourth century, was printed at Rome about the year 1480.—J. S., G.
AQUÆUS, Stephanus, the Latin name of Etienne de l'Aigue, a French writer, born either at Beauvais or Bruges. His principal performance, a worthless commentary on Pliny, was published at Paris in 1530.
AQUAPONTANUS (Bridgewater), Johannes, an English jesuit, born at York at the end of the sixteenth century, was rector of a college at Lincoln; then betook himself to Rheims, and wrote some tracts against the Anglican church.
AQUARIUS, Matthias, a writer on the Aristotelian and scholastic philosophy, belonged to the order of St. Dominic, was professor of theology at Turin, Venice, Milan, Naples, and Rome, and died at Naples in 1591.
AQUAVIVA, Andrea Matteo. See Acquaviva.
AQUAVIVA, Belizarius. See Acquaviva.
AQUAVIVA, Claudius, a famous general of the order of the jesuits, promoted to that rank in 1581; took part in the strife about the heresy of Molina, and died in 1615.
AQUAVIVA, Octavius, made a cardinal in 1591, and afterwards archbishop of Naples, was devoted to the study of Aquinas, and made an abridgment of his Summa. Died in 1612.
AQUILA (Ἀκύλας), a celebrated Jewish proselyte, author of a Greek version of the Old Testament, was, according to Epiphanius, a native of Sinope, and a relative of the Emperor Hadrian, who employed him to superintend the erection of the city Ælia Capitolina, on the site of Jerusalem. Here he was brought under the influence of Christianity and converted from paganism; but continuing to practise astrology, he was cut off from the communion of the Christian church, and went over to the Jews as a proselyte. To recommend himself to the Hellenist churches, he translated the Old Testament into Greek, avoiding, as he pretended, the errors of the Septuagint, and rendering with the most literal fidelity the Hebrew text. His version, of which only a few specimens are extant, was adopted in all the synagogues.— J. S., G.
AQUILA, a Roman rhetorician of the fourth century.
AQUILA, Caspar, a distinguished disciple and coadjutor of Luther. He was born at Augsburg in 1488, of the family of Adler (eagle), and after studying in that city in the Gymnasium of Ulm, and in Italy, he was, first a preacher in Bern, and then, in 1515, military chaplain to the Imperial General Francis von Sickingen. When Luther commenced his great movement, Aquila threw himself into it with much ardour, and preached so warmly in support of it in the neighbourhood of Augsburg, that he was apprehended by order of Stadion, bishop of that city, and cast into prison, from which he was only released by the intercession of Queen Isabella of Denmark, the emperor's sister. In 1520 he visited Luther at Wittemberg, and soon after re-entered the service of Francis von Sickingen, in the capacity of tutor to his sons. When in the castle of Ebernburg with his charge, he narrowly escaped death at the hands of the garrison. For refusing to comply with the foolish request of the soldiers to baptize one of their cannon, they seized the conscientious tutor, tumbling him into the mouth of a mortar, and made repeated attempts to fire him off like a bullet from the top of the walls. Providentially the powder was damp, and he was at length rescued from his strange and perilous position by one of the officers. Having returned to Wittemberg in 1524, he was one of Luther's assistants in his great work of Bible translation. In 1527 he was recommended to the pastorate of Saalfeld, where he was advanced to be superintendent in the following year, and signalized himself by his zeal and prudence in the diffusion of the resuscitated gospel. When the troubles of the Interim broke out, he wrote against it so warmly that the Emperor Charles V. set a price of 4000 or 5000 gulden upon his head. He found refuge at Rudolstadt, in the hospitable castle of the duchess of Schwarzburg. In 1550, when the danger was over, he was made dean of Schmalkald; and in 1552 returned to his former office at Saalfeld, where he died 12th November, 1560. He was zealous in opposing what he considered to be the dangerous corruptions of Lutheran doctrine, which crept in under the influence of Melancthon after the death of Luther, He was one of forty-six theologians who supplicated the elector, John Frederick II., and the other evangelical princes and states, in 1560, to call a free and lawful synod for the purpose of restraining and purging out these alleged corruptions. The best known of his writings, which were all in German, were his "Christliche Erklarung des Kleiner Katechismus," Augsburg, 1538: and "Fragstücke der ganzen Christlichen Lehre," 1547.—P. L.
AQUILA, John dell', an Italian physician, died in 1510.
AQUILA, Julius, a Roman jurist of the fifth century.
AQUILA, Serafino dell', an Italian poet, so called from his having been born at Aquila, a city in the province of Abruzzo, enjoyed a great reputation as a sonneteer, and also as an improvisatore, in the second half of the fifteenth century. He died at Rome on the 10th August, 1500.
AQUILA´NUS, Sebastianus or Sebastiano dell' Aquila, an Italian physician, born at Aquila, was a Galenist, and professed medicine at Ferrara in 1495, In his treatise, "De Morbo Gallico," he recommends the use of mercury. Died in 1513.
AQUILIUS, Gallus, a Roman jurist, tribune of the people under the consulship of Pompey, and afterwards quæstor along with Cicero, lived in the last half of the century before Christ. He is the author of a famous statute, "De dolo malo."
AQUILIUS, Henricus, a Belgian writer, author of a valuable work on the history of the duchy of Gulders, lived about the middle of the sixteenth century.
AQUILIUS, Manius, a Roman consul, concluded the war with Aristonicus, son of Eumenes, king of Pergamus, in 129 b.c. Three years later, he was accused of malversation by P. Lentulus, but escaped condemnation by bribing his judges.
AQUILIUS, Manius, consul with Marius in a.d. 101, repressed a revolt of the slaves of Sicily, and was honoured on his return with an ovation; but, two years later, he was charged with malversation, and it required all the eloquence of Marcus Antonius to procure his acquittal. Afterwards proconsul in Asia Minor, he was taken prisoner by Mithridates V., and put to death by having molten gold poured down his throat.—J. S., G.
AQUILIUS, Sabinus, a Roman jurist of the third century,
