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Aquila (or Adler), Caspar

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Aquila (or Adler), Caspar

one of the Reformers, was born at Augsburg, Aug. 7, 1488. After the ordinary training of the gymnasium of his native city, he spent his early manhood in travel and study, chiefly in Italy and Switzerland. After a brief stay as pastor in Berne, and in 1514 in Leipzic, in 1515 he became chaplain to Franz von Sickingen. In 1516 he became pastor at Jenga, near Augsburg, and soon after married, and openly professed Lutheranism. Arrested by order of the bishop of Augsburg (Stadion), he was condemned to death, but during his imprisonment (at Dillingen, 1519-20) the queen of Hungary interceded for him, and he was released, but banished. He went at once to Wittenberg, and became A.M. of the University in 1521. For two years he was tutor to Sickingen's children. In 1524 he became tutor in Hebrew at Wittenberg, and was employed by Luther to aid in the translation of the Bible. In 1527 he became pastor at Saalfeldt. In 1547 he wrote violently against the Interimn (q.v.), and a price was set upon his head by Charles V. He died Nov. 12,1560. His life was written by Avenarius, Leiensbeschreib. Aquila's (Meiningen, 1719, 8vo); Schlege, Leben Aquila's (Leipz. 1773, 4to); and by Gensler, Vita Aquilce (Jena, 1816), who enumerates twenty writings of his. — Herzog, Real- Encyclopadie, s.v.; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, 1, 942. Aquileia, a town in Italy 15 miles northeast of Venice, formerly so important in ecclesiastical matters as to be called a second Rome.

I. The bishops of Aquileia assumed the patriarchal dignity from the 5th century, and the title was granted by Pope Honorius I simply to save the appearance of supremacy. Serenas, patriarch of Aquileia in the time of Pope Gregory II, renounced the schism; upon which that pope, while he refused to give him the title of patriarch, permitted him (A.D. 729) to act as metropolitan over the empire of the Lombards; but the patriarchs of Aquileia continued to hold that title, which was soon recognized by the court of Rome. The patriarchs of Aquileia had metropolitan authority over the states of Venice, Istria, and the neighboring provinces; and their diocese was of large extent, including besides a great part of Friuli, Carniola, Goritz, and part of Carinthia and Styria. As a great part of the diocese was in the states of Austria, the queen of Hungary claimed the right of nominating alternately with Venice; and such disputes arose from the circumstance that in 1751 the patriarchate was suppressed, and the two archbishoprics of Udine and Goritz erected in its stead. The church, which was the cathedral, is dedicated in the name of the Assumption. See De Rubeis, Monumenta Ecclesiae Aquilejensis (1740, fol.).

II. Several COUNCILS or synods were held at Aquileia: in 381, against Palladius and Secundianus, the Arian bishops (Labbe, 2:978); in 556, against the 5th (Ecumenical council; in 698, on the "Three Chapter" question (q.v.);' at the same time the schism from Rome was ended (Labbe, vi); in 791, by Paulinus the metropolitan, fourteen canons were published; in 1184, against incendiaries and sacrilegious persons (Labbe, 10); in 1409, by the antipope Gregory XII, who here excommunicated his rivals Benedict and Alexander V (Labbe, 2, 2012). — Landon, Manual of Councils; Smith, Tables of Church Hist.