2. Another district of Judaea toward the southern end of the Dead Sea, occupied by the Edomites dur- ing the captivity (1 Mace, v, 3, Autli. Vers. "Ara- battine;" comp. Joseph, Ant. xii, 8, 1). It is sup-
ACRABBIM
5(1
ACTA MARTYRUM
posed to have taken its name from the Maaleh-ac- RABbim (q. v.) of Num. xxxiv, 4; Josh, xv, 3, which lay in this vicinity.
Acrab'bim. See Maaleh-acrabbim. Acre is put by our translators (Isa. v, 10) for *ip2J, tse'med, which properly means a yoke, i. e. as much land as a yoke of oxen can plough in a day. So the Latin jugerum, an acre, from jugum, a yoke. See Measure. In 1 Sam. xiv, 14, the word "acre" is supplied in our translation after !"t3"^a, a furrow, which is omitted (see margin). Acre. See Accho.
Acrostic (from aicpov, extremity, and arixoc, verse"). The word commonly signifies the beginning of a verse ; but it is sometimes taken for the end or close of it. It ordinarily signifies an ode in which the initial letters of the verses in their order spell a certain word or sentence. In this form acrostics do not occur in the Bible. There are certain parts of the poetical compositions of the Old Testament, however, in which the successive verses or lines in the original begin with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet; these may be called alphabetical acrostics. For instance, in Psalm cxix, there are as many stanzas or strophes as there are letters in the alphabet, and each strophe consists of eight double lines, all of which, in each case, begin with that letter of the alphabet corresponding to the place of the strophe in the Psalm — that is, the first eiy;ht lines begin each with X, Aleph, the next eight with ", Beth, and so on. See Abecedarian. Other Psalms have only one verse to each letter, in its order, as Psalms xxv, xxxiv. In others, again, as Psalms cxi, exii, each verse is divided into two parts, and these hemistichs follow the alphabetical arrangement, like the whole verses of the last mentioned Psalms. The Lamentations of Jeremiah are mostly acrostic, some of the chapters repeating each letter one or more times. The last chapter of Proverbs also has the ini- tial letters of its last twenty-two verses in alphabeti- cal order. See Poetry.
The term acrostic is used in ecclesiastical history to describe a certain mode of performing the psalmody of the ancient Church. A single person, called the precentor, commenced the verse, and the people join- ed with him at the close. We find also the words hy- popsalma and diapsalma, likewise dicportXtvriov and kQ&ftviov, almost synonymous with acrostic, used to describe the same practice. The}' do not always mean the end of a verse, but sometimes what was added at the end of a psalm, or something repeated in the mid- dle of it, e. g. the phrase "for his mercy endureth fur- ever" repeated or chanted by the congregation. The Glori i 1'a.tri is by some writers called the epode or aeroieleutic, because it was always sung at the end of the psalms (Bingham, Orig. Eccl. i, xiv). Act, Conventicle, see Conventicle. Act, Corporation, " Corporation. Act, Five-Mile, " Five-Mile. Act of Faith, " Auto da Fe. Act, Test, " Test.
Act, Toleration, " Toleration. Acta Mart^rum (Acts of the Martyrs), the title of the record of the lives and actions of martyrs kept in the ancient Church for the edification of the faith- ful. Whenever a Christian was apprehended, the ac- cusation, defence, and verdict were noted in these Acts. Some of the martyrs also wrote accounts of their own sufferings, or this was done for them by a regular offi- cer of the Church acting as notary, who took down the facts in a prescribed form ; and these reports were also designated as acta martyrii or martyrwn. Comp. Calendaria; Martyrologia; Meneion; Mf.no- louhm. The oldest are those referring to the death
of St. Ignatius (q. v.), Bishop of Antioeh (died 107), and of i'olycarp (q. v.) (died about 165), both of which are given in Dressel's and Hefele's editions of the Pa- tres Apostolici. The oldest collection of Acts of the Martyrs was compiled by the Church historian Euse- bius, in his two works d?. Martyribus Paliestinee and Synagoge Martyriorum. The latter, a martyrology of the Church universal, was lost as early as the end of the sixth century ; the former has reached us as an appendix to the eighth book of the author's Church history. A second large collection of 12 volumes was in existence at Constantinople in the ninth century, and probably formed the basis of the work of Simeon Metaphrastes, de Actis Sanctoru?n, in the tenth century. In the Latin Church a catalogue of martyrs, contain- ing the names of martyrs from different countries ar- ranged according to the days on which the}' were com- memorated in the mass, as also the place and the day, but not the details, of their martyrdom, was, at the close of the sixth century, in extensive use. It was, though without good reason, ascribed to Jerome. The particular churches used to add to this general cata- logue of martyrs their local calendars, a circumstance which explains the diversity of the different copies of this work still extant (ed. by Fr. Mar. Florentinius, Luca?, 1G68 sq. ; d'Achery, Spicileg. ed. Nov. ii, p. 27, ac- cording to a manuscript of the French convent Gellou, written about 804; J. B. Sallerius, Act. Sanctorum, June torn, vi, according to copies of Beichenau, St. Ulric's at Augsburg, Corvey, etc.). "While this woik excludes all historical accounts of the lives of mar- tyrs, giving only their names and the place and day of their martyrdom, there are indications that detailed historical works were also compiled at an early period. A council at Carthage 397 permits the reading of the Passiones Martyrwn on the days of their commemora- tion, besides the reading-lessons from the Scriptures. Pope Gelasius, on the contrary, excludes this kind of literature from ecclesiastical use, on the ground that the names of the authors were unknown, and that in- fidels, heretics, and unlearned persons (id'iota) had in- serted man}' superfluous and improper things, a con- clusive proof of the untrustworthy condition in which this literature, even at that early time, was found. The heads of the monastic orders were in general very urgent in recommending to their monks the reading of the Gesta Martyrwn, the history of their sufferings. Besides the two classes of works just named, there was a third class, the so-called Yitce Patrnm, whose object was more literary than edifying, and some of which belong among the most valuable sources of the early Church history. To this class of works belong the very valuable history of Severin, by his disciple Eugippius, the biographies of Columban, Callus, etc. Collections of accounts of this kind are extant by Palladius (about 420), in his Ilistoria Lausiaca (Aav- aaiKov) ; by Heraclides, in his Paradisus, s. de Yitis Patrum; by Johannes Moschus (died about G20), the author of the lives of the monks, under the title Atifiwv, Atipiovdpiov, or Ntoc, Tlapc'icticoc. These works are designated in the Greek Church under the name of TtpovriKd, KXipaiceg, AavnaiKu, and Uanpi- kcl. They were followed by Simeon Metaphrastes (q. v.), about 901, of whose biographies of saints wc have 122 left, while a much larger number have been erroneously ascribed to him. In the Latin Church we have the 14 hymns of Prudentius (q. v.), entitled Peristephanon s. de Coronis et Pasdonilus Martyruni ; the Collationrs Patrnm, by Cassian (q. v.); and sever- al historical works of Gregory of Tours (q. v.), as de Miracalis, Yilie Pa/rum, de Gloria Marfyrum. The biographical material contained in this class of works was gradually worked into the martyrologies. That known under the name of Beda is mostly restricted to statistical statements ; yet a copy of it at the begin- ning of the ninth century received considerable ad- ditions from Floras, a sub-deacon at Lyons. Consid-