Affirmative (Gr. ciajitjiaio^tai, diiaxvpi&fiat, etc.). Among the Jews the formula of assent or af- firmation was Fl'na'l "3, av HTrac, thou hast said, or thou hast rightly said. It is stated by Aryda and oth- ers that this is the prevailing mode in which a person expresses his assent, at this day, in Lebanon, especial- ly when he does not wish to assert any thing in ex- press terms. This explains the answer of our Saviour to the high-priest Caiaphas (Matt, xxvi, 64), when he was asked whether he was the Christ, the son of God (see also Matt, xxvi, 25, and comp. John xviii, 37). Instances occur in the Talmud : thus, "A certain man was asked, ' Is Rabbi dead ?' He answered, ' Ye have said:' on which they rent their clothes" — taking it for granted from this answer that it was so (Jerusalem Talmud, Kila'im, xxxii, 2). — All readers even of trans- lations are familiar with a frequent elegancy of the Scriptures, or rather of the Hebrew language, in using an affirmative and negative together, by which the sense is rendered more emphatic : sometimes the neg- ative first, as Psa. cxviii, 17, "I shall not die, but
AFFRE
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live," etc. ; sometimes the affirmative first, as Isa. xxxviii, 1, " Thou shalt die, and not live." In John i, 20, there is a remarkable instance of emphasis pro- duced by a negative being placed between two affirm- atives, "And he confessed, and denied not, but con- fessed, I am not the Christ." — Kitto. See Oath.
Affre, Denis Auguste, archbishop of Paris, was bom at St. Roma du Tarn, 1793. He became in 1811 professor of philosophy at Nantes ; and, after having been, in 1816, ordained priest, in 1818 was made pro- fessor of theology at the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris ; in 1821, vicar-general of the diocese of Lueon ; in 1823, vicar-general at Amiens ; in 1834, canon and honorary vicar-general of Paris. In 1839 he was ap- pointed coadjutor of the bishop of Strasburg, but, be- fore entering upon his episcopal duties at Strasburg, he was, after the death of Archbishop Quelen, of Paris, appointed one of the three vicars capitular of the dio- cese, and in 1840 appointed by Louis Philippe arch- bishop of Paris. He had several conflicts with the government of Louis Philippe, especially upon the emancipation of the Church and school from the state. During the insurrection of 1848, he climbed upon a barricade in the Place de la Bastille, carrying a green bough in his hand, as a messenger of peace, and wish- ed to persuade the insurgents to lay down their arms. He had scarcely uttered a few words when the insur- gents and the troops commenced firing again, and he fell, mortally wounded by a musket ball, coining ap- parently from a window above. He was carried by the insurgents into the house of a priest, and the next day was removed to his palace, where he died, June 27, 1848. On the 28th of June the National Assembly passed the following resolution : " The National As- sembly considers it a duty to proclaim the sentiments of religious gratitude and of profound grief which all hearts have felt at the saintly and heroical death of the archbishop of Paris." His writings include Traite de I' adm in >'st ratio?i des Paroisses (1827) ; Traite des holes primaries (1826) ; Traite des appels comma d'ahns; Su premalie temporelle du Pape (1829, in the Gallican in terest) ; Propriete des Mens ecclesiastiques ; Essai sur les Hieroglyphes Egyptiem (1834, maintaining the insuffi ciency of the system of Champollion to explain the hieroglyphics) ; Introduction Philosophique a I' etude du Christianisme. See biographies of Archbishop Affre by Henry de Rianc}r, and Abbe Cruice (subsequently bishop of Marseilles).
Afghanistan, a country of Asia. Its area is esti- mated at 225,000 square miles, and its population at about 4,000,000, most of whom are Mohammedans, be- longing partly to the Soonite and partly to the Shiite sect. Hindoos, Christians, and Jews are tolerated. There are besides two Indian sects, which have adhe- rents in India, the Sufis, who hold pantheistic views, and the Mullah Fukkis, who are freethinkers. The clergy (Mullah) are, at the same time, also teachers Schools, in which reading and the Mohammedan re- ligion are taught, are found in almost every village. The Presbyterian Mission in Northern India has di- rected its attention also to the neighboring Afghans, and established, in 1856, the first mission among them. Their missionary, the Rev. Isidor Lowenthal (q. v.), took up his residence at Peschawur, and en tered at once with ardor upon his work. Having acquired the difficult language of the Afghans, the Pushtoo, he translated and published in it the New Testament. The first native convert was baptized by him in 1859. — Pierer; Xeirs of the Churches, 1859. See Asia.
Afra, martyr of Augusta Vindelicorum (Augs burg"), is reported to have been originally a common prostitute, but Rettberg (Kircheng. Deutschlands, i, 144) denies it. When the persecution in the time of Dio- cletian and Maximianus Herculius reached Augsburg, Afra was seized and carried before Gaius the judge, as
a Christian ; when Gaius could by no means prevail upon her to deny the faith, he condemned her to be burned alive, which sentence was speedily executed (the 7th of August, 304) upon her, continually, during her agony in the flames, glorifying and blessing God. Her festival is kept on the 5th of August. — Butler, Lives of Saints, iii, 327.