Alombrados, a mystic sect in Spain since 1575, who considered neither the sacraments nor good works necessary, and rejected the ministerial office. They were exterminated in Spain by the Inquisition in 1623. One part of them emigrated to France, where they were likewise suppressed by royal order in 1635.
A'loth (1 Kings iv, 16). See Bealoth.
Aloysius of Gonzaga, a saint of the Roman cal- endar, born in Castiglione, 1568, noted in his youth for devotion and severity, entered the order of Jesuits 1587. In 1591, during an epidemic at Rome, he dis- tinguished himself by labors and sacrifices, and finally fell a victim to the pestilence. He was canonized 1526 by Benedict XIII, and is commemorated in the Roman Church Jan. 21. — Butler, Lives of Saints, Jan. 21.
Al'pha or A, the first letter in almost all alpha- bets. In Hebrew it is called aleph (H), which signi- fies or, from the shape of it in the old Phoenician al- phabet, where it somewhat resembles the head and horns of that animal (Plutarch, Qumst. Sympos. ix, 2; Gesenii Thesaur. Heb. p. 1). The following figures illustrate the steps by which this letter reached its form in various languages. See Alphabet. Its pre- dominant sound in nearly all languages is very simple, being little more than a mere opening of the. mouth as in ah ! In Hebrew, however, it is treated in gram-
ALPHA
175
ALPHABET
i> X A Jf -V ^ ^4
5 4 3 2 1 2' 3'
mar as a consonant of the guttural class, although a very soft one, corresponding to the "smooth breath- ing" in Greek ('), and cannot therefore be readily rep- resented in English. Like all the other letters of the Hebrew alphabet, it is frequently employed in the Psalms and Lamentations to indicate a division of the stanzas in the manner of an acrostic (q. v.). A re- markable instance occurs in Psa. cxix, which is di- vided into as many sections of several verses each as there are letters in the alphabet, the first word of each verse beginning with the letter appropriate to the section. The Hebrew name has passed over along with the letter itself into the Greek alpha. Loth the Hebrews and Greeks employed the letters of their alphabets as numerals; and A, therefore (aleph or aljiha), denoted one, the first. Hence our Lord says of himself that he is (to A) Alpha and (to £2) Omega, i. e. the first and the last, the beginning and the ending, as he himself explains it (Rev. i, 8, 11 ; xxi, 6 ; xxii, 13). This expression, which in the O. T. had already been employed to express the eternity of God (Isa. xliv, 6), was in the patristic period more definitely employed with the same significance (Tertul. De monog. c. 5 ; Prudentius, Cathemer. Hymn, ix, 11) ; and its applications were traced out with puerile mi- nuteness (see Primasius, in the Bibl. Pair. Max. x, 338), especially by the Gnostic Marcus (Iren. Uteres. i, 14; Tertul. Prcescr. c. 50). Traces of this signifi- cance as a symbol of the divinity of Christ (Rhaban, De laud. s. Crucis, i, fig. 1 ; Didron, Tconogr. Chret. p. 601) have been found in the following interesting
monograms, which occur on the catacombs of Melos (Ross, Reisen auf d. Inseln d. dgeischen Meeres, iii, 149) and Naples (Aginc. Pitt, xi, 9), and in the ceme- teries of Rome (Mamachi Orig. et antiq. Christ, iii, 75), as well as on coins and inscriptions elsewhere.
A+d 4a J*
Early Christian Symbols, containing the Greek letters A and il, with the cross or the sign XP (for Xp«rT6s).
They are sometimes enclosed in a circle. See Bey- schlag, De sigillo nominis Dei hominis (Viteb. 1692) ; Ewald, De a et 10 nomine Chr. mystico, in his Embl. ii, 169 sq. ; Pfeiffer, De a et w (Regiom. 1677) ; Rudiger, De Christo per primum (niDX^a) et ultimum (A/»» S. S. vocem indicato (Giess. 1724). See Omega.
Alphabet (from the first two Greek letters, alpha and beta), the series of characters employed in writing any language. The origin of such written signs is unknown, having been ascribed by some to Adam and other antediluvians (Bangii Exercitationes de ortu et progressu literarum, Hafnias, 1657, p. 99 sq.), and lately to an astronomical observation of the relative position of the planets in the zodiac by Noah at the deluge (Seyft'arth, Unser Alphabet ein Abbild des Thier- kreises, Leipz. 1834). See Language.
The earliest and surest data, however, on which any sound speculation on this subject can be based, are found in the genuine paloeographical monuments of the Phoenicians; in the manifest derivation of all oth- er Syro-Arabian and almost all European characters from that type, and in the testimonj- which history bears to the use and transmission of alphabetical writ- ing (Carpzov, Crit. Sacr. p. 227; Kopp, Bilder und Schriften der Vorzeit, Mannh. 1819 ; and especially Gesenius, Scrijiturce linguwque Phanicm monumcnta, Lips. 1837). See Writing.
The earlie-t I'huTiiri.in.
Ancient Greek. Ancient Persian
Ancient Hebrew Aramaean, Later Himyarite.
on Asmon. coins. on Egypt, mon. Phoenician,
Kufic. Peshito. Uigur or
Old Turkish
Historical derivation of Alphabets.
There are only three nations which can compete for the honor of the discover)', or rather the use and transmission of letters— the Babylonians, the Phoeni- cians, and the Egyptians. The chief arguments in