Mummied Dull. From Abbott's Cullectiun of Egyptian Antiq- uities.
Apoc'alypse, the Greek name of the Book of Revelation (q. v.).
Apocalypse, Knights of the, an association founded in 1092 at Rome by Agostino Gobrino, for the purpose of defending the Catholic Church against the pope, whom it considered to be the Antichrist. The members always went out armed, and their chief was called Monarch of the Most Holy Trinity. The In- quisition suppressed the association in 1697.
Apocaritaa (q. d. 'Awoicpi-ai, from c'nroicpivu), to separate), a sect, in the third century, who asserted that the human soul is part of God, a portion of His substance joined to man. They are ranked among the Manichseans (q. v.).
Apocatastasis, a term used in Acts iii, 21, in the combination apocatastasis panton (anoKaTCtaTaaie, irdvTinv), i. e. the restoration of all things. Origen, and, after him, many theologians and sects of ancient and modern times, put upon this passage the construc- tion that at one time, evil itself, sin, condemnation, and Satan, would be reconciled through Christ with God. See Restitution ; Ukstorationists.
ApocrisiariusCAiroicpifftafHoc; Lat. Responsalis), literally a respondent, the title of a legate to negotiate concerning matters ecclesiastical. Justinian (Novell. 6") calls the A poerisiarii those "who administer the affairs of the churches." At first they were bishops, T
but afterward priests or deacons were substituted, and the term seems to have been applied to any one acting as locum-tenens for a bishop (or even monastery) in ecclesiastical matters ; but the name was principally applied to the pope's nuncio at Constantinople, who resided there to receive the pope's instructions and to report the answers of the emperor. This custom end- ed with the Iconoclast divisions. After Charlemagne had been crowned emperor, the popes conferred the name and the office of upocrisiarins upon the imperial arch-chaplain. Later the name apocrisiarius became a mere title, which the arch-chaplains of the palace bore, without being any longer representatives of the pope. — Suicer, Thes. p. 45G; Collier, Hist. Diet. vol. iii, Suppl ; Landon, Keel. Diet, i, 446.
Apoc'rypha (awcKpyfa, sc. /3i/3\ia, hidden, mys- terious), a term in theology, applied in various senses to denote certain books claiming a sacred character. The word occurs in the N. T. in its ordinary sense (Mark iv, 22). It is first found, as denoting a certain class of books, in Clemens Alexandrinus (Stromata, 13, c. 4, Ik tivoq aTTOKpicjitov).
I. Definition and Application of the Term. — The primary meaning of c,~iKpv<j>oc, "hidden, secret" (in which sense it is used in Hellenistic as well as classical Greek, see Ecclus. xxiii, 19; Luke viii, 17; Col. ii, IS), seems, toward the close of the 2d century, to have been associated with the signification "spurious," and ultimate!}- to have settled down into the latter. Ter- tullian (de Anim. c. 2) and Clement of Alexandria (Strom, i, 19, G9 ; iii, 4, 29) apply it to the forged or spurious books which the heretics of their time circu- lated as authoritative. The first passage referred to from the Stromata, however, may be taken as an in- stance of the transition stage of the words. The fol- lowers of Prodicus, a Gnostic teacher, are said there to boast that they have /3/j8Xoi/£ airoKpvfovQ cf Zoroas- ter. In Athanasius (Ep. Eest. ii, S8 ; Synopsis Sac. Scrip, ii, 154, ed. Colon. 1G8G), Augustine (Eaust. xi, 2 ; Civ. Dei, xv, 23), Jerome (Ep. ad Lat can, and Prol. Gal.) the word is used uniformly with the bad mean- ing which had become attached to it. The writers of that period, however, do not seem to have seen clearly how the word had acquired this secondary sense ; and hence we find conjectural explanations of its etymolo- gy. The remark of Athanasius (Synops. S. Scr. 1. c.) that such books are ciTroKpvfijg paWov r\ dvayrwaiwe ii£ia is probably meant rather as a play upon the word than as giving its derivation. Later conjectures are (1), that given by the translators of the English Bible (ed. 15E9, Pref. to Apocr.), " because they were wont to be read not openly and in common, but as it were in secret and apart ;" (2), one, resting on a misappre- hension of the meaning of a passage in Epiphanes (de 3Iens. ac rond. c. 4) that the bocks in question were so called because, net being in the Jewish canon, they were excluded d-i) -I'll: upvirTiic. from the ark in which the true Scriptures were preserved ; (3), that the word cnr6icpv(pa answers to the Heb. fi^PJS, libri absconditi, by which the later Jews designated those books which, as of doubtful authority or not tending to edification, were not read publicly in the synagogues ; (4), that it originates in the Kpvirra or secret books of the Greek mysteries. Of these it may be enough to say, that (1) is, as regards some of the books now bearing the name at variance with fact ; that (2), as has been said, rests on a mistake; that (3) wants the support of direct evidence of the use of cnroKpvfpa as the translation for the Hebrew word; and that (4), though it approxi- mates to what is probably the true history of the word, is so far only a conjecture. — Smith, s. v.
In the early ages of the Christian Church this term was frequently used to denote books of an uncertain or anonymous author, or of one who had written under an assumed name. Its application, however, in this sense is far from being distinct, as, strictly speaking, it