came dangerous to the bishops, and thus a reaction was called forth. Many of the synods of the thir- teenth and fourteenth centuries, as those of Tours (1239), Liege (1287), Mentz (1310), took from them some of their powers, reserving them to the bishop and his vicar-general. This limitation of their pow- ers was confirmed by the Council of Trent. Many of the archidiaconates had already disappeared before the latter synod, and in many others this was the case in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At some cathedral churches the office of archdeacon still exists, but the former rights are no longer connected with it.
In the Greek Church the office of rural archdeacon never existed ; the office of cathedral archdeacon was early displaced by the chartophylax, and even the title of archdeacon early disappeared. In Constanti- nople the title was retained, but the archdeacon was an officer of the court, not of the cathedral church.
In some of the Protestant state churches of Germa- ny the title archdeacon has been retained for the head ministers of ecclesiastical districts.
See Thomassin, Vet. et Nov. Eccles. Disciplina, i, 1. 2, c. 17 ; Herzog, ReaUEncyMopiidie, s. v. ; Eadie, Ec- clesiastical Cyclopaedia, s. v. See Deacon.
2. In the Church of England there are 71 archdea- conries— several in each diocese. The archdeacon is a clergyman of the cathedral, and as the income of the office is limited, he generally holds a benefice be- sides. He is appointed by the bishop, and is himself a sort of vice-bishop. He has the right of visitation every two years in three, to inquire into the repara- tions and movables belonging to churches ; to reform abuses ; to suspend ; excommunicate ; in some places to prove wills ; and to induct all clerks into benefices within bis jurisdictions. He has power to keep a court, which is called the Court of the Archdeacon, or his commissary, and this he ma}- bold in any place with- in his archdeaconry. In this court the church-war- den's business is general!}' decided. The revenue of the archdeacon arises chiefly from pensions paid by the incumbents. These pensions originally bore no contemptible ratio to the whole value of the benefice, and formed a sufficient income for an active and use- ful officer of the church ; but now, by the great change which has taken place in the value of money, the pay- ments are little more than nominal, and the whole in- come of the archdeacons is very inconsiderable. The office, therefore, is generall}' held by persons who have also benefices or other preferment in the church. See Cripps, Law Relating to the Church and Clergy (Edinb. 1859).— Bingham, Orig. Eccles. bk. ii, ch. xxi ; Marsden, Churches and Sects, i, 330.
Archelais (Apx&aic), a city built by Archelaus, after whom it was named (Josephus, Ant. xvii, 13, 1). It was situated in the plain of the Jordan, near Jeri- cho and Phasaelis (Josephus, Ant. xviii, 2, 2). In the Peutinger Table (p. 434) it is placed twelve miles from Jericho toward Scythopolis. Ptolemy reckons it among the cities of Judsea (see Reland, Palast. p. 462; comp. p. 57G), and Pliny (xiii, 4) speaks of it as a val- ley near Phasaelis and Livias. Antiochus is named in the Latin version of acts of the council of Chalce- don as bishop of Archelais in Palestine {Acta concilior. general, iv, 80); but the Greek copies read Arce ("Aiik-i/), which likewise occurs in other notices (ib. iv, 327), as also the name Alcenon ('AKidjvwv, ib. iv, 400). Van de Velde {Memoir, p. 287) coincides in Schulze's identification of the site with the ruins el-Basaliyeh, at the south base of a hill in the lower section of Wady Fariali.
Archela'us (Ap^fXaoc, ruler of the people, Tal- mud O^S-p-iX), son of Herod the Great by Malthace, a Samaritan woman (Josephus, Ant. xvii, i, 3 ; War, i, 28, 4), and brought up, with his brother Antipas, at Borne (Joseph. War, i, 31, 1). He inherited of his
ARCHELAUS
371
ARCHER
father's dominions (B.C. 4) Idumasa, Judasa, and Sa- maria, with the important cities Caesarea, Sebaste, Jop- pa, and Jerusalem, and a yearly income of GOO talents,
Great (Josephus, Ant. xvi, 10, G, 7), whose son Alex- ander married his daughter Glaphyra (ib. 8, 6), and his intervention was of service in reconciling Herod with his sons and brother (ib. 4, G ; War, i, 25). See Alexander.
Supposed Coin of Archelaus. Obverse : Bunch of Grapes, with tlie name (in Greek), u Of Herod." Reverse: Helmet, with the (Greek) title (borne by this prince only), "Ethnarch."
as ethnarch (Joseph. Ant. xvii, 11, 4; called king, fta- ciXtvc, in Matt, ii, 22, in the sense of "prince," "re- gent;" comp.the commentators in loc). His reign had commenced inauspiciously; for, afterthe death of Her- od, and before Archelaus could go to Rome to obtain the confirmation of his father's will, the Jews having become very tumultuous at the Temple in consequence of his refusing some demands, Archelaus ordered his soldiers to attack them, on which occasion upward of three thousand were slain (Josephus, Ant. xvii, 9, 3; War, ii, 1, 3). On Archelaus going to Rome to so- licit the royal dignity (agreeably to the practice of the tributary kings of that age, who received their crowns from the Roman emperor), the Jews sent an embassy, consisting of fifty of their principal men, with a peti- tion to Augustus that they might be permitted to live according to their own laws, under a Roman governor, and also complaining of his cruelty (Josephus, War, ii, 2-7). To this circumstance our Lord perhaps al- ludes in the parable related by Luke (six, 12-27) : "A certain nobleman (cvyevfc, a man of birth or rank, the son of Herod) went into a far country (Italy'), to re- ceive for himself a kingdom (Judcea), and to return. But his citizens (the Jews) hated him, and sent a mes- sage (or embassy) after him (to Augustus Ccesar), say- ing, ' We will not have this man to reign over us.' " The Jews, however, failed in this remonstrance (Jose- phus, Ant. xvii, 11, 4). Archelaus returned to Judaea, and under pretence that he had countenanced the seditious against him, he deprived Joazar of the high- priesthood, and gave that dignity to his brother Elea- zar. He governed Judaea with so much violence that, in the tenth (Joseph. Ant. xvii, 13, 2 ; comp. Life, 1) or ninth (Joseph. War, ii, 7, 3) year of his reign (ac- cording to Dio Cass, lx, 27, under the consulate of M. yEm. Lepidus and L. Aruntius, corresponding to A.D. 6), on account of his tyranny, especially toward the Samaritans, he was dethroned, deprived of his prop- erty, and banished to Vienna in Gaul (Joseph. Ant. xvii, 13, 2), where he died (the year is unknown ; Je- rome, Onomast. s. v. Bethlehem, asserts that his grave was shown in this latter place, in which case he must have returned to Palestine as a private person). The parents of our Lord turned aside from fear of him on their way back from Egypt, and went to Nazareth in Galilee, in the domain of his gentler brother Antipas (Matt, ii, 22). He seems to have been guilt}- of great inhumanity and oppression. This cruelty was exer- cised not only toward Jews, but toward Samaritans also (Josephus, War, ii, 7, 3). He had illegally mar- ried Glapnyra, the wife of his brother Alexander, during the lifetime of the latter, who left several chil- dren by her (Joseph. Ant. xvii, 13, 1). — Noldii Hist. Hum. p. 219 sq. ; Smith's Diet, of Class. Biog. s. v. See Herod.