Archpresbyter or Archpriest, the head of the priests, as the archdeacon was originally head of the deacons. Anciently, the minister next in order to the bishop. Generally the senior priest of the diocese bore this title, but Thomassin shows that the bishops fre- quently chose the ablest and not the senior priest as archpresbyter. This was more frequently the case in the Greek than in the Latin Church, and some popes were altogether opposed to appointing any but the senior priest. The archpresbyter acted as the repre- sentative of the bishop at public worship, while the archdeacon represented him in the government of the diocese. At first there was only one archpresbyter in a diocese ; but since the 5th and 6th centuries we find, besides one in the diocesan town, several in the coun- try. In the time of the Carolingians, every diocese was divided into a number of archpresbyteral dis- tricts, called archpresbyterates, deaneries, Christi- anities (Christinnitates), rural chapters. The powers of the archpresbyter were : He had, in the name of his bishop, to superintend the clergymen of his dis- trict, to execute the episcopal and synodal decrees, to present the candidates for the priesthood from his dis- trict to the bishop, and to settle difficulties between the clergy. On the first day of every month he held conferences with the clergy. He also reported to the archdeacon, and through him to the bishop, the graver offences of the laymen. The archpriest's church was the only one in the district in which baptism was dis- pensed {eevh sin, baptismedis). The whole of the dis- tricts was sometimes called plebs, and the archpresby- ter Plebanus, a title which in several countries is still in use. There are still archpriests in the Greek Church, vested with most of the privileges of chorejyis- copi, or rural bishops. The name is also still in use in some dioceses of the Roman Church, corresponding to the more common dean (q. v.). — Bingham. Orig. Ec- cles. bk. ii, cap. 19; Coleman, Christian Antiquities, p. 161 ; Thomassin, De nova et veteri ecclesim disciplina, pt. ii, 1. ii, c. 3; Neller, De Archipresbyteris (Trevir. 1771). See Presbyter ; Priest.
Arcimboldi, Johannes Angeltts, born at Milan toward the close of the fifteenth century, sent by Leo X as papal nuncio to Scandinavia in order to sell pa- pal indulgences. The permission to do so he bought
at a high price of King Christian II of Denmark. In the controversies springing up between the Danes and the Swedes, he was first bribed by the Danes and later by the Swedes. On his return to Italy, Leo X ordered a suit to be instituted against him, but in 1525 he was made bishop of Novara, and in 1550 archbishop of Mi- lan. He died in 1555.
Arctn'rus (the Latin form of the Gr. apKrovpoc, bear-keeper, designating among the ancients the bright- est star in the constellation Bootes, Cic. Aral. 99 ; also the whole constellation Bootes, Hes. Op. 564, 608 : Virg. Georg. i, 204 ; and hence the time of its rising in September, Soph. CEd. Tyr. 1137; Thuc. ii, 78; Virg. Georg. i, 68), put in the Auth. Vers, for the Heb. "£'J (Ash, for d;'«, neiish', Arabic the same, Job ix, 9, " [God], which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south," Sept. flAf- tdg, Vulg. Arcturus), or d^? (A'yish, a fuller form of the same, prob. signifying supporter, barrow, Job xxxviii, 32, " canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons," Sept. '"Emrepog, Vulg. vespe?-), is thought by most recent interpreters to denote the constellation of the Great Bear, Ursa Major, but on grounds not alto- gether satisfactory nor with unanimity (see Hyde, ad Ulugh-Beii, Tab. Stell. p. 22, 23 ; Michaelis, Suppl. p. 1907 \ Schultens on Job, p. 239). The older interpret- ers understand: (1.) the Great Bear, or the seven stars of the Wain (Sepfentriones), so Saadias and Aben Ezra; (2.) the Pleiades, so the Sept. (in one passage only, and there perhaps the terms have become trans- posed, as "Eo-TTtpog and 'ApKrovpog both occur in the same verse) and the Targum (NP-Vf in the other pas- sage, according to the Venice and Lond. editions, meaning, however, hen, according to Bochart); (3.) the evening star, Hesperus, Venus, so the Sept. (in the latter passage, and perhaps also in the first) ami Vulg.; (4.) the tail of Aries (fiba ^21) or the head of Taurus (H.byj~l 'CH~t), so the Talmudists (Bera- choth, p. 586), apparently referring to the bright star in the eye of Taurus (Aldebaraii), near the tail of Aries; (5.) Arcturus, so the Vulg. (in chap, ix, and perhaps the Sept.); (6.) the rendering Iyutha of the Syriac (in both passages, as likewise in Job xv, 27, for PGS, and Amos v, 8, for b^OS ; comp. Ephraemi Opera, ii, 449 a), as this word is itself of doubtful origin and signifi- cation, if really genuine (see Anecdot. Orient, ii, :!7 : Lach, in Eichhom's Bibl. vii, 341), but appears from the lexicographers to bear the general import of she- goat, referring to a star in the constellation Auriga. Laying aside those of these interpretations that are evidently mere conjecture (such as Arcturus, Venus), and others that are here out of the question (such as the Pleiades, which in Heb. arc called iTC"<3), there remain but two interpretations : First, that which identifies the Heb. Ash with the Great Bear, or Ursa Major, the Wain. The superior probability of this is sustained by the following considerations : (1.) This is so conspicuous a constellation, and so famous in all ancient as well as modern astronomy, that the total silence in these astrological enumerations, otherwise, respecting it is unaccountable, especially as inferior constellations are not omitted; (2.) The mention of the attendant stars ("sons," b^jlSl) in the second passage of Job agrees with the ascription among the Arabs of daughters to X> esh, the corresponding Arabic constellation (Niebuhr, Beschreib. v. Arabien, p. 114), these being the three stars in the tail of the Bear. The other interpretation, namely, the goat, can only lie sustained by a forced etymology from "t", a goat, and a lesser constellation is then referred to, namely, Auriga ; and the reference to the attendant stars, to those in the right hand of this figure, is not only un- natural, but at variance with its late origin. Schul-