Are'us, a king of the Lacedaemonians, whose let- ter to the high-priest Onias is given in 1 Mace, xii, 20 sq. He is so called in the A. V. in ver. 20 and in the margin of ver. 7 ; but Oniares in ver. 19, and so in the Greek text 'Oriapijg (v. r. 'OviapiQ, 'Ore iapt]c) in ver. 20, and Darius (Aapt Tor) in ver. 7 : there can be little doubt, however, that these are corruptions of 'Aptvg. In Josephus (Ant. xii, 4, 10) the name is written (Aptloc) as in the Vulgate Arms. There were two Spartan kings of the name of Areus, of whom the first reigned B.C. 309-265, and the second, the grandson of the former, died when a child of eight years old in B.C. 257. There were three high-priests of the name of Onias, of whom the first held the office B.C. 323- 800. This is the one who must have written the let- ter to Areus I, probably in some interval between 309 and 300 (Grimm, zu Mace. p. 185). See Onias. This Areus was foremost in the league of the Greek states against Anti.aonus Gonatus (B.C. 280), and when Pyr- rhus attacked Sparta (B.C. 272) he repelled him by an alliance with the Arrives. He fell in battle against the Macedonians at Corinth (Smith's Diet, of Class. Biog. s. v.). — Smith, s. v.
Argentetis, Codex (silver manuscript}, a MS. of part of the N. T , so called from the silver letters in which it is written. This codex is preserved in the University of Upsal, and is a copy from the Gothic version of Ulphilas, which was made in the fourth century. It is of a quarto size, is written on vellum, the leaves of which are stained with a violet color ; and on this ground the letters, which are all uncial, or capitals, are painted in silver, except the initial let- ters, which are in gold, of course now much faded. It contains fragments of the four gospels (in the Latin order, Matth., John, Luke, Mark) on 188 (out of about 320) leaves, so regularly written that some have imag- ined they were impressed with a stamp. This 51 S. was first discovered by Ant. Morillon in 1597, in the library of the Benedictine abbey of Werdcn, in "West- phalia, but by some means it was deposited in Prague, and was taken to Stockholm by the Swedes on the capture of the former place in 1648. Queen Christina appears to have given it to her librarian Vossius prior to 1655, and while in his hands a transcript of it was made by one Derrer. Through the agency of Puffen- dorf, it was purchased by Count de la Gardie for the Swedish library, where it still remains. Vossius had previously placed the MS. in his uncle Junius's hands for publication ; and in 1665 the text of the Gothic gospels, so far as contained in this codex, was edited at Dort under his care, accompanied by the Anglo- Saxon version, edited by Thos. Marshall. This edi- tion was in Gothic characters cut for the purpose, and
ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION 387
ARGOB
for it Junius employed the transcript made by Derrer. — Tregelles, in Home's Introd. iv, 301. See Gothic Versions.
Argentine Confederation, a confederation of states in South America, consisting in 18(15, when Buenos Ayres, which had seceded in 1854, had been reunited with it, of 14 provinces, with a population of about 1,171,800. It constituted itself an independent state in 1810. The population, partly Europeans, part- ly Africans, partly Indians, partly of mixed descent, belong mostly to the Roman Catholic Church. The inhabitants of the country district (Pamperos) surpass in rudeness all other tribes of South America, and show very little interest in religion. The Roman Catholic Church has five bishoprics, Buenos Ayres, Cordova, Salta, Sarana, and Cuyo, all of which are suffragans of the archbishop of Charcas, in Bolivia. In 1825 religious toleration was granted to all denom- inations, and in 1834 mixed marriages were allowed, provided that the parents agreed to bring up all the children in the Roman Catholic Church. The tithes were placed under the administration of the govern- ment, which uses one part of them for school and other objects of common interest. The convents were sup- pressed, except one convent of Franciscans and two convents of nuns, and their property confiscated. Later, the Dominicans were again allowed to settle, and the Franciscans to receive new members from Spain. The Jesuits established themselves at Buenos Ayres in 1841. In 1858 there were disturbances at Buenos Ayres in consequence of the bishop prohibit- ing ecclesiastical rites at the burial of free-masons. Protestant missionaries came to the Argentine Con- federation from the United States in 1835, and many copies of the Scriptures were disseminated. A treaty with the United States in 1852 guaranteed freedom of Protestant worship and burial. The Methodist mis- sion in Buenos Ayres, commenced in 1830, is in a flourishing condition. The church and congregation support the pastor and pay the current expenses of the church and parsonage. According to the report of the Rev. William Goodfellow, superintendent of the Methodist missions in South America, there were, in 1864, appointments at Tatay, Lobos, Guardia del Mon- te, Canuelas, and Tuyu, all in the province of Buenos Ayres. At Azul, in the same province, about seventy leagues from the city of Buenos Ayres, where there is a fine region, rapidly filling up with good Protestant settlers, a separate charge has been arranged, holding a quarterly conference. In the province of Santa Fe, Rosario, the second city of the confederation, with an aggregate population of 12,000 or more, has a rapidly increasing Protestant population, and already possesses a Protestant cemetery, which was consecrated in 18G4. At Esperanza, also in the province of Santa Fe, there were at that date about 600 Protestants, who were so located as to constitute an important point in reference to further extensions. San Carlos, in the same prov- ince, had a Protestant population of 300 Germans and French, whose number bade fair to increase rapidly by immigration. Another settlement of European Prot- estants was at San Jose, near Parana, in the province of Entre Rios. It was expected that the bulk of these Protestant colonists would unite with the Meth- odist Episcopal Church. In 1864 the church counted 88 members and 35 probationers, and a flourishing Sunday-school, with 155 scholars and 20 officers. See Wiggers, Kirchliche Statistic ; 46/7t Annual Report of the Miss. Soc. of the M. E. Chunk (N. Y. 18G5). See America.