RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Adrian Advent
When the diet at Nuremberg was opened in Dec, 1522, he complained in a brief of the rise of heresy in Germany and asked the diet, since mild measures could not be effectual, to employ the means formerly used against Huss. But in his instructions to his legate at the diet, Bishop Chieregati, he took a different tone, and acknowledged that " wantonness," " abuses," and " excesses " were found at the curia. This is the only instance where such a confession received official sanction. An answer was prepared by a committee, which
took notice of the confession, refused
His to execute the edict of Worms before
Confession, an improvement was visible, and
asked for the meeting of a council in a German city, promising to prevent Luther from publishing his polemical writings and to see to it that the preachers proclaimed the pure gospel, but " according to the teaching and interpretation of the Scriptures approved and revered by the Christian Church." Chieregati accepted neither this nor any other answer, but left Nuremberg in haste. In strict papal circles Adrian's confession has not yet been forgiven. He died at Rome Sept. 14, 1523. K. Benrath.
Bibliography: P. Burmannus, Hadrianus VI. sive analecta historica, . . Utrecht, 1727; G. Moringus, Vita Hadriani VI., Louvain, 1536; Bower, Popes, iii. 299- 302; L. P. Gachard, Correspondence de Charles V. et d'Adrien VI., Brussels, 1859; J. S. Brewer, Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., 4 vols., London, 1862- 1901 (especially vol. hi.); G. A. Bergenroth, Calendar relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain, ii., London, 1866; idem, Supplement to vols. i. and ii. (1868); M. Brosch, Geschichte des Kirchenstaates, vol. i., Hamburg, 1880; C. v. Hofler, Papst Hadrian VI., Vienna, 1880; A. Lapitre, Adrien VI., Paris, 1880; L. v. Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation, ii., Leipsic, 1880; idem, Die rbmischen Piipste, i., ib. 1889; Eng. transl., i. 71-74, London, 1896; Milman, Latin Christianity; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ix. 271-299; Creighton, Papacy, vi. 214-273.
ADSO: One of the more prominent of the reforming abbots of the tenth century. He belonged to a noble family in the Jura Mountains, became a monk at Luxeuil, and went later to the monastery of Montier-en-Der (120 m. e.s.e. of Paris), in the diocese of Chalons-sur-Marne, reformed about 935 by the abbot Albert, whom he succeeded in 967 or 968. He laid the foundation for a splendid new basilica, remains of which are still standing (cf. Sackur, Die Cluniacenser, ii. 391), and undertook to reform other monasteries, e.g., St. Benignus at Dijon. Like his friends Abbo of Fleury and Gerbert of Reims (cf. Havet, Les Lettres de Gerbert, pp. 6, 74, Paris, 1889), he was interested in learning and investigation; and his library included the writings of Aristotle, Porphyry, Terence, Csesar, and Vergil. He was often urged to write books, especially the lives of saints, and several works of this class by him may be found in ASM (ii. and iv.; copied in MPL, exxxvii. 597-700).
The most famous of Adso's writings is the earliest, an Epistola ad Gerbergam reginam, de vita et tempore Antichristi, composed before 954, in which he opposes the prevalent notion that the appearance of Antichrist was near at hand. The work was much read, and suffered greatly from mutilations and interpolations (cf. MPL, ci. 1289-98); its
original form has been restored by E. Sackur, in Sibyllinische Texte und Forschungen, pp. 104-113, Halle, 1898. S. M. Deutsch.
Bibliography: The chief source for Adso's life is an addition of the eleventh century to his Vita S. Bercharii, the patron saint of Montier-en-Der, ch xi., in MPL, exxxvii. 678-679, and in MGH, Script., iv. (1841) 488. Consult also the Histoire litteraire de la France, vi. 471-492; A. Ebert, Allgemeine Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalters im Abendlande, iii. 472-484, Leipsic, 1887; and, especially, E. Sackur, Die Cluniacenser, vol. i., Halle, 1892.
ADULTERY. See Marriage.
ADVENT: The first season of the church year. The celebration of Advent in the Western Church was instituted toward the close of the fifth century, in Gaul, Spain, and Italy [but traces of it are found in the Council of Saragossa, 380]. The term was first understood as referring to the birth of Christ, and so the Advent season was a time of preparation for Christmas. Since it commenced at different periods (e.g., at Milan with the Sunday after St. Martin [Nov. 11]; in Rome with the first in December), the number of Sundays in Advent differed in the individual churches. The term adventus was also taken in the wider sense of the coming of Christ in general; hence the lessons for Advent which refer to the second coming of Christ and the last judgment. With it was also connected the notian of the coming of the kingdom of heaven. Thus originated the idea of the triple coming "to man, in man, and against man " or, corresponding to the number four of the Sundays which afterward became general, the notion of the quadruple coming " in the flesh, in the mind, in death, in majesty."
In the medieval church the Advent season was a time of fasting and repentance. Hence one finds in it the figure of John the Baptist, as the precursor of Christ and the preacher of repentance. The whole season from Advent to the octave of Epiphany was a tempus clausum (q.v.) until the Council of Trent, which took off the last week. In the Church of Rome Advent has still the character of a penitential season. The color of the vestments then worn is violet. This character of earnest and serious devotion appears in more preaching, teaching, and insistence upon attendance at communion. Fasting during Advent is not a general ordinance of the Church of Rome [being required only on all Fridays, the vigil of Christmas, and the three ember-days in the last week of the season].
With the adoption of the medieval church calendar, the Protestants also accepted the Advent season and Advent lessons. Thus the season retained its double character, preparation for the Christmas festival and contemplation of the different ways of the coming of Christ. Since it has become customary to separate the civil and ecclesiastical chronology and to distinguish between the civil and church years, the first Sunday of Advent has been dignified as the solemn beginning of the new church year. These various relations of the first Sunday of Advent and the whole Advent season explain the variety of the contents of the Advent hymns and prayers. Among Protestants also the Advent season has a twofold character, that of holy joy and of holy repentance. The first Sunday in Advent is no church festival in a
Advent Christians Advocatus Dei