RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Agnosticism Agonizants
prescribes that the priest, before taking the sacrament shall recite the Agnus Dei three times, bowing and beating his breast to express _ contrition for sin the third time with the addition of dona nobis pacem." The consecration precedes, the Lord's Prayer is sung with the Libera nos ; a piece of the consecrated and broken bread is then thrown into the cup, and the Agnus follows. At the Church festivals it is accompanied with telling effect by soft and tender music. In the mass for the dead the words " give them rest " are substituted for " have mercy upon us," the third time with the addition of " eternal."
The Agnus was accepted in the Evangelical
Lutheran Church at the beginning, either in the
translation of Nicolaus Decius, " O Lamm Gottes
unschuldig," or in the more exact form, " Chnste,
du Lamm Gottes, der du tragst." In the days of
rationalism it was often omitted, or the phrase
" Son of God " was substituted for " Lamb of God,"
the latter being thought to imply an unchristian,
Levitical sacrificial conception. It was afterward
restored, and is now used in numerous musical
settings. In the Church of England the Agnus
was incorporated in the Litany, but only to be
repeated twice; and the last form (ending with
" grant us thy peace ") was placed first. In the
first prayer-book of Edward I. it was included in
the communion office, but was omitted in that of
1552 and all subsequent revisions. Nevertheless,
it is almost invariably sung by congregations of
High-church affiliations. M. Herold.
Bibliography: H. A. Daniel, Codex liturgicus, vols, i., ii.,
Leipsic, 1847-48; L. Schoberlein, Schatz des liturgischen
Chor-und Gemeindegesangs, pp. 398 sqq., Gbttingen, 1880;
G. Rietschel, Lehrbuch der Liturgik, p. 386, Berlin, 1900.
Musical settings, by Vittoria, Palestrina, F. Burmeister
(1601), F. Decker (1604), M. Prsetorius (d. 1621), Mozart,
and others; consult R. von Liliencron, Chorordnung, Gii-
tersloh, 1900.
2. Name given to a wax medallion, bearing the figure of a lamb, made from the remains of the paschal taper, and consecrated by the pope in the special ceremonies on the Sunday after Easter in the first year of each pontificate and every seven years thereafter. These medallions are presented to distinguished individuals or to churches, are often enclosed in cases of costly workmanship, and are carefully preserved, almost like relics.
AGOBARD, ag'o-bard: Archbishop of Lyons 816-840 [b., probably in Spain, 779; d. in Saintonge (an old province of western France) June 6, 840]. Nothing certain is known of his youth. He went to Lyons in 792, and probably owed his education to Leidrad, archbishop of Lyons, one of the most diligent of Charlemagne's helpers in his civilizing work. Later he became Leidrad's assistant, and then his successor. When the order of succession established by Louis le D6bonnaire in 817, largely through ecclesiastical influence, was set aside at the instigation of the empress Judith (829), Agobard was one of its most zealous defenders. He seems to have taken no part in the rising of 830; but in 833 he appears among the professed opponents of Louis. He approved the deposition of the emperor, and was one of the bishops who forced him to his humiliating penance at Soissons. Con-
sequently in 835, when Louis had recovered his power, Agobard was deprived of his office. He regained it later, being reconciled with Louis.
Agobard takes a foremost place in the annals of Carolingian culture. In strictly theological treatises such as the Liber adversus dogma Felicis, against Adoptionism, and another, against imageworship, he is as much a mere compiler as any of his contemporaries. When, however, in a polemic against Fredegis, abbot of St. Martin at Tours, he deals with the question of inspiration, he speaks out boldly against the doctrine of verbal inspiration, while still declaring himself to be governed by the tradition of orthodox teachers. In his political writings he was less governed by traditional views. He was not afraid to touch one of the most difficult questions of the time, that of the restitution of Church property, at the diet held at Attigny in 822; and he renewed the demand in the tractate De dispensatione ecclesiarum rerum. His Comparatio utriusque regiminis ecclesiastici et politici (833) is one of the first writings in which the claim is outspokenly made that the emperor must do the bidding of the pope. He wrote a book against the popular superstition that storms could be caused by magic, basing his argument on religious grounds, yet making appeal to sound reason. In advance of his age, again, he denied absolutely the justice of the ordeal by battle, and wrote two tractates against it. He was also to some extent a liturgical scholar; and in the preface to his revised antiphonary laid down the principle that the words of Holy Scripture should alone be used. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: A. Cave. Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historic literaria, vol. ii., London, 1688 (contains list of the works of Agobard); Opera, ed. E. Baluze, 2 vols., Paris, 1666, and thence in MPL, civ.; also in MGH, Leges, l. (1835) 369, MGH, Epist., v. (1899) 150-239, and in MGH, Script., xv. 1 (1887), 274-279. . . , . .
For his life and times: Menestrier, Histmre civile de la ville de Lyons, 3 parts, Lyons, 1696; K. B. Hundeshagen, Commentatio de Agobardi vita et scnptis, Giessen, 1831; P Chevallard, L'Eglise et I'etat en France au neuvihme Steele, Saint Agobard, Lyons, 1869; T. Forster ,Drei Erzbischbfe vor 1000 Jahren, Gutersloh, 1874; B Simson, Jahrbiicher des friinkischen Reichs unter Ludwig demFrommen, i. 397 sqq., Leipsic, 1874; H. Reuter Geschichteder religiosen Aufklarung im Mittelalter, i. 24-41, Berlin, 1875; DCB i 63-64- A Ebert, Geschichte der Litteratur des Mittelalte'rs, ii. 209-222, Leipsic, 1880; J. F. Marcks, Die polvtisch-kirchliche Wirksamkeit des . Agobard, Viersen, 1888; Hauck, KD, ii. 453 sqq.; Wattenbaoh, DGQ, \.lil, Berlin, 1904; F. Wiegand, Agobard von Lyons und die Judenfrage, Leipsic, 1901.
AGONIZANTS (Agony Fathers; Fathers of the Good Death, Camillians, Clerwi regulares mimstrantes infirmis): A fraternity founded at Home in 1584 to care for the sick and minister to the dying. The founder was a pious priest Carrullus de Lellis (b. at Buchianico, in the Neapolitan province Abruzzo, May 25, 1550; d. at Rome July 14, 1614), who, after a wild life as a soldier entered the hospital of St. James at Rome in 1574, suffering from an incurable wound, v™0™ing converted, he devoted the remainder of his hie to heroic service in the hospitals of Rome Naples, and elsewhere. He was canonized by Benedict XIV. in 1746, and his statue now stands, among those of great founders of orders in St. Peter s between the statues of St. Peter of Alcantara and St.
Agraphia Agxicola