RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Alombrados Alsace-Lorraine
formulas, divided by a cross which terminates at each extremity in A or a.
The letters occur much less frequently in the literary sources of Christian antiquity and of the Middle Ages than in monumental inscriptions. With the various forms of the monogram of Christ and of the cross, they belonged to the most popular symbols of early Christian art, which was never tired of reproducing them on all kinds of monuments, public and private, and in every sort of material. The fact that with but very few exceptions, A and Q are found, as far as is known, on these monuments in connection with figures or symbols of Christ — never of God in the abstract or of God the Father — leads to the interesting conclusion that the popular exegesis of the above-named passages of the Apocalypse referred their meaning to Christ alone, and thus affords a proof that the makers of these monuments were indirectly expressing their belief in his divinity. The possibility, however, can not be denied that in certain cases motives of a superstitious nature may have led to the employment of these symbols; but it is much less easy to reason with certainty from the monumental remains than from the literature of the time. Modern Christian art, less given to symbolism, is relatively poor in examples of the use of these letters, though they have reappeared more often in the nineteenth century, as a general rule in connection with the monogram of Christ. Full and detailed descriptions of their early use, with the dates of their appearance in different countries, and classification of their employment alone, with human or animal figures, or (which is much more frequent) with other symbols, may be found in abundance in the archeological works of De Rossi, Garrucci, Hiibner, Le Blant, Kraus, and others, and in the Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum.
(NlKOLAUS MtJLLER.) Bibliography: A vast amount has been written on the subject; the best single article is in Dictionnaire d'archeologie chretienne et de liturgie, fasc. i., cols. 1-25, Paris, 1903, and contains diagrams and very full and definite references to the literature.
ALPKEUS, al-fi'us: Father of the second James in all four of the lists of the apostles. He is interesting in so far as he may with probability be identified with the Clopas (A. V Cleophas) of John xix. 25. Of the two Marys who stood by the cross with the mother of Jesus, one is called in this passage the wife of Clopas; in Matt, xxvii. 56 and in Mark xv. 40, the mother of James, or James the Less, presumably the second apostle of this name. The question how the use of two different names, Alphaeus and Clopas, is to be explained may be answered in two ways. Either lUuTrd? (=IUe<57raf, a contraction of Kleoirarpog, as 'Av-R7r«c of AyrOTarpof) was the Greek name which Alphaeus bore in addition to his Aramaic one; or there are nere two alternative Grecized forms, both representing ^n. Against the former view is the fact that the contraction a« for kXso in Greek names is never found elsewhere; and in favor of the latter is the fact that the initial n, commonly rendered by the smooth breathing or by X, is sometimes also represented by K. In any case
the diversity of names need not prevent the identity of person. This identity would make Alphaeus the uncle, and James, the son of Alphaeus, the cousin, of Jesus — a result of some importance for the question as to James (q.v.). (K. Schmidt.)
The most probable solution of this much vexed problem seems to lie in a ground form ^tbv, the two modes of pronouncing the first letter of which (as in Arabic) would give rise to the variant names Alphaeus and Clopas or Cleophas.
G. W G. Bibliography: J. B. Lightfoot, Galatians, p. 267, London,
1890; T. Keim, Jesus of Nazara, iii. 276, London, 1878;
J. B. Mayor, Epistle of St. James, pp. xvi.-xvii., London
1897; DB, i. 74-75; EB, i. 122-123.
ALSACE-LORRAINE (Germ. Elsass-Lothringen) : An immediate "imperial territory" (Reichsland), forming the extreme southwest of the German empire, bounded on the north by the grand duchy of Luxemburg, Rhenish Prussia, and the Rhine Palatinate (Rhenish Bavaria), on the east by Baden, on the south by Switzerland, and on the west by France. Its area is 5,603 square miles, with a population (1905) of 1,814,630, including 1,375,300 (75.8 per cent.) Roman Catholics, 406,100 (22.3 per cent.) Protestants, and 33,130 (1.88 percent.) Jews. The preponderance of Roman Catholics points back to the political conditions of the sixteenth century, when the territory for the most part belonged to the house of Austria, the duke of Lorraine, and the bishops of Strasburg. The Reformation found entrance only in the free city of Strasburg and in certain other cities and minor dependencies; and much of the progress there made was lost under the dragonnades and through the work of the Jesuits in the time of Louis XIV
Ecclesiastical matters were little changed by the transfer of Alsace-Lorraine from France to Germany after the war of 1870-71. The The Church of the Augsburg Confession is
Lutheran still constituted according to the law
Church, of the first French republic as amended in 1852 after the coup d'etat of Louis Napoleon. A presbyterial council, chosen by the congregation, under the presidency of the pastor, has general oversight of the spiritual and temporal concerns of each congregation. Its acts and decisions must be confirmed by the next higher ecclesiastical board, the consistory — in some cases representing a single congregation, in others a union of several — which is chosen by a highly complicated system. Its functions are in general the same as those of the presbytery — to maintain discipline, to care for the order of divine service, and to manage Church property. There are also inspection districts, each having one clerical and two lay inspectors. At the head of the Church is a directory, a standing board, and an upper consistory, which meets yearly. The directory consists of two laymen and one of the clerical inspectors appointed by the government, and two lay members chosen by the upper consistory. It has power to review all acts of presbyteries and consistories, manages all Church property, forms the intermediate body between Church and government, and appoints all ministers after consultation with presbyterial councils and
Alsace-Lorraine Altar