RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Areopagus Argentina
Moscow Codex 315 (called 302 by Matthaei). These show that he held a position of great influence in relation not only to the emperors but to all the principal political, military, and ecclesiastical leaders. That his life was full of controversy appears from the number of his polemical writings, directed sometimes to his own vindication from personal charges, but more often against the Iconoclasts, the Armenian Monophysites, the Jews, or the " babblings " of Lucian and Julian. Especially noteworthy is tha*> against his former pupil Nicetas of Paphlagonia. But his interests were by no means exclusively ecclesiastical, as is shown by a number of beautifully written manuscripts which he had prepared for his library, and himself completed by introductions, notes, and appendices. The most valuable contain works of Euclid, Aristides, Plato, Lucian, and Marcus Aurelius, as well as a collection of Christian apologists down to Eusebius, which in many cases supplies the primary text The notes vary in value, but show a wide knowledge of Greek and Alexandrian literature, and contain many remarks of historical, antiquarian, and lexicographic importance. The principal work of Arethas's own composition is his commentary on the Apocalypse, written probably after 913, and based upon the earlier commentary of Andrew of Csesarea. It is not, however, a mere compilation, but contains a large amount of new observations and quotations from other sources, increasing it, for the early chapters, to more than double the length found in Andrew. The exegetical standpoint is the same; Arethas takes it for granted that the Apocalypse contains revelations from the world beyond, and finds in each prominent word the possibility of manifold references to past and future history, though holding firmly that these interpretations must be justified by the rest of Scripture and by pure Christian thought. The text of his commentary is in MPG, cvi. 487-786, and in Cramer, Catena Grcecorum patrum in Novum Testamentum, viii. (Oxford, 1844), pp. 176-582. Few of his other works have been published. (G. Heinrici.)
Bibliography: J. C. T. Otto, Des Patriarchen Gennadius ■ . Confession nebst Excurs iiber Arethas' Zeitalter,
Vienna, 1864; Rettig, in TSK, iv. (1831) 755-756; C. de Boor, Vita Euthymii, Anekdoton zur Geschichte Leos des Weisen, chaps, xii., xv., xvi., xviii., xx., Berlin, 1888; Krumbacher, Geschichte, pp. 233-234.
ARETIUS, a-rS'-shi-us (Grecized from Marti), BENEDICTUS: Scientist and theologian; b. at Batterkinden, in the canton of Bern, Switzerland, 1505; d. at Bern March 22, 1574. He studied at Strasburg and at Marburg, where he became professor of logic; was called to Bern as school-teacher, 1548, and became professor of theology, 1564. His chief work, Theologies problemata (Bern, 1573), was a compendium of the knowledge of the time and was highly valued. His Examen theologicum (1557) ran through six editions in fourteen years. His works also include a commentary on the New Testament (1580 and 1616) and on the Pentateuch (1602; 2d ed., with commentary on the Psalms added, 1618), a commentary on Pindar (1587), a description of the flora of two mountains of the Bernese Oberland, Stockhorn and Niesen (Stras-
burg, 1561), a Hebrew method for schools (Basel, 1561), and a defense of the execution (in 1566) of the Antitrinitarian Valentin Gentilis (Geneva, 1567).
Bibliography: J. H. Graf, Geschichte der Mathematik und der Naturwissenschaften in Bernischen Landen, i. 25-29, Bern, 1888.
ARGENTINA: A South American republic, bounded on the north by Bolivia and Paraguay, on the east by Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, and the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the Atlantic, and on the west by the Andes, which separate it from Chile. It is divided into fourteen provinces and nine territories (gobernaciones), and has an area of 1,125,100 square miles and a population of about 4,200,000. The capital is Buenos Ayres (permanently founded, 1580). The republic had its origin in a struggle against Spain which broke out in 1810 and was an outcome of the Napoleonic interference in the mother country. The constitutive assembly was replaced in 1818 by a constitution, although the war with Spain did not end until 1824. This constitution, as amended in 1860, provides for a congress of two chambers, the Senate and the Deputies, and each province has also an elected assembly for its own government.
The constitution declares the state religion to be Roman Catholic and requires the president or his substitute to be of that faith, but establishes the right of governmental exequatur for all papal mandates, and grants other creeds the free exercise of their religion. The hierarchic organization of the Roman Catholic Church naturally began soon after the Spanish conquest, but did not receive its present form until 1865. The archbishop of Buenos Ayres, which was an episcopal see as early as 1582, has the capital under his control, which contains nearly 800,000 inhabitants. The suffragan bishoprics are those of Paraguay (founded 1547), Cordoba (1570), Salta (1806), San Juan de Cuyo (1834), Parana (1859), La Plata (1897), Santa Fe (1897), and Tucuman (1897). Cordoba, the first city of the country to have a cathedral, is also the richest in religious buildings.
In 1884 a Vicar- Apostolic of Carmen de Patagones was appointed with jurisdiction over southern Argentina and northern Patagonia. He draws his priests from the Salesians, as does also the apostolic prefecture for southern Patagonia, erected in 1883. Throughout Patagonia an active missionary propaganda is carried on among the aborigines, of whom some 30,000 are estimated to be unbaptized.
Although almost half the inhabitants of Argentina are either immigrants or the children of immigrants, and come from the most varied countries of Europe, the great majority of these newcomers belong to the Roman Catholic Church, on account of the predominance of Italians (about 500,000), Spaniards (about 200,000), and Roman Catholic Swiss. For decades the latter have flocked in great numbers to northern Argentina. The relatively small number of Protestants in the republic is estimated at about 33,000. Of these between 23,000 and 24,000 belong to the German synod of La Plata,
Arianism