THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
dained by Formosus The third and fourth bear directly upon the validity of these ordinations The works are in MPL, cxxix, 1053-1100, and E. Diimmler, Auxilius und Vulgarius (Leipsic, 1866), pp. 59-116. The Liber cujusdam requirentis et respondentis, in M PL, cxxix, 1101-12, is not genuine.
(A. Hauck.) Bibliography: Watttenbach, DGQ, i (1894), 305.
AVA: The first German poetess; d. at Melk (on the Danube, 50 m. w. of Vienna), or a neighboring convent of Lower Austria, Feb. 8, 1127. A number of poems are ascribed to her, of which the most important and most certainly genuine is described in one of the manuscripts as treating of " the life, passion, and resurrection of the Lord, and of the Holy Spirit, according to the gospels; of the Last Judgment and Antichrist, and of the delights of heaven."
A later manuscript includes the life of John the Baptist. Two sons are said to have helped in its composition, who are thought to have been two poets known from other works, named Hartmann and Heinrich. The former was educated for the priesthood at Passau, became prior of St. Blasien in 1094, then abbot of Gottweih, founded the monastery of Lambrecht in 1096, and died in 1114. The latter was a layman and probably survived Hartmann. Ava was a reclusa, but conjectures as to her sinful early life and later ascetic practises are based upon the doubtful works and are hardly justified by these. The poem as preserved is not composite. It displays real poetic gifts and, in the choice of incidents as well as in their treatment, indicates that the author was a woman, with no trace, however, of feminine enthusiasm. The material is drawn from the gospels and the Acts, for the presentation of Antichrist and the Last Judgment from Rev. xvii-xx. The aim seems to have been to present a simple narrative in poetic form of the great deeds of God in the new covenant similar to treatments of Genesis, Exodus, and other parts of the Pentateuch which are known to have been already in existence. There is no homiletical coloring, and moral reflections and allegory are avoided. The separation of the good and the bad at the Last Judgment gives opportunity for a brief but instructive picture of social conditions of the time, which indicates personal familiarity with the sins of the higher classes. The time of composition was probably about 1120. A. Freybe.
Bibliography: J. Diemer, Deutsche Gedichte des xi und xii Jahrhunderts, aufgefunden im rcgulierten Chorherrenstifte zu Vorau in der Steiermark, Vienna, 1849; W. Scherer, Geistliche Poeten der deutschen Kaiserzeit, ii, in Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprache und Culturgeschichte der germanischen V biker, vii, pp. 73-77, Stuttgart, 1875; and especially A. Langguth, Untersuchungen uber die Gedichte der Ava, Budapest, 1880.
AVARS, THE: A tribe related to the Huns, who from the middle of the sixth century came into contact with the Christian nations — first with the Byzantine empire, and then with the Frankish kingdom; but they learned Christianity from neither of these. Virgil of Salzburg seems to have been the first to attempt their conversion, and Charlemagne supported him. Duke Tassilo of Bavaria summoned them to Germany as allies
against him; in 788 they attacked the Frankish kingdom from two sides, but were repulsed on both, and the struggle ended with their complete subjugation in 796, when they accepted Christianity as one of the conditions of peace. The territory thus won for Charlemagne and Christian missions extended from the Enns and the slopes of the Styrian Alps to the Danube. It was divided between the dioceses of Aquileia, Salzburg, and Passau. The Avars, however, soon afterward disappeared from history, probably being absorbed by the Slavic population which formed a majority in their territory. (A. Hauck.)
Bibliography: Schiefner, Versuch uber das Awarische, St. Petersburg, 1862; Hauck, KB, ii, 419.
AVE MARIA. See Rosary.
AVE MARIA BRETHREN. See Servites.
AVENARIUS, JOHANNES. See Habermann,