spiritual beings intermediate between God and men, it is probable that
many of the details may be regarded merely as symbolic imagery. In
Scripture the function of the angel overshadows his personality; the
stress is on their ministry; they appear in order to perform specific
acts.
[Footnote 1: _E.g._ Gen. vi. 2; Job i. 6; Ps. viii. 5, xxix. I.]
[Footnote 2: Zech. xiv. 5.]
[Footnote 3: Dan. iv. 13.]
[Footnote 4: Deut. xvii. 3 (?).]
[Footnote 5: Josh. v. 14 (?).]
[Footnote 6: The identification of the "hosts" with the stars comes
to the same thing; the stars were thought of as closely connected with
angels. It is probable that the "hosts" were also identified with the
armies of Israel.]
[Footnote 7: Rev. i. 4.]
[Footnote 8: Gen. xxxii. 30; Judges xiii. 22.]
[Footnote 9: Exod. iii. 2, xiv.]
[Footnote 10: Zech. i. 11f.]
[Footnote 11: Cf. xviii. I with xviii. 2, and note change of number in
xix. 17.]
[Footnote 12: Gen. xxviii. 12, E.]
[Footnote 13: Gen. xxxii. I, E.]
[Footnote 14: Gen. xxxii. 24, 30, J.]
[Footnote 15: "An angel" of I Kings xiii. 18 might be the _Mal'akh
Yahweh_, as in xix. 5, cf. 7, or the passage, at any rate in its
present form, may be exilic or post-exilic.]
[Footnote 16: Deut. vi. 4. 5.]
[Footnote 17: Isaiah xliii. 10 &c.]
[Footnote 18: It is not however certain that these doctrines of
Zoroastrianism were developed at so early a date.]
[Footnote 19: Ezek. i.x.]
[Footnote 20: Ezek. ix.]
[Footnote 21: Zech. i. 11 f.]
[Footnote 22: Zech. iii. 1.]
[Footnote 23: Job i., ii. Cf. I Chron. xxi. 1.]
[Footnote 24: Pss. xci. 11, ciii. 20 &c.]
[Footnote 25: Tobit xii. 15; Rev. viii. 2.]
[Footnote 26: Dan. viii. 16, x. 13, 20, 21.]
[Footnote 27: Tob. xii. 15.]
[Footnote 28: Job iv. 18.]
[Footnote 29: Tobit iii. 8, 17, vi. 7.]
[Footnote 30: _E.g._ Matt. i. 20 (to Joseph), iv. 11. (to Jesus), Luke
i. 26 (to Mary), Acts xii. 7 (to Peter).]
[Footnote 31: _E.g._ Mark viii. 38, xiii. 27.]
[Footnote 32: Mark xii. 25.]
[Footnote 33: Luke i. 19.]
[Footnote 34: Rev. ix. 11.]
[Footnote 35: Mark iii. 22.]
[Footnote 36: Mark i. 13.]
[Footnote 37: Michael, Jude 9.]
[Footnote 38: Rom. viii. 38; Col, ii. 10.]
[Footnote 39: Col. i. 16.]
[Footnote 40: Rev. vii. 1.]
[Footnote 41: Gen. xviii. 8.]
[Footnote 42: Gen. xix. 16.]
[Footnote 43: Zech. iv. 1.]
[Footnote 44: Judges vi. 12, 21.]
[Footnote 45: Rev. vii. 1. viii.]
[Footnote 46: Rev. viii. 13, xiv. 6.]
[Footnote 47: Job xxxviii. 7; _Asc. of Isaiah_, iv. 18; Slav. _Enoch_,
iv. 1.]
[Footnote 48: Rev. xiv. 18, xvi. 5; possibly Gal. iv. 3; Col. ii. 8,
20.]
[Footnote 49: Ps. lxviii. 17; Dan. vii. 10.]
[Footnote 50: Matt, xviii. 10; Acts xii. 15.]
[Footnote 51: Gal. iii. 19; Heb. ii. 2; _LXX_. of Deut. xxxiii. 2.]
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--See the sections on "Angels" in the handbooks of O.T.
Theology by Ewald, Schultz, Smend, Kayser-Marti, &c.; and of
N.T. Theology by Weiss, and in van Oosterzee's _Dogmatics_. Also
commentaries on special passages, especially Driver and Bevan on
_Daniel_, and G.A. Smith, _Minor Prophets_, ii. 310 ff.; and articles
_s.v._ "Angel" in Hastings' _Bible Dictionary_, and the _Encyclopaedia
Biblica_.
(W.H. BE.)
ANGEL, a gold coin, first used in France (_angelot, ange_) in 1340,
and introduced into England by Edward IV. in 1465 as a new issue of
the "noble," and so at first called the "angel-noble." It varied in
value between that period and the time of Charles I. (when it was
last coined) from 6s. 8d. to 10s. The name was derived from the
representation it bore of St. Michael and the dragon. The angel was the
coin given to those who came to be touched for the disease known
as king's evil; after it was no longer coined, medals, called
touch-pieces, with the same device, were given instead.
ANGELICA, a genus of plants of the natural order _Umbelliferae_,
represented in Britain by one species, _A. sylvestris_, a tall
perennial herb with large bipinnate leaves and large compound umbels
of white or purple flowers. The name Angelica is popularly given to
a plant of an allied genus, _Archangelica officinalis_, the tender
shoots of which are used in making certain kinds of aromatic
sweetmeats. _Angelica balsam_ is obtained by extracting the roots with
alcohol, evaporating and extracting the residue with ether. It is of
a dark brown colour and contains angelica oil, angelica wax and
angelicin, C_{18}_H_{30}_O. The essential oil of the roots of
_Angelica archangelica_ contains ß-terebangelene, C_{10}_H_{16}, and
other terpenes; the oil of the seeds also contains ß-terebangelene,
together with methylethylacetic acid and hydroxymyristic acid.
The angelica tree is a member of the order _Avaliaceae_, a species of
_Aralia (A. spinosa_), a native of North America; it grows 8 to 12 ft.
high, has a simple prickle-bearing stem forming an umbrella-like head,
and much divided leaves.
ANGELICO, FRA (1387-1455), Italian painter. Il Beato Fra Giovanni
Angelico da Fiesole is the name given to a far-famed painter-friar of
the Florentine state in the 15th century, the representative, beyond
all other men, of pietistic painting. He is often, but not accurately,
termed simply "Fiesole," which is merely the name of the town where he
first took the vows; more often Fra Angelico. If we turn his compound
designation into English, it runs thus--"the Beatified Friar John the
Angelic of Fiesole." In his lifetime he was known no doubt simply as
Fra Giovanni or Friar John; "The Angelic" is a laudatory term which
was assigned to him at an early date,--we find it in use within thirty
years after his death; and, at some period which is not defined in
our authorities, he was beatified by due ecclesiastical process. His
baptismal name was Guido, Giovanni being only his name in religion. He
was born at Vicchio, in the Tuscan province of Mugello, of unknown
but seemingly well-to-do parentage, in 1387 (not 1390 as sometimes
stated); in 1407 he became a novice in the convent of S. Domenico at
Fiesole, and in 1408 he took the vows and entered the Dominican order.
Whether he had previously been a painter by profession is not certain,
but may be pronounced probable. The painter named Lorenzo Monaco may
have contributed to his art-training, and the influence of the Sienese
school is discernible in his work.
[v.02 p.0007]
According to Vasari, the first paintings of this artist were in the
Certosa of Florence; none such exist there now. His earliest extant
performances, in considerable number, are at Cortona, whither he
was sent during his novitiate, and here apparently he spent all the
opening years of his monastic life. His first works executed in fresco
were probably those, now destroyed, which he painted in the convent
of S. Domenico in this city; as a fresco-painter, he may have worked
under, or as a follower of, Gherardo Starnina. From 1418 to 1436
he was back at Fiesole; in 1436 he was transferred to the Dominican
convent of S. Marco in Florence, and in 1438 undertook to paint the
altarpiece for the choir, followed by many other works; he may have
studied about this time the renowned frescoes in the Brancacci chapel
in the Florentine church of the Carmine and also the paintings of
Orcagna. In or about 1445 he was invited by the pope to Rome. The pope
who reigned from 1431 to 1447 was Eugenius IV., and he it was who in
1445 appointed another Dominican friar, a colleague of Angelico, to
be archbishop of Florence. If the story (first told by Vasari) is
true--that this appointment was made at the suggestion of Angelico
only after the archbishopric had been offered to himself, and by
him declined on the ground of his inaptitude for so elevated and
responsible a station--Eugenius, and not (as stated by Vasari) his
successor Nicholas V., must have been the pope who sent the invitation
and made the offer to Fra Giovanni, for Nicholas only succeeded in
1447. The whole statement lacks authentication, though in itself
credible enough. Certain it is that Angelico was staying in Rome in
the first half of 1447; and he painted in the Vatican the Cappella del
Sacramento, which was afterwards demolished by Paul III. In June
1447 he proceeded to Orvieto, to paint in the Cappella Nuova of the
cathedral, with the co-operation of his pupil Benozzo Gozzoli. He
afterwards returned to Rome to paint the chapel of Nicholas V. In
this capital he died in 1455, and he lies buried in the church of the
Minerva.
According to all the accounts which have reached us, few men on
whom the distinction of beatification has been conferred could
have deserved it more nobly than Fra Giovanni. He led a holy and
self-denying life, shunning all advancement, and was a brother to
the poor; no man ever saw him angered. He painted with unceasing
diligence, treating none but sacred subjects; he never retouched
or altered his work, probably with a religious feeling that such as
divine providence allowed the thing to come, such it should remain. He
was wont to say that he who illustrates the acts of Christ should
be with Christ. It is averred that he never handled a brush without
fervent prayer and he wept when he painted a Crucifixion. The Last
Judgment and the Annunciation were two of the subjects he most
frequently treated.
Bearing in mind the details already given as to the dates of Fra
Giovanni's sojournings in various localities, the reader will be able
to trace approximately the sequence of the works which we now proceed
to name as among his most important productions. In Florence, in the
convent of S. Marco (now converted into a national museum), a series
of frescoes, beginning towards 1443; in the first cloister is the
Crucifixion with St. Dominic kneeling; and the same treatment recurs on
a wall near the dormitory; in the chapterhouse is a third Crucifixion,
with the Virgin swooning, a composition of twenty life-sized
figures--the red background, which has a strange and harsh effect, is
the misdoing of some restorer; an "Annunciation," the figures of about
three-fourths of life-size, in a dormitory; in the adjoining passage,
the "Virgin enthroned," with four saints; on the wall of a cell,
the "Coronation of the Virgin," with Saints Paul, Thomas Aquinas,
Benedict, Dominic, Francis and Peter Martyr; two Dominicans welcoming
Jesus, habited as a pilgrim; an "Adoration of the Magi"; the "Marys
at the Sepulchre." All these works are later than the altarpiece which
Angelico painted (as before mentioned) for the choir connected
with this convent, and which is now in the academy of Florence; it
represents the Virgin with Saints Cosmas and Damian (the patrons of
the Medici family), Dominic, Peter, Francis, Mark, John Evangelist and
Stephen; the pediment illustrated the lives of Cosmas and Damian, but
it has long been severed from the main subject. In the Uffizi gallery,
an altarpiece, the Virgin (life-sized) enthroned, with the Infant and
twelve angels. In S. Domenico, Fiesole, a few frescoes, less fine than
those in S. Marco; also an altarpiece in tempera of the Virgin and
Child between Saints Peter, Thomas Aquinas, Dominic and Peter Martyr,
now much destroyed. The subject which originally formed the predella
of this picture has, since 1860, been in the National Gallery, London,
and worthily represents there the hand of the saintly painter. The
subject is a Glory, Christ with the banner of the Resurrection, and
a multitude of saints, including, at the extremities, the saints or
beati of the Dominican order; here are no fewer than 266 figures
or portions of figures, many of them having names inscribed. This
predella was highly lauded by Vasari; still more highly another
picture which used to form an altarpiece in Fiesole, and which now
obtains world-wide celebrity in the Louvre--the "Coronation of the
Virgin," with eight predella subjects of the miracles of St. Dominic.
For the church of Santa Trinita, Florence, Angelico executed a
"Deposition from the Cross," and for the church of the Angeli, a "Last
Judgment," both now in the Florentine academy; for S. Maria Novella, a
"Coronation of the Virgin," with a predella in three sections, now
in the Uffizi,--this again is one of his masterpieces. In Orvieto
cathedral he painted three triangular divisions of the ceiling,
portraying respectively Christ in a glory of angels, sixteen saints
and prophets, and the virgin and apostles: all these are now much
repainted and damaged. In Rome, in the Chapel of Nicholas V., the acts
of Saints Stephen and Lawrence; also various figures of saints, and
on the ceiling the four evangelists. These works of the painter's
advanced age, which have suffered somewhat from restorations, show
vigour superior to that of his youth, along with a more adequate
treatment of the architectural perspectives. Naturally, there are a
number of works currently attributed to Angelico, but not really his;
for instance, a "St Thomas with the Madonna's girdle," in the Lateran
museum, and a "Virgin enthroned," in the church of S. Girolamo,
Fiesole. It has often been said that he commenced and frequently
practised as an illuminator; this is dubious and a presumption arises
that illuminations executed by Giovanni's brother, Benedetto, also
a Dominican, who died in 1448, have been ascribed to the more famous
artist. Benedetto may perhaps have assisted Giovanni in the frescoes
at S. Marco, but nothing of the kind is distinctly traceable. A folio
series of engravings from these paintings was published in Florence,
in 1852. Along with Gozzoli already mentioned, Zanobi Strozzi and
Gentile da Fabriano are named as pupils of the Beato.
We have spoken of Angelico's art as "pietistic"; this is in fact
its predominant character. His visages have an air of rapt suavity,
devotional fervency and beaming esoteric consciousness, which is
intensely attractive to some minds and realizes beyond rivalry a
particular ideal--that of ecclesiastical saintliness and detachment
from secular fret and turmoil. It should not be denied that he did not
always escape the pitfalls of such a method of treatment, the faces
becoming sleek and prim, with a smirk of sexless religiosity which
hardly eludes the artificial or even the hypocritical; on other minds,
therefore, and these some of the most masculine and resolute, he
produces little genuine impression. After allowing for this, Angelico
should nevertheless be accepted beyond cavil as an exalted typical
painter according to his own range of conceptions, consonant with his
monastic calling, unsullied purity of life and exceeding devoutness.
Exquisite as he is in his special mode of execution, he undoubtedly
falls far short, not only of his great naturalist contemporaries such
as Masaccio and Lippo Lippi, but even of so distant a precursor as
Giotto, in all that pertains to bold or life-like invention of a
subject or the realization of ordinary appearances, expressions and
actions--the facts of nature, as distinguished from the aspirations or
contemplations of the spirit. Technically speaking, he had much finish
and harmony of composition and colour, without corresponding
mastery of light and shade, and his knowledge of the human frame
was restricted. The brilliancy and fair light scale of his tints
is constantly remarkable, combined with a free use of gilding; this
conduces materially to that celestial character which so pre-eminently
distinguishes his pictured visions of the divine persons, the
hierarchy of heaven and the glory of the redeemed.
[v.02 p.0008]
Books regarding Fra Angelico are numerous. We may mention those by S.
Beissel, 1895; V.M. Crawford, 1900; R.L. Douglas, 1900; I.B. Supino,
1901; D. Tumiati, 1897; G. Williamson, 1901.
(W.M.R.)
ANGELL, GEORGE THORNDIKE (1823-1909), American philanthropist, was
born at Southbridge, Massachusetts, on the 5th of June 1823. He
graduated at Dartmouth in 1846, studied law at the Harvard Law School,
and in 1851 was admitted to the bar in Boston, where he practised
for many years. In 1868 he founded and became president of the
Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in the
same year establishing and becoming editor of _Our Dumb Animals_, a
journal for the promotion of organized effort in securing the humane
treatment of animals. For many years he was active in the organization
of humane societies in England and America. In 1882 he initiated the
movement for the establishment of Bands of Mercy (for the promotion
of humane treatment of animals), of which in 1908 there were more than
72,000 in active existence. In 1889 he founded and became president
of the American Humane Education Society. He became well known as a
criminologist and also as an advocate of laws for the safeguarding of
the public health and against adulteration of food. He died at Boston
on the 16th of March 1909.
ANGEL-LIGHTS, in architecture, the outer upper lights in a
perpendicular window, next to the springing; probably a corruption of
the word angle-lights, as they are nearly triangular.
ANGELUS, a Roman Catholic devotion in memory of the Annunciation.
It has its name from the opening words, _Angelus Domini nuntiavit
Mariae_. It consists of three texts describing the mystery, recited
as versicle and response alternately with the salutation "Hail, Mary!"
This devotion is recited in the Catholic Church three times daily,
about 6 A.M., noon and 6 P.M. At these hours a bell known as the
Angelus bell is rung. This is still rung in some English country
churches, and has often been mistaken for and alleged to be a survival
of the curfew bell. The institution of the Angelus is by some ascribed
to Pope Urban II., by some to John XXII. The triple recitation is
ascribed to Louis XI. of France, who in 1472 ordered it to be thrice
said daily.
ANGELUS SILESIUS (1624-1677), German religious poet, was born in 1624
at Breslau. His family name was Johann Scheffler, but he is generally
known by the pseudonym Angelus Silesius, under which he published his
poems and which marks the country of his birth. Brought up a Lutheran,
and at first physician to the duke of Württemberg-Oels, he joined in
1652 the Roman Catholic Church, in 1661 took orders as a priest, and
became coadjutor to the prince bishop of Breslau. He died at Breslau
on the 9th of July 1677. In 1657 Silesius published under the title
_Heilige Seelenlust, oder geistliche Hirtenlieder der in ihren
Jesum verliebten Psyche_ (1657), a collection of 205 hymns, the most
beautiful of which, such as, _Liebe, die du mich zum Bilde deiner
Gottheit hast gemacht_ and _Mir nach, spricht Christus, unser Held_,
have been adopted in the German Protestant hymnal. More remarkable,
however, is his _Geistreiche Sinn-und Schluss-reime_ (1657),
afterwards called _Cherubinischer Wandersmann_ (1674). This is a
collection of "Reimsprüche" or rhymed distichs embodying a strange
mystical pantheism drawn mainly from the writings of Jakob Böhme and
his followers. Silesius delighted specially in the subtle paradoxes of
mysticism. The essence of God, for instance, he held to be love; God,
he said, can love nothing inferior to himself; but he cannot be an
object of love to himself without going out, so to speak, of himself,
without manifesting his infinity in a finite form; in other words, by
becoming man. God and man are therefore essentially one.
A complete edition of Scheffler's works (_Sämtliche poetische Werke_)
was published by D.A. Rosenthal, 2 vols. (Regensburg, 1862). Both
the _Cherubinischer Wandersmann_ and _Heilige Seelenlust_ have been
republished by G. Ellinger (1895 and 1901); a selection from the
former work by O.E. Hartleben (1896). For further notices of Silesius'
life and work, see Hoffmann von Fallersleben in _Weimarisches Jahrbuch
I_. (Hanover, 1854); A. Kahlert, _Angelus Silesius_ (1853); C.
Seltmann, _Angelus Silesius und seine Mystik_ (1896), and a biog. by
H. Mahn (Dresden, 1896).
ANGERMÜNDE, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of
Brandenburg, on Lake Münde, 43 m. from Berlin by the Berlin-Stettin
railway, and at the junction of lines to Prenzlau, Freien-walde and
Schwedt. Pop. (1900) 7465. It has three Protestant churches, a grammar
school and court of law. Its industries embrace iron founding and
enamel working. In 1420 the elector Frederick I. of Brandenburg gained
here a signal victory over the Pomeranians.
ANGERONA, or ANGERONIA, an old Roman goddess, whose name and functions
are variously explained. According to ancient authorities, she was a
goddess who relieved men from pain and sorrow, or delivered the Romans
and their flocks from _angina_ (quinsy); or she was the protecting
goddess of Rome and the keeper of the sacred name of the city, which
might not be pronounced lest it should be revealed to her enemies; it
was even thought that Angerona itself was this name. Modern scholars
regard her as a goddess akin to Ops, Acca Larentia and Dea Dia; or
as the goddess of the new year and the returning sun (according to
Mommsen, _ab angerendo_= [Greek: apo tou anapheresthai. ton haelion).]
Her festival, called Divalia or Angeronalia, was celebrated on the
21st of December. The priests offered sacrifice in the temple of
Volupia, the goddess of pleasure, in which stood a statue of Angerona,
with a finger on her mouth, which was bound and closed (Macrobius
i. 10; Pliny, _Nat. Hist._ iii. 9; Varro, _L. L._ vi. 23). She was
worshipped as Ancharia at Faesulae, where an altar belonging to her
has been recently discovered. (See FAESULAE.)