THECLA
564
THEFT
were covered with rubbish. The monastery con-
tains a Catholic and a Protestant school for girls, a
Protestant school for boys, apartments for some
teachers, and the district court. The abbess's castle
is private property.
Ada SS., Oct., VIII; Kyue, The English Correspondence of St. Boniface (London, 1911); Anon., Life of SI. Lioba (London); Hope, St. Bonifaceand the Conversion of Germany (L.ondon, 1877); KORTH, St. Boniface (Paris, 1902); Seitebs, Bonifatius, rier Apostel der Deutschen (Mainz, 1845); Schnureh, Bonifatius (Mainz, 1909).
Gertrude Casanova.
Thecla, Saints. — I. Thecla of Iconium, the re- puted pupil of the Apostle Paul, who is the heroine of the apocryphal "Acta Pauli ct Theclie" (of. Apocrypha). Our knowledge of her is derived e.x- clusively from these Acts, which appeared about 180. According to this narrative Thecla was a virgin of Iconium who was converted to Christianity and led to dedicate herself to perpetual virginity by the preaching of the Apostle Paul. Miraculously saved from death at the stake to which she had been con- demned, she went with St. Paul to Antioch in Pisidia where she was thrown to the wild beasts and was again saved from death by a miracle. After this she went to Myra where the Apostle was, and finally to Seleucia where she died. With the consent of St. Paul she had acted as a "female Apostle" in proclaiming the Gos- pel. Notwithstanding the purely legendary char- acter of the entire story, it is not impossible that it is connected with an historical person. It is easy to be- lieve that a virgin of this name who was a native of Iconium was actually converted by St. Paul and then, like many other women of the Apostolic and later times, laboured in the work of Christian missions (cf. Harnack, "Die Mission und die Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten", 2nd ed., I, 295; II, 58). In the Eastern Church the wide circulation of the Acts led to a great veneration of Thecla. She was called "Apostle and protomartjT among women". Her veneration was especially great in a number of Oriental cities, .as Seleucia where she was buried, Iconium, and Nicomedia. Her cult appeared very early also in Western Europe, par- ticularly in those districts where the Galilean Liturgy prevailed; there is direct proof of this in the fourth century. Her name is given with various topo- graphical comments (Nicomedia, Seleucia, Asia) on several days in the " Martyrologium Hieronymi- anum". Thus Thecla is mentioned in this martyr- ology on 22 February, 25 February, 12 September, 23 September, and 17 November ("Mart. Hieron.", ed. de Rossi-Duchesne, 24, 36, 120, 124, 144). It seems certain that on all these dates, and probably also on 20 and 21 December, the same St. Thecla, the pupil of St. Paul, is meant. In Bede's Martyrology (cf. Quentin, "Martyrologes historiques du moyen dge", 93) her name is mentioned with a brief notice taken from the Acts on 23 September, the same date as that on which her feast is given in the present Roman Martyrology. The Greek Church celebrates her feast on 24 September and gives her the title of "Pro- tomartyr among women and equal to the Apostles" (cf. Nilles, "Calendarium utriusque ecclesiae ", 1, 283 sq.).
See bibliography of ApocRyPHA: Holzhey, Die ThecIa-.Akten, ihre Verbreitunfj u. Beurteilung in der Kirche (Munich, 1905).
II. We possess historically accurate accounts of the martyrdom of a Christian of Gaza in Palestine named Thecla. According to Eusebius ("De mart3'ribu8 Palestinen.", 3) she was condemned to death in the second year of the great persecution (304-05) to- gether with a Christian named .'Xgapius and was torn to pieces in a horrible manner by the wild be;ists to which she was thrown. The present Roman Mar- tyrology gives the feast of this saint under the dale of 19 August. III. The "Martyrologium Hieronymi- anum" mentions a Thecla in connexion with a Zosi-
mus among the martyrs whose feast was celebrated
on 1 June; these two saints were commemorated at
Antioch. Whether this Thecla was a local saint of
the Oriental metropohs is not known. IV. A cata-
comb of St. Thecla on the Via Ostiensis, not far from
the burial place of St. Paul, is mentioned in the
seventh-century itineraries to the graves of the Roman
martyrs. A church stood on this spot on a hill over
the catacomb where the body of the saint rested. St.
Thecla must be regarded as a Roman martyr. Ar-
mellini believes that he has found the cemetery of St.
Thecla (cf. Marucchi, "Les catacombes romaines",
Rome, 1903, p. 91 sqq.). V. The MartjTologj' of
St. Jerome mentions under 31 May (69), in con-
nexion with two martyrs buried on the Via Aurelia, a
group of martyrs named Tertulla, Lupus, Justa, and
Thecla. It is very possible that besides the St.
Thecla buried on the Via Ostiensis another Roman
female martyr bearing the same name was buried on
the Via Aurelia. Still we have no further account of
this group of martyrs, and just as Uttle of a number of
Roman martyrs, among whom the name of a Thecla
also occurs, that are given under 26 March in the
present Roman Martyrologj-.
VI. In the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum" (58, 78) a long list of the names of African martyrs is given under the dates of 10 May, 13 and 14 June, and each time a Thecla is mentioned. Nothing fur- ther is known of this saint. In the legend of the twelve brothers and martyrs, Donalus, etc. (cf. Acta SS., Sept., I, 138-41), the parents of the brothers are called Boniface and Thecla, and these two are also given in the present Roman Martyrologj- as martyrs under 30 August. Apart from the purely legendary Acts just mentioned nothing is known of them. VII. In the "Acts of St. Hermagoras", which are equally legendary (Baronius, "Martyr. Romanum cum not is Baronii", Venice, 1609,p. 494) aSt. Thecla of Aquileia is mentioned together with several other martyrs who are only known through this legend. Their feast is observed on 3 September.
H.\ucs, Kirchengesch. Deutschtands, I, 476-79.
J. P. KiRSCH.
Theft is the secret taking of another's property against the reasonable will of that other. It is to be noted that the word secret is not employed to exclude the idea of the owner's presence and advertence whilst the theft is being committed. It is used merely to signify that the crime has been perpetrated without violence towards him. Not only the taking, but the keeping or the use unjustly of what belongs to an- other against his will, is to be considered theft. This would happen, for instance, where one unwarrantably refused to restore what had been entrusted to him as a pledge or loan or only for safe-keeping. Likewise where one would manage to ride on the railwa}' with- out paj'ing any fare. For the notion of theft, "the un- willingness of the owner to part with what is right- fully his, is essential. If he be content, or if under some circumstances he can legitimately be presumed to be satisfied with what is done although perhaps dis- pleased at the manner of its doing, there is no theft properly so called. Moreover his unwillingness must be reasonable not .simplyinscnsatecloso-fistedness. He is not justified in declining always and without regard to conditions to assent to the alienation of what be- longs to him merely becavise it is his. 1'hus one in danger of death from want of food, or suffering any form of extreme necessity, may lawfully take from an- other as much as is req\iired to meet, his present dis- tress even though the possessor's opposition be en- tirely clear. Neither, therefore, woul<l he be boundto restitution if his fortunes subsequently were notably bettered, supposing that wh.at he had converted to his own use w.is perishable. The reason is that individ- ual ownership of the goods of this world, though ac-
