DEMARCATION
706
DEMETRIUS
in the Gulf of Persia; but this would enclose the Flood
within too narrow limits both of space and of time.
Another conjecture has been proposed by von
Schwartz. He supposes that an inland MongoHan
sea, in size about equal to the Mediterranean, situated
at a height of about 6000 feet above the level of the
ocean and 5000 feet above the surrounding Aralo-
Caspian plain, at the time of an earthquake broke
through one of its walls, and sent its 3,000,000 cubic
kilometres of water into the region north of Persia,
Armenia, and the Caucasus, covering the whole plain,
until the waters were drained by way of the Black
Sea and the Mediterranean into the Atlantic Ocean.
Here we have the breaking of the bonds of the great
deep, we have an outflow of water lasting for several
months, and we find that the ark must have been
carried westward by the general drift of the waters
till it rested on the mountains of Armenia. But not
to mention the improbability of the supposition urged
by several scientists, we do not imderstand why the
tops of the mountains should not have been visible
even after the mooring of the ark. A number of other
hypotheses have been proposed in order to e.xplain by
natural causes the phenomena implied in the Biblical
account of the Deluge, but thus far they have not
satisfied the various details given in the Book of
Genesis.
Complete bibliographies may be found in von Hummelacer, Commentarius inGenesim (Paris. 1895); MANGENOxin VicDict. dela Bible (Paris, 1899), II; Cornely, Introductio (2nd ed. Paris, 1887), II, Ft. I, 161; Hagen. Leiicum Biblicum (Paris, 1907), II; DE R^GNON. Le deluge biblique et les races antediluviennes; ScHoPFER. Geschichte d. A. T. (3rd ed. Brixen, 1902); Woods, Diet, of the Bible (New York, 1900), II; LtiKEN, Die Tradi- tionen des Menschengeschlechts (Miinster, 1869); Andree, Die Flutsagt?n ethnographisch betrachtet (Brunswick, 1891); von ScHWARz, Sintjiuth vnd Volkerwanderungen (Stuttgart, 1894); Prestwich, On Certain Phenomena Belonging to the Close of the Last Geological Period (New York. 1895) ; St'ss, Das Antlitz der Erde (Prague, 1883); Miller, Testimony of the Rocks, 1858; Kaulen in Kirckenlexikon; Reusch, Bibel und Natur (4th ed., Bonn, 1876); The Tablet (London, 1884), files.
A. J. Maas.
Demarcation, Line of. See Portugal; Sp.un. Demerara. See Guiana.
Demers, Modestb, apostle of the Pacific Coast of IVorth America, and the first Catholic missionary among most of the Indian tribes of Oregon, Washing- ton, and British Columbia; b. at St. Nicholas, Quebec, 11 Oct., 1809; d. at Victoria, B. C, 21 July, 1871. His father, Michel Demers, and his mother, Rosalie Foucher, were two worthy representatives of the French Canadian farmer class. Endowed with a deli- cate conscience and a distinctly religious disposition, young Demers resolved to enter the ecclesiastical state, and studied first privately and then at the seminary of Quebec. He was ordained 7 Feb., 1836, by Bishop Signay, and after foiu-teen months passed as a.ssistant priest at Trois-Pistoles, he volunteered for the far-oif mission of Oregon, where the white population, made up mostly of French Canadian employes of the Hudson Bay Company, was clam- ouring for the ministrations of a priest. Having crossed the American continent in the company of the Rev. F. N. Blanchet, hissuperior, he reached Walla- Walla, on the lower Columbia, 18 Nov., 1838, and immediately applied himself to the care of the low- liest, that is the Indian tribes, which were then very numerous and not any too meek. He studied their languages and visited their homes regularly, preach- ing, catechizing the adults, and baptizing the children, especially those whose habitat lay to the north of the Columbia. His apostolic zeal even led him on along the coast of British Columbia, and in 1842 he pro- ceeded inland as far north as Stuart Lake, evangeliz- ing as he went all the interior tribes of that province.
His companion, the Rev. F. N. Blanchet, having been elevated to the episcopate, Demers had to s\ibmit to what he con.sidered a burden beyond his strength.
He was consecrated bishop on 30 Nov., 1847, and ap-
pointed to the spiritual care of Vancouvei Island,
making the incipient town of Victoria his head-
quarters. As a bishop he continued his favourite
work among the Indians, though he soon had to give
his best attention to the rough and cosmopolitan ele-
ment which now formed his white flock. For its
benefit he procitfed in 1858 the services of the Sisters
of St. Anne, who established schools at Victoria and
elsewhere, and of the Oblate Fathers, who took in
hand the evangelization of the natives and also
foimded a college in his cathedral city. In 1866 he
assisted at the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore,
and shortly afterwards he was one of the fathers of
the fficumenical Council of the \'atican. He died
soon after his return, beloved alike by Protestants and
Catholics, and revered for his gentleness and his apos-
tolic zeal on behalf of the poor and lowly.
Historical Sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon (Portland, 1878); Paquet, Fragments de I'histoire de la paroisse de Saint- Nicolas (lAvia, 1894).
A. G. Morice.
Demetrius, Saint, Bishop of Alexandria from 188 to 231. Julius Africanus, who \'isited Alexandria in the time of Demetrius, places his accession as eleventh bishop after St. Mark in the tenth year of Commodus (tenth of Severus, Eus. His. Eccl., VI, ii, is a slip). A legendary history of him is given in the Coptic " Syn- axaria", in an Abyssinian poem cited by the BoUand- ists, and in the "Chronicon Orientale" of Abraham Ecchellensis the Maronite. Three of their statements, however, may have some truth: one that he died at the age of 105 (born, therefore, in 126); another, found also in the Melchite Patriarch Eutvchius [Sa'id Ibi Batrik, (d. about 940), Migne, P. G", CXI, 999], that he wrote about the calculation of Easter to Victor of Rome, Ma.ximus (i. e. Maximinus) of Antioch and Oabius or Agapius (?) of Jerusalem (cf. Eus., H. E., V, xxv). Eutychius relates that from Mark to Deme- trius there was but one see in Egypt, that Demetrius was the first to establish three other bishoprics, and that his successor Heraclas made twenty more.
At all events Demetrius is the first Alexandrian bishop of whom anything is known. St. Jerome has it that he sent PantiEnus on a mission to India, but it is likely that Clement had succeeded Pantsnus as the head of the famous Catechetical School before the ac- cession of Demetrius. When Clement retired (c. 203 4), Demetrius appointed the young Origen, who was in his eighteenth year, in Clement's place. Deme- trius encouraged Origen when blamed for his too lit- eral execution of an allegorical counsel of our Lord^ and is said to have shown him great favour. He sent Origen to the governor of Arabia, wlio had requested his presence in letters to the prefect of Egj-pt as wel as to the bishop. In 215-16 Origen was obliged to takt refuge in Ciesarea from the cruelty of Caracalla. Then he preached at the request of the bishops present Demetrius wrote to him complaining that this waj unheard of presimiption in a layman. Alexander o Jerusalem and Thcoctistus of Csesarea wrote to defeiK the invitation they had given, mentioning precedents but Demetrius recalled Origen. In 2.30 Demetrlu '■_ gave Origen a recommendation to take with him on hi ; journey to Athens. But Origen was ordained pries ,ji| at Ca;sarea without leave, and Demetrius with a synoi jjji of some bishops and a few priests condemnetl him t jj banisliment, then from another synod sent a forrat n^ condenmat ion of him to all the churches. It is impoi |j| sible to doubt that heresy, and not merely unauthoi ^j ized ordination, must have been allegeil by Demetrit (jj for such a course. Rome accepted the decision, bi ^ Palestine, Phoenicia, Arabia, .A,chaia rejected it, an j. Origen retired to Ciesarea, whence lie sent fortli lette: (L in his own defence, and attacked Demetrius. Tl (|(i latter placed at the head of the Catechetical Scho ^ the first pupil of Origen, Heraclas, who had long bee
