Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/733

This page needs to be proofread.
ARU—ARV
671

court of Home, where Pope Boniface IX. gave him a, kiud reception, and nominated him to the Scottish archbishopric of St Andrews. He was actively engaged in the plot to depose Richard, and place the duke of Lancaster on the throne ; and ou Henry s accession, he was restored to the see of Canterbury. Two years after, the Commons moved that the revenues of the church might be applied to the public service, but Arundel opposed the measure with such vigour that it was thrown out. In the year 1408 his zeal for the suppression of heresy was directed against the followers of Wycliffe. Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, was arrested by his orders, and sentenced to the flames, but contrived to escape from prison. The archbishop also procured a synodical constitution, which prohibited the translation of the Scriptures into the vulgar tongue. He died at Canterbury on the 20th February 1413 of in flammation of the throat, with which he was seized, as was affirmed by the Lollards, while pronouncing sentence

upon Lord Cobham.

ARUNDELIAN or OXFORD MARBLES, part of a collection of ancient sculptures and antiquities, including the famous Parian Chronicle, formed by Thomas earl of Arundel, and presented by his grandson, the Hon. Henry Howard (afterwards duke of Norfolk), to the University of Oxford in the year 1667. They were purchased for the first proprietor in 1624 by Mr (afterwards Sir William) Petty, who, along with John Evelyn, had been employed by the earl of Arundel to collect marbles, books, statues, and other curiosities in Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor. On their arrival in London in the year 1627 they were placed in the gardens of Aruudel House, the site of which is now occupied by Arundel, Norfolk, Surrey, and Howard Streets in the Strand. Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel and Surrey, the founder of the collection, was born in 1586 (or, according to others, 1592). He had at first only the honorary title Lord Malt ravers, but in 1603 he was restored to most of the honours previously in the possession of his family. For several years he resided or travelled in Italy, and there acquired a strong taste for works of art, specimens of which he began to collect. In 1621 he was made earl marshal of England, and after wards discharged the offices of ambassador, general, and lord high steward. He went abroad in 1641, and died at Padua in 1646. His large collection contained not only sculptured marbles, but also coins, busts, statues, and gems. In the turbulent reign of Charles I., and during the Protectorate, Aruudel House was often deserted by its owners ; and, in their absence, some of the marbles were defaced and broken, and others either stolen or used for the ordinary purposes of architecture. After the death of the earl his collection was divided among his family. The inscribed marbles, which fell to the elder son, ulti mately found their way to Oxford ; the busts and some statues were sold and dispersed ; and the gems descended to the Marlborough family, in whose possession they now are. Some of the statues, which had been purchased at the sale of Arundel House by Sir William Fermor, were presented to the University of Oxford in 1755. Of the large collection now known as the Arundel or Oxford marbles the most remarkable is the Parian Chronicle, or Marmor Chronicon. This when found consisted of a large oblong slab of Parian marble, on which was engraved in capital letters a chronological compendium of the principal events of Greece during a series of 1318 years, beginning with the reign of Cecrops, 1582 B.C., and end ing with the archonship of Diognetus, 264 B.C. The marble originally measured 3 feet 7 inches and 2 feet 1 1 inches on the two sides respectively, its breadth being 2 feet 7 inches ; but the chronicle of the last 90 years is lost, BO that the part now remaining ends with the archontihip of Diotimus, 354 years before the birth of Christ; and in this fragment the inscription is at present so much cor roded and effaced that the sense must in some measure be supplied by conjecture. Immediately on the arrival of these marbles in England the greatest curiosity was excited among literary men. Selden, with the assistance of some other scholars, cleaned and examined first the marble containing the Smyrnean and Magnesian league, and then the Marmor Chronicon. The following year Selden pub lished a small volume in quarto, including about 39 inscrip tions copied from the marbles. His researches were con tinued and completed by Prideaux (1676), Maittaire (1732), and Chandler (1763). The Arundelian marbles, though generally regarded as genuine relics of antiquity, have been discovered in some instances to differ somewhat from the most authentic historical accounts. Their authenticity was called in question in a dissertation by the Rev. J. Robertson, published in 1788, entitled The Parian Chro nicle. This essay has been answered by several writers, particularly by the eminent scholar, Professor Person, and the authenticity of the marbles may be regarded as fairly established. See Boeckh, Corpus Inscrijytionum Grcecarum, 1843.

ARVAL BROTHERS (Fratres Arvales), in Roman Antiquities, a college or priesthood (sacerdotes arvorum), consisting of twelve members, elected for life from the highest

ranks in Rome, and always apparently, during the empire, including the emperor. Their chief duty was to offer annually public sacrifice for the fertility of the fields (ut fruges ferant arm). The origin of the brotherhood was traced to Acca Larentia, the foster-mother of Romulus, who, with her twelve sons, had instituted sacrifices of this kind, and probably this legend arose from the connection of Acca Larentia, as mater Larum, with the Lares who had a part in the religious ceremonies of the arvales. But apart from this, there is proof of the high antimiity of the college in the verbal forms of tho song with which, down to late times, a part of the ceremonies was accompanied, and which is still preserved (Becker, Handbuch der Rom, Altertkiimer, iv. p. 407). It is clear also that, while the members were themselves always persons of distinction, the duties of their office were held in high respect. And yet it is singular that no mention of them occurs in Cicero or Livy, and that altogether literary allusions to them are very scarce. On the other hand, we possess a long series of what may be called the minutes of their proceed ings, drawn up by themselves, and inscribed on stone. At the time of Marini (Gli Atti e Monumcnti dd Fratelli Arvali, Roma, 1795) 67 of these sets of records were known, beginning at 14 A.D. and extending to the time of Gordian. Since then several others have been discovered. The college consisted of a master (magister], a vice-master (promagister), a flamen, and a praetor, with eight ordinary members, attended by various servants, and in particular by four boys, sons of senators, having both parents alive. These officers were elected annually in May, but did not enter on their duties till the 17th December. Each wore a wreath of grain, a white fillet, and the prsetexta. The great annual festival which they had to conduct was held in honour of the Dea Dia, who appears to have resembled the goddess Ops, the wife of Saturn. It occupied three clays, and fell either on the 17th, 19th, 20th, or the 27th, 29th, 30th of May. The ceremony of the first day of the May festival took place in Rome itself, in the house of the magister or his deputy, or in Palatio Divorum, where after sunrise the peculiar ceremony was gone through of " touching " (tangere fruges) samples of the old and the young grain. On the second and principal day of the festival the ceremonies were conducted in luco Dece Dice, that is, in a grove just beyond the fifth milestone from