made in 1729, under Benedict XIII, when her canonization was again urged. On 16 January, 1748, Benedict XIV, in a letter which La Fuente, in his "Historia eclesiástica de España", finds "sumamente curiosa", wrote to the General of the Observantines instructing him as to the investigation of the authenticity of the writings, while conceding that the book had received the approbation of the Universities of Salamanca, Alcalá, Toulouse, and Louvain. It had meantime been fiercely assailed by Eusebius Amort, a canon of Pollingen, in 1744, in a work entitled "De revelationibus, visionibus, et apparitionibus privatis, regulæ tutæ", which, though at first imperfectly answered by Mathes, a Spaniard, and by Maier, a Bavarian, to both of whom Amort replied, was subsequently refuted in another work by Mathes, who showed that in eighty places Amort had not understood the Spanish text of Maria de Agreda. With Mathes, in this exculpation, was P. Dalmatius Kich, who published, at Ratisbon, 1750, his "Revelationum Agredanarum justa defensio, cum moderamine inculpatæ tutelæ". Hergenröther, in his Kirchengeschichte (trad. franc., VI, p. 416 (V. Palmé, Paris, 1892), informs us that the condemnation of the book by the Roman Inquisition, in 1681, was thought to have come from the fact either that, in its publication, the Decree of Urban VIII, of 14 March, 1625, had been disregarded, or because it contained apocryphal stories, and maintained opinions of the Scotist school as Divine revelations. Some blamed the writer for having said that she saw the earth under the form of an egg, and that it was a globe slightly compressed at the two poles, all of which seemed worthy of censure. Others condemned her for exaggerating the devotion to the Blessed Virgin and for obscuring the mystery of the Incarnation. The Spaniards were surprised at the reception the book met with in France, especially as the Spanish Inquisition had given it fourteen years of study before pronouncing in its favor. As noted above, the suspension of the Decree of Innocent XI, condemning the book, was made operative only in Spain, and although Charles II asked to have the permission, to read it extended to the whole of Christendom, Alexander VIII not only refused the petition, but confirmed the Brief of his predecessor. The King made the same request to innocent XII, who did nothing, however, except to institute a commission to examine the reasons alleged by the Court of Spain. The King renewed his appeal more urgently, but the Pope died without having given any decision.
La Fuente, in his "Historia eclesiástica de España" (V, p. 493), attributes the opposition to the impatience of the Thomists at seeing Scotist doctrines published as revelations, as if to settle various Scholastic controversies in the name of the Blessed Virgin and in the sense of the Franciscans, to whose order Agreda belonged. Moreover, it was alleged that her confessors had tampered with the text, and had interpolated many of the apocryphal stories which were then current, but her most bitter enemies respected her virtues and holy life, and were far from confounding her with the deluded illuminatæ of that period. Her works had been put on the Index, but when the Franciscans protested they were accorded satisfaction by being assured that it was a trick of the printer (supercheria), as no condemnation appeared there.
The other works of Maria de Agreda are: 1st, her letters to Philip IV of Spain edited by Francisco Silvela; 2d, "Leyes de là Esposa conceptos y suspiros del corazón pars alcanzar el último y verdadero fin del agrado del Esposo y Señor"; 3d, "Meditaciones de la pasión de nuestro Señor"; 4th, "Sus exercicios quotidianos"; 5th "Escala Spiritual pars subir á la perfección". The "Mística ciudad" has been translated into several languages; and there are several editions of the correspondence with Philip IV; but the other writings are still in manuscript, either in the convent of Agreda, or in the Franciscan monastery of Quaracchi in Italy.
Sacra Rituum Congregatio, Examen responsionis ad Censuram olim editam super libris misticæ civitatis Dei (Rome, 1730); Synopsis observationum et responsionum super libris ven. abbatissæ Mariæ a Jesu de Agreda (Rome, 1737); Super examine operis a Maria a Jesu de Agreda conscripti (Rome, 1747); Dom Guéranger, La mystique cité de Dieu, Univers (1858–59); Preuss, Die romische Lehre von der unbefleckten Empfängnis (Berlin, 1865), 102; Ant. Maria de Vicenza, Vita del Ven. S. Maria d' Agreda (Bologna, 1870); Id., Della mistica citta di Dio … Allegazione storico-apologetica (Bologna, 1873); Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen Bücher (Bonn, 1885), II, 253; Analecta juris pontificii, 1862, p. 1550; Montucla, Histoire des mathematiques (Paris, 1758), I. 441; Murr, Briefe über die Jesuiten, 24; Baumgarten, Nachrichten von Merkwürdigen Büchern, II, 506, and IV, 208; Vita della Ven. Madre Maria di Gesù, comp. dal R. P. Samaniego, O.S.F. (Antwerp, 1712); Van den Gheyn in Dict. de théol. cath.
Agria (Erlau, Eger, Jager), an archiepiseopal see of Hungary, founded in 1009, and made an archdiocese in 1804, by Pius VII. It has 633,804 Latin Catholics; 81,217 Greek Catholics, and 503,107 partly Greek Schismatics and partly Protestants, with a sprinkling of Jews. The parishes number 200, and there are 342 secular clergy, and 51 religious. The vernacular tongue is largely Hungarian and German, but Croat, Slavonic, and Armenian are also spoken. The suffragan dioceses are Kosice (Kassa, Kaschau), Rozsnyò (Rosenau), Szathmàr, and Szepes (Zipo, Zipsen).
Battandier, Ann. pont. cath. (Paris, 1905), 240; Werner Orbis Terr. Cath. (Freiburg, 1890), 95.
Agricius, Saint, Bishop of Trier (Trèves), in the fourth century (332 or 335). A local ninth-century tradition states that he had been Patriarch of Antioch, and that he was translated to the See of Trier by Pope Silvester, at the request of the Empress Helena. He was present at the Council of Aries in 314, and signed the acts immediately after the presiding bishop of that diocese, thus indicating that in the fourth century Trier laid claim to the primacy of Gaul and Germany, a claim which his successor, St. Maximin, made good by signing in a similar way the Decree of the Council of Sardica (343). St. Athanasius, who came as an exile to Trier in 335 or 336, speaks of the large numbers of faithful whom he found there and the number of churches in course of erection. The famous relics of Trier (Holy Coat, Nail of the True Cross, the body of St. Matthias the Apostle) are said by local tradition to have been brought thither by Agricius. The schools of Trier became famous under Agricius. Lactantius taught in them, and St. Maximin and St. Paulinus, later successors to the See of Trier, came from Aquitaine to study there. Agricius died after an active episcopate of twenty years.
Kraft, in Kirchenlex., I, 352, 353; Sauerland, Trierer G. Quellen des XI. Jahrhunderts (1889); Acta SS., Jan. 1; Diel, Die heiligen Maximinus und Paulinus, Bischofe v. Trier (1875).
Agricola, Alexander, a celebrated composer of the fifteenth century, and pupil of Okeghem, was, according to some, of Belgian and, according to other writers, of German, origin. Born about 1446, he was educated in the Netherlands and lived there some time. Even in his youth he was a fine singer and performer. Up to 1474 he was a singer in the ducal chapel, at Milan, then entered the service of the Duke of Mantua, then that of Philip, Duke of Austria and King of the Netherlands, following him to Castile, in 1505. There (at Valladolid) he died in the following year, at the age of sixty. He stood in high esteem as a composer. It is believed that a large number
