ARSENIUS
754
ARSmOE
fact, that they always showed themselves tolerant,
and' even fa\ourable, towards the Jews (Graetz,
Histoire des Juifs, Bloeh's French tr., 162-177),
and there is every reason to believe that they acted
in the same manner towards the Christians, if they
ever came in contact with them at all.
Liber TurrUi: Recensions of Mari ibn Sutayman, Amr ibn Malai. and Saliba ibn Yohnnnan in Maris, Amri et faLlB.E, De PalriarcKit Nestorianorum commenlana, ed. by (jismondi (Rome, 1896-99, Arabic text with Latin translation); Bar- HEBRiEDS. Chronicum Ecclesiasiicum, part II, ed. by Abbeloos- L\MY (Louvain, 1874); cf. Westphal, U ntcrsuchungen iiber die Quellen und die GlaiihwUrdigkeit der Patriarchenchroniken (Kirchhain, 1901); Labodrt, Le Christianisme dans lempire Perse (Paris, 1904).
J. Labourt.
Arsenius Autorianos, Patriarch of Constanti- nople, in the thirteenth century; d. 1273. He en- tered a monastery in Nicaea, changing his secular name George for Gennadius and finally for Arsenius, and became the hegoumenos (abbot) of the monastery without taking orders. On his return from an em- bassy to Pope Innocent IV from John III Vatatzes in 1254, he withdrew to a monastery on Lake Apol- lonias in Bithynia. Hither the envoys of Theodore II Lascaris, who had succeeded Vatatzes in 1255, came to offer liim the patriarchal throne, made vacant in 1254 by the death of Manuel. His patriarchate was peaceful till the rise of Michael Palsologus. Theo- dore II died in 125S, entrusting his son John's mi- nority to George Mouzalon, whom Michael murdered and supplanted. Vainly remonstrating, Arsenius withdrew to the monastery of Paschasius without resigning his authority. FaiUng to make liim either act or resign, the emperor and the court bishops replaced him by Nicephorus of Ephesus, who died after six months. The recovery of Constantinople by the Greeks in July, 1261, rendered the choice of a patriarch imperative. His partisans renoniinated Arsenius, whom the emperor accepted, provided he recognized the validity of the orders conferred by Nicephorus. Arsenius agreed but refused to officiate with the new bishops. On his return he crowned Michael for the second time in St. Sophia, reserving intact, as he imagined, the rights of John. To make sure, however, that John should never succeed him, Michael destroyed his ward's eyes, 25 Dec, 1261. Shocked at this atrocity, the patriarch excommuni- cated him and demanded his absolute abandonment of the imperial throne. Michael refused, and after two years' contention deposed Arsenius (May, 1264) and exiled him to the convent of St. Nicholas on the island of Proconnesus, where he died. The adher- ents of Arsenius, including the emperor's own kins- men, withdrew from the communion of the new patriarch, Germanus, formerly Bishop of Adrianople. The next patriarch undertook, in 1267, to absolve the emperor from the sentence of excommunication imposed by Arsenius. This gave rise to the Arsenian schism, which lasted until April, 1315, when it finally yielded to the diplomacy of the Patriarch Niphon.
Petit in DicHonnaire de Ihiologie caiholique (Paris, 1902) 8. V. Ars'ene Aulorianus; Natalis Ai-exander, Hist. Eccl. (Venice, 1771), XVI, viii, art. 3, 4. ^ ,, ^^
Mark J. McNeal.
Arsenius, Saint, anchorite, b. 354, at Rome; d. 450, at Troe, in Egypt. Theodosius the Great having requested the Emperor Gratian and Pope Da- masus to find him in the West a tutor for his son Arcadius, they made choice of Arsenius, a man well read in Greek literature, member of a noble Roman family, and said to have been a deacon of the Roman Church. He reached Constantinople in 383, and continued as tutor in the imperial family for eleven years, during the last three of which he also had charge of his pupil's brother Honorius. Coming one day to see his children at their studies, Theodosius found them sitting while Arsenius talked
to them standing. This he would not tolerate, and
caused the teacher to sit and the pupils to stand.
On his arrival at court Arsenius had been given a
splendid establishment, and probably because the
Emperor so desired, he lived in groat pomp, but
all the time felt a growing inclination to renounce
the world. After praying long to l)e enlightened
as to what he should do, he heard a voice saying,
"Arsenius, flee the company of men, and thou shall
be saved." Thereupon he embarked secretly for
Alexandria, and hastening to the desert of Scetis,
asked to be admitted among the solitaries who
dwelt there. St. John the Dwarf, to whose cell
he was conducted, though previously warned of
the quality of his visitor, took no notice of him
and left him standing by himself while he invited
the rest to sit down at table. When the repast was
half finished he threw down some bread before him,
bidding him with an air of indifference eat if he
would. Arsenius meekly picked up the bread and
ate, sitting on the ground. Satisfied with this proof
of humility, St. John kept him under his direction.
The new solitary was from the first most exemplary,
yet unwittingly retained certain of hi:, old haliits,
such as sitting cross-legged or laying one foot over
the other. Noticing this, the abbot requested some
one to imitate Arsenius's posture at the next gather-
ing of the brethren, and upon his doing so, forth-
with rebuked him publicly. Arsenius took the hint
and corrected himself. During the fifty-five years
of his solitary life he was always the most meanly
clad of all, thus punishing himself for his former
seeming vanity in the world. In like manner, to
atone for having used perfumes at court, he never
changed the water in w-hich he moistened the palm-
leaves of which he made mats, but only poured in
fresh water upon it as it wasted, thus letting it be-
come stenchy in the extreme. Even while engaged
in manual labour he never relaxed in his application
to prayer. At all times copious tears of devotion
fell from his eyes. But what distinguished him most
was his disinclination to all that might interrupt
his union with God. When, after long search, his
place of retreat was discovered, he not only refused
to return to court and act as adviser to his former
pupil, the Emperor Arcadias, but he would not even
be his almoner to the poor and the monasteries of
the neighbourhood. He invariably denied himself
to visitors, no matter what their rank and condition,
and left to his disciples the care of entertaining them.
His contemporaries so admired him as to surname
him "the Great".
See Acta SS. (19 July) for his life by St. Theodore the Studite (d. 820) and another in Metaphrastes (apiWSCRlUM. De probatis Sanctorum vitis, IV, 250); the Lives of the Fatju-rs of the Desert in Rosweyde and d'Andilly, or P. L., LXXIV; Marin, Vies des ptres des deserts d'orienl; Bctler, Lives of the Saints. 19 July. . , „ „
A. J. B. VUIBERT.
Arsinoe, a titular see of Egypt, now Medinet el Fayum, capital of the district of that name, and situated on the west bank of the Nile between the river and Lake Mceris, now on the Bahr-Youssuf, about fifty-two miles south-west of Cairo. Its episcopal list (c. 250-649) is given in Gams (p. 461). It is the most famous of several homonymous cities in Egypt, greatly favoured and renamed by Ptolemy II (284-247 B. c.) in honour of his sister and wife Arsinoe. Samaritan Jews were soon found there, and ere long it rivalled .Alexandria for the vineyards and gardens that abounded on its soil, the most fertile in Egypt. It did a brisk trade in cereals and vegetables, and was renowned for its figs and roses. For its piety towards the crocodile it was known as Crocodilopolis, a haunt of crocodiles. It became eventually a flourishing centre of Christian life, but in 642 was betrayed by the Monophysite Copts to Amru, the Arab lieutenant of Mohammed. As
