ABO
The Ablet is truly and properly a fpecics of cyprinus, and is diftinguifhed by Artedi by the name of the five-inch cyprinus, with twenty rays in the prima ani. See the articles Albur- nus and Cyprinus.
A 13LUTION, {Cycl.)— Ablutions appear to he as old as any ceremonies, and external worfhip itfelf. Mofes enjoined them ; the heathens adopted them », and Mahomet and his fol- lowers have continued them : thus they have got footing among moft nations, and make a confiderable part of molt eftablifhed religions.— The Egyptian priefts had their diurnal and nocturnal Ablutions b : the Grecians their fprinldings ' : the Romans their luflrations and lavations ' : the Jews their wafhings of hands and feet % befide their baptifms ' : the antient Chriftians had their Ablutions before communion e, •which the Romifh church ftill retain before their mafs, fome- times after h : the Syrians, Cophts, &c. have their folemn warnings on Good-Friday ' : the Turks k their greater and leffer Ablutions ; their Gaftand Wodou, their Aman, Taharat, Guful, and Abdeft, &o— [• V. Tliomaf. Meth. Etud. Poet. P. 3. 1. 1. c. 16. p. 240. b Herod. 1. 2. c. 37 ' Pott. ArchsEol. 1.2. c. 4. ' Brijfon. de Formul. 1. 1.0.4. feq Struv. Antiq. Rom. c. 2. p. 192. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. I. p. 8. Lomeier, de Luftrat. pafiim. • Mahnonid. ad Introit. tn Sana. c. 5. MiJIma, 11, 12, 13. p. 169. Saurin. Diff. on O. Teft.JT. 1. p. 464. Calm. DiS. Bib. T. 3. p. 148. 1 Barrow, iutpofit. Dccal. p. 543. Van Dale, Hift. Bapt. paflim. Bibl. Choif. T. 9. p. 224. Bibl. Raif. T. 3. p. 122. Bajhuyf. de Lavacr. & Lotion. Hebraxjr. paflim. t Durant. de Ritib. Ecclef. 1. 2. c. 28. Bingb. Orig. Ecclef. 1. 8. c. 12. §. 15. & 23. h Durant. loc. cit. ' Calm. loc. cit. k Tour- mf. Voy. deLcv. lett. 14. p. 41. Rycaut, Pref. Stat. Ottom. Emp. 1. 2. c. 23. p. 158. Roland, de Relig. Mohamm. 1. I. c. 8. Le Bran, Voy. de Levant, ap. Jour, des Scav. T t8. P- 438.]
ABOLITION, (Cycl.) is particularly ufed among civilians, for remitting the punimment of a crime. In this fenfe Abolition is a lower fpecies of amnefty, which takes off the punifhment, but not the infamy : Libcrat, fed notat.
Moyfius Catalanus has a treatife exprefs on amnefty, and Abolition. Tract. Criminalis Amneftis, pra:fertim Abolitianis &Indultus. Ven. 1605. & 1644. fol.
Abolition is alfo particularly ufed, among Roman lawyers, for the annulling a profecution, or legal accufation. Abolition in this fenfe differs from amnefty, and oblivion ; in that in the former, the accufation might be renewed, even by the fame profccutor, which in the latter was extinguifhed for ever.
Within thirty day after a public Abolition, the fame ac- cufer, by the prince's licence, was allowed to renew the charge ; after a private Abolition, another accufer might re- new it, but the fame could not.
This kind of Abolition is either granted in , favour of the ac- cused, or of the accufer ; and is either public, granted by the prince or fenate, on occafions of publick rejoicing, victory, and congratulation ; or private, fued for to the prefidcnt or judge, by one of the parties ; frequently by the accufer himfelf, who after having imbarked in the profecution, by fubfcribing his name to the charge, could not by the Turpilian fenatus-con- fult otherwife defift, without incurring infamy. On fuch oc- cafions therefore the accufer would petere Abolitionem ; that is, move for an Abolition : which was only granted, on his (hewing fair and honeft motives for withdrawing the charge; viz. inadvertency, youth, warmth, or the like : nor was it granted without the confent of the accufed ; or if the accufation ap- peared to have been utterly falfe, or malicious, &c. For the accufed, the charge againft him was alfo abolijhed by the death of the accufer, or his being incapacitated from pro-
fecuting by reafon of ficknefs, or the like. An aflion of
injury was abolijhed by diflimulation : a fentence of condem- nation by indulgence. V. BriJ. de Verb. Signif. p. 4. Calv. Lex. Jur. p. 8. feq.
Abolition was alfo ufed for expunging a perfon's name out of the public lift of the accufed, hung up in thetreafury. This was called abolere nomen ; and, like the former, was either public, as that under Auguftus, when all the names, which had long hung up, were expunged at once » ; or pri- vate, done at the motion of one of the parties b . — [» Suet, in Auguft. c. 32. n. 5. Piuturnorum reorum, & ex quorum for- riibus nihil aliud quam voluptas initnicis qu&rcrctur, nomina abolevit : conditione prcEpofltd, ut Ji quern quis repetere vellet, par periculum pcence fubirct. b Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 9.] By feveral laws in the Theodofian code it appears, that an Abolition of debts was fometimes granted the debtors to the fifcus. _ We have a medal of the emperor Adrian, wherein that prince is reprefented (landing with a fcepter in his left hand, and a lighted torch in his right ; with which he fets . t0 / evera ' Papers in prefence of the people, who teftify their joy and gratitude by lifting up their hands towards heaven. The legend is, Rcliqua Vetera H. S. nummis abolita. Jubert. ap. Richel. in Voc. ABOLLA, in antiquity, a warm kind of garment, lined or doubled, ufed by the Greeks and Romans ; chiefly out of the city, in following the camp ". . Svm. Vol. I.
ABO
The Word is Latin, formed, as Tome imagine, from bulla, on a fuppofirion that this vefhnent was gamifhcd with thofe ornaments called bulla; b . Others, denying this circumftance, derive it from the Greek «^,9o^, of uvxgahx, amicJui, chain- ing .,_[* Aquhu Lcx _ MjL T It p _ 4 _ phl ^ Ley> Ant _
T. 1, p. 9. f> Bayf. de Re Veftiar. c. 15. c Voff. Etym. pi, 2. Seal, in Feft, Voc. Bulla. Baxt. GlofT. p. 7.] ' Critics and antiquaries are greatly divided as to the form, life, kinds, &c. of this garment. Papias makes it a fpecies of the toga, or gown ; but Nonius, and the generality, a fpecies of the palliu?ii, or cloak.
The Abolla feems rather to have flood oppofed to toga, which was a garment of peace, as the Abolla was of war ; at leaft Varro and Martial d place them in this oppofite light. Some, after Nonius, hold it to have been a military garb alone; others, after Papias, a Senatorial ; and Sal mafius ° par- ticularly, to have been worn by the presidents in the pro- vinces, and even by the prsfe&i of the city, when they ad- miniitercd juftice ; which Pitifcus endeavours to refute. Others will alfo have the Abolla to have been ufed by the philofo- phers f , particularly the Stoics, Cynics, &c. Laftly, others reconcile all thefe variances, by making divers kinds of Abolla 's, accommodated to different occafions and profeffions. Even kings appear to have ufed the Abolla ; Caligula was affronted at king Ptolemy for appearing at the (hews in a purple Abolla, and by the eclat thereof turning the eyes of the fpecfators from the emperor upon himfelf. — [ d Mart. Epigr. 4.8. 1.8. v. 1. e De Ufur. c. 3. Pitifc. T. 1. p. 9. f Ferrar. Elect. II. 9. Fabric. Bibl. Antiq. c. 17. p. 558. Donat. Elucid. in Suet, Calig. c. 35.] ABORTION, {Cycl}— The antient Greek legiflators, Solon and Lycurgus, prohibited this practice of creating Abortion. Whether or no it was permitted among the Romans, has been much difputed, between two learned modern Civilians. 'Tis certain the practice, which was by them called vifceribus vim inferre, was frequent enough a : but whether there was any penalty on it, before the emperors Severus and Antonine, is the queftion ? Noodt maintains the negative ; and further, that thofe princes only made it criminal in one particular cafe : viz. of a married woman's pra&ifmg it out of refentment againft her hufband, in order to defraud him of the comfort of children; this was ordered to be punifned by a temporary exile : fiqua presgnans vim vifceribus fuis iniulerit tie ini- mico jnarito filium procrcaret, iemporali exilio coerceatur b . He adds, that there was no general prohibition of the practice before Gratian and Valens. J Tis true we find in Cicero an earlier inftance, of a woman punifhed for this fact c ; but it was in Milefia, a country not fubjeit to the Roman laws ri . Bynkerfhoeck however denies that a woman was allowed to drink the poculum Abortionis, impune ; and the reafon he gives, is, that the womb was the hufband's property, who was declared, by the laws, the fole cujlos of it; to prevent his being impofed on in the children he was to bring up. But then this does not affe£t women, who had been impregnated by others than their hufbands.
The foundation on which the practice is faid to have been allowed, was, that the fcetus, while in titer 0, was reputed as a part of the mother, ranked as one of her own vifcera, over which the had the fame power as over the reft : bcfides, that it was not reputed as a man, homo ; nor to be alive, otherwife than as a vegetable : confequently, the crime amounted to little more than that of plucking unripe fruit from the tree. V. Juven. Sat. 6. v. 500. Senec. Confolat. ad Helviam Matrem, c. 16.
This laft cited author reprefents it as a peculiar glory of Helvia, that fhe had never, like other women, whofe chief ftudy is their beauty and ftiape, deftroyed the fcetus in her womb. Nunquam te fascunditatis tua quafi cxprobraret eeta- tem, -puduit : nunquam more alienor um quibus omnis commen- daiio ex forma petitur, ttunefcentem uterum abjcondijli quafi indecens onus, nee inter vifcera tua coneeptas [pes Uberorum eli- fijli. — [ a Trypbonin. 1. 39. D. de Pcenis. b Cic, Orat. pro Cluent. c Noodt, Julius Paulus five de partus Expofit. & Nece. c. ir, p. 75, feq. d Lib. cit. p. 77. ejufd. Noodt, Refp. ad Bynkerfh. in Bibl. Anc. Mod. T. 18. p. 373.] The primitive fathers, Athenagoras c , Tertullian, Minutius Felix f , Auguftin g , he. declaimed loudly againft the prac- tice, as virtual murder ; Homicidii fflinatio efl, probibere nafci ; nee refert, natcm quis eripiat animam, an nafcentem dijiurbet h . Several councils have declared againft it '. Yet we are told that the modern Romifh ecclefiaftical laws allow of difpenfations for it. Egane k mentions the rates at which a difpenfation for it may be had. — [ c Legat pro Chrift. p. 398. f O&av. p. 91. e Serm. 3. de Temp. ap. Barthol. de'Puerper. p. 79, h Tertull. Apolog. ap. Noodt Jul. Paul. p. 79. * Bingb. Orig. Ecclef. 1. 16. c. 10. §.4- K Book of Rates, Rome. p. 11.]
In fome countries, the procuring of Abortion is {till faid not only to be allowed, but even enjoined by law ; as among the Formofans, if we may believe Mr. Pfalmanazar, who relates, that the women here, though married, are not allowed to breed before thirty-five years of age. When with child before that time, they are obliged to make thcmfelves abortive by force : to this end the prieflefs (for in that country it feems the prieftly I C officq
