ABYSS IN I A

The Aby in i an Church was founded early in the fourth century. Its first bishop, Frumentius, received consecration from St. A than as i us, bishop of Alexandria, and to this day the Abund of Aby in i a is consecrated by the Alexandrian patriarch. In the sixth century the Christians of Aby in i a fell into the heresy of the Monophysites, in which they still remain; and they also agree with the Greek Church in denying the proce ion of the Holy Ghost from the Son . In the fifth, and again in the seventeenth, century, attempts were made to reduce the Aby in i an Christians to obedience to the Roman see, but the attempt in both instances utterly failed. The number of Christians in Aby in i a is said to amount to three millions. ACŒMETÆ. ( Ἁκοιμηταί , Watchers.) An order of monks instituted at the beginning of the fifth century at Constantinople, who were divided into three cla es, who performed the Divine service by rotation, and so continued night and day without intermi ion.