AQ´UEOUS HUMOUR, the limpid watery fluid which fills the space between the cornea and the crystalline lens in the eye.
AQUEOUS ROCKS, composed of matter deposited by water from suspension or solution. Called also _sedimentary rocks_. See _Geology_.
AQUIFOLIA´CEÆ, a nat. ord. of plants; the holly tribe. The species consist of trees and shrubs, and the order includes the common holly (_Ilex Aquifolium_) and the _I. paraguayensis_, or Paraguayan tea tree.
AQUILA ([.a]k´w[=e]-l[.a]), a town in Italy, capital of the province of Aquila, 55 miles north-east of Rome, the seat of a bishop, an attractive and interesting town with spacious streets and handsome palaces. In 1703 and 1706 it suffered severely from earthquakes. Pop. 22,050.--The province has an area of 2493 sq. miles. Pop. 422,634.
AQ´UILA, a companion of St. Paul (_Acts_, xviii, 2, 3). Expelled from Rome, he and his wife, Priscilla, settled in Corinth, where Paul stayed with them. They were converted to Christianity by the Apostle.
AQ´UILA, a native of Pontus, flourished about A.D. 130. He became a Jewish proselyte, and made a close and accurate translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, extant only in fragments.
AQ´UILA, name of a constellation in the northern hemisphere. See _Constellations_.
AQUILEIA (ak-wi-l[=e]´ya), an ancient city near the head of the Adriatic Sea, in Upper Italy, built by the Romans in 182 or 181 B.C. Commanding the N.E. entrance into Italy, it became important as a commercial centre and a military post, and was frequently the base of imperial campaigns. In 425 it was destroyed by Attila. The modern Aquileia or Aglar is a small place of some 1700 inhabitants, consisting chiefly of fishermen.
AQUINAS (a-kw[=i]´nas; i.e. of Aquino), St. Thomas, a celebrated scholastic divine, born in 1225 or 1227, most probably at the castle of Rocco Secca, near Aquino. His father was Count of Aquino, in the kingdom of Naples. He was educated at the Benedictine monastery of Monte Casino, and at the University of Naples, where he studied for six years. About the age of seventeen he entered a convent of Dominicans, much against the wishes of his family. He attended the lectures of Albertus Magnus at Cologne, in whose company he visited Paris in 1245 or 1246. Here he became involved in the dispute between the university and the Begging Friars as to the liberty of teaching, advocating the rights claimed by the latter with great energy. In 1257 he received the degree of doctor from the Sorbonne, and began to lecture on theology, rapidly acquiring the highest reputation. In 1263 he is found at the Chapter of the Dominicans in London. In 1268 he was in Italy, lecturing in Rome, Bologna, and elsewhere. In 1271 he was again in Paris lecturing to the students; in 1272 he was professor at Naples. In 1263 he had been offered the archbishopric of Naples by Clement IV, but refused the offer. He died, in 1274, on his way to Lyons to attend a general council for the purpose of uniting the Greek and Latin Churches. He was called, after the fashion of the times, the _angelic doctor_, and was canonized by John XXII. The most important of his numerous works, which are all written in Latin, are the _Summa Theologica_, which, although only professing to treat of theology, is in reality a complete and systematic summary of the knowledge of the time, and the _Summa Philosophica_. The work of St. Thomas consisted in an effort to harmonize the new scientific teachings of the age--derived from Arabian and Byzantine sources--with the doctrine of the Church, and to refute heresy. His disciples were known as _Thomists_. See _Thomism_.--Cf. P. Conway, _St. Thomas Aquinas_; and article in _Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics_.