AUDETS, Aunfus (or, according to his native Syriac name, Udo), the founder of a religious sect in Mesopotamia, flourished during the 4th century. He commenced by accusing the regular clergy of worldliness, impure morals, etc., and is said to have opposed to their manner of life a strict asceticism, until his conduct seemed dangerous to the welfare of the church, when he was excommunicated. His disciples, who were pretty numerous, now clung more closely to him, and he was elected their bishop. In 338 A.D., he Was banished to Scythia, where he instituted a kind of rival church, and where he died about 370 A.D. Our knowledge both of his character and opinions is derived solely from inimical authorities, such as Augustine, Athanasius, etc., and is therefore to be accented with caution. But his labors amongst the fierce barbarians in the north are acknowledged to have been beneficial, and one writer, Epiphanius, states that he ought to be considered schismatical, but not heretical. But if the leading feature
of his system was, as is alleged, a decided tendency to anthropomorphism, we cannot see —according to the principles upon which the church usually proceeded—why he should not have been so called. He is said to have held that the language of the Old Testament justifies the belief that God has a sensible form—a doctrine deemed heretical in all figts of the church's history. This particular tenet took firm hold on many minds, and in the subsequent century, was widely spread through the monasteries of Egypt.
AUDE (Ata.r), a river in the s. of France, rises in the cast Pyrenees, not far from wont Louis; flows for some time parallel to the canal of Languedoc; and falls into the Mediterranean 6 m. c.n.c. of Narbonne, after a course of more than 120 miles.