ACKERMANN, PETER POURER, D. D., ordi nary professor of Old Testament language, litera ture, and theology at Vienna, and choirmaster of the monastery or cathedral of Klosterneuburg, was born 17th Nov. 1771 at Vienna, and died 9th Sept. 183 I. He was the author of Intmductio in Libb. sacc. V. T. usibus academicis accommoa'ata, Vien. 1825 ; Archoologia bzblica &eviler exposita, Vien. 1826 ; Prophebe Minors plc/. annol. dins Vien. 183o. The first two of these works are mere redactions of works under the same titles by Jahn, expurgated so as to rescue them from the Index Expurgatorius, into which they had been put by Pius VIL Mr. Home pronounces his com mentary on the minor prophets ' valuable ' (bib-ad. ii. 2 p. 294), but this judgment can hardly be sus tained. Any value it has is derived exclusively from the extracts it gives from RosenmUller and the older writers of the Romish Church. The author himself has added nothing of any worth. The whole work is pervaded by a slavish deference to the authority of the Romish Church :—` unto,' says the author in his preface, `me ne unquam contra eum sensum exposuisse quern tenet ct tenuit sancta matey ecclesia cujus judicio hoc opus per omnia lubens subjicio ' (See Wiseman's Recollections of the Four Last Popes, p. 374, 5).—W. L. A.
ACRA("As-pa), a Greek word signifying a citadel, in which sense also occurs in the Syriac and Chaldaic. Hence the name of Acra was acquired by the eminence north of the Temple, on which a citadel was built by Antiochus Epiphanes, to com mand the holy place. It thus became in fact, the Acropolis of Jerusalem. Josephus describes this eminence as semicircular ; and reports that when Simon Maccabmus had succeeded in expelling the Syrian garrison, he not only demolished the citadel, but caused the hill itself to be levelled, that no neighbouring site might henceforth be higher than or so high as that on which the temple stood. The people had suffered so much from the garrison, that they willingly laboured day and night, for three years, in this great work (Antiq. xiii. 6, 7 ; Bell. Yud. v. 4, i). At a later period the palace of Helena, queen of Adiabene, stood on the site, which still retained the name of Acra, as did also, probably, the council-house, and the repository of the archives (Bell, yud. vi. 6, 3; see also Descript. Urbis brosolysno, per J. Heydenum, lib. iii. cap. 2).—J. K.