Ackermann (Louise-Victorine, née Choquet), French poetess, b. Paris 30 Nov. 1813. She travelled to Germany and there married (1853) a young theologian, Paul Ackerman, who in preparing for the ministry lost his Christian faith, and who, after becoming teacher to Prince Frederick William (afterwards Frederick III.), died at the age of thirty-four (1846). Both were friends of Proudhon. Madame Ackermann's poems (Paris 1863-74 and 85) exhibit her as a philosophic pessimist and Atheist. "God is dethroned," says M. Caro of her poems (Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 May, 1874). She professes hatred of Christianity and its interested professors. She has also published Thoughts of a Solitary. Sainte Beuve calls her "the learned solitary of Nice." Acollas (Pierre Antoine René Paul Emile), French jurisconsult and political writer, b. La Châtre 25 June, 1826, studied law at Paris. For participating in the Geneva congress of the International Society in 1867 he was condemned to one year's imprisonment. In 1871 he was appointed head of the law faculty by the Commune. He has published several manuals popularising the legal rights of the people, and has written on Marriage its Past, Present, and Future, 1880. Mrs. Besant has translated his monograph on The Idea of God in the Revolution, published in the Droits de l'Homme. Acontius (Jacobus--Italian, Giacomo Aconzio). Born at Trent early in sixteenth century. After receiving ordination in the Church of Rome he relinquished that faith and fled to Switzerland in 1557. He subsequently came to England and served Queen Elizabeth as a military engineer. To her he dedicated his Strategems of Satan, published at Basle 1565. This was one of the earliest latitudinarian works, and was placed upon the Index. It was also bitterly assailed by Protestant divines, both in England and on the Continent. An English translation appeared in 1648. Some proceedings were taken against Acontius before Bishop Grindall, of the result of which no account is given. Some passages of Milton's Areopagitica may be traced to Acontius, who, Cheynell informs us, lived till 1623. Stephen's Dictionary of National Biography says he is believed to have died shortly after 1566. Acosta (Uriel). Born at Oporto 1597, the son of a Christianised Jew; he was brought up as a Christian, but on reaching maturity, rejected that faith. He went to Holland, where he published a work equally criticising Moses and Jesus. For this he was excommunicated by the Synagogue, fined and put in prison by the Amsterdam authorities, and his work suppressed. After suffering many indignities from both Jews and Christians, he committed suicide 1647. Adams (George), of Bristol, sentenced in 1842 to one month's imprisonment for selling the Oracle of Reason. Adams (Robert C.), Canadian Freethought writer and lecturer. Author of Travels in Faith from Tradition to Reason (New York, 1884), also Evolution, a Summary of Evidence.