**ALOGI** (*Ἀλόγοι*).
A sect known to us from St. Epiphanius (*Haer.*, 51, 1-35; PG 41, 888-953), who gave them this name (*ἀλόγος*, “without Logos”) because he accused them of rejecting the Logos. Drawing probably on Hippolytus’ *Syntagma* as his source, Epiphanius reports that, on the basis of internal criticism, they denied the Johannine origin of the Fourth Gospel (because it was disordered and divergent from the Synoptics) and of the Apocalypse (because it was incomprehensible and falsely prophetic), attributing both to Cerinthus. This thesis was inconsistent (the Fourth Gospel refutes Cerinthus!), so Epiphanius ironically applied the title *ἀλόγος* (“without intellect”) and refuted their objections at length (*loc. cit.*, 4-31).
It seems that Philastrius (*Haer.*, 60; PL 12, 1174) designates the A., mentioning the heretics who rejected the Fourth Gospel and attributed the Apocalypse to Cerinthus. St. Irenaeus condemns unnamed opponents who rejected the Fourth Gospel because it contained “the promise of the Spirit,” while they “denied the continuance of the prophetic spirit” (*Adv. Haer.*, III, 11, 9; PG 7, 891), so that “by sinning against the Spirit of God they fall into the unforgivable sin,” an expression that St. Epiphanius repeats for the A. (*Haer.*, 51, 35). Only Epiphanius, however (neither Irenaeus nor Philastrius), imputes to them Christological heresies, making them the first monarchians and the first apotactites or pneumatics; indeed he calls the monarchian Theodore of Byzantium (late 2nd cent.) “a scrap of the A.” (*Haer.*, 54, 1).
The A. appeared in Asia (at Thyatira: Epiphanius, *Haer.*, 51, 33) about A.D. 170 as opponents of the monarchists, who were abusing the Johannine writings, which contained “the promise of the Spirit.”
The anti-Montanist priest Gaius (*v.*), who rejected the Apocalypse and attributed it to Cerinthus, is considered an A. by V. Rose and P. Ladeuze; the latter even regards him as the only A. who ever existed. But against this thesis (which O. Bardenhewer, *Geschichte der altchristl. Literatur*, I, Freiburg i. Br. 1913, p. 434, accepts) P. de Labriolle, *La crise montaniste*, Paris 1913, pp. 190-202, 283-85, protested.
Following T. Zahn and A. Harnack, A. Camerlynck sees in the A. not heretics but only critics who expressed doubts about the canon of the New Testament.
This thesis, accepted by Tixeront, was taken up and expanded by A. Bludau: the A. were Western anti-Montanists (distinct from those mentioned by Irenaeus), who formed a group of some importance after Gaius had spread his arguments against the Johannine writings; they denied no dogma (neither the divinity of the Son nor of the Holy Spirit), but only considered the Fourth Gospel and the Apocalypse spurious on exegetical grounds. Epiphanius, however, for whom the repudiation of the Johannine Gospel in the dogmatic struggles of the 4th cent. implied the exclusion of the Logos, and who from his sources could not obtain anything certain, regarded the A. as “altogether estranged from the teaching of the truth” (*Epiphanius, loc. cit.*, 3), even because it seemed they had denied “the Spirit.”
It extends for about 200 km from north to south, enclosed between the Vosges, which dominate it to the west with their steep, wooded front, and the rock through which the river flows, cluttered with swamps and covered with lacustrine vegetation. The foothills are broken up by rows of hills whose dry, sun-exposed slopes are excellently suited to the cultivation of vines and fruit trees. Further to the east, the true plain spreads out, interrupted here and there by the humid valley floors of the Rhine’s tributaries (Bächle) and by the strips of woodland that have survived on the higher terraces. The richest part of the country is the Ried, or the zone of contact between hills and plain, where the larger inhabited centres also rise. To the south, Alsace is closed off by the Sundgau, which is its poorest part, consisting as it does of scarcely fertile fluvio-glacial soils. Even the climate, due to its relative dryness, contributes to the original character of the region in comparison with the neighbouring western (Vosges) and southern (Jura) regions. Alsace has a varied and abundant agricultural production (cereals, potatoes, hops, tobacco) and a flourishing vineyard industry, with a notable development of industries (especially textiles), favoured by good mineral resources (potash, petroleum, coal).
Having remained essentially Celtic even after the Roman occupation, Alsace was profoundly Germanised after the 5th century, a process that continued throughout the Middle Ages. France succeeded in conquering it between 1552 and 1648, but lost it again in 1870, with the exception of Belfort, which has since then been administratively separated from it with its territory (the smallest of the French departments after that of Paris). The First Republic divided its unity into Lower and Upper Alsace, corresponding to the current two departments of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, with capitals at Strasbourg and Colmar. On 28 June 1919, Alsace was assigned once more to France: of its population, the German element then represented 96% in Lower Alsace and 93% in Upper Alsace. The Germans reoccupied the region during the Second World War and re-annexed it to the Reich on 8 August 1940; the Allies conquered it again in March 1945 and assigned it once more to France.
Here are the statistical data relating to the two departments:
| Departments | Area in sq. km. | Population and censuses | Population density |
|-------------|-----------------|-------------------------|--------------------|
| Bas-Rhin | 4786 | 711,830 | 673.281 |
| Haut-Rhin | 3508 | 507,551 | 471.705 |
| Total Alsace| 8294 | 1,219,381 | 1,144.986 |
Of the inhabited centres, the largest is Strasbourg, the only one with more than 100,000 inhabitants (175,000 in 1946; 249,000 in 1936). Notable too are Mülhausen (French: Mulhouse) with 97,000 and Colmar with 46,000 inhabitants.
Alsace forms a single diocese, that of Strasbourg, immediately subject to the Holy See.
For religious history, V. STRASBOURG, diocese.