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E.

EACHARI

ACHARD, JOHN, an ingenious divine of the church of England, was a descendant from a respectable family in the county of Suffolk, and born about the year 1636. After receiving a good classical education, he was sent, in the year 1653, to Catherine-hall, in the university of Cambridge, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1656, was elected fellow of his college in 1658, and was admitted to the degree of M.A. in 1660. We learn nothing further concerning him till the year 1670, when he published, without his name, a treatise, entitled "The Grounds and Reasons of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion enquired into; in a Letter to R. L." This contempt he traces into the improper selection of young men who are intended for the ministerial office, the defective systems pursued in their education, and the wrong motives which determine many parents to educate their children for the church; with which he connects the consequent ignorance of some, and the poor provision made for others of the clerical body. In treating his subject he blended his serious remarks with so much wit and humour, that his treatise drew very general attention, and passed through many editions. In the following year it was attacked by an anonymous writer, who published An Answer to a Letter of Enquiry into the Grounds, &c. and several other writers, particularly the celebrated Dr. John Owen, in a preface to some sermons of W. Bridge, in which he animadverted on some of the author's representations and uncandid remarks that were levelled at dissenting divines. To the first of his answerers Mr. Eachard replied, in a piece entitled "Some Observations upon the Answer to an Enquiry, &c. with some Additions; in a second Letter to R. L." written in a similar manner with his first performance. In the year 1671 he published "Mr. Hobbes's State of Nature confider-. ed, in a Dialogue between Philautus and Timothy, &c." and soon afterwards he published

some further remarks on the writings of Mr. Hobbes, in "A Second Dialogue between Philautus and Timothy." In these dialogues he did not attempt to confute the philosopher of Malmesbury by serious argumentation, but endeavoured to expose his system to ridicule by keen raillery, and lively sallies of humour. In the use of these weapons he shewed himself peculiarly adroit, and at least gained the laugh on his side; which, among wits, and the mass of his readers, procured him higher applause than he would have obtained had he attempted to answer the writings of Hobbes in good earnest. To the task of serious writing his talents appear to have been little adapted. Those who were led to form high expectations of him as a preacher, expressed themselves uncommonly disappointed after attending to his pulpit compositions: and dean Swift says, "I have known men happy enough at ridicule, who, upon grave subjects, were perfectly stupid; of which Dr. Eachard of Cambridge, who writ The Contempt of the Clergy,' was a great instance." In the year 1675 Mr. Eachard was chosen master of Catherine-hall; and in the year following was created doctor of divinity by royal mandamus. It does not appear that he afterwards produced any literary work. He is reported to have discharged the duties of master of his college with care and fidelity; and shewed himself a considerable benefactor to it by the progress which he made in rebuilding it, after it had fallen much into decay, as well as by his own donations, and those which he procured from his friends. From his epitaph we learn, that he twice sustained the honourable office of vicechancellor of the university. He died in the year 1697. The most complete edition of his works was published in 1774, in 3 vols. 12mo. Biog. Britan.-M.

EBERTUS, THEODORE, a learned German in the seventeenth century, who filled the chair of Hebrew professor at Frankfort-on-the-Oder,

and was rector of the university in that place in the years 1618 and 1627. He acquired considerable reputation by the profound learning displayed in his writings, and in particular by the intimacy of his acquaintance with the oriental tongues. The line of reading in which the study of those languages engaged him, occasioned his becoming conversant in the works of those who had been most eminent in the same kind of literature, and had distinguished themselves by their labours for its improvement. As he considered that their merits had not received a due recompence of honourable notice, he undertook the task of becoming their eulogist, and in the year 1628 published a work entitled Elogia Jurisconsultorum & Politorum centum illustrium, qui sanctam Hebræam Linguam aliasque ejus propagines orientales propagarunt, auxerunt, promoverunt," 8vo. He afterwards published Chronologia Sanct. Ling. Doctorum, &c." presenting us with a chronological view of the principal doctors and learned men who have cultivated the Hebrew language, from the earliest times to the present; "The Life of Jesus Christ," written in Hebrew; "Poetica Hebraica," 8vo. 1620; a moral treatise entitled "Speculum Morale;" and "A Century of Political Observations," written in Latin. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M.

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EBION. There is much disagreement among ecclesiastical historians respecting the existence of a person of this name, in the age that is by many assigned to him. According to Epiphanius, Tertullian, Optatus, St. Hilary, St. Jerome, and others, a person so called lived in the latter end of the first or the beginning of the second century, who was a stoic philosopher, and, embracing many of the opinions of Cerinthus, became the leader of a new sect, who after him were called Ebionites. Irenæus, however, as well as Eusebius and Origen, by their making not the least mention of such a person as Ebion, and by the derivation which the two latter give of the name of the sect, from a term significative of poverty, meanness, or vileness, leave it at least doubtful whether Ebion be not an imaginary character. But it is not a matter of much moment how the question is decided. The Ebionites, according to the testimony of Origen and Epiphanius, held the same tenets with the Nazarenes. From all the information that has reached our day, it is not possible to ascertain precisely what those tenets were. Many of the representations given concerning the Ebionites by the ancient fathers are so confused and contradictory, that they do not merit serious attention. And some of the tales which they relate concerning them, are

exact copies of the calumnies which were propagated by the Pagans, to discredit the characters of the early Christians. One of their leading doctrines appears to have been a belief that Jesus Christ was a mere man, like themselves, though possessing supernatural powers, which were communicated for the purpose of qualify ing him for his divine mission. They appear also to have considered the laws of Moses to be binding on them; but to what extent cannot be affirmed with any certainty. According to some writers they received only the Gospel of St. Matthew as of divine authority, which they possessed in the Hebrew or Syro-chaldaic language, and rejected the rest of the New Testament, particularly the Epistles of St. Paul. The learned Lardner, however, is of opinion, that there is room for fairly arguing that they received all the four Gospels; and that some of the sect at least, by the quotations which they adduced from the Acts of the Apostles, and some of the Epistles, have given reason for concluding that they did not reject all the Epistles attributed to the great apostle of the Gentiles. But there is much obscurity in the relations which remain respecting the tenets of this sect; and little more can be advanced on that head, from the concurrent testimony of the most ancient and respectable ecclesiastical writers, than that, to use the words of Justin Martyr, "they acknowledged Jesus to be the Christ, yet maintained that he was a man born of man." Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. cap. 27. Clerici. Hist. Eccl. sub Ann. LXXII. Mosh. Hist. Eccl. Sac. II. Lardner's Cred. part II. vols. II. III. and VI. Priestley's Corrupt. Christ. vol I. Moreri.-M.

EBROIN, a potent and ambitious minister, mayor of the palace under the French kings Clotaire III. and Thierri I. is said to have been a German by birth. His reputation, which seems to have been much favoured by his intimacy with some eminent ecclesiastics, caused him, at the accession of the young Clotaire in 656, to be raised to the dignity of mayor of the palace, in which capacity he governed the kingdom, in conjunction with the queen-mother Batilde. It enjoyed perfect tranquillity during ten years, at the end of which the queen, disgusted with the disputes which arose between Ebroin and two bishops whom she had introduced into the cabinet, withdrew to a convent. He is said then to have governed with great tyranny; at least he made the nobles and prelates his enemies, who at the death of Clotaire, when Ebroin had proclaimed his infant son Thierri, rose in arms, plundered Ebroin of his.

wealth, and obliged him to retire to a monastery, travelled at the expence of George I. through and at the same time deposed the royal child, great part of Germany to search the libraries and called in Childeric king of Austrasia. On and archives for manuscripts and materials to the death of Childeric in 670, Thierri was re- enable him to prosecute the compilation of placed on the throne under the protection of the above-mentioned genealogical work. His Leudese, mayor of the palace. On this event, "Origines Sabaudica" procured him the favour Ebroin left his monastery, and placing himself of the great prince Eugene of Savoy; and his at the head of his former friends, caused disturb- "Origines Familia Habsburgo-Austriacæ," ances, and procured the assassination of Leu- that of count von Zinzendorf, through whose dese. Being still unable to recover his former means the emperor Charles VI. raised him to post, he set up a competitor to the throne un- the rank of nobility. While engaged in these der the name of Clovis, pretending that he was pursuits, by which he acquired many valuable the son of Clotaire. He invested the city of friends, as well as great honour, his situation at Autun, and gaining possession of its bishop Hanover does not appear to have been very Leger, his principal opponent, he put out his agreeable. During his trave's, his domestic. eyes. Thierri was at length obliged to create concerns fell into derangement, in consequence him mayor of the palace, in consequence of of the debts contracted in his absence; and on which Clovis was abandoned. Ebroin again this account he presented a poem to his sovebecame all-powerful, and ruled with despotic reign, in which he gave a picture of his distressrigour. He caused Leger to be deposed and ed situation, and begged for relief. His creput to death; and sacrificed many others either ditors, however, were so clamorous, that he to his own ambition, or to the public security. could not wait for his majesty's answer; and At length he was himself assassinated by one in 1724 he absconded, and took shelter, in a Ermenfroi, steward of the household, whom he most wretched plight, without money and withhad deeply fined for misbehaviour in his office. out clothes, in the convent of the Benedictines This was in 681. It is to be observed that the at Corvey. Some manuscripts and coins which only historians of those times were ecclesiastics, he carried with him from Hanover were afterwho were the bitter enemies of Ebroin. One wards returned. From Corvey, where he met cause of their dislike was, that under his admi- with a cool reception, he proceeded to Cologne, .nistration commenced the practice of bestowing and on the 2d of February, the same year, forthe estates of the church upon laymen, under mally abjured the lutheran religion in the colthe title of Precaire, with obligation of military lege of the Jesuits, in that city. Having decyservice. Moreri. Mod. Univers. Hist. Millot's phered some old charters belonging to the city Elemens.-A. of Cologne, the council rewarded him liberally for his trouble; but he refused the offer made to him of being professor of history in the university, because in that case he must have supplanted a Jesuit, whom he considered as one of his benefactors. The elector of Cologne treated him with great respect, and cardinals Passionei and Spinola assured him of the protection of pope Innocent XII. who promised benefices to both his sons if he would come to reside at Rome. The elector of Mentz, the elector Palatine, and the princes of Passau and Fulda, and the nobility of Milan, all made him most advantageous offers, to enable him to complete his "Scriptores rerum Italicarum ;" but he entered into the service of the bishopric of Wurzburgh, where he was entrusted with the care of the library belonging to the court and the university. The dean and chapter committed to his charge the valuable manuscripts contained in the diplomatic archives of the cathedral, which he arranged and classed with great ability. Several proposals for improving the form of the academic lectures, and establishing a professorship of

ECCARD, or ECKHARD, JOHN-GEORGE, a learned antiquarian, was born in 1674, at Duingen, a village belonging to the district of Lauenstein, where his father was chief forester. After some private instruction at home, he was sent to the school of Pforta, where his favourite study was poetry. He then removed to Leipsic, where at a book-auction he had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the celebrated Leibnitz. In 1696 he left Leipsic, became a corrector of the press, and afterwards secretary to field-marshal count Fleming, who intended to make him major of his regiment; but neither theology, to which he was destined by his mother, nor the military profession was agreeable to his taste. By the recommendation of Leibnitz, he obtained the professorship of history at Helmstadt, in 1706; and in 1713 he was appointed a counsellor of the electorate of Hanover, and historiographer, in consequence of which he assisted Leibnitz in his "Origines Guelphicæ," and in 1717 he became his successor as librarian at Hanover. After this he

the law of nature at Wurzburgh; calling the public attention to the much-neglected natural history of that district; the interesting account of the old imperial palace of Salzburgh, near Neustadt, on the Saal; and his "Commentarii de rebus Franciæ orientalis," printed with great magnificence at Wurzburgh, in two folio volumes; were the fruits of his meditation and study, which he often continued throughout the day, and till a late hour at night. It is much to be regretted, however, that he did not live to put the last hand to his important work on the history of Wurzburgh, in which he comprehended the principal German events from the emigrations of the Franks to king Conrad I. and Dietho count de Castel, according to Friesen's account, the twelfth bishop of Wurzburgh. While defining, in the preface, the boundaries of the bishopric under St. Burckhard, he was suddenly seized with a mortal disease, which put a period to his existence in the month of February, 1730. Eckhard possessed a very extensive knowledge of history; but was much better acquainted with that of the middle ages, and with the situation of Germany at those periods, than with the events and manners of his own time. He was familiar also with numismatics, the geography of the early ages, and antiquities of every kind. Etymology he had made his particular study; and had been employed almost thirty years in collecting materials for an etymological dictionary of the German language. This conducted him to periods of history which few before him had examined, and by these means he was enabled to publish many works that may be of great importance to be of great importance to the future historian; for though it has been observed that Eckhard ought to have written less, and to have introduced more philosophy into his works, he must be allowed the merit of having collected valuable materials which, in the hands of a more philosophic writer, may be rendered highly interesting and useful. The principal of his works are: "De usu & præstantia studii etymologici in historia;" Helmst. 1706, 4to.: "Historia studii etymolog. linguæ Germanicæ ;" Harov. 1711, 8vo.: "Leges Francorum Salicæ & Ripuariorum;' Francof. & Lips. 1720, folio: "Origines familia HabsburgicoAustriacæ;" Lips. 1721, folio: "Historia genealog. Principum Saxon, &c. &c.; Accedunt origines Sabaudicæ stemma Desideranum genuinum; origo domus Br. Luneb. & Czàreæ connexio, &c. ;" Lips. 1722, folio: "Corpus Historiarum medii ævi;" Lips. 1723, vol. ii. folio. This interesting work, compiled from materials collected with great labour for many

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years, is considered by Lenglet du Fresnoy, in his Diction. hist. portatif, Amst. 1774, article Eccard, as the production of one of the ablest men in Germany: he adds, that it contains a great many curious pieces well arranged, and not to be found in any other collection. Account of ancient Salzburg, and the Palace Salz, in Franconia;" Wurzburg, 1725, 8vo.: Leipsic, 1751, 8vo.: "Commentarii de rebus Francie orientalis & episcopatus Wirceburgensis, &c.;" Wirceb. 1729, tom. ii. folio; a work of great learning, and an honourable testimony of the author's extensive knowledge of history: "De origine Germanorum eorumque vetustissimis coloniis, migrationibus ac rebus gestis, libri duo;" Goetting. 1750, 4to. cum fig.:" Origines Guelphicæ; Opus præeunte D. God. Guil. Leibnitio, D. Jo. Geo. Eccardi literis consignatum, postea a D. Jo. Dan. Grubero novis probationibus instructum, variisque pernecessariis animadversionibus castigatum; jam vero in lucem emissum a Christ. Lud. Scheidio;" Hanov. tom. i. 1750, cum fig.; tom. ii. 1751, tom. iii. 1752, tom. iv. & ult. 1753, folio. cum fig. It is well known that the house of BrunswickLunneburg engaged the celebrated Leibnitz to write the history of its family. After a great many researches respecting the origin of this house, Leibnitz conceived the idea, instead of composing the history of it alone, to write a history of the whole western empire, beginning with Charlemagne, whose son, Lewis the Mild, married a Guelphic princess, from whom descended Charles the Bald, and many other emperors and kings. Leibnitz died while engaged in the prosecution of this extensive plan, after having carried the work as far as the death of the emperor Otho III. The manuscripts which Leibnitz left on this subject being put into the hands of Eccard, he perused them with great care, and produced from them his excellent "Origines Guelphice;" but on his absconding from Hanover, the publication of the work was suspended. It was then taken up by M. Gruber, who made many learned additions to it; but as he died before it was ushered into the world, the honour of the publication was reserved for M. Scheid. Hirsching's Manual of eminent Persons who died in the Eighteenth Century. J.

ECCHELLENSIS, ABRAHAM, a learned Maronite, who flourished in the seventeenth century, was induced by his countryman Gabriel Sionita to visit Paris, to become his coadjutor in preparing for the press the magnificent Polyglot Bible, published by M. le Jai. It was he who furnished the Arabic and Syriac texts of 3 T

the book of Ruth, with the Latin version. Prædicatorum recensiti, notisque historicis & While he was at Paris on this business, a violent criticis illustrati," in two volumes folio, 1721. quarrel took place between him and Sionita, in Besides the particulars of their lives which it which charges and recriminations were advanc- records, it presents us with an account of their ed, which reflected no credit on the character works, the time when they were printed, and and reputation of either of the parties. Ecchel- the libraries in which such as have not yet been lensis was also involved in a literary dispute edited are preserved; into which the author with M. De Flavigny, doctor of the Sorbonne, has been uncommonly careful to admit nothing who endeavoured to convict him of incapacity for which he had not the best authorities. Fafor the undertaking in which he had engaged. ther James Quetif, who died in 1698, was emEcchellensis, however, appears to have satisfac- ployed on this work before our author; but his torily vindicated himself from this charge, and labours do not compose a fourth part of the to have established so high an opinion of his whole, and that the least difficult and laborious. proficiency in oriental literature, that he was Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M. appointed professor of the Syriac and Arabic languages in the College Royal at Paris. In the year 1636, the college De Propaganda Fide added him to the number of those who were to be employed in translating the Scriptures into Arabic, and recalled him for that purpose out of France to Rome, where he was engaged on that work in the year 1652. He was also made professor of the oriental languages at Rome; and was chosen by the archduke Ferdinand II. to translate out of the Arabic into Latin the 5th, 6th, and 7th Books of Apollonius's "Conics," in which work he was assisted by John Alphonso Borelli, a celebrated mathematician. The whole work was printed at Florence, with Archimedes's book "De Assumptis," in 1661, in folio. He died at Rome in the year 1664. Besides what have been already mentioned, Ecchellensis was the author of "Institutio Linguæ Syriacæ," 12mo. 1628; "Synopsis Philosophia Orientalium," 4to. 1641; "Versio Durrhamani de medicis Virtutibus animalium, plantarum, & gummarum," octavo, 1647; "Chronicon Orientale Latine red. cum Supplemento Historia Orientalis," folio, 1651; "Eutychius vindicatus," against Selden and Hottinger, 4to. 1661;"Remarks on the Catalogue of Chaldee Writers, composed by Hebed-Jesu," 1653; and different controversial pieces against the Protestants, in which he endeavoured to shew the conformity between the opinions of the orientals and those of the Romish church. Bayle. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist. Saxii Onamast. part iv.-M.

ECHARD, JAMES, a French monk of the dominican order, was born at Rouen in 1664, and died at Paris in 1724, aged eighty years. He was the author of a work highly esteemed by his order, on many of whom it bestows much praise, sometimes, as may be expected, with too much partiality; and which will be found of use to biographers and ecclesiastical historians: it is entitled "Scriptores Ordinis

ECHARD, LAWRENCE, a writer chiefly in history, was the son of a clergyman at Barsham, near Beccles, in Suffolk, where he was born in 1671. He was educated at Christ's college, Cambridge, where he took the degree of M.A. and afterwards entered into holy orders. He was first settled in Lincolnshire, where he began to make himself known by his writings. He published, in 1699, "The Roman History, from the Building of the City to the Settlement of the Empire by Augustus," 8vo. which was followed by its continuation from that period to that of Constantine. These were afterwards printed together in three volumes 8vo. In 1702 he published "A General Ecclesiastical History, from the Birth of Christ to the Establishment of Christianity under Constanstine," folio. This was well received, and came to a sixth edition, in two volumes 8vo. 1722. It was probably the cause of his professional promotion to the offices of prebendary of Lincoln, and chaplain to the bishop of that diocese. His next work was "A History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the End of James the First's Reign," folio, 1707. This he afterwards carried down to the Revolution, in two more volumes, printed in 1718. He obtained considerable reputation by this performance, which is written in a clear method and perspicuous style, though not without various party misrepresentations, for some of which he was reprehended in a printed letter from Dr. Edmund Calamy. Echard wrote upon what are called the high principles in church and state, which produced in him, as it has done in many others, some inconsistencies in vindicating the revolution. Of this event he wrote a sepa rate history in an octavo volume. One of his most useful works was "The Gazetteer's or Newsman's Interpreter," being a geographical index or dictionary of all the principal places on the globe. Of this, many editions have been printed, and the Gazetteers of the present time

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