ece of literary prose that exists in the language.

ECCLESIASTICAL STATES, territories in Italy once subject to the Pope
as a temporal prince as well as ecclesiastically.

ECCLESIASTICUS, one of the books of the Apocrypha, ascribed to
Jesus, the son of Sirach, admitted to the sacred canon by the Council of
Trent, though excluded by the Jews. It contains a body of wise maxims, in
imitation, as regards matter as well as form, of the Proverbs of Solomon,
and an appendix on the men who were the disciples of wisdom. Its general
aim, as has been said, is "to represent wisdom as the source of all
virtue and blessedness, and by warnings, admonitions, and promises to
encourage in the pursuit of it." It was originally written in Hebrew, but
is now extant only in a Greek translation executed in Egypt, professedly
by the author's grandson.

ECCLESIOLOGY, the name given in England to the study of church
architecture and all that concerns the ground-plan and the internal
arrangements of the parts of the edifice.

ECGBERHT, archbishop of York; was a pupil of Bede, and the heir to
his learning; founded a far-famed school at York, which developed into a
university; flourished in 766.

ECHIDNA, a fabulous monster that figures in the Greek mythology,
half-woman, half-serpent, the mother of Cerberus, the Lernean Hydra, the
Chimaera, the Sphinx, the Gorgons, the Nemean Lion, the vulture that
gnawed the liver of Prometheus, &c.

ECHO, a wood-nymph in love with Narcissus, who did not return her
love, in consequence of which she pined away till all that remained of
her was only her voice.

ECK, JOHN, properly MAIER, a German theologian, of Swabian
birth, professor at Ingolstadt; a violent, blustering antagonist of
Luther and Luther's doctrines; in his zeal went to Rome, and procured a
papal bull against both; undertook at the Augsburg Diet to controvert
Luther's doctrine from the Fathers, but not from the Scriptures; was
present at the conferences of Worms and Regensburg (1486-1543).

ECKERMANN, JOHANN PETER, a German writer, born at Winsen, in
Hanover; friend of Goethe, and editor of his works; the author of
"Conversations with Goethe in the Last Years of his Life, 1823-32," a
record of wise reflections and of Goethe's opinions on all subjects, of
the utmost interest to all students of the German sage (1792-1854).

ECKHART, MEISTER, a German philosopher and divine, profoundly
speculative and mystical; entered the D