ominican Order, and rapidly
attained to a high position in the Church; arraigned for heresy in 1325,
and was acquitted, but two years after his death his writings were
condemned as heretical by a papal bull; died in 1327.

ECKMUeHL, a village in Bavaria where Napoleon defeated the Austrians
in 1809, and which gave the title of Duke to DAVOUT (q. v.), one
of Napoleon's generals.

ECLECTICS, so-called philosophers who attach themselves to no
system, but select what, in their judgment, is true out of others. In
antiquity the Eclectic philosophy is that which sought to unite into a
coherent whole the doctrines of Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle, such as
that of Plotinus and Proclus was. There is an eclecticism in art as well
as philosophy, and the term is applied to an Italian school which aimed
at uniting the excellencies of individual great masters.

ECLIPTIC, the name given to the circular path in the heavens round
which the sun appears to move in the course of the year, an illusion
caused by the earth's annual circuit round the sun, with its axis
inclined at an angle to the equator of 231/2 degrees; is the central line
of the ZODIAC (q. v.), so called because it was observed that
eclipses occurred only when the earth was on or close upon this path.

ECONOMY, "the right arrangement of things," and distinct from
Frugality, which is "the careful and fitting use of things."

ECORCHEURS (lit. flayers properly of dead bodies), armed bands who
desolated France in the reign of Charles VII., stripping their victims of
everything, often to their very clothes.

ECSTATIC DOCTOR, Jean Ruysbroek, a schoolman given to mysticism
(1294-1381).

ECUADOR (1,271), a republic of S. America, of Spanish origin,
created in 1822; derives its name from its position on the equator; lies
between Columbia and Peru; is traversed by the Andes, several of the
peaks of which are actively volcanic; the population consists of Peruvian
Indians, negroes, Spanish Creoles; exports cocoa, coffee, hides, and
medicinal plants; the administration is vested in a president, a
vice-president, two ministers, a senate of 18, and a house of deputies of
30, elected by universal suffrage.

ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, an ecclesiastical council representative, or
accepted as representative, of the Church universal or Catholic. See
COUNCILS.

ECZEMA, a common skin disease, which may be either chronic or acute;
develops in a red rash of tiny vesicles, w