ers, but was divested of them on account of
Jansenist views; devoted his life to the instruction of deaf-mutes, for
whom he founded an institute, and invented a language of signs
(1712-1789).

EPEIUS, the contriver of the wooden horse, by means of which the
Greeks entered and took possession of Troy, and who was assisted by
Athena in the building of it.

EPERNAY (18), a French town on the Marne, 20 m. NW. of Chalons; the
chief emporium of the champagne district.

EPHESIANS, THE EPISTLE TO, a presumably circular letter of St. Paul
to the Church at Ephesus, among other Churches in the East, written to
show that the Gentile had a standing in Christ as well as the Jew, and
that it was agreeable to the eternal purpose of God that the two should
form one body in Him; it contains Paul's doctrine of the Church, and
appears to have been written during his first imprisonment in Rome
(61-63); it appears from the spirit that breathes in it and the similar
thoughts and exhortations, contained to have been written at the same
time as the Epistle to the Colossians.

EPHIALTES, one of the giants who revolted against Zeus and
threatened to storm heaven; he appears to have been maimed by Apollo and
Hercules.

EPHIALTES, a Malian Greek who led the Persians across a pass in the
mountains, whereby they were able to surround and overcome Leonidas and
his Spartans at Thermopylae.

EPHOD, a richly and emblematically embroidered vestment worn by the
high-priest of the Jews, and consisting of two parts, one covering the
breast and supporting the breastplate, and the other covering the back,
these being clasped to the shoulders by two onyx stones, with names
inscribed on them, six on each, of the 12 tribes, and the whole bound
round the waist with a girdle of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and
fine-twined linen.

EPH`ORI (i. e. overseers), the name of five magistrates annually
elected in ancient Sparta from among the people as a countercheck to the
authority of the kings and the senate; had originally to see to the
execution of justice and the education of youth; their authority, which
resembled that of the tribunes in Rome, was at last destroyed in 225 B.C.

EPHRAEM SYRUS, the most famous of the Church Fathers in Syria, and
called "prophet of the Syrians," also "Pillar of the Church" and "Help of
the Holy Ghost," born at Nisibis, Mesopotamia; lived a hermit's life in a
cave near Edessa; left exegetical writings, homilies,