The darkness tTri iraaai' ti)v yi'iv of !Matt. xxvii, 45, attending the crucifixion has been similarly attrib- uted to an eclipse. See Crucifixion (of Christ). Phlegon of Tralles, indeed, mentions an eclipse of in- tense darkness, and, beginning at noon, comliined, he says, in Bithynia, with an earthquake, which, in the uncertain state of our chronology (see Clinton's Fasti Romani, Olymp. 202), more or less nearly synchronizes with the event. Kor was the account without re- ception in the early Church. See the testimonies to that effect collected by Whiston (Testimony of Phlegon vindicated, London, 1732). Origen, however, ad loc. (Lai hi commentary on IMatthew), denies the possibility of such a cause, arguing that by the fixed Paschal reckoning the moon must have been about full, and denying that Luke xxiii, 45, by tlie wo'ds ifTKorirrOii o i'jXior, means to allege that fact as the cause. The genuineness of this comnientaiy has been impeached, nor is its tenor consistent with Origen adv. Cels. p. 80 ; but the argument, unless on such an assumption as that mentioned below, seems decisive, and has ever since been adhered to. He limits ■Karyav ti)i' yi/'' to Jud;ea. Dean Alford (ad loc), though without stating his reason, prefers the wider interpretation of all the earth's surface on which it would naturally have been day. That Phlegon's darkness, perceived so intense in Tralles and Bithynia, was felt in Judsea, is highly probable; and the evangelist's testimony to similar phenomena of a coincident darkness and earthquake, taken in connection with the near agreement of time, gives a probability to tlie su]iposition that the former speaks of the same circumstances as the latter. AA'iese- ler (C/iron. Syno}}. p. 388), however, and De Wette {Com- ment, on INIatt.) consider the year of Phlegon's eclipse an impossible one for the crucifixion, and reject tiiat explanation of the darkness. The argument from the duration (three hours) is also of great force, for an eclipse seldom lasts in great intensity more than six minutc^s. The darkness in tliis instance, moreover, cannot with reason be attributed to an eclipse, as the moon was at the full at the time of the Passover (q. v.). On the other hand, Seyftarth (Chronolog. Sacr. p. .58, 9) maintains that the Jewish calendar, owing to their following the sun, had become so far out that the moon might possibly have been at new, and thus, ad-
I mittiiiLr the year as a possil)le epoch, revives the argu-
I ment for the eclipse as the cause. He, however, views this rather as a natural basis tiian as a full account of
I the darkness, which in its degree at Jerusalem was still preternatural- (/J. p. 138). The ])amplilet of Whis- ton afiovo quoted, and two by Dr. Sykes, Dissertation
I on the Eclipse mentioned hg Phlegon, and Defence of the
ECONOMY
51
EDELMANN
same (London, 1733 and 1734), may he consulted as re- g irds the statement of Phlegon. Treatises on the ))henonienon in question have been written in Latin by Baier (Kegiom. 1718), Engestrom (London, 1730), Fleischer (Viteh. 1092), Frick (Lips. 169-_'), Lauth (Ar- gent. 1743), Pasch (Viteb. 1(J83), Posner (Jena, 1661), Schmid (Jena, 1683), Soinmel (London, 1774), Topfer (Jen. 1678), Wiedeburg (Melnist. 1687), Zeibich (Viteb. 1741), and in German bj' Grausbeck (Tubing. 1835). See DarjvNess.
Economy, "a term which properly means the ar- rangcmi'nt of a hmscholl (oikovuijici), but is also fre- quently emi)loyed bj'' ecclesiastical writers for the jjriirliml measures adopted in order to give effect to a divine dispensation. The Jewish economy included all the details of spiritual and secular government, but the Christian economy, belonging to a ' kingdom not of this world,' has no direct reference to political arrangements" (Eden). See Dispensation.
Ecthesis, a proclamation or formula of faith, in the form of an edict, written b}^ Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, published A.D. 639 by tlie emperor Heraelius, to put an end to the troubles occasioned by the Eutychian heresy. It prohibited all controversies on the question. Whether in Christ there were one or two operations ? though in the same edict the doctrine of one will was plainly inculcated. A considerable numljer of the Eastern bishops declared their assent to this law, which was also submissively received by Pyrrhus, the new patriarch of Constantinople. In the "West the case was quite different. The Roman pon- tiff', John IV, asseml)led a council at Rome, A.D. 629, in which the ecthesis was rejected, and the Monothe- lites were condemned (Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. N. Y. ed. i, 453). A copy of it is given in Harduin, Concilia, iii, 791. See also Gieseler, Church History, i, § 126 ; Hefele, Conciliengeschichie, iii, 154 sq. See Eutycii-
lANS.
Ecuador (the Spanish term for Equnlor'), a re- public in South America. In lat. it extends from 1° 40' N. to 5° 50' S., while in W. long, it stretches from 69° to 81° 20'. It measures, therefore, from north to south fully 500 miles, and from east to west nearly 850, presenting an area of aliout 300,000 square miles. It is bounded by the United States of Colombia, Bra- zil, Peru, and the Pacitic. The population in 1857 (according to Vilavicencio) was 1,108,042, composed as follows: Whites (Creoles), 100,000 ; descendants of whites and Indians, 501,200; civilized Indians, 462,400; negroes, 7840 ; descendants of negroes and whites or negroes and Indians, 36,000 ; uncivilized Indians, 200,000. Ecuador, until the beginning of the present century, belonged to the Spanish viceroyalty of New Granada. After the establishment of the indepen- dence of the Spanish colonies, Ecuador formed part, rmtil 1830, of the federal republic of Colombia. Since 1830 it has been an independent republic. The chief cities are Quito, the capital, and Guayaquil, the empo- rium of foreign trade. The government appears to have been constituted on the model of the United States of North America, having a president and vice- p'esident, with a Senate and a House of Representa- tives. All the inhabitants belong to the Roman Cath- olic ('hurch, whicii contains the following dioceses: 1. The archbishopric oftjuito, estalilished as an episcopal see in l.)45, erected into an archbishopric in 1861; 2. the bishopric of (iuayaquil, estalilished in 1838; 3. the bi.shopric of Nueva Cuen(;a. The public exercise of no other religion is allowed by the Constitution of the state. Tlierc were, in 1855, 277 parochial and 106 vice- parochial churches, 534 secular priests, 262 monks in 36 and 202 nuns in 11 convents. The University of Quito, established in 1586 bj' the Jesuits, has 4"col- leges and several seminaries. There were 11 high schools, called colleges or seminaries, and 290 primarv schools, of whicli 30 were for girls. Nearly all the