THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
ferers. That the visions of many of the saints, such as those of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Theresa, are traceable to this cause is highly probable. Bohme claimed the gift. Bonaventura's Itincrarium mentis in Deum aims to mark the steps by which the soul comes in ecstasy into the presence of God, The story of Joan of Arc, with its details of phenomena which seemed to the times to savor of witchcraft, becomes intelligible with ecstasy as the key to the mystery. The unrestrained actions manifested at periods of revival, especially in colored communities, reveal both the effects of abnormal excitement on individuals and the communicability to large numbers of this psychological affection. It is noticeable that the frequency of the affection diminishes before the advance of culture, that the educated are less liable to its attacks, and that emotional peoples and individuals are the most exposed. Geo. W. Gilmore.
Originally the word " ecstasy " signified the passage of the soul from the body, involving as a complementary conception its absorption into the Godhead. A further Greek term employed to express the state is enthousiasmus, and it implies the possession of man by deity . Early Christian literature uses several terms to carry the idea, such as theophoros (Ignatius. Epist. to Ephesians, ix. 2), entheos (idem, Epist. to Trallians, viii. 2), pneumatophoros (Hennas, Mandates, xi. 16). The word " enthusiasm " received a bad sense at the General time of the Reformation, as when Review. Luther spoke of the papacy as " a vain enthusiasm " and when he called Zwingli an enthusiast, and the same term is applied in documents of the Reformation to heretics (G. Arnold, Kitchen- und Ketzerhistorie, part ii., index, and xvi. 3.57). The phenomena of ecstatic enthusiasm were not uncommon in the later Jewish period, continued from the time of the New Testament, were frequent in the second century, but fell into discredit through the excesses of Montanism. The ecstatic state is discussed by early writers, such as Miltiades, Tertullian, and Augustine. The last-named defines it as " an alienation of the mind from the bodily senses, so that the spirit of man being taken possession of by the divine spirit is free for taking and receiving visions " (MPL, xl. 129); he was influenced by Neoplatonism in his attitude toward it. Dionysius the Areopagite goes so far as to speak of ecstasy on the part of God (MPG, iii. 712A). The development of monasticism gives frequent examples of the phenomenon. Tendencies of the same sort appear in modern Russian sects and in the monastic orders of the Eastern Church. The history of the saints and of heretics affords frequent instances of persons affected by the tendency who see visions and work wonders. The Reformers were firmly opposed to the " fanaticism " which, they claimed, was exhibited among the Anabaptists, Mennonites, and other sects. The exhibitions continued in the later Roman Catholic Church, e.g., Marie Alacoque, and among Protestants, in the case of the Cumisards. Although the eighteenth century was especially unsympathetic toward any type of irrationalism in religion, Goethe defended " enthusiasm," and Kant discussed the
subject, while Wieland doubted whether the strict philosophical attitude could be justified (Hempel's ed. of his " Works," xxxii. 369 sqq.). The reviews of the subject by Herder and Lessing reached a rather unfavorable conclusion (Herder's " Works," xx. 277 sqq.; Lessing's " Works," ed. Lachmann, xvi. 293 sqq.). The romantic movement of the nineteenth century was rather more favorable, especially in the discussions of about 1830-40. Examples were seen in the frequent Madonna visions and stigmatizations in the Roman Catholic Church. Among Protestants they were connected with the movements of Pietism and Methodism of the last two centuries, and the record is maintained at the present in accounts of visions of Christ, in speaking with tongues, and in religious healing of disease.
The internal working of God's spirit in the individual soul is a certainty, however it may be interpreted in terms of objective reality. It may take the position of historic revelation, but in its influence on the development of the Christian Church it may be distinguished as a kind of secondary revelation. To distinguish between the sound and the unsound in even the derived form is impossible where the emotional and practical sides of religion are concerned. The tendency in modern times is to take an unfavorable view and to label all types of enthusiasm as fanaticism. Modern enthusiasm reveals itself in five particulars : the insistence upon the necessity for new revelations, in a belief in predictive powers, in methods of Christian healing as by the laying on of hands and prayer, in ascetic methods of attaining sanctification, and in millenarian views. (Karl Thieme.)
Bibliography: P. Goerres, Die christliche Mystik, Munich, 1836-42; M. Perty, Die mystische Erscheinungen der menschlichen Natur, Leipsic, 1864; J. H. Fichte, Psychologie, pp. 588-655, ib. 1864; F. Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology, pp. 354-368, 418-433, Edinburgh, 1867; A. Kuenen, Prophets and Prophecy in Israel, p. 86, London, 1871; E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 123, 436, ii. 130-131, 410, Boston, 1874; Charbonnier de Batty, Les Maladies des mystiques, Paris, 1875; H. Schultz, Old Testament Theology, i. 254, 274 sqq., Edinburgh, 1892; W. Walther, Das Zeugnis des heiligen Geistes nach Luther und nach moderner Schwiirmerei, Leipsic, 1899; T. Achelis, Die Ekstase in ihrer kulturellen Bedeutung, Berlin, 1902; C. A. Briggs, Messianic Prophecy, §§5, 7, New York, 1902; W. James, Varieties of Religious Experience, London, 1902; E. Murisier, Les Maladies du sentiment religieux, pp. 7-72, Paris, 1903; P. Beck, Die Ekstase. Ein Beitrag zur Psychologie und V olkerkunde, Bad Sachsa, 1906.
ECTENE, ec'ten-i or -e (late Gk. ektene [euche], "earnest prayer"; cf. proseuche ektenes, "prayer without ceasing," Acts xii. 5): A prayer in the form of a litany which occurs in the liturgy and other public functions of the Eastern Church. It consists of a varying number of short petitions said by the deacon, to which the choir or congregation respond with Kyrie eleison, or in the supplicatory one with " Grant us, O Lord." All forms end with a request for the intercession of the Virgin and all the saints, followed by an ascription of praise to the Holy Trinity.
ECUADOR: South American republic, so called because it is crossed by the equator; area about 120,000 sq. m.; population about 1,400,000, of which 700,000 are Indians, 500,000 of Spanish descent, and 200,000 negroes and of mixed blood;