RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Egbert of York Eglinus
in connection with commercial enterprises, but also acquired some mechanical and technical knowledge. In the spring of 1719, when peace was made on the conclusion of the northern war, Egede went to Copenhagen to see King Frederick in person. The latter acceded to his plan, but his assistance was ineffectual, and Egede perceived that he himself must assume the entire responsibility. After repeated disappointments he found a few friends in Bergen and elsewhere, who formed with him a " Greenland Society " and contributed a fund which enabled them to buy the ship " Hope." Shortly afterward (1721) the missionary college notified him that the king sanctioned the intended expedition and appointed Egede missionary and leader with a salary of 300 rix-dollars.
On May 3, 1721, the little band of forty-six, including Egede's family, left Bergen; on June 12 they came in sight of Statenhuk, the southern point of Greenland; and on July 3, after much peril, they reached a safe haven and promising site for their colony on the western coast. The natives, who thronged around them, but soon timidly disappeared, turned out to be Eskimos, descendants of those who had destroyed the earlier Icelandic colonists. They were very ignorant, and had few religious ideas, while their unorganic language, with no relation to any European tongue, presented
a serious obstacle to missionary en-
4. Success deavor. With the help of his chil-
as a Mis- dren, however, who quickly made
sionary. friends with the aborigines, Egede
gradually mastered their language, into which he soon translated the catechism of Luther. He was indefatigable in visiting his charges, and amid privation and danger he became a Greenlander to the Greenlanders, winning the hearts of even the unfriendly Angekoks (sorcerers). In his first colony of Godthaab (" Good Hope ") he paid special attention to the children; and although he was, perhaps, too scrupulous with regard to adults and laid too strict conditions upon them, he gladly baptized boys and girls, provided their parents also welcomed the preaching of the Gospel. His chief obstacle was his own countrymen, who murmured at their hard lot and caused grave scandal to the natives on account of their evil lives, particularly after the government had transported a number of outcasts after his arrival. He was cheered, on the other hand, by the constantly increasing eagerness of the natives to accept Christianity. In 1723 he received the aid of his first colleague, Albert Topp, who had been appointed to establish a second colony, and they were soon joined by two others, as well as by his son Paul and, a little later by his younger son Niels, while a few years afterward a native assistant was added. In 1727 the Bergen-Greenland company was dissolved, since it was a commercial failure, and after the death of Frederick IV. a second blow befell Egede, when, in 1731, the king commanded that the colony should be entirely abandoned as financially unprofitable. If, however, Egede and others preferred to remain, a year's provisions should be left for them. Egede, who had at last secured a firm footing, willingly yielded to the importunity of
the Greenlanders, who would not let him go, and
he remained with the few courageous souls who
braved privation and danger. At this
5. Royal crisis Count Zinzendorf, who was then Support at Copenhagen, prevailed upon Chris- Withdrawn tian VI. to renew his support of Egede and and to give him a public testimony
Restored, of acknowledgment in addition to granting him a generous subvention and indorsing his plans for continuing the mission (April 4, 1733). An epidemic of smallpox ravaged the country until June, 1734. The victims numbered 3,000, while in the colony of Godthaab, which contained more than 200 families, all the Greenlanders died with the exception of a boy and a girl. Egede stood as in a desert. His faithful wife succumbed to her almost superhuman efforts and he himself, broken in body and soul determined to entrust the stricken land to the more robust strength of his son Paul and to promote the work of his life henceforth from a more quiet spot.
In 1736 he returned to Copenhagen; became director of a training-school for missionaries to Greenland, and in 1740 superintendent of the mission work there. In 1747 he retired to Stubbekjobing and henceforth had no official connection with mission work in Greenland, but his interest continued and his son Paul was a noted Greenland scholar and the translator of the New Testament into its language. J- Belsheim.
Bibliography: The chief sources are Egede's Omstandelig Relation, Copenhagen, 1738, and his Diary (in Danish), ed. E. Sundt, Christiania, 1860; A. G. Rudelbach, Christliche Biographien, pp. 371-434, Leipsic, 1850; J. Olaf, in Sonntags Bibliothek, vi. 2, Bielefeld, 1853; E. M. Bliss, Encyclopedia of Missions, i. 332-333, New York, 1891 (2d ed. not so full).
EGLI, EMIL: Swiss theologian; b. at Flaach (15 m. n.n.e. of Zurich) Jan. 9, 1848; d. in Zurich Dec. 31, 1908. He was educated at the University of Zurich, held charges in its canton, became tutor in its university in 1880 and later full professor of church history. He was the foremost Zwingli scholar of his time and made remarkable contributions to Zwingliana and to Zurich reformation history, e.g., Actensammlung zur Geschichte tier Zilrcher Reformation in den Jahren 1519-1533 (Zurich, 1879); Analecta Reforrnaioria, I. Dokumente und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte Zwinglis und seiner Zeit, II. Biographien: Bibliander, Ceporin, Johannes Bullinger (2 vols., 1899-1901); his editorship of Zwingliana, the semi-annual publication since 1897 of the Zwingli Museum in Zurich; and chiefly since 1904, and in conjunction with Georg Finsler, of the probably final edition of Zwingli's Werke (Berlin, vol. i. completed 1905, vol. ii. 1908; vol. hi. was to begin the correspondence).
EGINHARD. See Einhard.
EGLINUS (von Goetzen; Lat. Iconius), RA- PHAEL: Swiss theologian, an advocate of Calvin's doctrines in Hesse; b. at Riissickon (5 m. s. of Zurich) Dec. 28, 1559; d. at Marburg Aug._ 20, 1622. He was the son of a clergyman, received instruction in Chur and Chiavenna, studied in Zurich, then under Beza in Geneva, and under Grynaeus in Basel. His first position was as a
Eg-linus Eg-ypt