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Ecstasy Edelmsnn 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 Itinerarium men ds 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 phe nomena which seemed to the times to savor of witchcraft, becomes intelligible with ecstasy as the key to the mystery. The unrestrained actions mani fested 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 Tralliana, viii. 2), pneumatophoros (Hernias, 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, Kirchen- and Ketzerhistorie, part ii., index, and xvi. 357). The phenomena of ecstatic enthu siasm were not uncommon in the later Jewish period, continued from the time of the New Testa ment, were frequent in the second century, but fell into discredit through the excesses of Montan ism. The ecstatic state is discussed by early wri ters, 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 at titude toward it. Dionysius the Areopagite goes so far as to speak of ecstasy on the part of God (MPG, iii. 712A). The development of monasti cism gives frequent examples of the phenomenon. Tendencies of the same sort appear in modern Rus sian 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 " fanati cism " 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 Protes tants, in the case of the Camisards. Although the eighteenth century was especially unsympathetic toward any type of irrationalism in religion, Goethe defended " enthusiasm," and Karat discussed the 72

subject, while Wieland doubted whether the strict philosophical attitude could be justified (Hempel's ed. of his " Works," xXXll. 369 eqq.). 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 indi vidual soul is a certainty, however it may be inter preted in terms of objective reality. It may take the position of historic revelation, but in its influ ence on the development of the Christian Church it may be distinguished as a kind of secondary rev elation. 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 pre dictive powers, in methods of Christian healing as by the laying on of hands and prayer, in ascetic methods of attaining sanctification, and in mille narian views. (KARL Txl>;M>.) Bat:ooanrar: P. Goerres, Die christliche Myatik, Munich, 1838-42; M. Perty, Die myati,aW a Eracheinungen der menachlichen Natur, Leipaic, 1884; J. H. Fichte, Pay choiopie, pp. b88-655, ib. 1884; F. Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology, PP. 354-368, 418-433, Edinburgh, 1887; A. Kuenen, Prophets and Prophecy in Israel, p. 86, Lon don, 1871; E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 123, 438, ii. 130-131, 410, Boston, 1874; Charbonnier de Batty, Les Maladies lea mystiques, Paris, 1875; H. Schultz, Old Testament Theology, i. 254, 274 aqq., Edinburgh 1892· w. Walther, Daa Zeugma lea heiliyen Geiates ranch Luther and each moderner Schw&rmerei, Leipeic, 1899; T. Ache lie, Die Ekataae in ihrer kulturellen Bedeutung, Berlin, 1902; C. A. Briggs, Messianic Prophecy, $§ b, 7, New York, 1902; w. James, Varieties of Religious Experience, Lon-

don, 1902; E. Muriaibr, Lea Maladies du sentiment relipieuz, pp. 7-72, Paris, 1903; P. Beck, Die Ekatase. Bin Beetrap zur Paycholopie and V blkerkunde, Bad 6achea, 1908.

ECTENE, ec'ten-i or -6 (late Gk. ektene [cache], "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;