EPISTOL^
510
ERASMUS
only expresses his doctrine. Only the three Pastoral
Epistles and Philemon are addressed to individuals;
all the others are directed to churches, most of which,
however, were well known to the writer. They ex-
hibit more of their author's personal character than
most profane letters do.
Post-Pauline. — Generally speaking, we may de- scribe the so-called Catholic Epistles as Post-Pauline. We need not note here that these Epistles are not named after the addressee, as happens in the case of the Pauline Epistles, but after the inspired author. The Epistle of St. James has no final greetings; it was meant for a class, not for persons known to the writer. In I John we have a sermon rather than a letter, though its familiarity of language indicates that the readers were known to the writer. The following two Epistles of 8t. John are real letters in style and form. St. Peter's first Epistle supposes some familiarity with his readers on the part of the writer; this can hardly be said of II Peter or of the Epistle of Jude. What has been said sufficiently shows that Professor Deiss- mann's distinction between the artistic epistle and pre-literary letter cannot be applied with strict accu- racy. Quite a number of the New-Testament Epistles contain those touches of intimate familiarity which are supposed to be the essential characteristics of the letter.
Jacqcier in ViG., Did. de la Bible (Paris, 1899). II. ISg: Bartlet in Hast., Diet, of the Bible (New York, 1900), s. v Knabexbauer, Lexicon Biblicum (Paris, 1907), II. 202 sq . Pb-^t, Theoloffie de Saint Paul (Paris, 1908), 33 sq.; Deiss- MAN.N, Bibelstudien (1895), 189-252.
A. J. Maas.
Epistolae obscurorum virorum. See Hoogstra- ten; Pkefferkoun; Reuchlin. Epitaphs, Early Christi.^n. See Inscriptions.
Epping, Joseph, German astronomer and AssjT- iologist, b. at Neuenkirchen, near Rheine in West- phalia, 1 Dec, 1835; d. at Exaeten, Holland, 22 Aug., 1894. His parents died while he was very young and he owed his early education to the fostering care of relations. After completing the usual gymnasium course at Rheine and at Munster he matriculated at the academy in Milnster, where he devoted himself jiarticularly to mathematics. In 1850 he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in Munster and after his philosophical studies was appointed professor of mathematics and astronomy at Maria-Laach. He spent the years from 18C7 to 1871 in the study of the- ology and was ordained piiest in 1S70. Garcia More- no, President of Ecuador, had petitioned the Gen- eral of the Jesuits in the early seventies for members of the Society to form the faculty of the Polytechni- cum at Quito, which he had recently founded. A number of German Jesuits responded to the call, among them Epping, who set out in June, 1872, for ()uito to become professor of mathematics. He ciuickly learned Spanish and was able to write a text- book of geometry in that language. He likewise took an active part in all the scientific work of the Fathers. The political tlisturbances which followed the assas- sination of Moreno ((3 Aug., 1875) made it necessary for the Jesuits to return to Europe, and Epping ar- rived in Holland in the fall of 187G. He spent the remaining years of his life at Blijenbeck, and later at Exaeten, as professor of astronomy and mathematics to the younger members of his order, devoting his leisvire to research and literary work.
Epping's first published volume, "Der Kreislauf im Kosraos", appeared in 1882. It was an exposition and critique of the Kant-Laplace nebular hj'pothesis and a refutation of the pantheistic and materialistic conclusions which had been drawn from it. His most important work, however, was begun in collaboration \vith Father StriKsmaier wlio, in coimexion with his own studies in Assyrinlogy, hud induced him to under- take a mathematical investigation of the Babyloniaa
astronomical observations and tables. After consid-
erable labour the key was found. He discovered the
table of differences for the new moon in one of the
tablets and identified GuUu with Mars, Sakku with
Saturn, and Te-ut with Jupiter (Epping and Strass-
maier in "Stiramen aus Maria-Laach", Vol. XXI, pp.
277-292). Eight years later he published "Astrono-
misches aus Baliylon oder das Wissen der Chaldaer
iiber den gestirnten Himmel ' ' (Freiburg im Br., 1889).
This work was of much importance both from the
standpoint of astronomy and chronology. It con-
tains an exposition of the astronomy of the ancient
Babylonians, worked out from their Ephemerides of
the moon and the planets. This was supplemented by
"Die babylonische Berechnung des Neumondes"
(Stimmen aus Maria-Laach, Vol. XXXIX, pp. 225-
240). He was also the author of a number of articles in
the "Zeitschrift fiir Assyriologie". Father Epping
suffered much from ill-health during the last years of
his life. He was none the less a man of untiring activ-
ity and combined geniality and a keen sense of hu-
mour with a deep and simple piety.
Baumgartner in Zeitschr. f. Assyriologie (Weimar, 1894), appendix IX.
H. M. Brock. Equity. See Law.
Equivocation. See Mental Reservation.
Era. See Chronology.
Erasmus, Desiderios, the most brilliant and most important leader of German humanism, b. at Rotter- dam, Holland, 28 October, probably in 1466; d. at Basle, Switzerland, 12 July, 1536. He was the illegit- imate child of Gerard, a citizen of Gouda, and Mar- garetha Rogers, and at a later date latinized his name as Desiderius Erasmus. Eventually his father be- came a priest. Erasmus and an elder brother were brought up at Gouda by their mother. W'hen nine years old he was sent to the school of the celebrated humanist Hegius at Deventer, where his taste for hu- manism was awakened and his powers of mind re- ceived their bent for life. The most brilliant qualities of his intellect, a wonderful memory and an extraor- dinarily quick power of comprehension, showed them- selves even in this his earliest training. His mother died when he was thirteen years old, and a little later his father also; he was now sent by his guardians for two years, which he afterwards called two lost years, to the monastery school of Hertogenbosch. Then, after wandering aimlessly about for a time, he was forced, through necessity and the insistence of his guardians, to enter in 1486 the monastery of Emaus, near Gouda, a house of Canons Regular. He felt no true religious vocation for such a step, and in later years characterized this act as the greatest misfortune of his life. As a matter of fact the beginnings of liis religious indifferentism and of his weakness of charac- ter are to be sought in his joyless youth and in the years spent under compulsion in the monastery. He was left free, however, to pursue his studies, and de- voted himself mainly to the ancient classics, whose content and formal beauty he passionately admired. His religious training was obtained from the study of St. Jerome and Lorenzo Valla. In 1491 a lucky acci- dent freed him from monastic life. The Bishop of Cambrai was minded to visit Italy and chose Erasmus as secretary and travelling companion, attracted by the young man's linguistic attainments; he also or- dained him priest in 1492. The journey was never made, but Erasmus remaineil in the service of the bishop, who, in 1496, sent him to Paris to complete his studies. The scholastic method of instruction then prevalent at Paris was so repugnant to him that he spent much of his time travelling through France and the Netherlands, receiving occasionally friendly help; he was also for a while at t)rl('ans, where he worked at his collection of proverbs, the later "Adagia". The
