Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/589

Rh E T E E T H 567 and seminary of modern erection. At the distance of about half a mile stand the churches of St Rhipsime and St Gaiana, two of the early martyrs of Armenian Chris tianity ; the latter is of special interest as the burial- place of all those primates who are not deemed worthy by the synod of interment beside the cathedral. From adistance the three churches form a fairly striking group, and accord ingly the Turkish name for Etchmiadzin is simply Utch- Kilissi, or the Three Churches, A fourth of less importance is ignored. The town of Etchmiadzin, oras itshouldbecalled Vagharshapat, contains about 8000 inhabitants, but has long ceased to be of any individual importance. According to Armenian historians it dates from the Gth century E.G., and takes its name from King Vagarsh, who in the 2d century A.D. chose it as his residence and surrounded it with walls. The great apostle of Armenia, St Gregory the Illuminator, having seen the Saviour descend in a flood of light in the neighbourhood of the palace, was ordered by an angel to erect a church on the spot. He obeyed the divine command in 309, and gave the building the commemorative name of Edch-Miadzin, or Descended the Only Begotten. In 344 Vagharshapat ceased to be the Armenian capital, and in the 5th century the patriarchal seat was removed to Tovin. The monastery was founded by Narses II., who ruled from 524-33 ; and a restoration was effected by Gomidas in 618. At length in 1441 the primate George or Kevork brought back the see to the original site, and from that day to the present time Etchmiadzin has been the centre of the Armenian church. In the Russo-Persian war of 1827, though the monastery was declared neutral territory by both belligerents, it was occupied by Russian troops. See Dubois dn Jfontperoux, Voyage autour du Caucase, vol. iii., 1839 ; Viscount Pollington, Half Round the Old World, 1867 ; S. C. Malan, St Gregory l/ie Illuminator; Thielman, Journey in the Caucasus, &c., 1875 ; Telfer, The Crimea and Transcaucasia, 1876. ETEOCLES, a mythical king of Thebes, son of (Edipus and Jocasta. He and his brother Polynices were cursed by their father for shutting him up in a prison ; and in order to prevent the fulfilment of his prayer that they might engage in fratricidal combat for his throne, they resolved to reign alternately, each for a year. Eteocles as the elder ascended the throne first, but at the expiry of the year he refused to surrender the throne to Polynices. The latter therefore, with tli3 aid of Adrastus, king of Argos, whose daughter he had married, headed the famous expedition of the Seven against Thebes. After a scries of unavailing skirmishes between the rival forces, the two brothers met in single combat, and both were slain. The Theban rulers decreed that only Eteocles should receive the honour of burial, and that the body of Polynices should be cast out to the dogs and birds, but notwithstanding the decree, the burial rite was performed to Polynices by his sister Antigone. The fate of Eteocles and Polynices forms the subject of /Eschy- lus s tragedy, The Seven against Thebes, and of Euripides s Phoenissap. ETHELBERT, or^ETHELBERHT,king of Kent, ascended the throne in 560. In 568 he was defeated by the Went SaxDns, and his authority limited to Kent, but ultimately he conquered the Saxons of Middlesex and Essex, and about 590 he was acknowledged as over-lord as far north as the Humber. About 575 he married Bertha or Bercta, daughter of the Frankish king Charibert. The Franks had already been converted to Christianity, and when Pope Gregory the Great heard that a Frankish princess was married to the king of Kent, he seized the opportunity to send Augustine to attempt the conversion of the Anglo- Saxons, In 597 Augustine and his companions landed in the Isle of Thanet, and on learning of their arrival Ethel- bert. prompted doubtless by Bertha, at once invited them to an interview. Xot being certain whether they might not use enchantments against him, he received them, for greater security, in the open air; and after listening to a long sermon from Augustine, he was so far impressed, that although not prepared at once to forsake his old religion, he granted liberty to the monks to preach to his people. According to the accounts that have been handed down their success was almost unprecedented, and as many as 10,000 baptisms are said to have taken place in a single day. Very shortly afterwards Elhelbert gave in his adhesion to Christianity, and immediately all the inhabitants of Kent followed his example. He gave up his palace for the monks to live in, and adjoining it he built a church, on the site of which was afterwards erected the cathedral of Can terbury. He died in 616, and was canonized, his day being the 24th February. The earliest code of Anglo-Saxon laws now extant was issued by Ethelbert in 600. With the exception of a provision for the protection of the pro perty of God and the church, it consists chiefly of enact ments against crimes the various kinds of which, with the penalties attaching to commission of them, are stated in minute detail. ETHELUED (or ./ETHELRED) II, surnamed the Unready (968-1016), an Anglo-Saxon king, the son of Edgar and Elfrida, was born in 968. On the murder of Edward the Martyr in 979, Ethelred succeeded him on the Anglo- Saxon throne. He is said to have owed his surname &quot; Unready &quot; (i.e., without rede or counsel) to Dunstan, who even when he placed the crown on Ethelred s head prophesied that during his reign, on account of the sins of Elfrida, evils should fall upon the English such as they had never yet suffered. Such evils did fall upon them, and were doubtless chiefly due to the king. He possessed consider able energy when roused to exert himself, but it was only exercised fitfully, and generally misdirected, being always awanting at critical periods, and never used but to the dis advantage of his kingdom. Careless of everything but his immediate comfort or the gratification of an immediate whim, and listless and fond of ease, he allowed his king dom and himself to be managed by worthless favourites, whose acts of, as it seems to us, open treachery were not only allowed to pass unpunished, in a manner which appears to us unaccountable, but seemed almost to form steps in their ladder of advancement to special influence and favour with the king. The successes attending the Danish invasions in the reign of Ethelred were due almost wholly to three causes, the unpreparedness of the Anglo-Saxons, the treachery of the earls, and the failure of the king to follow up victories which were often won with no special prepara tion, and without adequate leaders. About two years after Ethelred mounted the throne the Danish invasions recom menced, but it was not till a later period that their inroads assumed the serious aspect of an attempt to conquer the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. In 988 they were defeated at Wat diet in Somersetshire, and in 991 at Malclon, immediately after which latter victory, Ethelred purchased peace from his defeated enemies by money raised through means of the oppressive tax known as the &quot;Danegeld.&quot; The Danes were allowed to stay in England, and they on their part agreed to help Ethelred against any other foreign fleet that might attack him ; but for some reason now unknown, a dispute arose in 992, and in a battle between the rival fleets, the Anglo-Saxons, notwithstanding the treachery of Elfric, were again victorious. After this the Danes sailed to the north of England and ravaged both sides of the Humber. In 994 Swend, king of the Danes, and Olaf, king of the Norwegians, combined their forces and attacked London, but their attempt was completely frustrated by the valour of the citizens ; and they sailed away to accom plish the easier task of ravaging the southern coast?, when