Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/761

Rh E V A E V A 725 374 B.C., Evagoras was assassinated by a eunuch from motives of private revenge. EVAGRIUS, surnamed Scliolasticus and Ex-Prsefectus, was born at Epiphania in Syria, 536 A.D. From his sur name he is known to have been an advocate, and it is sup posed that he practised at Antioch. He was the legal adviser of Gregory, patriarch of that city ; and through this connection he was brought under the notice of the emperor Tiberius, who honoured him with the rank of quaestorian. His influence and reputation were so consider able that on the occasion of his second marriage a public festival was celebrated in his honour, which, however, was interrupted by a terrible earthquake, said to have destroyed 00,000 persons. Evagrius s name has been preserved by his Ecclesiastical History, extending over the period from the third general council (that of Ephesus, 431) to the year 594. Though not wholly trustworthy, this work is tolerably impartial, and appears to have been compiled from original documents, but it is disfigured by the unquestion ing credulity characteristic of the age. The best edition is that contained in Reading s Greek Ecclesiastical Historians, Cambridge, 1720. It is also translated in Bagster s work bearing the same title. EVANDER. In the Roman tradition, as given by Livy, i. 5-7, the story of the Arcadian Evander is connected with the arrival of Hercules in Italy and his recovery of the cattle of Geryon from the robber Cacus. Evander, having left the Arcadian town of Pallantium, becomes the eponymus, or name-giver, of the Palatine, one of the seven hills of Rome. This is only one of many Greek legends adopted by the Romans for the purpose of connecting Italian places with others of like-sounding names in Greece. The time when this story was embodied into Latin tradition cannot be precisely ascertained ; but we may safely assign it to the period when Greek influence began to make itself widely felt in the Italian peninsula. The story is told with many variations, inconsistencies, and contradictions. According to Pausanias (viii. 43, 2), Evander was the son of Hermes and a daughter of the river Ladon ; others spoke of him as a son of Echemus and Timandra. The motives which led him to leave Arcadia are also variously stated. The Latin writers made him a son of Mercury and the prophetess Carmenta, whose name belongs strictly to Italian mythology. So again, while one version of the story represents him as being hospitably welcomed in Italy, another speaks of him as gaining a footing in it by force, and after slaying Herilus, king of Prseneste. It would follow of necessity that the Italian legend w r ould describe Evander as one who introduced Greek customs and rites into his new country, and would attribute to him such inventions as those which the Theban myth assigned to the Phoenician Cadmus. See Dion. Hal. i. 33 ; Cornewall Lewis, Credibility of Early Roman History, ch. viii. 4. EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, an association of dif ferent Christian denominations formed in London in August 1846, at a conference of more than 800 clergymen and laymen from all parts of the world, and embracing up wards of fifty sections of the Protestant church. Though the proposal for an alliance was first mooted in England, it ultimately obtained wide support in other countries, more especially in America, and organizations in connexion with it now exist in the different capitals throughout the world. The object of the Alliance, according to a resolution of the first conference, is &quot; to enable Christians to realize in themselves and to exhibit to others that a living and everlasting union binds all true believers together in the fellowship of the church.&quot; At the same conference the following was adopted as the basis of the Alliance : &quot; Evangelical view s in regard to the divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Holy Scrip tures ; the right and duty of private judgment in the inter pretation of the Holy Scriptures ; the unity of the Godhead and the Trinity of persons therein ; the utter depravity of human nature in consequence of the fall; the incarnation of the Son of God, His work of atonement for sinners of mankind, and His mediatorial intercession and reign; the justification of the sinner by faith alone ; the work of the Holy Spirit in the conversion and sanctification of the sinner ; the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, the judgment of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, with the eternal blessedness of the righteous and the eternal punishment of the wicked; the divine institution of the Christian ministry, and the obligation and perpetuity of the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord s Supper;&quot; it being understood, however, 1st, that such a summary &quot; is not tu be regarded in any formal or ecclesiastical sense as a creed or confession ; &quot; and 2d, that &quot; the selection of certain tenets, with the omission of others, is not to be held as implying that the former constitute the whole body of important truth, or that the latter are unimportant.&quot; Annual conferences of branches of the Alliance are held in England, America, and several Continental countries; and it is provided that a general conference, including represen tatives of the whole Alliance, be held every seventh year, or oftener if it be deemed necessary. Such conferences have been held in London in 1851 ; Paris, 1855 ; Berlin, 1857; Geneva, 1861: Amsterdam, 1867; New York, 1873. They are occupied with the discussion chiefly of the &quot;best methods of counteracting infidelity,&quot; promot ing Christian union, organizing Christian agencies, and generally advancing the cause of Christianity, every sub ject being avoided which might give rise to any serious divergence of opinion among the members. The various organizations of the Alliance lend their aid to any depart ment of Christian effort requiring special help ; and on several occasions their influence has been advantageously employed in cases of religious persecution. See Reports of the Proceedings of the different general conferences, which have been published under the following titles :Tfte Evan gelical Alliance, London, 1847; The Religious Condition of Christen dom, London, 1852 ; The Religious Condition of Christendom, London, 1859 ; The Geneva Conference of the Evangelical Alliance, London, 1862 ; Evangel ische Alliantie, Rotterdam, 1867, and Proceedings of the Amsterdam Conference, London, 1868 ; and Evangelical Alliance Conference 1873, New York, 1874. EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION, an American reli gious denomination originated about the beginning of the present century by Jacob Albrecht, a German Lutheran of Pennsylvania. About 1790 he began an itinerant mission among his fellow-countrymen, chiefly in Pennsylvania; and his labours meeting with considerable success, he was, at an assembly composed of representatives of the different stations, elected in 1800 presiding elder or chief pastor, and shortly afterwards rules of government were adopted somewhat similar to those of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1816 the first annual conference was held, and in 1843 there was instituted a general conference, com posed of delegates chosen by the annual conferences and constituting the highest legislative and judicial authority in the church. The members of the general conference hold office for four years. In 1873 the association com prised 15, annual conferences, consisting of over 600 itinerant and 400 local preachers, possessed 4 training colleges, and numbered 83,195 members. EVANGELICAL UNION, a religious denomination which originated in the deposition of the Rev. James Morison, minister of a United Secession congregation in Kilmarnock, Scotland, for certain views regarding faith, the work of the Spirit in salvation, and the extent of the atonement, which were regarded by the supreme court of his church as anti-Calvimstic and heretical. HLs deposi-