292 



(ECUMENICAL COUNCIL (ESTRU?. 



Stuttgard, where Reiichlin was professor, and there 

 studied Greek, and subsequently Hebrew. His pro- 

 gress was such 1 1 nit he compiled a Greek Grammar. 

 He then returned to Weinsberg, and distinguished 

 himself by his zeal as a preacher. By his friend 

 Capito's influence, he was invited to Basle in 1515, 

 and there became acquainted with Erasmus, and, in 

 conjunction with him, wrote a commentary on the 

 New Testament. In 1516 he received a call at 

 Augsburg, but soon afier determined to enter the 

 monastery of Altomunster in the neighbourhood. 

 Luther's writings, however, awakened him to more 

 liberal views, and before he had been two years in 

 the monastery, he left it, and became preacher at the 

 castle of Ebernburg, to Francis of Sickingen. In 

 1523 he became professor of theology and curate at 

 Basle. He defended the doctrines of the reformation 

 in several theological disputations and conferences, 

 particularly in Basle and Berne, and introduced them 

 into the former place (1527 and 1528.) His conduct 

 in the controversy concerning the Lord's Supper was 

 worthy of all praise. In his treatise De genuina 

 J'erborum Domini, " Hoc est Corpus meum, " Inter- 

 pretations, he displayed a rare moderation, maintain- 

 ing the body to be only symbolical. The defenders 

 of the real presence attacked him with great violence, 

 and applied to him and his followers the reproachful 

 epithet of Sacramentarians. CEcolampadius answered 

 with calmness and dignity. He died at Basle in 

 1531. His Life has been written by Hess (Zurich, 

 1793.) 



CECUMENICAL COUNCIL. See Council. 



CSD1PUS ; son of the Thracian king Laius and 

 Jocasta. (See Jocasta.) An oracle had announced 

 to Laius that his child by Jocasta should be his mur- 

 derer. When, therefore, a son was born to him, he or- 

 dered a slave to bore his heels and expose him on 

 mount Cithaeron. But the slave gave the child to a 

 shepherd of the Corinthian king Polybus, and the 

 shepherd carried him to the king, whose wife, Mer- 

 ope, being without children, received him, and called 

 him (Edipus, from his swollen feet. Ignorant of his 

 birth, the child grew up at the Corinthian court, with 

 all the qualities of a hero. But, an angry youth hav- 

 ing one day reproached him with not being the son 

 of the king, he became a prey to tormenting doubts. 

 His foster parents, whom he questioned, referred 

 him to the Delphian oracle, which gave him this 

 answer " Avoid the soil of thy country, or thou 

 wilt be the murderer of thy father, and the hus- 

 band of thy mother." As he looked upon Corinth 

 as his country, he left it, and travelled to Thebes, 

 in Boeotia. In a narrow road in Phocis he met 

 king Laius, who was going to Delphi to consult 

 the oracle with regard to the son whom he had 

 exposed ; and the king's charioteer haughtily or- 

 dered him to get out of the way. CEdipus refus- 

 ed to obey ; a struggle ensued, and both king and 

 charioteer fell under his sword. Thus he had un- 

 consciously fulfilled one half of the oracle. Igno- 

 rant of this, he pursued his way. The territory of 

 Thebes was at that time desolated by the Sphinx 

 (see Sphinx), which proposed a riddle, and nut to 

 death every one who attempted, without Success, 

 to solve it. No one had yet succeeded. In this 

 extremity the vacant throne and the hand of the 

 queen were offered to the deliverer of Thebes. CEdi- 

 pus comes forward, solves the enigma, delivers the 

 city, and receives the prize. The oracle was thus 

 fulfilled. Thebes now honoured within her walls the 

 murderer of Laius, when a pestilence fell upon the 

 land, from which the oracle promised deliverance, 

 as soon as he was removed who had called down 

 tliis curse. The affrighted people again have re- 

 course to their former benefactor, and he, uncon- 



scious that he is himself the criminal, strives with 

 restless zeal to discover him. He draws from the 

 prophet Tiresias the unhappy secret, and makes 

 the horrible discovery tliat he is the murderer of 

 his father, and the husband of his mother. Cur- 

 sing the bed in which she had borne a husband to 

 her husband, and a son to her son, the unhappy 

 Jocasta hanged herself. (Edipus put out his own 

 eyes to extinguish the sight of all which could 

 remind him of his guilt. He begged the Thebans 

 to banish him. At a later period, when he wish- 

 ed to die in Thebes, he was driven away by his 

 ambitious sons Eteocles and Polynices. In his 

 anger, he cursed them, and threatened that the sword 

 should divide their inheritance. His two daugh- 

 ters, Antigone and Ismene, followed their blind 

 and exiled father. Led by the former, he reaches 

 the village of Colonos, in Attica, where Theseus 

 reigned, and dwells in the grove of the Eumenides, 

 which no mortal foot dared approach. He con- 

 ciliates the favour of the terrible goddesses. The 

 people and Theseus took him under their protec- 

 tion. In the meanwhile the oracle of Pythian 

 Apollo had declared that the land which should ignor- 

 antly conceal his ashes would be fortunate and in- 

 vincible. The inhabitants of Thebes now endea- 

 voured to draw him back. Impelled by the presenti- 

 ment of approaching death, he sought his grave 

 accompanied by Theseus alone. The gods were 

 reconciled to him. His death was the death of suf- 

 fering innocence. The ancients have disagreed with 

 regard to his burial-place. The history of (Edipus 

 has furnished a subject to several tragic poets. The 

 CEdipus of ^Eschylus and that of Euripides are 

 lost. Of Sophocles two pieces treating of his fate 

 remain King CEdipus and CEdipus at Coloiios. Sen- 

 eca has also written a piece on the same subject. 



CELS, a mediatized principality in Lower Silesia, 

 belonging to the Prussian government of Breslau, 

 contains 800 square miles and 91,000 inhabitants, 

 and affords 175,000 florins annual revenue. The 

 capital is (Els, where the ducal officers of govern- 

 ment, &c., reside. In 1789, the duchy passed to 

 the house of Brunswick, and was under the gov- 

 ernment of duke Frederic William, who fell, in 

 1815, at Quatre Bras. Hence his title, duke of 

 Brunswick- (Els. 



CENSUS. See Calydon. 



CENOMAUS. See Hippodamia. 



CESTRUS, or Gadfly ; an insect, well known from 

 its being one of the greatest annoyances to which 

 horses and cattle are subject during the summer. 

 Under the name of gadfly many insects are includ- 

 ed by the ignorant which belong to other genera, the 

 real gadflies being the oestrus of naturalists, which 

 are supposed to be the same animals as were called 

 by the Greeks o'l/r-rgo;. Horses, cows, sheep, deer, 

 hares, &c., have each a species of gadfly which 

 bears their name ; as, for example, the (E. equi is 

 common upon horses, OS. bovis and (E. ovis upon 

 horned cattle and upon sheep. The gadfly of the 

 horse is a small insect, with whitish wings, with 

 a band and black spot ; the abdomen entirely 

 ferruginous. (E. bovis is about seven lines in 

 length ; thorax yellow, with a black band ; ab- 

 domen white ; terminal segments fulvous ; wings 

 dusky. This species attacks the horse also, the 

 female depositing her eggs in the skin of these 

 animals in considerable numbers. In a short time, 

 the eggs are matured, and produce a larva, or 

 worm, which immediately pierces the skin, and, 

 insinuating itself under it, causes much injury and 

 annoyance to the animal, raising large lumps, or 

 tumours, filled with pus, upon which the larva feeds. 

 (E. equi deposits its eggs upon such parts of the 



