ERASMUS 



2068 



ERFURT 



have been abolished in many states, law and 

 equity being administered by the saint* judges 

 and courts. In Canada there were originally 

 separate courts of king's bench, com mini />//.. 

 and chancery, but these have been abolished, 

 and one court can try and determine any case 

 of law or equity that comes before it in due 

 process of law. An exception to this occurs 

 in Prince Edward Island, where the chancery 

 court is still in existence as a separate tri- 

 bunal. 



That equity courts aim at justice is apparent 

 from some of the maxims they have developed : 

 "Equity considers that done which ought to be 

 done"; "No right without a remedy"; "He 

 who seeks equity must do equity." . Originally 

 the judges had to consult very largely their 

 abstract ideas of justice in rendering decisions, 

 but in time a great body of precedents and 

 a number of guiding general principles came 

 to be recognized. Courts of equity grant in- 

 junctions, clear up defective titles to real 

 estates, appoint receivers, etc. R.E.B. 



Related Subject*. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Chancery Execution 



Common L,a\v Judgment 



Courts Law 



ERASMUS, eraz'mus, DESIDERIUS (1467- 

 1536), the most learned, versatile and beloved 

 of all the scholars who brought about the 

 Renaissance (which see). Few other men of 

 letters have wielded an influence during their 

 own century equal to that exercised by him, 

 yet he was not a creative genius, and he pro- 

 duced no single work which ranks among the 

 world's masterpieces. 



He was born at Rotterdam, Holland. Soon 

 after he was ordained to the priesthood he 

 entered the University of Paris. He was sel- 

 dom connected with any institution of learn- 

 ing, and spent most of his life in France, Eng- 

 land, Holland and Italy. Not long after the 

 invention of printing he gave to the world the 

 Greek Testament and a multitude of classical 

 authors in Greek and Latin. His masterpiece, 

 Colloquia, of which the first edition appeared in 

 1519, consists of a series of dialogues on the 

 everyday topics of the time social, religious 

 and educational. He was intimately associated 

 with Martin Luther, but when the Reforma- 

 tion broke out he gave adherence to neither 

 party. In his Adagio, and The Praise of Folly 

 he showed the need of a general reform in the 

 Church, and because of his stand he became 

 involved in a series of distressing controversies. 



Erasmus also contributed considerably to tin 1 

 advance of education. Despite his many con- 

 flicts, he enjoyed the friendship of the greatest 

 minds of the day as well as of the crowned 

 heads of Europe, who were proud to do honor 

 to this farsighted scholar, reformer, philoso- 

 pher and critic. 



EREBUS, cr'ebm, in Greek mythology, is 

 the name of one of the sons of Chaos. The 

 word signifies darkness, and is used especially 

 to denote the dark and gloomy cavern beneath 

 the earth to which no gleam of sunshine ever 

 penetrated and through which the shades 

 (spirits of the dead) passed on the way to 

 Hades. It was over this mysterious world that 

 Erebus reigned. Nyx, his sister, represented 

 Night, and was worshiped by the ancients with 

 the greatest solemnity. 



ERECHTHEUM, erek'theum, a temple on 

 the Acropolis at Athens, considered the most 

 refined example of Ionic architecture. It was 

 called after Erechtheus, to whom a portion of 

 it was dedicated. It contained the ancient 



THE ERECHTHEUM 

 As it appears to-day. 



image of Athene, the salt spring of Poseidon, 

 the sacred olive of Athene, and three altars, 

 one to Poseidon and Erechtheus, one to Butes 

 and one to Hephaestus. It also contained the 

 gold lamp of Callimachus, which burnt for a 

 year without refilling, and had a chimney in 

 the form of a palm tree. The building is 

 square, with porticoes on three sides. The east 

 portico is adorned with six Ionic columns. On 

 the south side at the west end is the famous 

 Porch of the Caryatides. The Erechtheum was 

 damaged by fire soon after it was completed 

 in 406 B. c., but was repaired early in the fol- 

 lowing century. In Christian times it was 

 used as a church, and under Turkish rule as 

 the harem of the governor of Athens. Since 

 1900 the project of rebuilding the Erechtheum 

 has been considered. See CARYATIDES ; ATHENS. 

 ERFURT, er' joort, a city which may prop- 

 erly be called the home of German flower 



