EMCISO
412
ENCRATITES
drama as being capable of adhering closely to facts.
He does not. however, adhere slavishly to history, but
rather uses it as did Shakespeare, that is, he uses recog-
nized sources in such a way as to give to his plot the
appearance of probability. In his versification En-
ciso shows great variety, but the eleven-syllabled
verse seems to predominate. His work as a whole is
characterized by the elevated tone which pervades it,
the simplicity and interest of the plots, and its sonor-
ous language.
ScHWiLL, Publications of the Modern Language Association of ATnerica (Baltimore. 19031. XVIII; Biblioteca de Aulores Es- paiioles (Madrid, 1S4S-S6).
Ventura Fuentes.
Enciso, MartIn Fernandez de, navigator and geographer, b. at Seville, Spain, c. 1470; d. probably about 1528 at Seville. It is not known when, why, or with whom he went to America, but in 150S he was living on the island of Santo Domingo, where he had accumulated a fortune in the practice of law. In 1509 Alonzo de Ojeda (or Hojeda) had been granted the government of Terra Firme (the region about the Isthmus of Darien),but he lacked the funds necessary to colonize the country. He then applied to Enciso, who had the reputation of being rich, able, and adven- turous, and the latter agreed to provide a vessel with men and provisions. Ojeda set out in advance in 1509, and it was agreed that Enciso was to equip his vessel and follow him in 1510. When the latter arrived, he found that Ojeda, having been beset by hostile In- dians, and having exhausted his supplies and ammuni- tion, had returned in search of him. Taking the sur- vivors of Ojeda 's expedition, Enci.so founded the town of Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien (1510). Among his followers was one Vasco \unez de Balboa who afterwards became famous for his discovery of the Pacific Ocean, then called the South Sea ( Mar del Sur), and who had joined the expedition without Enciso's knowledge or authority, seeking to escape his creditors. Soon after the foimding of the new city, Balboa stirred up rebellion among the men, and was able to depose Enciso, whom he banished to Spain. Here, the latter complained to the king of Balboa's arbitrary conduct and injustice, and the king, partly owing to these accu.sations, sent Pedrarias Diivila to America in 1514 as Governor of Darien, with instructions to have the wrongs of Enciso righted. Enciso accompanied the expedition as "alguacil mayor" and continued to op- pose Balboa until the latter's execution by Ddvila in 1517. He soon afterwards returned to Spain where he published his " Suma de Geografia que trata de todas fas partidas del mundo", the first account in Spanish of the discoveries in the New ^^'orld. The work was published in 1519 at Seville and was reprinted in 1530 and in 1549. It is dedicated to the Emperor Charles V. and in it, according to Navarrete, Enciso has embodied all that was then known of the theorj' and practice of navigation. The geographical portion is given with great care, and contains the first descriptions of the lands discovered in the western seas, that is, the results of the explorations of the Spaniards up to 1519. It is, on the whole, a more accurate work than the other early works of its kind.
MicHACD, Biog. L'niv. (Paris. 1S55); Helps, Hislori/ of Span- ish Conquest in America (1855-1861).
Ventura Fuentes.
Enclosure. See Cloister.
Encolpion (Gr. eyKdXwtov, that which is worn on the breast), the name given in early Christian times to a species of reliquary worn roimd the neck, in which were enclosed such relics .as fragments of cloth stained with the blood of a martyr, small pieces of parchment with texts from the Holy Scriptures, particles of the True Cross, etc. The custom of bearing on the per- son objects of this character was evidently derived from the pagan practice of wearing bullcF, containing
amulets, round the neck as a protection against en-
ch.antment; the Church endeavoured to purify this
usage from superstition by substituting objects vene-
rated by Christians for those to which they had been
accustomed before conversion. According to St.
Jerome, however ( in Matt. , c. xxiii) , some of the faithful
in his day attached a superstitious importance to these
aids to piety ; he censures certain classes of women who
seem to have, in some degree, identified sanctity with
an exaggerated veneration for sacred relics: "Hoc
quod apud nos superstitiosee mulierculs in parvulis
evangeliis et in crucis ligno et istiusmodi rebus,
quie habent quidem zelum Dei, sed non secundum
scientiam, factitant" (That which superstitious women
amongst us, who have a certain zeal for God but
not of right knowledge, do in regard to little copies of
the Gospels, the wood of the cross, and things of that
kind). Encolpia were of various forms, oval, round,
four-cornered, and of various materials ranging from
gold to glass. In 1571 two gold encolpia, square in
form, were found in tombs of the ancient Vatican
cemetery, engraved on one side with the monogram
of Christ between the .\lpha and Omega, and on the
other with a dove. Another, now lost, was found in the
tomb of Maria, wife of the Emperor Honorius, bearing
the names of the imperial couple with the legend
viv.\tis and the monogram. The famous treasure of
Monza contains the thixn pcrxicn, enclosing a text
from the Gospel of St. John, sent by Pope St. Gregory
the Great (590-()04) to (^ueen Theodolinda for her son
Adalaold. Another of the gifts of this pope to the Lom-
bard queen was a cruciform encolpion containing a
portion of the True Cross. Probably the most interesting reliquary of this form is a gold pectoral cross dis-
covered at Rome in 1863, in the basilica of S. Lorenzo
ijuori le miira), on the breast of a corpse. On one side
it bears the inscription: EMM.\NOTHA nobiscum deus
(Emmanuel, God with us), and on the other: crux e.st
VITA MiHi, MORS INIMICE TiBi (To me the Cross is life;
to thee, O enemy, it is death). To the category of en-
colpia belong also the vials or vessels of clay in which
were preser\'ed such esteemed relics as oil from the
lamps that burned before the Holy Sepulchre and the
golden keys with filings from St. Peter's chains, one of
which was sent by St. Gregory the Great to the Frankish
King Childebert.
De Waal in Kbaus. Real-EncyUopadie (FreiburE. 1SS2\ s. v. Enkolpion: Kraus, Grsch. drr chriM. Kunst (Freiburg, 1S96); Smith and Cheetham, Diet. Christ, Anliq.^ I, 611 (London, 1875).
Maurice M. H.\ssett.
Encratites ["EyKpareTi (IrenSBUs) 'EyKparrjral (Clem- ent Alex., Hippolyt us)], literally, " abstainers " or " per- sons who practised continency ", because they refrained from the use of wine, animal food, and marriage. The name was given to an early Christian sect, or rather to a tendency common to several sects, chiefly Gnostic, whose asceticism was based on heretical views regarding the origin of matter.
I. History. — Abstinence from the use of some creatures, because they were thought to be intrinsic- ally evil, is much older than Christianitj'. Pj'thagor- ism, Essenism, Indian asceticism betrayed this erro- neous tendency, and the Indian ascetics are actually quoted by Clement of Alexandria as the forerunners of the Encratites (Strom., I, xv). Although St. Paul refers to people, even in his days, "forbidding to marry and abstaining from meats" (I Tim., iv, 1-5), the first mention of a Christian sect of this name occurs in Irena;us (I, xxviii). He connects their origin with Saturninus and Marcion. Rejecting marri.age, they implicitly accuse the Creator, Who made both male and female. Refraining from all t)i\j/vxa (animal food and intoxicants), they are ungrateful to Him Who created all things. "And now", continues Ire- na?us, "they reject the s.alvation of the first man [Adam]; an opinion recently introduced among them
