EDMUND'S (ST.) HALL, Oxford, derives its name from St. Edmund, archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Henry III. As early as 1269, it appears to have been pur chased by the canons of Osney, and devoted to purposes of education. On the dissolu tion of religious houses under Henry VIII., it fell into the hands of two citizens of Oxford, who sold it to William Denyse, provost of Queen's college. The provost devised it to his college, and that society accordingly now nominates the principal of St. Edmund'S Hall. There are ten exhibitions attached to the hall, value £30 per annum, appropriated to students designed for holy orders, and in the gift of the principal. In 1875, there were 136 names on the books.
E'DOM (New Testament, a word signifying "red." It was, according to Gen. xxv. 29-34, the name given to Esau on account of the red pottage supplied to him by his brother Jacob. Hence, the which Esau afterwards obtained was called the land of Edom, but previously Mount Seir. The ruddy hue of the mountain range, however, may have had something to do with the naming of the region. E. com prised a strip of country 100 m. long by 20 broad, lying between the s. of Palestine and the gulf ,of Akabah (an arm of the Red sea). It is a wild, mountainous region, with the desert on the e. and w. of it; but rugged though it looks, it contains rich glens and terraces, where flowers, and shrubs, and trees spring up luxuriantly. Its
capital was Bozrah (now Buseirah), in the extreme north; its seaports were Elath and Eziongeber, in the extreme south, at the head of the gulf of Akabah. During the reigns of David and Solomon, E. appears to have been tinder subjection to the Israelites; but when the kingdom of Israel began to decline, the Edomites repeatedly ravaged the southern borders of Palestine, which circumstance is perhaps the reason why they are so terribly denounced by some of the prophets. At a later period, the term Edom (now giving way to the Greek form Idunuea)designated the region between the gulf of Akabah and the Mediterranean, including a part of the s. of Palestine. The revival of Jewish power under the Maccabean princes once more brought Idumtea under Jewish sway. The people were compelled to conform to the laws and customs of their con querors, and the country was for the future ruled by Jewish prefects, one of whom, called Antipater, who was born in the country, acquimd, Lite friendship of the Roman emperor, and *as appointed procurator of all Judea. His son was the famous Herod the great, "king of the Jews." In the 7th c. A.D., E. was overrun by the Arabs, and has ever since shared the fortunes of Arabia.