EHRENBREITSTEIN, Prussia, town and fortress on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Coblenz with which it is connected by a bridge of boats and a railroad bridge. Tobacco, flour, leather, soap, bricks and wine are manufactured and there is a large trade in corn, wine and iron. There are several large fairs held annually. The fortress is on a steep rock, 385 feet above the river. It has massive fortifications and until the advent of heavy siege artillery was deemed impregnable. In 1799 after repeated assaults had failed and after a siege of 14 months the French succeeded in capturing it. In 1801 they destroyed the fortifications and retired. In 1826 new fortifi cations were completed. Pop. 5,302.
EHRLE, Francis, German Catholic scholar: b. Isny, Wiirtemberg, 17 Oct. 1845. He was educated at College, Munster, Westphalia, at the aria-Laach in Freiburg, and at Ditton Hall, Lancashire, having been ad mitted to the Society of Jesus in 1861. After sev eral years in mission work he was transferred to Rome, where he devoted himself to historical studies. In 1890 he became a member of the
administrative council of the Vatican Library, of which he was appointed prefect in 1895. He retired in 1914. He received honorary degrees, not only from Munster (1902) and Louvain (1909), but from Oxford (1899) and Cam bridge (1905). His (History of the Church and its Literature in the Middle Ages' (in Ger man) is based on extensive researches in the archives of Germany, England, • Spain and Italy. It is on this work that his reputation largely rests; but he has further written a Latin history of the Papal Library from 1200 to 1417, and (with Stevenson) a history of the Vatican. He was placed in charge of the Papal exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, Saint Louis. His principal works are mono graphs on the frescoes of Pinturicchio in the Borgia Chambers at the Vatican Palace (French 1897; Italian 1899) ; edition of the more im portant manuscripts in the Vatican Library and (Beitrage zur Geschichte und Reform der Armenpflege) (1881).