Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[graphic]

tablished. She died, 1505, mourned by her subjects, and by the whole literary world.

GONZAGA,

CECILIA DE, an Italian lady of high birth, gave proofs, even when a child, of a remarkable fondness for learning. Her father, John Francis Gonzaga, lord of Mantua, procured the best masters to instruct her, and at the age of eight she is said to have known Greek. She was religious and charitable as well as learned, gave marriage portions to poor young women, and repaired and beautified convents and churches; in order to do this, she was obliged to use the greatest self-denial in her personal expenses. Her father, for a long time, resisted her desire of taking the veil, but he at length yielded to her entreaties, and she passed all the latter part of her life in the cloister. She was born about 1422.

GONZAGA,

ELEONORA, daughter of Francis II., marquis of Mantua, was united, when very young, to the duke of Urbino. She was celebrated for her devotion to her husband, who was deposed by pope Leo X., in favour of Lorenzo de Medicis. The duke would have sunk under this misfortune, but for the strength of mind and tenderness of his wife. On the death of Lorenzo, in 1492, the dukedom was restored to its rightful owner. Two sons and three daughters were the fruit of this union. Eleonora, by the chastity and severity of her manners, reformed the morals of her court

GONZAGA,

ISABELLA DE, wife to Guido Ubaldo de Montefeltro, duke d'Urbino, was aunt to Eleonora Gonzaga, who married the successor of her husband. This lady is celebrated for her conjugal fidelity and attachment. Her husband, who was sick and infirm, was driven from his dominions by Cæsar Borgia. In his distress, he implored the assistance of Louis XII., of France; but he dared not comply with this request, lest he should draw on himself the resentment of the house of Borgia. The duke then intimated to the king of France, that, in consequence of his infirm health, he was willing to enter into holy orders, and divorce Isabella, whom a ceremony only made his wife. The duchess was powerfully solicited, in consequence of this declaration of her husband, to make another choice, but she resolutely refused. She devoted herself to the duke in his adversity with the tenderest affection. After his death, she abandoned herself to an excessive and unfeigned sorrow. She had been married twenty years, and devoted the rest of her life to the memory of her husband.

GOZZADINI,

BETISIA, born in Bologna, in 1209, of a noble family. She manifested from infancy a love for study, and a disinclination for ordinary girlish occupations; feeling the futility of the instruction given to young ladies, she prevailed upon her parents to allow her to devote herself to the ac

quirement of learning and science. In order to enjoy the advantage of the university, she put on man's apparel, and followed every course; as a student, she soon took the highest standing in her college, and at the gaining of her degree, received the laurel crown. She afterwards studied law, and obtained the title of Dr., and the privilege of wearing the professional robe. Her eloquence was very much esteemed as well as her learning and piety. She lost her life from an inundation caused by an overflow of the waters of the Idio, which overwhelmed a villa on its banks, where she was visiting. This accident happened in 1261.

GUERCHEVILLE,

ANTOINETTE DE PONS, marchioness of, is remarkable for her spirited answer to Henry IV. of France. "If," said she, "I am not noble enough to be your wife, I am too much so to be your mistress." When Henry IV. married Mary de Medicis, he made this lady dame d'honneur to that princess. "Since," said he, "your are really dame d'honneur, be so to the queen, my wife."

On one occasion, having hunted purposely near her château, Henry sent word to Madam de Guercheville that he would sup and lodge at her house; she replied that all possible attention should be paid to his accommodation. Henry, delighted at this answer, hastened to the château, where he was received by his hostess, elegantly attired, and surrounded by all her household. Having lighted the king herself to his room, she bowed and retired. When supper was served up, Henry sent for the lady, but was told that she had just driven from the house, leaving this message for him:"A king, wherever he is, should always be masAs to myself, I also choose to be free."

ter.

GUILLELMA,

A WOMAN of Bohemia, who, in the thirteenth century, founded, in Italy, a sect which united enthusiasm with lewdness. After being respected during her life as a saint, her body was, when dead, taken from her grave, and burnt.

GUILLET,

PERNETTE DU, a poetess of Lyons, and a contemporary of Louise Labbé, was illustrious for her virtue, grace, beauty, and learning. She sang and played exquisitely, understood several languages, and wrote in Latin with facility.

to her, yet she did not hesitate to admonish him when she disapproved his conduct.

When Constantine embraced Christianity, she also was converted; and when nearly eighty, went on a journey to the Holy Land, where she is said to have assisted at the discovery of the true cross of Christ, reported by zealous devotees to have

In Pernette du Guillet, it is said, "all that is been accompanied by many miracles. She died lovely in woman was united."

H.

HACHETTE, JEANNE,

OR JEANNE FOUCQUET, a heroine of Beauvais, in Picardy, France, who successfully headed a body of women in an assault upon the Burgundians, who besieged her native place in 1470. When the Burgundians ascended their ladders to plant their standards on the walls, Jeanne, with a battle-axe, drove several of them back, seized their flag, which she deposited in a church, after the battle. Louis XI. of France recompensed her for her bravery; she afterwards married Collin Pillon, and she and her descendants were exempted from taxation. In commemoration of her intrepid conduct, there is an annual procession at Beauvais, on the tenth of July, in which the women march at the head of the men.

HELENA,

THE empress, mother of Constantine, and one of the saints of the Roman Catholic communion, owed her elevation to her beauty. She was of obscure origin, born at the little village of Drepanum, in Bithynia, where we hear of her first as a hostess of an inn. Constantius Chlorus saw her, fell in love with her, and married her; but, on being associated with Dioclesian in the empire, divorced her to marry Theodora, daughter of Maximilian Hercules. The accession of her son to the empire drew her again from obscurity; she obtained the title of Augusta, and was received at court with all the honours due the mother of an emperor. Her many virtues riveted the affection of her son

soon after, in the year 328, at the age of eighty. Helena left proofs, wherever she went, of a truly Christian liberality; she relieved the poor, orphans, and widows; built churches, and showed herself, in all respects, worthy the confidence of her son, who gave her unlimited permission to draw on his treasures. At her death, he paid her the highest honours, had her body sent to Rome to be deposited in the tomb of the emperors, and raised her native village to the rank of a city, with the name of Helenpolis. She showed her prudence and political wisdom by the influence she always retained over her son, and by the care she took to prevent all interference of the half-brothers of Constantine, sons of Constantius Chlorus and Theodora, who, being brought into notice, after her death, by the injudicious liberality of the emperor, were massacred by their nephews as soon as they succeeded their father in the empire.

HELENA,

DAUGHTER of Constantine the Great and of Fausta, was given in marriage, by her brother Constantius, to her cousin Julian, when he made him Cæsar at Milan, in 355. She followed her husband to his government of Gaul, and died in 359, at Vienna.

[graphic]

HELENA,

WIFE and sister of Monobasus, king of Adiabena, and mother of Irates, the successor of Monobasus, flourished about the year 50. Though Irates was one of the younger sons of the king, yet, being his favourite, he left the crown to him at his death. In order to secure the throne to him, the principal officers of the state proposed to put those of his brothers to death who were inimical to him; but Helen would not consent to this. Helen and Irates were both converts to the Jewish faith. When Helen saw that her son was in peaceable possession of the throne, she went to Jerusalem to worship and sacrifice there. When she arrived in that city, there was a great famine prevailing there, which she immediately exerted herself effectually to relieve, by sending to different places for provisions, and distributing them among the poor. After the death of Irates, Helen returned to Adiabena, where she found that her son Monobasus had succeeded to the throne; but she did not long survive her favourite son Irates.

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]

returned to her uncle, who taught her to speak and write in Latin, then the language used in literary and polite society. She is also said to have understood Greek and Hebrew. To this education, very uncommon at that time, Heloise added great beauty, and refinement and dignity of manner; so that her fame soon spread beyond the walls of the cloister, throughout the whole kingdom.

Just at this time, Pierre Abelard, who had already made himself very celebrated as a rhetorician, came to found a new school in that art at Paris, where the originality of his principles, his eloquence, and his great physical strength and beauty, made a deep sensation. Here he saw Heloise, and commenced an acquaintance with her by letter; but, impatient to know her more intimately, he proposed to Fulbert that he should receive him into his house, which was near Abelard's school. Fulbert was avaricious, and also desirous of having his niece more thoroughly instructed, and these two motives induced him to consent to Abelard's proposal, and to request him to give lessons in his art to Heloise. He even gave Abelard permission to use physical punishment towards his niece, if she should prove rebellious.

"I cannot," says Abelard, "cease to be astonished at the simplicity of Fulbert; I was as much surprised as if he had placed a lamb in the power of a hungry wolf. Heloise and I, under pretext of study, gave ourselves up wholly to love; and the solitude that love seeks, our studies procured for us. Books were open before us; but we spoke oftener of love than philosophy, and kisses came more readily from our lips than words." The canon was the last to perceive this intimacy, although he was often told of it, and heard daily the songs that Abelard composed for Heloise sung through the streets. When he did discover the truth, he was deeply incensed, and sent Abelard from the house. But he contrived to return, and carry off Heloise to Palais, in Brittany, his native country. Here she gave birth to a son, surnamed Astrolabe from his beauty, who passed his life in the obscurity of a monastery.

The flight of Heloise enraged Fulbert to the highest degree; but he was afraid to act openly against Abelard, lest his niece, whom he still loved, might be made to suffer in retaliation. At length Abelard, taking compassion on his grief, sent to him, implored his forgiveness, and offered to marry Heloise, if the union might be kept secret, so that his reputation as a religious man should not suffer. Fulbert consented to this, and Abelard went to Heloise for that purpose; but Heloise, unwilling to diminish the future fame of Abelard, by a marriage, which must be a restraint upon him, refused at first to listen to him. She quoted the precepts and the example of all learned men, sacred and profane, to prove to him that he ought to remain free and untrammelled. She also warned him that her uncle's reconciliation was too easily obtained, and that it was but a feint to entrap him more surely. But Abelard was resolute, and Heloise returned to Paris, where they were soon after married.

Fulbert did not keep his promise of secresy, but spoke openly of the marriage, which when Heloise heard she indignantly denied, protesting that it had never taken place. This made her uncle treat her so cruelly, that Abelard, either to protect her from his violence, or to prove that the announcement of the marriage was false, took her himself to the convent of Argenteuil, where she did not immediately take the veil, but put on the dress of a novice. Not long after he ordered her to take the veil, which she did, although the nuns, touched by her youth and beauty, endeavoured to prevent her from making the sacrifice.

Twelve years passed without Heloise ever hearing mentioned the name of the one she so devotedly loved. She had become prioress of Argenteuil, and lived a life of complete retirement. But her too great kindness and indulgence to the nuns under her control, gave rise to some disorders, which, although she was perfectly blameless, yet caused her to be forced by Ligur, abbot of St. Denis, to leave her retreat, with her companions. Abelard, hearing of her homeless situation, left Brittany, where he was living in charge of the monastery of St. Gildas-de-Ruys, and went to place Heloise and her followers in the little oratory of the Paraclete, which had been founded by him. Here Heloise exerted herself to the utmost to build up a convent; and though their life at first was a painful one, yet, by the end of a year their wealth was so much increased by the munificence of pious persons about them, that they became very comfortable.

Heloise had the rare charm of attaching every one who approached her to herself. Bishops called her daughter, priests, sister, and laymen, mother. Every one reverenced her for her piety, her wisdom, her patience, and her incomparable sweetness. She rarely appeared in public, but devoted herself almost wholly to prayer and meditation.

She happened, one day, to see a letter that Abelard had written, giving an account of his life. She read it many times with tears, and at length wrote to her lover that well-known, eloquent, and passionate letter. His reply was severe but kind;

and these two letters were followed by several others.

In April, 1142, Heloise having heard a report of Abelard's death, wrote to demand his body, that it might be buried at the Paraclete, according to a wish that he had himself expressed in writing. He was buried in a chapel built by his order, and for more than twenty years, Heloise went every night to weep over his tomb. She died May 17th, 1164, aged sixty-three, and was placed in the same tomb.

In 1497, from religious motives, the tomb was opened, and the bones of Abelard and Heloise were removed. In 1800, by order of Lucien Bonaparte, these hallowed remains were carried to the Museum of French Monuments. And in 1815, when this Museum was destroyed, the tomb was taken to Père-le-Chaise, where it still remains.

In reviewing this melancholy story, where genius was dethroned by passion, we cannot but consider the noble-hearted, though erring Heloise, a victim to the vanity of the selfish Abelard. He does not pretend to have loved her passionately; he formed the plan of a cold-blooded seduction, merely for a passing amusement. Perhaps he considered the affair a study of mental philosophy, and watched to analyze the manifestations of the tender passion in the young, warm heart of the innocent, beautiful, gifted pupil confided to his instruction. He had no tenderness or truth of love in his soul. Heloise, on the contrary, was affected with the most devoted, the most unselfish affection. It needs only to compare their letters to see this. - those of Abelard, cold, hard, calculating. The ill-regulated, but ardent and sincere effusions of Heloise, have been too frequetly quoted to need a repetition here. The very arrangement of their correspondence marks the difference. He divides and subdivides his letters; he answers methodically, and by chapters; he addresses them "To the Spouse of Christ". -"Heloissæ dilectissima sorori suæ in Christo - Abailardus;" "To his dear sister in Christ-Abelard." The tone of Heloise is thus:

"Domino suo-imò patri; conjugi suo, imo fratei; Ancilla sua imo filia; ipsius uxor, imo soror."

The

Heloissa, Epist. 4. And after their separation, the better-tempered soul of Heloise rises wonderfully above that of her master. He abandoned his intellectual weapons, and sank into a mere monk; his admirers, who could not comprehend the metamorphosis, clustered around him; they forced some sparks of former animation to appear. Arnold of Brescia persuaded him to encounter St. Bernard in a logical duel. Time and place were chosen. king, the counts of Champagne and Nerus, bishops, ecclesiastics of highest rank, a concourse of celebrities, crowded to the arena. St. Bernard came with repugnance; he dreaded the powerful eloquence that had so often disarmed him; he was saved by the pusillanimity of his rival. Abelard was mute. After this signal defeat, there is nothing more to relate of him; he died, in inglorious repose, in the abbey of Clury.

In the mean time, Heloise had taken the veil, not from a vocation, but to gratify the caprice of her husband, in a very different career. As Abelard subsided into a sluggish monk, she rose into something superior to a mere formalized recluse. She sought means of improving the minds and morals of all within her influence. She founded a great college of theology, Greek and Hebrew. She delivered lectures on these subjects with such success, as to arouse a spirit of study and investigation through an extended sphere; crowds flocked to hear her; and similar institutions, for the advancement of learning, grew up around her. Heloise was declared by the pope, head of her order.

HERODIAS,

DAUGHTER of Aristobulus and Berenice, sister to king Agrippa, and grand-daughter to Herod the Great, married first her uncle, Herod Philip, by whom she had Salome. She left Herod Philip to marry his brother, Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, and it was for censuring this incestuous marriage that Antipas ordered John the Baptist to be imprisoned. Some time after, Herodias suggested to her daughter Salome to ask, as a reward for her dancing, the head of John the Baptist, who was accordingly beheaded. Herodias, mortified to see her husband tetrarch only, while her brother Agrippa was king, persuaded Antipas to visit Rome, and endeavour to obtain the royal title. But Agrippa sent word to the emperor, that Antipas had arms for seventy thousand men in his arsenals; and Antipas, unable to deny the charge, was banished to Lyons. Caligula was willing to pardon Herodias, as the sister of Agrippa; but she chose rather to accompany her husband, than to owe anything to her brother's fortune. The time or the manner of her death is not known; but she has left the ineffaceable memory of her sin and Herod's crime as a warning to the world, to beware of placing a man in office who sets at defiance the laws of God, or who is united to a wicked woman.

HILDA, ST.,

PRINCESS of Scotland, was learned in Scripture, and composed many religious works. She opposed strenuously the tonsure of the priests, probably supposing it a heathenish custom. She built the convent of St. Fare, of which she became abbess, and died there in 685.

HILDEGARDIS,

A FAMOUS abbess of the order of St. Benedict, at Spanheim, in Germany, whose prophecies are supposed to relate to the reformation, and the destruction of the Roman see; they had great influence at the time of the reformation. She lived in 1146. The books in which these prophecies are contained, appear to have been written by a zealous, godly, and understanding woman, shocked at the crimes which she saw prevailing around her. She also wrote a poem on medicine, and a book of Latin poems. Her good works and her piety were long remembered.

HILTRUDIS,

DAUGHTER of Charles Martel, was born in the year 728. After the death of her father, when she saw that her brothers, Pepin and Carlman, treated the rest of the family with great cruelty, she fled to her aunt, the duchess of Bavaria. Her cousin Odillo, enchanted with her courage and beauty, married her, and made her duchess of Bavaria.

Five years afterwards, Odillo declared war against the Franks, but fell, badly wounded, a prisoner into the hands of his enemies. Hiltrudis disguised herself as a knight, and followed her husband to the court of her brothers, where she arrived just in time to assist at the baptism of Charlemagne, whom she presented with costly jewels. She was recognised by her brothers, and, reconciled to them, obtained the liberty of her husband. She died in the year 759, and was buried in Osterhofer, by the side of Odillo.

HROSWITHA,

(HELENA V. ROSSEN,) a nun of the Benedictine order, was born in Saxony, and died at Gandershein, in 984. She is known as a religious poetess through her "Comædia Sacræ VI.," edited by Schurzfleisch. These plays were written by her to suppress the reading of Terence, then a very popular author among the literary clergy of the age. She also composed a poetic narrative of the deeds performed by Otho the Great, to whom she was related, and a number of elegies. She wrote in Latin altogether. Her works were printed in Nuremberg, in 1501.

HYPASIA,

A MOST beautiful, learned, and virtuous lady of antiquity, was the daughter of Theon, who governed the Platonic school at Alexandria, in Egypt, where she was born and educated in the latter part of the fourth century. Theon was famous for his extensive knowledge and learning, but principally for being the father of Hypasia, whom, on account of her extraordinary genius, he educated not only in all the qualifications belonging to her sex, but likewise in the most abstruse sciences. She made astonishing progress in every branch of learning. Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, a witness of undoubted veracity, at least when he speaks in favour of a heathen philosopher, tells us that Hypasia "arrived at such a pitch of learning, as very far to exceed all the philosophers of her time:" to which Nicephorus adds, "Or those of other times." Philostorgius, a third historian of the same stamp, affirms that she surpassed her father in astronomy; and Suidas, who mentions two books of her writing, one "On the Astronomical Canon of Diophantus," and another "On the Conics of Apollonius," avers that she understood all other parts of philosophy.

She succeeded her father in the government of the Alexandrian school, teaching out of the chair where Ammonius, Hierocles, and many other celebrated philosophers had taught; and this at a time when men of immense learning abounded at Alexandria, and in other parts of the Roman em

pire. Her fame was so extensive, and her worth so universally acknowledged, that she had a crowded auditory, One cannot represent to himself without pleasure the flower of all the youth in Europe, Asia, and Africa, sitting at the feet of a very beautiful woman, for such we are assured Hypasia was, all eagerly imbibing instruction from her mouth, and many doubtless love from her eyes; yet Suidas, who speaks of her marriage to Isidorus, relates at the same time that she died a maid.

Her scholars were as eminent as they were numerous. One of them was the celebrated Synesius, afterwards bishop of Ptolemais. This ancient Christian Platonist everywhere bears the strongest testimony to the learning and virtue of his instructress; and never mentions her without the profoundest respect, and in terms of affection coming little short of adoration. In a letter to his brother Euoptius, he says, "Salute the most honoured and the most beloved of God, the PHILOSOPHER; and that happy society, which enjoys the blessing of her divine voice." In another, he mentions one Egyptius, who "sucked in the seeds of wisdom from Hypasia." In another he says, "I suppose these letters will be delivered by Peter, which he will receive from that sacred hand." The famous silver astrolabe, which he presented to Peonius, he owns to have been perfected by the directions of Hypasia. In a long epistle to her, he tells her his reasons for writing the two books he sends her; and asks her opinion of one, resolving not to publish it without her approbation.

Never was a woman more caressed by the public, and never had a woman a more unspotted character. She was considered an oracle of wisdom, and was consulted by the magistrates in all important cases. This frequently drew her among the greatest concourse of men, without causing the least censure of her manners.

"On account of the confidence and authority," says Socrates, "which she had acquired by her learning, she sometimes came to the judges with singular modesty. Nor was she anything abashed to appear thus among a crowd of men; for all persons, by reason of her extraordinary discretion, did at the same time both reverence and admire her." This is also confirmed by other writers, and Damascus and Suidas relate, that the governors and magistrates of Alexandria regularly visited and paid their court to her; and, when Nicepolus wished to pay the princess Eudocia the highest compliment, he called her "another Hypasia."

While Hypasia thus reigned the brightest ornament of Alexandria, Orestes was governor of the same place, under the emperor Theodosius, and Cyril bishop or patriarch. Orestes admired Hypasia, and as a wise governor, frequently consulted her. This created an intimacy between them highly displeasing to Cyril, who had a great aversion to Orestes, and who disapproved of Hypasia, as she was a heathen. The life of Orestes nearly fell a sacrifice to the fury of a Christian mob, supposed to have been incited by Cyril on account of this intimacy; and, afterwards, it being reported that Hypasia prevented a reconciliation between

« AnteriorContinuar »