to preach the word and organize the church; women were to keep their homes sacred as the house of God, and instruct their children in the true faith. The distinctive characteristics of each sex were thus made to contribute their best energies to the advancement of the truth. Yet throughout the whole life of the blessed Redeemer-from his manger-cradle to his blood-stained cross, we trace the predominant sympathy of his nature with that of woman. We trace this in his example and precepts, which were in unison with her character; in his tender love of children; in the sternness with which he rebuked the licentious spirit of man in regard to the law of divorce. When the Pharisees told him what Moses had permitted 66 Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this precept. "But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. Thus was the true idea of marriage restored; and it is now, as it was in the beginning, and will be till the end of the world, the keystone in the temple of social improvement, and true civilization. Wherever the Gospel is preached and believed, polygamy is annihilated. What no law or power of man could have done, the law of God, re-affirmed by Jesus Christ, and baptized by the Holy Ghost into the hearts of regenerated men, effected. Then the Christian wife took the Eden seat beside her husband; his soul's companion, his best earthly friend. And soon she was recognised and acknowledged as "the glory of the man." How beautiful are the glimpses we gain of the feminine character as developed under the first influences of the preached Gospel! Besides the host of female friends whom St. Paul names with warm affection and approval, there was the "honourable women" who waited on his ministry; and Priscilla who was always an helper; and the "elect lady and her children," to whom the gentle, pure-minded St. John wrote his epistle of love and faith. Thanks be to God that this blessed Gospel, which seems to have been revealed purposely for the help of woman, was not like the Jewish dispensation, to be confined to one people! No: it was to be preached throughout the world, and to every creature. Wherever this Gospel was made known, women were found ready to receive it. Queens became the nursing mothers of the true Church, and lovely maidens martyrs for its truth. The empress Helena has been widely celebrated for her agency in introducing Christianity into the Roman empire. It may not be as well known that many queens and princesses have the glory of converting their husbands to the true faith, and thus securing the success of the Gospel in France, England, Hungary, Spain, Poland, and Russia. In truth, it was the influence of women that changed the worship of the greater part of Europe from Paganism to Christianity. No wonder these honourable ladies were zealous in the cause of the religion which gave their sex protection in this life and the promise of eternal happiness in the life to come. The zeal with which women-one-half of the human race-sustained the faith and labours of the apostles and first missionaries, was one of the greatest human elements of their success. Could this simple teaching and believing have gone on unhindered, the whole world would long ago have received the Gospel. But truth was perverted by selfish men; monachism established; and the woman's soul, again consigned to ignorance, was bowed to the servile office of ministering to the passions and lusts of men. Then came the deification of the Virgin Mary; a worship, though false to the word of God, yet of salutary influence over the robbers and tyrants who then ruled the world. Next, chivalry was instituted, partly from the religious sentiment towards woman the worship of the Virgin had awakened, and partly from the necessities of worldly men. But religious sentiment, as a barrier against vice, has never been sufficiently strong to control, though it may for a time check, the corruptions of sin. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, every light of hope was fading or extinguished. The Christian world—so called-was one wide theatre of wars, rapine, and superstition. France, beautiful France, was the focus of anarchy and misery such as the world had not witnessed since the Roman empire was overthrown. The British, brave but brutal soldiers, seemed about to trample the sacred oriflamme of St. Louis in the dust. Charles VII. was a king without a countryall he possessed was a few provinces in the south of France; and even these seemed likely to be soon wrested from him. At this juncture, when the strength of the warriors was overborne, the arm of a simple country maiden interposed, and was the cause of beating back the haughty foe to the limits of his own island home, there to learn that colonization, not conquest, was to make his glory. The Maid of Orleans is the most marvellous person, of either sex, who lived from the time of the apostles to the end of the Era on which we are now entering. SECOND ERA. FROM THE BIRTH OF JESUS CHRIST TO THE YEAR 1500. A. ABASSA, A SISTER of Haroun al Raschid, caliph of the Saracens, A. D. 786, was so beautiful and accomplished, that the caliph often lamented he was her brother, thinking no other husband could be found worthy of her. To sanction, however, a wish he had of conversing at the same time with the two most enlightened people he knew, he married her to his vizier Giafar, the Barmecide, on condition that Giafar should not regard her as his wife. Giafar, not obeying this injunction, was put to death by order of the enraged caliph, and Abassa was dismissed from his court. She wandered about, sometimes reduced to the extreme of wretchedness, reciting her own story in song, and there are still extant some Arabic verses composed by her, which celebrate her misfortunes. In the divan entitled Juba, Abassa's genius for poetry is mentioned; and a specimen of her composition, in six Arabic lines, addressed to Giafar, her husband, whose society she was restricted by her brother from enjoying, is to be found in a book written by Ben Abon Haydah. She left two children, twins, whom Giafar, before his death, had sent privately to Mecca to be educated. ABELLA, A FEMALE writer born at Salerno, in Italy, in the reign of Charles VI. of France, in 1380. She wrote several works on medicine; and, among others, a treatise De atra bili, which was very highly esteemed. ADELAIDE, DAUGHTER of Rodolphus, king of Burgundy, married Lotharius II., king of Italy, and after his death, Otho I., emperor of Germany. Her character was exemplary, and she always exerted her influence for the good of her subjects. She died in 999, aged sixty-nine. ADELAIDE, WIFE of Louis II. of France, was mother of Charles III., surnamed the Simple, who was king in 598. ADELAIDE Or Savoy, daughter of Humbert, count of Maurienne, was queen to Louis VI. of France, and mother of seven sons and a daughter. After the king's death, she married Matthew of Montmorenci, and died 1154. ADELAIDE, WIFE of Frederic, prince of Saxony, conspired with Lewis, marquis of Thuringia, against her husband's life, and married the murderer in 1055. ADELICIA, OF Louvain, surnamed "The fair Maid of Brabant," was the second wife of Henry I. of England. She was descended from the imperial Carlovingian line, and was remarkable for her proficiency in all feminine acquirements. She was very beautiful, and wise in conforming to the tastes of the king, and in affording all possible encouragement to literature and the polite arts. Henry's death happened in 1135, and three years afterwards Adelicia contracted a second marriage with William de Albini, who seems to have been "the husband of her choice," by whom she had several children. She died about 1151. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, the victim queens of Henry VIII., were her lineal descendants. AFRA, A MARTYR in Crete, during the Dioclesian persecution, which commenced A. D. 303. She was a pagan and a courtezan, but she no sooner heard the Gospel preached than she confessed her sins and was baptized. Her former lovers, enraged at this change, denounced her as a Christian. She was examined, avowed her faith with firmness, and was burnt. Her mother and three servants, who had shared her crimes and repentance, were arrested, as they watched by her tomb, and suffered the same fate. AGATHA, A SICILIAN lady, was remarkable for her beauty and talents. Quintius, governor of Sicily, fell in love with her, and made many vain attempts on her virtue. When he found Agatha inflexible, his | ceeded his father in the government. But in 1183 desire changed into resentment, and discovering a prince of the same family, Andronicus, deposed that she was a Christian, he determined to gratify and murdered Alexis, forced Agnes to marry him, his revenge. He ordered her to be scourged, burnt and ascended the throne. In 1185 Andronicus with red-hot irons, and torn with sharp hooks. was deposed and killed. Being thus left a second Having borne these torments with admirable forti- time a widow, before she was sixteen, Agnes sought tude, she was laid naked on live coals mingled for a protector among the Greek nobility, and her with glass, and being carried back to prison, she choice fell on Theodore Branas, who defended her expired there, in 251. cause so well, that when the crusaders took Constantinople, they gave him the city of Napoli, and that of Adrianople, his country, and of Didymoticos. He soon after married Agnes, and the rest of her life, so stormy in its commencement, was passed very tranquilly. AGNES, ST. A CHRISTIAN martyr at Rome in the Dioclesian persecution, whose bloody edicts appeared in March, A. D. 303, was only thirteen at the time of her glorious death. Her riches and beauty excited many of the young noblemen of Rome to seek her in marriage; but Agnes answered them all, that she had consecrated herself to a heavenly spouse. Her suitors accused her to the governor as a Christian, not doubting that threats and torments would overcome her resolution. The judge at first employed the mildest persuasions and most inviting promises, to which Agnes paid no attention; he then displayed before her the instruments of torture, with threats of immediate execution, and dragged her before idols, to which she was commanded to sacrifice; but Agnes moved her hand only to make the sign of the cross. The governor, highly exasperated, ordered her to be immediately beheaded; and Agnes went cheerfully to the place of execution. Her body was buried at a small distance from Rome, near the Nonietan road. A church was built on the spot in the time of Constantine the Great. ! AGNES SOREL, A NATIVE of Fromenteau, in Lorraine, was maid of honour to Isabella of Lorraine, sister-in-law of the queen of Charles VII. of France. The king became enamoured of her, and at last abandoned the cares of government for her society. But Agnes roused him from enervating repose to deeds of glory, and induced him to attack the English, who were ravaging France. She maintained her influence over him till her death, 1450, at the age of thirty-nine. Some have falsely reported that she was poisoned by the orders of the dauphin, Louis XI. From her beauty, she was called the fairest of the fair, and she possessed great mental powers. She bore three daughters to Charles VII., who were openly acknowledged by him. She herself relates, that an astrologer, whom she had previously instructed, being admitted to her presence, said before Charles, that unless the stars were deceivers, she had inspired a lasting passion in a great monarch. Turning to the king, Agnes said, "Sire, suffer me to fulfil my destiny, to retire from your court to that of the king of England; Henry, who is about to add to his son the crown you relinquish, is doubtless the object of this prediction." The severity of this reproof effectually roused Charles from his indolence and supineness. The tomb of Agnes was strewed with flowers by the poets of France. Even Louis, when he came to the throne, was far from treating her memory with disrespect. The canons of Loches, from a servile desire to gratify the reigning monarch, had, notwithstanding her liberalities to their church, proposed to destroy her mausoleum. Louis reproached them with their ingratitude, ordered them to fulfil all her injunctions, and added six thousand livres to the charitable donations which she had originally made. Francis I. honoured and cherished her memory. The four lines made on her by that prince, are well known: Gentille Agnes! plus d'honneur tu merite, AISHA, A POETESS of Spain, during the time that the Moors had possession of that kingdom. She was a daughter of the duke of Ahmedi, and her poems and orations were frequently read with applause in the royal academy of Corduba. She was a virtuous character, lived unmarried, and left behind her many monuments of her genius, and a large and well-selected library. She lived in the twelfth century. ALDRUDE, COUNTESS de Bertinoro, in Italy, of the illustrious house of Frangipani, is celebrated, by the writers of her time, for her beauty, magnificence, courtesy, and generosity. She was left a widow in the bloom of youth, and her court became the resort of all the Italian chivalry. When Ancona was besieged by the imperial troops, in 1172, and was reduced to extremity, the Anconians appealed for assistance to William degli Adelardi, a noble and powerful citizen of Ferrara, and to the countess de Bertinoro, who immediately hastened to their relief. The combined forces reached Ancona at the close of day, and encamped on a height which overlooked the tents of the besiegers. William then assembled the forces, and having harangued them, Aldrude rose, and addressed the soldiers as follows: "Fortified and encouraged by the favour of Heaven, I have, contrary to the customs of my sex, determined to address you. A plain exhortation, destitute of precision or ornament, should it fail to flatter the ear, may yet serve to rouse the mind. I solemnly swear to you, that, on the present occasion, no views of interest, no dreams of ambition, have impelled me to succour the besieged. Since the death of my husband, I have found myself, though plunged in sorrow, unresisted mistress of his domains. The preservation of my numerous possessions, to which my wishes are limited, affords an occupation sufficiently arduous for my sex and capacity. But the perils which encompass the wretched Anconians, the prayers and tears of their women, justly dreading to fall into the hands of an enemy, who, governed by brutal rapacity, spare neither sex nor age, have animated me to hasten to their aid. "To relieve a people, consumed by famine, ex hausted by resistance, and exposed to calamities, I have left my dominions, and come hither with my son, who, though still a child, recalls to my remembrance the great soul of his father, by whom the same zeal, the same courage, was ever displayed for the protection of the oppressed. And you, warriors of Lombardy and Romagne, not less illustrious for fidelity to your engagements than renowned for valour in the field; you, whom the same cause has brought here, to obey the orders and emulate the example of William Adelardi, who, listening only to his generosity and love of freedom, has scrupled not to engage his possessions, his friends, and his vassals, for the deliverance of Ancona. A conduct so generous, so worthy of praise, requires no comment; beneath our sense of its magnanimity, language fails. It is by those only who are truly great, that virtue is esteemed more than riches or honours, or that virtuous actions can be duly appreciated. An enterprise, so full of glory, has already nearly succeeded; already have you passed through the defiles occupied by the enemy, and pitched your tents in the hostile country. It is now time that the seed which was scattered, should bring forth its fruit; it is time to make trial of your strength, and of that valour for which you are distinguished. Courage is relaxed by delay. Let the dawn of day find you under arms, that the sun may illumine the victory promised by the Most High to your pity for the unfortunate." The exhortation of the countess was received by the soldiery with unbounded applause, mingled with the sound of trumpets and the clashing of arms. The enemy, alarmed at the approach of so large a force, retreated during the night, so that the assailants had no opportunity of proving their bravery. After this bloodless victory, the combined troops remained encamped near Ancona, till it was no longer endangered by the vicinity of its enemies, and till an abundant supply of provisions was brought into the city. The Anconians came out to thank their gallant deliverers, to whom they offered magnificent presents. Aldrude, with her army, on her return to her dominions, encountered parties of the retreating enemy, whom they engaged in skirmishes, in all of which they came off victorious. The time of her death is not recorded. ALICE, QUEEN of France, wife of Louis VII., was the third daughter of Thibaut the Great, count of Champagne. The princess received a careful education in the magnificent court of her father; and being beautiful, amiable, intelligent, and imaginative, Louis VII., on the death of his second wife, in 1160, fell in love with her, and demanded her of her father. To cement the union more strongly, two daughters of the king by his first wife, Eleanor of Guienne, were married to the two eldest sons of the count. In 1165, she had a son, to the great joy of Louis, afterwards the celebrated Philip Augustus. Beloved by her husband, whose ill-health rendered him unequal to the duties of his station, Alice not only assisted him in conducting the affairs of the nation, but superintended the education of her son. Alice returned to France, and in 1195 she married William III., count of Ponthieu. She was the victim of the licentious passions of the English monarch. Had she been as happily married as her mother, she would, probably, have showed as amiable a disposition, and a mind of like excellence. ALOARA, Louis died in 1180, having appointed Alice to the regency; but Philip Augustus being married to Isabella of Hainault, niece to the earl of Flanders, this nobleman disputed the authority of Alice. Philip, at last, sided with the earl; and his mother, with her brothers, was obliged to leave the court. She appealed to Henry II. of England, who was delighted to assist the mother against the son, as Philip was constantly inciting his sons to acts of rebellion against him. Philip marched against them; but Henry, unwilling to give him battle, commenced negotiations with him, and succeeded in reconciling the king to his mother and uncles. Philip also agreed to pay her a sum equal to five shillings and ten pence Eng-began to reign conjointly with one of her sons in lish per day, for her maintenance, and to give up 982, and governed with wisdom and courage. her dowry, with the exception of the fortified She died in 992. places. Alice again began to take an active part in the government; and her son was so well satisfied with her conduct, that, in 1190, on going to the Holy Land, he confided, by the advice of his barons, the education of his son, and the regency of the kingdom, to Alice and her brother, the cardinal archbishop of Rheims. During the absence of the king, some ecclesiastical disturbances happened, which were carried before the pope. The prerogative of Philip, and the letters of Alice to Rome concerning it, were full of force and grandeur. She remonstrated upon the enormity of taking advantage of an absence caused by such a motive; and demanded that things should at least be left in the same situation, till the return of her son. By this firmness she obtained her point. Philip returned in 1192, and history takes no other notice of Alice afterwards, than to mention some religious houses which she founded. died at Paris, in 1205. ALICE She OF France, second daughter of Louis VII. of France, and of Alice of Champagne, was betrothed, at the age of fourteen, to Richard Coeur de Lion, second son of Henry II. of England. She was taken to that country to learn the language, where her beauty made such an impression that Henry II., though then an old man, became one of her admirers. He placed her in the castle of Woodstock, where his mistress, the celebrated Rosamond Clifford, had been murdered, as was then reported, by his jealous wife, Eleanor of Guienne. Alice is said to have taken the place of Rosamond; at any rate, Henry's conduct to her so irritated Richard, that, incited by his mother, he took up arms against his father. Henry's death, in 1189, put an end to this unhappy position of affairs; but when Richard was urged by Philip Augustus of France to fulfil his engagement to his sister Alice, Richard refused, alleging that she had had a daughter by his father. The subsequent marriage of Richard with Berengaria of Navarre, so enraged Philip Augustus, that from that time he became the relentless enemy of the English king. AN Italian princess, daughter of a count named Peter. She was married to Pandulph, surnamed Ironhead, who styled himself prince, duke, and marquis. He was, by inheritance, prince of Capua and Benevento, and the most potent nobleman in Italy. He died at Capua, in 981, leaving five sons by Aloara, all of whom were unfortunate, and three of them died violent deaths. Aloara It is asserted that Aloara put to death her nephew, lest he should wrest the principality from her son; and, that St. Nil then predicted the failure of her posterity. ALPAIDE WAS the beautiful wife of Pepin D'Heristal of France, after his divorce from his first wife, Plectrude. This union was censured by Lambert, bishop of Liege; and Alpaide induced her brother Dodan to murder the bold ecclesiastic. After her husband's death she retired to a convent near Namur, where she died. She was the mother of Charles Martel, who was born in 686. ALPHAIZULI, MARIA, a poetess of Seville, who lived in the eighth century. She was called the Arabian Sappho, being of Moorish extraction. Excellent works of hers are in the library of the Escurial. Many Spanish women of that time cultivated the muses with success, particularly the Andalusians. AMALASONTHA, DAUGHTER of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, was mother of Athalaric, by Eutharic. She inherited her father's possessions, as guardian of her son; but by endeavouring to educate him in the manners and learning of the more polished Romans, she offended her nobles, who conspired against her, and obtained the government of the young prince. Athalaric was inured, by them, to debauchery, and he sunk under his excesses, at the early age of seventeen, in the year 534. afflicted mother knew not how to support herself against her rebellious subjects, but by taking as her husband and partner on the throne, her cousin Theodatus, who, to his everlasting infamy, caused her to be strangled in a bath, 534. For learning or humanity she had few equals. She received and conversed with ambassadors from various nations without the aid of an interpreter. The The emperor of Constantinople sent an army against the murderer, under the celebrated general Belisarius, who defeated and dethroned him. |