Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/596

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576 BERNARDIN DE ST. PIERRE votion during a pestilence which ravaged Siena | in 1400. Having joined the order of St. Fran- j cis, lie was sent to the Holy Land, and after his return preached 14 years with great suc- cess. He refused the bishoprics of Siena, Fer- rara, and Urbino, but accepted the office of vicar general of the Franciscans, in order to restore what he conceived to be the original discipline. He founded 300 monasteries. Those who embraced his reform constituted the branch of the Observantines. His eloquence was ex- erted with great effect for the reconciliation of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. In 1450 he was canonized by Pope Nicholas V. His works appeared in Venice in 1591 in 4 vols. 4to, and at Paris in 1636 in 2 vols. folio. They consist of essays on religious subjects, sermons, and a commentary on the book of Revelation. itl'KYUtm.V DE ST. PIERRE. See SAINT- PIERRE. BKRNARDINES, a name given in France and Spain to some of the Cistercian monks and nans. See CISTERCIANS. BERNARDO DEL CARPIO, a Spanish warrior of the 9th century, probably born in the cas- tle of Carpio, Valencia. He was the offspring of a secret marriage between Don Sancho de Saldafia and Ximena, sister of Alfonso II., the Chaste, of Leon. The king on the dis- covery of the marriage had Saldana imprisoned and blinded, and Ximena sent to a convent. Bernardo was brought up at court, and ac- quired renown in the warfare against the Moors, which he continued even after he had left his uncle's service in consequence of the failure of repeated efforts to obtain his father's release. Finally in his exasperation he joined the Moors, and took np his headquarters at the castle of Carpio, upon which Alfonso promised to relent on condition of the surrender of that stronghold. But Saldafia was not set free, and according to some authorities he was put to death either by Alfonso, who died in 842, or by his successor Alfonso the Great, while Ber- nardo was reported to have left Spain and to have acquired additional fame as a knight errant in France. The narrative of his exploits is associated with many romantic traditions, and there are different versions of his life, ac- cording to one of which he was kept for a long time in ignorance of his parentage, and on dis- covering it defied Alfonso, after taking posses- sion of the castle in which his father was con- fined. He figures in many old Spanish chron- icles and ballads, and in several plays by Lope de Vega, as a national hero and as the suc- cessful antagonist of Roland at Roncesvalles. An epic poem, El Bernardo, was published by Bernardo de Balbuena in Madrid in 1624 (new ed., 3 vols., 1808 ; abridged in Poe&aa selector cattellanas, by Quintana, 1833). ItKUV Al , a town of Prussia, in the province of Brandenburg, 13 m. N. E. of Berlin ; pop. in 1871, 5,466. The town hall contains many interesting Hussite antiquities from the year 1432, when the Hussites besieged the place. BERNBURG KKRMI F.K, Agnes, the beautiful daughter of a bath-keeper of Augsburg, drowned Oct. 12, 1435. Albert, son of Ernest, duke of Bavaria, fell in love with her at a tournament, married her, and lived with her some time in happiness, despite the anger and persecution of his father. At last the duke, in Albert's absence, caused her to be arrested, tried, and found guilty of witchcraft. She was thrown into the Danube before a vast concourse of people, and when she swam or floated to the bank the execution- er with a pole held her head beneath the water by her golden hair until she drowned. Albert rose in arms against his father and laid waste his territory. But the emperor Sigismund re- quired him after a time to make peace, and he married Anna of Brunswick. His father erect- ed a chapel over the grave of Agnes, and Albert made a foundation for the celebration of a daily mass for her. Several tragedies and poems have been founded upon the story. ISKR.YIY, a town of Normandy, France, de- partment of Enre, on the left bank of the Cha- rentonne, a branch of the Rille, and upon the railway from Paris to Cherbourg, 25 m. W. N. W. of Evreux ; pop. in 1866, 7,510. A horse fair held here every year is the largest in France, and sometimes draws together 40,000 persons. The manufactures are of woollen cloth, linen, flannel, leather, and cotton yarn. Judith, wife of Richard II., duke of Normandy, founded here an abbey in 1027. Its chapel, one of the oldest examples of the Romanesque style of architecture in Normandy, is now used for a market hall. Near the city is an ancient Gothic church to which pilgrimages are made. The city was formerly the capital of the Pays d'Ouche, the level district that lies between the Charentonne and the Rille. BERJVBIRG, a town of Anhalt, Germany, cap- ital of a district of its name, and formerly of Bernburg. the duchy of Anhalt-Bernburg, on both sides of the Saale, 15 m. above its confluence with