encourage the lighter branches of literature. It was open to all the poets, and gentlemen and ladies of the country. She acquired so great a reputation, that every little piece of her writing was esteemed a treasure. It does not appear that she had any other children than Marchebrusc, who was as good a poet as herself, and wrote a work On the Nature of Love, in which he recited all the good and evil that it produced. This poem has, however, been attributed to his mother; and another, "Pictures of Love," said to be the one written by him. They flourished at Avignon, under the pontificate of Clement VI.
Some have supposed that the sonnets Petrarch made against Rome, were made against the mother of Marchebrusc; upon which Tassoni, in his reflections on that poet, says, "a certain Provençal, named Nostredamus, reports, we believe with little probability, that the three sonnets, Fiammia dal Ciel, &c, L'Avara Babylonia, and Fontano di Dolore, were made against the mother of Marc Brusc, a Provençal poet, which lady also wrote poems, and was much celebrated in her time."
MARCELLA,
A Roman widow, the intimate friend of Paula, and of Eustochium, who was instructed by her; from whence it is easy to judge, says St. Jerom, the merit of a mistress who could form such disciples. It was in 389, that, going to Rome, he became acquainted with Marcella, who, being very learned in the scriptures, consulted him on many difficult passages. She was consulted from all parts, as a great theologian; and her answers were always dictated by prudence and humility. She was a great enemy to the heresy of Origen, who
