Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/281

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

HENTEN


241


HEPTARCHY


patriotic poems. Three years later she for the first time made the acquaintance of a Catholic, Klemcns Brentano. It was tlie poet himself who during the "Storm and Stress" period was the first to profit by this intercourse; he became once more a devout Catholic and accordingly he justly called his friend "the angel in the wilderness". lyuise's gradual ap- proach to the Catholic Church ended in her con- version, which came about, without creating the slightest sensation, on 8 December, 1818, in the Hed- wigskirche, Berlin. Her subsequent career was like a perpetual journey. She left Berlin and became companion to the Princess Salm in Munster and Diisseldorf. Then (in 1820) she undertook the educa- tion of the three youngest daughters of Count von Stolberg, holding the same relation to her nephew in Wiedenbruck (Westphaha) in 182.3; then, after a short sojourn in Coblenz and on the Marienberg near Boppard, she took the position of head teacher of the St. Leonard's Academy for girls at Aachen, which she held for six years. She was oljliged to give up this abundantly blest activity owing to ill health and returned to her brother's pleasant home in Berlin, where she nursed her aging mother until the death of the latter in 183.5. Then began another period of wandering activity in educational fields: in the semi- nary at Neuburg (1840-41), in Cologne (1841-50), then again in Wiedenbriiek. Penally she settled in the convent of the Society of the Daughters of Christian Love at Paderborn, where the foundress, Pauline von Malinckrodt, a former pupil of hers, had set aside a home for her. There she passed the twi- light of her pious life in peaceful retirement, without becoming a memlier of the order.

Her poetic works consist of more or less religious verses composed for special occasions. They were published in various places. Unfortimately her modesty would not admit of a complete edition of her writings. The most just and impartial judgment on her muse has been passed by R. M. Meyer in his " Deut- sche Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts" (1906, p. 79). "In her pious humility she compares herself in one place to an ugly little vase in which beautiful flowers have been put: God's special grace; it was pre- eminently by His grace that every prayer became a poem to her, and each poem a prayer. The result was a rich bouquet of pious songs, the impressive simplicity of which reminds one of the old songs of the Church. She wrote with little care, scribbling her verses on scraps of paper. But thousands and tens of thousands found edification in these simple prayers, a tribute denied to the admirable, spiritual poems of her friend Klemens." The most important edition of her poems is that by C. Schliiter (Paderborn, 1869), several times reprinted.

Rosenthal in Konvertitenbilder: Reinkens (Old Catholic Bishop). Luise Hensel unci ihrc Lieder (Bonn. 1877). partisan in tone, as is also Idem, in AUgcm. deulsche Biog.; Bartscheh. Der innere LebensimttQ d/r Dichhrin Luise Hensel iuack den Aufzeicknuniien in ihren Taiiehuchern (Paderborn, 18S2); Keiter. Zeitnen<issische Kiilh. Diehter Deutschlands (Paderborn. 18841; Binder. Ein Lebensbitd nach gedruckten und unnedruck- ten Quillen (Freiburg in Br.. 188.5); Diel, Clemens Brentano (Freiburg im Br., 1878), especially Vol. II.

N. SCHEID.

Henten, John, Biblical exegete, b. 1499 at Nalinnes Belgium: d.lOOct., 1,566, at Louvain. When quite young he took the vows of religion in the Hieronymite Order in Spain, but left it about 1548 to enter the Dominican Order at Louvain, where he had gained a name at the university for sound scholarship. In 15.50 he began to teach in the Dominican convent of that city, in which he became regent of studies three years later. He was made defender of the Faith and inquisitor in 1556. While prior of the Louvain convent he was chosen by the theological faculty of the university to take the place of John Hessel, Regius Professor of ,Sen- tences, who had been sent by the king to the Council VII.— 16


of Trent, and was teaching at the university in 1565. Qu^tif and Echard (Script. Ord. Praed., II, 195-6) say that he was praised by the writers of his century, espe- cially by William Seguier in " Laur. Belg.", pt. I, 5 Dec, no. I, p. 57. His prmcipal writings are: (1) " Biblia Latina ad vetustissima exemplaria castigata" (Louvain, 1547, and many times elsewhere) ; (2) "Commentaria in quatuor Evangelia", consisting of commentaries by St. John Chrysostom and other early writers collected by Euthymius Zigabenus and inter- preted by Hent€n (Louvain, 1544) ; (3) " Enarrationes in Acta Apost. et in Apocalypsin" (Louvain, 1845, and repeatedly elsewhere) ; (4) the same work, together with commentaries on the Epistles, as "CEcumenii commentaria in Acta Apost. etc." (Paris, 1631).

Arthur L. McMahon.

Heortology (from the Greek ioprj, festival, and X670S, knowledge, discourse) etymologically implies a relation to feasts or festivals in general, an exposition of their meaning. The word, however, is used to de- note specifically the science of sacred festivals, em- bracing the principles of their origin, significance, and historical development, with reference to epochs or incidents in the Christian year. (See Feasts, Eccle- siastical.)

P. J. MacAuley.

Hephaestus, a titular see of Augustamnica Prima, mentionetl by Hierocles (Synecd., 727, 9), by George of Cyprus, and by certain ra re documents, as among the thirteen towns of that province. It was a suffragan of Pelusium (see Parthey's "Notitia Prima" and the Coptic allusion to it publi.shed by J. de Roug^, in his " Geographic ancienne de la Basse Egypte ' (Paris, 1891, 157). Lequien (Oriens christ., II, 547) mentions only two bi.shops: John, who took part in the two Councils of Ephesus (431 and 449), and Peter, present at the Council of Constantinople in 459. Both the native name of Hephjestus and its site are unknown.

GEhZER, GeorgiiCypriidescriptioorbis romani (Leipzig, 1890), 112; Smith, Diet. Greek and Roman Geogr., s. v.

S. Petrides.

Heptarchy (Anglo-S.ocon). — By the term hep- tarchy is understood that complexus of seven king- doms, into which, roughly speaking, Anglo-Saxon Britain was divided for nearly three centuries, until at last the supremacy, about the year 829, fell defi- nitely and finally into the hands of Wessex. The u.se of the term is as old as the sixteenth century, and it is employed in Camden's "Britannia", but its pro- priety has been much questioned. One objection made against it is that, upon the analogy of other similar compounds, heptarchy ought strictly to mean a ruling body composed of seven persons. Another set of critics urge that during the period referred to there were often more than seven independent king- doms in England, and still more frequently fewer. However, the retention of this loose term has been sanctioned by Stubbs and other modern historians on the ground of its obvious convenience; and, as Stubbs remarks, during the greater part of the early Saxon period "there were actually seven kingdoms of Ger- manic origin in the island". The kingdoms in ques- tion were Wessex, Sussex, Kent, Essex. East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumbria; though in this last Deira and Bernicia were constantly regarded as separate kingdoms. Between these nominally independent states war, and as a consequence some measure of subjugation, was continually occurring. Moreover, it has to be admitted that in the early chronicles and charters persons who must have ruled over much smaller tracts of territory than are preQupposed in this heptarchic division are also styled cyning (king) or rex. Edwin, King of Deira, a part of Northumbria, who was converted by St. Paulinus (c. 627), slew five