length opened, he obliged his boarder to quit the family. Soon
after, the niece, finding herself pregnant, wrote to her lover, who
advised her to leave Fubert. She complied with the advice of
Abelard, who sent her to his sister's house in Britany, where
she was delivered of a son, and in order to pacify the canon,
Abelard offered to marry Heloise privately. This proposal
pleased the uncle more than the niece, who, from a strange
fingularity in her passion, chose rather to be the mistress than
the wife of Abelard (d). At length, however, she consented
to a private marriage ; but even after this would, on some
occasions, affirm with an oath that she was still unmarried.
Fulbert, being more desirous of divulging the marriage, to wipe
off the aspersion brought upon the family, than of keeping
his promise with Abelard not to mention it, often abused his
niece when she obstinately denied her being Abelard's wife.
Her husband thereupon sent her to the monastery of Argen-
teuil, where, at his defire, she put on a religious habit, but
not a veil. Heloise's relations looking upon this as a second
piece of treachery in Abelard, were transported to such a de-
gree of resentment, that they hired ruffians, who forcing ,
into his chamber in the night, deprived him of his man-
hood (C). This infamous treatment made Abelard retire
to a cloyster, there to conceal his confusion; so that it was
shame, and not devotion, which made him put on the han'
(d) Mr. Pope makes Eloise thus express herself in her letter to Abelard ;

How oft, when press'd to marriage, have I said,
Curse on all laws but those which love has made ?
Should at my feet the world's great master fall,
Himself, his throne, his world, I'd scorn them all :
Not Cæsar's empress would I deign to prove;
No, make me mistress to the man I love.
If there be yet another name more free,
More fond than mistress, make me that to thee!
Oh! happy state! when souls each other draw,

When love is liberty, and nature law. (e) This cruel misfortune is alluded to in the following lines of tlie fame epistle:

Alas, how chang'd! what sudden horrors rise !
A naked lover bound and bleeding lies !
Where, where was Eloise ? her voice, her hand,
Her poynard had opposid the dire command.
· Parbarian, stay! that bloody stroke restrain;
The crime was common, common be the pain.
I can no more, by shame, by rage suppress’d,
Let tears and burning blushes speak the reft----
Srill on that breast enamour'd let me lie,

Still drink delicious poison from thy eye,
.. Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be press’d,
*** Give all thou cang---and let me dream the rest,

bit in the abbey of St. Dennis. The disorders of this house, where the abbot exceeded the rest of the monks in impurity as well as in dignity, foon drove Abelard from thence ; for having taken upon him to censure their behaviour, he thereby became so obnoxious, that they desired to get rid of him. He retired next to the territories of the count of Champagne, where he gave public lectures, and drew together such a : number of hearers, that the other professors, whose pupils left them to go to Abelard, being stung with envy, began to .. raise persecutions against him. He had two formidable enemies in Laon, who perceiving the prejudices done to their schools in Rheims by his great reputation, fought an opportunity to ruin him, and they were at last furnished with a handle by his treatise on the Trinity, where they pretended to have discovered a most dreadful heresy (f), and for this purpose they prevailed on their archbishop to call a council at Soissons, in the year 1121. This council, without allowing Abelard to make his defence, sentenced him to throw the book into the fames, and to shut himself up in the cloyster of St. Medard. Soon after he was ordered to return to the convent of St. Dennis. Here happening to say, that he did not believe their St. Dennis was the Areopagite mentioned in scripture, this expreffion was immediately laid hold of, and carried to the abbot, who was overjoyed at it, because it gave him an opportunity of blending a state crime with an accusation of false. doctrine. The abbot immediately called à chapter, and declared that he was going to deliver up to the secular power a man who had audaciously trampled on the glory and diadem of the kingdom. Abelard, knowing these menaces were not to be despised, fied by night into Champagne ; after the abbot's death, he obtained leave to lead a monastic life wherever he pleased. He now retired to a solitude in the diocese of Troies; there he built an oratory, which he named the (Paroclet), where great numbers of pupils, resorted to him. This revived that envy by which he had been so often persecuted; and he now fell into the most dangerous hands, having drawn upon himself the fury and malice of St. Norbert and St. Bernard, who set up for being restorers of the ancient discipline ; enthusiasts whom the po

(f) It was alledged that Abelard yet he is not accused of Sabellianism, admitted three Gods, though it is but of Tritheism. This is his comcertain he was orthodox with regard 'parison, As the three popofitions of to this mystery. The comparison he a fyllogism are but one and the same drew from logic, tends rather to make truth; so the Father, Son, and Holy the divine persons one, than to mul. Ghost are one and the same eftiply the essence of God to three; and sence."

pulace

C4

allowed to me as hus tilt corks of the

pulace followed as new apoftles. They raised fuch ca. ļumnies against him, as hurt him greatly with his principal friends, and those who ftill continued to efteen him durft not thew him any outward marks of their friendthip. His life became so uneasy to him, that he was upon the point of dying to some country where christianity was not profeffed ;

but fate determined otherways, and he was brought anew Abelard. amongst Christians, and monks worse than Turks. The epift, p. 32. monks of the abbey of Ruis, in the diocese of Vannes, hav

ing chosen him their fuperior, he now hoped he was got into
a quiet asylum ; but it foon appeared that he had only ex-
changed one evil for another. He endeavoured to reform the
corrupt manners of the monks, and took the revenues of the
abbey out of their hands, so that they were now obliged to
maintain their concubines and their children at their own ex-
pence. This strict though laudable behaviour raised a great
fpirit against him, and brought him into many dangers (5).
About this time the abbot of St. Dennis having expelled the
nuns from Argenteuil, ' Abelard, in pity to Heloise their
prioress, made her a present of the Paraclet, where the took
up her residence with some of her lifter nuns. After this he
made several journeys from Britany to Champagne, to settle
Heloise's affairs, and to relax himself from the cares and un.
easiness he met with in his abbey; for notwithstanding the
horrid usage he had received by means of Heloise's relations,
they still spread malicious calumnies against him (b). In
1940, he was accused of herefy before the archbishop of Sens.
He desired he might be permitted to make his defence, and
a council was accordingly summoned for that purpose, at
which king Lewis the seventh was present, and St. Bernard
appeared as his accuser. They began by reading in the af-
sembly several propositions extracted from the works of Abe.
lard, which so alarmed hịm, that he appealed to the pope.
The council nevertheless condemned the propofitions, but de
termined nothing in regard to his person, and they sent an

(g) The monks attempted several more afraid of a dagger than of poi-
times to poison him; but not being fop; so that he used to compare
able to effect, that by his ordinary himself to the man whom the Sicilian
food (for he was aware of their de- tyrant placed at table with him undert
signs) they tried to poison him with a drawn sword, suspended only by a .
the sacramental bread' and wine. thread. Abelard. epift, p. 39.
One day he abstained from a dish (1) Though his enemleş knew he
which had been prepared for him, was incapablesof satisfying a woman,
and his companion who eat it, died they yet affirmed that some remains
instantly. Abelard excommunicated of sensual delight still engaged him to
the most rebellious of his monks; his mistress
but to no purpose, for at last he was

account

account of their proceedings to pope Innocent II. praying him to confirm their determination. The pope complied with their request, and ordered Abelard to be confined, his book to be burnt, and that he should never teach again. His holiness, however, fome time after, softened the rigour of this fentence, at the interceffion of Peter the Venerable, who had not only received this heretic into his abbey of Clugni, but had even brought about a reconciliation betwixt him and St. Bernard, who had been the chief promoter of his persecution in the council of Sens. In this fanctuary at Clugni Abelard was treated with the utmost humanity and tendernefs ; here he gave lectures to the monks, and his whole behaviour fhewed the greatest humility and industry. At length, having become infirm, and being afflicted with the scurvy, and many other disorders, he was removed to the priory of St. Marcellus, a very agreeable place on the Saon, near Chalons, where he died on the 21st of April, 1142, in the fixty-third year of his age. His corpse was sent to Heloise, who depofited it in the Paroclet.

et the Jansenis and first fupine principleshe

ABELLY (Lewis) bifhop and count of Rhodes. He was born at Paris, and for some time rector of St. Joffe in that city. He wrote several pieces, and amongst the rest a treatise on divinity, intitled Medulla Theologica; whence Boileau gave him the epithet of Moëlleux. The principles and tenets laid down in this performance differ greatly from those of the Jansenists (a). He wrote also The life of Vincent de Paul, founder and first superior-general of the congregation of the Mission; a book on The principles of Chriftian morality; one on Heresies; and another on The tradition of the church with regard to the worship of the virgin Mary. This last piece, a second edition of which was printed at Paris in 1675, gave great pleasure to the Protestants, because it furnished them with a weapon against those who endeavoured to persuade them, that if any thing was overstrained in this kind of worship, it arose wholly from the extravagant conceits of the monks, which abuse the bishops were daily reforming. It served also as an excellent handle against a piece published by the bishop of Condom: and indeed Mr. Abelly became the protector, as it were, of the most extravagant notions relating to the devotion of the virgin Mary, so that he quite defeated the efforts of this bishop, and of those

(2) Abbé le Camus, a strong Jan (when Abelly wrote it.' Menagi fepit, speaking of this piece, says, ana, p. 65. in Dutch edition. that the moon was in the wane

per?

persons who published or approved of the treatise entitled,
The blessed virgin's falutary advice to her indiscreet devotees..
Mr. Abelly was doctor of divinity in the faculty of Paris,
and made bishop of Rhodes, when Mr. de Perefixe, the
king's preceptor, was promoted to the archiepiscopal see of
Paris. When he was so far advanced in years as not to be
able to perform his pastoral function, he resigned his bifhopric,
and retired to the house of St. Lazare, where he died on
the 4th of October, 1691, in the eighty-eighth year of his
age.

ABIMELECH, king of Gerar, a country of the Philistines, was cotemporary with Abraham. The patriarch having retired into this prince's country with his family, his wife Sarah, though in her nintieth year, was not safe ; for Abimelech became so smitten with her beauty, that he carried her off with a resolution to marry her. Abraham might have prevented this accident, had he declared himself the husband of Sarah; but being afraid of his life, he thought proper to give

out that she was his sister, and prevailed upon her to call him Genefis xx.

her brother. It is believed that the king of the Philistines

was amicted with a distemper which rendered him impotent; och but however this be, we are told he was not permitted to Antig. lib.i. gratify his passion for Sarah, having been warned in a dream cap. 11. that she was the wife of a prophet, and that he should die

if he did not restore her to Abraham. The king accordingly gave her back to him, reproaching them at the same time for their false affirmations. Abraham, amongst other excuses, faid, she was really his fister, being born of the same father, though of a different mother, for which we have the authority of scripture. Josephus (according to M. Bayle) falsely sup

poses that Abraham declared Sarah was his brother's daughJoseph.

ter, and that upon the restitution of Sarah, Abimelech and Abraham made a covenant. It is true, says he, that the covenant of Beer-sheba was made between them; but this was some years after. Josephus, contrary to the authority of

Moses, makes this covenant prior to Isaac's birth; whereas Cen. xxi. 31, 32.

the scriptures fix it after the rejection of Ishmael, which was not till after Isaac was weaned (a). Josephus also tells us,

that

Antig. ib.