Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/342

 HERVETUS

298

HESSE

espanola de sordo-mudos 6 arte para ensenarles 6. escribir y hablar el idioma espauol " (Madrid, 1795), and other works of miscellaneous character, of which we mention "Descripcion de los archives de la corona de Aragon y Barcelona", etc. (Cartagena, 1801). He left also a number of works that have not been edited: "Historia de la Escritura": "Paleografia universal"; "Moral de Confucio"; "Historia de las primeras colonias de America"; "El hombre vuelto & la religion", as well as tracts of a controversial or theological nature.

Consult the article in Diccionario Encirlopedico Hispano- A-mericanode Literature, Cifmcias y Artes.li., 258; Augustin and Alois de Backer, Bibliothique des ecrivains de la compagnie de Jisus (Lic'ge, 1S59), 302-6. For a critical appreciation of Herva.s's philological work see Max Muller, Lectures on the Science of Language (New York, 1S62), 1.39-42. and especially Benfey, Geschickte der Sprachwissenachaft (Munich, 1869), 269-71.

Arthur F. J. Re.my.

Hervetus, Gentian, a French theologian and con- troversialist; b. at Olivet, near Orleans, in 1499; d. at Reims, 12 September, 15S4. After studying the humanities at Orleans, he went to Paris where he became tutor of Claude d'Aubespine, afterwards secretary of state. Here he became acquainted with Thomas Lupset, an Englishman, whom he later followed to England, where he was charged with the education of a brother of Cardinal Reginald Pole. He accompanied his scholar to Rome, where he remained some time in the house of Cardinal Pole, occupying himself chiefly with the Latin translation of various Greek Fathers. Returning to France he taught the humanities for a short time at the College of Bordeaux, then went back to Rome and became secretary to Cardinal Cervini, the future Pope Marcellus H. In 1545 he accompanied this cardinal to the Council of Trent, and deUvered an oration l^efore the assembled fathers against clandestine marriages. In 1556, when he was already fifty-seven years old, he was ordained priest. Soon after, he became Vicar-General of Noyon and received a canonry at Reims. As pastor he preached very successfully against the Calvinists and wrote numerous pamphlets against them. In 1562 he returned to the Council of Trent in company of Car- dinal Charles of Lorraine. He is the author of " Le saint, universel et general concile de Trente" (Reims, 1564; Rouen, 158.3; Paris; 1584), and numerous controversial pamphlets. He also translated into Latin and French many works of the Greek Fathers, collections of canons, decrees of councils, etc.

NiCERON. Memoires pour servir a I'histoire des homnies Ulus~ ires, XVII, XX: Germ. ed. Baumgartex, V, 87-102; Hurter. Nomenclator, III, 296; Weiss, in Michaud. Biographic univer- selle, s. v.; Streder, in Kirchenlex., s. v.

Michael Ott.

Herzogenbusch. See Boisle-Duc, Diocese op.

Hesebon (A. V.Heshbon; Gr.'Eo-e^tii-.'EcT/Soi;!; Lat. Eabui^), a titular see of the province of Arabia, suffra- gan of Bostra. It is the ancient Hesebon beyond the Jordan, the capital of Sehon, King of the Amorrhites (Num., xxi, 26). Hesebon was taken by the Israel- ites on their entry to the Promised Land, and was assigned to the tribe of Ruben (Num. xxxii, .37); afterwards it was given to the tribe of Gad (Jos., xxi, 37; I Par., vi, 81). The Canticle of Canticles (vii, 4) speaks of the magnificent fish-pools of He.sebon. The Prophets mention it in their denunciations of Moab (Is., XV, 4, xvi, 8, 9; Jer., xlviii, 2, 34, 45). Alexander Jannieus (106-79 B. c.) took it, and made it a Jewish town, and Herod established a fort there (Josephus, Ant., XV, viii, 5). It occurs in Jose- phus very often under the form Esbonitis or Sebonitis (.\ntiq., XIII, XV, 4., XII, iv, 11; Bell. Jud., II, xviii, 1). After the Jewish War (a. d. 68-70) the country was invaded by the tribe that Pliny calls (Hist. Nat., V, xii, 1) Arabes Esbonitte. Restored under the name of Esbo\is or Esboiita, it is mentioned among the

towns of Arabia Petra>a by Ptolemy (Geogr., V, xvi). Llnder the Byzantine domination, as learned from Eusebius (Onomasticon), it grew to be a town of note in the province of Arabia; Cieorpe of Cyprus refers to it in the seventh century, and it was from Hesebon that the milestones on the Roman road to Jericho were numbered.

Christianity took root there at an early period. Le- quien (Oriens Christ., II, 863-64), and C!ams (Series Episcoporum, 435) mention three bishops between the fourth and seventh centuries. Gennadius, pres- ent at Nic£ea (Gelzer, Patrum Nica;n. Nomina, p. Ixi); Zosius, whose name occurs in the lists of Chalcedon, and Theodore, champion of orthodoxy again.st Mono- thelism, who received (c.G19)from Martini a letter congratulating him on his resistance to the heresy and exhorting him to continue the struggle in conjunction with John of Philadelphia. To the latter the pope had entrusted the government of the patriarchates of An- tioch and Jerusalem. Eubel (Hierarchia Catholica, II, 168) mentions two Latin titulars of Hesebon in the latter part of the fifteenth century. At the beginning of the .\rab domination He-sebon was still the chief town of the Belka, a territory corresponding to the old Kingdom of Sehon. It seems never to have been taken by the Crusaders. The ruins are to be seen at Hesban, to the north of Madaba, on one of the highest summits of the mountains of Moab.

De Luynes, Voyage d' exploration h la mer Mort, h PHra et sur la rive gaitche du Jourdain, I, 147; de Sauley, Voyage en Terre Sainte. I, 239-87: Heidet in Vig., Diet, de la Bible, s. v.; Sejourne in Revue biblique, II, 136; Lequien, Oriens Chrint. (1740), II, 863-64; Vailhe in fchos d'Orienl. II, 172-173; Robinson, Survey of Eastern Palestine, I, 104-109.

S. Salaville.

Heslin, Thomas. See N.\tchez, Diocese of.

Hesse (Hbssen), the name of a German tribe, and also of a district in Germany extending along tlie Lahn, Eder, Fulda, Werra, and the Lower Main and Rhine. The district comprises to-day the Cirand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt and the Prussian prov- ince of Hesse-Nassau (capital, Kassel). The terri- tory of the Hessians — the descendants of the Chatti, who, with the Cherusci, were masters of (iermany be- fore the Roman domination — was divided during the period of the Prankish empire into several Gauc (i. e. districts — Saxon Hessengau, Prankish Hessengau, Buchonia, Oberlahngau, etc.), ruled over by counts.

About 350 Christianity was preached in a portion of this territorj' by St. Lubentius of Trier, who built a church at Dietkirchen near Limburg. In the sixth century St. Goar preached the CJospel along the Rhine, while in the following century St. Kilian (d. 689) preached in the districts along the Main and the Rhon. The chief missionary of the Hessians was St. Boniface. He baptized two counts at Ambneburg about 722, founded a Benedictine abbey there, felled the celebrated sacred oak of Thor at Geismar, and founded at Biiraberg near Fritzlar the first Hessian bishopric in 741, consolidated with Mainz in 774, and also the monastery of St. Peter at Fritzlar. Commis- sioned by the saint, his disciple Sturmi founded the monastery of Fulda and St. Lullus the Abliey of Hers- feld. From these centres of Christian culture many religious communities and cloisters w'ere founded on the conclusion of the Saxon wars, and Christianity subsequently made rapid progress among the people. The greater portion of the land was throughout the Middle Ages under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the .\rchbishops of Mainz; the smaller portion under the exempt Abbots of Fulda and Hersfeld, or under the Bishops of Trier (10 churches in Lahngau) and Paderborn (4).

Under the weak successors of Charles the Great, the old constitution of the Gaue gradually changed, and the counts {Grajcn) from responsible officials became independent lords. As the bi.shops and monasteries also acquired much landed property, Hesse was par-