Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/95

 EDUCATION AND THE OLDER HUMANISTS 83 Butzbacli dedicated his book to the Benedictine nun Aleydis Eaiskop, of Goch, who was renowned for her classic scholarship, and he places her in the same rank as Eoswitha, Hildegard, and Elizabeth von Schonau. Aleydis composed seven homilies on St. Paul, and trans- lated a book on the mass from Latin into German. Contemporaneously with her there lived in the same convent the artist-nun, Gertrude von Buchel, to whom Butzbach dedicated a work, ' Celebrated Painters.' Eichmondis von der Horst, abbess of the Convent of Seebach, kept up a Latin correspondence on spiritual matters with Trithemius, who speaks eulogistically of her as the author of various writings. Of the nun Ursula Cantor, Butzbach declares that for knowledge of theological matters, of the fine arts, and also for eloquence and belles-lettres, her equal has not been seen for centuries. Another highly educated woman of good position was Margaret von Stafiel, wife of the ' Vitzthum ' Adam von Allendorf. Like the Duchess Hedwig von Suabia, she read the classics in the original with her house chaplain, and wrote Latin and German poetry and prose essays ; also a Life of St. Bernard and of St. Hildegard in verse. Catherine von Ostheim, who was learned in history, also belonged to the fifteenth century ; she compiled an abridged ver- sion of the ' Chronicles of Limburg.' Among the learned women of South Germany the Nuremberg abbess, Charity Pirkheimer, stands pre- eminent. Her letters and memoirs give noble evidence of sincere piety, lofty intelligence, and heroic character. The lawyer Christopher Scheurl writes : ' All who are appreciative or intelligent admire the penetra- tion, learning, and nobility of character of the Abbess G 2