See Demosthenes,De falsa legatione364, 447,De corona250,Philippicaiii. 129; Plutarch,Demosthenes17,Apophthegmata, 187D; Dionysius Halic.ad Ammaeum, i.; Grote,History of Greece, ch. 90.
See Demosthenes,De falsa legatione364, 447,De corona250,Philippicaiii. 129; Plutarch,Demosthenes17,Apophthegmata, 187D; Dionysius Halic.ad Ammaeum, i.; Grote,History of Greece, ch. 90.
HEGESIPPUS(fl.A.D.150-180), early Christian writer, was of Palestinian origin, and lived under the Emperors Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Like Aristo of Pella he belonged to that group of Judaistic Christians which, while keeping the law themselves, did not attempt to impose on others the requirements of circumcision and Sabbath observance. He was the author of a treatise (ὑπομνήματα) in five books dealing with such subjects as Christian literature, the unity of church doctrine, paganism, heresy and Jewish Christianity, fragments of which are found in Eusebius, who obtained much of his information concerning early Palestinian church history and chronology from this source. Hegesippus was also a great traveller, and like many other leaders of his time came to Rome (having visited Corinth on the way) about the middle of the 2nd century. His journeyings impressed him with the idea that the continuity of the church in the cities he visited was a guarantee of its fidelity to apostolic orthodoxy: “in each succession and in every city, the doctrine is in accordance with that which the Law and the Prophets and the Lord [i.e.the Old Testament and the evangelical tradition] proclaim.” To illustrate this opinion he drew up a list of the Roman bishops. Hegesippus is thus a significant figure both for the type of Christianity taught in the circle to which he belonged, and as accentuating the point of view which the church began to assume in the presence of a developing gnosticism.
HEGESIPPUS,the supposed author of a free Latin adaptation of theJewish Warof Josephus under the titleDe bello Judaico et excidio urbis Hierosolymitanae. The seven books of Josephus are compressed into five, but much has been added from the Antiquities and from the works of Roman historians, while several entirely new speeches are introduced to suit the occasion. Internal evidence shows that the work could not have been written before the 4th centuryA.D.The author, who is undoubtedly a Christian, describes it in his preface as a kind of revised edition of Josephus. Some authorities attribute it to Ambrose, bishop of Milan (340-397), but there is nothing to settle the authorship definitely. The name Hegesippus itself appears to be a corruption of Josephus, through the stagesἸώσηπος, Iosippus, Egesippus, Hegesippus, unless it was purposely adopted as reminiscent of Hegesippus, the father of ecclesiastical history (2nd century).
Best edition by C. F. Weber and J. Caesar (1864); authorities in E. Schürer,History of the Jewish People(Eng. trans.), i. 99 seq.; F. Vogel,De Hegesippo, qui dicitur, Josephi interprete(Erlangen, 1881).
Best edition by C. F. Weber and J. Caesar (1864); authorities in E. Schürer,History of the Jewish People(Eng. trans.), i. 99 seq.; F. Vogel,De Hegesippo, qui dicitur, Josephi interprete(Erlangen, 1881).
HEGIUS [VON HEEK], ALEXANDER(c.1433-1498), German humanist, so called from his birthplace Heek in Westphalia. In his youth he was a pupil of Thomas à Kempis, at that time canon of the convent of St Agnes at Zwolle. In 1474 he settled down at Deventer in Holland, where he either founded or succeeded to the headship of a school, which became famous for the number of its distinguished alumni. First and foremost of these was Erasmus; others were Hermann von dem Busche, the missionary of humanism, Conrad Goclenius (Gockelen), Conrad Mutianus (Muth von Mudt) and pope Adrian VI. Hegius died at Deventer on the 7th of December 1498. His writings, consisting of short poems, philosophical essays, grammatical notes and letters, were published after his death by his pupil Jacob Faber. They display considerable knowledge of Latin, but less of Greek, on the value of which he strongly insisted. Hegius’s chief claim to be remembered rests not upon his published works, but upon his services in the cause of humanism. He succeeded in abolishing the old-fashioned medieval textbooks and methods of instruction, and led his pupils to the study of the classical authors themselves. His generosity in assisting poor students exhausted a considerable fortune, and at his death he left nothing but his books and clothes.
See D. Reichling, “Beiträge zur Charakteristik des Alex. Hegius,” in theMonatsschrift für Westdeutschland(1877); H. Hamelmann,Opera genealogico-historica(1711); H. A. Erhard,Geschichte des Wiederaufblühens wissenschaftlicher Bildung(1826); C. Krafft and W. Crecelius, “Alexander Hegius und seine Schüler,” from the works of Johannes Butzbach, one of Hegius’s pupils, inZeitschrift des bergischen Geschichtsvereins, vii. (Bonn, 1871).
See D. Reichling, “Beiträge zur Charakteristik des Alex. Hegius,” in theMonatsschrift für Westdeutschland(1877); H. Hamelmann,Opera genealogico-historica(1711); H. A. Erhard,Geschichte des Wiederaufblühens wissenschaftlicher Bildung(1826); C. Krafft and W. Crecelius, “Alexander Hegius und seine Schüler,” from the works of Johannes Butzbach, one of Hegius’s pupils, inZeitschrift des bergischen Geschichtsvereins, vii. (Bonn, 1871).
HEIBERG, JOHAN LUDVIG(1791-1860), Danish poet and critic, son of the political writer Peter Andreas Heiberg (1758-1841), and of the famous novelist, afterwards the Baroness Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd, was born at Copenhagen on the 14th of December 1791. In 1800 his father was exiled and settled in Paris, where he was employed in the French foreign office, retiring in 1817 with a pension. His political and satirical writings continued to exercise great influence over his fellow-countrymen. Johan Ludvig Heiberg was taken by K. L. Rahbek and his wife into their house at Bakkehuset. He was educated at the university of Copenhagen, and his first publication, entitledThe Theatre for Marionettes(1814), included two romantic dramas. This was followed byChristmas Jokes and New Year’s Tricks(1816),The Initiation of Psyche(1817), andThe Prophecy of Tycho Brahé, a satire on the eccentricities of the Romantic writers, especially on the sentimentality of Ingemann. These works attracted attention at a time when Baggesen, Öhlenschläger and Ingemann possessed the popular ear, and were understood at once to be the opening of a great career. In 1817 Heiberg took his degree, and in 1819 went abroad with a grant from government. He proceeded to Paris, and spent the next three years there with his father. In 1822 he published his drama ofNina, and was made professor of the Danish language at the university of Kiel, where he delivered a course of lectures, comparing the Scandinavian mythology as found in theEddawith the poems of Öhlenschläger. These lectures were published in German in 1827.
In 1825 Heiberg came back to Copenhagen for the purpose of introducing the vaudeville on the Danish stage. He composed a great number of these vaudevilles, of which the best known areKing Solomon and George the Hatmaker(1825);April Fools(1826);A Story in Rosenborg Garden(1827);Kjöge Huskors(1831);The Danes in Paris(1833);No(1836); andYes(1839). He took his models from the French theatre, but showed extraordinary skill in blending the words and the music; but the subjects and the humour were essentially Danish and even topical. Meanwhile he was producing dramatic work of a more serious kind; in 1828 he brought out the national drama ofElverhöi; in 1830The Inseparables; in 1835 the fairy comedy ofThe Elves, a dramatic version of Tieck’sElfin; and in 1838Fata Morgana. In 1841 Heiberg published a volume ofNew Poemscontaining “A Soul after Death,” a comedy which is perhaps his masterpiece, “The Newly Wedded Pair,” and other pieces. He edited from 1827 to 1830 the famous weekly, theFlyvende Post(The Flying Post), and subsequently theInterimsblade(1834-1837) and theIntelligensblade(1842-1843). In his journalism he carried on his warfare against the excessive pretensions of the Romanticists, and produced much valuable and penetrating criticism of art and literature. In 1831 he married the actress Johanne Louise Paetges (1812-1890), herself the author of some popular vaudevilles. Heiberg’s scathing satires, however, made him very unpopular; and this antagonism reached its height when, in 1845, he published his malicious little drama ofThe Nut Crackers. Nevertheless he became in 1847 director of the national theatre. He filled the post for seven years, working with great zeal and conscientiousness, but was forced by intrigues from without to resign it in 1854. Heiberg died at Bonderup, near Ringsted, on the 25th of August 1860. His influence upon taste and critical opinion was greater than that of any writer of his time, and can only be compared with that of Holberg in the 18th century. Most of the poets of the Romantic movement in Denmark were very grave and serious; Heiberg added the element of humour, elegance and irony. He had the genius of good taste, and his witty and delicate productions stand almost unique in the literature of his country.
The poetical works of Heiberg were collected, in 11 vols., in 1861-1862, and his prose writings (11 vols.) in the same year. The last volume of his prose works contains some fragments of autobiography. See also G. Brandes,Essays(1889). For the elder Heiberg see monographs by Thaarup (1883) and by Schwanenflügel (1891).
The poetical works of Heiberg were collected, in 11 vols., in 1861-1862, and his prose writings (11 vols.) in the same year. The last volume of his prose works contains some fragments of autobiography. See also G. Brandes,Essays(1889). For the elder Heiberg see monographs by Thaarup (1883) and by Schwanenflügel (1891).
HEIDE,a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein, on a small plateau which stands between the marshes and moors bordering the North Sea, 35 m. N.N.W. of Glückstadt, at the junction of the railways Elmshorn-Hvidding and Neumünster-Tönning. Pop. (1905), 8758. It has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a high-grade school, and tobacco and cigar manufactories and breweries. Heide in 1447 became the capital of the Ditmarsh peasant republic, but on the 13th of June 1559 it was the scene of the complete defeat of the peasant forces by the Danes.
HEIDEGGER, JOHANN HEINRICH(1633-1698), Swiss theologian, was born at Bärentschweil, in the canton of Zürich, Switzerland, on the 1st of July 1633. He studied at Marburg and at Heidelberg, where he became the friend of J. L. Fabricius (1632-1696), and was appointedprofessor extraordinariusof Hebrew and later of philosophy. In 1659 he was called to Steinfurt to fill the chair of dogmatics and ecclesiastical history, and in the same year he became doctor of theology of Heidelberg. In 1660 he revisited Switzerland; and, after marrying, he travelled in the following year to Holland, where he made the acquaintance of Johannes Cocceius. He returned in 1665 to Zürich, where he was elected professor of moral philosophy. Two years later he succeeded J. H. Hottinger (1620-1667) in the chair of theology, which he occupied till his death on the 18th of January 1698, having declined an invitation in 1669 to succeed J. Cocceius at Leiden, as well as a call to Groningen. Heidegger was the principal author of theFormula Consensus Helveticain 1675, which was designed to unite the Swiss Reformed churches, but had an opposite effect. W. Gass describes him as the most notable of the Swiss theologians of the time.
His writings are largely controversial, though without being bitter, and are in great part levelled against the Roman Catholic Church. The chief areDe historia sacra patriarcharum exercitationes selectae(1667-1671);Dissertatio de Peregrinationibus religiosis(1670);De ratione studiorum, opuscula aurea, &c. (1670);Historia papatus(1684; under the name Nicander von Hohenegg);Manuductio in viam concordiae Protestantium ecclesiasticae(1686);Tumulus concilii Tridentini(1690);Exercitationes biblicae(1700), with a life of the author prefixed;Corpus theologiae Christianae(1700, edited by J. H. Schweizer);Ethicae Christianae elementa(1711); and lives of J. H. Hottinger (1667) and J. L. Fabricius (1698). His autobiography appeared in 1698, under the titleHistoria vitae J. H. Heideggeri.
See the articles in Herzog-Hauck’sRealencyklopädieand theAllgemeine deutsche Biographie; and cf. W. Gass,Geschichte der protestantischen Dogmatik, ii. 353 ff.
See the articles in Herzog-Hauck’sRealencyklopädieand theAllgemeine deutsche Biographie; and cf. W. Gass,Geschichte der protestantischen Dogmatik, ii. 353 ff.
HEIDELBERG,a town of Germany, on the south bank of the Neckar, 12 m. above its confluence with the Rhine, 13 m. S.E. from Mannheim and 54 m. from Frankfort-on-Main by rail. The situation of the town, lying between lofty hills covered with vineyards and forests, at the spot where the rapid Neckar leaves the gorge and enters the plain of the Rhine, is one of great natural beauty. The town itself consists practically of one long, narrow street—the Hauptstrasse—running parallel to the river, from the railway station on the west to the Karlstor on the east (where there is also a local station) for a distance of 2 m. To the south of this is the Anlage, a pleasant promenade flanked by handsome villas and gardens, leading directly to the centre of the place. A number of smaller streets intersect the Hauptstrasse at right angles and run down to the river, which is crossed by two fine bridges. Of these, the old bridge on the east, built in 1788, has a fine gateway and is adorned with statues of Minerva and the elector Charles Theodore of the Palatinate; the other, the lower bridge, on the west, built in 1877, connects Heidelberg with the important suburbs of Neuenheim and Handschuchsheim. Of recent years the town has grown largely towards the west on both sides of the river; but the additions have been almost entirely of the better class of residences. Heidelberg is an important railway centre, and is connected by trunk lines with Frankfort, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Spires and Würzburg. Electric trams provide for local traffic, and there are also several light railways joining it with the neighbouring villages. Of the churches the chief are the Protestant Peterskirche dating from the 15th century and restored in 1873, to the door of which Jerome of Prague in 1460 nailed his theses; the Heilige Geist Kirche (Church of the Holy Ghost), an imposing Gothic edifice of the 15th century; the Jesuitenkirche (Roman Catholic), with a sumptuously decorated interior, and the new Evangelical Christuskirche. The town hall and the university buildings, dating from 1712 and restored in 1886, are commonplace erections; but to the south of the Ludwigsplatz, upon which most of the academical buildings lie, stands the new university library, a handsome structure of pink sandstone in German Renaissance style. In addition to the Ludwigsplatz with its equestrian statue of the emperor William I. there are other squares in the town, among them being the Bismarckplatz with a statue of Bismarck, and the Jubiläumsplatz.
The chief attraction of Heidelberg is the castle, which overhangs the east part of the town. It stands on the Jettenbühl, a spur of the Königsstuhl (1800 ft.), at a height of 330 ft. above the Neckar. Though now a ruin, yet its extent, its magnificence, its beautiful situation and its interesting history render it by far the most noteworthy, as it certainly is the grandest and largest, of the old castles of Germany. The building was begun early in the 13th century. The elector palatine and German king Rupert III. (d. 1410) greatly improved it, and built the wing, Ruprechtsbau or Rupert’s building, that bears his name. Succeeding electors further extended and embellished it (seeArchitecture, Plate VII., figs. 78-80); notably Otto Henry “the Magnanimous” (d. 1559), who built the beautiful early Renaissance wing known as the Otto-Heinrichsbau (1556-1559); Frederick IV., for whom the fine late Renaissance wing called the Friedrichsbau was built (1601-1607); and Frederick V., the unfortunate “winter king” of Bohemia, who on the west side added the Elisabethenbau or Englischebau (1618), named after his wife, the daughter of James I. of Great Britain and ancestress of the present English reigning family. In 1648, at the peace of Westphalia, Heidelberg was given back to Frederick V.’s son, Charles Louis, who restored the castle to its former splendour. In 1688, during Louis XIV.’s invasion of the Palatinate, the castle was taken, after a long siege, by the French, who blew part of it up when they found they could not hope to hold it (March 2, 1689). In 1693 it was again captured by them and still further wrecked. Finally, in 1764, it was struck by lightning and reduced to its present ruinous condition.
Apart from the outworks, the castle forms an irregular square with round towers at the angles, the principal buildings being grouped round a central courtyard, the entrance to which is from the south through a series of gateways. In this courtyard, besides the buildings already mentioned, are the oldest parts of the castle, the so-called Alte Bau (old building) and the Bandhaus. The Friedrichsbau, which is decorated with statues of the rulers of the Palatinate, was elaborately restored and rendered habitable between 1897 and 1903. Other noteworthy objects in the castle are the fountain in the courtyard, decorated with four granite columns from Charlemagne’s palace at Ingelheim; the Elisabethentor, a beautiful gateway named after the English princess; the beautiful octagonal bell-tower at the N.E. angle; the ruins of the Krautturm, now known as the Gesprengte Turm, or blown-up tower, and the castle chapel and the museum of antiquities in the Friedrichsbau. In a cellar entered from the courtyard is the famous Great Tun of Heidelberg. This vast vat was built in 1751, but has only been used on one or two occasions. Its capacity is 49,000 gallons, and it is 20 ft. high and 31 ft. long. Behind the Friedrichsbau is the Altan (1610), or castle balcony, from which is obtained a view of great beauty, extending from the town beneath to the heights across the Neckar and over the broad luxuriant plain of the Rhine to Mannheim and the dim contours of the Hardt Mountains behind. On the terrace of the beautiful grounds is a statue of Victor von Scheffel, the poet of Heidelberg.
The university of Heidelberg was founded by the elector Rupert I., in 1385, the bull of foundation being issued by Pope Urban VI. in that year. It was constructed after the type of Paris, had four faculties, and possessed numerous privileges. Marselius von Inghen was its first rector. The electors Frederick I., the Victorious, Philip the Upright and Louis V. respectively cherished it. Otto Henry gave it a new organization, further endowed it and founded the library. At the Reformation it became a stronghold of Protestant learning, the Heidelberg catechism being drawn up by its theologians. Then the tide turned. Damaged by the Thirty Years’ War, it led a struggling existence for a century and a half. A large portion of its remaining endowments was cut off by the peace of Lunéville (1801). In 1803, however, Charles Frederick, grand-duke of Baden, raised it anew and reconstituted it under the name of “Ruperto-Carola.” The number of professors and teachers is at present about 150 and of students 1700. The library was first kept in the choir of the Heilige Geist Kirche, and then consisted of 3500 MSS. In 1623 it was sent to Rome by Maximilian I., duke of Bavaria, and stored as the Bibliotheca Palatina in the Vatican. It was afterwards taken to Paris, and in 1815 was restored to Heidelberg. It has more than 500,000 volumes, besides 4000 MSS. Among the other university institutions are the academic hospital, the maternity hospital, the physiological institution, the chemical laboratory, the zoological museum, the botanical garden and the observatory on the Königsstuhl.
The other educational foundations are a gymnasium, a modern and a technical school. There is a small theatre, an art and several other scientific societies. The manufactures of Heidelberg include cigars, leather, cement, surgical instruments and beer, but the inhabitants chiefly support themselves by supplying the wants of a large and increasing body of foreign permanent residents, of the considerable number of tourists who during the summer pass through the town, and of the university students. A funicular railway runs from the Korn-Markt up to the level of the castle and thence to the Molkenkur (700 ft. above the town). The town is well lighted and is supplied with excellent water from the Wolfsbrunnen. Pop. (1885), 29,304; (1905), 49,527.
At an early period Heidelberg was a fief of the bishop of Worms, who entrusted it about 1225 to the count palatine of the Rhine, Louis I. It soon became a town and the chief residence of the counts palatine. Heidelberg was one of the great centres of the reformed teaching and was the headquarters of the Calvinists. On this account it suffered much during the Thirty Years’ War, being captured and plundered by Count Tilly in 1622, by the Swedes in 1633 and again by the imperialists in 1635. By the peace of Westphalia it was restored to the elector Charles Louis. In 1688 and again in 1693 Heidelberg was sacked by the French. On the latter occasion the work of destruction was carried out so thoroughly that only one house escaped; this being a quaintly decorated erection in the Marktplatz, which is now the Hôtel zum Ritter. In 1720 the elector Charles II. removed his court to Mannheim, and in 1803 the town became part of the grand-duchy of Baden. On the 5th of March 1848 the Heidelberg assembly was held here, and at this meeting the steps were taken which led to the revolution in Germany in that year.
See Oncken,Stadt, Schloss und Hochschule Heidelberg; Bilder aus ihrer Vergangenheit(Heidelberg, 1885); Öchelhäuser,Das Heidelberger Schloss, bau- und kunstgeschichtlicher Führer(Heidelberg, 1902); Pfaff,Heidelberg und Umgebung(Heidelberg, 1902);Lorentzen,Heidelberg und Umgebung(Stuttgart, 1902); Durm,Das Heidelberger Schloss, eine Studie(Berlin, 1884); Koch and Seitz,Das Heidelberger Schloss(Darmstadt, 1887-1891); J. F. Hautz,Geschickte der Universität Heidelberg(1863-1864); A. Thorbecke,Geschichte der Universität Heidelberg(Stuttgart, 1886); theUrkundenbuch der Universität Heidelberg, edited by Winkelmann (Heidelberg, 1886); Bähr,Die Entführung der Heidelberger Bibliothek nach Rom(Leipzig, 1845); and G. Weber,Heidelberger Erinnerungen(Stuttgart, 1886).
See Oncken,Stadt, Schloss und Hochschule Heidelberg; Bilder aus ihrer Vergangenheit(Heidelberg, 1885); Öchelhäuser,Das Heidelberger Schloss, bau- und kunstgeschichtlicher Führer(Heidelberg, 1902); Pfaff,Heidelberg und Umgebung(Heidelberg, 1902);Lorentzen,Heidelberg und Umgebung(Stuttgart, 1902); Durm,Das Heidelberger Schloss, eine Studie(Berlin, 1884); Koch and Seitz,Das Heidelberger Schloss(Darmstadt, 1887-1891); J. F. Hautz,Geschickte der Universität Heidelberg(1863-1864); A. Thorbecke,Geschichte der Universität Heidelberg(Stuttgart, 1886); theUrkundenbuch der Universität Heidelberg, edited by Winkelmann (Heidelberg, 1886); Bähr,Die Entführung der Heidelberger Bibliothek nach Rom(Leipzig, 1845); and G. Weber,Heidelberger Erinnerungen(Stuttgart, 1886).
HEIDELBERG,a town and district of the Transvaal. The district is bounded S. by the Vaal river and includes the south-eastern part of the Witwatersrand gold-fields. The town of Heidelberg is 42 m. S.E. of Johannesburg and 441 m. N.W. of Durban by rail. Pop. (1904), 3220, of whom 1837 were white. It was founded in 1865, is built on the slopes of the Rand at an elevation of 5029 ft., and is reputed the best sanatorium in the colony. It is the centre of the eastern Rand goldmines.
HEIDELBERG CATECHISM, THE,the most attractive of all the catechisms of the Reformation, was drawn up at the bidding of Frederick III., elector of the Palatinate, and published on Tuesday the 19th of January 1563. The new religion in the Palatinate had been largely under the guidance of Philip Melanchthon, who had revived the old university of Heidelberg and staffed it with sympathetic teachers. One of these, Tillemann, Heshusius, who became general superintendent in 1558, held extreme Lutheran views on the Real Presence, and in his desire to force the community into his own position excommunicated his colleague Klebitz, who held Zwinglian views. When the breach was widening Frederick, “der fromme Kurfürst,” came to the succession, dismissed the two chief combatants and referred the trouble to Melanchthon, whose guarded verdict was distinctly Swiss rather than Lutheran. In a decree of August 1560 the elector declared for Calvin and Zwingli, and soon after he resolved to issue a new and unambiguous catechism of the evangelical faith. He entrusted the task to two young men who have won deserved remembrance by their learning and their character alike. Zacharias Ursinus was born at Breslau in July 1534 and attained high honour in the university of Wittenberg. In 1558 he was made rector of the gymnasium in his native town, but the incessant strife with the extreme Lutherans drove him to Zürich, whence Frederick, on the advice of Peter Martyr, summoned him to be professor of theology at Heidelberg and superintendent of theSapientiae Collegium. He was a man of modest and gentle spirit, not endowed with great preaching gifts, but unwearied in study and consummately able to impart his learning to others. Deposed from his chair by the elector Louis in 1576, he lived with John Casimir at Neustadt and found a congenial sphere in the new seminary there, dying in his 49th year, in March 1583.
Caspar Olevianus was born at Treves in 1536. He gave up law for theology, studied under Calvin in Geneva, Peter Martyr in Zürich, and Beza in Lausanne. Urged by William Farel he preached the new faith in his native city, and when banished therefrom found a home with Frederick of Heidelberg, where he gained high renown as preacher and administrator. His ardour and enthusiasm made him the happy complement of Ursinus. When the reaction came under Louis he was befriended by Ludwig von Sain, prince of Wittgenstein, and John, count of Nassau, in whose city of Herborn he did notable work at the high school until his death on the 15th of March 1587. The elector could have chosen no better men, young as they were, for the task in hand. As a first step each drew up a catechism of his own composition, that of Ursinus being naturally of a more grave and academic turn than the freer production of Olevianus, while each made full use of the earlier catechisms already in use. But when the union was effected it was found that the spirits of the two authors were most happily and harmoniously wedded, the exactness and erudition of the one being blended with the fervency and grace of the other. Thus the Heidelberg Catechism, which was completed within a year of its inception, has an individuality that marks it out from all its predecessors and successors. The Heidelberg synod unanimously approved of it, it was published in January 1563, and in the same year officially turned into Latin by Jos. Lagus and Lambert Pithopoeus.
The ultra-Lutherans attacked the catechism with great bitterness, the assault being led by Heshusius and Flacius Illyricus. Maximilian II. remonstrated against it as an infringement of the peace of Augsburg. A conference was held at Maulbronn in April 1564, and a personal attack was made on the elector at the diet of Augsburg in 1566, but the defence was well sustained, and the Heidelberg book rapidly passed beyond the bounds of the Palatinate (where indeed it suffered eclipse from 1576 to 1583, during the electorate of Louis), and gained an abundant success not only in Germany (Hesse, Anhalt, Brandenburg and Bremen) but also in the Netherlands (1588), and in the Reformed churches of Hungary, Transylvania and Poland. It was officially recognized by the synod of Dort in 1619, passed into France, Britain and America, and probably shares with theDe imitatione ChristiandThe Pilgrim’s Progressthe honour of coming next to the Bible in the number of tongues into which it has been translated.
This wide acceptance and high esteem are due largely to an avoidance of polemical and controversial subjects, and even more to an absence of the controversial spirit. There is no mistake about its Protestantism, even when we omit the unhappy addition made to answer 80 by Frederick himself (in indignant reply to the ban pronounced by the Council of Trent), in which the Mass is described as “nothing else than a denial of the one sacrifice and passion of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry”—an addition which is the one blot on theἐπιείκειαof the catechism. The work is the product of the best qualities of head and heart, and its prose is frequently marked by all the beauty of a lyric. It follows the plan of the epistle to the Romans (excepting chapters ix.-xi.) and falls into three parts: Sin, Redemption and the New Life. This arrangement alone would mark it out from the normal reformation catechism, which runs along the stereotyped lines of Decalogue, Creed, Lord’s Prayer, Church and Sacraments. These themes are included, but are shown as organically related. The Commandments,e.g.“belong to the first part so far as they are a mirror of our sin and misery, but also to the third part, as being the rule of our new obedience and Christian life.” The Creed—a panorama of the sublime facts of redemption—and the sacraments find their place in the second part; the Lord’s Prayer (with the Decalogue) in the third.
SeeThe Heidelberg Catechism, theGerman Text, with a Revised Translation and Introduction, edited by A. Smellie (London, 1900).
SeeThe Heidelberg Catechism, theGerman Text, with a Revised Translation and Introduction, edited by A. Smellie (London, 1900).
HEIDELOFF, KARL ALEXANDER VON(1788-1865), German architect, the son of Victor Peter Heideloff, a painter, was born at Stuttgart. He studied at the art academy of his native town, and after following the profession of an architect for some time at Coburg was in 1818 appointed city architect at Nuremberg. In 1822 he became professor at the polytechnic school, holding his post until 1854, and some years later he was chosen conservator of the monuments of art. Heideloff devoted his chief attention to the Gothic style of architecture, and the buildings restored and erected by him at Nuremberg and in its neighbourhood attest both his original skill and his purity of taste. He also achieved some success as a painter in watercolour. He died at Hassfurt on the 28th of September 1865. Among his architectural works should be mentioned the castle of Reinhardsbrunn, the Hall of the Knights in the fortress at Coburg, the castle of Landsberg, the mortuary chapel in Meiningen, the little castle of Rosenburg near Bonn, the chapel of the castle of Rheinstein near Bingen, and the Catholic church in Leipzig. His powers in restoration are shown in the castle of Lichtenstein, the cathedral of Bamberg, and the Knights’ Chapel (Ritter Kapelle) at Hassfurt.
Among his writings on architecture areDie Lehre von den Säulenordnungen(1827);Der Kleine Vignola(1832);Nürnbergs Baudenkmäler der Vorzeit(1838-1843, complete edition 1854); andDie Ornamentik des Mittelalters(1838-1842).
Among his writings on architecture areDie Lehre von den Säulenordnungen(1827);Der Kleine Vignola(1832);Nürnbergs Baudenkmäler der Vorzeit(1838-1843, complete edition 1854); andDie Ornamentik des Mittelalters(1838-1842).
HEIDENHEIM,a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Württemberg, 31 m. by rail north by east of Ulm. Pop. (1905), 12,173. It has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church,and several schools. Its industrial establishments include cotton, woollen, tobacco, machinery and chemical factories, bleach-works, dye-works and breweries, and corn and cattle markets. The town, which received municipal privileges in 1356, is overlooked by the ruins of the castle of Hellenstein, standing on a hill 1985 ft. high. Heidenheim is also the name of a small place in Bavaria famous on account of the Benedictine abbey which formerly stood therein. Founded in 748 by Wilibald, bishop of Eichstätt, this was plundered by the peasantry in 1525 and was closed in 1537.
HEIFER,a young cow that has not calved. The O. Eng.heahforeorheafru, from which the word is derived, is of obscure origin. It is found in Bede’sHistory(A.D.900) asheahfore, and has passed through many forms. It is possibly derived fromheah, high, andfaren(fare), to go, meaning “high-stepper.” It has also been suggested that the derivation is fromhea, a stall, andfore, a cow.
HEIGEL, KARL AUGUST VON(1835-1905), German novelist, was born, the son of arégisseuror stage-manager of the court theatre, on the 25th of March 1835 at Munich. In this city he received his early schooling and studied (1854-1858) philosophy at the university. He was then appointed librarian to Prince Heinrich zu Carolath-Beuthen in Lower Silesia, and accompanied the nephew of the prince on travels. In 1863 he settled in Berlin, where from 1865 to 1875 he was engaged in journalism. He next resided at Munich, employed in literary work for the king, Ludwig II., who in 1881 conferred upon him a title of nobility. On the death of the king in 1886 he removed to Riva on the Lago di Garda, where he died on the 6th of September 1905. Karl von Heigel attained some popularity with his novels:Wohin?(1873),Die Dame ohne Herz(1873),Das Geheimnis des Königs(1891),Der Roman einer Stadt(1898),Der Maharadschah(1900),Die nervöse Frau(1900),Die neuen Heiligen(1901), andBrömels Glück und Ende(1902). He also wrote some plays, notablyJosephine Bonaparte(1892) andDie Zarin(1883); and several collections of short stories,Neue Erzählungen(1876),Neueste Novellen(1878), andHeitere Erzählungen(1893).
HEIJERMANS, HERMANN(1864- ) , Dutch writer, of Jewish origin, was born on the 3rd of December 1864 at Rotterdam. In the AmsterdamHandelsbladhe published a series of sketches of Jewish family life under the pseudonym of “Samuel Falkland,” which were collected in volume form. His novels and tales includeTrinette(1892),Fles(1893),Kamertjeszonde(2 vols., 1896),Intérieurs(1897),Diamantstadt(2 vols., 1903). He created great interest by his playOp Hoop van Zegen(1900), represented at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris, and in English by the Stage Society asThe Good Hope. His other plays are:Dora Kremer(1893),Ghetto(1898),Het zevende Gebot(1899),Het Pantser(1901),Ora et labora(1901), and numerous one-act pieces.A Case of Arson, an English version of the one-act playBrand in de Jonge Jan, was notable for the impersonation (1904 and 1905) by Henri de Vries of all the seven witnesses who appear as characters.
HEILBRONN,a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Württemberg, situated in a pleasant and fruitful valley on the Neckar, 33 m. by rail N. of Stuttgart, and at the junction of lines to Jagdsfeld, Crailsheim and Eppingen. Pop. (1905), 40,026. In the older part of the town the streets are narrow, and contain a number of high turreted houses with quaintly adorned gables. The old fortifications have now been demolished, and their site is occupied by promenades, outside of which are the more modern parts of the town with wide streets and many handsome buildings. The principal public buildings are the church of St Kilian (restored 1886-1895) in the Gothic and Renaissance styles, begun about 1019 and completed in 1529, with an elegant tower 210 ft. high, a beautiful choir, and a finely carved altar; the town hall (Rathaus), founded in 1540, and possessing a curious clock made in 1580, and a collection of interesting letters and other documents; the house of the Teutonic knights (Deutsches Haus), now used as a court of law; the Roman Catholic church of St Joseph, formerly the church of the Teutonic Order; the tower (Diebsturm or Götzens Turm) on the Neckar, in which Götz von Berlichingen was confined in 1519; a fine synagogue; an historical museum and several monuments, among them those to the emperors William I. and Frederick I., to Bismarck, to Schiller and to Robert von Mayer (1814-1878), a native of the town, famous for his discoveries concerning heat. The educational establishments include a gymnasium, a commercial school and an agricultural academy. The town in a commercial point of view is the most important in Württemberg, and possesses an immense variety of manufactures, of which the principal are gold, silver, steel and iron wares, machines, sugar of lead, white lead, vinegar, beer, sugar, tobacco, soap, oil, cement, chemicals, artificial manure, glue, soda, tapestry, paper and cloth. Grapes, fruit, vegetables and flowering shrubs are largely grown in the neighbourhood, and there are large quarries for sandstone and gypsum and extensive salt-works. By means of the Neckar a considerable trade is carried on in wood, bark, leather, agricultural produce, fruit and cattle.
Heilbronn occupies the site of an old Roman settlement; it is first mentioned in 741, and the Carolingian princes had a palace here. It owes its name—originally Heiligbronn, or holy spring—to a spring of water which until 1857 was to be seen issuing from under the high altar of the church of St Kilian. Heilbronn obtained privileges from Henry IV. and from Rudolph I. and became a free imperial city in 1360. It was frequently besieged during the middle ages, and it suffered greatly during the Peasants’ War, the Thirty Years’ War, and the various wars with France. In April 1633 a convention was entered into here between Oxenstierna, the Swabian and Frankish estates and the French, English and Dutch ambassadors, as a result of which the Heilbronn treaty, for the prosecution of the Thirty Years’ War, was concluded. In 1802 Heilbronn was annexed by Württemberg.
See Jäger,Geschichte von Heilbronn(Heilbronn, 1828); Kuttler,Heilbronn, seine Umgebungen und seine Geschichte(Heilbronn, 1859); Dürr,Heilbronner Chronik(Halle, 1896); Schliz,Die Entstehung der Stadtgemeinde Heilbronn(Leipzig, 1903); and A. Küsel,Der Heilbrunner Konvent(Halle, 1878).
See Jäger,Geschichte von Heilbronn(Heilbronn, 1828); Kuttler,Heilbronn, seine Umgebungen und seine Geschichte(Heilbronn, 1859); Dürr,Heilbronner Chronik(Halle, 1896); Schliz,Die Entstehung der Stadtgemeinde Heilbronn(Leipzig, 1903); and A. Küsel,Der Heilbrunner Konvent(Halle, 1878).
HEILIGENSTADT,a town of Germany, in Prussian Saxony, on the Leine, 32 m. E.N.E. of Cassel, on the railway to Halle. Pop. (1905), 7955. It possesses an old castle, formerly belonging to the electors of Mainz, one Evangelical and two Roman Catholic churches, several educational establishments, and an infirmary. The principal manufactures are cotton goods, cigars, paper, cement and needles. Heiligenstadt is said to have been built by the Frankish king Dagobert and was formerly the capital of the principality of Eichsfeld. In 1022 it was acquired by the archbishop of Mainz, and in 1103 it came into the possession of Henry the Proud, duke of Saxony, but when his son Henry the Lion was placed under the ban of the Empire, it again came to Mainz. It was destroyed by fire in 1333, and was captured in 1525 by Duke Henry of Brunswick. In 1803 it came into possession of Prussia. The Jesuits had a celebrated college here from 1581 to 1773.
HEILSBERG,a town of Germany, in the province of East Prussia, at the junction of the Simser and Alle, 38 m. S. of Königsberg. Pop. (1905), 6042. It has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, and an old castle formerly the seat of the prince-bishops of Ermeland, but now used as an infirmary. The principal industries are tanning, dyeing and brewing, and there is considerable trade in grain. The castle founded at Heilsberg by the Teutonic order in 1240 became in 1306 the seat of the bishops of Ermeland, an honour which it retained for 500 years. On the 10th of June 1807 a battle took place at Heilsberg between the French under Soult and Murat, and the Russians and Prussians under Bennigsen.
HEILSBRONN(orKloster-Heilsbronn), a village of Germany, in the Bavarian province of Middle Franconia, with a station on the railway between Nuremberg and Ansbach, has 1200 inhabitants. In the middle ages it was the seat of one of the great monasteries of Germany. This foundation, which belonged to the Cistercian order, owed its origin to Bishop Ottoof Bamberg in 1132, and continued to exist till 1555. Its sepulchral monuments, many of which are figured by Hocker,Heilsbronnischer Antiquitätenschatz(Ansbach, 1731-1740), are of exceptionally high artistic interest. It was the hereditary burial-place of the Hohenzollern family and ten burgraves of Nuremberg, five margraves and three electors of Brandenburg, and many other persons of note are buried within its walls. The buildings of the monastery have mostly disappeared, with the exception of the fine church, a Romanesque basilica, restored between 1851 and 1866, and possessing paintings by Albert Dürer. The “Monk of Heilsbronn” is the ordinary appellation of a didactic poet of the 14th century, whoseSieben Graden,Tochter SyonandLeben des heiligen Alexiuswere published by J. F. L. T. Merzdorf at Berlin in 1870.
See Rehm,Ein Gang durch und um die Münster-Kirche zu Kloster-Heilsbronn(Ansbach, 1875); Stillfried,Kloster-Heilsbronn, ein Beitrag zu den Hohenzollernschen Forschungen(Berlin, 1877); Muck,Geschichte von Kloster-Heilsbronn(Nördlingen, 1879-1880); J. Meyer,Die Hohenzollerndenkmale in Heilsbronn(Ansbach, 1891); and A. Wagner,Über den Mönch von Heilsbronn(Strassburg, 1876).
See Rehm,Ein Gang durch und um die Münster-Kirche zu Kloster-Heilsbronn(Ansbach, 1875); Stillfried,Kloster-Heilsbronn, ein Beitrag zu den Hohenzollernschen Forschungen(Berlin, 1877); Muck,Geschichte von Kloster-Heilsbronn(Nördlingen, 1879-1880); J. Meyer,Die Hohenzollerndenkmale in Heilsbronn(Ansbach, 1891); and A. Wagner,Über den Mönch von Heilsbronn(Strassburg, 1876).
HEIM, ALBERT VON ST GALLEN(1849- ) , Swiss geologist, was born at Zürich on the 12th of April 1849. He was educated at Zürich and Berlin universities. Very early in life he became interested in the physical features of the Alps, and at the age of sixteen he made a model of the Tödi group. This came under the notice of Arnold Escher von der Linth, to whom Heim was indebted for much encouragement and geological instruction in the field. In 1873 he became professor of geology in the polytechnic school at Zürich, and in 1875 professor of geology in the university. In 1882 he was appointed director of the Geological Survey of Switzerland, and in 1884 the hon. degree of Ph.D. was conferred upon him at Berne. He is especially distinguished for his researches on the structure of the Alps and for the light thereby thrown on the structure of mountain masses in general. He traced the plications from minor to major stages, and illustrated the remarkable foldings and overthrust faultings in numerous sections and with the aid of pictorial drawings. His magnificent work,Mechanismus der Gebirgsbildung(1878), is now regarded as a classic, and it served to inspire Professor C. Lapworth in his brilliant researches on the Scottish Highlands (seeGeol. Mag.1883). Heim also devoted considerable attention to the glacial phenomena of the Alpine regions. The Wollaston medal was awarded to him in 1904 by the Geological Society of London.
HEIM, FRANÇOIS JOSEPH(1787-1865), French painter, was born at Belfort on the 16th of December 1787. He early distinguished himself at the École Centrale of Strassburg, and in 1803 entered the studio of Vincent at Paris. In 1807 he obtained the first prize, and in 1812 his picture of “The Return of Jacob” (Musée de Bordeaux) won for him a gold medal of the first class, which he again obtained in 1817, when he exhibited, together with other works, a St John—bought by Vivant Denon. In 1819 the “Resurrection of Lazarus” (Cathédral Autun), the “Martyrdom of St Cyr” (St Gervais), and two scenes from the life of Vespasian (ordered by the king) attracted attention. In 1823 the “Re-erection of the Royal Tombs at St Denis,” the “Martyrdom of St Laurence” (Notre Dame) and several full-length portraits increased the painter’s popularity; and in 1824, when he exhibited his great canvas, the “Massacre of the Jews” (Louvre), Heim was rewarded with the legion of honour. In 1827 appeared the “King giving away Prizes at the Salon of 1824” (Louvre—engraved by Jazet)—the picture by which Heim is best known—and “Saint Hyacinthe.” Heim was now commissioned to decorate the Gallery Charles X. (Louvre). Though ridiculed by the romantists, Heim succeeded Regnault at the Institute in 1834, shortly after which he commenced a series of drawings of the celebrities of his day, which are of much interest. His decorations of the Conference room of the Chamber of Deputies were completed in 1844; and in 1847 his works at the Salon—“Champ de Mai” and “Reading a Play at the Théâtre Français”—were the signal for violent criticisms. Yet something like a turn of opinion in his favour took place at the exhibition of 1851; his powers as a draughtsman and the occasional merits of his composition were recognized, and toleration extended even to his colour. Heim was awarded the great gold medal, and in 1855—having sent to the Salon no less than sixteen portraits, amongst which may be cited those of “Cuvier,” “Geoffroy de St Hilaire,” and “Madame Hersent”—he was made officer of the legion of honour. In 1859 he again exhibited a curious collection of portraits, sixty-four members of the Institute arranged in groups of four. He died on the 29th of September 1865. Besides the paintings already mentioned, there is to be seen in Notre Dame de Lorette (Paris) a work executed on the spot; and the museum of Strassburg contains an excellent example of his easel pictures, the subject of which is a “Shepherd Drinking from a Spring.”
HEIMDAL,orHeimdall, in Scandinavian mythology, the keeper of the gates of Heaven and the guardian of the rainbow bridge Bifrost. He is the son of Odin by nine virgins, all sisters. He is called “the god with the golden teeth.” He lives in the stronghold of Himinsbiorg at the end of Bifrost. His chief attribute is a vigilance which nothing can escape. He sleeps less than a bird; sees at night and even in his sleep; can hear the grass, and even the wool on a lamb’s back grow. He is armed with Gjallar, the magic horn, with which he will summon the gods on the day of judgment.
HEINE, HEINRICH,(1797-1856), German poet and journalist, was born at Düsseldorf, of Jewish parents, on the 13th of December 1797. His father, after various vicissitudes in business, had finally settled in Düsseldorf, and his mother, who possessed much energy of character, was the daughter of a physician of the same place. Heinrich (or, more exactly, Harry) was the eldest of four children, and received his education, first in private schools, then in the Lyceum of his native town; although not an especially apt or diligent pupil, he acquired a knowledge of French and English, as well as some tincture of the classics and Hebrew. His early years coincided with the most brilliant period of Napoleon’s career, and the boundless veneration which he is never tired of expressing for the emperor throughout his writings shows that his true schoolmasters were rather the drummers and troopers of a victorious army than the masters of the Lyceum. By freeing the Jews from many of the political disabilities under which they had hitherto suffered, Napoleon became, it may be noted, the object of particular enthusiasm in the circles amidst which Heine grew up. When he left school in 1815, an attempt was made to engage him in business in Frankfort, but without success. In the following year his uncle, Solomon Heine, a wealthy banker in Hamburg, took him into his office. A passion for his cousin Amalie Heine seems to have made the young man more contented with his lot in Hamburg, and his success was such that his uncle decided to set him up in business for himself. This, however, proved too bold a step; in a very few months the firm of “Harry Heine & Co.” was insolvent. His uncle now generously provided him with money to enable him to study at a university, with the view to entering the legal profession, and in the spring of 1819 Heine became a student of the university of Bonn. During his stay there he devoted himself rather to the study of literature and history than to that of law; amongst his teachers A. W. von Schlegel, who took a kindly interest in Heine’s poetic essays, exerted the most lasting influence on him. In the autumn of 1820 Heine left Bonn for Göttingen, where he proposed to devote himself more assiduously to professional studies, but in February of the following year he challenged to a pistol duel a fellow-student who had insulted him, and was, in consequence, rusticated for six months. The pedantic atmosphere of the university of Göttingen was, however, little to his taste; the news of his cousin’s marriage unsettled him still more; and he was glad of the opportunity to seek distraction in Berlin.
In the Prussian capital a new world opened up to him; a very different life from that of Göttingen was stirring in the new university there, and Heine, like all his contemporaries, sat at the feet of Hegel and imbibed from him, doubtless, those views which in later years made the poet the apostle of an outlook upon life more modern than that of his romantic predecessors.Heine was also fortunate in having access to the chief literary circles of the capital; he was on terms of intimacy with Varnhagen von Ense and his wife, the celebrated Rahel, at whose house he frequently met such men as the Humboldts, Hegel himself and Schleiermacher; he made the acquaintance of leading men of letters like Fouqué and Chamisso, and was on a still more familiar footing with the most distinguished of his co-religionists in Berlin. Under such favourable circumstances his own gifts were soon displayed. He contributed poems to theBerliner Gesellschafter, many of which were subsequently incorporated in theBuch der Lieder, and in December 1821 a little volume came from the press entitledGedichte, his first avowed act of authorship. He was also employed at this time as correspondent of a Rhenish newspaper, as well as in completing his tragediesAlmansorandWilliam Ratcliff, which were published in 1823 with small success. In that same year Heine, not in the most hopeful spirits, returned to his family, who had meanwhile moved to Lüneburg. He had plans of settling in Paris, but as he was still dependent on his uncle, the latter’s consent had to be obtained. As was to be expected, Solomon Heine did not favour the new plan, but promised to continue his support on the condition that Harry completed his course of legal study. He sent the young student for a six weeks’ holiday at Cuxhaven, which opened the poet’s eyes to the wonders of the sea; and three weeks spent subsequently at his uncle’s county seat near Hamburg were sufficient to awaken a new passion in Heine’s breast—this time for Amalie’s sister, Therese. In January 1824 Heine returned to Göttingen, where, with the exception of a visit to Berlin and the excursion to the Hartz mountains in the autumn of 1824, which is immortalized in the first volume of theReisebilder, he remained until his graduation in the summer of the following year. It was on the latter of these journeys that he had the interview with Goethe which was so amusingly described by him in later years. A few weeks before obtaining his degree, he took a step which he had long meditated; he formally embraced Christianity. This “act of apostasy,” which has been dwelt upon at unnecessary length both by Heine’s enemies and admirers, was actuated wholly by practical considerations, and did not arise from any wish on the poet’s part to deny his race. The summer months which followed his examination Heine spent by his beloved sea in the island of Norderney, his uncle having again generously supplied the means for this purpose. The question of his future now became pressing, and for a time he seriously considered the plan of settling as a solicitor in Hamburg, a plan which was associated in his mind with the hope of marrying his cousin Therese. Meanwhile he had made arrangements for the publication of theReisebilder, the first volume of which,Die Harzreise, appeared in May 1826. The success of the book was instantaneous. Its lyric outbursts and flashes of wit; its rapid changes from grave to gay; its flexibility of thought and style, came as a revelation to a generation which had grown weary of the lumbering literary methods of the later Romanticists.
In the spring of the following year Heine paid a long planned visit to England, where he was deeply impressed by the free and vigorous public life, by the size and bustle of London; above all, he was filled with admiration for Canning, whose policy had realized many a dream of the young German idealists of that age. But the picture had also its reverse; the sordidly commercial spirit of English life, and brutal egotism of the ordinary Englishman, grated on Heine’s sensitive nature; he missed the finer literary and artistic tastes of the continent and was repelled by the austerity of English religious sentiment and observance. Unfortunately the latter aspects of English life left a deeper mark on his memory than the bright side. In October Baron Cotta, the well-known publisher, offered Heine—the second volume of whoseReisebilderand theBuch der Liederhad meanwhile appeared and won him fresh laurels—the joint-editorship of theNeue allgemeine politische Annalen. He gladly accepted the offer and betook himself to Munich. Heine did his best to adapt himself and his political opinions to the new surroundings, in the hope of coming in for a share of the good things which Ludwig I. of Bavaria was so generously distributing among artists and men of letters. But the stings of theReisebilderwere not so easily forgotten; the clerical party in particular did not leave him long in peace. In July 1828, the professorship on which he had set his hopes being still not forthcoming, he left Munich for Italy, where he remained until the following November, a holiday which provided material for the third and part of the fourth volumes of theReisebilder. A blow more serious than the Bavarian king’s refusal to establish him in Munich awaited him on his return to Germany—the death of his father. In the beginning of 1829 Heine took up his abode in Berlin, where he resumed old acquaintanceships; in summer he was again at the sea, and in autumn he returned to the city he now loathed above all others, Hamburg, where he virtually remained until May 1831. These years were not a happy period of the poet’s life; his efforts to obtain a position, apart from that which he owed to his literary work, met with rebuffs on every side; his relations with his uncle were unsatisfactory and disturbed by constant friction, and for a time he was even seriously ill. His only consolation in these months of discontent was the completion and publication of theReisebilder. When in 1830 the news of the July Revolution in the streets of Paris reached him, Heine hailed it as the beginning of a new era of freedom, and his thoughts reverted once more to his early plan of settling in Paris. All through the following winter the plan ripened, and in May 1831 he finally said farewell to his native land.
Heine’s first impressions of the “New Jerusalem of Liberalism” were jubilantly favourable; Paris, he proclaimed, was the capital of the civilized world, to be a citizen of Paris the highest of honours. He was soon on friendly terms with many of the notabilities of the capital, and there was every prospect of a congenial and lucrative journalistic activity as correspondent for German newspapers. Two series of his articles were subsequently collected and published under the titlesFranzösische Zustände(1832) andLutezia(written 1840-1843, published in theVermischte Schriften, 1854). In December 1835, however, the German Bund, incited by W. Menzel’s attacks on “Young Germany,” issued its notorious decree, forbidding the publication of any writings by the members of that coterie; the name of Heine, who had been stigmatized as the leader of the movement headed the list. This was the beginning of a series of literary feuds in which Heine was, from now on, involved; but a more serious and immediate effect of the decree was to curtail considerably his sources of income. His uncle, it is true, had allowed him 4000 francs a year when he settled in Paris, but at this moment he was not on the best of terms with his Hamburg relatives. Under these circumstances he was induced to take a step which his fellow-countrymen have found it hard to forgive; he applied to the French government for support from a secret fund formed for the benefit of “political refugees” who were willing to place themselves at the service of France. From 1836 or 1837 until the Revolution of 1848 Heine was in receipt of 4800 francs annually from this source.
In October 1834 Heine made the acquaintance of a young Frenchwoman, Eugénie Mirat, a saleswoman in a boot-shop in Paris, and before long had fallen passionately in love with her. Although ill-educated, vain and extravagant, she inspired the poet with a deep and lasting affection, and in 1841, on the eve of a duel in which he had become involved, he made her his wife. “Mathilde,” as Heine called her, was not the comrade to help the poet in days of adversity, or to raise him to better things, but, in spite of passing storms, he seems to have been happy with her, and she nursed him faithfully in his last illness. Her death occurred in 1883. His relations with Mathilde undoubtedly helped to weaken his ties with Germany; and notwithstanding the affection he professed to cherish for his native land, he only revisited it twice, in the autumn of 1843 and the summer of 1847. In 1845 appeared the first unmistakable signs of the terrible spinal disease, which, for eight years, from the spring of 1848 till his death, condemned him to a “mattress grave.” These years of suffering—suffering which left hisintellect as clear and vivacious as ever—seem to have effected what might be called a spiritual purification in Heine’s nature, and to have brought out all the good sides of his character, whereas adversity in earlier years only intensified his cynicism. The lyrics of theRomanzero(1851) and the collection ofNeueste Gedichte(1853-1854) surpass in imaginative depth and sincerity of purpose the poetry of theBuch der Lieder. Most wonderful of all are the poems inspired by Heine’s strange mystic passion for the lady he calledDie Mouche, a countrywoman of his own—her real name was Elise von Krienitz, but she had written in French under thenom de plumeof Camille Selden—who helped to brighten the last months of the poet’s life. He died on the 17th of February 1856, and lies buried in the cemetery of Montmartre.
Besides the purely journalistic work of Heine’s Paris years, to which reference has already been made, he published a collection of more serious prose writings under the titleDer Salon(1833-1839). In this collection will be found, besides papers on French art and the French stage, the essays “Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland,” which he had written for theRevue des deux mondes. Here, too, are the more characteristic productions of Heine’s genius,Aus den Memoiren des Herrn von Schnabelewopski,Der Rabbi von BacherachandFlorentinische Nächte.Die romantische Schule(1836), with its unpardonable personal attack on the elder Schlegel, is a less creditable essay in literary criticism. In 1839 appearedShakespeares Mädchen und Frauen, which, however, was merely the text to a series of illustrations; and in 1840, the witty and trenchant satire on a writer, who, in spite of many personal disagreements, had been Heine’s fellow-fighter in the liberal cause, Ludwig Börne. Of Heine’s poetical work in these years, his most important publications were, besides theRomanzero, the two admirable satires,Deutschland, ein Wintermärchen(1844), the result of his visit to Germany, andAtta Troll, ein Sommernachtstraum(1876), an attack on the politicalTendenzliteraturof the ’forties.
In the case of no other of the greater German poets is it so hard to arrive at a final judgment as in that of Heinrich Heine. In hisBuch der Liederhe unquestionably struck a new lyric note, not merely for Germany but for Europe. No singer before him had been so daring in the use of nature-symbolism as he, none had given such concrete and plastic expression to the spiritual forces of heart and soul; in this respect Heine was clearly the descendant of the Hebrew poets of the Old Testament. At times, it is true, his imagery is exaggerated to the degree of absurdity, but it exercised, none the less, a fascination over his generation. Heine combined with a spiritual delicacy, a fineness of perception, that firm hold on reality which is so essential to the satirist. His lyric appealed with particular force to foreign peoples, who had little understanding for the intangible, undefinable spirituality which the German people regard as an indispensable element in their national lyric poetry. Thus his fame has always stood higher in England and France than in Germany itself, where his lyric method, his self-consciousness, his cynicism in season and out of season, were little in harmony with the literary traditions. As far, indeed, as the development of the German lyric is concerned, Heine’s influence has been of questionable value. But he introduced at least one new and refreshing element into German poetry with his lyrics of the North Sea; no other German poet has felt and expressed so well as Heine the charm of sea and coast.
As a prose writer, Heine’s merits were very great. His work was, in the main, journalism, but it was journalism of a high order, and, after all, the best literature of the “Young German” school to which he belonged was of this character. Heine’s light fancy, his agile intellect, his straightforward, clear style stood him here in excellent stead. The prose writings of his French period mark, together with Börne’sBriefe aus Paris, the beginning of a new era in German journalism and a healthy revolt against theunwieldyprose of the Romantic period. Above all things, Heine was great as a wit and a satirist. His lyric may not be able to assert itself beside that of the very greatest German singers, but as a satirist he had powers of the highest order. He combined the holy zeal and passionate earnestness of the “soldier of humanity” with the withering scorn and ineradicable sense of justice common to the leaders of the Jewish race. It was Heine’s real mission to be a reformer, to restore with instruments of war rather than of peace “the interrupted order of the world.” The more’s the pity that his magnificent Aristophanic genius should have had so little room for its exercise, and have been frittered away in the petty squabbles of an exiled journalist.