HERMAN DE VALENCIENNES

herman de valenciennes, 12th-century french poet, was born at valenciennes, of good parentage. his father and mother, robert and herembourg, belonged to hainault, and gave him for god-parents count baldwin and countess yoland--doubtless baldwin iv. of hainault and his mother yoland. herman was a priest and the author of a verse _histoire de la bible_, which includes a separate poem on the assumption of the virgin. the work is generally known as _le roman de sapience_, the name arising from a copyist's error in the first line of the poem: "comens de sapiense, ce est la cremors de deu" the first word being miswritten in one ms. _romens_, and in another _romanz_. his work has, indeed, the form of an ordinary romance, and cannot be regarded as a translation. he selects such stories from the bible as suit his purpose, and adds freely from legendary sources, displaying considerable art in the selection and use of his materials. this scriptural poem, very popular in its day, mentions henry ii. of england as already dead, and must therefore be assigned to a date posterior to 1189. see _notices et extraits des manuscrits_ (paris, vol. 34), and jean bonnard, _les traductions de la bible en vers francais au moyen age_ (1884). hermann i. (d. 1217), landgrave of thuringia and count palatine of saxony, was the second son of louis ii. the hard, landgrave of thuringia, and judith of hohenstaufen, sister of the emperor frederick i. little is known of his early years, but in 1180 he joined a coalition against henry the lion, duke of saxony, and with his brother, the landgrave louis iii., suffered a short imprisonment after his defeat at weissensee by henry. about this time he received from his brother louis the saxon palatinate, over which he strengthened his authority by marrying sophia, sister of adalbert, count of sommerschenburg, a former count palatine. in 1190 louis died and hermann by his energetic measures frustrated the attempt of the emperor henry vi. to seize thuringia as a vacant fief of the empire, and established himself as landgrave. having joined a league against the emperor he was accused, probably wrongly, of an attempt to murder him. henry was not only successful in detaching hermann from the hostile combination, but gained his support for the scheme to unite sicily with the empire. in 1197 hermann went on crusade. when henry vi. died in 1198 hermann's support was purchased by the late emperor's brother philip, duke of swabia, but as soon as philip's cause appeared to be weakening he transferred his allegiance to otto of brunswick, afterwards the emperor otto iv. philip accordingly invaded thuringia in 1204 and compelled hermann to come to terms by which he surrendered the lands he had obtained in 1198. after the death of philip and the recognition of otto he was among the princes who invited frederick of hohenstaufen, afterwards the emperor frederick ii., to come to germany and assume the crown. in consequence of this step the saxons attacked thuringia, but the landgrave was saved by frederick's arrival in germany in 1212. after the death of his first wife in 1195 hermann married sophia, daughter of otto i., duke of bavaria. by her he had four sons, two of whom, louis and henry raspe, succeeded their father in turn as landgrave. hermann died at gotha on the 25th of april 1217, and was buried at reinhardsbrunn. he was fond of the society of men of letters, and walther von der vogelweide and other minnesingers were welcomed to his castle of the wartburg. in this connexion he figures in wagner's _tannhauser_. see e. winkelmann, _philipp von schwaben und otto iv. von braunschweig_ (leipzig, 1873-1878); t. knochenhauer, _geschichte thuringens_ (gotha, 1871); and f. wachter, _thuringische und obersachsische geschichte_ (leipzig, 1826). hermann of reichenau (herimannus augiensis), commonly distinguished as hermannus contractus, i.e. the lame (1013-1054), german scholar and chronicler, was the son of count wolferad of alshausen in swabia. hermann, who became a monk of the famous abbey of reichenau, is at once one of the most attractive and one of the most pathetic figures of medieval monasticism. crippled and distorted by gout from his childhood, he was deprived of the use of his legs; but, in spite of this, he became one of the most learned men of his time, and exercised a great personal and intellectual influence on the numerous band of scholars he gathered round him. he died on the 24th of september 1054, at the family castle of alshausen near biberach. besides the ordinary studies of the monastic scholar, he devoted himself to mathematics, astronomy and music, and constructed watches and instruments of various kinds. his chief work is a _chronicon ad annum_ 1054, which furnishes important and original material for the history of the emperor henry iii. the first edition, from a ms. no longer extant, was printed by j. sichard at basel in 1529, and reissued by heinrich peter in 1549; another edition appeared at st blaise in 1790 under the supervision of ussermann; and a third, as a result of the collation of numerous mss., forms part of vol. v. of pertz's _monumenta germaniae historica_. a german translation of the last is contributed by k. f. a. nobbe to _die geschichtsschreiber der deutschen vorzeit_ (1st ed., berlin, 1851; 2nd ed., leipzig, 1893). the separate lives of conrad ii. and henry iii., often ascribed to hermann, appear to have perished. his treatises _de mensura astrolabii_ and _de utilitatibus astrolabii_ (to be found, on the authority of salzburg mss., in pez, _thesaurus anecdotorum novissimus_, iii.) being the first contributions of moment furnished by a european to this subject, hermann was for a time considered the inventor of the astrolabe. a didactic poem from his pen, _de octo vitiis principalibus_, is printed in haupt's _zeitschrift fur deutsches alterthum_ (vol. xiii.); and he is sometimes credited with the composition of the latin hymns _veni sancte spiritus, salve regina_, and _alma redemptoris_. a _martyrologium_ by hermann was discovered by e. dummler in a ms. at stuttgart, and was published by him in "das martyrologium notkers und seine verwandten" in _forschungen zur deutschen geschichte_, xxv. (gottingen, 1885). see h. hansjakob, _herimann der lahme_ (mainz, 1875); potthast, _bibliotheca med. aev._ s. "herimannus augiensis." hermann of wied (1477-1552), elector and archbishop of cologne, was the fourth son of frederick, count of wied (d. 1487), and was born on the 14th of january 1477. educated for the church, he became elector and archbishop in 1515, and ruled his electorate with vigour and intelligence, taking up at first an attitude of hostility towards the reformers and their teaching. a quarrel with the papacy turned, or helped to turn, his thoughts in the direction of church reform, but he hoped this would come from within rather than from without, and with the aid of his friend john gropper (1503-1559), began, about 1536, to institute certain reforms in his own diocese. one step led to another, and as all efforts at union failed the elector invited martin bucer to cologne in 1542. supported by the estates of the electorate, and relying upon the recess of the diet of regensburg in 1541, he encouraged bucer to press on with the work of reform, and in 1543 invited melanchthon to his assistance. his conversion was hailed with great joy by the protestants, and the league of schmalkalden declared they were resolved to defend him; but the reformation in the electorate received checks from the victory of charles v. over william, duke of cleves, and the hostility of the citizens of cologne. summoned both before the emperor and the pope, the elector was deposed and excommunicated by paul iii. in 1546. he resigned his office in february 1547, and retired to wied. hermann, who was also a bishop of paderborn from 1532 to 1547, died on the 15th of august 1552. see c. varrentrapp, _hermann von wied_ (leipzig, 1878).