À Becket, Thomas. See Becket.
À Beck′ett, Gilbert Abbott, English writer, born near London in 1811. He studied for the bar, and became one of the original staff of Punch, was long a leader-writer to the Times and the Morning Herald, and contributed articles to the Illustrated London News. He wrote Comic History of England, Comic History of Rome, and Comic Blackstone, and between fifty and sixty plays. In 1849 he was appointed a metropolitan police magistrate, which office he retained till his death in 1856.
Abel, properly Hebel (Heb. breath, vapour, vanity), the second son of Adam. He was a shepherd, and was slain by his brother Cain from jealousy because his sacrifice was accepted while Cain's was rejected. Several of the fathers, among others St. Chrysostom and Augustine, regard him as a type of the new, regenerate man.
Abel, Sir Frederick Augustus, chemist, was born in London, 1827; died 1902. Having adopted chemistry as a profession, he studied under Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry, became professor of chemistry at the Royal Military Academy in 1851, and was chemist to the War Department and chemical adviser to the Government from 1854 to 1888. He did useful work in connection with the chemistry of explosives (especially gun-cotton), the flash-point of petroleum, &c.; was joint-inventor of cordite along with Dewar; and was also an authority on the manufacture of steel. He was honoured with a baronetcy, and was also a K.C.B. and a K.C.V.O. He wrote works on gunpowder, gun-cotton, and explosives generally, and on electricity as applied to explosive purposes. His works include: The Modern History of Gunpowder; Electricity applied to Explosive Purposes, &c.
Abélard (ab′e-lärd), or Abailard, Peter, a celebrated scholastic teacher, born near Nantes, in Brittany, in 1079. He made extraordinary progress with his studies, and, ultimately eclipsing his teachers, he opened a school of scholastic philosophy near Paris, which attracted crowds of students from the neighbouring city. His success in the fiery debates which were then the fashion in the schools made him many enemies, among whom was Guillaume de Champeaux, his former teacher, chief of the cathedral school of Notre-Dame, and the most advanced of the Realists. Abélard succeeded his adversary in this school (in 1113), and under him were trained many men who afterwards rose to eminence, among them being the future Pope Celestin II, Peter Lombard, and Arnold of Brescia. While he was at the height of his popularity, and in his fortieth year, he fell violently in love with Heloise—then eighteen years of age—niece of Fulbert, a canon of Paris. They obtained a home in Fulbert's house under the pretext of teaching Heloise philosophy, and their intercourse at length became apparent. Abélard, who had retired to Brittany, was followed by Heloise, who there gave birth to a son, named Astrolabius. A private marriage took place, and Heloise returned to her uncle's house, but, refusing to make public her marriage (as likely to spoil Abélard's career), she was subjected to severe treatment at the hands of her uncle. To save her from this Abélard carried her off and placed her in a convent at Argenteuil, a proceeding which so incensed Fulbert that he hired ruffians who broke into Abélard's chamber and subjected him to a shameful mutilation. Abélard, filled with grief and shame, became a monk in the abbey of St. Denis, and Heloise took the veil. When time had somewhat moderated his grief, he resumed his lectures; but trouble after trouble overtook him. His theological writings were condemned by the Council of Soissons, and he retired to an oratory called the Paraclete, subsequently becoming head of the abbey of St. Gildas-de-Rhuys in Brittany. For a short time he again lectured at Paris (1136), but his doctrines once more brought persecution on him, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the most powerful man in the Church in those days, had him condemned by the Council of Sens and afterwards by the Pope. Abélard did not long survive this, dying at St.
Marcel, near Chalon-sur-Saône, 21st April, 1142. Heloise, who had become abbess of the Paraclete, had him buried there, where she herself was afterwards laid by his side. Their ashes were removed to Paris in 1800, and in 1817 they were finally deposited beneath a mausoleum in the cemetery of Père la Chaise. According to John of Salisbury, Abélard is credited with the invention of a new philosophical system, midway between Realism and Nominalism. In Ethics, Abélard seems to have attached importance to the psychological element in the action, rather than to the action itself. "The intention of sinning", he maintained, "is worse than the actual physical sin." A complete edition of his works was published by Cousin (2 vols., Paris, 1849-59), and the letters of Abélard and Heloise have been often published in the original and in translations. Pope's Eloisa to Abélard is founded on them. Abélard's autobiography, entitled Story of my Calamities, is still extant.—Bibliography: Charles de Rémusat, Abélard (2 vols.); J. M‘Cabe, Life of Abélard.
Abele (a-bēl′), a name of the white poplar.
A′belite, or Abe′lian, a member of a religious sect in Africa which arose in the fourth century after Christ. They married, but lived in continence, after the manner, as they maintained, of Abel, and attempted to keep up the sect by adopting the children of others.
Abelmoschus (-mos′kus), a genus of tropical plants of the mallow family. A. esculentus, cultivated in India, Algeria, &c., yields edible pods and also a valuable fibre. The fruit, called okro or ochro, is used in soups.
Abencerrages (ab-en-ser′a-jez), a powerful and distinguished Moorish family of Granada, the chief members of which, thirty-six in number, are said to have been massacred in the Alhambra by the king Abu-Hassan (latter half of the fifteenth century) on account of the attachment of his sister to one of them. There is a room in the Alhambra which is still called 'the hall of the Abencerrages'. The legend has furnished the subject of many poems both Arabic and Spanish (Las Guerras Civiles de Granada, by Gines Perez de Hita), and formed the basis for Chateaubriand's Aventures du dernier des Abencérages.