ELOGIVM HEROINUM OR THE PRAISE OF WORTHY WOMEN Written by C. G. Gent. LONDON Printed by T.M. A.C. and are sold by William Nott neer the Chequer Office in Ivy-lane 1651. TO THE MOST EXCELLENT MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND HIGH-BORN Princesse ELIZABETH OF BOHEMIA Madam YOur illustrious Name is traced on the Frontis-piece of this Book as that of Minerva in the Temple of Vertue To render the names of these Famous Vestals more recommendable by that of so great and illustrious a Princesse as your Highness is whose marvellous wisdom and profound knowledge in Arts Sciences and Languages is admired by all men whose great Iudgement and Goodness are inexpressible symptoms of excelling Qualities Let therefore your memory most Sacred and Famous Princess be as eternal as your illustrious life happy and succesfull May your future fortunes be answerable to your vertues that as you have the daily earnest prayers of all good men so you may have the successe of their wishes the which though many who never yet saw you desire yet all those who have had the honour to be acquainted w th you know how worthily You deserve them For that your vertues have raised you to such a high degree of perfection as that you render not only those of your but even all Men unable to imitate Your Highnesse They as well as my self are therefore solely obliged to admire You which is the only intent of Madame Your Highnesses Most humble most obedient and most faithfull Servant CHARLES GERBIER To the most Honourable THE Countess Dowager OF CLAIRE The Patroness of all Vertue and Learning Madame PSaphon having assembled several Birds taught them to pronounce these words Psaphon is a God! and afterwards setting them at liberty by the rehearsal of their lesson they did spread their masters glory throughout all the Vniverse These ever to be admired Women being revived have learned your Honours name and as all the world did envy the glory of their fame so will they now invite all men to admire your perfections they will say that few Nations or Ages have yeelded your equal that to your knowing Judgement all learned men have recourse and that your matchlesse wisdome will be an example of admiration to all posterity May all men blazon your eminent deserts may your most vertuous minde enjoy what it most desires or deserves and may Heaven powr down upon your Honour the dews of thousand Celestial blessings together with all true happinesse are the zealous wishes of him who is Madam Your HONOURS most humble devoted zealous servant CHARLES GERBIER TO THE Vertuous Accomplish't LADY Anne Hudson MADAME I Do not offer unto you any thing of my own for that it is already yours or that you are worthy thereof since your eyes have not so many charms nor your attractions so much power to captivate hearts as the lustre of your Vertues do expresse unto all men the admirable perfections both of Nature and Grace which are extant in your person Your modesty the mildnesse of your discourse and that gracious humility with the which you entertain those who have the honour to be acquainted with you are precious jewels which do atchieve your renown Give me leave then Madam to end this my thrice humble dedication with that homage and with that bounden oblation which I owe to your all attracting goodnesse and let your favourable acceptance deign to receive it since it 's presented with all the submissiv'st respects imaginable by him who puts all his heart in his Pen the better to assure you that amongst those who admire you none can be more then himself Madam Your most humble and obedient servant Charles Gerbier To his worthy Friend Mr. CHARLES GERBIER Upon this his ELOGIVM HEROINVM Were not this Treatise fully fraught with its intrinsick worth It might like Cloth that 's finely wrought Be to the Press put forth A luster to receive whereby Its sale might bettered be But as its value doth rely On its reality You have it thus undeck'd without An influence of Verse Or lofty Poems which no doubt The Author could rehearse But he intends not the least part Of Rhetorick to strain His Theam is void of flatt'ring Art He shuns Ambages vain For who'mongst mortals dare be bent T' oppose it with a No And since the bruitest beasts assent Who then would not do so With me let all men then confesse That which I do disclose The praise of Women's ne'r the lesse Though it be writ in Prose B. S. Kt. To his much valued Friend THE AUTHOR The Grecian Beauties first Apelles saw Before he dar'd fair Venus Picture draw That he out of their many graces one Might make of all the only Paragon So thou out of the best the best hast writ Hast cull'd the choicest best therewith to fit This work of thine that it in worth and store Might all surpasse have written thee before Or after shall How much these Angels owe To this thy worthy pains themselves best know E. B. Esq To his worthy friend Mr. Charles Gerbier upon his Elogium Heroinum or the Praise of worthy Women I find my self by much to be too weak To adde a grace where every line will speak Where female constancie and beauty you Have open laid to censure and to view Which will in spight of envious time comprise Your worthy Women in our memories And from respects ingag'd I must make known Thy lines are unaffected free thy own Thy matter 's rare expressions genuine Stile most emphatical wit divine Then reap thy due and let Apollos bayâ—s In spight of Autumne grow to crown thy praises J. H. To his loving Brother ON HIS ELOGIVM HEROINVM OR HIS Praise of worthy Women Scarce dare I these rude lines prefix To this your worthy Womens praise Lest therby I might chance t' eclipse The glory of their splendent rayes For by my stile in it's ruffe cast I may their excellencies blast Ne'r did I tast of those sweet streams Which charming Helicon doth yeeld Nor hath Apollo with his beams Me grac't so that into the field O' th' Muses I am loth t' appear Lest infamy me thence may bear The very subject of your Book Doth clearly unto us set forth It 's excellence nor need you look That I attempt t' inlarge its worth This far surpasseth my small skill Nor can I reach it with my quill And though I know it 's a hard task To please all pallates yet submit I must to censure and unmask My ignorance rather then it Be said that I just then withdrew My hand this tribute being due Expresse I cannot what that Sexe Which you so worthily do blaze Deserved hath nor need we vexe Our selves that they have born the bayes Away from us for they excel All those who on this orb do dwel Their brave atchievments do outvye What ere we undertook and they Themselves to all eternity Have Trophies rais'd so that we may Sit down and them admire Their
humbly crave from this most worthy Sex one onely boon That it may not be offended at this my young Eagles flight towards such a source of perfect Rayes during the tenderness of my wings which affords me that pen whereby I endeavour to trace the description of their most perfect lineaments and dimensions Of the Wisdome and Learning of some Women WIsdome is the guide of all other vertues it gives goodnesse to good people pard'neth the wicked makes the poor rich and the rich honorable it 's that wherin our soveraign good and the end of our life consisteth Learning is the knowledge and understanding of Arts and Sciences without it Nature is blind Wisdome and Learning have made these following women famous to all posterity Nicaula Queen of Saba did expose her self to a long and tedious journey from the farthest part of Ethiopia unto Hierusalem there to dispute with Solomon the wisest of all men as it appeares by the Scriptures which therefore give her an immortal praise Mirrhe Queen of the Lydians was so little of body as that she seemed to be a Dwarf but so far excelling in wisdome as that she was called a Gyant she was a wise and prudent woman when she was married and honest being a widow Pythagoras the light of his time and the first that was called a Philosopher was a Scholar unto his own Sister Themistoclea and he learn'd his Philosophy from her the greatnesse of her wisdome appears by a Letter which he sent unto her from Rhodes where he publikely read Philosophy she being then in Samothracia The said Letter translated out of Greek was as followeth Pythagoras your Brother and Disciple to you Themistoclea my dear Sister wisheth health and increase of wisdome I have read from the beginning to the very end the Book which you have sent unto me of Fortune and Misfortune By it I do really see that you are not lesse grave in writing then gracious in teaching the which doth not often befall us who are Men for the Philosopher Aristippus was harsh in speaking and profound in writing Amenides was succinct in writing and eloquent in speaking But you my deare sister have so much applied your self to study to write as that in Sentences you seem to have read all the Philosophers and by the antiquities which you expresse it seems that you have seen all the time past by which you doe make it appear that being a woman you are more then a woman because the nature of women is only to employ themselves to the present and to forget that which is past I have been told that you do imploy your self in writing the wars of our Country I do earnestly pray you and by the immortal gods do conjure you to flatter no body For as you cannot deny dear Sister but that I am the eldest of your three Brothers so I cannot disavow that among all your Disciples I am the least And as being your Disciple I ought to obey you so likewise being your eldest Brother you ought to believe me Therefore I do advise you deare Sister to continue to do your utmost as you have hither to done to be understood and wise in your words discreet and grave in your life and honest in your person and above all true in that which you write For if the body of man be worth little without the soule the mouth without truth is worth much lesse And this was the Letter which Pythagoras sent to his sister Themistoclea by which his profound humility and her great eloquence appeares Policrata daughter to the said Philosopher Pythagoras was not only wise fair and rich but esteemed and honoured for the integrity of her life and more admired for her Eloquence then Pythagoras himself Diotima did so excell in wisdome that Socrates who of all men was called the wise the just the Prince of Philosophers and the Father of Philosophie blushed not to imitate and call her his Tutresse and Instructresse Arreta had attained to that perfection of knowledge in the Greek and Latine tongues as that the common report was that the soul of Socrates was infused into her and when she was heard to speak it seemed that she had writ the doctrine of Socrates rather then learned it she her self instructed her sonne in all the Liberal Arts by whose industry he became a famous Professor he was called Aristippus she also taught and instructed many and wrote several Volumes some whereof were these following The Praises of Socrates The manner how to educate Children The Battails of Athens The unhappines of Women The Husbandry of the Ancients The Wonders of Mount Olympia The Vanities of Youth and the Calamities of Age. She read publikely the Natural Moral Philosophie in the Academies Schools of Athens five and twenty years she composed forty Books she had an hundred and ten Philosophers who were her disciples She died being seventy seven years old and the Athenians for an immortal praise to all posterity caused these following words to be engraven on her sepulchre Here lies Arreta the famous Grecian who was the light of all Greece She had Helen's Beauty Thirma's Honesty Aristippus Pen Socrates Soule and Homer's Tongue Leontium a Grecian Damosel did so excell in wisdome and in Philosophical contemplations as that Cicero relates in his book De natura Deorum that she durst write a worthy Book against that famous Philosopher Theophrastus Alexander the Great refused the beautiful Daughter of Darius with Kingdomes and infinite Treasures to boot and made choice of Barsina only for her great wisdom although she was poor and had no possessions Dominica the wife of the Emperor Valenticus whenas the Goths had threatned the utter subversion of Constantinople she by her wisdome and discretion so mediated with the Enemy as that she procured the safety both of the People and City Athenias the Daughter of a mean man was for her wisdom learning thought worthy by a Christian Emperor to be his wife Priscilla instructed Apollo himselfe that eloquent man Nicostrata wife to King Evander was so learned that the Grecians reported that if her Writings of the Trojan wars had not by envy been flung into the fire the name of Homer the Prince of Poets would have been unknown This famous Woman is by some called Carmentis because of the eloquence which was found in her Verses she helpd to make up the number of the Greek Alphabet and added to the Roman Letters her Prophesies were preserved by the Romans at the end of the Capitol with as much respect and care as they do the Sacrament Hermodica wife to Midas King of Pbrygia was not only celebrated for her rare features and beauty but for her great wisdome The Divine Plato had amongst his Disciples these two famous women to wit Laschenea and Axiothia the one had so profound a Memory and the other so extraordinary an Understanding as that Plato being in his Chaire he often did say when either of these two
excellent perfections and graces which are extant in the souls and bodies of vertuous Women ought not to be regarded those Bodies I say on which if all the Angels should have spent a thousand years in altering or changing of its form figure or composition nay the least part thereof they would be at last forced to confesse that they are not able to diminish or adde thereunto yet the blinde impiety of some hath led them to that height of presumption as to find fault with many parts of this curious Fabrick But such will at length finde that though the Divine Justice hath leaden feet it hath iron hands though it 's slow in comming yet it striketh those home who do not regard those wonderful works of God which ought to transport us with an ineffable admiration As for those well-disposed sculs who are indued with a naturall good disposition who wrong not themselves by misdeeming of others I wish unto them as to my self that they may build their everlasting Tabernacles on that hill of Sion whose Prince is verity whose Laws are charity and whose limits are eternity c. THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS Of the Wisdom and Learning of some Women Pag. 13 Of Constant and Couragious Women Pag. 48 Of Faire Women Pag. 72 Of the Love of Women Pag. 82 Of chaste Women and Virgins Pag. 115 Of Womens abilities to Govern Pag. 133 Of Pious and Religious Women Pag. 141 ELOGIUM HEROINUM OR The Praise of Worthy WOMEN PHydias a most famous Carver after hee had made Minerva's Shield he engraved his own Pourtraicture so lively and deeply in the same as that it could never be taken out without defacing of the whole work So GOD himself who is an ineffable Power and an infinite Virtue an Understanding which can only be comprehended by it selfe whose Throne is seated amidst the flaming fires a far more excellent Workman then Phydias after he had made the Universall World and adorned the Heavens with Legions of Seraphims Cherubims Thrones Principalities Powers Virtues Dominions Archangels and Angels with the beauty of the Sun the glory of the Moon and the splendor of the Stars which are of an incomprehensible brightnesse and of a wonderfull greatnesse having moreover ordained unto them severall miraculous motions and admirable effects on the four Elements the Fire the Aire the Water and the Earth the which being beautified w th Mountaines Plaines Rivers Woods Rocks Plants Flowers and all sorts of Beasts and in the bowels thereof inclosed Mines of Gold Silver Iron and of severall other Metals and Minerals with a number of admirable precious Stones and having stored the Seas with all kind of Fishes the Aire with an infinite number of Birds He then created Man of the dust of the earth and afterwards in the terrestrial Paradise he made a Woman not of Mans head lest she should presume to over-top him nor of his foot lest she should be vilisied by him but from a rib neare unto his heart that she might be ever dear and entire to him which shewes the alternate love that ought to be betwixt them And the Almighty by his inscrutable goodnesse imprinted in them both his own Image and similitude so lively that no power whatsoever is able to deface it This image and similitude of the Deity is the Soul and the Understanding the which he would never have infused into them unlesse he had first made their Bodies of a substance fit to receive that impression and worthy of so great an ornament as the Understanding is by means whereof we unfold all things and attain to the knowledge of the most difficult matters that the wit of man can produce It hath a jurisdiction every where and it keeps its eminencie as well in the highest powers as in the lesser and inferior parts of the Universe to wit in the Heavens Starres and Planets by their motion which it foresees and prevents in the Empires Monarchies and Kingdomes it commands Occonomie it establisheth the Lawes and makes them to be obeyed In the lowest and inferior Regions and amongst the common people it keeps so good discipline that all things remaine constantly firme in their perfection And it is seated as well in the woman as in the man for Nature hath given unto the one as well as the other a desire of knowledge with an upright stature that they might both lift up their eyes to the contemplation of Nature and bring their minds raised and as it were inflamed with a divine love to such beautiful and glorious things in which the majesty of the eternal Godhead so apparently shines forth And the Woman is capable of as high improvements as the Man is she hath the same prerogative of creation with man For as he is endowed with a free willing immortal soul so is she also and as Man was put into a state of dominion and happinesse so likewise was Woman The soul knows no difference of sex the Woman hath the same desires and appetites as Man she is as well an heir unto the grace of life as he is And finally whatsoever is estated upon Man the Woman will also challenge for that there is no preferring of one sexe before the other but all are one in Christ Jesus as the Scripture clearely declares Although the crazie and vain wits of these times speake much to the disparagement of the whole Sexe imitating the Philosopher Anaxagoras who strove to maintaine that Snow was black but as all men of understanding who have eyes to see find it to be white so it clearly appears that he is an Impostor who endeavours to speak ill of Women since it is manifest that the Vertues the Disciplines the Muses the Devisers and Patrons of all Arts have been comprehended under the Feminine sexe by the names of Virgins and Women that not only the Ethnicks and Moral men but even Christians and Divines in all their books and writings which they leave to posterity still continue them under the same Gender That Sophia which signifies Wisdome is the mother of the three Theological Vertues Faith Hope Charity which are represented as Women That the Seven Liberal Arts are exprest in Womens shapes That the Nine Muses are the Daughters of Jupiter That the Five Senses are exprest under the names of the five Daughters of Apollo That Wisdome is called the Daughter of the Highest as appears in the Book of Wisdome And that the four parts of the World and almost all whatsoever is good is deciphered by the names and in the persons of Women All those who are inclined to vertue will find when they shall have perused this small Treatise which relates some Women who have been rarely accomplished that Women are capable of the highest improvements unto which Man may attaine For if some of the Sex as it appears by the following Heroical actions have been so it argues that the Sexe is capable and may still be so But ere I proceed any further I shal