HILDBURGHAUSEN (in old records Hiitpershusia and Filla Hilperti), the chief town of a circle in the duchy of Saxe-Meiningen, Germany, is situated in a wide and fruitful valley on the river Werra and on the Werra railway, 19 miles south-east of Meiningen by rail. It is the seat of a circle court, of a court of appeal, and of the jury court for the duchy. The streets are wide and regular, and the principal buildings are the former castle of the duchy, erected 1685-95, now used as barracks, with a park in which there is a monument to Queen Louise of Prussia ; the old town-house, the Government buildings, the gymna- . sium erected in 1877, the normal seminary, and the lunatic asylum. A monument has been erected to those of the citizens who died in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The manufactures are very various, and include linen fabrics, cloth, papier-maché, toys, buttons, optical instru- ments, agricultural machines, knives, mineral waters, con- densed soups, and condensed milk. The population in 1875 was 5162.
Hildburghausen belonged in the 14th century to the counts of Henneberg, from whom it passed into the possession of the dukes of Saxony. In 1683 it became the capital of a principality, which in 1826 was united to Saxe-Meiningen.
HILDEBERT (Hydalbert, Gildebert, Aldebert) of Le Mans and afterwards of Tours, a prominent church-leader, and one of the best Latin writers of his century, was born about 1055 at Lavardin near Vendime, became a pupil of the famous Berengarius of Tours, and made so great progress in all the learning of the time that he was made head master of the school, archdeacon, and finally, in 1097, bishop of Le Mans. In the beginning of his episcopate much trouble was caused him by the jealousy of his dean, Godfrey, who had accused him of immorality ; but finally he succeeded in fully vindicating his innocence. He next had to encounter the persecutions of William Rufus, who had captured the city; and these proved so harassing that he ultimately felt it necessary to withdraw to Rome, with the intention of resigning his charge; but Pope Paschalis II. declined to give him his release. On his return to Le Mans, Hildebert found the diocese in a state of great commotion, which had been caused by the preaching of Henry the Deacon ; but he speedily succeeded in restor- ing order after he had banished the agitator. About 1125 he was translated, much against his will, to the see of Tours ; and soon afterwards he held the important synod of Nantes, convened for the purpose of correcting the abuses and terminating the disorder which had so long prevailed in Brittany. A dispute with Louis the Fat about the rights of ecclesiastical patronage brought him into much disfavour with that monarch ; but their mutual relations had much improved before the death of Hildebert, which took place on December 18, 1134. From some writers he has received the name of Saint, but his name occurs in no martyrology.
The works of Hildcbert, which include letters, sermons, and poems, as well as formal contributions to philosophy and dogmatic theology, have been edited by Beaugendre (Paris, 1708), and in part both by Baluze and Muratori. (See also Galland’s Bibliotheca Patrwm, vol. xiv.) The poems, which are on very various sub- jects, are disfigured by many faults of metre and defects of style, but nevertheless enjoyed great popularity in their time, and were frequently used as classics in the schools of France and Italy, as also were the letters, of which the literary merit is greater (129 in 3 beoks). The sermons are often eloquent and instructive, but generally overloaded with imagery and disfigured by an excessive use of the allegorical method of interpretation. The tendency to Mariolatry is strongly developed in them ; and the De Coena Domini has an historical interest, as exhibiting the first instance of the use of the word transubstantiation. The Jractatus de querimonia s. conflict carnis et anime isan imitation of Boetius ; and the Moralis Philosophia has its sources in earlier Latin authors, and especially in Cicero and Seneca. The Tractatus theologicus appears to have determined the form of later systems, and thus to be of import- ance in the history of dogmatic theology. His method is first to lay down the thesis, which is then supported hy scripture proofs and by passages from the fathers, especially from Augustine; he finally proceeds by detailed arguinent to dispose of difheulties and objections with considerable acuteness, and without that cxcessivo subtlety which characterized later scholastic writers.
HILDEBRAND. See Gregory VII.
HILDEBRANDSLIED. This invaluable example of Old German alliterative poetry is contained in a MS. origt- nally belonging to the library of Fulda, and now preserved at Cassel. It is written on the first and last pages of a volume of Biblical and theological contents by two con- temporary hands apparently belonging to the beginning of the 9th century. The conclusion of the poem is unfortunately wanting, evidently from want of space. From such misreadings as man for iran, and puas for wuas or was (with p for the Runic w sign sometimes used here as in Old English MSS.), it is manifest that our text was not written down from memory,—as has often been assumed,-—but is a transcript from an older original. This conclusion is confirmed by the state of the language of the fragment, which shows a curious mixture of Low and High German forms that can never have existed in any living dialect of Germany, but can only be explained as the result of an attempt made by a Low German scribe to adapt the forms of a High German original to his vernacular idiom.
The fragment is mostly taken up with a dialogue between Hildebrand and his son Hadubrand. When Hildebrand followed his master Theodoric the Great, exiled from Italy by Odoacer, he left his young wife and an infant child behind him. At his return to his old home, after thirty years’ absence at the Hunnic court, he is met by a young warrior and challenged to single combat. Before the fight begins, Hildebrand, asking for the name of his opponent, and discovering his own son in him, tries to avert the fight, but in vain. ‘ Then they let their horses run with their sharp spears, and then they hewed their white shields until they were beaten to pieces with their weapons.” With these words the frag- ment stops abruptly, giving no clue as to the issue of the combat. It is certain, however, from allusions to the tale made in the Old Norse Asmundar Saga, that it must have been fatal to Hadubrand.[1] But in the later traditions both of the Old Norse Thidriks Saga (13th century), and the so-called Jiingere Hildebrandslied,—a German popular song preserved in several versions dating from the 15th to the 17th century, but evidently originating at an earlier time,[2]—Hadubrand is represented as defeated simply, and obliged to recognize his father.
The Hildebrandsiied was discovered and published for the first time as a prose story, as early as 1729;[3] but it was not till 1812 that its metrical character was recognized by the brothers Grimm.[4] Since that time numerous reprints and critical editions have been published, among which Lachmann’s text[5] holds the foremost rank as to critical exactness and sagacity, although some of the metrical rules laid down by Lachmann, and followed in his text, have since been shown not to be applicable to the Old German alliterative verse in which the Hildebrandslicd is written.[6]
- ↑ See Miillenhoff and Scherer, Denkmdiler, p. 264.
- ↑ See Grimm’s edition, and Uhland, Alte hoch- und niederdeutsche Volkslieder, i. 330 foll.
- ↑ See J. G. Eckhard, Commentarii de rebus Francie orientalis, Wiirzburg, i. 864 foil.
- ↑ Die beiden dltesten deutschen Gedichte aus dem 8'" Juhrh. .. . herausgegeben durch die Brider Grimm, Cassel, 1812.
- ↑ Given in Miillenhoff and Scherer, Denkméiler deutscher Poesie und Prosa, 2d ed., Berlin, 1873, No. ii. A lithographic facsimile of the MS. was published by W. Grimm, Gottingen, 1830, and a photographic by E. Sievers, Halle, 1872.
- ↑ See especially F. Vetter, Zum Muspilli, Vienna, 1872, and M. Rieger, Die alt- und angelsichsische Verskunst, Halle, 1876 (reprinted from the Zeitschrift fiir deutsche Philologie, vii. ).
