The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876.: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and ScienceVarious
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 23, April, 1876-September, 1876.: A Monthly Magazine of General Literature and Science
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
Albert Dürer was also often in communication with the sister of his
friend Wilibald. He, with the administrator of the convent, Kaspar
Nützel, and another companion, had gone in 1518 to the Reichstag at
Augsburg, where the painter was to take the old Emperor Maximilian’s
portrait. They wrote her a joint account of their doings there, which
she received in the same jesting spirit as it was written; for she
says she “cried for laughing” when she read it. She also touches on
the political questions of the day, and playfully gives them each his
lesson to learn in Augsburg. The convent administrator was to admire
in the Swabian Confederation “an example of strict observance”; the
secretary of the council, Lazarus Spengler, was to observe “the
apostolical life in common” of the members; and the painter to take
note of the fine buildings for which Augsburg was famous, in case they
might some day want good designs for the rebuilding of the convent
choir. She also bade them not to forget the “little gray wolf” among
the stately black and white habits of the religious of Augsburg (her
nuns wore a gray habit), and alluded to the three men as the captive
“sand-hares”—a name given to the burghers of Nuremberg, first in
scorn, but now become a mere jest.
Charitas’ mind was like a diamond of many facets; she was no angular,
sour ascetic, narrow in her sympathies and petrified in her
prejudices, but a genuine, warm-hearted woman, with as much love for
innocent mirth on the one hand as for the widest researches of
learning on the other. With her the words of her contemporary, Abbot
Trithemius, were true—“To know is to love”—and her affection for her
own family, no less than her appreciation of the intellectual movement
of the age, is shown in her voluminous correspondence. She and her
brother often exchanged little simple domestic presents, and she
delighted to send him sweetmeats, preserves, and cakes made in the
convent, often with her own or her nieces’ hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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