ABE 
ABECEDARIAN, /. [from the names of a, b, c, the 
three firft letters of the alphabet.] He that teaches or 
learns the alphabet, or firft rudiments of literature. 
ABEL, fecond fon of Adam and Eve, was a fhepherd. 
He offered to God fome of the firftlings of his flock, at 
the fame time that his brother Cain offered the fruits of 
the earth. God was pleafed with Abel’s oblation, but 
difpleafed with Cain’s; which fo exafperated the latter, 
that he rofe up againft his brother and killed him. Thefe 
are the only circumftances Mofes relates of him; though, 
■were we to take notice of the feveral particulars to which 
curiofity has given birth on this ocCafion, they would run 
to a very great length. But this will not be expedited. 
It is. remarkable, that the Greek churches, who celebrate 
the feafts of every other patriarch and prophet, have not 
done the fame honour to Abel. His name is not to be 
found in any catalogue of faints or martyrs till the tenth 
century; nor even in the new Romifh martyrology. How¬ 
ever he is prayed to, with fome other faints, in feveral 
Romifh litanies faid for perfons at the point of death. 
Abel Keramim, or Vincarum, beyond Jordan, in 
the country of the Ammonites, where Jephthah defeated 
them, feven miles diftant from 'Philadelphia, abounding 
in vines, and hence the name. It was alfo called Abela. 
Abel-Meholah, the country of the prophet Eliflia, 
fituate on this fide Jordan, between the valley of Jezreel 
and the village of Bethmaela in the plains of Jordan, 
where the Midianites were defeated by Gideon. Judges, 
vii. 22. 
Abel-Mizraim, called alfo the Threfhing-floor of 
Atad; fignifying the lamentation of the Egyptians; in 
allufion to the mourning for Jacob. Gen. i. 3, 10, 11. 
Suppofed to be near Hebron. 
Abel-Moschus, or Abelmush, /. in botany, the 
trivial name of a fpecies of the Hibiscus. 
Abel-Sattim, or Sittim, a town in the plains of 
Moab, to the north-eaft of the Dead Sea, not far from 
Jordan, where the Ifraelites committed fornication with 
the daughters of Moab. So called, probably, from the 
great number of fittim-trees there. 
ABELARD (Peter), one of the mod famous doctors 
of the twelfth century, was born at Palais near Nantz, in 
Brittany: he ivas well learned in divinity, philofophy, and 
the languages; but was particularly diftinguiihed by his 
fkill in logic, and his fondnefs for deputations, which led 
him to travel into feveral provinces in order to give pub¬ 
lic proof of his acutenefs in that fcience. 
After having baffled many antagonifts, he read leChires 
in divinity with great applaufe at Paris, where he boarded 
with a canon whofe name was Fulbert, and who had a 
very beautiful niece named Heloife. The canon ardently 
wifhed to fee this young lady make a figure among the 
learned, and Abelard was made her preceptor; but, in- 
ftead of inftrufting her in the fciences, he taught her to 
love. Abelard now performed his public functions very 
coldly, and wrote nothing but-amorous verfes. Heloife 
proving with child, Abelard fent her to a lifter of his in 
Brittany, where fhe was delivered of a fon. To foften 
the canon’s anger, he offered to marry Heloife privately; 
and the old man w'as better pleafed with the propofal than 
the niece; who, from a fingular excefs of paflion, chofe 
to be Abelard’s miftrefs rather than his wife. She mar¬ 
ried, however; but ufed often to proteft upon oath that 
/he was fingle, which provoked the canon to ufe her ill. 
Upon this, Abelard fent her to the monaftery of Argen- 
teuil; where fhe put on a religious habit, but did not take 
the veil. Heloife's relations confidering this as a fecond 
treachery, hired ruffians, who, forcing into his chamber 
in the dead of night, emafculated him. This infamous 
treatment made him fly to the gloom of a cloifter. He 
a (Turned the monaftic habit in the abbey of St. Dennis; 
but the diforders of that houfe foon drove him from 
thence. He was afterwards charged with herefy ; but 
after feveral perfections for his religious fentiments, he 
fettled in a folitude in the diocefe of Troies. where he 
Vol. I. No. 1. 
ABE 13 
built an oratory, to which he gave the name of the Para- 
clet. He was afterwards chofen fuperior of the abbey of 
Ruis, in the diocefe of Vannes; when the nuns being ex¬ 
pelled from the nunnery in which Heloife had been placed, 
he gave her his oratory, where Ihe fettled with fome of 
her After nuns, and became their priorefs.—-Abelard died 
in the priory of Marcellus at Chalons, April 21, 1142, 
aged fixty-three. His corpfe was fent to Heloife, who 
buried it in the Paraclet. He left feveral works: the 
mod celebrated of which are thofe tender letters' that 
pafled between him and Heloife, with an account of their 
misfortunes prefixed; which have been tranllated into 
Englilh, and immortalifed by the harmony of Mr. Pope’s 
numbers. 
ABEL-TREE,yi or Abele-tree, an obfolete name 
for a fpecies of the poplar. SeePopuLus. 
ABELIANS, Abeolites, or Abelonians, f. in 
church-hiftory, a fe£t of heretics mentioned by St. Auf- 
tin, which arofe in the diocefe of Hippo in Africa, and is 
fuppofed to have begun in the reign of Arcadius, and 
ended in that of Theodofius. Indeed it was not calculated 
for being of any long continuance. Thofe of this feCfc 
regulated marriage after the example of Abel; who, they 
pretended, was married, but died without ever having 
known his wife. They therefore allowed each man to 
marry one woman, but enjoined them to live in conti¬ 
nence; and, to keep up the fetft, when a man and woman 
entered into this fociety, they adopted a boy and a girl, 
who were to inherit their goods, and to marry upon the 
fame terms of not begetting children, but of adopting 
two of different fexes. 
ABELL A, anciently a town of Campania, near the 
river Clanius. The inhabitants were called Abellani, and 
faid to have been a colony of Chalcidians. The mix 
Avellana, called alfo Frameftina, or the hazel-nut, takes 
its name from this town, according to Macrobius. Now 
Avella. 
ABELLINUM, anciently a town of the Hirpini, a 
people of Apulia; diftant about a mile from the rivulet 
Sabbato, between Beneventum and Salernum. Pliny calls 
the inhabitants Abellinates, with the epithet Protopi, to 
diftinguifti them from the Abellinates Marfi. Now Avel- 
lino.—E. Ion. 15. 20. lat. 21. 
ABEN EZRA (Abraham), a celebrated rabbi, born 
at Toledo, in Spain, called by the Jews, The wife, great, 
and admirable, DoCtor, was a very able interpreter of the 
Holy Scriptures ;■ and was well Ikilled in grammar, poe¬ 
try, philofophy, aftronomy, and medicine. He was alfo 
a perfeCt mafter of the Arabic. His principal work is. 
Commentaries on the Old Teftament, which is much 
efteemed: thefe are printed in Bomberg’s and Buxtorf’s 
Hebrew Bibles. His ftyle is clear, elegant, concife, and 
much like that of the Holy Scriptures: he almoft always 
adheres to the literal fenfe, and every where gives proofs 
of his genius and'good fenfe : he, however, advances fome 
erroneous fentiments. The fcarceft of all his books is in- 
titled Jefud Mora; which is a theological work, intended 
as an exhortation to the ftudy of the Talmud. He died in 
1174; aged 75. 
Aben Meller, a learned rabbi, who wrote a com¬ 
mentary on the Old Teftament in Hebrew, Entitled, The' 
Perfection of Beauty. 
ABENAS, a town of France, in Languedoc and in the 
Lower Vivarais, feated on the river Ardefch, at the foot of 
the Cevennes. E. Ion. 4. 43. lat. 44. 40. 
ABENEL GAUBY, a fixed ftar of the fecond or third 
magnitude, on the fouth fcale of the conftellation Libra. 
ABENOW, a mountain of Suabia, in Germany, twen¬ 
ty-three miles from Friburg. It is the fource of the Da¬ 
nube, and gives name to a chain of mountains, extending 
from the Rhine to the Neckar, and from the Fcreft-Towns 
to the city of Thorftieim. 
ABENF-ADEj a mountainous diftriCt of Slewick; it 
has for its capital 
Abenrade, or Apenrade, a fiourifliing town, on a 
E fpacious 
