EBERHARD, ê'ber-hārd, OF BÉTHUNE: French grammarian and theologian; b. at Béthune (20 m. s.w. of Lille); flourished between 1100 and 1200. Of his life almost nothing is known, except that he was the author of two important works. The first of these is his Græcismus de figuris et octo partibus orationis, a poem of more than 2,000 verses, treating of rhetoric, prosody, grammar, and syntax, the whole without any logical arrangement. It was first edited by J. H. Metulinus (Paris, 1487). As a theologian Eberhard distinguished himself by his Liber antihæresis, in which he assailed the Cathari, then numerous in Flanders. This work is important as a source for the teachings of this sect. It was first edited by J. Gretser in his Trias scriptorum contra Waldenses (Ingolstadt, 1614), and contains two appendices, one a catalogue of older heresies, drawn from the Origines of Isidore of Seville, and the other a polemic against the Jews. A number of unimportant treatises, including the Labarintus, a poem on poetry, rhetoric, and grammar, are erroneously ascribed to this Eberhard.

(C. SCHMIDT†.)

 

Bibliography: Sources of information are indicated in U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources historiques du moyen âge, Paris, 1883. Consult J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Latina, ii. 218, Hamburg, 1734; Histoire, littéraire de la France, xvii. 129.