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her taretjj ^ i home jo Wsis t thejduties of a > Vi ^ k * ckftin&gr . Hwf de&tti follo \( % d Shortly after ; but the state iii which her family was now left would not ajlow of her resuming her situation At the palace . She was the eldest of the children ; and her mother being sickly and infirin , she felt it to be her duty to remain with her to undertake the charge of their
domestic concerns , and to educate her brother and sisters . . ¦ Not long after her father ' s death , and whilst she was thus laudably employed , she lost the friendship of the J ) uche ^ s Renata , and her intercourse
with the court was in consequence entirely broken off . Slie . mentions this event , in a letter to Curio , as one which had . given her great concern , and occasioned some inconvenience to
her family . The cause is no where fully explained . She merely hints that it was owing to the malicious detractions and misrepresentations of some ' unworthy persons who had prejudiced her benefactress against her . But this / circumstance , which at the time she regarded as a . severe calamity , she . afterwards viewed as the most
fortiinate occurrence of her life ; since it ) ed to a [ marriage connexion that was most agreeable to her feelings , and to a , steady adherence to the doctrines of
jhe Reformation , to which slxe ascribed her cjiief happiness . Whilst she was Hvijag ih ^ the seclusion of hsr family , she foiled an acquaintance with Andrew Xji * untler , a young German ,
eminently , skilled in the Greek and Latin languages , wto was then studying medicine a ^ Terrara , and afterwards took the aeg ^ ee <> f dpctor in th ^ tfaculty . Cppgeiji ^ l ity of tastes , and similarity of attapiDents , produced a' mutual ^ tt ^ chment , which' terminated irx their union .. 0 f , the disinterestedness o £
his jaffection for her , Olympia speaks with lively gratitude ,- —observing , that peittier her destitute condition , nor the farowps Qf tfi ^ e cp iirt , could restrain Kim ^ from seeking her " hand . Her mafnagcT f oo ^ pTace ~ abouV two ye ^ fs after the demise of hei * fa jtb < r , apd wfeeja she nmst have ,, feeeu twei ^ tytUree ye « ars of . a ^ e . She spoUj qfier-> y ^ r dfc rejnoved With her husband Ui to G&mmy > lejavinff with her > mother
tfarfte , ntittrrisigeable alters , and taking witltrdb « i ? ticribrether ' , theh about eiglit yeart ojdi in order to educate him un ^
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hood , where her husband was engaged professionally , they fixed their residence at Schweinfurt , in . Frariconia , which was Gnmtler ^ s native place . - * - As the Duchess Renata was warmly attached to the cause of the
Reformation , and persisted , notwithstanding the opposition of the Duke , who was a zealous Catholic , in educating her children in the principles which she had herself espoused , there can be no doubt but that Olympia must also
have embraced them whilst she resided at the palace . The subject of religion had , however , she confesses , occupied but little of her thoughts , aud she congratulates herself that by her seclusion from court , she was led to
consider it more attentively , and to embrace , with a firm conviction , the doctrines of the Reformers . After her settlement in Germany , she devoted herself with great earnestness to theological studies , and occasionally employed her pen in the composition of
devotional poetry in the Greek and Latin languages , which every where breathe a fervent spirit of piety , and display talents of the first order . Tlie high and unmixed satisfaction , which she derived from her new principles , doomed her to a perpetual exile from her native country . ' < Fbr , ardently as she was attached : to her mother and
sisters , of whom she always writes in the rarost afifeetiotiate terms , she would listen to no overtures to return to their society , with the certainty of being restrained in the public profession of her religion . Shq embraced , likewise , every opportunity to press uppi ^ the attention of fcer Italian . friends the
importance of the principles she had adopted , and to * urgei them to receive them with a faith equally firm , and maintain them with a constancy equally unwavering-. Writing to an iftti-Bfrtite female acquaintance in Italy , she thus expressed herself : *** I send you
some or JL * uther * 8 wtitiugs whicn , wJ&en I perused ' them , aflfeffdfed me very high fjfeasttrbi in 01 *^ ^^ they nqiay cointort wif L dfelj gTit ^ yOu ^ Q : pWce your dej > enxlence upon' Gp ' d ia these ! , studies ; implore him to eriliglfiten ydu with true "FeBgion * : yoif watFiibt be
repulsed / ' ^ iSfae sfeeiiieft partie ^ l ^ rly anxious that Luther ^ s \^ ork « shoWd be more generally known in fitf native
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722 Italian Reformation .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1822, page 722, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2519/page/2/
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