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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:35:22 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:35:22 -0700 |
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margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + + // --> + + /* XML end ]]>*/ + +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, +Volume 07, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 07 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Rossiter Johnson + Charles Horne + John Rudd + +Release Date: December 18, 2008 [EBook #27562] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT EVENTS, VOLUME 07 *** + + + + +Produced by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="frontispiece" id="frontispiece" /><img src= +"images/img1a.jpg" width="500" height="761" alt= +"Jeanne d'Arc stands, banner in hand, +during the coronation of Charles +VII before the high altar at Rheims." title="" /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src= +"images/img2a.jpg" width="500" height="1143" alt= +"Jeanne d'Arc stands, banner in hand, +during the coronation of Charles +VII before the high altar at Rheims." title="" /> +</div> + +<h1>THE GREAT EVENTS</h1> + +<h5>BY</h5> + +<h2>FAMOUS HISTORIANS</h2> + +<div class="box"> +A COMPREHENSIVE AND READABLE ACCOUNT OF THE WORLD'S +HISTORY, EMPHASIZING THE MORE IMPORTANT EVENTS, AND PRESENTING +THESE AS COMPLETE NARRATIVES IN THE MASTER-WORDS +OF THE MOST EMINENT HISTORIANS +</div> +<p class="indent"> </p> +<table width="85%" summary="heading" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="left">NON-SECTARIAN</td> +<td class="middle">NON-PARTISAN</td> +<td class="right">NON-SECTIONAL</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="indent"> </p> +<div class="box"> +ON THE PLAN EVOLVED FROM A CONSENSUS OF OPINIONS GATHERED +FROM THE MOST DISTINGUISHED SCHOLARS OF AMERICA +AND EUROPE, INCLUDING BRIEF INTRODUCTIONS BY SPECIALISTS +TO CONNECT AND EXPLAIN THE CELEBRATED NARRATIVES, ARRANGED +CHRONOLOGICALLY, WITH THOROUGH INDICES, BIBLIOGRAPHIES, +CHRONOLOGIES, AND COURSES OF READING +</div> + +<h4>EDITOR-IN-CHIEF</h4> + +<h3>ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D.</h3> + +<h4>ASSOCIATE EDITORS</h4> + +<h3>CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D.<br /> +JOHN RUDD, LL.D.</h3> + +<h4><i>With a staff of specialists</i></h4> + +<h3><i>VOLUME VII</i></h3> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;"><img src= +"images/ornament.png" class="noborder" width="100" height="41" alt= +"ornament." title="" /> +</div> + +<h3><b>The National Alumni</b></h3> + +<h4><small>COPYRIGHT, 1905,</small><br /> +<span class="smcap">By</span> THE NATIONAL ALUMNI</h4> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">v</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<h4>VOLUME VII</h4> + +<table width="100%" summary="contents" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="rightc" colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><small>page</small></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><i>An Outline Narrative of the Great Events</i>,</td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_xiii">xiii</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">CHARLES F. HORNE</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Dante Composes the</i> Divina Commedia <i>(<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1300-1318)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">RICHARD WILLIAM CHURCH</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Third Estate Joins in the Government of France (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> +1302)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">HENRI MARTIN</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>War of the Flemings with Philip the Fair of France +(<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1302)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">EYRE EVANS CROWE</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>First Swiss Struggle for Liberty (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1308)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">F. GRENFELL BAKER</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Battle of Bannockburn (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1314)</i>,,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">ANDREW LANG</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars</i></p></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Burning of Grand Master Molay (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1314)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">F. C. WOODHOUSE<br />HENRY HART MILMAN</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>James van Artevelde Leads a Flemish Revolt</i></p></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Edward III of England Assumes the Title of King of +France,(<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1337-1340)</i></p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_68">68</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">FRANÇOIS P. G. GUIZOT</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Battles of Sluys and Crécy (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1340-1346)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">SIR JOHN FROISSART</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">vi</a></span><p class="indent"><i>Modern Recognition of Scenic Beauty</i></p></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Crowning of Petrarch at Rome (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1341)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">JACOB BURCKHARDT</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Rienzi's Revolution in Rome (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1347)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">RICHARD LODGE</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance (Fourteenth +to Sixteenth Century)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>The Black Death Ravages Europe (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1348)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">J. F. C. HECKER<br />GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>First Turkish Dominion in Europe +Turks Seize Gallipoli (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1354)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">JOSEPH VON HAMMER-PURGSTALL</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Conspiracy and Death of Marino Falieri at Venice +(<span class="smcap">d.d.</span> 1355)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_154">154</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">MRS. MARGARET OLIPHANT</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Charles IV of Germany Publishes His Golden Bull +(<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1356)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">SIR ROBERT COMYN</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Insurrection of the Jacquerie in France (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1358)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_164">164</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">SIR JOHN FROISSART</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Conquests of Timur the Tartar (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1370-1405)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">EDWARD GIBBON</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1374)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">J. F. C. HECKER</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Election of Antipope Clement VII</i></p></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Beginning of the Great Schism (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1378)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">HENRY HART MILMAN</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Genoese Surrender to Venetians (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1380)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">HENRY HALLAM</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">vii</a></span><p class="indent"><i>Rebellion of Wat Tyler (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1381)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">JOHN LINGARD</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Wycliffe Translates the Bible into English (<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> +1382)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">J. PATERSON SMYTH</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>The Swiss Win Their Independence +Battle of Sempach (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1386-1389)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">F. GRENFELL BAKER</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> +1397)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">PAUL C. SINDING</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Discovery of the Canary Islands and the African +Coast</i></p></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Beginning of Negro Slave Trade (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1402)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_266">266</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">SIR ARTHUR HELPS</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Council of Constance (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1414)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">RICHARD LODGE</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Trial and Burning of John Huss</i></p></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>The Hussite Wars (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1415)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_294">294</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>The House of Hohenzollern Established in Brandenburg +(<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1415)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">THOMAS CARLYLE</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Battle of Agincourt</i></p></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>English Conquest of France (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1415)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_320">320</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">JAMES GAIRDNER</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Jeanne d'Arc's Victory at Orleans (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1429)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_333">333</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">SIR EDWARD S. CREASY</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">viii</a></span><p class="indent"><i>Trial and Execution of Jeanne d'Arc (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1431)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_350">350</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">JULES MICHELET</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Charles VII Issues His Pragmatic Sanction</i></p></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Emancipation of the Gallican Church (<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1438)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_370">370</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">W. HENLEY JERVIS<br />RENÉ F. ROHRBACHER</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Universal Chronology (<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1301-1438)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Page_385">385</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec"><span class="smcap2">JOHN RUDD</span></td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">ix<br />x<br />xi<br /></a>xii</span></p> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<h4>VOLUME VII</h4> + +<table width="100%" summary="illustrations" border="0"> + +<tr> +<td class="rightc" colspan="3"><span class="smcap"><small>page</small></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Jeanne d'Arc stands, banner in hand, during the +coronation of Charles VII, before the high altar +at Rheims (page 347)</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#frontispiece">Frontispiece</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec">Painting by J. E. Lenepveu.</td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="leftc" colspan="2"><p class="indent"><i>Richard II resigns the crown of England to Henry, +Duke of Lancaster, son of John of Gaunt, at +London</i>,</p></td> +<td class="rightc"><a href="#Richard_II">262</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="leftc"> </td> +<td class="middlec">Painting by Sir John Gilbert.</td> +<td class="rightc"> </td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">xiii</a></span></p> +<h2>AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE</h2> + +<h5>TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS,<br /> +AND CONSEQUENCES OF</h5> + +<h1>THE GREAT EVENTS</h1> + +<h5>(FROM DANTE TO GUTENBERG: THE EARLIER RENAISSANCE)</h5> + +<h3>CHARLES F. HORNE</h3> + + +<p><img src="images/ill_f.png" class= +"floatLeft" alt="F" />IFTY years ago the term "renaissance" had +a very definite meaning to scholars as representing +an exact period toward the close of +the fourteenth century when the world suddenly +reawoke to the beauty of the arts of +Greece and Rome, to the charm of their +gayer life, the splendor of their intellect. +We know now that there was no such sudden reawakening, that +Teutonic Europe toiled slowly upward through long centuries, +and that men learned only gradually to appreciate the finer side +of existence, to study the universe for themselves, and look with +their own eyes upon the life around them and the life beyond.</p> + +<p>Thus the word "renaissance" has grown to cover a vaguer +period, and there has been a constant tendency to push the date +of its beginning ever backward, as we detect more and more the +dimly dawning light amid the darkness of earlier ages. Of late, +writers have fallen into the way of calling Dante the "morning +star of the Renaissance"; and the period of the great poet's work, +the first decade of the fourteenth century, has certainly the advantage +of being characterized by three or four peculiarly striking +events which serve to typify the tendencies of the coming +age.</p> + +<p>In 1301 Dante was driven out of Florence, his native city-republic, +by a political strife. In this year, as he himself phrases +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">xiv</a></span> +it, he descended into hell; that is, he began those weary wanderings +in exile which ended only with his life, and which stirred in +him the deeps that found expression in his mighty poem, the +<i>Divina Commedia</i>.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> Throughout his masterpiece he speaks with +eager respect of the old Roman writers, and of such Greeks as +he knew—so we have admiration of the ancient intellect. He +also speaks bitterly of certain popes, as well as of other more +earthly tyrants—so we have the dawnings of democracy and of +religious revolt, of government by one's self and thought for one's +self, instead of submission to the guidance of others.</p> + +<p>More important even than these in its immediate results, +Dante, while he began his poem in Latin, the learned language +of the time, soon transposed and completed it in Italian, the corrupted +Latin of his commoner contemporaries, the tongue of his +daily life. That is, he wrote not for scholars like himself, but for +a wider circle of more worldly friends. It is the first great work +in any modern speech. It is in very truth the recognition of a +new world of men, a new and more practical set of merchant intellects +which, with their growing and vigorous vitality, were to +supersede the old.</p> + + +<p>In that same decade and in that same city of Florence, Giotto +was at work, was beginning modern art with his paintings, was +building the famous cathedral there, was perhaps planning his +still more famous bell-tower. Here surely was artistic wakening +enough.</p> + +<p>If we look further afield through Italy we find in 1303 another +scene tragically expressive of the changing times. The +French King, Philip the Fair, so called from his appearance, not +his dealings, had bitter cause of quarrel with the same Pope +Boniface VIII who had held the great jubilee of 1300. Philip's +soldiers, forcing their way into the little town of Anagni, to which +the Pope had withdrawn, laid violent hands upon his holiness. +If measured by numbers, the whole affair was trifling. So few +were the French soldiers that in a few days the handful of towns-folk +in Anagni were able to rise against them, expel them from +the place and rescue the aged Pope. He had been struck—beaten, +say not wholly reliable authorities—and so insulted that +rage and shame drove him mad, and he died.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">xv</a></span> +Not a sword in all Europe leaped from its scabbard to avenge +the martyr. Religious men might shudder at the sacrilege, but +the next Pope, venturing to take up Boniface's quarrel, died +within a few months under strong probabilities of poison; and +the next Pope, Clement V, became the obedient servant of the +French King. He even removed the seat of papal authority from +Rome to Avignon in France, and there for seventy years the +popes remained. The breakdown of the whole temporal power +of the Church was sudden, terrible, complete.</p> + +<h4>INCREASING POWER OF FRANCE</h4> + +<p>Following up his religious successes, Philip the Fair attacked +the mighty knights of the Temple, the most powerful of the religious +orders of knighthood which had fought the Saracens in +Jerusalem. The Templars, having found their warfare hopeless, +had abandoned the Holy Land and had dwelt for a generation +inglorious in the West. Philip suddenly seized the leading members +of the order, accused it of hideous crimes, and confiscated +all its vast wealth and hundreds of strong castles throughout +France. He secured from his French Pope approval of the extermination +of the entire order and the torture and execution of +its chiefs. Whether the charges against them were true or not, +their helplessness in the grip of the King shows clearly the low +ebb to which knighthood had fallen, and the rising power of the +monarchs. The day of feudalism was past.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">2</a></p> + +<p>We may read yet other signs of the age in the career of this +cruel, crafty King. To strengthen himself in his struggle against +the Pope, he called, in 1302, an assembly or "states-general" of +his people; and, following the example already established in +England, he gave a voice in this assembly to the "Third Estate," +the common folk or "citizens," as well as to the nobles and the +clergy. So even in France we find the people acquiring +power, though as yet this Third Estate speaks with but a timid +and subservient voice, requiring to be much encouraged by +its money-asking sovereigns, who little dreamed it would one +day be strong enough to demand a reckoning of all its tyrant +overlords.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">3</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">xvi</a></span></p> + +<p>Another event to be noted in this same year of 1302 took +place farther northward in King Philip's domains. The Flemish +cities Ghent, Liège, and Bruges had grown to be the great +centres of the commercial world, so wealthy and so populous +that they outranked Paris. The sturdy Flemish burghers had +not always been subject to France—else they had been less well +to-do. They regarded Philip's exactions as intolerable, and rebelled. +Against them marched the royal army of iron-clad +knights; and the desperate citizens, meeting these with no better +defence than stout leather jerkins, led them into a trap. At the +battle of Courtrai the knights charged into an unsuspected +ditch, and as they fell the burghers with huge clubs beat out +such brains as they could find within the helmets. It was subtlety +against stupidity, the merchant's shrewdness asserting itself +along new lines. King Philip had to create for himself a fresh +nobility to replenish his depleted stock.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">4</a></p> + +<p>The fact that there is so much to pause on in Philip's reign +will in itself suggest the truth, that France had grown the most +important state in Europe. This, however, was due less to +French strength than to the weakness of the empire, where rival +rulers were being constantly elected and wasting their strength +against one another. If Courtrai had given the first hint that +these iron-clad knights were not invincible in war, it was soon +followed by another. The Swiss peasants formed among themselves +a league to resist oppression. This took definite shape in +1308 when they rebelled openly against their Hapsburg overlords.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> +The Hapsburg duke of the moment was one of two rival +claimants for the title of emperor, and was much too busy to +attend personally to the chastisement of these presumptuous +boors. The army which he sent to do the work for him was met +by the Swiss at Morgarten, among their mountain passes, overwhelmed +with rocks, and then put to flight by one fierce charge +of the unarmored peasants. It took the Austrians seventy years +to forget that lesson, and when a later generation sent a second +army into the mountains it was overthrown at Sempach. Swiss +liberty was established on an unarguable basis.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a></p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvii" id="Page_xvii">xvii</a></span>A similar tale might be told of Bannockburn, where, under +Bruce, the Scotch common folk regained their freedom from the +English.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> Courtrai, Morgarten, Bannockburn! Clearly a new +force was growing up over all Europe, and a new spirit among +men. Knighthood, which had lost its power over kings, seemed +like to lose its military repute as well.</p> + +<p>The development of the age was, of course, most rapid in +Italy, where democracy had first asserted itself. In its train +came intellectual ability, and by the middle of the fourteenth +century Italy was in the full swing of the intellectual renaissance.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">8</a> +In 1341 Petrarch, recognized by all his contemporary +countrymen as their leading scholar and poet, was crowned with +a laurel wreath on the steps of the Capitol in Rome. This was +the formal assertion by the age of its admiration for intellectual +worth. To Petrarch is ascribed the earliest recognition of the +beauty of nature. He has been called the first modern man. In +reading his works we feel at last that we speak with one of our +own, with a friend who understands.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">9</a></p> + + +<h4>THE PERIOD OF DISASTER</h4> + +<p>Unfortunately, however, the democracy of Italy proved too +intense, too frenzied and unbalanced. Rienzi established a republic +in Rome and talked of the restoration of the city's ancient +rule. But he governed like a madman or an inflated fool, and +was slain in a riot of the streets.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">10</a> Scarce one of the famous cities +succeeded in retaining its republican form. Milan became a +duchy. Florence fell under the sway of the Medici. In Venice a +few rich families seized all authority, and while the fame and territory +of the republic were extended, its dogeship became a mere +figurehead. All real power was lodged in the dread and secret +council of three.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> Genoa was defeated and crushed in a great +naval contest with her rival, Venice.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> Everywhere tyrannies +stood out triumphant. The first modern age of representative +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xviii" id="Page_xviii">xviii</a></span>government was a failure. The cities had proved unable to protect +themselves against the selfish ambitions of their leaders.</p> + + +<p>In Germany and the Netherlands town life had been, as we +have seen, slower of development.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> Hence for these Northern +cities the period of decay had not yet come. In fact, the fourteenth +century marks the zenith of their power. Their great +trading league, the Hansa, was now fully established, and +through the hands of its members passed all the wealth of Northern +Europe. The league even fought a war against the King of +Denmark and defeated him. The three northern states, Denmark, +Norway, and Sweden, fell almost wholly under the dominance +of the Hansa, until, toward the end of the century, Queen +Margaret of Denmark, "the Semiramis of the North," united the +three countries under her sway, and partly at least upraised +them from their sorry plight.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">14</a></p> + +<p>On the whole this was not an era to which Europe can look +back with pride. The empire was a scene of anarchy. One of +its wrangling rulers, Charles IV, recognizing that the lack of an +established government lay at the root of all the disorder, tried +to mend matters by publishing his "Golden Bull," which exactly +regulated the rules and formulæ to be gone through in +choosing an emperor, and named the seven "electors" who were +to vote. This simplified matters so far as the repeatedly contested +elections went; but it failed to strike to the real difficulty. +The Emperor remained elective and therefore weak.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">15</a></p> + +<p>Moreover, in 1346 the "Black Death," most terrible of all +the repeated plagues under which the centuries previous to our +own have suffered, began to rear its dread form over terror-stricken +Europe.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">16</a> It has been estimated that during the three +years of this awful visitation one-third of the people of Europe +perished. Whole cities were wiped out. In the despair and desolation +of the period of scarcity that followed, humanity became +hysterical, and within a generation that oddest of all the extravagances +of the Middle Ages, the "dancing mania," rose to its +height. Men and women wandered from town to town, espe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xix" id="Page_xix">xix</a></span>cially +in Germany, dancing frantically, until in their exhaustion +they would beg the bystanders to beat them or even jump on +them to enable them to stop.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">17</a></p> + + +<p>France and England were also in desolation. The long +"Hundred Years' War" between them began in 1340. France +was not averse to it. In fact, her King, Philip of Valois, rather +welcomed the opportunity of wresting away Guienne, the last +remaining French fief of the English kings. France, as we have +seen, was regarded as the strongest land of Europe. England was +thought of as little more than a French colony, whose Norman +dukes had in the previous century been thoroughly chastised +and deprived of half their territories by their overlord. To be +sure, France was having much trouble with her Flemish cities, +which were in revolt again under the noted brewer-nobleman, +Van Artevelde,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> yet it seemed presumption for England to attack +her—England, so feeble that she had been unable to avenge her +own defeat by the half-barbaric Scots at Bannockburn.</p> + +<p>But the English had not nearly so small an opinion of themselves +as had the rest of Europe. The heart of the nation had not +been in that strife against the Scots, a brave and impoverished +people struggling for freedom. But hearts and pockets, too, +welcomed the quarrel with France, overbearing France, that +plundered their ships when they traded with their friends the +Flemings. The Flemish wool trade was at this time a main +source of English wealth, so Edward III of England, than whom +ordinarily no haughtier aristocrat existed, made friends with the +brewer Van Artevelde, and called him "gossip" and visited him +at Ghent, and presently Flemings and English were allied in a +defiance of France. By asserting a vague ancestral claim to the +French throne, Edward eased the consciences of his allies, who +had sworn loyalty to France; and King Philip had on his hands +a far more serious quarrel than he realized.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">19</a></p> + +<p>In England's first great naval victory, Edward destroyed the +French fleet at Sluys and so started his country on its wonderful +career of ocean dominance. Moreover, his success established +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xx" id="Page_xx">xx</a></span>from the start that the war should be fought out in France and +not in England.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">20</a> Then, in 1346, he won his famous victory of +Crécy against overwhelming numbers of his enemies. It has +been said that cannon were effectively used for the first time at +Crécy, and it was certainly about this time that gunpowder began +to assume a definite though as yet subordinate importance +in warfare. But we need not go so far afield to explain the English +victory. It lay in the quality of the fighting men. Through +a century and a half of freedom, England had been building up +a class of sturdy yeomen, peasants who, like the Swiss, lived +healthy, hearty, independent lives. France relied only on her nobles; +her common folk were as yet a helpless herd of much shorn +sheep. The French knights charged as they had charged at +Courtrai, with blind, unreasoning valor; and the English peasants, +instead of fleeing before them, stood firm and, with deadly +accuracy of aim, discharged arrow after arrow into the soon disorganized +mass. Then the English knights charged, and completed +what the English yeomen had begun.</p> + + +<p>Poitiers, ten years later, repeated the same story; and what +with the Black Death sweeping over the land, and these terrible +English ravaging at will, France sank into an abyss of misery +worse even than that which had engulfed the empire. The unhappy +peasantry, driven by starvation into frenzied revolt, +avenged their agony upon the nobility by hideous plunderings +and burnings of the rich châteaux.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> A partial peace with England +was patched up in 1360; but the "free companies" of mercenary +soldiers, who had previously been ravaging Italy, had +now come to take their pleasure in the French carnival of crime, +and so the plundering and burning went on until the fair land +was wellnigh a wilderness, and the English troops caught disease +from their victims and perished in the desolation they had +helped to make. By simply refusing to fight battles with them +and letting them starve, the next French king, Charles V, won +back almost all his father had lost; and before his death, in 1380, +the English power in France had fallen again almost to where it +stood at the beginning of the war.</p> + +<p>Edward III had died, brooding over the emptiness of his +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxi" id="Page_xxi">xxi</a></span>great triumph. His son the Black Prince had died, cursing the +falsity of Frenchmen. England also had gone through the +great tragedy of the Black Death and her people, like those of +France, had been driven to the point of rebellion—though with +them this meant no more than that they felt themselves over-taxed.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">22</a></p> + +<p>The latter part of the fourteenth century must, therefore, be +regarded as a period of depression in European civilization, of +retrograde movement during which the wheels of progress had +turned back. It even seemed as though Asia would once more +and perhaps with final success reassert her dominion over helpless +Europe. The Seljuk Turks who, in 1291, had conquered +Acre, the last European stronghold in the Holy Land, had lost +their power; but a new family of the Turkish race, the one that +dwells in Europe to-day, the Osmanlis, had built up an empire +by conquest over their fellows, and had begun to wrest province +after province from the feeble Empire of the East. In 1354 their +advance brought them across the Bosporus and they seized +their first European territory.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">23</a> Soon they had spread over most +of modern Turkey. Only the strong-walled Constantinople held +out, while its people cried frantically to the West for help. The +invaders ravaged Hungary. A crusade was preached against +them; but in 1396 the entire crusading army, united with all the +forces of Hungary, was overthrown, almost exterminated in the +battle of Nicopolis.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was only a direct providence that saved Europe. +Another Tartar conqueror, Timur the Lame, or Tamburlaine, had +risen in the Far East.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> Like Attila and Genghis Khan he swept +westward asserting sovereignty. The Sultan of the Turks recalled +all his armies from Europe to meet this mightier and more +insistent foe. A gigantic battle, which vague rumor has measured +in quite unthinkable numbers of combatants and slain, was +fought at Angora in 1402. The Turks were defeated and subjugated +by the Tartars. Timur's empire, being founded on no +real unity, dissolved with his death, and the various subject nations +reasserted their independence. Yet Europe was granted a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxii" id="Page_xxii">xxii</a></span>considerable breathing space before the Turks once more felt +able to push their aggressions westward.</p> + + + +<h4>THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE</h4> + +<p>Toward the close of this unlucky fourteenth century a marked +religious revival extended over Europe. Perhaps men's sufferings +had caused it. Many sects of reformers appeared, protesting +sometimes against the discipline, sometimes the doctrines, +of the Church. In Germany Nicholas of Basel established the +"Friends of God." In England Wycliffe wrote the earliest +translation of the Bible into any of our modern tongues.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">25</a> The +Avignon popes shook off their long submission to France and +returned to Italy, to a Rome so desolate that they tell us not ten +thousand people remained to dwell amid its stupendous ruins. +Unfortunately this return only led the papacy into still deeper +troubles. Several of the cardinals refused to recognize the Roman +Pope and elected another, who returned to Avignon. This +was the beginning of the "Great Schism" in the Church.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> For +forty years there were two, sometimes three, claimants to the +papal chair. The effect of their struggles was naturally to lessen +still further that solemn veneration with which men had once +looked up to the accepted vicegerent of God on earth. Hitherto +the revolt against the popes had only assailed their political supremacy; +but now heresies that included complete denial of the +religious authority of the Church began everywhere to arise. In +England Wycliffe's preachings and pamphlets grew more and +more opposed to Roman doctrine. In Bohemia John Huss not +only said, as all men did, that the Church needed reform, but, going +further, he refused obedience to papal commands.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">27</a> In short, +the reformers, finding themselves unable to purify the Roman +Church according to their views, began to deny its sacredness +and defy its power.</p> + + +<p>At length an unusually energetic though not oversuccessful +emperor, Sigismund, the same whom the Turks had defeated at +Nicopolis, persuaded the leaders of the Church to unite with him +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiii" id="Page_xxiii">xxiii</a></span>in calling a grand council at Constance.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">28</a> This council ended the +great schism and restored order to the Church by securing the rule +of a single pope. It also burned John Huss as a heretic, and +thereby left on Sigismund's hands a fierce rebellion among the +reformer's Bohemian followers. The war lasted for a generation, +and during its course all the armies of Germany were repeatedly +defeated by the fanatic Hussites.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">29</a></p> + +<p>Another interesting performance of the Emperor Sigismund +was that, being deep in debt, he sold his "electorate" of Brandenburg +to a friend, a Hohenzollern, and thus established as one +of the four chief families of the empire those Hohenzollerns who +rose to be kings of Prussia and have in our own day supplanted +the Hapsburgs as emperors of Germany.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">30</a> Also worth noting of +Sigismund is the fact that during the sitting of his Council of +Constance he made a tour of Europe to persuade all the princes +and various potentates to join it. When he reached England he +was met by a band of Englishmen who waded into the sea to demand +whether by his imperial visit he meant to assert any supremacy +over England. Sigismund assured them he did not, +and was allowed to land. We may look to this English parade of +independence as our last reminder of the old mediæval conception +of the Emperor as being at least in theory the overlord of +the whole of Europe.</p> + + +<h4>LATTER HALF OE THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR</h4> + +<p>By this time England had in fact recovered from her period +of temporary disorder and depression. King Richard II, the +feeble son of the Black Prince, had been deposed in 1399,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">31</a> and a +new and vigorous line of rulers, the Lancastrians, reached their +culmination in Henry V (1415-1422). Henry revived the French +quarrel, and paralleled Crécy and Poitiers with a similar victory +at Agincourt.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">32</a> The French King was a madman, and, aided by +a civil war among the French nobility, Henry soon had his neighbor's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxiv" id="Page_xxiv">xxiv</a></span> +kingdom seemingly helpless at his feet. By the treaty of +Troyes he was declared the heir to the French throne, married +the mad King's daughter, and dwelt in Paris as regent of the +kingdom.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">33</a></p> + + +<p>The Norman conquest of England seemed balanced by a +similar English conquest of France. But the chances of fate are +many. Both Henry and his insane father-in-law died in the +same year, and while Henry left only a tiny babe to succeed to +his claims, the French King left a full-grown though rather worthless +son. This young man, Charles VII, continued to deny the +English authority, from a safe distance in Southern France. +He made, however, no effort to assert himself or retrieve his fortunes; +and the English captains in the name of their baby King +took possession of one fortress after another, till, in 1429, Orleans +was the only French city of rank still barring their way from +Charles and the far south.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">34</a></p> + +<p>Then came the sudden, wonderful arousing of the French +under their peasant heroine, Jeanne d'Arc, and her tragic capture +and execution.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">35</a> At last even the French peasantry were +roused; and the French nobles forgot their private quarrels and +turned a united front against the invaders. The leaderless English +lost battle after battle, until of all France they retained only +Edward III's first conquest, the city of Calais.</p> + +<p>France, a regenerated France, turned upon the popes of the +Council of Constance, and, remembering how long she had held +the papacy within her own borders, asserted at least a qualified +independence of the Romans by the "Pragmatic Sanction" +which established the Gallican Church.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">36</a></p> + +<p>This semi-defiance of the Pope was encouraged by King +Charles, who, in fact, made several shrewd moves to secure the +power which his good-fortune, and not his abilities, had won. +Among other innovations he established a "standing army," +the first permanent body of government troops in Teutonic Europe. +By this step he did much to alter the mediæval into the +modern world; he did much to establish that supremacy of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xxv" id="Page_xxv">xxv</a></span>kings over both nobles and people which continued in France +and more or less throughout all Europe for over three centuries +to follow.</p> + + +<p>Another sign of the coming of a new and more vigorous era +is to be seen in the beginning of exploration down the Atlantic +coast of Africa by the Portuguese, and their discovery and settlement +of the Canary Isles. As a first product of their voyages +the explorers introduced negro slavery into Europe<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">37</a>—a grim +hint that the next age with increasing power was to face increasing +responsibilities as well.</p> + +<p>An even greater change was coming, was already glimmering +into light. In that same year of King Charles' Pragmatic +Sanction (1438), though yet unknown to warring princes and +wrangling churchmen, John Gutenberg, in a little German workshop, +had evolved the idea of movable types, that is, of modern +printing. From his press sprang the two great modern genii, +education and publicity, which have already made tyrannies +and slaveries impossible, pragmatic sanctions unnecessary, and +which may one day do as much for standing armies.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">1</a></span></p> +<h2>DANTE COMPOSES THE "DIVINA COMMEDIA"</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1300-1318</h6> + +<h3>RICHARD WILLIAM CHURCH</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Out of what may be called the civil and religious storm-and-stress +period through which the Middle passed into the modern age, there +came a great literary foregleam of the new life upon which the world was +about to enter. From Italy, where the European ferment, both in its +political and its spiritual character, mainly centred, came the prophecy +of the new day, in a poet's "vision of the invisible world"—Dante's <i>Divina +Commedia</i>—wherein also the deeper history of the visible world of +man was both embodied from the past and in a measure predetermined +for the human race.</p> + +<p>Dante's great epic was called by him a comedy because its ending was +not tragical, but "happy"; and admiration gave it the epithet "divine." +It is in three parts—<i>Inferno</i> (hell), <i>Purgatorio</i> (purgatory), and <i>Paradiso</i> +(paradise). It has been made accessible to English readers in the metrical +translations of Carey, Longfellow, Norton, and others, and in the excellent +prose version (<i>Inferno</i>) of John Aitken Carlyle, brother of Thomas +Carlyle.</p> + +<p>Dante (originally Durante) Alighieri was born at Florence in May, +1265, and died at Ravenna September 14, 1321. Both the <i>Divina Commedia</i> +and his other great work, the <i>Vita Nuova</i> (the new life), narrate +the love—either romantic or passionate—with which he was inspired by +Beatrice Portinari, whom he first saw when he was nine years old and +Beatrice eight. His whole future life and work are believed to have +been determined by this ideal attachment. But an equally noteworthy +fact of his literary career is that his works were produced in the midst of +party strifes wherein the poet himself was a prominent actor. In the +bitter feuds of the Guelfs and Ghibellines he bore the sufferings of failure, +persecution, and exile. But above all these trials rose his heroic +spirit and the sublime voice of his poems, which became a quickening +prophecy, realized in the birth of Italian and of European literature, in +the whole movement of the Renaissance, and in the ever-advancing development +of the modern world.</p> + +<p>Church's clear-sighted interpretations of the mind and life of Dante, +and of the history-making <i>Commedia</i>, attest the importance of including +the poet and his work in this record of Great Events.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span> +<img src="images/cap_t.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="T" />HE <i>Divina Commedia</i> is one of the landmarks of history. +More than a magnificent poem, more than the beginning +of a language and the opening of a national literature, more than +the inspirer of art and the glory of a great people, it is one of +those rare and solemn monuments of the mind's power which +measure and test what it can reach to, which rise up ineffaceably +and forever as time goes on marking out its advance by grander +divisions than its centuries, and adopted as epochs by the consent +of all who come after. It stands with the <i>Iliad</i> and Shakespeare's +plays, with the writings of Aristotle and Plato, with the +<i>Novum Organon</i> and the <i>Principia</i>, with Justinian's Code, with +the Parthenon and St. Peter's. It is the first Christian poem; and +it opens European literature, as the <i>Iliad</i> did that of Greece and +Rome. And, like the <i>Iliad</i>, it has never become out of date; it accompanies +in undiminished freshness the literature which it began.</p> + +<p>We approach the history of such works, in which genius +seems to have pushed its achievements to a new limit. Their +bursting out from nothing, and gradual evolution into substance +and shape, cast on the mind a solemn influence. They +come too near the fount of being to be followed up without our +feeling the shadows which surround it. We cannot but fear, +cannot but feel ourselves cut off from this visible and familiar +world—as we enter into the cloud. And as with the processes +of nature, so it is with those offsprings of man's mind by which +he has added permanently one more great feature to the world, +and created a new power which is to act on mankind to the end. +The mystery of the inventive and creative faculty, the subtle +and incalculable combinations by which it was led to its work, +and carried through it, are out of reach of investigating thought. +Often the idea recurs of the precariousness of the result; by +how little the world might have lost one of its ornaments—by +one sharp pang, or one chance meeting, or any other among +the countless accidents among which man runs his course. +And then the solemn recollection supervenes that powers were +formed, and life preserved, and circumstances arranged, and +actions controlled, and thus it should be; and the work which +man has brooded over, and at last created, is the foster-child +too of that "Wisdom which reaches from end to end, strongly +and sweetly disposing of all things."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span></p> + +<p>It does not abate these feelings that we can follow in some +cases and to a certain extent the progress of a work. Indeed, +the sight of the particular accidents among which it was developed—which +belong perhaps to a heterogeneous and wildly +discordant order of things, which are out of proportion and out +of harmony with it, which do not explain it; which have, as it +seems to us, no natural right to be connected with it, to bear on +its character, or contribute to its accomplishment; to which we +feel, as it were, ashamed to owe what we can least spare, yet on +which its forming mind and purpose were dependent, and with +which they had to conspire—affects the imagination even more +than cases where we see nothing. We are tempted less to +musing and wonder by the <i>Iliad</i>, a work without a history, cut +off from its past, the sole relic and vestige of its age, unexplained +in its origin and perfection, than by the <i>Divina Commedia</i>, +destined for the highest ends and most universal sympathy, +yet the reflection of a personal history, and issuing seemingly +from its chance incidents.</p> + +<p>The <i>Divina Commedia</i> is singular among the great works +with which it ranks, for its strong stamp of personal character +and history. In general we associate little more than the name—not +the life—of a great poet with his works; personal interest +belongs more usually to greatness in its active than its +creative forms. But the whole idea and purpose of the <i>Commedia</i>, +as well as its filling up and coloring, are determined by +Dante's peculiar history. The loftiest, perhaps, in its aim +and flight of all poems, it is also the most individual; the writer's +own life is chronicled in it, as well as the issues and upshot +of all things. It is at once the mirror to all time of the sins +and perfections of men, of the judgments and grace of God, and +the record, often the only one, of the transient names, and local +factions, and obscure ambitions, and forgotten crimes of the +poet's own day; and in that awful company to which he leads +us, in the most unearthly of his scenes, we never lose sight of +himself. And when this peculiarity sends us to history, it seems +as if the poem which was to hold such a place in Christian literature +hung upon and grew out of chance events, rather than the +deliberate design of its author. History, indeed, here, as generally, +is but a feeble exponent of the course of growth in a great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">4</a></span> +mind and great ideas. It shows us early a bent and purpose—the +man conscious of power and intending to use it—and +then the accidents among which he worked; but how the current +of purpose threaded its way among them, how it was thrown +back, deflected, deepened by them, we cannot learn from history.</p> + +<p>It presents a broken and mysterious picture. A boy of +quick and enthusiastic temper grows up into youth in a dream +of love. The lady of his mystic passion dies early. He dreams +of her still, not as a wonder of earth, but as a saint in paradise, +and relieves his heart in an autobiography, a strange and perplexing +work of fiction—quaint and subtle enough for a metaphysical +conceit; but, on the other hand, with far too much of +genuine and deep feeling. It is a first essay; he closes it abruptly +as if dissatisfied with his work, but with the resolution +of raising at a future day a worthy monument to the memory +of her whom he has lost. It is the promise and purpose of a +great work. But a prosaic change seems to come over his half-ideal +character. The lover becomes the student—the student +of the thirteenth century—struggling painfully against difficulties, +eager and hot after knowledge, wasting eyesight and +stinting sleep, subtle, inquisitive, active-minded and sanguine, +but omnivorous, overflowing with dialectical forms, loose in +premise and ostentatiously rigid in syllogism, fettered by the +refinements of half-awakened taste and the mannerisms of the +Provençals.</p> + +<p>Boethius and Cicero and the mass of mixed learning within +his reach are accepted as the consolation of his human griefs; +he is filled with the passion of universal knowledge, and the +desire to communicate it. Philosophy has become the lady of +his soul—to write allegorical poems in her honor, and to comment +on them with all the apparatus of his learning in prose, +his mode of celebrating her. Further, he marries; it is said, +not happily. The antiquaries, too, have disturbed romance by +discovering that Beatrice also was married some years before +her death. He appears, as time goes on, as a burgher of Florence, +the father of a family, a politician, an envoy, a magistrate, +a partisan, taking his full share in the quarrels of the day.</p> + +<p>Beatrice reappears—shadowy, melting at times into symbol<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span> +and figure—but far too living and real, addressed with too intense +and natural feeling, to be the mere personification of anything. +The lady of the philosophical Canzoni has vanished. +The student's dream has been broken, as the boy's had been; +and the earnestness of the man, enlightened by sorrow, overleaping +the student's formalities and abstractions, reverted in +sympathy to the earnestness of the boy, and brooded once more +on that saint in paradise, whose presence and memory had once +been so soothing, and who now seemed a real link between him +and that stable country "where the angels are in peace." +Round her image, the reflection of purity and truth and forbearing +love, was grouped that confused scene of trouble and +effort, of failure and success, which the poet saw round him; +round her image it arranged itself in awful order—and that +image, not a metaphysical abstraction, but the living memory, +freshened by sorrow, and seen through the softening and hallowing +vista of years, of Beatrice Portinari—no figment of imagination, +but God's creature and servant. A childish love, dissipated +by heavy sorrow—a boyish resolution, made in a +moment of feeling, interrupted, though it would be hazardous +to say, in Dante's case, laid aside, for apparently more manly +studies, gave the idea and suggested the form of the "sacred +poem of earth and heaven."</p> + +<p>And the occasion of this startling unfolding of the poetic +gift, of this passage of a soft and dreamy boy into the keenest, +boldest, sternest of poets, the free and mighty leader of European +song, was, what is not ordinarily held to be a source of +poetical inspiration—the political life. The boy had sensibility, +high aspirations, and a versatile and passionate nature; +the student added to this energy, various learning, gifts of +language, and noble ideas on the capacities and ends of man. +But it was the factions of Florence which made Dante a great +poet.</p> + +<p>The connection of these feuds with Dante's poem has given +to the Middle-Age history of Italy an interest of which it is not +undeserving in itself, full as it is of curious exhibitions of character +and contrivance, but to which politically it cannot lay +claim, amid the social phenomena, so far grander in scale and +purpose and more felicitous in issue, of other western nations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">6</a></span> +It is remarkable for keeping up an antique phase, which, in +spite of modern arrangements, it has not yet lost. It is a history +of cities. In ancient history all that is most memorable and +instructive gathers round cities; civilization and empire were +concentrated within walls; and it baffled the ancient mind to +conceive how power should be possessed and wielded by numbers +larger than might be collected in a single market-place. +The Roman Empire, indeed, aimed at being one in its administration +and law; and it was not a nation nor were its provinces +nations, yet everywhere but in Italy it prepared them for +becoming nations. And while everywhere else parts were +uniting and union was becoming organization—and neither +geographical remoteness nor unwieldiness of number nor local +interests and differences were untractable obstacles to that +spirit of fusion which was at once the ambition of the few and +the instinct of the many; and cities, even where most powerful, +had become the centres of the attracting and joining forces, +knots in the political network—while this was going on more +or less happily throughout the rest of Europe, in Italy the +ancient classic idea lingered in its simplicity, its narrowness +and jealousy, wherever there was any political activity. The +history of Southern Italy, indeed, is mainly a foreign one—the +history of modern Rome merges in that of the papacy; but +Northern Italy has a history of its own, and that is a history +of separate and independent cities—points of reciprocal and +indestructible repulsion, and within, theatres of action where +the blind tendencies and traditions of classes and parties +weighed little on the freedom of individual character, and citizens +could watch and measure and study one another with the +minuteness of private life.</p> + +<p>Dante, like any other literary celebrity of the time, was not +less from the custom of the day than from his own purpose a +public man. He took his place among his fellow-citizens; he +went out to war with them; he fought, it is said, among the +skirmishers at the great Guelf victory at Campaldino; to qualify +himself for office in the democracy, he enrolled himself in one +of the guilds of the people, and was matriculated in the "art" +of the apothecaries; he served the state as its agent abroad; he +went on important missions to the cities and courts of Italy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">7</a></span>according +to a Florentine tradition, which enumerates fourteen +distinct embassies, even to Hungary and France. In the memorable +year of jubilee, 1300, he was one of the priors of the +Republic. There is no shrinking from fellowship and coöperation +and conflict with the keen or bold men of the market-place +and council hall, in that mind of exquisite and, as drawn by +itself, exaggerated sensibility. The doings and characters of +men, the workings of society, the fortunes of Italy, were watched +and thought of with as deep an interest as the courses of the +stars, and read in the real spectacle of life with as profound +emotion as in the miraculous page of Vergil; and no scholar +ever read Vergil with such feeling—no astronomer ever watched +the stars with more eager inquisitiveness. The whole man +opens to the world around him; all affections and powers, soul +and sense, diligently and thoughtfully directed and trained, with +free and concurrent and equal energy, with distinct yet harmonious +purposes, seek out their respective and appropriate objects, +moral, intellectual, natural, spiritual, in that admirable scene and +hard field where man is placed to labor and love, to be exercised, +proved, and judged.</p> + +<p>The outlines of this part of Dante's history are so well known +that it is not necessary to dwell on them; and more than the outlines +we know not. The family quarrels came to a head, issued +in parties, and the parties took names; they borrowed them +from two rival factions in a neighboring town, Pistoia, whose +feud was imported into Florence; and the Guelfs became divided +into the Black Guelfs, who were led by the Donati, and the +White Guelfs, who sided with Cerchi. It is still professed to be +but a family feud, confined to the great houses; but they were +too powerful and Florence too small for it not to affect the +whole Republic. The middle classes and the artisans looked on, +and for a time not without satisfaction, at the strife of the great +men; but it grew evident that one party must crush the other +and become dominant in Florence; and of the two, the Cerchi +and their White adherents were less formidable to the democracy +than the unscrupulous and overbearing Donati, with their +military renown and lordly tastes; proud not merely of being +nobles, but Guelf nobles; always loyal champions, once the +martyrs, and now the hereditary assertors, of the great Guelf<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span> +cause. The Cerchi, with less character and less zeal, but rich, +liberal, and showy, and with more of rough kindness and vulgar +good-nature for the common people, were more popular in +Guelf Florence than the <i>Parte Guelfa</i>; and, of course, the Ghibellines +wished them well.</p> + +<p>Both the contemporary historians of Florence lead us to +think that they might have been the governors and guides of +the Republic—if they had chosen, and had known how; +and both, though condemning the two parties equally, seem +to have thought that this would have been the best result +for the state. But the accounts of both, though they are very +different writers, agree in their scorn of the leaders of the White +Guelfs. They were upstarts, purse-proud, vain, and coarse-minded; +and they dared to aspire to an ambition which they +were too dull and too cowardly to pursue, when the game was +in their hands. They wished to rule; but when they might, +they were afraid. The commons were on their side, the moderate +men, the party of law, the lovers of republican government, +and for the most part the magistrates; but they shrank +from their fortune, "more from cowardice than from goodness, +because they exceedingly feared their adversaries." Boniface +VIII had no prepossessions in Florence, except for energy and +an open hand; the side which was most popular he would have +accepted and backed. But he said, "<i>Io non voglio perdere gli +uomini perle femminelle</i>."<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">38</a> If the Black party furnished types +for the grosser or fiercer forms of wickedness in the poet's +hell, the White party surely were the originals of that picture +of stupid and cowardly selfishness, in the miserable crowd +who moan and are buffeted in the vestibule of the Pit, mingled +with the angels who dared neither to rebel nor be faithful, +but "were for themselves"; and whoever it may be who is +singled out in the <i>setta dei cattivi</i>, for deeper and special scorn—he,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Che fece per vilta il gran rifinto,"<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">39</a></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>the idea was derived from the Cerchi in Florence.</p> + + + +<p>Of his subsequent life, history tells us little more than the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> +general character. He acted for a time in concert with the +expelled party, when they attempted to force their way back +to Florence; he gave them up at last in scorn and despair; but +he never returned to Florence. And he found no new home +for the rest of his days. Nineteen years, from his exile to his +death, he was a wanderer. The character is stamped on his +writings. History, tradition, documents, all scanty or dim, do +but disclose him to us at different points, appearing here and +there, we are not told how or why. One old record, discovered +by antiquarian industry, shows him in a village church near +Florence, planning with the Cerchi and the White party an +attack on the Black Guelfs. In another, he appears in the Val +di Magra, making peace between its small potentates; in another, +as the inhabitant of a certain street in Padua. The traditions +of some remote spots about Italy still connect his name with a +ruined tower, a mountain glen, a cell in a convent. In the +recollections of the following generation, his solemn and melancholy +form mingled reluctantly, and for a while, in the brilliant +court of the Scaligers; and scared the women, as a visitant of the +other world, as he passed by their doors in the streets of Verona. +Rumor brings him to the West—with probability to Paris, more +doubtfully to Oxford. But little that is certain can be made +out about the places where he was honored and admired, +and, it may be, not always a welcome guest, till we find him +sheltered, cherished, and then laid at last to rest, by the lords of +Ravenna. There he still rests, in a small, solitary chapel, +built, not by a Florentine, but a Venetian. Florence, "that +mother of little love," asked for his bones, but rightly asked in +vain. His place of repose is better in those remote and forsaken +streets "by the shore of the Adrian Sea," hard by the last relics +of the Roman Empire—the mausoleum of the children of +Theodosius, and the mosaics of Justinian—than among the assembled +dead of St. Croce, or amid the magnificence of Santa +Maria del Fiore.</p> + +<p>The <i>Commedia</i>, at the first glance, shows the traces of its +author's life. It is the work of a wanderer. The very form in +which it is cast is that of a journey, difficult, toilsome, perilous, +and full of change. It is more than a working out of that +touching phraseology of the Middle Ages in which "the way"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> +was the technical theological expression for this mortal life; and +"viator" meant man in his state of trial, as "comprehensor" +meant man made perfect, having attained to his heavenly +country. It is more than merely this. The writer's mind is +full of the recollections and definite images of his various journeys. +The permanent scenery of the <i>inferno</i> and <i>purgatorio</i>, +very variously and distinctly marked, is that of travel. The +descent down the sides of the Pit, and the ascent of the Sacred +Mountain, show one familiar with such scenes—one who had +climbed painfully in perilous passes, and grown dizzy on the +brink of narrow ledges over sea or torrent. It is scenery from +the gorges of the Alps and Apennines, or the terraces and +precipices of the Riviera. Local reminiscences abound. The +severed rocks of the Adige Valley—the waterfall of St. Benedetto; +the crags of Pietra-pana and St. Leo, which overlook the +plains of Lucca and Ravenna; the "fair river" that flows among +the poplars between Chiaveri and Sestri; the marble quarries +of Carrara; the "rough and desert ways between Lerici and +Turbia," and whose towery cliffs, going sheer into the deep sea +at Noli, which travellers on the Corniche road some thirty years +ago may yet remember with fear. Mountain experience furnished +that picture of the traveller caught in an Alpine mist and +gradually climbing above it; seeing the vapors grow thin, and +the sun's orb appear faintly through them; and issuing at last +into sunshine on the mountain top, while the light of sunset +was lost already on the shores below:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Ai raggi, morti gia' bassi lidi,"<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">40</a></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>or that image of the cold dull shadow over the torrent, beneath +the Alpine fir:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i3">"Un' ombra smorta</span> +<span class="i0">Qual sotto foglie verdi e rami nigri</span> +<span class="i0">Sovra suoi freddi rivi, l'Alpe porta;"<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">41</a></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>or of the large snowflakes falling without wind among the mountains:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">"d'un cader lento</span> +<span class="i0">Piovean di fuoco dilatate falde</span> +<span class="i0">Come di neve in Alpe senza vento."<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">42</a></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Of these years, then, of disappointment and exile the <i>Divina +Commedia</i> was the labor and fruit. A story in Boccaccio's +life of Dante, told with some detail, implies, indeed, that it was +begun, and some progress made in it, while Dante was yet in +Florence—begun in Latin, and he quotes three lines of it—continued +afterward in Italian. This is not impossible; indeed, +the germ and presage of it may be traced in the <i>Vita Nuova</i>. +The idealized saint is there, in all the grace of her pure and +noble humbleness, the guide and safeguard of the poet's soul. +She is already in glory with Mary the Queen of Angels. She +already beholds the face of the Ever-blessed. And the <i>envoye</i> +of the <i>Vita Nuova</i> is the promise of the <i>Commedia</i>. "After this +sonnet" (in which he describes how beyond the widest sphere +of heaven his love had beheld a lady receiving honor and dazzling +by her glory the unaccustomed spirit)—"After this sonnet +there appeared to me a marvellous vision, in which I saw things +which made me resolve not to speak more of this blessed one +until such time as I should be able to indite more worthily of +her. And to attain to this, I study to the utmost of my power, +as she truly knows. So that it shall be the pleasure of Him, +by whom all things live, that my life continue for some years, +I hope to say of her that which never hath been said of any +woman. And afterward, may it please him, who is the Lord +of kindness, that my soul may go to behold the glory of her lady, +that is, of that blessed Beatrice, who gloriously gazes on the +countenance of Him, <i>qui est per omnia secula benedictus</i>." It +would be wantonly violating probability and the unity of a +great life to suppose that this purpose, though transformed, was +ever forgotten or laid aside. The poet knew not, indeed, what +he was promising, what he was pledging himself to—through +what years of toil and anguish he would have to seek the light +and the power he had asked; in what form his high venture +should be realized.</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> +But the <i>Commedia</i> is the work of no light resolve, and we +need not be surprised at finding the resolve and the purpose at +the outset of the poet's life. We may freely accept the key +supplied by the words of the <i>Vita Nuova</i>. The spell of boyhood +is never broken, through the ups and downs of life. His +course of thought advances, alters, deepens, but is continuous. +From youth to age, from the first glimpse to the perfect work, +the same idea abides with him, "even from the flower till the +grape was ripe." It may assume various changes—an image +of beauty, a figure of philosophy, a voice from the other world, +a type of heavenly wisdom and joy—but still it holds, in self-imposed +and willing thraldom, that creative and versatile and +tenacious spirit. It was the dream and hope of too deep and +strong a mind to fade and come to naught—to be other than +the seed of the achievement and crown of life. But with all +faith in the star and the freedom of genius, we may doubt +whether the prosperous citizen would have done that which was +done by the man without a home. Beatrice's glory might have +been sung in grand though barbarous Latin to the <i>literati</i> of the +fourteenth century; or a poem of new beauty might have fixed +the language and opened the literature of modern Italy; but it +could hardly have been the <i>Commedia</i>. That belongs, in its +date and its greatness, to the time when sorrow had become the +poet's daily portion and the condition of his life.</p> + +<p>But such greatness had to endure its price and its counterpoise. +Dante was alone—except in his visionary world, solitary +and companionless. The blind Greek had his throng +of listeners; the blind Englishman his home and the voices of +his daughters; Shakespeare had his free associates of the stage; +Goethe, his correspondents, a court, and all Germany to applaud. +Not so Dante. The friends of his youth are already +in the region of spirits, and meet him there—Casella, Forese; +Guido Cavalcanti will soon be with them. In this upper world +he thinks and writes as a friendless man—to whom all that he +had held dearest was either lost or imbittered; he thinks and +writes for himself.</p> + +<p>So comprehensive in interest is the <i>Commedia</i>. Any attempt +to explain it, by narrowing that interest to politics, philosophy, +the moral life, or theology itself, must prove inadequate. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span>ology +strikes the keynote; but history, natural and metaphysical +science, poetry, and art, each in their turn join in the harmony, +independent, yet ministering to the whole. If from the poem +itself we could be for a single moment in doubt of the reality +and dominant place of religion in it, the plain-spoken prose of +the <i>Convito</i> would show how he placed "the Divine Science, full +of all peace, and allowing no strife of opinions and sophisms, +for the excellent certainty of its subject, which is God," is single +perfection above all other sciences, "which are, as Solomon +speaks, but queens or concubines or maidens; but she is the +'Dove,' and the 'perfect one'—'Dove,' because without stain +of strife; 'perfect,' because perfectly she makes us behold the +truth, in which our soul stills itself and is at rest." But the +same passage shows likewise how he viewed all human knowledge +and human interests, as holding their due place in the +hierarchy of wisdom, and among the steps of man's perfection. +No account of the <i>Commedia</i> will prove sufficient which does +not keep in view, first of all, the high moral purpose and deep +spirit of faith with which it was written, and then the wide +liberty of materials and means which the poet allowed himself +in working out his design.</p> + +<p>Doubtless his writings have a political aspect. The "great +Ghibelline poet" is one of Dante's received synonymes; of his +strong political opinions, and the importance he attached to +them, there can be no doubt. And he meant his poem to be the +vehicle of them, and the record to all ages of the folly and +selfishness with which he saw men governed. That he should +take the deepest interest in the goings-on of his time is part of +his greatness; to suppose that he stopped at them, or that he +subordinated to political objects or feelings all the other elements +of his poem, is to shrink up that greatness into very narrow +limits. Yet this has been done by men of mark and ability, by +Italians, by men who read the <i>Commedia</i> in their own mother +tongue. It has been maintained as a satisfactory account of it—maintained +with great labor and pertinacious ingenuity—that +Dante meant nothing more by his poem than the conflicts and +ideal triumphs of a political party. The hundred cantos of that +vision of the universe are but a manifesto of the Ghibelline +propaganda, designed, under the veil of historic images and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> +scenes, to insinuate what it was dangerous to announce; and +Beatrice, in all her glory and sweetness, is but a specimen of the +jargon and slang of Ghibelline freemasonry. When Italians +write thus, they degrade the greatest name of their country to a +depth of laborious imbecility, to which the trifling of schoolmen +and academicians is as nothing. It is to solve the enigma of +Dante's works by imagining for him a character in which it is +hard to say which predominates, the pedant, mountebank, or +infidel. After that we may read Voltaire's sneers with patience, +and even enter with gravity on the examination of Father +Hardouin's historic doubts. The fanaticism of an outraged liberalism, +produced by centuries of injustice and despotism, is but +a poor excuse for such perverse blindness.</p> + +<p>Dante was not a Ghibelline, though he longed for the interposition +of an imperial power. Historically he did not belong +to the Ghibelline party. It is true that he forsook the Guelfs, +with whom he had been brought up, and that the White Guelfs, +with whom he was expelled from Florence, were at length +merged and lost in the Ghibelline party; and he acted with +them for a time. But no words can be stronger than those in +which he disjoins himself from that "evil and foolish company," +and claims his independence—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">"A te fia bello</span> +<span class="i0">Averti fatto parte per te stesso."<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">43</a></span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Dante, by the <i>Divina Commedia</i>, was the restorer of seriousness +in literature. He was so by the magnitude and pretensions +of his work, and by the earnestness of its spirit. He first broke +through the prescription which had confined great works to the +Latin, and the faithless prejudices which, in the language of +society, could see powers fitted for no higher task than that of +expressing, in curiously diversified forms, its most ordinary +feelings. But he did much more. Literature was going astray +in its tone, while growing in importance; the <i>Commedia</i> checked +it. The Provençal and Italian poetry was, with the exception +of some pieces of political satire, almost exclusively amatory, +in the most fantastic and affected fashion. In expression, it +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> +had not even the merit of being natural; in purpose, it was +trifling; in the spirit which it encouraged, it was something +worse. Doubtless it brought a degree of refinement with it, +but it was refinement purchased at a high price, by intellectual +distortion and moral insensibility. But this was not all. The +brilliant age of Frederick II, for such it was, was deeply mined +by religious unbelief. However strange this charge first sounds +against the thirteenth century, no one can look at all closely +into its history, at least in Italy, without seeing that the idea +of infidelity—not heresy, but infidelity—was quite a familiar one; +and that, side by side with the theology of Aquinas and Bonaventura, +there was working among those who influenced fashion +and opinion, among the great men, and the men to whom +learning was a profession, a spirit of scepticism and irreligion +almost monstrous for its time, which found its countenance in +Frederick's refined and enlightened court. The genius of the +great doctors might have kept in safety the Latin schools, but +not the free and home thoughts which found utterance in the +language of the people, if the solemn beauty of the Italian +<i>Commedia</i> had not seized on all minds. It would have been +an evil thing for Italian, perhaps for European, literature if the +siren tales of the <i>Decameron</i> had not been the first to occupy +the ears with the charms of a new language.</p> + + +<p>Dante's all-surveying, all-embracing mind was worthy to +open the grand procession of modern poets. He had chosen his +subject in a region remote from popular thought—too awful for +it, too abstruse. He had accepted frankly the dogmatic limits +of the Church, and thrown himself with even enthusiastic +faith into her reasonings, at once so bold and so undoubting—her +spirit of certainty, and her deep contemplations on the +unseen and infinite. And in literature, he had taken as guides +and models, above all criticism and all appeal, the classical +writers. But with his mind full of the deep and intricate +questions of metaphysics and theology, and his poetical taste +always owing allegiance to Vergil, Ovid, and Statius—keen +and subtle as a schoolman—as much an idolater of old heathen +art and grandeur as the men of the Renaissance—his eye +is yet as open to the delicacies of character, to the variety of +external nature, to the wonders of the physical world—his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span> +interest in them as diversified and fresh, his impressions as +sharp and distinct, his rendering of them as free and true and +forcible, as little weakened or confused by imitation or by conventional +words, his language as elastic and as completely under +his command, his choice of poetic materials as unrestricted and +original, as if he had been born in days which claim as their own +such freedom and such keen discriminative sense of what is real +in feeling and image—as if he had never felt the attractions of a +crabbed problem of scholastic logic, or bowed before the mellow +grace of the Latins. It may be said, indeed, that the time was +not yet come when the classics could be really understood and +appreciated; and this is true, perhaps fortunate. But admiring +them with a kind of devotion, and showing not seldom that +he had caught their spirit, he never attempts to copy them. His +poetry in form and material is all his own. He asserted the +poet's claim to borrow from all science, and from every phase +of nature, the associations and images which he wants; and he +showed that those images and associations did not lose their +poetry by being expressed with the most literal reality.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span></p> +<h2>THIRD ESTATE JOINS IN THE GOVERNMENT +OF FRANCE</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1302</h6> + +<h3>HENRI MARTIN<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">44</a></h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>At the commencement of the fourteenth century, when the power of +Philip IV of France (surnamed the "Fair") was at its height, contentions +arose between him and Pope Boniface VIII over the taxation of +the clergy, and the right of nomination to vacant bishoprics and benefices +within the dominions of the French King.</p> + +<p>Affairs reached a crisis when Philip laid claim to the county of Melgueil, +which the Bishop of Maguelonne held in fief from the holy see. +Boniface provoked Philip by a chiding bull, and added to the provocation +by sending to the King, as negotiator in their differences, Bernard de +Saisset, whom the Pope, in spite of the King, had created Bishop of +Pamiers.</p> + +<p>This tactless prelate made matters worse by an arrogant attitude, and +afterward spoke of the King, who received him in sombre silence, as "that +debaser of coinage, that proud and dumb image that knows nothing but +to stare at people without saying anything."</p> + +<p>Ignoring his ambassadorial privileges, Philip had him arrested and +imprisoned as a French subject, on a charge of treason, heresy, and blasphemy, +and sent his chancellor, Peter Flotte, and William de Nogaret, to +the Pope, to demand the prelate's degradation and deprivation of his +see.</p> + +<p>The Pope, who meanwhile had launched his famous "Ausculta, fili," +bull, received Philip's ambassadors, but their interview was marked by a +violent scene: "My power!" exclaimed the Pope, "the spiritual power +embraces and includes the temporal power!"</p> + +<p>"So be it!" replied Flotte, "but your power is verbal; that of the +King, real."</p> + +<p>To deliberate on the remedies for the abuses of which he deemed the +King guilty, the Pope summoned all the superior clergy of France to an +assembly at Rome.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_p.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="P" />HILIP and his council resolved to fight the enemy with its +own weapons, to enlist public opinion on their side, and to +shelter themselves behind a great national manifestation; the +three estates of France were convoked at Notre Dame in Paris, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span>the 10th of April, 1302, to take cognizance of the differences +between the King and the Pope. For the first time since the +establishment of the kingdom of France, the town deputies +were called to sit in a body in a national assembly, alongside of +prelates and barons; this great event was the official acknowledgment +of the middle class as the "Third Estate," and attested +that henceforth the villages, the towns, the communities +formed a collective entity, a political order.</p> + + +<p>It is a singular thing that the first states-general was freely convoked +by the most despotic of the kings of the Middle Ages, and +that he had the idea to seek in them moral power and support.</p> + +<p>The attempt would seem foolhardy in a prince so little +popular as Philip the Fair; but Philip in reality risked nothing, +and knew it; the feudality did not possess sufficient union, the +people did not have enough force to profit on this occasion +against the Crown. Besides, the Pope was more unpopular +than the King, and had been so for a much longer time; the +nobility, which, since the reign of St. Louis, had coalesced to +resist clerical jurisdiction, had not changed in sentiment; as to +the people, filled with the remembrance of St. Louis, they +loved the King still, better than the Pope, notwithstanding the +oppressions of Philip, and besides it was easy to foresee that the +mayors, consuls, aldermen, jurats or magistrates, who were to +represent their cities in the great assembly at Paris, dazzled +with the unaccustomed <i>rôle</i> to which they were called, and +desirous to please the King in their personal interest or in that +of their towns, would be under the control of the adroit lawyers +who were prepared to work on their minds and to direct the +debates. The bull, nevertheless, if its exact tenor had been +known, might well have produced in many respects a contrary +effect to the wishes of the King. The reproaches of Boniface +touching the debasement of the coinage and the royal exactions, +reproaches which so irritated Philip, might have met with other +sentiments from the townsmen. The chancellor, Peter Flotte, +foresaw this; he distributed among the public, instead of the +original bull, a species of <i>résumé</i> in which he had assembled, in +a few lines, in the crudest terms, the most exorbitant pretensions +of Boniface, at the same time suppressing everything which +touched on the troubles of the nation against the King.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span></p> + +<p>"Boniface, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Philip, +King of the French; fear God and observe his commandments. +We want you to know that you are subject to us temporarily as +well as spiritually; that the collation of the benefices and the +prebends—revenues attached to the canonical positions—do not +belong to you in any way; that if you have care of the vacant +benefices, it is to reserve their revenue for their successors; that +if you have misapplied any of these benefices, we declare that +collation invalid and revoke it, declaring as heretics all those +who think otherwise.</p> + +<p>"Given in the Lateran in the month of December, etc."</p> + +<p>At the same time they caused to be circulated a pretended +answer to the pretended bull:</p> + +<p>"Philip, by the Grace of God, King of the French, to Boniface, +who gives out that he is sovereign pontiff, little or no salutations! +May your very great Fatuity know that we are subject +to no one as regards temporal power: that the collation of +vacant churches and prebends belongs to us by Royal Right; +that the incomes belong to us; that the collations made and to +be made by us are valid in the past and in the future, and that +we will manfully protect their possessors toward and against all. +Those who think otherwise we take to be fools and insane."</p> + +<p>This brutal letter was not destined to be sent to its address, +but to abase the pontifical dignity, or at least the person of the +Pope, in the eyes of the French public. The spirit of the people +must have been greatly changed if this end could be thus +attained by a means which formerly would have drawn universal +indignation on the head of the sacrilegious monarch.</p> + +<p>The attack of Philip, on the contrary, was completely effectual. +The prelates arrived at the states-general timid, irresolute, +neutralized by the difficulties of their position between +the King and the Pope; the lords and the townsmen hastened +thither irritated against the bull, heated by the violence of the +royal answer. The members of the assembly were influenced +each by the other according to their arrival; the pungent and +wily eloquence of Peter Flotte did the rest. The chancellor, as +the first of the great crown officers and the king's chief justice, +opened the states by a long harangue in which, speaking in +the name of Philip, he exposed with much force and ingenuity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> +the enterprises of the court of Rome and its wrongs toward the +kingdom and the Church.</p> + +<p>"The Pope confers the bishoprics and the rectories on strangers +and unknown individuals who never become residents. +The prelates no longer have benefices to give to nobles whose +ancestors founded the churches, and to other lettered persons; +from which results also that gifts are no longer given to the +churches. The Pope imposes on the churches and benefices +pensions, subsidies, exactions of all kinds. The bishops are +kept from their ministry, being obliged to go to the holy see to +carry presents—always presents. All these abuses have done +nothing but increase under the actual pontificate, and increase +every day—conditions that can no longer be tolerated. That +is why I command you as your master and pray you as your +friend to give me counsel and help."</p> + +<p>The Chancellor added that the King had resolved, on his +own initiative, to remedy the encroachments that his officers had +made on the rights of the Church, and would have done so sooner +had he not feared the appearance of submitting to the menaces +and orders of the Pope, who pretended to reduce to a condition +of vassalage the most noble kingdom of France, which had never +been raised but from God. Peter Flotte dwelt especially on this +latter argument, and appealed in turn to the interests of the +nobility and of the clergy, and to national pride. The fiery +Count of Artois arose, and exclaimed that even if the King submitted +to the encroachments of the Pope, the nobility would +not suffer them, and that the gentry would never acknowledge +any temporal superior other than the King. The nobility and +the Third Estate confirmed these words by their acclamations, +and swore to sacrifice their properties and lives to defend the +temporal independence of the kingdom. A Norman advocate, +named Dubosc, procurator of the commune of Coutances, +accused the Pope, in writing, of heresy for having wanted to +despoil the King of the independence of the crown which he +held from God. The embarrassment of the clergy was extreme; +the members of the Church, fearing to be crushed in the crash +between King and Pope, asked time for deliberation; their +declaration in the assembly then being held, was insisted upon; +already cries arose around them that whoever did not subscribe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span> +to the oath would be held as an enemy of the State; they acquiesced, +satisfied apparently by an appearance of violence which +would serve them for an excuse at Rome. They acknowledged +themselves obliged, in common with the other orders, to defend +the rights of the King and of the kingdom, whether they held +estates from the King or not; then they prayed the King to be +allowed to go to the council convoked by the Pope; the King +and the barons declared themselves formally opposed.</p> + +<p>The three orders then separated, so as to write to the court at +Rome each its own side of the affair; the letters of the nobility +and of the Third Estate—which as may be imagined were all +prepared in advance by the agents of the King, and were only +subscribed to and sealed by the assistants—were addressed, +not to the Pope, but to the college of cardinals. The despatch +of the barons expresses rudely the tortuous and unreasonable +enterprises of him who, at present, is at the seat and government +of the Church, and declares that neither the nobility nor the +universities nor the people require correction or imposition of +any trouble, whether by the authority of the Pope or anyone +else—unless it be from their sire, the King. This letter is +signed, not only by the principal lords of the kingdom, but also +by several great barons of the empire.</p> + +<p>The epistle of the mayors, aldermen, jurats, consuls, universities, +communes, and communities of the towns of the kingdom +of France has not been preserved. It is known only, by +the answer that the cardinals made, that it was conceived in +the same spirit as the letter of the barons. The letter of the +clergy is quite in another style: the clerks address their very +holy father and very holy sire, the Pope; expose to him the +complaints of the King and of the nobility; the necessity in +which they find themselves engaged to defend the King's rights, +and the anger of the laity; the imminent rupture of France +with the Roman Church—and even of the people with the +clergy in general—and conjure the highest prudence of the +Pope to conserve the ancient union by revoking the convocation +of the ecclesiastical council.</p> + +<p>The states-general were dissolved immediately after the +unique <i>séance</i> which had so well responded to the desires of the +King. The means employed to attain this result were not entirely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span>tirely +loyal, nor was public opinion altogether free; it was but +slightly enlightened on the grave debates that the authorities +affected to submit to it. Nevertheless it was an important matter, +this call to the French nation, and it must be acknowledged +that the genius of France responded in proclaiming national +independence, and in repelling the intervention of the court of +Rome in the internal politics of the country.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span></p> +<h2>WAR OF THE FLEMINGS WITH PHILIP THE +FAIR OF FRANCE</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1302</h6> + +<h3>EYRE EVANS CROWE</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Toward the beginning of the thirteenth century the people of Flanders, +whose country had been for centuries a feudal dependency of France, +were considerably advanced in wealth and importance. They had become +restive under the French rule, and their discontent ripened into +settled hostility. Common commercial interests drew them into friendship +with England, and in the quarrel between Philip the Fair and Edward +I, 1295, concerning Edward's rule in Guienne (Aquitaine) the Flemings +allied themselves with the English King.</p> + +<p>In 1297 Philip invaded Flanders and gained several successes against +the Flemings, who were feebly aided by King Edward. In 1299 the two +kings settled their quarrel, and the Flemings were left to the vengeance +of Philip, for in the pacification the court of Flanders was not included. +A French army entered the Flemish territory, inflicted two defeats upon +the Count's troops, and received the submission of the Count. Philip +annexed Flanders to his crown and appointed a governor over the Flemings. +In less than two years they rose in furious revolt. The insurrection +began at Bruges, May 18, 1302, when over three thousand Frenchmen +in that city were massacred by the insurgents. This massacre was +called the "Bruges Matins." Such an outrage upon the French crown +could not but bring upon the Flemings all the forces that Philip was able +to muster. The two leading actions of the ensuing war—that at Courtrai, +known as the "Battle of the Spurs," on account of the number of +gilt spurs captured by the Flemings, and the engagement at Mons-la-Puelle—are +described in the course of the narrative which follows. As +a result of the battle of Courtrai the French nobility were nearly destroyed, +and Philip found it necessary to recreate his titled bodies.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_t.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="T" />HE Flemings prepared to resist the storm. They chose +Guy of Juliers, grandson of the Count of Flanders, to be +their commander. Though a cleric, he did not hesitate to obey +the call, in order to avenge his family, so cruelly betrayed by the +French King. His brother, made prisoner at Furnes by the +Count d'Artois, had perished in that rude Prince's keeping. +His first attempt was to induce the people of Ghent to join the +insurrection, but its rich burgesses preferred French rule to +that of the Count of Flanders. Bruges, however, was supported<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span> +by all the lesser and maritime towns of Flanders. Guy of Namur, +a son of the Count, who had escaped to Germany, also +returned with a body of soldiers from that country, and reassured +the Flemings. These surprised one of the ducal manors, in +which were five hundred French, and then took Courtrai, occupying +the town, but not the castle. It was immediately besieged, +as well as that of Cassel, the people of Ypres rallying to the +French cause. The French garrison of the town of Courtrai +sent pressing messengers for aid, and Robert of Artois marched +with seven thousand knights and forty thousand foot, of which +one-fourth were archers. The Flemish were but twenty thousand, +of which none but the chiefs had horses. Neither was +their armor nor their weapons of a perfect kind, the latter being +a lance like a boar-spear, or a knotted stick pointed with iron, +and called in Flemish a "good day." The princes of Juliers +and Namur posted their combatants on the road which leads +from Courtrai to Ghent, behind a canal that communicated +with the river Lys. A priest came with the host, but, there being +no time to receive the communion, each man took some earth +in his mouth. The counts then knighted Pierre Konig and the +chiefs of bands, and took their station on foot with the rest.</p> + +<p>The French had nine battalions or divisions, their archers +or light troops being Lombards or Navarrese and Provençals. +These the constable placed foremost, to commence the fight and +harass the Flemings by their missiles. But the Count d'Artois +overruled this manœuvre, and called it a Lombard trick, reproaching +the Constable de Nesle with appreciating the Flemings +too highly because of his connection with them. (He had +married a daughter of the Count of Flanders.) "If you advance +as far as I shall," replied the Count, "you will go far enough, I +warrant." So saying he put spurs to his horse and led on his +knights; on which the Count d'Artois and the French squadrons +charged also. This formidable cavalry could not reach +the Flemings, but fell one over the other into the canal, which +they had not perceived, and which was five fathoms wide and +three deep. The Flemish counts, seeing the disorder, instantly +passed the canal on either side to take advantage of it, and fell +on the discomfited French. The battle was but a massacre. +Numbers of the French nobles perished—the Count d'Artois,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> +Godfrey of Brabant and his son, the counts of Eu and of Albemarle, +the Constable and his brother, De Tanquerville, Pierre +Flotte, the Chancellor, and Jacques de St. Pol—in all some +six thousand knights. Louis of Clermont and one or two others +escaped, to the damage of their reputation. This battle of Courtrai +was fought on July 11, 1302.</p> + +<p>Had the war not been one exclusively of defence on the part +of the Flemings, or had they had ambitious and adventurous +chiefs, such a disaster might have endangered the throne of +France. It was the Flemish democracy which had conquered, +and its chiefs contented themselves with reducing the remaining +cities, and expelling the gentry and rich citizens as of French +inclinations. This reaction extended from Flanders into Brabant +and Hainault. Philip in the mean time exerted all his +activities and resources. Had he been an English king he +would have called his parliament together, and have found +national support and national supplies. The French King preferred +having recourse to a recoinage. In 1294 he had forbidden +any persons to keep plate unless they possessed an annual +revenue of six thousand livres. He now ordered his bailies to +deliver up their plate, and all non-functionaries to send half of +theirs. Those who did so received payment in the new coin, +and lost one-half thereby. A tax of one-fifth, or 20 per cent., +of the annual revenue was levied on the land, and a twentieth +was levied on the movable property. In the following +year the King found it more advantageous to order that all +prelates and barons should, for every five hundred livres of +yearly revenue in land, furnish an armed and mounted gentleman +for five months' service, while the non-noble was to furnish +and keep up six infantry soldiers (<i>sergens de pied</i>) for every +hundred hearths. This decree was a return to feudal military +service, occasioned, no doubt, by the general disaffection caused +by the raising of the war supplies in money. As if to recompense +all classes for the severity of the exaction, Philip published +an <i>ordonnance</i> of reform for the protection of both laymen +and ecclesiastics from the arbitrary encroachments or interference +of his officers.</p> + +<p>Having thus set his realm in order, and collected an army of +seventy thousand men at Arras, the King marched to meet the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> +Flemings, who in equal force had mustered in the vicinity of +Dovai. They kept, as at Courtrai, on the defensive; and the +King of France, too cautious to attack them, allowed the whole +autumn to pass, and returned to France after a campaign as +inefficient as inglorious.</p> + +<p>Philip had been long involved in a controversy with Pope +Boniface VIII, and the quarrel still continued. It was not till +some time after the battle of Courtrai that the King at last, +delivered from the menacing hostility of Rome, had leisure to +turn his mind and efforts again toward Flanders. During the +year 1303 he had sought to keep the Flemings at bay by bodies +of Lombard and Tuscan infantry, whom his Florentine banker +persuaded him to hire, and by Amadeus V, Duke of Savoy, who +brought soldiers of that country to his aid. Although the long +lances and more perfect armor of these troops gave them some +advantage over the Flemings, the latter took and burned Therouanne, +overran Artois, and laid siege to Tournai. Amadeus of +Savoy, unable to overcome the Flemings by arms, recommended +Philip to do so by treaty, and the King accordingly concluded +a pacification, one condition of which was that the Count of +Flanders should be released from prison to negotiate terms of +fresh accommodation. The Flemings received the aged Count +with respect; but he brought no terms which they were willing +to accept; and he returned, as he had pledged his word, to captivity +at Compiègne, where he soon after died.</p> + +<p>For the campaign of the following year Philip, in lieu of Italian +infantry, took sixteen Genoese galleys into his pay, commanded +by Rainier de Grimaldi. This admiral passed through +the Straits of Gibraltar and assailed the maritime towns and +shipping of Flanders. Guy of Namur mustered to oppose them +a fleet of greater numbers; but the Genoese, accustomed to +naval warfare, defeated the Flemings and took Guy of Namur +prisoner. Philip, at the same time, assembled a large army at +Tournai, and marched to Mons-la-Puelle, near Lille, where the +Flemings, to the number of seventy thousand, were encamped +within a circumvallation of cars and chariots. There was no +Robert of Artois on this occasion to precipitate a rash onslaught, +and by Philip's order the southern light troops harassed the +Flemings all day with arrows and missiles, allowing them no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span> +repose. Toward the evening many of the French withdrew to +refresh themselves and take off their armor; the King himself +was of this number; the Flemings, perceiving this slackness, +and divining the cause, poured forth from their encampment +in three divisions, which at first drove all before them, and +reached as far as the King's tent, then in full preparation for +supper. The monarch himself, without armor or helmet, was +fortunately not recognized; his secretary, De Boville, and two +Parisians of the name of Gentien, whom Philip had always about +his person, were slain before his eyes. The King withdrew, +but it was to arm, mount on horseback, and cry out to his followers +to stand their ground. He himself, says Villani, "one +of the strongest and best made men of his time," fought valiantly +until his brother Charles and most of the barons, recovering from +the first panic, came to his rescue, and the Flemings were finally +repulsed and put to the rout. William of Juliers fell on the side +of the Flemings; the son of the Duke of Burgundy and many +others on that of the French. Philip immediately laid siege to +Lille, deeming the Flemings totally discomfited. They had, +however, rallied, obtained reënforcements at Bruges and at +Ghent, and in three weeks appeared to the number of fifty +thousand before the King's camp at Lille, crying for battle. +Philip called a council, and observed that "even a victory would +be dearly purchased over a party so desperate."</p> + +<p>The Duke of Brabant and the Count of Savoy therefore +undertook to negotiate with the Flemings, and Philip consented +to grant them fair terms. He recognized their independent +rights, agreed to liberate Robert, eldest son of Guido, Count of +Flanders, as well as all those in captivity. He granted Robert +and his son the fiefs which belonged to him in France, especially +that of Nevers, and promised to give him investiture of the +County of Flanders. The Flemings, on their side, consented to +pay two hundred thousand livres, and to leave the King of +France in possession of the three towns of Lille, Douai, and +Béthune, that part of Flanders in which French was spoken. It +was thus, at least, that the French interpreted the treaty, while +the Flemings afterward alleged that French Flanders was merely +a pledge for the payment of the money, not an alienation to the +crown of France.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span></p> +<h2>FIRST SWISS STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1308</h6> + +<h3>F. GRENFELL BAKER</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Owing to the fact that the house of Hapsburg had its origin in Switzerland, +the accession of Rudolph I, founder of the Hapsburg dynasty, to +the throne of Germany (1273), with the virtual headship of the Holy +Roman Empire, was an event of great importance in the history of the +Swiss cantons. To this day the paternal domains whence the Hapsburg +family takes its name are a part of Swiss territory. The local administration, +as well as such imperial offices as still remained in the free communities +of Switzerland, were largely in the hands of this family long +before it gave sovereigns to the empire itself. Its chiefs were the chosen +champions or advocates of the district.</p> + +<p>Of the Swiss communities Uri seems to have first established its freedom +within the empire, and in that canton liberty was most completely +preserved from the perils that always threatened Switzerland in this +period. Under Rudolph it was at first the policy of the empire to secure +the attachment of the Swiss by making the two other cantons, Schwyz +and Unterwalden, similarly independent. But toward the end of his +reign the policy of Rudolph was so influenced by ambition for territorial +expansion that the Swiss began to feel an encroachment upon their independence. +In 1291, the year of Rudolph's death, the three cantons, fearing +danger to their interests in the new settlement of the crown, formed +a league for mutual protection and coöperation. The very parchment on +which the terms of this union were written "has been preserved as a +testimony to the early independence of the Forest Cantons, the Magna +Charta of Switzerland." The formation of this confederacy may be regarded +as the first combined preparation of the Swiss for that great +struggle in defence of their liberties, in the history of which fact and +legend, as shown in Baker's discriminating narrative, are romantically +blended.</p> + +<p>The empire passed out of the Hapsburg control when Rudolph died, +but the family again got possession of it in 1298, when Rudolph's son +Albert was elected German king. In the following account the relations +of Switzerland and Austria, under the renewed Hapsburg sovereignty, are +circumstantially set forth.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_t.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="T" />HERE can be little doubt that most of the many stories +related by the Swiss of the cruelty and extortion of the +Austrian bailies are wholly or in great part devoid of a historical +basis of truth, as are the dates given for their occurrence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> +They doubtless sprang from the very natural feelings of hatred +the mountaineers of the Forest State felt against a foreign +master, who was probably only too ready to punish them for +the part they took against him in the struggle for the imperial +throne. Indeed, it was not till about two centuries after this +period that any reference to the alleged cruelties of the Austrians +can be found in the local records, though legends about +them have been plentiful.</p> + +<p>Many and various are the stories that have come down to +our times of the oppression and licentiousness of the bailies, +most of which have probably gained much color by constant +repetition, even if they were not wholly created by imagination +and hatred of the Austrian rule. According to these accounts, +the local despots imposed exorbitant fines for trivial offences, +and frequently sent prisoners to Zug and Lucerne to be tried by +Austrian judges. They levied enormously increased taxes and +imports on every commodity, and exacted payment in the most +merciless manner; they openly violated the liberties of the +people, and chose every occasion to insult and degrade them. +An oft-quoted instance of their cruelty is recorded of a bailie +named Landenburg, who publicly reproved a peasant for living +in a house above his station. On another occasion, having fined +an old and much respected laborer, named Henry of Melchi, a +yoke of oxen for an imaginary offence, the Governor's messenger +jeeringly told the old man, who was lamenting that if +he lost his cattle he could no longer earn his bread, that if he +wanted to use a plough he had better draw it himself, being +only a vile peasant. To this insult Henry's son Arnold responded +by attacking the messenger and breaking his fingers, +and then, fearing lest his act should bring down some serious +punishment, fled to the mountains, and left his aged father +to Landenburg's vengeance. The bailie confiscated his little +property, imposed a heavy fine, and finally burned out both his +eyes.</p> + +<p>The hot irons used in this barbarous punishment, the Swiss +are fond of saying, went deeper than the tyrant intended, and +penetrated to the hearts and aroused the sympathies of their +ancestors to perform such acts of heroism that tyranny fled +in fear from the land. The conduct of Arnold, however, can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> +hardly at this period of his life warrant the eulogies bestowed +upon his memory, though he subsequently figures as one of the +"Men of Ruetli."</p> + +<p>Landenburg lived in a castle near Sarnen, in Unterwalden, +where his imperious temper, his exactions, his cruelties, and his +debaucheries aroused a universal feeling of hatred among the +peasants, that culminated in his expulsion and the destruction +of his stronghold. The latter is popularly believed to have +occurred on January 1, 1308. As the bailie left his castle to +attend mass, some forty determined peasants, who had already +bound themselves by oath to free their country at a solemn +meeting on the steep promontory over the Lake of Lucerne +known as the Ruetli, appeared before him carrying sheep, fowls, +and other customary presents, and thus gained admission to +the castle. No sooner were they past the gates than, drawing +the weapons they had till then concealed beneath their clothes, +they disarmed the guard and took possession of the fortress. +Other conspirators were admitted, and the people at once rose +in revolt. Landenburg, hearing while still at church of what had +occurred, managed to effect his escape, and fled to Lucerne. Of +the other bailies, Gessler and Wolfenschiess are believed to have +excited even more hatred than their colleague Landenburg, and to +have exceeded him in acts of savage cruelty and vicious living.</p> + +<p>One example out of many similar ones will show the spirit +in which the Swiss traditions have treated the memory of Wolfenschiess. +On a certain day, finding that a peasant named Conrad, +of Baumgarten, whose wife he had frequently tried in +vain to seduce, was absent from home, Wolfenschiess entered +Conrad's house and ordered his wife to prepare him a bath, at +the same time renewing with ardor his former proposals. With +the cunning of her sex, the wife feigned to be willing to accede +to his wishes, and on the pretence of retiring to another room +to undress sped to her husband, who quickly returned and slew +Wolfenschiess while he was still in the bath. After this exploit +an entrance was effected into the bailies' castle of Rotzberg by +one of the conspirators, who was in the habit of paying nightly +visits to a servant living in the castle, by means of a rope attached +to her window, and who then admitted his companions, who were +lying concealed in the moat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span></p> + +<p>But, probably in consequence of his supposed connection +with the legend of William Tell, the bailie to whom the name +of Gessler has been given stands out more prominently in Swiss +history than any other. Gessler's residence, according to tradition, +was a strongly fortified castle built in the valley of Uri, +near Altorf, and this he named Zwing Uri ("Uri's Restraint"). +He used every means that cruelty or avarice could suggest in +his conduct as governor, and incurred additional hatred from +the methods he adopted to discover the members of a secret +conspiracy he believed existed against him in the district. +With this object in view, Gessler caused a pole, surmounted +with the ducal cap of Austria, to be set up in the market-place +at Altorf, before which emblem of authority he ordered every +man to uncover and do reverence as he passed. The refusal of +a peasant to obey this command, his arrest, trial, and condemnation +to pierce with an arrow an apple placed on his own child's +head, his dexterity in performing this feat, his escape from his +enemies, his murder of the tyrant Gessler, the solemn compact +sworn at Ruetli, and the revolutionary events that followed form +the motive of the much-celebrated legend of William Tell.</p> + +<p>The mythical hero of this shadowy romance has long embodied +in his person the virtues of the typical avenger of the +wrongs of the poor and the oppressed against the tyranny of the +rich and the powerful; his name has been honored and his +manly deeds have been lauded in prose and verse by thousands +in many lands for many centuries, exciting doubtless many a +noble deed of self-denial, and spurring to the forefront many a +popular act of patriotic daring. In Switzerland certainly this +picturesque representative of liberty has done much to mould +the political life, if not also to write many pages of the history of +the people, and that in spite of the questionable morality of the +received narrative of his career, and its unquestionable untruth. +The emergence of the Swiss from slavery to freedom, +as in the case of all other nations, was undoubtedly a gradual +process, and there is now every reason for believing that the +narrative relating to William Tell and the other heroes who are +said to have been the prime instruments in the expulsion of the +Austrian bailies from the districts of the Waldstaette are purely +apocryphal, with a possible substratum of actual fact.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span></p> + +<p>It is sad for an individual, and still more so for a nation, to +lose the illusions of youth, if not of innocence, and to awake to +the knowledge of an unbeautiful reality, bereft of all fictitious +adornment. When, however, the naked truth can be discovered—and +that is seldom the case—it must be faced; if the national +or individual mind cannot receive it, the fault lies with the +immaturity or morbid condition of the former, not with the material +of the latter.</p> + +<p>As the legend of William Tell is more devoid of actual historical +foundation, and is more widely known and believed +than are the many others related as the records of events happening +at the period from which the Swiss date their independence, +it may be as well to devote some little space to its consideration. +All the local records that might possibly throw some +light on the existence and career of Tell have now been thoroughly +searched by many impartial and competent scholars, as +well as by enthusiastic partisans, with the invariable result that, +till a considerable lapse of years after the presumed date of their +deaths, not one particle of evidence has been discovered tending +to prove the identity of either William Tell or of the tyrant +Gessler. On the other hand, many local authorities, as early as +the beginning of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when the +story was fully established, have gone out of their way to deny +its truth and prove its entire falsity from their own researches. +Materials, indeed, are many relating to the events that befell the +Waldstaette during their conflicts with the bailies, whom they +succeeded in expelling from their country; and it seems in the +highest degree improbable that, had Tell and his friends lived +and taken so prominent a part in effecting their country's freedom +as is popularly assigned to them, they should have been +entirely ignored by all contemporary writers, as well as by subsequent +ones, for a hundred and fifty or two hundred years—yet +such is the case.</p> + +<p>William Tell is supposed to have performed his heroic deeds +in or about the year 1291, and not till between 1467 and 1474 +are his acts recorded, when in a collection of the traditions of +the Canton of Unterwalden, transcribed by a notary at Sarnen, +an account is given of the apple episode and the subsequent +escape of the famous archer, and his murder of Gessler, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> +nothing is said of his having taken part in a league to free his +country or of his being the founder of the confederation. A +little prior to the compilation of the <i>White Book of Sarnen</i>, as this +collection is called, an anonymous poet composed a <i>Song of the +Origin of the Confederation</i>, in which, although no reference is +made to Gessler, the other details are related concerning William +Tell shooting at the apple, the revolt of the peasants, the +expulsion of the bailies, and the formation of a patriotic league. +It is, of course, quite possible that a Gessler was killed by the +peasants, as the name was common enough at the time, but no +member of that family—the records of which have now been +most carefully traced—held any office under the Austrians at +that period in any of the Waldstaette, nor is it at all probable that +Austrian bailies governed the districts later than 1231. Neither +is it possible for a bailie named Gessler to have occupied the +castle at the date assigned, the ruins of which have so long been +pointed out as being those of his former abode. So, also, the +celebrated Tell's Chapel on the Vier Waldstaette See, at Kuesnach, +was certainly not built to commemorate the exploits of +Schiller's and Rossini's Swiss hero.</p> + +<p>"The fact is that in Gessler we are confronted by a curious +case of confusion in identity. At least three totally different +men seem to have been blended into one in the course of an +attempt to reconcile the different versions of the three cantons. +Felix Hammerlin, of Zurich, in 1450, tells of a Hapsburg governor +being on the little island of Schwanan, in the lake of +Lowerz, who seduced a maid of Schwyz, and was killed by her +brothers. Then there was another person, strictly historical, +Knight Eppo, of Kuesnach, who, while acting as bailiff for the +Duke of Austria, put down two revolts of the inhabitants in his +district, one in 1284 and another in 1302. Finally, there was +the tyrant bailiff mentioned in the ballad of Tell, who, by the +way, a chronicler, writing in 1510, calls, not Gessler, but the +Count of Seedorf. These three persons were combined, and +the result was named Gessler."</p> + +<p>Moreover, it is extremely doubtful whether the green plateau +of the Ruetli below Seelisberg, and some six hundred and +fifty feet above the lake, with its miraculous springs, ever witnessed +the patriotic gathering of the thirty-three peasants who,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> +tradition asserts, there formed the league against Austrian rule, +or heard the solemn oath they and their leaders, Stauffacher, +Fuerst, and Arnold, mutually swore.</p> + +<p>In all probability the legend of Tell and the apple originated +in Scandinavia, and was brought by the Alemanni into Switzerland; +as into other lands. Saxo Grammaticus, in the <i>Withina +Saga</i>, places the scene of a very similar story in that country, +some three hundred years before the appearance of the Swiss +version, and tells of a certain Danish king named Harold, the +counterpart of Gessler, and one Toki, who played the same <i>rôle</i> +enacted by Tell. Like legends are also related of Olaf, Eindridi, +and an almost identical one to that of William Tell of +Egil, who, being ordered by King Nidung to shoot an apple off +the head of the son of the former, took two arrows from his +quiver and prepared to obey. On the King asking why he had +selected two arrows, Egil replied, "To shoot thee, tyrant, with +the second, should the first fail."</p> + +<p>Neither are similar narratives absent from the legends of +other countries. Thus Reginald Scott says: "Puncher shot a +penny on his son's head, and made ready another arrow to have +slain the Duke of Rengrave, who commanded it." So also similar +incidents occur in the tales of Adam Bell, <i>Clym of the Clough</i>, +and William of Claudeslie in the <i>Percy Ballads</i>, and in the +legends of many places in Northern Europe. On this subject +Sir Francis Adams mentions, in a note to his valuable book on +the Swiss Confederation, that a well-known citizen of Berne, in +answer to his inquiry as to whether Tell ever existed, replied: +"Not in Switzerland. If you travel in the Hasli districts you +will find a distinct race of men, who are of Scandinavian origin, +and I believe that their ancestors brought the legend with them." +To this it may be added that philologists have long since traced +the rude dialect of Oberhasli to its Scandinavian sources, and +the physical characteristics of the people mark them as of different +racial origin from those around them.</p> + +<p>At the period these events were in progress, or, rather, about +the time that the Austrian bailies were expelled, toward the +close of the thirteenth century, the Emperor's<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">45</a> attention was too +fully occupied conducting a war against the Bishop of Basel to</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span></p> +<p>allow him to enforce his authority among the revolted Waldstaette. +He did not, however, allow the peasants for long to +enjoy the fruits of their energetic and successful action, as some +six months later he headed a large army with which he intended +to enforce obedience. The expedition thus begun led to Albert's +tragic death, and reared another step leading to the final +independence of the Swiss. On reaching Baden, in the Aargau, +a halt was made in order to deliberate on the best mode of punishing +the rebels. Here a general council of nobles decided, +after careful deliberation, on the route to be taken, and the +nature of the measures best calculated to enforce Albert's +authority. On May 1, 1308, the Emperor, with a few followers, +returned to Rheinfelden, in order to visit the Empress Elizabeth, +preparatory to marching against the Waldstaette. Shortly before +this time Albert had had a violent quarrel with his nephew John, +son of Duke Rudolph of Swabia, touching the youth's paternal +inheritance, which he persistently declined to allow John to take +possession of, and whom he had, moreover, publicly insulted by +offering him a coronet of twigs as the only recompense for his +just claims.</p> + + +<p>In spite of this quarrel Albert allowed John and four of his +fastest friends to occupy a place in his suite when he left Baden +to visit his consort. Albert's disregard of his nephew's resentment +was further shown when the party arrived on the bank of +the Reuss, as he allowed him, with his friends, to accompany +him in the boat in which he crossed the river. The passage was +made in safety, but just as the Emperor was stepping on shore +near the town of Windisch, John and three of his companions +struck him down with their swords, and after inflicting a number +of severe wounds left him for dead. The unhappy monarch +expired a few minutes after in the arms of a passing peasant +woman. All this bloody scene took place in full view of the +Emperor's train on the opposite side of the river, though no one +apparently was able to render him assistance, probably from the +absence of boats and the suddenness of the tragedy. The murderers +succeeded in making good their escape, though two of +them were afterward captured and executed, as were also a +number of innocent people believed to be participators in the +conspiracy. John himself was more fortunate, for, disguised as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span> +a monk, he managed for many years to hide his identity, and, +after wandering in Tuscany unsuspected, eventually died in a +monastery at Pisa.</p> + +<p>Albert's daughter Agnes, Queen of Hungary, "a woman +unacquainted with the milder feelings of piety, but addicted to +a certain sort of devotional habits and practices by no means +inconsistent with implacable vindictiveness," fearfully avenged +his murder. This woman appears to have been seized with a +perfectly demoniacal mania for blood and revenge. Aided by +those in authority, who feared lest a widespread conspiracy had +been formed, she seized, on the slightest suspicion, hundreds of +innocent victims and put them to death with all the ferocity of +a famished beast. Members of nearly a hundred noble families, +and at least a thousand persons of lower rank, of every age and +of both sexes, fell beneath her savage vengeance. She is said to +have further whetted her appetite for horrors by wading, at +Fahrwangen, in the blood of sixty-three innocent knights, exclaiming +the while, "This day we bathe in May-dew." But at +last, after several months, even the implacable bloodthirstiness +of the Hungarian Queen was satisfied, and the massacre ceased. +Over the spot where Albert met his death Agnes built a monastery; +she named it Koenigsfelden and enriched it with the +spoils of her victims. Here she took up her abode for the remainder +of her life, and for nearly fifty years practised the most +rigid asceticism, and here, by the side of her parents, she was +eventually buried. Koenigsfelden stood on the road from Basel +to Baden and Zurich, and within sight of the castle of Hapsburg, +the cradle of the house of Austria.</p> + +<p>Strenuous efforts were made by Albert's widow to obtain the +succession to the imperial throne for her son, Frederick, Duke +of Austria, but the choice of the prince-electors, headed by +the Archbishop of Mainz, fell on Count Henry of Luxemburg, +a liberal-minded and generous noble, who was accordingly +crowned, under the title of Henry VII. During the short reign of +this monarch he proved himself a wise and generous friend to +the Swiss, whose privileges he confirmed. He made no effort to +reimpose local governors on the people of the Waldstaette, but, +on the contrary, confirmed the charters of Schwyz and Uri, +granted one to Unterwalden, and acknowledged jurisdiction.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span> +After Henry's death, in 1313, civil war once more divided the +empire through the rival contentions of Ludwig (Louis) of +Bavaria and Albert's son, Frederick of Austria. In this contest +the powerful monastery of Einsiedeln sided with the Austrian +candidate, and through its influence induced the Bishop of Constance +to place the large portion of Switzerland supporting the +Bavarian cause under a sentence of excommunication.</p> + +<p>Between Einsiedeln and the Waldstaette there had long existed +a feeling of bitter hostility, the canons resenting the independent +spirit displayed by the peasants, and the latter remembering +the many acts of arbitrary oppression they and their +ancestors had suffered at the instance of the abbey. Indeed, +actual hostilities were only prevented by the friendly, though +interested, mediation of the citizens of Zurich, who were most +anxious to preserve tranquillity in the territories of both, in +order to allow their trade with Italy over the St. Gothard being +carried on. They also favored peace, because since the Hapsburgs +had refused permission to the peasants to enter Lucerne, +these had been in the habit of bringing their cattle and dairy +produce through Einsiedeln to the monks of Zurich. The action +of the monks, however, in bringing about the serious sentence +of excommunication so roused the spirit of the mountaineers +that, headed by their Landammann, Werner Stauffacher, they +attacked and captured the abbey, ransacked the whole building +from cellar to altar, and carried off the monks captive to the +town of Schwyz. This daring and sacrilegious act led Frederick—the +hereditary avoyer of the abbey—to place the Waldstaette +under the further punishment of the "ban of the empire." Both +these sentences were alike fruitless in bringing the peasants to +submission to the house of Austria. Shortly after, on Ludwig +ascending the throne, the "ban" was removed by the new +monarch, and, with the aid of the Archbishop of Mainz, the +Metropolitan of Constance in 1315, the excommunication was +also revoked.</p> + +<p>The triumph of Ludwig's claims over those of Frederick +began that long series of deadly conflicts between the Swiss and +the house of Austria that led the two nations for so many years +to regard each other as natural and implacable enemies. At +this time Austria was governed by Duke Leopold, a man of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> +arrogant, passionate temper, of unscrupulous ambition, and +brutal cruelty, according to the Swiss chronicles, but who, from +other accounts, does not appear specially to have deserved this +character. His hatred of the Swiss was greatly increased by +their action in opposing his brother, Frederick, in the late +contest. No sooner, indeed, were the troubles of that contest +over than he prepared to wreak his vengeance, and once for all +crush the power and independence of the Forest States, and, as +he declared, "trample the audacious rustics under his feet."</p> + +<p>Rapidly collecting his forces, Leopold soon found himself at +the head of fifteen thousand or twenty thousand well-armed +men, including a large body of heavily equipped cavalry. These +latter were then looked upon as the main strength of an army. +Most of the ancient nobility of Hapsburg, Kyburg, and Lenzburg +rallied to his banners, besides many of the lesser nobles +and a contingent from Zurich, the citizens of which, deserting +their natural allies, had formed a treaty with Austria. Against +this formidable array the men of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden +were only able to muster some fourteen hundred men, +who, however, made up for their want of weapons and discipline +by the geographical advantages of the country, by their patriotism, +unity, and determined bravery.</p> + +<p>Nothing now seemed to intervene between the Swiss and +imminent destruction, when, viewing with a compassion, most +rare in those days, the impending fate of the heroic mountaineers, +the powerful Count of Toggenborg tried to negotiate a +peace with the Duke. Leopold's terms, however, were so humiliating +and evidently so insincere that nothing came of these +proposals.</p> + +<p>On November 3, 1315, Leopold's army reached Baden, where +a council was held to determine upon the details of the campaign, +a campaign having for its object, as the Duke openly declared, +"the extirpation of the whole race of the people of Waldstaette." +The difficulties of the enterprise now began to show themselves, +as several of Leopold's followers, being well acquainted with the +nature of the country and the characters of the inhabitants, +pointed out that both would offer a determined resistance. Finally, +relying upon their numbers and superior arms, it was +settled to march on Schwyz, through the Sattel Pass by Morgarten<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span>, +making Zug the base of operations; and while a false +attack should be threatened on the side of Arth, Unterwalden +should be attacked from Lucerne, as well as by a large force +under the Count of Strasburg by way of the Bruenig. Leopold +himself was to lead the main army and enter Schwyz through +the pass. Had these operations remained secret, or been carried +out successfully, the course of Swiss history would probably +have been very different from what it was; but fortunately for +the cause of freedom, the Austrian plans became known in time, +and failed signally when put to the test. According to ancient +chronicles, as the Confederates were hurrying to repel the feint +from Arth, a friendly Austrian baron, named Henry of Huenenberg, +shot an arrow amid them bearing the message, "Guard +Morgarten on the eve of St. Othmar." Be this as it may, the +Swiss collected their little band on the Sattel, between which +mountain and the eastern shore of the Lake of Egeri is situated +the ever-memorable Pass of Morgarten. Here, on the night of +November 14th, they collected a number of loose bowlders and +tree-trunks, and then, having offered up prayers for the preservation +of their country, they awaited with resolution the coming +struggle.</p> + +<p>With the first dawn of morning the Austrian army—the first +that ever entered the country—made its appearance in the pass, +headed by Duke Leopold and his formidable cavalry. Suddenly, +when the whole narrow defile was blocked with horse and foot, +thousands of heavy stones and trees were hurled among them +from the neighboring heights, where the peasant band, forming +the Swiss force, lay concealed. The suddenness and vigor of this +unexpected attack quickly threw the first ranks of the invaders +into confusion, and caused a panic to seize the horses, many of +which in their fright turned and trampled down the men behind. +Rapidly the panic increased as the showers of missiles +came tearing down, and soon the whole army was in a state of +wild terror and confusion—a condition greatly assisted by the +slippery nature of the ground. Then, with wild shouts, and brandishing +their iron-studded clubs and their formidable halberts +and scythes, down the mountain-side rushed, with the +fury of their native avalanche, the heroic Confederates; and falling +on their foes literally slew them by thousands. Many hundreds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> +of the Austrians perished in the lake, the men of Zurich +alone making a stand, and falling each where he fought. Few +succeeded in effecting their escape from what was little less than +a general butchery.</p> + +<p>On that memorable day all the flower of Austria's nobility +lay dead within the country they had hoped so easily to conquer. +The Duke, with a handful of followers, alone survived, +and even these were forced to undergo many perils before they +eventually arrived in safety at Winterthur. Neither were the +other attacks, under the Count of Strasburg and the forces from +Lucerne, more successful for the invaders. Both armies were +repulsed with enormous loss by the men of Unterwalden, who +gave no quarter, many of their opponents being their own +countrymen from the estates of the abbey of Interlaken. After +these signal victories the Swiss, according to ancient custom, +offered up a solemn thanksgiving to almighty God for their +success and the overthrow of their enemies; and then, having +laden themselves with the spoils of the dead, they returned to +their humble occupations, whence the defence of their country +and their lives had called them away. Among the Swiss, Morgarten +has always taken the first place in the long record of +heroic victories that since 1315 has made the fame of Swiss arms +second to none in Europe. This victory at once brought the +Waldstaette out of their long obscurity, and placed them in the +front rank as powerful and respected states in Switzerland.</p> + +<p>Leopold, on his return to Austria, was so satisfied with the +ability of the "audacious rustics" to defend themselves that +he made no further attempt to enter their country.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span></p> +<h2>BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1314</h6> + +<h3>ANDREW LANG</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>After the submission of Scotland in 1303, at the end of Wallace's +heroic struggle, Edward I undertook to complete the union of that kingdom +with England. "But the great difficulty," says a historian, "in dealing +with the Scots was that they never knew when they were conquered; +and just when Edward hoped that his scheme for union was carried +out, they rose in arms once more."</p> + +<p>The Scottish leader now was Robert Bruce, Lord of Annandale and +Earl of Carrick. He had acted with Wallace, but afterward swore fealty +to Edward. Still later he united with William Lamberton, Bishop of St. +Andrews, against the English King. Edward heard of their compact +while Bruce was in London, and the Scot fled to Dumfries. There, +1306, in the Church of the Gray Friars, he had an interview with John +Comyn, called the Red Comyn—Bruce's rival for the Scottish throne—which +ended in a violent altercation and the killing of Comyn by Bruce +with a dagger. Next to the Baliols, Bruce was now nearest heir to the +throne, and March 27, 1306, he was crowned.</p> + +<p>Edward now determined to take more vigorous measures than ever +against the Scots. He denounced as traitors all who had participated in +the murder of Comyn, and declared that all persons taken in arms would +be put to death. He made great preparations for subduing Scotland, but +while leading his army into that country, 1307, he died at Burgh-on-the-Sands, +near Carlisle.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Bruce, who ranks with Wallace as a Scottish hero, had +suffered some reverses at the hands of the English. Under the Earl of +Pembroke, in 1306, they took Perth and drove Bruce into the wilds of +Athol. In the same year, at Dairy, Bruce was defeated by Comyn's uncle, +Macdougal, Lord of Lorn, and escaped to Ireland. But in 1307 +Bruce returned to Scotland and carried on the war against Edward II. +The English were driven out of the strong places one by one; war alternated +with diplomacy through several years; and at last came a crisis +which roused the English government to a supreme effort.</p> + +<p>Stirling castle still held out, besieged by Edward Bruce, Robert's +brother, 1313, but its surrender was promised by Mowbray, the governor, +in the event of his not being relieved before June 24, 1314. The +relieving of Stirling meant for the English a new invasion of Scotland. +On both sides the strongest efforts were made—on the one side to relieve +the castle, on the other to strengthen its besiegers. The opposing forces +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span>met in battle at Bannockburn, June 24, 1314, an action which has never +been better described than in this characteristic recital by Professor +Lang.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_b.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="B" />ANNOCKBURN, like the relief of Orleans, or Marathon, +was one of the decisive battles of the world. History +hinged upon it. If England had won, Scotland might have +dwindled into the condition of Ireland—for Edward II was not +likely to aim at a statesmanlike policy of union, in his father's +manner. Could Scotland have accepted union at the first +Edward's hands; could he have refrained from his mistreatment +as we must think it of Baliol, the fortunes of the isle of +Britain might have been happier. But had Scotland been trodden +down at Bannockburn, the fortunes of the isle might well +have been worse.</p> + +<p>The singular and certain fact is that Bannockburn was +fought on a point of chivalry, on a rule in a game. England +must "touch bar," relieve Stirling, as in some child's pastime. +To the securing of the castle, the central gate of Scotland, north +and south, England put forth her full strength. Bruce had no +choice but to concentrate all the power of a now, at last, united +realm, and stand just where he did stand. His enemies knew +his purpose: by May 27th writs informed England that the +Scots were gathering on heights and morasses inaccessible to +cavalry. If ever Edward showed energy, it was in preparing +for the appointed Midsummer Day of 1314. The <i>Rotuli Scotiæ</i> +contain several pages of his demands for men, horses, wines, +hay, grain, provisions, and ships. Endless letters were sent to +master mariners and magistrates of towns. The King appealed +to his beloved Irish chiefs, O'Donnells, O'Flyns, O'Hanlens, +MacMahons, M'Carthys, Kellys, O'Reillys, and O'Briens, and +to <i>Hiberniæ Magnates, Anglico genere ortos</i>, Butlers, Blounts, +De Lacys, Powers, and Russels. John of Argyll was made +admiral of the western fleet, and was asked to conciliate the +Islesmen, who, under Angus Og, were rallying to Bruce. The +numbers of men engaged on either side in this war cannot be +ascertained. Each kingdom had a year within which to muster +and arm.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Then all that worthy were to fight</span> +<span class="i0">Of Scotland, set all hale their might;"</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span>while Barbour makes Edward assemble not only</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i3">"His own chivalry</span> +<span class="i0">That was so great it was ferly,"</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>but also knights of France and Hainault, Bretagne and Gascony, +Wales, Ireland, and Aquitaine. The whole English force is +said to have exceeded one hundred thousand, forty thousand of +whom were cavalry, including three thousand horses "barded +from counter to tail," armed against stroke of sword or point of +spear. The baggage train was endless, bearing tents, harness, +"and apparel of chamber and hall," wine, wax, and all the +luxuries of Edward's manner of campaigning, including <i>animalia</i>, +perhaps lions. Thus the English advanced from Berwick,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Banners rightly fairly flaming,</span> +<span class="i0">And pencels to the wind waving."</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>On June 23d Bruce heard that the English host had streamed +out of Edinburgh, where the dismantled castle was no safe hold, +and were advancing on Falkirk. Bruce had summoned Scotland +to tryst in Torwood, whence he could retreat at pleasure, +if, after all, retreat he must. The Fiery Cross, red with blood +of a sacrificed goat, must have flown through the whole of +the Celticland. Lanarkshire, Douglasdale, and Ettrick Forest +were mustered under the banner of Douglas, the mullets not yet +enriched with the royal heart. The men of Moray followed +their new earl, Randolph, the adventurous knight who scaled +the rock of the castle of the Maidens. Renfrewshire, Bute, and +Ayr were under the <i>fesse chequy</i> of young Walter Stewart. +Bruce had gathered his own Carrick men, and Angus Og led +the wild levies of the Isles. Of stout spearmen and fleet-footed +clansmen Bruce had abundance; but what were his archers to +the archers of England, or his five hundred horse under Keith +the mareschal, to the rival knights of England, Hainault, Guienne, +and Almayne?</p> + +<p>Battles, however, are won by heads, as well as by hearts and +hands. The victor of Glen Trool and Cruachen and London +Hill knew every move in the game, while Randolph and Douglas +were experts in making one man do the work of five. Bruce, +too, had choice of ground, and the ground suited him well.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span></p> + +<p>To reach Stirling the English must advance by their left, +along the so-called German way, through the village of St. +Nian's, or by their right, through the Carse, partly enclosed, +and much broken, in drainless days, by reedy lochans. Bruce +did not make his final dispositions till he learned that the +English meant to march by the former route. He then chose +ground where his front was defended, first by the little burn of +Bannock, which at one point winds through a cleugh with +steep banks, and next by two morasses, Halbert's bog and +Milton bog. What is now arable ground may have been a loch +in old days, and these two marshes were then impassable by a +column of attack.</p> + +<p>Between Charter's Hall—where Edward had his head-quarters—and +Park's Mill was a marge of firm soil, along which +a column could pass, in scrubby country, and between the +bogs was a sort of bridge of dry land. By these two avenues +the English might assail the Scottish lines. These approaches +Bruce is said to have rendered difficult by pitfalls, and even by +caltrops to maim the horses. He determined to fight on foot, +the wooded country being difficult for horsemen, and the foe +being infinitely superior in cavalry. His army was arranged +in four "battles," with Randolph to lead the vaward and watch +against any attempt to throw cavalry into Stirling. Edward +Bruce commanded the division on the right, next the Torwood. +Walter Stewart, a lad, with Douglas led the third division. +Bruce himself and Angus Og, with the men of Carrick and the +Celts, were in the rear. Bruce had no mind to take the offensive, +and as at the Battle of the Standard, to open the fight with a +charge of impetuous mountaineers. On Sunday morning mass +was said, and men shrived them.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"They thought to die in the mêlée,</span> +<span class="i0">Or else to set their country free."</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>They ate but bread and water, for it was the vigil of St. John. +News came that the English had moved out of Falkirk, and +Douglas and the Steward brought tidings of the great and splendid +host that was rolling north. Bruce bade them make little +of it in the hearing of the army.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Philip de Mowbray, who commanded in Stirling,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span> +had ridden forth to meet and counsel Edward. His advice was +to come no nearer; perhaps a technical relief was held to have +already been secured by the presence of the army.</p> + +<p>Mowbray was not heard—"the young men" would not +listen. Gloucester, with the van, entered the park, where he +was met, as we shall see, and Clifford, Beaumont, and Sir +Thomas Grey, with three hundred horsemen, skirted the wood +where Randolph was posted, a clear way lying before them to +the castle of Stirling. Bruce had seen this movement, and told +Randolph that "a rose of his chaplet was fallen," the phrase +attesting the King's love of chivalrous romance. To pursue +horsemen with infantry seemed vain enough; but Randolph +moved out of cover, thinking perhaps that knights adventurous +would refuse no chance to fight. If this was his thought, he +reckoned well. Beaumont cried to his knights, "Give ground, +leave them fair field." Grey hinted that the Scots were in too +great force, and Beaumont answered, "If you fear, fly!" "Sir," +said Sir Thomas, "for fear I fly not this day!" and so spurred +in between Beaumont and D'Eyncourt and galloped on the +spears. D'Eyncourt was slain, Grey was unhorsed and taken. +The three hundred lances of Beaumont then circled Randolph's +spearmen round about on every side, but the spears kept back +the horses. Swords, maces, and knives were thrown; all was +done as by the French cavalry against the British squares at +Waterloo, and all as vainly. The hedge of steel was unbroken, +and, in the hot sun of June, a mist of dust and heat brooded +over the battle.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i4">"Sic mirkness</span> +<span class="i0">In the air above them was"</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>as when the sons of Thetis and the Dawn fought under the walls +of windy Troy. Douglas beheld the distant cloud, and rode +to Bruce, imploring leave to hurry to Randolph's aid. "I will +not break my ranks for him," said Bruce; yet Douglas had his +will. But the English wavered, seeing his line advance, and +thereon Douglas halted his men, lest Randolph should lose +renown. Beholding this the spearmen of Randolph, in their +turn, charged and drove the weary English horse and their disheartened +riders.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span>Meanwhile Edward had halted his main force to consider +whether they should fight or rest. But Gloucester's party, +knowing nothing of his halt, had advanced into the wooded park; +and Bruce rode down to the right in his armor, and with a gold +coronal on his basnet, but mounted on a mere palfrey. To the +front of the English van, under Gloucester and Hereford, rode +Sir Henry Bohun, a bow-shot beyond his company. Recognizing +the King, who was arraying his ranks, Bohun sped down +upon him, apparently hoping to take him.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"He thought that he should dwell lightly,</span> +<span class="i0">Win him, and have him at his will."</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>But Bruce, in this fatal movement, when history hung on his +hand and eye, uprose in his stirrups and clove Bohun's helmet, +the axe breaking in that stroke. It was a desperate but a winning +blow: Bruce's spears advanced, and the English van withdrew +in half superstitious fear of the omen. His lords blamed +Bruce, but</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"The King has answer made them none,</span> +<span class="i0">But turned upon the axe-shaft, wha</span> +<span class="i0">Was with the stroke broken in twa."</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>"<i>Initium malorum hoc</i>" ("This was the beginning of evil"), says +the English chronicler.</p> + +<p>After this double success in the Quatre Bras of the Scottish +Waterloo, Bruce, according to Barbour, offered to his men their +choice of withdrawal or of standing it out. The great general +might well be of doubtful mind—was to-morrow to bring a +second and a more fatal Falkirk? The army of Scotland was +protected, as Wallace's army at Falkirk had been, by difficult +ground. But the English archers might again rain their blinding +showers of shafts into the broad mark offered by the clumps +of spears, and again the English knights might break through +the shaken ranks. Bruce had but a few squadrons of horse—could +they be trusted to scatter the bowmen of the English +forests, and to escape a flank charge from the far heavier cavalry +of Edward? On the whole, was not the old strategy best, the +strategy of retreat? So Bruce may have pondered. He had +brought his men to the ring, and they voted for dancing. Meanwhile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> +the English rested on a marshy plain "<i>outre</i>-Bannockburn" +in sore discomfiture, says Gray. He must mean south of +Bannockburn, taking the point of view of his father, at that hour +captive in Bruce's camp. He tells us that the Scots meant to +retire "into the Lennox, a right strong country"—this confirms, +in a way, Barbour's tale of Bruce suggesting retreat—when +Sir Alexander Seton, deserting Edward's camp, advised +Bruce of the English lack of spirit, and bade him face the foe +next day. To retire, indeed, was Bruce's, as it had been Wallace's, +natural policy. The English would soon be distressed +for want of supplies; on the other hand, they had clearly made +no arrangements for an orderly retreat if they lost the day; +with Bruce this was a motive for fighting them. The advice of +Seton prevailed; the Scots would stand their ground.</p> + +<p>The sun of Midsummer Day rose on the rite of the mass +done in front of the Scottish lines. Men breakfasted, and +Bruce knighted Douglas, the Steward, and other of his nobles. +The host then moved out of the wood, and the standards +rose above the spears of the soldiers. Edward Bruce held the +right wing; Randolph the centre; the left, under Douglas and +the Steward, rested of St. Ninian's. Bruce, as he had arranged, +was in reserve with Carrick and the Isles. "Will these men +fight?" asked Edward, and Sir Ingram assured him that such +was their intent. He advised that the English should make +a feigned retreat, when the Scots would certainly break their +ranks—</p> + + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"Then prick we on them hardily."</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>Edward rejected his old ruse, which probably would not have +beguiled the Scottish leader. The Scots then knelt for a moment +of prayer, as the Abbot of Inchafray bore the crucifix along +the line; but they did not kneel to Edward. His van, under +Gloucester, fell on Edward Bruce's division, where there was +hand-to-hand fighting, broken lances, dying chargers, the rear +ranks of Gloucester pressing vainly on the front ranks, unable +to deploy for the straitness of the ground.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Randolph's men moved forward slowly with extended +spears, "as they were plunged in the sea" of charging +knights. Douglas and the Steward were also engaged, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> +"hideous shower" of arrows was ever raining from the bows of +England. This must have been the crisis of the fight, according +to Barbour, and Bruce bade Keith with his five hundred horse +charge the English archers on the flank. The bowmen do not +seem to have been defended by pikes; they fell beneath the +lances of the mareschal, as the archers of Ettrick had fallen at +Falkirk. The Scottish archers now took heart, and loosed +into the crowded and reeling ranks of England, while the flying +bowmen of the south clashed against and confused the English +charge. Then Scottish archers took to their steel sparths—who +ever loved to come to hand strokes—and hewed into the mass +of the English, so that the field, whither Bruce brought up his +reserves to support Edward Bruce on the right, was a mass of +wild, confused fighting. In this mellay the great body of the +English army could deal no stroke, swaying helplessly as southern +knights or northern spears won some feet of ground. So, +in the space between Halbert's bog and the burn, the mellay +rang and wavered, the long spears of the Scottish ranks unbroken +and pushing forward, the ground before them so covered +with fallen men and horses that the English advance was +clogged and crushed between the resistance in front and the +pressure behind.</p> + +<p>"God will have a stroke in every fight," says the romance +of Malory. While the discipline was lost, and England was +trusting to sheer weight and "who will pound longest," a fresh +force, banners displayed, was seen rushing down the Gillies' +Hill, beyond the Scottish right. The English could deem no +less than that this multitude were tardy levies from beyond the +Spey, above all when the slogans rang out from the fresh advancing +host. It was a body of yeomen, shepherds, and camp-followers, +who could no longer remain and gaze when fighting +and plunder were in sight. With blankets fastened to cut +saplings for banner-poles, they ran down to the conflict. The +King saw them, and well knew that the moment had come: he +pealed his ensenye—called his battle-cry—faint hearts of England +failed; men turned, trampling through the hardy warriors +who still stood and died; the knights who rode at Edward's +rein strove to draw him toward the castle of Stirling. +But now the foremost knights of Edward Bruce's division,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> +charging on foot, had fought their way to the English King and +laid hands on the rich trappings of his horse. Edward cleared +his way with strokes of his mace; his horse was stabbed, but +a fresh mount was found for him. Even Sir Giles de Argentine, +the best knight on ground, bade Edward fly to Stirling castle. +"For me, I am not of custom to fly," he said, "nor shall I do so +now. God keep you!" Thereon he spurred into the press, crying +"Argentine!" and died among the spears.</p> + +<p>None held his ground for England. The burn was choked +with fallen men and horses, so that folk might pass dry-shod +over it. The country people fell on and slew. If Bruce had +possessed more cavalry, not an Englishman would have reached +the Tweed. Edward, as Argentine bade him, rode to Stirling, +but Mowbray told him that there he would be but a captive +king. He spurred south, with five hundred horse, Douglas +following with sixty, so close that no Englishman might alight, +but was slain or taken. Laurence de Abernethy, with eighty +horse, was riding to join the English, but turned, and with +Douglas, pursued them. Edward reached Dunbar, whence +he took boat for Berwick. In his terror he vowed to build a +college of Carmelites, students in theology. It is Oriel College +to-day, with a Scot for provost. Among those who fell on the +English side were the son of Comyn, Gloucester, Clifford, Harcourt, +Courtenay, and seven hundred other gentlemen of coat-armor +were slain. Hereford (later), with Angus, Umfraville, +and Sir Thomas Grey, was among the prisoners. Stirling, of +course, surrendered.</p> + +<p>The sun of Midsummer Day set on men wounded and weary, +but victorious and free. The task of Wallace was accomplished. +To many of the combatants not the least agreeable result of +Bannockburn was the unprecedented abundance of the booty. +When campaigning Edward denied himself nothing. His wardrobe +and arms; his enormous and apparently well-supplied +array of food wagons; his ecclesiastical vestments for the celebration +of victory; his plate; his siege artillery; his military +chests, with all the jewelry of his young minion knights, fell into +the hands of the Scots. Down to Queen Mary's reign we read, +in inventories, about costly vestments "from the fight at Bannockburn." +In Scotland it rained ransoms. The <i>Rotuli Scotiæ</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> +in 1314 full of Edward's preparation for war, in 1315 are rich in +safe-conducts for men going into Scotland to redeem prisoners. +One of these, the brave Sir Marmaduke Twenge, renowned at +Stirling bridge, hid in the woods on Midsummer's Night, and +surrendered to Bruce next day. The King gave him gifts and +set him free unransomed. Indeed, the clemency of Bruce after +his success is courteously acknowledged by the English chroniclers.</p> + +<p>This victory was due to Edward's incompetence, as well as +to the excellent dispositions and indomitable courage of Bruce, +and to "the intolerable axes" of his men. No measures had +been taken by Edward to secure a retreat. Only one rally, at +"the Bloody Fauld," is reported. The English fought widely, +their measures being laid on the strength of a confidence which, +after the skirmishes of Sunday, June 23d, they no longer entertained. +They suffered what, at Agincourt, Crécy, Poitiers, and +Verneuil, their descendants were to inflict. Horses and banners, +gay armor and chivalric trappings, were set at naught by the +sperthes and spears of infantry acting on favorable ground. +From the dust and reek of that burning day of June, Scotland +emerged a people, firm in a glorious memory. Out of weakness +she was made strong, being strangely led through paths of little +promise since the day when Bruce's dagger-stroke at Dumfries +closed from him the path of returning.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span></p> +<h2>EXTINCTION OF THE ORDER OF KNIGHTS +TEMPLARS</h2> + +<h3>BURNING OF GRAND MASTER MOLAY</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1314</h6> + + +<h3>F. C. WOODHOUSE H. H. MILMAN</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The quarrel between Philip the Fair of France and Pope Boniface +VIII, concerning the taxation of the clergy, and the right of nomination +to vacant bishoprics within the dominions of Philip, had far-reaching +effects. It led, in 1302, to the convocation of the first properly so-called +Parliament in France, to offset the actions of the Pope, who excommunicated +the King; and also to an expedition into Italy of a small body of +French troops which made the Pope prisoner at Agnani, but were subsequently +expelled with great loss of life. The Pope was reinstated, but +died shortly afterward from brain fever; he was succeeded by Benedict +XI, whom the King of France sought to placate, but unsuccessfully. +Within nine months Benedict died, presumably from poison, and Philip, +by his intrigues, was enabled to secure the election to the pontificate of +Bertrand de Goth, who became pope as Clement V, and was pledged to +the service of the French King.</p> + +<p>Philip, who had obstructed the operations of commerce by debasing +the coin of the realm to meet the exigencies of the state, was always in +want of money. His cupidity was excited by the wealth of the order of +Knights Templars, and, emboldened by his successes over the spiritual +power, he now entered upon the career of intrigue which resulted in the +destruction and plunder of the order.</p> + +<p>The famous Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, founded in 1118 by a +small band of nine French knights, sworn to protect Christian pilgrims to +the Holy Sepulchre, had become, in almost every kingdom of the West, +a powerful, wealthy, semimilitary, semimonastic republic, governed by +its own laws, animated by the closest corporate spirit, under the severest +internal discipline, an all-pervading organization, independent alike of the +civil power and of the spiritual hierarchy.</p> + +<p>During two centuries as crusaders, the knights fought valiantly and +shed their blood in defence of the Sepulchre of our Lord, earning the +devout admiration of Western Christendom, and receiving splendid endowments +of lands, castles, and riches of all kinds as contributions to +the cause of the holy wars.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span> +But despite their valor, Mahometan persistency prevailed, and the +total expulsion of the Templars, with the rest of the Christian establishments +from Palestine, followed the downfall of Acre in 1291.</p></div> + + +<h4>F. C. WOODHOUSE</h4> + +<p><img src="images/cap_t.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="T" />HE loss of Palestine led indirectly to the ruin of the order +of the Templars. The record is one of the dark episodes +of history, encompassed with contradictions, full of surprises, +painful to contemplate, whatever view may be taken, whichever +side espoused.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to understand how an order of men who for +nearly two hundred years earned the thanks and praise of +Christendom for their bravery and devotion; who had shed +blood like water to defend the places dearest to all Christian +hearts; who had been recruited from the noblest families in +every country in Europe, and had had princes of royal blood in +their ranks; who claimed to act upon the purest and most exalted +Christian principles; and who proved the sincerity of their +professions by their lives of self-sacrifice, and their deaths, for +the cause they had taken up; who had been honored and favored +and dowered with gifts and privileges, in gratitude for +their exploits—should suddenly have fallen into the blackest +crimes. So it is no less difficult to understand how public opinion +should turn against them as it did, and how all Europe +should set itself to disgrace and despoil, to malign and execrate, +those who had so long been its favorites and its champions. It +is not easy to understand this, and it is painful to read the story +in its sad and miserable details.</p> + +<p>But there are other pages of history that more or less correspond +with this; and there are well-known characteristics of +human nature that explain how such revulsions of feeling come +about. It has never been found difficult to get up a case against +those whom the great and powerful have made up their minds to +destroy. The best men are fallible and have their weak side. +Large bodies of men must contain some unworthy members. A +long history can hardly be without blots, mistakes, and crimes. +No man's life, if narrowly scrutinized by an unfavorable and +prejudiced criticism, but will afford ground for accusation. +Then, too, facts may be perverted, circumstances may be made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> +to bear a meaning that does not really belong to them, and fear +and torture may force the weak to say anything that they are +required. And, finally, the evidence and the judgment of those +who have everything to gain by the condemnation of those whom +they accuse, must always be viewed with suspicion by sober and +truth-loving minds. Moreover, in judging the Templars, we +must not forget the lapse of time and the change of circumstances +that separate our age from theirs.</p> + +<p>After the loss of Acre a chapter of the surviving Templars +was gathered, and James de Molay, preceptor of England, was +elected grand master. One more attempt was made to recover a +footing in the Holy Land, but it was defeated with great loss to +the order, and all hope of restoring the Latin kingdom in Palestine +seems to have been abandoned. The occupation of the +Templars was gone. They had been banded together to fight +upon the sacred soil of Palestine, and to defend pilgrims, but +now they had been driven out of the country, and they could no +longer execute their mission or fulfil their vows. We soon hear +of them being engaged in civil or international wars, which seems +to be a violation of their oath not to draw sword upon any +Christian. Thus we read of Templars fighting on the side of +the King of England, in the battle of Falkirk, 1298, and similar +occurrences are recorded in the French wars of the time. Those +against whom the Templars fought would not be slow to complain +of them.</p> + +<p>But the real cause of the downfall of the Templars was +probably the enormous wealth of the order. There had not +been wanting indications for some years of covetous eyes and +itching hands turned toward the possession of the Knights. +Sometimes complaints were made because the rents of their +estates were all sent out of the country; sometimes the grievance +alleged was that they were exempted from paying taxes +and other levies, civil and ecclesiastical. Sometimes open acts +of spoliation were committed upon their property, and that even +by royal hands.</p> + +<p>But it was in France that the final attack was made. Philip +the Fair was king at this time, a man of bad character and unscrupulous +as to the means by which he attained his ends. The +country was exhausted and the treasury empty, and the idea<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> +seems to have occurred to him, as it did later to Henry VIII of +England under similar circumstances, that an easy way to fill his +own purse was to put his hand into the purses of others. But +even kings cannot appropriate the property of a religious order +without offering some apology or justification to the world. +And so it began to be whispered that the Holy Land would never +have been lost to Christendom if its sworn defenders had not +failed in their Christian character. The whole blame of the defeat +of the crusades was laid upon the Templars. It was said +they had treacherously betrayed the Christian cause, that they +had treated with the enemy, and by their personal sins, especially +by secret, unhallowed rites, had provoked the just wrath +of God, and so brought about the ruin of the dominion of the +Cross in the East.</p> + +<p>When Ahab has determined to put Naboth to death, that +he may seize his coveted vineyard, it is not difficult to find witness +that he is a blasphemer of God and a traitor to the King; +and so Philip found his first tool in a man guilty of a multitude +of crimes, who secured his own pardon by a denunciation of the +Templars.</p> + +<p>But even a king could not ruin a great religious order without +the aid of the ecclesiastical authorities. The Templars had +always been favored and protected by the popes, and nothing +was in itself so likely to evoke that protection again as an +attack upon the order by the secular powers. But Philip was +prepared for this. The Pope of the day, Clement V, had been +a subject of his own. As bishop of Bordeaux, he owed his election +to the pontificate to Philip's own intrigues, and had been +easily induced to quit Rome and live in France, so as to be +more completely under the dictation of the King. Moreover, +the majority of the cardinals were also French and entirely devoted +to the King's interests.</p> + +<p>Clement V was one of the worst of those miserable men +who have from time to time disgraced the papal chair, and was +guilty of almost every crime. There are, indeed, authorities +worthy of credit who assert that before his election he had been +made to promise to perform six favors to the King, and that +the last was not to be divulged till the time for its execution +came. This last was then found to be the suppression of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span> +order of the Templars. There was no difficulty, under these +circumstances, in getting the so-called sanction of the Church +for an inquiry into the crimes of which the Templars were +accused.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, in 1307, Philip issued letters to his officers +throughout the kingdom, commanding them to seize all the +Templars on a certain day, that they might be tried for crimes +of which he and the Pope had satisfied themselves they were +guilty. They had apostatized from the Christian religion, worshipped +idols in their secret meetings, and had been guilty of +horrible and shameful offences against God, the Church, the +State, and humanity itself. Philip professed the most pious +horror at what he had discovered; he lamented the grievous +necessity laid upon him, and urged upon the guilty men the +expediency of a full and immediate confession of their wicked +doings as the only way to secure pardon and escape the just +and extreme penalty of such outrageous wickedness.</p> + +<p>It was during the night of October 13, 1307, that the King's +orders were executed. Every house of the Templars in the +dominions of the King of France was suddenly surrounded by a +strong force, and all the Knights and members of the order were +simultaneously taken prisoners.</p> + +<p>At the same time a strenuous endeavor was made to arouse +popular indignation against the order. The regular and secular +clergy were commanded to preach against the Templars, and +to describe the horrible enormities that were practised among +them. It is incredible to us in these days that such charges +should be made, and still more that they should actually be +believed. It was said that the Templars worshipped some +hideous idol in their secret assemblies, that they offered sacrifices +to it of infants and young girls, and that although every +one saw them devout, charitable, and regular in their religious +duties, people were not to be misled by these things, for this was +only a cloak intended to deceive the world and conceal their +secret rites and obscene orgies.</p> + +<p>It was hoped that some confession of guilt might be readily +obtained from some of the weaker brethren in order to receive +the pardon which was promised by the King. But no such confession +was made. All the prisoners denied the charges brought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> +against them. Then the usual mediæval expedient was resorted +to, and torture was used to extort acknowledgments of guilt. +The unhappy Templars in Paris were handed over to the tender +mercies of the tormentors with the usual results. One hundred +and forty were subjected to trial by fire.</p> + +<p>The details preserved are almost too horrible to be related. +The feet of some were fastened close to a hot fire till the very +flesh and even the bones were consumed. Others were suspended +by their limbs, and heavy weights attached to them to +make the agony more intense. Others were deprived of their +teeth; and every cruelty that a horrible ingenuity could invent +was used.</p> + +<p>While this was going on, questions were asked, and offers of +pardon were made if they would acknowledge themselves or +others guilty of the monstrous wickednesses which were detailed +to them. At the same time forged letters were read, purporting +to come from the grand master himself, exhorting them to make +a full confession, and declarations were made of the confessions +which were said to have been already freely given by other members +of the order.</p> + +<p>What wonder, then, that the usual consequences followed. +Those who had strong will and indomitable courage stood firm +and endured the slow martyrdom till death released them, +maintaining to the last their own innocence, and the innocence +of their order, of the crimes with which they were charged. +But some weaker men broke down. In hope of release from the +agony which they could not endure, they confessed anything and +everything that was required of them, and these things were at +once written down as grave facts and made matter of accusation +of others. Often these unhappy men almost immediately recanted, +and as soon as the torture ceased withdrew their confessions, +and repeated their original denial of the accusations +one and all.</p> + +<p>We have long ago ceased to set any value upon confessions +extorted by torture, and the system has happily been abolished +by all civilized nations, but in those days this was not understood; +torture was relied upon as a means of extracting truth +from unwilling witnesses when all other means failed; indeed, it +was simpler and more expeditious than the calling of many witnesses,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> +the testing of evidence by cross-examination, and other +surer but slower methods; and especially when conviction, not +truth, was the end in view, torture was a welcome and efficacious +ally.</p> + +<p>All this was but too sadly exemplified in the proceedings +against the Templars in France. No sooner were those who +had made confessions of guilt while under torture released from +their tormentors than they disavowed their forced admissions +and proclaimed their innocence and the purity of their order, +appealing to history and the testimony of their own day for +evidence of their courage and devotion to the Catholic faith.</p> + +<p>Upon hearing of this Philip immediately ordered the rearrest +of the Templars, and, proceeding against them as relapsed +heretics, they were condemned to be burned alive. In Paris +alone one hundred and thirteen suffered this terrible punishment, +and many more were burned in other towns. In Spain, +Portugal, and Germany, proceedings were taken against the +order; their property was confiscated, and in some cases torture +was used; but it is remarkable that it was only in France, +and in those places where Philip's influence was powerful, that +any Templar was actually put to death.</p> + +<p>Everywhere else the monstrous charges were declared to be +unproved, and the order was declared innocent of heresy and +sacrilegious rites.</p> + +<p>In October, 1311, a council was held at Vienna to dissolve +the Order of the Temple, but the majority of the bishops were +decidedly opposed to such a proceeding against so ancient and +illustrious an order, till its members had been heard in their +own defence in a fair and open trial. The Pope was furious at +this and dismissed the council, and in the following year, 1312, +by a papal brief, abolished the order and forbade its reconstitution. +The property of the order in France was nominally +made over to the Hospitallers, but Philip laid claim to an immense +sum for the expenses of the prosecution, and by this and +other means he obtained what he had all along desired—the +greatest part of the possessions of the order. Similar proceedings +took place in other countries. In some, new orders were +founded in the place of the Templars, with the sovereign at +their head, by which means the estates came into the possession<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> +of the Crown as completely as if they had been actually +confiscated.</p> + +<p>In France the Templars who survived their torture and the +horrors of their prisons were either executed or left to linger out +a miserable existence in their dungeons till death released them. +The grand master and a few other brethren of the highest rank +were thus kept in prison for five years. They were then taken +to Notre Dame in Paris, and required to give verbal assent to +the confessions which had been extorted from them under torture. +But the grand master, James de Molay, the grand preceptor, +and some others seized the opportunity of declaring +their innocence, and disowning the alleged confessions as forgeries. +The old veterans stood up in the church before the assembled +multitude, and, raising their chained hands to heaven, +declared that whatever had been confessed to the detriment of +the illustrious order was only forced from them by extreme agony +and fear of death, and that they solemnly and finally repudiated +and revoked all such admissions.</p> + +<p>On hearing of this, Philip ordered their immediate execution, +and the same evening the last grand master of the Temple and +his faithful comrades were burned to death at a slow fire.</p> + +<p>Impartial men had formed their own judgment, and a very +strong feeling prevailed that justice had not been done. It was +remarked that those who had been foremost in the proceedings +against the Templars came to a speedy and miserable +end. The Pope, the kings of France and of England, and others, +all soon followed their victims and died violent or shameful +deaths.</p> + +<p>We have somewhat anticipated the order of events, and +must return to the earlier stage of the proceedings against the +Templars. As soon as Philip had determined upon his own +course of action, he desired to find countenance for it by stirring +up other sovereigns to imitate it. He therefore wrote letters to +the kings of other European states, informing them of his discovery +of the guilt of the Templars, and urging them to adopt a +similar course in their own dominions. The Pope, too, summoned +the grand master to France, but with every mark of +respect, and so got him into his power before the terrible proceedings +against the members of his order were made public.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span></p> + +<p>The King of England, Edward II, acted with prudence. +He expressed his unbounded astonishment at the contents of +the French King's letter, and at the particulars detailed to him +by an agent specially sent to him by Philip, but he would do no +more at the time than promise that the matter should receive +his serious attention in due course.</p> + +<p>He wrote at the same time to the kings of Portugal, Aragon, +Castile, and Sicily, telling them of the extraordinary information +he had received respecting the Templars, and declaring his +unwillingness to believe the dreadful charges brought against +them. He referred to the services rendered to Christendom by +the order, and to its unblemished reputation ever since it was +founded. He urged upon his fellow-sovereigns that nothing +should be done in haste, but that inquiry should be made in due +and solemn legal form, expressing his belief that the order was +guiltless of the crimes alleged against it, and that the charges +were merely the result of slander and envy and of a desire to +appropriate the property of the order.</p> + +<p>At the same time Edward wrote to the Pope in similar terms. +He declared that the Templars were universally respected by all +classes throughout his dominions as pious and upright men, and +begged the Pope to promote a just inquiry which should free the +order from the unjust slander and injuries to which it was being +subjected. But hardly was this letter despatched than Edward +received another from the Pope, which had crossed his own on +its way, calling upon him to imitate Philip, King of France, in +proceeding against the Templars. The Pope professed great +distress and astonishment that an order that had so long enjoyed +the respect and gratitude of the Church for its worthy +deeds in defence of the faith should have fallen into grievous +and perfidious apostasy. He then narrated the commendable +zeal of the King of France in rooting out the secrets of these +men's hidden wickedness, and gave particulars of some of their +confessions of the crimes with which they had been charged. +He concluded by commanding the King of England to pursue +a similar course, to seize and imprison all members of the order +on one day, and to hold, in the Pope's name, all the property +of the order till it should be determined how it was to be disposed +of.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span>King Edward, notwithstanding his recent declaration of confidence +in the integrity of the Templars, yielded obedience to +this missive of the Pope. Whether he was overawed by the +authority of the Pontiff, and deferred his own opinion to that of +so great a personage, or whether, as some suppose, he desired to +give the Templars a fair and honorable trial, and the opportunity +of clearing themselves; or whether he gave way to the evil +counsels of those who whispered that the great wealth of the +Templars would be useful to the Crown, and that he might +avail himself of the opportunity of taking all—as his predecessors +had taken some—of their treasure; whatever may have +been his real motive, and the cause of his change of conduct, it +is certain that he issued an order for the arrest of the Templars, +and the seizure of all their estates, houses, and property.</p> + +<p>The greatest caution and secrecy were adopted. Instructions +were sent to all the sheriffs throughout England to hold themselves +in readiness to execute certain orders which would be +given to them by trusty persons on that day. Similar arrangements +were made in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; and on January +8, 1308, every Templar was simultaneously arrested.</p> + +<p>It was not till October in the following year that any trial took +place. All this time the Templars had been suffering the miseries +of imprisonment. More than two hundred men of high +rank, many of them veterans who had fought and bled in Palestine, +and who were now grown old and feeble after a life of +hardship and privation, maimed with wounds, bronzed with exposure +to the Eastern sun, languished under the tender mercies +of jailers, with no opportunity of defending themselves or of +raising up friends to say a word for them. Some were foreigners +who happened to be in England on the business of the order. +A few managed to evade the vigilance of the King's emissaries, +notwithstanding the secrecy and suddenness of the arrest, and +escaped in various disguises to the wild and remote mountain +districts of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.</p> + +<p>The court appointed by the Pope commenced its proceedings +in London, in October, 1309, under the presidency of the +Bishop of London. Several French ecclesiastics had come over +to take their seat upon the bench as judges—an ill omen for the +English Templars. After the usual preliminaries, which were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span> +long and tedious, the articles of accusation were read. They +stated that those who were received into the order of the Knights +of the Temple did, at their reception, formally deny Jesus Christ +and renounce all hope of salvation through him; that they +trampled and spat upon the cross; that they worshipped a cat(!); +that they denied the sacraments, and looked only to the grand +master for absolution; that they possessed and worshipped +various idols; that they practised a variety of cruel, degrading, +and filthy customs and rites; that the grand master and many of +the brethren had confessed to these things even before they had +been arrested. Such is a brief summary of the accusation, the +original documents of which have happily come down to us.</p> + +<p>It is not easy for us to understand how such a farrago +of absurdity, profanity, and indecency could ever have been +gravely produced in a so-called court of justice in England as a +state paper—a bill of indictment against a body of noblemen +and gentlemen; against an order that for two hundred years +had been the right arm of the Church and the defender of Christianity +against its most dangerous and ruthless enemies. No +writer of fiction would have ventured on inventing such a trial, +and no one unacquainted with mediæval history would credit +the record that grave prelates and learned judges drew up such +a document, and then set themselves to prove the truth of its +monstrous allegations by the use of torture.</p> + +<p>Students of the Middle Ages know well that such things were +done in those days. They remember Savonarola and Beatrice +Cenci in Italy, Jeanne d'Arc in France, Abbot Whiting and +others in England. They call to mind the cruelties and exactions +practised so often upon the Jews in every country in +Europe; and with the contemporary records in their hands, they +do not hesitate to accept as undoubted historical fact what +would otherwise be rejected as a slander upon humanity and an +outrage upon common-sense.</p> + +<p>If the Templars had been accused of the crimes vulgarly +supposed to attach themselves to religious orders; if they had +been charged with falling into the sins to which poor human +nature by its frailty is liable; if erring members had been denounced, +men who had entered the order through disappointment, +or from some other unworthy motive, men such as Sir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span> +Walter Scott depicts in his imaginary Templar, Brian de Bois +Guilbert, in his novel, <i>Ivanhoe</i>, we might well believe that some +at least of the accusations against them were true.</p> + +<p>It is singular that no such charges are alleged against the +Templars, though they were freely brought, two hundred years +later, against the regular monks by the commissioners of Henry +VIII. This fact has been noticed by most thoughtful historians, +and has been considered to tell strongly in the tribunal of equity +in favor of the Templars. Instead of these probable or possible +crimes, we find nothing but monstrous charges of sorcery, idolatry, +apostasy, and such like, instances of which we know are to +be found in those strange times; but which it seems altogether +unlikely would infect a large body whose fundamental principle +was close adherence to Christianity; a body which was spread +all over the world, and which included in its ranks such a multitude +and variety of men and of nationalities, among whom +there must have been, to say the least, some sincere, upright, +and godly men who would have set themselves to root out such +miserable errors, or, if they were found to be ineradicable, would +have left the order as no place for them.</p> + +<p>Even Voltaire acknowledges that such an indictment destroys +itself. It recoils upon its framers, and proves nothing +but their intense hatred of their victims and their total unfitness +to sit as judges.</p> + +<p>When this extraordinary paper had been read, the prisoners +were asked what they had to say to it, and, as might be expected, +they at once and unanimously declared that they and their +order were absolutely guiltless of the crimes of which they were +accused. After this the prisoners were examined one by one.</p> + +<p>It would be tedious to follow the long and wearisome questionings +and to record the replies given by the several brethren +of the Temple during their trial in London. One and all agreed +in denying the existence of the horrible and ridiculous rites +which were said to be used at the reception of new members; +and whether they had been received in England or abroad, detailed +the ceremonies that were used, and showed that they were +substantially the same everywhere. The candidate was asked +what he desired, and on replying that he desired admission to +the order of the Knights of the Temple, he was warned of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span> +strict and severe life that was demanded of members of the +order; of the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience; +and, moreover, that he must be ready to go and fight the enemies +of Christ even to the death.</p> + +<p>Others related details of the interior discipline and regulations +of the order, which were stern and rigorous, as became a +body that added to the strictness of the convent the order and +system of a military organization. Many of the brethren had been +nearly all their lives in the order, some more than forty years, a +great part of which had been spent in active service in the East.</p> + +<p>The witnesses who were summoned were not members of +the order, and had only hearsay evidence to give. They had +<i>heard</i> this and that report, they <i>suspected</i> something else, they +had been <i>told</i> that certain things had been said or done. Nothing +definite could be obtained, and there was no proof whatever +of any of the extravagant and incredible charges. Similar proceedings +took place in Lincoln and York, and also in Scotland +and Ireland; and in all places the results were the same, and the +matter dragged on till October, 1311.</p> + +<p>Hitherto torture had not been resorted to; but now, in accordance +with the repeated solicitations of the Pope, King Edward +gave orders that the imprisoned Templars should be subjected +to the rack in order that they might be forced to give +evidence of their guilt. Even then there seems to have been +reluctance to resort to this cruel and shameful treatment, and a +series of delays occurred, so that nothing was done till the beginning +of the following year.</p> + +<p>The Templars, having been now three years in prison, +chained, half-starved, threatened with greater miseries here, +and with eternal damnation hereafter; separated from one +another, without friend, adviser, or legal defence, were now +removed to the various jails in London and elsewhere, and +submitted to torture. We have no particular record of the horrible +details, but some evidence was afterward adduced which +was said to have been obtained from the unhappy victims during +their agony. It was such as was desired; an admission of +the truth of the monstrous accusations that were detailed to +them, which had been obtained, for the most part, from their +tortured brethren in France.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span>In April, 1311, these depositions were read in the court, in +the presence of the Templars, who were required to say what +they could allege in their defence. They replied that they were +ignorant of the processes of law, and that they were not permitted +to have the aid of those whom they trusted and who +could advise them, but that they would gladly make a statement +of their faith and of the principles of their order. This they +were permitted to do, and a very simple and touching paper was +produced and signed by all the brethren. They declared themselves, +one and all, good Christians and faithful members of the +Church, and they claimed to be treated as such, and openly and +fairly tried if there were any just cause of complaint against +them. But their persecutors were by no means satisfied. Fresh +tortures and cruelties were resorted to to force confessions of +guilt from these worn-out and dying men. A few gave way, and +said what they were told to say; and these unhappy men were +produced in St. Paul's Cathedral shortly afterward, and made +to recant their errors, and were then "reconciled to the Church." +A similar scene was enacted at York.</p> + +<p>The property of the Templars in England was placed under +the charge of a commission at the time that proceedings were +commenced against them, and the King very soon treated it as +if it were his own, giving away manors and convents at his +pleasure. A great part of the possessions of the order was +subsequently made over to the Hospitallers. The convent and +church of the Temple in London were granted, in 1313, to Aymer +de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, whose monument is in +Westminster Abbey. Other property was pawned by the King +to his creditors as security for payment of his debts; but constant +litigation and disputes seem to have pursued the holders +of the ill-gotten goods.</p> + +<p>Some of the surviving Templars retired to monasteries, others +returned to the world and assumed secular habits, for which +they incurred the censures of the Pope.</p> + + +<h4>HENRY HART MILMAN</h4> + +<p>The tragedy of the Templars had not yet drawn to its close. +The four great dignitaries of the order, the grand master Du +Molay, Guy, the commander of Normandy, son of the Dauphin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> +of Auvergne, the commander of Aquitaine, Godfrey de Gonaville, +the great visitor of France, Hugues de Peraud, were still +pining in the royal dungeons. It was necessary to determine on +their fate. The King and the Pope were now equally interested +in burying the affair forever in silence and oblivion. So long as +these men lived, uncondemned, undoomed, the order was not +extinct. A commission was named: the Cardinal-Archbishop +of Albi, with two other cardinals, two monks, the Cistercian +Arnold Novelli, and Arnold de Fargis, nephew of Pope Clement, +the Dominican Nicolas de Freveauville, akin to the house of +Marigny, formerly the King's confessor. With these the Archbishop +of Sens sat in judgment on the Knights' own former confessions. +The grand master and the rest were found guilty, +and were to be sentenced to perpetual imprisonment.</p> + +<p>A scaffold was erected before the porch of Notre Dame. +On one side appeared the two cardinals; on the other the four +noble prisoners, in chains, under the custody of the Provost of +Paris. Six years of dreary imprisonment had passed over their +heads; of their valiant brethren the most valiant had been burned +alive; the recreants had purchased their lives by confession; the +Pope, in a full council, had condemned and dissolved the order. +If a human mind—a mind like that of Du Molay—could be +broken by suffering and humiliation, it must have yielded to +this long and crushing imprisonment. The Cardinal-Archbishop +of Albi ascended a raised platform: he read the confessions +of the Knights, the proceedings of the court; he enlarged +on the criminality of the order, on the holy justice of the Pope, +and the devout, self-sacrificing zeal of the King; he was proceeding +to the final, the fatal sentence. At that instant the +grand master advanced; his gesture implored silence; judges +and people gazed in awestruck apprehension. In a calm, clear +voice Du Molay spoke: "Before heaven and earth, on the +verge of death, where the least falsehood bears like an intolerable +weight upon the soul, I protest that we have richly deserved +death, not on account of any heresy or sin of which ourselves +or our order have been guilty, but because we have +yielded, to save our lives, to the seductive words of the Pope and +of the King; and so by our confessions brought shame and ruin +on our blameless, holy, and orthodox brotherhood."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span>The cardinals stood confounded; the people could not suppress +their profound sympathy. The assembly was hastily +broken up; the Provost was commanded to conduct the prisoners +back to their dungeons. "To-morrow we will hold further +counsel." But on the moment that the King heard these things, +without a day's delay, without the least consultation with the +ecclesiastical authorities, he ordered them to death as relapsed +heretics. On the island in the Seine, where now stands the statue +of Henry IV, between the King's garden on one side and the +convent of the Augustinian monks on the other, the two pyres +were raised—two out of the four had shrunk back into their +ignoble confessions. It was the hour of vespers when these two +aged and noble men were led out to be burned; they were tied +each to the stake. The flames kindled dully and heavily; the +wood, hastily piled up, was green or wet; or in cruel mercy the +tardiness was designed that the victims might have time, while +the fire was still curling round their extremities, to recant their +bold recantation. But there was no sign, no word of weakness. +Du Molay implored that the image of the Mother of God might +be held up before him, and his hands unchained, that he might +clasp them in prayer. Both, as the smoke rose to their lips, as +the fire crept up to their vital parts, continued solemnly to aver +the innocence and the Catholic faith of the order. The King +himself sat and beheld, it might seem without remorse, this +hideous spectacle; the words of Du Molay might have reached +his ears. But the people looked on with far other feelings. +Stupor kindled into admiration; the execution was a martyrdom; +friars gathered up their ashes and bones and carried them +away, hardly by stealth, to consecrated ground; they became +holy relics. The two who wanted courage to die pined away +their miserable life in prison.</p> + +<p>The wonder and the pity of the times which immediately +followed, arrayed Du Molay not only in the robes of the martyr, +but gave him the terrible language of a prophet. "Clement, +iniquitous and cruel judge, I summon thee within forty days to +meet me before the throne of the Most High!" According to +some accounts this fearful sentence included the King, by whom, +if uttered, it might have been heard. The earliest allusion to +this awful speech does not contain that striking particularity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span> +which, if part of it, would be fatal to its credibility, <i>i.e.</i>, the precise +date of Clement's death. It was not till the year after that +Clement and King Philip passed to their account. The fate of +these two men during the next year might naturally so appal the +popular imagination, as to approximate more closely the prophecy +and its accomplishment. At all events it betrayed the deep +and general feeling of the cruel wrong inflicted on the order; +while the unlamented death of the Pope, the disastrous close of +Philip's reign, and the disgraceful crimes which attainted the +honor of his family seemed as declarations of heaven as to the +innocence of their noble victims.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span></p> +<h2>JAMES VAN ARTEVELDE LEADS A +FLEMISH REVOLT</h2> + +<h3>EDWARD III OF ENGLAND ASSUMES THE +TITLE OF KING OF FRANCE</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1337-1340</h6> + +<h3>FRANÇOIS P. G. GUIZOT</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Having defeated the Flemings at Mons-la-Puelle in 1304, Philip the +Fair of France found that they were unsubdued and ready to renew their +war against him. Therefore he very soon acknowledged their independence +under their count, Robert de Béthune. But Philip continually +violated the treaty he had made, and just before his death (1314) he again +began hostilities against Flanders.</p> + +<p>Little of historical importance occurred in that country between the +death of Philip the Fair and the accession of Philip of Valois (1328). +His first act was to take up the cause of Louis de Nevers, then Count of +Flanders, whom the independent burghers of most of the chief cities had +united to deprive of his territories, leaving him only Ghent for a refuge. +In the first year of his reign Philip gained a victory over the Flemish +"weavers" at Cassel, and laid all Flanders at the feet of its rejected count.</p> + +<p>In 1338 began the Hundred Years' War, arising from the claim of +Edward III of England to the French throne. Edward's most important +measure in preparation for the war was the securing of an alliance +with the Flemish burghers, whose French count, Louis de Nevers, had +gained nothing in their affections through the humiliation of Cassel, which +confirmed his rule. The hated count showed his hostility to Edward, as +well as his spite against his own subjects, by various petty acts which interfered +with the commerce and industry of both Flanders and England.</p> + +<p>At last, by prohibiting the exportation of wool to Flanders, Edward +reduced the Flemings to despair and forced them to fling themselves into +his arms. Many of them emigrated to England, where they helped to +lay the foundation of manufactures. But the Flemish towns burst into +insurrection and proceeded to organized action in the manner here related +by Guizot, who draws largely upon the narrative of Froissart.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_t.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="T" />HE Flemings bore the first brunt of that war which was to +be so cruel and so long. It was a lamentable position for +them; their industrial and commercial prosperity was being +ruined; their security at home was going from them; their communal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span> +liberties were compromised; divisions set in among them; +by interest and habitual intercourse they were drawn toward +England, but the Count, their lord, did all he could to turn them +away from her, and many among them were loath to separate +themselves entirely from France. "Burghers of Ghent, as they +chatted in the thoroughfares and at the cross-roads, said one to +another that they had heard much wisdom, to their mind, from +a burgher who was called James van Artevelde, and who was a +brewer of beer. They had heard him say that, if he could +obtain a hearing and credit, he would in a little while restore +Flanders to good estate, and they would recover all their gains +without standing ill with the King of France or the King of +England.</p> + +<p>"These sayings began to get spread abroad insomuch that a +quarter or half the city was informed thereof, especially the small +folk of the commonalty, whom the evil touched most nearly. +They began to assemble in the streets, and it came to pass that +one day, after dinner, several went from house to house calling +for their comrades, and saying, 'Come and hear the wise man's +counsel.' On December 26, 1337, they came to the house of the +said James van Artevelde, and found him leaning against his +door. Far off as they were when they first perceived him, they +made him a deep obeisance, and 'Dear sir,' they said, 'we are +come to you for counsel; for we are told that by your great and +good sense you will restore the country of Flanders to good case. +So tell us how.'</p> + +<p>"Then James van Artevelde came forward, and said: 'Sirs +comrades, I am a native and burgher of this city, and here I +have my means. Know that I would gladly aid you with all +my power, you and all the country; if there were here a man who +would be willing to take the lead, I would be willing to risk body +and means at his side; and if the rest of ye be willing to be +brethren, friends, and comrades to me, to abide in all matters +at my side, notwithstanding that I am not worthy of it, I will +undertake it willingly.' Then said all with one voice: 'We +promise you faithfully to abide at your side in all matters and to +therewith adventure body and means, for we know well that in +the whole countship of Flanders there is not a man but you +worthy so to do.'" Then Van Artevelde bound them to assemble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> +on the next day but one in the grounds of the monastery +of Biloke, which had received numerous benefits from the ancestors +of Sohier of Courtrai, whose son-in-law Van Artevelde was.</p> + +<p>This bold burgher of Ghent, who was born about 1285, was +sprung from a family the name of which had been for a long +while inscribed in their city upon the register of industrial +corporations. His father, John van Artevelde, a cloth-worker, +had been several times over-sheriff of Ghent, and his mother, +Mary van Groete, was great-aunt to the grandfather of the +illustrious publicist called in history Grotius. James van +Artevelde in his youth accompanied Count Charles of Valois, +brother of Philip the Handsome, upon his adventurous expeditions +in Italy, Sicily, and Greece, and to the island of Rhodes; +and it had been close by the spots where the soldiers of Marathon +and Salamis had beaten the armies of Darius and Xerxes that +he had heard of the victory of the Flemish burghers and workmen +attacked in 1302, at Courtrai, by the splendid army of +Philip the Handsome.</p> + +<p>James van Artevelde, on returning to his country, had been +busy with his manufactures,<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">46</a> his fields, the education of his +children, and Flemish affairs up to the day when, at his invitation, +the burghers of Ghent thronged to the meeting on December 28, +1337, in the grounds of the monastery of Biloke. There he +delivered an eloquent speech, pointing out unhesitatingly but +temperately the policy which he considered good for the country. +"Forget not," he said, "the might and the glory of Flanders. +Who, pray, shall forbid that we defend our interests by using our +rights? Can the King of France prevent us from treating with +the King of England? And may we not be certain that if we +were to treat with the King of England, the King of France +would not be the less urgent in seeking our alliance? Besides, +have we not with us all the communes of Brabant, of Hainault, +of Holland, and of Zealand?" The audience cheered these +words; the commune of Ghent forthwith assembled, and on January +3, 1337, reëstablished the offices of captains of parishes according +to olden usage, when the city was exposed to any pressing +danger.</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span></p> + +<p>It was carried that one of these captains should have the +chief government of the city; and James van Artevelde was at +once invested with it. From that moment the conduct of Van +Artevelde was ruled by one predominant idea: to secure free +and fair commercial intercourse for Flanders with England, +while observing a general neutrality in the war between the kings +of England and France, and to combine so far all the communes +of Flanders in one and the same policy. And he succeeded +in this twofold purpose. On April 29, 1338, the representatives +of all the communes of Flanders—the city of Bruges +numbering among them a hundred and eight deputies—repaired +to the castle of Mâle, a residence of Count Louis, and then +James van Artevelde set before the Count what had been resolved +upon among them. The Count submitted, and swore that he +would thenceforth maintain the liberties of Flanders in the state +in which they had hitherto existed. In the month of May +following a deputation, consisting of James van Artevelde and +other burghers appointed by the cities of Ghent, Bruges, and +Ypres scoured the whole of Flanders, from Bailleul to Termonde, +and from Ninove to Dunkirk, "to reconcile the good +folk of the communes to the Count of Flanders, as well for the +Count's honor as for the peace of the country." Lastly, on +June 10, 1338, a treaty was signed at Anvers between the deputies +of the Flemish communes and the English ambassadors, +the latter declaring: "We do all to wit that we have negotiated +the way and substance of friendship with the good folk of the +communes of Flanders, in form and manner hereinafter following:</p> + +<p>"First, they shall be able to go and buy the wools and other +merchandise which have been exported from England to Holland, +Zealand, or any other place whatsoever; and all traders +of Flanders who shall repair to the ports of England shall there +be safe and free in their persons and their goods, just as in any +other place where their ventures might bring them together.</p> + +<p>"<i>Item</i>, we have agreed with the good folk and with all the +common country of Flanders that they must not mix nor intermeddle +in any way, by assistance in men or arms, in the wars +of our lord the King and the noble Sir Philip of Valois (who +holdeth himself for King of France)."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span>Three articles following regulated in detail the principles laid +down in the first two, and, by another charter, Edward III +ordained that "all stuffs marked with the seal of the city of +Ghent might travel freely in England without being subject +according to ellage and quality to the control to which all foreign +merchandise was subject."</p> + +<p>Van Artevelde was right in telling the Flemings that, if they +treated with the King of England, the King of France would be +only the more anxious for their alliance. Philip of Valois and +even Count Louis of Flanders, when they got to know of the +negotiations entered into between the Flemish communes and +King Edward, redoubled their offers and promises to them. +But when the passions of men have taken full possession of +their souls, words of concession and attempts at accommodation +are nothing more than postponements or lies. Philip, +when he heard about the conclusion of a treaty between the +Flemish communes and the King of England, sent word to +Count Louis "that this James van Artevelde must not, on any +account, be allowed to rule or even live, for if it were so for long, +the Count would lose his land." The Count, very much disposed +to accept such advice, repaired to Ghent and sent for +Van Artevelde to come and see him at his hotel. He went, but +with so large a following that the Count was not at the time at +all in a position to resist him. He tried to persuade the Flemish +burgher that "if he would keep a hand on the people so as +to keep them to their love for the King of France, he having +more authority than anyone else for such a purpose, much +good would result to him; mingling, besides, with this address, +some words of threatening import."</p> + +<p>Van Artevelde, who was not the least afraid of the threat, and +who at heart was fond of the English, told the Count that he +would do as he had promised the communes. "Hereupon he +left the Count, who consulted his confidants as to what he was to +do in this business, and they counselled him to let them go and +assemble their people, saying that they would kill Van Artevelde +secretly or otherwise. And, indeed, they did lay many traps and +made many attempts against the captain; but it was of no avail, +since all the commonalty was for him." When the rumor of +these projects and these attempts was spread abroad in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> +city, the excitement was extreme, and all the burghers assumed +white hoods, which was the mark peculiar to the members of +the commune when they assembled under their flags; so that +the Count found himself reduced to assuming one, for he was +afraid of being kept captive at Ghent, and, on the pretext of a +hunting-party, he lost no time in gaining his castle of Mâle.</p> + +<p>The burghers of Ghent had their minds still filled with their +late alarm when they heard that by order, it was said, of the +King of France—Count Louis had sent and beheaded at the +castle of Rupelmonde, in the very bed in which he was confined +by his infirmities, their fellow-citizen Sohier of Courtrai, +Van Artevelde's father-in-law, who had been kept for many +months in prison for his intimacy with the English. On the +same day the Bishop of Senlis and the Abbot of St. Denis had +arrived at Tournai, and had superintended the reading out in +the market-place of a sentence of excommunication against the +Ghentese.</p> + +<p>It was probably at this date that Van Artevelde in his vexation +and disquietude assumed in Ghent an attitude threatening and +despotic even to tyranny. "He had continually after him," +says Froissart, "sixty or eighty armed varlets, among whom +were two or three who knew some of his secrets. When he met +a man whom he hated or had in suspicion, this man was at once +killed, for Van Artevelde had given this order to his varlets: +'The moment I meet a man, and make such and such a sign to +you, slay him without delay, however great he may be, without +waiting for more speech.' In this way he had many great +masters slain. And as soon as these sixty varlets had taken +him home to his hotel, each went to dinner at his own house; +and the moment dinner was over they returned and stood before +his hotel and waited in the street until that he was minded +to go and play and take his pastime in the city, and so they +attended him to supper-time.</p> + +<p>"And know that each of these hirelings had <i>per diem</i> four +groschen of Flanders for their expenses and wages, and he had +them regularly paid from week to week. And even in the case +of all that were most powerful in Flanders, knights, esquires, and +burghers of the good cities, whom he believed to be favorable +to the Count of Flanders, them he banished from Flanders and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span> +levied half their revenues. He had levies made of rents, of dues +on merchandise and all the revenues belonging to the Count, +wherever it might be in Flanders, and he disbursed them at his +will, and gave them away without rendering any account. And +when he would borrow of any burghers on his word for payment, +there was none that durst say him nay. In short there +was never in Flanders, or in any other country, duke, count, +prince, or other who can have had a country at his will as James +van Artevelde had for a long time." It is possible that, as some +historians have thought, Froissart, being less favorable to burghers +than to princes, did not deny himself a little exaggeration in +this portrait of a great burgher-patriot transformed by the force +of events and passions into a demagogic tyrant.</p> + +<p>While the Count of Flanders, after having vainly attempted +to excite an uprising against Van Artevelde, was being forced, +in order to escape from the people of Bruges, to mount his +horse in hot haste, at night and barely armed, and to flee away +to St. Omer, Philip of Valois and Edward III were preparing +on either side, for the war which they could see drawing near. +Philip was vigorously at work on the Pope, the Emperor of +Germany, and the princes neighbors of Flanders, in order to +raise obstacles against his rival or rob him of his allies. He +ordered that short-lived meeting of the states-general about +which we have no information left us, save that it voted the +principle that "no talliage could be imposed on the people if +urgent necessity or evident utility should not require it, and +unless by concession of the estates."</p> + +<p>Philip, as chief of feudal society rather than of the nation +which was forming itself little by little around the lords, convoked +at Amiens all his vassals great and small, laic or cleric, placing all +his strength in their coöperation, and not caring at all to associate +the country itself in the affairs of his government. Edward, on +the contrary, while equipping his fleet and amassing treasure at +the expense of the Jews and Lombard usurers, was assembling +his parliament, talking to it "of this important and costly war," +for which he obtained large subsidies, and accepting, without +making any difficulty, the vote of the commons' house, which +expressed a desire "to consult their constituents upon this subject, +and begged him to summon an early parliament, to which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> +there should be elected, in each county, two knights taken from +among the best landowners of their counties."</p> + +<p>The King set out for the Continent; the parliament met +and considered the exigences of the war by land and sea, in +Scotland and in France; traders, shipowners, and mariners +were called and examined; and the forces determined to be +necessary were voted. Edward took the field, pillaging, burning, +and ravaging, "destroying all the country for twelve or +fourteen leagues in extent," as he himself said in a letter to the +Archbishop of Canterbury. When he set foot on French territory, +Count William of Hainault, his brother-in-law and up to +that time his ally, came to him and said that "he would ride +with him no farther, for that his presence was prayed and required +by his uncle the King of France, to whom he bore no +hate, and whom he would go and serve in his own kingdom, +as he had served King Edward on the territory of the Emperor, +whose vicar he was," and Edward wished him "Godspeed!" +Such was the binding nature of feudal ties that the same lord +held himself bound to pass from one camp to another according +as he found himself upon the domains of one or the other +of his suzerains in a war one against the other.</p> + +<p>Edward continued his march toward St. Quentin, where +Philip had at last arrived with his allies the kings of Bohemia, +Navarre, and Scotland, "after delays which had given rise to +great scandal and murmurs throughout the whole kingdom." +The two armies, with a strength, according to Froissart, of a +hundred thousand men on the French side, and forty-four +thousand on the English, were soon facing one another, near +Buironfosse, a large burgh of Picardy. A herald came from the +English camp to tell the King of France that the King of England +"demanded of him battle. To which demand," says Froissart, +"the King of France gave willing assent and accepted the day +which was fixed at first for Thursday the 21st, and afterward +for Saturday the 25th of October, 1339."</p> + +<p>To judge from the somewhat tangled accounts of the chroniclers +and of Froissart himself, neither of the two kings was very +anxious to come to blows. The forces of Edward were much +inferior to those of Philip; and the former had accordingly +taken up, as it appears, a position which rendered attack difficult<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> +for Philip. There was much division of opinion in the French +camp. Independently of military grounds, a great deal was +said about certain letters from Robert, King of Naples, "a +mighty necromancer and full of mighty wisdom, it was reported, +who, after having several times cast their horoscopes, had discovered, +by astrology and from experience, that, if his cousin, the +King of France, were to fight the King of England, the former +would be worsted."</p> + +<p>"In thus disputing and debating," says Froissart, "the time +passed till full mid-day. A little afterward a hare came leaping +across the fields, and rushed among the French. Those who +saw it began shouting and making a great halloo. Those who +were behind thought that those who were in front were engaging +in battle; and several put on their helmets and gripped their +swords. Thereupon several knights were made; and the Count +of Hainault himself made fourteen, who were thenceforth nicknamed +Knights of the Hare."</p> + +<p>Whatever his motive may have been, Philip did not attack; +and Edward promptly began a retreat. They both dismissed +their allies; and during the early days of November Philip fell +back upon St. Quentin, and Edward went and took up his winter-quarters +at Brussels.</p> + +<p>For Edward it was a serious check not to have dared to +attack the King whose kingdom he made a pretence of conquering; +and he took it grievously to heart. At Brussels he +had an interview with his allies and asked their counsel. Most +of the princes of the Low Countries remained faithful to him +and the Count of Hainault seemed inclined to go back to him; +but all hesitated as to what he was to do to recover from the +check. Van Artevelde showed more invention and more boldness. +The Flemish communes had concentrated their forces +not far from the spot where the two kings had kept their armies +looking at one another; but they had maintained a strict neutrality, +and at the invitation of the Count of Flanders, who promised +them that the King of France would entertain all their +claims, Artevelde and Breydel, the deputies from Ghent and +Bruges, even repaired to Courtrai to make terms with him. But +as they got there nothing but ambiguous engagements and +evasive promises, they let the negotiation drop, and, while Count<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> +Louis was on his way to rejoin Philip at St. Quentin, Artevelde +with the deputies from the Flemish communes started for +Brussels.</p> + +<p>Edward, who was already living on very confidential terms +with him, told him that "if the Flemings were minded to help +him to keep up the war and go with him whithersoever he would +take them, they should aid him to recover Lille, Douai, and +Béthune, then occupied by the King of France. Artevelde, +after consulting his colleagues, returned to Edward, and, 'Dear +sir,' said he, 'you have already made such requests to us, and +verily, if we could do so while keeping our honor and faith, we +would do as you demand: but we be bound, by faith and oath, +and on a bond of two millions of florins entered into with the +Pope, not to go to war with the King of France without incurring +a debt to the amount of that sum and a sentence of excommunication; +but if you do that which we are about to say to you, if +you will be pleased to adopt the arms of France, and quarter +them with those of England, and openly call yourself King of +France, we will uphold you for the true King of France; you, +as King of France, shall give us quittance of our faith; and then +we will obey you as King of France, and will go whithersoever +you shall ordain."</p> + +<p>This prospect pleased Edward mightily: but "it irked him +to take the name and arms of that of which he had as yet won +no title." He consulted his allies. Some of them hesitated; +but "his most privy and especial friend," Robert d'Artois, +strongly urged him to consent to the proposal. So a French +prince and a Flemish burgher prevailed upon the King of England +to pursue, as in assertion of his avowed rights, the conquest of +the kingdom of France. King, prince, and burgher fixed Ghent +as their place of meeting for the official conclusion of the alliance; +and there, in January, 1340, the mutual engagement was signed +and sealed. The King of England "assumed the arms of +France quartered with those of England," and thenceforth took +the title of King of France.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span></p> +<h2>BATTLES OF SLUYS AND CRÉCY</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1340-1346</h6> + +<h3>SIR JOHN FROISSART<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">47</a></h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The sea fight of Sluys began the Hundred Years' War between England +and France. It is also memorable as England's first great naval +victory. The origin of the war lay in the Salic Law, which excludes +women from the throne of France. This overruled the claims of Queen +Isabella of England, and her son Edward III in 1328, when the twelve +peers and barons of France unanimously gave the crown to Isabella's +cousin, Philip of Valois, who ascended the throne as Philip VI of +France.</p> + +<p>Edward III ingeniously maintained that though the Salic Law prevented +his mother from filling the throne, it did not destroy the rights of +her male descendants, and he early entertained the project of enforcing +this contention; but it was not until 1337 that he felt able to assert formally +his claim to the French crown and to assume the title of king of +France.</p> + +<p>The following year, with a considerable body of troops to support his +presumed rights, he crossed to the Continent, and passed the winter at +Antwerp among the Flemings who had taken up his cause, and with +whom, as well as with the Emperor-King of Germany, he effected aggressive +alliances. He made a formal declaration of war in 1339, beginning +hostilities which were prolonged into the Hundred Years' War, and +which as a contest of the English kings for the sovereignty of France +produced a series of important revolutions in the fortunes of that country.</p> + +<p>The first serious action of the war was a naval battle at Sluys, near +the Belgian frontier just northeast of Bruges, June 23, 1340. King Edward +and his entire navy sailed from the Thames June 22, and made +straight for Sluys. Sir Hugh Quiriel and other French officers, with +over one hundred and twenty large vessels, were lying near Sluys for the +purpose of disputing the English King's passage. Froissart, with his +usual terseness, has graphically recorded the combat which ensued.</p> + +<p>A more important victory was that won in the land battle at Crécy in +1346, which, however, simply paved the way to the capture of Calais, for +it was not until the battle of Poitiers, ten years later, that Edward made +any progress toward the conquest of France. In 1346, after landing with +a force of troops at Cape La Hogue, Edward reduced Cherbourg, Carentan, +and Caen, and, with the intention of crossing the Seine at Rouen, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span>commenced his march on Calais, where he was to be joined by his Flemish +allies. Philip, making a rapid march from Paris to Amiens, had +posted detachments of soldiers along the right bank of the river Somme, +guarding every ford, breaking down every bridge, and gradually shutting +up the invaders in the narrow space between the Somme and the sea.</p> + +<p>Edward sent out his marshals with their battalions to find a passage, +but they were unsuccessful, until a peasant led them to the tidal ford of +Blanchetaque. Although desperately opposed by fully twelve thousand +French, under the Norman baron Sir Godémar du Fay, they effected a +crossing, and, marching on, encamped in the fields near Crécy. The King +of France with the main body of his troops had taken up his quarters in +Abbeville.</p></div> + + +<h4>BATTLE OF SLUYS</h4> + +<p><img src="images/cap_w.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="W" />HEN the King's fleet was almost got to Sluys, they saw so +many masts standing before it that they looked like a +wood. The King asked the commander of his ship what they +could be, who answered that he imagined they must be that +armament of Normans which the King of France kept at sea +and which had so frequently done him much damage, had burned +his good town of Southampton, and taken his large ship the +Christopher. The King replied: "I have for a long time wished +to meet with them, and now, please God and St. George, we +will fight them; for, in truth, they have done me so much mischief +that I will be revenged on them if it be possible."</p> + +<p>The King drew up all his vessels, placing the strongest in the +front, and on the wings his archers. Between every two vessels +with archers there was one of men-at-arms. He stationed some +detached vessels as a reserve, full of archers, to assist and help +such as might be damaged. There were in this fleet a great many +ladies from England, countesses, baronesses, and knights' and +gentlemen's wives, who were going to attend on the Queen at +Ghent. These the King had guarded most carefully by three +hundred men-at-arms and five hundred archers.</p> + +<p>When the King of England and his marshals had properly +divided the fleet, they hoisted their sails to have the wind on +their quarter, as the sun shone full in their faces, which they +considered might be of disadvantage to them, and stretched out +a little, so that at last they got the wind as they wished. The +Normans, who saw them tack, could not help wondering why +they did so, and said they took good care to turn about, for they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> +were afraid of meddling with them. They perceived, however, +by his banner, that the King was on board, which gave them +great joy, as they were eager to fight with him; so they put their +vessels in proper order, for they were expert and gallant men on +the seas. They filled the Christopher, the large ship which they +had taken the year before from the English, with trumpets and +other warlike instruments, and ordered her to fall upon the English.</p> + +<p>The battle then began very fiercely; archers and cross-bowmen +shot with all their might at each other, and the men-at-arms +engaged hand to hand. In order to be more successful, +they had large grapnels, and iron hooks with chains, which they +flung from ship to ship, to moor them to each other. There were +many valiant deeds performed, many prisoners made, and many +rescues. The Christopher, which led the van, was recaptured +by the English, and all in her taken or killed. There were then +great shouts and cries, and the English manned her again with +archers and sent her to fight against the Genoese.</p> + +<p>This battle was very murderous and horrible. Combats at +sea are more destructive and obstinate than upon the land, for +it is not possible to retreat or flee—everyone must abide his fortune +and exert his prowess and valor. Sir Hugh Quiriel and +his companions were bold and determined men, had done much +mischief to the English at sea and destroyed many of their ships; +this combat, therefore, lasted from early in the morning until +noon, and the English were hard pressed, for their enemies were +four to one, and the greater part men who had been used to the +sea.</p> + +<p>The King, who was in the flower of his youth, showed himself +on that day a gallant knight, as did the earls of Derby, Pembroke, +Hereford, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Gloucester; +the Lord Reginald Cobham, Lord Felton, Lord Bradestan, Sir +Richard Stafford, the Lord Percy, Sir Walter Manny, Sir Henry +de Flanders, Sir John Beauchamp, Sir John Chandos, the Lord +Delaware, Lucie Lord Malton, and the Lord Robert d'Artois, +now called Earl of Richmond.</p> + +<p>I cannot remember all the names of those who behaved so +valiantly in the combat; but they did so well that, with some +assistance from Bruges and those parts of the country, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> +French were completely defeated, and all the Normans and the +others killed or drowned, so that not one of them escaped. This +was soon known all over Flanders; and when it came to the two +armies before Thin-l'Evêque, the Hainaulters were as much rejoiced +as their enemies were dismayed.</p> + +<p>After the King had gained this victory, which was on the eve +of St. John's Day, he remained all that night on board of his ship +before Sluys, and there were great noises with trumpets and all +kinds of other instruments. The Flemings came to wait on him, +having heard of his arrival and what deeds he had performed. +The King inquired of the citizens of Bruges after Jacob van +Artevelde, and they told him he was gone to the aid of the Earl +of Hainault with upward of sixty thousand men, against the +Duke of Normandy. On the morrow, which was Midsummer +Day, the King and his fleet entered the port. As soon as they +were landed, the King, attended by crowds of knights, set out +on foot on a pilgrimage to our Lady of Ardemburg, where he +heard mass and dined. He then mounted his horse and went +that day to Ghent, where the Queen was, who received him +with great joy and kindness. The army and baggage, with the +attendants of the King, followed him by degrees to the same +place.</p> + + +<h4>BATTLE OF CRÉCY</h4> + +<p>The two battalions of the marshals came, on Friday in the +afternoon, to where the King was, and they fixed their quarters, +all three together, near Crécy in Ponthieu. The King of England, +who had been informed that the King of France was following +him, in order to give him battle, said to his people: +"Let us post ourselves here, for we will not go farther before we +have seen our enemies. I have good reason to wait for them on +this spot; as I am now upon the lawful inheritance of my lady +mother, which was given her as her marriage portion, and I am +resolved to defend it against my adversary, Philip de Valois." +On account of his not having more than an eighth part of the +forces which the King of France had, his marshals fixed upon +the most advantageous situation, and the army went and took +possession of it. He then sent his scouts toward Abbeville, to +learn if the King of France meant to take the field this Friday,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> +but they returned and said they saw no appearance of it; upon +which he dismissed his men to their quarters with orders to be +in readiness by times in the morning and to assemble in the +same place. The King of France remained all Friday in Abbeville, +waiting for more troops. He sent his marshals, the Lord +of St. Venant and Lord Charles of Montmorency, out of Abbeville, +to examine the country and get some certain intelligence +of the English. They returned about vespers with information +that the English were encamped on the plain. That night the +King of France entertained at supper in Abbeville all the princes +and chief lords. There was much conversation relative to war; +and the King entreated them after supper that they would always +remain in friendship with each other; that they would +be friends without jealousy, and courteous without pride. The +King was still expecting the Earl of Savoy, who ought to have +been there with a thousand lances, as he had been well paid for +them at Troyes in Champaign, three months in advance.</p> + +<p>The King of England encamped this Friday in the plain, +for he found the country abounding in provisions, but, if they +should have failed, he had plenty in the carriages which attended +on him. The army set about furbishing and repairing their +armor, and the King gave a supper that evening to the earls and +barons of his army, where they made good cheer. On their +taking leave the King remained alone with the lords of his bedchamber; +he retired into his oratory, and, falling on his knees +before the altar, prayed to God that if he should combat his +enemies on the morrow, he might come off with honor. About +midnight he went to bed and, rising early the next day, he +and the Prince of Wales heard mass and communicated. The +greater part of his army did the same, confessed, and made +proper preparations. After mass, the King ordered his men to +arm themselves, and assemble on the ground he had before fixed +on. He had enclosed a large park near a wood, on the rear of his +army, in which he placed all his baggage wagons and horses. +This park had but one entrance; his men-at-arms and archers +remained on foot.</p> + +<p>The King afterward ordered, through his constable and his +two marshals, that the army should be divided into three battalions. +In the first he placed the young Prince of Wales, and with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> +him the earls of Warwick and Oxford, Sir Godfrey de Harcourt, +the Lord Reginald Cobham, Lord Thomas Holland, Lord +Stafford, Lord Mauley, the Lord Delaware, Sir John Chandos, +Lord Bartholomew Burgherst, Lord Robert Neville, Lord +Thomas Clifford, Lord Bourchier, Lord Latimer, and many +other knights and squires. There might be, in this first division, +about eight hundred men-at-arms, two thousand archers, and a +thousand Welshmen. They advanced in regular order to their +ground, each lord under his banner and pennon and in the +centre of his men. In the second battalion were the Earl of +Northampton, the Earl of Arundel, the lords Roos, Willoughby, +Basset, St. Albans, Sir Lewis Tufton, Lord Multon, Lord Lascels, +and many others; amounting, in the whole, to about eight +hundred men-at-arms and twelve hundred archers. The third +battalion was commanded by the King, and was composed of +about seven hundred men-at-arms and two thousand archers.</p> + +<p>The King then mounted a small palfrey, having a white +wand in his hand, and, attended by his two marshals on each side +of him, he rode at a footpace through all the ranks, encouraging +and entreating the army that they would guard his honor and +defend his right. He spoke this so sweetly and with such a +cheerful countenance that all who had been dispirited were +directly comforted by seeing and hearing him. When he had +thus visited all the battalions it was near ten o'clock; he retired +to his own division, and ordered them all to eat heartily and drink +a glass after. They ate and drank at their ease, and, having +packed up pots, barrels, etc., in the carts they returned to their +battalions according to the marshals' orders, and seated themselves +on the ground, placing their helmets and bows before +them, that they might be the fresher when their enemies should +arrive.</p> + +<p>On Saturday the King of France rose betimes, and heard +mass in the monastery of St. Peter's in Abbeville, where he was +lodged; having ordered his army to do the same, he left that +town after sunrise. When he had marched about two leagues +from Abbeville, and was approaching the enemy, he was advised +to form his army in order of battle and to let those on foot march +forward that they might not be trampled on by the horses. The +King, upon this, sent off four knights, Lord Moyne of Bastleberg,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span> +Lord of Noyers, Lord of Beaujeu, and the Lord of Aubigny, +who rode so near to the English that they could clearly distinguish +their position. The English plainly perceived they were +come to reconnoitre them; however, they took no notice of it, +but suffered them to return unmolested. When the King of +France saw them coming back, he halted his army; and the +knights, pushing through the crowd, came near the King, who +said to them, "My lords, what news?" They looked at each +other, without opening their mouths, for neither chose to speak +first. At last the King addressed himself to the Lord Moyne, +who was attached to the King of Bohemia, and had performed +very many gallant deeds, so that he was esteemed one of the +most valiant knights in Christendom. Lord Moyne said: "Sir, +I will speak, since it pleases you to order me, but under the correction +of my companions. We have advanced far enough to +reconnoitre your enemies. Know, then, that they are drawn up +in three battalions, and are waiting for you. I would advise, for +my part—submitting, however, to better counsel—that you halt +your army here and quarter them for the night; for before the +rear shall come up and the army be properly drawn out, it will +be very late; your men will be tired and in disorder, while they +will find your enemies fresh and properly arrayed. On the +morrow you may draw up your army more at your ease and may +reconnoitre at leisure on what part it will be most advantageous +to begin the attack; for, be assured, they will wait for you." +The King commanded that it should be so done, and the two +marshals rode, one toward the front, and the other to the rear, +crying out, "Halt banners, in the name of God and St. Denis." +Those that were in the front halted, but those behind said they +would not halt until they were as forward as the front. When +the front perceived the rear pressing on they pushed forward, and +neither the King nor the marshals could stop them, but they +marched without any order until they came in sight of their +enemies. As soon as the foremost rank saw them they fell back +at once in great disorder, which alarmed those in the rear, who +thought they had been fighting. There was then space and +room enough for them to have passed forward, had they been +willing so to do; some did so, but others remained shy. All the +roads between Abbeville and Crécy were covered with common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> +people, who, when they were come within three leagues of their +enemies, drew their swords, bawling out, "Kill, kill," and with +them were many great lords that were eager to make show of +their courage. There is no man—unless he had been present—that +can imagine or describe truly the confusion of that day; +especially the bad management and disorder of the French, +whose troops were out of number.</p> + +<p>The English were drawn up in three divisions and seated on +the ground. On seeing their enemies advance they rose up and +fell into their ranks. That of the Prince was the first to do so, +whose archers were formed in the manner of a portcullis, or +harrow, and the men-at-arms in the rear. The earls of Northampton +and Arundel, who commanded the second division, had +posted themselves in good order on his wing, to assist and succor +the Prince if necessary. You must know that these kings, earls, +barons, and lords of France did not advance in any regular +order, but one after the other, or any way most pleasing to themselves. +As soon as the King of France came in sight of the +English his blood began to boil, and he cried out to his marshals, +"Order the Genoese forward and begin the battle, in the name +of God and St. Denis." There were about fifteen thousand +Genoese cross-bowmen, but they were quite fatigued, having +marched on foot that day six leagues, completely armed and with +their cross-bows. They told the constable they were not in a fit +condition to do any great things that day in battle. The Earl of +Alençon, hearing this, said, "This is what one gets by employing +such scoundrels, who fall off when there is any need for +them." During this time a heavy rain fell, accompanied by +thunder and a very terrible eclipse of the sun, and before this +rain a great flight of crows hovered in the air over all those battalions, +making a loud noise. Shortly afterward it cleared up +and the sun shone very bright, but the Frenchmen had it on +their faces and the English on their backs. When the Genoese +were somewhat in order and approached the English they set +up a loud shout<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">48</a> in order to frighten them, but they remained +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span>quite still and did not seem to attend to it. They then set up a +second shout and advanced a little forward, but the English +never moved.</p> + + +<p>They hooted a third time, advancing with their cross-bows +presented and began to shoot. The English archers then advanced +one step forward and shot their arrows with such force +and quickness that it seemed as if it snowed. When the Genoese +felt these arrows, which pierced their arms, heads, and +through their armor, some of them cut the strings of their cross-bows; +others flung them on the ground and all turned about +and retreated quite discomfited. The French had a large body +of men-at-arms on horseback, richly dressed, to support the +Genoese. The King of France seeing them thus fall back cried +out, "Kill me those scoundrels, for they stop up our road without +any reason." You would then have seen the above-mentioned +men-at-arms lay about them, killing all they could of +these runaways.</p> + +<p>The English continued shooting as vigorously and quickly +as before; some of their arrows fell among the horsemen, who +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span>were sumptuously equipped, and, killing and wounding many, +made them caper and fall among the Genoese, so that they were +in such confusion they could never rally again. In the English +army there were some Cornish and Welshmen on foot who had +armed themselves with large knives. These, advancing through +the ranks of the men-at-arms and archers, who made way for +them, came upon the French when they were in this danger, and, +falling upon earls, barons, knights, and squires, slew many; at +which the King of England was afterward much exasperated. +The valiant King of Bohemia was slain there. He was called +Charles of Luxembourg, for he was the son of the gallant king +and emperor Henry of Luxembourg. Having heard the order +of the battle, he inquired where his son, Lord Charles, was. +His attendants answered that they did not know, but believed +he was fighting. The King said to them: "Gentlemen, you are +all my people, my friends and brethren-at-arms this day; therefore, +as I am blind,<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">49</a> I request of you to lead me so far into the +engagement that I may strike one stroke with my sword." The +knights replied that they would directly lead him forward, and, +in order that they might not lose him in the crowd, they fastened +all the reins of their horses together and put the King at their +head, that he might gratify his wish and advance toward the +enemy. Lord Charles of Bohemia—who already signed his +name as King of Germany and bore the arms—had come in +good order to the engagement, but when he perceived that it was +likely to turn out against the French he departed. The King, +his father, had rode in among the enemy, and made good use of +his sword, for he and his companions had fought most gallantly. +They had advanced so far that they were all slain, and on the +morrow they were found on the ground, with their horses all tied +together.</p> + +<p>The Earl of Alençon advanced in regular order upon the +English, to fight with them; as did the Earl of Flanders in +another part. These two lords, with their detachments—coasting, +as it were, the archers—came to the Prince's battalion, +where they fought valiantly for a length of time. The King of +France was eager to march to the place were he saw their ban<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span>ners +displayed, but there was a hedge of archers before him. +He had that day made a present of a handsome black horse to +Sir John of Hainault, who had mounted on it a knight called Sir +John de Fusselles, that bore his banner. The horse ran off with +him and forced its way through the English army, and, when +about to return, stumbled and fell into a ditch and severely +wounded him. He would have been dead if his page had not +followed him round the battalions and found him unable to rise. +He had not, however, any other hinderance than from his horse; +for the English did not quit the ranks that day to make prisoners. +The page alighted and raised him up, but he did not return +the way he came, as he would have found it difficult from the +crowd. This battle, which was fought on the Saturday, between +La Broyes and Crécy, was very murderous and cruel, and many +gallant deeds of arms were performed that were never known. +Toward evening many knights and squires of the French had +lost their masters. They wandered up and down the plain, +attacking the English in small parties. They were soon destroyed, +for the English had determined that day to give no quarter +nor hear of ransom from anyone.</p> + + +<p>Early in the day some French, Germans, and Savoyards +had broken through the archers of the Prince's battalion and +had engaged with the men-at-arms; upon which the second +battalion came to his aid, otherwise he would have been hard +pressed. The first division, seeing the danger they were in, sent +a knight in great haste to the King of England, who was posted +upon an eminence near a windmill. On the knight's arrival +he said: "Sir, the Earl of Warwick, Lord Reginald Cobham, +and the others who are about your son are vigorously attacked +by the French. They entreat that you would come to their assistance +with your battalion, for, if their numbers should increase, +they fear he will have too much to do."</p> + +<p>The King replied, "Is my son dead, unhorsed, or so badly +wounded that he cannot support himself?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the sort, thank God," rejoined the knight, "but +he is in so hot an engagement that he has great need of your +help." The King answered: "Now, Sir Thomas, return back +to those that sent you, and tell them from me not to send again +for me this day, or expect that I shall come, let what will happen,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> +as long as my son has life; and say that I command them to let +the boy win his spurs; for I am determined, if it please God, +that all the glory and honor of this day shall be given to him +and to those into whose care I have intrusted him." The +knight returned to his lords, and related the King's answer, +which mightily encouraged them and made them repent they +had ever sent such a message.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">50</a></p> + +<p>It is a certain fact that Sir Godfrey de Harcourt, who was +in the Prince's battalion, having been told by some of the English +that they had seen the banner of his brother engaged in the +battle against him, was exceedingly anxious to save him; but he +was too late, for he was left dead on the field, and so was the +Earl of Aumarle, his nephew. On the other hand, the earls of +Alençon and of Flanders were fighting lustily under their banners +and with their own people, but they could not resist the +force of the English, and were slain, as well as many other +knights and squires that were attending on or accompanying +them. The Earl of Blois, nephew to the King of France, and +the Duke of Lorraine, his brother-in-law, with their troops, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span>made a gallant defence; but they were surrounded by a troop +of English and Welsh and slain in spite of their prowess. The +Earl of St. Pol and the Earl of Auxerre were also killed, as well +as many others.</p> + + +<p>Late after vespers, the King of France had not more about +him than sixty men—every one included. Sir John of Hainault, +who was of the number, had once remounted the King; for +his horse had been killed under him by an arrow. He said to the +King: "Sir, retreat while you have an opportunity and do not +expose yourself so simply. If you have lost this battle, another +time you will be the conqueror." After he had said this, he took +the bridle of the King's horse and led him off by force, for he had +before entreated him to retire. The King rode on until he came +to the castle of La Broyes, where he found the gates shut, for it +was very dark. The King ordered the governor of it to be summoned. +He came upon the battlements and asked who it was +that called at such an hour. The King answered: "Open, +open, governor! It is the fortune of France!" The governor, +hearing the King's voice, immediately descended, opened the +gate and let down the bridge. The King and his company +entered the castle, but he had only with him five barons, Sir +John of Hainault, Lord Charles of Montmorency, Lord Beaujeu, +Lord Aubigny, and Lord Montfort. The King would not +bury himself in such a place as that, but, having taken some +refreshments, set out again with his attendants about midnight, +and rode on, under the direction of guides—who were well +acquainted with the country—until about daybreak, when he +came to Amiens, where he halted. The English never quitted +their ranks in pursuit of anyone, but remained on the field, +guarding their position and defending themselves against all +who attacked them. The battle was ended at the hour of vespers.</p> + +<p>When, on Saturday night, the English heard no more hooting +or shouting, nor any more crying out to particular lords or +their banners, they looked upon the field as their own and their +enemies as beaten. They made great fires, and lighted torches +because of the obscurity of the night. King Edward then came +down from his post, who all that day had not put on his helmet, +and with his whole battalion advanced to the Prince of Wales,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span> +whom he embraced in his arms and kissed, and said: "Sweet +son, God give you good perseverance; you are my son, for most +loyally have you acquitted yourself this day. You are worthy +to be a sovereign." The Prince bowed down very low and humbled +himself, giving all the honor to the King, his father. The +English, during the night, made frequent thanksgivings to the +Lord for the happy issue of the day, and without rioting, for the +King had forbidden all riot or noise. On Sunday morning there +was so great a fog that one could scarcely see the distance of half +an acre. The King ordered a detachment from the army, under +the command of the two marshals—consisting of about five +hundred lances and two thousand archers—to make an excursion +and see if there were any bodies of French troops collected +together. The quota of troops from Rouen and Beauvais had +that morning left Abbeville and St. Ricquier in Ponthieu to join +the French army, and were ignorant of the defeat of the preceding +evening. They met this detachment, and, thinking they must +be French, hastened to join them.</p> + +<p>As soon as the English found who they were, they fell upon +them and there was a sharp engagement. The French soon +turned their backs and fled in great disorder. There were slain +in this flight in the open fields, under hedges and bushes, upward +of seven thousand; and had it been clear weather, not one +soul would have escaped.</p> + +<p>A little time afterward this same party fell in with the +Archbishop of Rouen and the great Prior of France, who were +also ignorant of the discomfiture of the French, for they had +been informed that the King was not to fight before Sunday. +Here began a fresh battle; for those two lords were well attended +by good men-at-arms. However, they could not withstand +the English, but were almost all slain, with the two chiefs +who commanded them; very few escaping. In the morning the +English found many Frenchmen who had lost their road on +Saturday and had lain in the open fields, not knowing what was +become of the King or their own leaders. The English put to +the sword all they met; and it has been assured to me for fact +that of foot soldiers, sent from the cities, towns, and municipalities, +there were slain, this Sunday morning, four times as +many as in the battle of Saturday.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span>This detachment, which had been sent to look after the +French, returned as the King was coming from mass, and related +to him all that they had seen and met with. After he had been +assured by them that there was not any likelihood of the French +collecting another army, he sent to have the number and condition +of the dead examined. He ordered on this business Lord +Reginald Cobham, Lord Stafford, and three heralds to examine +their arms, and two secretaries to write down all the names. +They took much pains to examine all the dead, and were the +whole day in the field of battle, not returning but just as the King +was sitting down to supper. They made him a very circumstantial +report of all they had observed, and said they had found +eighty banners, the bodies of eleven princes, twelve hundred +knights, and about thirty thousand common men.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span></p> +<h2>MODERN RECOGNITION OF SCENIC BEAUTY</h2> + +<h3>CROWNING OF PETRARCH AT ROME</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1341</h6> + +<h3>JACOB BURCKHARDT</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The beauty of nature, of natural scenery amid mountains, fields, and +lakes, seems to have passed unheeded during early mediæval times. +Even in the ancient days of classic culture it apparently attracted very +little notice, except from an occasional poet. The present attitude of enthusiasm, +which leads thousands of tourists to flock to Switzerland or to +Niagara every year, is wholly a modern development. This development +of what is almost a new sense in man certainly deserves notice. To fix +an exact date for its beginning is, of course, impossible, but it is generally +regarded as a product of the Italian Renaissance, and Burckhardt, +seeking for its slow unfolding, traces it back to Petrarch, who, in his poetry, +speaks of nature repeatedly.</p> + +<p>Petrarch's poetry was so highly valued by the Italians that they unanimously +agreed to confer upon the author a laurel crown. This was a +revival of the old Greek method of honoring poets, and as such it was +felt by the Italians a specially fitting way to proclaim their reviving interest +in art. So a great public gathering was arranged at Rome, and the +laurel was with elaborate ceremonies placed on Petrarch's brow.</p> + +<p>The recipient of this new and distinguished honor is regarded as second +only to Dante in Italian literature. In addition to his world-famed +sonnets to Laura, he wrote much-admired Latin poems, and was a scholar +of high repute. His enthusiasm for the ancient Greek and Latin authors +made him the central figure in that revival of classic learning which at +this time began in Italy.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_p.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="P" />ETRARCH, who lives in the memory of most people nowadays +chiefly as a great Italian poet, owed his fame among his +contemporaries far rather to the fact that he was a kind of living +representative of antiquity, that he imitated all styles of Latin +poetry, endeavored by his voluminous historical and philosophical +writings not to supplant, but to make known, the works of +the ancients, and wrote letters that, as treatises on matters of +antiquarian interest, obtained a reputation which to us is unintelligible, +but which was natural enough in an age without hand-books. +Petrarch himself trusted and hoped that his Latin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span> +writings would bring him fame with his contemporaries and +with posterity, and thought so little of his Italian poems that, as +he often tells us, he would gladly have destroyed them if he +could have succeeded thereby in blotting them out from the +memory of men.</p> + +<p>It was the same with Boccaccio. For two centuries, when +but little was known of the <i>Decameron</i> north of the Alps, he was +famous all over Europe simply on account of his Latin compilations +on mythology, geography, and biography. One of these, +<i>de Genealogia Deorum</i>, contains in the fourteenth and fifteenth +books a remarkable appendix, in which he discusses the position +of the then youthful humanism with regard to the age. We +must not be misled by his exclusive references to <i>poesia</i>, as +closer observation shows that he means thereby the whole mental +activity of the poet-scholars. This it is whose enemies he so +vigorously combats—the frivolous ignoramuses who have no +soul for anything but debauchery; the sophistical theologian to +whom Helicon, the Castalian fountain, and the grove of Apollo +were foolishness; the greedy lawyers, to whom poetry was a superfluity, +since no money was to be made by it; finally the mendicant +friars, described periphrastically, but clearly enough, who +made free with their charges of paganism and immorality. Then +follow the defence of poetry, the proof that the poetry of the +ancients and of their modern followers contains nothing mendacious, +the praise of it, and especially of the deeper and allegorical +meanings which we must always attribute to it, and of that calculated +obscurity which is intended to repel the dull minds of +the ignorant.</p> + +<p>And finally, with a clear reference to his own scholarly work, +the writer justifies the new relation in which his age stood to paganism. +The case was wholly different, he pleads, when the +Early Church had to fight its way among the heathen. Now—praised +be Jesus Christ!—true religion was strengthened, paganism +destroyed, and the victorious Church in possession of the +hostile camp. It was now possible to touch and study paganism +almost (<i>fere</i>) without danger. Boccaccio, however, did not hold +this liberal view consistently. The ground of his apostasy lay +partly in the mobility of his character, partly in the still powerful +and widespread prejudice that classical pursuits were unbecoming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> +in a theologian. To these reasons must be added the +warning given him in the name of the dead Pietro Petroni by +the monk Gioacchino Ciani to give up his pagan studies under +pain of early death. He accordingly determined to abandon +them, and was only brought back from this cowardly resolve by +the earnest exhortations of Petrarch, and by the latter's able demonstration +that humanism was reconcilable with religion.</p> + +<p>There was thus a new cause in the world, and a new class of +men to maintain it. It is idle to ask if this cause ought not to +have stopped short in its career of victory, to have restrained itself +deliberately, and conceded the first place to purely national +elements of culture. No conviction was more firmly rooted in +the popular mind than that antiquity was the highest title to +glory which Italy possessed.</p> + +<p>There was a symbolical ceremony familiar to this generation +of poet-scholars which lasted on into the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries, though losing the higher sentiment which inspired it—the +coronation of the poets with the laurel wreath. The origin +of this system in the Middle Ages is obscure, and the ritual of +the ceremony never became fixed. It was a public demonstration, +an outward and visible expression of literary enthusiasm, +and naturally its form was variable. Dante, for instance, seems +to have understood it in the sense of a half-religious consecration; +he desired to assume the wreath in the baptistery of San +Giovanni, where, like thousands of other Florentine children, he +had received baptism. He could, says his biographer, have anywhere +received the crown in virtue of his fame, but desired it nowhere +but in his native city, and therefore died uncrowned. +From the same source we learn that the usage was till then uncommon, +and was held to be inherited by the ancient Romans +from the Greeks. The most recent source to which the practices +could be referred is to be found in the Capitoline contests +of musicians, poets, and other artists, founded by Domitian in +imitation of the Greeks and celebrated every five years, which +may possibly have survived for a time the fall of the Roman +Empire; but as few other men would venture to crown themselves, +as Dante desired to do, the question arises, To whom did +this office belong? Albertino Mussato was crowned at Padua +in 1310 by the Bishop and the rector of the university.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span>The University of Paris, the rector of which was then a Florentine, +1341, and the municipal authorities of Rome competed +for the honor of crowning Petrarch. His self-elected examiner, +King Robert of Anjou, would gladly have performed the ceremony +at Naples, but Petrarch preferred to be crowned on the +Capitol by the senator of Rome. This honor was long the highest +object of ambition, and so it seemed to Jacobus Pizinga, an +illustrious Sicilian magistrate. Then came the Italian journey +of Charles IV, whom it amused to flatter the vanity of ambitious +men, and impress the ignorant multitude by means of gorgeous +ceremonies. Starting from the fiction that the coronation of +poets was a prerogative of the old Roman emperors, and consequently +was no less his own, he crowned, May 15, 1355, the +Florentine scholar Zanobi della Strada at Pisa, to the annoyance +of Petrarch, who complained that the barbarian laurel had +dared adorn the man loved by the Ausonian muses, and to the +great disgust of Boccaccio, who declined to recognize this <i>laurea +Pisana</i> as legitimate. Indeed, it might be fairly asked with what +right this stranger, half Slavonic by birth, came to sit in judgment +on the merits of Italian poets. But from henceforth the +emperors crowned poets whenever they went on their travels; +and in the fifteenth century the popes and other princes assumed +the same right, till at last no regard whatever was paid to place +or circumstances.</p> + +<p>Outside the sphere of scientific investigation, there is another +way to draw near to nature. The Italians are the first +among modern peoples by whom the outward world was seen +and felt as something beautiful. The power to do so is always +the result of a long and complicated development, and its origin +is not easily detected, since a dim feeling of this kind may exist +long before it shows itself in poetry and painting, and thereby +becomes conscious of itself. Among the ancients, for example, +art and poetry had gone through the whole circle of human interests +before they turned to the representation of nature, and +even then the latter filled always a limited and subordinate place. +And yet, from the time of Homer downward, the powerful impression +made by nature upon man is shown by countless verses +and chance expressions. The Germanic races which founded +their states on the ruins of the Roman Empire were thoroughly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span> +and specially fitted to understand the spirit of natural scenery; +and though Christianity compelled them for a while to see in +the springs and mountains, in the lakes and woods, which they +had till then revered, the working of evil demons, yet this transitional +conception was soon outgrown.</p> + +<p>By the year 1200, at the height of the Middle Ages, a genuine, +hearty enjoyment of the external world was again in existence, +and found lively expression in the minstrelsy of different +nations, which gives evidence of the sympathy felt with all the +simple phenomena of nature—spring with its flowers, the green +fields, and the woods. But these pictures are all foreground, +without perspective. Even the crusaders, who travelled so far +and saw so much, are not recognizable as such in these poems. +The epic poetry, which describes armor and costumes so fully, +does not attempt more than a sketch of outward nature; and +even the great Wolfram von Eschenbach scarcely anywhere +gives us an adequate picture of the scene on which his heroes +move. From these poems it would never be guessed that their +noble authors in all countries inhabited or visited lofty castles, +commanding distant prospects. Even in the Latin poems of the +wandering clerks, we find no traces of a distant view—of landscape +properly so called; but what lies near is sometimes described +with a glow and splendor which none of the knightly +minstrels can surpass.</p> + +<p>To the Italian mind, at all events, nature had by this time +lost its taint of sin, and had shaken off all trace of demoniacal +powers. St. Francis of Assisi, in his <i>Hymn to the Sun</i>, frankly +praises the Lord for creating the heavenly bodies and the four +elements.</p> + +<p>The unmistakable proofs of a deepening effect of nature on +the human spirit begin with Dante. Not only does he awaken +in us by a few vigorous lines the sense of the morning airs and +the trembling light on the distant ocean, or of the grandeur of +the storm-beaten forest, but he makes the ascent of lofty peaks, +<i>with</i> the only possible object of enjoying the view—the first man, +perhaps, since the days of antiquity who did so. In Boccaccio +we can do little more than infer how country scenery affected +him; yet his pastoral romances show his imagination to have +been filled with it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span>But the significance of nature for a receptive spirit is fully +and clearly displayed by Petrarch—one of the first truly modern +men. That clear soul—who first collected from the literature of +all countries evidence of the origin and progress of the sense +of natural beauty, and himself, in his <i>Ansichten der Natur</i>, +achieved the noblest masterpiece of description—Alexander von +Humboldt, has not done full justice to Petrarch; and, following +in the steps of the great reaper, we may still hope to glean a +few ears of interest and value.</p> + +<p>Petrarch was not only a distinguished geographer—the first +map of Italy is said to have been drawn by his direction—and +not only a reproducer of the sayings of the ancients, but felt +himself the influence of natural beauty. The enjoyment of nature +is, for him, the favorite accompaniment of intellectual pursuits; +it was to combine the two that he lived in learned retirement +at Vaucluse and elsewhere, that he from time to time fled +from the world and from his age. We should do him wrong by +inferring from his weak and undeveloped power of describing +natural scenery that he did not feel it deeply. His picture, for +instance, of the lovely Gulf of Spezzia and Porto Venere, which +he inserts at the end of the sixth book of the <i>Africa</i>, for the reason +that none of the ancients or moderns had sung of it, is no more +than a simple enumeration, but the descriptions in letters to his +friends of Rome, Naples, and other Italian, cities in which he +willingly lingered, are picturesque and worthy of the subject. +Petrarch is also conscious of the beauty of rock scenery, and is +perfectly able to distinguish the picturesqueness from the utility +of nature. During his stay among the woods of Reggio, the sudden +sight of an impressive landscape so affected him that he resumed +a poem which he had long laid aside. But the deepest +impression of all was made upon him by the ascent of Mont +Ventoux, near Avignon. An indefinable longing for a distant +panorama grew stronger and stronger in him, till at length the +accidental sight of a passage in Livy, where King Philip, the +enemy of Rome, ascends the Haemus, decided him. He thought +that what was not blamed in a gray-headed monarch might be +well excused in a young man of private station.</p> + +<p>The ascent of a mountain for its own sake was unheard of, +and there could be no thought of the companionship of friends<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span> +or acquaintances. Petrarch took with him only his younger +brother and two country people from the last place where he +halted. At the foot of the mountain an old herdsman besought +him to turn back, saying that he himself had attempted to climb +it fifty years before, and had brought home nothing but repentance, +broken bones, and torn clothes, and that neither before nor +after had anyone ventured to do the same. Nevertheless, they +struggled forward and upward, till the clouds lay beneath their +feet, and at last they reached the top. A description of the view +from the summit would be looked for in vain, not because the +poet was insensible to it, but, on the contrary, because the impression +was too overwhelming. His whole past life, with all its +follies, rose before his mind; he remembered that ten years ago +that day he had quitted Bologna a young man, and turned a +longing gaze toward his native country; he opened a book which +then was his constant companion, the <i>Confessions</i> of St. Augustine, +and his eye fell on the passage in the tenth chapter, "and +men go forth, and admire lofty mountains and broad seas and +roaring torrents and the ocean and the course of the stars, and +forget their own selves while doing so." His brother, to whom +he read these words, could not understand why he closed the +book and said no more.</p> + +<p>Some decades later, about 1360, Fazio degli Uberti describes, +in his rhyming geography, the wide panorama from the mountains +of Auvergne, with the interest, it is true, of the geographer +and antiquarian only, but still showing clearly that he himself +had seen it. He must, however, have ascended higher peaks, +since he is familiar with facts which only occur at a height of +ten thousand feet or more above the sea—mountain-sickness +and its accompaniments—of which his imaginary comrade Solinus +tries to cure him with a sponge dipped in essence. The +ascents of Parnassus and Olympus, of which he speaks, are perhaps +only fictions.</p> + +<p>In the fifteenth century, the great masters of the Flemish +school, Hubert and Johann van Eyck, suddenly lifted the veil +from nature. Their landscapes are not merely the fruit of an +endeavor to reflect the real world in art, but have, even if expressed +conventionally, a certain poetical meaning—in short, a +soul. Their influence on the whole art of the West is undeniable,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> +and extended to the landscape-painting of the Italians, but +without preventing the characteristic interest of the Italian eye +for nature from finding its own expression.</p> + +<p>On this point, as in the scientific description of nature, +Æneas Sylvius is again one of the most weighty voices of his +time. Even if we grant the justice of all that has been said +against his character, we must, nevertheless, admit that in few +other men was the picture of the age and its culture so fully reflected, +and that few came nearer to the normal type of the men +of the early Renaissance. It may be added parenthetically that +even in respect to his moral character he will not be fairly +judged if we listen solely to the complaints of the German +Church, which his fickleness helped to balk of the council it so +ardently desired.</p> + +<p>He here claims our attention as the first who not only enjoyed +the magnificence of the Italian landscape, but described it +with enthusiasm down to its minutest details. The ecclesiastical +state and the South of Tuscany—his native home—he knew +thoroughly, and after he became pope he spent his leisure during +the favorable season chiefly in excursions to the country. +Then at last the gouty man was rich enough to have himself +carried in a litter through the mountains and valleys; and when +we compare his enjoyments with those of the popes who succeeded +him, Pius, whose chief delight was in nature, antiquity, +and simple but noble architecture, appears almost a saint. In +the elegant and flowing Latin of his <i>Commentaries</i> he freely tells +us of his happiness.</p> + +<p>His eye seems as keen and practised as that of any modern +observer. He enjoys with rapture the panoramic splendor of the +view from the summit of the Alban hills—from the Monte Cavo—whence +he could see the shores of St. Peter from Terracina +and the promontory of Circe as far as Monte Argentaro, and the +wide expanse of country round about, with the ruined cities of +the past, and with the mountain chains of central Italy beyond; +and then his eye would turn to the green woods in the hollows +beneath, and the mountain lakes among them. He feels the +beauty of the position of Todi, crowning the vineyards and olive-clad +slopes, looking down upon distant woods and upon the valley +of the Tiber, where towns and castles rise above the winding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span> +river. The lovely hills about Siena, with villas and monasteries +on every height, are his own home, and his descriptions of them +are touched with a peculiar feeling. Single picturesque glimpses +charm him, too, like the little promontory of Capo di Monte +that stretches out into the Lake of Bolsena. "Rocky steps," we +read, "shaded by vines, descend to the water's edge, where the +evergreen oaks stand between the cliffs, alive with the song of +thrushes." On the path round the Lake of Nemi, beneath the +chestnuts and fruit-trees, he feels that here, if anywhere, a poet's +soul must awake—here in the hiding-place of Diana! He often +held consistories or received ambassadors under huge old chestnut-trees, +or beneath the olives on the greensward by some +gurgling spring. A view like that of a narrowing gorge, with a +bridge arched boldly over it, awakens at once his artistic sense. +Even the smallest details give him delight through something +beautiful, or perfect, or characteristic in them—the blue fields +of waving flax, the yellow gorge which covers the hills, even tangled +thickets, or single trees, or springs, which seem to him like +wonders of nature.</p> + +<p>The height of his enthusiasm for natural beauty was reached +during his stay on Monte Amiata, in the summer of 1462, when +plague and heat made the lowlands uninhabitable. Half way +up the mountain, in the old Lombard monastery of San Salvatore, +he and his court took up their quarters. There, between +the chestnuts which clothe the steep declivity, the eye may wander +over all Southern Tuscany, with the towers of Siena in the +distance. The ascent of the highest peak he left to his companions, +who were joined by the Venetian envoy; they found at +the top two vast blocks of stone one upon the other—perhaps the +sacrificial altar of a prehistorical people—and fancied that in +the far distance they saw Corsica and Sardinia rising above the +sea.</p> + +<p>In the cool air of the hills, among the old oaks and chestnuts, +on the green meadows where there were no thorns to wound the +feet and no snakes or insects to hurt or to annoy, the Pope passed +days of unclouded happiness. For the <i>segnatura</i>, which took +place on certain days of the week, he selected on each occasion +some new shady retreat "<i>novas in convallibus fontes et novas inveniens +umbras, quæ dubiam jacerent electionem</i>." At such times<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span> +the dogs would perhaps start a great stag from his lair, who, +after defending himself a while with hoofs and antlers, would fly +at last up the mountain. In the evening the Pope was accustomed +to sit before the monastery on the spot from which the +whole valley of the Paglia was visible, holding lively conversations +with the cardinals. The courtiers, who ventured down +from the heights on their hunting expeditions, found the heat +below intolerable, and the scorched plains like a very hell, while +the monastery, with its cool, shady woods, seemed like an abode +of the blessed.</p> + +<p>All this is genuine modern enjoyment, not a reflection of antiquity. +As surely as the ancients themselves felt in the same +manner, so surely, nevertheless, were the scanty expressions of +the writers whom Pius knew insufficient to awaken in him such +enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>The second great age of Italian poetry, which now followed at +the end of the fifteenth century, as well as the Latin poetry of +the same period, is rich in proofs of the powerful effect of nature +on the human mind. The first glance at the lyric poets of that +time will suffice to convince us. Elaborate descriptions, it is true, +of natural scenery are very rare, for the reason that, in this energetic +age, the novels and the lyric or epic poetry had something +else to deal with. Bojardo and Ariosto paint nature vigorously, +but as briefly as possible, and with no effort to appeal by their +descriptions to the feelings of the reader, which they endeavor +to reach solely by their narrative and characters.</p> + +<p>Letter-writers and the authors of philosophical dialogues +are, in fact, better evidences of the growing love of nature than +the poets. The novelist Bandello, for example, observes rigorously +the rules of his department of literature; he gives us in +his novels themselves not a word more than is necessary on the +natural scenery amid which the action of his tales takes place, +but in the dedications which always precede them we meet with +charming descriptions of nature as the setting for his dialogues +and social pictures. Among letter-writers, Aretino unfortunately +must be named as the first who has fully painted in words the +splendid effect of light and shadow in an Italian sunset.</p> + +<p>We sometimes find the feeling of the poets, also, attaching +itself with tenderness to graceful scenes of country life. Tito<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span> +Strozza, about the year 1480, describes in a Latin elegy the +dwelling of his mistress. We are shown an old ivy-clad house, +half hidden in trees, and adorned with weather-stained frescoes +of the saints, and near it a chapel, much damaged by the violence +of the river Po, which flowed hard by; not far off, the +priest ploughs his few barren roods with borrowed cattle. This +is no reminiscence of the Roman elegists, but true modern sentiment.</p> + +<p>It may be objected that the German painters at the beginning +of the sixteenth century succeed in representing with perfect +mastery these scenes of country life, as, for instance, Albrecht +Durer, in his engraving of the prodigal son. But it is one thing +if a painter, brought up in a school of realism, introduces such +scenes, and quite another thing if a poet, accustomed to an +ideal or mythological framework, is driven by inward impulse +into realism. Besides which, priority in point of time is here, +as in the descriptions of country life, on the side of the Italian +poets.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span></p> +<h2>RIENZI'S REVOLUTION IN ROME</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1347</h6> + +<h3>R. LODGE</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>When for nearly forty years Rome had been deserted by the popes, +who had betaken themselves in 1309 to a long residence at Avignon, +France, and when the Eternal City was virtually without an imperial +government—the Teutonic emperors having likewise abandoned her—she +fell back upon the memories of her great past, recalling the glories of +her ancient supremacy and the means whereby it had been established +and maintained. Whatever might promise to restore it she was ready to +welcome.</p> + +<p>At this time the real masters of Rome were the princes or barons +dwelling in their fortified castles outside or in their strong palaces within +the city. Over the northern district, near the Quirinal, reigned the celebrated +old family of the Colonnas; while along the Tiber, from the Campo-di-Fiore +to the Church of St. Peter, extended the sway of the new +family of the Orsini. Other members of the nobility, in the country, +held their seats in small fortified cities or castles. Under such domination +Rome had become almost deserted. "The population of the seven-hilled +city had come down to about thirty thousand souls." When at +peace with one another—which was rarely—the barons exercised over +the citizens and serfs a combined tyranny, while the farmers, travellers, +and pilgrims were made victims of their plunder. At this period Petrarch—that +"first modern man"—wrote to Pope Clement VI that +Rome had become the abode of demons, the receptacle of all crimes, a +hell for the living.</p> + +<p>"It was in these circumstances that a momentary revival of order and +liberty was effected by the most extraordinary adventurer of an age that +was prolific in adventurers." This was Cola Di Rienzi, who was born in +Rome about 1313, and who is sometimes styled "an Italian patriot." In +his ambitious endeavor to reinstate the Cæsarean power in Italy he appears +alternately in the figure of a hero and the character of a charlatan. +Believing himself the founder of a new era, he was inflamed by his successes, +and ended in "mystical extravagances and follies which could +not fail to cause his ruin."</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_c.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="C" />OLA DI RIENZI was born of humble parents, though he +afterward tried to gratify his own vanity and to gain the +ear of Charles IV by claiming to be the bastard son of Henry +VII. A wrong which he could not venture to avenge excited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> +his bitter hostility against the baronage, while the study of Livy +and other classical writers inspired him with regretful admiration +for the glories of ancient Rome.</p> + +<p>He succeeded in attracting notice by his personal beauty +and by the rather turgid eloquence which was his chief talent. +In 1342 he took the most prominent part in an embassy from +the citizens to Clement VI; and though he failed to induce the +Pope to return to Rome, which at that time he seems to have +regarded as the panacea for the evils of the time, he gained sufficient +favor at Avignon to be appointed papal notary.</p> + +<p>From this time he deliberately set himself to raise the people +to open resistance against their oppressors, while he disarmed +the suspicions of the nobles by intentional buffoonery and extravagance +of conduct. On May 20, 1347, the first blow was +struck. Rienzi, with a chosen band of conspirators, and accompanied +by the papal vicar, who had every interest in weakening +the baronage, proceeded to the Capitol, and, amid the applause +of the mob, promulgated the laws of the <i>buono stato</i>.</p> + +<p>He himself took the title of tribune, in order to emphasize +his championship of the lower classes. The most important of +his laws were for the maintenance of order. Private garrisons +and fortified houses were forbidden. Each of the thirteen districts +was to maintain an armed force of a hundred infantry +and twenty-five horsemen. Every port was provided with a +cruiser for the protection of merchandise, and the trade on the +Tiber was to be secured by a river police.</p> + +<p>The nobles watched the progress of this astonishing revolution +with impotent surprise. Stefano Colonna, who was absent +on the eventful day, expressed his scorn of the mob and their +leader. But a popular attack on his palace convinced him of +his error and forced him to fly from the city. Within fifteen +days the triumph of Rienzi seemed to be complete, when the +proudest nobles of Rome submitted and took an oath to support +the new constitution. But the suddenness of his success was +enough to turn a head which was never of the strongest.</p> + +<p>The Tribune began to dream of restoring to the Roman Republic +its old supremacy. And for a moment even this dream +seemed hardly chimerical. Europe was really dazzled by the +revival of its ancient capital. Louis of Hungary and Joanna of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> +Naples submitted their quarrel to Rienzi's arbitration. Thus +encouraged, he set no bounds to his ambition. He called upon +the Pope and cardinals to return at once to Rome. He summoned +Louis and Charles, the two claimants to the Imperial dignity, +to appear before his throne and submit to his tribunal.</p> + +<p>His arrogance was shown in the pretentious titles which he +assumed and in the gorgeous pomp with which he was accompanied +on public and even on private occasions. On August +15th, after bathing in the porphyry font in which the emperor +Constantine had been baptized, he was crowned with seven +crowns representing the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. His most +loyal admirer prophesied disaster when the Tribune ventured on +this occasion to blasphemously compare himself with Christ.</p> + +<p>Rienzi's government deteriorated with his personal character. +It had at first been liberal and just; it became arbitrary and even +treacherous. His personal timidity made him at once harsh and +vacillating. The heads of the great families, whom he had invited +to a banquet, were seized and condemned to death on a +charge of conspiracy. But a sudden terror of the possible consequences +of his action caused him to relent, and he released his +victims just as they were preparing for execution. His leniency +was as ill-timed as his previous severity. The nobles could no +longer trust him, and their fear was diminished by the weakness +which they despised while they profited by it. They retired +from Rome and concerted measures for the overthrow of their +enemy.</p> + +<p>The first attack, which was led by Stefano Colonna, was +repulsed almost by accident; but Rienzi, who had shown more +cowardice than generalship, disgusted his supporters by his +indecent exultation over the bodies of the slain. And there was +one fatal ambiguity in Rienzi's position. He had begun by +announcing himself as the ally and champion of the papacy, and +Clement VI had been willing enough to stand by and watch the +destruction of the baronage. But the growing independence +and the arrogant pretensions of the Tribune exasperated the +Pope. A new legate was despatched to Italy to denounce and +excommunicate Rienzi as a heretic. The latter had no longer +any support to lean upon. When a new attack was threatened, +the people sullenly refused to obey the call to arms. Rienzi had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> +not sufficient courage to risk a final struggle. On December +15th he abdicated and retired in disguise from Rome. His rise +to power, his dazzling triumph, and his downfall were all comprised +within the brief period of seven months.</p> + +<p>For the next few years Rienzi disappeared from view. According +to his own account he was concealed in a cave in the +Apennines, where he associated with some of the wilder members +of the sect of the Fraticelli and probably imbibed some of their +tenets. Rome relapsed into anarchy, and men's minds were +distracted from politics by the ravages of the black death. The +great jubilee held in Rome in 1350 became a kind of thanksgiving +service of those whom the plague had spared.</p> + +<p>It is said that Rienzi himself visited the scene of his exploits +without detection among the crowds of pilgrims. But he was +destined to reappear in a more public and disastrous manner. +In his solitude his courage and his ambition revived, and he +meditated new plans for restoring freedom to Rome and to Italy. +The allegiance to the Church, which he had professed in 1347, +was weakened by the conduct of Clement VI and by the influence +of the Fraticelli, and he resolved in the future to ally himself +with the secular rather than with the ecclesiastical power, with +the Empire rather than with the papacy. In August, 1351, he +appeared in disguise in Prague and demanded an audience +of Charles IV. To him he proposed the far-reaching scheme +which he had formed during his exile.</p> + +<p>The Pope and the whole body of clergy were to be deprived +of their temporal power; the petty tyrants of Italy were to be +driven out; and the Emperor was to fix his residence in Rome +as the supreme ruler of Christendom. All this was to be accomplished +by Rienzi himself at his own cost and trouble. +Charles IV listened with some curiosity to a man whose career +had excited such universal interest, but he was the last man to be +carried away by such chimerical suggestions.</p> + +<p>The introduction into the political proposals of some of the +religious and communistic ideas of the Fraticelli gave the Emperor +a pretext for committing Rienzi to the Archbishop of +Prague for correction and instruction. The Archbishop communicated +with the Pope, and on the demand of Clement VI +Charles agreed to hand Rienzi over to the papal court on condition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span>dition +that his life should be spared. In 1352 Rienzi was conveyed +to Avignon and thrust into prison. He owed his life +perhaps less to the Emperor's request than to the opportune +death of Clement VI in this year.</p> + +<p>The new Pope, Innocent VI, was more independent of French +control than his immediate predecessors. The French King +was fully occupied with internal disorders and with the English +war. Thus the Pope was able to give more attention to +Italian politics, which were sufficiently pressing. The independence +and anarchy of the Papal States constituted a serious problem, +but the danger of their subjection to a foreign power was +still more serious. In 1350 the important city of Bologna had +been seized by the Visconti of Milan, and the progress of this +powerful family threatened to absorb the whole of the Romagna. +Innocent determined to resist their encroachments and at the +same time to restore the papal authority, and in 1353 he intrusted +this double task to Cardinal Albornoz.</p> + +<p>Albornoz, equally distinguished as a diplomatist and as a +military commander, resolved to ally the cause of the papacy +with that of liberty. His programme was to overthrow the tyrants +as the enemies both of the people and of the popes, and +to restore municipal self-government under papal protection. +His attention was first directed to the city of Rome, which, after +many vicissitudes since 1347, had fallen under the influence of +a demagogue named Baroncelli.</p> + +<p>Baroncelli had revived to some extent the schemes of Rienzi, +but had declared openly against papal rule. To oppose this new +tribune, Albornoz conceived the project of using the influence +of Rienzi, whose rule was now regretted by the populace that had +previously deserted him. The Pope was persuaded to release +Rienzi from prison and to send him to Rome, where the effect +of his presence was almost magical. The Romans flocked to +welcome their former liberator, and he was reinstalled in power +with the title of senator, conferred upon him by the Pope. But +his character was not improved by adversity, and his rule was +more arbitrary and selfish than it had been before.</p> + +<p>The execution of the <i>condottiere</i>, Fra Moreale, was an act of +ingratitude as well as of treachery. Popular favor was soon +alienated from a ruler who could no longer command either<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> +affection or respect, and, in a mob rising, Rienzi was put to death, +October 8, 1354. But his return had served the purpose of Albornoz. +Rome was preserved to the papacy, and the cardinal +could proceed in safety with his task of subduing the independent +tyrants of Romagna.</p> + +<p>Central Italy had not yet witnessed the general introduction +of mercenaries, and the native populations still fought their own +battles. The policy of exciting revolts among the subject citizens +was completely successful, and by 1360 almost the whole of Romagna +had submitted to the papal legate. His triumph was +crowned in this year, when, by skilful use of quarrels among the +Visconti princes, he succeeded in recovering Bologna.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span></p> +<h2>BEGINNING AND PROGRESS OF THE RENAISSANCE</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century</span></h6> + +<h3>JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The new birth or resurrection known as the "Renaissance" is usually +considered to have begun in Italy in the fourteenth century, though some +writers would date its origin from the reign of Frederick II, 1215-1250; +and by this Prince—the most enlightened man of his age—it was at least +anticipated. Well versed in languages and science, he was a patron of +scholars, whom he gathered about him, from all parts of the world, at +his court in Palermo.</p> + +<p>At all events the Renaissance was heralded through the recovery by +Italian scholars of Greek and Roman classical literature. When the +movement began, the civilization of Greece and Rome had long been +exerting a partial influence, not only upon Italy, but on other parts of +mediæval Europe as well. But in Italy especially, when the wave of barbarism +had passed, the people began to feel a returning consciousness of +their ancient culture, and a desire to reproduce it. To Italians the Latin +language was easy, and their country abounded in documents and monumental +records which symbolized past greatness.</p> + +<p>The modern Italian spirit was produced through the combination of +various elements, among which were the political institutions brought by +the Lombards from Germany, the influence of chivalry and other northern +forms of civilization, and the more immediate power of the Church. +That which was foreshadowed in the thirteenth century became in the +fourteenth a distinct national development, which, as Symonds, its most +discerning interpreter, shows us, was constructing a model for the whole +western world.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_t.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="T" />HE word "renaissance" has of late years received a more +extended significance than that which is implied in our +English equivalent—the "revival of learning." We use it to denote +the whole transition from the Middle Ages to the modern +world; and though it is possible to assign certain limits to the +period during which this transition took place, we cannot fix on +any dates so positively as to say between this year and that the +movement was accomplished. To do so would be like trying to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span> +name the days on which spring in any particular season began +and ended. Yet we speak of spring as different from winter and +from summer.</p> + +<p>The truth is that in many senses we are still in mid-Renaissance. +The evolution has not been completed. The new life is +our own and is progressive. As in the transformation scene of +some pantomime, so here the waning and the waxing shapes are +mingled; the new forms, at first shadowy and filmy, gain upon +the old; and now both blend; and now the old scene fades into +the background; still, who shall say whether the new scene be +finally set up?</p> + +<p>In like manner we cannot refer the whole phenomena of the +Renaissance to any one cause or circumstance, or limit them +within the field of any one department of human knowledge. +If we ask the students of art what they mean by the Renaissance, +they will reply that it was the revolution effected in architecture, +painting, and sculpture by the recovery of antique +monuments. Students of literature, philosophy, and theology +see in the Renaissance that discovery of manuscripts, that passion +for antiquity, that progress in philology and criticism, +which led to a correct knowledge of the classics, to a fresh taste +in poetry, to new systems of thought, to more accurate analysis, +and finally to the Lutheran schism and the emancipation of the +conscience. Men of science will discourse about the discovery +of the solar system by Copernicus and Galileo, the anatomy of +Vesalius, and Harvey's theory of the circulation of the blood. +The origination of a truly scientific method is the point which +interests them most in the Renaissance. The political historian, +again, has his own answer to the question. The extinction of +feudalism, the development of the great nationalities of Europe, +the growth of monarchy, the limitation of the ecclesiastical authority, +and the erection of the papacy into an Italian kingdom, +and in the last place the gradual emergence of that sense +of popular freedom which exploded in the Revolution: these are +the aspects of the movement which engross his attention.</p> + +<p>Jurists will describe the dissolution of legal fictions based +upon the False Decretals, the acquisition of a true text of the +Roman code, and the attempt to introduce a rational method +into the theory of modern iurisprudence, as well as to commence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> +the study of international law. Men whose attention +has been turned to the history of discoveries and inventions will +relate the exploration of America and the East, or will point to +the benefits conferred upon the world by the arts of printing +and engraving, by the compass and the telescope, by paper and +by gunpowder; and will insist that at the moment of the Renaissance +all the instruments of mechanical utility started into +existence, to aid the dissolution of what was rotten and must +perish, to strengthen and perpetuate the new and useful and life-giving.</p> + +<p>Yet neither any one of these answers, taken separately, nor +indeed all of them together, will offer a solution of the problem. +By the term "renaissance," or new birth, is indicated a natural +movement, not to be explained by this or that characteristic, +but to be accepted as an effort of humanity for which at length +the time had come, and in the onward progress of which we still +participate. The history of the Renaissance is not the history +of arts or of sciences or of literature or even of nations. It is +the history of the attainment of self-conscious freedom by the +human spirit manifested in the European races. It is no mere +political mutation, no new fashion of art, no restoration of +classical standards of taste. The arts and the inventions, the +knowledge and the books which suddenly became vital at the +time of the Renaissance, had long lain neglected on the shores +of the dead sea which we call the Middle Ages. It was not +their discovery which caused the Renaissance. But it was the +intellectual energy, the spontaneous outburst of intelligence, +which enabled mankind at that moment to make use of them. +The force then generated still continues, vital and expansive, in +the spirit of the modern world.</p> + +<p>How was it, then, that at a certain period, about fourteen +centuries after Christ, to speak roughly, humanity awoke as it +were from slumber and began to live? That is a question which +we can but imperfectly answer. The mystery of organic life defeats +analysis. Whether the subject of our inquiry be a germ-cell, +or a phenomenon so complex as the commencement of +a new religion, or the origination of a new disease, or a new +phase in civilization, it is alike impossible to do more than to +state the conditions under which the fresh growth begins, and to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> +point out what are its manifestations. In doing so, moreover, +we must be careful not to be carried away by words of our own +making. Renaissance, Reformation, and Revolution are not +separate things, capable of being isolated; they are moments in +the history of the human race which we find it convenient to +name; while history itself is one and continuous, so that our utmost +endeavors to regard some portion of it, independently of +the rest, will be defeated.</p> + +<p>A glance at the history of the preceding centuries shows that, +after the dissolution of the fabric of the Roman Empire, there +was no possibility of any intellectual revival. The barbarous +races which had deluged Europe had to absorb their barbarism; +the fragments of Roman civilization had either to be destroyed +or assimilated; the Germanic nations had to receive culture +and religion from the effete people they had superseded. +It was further necessary that the modern nationalities should +be defined, that the modern languages should be formed, that +peace should be secured to some extent, and wealth accumulated, +before the indispensable <i>milieu</i> for a resurrection of the +free spirit of humanity could exist. The first nation which fulfilled +these conditions was the first to inaugurate the new era. +The reason why Italy took the lead in the Renaissance was that +Italy possessed a language, a favorable climate, political freedom, +and commercial prosperity, at a time when other nations +Were still semibarbarous. Where the human spirit had been +buried in the decay of the Roman Empire, there it arose upon +the ruins of that Empire; and the papacy—- called by Hobbes the +ghost of the dead Roman Empire, seated, throned, and crowned, +upon the ashes thereof—to some extent bridged over the gulf between +the two periods.</p> + +<p>Keeping steadily in sight the truth that the real quality of +the Renaissance was intellectual—that it was the emancipation +of the reason for the modern world—we may inquire how +feudalism was related to it. The mental condition of the Middle +Ages was one of ignorant prostration before the idols of +the Church—dogma and authority and scholasticism. Again, +the nations of Europe during these centuries were bound down +by the brute weight of material necessities. Without the power +over the outer world which the physical sciences and useful arts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> +communicate, without the ease of life which wealth and plenty +secure, without the traditions of a civilized past, emerging slowly +from a state of utter rawness, each nation could barely do more +than gain and keep a difficult hold upon existence. To depreciate +the work achieved for humanity during the Middle Ages +would be ridiculous. Yet we may point out that it was done +unconsciously—that it was a gradual and instinctive process of +becoming. The reason, in a word, was not awake; the mind +of man was ignorant of its own treasures and its own capacities. +It is pathetic to think of the mediæval students poring over a +single ill-translated sentence of Porphyry, endeavoring to extract +from its clauses whole systems of logical science, and torturing +their brains about puzzles more idle than the dilemma +of Buridan's donkey, while all the time, at Constantinople and +at Seville, in Greek and Arabic, Plato and Aristotle were alive, +but sleeping, awaiting only the call of the Renaissance to bid +them speak with voice intelligible to the modern mind. It is no +less pathetic to watch tide after tide of the ocean of humanity +sweeping from all parts of Europe, to break in passionate but +unavailing foam upon the shores of Palestine, whole nations +laying life down for the chance of seeing the walls of Jerusalem, +worshipping the sepulchre whence Christ had risen, loading +their fleet with relics and with cargoes of the sacred earth, while +all the time, within their breasts and brains, the spirit of the +Lord was with them, living but unrecognized, the spirit of freedom +which ere long was destined to restore its birthright to the +world.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Middle Age accomplished its own work. +Slowly and obscurely, amid stupidity and ignorance, were being +forged the nations and the languages of Europe. Italy, France, +Spain, England, Germany took shape. The actors of the future +drama acquired their several characters, and formed the tongues +whereby their personalities should be expressed. The qualities +which render modern society different from that of the ancient +world were being impressed upon these nations by Christianity, +by the Church, by chivalry, by feudal customs. Then came a +further phase. After the nations had been moulded, their monarchies +and dynasties were established. Feudalism passed by +slow degrees into various forms of more or less defined autocracy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span> +In Italy and Germany numerous principalities sprang into +preëminence; and though the nation was not united under one +head, the monarchical principle was acknowledged. France +and Spain submitted to a despotism, by right of which the king +could say, "<i>L'état c'est moi</i>." England developed her complicated +constitution of popular right and royal prerogative. At +the same time the Latin Church underwent a similar process of +transformation. The papacy became more autocratic. Like +the king the pope began to say, "<i>L'Église c'est moi</i>." This +merging of the mediæval state and mediæval church in the +personal supremacy of king and pope may be termed the special +feature of the last age of feudalism which preceded the Renaissance. +It was thus that the necessary milieu was prepared. +The organization of the five great nations, and the levelling of +political and spiritual interests under political and spiritual despots, +formed the prelude to that drama of liberty of which the +Renaissance was the first act, the Reformation the second, the +Revolution the third, and which we nations of the present are +still evolving in the establishment of the democratic idea.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile it must not be imagined that the Renaissance +burst suddenly upon the world in the fifteenth century without +premonitory symptoms. Far from that, within the Middle Age +itself, over and over again, the reason strove to break loose +from its fetters. Abelard, in the twelfth century, tried to prove +that the interminable dispute about entities and words was +founded on a misapprehension. Roger Bacon, at the beginning +of the thirteenth century, anticipated modern science, and proclaimed +that man, by use of nature, can do all things. Joachim +of Flora, intermediate between the two, drank one drop of the +cup of prophecy offered to his lips, and cried that "the gospel of +the Father was past, the gospel of the Son was passing, the +gospel of the Spirit was to be." These three men, each in his +own way, the Frenchman as a logician, the Englishman as an +analyst, the Italian as a mystic, divined the future but inevitable +emancipation of the reason of mankind. Nor were there wanting +signs, especially in Provence, that Aphrodite and Phœbus +and the Graces were ready to resume their sway. We have, +moreover, to remember the Cathari, the Paterini, the Franticelli, +the Albigenses, the Hussites—heretics in whom the new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> +light dimly shone, but who were instantly exterminated by the +Church.</p> + +<p>We have to commemorate the vast conception of the emperor +Frederick II, who strove to found a new society of humane +culture in the South of Europe, and to anticipate the advent +of the spirit of modern tolerance. He, too, and all his race were +exterminated by the papal jealousy. Truly we may say with +Michelet that the sibyl of the Renaissance kept offering her +books in vain to feudal Europe. In vain, because the time was +not yet. The ideas projected thus early on the modern world +were immature and abortive, like those headless trunks and +zoöphytic members of half-moulded humanity which, in the +vision of Empedocles, preceded the birth of full-formed man. +The nations were not ready. Franciscans imprisoning Roger +Bacon for venturing to examine what God had meant to keep +secret; Dominicans preaching crusades against the cultivated +nobles of Provence; popes stamping out the seed of enlightened +Frederick; Benedictines erasing the masterpieces of classical +literature to make way for their own litanies and lurries, or +selling pieces of the parchment for charms; a laity devoted by +superstition to saints and by sorcery to the devil; a clergy sunk +in sensual sloth or fevered with demoniac zeal—these still ruled +the intellectual destinies of Europe. Therefore the first anticipations +of the Renaissance were fragmentary and sterile.</p> + +<p>Then came a second period. Dante's poem, a work of conscious +art, conceived in a modern spirit and written in a modern +tongue, was the first true sign that Italy, the leader of the +nations of the West, had shaken off her sleep. Petrarch followed. +His ideal of antique culture as the everlasting solace +and the universal education of the human race, his lifelong effort +to recover the classical harmony of thought and speech, gave a +direct impulse to one of the chief movements of the Renaissance—its +passionate outgoing toward the ancient world. After +Petrarch, Boccaccio opened yet another channel for the stream +of freedom. His conception of human existence as a joy to be +accepted with thanksgiving, not as a gloomy error to be rectified +by suffering, familiarized the fourteenth century with that form +of semipagan gladness that marked the real Renaissance.</p> + +<p>In Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio Italy recovered the consciousness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> +of intellectual liberty. What we call the Renaissance +had not yet arrived; but their achievement rendered its appearance +in due season certain. With Dante the genius of the modern +world dared to stand alone and to create confidently after +its own fashion. With Petrarch the same genius reached forth +across the gulf of darkness, resuming the tradition of a splendid +past. With Boccaccio the same genius proclaimed the beauty +of the world, the goodliness of youth, and strength and love and +life, unterrified by hell, unappalled by the shadow of impending +death.</p> + +<p>It was now, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, when +Italy had lost, indeed, the heroic spirit which we admire in +her communes of the thirteenth, but had gained instead ease, +wealth, magnificence, and that repose which springs from long +prosperity, that the new age at last began. Europe was, as it +were, a fallow field, beneath which lay buried the civilization of +the Old World. Behind stretched the centuries of mediævalism, +intellectually barren and inert. Of the future there were as yet +but faint foreshadowings. Meanwhile, the force of the nations +who were destined to achieve the coming transformation was +unexhausted, their physical and mental faculties were unimpaired. +No ages of enervating luxury, of intellectual endeavor, +of life artificially preserved or ingeniously prolonged, had +sapped the fibre of the men who were about to inaugurate the +modern world. Severely nurtured, unused to delicate living, +these giants of the Renaissance were like boys in their capacity +for endurance, their inordinate appetite for enjoyment. No +generations, hungry, sickly, effete, critical, disillusioned, trod +them down. Ennui and the fatigue that springs from scepticism, +the despair of thwarted effort, were unknown. Their fresh +and unperverted senses rendered them keenly alive to what was +beautiful and natural. They yearned for magnificence and instinctively +comprehended splendor. At the same time the period +of satiety was still far off.</p> + +<p>Everything seemed possible to their young energy; nor had +a single pleasure palled upon their appetite. Born, as it were, +at the moment when desires and faculties are evenly balanced, +when the perceptions are not blunted, nor the senses cloyed, +opening their eyes for the first time on a world of wonder, these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> +men of the Renaissance enjoyed what we may term the first +transcendent springtide of the modern world. Nothing is more +remarkable than the fulness of the life that throbbed in them. +Natures rich in all capacities and endowed with every kind of +sensibility were frequent. Nor was there any limit to the play +of personality in action. We may apply to them what Browning +has written of Sordello's temperament:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i5">"A football there</span> +<span class="i0">Suffices to upturn to the warm air</span> +<span class="i0">Half-germinating spices, mere decay</span> +<span class="i0">Produces richer life, and day by day</span> +<span class="i0">New pollen on the lily-petal grows,</span> +<span class="i0">And still more labyrinthine buds the rose."</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>During the Middle Ages man had lived enveloped in a cowl. +He had not seen the beauty of the world, or had seen it only to +cross himself, and turn aside and tell his beads and pray. Like +St. Bernard travelling along the shores of Lake Leman, and noticing +neither the azure of the waters nor the luxuriance of the +vines, nor the radiance of the mountains with their robe of sun +and snow, but bending a thought-burdened forehead over the +neck of his mule—even like this monk, humanity had passed, a +careful pilgrim, intent on the terrors of sin, death, and judgment, +along the highways of the world, and had not known that +they were sightworthy, or that life is a blessing. Beauty is a +snare, pleasure a sin, the world a fleeting show, man fallen and +lost, death the only certainty, judgment inevitable, hell everlasting, +heaven hard to win, ignorance is acceptable to God as +a proof of faith and submission, abstinence and mortification +are the only safe rules of life—these were the fixed ideas of the +ascetic mediæval Church. The Renaissance shattered and destroyed +them, rending the thick veil which they had drawn between +the mind of man and the outer world, and flashing the +light of reality upon the darkened places of his own nature. +For the mystic teaching of the Church was substituted culture +in the classical humanities; a new ideal was established, whereby +man strove to make himself the monarch of the globe on which +it is his privilege as well as destiny to live. The Renaissance was +the liberation of humanity from a dungeon, the double discovery +of the outer and the inner world.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span>An external event determined the direction which this outburst +of the spirit of freedom should take. This was the contact +of the modern with the ancient mind, which followed upon +what is called the Revival of Learning. The fall of the Greek +empire in 1453, while it signalized the extinction of the old +order, gave an impulse to the now accumulated forces of the +new. A belief in the identity of the human spirit under all manifestations +was generated. Men found that in classical as well +as biblical antiquity existed an ideal of human life, both moral +and intellectual, by which they might profit in the present. The +modern genius felt confidence in its own energies when it learned +what the ancients had achieved. The guesses of the ancients +stimulated the exertions of the moderns. The whole world's history +seemed once more to be one.</p> + +<p>The great achievements of the Renaissance were the discovery +of the world and the discovery of man. Under these two +formulas may be classified all the phenomena which properly +belong to this period. The discovery of the world divides itself +into two branches—the exploration of the globe, and that systematic +exploration of the universe which is in fact what we call +science. Columbus made known America in 1492; the Portuguese +rounded the Cape in 1497; Copernicus explained the solar +system in 1507. It is not necessary to add anything to this +plain statement, for, in contact with facts of such momentous +import, to avoid what seems like commonplace reflection would +be difficult. Yet it is only when we contrast the ten centuries +which preceded these dates with the four centuries which have +ensued that we can estimate the magnitude of that Renaissance +movement by means of which a new hemisphere has been added +to civilization.</p> + +<p>In like manner, it is worth while to pause a moment and +consider what is implied in the substitution of the Copernican +for the Ptolemaic system. The world, regarded in old times as +the centre of all things, the apple of God's eye, for the sake of +which were created sun and moon and stars, suddenly was +found to be one of the many balls that roll round a giant sphere +of light and heat, which is itself but one among innumerable +suns, attended each by a <i>cortége</i> of planets, and scattered—how, +we know not—through infinity. What has become of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span> +brazen seat of the old gods, that paradise to which an ascending +Deity might be caught up through clouds, and hidden for a moment +from the eyes of his disciples? The demonstration of the +simplest truths of astronomy destroyed at a blow the legends +that were most significant to the early Christians by annihilating +their symbolism. Well might the Church persecute Galileo +for his proof of the world's mobility. Instinctively she perceived +that in this one proposition was involved the principle of hostility +to her most cherished conceptions, to the very core of her +mythology.</p> + +<p>Science was born, and the warfare between scientific positivism +and religious metaphysics was declared. Henceforth +God could not be worshipped under the forms and idols of a +sacerdotal fancy; a new meaning had been given to the words +"God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him +in spirit and in truth." The reason of man was at last able to +study the scheme of the universe, of which he is a part, and to +ascertain the actual laws by which it is governed. Three centuries +and a half have elapsed since Copernicus revolutionized +astronomy. It is only by reflecting on the mass of knowledge +we have since acquired, knowledge not only infinitely curious, +but also incalculably useful in its application to the arts of life, +and then considering how much ground of this kind was acquired +in the ten centuries which preceded the Renaissance, that +we are at all able to estimate the expansive force which was +then generated. Science, rescued from the hands of astrology, +geomancy, alchemy, began her real life with the Renaissance. +Since then, as far as to the present moment, she has never ceased +to grow. Progressive and durable, science may be called the +first-born of the spirit of the modern world.</p> + +<p>Thus by the discovery of the world is meant on the one hand +the appropriation by civilized humanity of all corners of the +habitable world, and on the other the conquest by science of all +that we now know about the nature of the universe. In the +discovery of man, again, it is possible to trace a twofold process. +Man in his temporal relations, illustrated by pagan antiquity, +and man in his spiritual relations, illustrated by biblical antiquity: +these are the two regions, at first apparently distinct, +afterward found to be interpenetrative, which the critical and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> +inquisitive genius of the Renaissance opened for investigation. +In the former of these regions we find two agencies at work—art +and scholarship. During the Middle Ages the plastic arts, like +philosophy, had degenerated into barren and meaningless scholasticism—a +frigid reproduction of lifeless forms copied technically +and without inspiration from debased patterns. Pictures +became symbolically connected with the religious feelings of the +people, formulas from which to deviate would be impious in the +artist and confusing to the worshipper. Superstitious reverence +bound the painter to copy the almond eyes and stiff joints of the +saints whom he had adored from infancy; and, even had it been +otherwise, he lacked the skill to imitate the natural forms he +saw around him.</p> + +<p>But with the dawning of the Renaissance a new spirit in the +arts arose. Men began to conceive that the human body is noble +in itself and worthy of patient study. The object of the artist +then became to unite devotional feeling and respect for the sacred +legend with the utmost beauty and the utmost fidelity of delineation. +He studied from the nude; he drew the body in every +posture; he composed drapery, invented attitudes, and adapted +the action of his figures and the expression of his faces to the +subject he had chosen. In a word, he humanized the altar-pieces +and the cloister frescoes upon which he worked. In this +way the painters rose above the ancient symbols and brought +heaven down to earth. By drawing Madonna and her son like +living human beings, by dramatizing the Christian history, they +silently substituted the love of beauty and the interests of actual +life for the principles of the Church. The saint or angel became +an occasion for the display of physical perfection, and to introduce +<i>un bel corpo ignudo</i> into the composition was of more moment +to them than to represent the macerations of the Magdalen. +Men thus learned to look beyond the relique and the +host, and to forget the dogma in the lovely forms which +gave it expression. Finally, when the classics came to aid +this work of progress, a new world of thought and fancy, +divinely charming, wholly human, was revealed to their astonished +eyes.</p> + +<p>Thus art, which had begun by humanizing the legends of +the Church, diverted the attention of its students from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> +legend to the work of beauty, and lastly, severing itself from the +religious tradition, became the exponent of the majesty and +splendor of the human body. This final emancipation of art +from ecclesiastical trammels culminated in the great age of +Italian painting. Gazing at Michelangelo's prophets in the +Sistine Chapel, we are indeed in contact with ideas originally +religious. But the treatment of these ideas is purely, broadly +human, on a level with that of the sculpture of Phidias. Titian's +"Virgin Received into Heaven," soaring midway between the +archangel who descends to crown her and the apostles who +yearn to follow her, is far less a Madonna Assunta than the apotheosis +of humanity conceived as a radiant mother. Throughout +the picture there is nothing ascetic, nothing mystic, nothing +devotional. Nor did the art of the Renaissance stop here. It +went further, and plunged into paganism. Sculptors and painters +combined with architects to cut the arts loose from their connection +with the Church by introducing a spirit and a sentiment +alien to Christianity.</p> + +<p>Through the instrumentality of art, and of all the ideas +which art introduced into daily life, the Renaissance wrought +for the modern world a real resurrection of the body which, since +the destruction of the pagan civilization, had lain swathed up +in hair-shirts and cerements within the tomb of the mediæval +cloister. It was scholarship which revealed to men the wealth +of their own minds, the dignity of human thought, the value of +human speculation, the importance of human life regarded as a +thing apart from religious rules and dogmas. During the Middle +Ages a few students had possessed the poems of Vergil and +the prose of Boethius—and Vergil at Mantua, Boethius at Pavia, +had actually been honored as saints—together with fragments +of Lucan, Ovid, Statius, Cicero, and Horace. The Renaissance +opened to the whole reading public the treasure-houses +of Greek and Latin literature. At the same time the +Bible, in its original tongues, was rediscovered. Mines of oriental +learning were laid bare for the students of the Jewish and Arabic +traditions. What we may call the Aryan and the Semitic +revelations were for the first time subjected to something like a +critical comparison. With unerring instinct the men of the Renaissance +named the voluminous subject-matter of scholarship<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> +<i>Litteræ Humaniores</i> ("the more human literature"), the literature +that humanizes.</p> + +<p>There are three stages in the history of scholarship during +the Renaissance. The first is the age of passionate desire. Petrarch +poring over a Homer he could not understand, and Boccaccio +in his maturity learning Greek, in order that he might +drink from the well-head of poetic inspiration, are the heroes of +this period. They inspired the Italians with a thirst for antique +culture. Next comes the age of acquisition and of libraries. +Nicholas V, who founded the Vatican Library in 1453, Cosmo +de' Medici, who began the Medicean collection a little earlier, +and Poggio Bracciolini, who ransacked all the cities and convents +of Europe for manuscripts, together with the teachers of +Greek, who in the first half of the fifteenth century escaped from +Constantinople with precious freights of classic literature, are +the heroes of this second period. It was an age of accumulation, +of uncritical and indiscriminate enthusiasm. Manuscripts were +worshipped by these men, just as the reliques of the Holy Land +had been adored by their great-grandfathers. The eagerness of +the crusades was revived in this quest of the holy grail of ancient +knowledge. Waifs and strays of pagan authors were +valued like precious gems, revelled in like odoriferous and gorgeous +flowers, consulted like oracles of God, gazed on like the +eyes of a beloved mistress. The good, the bad, and the indifferent +received an almost equal homage. Criticism had not yet +begun. The world was bent on gathering up its treasures, +frantically bewailing the lost books of Livy, the lost songs of +Sappho—absorbing to intoxication the strong wine of multitudinous +thoughts and passions that kept pouring from those long +buried amphoræ of inspiration.</p> + +<p>What is most remarkable about this age of scholarship is the +enthusiasm which pervaded all classes in Italy for antique culture. +Popes and princes, captains of adventure and peasants, +noble ladies and the leaders of the <i>demi-monde</i> alike became +scholars. There is a story told by Infessura which illustrates +the temper of the times with singular felicity. On April 18, +1485, a report circulated in Rome that some Lombard workmen +had discovered a Roman sarcophagus while digging on the +Appian Way. It was a marble tomb, engraved with the inscription<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> +"Julia, Daughter of Claudius," and inside the coffer +lay the body of a most beautiful girl of fifteen years, preserved +by precious unguents from corruption and the injury of time. +The bloom of youth was still upon her cheeks and lips; her +eyes and mouth were half open; her long hair floated round her +shoulders. She was instantly removed—so goes the legend—to +the Capitol; and then began a procession of pilgrims from all +the quarters of Rome to gaze upon this saint of the old pagan +world. In the eyes of those enthusiastic worshippers, her +beauty was beyond imagination or description. She was far +fairer than any woman of the modern age could hope to be. +At last Innocent VIII feared lest the orthodox faith should suffer +by this new cult of a heathen corpse. Julia was buried secretly +and at night by his direction, and naught remained in +the Capitol but her empty marble coffin. The tale, as told +by Infessura, is repeated in Matarazzo and in Nantiporto with +slight variations. One says that the girl's hair was yellow, another +that it was of the glossiest black. What foundation for +the legend may really have existed need not here be questioned. +Let us rather use the <i>mythus</i> as a parable of the ecstatic devotion +which prompted the men of that age to discover a form of +unimaginable beauty in the tomb of the classic world.</p> + +<p>Then came the third age of scholarship—the age of the +critics, philologers, and printers. What had been collected by +Poggio and Aurispa had now to be explained by Ficino, Poliziano, +and Erasmus. They began their task by digesting and +arranging the contents of the libraries. There were then no +short cuts of learning, no comprehensive lexicons, no dictionaries +of antiquities, no carefully prepared <i>thesauri</i> of mythology +and history. Each student had to hold in his brain the whole +mass of classical erudition. The text and the canon of Homer, +Plato, Aristotle, and the tragedians had to be decided. Greek +type had to be struck. Florence, Venice, Basel, and Paris +groaned with printing-presses. The Aldi, the Stephani, and +Froben toiled by night and day, employing scores of scholars, +men of supreme devotion and of mighty brain, whose work it +was to ascertain the right reading of sentences, to accentuate, +to punctuate, to commit to the press, and to place, beyond the +reach of monkish hatred or of envious time, that everlasting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> +solace of humanity which exists in the classics. All subsequent +achievements in the field of scholarship sink into insignificance +beside the labors of these men, who needed genius, enthusiasm, +and the sympathy of Europe for the accomplishment of their +titanic task. Vergil was printed in 1470, Homer in 1488, Aristotle +in 1498, Plato in 1512. They then became the inalienable +heritage of mankind. But what vigils, what anxious expenditure +of thought, what agonies of doubt and expectation, were +endured by those heroes of humanizing scholarship, whom we +are apt to think of merely as pedants! Which of us now warms +and thrills with emotion at hearing the name of Aldus Manutius +or of Henricus Stephanus or of Johannes Froben? Yet this we +surely ought to do; for to them we owe in a great measure the +freedom of our spirit, our stores of intellectual enjoyment, our +command of the past, our certainty of the future of human culture.</p> + +<p>This third age in the history of the Renaissance scholarship +may be said to have reached its climax in Erasmus; for by this +time Italy had handed on the torch of learning to the northern +nations. The publication of his <i>Adagia</i> in 1500 marks the advent +of a more critical and selective spirit, which from that date onward +has been gradually gaining strength in the modern mind. +Criticism, in the true sense of accurate testing and sifting, is one +of the points which distinguish the moderns from the ancients; +and criticism was developed by the process of assimilation, +comparison, and appropriation, which was necessary in the +growth of scholarship. The ultimate effect of this recovery of +classic culture was, once and for all, to liberate the intellect. +The modern world was brought into close contact with the free +virility of the ancient world, and emancipated from the thraldom +of improved traditions. The force to judge and the desire +to create were generated. The immediate result in the sixteenth +century was an abrupt secession of the learned, not merely +from monasticism, but also from the true spirit of Christianity. +The minds of the Italians assimilated paganism. In their +hatred of mediæval ignorance, in their loathing of cowled and +cloistered fools, they flew to an extreme, and affected the manner +of an irrevocable past. This extravagance led of necessity +to a reaction—in the North, of Puritanism; in the South, to what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> +has been termed the Counter-Reformation effected under Spanish +influences in the Latin Church. But Christianity, that +most precious possession of the modern world, was never seriously +imperilled by the classical enthusiasm of the Renaissance; +nor, on the other hand, was the progressive emancipation of the +reason materially retarded by the reaction it produced.</p> + +<p>The transition at this point to the third branch in the discovery +of man, the revelation to the consciousness of its own +spiritual freedom, is natural. Not only did scholarship restore +the classics and encourage literary criticism; it also restored the +text of the Bible, and encouraged theological criticism. In the +wake of theological freedom followed a free philosophy, no +longer subject to the dogmas of the Church. To purge the +Christian faith from false conceptions, to liberate the conscience +from the tyranny of priests, and to interpret religion to the reason, +has been the work of the last centuries; nor is this work +as yet by any means accomplished. On the one side, Descartes +and Bacon and Spinoza and Locke are sons of the Renaissance, +champions of new-found philosophical freedom; on the other +side, Luther is a son of the Renaissance, the herald of new-found +religious freedom. The whole movement of the Reformation +is a phase in that accelerated action of the modern mind +which at its commencement we call the Renaissance. It is a +mistake to regard the Reformation as an isolated phenomenon, +or as a mere effort to restore the Church to purity. The Reformation +exhibits, in the region of religious thought and national +politics, what the Renaissance displays in the sphere of culture, +art, and science—the recovered energy and freedom of humanity. +We are too apt to treat of history in parcels, and to +attempt to draw lessons from detached chapters in the biography +of the human race. To observe the connection between +the several stages of a progressive movement of the human +spirit, and to recognize that the forces at work are still active, is +the true philosophy of history.</p> + +<p>The Reformation, like the revival of science and of culture, +had its mediæval anticipations and foreshadowings. The heretics +whom the Church successfully combated in North Italy, +in France, and in Bohemia were the precursors of Luther. The +scholars prepared the way in the fifteenth century. Teachers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> +of Hebrew, founders of Hebrew type—Reuchlin in Germany, +Alexander in Paris, Von Hutten as a pamphleteer, and Erasmus +as a humanist—contribute each a definite momentum. Luther, +for his part, incarnates the spirit of revolt against tyrannical +authority, urges the necessity of a return to the essential truth of +Christianity as distinguished from the idols of the Church, and +asserts the right of the individual to judge, interpret, criticise, +and construct opinion for himself. The veil which the Church +had interposed between humanity and God was broken down. +The freedom of the conscience was established. The principles +involved in what we call the Reformation were momentous. +Connected on the one side with scholarship and the study of +texts, it opened the path for modern biblical criticism. Connected +on the other side with intolerance of mere authority, it +led to what has since been named rationalism—the attempt to +reconcile the religious tradition with the reason, and to define +the logical ideas that underlie the conceptions of the popular +religious conscience. Again, by promulgating the doctrine of +personal freedom, and by connecting itself with national politics, +the Reformation was linked historically to the Revolution. +It was the Puritan Church in England, stimulated by the patriotism +of the Dutch Protestants, which established our constitutional +liberty and introduced in America the general principle +of the equality of men. This high political abstraction, latent +in Christianity, evolved by criticism, and promulgated as a gospel +in the second half of the eighteenth century, was externalized +in the French Revolution. The work that yet remains to +be accomplished for the modern world is the organization of +society in harmony with democratic principles.</p> + +<p>Thus what the word Renaissance really means is new birth +to liberty—the spirit of mankind recovering consciousness and +the power of self-determination, recognizing the beauty of the +outer world and of the body through art, liberating the reason +in science and the conscience in religion, restoring culture to the +intelligence, and establishing the principle of political freedom. +The Church was the schoolmaster of the Middle Ages. Culture +was the humanizing and refining influence of the Renaissance. +The problem for the present and the future is how, through +education, to render culture accessible to all—to break down that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> +barrier which in the Middle Ages was set between clerk and +layman, and which in the intermediate period has arisen between +the intelligent and ignorant classes. Whether the Utopia +of a modern world in which all men shall enjoy the same social, +political, and intellectual advantages be realized or not, we cannot +doubt that the whole movement of humanity, from the Renaissance +onward, has tended in this direction. To destroy the +distinctions, mental and physical, which nature raises between +individuals, and which constitute an actual hierarchy, will always +be impossible. Yet it may happen that in the future no +civilized man will lack the opportunity of being physically and +mentally the best that God has made him.</p> + +<p>It remains to speak of the instruments and mechanical inventions +which aided the emancipation of the spirit in the modern +age. Discovered over and over again, and offered at intervals +to the human race at various times and on divers soils, no +effective use was made of these material resources until the fifteenth +century. The compass, discovered according to tradition +by Gioja of Naples in 1302, was employed by Columbus for the +voyage to America in 1492. The telescope, known to the Arabians +in the Middle Ages, and described by Roger Bacon in +1250, helped Copernicus to prove the revolution of the earth in +1530, and Galileo to substantiate his theory of the planetary +system. Printing, after numerous useless revelations to the +world of its resources, became an art in 1438; and paper, +which had long been known to the Chinese, was first made of +cotton in Europe about 1000 and of rags in 1319. Gunpowder +entered into use about 1320. As employed by the Genius of the +Renaissance, each one of these inventions became a lever by +means of which to move the world. Gunpowder revolutionized +the art of war. The feudal castle, the armor of the knight and +his battle-horse, the prowess of one man against a hundred, and +the pride of aristocratic cavalry trampling upon ill-armed militia, +were annihilated by the flashes of the cannon. Courage +became more a moral than a physical quality. The victory was +delivered to the brain of the general. Printing has established, +as indestructible, all knowledge, and disseminated, as the common +property of everyone, all thought; while paper has made +the work of printing cheap. Such reflections as these, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span> +are trite and must occur to every mind. It is far more to the +purpose to repeat that not the inventions, but the intelligence +that used them, the conscious calculating spirit of the modern +world, should rivet our attention when we direct it to the phenomena +of the Renaissance.</p> + +<p>In the work of the Renaissance all the great nations of Europe +shared. But it must never be forgotten that, as a matter +of history, the true Renaissance began in Italy. It was there +that the essential qualities which distinguish the modern from +the ancient and the mediæval world were developed. Italy +created that new spiritual atmosphere of culture and of intellectual +freedom which has been the life-breath of the European +races. As the Jews are called the chosen and peculiar people +of divine revelation, so may the Italians be called the chosen +and peculiar vessels of the prophecy of the Renaissance. In +art, in scholarship, in science, in the mediation between antique +culture and the modern intellect, they took the lead, +handing to Germany and France and England the restored +humanities complete. Spain and England have since done +more for the exploration and colonization of the world. Germany +achieved the labor of the Reformation almost single-handed. +France has collected, centralized, and diffused intelligence +with irresistible energy. But if we return to the first +origins of the Renaissance, we find that, at a time when the rest +of Europe was inert, Italy had already begun to organize the +various elements of the modern spirit, and to set the fashion +whereby the other great nations should learn and live.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span></p> +<h2>THE BLACK DEATH RAVAGES EUROPE</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1348</h6> + +<h3>J. F. C. HECKER<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">51</a> GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Different parts of the oriental world have been mentioned as the +probable locality of the first appearance of the plague or pestilence +known as the "black death," but its origin is most generally referred to +China, where, at all events, it raged violently about 1333, when it was accompanied +at its outbreak by terrestrial and atmospheric phenomena of +a destructive character, such as are said to have attended the first appearance +of Asiatic cholera and other spreading and deadly diseases; +from which it has been conjectured that through these convulsions deleterious +foreign substances may have been projected into the atmosphere.</p> + +<p>But while for centuries the nature and causes of the black death have +been subjects of medical inquiry in all countries, it remained for our own +time to discover a more scientific explanation than those previously advanced. +The malady is now identified by pathologists with the bubonic +plague, which at intervals still afflicts India and other oriental lands, and +has in recent years been a cause of apprehension at more than one American +seaport.</p> + +<p>It is called <i>bubonic</i>—from the Greek <i>boubon</i> ("groin")—because it +attacks the lymphatic glands of the groins, armpits, neck, and other parts +of the body. Among its leading symptoms are headache, fever, vertigo, +vomiting, prostration, etc., with dark purple spots or a mottled appearance +upon the skin. Death in severe cases usually occurs within forty-eight +hours. Bacteriologists are now generally agreed that the disorder +is due to a bacillus identified by investigators both in India and in western +countries.</p> + +<p>The first historic appearance of the black death in Europe was at +Constantinople, <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 543. But far more widespread and terrible were its +ravages in the fourteenth century, when they were almost world-wide. +Of the dreadful visitation in Europe then, we are fortunate to have the +striking account of Dr. Hecker, which follows.</p> + +<p>The name "black death" was given to the disease in the more northern +parts of Europe—from the dark spots on the skin above mentioned—while +in Italy it was called <i>la mortalega grande</i> ("the great mortality"). +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span>From Italy came almost the only credible accounts of the manner of +living, and of the ruin caused among the people in their more private +life, during the pestilence; and the subjoined account of what was seen +in Florence is of special interest as being from no less an eye-witness +than Boccaccio.</p></div> + +<h4>J. F. C. HECKER</h4> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_t.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="T" />HE nature of the first plague in China is unknown. We +have no certain intelligence of the disease until it entered +the western countries of Asia. Here it showed itself as the +oriental plague with inflammation of the lungs; in which form +it probably also may have begun in China—that is to say, as a +malady which spreads, more than any other, by contagion; a +contagion that in ordinary pestilences requires immediate contact, +and only under unfavorable circumstances of rare occurrence +is communicated by the mere approach to the sick.</p> + +<p>The share which this cause had in the spreading of the plague +over the whole earth was certainly very great; and the opinion +that the black death might have been excluded from Western +Europe, by good regulations, similar to those which are now in +use, would have all the support of modern experience, provided +it could be proved that this plague had been actually imported +from the East; or that the oriental plague in general, whenever +it appears in Europe, has its origin in Asia or Egypt. Such a +proof, however, can by no means be produced so as to enforce +conviction. The plague was, however, known in Europe before +nations were united by the bonds of commerce and social +intercourse; hence there is ground for supposing that it sprung +up spontaneously, in consequence of the rude manner of living +and the uncultivated state of the earth; influences which peculiarly +favor the origin of severe diseases. We need not go back +to the earlier centuries, for the fourteenth itself, before it had +half expired, was visited by five or six pestilences.</p> + +<p>If, therefore, we consider the peculiar property of the plague, +that in countries which it has once visited it remains for a long +time in a milder form, and that the epidemic influences of 1342, +when it had appeared for the last time, were particularly favorable +to its unperceived continuance, till 1348, we come to the +notion that in this eventful year also, the germs of plague existed +in Southern Europe, which might be vivified by atmospherical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span> +deteriorations. Thus, at least in part, the black plague may +have originated in Europe itself. The corruption of the atmosphere +came from the East; but the disease itself came not upon +the wings of the wind, but was only excited and increased by the +atmosphere where it had previously existed.</p> + +<p>This source of the black plague was not, however, the only +one; for, far more powerful than the excitement of the latent +elements of the plague by atmospheric influences was the effect +of the contagion communicated from one people to another, +on the great roads, and in the harbors of the Mediterranean. +From China, the route of the caravans lay to the north of the +Caspian Sea, through Central Asia to Tauris. Here ships were +ready to take the produce of the East to Constantinople, the +capital of commerce and the medium of connection between +Asia, Europe, and Africa. Other caravans went from India to +Asia Minor, and touched at the cities south of the Caspian Sea, +and lastly from Bagdad, through Arabia to Egypt; also the +maritime communication on the Red Sea, from India to Arabia +and Egypt, was not inconsiderable. In all these directions +contagion made its way; and doubtless Constantinople and the +harbors of Asia Minor are to be regarded as the <i>foci</i> of infection; +whence it radiated to the most distant seaports and islands.</p> + +<p>To Constantinople the plague had been brought from the +northern coast of the Black Sea, after it had depopulated the +countries between those routes of commerce and appeared as +early as 1347, in Cyprus, Sicily, Marseilles, and some of the seaports +of Italy. The remaining islands of the Mediterranean, +particularly Sardinia, Corsica, and Majorca, were visited in succession. +<i>Foci</i> of contagion existed also in full activity along +the whole southern coast of Europe; when, in January, 1348, the +plague appeared in Avignon, and in other cities in the South of +France and North of Italy, as well as in Spain.</p> + +<p>The precise days of its eruption in the individual towns are +no longer to be ascertained; but it was not simultaneous; for +in Florence the disease appeared in the beginning of April; in +Cesena, the 1st of June; and place after place was attacked +throughout the whole year; so that the plague, after it had passed +through the whole of France and Germany, where, however, it +did not make its ravages until the following year, did not break<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span> +out till August in England; where it advanced so gradually that +a period of three months elapsed before it reached London. The +northern kingdoms were attacked by it in 1349; Sweden, indeed, +not until November of that year, almost two years after +its eruption in Avignon. Poland received the plague in 1349, +probably from Germany, if not from the northern countries; +but in Russia it did not make its appearance until 1351, more +than three years after it had broken out in Constantinople. +Instead of advancing in a northwesterly direction from Tauris +and from the Caspian Sea, it had thus made the great circuit of +the Black Sea, by way of Constantinople, Southern and Central +Europe, England, the northern kingdoms and Poland, before it +reached the Russian territories; a phenomenon which has not +again occurred with respect to more recent pestilences originating +in Asia.</p> + +<p>We have no certain measure by which to estimate the ravages +of the black plague. Let us go back for a moment to the fourteenth +century. The people were yet but little civilized. Human +life was little regarded; governments concerned not themselves +about the numbers of their subjects, for whose welfare it was +incumbent on them to provide. Thus, the first requisite for +estimating the loss of human life—namely, a knowledge of the +amount of the population—is altogether wanting.</p> + +<p>Cairo lost daily, when the plague was raging with its greatest +violence, from ten thousand to fifteen thousand, being as many +as, in modern times, great plagues have carried off during their +whole course. In China, more than thirteen millions are said +to have died; and this is in correspondence with the certainly +exaggerated accounts from the rest of Asia. India was depopulated. +Tartary, the Tartar kingdom of Kaptschak, Mesopotamia, +Syria, Armenia, were covered with dead bodies; the Kurds +fled in vain to the mountains. In Caramania and Cæsarea, +none was left alive. On the roads, in the camps, in the caravansaries, +unburied bodies were seen; and a few cities only +remained, in an unaccountable manner, free. In Aleppo, five +hundred died daily; twenty-two thousand people and most of +the animals were carried off in Gaza within six weeks. Cyprus +lost almost all its inhabitants; and ships without crews were +often seen in the Mediterranean, as afterward in the North Sea,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span> +driving about and spreading the plague wherever they went on +shore. It was reported to Pope Clement, at Avignon, that +throughout the East, probably with the exception of China, +twenty-three million eight hundred and forty thousand people +had fallen victims to the plague.</p> + +<p>Lubeck, which could no longer contain the multitudes that +flocked to it, was thrown into such consternation on the eruption +of the plague that the citizens destroyed themselves, as if in +frenzy. When the plague ceased, men thought they were still +wandering among the dead, so appalling was the livid aspect +of the survivors, in consequence of the anxiety they had undergone, +and the unavoidable infection of the air. Many other +cities probably presented a similar appearance; and small country +towns and villages, estimated at two hundred thousand population, +were bereft of all their inhabitants.</p> + +<p>In many places in France not more than two out of twenty +of the inhabitants were left alive. Two queens, one bishop, and +great numbers of other distinguished persons fell a sacrifice to +it, and more than five hundred a day died in the Hôtel-Dieu, +under the faithful care of the religious women, whose disinterested +courage, in this age of horror, displayed the most beautiful +traits of human virtue.</p> + +<p>The church-yards were soon unable to contain the dead, and +many houses, left without inhabitants, fell to ruins. In Avignon, +the Pope found it necessary to consecrate the Rhone, that bodies +might be thrown into the river without delay, as the church-yards +would no longer hold them.</p> + +<p>In Vienna, where for some time twelve hundred inhabitants +died daily, the interment of corpses in the church-yards +and within the churches as forthwith prohibited, and the +dead were then arranged in layers, by thousands, in six large +pits outside the city. In many places it was rumored that +plague patients were buried alive, and thus the horror of the +distressed people was everywhere increased. In Erfurt, after +the church-yards were filled, twelve thousand corpses were +thrown into eleven great pits; and the like might be stated with +respect to all the larger cities. Funeral ceremonies, the last consolation +of the survivors, were everywhere impracticable.</p> + +<p>In all Germany there seem to have died only one million<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span> +two hundred and forty-four thousand four hundred and thirty-four +inhabitants; this country, however, was more spared than +others. Italy was most severely visited. It is said to have lost +half its inhabitants; in Sardinia and Corsica, according to the +account of John Villani, who was himself carried off by the +black plague, scarcely a third part of the population remained +alive; and the Venetians engaged ships at a high rate to retreat +to the islands; so that, after the plague had carried off three-fourths +of her inhabitants, their proud city was left forlorn and +desolate. In Florence it was prohibited to publish the numbers +of the dead and to toll the bells at their funerals, in order that +the living might not abandon themselves to despair.</p> + +<p>In England most of the great cities suffered incredible losses; +above all, Yarmouth, in which seven thousand and fifty-two +died; Bristol, Oxford, Norwich, Leicester, York, and London, +where, in one burial-ground alone, there were interred upward +of fifty thousand corpses, arranged in layers, in large pits. It +is said that in the whole country scarcely a tenth part remained +alive. Morals were deteriorated everywhere, and public worship +was, in a great measure, laid aside, in many places the +churches being bereft of their priests. The instruction of the +people was impeded, covetousness became general; and when +tranquillity was restored, the great increase of lawyers was +astonishing, to whom the endless disputes regarding inheritances +offered a rich harvest. The want of priests, too, throughout the +country, operated very detrimentally upon the people. The +lower classes were most exposed to the ravages of the plague, +while the houses of the nobility were, in proportion, much more +spared. The sittings of parliament, of the king's bench, and of +most of the other courts were suspended as long as the malady +raged.</p> + +<p>Ireland was much less heavily visited than England. The +disease seems to have scarcely reached the mountainous districts +of that kingdom; and Scotland, too, would, perhaps, have +remained free had not the Scots availed themselves of the misfortune +of the English, to make an irruption into their territory, +which terminated in the destruction of their army, by the plague +and by the sword, and the extension of the pestilence, through +those who escaped, over the whole country.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span>In England the plague was soon accompanied by a fatal +murrain among the cattle. Of what nature this murrain may +have been can no more be determined than whether it originated +from communication with the plague patients or from +other causes. There was everywhere a great rise in the price +of food. For a whole year, until it terminated in August, +1349, the black plague prevailed and everywhere poisoned the +springs of comfort and prosperity. In other countries it generally +lasted only half a year, but returned frequently in individual +places. Spain was uninterruptedly ravaged by the black +plague till after the year 1350, to which the frequent internal +feuds and the wars with the Moors not a little contributed. +Alfonso XI, whose passion for war carried him too far, died of +it at the siege of Gibraltar, March 26, 1350. He was the only +king in Europe who fell a sacrifice to it. The mortality seems +to have been less in Spain than in Italy, and about as considerable +as in France.</p> + +<p>The whole period during which the black plague raged with +destructive violence in Europe was, with the exception of Russia, +from 1347 to 1350. The plagues which in the sequel often +returned until 1383, we do not consider as belonging to the +"great mortality."</p> + +<p>The premature celebration of the Jubilee, to which Clement +VI cited the faithful to Rome 1350, during the great epidemic, +caused a new eruption of the plague, from which it is said that +scarcely one in a hundred of the pilgrims escaped. Italy was, +in consequence, depopulated anew; and those who returned +spread poison and corruption of morals in all directions.</p> + +<p>The changes which occurred about this period in the North +of Europe are sufficiently memorable. In Sweden two princes +died—Haken and Canute, half-brothers of King Magnus; and +in Westgothland alone four hundred and sixty-six priests. The +inhabitants of Iceland and Greenland found in the coldness of +their inhospitable climate no protection against the southern +enemy who had penetrated to them from happier countries. +The plague wrought great havoc among them. In Denmark +and Norway, however, people were so occupied with their own +misery that the accustomed voyages to Greenland ceased.</p> + +<p>In Russia the black plague did not break out until 1351,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span> +after it had already passed through the South and North of Europe. +The mortality was extraordinarily great. In Russia, too, +the voice of nature was silenced by fear and horror. In the +hour of danger, fathers and mothers deserted their children, +and children their parents.</p> + +<p>Of all the estimates of the number of lives lost in Europe, +the most probable is that altogether a fourth part of the inhabitants +were carried off. It may be assumed, without exaggeration, +that Europe lost during the black death twenty-five million inhabitants.</p> + +<p>That her nations could so quickly recover from so fearful a +visitation, and, without retrograding more than they actually did, +could so develop their energies in the following century, is a +most convincing proof of the indestructibility of human society +as a whole. To assume, however, that it did not suffer any +essential change internally, because in appearance everything +remained as before, is inconsistent with a just view of cause and +effect. Many historians seem to have adopted such an opinion; +hence, most of them have touched but superficially on the +"great mortality" of the fourteenth century. We for our part +are convinced that in the history of the world the black death is +one of the most important events which have prepared the way +for the present state of Europe.</p> + +<p>He who studies the human mind with attention, and forms +a deliberate judgment on the intellectual powers which set people +and states in motion, may, perhaps, find some proofs of this +assertion in the following observations. At that time the advancement +of the hierarchy was, in most countries, extraordinary; +for the Church acquired treasures and large properties in +land, even to a greater extent than after the crusades; but experience +has demonstrated that such a state of things is ruinous +to the people, and causes them to retrograde, as was evinced on +this occasion.</p> + +<p>After the cessation of the black plague, a greater fecundity +in women was everywhere remarkable; marriages were prolific; +and double and treble births were more frequent than at other +times. After the "great mortality" the children were said to +have got fewer teeth than before; at which contemporaries +were mightily shocked, and even later writers have felt surprise.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span> +Some writers of authority published their opinions on this subject. +Others copied from them, without seeing for themselves, +and thus the world believed in the miracle of an imperfection in +the human body which had been caused by the black plague.</p> + +<p>The people gradually consoled themselves after the sufferings +which they had undergone; the dead were lamented and forgotten; +and in the stirring vicissitudes of existence the world belonged +to the living.</p> + +<p>The mental shock sustained by all nations during the prevalence +of the black plague is without parallel and beyond description. +In the eyes of the timorous, danger was the certain +harbinger of death; many fell victims to fear on the first appearance +of the distemper, and the most stout-hearted lost their confidence. +The pious closed their accounts with the world; their +only remaining desire was for a participation in the consolations +of religion. Repentance seized the transgressor, admonishing +him to consecrate his remaining hours to the exercise of Christian +virtues. Children were frequently seen, while laboring under +the plague, breathing out their spirit with prayer and songs of +thanksgiving. An awful sense of contrition seized Christians +everywhere; they resolved to forsake their vices, to make restitution +for past offences, before they were summoned hence, to seek +reconciliation with their Maker, and to avert, by self-chastisement, +the punishment due to their former sins.</p> + +<p>Human nature would be exalted could the countless noble +actions which, in times of most imminent danger, were performed +in secret, be recorded for future generations. They, +however, have no influence on the course of worldly events. +They are known only to silent eye-witnesses, and soon fall into +oblivion. But hypocrisy, illusion, and bigotry stalk abroad +undaunted; they desecrate what is noble, they pervert what is +divine, to the unholy purposes of selfishness; which hurries along +every good feeling in the false excitement of the age. Thus +it was in the years of this plague.</p> + +<p>In the fourteenth century the monastic system was still in +its full vigor, the power of the religious orders and brotherhoods +was revered by the people, and the hierarchy was still formidable +to the temporal power. It was, therefore, in the natural +constitution of society that bigoted zeal, which in such times<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span> +makes a show of public acts of penance, should avail itself of the +semblance of religion. But this took place in such a manner +that unbridled, self-willed penitence degenerated into luke-warmness, +renounced obedience to the hierarchy, and prepared a fearful +opposition to the Church, paralyzed as it was by antiquated +forms.</p> + +<p>While all countries were filled with lamentations and woe, +there first arose in Hungary, and afterward in Germany, the +Brotherhood of the Flagellants, called also the Brethren of the +Cross, or Cross-bearers, who took upon themselves the repentance +of the people for the sins they had committed, and offered +prayers and supplications for the averting of this plague. This +order consisted chiefly of persons of the lower class, who were +either actuated by sincere contrition or who joyfully availed +themselves of this pretext for idleness and were hurried along +with the tide of distracting frenzy. But as these brotherhoods +gained in repute, and were welcomed by the people with veneration +and enthusiasm, many nobles and ecclesiastics ranged +themselves under their standard; and their bands were not unfrequently +augmented by children, honorable women, and nuns.</p> + +<p>They marched through the cities with leaders and singers, +their heads covered as far as the eyes, their look fixed on the +ground, with every token of contrition and mourning. They +were robed in sombre garments, with red crosses on the breast, +back, and cap, and bore triple scourges, tied in three or four +knots, in which points of iron were fixed. Tapers and magnificent +banners of velvet and cloth of gold were carried before +them; wherever they made their appearance they were welcomed +by the ringing of bells, and the people flocked from all +quarters to listen to their hymns and witness their penance.</p> + +<p>In 1349 two hundred Flagellants first entered Strasburg, +where they were hospitably lodged by the citizens. Above a +thousand joined the brotherhood, which now separated into two +bodies, for the purpose of journeying to the north and to the +south. Adults and children left their families to accompany +them; till, at length, their sanctity was questioned and the doors +of houses and churches were closed against them. At Spires +two hundred boys, of twelve years of age and under, constituted +themselves into a brotherhood of the Cross, in imitation of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span> +children who, about a hundred years before, had united, at the +instigation of some fanatic monks, for the purpose of recovering +the Holy Sepulchre. All the inhabitants of this town were +carried away by the delusion; they conducted the strangers to +their houses with songs of thanksgiving, to regale them for the +night. The women embroidered banners for them, and all were +anxious to augment their pomp; and at every succeeding pilgrimage +their influence and reputation increased.</p> + +<p>All Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, Silesia, and Flanders +did homage to them; and they at length became as formidable +to the secular as to the ecclesiastical power. The influence +of this fanaticism was great and threatening. The appearance, +in itself, was not novel. As far back as the eleventh century +many believers in Asia and Southern Europe afflicted themselves +with the punishment of flagellation.</p> + +<p>The author of the solemn processions of the Flagellants is +said to have been St. Anthony of Padua (1231). In 1260 the +Flagellants appeared in Italy as <i>Devoti</i>. "When the land was +polluted by vices and crimes, an unexampled spirit of remorse +suddenly seized the minds of the Italians. The fear of Christ +fell upon all; noble and lowly, old and young, and even children +of five years of age marched through the streets with no covering +but a scarf round the waist. They each carried a scourge +of leathern thongs, which they applied to their limbs, amid sighs +and tears, with such violence that the blood flowed from the +wounds. Not only during the day, but even by night and in the +severest winter, they traversed the cities with burning torches and +banners, in thousands and tens of thousands, headed by their +priests, and prostrated themselves before the altars. The melancholy +chant of the penitent alone was heard; enemies were reconciled; +men and women vied with each other in splendid works +of charity, as if they dreaded that divine omnipotence would +pronounce on them the doom of annihilation."</p> + +<p>But at length the priests resisted this dangerous fanaticism, +without being able to extirpate the illusion, which was advantageous +to the hierarchy, as long as it submitted to its +sway.</p> + +<p>The processions of the Brotherhood of the Cross undoubtedly +promoted the spreading of the plague; and it is evident that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span> +the gloomy fanaticism which gave rise to them would infuse a +new poison into the already desponding minds of the people.</p> + +<p>Still, however, all this was within the bounds of barbarous +enthusiasm; but horrible were the persecutions of the Jews, +which were committed in most countries with even greater exasperation +than in the twelfth century, during the first crusades. +In every destructive pestilence the common people at first attribute +the mortality to poison. On whom, then, was vengeance +so likely to fall as on the Jews, the usurers and the strangers +who lived at enmity with the Christians? They were everywhere +suspected of having poisoned the wells<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">52</a> or infected the +air, and were pursued with merciless cruelty.</p> + +<p>These bloody scenes, which disgraced Europe in the fourteenth +century, are a counterpart to a similar mania of the age +which was manifested in the persecutions of witches and sorcerers; +and, like these, they prove that enthusiasm, associated with +hatred and leagued with the baser passions, may work more +powerfully upon whole nations than religion and legal order; +nay, that it even knows how to profit by the authority of both, +in order the more surely to satiate with blood the swords of long-suppressed +revenge.</p> + +<p>The persecution of the Jews commenced in September and +October, 1348, at Chillon, on the Lake of Geneva, where the +first criminal proceedings were instituted against them, after +they had long before been accused by the people of poisoning +the wells; similar scenes followed in Bern and in Freiburg, in +1349. Under the influence of excruciating suffering, the tortured +Jews confessed themselves guilty of the crime imputed to +them; and it being affirmed that poison had in fact been found +in a well at Zofingen, this was deemed a sufficient proof to convince +the world; and the persecution of the abhorred culprits +thus appeared justifiable.</p> + +<p>Already in the autumn of 1348 a dreadful panic, caused by +this supposed poisoning, seized all nations; in Germany, especially, +the springs and wells were built over, that nobody might +drink of them or employ their contents for culinary purposes; +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span>and for a long time the inhabitants of numerous towns and +villages used only river-and rain-water. The city gates were +also guarded with the greatest caution: only confidential persons +were admitted; and if medicine or any other article which +might be supposed to be poisonous was found in the possession +of a stranger—and it was natural that some should have these +things by them for private use—he was forced to swallow a portion +of it. By this trying state of privation, distrust, and suspicion +the hatred against the supposed poisoners became greatly +increased, and often broke out in popular commotions, which +only served still further to infuriate the wildest passions.</p> + + +<p>The noble and the mean fearlessly bound themselves by an +oath to extirpate the Jews by fire and sword, and to snatch +them from their protectors, of whom the number was so small +that throughout all Germany but few places can be mentioned +where these unfortunate people were not regarded as outlaws +and martyred and burned. Solemn summonses were issued +from Bern to the towns of Basel, Freiburg in Breisgau, and +Strasburg, to pursue the Jews as poisoners. The burgomasters +and senators, indeed, opposed this requisition; but in Basel the +populace obliged them to bind themselves by an oath to burn +the Jews and to forbid persons of that community from entering +their city for the space of two hundred years. Upon this, all +the Jews in Basel, whose number could not have been inconsiderable, +were enclosed in a wooden building, constructed for +the purpose, and burned, together with it, upon the mere outcry +of the people, without sentence or trial, which, indeed, would +have availed them nothing. Soon after the same thing took place +at Freiburg.</p> + +<p>A regular diet was held at Bennefeld, in Alsace, where the +bishops, lords, and barons, as also deputies of the counties and +towns, consulted how they should proceed with regard to the +Jews; and when the deputies of Strasburg—not, indeed, the +bishop of this town, who proved himself a violent fanatic—spoke +in favor of the persecuted, as nothing criminal was substantiated +against them, a great outcry was raised, and it was +vehemently asked why, if so, they had covered their wells and +removed their buckets? A sanguinary decree was resolved +upon, of which the populace, who obeyed the call of the nobles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span> +and superior clergy, became but the too willing executioners. +Wherever the Jews were not burned they were at least banished; +and so being compelled to wander about, they fell into the hands +of the country people, who, without humanity and regardless of +all laws, persecuted them with fire and sword.</p> + +<p>At Eslingen, the whole Jewish community burned themselves +in their synagogue; and mothers were often seen throwing their +children on the pile, to prevent their being baptized, and then +precipitating themselves into the flames. In short, whatever +deeds fanaticism, revenge, avarice, and desperation, in fearful +combination, could instigate mankind to perform, were executed +in 1349, throughout Germany, Italy, and France, with impunity +and in the eyes of all the world. It seemed as if the plague gave +rise to scandalous acts and frantic tumults, not to mourning and +grief; and the greater part of those who, by their education and +rank, were called upon to raise the voice of reason, themselves +led on the savage mob to murder and to plunder.</p> + +<p>The humanity and prudence of Clement VI must on this occasion +also be mentioned to his honor. He not only protected +the Jews at Avignon, as far as lay in his power, but also issued +two bulls in which he declared them innocent, and he admonished +all Christians, though without success, to cease from such +groundless persecutions. The emperor Charles IV was also favorable +to them, and sought to avert their destruction wherever +he could; but he dared not draw the sword of justice, and even +found himself obliged to yield to the selfishness of the Bohemian +nobles, who were unwilling to forego so favorable an opportunity +of releasing themselves from their Jewish creditors, under favor +of an imperial mandate. Duke Albert of Austria burned and +pillaged those of his cities which had persecuted the Jews—a +vain and inhuman proceeding which, moreover, is not exempt +from the suspicion of covetousness; yet he was unable, in his +own fortress of Kyberg, to protect some hundreds of Jews, who +had been received there, from being barbarously burned by the +inhabitants.</p> + +<p>Several other princes and counts, among whom was Ruprecht +of the Palatinate, took the Jews under their protection, on the +payment of large sums; in consequence of which they were +called "Jew-masters," and were in danger of being attacked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span> +by the populace and by their powerful neighbors. These persecuted +and ill-used people—except, indeed, where humane individuals +took compassion on them at their own peril, or when +they could command riches to purchase protection—had no +place of refuge left but the distant country of Lithuania, where +Boleslav V, Duke of Poland, 1227-1279, had before granted +them liberty of conscience; and King Casimir the Great, 1333-1370, +yielding to the entreaties of Esther, a favorite Jewess, +received them, and granted them further protection; on which +account that country is still inhabited by a great number of +Jews, who by their secluded habits have, more than any people +in Europe, retained the manners of the Middle Ages.</p> + + +<h4>GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO</h4> + +<p>When the evil had become universal in Florence, the hearts +of all the inhabitants were closed to feelings of humanity. They +fled from the sick and all that belonged to them, hoping by these +means to save themselves. Others shut themselves up in their +houses, with their wives, their children and households, living +on the most costly food, but carefully avoiding all excess. None +was allowed access to them; no intelligence of death or sickness +was permitted to reach their ears; and they spent their time in +singing and music and other pastimes.</p> + +<p>Others, on the contrary, considered eating and drinking to +excess, amusements of all descriptions, the indulgence of every +gratification, and an indifference to what was passing around +them as the best medicine, and acted accordingly. They wandered +day and night from one tavern to another, and feasted +without moderation or bounds. In this way they endeavored +to avoid all contact with the sick, and abandoned their houses +and property to chance, like men whose death-knell had already +tolled.</p> + +<p>Amid this general lamentation and woe, the influence and +authority of every law, human and divine, vanished. Most of +those who were in office had been carried off by the plague, or +lay sick, or had lost so many members of their families that +they were unable to attend to their duties; so that thenceforth +everyone acted as he thought proper. Others, in their mode +of living, chose a middle course. They ate and drank what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span> +they pleased, and walked abroad; carrying odoriferous flowers, +herbs, or spices, which they smelt at from time to time, in order +to invigorate the brain and to avert the baneful influence of the +air, infected by the sick and by the innumerable corpses of those +who had died of the plague. Others carried their precaution +still further, and thought the surest way to escape death was by +flight. They therefore left the city; women as well as men +abandoning their dwellings and their relations, and retiring into +the country. But of these, also, many were carried off, most of +them alone and deserted by all the world, themselves having +previously set the example.</p> + +<p>Thus it was that one citizen fled from another—a neighbor +from his neighbors—a relation from his relations; and in the +end, so completely had terror extinguished every kindlier feeling +that the brother forsook the brother, the sister the sister, +the wife her husband, and at last even the parent his own offspring, +and abandoned them, unvisited and unsoothed, to their +fate. Those, therefore, that stood in need of assistance fell a +prey to greedy attendants; who, for an exorbitant recompense, +merely handed the sick their food and medicine, remained with +them in their last moments, and then not unfrequently became +themselves victims to their avarice, and lived not to enjoy their +extorted gain.</p> + +<p>Propriety and decorum were extinguished among the helpless +sick. Females of rank seemed to forget their natural bashfulness, +and committed the care of their persons, indiscriminately, +to men and women of the lowest order. No longer were women, +relatives or friends, found in the houses of mourning, to share +the grief of the survivors; no longer was the corpse accompanied +to the grave by neighbors and a numerous train of priests, carrying +wax tapers and singing psalms, nor was it borne along by +other citizens of equal rank. Many breathed their last without +a friend to comfort them in their last moments; and few indeed +were they who departed amid the lamentations and tears of their +friends and kindred.</p> + +<p>Instead of sorrow and mourning, appeared indifference, frivolity, +and mirth; this being considered, especially by the females, +as conducive to health. Seldom was the body followed +by even ten or twelve attendants; and instead of the usual bearers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span> +and sextons, hirelings of the lowest of the populace undertook +the office for the sake of gain; and accompanied by only a +few priests, and often without a single taper, it was borne to the +very nearest church, and lowered into the first grave that was +not already too full to receive it. Among the middling classes, +and especially among the poor, the misery was still greater. +Poverty or negligence induced most of these to remain in their +dwellings or in the immediate neighborhood; and thus they fell +by thousands; and many ended their lives in the streets by day +and by night.</p> + +<p>The stench of putrefying corpses was often the first indication +to their neighbors that more deaths had occurred. The survivors, +to preserve themselves from infection, generally had the +bodies taken out of the houses and laid before the doors, where +the early morn found them in heaps, exposed to the affrighted +gaze of the passing stranger. It was no longer possible to have +a bier for every corpse—three or four were generally laid together; +husband and wife, father and mother, with two or three +children, were frequently borne to the grave on the same bier; +and it often happened that two priests would accompany a coffin, +bearing the cross before it, and be joined on the way by several +other funerals; so that instead of one, there were five or six +bodies for interment.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span></p> +<h2>FIRST TURKISH DOMINION IN EUROPE</h2> + +<h3>TURKS SEIZE GALLIPOLI</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1354</h6> + +<h3>JOSEPH VON HAMMER-PURGSTALL<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">53</a></h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>During the early years of the fourteenth century a new Mahometan +realm was established on the ruins of the Seljukian and Byzantine power +in Asia Minor. Osman,<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">54</a> or Othman, the founder of this realm, which is +regarded as the original Ottoman empire, subdued a great part of Asia +Minor, and in the year of his death 1326, his son Orkhan captured Prusa +(now Brusa) and Nicomedia. In 1330 he took Nicæa—then second only +to Constantinople in the Greek or Byzantine empire—and six years later +he defeated the Turkish Prince of Karasi, the ancient Mysia, and annexed +his territory, including the capital, Berghama, the ancient Pergamus, +to the Ottoman dominions, thus securing nearly the whole of North-western +Asia Minor.</p> + +<p>During the reign of Orkhan the Ottomans made frequent passages of +the Hellespont for the purpose of extending their power into Europe. +After fifteen invasions without any permanent conquest, in 1354 Orkhan +and his son Suleiman perceived an opportunity by which they prepared +themselves to profit—civil war was raging in the Byzantine empire, +where John Palæologus was striving to deprive the emperor Cantacuzenus +of his throne.</p> + +<p>The plan whereby the Ottomans secured a foothold in Europe which +soon enabled them to establish a permanent sovereignty on the peninsula +of Gallipoli was executed by Suleiman with a military skill which gave +his name a conspicuous place in Turkish history.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_o.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="O" />N the meridional shore of the Sea of Marmora, at the entrance +of the Hellespont, is perceived the peninsula of Kapoutaghi—the +ancient, almost insular Cyzicus, a Milesian colony. +At the neck of the isthmus, where it joins the mainland, +there where are seen to-day the ruins of Aidindjik, formerly +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span>arose Cyzicus, a city celebrated in the history of Persia and of +Rome, of ancient Greece and of the Byzantine empire. This +port, one of the most commercial of the Asiatic coast, possessed, +like Rhodes, Marseilles, and Carthage, two military arsenals +and an immense granary, each placed under the special superintendence +of an architect. The annals of this town have been +enriched by the passage of the Argonauts and of the Goths, by +the siege of Mithridates and by the assistance received from the +Romans under the leadership of Lucullus.</p> + + +<p>Granted its freedom by the latter as a reward for its fidelity, +Cyzicus was shortly afterward deprived of its privileges for having +neglected the service of the temple of Augustus. Under the +Byzantines it became the capital of the province of Hellespont +and the metropolitan see of Mysia and of all the territory of +Troy. On Mount Dyndimos, at the gates of Cyzicus, arose the +temple of the great mother, the goddess Ida, whose worship had +been established by the Argonauts, and who was venerated +at Cyzicus as at Pessinunte, in the form of an aërolite, a sacred +stone, which under the reign of King Attalus was carried to +Rome, and installed in the city by all the matrons, preceded by +Scipio the Younger. The inhabitants of the peninsula adored +also Cybele, Proserpine, and Jupiter, who, according to a fabulous +tradition, had given the town of Cyzicus to the wife of +Pluto, as dower. Emperor Hadrian embellished this town with +the largest and the finest of the temples of paganism. The +columns of this edifice, all of one piece, were four ells (fifteen and +one-half feet) in circumference and fifty ells (one hundred and +ninety-five feet) in height.</p> + +<p>In 1354 Suleiman, the son of Orkhan, Governor of ancient +Mysia, a province recently conquered by the Turks, was seized +with admiration by the aspect of the majestic ruins of Cyzicus. +The broken columns, the marbles prone on the sward, recalled +to him the ruins of the palace of the Queen of Saba Balkis, +erected by the order of Solomon, the remains of Istakhr (Persepolis), +and of Tadmor (Palmyra). One evening when seated +by the sea-shore, he saw, by the light of the moon (Aidindjik, +the crescent moon), the porticoes and peristyles reflected in the +waves. Clouds passed along the surface of the sea, and he +imagined that he saw these ruined palaces and temples arise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span> +from the deep, and a fleet navigate the waters. Around him +arose mysterious voices whose sound mingled with the murmur +of the waves, while the moon, which at this moment shone in the +east, seemed to unite Asia and Europe by a silver ribbon. It +was she who, emerging formerly from the bosom of Edebali,<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">55</a> +had come to hide herself in that of Osman. The remembrance +of the fantastic vision, which had presaged a universal domination +to his ancestor, inflamed the courage of Suleiman, and +made him resolve to unite Europe and Asia by transporting the +Ottoman power from the shores of Asia Minor to the strands +of the Greek empire, and thus to realize the dream of Osman.</p> + +<p>Suleiman consulted immediately with Adjebeg, Ghazi-Fazil, +Ewrenos, and Hadji-Ilbeki, ancient vizier of the Prince of Karasi, +who had been his assistants in the government of Mysia. All +confirmed him in his resolution. Adjebeg and Ghazi-Fazil +the same night went to Gouroudjouk and took ship to make a +reconnaissance in the environs of Tzympe, situated a league +and a half from Gallipoli, opposite Gouroudjouk. A Greek +prisoner whom they brought with them to Asia informed Suleiman +of the abandoned and unprepared state of the place, and +offered himself as a guide to surprise the garrison. Suleiman +immediately had two rafts constructed of trees united by thongs +of bull skins, and made the attempt the following night, with +thirty-nine of his most intrepid companions in arms. Arrived +before the fortress, they scaled the walls by mounting on an +immense dung-heap, and took possession of it easily, owing to +the inhabitants being all absent in the fields engaged in harvesting. +Suleiman then hastened to send to Asia all the ships +which he found in the port, to transport soldiers to Tzympe; +and three days after, the fortress contained a garrison of three +thousand Ottomans.</p> + +<p>In the mean while Cantacuzenus, unable to resist any longer +the forces assembled against him by his young rival, John Palæologus, +asked the assistance of Orkhan. Orkhan sent him +the conqueror of Tzympe, an auxiliary whose support later +became more troublesome to the Emperor than it was useful +against his enemy. Ten thousand Turkish cavaliers disem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span>barked +near Ainos, at the <i>embouchure</i> of Maritza (Hebrus), +defeated the auxiliary troops which John Palæologus had drawn +from Mœsia and from the Triballiens, ravaged Bulgaria, and +repassed into Asia, loaded with spoil.</p> + + +<p>Cantacuzenus, more at his ease after the departure of the +conquering horde, negotiated with Suleiman the ransom of +Tzympe. Scarcely had he sent the ten thousand ducats agreed +upon, when a commissary of the Ottoman Prince arrived bringing +him the keys; but at the same time a terrific earthquake +devastated the towns on the Thracian coasts. The inhabitants +who did not find death in the destruction of their dwellings went +with the garrisons to seek refuge against the destroying scourge +and the barbarity of the Turks in the towns and the castles +which the catastrophe had spared. But torrents of rain, snow, +and a glacial temperature killed the women and the children +on the road. As to the men, they fell into the power of Orkhan's +soldiers, who were awaiting their passage. Thus the Ottomans +found a powerful auxiliary in the warring elements. From that +time they believed that God himself favored their projects. +Adjebeg and Ghazi-Fazil, whom Suleiman had left in front of +Gallipoli, penetrated into that town by the large breaches that +the earthquake had made in the walls, and took possession of it, +owing to the confusion which reigned among the inhabitants.</p> + +<p>Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont, the commercial <i>entrepôt</i> +of the Black Sea and of the Mediterranean, is celebrated in +history by the siege that it sustained against Philip of Macedon, +and by the revolt of the Catalans or Mogabars who, half a +century before the disaster, braved with impunity the power of +the Greek Emperor and made it the centre of their piracies. +The tombs of the two Ottoman chiefs are still seen to-day. +These two mausoleums are much visited by Mussulman pilgrims, +and the reason of this pious veneration is due to the fact +that here in this sacred place lie the ashes of the two generations +to whom the Ottoman empire owes the conquest of a town, the +possession of which facilitated the passing of the Turks into +Europe. For the same reason all the surrounding country, which, +during the blockade of the town, Adjebeg and his lieutenant +Ghazi-Fazil had put to fire and sword, received the name of +Adje Owa. The two beys, taking advantage of the terror caused<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span> +by so many disasters, penetrated into the deserted towns and established +themselves.</p> + +<p>On the news of these conquests Suleiman, who then was at +Bigha (Pegæ), refused to restore Tzympe, and, far from being +contented with the peaceful possession of the territory invaded +by his hordes, dreamed of extending the boundaries, and for +this purpose sent over to Europe numerous colonies of Turks +and Arabs. One of his first cares was to raise the walls of +Gallipoli and other strong places devastated by the earthquake; +among the number were Konour, whose commander, called +Calaconia by the Ottoman historians, was hanged by order of +Suleiman at the doors of the castle; the fort of Boulair, before +which Suleiman received, as a presage of his future glory, the +bonnet of a dervish Mewlewi; Malgara, renowned for its trade +in honey; Ipsala (ancient Cypsella) on the Marizza; and lastly +Rodosto, now Tekourtaghi, ancient residence of Besus, King +of Thrace, and the place of exile where died in modern times +the Hungarian Francis Rakoczy, Prince of Transylvania, and +his partisans. All these towns and strong places fell into the +power of the Ottomans in the course of the year 1357; they +served them as starting-bases for their excursions, which they +pushed as far as Hireboli (Chariupolis) and Tschorli (Tzurulum).</p> + +<p>Cantacuzenus, too weak to stop the progress of the Turks, +complained of this violation of the peace. Orkhan excused his +son, saying that it was not force of arms which had opened the +gates of the towns of the Greek empire, but the divine will +manifested by the earthquake. The Emperor made representations +that he was not agitating to know whether it was by the +gates or by the breaches that Suleiman had penetrated into the +places in question, but whether or not he possessed them legitimately. +Orkhan then asked a delay for reflection, and subsequently +promised that he would request his son to return the +towns that he occupied, if Cantacuzenus, on his side, would +engage to pay him a sum of forty thousand ducats. At the +same time he invited him to an interview to meet Suleiman on +the Gulf of Nicomedia. But the Sultan pretending to be ill, the +Emperor returned to Byzantium, without having obtained anything.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span>Orkhan now found himself in one of the happiest of political +situations. The division of sovereign authority between Cantacuzenus +and his pupil John Palæologus, and their continual +wars, allowed him to address one or the other according as his +interests and the circumstances demanded. It was thus that +John Palæeologus, ally of the Genoese, undertook to deliver from +captivity to Phoceus, the son of Orkhan, Khalil or Kasim, whom +the governor Calothes surrendered for a ransom of one hundred +thousand pieces of gold and the concession of the glorious title +of Panhypersebastos ("very venerable"). The service that John +had rendered did not prevent Orkhan from sending to Abydos +a body of troops to rescue the son of Cantacuzenus, Mathias, +then at war with the Bulgarians.</p> + +<p>From the epoch when the Ottomans made durable conquests +in the Greek empire, Asia each spring threw new hordes into +Europe, until the time when the successors of Orkhan had extended +their domination from the shores of the Sea of Marmora +to those of the Danube.</p> + +<p>The conquest of Gallipoli, which had opened the gate of the +Greek empire and the whole of the European continent to the +Ottomans, was announced by "letters of victory" to the neighboring +princes of Orkhan, whose father had divided with Osman +the heritage of the Seljukian sultans. The use of these "letters +of victory" has been preserved to this day in Turkey, and their +style, already so pompous in the days of Orkhan, has become +so proudly emphatic that this kind of document to-day is not +the least curious of those which belong to the annals of the Turkish +nation.</p> + +<p>Orkhan left to his son, Suleiman Pacha, and Hadji-Ilbeki +the charge of preserving the conquests made in Europe; Suleiman +established his residence at Gallipoli, and Ilbeki at Konour. +The first overran the country as far as Demitoka; the second as +far as Tschorli and Hireboli. Adjebeg received in fief the valley +which still bears his name.</p> + +<p>But Suleiman enjoyed for only a few years the fruits of his +conquests. One day while hunting wild geese between Boulair +and Sidi-Kawak, that is to say near the palatine of the +Cid, and following at a gallop the flight of his falcon, he fell +so violently from his horse (1359) as to be instantly killed. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span> +body was deposited, not in the mausoleum of the Osman family +at Prusa, where he had caused a mosque to be erected in the +quarter of the confectioners, but near the mosque of Boulair, +also founded by him. Orkhan, to perpetuate the exploits of his +son, caused a tomb to be built to his memory on the shore of the +Hellespont, the only one which, during more than a century, +was erected in memory of an Ottoman prince on Greek soil. +Of all the sepulchres of Turkish heroes which the national +historians mention with holy respect, that of the founder of +the Ottoman power in Europe is the most venerated and the +most frequented by pilgrims. It is still to be seen to the north +of the embouchure of the Hellespont.</p> + +<p>Tradition attributes yet another victory to Suleiman after +his death. At the head of a troop of celestial heroes, mounted on +white horses, encircled by a brilliant aureole, he is said to have +vanquished an army of infidels. The love of the marvellous, +so general among orientals, the leaning which all people have +to make heaven intervene in the deeds relating to their origin, +alone can explain this tradition, for it would be useless to seek +any historic fact which could have given it birth. According +to this tradition, thirty thousand Christians appeared in the +Hellespont on a fleet of sixty-one vessels; one half disembarked +at Touzla and the other at Sidi-Kawak; it was this latter body +which was cut in pieces by the celestial troop led by Suleiman. +The Ottoman historians who relate this miracle have evidently +borrowed the apparition of these vessels from the First or the +Second Crusade of the Europeans against the Turks, and have +transported them from the waters of Smyrna to those of Gallipoli, +for the greater glory of Suleiman Pacha. Neither the history +of Byzantium nor that of the crusades offers the slightest trace +of this event.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span></p> +<h2>CONSPIRACY AND DEATH OF MARINO +FALIERI AT VENICE</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1355</h6> + +<h3>MRS. MARGARET OLIPHANT</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Marino Falieri was born at Venice about 1278, and was elected doge +in 1354. For many years the government of the republic, under an oligarchy, +had been arbitrarily dominated by the Council of Ten, an assembly +that, after serving a special purpose for which it was created, was +declared permanent in 1325 and became a formidable tribunal. Professing +to guard the republic the Ten in fact destroyed its liberties, disposed +of its finances, overruled the constitutional legislators, suppressed +and excluded the popular element from all voice in public affairs, and +finally reduced the nominal prince—the doge—to a mere puppet or an ornamental +functionary, still called "head of the state."</p> + +<p>At the time when Falieri entered upon his dogeship the city in all +quarters was pervaded by the spies of this great oligarchy, which seized +and imprisoned citizens, and even put them to death, secretly, without +itself being answerable to any authority. The most notable event in the +annals of this extraordinary Venetian government is that which forms +the story of Marino Falieri himself. His conspiracy with the plebeians +to assassinate the oligarchs and make himself actual ruler of the state had +the double motive of a personal grievance and the sense of a political +wrong.</p> + +<p>The fate of this old man has been made the subject of tragedies by +Byron (1820), Casimir Delavigne (1829), and Swinburne (1885). The novel, +<i>Doge und Dogaressa</i>, by Ernst Theodor Hoffmann, was inspired by the +same dramatic figure. Of historical accounts, the following—in Mrs. +Oliphant's best manner—is justly regarded as the most impressive which +has hitherto appeared in English.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_m.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="M" />ARINO FALIERI had been an active servant of Venice +through a long life. He had filled almost all the great +offices which were intrusted to her nobles. He had governed +her distant colonies, accompanied her armies in that position of +<i>proveditore</i>, omnipotent civilian critic of all the movements of +war, which so much disgusted the generals of the republic. He +had been ambassador at the courts of both emperor and pope, +and was serving his country in that capacity at Avignon when +the news of his election reached him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span>It is thus evident that Falieri was not a man used to the +position of a lay figure, although at seventy-six the dignified +retirement of a throne, even when so encircled with restrictions, +would seem not inappropriate. That he was of a haughty and +hasty temper seems apparent. It is told of him that, after +waiting long for a bishop to head a procession at Treviso where +he was <i>podesta</i> ("chief magistrate"), he astonished the tardy +prelate by a box on the ear when he finally appeared, a punishment +for keeping the authorities waiting.</p> + +<p>Old age to a statesman, however, is in many cases an advantage +rather than a defect, and Falieri was young in vigor and +character, and still full of life and strength. He was married +a second time to presumably a beautiful wife much younger +than himself, though the chroniclers are not agreed even on the +subject of her name, whether she was a Gradenigo or a Contarini. +The well-known story of young Steno's insult to this lady and +to her old husband has found a place in all subsequent histories, +but there is no trace of it in the unpublished documents of the +state.</p> + +<p>The story goes that Michel Steno, one of those young and +insubordinate gallants who are a danger to every aristocratic +state, having been turned out of the presence of the Dogaressa +for some unseemly freedom of behavior, wrote upon the chair +of the Doge in boyish petulance an insulting taunt, such as +might well rouse a high-tempered old man to fury. According +to Sanudo, the young man, on being brought before the Forty,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">56</a> +confessed that he had thus avenged himself in a fit of passion; +and regard having been had to his age and the "heat of love" +which had been the cause of his original misdemeanor—a reason +seldom taken into account by the tribunals of the state—he +was condemned to prison for two months, and afterward to +be banished for a year from Venice.</p> + +<p>The Doge took this light punishment greatly amiss, considering +it, indeed, as a further insult.</p> + +<p>Sabellico says not a word of Michel Steno, or of this definite +cause of offence, and Romanin quotes the contemporary records +to show that though <i>Alcuni zovanelli fioli de gentiluomini di +Venetia</i> are supposed to have affronted the Doge, no such story +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span>finds a place in any of them. But the old man thus translated +from active life and power, soon became bitterly sensible in his +new position that he was <i>senza parentado</i>, with few relations, and +flouted by the <i>giovinastri</i>, the dissolute young gentlemen who +swaggered about the Broglio in their finery, strong in the support +of fathers and uncles.</p> + +<p>That he found himself, at the same time, shelved in his new +rank, powerless, and regarded as a nobody in the state where +hitherto he had been a potent signior—mastered in every action +by the secret tribunal, and presiding nominally in councils +where his opinion was of little consequence—is evident. And +a man so well acquainted, and so long, with all the proceedings +of the state, who had seen consummated the shutting out of the +people, and since had watched through election after election +a gradual tightening of the bonds round the feet of the doge, +would naturally have many thoughts when he found himself the +wearer of that restricted and diminished crown.</p> + +<p>He could not be unconscious of how the stream was going, +nor unaware of that gradual sapping of privilege and decreasing +of power which even in his own case had gone further than with +his predecessor. Perhaps he had noted with an indignant mind +the new limits of the <i>promissione</i>, a narrower charter than ever, +when he was called upon to sign it. He had no mind, we may +well believe, to retire thus from the administration of affairs. +And when these giovinastri, other people's boys, the scum of +the gay world, flung their unsavory jests in the face of the old +man who had no son to come after him, the silly insults so lightly +uttered, so little thought of, the natural scoff of youth at old age, +stung him to the quick.</p> + +<p>Old Falieri's heart burned within him at his own injuries +and those of his old comrades. How he was induced to head +the conspiracy, and put his crown, his life, and honor on the +cast, there is no further information. His fierce temper, and +the fact that he had no powerful house behind him to help to +support his case, probably made him reckless. In April, 1355, +six months after his arrival in Venice as doge, the smouldering +fire broke out. Two of the conspirators were seized with compunction +on the eve of the catastrophe and betrayed the plot—one +with a merciful motive to serve a patrician he loved, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span> +other with perhaps less noble intentions—and, without a blow +struck, the conspiracy collapsed. There was no real heart in it, +nothing to give it consistence; the hot passion of a few men +insulted, the variable gaseous excitement of wronged commoners, +and the ambition—if it was ambition—of one enraged and +affronted old man, without an heir to follow him or anything +that could make it worth his while to conquer.</p> + +<p>An enterprise more wild was never undertaken. It was +the passionate stand of despair against force so overwhelming +as to make mad the helpless, yet not submissive, victims. +The Doge, who no doubt in former days had felt it +to be a mere affair of the populace, a thing with which a noble +ambassador and proveditore had nothing to do, a struggle beneath +his notice, found himself at last, with fury and amazement, +to be a fellow-sufferer caught in the same toils. There +seems no reason to believe that Falieri consciously staked the +remnant of his life on the forlorn hope of overcoming that awful +and pitiless power, with any real hope of establishing his own +supremacy. His aspect is rather that of a man betrayed by +passion, and wildly forgetful of all possibility in his fierce attempt +to free himself and get the upper hand. One cannot but feel in +that passion of helpless age and unfriendedness, something of +the terrible disappointment of one to whom the real situation +of affairs had never been revealed before; who had come home +triumphant to reign like the doges of old, and, only after the +ducal cap was on his head and the palace of the state had become +his home, found out that the doge—like the unconsidered +plebeian—had been reduced to bondage; his judgment and experience +put aside in favor of the deliberations of a secret tribunal, +and the very boys, when they were nobles, at liberty to +jeer at his declining years.</p> + +<p>The lesser conspirators, all men of the humbler sort—Calendario, +the architect, who was then at work upon the palace, +a number of seamen, and other little-known persons—were +hanged; not like the greater criminals, beheaded between the +columns, but strung up—a horrible fringe—along the side of +the palazzo. The fate of Falieri himself is too generally known +to demand description. Calmed by the tragic touch of fate, +the Doge bore all the humiliations of his doom with dignity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span> +and was beheaded at the head of the stairs where he had sworn +the promissione on first assuming the office of doge.</p> + +<p>What a contrast was this from that triumphant day when +probably he felt that his reward had come to him after the long +and faithful service of years. Death stills disappointment as +well as rage, and Falieri is said to have acknowledged the justice +of his sentence. He had never made any attempt to justify or +defend himself, but frankly and at once avowed his guilt and +made no attempt to escape from its penalties. His body was +conveyed privately to the Church of St. Giovanni and St. Paolo, +the great "Zanipolo"—with which all visitors to Venice are +familiar—and was buried in secrecy and silence in the <i>atrio</i> of +a little chapel behind the great church—where no doubt for centuries +the pavement was worn by many feet with little thought +of those who lay below. Even from that refuge his bones have +been driven forth, but his name remains in the corner of the +Hall of the Great Council, where—with a certain dramatic affectation—the +painter-historians have painted a black veil +across the vacant place. "This is the place of Marino Falieri, +beheaded for his crimes," is all the record left of the Doge disgraced.</p> + +<p>Was it a crime? The question is one which it is difficult +to discuss with any certainty. That Falieri desired to establish—as +so many had done in other cities—an independent +despotism in Venice, seems entirely unproved. It was the prevailing +fear; the one suggestion which alarmed everybody and +made sentiment unanimous. But one of the special points +which are recorded by the chroniclers as working in him to +madness, was that he was <i>senza parentado</i>—without any backing +of relationship or allies—<i>i.e.</i>, sonless, with no one to come +after him. How little likely then was an old man to embark on +such a desperate venture for self-aggrandizement merely. He +had, indeed, a nephew who was involved in his fate, but apparently +not so deeply as to expose him to the last penalty of the law.</p> + +<p>The incident altogether points more to a sudden outbreak +of the rage and disappointment of an old public servant coming +back from his weary labors for the state in triumph and satisfaction +to what seemed the supreme reward; and finding himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span> +no more than a puppet in the hands of remorseless masters, +subject to the scoffs of the younger generation, with his eyes +opened by his own suffering, perceiving for the first time what +justice there was in the oft-repeated protest of the people, and +how they and he alike were crushed under the iron heel of that +oligarchy to which the power of the people and that of the Prince +were equally obnoxious. The chroniclers of his time were so +much at a loss to find any reason for such an attempt on the part +of a man, <i>non abbiando alcum propinquo</i>, that they agree in attributing +it to diabolical inspiration.</p> + +<p>It was more probably that fury which springs from a sense of +wrong, which the sight of the wrongs of others raised to frenzy, +and that intolerable impatience of the impotent which is more +harsh in its hopelessness than the greatest hardihood. He could +not but die for it, but there seems no more reason to characterize +this impossible attempt as deliberate treason than to give the +same name to many an alliance formed between prince and people +in other regions—the king and commons of the early Stuarts, +for example—against the intolerable exactions and cruelty +of an aristocracy too powerful to be faced alone by either.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span></p> +<h2>CHARLES IV OF GERMANY PUBLISHES +HIS GOLDEN BULL</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1356</h6> + +<h3>SIR ROBERT COMYN</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Golden Bull of Charles IV of Germany, Emperor of the Holy +Roman Empire, first published at the Diet of Nuremberg in 1356, was a +charter—sometimes called the "Magna Charta of Germany"—regulating +the election of the emperor. It was called "golden" because the seal attached +to the parchment on which it was engrossed was of gold instead +of the customary lead. In a diet at Metz in the same year six additional +clauses were promulgated.</p> + +<p>By some historians the origin of the imperial electoral college is assigned +to the year 1125, when at the election of Lothair II certain of the +nobles and church dignitaries made a selection of candidates to be voted +for. But until the promulgation of the Golden Bull the constitution and +prerogatives of the college were never definitely ascertained.</p> + +<p>The personal traits and the languid reign of Charles IV have been +treated by historians with derision. He forgot the general welfare of the +empire in his eagerness to enrich his own house and aggrandize his paternal +kingdom of Bohemia. The one remarkable law which emanated from +him, and whereby alone his reign is distinguished in the constitutional +history of the empire, is that embodied in the Golden Bull. By this instrument +the dignity of the electors was greatly enhanced, and the disputes +which had arisen between members of the same house as to their +right of suffrage were terminated. The number of electors was absolutely +restricted to seven.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_a.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="A" />FTER a solemn invocation of the Trinity, a reprobation of +the seven deadly sins, and a pointed allusion to the seven +candlesticks and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, the Golden +Bull proceeds to the subject of the imperial election. It provides, +in the first place, for the safe conduct of the seven electors +to and from Frankfort-on-the-Main, which is fixed as the place +of election; it directs the archbishop of Mainz to summon the +electors upon the death of the emperor, and regulates the manner +in which their proxies are to be appointed; it enjoins the +citizens of Frankfort to protect the assembled electors; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span> +forbids them to admit any stranger into the city during the +election.</p> + +<p>It next prescribes the form of oath to be taken by the electors; +and also forbids them to quit the city before the completion +of the election; and after thirty days restricts their diet to bread +and water. A majority of votes is to decide the election; and +in case any elector obtain three votes, his own vote is to be taken +in his favor.</p> + +<p>The precedence of the electors is thus settled: First, the +archbishops of Mainz, Cologne, and Treves; then the King of +Bohemia, the Count Palatine, the Duke of Saxony, and the +Margrave of Brandenburg. The Elector of Treves is to vote +first; then the Elector of Cologne; then the secular electors; +and the Elector of Mainz is finally to collect the votes and deliver +his own.</p> + +<p>The Elector of Cologne is to perform the coronation. At all +feasts the Margrave of Brandenburg, as grand chamberlain, is +to present the Emperor with water to wash; the King of Bohemia, +as cup-bearer, is to offer the goblet of wine; the Count +Palatine, as grand steward, is to set the first dish on the table; +and the Duke of Saxony is to officiate as grand marshal.</p> + +<p>The Count Palatine and the Duke of Saxony are declared +vicars of the empire during the vacancy of the throne. An exclusive +jurisdiction is guaranteed to the electors; and their precedence +over all other princes of Germany is enforced.</p> + +<p>The right of voting is vested in the eldest son of a deceased +elector, provided he have attained the age of eighteen; and +during the minority, the guardianship and vote are vested in +the next kinsman of the deceased.</p> + +<p>If one of the lay electorates become vacant by default of +heirs, it shall revert to the Emperor, and be by him disposed +of—Bohemia excepted, where the vacancy is to be supplied by +ancient mode of election.</p> + +<p>The electors are invested with the possession of all mines +discovered within their respective territories. They are authorized +to give refuge to the Jews, and to receive dues payable +within their states. They are also privileged to coin money, +and to purchase lands subject to the feudal rights of the sovereign.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span>A yearly assembly of the electors, in one of the imperial +cities, is enjoined.</p> + +<p>All privileges granted to any city or community prejudicial +to the rights of the electors are revoked. All fraudulent resignations +of fiefs by vassals, with intent to attack their lords, are +declared void. All leagues, associations, and confederacies, +not sanctioned by law, are made punishable by fine; and all +burgesses and subjects of princes and nobles are to adhere to +their original subjection, and not to claim any rights or exemptions +as burgesses of any city unless actually domiciled +therein.</p> + +<p>Challenges, with design of destroying another's property or +committing any outrage, are prohibited; and all challenges are +to be given three days before the onset.</p> + +<p>The forms of summoning electors, and of their delegation +of proxies, are laid down. And the right of voting, as well as +all other rights, is declared inseparably incident to the electoral +principality.</p> + +<p>On grand occasions the Duke of Saxony is to carry the +sword; the Count Palatine, the globe; the Margrave of Brandenburg, +the sceptre. In celebrating mass before the Emperor, +the benedictions are to be pronounced by the senior spiritual +elector present.</p> + +<p>All persons conspiring against the lives of the electors are +declared guilty of leze-majesty, and shall forfeit their lives and +possessions. The lives of their sons, though justly forfeited, +are spared only by the particular bounty of the Emperor; but +they are declared incapable of holding any property, honor, or +dignity, and doomed to perpetual poverty. The daughters are +permitted to enjoy one-fourth of their mother's succession.</p> + +<p>The secular principalities, Bohemia, the Palatinate, the +duchy of Saxony, and the margravate of Brandenburg, are +declared indivisible and entire, descendible in the male line.</p> + +<p>On all the solemn occasions the electors shall attend the +Emperor, and the arch-chancellors shall carry the seals. And +the bull then proceeds minutely to point out the manner in +which the electors are to exercise their ministerial functions at +the imperial banquet; and regulates the order and disposition +of the imperial and electoral tables.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span>Frankfort is again declared as the place of election; Aix-la-Chapelle, +of coronation; and Nuremberg, for holding the first +royal court.</p> + +<p>The electors are exempted from all payments on receiving +their fiefs from their sovereign. But other princes are to pay +certain fees, etc., to the imperial officers.</p> + +<p>Lastly, the secular electors are enjoined to instruct their sons +in the Latin, Italian, and Slavonic tongues.</p> + +<p>At the final promulgation of the bull in the Diet of Metz the +Emperor and Empress feasted, in the presence of the dauphin +(Charles V) and the legate of Pope Innocent VI, with all the +pageantry and ceremonies prescribed by the new ordinances. +The imperial tables were spread in the grand square of the city; +Rudolph, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg, attended with a silver +measure of oats, and marshalled the order of the company; +Louis II, Margrave of Brandenburg, presented to the Emperor +the golden basin, with water and fair napkins; Rupert, Count +Palatine, placed the first dish upon the table; and the Emperor's +brother, Wenceslaus, representing the King of Bohemia, officiated +as cup-bearer. Lastly, the princes of Schwarzburg and +the deputy huntsman came with three hounds amid the loud +din of horns, and carried up a stag and a boar to the table of the +Emperor.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span></p> +<h2>INSURRECTION OF THE JACQUERIE IN +FRANCE</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1358</h6> + +<h3>SIR JOHN FROISSART</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The defeat of the French under King John II, at Poitiers, by the +British forces of Edward, the Black Prince, September 19, 1356, aroused +great indignation among the common people of France, with scorn of the +nobility; for these leaders, with an army of sixty thousand, had fled before +an enemy whom they outnumbered seven to one. In the next assembly +of the states-general the bourgeois obtained a preponderance so +intolerable to the nobles that they withdrew to their homes. A little +later the deputies of the clergy also retired, leaving only the representatives +of the cities—among whom the supremacy of the members from +Paris was generally accepted—to deal with the affairs of the kingdom.</p> + +<p>At this point appeared a man who in an age "so uncivilized and sombre," +says Pierre Robiquet, "by wonderful instinct laid down and nearly +succeeded in obtaining the adoption of the essential principles on which +modern society is founded—the government of the country by elected +representatives, taxes voted by representatives of the taxpayers, abolition +of privileges founded upon right of birth, extension of political rights to +all citizens, and subordination of traditional sovereignty to that of the +nation." This man was Étienne Marcel, provost of the merchants of +Paris—that is to say, mayor of the municipality, whom eminent historians +have called the greatest personage of the fourteenth century. During +a career of three years his name dominates French history—a brief +ascendency, but of potent influence. His endeavor, in Thierry's view, +"was, as it were, a premature attempt at the grand designs of Providence, +and the mirror of the bloody changes of fortune through which +those designs were destined to advance to their accomplishment under +the impulse of human passions."</p> + +<p>After the disaster of Poitiers, Marcel finished the fortifications of +Paris and barricaded the streets, and in the assembly there he presided +over the bourgeois—the Third Estate. In the growing conflict between +the two other estates—nobles and clergy—and the third, Marcel armed +the bourgeois and began an open revolution, thus organizing the commune +for carrying out his designs. The nobles were meanwhile laying +heavier miseries upon the peasantry, and in the spring of 1358 occurred +the rising of the Jacquerie, here described by Froissart, whose brilliant +narrative is to be read in the light of modern critical judgment, which re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span>gards +it as an exaggeration both of the numbers of the insurgents and +their atrocities, while Froissart had no capacity for understanding the +conditions which explain, if they do not also justify, the present revolt.</p> + +<p>This outbreak, to which Marcel gave his support, was enough to ruin +his cause, and he died in a massacre, July 31, 1358, having failed "because +the time was not yet ripe," and because the violence to which he +lent his sanction was overcome by stronger violence.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_a.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="A" /> MARVELLOUS and great tribulation befell the kingdom +of France, in Beauvoisis, Brie, upon the river Marne, in +the Laonnois, and in the neighborhood of Soissons. Some of +the inhabitants of the country towns assembled together in +Beauvoisis, without any leader; they were not at first more than +one hundred men. They said that the nobles of the kingdom +of France, knights and squires, were a disgrace to it, and that it +would be a very meritorious act to destroy them all; to which +proposition everyone assented, and added, shame befall him +that should be the means of preventing the gentlemen from being +wholly destroyed. They then, without further counsel, collected +themselves in a body, and with no other arms than the staves +shod with iron which some had, and others with knives, marched +to the house of a knight who lived near, and, breaking it open, +murdered the knight, his lady, and all the children, both great +and small; they then burned the house.</p> + +<p>After this, their second expedition was to the strong castle of +another knight, which they took, and, having tied him to a stake, +many of them violated his wife and daughter before his eyes; +they then murdered the lady, her daughter, and the other children, +and last of all the knight himself, with much cruelty. They +destroyed and burned his castle. They did the like to many +castles and handsome houses; and their numbers increased so +much that they were in a short time upward of six thousand. +Wherever they went they received additions, for all of their +rank in life followed them, while everyone else fled, carrying off +with them their ladies, damsels, and children ten or twenty +leagues distant, where they thought they could place them in security, +leaving their houses, with all their riches in them.</p> + +<p>These wicked people, without leader and without arms, +plundered and burned all the houses they came to, murdered +every gentleman, and violated every lady and damsel they could +find. He who committed the most atrocious actions, and such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span> +as no human creature would have imagined, was the most applauded +and considered as the greatest man among them. I +dare not write the horrible and inconceivable atrocities they +committed on the persons of the ladies.</p> + +<p>Among other infamous acts they murdered a knight, and, +having fastened him to a spit, roasted him before the eyes of his +wife and his children, and forced her to eat some of her husband's +flesh, and then knocked her brains out. They had chosen a +king among them, who came from Clermont in Beauvoisis. He +was elected as the worst of the bad, and they denominated him +"Jacques Bonhomme."<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">57</a></p> + +<p>These wretches burned and destroyed in the county of +Beauvoisis, and at Corbie, Amiens, and Montdidier, upward +of sixty good houses and strong castles. By the acts of such +traitors in the country of Brie and thereabout, it behooved every +lady, knight, and squire, having the means of escape, to fly to +Meaux, if they wished to preserve themselves from being insulted +and afterward murdered. The Duchess of Normandy, the +Duchess of Orleans, and many other ladies had adopted this +course. These cursed people thus supported themselves in the +countries between Paris, Noyon, and Soissons, and in all the +territory of Coucy, in the County of Valois. In the bishoprics +of Noyon, Laon, and Soissons there were upward of one hundred +castles and good houses of knights and squires destroyed.</p> + +<p>When the gentlemen of Beauvoisis, Corbie, Vermandois, +and of the lands where these wretches were associated, saw +to what lengths their madness had extended, they sent for succor +to their friends in Flanders, Hainault, and Bohemia; from +which places numbers soon came and united themselves with +the gentlemen of the country. They began therefore to kill and +destroy these wretches wherever they met them, and hung them +up by troops on the nearest trees. The King of Navarre even +destroyed in one day, near Clermont in Beauvoisis, upward of +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span>three thousand; but they were by this time so much increased +in numbers that, had they been all together, they would have +amounted to more than one hundred thousand. When they +were asked for what reason they acted so wickedly, they replied, +they knew not, but they did so because they saw others do it, and +they thought that by this means they should destroy all the nobles +and gentlemen in the world.</p> + +<p>At this period the Duke of Normandy, suspecting the King +of Navarre, the provost of merchants and those of his faction—for +they were always unanimous in their sentiments—set out +from Paris, and went to the bridge at Charenton-upon-Marne, +where he issued a special summons for the attendance of the +crown vassals, and sent a defiance to the provost of merchants +and to all those who should support him. The provost, being +fearful he would return in the night-time to Paris—which was +then unenclosed—collected as many workmen as possible from +all parts, and employed them to make ditches all around Paris. +He also surrounded it by a wall with strong gates. For the +space of one year there were three hundred workmen daily +employed; the expense of which was equal to maintaining an +army. I must say that to surround with a sufficient defence +such a city as Paris was an act of greater utility than any provost +of merchants had ever done before; for otherwise it would have +been plundered and destroyed several times by the different factions.</p> + +<p>At the time these wicked men were overrunning the country, +the Earl of Foix, and his cousin the Captal of Buch were returning +from a crusade in Prussia. They were informed, on their +entering France, of the distress the nobles were in; and they +learned at the city of Chalons that the Duchess of Orleans and +three hundred other ladies, under the protection of the Duke +of Orleans, were fled to Meaux on account of these disturbances. +The two knights resolved to go to the assistance of these ladies, +and to reënforce them with all their might, notwithstanding the +Captal was attached to the English; but at that time there was a +truce between the two kings. They might have in their company +about sixty lances.</p> + +<p>They were most cheerfully received, on their arrival at Meaux, +by the ladies and damsels; for these Jacks and peasants of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span> +Brie had heard what number of ladies, married and unmarried, +and young children of quality were in Meaux; they had united +themselves with those of Valois and were on their road thither. +On the other hand, those of Paris had also been informed of the +treasures Meaux contained, and had set out from that place in +crowds. Having met the others, they amounted together to +nine thousand men. Their forces were augmenting every step +they advanced.</p> + +<p>They came to the gates of the town, which the inhabitants +opened to them and allowed them to enter; they did so in such +numbers that all the streets were quite filled, as far as the market-place, +which is tolerably strong, but it required to be guarded, +though the river Marne nearly surrounds it. The noble dames +who were lodged there, seeing such multitudes rushing toward +them, were exceedingly frightened. On this, the two lords and +their company advanced to the gate of the market-place, which +they had opened, and, marching under the banners of the Earl +of Foix and Duke of Orleans, and the pennon of the Captal of +Buch, posted themselves in front of this peasantry, who were +badly armed.</p> + +<p>When these banditti perceived such a troop of gentlemen, so +well equipped, sally forth to guard the market-place, the foremost +of them began to fall back. The gentlemen then followed +them, using their lances and swords. When they felt the weight +of their blows, they, through fear, turned about so fast they fell +one over the other. All manner of armed persons then rushed +out of the barriers, drove them before them, striking them down +like beasts, and clearing the town of them; for they kept neither +regularity nor order, slaying so many that they were tired. +They flung them in great heaps into the river. In short, they +killed upward of seven thousand. Not one would have escaped +if they had chosen to pursue them farther.</p> + +<p>On the return of the men-at-arms, they set fire to the town of +Meaux, burned it; and all the peasants they could find were shut +up in it, because they had been of the party of the Jacks. Since +this discomfiture which happened to them at Meaux, they never +collected again in any great bodies; for the young Enguerrand +de Coucy had plenty of gentlemen under his orders, who destroyed +them, wherever they could be met with, without mercy.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span></p> +<h2>CONQUESTS OF TIMUR THE TARTAR</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1370-1405</h6> + +<h3>EDWARD GIBBON</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Timur, better known as Tamerlane ("Timur the Lame"), was born in +Central Asia—probably in the village of Sebzar, near Samarkand, in +Transoxiana (Turkestan). He is supposed to have been descended from +a follower of Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol empire; or, as some +say, directly, by the mother's side, from Genghis himself. He is the +Tamerlaine or Tamburlaine of Marlowe and other dramatists. Gibbon +introduces him in the <i>Decline and Fall</i>, apparently because fascinated +with the subject, although he gives as a historical reason the fact that +Timur's triumph in Asia delayed the final fall of Constantinople—taken +by the Turks in 1453.</p> + +<p>In early youth the future ruler of so vast an empire was engaged in +struggles for ascendency with the petty chiefs of rival tribes. His boundless +ambition early conceived the conquest and monarchy of the world; +his wish was "to live in the memory and esteem of future ages." He +was born in a period of anarchy, when the crumbling kingdoms of the +Asiatic dynasties were no longer able to resist the adventurous spirit +determined to occupy the new field of military triumph which opened before +him. At the age of twenty-five Timur was hailed as the deliverer of +his country. When he chose Samarkand as the capital of his dominion, +he declared his purpose to make that dominion embrace the whole habitable +earth; and at the height of his power he ruled from the Great Wall +of China to the centre of Russia on the north, while his sovereignty extended +to the Mediterranean and the Nile on the west, and on the east to +the sources of the Ganges. In his own person he united twenty-seven +different sovereignties, and nine several dynasties of kings gave place to +the unparalleled conqueror, who won by the sword a larger portion of the +globe than Cyrus or Alexander, Cæsar or Attila, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, +or Napoleon.</p> + +<p>It was believed in the family and empire of Timur that he himself +composed the <i>Commentaries</i> of his life and the <i>Institutions</i> of his government, +which, however, were probably the work of his secretaries. These +manuscripts have been of great service to historians in their study of +Timur's career.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_a.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="A" />T the age of thirty-four, and in a general diet, Timur was +invested with imperial command, but he affected to revere +the house of Genghis; and while the emir Timur reigned over +Zagatai and the East, a nominal khan served as a private officer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span> +in the armies of his servant. Without expatiating on the victories +of thirty-five campaigns, without describing the lines of march +which he repeatedly traced over the continent of Asia, I shall +briefly represent Timur's conquests in Persia, Tartary, and India, +and from thence proceed to the more interesting narrative +of his Ottoman war.</p> + +<p>No sooner had Timur reunited to the patrimony of Zagatai +the dependent countries of Karizme and Kandahar than he +turned his eyes toward the kingdoms of Iran or Persia. From +the Oxus to the Tigris that extensive country was without a +lawful sovereign. Peace and justice had been banished from +the land above forty years; and the Mongol invader might +seem to listen to the cries of an oppressed people. Their petty +tyrants might have opposed him with confederate arms: they +separately stood and successively fell; and the difference of +their fate was only marked by the promptitude of submission +or the obstinacy of resistance. Ibrahim, Prince of Shirwan or +Albania, kissed the footstool of the imperial throne. His +peace offerings of silks, horses, and jewels were composed, +according to the Tartar fashion, each article of nine pieces; but +a critical spectator observed that there were only eight slaves. +"I myself am the ninth," replied Ibraham, who was prepared +for the remark: and his flattery was rewarded by the smile of +Timur.</p> + +<p>Shah Mansur, Prince of Fars, or the proper Persia, was one +of the least powerful, but most dangerous, of his enemies. In +a battle under the walls of Shiraz, he broke, with three or four +thousand soldiers, the <i>coul</i>, or main body, of thirty thousand +horse, where the Emperor fought in person. No more than +fourteen or fifteen guards remained near the standard of Timur; +he stood firm as a rock, and received on his helmet two weighty +strokes of a cimeter; the Mongols rallied; the head of Mansur +was thrown at his feet; and he declared his esteem of the valor +of a foe by extirpating all the males of so intrepid a race. From +Shiraz his troops advanced to the Persian Gulf; and the richness +and weakness of Ormus were displayed in an annual tribute +of six hundred thousand dinars of gold.</p> + +<p>Bagdad was no longer the city of peace, the seat of the caliphs; +but the noblest conquest of Khulagu could not be overlooked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span> +by his ambitious successor. The whole course of the Tigris and +Euphrates, from the mouth to the sources of those rivers, was +reduced to his obedience; he entered Edessa; and the Turcomans +of the black sheep were chastised for the sacrilegious +pillage of a caravan of Mecca. In the mountains of Georgia +the native Christians still braved the law and the sword of +Mahomet; by three expeditions he obtained the merit of the +<i>gazie</i>, or holy war; and the Prince of Tiflis became his proselyte +and friend.</p> + +<p>A just retaliation might be urged for the invasion of Turkestan, +or the Eastern Tartary. The dignity of Timur could +not endure the impunity of the Getes: he passed the Sihun, +subdued the kingdom of Kashgar, and marched seven times +into the heart of their country. His most distant camp was two +months' journey to the northeast of Samarkand; and his emirs, +who traversed the river Irtysh, engraved in the forests of Siberia +a rude memorial of their exploits. The conquest of Kiptchak, +or the Western Tartary, was founded on the double motive +of aiding the distressed and chastising the ungrateful. Toctamish, +a fugitive prince, was entertained and protected in his +court; the ambassadors of Auruss Khan were dismissed with a +haughty denial, and followed on the same day by the armies of +Zagatai; and their success established Toctamish in the Mongol +empire of the North.</p> + +<p>But, after a reign of ten years, the new Khan forgot the merits +and the strength of his benefactor—the base usurper, as he +deemed him, of the sacred rights of the house of Genghis. +Through the gates of Derbent he entered Persia at the head of +ninety thousand horse: with the innumerable forces of Kiptchak, +Bulgaria, Circassia, and Russia, he passed the Sihun, burned +the palaces of Timur, and compelled him, amid the winter +snows, to contend for Samarkand and his life. After a mild +expostulation and a glorious victory the Emperor resolved on +revenge; and by the east and the west of the Caspian and the +Volga he twice invaded Kiptchak with such mighty powers +that thirteen miles were measured from his right to his left +wing. In a march of five months they rarely beheld the footsteps +of man; and their daily subsistence was often trusted to the +fortune of the chase. At length the armies encountered each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span> +other; but the treachery of the standard-bearer, who, in the +heat of action, reversed the imperial standard of Kiptchak, +determined the victory of the Zagatais and Toctamish—I speak +the language of the <i>Institutions</i>—gave the tribe of Toushi to the +wind of desolation. He fled to the Christian Duke of Lithuania, +again returned to the banks of the Volga, and, after fifteen +battles with a domestic rival, at last perished in the wilds of +Siberia.</p> + +<p>The pursuit of a flying enemy carried Timur into the tributary +provinces of Russia; a duke of the reigning family was +made prisoner amid the ruins of his capital; and Yelets, by +the pride and ignorance of the orientals, might easily be confounded +with the genuine metropolis of the nation. Moscow +trembled at the approach of the Tartar. Ambition and prudence +recalled him to the south, the desolate country was exhausted, +and the Mongol soldiers were enriched with an immense +spoil of precious furs, of linen of Antioch, and of ingots +of gold and silver. On the banks of the Don, or Tanais, he +received a humble deputation from the consuls and merchants +of Egypt, Venice, Genoa, Catalonia, and Biscay, who occupied +the commerce and city of Tana, or Azov, at the mouth of the +river. They offered their gifts, admired his magnificence, and +trusted his royal word. But the peaceful visit of an emir, who +explored the state of the magazines and harbor, was speedily +followed by the destructive presence of the Tartars. The city +of Tana was reduced to ashes; the Moslems were pillaged and +dismissed; but all the Christians who had not fled to their +ships were condemned either to death or slavery. Revenge +prompted him to burn the cities of Sarai and Astrakhan, the +monuments of rising civilization; and his vanity proclaimed +that he had penetrated to the region of perpetual daylight, a +strange phenomenon, which authorized his Mahometan doctors +to dispense with the obligation of evening prayer.</p> + +<p>When Timur first proposed to his princes and emirs the invasion +of India or Hindustan, he was answered by a murmur +of discontent: "The rivers! and the mountains and deserts! +and the soldiers clad in armor! and the elephants, destroyers +of men!" But the displeasure of the Emperor was more +dreadful than all these terrors; and his superior reason was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span> +convinced that an enterprise of such tremendous aspect was +safe and easy in the execution. He was informed by his spies +of the weakness and anarchy of Hindustan: the <i>subahs</i> of the +provinces had erected the standard of rebellion; and the perpetual +infancy of Sultan Mahmud was despised even in the +harem of Delhi. The Mongol army moved in three great divisions, +and Timur observes with pleasure that the ninety-two squadrons +of a thousand horse most fortunately corresponded with +the ninety-two names or epithets of the prophet Mahomet.</p> + +<p>Between the Jihun and the Indus they crossed one of the +ridges of mountains which are styled by the Arabian geographers +the "Stony Girdles of the Earth." The highland robbers +were subdued or extirpated; but great numbers of men and +horses perished in the snow; the Emperor himself was let down +a precipice on a portable scaffold—the ropes were one hundred +and fifty cubits in length—and before he could reach the bottom, +this dangerous operation was five times repeated. Timur +crossed the Indus at the ordinary passage of Attock, and successively +traversed, in the footsteps of Alexander, the Punjab, +or five rivers, that fall into the master stream. From Attock +to Delhi the high road measures no more than six hundred +miles; but the two conquerors deviated to the southeast; and the +motive of Timur was to join his grandson, who had achieved +by his command the conquest of Multan. On the eastern bank +of the Hyphasis, on the edge of the desert, the Macedonian +hero halted and wept; the Mongol entered the desert, reduced +the fortress of Batnir, and stood in arms before the gates of +Delhi, a great and flourishing city, which had subsisted three +centuries under the dominion of the Mahometan kings.</p> + +<p>The siege, more especially of the castle, might have been a +work of time; but he tempted, by the appearance of weakness, +the Sultan Mahmud and his wazir to descend into the plain, +with ten thousand cuirassiers, forty thousand of his foot-guards, +and one hundred and twenty elephants, whose tusks are said +to have been armed with sharp and poisoned daggers. Against +these monsters, or rather against the imagination of his troops, +he condescended to use some extraordinary precautions of fire +and a ditch, of iron spikes and a rampart of bucklers; but the +event taught the Mongols to smile at their own fears; and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span> +soon as these unwieldy animals were routed, the inferior species +(the men of India) disappeared from the field. Timur made his +triumphal entry into the capital of Hindustan, and admired, +with a view to imitate, the architecture of the stately mosque; +but the order or license of a general pillage and massacre polluted +the festival of his victory. He resolved to purify his +soldiers in the blood of the idolaters, or Gentoos, who still surpass, +in the proportion of ten to one, the numbers of the Moslems. +In this pious design he advanced one hundred miles +to the northeast of Delhi, passed the Ganges, fought several +battles by land and water, and penetrated to the famous rock +of Cupele, the statue of the cow,<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">58</a> that <i>seems</i> to discharge the +mighty river, whose source is far distant among the mountains +of Tibet. His return was along the skirts of the northern hills; +nor could this rapid campaign of one year justify the strange +foresight of his emirs, that their children in a warm climate +would degenerate into a race of Hindus.</p> + +<p>It was on the banks of the Ganges that Timur was informed, +by his speedy messengers, of the disturbances which had arisen +on the confines of Georgia and Anatolia, of the revolt of the +Christians, and the ambitious designs of the sultan Bajazet. +His vigor of mind and body was not impaired by sixty-three +years and innumerable fatigues; and, after enjoying some +tranquil months in the palace of Samarkand, he proclaimed a +new expedition of seven years into the western countries of Asia. +To the soldiers who had served in the Indian war he granted +the choice of remaining at home or following their prince; +but the troops of all the provinces and kingdoms of Persia were +commanded to assemble at Ispahan and wait the arrival of the +imperial standard. It was first directed against the Christians +of Georgia, who were strong only in their rocks, their castles, +and the winter season; but these obstacles were overcome +by the zeal and perseverance of Timur: the rebels submitted +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span>to the tribute or the <i>Koran</i>; and if both religions boasted of their +martyrs, that name is more justly due to the Christian prisoners, +who were offered the choice of abjuration or death.</p> + + +<p>On his descent from the hills the Emperor gave audience +to the first ambassadors of Bajazet, and opened the hostile correspondence +of complaints and menaces, which fermented two +years before the final explosion. Between two jealous and +haughty neighbors, the motives of quarrel will seldom be wanting. +The Mongol and Ottoman conquests now touched each +other in the neighborhood of Erzerum and the Euphrates; nor +had the doubtful limit been ascertained by time and treaty. +Each of these ambitious monarchs might accuse his rival of +violating his territory, of threatening his vassals and protecting +his rebels; and, by the name of rebels, each understood the +fugitive princes, whose kingdoms he had usurped and whose +life or liberty he implacably pursued. In their victorious career +Timur was impatient of an equal, and Bajazet was ignorant of a +superior.</p> + +<p>In his first expedition, Timur was satisfied with the siege +and destruction of Sebaste, a strong city on the borders of +Anatolia. He then turned aside to the invasion of Syria and +Egypt, where the military republic of the mamelukes still +reigned. The Syrian emirs were assembled at Aleppo to repel +the invasion; they confided in the fame and discipline of the +mamelukes, in the temper of their swords and lances of the +purest steel of Damascus, in the strength of their walled cities, +and in the populousness of sixty thousand villages; and instead +of sustaining a siege, they threw open their gates and arrayed +their forces in the plain. But these forces were not cemented +by virtue and union, and some powerful emirs had been seduced +to desert or betray their more loyal companions. Timur's +front was covered with a line of Indian elephants, whose turrets +were filled with archers and Greek fire; the rapid evolutions +of his cavalry completed the dismay and disorder; the Syrian +crowds fell back on each other; many thousands were stifled +or slaughtered in the entrance of the great street; the Mongols +entered with the fugitives; and after a short defence the impregnable +citadel of Aleppo was surrendered by cowardice or +treachery. Among the suppliants and captives, Timur distinguished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span> +the doctors of the law, whom he invited to the dangerous +honor of a personal conference. The Mongol Prince was +a zealous Mussulman; but his Persian schools had taught him +to revere the memory of Ali and Hasan; and he had imbibed +a deep prejudice against the Syrians as the enemies of the +son of the daughter of the apostle of God. To these doctors +he proposed a captious question, which the casuists of +Samarkand and Herat were incapable of resolving. "Who are +the true martyrs, of those who are slain on my side or on +that of my enemies?" But he was silenced, or satisfied, by the +dexterity of one of the cadis of Aleppo, who replied, in the words +of Mahomet himself, that the motive, not the ensign, constitutes +the martyr; and that the Moslems of either party who fight +only for the glory of God may deserve that sacred appellation. +The true succession of the caliphs was a controversy of a still +more delicate nature; and the frankness of a doctor, too honest +for his situation, provoked the Emperor to exclaim: "Ye are +as false as those of Damascus: Moawiyah was a usurper, Yezid +a tyrant, and Ali alone is the lawful successor of the Prophet." +A prudent explanation restored his tranquillity, and he passed +to a more familiar topic of conversation. "What is your age?" +said he to the cadi. "Fifty years." "It would be the age of +my eldest son: you see me here," continued Timur, "a poor, +lame, decrepit mortal. Yet by my arms has the Almighty +been pleased to subdue the kingdoms of Iran, Turan, and the +Indies. I am not a man of blood; and God is my witness that +in all my wars I have never been the aggressor, and that my +enemies have always been the authors of their own calamity." +During this peaceful conversation the streets of Aleppo streamed +with blood and reëchoed with the cries of mothers and children, +with the shrieks of violated virgins. The rich plunder that +was abandoned to his soldiers might stimulate their avarice; +but their cruelty was enforced by the peremptory command +of producing an adequate number of heads, which, according +to his custom, were curiously piled in columns and pyramids. +The Mongols celebrated the feast of victory, while the surviving +Moslems passed the night in tears and in chains.</p> + +<p>I shall not dwell on the march of the destroyer from Aleppo +to Damascus, where he was rudely encountered, and almost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span> +overthrown, by the armies of Egypt. A retrograde motion was +imputed to his distress and despair; one of his nephews deserted +to the enemy; and Syria rejoiced in the tale of his defeat, when +the Sultan was driven, by the revolt of the mamelukes, to escape +with precipitation and shame to his palace of Cairo. Abandoned +by their Prince, the inhabitants of Damascus still defended +their walls; and Timur consented to raise the siege if they +would adorn his retreat with a gift or ransom, each article of +nine pieces. But no sooner had he introduced himself into +the city, under color of a truce, than he perfidiously violated +the treaty, imposed a contribution of ten millions of gold, and +animated his troops to chastise the posterity of those Syrians +who had executed, or approved, the murder of the grandson of +Mahomet. After a period of seven centuries Damascus was reduced +to ashes, because a Tartar was moved by religious zeal +to avenge the blood of an Arab.</p> + +<p>The losses and fatigues of the campaign obliged Timur to +renounce the conquest of Palestine and Egypt; but in his +return to the Euphrates he delivered Aleppo to the flames +and justified his pious motive by the pardon and reward of +two thousand sectaries of Ali, who were desirous to visit the +tomb of his son. I have expatiated on the personal anecdotes +which mark the character of the Mongol hero, but I shall +briefly mention that he erected, on the ruins of Bagdad, a pyramid +of ninety thousand heads; again visited Georgia; encamped +on the banks of the Araxes; and proclaimed his resolution of +marching against the Ottoman Emperor. Conscious of the importance +of the war, he collected his forces from every province; +eight hundred thousand men were enrolled on his military +list, but the splendid commands of five and ten thousand horse +may be rather expressive of the rank and pension of the chiefs +than of the genuine number of effective soldiers. In the pillage +of Syria the Mongols had acquired immense riches; but +the delivery of their pay and arrears for seven years more firmly +attached them to the imperial standard.</p> + +<p>During this diversion of the Mongol arms, Bajazet had +two years to collect his forces for a more serious encounter. +They consisted of four hundred thousand horse and foot whose +merit and fidelity were of an unequal complexion. We may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> +discriminate the janizaries, who have been gradually raised to +an establishment of forty thousand men; a national cavalry (the +<i>spahis</i> of modern times); twenty thousand cuirassiers of Europe, +clad in black and impenetrable armor; the troops of Anatolia, +whose princes had taken refuge in the camp of Timur: +and a colony of Tartars, whom he had driven from Kiptchak, +and to whom Bajazet had assigned a settlement in the plains +of Adrianople. The fearless confidence of the Sultan urged him +to meet his antagonist; and, as if he had chosen that spot for +revenge, he displayed his banner near the ruins of the unfortunate +Sebaste.</p> + +<p>In the mean while Timur moved from the Araxes through +the countries of Armenia and Anatolia. His boldness was +secured by the wisest precautions; his speed was guided by +order and discipline; and the woods, the mountains, and the +rivers were diligently explored by the flying squadrons, who +marked his road and preceded his standard. Firm in his plan +of fighting in the heart of the Ottoman kingdom, he avoided +their camp, dexterously inclined to the left, occupied Cæsarea, +traversed the salt desert and the river Halys, and invested +Angora; while the Sultan, immovable and ignorant in his post, +compared the Tartar swiftness to the crawling of a snail. He +returned on the wings of indignation to the relief of Angora; +and as both generals were alike impatient for action, the plains +round that city were the scene of a memorable battle, which +has immortalized the glory of Timur and the shame of Bajazet.</p> + +<p>For this signal victory the Mongol Emperor was indebted +to himself, to the genius of the moment, and the discipline of +thirty years. He had improved the tactics, without violating +the manners, of his nation, whose force still consisted in the +missile weapons and rapid evolutions of a numerous cavalry. +From a single troop to a great army, the mode of attack was +the same; a foremost line first advanced to the charge, and was +supported in a just order by the squadrons of the great vanguard. +The general's eye watched over the field, and at his command +the front and rear of the right and left wings successively +moved forward in their several divisions, and in a direct or +oblique line; the enemy was pressed by eighteen or twenty attacks;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span> +and each attack afforded a chance of victory. If they +all proved fruitless or unsuccessful, the occasion was worthy of +the Emperor himself, who gave the signal of advancing to the +standard and main body, which he led in person. But in the +battle of Angora, the main body itself was supported, on the +flanks and in the rear, by the bravest squadrons of the reserve, +commanded by the sons and grandsons of Timur. The conqueror +of Hindustan ostentatiously showed a line of elephants, +the trophies rather than the instruments of victory; the use of the +Greek fire was familiar to the Mongols and Ottomans; but had +they borrowed from Europe the recent invention of gunpowder +and cannon, the artificial thunder, in the hands of either nation, +must have turned the fortune of the day. In that day Bajazet +displayed the qualities of a soldier and a chief; but his genius +sunk under a stronger ascendant; and, from various motives, the +greatest part of his troops failed him in the decisive moment. +His rigor and avarice had provoked a mutiny among the Turks; +and even his son Solyman too hastily withdrew from the field. +The forces of Anatolia, loyal in their revolt, were drawn away +to the banners of their lawful princes. His Tartar allies had +been tempted by the letters and emissaries of Timur, who +reproached their ignoble servitude under the slaves of their +fathers; and offered to their hopes the dominion of their new, +or the liberty of their ancient, country. In the right wing of +Bajazet the cuirassiers of Europe charged with faithful hearts +and irresistible arms; but these men of iron were soon broken +by an artful flight and headlong pursuit; and the janizaries, +alone, without cavalry or missile weapons, were encompassed +by the circle of the Mongol hunters. Their valor was at length +oppressed by heat, thirst, and the weight of numbers; and the +unfortunate Sultan, afflicted with the gout in his hands and +feet, was transported from the field on the fleetest of his horses. +He was pursued and taken by the titular Khan of Zagatai; +and, after his capture and the defeat of the Ottoman powers, +the kingdom of Anatolia submitted to the conqueror, who +planted his standard at Kiotahia, and dispersed on all sides +the ministers of rapine and destruction. Mirza Mehemmed +Sultan, the eldest and best beloved of his grandsons, was +despatched to Bursa, with thirty thousand horse; and such was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span> +his youthful ardor that he arrived with only four thousand at +the gates of the capital, after performing in five days a march +of two hundred and thirty miles. Yet fear is still more rapid +in its course; and Solyman, the son of Bajazet, had already +passed over to Europe with the royal treasure. The spoil, however, +of the palace and city was immense; the inhabitants had +escaped; but the buildings, for the most part of wood, were +reduced to ashes. From Bursa, the grandson of Timur advanced +to Nice, even yet a fair and flourishing city; and the +Mongol squadrons were only stopped by the waves of the Propontis. +The same success attended the other mirzas and emirs +in their excursions, and Smyrna, defended by the zeal and +courage of the Rhodian knights, alone deserved the presence +of the Emperor himself. After an obstinate defence, the place +was taken by storm; all that breathed was put to the sword; and +the heads of the Christian heroes were launched from the engines, +on board of two caracks, or great ships of Europe, that rode at +anchor in the harbor. The Moslems of Asia rejoiced in their +deliverance from a dangerous and domestic foe and a parallel +was drawn between the two rivals, by observing that Timur, +in fourteen days, had reduced a fortress which had sustained +seven years the siege, or at least the blockade, of Bajazet.</p> + +<p>The "iron cage" in which Bajazet was imprisoned by Timur, +so long and so often repeated as a moral lesson, is now rejected +as a fable by the modern writers, who smile at the vulgar credulity. +They appeal with confidence to the Persian history of +Sherefeddin Ali, according to which has been given to our curiosity +in a French version, and from which I shall collect and +abridge, a more specious narrative of this memorable transaction. +No sooner was Timur informed that the captive Ottoman +was at the door of his tent than he graciously stepped +forward to receive him, seated him by his side, and mingled +with just reproaches a soothing pity for his rank and misfortune.</p> + +<p>"Alas!" said the Emperor, "the decree of fate is now accomplished +by your own fault; it is the web which you have +woven, the thorns of the tree which yourself have planted. I +wished to spare, and even to assist, the champion of the Moslems. +You braved our threats; you despised our friendship;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span> +you forced us to enter your kingdom with our invincible armies. +Behold the event. Had you vanquished, I am not ignorant of +the fate which you reserved for myself and my troops. But I +disdain to retaliate; your life and honor are secure; and I shall +express my gratitude to God by my clemency to man."</p> + +<p>The royal captive showed some signs of repentance, accepted +the humiliation of a robe of honor, and embraced with tears +his son Musa, who, at his request, was sought and found among +the captives of the field. The Ottoman princes were lodged in a +splendid pavilion; and the respect of the guards could be surpassed +only by their vigilance. On the arrival of the harem +from Bursa, Timur restored the queen Despina and her daughter +to their father and husband; but he piously required that the +Servian princess, who had hitherto been indulged in the profession +of Christianity, should embrace, without delay, the religion +of the Prophet. In the feast of victory, to which Bajazet was +invited, the Mongol Emperor placed a crown on his head and +a sceptre in his hand, with a solemn assurance of restoring him +with an increase of glory to the throne of his ancestors. But +the effect of this promise was disappointed by the Sultan's +untimely death. Amid the care of the most skilful physicians, +he expired of an apoplexy, about nine months after his defeat. +The victor dropped a tear over his grave; his body, with royal +pomp, was conveyed to the mausoleum which he had erected +at Bursa; and his son Musa, after receiving a rich present of +gold and jewels, of horses and arms, was invested by a patent +in red ink with the kingdom of Anatolia.</p> + +<p>Such is the portrait of a generous conqueror, which has +been extracted from his own memorials and dedicated to his +son and grandson, nineteen years after his decease; and, at a +time when the truth was remembered by thousands, a manifest +falsehood would have implied a satire on his real conduct. +Weighty, indeed, is this evidence, adopted by all the Persian +histories; yet flattery, more especially in the East, is base and +audacious; and the harsh and ignominious treatment of Bajazet +is attested by a chain of witnesses.</p> + +<p>I am satisfied that Sherefeddin Ali has faithfully described +the first ostentatious interview, in which the conqueror, whose +spirits were harmonized by success, affected the character of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span> +generosity. But his mind was insensibly alienated by the unseasonable +arrogance of Bajazet; and Timur betrayed a design +of leading his royal captive in triumph to Samarkand. An attempt +to facilitate his escape, by digging a mine under the +tent, provoked the Mongol Emperor to impose a harsher restraint; +and in his perpetual marches, an iron cage on a wagon +might be invented, not as a wanton insult, but as a rigorous +precaution. But the strength of Bajazet's mind and body fainted +under the trial, and his premature death might, without injustice, +be ascribed to the severity of Timur.</p> + +<p>From the Irtysh and Volga to the Persian Gulf, and from +the Ganges to Damascus and the Archipelago, Asia was in +the hands of Timur; his armies were invincible, his ambition +was boundless, and his zeal might aspire to conquer and convert +the Christian kingdoms of the West, which already trembled +at his name. He touched the utmost verge of the land; but an +insuperable, though narrow, sea rolled between the two continents +of Europe and Asia; and the lord of so many myriads +of horse was not master of a single galley. The two passages +of the Bosporus and Hellespont, of Constantinople and Gallipoli, +were possessed, the one by the Christians, the other by the Turks. +On this great occasion they forgot the difference of religion, +to act with union and firmness in the common cause; the +double straits were guarded with ships and fortifications; and +they separately withheld the transports which Timur demanded +of either nation, under the pretence of attacking their enemy. +At the same time they soothed his pride with tributary gifts +and suppliant embassies, and prudently tempted him to retreat +with the honors of victory. Solyman, the son of Bajazet, implored +his clemency for his father and himself; accepted, by a +red patent, the investiture of the kingdom of Romania, which +he already held by the sword; and reiterated his ardent wish of +casting himself in person at the feet of the king of the world. +The Greek Emperor—either John or Manuel—submitted to pay +the same tribute which he had stipulated with the Turkish +Sultan, and ratified the treaty by an oath of allegiance, from +which he could absolve his conscience so soon as the Mongol +arms had retired from Anatolia. But the fears and fancy of +nations ascribed to the ambitious Tamerlane a new design of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span> +vast and romantic compass; a design of subduing Egypt and +Africa, marching from the Nile to the Atlantic Ocean, entering +Europe by the Straits of Gibraltar, and, after imposing his yoke +on the kingdoms of Christendom, of returning home by the +deserts of Russia and Tartary. This remote, and perhaps +imaginary, danger was averted by the submission of the Sultan +of Egypt, the honors of the prayer and the coin attested at +Cairo the supremacy of Timur; and a rare gift of a giraffe, or camelopard, +and nine ostriches, represented at Samarkand the +tribute of the African world. Our imagination is not less +astonished by the portrait of a Mongol, who, in his camp before +Smyrna, meditates, and almost accomplishes, the invasion of +the Chinese empire. Timur was urged to this enterprise by +national honor and religious zeal. He received a perfect map +and description of the unknown regions, from the source of +Irtysh to the Wall of China. During the preparations, the +Emperor achieved the final conquest of Georgia; passed the +winter on the banks of the Araxes; appeased the troubles of +Persia; and slowly returned to his capital, after a campaign +of four years and nine months.</p> + +<p>On the throne of Samarkand he displayed, in a short repose, +his magnificence and power; listened to the complaints of the +people; distributed a just measure of rewards and punishments; +employed his riches in the architecture of palaces and temples; +and gave audience to the ambassadors of Egypt, Arabia, India, +Tartary, Russia, and Spain, the last of whom presented a +suit of tapestry which eclipsed the pencil of the oriental artists. +A general indulgence was proclaimed; every law was relaxed, +every pleasure was allowed; the people was free, the sovereign +was idle; and the historian of Timur may remark that, after +devoting fifty years to the attainment of empire, the only happy +period of his life was the two months in which he ceased to +exercise his power.</p> + +<p>But he soon awakened to the cares of government and war. +The standard was unfurled for the invasion of China; the emirs +made their report of two hundred thousand, the select and +veteran soldiers of Iran and Turan; their baggage and provisions +were transported by five hundred great wagons and an +immense train of horses and camels; and the troops might<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span> +prepare for a long absence, since more than six months were +employed in the tranquil journey of a caravan from Samarkand +to Peking. Neither age nor the severity of the winter could +retard the impatience of Timur; he mounted on horseback, +passed the Sihun on the ice, marched seventy-six parasangs +(three hundred miles) from his capital, and pitched his last camp +in the neighborhood of Otrar, where he was expected by the +angel of death. Fatigue and the indiscreet use of iced water +accelerated the progress of his fever; and the conqueror of +Asia expired in the seventieth year of his age, 1405, thirty-five +years after he had ascended the throne of Zagatai. His +designs were lost; his armies were disbanded; China was saved; +and, fourteen years after his decease, the most powerful of his +children sent an embassy of friendship and commerce to the +court of Peking.</p> + +<p>The fame of Timur has pervaded the East and West; his +posterity is still invested with the imperial title; and the admiration +of his subjects, who revered him almost as a deity, may be +justified in some degree by the praise or confession of his bitterest +enemies. Although he was lame of a hand and foot, his form +and stature were not unworthy of his rank; and his vigorous +health, so essential to himself and to the world, was corroborated +by temperance and exercise. In his familiar discourse he was +grave and modest; and if he was ignorant of the Arabic language, +he spoke with fluency and elegance the Persian and Turkish +idioms. It was his delight to converse with the learned on +topics of history and science; and the amusement of his leisure +hours was the game of chess, which he improved or corrupted +with new refinements.</p> + +<p>In his religion he was a zealous, though not perhaps an orthodox, +Mussulman; but his sound understanding may tempt +us to believe that a superstitious reverence for omens and prophecies, +for saints and astrologers, was only affected as an instrument +of policy. In the government of a vast empire, he stood +alone and absolute, without a rebel to oppose his power, a favorite +to seduce his affections, or a minister to mislead his judgment.</p> + +<p>Timur might boast that at his accession to the throne Asia +was the prey of anarchy and rapine, while under his prosperous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span> +monarchy a child, fearless and unhurt, might carry a purse +of gold from the East to the West. Such was his confidence +of merit that from this reformation he derived an excuse for +his victories and a title to universal dominion. The four following +observations will serve to appreciate his claim to the +public gratitude; and perhaps we shall conclude that the Mongol +Emperor was rather the scourge than the benefactor of +mankind. If some partial disorders, some local oppressions, +were healed by the sword of Timur, the remedy was far more +pernicious than the disease. By their rapine, cruelty, and discord +the petty tyrants of Persia might afflict their subjects; +but whole nations were crushed under the footsteps of the reformer. +The ground which had been occupied by flourishing +cities was often marked by his abominable trophies—by columns, +or pyramids of human heads. Astrakhan, Karizme, Delhi, +Ispahan, Bagdad, Aleppo, Damascus, Bursa, Smyrna, and a +thousand others were sacked or burned or utterly destroyed +in his presence and by his troops; and perhaps his conscience +would have been startled if a priest or philosopher had dared to +number the millions of victims whom he had sacrificed to the +establishment of peace and order. His most destructive wars +were rather inroads than conquests. He invaded Turkestan, +Kiptchak, Russia, Hindustan, Syria, Anatolia, Armenia, and +Georgia, without a hope or a desire of preserving those distant +provinces. From thence he departed laden with spoil; but he +left behind him neither troops to awe the contumacious nor +magistrates to protect the obedient natives. When he had +broken the fabric of their ancient government, he abandoned +them in their evils which his invasion had aggravated or caused; +nor were these evils compensated by any present or possible +benefits. The kingdoms of Transoxiana and Persia were the +proper field which he labored to cultivate and adorn as the +perpetual inheritance of his family. But his peaceful labors +were often interrupted, and sometimes blasted, by the absence +of the conqueror. While he triumphed on the Volga or the +Ganges, his servants, and even his sons, forgot their master +and their duty. The public and private injuries were poorly +redressed by the tardy rigor or inquiry and punishment; and +we must be content to praise the <i>Institutions</i> of Timur as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span> +specious idea of a perfect monarchy. Whatsoever might be the +blessings of his administration, they evaporated with his life. +To reign, rather than to govern, was the ambition of his children +and grandchildren—the enemies of each other and of the people. +A fragment of the empire was upheld with some glory by Sharokh, +his youngest son; but after his decease the scene was again involved +in darkness and blood; and before the end of a century +Transoxiana and Persia were trampled by the Usbegs from the +north, and the Turcomans of the black and white sheep. +The race of Timur would have been extinct if a hero, his descendant +in the fifth degree, had not fled before the Usbeg arms +to the conquest of Hindustan. His successors—the great Mongols—extended +their sway from the mountains of Cashmere to +Cape Comorin, and from Kandahar to the Gulf of Bengal. +Since the reign of Aurungzebe, their empire has been dissolved; +their treasures of Delhi have been rifled by a Persian robber; +and the richest of their kingdoms is now possessed by a company +of Christian merchants, of a remote island in the Northern +Ocean.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span></p> +<h2>DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1374</h6> + +<h3>J. F. C. HECKER<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">59</a></h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The black death, which originated in Central China about 1333, appeared +on the Mediterranean littoral in 1347, ravaged the island of Cyprus, +made the circuit of the Mediterranean countries, spread throughout Europe +northward as far as Iceland, and in 1357 appeared in Russia, where +it seems to have been checked by the barrier of the Caucasus.</p> + +<p>Scarce had its effects subsided, and the graves of its 25,000,000 victims +were hardly closed, when it was followed by an epidemic of the +dance of St. John, or St. Vitus, which like a demoniacal plague appeared +in Germany in 1347, and spread over the whole empire and throughout +the neighboring countries. The dance was characterized by wild leaping, +furious screaming, and foaming at the mouth, which gave to the individuals +affected all the appearance of insanity.</p> + +<p>The epidemic was not confined to particular localities, but was propagated +by the sight of the sufferers, and for over two centuries excited the +astonishment of contemporaries. The Netherlands and France were +equally affected; in Italy the disease became known as <i>tarantism</i>, it +being supposed to proceed from the bite of the tarantula, a venomous +spider. Like the St. Vitus' dance in Germany, tarantism spread by sympathy, +increasing in severity as it took a wider range; the chief cure was +music, which seemed to furnish magical means for exorcising the malady +of the patients.</p> + +<p>The epidemic subsided in Central Europe in the seventeenth century, +but diseases approximating to the original dancing mania have occurred +at various periods in many parts of Europe, Africa, and the United +States. Nathaniel Pearce, an eye-witness, who resided nine years in +Abyssinia early in the nineteenth century, gives a graphic account of a +similar epidemic there, called <i>tigretier</i>, from the Tigré district, in which +it was most prevalent. In France, from 1727 to 1790, an epidemic prevailed +among the Convulsionnaires, who received relief from brethren in +the faith known as Secourists, very much after the rough methods administered +to the St. John's dancers and to the <i>tarantati</i>. About the +same period nervous epidemics of a similar character, largely propagated +by sympathy, were very prevalent in the Shetland Islands and in various +parts of Scotland, but were for the most part eradicated by cold-water +immersion.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span> +An epidemic of <i>chorea sancti Viti</i>, recorded by Felix Robertson of +Tennessee (Philadelphia, 1805), found vent in an unparalleled blaze of +enthusiastic religion, which spread with lightning-like rapidity in almost +every part of Tennessee and Kentucky, and in various parts of Virginia, +in 1800, being distinguished by uncontrollable and infectious muscular +contractions, gesticulations, crying, laughing, shouting, and singing. To +similar epidemics are attributed the uncontrollable acts which, till late in +the nineteenth century, were a feature of North American camp meetings +for divine service in the open air, and which exhibited the same form of +mental disturbance as did the St. Vitus' dance in mediæval Europe.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_s.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="S" />O early as the year 1374, assemblages of men and women +were seen at Aix-la-Chapelle who had come out of Germany, +and who, united by one common delusion, exhibited to +the public both in the streets and in the churches the following +strange spectacle. They formed circles hand in hand, and, appearing +to have lost all control over their senses, continued dancing, +regardless of the bystanders, for hours together in wild +delirium, until at length they fell to the ground in a state of exhaustion. +They then complained of extreme oppression, and +groaned as if in the agonies of death, until they were swathed in +cloths bound tightly round their waists, upon which they again +recovered, and remained free from complaint until the next attack. +This practice of swathing was resorted to on account of +the tympany which followed these spasmodic ravings, but the +bystanders frequently relieved patients in a less artificial manner, +by thumping and trampling upon the parts affected. While +dancing they neither saw nor heard, being insensible to external +impressions through the senses, but were haunted by visions, +their fancies conjuring up spirits whose names they shrieked +out; and some of them afterward asserted that they felt as if +they had been immersed in a stream of blood, which obliged +them to leap so high. Others, during the paroxysm, saw the +heavens open and the Saviour enthroned with the Virgin Mary, +according as the religious notions of the age were strangely and +variously reflected in their imaginations.</p> + +<p>Where the disease was completely developed, the attack +commenced with epileptic convulsions. Those affected fell to +the ground senseless, panting and laboring for breath. They +foamed at the mouth, and suddenly springing up began their +dance amid strange contortions. Yet the malady doubtless made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> +its appearance very variously, and was modified by temporary +or local circumstances, whereof non-medical contemporaries but +imperfectly noted the essential particulars, accustomed as they +were to confound their observation of natural events with their +notions of the world of spirits.</p> + +<p>It was but a few months ere this demoniacal disease had +spread from Aix-la-Chapelle, where it appeared in July, over +the neighboring Netherlands. In Liège, Utrecht, Tongres, and +many other towns of Belgium the dancers appeared with garlands +in their hair, and their waists girt with cloths, that they +might, as soon as the paroxysm was over, receive immediate +relief on the attack of the tympany. This bandage was, by the +insertion of a stick, easily twisted tight. Many, however, obtained +more relief from kicks and blows, which they found numbers +of persons ready to administer; for, wherever the dancers +appeared, the people assembled in crowds to gratify their curiosity +with the frightful spectacle. At length the increasing number +of the affected excited no less anxiety than the attention that +was paid to them. In towns and villages they took possession of +the religious houses; processions were everywhere instituted on +their account and masses were said and hymns were sung, while +the disease itself, of the demoniacal origin of which no one entertained +the least doubt, excited everywhere astonishment and +horror. In Liège the priests had recourse to exorcisms, and endeavored, +by every means in their power, to allay an evil which +threatened so much danger to themselves; for the possessed, +assembling in multitudes, frequently poured forth imprecations +against them and menaced their destruction. They intimidated +the people also to such a degree that there was an express ordinance +issued that no one should make any but square-toed +shoes, because these fanatics had manifested a morbid dislike to +the pointed shoes which had come into fashion immediately +after the "great mortality," in 1350. They were still more irritated +at the sight of red colors, the influence of which on the disordered +nerves might lead us to imagine an extraordinary accordance +between this spasmodic malady and the condition of +infuriated animals; but in the St. John's dancers this excitement +was probably connected with apparitions consequent upon their +convulsions. There were likewise some of them who were unable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span> +to endure the sight of persons weeping. The clergy seemed +to become daily more and more confirmed in their belief that +those who were affected were a kind of sectarians, and on this +account they hastened their exorcisms as much as possible, in +order that the evil might not spread among the higher classes, +for hitherto scarcely any but the poor had been attacked, and +the few people of respectability among the laity and clergy who +were to be found among them were persons whose natural frivolity +was unable to withstand the excitement of novelty, even +though it proceeded from a demoniacal influence. Some of the +affected had indeed themselves declared, when under the influence +of priestly forms of exorcism, that, if the demons had been +allowed only a few weeks more time, they would have entered +the bodies of the nobility and princes, and through these have +destroyed the clergy. Assertions of this sort, which those possessed +uttered while in a state which may be compared with that +of magnetic sleep, obtained general belief, and passed from +mouth to mouth with wonderful additions. The priesthood +were, on this account, so much the more zealous in their endeavors +to anticipate every dangerous excitement of the people, as if +the existing order of things could have been seriously threatened +by such incoherent ravings. Their exertions were effectual, for +exorcism was a powerful remedy in the fourteenth century; or +it might perhaps be that this wild infatuation terminated in consequence +of the exhaustion which naturally ensued from it; at +all events, in the course of ten or eleven months the St. John's +dancers were no longer to be found in any of the cities of Belgium. +The evil, however, was too deeply rooted to give way +altogether to such feeble attacks.</p> + +<p>A few months after this dancing malady had made its appearance +at Aix-la-Chapelle, it broke out at Cologne, where the +number of those possessed amounted to more than five hundred, +and about the same time at Metz, the streets of which place are +said to have been filled with eleven hundred dancers. Peasants +left their ploughs, mechanics their workshops, housewives their +domestic duties, to join the wild revels, and this rich commercial +city became the scene of the most ruinous disorder. Secret desires +were excited, and but too often found opportunities for wild +enjoyment; and numerous beggars, stimulated by vice and misery,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span> +availed themselves of this new complaint to gain a temporary +livelihood. Girls and boys quitted their parents, and +servants their masters, to amuse themselves at the dances of those +possessed, and greedily imbibed the poison of mental infection. +Gangs of idle vagabonds, who understood how to imitate to the +life the gestures and convulsions of those really affected, roved +from place to place seeking maintenance and adventures, and +thus, wherever they went, spreading this disgusting spasmodic +disease like a plague; for in maladies of this kind the susceptible +are infected as easily by the appearance as by the reality. At last +it was found necessary to drive away these mischievous guests, +who were equally inaccessible to the exorcisms of the priests and +the remedies of the physicians. It was not, however, until after +four months that the Rhenish cities were able to suppress these +impostors, which had so alarmingly increased the original evil. +In the mean time, when once called into existence, the plague +crept on, and found abundant food in the tone of thought which +prevailed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and even, +though in a minor degree, throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth, +causing a permanent disorder of the mind, and exhibiting, +in those cities to whose inhabitants it was a novelty, scenes +as strange as they were detestable.</p> + +<p>Strasburg was visited by the dancing plague, or St. Vitus' +dance,<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">60</a> in the year 1418, and the same infatuation existed among +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span>the people there as in the towns of Belgium and the Lower +Rhine. Many who were seized at the sight of those affected, +excited attention at first by their confused and absurd behavior, +and then by their constantly following the swarms of +dancers. These were seen day and night passing through the +streets, accompanied by musicians playing on bagpipes, and by +innumerable spectators attracted by curiosity, to which were +added anxious parents and relations, who came to look after +those among the misguided multitude who belonged to their +respective families. Imposture and profligacy played their part +in this city also, but the morbid delusion itself seems to have +predominated. On this account religion could only bring provisional +aid, and therefore the town council benevolently took an +interest in the afflicted. They divided them into separate parties, +to each of which they appointed responsible superintendents +to protect them from harm and perhaps also to restrain their +turbulence. They were thus conducted on foot and in carriages +to the chapels of St. Vitus, hear Zabern and Rotestein, where +priests were in attendance to work upon their misguided minds +by masses and other religious ceremonies. After divine worship +was completed, they were led in solemn procession to the altar, +where they made some small offering of alms, and where it is +probable that many were, through the influence of devotion +and the sanctity of the place, cured of this lamentable aberration. +It is worthy of observation, at all events, that the dancing mania +did not recommence at the altars of the saint, and that from him +alone assistance was implored, and through his miraculous interposition +a cure was expected, which was beyond the reach of +human skill. The personal history of St. Vitus is by no means +unimportant in this matter. He was a Sicilian youth, who, together +with Modestus and Crescentia, suffered martyrdom at +the time of the persecution of the Christians, under Diocletian, +in the year 303. The legends respecting him are obscure, and +he would certainly have been passed over without notice among +the innumerable apocryphal martyrs of the first centuries, had +not the transfer of his body to St. Denis, and thence, in the year +836, to Corvey, raised him to a higher rank. From this time +forth, it may be supposed that many miracles were manifested +at his new sepulchre, which were of essential service in confirming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span> +the Roman faith among the Germans, and St. Vitus was +soon ranked among the fourteen saintly helpers (<i>Nothhelfer</i> or +<i>Apotheker</i>). His altars were multiplied, and the people had recourse +to them in all kinds of distresses, and revered him as a +powerful intercessor. As the worship of these saints was, however, +at that time stripped of all historical connections, which +were purposely obliterated by the priesthood, a legend was invented +at the beginning of the fifteenth century, or perhaps even +so early as the fourteenth, that St. Vitus had, just before he bent +his neck to the sword, prayed to God that he might protect from +the dancing mania all those who should solemnize the day of +his commemoration, and fast upon its eve, and that thereupon +a voice from heaven was heard, saying, "Vitus, thy prayer is +accepted." Thus St. Vitus became the patron saint of those +afflicted with the dancing plague, as St. Martin of Tours was at +one time the succorer of persons in smallpox.</p> + + +<p>The connection which John the Baptist had with the dancing +mania of the fourteenth century was of a totally different +character. He was originally far from being a protecting saint +to those who were attacked, or one who would be likely to give +them relief from a malady considered as the work of the devil. +On the contrary, the manner in which he was worshipped afforded +an important and very evident cause for its development. +From the remotest period, perhaps even so far back as the +fourth century, St. John's Day was solemnized with all sorts of +strange and rude customs, of which the originally mystical meaning +was variously disfigured among different nations by super-added +relics of heathenism. Thus the Germans transferred to +the festival of St. John's Day an ancient heathen usage, the kindling +of the <i>Nodfyr</i>, which was forbidden them by St. Boniface, +and the belief subsists even to the present day that people and +animals that have leaped through these flames, or their smoke, +are protected for a whole year from fevers and other diseases, as +if by a kind of baptism by fire. Bacchanalian dances, which have +originated in similar causes among all the rude nations of the +earth, and the wild extravagancies of a heated imagination, were +the constant accompaniments of this half-heathen, half-Christian +festival. At the period of which we are treating, however, +the Germans were not the only people who gave way to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span> +ebullitions of fanaticism in keeping the festival of St. John the +Baptist. Similar customs were also to be found among the nations +of Southern Europe and of Asia,<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">61</a> and it is more than probable +that the Greeks transferred to the festival of John the Baptist, +who is also held in high esteem among the Mahometans, a +part of their Bacchanalian mysteries, an absurdity of a kind +which it but too frequently met with in human affairs. How far +a remembrance of the history of St. John's death may have had +an influence on this occasion we would leave learned theologians +to decide. It is of importance here to add only that in +Abyssinia, a country entirely separated from Europe, where +Christianity has maintained itself in its primeval simplicity +against Mahometanism, John is to this day worshipped as protecting +saint of those who are attacked with the dancing malady. +In these fragments of the dominion of mysticism and superstition, +historical connection is not to be found.</p> + +<p>When we observe, however, that the first dancers in Aix-la-Chapelle +appeared in July with St. John's name in their mouths, +the conjecture is probable that the wild revels of St. John's Day, +<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1374, gave rise to this mental plague, which thenceforth +has visited so many thousands with incurable aberration of mind +and disgusting distortions of body.</p> + +<p>This is rendered so much the more probable because some +months previously the districts in the neighborhood of the Rhine +and the Maine had met with great disasters. So early as February +both these rivers had overflowed their banks to a great +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span>extent; the walls of the town of Cologne, on the side next the +Rhine, had fallen down, and a great many villages had been +reduced to the utmost distress. To this was added the miserable +condition of Western and Southern Germany. Neither law nor +edict could suppress the incessant feuds of the barons, and in +Franconia especially the ancient times of club law appeared to +be revived. Security of property there was none; arbitrary will +everywhere prevailed; corruption of morals and rude power +rarely met with even a feeble opposition; whence it arose that +the cruel, but lucrative, persecutions of the Jews were in many +places still practised, through the whole of this century, with +their wonted ferocity. Thus, throughout the western parts of +Germany, and especially in the districts bordering on the Rhine, +there was a wretched and oppressed populace; and if we take +into consideration that among their numerous bands many +wandered about whose consciences were tormented with the +recollection of the crimes which they had committed during the +prevalence of the black plague, we shall comprehend how their +despair sought relief in the intoxication of an artificial delirium. +There is hence good ground for supposing that the frantic celebration +of the festival of St. John, <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1374, only served to +bring to a crisis a malady which had been long impending; and +if we would further inquire how a hitherto harmless usage, +which like many others had but served to keep up superstition, +could degenerate into so serious a disease, we must take into +account the unusual excitement of men's minds and the consequences +of wretchedness and want. The bowels, which in many +were debilitated by hunger and bad food, were precisely the +parts which in most cases were attacked with excruciating pain, +and the tympanitic state of the intestines points out to the intelligent +physician an origin of the disorder which is well worth +consideration.</p> + + + +<p>The dancing mania of the year 1374 was, in fact, no new disease, +but a phenomenon well known in the Middle Ages, of which +many wondrous stories were traditionally current among the +people. In the year 1237, upward of a hundred children were +said to have been suddenly seized with this disease at Erfurt, +and to have proceeded dancing and jumping along the road to +Arnstadt. When they arrived at that place they fell exhausted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span> +to the ground, and, according to an account of an old chronicle, +many of them, after they were taken home by their parents, +died, and the rest remained affected to the end of their lives +with the permanent tremor. Another occurrence was related +to have taken place on the Mosel bridge at Utrecht, on June +17, 1278, when two hundred fanatics began to dance, and would +not desist until a priest passed who was carrying the host to a +person that was sick, upon which, as if in punishment of their +crime, the bridge gave way, and they were all drowned. A similar +event also occurred, so early as the year 1027, near the convent +church of Kolbig, not far from Bernburg. According to an +oft-repeated tradition, eighteen peasants, some of whose names +are still preserved, are said to have disturbed divine service on +Christmas Eve by dancing and brawling in the church-yard, +whereupon the priest, Ruprecht, inflicted a curse upon them, +that they should dance and scream for a whole year without +ceasing. This curse is stated to have been completely fulfilled, +so that the unfortunate sufferers at length sank knee deep into +the earth, and remained the whole time without nourishment, +until they were finally released by the intercession of two pious +bishops. It is said that upon this they fell into a deep sleep, +which lasted three days, and that four of them died; the rest +continuing to suffer all their lives from a trembling of their limbs.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">62</a> +It is not worth while to separate what may have been true and +what the addition of crafty priests in this strangely distorted +story. It is sufficient that it was believed, and related with astonishment +and horror, throughout the Middle Ages, so that, +when there was any exciting cause for this delirious raving, and +wild rage for dancing, it failed not to produce its effects upon +men whose thoughts were given up to a belief in wonders and +apparitions.</p> + +<p>This disposition of mind, altogether so peculiar to the +Middle Ages, and which, happily for mankind, has yielded to +an improved state of civilization and the diffusion of popular +instruction, accounts for the origin and long duration of this +extraordinary mental disorder. The good sense of the people +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span>recoiled with horror and aversion from this heavy plague, which, +whenever malevolent persons wished to curse their bitterest +enemies and adversaries, was long after used as a malediction.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">63</a> +The indignation also that was felt by the people at large against +the immorality of the age was proved by their ascribing this +frightful affliction to the inefficacy of baptism by unchaste +priests, as if innocent children were doomed to atone, in after +years, for this desecration of the sacrament administered by +unholy hands. We have already mentioned what perils the +priests in the Netherlands incurred from this belief. They now, +indeed, endeavored to hasten their reconciliation with the irritated +and at that time very degenerate people by exorcisms, +which, with some, procured them greater respect than ever, because +they thus visibly restored thousands of those who were +affected. In general, however, there prevailed a want of confidence +in their efficacy, and then the sacred rites had as little +power in arresting the progress of this deeply rooted malady as +the prayers and holy services subsequently had at the altars of +the greatly revered martyr St. Vitus. We may, therefore, ascribe +it to accident merely, and to a certain aversion to this demoniacal +disease, which seemed to lie beyond the reach of human +skill, that we meet with but few and imperfect notices of +the St. Vitus' dance in the second half of the fifteenth century. +The highly colored descriptions of the sixteenth century contradict +the notion that this mental plague had in any degree diminished +in its severity, and not a single fact is to be found which +supports the opinion that any one of the essential symptoms of +the disease, not even excepting the tympany, had disappeared, +or that the disorder itself had become milder in its attacks. The +physicians never, as it seems, throughout the whole of the fifteenth +century, undertook the treatment of the dancing mania, +which, according to the prevailing notions, appertained exclusively +to the servants of the Church. Against demoniacal disorders +they had no remedies, and though some at first did promulgate +the opinion that the malady had its origin in natural +circumstances, such as a hot temperament, and other causes +named in the phraseology of the schools, yet these opinions were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span> +the less examined, as it did not appear worth while to divide +with a jealous priesthood the care of a host of fanatical vagabonds +and beggars.</p> + +<p>It was not until the beginning of the sixteenth century that +the St. Vitus' dance was made the subject of medical research, +and stripped of its unhallowed character as a work of demons. +This was effected by Paracelsus, that mighty, but as yet scarcely +comprehended, reformer of medicine, whose aim it was to withdraw +diseases from the pale of miraculous interpositions and +saintly influences, and explain their causes upon principles deduced +from his knowledge of the human frame. "We will not, +however, admit that the saints have power to inflict diseases, and +that these ought to be named after them, although many there +are who in their theology lay great stress on this supposition, +ascribing them rather to God than to nature, which is but idle +talk. We dislike such nonsensical gossip as is not supported +by symptoms, but only by faith, a thing which is not human, +whereon the gods themselves set no value."</p> + +<p>Such were the words which Paracelsus addressed to his contemporaries, +who were as yet incapable of appreciating doctrines +of this sort; for the belief in enchantment still remained everywhere +unshaken, and faith in the world of spirits still held men's +minds in so close a bondage that thousands were, according to +their own conviction, given up as a prey to the devil; while, at +the command of religion as well as of law, countless piles were +lighted, by the flames of which human society was to be purified.</p> + +<p>Paracelsus divides the St. Vitus' dance into three kinds: +First, that which arises from imagination (<i>Vitista</i>, <i>chorea imaginativa</i>, +<i>æstimativa</i>), by which the original dancing plague is to +be understood; secondly, that which arises from sensual desires, +depending on the will (<i>chorea lasciva</i>); thirdly, that which +arises from corporeal causes (<i>chorea naturalis</i>, <i>coacta</i>), which, +according to a strange notion of his own, he explained by maintaining +that in certain vessels which are susceptible of an internal +pruriency, and thence produce laughter, the blood is set in +commotion, in consequence of an alteration in the vital spirits, +whereby involuntary fits of intoxicating joy, and a propensity to +dance, are occasioned. To this notion he was, no doubt, led +from having observed a milder form of St. Vitus' dance, not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span> +uncommon in his time, which was accompanied by involuntary +laughter, and which bore a resemblance to the hysterical laughter +of the moderns, except that it was characterized by more +pleasurable sensations, and by an extravagant propensity to +dance. There was no howling, screaming, and jumping, as in +the severer form; neither was the disposition to dance by any +means insuperable. Patients thus affected, although they had +not a complete control over their understandings, yet were sufficiently +self-possessed, during the attack, to obey the directions +which they received. There were even some among them who +did not dance at all, but only felt an involuntary impulse to allay +the internal sense of disquietude, which is the usual forerunner +of an attack of this kind, by laughter, and quick walking carried +to the extent of producing fatigue. This disorder, so different +from the original type, evidently approximates to the modern +chorea, or rather is in perfect accordance with it, even to the +less essential symptom of laughter. A mitigation in the form of +the dancing mania had thus clearly taken place at the commencement +of the sixteenth century.</p> + +<p>On the communication of the St. Vitus' dance by sympathy, +Paracelsus, in his peculiar language, expresses himself with great +spirit, and shows a profound knowledge of the nature of sensual +impressions, which find their way to the heart—the seat of joys +and emotions—which overpower the opposition of reason; and +while "all other qualities and natures" are subdued, incessantly +impel the patient, in consequence of his original compliance, +and his all-conquering imagination, to imitate what he has seen. +On his treatment of the disease we cannot bestow any great +praise, but must be content with the remark that it was in conformity +with the notions of the age in which he lived. For the +first kind, which often originated in passionate excitement, he +had a mental remedy, the efficacy of which is not to be despised, +if we estimate its value in connection with the prevalent opinions +of those times. The patient was to make an image of himself +in wax or resin, and by an effort of thought to concentrate all +his blasphemies and sins in it. "Without the intervention of +any other person, to set his whole mind and thoughts concerning +these oaths in the image;" and when he had succeeded in +this, he was to burn the image, so that not a particle of it should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span> +remain.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">64</a> In all this there was no mention made of St. Vitus, or +any of the other mediatory saints, which is accounted for by the +circumstance, that, at this time, an open rebellion against the +Romish Church had begun, and the worship of saints was by +many rejected as idolatrous. For the second kind of St. Vitus' +dance, Paracelsus recommended harsh treatment and strict +fasting. He directed that the patients should be deprived of +their liberty, placed in solitary confinement, and made to sit in +an uncomfortable place, until their misery brought them to their +senses and to a feeling of penitence. He then permitted them +gradually to return to their accustomed habits. Severe corporal +chastisement was not omitted; but, on the other hand, angry +resistance on the part of the patient was to be sedulously avoided, +on the ground that it might increase his malady, or even destroy +him; moreover, where it seemed proper, Paracelsus allayed the +excitement of the nerves by immersion in cold water. On the +treatment of the third kind we shall not here enlarge. It was to +be effected by all sorts of wonderful remedies, composed of the +quintessences; and it would require, to render it intelligible, a +more extended exposition of peculiar principles than suits our +present purpose.</p> + +<p>About this time the St. Vitus' dance began to decline, so +that milder forms of it appeared more frequently, while the severer +cases became more rare; and even in these, some of the +important symptoms gradually disappeared. Paracelsus makes +no mention of the tympanites as taking place after the attacks, +although it may occasionally have occurred; and Schenck von +Graffenberg, a celebrated physician of the latter half of the sixteenth +century, speaks of this disease as having been frequent +only in the time of his forefathers.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span></p> +<h2>ELECTION OF ANTIPOPE CLEMENT VII</h2> + +<h3>BEGINNING OF THE GREAT SCHISM</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1378</h6> + +<h3>HENRY HART MILMAN</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In 1308 Pope Clement V, a Frenchman, under the influence of King +Philip the Fair, of France, transferred the papal chair from Rome to +Avignon, a possession of the holy see beyond the Alps, in Philip's dominions. +The sojourn there of Clement and his successors, which continued +until 1376, is known as the "Babylonish captivity" of the popes.</p> + +<p>Rome, from the first, was angry at this loss of supremacy, and aimed +at recovering her prestige; and throughout the Christian world—France +alone excepted—it was regarded as a scandal that the chair of St. Peter +should rest on any soil but that of the Eternal City; but the French +kings, and the cardinals of France—outnumbering all others in the sacred +college—were determined to retain the pontifical seat in their own territory.</p> + +<p>During the pontificate of Gregory XI (1371-1378) Italy was torn by civil +dissensions; the "free companies"—bands of organized marauders—ravaged +the country with fire and sword, plundering Guelf and Ghibelline +alike. Gregory's legates in the government of the ecclesiastical +states rendered themselves so odious to the people by their immorality +and rapacity that a league of the more powerful political factions was +formed for throwing off the yoke of the "absentee" papal rulers. This +was the beginning of the War of Liberation (1375) that was to shake the +papal power in Italy to its very foundations.</p> + +<p>Gregory saw that, in order to preserve even a vestige of temporal +power in the Italian states, he must act with crushing vigor. He therefore +sent the cardinal legate, Robert, of Geneva—afterward Antipope +Clement VII—into Italy with a company of Breton adventurers dreaded +for their ferocity, and trained to plunder in the terrible wars of France. +In spite of the atrocities committed by Robert and his hirelings, the revolt +continued with unabated fury, and at last Gregory was constrained +to return in person to Italy with the purpose of pacifying the turbulent +forces. He entered Rome, January 17, 1377; but after a year of futile +effort he died, leaving the confusion worse than he found it.</p> + +<p>Since, according to ecclesiastical law, the election of a new pope must +be held at the place of the last pontiff's decease, great clamor arose +among the Romans, whose demands were seconded throughout Europe, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span>for the election of a Roman pope and the ending of the "Babylonish captivity." +The history of the Great Schism and election of the rival pontiffs +is nowhere to be found in better form of narrative than that of +Milman, which here follows.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_g.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="G" />REGORY XI had hardly expired when Rome burst out +into a furious tumult. A Roman pope, at least an Italian +pope, was the universal outcry. The conclave must be overawed; +the hateful domination of a foreign, a French pontiff, +must be broken up, and forever. This was not unforeseen. Before +his death Gregory XI had issued a bull conferring the amplest +powers on the cardinals to choose, according to their wisdom, +the time and the place for the election. It manifestly +contemplated their retreat from the turbulent streets of Rome to +some place where their deliberations would not be overborne, +and the predominant French interest would maintain its superiority. +On the other hand there were serious and not groundless +apprehensions that the fierce Breton and Gascon bands, at the +command of the French cardinals, might dictate to the conclave. +The Romans not only armed their civic troops, but sent to Tivoli, +Velletri, and the neighboring cities; a strong force was mustered +to keep the foreigners in check.</p> + +<p>Throughout the interval between the funeral of Gregory +and the opening of the conclave, the cardinals were either too +jealously watched, or thought it imprudent to attempt flight. +Sixteen cardinals were present at Rome, one Spaniard, eleven +French, four Italians. The ordinary measures were taken for +opening the conclave in the palace near St. Peter's. Five Romans, +two ecclesiastics and three laymen, and three Frenchmen +were appointed to wait upon and to guard the conclave. The +Bishop of Marseilles represented the great chamberlain, who +holds the supreme authority during the vacancy of the popedom. +The chamberlain, the Archbishop of Arles, brother of the Cardinal +of Limoges, had withdrawn into the castle of St. Angelo, +to secure his own person and to occupy that important fortress.</p> + +<p>The nine solemn days fully elapsed, on the 7th of April they +assembled for the conclave. At that instant (inauspicious +omen!) a terrible flash of lightning, followed by a stunning peal +of thunder, struck through the hall, burning and splitting some +of the furniture. The hall of conclave was crowded by a fierce<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span> +rabble, who refused to retire. After about an hour's strife, the +Bishop of Marseilles, by threats, by persuasion, or by entreaty, +had expelled all but about forty wild men, armed to the teeth. +These ruffians rudely and insolently searched the whole building; +they looked under the beds, they examined the places of +retreat. They would satisfy themselves whether any armed men +were concealed, whether there was any hole, or even drain +through which the cardinals could escape. All the time they +shouted: "A Roman pope! we will have a Roman pope!" +Those without echoed back the savage yell. Before long appeared +two ecclesiastics, announcing themselves as delegated by +the commonalty of Rome; they demanded to speak with the +cardinals. The cardinals dared not refuse. The Romans represented, +in firm but not disrespectful language, that for seventy +years the holy Roman people had been without their pastor, the +supreme head of Christendom. In Rome were many noble and +wise ecclesiastics equal to govern the Church: if not in Rome, +there were such men in Italy.</p> + +<p>They intimated that so great were the fury and determination +of the people that, if the conclave should resist, there might be a +general massacre, in which probably they themselves, assuredly +the cardinals, would perish. The cardinals might hear from +every quarter around them the cry: "A Roman pope! if not a +Roman, an Italian!" The cardinals replied, that such aged and +reverend men must know the rules of the conclave; that no +election could be by requisition, favor, fear, or tumult, but by +the interposition of the Holy Ghost. To reiterated persuasions +and menaces they only said: "We are in your power; you may +kill us, but we must act according to God's ordinance. To-morrow +we celebrate the mass for the descent of the Holy Ghost; as +the Holy Ghost directs, so shall we do." Some of the French +uttered words which sounded like defiance. The populace +cried: "If ye persist to do despite to Christ, if we have not a +Roman pope, we will hew these cardinals and Frenchmen in +pieces."</p> + +<p>At length the Bishop of Marseilles was able to entirely clear +the hall. The cardinals sat down to a plentiful repast; the +doors were finally closed. But all the night through they heard +in the streets the unceasing clamor: "A Roman pope, a Roman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span> +pope!" Toward the morning the tumult became more fierce and +dense. Strange men had burst into the belfry of St. Peter's; +the clanging bells tolled as if all Rome was on fire.</p> + +<p>Within the conclave, the tumult, if less loud and clamorous, +was hardly less general. The confusion without and terror +within did not allay the angry rivalry, or suspend that subtle +play of policy peculiar to the form of election. The French interest +was divided; within this circle there was another circle. +The single diocese of Limoges, favored as it had been by more +than one pope, had almost strength to dictate to the conclave. +The Limousins put forward the Cardinal de St. Eustache. +Against these the leader was the Cardinal Robert of Geneva, +whose fierce and haughty demeanor and sanguinary acts as +legate had brought so much of its unpopularity on the administration +of Gregory XI. With Robert were the four Italians and +three French cardinals. Rather than a Limousin, Robert would +even consent to an Italian. They on the one side, the Limousins +on the other, had met secretly before the conclave: the eight +had sworn not on any account to submit to the election of a +traitorous Limousin.</p> + +<p>All the sleepless night the cardinals might hear the din at the +gate, the yells of the people, the tolling of the bells. There was +constant passing and repassing from each other's chamber, +intrigues, altercations, manœuvres, proposals advanced and +rejected, promises of support given and withdrawn. Many +names were put up. Of the Romans within the conclave two +only were named, the old Cardinal of St. Peter's, the Cardinal +Jacobo Orsini. The Limousins advanced in turn almost every +one of their faction; no one but himself thought of Robert of +Geneva.</p> + +<p>In the morning the disturbance without waxed more terrible. +A vain attempt was made to address the populace by the three +cardinal priors; they were driven from the windows with loud +derisive shouts, "A Roman! A Roman!" For now the alternative +of an Italian had been abandoned; a Roman, none but a +Roman, would content the people. The madness of intoxication +was added to the madness of popular fury. The rabble had +broken open the Pope's cellar and drunk his rich wines. In the +conclave the wildest projects were started. The Cardinal Orsini<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span> +was to dress up a Minorite friar (probably a Spiritual) in the +papal robes, to show him to the people, and so for themselves to +effect their escape to some safe place and proceed to a legitimate +election. The cardinals, from honor or from fear, shrunk from +this trick.</p> + +<p>At length both parties seemed to concur. Each claimed +credit for first advancing the name—which most afterward +repudiated—of the Archbishop of Bari, a man of repute for +theologic and legal erudition, an Italian, but a subject of the +Queen of Naples, who was also Countess of Provence. They +came to the nomination. The Cardinal of Florence proposed +the Cardinal of St. Peter's. The Cardinal of Limoges arose: +"The Cardinal of St. Peter's is too old. The Cardinal of Florence +is of a city at war with the holy see. I reject the Cardinal +of Milan as the subject of the Visconti, the most deadly enemy +of the Church. The Cardinal Orsini is too young, and we must +not yield to the clamor of the Romans. I vote for Bartholomew +Prignani, Archbishop of Bari." All was acclamation; Orsini +alone stood out; he aspired to be the pope of the Romans.</p> + +<p>But it was too late; the mob was thundering at the gates, +menacing death to the cardinals, if they had not immediately a +Roman pontiff. The feeble defences sounded as if they were +shattering down; the tramp of the populace was almost heard +within the hall. They forced or persuaded the aged Cardinal of +St. Peter's to make a desperate effort to save their lives. He +appeared at the window, hastily attired in what either was or +seemed to be the papal stole and mitre. There was a jubilant +and triumphant cry: "We have a Roman pope, the Cardinal of +St. Peter's. Long live Rome! Long live St. Peter!" The populace +became even more frantic with joy than before with wrath. +One band hastened to the Cardinal's palace, and, according to +the strange usage, broke in, threw the furniture into the streets, +and sacked it from top to bottom. Those around the hall of +conclave, aided by the connivance of some of the cardinals' servants +within, or by more violent efforts of their own, burst in in +all quarters. The supposed pope was surrounded by eager adorers; +they were at his feet; they pressed his swollen, gouty hands +till he shrieked from pain, and began to protest, in the strongest +language, that he was not the pope.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span>The indignation of the populace at this disappointment was +aggravated by an unlucky confusion of names. The Archbishop +was mistaken for John of Bari, of the bedchamber of the late +pope, a man of harsh manners and dissolute life, an object of +general hatred. Five of the cardinals, Robert of Geneva, Acquasparta, +Viviers, Poitou, and De Verny, were seized in their +attempt to steal away, and driven back, amid contemptuous +hootings, by personal violence. Night came on again; the populace, +having pillaged all the provisions in the conclave, grew +weary of their own excesses. The cardinals fled on all sides. +Four left the city; Orsini and St. Eustache escaped to Vicovaro, +Robert of Geneva to Zagarolo, St. Angelo to Guardia; six, +Limoges, D'Aigrefeuille, Poitou, Viviers, Brittany, and Marmoutiers, +to the castle of St. Angelo; Florence, Milan, Montmayeur, +Glandève, and Luna, to their own strong fortresses.</p> + +<p>The Pope lay concealed in the Vatican. In the morning the +five cardinals in Rome were assembled round him. A message +was sent to the bannerets of Rome, announcing his election. +The six cardinals in St. Angelo were summoned; they were +hardly persuaded to leave their place of security; but without +their presence the Archbishop would not declare his assent to +his elevation. The Cardinal of Florence, as dean, presented the +Pope-elect to the sacred college, and discoursed on the text, +"Such ought he to be, an undefiled high-priest." The Archbishop +began a long harangue, "Fear and trembling have come +upon me, the horror of great darkness." The Cardinal of Florence +cut short the ill-timed sermon, demanding whether he +accepted the pontificate. The Archbishop gave his assent; he +took the name of Urban VI. <i>Te Deum</i> was intoned; he was +lifted to the throne. The fugitives returned to Rome. Urban +VI was crowned on Easter Day, in the Church of St. John +Lateran. All the cardinals were present at the august ceremony. +They announced the election of Urban VI to their brethren who +had remained in Avignon. Urban himself addressed the usual +encyclic letters, proclaiming his elevation, to all the prelates in +Christendom.</p> + +<p>None could determine how far the nomination of the Archbishop +of Bari was free and uncontrolled by the terrors of the +raging populace; but the acknowledgment of Urban VI by all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span> +the cardinals, at his inauguration in the holy office—their assistance +at his coronation without protest, when some at least might +have been safe beyond the walls of Rome—their acceptance of +honors, as by the cardinals of Limoges, Poitou, and Aigrefeuille—the +homage of all—might seem to annul all possible irregularity +in the election, to confirm irrefragably the legitimacy +of his title.</p> + +<p>Not many days had passed, when the cardinals began to +look with dismay and bitter repentance on their own work. "In +Urban VI," said a writer of these times (on the side of Urban as +rightful pontiff), "was verified the proverb—None is so insolent +as a low man suddenly raised to power." The high-born, +haughty, luxurious prelates, both French and Italian, found that +they had set over themselves a master resolved not only to redress +the flagrant and inveterate abuses of the college and of the +hierarchy, but also to force on his reforms in the most hasty and +insulting way. He did the harshest things in the harshest +manner.</p> + +<p>The Archbishop of Bari, of mean birth, had risen by the +virtues of a monk. He was studious, austere, humble, a diligent +reader of the Bible, master of the canon law, rigid in his fasts; +he wore haircloth next his skin. His time was divided between +study, prayer, and business, for which he had great aptitude. +From the poor bishopric of Acherontia he had been promoted +to the archbishopric of Bari, and had presided over the papal +chancery in Avignon. The monk broke out at once on his elevation +in the utmost rudeness and rigor, but the humility +changed to the most offensive haughtiness. Almost his first act +was a public rebuke in his chapel to all the bishops present for +their desertion of their dioceses. He called them perjured +traitors. The Bishop of Pampeluna boldly repelled the charge; +he was at Rome, he said, on the affairs of his see. In the full +consistory Urban preached on the text, "I am the Good Shepherd," +and inveighed in a manner not to be mistaken against the +wealth and luxury of the cardinals. Their voluptuous banquets +were notorious—Petrarch had declaimed against them. The +Pope threatened a sumptuary law that they should have but +one dish at their table: it was the rule of his own order. He +was determined to extirpate simony. A cardinal who should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span> +receive presents he menaced with excommunication. He affected +to despise wealth. "Thy money perish with thee!" he +said to a collector of the papal revenue. He disdained to conceal +the most unpopular schemes; he declared his intention not +to leave Rome. To the petition of the bannerets of Rome for a +promotion of cardinals, he openly avowed his design to make so +large a nomination that the Italians should resume their ascendency +over the Ultramontanes. The Cardinal of Geneva turned +pale and left the consistory. Urban declared himself determined +to do equal justice between man and man, between the +kings of France and England. The French cardinals, and those +in the pay of France, heard this with great indignation.</p> + +<p>The manners of Urban were even more offensive than his +acts. "Hold your tongue!" "You have talked long enough!" +were his common phrases to his mitred counsellors. He called +the Cardinal Orsini a fool. He charged the Cardinal of St. +Marcellus of Amiens, on his return from his legation in Tuscany, +with having robbed the treasures of the Church. The +charge was not less insulting for its justice. The Cardinal +of Amiens, instead of allaying the feuds of France and England, +which it was his holy mission to allay, had inflamed them +in order to glut his own insatiable avarice by draining the +wealth of both countries in the Pope's name. "As Archbishop +of Bari, you lie," was the reply of the high-born Frenchman. +On one occasion such high words passed with the Cardinal of +Limoges that but for the interposition of another cardinal the +Pope would have rushed on him, and there had been a personal +conflict.</p> + +<p>Such were among the stories of the time. Friends and foes +agree in attributing the schism, at least the immediate schism, +to the imprudent zeal, the imperiousness, the ungovernable +temper of Pope Urban. The cardinals among themselves talked +of him as mad; they began to murmur that it was a compulsory, +therefore invalid, election.</p> + +<p>The French cardinals were now at Anagni: they were +joined by the Cardinal of Amiens, who had taken no part in the +election, but who was burning under the insulting words of the +Pope, perhaps not too eager to render an account of his legation. +The Pope retired to Tivoli; he summoned the cardinals to that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span> +city. They answered that they had gone to large expenses +in laying in provisions and making preparations for their residence +in Anagni; they had no means to supply a second sojourn +in Tivoli. The Pope, with his four Italian cardinals, +passed two important acts as sovereign pontiff. He confirmed +the election of Wenceslaus, son of Charles IV, to the empire; +he completed the treaty with Florence by which the republic +paid a large sum to the see of Rome. The amount was seventy +thousand florins in the course of the year, one hundred and +eighty thousand in four years, for the expenses of the war. +They were relieved from ecclesiastical censures, under which +this enlightened republic, though Italian, trembled, even from a +pope of doubtful title. Their awe showed perhaps the weakness +and dissensions in Florence rather than the papal power.</p> + +<p>The cardinals at Anagni sent a summons to their brethren +inviting them to share in their counsels concerning the compulsory +election of the successor to Gregory XI. Already the +opinions of great legists had been taken; some of them, that of +the famous Baldus, may still be read. He was in favor of the +validity of the election.</p> + +<p>But grave legal arguments and ecclesiastical logic were not +to decide a contest which had stirred so deeply the passions and +interests of two great factions. France and Italy were at strife for +the popedom. The Ultramontane cardinals would not tamely +abandon a power which had given them rank, wealth, luxury, +virtually the spiritual supremacy of the world, for seventy years. +Italy, Rome, would not forego the golden opportunity of resuming +the long-lost authority. On the 9th of August the cardinals +at Anagni publicly declared, they announced in encyclic letters +addressed to the faithful in all Christendom, that the election +of Urban VI was carried by force and the fear of death; that +through the same force and fear he had been inaugurated, enthroned, +and crowned; that he was an apostate, an accursed +antichrist. They pronounced him a tyrannical usurper of the +popedom, a wolf that had stolen into the fold. They called upon +him to descend at once from the throne which he occupied without +canonical title; if repentant, he might find mercy; if he persisted +he would provoke the indignation of God, of the apostles +St. Peter and St. Paul, and all of the saints, for his violation of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span> +the Spouse of Christ, the common Mother of the Faithful. It was +signed by thirteen cardinals. The more pious and devout were +shocked at this avowal of cowardice; cardinals who would not +be martyrs in the cause of truth and of spiritual freedom condemned +themselves.</p> + +<p>But letters and appeals to the judgment of the world, and +awful maledictions, were not their only resources. The fierce +Breton bands were used to march and to be indulged in their +worst excesses under the banner of the Cardinal of Geneva. As +Ultramontanists it was their interest, their inclination, to espouse +the Ultramontane cause. They arrayed themselves to advance +and join the cardinals at Anagni. The Romans rose to oppose +them; a fight took place near the Ponte Salario, three hundred +Romans lay dead on the field.</p> + +<p>Urban VI was as blind to cautious temporal as to cautious +ecclesiastical policy. Every act of the Pope raised him up new +enemies. Joanna, Queen of Naples, had hailed the elevation of +her subject the Archbishop of Bari. Naples had been brilliantly +illuminated. Shiploads of fruit and wines, and the more solid +gift of twenty thousand florins, had been her oblations to the +Pope. Her husband, Otho of Brunswick, had gone to Rome to +pay his personal homage. His object was to determine in his own +favor the succession to the realm. The reception of Otho was +cold and repulsive; he returned in disgust. The Queen eagerly +listened to suspicions, skilfully awakened, that Urban meditated +the resumption of the fief of Naples, and its grant to the rival +house of Hungary. She became the sworn ally of the cardinals +at Anagni. Honorato Gaetani, Count of Fondi, one of the most +turbulent barons of the land, demanded of the Pontiff twenty +thousand florins advanced on loan to Gregory XI. Urban not +only rejected the claim, declaring it a personal debt of the late +Pope, not of the holy see, he also deprived Gaetani of his fief, and +granted it to his mortal enemy, the Count San Severino. Gaetani +began immediately so seize the adjacent castles in Campania, +and invited the cardinals to his stronghold at Fondi. The Archbishop +of Arles, chamberlain of the late Pope, leaving the castle +of St. Angelo under the guard of a commander who long refused +all orders from Pope Urban, brought to Anagni the jewels and +ornaments of the papacy, which had been carried for security<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span> +to St. Angelo. The prefect of the city, De Vico, Lord of Viterbo, +had been won over by the Cardinal of Amiens.</p> + +<p>The four Italian cardinals still adhered to Pope Urban. +They labored hard to mediate between the conflicting parties. +Conferences were held at Zagarolo and other places; when the +French cardinals had retired to Fondi, the Italians took up their +quarters at Subiaco. The Cardinal of St. Peter's, worn out with +age and trouble, withdrew to Rome, and soon after died. He +left a testamentary document declaring the validity of the election +of Urban. The French cardinals had declared the election +void; they were debating the next step. Some suggested the +appointment of a coadjutor. They were now sure of the support +of the King of France, who would not easily surrender his +influence over a pope at Avignon, and of the Queen of Naples, +estranged by the pride of Urban, and secretly stimulated by the +Cardinal Orsini, who had not forgiven his own loss of the tiara. +Yet even now they seemed to shrink from the creation of an +antipope. Urban precipitated and made inevitable this disastrous +event. He was now alone; the Cardinal of St. Peter's was +dead; Florence, Milan, and the Orsini stood aloof; they seemed +only to wait to be thrown off by Urban, to join the adverse faction. +Urban at first declared his intention to create nine cardinals; +he proceeded at once, and without warning, to create +twenty-six.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">65</a> By this step the French and Italian cardinals together +were now but an insignificant minority. They were instantly +one. All must be risked or all lost.</p> + +<p>On September 20th, at Fondi, Robert of Geneva was elected +pope in the presence of all the cardinals (except St. Peter's) who +had chosen, inaugurated, enthroned, and for a time obeyed +Urban VI. The Italians refused to give their suffrages, but entered +no protest. They retired into their castles and remained +aloof from the schism. Orsini died before long at Tagliacozzo. +The qualifications which, according to his partial biographer, +recommended the Cardinal of Geneva, were rather those of a +successor to John Hawkwood or to a duke of Milan, than of the +apostles. Extraordinary activity of body and endurance of fatigue, +courage which would hazard his life to put down the +intrusive pope, sagacity and experience in the temporal affairs +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span>of the Church; high birth, through which he was allied with most +of the royal and princely houses of Europe; of austerity, devotion, +learning, holiness, charity, not a word. He took the name +of Clement VII; the Italians bitterly taunted the mockery of +this name, assumed by the captain of the Breton Free Companies—by +the author, it was believed, of the massacre at Cesena.</p> + + +<p>So began the schism which divided Western Christendom for +thirty-eight years. Italy, excepting the kingdom of Joanna of +Naples, adhered to her native pontiff; Germany and Bohemia +to the pontiff who had recognized King Wenceslaus as emperor; +England to the pontiff hostile to France;<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> Hungary to the pontiff +who might support her pretentions to Naples; Poland and +the Northern kingdoms, with Portugal, espoused the same cause. +France at first stood almost alone in support of her subject, of a +pope at Avignon instead of at Rome. Scotland only was with +Clement, because England was with Urban. So Flanders was +with Urban because France was with Clement. The uncommon +abilities of Peter di Luna, the Spanish cardinal (afterward better +known under a higher title), detached successively the Spanish +kingdoms, Castile, Aragon, and Navarre, from allegiance to +Pope Urban.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span></p> +<h2>GENOESE SURRENDER TO VENETIANS</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1380</h6> + +<h3>HENRY HALLAM</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Prolonged commercial rivalry between Genoa and Venice brought +them to a state of bitter jealousy which led to furious wars. In the second +half of the twelfth century Genoa established her power on the Black +Sea, and aimed at a commercial monopoly in that region. This aroused +the Venetians to anger and led to open hostilities. The first war growing +out of these antagonisms between the two republics began in 1257, and +throughout the rest of the thirteenth century hostilities were almost continuous.</p> + +<p>In 1351 the Venetians formed an alliance against Genoa with the +Greeks and Aragonese, and, in the ensuing war, the advantage gained by +Genoa was confirmed by a treaty of peace in 1355. But this peace lasted +only until 1378, when a dispute arose between Genoa and Venice in relation +to the island of Tenedos, in the Ægean Sea, of which the Venetians +had taken possession.</p> + +<p>The Venetians, having denounced Genoa as false to all its oaths and +obligations, formally declared war in April, after several acts of hostility +had occurred in the Levant. Of all the wars between the rival states, this +was the most remarkable and led to the most important consequences.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_g.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="G" />ENOA did not stand alone in this war. A formidable confederacy +was raised against Venice, which had given provocation +to many enemies. Of this Francis Carrara, seignior +of Padua, and the King of Hungary were the leaders. But the +principal struggle was, as usual, upon the waves. During the +winter of 1378 a Genoese fleet kept the sea, and ravaged the +shores of Dalmatia. The Venetian armament had been weakened +by an epidemic disease, and when Vittor Pisani, their +admiral, gave battle to the enemy, he was compelled to fight +with a hasty conscription of landsmen against the best sailors +in the world.</p> + +<p>Entirely defeated, and taking refuge at Venice with only seven +galleys, Pisani was cast into prison, as if his ill-fortune had been +his crime. Meanwhile the Genoese fleet, augmented by a strong +reënforcement, rode before the long natural ramparts that separate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span> +the lagunes of Venice from the Adriatic. Six passages intersect +the islands which constitute this barrier, besides the +broader outlets of Brondolo and Fossone, through which the +waters of the Brenta and the Adige are discharged. The Lagoon +itself, as is well known, consists of extremely shallow water, +unnavigable for any vessel except along the course of artificial +and intricate passages.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the apparent difficulties of such an enterprise, +Pietro Doria, the Genoese admiral, determined to reduce +the city. His first successes gave him reason to hope. He forced +the passage, and stormed the little town of Chioggia, built +upon the inside of the isle bearing that name, about twenty-five +miles south of Venice. Nearly four thousand prisoners fell +here into his hands—an augury, as it seemed, of a more splendid +triumph.</p> + +<p>In the consternation this misfortune inspired at Venice, the +first impulse was to ask for peace. The ambassadors carried +with them seven Genoese prisoners, as a sort of peace-offering +to the admiral, and were empowered to make large and humiliating +concessions, reserving nothing but the liberty of Venice. +Francis Carrara strongly urged his allies to treat for peace. But +the Genoese were stimulated by long hatred, and intoxicated by +this unexpected opportunity of revenge. Doria, calling the +ambassadors into council, thus addressed them: "Ye shall +obtain no peace from us, I swear to you, nor from the lord of +Padua, till first we have put a curb in the mouths of those wild +horses that stand upon the place of St. Mark. When they are +bridled you shall have enough of peace. Take back with you +your Genoese captives, for I am coming within a few days to +release both them and their companions from your prisons."</p> + +<p>When this answer was reported to the senate, they prepared +to defend themselves with the characteristic firmness of their +government. Every eye was turned toward a great man unjustly +punished, their admiral, Vittor Pisani. He was called out of +prison to defend his country amid general acclamations. Under +his vigorous command the canals were fortified or occupied +by large vessels armed with artillery; thirty-four galleys were +equipped; every citizen contributed according to his power; in +the entire want of commercial resources—for Venice had not a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span> +merchant-ship during this war—private plate was melted; and +the senate held out the promise of ennobling thirty families who +should be most forward in this strife of patriotism.</p> + +<p>The new fleet was so ill-provided with seamen that for some +months the admiral employed them only in manœuvring along +the canals. From some unaccountable supineness, or more +probably from the insuperable difficulties of the undertaking, +the Genoese made no assault upon the city. They had, indeed, +fair grounds to hope its reduction by famine or despair. Every +access to the Continent was cut off by the troops of Padua; and +the King of Hungary had mastered almost all the Venetian +towns in Istria and along the Dalmatian coast. The doge +Contarini, taking the chief command, appeared at length with +his fleet near Chioggia, before the Genoese were aware. They +were still less aware of his secret design. He pushed one of the +large round vessels, then called <i>cocche</i>, into the narrow passage +of Chioggia which connects the Lagoon with the sea, and, mooring +her athwart the channel, interrupted that communication. +Attacked with fury by the enemy, this vessel went down on the +spot, and the Doge improved his advantage by sinking loads of +stones until the passage became absolutely unnavigable.</p> + +<p>It was still possible for the Genoese fleet to follow the principal +canal of the Lagoon toward Venice and the northern passages, +or to sail out of it by the harbor of Brondolo; but, whether +from confusion or from miscalculating the dangers of their position, +they suffered the Venetians to close the canal upon them +by the same means they had used at Chioggia, and even to place +their fleet in the entrance of Brondolo so near to the Lagoon +that the Genoese could not form their ships in line of battle. +The circumstances of the two combatants were thus entirely +changed. But the Genoese fleet, though besieged in Chioggia, +was impregnable, and their command of the land secured them +from famine.</p> + +<p>Venice, notwithstanding her unexpected success, was still +very far from secure; it was difficult for the Doge to keep his +position through the winter; and if the enemy could appear in +open sea, the risks of combat were extremely hazardous. It is +said that the senate deliberated upon transporting the seat of +their liberty to Candia, and that the Doge had announced his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span> +intention to raise the siege of Chioggia, if expected succors did +not arrive by January 1, 1380. On that very day Carlo Zeno, +an admiral who, ignorant of the dangers of his country, had +been supporting the honor of her flag in the Levant and on the +coast of Liguria, appeared with a reënforcement of eighteen +galleys and a store of provisions.</p> + +<p>From that moment the confidence of Venice revived. The +fleet, now superior in strength to the enemy, began to attack +them with vivacity. After several months of obstinate resistance, +the Genoese—whom their republic had ineffectually +attempted to relieve by a fresh armament—blocked up in the +town of Chioggia, and pressed by hunger, were obliged to surrender. +Nineteen galleys only, out of forty-eight, were in good +condition; and the crews were equally diminished in the ten +months of their occupation of Chioggia. The pride of Genoa +was deemed to be justly humbled; and even her own historian +confesses that God would not suffer so noble a city as Venice to +become the spoil of a conqueror.</p> + +<p>Though the capture of Chioggia did not terminate the war, +both parties were exhausted, and willing, next year, to accept +the mediation of the Duke of Savoy. By the peace of Turin, +Venice surrendered most of her territorial possessions to the +King of Hungary. That Prince and Francis Carrara were the +only gainers. Genoa obtained the isle of Tenedos, one of the +original subjects of dispute—a poor indemnity for her losses. +Though, upon a hasty view, the result of this war appears more +unfavorable to Venice, yet in fact it is the epoch of the decline +of Genoa. From this time she never commanded the ocean with +such navies as before; her commerce gradually went into decay; +and the fifteenth century—the most splendid in the annals +of Venice—is, till recent times, the most ignominious in +those of Genoa. But this was partly owing to internal dissensions, +by which her liberty, as well as glory, was for a while +suspended.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span></p> +<h2>REBELLION OF WAT TYLER</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1381</h6> + +<h3>JOHN LINGARD</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Richard II, of England, at eleven years of age, succeeded to a heritage +of foreign complications and wars, which were a legacy from the +reign of his grandfather, Edward III.</p> + +<p>At the request of the commons, the lords, in the King's name, appointed +nine persons to be a permanent council, and it was resolved that +during the King's minority the appointment of all the chief officers of +the crown should be with the parliament. The administration was conducted +in the King's name, and the whole system was for some years kept +together by the secret authority of the King's uncles, especially of the +Duke of Lancaster, who was in reality the regent.</p> + +<p>France, Scotland, and Castile continued their hostilities against England, +and during the first two years of Richard's reign the ministers had +no difficulty in obtaining ample grants of money to carry on the wars. In +the third year the expense of the campaign in Brittany compelled them +to solicit yet additional aid.</p> + +<p>Various methods of taxation failing to raise the amount required, the +commons, in great discontent, demanded alterations in the council, and +after long debate reluctantly consented to the imposition of a new and +unusual tax of three groats<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">67</a> on every person, male and female, above fifteen +years of age. For the relief of the poor it was provided that in the +cities and towns the aggregate amount should be divided among the inhabitants +according to their abilities, so that no individual should pay +less than one groat, or more than sixty groats for himself and his wife. +Parliament thereupon was dismissed; but the collection of the tax gave +rise to an insurrection which threatened the life of the King and the existence +of the government.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_a.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="A" />T this period [1381] a secret ferment seems to have pervaded +the mass of the people in many nations of Europe. Men +were no longer willing to submit to the impositions of their +rulers, or to wear the chains which had been thrown round the +necks of their fathers by a warlike and haughty aristocracy. +We may trace this awakening spirit of independence to a variety +of causes, operating in the same direction; to the progressive +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span>improvement of society, the gradual diffusion of knowledge, the +increasing pressure of taxation, and above all to the numerous +and lasting wars by which Europe had lately been convulsed. +Necessity had often compelled both the sovereigns and nobles to +court the good-will of the people; the burghers in the towns and +inferior tenants in the country had learned, from the repeated +demands made upon them, to form notions of their own importance; +and the archers and foot-soldiers, who had served for +years in the wars, were, at their return home, unwilling to sit +down in the humble station of bondmen to their former lords. +In Flanders the commons had risen against their Count Louis, +and had driven him out of his dominions; in France the populace +had taken possession of Paris and Rouen, and massacred +the collectors of the revenue. In England a spirit of discontent +agitated the whole body of the villeins, who remained in almost +the same situation in which we left them at the Norman Conquest. +They were still attached to the soil, talliable at the will +of the lord, and bound to pay the fines for the marriage of their +females, to perform customary labor, and to render the other +servile prestations incident to their condition. It is true that in +the course of time many had obtained the rights of freemen. +Occasionally the king or the lord would liberate at once all the +bondmen on some particular domain, in return for a fixed rent +to be yearly assessed on the inhabitants.</p> + + +<p>But the progress of emancipation was slow; the improved +condition of their former fellows served only to embitter the +discontent of those who still wore the fetters of servitude; and +in many places the villeins formed associations for their mutual +support, and availed themselves of every expedient in their +power to free themselves from the control of their lords. In the +first year of Richard's reign a complaint was laid before parliament +that in many districts they had purchased exemplifications +out of the <i>Domesday Book</i> in the king's court, and under +a false interpretation of that record had pretended to be discharged +of all manner of servitude both as to their bodies and +their tenures, and would not suffer the officers of their lords +either to levy distress or to do justice upon them. It was in vain +that such exemplifications were declared of no force, and that +commissions were ordered for the punishment of the rebellious.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span> +The villeins, by their union and perseverance, contrived to intimidate +their lords, and set at defiance the severity of the law. To +this resistance they were encouraged by the diffusion of the doctrines +so recently taught by Wycliffe, that the right of property +was founded in grace, and that no man, who was by sin a +traitor to God, could be entitled to the services of others; at the +same time itinerant preachers sedulously inculcated the natural +equality of mankind, and the tyranny of artificial distinctions; +and the poorer classes, still smarting under the exactions of the +late reign, were by the impositions of the new tax wound up to +a pitch of madness. Thus the materials had been prepared; it +required but a spark to set the whole country in a blaze.</p> + +<p>It was soon discovered that the receipts of the treasury would +fall short of the expected amount; and commissions were issued +to different persons to inquire into the conduct of the collectors, +and to compel payment from those who had been favored or +overlooked. One of these commissioners, Thomas de Bampton, +sat at Brentwood in Essex; but the men of Fobbings refused +to answer before him; and when the chief justice of the +common pleas attempted to punish their contumacy, they compelled +him to flee, murdered the jurors and clerks of the commission, +and, carrying their heads upon poles, claimed the support +of the nearest townships. In a few days all the commons +of Essex were in a state of insurrection, under the command of +a profligate priest, who had assumed the name of Jack Straw.</p> + +<p>The men of Kent were not long behind their neighbors in +Essex. At Dartford one of the collectors had demanded the tax +for a young girl, the daughter of a tyler. Her mother maintained +that she was under the age required by the statute; and +the officer was proceeding to ascertain the fact by an indecent +exposure of her person, when her father, who had just returned +from work, with a stroke of his hammer beat out the offender's +brains. His courage was applauded by his neighbors. They +swore that they would protect him from punishment, and by +threats and promises secured the cooperation of all the villages +in the western division of Kent.</p> + +<p>A third party of insurgents was formed by the men of +Gravesend, irritated at the conduct of Sir Simon Burley. He +had claimed one of the burghers as his bondman, refused to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span> +grant him his freedom at a less price than three hundred pounds, +and sent him a prisoner to the castle of Rochester. With the +aid of a body of insurgents from Essex, the castle was taken and +the captive liberated. At Maidstone they appointed Wat the +tyler, of that town, leader of the commons of Kent, and took +with them an itinerant preacher of the name of John Ball, who +for his seditious and heterodox harangues had been confined by +order of the archbishop. The mayor and aldermen of Canterbury +were compelled to swear fidelity to the good cause; several +of the citizens were slain; and five hundred joined them in their +intended march toward London. When they reached Blackheath +their numbers are said to have amounted to one hundred +thousand men. To this lawless and tumultuous multitude Ball +was appointed preacher, and assumed for the text of his first +sermon the following lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"When Adam delved and Eve span,</span> +<span class="i0">Who was then the gentleman?"</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p>He told them that by nature all men were born equal; that +the distinction of bondage and freedom was the invention of +their oppressors, and contrary to the views of their Creator; that +God now offered them the means of recovering their liberty, and +that, if they continued slaves, the blame must rest with themselves; +that it was necessary to dispose of the archbishop, the +earls and barons, the judges, lawyers, and questmongers; and +that when the distinction of ranks was abolished, all would be +free, because all would be of the same nobility and of equal +authority. His discourse was received with shouts of applause +by his infatuated hearers, who promised to make him, in defiance +of his own doctrines, archbishop of Canterbury and chancellor +of the realm.</p> + +<p>By letters and messengers the knowledge of these proceedings +was carefully propagated through the neighboring counties. +Everywhere the people had been prepared; and in a few +days the flame spread from the southern coast of Kent to the +right bank of the Humber. In all places the insurgents regularly +pursued the same course. They pillaged the manors of +their lords, demolished the houses, and burned the court rolls; +cut off the heads of every justice and lawyer and juror who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span> +fell into their hands; and swore all others to be true to King +Richard and the commons; to admit of no king of the name of +John; and to oppose all taxes but fifteenths, the ancient tallage +paid by their fathers. The members of the council saw, with +astonishment, the sudden rise and rapid spread of the insurrection; +and, bewildered by their fears and ignorance, knew not +whom to trust or what measures to pursue.</p> + +<p>The first who encountered the rabble on Blackheath was the +Princess of Wales, the King's mother, on her return from a pilgrimage +to Canterbury. She liberated herself from danger by +her own address; and a few kisses from "the fair maid of Kent" +purchased the protection of the leaders, and secured the respect +of their followers. She was permitted to join her son, who, with +his cousin Henry, Earl of Derby, Simon, Archbishop of Canterbury +and Chancellor, Sir Robert Hales, master of the Knights +of St. John and treasurer, and about one hundred sergeants +and knights had left the castle of Windsor, and repaired for +greater security to the Tower of London. The next morning +the King in his barge descended the river to receive the petitions +of the insurgents. To the number of ten thousand, with +two banners of St. George, and sixty pennons, they waited his +arrival at Rotherhithe; but their horrid yells and uncouth appearance +so intimidated his attendants, that instead of permitting +him to land, they took advantage of the tide, and returned +with precipitation. Tyler and Straw, irritated by this disappointment, +led their men into Southwark, where they demolished +the houses belonging to the Marshalsea and the king's +bench, while another party forced their way into the palace of +the Archbishop at Lambeth, and burned the furniture with the +records belonging to the chancery.</p> + +<p>The next morning they were allowed to pass in small companies, +according to their different townships, over the bridge +into the city. The populace joined them; and as soon as they +had regaled themselves at the cost of the richer inhabitants, the +work of devastation commenced. They demolished Newgate, +and liberated the prisoners; plundered and destroyed the magnificent +palace of the Savoy, belonging to the Duke of Lancaster; +burned the temple with the books and records; and despatched +a party to set fire to the house of the Knights Hospitallers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span> +at Clerkenwell, which had been lately built by Sir +Robert Hales. To prove, however, that they had no views of +private emolument, a proclamation was issued forbidding any +one to secrete part of the plunder; and so severely was the prohibition +enforced that the plate was hammered and cut into +small pieces, the precious stones were beaten to powder, and +one of the rioters, who had concealed a silver cup in his bosom, +was immediately thrown, with his prize, into the river. To every +man whom they met they put the question, "With whom holdest +thou?" and unless he gave the proper answer, "With King +Richard and the commons," he was instantly beheaded. But +the principal objects of their cruelty were the natives of Flanders. +They dragged thirteen Flemings out of one church, seventeen +out of another, and thirty-two out of the Vintry, and +struck off their heads with shouts of triumph and exultation. +In the evening, wearied with the labor of the day, they dispersed +through the streets, and indulged in every kind of debauchery.</p> + +<p>During this night of suspense and terror, the Princess of +Wales held a council with the ministers in the Tower. The +King's uncles were absent; the garrison, though perhaps able +to defend the place, was too weak to put down the insurgents; +and a resolution was taken to try the influence of promises and +concession. In the morning the Tower Hill was seen covered +with an immense multitude, who prohibited the introduction of +provisions, and with loud cries demanded the heads of the +chancellor and treasurer. In return, a herald ordered them, +by proclamation, to retire to Mile End, where the King would +assent to all their demands. Immediately the gates were thrown +open. Richard with a few unarmed attendants rode forward; +the best intentioned of the crowd followed him, and at Mile End +he saw himself surrounded with sixty thousand petitioners. +Their demands were reduced to four: the abolition of slavery; +the reduction of the rent of land to fourpence the acre; the free +liberty of buying and selling in all fairs and markets; and a +general pardon for past offences. A charter to that effect was +engrossed for each parish and township; during the night thirty +clerks were employed in transcribing a sufficient number of +copies; they were sealed and delivered in the morning; and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span> +whole body, consisting chiefly of the men of Essex and Hertfordshire, +retired, bearing the King's banner as a token that they +were under his protection.</p> + +<p>But Tyler and Straw had formed other and more ambitious +designs. The moment the King was gone, they rushed, at the +head of four hundred men, into the Tower. The Archbishop, +who had just celebrated mass, Sir Robert Hales, William Apuldore, +the King's confessor, Legge, the farmer of the tax, and +three of his associates, were seized, and led to immediate execution.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">68</a> +As no opposition was offered, they searched every part +of the Tower, burst into the private apartment of the Princess, +and probed her bed with their swords. She fainted, and was +carried by her ladies to the river, which she crossed in a covered +barge. The royal wardrobe, a house in Carter Lane, was selected +for her residence.</p> + +<p>The King joined his mother at the wardrobe; and the next +morning, as he rode through Smithfield with sixty horsemen, +encountered Tyler at the head of twenty thousand insurgents. +Three different charters had been sent to that demagogue, who +contemptuously refused them all. As soon as he saw Richard, +he made a sign to his followers to halt, and boldly rode up to the +King. A conversation immediately began. Tyler, as he talked, +affected to play with his dagger; at last he laid his hand on the +bridle of his sovereign; but at the instant Walworth, the Lord +Mayor, jealous of his design, plunged a short sword into his +throat. He spurred his horse, rode about a dozen yards, fell to +the ground, and was despatched by Robert Standish, one of the +King's esquires. The insurgents, who witnessed the transaction, +drew their bows to revenge the fall of their leader, and Richard +would inevitably have lost his life had he not been saved by his +own intrepidity. Galloping up to the archers he exclaimed: +"What are ye doing, my lieges? Tyler was a traitor. Come +with me, and I will be your leader." Wavering and disconcerted, +they followed him into the fields of Islington, whither a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span>force of one thousand men-at-arms, which had been collected +by the Lord Mayor and Sir Robert Knowles, hastened to protect +the young King; and the insurgents, falling on their knees, begged +for mercy. Many of the royalists demanded permission to punish +them for their past excesses; but Richard firmly refused, +ordered the suppliants to return to their homes, and by proclamation +forbade, under pain of death, any stranger to pass the +night in the city.</p> + +<p>On the southern coast the excesses of the insurgents reached +as far as Winchester; on the eastern, to Beverley and Scarborough; +and, if we reflect that in every place they rose about the +same time, and uniformly pursued the same system, we may +discover reason to suspect that they acted under the direction +of some acknowledged though invisible leader. The nobility +and gentry, intimidated by the hostility of their tenants, and distressed +by contradictory reports, sought security within the fortifications +of their castles. The only man who behaved with +promptitude and resolution was Henry Spenser, the young and +warlike Bishop of Norwich. In the counties of Norfolk, Cambridge, +and Huntington tranquillity was restored and preserved +by this singular prelate, who successively exercised the offices +of general, judge, and priest. In complete armor he always led +his followers to the attack; after the battle he sat in judgment +on his prisoners; and before execution he administered to them +the aids of religion. But as soon as the death of Tyler and the +dispersion of the men of Kent and Essex were known, thousands +became eager to display their loyalty; and knights and +esquires from every quarter poured into London to offer their +services to the King. At the head of forty thousand horse he +published proclamations, revoking the charters of manumission +which he had granted, commanding the villeins to perform +their usual services, and prohibiting illegal assemblies and associations. +In several parts the commons threatened to renew +the horrors of the late tumult in defence of their liberties; but +the approach of the royal army dismayed the disaffected in +Kent; the loss of five hundred men induced the insurgents of +Essex to sue for pardon; and numerous executions in different +counties effectually crushed the spirit of resistance. Among the +sufferers were Lister and Westbroom, who had assumed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span> +title and authority of kings in Norfolk and Suffolk; and Straw +and Ball, the itinerant preachers, who have been already mentioned, +and whose sermons were supposed to have kindled and +nourished the insurrection.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">69</a></p> + +<p>When the parliament met, the two houses were informed by +the Chancellor, that the King had revoked the charters of emancipation, +which he had been compelled to grant to the villeins, +but at the same time wished to submit to their consideration +whether it might not be wise to abolish the state of bondage +altogether. The minds of the great proprietors were not, however, +prepared for the adoption of so liberal a measure; and +both lords and commons unanimously replied that no man +could deprive them of the services of their villeins without their +consent; that they had never given that consent, and never +would be induced to give it, either through persuasion or violence. +The King yielded to their obstinacy; and the charters +were repealed by authority of parliament. The commons next +deliberated, and presented their petitions. They attributed the +insurrection to the grievances suffered by the people from: 1. +The purveyors, who were said to have exceeded all their predecessors +in insolence and extortion; 2. From the rapacity of the +royal officers in the chancery and exchequer, and the courts of +king's bench and common pleas; 3. From the banditti, called +maintainers, who, in different counties, supported themselves +by plunder, and, arming in defence of each other, set at defiance +all the provisions of the law; and 4. From the repeated aids +and taxes, which had impoverished the people and proved of no +service to the nation. To silence these complaints, a commis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span>sion +of inquiry was appointed; the courts of law and the King's +household were subjected to regulations of reform, and severe +orders were published for the immediate suppression of illegal +associations. But the demand of a supply produced a very interesting +altercation. The commons refused, on the ground +that the imposition of a new tax would goad the people to a second +insurrection. They found it, however, necessary to request +of the King a general pardon for all illegal acts committed in the +suppression of the insurgents, and received for answer that it +was customary for the commons to make their grants before +the King bestowed his favors. When the subsidy was again +pressed on their attention they replied that they should take +time to consider it, but were told that the King would also take +time to consider of their petition. At last they yielded; the tax +upon wool, wool-fells, and leather was continued for five years, +and in return a general pardon was granted for all loyal subjects, +who had acted illegally in opposing the rebels, and for the great +body of the insurgents, who had been misled by the declamations +of the demagogues.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span></p> +<h2>WYCLIFFE TRANSLATES THE BIBLE INTO +ENGLISH</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1382</h6> + +<h3>J. PATERSON SMYTH</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>It may safely be said that no greater service has been rendered at +once to religion and to literature than the translation of the Bible into the +English tongue. This achievement did not indeed, like that of Luther's +German translation, come as it were by a single stroke. Luther's Bible +caused him to be regarded as the founder of the present literary language +of Germany—New High German—which his translation permanently established. +The English Bible, on the other hand, was the growth of +centuries. But to the contributions of able hands through many generations, +during which the English language itself passed through a wonderful +formative development, the incomparable beauty of King James' +version owes its existence, and our literature its greatest ornaments.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to say when the first translation of any part of the +Bible into English was made. No English Bible of earlier date than the +fourteenth century has ever been found. But translations, even of the +whole Bible, older than Wcyliffe's are, by at least two eminent witnesses, +said to have existed. "As for olde translacions, before Wycliffe's +time," says Sir Thomas More, "they remain lawful and be in some folkes +handes." "The hole byble," he declares (<i>Dyalogues</i>, p. 138, ed. 1530), +"was long before Wycliffe's days, by vertuous and well learned men, +translated into the English tong." And Cranmer, in his prologue to the +second edition of the "Great Bible," bears testimony equally explicit to +the translation of Scripture "in the Saxons tongue." And when that language +"waxed olde and out of common usage," he says, the Bible "was +again translated into the newer language." There has never been any +means of testing these statements, which were probably due to some inexplicable +error. Abundant evidence exists relating to many Saxon and +later translations of various parts of the Bible before the time of Wycliffe. +Among the most notable of the early translators were the Venerable Bede +and Alfred the Great. Some portions of Scripture were likewise translated +into Anglo-Norman in the thirteenth century. Some of the early +fragments are still preserved in English libraries.</p> + +<p>Three versions of the Psalter in English, from the early years of the +fourteenth century, still exist, one of which was by Richard Rolle, the +Yorkshire hermit, who also translated the New Testament.</p> + +<p>But so far as known, the first complete Bible in English was the work +of John Wycliffe, assisted by Nicholas de Hereford—whom some would +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span>name first in this partnership, though the product of their joint labors is +known as "Wycliffe's Bible."</p> + +<p>John Wycliffe, the "Morning Star of the Reformation," was born +near Richmond, Yorkshire, about 1324. He became a fellow, and later +master of Balliol College, Oxford, afterward held several rectorships—the +last being that of Lutterworth, upon which he entered in 1374. For +opposing the papacy and certain church doctrines and practices, he was +condemned by the university, and his followers—known as Lollards—were +persecuted. Something of his life in connection with these matters +is fitly dealt with by Smyth in connection with his account of the famous +translation.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_a.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="A" />FTER the early Anglo-Saxon versions comes a long pause in +the history of Bible translation. Amid the disturbance resulting +from the Danish invasion there was little time for thinking +of translations and manuscripts; and before the land had +fully regained its quiet the fatal battle of Hastings had been +fought, and England lay helpless at the Normans' feet. The +higher Saxon clergy were replaced by the priests of Normandy, +who had little sympathy with the people over whom they came, +and the Saxon manuscripts were contemptuously flung aside as +relics of a rude barbarism. The contempt shown to the language +of the defeated race quite destroyed the impulse to English +translation, and the Norman clergy had no sympathy with +the desire for spreading the knowledge of the Scriptures among +the people, so that for centuries those Scriptures remained in +England a "spring shut up, a fountain sealed."</p> + +<p>Yet this time must not be considered altogether lost, for during +those centuries England was becoming fitted for an English +Bible. The future language of the nation was being formed; +the Saxon and Norman French were struggling side by side; +gradually the old Saxon grew unintelligible to the people; gradually +the French became a foreign tongue, and with the fusion +of the two races a language grew up which was the language of +united England.</p> + +<p>Passing, then, from the quiet death-beds of Alfred and of +Bede, we transfer ourselves to the great hall of the Blackfriars' +monastery, London, on a dull, warm May day in 1378, amid +purple robes and gowns of satin and damask, amid monks and +abbots, and bishops and doctors of the Church, assembled for +the trial of John Wycliffe, the parish priest of Lutterworth.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span>The great hall, crowded to its heavy oaken doors, witnesses +to the interest that is centred in the trial, and all eyes are fixed +on the pale, stern old man who stands before the dais silently +facing his judges. He is quite alone, and his thoughts go back, +with some bitterness, to his previous trial, when the people +crowded the doors shouting for their favorite, and John of +Gaunt and the Lord Marshal of England were standing by his +side. He has learned since then not to put his trust in princes. +The power of his enemies has rapidly grown; even the young +King (Richard II) has been won over to their cause, and patrons +and friends have drawn back from his side, whom the +Church has resolved to crush.</p> + +<p>The judges have taken their seats, and the accused stands +awaiting the charges to be read, when suddenly there is a quick +cry of terror. A strange rumbling sound fills the air, and the +walls of the judgment hall are trembling to their base—the monastery +and the city of London are being shaken by an earthquake! +Friar and prelate grow pale with superstitious awe. +Twice already has this arraignment of Wycliffe been strangely +interrupted. Are the elements in league with this enemy of the +Church? Shall they give up the trial?</p> + +<p>"No!" thunders Archbishop Courtenay, rising in his place. +"We shall not give up the trial. This earthquake but portends +the purging of the kingdom; for as there are in the bowels of +the earth noxious vapors which only by a violent earthquake +can be purged away, so are these evils brought by such men +upon this land which only by a very earthquake can ever be +removed. Let the trial go forward!"</p> + +<p>What think you, reader, were the evils which this pale ascetic +had wrought, needing a very earthquake to cleanse them +from the land? Had he falsified the divine message to the people +in his charge? Was he turning men's hearts from the worship +of God? Was his priestly office disgraced by carelessness +or drunkenness or impurity of life?</p> + +<p>Oh, no. Such faults could be gently judged at the tribunal +in the Blackfriars' hall. Wycliffe's was a far more serious +crime. He had dared to attack the corruptions of the Church, +and especially the enormities of the begging friars; he had indignantly +denounced pardons and indulgences and masses for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span> +the soul as part of a system of gigantic fraud; and worst of all, +he had filled up the cup of his iniquity by translating the Scriptures +into the English tongue; "making it," as one of the chroniclers +angrily complains, "common and more open to laymen +and to women than it was wont to be to clerks well learned and +of good understanding. So that the pearl of the Gospel is trodden +under foot of swine."</p> + +<p>The feeling of his opponents will be better understood if we +notice the position of the Church in England at the time. The +meridian of her power had been already passed. Her clergy as +a class were ignorant and corrupt. Her people were neglected, +except for the money to be extorted by masses and pardons, "as +if," to quote the words of an old writer, "God had given his +sheep, not to be pastured, but to be shaven and shorn." This +state of things had gone on for centuries, and the people like +dumb, driven cattle had submitted. But those who could discern +the signs of the times must have seen now that it could not +go on much longer. The spread of education was rapidly increasing, +several new colleges having been founded in Oxford +during Wycliffe's lifetime. A strong spirit of independence, too, +was rising among the people. Already Edward III and his +parliament had indignantly refused the Pope's demand for the +annual tribute to be sent to Rome. It was evident that a crisis +was near. And, as if to hasten the crisis, the famous schism of +the papacy had placed two popes at the head of the Church, and +all Christendom was scandalized by the sight of the rival "vicars +of Jesus Christ" anathematizing each other from Rome and +Avignon, raising armies and slaughtering helpless women and +children, each for the aggrandizing of himself.</p> + +<p>The minds of men in England were greatly agitated, and Wycliffe +felt that at such a time the firmest charter of the Church +would be the open Bible in her children's hands; the best exposure +of the selfish policy of her rulers, the exhibiting to the +people the beautiful, self-forgetting life of Jesus Christ as recorded +in the Gospels. "The sacred Scriptures," he said, "are +the property of the people, and one which no one should be +allowed to wrest from them. Christ and his apostles converted +the world by making known the Scriptures to men in a form +familiar to them, and I pray with all my heart that through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span> +doing the things contained in this book we may all together +come to the everlasting life." This Bible translation he placed +far the first in importance of all his attempts to reform the English +Church, and he pursued his object with a vigor and against +an opposition that remind one of the old monk of Bethlehem +and his Bible a thousand years before.</p> + +<p>The result of the Blackfriars' synod was that after three +days' deliberation Wycliffe's teaching was condemned, and at a +subsequent meeting he himself was excommunicated. He returned +to his quiet parsonage at Lutterworth—for his enemies +dared not yet proceed to extremities—and there, with his pile of +old Latin manuscripts and commentaries, he labored on at the +great work of his life, till the whole Bible was translated into +the "modir tongue," and England received for the first time in +her history a complete version of the Scriptures in the language +of the people.</p> + +<p>And scarce was his task well finished when, like his great +predecessor Bede, the brave old priest laid down his life. He +himself had expected that a violent death would have finished +his course. His enemies were many and powerful; the Primate, +the King, and the Pope were against him—with the friars, +whom he had so often and so fiercely defied; so that his destruction +seemed but a mere question of time. But while his enemies +were preparing to strike, the old man "was not, for God +took him."</p> + +<p>It was the close of the old year, the last Sunday of 1384, and +his little flock at Lutterworth were kneeling in hushed reverence +before the altar, when suddenly, at the time of the elevation +of the sacrament, he fell to the ground in a violent fit of the +palsy, and never spoke again until his death on the last day of +the year.</p> + +<p>In him England lost one of her best and greatest sons, a +patriot sternly resenting all dishonor to his country, a reformer +who ventured his life for the purity of the Church and the +freedom of the Bible—an earnest, faithful "parson of a country +town," standing out conspicuously among the clergy of the +time.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">"For Cristè's lore and his apostles twelve</span> +<span class="i0">He taughte—and first he folwede it himselve."</span> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span>Here is a choice specimen from one of the monkish writers +of the time describing his death: "On the feast of the passion of +St. Thomas of Canterbury, John Wycliffe, the organ of the +devil, the enemy of the Church, the idol of heretics, the image +of hypocrites, the restorer of schism, the storehouse of lies, the +sink of flattery, being struck by the horrible judgment of God, +was seized with the palsy throughout his whole body, and that +mouth which was to have spoken huge things against God and +his saints, and holy Church, was miserably drawn aside, and +afforded a frightful spectacle to beholders; his tongue was +speechless and his head shook, showing painfully plainly that +the curse which God had thundered forth against Cain was also +inflicted on him."</p> + +<p>Some time after his death a petition was presented to the +Pope, which to his honor he rejected, praying him to order Wycliffe's +body to be taken out of consecrated ground and buried +in a dunghill. But forty years after, by a decree of the Council +of Constance, the old reformer's bones were dug up and burned, +and the ashes flung into the little river Swift which "runneth +hard by his church at Lutterworth." And so, in the often-quoted +words of old Fuller, "as the Swift bear them into the +Severn, and the Severn into the narrow seas, and they again +into the ocean, thus the ashes of Wycliffe is an emblem of his +doctrine, which is now dispersed all over the world."</p> + +<p>But it is with his Bible translation that we are specially concerned. +As far as we can learn, the whole Bible was not translated +by the reformer. About half the Old Testament is ascribed +to Nicholas de Hereford, one of the Oxford leaders of +the Lollards; the remainder, with the whole of the New Testament, +being done by Wycliffe himself. About eight years +after its completion the whole was revised by Richard Purvey, +his curate and intimate friend, whose manuscript is still +in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. Purvey's preface +is a most interesting old document, and shows not only that +he was deeply in earnest about his work, but that he +thoroughly understood the intellectual and moral conditions +necessary for its success.</p> + +<p>"A simpel creature," he says, "hath translated the Scripture +out of Latin into Englische. First, this simpel creature had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span> +much travayle with divers fellows and helpers to gather many old +Bibles and other doctors and glosses to make one Latin Bible. +Some deal true and then to study it anew the texte and any +other help he might get, especially Lyra on the Old Testament, +which helped him much with this work. The third time to +counsel with olde grammarians and old divines of hard words +and hard sentences how they might best be understood and +translated, the fourth time to translate as clearly as he could to +the sense, and to have many good fellows and cunnying at the +correcting of the translacioun. A translator hath great nede to +studie well the sense both before and after, and then also he hath +nede to live a clene life and be full devout in preiers, and have +not his wit occupied about worldli things that the Holy Spyrit +author of all wisdom and cunnynge and truthe dresse him for +his work and suffer him not to err." And he concludes with +the prayer, "God grant to us all grace to ken well and to kepe +well Holie Writ, and to suffer joiefulli some paine for it at the +laste."</p> + +<p>Like all the earlier English translations, Wycliffe's Bible +was based on the Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome; and this is the +great defect in his work, as compared with the versions that +followed. He was not capable of consulting the original Greek +and Hebrew even if he had access to them—in fact, there was +probably no man in England at the time capable of doing so; +and therefore, though he represents the Latin faithfully and +well, he of course handed on its errors as faithfully as its perfections. +But, such as it is, it is a fine specimen of fourteenth-century +English. He translated not for scholars or for nobles, +but for the plain people, and his style was such as suited those +for whom he wrote—plain, vigorous, homely, and yet with all +its homeliness full of a solemn grace and dignity, which made +men feel that they were reading no ordinary book. He uses +many striking expressions, such as (II Tim. ii. 4): "No man +holding knighthood to God, wlappith himself with worldli +nedes;" and many of the best-known phrases in our present +Bible originated with him; <i>e.g.</i>, "the beame and the mote," +"the depe thingis of God," "strait is the gate and narewe is the +waye," "no but a man schall be born againe," "the cuppe of +blessing which we blessen," etc.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span><a href="images/gospel.png">Here is a specimen from Wycliffe's Gospels:</a></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><b>In thilke dayes came Joon Baptist prechynge in the +desert of Jude, saying, Do ye penaunce: for the kyngdom +of heuens shall neigh. Forsothe this is he of whom +it is said by Ysaye the prophete, A voice of a cryinge in +desert, make ye redy the wayes of the Lord, make ye +rightful the pathes of hym. Forsothe that like Joon hadde +cloth of the beeris of cameylis and a girdil of skyn about +his leendis; sothely his mete weren Iocustis and hony of +the wode. Thanne Jerusalem wente out to hym, and al +Jude, and al the cuntre aboute Jordan, and thei weren +crystened of hym in in Jordon, knowlechynge there synnes.</b></p></div> + +<p>It is somewhere recorded that at a meeting in Yorkshire +recently a long passage of Wycliffe's Bible was read, which was +quite intelligible throughout to those who heard.</p> + +<p>It will be seen that this specimen (Matt. iii. 1-6) is not divided +into verses. Verse division belongs to a much later period, +and, though convenient for reference, it sometimes a good deal +spoils the sense. The division into chapters appears in Wycliffe's +as in our own Bibles. This chapter division had shortly +before been made by a cardinal Hugo, for the purpose of a +Latin concordance, and its convenience brought it quickly into +use. But, like the verse division, it is often very badly done, the +object aimed at seeming to be uniformity of length rather than +any natural division of the subject. Sometimes a chapter +breaks off in the middle of a narrative or an argument, and, +especially in St. Paul's epistles, the incorrect division often +becomes misleading. The removal as far as possible of these +divisions is one of the advantages of the Revised Version to be +noticed later on.</p> + +<p>The book had a very wide circulation. While the Anglo-Saxon +versions were confined for the most part to the few religious +houses where they were written, Wycliffe's Bible, in spite +of its disadvantage of being only manuscript, was circulated +largely through the kingdom; and, though the cost a good deal +restricted its possession to the wealthier classes, those who could +not hope to possess it gained access to it too, as well through +their own efforts as through the ministrations of Wycliffe's +"pore priestes." A considerable sum was paid for even a few +sheets of the manuscript, a load of hay was given for permission<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span> +to read it for a certain period one hour a day,<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">70</a> and those who +could not afford even such expenses adopted what means they +could. It is touching to read such incidents as that of one Alice +Collins, sent for to the little gatherings "to recite the Ten Commandments +and parts of the epistles of SS. Paul and Peter, +which she knew by heart." "Certes," says old John Foxe in his +<i>Book of Martyrs</i>, "the zeal of those Christian days seems much +superior to this of our day, and to see the travail of them may +well shame our careless times."</p> + +<p>But it was at a terrible risk such study was carried on. The +appearance of Wycliffe's Bible aroused at once fierce opposition. +A bill was brought into parliament to forbid the circulation +of the Scriptures in English; but the sturdy John of Gaunt +vigorously asserted the right of the people to have the Word of +God in their own tongue; "for why," said he, "are we to be +the dross of the nations?" However, the rulers of the Church +grew more and more alarmed at the circulation of the book. At +length Archbishop Arundel, a zealous but not very learned prelate, +complained to the Pope of "that pestilent wretch, John +Wycliffe, the son of the old Serpent, the forerunner of Antichrist, +who had completed his iniquity by inventing a new +translation of the Scriptures"; and, shortly after, the Convocation +of Canterbury forbade such translations, under penalty of +the major excommunication.</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span>"God grant us," runs the prayer in the old Bible preface, +"to ken and to kepe well Holie Writ, and to suffer joiefulli some +paine for it at the laste." What a meaning that prayer must +have gained when the readers of the book were burned with the +copies round their necks, when men and women were executed +for teaching their children the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments +in English, when husbands were made to witness +against their wives, and children forced to light the death-fires +of their parents, and possessors of the banned Wycliffe Bible +were hunted down as if they were wild beasts!</p> + +<p>Thus did Wycliffe, in his effort for the spread of the Gospel +of Peace, bring, like his Master fourteen centuries before, "not +peace, but a sword." Every bold attempt to let in the light on +long-standing darkness seems to result first in a fierce opposition +from the evil creatures that delight in the darkness, and the +weak creatures weakened by dwelling in it so long. It is not till +the driving back of the evil and the strengthening of the weak, +as the light gradually wins its way, that the true results can be +seen. It is, to use a simile of a graceful modern writer,<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">71</a> "As +when you raise with your staff an old flat stone, with the grass +forming a little hedge, as it were, around it as it lies. Beneath +it, what a revelation! Blades of grass flattened down, colorless, +matted together, as if they had been bleached and ironed; +hideous crawling things; black crickets with their long filaments +sticking out on all sides; motionless, slug-like creatures; +young larvæ, perhaps more horrible in their pulpy stillness than +in the infernal wriggle of maturity. But no sooner is the stone +turned and the wholesome light of day let in on this compressed +and blinded community of creeping things than all of them that +have legs rush blindly about, butting against each other and +everything else in their way, and end in a general stampede to +underground retreats from the region poisoned by sunshine. +Next year you will find the grass growing fresh and green where +the stone lay—the ground-bird builds her nest where the beetle +had his hole—the dandelion and the buttercup are growing +there, and the broad fans of insect-angels open and shut over +their golden disks as the rhythmic waves of blissful consciousness +pulsate through their glorified being.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span>"The stone is ancient error, the grass is human nature borne +down and bleached of all its color by it, the shapes that are +found beneath are the crafty beings that thrive in the darkness, +and the weak organizations kept helpless by it. He who turns +the stone is whosoever puts the staff of truth to the old lying +incubus, whether he do it with a serious face or a laughing one. +The next year stands for the coming time. Then shall the nature +which had lain blanched and broken rise in its full stature +and native lines in the sunshine. Then shall God's minstrels +build their nests in the hearts of a new-born humanity. Then +shall beauty—divinity taking outline and color—light upon the +souls of men as the butterfly, image of the beatified spirit rising +from the dust, soars from the shell that held a poor grub, which +would never have found wings unless that stone had been +lifted."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span></p> +<h2>THE SWISS WIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE</h2> + +<h3>BATTLE OF SEMPACH</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1386-1389</h6> + +<h3>F. Grenfell Baker</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>For two generations after the victory of the Swiss over the Austrians +at Morgarten (1315), which was followed by the renewal of the Swiss Confederation +of 1291, the leagued cantons were favored with growth and internal +development. To the original cantons—Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden—were +added (1332-1353) Lucerne, Zurich, Glarus, Zug, and Bern. +The Confederation acknowledged no superior but the Emperor of Germany.</p> + +<p>In 1375 there was an irruption into Switzerland of a horde of irregular +soldiers under Enguerrand de Courcy, son-in-law of Edward III of +England. The mother of De Courcy was a daughter of Leopold I, +Duke of Austria, and through her De Courcy claimed several Swiss +towns. As the present Austrian Duke, Leopold II, who held nominal +suzerainty over Switzerland, refused to give them up, De Courcy invaded +Swiss territory with a large force and a fury which at first threw the +country into panic. But at last the Swiss recovered their old spirit of +bravery, and in many severe encounters they either killed or chased out +of the country the whole ruthless host of invaders.</p> + +<p>This war is known in Swiss chronicles as the <i>Guglerkrieg</i>, either from +the pointed spikes on the helmets of the Swiss soldiers or from the cowls +which many of them wore. It is also called the "English War," although +De Courcy's men were nearly all from the Continent and Wales.</p> + +<p>The Swiss soon had need of their old military prowess, which this +defence of their country against foreign invaders had freshly put to the +proof. By the victory of Sempach, July 9, 1386, their independence was +practically won, and by later acts of valor and statesmanship they made +it secure for many years.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_a.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="A" />USTRIA'S conduct soon began once more to disturb the +Swiss, and to threaten a renewal of hostilities. Her first +act of importance was the conquest of the Tyrol, after which, +under pretence of benefiting the pilgrims to Einsiedeln,<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">72</a> but in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span>reality to separate Glarus from Zurich, she built a bridge across +the lake at Rapperschwyl. The possession of this bridge by +Austria acted as a perpetual hinderance to Zurich's trade with the +South, and was accordingly greatly resented by the city. Austria's +position, as ruler in so many burghs that, from their situation +and the nationality of their inhabitants, were essentially +Swiss, also acted as a never-ending source of trouble. Her rule +was both harsh and unjust, and, as a result, her local governors +were extremely unpopular. In 1386 the anti-Austrian feeling +in Switzerland had grown to such a pitch that popular outbreaks +against her authority were, in many centres, of frequent +occurrence, and war appeared inevitable.</p> + + +<p>From Lucerne came the final troubles that precipitated the +country again into a conflict with Austria. Previous to the +actual declaration of war, constant collisions in the neighborhood +of Lucerne had for some time past taken place, with all +the horrors and savagery of war. In 1385 a body of men from +Lucerne attacked and demolished the castle town of Rothenburg, +the residence of an Austrian bailie. Next, both Entlibuch +and Sempach, at the instigation of Lucerne, revolted against +her Austrian rulers, expelled the bailies, and entered into alliances +with the city. Lucerne herself commenced extending her +territories by the purchase of Wiggis, and—contrary to her +treaty stipulations—admitted a number of Austrian subjects +into the privileges of citizenship. Austria retaliated by attacking +Richensee, a small Lucerne town containing a garrison of +some two hundred soldiers. This she carried by assault and +destroyed, massacring the inhabitants of all ages and of both +sexes.</p> + +<p>Other reprisals on both sides followed in quick succession, +in which immense numbers of victims perished. Soon both the +Duke, Leopold II, and the Confederates were fully prepared, +and the former took the field with a large army. After menacing +Zurich, the Duke, accompanied by many nobles from +Germany, France, and North Italy, headed some six thousand +picked men, and marched upon Lucerne. On his way he burned +Willisau and several smaller towns, where his troops committed +every form of excess. On July 9th a portion of his forces appeared +before the walls of Sempach, while another division<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span> +menaced Zurich. At Sempach the Confederates mustered to +the help of Lucerne, but were only able to bring about sixteen +hundred men, taken chiefly from the Forest States. In spite of +their disparity in numbers, the Confederates determined to risk +an encounter.</p> + +<p>The decisive and brilliant battle of Sempach, the second of +the long roll of victories that mark the prowess of the Swiss, is +thus described by an old writer: "The Swiss order of battle +was angular, one soldier followed by two, these by four, and so +on. The Swiss were all on foot, badly armed, having only their +long swords and their halberds, and boards on their left arms +with which to parry the blows of their adversaries, and they +could at first make no impression on the close ranks of the Austrians, +all bristling with spears. But Anthony zer Pot, of Uri, +cried to his men to strike with their halberds on the shafts of the +spears, which he knew were made hollow to render them lighter, +and, at the same time, Arnold von Winkelried, a knight from +Unterwalden, devoting himself for his country, cried out: 'I'll +open a way for you, Confederates!' and, seizing as many spears +as he could grasp in his arms, dragged them down with his whole +weight and strength upon his own bosom, and thus made an +opening for his countrymen to penetrate the Austrian ranks.</p> + +<p>"This act of heroism decided the victory. The Swiss rushed +into the gap made by Winkelried, and, having now come to +close quarters with their enemies, their bodily strength and the +lightness of their equipment gave them a great advantage over +the heavily armed Austrians, who were already fainting under +the heat of a July sun. The very closeness of the array of the +Austrian men-at-arms rendered them incapable either of advancing +or falling back, and, the grooms who held their horses +having taken flight, panic seized them, they broke their ranks, +and were hewed down by the Swiss halberds in frightful numbers. +Duke Leopold was urged by those around him to save his +life, but he scorned the advice, and, seeing the banner of Austria +in danger, rushed to save it, and was killed in the attempt. The +rout then became general, but the Swiss had the humanity, or +the policy, not to pursue their enemies, of whom otherwise not +one, perhaps, would have escaped. The loss of the Austrians +amounted to two thousand men, including six hundred and seventy-six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span> +noblemen, three hundred and fifty of whom wore coroneted +helmets. Most of them were buried at Koenigsfelden, +with their leader Leopold. The Swiss lost two hundred men in +this memorable battle, the second in which they had defeated +a duke of Austria at the head of his chivalry."</p> + +<p>After Sempach the men of Glarus set about making themselves +a free people. One of their first acts was the capture of +Wesen and the expulsion of its Austrian soldiers. This was followed +by a truce, which lasted till 1388, when Leopold's sons +recommenced the war with fresh fury. Wesen was recaptured +by the admission of a number of soldiers in disguise, who +opened the gates to their comrades without and massacred all +the chief Swiss leaders. Some months later the men of Glarus +inflicted a severe defeat on the Austrians at the little town of +Naefels, within their state. In this important combat three hundred +and fifty men of Glarus, together with fifty from Schwyz, +posted themselves on the heights above the town, and, as the +Austrians advanced, suddenly hurled down masses of stones +that soon caused a panic. Then, following the successful tactics +employed at Morgarten, the Swiss rushed down on the disordered +mass—said to consist of fifteen thousand soldiers, but +probably about half that number—and dealt death on every +side. A precipitate flight of the invaders followed, but they +were met near Wesen by a fresh body of seven hundred Glarus +peasants, who completed the victory.</p> + +<p>Though Bern took no part in the battle of Sempach, after +that victory she entered actively into the war, and overran the +Austrian dependencies in Freiburg and Valengrin. She drove +the Duke's followers out of Rapperschwyl, annexed Nidau and +Bueren, and conquered the upper Simmenthal.</p> + +<p>At length, both sides being weary of war and carnage, a +peace was signed for seven years in 1389, with the condition that +Bern should restore Nidau and Bueren. This peace was in 1394 +further prolonged for twenty years. These treaties brought +great benefits to Switzerland in many ways. Glarus and Zug +obtained their formal freedom from Austrian rule in payment of +a moderate sum of money; Schwyz received the town and abbey +of Einsiedeln (1397); Lucerne purchased Sempach and Entlibuch +from the Duke, as also other towns; but chief of all, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span> +political power of the Hapsburgs came to an end in Switzerland.</p> + +<p>An important feature of this period was the lessened influence +of the Emperor of Germany in Swiss affairs, and the gradual +withdrawal of the Swiss from the position they so long occupied +as subject-vassals of the empire. This was especially seen toward +the close of the fourteenth century, when the Emperor, being +pressed for money, sold his rights over several important +Swiss districts to their inhabitants, and thus forfeited all authority +over them.</p> + +<p>But chief of all the memorable events of this time was the +close it brought to the long and bloody struggle between Austria +and Switzerland. At length the heroism and persevering patriotism +of the Swiss effected the liberation of their country from +Austrian rule, and henceforth the dukes ceased to attempt to +enforce their claims, and tacitly acknowledged their defeat. +The Swiss states from this period, moreover, began to be known, +not as an unimportant portion of the German empire, but as a +separate country, Die Schweiz, from the prominent part taken +by Schwyz in initiating the freedom of the land.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span></p> +<h2>UNION OF DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND +NORWAY</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1397</h6> + +<h3>PAUL C. SINDING</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Canute the Great, King of England and Denmark, by successful wars +added almost the whole of Norway to his dominions. At his death in +1035 his kingdoms were divided, and fell into anarchy and discord for +two centuries, until the tyrant Black Geert, who had driven out Christopher +II, and been for fourteen years the virtual sovereign of Denmark, +was assassinated by the Danish patriot Niels Ebbeson.</p> + +<p>Christopher's third son, Waldemar, surnamed Atterdag, because he +used to say when a misfortune happened, "To-morrow it is again day," +was recalled from Bavaria and crowned king as Waldemar IV. He commenced +at once with vigor and marked success the improvement of the +internal conditions of the country, and strove to encompass his chief ambition, +the reunion of the ancient Danish possessions.</p> + +<p>By marrying his daughter Margaret to Hakon VI, King of Norway +and son of Magnus Smek, King of Sweden, Waldemar laid a basis for a +junction of the three great Scandinavian kingdoms. The union was realized +under the administration of his illustrious and sagacious daughter, +Margaret, known as the "Semiramis of the North."</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_w.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="W" />ALDEMAR ATTERDAG left no direct male issue. But +his two grandsons, Albert the Younger, of Mecklenburg, +a son of Ingeborg, Waldemar's eldest daughter, and of Henry +of Mecklenburg; and Olaf, a son of Margaret, his younger +daughter, and of Hakon VI of Norway, were now claiming +the hereditary succession to the throne. One party declared +for Olaf, but, as he was the son of the younger daughter, his +claim was very doubtful. But because the house of Mecklenburg +had acted with hostility toward Denmark, and Olaf +had expectation of Norway and claims to the crown of Sweden, +as a grandson of Magnus Smek, Denmark was, by his +election, in hopes of one day seeing the three crowns united on +the same head. It was therefore not long before this important +affair was determined. The preference was given Olaf, who, +although only six years of age, was, under the name of Olaf V,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span> +elected king of Denmark, under the guardianship of Margaret +his mother; and after the death of his father Hakon VI, he +became also king of Norway, the two kingdoms thus being +united. This union, till the expiration of four hundred and +thirty-four years, was not dissolved. When Olaf V, seven +years after, died in Falsterbo, both kingdoms elected Margaret +their queen, though custom had not yet authorized the election +of a female.</p> + +<p>During the reign of this great Princess, who deservedly has +been called the "Semiramis of the North," Denmark and Norway +exercised in Europe an influence the effects of which were +long felt throughout the Scandinavian countries with their vast +extent and rival races. She united wisdom and policy with +courage and determination, had strength of mind to preserve +her rectitude without deviation, and her efforts were crowned +by divine Providence with success. She is justly considered one +of the most illustrious female rulers in history. Her renown +even reached the Byzantine emperor Emanuel Palæologus, who +called her <i>Regina sine exemplo maxima</i>. But under her successors—destitute +of her high sense of duty, great ability, and +consistent virtue—her triumphs proved a snare instead of a +blessing. The great union she created dissolved in a short time, +and its downfall was as sudden as its elevation had been extraordinary. +She was born in 1353. Her father was, as we have +seen, Waldemar Atterdag, her mother Queen Hedevig, and she +became queen of Denmark and Norway in 1387. She was no +sooner elected queen of Denmark, and homaged on the hill of +Sliparehog, near Lund, in Ringsted, Odensee, and Wiborg, than +she sailed to Norway to receive their homage. But a remarkable +occurrence is mentioned by historians as occurring about this +time. A report prevailed that King Olaf, the Queen's son, was +not dead; it was propagated by the nobility, and very likely set +on foot by them, in order to punish Margaret for her liberality +to the clergy. An impostor claimed the crown of Denmark and +Norway, and gained credit every day by making discoveries +which could only be known to Olaf and his mother. Margaret, +however, proved him to be a son of Olaf's nurse. Olaf had a +large wart between his shoulders—a mark which did not appear +on the impostor. The false Olaf was seized, broken on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span> +wheel, and publicly burned at a place between Falsterbo and +Skanor, in Sweden, and Margaret continued uninterruptedly her +regency.</p> + +<p>But the Queen, not wishing to contract a new marriage, and +comprehending the importance of having a successor elected to +the throne, proposed her nephew, Eric, Duke of Pomerania. +This proposal the clergy and nobility approved, and they +elected him to be king of Denmark and Norway after Margaret's +death. Meanwhile Albert, King of Sweden, having, on account +of his preference given to German favorites, incurred the +hatred of his people, the Swedes requested Margaret to assist +them against him, which she promised to do if they in return +would make her queen of Sweden. Moreover, Albert had +highly offended the Danish Queen; had, though hardly able +to govern his own kingdom, assumed the title "king of Denmark," +and laid claim to Norway, too; and when she blamed him +for it he had answered her disdainfully. In a letter he had used +foul and abusive language, calling her "a king without breeches," +and the "abbot's concubine" (<i>abbedfrillen</i>), on account of +her particular attachment to a certain abbot of Soro, who was +her spiritual director. It is, however, true, that her intimacy +with this monk gave room for some suspicion that her privacies +with him were not all employed about the care of her soul. Afterward, +to ridicule her yet more, King Albert sent her a hone to +sharpen her needles, and swore not to put on his nightcap until +she had yielded to him. But under perilous circumstances Margaret +was never at a loss how to act. She acted here with the +utmost prudence, trying first to gain the favor of the peers of the +state, and solemnly promising to rule according to the Swedish +laws. War now broke out between Albert and Margaret, whose +army was commanded by Jvar Lykke. The encounter of the +two armies—about twelve thousand men on each side—took +place at Falkoping, September 21, 1388. A furious battle was +fought, in which the victory for a long while hung in suspense. +But Margaret's good fortune prevailed; Albert was routed and +his army cut to pieces, and Margaret was now mistress of Sweden.</p> + +<p>While this was passing, the Queen tarried in Wordingborg +Sjelland, ardently desiring to learn the result. But no sooner did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span> +she hear that the victory was gained, and the Swedish King and +his son Eric taken prisoners, than she hastened to Bahus, in +Sweden, where the King and his son were brought before her. +Lost in joy and amazement at having her enemy in her power, +the Queen now retorted upon King Albert with revilings, and +she made him wear a large nightcap of paper—a retaliation +proportioned to his offensive words. He and his son were thereupon +brought to Lindholm, a castle in Skane, where they were +kept prisoners for seven years. When they entered the castle, a +dark, square room was assigned them, and when the King said, +"I hope that this torture against a crowned head will only last a +few days," the jailer replied: "I grieve to say that the Queen's +orders are to the contrary; anger not the Queen by any bravado, +else you will be placed in the irons, and if these fail we can have +recourse to sharper means." To the excessive self-love, intemperance, +conceitedness, and want of foresight which had characterized +all his actions, the unhappy Albert had to ascribe his +present situation.</p> + +<p>The year following, the Queen stormed the important city of +Calmar, yet siding with the imprisoned King. She made several +wise alliances with Richard II of England, and other potentates, +and concluded a truce for two years with the princes of +Mecklenburg, and the cities of Rostock and Wismar, which had +begun to raise fresh levies in favor of the unfortunate Albert. +This period expired, she laid siege to Stockholm and other fortified +places, of which John, Duke of Mecklenburg, and other +friends of the imprisoned King had become masters. But the +cause of Albert was little forwarded, and Margaret gained ground +every day. She compelled the capital to surrender to her and do +homage to her as its sovereign; whereafter a peremptory peace +was concluded on Good Friday, which restored tranquillity to +the three kingdoms. The imprisoned King and his son were delivered +up to the Hanseatic towns, and they obtained their liberty +for sixty thousand ounces of silver, upon condition that they +should resign all claims to Sweden if the amount were not paid +within three years. As soon as the King and his son were delivered +to the deputies, they solemnly swore to a strict observance +of this article, the Hanse towns engaging themselves to guarantee +the treaty. The money, however, not being paid by the stipulated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span> +time, Margaret became undisputed sovereign of Sweden, +the third Scandinavian kingdom.</p> + +<p>About this time the "Victuals Brethren," so called because +they brought victuals from the Hanse towns to Stockholm while +besieged, began to imperil Denmark, plundering the Danish and +Norwegian coasts, and destroying all commercial business along +the Baltic. But Margaret ordered the harbors of the maritime +towns to be blockaded, thus putting a quick stop to their cruelties +and piracies. The Queen's principal care was now to visit +the different provinces, to administer justice and redress grievances +of every kind. Among other salutary regulations, the affairs +of commerce were not forgotten. It was, for instance, decreed +that all manner of assistance should be given to foreign +merchants and sailors, particularly in case of misfortune and +shipwreck, without expectation of reward; and that all pirates +should be treated with the greatest rigor.</p> + +<p>Eric of Pomerania was, as we have said, elected to be king +of Denmark and Norway after Margaret's death. But wishing +to have him also elected her successor to the Swedish throne, +Margaret brought him to Sweden, and introduced him to the +deputies, one by one, whom she requested to confirm his election +to the succession. The majesty of the Queen's person, the +strength of her arguments, and the sweetness of her eloquence +gained over the deputies, who, on July 22, 1396, elected him at +Morastone by Upsala, to succeed her also in Sweden. But Margaret, +soon discovering his inability and impetuousness, took +pains to remedy these defects, as much as possible, by procuring +for him as a wife the intelligent and virtuous princess Philippa, +a daughter of Henry V of England, and shortly after had +got Catharine, her niece and Eric's sister, married to Prince John, +a son of the German emperor Ruprecht; John being promised +the Scandinavian crowns if Eric of Pomerania should die childless. +Thus having strengthened and consolidated her power by +influential connections and relationships, the Queen, upon whose +head the three northern crowns were actually united, now proceeded +to realize the great plan she had long cherished—to get a +fundamental law established for a perpetual union of the three +large Scandinavian kingdoms. The realization of this purpose +immortalized her, securing for her the admiration of the world,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span> +whose most eminent historians do not hesitate to surname her +the "Great," and to compare her with the loftiest Greek and Roman +heroes and statesmen.</p> + +<p>On June 17, 1397, Margaret summoned to an assembly at +Calmar, in the province of Smaland, Sweden, the clergy and the +nobility of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and established, by +their aid and consent, a fundamental law. This was the law so +celebrated in the North under the name of the "Union of Calmar," +and which afterward gave birth to wars between Sweden +and Denmark that lasted a whole century. It consisted of +three articles. The first provided that the three kingdoms should +thenceforward have but one and the same king, who was to be +chosen successively by each of the kingdoms. The second article +imposed upon the sovereign the obligation of dividing his time +equally between the three kingdoms. The third, and most important, +decreed that each kingdom should retain its own laws, +customs, senate, and privileges of every kind; that the highest +officers should be natives; that any alliance concluded with foreign +potentates should be obligatory upon all three kingdoms +when approved by the council of one kingdom; and that, after +the death of the King, his eldest son, or, if the King died childless, +then another wise, intelligent, and able prince, should be +chosen common monarch; and if anyone, because of high treason, +was banished from one kingdom, then he should be banished +from them all. A month after, on the Queen's birthday, +July 13th, a legitimate charter was drawn up, to which the +Queen subscribed and put her seal; on which occasion Eric of +Pomerania was anointed and crowned by the archbishops of +Upsala and Lund as king of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. +The <i>Te Deum</i> was sung in the churches of Calmar, the assembly +crying out: "<i>Hæcce unio esto perpetua! Longe, longe, longe, +vivat Margarethe, regina Daniæ, Norvegiæ et Sveciæ!</i>"</p> + +<p>This strict union of the three large states became a potent +bulwark for their security, and made them, in more than one +century, the arbiter of the European system; the three nations of +the northern peninsula presenting a compact and united front, +that could bid defiance to any foreign aggression.</p> + +<p>Although Eric of Pomerania was elected king, and in 1407 +passed his minority, Margaret continued governing until the day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span> +of her death. "You have done all well," wrote the people to +her, "and we value your services so highly that we would gladly +grant you everything." The union of the three Scandinavian +kingdoms having been established in Calmar, all her efforts were +now aimed at regaining the duchy of Schleswig, which circumstances +had compelled her to resign to Gerhard IV, Count of +Holstein. For such a reunion with Schleswig a favorable opportunity +appeared, when Gerhard was killed in an expedition +against the Ditmarshers, leaving behind three sons in minority. +Elizabeth, Gerhard's widow, fled to Margaret for succor against +her violent brother-in-law, Bishop Henry of Osnabrueck. Margaret, +fond of fishing in foul water, was very willing to help her, +but availed herself of the opportunity to annex successively different +parts of Schleswig.</p> + +<p>The dethroned Swedish King, Albert, never able to forget +his anger toward Margaret or her severity against him, and continually +cherishing a hope of reascending the Swedish throne, +and considering the Union of Calmar a breach of peace, contrived +to make the Swedish people displeased with her, and +thought it a suitable time to revolt from her dominion. He established +a strong camp before Visby, the capital of the island of Gulland, +having six thousand foot and, at some distance, nine thousand +horse. Determined to engage before their junction could +take place, the Queen's commander-in-chief, Abraham Broder, +immediately advanced until in sight of the enemy, and then endeavored +to gain possession of Visby and the ground near by. In +this he was so far successful that Albert and his army had to +leave the camp and conclude a truce. But nevertheless he did +not till after a lapse of seven years give up his hope of remounting +the throne of Sweden, making a final peace with Margaret, and +henceforward living in Gadebush, Mecklenburg, where in 1412 +he closed his inglorious life.</p> + +<p>Soon after, October 27th, Queen Margaret died on board a +ship in the harbor of Flensburg, at the age of fifty-nine, after an +active and notable reign of thirty-seven years. Her funeral was +attended with the greatest solemnity, and her corpse was brought +to the Cathedral of Roeskilde, where Eric of Pomerania, her successor, +in 1423, caused her likeness to be carved in alabaster. +Her acts show her character. She displayed judiciousness united<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span> +with circumspection; wisdom in devising plans, and perseverance +in executing them; skill in gaining the confidence of the +clergy and peasantry, and thereby counterbalancing the imperious +nobility. On the whole she applied herself to the civilization +of her three kingdoms, and to their improvement by excellent +laws, the great aim of which was to undermine the nobility. She +pursued the plan of her great father to recall all rights to the +crown lands, which during the reign of her weak and inefficient +predecessors had been granted to the nobility. The prosecution +of this plan for the perfect subversion of the feudal aristocracy +was unfortunately interrupted by her death; her imprudent and +weak successor having no power to restrain the turbulent spirit +of a factious nobility.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span></p> +<h2>DEPOSITION OF RICHARD II</h2> + +<h3>HENRY IV BEGINS THE LINE OF LANCASTER</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1399</h6> + +<h3>JOHN LINGARD</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Richard II, son of Edward the Black Prince, succeeded his grandfather, +Edward III, on the throne of England in 1377, when Richard was +but ten years old. During his minority the government was intrusted to +a council of twelve, but for some years it was mainly controlled by Richard's +uncles, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and Thomas of Woodstock, +Duke of Gloucester. War with France, then in progress, entailed +great expenditures, which were increased by court extravagance, and at +length burdensome taxes led to popular uprisings. These became most +serious in the great revolt of the peasants led by Wat Tyler, in 1381. +Richard appeared among the insurgents and granted them concessions.</p> + +<p>From this time the King became more active in his government, and +in 1386 John of Gaunt withdrew to the Continent. About the same time +the Duke of Gloucester headed a coalition of the baronial party in opposition +to the sovereign; but in 1389 Richard suddenly declared himself +of age and gave a check to their designs. For eight years he ruled with +moderation as a constitutional monarch.</p> + +<p>But in 1396 Richard married Isabella, daughter of Charles VI of +France, and henceforth seems to have adopted French ideas, and to have +made pretensions in the direction of absolutism. He proceeded to arbitrary +prosecutions which led to the violent death of several leading +nobles. Richard also quarrelled with Henry, son of John of Gaunt, +whom as Duke of Lancaster he succeeded in 1399. The year before, +Richard had banished Henry for ten years—fearing him as a possible +rival. The history of the remaining months of Richard's reign is crowded +with the events which rapidly led to the ending of the direct line of the +Plantagenets and the beginning of the line of Lancaster.</p> + +<p>In Shakespeare's <i>Richard II</i>—the first of his historical plays—the +poet, following Holinshed's chronicle, presents not only a skilful dramatic +construction of the recorded incidents of the reign, but also a finely +discriminated portrait of Richard's much debated character as man and +monarch.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_r.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="R" />ICHARD now saw himself triumphant over all his opponents. +Even his uncles, through affection or fear, seconded all his +measures. He had attained what seems for some time to have +been the great object of his policy. He had placed himself above<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span> +the control of the law. By the grant of a subsidy for life he was +relieved from the necessity of meeting his parliament; with the +aid of his committee, the members of which proved the obsequious +ministers of his will, he could issue what new ordinances he +pleased; and a former declaration by the two houses, that he was +as free as any of his predecessors, was conveniently interpreted +to release him from the obligations of those statutes which +he deemed hostile to the royal prerogative. But he had forfeited +all that popularity which he had earned during the last +ten years; and the security in which he indulged hurried him +on to other acts of despotism, which inevitably led to his ruin. +He raised money by forced loans; he compelled the judges to +expound the law according to his own prejudices or caprice; +he required the former adherents of Gloucester to purchase +and repurchase charters of pardon; and, that he might obtain +a more plentiful harvest of fines and amercements, put at once +seventeen counties out of the protection of the law, under the pretence +that they had favored his enemies.</p> + +<p>The Duke of Lancaster did not survive the banishment of +his son more than three months; and the exile expected to succeed +by his attorneys to the ample estates of his father. But +Richard now discovered that his banishment, like an outlawry, +had rendered him incapable of inheriting property. At a great +council, including the committee of parliament, it was held that +the patents granted, both to him and his antagonist, were illegal, +and therefore void; and all the members present were sworn to +support that determination. Henry Bowet, who had procured +the patent for the duke of Hereford, was even condemned, for that +imaginary offence, to suffer the punishment of treason; though, +on account of his character, his life was spared on condition that +he should abjure the kingdom forever.</p> + +<p>This iniquitous proceeding seems to have exhausted the +patience of the nation. Henry—on the death of his father he +had assumed the title of duke of Lancaster—had long been the +idol of the people; and the voluntary assemblage of thousands +to attend him on his last departure from London might have +warned Richard of the approaching danger. The feeling of +their own wrongs had awakened among them a spirit of resistance; +the new injury offered to their favorite pointed him out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span> +to them as their leader. Consultations were held; plans were +formed; the dispositions of the great lords were sounded; and +the whole nation appeared in a ferment. Yet it was in this +moment, so pregnant with danger, that the infatuated monarch +determined to leave his kingdom. His cousin and heir, the +Earl of March, had been surprised and slain by a party of Irish; +and, in his eagerness to revenge the loss of a relation, he despised +the advice of his friends, and wilfully shut his eyes to the designs +of his enemies.</p> + +<p>Having appointed his uncle, the Duke of York, regent during +his absence, the King assisted at a solemn mass at Windsor, +chanted a collect himself, and made his offering. At the door +of the Church he took wine and spices with his young Queen; +and, lifting her up in his arms, repeatedly kissed her, saying, +"Adieu, madam, adieu till we meet again." From Windsor, accompanied +by several noblemen, he proceeded to Bristol, where +the report of plots and conspiracies reached him, and was received +with contempt. At Milford Haven he joined his army, +and, embarking in a fleet of two hundred sail, arrived in a few +days in the port of Waterford. His cousin the Duke of Albemarle +had been ordered to follow with a hundred more; and +three weeks were consumed in waiting for that nobleman, whose +delay was afterward attributed to a secret understanding with +the King's enemies.</p> + +<p>At length Richard led his forces from Kilkenny against the +Irish. Several of the inferior chiefs hastened barefoot and with +halters round their necks to implore his mercy; but M'Murchad +spurned the idea of submission, and boasted that he would extirpate +the invaders. He dared not indeed meet them in open +combat; but it was his policy to flee before them, and draw them +into woods and morasses, where they could neither fight with +advantage nor procure subsistence. The want of provisions +and the clamor of the soldiers compelled the King to give up the +pursuit, and to direct his march toward Dublin; and M'Murchad, +when he could no longer impede their progress, solicited and obtained +a parley with the Earl of Gloucester, the commander of +the rear-guard. The chieftain was an athletic man; he came +to the conference mounted on a gray charger, which had cost +him four hundred head of cattle, and brandished with ease and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span> +dexterity a heavy spear in his hand. He seemed willing to become +the nominal vassal of the King of England, but refused +to submit to any conditions. Richard set a price on his head, +proceeded to Dublin, and at the expiration of a fortnight was +joined by the Duke of Albemarle with men and provisions. This +seasonable supply enabled him to recommence the pursuit of +M'Murchad; but while he was thus occupied with objects of +inferior interest in Ireland, a revolution had occurred in England, +which eventually deprived him both of his crown and his life.</p> + +<p>When the King sailed to Ireland, Henry of Bolingbroke, the +new Duke of Lancaster, resided in Paris, where he was hospitably +entertained, but at the same time narrowly watched, by the +French monarch. About Christmas he offered his hand to +Marie, one of the daughters of the Duke of Berry. The jealousy +of Richard was alarmed; the Earl of Salisbury hastened to +Paris to remonstrate against the marriage of a daughter of +France with an English "traitor," and, suiting his conduct to his +words, the envoy, having accomplished his object, returned +without deigning to speak to the exile. While Henry was brooding +over these injuries, the late Primate, or nominal Bishop of +St. Andrews, secretly left his house at Cologne, and in the disguise +of a friar procured an interview with the Duke at the Hotel +de Vinchester. The result of their meeting was a determination +to return to England during the King's absence. To elude the +suspicions of the French ministers, Henry procured permission +to visit the Duke of Bretagne; and, on his arrival at Nantes, +hired three small vessels, with which he sailed from Vannes to +seek his fortune in England. His whole retinue consisted only +of the Archbishop, the son of the late Earl of Arundel, fifteen +lances, and a few servants. After hovering for some days on +the eastern coast, he landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire, and was +immediately joined by the two powerful earls of Northumberland +and Westmoreland; before whom, in the White Friars +at Doncaster, he declared upon oath that his only object +was to recover the honors and estates which had belonged +to his father, and bound himself not to advance any claim to +the crown.</p> + +<p>The Duke of York, to whom the King had intrusted the +government during his absence, was accurately informed of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span> +motions, and had summoned the retainers of the crown to join +the royal standard at St. Albans. There is, however, reason to +believe that he was not hearty in the cause which it was his duty +to support. He must have viewed with pity the unmerited misfortunes +of one nephew, and have condemned the violent and +thoughtless career of the other; and from the fate of his brother +Gloucester, and the cruel and unjust treatment of the only son +of his brother, John of Gaunt, he could not draw any very flattering +conclusion with respect to the stability of his own family. +Whether it was from suspicion of his fidelity, or from the disinclination +of the chief barons to draw the sword against one who +demanded nothing more than his right, the favorites of Richard +became alarmed for their own safety.</p> + +<p>The Earl of Wiltshire, with Bussy and Greene, members of +the committee of parliament, had been appointed to wait on the +young Queen at Wallingford; but they suddenly abandoned +their charge, and fled with precipitation to Bristol. York himself +followed with the army in the same direction. It might be +that, to relieve himself from responsibility, he wished to be in +readiness to deliver up the command on the expected arrival +of Richard from Ireland; but at the same time he left open the +road from Yorkshire to the metropolis, and allowed the adventurer +to pursue his object without impediment. Henry was +already on his march. The snowball increased as it rolled +along, and the small number of forty followers, with whom he +had landed, swelled by the time that he had reached St. Albans +to sixty thousand men. He was preceded by his messengers +and letters, stating not only his own wrongs, but also the grievances +of the people, and affirming that the revenue of the kingdom +had been let out to farm to the rapacity of Scrope, Bussy, +and Greene. In all those lordships which had been the inheritance +of his family he was received with enthusiasm; in London +by a procession of the clergy and people, with addresses of congratulation, +and presents, and offers of service.</p> + +<p>His stay in the capital was short. Having flattered the citizens, +and confirmed them in their attachment to his person, +he turned to the west, and entered Evesham, on the same day +on which York reached Berkeley. After an interchange of +messages they met in the church of the castle; and, before they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span> +separated, the doom of Richard was sealed. That the regent +consented to the actual deposition of his nephew does not +necessarily follow; he might only have sought his reformation by +putting it out of his power to govern amiss; but he betrayed the +trust which had been reposed to him, united his force with that +of Henry, and commanded Sir Peter Courtenay, who held the +castle of Bristol for the King, to open its gates. That officer, +protesting that he acknowledged no authority in the Duke of +Lancaster, obeyed the mandate of the regent. The next morning +the three fugitives, the Earl of Wiltshire, Bussy, and Greene, +were executed by order of the constable and marshal of the host. +The Duke of York remained at Bristol; Henry with his own +forces proceeded to Chester to secure that city, and awe the men +of Cheshire, the most devoted adherents of the King.</p> + +<p>We may now return to Richard in Ireland. It must appear +strange, but Henry had been in England a fortnight before +the King, in consequence, it was said, of the tempestuous +weather, had heard of his landing. The intelligence appears +to have provoked indignation as much as alarm. "Ha!" he +exclaimed, "fair uncle of Lancaster, God reward your soul! +Had I believed you, this man would not have injured me. +Thrice have I pardoned him; this is his fourth offence." But +he referred the matter to his council, and was advised to cross +over to England immediately with the ships which had brought +the reënforcement under the Duke of Albemarle. That nobleman, +however, insidiously, as it was afterward pretended, +diverted him from this intention. The Earl of Salisbury received +orders to sail immediately with his own retainers, a body +of one hundred men, and to summon to the royal standard the +natives of Wales. Richard promised to follow in the fleet from +Waterford in the course of six days. The Earl obeyed; the +men of Wales and Cheshire answered the call; and a gallant +host collected at Conway.</p> + +<p>But Richard appeared not according to his promise; distressing +reports were circulated among the troops; and the +royalists, having waited for him almost a fortnight, disbanded +in spite of the fears and entreaties of their commander. At last, +on the eighteenth day, the King arrived in Milford Haven with +the dukes of Albemarle, Exeter, and Surrey, the Earl of Worcester,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span> +the bishops of London, Lincoln, and Carlisle, and several +thousands of the troops who had accompanied him to Ireland. +With such a force, had it been faithful, he might have made a +stand against his antagonist; but on the second morning, when +he arose, he observed from his window that the greater part had +disappeared. A council was immediately summoned, and a +proposal made that the King should flee by sea to Bordeaux; +but the Duke of Exeter objected that to quit the kingdom in +such circumstances was to abdicate the throne. Let them +proceed to the army at Conway. There they might bid defiance +to the enemy; or at all events, as the sea would still be open, +might thence set sail to Guienne. His opinion prevailed; and +at nightfall the King, in the disguise of a Franciscan friar, his +two brothers of Exeter and Surrey, the Earl of Gloucester, the +Bishop of Carlisle, Sir Stephen Scrope, and Sir William Feriby, +with eight others, stole away from the army, and directed their +route toward Conway. Their flight was soon known. The +royal treasure, which Richard left behind him, was plundered; +Albemarle, Worcester, and most of the leaders hastened to pay +their court to Henry; the rest attempted in small bodies to make +their way to their own counties, but were in most instances +plundered and ill-treated by the Welsh.</p> + +<p>The royal party with some difficulty, but without any accident, +reached Conway, where, to their utter disappointment, +instead of a numerous force, they found only the Earl of Salisbury +with a hundred men. In this emergency the King's brothers +undertook to visit Henry at Chester, and to sound his intentions; +and during their absence Richard, with the Earl of Salisbury, +examined the castles of Beaumaris and Carnarvon; but +finding them without garrisons or provisions, the disconsolate +wanderers returned to their former quarters.</p> + +<p>When the two dukes were admitted into the presence of +Henry, they bent the knee and acquainted him with their message +from the King. He took little notice of Surrey, whom +he afterward confined in the castle, but, leading Exeter aside, +spoke with him in private, and gave him, instead of the hart, +the King's livery, his own badge of the rose. But no entreaties +could induce him to allow them to return. Exeter was observed +to drop a tear when the Duke of Albemarle said to him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span> +tauntingly: "Fair cousin, be not angry. If it please God, things +shall go well."</p> + +<p>The immediate object of Henry was to secure the royal person. +He was gratified to learn from the envoys the place of +Richard's retreat, and detained them at Chester, that the King, +instead of making his escape, might await their return. His +first care was to take possession of the treasure which the King +had deposited in the strong castle of Holt; his next, to despatch +the Earl of Northumberland at the head of four hundred men-at-arms +and a thousand archers to Conway, with instructions +not to display his force, lest the King should put to sea, but +by artful speeches and promises to draw him out of the +fortress and then make him prisoner. The Earl took possession +in his journey of the castles of Flint and Rhuddlan, +and a few miles beyond the latter, placing his men in concealment +under a rock, rode forward with only five attendants to +Conway.</p> + +<p>He was readily admitted, and, to the King's anxious inquiries +about his brothers, replied that he had left them well at +Chester, and had brought a letter from the Duke of Exeter. In +it that nobleman said, or rather was made to say, that full +credit might be given to the offers of the bearer. These offers +were, that Richard should promise to govern and judge his +people by law; that the dukes of Exeter and Surrey, the Earl +of Salisbury, the Bishop of Carlisle, and Maudelin, the King's +chaplain, should submit to a trial in parliament, on the charge +of having advised the assassination of Gloucester; that Henry +should be made grand justiciary of the kingdom, as his ancestors +had been for a hundred years; and that, on the concession +of these terms, the Duke should come to Flint, ask the +King's pardon on his knees, and accompany or follow him to +London. Richard consulted his friends apart. He expressed +his approbation of the articles, but bade them secretly be assured +that no consideration should induce him to abandon +them on their trial, and that he would grasp the first opportunity +of being revenged on his and their enemies—"for there were +some among them whom he would flay alive; whom he would +never spare for all the gold in the land." Northumberland +was then sworn to the observance of the conditions. He took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span> +his oath on the host; and, "like Judas," says the writer, "perjured +himself on the body of our Lord."</p> + +<p>As Northumberland departed to make arrangements for the +interview at Flint, the King said to him: "I rely, my lord, on +your faith. Remember your oath, and the God who heard it." +Soon afterward he followed with his friends and their servants, +to the number of twenty-two. They came to a steep declivity, +to the left of which was the sea, and on the right a lofty rock +overhanging the road. The King dismounted, and was descending +on foot, when he suddenly exclaimed: "I am betrayed. +God of Paradise, assist me! Do you not see banners and pennons +in the valley?" Northumberland with eleven others met +them at the moment and affected to be ignorant of the circumstance. +"Earl of Northumberland," said the King, "if I +thought you capable of betraying me, it is not too late to return." +"You cannot return," the Earl replied, seizing the King's bridle; +"I have promised to conduct you to the Duke of Lancaster." +By this time he was joined by a hundred lances, and +two hundred archers on horseback; and Richard, seeing it +impossible to escape, exclaimed: "May the God, on whom you +laid your hand, reward you and your accomplices at the last +day!" and then, turning to his friends, added: "We are betrayed; +but remember that our Lord was also sold and delivered +into the hands of his enemies."</p> + +<p>They dined at Rhuddlan, and reached Flint in the evening. +The King, as soon as he was left with his friends, abandoned +himself to the reflections which his melancholy situation inspired. +He frequently upbraided himself with his past indulgence +to his present opponent: "Fool that I was!" he exclaimed: +"thrice did I save the life of this Henry of Lancaster. +Once my dear uncle his father, on whom the Lord have mercy! +would have put him to death for his treason and villany. God +of Paradise! I rode all night to save him; and his father delivered +him to me, to do with him as I pleased. How true is +the saying that we have no greater enemy than the man whom +we have preserved from the gallows! Another time he drew +his sword on me, in the chamber of the Queen, on whom God +have mercy! He was also the accomplice of the Duke of Gloucester +and the Earl of Arundel; he consented to my murder,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span> +to that of his father, and of all my council. By St. John, I forgave +him all; nor would I believe his father, who more than +once pronounced him deserving of death."</p> + +<p>The unfortunate King rose after a sleepless night, heard +mass, and ascended the tower to watch the arrival of his opponent. +At length he saw the army, amounting to eighty +thousand men, winding along the beach till it reached the castle +and surrounded it from sea to sea. He shuddered and wept, +and cursed the Earl of Northumberland, but was called down +by the arrival of Archbishop Arundel, the Duke of Albemarle, +and the Earl of Worcester. They knelt to Richard, who, drawing +the prelate apart, held a long conversation with him. After +their departure he again mounted the tower, and, surveying +the host of his enemies, exclaimed: "Good Lord God! I +commend myself into thy holy keeping, and cry thee mercy, +that thou wouldst pardon all my sins. If they put me to death +I will take it patiently, as thou didst for us all." Northumberland +had ordered dinner, and the Earl of Salisbury, the Bishop +and the two knights, Sir Stephen Scrope and Sir William Feriby, +sat with the King at the same table by his order; for since +they were all companions in misfortune, he would allow no +distinction among them. While he was eating, unknown persons +entered the hall, insulting him with sarcasms and threats. +As soon as he rose, he was summoned into the court to receive +the Duke of Lancaster. Henry came forward in complete armor, +with the exception of his helmet. As soon as he saw +the King he bent his knee, and, advancing a few paces, he repeated +his obeisance with his cap in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Fair cousin of Lancaster," said Richard, uncovering himself, +"you are right welcome." "My lord," answered the Duke, +"I am come before my time. But I will show you the reason. +Your people complain that for the space of twenty or two-and-twenty +years you have ruled them rigorously; but, if it please +God, I will help you to govern better." The King replied, +"Fair cousin, since it pleaseth you, it pleaseth us well." Henry +then addressed himself successively to the Bishop and to the +knights, but refused to notice the Earl. The King's horses +were immediately ordered; and two lean and miserable animals +were brought out, on which Richard and Salisbury mounted,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span> +and amid the flourish of trumpets and shouts of triumph followed +the Duke into Chester.</p> + +<p>At Chester writs were issued in the King's name for the +meeting of parliament and the preservation of the peace. +Henry dismissed the greater part of his army, and prepared to +conduct his prisoner to the capital. At Lichfield Richard +seized a favorable moment to let himself down from his window, +but was retaken in the garden, and from that moment was constantly +guarded by ten or twelve armed men. In the neighborhood +of London they separated. Henry, accompanied by the +mayor and principal citizens, proceeded to St. Paul's, prayed +before the high altar, and wept a few minutes over the tomb of +his father. The King was sent to Westminster, and thence on +the following day to the Tower, and, as he went along, was +greeted with curses and the appellation of "the bastard," a +word of ominous import, and prophetic of his approaching degradation.</p> + +<p>When the Duke first landed in England, he had sworn on the +Gospels that his only object was to vindicate his right to the +honors and possessions of the house of Lancaster. If this was +the truth, his ambition had grown with his good-fortune. He +now aspired to exchange the coronet of a duke for the crown +of a king. Can we believe that he would meet with opposition +from his associates, the Percy family? Yet so we are assured. +They, however, by their perfidy, had given themselves a master. +Their retainers had been already dismissed; and the friends of +Richard abhorred them as the worst of traitors. They had +therefore no resource but to submit, and to second the design +of Lancaster. After several consultations it was resolved to +combine a solemn renunciation of the royal authority on the +part of Richard with an act of deposition on the part of the +two houses of parliament, in the hope that those whose scruples +should not be satisfied with the one, might acquiesce in the +other. To obtain the first, the royal captive was assailed with +promises and threats. Generally he abandoned himself to lamentation +and despair; occasionally he exerted that spirit which +he had formerly displayed. "Why am I thus guarded?" he +asked one day. "Am I your king or your prisoner?" "You +are my king, sir," replied the Duke with coolness; "but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span> +council of your realm has thought proper to place a guard about +you."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><a name="Richard_II" id="Richard_II"></a><img src= +"images/img4a.jpg" width="500" height="757" alt= +"Richard II resigns the crown of England +to Henry, Duke of Lancaster, +son of John of Gaunt, +at London." title="" /> +</div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"><img src= +"images/img3a.jpg" width="500" height="819" alt= +"Richard II resigns the crown of England +to Henry, Duke of Lancaster, +son of John of Gaunt, +at London." title="" /> +</div> + +<p>On the day before the meeting of parliament a deputation +of prelates, barons, knights, and lawyers waited on the captive +in the Tower, and reminded him that in the castle of Conway, +while he was perfectly his own master, he had promised to resign +the crown on account of his own incompetency to govern. +On his reply that he was ready to perform his promise, a paper +was given him to read, in which he was made to absolve all his +subjects from their fealty and allegiance, to renounce of his own +accord all kingly authority, to acknowledge himself incapable +of reigning, and worthy for his past demerits to be deposed, +and to swear by the holy Gospels that he would never act, nor, +as far as in him lay, suffer any other person to act, in opposition +to this resignation. He then added, as from himself, that if it +were in his power to name his successor, he would choose his +cousin of Lancaster, who was present, and to whom he gave his +ring, which he took from his own finger.</p> + +<p>Such is the account of this transaction inserted by the order +of Henry in the rolls of parliament; an account the accuracy +of which is liable to strong suspicion. It is difficult to believe +that Richard had so much command over his feelings as to +behave with that cheerfulness which is repeatedly noticed in +the record; and the assertion that he had promised to resign +the crown when he saw Northumberland in the castle +of Conway, is not only contradictory to the statement of the +two eye-witnesses, but also in itself highly improbable. From +the fate of Edward II, with which he had so often been threatened, +he must have known that it was better to flee to his transmarine +dominions, which were still open to him, than to resign +his crown and remain a prisoner in the custody of his successor.</p> + +<p>The next day the two houses met amid a great concourse +of people in Westminster hall. The Duke occupied his usual +seat near the throne, which was empty and covered with cloth +of gold. The resignation of the King was read; each member, +standing in his place, signified his acceptance of it aloud; and +the people with repeated shouts expressed their approbation. +Henry now proceeded to the second part of his plan, the act of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span> +deposition. For this purpose the coronation oath was first +read; thirty-three articles of impeachment followed, in which +it was contended that Richard had violated that oath; and +thence it was concluded that he had by his misconduct forfeited +his title to the throne. Of the articles, those which bear the +hardest on the King are: the part which he was supposed to +have had in the death of the Duke of Gloucester, his revocation +of the pardons formerly granted to that Prince and his adherents, +and his despotic conduct since the dissolution of parliament. +Of the remainder, some are frivolous; many might, +with equal reason, have been objected to each of his predecessors; +and the others rest on the unsupported assertion of men +whose interest it was to paint him in the blackest colors.</p> + +<p>No opposition had been anticipated, nor is any mentioned +on the rolls; but we are told that the Bishop of Carlisle, to the +astonishment of the Lancastrians, rose and demanded for Richard +what ought not to be refused to the meanest criminal, +the right of being confronted with his accusers; and for parliament +what it might justly claim, the opportunity of learning +from the King's own mouth whether the resignation of the +crown, which had been attributed to him, were his own spontaneous +act. If Merks actually made such a speech, he must +have stood alone; no one was found to second it; the house +voted the deposition of Richard; and eight commissioners, ascending +a tribunal erected before the throne, pronounced him +degraded from the state and authority of king, on the ground +that he notoriously deserved such punishment, and had acknowledged +it under his hand and seal on the preceding day. Sir +William Thirnyng, chief justice, was appointed to notify the +sentence to the captive, who meekly replied that he looked not +after the royal authority, but hoped his cousin would be good +lord to him.</p> + +<p>The rightful possessor was now removed from the throne. +But, supposing it to be vacant, what pretensions could Henry +of Lancaster advance to it? By the law of succession it belonged +to the descendants of Lionel, the third son of Edward +III; and their claim, it is said, had been formally recognized +in parliament. All waited in anxious suspense till the Duke, +rising from his seat, and forming with great solemnity the sign<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span> +of the cross on his forehead and breast, pronounced the following +words: "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, +I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge this realm of England, and +the crown, with all the members and appurtenances, as that I +am descended by right line of blood, coming from the good lord +King Henry III, and through that right that God, of his grace, +hath sent me with help of my kin and of my friends to recover +it; the which realm was in point to be undone for default of governance +and undoing of good laws."</p> + +<p>In these extraordinary terms did Lancaster advance his +pretensions, artfully intermixing an undefined claim of inheritance<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">73</a> +with those of conquest and expediency, and rather hinting +at each than insisting on either. But, however difficult it +might be to understand the ground, the object of his challenge +was perfectly intelligible. Both houses admitted it unanimously; +and, as a confirmation, Henry produced the ring and +seal which Richard had previously delivered to him. The +Archbishop of Canterbury now took him by the hand, and led +him to the throne. He knelt for a few minutes in prayer on the +steps, arose, and was seated in it by the two archbishops. As +soon as the acclamations had subsided, the Primate, stepping +forward, made a short harangue, in which he undertook to +prove that a monarch in the vigor of manhood was a blessing, +a young and inexperienced prince was a curse to a people. At +the conclusion the King rose. "Sirs," said he, "I thank God, +and you, spiritual and temporal, and all estates of the land; and +do you to wit, it is not my will that no man think that by way of +conquest I would disinherit any man of his heritage, franchises, +or other rights that him ought to have, nor put him out of that +that he has and has had by the good laws and customs of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span>realm; except those persons that have been against the good purpose +and the common profit of the realm."</p> + + +<p>With the authority of Richard had expired that of the parliament +and of the royal officers. Henry immediately summoned +the same parliament to meet again in six days, appointed new +officers of the crown, and as soon as he had received their oaths +retired in state to the royal apartments. Thus ended this +eventful day, with the deposition of Richard of Bordeaux, and +the succession of his cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span></p> +<h2>DISCOVERY OF THE CANARY ISLANDS +AND THE AFRICAN COAST</h2> + +<h3>BEGINNING OF NEGRO SLAVE TRADE</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1402</h6> + +<h3>SIR ARTHUR HELPS</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Canary Islands—the "Elysian Fields" and "Fortunate Islands" +of antiquity—have perhaps figured in fabulous lore more extensively than +any others, and have been discovered, invaded, and conquered more frequently +than any country in the world. There has scarcely been a nation +of any maritime enterprise that has not had to do with them, and in one +manner or another made its appearance in them.</p> + +<p>During the period following the death of ancient empires, the Canary +Islands lay hidden in the general darkness which fell upon the world. +With the modern revival came new and greater mariners, and the islands +were once more discovered. It is well to note the connection between +these modern rediscoveries and the origin of negro slavery.</p> + +<p>In Europe the old pagan slavery existed in many nations, and in the +early Christian centuries underwent many modifications through the advance +of the new religion and civilization. The modern form of slavery +began with the first importation of negroes into Europe, as shown in the +following account, from which it appears that the history of modern slavery +begins with the history of African discovery.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_p.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="P" />ETRARCH is referred to by Viera to prove that the Genoese +sent out an expedition to the Canary Islands. Las Casas +mentions that an English or French vessel bound from France +or England to Spain was driven by contrary winds to these Islands, +and on its return spread abroad in France an account of the +voyage. The information thus obtained—or perhaps in other +ways of which there is no record—stimulated Don Luis de la +Cerda, Count of Clermont, great-grandson of Don Alonzo the +Wise of Castile, to seek for the investiture of the crown of the +Canaries, which was given to him with much pomp by Clement +VI, at Avignon, in 1344, Petrarch being present. This sceptre +proved a barren one. The affairs of France, with which state +the new King of the Canaries was connected, drew off his attention;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span> +and he died without having visited his dominions. The +next authentic information that we have of the Canary Islands +is that, in the times of Don Juan I of Castile, and of Don Enrique, +his son, these islands were much visited by the Spaniards. +In 1399, we are told, certain Andalusians, Biscayans, Guipuzcoans, +with the consent of Don Enrique, fitted out an expedition +of five vessels, and making a descent on the island of Lanzarote, +one of the Canaries, took captive the King and Queen, and one +hundred and seventy of the islanders.</p> + +<p>Hitherto there had been nothing but discoveries, rediscoveries, +and invasions of these islands; but at last a colonist appears +upon the scene. This was Juan de Béthencourt, a great +Norman baron, lord of St. Martin le Gaillard in the County of +Eu, of Béthencourt, of Granville, of Sancerre, and other places +in Normandy, and chamberlain to Charles VI of France. Those +who are at all familiar with the history of that period, and with +the mean and cowardly barbarity which characterized the long-continued +contests between the rival factions of Orleans and +Burgundy, may well imagine that any Frenchman would then +be very glad to find a career in some other country. Whatever +was the motive of Juan de Béthencourt, he carried out his purpose +in the most resolute manner. Leaving his young wife, and +selling part of his estate, he embarked at Rochelle in 1402, with +men and means for the purpose of conquering, and establishing +himself in, the Canary Islands. It is not requisite to give a minute +description of this expedition. Suffice it to say that Béthencourt +met with fully the usual difficulties, distresses, treacheries, +and disasters that attach themselves to this race of enterprising +men. After his arrival at the Canaries, finding his means insufficient, +he repaired to the court of Castile, did acts of homage to +the King, Enrique III, and afterward renewed them to his son +Juan II, thereby much strengthening the claim which the Spanish +monarchs already made to the dominion of these islands. +Béthencourt, returning to the islands with renewed resources, +made himself master of the greater part of them, reduced several +of the natives to slavery, introduced the Christian faith, built +churches, and established vassalage.</p> + +<p>On the occasion of quitting his colony in <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1405, he called +all his vassals together, and represented to them that he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span> +named for his lieutenant and governor Maciot de Béthencourt, +his relation; that he himself was going to Spain and to Rome to +seek for a bishop for them; and he concluded his oration with +these words: "My loved vassals, great or small, plebeians or nobles, +if you have anything to ask me or to inform me of, if you +find in my conduct anything to complain of, do not fear to +speak; I desire to do favor and justice to all the world." The +assembly he was addressing contained none of the slaves he had +made. We are told, however, and that by eye-witnesses, that +the poor natives themselves bitterly regretted his departure, and, +wading through the water, followed his vessel as far as they +could. After his visit to Spain and to Rome, he returned to his +paternal domains in Normandy, where, while meditating another +voyage to his colony, he died in 1425.</p> + +<p>Maciot de Béthencourt ruled for some time successfully; +but afterward, falling into disputes with the Bishop, and his +affairs generally not prospering, he sold his rights to Prince +Henry of Portugal—also, as it strangely appears, to another person—and +afterward settled in Madeira. The claims to the government +of the Canaries were, for many years, in a most entangled +state; and the right to the sovereignty over these islands +was a constant ground of dispute between the crowns of Spain +and Portugal.</p> + +<p>Thus ended the enterprise of Juan de Béthencourt, which, +though it cannot be said to have led to any very large or lasting +results, yet, as it was the first modern attempt of the kind, deserves +to be chronicled before commencing with Prince Henry of +Portugal's long-continued and connected efforts in the same direction. +The events also which preceded and accompanied +Béthencourt's enterprise need to be recorded, in order to show +the part which many nations, especially the Spaniards, had in +the first discoveries on the coast of Africa.</p> + +<p>We now turn to the history of the discoveries made, or rather +caused to be made, by Prince Henry of Portugal. This Prince +was born in 1394. He was the third son of John I of Portugal +and Philippa, the daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. +That good Plantagenet blood on the mother's side was, +doubtless, not without avail to a man whose life was to be spent +in continuous and insatiate efforts to work out a great idea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span> +Prince Henry was with his father at the memorable capture of +Ceuta, the ancient Septem, in 1415. This town, which lies opposite +to Gibraltar, was of great magnificence, and one of the +principal marts in that age for the productions of the East. It +was here that the Portuguese nation first planted a firm foot in +Africa; and the date of this town's capture may, perhaps, be +taken as that from which Prince Henry began to meditate further +and far greater conquests. His aims, however, were directed +to a point long beyond the range of the mere conquering +soldier. He was especially learned, for that age of the world, +being skilled in mathematical and geographical knowledge. And +it may be noticed here that the greatest geographical discoveries +have been made by men conversant with the book knowledge of +their own time. A work, for instance, often seen in the hands of +Columbus, which his son mentions as having had much influence +with him, was the learned treatise of Cardinal Petro de +Aliaco (Pierre d'Ailly), the <i>Imago Mundi</i>.</p> + +<p>But to return to Prince Henry of Portugal. We learn that +he had conversed much with those who had made voyages in +different parts of the world, and particularly with Moors from +Fez and Morocco, so that he came to hear of the Azeneghis, a +people bordering on the country of the negroes of Jalof. Such +was the scanty information of a positive kind which the Prince +had to guide his endeavors. Then there were the suggestions +and the inducements which to a willing mind were to be found +in the shrewd conjectures of learned men, the fables of chivalry, +and, perhaps, in the confused records of forgotten knowledge +once possessed by Arabic geographers. The story of Prister +John, which had spread over Europe since the crusades, was +well known to the Portuguese Prince. A mysterious voyage of a +certain wandering saint, called St. Brendan, was not without +its influence upon an enthusiastic mind. Moreover, there were +many sound motives urging the Prince to maritime discovery; +among which, a desire to fathom the power of the Moors, a wish +to find a new outlet for traffic, and a longing to spread the +blessings of the faith may be enumerated. The especial reason +which impelled Prince Henry to take the burden of discovery on +himself was that neither mariner nor merchant would be likely +to adopt an enterprise in which there was no clear hope of profit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span> +It belonged, therefore, to great men and princes, and among such +he knew of no one but himself who was inclined to it.</p> + +<p>The map of the world being before us, let us reduce it to the +proportions it filled in Prince Henry's time: let us look at our +infant world. First, take away those two continents, for so we +may almost call them, each much larger than a Europe, to the +far west. Then cancel that square, massive-looking piece to the +extreme southeast; happily there are no penal settlements there +yet. Then turn to Africa: instead of that form of inverted cone +which it presents, and which we now know there are physical +reasons for its presenting, make a cimetar shape of it, by running +a slightly curved line from Juba on the eastern side to Cape +Nam on the western. Declare all below that line unknown. +Hitherto, we have only been doing the work of destruction; but +now scatter emblems of hippogriffs and anthropophagi on the +outskirts of what is left in the map, obeying a maxim, not confined +to the ancient geographers only—where you know nothing, +place terrors. Looking at the map thus completed, we can hardly +help thinking to ourselves, with a smile, what a small space, +comparatively speaking, the known history of the world has been +transacted in, up to the last four hundred years. The idea of the +universality of the Roman dominions shrinks a little; and we begin +to fancy that Ovid might have escaped his tyrant. The ascertained +confines of the world were now, however, to be more than +doubled in the course of one century; and to Prince Henry of +Portugal, as to the first promoter of these vast discoveries, our +attention must be directed.</p> + +<p>This Prince, having once the well-grounded idea in his mind +that Africa did not end where it was commonly supposed, +namely, at Cape Nam (Not), but that there was a world beyond +that forbidding negative, seems never to have rested until he had +made known that quarter of the globe to his own. He fixed his +abode upon the promontory of Sagres, at the southern part of +Portugal, whence, for many a year, he could watch for the rising +specks of white sail bringing back his captains to tell him of new +countries and new men. We may wonder that he never went +himself; but he may have thought that he served the cause better +by remaining at home and forming a centre whence the electric +energy of enterprise was communicated to many discoverers, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span> +then again collected from them. Moreover, he was much engaged +in the public affairs of his country. In the course of his +life he was three times in Africa, carrying on war against the +Moors; and at home, besides the care and trouble which the +state of the Portuguese court and government must have given +him, he was occupied in promoting science and encouraging education.</p> + +<p>In 1415, as before noticed, he was at Ceuta. In 1418 he was +settled on the promontory of Sagres. One night in that year he +is thought to have had a dream of promise, for on the ensuing +morning he suddenly ordered two vessels to be got ready forthwith, +and to be placed under the command of two gentlemen of +his household, Joham Gonçalvez Zarco and Tristam Vaz, whom +he ordered to proceed down the Barbary coast on a voyage of +discovery.</p> + +<p>A contemporary chronicler, Azurara, whose work has recently +been discovered and published, tells the story more simply, +and merely states that these captains were young men, who, +after the ending of the Ceuta campaign, were as eager for employment +as the Prince for discovery; and that they were ordered +on a voyage having for its object the general molestation of the +Moors, as well as that of making discoveries beyond Cape Nam. +The Portuguese mariners had a proverb about this cape—"He +who would pass Cape Not, either will return or not"; intimating +that, if he did not turn before passing the cape, he would +never return at all. On the present occasion it was not destined +to be passed; for these captains, Joham Gonçalvez Zarco and +Tristam Vaz, were driven out of their course by storms, and +accidentally discovered a little island, where they took refuge, +and from that circumstance called the island Porto Santo. +"They found there a race of people living in no settled polity, +but not altogether barbarous or savage, and possessing a kindly +and most fertile soil."</p> + +<p>I give this description of the first land discovered by Prince +Henry's captains, thinking it would well apply to many other +lands about to be found out by his captains and by other discoverers. +Joham Gonçalvez Zarco and Tristam Vaz returned. +Their master was delighted with the news they brought him, +more on account of its promise than its substance. In the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span> +year he sent them out again, together with a third captain, +named Bartholomew Perestrelo, assigning a ship to each captain. +His object was not only to discover more lands, but also +to improve those which had been discovered. He sent, therefore, +various seeds and animals to Porto Santo. This seems to +have been a man worthy to direct discovery. Unfortunately, +however, among the animals some rabbits were introduced into +the new island; and they conquered it, not for the Prince, but +for themselves. Hereafter, we shall find that they gave his people +much trouble, and caused no little reproach to him.</p> + +<p>We come now to the year 1419. Perestrelo, for some unknown +cause, returned to Portugal at that time. After his departure, +Joham Gonçalvez Zarco and Tristam Vaz, seeing from +Porto Santo something that seemed like a cloud, but yet different—the +origin of so much discovery, noting the difference in +the likeness—built two boats, and, making for this cloud, soon +found themselves alongside a beautiful island, abounding in +many things, but most of all in trees, on which account they gave +it the name of "Madeira" (Wood). The two discoverers entered +the island at different parts. The Prince, their master, afterward +rewarded them with the captaincies of those parts. To +Perestrelo he gave the island of Porto Santo to colonize it. Perestrelo, +however, did not make much of his captaincy, but after +a strenuous contest with the rabbits, having killed an army of +them, died himself. This captain has a place in history as being +the father-in-law of Columbus, who, indeed, lived at Porto Santo +for some time, and here, on new-found land, meditated far +bolder discoveries.</p> + +<p>Joham Gonçalvez Zarco and Tristam Vaz began the cultivation +of their island of Madeira, but met with an untoward +event at first. In clearing the wood, they kindled a fire among +it, which burned for seven years, we are told; and in the end, +that which had given its name to the island, and which, in the +words of the historian, overshadowed the whole land, became +the most deficient commodity. The captains founded churches +in the island; and the King of Portugal, Don Duarte, gave the +temporalities to Prince Henry, and all the spiritualities to the +Knights of Christ.</p> + +<p>While these things were occurring at Madeira and at Porto<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span> +Santo, Prince Henry had been prosecuting his general scheme +of discovery, sending out two or three vessels each year, with +orders to go down the coast from Cape Nam, and make what +discoveries they could; but these did not amount to much, for +the captains never advanced beyond Cape Bojador, which is situated +seventy leagues to the south of Cape Nam. This Cape +Bojador was formidable in itself, being terminated by a ridge of +rocks with fierce currents running round them, but was much +more formidable from the fancies which the mariners had +formed of the sea and land beyond it. "It is clear," they were +wont to say, "that beyond this cape there is no people whatever; +the land is as bare as Libya—no water, no trees, no grass +in it; the sea so shallow that at a league from the land it is +only a fathom deep; the currents so fierce that the ship which +passes that cape will never return;" and thus their theories were +brought in to justify their fears. This outstretcher—for such is +the meaning of the word <i>bojador</i>—was, therefore, as a bar +drawn across that advance in maritime discovery which had for +so long a time been the first object of Prince Henry's life.</p> + +<p>The Prince had now been working at his discoveries for +twelve years, with little approbation from the generality of persons; +the discovery of these islands, Porto Santo and Madeira, +serving to whet his appetite for further enterprise, but not winning +the common voice in favor of prosecuting discoveries on the +coast of Africa. The people at home, improving upon the reports +of the sailors, said that "the land which the Prince sought +after was merely some sandy place like the deserts of Libya; +that princes had possessed the empires of the world, and yet had +not undertaken such designs as his, nor shown such anxiety to +find new kingdoms; that the men who arrived in those foreign +parts—if they did arrive—turned from white into black men; +that the King Don John, the Prince's father, had endowed foreigners +with land in his kingdom, to break it up and cultivate +it—a thing very different from taking the people out of Portugal, +which had need of them, to bring them among savages to be +eaten, and to place them upon lands of which the mother country +had no need; that the Author of the world had provided +these islands solely for the habitation of wild beasts, of which an +additional proof was that those rabbits the discoverers themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span> +had introduced were now dispossessing them of the island.</p> + +<p>There is much here of the usual captiousness to be found in +the criticism of bystanders upon action, mixed with a great deal +of false assertion and premature knowledge of the ways of Providence. +Still, it were to be wished that most criticism upon action +was as wise; for that part of the common talk which spoke +of keeping their own population to bring out their own resources +had a wisdom in it which the men of future centuries +were yet to discover throughout the peninsula. Prince Henry, +as may be seen by his perseverance up to this time, was not a +man to have his purposes diverted by such criticism, much of +which must have been, in his eyes, worthless and inconsequent +in the extreme. Nevertheless, he had his own misgivings. His +captains came back one after another with no good tidings of +discovery, but with petty plunder gained, as they returned from +incursions on the Moorish coast.</p> + +<p>The Prince concealed from them his chagrin at the fruitless +nature of their attempts, but probably did not feel it less on that +account. He began to think: Was it for him to hope to discover +that land which had been hidden from so many princes? Still, +he felt within himself the incitement of "a virtuous obstinacy," +which would not let him rest. Would it not, he thought, be ingratitude +to God, who thus moved his mind to these attempts, +if he were to desist from his work, or be negligent in it? He resolved, +therefore, to send out again Gil Eannes, one of his household, +who had been sent the year before, but had returned, like +the rest, having discovered nothing. He had been driven to +the Canary Islands, and had seized upon some of the natives +there, whom he brought back. With this transaction the Prince +had shown himself dissatisfied; and Gil Eannes, now intrusted +again with command, resolved to meet all dangers rather than +to disappoint the wishes of his master. Before his departure, +the Prince called him aside and said: "You cannot meet with +such peril that the hope of your reward shall not be much +greater; and in truth, I wonder what imagination this is that you +have all taken up—in a matter, too, of so little certainty; for if +these things which are reported had any authority, however little, +I would not blame you so much. But you quote to me the opinions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span> +of four mariners, who, as they were driven out of their way +to Frandes or to some other ports to which they commonly navigated, +had not, and could not have used, the needle and the +chart; but do you go, however, and make your voyage without +regard to their opinion,—and, by the grace of God, you will not +bring out of it anything but honor and profit."</p> + +<p>We may well imagine that these stirring words of the Prince +must have confirmed Gil Eannes in his resolve to efface the +stain of his former misadventure. And he succeeded in doing so; +for he passed the dreaded Cape Bojador—a great event in the +history of African discovery, and one that in that day was considered +equal to a labor of Hercules. Gil Eannes returned to a +grateful and most delighted master. He informed the Prince +that he had landed, and that the soil appeared to him unworked +and fruitful; and, like a prudent man, he could not tell of foreign +plants, but had brought some of them home with him in a +barrel of the new-found earth—plants much like those which bear +in Portugal the roses of Santa Maria. The Prince rejoiced to +see them, and gave thanks to God, "as if they had been the +fruit and sign of the promised land; and besought Our Lady, +whose name the plants bore, that she would guide and set forth +the doings in this discovery to the praise and glory of God and to +the increase of his holy faith."</p> + +<p>After passing the Cape of Bojador there was a lull in Portuguese +discovery, the period from 1434 to 1441 being spent in +enterprises of very little distinctness or importance. Indeed, +during the latter part of this period, the Prince was fully occupied +with the affairs of Portugal. In 1437 he accompanied the +unfortunate expedition to Tangier, in which his brother Ferdinand +was taken prisoner, who afterward ended his days in slavery +to the Moor. In 1438, King Duarte dying, the troubles of +the regency occupied Prince Henry's attention. In 1441, however, +there was a voyage which led to very important consequences. +In that year Antonio Gonçalvez, master of the robes +to Prince Henry, was sent out with a vessel to load it with skins +of "sea-wolves," a number of them having been seen, during a +former voyage, in the mouth of a river about fifty-four leagues +beyond Cape Bojador. Gonçalvez resolved to signalize his +voyage by a feat that should gratify his master more than the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span> +capture of sea-wolves; and he accordingly planned and executed +successfully an expedition for capturing some Azeneghi +Moors, in order, as he told his companions, to take home "some +of the language of that country." Nuño Tristam, another of +Prince Henry's captains, afterward falling in with Gonçalvez, a +further capture of Moors was made, and Gonçalvez returned to +Portugal with his spoil.</p> + +<p>In the same year Prince Henry applied to Pope Martin V, +praying that his holiness would grant to the Portuguese crown +all that it could conquer, from Cape Bojador to the Indies, together +with plenary indulgence for those who should die while +engaged in such conquests. The Pope granted these requests. +"And now," says a Portuguese historian, "with this apostolic +grace, with the breath of royal favor, and already with the applause +of the people, the Prince pursued his purpose with more +courage and with greater outlay."</p> + +<p>In 1442 the Moors whom Antonio Gonçalvez had captured +in the previous year promised to give black slaves in ransom for +themselves if he would take them back to their own country; +and the Prince, approving of this, ordered Gonçalvez to set sail +immediately, "insisting as the foundation of the matter, that if +Gonçalvez should not be able to obtain so many negroes (as had +been mentioned) in exchange for the three Moors, yet that he +should take them; for whatever number he should get, he would +gain souls, because the negroes might be converted to the faith, +which could not be managed with the Moors." Gonçalvez obtained +ten black slaves, some gold-dust, a target of buffalo-hide, +and some ostrich eggs in exchange for two of the Moors, and, +returning with his cargo, excited general wonderment on account +of the color of the slaves. These, then, we may presume, were +the first black slaves that had made their appearance in the peninsula +since the extinction of the old slavery.</p> + +<p>I am not ignorant that there are reasons for alleging that +negroes had before this era been seized and carried to Seville. +The <i>Ecclesiastical and Secular Annals</i> of that city, under the date +1474, record that negro slaves abounded there, and that the +fifths levied on them produced considerable gains to the royal +revenue; it is also mentioned that there had been traffic of this +kind in the days of Don Enrique III, about 1399, but that it had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span> +since then fallen into the hands of the Portuguese. The chronicler +states that the negroes of Seville were treated very kindly +from the time of King Enrique, being allowed to keep their +dances and festivals; and that one of them was named <i>mayoral</i> +of the rest, who protected them against their masters and before +the courts of law, and also settled their own private quarrels. +There is a letter from Ferdinand and Isabella in the year 1474 +to a celebrated negro, Juan de Valladolid, commonly called the +"Negro Count," nominating him to this office of mayoral of the +negroes, which runs thus: "For the many good, loyal, and signal +services which you have done us, and do each day, and because +we know your sufficiency, ability, and good disposition, +we constitute you mayoral and judge of all the negroes and mulattoes, +free or slaves, which are in the very loyal and noble city +of Seville, and throughout the whole archbishopric thereof, and +that the said negroes and mulattoes may not hold any festivals +nor pleadings among themselves, except before you, Juan de +Valladolid, negro, our judge and mayoral of the said negroes +and mulattoes; and we command that you, and you only, should +take cognizance of the disputes, pleadings, marriages, and other +things which may take place among them, forasmuch as you are +a person sufficient for that office, and deserving of your power, +and you know the laws and ordinances which ought to be kept, +and we are informed that you are of noble lineage among the said +negroes."</p> + +<p>But the above merely shows that in the year 1474 there were +many negroes in Seville, and that laws and ordinances had been +made about them. These negroes might all, however, have been +imported into Seville since the Portuguese discoveries. True it +is that in the times of Don Enrique III, and during Béthencourt's +occupation of the Canary Islands, slaves from thence +had been brought to France and Spain; but these islanders were +not negroes, and it certainly may be doubted whether any negroes +were imported into Seville previous to 1443.</p> + +<p>Returning to the course of Portuguese affairs, a historian of +that nation informs us that the gold obtained by Gonçalvez +"awakened, as it always does, covetousness"; and there is no +doubt that it proved an important stimulus to further discovery. +The next year Nuño Tristam went farther down the African<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span> +coast; and, off Adeget, one of the Arguim Islands, captured +eighty natives, whom he brought to Portugal. These, however, +were not negroes, but Azeneghis.</p> + +<p>The tide of popular opinion was now not merely turned, but +was rushing in full flow, in favor of Prince Henry and his discoveries. +The discoverers were found to come back rich in +slaves and other commodities; whereas it was remembered that, +in former wars and undertakings, those who had been engaged +in them had generally returned in great distress. Strangers, too, +now came from afar, scenting the prey. A new mode of life, as +the Portuguese said, had been found out; and "the greater part +of the kingdom was moved with a sudden desire to follow this +way to Guinea."</p> + +<p>In 1444 a company was formed at Lagos, who received permission +from the Prince to undertake discovery along the coast +of Africa, paying him a certain portion of any gains which they +might make. This has been considered as a company founded +for carrying on the slave trade; but the evidence is by no means +sufficient to show that its founders meant such to be its purpose. +It might rather be compared to an expedition sent out, as we +should say in modern times, with letters of marque, in which, +however, the prizes chiefly hoped for were not ships nor merchandise, +but men. The only thing of any moment, however, +which the expedition accomplished was to attack successfully +the inhabitants of the islands Nar and Tider, and to bring back +about two hundred slaves. I grieve to say that there is no evidence +of Prince Henry's putting a check to any of these proceedings; +but, on the contrary, it appears that he rewarded with +large honors Lançarote, one of the principal men of this expedition, +and received his own fifth of the slaves. Yet I have +scarcely a doubt that the words of the historian are substantially +true—that discovery, not gain, was still the Prince's leading +idea. We have an account from an eye-witness of the partition +of the slaves brought back by Lançarote, which, as it is the first +transaction of the kind on record, is worthy of notice, more especially +as it may enable the reader to understand the motives of +the Prince and of other men of those times. It is to be found in +the <i>Chronicle</i>, before referred to, of Azurara. The merciful +chronicler is smitten to the heart at the sorrow he witnesses, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span> +still believes it to be for good, and that he must not let his mere +earthly commiseration get the better of his piety.</p> + +<p>"O thou heavenly Father," he exclaims, "who, with thy +powerful hand, without movement of thy divine essence, governest +all the infinite company of thy holy city, and who drawest +together all the axles of the upper worlds, divided into nine +spheres, moving the times of their long and short periods as it +pleases thee! I implore thee that my tears may not condemn my +conscience, for not its law, but our common humanity, constrains +my humanity to lament piteously the sufferings of these +people (slaves). And if the brute animals, with their mere bestial +sentiments, by a natural instinct, recognize the misfortunes +of their like, what must this by human nature do, seeing thus +before my eyes this wretched company, remembering that I myself +am of the generation of the sons of Adam! The other day, +which was the eighth of August, very early in the morning, by +reason of the heat, the mariners began to bring to their vessels, +and, as they had been commanded, to draw forth those captives +to take them out of the vessel: whom, placed together on +that plain, it was a marvellous sight to behold; for among them +there were some of a reasonable degree of whiteness, handsome +and well made; others less white, resembling leopards in their +color; others as black as Ethiopians, and so ill-formed, as well +in their faces as their bodies, that it seemed to the beholders as +if they saw the forms of a lower hemisphere.</p> + +<p>"But what heart was that, how hard soever, which was not +pierced with sorrow, seeing that company: for some had sunken +cheeks, and their faces bathed in tears, looking at each other; +others were groaning very dolorously, looking at the heights of +the heavens, fixing their eyes upon them, crying out loudly, as if +they were asking succor from the Father of nature; others +struck their faces with their hands, throwing themselves on the +earth; others made their lamentations in songs, according to +the customs of their country, which, although we could not understand +their language, we saw corresponded well to the height +of their sorrow. But now, for the increase of their grief, came +those who had the charge of the distribution, and they began to +put them apart one from the other, in order to equalize the portions, +wherefore it was necessary to part children and parents,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span> +husbands and wives, and brethren from each other. Neither in +the partition of friends and relations was any law kept, only each +fell where the lot took him. O powerful Fortune! who goest +hither and thither with thy wheels, compassing the things of the +world as it pleaseth thee, if thou canst, place before the eyes of +this miserable nation some knowledge of the things that are to +come after them, that they may receive some consolation in the +midst of their great sadness! and you others who have the business +of this partition, look with pity on such great misery, and +consider how can those be parted whom you cannot disunite! +Who will be able to make this partition without great difficulty? +for while they were placing in one part the children that saw +their parents in another, the children sprang up perseveringly +and fled to them; the mothers enclosed their children in their +arms and threw themselves with them on the ground, receiving +wounds with little pity for their own flesh, so that their offspring +might not be torn from them!</p> + +<p>"And so, with labor and difficulty, they concluded the partition, +for, besides the trouble they had with the captives, the +plain was full of people, as well of the place as of the villages +and neighborhood around, who in that day gave rest to their +hands, the mainstay of their livelihood, only to see this novelty. +And as they looked upon these things, some deploring, +some reasoning upon them, they made such a riotous noise as +greatly to disturb those who had the management of this distribution. +The Infante was there upon a powerful horse, accompanied +by his people, looking out his share, but as a man +who for his part did not care for gain, for, of the forty-six souls +which fell to his fifth, he speedily made his choice, as all his +principal riches were in his contentment, considering with great +delight the salvation of those souls which before were lost. And +certainly his thought was not vain, for as soon as they had knowledge +of our language they readily became Christians; and I, who +have made this history in this volume, have seen in the town of +Lagos young men and young women, the sons and grandsons of +those very captives, born in this land, as good and as true Christians +as if they had lineally descended, since the commencement +of the law of Christ, from those who were first baptized."</p> + +<p>The good Azurara wished that these captives might have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span> +some foresight of the things to happen after their death. I do +not think, however, that it would have proved much consolation +to them to have foreseen that they were almost the first of many +millions to be dealt with as they had been; for, in this year 1444, +Europe may be said to have made a distinct beginning in the +slave trade, henceforth to spread on all sides, like the waves +upon stirred water, and not, like them, to become fainter and +fainter as the circles widen.</p> + +<p>In 1445 an expedition was fitted out by Prince Henry himself, +and the command given to Gonsalvo de Cintra, who was +unsuccessful in an attack on the natives near Cape Blanco. He +and some other of the principal men of the expedition lost their +lives. These were the first Portuguese who died in battle on +that coast. In the same year the Prince sent out three other +vessels. The captains received orders from the Infante, Don +Pedro, who was then Regent of Portugal, to enter the river +D'Oro, and make all endeavors to convert the natives to the +faith, and even, if they should not receive baptism, to make peace +and alliance with them. This did not succeed. It is probable +that the captains found negotiation of any kind exceedingly +tame and apparently profitless in comparison with the pleasant +forays made by their predecessors. The attempt, however, +shows much intelligence and humanity on the part of those in +power in Portugal. That the instructions were sincere is proved +by the fact of this expedition returning with only one negro, +gained in ransom, and a Moor who came of his own accord to +see the Christian country.</p> + +<p>This same year 1445 is signalized by a great event in the +progress of discovery along the African coast. Dinis Dyaz, called +by Barros and the historians who followed him Dinis Fernandez, +sought employment from the Infante, and, being intrusted by +him with the command of a vessel, pushed boldly down the +coast, and passed the river Sanaga (Senegal), which divides the +Azeneghis—whom the first discoverers always called Moors—from +the negroes of Jalof. The inhabitants were much astonished +at the presence of the Portuguese vessel on their coasts, +and at first took it for a fish or a bird or a phantasm; but when +in their rude boats—hollowed logs—they neared it, and saw +that there were men in it, judiciously concluding that it was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span> +more dangerous thing than fish or bird or phantasm, they fled. +Dinis Fernandez, however, captured four of them off that +coast, but as his object was discovery, not slave-hunting, he went +on till he discovered Cape Verd, and then returned to his +country, to be received with much honor and favor by Prince +Henry. These four negroes taken by Dinis Fernandez were +the first taken in their own country by the Portuguese. That +the Prince was still engaged in high thoughts of discovery and +conversion we may conclude from observing that he rewarded +and honored Dinis Fernandez as much as if he had brought +him large booty; for the Prince "thought little of whatever he +could do for those who came to him with these signs and tokens +of another greater hope which he entertained."</p> + +<p>In this case, as in others, we should do great injustice if we +supposed that Prince Henry had any of the pleasure of a slave-dealer +in obtaining these negroes: it is far more probable that he +valued them as persons capable of furnishing intelligence, and, +perhaps, of becoming interpreters, for his future expeditions. +Not that, without these especial motives, he would have thought +it anything but great gain for a man to be made a slave, if +it were the means of bringing him into communion with the +Church.</p> + +<p>After this, several expeditions, which did not lead to much, +occupied the Prince's time till 1447. In that year a fleet, large +for those times, of fourteen vessels, was fitted out at Lagos by +the people there, and the command given by Prince Henry to +Lançarote. The object seems to have been, from a speech that +is recorded of Lançarote's, to make war upon the Azeneghi +Moors, and especially to take revenge for the defeat before mentioned +which Gonsalvo de Cintra suffered in 1445 near Cape +Blanco. That purpose effected, Lançarote went southward, extending +the discovery of the coast to the Gambia. In the course +of his proceedings on that coast we find again that Prince +Henry's instructions insisted much upon the maintenance of +peace with the natives. Another instance of the same disposition +on his part deserves to be especially recorded. The expedition +had been received in a friendly manner at Gomera, one of +the Canary Islands. Notwithstanding this kind reception, some +of the natives were taken prisoners. On their being brought to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span> +Portugal, Prince Henry had them clothed and afterward set at +liberty in the place from which they had been taken.</p> + +<p>This expedition under Lançarote had no great result. The +Portuguese went a little farther down the coast than they had +ever been before, but they did not succeed in making friends of +the natives, who had already been treated in a hostile manner +by some Portuguese from Madeira. Neither did the expedition +make great spoil of any kind. They had got into feuds with the +natives, and were preparing to attack them, when a storm dissipated +their fleet and caused them to return home.</p> + +<p>It appears, I think, from the general course of proceedings +of the Portuguese in those times, that they considered there was +always war between them and the Azeneghi Moors—that is, in +the territory from Ceuta as far as the Senegal River; but that +they had no declared hostility against the negroes of Jalof, or of +any country farther south, though skirmishes would be sure to +happen from ill-understood attempts at friendship on the one +side, and just or needless fears on the other.</p> + +<p>The last public enterprise of which Prince Henry had the +direction was worthy to close his administration of the affairs +relating to Portuguese discovery. He caused two ambassadors +to be despatched to the King of the Cape Verd territory, to +treat of peace and to introduce the Christian faith. One of the +ambassadors, a Danish gentleman, was treacherously killed by +the natives, and upon that the other returned, having accomplished +nothing.</p> + +<p>Don Alfonso V, the nephew of Prince Henry, now took the +reins of government, and the future expeditions along the coast +of Africa proceeded in his name. Still it does not appear that +Prince Henry ceased to have power and influence in the management +of African affairs; and the first thing that the King did +in them was to enact that no one should pass Cape Bojador +without a license from Prince Henry. Some time between 1448 +and 1454 a fortress was built in one of the islands of Arguim, +which islands had already become a place of bargain for gold +and negro slaves. This was the first Portuguese establishment +on the coast of Africa. It seems that a system of trade was now +established between the Portuguese and the negroes.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span></p> +<h2>COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1414</h6> + +<h3>RICHARD LODGE</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>During the forty years of the second great schism in the Roman +Catholic Church, 1378-1417, different parties adhered to different popes, +of whom there were sometimes two or more simultaneously in office. +The French cardinals preferred Avignon—to which the holy see had been +removed in 1309—as the seat of the pope, the Italian cardinals preferred +Rome, and two lines of popes were consequently chosen. This division +proved extremely injurious to the papal power and authority.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile there were various efforts for reform in the Church, among +the most notable movements being those led by John Wycliffe in England +and John Huss on the Continent. At last a council was called to +decide who was the rightful claimant to the papal throne. The council +assembled at Pisa, Italy, in 1409, but recognized neither of the then rival +popes—Gregory XII and Benedict XIII—Alexander V being elected in +their stead. The deposed popes, however, would not give up their rule, +and so the action of the council added to the difficulty, since there were +now three popes instead of two.</p> + +<p>Alexander V died ten months after his election, and the cardinals +chose as his successor Cardinal Cossa, who took the name of John +XXIII. The Church remained as much divided as before. In 1412 +Pope John, who was a shrewd and politic man, opened at Rome a council +for the reformation of the Church, but there seems to have been little +serious purpose either on the part of John himself or of the ecclesiastics +who assembled; and practically nothing was done.</p> + +<p>John was more concerned about his political relations with various +sovereigns. He was at war with Ladislaus, King of Naples, who soon +drove him from Rome. John fled to Florence, and appealed to Sigismund, +Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, for assistance. But the +Emperor would aid him only on condition that the Pope should summon +a new council to some German city, in order to end the schism. At last +John issued a formal summons for a council to meet at Constance on +November 1, 1414. Before it assembled, Ladislaus died, and Sigismund +determined to conduct the council in the interest of his imperial dignity +and that of the German kingship, which he also held.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_t.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="T" />HE Council of Constance, like that of Pisa, had two very obvious +questions to consider: (1) The restoration of unity; +and (2), if the reforming party could have its way, the reform +of the Church in its head and members. But circumstances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span> +forced the council to consider a third question, which had never +been even touched in the discussions at Pisa. This was reformation +in its widest sense; not merely a constitutional change +in the relations of pope and hierarchy, but a vital change +in dogma and ritual. This question was brought to the front +by the so-called Hussite movement in Bohemia. The fundamental +issues involved were those which have been at the bottom +of most subsequent disputes in the Christian Church.</p> + +<p>How far was the Christianity of the day unlike the Christianity +to be found in the record of Christ and his apostles? And +the difference, if any, was it a real and necessary difference consequent +on the development of society, or was it the result of +abuses and innovations introduced by fallible men? The orthodox +took their stand upon the unity and authority of the Church. +The Church was the true foundation of Christ and the inheritor +of his spirit. Therefore what the Church believed and taught, +that alone was the true Christian doctrine; and the forms and +ceremonies of the Church were the necessary aids to faith. The +reformers, on the other hand, looked to Scripture for the fundamental +rules of life and conduct. Any deviation from these rules, +no matter on what authority, must be superfluous and might very +probably be harmful.</p> + +<p>The Council of Constance is one of the most notable assemblies +in the history of the world. In the number and fame of +its members, in the importance of its objects, and, above all, +in the dramatic interest of its records, it has few rivals. It is like +the meeting of two worlds, the old and the new, the mediæval +and the modern. We find there represented views which have +hardly yet been fully accepted, which have occupied the best +minds of succeeding centuries; at the same time, the council +itself and its ceremonial carry us back to the times of the Roman +Empire, when church and state were scarcely yet dual, and when +Christianity was coextensive with one united empire. At Constance +all the ideas, religious and political, of the Middle Ages +seem to be put upon their trial. If that trial had ended in condemnation, +there could be no fitter point to mark the division +between mediæval and modern history. But the verdict was +acquittal, or at least a partial aquittal; and the old system was +allowed, under modified conditions, a lease of life for another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span> +century. It must not be forgotten that there were great secular +as well as ecclestiasical interests involved in the council. Princes +and nobles were present as well as cardinals and prelates. The +council may be regarded not only as a great assembly of the +Church, but also as a great diet of the mediæval empire.</p> + +<p>The man who had done more than anyone to procure the +summons of the council, and whose interests were most closely +bound up in its success, was Sigismund, King of the Romans +and potential Emperor. He was eager to terminate the schism, +and to bring about such a reform in the Church as would prevent +the recurrence of similar scandals. But his motive in this was +not merely disinterested devotion to the interests of the Church. +He wished to revive the prestige of the Holy Roman Empire, and +to gratify his own personal vanity by posing as the secular head +of Christendom and the arbiter of its disputes. More especially +he wished to restore the authority of the monarchy in Germany, +and to put an end to that anarchic independence of the princes +of which the recent schism was both the illustration and the result.</p> + +<p>In pursuing this aim he was confronted by the champions of +"liberty" and princely interests, who were represented at Constance +by the Archbishop of Mainz and Frederick of Hapsburg, +Count of Tyrol. The Archbishop, John of Nassau, had been +prominent in effecting and prolonging the schism in the Empire. +He was a firm supporter of John XXIII, and had no interest in +attending the council except to thwart the designs of the King, +whom he had been the last to accept. Frederick of Tyrol was +the youngest son of that duke Leopold who had fallen at Sempach +in the war with the Swiss. Of his father's possessions Frederick +had inherited Tyrol and the Swabian lands, and the propinquity +of his territories made him a powerful personage at Constance. +His family was the chief rival of the house of Luxemburg for +ascendency in Eastern Germany, and he himself seems to have +cherished a personal grudge against Sigismund. To these enemies +Sigismund could oppose two loyal allies, the elector palatine +Lewis, who had completely abandoned the anti-Luxemburg +policy pursued by his father, Rupert, and Frederick of +Hohenzollern, the most prominent representative of national +sentiment in Germany, who had already given in Brandenburg<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span> +an example of that restoration of order which he wished Sigismund +to effect throughout his dominions.</p> + +<p>Of the clerical members of the council the most prominent +at the commencement was the pope John XXIII. He had been +forced by his difficulties in Italy to issue the summons, but +as the time for the meeting approached he felt more and more +misgiving. His object was to maintain himself in office; but he +was conscious that neither Sigismund nor the cardinals would +hesitate to throw him over if he stood in the way of the restoration +of unity. He therefore allied himself with Sigismund's opponents, +the Elector of Mainz and Frederick of Tyrol, and spared +no pains to bring about dissension between Sigismund and the +council.</p> + +<p>The assembled clergy may be divided roughly into two parties, +the reformers, and the conservative or ultramontane party. +The reformers were not in favor of any radical change in the +Church. They were, if anything, more vehemently opposed +than their antagonists to the doctrines of Wycliffe and Huss. +Such reform as they desired was aristocratic rather than democratic. +They had no intention of weakening the authority of the +Church; but within the Church they desired to remove gross +abuses, and to strengthen the hierarchy as against the papacy. +Their chief contention was that a general council has supreme +authority, even over the pope, and they wished such councils to +meet at regular intervals. By this means papal absolutism +would be limited by a sort of oligarchical parliament within +the Church. The conservatives, on the other hand, consisting +chiefly of the cardinals and Italian prelates, had no wish to alter +a system under which they enjoyed material advantages. Their +object, as it had been at Pisa, was to restore the union of the +Church, but to defeat, or at any rate postpone, any schemes of +reform.</p> + +<p>The council was opened on November 5th, but the meeting +was only formal, and no real business was transacted for a +month. Meanwhile Huss had been followed to Constance by +the representatives of the-orthodox party in Bohemia, who +brought a formidable list of charges against the reformer. John +XXIII at once saw in this an opportunity for embroiling the +council with Sigismund. Adroitly keeping himself in the background,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span> +he allowed the cardinals to take the lead in the matter. +They summoned Huss to appear before them, and in spite of his +protest that he was only answerable to the whole council, they +committed him to prison. The news that his safe-conduct had +been so insultingly disregarded reached Sigismund as he was starting +for Constance after the coronation ceremony at Aachen.</p> + +<p>He arrived on Christmas Day, and at once demanded that +Huss should be released. The Pope excused himself, and threw +the blame on the cardinals. To the King's right to protect his +subject the cardinals opposed their duty to suppress heresy. +In high dudgeon, Sigismund declared that he would leave the +council to its fate, and actually set out on his return journey. +The Pope was jubilant at the success of his wiles. But Sigismund's +friends, and especially Frederick of Hohenzollern, urged +him not to sacrifice the interests of Germany and of Christendom +for the sake of a heretic. This advice, and the feeling +that his personal reputation was staked on the success of the +council, triumphed. Sigismund returned to Constance, and +Huss remained a prisoner. From this moment John XXIII began +to despair.</p> + +<p>The Pope's position became worse when the council, copying +the procedure of the universities, began to discuss matters, +not in a general assembly, but each nation separately. This +deprived John of the advantage which he hoped to gain from the +numerical majority of Italian prelates attending the council. +Four nations organized themselves: Italians, French, Germans, +and English. Over the last three John XXIII had no hold whatever. +To his disgust they treated him, not as the legitimate +pope, whose authority was to be vindicated against his rivals, +but as one of three schismatic popes, whose retirement was a +necessary condition of the restoration of unity. When he tried +to evade their demand, they brought unanswerable charges against +his personal character and threatened to depose him.</p> + +<p>He tried to disarm hostility by declaring his readiness to +resign if the other popes would do the same. His promise was +welcomed with enthusiasm, but neither Sigismund nor his supporters +were softened by it. In spite of the vehement protests +of the Elector of Mainz that he would obey no pope but John +XXIII, the proposal was made to proceed to a new election.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span> +John had to fall back upon his last expedient. If he departed +from Constance he might throw the council into fatal confusion; +at the worst he could maintain himself as an antipope, as Gregory +and Benedict had done against the Council of Pisa. His +ally Frederick of Tyrol was prepared to assist him. Frederick +arranged a tournament outside the walls; and while this absorbed +public interest, the Pope escaped from Constance in the +disguise of a groom, and made his way to Schaffhausen, a strong +castle of the Hapsburg Count.</p> + +<p>For the moment John XXIII seemed not unlikely to gain his +end. Constance was thrown into confusion by the news of his +flight. The mob rushed to pillage the papal residence. The +Italian and Austrian prelates prepared to leave the city, and the +council was on the verge of dissolution. But Sigismund's zeal +and energy succeeded in averting such a disaster. He restored +order in the city, persuaded the prelates to remain, and took +prompt measures to punish his rebellious vassal. An armed +force under Frederick of Hohenzollern succeeded in capturing +not only John XXIII, but also Frederick of Tyrol. The latter +was compelled to undergo public humiliation, and to hand over +his territories to his suzerain on condition that his life should +be spared. No such exercise of imperial power had been witnessed +in Germany since the days of the Hohenstaufen, and +Sigismund chose this auspicious moment to secure a powerful +supporter within the electoral college by handing over the electorate +of Brandenburg to Frederick of Nuremberg, April 30, +1415. He thus established a dynasty which was destined to +play a great part in German history, and ultimately to create +a new German empire.</p> + +<p>The unsuccessful flight of John XXIII not only enabled Sigismund +to assume a more authoritative position in the council +and in Germany; it also sealed his own fate. The council had +no longer any hesitation in proceeding to the formal deposition +of the Pope May 29, 1415. As the two popes who had been +deposed at Pisa had never been recognized at Constance, the +Church was now without a head. But instead of hastening to +fill the vacancy, the council turned aside to the suppression of +heresy and the trial of Huss. On three occasions, the 5th, 7th, +and 8th of June, Huss was heard before a general session. No<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span> +point in his teaching excited greater animadversion than his +contention that a priest, whether pope or prelate, forfeited his +office by the commission of mortal sin. With great cunning +his accusers drew him on to extend this doctrine to temporal +princes. This was enough to complete the alienation of Sigismund, +and after the third day's trial he was the first to pronounce +in favor of condemnation. The last obstacle in the way of the +prosecution was thus removed, and Huss was burned in a meadow +outside the city walls on July 6, 1415.</p> + +<p>With the death of Huss ends the first and most eventful period +of the Council of Constance. Within these seven or eight +months Sigismund and the reforming party, thanks to the +division of the council into nations, seemed to have gained a +signal success. Sigismund had purchased his triumph by breaking +his pledge to Huss, and for this he was to pay a heavy +penalty in the subsequent disturbances in Bohemia. But for +the moment these were not foreseen, and Sigismund was jubilantly +eager to prosecute his scheme. Warned by the experience +of its predecessor at Pisa, the Council of Constance was careful +not to put too much trust in paper decrees. John XXIII was +not only deposed, but a prisoner. Gregory XII had given a +conditional promise of resignation, and had so few supporters +as to be of slight importance. But Benedict XIII was still strong +in the allegiance of the Spanish kingdoms, and unless they could +be detached from his cause there was little prospect of ending the +schism.</p> + +<p>This task Sigismund volunteered to undertake, and he also +proposed to avert the impending war between England and +France, to reconcile the Burgundian and Armagnac parties in +the latter country, and to negotiate peace between the King +of Poland and the Teutonic Knights. It would, indeed, be a +revival of the imperial idea if its representative could thus act +as a general mediator in European quarrels. The council +welcomed the offer with enthusiasm, and showed their loyalty +to Sigismund by deciding to postpone all important questions +till his return. And this decision was actually adhered to. +During the sixteen months of Sigismund's absence—July 15, +1415, to January 27, 1417—only two prominent subjects were +considered by the council. One was the trial of Jerome of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span> +Prague, which was a mere corollary of that of Huss, and ended +in a similar sentence. The other was the thorny question raised +by the proposed condemnation of the writings of Jean Petit, a +Burgundian partisan who had defended the murder of the Duke +of Orleans. The leader of the attack upon Jean Petit was Gerson, +the learned and eloquent chancellor of the University of +Paris. But so completely had the matter become a party question, +and so great was the influence of the Duke of Burgundy, +that the council could not be induced to go further than a general +condemnation of the doctrine of lawful tyrannicide; and Gerson's +activity in the matter provoked such ill-will that after the +close of the council he could not venture to return to France, +which was then completely under Burgundian and English domination.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to narrate here the story of Sigismund's +journey, though it abounds with illustrations of his impulsive +character and of the attitude of the western states toward the +imperial pretensions. It furnished conclusive proofs, if any +were needed, that however the council, for its own ends, might +welcome the authority of a secular head, national sentiment was +far too strongly developed to give any chance of success to a projected +revival of the mediæval empire. As regards his immediate +object, Sigismund was able to achieve some results. He failed +to induce Benedict XIII to abdicate, but the quibbles of the +veteran intriguer exhausted the patience of his supporters, and +at a conference at Narbonne the Spanish kings agreed to desert +him and to adhere to the Council of Constance, December, 1415. +But Sigismund's more ambitious schemes came to nothing. So +far from preventing a war between England and France, he only +forwarded an alliance between Henry V and the Duke of Burgundy; +and though he may have done this in the hope of forcing +peace upon France, the result was to make the war more disastrous +and prolonged.</p> + +<p>When Sigismund reappeared in Constance, January 27, 1417, +he found that the state of affairs both in Germany and in the +council had altered for the worse. Frederick of Tyrol had returned +to his dominions and had been welcomed by his subjects.</p> + +<p>The Archbishop of Mainz had renewed his intrigues, and an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span> +attempt had even been made to release John XXIII. With the +Elector Palatine, formerly his loyal supporter, Sigismund had +quarrelled on money matters, and it seemed possible that the +four Rhenish electors would form a league against Sigismund +as they had done against Wenceslaus in 1400. Still more galling +was his loss of influence in the council. The adhesion of the +Spanish kingdoms had been followed by the arrival of Spanish +prelates, who formed a fifth nation and strengthened the party +opposed to reform. The war between England and France had +created a quarrel between the two nations at Constance, and +the French deserted the cause they had once championed rather +than vote with their enemies.</p> + +<p>Sigismund could only rely upon the English and the Germans; +and the question which agitated the council was one of vital importance. +Which was to come first, the election of a new pope +or the adoption of a scheme of ecclesiastical reform? The conservatives +contended that the Church could hardly be said to +exist without its head; that no reform would be valid until the +normal constitution of the Church was restored. On the other +hand, it was urged that no reform was possible unless the supremacy +of a general council was fully recognized; that certain +questions could be more easily discussed and settled during a +vacancy; that if the reforms were agreed upon, a new pope +could be pledged to accept them, whereas a pope elected at once +could prevent all reform. Party spirit ran extremely high, and +it seemed almost impossible to effect an agreement. Sigismund +was openly denounced as a heretic, while he in turn threatened +to imprison the cardinals for contumacy.</p> + +<p>But gradually the balance turned against the reformers. +Some of the leading German bishops were bribed to change their +votes. The head of the English representatives, Robert Hallam, +Bishop of Salisbury, died at the critical moment, and the influence +of Henry Beaufort, the future cardinal, induced the English +nation to support an immediate election. It was agreed +that a new pope should be chosen at once, and that the council +should then proceed to the work of reform. But the only preliminary +concession that Sigismund and his party could obtain +was the issue of a decree in October, 1417, that another council +should meet within five years, a second within seven years,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span> +and that afterward a council should be regularly held every ten +years.</p> + +<p>For the new election it was decided that the twenty-three +cardinals should be joined by thirty delegates of the council, six +from each nation. The conclave met on November 8th, and +three days later their choice fell upon Cardinal Oddo Colonna, +who took the name of Martin V. Even the defeated party could +not refrain from sharing in the general enthusiasm at the restoration +of unity after forty years of schism. But their fears +as to the ultimate fate of the cause of reform were fully justified. +Soon after his election Martin declared that it was impious to +appeal to a council against a papal decision. Such a declaration, +as Gerson said, nullified the acts of the councils of Pisa and +Constance, including the election of the Pope himself. In their +indignation the members made a strong appeal to the Pope to +fulfil the conditions agreed upon before his election. But Martin +had a weapon to hand which had been furnished by the council +itself.</p> + +<p>It was the division into nations that had led to the fall of +John XXIII, and it was the same division into nations that had +ruined the prospects of reform. The Pope now drew up a few +scanty articles of reform, which he offered as separate concordats +to the French, Germans, and English. It was a dangerous +expedient for a pope to adopt, because it seemed to +imply the separate existence of national churches; but it answered +its immediate purpose. Martin could contend that there +was no longer any work for the council to do, and he dissolved +it in May, 1418.</p> + +<p>He set out for Italy, where a difficult task awaited him. Papal +authority in Rome had ceased with the flight of John XXIII +in 1414. Sigismund offered the Pope a residence in some +Germany city, but Martin wisely refused. The support of his +own family, the Colonnas, enabled him to reënter Rome in 1421. +By that time almost all traces of the schism had disappeared. +Gregory XII was dead; John XXIII had recently died in Florence; +Benedict XIII still held out in his fortress of Peniscola, +but was impotent in his isolation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span></p> +<h2>TRIAL AND BURNING OF JOHN HUSS</h2> + +<h3>THE HUSSITE WARS</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1415</h6> + +<h3>RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Among the heralds of the Reformation, John Wycliffe, the English +Protestant who antedated Protestantism by a century and a half, holds +the first position in order of time. For many years after the death of +Wycliffe the movement which he began continued to be, as it was at first, +confined to England; but at length it was to acquire a wider significance +and to enter upon its European extension.</p> + +<p>Not long after his own day the spirit of Wycliffe—even before knowledge +of his work had crossed the Channel—had come to a new birth on +the Continent. And when some sparks of Wycliffe's own fire were blown +over the half of Europe—even as far as Bohemia—the kindred fires which +had long burned in spite of all suppression were quickened into a living +and a spreading flame.</p> + +<p>While then there was a direct and vital influence from the work of the +English reformer which gave to his teachings partial identity with those +of his Bohemian successors, the movement led by these was still quite independent +and national.</p> + +<p>The central figure of the Bohemian Reformation was John Huss, or +Hus, the son of a peasant. He was born in 1369 at Husinetz—of which +his own name is a contraction—in Southern Bohemia. The principal +events of his life, from the time that he took his degree at the University +of Prague until his death at the stake, July 6, 1415, will be found in +Trench's sympathetic but discriminating narrative.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_i.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="I" />F we look for the proper forerunners of Huss, his true spiritual +ancestors, we shall find them in his own land, in a succession +of earnest and faithful preachers—among these Militz (d. 1374) +and Janow (d. 1394) stand out the most prominently—who had +sown seed which could hardly have failed to bear fruit sooner +or later, though no line of Wycliffe's writings had ever found its +way to Bohemia. This land, not German, however it may +have been early drawn into the circle of German interests, with +a population Slavonic in the main, had first received the faith +through the preaching of Greek monks. The Bohemian Church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span> +probably owed to this fact that, though incorporated from the +first with the churches of the West, uses and customs prevailed +in it—as the preaching in the mother tongue, the marriage of the +clergy, communion in both kinds—which it only slowly and unwillingly +relinquished. It was not till the fourteenth century +that its lines were drawn throughout in exact conformity with +those of Rome. All this deserves to be kept in mind; for it +helps to account for the kindly reception which the seed sown +by the later Bohemian reformers found, falling as this did in a +soil to which it was not altogether strange.</p> + +<p>John Huss took in the year 1394 his degree as bachelor of +theology in that University of Prague upon the fortunes of which +he was destined to exercise so lasting an influence; and four +years later, in 1398, he began to deliver lectures there. Huss +had early taken his degree in a school higher than any school of +man's. He himself has told us how he was once careless and +disobedient, how the word of the Cross had taken hold of him +with strength, and penetrated him through and through as with +a mighty purifying fire. What he had learned in the school +of Christ he could not keep to himself. Holding, in addition +to his academical position, a lectureship founded by two pious +laymen for the preaching of the Word in the Bohemian tongue +(1401), he soon signalized himself by his diligence in breaking +the bread of life to hungering souls, and his boldness in rebuking +vice in high places as in low. So long as he confined himself +to reproving the sins of the laity, he found little opposition, nay, +rather support and applause. But when he brought the clergy +and monks also within the circle of his condemnation, and began +to upbraid them for their covetousness, their ambition, +their luxury, their sloth, and for other vices, they turned resentfully +upon him, and sought to undermine his authority, everywhere +spreading reports of the unsoundness of his teaching.</p> + +<p>Let us see on what side he mainly exposed himself to charges +such as these. Many things had recently wrought together to +bring into nearness countries geographically so remote from +one another as Bohemia and England. Anne, wife of our second +Richard, was a sister of Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia. The +two flourishing universities of Oxford and Prague were bound +together by their common zeal for Realism. This may seem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span> +to us but a slight and fantastic bond; it was in those days a +very strong one indeed. Young English scholars studied at +Prague, young Bohemian at Oxford. Now, Oxford, long after +Wycliffe's death, was full of interest for his doctrine; and among +the many strangers sojourning there, it could hardly fail that +some should imbibe opinions and bring back with them books +of one whom they had there learned to know and to honor. +Thus Jerome, called of Prague, on his return from the English +university, gave a new impulse to the study of Wycliffe's writings, +bearer as he was of several among these which had not hitherto +travelled so far.</p> + +<p>This man, whose fortunes were so tragically bound up with +those of Huss, who should share with him in the same fiery +doom, was his junior by several years; his superior in eloquence, +in talents, in gifts—for certainly Huss was not a theologian +of the first order; speculative theologian he was not at +all—but notably his inferior in moderation and practical good-sense. +Huss never shared in his friend's indiscriminate admiration +of Wycliffe. When, in 1403, some forty-five theses, which +either were or professed to be drawn from the writings of the +English reformer, were brought before the university, that they +might be condemned as heretical, Huss expressed himself with +extreme caution and reserve. Many of these, he affirmed, were +true when a man took them aright; but he could not say this +of all. Not first at the Council of Constance, but long before, +he had refused to undertake the responsibility of Wycliffe's +teaching on the holy eucharist. But he did not conceal what +he had learned from Wycliffe's writings. By these there had +been opened to him a deeper glimpse into the corruptions of the +Church, and its need of reformation in the head and in the members, +than ever he had before obtained. His preaching, with +the new accesses of insight which now were his, more than ever +exasperated his foes.</p> + +<p>While matters were in this strained condition, events took +place at Prague which are too closely connected with the story +that we are telling, exercised too great an influence in bringing +about the issues that lie before us, to allow us to pass them by, +even though they may prove somewhat long to relate. The +University of Prague, though recently founded—it only dated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span> +back to the year 1348—was now, next after those of Paris and +Oxford, the most illustrious in Europe. Saying this I say much; +for we must not measure the influence and authority of a university +at that day by the influence and authority, great as these +are, which it may now possess. This university, like that of +Paris, on the pattern of which it had been modelled, was divided +into four "nations"—four groups, that is, or families of scholars—each +of these having in academical affairs a single collective +vote. These nations were the Bavarian, the Saxon, the Polish, +and the Bohemian. This does not appear at first an unfair +division—two German and two Slavonic; but in practical +working the Polish was so largely recruited from Silesia and +other German or half-German lands that its vote was in fact +German also.</p> + +<p>The Teutonic votes were thus as three to one, and the Bohemians, +in their own land and in their own university, on every +important matter hopelessly outvoted. When, by aid of this +preponderance, the university was made to condemn the teaching +of Wycliffe in those forty-five points, matters came to a +crisis. Urged by Huss—who as a stout patriot, and an earnest +lover of the Bohemian language and literature, had more than a +theological interest in the matter—by Jerome, by a large number +of the Bohemian nobility, King Wenceslaus published an +edict whereby the relations of natives and foreigners were completely +reversed. There should be henceforth three votes for +the Bohemian nation, and only one for the three others. Such +a shifting of the weight certainly appears as a redressing of one +inequality by creating another. At all events it was so earnestly +resented by the Germans, by professors and students alike, that +they quitted the university in a body, some say of five thousand +and some of thirty thousand, and founded the rival University of +Leipsic, leaving no more than two thousand students at Prague. +Full of indignation against Huss, whom they regarded as the +prime author of this affront and wrong, they spread throughout +Germany the most unfavorable reports of him and of his teaching.</p> + +<p>This exodus of the foreigners had left Huss, who was now +rector of the university, with a freer field than before. But +church matters at Prague did not mend; they became more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span> +confused and threatening every day, until presently Huss stood +in open opposition with the hierarchy of his time. Pope John +XXIII, having a quarrel with the King of Naples, proclaimed +a crusade against him, with what had become a constant accompaniment +of this—indulgences to the crusaders. But to +denounce indulgences, as Huss with fierce indignation did now, +was to wound Pope John in a most sensitive part. He was excommunicated +at once, and every place which should harbor +him stricken with an interdict. While matters were in this +frame the Council of Constance was opened, which should appease +all the troubles of Christendom and correct whatever was +amiss. The Bohemian difficulty could not be omitted, and Huss +was summoned to make answer at Constance for himself.</p> + +<p>He had not been there four weeks when he was required to +appear before the Pope and cardinals, November 18, 1414. After +a brief informal hearing he was committed to harsh durance, +from which he never issued as a free man again. Sigismund, +the German King and Emperor-elect, who had furnished +Huss with a safe-conduct which should protect him, "going to +the Council, tarrying at the Council, returning from the Council," +was absent from Constance at the time, and heard with real +displeasure how lightly regarded this promise and pledge of his +had been.</p> + +<p>Some big words, too, he spoke, threatening to come himself +and release the prisoner by force; but, being waited on by a +deputation from the council, who represented to him that he, as a +layman, in giving such a safe-conduct had exceeded his powers, +and intruded into a region which was not his, Sigismund was +convinced, or affected to be convinced. Doubtless the temptations +to be convinced were strong. Had he insisted on the +liberation of Huss, the danger was imminent that the council, +for which he had labored so earnestly, would be broken up on +the plea that its rightful freedom was denied it. He did not +choose to run this risk, preferring to leave an everlasting blot +upon his name.</p> + +<p>Some modern sophists assure us that this safe-conduct—or +free pass, as they prefer to call it—engaged the imperial word +for Huss' safety in going to the council, but for nothing more—a +most perfidious document, if this is all which it undertook;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span> +for the words—I quote the more important of them in the original +Latin—are as follows: "<i>ut ei transire, stare, morari, redire +permittatis</i>." But the treachery was not in the document, and +nobody at the time attempted to find it there. If this had not +engaged the honor of the Emperor, what cause of complaint +would he have had against the cardinals as having entangled him +in a breach of his word? what need of their solemn ambassage +to him? Untrue also is the assertion that this was so little regarded +by Huss himself as a safe-conduct covering the whole +period during which he should be exposed to the malice of his +enemies that he never appealed to it or claimed protection from +it. He did so appeal at this second formal hearing, June 7th, +the first at which Sigismund was present. "I am here," he +there said, "under the King's promise that I should return to +Bohemia in safety"; while at his last, by a look and by a few like +words, he brought the royal word-breaker to a blush, evident to +all present, July 6th.</p> + +<p>But to return a little. More than seven months elapsed +before Huss could obtain a hearing before the council. This +was granted to him at last. Thrice heard, June 5, 7, 8, 1415—if, +indeed, such tumultuary sittings, where the man speaking +for his life, and for much more than his life, was continually +interrupted and overborne by hostile voices, by loud +cries of "Recant, recant!" may be reckoned as hearings at all—he +bore himself, by the confession of all, with courage, meekness, +and dignity. The charges brought against him were various; +some so far-fetched as that urged by a Nominalist from the +University of Paris—for Paris was Nominalist now—namely, +that as a Realist he could not be sound on the doctrine of the +eucharist. Others were vague enough, as that he had sown +discord between the church and the state. Nor were accusations +wanting which touched a really weak point in his teaching, +namely, the subjective aspect which undoubtedly some aspects +of it wore; as when he taught that not the baptized, but the +predestinated to life, constituted the Church. Beset as he was +by the most accomplished theologians of the age, the best or +the worst advantage was sure to be made of any vulnerable side +which he exposed.</p> + +<p>But there were charges against him with more in them of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span> +danger than these. The point which was really at issue between +him and his adversaries concerned the relative authority +of the Church and of Scripture. What they demanded of him +was a retractation of all the articles brought against him, with +an unconditional submission to the council. Some of the articles, +he replied, charged him with teaching things which he had never +taught, and he could not by this formal act of retractation admit +that he had taught them. Let any doctrine of his be shown +to be contrary to God's holy Word, and he would retract it; but +such unconditional submission he could not yield.</p> + +<p>His fate was now sealed—that is, unless he could be induced +to recant; in which event, though he did not know it, his sentence +would have been degradation from the priesthood and a +lifelong imprisonment. Many efforts up to the last moment +were made by friend and foe to persuade him to this, but in vain. +And now once more, July 6th, he is brought before the council, +but this time for sentence and for doom. The sentence passed, +his suffering begins. The long list of his heresies, among which +they are not ashamed to include many which he has distinctly +repudiated, is read out in his hearing. He is clothed with +priestly garments, that these, piece by piece, and each with an +appropriate insult malediction, may be stripped from him again. +The sacred vessels are placed in his hands, that from him, +"accursed Judas that he is," they may be taken again. There +is some difficulty in erasing his tonsure; but this difficulty with +a little violence and cruelty is overcome. A tall paper cap, +painted over with flames and devils, and inscribed "Heresiarch," +is placed upon his head. This done, and his soul having +been duly delivered to Satan, his body is surrendered to the +secular arm. One last touch is not wanting. As men bind him +to the stake, attention is called to the fact that his face is turned +to the east. This honor must not be his, upon whom no sun of +righteousness shall ever rise. He is unfastened, and refastened +anew. All is borne with perfect meekness, in the thought and +in the strength of Him who had borne so much more for sinners, +the Just for the unjust; and so, in his fire-chariot of a painful +martyrdom, Huss passes from our sight.</p> + +<p>Some may wonder that he, a reformer, should have been so +treated by a council, itself also reforming, and with a man like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span> +Gerson—<i>Doctor Christianissimus</i> was the title he bore—virtually +at its head. But a little consideration will dispel this surprise, +and lead us to the conclusion that a council less earnestly bent +on reforms of its own would probably have dealt more mildly +with him. His position and theirs, however we may ascribe +alike to him and to them a desire to reform the Church, were +fundamentally different. They, when they deposed a pope, +where they proclaimed the general superiority of councils over +popes, had no intention of diminishing one jot the Church's +authority in matters of faith, but only of changing the seat of +that authority, substituting an ecclesiastical aristocracy for an +ecclesiastical monarchy—or despotism, as long since it had +grown to be. And thus the more earnest the council was to +carry out a reformation in discipline, the more eager was it also +to make evident to all the world that it did not intend to touch +doctrine, but would uphold this as it had received it. It is not +then uncharitable to suspect that the leading men of the council—like +those reformers at Geneva who a century and a half later, +1553, sent Servetus to the stake—were not sorry to be able to +give so signal an evidence of their zeal for the maintenance of the +faith which they had received, as thus, in the condemnation of +Huss, they had the opportunity of doing. Nor may we leave +altogether out of account that the German element must of necessity +have been strong in a council held on the shores of the +Bodensee; while in his vindication of Bohemian nationality, +perhaps an excessive vindication, Huss had offended and embittered +the Germans to the uttermost.</p> + +<p>If any had flattered themselves that with the death of Huss +the Reformation in Bohemia had also received its death-blow, +they had not long to wait for a painful undeception. Words +fail to describe the tempest of passionate indignation with which +the tidings of his execution, followed within a year by that of +Jerome, were received there. Both were honored as martyrs, +and already, in the fierce exasperation of men's spirits against +the authors of their doom, there was a prophecy of the unutterable +woes which were even at the door. Some watchword by +which his followers could know and be known—this watchword, +if possible, a spell of power like that which Luther had found in +the doctrine of justification by faith—was still wanting. One,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span> +however, was soon found; which indeed had this drawback, +that it concerned a matter disciplinary rather than doctrinal, +yet having a real value as a visible witness for the rights of the +laity in the Church of Christ. So far as we know, Huss had not +himself laid any special stress on communion under both kinds; +but in 1414—he was then already at Constance—the subject +had come to the forefront at Prague; and, being consulted, +Huss had entirely approved of such communion as most conformable +to the original institution and to the practice of the +primitive Church. On the other hand, the council, learning +the agitation of men's spirits in this direction, had declared what +is called the "Concomitance"—that is, that wherever one kind +was present, there was also the other, which being so, nothing +was, indeed, withholden from the communicant through the +withholding of the cup. At the same time the council had +solemnly condemned as a heretic everyone who refused to submit +himself to the decision of the Church in this matter, June +15, 1415.</p> + +<p>But there was no temper of submission in Bohemia—least +of all when the University of Prague gave its voice in favor of +this demand. Wenceslaus, the well-intentioned but poor-spirited +King, was quite unable to keep peace between the rival +factions, and could only slip out of his difficulties by dying, +August 16, 1419. Sigismund, his brother, was also his successor; +but of one thing the Bohemians were at this time resolved; +namely, that the royal betrayer of his word should not reign +over them. And thus a condition of miserable anarchy followed, +and, in the end, of open war; which, lasting for eleven years, +could be matched by few wars in the cruelties and atrocities +by which on both sides it was disgraced. In Ziska, their blind +chief, the Hussites had a leader with a born genius for war. It +was he who invented the movable wagon-fortress whereof we +hear so much, against which the German chivalry would break +as idle waves upon a rock. Three times crusading armies—for +this name they bore, thinking with no serious opposition to +enforce the decrees of the council—invaded Bohemia, to be +thrice driven back with utter defeat, disgrace, and loss; the +Hussites, who for a long while were content with merely repelling +the invaders, after a while, and as the only way of conquering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span> +a peace, turning the tables, and wasting with fire and +sword all neighboring German lands.</p> + +<p>A conflict so hideous could not long be waged without a +rapid deterioration of all who were engaged in it. The spirit +of Huss more and more departed from those who called themselves +by his name. Intestine strifes devoured their strength. +There were first the Moderates—Calixtines, Utraquists, or +"Those of Prague," they were called—who, weary of the long +struggle, were willing to return to the bosom of the Church if +only the cup (<i>calix</i>), and thus communion under both kinds (<i>sub +utraque</i>), were guaranteed to them, with two or three secondary +matters. Not so the Taborites, who drew their name from a +mountain fastness which they fortified and called Mount Tabor. +These, the Ultras, the democratic radical party, separating +themselves off as early as 1419, had left Huss and his teaching +very far behind. Ignoring the whole historical development +of Christianity, they demanded that a clean sweep should be +made of everything in the Church's practice for which an express +and literal warrant in Scripture could not be found. +When at the Council of Basel an agreement was patched up +with the Calixtines on the footing which I have just named, 1433, +a few further promises being thrown in which might mean anything +and, as the issue proved, did mean nothing, the Taborites +would not listen to the compromise. Again they appealed to +arms: but now their old comrades and allies had passed to the +other side; and, defeated in battle, 1434, their stronghold taken +and destroyed, 1453, their political power forever broken, they, +too, as so many before and since, were doomed to learn that violence +is weakness in disguise, and that the wrath of man worketh +not the righteousness of God.</p> + +<p>Whether the Church of Rome made the concessions to the +Calixtines which she did, with the intention of retracting them +at the first opportunity, it is impossible to say. This, however, is +certain, that half a dozen years had scarcely elapsed before these +concessions were brought into question and dispute; while, in +less than thirty, Pope Pius II formally withdrew altogether the +papal recognition of them, 1462; though a struggle for their +maintenance, not always unsuccessful, lasted on into the century +ensuing.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span>It was in truth a melancholy close of a movement so hopefully +begun. And yet not altogether the close; for, indeed, nothing, +in which any elements of true heroism are mingled, so disappears +as to leave no traces of itself behind. If it does no +more, it serves to feed the high tradition of the world—that +most precious of all bequests to the present age from the ages +which are behind it. But there was more than this. If much +was consumed, yet not all. Something—and that the best worth +the saving—was saved from the fires, having first been purified +in them. The stormy zealots, as many as had taken the sword, +had for the most part perished by the sword.</p> + +<p>But there were some who made for themselves a better future +than the sword could have ever made. A feeble remnant, +extricating themselves from the wreck and ruin of their party, +and having been taught of God in his severest school, pious +Calixtines, too, that were little content with the Compacts of +Basel, a few stray Waldensians mingling with them, all these, +drawing together in an evil time, refashioned and reconstituted +themselves in humblest guise, though not in guise so humble +that they could escape the cruel attentions of Rome. Seeking +to build on a true scriptural foundation, with a scheme of doctrine, +it may be, dogmatically incomplete—even as that of Huss +himself had been—with their episcopate lost and never since +recovered, the Unitas Fratrum, the Moravian Brethren, trampled +and trodden down, but overcoming now, not by weapons of +carnal warfare, but by the blood of the Cross, lived on to hail +the breaking of a fairer dawn, and to be themselves greeted as +witnesses for God, who in a dark and gloomy day, and having +but a little strength, had kept his word, and not denied his +name.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span></p> +<h2>THE HOUSE OF HOHENZOLLERN ESTABLISHED +IN BRANDENBURG</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1415</h6> + +<h3>THOMAS CARLYLE</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The German princely family of Hohenzollern, which ruled over Brandenburg +from 1415, has furnished the kings of Prussia since 1701, and +since 1871 those kings have also been German emperors. The Hohenzollerns +were originally owners of a castle on the Upper Danube, at no +great distance from the ancestral seat of the Hapsburg family. They acquired +influence at the court of Swabia, and in 1192 had established themselves +in Nuremberg, where in that year Frederick I became burggraf. +When Rudolph I, founder of the house of Hapsburg, finally defeated his +rival, Ottocar of Bohemia (1278), his cause was saved by the assistance +of a Hohenzollern—Frederick of Nuremberg.</p> + +<p>The Hohenzollerns made fortunate marriages and shrewd purchases +and the descendants of Frederick I, succeeding to his burggravate, in the +course of time acquired great estates in Franconia, Moravia, and Burgundy. +Through their increasing wealth—whereby in the fifteenth century +they had gained a position similar to that of the present Rothschilds—and +by use of their political abilities, they attained commanding influence +in the councils of the German princes.</p> + +<p>Such was the eminence of this powerful family at the time when they +acquired the electorate of Brandenburg, the nucleus of the present kingdom +of Prussia. Brandenburg was a district formerly inhabited by the +Wends, a Slavic people, from whom it was taken in 926 by Henry the +Fowler, King of Germany, of which kingdom it afterward became a margravate. +Its first margrave was Albert the Bear, under whom, about +1150, it was made an electorate; from Albert's line it passed to Louis the +Bavarian, in 1319; and in 1371 it was transferred to Charles (Karl) IV. +On the death of Charles, his son and successor Wenzel (Wenceslaus) +relinquished Brandenburg to his brothers, as told by Carlyle, who in +his own pictorial manner describes the subsequent complications which +finally resulted in giving that possession to the ancestors of the present +ruling house of Germany.</p></div> + +<p><img src="images/cap_k.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="K" />ARL<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">74</a> left three young sons, Wenzel, Sigismund, Johann; +and also a certain nephew much older; all of whom now +more or less concern us in this unfortunate history.</p> + +<p>Wenzel, the eldest son, heritable Kurfuerst of Brandenburg +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span>as well as King of Bohemia, was as yet only seventeen, who nevertheless +got to be kaiser—and went widely astray, poor soul. +The nephew was no other than Margrave Jobst of Moravia, now +in the vigor of his years and a stirring man: to him, for a time, +the chief management in Brandenburg fell, in these circumstances. +Wenzel, still a minor, and already Kaiser and King of +Bohemia, gave up Brandenburg to his two younger brothers, +most of it to Sigismund, with a cutting for Johann, to help their +appanages; and applied his own powers to govern the Holy Roman +Empire, at that early stage of life.</p> + +<p>To govern the Holy Roman Empire, poor soul—or rather +"to drink beer and dance with the girls"; in which, if defective +in other things, Wenzel had an eminent talent. He was one of +the worst kaisers and the least victorious on record. He would +attend to nothing in the Reich; "the Prag white beer, and girls" +of various complexion, being much preferable, as he was heard +to say. He had to fling his poor Queen's Confessor into the +river Moldau—Johann of Nepomuk, Saint so called, if he is not +a fable altogether; whose Statue stands on Bridges ever since, +in those parts. Wenzel's Bohemians revolted against him; put +him in jail; and he broke prison, a boatman's daughter helping +him out, with adventures. His Germans were disgusted with +him; deposed him from the kaisership; chose Rupert of the +Pfalz; and then, after Rupert's death, chose Wenzel's own +brother Sigismund in his stead—left Wenzel to jumble about +in his native Bohemian element, as king there, for nineteen years +longer, still breaking pots to a ruinous extent.</p> + +<p>He ended by apoplexy, or sudden spasm of the heart; terrible +Ziska,<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">75</a> as it were, killing him at second hand. For Ziska, +stout and furious, blind of one eye and at last of both, a kind of +human rhinoceros driven mad, had risen out of the ashes of murdered +Huss, and other bad papistic doings, in the interim; and +was tearing up the world at a huge rate. Rhinoceros Ziska was +on the Weissenberg, or a still nearer hill of Prag since called +Ziska-berg (Ziska Hill); and none durst whisper of it to the +King. A servant waiting at dinner inadvertently let slip the +word: "Ziska there? Deny it, slave!" cried Wenzel, frantic. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span>Slave durst not deny. Wenzel drew his sword to run at him, +but fell down dead: that was the last pot broken by Wenzel. +The hapless royal ex-imperial phantasm self-broken in this +manner. Poor soul, he came to the kaisership too early; was a +thin violent creature, sensible to the charms and horrors of created +objects; and had terrible rhinoceros ziskas and unruly +horned cattle to drive. He was one of the worst kaisers ever +known—could have done Opera Singing much better—and a sad +sight to Bohemia. Let us leave him there: he was never actual +Elector of Brandenburg, having given it up in time; never did +any ill to that poor country.</p> + + +<p>The real Kurfürst of Brandenburg all this while was Sigismund, +Wenzel's next brother, under tutelage of cousin Jobst or +otherwise—a real and yet imaginary, for he never himself governed, +but always had Jobst of Mähren or some other in his place +there. Sigismund was to have married a daughter of Burggraf +Friedrich V;<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">76</a> and he was himself, as was the young lady, well +inclined to this arrangement. But the old people being dead, +and some offer of a king's daughter turning up for Sigismund, +Sigismund broke off; and took the king's daughter, King of +Hungary's—not without regret then and afterward, as is believed. +At any rate, the Hungarian charmer proved a wife of +small merit, and a Hungarian successor she had was a wife of +light conduct even; Hungarian charmers, and Hungarian affairs, +were much other than a comfort to Sigismund.</p> + +<p>As for the disappointed princess, Burggraf Friedrich's daughter, +she said nothing that we hear; silently became a Nun, an +Abbess: and through a long life looked out, with her thoughts +to herself, upon the loud whirlwind of things, where Sigismund +(oftenest an imponderous rag of conspicuous color) was riding +and tossing. Her two brothers also, joint Burggraves after their +father's death, seemed to have reconciled themselves without +difficulty. The elder of them was already Sigismund's brother-in-law; +married to Sigismund's and Wenzel's sister—by such +predestination as we saw. Burggraf Johann III was the name +of this one; a stout fighter and manager for many years; much +liked, and looked to, by Sigismund, as indeed were both the +brothers, for that matter; always, together or in succession, a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span>kind of right hand to Sigismund. Frederick (Friedrich), the +younger Burggraf, and ultimately the survivor and inheritor +(Johann having left no sons), is the famed Burggraf Friedrich +VI the last and notablest of all the Burggraves—a man of distinguished +importance, extrinsic and intrinsic; chief or among +the very chief of German public men in his time; and memorable +to Posterity, and to this history, on still other grounds! +But let us not anticipate.</p> + + +<p>Sigismund, if appanaged with Brandenburg alone, and wedded +to his first love, not a king's daughter, might have done +tolerably well there; better than Wenzel, with the empire and +Bohemia, did. But delusive Fortune threw her golden apple at +Sigismund too; and he, in the wide high world, had to play +strange pranks. His father-in-law died in Hungary, Sigismund's +first wife his only child. Father-in-law bequeathed +Hungary to Sigismund, who plunged into a strange sea thereby; +got troubles without number, beatings not a few, and had even +to take boat, and sail for his life down to Constantinople, at one +time. In which sad adventure Burggraf Johann escorted him, +and as it were tore him out by the hair of the head. These troubles +and adventures lasted many years; in the course of which, +Sigismund, trying all manner of friends and expedients, found +in the Burggraves of Nuremberg, Johann and Friedrich, with +their talents, possessions, and resources, the main or almost only +sure support he got.</p> + +<p>No end of troubles to Sigismund, and to Brandenburg through +him, from this sublime Hungarian legacy. Like a remote +fabulous golden fleece, which you have to go and conquer first, +and which is worth little when conquered. Before ever setting +out (1387), Sigismund saw too clearly that he would have +cash to raise: an operation he had never done with, all his life +afterward. He pawned Brandenburg to cousin Jobst of Mähren; +got "twenty thousand Bohemian gulden"—I guess, a most +slender sum, if Dryasdust would but interpret it. This was the +beginning of pawnings to Brandenburg; of which when will the +end be? Jobst thereby came into Brandenburg on his own +right for the time, not as tutor or guardian, which he had hitherto +been. Into Brandenburg; and there was no chance of repayment +to get him out again.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span>Jobst tried at first to do some governing; but finding all very +anarchic, grew unhopeful; took to making matters easy for +himself. Took, in fact, to turning a penny on his pawn-ticket; +alienating crown domains, winking hard at robber barons, and +the like—and after a few years, went home to Moravia, leaving +Brandenburg to shift for itself, under a Statthalter (Viceregent, +more like a hungry land-steward), whom nobody took the trouble +of respecting. Robber castles flourished; all else decayed. No +highway not unsafe; many a Turpin with sixteen quarters, and +styling himself Edle Herr (noble gentleman), took to "living from +the saddle": what are Hamburg pedlers made for but to be +robbed?</p> + +<p>The towns suffered much; any trade they might have had, +going to wreck in this manner. Not to speak of private feuds, +which abounded <i>ad libitum</i>. Neighboring potentates, Archbishop +of Magdeburg and others, struck in also at discretion, as +they had gradually got accustomed to do, and snapped away +some convenient bit of territory, or, more legitimately, they +came across to coerce, at their own hand, this or the other Edle +Herr of the Turpin sort, whom there was no other way of getting +at, when he carried matters quite too high. "Droves of six hundred +swine"—I have seen (by reading in those old books) certain +noble gentlemen, "of Putlitz," I think, driving them openly, +captured by the stronger hand; and have heard the short querulous +squeak of the bristly creatures: "What is the use of being a +pig at all, if I am to be stolen in this way, and surreptitiously +made into ham?" Pigs do continue to be bred in Brandenburg: +but it is under such discouragements. Agriculture, trade, well-being +and well-doing of any kind, it is not encouragement they +are meeting here. Probably few countries, not even Ireland, +have a worse outlook, unless help come.</p> + +<p>Jobst came back in 1398, after eight years' absence; but no +help came with Jobst. The Neumark of Brandenburg, which +was brother Johann's portion, had fallen home to Sigismund, +brother Johann having died; but Sigismund, far from redeeming +old pawn-tickets with the Neumark, pawned the Neumark +too—the second pawnage of Brandenburg. Pawned the +Neumark to the Teutsch Ritters "for sixty-three thousand Hungarian +gulden" (I think, about thirty thousand pounds), and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span> +gave no part of it to Jobst; had not nearly enough for himself +and his Hungarian occasions.</p> + +<p>Seeing which, and hearing such squeak of pigs surreptitiously +driven, with little but discordant sights and sounds everywhere, +Jobst became disgusted with the matter; and resolved to wash his +hands of it, at least to have his money out of it again. Having +sold what of the domains he could to persons of quality, at an +uncommonly easy rate, and so pocketed what ready cash there +was among them, he made over his pawn-ticket, or properly +he himself repawned Brandenburg to the Saxon potentate, a +speculative moneyed man, Markgraf of Meissen, "Wilhelm +the Rich," so called. Pawned it to Wilhelm the Rich—sum not +named; and went home to Moravia, there to wait events. This +is the third Brandenburg pawning: let us hope there may be a +fourth and last.</p> + +<p>And so we have now reached that point in Brandenburg history +when, if some help does not come, Brandenburg will not +long be a country, but will either get dissipated in pieces and +stuck to the edge of others where some government is, or else go +waste again and fall to the bisons and wild bears.</p> + +<p>Who now is Kurfürst of Brandenburg, might be a question. +"I unquestionably!" Sigismund would answer, with astonishment. +"Soft, your Hungarian Majesty," thinks Jobst: "till my +cash is paid may it not probably be another?" This question +has its interest: the Electors just now (1400) are about deposing +Wenzel; must choose some better Kaiser. If they wanted another +scion of the house of Luxemburg—a mature old gentleman +of sixty; full of plans, plausibilities, pretensions—Jobst is their +man. Jobst and Sigismund were of one mind as to Wenzel's +going; at least Sigismund voted clearly so, and Jobst said nothing +counter: but the Kurfürsts did not think of Jobst for successor. +After some stumbling, they fixed upon Rupert Kur-Pfalz +(Elector Palatine, Ruprecht von der Pfalz) as Kaiser.</p> + +<p>Rupert of the Pfalz proved a highly respectable Kaiser; +lasted for ten years (1400-10), with honor to himself and the +Reich. A strong heart, strong head, but short of means. He +chastised petty mutiny with vigor, could not bring down the +Milanese Visconti, who had perched themselves so high on +money paid to Wenzel; could not heal the schism of the Church<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span> +(double or triple Pope, Rome-Avignon affair), or awaken the +Reich to a sense of its old dignity and present loose condition. +In the late loose times, as antiquaries remark, most members of +the Empire, petty princes even and imperial towns, had been +struggling to set up for themselves; and were now concerned +chiefly to become sovereign in their own territories. And Schilter +informs us it was about this period that most of them attained +such rather unblessed consummation; Rupert of himself not +able to help it, with all his willingness. The people called him +"Rupert Klemm (Rupert Smith's-vise)," from his resolute +ways; which nickname—given him not in hatred, but partly in +satirical good-will—is itself a kind of history. From historians +of the Reich he deserves honorable regretful mention.</p> + +<p>He had for Empress a sister of Burggraf Friedrich's; which +high lady, unknown to us otherwise, except by her tomb at +Heidelberg, we remember for her brother's sake. Kaiser Rupert—great-grandson +of that Kur-Pfalz who was Kaiser Ludwig's +elder brother—is the culminating point of the Electors +Palatine; the highest that Heidelberg produced. Ancestor of +those famed Protestant "Palatines"; of all the Palatines or +Pfalzes that reign in these late centuries. Ancestor of the present +Bavarian Majesty; Kaiser Ludwig's race having died out. +Ancestor of the unfortunate Winterkönig, Friedrich, King of +Bohemia, who is too well known in English history—ancestor +also of Charles XII of Sweden, a highly creditable fact of the +kind to him. Fact indisputable: a cadet of Pfalz-Zweibrück +(Deux-Ponts), direct from Rupert, went to serve in Sweden in +his soldier business; distinguished himself in soldiering; had a +sister of the great Gustaf Adolf to wife; and from her a renowned +son, Karl Gustaf (Christiana's cousin), who succeeded +as King; who again had a grandson made in his own likeness, +only still more of iron in his composition. Enough now of Rupert +Smith's-vise; who died in 1410, and left the Reich again +vacant.</p> + +<p>Rupert's funeral is hardly done, when, over in Preussen, far +off in the Memel region, place called Tannenberg, where there +is still "a church-yard to be seen," if little more, the Teutsch +Ritters had, unexpectedly, a terrible defeat; consummation of +their Polish miscellaneous quarrels of long standing; and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span> +end of their high courses in this world. A ruined Teutsch Ritterdom, +as good as ruined, ever henceforth. Kaiser Rupert died +May 18th; and on July 15th, within two months, was fought +that dreadful "Battle of Tannenburg," Poland and Polish King, +with miscellany of savage Tartars and revolted Prussians, versus +Teutsch Ritterdom; all in a very high mood of mutual rage; +the very elements, "wild thunder, tempest and rain deluges," +playing chorus to them on the occasion. Ritterdom fought lion-like, +but with insufficient strategic and other wisdom, and was +driven nearly distracted to see its pride tripped into the ditch by +such a set. Vacant Reich could not in the least attend to it; nor +can we further at present.</p> + +<p>Jobst and Sigismund were competitors for the Kaisership; +Wenzel, too, striking in with claims for reinstatement: the +house of Luxemburg divided against itself. Wenzel, finding reinstatement +not to be thought of, threw his weight, such as it +was, into the scale of cousin Jobst. The contest was vehement, +and like to be lengthy. Jobst, though he had made over his +pawn-ticket, claimed to be Elector of Brandenburg; and voted +for himself. The like, with still more emphasis, did Sigismund, +or Burggraf Friedrich acting for him: "Sigismund, sure, is Kur-Brandenburg, +though under pawn!" argued Friedrich—and, +I almost guess, though that is not said, produced from his own +purse, at some stage of the business, the actual money for Jobst, +to close his Brandenburg pretension.</p> + +<p>Both were elected (majority contested in this manner); and +old Jobst, then above seventy, was like to have given much +trouble; but happily in three months he died; and Sigismund +became indisputable. In his day Jobst made much noise in the +world, but did little or no good in it. He was thought "a great +man," says one satirical old Chronicler; and there "was nothing +great about him but the beard."</p> + +<p>"The cause of Sigismund's success with the Electors," says +Kohler, "or of his having any party among them, was the faithful +and unwearied diligence which had been used for him by the +above-named Burggraf Friedrich VI of Nuremberg, who took +extreme pains to forward Sigismund to the Empire; pleading +that Sigismund and Wenzel would be sure to agree well henceforth, +and that Sigismund, having already such extensive territories<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span> +(Hungary, Brandenburg, and so forth) by inheritance, +would not be so exact about the Reichs-tolls and other imperial +incomes. This same Friedrich also, when the election +fell out doubtful, was Sigismund's best support in Germany, +nay almost his right hand, through whom he did whatever was +done."</p> + +<p>Sigismund is Kaiser, then, in spite of Wenzel. King of Hungary, +after unheard-of troubles and adventures, ending some +years ago in a kind of peace and conquest, he has long been. +King of Bohemia, too, he at last became; having survived Wenzel, +who was childless. Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire, and +so much else: is not Sigismund now a great man? Truly the +loom he weaves upon, in this world, is very large. But the +weaver was of headlong, high-pacing, flimsy nature; and both +warp and woof were gone dreadfully entangled!</p> + +<p>This is the Kaiser Sigismund who held the Council of Constance; +and "blushed visibly," when Huss, about to die, alluded +to the letter of safe-conduct granted him, which was issuing in +such fashion. Sigismund blushed; but could not conveniently +mend the matter—so many matters pressing on him just now. +As they perpetually did, and had done. An always-hoping, never-resting, +unsuccessful, vain and empty Kaiser. Specious, speculative; +given to eloquence, diplomacy, and the windy instead of +the solid arts; always short of money for one thing. He roamed +about, and talked eloquently; aiming high, and generally missing. +Hungary and even the Reich have at length become his, +but have brought small triumph in any kind; and instead of +ready money, debt on debt. His Majesty has no money, and his +Majesty's occasions need it more and more.</p> + +<p>He is now (1414) holding this Council of Constance, by way +of healing the Church, which is sick of three simultaneous popes +and of much else. He finds the problem difficult; finds he will +have to run into Spain, to persuade a refractory pope there, if +eloquence can (as it cannot): all which requires money, money. +At opening of the council, he "officiated as deacon"; actually +did some kind of litanying "with a surplice over him," though +Kaiser and King of the Romans. But this passage of his opening +speech is what I recollect best of him there: "Right reverend +Fathers, <i>date operam ut illa nefanda schisma eradicetur</i>,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span> +exclaims Sigismund, intent on having the Bohemian schism well +dealt with—which he reckons to be of the feminine gender. To +which a cardinal mildly remarking, "<i>Domine, schisma est generis +neutrius</i> (schisma is neuter, your Majesty)," Sigismund loftily +replies: "<i>Ego sum Rex Romanus et super grammaticam</i> (I am +King of the Romans, and above Grammar)!" For which reason +I call him in my note-books Sigismund Super Grammaticam, to +distinguish him in the imbroglio of kaisers.</p> + +<p>How Jobst's pawn-ticket was settled I never clearly heard; +but can guess it was by Burggraf Friedrich's advancing the +money, in the pinch above indicated, or paying it afterward to +Jobst's heirs whoever they were. Thus much is certain: Burggraf +Friedrich, these three years and more (ever since July 8, +1411) holds Sigismund's deed of acknowledgment "for one hundred +thousand gulden lent at various times"; and has likewise +got the Electorate of Brandenburg in pledge for that sum; and +does himself administer the said Electorate till he be paid. This +is the important news; but this is not all.</p> + +<p>The new journey into Spain requires new money; this +council itself, with such a pomp as suited Sigismund, has cost +him endless money. Brandenburg, torn to ruins in the way we +saw, is a sorrowful matter; and, except the title of it, as a feather +in one's cap, is worth nothing to Sigismund. And he is still short +of money; and will forever be. Why could not he give up +Brandenburg altogether; since, instead of paying, he is still +making new loans from Burggraf Friedrich; and the hope of +ever paying were mere lunacy! Sigismund revolves these sad +thoughts too, amid his world-wide diplomacies, and efforts to +heal the Church. "Pledged for one hundred thousand gulden," +sadly ruminates Sigismund; "and fifty thousand more borrowed +since, by little and little; and more ever needed, especially +for this grand Spanish journey!" these were his sad +thoughts. "Advance me, in a round sum, two hundred and fifty +thousand more," said he to Burggraf Friedrich, "two hundred +and fifty thousand more, for my manifold occasions in this time—that +will be four hundred thousand in whole—and take the +Electorate of Brandenburg to yourself, Land, Titles, Sovereign, +Electorship and all, and make me rid of it!" That was the settlement +adopted, in Sigismund's apartment at Constance, on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span> +April 30, 1415; signed, sealed, and ratified—and the money paid. +A very notable event in World-History; virtually completed on +the day we mention.</p> + +<p>The ceremony of investiture did not take place till two years +afterward, when the Spanish journey had proved fruitless, +when much else of fruitless had come and gone and Kaiser and +council were probably more at leisure for such a thing. Done at +length it was by Kaiser Sigismund in almost gala, with the +Grandees of the Empire assisting, and august members of the +council and world in general looking on; in the big square or +market-place of Constance, April 17, 1417; is to be found described +in Rentsch, from Nauclerus and the old news-mongers +of the times. Very grand indeed: much processioning on +horseback, under powerful trumpet-peals and flourishes; much +stately kneeling, stately rising, stepping backward (done well, +<i>zierlich</i>, on the Kurfürst's part); liberal expenditure of cloth +and pomp; in short, "above one hundred thousand people +looking on from roofs and windows," and Kaiser Sigismund in +all his glory. He was on a high platform in the market-place, +with stairs to it; the illustrious Kaiser—red as a flamingo, "with +scarlet mantle and crown of gold,"—a treat to the eyes of simple +mankind.</p> + +<p>What sum of modern money, in real purchasing power, this +"four hundred thousand Hungarian Gold Gulden" is, I have +inquired in the likely quarters without result; and it is probable +no man exactly knows. The latest existing representative of the +ancient gold gulden is the ducat, worth generally a half-sovereign +in English. Taking the sum at that latest rate, it amounts +to two hundred thousand pounds; and the reader can use that +as a note of memory for the sale-price of Brandenburg with all +its lands and honors—multiplying it perhaps by four or six to +bring out its effective amount in current coin. Dog cheap, it +must be owned, for size and capability; but in the most waste +condition, full of mutiny, injustice, anarchy, and highway robbery; +a purchase that might have proved dear enough to another +man than Burggraf Friedrich.</p> + +<p>But so, at any rate, moribund Brandenburg has got its Hohenzollern +Kurfürst, and started on a new career it little dreamt +of; and we can now, right willingly, quit Sigismund and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span> +Reichs-History, leave Kaiser Sigismund to sink or swim at his +own will henceforth. His grand feat in life, the wonder of his +generation, was this same Council of Constance; which proved +entirely a failure; one of the largest wind-eggs ever dropped +with noise and travail in this world. Two hundred thousand +human creatures, reckoned and reckoning themselves the elixir +of the intellect and dignity of Europe. Two hundred thousand—nay +some, counting the lower menials and numerous unfortunate +females, say four hundred thousand—were got congregated +into that little Swiss town; and there as an Ecumenic +Council, or solemnly distilled elixir of what pious intellect and +valor could be scraped together in the world, they labored with +all their select might for four years' space. That was the Council +of Constance. And except this transfer of Brandenburg to +Friedrich of Hohenzollern, resulting from said council, in the +quite reverse and involuntary way, one sees not what good result +it had.</p> + +<p>They did, indeed, burn Huss; but that could not be called a +beneficial incident; that seemed to Sigismund and the council +a most small and insignificant one. And it kindled Bohemia, +and kindled Rhinoceros Ziska, into never-imagined flame of +vengeance; brought mere disaster, disgrace, and defeat on defeat +to Sigismund, and kept his hands full for the rest of his life, +however small he had thought it. As for the sublime four years' +deliberations and debates of this Sanhedrim of the Universe—eloquent +debates, conducted, we may say, under such extent of +wig as was never seen before or since—they have fallen wholly +to the domain of Dryasdust; and amount, for mankind at this +time, to zero plus the burning of Huss. On the whole, Burggraf +Friedrich's Electorship, and the first Hohenzollern to Brandenburg, +is the one good result.</p> + +<p>Burggraf Friedrich, on his first coming to Brandenburg, +found but a cool reception as Statthalter. He came as the representative +of law and rule; and there had been many helping +themselves by a ruleless life, of late. Industry was at a low +ebb, violence was rife; plunder, disorder, everywhere; too +much the habit for baronial gentlemen to "live by the saddle," +as they termed it, that is, by highway robbery in modern +phrase.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span>The towns, harried and plundered to skin and bone, were +glad to see a Statthalter, and did homage to him with all their +heart. But the baronage or squirearchy of the country were of +another mind. These, in the late anarchies, had set up for a +kind of kings in their own right. They had their feuds; made +war, made peace, levied tolls, transit dues; lived much at their +own discretion in these solitary countries; rushing out from +their stone towers ("walls fourteen feet thick"), to seize any +herd of "six hundred swine," and convoy of Lübeck or Hamburg +merchant goods, that had not contented them in passing. +What were pedlers and mechanic fellows made for, if not to be +plundered when needful? Arbitrary rule, on the part of these +noble robber lords! And then much of the crown domains had +gone to the chief of them—pawned (and the pawn-ticket lost, so +to speak), or sold for what trifle of ready money was to be had, +in Jobst and Company's time. To these gentlemen a Statthalter +coming to inquire into matters was no welcome phenomenon. +Your Edle Herr (noble lord) of Putlitz, noble lords of +Quitzow, Rochow, Maltitz, and others, supreme in their grassy +solitudes this long while, and accustomed to nothing greater +than themselves in Brandenburg, how should they obey a Statthalter?</p> + +<p>Such was more or less the universal humor in the squirearchy +of Brandenburg; not of good omen to Burggraf Friedrich. +But the chief seat of contumacy seemed to be among the +Quitzows, Putlitzes, above spoken of; big squires in the district +they call the Priegnitz, in the country of the sluggish Havel +River, northwest from Berlin a forty or fifty miles. These refused +homage, very many of them; said they were "incorporated +with Böhmen"; said this and that; much disinclined to +homage; and would not do it. Stiff, surly fellows, much deficient +in discernment of what is above them and what is not: a +thick-skinned set; bodies clad in buff leather; minds also cased +in ill habits of long continuance.</p> + +<p>Friedrich was very patient with them; hoped to prevail by +gentle methods. He "invited them to dinner"; "had them +often at dinner for a year or more:" but could make no progress +in that way. "Who is this we have got for a Governor?" said +the noble lords privately to each other: "A Nuremberger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span> +Tand" (Nuremberg plaything—wooden image, such as they +make at Nuremberg), said they, grinning, in a thick-skinned +way: "If it rained Burggraves all the year round, none of them +would come to luck in this country;" and continued their feuds, +toll-levyings, plunderings, and other contumacies.</p> + +<p>Seeing matters come to this pass after above a year, Burggraf +Friedrich gathered his Frankish men-at-arms; quietly made +league with the neighboring Potentates, Thüringen and others; +got some munitions, some artillery together—especially one +huge gun, the biggest ever seen, "a twenty-four pounder," no +less; to which the peasants, dragging her with difficulty through +the clayey roads, gave the name of Faule Grete (Lazy or Heavy +Peg); a remarkable piece of ordnance. Lazy Peg he had got +from the Landgraf of Thüringen, on loan merely; but he turned +her to excellent account of his own. I have often inquired after +Lazy Peg's fate in subsequent times; but could never learn anything +distinct; the German Dryasdust is a dull dog, and seldom +carries anything human in those big wallets of his!</p> + +<p>Equipped in this way, Burggraf Friedrich (he was not yet +Kurfürst, only coming to be) marches for the Havel Country +(early days of 1414); makes his appearance before Quitzow's +strong house of Friesack, walls fourteen feet thick: "You, Dietrich +von Quitzow, are you prepared to live as a peaceable subject +henceforth? to do homage to the laws and me?" "Never!" +answered Quitzow, and pulled up his drawbridge. Whereupon +Heavy Peg opened upon him, Heavy Peg and other guns; +and, in some eight-and-forty hours, shook Quitzow's impregnable +Friesack about his ears. This was in the month of February, +1414, day not given: Friesack was the name of the impregnable +castle (still discoverable in our time); and it ought to +be memorable and venerable to every Prussian man. Burggraf +Friedrich VI, not yet quite become Kurfürst Friedrich I, +but in a year's space to become so, he in person was the beneficent +operator; Heavy Peg and steady human insight, these were +clearly the chief implements.</p> + +<p>Quitzow being settled—for the country is in military occupation +of Friedrich and his allies, and except in some stone +castle a man has no chance—straightway Putlitz or another mutineer, +with his drawbridge up, was battered to pieces, and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span> +drawbridge brought slamming down. After this manner, in an +incredibly short period, mutiny was quenched; and it became +apparent to noble lords, and to all men, that here at length was +a man come who would have the laws obeyed again, and could +and would keep mutiny down.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span></p> +<h2>BATTLE OF AGINCOURT</h2> + +<h3>ENGLISH CONQUEST OF FRANCE</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1415-1420</h6> + + +<h3>JAMES GAIRDNER</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>King Henry V of England, son of Henry IV, was born in 1387, and +two years later was made prince of Wales. In 1401-1408 he was engaged +against the Welsh rebels under Owen Glendower, and in 1410 became +captain of Calais. His youthful period is represented—probably with +much exaggeration, to which Shakespeare, in <i>Henry IV</i>, contributed—as +full of wild and dissolute conduct, but as king he was distinguished +for his courage, ability, and enterprise.</p> + +<p>Henry was crowned in 1413, about seventy-five years after the beginning +of the Hundred Years' War between England and France, which +arose from the claim of Edward III to the French throne. For some +years a feud had been raging in France between the houses of Burgundy +and Orleans, the rival parties being known as Burgundians and Armagnacs. +Led by Simonet Caboche, a butcher, adherents of the Armagnacs +rose with great fury against the Burgundians. This was in the first year +of Henry's reign, and to him and other rulers Charles VI of France appealed +in order to prevent them from aiding the outbreak, which was +soon quelled by the princes of the blood and the University of Paris. +Order in France was restored by the Duke of Orleans, and the Duke of +Burgundy withdrew to Flanders. But war between the two factions was +soon after renewed, and both sides sought the alliance of England.</p> + +<p>In these contentions and appeals for his interference Henry saw an +opportunity for pressing his designs to recover what he claimed as the +French inheritance of his predecessors. In 1414, as the heir of Isabella, +mother of his great-grandfather Edward, he formally demanded the +crown of France. The French princes refused to consider his claim. +Henry modified his demands, but after several months of negotiation, +with no promise of success, he prepared for renewal of the ancient war.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_t.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="T" />HE claim made by Edward III to the French crown had been +questionable enough. That of Henry was certainly most +unreasonable. Edward had maintained that though the Salic +Law, which governed the succession in France, excluded females +from the throne, it did not exclude their male descendants. On +this theory Edward himself was doubtless the true heir to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span> +French monarchy. But even admitting the claims of Edward, +his rights had certainly not descended to Henry V, seeing that +even in England neither he nor his father was true to the throne +by lineal right. A war with France, however, was sure to be +popular with his subjects, and the weakness of that country +from civil discord seemed a favorable opportunity for urging the +most extreme pretensions.</p> + +<p>To give a show of fairness and moderation the English ambassadors +at Paris lessened their demands more than once, and +appeared willing for some time to renew negotiations after their +terms had been rejected. But in the end they still insisted on a +claim which in point of equity was altogether preposterous, and +rejected a compromise which would have put Henry in possession +of the whole of Guienne and given him the hand of the French +King's daughter Catharine with a marriage portion of eight +hundred thousand crowns. Meanwhile Henry was making active +preparations for war, and at the same time carried on secret +negotiations with the Duke of Burgundy, trusting to have him +for an ally in the invasion of France.</p> + +<p>At length, in the summer of 1415, the King had collected +an army and was ready to embark at Southampton. But on +the eve of his departure a conspiracy was discovered, the object +of which was to dethrone the King and set aside the house +of Lancaster. The conspirators were Richard, Earl of Cambridge, +Henry, Lord Scrope of Masham, and a knight of Northumberland +named Sir Thomas Grey. The Earl of Cambridge +was the King's cousin-german, and had been recently raised +to that dignity by Henry himself. Lord Scrope was, to all +appearance, the King's most intimate friend and counsellor. +The design seems to have been formed upon the model of similar +projects in the preceding reign. Richard II was to be proclaimed +once more, as if he had been still alive; but the real intention +was to procure the crown for Edmund Mortimer, Earl +of March, the true heir of Richard, whom Henry IV had set +aside.</p> + +<p>At the same time the Earl of March himself seems hardly +to have countenanced the attempt; but the Earl of Cambridge, +who had married his sister, wished, doubtless, to secure the +succession for his son Richard, as the Earl of March had no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span> +children. Evidently it was the impression of some persons that +the house of Lancaster was not even yet firmly seated upon the +throne. Perhaps it was not even yet apparent that the young +man who had so recently been a gamesome reveller was capable +of ruling with a firm hand a king.</p> + +<p>But all doubt on this point was soon terminated. The commissioners +were tried by a commission hastily issued, and were +summarily condemned and put to death. The Earl of March, +it is said, revealed the plot to the King, sat as one of the judges +of his two brother peers, and was taken into the King's favor. +The Earl of Cambridge made a confession of his guilt. Lord +Scrope, though he repudiated the imputation of disloyalty, admitted +having had a guilty knowledge of the plot, which he +said it had been his purpose to defeat. The one nobleman, in +consideration of his royal blood, was simply beheaded; the +other was drawn and quartered. We hear of no more attempts +of the kind during Henry's reign.</p> + +<p>With a fleet of one thousand five hundred sail Henry crossed +the sea and landed without opposition at Chef de Caux, near +Harfleur, at the mouth of the Seine. The force that he brought +with him was about thirty thousand men, and he immediately +employed it in laying siege to Harfleur. The place was +strong, so far as walls and bulwarks could make it, but it was +not well victualled, and after a five-weeks' siege it was obliged to +capitulate. But the forces of the besieged were thinned by +disease as well as actual fighting. Dysentery had broken out +in the camp, and, though it was only September, they suffered +bitterly from the coldness of the nights; so that, when the town +had been won and garrisoned, the force available for further +operations amounted to less than half the original strength of +the invading army.</p> + +<p>Under the circumstances it was hopeless to expect to do +much before the winter set in, and many counselled the King to +return to England. But Henry could not tolerate the idea of +retreat or even of apparent inaction. He sent a challenge to the +Dauphin, offering to refer their differences to single combat; and +when no notice was taken of this proposal, he determined to +cut his way, if possible, through the country to Calais, along +with the remainder of his forces.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span>It was a difficult and hazardous march. Hunger, dysentery, +and fever had already reduced the little band to less than nine +thousand men, or, as good authorities say, to little more than six +thousand. The country people were unfriendly, their supplies +were cut off on all sides, and the scanty stock of provisions with +which they set out was soon exhausted. For want of bread, +many were driven to feed on nuts, while the enemy harassed +them upon the way and broke down the bridges in advance of +them. On one or two occasions, having repulsed an attack +from a garrison town, Henry demanded and obtained from the +governor a safe-conduct and a certain quantity of bread and +wine, under threat of setting fire to the place if refused.</p> + +<p>In this manner he and his army gradually approached the +river Somme at Blanche Tache, where there was a ford by which +King Edward III had crossed before the battle of Crécy. But +while yet some distance from it, they received information from +a prisoner that the ford was guarded by six thousand fighting +men, and, though the intelligence was untrue, it deterred him +from attempting the passage. They accordingly turned to the +right and went up the river as far as Amiens, but were still unable +to cross, till, after following the course of the river about fifty +miles farther, they fortunately came upon an undefended ford +and passed over before their enemies were aware.</p> + +<p>Hitherto their progress had not been without adventures and +skirmishes in many places. But the main army of the French +only overtook them when they had arrived within about forty-five +miles of Calais. On the night of October 24th they were +posted at the village of Maisoncelles, with an enemy before +them five or six times their number, who had resolved to stop +their further progress. Both sides prepared for battle on the +following morning. The English, besides being so much inferior +in numbers, were wasted by disease and famine, while +their adversaries were fresh and vigorous, with a plentiful commissariat. +But the latter were overconfident. They spent the +evening in dice-playing and making wagers about the prisoners +they should take; while the English, on the contrary, confessed +themselves and received the sacrament.</p> + +<p>Heavy rain fell during the night, from which both armies +suffered; but Henry availed himself of a brief period of moonlight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span> +to have the ground thoroughly surveyed. His position +was an admirable one. His forces occupied a narrow field +hemmed in on either side by hedges and thickets, so that they +could only be attacked in front, and were in no fear of being +surrounded. Early on the following morning Henry arose and +heard mass; but the two armies stood facing each other for +some hours, each waiting for the other to begin. The English +archers were drawn up in front in form of a wedge, and each +man was provided with a stake shod with iron at both ends, +which being fixed into the ground before him, the whole line +formed a kind of hedge bristling with sharp points, to defend +them from being ridden down by the enemy's cavalry.</p> + +<p>At length, however, Henry gave orders to commence the +attack, and the archers advanced, leaving their stakes behind +them fixed in the ground. The French cavalry on either side +endeavored to close them in, but were soon obliged to retire +before the thick showers of arrows poured in upon them, which +destroyed four-fifths of their numbers. Their horses then became +unmanageable, being plagued with a multitude of wounds, +and the whole army was thrown into confusion. Never was a +more brilliant victory won against more overwhelming odds.</p> + +<p>One sad piece of cruelty alone tarnished the glory of that +day's action, but it seems to have been dictated by fear as a +means of self-preservation. After the enemy had been completely +routed in front, and a multitude of prisoners taken, the +King, hearing that some detachments had got round to his rear, +and were endeavoring to plunder his baggage, gave orders to +the whole army to put their prisoners to death. The order was +executed in the most relentless fashion. One or two distinguished +prisoners afterward were taken from under heaps of slain, +among whom were the dukes of Orleans and Bourbon. Altogether, +the slaughter of the French was enormous. There is a +general agreement that it was upward of ten thousand men, +and among them were the flower of the French nobility. That of +the English was disproportionately small. Their own writers +reckon it not more than one hundred altogether, some absurdly +stating it as low as twenty or thirty, while the French authorities +estimate it variously from three hundred to one thousand six +hundred.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span>Henry called his victory the battle of Agincourt, from the +name of a neighboring castle. The army proceeded in excellent +order to Calais, where they were triumphantly received, and +after resting there awhile recrossed to England. The news +of such a splendid victory caused them to be welcomed with an +enthusiasm that knew no bounds. At Dover the people rushed +into the sea to meet the conquerors, and carried the King in their +arms in triumph from his vessel to the shore. From thence to +London his progress was like one continued triumphal procession, +and the capital itself received him with every demonstration +of joy.</p> + +<p>The progress of the English arms in France did not, for a +long time, induce the rival factions in that country to suspend +the civil war among themselves. But at length some feeble +efforts were made toward a reconciliation. The Council of +Constance having healed the divisions in the Church by the +election of Martin V as pope in place of the three rival popes +deposed, the new Pontiff despatched two cardinals to France to +aid in this important object. By their mediation a treaty was +concluded between the Queen, the Duke of Burgundy, and the +Dauphin; but it was no sooner published than the Count of +Armagnac and his partisans made a vehement protest against it +and accused of treason all who had promoted it.</p> + +<p>On this, Paris rose in anger, took part with the Burgundians, +fell upon all the leading Armagnacs, put them in prison, and +destroyed their houses. The Dauphin was only saved by one +of Armagnac's principal adherents, Tannegui du Châtel, who +carried him to the Bastille. The Bastille, however, was a few +days after stormed by the populace, and Du Châtel was forced +to withdraw his charge to Melun. The Armagnac party, except +those in prison, were entirely driven out of Paris. But +even this did not satisfy the rage of the multitude. Riots continued +from day to day, and, a report being spread that the King +was willing to ransom the captives, the people broke open the +prisons and massacred every one of the prisoners. The Count +of Armagnac, his chancellor, and several bishops and officers +of state were the principal victims; but no one, man or woman, +was spared. State prisoners, criminals, and debtors, even women +great with child, perished in this indiscriminate slaughter.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span>Almost the whole of Normandy was by this time in possession +of the English; but Rouen, the capital of the duchy, still held +out. It was a large city, strongly fortified, but Henry closed it +in on every side until it was reduced to capitulate by hunger. +At the beginning of the siege the authorities took measures to +expel the destitute class of the inhabitants, and several thousands +of poor people were thus thrown into the hands of the besiegers, +who endeavored to drive them back into the town. But the +gates being absolutely shut against them, they remained between +the walls and the trenches, pitifully crying for help and perishing +for want of food and shelter, until, on Christmas Day, when the +siege had continued nearly five months, Henry ordered food to +be distributed to them "in the honor of Christ's nativity."</p> + +<p>Those within the town, meanwhile, were reduced to no less +extremities. Enormous prices were given for bread and even +for the bodies of dogs, cats, and rats. The garrison at length +were induced to offer terms, but Henry for some time insisted +on their surrendering at discretion. Hearing, however, that a +desperate project was entertained of undermining the wall and +suddenly rushing out upon the besiegers, he consented to grant +them conditions, and the city capitulated on January 19th. +The few places that remained unconquered in Normandy then +opened their gates to Henry; others in Maine and the Isle of +France did the same, and the English troops entered Picardy on +a further career of conquest.</p> + +<p>Both the rival factions were now seriously anxious to stop the +progress of the English, either by coming at once to terms with +Henry or by uniting together against him; and each in turn +first tried the former course. The Dauphin offered to treat with +the King of England; but Henry demanding the whole of those +large possessions in the north and south of France which had +been secured to Edward III by the treaty of Bretigni, he felt +that it was impossible to prolong the negotiation. The Duke +of Burgundy then arranged a personal interview at Meulan between +Henry on the one side and himself and the French Queen +on behalf of Charles, at which terms of peace were to be adjusted. +The Queen brought with her the princess Catharine, +her daughter, whose hand Henry himself had formerly demanded +as one of the conditions on which he would have consented to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span> +forbear from invading France. It was now hoped that if he +would take her in marriage he would moderate his other demands. +But Henry, for his part, was altogether unyielding. +He insisted on the terms of the treaty of Bretigni, and on keeping +his own conquests besides, with Anjou, Maine, Touraine, and +the sovereignty over Brittany.</p> + +<p>Demands so exorbitant the Duke of Burgundy did not dare +to accept, and as a last resource he and the Dauphin agreed to be +reconciled and to unite in defence of their country against the +enemy. They held a personal interview, embraced each other, +and signed a treaty by which they promised each to love the +other as a brother, and to offer a joint resistance to the invaders. +A further meeting was arranged to take place about seven weeks +later to complete matters and to consider their future policy. +France was delighted at the prospect of internal harmony and the +hope of deliverance from her enemies. But at the second interview +an event occurred which marred all her prospects once +more. The meeting had been appointed to take place at Montereau, +where the river Yonne falls into the Seine.</p> + +<p>The Duke, remembering doubtless how he had perfidiously +murdered the Duke of Orleans, allowed the day originally appointed +to pass by, and came to the place at last after considerable +misgivings, which appear to have been overcome by the exhortations +of treacherous friends.</p> + +<p>When he arrived he found a place railed in with barriers for +the meeting. He nevertheless advanced, accompanied by ten +attendants, and, being told that the Dauphin waited for him, +he came within the barriers, which were immediately closed +behind him. The Dauphin was accompanied by one or two +gentlemen, among whom was his devoted servant, Tannegui +du Châtel, who had saved him from the Parisian massacre. +This Tannegui had been formerly a servant of Louis, Duke of +Orleans, whose murder he had been eagerly seeking an opportunity +to revenge; and as the Duke of Burgundy knelt before the +Dauphin, he struck him a violent blow on the head with a battle-axe. +The attack was immediately followed up by two or three +others, who, before the Duke was able to draw his sword, had +closed in around him and despatched him with a multitude of +wounds.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span>The effect of this crime was what might have been anticipated. +Nothing could have been more favorable to the aggressive designs +of Henry, or more ruinous to the party of the Dauphin, +with whose complicity it had been too evidently committed. +Philip, the son and heir of the murdered Duke of Burgundy, +at once sought means to revenge his father's death. The people +of Paris became more than ever enraged against the Armagnacs, +and entered into negotiations with the King of England. The +new Duke Philip and Queen Isabel did the same, the latter +being no less eager than the former for the punishment of her +own son. Within less than three months they made up their +minds to waive every scruple as to the acceptance of Henry's +most exorbitant demands. He was to have the princess Catharine +in marriage, and, the Dauphin being disinherited, to succeed +to the crown of France on her father's death. He was +also to be regent during King Charles' life; and all who held +honors or offices of any kind in France were at once to swear +allegiance to him as their future sovereign. Henry, for his part, +was to use his utmost power to reduce to obedience those towns +and places within the realm which adhered to the Dauphin or the +Armagnacs.</p> + +<p>A treaty on this basis was at length concluded at Troyes in +Champagne on May 21, 1420, and on Trinity Sunday, June 2d, +Henry was married to the princess Catharine. Shortly afterward +the treaty was formally registered by the states of the +realm at Paris, when the Dauphin was condemned and attainted +as guilty of the murder of the Duke of Burgundy and declared +incapable of succeeding to the crown. But the state of affairs +left Henry no time for honeymoon festivities. On the Tuesday +after his wedding he again put himself at the head of his army, +and marched with Philip of Burgundy to lay siege to Sens, which +in a few days capitulated. Montereau and Melun were next +besieged in succession, and each, after some resistance, was +compelled to surrender. The latter siege lasted nearly four +months, and during its continuance Henry fought a single combat +with the governor in the mines, each combatant having his +vizor down and being unknown to the other. The governor's +name was Barbason, and he was one of those accused of complicity +in the murder of the Duke of Orleans; but in consequence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span> +of this incident, Henry saved him from the capital punishment +which he would otherwise have incurred on his capture.</p> + +<p>Toward the end of the year Henry entered Paris in triumph +with the French King and the Duke of Burgundy. He there +kept Christmas, and shortly afterward removed with his Queen +into Normandy on his return into England. He held a parliament +at Rouen to confirm his authority in the duchy, after which +he passed through Picardy and Calais, and, crossing the sea, +came by Dover and Canterbury to London. By his own subjects, +and especially in the capital, he and his bride were received +with profuse demonstrations of joy. The Queen was crowned +at Westminster with great magnificence, and afterward Henry +went a progress with her through the country, making pilgrimages +to several of the more famous shrines in England.</p> + +<p>But while he was thus employed, a great calamity befell the +English power in France, which, when the news arrived in +England, made it apparent that the King's presence was again +much needed across the Channel. His brother, the Duke of +Clarence, whom he had left as his lieutenant, was defeated and +slain at Beaugé in Anjou by an army of French and Scots, a +number of English noblemen being also slain or taken prisoners. +This was the first important advantage the Dauphin had gained, +and the credit of the victory was mainly due to his Scotch allies. +For the Duke of Albany, who was regent of Scotland, though +it is commonly supposed that he was unwilling to give needless +offence to England lest Henry should terminate his power by +setting the Scotch King at liberty, had been compelled by the +general sympathy of the Scots with France to send a force under +his son the Earl of Buchan to serve against the English. The +service which they did in that battle was so great that the Earl +of Buchan was created, by the Dauphin, constable of France.</p> + +<p>Again Henry crossed the sea with a new army, having borrowed +large sums for the expenses of the expedition. Before +he left England he made a private treaty with his prisoner King +James of Scotland, promising to let him return to his country +after the campaign in France on certain specified conditions, +among which it was agreed that he should take the command +of a body of troops in aid of the English. James had accompanied +him in his last campaign, and Henry had endeavored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span> +to make use of his authority to forbid the Scots in France from +taking part in the war, but they had refused to acknowledge +themselves bound to a king who was a captive.</p> + +<p>By this agreement, however, Henry obtained real assistance +and coöperation from his prisoner, whom he employed, in concert +with the Duke of Gloucester, in the siege of Dreux, which +very soon surrendered. He himself meanwhile marched toward +the Loire to meet the Dauphin, and took Beaugency; then, +returning northward, first reduced Villeneuve on the Yonne, +and afterward laid siege to Meaux on the Marne. The latter +place held out for seven months, and while Henry lay before it +he received intelligence that his Queen had borne him a son at +Windsor, who was christened Henry.</p> + +<p>The city of Meaux surrendered on May 10, 1422. The Governor, +a man who had been guilty of great cruelties, was beheaded, +and his head and body were suspended from a tree on +which he himself had caused a number of people to be hanged +as adherents of the Duke of Burgundy. Henry was now master +of the greater part of the North of France, and his Queen came +over from England to join him, with reënforcements under his +brother the Duke of Bedford. But he was not permitted to +rest; for the Dauphin, having taken from his ally the Duke of +Burgundy the town of La Charté on the Loire, proceeded to lay +siege to Côsne, and, Philip having applied to Henry for assistance, +he sent forward the Duke of Bedford with his army, intending +shortly to follow himself. This demonstration was +sufficient. The Dauphin felt that he was too weak to contend +with the united English and Burgundian forces, and he withdrew +from the siege.</p> + +<p>Henry, however, was disabled from joining the army by a +severe attack of dysentery; and though he had at first hoped +that he might be carried in a litter to head-quarters, he soon +found that his illness was far too serious to permit him to carry +out his intention. He was accordingly conveyed back to Vincennes, +near Paris, where he grew so rapidly worse that it was +evident his end was near. In a few brief words to those about +him he declared his will touching the government of England +and France after his death, until his infant son should be of age. +The regency of France he committed to the Duke of Bedford,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span> +in case it should be declined by the Duke of Burgundy. That +of England he gave to his other brother, Humphrey, Duke of +Gloucester. To his two uncles, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of +Winchester, and Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, he intrusted +the guardianship of his child. He besought all parties to maintain +the alliance with Burgundy, and never to release the Duke +of Orleans and the other prisoners of Agincourt during his son's +minority. Having given these instructions he expired, on the +last day of August, 1422.</p> + +<p>His death was bewailed both in England and France with no +ordinary regret. The great achievements of his reign made him +naturally a popular hero; nor was the regard felt for his memory +diminished when, under the feeble reign of his son, all that he +had gained was irrecoverably lost again, so that nothing remained +of all his conquests except the story of how they had been won. +Those past glories, indeed, must have seemed all the brighter +when contrasted with a present which knew but disaster abroad +and civil dissension at home. The early death of Henry also +contributed to the popular estimate of his greatness. It was +seen that in a very few years he had subdued a large part of the +territory of France. It was not seen that in the nature of things +this advantage could not be maintained, and that even the greatest +military talents would not have succeeded in preserving the +English conquests.</p> + +<p>Nor can it be said that Henry's success, extraordinary as it +was, was altogether owing to his own abilities. That he exhibited +great qualities as a general cannot be denied; but these +would have availed him little if the rival factions in France +had not been far more bitterly opposed to each other than to +him. Indeed, it is difficult after all to justify, even as a matter +of policy, his interference in French affairs, except as a means +of diverting public attention from the fact that he inherited +from his father but an indifferent title even to the throne of +England. And though success attended his efforts beyond all +expectation, he most wilfully endangered the safety not only +of himself, but of his gallant army, when he determined to +march with reduced forces through the enemy's country from +Harfleur to Calais. It was a rashness nothing less than culpable, +but in his own interests rashness was good policy. Unless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span> +he could succeed in desperate enterprises against tremendous +odds and so make himself a military hero and a favorite +of the multitude, his throne was insecure. He succeeded; but +it was only by staking everything upon the venture—his own +safety and that of his army, which, if the French had exercised +but a little more discretion, would inevitably have been cut to +pieces or made prisoners to a man.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span></p> +<h2>JEANNE D'ARCS VICTORY AT ORLEANS</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1429</h6> + +<h3>Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In the Hundred Years' War between England and France, a critical +period was reached when Henry V, in 1415, won the battle of Agincourt, +and five years later, by the treaty of Troyes, secured the succession to +the French throne on the death of Charles VI. Both monarchs dying in +1422, Charles VII was proclaimed King of France, and Henry's son—Henry +VI—succeeded to his father's throne.</p> + +<p>France now realized that her condition was wellnigh hopeless, for the +greater part of her territory was in the hands of her enemies. When the +English began the siege of Orleans the extinction of French independence +seemed to be inevitable. The chivalry of France had been wasted in terrible +wars, and the spirits of her soldiers were daunted by repeated disaster. +The English king had been proclaimed in Paris, and the "native +prince was a dissolute trifler, stained with the assassination of the most +powerful noble of the land."<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">77</a> Anarchy and brigandage everywhere prevailed, +and the condition of the peasantry was too wretched to be described.</p> + +<p>"Such," says Lamartine, "was the state of the nation when Providence +showed it a savior in a child." This child was Jeanne d'Arc, +called <i>La Pucelle</i> ("the Maid"—more fully, "the Maid of Orleans"), +whose character and services to her country made her, perhaps, the most +illustrious heroine of history. She was born at Domremy, in the northeast +part of France, January 6, 1412. All that is essential concerning her +personality and life prior to the great achievement recorded here will be +found in Creasy's own introduction to his spirited account of the victory +at Orleans.</p></div> + + +<p><img src="images/cap_o.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="O" />RLEANS was looked upon as the last stronghold of the +French national party. If the English could once obtain +possession of it, their victorious progress through the residue of the +kingdom seemed free from any serious obstacle. Accordingly, +the Earl of Salisbury, one of the bravest and most experienced +of the English generals, who had been trained under Henry V, +marched to the attack of the all-important city; and, after re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span>ducing +several places of inferior consequence in the neighborhood, +appeared with his army before its walls on the 12th of October, +1428.</p> + + +<p>The city of Orleans itself was on the north side of the Loire, +but its suburbs extended far on the southern side, and a strong +bridge connected them with the town. A fortification, which in +modern military phrase would be termed a <i>tête-du-pont</i>, defended +the bridge head on the southern side, and two towers, +called the <i>Tourelles</i>, were built on the bridge itself, at a little distance +from the tête-du-pont. Indeed, the solid masonry of the +bridge terminated at the Tourelles; and the communication +thence with the tête-du-pont and the southern shore was by +means of a drawbridge. The Tourelles and the tête-du-pont +formed together a strong-fortified post, capable of containing a +garrison of considerable strength; and so long as this was in +possession of the Orleannais, they could communicate freely +with the southern provinces, the inhabitants of which, like the +Orleannais themselves, supported the cause of their dauphin +against the foreigners.</p> + +<p>Lord Salisbury rightly judged the capture of the Tourelles +to be the most material step toward the reduction of the city itself. +Accordingly, he directed his principal operations against +this post, and after some severe repulses he carried the Tourelles +by storm on the 23d of October. The French, however, +broke down the arches of the bridge that were nearest to the +north bank, and thus rendered a direct assault from the Tourelles +upon the city impossible. But the possession of this post +enabled the English to distress the town greatly by a battery of +cannon which they planted there, and which commanded some +of the principal streets.</p> + +<p>It has been observed by Hume that this is the first siege in +which any important use appears to have been made of artillery. +And even at Orleans both besiegers and besieged seem to have +employed their cannons merely as instruments of destruction +against their enemy's <i>men</i>, and not to have trusted to them as +engines of demolition against their enemy's walls and works. +The efficacy of cannon in breaching solid masonry was taught +Europe by the Turks a few years afterward, at the memorable +siege of Constantinople.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span>In our French wars, as in the wars of the classic nations, famine +was looked on as the surest weapon to compel the submission +of a well-walled town; and the great object of the besiegers was +to effect a complete circumvallation. The great ambit of the +walls of Orleans, and the facilities which the river gave for obtaining +succors and supplies, rendered the capture of the town +by this process a matter of great difficulty. Nevertheless, Lord +Salisbury, and Lord Suffolk, who succeeded him in command +of the English after his death by a cannon-ball, carried on the +necessary works with great skill and resolution. Six strongly-fortified +posts, called <i>bastilles</i>, were formed at certain intervals +round the town, and the purpose of the English engineers was +to draw strong lines between them. During the winter, little +progress was made with the intrenchments, but when the spring +of 1429 came, the English resumed their work with activity; the +communications between the city and the country became more +difficult, and the approach of want began already to be felt in +Orleans.</p> + +<p>The besieging force also fared hardly for stores and provisions, +until relieved by the effects of a brilliant victory which +Sir John Fastolf, one of the best English generals, gained at +Rouvrai, near Orleans, a few days after Ash Wednesday, 1429. +With only sixteen hundred fighting men, Sir John completely +defeated an army of French and Scots, four thousand strong, +which had been collected for the purpose of aiding the Orleannais +and harassing the besiegers. After this encounter, which +seemed decisively to confirm the superiority of the English in +battle over their adversaries, Fastolf escorted large supplies of +stores and food to Suffolk's camp, and the spirits of the English +rose to the highest pitch at the prospect of the speedy capture +of the city before them, and the consequent subjection of all +France beneath their arms.</p> + +<p>The Orleannais now, in their distress, offered to surrender +the city into the hands of the Duke of Burgundy, who, though +the ally of the English, was yet one of their native princes. The +regent Bedford refused these terms, and the speedy submission +of the city to the English seemed inevitable. The dauphin +Charles, who was now at Chinon with his remnant of a court, +despaired of continuing any longer the struggle for his crown,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span> +and was only prevented from abandoning the country by the +more masculine spirits of his mistress and his Queen. Yet neither +they nor the boldest of Charles' captains could have shown him +where to find resources for prolonging war; and least of all could +any human skill have predicted the quarter whence rescue was +to come to Orleans and to France.</p> + +<p>In the village of Domremy, on the borders of Lorraine, there +was a poor peasant of the name of Jacques d'Arc, respected in +his station of life, and who had reared a family in virtuous habits +and in the practice of the strictest devotion. His eldest daughter +was named by her parents Jeannette, but she was called Jeanne +by the French, which was Latinized into Johanna, and Anglicized +into Joan.</p> + +<p>At the time when Jeanne first attracted attention, she was +about eighteen years of age. She was naturally of a susceptible +disposition, which diligent attention to the legends of saints and +tales of fairies, aided by the dreamy loneliness of her life while +tending her father's flocks, had made peculiarly prone to enthusiastic +fervor. At the same time, she was eminent for piety and +purity of soul, and for her compassionate gentleness to the sick +and the distressed.</p> + +<p>The district where she dwelt had escaped comparatively free +from the ravages of war, but the approach of roving bands of +Burgundian or English troops frequently spread terror through +Domremy. Once the village had been plundered by some of +these marauders, and Jeanne and her family had been driven +from their home, and forced to seek refuge for a time at Neufchâteau. +The peasantry in Domremy were principally attached +to the house of Orleans and the Dauphin, and all the miseries +which France endured were there imputed to the Burgundian +faction and their allies, the English, who were seeking to enslave +unhappy France.</p> + +<p>Thus, from infancy to girlhood, Jeanne had heard continually +of the woes of the war, and had herself witnessed some of +the wretchedness that it caused. A feeling of intense patriotism +grew in her with her growth. The deliverance of France from +the English was the subject of her reveries by day and her +dreams by night. Blended with these aspirations were recollections +of the miraculous interpositions of heaven in favor of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span> +oppressed, which she had learned from the legends of her Church. +Her faith was undoubting; her prayers were fervent. "She +feared no danger, for she felt no sin," and at length she believed +herself to have received the supernatural inspiration which she +sought.</p> + +<p>According to her own narrative, delivered by her to her +merciless inquisitors in the time of her captivity and approaching +death, she was about thirteen years old when her revelations +commenced. Her own words describe them best. "At the age +of thirteen, a voice from God came to her to help her in ruling +herself, and that voice came to her about the hour of noon, in +summer-time, while she was in her father's garden. And she +had fasted the day before. And she heard the voice on her right, +in the direction of the church; and when she heard the voice, +she saw also a bright light."</p> + +<p>Afterward St. Michael and St. Margaret and St. Catharine +appeared to her. They were always in a halo of glory; she could +see that their heads were crowned with jewels; and she heard +their voices, which were sweet and mild. She did not distinguish +their arms or limbs. She heard them more frequently than +she saw them; and the usual time when she heard them was +when the church bells were sounding for prayer. And if she was +in the woods when she heard them, she could plainly distinguish +their voices drawing near to her. When she thought that she +discerned the heavenly voices, she knelt down, and bowed herself +to the ground. Their presence gladdened her even to tears, +and after they departed she wept because they had not taken +her with them back to paradise. They always spoke soothingly +to her. They told her that France would be saved, and that she +was to save it.</p> + +<p>Such were the visions and the voices that moved the spirit of +the girl of thirteen; and as she grew older, they became more +frequent and more clear. At last the tidings of the siege of Orleans +reached Domremy. Jeanne heard her parents and neighbors +talk of the sufferings of its population, of the ruin which its +capture would bring on their lawful sovereign, and of the distress +of the Dauphin and his court. Jeanne's heart was sorely troubled +at the thought of the fate of Orleans; and her "voices" now +ordered her to leave her home, and warned her that she was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span> +instrument chosen by heaven for driving away the English from +that city, and for taking the Dauphin to be anointed king at +Rheims. At length she informed her parents of her divine mission, +and told them that she must go to the Sire de Baudricourt, +who commanded at Vaucouleurs, and who was the appointed +person to bring her into the presence of the King, whom she was +to save.</p> + +<p>Neither the anger nor the grief of her parents, who said that +they would rather see her drowned than exposed to the contamination +of the camp, could move her from her purpose. One of +her uncles consented to take her to Vaucouleurs, where De +Baudricourt at first thought her mad, and derided her, but by +degrees was led to believe, if not in her inspiration, at least in her +enthusiasm, and in its possible utility to the Dauphin's cause.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants of Vaucouleurs were completely won over +to her side by the piety and devoutness which she displayed, and +by her firm assurance in the truth of her mission. She told them +that it was God's will that she should go to the King, and that no +one but her could save the kingdom of France. She said that she +herself would rather remain with her poor mother and spin; but +the Lord had ordered her forth.</p> + +<p>The fame of "the Maid," as she was termed, the renown of +her holiness and of her mission, spread far and wide. Baudricourt +sent her with an escort to Chinon, where the dauphin +Charles was dallying away his time. Her "voices" had bidden +her assume the arms and the apparel of a knight; and the +wealthiest inhabitants of Vaucouleurs had vied with each other +in equipping her with war-horse, armor, and sword. On reaching +Chinon, she was, after some delay, admitted into the presence +of the Dauphin. Charles designedly dressed himself far +less richly than many of his courtiers were apparelled, and mingled +with them, when Jeanne was introduced, in order to see if +the holy Maid would address her exhortations to the wrong person. +But she instantly singled him out, and, kneeling before +him, said:</p> + +<p>"Most noble Dauphin, the King of Heaven announces to you +by me that you shall be anointed and crowned king in the city of +Rheims, and that you shall be his vicegerent in France."</p> + +<p>His features may probably have been seen by her previously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span> +in portraits, or have been described to her by others; but she +herself believed that her "voices" inspired her when she addressed +the King, and the report soon spread abroad that the +holy Maid had found the King by a miracle; and this, with +many other similar rumors, augmented the renown and influence +that she now rapidly acquired.</p> + +<p>The state of public feeling in France was now favorable to +an enthusiastic belief in a divine interposition in favor of the +party that had hitherto been unsuccessful and oppressed. The +humiliations which had befallen the French royal family and +nobility were looked on as the just judgments of God upon them +for their vice and impiety. The misfortunes that had come upon +France as a nation were believed to have been drawn down by +national sins. The English, who had been the instruments of +heaven's wrath against France, seemed now, by their pride and +cruelty, to be fitting objects of it themselves.</p> + +<p>France in that age was a profoundly religious country. There +was ignorance, there was superstition, there was bigotry; but +there was <i>faith</i>—a faith that itself worked true miracles, even +while it believed in unreal ones. At this time, also, one of those +devotional movements began among the clergy in France, which +from time to time occur in national churches, without it being +possible for the historian to assign any adequate human cause +for their immediate date or extension. Numberless friars and +priests traversed the rural districts and towns of France, preaching +to the people that they must seek from heaven a deliverance +from the pillages of the soldiery and the insolence of the foreign +oppressors.</p> + +<p>The idea of a providence that works only by general laws +was wholly alien to the feelings of the age. Every political event, +as well as every natural phenomenon, was believed to be the +immediate result of a special mandate of God. This led to +the belief that his holy angels and saints were constantly employed +in executing his commands and mingling in the affairs of +men. The Church encouraged these feelings, and at the same +time sanctioned the concurrent popular belief that hosts of evil +spirits were also ever actively interposing in the current of earthly +events, with whom sorcerers and wizards could league themselves, +and thereby obtain the exercise of supernatural power.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span>Thus all things favored the influence which Jeanne obtained +both over friends and foes. The French nation, as well as the +English and the Burgundians, readily admitted that superhuman +beings inspired her; the only question was whether these +beings were good or evil angels; whether she brought with her +"airs from heaven or blasts from hell." This question seemed +to her countrymen to be decisively settled in her favor by the +austere sanctity of her life, by the holiness of her conversation, +but still more by her exemplary attention to all the services and +rites of the Church. The Dauphin at first feared the injury that +might be done to his cause if he laid himself open to the charge +of having leagued himself with a sorceress. Every imaginable +test, therefore, was resorted to in order to set Jeanne's orthodoxy +and purity beyond suspicion. At last Charles and his advisers +felt safe in accepting her services as those of a true and virtuous +Christian daughter of the holy Church.</p> + +<p>It is, indeed, probable that Charles himself and some of his +counsellors may have suspected Jeanne of being a mere enthusiast, +and it is certain that Dunois and others of the best generals +took considerable latitude in obeying or deviating from the +military orders that she gave. But over the mass of the people +and the soldiery her influence was unbounded. While Charles +and his doctors of theology, and court ladies, had been deliberating +as to recognizing or dismissing the Maid, a considerable period +had passed away during which a small army, the last gleanings, +as it seemed, of the English sword, had been assembled at +Blois, under Dunois, La Hire, Xaintrailles, and other chiefs, +who to their natural valor were now beginning to unite the wisdom +that is taught by misfortune. It was resolved to send +Jeanne with this force and a convoy of provisions to Orleans. +The distress of that city had now become urgent. But the communication +with the open country was not entirely cut off: the +Orleannais had heard of the holy Maid whom Providence had +raised up for their deliverance, and their messengers earnestly +implored the Dauphin to send her to them without delay.</p> + +<p>Jeanne appeared at the camp at Blois, clad in a new suit of +brilliant white armor, mounted on a stately black war-horse, +and with a lance in her right hand, which she had learned to +wield with skill and grace. Her head was unhelmeted, so that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span> +all could behold her fair and expressive features, her deep-set +and earnest eyes, and her long black hair, which was parted +across her forehead, and bound by a ribbon behind her back. +She wore at her side a small battle-axe, and the consecrated +sword, marked on the blade with five crosses, which had at her +bidding been taken for her from the shrine of St. Catharine at +Fierbois. A page carried her banner, which she had caused to +be made and embroidered as her voices enjoined. It was white +satin, strewn with <i>fleurs-de-lis</i>, and on it were the words</p> + +<div class="center">"<span class="smcap">Jhesus Maria</span>,"</div> + +<p>and the representation of the Saviour in his glory. Jeanne afterward +generally bore her banner herself in battle; she said that +though she loved her sword much, she loved her banner forty +times as much; and she loved to carry it, because it could not kill +anyone.</p> + +<p>Thus accoutred, she came to lead the troops of France, who +looked with soldierly admiration on her well-proportioned and +upright figure, the skill with which she managed her war-horse, +and the easy grace with which she handled her weapons. Her +military education had been short, but she had availed herself +of it well. She had also the good sense to interfere little with the +manœuvres of the troops, leaving these things to Dunois and +others whom she had the discernment to recognize as the best +officers in the camp.</p> + +<p>Her tactics in action were simple enough. As she herself +described it, "I used to say to them, 'Go boldly in among the +English,' and then I used to go boldly in myself." Such, as +she told her inquisitors, was the only spell she used, and it +was one of power. But, while interfering little with the military +discipline of the troops, in all matters of moral discipline +she was inflexibly strict. All the abandoned followers of +the camp were driven away. She compelled both generals and +soldiers to attend regularly at confessional. Her chaplain and +other priests marched with the army under her orders; and at +every halt, an altar was set up and the sacrament administered. +No oath or foul language passed without punishment or censure. +Even the roughest and most hardened veterans obeyed her. +They had put off for a time the bestial coarseness which had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span> +grown on them during a life of bloodshed and rapine; they felt +that they must go forth in a new spirit to a new career, and acknowledged +the beauty of the holiness in which the heaven-sent +Maid was leading them to certain victory.</p> + +<p>Jeanne marched from Blois on the 25th of April with a convoy +of provisions for Orleans, accompanied by Dunois, La Hire, +and the other chief captains of the French, and on the evening +of the 28th they approached the town. In the words of the old +chronicler Hall: "The Englishmen, perceiving that thei within +could not long continue for faute of vitaile and pouder, kepte not +their watche so diligently as thei were accustomed, nor scoured +now the countrey environed as thei before had ordained. Whiche +negligence the citizens shut in perceiving, sent worde thereof to +the French captaines, which, with Pucelle, in the dedde tyme of +the nighte, and in a greate rayne and thundere, with all their vitaile +and artillery, entered into the citie."</p> + +<p>When it was day, the Maid rode in solemn procession through +the city, clad in complete armor, and mounted on a white horse. +Dunois was by her side, and all the bravest knights of her army +and of the garrison followed in her train. The whole population +thronged around her; and men, women, and children strove to +touch her garments or her banner or her charger. They poured +forth blessings on her, whom they already considered their deliverer. +In the words used by two of them afterward before the +tribunal which reversed the sentence, but could not restore the +life of the virgin-martyr of France, "the people of Orleans, when +they first saw her in their city, thought that it was an angel from +heaven that had come down to save them."</p> + +<p>Jeanne spoke gently in reply to their acclamations and addresses. +She told them to fear God, and trust in him for safety +from the fury of their enemies. She first went to the principal +church, where <i>Te Deum</i> was chanted; and then she took up her +abode at the house of Jacques Bourgier, one of the principal citizens, +and whose wife was a matron of good repute. She refused +to attend a splendid banquet which had been provided for her, +and passed nearly all her time in prayer.</p> + +<p>When it was known by the English that the Maid was in Orleans, +their minds were not less occupied about her than were +the minds of those in the city; but it was in a very different spirit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span> +The English believed in her supernatural mission as firmly as +the French did, but they thought her a sorceress who had come +to overthrow them by her enchantments. An old prophecy, +which told that a damsel from Lorraine was to save France, had +long been current, and it was known and applied to Jeanne by +foreigners as well as by the natives. For months the English had +heard of the coming Maid, and the tales of miracles which she +was said to have wrought had been listened to by the rough yeomen +of the English camp with anxious curiosity and secret awe. +She had sent a herald to the English generals before she marched +for Orleans, and he had summoned the English generals in the +name of the most High to give up to the Maid, who was sent by +heaven, the keys of the French cities which they had wrongfully +taken; and he also solemnly adjured the English troops, +whether archers or men of the companies of war or gentlemen +or others, who were before the city of Orleans, to depart thence +to their homes, under peril of being visited by the judgment of +God.</p> + +<p>On her arrival in Orleans, Jeanne sent another similar message; +but the English scoffed at her from their towers, and +threatened to burn her heralds. She determined, before she +shed the blood of the besiegers, to repeat the warning with her +own voice; and accordingly she mounted one of the boulevards +of the town, which was within hearing of the Tourelles, and +thence she spoke to the English, and bade them depart, otherwise +they would meet with shame and woe.</p> + +<p>Sir William Gladsdale—whom the French call "Glacidas"—commanded +the English post at the Tourelles, and he and another +English officer replied by bidding her go home and keep +her cows, and by ribald jests that brought tears of shame and +indignation into her eyes. But, though the English leaders +vaunted aloud, the effect produced on their army by Jeanne's +presence in Orleans was proved four days after her arrival, when, +on the approach of reënforcements and stores to the town, Jeanne +and La Hire marched out to meet them, and escorted the long +train of provision wagons safely into Orleans, between the bastiles +of the English, who cowered behind their walls instead of +charging fiercely and fearlessly, as had been their wont, on any +French band that dared to show itself within reach.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span>Thus far she had prevailed without striking a blow; but the +time was now come to test her courage amid the horrors of actual +slaughter. On the afternoon of the day on which she had escorted +the reënforcements into the city, while she was resting +fatigued at home, Dunois had seized an advantageous opportunity +of attacking the English bastile of St. Loup, and a fierce +assault of the Orleannais had been made on it, which the English +garrison of the fort stubbornly resisted. Jeanne was roused +by a sound which she believed to be that of her heavenly voices; +she called for her arms and horse, and, quickly equipping herself, +she mounted to ride off to where the fight was raging. In +her haste she had forgotten her banner; she rode back, and, +without dismounting, had it given to her from the window, +and then she galloped to the gate whence the sally had been +made.</p> + +<p>On her way she met some of the wounded French who had +been carried back from the fight. "Ha!" she exclaimed, "I +never can see French blood flow without my hair standing on +end." She rode out of the gate, and met the tide of her countrymen, +who had been repulsed from the English fort, and were +flying back to Orleans in confusion. At the sight of the holy +Maid and her banner they rallied and renewed the assault, +Jeanne rode forward at their head, waving her banner and cheering +them on. The English quailed at what they believed to be +the charge of hell; St. Loup was stormed, and its defenders +put to the sword, except some few, whom Jeanne succeeded in +saving. All her woman's gentleness returned when the combat +was over. It was the first time that she had ever seen a battlefield. +She wept at the sight of so many bleeding corpses; and +her tears flowed doubly when she reflected that they were the +bodies of Christian men who had died without confession.</p> + +<p>The next day was Ascension Day, and it was passed by Jeanne +in prayer. But on the following morrow it was resolved by the +chiefs of the garrison to attack the English forts on the south of +the river. For this purpose they crossed the river in boats, and +after some severe fighting, in which the Maid was wounded in +the heel, both the English bastiles of the Augustins and St. Jean +de Blanc were captured. The Tourelles were now the only posts +which the besiegers held on the south of the river. But that post<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span> +was formidably strong, and by its command of the bridge it was +the key to the deliverance of Orleans. It was known that a fresh +English army was approaching under Fastolfe to reënforce the +besiegers, and, should that army arrive while the Tourelles were +yet in the possession of their comrades, there was great peril of +all the advantages which the French had gained being nullified, +and of the siege being again actively carried on.</p> + +<p>It was resolved, therefore, by the French to assail the Tourelles +at once, while the enthusiasm which the presence and the +heroic valor of the Maid had created was at its height. But the +enterprise was difficult. The rampart of the tête-du-pont, or +landward bulwark, of the Tourelles was steep and high, and Sir +John Gladsdale occupied this all-important fort with five hundred +archers and men-at-arms, who were the very flower of the +English army.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning of the 7th of May some thousands of +the best French troops in Orleans heard mass and attended the +confessional by Jeanne's orders, and then crossing the river in +boats, as on the preceding day, they assailed the bulwark of the +Tourelles "with light hearts and heavy hands." But Gladsdale's +men, encouraged by their bold and skilful leader, made a +resolute and able defence. The Maid planted her banner on the +edge of the fosse, and then, springing down into the ditch, she +placed the first ladder against the wall and began to mount. +An English archer sent an arrow at her, which pierced her corselet +and wounded her severely between the neck and shoulder. +She fell bleeding from the ladder; and the English were leaping +down from the wall to capture her, but her followers bore her +off. She was carried to the rear and laid upon the grass; her +armor was taken off, and the anguish of her wound and the sight +of her blood made her at first tremble and weep.</p> + +<p>But her confidence in her celestial mission soon returned: +her patron saints seemed to stand before her and reassure her. +She sat up and drew the arrow out with her own hands. Some +of the soldiers who stood by wished to stanch the blood by saying +a charm over the wound; but she forbade them, saying that +she did not wish to be cured by unhallowed means. She had the +wound dressed with a little oil, and then, bidding her confessor +come to her, she betook herself to prayer.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span>In the mean while the English in the bulwark of the Tourelles +had repulsed the oft-renewed efforts of the French to scale +the wall. Dunois, who commanded the assailants, was at last +discouraged, and gave orders for a retreat to be sounded. Jeanne +sent for him and the other generals, and implored them not to +despair.</p> + +<p>"By my God," she said to them, "you shall soon enter in +there. Do not doubt it. When you see my banner wave again +up to the wall, to your arms again! the fort is yours. For the +present, rest a little and take some food and drink."</p> + +<p>"They did so," says the old chronicler of the siege, "for they +obeyed her marvellously."</p> + +<p>The faintness caused by her wound had now passed off, and +she headed the French in another rush against the bulwark. +The English, who had thought her slain, were alarmed at her +reappearance, while the French pressed furiously and fanatically +forward. A Biscayan soldier was carrying Jeanne's banner. +She had told the troops that directly the banner touched the wall +they should enter. The Biscayan waved the banner forward +from the edge of the fosse, and touched the wall with it, and then +all the French host swarmed madly up the ladders that now were +raised in all directions against the English fort. At this crisis +the efforts of the English garrison were distracted by an attack +from another quarter. The French troops who had been left in +Orleans had placed some planks over the broken arch of the +bridge, and advanced across them to the assault of the Tourelles +on the northern side.</p> + +<p>Gladsdale resolved to withdraw his men from the landward +bulwark, and concentrate his whole force in the Tourelles themselves. +He was passing for this purpose across the drawbridge +that connected the Tourelles and the tête-du-pont, when Jeanne, +who by this time had scaled the wall of the bulwark, called out +to him, "Surrender! surrender to the King of Heaven! Ah, +Glacidas, you have foully wronged me with your words, but I +have great pity on your soul and the souls of your men." The +Englishman, disdainful of her summons, was striding on across +the drawbridge, when a cannon-shot from the town carried it +away, and Gladsdale perished in the water that ran beneath. +After his fall, the remnant of the English abandoned all further<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span> +resistance. Three hundred of them had been killed in the battle +and two hundred were made prisoners.</p> + +<p>The broken arch was speedily repaired by the exulting Orleannais, +and Jeanne made her triumphal reëntry into the city +by the bridge that had so long been closed. Every church in +Orleans rang out its gratulating peal; and throughout the night +the sounds of rejoicing echoed, and the bonfires blazed up from +the city. But in the lines and forts which the besiegers yet retained +on the northern shore, there was anxious watching of the +generals, and there was desponding gloom among the soldiery. +Even Talbot now counselled retreat. On the following morning +the Orleannais, from their walls, saw the great forts called +"London" and "St. Lawrence" in flames, and witnessed their +invaders busy in destroying the stores and munitions which had +been relied on for the destruction of Orleans.</p> + +<p>Slowly and sullenly the English army retired; and not before +it had drawn up in battle array opposite to the city, as if to challenge +the garrison to an encounter. The French troops were +eager to go out and attack, but Jeanne forbade it. The day was +Sunday.</p> + +<p>"In the name of God," she said, "let them depart, and let +us return thanks to God."</p> + +<p>She led the soldiers and citizens forth from Orleans, but not +for the shedding of blood. They passed in solemn procession +round the city walls, and then, while their retiring enemies were +yet in sight, they knelt in thanksgiving to God for the deliverance +which he had vouchsafed them.</p> + +<p>Within three months from the time of her first interview +with the Dauphin, Jeanne had fulfilled the first part of her promise, +the raising of the siege of Orleans. Within three months +more she had fulfilled the second part also, and had stood with +her banner in her hand by the high altar at Rheims, while he +was anointed and crowned as king Charles VII of France. In +the interval she had taken Jargeau, Troyes, and other strong +places, and she had defeated an English army in a fair field at +Patay. The enthusiasm of her countrymen knew no bounds; +but the importance of her services, and especially of her primary +achievement at Orleans, may perhaps be best proved by the testimony +of her enemies. There is extant a fragment of a letter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span> +from the regent Bedford to his royal nephew, Henry VI, in +which he bewails the turn that the war has taken, and especially +attributes it to the raising of the siege of Orleans by Jeanne. +Bedford's own words, which are preserved in Rymer, are as follows:</p> + +<p>"And alle thing there prospered for you til the tyme of the +Siege of Orleans taken in hand God knoweth by what advis. At +the whiche tyme, after the adventure fallen to the persone of my +cousin of Salisbury, whom God assoille, there felle, by the hand +of God as it seemeth, a great strook upon your peuple that was +assembled there in grete nombre, caused in grete partie, as y +trowe, of lakke of sadde beleve, and of unlevefulle doubte, that +thei hadde of a disciple and lyme of the Feende, called the Pucelle, +that used fals enchantments and sorcerie.</p> + +<p>"The whiche strooke and discomfiture nott oonly lessed in +grete partie the nombre of your peuple there, but as well withdrewe +the courage of the remenant in merveillous wyse, and +couraiged your adverse partie and ennemys to assemble them +forthwith in grete nombre."</p> + +<p>When Charles had been anointed king of France, Jeanne +believed that her mission was accomplished. And in truth the +deliverance of France from the English, though not completed +for many years afterward, was then insured. The ceremony of +a royal coronation and anointment was not in those days regarded +as a mere costly formality. It was believed to confer the +sanction and the grace of heaven upon the prince, who had previously +ruled with mere human authority. Thenceforth he was +the Lord's Anointed. Moreover, one of the difficulties that had +previously lain in the way of many Frenchmen when called on to +support Charles VII was now removed. He had been publicly +stigmatized, even by his own parents, as no true son of the royal +race of France. The queen-mother, the English, and the partisans +of Burgundy called him the "Pretender to the title of Dauphin"; +but those who had been led to doubt his legitimacy were +cured of their scepticism by the victories of the holy Maid and +by the fulfilment of her pledges. They thought that heaven +had now declared itself in favor of Charles as the true heir of the +crown of St. Louis, and the tales about his being spurious were +thenceforth regarded as mere English calumnies.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span>With this strong tide of national feeling in his favor, with +victorious generals and soldiers round him, and a dispirited and +divided enemy before him, he could not fail to conquer, though +his own imprudence and misconduct, and the stubborn valor +which the English still from time to time displayed, prolonged +the war in France until the civil Wars of the Roses broke out in +England, and left France to peace and repose.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span></p> +<h2>TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF JEANNE +D'ARC</h2> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1431</h6> + +<h3>Jules Michelet</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>After her victory at Orleans (1429), Jeanne d'Arc "knelt before the +French King in the cathedral of Rheims, and shed tears of joy." She +felt that she had fulfilled her mission, and she desired to return to her +home at Domremy. But King Charles VII persuaded her to remain with +the army. "She still heard her heavenly voices, but she now no longer +thought herself the appointed minister of heaven to lead her countrymen +to certain victory." She expected but one year more of life; but she +still bravely faced the future with its perils.</p> + +<p>The Maid took part in the capture of Laon, Soissons, Compiègne, +and other places, and, in the attack on Paris, September, 1429, which she +prematurely urged, was severely wounded. In a sally from Compiègne, +where she was besieged by Burgundians, she was taken prisoner May 24, +1430, and held until November, when for a large payment in money she +was surrendered to the English, who took her to Rouen, their real capital +in France.</p> + +<p>On January 3, 1431, by order of King Henry VI of England, Jeanne +was placed in the hands of Peter Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, who had +already moved to have her delivered up to the Inquisition of France, as +demanded by the University of Paris. The Bishop proceeded to form at +Rouen a "court of justice" for her trial, and on February 21st the Maid +was brought before her judges—"Norman priests and doctors of Paris"—in +the chapel of Rouen castle. The trial lasted until May 30th, forty +sittings being held—some of them in Jeanne's prison, where for a time +she was kept in an iron cage.</p> + +<p>Commanded to take "an oath to tell the truth about everything as to +which she should be questioned," she replied: "Perchance you may ask +me things I would not tell you. I do not like to take an oath to tell the +truth save as to matters which concern the faith." She fearlessly tried +to guard against violation of what she considered her right to be silent.</p> + +<p>In "this odious and shameful trial," says Guizot, "the judges' prejudiced +servility and scientific subtlety were employed for three months to +wear out the courage or overreach the understanding of a young girl of +nineteen, who made no defence beyond holding her tongue or appealing +to God, who had dictated to her that which she had done." Formal accusation +was made under twelve heads or articles, based on the preliminary +examination, and the trial proceeded to its merciless end.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span></p> + +<p><img src="images/cap_i.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="I" />N Passion Week, Jeanne d'Arc fell sick. Her temptation began, +no doubt, on Palm Sunday. A country girl, born on the +skirts of a forest, and having ever lived in the open air of heaven, +she was compelled to pass this fine Palm Sunday in the depths +of a dungeon. The grand "succor" which the Church invokes +came not for her; the "doors did not open."</p> + +<p>They were opened on the Tuesday, but it was to lead the +accused to the great hall of the castle, before her judges. They +read to her the articles which had been founded on her answers, +and the Bishop previously represented to her "that these doctors +were all churchmen, clerks, and well read in law, divine and +human; that they were all tender and pitiful, and desired to proceed +mildly, seeking neither vengeance nor corporal punishment, +but solely wishing to enlighten her, and put her in the way of +truth and of salvation; and that, as she was not sufficiently informed +in such high matters, the Bishop and the Inquisitor offered +her the choice of one or more of the assessors to act as her +counsel." The accused, in presence of this assembly, in which +she did not descry a single friendly face, mildly answered: "For +what you admonish me as to my good, and concerning our faith, +I thank you; as to the counsel you offer me, I have no intention +to forsake the counsel of our Lord."</p> + +<p>The first article touched the capital point, submission. She +replied: "Well do I believe that our holy Father, the bishops, +and others of the Church are to guard the Christian faith +and punish those who are found wanting. As to my deeds, +I submit myself only to the Church in heaven, to God and the +Virgin, to the sainted men and women in paradise. I have not +been wanting in regard to the Christian faith, and trust I never +shall be." And, shortly afterward, "I would rather die than +recall what I have done by our Lord's command."</p> + +<p>What illustrates the time, the uninformed mind of these +doctors, and their blind attachment to the letter without regard +to the spirit is that no point seemed graver to them than the sin +of having assumed male attire. They represented to her that, +according to the canons, those who thus change the habit of +their sex are abominable in the sight of God. At first she would +not give a direct answer, and begged for a respite till the next +day, but her judges insisted on her discarding the dress; she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span> +replied "that she was not empowered to say when she could quit +it."</p> + +<p>"But if you should be deprived of the privilege of hearing +mass?"</p> + +<p>"Well, our Lord can grant me to hear it without you."</p> + +<p>"Will you put on a woman's dress, in order to receive your +Saviour at Easter?"</p> + +<p>"No; I cannot quit this dress; it matters not to me in what +dress I receive my Saviour."</p> + +<p>After this she seems shaken, asks to be at least allowed to hear +mass, adding, "I won't say but if you were to give me a gown +such as the daughters of the burghers wear, a very <i>long gown</i>."</p> + +<p>It is clear she shrank, through modesty, from explaining herself. +The poor girl durst not explain her position in prison or +the constant danger she was in. The truth is that three soldiers +slept in her room, three of the brigand ruffians called <i>houspilleurs</i>;<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">78</a> +that she was chained to a beam by a large iron chain, +almost wholly at their mercy; the man's dress they wished to +compel her to discontinue was all her safeguard. What are we +to think of the imbecility of the judge, or of his horrible connivance?</p> + +<p>Besides being kept under the eyes of these wretches, and exposed +to their insults and mockery, she was subjected to espial +from without. Winchester,<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">79</a> the Inquisitor, and Cauchon had +each a key to the tower, and watched her hourly through a hole +in the wall. Each stone of this infernal dungeon had eyes.</p> + +<p>Her only consolation was that she was at first allowed interviews +with a priest, who told her that he was a prisoner and attached +to Charles VII's cause. Loyseleur, so he was named, was +a tool of the English. He had won Jeanne's confidence, who +used to confess herself to him; and, at such times, her confessions +were taken down by notaries concealed on purpose to +overhear her. It is said that Loyseleur encouraged her to hold +out, in order to insure her destruction.</p> + + +<p>The deplorable state of the prisoner's health was aggravated +by her being deprived of the consolations of religion during +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span>Passion Week. On the Thursday, the sacrament was withheld +from her; on that selfsame day on which Christ is universal +host, on which he invites the poor and all those who suffer, she +seemed to be forgotten.</p> + +<p>On Good Friday, that day of deep silence, on which we all +hear no other sound than the beating of one's own heart, it seems +as if the hearts of the judges smote them, and that some feeling +of humanity and of religion had been awakened in their aged +scholastic souls; at least it is certain that, whereas thirty-five of +them took their seats on the Wednesday, no more than nine were +present at the examination on Saturday; the rest, no doubt, alleged +the devotions of the day as their excuse.</p> + +<p>On the contrary, her courage had revived. Likening her +own sufferings to those of Christ, the thought had roused her +from her despondency. She agreed to "defer to the Church +militant, provided it commanded nothing impossible."</p> + +<p>"Do you think, then, that you are not subject to the Church +which is upon earth, to our holy father the Pope, to the cardinals, +archbishops, bishops, and prelates?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, certainly, our Lord served."</p> + +<p>"Do your voices forbid your submitting to the Church militant?"</p> + +<p>"They do not forbid it, our Lord being served <i>first</i>."</p> + +<p>This firmness did not desert her once on the Saturday; but +on the next day, the Sunday, Easter Sunday! what must her +feelings have been? What must have passed in that poor heart +when, the sounds of the universal holiday enlivening the city, +Rouen's five hundred bells ringing out with their joyous peals +on the air, and the whole Christian world coming to life with the +Saviour, she remained with death! Could she who, with all her +inner life of visions and revelations, had not the less docilely +obeyed the commands of the Church; could she, who till now +had believed herself in her simplicity "a good girl," as she +said, a girl altogether submissive to the Church—could she without +terror see the Church against her?</p> + +<p>After all, what, who was she, to undertake to gainsay these +prelates, these doctors? How dared she speak before so many +able men—men who had studied? Was there not presumption +and damnable pride in an ignorant girl's opposing herself to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span> +learned—a poor, simple girl, to men in authority? Undoubtedly +fears of the kind agitated her mind.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, this opposition is not Jeanne's, but that +of the saints and angels who have dictated her answers to her, +and, up to this time, sustained her. Wherefore, alas! do they +come no more in this pressing need of hers? Wherefore is the +so long promised deliverance delayed? Doubtless the prisoner +has put these questions to herself over and over again.</p> + +<p>There was one means of escaping; this was, without expressly +disavowing, to forbear affirming, and to say, "It seems +to me." The lawyers thought it easy for her to pronounce these +few simple words; but in her mind, to use so doubtful an expression +was in reality equivalent to a denial; it was abjuring +her beautiful dream of heavenly friendships, betraying her sweet +sisters on high. Better to die. And indeed, the unfortunate, rejected +by the visible, abandoned by the invisible, by the Church, +by the world, and by her own heart, was sinking. And the body +was following the sinking soul.</p> + +<p>It so happened that on that very day she had eaten part of a +fish which the charitable Bishop of Beauvais had sent her, and +might have imagined herself poisoned. The bishop had an interest +in her death; it would have put an end to this embarrassing +trial, would have got the judge out of the scrape; but this +was not what the English reckoned upon. The Earl of Warwick, +in his alarm, said: "The King would not have her by any +means die a natural death. The King has bought her dear. +She must die by justice and be burned. See and cure her."</p> + +<p>All attention, indeed, was paid her; she was visited and bled, +but was none the better for it, remaining weak and nearly dying. +Whether through fear that she should escape thus and die without +retracting, or that her bodily weakness inspired hopes that +her mind would be more easily dealt with, the judges made an +attempt while she was lying in this state, April 18th. They +visited her in her chamber, and represented to her that she +would be in great danger if she did not reconsider, and follow the +advice of the Church. "It seems to me, indeed," she said, +"seeing my sickness, that I am in great danger of death. If so, +God's will be done; I should like to confess, receive my Saviour, +and be laid in holy ground."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span>"If you desire the sacraments of the Church, you must do +as good Catholics do, and submit yourself to it." She made no +reply. But, on the judge's repeating his words, she said: "If +the body die in prison, I hope that you will lay it in holy ground; +if you do not, I appeal to our Lord."</p> + +<p>Already, in the course of these examinations, she had expressed +one of her last wishes. <i>Question</i>: "You say that you +wear a man's dress by God's command, and yet, in case you die, +you want a woman's shift?" <i>Answer</i>: "All I want is to have +a long one." This touching answer was ample proof that, in +this extremity, she was much less occupied with care about life +than with the fears of modesty.</p> + +<p>The doctors preached to their patient for a long time; and +he who had taken on himself the especial care of exhorting her, +Master Nicolas Midy, a scholastic of Paris, closed the scene by +saying bitterly to her, "If you don't obey the Church, you will +be abandoned for a Saracen."</p> + +<p>"I am a good Christian," she replied meekly; "I was properly +baptized, and will die like a good Christian."</p> + +<p>The slowness of these proceedings drove the English wild +with impatience. Winchester had hoped to bring the trial to +an end before the campaign; to have forced a confession from +the prisoner, and have dishonored King Charles. This blow +struck, he would recover Louviers, secure Normandy and the +Seine, and then repair to Basel to begin another war—a theological +war—to sit there as arbiter of Christendom, and make and +unmake popes. At the very moment he had these high designs +in view, he was compelled to cool his heels, waiting upon what +it might please this girl to say.</p> + +<p>The unlucky Cauchon happened at this precise juncture to +have offended the chapter of Rouen, from which he was soliciting +a decision against the Pucelle; he had allowed himself to +be addressed beforehand as "My lord the Archbishop." Winchester +determined to disregard the delays of these Normans, +and to refer at once to the great theological tribunal, the University +of Paris.</p> + +<p>While waiting for the answer, new attempts were made to +overcome the resistance of the accused; and both stratagem +and terror were brought into play. In the course of a second<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span> +admonition, May 2d, the preacher, Master Châtillon, proposed +to her to submit the question of the truth of her visions to persons +of her own party. She did not give in to the snare. "As to +this," she said, "I depend on my Judge, the King of heaven and +earth." She did not say this time, as before, "On God and the +Pope."</p> + +<p>"Well, the Church will give you up, and you will be in danger +of fire, both soul and body. You will not do what we tell you +until you suffer body and soul."</p> + +<p>They did not stop at vague threats. On the third admonition, +which took place in her chamber, May 11th, the executioner +was sent for, and she was told that the torture was ready. +But the manœuvre failed. On the contrary, it was found that +she had resumed all, and more than all, her courage. Raised up +after temptation, she seemed to have mounted a step nearer the +source of grace. "The angel Gabriel," she said, "has appeared +to strengthen me; it was he—my saints have assured me so. +God has been ever my master in what I have done; the devil +has never had power over me. Though you should tear off my +limbs and pluck my soul from my body, I would say nothing +else." The spirit was so visibly manifested in her that her last +adversary, the preacher Châtillon, was touched, and became her +defender, declaring that a trial so conducted seemed to him null. +Cauchon, beside himself with rage, compelled him to silence.</p> + +<p>The reply of the University arrived at last. The decision +to which it came on the twelve articles was that this girl was +wholly the devil's; was impious in regard to her parents; thirsted +for Christian blood, etc. This was the opinion given by the +faculty of theology. That of law was more moderate, declaring +her to be deserving of punishment, but with two reservations: +(80) In case she persisted in her nonsubmission; (2) if she were +in her right senses.</p> + +<p>At the same time the university wrote to the Pope, to the +cardinals, and to the King of England, lauding the Bishop of +Beauvais and setting forth, "there seemed to it to have been +great gravity observed, and a holy and just way of proceeding, +which ought to be most satisfactory to all."</p> + + +<p>Armed with this response, some of the assessors<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">80</a> were for +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span> burning her without further delay; which would have been +sufficient satisfaction for the doctors, whose authority she rejected, +but not for the English, who required a retraction that +should defame King Charles. They had recourse to a new +admonition and a new preacher, Master Pierre Morice, which +was attended by no better result. It was in vain that he dwelt +upon the authority of the University of Paris, "which is the +light of all science."</p> + +<p>"Though I should see the executioner and the fire there," +she exclaimed, "though I were in the fire, I could only say what +I have said."</p> + +<p>It was by this time the 23d of May, the day after Pentecost; +Winchester could remain no longer at Rouen, and it behooved +to make an end of the business. Therefore it was resolved to +get up a great and terrible public scene, which should either +terrify the recusant into submission, or, at the least, blind the +people. Loyseleur, Châtillon, and Morice were sent to visit +her the evening before, to promise her that, if she would submit +and quit her man's dress, she should be delivered out of the +hands of the English, and placed in those of the Church.</p> + +<p>This fearful farce was enacted in the cemetery of St. Ouen, +behind the beautifully severe monastic church so called, and +which had by that day assumed its present appearance. On a +scaffolding raised for the purpose sat Cardinal Winchester, the +two judges, and thirty-three assessors, of whom many had their +scribes seated at their feet. On another scaffold, in the midst +of <i>huissiers</i><a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">81</a> and torturers, was Jeanne, in male attire, and also +notaries to take down her confessions, and a preacher to admonish +her; and, at its foot, among the crowd, was remarked a strange +auditor, the executioner upon his cart, ready to bear her off as +soon as she should be adjudged his.</p> + + +<p>The preacher on this day, a famous doctor, Guillaume Erard, +conceived himself bound, on so fine an opportunity, to give the +reins to his eloquence; and by his zeal he spoiled all. "O +noble house of France," he exclaimed, "which wast ever wont +to be protectress of the faith, how hast thou been abused to ally +thyself with a heretic and schismatic!" So far the accused had +listened patiently; but when the preacher, turning toward her, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span>said to her, raising his finger: "It is to thee, Jeanne, that I address +myself; and I tell thee that thy King is a heretic and schismatic," +the admirable girl, forgetting all her danger, burst forth with, +"On my faith, sir, with all due respect, I undertake to tell you, +and to swear, on pain of my life, that he is the noblest Christian +of all Christians, the sincerest lover of the faith and of the Church, +and not what you call him."</p> + +<p>"Silence her," called out Cauchon.</p> + +<p>The accused adhered to what she had said. All they could +obtain from her was her consent to submit herself to the Pope. +Cauchon replied, "The Pope is too far off." He then began to +read the sentence of condemnation, which had been drawn up +beforehand, and in which, among other things, it was specified: +"And furthermore, you have obstinately persisted, in refusing +to submit yourself to the holy Father and to the council," etc. +Meanwhile, Loyseleur and Erard conjured her to have pity on +herself; on which the Bishop, catching at a shadow of hope, +discontinued his reading. This drove the English mad; and +one of Winchester's secretaries told Cauchon it was clear that +he favored the girl—a charge repeated by the Cardinal's chaplain. +"Thou art a liar," exclaimed the Bishop. "And thou," +was the retort, "art a traitor to the King." These grave personages +seemed to be on the point of going to cuffs on the judgment-seat.</p> + +<p>Erard, not discouraged, threatened, prayed. One while he +said, "Jeanne, we pity you so!" and another, "Abjure or be +burned!" All present evinced an interest in the matter, down +even to a worthy catchpole (huissier), who, touched with compassion, +besought her to give way, assuring her that she should +be taken out of the hands of the English and placed in those of +the Church. "Well, then," she said, "I will sign." On this +Cauchon, turning to the Cardinal, respectfully inquired what +was to be done next. "Admit her to do penance," replied the +ecclesiastical prince.</p> + +<p>Winchester's secretary drew out of his sleeve a brief revocation, +only six lines long—that which was given to the world took +up six pages—and put a pen in her hand, but she could not +sign. She smiled and drew a circle: the secretary took her hand +and guided it to make a cross.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span>The sentence of grace was a most severe one: "Jeanne, we +condemn you, out of our grace and moderation, to pass the rest +of your days in prison, on the bread of grief and water of anguish, +and so to mourn your sins."</p> + +<p>She was admitted by the ecclesiastical judge to do penance, +no doubt, nowhere save in the prisons of the Church. The +ecclesiastic <i>in pace</i>, however severe it might be, would at the least +withdraw her from the hands of the English, place her under +shelter from their insults, save her honor. Judge of her surprise +and despair when the Bishop coldly said, "Take her back +whence you brought her."</p> + +<p>Nothing was done; deceived on this wise, she could not fail +to retract her retractation. Yet, though she had abided by it, +the English in their fury would not have allowed her to escape. +They had come to St. Ouen in the hope of at last burning the +sorceress, had waited panting and breathless to this end; and +now they were to be dismissed on this fashion, paid with a slip +of parchment, a signature, a grimace. At the very moment the +Bishop discontinued reading the sentence of condemnation, +stones flew upon the scaffolding without any respect for the +Cardinal. The doctors were in peril of their lives as they came +down from their seats into the public place; swords were in all +directions pointed at their throats. The more moderate among +the English confined themselves to insulting language—"Priests, +you are not earning the King's money." The doctors, making +off in all haste, said tremblingly, "Do not be uneasy, we shall +soon have her again."</p> + +<p>And it was not the soldiery alone, not the English mob, always +so ferocious, which displayed this thirst for blood. The +better born, the great, the lords, were no less sanguinary. The +King's man, his tutor, the Earl of Warwick, said like the soldiers: +"The King's business goes on badly; the girl will not be +burned."</p> + +<p>According to English notions, Warwick was the mirror of +worthiness, the accomplished Englishman, the perfect gentleman. +Brave and devout, like his master, Henry V, and the +zealous champion of the Established Church, he had performed +the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, as well as many other chivalrous +expeditions. With all his chivalry, Warwick was not the less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span> +savagely eager for the death of a woman, and one who was, too, +a prisoner of war. The best and the most looked-up-to of the +English was as little deterred by honorable scruples as the rest of +his countrymen from putting to death on the award of priests, +and by fire, her who had humbled them by the sword.</p> + +<p>The Jews never exhibited the rage against Jesus which the +English did against the Pucelle. It must be owned that she had +wounded them cruelly in the most sensible part—in the simple +but deep esteem they have for themselves. At Orleans the invincible +men-at-arms, the famous archers, Talbot at their head, +had shown their backs; at Jargeau, sheltered by the good walls +of a fortified town, they had suffered themselves to be taken; +at Patay they had fled as fast as their legs would carry them, +fled before a girl. This was hard to be borne, and these taciturn +English were forever pondering over the disgrace. They had +been afraid of a girl, and it was not very certain but that, chained +as she was, they felt fear of her still, though, seemingly, not of +her, but of the devil, whose agent she was. At least, they endeavored +both to believe and to have it believed so.</p> + +<p>But there was an obstacle in the way of this, for she was said +to be a virgin; and it was a notorious and well-ascertained fact +that the devil could not make a compact with a virgin. The +coolest head among the English, Bedford,<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">82</a> the regent, resolved +to have the point cleared up; and his wife, the Duchess, intrusted +the matter to some matrons, who declared Jeanne to be a maid; +a favorable declaration which turned against her by giving rise +to another superstitious notion; to wit, that her virginity constituted +her strength, her power, and that to deprive her of it was +to disarm her, was to break the charm, and lower her to the level +of other women.</p> + +<p>The poor girl's only defence against such a danger had been +wearing male attire; though, strange to say, no one had ever +seemed able to understand her motive for wearing it. All, both +friends and enemies, were scandalized by it. At the outset, +she had been obliged to explain her reasons to the woman of +Poitiers; and when made prisoner, and under the care of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span>ladies of Luxemburg, those excellent persons prayed her to +clothe herself as honest girls were wont to do. Above all, the +English ladies, who have always made a parade of chastity and +modesty, must have considered her so disguising herself monstrous +and insufferably indecent. The Duchess of Bedford +sent her female attire; but by whom? By a man, a tailor. The +fellow, with impudent familiarity, was about to pass it over her +head, and, when she pushed him away, laid his unmannnerly +hand upon her—his tailor's hand on that hand which had borne +the flag of France. She boxed his ears.</p> + + +<p>If women could not understand this feminine question, how +much less could priests! They quoted the text of a council held +in the fourth century, which anathematized such changes of +dress; not seeing that the prohibition specially applied to a +period when manners had been barely retrieved from pagan +impurities. The doctors belonging to the party of Charles VII, +the apologists of the Pucelle, find exceeding difficulty in justifying +her on this head. One of them—thought to be Gerson—- makes +the gratuitous supposition that the moment she dismounted +from her horse, she was in the habit of resuming +woman's apparel; confessing that Esther and Judith had had +recourse to more natural and feminine means for their triumphs +over the enemies of God's people. Entirely preoccupied with +the soul, these theologians seem to have held the body cheap; +provided the letter, the written law, be followed, the soul will be +saved; the flesh may take its chance. A poor and simple girl +may be pardoned her inability to distinguish so clearly.</p> + +<p>On the Friday and the Saturday the unfortunate prisoner, +despoiled of her man's dress, had much to fear. Brutality, +furious hatred, vengeance, might severally incite the cowards +to degrade her before she perished, to sully what they were about +to burn. Besides, they might be tempted to varnish their infamy +by a "reason of state," according to the notions of the day—by +depriving her of her virginity they would undoubtedly destroy +that secret power of which the English entertained such +great dread, who perhaps might recover their courage when +they knew that, after all, she was but a woman. According +to her confessor, to whom she divulged the fact, an Englishman, +not a common soldier, but a <i>gentleman</i>, a lord, patriotically<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span> +devoted himself to this execution—bravely undertook to +violate a girl laden with fetters, and, being unable to effect his +wishes, rained blows upon her.</p> + +<p>"On the Sunday morning, Trinity Sunday, when it was time +for her to rise—as she told him who speaks—she said to her +English guards, 'Leave me, that I may get up.' One of them +took off her woman's dress, emptied the bag in which was the +man's apparel, and said to her, 'Get up.' 'Gentlemen,' she +said, 'you know that dress is forbidden me; excuse me, I will +not put it on.' The point was contested till noon; when, being +compelled to go out for some bodily want, she put it on. When +she came back, they would give her no other, despite her entreaties."</p> + +<p>In reality, it was not to the interest of the English that she +should resume her man's dress, and so make null and void a +retractation obtained with such difficulty. But at this moment, +their rage no longer knew any bounds. Saintrailles had just +made a bold attempt upon Rouen. It would have been a lucky +hit to have swept off the judges from the judgment seat, and +have carried Winchester and Bedford to Poitiers; the latter was, +subsequently, all but taken on his return, between Rouen and +Paris. As long as this accursed girl lived, who beyond a doubt +continued in prison to practise her sorceries, there was no safety +for the English; perish she must.</p> + +<p>The assessors, who had notice instantly given them of her +change of dress, found some hundred English in the court to +obstruct their passage; who, thinking that if these doctors +entered they might spoil all, threatened them with their axes +and swords, and chased them out, calling them "traitors of Armagnacs." +Cauchon, introduced with much difficulty, assumed +an air of gayety to pay his court to Warwick, and said with a +laugh, "She is caught."</p> + +<p>On the Monday he returned, along with the Inquisitor and +eight assessors, to question the Pucelle, and ask her why she had +resumed that dress. She made no excuse, but, bravely facing +the danger, said that the dress was fitter for her as long as she +was guarded by men, and that faith had not been kept with her. +Her saints, too, had told her "that it was great pity she had +abjured to save her life." Still, she did not refuse to resume<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">363</a></span> +woman's dress. "Put me in a seemly and safe prison," she +said; "I will be good, and do whatever the Church shall wish."</p> + +<p>On leaving her the Bishop encountered Warwick and a +crowd of English; and to show himself a good Englishman he +said in their tongue, "Farewell, farewell." This joyous adieu +was about synonymous with "Good evening, good evening; all's +over."</p> + +<p>On the Tuesday, the judges got up at the Archbishop's +palace a court of assessors as they best might; some of them had +assisted at the first sittings only, others at none; in fact, composed +of men of all sorts, priests, legists, and even three physicians. +The judges recapitulated to them what had taken place, +and asked their opinion. This opinion, quite different from +what was expected, was that the prisoner should be summoned, +and her act of abjuration be read over to her. Whether this +was in the power of the judges is doubtful. In the midst of the +fury and swords of a raging soldiery, there was in reality no +judge, and no possibility of judgment. Blood was the one thing +wanted; and that of the judges was, perhaps, not far from flowing. +They hastily drew up a summons, to be served the next +morning at eight o'clock; she was not to appear, save to be +burned.</p> + +<p>Cauchon sent her a confessor in the morning, brother Martin +l'Advenu, "to prepare her for her death, and persuade her to +repentance. And when he apprised her of the death she was +to die that day, she began to cry out grievously, to give way, +and tear her hair: 'Alas! am I to be treated so horribly and +cruelly? must my body, pure as from birth, and which was never +contaminated, be this day consumed and reduced to ashes? +Ha! ha! I would rather be beheaded seven times over than be +burned on this wise! Oh! I make my appeal to God, the great +judge of the wrongs and grievances done me!'"</p> + +<p>After this burst of grief, she recovered herself and confessed; +she then asked to communicate. The brother was embarrassed; +but, consulting the Bishop, the latter told him to administer the +sacrament, "and whatever else she might ask." Thus, at the +very moment he condemned her as a relapsed heretic, and cut +her off from the Church, he gave her all that the Church gives to +her faithful. Perhaps a last sentiment of humanity awoke in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span> +heart of the wicked judge; he considered it enough to burn the +poor creature, without driving her to despair, and damning her. +Besides, it was attempted to do it privately, and the eucharist +was brought without stole and light. But the monk complained, +and the Church of Rouen, duly warned, was delighted to show +what it thought of the judgment pronounced by Cauchon; it +sent along with the body of Christ numerous torches and a large +escort of priests, who sang litanies, and, as they passed through +the streets, told the kneeling people, "Pray for her."</p> + +<p>After partaking of the communion, which she received with +abundance of tears, she perceived the Bishop, and addressed him +with the words, "Bishop, I die through you." And, again, +"Had you put me in the prisons of the Church, and given me +ghostly keepers, this would not have happened. And for this +I summon you to answer before God."</p> + +<p>Then, seeing among the bystanders Pierre Morice, one of +the preachers by whom she had been addressed, she said to him, +"Ah, Master Pierre, where shall I be this evening?"</p> + +<p>"Have you not good hope in the Lord?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! yes; God to aid, I shall be in paradise."</p> + +<p>It was nine o'clock: she was dressed in female attire, and +placed on a cart. On one side of her was brother Martin +l'Advenu; the constable, Massieu, was on the other. The Augustine +monk, Brother Isambart, who had already displayed +much charity and courage, would not quit her.</p> + +<p>Up to this moment the Pucelle had never despaired, with the +exception, perhaps, of her temptation in the Passion Week. +While saying, as she at times would say, "These English will +kill me," she in reality did not think so. She did not imagine that +she could ever be deserted. She had faith in her King, in the +good people of France. She had said expressly: "There will be +some disturbance, either in prison or at the trial, by which I shall +be delivered, greatly, victoriously delivered." But though King +and people deserted her, she had another source of aid, and a +far more powerful and certain one from her friends above, her +kind and dear saints. When she was assaulting St. Pierre, and +deserted by her followers, her saints sent an invisible army to +her aid. How could they abandon their obedient girl, they who +had so often promised her "safety and deliverance"?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span>What then must her thoughts have been when she saw that +she must die; when, carried in a cart, she passed through a +trembling crowd, under the guard of eight hundred Englishmen +armed with sword and lance? She wept and bemoaned herself, +yet reproached neither her King nor her saints. She was +only heard to utter, "O Rouen, Rouen! must I then die here?"</p> + +<p>The term of her sad journey was the old market-place, the +fish-market. Three scaffolds had been raised; on one was the +episcopal and royal chair, the throne of the Cardinal of England, +surrounded by the stalls of his prelates; on another were +to figure the principal personages of the mournful drama, the +preacher, the judges, and the bailiff, and, lastly, the condemned +one; apart was a large scaffolding of plaster, groaning under a +weight of wood—nothing had been grudged the stake, which +struck terror by its height alone. This was not only to add to +the solemnity of the execution, but was done with the intent that, +from the height to which it was reared, the executioner might +not get at it save at the base, and that to light it only, so that he +would be unable to cut short the torments and relieve the sufferer, +as he did with others, sparing them the flames.</p> + +<p>On this occasion the important point was that justice should +not be defrauded of her due or a dead body be committed to the +flames; they desired that she should be really burned alive, and +that, placed on the summit of this mountain of wood, and commanding +the circle of lances and of swords, she might be seen +from every part of the market-place. There was reason to +suppose that being slowly, tediously burned, before the eyes of a +curious crowd, she might at last be surprised into some weakness, +that something might escape her which could be set down as a +disavowal, at the least some confused words which might be interpreted +at pleasure, perhaps low prayers, humiliating cries for +mercy, such as proceed from a woman in despair.</p> + +<p>The frightful ceremony began with a sermon. Master Nicolas +Midy, one of the lights of the University of Paris, preached +upon the edifying text: "When one limb of the Church is +sick, the whole Church is sick." He wound up with the formula: +"Jeanne, go in peace; the Church can no longer defend +thee."</p> + +<p>The ecclesiastical judge, the Bishop of Beauvais, then benignly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span> +exhorted her to take care of her soul and to recall all her +misdeeds, in order that she might awaken to true repentance. +The assessors had ruled that it was the law to read over her abjuration +to her; the Bishop did nothing of the sort. He feared +her denials, her disclaimers. But the poor girl had no thought +of so chicaning away life; her mind was fixed on far other +subjects. Even before she was exhorted to repentance, she had +knelt down and invoked God, the Virgin, St. Michael, and St. +Catharine, pardoning all and asking pardon, saying to the bystanders, +"Pray for me!" In particular, she besought the +priests to say each a mass for her soul. And all this so devoutly, +humbly, and touchingly that, sympathy becoming contagious, +no one could any longer contain himself; the Bishop of Beauvais +melted into tears, the Bishop of Boulogne sobbed, and the +very English cried and wept as well, Winchester with the rest.</p> + +<p>Might it be in this moment of universal tenderness, of tears, +of contagious weakness, that the unhappy girl, softened, and +relapsing into the mere woman, confessed that she saw clearly +she had erred, and that, apparently, she had been deceived +when promised deliverance? This is a point on which we cannot +implicitly rely on the interested testimony of the English. +Nevertheless, it would betray scant knowledge of human nature +to doubt, with her hopes so frustrated, her having wavered in +her faith. Whether she confessed to this effect in words is +uncertain; but I will confidently affirm that she owned it in +thought.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the judges, for a moment put out of countenance, +had recovered their usual bearing, and the Bishop of Beauvais, +drying his eyes, began to read the act of condemnation. He reminded +the guilty one of all her crimes, of her schism, idolatry, +invocation of demons, how she had been admitted to repentance, +and how, "seduced by the Prince of Lies, she had fallen, O grief! +'like the dog which returns to his vomit.' Therefore, we pronounce +you to be a rotten limb, and, as such, to be lopped off +from the Church. We deliver you over to the secular power, +praying it at the same time to relax its sentence and to spare you +death and the mutilation of your members."</p> + +<p>Deserted thus by the Church, she put her whole trust in God. +She asked for the cross. An Englishman handed her a cross<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span> +which he made out of a stick; she took it, rudely fashioned as it +was, with not less devotion, kissed it, and placed it under her +garments, next to her skin. But what she desired was the crucifix +belonging to the Church, to have it before her eyes till she +breathed her last. The good huissier Massieu and Brother +Isambart interfered with such effect that it was brought her +from St. Sauveur's. While she was embracing this crucifix, +and Brother Isambart was encouraging her, the English began +to think all this exceedingly tedious; it was now noon at least; +the soldiers grumbled, and the captains called out: "What's this, +priest; do you mean us to dine here?"</p> + +<p>Then, losing patience, and without waiting for the order +from the bailiff, who alone had authority to dismiss her to death, +they sent two constables to take her out of the hands of the +priests. She was seized at the foot of the tribunal by the men-at-arms, +who dragged her to the executioner with the words, +"Do thy office." The fury of the soldiery filled all present with +horror; and many there, even of the judges, fled the spot, that +they might see no more.</p> + +<p>When she found herself brought down to the market-place, +surrounded by English, laying rude hands on her, nature asserted +her rights and the flesh was troubled. Again she cried +out, "O Rouen, thou art then to be my last abode!" She said +no more, and, in this hour of fear and trouble, did not sin with +her lips.</p> + +<p>She accused neither her King nor her holy ones. But +when she set foot on the top of the pile, on viewing this great +city, this motionless and silent crowd, she could not refrain from +exclaiming, "Ah! Rouen, Rouen, much do I fear you will suffer +from my death!" She who had saved the people, and whom +that people deserted, gave voice to no other sentiment when +dying—admirable sweetness of soul!—than that of compassion +for it.</p> + +<p>She was made fast under the infamous placard, mitred with a +mitre on which was read, "Heretic, relapser, apostate, idolater."</p> + +<p>And then the executioner set fire to the pile. She saw this +from above and uttered a cry. Then, as the brother who was +exhorting her paid no attention to the fire, forgetting herself in +her fear for him, she insisted on his descending.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span>The proof that up to this period she had made no express +recantation is, that the unhappy Cauchon was obliged—no +doubt by the high satanic will which presided over the whole—to +proceed to the foot of the pile, obliged to face his victim to +endeavor to extract some admission from her. All that he +obtained was a few words, enough to rack his soul. She said to +him mildly what she had already said: "Bishop, I die through +you. If you had put me into the Church prisons, this would not +have happened." No doubt hopes had been entertained that, on +finding herself abandoned by her King, she would at last accuse +and defame him. To the last, she defended him: "Whether I +have done well or ill, my King is faultless; it was not he who +counselled me."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the flames rose. When they first seized her, the +unhappy girl shrieked for holy <i>water</i>—this must have been the +cry of fear. But, soon recovering, she called only on God, on +her angels and her saints. She bore witness to them, "Yes, +my voices were from God, my voices have not deceived me." +The fact that all her doubts vanished at this trying moment must +be taken as a proof that she accepted death as the promised +deliverance; that she no longer understood her salvation in the +Judaic and material sense, as until now she had done, that at +length she saw clearly; and that, rising above all shadows, her +gifts of illumination and of sanctity were at the final hour made +perfect unto her.</p> + +<p>The great testimony she thus bore is attested by the sworn and +compelled witness of her death, by the Dominican who mounted +the pile with her, whom she forced to descend, but who spoke to +her from its foot, listened to her, and held out to her the crucifix.</p> + +<p>There is yet another witness of this sainted death, a most +grave witness, who must himself have been a saint. This witness, +whose name history ought to preserve, was the Augustine +monk already mentioned, Brother Isambart de la Pierre. During +the trial he had hazarded his life by counselling the Pucelle, +and yet, though so clearly pointed out to the hate of the English, +he persisted in accompanying her in the cart, procured the parish +crucifix for her, and comforted her in the midst of the raging +multitude, both on the scaffold where she was interrogated and +at the stake.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span>Twenty years afterward, the two venerable friars, simple +monks, vowed to poverty and having nothing to hope or fear +in this world, bear witness to the scene we have just described: +"We heard her," they say, "in the midst of the flames invoke +her saints, her archangel; several times she called on her Saviour. +At the last, as her head sunk on her bosom, she shrieked, +'Jesus!'"</p> + +<p>"Ten thousand men wept. A few of the English alone +laughed, or endeavored to laugh. One of the most furious +among them had sworn that he would throw a fagot on the pile. +Just as he brought it she breathed her last. He was taken ill. +His comrades led him to a tavern to recruit his spirits by drink, +but he was beyond recovery. 'I saw,' he exclaimed, in his +frantic despair, 'I saw a dove fly out of her mouth with her last +sigh.' Others had read in the flames the word 'Jesus,' which +she so often repeated. The executioner repaired in the evening +to Brother Isambart, full of consternation, and confessed himself; +he felt persuaded that God would never pardon him. One +of the English King's secretaries said aloud, on returning from +the dismal scene: 'We are lost; we have burned a saint.'"</p> + +<p>Though these words fell from an enemy's mouth, they are +not the less important, and will live, uncontradicted by the future. +Yes, whether considered religiously or patriotically, Jeanne +d'Arc was a saint.</p> + +<p>Where find a finer legend than this true history? Still, let +us beware of converting it into a legend; let us piously preserve +its every trait, even such as are most akin to human nature, and +respect its terrible and touching reality.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">83</a></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span></p> +<h2>CHARLES VII ISSUES HIS PRAGMATIC +SANCTION</h2> + +<h3>EMANCIPATION OF THE GALLICAN CHURCH</h3> + +<h6><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1438</h6> + +<h3>W. H. JERVIS R. F. ROHRBACHER</h3> + + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"No two words," says Smedley, "convey less distinct meaning to English +ears than 'pragmatic sanction.' Perhaps 'a well-considered ordinance' +may in some degree represent them, <i>i.e.</i>, an ordinance which has +been fully discussed by men practised in state affairs." Carlyle defines +"pragmatic sanction" as "the received title for ordinances of a very irrevocable +nature, which a sovereign makes in affairs that belong wholly to +himself, or what he reckons his own rights." A dictionary definition +calls it "an imperial edict operating as a fundamental law." The term +was probably first applied to certain decrees of the Byzantine emperors +for regulating their provinces and towns, and later it was given to imperial +decrees in the West. In the present case it is applied to the limitations +set to the power of the pope in France.</p> + +<p>In the Council of Constance, 1414-1418, at which decrees were passed +subordinating the pope as well as the whole Church to the authority of a +general council, Gallican or French opinion on this subject won its first +great victory. But this triumph introduced into the Western Church an +element of strife which resulted in calamities scarcely less grave than those +of the Great Schism of 1378-1417, during which different parties adhered +to rival popes. From the Council of Constance may be dated the formal +divergence of the Gallican from the Ultramontane or strictly Roman +church government.</p> + +<p>Pope Martin V, who was elected by the Council of Constance after it +had deposed John XXIII, Gregory XII, and Benedict XIII, is generally +considered to have assented to all its decrees. In 1431, on the death of +Martin V, Eugenius IV succeeded to the papal throne. A council had +been convened at Pavia in 1423. After a few weeks it was transferred to +Siena, and subsequently to Basel. Fearing that it would follow the policy +of Constance, Eugenius (1431) attempted to dissolve it and to have it +reconvened at Bologna under his own eye. A rupture followed between +Pope and council, resulting in years of confused strife.</p> + +<p>In all this confusion our historians, Jervis and Rohrbacher, distinguish +the leading events, the most significant of which was the issuing +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span>of the Pragmatic Sanction by Charles VII of France. This ordinance is +known, from the place of its promulgation, as the Pragmatic Sanction of +Bourges, and is sometimes called the "Palladium of France," also the +"Magna Charta of the Gallican Church."</p></div> + + +<h4>W. HENLEY JERVIS</h4> + +<p><img src="images/cap_t.png" class= +"floatLeft2" alt="T" />HE position assumed by the Gallican Church at this junction +was peculiar and in some respects questionable. It +declared decidedly in favor of the Council of Basel; many +French prelates repaired thither, and ambassadors were sent by +the King, Charles VII, to Pope Eugenius, to beseech him to support +the authority of the synod, and to protest against its dissolution. +The fathers stood firm at their posts, appealing to the +principles solemnly asserted at Constance, that the pope is +bound in certain specified cases to submit to an ecumenical +council, and that the latter cannot be translated, prorogued, or +dissolved without its own consent. The gift of infallibility, they +affirmed, resides in the collective Church. It does not belong to +the popes, several of whom have erred concerning the faith. The +Church alone has authority to enact laws which are binding on +the whole body of the faithful.</p> + +<p>Now, the authority of general councils is identical with that +of the Church. This was expressly determined by the Council +of Constance, and acknowledged by Pope Martin V. The pope +is the ministerial head of the Church, but he is not its absolute +sovereign; on the contrary, facts prove that he is subject to +the jurisdiction of the Church; for well-known instances are on +record of popes being deposed on the score of erroneous doctrine +and immoral life, whereas no pope has ever attempted to +condemn or excommunicate the Church. Both the pope and +the Church have received authority to bind and loose; but the +Church has practically exerted that authority against the pope, +whereas the latter has never ventured to take any such step +against the Church. In fine, the words of Christ himself are decisive +of the question—"If any man neglect to hear the Church, +let him be unto you as a heathen man and a publican." This +injunction was addressed to St. Peter equally with the rest of +the disciples.</p> + +<p>The council proceeded to cite Eugenius by a formal monition +to appear in person at Basel; and on his failing to comply, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span> +signified that on the expiration of a further interval of sixty days +ulterior means would be put in force against him. Their firmness, +added to the pressing solicitations of the emperor Sigismund, +at length induced the Pope to yield. He reconciled himself +with the council in December, 1433; acknowledged that it +had been legitimately convoked; approved its proceedings up to +that date; and cancelled the act by which he had pronounced its +dissolution.</p> + +<p>Elated by their triumph, the Basilian fathers commenced in +earnest the task of Church reform, and passed several decrees of +a character vexatious to the Pope, particularly one for the total +abolition of annates. A second breach was the consequence. +Eugenius, under pretence of furthering the negotiation then +pending for the reunion of the Greek and Latin branches of the +Church, published in 1437 a bull dissolving the Council of Basel, +and summoning another to meet at Ferrara. The assembly +at Basel retorted by declaring the Pope contumacious, and suspending +him from the exercise of all authority. Both parties +proceeded eventually to the last extremities. The council, after +proclaiming afresh, as "Catholic verities," that a general council +has power over the pope, and cannot be transferred or dissolved +but by its own act, passed a definitive sentence in its +thirty-fourth session, June 25, 1439, deposing Eugenius from +the papal throne. The Pope retaliated by stigmatizing the +Fathers of Basel as schismatical and heretical, cancelling their +acts, and excommunicating their president, the Cardinal Archbishop +of Arles.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile an energetic and independent line of action was +adopted by the Government in France. The Crown, in concert +with the heads of the Church, availed itself of a train of events, +which had so seriously damaged the prestige of the papacy to +make a decisive advance in the path of practical reform and to +establish the long-cherished Gallican privileges on a secure basis. +For this purpose Charles VII assembled a great national council +at Bourges, in July, 1438, at which he presided in person, +surrounded by the princes of his family and by all the most +eminent dignitaries spiritual and temporal; and here was promulgated +the memorable ordinance known as the "Pragmatic +Sanction of Bourges."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">373</a></span>The French Church, it must be observed, did not recognize +the deposition of Pope Eugenius, but adhered to his obedience, +rejecting Felix V, whom the Council of Basel elected to succeed +him, as a pretender. It continued, nevertheless, to support the +council and to assert its supreme legislative authority. Hence +there arises a considerable difficulty <i>in limine</i> as to the character +of the proceedings at Bourges. For the deposition of Eugenius +was either a rightful and valid exercise of conciliar authority or +it was not. If it was not—if the council had wrongfully or uncanonically +condemned the successor of Peter—how could it be +infallible? and when should its legislation in any other particulars +be indisputable? On the other hand, if the deposition was a +valid one, with what consistency could the French continue to +regard Eugenius as their legitimate pastor? It was a knotty dilemma.</p> + +<p>The position, however, though logically open to objections, +was not without its practical advantages. For, since France +maintained a good understanding with both the contending parties, +both found it conducive to their interests to send deputations +to the Council of Bourges: Pope Eugenius, with a view to +obtain its support for the rival council which he had opened at +Ferrara; the Fathers of Basel, in order to make known their +decrees, which, as agreeing with the received doctrine of Gallican +theologians, would, it was hoped, meet with a cordial welcome +throughout France. The assembly at Bourges did not +fail to profit by these exceptional circumstances. It accepted the +decrees of Basel, yet not absolutely, but after critical examination +and with certain modification; a course which, by implication, +asserted a right to legislate for the concerns of the +French Church even independently of a general council acknowledged +to be orthodox. The following explanation of this +proceeding was inserted in the preamble of the celebrated statute +agreed upon by the authorities at Bourges. It is there stated +that this policy was adopted, "not from any hesitation as to +the authority of the Council of Basel to enact ecclesiastical decrees, +but because it was judged advisable, under the circumstances +and requirements of the French realm and nation." So +that it appears, on the whole, that while the French professed +great zeal on this occasion for the dogma of the superiority of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">374</a></span> +general council over the pope, the principle practically illustrated +at Bourges was that of a supremacy of a national council +over every other ecclesiastical authority. Such were the anomalies +which arose out of the strange necessities of the time.</p> + +<p>The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges embraces twenty-three +articles. The first treats of the authority of general councils, +and of the time and manner of convening and celebrating them. +The second relates to ecclesiastical elections, which are enjoined +to be made hereafter in strict accordance with the canons, by the +cathedral, collegiate, and conventual chapters. Reserves, annates, +and "expective graces" are abolished; the rights of patrons +are to be respected, provided their nominees be graduates +of the universities and otherwise well qualified. The pope retains +only a veto in case of unfitness or uncanonical election, and +the nominations to benefices "<i>in curia vacantia</i>," <i>i.e.</i>, of which +the incumbents may happen to die at Rome or within two days' +journey of the pontifical residence. The king and other princes +may occasionally <i>recommend</i> or <i>request</i> the promotion of persons +of special merit, but without threats or violent pressure of any +kind.</p> + +<p>Other articles regulate the order of ecclesiastical appeals, +which, with the exception of the "<i>causa majores</i>" specified by +law, and those relating to the elections in cathedral and conventual +churches, are henceforth to be decided on the spot by +the ordinary judges; appeals are to be carried in all cases to the +court immediately superior; no case to be referred to the pope +"<i>omisso medio</i>," <i>i.e.</i>, without passing through the intermediate +tribunals. The remaining clauses consist of regulations for the +performance of divine service, and various matters of discipline. +The reader will remember that Pope Eugenius, on the occasion +of his temporary reconciliation with the Council of Basel in +1433, expressed his approbation of all its synodal acts up to +that date; and this sanction of their validity is held by Gallicans +to extend to the period of the second and final rupture in 1437. +It follows that the provisions of the Pragmatic Sanction of +Bourges, so far as they coincide with the decrees of Basel prior +to 1437, were authorized by the holy see; and this includes them +all, with two exceptions.</p> + +<p>The Pragmatic Sanction was registered by the Parliament of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">375</a></span> +Paris on July 13, 1439; becoming thereby part of the statute +law of France. Its publication caused universal satisfaction +throughout the kingdom. At Rome, on the other hand, it was +indignantly censured and resolutely opposed. Eugenius IV +vainly strove to obtain the King's consent to an alteration of +some of its details. Nicholas V protested against it without +effect; but the superior genius and subtle measures of Pius II +were more successful. This Pontiff denounced the Pragmatic +at the Council of Mantua in 1460 as "a blot which disfigured +the Church of France; a decree which no ecumenical council +would have passed nor any pope have confirmed; a principle of +confusion in the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Since it had been in +force, the laity had become the masters and judges of the clergy; +the power of the spiritual sword could no longer be exerted except +at the good pleasure of the secular authority. The Roman +pontiff, whose diocese embraced the world, whose jurisdiction +is not bounded even by the ocean, possessed only such extent of +power in France as the parliament might see fit to allow him." +The ambassadors of Charles VII, however, reminded his holiness +that the Pragmatic Sanction was founded on the canons of +Constance and Basel, which had been ratified by his predecessors; +and when the Pope proceeded to threaten France with the +interdict, and to prohibit all appeal from his decisions to a future +council, the King caused his procureur-general, Jean Dauvet, +to publish an official protest against these acts of violence, +concluding with a solemn appeal to the judgment of the Church +Catholic assembled by the representation. While awaiting that +event, Charles declared himself resolved to uphold the laws and +regulations which had been sanctioned by previous councils.</p> + +<p>Louis XI, urged by alternate menaces, entreaties, and flattery +from Rome, revoked the Pragmatic Sanction shortly after +his accession. This step accorded well with his own arbitrary +temper; for he could not endure the privilege of free election by +the cathedral and monastic chapters; nor was he less jealous of +the influence exerted, under the shelter of that privilege, by the +high feudal nobility in the disposal of church preferment. He +seems to have expected, moreover, that while ostensibly conceding +the right of patronage to the apostolic see, he should be +able to retain the real power in his own hands. The event disappointed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">376</a></span> +his calculations. No sooner was the decree of Bourges +rescinded than the Pope resumed and enforced his claim to +the provision of benefices in France. Simony and the whole +train of concomitant abuses reappeared more scandalously than +ever; and Louis found himself despised by his subjects as the +dupe of papal artifice.</p> + +<p>The parliamentary courts, meanwhile, assumed a determined +attitude in defence of the right of election guaranteed by +the Pragmatic Sanction. They pronounced the abolition of +that act illegal, and treated it as null and void; they insisted on +their own authority in entertaining appeals against ecclesiastical +abuses; they eagerly supported anyone who showed a disposition +to withstand the pretensions of Rome in the matter of +patronage. The King, smarting under the trickery of the Pope, +made no attempt to restrain them in this line of conduct; and +the result was that the repeal of the Pragmatic Sanction was +never fully executed, having never been legalized by the forms +of the constitution. On the other hand, the popes so far maintained +the advantage they had extorted from Louis that the +ancient franchise of the Church as to elections became virtually +extinct in France.</p> + +<p>Things remained in this unsettled state during the reigns of +Louis XI, Charles VIII, and Louis XII. The latter Prince, on +coming to the throne, published an edict reëstablishing the +Pragmatic Sanction; and this step, added to his ambitious enterprises +in Italy, brought him into hostile collision with Pope +Julius II. The King, unwilling to make war on the head of the +Church without some semblance of ecclesiastical sanction, convoked +a council at Tours in September, 1510, and consulted the +clergy on a series of questions arising out of the disturbed state +of his relations with Rome. They decided, in accordance with +the known views and wishes of the sovereign, that it is lawful for +an independent prince, if unjustly attacked, to defend himself +against the pope by force of arms; to withdraw for a time from +his obedience; to take possession of the territory of the Church, +not with the purpose of retaining it, but as a temporary measure +of self-protection; and to resist the pretensions of the pontiff to +powers not rightfully belonging to him. Citations to appear in +Rome might, under such circumstances, be safely disregarded;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">377</a></span> +as also papal censures, which would be null and void. If the +emergency should arise, the council added, the king ought to be +governed by the ancient principles of ecclesiastical law, as confirmed +and reënacted by the Pragmatic Sanction.</p> + +<p>The Gallican clergy sent a deputation to Pope Julius on this +occasion to entreat him to adopt a more conciliatory policy +toward the princes of Christendom; and they determined, in +case their advice should be fruitless, to demand the convocation +of a general council to take cognizance of the Pope's conduct, +and prescribe the measures necessary for the guidance and welfare +of the Church. An ecclesiastical congress, calling itself a +council-general, but altogether unworthy of that august title, +was held, in fact, in the following year at Pisa, under the auspices +of the King of France and the emperor Maximilian. The Pope +refused to appear there, and convoked a rival synod at Rome, +summoning the cardinals who had authorized the meeting at +Pisa to present themselves at his court within sixty days. On +the expiration of this term he publicly excommunicated them, +degraded them from their dignity, and deprived them of their +preferments.</p> + +<p>Thus the Western Church once more exhibited the spectacle +of a "house divided against itself," as during the scandalous +strife between the synods of Basel and Florence; and for some +time a formal schism appeared imminent. The so-called Council +of Pisa consisted of the four rebellious cardinals, twenty Gallican +prelates, several abbots and other dignitaries, the envoys +of the King of France, deputies from some of the French universities, +and a considerable number of doctors of the Faculty +of Paris. This assembly justified its position on the ground that +there are extraordinary cases in which a council may be called +without the intervention of the pope; and that, since the present +Pontiff had neglected to obey the decree of the Council of +Constance which enjoined a similar celebration at the interval +of every ten years, the cardinals were bound to take the initiative +in the matter, according to a solemn engagement which they had +made in the conclave when Julius was elected. After repeating +the stereotyped formula concerning the supreme authority of +general councils, and the imperative necessity of a reformation +of the Church in its head and in its members, the fathers addressed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">378</a></span> +themselves professedly to the herculean task thus indicated; +but little or nothing was effected of any practical importance.</p> + + +<h4>RENÉ FRANÇOIS ROHRBACHER<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">84</a></h4> + +<p>Charles held an assembly at Bourges in the month of July, +1438. He attended this himself, with the Dauphin, his son, afterward +Louis XI, many princes of the blood, and other nobles, +with a great number of bishops and doctors of the Church. The +deputies of Pope Eugenius IV and those of the prelates of Basel +were heard one after another.</p> + +<p>The result of this Assembly of Bourges was an ordinance and +twenty-three articles which were called the "Pragmatic Sanction," +a name introduced under the ancient emperors. In this +were adopted, sometimes with modifications, most of the decrees +of Basel. Among them the first was conceived in these +terms: "General councils shall be held every ten years, and the +pope, according to the opinion of the council which is closing, +shall designate the place of the next council, which cannot be +changed except for most important reasons and by the advice of +the cardinals. As to the authority of the general council, the +decrees published at Constance are renewed, by which it is said +that the general council holds its power immediately from Jesus +Christ; that all persons, even of papal dignity, are subject to it +in that which regards the faith, the extirpation of schism, and +the reformation of the Church in the head and in the members; +and that all must obey it, even the pope, who is punishable if he +transgresses it. Consequently, the Council of Basel states that +it is legitimately assembled in the Holy Ghost, and that no one, +not even the pope, can dissolve, transfer, nor prolong it, without +the consent of the fathers of the council."</p> + + +<p>The other articles may be reduced principally to the following +propositions: Canonical elections shall be held, and the pope +shall not reserve the bishoprics and other elective benefices. +Expectant pardons shall be abolished. Graduates shall be preferred +to others in the conferring of benefices, and for this reason +they shall suggest their degrees during Lent. All ecclesiastical +causes of the provinces at a distance of four days' journey +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">379</a></span>from Rome shall be tried in the place where they arise, except +major causes and those of churches which are immediately dependent +on the holy see. In the case of appeals, the order of the +tribunals shall be preserved. No one shall ever appeal to the +pope without passing previously through the intermediate tribunal. +If anyone, believing himself injured by an intermediate +tribunal subject to the pope, makes an appeal to the holy see, +the pope shall name the judges from the same places, unless there +should be important reasons for bringing the cause directly to +Rome. Frivolous appeals are punished. The celebration of divine +service is regulated and spectacles in churches are forbidden. The +abuse of ecclesiastical censures is repressed, and it is declared +that no one is obliged to shun excommunicated persons, unless +they have been proclaimed by name, or else that the censure +shall be so notorious that it cannot be denied or excused. Such +are the principal matters of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. +It was registered at the Parliament of Paris, July 13, 1439; but +the King ordered its execution from the day of its date, 1438.</p> + +<p>The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges had a little defect; it +was radically null; for every contract is null which is not consented +to by both of the contracting parties. Now the Pragmatic +Sanction was a contract between the churches of France and the +pope to regulate their mutual relations. The consent of the pope +to it was therefore absolutely necessary, the more especially as +he was the superior. For if one must admit that a general council +is superior to the pope, the Assembly of Bourges was certainly +not a general council. Moreover, the first use that it made of its +Pragmatic Sanction was to break it—and happily. In its first +articles, it had recognized the Council of Basel as ecumenical +and as superior to Pope Eugenius IV, with obligation to everyone +to obey its decrees. Now, the following year, 1439, the +Council of Basel deposes Eugenius IV, and substitutes for him +Felix V, with obligation to everyone, under penalty of anathema, +to reject the first and submit to the second. Nevertheless +France does neither the one nor the other; she continues to recognize +Eugenius IV, and derides the pope of Ripaille and of +Basel, as she will declare in a new assembly of Bourges in 1440. +Above certain laws which men write on sheets of paper, with a +goose-quill and ink, they bear in themselves another law, written<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">380</a></span> +by the hand of God, and which is good sense. Happy the nations +which never depart from this living and general law, or +which, at least, know enough to return to it promptly!</p> + +<p>Accordingly, September 2, 1440, in the new Assembly of +Bourges, King Charles VII published a declaration by which he +commanded all his subjects to yield obedience to Pope Eugenius, +with prohibition to recognize another pope or to circulate +among the public any letters or despatches bearing the name of +any other one whomsoever who pretended to the pontificate. +Nevertheless, Monsieur de Savoie, for so Charles VII called the +antipope, was united to him by ties of blood. This declaration +of the King and of the Assembly of Bourges was religiously observed +in all France, except in the University of Paris, where +they declared openly enough for the antipope. The reason of +this is very simple: the doctors of the Church in Paris dominated +in the mob of Basel, the antipope was of their own creation, and +their colleagues of Paris could not fail to recognize him.</p> + +<p>As for King Charles VII, at the close of the year 1441 he sent +an embassy to Pope Eugenius to ask the convocation of a general +council which should put an end to the troubles of Christendom. +The principal orator was the Bishop of Meaux, Pierre de +Versailles, formerly Bishop of Digne, and originally a monk of +the Abbey of St. Denis. He had an audience in full consistory +December 16th, and he spoke to the Pope in the following +terms:</p> + +<p>"The most Christian King, our master, implores your assistance, +most holy Father, or rather it is the entire people of the +faithful who address to you these words of Scripture: '<i>Be our +leader and our prince.</i>' Not that any one among us doubts that +you have not the princedom in the Church; for we know that +the state of the Church was constituted monarchical by Jesus +Christ himself; but we ask you to be <i>our prince</i> by functions of +zeal and by considerateness. We pray you to manage wisely the +boat of St. Peter, in the midst of the tempests by which it is buffeted. +The princes of the Church, most holy Father, ought not +to resemble those of the nations. The latter have frequently no +other rule of government than their own will; on the contrary, the +princes of the Church ought to temper the use of their authority; +and it is for that that the holy fathers have established<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">381</a></span> +laws and canons. Now, here is the source of the ills which afflict +the Church. There are two extremes: one consists in exercising +ecclesiastical authority as the princes of the nations exercise +theirs, without rule and without measure; the other is the enterprise +of those who, in order to correct its abuses, have desired to +annihilate authority, who have denied that supreme power rests +in the Church, who have given this power to the multitude, who +have changed the entire ecclesiastical order in destroying the +monarchy which God placed there, to substitute for it democracy +or aristocracy, who have arrived, not only with respect to +the leader but also with respect to doctrine, at the point of causing +an execrable schism among the faithful.</p> + +<p>"These considerations, most holy Father, have touched the +most Christian King; and to mitigate these two extremes, he +has resolved to solicit the convocation of a general council. +That of Basel pushed the second extreme too far when it undertook +to suppress the truth as to the supreme power in one alone. +That of Florence, which you are now holding, has well elucidated +this truth, as may be seen in the decree concerning the +Greeks; but it has determined upon nothing to temper the use +of this power. This has caused many to believe it too near to +the first extremity. A third will be able, therefore, to take the +just mean and restore everything to order.</p> + +<p>"I shall be told, no doubt, that there is no more need of general +councils; that there have been enough of them up to this +time; that the Roman Church suffices to terminate all controversies; +that a prince does not willingly intrust his rights to the +multitude; that we would be again exposed, by the convocation +of another council, to the movements which agitated the assembly +at Basel; but, in order to answer that, it is sufficient to cast +our eyes upon the present state of the Church. There should +rest in you, most holy Father, and in all other prelates, two +kinds of authority; one of divine power and institution, the +other of confidence in the people and of good reputation. The +first, although it cannot fail you, has, however, to be amenable +to the second, and you will obtain this by means of a general +council, not such a one as that of Basel, but such as the most +Christian King asks; that is to say, a council which shall be +held at your order, and which shall be regulated according to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">382</a></span> +the decrees of the holy fathers. Such an assembly will not be +a confused multitude; and your monarchical power, which +comes from heaven, which is attested by the Gospel, which is +recognized by the saints and by the universal Church, will not +be exposed to any danger."</p> + +<p>The orator then shows how dangerous it is to refuse the convocation +of this council, dwelling long upon the enterprises of +the prelates of Basel, whom he emphatically blames, even to the +extent of saying that, from their practice and their maxims, there +is no more peace possible in the Church, and that a great many +are asking if this schism be not that great apostasy of which St. +Paul spoke to the Thessalonians, and which should open the +door to the Antichrist. He finishes the address by this declaration: +"I have desired to say all this in public, most holy Father, +in order to make known to you the upright intentions of the King +my master in the present affair. He does not attach himself to +flesh and blood, but he hears the voice of the celestial Father. +From this source he learns to recognize you and to revere you +as the sovereign pontiff and the head of all Christians, the vicar +of Jesus Christ, conformably with the doctrine of the saints and +of the whole Church. And because he sees that these truths are +obscured to-day, he asks for the call of the general council. In +this he equally manifests his justice and his piety.</p> + +<p>"As for your person, most holy Father, he has sentiments +for you which pass the limits of ordinary filial affection. He always +speaks of you with consideration. He does not like to have +others speak otherwise. He conceives the most favorable hopes +of you. He counts upon it that, after having reconciled all the +orientals to the Roman Church, you will also reëstablish the +affairs of the Occident."</p> + +<p>This discourse certainly did honor to the good sense of +France. In spite of the intrigues of the learned doctors of the +university, the King and the episcopacy early and clearly remarked +the revolutionary and anarchistic tendency of Basel. +As for the amicably regulating relation of the churches of France +with the holy see to remedy certain abuses, the thing was not difficult. +It would have been sufficient to send some more bishops +to Florence like the Bishop of Meaux. All would have been +very quickly arranged, to the satisfaction of everybody, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">383</a></span> +example of France would have drawn the rest of the Occident. +But to desire a third council was not of the same wisdom. Thus +the Pope took good care not to consent to it.</p> + +<p>In 1444 Eugenius IV created the Dauphin of France, who +was afterward King Louis XI, grand gonfalonier of the Roman +Church, granting him a pension of fifteen thousand florins, to +be taken annually from the apostolic chamber. The Dauphin +made an expedition to the gates of Basel, where he overcame a +corps of Swiss and spread consternation among those who were +still at the pretended council. This expedition was followed by +a long truce between France and England; an event which was +considered as the prelude to a good peace. In order to obtain +from God this good, so necessary and so much desired, there +were public fêtes at Paris, among others a solemn procession in +which were carried all the holy relics of the city.</p> + +<p>In November, 1446, King Charles VII, being at Tours, made +with his council a plan of accommodation between the two +parties that divided the Church. It arranged that all the censures +published on one side and the other should be revoked; +that Pope Eugenius should be recognized by all as before the +schism; that Monsieur de Savoie, called Felix by his adherents, +should renounce the popedom; that he should hold the highest +rank in the Church, next to the person of the Pope, and that his +partisans should be also maintained in their dignities, grades, +and benefices.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">384<br />385<br />386<br />387</a></span></p> +<h2>CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL +HISTORY</h2> + +<h4>EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME</h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1301-1438</h4> + +<h3>JOHN RUDD, LL.D.</h3> + +<p>Events treated at length are here indicated in large +type; the numerals following give volume and page.</p> + +<p>Separate chronologies of the various nations, and of +the careers of famous persons, will be found in the <span class="smcap">Index +Volume</span>, with volume and page references showing where +the several events are fully treated.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A.D.</p> + +<p>1301. In Hungary the crown becomes elective; end of the Arpad dynasty.</p> + +<p>Dante begins writing his <i>Divine Comedy</i>, See "<span class="smcap">Dante Composes +the Divina Commedia</span>," <a href="#Page_vii">vii, 1.</a></p> + +<p>1302. Philip the Fair convenes the first meeting of the States-General +of France. See "<span class="smcap">Third Estate Joins in the Government Of +France</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_17">17.</a></p> + +<p>Dante and his party banished from Florence. See "<span class="smcap">Dante Composes +the Divina Commedia</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_1">1.</a></p> + +<p>Comyn is appointed regent by the Scots, who make another effort to +regain their independence.</p> + +<p>Pope Boniface VIII issues a bull against Philip the Fair, who burns +it, accuses him of simony and heresy, and refuses to acknowledge him as +pope.</p> + +<p>Battle of Courtrai; the Flemings defeat the French. See "<span class="smcap">War of +the Flemings with Philip the Fair of France</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_23">23.</a></p> + +<p>1303. Pope Boniface VIII is surprised at Anagni by William de +Nogaret, King Philip's adviser; after being kept for some days a prisoner +he is rescued and allowed to return to Rome, where he dies.</p> + +<p>Scotland submits to Edward I of England.</p> + +<p>Andronicus Palæologus, the Byzantine Emperor, engages the Catalan +Grand Company to aid him against the Turks.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">85</a></p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">388</a></span>1304. Roger di Flor defeats the Mongols, enters Philadelphia, and +stations himself at Ephesus.</p> + +<p>1305. Wallace, "Hero of Scotland," is executed. See "<span class="smcap">Exploits and +Death of William Wallace, the Hero of Scotland</span>," <a href="#Page_vi">vi</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369.</a></p> + +<p>Beginning of the so-called Babylonish Captivity, being the establishment +of the papal court at Lyons, France.</p> + +<p>1306. A grandson of the first claimant, Robert Bruce, is crowned +King of Scotland; he dispossesses the English of a great part of Scotland.</p> + +<p>On complaint of the nobility and gentry the use of sea-coal is prohibited +in London.</p> + +<p>1307. Death of Edward I; his son, Edward II, succeeds to the English +throne.</p> + +<p>Charges against the Knights Templars. See "<span class="smcap">Extinction of the +Order of Knights Templars</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_51">51.</a></p> + +<p>1308. Albert of Austria assassinated by his nephew; Henry VII, +Count of Luxemburg, elected emperor of Germany.</p> + +<p>Origin of the Swiss confederations according to common traditions.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">86</a> +See "<span class="smcap">First Swiss Struggle for Liberty</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_28">28.</a></p> + +<p>1309. Pope Clement V removes the papal court from Rome to Avignon, +France.</p> + +<p>Rhodes captured from the Turks by the Knights of St. John.</p> + +<p>1310. Fifty Knights Templars are burned in Paris.</p> + +<p>Expedition of Henry VII of Germany into Italy to restore the imperial +authority. He obtains the throne of Bohemia for his son John, inaugurating +the Luxemburg dynasty.</p> + +<p>1311. Fifteenth general council (Council of Vienne); it suppresses +the order of Knights Templars, and condemns the Beghards (Beguins), +a begging order of monks and nuns.</p> + +<p>Matteo Visconti secures the sovereignty of Milan.</p> + +<p>Walter de Brienne quarrels with the Catalans and is defeated and +slain by them; they conquer the duchy of Athens and appoint Roger +Deslau grand duke.</p> + +<p>1312. Henry VII unsuccessful in an attempt on Florence.</p> + +<p>Gaveston, a foreigner and favorite of the King, and who for some +years had made himself obnoxious to the barons and people of England, +is made prisoner and beheaded; peace ensues between Edward II and +his barons.</p> + +<p>Robert, King of Naples, seizes the principal forts in Rome; Henry +VII is, notwithstanding, crowned emperor in the Lateran Church by +three cardinals.</p> + +<p>1313. In conjunction with the Genoese and Sicilians, Emperor +Henry VII prepares to attack Robert of Naples, but dies suddenly.</p> + +<p>Birth of Boccaccio.</p> + +<p>1314. Defeat of the English by the Scots under Robert Bruce. See +"<span class="smcap">Battle of Bannockburn</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_41">41.</a></p> + + +<p>Louis of Bavaria and Frederick, son of the late Albert of Austria, are +elected by opposite parties to the crown of Germany; they make war on +each other.</p> + +<p>Ireland invaded by Edward Bruce, a Scottish adventurer, and a +younger brother of Robert Bruce.</p> + +<p>Louis X succeeds his father, Philip IV, in France.</p> + +<p>Molay, grand master of the Knights Templars, is burned at the +stake in Paris. See "<span class="smcap">Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars</span>," +vii, <a href="#Page_51">51.</a></p> + +<p>1315. Louis Hutin, King of France, emancipates all serfs within the +royal domains on payment of a just surrender charge.</p> + +<p>A great victory achieved by the Swiss over the Austrians, under Leopold +(brother of Frederick the Handsome) at Morgarten.</p> + +<p>1316. Edward Bruce crowned king of Ireland.</p> + +<p>Establishment of the Salic law excluding females and their descendants +from the throne of France.</p> + +<p>A predominance of French cardinals, created by Pope Clement V, +secures the election of another French pope, and the continuance of the +papal see at Avignon. The new pope, John XXII, appoints eight more +cardinals, of whom seven are French.</p> + +<p>1317. Birger, King of the Swedes, murders his two brothers and causes +a rebellion of his people.</p> + +<p>1318. Battle of Dundalk; Edward Bruce defeated and slain by Lord +Birmingham; end of the war in Ireland.</p> + +<p>Giotto, a friend of Dante, famous in Italy; he was the first painter of +portraits from life.</p> + +<p>1319. Pope John XXII excommunicates Robert Bruce of Scotland; +the Scotch Parliament resists all papal interference in its affairs.</p> + +<p>1320.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">87</a> The Old English poem <i>Cursor Mundi</i> composed. It was +founded on Cædmon's paraphrase of the book of Genesis.</p> + +<p>1321. Death of Dante while in exile at Ravenna.</p> + +<p>1322. Philip V dies; he is succeeded by his brother, Charles IV, on +the throne of France.</p> + +<p>Louis the Bavarian triumphs over his rival Frederick of Austria, who +is captured.</p> + +<p>Queen Isabella, while resident in the Tower of London, first sees +Mortimer, who is brought there a prisoner.</p> + +<p>Sir John Mandeville, an English exile in France, sets out on his eastern +travels.</p> + +<p>1323. Louis of Bavaria invests his son with the margraviate of Brandenburg.</p> + +<p>1324. Commencement of Queen Isabella's guilty intimacy with Mortimer.</p> + +<p>Birth of Wycliffe.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">88</a></p> + +<p>Pope John XXII excommunicates Louis the Bavarian.</p> + +<p>1325. Birth of John Gower, poet, and friend of Chaucer.</p> + + +<p>1326. Burgesses are first admitted into the Scotch Parliament.</p> + +<p>Isabella, Queen of Edward II, and Earl Mortimer invade England; +the King is captured and imprisoned in Kenilworth castle.</p> + +<p>1327. King Edward II is deposed by parliament; Edward III, his +son, succeeds. Edward II is brutally murdered by his keepers.</p> + +<p>Louis V, the Bavarian, of Germany heads an expedition into Italy; +he proclaims the deposition of Pope John XXII; he is forced to retreat +after being crowned in Rome.</p> + +<p>1328. Independence of Scotland recognized by Edward III of England.</p> + +<p>Accession of Philip VI of France, the first of the house of Valois.</p> + +<p>Birth of Chaucer.[88]</p> + +<p>1329. Death of Robert Bruce; his infant son, David, succeeds to the +Scotch throne.</p> + +<p>1330. Orkham, Sultan of the Turks, captures Nicæa.</p> + +<p>Queen Isabella and Mortimer are surprised in Nottingham castle<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">89</a>; he +is executed at Tyburn; Isabella is confined during her life at Castle Rising.</p> + +<p>1331. John Kempe takes his servants and apprentices from Flanders +to join the weaving colony already founded at Norwich, England.</p> + +<p>1332. Edward Balliol claims the crown of Scotland; he invades that +country with an English army. The young King, David, takes refuge in +France.</p> + +<p>Lucerne joins the Swiss confederacy.</p> + +<p>1333. Edward III of England invades Scotland; he defeats the +Scotch at Halidon Hill and captures Berwick, which is annexed to England.</p> + +<p>Casimir the Great, last king of the Piast line, succeeds to the throne +of Poland.</p> + +<p>1334. Denmark in a state of anarchy; Gerard, Count of Holstein, exercises +a disputed power as regent.</p> + +<p>1335. The house of Austria becomes possessed of Carinthia.</p> + +<p>1336. Birth of Timur (Tamerlane) the Tartar.</p> + +<p>1337. Edward III of England obtains the support of Van Artevelde; +he obtains money by grants from parliament and confiscating the wealth +of the Lombard merchants. See "<span class="smcap">James van Artevelde Leads a +Flemish Revolt</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_68">68.</a></p> + +<p>Birth of Froissart, the chronicler, at Valenciennes.</p> + +<p>1338. Beginning of the wars of Edward III against France; he sails +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">389</a></span>with a fleet of five hundred ships; lands his army at Antwerp. See +"<span class="smcap">Battle of Sluys and Crécy</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_78">78.</a></p> + + + +<p>Declaration of the Electors at Rense that Germany is an independent +empire over which the Pope has no jurisdiction; the diet at Frankfort ratifies +the manifesto.</p> + +<p>1339. France invaded by Edward III of England; beginning of the +Hundred Years' War.</p> + +<p>Genoa elects its first doge, Simone Boccanera.</p> + +<p>A body of disbanded mercenaries form themselves into the first <i>condottiere</i> +company known in Italy. The word means a captain or leader, +the <i>condottieri</i> those under the leader. They were free lances, open to +serve under any flag.</p> + +<p>1340. Edward destroys a large French fleet at Sluys; beginning of +England's naval power. See "<span class="smcap">Battle of Sluys and Crécy</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_78">78.</a></p> + +<p>War between the Hanseatic League and Denmark; the Danes defeated.</p> + +<p>1341. Death of John III of Brittany; his brother, John of Montfort, +and his niece, Jeanne de Penthièvre, wife of Charles of Blois, contest the +succession; England supports the former, France the latter.</p> + +<p>Edward Balliol retires on the return of David II to Scotland.</p> + +<p>Petrarch is crowned with laurel at Rome. See "<span class="smcap">Modern Recognition +Of Scenic Beauty</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_93">93.</a></p> + +<p>1342. Edward III pursues his campaign in Brittany; he relieves +Hennebonne, besieged by the French.</p> + +<p>Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens, becomes sovereign lord of Florence.</p> + +<p>Accession of Louis, called the Great, to the throne of Hungary, on the +death of King Charles Robert, his father.</p> + +<p>1343. Expulsion from Florence of the Duke of Athens; popular government +restored.</p> + +<p>A truce of three years arranged between England and France by the +mediation of the papal legates.</p> + +<p>1344. Breach of the truce between England and France; Earl Derby +defeats Count de Lisle and reduces a great part of Perigord.</p> + +<p>A Turkish fleet is destroyed at Pallene by the Knights of Rhodes, +who assist in the capture of Smyrna by the Venetians and the King of +Cyprus.</p> + +<p>Masham, an Englishman, first discovers the Madeira Islands.</p> + +<p>In England, parliament, by the Statute of Provisors, forbids the interference +of the pope in bestowing benefices and livings in England.</p> + +<p>1345. Fall and death of James Van Artevelde at Ghent.</p> + +<p>1346. Battle of Crécy; cannon said to have been first used by the +English. See "<span class="smcap">Battles of Sluys and Crécy</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_78">78.</a></p> + +<p>At the instance of Pope Clement VI, Charles of Luxemburg (Charles +IV) is elected emperor of Germany in opposition to Louis the Bavarian.</p> + +<p>David Bruce invades England; he is vanquished and made prisoner +at Neville's Cross.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">390</a></span></p> +<p>Servia at the zenith of her power; the ruler, Stephen Dushan, assumes +the imperial title.</p> + +<p>1347. Calais captured by Edward III.</p> + +<p>Death of Louis the Bavarian; he is succeeded by Charles IV, whose +title is disputed until 1349.</p> + +<p>Queen Joanna I of Naples has her dominions invaded by Louis the +Great of Hungary to avenge the murder of her husband, Andrew, brother +of Louis, supposedly at her instigation. See "<span class="smcap">Rienzi's Revolution +in Rome</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_104">104.</a></p> + +<p>1348. About this time begins the Renaissance in Italy. See "<span class="smcap">Beginning +and Progress of the Renaissance</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_110">110.</a></p> + +<p>Founding of the University of Prague, the first in Germany.</p> + +<p>Pope Clement VI purchases Avignon from Queen Joanna I of +Naples.</p> + +<p>The plague stalks in Europe. See "<span class="smcap">The Black Death Ravages +Europe</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_130">130.</a></p> + +<p>1349. Institution (or revival, see <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1192) of the Order of the Garter +in England.</p> + +<p>Dauphiny annexed to France on condition that the King's eldest son +should be called the dauphin.</p> + +<p>1350. Death of Philip VI; his son, John the Good, succeeds to the +French throne.</p> + +<p>1351. Zurich joins the Swiss confederation.</p> + +<p>Paganino Doria, commanding the Genoese fleet, plunders many Venetian +towns on the Adriatic.</p> + +<p>1352. A statute of præmunire still further limits the papal power in +England.</p> + +<p>Naval battle in the Bosporus between the Genoese, under Paganino +Doria, and the Venetians, Byzantines, and Catalans under Niccola +Pisano; the latter are defeated, and concede the entire command of the +Black Sea to the Genoese.</p> + +<p>1353. Alliance of Genoa with Louis of Hungary; their fleet, under +Antonino Grinaldi, defeated; in despair the Genoese place themselves +under the protection of John Visconte.</p> + +<p>Bern joins the league of Swiss cantons.</p> + +<p>1354. Downfall and death of Rienzi. See "<span class="smcap">Rienzi's Revolution +in Rome</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_194">104.</a></p> + +<p>Paganino Doria captures or destroys the Venetian fleet in the Morea; +their admiral, Pisano, is captured.</p> + +<p>Beginning of Turkish dominion in Europe. See "<span class="smcap">First Turkish +Dominion in Europe</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_136">136.</a></p> + +<p>1355. King Charles of Navarre is treacherously seized and imprisoned +in France; his brother Philip, and Geoffry d'Harcourt, make an alliance +with Edward III; the war is renewed.</p> + +<p>Marino Falieri, Doge of Venice, beheaded. See "<span class="smcap">Conspiracy and +Death of Marino Falieri at Venice</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_154">154.</a></p> + +<p>1356. Battle of Poitiers; John II, King of France, taken prisoner by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">391</a></span>Edward, the Black Prince; the Dauphin, Charles, escapes and assumes +the government of France during his father's captivity.</p> + +<p>Emperor Charles defines the duties of the electors of Germany. See +"<span class="smcap">Charles IV of Germany Publishes His Golden Bull</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_160">160.</a></p> + +<p>Wycliffe publishes his <i>Last Age of the Court</i>.</p> + +<p>1357. London enthusiastically welcomes the Prince of Wales (the +Black Prince) on his return with his prisoners; King Edward III concludes +a treaty with the captive French King, which the Dauphin +rejects.</p> + +<p>Popular movement in Paris under Stephen Marcel; meeting of the +States-general of France.</p> + +<p>1358. Violent commotions in France. See "<span class="smcap">Insurrection of the +Jacquerie in France</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_164">164.</a></p> + +<p>By a treaty of peace the Venetians resign Dalmatia and Istria to the +King of Hungary; they agree to style their doge Duke of Venice only.</p> + +<p>1359. Edward III again invades France, his terms of peace not being +accepted.</p> + +<p>1360. England and France conclude the treaty of Bretigny; King +John II is set at liberty on payment of a heavy ransom.</p> + +<p>Outbreak of the Children's Plague in England.</p> + +<p>1361. End of the first ducal house of Burgundy.</p> + +<p>Adrianople is conquered by Sultan Amurath I of Turkey.</p> + +<p>All military operations in Europe suspended by the virulence of the +plague.</p> + +<p>1362. Edward III grants Aquitaine to his son, the Black Prince; he +also celebrates his fiftieth birthday by a general amnesty and a confirmation +of Magna Charta.</p> + +<p>Conjectured beginning of Langland's <i>Vision of Piers Plowman</i>, a +noted allegorical and satirical poem.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">90</a></p> + +<p>1363. Disbanded English soldiers enter the service of the Pisans, and +obtain a victory for them over the Florentines.</p> + +<p>1364. Death of King John the Good of France, in Savoy palace, London; +his son, Charles V, succeeds; Du Guesclin, his general, defeats +the English and the army of Charles the Bad at Cocherel. Du Guesclin +is afterward defeated and captured by the English, under Sir John Chandos; +besides the capture of Du Guesclin, Charles of Blois is slain. The +house of Montfort secures Brittany.</p> + +<p>Treaty of union between Bohemia and Austria.</p> + +<p>Chaucer writes his <i>Canterbury Tales</i>.</p> + +<p>1365. Pedro the Cruel, the epithet "cruel" being given him mainly for +the murder of his brother, Don Fadrique, becomes so odious to his subjects +that Henry of Trastamare, his brother, revives his claim to the +throne of Leon and Castile; Du Guesclin takes command of his forces.</p> + +<p>University of Vienna founded.</p> + +<p>1366. Pedro the Cruel driven from his throne.</p> + + +<p>Pope Urban V claims the tribute which had previously been paid by +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">392</a></span>England; an act of parliament resists the demand; it further declares +the concessions made by King John to be illegal and invalid.</p> + +<p>Tamerlane (Timur the Tartar), reviver of the great Mongol empire, +inaugurates his conquests.</p> + +<p>1367. Edward the Black Prince, having espoused the cause of Pedro +the Cruel, attacks and dethrones Henry of Trastamare; Pedro is restored +to the throne, but refuses the stipulated pay to his allies, who leave him +to his fate.</p> + +<p>Passage of the Kilkenny Statute; it forbade any Englishman to use an +Irish name, to speak the Irish language, to adopt the Irish dress, or to +allow the cattle of an Irishman to graze on his lands; it also made it high +treason to marry a native.</p> + +<p>1369. King Charles V breaks the Anglo-French treaty; the Hundred +Years' War reopened.</p> + +<p>1370. End of the Piast dynasty, Poland, caused by the death of Casimir +the Great; Louis the Great, King of Hungary, succeeds.</p> + +<p>Timur the Tartar extends his domains. See "<span class="smcap">Conquests of Timur +the Tartar</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_169">169.</a></p> + +<p>1371. Robert II ascends the throne and founds the Stuart dynasty in +Scotland, on the death of David Bruce.<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">91</a></p> + +<p>A petition of the English Parliament to the King that he employ no +churchmen in any office of the state, and threatening to resist by force the +oppressions of papal authority.</p> + +<p>1373. Henry of Castile invades Portugal, besieges Lisbon, and compels +Ferdinand to sign a treaty of peace.</p> + +<p>Birth of John Huss.<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">92</a></p> + +<p>1374. A strange plague, the dancing mania, appears in Europe. See +"<span class="smcap">Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_187">187.</a></p> + +<p>Wycliffe is appointed one of the seven ambassadors to represent to +the Pope the grievances of the Church of England.</p> + +<p>1375. A general council of citizens of Florence declares "liberty paramount +to every other consideration"; it appoints the "Seven Saints of +War," which effectually resist aggression.</p> + +<p>1376. Death of Edward the Black Prince. Gregory XI abandons Avignon +as the papal residence.</p> + +<p>1377. Rome again becomes the home of the papal court.</p> + +<p>Gregory XI orders proceedings against Wycliffe, the English reformer.</p> + +<p>Death of Edward III; his grandson, Richard II, succeeds to the English +throne.</p> + +<p>1378. Wenceslaus becomes emperor of Germany on the death of his +father, Charles IV.</p> + +<p>Rival popes elected. See "<span class="smcap">Election of Antipope Clement VII: +Beginning of the Great Schism</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_201">201.</a></p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">393</a></span></p> +<p>1379. Pietro Doria, at the head of the Genoese fleet, defeats the Venetian +fleet off Pola; Chioggia is captured and Venice threatened.</p> + +<p>A poll-tax imposed on the people of England; this led directly to a +revolution.</p> + +<p>War of the rival papal factions in Rome.</p> + +<p>Revolt of the White Hoods (<i>Les Chaperons blancs</i>) in Flanders; +the workmen of Ghent, when they revolted against the Duke of Burgundy, +adopted a white hood as their badge.</p> + +<p>1380. Establishment in Germany of post messengers.</p> + +<p>Surrender of the Genoese fleet and army at Chioggia. See "<span class="smcap">Genoese +Surrender to Venetians</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_213">213.</a></p> + +<p>1381. Overthrow of Joanna I of Naples by Charles Durazzo (Charles +the Little).</p> + +<p>An act of parliament surreptitiously obtained against heretics in England.</p> + +<p>Exasperated by the poll-tax the people of England revolt. See "<span class="smcap">Rebellion +of Wat Tyler</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_217">217.</a></p> + +<p>Insurrection of the Maillotins against the new tax on bread in Paris. +They were so called because they armed themselves with <i>maillets de fer</i> +("iron malls") when they attacked the arsenal, put to death the officers, and +set the prisoners at large.</p> + +<p>Philip van Artevelde rises to power in Flanders.</p> + +<p>1382. Queen Joanna I of Naples is put to death in prison.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Wycliffe Translates the Bible into English</span>." See vii, <a href="#Page_227">227.</a></p> + +<p>Led by Philip van Artevelde the people of Ghent triumph over their +ruler, Count Louis II; Bruges is captured and looted by them; Artevelde +is acclaimed governor; a French army advances and defeats the forces +of Artevelde, who is slain, and Louis is restored.</p> + +<p>1384. Flanders is incorporated in the dukedom of Burgundy; Artois +and Franche Comté are also acquired by Philip the Bold of Burgundy.</p> + +<p>1385. Scotland fruitlessly invaded by Richard II of England.</p> + +<p>John the Great ascends the throne of Portugal; he defeats the Castilians +at Aljubarota.</p> + +<p>1386. Victory of the Swiss over the Austrians at Sempach. See +"<span class="smcap">The Swiss Win Their Independence</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_238">238.</a></p> + +<p>Hedvige, Queen of Poland, marries Duke of Jagellon, of Lithuania, +uniting the states and establishing the Jagellon dynasty; as sovereign of +Poland he is styled Ladislaus II. The Lithuanians abandon paganism.</p> + +<p>Founding of the University of Heidelberg.</p> + +<p>A regency, that of the Duke of Gloucester, is imposed upon Richard II +of England.</p> + +<p>1387. Consultation of Richard II at Nottingham with the judges; +the regency commission is declared a criminal act.</p> + +<p>A brother of Emperor Wenceslaus, Sigismund, becomes king of Hungary.</p> + +<p>Birth of Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietri), the great friar-painter.</p> + +<p>1388. Battle of Otterburne (Chevy Chase); an English-Scotch en<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">394</a></span>counter +in a private feud, not a national quarrel; the Earl of Douglas +slain; Henry Percy captured by the Scots.</p> + +<p>At Naefels the Austrians are defeated by the Swiss.</p> + +<p>1389. Bulgaria and Servia conquered by the Turks under Amurath I +at the decisive battle of Kosovo; he is slain.</p> + +<p>Death of Pope Urban VI; Boniface succeeds; the schism continues.</p> + +<p>Albert, King of Sweden, defeated and made prisoner by Queen Margaret, +who reigns over the three Scandinavian kingdoms.</p> + +<p>1390. War of Florence with Milan.</p> + +<p>Robert III ascends the throne of Scotland.</p> + +<p>1392. Fits of insanity seize the young King of France, Charles VI; +cards are invented, or introduced, to amuse him during his lucid intervals.</p> + +<p>1394. Birth of Prince Henry of Portugal, known as the "Navigator."</p> + +<p>1395. Milan is created a hereditary duchy by Emperor Wenceslaus for +Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti.</p> + +<p>1396. Battle of Nicopolis; the Christian defenders of Hungary suffer +a great defeat at the hands of the Turkish sultan Bajazet I.</p> + +<p>1397. Scandinavia united under one crown. See "<span class="smcap">Union of Denmark, +Sweden, and Norway</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_243">243.</a></p> + +<p>1398. Mortimer, Earl of March, presumptive heir to the English +throne and governor of Ireland, slain by a rebel force in that island.</p> + +<p>Froissart writes his <i>Chronicles</i>.</p> + +<p>1399. Deposition of Richard II of England; Henry Bolingbroke founds +the house of Lancaster. See "<span class="smcap">Deposition of Richard II</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_351">251.</a></p> + +<p>After a long struggle for the possession of Naples between Ladislaus +and Louis II of Anjou, it ends in the triumph of Ladislaus.</p> + +<p>1400. A great revolt of the Welsh is headed by Owen Glendower.</p> + +<p>Emperor Wenceslaus is deposed.</p> + +<p>Rupert of the Palatinate elected to the throne of Germany.</p> + +<p>1401. Parliament ordains the burning of Lollards in England. Barcelona +bank (earliest existing bank) established.</p> + +<p>1402. Battle of Homildon Hill; victory of the Percys, a noble northern +English family, over the Scots.</p> + +<p>License by royal letters-patent given to the "<i>Confrerie de la Passion</i>" +to exhibit sacred dramas, or <i>Mysteries</i>, in France.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Discovery of the Canary Islands and the African Coast.</span>" +See vii, <a href="#Page_266">266.</a></p> + +<p>Tamerlane (Timur the Tartar) defeats and captures Bajazet at Angora.</p> + +<p>1403. Battle of Shrewsbury; Henry IV defeats the Percys, who had +allied themselves with Glendower to place the Earl of March on the English +throne; Harry Percy (Hotspur) slain.</p> + +<p>1404. Queen Margaret of Sweden claims Schleswig and Holstein on +the death of Gerard VI.</p> + +<p>1405. Pisa sold to Florence by the Visconti.</p> + +<p>An English act of parliament prohibits anyone not possessing twenty +shillings a year in land from apprenticing his sons to any trade.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">395</a></span></p><p>Venice conquers Verona and Padua.</p> + +<p>Prince James Stuart, afterward James I, heir to the crown of Scotland, +captured by the English.</p> + +<p>1406. Pisa compelled to submit to Florence after a year of war.</p> + +<p>Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, proposes a general +council to terminate the schism in the Church.<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">93</a></p> + +<p>1407. France distracted by the animosities of her leading families; +Louis, Duke of Orleans, is assassinated by John the Fearless, Duke of +Burgundy.</p> + +<p>1408. Valentina, widow of the Duke of Orleans, demands justice on +her husband's assassins; the Duke of Burgundy declared an enemy of +the state; he occupies Paris and drives out the royal court.</p> + +<p>1409. Council of Pisa; both popes refuse to appear; they are deposed +and Alexander V is elected.</p> + +<p>University of Leipsic founded.</p> + +<p>1410. Death of Rupert of the Palatinate, Emperor of Germany.</p> + +<p>Jagellon (Ladislaus II), King of Poland, vanquishes the Teutonic +Knights.</p> + +<p>1411. Battle of Harlow; defeat of the Scotch Lord of the Isles and +the highland clans.</p> + +<p>Sigismund elected emperor of Germany.</p> + +<p>John Huss excommunicated and forbidden to preach.</p> + +<p>University of St. Andrew's, Scotland, founded.</p> + +<p>1412. For insulting the chief justice of England the Prince of Wales +is committed to prison.</p> + +<p>Birth of Jeanne d'Arc, the Maid of Orleans.</p> + +<p>1413. Death of Henry IV; Henry V ascends the English throne; he +discards his dissolute associates and reforms his conduct.</p> + +<p>Ladislaus takes forcible possession of Rome and most of the papal +states.</p> + +<p>1414. The Seventeenth general council. See "<span class="smcap">Council of Constance</span>," +vii, <a href="#Page_284">284.</a></p> + +<p>Joanna II succeeds her brother Ladislaus of Naples on his death.</p> + +<p>1415. "<span class="smcap">Trial and Burning of John Huss</span>." See vii, <a href="#Page_294">294.</a></p> + +<p>John the Great of Portugal conquers Ceuta; he discards the use of +the Julian period and introduces the computation of time from the Christian +era.</p> + +<p>Brandenburg is acquired by the house of Hohenzollern. See "<span class="smcap">The +House of Hohenzollern Established in Brandenburg</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_305">305.</a></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Battle of Agincourt.</span>" See vii, <a href="#Page_320">320.</a></p> + +<p>1416. Jerome of Prague burned.</p> + +<p>Alfonso the Wise, so called for his patronage of letters, ascends the +throne of Aragon on the death of his father, Ferdinand the Just.</p> + +<p>1417. Pope Martin V elected by the Council of Constance; end of the +schism.</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">396</a></span></p> +<p>Sir John Oldcastle, the "Good Lord Cobham," after four years' hiding +is captured and burned as a heretic in London.</p> + +<p>Gypsies appear in Transylvania; they are believed to have been low-caste +Hindus expelled by Timur in the fourteenth century.</p> + +<p>1418. Close of the Council of Constance. See "<span class="smcap">Council of Constance</span>," +vii, <a href="#Page_284">284.</a></p> + +<p>A great massacre in Paris of the Armagnacs by the populace, the partisans +of John the Fearless of Burgundy; the Dauphin and his adherents +transfer their seat of government to Poitiers.</p> + +<p>1419. Surrender of Rouen to the English.</p> + +<p>John the Fearless, beguiled by a treaty, meets the Dauphin, who has +him assassinated.</p> + +<p>Storming of the town-hall of Prague by the Hussites; outbreak of the +Hussite wars.</p> + +<p>Madeira first reached by the Portuguese, who sail under the command +of Henry the Navigator.</p> + +<p>1420. Henry V, King of England, made successor to the French +throne. See "<span class="smcap">Battle of Agincourt</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_320">320.</a></p> + +<p>Sigismund besieges the Hussites in Prague; he is defeated by them, +led by John Ziska.</p> + +<p>Joanna II of Naples, who summons to her aid Alfonso V of Aragon, +is attacked by Louis III of Anjou.</p> + +<p>1421. Second crusade against the Bohemian Hussites.</p> + +<p>1422. Death of Henry V of England and Charles VI of France; the +former is succeeded by his infant son; he is proclaimed King of England +and France; his uncles, the Duke of Gloucester, regent in England, and +the Duke of Bedford in France; Charles VII, son of Charles VI, is proclaimed +by the French.</p> + +<p>Constantinople besieged by Amurath II, Sultan of Turkey.</p> + +<p>1423. Frederick the Warlike, Margrave of Misnia, assumes the electorate +of Saxony and establishes the house of Wettin.</p> + +<p>1424. James I of Scotland, released after a captivity of nineteen years, +marries a daughter of the Earl of Somerset; he assumes the government +of Scotland.</p> + +<p>John Ziska is succeeded by Procopius the Great as head of the Taborites, +a division of the Hussites.</p> + +<p>1425. Accession of John Palæologus II as emperor of Byzantium.</p> + +<p>John and Hulbert van Eyck, masters of the early Flemish school, invent +painting in oil.</p> + +<p>1426. Lubeck and the Baltic Hanse Towns support the Duke of Holstein +against Eric XIII of Sweden.</p> + +<p>Great Hussite victory at Aussig.</p> + +<p>1427. The Hussites extend their conquests in Saxony and Meissen; +they gain a victory at Mies.</p> + +<p>1428. Orleans, France, besieged by the English.</p> + +<p>Death of John de' Medici, founder of the illustrious family at Florence.</p> + +<p>1429. Coronation of Charles VII of France at Rheims.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">397</a></span></p> +<p>Jeanne d'Arc relieves Orleans. See "<span class="smcap">Jeanne d'Arc's Victory at +Orleans</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_333">333.</a></p> + +<p>Refusal of the Hussites to treat for peace with Emperor Sigismund.</p> + +<p>Antipope Clement VIII abdicates and ends the Great Schism.</p> + +<p>1430. Institution of the Golden Fleece by Philip, Duke of Burgundy, +on his marriage with Isabella, daughter of King John of Portugal, and +in commemoration of the manufacturing prosperity of the Netherlands.</p> + +<p>1431. Jeanne d'Arc dishonorably and inhumanly burned at Rouen. See +"<span class="smcap">Trial and Execution of Jeanne d'Arc</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_350">350.</a></p> + +<p>Council of Basel. Pope Martin V succeeded by Eugenius IV.</p> + +<p>1432. Prince Henry's navigators discover and take possession of the +Azores for the Portuguese.</p> + +<p>Opening of the trade of the north to the English and Dutch by the +wars of the Hanse Towns, and Holstein, with Denmark.</p> + +<p>1433. Treaty of the Council of Basel with the section of the Hussites +called Calixtines; this satisfies them and they secede from the Hussite +league.</p> + +<p>1434. Cosmo de' Medici recalled to Florence; his party triumphant.</p> + +<p>Organization of the national church (Utraquist) in Bohemia.</p> + +<p>First exploration of the west coast of Africa by the Portuguese.</p> + +<p>The Calixtines join the imperial army and defeat the Taborites at +Bohmisch-Brod.</p> + +<p>1435. Treaty of Arras between France and Burgundy; the latter withdraws +from the English party.</p> + +<p>Death of the Duke of Bedford.</p> + +<p>1436. A settlement effected between Emperor Sigismund and the Hussites +by the treaty of Iglau; he is recognized as king of Bohemia.</p> + +<p>Charles VII, the French King, recovers Paris from the English.</p> + +<p>Eric, by a treaty of peace, relinquishes the greater part of Schleswig +to the Duke of Holstein and makes concessions at Stockholm which restore +tranquillity in Sweden.</p> + +<p>1437. Death of Emperor Sigismund; election of Albert of Austria to +the throne of Hungary.</p> + +<p>Murder of James I; his son, James II, succeeds him on the throne of +Scotland.</p> + +<p>Pope Eugenius IV is summoned to appear before the Council of +Basel to answer various charges brought against him; he issues a bull +dissolving the council; he calls another at Ferrara, whither he invites +the Greek Emperor to attend and arrange for the union of the two +churches.</p> + +<p>1438. Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII; it secures the liberty of +the Gallican Church. See "<span class="smcap">Charles VII Issues His Pragmatic +Sanction</span>," vii, <a href="#Page_370">370.</a></p> + +<p>Coronation of Albert II, King of Hungary; recognized by the Diet of +Frankfort.</p> +</div> +<h3>FOOTNOTES</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">1</span></a> See <i>Dante Composes the Divina Commedia</i>, <a href="#Page_1">page 1.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">2</span></a> See <i>Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars</i>, <a href="#Page_51">page 51.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">3</span></a> See <i>The Third Estate Joins in the Government of France</i>, <a href="#Page_17">page 17.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">4</span></a> See <i>War of the Flemings with Philip the Fair</i>, <a href="#Page_23">page 23.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">5</span></a> See <i>First Swiss Struggle for Liberty</i>, <a href="#Page_28">page 28.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">6</span></a> See <i>The Swiss Win Their Independence</i>, <a href="#Page_238">page 238.</a></p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">7</span></a> See <i>Battle of Bannockburn</i>, <a href="#Page_41">page 41.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">8</span></a> See <i>Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance</i>, <a href="#Page_110">page 110.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">9</span></a> See <i>Crowning of Petrarch at Rome</i>, <a href="#Page_93">page 93.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">10</span></a> See <i>Rienzi's Revolution in Rome</i>, <a href="#Page_104">page 104.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">11</span></a> See <i>Conspiracy and Death of Marino Falieri at Venice</i>, <a href="#Page_154">page 154.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">12</span></a> See <i>Genoese Surrender to Venetians</i>, <a href="#Page_213">page 213.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">13</span></a> See <i>Rise of the Hanseatic League</i>, vol. vi, <a href="#Page_214">page 214.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">14</span></a> See <i>Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway</i>, <a href="#Page_243">page 243.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">15</span></a> See <i>Charles IV of Germany Publishes His Golden Bull</i>, <a href="#Page_160">page 160.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">16</span></a> See <i>The Black Death Ravages Europe</i>, <a href="#Page_130">page 130.</a></p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">17</span></a> See <i>Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages</i>, <a href="#Page_187">page 187.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">18</span></a> See <i>James van Artevelde Leads a Flemish Revolt</i>, <a href="#Page_68">page 68.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">19</span></a> See <i>Edward III of England Assumes the Title of King of France</i>, +<a href="#Page_68">page 68.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">20</span></a> See <i>Battles of Sluys and Crécy</i>, <a href="#Page_78">page 78.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">21</span></a> See <i>Insurrection of the Jacquerie in France</i>, <a href="#Page_164">page 164.</a></p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">22</span></a> See <i>Rebellion of Wat Tyler</i>, <a href="#Page_217">page 217.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">23</span></a> See <i>Turks Seize Gallipoli</i>, <a href="#Page_147">page 147.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">24</span></a> See <i>Conquests of Timur the Tartar</i>, <a href="#Page_169">page 169.</a></p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">25</span></a> See <i>Wycliffe Translates the Bible into English</i>,<a href="#Page_227"> page 227.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">26</span></a> See <i>Election of Antipope Clement VII</i>, <a href="#Page_201">page 201.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">27</span></a> See <i>Trial and Burning of John Huss</i>, <a href="#Page_294">page 294.</a></p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">28</span></a> See <i>Council of Constance</i>, <a href="#Page_284">page 284.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">29</span></a> See <i>The Hussite Wars</i>, <a href="#Page_294">page 294.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">30</span></a> See <i>The House of Hohenzollern Established in Brandenburg</i>, <a href="#Page_305">page +305.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">31</span></a> See <i>Deposition of Richard II</i>, <a href="#Page_251">page 251.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">32</span></a> See <i>Battle of Agincourt</i>, <a href="#Page_320">page 320.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">33</span></a> See <i>English Conquest of France</i>, <a href="#Page_320">page 320.</a></p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">34</span></a> See <i>Jeanne d'Arc's Victory at Orleans</i>, <a href="#Page_33">page 333.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">35</span></a> See <i>Trial and Execution of Jeanne d'Arc</i>, <a href="#Page_350">page 350.</a></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">36</span></a> See <i>Charles VII Issues his Pragmatic Sanction</i>, <a href="#Page_370">page 370.</a></p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">37</span></a> See <i>Discovery of the Canary Islands: Beginning of Negro Slave +Trade</i>, <a href="#Page_266">page 266.</a></p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">38</span></a> "I am not going to lose the men for the old women."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">39</span></a> +"The coward who the great refusal made."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">40</span></a> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The beams on the low shores now lost and dead."</span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">41</span></a> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i3">"A death-like shade—</span> +<span class="i0">Like that beneath black boughs and foliage green</span> +<span class="i0">O'er the cold stream in Alpine glens display'd."</span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">42</span></a> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"O'er all the sandy desert falling slow,</span> +<span class="i0">Were shower'd dilated flakes of fire, like snow</span> +<span class="i0">On Alpine summits, when the wind is low."</span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnote"><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">43</span></a> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"So will a greater fame redound to thee,</span> +<span class="i0">To have formed a party by thyself alone."</span> +</div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">44</span></a> Translated by Charles Leonard-Stuart.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">45</span></a> This Emperor was Albert I, son of Rudolph I.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">46</span></a> James van Artevelde was called "the Brewer of Ghent," because, +although born an aristocrat, he was enrolled in the Guild of Brewers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">47</span></a> Translated from the French by Thomas Johnes.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">48</span></a> Lord Berners' account of the advance of the Genoese is somewhat +different from this; he describes them as <i>leaping</i> forward with a <i>fell</i> cry. +The whole passage is so spirited and graphic that we give it entire:</p> + +<p>"Whan the genowayes were assembled toguyder and beganne to +aproche, they made a great leape and crye to abasshe thenglysshmen, +but they stode styll and styredde nat for all that. Than the genowayes +agayne the seconde tyme made another leape and a fell crye and stepped +forwarde a lytell, and thenglysshmen remeued nat one fote; thirdly +agayne they leapt and cryed, and went forthe tyll they came within +shotte; than they shotte feersly with their crosbowes. Than thenglysshe +archers stept forthe one pase and lette fly their arowes so hotly and so +thycke that it semed snowe. Whan the genowayes felte the arowes persynge +through heedes, armes, and brestes, many of them cast downe +their crosbowes and did cutte their strynges and retourned dysconfited. +Whan the frenche kynge sawe them flye away, he said, Slee these rascals, +for they shall lette and trouble us without reason; than you shoulde +haue sene the men of armes dasshe in among them and kylled a great +nombre of them; and euerstyll the englysshmen shot where as they sawe +thyckest preace, the sharpe arowes ranne into the men of armes and into +their horses, and many fell horse and men amonge the genowayes, and +whan they were downe they coude nat relyne agayne; the preace was so +thycke that one ouerthrewe a nother. And also amonge the englysshemen +there were certayne rascalles that went a fote with great knyues, and +they went in among the men of armes and slewe and murdredde many as +they lay on the grounde, both erles, barownes, knyghts, and squyers, +whereof the kyng of Englande was after dyspleased, for he had rather +they had been taken prisoners."</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">49</span></a> His blindness was supposed to be caused by poison, which was given +to him when engaged in the wars of Italy.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">50</span></a> The following is Lord Berners' version of this narration: "In the +mornyng the day of the batayle certayne frenchemen and almaygnes perforce +opyned the archers of the princes batayle, and came and fought +with the men at armes hande to hande. Than the second batayle of +thenglyshe men came to socour the prince's batayle, the whiche was +tyme, for they had as than moche ado, and they with the prince sent a +messangar to the kynge who was on a lytell wyndmill hill. Than the +knyght sayd to the kyng, Sir therle of Warwyke and therle of Cafort +[Stafford] Sir Reynolde Cobham and other such as be about the prince +your sonne are feersly fought with all, and are sore handled, wherefore +they desire you that you and your batayle woll come and ayde them, for +if the frenchemen encrease as they dout they woll your sonne and they +shall have moche a do. Than the kynge sayde, is my sonne deed or hurt +or on the yerthe felled? No, sir, quoth the knight, but he is hardely +matched wherfore he hath nede of your ayde. Well sayde the kyng, retourne +to hym and to them that sent you hyther, and say to them that +they sende no more to me for any adventure that falleth as long as my +sonne is alyve; and also say to them that they suffer hym this day to +wynne his spurres, for if God be pleased, I woll this iourney be his and +the honoure therof and to them that be aboute hym. Than the knyght +retourned agayn to them and shewed the kynges wordes, the which greatly +encouraged them, and repoyned in that they had sende to the kynge as they +dyd."</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">51</span></a> Translated from the German by B. G. Babington.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">52</span></a> Thucydides, in his account of the earlier plague in Athens, <span class="smcap">B.C.</span> 430, +says, "It was supposed that the Peloponnesians had poisoned the cisterns."</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">53</span></a> Translated from the French by Charles Leonard-Stuart.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">54</span></a> Osman is the real Turkish name, which has been corrupted into Othman. +The descendants of his subjects style themselves Osmanlis—corrupted +into Ottoman.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">55</span></a> Edebali, a Mussulman prophet and saint, whose daughter Osman +married.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">56</span></a> A criminal tribunal, of which Steno himself was president.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">57</span></a> "Jacques Bonhomme." Froissart takes this for the name of an individual, +but it is the common nickname—like "Hodge" or "Giles"—of +the French peasantry. It is said that the term was applied by the +lords of the manor to their villeins or serfs, in derision of their awkwardness +and patient endurance of their lot. The "King who came from +Clermont"—the leader of the Jacquerie—was William Karl or Callet.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">58</span></a> A most wonderful scene. The B'hagiratha or Ganges issues from +under a very low arch at the foot of the grand snow-bed. The illiterate +mountaineers compare the pendent icicles to Mahodeva's hair. Hindoos +of research may formerly have been here; and if so, one cannot think of +any place to which they might more aptly give the name of a cow's mouth +than to this extraordinary <i>débouché</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">59</span></a> Translated from the German by B. G. Babington.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">60</span></a> "Chorus Sancti Viti, or St. Vitus' dance; the lascivious dance, Paracelsus +calls it, because they that are taken with it can do nothing but +dance till they be dead or cured. It is so called for that the parties so +troubled were wont to go to St. Vitus for help; and, after they had +danced there awhile, they were certainly freed. 'Tis strange to hear +how long they will dance, and in what manner, over stools, forms, and +tables. One in red clothes they cannot abide. Musick above all things +they love; and therefore magistrates in Germany will hire musicians to +play to them, and some lusty, sturdy companions to dance with them. +This disease hath been very common in Germany, as appears by those +relations of Schenkius, and Paracelsus in his book of madness, who +brags how many several persons he hath cured of it. Felix Platerus (<i>de +Mentis Alienat.</i> cap. 3) reports of a woman in Basel whom he saw, that +danced a whole month together. The Arabians call it a kind of palsie. +Bodine, in his fifth book, speaks of this infirmity; Monavius, in his +last epistle to Scoltizius, and in another to Dudithus, where you may +read more of it."—<i>Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">61</span></a> The Bishop Theodoret of Cyrus in Syria states that, at the festival +of St. John, large fires were annually kindled in several towns, through +which men, women, and children jumped; and that young children were +carried through by their mothers. He considered this custom as an ancient +Asiatic ceremony of purification, similar to that recorded of Ahaz, +in II Kings, xvi. 3. Zonaras, Balsamon, and Photius speak of the St. +John's fires in Constantinople, and the first looks upon them as the remains +of an old Grecian custom. Even in modern times fires are still lighted +on St. John's Day in Brittany and other remote parts of Continental Europe, +through the smoke of which the cattle are driven in the belief that +they will thus be protected from contagious and other diseases, and in +these practices protective fumigation originated. That such different +nations should have had the same idea of fixing the purification by fire +on St. John's Day is a remarkable coincidence, which perhaps can be +accounted for only by its analogy to baptism.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">62</span></a> Beckmann makes many other observations on this well-known circumstance. +The priest named is the same who is still known in the +nursery tales of children as the <i>Knecht Ruprecht</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">63</span></a> <i>Dass dir Sanct Veitstanz ankomme</i> ("May you be seized with St. +Vitus' dance").</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">64</span></a> "This proceeding was, however, no invention of his, but an imitation +of a usual mode of enchantment by means of wax figures (<i>peri cunculas</i>). +The witches made a wax image of the person who was to be bewitched; +and in order to torment him, they stuck it full of pins, or melted it before +the fire. The books on magic, of the Middle Ages, are full of such things; +though the reader who may wish to obtain information on this subject +need not go so far back. Only eighty years since, the learned and celebrated +Storch, of the school of Stahl, published a treatise on witchcraft, +worthy of the fourteenth century."—<i>Treatise on the Diseases of Children.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">65</span></a> Some authorities give twenty-nine.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">66</span></a> Selden, in his <i>Table Talk</i>, says: "There was once, I am sure, a parliamentary +pope. Pope Urban was made pope in England by act of +parliament, against Pope Clement: the act is not in the <i>Book of Statutes</i>, +either because he that compiled the book would not have the name of the +Pope there, or else he would not let it appear that they meddled with any +such thing; but it is upon the rolls."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">67</span></a> A groat equalled fourpence, or eight cents.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">68</span></a> In Walsingham may be seen a long account of the death of the Archbishop, +page 250. His head was carried in triumph through the streets +on the point of a lance, and fixed on London bridge. That it might be +the better known, the hat or bonnet worn by him was nailed to the +skull.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">69</span></a> When Tresilian, one of the judges, tried the insurgents at St. Alban's, +he impanelled three juries of twelve men each. The first was ordered to +present all whom they knew to be the chiefs of the tumult, the second +gave their opinion on the presentation of the first, and the third pronounced +the verdict of guilty or not guilty. It does not appear that witnesses +were examined. The juries spoke from their personal knowledge. +Thus each convict was condemned on the oaths of thirty-six men. At +first, on account of the multitude of executions, the condemned were beheaded: +afterward they were hanged and left on the gibbet as objects of +terror; but as their bodies were removed by their friends, the King +ordered them to be hanged in chains, the first instance in which express +mention of the practice is made. According to Holinshed the executions +amounted to fifteen hundred.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">70</span></a> The readers, as might be expected, often surreptitiously copied portions +of special interest. One is reminded of the story in ancient Irish +history of a curious decision arising out of an incident of this kind nearly +a thousand years before, which seems to have influenced the history of +Christianity in Britain. St. Columb, on a visit to the aged St. Finian in +Ulster, had permission to read in the Psalter belonging to his host. But +every night while the good old saint was sleeping, the young one was +busy in the chapel writing by a miraculous light till he had completed a +copy of the whole Psalter. The owner of the Psalter, discovering this, +demanded that it should be given up, as it had been copied unlawfully +from his book; while the copyist insisted that, the materials of labor +being his, he was entitled to what he had written. The dispute was referred +to Diarmad, the King at Tara, and his decision (genuinely Irish) +was given in St. Finian's favor. "To every book," said he, "belongs its +son-book [copy], as to every cow belongs her calf." Columb complained +of the decision as unjust, and the dispute is said to have been one of the +causes of his leaving Ireland for Iona.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">71</span></a> Oliver Wendell Holmes: <i>Autocrat of the Breakfast-table.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">72</span></a> A town in Schwyz. The name means a "hermitage." St. Meinrad, +according to legend, lived there (ninth century) as a hermit. It is a celebrated +pilgrim resort.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">73</span></a> He descended from Henry III both by father and mother. But he +could not claim by the father's side, because the young Earl of March +was sprung from the Duke of Clarence, the elder brother of John of +Gaunt; nor by the mother's side, because she was sprung from Edmund +of Lancaster, a younger brother of Edward I. It was pretended that +Edmund was the elder brother, but deformed in body, and therefore set +aside with his own consent. If we may believe Hardyng, Henry on September +21st produced in council a document to prove the seniority of +Edmund over Edward, but that the contrary was shown by a number of +unanswerable authorities.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">74</span></a> Charles IV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">75</span></a> Allusion to John Ziska, leader of the Hussites, who waged a fierce +war against Wenzel and the empire.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">76</span></a> Head of the House of Hohenzollern, Burggraves of Nuremberg.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">77</span></a> This was the Dauphin, afterward Charles VII, whose brother Jean, +Duke of Burgundy, had, in 1407, procured the murder of the Duke of +Orleans.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">78</span></a> To <i>houspiller</i> is to maul, pull about, abuse, "worry like a dog"; +hence the name <i>houspilleur</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">79</span></a> The English cardinal, most powerful ecclesiastic of the time.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">80</span></a> Assistant judges.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">81</span></a> Tipstaffs, constables.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">82</span></a> The Duke of Bedford (John of Lancaster), third son of Henry IV of +England, was regent of England and France, which office he assumed +on the death of Henry V, in 1422.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">83</span></a> The memory of Jeanne d'Arc was long and shamefully traduced by +descendants of those enemies of France whom she baffled. Even Shakespeare +(<i>Henry VI</i>) is so unjust to her—refining upon the brutal calumnies +of the historians—as to grieve his most loving critics. It remained for +the opening years of the twentieth century to see the Maid canonized by +the Church which, as the agent of her country's foes, was instrumental in +her destruction.—<span class="smcap">Ed.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">84</span></a> Translated by Chauncey C. Starkweather, M.A., LL.B.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">85</span></a> The Catalan Grand Company was a formidable body of mercenary +soldiers; it arose in Sicily during the wars that followed the Sicilian Vespers.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">86</span></a> See 1291.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">87</span></a> Date uncertain.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">88</span></a> Date uncertain.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">89</span></a> A specimen of an early speaking-tube exists, connecting the room +said to have been occupied by Isabella with the old brewhouse, now a +tavern, by means of which Mortimer was wont to communicate with his +mistress. The castle stands upon a mount of 280 feet, sheer rock, and +the brewhouse is at its base. A peculiarity of the tube, bored through the +live rock, is an elbow-joint, which is a puzzle to scientists.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">90</span></a> Date uncertain.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">91</span></a> Often erroneously given as 1370, neglecting the fact that, by the old +manner of reckoning, the year began on March 25th.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">92</span></a> Date uncertain.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">93</span></a> By the French it is claimed that Jean Charlier de Gerson was the author +of <i>de Imitatione Christi</i>, usually attributed to Thomas à Kempis.</p></div> + + +<h4>END OF VOLUME VII</h4> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great Events by Famous Historians, +Volume 07, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT EVENTS, VOLUME 07 *** + +***** This file should be named 27562-h.htm or 27562-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/5/6/27562/ + +Produced by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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