diff options
Diffstat (limited to '27562.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 27562.txt | 16469 |
1 files changed, 16469 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/27562.txt b/27562.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a0e8ceb --- /dev/null +++ b/27562.txt @@ -0,0 +1,16469 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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 + + + + + + + + [Illustration: Jeanne d'Arc stands, banner in hand, during + the coronation of Charles VII before the high altar at + Rheims. + + Painting by J. E. Lenepveu.] + + + + + THE GREAT EVENTS + + BY + + FAMOUS HISTORIANS + + +------------------------------------------------------+ + | 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 | + +------------------------------------------------------+ + NON-SECTARIAN NON-PARTISAN NON-SECTIONAL + +------------------------------------------------------+ + | 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 | + +------------------------------------------------------+ + + EDITOR-IN-CHIEF + + ROSSITER JOHNSON, LL.D. + + ASSOCIATE EDITORS + + CHARLES F. HORNE, Ph.D. + + JOHN RUDD, LL.D. + + _With a staff of specialists_ + + _VOLUME VII_ + + + The National Alumni + + COPYRIGHT, 1905, + + BY THE NATIONAL ALUMNI + + + + + CONTENTS + + + VOLUME VII + + page + +_An Outline Narrative of the Great Events_, xiii + CHARLES F. HORNE + +_Dante Composes the_ Divina Commedia _(A.D. 1300-1318)_, 1 + RICHARD WILLIAM CHURCH + +_Third Estate Joins in the Government of France (A.D. + 1302)_, 17 + HENRI MARTIN + +_War of the Flemings with Philip the Fair of France + (A.D. 1302)_, 23 + EYRE EVANS CROWE + +_First Swiss Struggle for Liberty (A.D. 1308)_, 28 + F. GRENFELL BAKER + +_Battle of Bannockburn (A.D. 1314)_, 41 + ANDREW LANG + +_Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars +Burning of Grand Master Molay (A.D. 1314)_, 51 + F. C. WOODHOUSE + HENRY HART MILMAN + +_James van Artevelde Leads a Flemish Revolt +Edward III of England Assumes the Title of King of + France (A.D. 1337-1340)_, 68 + FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT + +_Battles of Sluys and Crecy (A.D. 1340-1346)_, 78 + SIR JOHN FROISSART + +_Modern Recognition of Scenic Beauty +Crowning of Petrarch at Rome (A.D. 1341)_, 93 + JACOB BURCKHARDT + +_Rienzi's Revolution in Rome (A.D. 1347)_, 104 + RICHARD LODGE + +_Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance (Fourteenth + to Sixteenth Century)_, 110 + JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS + +_The Black Death Ravages Europe (A.D. 1348)_, 130 + J. F. C. HECKER + GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO + +_First Turkish Dominion in Europe +Turks Seize Gallipoli (A.D. 1354)_, 147 + JOSEPH VON HAMMER-PURGSTALL + +_Conspiracy and Death of Marino Falieri at Venice + (A.D. 1355)_, 154 + MRS. MARGARET OLIPHANT + +_Charles IV of Germany Publishes His Golden Bull + (A.D. 1356)_, 160 + SIR ROBERT COMYN + +_Insurrection of the Jacquerie in France (A.D. 1358)_, 164 + SIR JOHN FROISSART + +_Conquests of Timur the Tartar (A.D. 1370-1405)_, 169 + EDWARD GIBBON + +_Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages (A.D. 1374)_, 187 + J. F. C. HECKER + +_Election of Antipope Clement VII +Beginning of the Great Schism (A.D. 1378)_, 201 + HENRY HART MILMAN + +_Genoese Surrender to Venetians (A.D. 1380)_, 213 + HENRY HALLAM + +_Rebellion of Wat Tyler (A.D. 1381)_, 217 + JOHN LINGARD + +_Wycliffe Translates the Bible into English (A.D. 1382)_ 227 + J. PATERSON SMYTH + +_The Swiss Win Their Independence +Battle of Sempach (A.D. 1386-1389)_ 238 + F. GRENFELL BAKER + +_Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway (A.D. 1397)_, 243 + PAUL C. SINDING + +_Deposition of Richard II +Henry IV Begins the Line of Lancaster (A.D. 1399)_, 251 + JOHN LINGARD + +_Discovery of the Canary Islands and the African Coast +Beginning of Negro Slave Trade (A.D. 1402)_, 266 + SIR ARTHUR HELPS + +_Council of Constance (A.D. 1414)_, 284 + RICHARD LODGE + +_Trial and Burning of John Huss +The Hussite Wars (A.D. 1415)_, 294 + RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH + +_The House of Hohenzollern Established in Brandenburg + (A.D. 1415)_, 305 + THOMAS CARLYLE + +_Battle of Agincourt +English Conquest of France (A.D. 1415)_, 320 + JAMES GAIRDNER + +_Jeanne d'Arc's Victory at Orleans (A.D. 1429)_, 333 + SIR EDWARD S. CREASY + +_Trial and Execution of Jeanne d'Arc (A.D. 1431)_, 350 + JULES MICHELET + +_Charles VII Issues His Pragmatic Sanction +Emancipation of the Gallican Church (A.D. 1438)_, 370 + W. HENLEY JERVIS + RENE F. ROHRBACHER + +_Universal Chronology (A.D. 1301-1438)_, 385 + JOHN RUDD + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + +VOLUME VII page + +_Jeanne d'Arc stands, banner in hand, during the +coronation of Charles VII, before the high altar +at Rheims (page 347)_, Frontispiece + Painting by J. E. Lenepveu. + +_Richard II resigns the crown of England to Henry, +Duke of Lancaster, son of John of Gaunt, at +London_, 262 + Painting by Sir John Gilbert. + + + + + AN OUTLINE NARRATIVE + + TRACING BRIEFLY THE CAUSES, CONNECTIONS, + AND CONSEQUENCES OF + THE GREAT EVENTS + + (FROM DANTE TO GUTENBERG: THE EARLIER RENAISSANCE) + + CHARLES F. HORNE + + +Fifty 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. + +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. + +In 1301 Dante was driven out of Florence, his native city-republic, by a +political strife. In this year, as he himself phrases 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 _Divina Commedia_.[1] 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +INCREASING POWER OF FRANCE + +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.[2] + +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.[3] + +Another event to be noted in this same year of 1302 took place farther +northward in King Philip's domains. The Flemish cities Ghent, Liege, 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.[4] + +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.[5] +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.[6] + +A similar tale might be told of Bannockburn, where, under Bruce, the +Scotch common folk regained their freedom from the English.[7] 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. + +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.[8] 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.[9] + + +THE PERIOD OF DISASTER + +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.[10] 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.[11] Genoa was defeated and crushed in a great +naval contest with her rival, Venice.[12] Everywhere tyrannies stood out +triumphant. The first modern age of representative government was a +failure. The cities had proved unable to protect themselves against the +selfish ambitions of their leaders. + +In Germany and the Netherlands town life had been, as we have seen, +slower of development.[13] 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.[14] + +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 formulae 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.[15] + +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.[16] 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, especially 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.[17] + +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,[18] 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. + +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.[19] + +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 from the start that +the war should be fought out in France and not in England.[20] Then, in +1346, he won his famous victory of Crecy against overwhelming numbers of +his enemies. It has been said that cannon were effectively used for the +first time at Crecy, 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. + +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 chateaux.[21] 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. + +Edward III had died, brooding over the emptiness of his 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.[22] + +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.[23] 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. + +Perhaps it was only a direct providence that saved Europe. Another +Tartar conqueror, Timur the Lame, or Tamburlaine, had risen in the Far +East.[24] 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 considerable +breathing space before the Turks once more felt able to push their +aggressions westward. + + +THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE + +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.[25] +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.[26] 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.[27] 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. + +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 in calling a grand council +at Constance.[28] 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.[29] + +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.[30] 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 +mediaeval conception of the Emperor as being at least in theory the +overlord of the whole of Europe. + + +LATTER HALF OF THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR + +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,[31] 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 Crecy and +Poitiers with a similar victory at Agincourt.[32] The French King was a +madman, and, aided by a civil war among the French nobility, Henry soon +had his neighbor's 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.[33] + +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.[34] + +Then came the sudden, wonderful arousing of the French under their +peasant heroine, Jeanne d'Arc, and her tragic capture and execution.[35] +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. + +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.[36] + +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 +mediaeval into the modern world; he did much to establish that supremacy +of kings over both nobles and people which continued in France and more +or less throughout all Europe for over three centuries to follow. + +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[37]--a grim hint that the next age with increasing power was +to face increasing responsibilities as well. + +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 type, 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. + + + + +DANTE COMPOSES THE "DIVINA COMMEDIA" + +A.D. 1300-1318 + +RICHARD WILLIAM CHURCH + + + 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 _Divina Commedia_--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. + + 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--_Inferno_ + (hell), _Purgatorio_ (purgatory), and _Paradiso_ (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 (_Inferno_) of + John Aitken Carlyle, brother of Thomas Carlyle. + + Dante (originally Durante) Alighieri was born at Florence in + May, 1265, and died at Ravenna September 14, 1321. Both the + _Divina Commedia_ and his other great work, the _Vita Nuova_ + (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. + + Church's clear-sighted interpretations of the mind and life + of Dante, and of the history-making _Commedia_, attest the + importance of including the poet and his work in this record + of Great Events. + +The _Divina Commedia_ 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 _Iliad_ and +Shakespeare's plays, with the writings of Aristotle and Plato, with the +_Novum Organon_ and the _Principia_, with Justinian's Code, with the +Parthenon and St. Peter's. It is the first Christian poem; and it opens +European literature, as the _Iliad_ did that of Greece and Rome. And, +like the _Iliad_, it has never become out of date; it accompanies in +undiminished freshness the literature which it began. + +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." + +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 _Iliad_, 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 _Divina +Commedia_, destined for the highest ends and most universal sympathy, +yet the reflection of a personal history, and issuing seemingly from its +chance incidents. + +The _Divina Commedia_ 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 _Commedia_, 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 +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. + +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 Provencals. + +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. + +Beatrice reappears--shadowy, melting at times into symbol 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." + +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. + +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. 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. + +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 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 cooperation 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. + +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 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 _Parte +Guelfa_; and, of course, the Ghibellines wished them well. + +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, "_Io non voglio perdere gli +uomini perle femminelle_."[38] 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 _setta dei cattivi_, for deeper and special +scorn--he, + + "Che fece per vilta il gran rifinto,"[39] + +the idea was derived from the Cerchi in Florence. + +Of his subsequent life, history tells us little more than the 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. + +The _Commedia_, 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" 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 _inferno_ and _purgatorio_, 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: + + "Ai raggi, morti gia' bassi lidi,"[40] + +or that image of the cold dull shadow over the torrent, beneath +the Alpine fir: + + "Un' ombra smorta + Qual sotto foglie verdi e rami nigri + Sovra suoi freddi rivi, l'Alpe porta;"[41] + +or of the large snowflakes falling without wind among the mountains: + + "d'un cader lento + Piovean di fuoco dilatate falde + Come di neve in Alpe senza vento."[42] + +Of these years, then, of disappointment and exile the _Divina Commedia_ +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 +_Vita Nuova_. 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 _envoye_ of the _Vita Nuova_ is the +promise of the _Commedia_. "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, _qui est per omnia secula benedictus_." +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. + +But the _Commedia_ 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 +_Vita Nuova_. 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 _literati_ 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 +_Commedia_. 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. + +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. + +So comprehensive in interest is the _Commedia_. Any attempt to explain +it, by narrowing that interest to politics, philosophy, the moral life, +or theology itself, must prove inadequate. Theology 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 _Convito_ 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 _Commedia_ 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. + +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 _Commedia_ 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 +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. + +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-- + + "A te fia bello + Averti fatto parte per te stesso."[43] + +Dante, by the _Divina Commedia_, 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 _Commedia_ checked it. The Provencal 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 +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 _Commedia_ 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 _Decameron_ had not been the first to occupy the ears with +the charms of a new language. + +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 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. + + + + +THIRD ESTATE JOINS IN THE GOVERNMENT +OF FRANCE + +A.D. 1302 + +HENRI MARTIN[44] + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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." + + 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. + + 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!" + + "So be it!" replied Flotte, "but your power is verbal; that + of the King, real." + + 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. + +Philip 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, 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. + +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. + +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 _role_ 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 _resume_ 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. + +"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. + +"Given in the Lateran in the month of December, etc." + +At the same time they caused to be circulated a pretended answer to the +pretended bull: + +"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." + +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. + +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 the enterprises of the +court of Rome and its wrongs toward the kingdom and the Church. + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +The states-general were dissolved immediately after the unique _seance_ +which had so well responded to the desires of the King. The means +employed to attain this result were not entirely 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. + + + + +WAR OF THE FLEMINGS WITH PHILIP THE +FAIR OF FRANCE + +A.D. 1302 + +EYRE EVANS CROWE + + + 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. + + 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. + +The 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 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. + +The French had nine battalions or divisions, their archers or light +troops being Lombards or Navarrese and Provencals. These the constable +placed foremost, to commence the fight and harass the Flemings by their +missiles. But the Count d'Artois overruled this manoeuvre, 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, 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. + +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 (_sergens de pied_) 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 _ordonnance_ of reform for +the protection of both laymen and ecclesiastics from the arbitrary +encroachments or interference of his officers. + +Having thus set his realm in order, and collected an army of seventy +thousand men at Arras, the King marched to meet the 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. + +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 Compiegne, where he soon after +died. + +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 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 reenforcements 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." + +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 Bethune, +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. + + + + +FIRST SWISS STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY + +A.D. 1308 + +F. GRENFELL BAKER + + + 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. + + 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 cooperation. 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. + + 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. + +There 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. 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 _White Book of Sarnen_, as this +collection is called, an anonymous poet composed a _Song of the Origin +of the Confederation_, 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. + +"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." + +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, tradition asserts, there +formed the league against Austrian rule, or heard the solemn oath they +and their leaders, Stauffacher, Fuerst, and Arnold, mutually swore. + +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 _Withina Saga_, 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 _role_ 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." + +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, _Clym of the Clough_, and William of Claudeslie in the _Percy +Ballads_, 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. + +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[45] attention was too fully occupied +conducting a war against the Bishop of Basel to 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. + +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 a monk, he managed for many years to +hide his identity, and, after wandering in Tuscany unsuspected, +eventually died in a monastery at Pisa. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN + +A.D. 1314 + +ANDREW LANG + + + 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." + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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 met in battle at + Bannockburn, June 24, 1314, an action which has never been + better described than in this characteristic recital by + Professor Lang. + +Bannockburn, 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. + +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 _Rotuli Scotiae_ 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 _Hiberniae +Magnates, Anglico genere ortos_, 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. + + "Then all that worthy were to fight + Of Scotland, set all hale their might;" + +while Barbour makes Edward assemble not only + + "His own chivalry + That was so great it was ferly," + +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 +_animalia_, perhaps lions. Thus the English advanced from Berwick, + + "Banners rightly fairly flaming, + And pencels to the wind waving." + +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 _fesse +chequy_ 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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + + "They thought to die in the melee, + Or else to set their country free." + +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. + +Meanwhile Philip de Mowbray, who commanded in Stirling, 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. + +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. + + "Sic mirkness + In the air above them was" + +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. + +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. + + "He thought that he should dwell lightly, + Win him, and have him at his will." + +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 + + "The King has answer made them none, + But turned upon the axe-shaft, wha + Was with the stroke broken in twa." + +"_Initium malorum hoc_" ("This was the beginning of evil"), says the +English chronicler. + +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 the English rested on a marshy plain +"_outre_-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. + +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-- + + "Then prick we on them hardily." + +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. + +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 "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. + +"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, 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. + +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. + +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 _Rotuli Scotiae_, 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. + +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, Crecy, 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. + + + + +EXTINCTION OF THE ORDER OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS + +BURNING OF GRAND MASTER MOLAY + +A.D. 1314 + +F. C. WOODHOUSE H. H. MILMAN + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + +F. C. WOODHOUSE + +The 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 against them. Then the usual +mediaeval 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +Everywhere else the monstrous charges were declared to be unproved, and +the order was declared innocent of heresy and sacrilegious rites. + +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 of the Crown as completely as if they had +been actually confiscated. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 mediaeval 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. + +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. + +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 Walter Scott depicts in his imaginary Templar, Brian de +Bois Guilbert, in his novel, _Ivanhoe_, we might well believe that some +at least of the accusations against them were true. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +The witnesses who were summoned were not members of the order, and had +only hearsay evidence to give. They had _heard_ this and that report, +they _suspected_ something else, they had been _told_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + +HENRY HART MILMAN + +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 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. + +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." + +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. + +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, which, +if part of it, would be fatal to its credibility, _i.e._, 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. + + + + +JAMES VAN ARTEVELDE LEADS A +FLEMISH REVOLT + +EDWARD III OF ENGLAND ASSUMES THE +TITLE OF KING OF FRANCE + +A.D. 1337-1340 + +FRANCOIS P. G. GUIZOT + + + 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 + Bethune. But Philip continually violated the treaty he had + made, and just before his death (1314) he again began + hostilities against Flanders. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + +The 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 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. + +"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.' + +"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 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. + +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. + +James van Artevelde, on returning to his country, had been busy with his +manufactures,[46] 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, reestablished the offices of captains of parishes according to +olden usage, when the city was exposed to any pressing danger. + +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 Male, 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: + +"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. + +"_Item_, 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)." + +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." + +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." + +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 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 +Male. + +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. + +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. + +"And know that each of these hirelings had _per diem_ 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 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. + +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." + +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 cooperation, 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 there +should be elected, in each county, two knights taken from among the best +landowners of their counties." + +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. + +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." + +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 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." + +"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." + +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. + +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 Louis was on +his way to rejoin Philip at St. Quentin, Artevelde with the deputies +from the Flemish communes started for Brussels. + +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 Bethune, 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.'" + +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. + + + + +BATTLES OF SLUYS AND CRECY + +A.D. 1340-1346 + +SIR JOHN FROISSART[47] + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + A more important victory was that won in the land battle at + Crecy 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, 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. + + 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 Godemar du Fay, they effected a crossing, and, + marching on, encamped in the fields near Crecy. The King of + France with the main body of his troops had taken up his + quarters in Abbeville. + + +BATTLE OF SLUYS + +When 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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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'Eveque, the Hainaulters were as much rejoiced +as their enemies were dismayed. + +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. + + +BATTLE OF CRECY + +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 Crecy 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, +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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, 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 Crecy were covered +with common 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. + +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 Alencon, 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[48] in order to +frighten them, but they remained 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. + +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. + +The English continued shooting as vigorously and quickly as before; some +of their arrows fell among the horsemen, who 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,[49] 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. + +The Earl of Alencon 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 +banners 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 Crecy, 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. + +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." + +The King replied, "Is my son dead, unhorsed, or so badly wounded that he +cannot support himself?" + +"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, 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.[50] + +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 Alencon 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, 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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +MODERN RECOGNITION OF SCENIC BEAUTY + +CROWNING OF PETRARCH AT ROME + +A.D. 1341 + +JACOB BURCKHARDT + + + The beauty of nature, of natural scenery amid mountains, + fields, and lakes, seems to have passed unheeded during + early mediaeval 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. + + 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. + + 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. + +Petrarch, 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 +handbooks. Petrarch himself trusted and hoped that his Latin 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. + +It was the same with Boccaccio. For two centuries, when but little was +known of the _Decameron_ 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, _de Genealogia Deorum_, 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 _poesia_, 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. + +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 (_fere_) 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +_laurea Pisana_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _Hymn to the Sun_, frankly praises the Lord +for creating the heavenly bodies and the four elements. + +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, _with_ 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. + +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 _Ansichten der Natur_, 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. + +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 _Africa_, 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. + +The ascent of a mountain for its own sake was unheard of, and there +could be no thought of the companionship of friends 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 _Confessions_ 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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +On this point, as in the scientific description of nature, AEneas 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. + +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 _Commentaries_ he freely tells us of his happiness. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _segnatura_, which took place on certain days of the +week, he selected on each occasion some new shady retreat "_novas in +convallibus fontes et novas inveniens umbras, quae dubiam jacerent +electionem_." At such times 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +We sometimes find the feeling of the poets, also, attaching itself with +tenderness to graceful scenes of country life. Tito 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. + +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. + + + + +RIENZI'S REVOLUTION IN ROME + +A.D. 1347 + +R. LODGE + + + 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. + + 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. + + "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 Caesarean 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." + +Cola 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 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. + +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. + +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 _buono stato_. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The execution of the _condottiere_, 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 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. + +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. + + + + +BEGINNING AND PROGRESS OF THE RENAISSANCE + +FOURTEENTH TO SIXTEENTH CENTURY + +JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS + + + 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. + + 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 mediaeval 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. + + 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. + +The 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 +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. + +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? + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _milieu_ 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. + +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 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 mediaeval 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. + +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. In Italy and Germany +numerous principalities sprang into preeminence; 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, "_L'etat c'est moi_." 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, "_L'Eglise c'est moi_." This merging of the mediaeval +state and mediaeval 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. + +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 Phoebus and the Graces were +ready to resume their sway. We have, moreover, to remember the Cathari, +the Paterini, the Fraticelli, the Albigenses, the Hussites--heretics in +whom the new light dimly shone, but who were instantly exterminated by +the Church. + +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 zoophytic 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. + +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. + +In Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio Italy recovered the consciousness 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. + +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 +mediaevalism, 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. + +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 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: + + "A footfall there + Suffices to upturn to the warm air + Half-germinating spices, mere decay + Produces richer life, and day by day + New pollen on the lily-petal grows, + And still more labyrinthine buds the rose." + +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 mediaeval 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _cortege_ of planets, and scattered--how, we +know not--through infinity. What has become of that 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _un bel corpo ignudo_ 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. + +Thus art, which had begun by humanizing the legends of the Church, +diverted the attention of its students from the 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. + +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 mediaeval 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 _Litterae Humaniores_ ("the more human +literature"), the literature that humanizes. + +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 amphorae of inspiration. + +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 _demi-monde_ 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 +"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 _mythus_ +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. + +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 _thesauri_ 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 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. + +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 +_Adagia_ 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 mediaeval +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 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. + +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. + +The Reformation, like the revival of science and of culture, had its +mediaeval 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 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. + +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 +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. + +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, 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. + +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 mediaeval 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. + + + + +THE BLACK DEATH RAVAGES EUROPE + +A.D. 1348 + +J. F. C. HECKER[51] GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO + + + 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. + + 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. + + It is called _bubonic_--from the Greek _boubon_ + ("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. + + The first historic appearance of the black death in Europe + was at Constantinople, A.D. 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. + + 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 _la mortalega + grande_ ("the great mortality"). 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. + + +J. F. C. HECKER + +The 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _foci_ of infection; +whence it radiated to the most distant seaports and islands. + +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. _Foci_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 Caesarea, 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, 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. + +Luebeck, 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. + +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 Hotel-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. + +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. + +In Vienna, where for some time twelve hundred inhabitants died daily, +the interment of corpses in the church-yards and within the churches was +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. + +In all Germany there seem to have died only one million 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +In Russia the black plague did not break out until 1351, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 _Devoti_. "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." + +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. + +The processions of the Brotherhood of the Cross undoubtedly promoted the +spreading of the plague; and it is evident that the gloomy fanaticism +which gave rise to them would infuse a new poison into the already +desponding minds of the people. + +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[52] or infected the air, and were +pursued with merciless cruelty. + +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. + +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. + +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; 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + + +GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO + +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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + + + +FIRST TURKISH DOMINION IN EUROPE + +TURKS SEIZE GALLIPOLI + +A.D. 1354 + +JOSEPH VON HAMMER-PURGSTALL[53] + + + 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,[54] 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 Nicaea--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. + + 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 Palaeologus was striving to deprive the emperor + Cantacuzenus of his throne. + + 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. + +On 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 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. + +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 aerolite, 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. + +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 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,[55] +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. + +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. + +In the mean while Cantacuzenus, unable to resist any longer the forces +assembled against him by his young rival, John Palaeologus, 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 +disembarked near Ainos, at the _embouchure_ of Maritza (Hebrus), +defeated the auxiliary troops which John Palaeologus had drawn from +Moesia and from the Triballiens, ravaged Bulgaria, and repassed into +Asia, loaded with spoil. + +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. + +Gallipoli, the key of the Hellespont, the commercial _entrepot_ 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 by so +many disasters, penetrated into the deserted towns and established +themselves. + +On the news of these conquests Suleiman, who then was at Bigha (Pegae), +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). + +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. + +Orkhan now found himself in one of the happiest of political situations. +The division of sovereign authority between Cantacuzenus and his pupil +John Palaeologus, 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 Palaeeologus, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + + + + +CONSPIRACY AND DEATH OF MARINO +FALIERI AT VENICE + +A.D. 1355 + +MRS. MARGARET OLIPHANT + + + 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." + + 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. + + The fate of this old man has been made the subject of + tragedies by Byron (1820), Casimir Delavigne (1829), and + Swinburne (1885). The novel, _Doge und Dogaressa_, 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. + +Marino 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 _proveditore_, 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. + +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 _podesta_ ("chief magistrate"), he +astonished the tardy prelate by a box on the ear when he finally +appeared, a punishment for keeping the authorities waiting. + +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. + +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,[56] 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. + +The Doge took this light punishment greatly amiss, considering it, +indeed, as a further insult. + +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 +_Alcuni zovanelli fioli de gentiluomini di Venetia_ are supposed to have +affronted the Doge, no such story 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 _senza parentado_, with few +relations, and flouted by the _giovinastri_, the dissolute young +gentlemen who swaggered about the Broglio in their finery, strong in the +support of fathers and uncles. + +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. + +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 _promissione_, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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, and was +beheaded at the head of the stairs where he had sworn the promissione on +first assuming the office of doge. + +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 _atrio_ 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. + +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 _senza parentado_--without any backing of relationship or +allies--_i.e._, 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. + +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 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, _non abbiando alcum +propinquo_, that they agree in attributing it to diabolical inspiration. + +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. + + + + +CHARLES IV OF GERMANY PUBLISHES +HIS GOLDEN BULL + +A.D. 1356 + +SIR ROBERT COMYN + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + +After 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 forbids +them to admit any stranger into the city during the election. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +A yearly assembly of the electors, in one of the imperial cities, is +enjoined. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Frankfort is again declared as the place of election; Aix-la-Chapelle, +of coronation; and Nuremberg, for holding the first royal court. + +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. + +Lastly, the secular electors are enjoined to instruct their sons in the +Latin, Italian, and Slavonic tongues. + +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. + + + + +INSURRECTION OF THE JACQUERIE IN FRANCE + +A.D. 1358 + +SIR JOHN FROISSART + + + 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. + + 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 Etienne 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." + + 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 + regards 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. + + 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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."[57] + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 reenforce 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. + +They were most cheerfully received, on their arrival at Meaux, by the +ladies and damsels; for these Jacks and peasants of 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +CONQUESTS OF TIMUR THE TARTAR + +A.D. 1370-1405 + +EDWARD GIBBON + + + 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 _Decline and Fall_, 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. + + 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, Caesar or Attila, Genghis Khan, + Charlemagne, or Napoleon. + + It was believed in the family and empire of Timur that he + himself composed the _Commentaries_ of his life and the + _Institutions_ 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. + +At 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 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. + +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. + +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 +_coul_, 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. + +Bagdad was no longer the city of peace, the seat of the caliphs; but the +noblest conquest of Khulagu could not be overlooked 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 _gazie_, or holy war; and +the Prince of Tiflis became his proselyte and friend. + +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. + +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 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 _Institutions_--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. + +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. + +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 +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 _subahs_ 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. + +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. + +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 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,[58] that +_seems_ 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. + +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 to the +tribute or the _Koran_; 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. + +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. + +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 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 reechoed 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. + +I shall not dwell on the march of the destroyer from Aleppo to Damascus, +where he was rudely encountered, and almost 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. + +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. + +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 discriminate the janizaries, who have been +gradually raised to an establishment of forty thousand men; a national +cavalry (the _spahis_ 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. + +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 Caesarea, +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. + +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; 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 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. + +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. + +"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; 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." + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +Timur might boast that at his accession to the throne Asia was the prey +of anarchy and rapine, while under his prosperous 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 +_Institutions_ of Timur as the 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. + + + + +DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES + +A.D. 1374 + +J. F. C. Hecker[59] + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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 _tarantism_, 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. + + 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 _tigretier_, from the Tigre 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 _tarantati_. 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. + + An epidemic of _chorea sancti Viti_, 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 + mediaeval Europe. + +So 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. + +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 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. + +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 Liege, 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 Liege 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 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. + +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, 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. + +Strasburg was visited by the dancing plague, or St. Vitus' dance,[60] in +the year 1418, and the same infatuation existed among 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, near 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 the Roman faith among the +Germans, and St. Vitus was soon ranked among the fourteen saintly +helpers (_Nothhelfer_ or _Apotheker_). 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. + +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 _Nodfyr_, 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 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,[61] 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. + +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, A.D. 1374, gave rise to +this mental plague, which thenceforth has visited so many thousands with +incurable aberration of mind and disgusting distortions of body. + +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 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, A.D. +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. + +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 +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.[62] 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. + +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 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.[63] 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 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. + +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." + +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. + +Paracelsus divides the St. Vitus' dance into three kinds: First, that +which arises from imagination (_Vitista_, _chorea imaginativa_, +_aestimativa_), by which the original dancing plague is to be understood; +secondly, that which arises from sensual desires, depending on the will +(_chorea lasciva_); thirdly, that which arises from corporeal causes +(_chorea naturalis_, _coacta_), 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 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. + +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 +remain.[64] 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. + +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. + + + + +ELECTION OF ANTIPOPE CLEMENT VII + +Beginning of the Great Schism + +A.D. 1378 + +HENRY HART MILMAN + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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, 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. + +Gregory 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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, manoeuvres, 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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, Glandeve, and Luna, to their own strong +fortresses. + +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. _Te Deum_ 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 to 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 to St. Angelo. The prefect of the city, De Vico, +Lord of Viterbo, had been won over by the Cardinal of Amiens. + +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.[65] 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. + +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 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. + +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;[66] 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. + + + + +GENOESE SURRENDER TO VENETIANS + +A.D. 1380 + +HENRY HALLAM + + + 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. + + 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 AEgean Sea, of which the Venetians + had taken possession. + + 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. + +Genoa 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. + +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 reenforcement, rode +before the long natural ramparts that separate 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. + +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. + +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." + +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 +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. + +The new fleet was so ill-provided with seamen that for some months the +admiral employed them only in manoeuvring 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 +_cocche_, 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. + +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. + +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 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 reenforcement of eighteen galleys and a store +of provisions. + +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. + +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. + + + + +REBELLION OF WAT TYLER + +A.D. 1381 + +JOHN LINGARD + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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[67] 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. + +At 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 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. + +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 _Domesday Book_ 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. 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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: + + "When Adam delved and Eve span, + Who was then the gentleman?" + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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.[68] 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. + +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 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. + +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 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.[69] + +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 commission 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. + + + + +WYCLIFFE TRANSLATES THE BIBLE INTO +ENGLISH + +A.D. 1382 + +J. PATERSON SMYTH + + + 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. + + 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 + (_Dyalogues_, 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. + + 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. + + 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 name first in this partnership, + though the product of their joint labors is known as + "Wycliffe's Bible." + + 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. + +After 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +"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!" + +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? + +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 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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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." + +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. + +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. + + "For Criste's lore and his apostles twelve + He taughte--and first he folwede it himselve." + +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." + +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." + +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. + +"A simpel creature," he says, "hath translated the Scripture out of +Latin into Englische. First, this simpel creature had 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." + +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; _e.g._, "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. + +Here is a specimen from Wycliffe's Gospels: + + 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 locustis 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 to read it for a +certain period one hour a day,[70] 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 _Book of Martyrs_, "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." + +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. + +"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! + +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,[71] "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 larvae, +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. + +"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." + + + + +THE SWISS WIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE + +BATTLE OF SEMPACH + +A.D. 1386-1389 + +F. Grenfell Baker + + + 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. + + 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. + + This war is known in Swiss chronicles as the _Guglerkrieg_, + 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. + + 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. + +Austria'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,[72] but in 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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 political power of the +Hapsburgs came to an end in Switzerland. + +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. + +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. + + + + +UNION OF DENMARK, SWEDEN, AND NORWAY + +A.D. 1397 + +PAUL C. SINDING + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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." + +Waldemar 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, 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. + +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 Palaeologus, who called her _Regina +sine exemplo maxima_. 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 wheel, and +publicly burned at a place between Falsterbo and Skanor, in Sweden, and +Margaret continued uninterruptedly her regency. + +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" (_abbedfrillen_), 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. + +While this was passing, the Queen tarried in Wordingborg Sjelland, +ardently desiring to learn the result. But no sooner did 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. + +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 time, Margaret +became undisputed sovereign of Sweden, the third Scandinavian kingdom. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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 _Te Deum_ was sung in the +churches of Calmar, the assembly crying out: "_Haecce unio esto perpetua! +Longe, longe, longe, vivat Margarethe, regina Daniae, Norvegiae et +Sveciae!_" + +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. + +Although Eric of Pomerania was elected king, and in 1407 passed his +minority, Margaret continued governing until the day 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. + +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. + +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 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. + + + + +DEPOSITION OF RICHARD II + +HENRY IV BEGINS THE LINE OF LANCASTER + +A.D. 1399 + +JOHN LINGARD + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + In Shakespeare's _Richard II_--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. + +Richard 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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +The Duke of York, to whom the King had intrusted the government during +his absence, was accurately informed of his 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 reenforcement 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 tauntingly: "Fair +cousin, be not angry. If it please God, things shall go well." + +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. + +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 his oath on the +host; and, "like Judas," says the writer, "perjured himself on the body +of our Lord." + +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." + +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, 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." + +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. + +"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, and amid the flourish of trumpets and shouts of +triumph followed the Duke into Chester. + +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. + +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 council of your realm has thought proper to place a guard about +you." + + [Illustration: Richard II resigns the crown of England to + Henry, Duke of Lancaster, son of John of Gaunt, at London. + + Painting by Sir John Gilbert.] + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +In these extraordinary terms did Lancaster advance his pretensions, +artfully intermixing an undefined claim of inheritance[73] 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 realm; except those persons that have been against the +good purpose and the common profit of the realm." + +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. + + + + +DISCOVERY OF THE CANARY ISLANDS +AND THE AFRICAN COAST + +BEGINNING OF NEGRO SLAVE TRADE + +A.D. 1402 + +SIR ARTHUR HELPS + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + +Petrarch 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; 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. + +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 Bethencourt, a great Norman baron, lord of St. +Martin le Gaillard in the County of Eu, of Bethencourt, 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 +Bethencourt, 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 +Bethencourt 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. Bethencourt, 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. + +On the occasion of quitting his colony in A.D. 1405, he called all his +vassals together, and represented to them that he had named for his +lieutenant and governor Maciot de Bethencourt, 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. + +Maciot de Bethencourt 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. + +Thus ended the enterprise of Juan de Bethencourt, 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 Bethencourt'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. + +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. 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 _Imago Mundi_. + +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. It belonged, therefore, to great men and princes, +and among such he knew of no one but himself who was inclined to it. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 Goncalvez Zarco and +Tristam Vaz, whom he ordered to proceed down the Barbary coast on a +voyage of discovery. + +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 Goncalvez 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." + +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 Goncalvez +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 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. + +We come now to the year 1419. Perestrelo, for some unknown cause, +returned to Portugal at that time. After his departure, Joham Goncalvez +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. + +Joham Goncalvez 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. + +While these things were occurring at Madeira and at Porto 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 _bojador_--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. + +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 had introduced +were now dispossessing them of the island." + +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. + +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 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." + +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." + +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 Goncalvez, 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. Goncalvez resolved +to signalize his voyage by a feat that should gratify his master more +than the 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." Nuno Tristam, another of Prince Henry's captains, afterward +falling in with Goncalvez, a further capture of Moors was made, and +Goncalvez returned to Portugal with his spoil. + +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." + +In 1442 the Moors whom Antonio Goncalvez 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 Goncalvez to set sail immediately, "insisting as the foundation +of the matter, that if Goncalvez 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." Goncalvez 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. + +I am not ignorant that there are reasons for alleging that negroes had +before this era been seized and carried to Seville. The _Ecclesiastical +and Secular Annals_ 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 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 _mayoral_ 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." + +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 Bethencourt'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. + +Returning to the course of Portuguese affairs, a historian of that +nation informs us that the gold obtained by Goncalvez "awakened, as it +always does, covetousness"; and there is no doubt that it proved an +important stimulus to further discovery. The next year Nuno Tristam went +farther down the African coast; and, off Adeget, one of the Arguim +Islands, captured eighty natives, whom he brought to Portugal. These, +however, were not negroes, but Azeneghis. + +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." + +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 Lancarote, 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 Lancarote, 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 _Chronicle_, before referred to, +of Azurara. The merciful chronicler is smitten to the heart at the +sorrow he witnesses, but still believes it to be for good, and that he +must not let his mere earthly commiseration get the better of his piety. + +"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. + +"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, 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! + +"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." + +The good Azurara wished that these captives might have 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. + +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. + +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 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." + +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. + +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 Lancarote. The object seems to +have been, from a speech that is recorded of Lancarote'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, Lancarote 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 Portugal, Prince Henry +had them clothed and afterward set at liberty in the place from which +they had been taken. + +This expedition under Lancarote 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE + +A.D. 1414 + +RICHARD LODGE + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + +The 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 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. + +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. + +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 mediaeval 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 mediaeval 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 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 mediaeval empire. + +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. + +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 an example of that restoration of order which he wished +Sigismund to effect throughout his dominions. + +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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 mediaeval 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. + +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. + +The Archbishop of Mainz had renewed his intrigues, and an 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. + +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. + +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, and that afterward a +council should be regularly held every ten years. + +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. + +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. + +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 reenter 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. + + + + +TRIAL AND BURNING OF JOHN HUSS + +THE HUSSITE WARS + +A.D. 1415 + +RICHARD CHENEVIX TRENCH + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + +If 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 +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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; for the words--I quote the more +important of them in the original Latin--are as follows: "_ut ei +transire, stare, morari, redire permittatis_." 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. + +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. + +But there were charges against him with more in them of 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. + +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. + +Some may wonder that he, a reformer, should have been so treated by a +council, itself also reforming, and with a man like Gerson--_Doctor +Christianissimus_ 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. + +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, 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. + +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 a peace, turning the tables, and +wasting with fire and sword all neighboring German lands. + +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 (_calix_), and thus communion under +both kinds (_sub utraque_), 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + + +THE HOUSE OF HOHENZOLLERN ESTABLISHED +IN BRANDENBURG + +A.D. 1415 + +THOMAS CARLYLE + + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + +Karl[74] 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. + +Wenzel, the eldest son, heritable Kurfuerst of Brandenburg 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. + +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. + +He ended by apoplexy, or sudden spasm of the heart; terrible Ziska,[75] +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. 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. + +The real Kurfuerst 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 +Maehren or some other in his place there. Sigismund was to have married a +daughter of Burggraf Friedrich V;[76] 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 Maehren; +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. + +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? + +The towns suffered much; any trade they might have had, going to wreck +in this manner. Not to speak of private feuds, which abounded _ad +libitum_. 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. + +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 gave no part of it to Jobst; +had not nearly enough for himself and his Hungarian occasions. + +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. + +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. + +Who now is Kurfuerst 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 Kurfuersts did not think of Jobst for successor. After some +stumbling, they fixed upon Rupert Kur-Pfalz (Elector Palatine, Ruprecht +von der Pfalz) as Kaiser. + +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 (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. + +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 +Winterkoenig, 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-Zweibrueck (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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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." + +"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 (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." + +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! + +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. + +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, _date operam ut illa nefanda schisma eradicetur_," 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, "_Domine, schisma est generis neutrius_ (schisma is neuter, +your Majesty)," Sigismund loftily replies: "_Ego sum Rex Romanus et +super grammaticam_ (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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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, _zierlich_, on the Kurfuerst'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. + +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. + +But so, at any rate, moribund Brandenburg has got its Hohenzollern +Kurfuerst, and started on a new career it little dreamt of; and we can +now, right willingly, quit Sigismund and the 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 Luebeck 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? + +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 Boehmen"; 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. + +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 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. + +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, Thueringen 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 Thueringen, 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! + +Equipped in this way, Burggraf Friedrich (he was not yet Kurfuerst, 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 Kurfuerst 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. + +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 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. + + + + +BATTLE OF AGINCOURT + +ENGLISH CONQUEST OF FRANCE + +A.D. 1415-1420 + +JAMES GAIRDNER + + + 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 _Henry IV_, + contributed--as full of wild and dissolute conduct, but as + king he was distinguished for his courage, ability, and + enterprise. + + 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. + + 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. + +The 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 Crecy. 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. + +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. + +Heavy rain fell during the night, from which both armies suffered; but +Henry availed himself of a brief period of moonlight 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 Chatel, who carried him to the Bastille. The +Bastille, however, was a few days after stormed by the populace, and Du +Chatel 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. + +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." + +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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +Chatel, 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. + +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. + +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 of this incident, Henry saved +him from the capital punishment which he would otherwise have incurred +on his capture. + +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 moved 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. + +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 Beauge 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. + +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 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. + +By this agreement, however, Henry obtained real assistance and +cooperation 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. + +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 reenforcements 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 Charte on +the Loire, proceeded to lay siege to Cosne, 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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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 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. + + + + +JEANNE D'ARC'S VICTORY AT ORLEANS + +A.D. 1429 + +Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy + + + 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. + + 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."[77] Anarchy and brigandage everywhere prevailed, + and the condition of the peasantry was too wretched to be + described. + + "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 _La Pucelle_ ("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. + +Orleans 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 reducing several places of inferior consequence in the +neighborhood, appeared with his army before its walls on the 12th of +October, 1428. + +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 _tete-du-pont_, defended the bridge head on the +southern side, and two towers, called the _Tourelles_, were built on the +bridge itself, at a little distance from the tete-du-pont. Indeed, the +solid masonry of the bridge terminated at the Tourelles; and the +communication thence with the tete-du-pont and the southern shore was by +means of a drawbridge. The Tourelles and the tete-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. + +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. + +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 _men_, 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. + +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 _bastilles_, 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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 Neufchateau. 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. + +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 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. + +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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +"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." + +His features may probably have been seen by her previously 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. + +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. + +France in that age was a profoundly religious country. There was +ignorance, there was superstition, there was bigotry; but there was +_faith_--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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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 _fleurs-de-lis_, +and on it were the words + + "JHESUS MARIA," + +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. + +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 manoeuvres of the troops, leaving these +things to Dunois and others whom she had the discernment to recognize as +the best officers in the camp. + +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 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. + +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." + +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." + +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 _Te Deum_ +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +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 reenforcements 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. + +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 reenforcements 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. + +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. + +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 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 reenforce 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. + +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 tete-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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"They did so," says the old chronicler of the siege, "for they obeyed +her marvellously." + +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. + +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 tete-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 resistance. Three hundred of them had been killed +in the battle and two hundred were made prisoners. + +The broken arch was speedily repaired by the exulting Orleannais, and +Jeanne made her triumphal reentry 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. + +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. + +"In the name of God," she said, "let them depart, and let us return +thanks to God." + +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. + +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 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: + +"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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + + + + +TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF JEANNE D'ARC + +A.D. 1431 + +Jules Michelet + + + 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. + + The Maid took part in the capture of Laon, Soissons, + Compiegne, and other places, and, in the attack on Paris, + September, 1429, which she prematurely urged, was severely + wounded. In a sally from Compiegne, 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + 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. + +In 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." + +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." + +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." + +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 replied "that she was not empowered to say when she could quit it." + +"But if you should be deprived of the privilege of hearing mass?" + +"Well, our Lord can grant me to hear it without you." + +"Will you put on a woman's dress, in order to receive your Saviour at +Easter?" + +"No; I cannot quit this dress; it matters not to me in what dress I +receive my Saviour." + +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 _long gown_." + +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 _houspilleurs_;[78] 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? + +Besides being kept under the eyes of these wretches, and exposed to +their insults and mockery, she was subjected to espial from without. +Winchester,[79] 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. + +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. + +The deplorable state of the prisoner's health was aggravated by her +being deprived of the consolations of religion during 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. + +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. + +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." + +"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?" + +"Yes, certainly, our Lord served." + +"Do your voices forbid your submitting to the Church militant?" + +"They do not forbid it, our Lord being served _first_." + +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? + +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 learned--a poor, simple girl, to men in +authority? Undoubtedly fears of the kind agitated her mind. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +"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." + +Already, in the course of these examinations, she had expressed one of +her last wishes. _Question_: "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?" +_Answer_: "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. + +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." + +"I am a good Christian," she replied meekly; "I was properly baptized, +and will die like a good Christian." + +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. + +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. + +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 admonition, May 2d, the preacher, +Master Chatillon, 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." + +"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." + +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 manoeuvre 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 Chatillon, 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. + +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: (1) In case she persisted in her nonsubmission; (2) if +she were in her right senses. + +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." + +Armed with this response, some of the assessors[80] were for 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." + +"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." + +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, Chatillon, 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. + +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 _huissiers_[81] 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. + +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, 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." + +"Silence her," called out Cauchon. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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." + +She was admitted by the ecclesiastical judge to do penance, no doubt, +nowhere save in the prisons of the Church. The ecclesiastic _in pace_, +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." + +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." + +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." + +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 +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. + +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. + +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,[82] 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +_gentleman_, a lord, patriotically 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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." + +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 woman's dress. "Put me in a seemly and safe prison," +she said; "I will be good, and do whatever the Church shall wish." + +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." + +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. + +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!'" + +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 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." + +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." + +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?" + +"Have you not good hope in the Lord?" + +"Oh! yes; God to aid, I shall be in paradise." + +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. + +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"? + +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?" + +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. + +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. + +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." + +The ecclesiastical judge, the Bishop of Beauvais, then benignly +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. + +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. + +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." + +Deserted thus by the Church, she put her whole trust in God. She asked +for the cross. An Englishman handed her a cross 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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +She was made fast under the infamous placard, mitred with a mitre on +which was read, "Heretic, relapser, apostate, idolater." + +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. + +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." + +Meanwhile the flames rose. When they first seized her, the unhappy girl +shrieked for holy _water_--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. + +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. + +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. + +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!'" + +"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.'" + +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. + +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.[83] + + + + +CHARLES VII ISSUES HIS PRAGMATIC SANCTION + +EMANCIPATION OF THE GALLICAN CHURCH + +A.D. 1438 + +W. H. JERVIS R. F. ROHRBACHER + + + "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.e._, 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. + + 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. + + 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. + + In all this confusion our historians, Jervis and Rohrbacher, + distinguish the leading events, the most significant of + which was the issuing 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." + + +W. HENLEY JERVIS + +The 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. + +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. + +The council proceeded to cite Eugenius by a formal monition to appear in +person at Basel; and on his failing to comply, they 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. + +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. + +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." + +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 _in limine_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 "_in curia vacantia_," +_i.e._, 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 _recommend_ or _request_ the promotion of persons of +special merit, but without threats or violent pressure of any kind. + +Other articles regulate the order of ecclesiastical appeals, which, with +the exception of the "_causa majores_" 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 "_omisso medio_," _i.e._, 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. + +The Pragmatic Sanction was registered by the Parliament of 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 reestablishing 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; 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 reenacted by the Pragmatic Sanction. + +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. + +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 +themselves professedly to the herculean task thus indicated; but little +or nothing was effected of any practical importance. + + +RENE FRANCOIS ROHRBACHER[84] + +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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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 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! + +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. + +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: + +"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: '_Be our leader and our +prince._' 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 +_our prince_ 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 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. + +"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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +"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 +reestablish the affairs of the Occident." + +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 +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. + +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 fetes at Paris, +among others a solemn procession in which were carried all the holy +relics of the city. + +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. + + + + +CHRONOLOGY OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY + +EMBRACING THE PERIOD COVERED IN THIS VOLUME + +A.D. 1301-1438 + +JOHN RUDD, LL.D + +Events treated at length are here indicated in large type; the numerals +following give volume and page. + +Separate chronologies of the various nations, and of the careers of +famous persons, will be found in the INDEX VOLUME, with volume and page +references showing where the several events are fully treated. + +A.D. + +1301. In Hungary the crown becomes elective; end of the Arpad dynasty. + +Dante begins writing his _Divine Comedy_, See "DANTE COMPOSES THE DIVINA +COMMEDIA," vii, 1. + +1302. Philip the Fair convenes the first meeting of the States-General +of France. See "THIRD ESTATE JOINS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF FRANCE," vii, +17. + +Dante and his party banished from Florence. See "DANTE COMPOSES THE +DIVINA COMMEDIA," vii, 1. + +Comyn is appointed regent by the Scots, who make another effort to +regain their independence. + +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. + +Battle of Courtrai; the Flemings defeat the French. See "WAR OF THE +FLEMINGS WITH PHILIP THE FAIR OF FRANCE," vii, 23. + +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. + +Scotland submits to Edward I of England. + +Andronicus Palaeologus, the Byzantine Emperor, engages the Catalan Grand +Company to aid him against the Turks.[85] + +1304. Roger di Flor defeats the Mongols, enters Philadelphia, and +stations himself at Ephesus. + +1305. Wallace, "Hero of Scotland," is executed. See "EXPLOITS AND DEATH +OF WILLIAM WALLACE, THE HERO OF SCOTLAND," vi, 369. + +Beginning of the so-called Babylonish Captivity, being the establishment +of the papal court at Lyons, France. + +1306. A grandson of the first claimant, Robert Bruce, is crowned King of +Scotland; he dispossesses the English of a great part of Scotland. + +On complaint of the nobility and gentry the use of sea-coal is +prohibited in London. + +1307. Death of Edward I; his son, Edward II, succeeds to the English +throne. + +Charges against the Knights Templars. See "EXTINCTION OF THE ORDER OF +KNIGHTS TEMPLARS," vii, 51. + +1308. Albert of Austria assassinated by his nephew; Henry VII, Count of +Luxemburg, elected emperor of Germany. + +Origin of the Swiss confederations according to common traditions.[86] +See "FIRST SWISS STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY," vii, 28. + +1309. Pope Clement V removes the papal court from Rome to Avignon, +France. + +Rhodes captured from the Turks by the Knights of St. John. + +1310. Fifty Knights Templars are burned in Paris. + +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. + +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. + +Matteo Visconti secures the sovereignty of Milan. + +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. + +1312. Henry VII unsuccessful in an attempt on Florence. + +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. + +Robert, King of Naples, seizes the principal forts in Rome; Henry VII +is, notwithstanding, crowned emperor in the Lateran Church by three +cardinals. + +1313. In conjunction with the Genoese and Sicilians, Emperor Henry VII +prepares to attack Robert of Naples, but dies suddenly. + +Birth of Boccaccio. + +1314. Defeat of the English by the Scots under Robert Bruce. See "BATTLE +OF BANNOCKBURN," vii, 41. + +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. + +Ireland invaded by Edward Bruce, a Scottish adventurer, and a younger +brother of Robert Bruce. + +Louis X succeeds his father, Philip IV, in France. + +Molay, grand master of the Knights Templars, is burned at the stake in +Paris. See "EXTINCTION OF THE ORDER OF KNIGHTS TEMPLARS," vii, 51. + +1315. Louis Hutin, King of France, emancipates all serfs within the +royal domains on payment of a just surrender charge. + +A great victory achieved by the Swiss over the Austrians, under Leopold +(brother of Frederick the Handsome) at Morgarten. + +1316. Edward Bruce crowned king of Ireland. + +Establishment of the Salic law excluding females and their descendants +from the throne of France. + +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. + +1317. Birger, King of the Swedes, murders his two brothers and causes a +rebellion of his people. + +1318. Battle of Dundalk; Edward Bruce defeated and slain by Lord +Birmingham; end of the war in Ireland. + +Giotto, a friend of Dante, famous in Italy; he was the first painter of +portraits from life. + +1319. Pope John XXII excommunicates Robert Bruce of Scotland; the Scotch +Parliament resists all papal interference in its affairs. + +1320.[87] The Old English poem _Cursor Mundi_ composed. It was founded +on Caedmon's paraphrase of the book of Genesis. + +1321. Death of Dante while in exile at Ravenna. + +1322. Philip V dies; he is succeeded by his brother, Charles IV, on the +throne of France. + +Louis the Bavarian triumphs over his rival Frederick of Austria, who is +captured. + +Queen Isabella, while resident in the Tower of London, first sees +Mortimer, who is brought there a prisoner. + +Sir John Mandeville, an English exile in France, sets out on his eastern +travels. + +1323. Louis of Bavaria invests his son with the margraviate of +Brandenburg. + +1324. Commencement of Queen Isabella's guilty intimacy with Mortimer. + +Birth of Wycliffe.[88] + +Pope John XXII excommunicates Louis the Bavarian. + +1325. Birth of John Gower, poet, and friend of Chaucer. + +1326. Burgesses are first admitted into the Scotch Parliament. + +Isabella, Queen of Edward II, and Earl Mortimer invade England; the King +is captured and imprisoned in Kenilworth castle. + +1327. King Edward II is deposed by parliament; Edward III, his son, +succeeds. Edward II is brutally murdered by his keepers. + +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. + +1328. Independence of Scotland recognized by Edward III of England. + +Accession of Philip VI of France, the first of the house of Valois. + +Birth of Chaucer.[88] + +1329. Death of Robert Bruce; his infant son, David, succeeds to the +Scotch throne. + +1330. Orkham, Sultan of the Turks, captures Nicaea. + +Queen Isabella and Mortimer are surprised in Nottingham castle[89]; he +is executed at Tyburn; Isabella is confined during her life at Castle +Rising. + +1331. John Kempe takes his servants and apprentices from Flanders to +join the weaving colony already founded at Norwich, England. + +1332. Edward Balliol claims the crown of Scotland; he invades that +country with an English army. The young King, David, takes refuge in +France. + +Lucerne joins the Swiss confederacy. + +1333. Edward III of England invades Scotland; he defeats the Scotch at +Halidon Hill and captures Berwick, which is annexed to England. + +Casimir the Great, last king of the Piast line, succeeds to the throne +of Poland. + +1334. Denmark in a state of anarchy; Gerard, Count of Holstein, +exercises a disputed power as regent. + +1335. The house of Austria becomes possessed of Carinthia. + +1336. Birth of Timur (Tamerlane) the Tartar. + +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 "JAMES VAN ARTEVELDE LEADS A FLEMISH REVOLT," +vii, 68. + +Birth of Froissart, the chronicler, at Valenciennes. + +1338. Beginning of the wars of Edward III against France; he sails with +a fleet of five hundred ships; lands his army at Antwerp. See "BATTLE OF +SLUYS AND CRECY," vii, 78. + +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. + +1339. France invaded by Edward III of England; beginning of the Hundred +Years' War. + +Genoa elects its first doge, Simone Boccanera. + +A body of disbanded mercenaries form themselves into the first +_condottiere_ company known in Italy. The word means a captain or +leader, the _condottieri_ those under the leader. They were free lances, +open to serve under any flag. + +1340. Edward destroys a large French fleet at Sluys; beginning of +England's naval power. See "BATTLE OF SLUYS AND CRECY," vii, 78. + +War between the Hanseatic League and Denmark; the Danes defeated. + +1341. Death of John III of Brittany; his brother, John of Montfort, and +his niece, Jeanne de Penthievre, wife of Charles of Blois, contest the +succession; England supports the former, France the latter. + +Edward Balliol retires on the return of David II to Scotland. + +Petrarch is crowned with laurel at Rome. See "MODERN RECOGNITION OF +SCENIC BEAUTY," vii, 93. + +1342. Edward III pursues his campaign in Brittany; he relieves +Hennebonne, besieged by the French. + +Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens, becomes sovereign lord of Florence. + +Accession of Louis, called the Great, to the throne of Hungary, on the +death of King Charles Robert, his father. + +1343. Expulsion from Florence of the Duke of Athens; popular government +restored. + +A truce of three years arranged between England and France by the +mediation of the papal legates. + +1344. Breach of the truce between England and France; Earl Derby defeats +Count de Lisle and reduces a great part of Perigord. + +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. + +Masham, an Englishman, first discovers the Madeira Islands. + +In England, parliament, by the Statute of Provisors, forbids the +interference of the pope in bestowing benefices and livings in England. + +1345. Fall and death of James Van Artevelde at Ghent. + +1346. Battle of Crecy; cannon said to have been first used by the +English. See "BATTLES OF SLUYS AND CRECY," vii, 78. + +At the instance of Pope Clement VI, Charles of Luxemburg (Charles IV) is +elected emperor of Germany in opposition to Louis the Bavarian. + +David Bruce invades England; he is vanquished and made prisoner at +Neville's Cross. + +Servia at the zenith of her power; the ruler, Stephen Dushan, assumes +the imperial title. + +1347. Calais captured by Edward III. + +Death of Louis the Bavarian; he is succeeded by Charles IV, whose title +is disputed until 1349. + +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 "RIENZI'S REVOLUTION IN ROME," vii, +104. + +1348. About this time begins the Renaissance in Italy. See "BEGINNING +AND PROGRESS OF THE RENAISSANCE," vii, 110. + +Founding of the University of Prague, the first in Germany. + +Pope Clement VI purchases Avignon from Queen Joanna I of Naples. + +The plague stalks in Europe. See "THE BLACK DEATH RAVAGES EUROPE," vii, +130. + +1349. Institution (or revival, see A.D. 1192) of the Order of the Garter +in England. + +Dauphiny annexed to France on condition that the King's eldest son +should be called the dauphin. + +1350. Death of Philip VI; his son, John the Good, succeeds to the French +throne. + +1351. Zurich joins the Swiss confederation. + +Paganino Doria, commanding the Genoese fleet, plunders many Venetian +towns on the Adriatic. + +1352. A statute of praemunire still further limits the papal power in +England. + +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. + +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. + +Bern joins the league of Swiss cantons. + +1354. Downfall and death of Rienzi. See "RIENZI'S REVOLUTION IN ROME," +vii, 104. + +Paganino Doria captures or destroys the Venetian fleet in the Morea; +their admiral, Pisano, is captured. + +Beginning of Turkish dominion in Europe. See "FIRST TURKISH DOMINION IN +EUROPE," vii, 136. + +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. + +Marino Falieri, Doge of Venice, beheaded. See "CONSPIRACY AND DEATH OF +MARINO FALIERI AT VENICE," vii, 154. + +1356. Battle of Poitiers; John II, King of France, taken prisoner by +Edward, the Black Prince; the Dauphin, Charles, escapes and assumes the +government of France during his father's captivity. + +Emperor Charles defines the duties of the electors of Germany. See +"CHARLES IV OF GERMANY PUBLISHES HIS GOLDEN BULL," vii, 160. + +Wycliffe publishes his _Last Age of the Court_. + +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. + +Popular movement in Paris under Stephen Marcel; meeting of the +States-general of France. + +1358. Violent commotions in France. See "INSURRECTION OF THE JACQUERIE +IN FRANCE," vii, 164. + +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. + +1359. Edward III again invades France, his terms of peace not being +accepted. + +1360. England and France conclude the treaty of Bretigny; King John II +is set at liberty on payment of a heavy ransom. + +Outbreak of the Children's Plague in England. + +1361. End of the first ducal house of Burgundy. + +Adrianople is conquered by Sultan Amurath I of Turkey. + +All military operations in Europe suspended by the virulence of the +plague. + +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. + +Conjectured beginning of Langland's _Vision of Piers Plowman_, a noted +allegorical and satirical poem.[90] + +1363. Disbanded English soldiers enter the service of the Pisans, and +obtain a victory for them over the Florentines. + +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. + +Treaty of union between Bohemia and Austria. + +Chaucer writes his _Canterbury Tales_. + +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. + +University of Vienna founded. + +1366. Pedro the Cruel driven from his throne. + +Pope Urban V claims the tribute which had previously been paid by +England; an act of parliament resists the demand; it further declares +the concessions made by King John to be illegal and invalid. + +Tamerlane (Timur the Tartar), reviver of the great Mongol empire, +inaugurates his conquests. + +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. + +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. + +1369. King Charles V breaks the Anglo-French treaty; the Hundred Years' +War reopened. + +1370. End of the Piast dynasty, Poland, caused by the death of Casimir +the Great; Louis the Great, King of Hungary, succeeds. + +Timur the Tartar extends his domains. See "CONQUESTS OF TIMUR THE +TARTAR," vii, 169. + +1371. Robert II ascends the throne and founds the Stuart dynasty in +Scotland, on the death of David Bruce.[91] + +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. + +1373. Henry of Castile invades Portugal, besieges Lisbon, and compels +Ferdinand to sign a treaty of peace. + +Birth of John Huss.[92] + +1374. A strange plague, the dancing mania, appears in Europe. See +"DANCING MANIA OF THE MIDDLE AGES," vii, 187. + +Wycliffe is appointed one of the seven ambassadors to represent to the +Pope the grievances of the Church of England. + +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. + +1376. Death of Edward the Black Prince. Gregory XI abandons Avignon as +the papal residence. + +1377. Rome again becomes the home of the papal court. + +Gregory XI orders proceedings against Wycliffe, the English reformer. + +Death of Edward III; his grandson, Richard II, succeeds to the English +throne. + +1378. Wenceslaus becomes emperor of Germany on the death of his father, +Charles IV. + +Rival popes elected. See "ELECTION OF ANTIPOPE CLEMENT VII: BEGINNING OF +THE GREAT SCHISM," vii, 201. + +1379. Pietro Doria, at the head of the Genoese fleet, defeats the +Venetian fleet off Pola; Chioggia is captured and Venice threatened. + +A poll-tax imposed on the people of England; this led directly to a +revolution. + +War of the rival papal factions in Rome. + +Revolt of the White Hoods (_Les Chaperons blancs_) in Flanders; the +workmen of Ghent, when they revolted against the Duke of Burgundy, +adopted a white hood as their badge. + +1380. Establishment in Germany of post messengers. + +Surrender of the Genoese fleet and army at Chioggia. See "GENOESE +SURRENDER TO VENETIANS," vii, 213. + +1381. Overthrow of Joanna I of Naples by Charles Durazzo (Charles the +Little). + +An act of parliament surreptitiously obtained against heretics in +England. + +Exasperated by the poll-tax the people of England revolt. See "REBELLION +OF WAT TYLER," vii, 217. + +Insurrection of the Maillotins against the new tax on bread in Paris. +They were so called because they armed themselves with _maillets de fer_ +("iron malls") when they attacked the arsenal, put to death the +officers, and set the prisoners at large. + +Philip van Artevelde rises to power in Flanders. + +1382. Queen Joanna I of Naples is put to death in prison. + +"WYCLIFFE TRANSLATES THE BIBLE INTO ENGLISH." See vii, 227. + +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. + +1384. Flanders is incorporated in the dukedom of Burgundy; Artois and +Franche Comte are also acquired by Philip the Bold of Burgundy. + +1385. Scotland fruitlessly invaded by Richard II of England. + +John the Great ascends the throne of Portugal; he defeats the Castilians +at Aljubarota. + +1386. Victory of the Swiss over the Austrians at Sempach. See "THE SWISS +WIN THEIR INDEPENDENCE," vii, 238. + +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. + +Founding of the University of Heidelberg. + +A regency, that of the Duke of Gloucester, is imposed upon Richard II of +England. + +1387. Consultation of Richard II at Nottingham with the judges; the +regency commission is declared a criminal act. + +A brother of Emperor Wenceslaus, Sigismund, becomes king of Hungary. + +Birth of Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietri), the great friar-painter. + +1388. Battle of Otterburne (Chevy Chase); an English-Scotch encounter +in a private feud, not a national quarrel; the Earl of Douglas slain; +Henry Percy captured by the Scots. + +At Naefels the Austrians are defeated by the Swiss. + +1389. Bulgaria and Servia conquered by the Turks under Amurath I at the +decisive battle of Kosovo; he is slain. + +Death of Pope Urban VI; Boniface succeeds; the schism continues. + +Albert, King of Sweden, defeated and made prisoner by Queen Margaret, +who reigns over the three Scandinavian kingdoms. + +1390. War of Florence with Milan. + +Robert III ascends the throne of Scotland. + +1392. Fits of insanity seize the young King of France, Charles VI; cards +are invented, or introduced, to amuse him during his lucid intervals. + +1394. Birth of Prince Henry of Portugal, known as the "Navigator." + +1395. Milan is created a hereditary duchy by Emperor Wenceslaus for +Giovanni Galeazzo Visconti. + +1396. Battle of Nicopolis; the Christian defenders of Hungary suffer a +great defeat at the hands of the Turkish sultan Bajazet I. + +1397. Scandinavia united under one crown. See "UNION OF DENMARK, SWEDEN, +AND NORWAY," vii, 243. + +1398. Mortimer, Earl of March, presumptive heir to the English throne +and governor of Ireland, slain by a rebel force in that island. + +Froissart writes his _Chronicles_. + +1399. Deposition of Richard II of England; Henry Bolingbroke founds the +house of Lancaster. See "DEPOSITION OF RICHARD II," vii, 251. + +After a long struggle for the possession of Naples between Ladislaus and +Louis II of Anjou, it ends in the triumph of Ladislaus. + +1400. A great revolt of the Welsh is headed by Owen Glendower. + +Emperor Wenceslaus is deposed. + +Rupert of the Palatinate elected to the throne of Germany. + +1401. Parliament ordains the burning of Lollards in England. Barcelona +bank (earliest existing bank) established. + +1402. Battle of Homildon Hill; victory of the Percys, a noble northern +English family, over the Scots. + +License by royal letters-patent given to the "_Confrerie de la Passion_" +to exhibit sacred dramas, or _Mysteries_, in France. + +"DISCOVERY OF THE CANARY ISLANDS AND THE AFRICAN COAST." See vii, 266. + +Tamerlane (Timur the Tartar) defeats and captures Bajazet at Angora. + +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. + +1404. Queen Margaret of Sweden claims Schleswig and Holstein on the +death of Gerard VI. + +1405. Pisa sold to Florence by the Visconti. + +An English act of parliament prohibits anyone not possessing twenty +shillings a year in land from apprenticing his sons to any trade. + +Venice conquers Verona and Padua. + +Prince James Stuart, afterward James I, heir to the crown of Scotland, +captured by the English. + +1406. Pisa compelled to submit to Florence after a year of war. + +Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, proposes a general +council to terminate the schism in the Church.[93] + +1407. France distracted by the animosities of her leading families; +Louis, Duke of Orleans, is assassinated by John the Fearless, Duke of +Burgundy. + +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. + +1409. Council of Pisa; both popes refuse to appear; they are deposed and +Alexander V is elected. + +University of Leipsic founded. + +1410. Death of Rupert of the Palatinate, Emperor of Germany. + +Jagellon (Ladislaus II), King of Poland, vanquishes the Teutonic +Knights. + +1411. Battle of Harlow; defeat of the Scotch Lord of the Isles and the +highland clans. + +Sigismund elected emperor of Germany. + +John Huss excommunicated and forbidden to preach. + +University of St. Andrew's, Scotland, founded. + +1412. For insulting the chief justice of England the Prince of Wales is +committed to prison. + +Birth of Jeanne d'Arc, the Maid of Orleans. + +1413. Death of Henry IV; Henry V ascends the English throne; he discards +his dissolute associates and reforms his conduct. + +Ladislaus takes forcible possession of Rome and most of the papal +states. + +1414. The Seventeenth general council. See "COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE," vii, +284. + +Joanna II succeeds her brother Ladislaus of Naples on his death. + +1415. "TRIAL AND BURNING OF JOHN HUSS." See vii, 294. + +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. + +Brandenburg is acquired by the house of Hohenzollern. See "THE HOUSE OF +HOHENZOLLERN ESTABLISHED IN BRANDENBURG," vii, 305. + +"BATTLE OF AGINCOURT." See vii, 320. + +1416. Jerome of Prague burned. + +Alfonso the Wise, so called for his patronage of letters, ascends the +throne of Aragon on the death of his father, Ferdinand the Just. + +1417. Pope Martin V elected by the Council of Constance; end of the +schism. + +Sir John Oldcastle, the "Good Lord Cobham," after four years' hiding is +captured and burned as a heretic in London. + +Gypsies appear in Transylvania; they are believed to have been low-caste +Hindus expelled by Timur in the fourteenth century. + +1418. Close of the Council of Constance. See "COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE," +vii, 284. + +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. + +1419. Surrender of Rouen to the English. + +John the Fearless, beguiled by a treaty, meets the Dauphin, who has him +assassinated. + +Storming of the town-hall of Prague by the Hussites; outbreak of the +Hussite wars. + +Madeira first reached by the Portuguese, who sail under the command of +Henry the Navigator. + +1420. Henry V, King of England, made successor to the French throne. See +"BATTLE OF AGINCOURT," vii, 320. + +Sigismund besieges the Hussites in Prague; he is defeated by them, led +by John Ziska. + +Joanna II of Naples, who summons to her aid Alfonso V of Aragon, is +attacked by Louis III of Anjou. + +1421. Second crusade against the Bohemian Hussites. + +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. + +Constantinople besieged by Amurath II, Sultan of Turkey. + +1423. Frederick the Warlike, Margrave of Misnia, assumes the electorate +of Saxony and establishes the house of Wettin. + +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. + +John Ziska is succeeded by Procopius the Great as head of the Taborites, +a division of the Hussites. + +1425. Accession of John Palaeologus II as emperor of Byzantium. + +John and Hulbert van Eyck, masters of the early Flemish school, invent +painting in oil. + +1426. Luebeck and the Baltic Hanse Towns support the Duke of Holstein +against Eric XIII of Sweden. + +Great Hussite victory at Aussig. + +1427. The Hussites extend their conquests in Saxony and Meissen; they +gain a victory at Mies. + +1428. Orleans, France, besieged by the English. + +Death of John de' Medici, founder of the illustrious family at Florence. + +1429. Coronation of Charles VII of France at Rheims. + +Jeanne d'Arc relieves Orleans. See "JEANNE D'ARC'S VICTORY AT ORLEANS," +vii, 333. + +Refusal of the Hussites to treat for peace with Emperor Sigismund. + +Antipope Clement VIII abdicates and ends the Great Schism. + +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. + +1431. Jeanne d'Arc dishonorably and inhumanly burned at Rouen. See +"TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF JEANNE D'ARC," vii, 350. + +Council of Basel. Pope Martin V succeeded by Eugenius IV. + +1432. Prince Henry's navigators discover and take possession of the +Azores for the Portuguese. + +Opening of the trade of the north to the English and Dutch by the wars +of the Hanse Towns, and Holstein, with Denmark. + +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. + +1434. Cosmo de' Medici recalled to Florence; his party triumphant. + +Organization of the national church (Utraquist) in Bohemia. + +First exploration of the west coast of Africa by the Portuguese. + +The Calixtines join the imperial army and defeat the Taborites at +Bohmisch-Brod. + +1435. Treaty of Arras between France and Burgundy; the latter withdraws +from the English party. + +Death of the Duke of Bedford. + +1436. A settlement effected between Emperor Sigismund and the Hussites +by the treaty of Iglau; he is recognized as king of Bohemia. + +Charles VII, the French King, recovers Paris from the English. + +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. + +1437. Death of Emperor Sigismund; election of Albert of Austria to the +throne of Hungary. + +Murder of James I; his son, James II, succeeds him on the throne of +Scotland. + +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. + +1438. Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII; it secures the liberty of the +Gallican Church. See "CHARLES VII ISSUES HIS PRAGMATIC SANCTION," vii, +370. + +Coronation of Albert II, King of Hungary; recognized by the Diet of +Frankfort. + + [1] See _Dante Composes the Divina Commedia_, page 1. + + [2] See _Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars_, + page 51. + + [3] See _The Third Estate Joins in the Government of + France_, page 17. + + [4] See _War of the Flemings with Philip the Fair_, page + 23. + + [5] See _First Swiss Struggle for Liberty_, page 28. + + [6] See _The Swiss Win Their Independence_, page 238. + + [7] See _Battle of Bannockburn_, page 41. + + [8] See _Beginning and Progress of the Renaissance_, page + 110. + + [9] See _Crowning of Petrarch at Rome_, page 93. + + [10] See _Rienzi's Revolution in Rome_, page 104. + + [11] See _Conspiracy and Death of Marino Falieri at + Venice_, page 154. + + [12] See _Genoese Surrender to Venetians_, page 213. + + [13] See _Rise of the Hanseatic League_, vol. vi, page + 214. + + [14] See _Union of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway_, page + 243. + + [15] See _Charles IV of Germany Publishes His Golden + Bull_, page 160. + + [16] See _The Black Death Ravages Europe_, page 130. + + [17] See _Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages_, page 187. + + [18] See _James van Artevelde Leads a Flemish Revolt_, + page 68. + + [19] See _Edward III of England Assumes the Title of King + of France_, page 68. + + [20] See _Battles of Sluys and Crecy_, page 78. + + [21] See _Insurrection of the Jacquerie in France_, page + 164. + + [22] See _Rebellion of Wat Tyler_, page 217. + + [23] See _Turks Seize Gallipoli_, page 147. + + [24] See _Conquests of Timur the Tartar_, page 169. + + [25] See _Wycliffe Translates the Bible into English_, + page 227. + + [26] See _Election of Antipope Clement VII_, page 201. + + [27] See _Trial and Burning of John Huss_, page 294. + + [28] See _Council of Constance_, page 284. + + [29] See _The Hussite Wars_, page 294. + + [30] See _The House of Hohenzollern Established in + Brandenburg_, page 305. + + [31] See _Deposition of Richard II_, page 251. + + [32] See _Battle of Agincourt_, page 320. + + [33] See _English Conquest of France_, page 320. + + [34] See _Jeanne d'Arc's Victory at Orleans_, page 333. + + [35] See _Trial and Execution of Jeanne d'Arc_, page 350. + + [36] See _Charles VII Issues his Pragmatic Sanction_, + page 370. + + [37] See _Discovery of the Canary Islands: Beginning of + Negro Slave Trade_, page 266. + + [38] "I am not going to lose the men for the old women." + + [39] "The coward who the great refusal made." + + [40] "The beams on the low shores now lost and dead." + + [41] "A death-like shade--Like that beneath black boughs + and foliage green O'er the cold stream in Alpine + glens display'd." + + [42] "O'er all the sandy desert falling slow, Were + shower'd dilated flakes of fire, like snow On Alpine + summits, when the wind is low." + + [43] "So will a greater fame redound to thee, To have + formed a party by thyself alone." + + [44] Translated by Charles Leonard-Stuart. + + [45] This Emperor was Albert I, son of Rudolph I. + + [46] James van Artevelde was called "the Brewer of + Ghent," because, although born an aristocrat, he was + enrolled in the Guild of Brewers. + + [47] Translated from the French by Thomas Johnes. + + [48] Lord Berners' account of the advance of the Genoese + is somewhat different from this; he describes them + as _leaping_ forward with a _fell_ cry. The whole + passage is so spirited and graphic that we give it + entire: + + "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." + + [49] His blindness was supposed to be caused by poison, + which was given to him when engaged in the wars of + Italy. + + [50] 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." + + [51] Translated from the German by B. G. Babington. + + [52] Thucydides, in his account of the earlier plague in + Athens, B.C. 430, says, "It was supposed that the + Peloponnesians had poisoned the cisterns." + + [53] Translated from the French by Charles + Leonard-Stuart. + + [54] Osman is the real Turkish name, which has been + corrupted into Othman. The descendants of his + subjects style themselves Osmanlis--corrupted into + Ottoman. + + [55] Edebali, a Mussulman prophet and saint, whose + daughter Osman married. + + [56] A criminal tribunal, of which Steno himself was + president. + + [57] "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. + + [58] 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 _debouche_. + + [59] Translated from the German by B. G. Babington. + + [60] "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 (_de Mentis Alienat._ 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."--_Burton's Anatomy of + Melancholy._ + + [61] 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. + + [62] 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 _Knecht Ruprecht_. + + [63] _Dass dir Sanct Veitstanz ankomme_ ("May you be + seized with St. Vitus' dance"). + + [64] "This proceeding was, however, no invention of his, + but an imitation of a usual mode of enchantment by + means of wax figures (_peri cunculas_). 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."--_Treatise on the Diseases of Children._ + + [65] Some authorities give twenty-nine. + + [66] Selden, in his _Table Talk_, 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 _Book of Statutes_, + 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." + + [67] A groat equalled fourpence, or eight cents. + + [68] 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. + + [69] 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. + + [70] 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. + + [71] Oliver Wendell Holmes: _Autocrat of the + Breakfast-table._ + + [72] 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.--ED. + + [73] 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. + + [74] Charles IV. + + [75] Allusion to John Ziska, leader of the Hussites, who + waged a fierce war against Wenzel and the empire. + + [76] Head of the House of Hohenzollern, Burggraves of + Nuremberg. + + [77] This was the Dauphin, afterward Charles VII, whose + brother Jean, Duke of Burgundy, had, in 1407, + procured the murder of the Duke of Orleans. + + [78] To _houspiller_ is to maul, pull about, abuse, + "worry like a dog"; hence the name _houspilleur_. + + [79] The English cardinal, most powerful ecclesiastic of + the time. + + [80] Assistant judges. + + [81] Tipstaffs, constables. + + [82] 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. + + [83] The memory of Jeanne d'Arc was long and shamefully + traduced by descendants of those enemies of France + whom she baffled. Even Shakespeare (_Henry VI_) 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.--ED. + + [84] Translated by Chauncey C. Starkweather, M.A., LL.B. + + [85] The Catalan Grand Company was a formidable body of + mercenary soldiers; it arose in Sicily during the + wars that followed the Sicilian Vespers. + + [86] See 1291. + + [87] Date uncertain. + + [88] Date uncertain. + + [89] 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. + + [90] Date uncertain. + + [91] Often erroneously given as 1370, neglecting the fact + that, by the old manner of reckoning, the year began + on March 25th. + + [92] Date uncertain. + + [93] By the French it is claimed that Jean Charlier de + Gerson was the author of _de Imitatione Christi_, + usually attributed to Thomas a Kempis. + + + END OF VOLUME VII + + + + + +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.txt or 27562.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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |